Misplaced Identity

[t0l]

Sector E5
Tau-37
Tau Systems
19 February 821

The Eagle whipped itself into a 180 degree turn, bringing it's wing-mounted Vampires to bear on the pursuing Bulldog. The two ships exchanged gunfire shortly and drifted past each other, turning back to fire once again. A few well placed shots took Tal Ravis's Eagle's shields out, and a following Mini Razor grazed past the cockpit, destroying the left wing of the craft, causing it to start spinning uncontrollably.

The Bulldog then launched a cruise disruptor, which halted the spinning craft and left it sitting in space, pouring out black smoke profusely from where the left wing once resided. Tal frantically tried to fire back with the remaining weapons, but another follow-up salvo of cruise disruptors disabled whatever vampires were still operational. With a victory nearly in the bag, the Bulldog thrusted up to the crippled Eagle.

"The glorious Mister Ravis, hm? You're not nearly as good as I thought you'd be at the game of combat."

"Shut your mouth, moron."

"Hehe, what are you mad for? Are you simply fed up with your inadequate abilities?"

The Eagle dropped a Screamer mine, which burst upon the already de-shielded Eagle and disabled the shields of the nearby Bulldog.

"Grr...You'll pay for that!"

The Bulldog's Mini Razor snapped into position, locking on to the Eagle's main hull.

"Any last words, chump?"

---

[t0l]

Kyushu Jump Hole
Tau-23
Tau Systems
18 February 821

The Shire stormed from the strange cloud known as a jump hole, covered in laser burn marks and structural damage. Black smoke poured out of the numerous hull breaches dotting the rear portion, and many of the point defense turrets lining the sides were disabled or flat out missing. The captain of the transport quickly dialed up his communication device.

"Help, somebody, please, help me! This is the S.S. Resolve, is anyone out there?!"

No reply came through the communication device, and shortly afterwards three Junker ships warped through to Tau 23 in consecutive order, first a Waran, then a Bulldog, and then another Waran, which showed visible hull damage, alongside a missing wing.

"Alrighty chump," said the pilot in the Bulldog, a Junker named Tyler, "This is your last chance. Pay us two million credits each and we'll let you off free. Else, we'll scrap your ship."

The Shire's captain did not respond, and then began to charge it's cruise engines. Five volleys of cruise disruptors came from each ship, shaking the transport and halting it. Right afterwards, four Nova torpedoes and a Mini Razor erupted from the pursuers and tracked onto the lone transport. In desperation, the captain tried to call for help again.

"Help! Please! Anybody! Someone! I don't want to die out here!"

There was no reply and no radar contacts aside from the three Junker vessels.

---

[t0l]

Kyushu Jump Hole
Tau-23
Tau Systems
19 February 821

Tal Ravis, former flight officer of the Colonial Republic, flew alone and quietly through Tau-23, after losing his job on Java Station working for the IMG. The flight would take him to Kyushu, and later back into Liberty where'd he'd likely be flying for the LPI or working for Ageria again.

The lone Eagle slowly approached the jump hole leading back to Kyushu at half impulse, and was about to jump to Kusari space when a lone radar contact appeared on his sensors. Identification matched that of an IMG Shire, of which he heard of one gone missing the other day from some miners on base. Curious, he kicked impulse to full and thrusted towards the contact's location.

What met his eyes was a destroyed Shire, with the entire cargo hold mangled and destroyed, the contents spilled out all over space. The front half did not fair too well either, and the entire bridge portion was missing and a gaping, twisted hole filled it's place. As he positioned the Eagle to scan the ship, two Warans and a Bulldog approached from behind.

"Ey, punk," said one of the Warans, which had hastily patched up battle damage, "How about you hand us some credits?"

Tal flipped the comms on.

"Did you guys do this?"

"Yeah, we did, chump, and you'll end up like him if you don't pay up."

"Hmph."

Tal smirked, powered up weapons, and kicked impulse to full.

The Warans broke formation and moved to engage the Eagle, but the much more maneuverable Eagle quickly got on the tail of the damaged Waran, firing off shots into the rear half of the bomber. The pilot in the Waran frantically swerved left and right to evade the gunfire, but eventually took a Vampire bolt to a stabilizer and went swerving directly into an asteroid, exploding violently on impact.

The second Waran was on Tal's tail now, and fired off shots with it's energy cannons. Tal flipped the impulse off and kicked the afterburners on, moving up and around to get a shot on the Waran, who began firing rocket pods sporadically onto the asteroids around them. The Bulldog then pitched into the fight, spraying the red Barragers all over the Eagle's shields. However, Ravis was now firmly on the tail end of the other Waran, firing off streaks of tachyon bolts into the bomber's shields. They soon collapsed under pressure, and the teal projectiles quickly shredded the armor plating, blowing off a wing of the bomber and sending it swerving off. The Eagle pursued the Waran into an even more dense asteroid field, sending out more Vampire bolts into the cumbersome bomber, eventually breaching it's hull and destroying it in a spectacular explosion.

"Now, where's that Bulldog..?"

Tal looked down as the Bulldog's radar signature disappeared, last seen heading to the Tau-37 jump hole. Wanting to seal the victory, he activated cruise engines and went full speed towards the Tau-37 jump hole.

---

[t0l]

Tau-23 Jump Hole
Tau-37
Tau Systems
19 February 821

Tal Ravis's Eagle departed from the Tau-23 jump hole in Tau-37, impulse at half, scanner at maximum range, and weapons charged fully. The radar was clear, nothing showed up and there were no signs of life within a seven thousand meter radius. However, Tal's hunting instincts learned during long chases through the infamous Badlands of New York kept him from powering off and retreating, and he was subsequently rewarded when a Mini Razor dove through the nebula clouds and sizzled on his shields.

Without any energy protection, the Bulldog spiraled downwards through the milk-coloured nebula clouds and showered the Eagle with red proton bolts, which promptly embedded themselves into the hull plating surrounding the vulnerable internals. Ravis immediately kicked the thrusters on and went full evasive, weaving in and out through the asteroids and gas clouds as red bolts passed around him. Looking down, he punched a blue button on the flight stick, dropping a Screamer mine which tracked onto an asteroid and burst, disabling the pursuing Bulldog's shields temporarily while the pair exited the cloud to a stunning backdrop of pure white, a few ceystal formations, and the shining blue sun.

There was little time to take in the sights of the system, however, as Ravis whipped the Eagle around and brought all weapons to bear on the Bulldog, which was painted gray and white to cover itself for a situation like this. The pair jousted each other back and forth to little avail, the photon cannons were too weak to pierce the Eagle's superior shielding, and the Bulldog darted around too quickly for Ravis to fire successive shots and disable the Bulldog.

It culminated down to one last pass, where the Eagle popped a mine off, disabling both ship's shields. Taking the opportunity to disable the enemy craft, Ravis let loose with every ounce of weaponry available, clipping the Bulldog's hull and sending it into a spiral. Propelled by the damage, the Bulldog whipped around, thrusted towards the Eagle unexpectedly, disabled what remained of the regenerating shield, and launched the Razor shot that broke off the left wing.

---

[t0l]

Sector E5
Tau-37
Tau Systems
19 February 821

"So-ho, you gonna hurry it up with the last words, buddy?"

Ravis sat in the seat of his pilot chair, staring into the face of death, the barrel of a Junker's Mini Razor. His shields would come up at any second now, but what would there be to do in this situation..?

"I do have some last words for you."

Tal gulped.

"I just hope you've been praying, motherfu--"

The sounds of his vulgarity were soon drowned out by the sounds of a Mosquito Cruise Disruptor firing towards the Bulldog, of whom he tried to deflect with a countermeasure. While the countermeasure diverted the disruptor from the engines, it diverted it somewhere much more crucial to the craft.

The cockpit.

---

[t0l]

Freeport 10
Tau-37
Tau Systems
23 February 821

"Well?" asked a waiting Tal, who stood before the spoils of war, the nearly undamaged remains of his adversary's Bulldog. The white and gray paint was chipping already and tachyon scars were present all over the hull, but the weaponry was still present and glowed in their rusted glory.

"Well, mister Ravis," said the mechanic who was working inside the cockpit, "This is still truly astonishing, the fact that this craft is nearly intact! Well, given that the pilot's remains were all over the controls, but still!"

"Yeah yeah, I get it. It was cool. How's the ship?"

"Indeed mister Ravis, it was 'cool'. The ship here is all good to go now, pilot control systems are working just fine and everything seems to be good." The mechanic hopped down from the ship's cockpit and approached Tal.

"What about my, uh, Eagle? Is it going to be alright?"

"Your Eagle...well, it's damaged beyond repair. All of the weapon systems were unsalvageable and the external damage was too much for the ship to sustain. You're very lucky that you managed to make it all the way over here to Freeport 10, even with a Bulldog in tow. At this point, you're better off just buying another Eagle."

"I understand." Ravis looked up at the heavily damaged craft.

"However, I did take the liberty of transferring both of your Eagle's engine units and replacing the onboard engines of that Bulldog, for a little bit of customization. Well, given that you're going to fly that...thing, of course."

"Thanks for that. Anyways, how much do I owe you?"

"Very little, mister Ravis. I'll take that dead Eagle as payment, if you want to give it up."

"...Sure. Take it." He looked up at the Eagle one last time. "Thanks again....?"

"Doctor Wallace, mister Ravis. Pleased to meet you."

"You too, Doc, see ya later."

Ravis walked over to his new Bulldog, and climbed up and into the cockpit. Everything inside looked in perfect condition, changed from the once mangled and destroyed pilot controls coated in the remains of a Junker, towed into Freeport 10 by a wingless Eagle. Tal looked down, flipped the reactor, engines, and weapons online, and then moved the throttle slowly upwards to generate considerable amounts of lift. Before he knew it, the agile heavy fighter was airborne.

"Freelancer, Alpha, Twenty One dash Two, you are cleared for launch. Good luck out there."

---

[t0l]

Freeport 10 Sector Space
Tau-37
Tau Systems
23 February 821

The gray and white Bulldog slowly departed from Freeport 10's docking bay, which closed it's large doors bearing the insignia of "1", painted on the metal in red with a smooth yellow outline. Ravis set the onboard autopilot on to take the ship into the Tau-23 jump hole, and leaned back in the pilot chair to take in the wonderful sights of Tau-37. Crystalline water asteroids floated about the dense field surrounding Freeport 10, and stood out from the rest of the milk-white background that consumed all of the Tau-37 system.

The Bulldog flew very smoothly, gliding towards Tau-23 at half impulse speed. The low hum of the familiar civilian line engines filled the cockpit with the vibrations it made.

Tal's flight would try to get back to Liberty through Kusari sector space again, where he'd try to find someone to purchase the vessel. Hopefully there was a Junker somewhere in Liberty who wanted a nearly mint-condition Bulldog for cheap, but he shouldn't try to get his hopes up. Maybe DSE would take him up again, and he'd be working as a mechanic on Baltimore. Maybe not.

Ravis continued his pondering as the ship glided into the Tau-23 jump hole.

---

[t0l]

Tau-37 Jump Hole
Tau-23
Tau Systems
23 February 821

Tal's new Bulldog glided through the dense asteroid fields of Tau-23, activating it's high-speed cruise engines as it departed from the Tau-37 jump hole. The ship suddenly halted and then quickly accelerated sporadically up to a maximum speed of 350 m/s. There were little sights along the way, a few Outcast patrol fighters and the occasional mining vessel, which seemed to quickly disappear from scanner range. There were very few encounters along the way around Java and to the Kyushu jump hole, until a combined task force of three Bounty Hunters Guild fighter craft, two Barracudas and a Manta, accompanied by a two IMG Lhotse fighters and a single IMG Annapurna. The lead Manta opened up his comms for a quick one-liner.

"Alrighty, Junker, you've got a good 3 million on your head. Prepare to die, marauder!"

Ravis thought for a second. Marauder? The hell was he talking about?!

The task force immediately broke formation and engaged the lone Bulldog, it's intent to destroy it as fast as possible by brute force. One second he was fighting Junkers, and it seemed that he was the most feared one in Sirius now.

The Bulldog went full speed with thruster blazing, going face first into the fray. A Barracuda took a Mini Razor almost instantly, cutting past it's shields. A follow-up barrage of photon cannons cut the ship into multiple pieces, and it spiraled off into an asteroid. Behind the Bulldog were the remaining two BHG fighters, and the other IMG vessels were straight ahead. His heavy fighter shields managed to deflect the damage from the Bounty Hunters particle cannons, and he made a bee line for one of the Lhtose fighters. The pilot tried to dodge the oncoming fire, but was caught up in a flurry of photon shards and Razor projectiles, and subsequently exploded. The Bulldog's shields were now down, and the particle cannons were tearing off paint and armor plating left and right. The other Lhotse was behind as well now, tearing into the ship with Vampires. The piece of scrap held together, until the Annapurna fired a Charon salvo at the Bulldog, hitting a stabilizer and causing the ship to spiral uncontrollably.

---

[t0l]

Sector E8
Tau-23
Tau Systems
23 February 821

Tal's state seemed to be hopeless. With a Barracuda, Manta, Lhotse, and Annapurna all piling upon his lone Bulldog, there was not a chance in hell that his ship would survive, or him for that matter. It was all hopeless now, as the Bulldog spiraled through the asteroid field. His pursuers did not let up on the volume of fire being flung his way. Another major hit to the engines knocked one out, the resulting cascade destroying nearly half of the fighter. The cruise disruptor and three photon cannons flew off behind the ship, along with the mangled engine block and pieces of the wing.

As if on cue, a Condor gunship and a Recycler approached from below, blasting through the opposition nearly immediately. The two Bounty Hunter fighters were instantly shredded by Solaris gunboat cannons, and the second Lhotse was destroyed by a combination of Cannonball missiles and Starkiller torpedoes.

The lone Annapurna turned tail to run, but to no avail. The gunboat set behind it, lighting up the rear of the miner with Solaris bolts. A stray projectile entered and engine tube, and lit up the entire ship in a spectacular reaction.

"Well then," said the pilot within the Recycler, "That was clean. Come on, Tyler, let's get you home and fixed up."

---