Seeds of dissent

[Blodo]

Outcast Space, Omicron Eta.
06.10.817 AS, 2138 SMT.

The green hued nebula surrounding the Outcast worlds looked as sinister as ever. It beared witness to war after war, madness and malevolence and scores of hastily built ships designed to kill over reasons that have long been forgotten by any of the participants. It was a rare occurence to see the sinister light of the nebula reflected upon a black hull belonging to a Coalition fighter, a light that would turn the blood red star engraved on their wings into an almost yellowish colour. Yet there they were skimming through the middle of the warzone, a squadron of three making their hasty escape through the battleground of two of their most dangerous enemies. The squadron consisted of two fighters and a bomber. In hot pursuit behind them were a group of no less than ten Outcast Sabres, hell bent on destroying the ones who dared infiltrate their capitol system. The escaping pilots stood no chance against their numbers in hostile space, and they knew it. All they wanted now was to return to base in one piece, and to do that they would need to rely on a bold plan..

- "Hold it together.. we're almost at the jump hole."
The lead shifted more power to engines, as more and more Outcasts kept showing up on long range scanners. One of the wingmen was quick to report.
- "More druggies on approach vector. That's a fourth group already."
- "Concentrate on jumping through the Theta hole. They won't matter in a moment." - the bomber pilot shouted into comms as he flew straight into the anomaly, and reappeared in a different system.
He engaged his cruise engines slowly, while waiting for the rest of his squad. Once they got through, the group sped off towards the thick nebula clouds. The Coalition bomber engaged system wide comms..
- "Caballeros! Outcast attack group coming at you from Palermo. To guns, vamos!"

Switching back to encrypted comms, he explained it to the pilots.
- "This trick always works. They'll be too busy killing each other to notice us slip through. Lets disperse to evade their sensors."

As the three ships broke formation and flew apart, the Outcast force following them has by now stopped pursuing, due to being engaged by a flurry of Corsair ships hastily reinforced from the nearby Freeport. The ruse had worked for now. The lead bomber gave his last order for the mission, before changing directions altogether.
- "All pilots set course for the Omega-41 jump hole. We'll meet back at Cape Verde. Ares out."

***

The shape of the beat up bomber blended in nicely with the debris and asteroids in the battlefields of Omega-5. Having lost his pursuit somewhere in the previous system, the Coalition pilot now made his way across Hessian space, slowly but steadily, knowing that his ships' engine couldn't sustain cruise any longer. It wouldn't be long until the ship would be surrounded by Hessian patrols trying to identify it as friend or foe. A hard Rheinland accented voice soon sounded in his helmet.
- "You are tresspassing in Hessian space, freelancer. Leave now."
- "I can't do that. My ship is damaged, and I need assistance."
- "That's no concern of ours."
- "I'm barely keeping it together. I couldn't cruise away if I wanted to."
- "Why should that concern us?"
- "Well, for starters, I have some interesting information about your "allies" and some of their new bedfellows."
The immediate Hessian response was a pause in communications. After a short while, the patrol responded with a simple:
- "Join in formation."

Within minutes they approached a condensed area of larger rocks, and manuevering became even more difficult. More and more patrols could be seen skimming dangerously close to the ever present asteroids, as they approached a larger rock than most others here.
- "Don't bother trying anything stupid." - the Rheinland pilot advised his escortee in public comms. He on the other hand responded with a chuckle:
- "Trust me, gringo, if I wanted to attack this station, I wouldn't have come alone with my ship lacking even a shield, leaking oxygen and fuel everywhere!"
He was responded to by the voice of the docking supervisor.
- "This is Ronneburg to Coalition ship. Approach dock two. A team of engineers will be ready to recieve you."