I see Trees of Green

[Akura]

"I know you took my Inferno, Akura, I want it back" the voice buzzed, "Either you pay me back for what you took, or I'll come take it back myself. Trust me, you don't want that" the voice coughed, "Five million credits or my Inferno, delivered, with interest. You have a week"

The recording stopped, Akura's neural-net console chirping up at him, he could replay the recording, or close the message. A large skull and cross-bones image was displayed as the icon for the recording, chilling Akura out even more.

He didn't like the Outcasts much, they bullied him around.

Charlie 'Akura' Fontaine was an engineer, he worked on calibrating and fitting weapons for the Hackers here in Magellen. They paid him in credits, Liberty didn't need to know.

He had a criminal record, assisting a Rogue in escaping the LPI, destruction of DSE property, theft. Nothing worth chasing or shoving a bounty on, but worth arresting if he made a mistake.

He slammed the lever down on the left of the cockpit, the reinforced glass lifted around him, allowing him to hop down out of his Dagger.

Akura sighed, checking his list of jobs to do. None of them paid nearly enough to get him out of debt. He was desperate.

Scrapper, one of the other engineers murmered from across the room,

"Tol' ya tha' was a bad idea lad"

"Shut the f*ck up scrapper..." Akura cursed, shoving past him.

[Akura]

Akura cleared security, tapping in his clearance code. The doors opened to reveal The Barrier, blue clouds and rocks spanned out infront of him. His Dagger accelerating to impulse, embracing the cold, icey space infront of him.

He tapped in coordinates for the Trade Lane, hoping to slip in, and disappear into Bretonia for a while. The intention was to rob a depot or two, bring home some gold if he got lucky.

Akura arrived at the first ring, slowing down his cruise to dock with the bottom half of the lane. His ship pinged it's signal, the lane responded, jumping into life, rings of energy surrounding the ship, creating a tunnel for him to travel.

He waited for the lane to grab his ship, propelling it through the opening in the rocks and ice, towards the gate to the Manchester system.

The lane fizzled, the ring of energy fuzzed up and disappeared, the whole ring going unresponsive. Akura sat up, his ship was mere inches from travelling, now the lane had gone down. he checked his scanners and swore.

There, his Deep Scanner had picked up two contacts, they looked to be Barracudas. He prayed for Mercs, Mercs were stupid, easy to ignore, they wouldn't attack him, there was no bounty on him.
Either that or Bounty Hunters, alot of Hunters took their work too personally, killing unbountied criminals when they had the chance to overpower them.

He wasn't important, civillian guns, cheap ship, he was safe.

"Well well well, look at that, an Outcast" a voice chuckled over comms,

Akura hastily slammed his palm on the reply button, nervously clearing his throat,

"U-uhhh, I'm sorry, I-I think you've made a mistake sir" he stuttered, releasing the button,

"Nope, scanners don't lie kid, that there is an Outcast gun, valuable one at that" the first voice sneered,

Akura cursed again, How could he be so stupid? With the Inferno, he was marked as a criminal on sight.

"Should we kill him Toby?" a second voice croaked, trying to mask his joy,

"Do it, preserve that pulse cannon, we can make a fortune with that" the first voice replied,

The opened fire, their shots sweeping over the hull of the Dagger, Akura lurched his ship down, narrowly avoiding hitting the trade ring, slamming on his afterburners on for a speed boost.

He needed a way out, or else he was a dead man...

[Akura]

He was sweating now, his flightsuit was hot, so hot. His breathing was heavy, his eyesight was blurred through his panicked state.

He didn't want to die, one wrong move and he'd find himself eating Buckshots.

The Bounty Hunters had heavier and stronger ships, fighting back was useless, plus Akura was far from a combat pilot, he'd only ever shot big trains, the other Hackers were better pilots than him

If he stopped moving for a second, or miscalculated a strafe, the Bounty Hunters would tear him apart. He was in the open now, damn. He couldn't use the rocks for cover or to delay their fire.
Ahead was the Wendell ice field, just 20k away.

He could make it, there were more rocks there, and he was sure his Dagger could outrun them in time, he hoped.

He had breached the rocks, they were still hot on his tail though, he couldn't turn around or risk death, he couldn't take the jumpgate to California... he was dead.
Then there was a glimmer of hope, a chance at life, he was saved.

A jumphole.

It was the jumphole to Kansas, the Neo Terran Front, they could help him! Just a few more precious meters and he could be safe.
He flicked some switches on his console and did a swift roll to the left, bringing the starboard side round to dive into the hole.

There was light, he relaxed a little... Then he saw rocks, expansion of space as far as he could see. A large green planet, a handful of moons, the sun so bright, a purple cloud.

He slammed on cruise and rolled his ship away from the hole, headed out to wherever his ship was facing. Gunfire behind him, the Bounty Hunters has chosen to pursue.

The console lit up with disrupter warnings as the Dagger passed the 200m/s mark, a disrupter hit a rock beside him, detonating, he was still speeding up, 250m/s, more disrupters and a few pulse blasts, 350m/s he had gotten to cruise speed.

He didn't look back, or where he was going, Akura just strafed to avoid phantom shots, the BHG ships disappearing from his scanners.
The adrenaline pumping, he left the rocks, leaning back in his chair to relax. He glanced out of the starboard window towards the sun, enjoying the view.

Purple engulfed him, he was blinded, this wasn't right. He tuned his scanners to full, taking some power from his sheilds. There was nothing here with him, just rocks.

The iridium in this field was messing with his scanner. Akura tuned it up higher, allowing his shield to deactivate. Still nothing.

Then he felt a small 'ping' on his contacts. It was a metal object, he suspected, it was weak, and distant, but he felt it. He turned the Dagger to face it, thrusting towards it with caution. He powered down his weapons and tuned his scanners even finer, attemping to get a better shape.

It was a Sabre, or at least, the wreckage of one. The componants were heavily damaged, no wounds of battle though, this seemed to be damage sustained over time, weathering. Perhaps the pilot abandoned the ship for some reason.

He powered down his engines, killing his impulse speed to get a better look. As he peered over his controls, leaning over the button marked 'headlights' he saw a shadowy shape in the ship... A silhouette.

His hand caught the button, switching his headlights to full. The beam penetrated the darkness, filling the Sabre's cockpit with bright white light. Akura yelped, jumping back into his seat.

It was a corpse. The flightsuit had rotted, something had been chewing at it, the skin on the body was pale, coloured slightly blue or green, saliva dripped from the open mouth of the pilot, his empty eyes staring into Akura's.

Akura noticed the cause of the Sabre's demise, purple material gripped it, bugs or bacteria, some kind of colourful organism. It has caused the Sabre's systems to fail, probably after it's sheilds went down.

A feeling of dread came over him, Akura looked down at his console, fearing what he saw. He had let his sheilds go down to allow him more power to the scanner.
He cursed, pressing some buttons, the shield refused to activate.

Akura unstrapped himself, standing up and peeking outside the window at his hull. It was pasted with the same purple organisms as the Sabre. He cursed louder, sitting down and activating cruise, the engines struggled, clicking and humming loudly, something was wrong.

Finally the ship succeeded in achieving cruise, Akura strafed the rocks, knowing how much damage one hit could do to his unshielded Dagger.
He didn't know where he was going, but the organisms alive in this cloud were going to kill him if he didn't make it out, and fast.

He saw another structure, he hurried towards it, he would have been happy if it was a Bounty Hunter station at this point, he just didn't want to die.

It was old, ancient perhaps, not a human construction. Akura cursed and checked his oxygen levels, which were slowly decreasing. The filter was broken, most likely damage from the organisms on and in his ship.

He didn't have time to think. he stopped the ship, feeling movement still. The structure began to glow, images filled his head, letters and symbols.

Akura screamed, kicking out and smashing his hands on the console, all hope lost as the Dagger entered the energy field of the structure.

Light, light everywhere, like... a jumphole, but brighter, he felt his stomach lurch and his hair stand up on end as he tried to scream again...

[Akura]

The emergency lights flickered on, pulsating gently as the warning lights on the console flashed at him. An alarm shook him back into consciousness.

The main lights inside his ship had gone out, the emergency powerplant had kicked in.

Akura sat up and rubbed his eyes, panic finding it's way back in as he realised the purple organisms were still feeding on his ship. He gazed across the horizon with confusion, trying to figure out where he was as he kicked his ship into cruise.

It struggled again, failing at first, but eventually making it to full speed.

The clouds here were strange, he felt sick, a wave of nausea came over him. There were rocks here, strange planets... He couldn't tell what was there and what was part of his imagination.

The Dagger groaned, something inside had falled apart, a part of the hull had buckled, he noticed the oxygen meter reducing rapidly. He had a leak.

He steered around, trying to find some safety, a patrol, a base... anything. He had no idea where he was. He was cold and scared, fear and panic became more familiar than breathing to him.

He was going to die.

Then he saw it... a glimmer of hope... A structure, or something. It was beautiful. He had to.. get to it. Before.
Soon, fire, plumes of fire, and smoke, his ship was falling apart. Time, pain.
He felt hot, so hot, his ship was about to...

He saw it, something. Gripped. Behind.
He felt, it gripped, blue or... alive, couldn't comprehend. Time. Space.

His escape pod failed, he felt the ship literally tear itself apart. He was in space, not torn, like ship, he was inside... blue, pod.

Organic, touch. He survive, alive, caught, home. It had him. Safe, survival, time. Drifting.

A... Shrine. Loss, never to begin the journey.

[Akura]

[size=medium]You can get there from here, though
theres no going home.

Everywhere you go will be somewhere
youve never been.



Memories, of time passed, it looks on to those as a means of learning.

It sees the scape, the reserves of it's temporary home. It's sanctuary.


It seeks to learn, it's time running out. It must search, find, learn, grow. It must discover.

The Emerald City is made of Amethyst; Theres a Wicked Witch in the North.

Freedom, birth. The bird leaves the nest, to seek... a family.

Aku'ra: ***...Freedom..seek...(fear)...search***

Those that keep, at the letter of the greek, a value of ten but only the ninth.

Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law.

[Akura]

It dreams, it learns, it envisions.

The images of the others, passed through dreams. It sees.



Awake, alone. It must search, it must explore, it must learn and grow.

[color=#CC33CC]Aku'ra: ***...Awareness, purpose... knows... time, grow... mind...***

It's journey begins. The young morph searches the stars of it's temporary home. It sees, it remembers. It follows the footsteps of it's family. Seeking them.

The journey will not be easy, pain and confusion are garunteed, it's childhood will be long and lonely. It may find company, but it will have to understand, before it can take it's place in the universe.

[font=Bradley Hand ITC]Aku'ra: ***...Time... travel... those, begins... (obsession)... desire...***

It finds the doorway to humanity, it must see them, it must observe them, it must find it's way home. If it fails, another will surely take it's place.



The doorway ends in Pennsylvania, it is too late to return, it is time to fulfil it's purpose.

[Akura]

It first saw Pennsylvania, seeing the star and it's orbiting planets through the rocks, it admired the beauty.

Aku'ra: ***...Sirius...home...awe, belong.?..***

It didn't stay to explore, instead it tried to take the jumphole home, resulting in it being sent to Texas. It felt the pain of the radiation, the pain of memories, humanity burning the space they inhabited, it wasn't their space to burn.

[font=Bradley Hand ITC]Aku'ra: ***...Learn...(sorrow)...pollute, destructive...(pain)...burning...***

It found a human outpost, and circled it, studying the structure, here it found another, a Junker.

Junkzilla: Oh yikes
[color=#FFFFFF]Junkzilla: I must be dreaming
Aku'ra: ***Curiosity...question.?.***
Junkzilla: Maybe it didn't notice me
Junkzilla: Act cool, it will go away
Aku'ra: ***..Harm.?...goal...***
Junkzilla: No harm, goal good
Aku'ra: ***...Confusion.?. unlike... instinct...***
Aku'ra: ***..Time...tell...***

The Junker showed no signs of hostility, offering some of his scrap as a gift, the young Morph accepted the scrap, confused at the intentions of the Morph.

Junkzilla: Take it easy, I doubt you fancy any scrap metal?
Aku'ra: ***..Question... purpose... gift.(?)...***
Junkzilla: Yes, as a gift
Junkzilla: If that makes you chill, if you can do that anyway
Aku'ra: ***...Wary... cautious...***
Junkzilla: Like it? Maybe you can even eat it
Aku'ra: ***...Pleasure...warmth...(happiness)..***
Junkzilla: That is all I can spare though, I'm too fond on the rest, no matter how scary you might be

Another arrived, a Freelancer in an Eagle, the morph felt uncomfortable, a little scared...

Aku'ra: ***...Shared...(Understanding)...***
Junkzilla: Sounds like we found a mutual love for scraps, I hope
Aku'ra: ***...Teach.. learn... scraps..***
Junkzilla: Exactly, I'm still in young shoes, what a strange day
Aku'ra: ***...Another... (fear)...***

It fled, disappearing into the scrap, further into Texas.

[Akura]

It sought out the technology known to humanity as 'tradelanes', approaching a ring with caution. The guns equipped on said ring could not harm it.

[color=#CC33CC]Aku'ra: ***...Attempt~interface..possible..***

It tried to interface, attempting to mimic the human vessels it had seen passing,

[font=Bradley Hand ITC]Aku'ra: ***...(Confusion)..learn, connect...time~embrace..***

Studying it's signals, it mimiced the ability to 'surf' the lanes, entering it to see where it came out.

Aku'ra: ***...Success..(Joy)...***

It arrived at it's first Jumpgate, laying eyes on a large, human vessel, cautiously keeping it's distance,

Aku'ra: ***...Observe... retreat...***
Aku'ra: ***...Survive...(hope)...***
Aku'ra: ***...Curious...***
Aku'ra: ***...Vessel.?...Metallic...***
Aku'ra: ***...Interface...repeat...***

It attempted to interface with the Jumpgate as it had the Tradelanes, successfully being pulled out of Texas, and into the light...

[Akura]

It ventured through rocks, dense rocks, around the wrecks of battles passed, until it found another of the unidentified gates.

It saw Hamburg, different to Texas, but still touched by humanity.




It found a Unioner engaged in combat with the Rheinland Federal Police, it questioned his motives and reasons for such conflict,

[font=Bradley Hand ITC]Aku'ra: ***..Why?...question... conflict.?.***
Aku'ra: ***...Belong...outcast.?...denied~right.?...***
[color=#99FF99]Otto_Steindlitz: an outcast? hell no
Aku'ra: ***.. Miscommune...outcasted...lack...accept.?..***
[color=#99FF99]Otto_Steindlitz: well what to hell is that?
Aku'ra: ***...Reject... norm.?..***
Otto_Steindlitz: what are you?
Aku'ra: ***...Frustration~betray.?...***
Otto_Steindlitz: are you insane, that deas not make sense
Aku'ra: ***...Learn..decide...question.?...form...***

The Unioner did not understand what the Morph was trying to say, he fired a Mini Razor burst at the young Morph, sending it into panic,

Otto_Steindlitz: hmm it has shields
Otto_Steindlitz: what are you, some kind of RM drone?
Aku'ra: ***...Hurt...(pain)...confusion...***
Otto_Steindlitz: identify yourself
Aku'ra: ***...Name...lost...identity, remember...learn...seek...***
Otto_Steindlitz: hey you looks like too much popular here
Otto_Steindlitz: I have to get my anus elsewhere
Aku'ra: ***...Seeks, knowing... purpose.?...***

The Morph followed, attempting to figure out why this human was rejected by it's kind, why it found itself locked in combat with them.

Otto_Steindlitz: god damn
Otto_Steindlitz: listen this is starting to be annoying
Otto_Steindlitz: who are you... answer me now or get lost
Aku'ra: ***...Question... term... 'Annoying'... purpose.?...***
Otto_Steindlitz: annoying mean I have all rights to kill you
Otto_Steindlitz: do you understand? comprende?
Aku'ra: ***...Failure... commune, repeat.?... understand~seek...***
Otto_Steindlitz: no answers... this happen

The Unioner fired on the Morph again, this time not holding back, the Morph took up distance to prevent injury,

Otto_Steindlitz: that is called a gun, it can hurt
Aku'ra: ***..Understand...term...'hurt'...dislike...placement...***
Otto_Steindlitz: I am more like propaganda guy but I am not afraid to use guns
Otto_Steindlitz: so stop flying around and tell me, WHO ARE YOU
Aku'ra: ***...This..."Aku'ra"...named...***
Otto_Steindlitz: fine and? nation, faction whatever
Aku'ra: ***...Unknown... confusion... seeks~to~know...***
Aku'ra: ***..Assist.?...(sorrow).***

Aku'ra became familiar with a spoken name, it asked for assistance, perhaps the Unioner could offer help of some kind,

Otto_Steindlitz: assist?
Otto_Steindlitz: me? how?
Aku'ra: ***...Accept... request... "Aku'ra"...status~lost... help.?..***
Otto_Steindlitz: you sounds like machine so I gues you are machine
Otto_Steindlitz: fine that is progres
Aku'ra: ***...Organic... seek... family.?...know~locale...***
Otto_Steindlitz: I am not programmer and I have no idea why should I help to obviously mad RM spy-drone
Aku'ra: ***...Understands... does~not~comprehend...purpose...***
Aku'ra: ***...Depart... lost~appreciation...time...***
Otto_Steindlitz: huh stupid RM and their dumb machines

The ignorance caused Aku'ra to flee, this human would sooner hurt it than show it any form of assistance. It left, deeper into the stars.



Perhaps other humans would be more willing to assist, less hostile. Perhaps.