Vengeance had just graduated from the Malta Fleet Academy and was on R&R at home. It was dinnertime and he was having a peaceful meal with his parents when an “Orange Alert” sounded. Now, “Orange Alerts” meant that a Corsair raiding force had been spotted in Alpha. It was just a raiding party, not a full scale invasion so only “on-call” pilots were ordered into space.
Unfortunately for the Outcasts the Corsairs had more pilots then expected and managed to push all the way to Malta. At this point ALL pilots were called into space and Vengeance rushed to the hanger to get his ship. He never made it to combat though. 2 Corsair ships collided sending one of them into the planet's atmosphere. The ship turned into a fiery ball of death that immolated the pilot but left the remains of the ship smash into the ground. Right near Vengeance's house. The Tizonas, being fairly unstable weapons, detonated flattening 2 square blocks of Malta. Vengeance's parents were right near the epicenter of the explosion and never had a chance to get out.
Swearing revenge Vengeance took off after the 5 Corsair ships that had managed to flee the battle. He brought with him 8 close friends from the academy. They managed to catch up to the enemies right outside Freeport 9 and despite the protestations of the Zoners there the Outcasts ripped into the Corsair formation. This happened before AW was formed. The Corsairs had managed to comm ahead though and had set up a trap, 24 more fighters were waiting, hiding out at the Freeport. As soon as the Outcasts were embattled the enemy fighters poured out the docking bays and swarmed the Outcasts.
4 of Vengeance's friends exploded almost immediately. The 5 remaining Outcasts managed to take down 6 fighters before all but Vengeance and his best friend were all that was left. His friend's name was Carlos Franco and he was that year's Ace Pilot. Vengeance could see him through their cockpit windows. They both knew this wouldn't end well.
“Hey Vengeance?”
“who are you talking to?”
“You”
“Whatever, I am kinda busy here”
“I know.
Get these bastards for me will ya? All of them.”
“So that's why you called me Vengeance, well, if any of us will survive this it will be you. You have the mad skills”
“No, you will avenge us, and your parents, now go!”
“Wait what?”
But Carlos had turned off his transmitter. As Vengeance watched in awe Carlos flew straight at the enemy forcing them away from Vengeance. Carlos downed 1, then another, then another then another Corsair ship, but he was flying offensively now, burning through bats and bots for the sake of scoring hits. And for the sake of distracting the dog Corsairs away from Vengeance. With pure rage clouding his vision Vengeance punched the “cruise” button and fled the battle. At 10k away he turned around to watch. Never before had he seen such grace in a battle.
“Carlos I'm clear, get out”
“Carlos, I said I'm clear, save yourself”
No answer ever came. Carlos managed to destroy 9 more ships while Vengeance was watching. Then a lucky shot pierced Carlos' engine core and his ship turned into a fireball. At that point Vengeance almost rushed back into the battle to engage the remaining pilots but he saw that the 3 remaining original raiders were fleeing under a screen put up by the 7 remaining fighters. Vengeance knew he couldn't get to The Hated Ones without throwing away Carlos' sacrifice. With a near-sob of grief he turned toward home. As he did, he changed his transponder signal from his family's name to “Vengeance” in honor of Carlos.
Vengeance fought for years against the Corsairs wracking up an impressive amount of kills. He always asked for a duty station in Eta so he would have a better chance of killing them. But he never saw The Hated Ones again. The Malta Dons refused to use the spy network to search them out. If they helped everyone looking to get revenge on the Corsairs they would have exposed their entire network.
So Vengeance started up his own network of contacts. These were mostly Zoners he paid to keep watch out for those 3 pilots. But Or Marquez, and the others were never seen. When his commander found out what he was doing Vengeance was dismissed from the Navy. The network disintegrated as he lost his means of communications and the funding to keep the contacts bribed.
He worked for months in a Cardimine packing facility saving up just enough money for a Falcata. With that Falcata he worked as a merc for the Outcasts, tagging along on operations as backup, going solo to assassinate a bounty hunter that had wandered into the wrong spot, ect. One day there was a minor Corsair patrol in Eta which High Command wanted eliminated but could not send any ships because they were preparing for a major push. So they sent Vengeance and another Outcast who was not officially part of the Navy.
They got to the co-ordinates where the enemies were last seen. From there they picked up an engine trail that led them straight to the Corsairs trying to get past the minefield. The enemy force was made up of a Gunboat and 3 Titans. Poor odds for 2 Falcatas. But they had a job to do and would do it well. Then the gunboat hailed Vengeance.
"Last time you escaped you little rat, but this time, you don't have friends to protect you, my ambush will be complete." If was one of The Hated Ones.
Vengeance lost all control and charged the gunboat with his backup flying wing. The Titans flung themselves at the 2 suicidal Falcatas. Vengeance's wingman wasn't very bright...his shields were ripped off by the Tizonias and he still flew right at them. His Inferno canon belched an orange ball that crushed one of the Titan's shielding. Both pilots decided to play chicken and charged each other, looking for that great insta-kill shot. The Supernova and Minirazor FIRED!!! and both missed. Both pilots dodged up to get out of the way and slammed into each other. They fused into a mess of parts and bodies and then the reactors went off immolating both ships.
Vengeance hardly took notice of this as he charged the gunship hitting it with an Inferno/Supernova combination. The gunboat didn't take that sitting down and withering fire lanced out from it into Vengeance's shielding. One bomber against one gunboat and two Titans. Suicide for all but the best pilots, and even for them such a battle is almost unwinnable. But Vengeance was blinded by his rage at being outwitted twice now. His guns pummeled the gunboat's shielding eventually collapsing it. He dodged and wove around the ship keeping the gunboat between him and the two Titans. But at that range the gunboat's gunners couldn't miss. Within a few short minutes his hull was cracking and his shield generator was on the fritz. Being desperate the next time his shields came back he nudged one of the Titans. The pilot was so focused on getting Vengeance that he didn't notice the mine right in front of him...
The explosion illuminated the battle's damage. The gunboat was scarred and leaking atmosphere and one of the guns was a smoking crater. The other Titan was still fresh, while Vengeance's ship was literally falling apart.
Using the explosion as cover he drifted into the space where the mine was and shut down all power and drifted as though the explosion had knocked out his ship.
"And now I have won again" the captain of the gunboat said. "Let's go home brother."
"Aye sir" the remaining Titan replied.
After 2 hours of hiding and waiting Vengeance was picked up by a patrol through the area and with their help he limped back to Palmerneo.
