"So...he defected." Marcus said those words in an uneasy fashion after what he had just seen.
"Yes, yes he did. He then left me instruction to get you in contact with them."
"The Order...their traitors."
"You've read the documents. You know its just government propaganda."
Hans Becker was a Rheinlander. He had joined the Order around the same time Marcus's brother did. Marcus's brother, Doug had met Hans while on leave at Freeport 2 in Bering. They had been in some engagements and firefights, unknowingly shooting at each other. Hans considered it a miracle when he had met Doug in Planet Toledo a few weeks later.
Marcus found it hard to take in, but he knew what his brother was finally trying to do. He was trying to save his life. Marcus began to wail inside, being showered with regret that he had to kill his own brother. Doug had told him to, but he still regretted it. Marcus knew what he had to get done now. Everything was in place.
Hans Becker would take him to Planet Toledo. The time and place for the meeting was all set. Marcus knew that he had to do this, and that the LSF were most probably already on his tail. If even one thing went wrong, Marcus could die. But he knew that wasn't an option, Doug had worked to hard, he couldn't let all that effort go to waste.
"You will need to first exit the LPI. Its less suspecting than going MIA."
"Of course."
"Your life will change drastically. People aren't the same at Toledo. Its not fun and games Marcus, people are dy-"
"I don't need you to tell me that!"
Marcus screamed straight at Hans's face having been reminded of his brother again. He promtply apologized. He knew this was going to be hard. He was going to leave the normal life. Sure, he did put his life on the line everyday even at LPI, but it was going to be different now. The life expectency for the average Order pilot was very low, but he had to do this. He had to finish what his brother had started...
Hans and Marcus stood before a dead body in a suit. They had just taken out an infected politician, low level, but nonetheless a necessary kill.
Marcus's training was complete. The past 4 months he had been with Hans, training to fight nomads. He had engaged a few nomads during his LPI days, but always retreated, or got help from the Navy. The =LSF= usually took over the situation and told LPI to get lost whenever there was a Nomad.
Hans and Marcus had engaged nomad scouts in Liberty, he even built his own nomad language decipherer to understand, at least to some level, what nomads were saying. He learnt about how nomads worked and why they fought humanity.
His training was only minimal. Most Order agents were former special forces, highly trained mercs, spies, agents. He was just a police officer. The training he underwent through the past 4 months, although helpful, would only help him survive against a nomad attack, something which happened almost everyday out in the Omicrons. There was no denying however, he learnt many useful things.
As they covered the evidence to the infected politician's murder, Marcus thanked Hans for all his help. But Hans told him that the hard part was about to begin: Escaping Liberty.
"Marcus, if there's one thing I've taught you, do not under estimate our enemy."
"I know, if I-"
"The LSF has been observing you."
Marcus suddenly realized why escaping Liberty would be hard. He understood what Hans told him. He couldn't just leave Liberty normally, he had to do so silently. With =LSF= up his ass, he knew that was going to be near impossible, especially considering what they had -forced him to do- to his brother.
Marcus and Hans got into their ships and began to fly away. Marcus constantly glanced back, to look if any other ships were following.
"Its impossible to see them Marcus, they've been doing this for months. The know everything about you. I doubt they will give up their position and allow you to see them. In fact, they can hear us speaking right now."
"We should've just left Liberty at first Hans, 4 months ago. Now with everything we've done they probably are diverting more resources to survey us..."
"You would be dead if you didn't have these 4 months to train. Even now its still risky for you, but if we don't leave Liberty soon, =LSF= will we on our backs."
Marcus feared death, he wasn't ready to die today, he hadn't done anything yet. He needed to get to the Order|. Only after he had killed his fair share of nomads, maybe even end them, was he ready to die. But he doubted the nomads would go away soon. He knew, he could be fighting for the next few years in a deadly war in which he would be outnumbered and outgunned at all times.
But at least that motivated him to leave Liberty, even if he had to blow his way out of the country.
