Name: Alex Callaghan Age:Unknown Gender: Male Height: 6 foot 3 inches Weight:Unknown Occupation: Bounty Hunter Birthplace: Battleship Hood, Dublin system. Demeanor: Joker, calm, can be highly aggressive. Ship: Manta Family: Parents thought to be deceased, rumoured to have a sister.
Born into an IMG family, both his father and mother were long time IMG employees. Unlike with many other lone freelancers these days, Alex didn't lose his parents in some horrible accident. He lived and worked on the famous Battleship Hood for most of his younger years until he was 18, until he thought it was time to actually do something with his life. Two days after his 18th birthday, early in the morning, Alex was writing a letter in his room. The room was completely dark, safe for a single flickering light positioned above Alex' desk.
The letter was meant for his parents. Alex thought it was important to make it clear to them that he doesn't hate them, that he loves them and that his parents could have done nothing to make him change his mind. He had already packed his back, filled with his humble belongings, and things that were important to him, such as the family photo's. He grabbed his back, folded the letter neatly and placed it in the middle of his now empty desk. Alex casually walked into the docking bay, where he found an empty "Hawk" light fighter. He climbed into the cockpit, and asked for permission to undock. When the man on the other end of the comms asked him for his destination, Alex responded with the legendary words: "None of your business, now is it?". The man on the other end didn't bother discussing this, as he was probably just as tired as Alex was.
Alex was now in open space. He had been in space many times before, during his basic flight training, but he had never been outside the Dublin system. With the lights in the cockpit of his Hawk flickering to life, he engaged his cruise engines. Alex was never to be seen by the Hood again.
7 years later...
"I CAN'T BREATHE!" *static*. It was the sound people made when their ships fell apart, and the life support systems went offline permanently. Soon after Alex left the Dublin system, he met some shady people and he was quickly employed as a hitman, or freelancer bounty hunter, so to speak. This was primarily because of his young age, so his targets rarely expected someone like him to be a threat. The most important reason he was so popular by many of the unlawful factions though, was because he had no morals, he never felt guilty. "Trust me, the kid has no conscience! He is up for the job!" Is something many of his employers told their friends. Alex was known for not showing any emotion when he finished someone off. It seemed from the outside, that he completely didn't care what he was doing. Whether he had to finish off children, or elderly, it didn't matter to him. It was around this time that Alex started making quite a bit of money, and after flying an Eagle for a few years, he came across a distant Zoner system. Upon docking with the Freeport, he saw the ultimate ship for him. Beautiful, elegant, aggressive looking, light, and swift. There he saw his new love, a ship dubbed by the Zoners as the "Virage". He didn't have to think about it, he just bought the ship, and left his old Eagle stationed at the Freeport.
When he flew back to the jumphole he used to enter the system, he stumbled upon two Sabres floating in space. Alex miraculously saw one of the escape pods floating near the ships. He tractored it in, and went into his cargobay. There, a hispanic looking man exitted the pod, and ran to Alex. Alex, feeling threatened, grabbed his Daumann 'Red blitz' pulse pistol and pointed it at the man. The man stopped, and started talking in Spanish, crying, and using a lot of arm movements to get his point across. As soon as the man noticed that Alex didn't understand what he was saying, he switched to english, and told Alex that he is actually an Outcast, and that he will have to take Alex to his home on Planet Malta to have him meet his family. It's a honor code, the Outcast told him. Alex didn't really know what to say, and agreed. The hispanic man sit next to him in his cockpit, and gave him the coordinates to all kinds of secret jumpholes. After about a week of flying, they ended up in the green system, known as Omicron Alpha. Alex landed the ship on Malta, and was quickly swarmed by Outcast men, wielding rifles yelling in Spanish and waving their hands. Alex' passenger, exitted the ship, and shouted to the group of men surrounding the ship. Suddenly, all men lowered their rifles, and Juan, the man who Alex saved, told Alex to come out of the ship and meet his friends and family. Alex was given a whole house to himself. Alex never asked any questions on where Juan's family got the money, since it was none of his business. Juan told everyone about Alex' adventures and how he saved him, and that he owed his life to him. After a while, Alex got a job as a flight instructor at one of the many training centres of the Outcasts. He trained young men how to dogfight. Alex was regarded as one of the best pilots living among the Outcasts, and he was greatly respected.
10 years later...
Alex had lived on Malta, working as an instructor, for 10 years now. He was getting bored, even though the Outcasts were like family to him, he announced that he had to leave, and work for himself. He told the Don of one of the most powerful families at the time, that he would work as a mercenary, but he would still help the Outcasts whenever they needed him. The Don had his men work on Alex' Virage, modifying it, upgrading it, and putting their strongest weaponry on it. The Don handed Alex his ship, this time even stronger than it was when he first bought it from the Zoners. As Alex was entering his cockpit, the Don ran to him, and handed him 700.000 Sirius Standard Credits, as a parting gift. After waving everyone good bye, Alex left, into the void, back where he once was. Except this time, with a very powerful ally he could call upon - The Outcasts.
It was only a few months after his departure from Malta, when he was back working as a hitman for many of the unlawful factions. This was all going well, Alex using his superior piloting skill and superior equipment to fight versus sometimes as many as five opponents at once. After chasing down the final GMG pilot into a nebula, he again, stumbled upon a jumphole. He had never seen this jumphole before, but seeing as Alex was known to be very impulsive, he just entered the jumphole. Alex had heard about alien beings called the Nomads, but he had never seen them, until that day, ofcourse. Upon entering the dark blue system, he was greeted by a few blue ships, who hailed him. Except, they didn't use normal voice comms to hail his ship, they were talking in his head. **...Human...Curious...Why...Fear...**
Alex was shocked, and politely asked them who they were. The void beings were surprised by this, as they were used to most humans either running in fear, or yelling warcriess and opening fire. **...Truthful tone...lack of...arrogance...curious**. The beings flew away from Alex, but not before leaving him a message. **...Come...name...Alex...**. Alex didn't really know what else he could do, so he followed the shiny blue beings, deep into a nebula. The beings lead Alex to their leader, or boss, or something atleast. Upon entering the nebula, the three beings and Alex came upon a gigantic ship, or thing, or being. It was just as shiny as the three little ones Alex met, except it was huge. The ship, or being, or thing hailed him. **...Harbinger...Human...Truthful tone...**. Alex tried to talk back to it, asking him lots and lots of questions, mostly why they didn't attack him. The massive being was silent for some time, until it hailed Alex again. **...Approving tone...Sing...own...song...**. The being explained that their name is Slomon K'Hara, and that it was surprised that Alex was so calm and treated them with respect. **...Human...not...alone...**. **...Arthur...Dgahr...find...**. *...Truthful tone...**. Alex could make out a human sounding name. "Arthur Dgahr?" Alex exclaimed. **...Approving tone...** the being said.
Alex promised to seek out the one who bears that name, and that he will try to spread the word about the K'Hara.
The beings escorted Alex back to the jumphole, and Alex was now on his way to find the one named Arthur Dgahr.
Okay, so today I finally found Arthur Dgahr, in Omicron Delta. I asked him many questions, but he was very vague and didn't answer any of the questions outright. He brought me to a group of K'Hara, we explored the system a bit and the K'Hara asked me what I was looking for in life. After flying around a bit, we got spotted by some Order.
We retreated and watched them, they were reluctant to follow, as we had Battleships and Gunboats waiting. After watching them for a while, they gathered a big force and felt confident enough to attack us. Us being, me and a group of K'Hara. Arthur dissapeared before this happened, I never had the chance to actually ask him what kind of plans he had for me. I explained to the K'Hara, that there is no way for me to return to humanity. Everyone will know I'm a 'traitor'. I don't see myself as a traitor, I see myself as open-minded, and emotional. We fought long battles against the Order, we killed them all - I felt no remorse. A short while after that, a group of Bounty Hunters thought they were up for the challenge. We killed them all - I felt no remorse. The K'Hara barely spoke to me all day, but now they thanked me for the help and offered me nanobots, and shield batteries.
After explaining numerous times I had no way to return home, they left, and entered their homesystem without saying a word.
I am unsure what to do next. I should find Arthur.
*static* Hi *shriek* it's me again, Alex. Uhh...just a short update to my log, I met with the Keepers right next to their home base...or thing, whatever it is, it's really *#!&!&$#&*!* big and theres a big shield around it. I told them about my dilemma, and my problems and eh..well, let's just say they were showing me a path which I should take. Yes eh, they showed me a..hm..a picture. They showed me a picture of some system, it looked really beautiful and calm. They said something about a shrine calling me or something. This was the first time I had to resort to Cardamine again. My poor brain just couldn't make anything of their words without it...
They even called out their leader figure, the Harbinger, this time. He speaks in a more clear tone than the others. Harbinger said many like me walked the same path before, and found truth. They were talking about ascension and seals that will be broken if I complete their path. The path seems to be a..eh..a test of some sort. I don't care what I have to do...eh..I feel warm, and safe, when I am with them. Yes, I think I want to be with them. I don't know how though, I was going to ask Arthur all about it, but he dissapeared before I could do that...
It seems I have to do this on my own. I have a theory on where the system they showed me, might be. Right now I am flying through Omicron Delta after having stolen supplies from..*noise* Freeport 11.
*breathing noise* It seems some Zoners are chasing me..eh, whatever. I doubt they are strong enou- *thumping noises* They are penetrating my shield already?!
I am ending the log, good bye, I will report in when I am safe, and when I have reached my destination...*static*
*distant shouting* *buttons being pressed* *weapons being fired*
I said terminate program, stupid computer! *shriek*
Alex sits in the cabin of his fighter. It's a small ship, and a small workplace. He sits in an awkward position, as he's a tall man, and his desk has barely any legroom. The inside of the ship is dark, safe for a blue glow coming from a screen in front of Alex. He is typing at a very fast pace.
Dear Helen,
I'm not sure if you still remember me, but I think about you, mom, and dad everyd-
"Jesus!" Alex exclaims. He is sweating across his forehead.
Dear Helen,
I'm not sure if you still remember me, but I really have to talk to somebody I can trust. This is your brother. I know I have a lot to explain, and I don't even know if you want to talk to me. How are mom and dad? And how are you? I hope everyone is okay.
I know it's been about twenty years since I have last seen you. I miss you Helen, I miss mom and dad too. I'm writing to you from a distant system, far away from Dublin. This might come as a shock to you, but as soon as I left, I started hanging around the wrong people. I worked as a contract killer, Helen. That's right. I'm not proud of it either. A lot of things happened and I ended up befriending an Outcast. You know Corsairs, well, Outcasts are pretty much the same kind of people as far as I understand. He took me to his home. A planet called Malta, far away from here. I worked there, for the Outcasts, for about ten years. I'd rather not go into it. All I'll say is that it was honest work and I was respected for what I did. I had a structured life, surrounded by friends and good people. After ten years, I left them on friendly terms to seek adventure. At least, that's what I told them. They were sad, but respected my decision and I was personally escorted out of their systems by a squadron of their most legendary aces, many of whom were already retired at the time. All this happened about three years ago.
Since then, things have been going downhill for me. I felt back into my old ways, except worse this time. I started killing for fun, Helen. I don't know why I did it. I started fights with traders, policemen, and pirates alike, just to have an excuse to end their lives. It was a rush. Fighting for your life, and hearing innocent people make their final sounds over private comms. I met an alien species too. Called the Slomon K'Hara. You wouldn't know what they are, and it's too troublesome to explain. I tried to be with them, as a means to forget my past and feel good about myself. They were friendly and told me to go some place called the Shrine. I tried searching for it, but never found it. I became depressed, Helen.
Alex stares at the text he just typed.
I came across some ships of my old friends, the Outcasts, and I killed them. That was the first time, since leaving Hood, that I cried. I cried like a child, and I was on the verge to end it all. All this happened two days ago, Helen.
Alex looks at his lap, closing his eyes for a few seconds. He takes a sip of his drink and continues typing.
I landed on Canterbury Station today, and upon entering the bar, I saw I was a wanted man. An anonymous person put 800.000 credits out for someone to kill me. I'm not scared, Helen. I don't care about my life anymore. I get increasingly frustrated with normal people, who are seemingly happy. Fools. I wish I could kill them. They don't deserve to be happy. Helen, let me ask you a question, why do some people choose to be good? I never understood this. I want to be free, fight for something meaningful, learn about myself and be enlightened. I haven't learned anything in twenty years. Twenty years of meaningless work and killing.
Alex slams his fist hard on his desk. The looks of a troubled man.
The only thing I have left is my ship, my hands, and my wit. I am the best pilot I have ever seen. How come nobody has ever managed to kill me? I'm starting to think some sort of demonic power is driving me. But that would be crazy. I am angry, Helen. Where do I go? Nobody accepts me for what I am. Even pirate groups think I'm a psychopath. I kill them too, Helen, they are just as bad as the corporations. Pirates and corporations all want to be rich. The irony. Greed drives everyone. If only they just died.
I hope I don't scare you Helen, I would never hurt you, or mom, or dad. I think I love you, but I haven't seen you for so long, I don't remember what love feels like.
My sweet Helen, I don't know what to do. I've come to you for advice. I feel lost.
Your little brother,
Alex
Alex stares into space, thinking about whether to send this message to Battleship Hood or not. What if Helen doesn't live there anymore? Some quick tapping on the keyboard makes the wall of text disappear.
<Message sent successfully!>
Alex stands up and walks to his bunk-bed. He takes out a small knife and carves a set of lines into his arm. [color=#CC0000]<strike>HELEN</strike>
If only the Zoners knew he murdered their friends in Theta, then they wouldn't let him just land on their Freeport.
"Freelancer 011 requesting permission to dock with Freeport 1"
"This is Freeport 1 flight control, Freelancer 011, you are cleared to land."
Alex flew his ship into the hangar and landed. He took his bag, which he filled with red, and black paint, and rolls of thin plastic. He got out of his craft and after a brief moment of staring at his ship, he got to work. The Virage was going to be repainted. And so he did, he painted it black, with smears of red and dubbed it the 'Atrocity'. He painted the number 22 on its hull, as a lucky charm.
Feeling good about himself, Alex left the hangar and went up to the bar. Upon seeing a Zoner engineer walk to the restroom, he decided to follow him. While both Alex and the engineer stood next to each other in the stall, some meaningless chitchat ensued.
"So hey, do you guys get access to all the storaged parts and weapons?" Alex asked. "Well yeah, why?" The Zoner mumbled.
With a swift motion Alex took out a knife and stabbed the poor man in the neck while gauging out his eyes in the process. He wrapped the head and neck in plastic, as to avoid copious amounts of blood spilling onto the clean white tiles. When Alex emerged from the restroom, he was wearing a Zoner uniform and greeted his 'fellow' Zoners, quickly making his way to the storage room.
"Look at all that ammo..." Alex mumbled quietly as he walked into the storage room.
He had learned that an easy way to enter a restricted area without having to guess a password, was to hold something heavy like a case of books and wait at the door, until someone else came out, who would instinctively hold the door open for you. This worked even better if you were seemingly a part of the same people as them.
Not a second was wasted as Alex grabbed a cart and started loading it with nanobots, shield batteries, countermeasures and all sorts of equipment he needed. After a short while, a Zoner entered the room and asked him who he was, as he had never seen Alex before.
"Oh, I'm new here, I flew over from Freeport 10. My name's..."
Alex swiftly looked at his name tag.
"...Noolan Murphy."
"So how come your name tag says Logan Murphy eh?" The Zoner commented.
Alex started running towards the man, all the while taking his knife from its sheath. He stabbed him twice in the stomach. The man fell down staring into Alex' eyes. Plastic wrap was again wrapped around the area of the wound and Alex got back to loading equipment onto the cart, this time at an even faster pace.
He walked back to the hangar to load the cart into his ship. In the hangar however, he was greeted by 5 Zoners. Each of them holding a rifle.
"Aha, so they found the body in the bathroom. This is going to get interesting. If only you could see me now Helen." Alex thought, while trying to look for gaps in the Zoner presence so he could make a run for it.
"Stun him! Quick!" One of the men shouted.
Several shots were fired, but Alex took out his sidearm. A Daumann 'Red blitz' pulse pistol and shot three of the men in the chest.
"Only two left." Alex mumbled while hiding behind some crates.
Alex jumped from behind the crates and shot a barrage of pulses in the general direction of the two Zoners. For some reason, both of them got hit, but not fatally. Alex walked over to the sobbing men, who now started begging for their lives as Alex approached them.
"Y-you! Aren't you the son of Miles Callaghan?! A-alex! Alex isn't it?!" One of the men shouted as he saw Alex' face.
"What the hell do you know about my family?" Alex asked him, while kneeling next to the man and holding his gun to his temple.
"They're dead idiot! They hung themselves after you left the Hood!" The man exclaimed.
"Who are you?" Alex calmly asked.
"I was the last person you talked to when you left. You asked me for permission to undock."
"So tell me, what about my sister? Was she ever found?" Alex asked.
"N-no." The man muttered as he began losing blood. The man started sighing and his eyes went blank.
Alex closed the man's eyes and left the other Zoner to die.
The cart with ammunition was quickly loaded into the back of the Virage and Alex took off the Zoner uniform, draping it on top of the two bodies. All the while silently laughing.
He climbed into the cockpit, asked for permission to undock, and flew off.
"Set coordinates to New London." Alex spoke to his console.
A few lights flickered to life and the ship accelerated hard.
