[font=Trebuchet Ms]Out in Sirius one will find many men and women whom would call themselves 'Pirates'.
[color=#CC99CC]Out in Siririus one will as well find many Pirates whom would call themselves 'good' at their job. And out there, in Sirius, one will also find many of said Pirates' corpses rotting away in their long-wrecked ships or charred and burnt escape pods.
Burnt flesh, torn metal, crushed dreams of wealth and glory mixed with endless amounts of blood, shed by the so-called bringers of justice like the Bretonian Armed Forces, the Kusari Naval Forces, the Liberty Navy and the Rheinland Military.
Not to mention the Bounty Hunters Guild and its Core, the Megacorporations themselves and the vast hordes of Freelancers and Mercenaries roaming Sirius, adventurers looking for fame and fortune in their own, mostly treacherous ways, men and women who place the Sirius Credit above all else there is out there in this already hostile universe.
And the Nomads, an alien species so vile, manipulative and destructive in their approach to humanity as a whole that for the average man who is to survive an encounter with such a creature the only things remaining in life are nightmares and fear, combined with a scarred mind.
Then there are the Phantoms, secretive, dark, cold and completely ruthless, with their motives forever unknown, appearing out of nowhere to inspire fear in the hearts of the men and women who roam Sirius, no matter their profession.
One could say that a space-faring man's life in Sirius can easily turn into hell from one moment to the other.
And it is said that a Pirate's life is hard in the first place. Especially in the war-torn reaches of Sirius. Like Liberty, at war with Rheinland, unleashing the entire capability of its war machinery at the Rheinlanders - it isn't a place one wants to be once the guns thunder and the barrels begin to glow.
No, it really isn't a place one wants to be, especially when one is bound to face extermination coming from both sides of this conflict.
But what places are there a Pirate can go?
The border worlds surrounding Liberty? Controlled by the local Pirate 'authorities' like the Lane Hackers, or the Xenos. Or even the Hellfire Legion.
The core systems of Liberty? Secured by the raw might of the Liberty Navy, the ever-vigilant eyes by the unfortunately not-so-corrupt Liberty Police and the elusive Liberty Security Force with its secretive ways, all growing bolder with every single day.
And where does a Libertonian Pirate, one who wishes not to tie himself to the Outcasts, the Rogues or the Hackers, where does a Pirate who wishes to remain free and unbound, one who wishes to just make a living so he can peacefully reside and live an at least half-ways comfortable life in some quiet corner of space go?
Well, usually he goes either to Sugarland, or straight to Hell.
Suffice to say that it's not really clear as to which is actually worse, since truly free men who land in either place don't really come back after.
But some. Not many, just some. Some stand up and face the overwhelming odds. They look at the crowd before them, thirsting for their blood, screaming death and murder, and they look closely, standing calm in the center of that chaotic storm of madness surrounding them in Liberty's reaches, and they say one word.
They sayno.
No, they will not bend to the will of those around them, no matter how kind their offers, how nice and soothing their words.
No, they will not stop, not pause, not rest until they have achieved their very own goals.
No, they will not fall and burn with the rest of Sirius in the inferno of war.
[font=Trebuchet Ms]They're not heroes. They're not saviors. And, most certainly, they're not good people.
Roaming around not just in Liberty but in the entirety of Sirius in search for wealth and a good time, they're pretty much mean bastards who just don't care about laws, conventions, rules, regulations, so-called authorities and... basically anyone, for the most part.
They won't hold your hand, won't care if you beg or cry, won't help you stand up after a long fall.
Not because they're heartless, they really aren't that bad, they're people, Outlaws, granted, but still people like you and I.
And they won't do the things mentioned above because, simply, it isn't their job. It's not in their interest.
They don't want to serve as some 'symbol of hope' for the lone Pirates and free men of Sirius, they don't want to be nice and friendly and help the local population of Liberty, or Bretonia, or where-the-hell-ever.
They don't really plan, they don't work their rear-ends off everyday for some distant goal, for things to be good 'in the long run', usually.
So what is it they do in particular?
[color=#CC99CC]Make friends? Real friends who don't shoot you in the back sooner or later are a rarity when you're on the wrong side of the law in Sirius, so that's not really what they do.
Neutrality and some mutual understanding are things that usually are good enough, and as long as they do their job and do it well, they can afford to be picky with their friends.
So 'diplomacy' isn't their thing either, unless if it's the shotgun kind of diplomacy.
That one is very entertaining most of the time, and they just love to entertain themselves and the people around. But let's move on to...
Helping people. Is that what they really do?
The answer is no. Helping people doesn't keep the ships flying, doesn't keep the guns shooting, and sure as hell doesn't keep the money flowing, so that ain't one of their priorities either.
Sure, if things are bad for the extortion business, meaning if some people mess with it enough to ruin it, they might show up, clean house and appear as heroes for a while, but in the end they'll kindly ask for a merchant's money all the same.
And if they see some people who are on the wrong end of the law get ruthlessly butchered by the authorities, they might just as well step in and lend a hand.
Afterall, loot sells good, and Junkers pay nice money for scrap metal.
But it's not as if they ever expected anyone to lend a hand in return.
So what's next?
Conquering some territory and building their own empire or something?
Definitely not. What good does it do to have a corner of space to yourself, some place in this hell called Sirius, a fixed position you've to watch over, a place you are tied to?
What good does it do, when all places in Sirius are all the same to you?
When all places in Sirius are 'free land'?
When you go wherever you please, whenever you please, to do whatever you please?
Does no good. Or rather, just doesn't make any difference.
Not to them.
Liberty?
Just another place in Sirius.
Yet another possible graveyard.
And just one more rotten cesspit.
One can understand that things like those don't really matter to them.
Not in the hostile reaches of Sirius, where every moment in which one lets his attention slip away could be the last one, where death comes in shapes too many to count, where the man that pours you a drink with a broad grin in one moment will drive a bullet through the back of your head as soon as you turn around for just a second.
Not in the free land without boundaries that is the space surrounding them on all sides, where conflict, victory and defeat are parts of the daily life.
Where alliances are forged and broken at a moment's notice, where the flow of battle can be altered entirely with just one shot of a cannon at the right time, where territory can change its owner repeatedly as one group gains some advantage, only to have their opposition come up with their own on the next day.
Yes, those things mentioned truly don't matter to them.
Not here, and not anywhere else.
Some people in Sirius say that you are born, you live, and you die.
Well, the men and women known as 'Liberty's Finest' think that you might as well have a good time doing it.
Fast and good money gained through extortion or the sale of loot, entertainment, raw destruction for the sake of it, or for the entertainment value it actually provides sometimes, some kidnapping once in a while, those are their interests.
Some of them want to be rich, to have a good time, to go out for coin and cleavage, to party hard, to make nice and fancy light shows, their 'goals' are as different as they are as individuals themselves.
A raid, some extortion, good money that buys the drinks, fuel for the flight, ammunition to use against all who stand in their way and lets them have a nice party afterwards, that's what will make most of them happy.
Some of them might have more ambitious or vastly different goals of their own, some might have hidden agendas, but those are their own and theirs alone, left to be told by them in their own stories.
Now that it is relatively clear what they want and what they don't want, one might wonder...
Where do they actually come from? Who are they, and how did they get together?
[font=Trebuchet Ms]Suffice to say that, as most stories that lead to glory, pride and bloodshed, it started with the death of someone.
This someone was a certain Grace Callahan, a Star Colonel of the Hellfire Legion. Devoted and most loyal to the Hellfire Legion's cause, Grace joined it at a young age and worked her way up until she became Star Colonel, commander of the Legion's Special Operations and Armed Reconnaissance Division.
Some fateful day in 817 A.S. Grace ventured into Zone-21, for reasons unknown to this date.
It's not known who or what she encountered there, but it is known that whatever it was left her drifting in an escape pod, badly wounded and sealed in automated cryostasis.
The Legion, under the orders of by then Lord Commander Aethelu, launched a recovery operation as they received the automated distress signal coming from Grace's pod.
The operation was a success.
But Grace died a few days later on Fort Leniex, having never woken up from her comatose state.
What few people know however is that she had a sister, Natalie.
And Natalie was devastated once the word of Grace's death came around.
One has to understand that one of the main reasons Grace joined the ranks of the Legion was her thirst for vengeance, her and Natalie's parents having been executed by Liberty Military firing squads for reasons unknown.
A thirst Natalie never shared, having separated herself from her family at a young age, it wasn't until her parents' death that she reunited with her sister, joining her in her endeavor to crush Liberty's Military and to purge Liberty from the corruption that, as Grace always believed, led to the death of her parents.
[color=#CC99CC]It is said that blood is thicker than water, but when everyone who has the same blood as you running through their veins is dead, there is nothing left to hold you in the same way.
And it didn't take long until Natalie realized that she didn't want to share Grace's fate. She didn't want to die for the Legion's cause. She didn't want to spend her days fighting a fight which, as she believed, she wouldn't see the end of in her lifetime.
She didn't want vengeance.
She wanted to be free.
And she wasn't the only one.
A Fleet Captain in the Legion, she herself commanded a Legion Gunship, the 'Blue Raven', and it was the men under her command, the ship's crew, who shared her views.
They had been loyal to Natalie and her sister, but with Grace's death, only Natalie was left.
Their hopes shattered, their dreams crushed, they knew not whom to follow but Natalie herself, and so, taking the Blue Raven and all the equipment and supplies that would fit aboard, they set off for a journey into unknown land, secretly.
Nobody followed them, why isn't exactly known, but rumors suggest that prior to their departure Natalie had been aboard the Incursus, Lord Commander Aethelu's personal command ship, and that behind closed doors they had a talk and he decided to let her go, that being the least he, shattered by Grace's death no less than Natalie, could have done.
Not for Natalie. Not for himself. But for the now-dead Grace.
So it came that Natalie and her men headed to Bretonia.
It took them a couple weeks, weeks spent grieving over Grace's death, weeks spent trying to find a purpose in a life now devoid of such a thing, until they reached Trafalgar Base.
They were all tired by then.
Tired of wandering around aimlessly, tired of the life aboard that cramped little Gunship.
Everyone wanted to start anew.
Start from square one. Live a new life. A good life. An easier life.
After a couple days on Trafalgar, they were given the opportunity. And that opportunity was called the 'Stellar Ranger'.
A former Enterprise-class Luxury Liner that had been recently found by some local Junkers and towed to base it was.
The ship's glory days long past and gone, it had been stripped of most of its luxurious installations and turned into a floating prison.
It had belonged to an unknown slaver and his crew, both of which died due to some event that involved the entire ship being decompressed, sending all its inhabitants out into the cold and dark blackness of space.
Empty, clean... one could say 'fresh', it arrived at Trafalgar on a fateful day where Natalie's men were close to breaking apart from all the dull and uneventful waiting.
She didn't pass up the opportunity. She just couldn't. The ship was there, it was there and she knew just what she could trade off for it. She knew it would be worth it.
And so she became the new owner of the Ranger. Her and her crew's new home, and as the future would show, not only theirs.
But they weren't enough. Not enough to crew the ship. To make it work. To go anywhere with it.
They didn't even know what to do with it in the first place.
It was old, in good shape but old, and they just needed more people to be able to do anything at all.
Luck was on their side, on the same day.
And it came in the shape of a man called Nicholai Kosygin, who set foot on Rochester and ran into Natalie as she was pouring down a glass of Vodka after the other in Trafalgar's bar.
Nicholai just plain loved the taste of ice-cold Vodka.
And Nicholai was flat-out broke.
A couple drinks later, he revealed that he was the current man in charge of a group of Coalition refugees. Ones that miraculously shared a goal like the one of Natalie and her men.
They had taken off from Coalition space to Nova Terra, more commonly known as the planet Gran Canaria, restocked on supplies there, and they had made it all the way into Dublin where their ship's reactor ceased working and they were left adrift for a fair while, having only auxiliary power and few supplies left, basically waiting to die.
A group of Junkers found them and decided to tow them to the safety of Trafalgar.
But that rescue came at the price of the ship itself.
In short, Nicholai had the men, Natalie had the ship.
And both had the same goal. To be really free and unbound.
It took a couple days, and both groups wouldn't really get accustomed to each other until much later, but the same goal and the fact that both had Military-like backgrounds helped a lot in growing mutual trust and understanding to a point that they could work together aboard the ship.
It took a while until everyone knew what they had to do and until a hierarchy had been established aboard the Stellar Ranger.
Natalie, owning it, was to be the Captain, and Nicholai, former Commanding Officer of most men and women aboard the ship, was to be the XO of it.
They took off, having had enough spare funds from the sale of the Blue Raven, which had been worth a giant fortune due to the abundance of high-quality equipment aboard it, and headed to no place other than Liberty.
What followed was a couple rather quiet weeks that ended with a business idea Natalie and Nicholai came up with it.
Both having been former rather high-ranking officers in their respective organizations, they still held true to at least some of the virtues that had been drilled into them over time.
The Stellar Ranger was intended to be used for slavery, but the crew would've been just as reluctant to partake in the slaving business as the Captain and her XO.
Instead, they did something else.
It's simple fact that sooner or later Pirates are forced to fight the local authorities, be it to make a run to whatever place they call home, be it to just avoid capture, or to plain and simple save their hide.
And some of them are quite successful at it.
Those usually end up catching some escape pods coming out of the ships they set on fire.
And in those, there are the escapees. Pilots of the Liberty Navy for example, or the Bounty Hunters Guild.
People whom no one aboard the Stellar Ranger had ever had good relations with.
Simply put, people the crew couldn't have cared less about.
Not men and women abducted and forced into slavery, but enemies, ones who wouldn't stop until they saw Natalie's and Nicholai's men and women captured or dead.
Using all the leftover money they had, they bought those captives off every Pirate they came across and locked them in the vast cells aboard the Stellar Ranger, and there were plenty.
Once they nearly ran out of money, they restocked on supplies, and began a long venture to a place far, far away from Liberty.
A place where people resided who would pay good money for all those captives begging, crying and screaming inside the Ranger's cells.
That place was Planet Malta, in the Omicron Alpha system.
And Natalie, thanks to the Legion having had good relations with the Outcasts by that time, knew just exactly how to get there.
The Outcasts, while suspicious at first, were pleased once they sent a boarding party aboard the Ranger to inspect its now mentally shattered cargo.
Needless to say that they welcomed them on Malta with open arms right after, the Maltese Navy and the Dons outbidding each other in order to get a hand on all the captives...
Officers of the Liberty Navy, the Liberty Police, Bounty Hunters, Corporate Employees, they wanted them all, and they wanted them really bad.
Bad enough for the men and women aboard the Ranger to make a fortune, with just one trip.
Enough to spend on plenty of the latest available equipment for the ship, enough to spend on new weapons, even a used and rather battered Tridente-class Gunship and half a dozen Series Z Border World Very Heavy Fighters, fresh out of the local shipyards.
And most importantly enough for ludicrous amounts of the most exquisite food and drinks Malta had to offer.
Life was beginning to look good, but as much as the Outcasts loved that unexpected and very special delivery, the presence of former Hellfire Legionnaires together with former Soldiers of the Resurgent Coalition wasn't something they really liked. They tolerated them thanks to their delivery, granted, but the tolerance was fading with every single day, so the men and women of the Ranger mostly stuck to their ship. Their home.
Until some day Natalie decided to head back to Liberty.
A trip that didn't start too well, and yet just in time, due to the Outcasts wanting her to take a full shipment of Cardamine back to the place she once called home.
She declined the offer, backed up by Nicholai and the entire crew.
They weren't drug traffickers, and they certainly weren't the Outcasts' lapdogs.
Not surprisingly, tolerance quickly turned into rage, and had they stayed any longer it's most likely that the ship would have been taken over and its crew been forced into slavery themselves.
And so they headed off, the scornful gaze of the Outcasts focused on their backs.
During the journey the bond between both groups aboard the ship strengthened.
It wasn't because of what they had gone through. Wasn't because of what nearly had happened to them on Malta. And it wasn't because of the new wealth or the food and drink they shared.
It was because of a ship.
Natalie had been a pilot at heart throughout her entire life. In the Legion, she had flown everything. Light, Heavy, Very Heavy Fighters, Bombers, and lastly she had commanded her own Gunship.
She wanted to do it again. Having found a business opportunity like this one, she wanted to make more money than she would if she remained the 'middle man'. Because money meant fuel, food, all kinds of fancy and shiny things and supplies, and it meant a happy crew.
But for that she needed to go out into battle again, and she had to do a damn fine job if she wanted to last out there in Liberty and make a profit.
For that, she needed a ship. And she had it. That Tridente-class Gunship was to become her ship of choice.
But it needed to be worked on, since it wasn't in good shape. Not in good shape at all.
So, with Nicholai's backing, she gave all the technicians and engineers, former Coalitioneers or Legionnaires alike, a job.
To turn that old and battered Tridente into a really menacing bird of prey.
And it would become just that during their journey back to Liberty.
A real bird of prey, a force of nature, a murderous beast with an appetite for unparalleled destruction.
The second Blue Raven.
The modifications done to that ship brought together the knowledge and expertise of the engineers from both sides, combined with the best equipment money bought them on their way back, and as they arrived in Liberty, countless hours of work and enormous amounts of sweat after, it was ready.
And what had started with just the engineers and technicians had spread throughout the entire crew.
Unity. And the Blue Raven was its symbol.
It goes without saying that it got put to good use afterwards, the Ranger's men no longer having to buy captives off the local Pirates, but Natalie bringing new ones in while the men were working and living aboard the Ranger, doing business with the locals and just investing their time into turning the Stellar Ranger itself from a slaver's ship into a place they could call home with pride.
All while Natalie, mostly being referred to as 'Blue' by now, thanks to her weakness for the color in all its variations and the distinctive blue shine of the Raven's armor plating along with the blue glow of its H-Fuel-boosted engines, earned herself a name in Liberty.
And she attracted the attention of many people. One being the by-then head of the Hellfire Legion, Tadao Mori, whom she struck a deal with, one that brought her back a very sentimental piece of gear. A Broadsword-class Bomber she used to share with Grace, the Blue Dove.
When one walks into the Stellar Ranger's bar, one will notice the very high ceiling of the room.
And when one looks up, he will see that very ship, the Blue Dove, hanging from the ceiling.
Sometimes Natalie will be sitting in it, the cockpit canopy wide open, enjoying some Vodka and a fine Maltese cigar while watching everyone below with a faint little smile.
Something that happens to this day.
But that wasn't it. Mori wasn't the only one. There was someone else. Someone who would turn out to be more important, and later on a valuable part of that group of people who lived aboard the Stellar Ranger.
He wasn't very special at first. Just a man who appeared to captain yet another Rogue Gunboat in Liberty space. But he was different. He meant business. And he did business. And, surprisingly, he was very good at doing business.
Jimmy Engvall. A former Vagrant Raider gone Pirate and, more importantly, a really mean bastard.
Natalie, from now on referred to as Blue, didn't take long to make friends with the man, and they quickly combined their own respective businesses into one.
Engvall was a Pirate at heart, and knowing how things went in Liberty, piracy in the open quickly got you the attention of the lawful forces.
And when those came, they were faced with a problem.
Well, two problems. One was the Blue Raven. The other was the Be Good At It, Engvall's personal and Vagrant Raider-modified Rogue Gunboat.
Not a combination a Navy Officer wants to encounter when on patrol. In fact, not a combination anyone wants to encounter. Both Blue and Engvall were good, really good at the fighting game, and it didn't take long for their reputation to skyrocket. Fighters, Bombers, Gunboats, Cruisers and Battlecruisers were torn to shreds by them day by day and they made ludicrous amounts of money off the merchants passing through Liberty.
And the captured crew members and pilots all ended up aboard the Stellar Ranger, now beginning to frequently wander into Outcast space, always delivering fresh captives to the Maltese Navy and the rich Dons on that one planet in the far reaches of the Omicrons, holding true to their ideals and never dropping low enough to traffic Cardamine for the Maltese. While they didn't earn their respect that way, the cash however still poured in, lots of it, and life for everyone was good, so good in fact that the Stellar Ranger, with the help of its crew, transformed into a ship that right now can support multiple Gunboats and plenty of Fighters, having its vast cargo bays filled with all the resources ever needed at all times and its interior, the crew's areas, being more luxurious than they even were when the ship still was an Enterprise-class Luxury Liner. Not to mention that Engvall, and the few men who crewed his Gunboat, were welcomed and integrated into the crowd with open arms, having proven themselves time and time again.
Be it against the law enforcement of Liberty, whom he dared to 'kindly ask' for 'munniez' over and over again together with Blue, no matter whether it was Fighter and Bomber pilots, Captains of Gunboats, Cruisers, Battlecruisers, Dreadnoughts and Assault Carriers even.
Or be it against the mysterious Phantoms, one of whom, going by the name of 'Black Rose', still owes them a load of Nomads and Nomad Brains to this date as a result of an encounter during which she tried to fight them. They let her travel on in her badly-damaged Cruiser afterwards, showing mercy and preferring to strike a deal instead of shedding blood.
And they actually have even proven themselves against the Nomads themselves, going into battle against those creatures, doing so with greatest pleasure.
And they did so not to protect the men and women of Sirius.
Not because Nomads are usually bad for business either.
Not for pure sport or just because they can too.
But simply because they are... delicious.
It might seem strange at first, but it kind of came as a result of Engvall's curiosity that the men and women aboard the Ranger discovered that Nomads, as manipulative their mind control and destructive their ways, can, if successfully 'captured' or shot down, be actually prepared in a multitude of ways second only to raw Synth Paste and be eaten without any harmful side-effects.
Not to mention that Nicholai, having had to prepare all kinds of food that wasn't really of the best quality during his time in the Coalition, proved to be an exceptional chef. 'Fried Squid on a stick', 'Squidspleen Sandwiches', 'Squidburgers', 'Squid in Winesauce', those are just a few of the various delicacies the Stellar Ranger's cuisine offers these days.
Whenever the ship is moored at a station these days some of the more daring locals don't hesitate to step aboard, kindly asking if they might get to taste those culinary delights per chance.
But that wasn't all in terms of fame that came to that old Liner and the men and women aboard it.
Word spread around and people started to follow Blue and Engvall, whom Blue simply called 'Jimbo' all the time by now. From all corners of Liberty, there were free men and women, unbound and sharing the same goals, coming to join them. Be it on just one raid, be it in hopes of becoming part of the crowd aboard the Ranger, whatever their reasons, they came. If they were courageous enough.
And courage they needed plenty of, because as good as things sometimes were and as plentiful enjoyment in the life of the men and women who called the Ranger home was, there always was an abundance of trouble and danger around just as well.
You just don't devastate the forces of Liberty's law enforcement day after day on top of extorting money from merchants, independent or otherwise, without repercussions. There were times when a simple raid that started with Blue's and Jimbo's Gunboat and Gunship combination was met with more than just 'heavy resistance'. In fact, one particular time their ships were met with a plethora of small craft and a few stray Gunboats, which wasn't anything outside the norm, but those forces got followed up by no less than two of the Liberty Navy's Assault Carriers and a Dreadnought.
But Jimbo and Blue weren't as alone as they thought. In a couple minutes an entire flock of assorted Pirate and Vagrant Raider Bombers showed up, lending a hand to 'Liberty's Finest' in that dire hour, and even a Hellfire Legion Battlewagon, the Pandion, arrived on the scene, guns blazing and shelling the Navy's ships along with the entire swarm, until those burst into flames, but not before sending the Pandion back to the dry-dock.
Still, it was just one of their many victories, just one reason as for why they got all that attention in the end.
The attention that made so many people come and want to be a part of their 'stunt'.
But only few were really cut out for it in the long run, since the daily hardships they faced and the overwhelming odds they would charge into fearlessly discouraged everyone but the most daring.
Or the most desperate. And in some cases the most... crazy.
But those who actually made it?
They might not be many in number. In fact, they are few.
But what they lack in numbers, they make up for in a multitude of ways.
Be it in ruthlessness, proficiency in combat, charms and wit, or whatever else.
Each and every single one of them shares the common goal, lives the life as the men and women around him or her.
And each of them adds something of his or her own to the entire crowd, something unique, a little bit of variety in a cold and grey universe.
One by one, they all showed up in one way or the other, they showed up and wanted to be part of this one 'stunt' and actually got to be it, knowing it might end any day, at any moment and in the blink of an eye, and over the course of time they all proved themselves in many ways, just as Jimmy Engvall did.
Meet the men and women who call themselves Liberty's Finest.
While far from being as much of a mean bastard as his cousin, the infamous Jason Moore, Alan has some rather unusual qualities that clearly made him stand out from the rest of the Lane Hackers with whom he spent his time before he encountered Blue.
[color=#CC99CC]But those can be summed up with five words: He is a ladies' man.
Not only is he a charming fellow, but he's also quite convincing with words.
Level-headed and with a rather laid-back personality, topped off with extremely good looks and a most soothing singing voice, he's usually seen wearing a tuxedo and walking around the more 'exquisite' establishments in Liberty, looking for his next 'catch'.
That one being wealthy middle-aged women who just can't get anyone into the bed as young and good-looking as Alan.
Needless to say they'd find themselves in a hotel room with a bad hangover and a much lighter Neural-Net account in the next morning, wondering just what the hell went on, while Alan would be snorting Synthetic Cocaine off hookers' rear-ends in the nearest bordello.
That aside he's quite a good pilot, however he suffers from some seriously wicked luck.
If there's a way to have your ship explode from right under your behind in space that is deemed outright impossible, chances are that Alan will be the one person of all the people in Sirius who will prove that wrong, usually in a very entertaining fashion to boot.
He's also a little crazy, not to say reckless, and likes to take his Bayonet out for a spin into the every single cluster of a dogfight he comes across, even if he's outnumbered ten to one. But that's okay because he's a most valuable member, lending his rather vast knowledge of the more 'elevated' circles of Liberty and its politics along with his own diplomatic skills to the group.
It goes without saying that he acquired most of his knowledge in countless bedrooms throughout Liberty.
Alan is known to fly the above-mentioned Bayonet Heavy Fighter, the 'Red Bayonaise', a Sabre and the (rusty and barely holding-together... also damn ugly) Lane Hacker Gunship 'Dogs or Gods', the latter which he uses as his own quarters, always inviting the ladies aboard for some 'political discussions'.
Tricky Dicky is special. Very special.
This might come as a surprise, since at first glance he's just your usual Pirate.
He likes fast ships, all kinds of cheap booze, easy money and even easier and scantily-clad women.
[color=#CC99CC]Having been a Pirate for as long as he can remember, he's got a fairly big amount of experience in the field.
What's rather unusual is that 'the field' means as good as everywhere in his case.
Bretonia? He's been there. Kusari? Yup, he's been there too. Liberty? Oh hell yeah, you bet. Rheinland? Naturally. The Omegas? Omicrons? Sigmas? Taus? Absolutely.
The man is a wandering Navigational Computer. If there's a tradelane where merchants pass by, he's been there. If there's the need to find a place to crash at for the night, chances are he'll know the nearest hotel. Or bordello, whichever is preferred.
And if there's an angry father or husband whose daughter or wife's encountered Dick, chances are they're going to be waiting at whichever spot Dicky takes you to just so they can rip his head off.
One might wonder just how the man managed to stay alive in a universe that is just even more hostile to him than it is to your average Pirate already...
Well the man got another very distinctive quality, and that would be his aim.
Be it in space or on the ground, he's got to be the best shot with a Gauss Pistol or a set of Fury Photon Blasters Sirius has ever seen, a skill that saved his hide on numerous occasions, and also one of the two reasons as to why Blue took him in that one fateful night when he sneaked onto the Ranger after being chased out of Rochester by a mob comprised of angry husbands.
The other being that having a living Navigational Computer comes in handy when you really want to go everywhere just for the hell of it, and that without ending up in a minefield, gravitational anomaly, staring down a huge network of weapon-platforms or just plain crashing into the atmosphere of some planet hidden in a nebula that marks the rear-end of Sirius.
Aside from that it should be noted that he's a pretty cool and relaxed fellow. He takes life easy and just wanders along the tradelanes, making some money from extortion here and there so he can keep that Sabre of his flying, the booze flowing and the ladies smiling... and the fathers and husbands angry, day after day.
He is also running some kind of friendly competition with Mark Grant, one that involves Hessian dancers of the more 'exotic' kind, money, and the way people mix him and Mark up with each other when encountering them.
Mark is a rather fitting addition to the group as he used to serve in the Hellfire Legion along with Blue and a part of the Ranger's crew, even though they share no history other than having served in the Hellfire Legion at the same time.
His defining characteristic wouldn't be his Military discipline, his near-constantly aggressive attitude or even his manly charms.
No, instead it would be his greed.
[color=#CC99CC]He used to be an Officer in the Liberty Navy, however at some point he got fed up with all that, as he'd put it, “MOTHERFRAKKING BULL**** IN THIS MOTHERFRAKKING NAVY!” - You could say that the extremely lousy pay combined with work conditions that were way beyond the usual level of 'hostile' at some point just were too much for him after a while.
Not being a man who would waste time and a good opportunity, he impersonated a Navy Admiral at the first chance he got, stole a top-secret Turbo Ice Cream Portioning Machine, and then he headed to the Hellfire Legion, in hopes of a more 'shiny' future with far less risks and way higher pay.
Of course, he did that after leaving a note on said Admiral's desk, one that simply had “YOU SUCK!” written on it in big, red letters.
Suffice to say he got it his better future, but only for a short while.
At some point he was fed up with the Hellfire Legion just the same, jumped into his Sabre's cockpit, ripped out the ID and IFF transponder and headed out to try his luck on his own.
This went particularly good, and he started making huge amounts of money with extortion, showing no remorse when 'doing business' and quickly dispatching everyone who didn't submit to his demands.
Except Blue, whom he caught one day as the Stellar Ranger was out for a stroll in California.
Amused and a little annoyed, Blue, not knowing that the man who had just demanded a ludicrous amount of money from her was a former Legionnaire, sent no man other than Dick out to get rid of him.
What ensued was a rather monumental duel in space, much to the liking of the Ranger's crew who were all busily watching as the two pilots struggled to defeat each other.
Surprised that the man did so well, she quickly took off in her own Fighter and disabled Mark's Sabre, only to tow it aboard the Ranger right away.
Mark, incredibly angry that his fight had been interrupted, jumped out of his Sabre's cockpit and ran headfirst at Blue, only stopping in the last moment as he noticed her old Legion flight suit.
A little confused and unsure about just what he should do he just stared at Blue in disbelief before she made him an offer.
An obvious one at that, since right now he's part of the group.
By the look of it one could say that he's actually happy, since he hasn't ever been heard complaining about miserable work-conditions or lousy pay ever since he stepped aboard the Ranger.
Instead he actually developed quite a business sense when it comes to extortion, something that went hand-in-hand with his greed getting him into trouble.
Luckily none he couldn't get out of so far.
Another thing worth a mention is that while Dick and Mark have become pals somewhat, they've also always been rivals since their first encounter, albeit on a more friendly basis.
They can be frequently found fighting each other in simulators or trying to surpass each other in the field of extortion and piracy.
Or just in numbers of Hessian exotic dancers they've seduced and ships they've turned into burning debris.
If one were to describe Sputnik - that's not his real name by the way - in one word, it would be... 'different'.
Being a crazy lunatic, he's a real oddity among the Pirate populace of Liberty.
According to some sources, he is the long-lost brother of the renown Coalition Revolutionary Army Bomber-Ace Zarevo Kaputski, which is hardly believable for people who encounter Sputnik for the first time. What's pretty damn certain however is that Sputnik fell on the head a couple times too many when he was a little kid, as evidenced by his wicked psyche, which over the years he spent wandering around Sirius and trying to fight for the Coalition had progressed further to a rather explosive climax.
In 817 A.S. Sputnik, still believing to fight for the Coalition and his brother, joined the Xeno movement as a Bomber pilot. His mental health and stability having deteriorated to the point where he mostly spent all the time he could with flying and delivering the 'Boom-Boom' to whoever showed up as a hostile on his ship's scanners, he once found himself in a situation he couldn't handle.
That was somewhere in New York's Badlands, facing a certain Gunship called the 'Blue Raven', an encounter during which Sputnik jokingly uttered the phrase 'Two Mil. or dye!' to Blue in his manly Coalition accent.
Blue, being in a cranky mood that day from actually having received a shipment of Plush Nomads instead of her beloved Midnight Blue hairdye, wasn't in a mood to screw around with a crazy Xeno, so she simply reduced Sputnik's Bomber to tiny little bits and towed in his escape pod.
She ran to the cargo bay right after, pulled Sputnik out of his pod, and proceeded to smack his head with one of the Plush Nomads she had been furiously punching throughout the day in her rage.
After several very long hours of excessively brutal and plushy smacking, Sputnik helplessly collapsed into a coma.
Realizing at that point that she had been a complete and utter bitch to the poor man, Blue decided to take him with her to the Stellar Ranger's sickbay where he would spend an entire month in his unresponsive state.
[color=#CC99CC]When he woke up he basically had lost the ability to speak and, as it would turn out later, a good portion of his memory.
He didn't remember the events that had brought him into the Ranger's sickbay, and as he gradually relearned the English language, it was uncovered that he had completely forgotten who he actually was and where he came from. However he had kept most of his knowledge and memories that weren't directly related to him, and he was gaining an understanding of his environment, the events and happenings and the people around him.
He managed to successfully regain the ability of speech by spending most of his time with reading holo-books, and telling stories out of those to the other people who frequented the sickbay.
While doing so he developed a penchant for poetry. One that later, as he was just spending all his time with writing poetry, reciting poetry, bugging people with poetry, mocking them with poetry and just straight pissing them off with poetry, would lead to him being kicked out of the sickbay, shoved into a Starflea, and sent running by no other than the Ranger's XO, Nicholai himself, who was just fed up with Sputnik's constant talking and rhyming.
It wasn't until a couple days later that Blue, this time furious about Nicholai's stupidity, would find Sputnik.
Sitting in a Sabre's cockpit in the middle of no place other than Liberty's capitol system, New York.
And the Sabre had huge and red-glowing lights mounted on it to attract everyone's attention.
Everyone being the wonderful Liberty Navy in all its mighty and fabulous glory.
The Liberty Navy whom Sputnik was mocking over the public channels.
With nothing else but his now-trademark... poetry.
Apparently he had learned just what poetry was good for, and in his case that meant attracting the attention of people whom he could deliver the 'Boom-Boom' to.
While he certainly wasn't as crazy as before, he had kept his other penchant, the one of bringing chaos and mayhem to people, just that now his words served as another weapon which definitely wasn't second in terms of usefulness to his rather amazing skill with all kinds of ship-mounted big guns.
Blue watched the ensuing show, a rather gory kill-fest in which Sputnik utterly dominated the Navy pilots who had come after him in their blind rage, swatting them out of the surrounding space like flies.
Amazed by that incredible display of skill, she made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
He would join the people aboard the Stellar Ranger and become a part of them, under the condition that he would keep his poetry to himself while on the ship.
In turn, Blue would offer him plenty of opportunities to piss people off in space, where he could make all of them explode right after.
With a toothy grin he agreed, but not before making it clear that from now on he simply wanted to be called 'Red', in reference to his shining-red Sabre.
Currently he spends most of his time flying, just as before, extorting miniscule amounts of money from merchants that happen to cross his way while talking, talking and endlessly talking, thus pissing people off even more, while always being happy himself when he can get into another fight with yet more pissed-off people, only to deliver them their daily dose of 'Boom-Boom'.
V is strange. Not 'Man, that guy smells weird.'-strange, but just plain strange.
A Mercenary of unknown origin, he once appeared literally out of nowhere in the middle of Alaska as Blue was on her way back to New York.
[color=#CC99CC]Why he appeared there and where he actually came from, not to say just how the hell he found himself in the middle of that place, is unclear, and V seems to be content with those questions remaining unanswered. A living enigma, and a cold-blooded professional - as became evident on the same trip Blue and him encountered each other - he stands out from the rest of the group, being the only member of it who is not a Pirate in one way or the other.
Under employ by Blue herself, he's always welcome aboard the Ranger and is considered to be a part of the Liberty's Finest, however he usually prefers to keep to himself, occasionally disappearing for periods of time to places unknown in order to, presumably, follow his own and secret agenda.
In terms of personality he's rather laid-back, always keeping a cool head under all conditions, and only rarely showing signs of any emotion, be it joy, disgust or outright rage.
He's the perfect example of a man who gets the job done - as long as the money keeps flowing - no matter the circumstances, the opposition, and the problems in the way.
Loyal to Blue and no one else, he will follow orders and carry them out to the letter, without any fuss, but one just shouldn't expect him to socialize with the people around him.
Not that any of them did, as his presence has been said to be unnerving at times, whether he was just calmly sitting in his ship's cockpit out in space, or in a quiet and dark corner of the Ranger's bar.
That might have something to do with him always wearing a Guy Fawkes mask to hide his facial features from the people around him, a thing which Blue simply dismissed as silly because according to her he's a “damn handsome son of a gun”.
Or maybe it's the rather grim and 'poetic' way he sometimes talks in, sending shivers racing up people's spines with just a handful of words.
What can one possibly say about Viva other than that she's 'just' Viva.
A former pilot of the Outcast Guard and an Outcast by birth, she's way older than she looks and has seen her fair share of Sirius' good and bad sides throughout her already, by normal standards, long life.
Though one has to know that from her perspective the good and bad sides all were either “FRAKKIN' AWESOME!”...
Or “LUDICROUSLY FRAKKING CRAPPY AND FULL OF HORSE****!”, dependent on her mood.
[color=#CC99CC]Being a person of extremes, she's generally 'difficult to handle', suffering from frequent mood swings and able to drift from being kind, cheerful and caring to being a cold-hearted, merciless and raging bitch.
Having spent most of her life as a pilot in the Outcast Guard, a profession she was born into, most of the things related to her, good, bad and otherwise, happened out there in the cold darkness of space.
Fortunately for her she turned out to be pretty good at that whole 'flying and arsekicking' thing, so good in fact that she could pretty much just do that, party after, and not give a damn about anything else.
Unfortunately for her, that thing, combined with her nature, bit her in the rear end a while ago during “just another skirmish” between the Outcasts and Corsairs in Omicron Eta.
It had been one of the many fights taking place in the system, a fighter squadron against another fighter squadron, and despite looking like a stalemate for the first minutes with losses being of relatively equal height on both sides, the Outcasts managed to begin gaining the upper hand at some point and started to swat more and more Corsair fighters out of the sky.
And then something pretty unusual happened, something which would however have been perfectly fine for the Outcasts.
Out of nowhere, a pair of Nomad ships appeared at the scene - ones of the 'Sascya' kind, also known as 'Nomad Assassins' by the less-educated public.
The Outcasts, considering themselves extremely lucky and even 'blessed' to have the honor of bathing in the glory of the 'Spirits', pushed on harder and fought mercilessly, their resolve strengthened by the Nomads' appearance - which for some mysterious reason even fought alongside the Outcasts and aided them against the Corsair fighters.
There was just one problem, and its name was Viva.
Unlike everyone else on her side, she wasn't happy, she didn't consider herself blessed, nor did she give a damn about the Nomads that showed up.
In fact, she never had given a damn about Nomads in the first place, and just dismissed the whole 'Spirit-thing' as idiocy.
Nomads didn't attack Outcasts for some reason, Outcasts didn't attack Nomads because they didn't attack them and that was it, for her.
However Nomads did attack pretty much everyone else, on top of having the tendency to mess with people's minds and creating serious headaches not even an overdose of Cryer Pharmaceutical's latest Spacepirin could cure, and that was reason enough for her to approach them... well, to approach them by not approaching them at all and just not caring.
And now that she had come to, metaphorically speaking, kick rear-ends and bash in skulls in a glorious fashion, - and definitely not to watch how some Space-Jellyfish that her people worshipped for silly reasons barged in and played hero, especially not after things began to look good for her side - she was on the edge.
When one of those Sascyas vaporized a target she had a clear and perfect shot at just a second before she gave the trigger a squeeze, she snapped.
Mad as usual when things didn't go as she wanted in the least bit, she did what she saw as the most logical thing to do and proceeded to try to piss the Nomads off just as much as they pissed her off, and then some.
Obviously, she did that by shooting at something.
Something being nothing else but the Sascya that got in her way.
Until that one 'exploded' in a colorful display of all shades of purple, pink and blue.
Not surprisingly a pissed-off Viva leads to more people being pissed-off, and in that case 'people' meant her squadron leader, while the rest of the Outcasts just stared at their radar displays in disbelief.
Confronting her about it verbally, and very loudly so, was an extremely bad idea.
Claiming Viva's acts to be madness, treachery and even so much as heresy was the last thing he would do in his life, since she was now seething in blind rage and countered his last accusation with three words, namely:
“FRAAAK YOUR HERESY!”
Those got topped-off with a flurry of Kraken-fire on the shield of her squadron leader's ship, a Mini Razor discharge right into the cockpit and a Nuclear Mine to the hull, just to make sure nothing was left of the, as she'd say, “MOTHERFRAKKING DAFT BASTARD!”.
What ensued afterwards can be best described as raw and brutal carnage.
The other Sascya suffered the same fate. So did the Outcasts, just as well. And the Corsairs too.
Viva then decided to head somewhere else, somewhere she hadn't been before. Liberty.
There she encountered a very drunk Natalie Callahan on Alcatraz Depot's bar, and things went a rather romantic way which lead to Viva's and Natalie's current relationship.
Nowadays Viva's 'job' is the one of being Natalie's right hand out in space, while the latter makes sure the Stellar Ranger stays in shape, the crew is happy, and that business keeps going.
It needs to be said that Jimmy Engvall is a mean bastard and a royal pain in the arse in most regards.
He's a former Vagrant Raider who one day happened to cross ways with Blue and work together with her.
Something that resulted in both becoming increasingly famous as captains of the Be Good At it, Engvall's Gunboat, and the Blue Raven, Blue's Gunship.
Being a notorious Libertonian Pirate, he's got really extensive knowledge of Liberty as a whole on top of his ties to the Vagrant Raiders.
He is also one of the few people who ever managed to befriend the rather legendary Xavier Fierceshot, the Vagrant Raiders' undisputed ace pilot.
On top of it, he's got a rather unique history which partially explains his rather unusual and radical ideas.
[color=#CC99CC]Like eating Nomads, an idea that finds its roots in his father's doing.
The man was a Liberty Security Force Operative and got assassinated after having his 'fun' with some rather unusual specimens up until he discovered what he would then pass on to Jimmy with his last breath:
“Son... Squids are... frakkin'... delicious.”
Those words stuck with Jimmy over the years and they led to the development of Liberty's Finest' current appetite for all things Squid.
Squid jerky, Squidspleen sandwiches, Squid stew, fried Squid on a stick, Squid spring-rolls and all the other delicious dishes the Stellar Ranger's cuisine has to offer these days.
He's also at least partially responsible for most of the rather ridiculous stunts the group ever pulled along with many rather unique encounters and happenings being credited to him.
For example, there was that one time where he and Blue happened to cross the ways of the now-deceased Phantom known as 'Black Rose' while she was commanding her Cruiser.
Since it was quite a rare opportunity to encounter such an individual and both Blue and Jimmy didn't have an encounter of that kind before, they were rather clueless as to which course of action to take.
Jimmy decided on the most logical thing to do, as in treat Black Rose like everyone else.
To put it in different terms, his words were: “Pirate it for Squids!”
As expected, the lady said no.
That led to her Cruiser getting nearly-wrecked and her heading off in order to collect some fresh Squids for Jimmy and Blue.
Another rather unique encounter worth mentioning above others is that one time where Jimmy and Blue decided to 'feed' a rather friendly Nomad and those that accompanied him with Liquid Cardamine.
Funnily enough, the creature responded in kind by growing excess tentacles, detaching them, and 'tossing' them towards both in gratitude.
Peaceful and friendly Nomad - Human interaction just because Jimmy was hungry for Squid.
Currently, aside from pulling stunts like those above, Jimmy resides aboard the Stellar Ranger with the rest of the bunch.
He's spending his days with being a merry man who has grown to be quite the excellent cook while being incredibly loyal all the time and developing a really big fetish for new gold teeth to grace his mouth-space with.
Afterall he loves to eat Squids, and without teeth that would be quite the problem, wouldn't it?