A Nest Of Vipers

[Venture]

Prologue


The bar stank, with the smell of sour wine and liberty ale.

He lifted the plastic cup to his face and took a sniff, the wine had the smell of cinnamon and cloves, the cup hot in his hands. He had tried hot spiced wine for the first time on New Berlin, and he had quickly taken a liking to it even since. He took a sip, a rather large one, and he felt the hot wine like a snake wriggling down to his stomach, it seemed to help a lot in keeping the cold away. The bartender had told him the heating system had completely broken down and mechanics were on it, yet hours had passed and the loud rumbling sound of the heater starting never came. He was grateful for the wine, it seemed to keep him from freezing to death.

The bar on Ames Research Station was a congested place every time Daniel happened to stop by, yet right now it was almost empty. The small bulb hanging overheard gave enough light for seeing, but it didn't seem to stop the darkness. He could barely make out the Bartender's face, he was a small gaunt man, with a clean shaved face and a mop of jet black hair, or was it dark brown, it was impossible to say so in the dark.

Daniel was wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans, pretty casual clothes and enough to blend in, he would've bought his overcoat to the bar too if he had known how damned cold it was. He was on a return journey to Manhattan, to debrief on the disastrous New Berlin mission and to report on the lives lost, which was everyone except for him and the informant. It had gone well enough in the beginning, but when the detonation failed and the authorities were alerted, it resulted in a massive shootout and a car chase, but in the end he had gotten away, the informant got out as well, but they took different routes and the informant ran into a police blockade. Daniel now felt pity for the guy, and reckoned that he was as good as dead.

The wine was strong, and it was getting to his head now, he felt less anxious and worried about the extraction request he had sent to HQ when he was flying through the Sigmas, no reply had came, and the comms were all dead silent. He thought he was in a electromagnetic cloud within the gas fields, which was messing with his comms. But he had send another extraction request in Shikoku, and again the comms were dead. He had feared for the worst, until he met 3 LSF agents outside Ames who simply told him the transponders were changed. "It's classified." was all they said when he had asked why, before taking the trade lane and not answering back again.

Suddenly he realized his cup was empty, "Another fill, please." He said in cold courtesy, "This is quite a miserable day."

"It is, the heating never goes out for this long, but I've had worse days. Once a massive fight had erupted between some big Corsair thug and some Zoners, the blood took about 8 hours to clean, and that was only after 4 more guys had joined in the cleaning ordeal." He said, filling his cup to the brim, then putting it back on the counter, he spoke in a Libertonian accent, something which everyone around here seemed to speak in nowadays, "Oh, and there were 14 dead bodies, 10 more of the 'Sairs than Zoners, the Zoners have become quite the vicious lot nowadays, being strong enough to rival every single faction in the Omicrons." He said, with a snigger, "The cat has become the lion, and the lions busy themselves fighting over a split sleeper ship some 700 years ago." He said, putting the bottle behind the counter. "I guarantee you, the Zoners will soon outmatch the 'Sairs and the Junkies both, no, not the Junkers, the Outcasts, the real junkies." He gave a grin, one of his teeth was replaced with a golden one.

"These 'Junkies' can't live without the drug that makes them 'Junkies'"

"Ye, they can't, that's what makes them different from actual normal human beings, they're a deformity, a blight upon Sirius, they smuggle this poison into our homelands, and for what? I bet this isn't about cash, it's about making more outcasts, so their master plan must be making every human into a outcast, I am willing to bet my life on it" He said, putting a hand on his chest.

Daniel stared at him, appalled, but he kept his cool, "That's a nice theory, I guess."

"It's the truth, why would a criminal organization try to grow so big as to-"

There was a loud bang from the door opening behind Daniel, he turned around and looked at the strangers, two guys, wearing dark blue and black colors, Their faces seemed unfamiliar to him, but the attire was unmistakably that of the Liberty Navy, one of them looked large and burly, the other slender, with burn marks on his shirt. As they moved into the light, the slender one had a gigantic scar on his left eye, angled towards the middle of his forehead and going down to where his neck starts. He was holding a piece of paper.

"We're looking for this man here, he is a criminal wanted for treason against the Liberty Navy" The burly man said, in a raspy voice, to the Bartender, squinting at his face. The paper was close enough for him to make out the face. It had the same familiar jawline, eyes, face, and hairstyle, the same face he saw almost everyday in a mirror.

He feigned being drunk, and made a wavy notion with his left hand, There is only one exit he reflected, But two ways to get out. Suddenly, the burly man grabbed his shoulder and pulled him up from his chair, they were face to face, two small brown eyes staring hard at his soul, the man's face had many tiny scars and a huge burly beard. There was the Navy's colonel badge on his shoulder, he swung his left hand at Daniel and gave him a hard punch to the face.

"He's the one we want" He heard a distant raspy voice say, Daniel had went down with a huge thud, almost hitting a table close to his barstool. The world was spinning around him as he lifted himself up on his arms, his lips were bloody and there was a drop of blood on the greyish-black concrete floor. He heard clinking sounds behind him. A ball had fallen out of one of his sleeves, I knew I had to be ready, he thought, and grabbed the ball.

"I can't see a bloody thing in this light!" He heard the raspy voice say, "Is this a bar or a goddamn tavern? What year is it? 823 AS?" He heard, he could still hear the clinking voice, he turned his face to the right and saw the slender man cocking what looked like a tranquilizer gun, the world was still spinning around him,One ball, is all it's gonna take, one ball, to his ugly face, he thought, and suddenly, a strong arm grabbed his right shoulder and he felt the cold metal of the handcuffs pressing down. Before the burly man could reach his left arm, he spun.

He spun to the right going for a savage blow to his face with the ball in his palm, the man saw it coming and lifted a hand to his face, Daniel swung it anyway. His palm crashed with his, but it didn't matter.

There was a pop sound, and suddenly there was smoke everywhere, the ball had blown on the man's palm. Daniel quickly ducked, closing his eyes and hearing the swoosh of a tranq bullet as it passed mere inches away from his face. He lunged under the table and proceeded to pull it downward, one of the table legs went away. "DAMN YOU" He heard the burly man say, he was also coughing and flailing his arms in front of him, making grabbing motions, Daniel took out another ball and peeked up only for a second, throwing the ball behind the table.

The smoke seemed to cover the entire bar, but he knew it was only on one side, he heard bar patrons shouting and screaming and what sounded like running noises. The slender man had stopped firing the tranquilizer gun. Oh he isn't gonna like this, he produced another ball from his sleeve and threw it in the general direction of the slender man, he heard the 'pop' of the ball.

The loud CRACK was the most satisfying thing he had heard that day as he vaulted over the table and rushed the guy and swung the table leg right at his face, That ought to give him a bigger scar, the next thing Daniel heard was the slightest hint of a grunt and a thud as the slender guy fell incapacitated to the floor. He then bolted for the door, the bar must've emptied because he didn't bump into anyone.

The sudden warmth made Daniel feel good as he ran down the length of the corridor. He had to get back to his ship, but what if there were more soldiers there? He took a left, then a right, went running down another corridor, before turning towards a gigantic blast door with the words, "BAY 24" above it. The door was open so he ran through it, out into the bay. He looked across the length of it, it was a large bay, he could count about 6 ships in total standing there. There were workers and scum going about their business, but he saw no sign of Liberty Navy troops.

Is this a trap? He thought, suddenly a realization came to him and a smile crept up his face, he had a Guardian when he started out on his mission, but not anymore. The official records say I had a Guardian, they would expect me to continue flying it, and it would be docked in the bay reserved for liberty government officials. He looked around him, visibly relieved and happy.

He proceeded to run down to where his ship was docked, there was a electromagnetic crane-like hinge connected to the front, two more on the wings. His ship was a Raven's Talon he stole from a Mercenary in Hamburg, he was too dead to miss it anyway. The mercenary had been shot in another shootout on Planet Hamburg, and he didn't appear to have a family, so Daniel stole it.

Suddenly he heard numerous footsteps ringing in the bay, the footsteps were quick and faint, They can try to catch me now. But they won't succeed. He thought, the footsteps were growing louder now and he could hear shouting.

Quickly, Daniel ran down the catwalks hovering 7 meters above to the starboard side of his ship, the metal stairs rang as he ran down them and quickly climbed on top of his ship, before hitting the button. The cockpit glass opened up, the footsteps were really loud now. The glass opened all the way, and as Daniel was about to step into his ship's cockpit he heard a shout.

"FREEZE! You're under arrest by the command of the Liberty government, you're accused of committing treason and performing unlawful activities, you're also accused of whistleblowing and protecting a enemy of the state!" He heard the voice boom, "Quite a healthy list you got there, sir." He shouted back, "Too bad you'll need to find another scapegoat for those crimes." The thought made him snigger as he leaped into the cockpit, he heard bullets and blaster bolts whizzing mere inches away from his head and he could hear some of them burying into the ship's hull. He quickly closed the cockpit and started the engine. He hit the 'electromagnetic disengage' button to wrench free of the hinges, but instead he heard the dreaded words.

"Access denied." The computer's voice said, "Access denied", "Access denied" he kept hitting the button but it was no use. But then a thought came to his mind. He activated his shields, and then proceeded to activate weapons. "GET DOWN!" He heard faintly, through the cockpit, as he swung the ship around and opened fire in the general direction of the soldiers, he wasn't able to hit anything, suddenly he heard a 'bang' sound behind him and he saw the reflection of a guy who had climbed on top his ship. Damn him, oh oh oh DAMN HIM, he's the one that disabled the ship's access to the electromagnetic hinges as well! He thought, trying to think what he can do.

He then saw the weapons display, and he saw what could get him out of here. The nuclear mine, that ought to kill all of them and blow me a nice exit He thought, he cycled through the guns, 'scrolling' down to the nuclear mine. Daniel closed his eyes, and prayed.

He pressed the button 2 times, he heard the 'clank' sound of a mine popping out, and then suddenly it was chaos, the world was falling apart around him, he saw a blinding flash of light in his face even though the mine detonated under him, the ship seemed to be stuck by a earthquake, he felt his ship getting pulled behind him. His ship seemed to spin around wildly, he thought it was the end of him, until he regained his sight.

It was a horrifying sight, for the shareholders, but it was the best thing Daniel had ever seen. The bay was completely destroyed, he could see a small part of the catwalk still clinging to what remained of the bay, the blast door was gone, half of the bay was gone, and so were the ships and the soldiers. There were the remnants of one Eagle, stuck to the other end of the bay, only the left (port) wing and half a engine hanging by a 'thread' remained. it was still connected to a electromagnetic hinge which seemed to be completely fine. Other then that, there was nothing there anymore. Daniel could see orange particles glowing around him and he could see hundreds of them inside what was called 'Bay 24'.

I hope I didn't kill the workers as well He thought, he peered through his cockpit, and didn't spot any of the men and women in worker attires, that made him happy, there were no scum floating around as well, only Navy soldiers, or what remained of them. His shields were down to 5 percent, One more nuke and this would've been his graveyard as well. He reflected as he looked upon what remained of Bay 24.

The electromagnetic hinges stuck to his ship were vaporized, except for one charred structural part that still clung to his port wing. Some other ships had gathered around to look at what happened, two Zoners and one universal transport, he had already activated cruise mode and was well far away from their hailing and their cruise disruptors. He flew upwards and in the direction of the Denko cloud.

He finally came to a stop after he was well inside the cloud, his shields had recharged and were keeping the radiation off him, but his ship would still need decontamination. I could go through the jump gate, but I bet every patrol between Ames and Manhattan is looking for me now. He looked into the nav map, trying to make out the best route to Ellesmere. Knowing me as LSF, they will likely patrol jump holes as well. So the best route would be...the safest one. He thought, smiling, he knew where to go now. He knew how to evade the Navy, they were all the same in their tactics.

He whirled his ship around and activated cruise, heading for the Colorado jump hole.

---

A Nest of Vipers

[Venture]

Homecoming


The ship was a tiny thing, as small as a Starflier, or was it a Starflea? It was a used ship, old and cheap, but it had to do.

"The previous owner dropped it here only a week ago." Said the person who styled himself 'A ship dealer', just like every other 'ship dealer' Daniel came across on the poorest part of the city. Manhattan is renowned for housing the wealthy, but they still couldn't stop the poor from moving in, He thought. He had seen people sprawled on whatever sidewalks were there on the tiny streets, with flies and other things buzzing around them, their clothes torn and tattered, having splotches and food stains on them.

The ship dealers were much more cleaner, yet their 'showrooms'' walls were lined with fungi and rust, it felt to him that these 'showrooms'' were about to collapse onto him any moment now. This part of Manhattan was nothing but red and orange and smelly and crap-stained, the streets were too narrow for a car, the 'houses' too low for a good vantage point, Daniel did not feel good here.

"Does everything in it still work?" He asked, in a confirming tone, "It must be able to get me across any possible danger in Liberty, does the gyro system still work, can I dodge anything and everything coming at me?" He asked again. He would've been called a madman and a lunatic if he had told anyone else what he was going to do, but it was the only way, this or New Hampshire.

"Yes, yes, yes, YES, everything works. Only it needed a new coat of paint and some dust-cleaning and some de-rusting, but everything else is in good condition." He said, in a German accent. This man must've been on the wrong side of the border when the war started. He thought, suddenly feeling pity for the man.

"So, what's the price?"

"A modest price of 40,000 credits, just for you, the ship's worth 60,000 at least."

"Sounds...okayish." He replied, wondering if he was hiding something from him, about the ship. The Black Market of Manhattan doesn't offer refunds, but there were other ways to get your money back, usually involving blood. It was much less likely for Daniel in particular to get back his refund if a ship system failed. A cold corpse floating in space is incapable of coming back for his money.

He took out 4 10,000 chips from his overcoat and put them into his hands, he was not about to use a bank account, that would be a literal invitation to the Navy landing right in his path again. The first thing Daniel did after landing on Manhattan was finding out what was going on, apparently the navy and the LSF were having a civil war over what was once Battlegroup Harmony. He was debating what stupid reason would it be until he saw the new director's message broadcasted on every tv unit in Manhattan. The Liberty Goddamn Navy is infected? He thought, surprised and appalled, That is nearly impossible, how did they manage to pull it off?

Yet Daniel saw soldiers everywhere, they were guarding every checkpoint in existence that led to every district of the planet-wide city, he heard the Navy was marshalling a fleet and possibly took the Liberty government into custody. He also heard that the government was infected and was covering it's tracks by sending the two organizations to war in order to weaken the house for a full-scale nomad invasion. Whatever the story was, they all agreed on one thing: Liberty is now in a civil war, and we had to choose sides.

The Rheinlander held the chips close to his face, looking hard at the electronic barcode, before turning around and saying, "Everything's in good order then." He produced a set of electronic keys out of his sleeve and tossed it in the direction of Daniel who caught it above his head.

"You do know how to pilot that shi--"
"-Obviously, I know how to pilot everything." Which is technically not true, I can't command capital ships.

The ship was parked outside in a open, sandy field. Daniel walked towards it, wondering if this was the right thing to do. What if the LSF is truly infected and I am falling into a trap? He thought, then he reached a conclusion, They can try and infect me, but I will either escape again, or die fighting. He thought, stubbornly.

Daniel activated the cockpit and climbed into the ship, he could tell the seat has been replaced with a new one. The ship was a LF-337 Stargazer, the model seemed to be the 821 AS one. Seems good enough, just need to dodge the crap out of everything, and I should get there. He knew deep down that it wouldn't be that simple, but he was hoping it would be.

He hit the ignition button, and heard a low rumble sound behind him followed by every cockpit panel coming to life and lighting up before him. He snapped the cockpit glass down, and donned his piloting helmet. He then strapped the oxygen/breathing pipe onto his face, murmured a prayer and disengaged the electromagnets. The ship was in hover mode, he grabbed the collective pitch control lever on his left side, and gave a pull upwards.

The ship began ascending, Daniel kept holding the lever until the ship was well clear of all the buildings in the area. Then he flipped the 'flight mode' button so it would change into fixed-aircraft mode, he heard the wings fold backwards, a low rumbling sound followed, and then he was away.

The ship was faster than Daniel was expecting, and the controls were very smooth and well calibrated. Daniel flew in a straight line from his starting point, slowly climbing upwards, he must've been at least 30,000 feet above sea level before he changed the engine mode, the ship then shot straight upwards, towards the docking ring. The docking ring opened as soon as the controllers saw his ship.

The traffic in orbit of Manhattan was heavily congested, there were Navy warships moving to whatever position they were ordered to move to, there were dozens of patrols along the lanes, they were monitoring every single ship passing through, scanning their cargo for any dangerous materials and contraband. They didn't seem to ask you questions if you didn't have anything suspicious aboard.

I haven't seen this many military ships since the Liberty-Rheinland war, what the hell is going on? He thought, still being skeptical about risking Zone 21 and reaching LSF.

What if I am utterly stupid and heading right to my death?
Or what if LSF isn't infected at all?
If so, someone's had a misunderstanding. But what if the Navy is infected?
They had tried to take a Navy battlegroup into custody, why did that happen? Why were they so aggressive?
Why did LSF attempt to take control of the situation, isn't Alaska controlled by the Liberty government and not Liberty Security Force or Navy?

He reached Norfolk as he was pondering. Whatever the case, there's only one way to find out.

Daniel had passed hundreds, possibly thousands of times by the Norfolk Shipyard, yet it never seemed to change, the shipyard was build in 87 AS, over years of renovation and expansion. It was the second oldest shipyard in Sirius. Norfolk was responsible for the construction of most of Liberty's proud armada. The Battleship Missouri was the best example, still orbiting close to it's parent. That thing held the Rheinland advance during the Battle of New York, when the ships had managed to get through Texas and all the way to Norfolk, the Missouri stood like a unyielding boulder in their path, their military was finally routed after reinforcements arrived from other parts of the system.

Daniel stared at the Shipyard in awe, it was huge, it could hold 8 dreadnoughts in it's mooring docks at once, and 4 more in the construction yard. It also held one of the best kept secrets of Liberty, the unique triple-hulled armor-plating design, the manufacturing process was highly classified as well, yet Daniel knew he could probably find the method somewhere in the files on Kodiak or Juneau, and no one would care unless he tried to reveal it.

Daniel then looked behind the shipyard, and he saw the Pittsburgh debris field, to it's right he saw Zone 21, a minefield stretching hundreds of miles, the minefield held what was Liberty's best kept secret, once. He had seen the Lane Hacker message broadcasted as well, the battle clearly took place in Alaska, the footage showed a borderworlds fighter flying in a green-white nebula, it could've been passed off as the Edge Worlds Nebula, but Kodiak did not float in the Edge Worlds, it floated in Alaska.

He murmured another prayer, activated cruise and headed right towards the minefield, flying at a steep angle parallel to it, looking for the 'entrance' which used to be guarded by Melbourne station, but Melbourne was no more. It made things easier for him, he only had to dodge a fleet now instead of a station famous for being overkill. He then found the entrance, the gate was now in view and his ship floated in the middle, he was well in scanner range, there was a fleet floating near the gate.

"Okay, here goes nothing." He muttered, and activated cruise, flying fast towards the gate, I just need to be fast enough, and enter the gate at the right time, they can try following me but those warships will take forever to turn and then dock. He thought, one of the warships send a hail request, but he ignored it, the fleet moved to stop him.

Dozens of fighters flew to intercept his path, firing cruise disruptors, he whizzed through them, strafing and rolling and dodging, but he could not dodge the disruptors. All the disruptors hit him pretty much at the same time, the force was huge enough to stop him completely. Let's see how aggressive they are. He thought, and accelerated again, this time using his afterburner.

The fighters began going for his engine, they kept trying to land shots on him but he would not yield, and dodged almost everything, yet it still bought his shields down to 50 percent. "Almost...there." He said in a pained voice, the gate was really close now, he could tell it wasn't sealed yet, it was probably never going to be sealed.

As he reached the gate's mouth, he activated the jump sequence, but then the gate was taking too long to start up, too long. He thought, and then suddenly, his shields were down to 10 percent. "FASTER!" He screamed at the gate, still dodging the dozens of fighter craft going for him.

Then, the gate was active.

He was still dodging, and when he finally saw the bright light of the artificially created wormhole in the middle of the gate, he flew towards it, his shields were gone now and his hull was down to 75 percent, the ship had started to creak and rumble, but he managed to make it.

A blinding flash of light followed, and the ship lurched forward hard, Daniel could see the sides of the space-time continuum as his ship headed for Alaska, then in a heartbeat, it was over.

He had made it to the other side, visibly relived, the fighters did not follow him in, he was glad about it. Suddenly a patrol appeared out of nowhere and gave him a hail request, which he granted.

"This is Zeta One of the Liberty Security Force, state your identity." A voice said.
"This is Razor One of the Liberty Security Force...and I have come home."