Teresa was laying on the floor in the highest placed bell room. She checked the viewfinder again. The side-face of Mr. Cunnings (how she started to call him) was covering most of it's view and an infrared dot was pointing on his ear. No one was able to see it without special equipment. Teresa slowly moved her finger and placed in on the trigger. She closed her eyes and took a slow but deep breath...
***
a few days ago...
Teresa was laying on the couch in her tiny room at Yaren base when she heard a silent beep, signalizing a received message of high importance. She reached for her comm pad and read the message from Tethys with utmost interest. She shouldn't have access to that frequency, but father send her all the codes necessary and she decided to use them quietly.
While she was watching the latest news from Rheinland, she used a remote terminal to log in the Tethys' database and reviewed the last known location data of brother Torres. Successful arrest of a well known corsair was of course among the top news and a long time was dedicated to it on the channel. There was something that engaged her attention. She rolled back the picture in one corner she saw a smiling face of Alex Cumming. All she knew about him was they together founded one of the biggest shipping companies, the Republican Express, known as RepEx.
"Why the hell is he.... Oh my... This can't be..." she whispered when she realized the truth. Brother Emilio Torres was betrayed by his closest friend. She exerted a lot of effort to calm down, but anger consumed her completely and as usually, she quickly started to create the plan. Torres had to be rescued, there was no question about it and with the data from Tethys they knew the most probable location where he's being held. But that cunning RepEx bastard couldn't be let to escape with no harm. No way...
She closed her eyes and tried to think for a while...
After some time she clapped her hands and stood up. It was a great plan. The rescuing operation (and she was sure the Elders were already planning one) will be more successful if someone is able to provide diversion. And what could serve more than an assassination of one of most successful businessman in Rheinland, Alex Cummings? She smiled and packed up her things quickly. She decided not to tell the Elders about it as they would most probably forbid it, her mission was too dangerous.
But there was another thing she needed yet, a rifle. she used her remote terminal again to log into the Elders' database, used a few clicks to review the list of the armory items and after some time she finally found what she was looking for...
Quote:Name: Leyenda del Cid Weight: 4,43kg, without scope Length: 1081mm Barrel length: 678mm Feed system: Li-Pol battery cells, NTW45-YK Sights: Cad-N3 infrared dot sight Muzzle velocity: 2400m/s Effective range: over 600m Description:
Corsair Pulse Sniper Rifle is one of the latest results of pulse technology advancement. It follows the famous corsair line of guns Tizona and Colada del Cid which are known for their shield busting capabilities. However it was discovered that their pulse discharge can be effectively used in the sniper technology. The variety of damage is dependent on the amount of energy used and diameter of the beam. Wounds caused by this rifle differ from small area penetration to complete cremation of the target. Shots fired by this rifle are invisible and there are almost no audible sounds produced when the shot is fired, which are obviously very famous features for snipers.
Picture:
Bottom line:
This is simply the best corsair pulse sniper rifle corsairs have to offer.
She jumped into her Centurion and flew to Crete. She didn't have to break into the armory as she again could use the codes from her father. The Leyenda's case was made of special polymer-titanium composite disabling all scanners to view it's inside, another very handy feature especially when one doesn't need attention.
Teresa left the hangar, headed to the public platform and took the first shuttle to Freeport 9. Once there, it took her some time, a lot of smiling and a fat bribe to one old zoner in the bar to persuade him to lend her a fast and agile light fighter, the Arrow, which was usually used for recon missions inside enemy territory. What use could it have for a Zoner remained a mystery but at that time, she didn't have the time to care. It was Zoner tagged and she already hacked her reputation so she could use the prepared story that she was hired by Zoners to deliver a special package to Mr. Cummings. "Special package indeed, you filthy rat..." she whispered for herself and left Freeport 9.
Since then everything was running smoothly. She successfully used her story at Planet New Berlin Docking Ring, let the Rheinland Police scan her ship and landed. She landed the Arrow on a previously found place and hid the Leyenda's case in the bell tower she decided to use for the shooting as there was a perfect view of the whole courtyard as well as the stage for Mr. Bastard's speech which was already being prepared. She applied for the hostess job directly at RepEx Recruitment Office so she was able to gain some information from the inside. Everything she needed was secured and she was intensively waiting for next day...
***
Mr. Cunnings was still saying some pointless crap, when Teresa opened her eyes again. Then a thought came across her mind. Why kill this man, when instead she could make him suffer. And suffer for a long time. She smiled, adjusted the beam's diameter and increased the energy output. Then she quickly moved the infrared pointer on his knees and pulled the trigger. The rifle produced a silent buzz and as a result bottom half of Mr. Cunnings disappeared in a single flash and he fell on the ground. It must have caused him enormous pain as he just lost both of his legs and got seriously burned in the middle part of his body. Loud scream of the public was heard from everywhere, and there was no time to loose.
Teresa put the rifle back into the case, ran down the stairs and hurried to her Arrow. She was not spotted yet but her fast departure, which was breaking all the traffic rules finally concentrated all the attention of the Rheinland police on her. Just as she wanted, a large fleet of police fighters followed her when she headed to the clouds nearby Hamburg jump hole.
While she was running she sent a message to the rest of the brothers...
Quote:Message to: The Brotherhood
Comm ID: Teresa Chavez
Importance: HIGH
Brothers,
no time to explain, but that RepEx bastard has just received a special present for me, turn on the news if you can, but I also discovered that brother Torres is going to be transferred from Elbe Station somewhere in the Hamburg system in a couple of hours (saturday, 22GMT).
I successfully distracted half of the Rheinland Police fleet and I hope I'll be able to loose them in the clouds, maybe with a bit of Unioners' help, hopefully. Meet me in Munich system, near Sigma 17 jump hole and we'll attack the transport together. It shouldn't be very well guarded.
Bring my centurion, please! This ship (Arrow) is fast, but I don't want to fight in it, it lacks firepower...
Wish me luck...
Teresa Chavez out.
If I die, I forgive you, father. If I live we shall see.....Teresa Chavez
"Oh my God!" Patricia can't beleive her eyes. In an instant Alex Cummings collapsed to the floor in mid sentence. There wasn't even a sound. As she ran out onto the stage she saw the gruesome scene. Blood was every where and Alex legs had both seemed to have completely dissapeared. It took a moment for the crowd to realize what had just happened, but when they did, complete and utter mayhem ensued. The front row began to scream and run like roaches when the lights are turned on. Like a dominoe effect all the remaining rows followed suit until there were 25,000 frantic people pushing each other out of the way. Instantly the public address system sounded a loud alarm followed by instructions.
"All students and faculty, please calmly exit the auditorium in an orderly fashion. Return to your dorms immediately and await further instructions. All security staff report to the courtyard post haste. I repeat, this is an emergency lock down, return to your dorms immediately." This message had absolutely no effect and repeated several times for the next several minutes.
Meanwhile Patricia ran to Alex Cummings' side knelt down to her knees and placed her right hand under his head. He was barely conscious and could utter nothing but incoherent mumblings and moans. "Alex... ALEX, can you hear me? You've been shot, but Im right here, I will not leave your side. Help should be here immediately." The Black Talon security guards had already dispursed to find the culprit save 3 guards who had instantly surrounded Mr Cummings. A group of paramedics arrived right then and pulled Patricia away from him.
"Maam... MAAM, we need to get to him right now! Move away NOW!" The paramedics began instantly working on him. They applied an oxygen mask to his mouth and placed an IV in his left arm. One of the female paramedics began soderizing what was left of his legs to stop the massive bleeds he was now suffering. This all occured within a minute or two, but it seemed like an eternity to Patricia Craig. She was in such a state of shock when they placed him on the floating gurney, that she didnt even notice them taking him to the ambulance at first.
"WAIT, Im going with him."
"Very well maam, hurry up and get in."
"Is he gonna be ok?"
"We don't know yet, just let us do our job and we will do everything we can to stabilize him." Just then Alex grabbed her arm and mumbled something that she could not understand save two words, "RepEx" and "Torres." At that moment she remembered what she had to do in this situation. She removed the comm pad from her purse and sent the following message to Ulrich Wagner, RepEx's current COO:
Quote:Dear Mr Wagner,
I do not have details at this time but our CEO Alex Cummings has been shot while giving a speech here on Planet New Berlin. We are in a frantic situation at this time so I cannot be long here, I will be traveling with him to the hospital. They will not give me specifics about his condition but it does not look good. Mr Wagner, per Mr. Cummings' previous instructions, please enact Contigency Plan Alpha-1-5-4 Epsilon and assume the role of CEO so as to keep the company on its feet. I will send further updates as they are made available to me. And please all of you pray for Alex, he's gonna need it.
Interim COO Patricia Craig Out
She hoped Ulrich Wagner was prepared to take over his new responsibility. She certainly was not ready to take hers. She then clasped Alex's hand who was no longer conscious and began to pray for her long time boss and friend.
<span style="color:#FF0000"><strike>RETIRED</strike></span>
ON MY WAY OUT OF RETIREMENT
The doors to Emilio Torres' cell swung open and three guards rushed in tazer prods in hand. Before he even had a chance to stand the guards were shocking Torres very violently. They threw him to the cot and cuffed his hands behind his back. They turned him over and sat him up just in time to see a highly decorated Rheinland Police officer walking into the room.
"Emilio Torres, due to recent events, your tribunal has been suspended and I have been given authority by the Chancellor to place my judgement on you." The officer pulled a data pad from his pocket and began reading from it. "Emilio Torres, you are hereby found guilty of all counts of the capital crimes of murder, treason, grand theft, piracy, terrorism, and conspiracy to assasinate Alex Cummings." Torres couldnt believe what he just heard, had his brotherhood killed Alex Cummings. Although he hoped for Cummings' death, he felt a bit of dissapointment for he wanted it to be by his own hands. The officer continued reading.
"For these crimes, you are hereby sentenced to death by hanging. On this day you will be immediately transported to Planet Hamburg to hang by the neck until you are dead. No appeals shall be granted to you and you are hereby stripped of all civil rights and liberties afforded to enemy combatants. May God have mercy on your soul." Torres knew he was in deep now. "OK boys get him on that transport at docking bay 1 right now. Oh and Torres, your brothers failed, the news is saying that Cummings has a very good chance of surviving his injuries. You will not." The officer then chuckled very disturbingly.
'Dear God I hope the Brotherhood is out there and has a plan. I dont care if I die, but I want to make damn sure I take that bastard Cummings with me.' Torres thought to himself. If he did get out of this, taking down Alex Cummings and his precious RepEx would be his undying mission from this point on.
<span style="color:#FF0000"><strike>RETIRED</strike></span>
ON MY WAY OUT OF RETIREMENT
Emilio Torres, now a mal-nuerished and sickly shell of himself, is escorted down a long corridor towards the docking bay on Elbe Station. Having been starved and beaten, he is a defeated man at this point. He holds little hope for himself now. He is loaded onto the armored transport that will take him to Hamburg. He has little hope left and fears that this will be his last flight through space. There are numerous 4'X4' cells in this ship. He is walked past 10 other cells containing prisoners awaiting the same fate that he is.
He is forced onto a bench in one of these cells. His ankles shackeled and chained to two bolts on the bottom of the bench. Each arm is then placed in steel cuffs on either side of him. The door to the cell is then closed and sealed. As he looks around him he does notice that each cell also acts as an escape pod apparently. He hears the noise and commotion of doors being closed and opened and feels the ship begin to move. This was it, if he wasnt rescued now, this would be the last day of his life....
<span style="color:#FF0000"><strike>RETIRED</strike></span>
ON MY WAY OUT OF RETIREMENT
The rythmic sound of the heart monitor above Alex Cummings bed, exhaustion, and her overall state of shock had Patricia in a sort of trance. "Maam.... maam.... MAAM."
"Oh, sorry." She stands up and walks over towards the doctor that had been calling her for God knows how long. "What is it doctor?"
"Well, we've got him stabilized and it appears that he will make a full recovery, well... in a manner of speaking anyway. Obviously we could not reattach his legs as there wasn't much left of them. We do have him in an induced coma for now, due to the fact that if he were awake the pain would be excruciating. We will bring him out of it in about 2 weeks. So, I suggest you go home and get some rest, there isn't much you can do for him now anyway."
"Not a chance in hell Dr. Kundhardt. I promised I would stay by his side, and I mean to do just that. No one is waiting for me at home, the company is in good hands, my place is here."
"Suit yourself. Well, if you'll be staying with us a while, I'll get one of the nurses to bring you in some pillows and blankets. The cafeteria is on the 2nd floor about 100 meters from the elevator. The remote for the television is in the left post of the bed. And since you're here, if you see anything out of the ordinary going on with Mr. Cummings hit that red button over there."
"OK, thanks doctor." She turned and went back to her chair. She decided to turn on the television. As soon as that tv came on, there it was:
This is a CNS special news bulletin. The Corsair criminal known as Torres has escaped police custody. Upon transportation to Vierlande Prison in Hamburg, the convoy carrying the codemned prisoner was suddenly attacked by a group of Corsairs flying under the Brotherhood banner. After a short battle the capain of the primary transport had no choice but to surrender. One of the three escorts and the transport itself and their crews have not been seen since but are presumed to have been lost. Memorial services for the fallen officers will be held on Planet New Berlin on Friday.
Emilio Torres is presumed to have rejoined the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is suspected to be behind the attempted assasination of RepEx Chief Executive Officer Alex Cummings. We will bring you more details on this story as they become available.
In other news, more reports are coming out of Liberty of high ranking officials officially slandering Rhein...."
She turned the tv off and attempted to digest what she just heard. She knew Emilio well enough to know that he held a vendetta stronger than anyone she had ever known. Just thinking back on the stories he used to tell Alex about what he had done to Outcasts he captured brought chills to her spine. She had to speak to Ulrich Wagner at once. RepEx was in serious danger now, and they needed Black Talon more than ever. She began typing on her comm pad:
Quote:FROM: Patricia Craig
TO: Ulrich Wagner
Dear Mr Wagner,
The doctors here seem to think that Alex will survive his wounds. They do have him in an induced coma for the next 2 weeks or so. After that he will probably be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. But he will live.
I dont know if you have seen the news, but apparently the Brotherhood has freed Torres. This is not good news. If I know Emilio like I think I do, he will make it his personal mission to not only kill Alex, but to destroy his company at all costs as well. With or without Alex, we need to get Black Talon up and running ASAP. That is the way he would want it anyway. I know he would be honored to have this task in your capable hands. I have decided to stay here with him until he has recovered, so do not count on me for any organizational tasks. Im sure VP Gentle can provide you with all of the assistance you may need.
I will keep you updated, but it might be a good idea for you to pay Alex a visit, you are one of his closest friends these days, and lets face it, he doesnt have many of those anymore.
Sincerly,
Patricia Craig
P.S. Thank HR, Legal and the Mailroom for the lovely flowers they sent, Im sure they will cheer Alex up when he comes to.
<span style="color:#FF0000"><strike>RETIRED</strike></span>
ON MY WAY OUT OF RETIREMENT
"Now applying glucogen injection. Subject Alex Cummings should awaken within 20 minutes. Subject originally induced into coma 3 weeks, 2 days, and 4 hours ago. Vitals will be constantly monitored for the next 24 hours, with intermittent monitoring for the next 72 hours." Dr Kundhardt stops the digital recorder his hand and walks over to a very nervous Patricia Craig seated on the opposite side of the hospital bed. "Don't worry everything looks good so far, we will be watching him constantly now, and he should be awake in just a few minutes or so." He starts to walk towards the door and stops short and turns back towards her, "Im glad you're here Miss Craig, it can be rather tough on them when they wake up and notice extremities missing. He's gonna need a friendly face. Oh, and he is still pretty drugged up so he may be a little... well, a lot groggy." He then exits the room and dissapears around the corner.
Patricia then begins to hear a stirring behind her. Alex Cummings is beginning to move and grumble. He then opens his eyes very slowly and remains in a distinct squint. In a very soft almost inaudible tone he begins to speak, "Pat?... Where is this, where are we?"
Patricia walks over and grasps his hand. "You're in the hospital Alex. You've been in a coma."
"How long.... has it been? What.... happened?"
"It's been a little over 3 weeks. You were shot. Do you remember anything that happened?"
"The last thing I can remember... ummmm.... was arriving on New Berlin to give a speech that I didn't want to give. How bad is it, where was I shot?" Slowly but surely his speech begins to get louder and more recognizable.
"Well, while you were giving your speech, someone from across the courtyard shot you with some sort of sniper cannon. Alex..." She takes a deep breath and a long pause. "They took off both of your legs."
Alex closes his eyes as he places his hands under the sheet and slowly runs them down his hip to where his legs had always been. Just inches from his hip bone he feels the bandages and shortly after, the distinct slope of the end of an extremity. A small tear rolls down his left cheek which Patricia very quickly wipes away. That sadness turns out to be very short lived as an anger slowly wells up inside of him. "Who did this?"
"Alex, please, it's going to be..."
"STOP, just tell me who did this."
After a small sigh she begins to tell him everything that the Rheinland Police were able to tell her, "They don't know exactly who it was Alex, but the weapon was definitely Tizona technology."
"Corsairs... Those cannibalistic bastards! Emilio put this together, I know it. He must have been planning this all along. Tell me they haven't had a chance to execute him yet."
She looks down to the floor in an extreme moment of decision. Does she tell him that Emilio Torres had escaped. "No Alex, he's still alive."
"Good. I wanna have a word or two with him before they hang him. He... no, they will pay for this, I assure you. From this day forward... Pat write this down." He still wasn't himself and seemed to be talking nonsense, but it would turn out he meant every word that was about to come out of his mouth. "From this day forward, it will be our primary objective to exterminate the entire Corsair nation. Men, women, children, the whole f**king lot of 'em. I will not rest until Crete is a baren, lifeless rock floating through Gamma. Whatever it takes Pat, I dont give a crap if we have to ally with the damned Outcasts, I want them all dead. Every last one of them. And I want Torres first. Where's a god damn doctor, when can I get out of here."
Patricia feared what effect this would have on Alex, but she had never imagined this type of outrage. "Alex, calm down. Should we really take this out on all the Corsairs. It was just the Brotherhood that did this to you."
"They are all guilty as far as I am concerned. Nothing but a bunch of criminal scum, the whole lot of them. Now when the hell can I get out of here? And what are they gonna do about my stumps?" He then gives a slight chuckle.
Patricia can't believe how little he seems to care about the fact that his legs are completely gone. He'll never walk on his own again, doesn't he realize that. "The doctor said it might be another week or so. As far as your... situation, he had some options to discuss with you."
"Get him here now. I've got things to do. I can't be here another week.... S**T!" He begins tapping his index fingers together. "Get me Ulrich... Get him down here now!"
"But sir...."
"NOW!"
Patricia then leaves the room to find the doctor. She begins typing on her digital comm pad. She will send a message to Ulrich Wagner, maybe he could talk some sense into this insane version of her old friend. Then again, knowing Ulrich, he might encourage him further. Whatever, she had to try.
<span style="color:#FF0000"><strike>RETIRED</strike></span>
ON MY WAY OUT OF RETIREMENT
Teresa walked in the Boozer's Lounge, the most exciting saloon in the Corsair Universe, stopped and looked around.
Pedro Alonso, the bartender, immediately turned himself to the coffee machine when he spotted her. Her recent appearance rapidly raised the consumption of coffee among the rest of the corsairs and he already had to raise the monthly coffee beans orders (the finest brand directly from Waverly LLC, Grand Canaria) three times.
Teresa finally saw a familiar face and went to that table. Emilio Torres was so deeply in his thoughts, that he didn't notice her. He was holding his beer and stared into it. His face still wore the signs of bashing, and rough treatment. She remembered he was unconscious when they delivered him back to Crete after the rescue operation.
"I didn't kill him purposely, you know?", she said.
He jerked himself and looked at her, probably wondering how was she able to guess his thoughts. However he remained silent and so she continued: "I usually don't miss when I do these things, but just before the killing shot I changed my mind. I had two good reasons for it. One, I wanted him to suffer and one has to live to be able to suffer. Two, every corsair has the right to avenge himself if he's able to. This task is yours unless you ask someone else to do it for you but frankly, you'd loose my respect if you did that."
His face looked less clouded now, but still he didn't say a word.
The bartender brought Teresa her favorite triple espresso and she sat down and asked: "So are you still angry with what I have done?".
Torres smiled and said: "After what have you just said? Not any more, Teresa, not any more. But you must have a unique ability to find out what's happening in one's mind, maybe because you're a woman. I always though I am able to hide my feelings from others."
Teresa clapped her hands and raised her eyes to the ceiling: "Thank you, gods, he doesn't hate me any more. About time..."
He stopped her: "Hate you?! I never hated you, it's just I never have been revenged by a woman before.". They both started to laugh, then he asked: "You know what? No one ever told me how I was rescued yet. I just heard a lot of members of the Brotherhood, Benitez as well as independent corsairs participated in that operation and I wonder how it happened."
Teresa had a drink of her espresso and started to tell the story...
***
Quote:Two weeks ago...
Teresa was running for her life. Half the Rheinland Police fleet was behind her, however her hacked reputation and fake ID disabled her pursuers to find out who she was. She was listening to their channel and she smiled after she heard they still think she's a man. When she was planning the assasination, she always tried to avoid the CCTV holo-cameras, however she never really was sure she didn't miss one. The day might come and there might be an enormous bounty on her head placed all over Sirius.
The followers were still 5 to 10K behind when she reached the first trade lane leading to Frankfurt jump gate. At the last moment before she docked it she released a nuclear mine. Her most favorite running trick. By the time the mine exploded, she was already in the safe range, flying at very high speed, while the mad followers saw the trade lane being disrupted right in front of their eyes. It always worked. While she was laughing she continued to Munich system. She carefully slipped through all the areas usually patrolled by both Rheinland Military and Police and she finally managed it to the meeting point with the Brotherhood.
She was waiting for 10 minutes when she finally saw Elders Montoya, Costello and Yanez from the Brotherhood and Don Carlos from the Benitez himself, all flying their Titans.
Her Centurion was following them in the autopilot formation mode and she flew next to it, docked with the emergency air lock and left the Arrow, after she set the auto-destruct timer to 5 mins. They all entered the cruise speed and headed to the Halle Jump Hole.
Everything was following the simple plan. There was a second group of fighters and a corsair transport on the other side of the system, stationed on a secret place. The Elbe_Transport was engaged immediately after they jumped into Munich. Corsair group used their surprise and managed to destroy some of it's escorts. The Rheinland Police pilots fought well but they were outnumbered and to save their lives they decided to cooperate. The pilot of Elbe_Transport was forced to fly to the secret location and had to hand over Torres to the corsair transport (named Seraph's Vault, piloted by another Elder Lucendez).
After Torres was secured, the first group stayed in the system and attacked random Police and military targets to pull their attention from the escaping transport group (the second one) which used the way through Omegas to Omicron Gamma. The condition of brother Torres was uncertain, he was severely wounded and he even fell unconscious during the transfer. Teresa decided to stay with the transport group. Later she heard that the poor pilot of Elbe_Transport took the failure of his mission personally and he committed suicide.
After they got to Planet Crete, Seraph's Vault docked immediately and Torres was transferred to emergency.
All corsairs who took part in the rescue did their jobs flawlessly, and thanks to their effort, Torres' life was saved.
***
Teresa finished and she switched off her comm pad which she used to show Torres some of the recordings from various corsair ships and looked in his face. He was moved, after he saw so many corsairs' effort to rescue him.
"You know, since that...thing with my father, Pedro Maniaco, most of the corsairs who knew him would do anything to save any Corsair. No one is ever going to be left behind again, even if he or she asked the others to." and she gently clapped his shoulder with her hand.
"So tell me, Emilio, what are your future plans, now? I guess that cunning rat still needs to be finished. Do you need a hand?", she smiled at him.
If I die, I forgive you, father. If I live we shall see.....Teresa Chavez
Alex Cummings is back on Planet Hamburg now. Other than his lack of legs, he has made a full and complete recovery. He carefully pilots his new hoverchair into the hanger adjacent to the RepEx Building. As he passes through the doorway he sees it...
Black Talon's Chief Engineer Heinz Bergenmeiser had been customizing this ship for Alex for the last 2 weeks. He had attached the standard weaponry of 2 Nomad Blasters, 2 Excaliburs, 1 Adv Debilitator, 1 Hornviper Turret, 1 Sunslayer Torpedo Launcher, and a Nuclear Mine Dropper. He had also customized the cockpit to fit Mr Cummings new situation. The seat had been removed and replaced with locking mechanisms for Alex's hoverchair.
"Well, here ya go Mr Cummings, she's all ready for you. I've completely redone the cockpit for you. Oh, I also built this little cherry picker device to lift you and your chair up into the cockpit. Here I'll show you how it works." He motions Mr Cummings over to a little platform right next to the ship.
Now, Alex didn't trust robotic or autonomous things. Hence the reason he opted for the hoverchair as opposed to the cybernetic legs the hospital had proposed to him. Reluctantly he manuevered his chair onto the platform. "OK Heinz, how does this contraption of yours work?"
"It's really quite simple. Just line the front of your chair up with this red line and push the green button on the panel there to your left."
"Just like this?" Alex reaches over and presses the green button. The oversized robotic arm begans moving. It slowly reaches down over Mr Cummings and grasps the bottom of his hoverchair. Heinz can see Mr Cummings knuckles go white as he grips the arms of his chair. Alex and his chair are slowly lifted into the air and over the cockpit of his new ship. It gently places him into the cockpit and he can hear the sounds of metal and hydraulics below his hoverchair. "Oh, this is simply wonderful Heinz." He tightly grasps the controls of the ship with his right hand and gently brushes the panel with his left. "Splendid, absolutely splendid. Many a Corsair will die on the opposite ends of these guns. Great job, I'll be sure there is something a little extra in your paycheck this month Heinz. Brilliant!"
"Why thank you sir. Why don't you take her out for a spin. She's all gassed up and ready to go. Careful on those Nomad Blasters though, they're still a bit buggy on the interface, but we'll get it worked out soon enough."
"Right, will do. Thanks again Heinz. See ya in a few." He presses a series of buttons, the cockpit hatch closes over him and the ship begins to move forward towards the bay doors. It had been a while since Alex had flown a fighter, but he quickly thought to himself 'It's just like riding a bike.'
<span style="color:#FF0000"><strike>RETIRED</strike></span>
ON MY WAY OUT OF RETIREMENT
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