It got even more dangerous lately, I think I need to upgrade my ship to an Outcast Destroyer. I just hope I get the permission of the authorities to do so. I will post my request today and hope I will get permission soon. This will help and benifit all outcasts since the protection increases with the availability of more destroyers to secure the way of life we chose to live.
If that's the case I will have my crew read to go in no time.
Sleep Walking
Waking up in the cockpit of my Sabre is strange. This happend several times in the past weeks, but this time it is different, very different. I don't even know whether or not I'm dressed.
My vision is blurry and it is as if I'm looking through somebodies eyes towards the hallway, which leeds to the hangars. I know where my fighter is, but somebody else is moving my body. I slowly walk the hallway down to the door to the hangar my fighter is docked in. Personell is passing me and I hear them talking, but the voices seem far away and sound dull. I reached the door, which is opened as it seems by an unknown force. There is my fighter, my body climbs up and into the cockpit. I turn on the power and start the engine. I see my fingers setting a course. It's hard to make it out, it looks like it tracks through Omicron-90, 99, Iota to Omicron Delta and then planet Primus in the Omicron Kappa system as final destination.
"No, you cannot go throught those systems, it's forbidden!!!", that's what my brain says, but that's not what my hands do.
My fighter undocks and the first way point is selected. I see this pink diamond popping um - Omicron 90 written underneath it. "Noooooo, you cannot go there!". Everything I think is ignored and the cruise engines engage. Shortly after that the ship jumps through the jumphole. The next waypoint is layed in - Omicron 99 Jumphole. I give up, it doesn't make any difference whether or not I think that this isn't right. - The ship jumps into Omicron 99. Somebody is hailing me, us(??). It feels like I'm not alone in my cockpit. A outcast is hailing us, demanding that we turn around. My hands are replying that I cannot turn around that somebody is telling me that I had to go to Primus. More messages are exchanged and the ships jumps into Omicron Iota. More messages follows and the response is always the same, "I have to go to Primus".
We jump into Iota.
"Oh my god, a Keeper, now that's the end!"
The Keeper is hailed and the explanation is given that the ship is on it's way to Delta. The Keeper is not very happy, which is totally understandable. If I would be in control, I would appologize a thousand times and leave as fast as I could. Turn around and go back to Malta.
The course is layed in and the ship heads to the Omicron Delta Jumphole. Nomads appear, but whoever is piloting doesn't seem to have any fear.
Suddenly I hear this inner voice again, as I heard it before, "Give in, it is good to be a Nomad, trust me!"
My mind struggles, it's hard to accept, but for some unexplainable reason it feels right. I think, "why is it good".
And the answer is given right away, "Because you will be part of something great, the future of the universe, a future with endless opportunities and pleasures. GIVE IN!"
And then it happend, I gave in.
My blurry vision becomes even more blurry than before, but now there where colors, unbelievable colors in the spectrum from green to red. I totally lost control and when I regained it, I was standing in front of a Nomad light fighter.
"We are a Nomad Hybrid now!"
And it feels so good that there are no words to describe it.
Somthing tells me to stay here and wait for somebody to contact me. I guess I head to the bar and see what happens.
The voices didn't stop and at first I thought it was the Keepers calling me, but that was a incorrect assumption. Sitting in the Kappa system was not the right thing to do. It became clear that the waiting had to end, if I wanted to find out, then I had to take action. I boarded my fighter in a half delusional state of mind and took off. Where is all this noise in my head coming from? That was the question I had been asking myself for a long time now, a too long time.
The only logical thing to do was to keep searching. The hospitality of the Junkers during my youth and the Outcasts later was great and I really enjoyed being part of their people for a while, but I was never one of them.
Now I had to find my heritage.
I docked at Freeport 9 and went to the bar for a drink. A half life type man started a conversation with me. He turned out to be a smuggler and he was telling me stories about some new systems discovered on the edge of Sirius. He didn't have a name since this were only rumors.
I stayed for a view ours to rest and take a nap. Before I fell asleep I thought it might be that I find my answers in this new descovered systems.
When I woke up, I was fresh and rested. Let's go. The entrance to new systems were supposed to be somewhere in the Orkney system, according to the smuggler. I noticed that he actually never told me his name, smart man.
I started the journey, which led me through the Sigma systems and the Kursari space into the Tau 29 and from there through the jumphole to Tau 23. Now the search began. I knew that there is a jumphole to Orkney somewhere, but it took me over a day to find it.
I cruised around and approached the 2 planets visible when you enter the system and on the second one I got lucky. The Reunion Outpost run by a faction called the Council and a huge mine field right behind it. First I docked at Reunion to make some contact, where I got to know the whole story about the new space called 'Gallia'. The information was very promissing, but it didn't help me with my search. Since this part of Sirius was blocked off for a long time, it was very unlikely that I would find my roots here.
Nevertheless, it was another chance for me to find out more about myself. I will be joining the Council and see what happens.
A new Ship
My Sabre was falling apart and it was time to get it fixed. Unfortunately the Council does not have a lot of spare parts, especially when it comes to a Sabre. The same problem arose with the weapons. It is hard to get to good spare parts when you are cut off from the rest of the universe.
The only possible option I had was a trade. By looking at the ships the Council offers, I doubted that it was a good trade, but at least there were spare parts available. I chose a heavy fighter called 'Agama'. Turns out that ship is not as bad as I thought it would be. After a view missions I had a pretty good handle on it and the weapons are actually pretty good. Now that the transportation was take care of, I could focus on the matter I came here for. I started the investigation. My target are the bar tenders, they usually have a lot of information, it's just a question of money to get it out of them.
The first peace of information I found was on Quillan. The bar tender there pointed me in the direction of a bar tender called Jean Pierre, who works on Macon a base in the Burgundy system. I was very euphoric, and it might have been that I had a few too many. When I woke up the next morning, there was a little headache in the tip of my hairs, too bad that I have a lot of hair, therefore it was a big headache. I boarded my fighter after about 2 pots of coffee (advise: Gallic coffee = no good).
It was a long trip since I had to avoid all the trade lanes. The Gallic Navy and Police doesn't like me too much. Most likely because of a view missions I flew for the Council. The route took me through several jumpholes and days of cruising.
I finally made it to Macon. The trip was overall boaring just interupted by view closer encounters with the Gallic Navy (oh my, I forgot to release them into the custody of the Council). Hope they don't mess up my hold.
I entered the bar. It was quite a picture, there were all kind of different people in the bar, but mostely Council. I approached the bar tender and asked him if he was Jean Pierre. He shook his head and told me that Jean Pierre is not going to be here until later that night. What else to do than wait. May be I have a drink, just one this time.
Hours passed and I had more than one drink. Somebody tipped on my shoulder. 'You are looking for me, I hear', he said. I turned around and told him that if his name is Jean Pierre, then it is true. 'Buy me a drink', he said and I did.
I told him the whole story during the course of the night and when I was finished, he looked at me very sceptical. Then he gave me some advise, if I wanted to know who I was and who my parents were, I needed to go back to Pittsburgh where everything started.
'Look for something like this', he said and tipped on a red metal star on the collor of his jacket. 'If you find it, tell the person greatings from the Gallic people', he said, got up and left.
Now what does all this mean? Well, I guess I need to go to Pittsburgh and see if I can find and answer to this question.
Back to Pittsburgh - Getting Close
On my way back to Pittsburgh I had plenty of time to think. Using the jumpholes was my only option in most of the systems since I'm not too friendly with most of the Sirius factions, must be the fact that I flew for the Outcasts for a while.
Thinking about my childhood hurts. I barely remembered the faces of my parents. Until today I don't know why they had to leave Pittsburgh and why exactly this one freighter was blown to pieces. I thought about the things the bartender in the Gallia system told me and remembered a picture with a mans face and a 5 pointed star in the background, which hung in the living quarters of my parents. There might be something to that. I finally jumped into the New York system after a long journey. The trade lanes weren't save so I set course to Pittsburgh and took a dive. I cruised for almost 200 klicks about 14 to 15 klicks beneath the trade lane level. Now the hardest part, docking at Pittsburgh. It was not possible. How could I get in there. I decided to find me a Junkers freighter, which didn't take too long. After offering a significant bribe the captain agreed to meet me in the scrap metal field outside of Pittsburgh, where I left my ship. The freighter captain offered me to take me back to my ship if I would meet him back at the landing platform in 48 hours. Sure I would try to make it, but only if I have some information to help me continue the search. At first I looked around to see if something stuck out, but well that was naiv of me to think that what I'm looking for is out in the open. The pubs and bars were the best starting point. So lets get this started, and after all, I was pretty thursty after that long flight and just water to drink. I was about to give up, after several hours and serveral bars. I walked around the corner and then I suddenly remembered, my dad used to go to a tiny pub for his after work beer not to far away from our living quarters.
I entered the pub and walked up to the bar tender. I ordered a beer and we got into talking. I told him that I grew up on Pittsburgh and some other pieces of my life story. Then I told him the story of the attack on our freighter and he gave me this questioning look. He asked me to discribe my father, which I did as good as I could. Once I was finished he said, that this can't be, I can't be who I thought he was. According to him my last name was Ryzkhov, which kind of sounded good together with my first name, my mother used to call me Alex, which I got told is a short form for Alexei. So my full name was Alexei Ryzkhov. The bar tender, whos name is Michail waved at a guy at the end of the bar and asked him to take over for a bit, then he told me to follow him. I got up and we went to a room in the back of the pub.
'Sit down boy', he said, 'I have to tell you a little longer story'. It all started during the war before the sleeper ships headed for the Sirius system. A lot of people were smuggled onto the ships because they were part of a movement, which needed to be continued in the Sirius system, and as it turns out my parents were smuggled on board the Liberty. He told me the whole story. I thought that this explains, why I was always fighting for the supressed, different thinking people of Sirius for the past years. I all made sense now. It was suspected that the freighter my parents were on was taken down by Bounty Hunters since there was a bounty on my fathers head.
Michail gave me the comm channel code for a recruitement office I should contact. That might be the best thing to do for me, but first I needed to get out of Pittsburgh. I thanked him and turned around, wanted to get on my way to the landing platform to meet the freighter captain. Michail told me to stay till about 2 hours before the freighter leaves. Right now here is the savest place for you, he said, and once you are back in your ship, fly to the Omega 49 system, dock at the Zoners plant Gran Canaria, they won't give you any trouble. He told me to be careful thought since the Zoners bases are stuffed with Bounty Hunters, and then he gave me a sparkling red star. Michail told me that this will help me to get where I belong. There was supposed to be a hidden system close to Gran Canaria, but he didn't know the coordinates. 'So contact the recruiting office I gave you', he said. We had a good time that night and a lot of stories were exchanged, I met friends of my parents and the time passed fairly quick. I had a good nights sleep and got on my way to the freighter. We left Pittsburgh on time and I saw my ship about 10 minutes later. The freighter captain downloaded the route to Gran Canaria and I was on my way.
The flight to Gran Canaria was uneventful, well not totally, I ended up with about 17 Bounty Hunters in my cargo hold, but all in all uneventful. I arrived at Gran Canaria about 40 hours later.
I was sitting tight at Gran Canaria. My inquiries seemed to have caused some suspition and questions were asked about my person. Quite a few ships from the 4 big houses landed and brought people, some of them seemed to be secret agents. I got warned from one of the bar tenders on Gran Canaria to be careful asking questions about the organization I was interested in.
There must be a way to contact them. I had sent a message to a 'recruitment' office, but never heard anything back. Maybe they couldn't find me.
I won't give up though. I will try again and harder. In the meanwhile, I needed to disappear. Too many questions. Those capitalistic dogs are getting on my nerves.
I changed my name got a different ID card and hired onto a transport of one of the major Liberty commercial organizations as a cook. At least I can give the working class some good food to eat. The transport got into several situations with pirates and solar storms and I seemed to be handling the situations well enough to be recognized. With the recognition there came promotion and soon I was in command of the vessel.
- From a cook to a captains chair -
Not my intention at all, but it had a good side. Not too long ago we flew through the New London system and we met 2 ships of the organization I wanted to become a part of. A view words were exchanged and I revealed my true identity.
- The consequence: I was fired instantly -
Now I'm stuck - again - my life doesn't seem to lead anywhere, at least not the direction I would like to see it go. I need to get back to the beginnings. I made a decent amount of money commanding that transport to buy any fighter I wanted.
I was on my way to Honshu, the journey was uneventful not to say boring. I had just entered the Leeds system when I got stopped by the Britonian Airforce. I don't know how they knew, but they knew that I'm partial to the Coalition, and they didn't like it. Minutes later I was captured and put to trial. The trial itself was a short, as I would describe it, ceremony.
The judged reviewed the records in his terminal and announced: Guilty as charged!
Not to say that I didn't even know what I was charged with or any indication of the length of sentence. 'For how long?' I screamed, and bang the grip of the laser riffle hit my mouth. I was pushed to the exit bleading all over and an hour later I sat on board of a transport with destination BPA Newgate in the Manchester system.
That's where I spent the past view months. During that time I tried to find out a little bit more about the Coalition, but nobody offered any information worth persuing once I'm released. This seemed to be an ongoing thing. Everytime you just indicate what you're looking for you earn funny looks or the people simply turn around and walk away.
It's so tiring. You try to find out something and you only run against walls. That's really no fun at all.
And then, last week a prison revolt broke out and I got lucky. In all the confusion I was able to make my way to the hangar bay where I hid myself in one of the transports, which recently arrived. I for sure thought that I would be discovered, but it was meant to be different. The transport received a emergency launch order announce via the comm systems, and they took off without a lot of checking.
The transports docked at the Birmingham station and still nobody cared to check. After the surroundings got quiet I crawled through the life support tunnels to the cockpit and from there I made my way out and into the station.
It was pure luck that I made it that far. On the station I managed to aquire some clothes more suitable and less conspicuous. Now I needed my identity back. Good thing that I have all my assets registered under 'Vizioso' rather than Alexei Ryzkhov and of top of that I got a hint to a recruiting office, according to the source the recruiting offices belongs to the Coalition.
Now lets see what happens. The next flight out is mine, regardless of it's destination.
I made my way to Liberty space. It wasn't easy to avoid the patrols of the Bretonian forces. I had to bribe three different freighter captains, nobody is helping anyone lately. It's all about credits, credits and again credits. - What happend to society!?!?
I finally arrived at Manhatten and found a room.
First order of business was to aquire a ship and build some savings using the name of my new ship this time, just in case somebody finds out about my current pseudo. I think I'll call my new ship 'Proletarian'. The name will symbolize hope and better times for a huge percentage of the serius inhabitants. My goal is to support the people of Sirius by transporting required goods to different areas and not only the goods, which bring the highest profit, first and foremost need goods. I leave the high profit margins to the capitalistic pigs. Said and done, I aquired a freighter and named it as planned. I had a lot of possitive responses to the name of my new ship, alot more possitve ones than negative ones. After building a nice polster - as you can imagine - that took a while - since my goods I transport have pretty low profit margins, I will make my way back to Gran Canaria. There I will wait for the recruiting officer to contact me.
