- "This is Freeport 11 to all available ships in the area: we are being -"
The transmission was suddenly cut by a large impact, making it seem as if the source was desintegrated in an instant. It took a whole second for the transciever to come back online and the transmission to renew.
- "This is Freeport 11 calling all... any ships in the system! We are under heavy alien bombardment, and need help ASAP! Respond, damn you!"
The space around Freeport 11 was bustling with hulks of disabled vessels. The station guns were red hot with weapons fire, trying desperately to cause any damage to the massive semi-transparent blue ship lingering just barely inside the range of fire. As the blue ship unleashed another volley on the main decks of the Freeport, another ship began to emerge from behind it. A smaller, metallic shape, almost as if completely unpresent in the ongoing struggle. Ignored by all around, the small ship cut through the asteroid belt towards the station, its unusual protrusions clearer as it came closer, close enough for the station defenders to start making out the details. Few of the gunners realised in time what was happening, before the massive ship finally brought its centremost gun to bear and the whitest beam of light began emerging from the massive barrel.
It was as if a terrifying silence muted out the sounds of the ongoing battle for a full moment, as the result of the impact of the gigantic beam caught up with the station. A white flash embedded the area, blinding all in its wake. As the gunfire stopped, the station defenders realised the freeport was still intact, but not entirely. Its storage tanks had been obliterated, and its bottom half has been cut off from the frame. The Zoner freeport was completely crippled, and ready to give way to the immense Nomad bombardment unleashed upon it.
Until, suddenly... the alien ships held their fire. As unexplainingly as ever, both ships turned around with an audible shriek, brushing off the gunfire from the last few guns remaining on the station. Slowly but surely making their way past the wrecks of the ships that were destroyed on their approach, and the burning hulks of the defense turrets that were meant to keep them at bay, the two alien ships engaged their cruise engines and disappeared towards the Omicron Delta sun formation. As the smaller ship turned its right side towards the station for the first time, all its inhabitants could see the details on it. All of them could recognise its shape. As the onlookers watched in silence, a buckled segment of the hull now hanging off of a large, tinted tentacle was illuminated by the gleaming sunlight, presenting a rusty Liberty star with a naval insignia next to it: Liberty Naval Ship Tundra - Curator Pro Libertas.
June 27, 817 AS
The Freeport promenade was a mess. Everything was damaged, wires were hanging from the ceiling, men were running around with devices and equipment. Most of the rooms on this side of the station were sealed shut, previously punctured and depressurised by the previous day's attack. Despite all of the commotion, a tall, older man in a clean, black suit and an oldfashioned coat walked slowly through the corridor with a small cup of tea in his hand. He stopped for a moment to get a good look at his surroundings, then sat down on a nearby metal crate, putting his down on the table next to it. He produced a spoon, and stirred the tea before taking a sip, then took a small communicator out of his coatpocket, pressed a few buttons then spoke into it with a distinct, deep Bretonian accent.
- "I've made it to Freeport 11. It's quite a jolly mess down here, it is."
A voice emerged back at him from the communicator, clearly of Hispanian origin, but speaking in perfect English.
- "I'm on Toledo right now. Nobody knows much about yesterday, the Nomads pulled another ace out of their collective sleeves and managed to block out the signals from all the satellites in Delta somehow."
The Bretonian man rubbed his chin.
- "Even the Order ones?"
- "Even those, yes. It's quite a feat, the engineers say."
- "Well, old boy. This doesn't look good. Not good at all."
- "Any theories, professor?"
- "They are trying to get our attention, that's for sure. But I'm not so much concerned about this Nomad attack as about the thing they brought with them. That was a Liberty cruiser, Ezekius."
- "Yeah, but.. the Nomads have a history of taking over entire crews of whole ships. What's the big deal?"
- "They don't do it like this, oh no..."
The professor pulled out a pair of small reading glasses and put them on, then pulled out a piece of paper from a different pocket, and had a careful look at it. On it was the face of a man, hardly visible on the seasoned photo which has likely changed hands quite a lot not too long ago.
- "Now, lad, we can leave the rest to the Black Squadron. Your first task instead is to go to Liberty, then brief yourself with the data I attached. If my sources are correct, there is somebody there who can help us put the pieces of this little mystery together..."
The communicator let out a silent beep signifying that the transmission was ended. The man, still sitting on top of the crate, took the last sip of his tea, before standing up and walking away with haste, leaving the cup on the table behind him.
The lone Nephthys followed its path through the New York system, flying now next to a trade lane ring leading towards the Texas gate. Not a moment ago its pilot skillfully evaded security in the hidden Alaska system using a sensor hack to fool the automated defenses. He then used one of the many access codes stolen by Order operatives from the Liberty Navy system over the years to bypass the gate without firing a shot. He used his knowledge of Zone 21 to manuever out of the mine field, only to run into a lone LSF operative coming out of the trade lane. The LSF officer ordered him to stop, but the Order pilot knew better than that. He had a mission to accomplish, and right now that mission needed him to turn his engines to full afterburn and make his way for the Badlands. The place where no naval officer would dare follow him.
His onboard radio transmitter cackled to life.
- "Attention Liberty lawful forces. Criminals spotted in sector 3E. Repeat, Hacker criminals have been spotted on the California trade lane."
The pilot turned his fighter's nose around, and headed straight there. He turned his attention to his PDA, which displayed his current targets for interrogation. Long range sensor readings showed the names in bold:
Code:
• *Phate*
• *[HF]-Tadao*
System wide transmissions confirmed that they were causing mischief in the area. The pilot sighed loudly as he recognised that this situation is going to get ugly, now that the Liberty Police as well as the Navy would likely be onto them. He knew he needed to find them before the cops did. He also knew it was rather unlikely that he would. Without a second thought he grabbed his onboard communicator, and responded to the latest plea for help on a direct frequency.
- "This is officer Magenta of the Liberty Police, I need to know the suspects last known location. Thank you, citizen."
He then waited for a reply. Of course, one came. Every Order operative knew that social engineering was an effective technique of obtaining information.
- "The Hackers are attacking a Universal Shipping convoy at Manhattan now, hurry!"
Being in the Detroit Debris Field, he speeded towards Manhattan as fast as he could, hoping he could persuade his targets to break off their foolish assault. He figured that it was false hope however to think that they wouldn't be besieged by others by now, and so it was as the three fighter pilots tried to take on a cruiser. He kept trying to reach them while they fought.
- "This is Order pilot Reyes calling the Hellfire Legion. Withdraw now. It's foolish to think you can attack Manhattan and succeed. There are matters far more grave than this one, consider my request!"
But the fight raged on. And by now the system was on full alert. The LSF agent encountered previously now arrived on location with backup of his own, and ordered the nearby cruiser to cease its suppression fire, before attacking the Legion ships himself along with his wing. The three ships could not evade small arms fire as easily, and one of them fell soon enough. This started to make Reyes desperate. Seeing that the Libertonians were ignoring his calls, he decided to amp the stakes and intervene himself. The LSF seemed to expect this, and they redirected their fire onto his ship after a while. But Reyes was confident. His Nephthys was state of the art, the best equipment the Order had to offer. He banked his nose and managed to take out one of the LSF fighters on his tail in a swift punch of neutron fire, effectively swinging the tide onto the side of the Hackers and Legion.
This caught their attention. Both Hackers now moved in pursuit of the final LSF agent. This coincided with a wave of Xenos coming out of the Jersey field, their ramshackle bombers and fighter craft taking the attention of the Liberty Navy with their numbers. The perfect screen for Reyes was set, and he urged the Legionnaire to take his leave with him once again. This time around they listened, and engaged their cruise engines. Reyes followed, as they set their course for the Badlands once again.
The journey through the Badlands was uneventful. The group lost their pursuit long before they reached it, as the navalmen on their tails broke off under orders to meet the Xeno threat instead. The three ships travelled together through the dense nebula until reaching the infamous Buffalo base where the Lane Hacker bid his farewells and docked on the station. This left Reyes alone with the man he had to destroy an LSF agent's ship for in order to get him to follow him. He hailed the Legionnaire again as they emerged on the other side of the Texas jump hole, and recieved a response in the form of a set of secure frequencies. He punched them into his ship's console, and the channel was opened. A Kusarian voice immediately sounded through the commlink.
- "I don't know where you came from, but the help's much appreciated."
This made Reyes crack a small smile. The previous battle seemed to have left the renegade in a sense of indebtedness, something which would bring him closer to his goal.
- "Just my regular day's work. Regardless of how it may have looked though, I did have a reason for helping you back there."
A short silence greeted his response, but his temporary ally responded after a grudging second.
- "Go on."
- "You see, there has been a chain of events set in motion in the deep Omicron sector as of late that has made... my supervisors quite worried. Needless to say I am in pursuit of a very certain man that my sources believe was last reported to be a member of your organisation."
Reyes paused for a second, looking at the PDA on his lap, a face of a man still shown on the screen, in his background flying the symbol of the Hellfire Legion.
- "I am looking for a... 'Jason Moore'. I was briefed he will have the information I need."
Once again met by a short silence, he looked outwards into the stars as his ship passed into the California jump hole. After a short jump they both emerged on the other side, and both ships continued in formation towards the other end of the system. The Legionnaire responded as soon as their cruise engines started up and the autopilot guided them both towards independent space.
- "Moore... Hmm, I recognise the name. But he supposedly disappeared a while ago, and nobody saw him since."
A statement that had Reyes curse silently, but his lead would be a bit more helpful than that.
- "However, maybe my superiors will know more about it. You should stick around."
Now that he had his reservations about. Getting mixed into Liberty politics too much could have negative repercussions on his mission. But then again, this was his only lead on the man he was looking for.
- "All right. You forward my message to your leaders. I will stay on Freeport 4 for a while and await next contact. I'm sure we can help each other out here. Our organisations included."
Size is about comparisons. Compare a Starflier to a human on a landing pad, and it looks rather large. Compare that same Starflier to, say, a Liberty Dreadnought, and it looks insignificant. Beside the mighty Marduk, the Harbinger, the Liberty Navy Cruiser looked like a toy. Move closer though, closer than most humans can get unscathed, and you can see how it is not a toy. Tiny hull breaches, none larger than two meters in diameter, peppered the cruiser. In the hull breaches was a glowing blue material, an apparent "skin" of sorts that was covering the scar. Or perhaps making the scar.
The space it moved through was not normal space. Blue wisps of an unnatural nebula buffeted the Tundra, and soon it entered a minefield. The ship was small enough to cruise through the spaces between the mines with minimal shield damage, but the Marduk broke off for an alternate route. Onwards the Tundra cruised, now appearing to be a giant amongst the mines. A
And there it was: a large, mind-boggling asteroid complex. For comparisons, it made a Marduk look like an insect, and dwarfed the Liberty Cruiser many times over. There were shipyards of sorts, three of them; two held the growing skeletons of Marduks, and the third was vacant. On silent wings, the Tundra slipped into the third one and things began to happen...
New York, Buffalo
Jason Moore stood next to his ship in the shabby docking bay of the base carved out of one of a million obsidian shards. It was the first time he had been to this particular base since he had left the Hellfire Legion. He vaguely remembered fighting his way through the station before he had the protection of the Legion, and figured that maybe some people wouldn't like his presence terribly much now that the Legion's protection was gone.
Reputation saved him. Plenty of people gave him a second look, but it was mainly one of fear. And there was a sending, as if from a distance.
![[Image: u8rHEaq.png]](http://i.imgur.com/u8rHEaq.png)