I heard beeping again and slowly opened my eyes. Just beyond the beeping I heard sobbing and crying. I tried to sit up but couldn't, my body complained at the stress. Two women looked up and I recognized them. One was Shan and the other was Sarah. The two stood up quickly and told me to take it easy. I shook my head and immediately regretted that choice. The room swam and I fell back onto the bed.
"Take it easy Leo. You went into a seizure that almost killed you." Sarah said.
"What?" I asked.
"Your brain is trying to shut down because of all the pressure on it with the returning memories. Turns out there was more extensive brain damage than they originally thought. You're gaining memories back but it's causing you to have seizures, and while that should cause damage, it's not, you're only gaining memories back." Shan said.
"So what's the problem?"
"They've been getting worse. When you first were gaining your memories back, you only got dizzy remember? Then slowly they became nose bleeds, and now full on seizures. They think if you keep regaining memories back slowly, that it will kill you." Shan finished.
"I see...so what's the plan?" I asked.
"We take you to a place where a friend owes me a favor." someone said at the door. A medium height man walked in with a clipboard and disconnected the monitoring system that was on me.
"And who are you?" I asked. He reached out his hand and shook mine.
"Doctor Kimito. Nice to meet you Leo."
"Same to you, so where are we going?"
"Tohoku. We have an amble research facality in Tekagi's Arch. We can get more information there...and possibly...a way to return all your memories to you if the brain damage is what I think it is, but you will be in a catatonic state the entire time, you won't be able to move or speak to us. To you it will seem like a lifetime, to us it will seem like a few minutes."
"Side effects." Shan stood up with a serious look in her eye. Sarah gave her a dirty look.
"There is a slim possibility he might die."
"Lets do it. It's better that I die quickly by that machine than dying slowly and never find out who I am."
"Right, lets leave then, the ship is prepped and ready to go."
The trip to Tohoku was quick. We undocked and walked towards the room, images swam past my vision of this place. I had certainly been here before, but it was the same feeling as I got from Yanagi. Like I had been there, but no memories surfaced. We came to the room and I laid down in a chair.
"We're going to sedate you, and then you'll go to sleep, your memories should start coming back to you then." the doctor said. Shan looked worried, and Sarah looked over all just pissed off. When did Sarah come back. Before I got the chance to answer I felt tired, and eventually fell asleep.
*Muffle* Uzamaki! Come catch me!" a little girl said. I realized I was a child now chasing a little girl. Uzamaki? Was that my name?
"Ok you two enough horseplay. Kara go find your mother in her quarters, me and little Leo need to go to Kusari."
"Ok! Bye Ms. Uzamaki!" the little girl said. I saw my mother, a beautiful Kusari woman in her late thirties I would guess she looked concerned and kept looking around her. She sat me down in the rear seat inside the cockpit and climbed in, she buckled me in and took to flying the ship. I must have been young, my feet barely reached the back of hers. I saw "Chugoku Jumphole" on the scanners. I saw the typical look of a Jumphole but I started crying anyway.
"Oh Leo. I know you don't like flying...we're almost to daddies though."
Daddies?
----
The memory faded and was replaced by me standing in front of a Liberty offical. He looked me up and down and nodded.
"Kusari blood I take it?"
"Yes sir."
"You're one of the best I presume?" said a man.
"I would like to think I am, sir." I replied.
"Well Mr..." he trailed off.
"I don't remember my last name sir." I said with truth.
"Mmmm. I see secercy...very well Leo. Here is your target, ensure he understands we are not to be toyed with."
"I'll do more than that sir."
----
The memory changed again.
"-and she said no!" said Katasuki.
"No way!" I said laughing. "She really said no to him?"
"Yeah, poor bastard was so embarissed, he hid in the tool room!"
We laughed for a good while at the situation. One of our friends had tried to ask a woman out and she turned him down so ice cold like that he about cried.
"Anyway, my next shift is coming up, it's best I head out." I said.
"Alright Leo, stay safe. Fly straight and light and may your weapons find their target with ease."
I bowed to him and he returned the bow. I left the room and walked to my ship. I launched to space and began my patrol. I entered Sigma-13 and scouted around the Chugoku Jumphole to verify that the area was clear, when I turned my ship back around three fighters sat in my way. They didn't say anything to me, they only sat there.
"This is Blood Dragon Patrol 0-9 Gamma. What are your intentions." but they didn't tell me VIA comms. They opened fire and I dodged around them and into Chugoku. I high tailed it for Kyoto where I was met by a Battleship. I tried pulling back...but something had locked on to me...
When I came down on the docking bay, they ripped me out of the ship and proceeded to knock me out. I heard voices and mumbles as they drug me down the hall. I opened my eyes to a swift kick in the groin, I fell to the ground in pain. I looked up to a boot in my face, I fell against the wall in pain.
"So this is a Uzamaki? Really? He looks too small to be one." said a woman with dirty blonde hair. Autumn.
"Don't doubt them. They're one of the most dangerous bloodlines in all of Sirius. Even if this one is the child of a whore. Hey there Leo. We're going to have fun with you..."
----
I opened my eyes, a few days had passed and I saw Sarah pacing the room while Shan looked out the window as she always did at Kyoto. I mumbled something and looked around the room. It looked the same as it always had and I saw them approaching me.
"Your heart was racing, they had to stop the procedure-" Sarah started.
"Uzamaki." I said interupting her.
"What?"
"That's my last name. My name is Leo Uzamaki."
"That's great, it's working!"
"One of the most dangerous bloodlines in all of Sirius..."
"What?"
"Nothing, I need to sleep, I'll talk to you two tomorrow when I find out when the next session is." I rolled over and nodded off to sleep. The picture of Autumn still present in my mind.
"Your memories are scattered Leo. We can't keep tabs on what time the said memories occured, so they're going to be out of sequence." said the doctor looking at the charts. "At the memory near the end of this session, your heart rate spiked to way above normal rates. Something stressful in that memory?"
"You could say that." I replied. The doctor smiled as if he knew, I narrowed my eyes to focus on him. He was a Blood Dragon doctor, and I was a Blood Dragon from before I was taken. Apparently my father was a Blood Dragon as well. Before Sarah left, I gave her a slip of paper. It had my last name on it and to look up the info. Shan stayed on board the station to look around.
"Well, we're going to try the next phase now." he said.
"I would like it Shan were in here for the procedure." I said.
"You'll be-"
"I said, I would like it if Shan were in here for the procedure, doctor." I stressed the doctor part and he looked at me with a worried look. I returned his look with a hostile stare. He backed away slowly from the bed and sat down in the corner. So I was right. They were frightened of me. Recovering my memories was not their idea, obviously it was someone elses. Shan returned a few moments later and the doctor approached slowly and initiated the sequence, I felt groggy again and fell asleep once again...
----
"You are trained to kill. Nothing more." said the man just beyond the door. "Learn of your bloodline. Use it. You are a natural assassin..."
For the past year, I had been stuck here, training to my limit, and against my will. I knew not my name, my past had been wiped from my memory. All I knew was death, destruction, and hate. I was one of the best here they said, I was seperated from the others kept here, in a special cell, security for it was top notch. But I wasn't planning on staying here...
----
"Good-bye, captain." the man cried and I fired two clean shots into the top of his head, he slumped to his clean floor and I stepped over him cautiously and left the gun in the man's hand, with out my prints. I stripped off my gloves and grabbed my overcoat as I walked out. I draped it over me and left the man's keys at the counter in the lobby. It was raining, a typical day on New Tokyo...
----
"Use the controls son, you have to learn sometime." said my father laughing at my attempt to fly around Kyoto. "No no, haha, that's thruuuust!" he fell to the back of the ship as I hit the thruster and almost took out a support beam. I lost control ability as my father took it back in his part of the ship. "Not ready yet, give it time boy, you're still too young."
"Man! I can do it dad!"
"I know you can, give it time though. You'll get it."
----
"You bastard!" he said to me.
"I'm staring at my father, how can I be a bastard?" I replied with a smile.
"You killed that Blood Dragon and then dissappeared! My name and honor is tarnished forever!"
"I killed no Blood Dragon father. And I am not apart of the people who had a hand in it."
"Get out of here you...monster!" he said throwing a fist at me. I grabbed it and threw him into the wall.
"If you call me a monster, then a monster I am." I said, pulling the gun to his chin and staring him in the eye. "You were the last true thing I had left of my childhood. I don't even remember my childhood.
"Let alone you." I fired the gun and watched as his life fled from his old eyes. He slumped to the floor and I holstered my weapon. "Don't forget old man...you never had a son."
----
I felt myself rush back to reality as I was shaking. Memories came flooding back into my mind. Everything at once. The doctor tried as he might to stop it, and I saw a flash of white for a second and a beautiful woman reaching her hand out to me, I reached out for it, but the light vanished and darkness overtook me once more.
Alarms sounded and I rose slowly, my ragged uniform hanging from my skin. I stared straight ahead, feeling anger and rage course through my veins. I walked through the door that now hung from it's hinges. So, the stolen C9 had done the trick then, obviously these people under estimated me. I walked through the corridors until I eventually found a dead guard. I took his weapons and kept walking.
"Leo! Freeze!" said a woman, her dirty blonde hair hanging in front of her face, she looked like she had seen better days. I only smiled and backhanded her across the face as soon as she got close enough, she fell to the floor and a look of shock came to her face.
"Do you really think I have to listen to you people now?" I said with a crazed smile. "I'm as free as a bird. Do you not see these cooridors? They're smoten with flame and molten metal, all caused by me. I am chaos, I am destruction. Didn't you say that your self Autumn? I am the bane of mankind. The harbinger. Remember? You fell in love with me, and then refused to take my love back. You're worse than the rest of them"
"You've become a monster Leo! You're not the Leo that came in here!"
"This is what you wanted me to become, a killer, an assassin for your f***ing group. A tool, and instrument of distruction, and now that you have it, you don't want it anymore, you want the old Leo, the Leo that I can't even remember. This is me now, this is who I have become. Too bad you don't like it, we could have been great you and I...we could have taken the world on and survived...
"May you rot in hell with the rest of them."
----
I gasped for air, the doctor was working quickly, and then darkness surrounded me again.
----
"So, you're the best?" said the man who paced around me.
"You wanted the best did you not?" I said.
"Yes, I have an enemy-"
"I know, he paid me." I said with a smile, the man took a step back, but wasn't fast enough, I brought the handgun up faster than he could react and fired two quick shots to his head, he slumped down and fell to the floor. I sighed. "I wish you guys posed more of a threat than you do. You're all goody goody two shoes targets who are too scared to come out of your offices. At least you ran a club, now I can get a drink befo-" I stopped myself when I heard guards coming up the stairs at a quick pace. ****, I'd been discovered.
I flipped over his desk as they came into the room and reloaded, they came in firing after they saw their boss dead on the floor. They looked around slowly and came to my side of the desk, I smiled at their stupidity and brought the handguns up and fired one shot from each gun to their heads, they too fell down. I sighed and wiped the prints off the guns and placed them in the office.
"No matter, you guys gave me a better story to indicate. Guards get in a fight with the boss, want power, and they all get killed. Flawless."
----
I opened my eyes slowly and groaned. I looked at the date on the clock. It had been a few hours since I'd gone under. I looked around and didn't see Shan or Sarah.
"Sorry, they're not in here." said the doctor. "We had to rush you into ICU. We almost lost you. Memories came racing in, looks like you're almost all back though." he said with a smile. "And that brings us back, now you have to die."
Did I hear him correctly?
"The...group, doesn't want you alive anymore, you're a risk, a hazard."
The fool didn't realize the new info that I had. My memory wasn't all back, he was just a mock up doctor, time to play him.
"Whey created me, and now they want to write me off hmm?" I said with a smile.
"Not on my watch." said a voice and I smiled and watched as the doctor fell to the ground, replaced by not Sarah or Shan, but another man. I gave him a stunned look, I'd seen him somewhere before. Then realized. The paper.
"Takashi Katacuchi, I believe we have the same problem?"
"I believe we do."
"Good, lets get you out of here. We don't have much time."
"Got em. I'll keep watch while you change. This section hasn't ben used in years, they won't look here."
I nodded and changed into the new clothes and loading up my weapons. Takashi kept a lookout as I did so. I came back out ready to go. "Loaded and reaaa-AY!" I freaked out as he turned around. His eyes were glowing blue, but only a small area around his irises. Two lines ran from under his hairline, over his eyelids, down his chin, and under his shirt.
"Enhancements, courtisy of black company. They selected specific bloodlines for the experements. I am one of the only ones still living. A majority of the others died early on from imcapibilities with the Nomad DNA."
"Wait so-"
"I am a Human-Nomad hybrid. My bloodline allows it, but when in close proximity to other Nomad tech, I lose control. It's not a pretty sight. It's something Black Company overlooked. All that Nomad tech in the same place drove us to the edge of oblivion. Someone detonated the cell door and got us out of there." I had a brief memory flash of me touching the field and watching an explosion. I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
I knew what he was talking about of course. I had experenced his change of attitude several times already, along with his apparent death dealing abilities such as my own and fast response times. He was indeed a killing machine. A noise echoed down the hall and lights shone through the darkness.
"We need to move, now." he said.
"We're not running away of course." I said with a smile. He returned the smile.
We counted seven special forces troops. We couldn't identify what their house system was, but we ignored that fact. They had already discovered the good "doctor" and were on patrol sweeps for us. Takashi was a tactical genius. The man figured out their patrol paths before they did, it was unreal. Eventually, they began to let their guards down and began idle chatter. We dropped down silently and approached them. I heard a strange beeping sound and looking over to Takashi. He had switched to his Nomad mode. The poor bastards never stood a chance
He moved at lightning speed, taking the first two out within seconds. The other two moved to intercept him, but I dropped in front of them and only smiled. They tried to back up but before they could blink, I was already on them. I guess they figured they should fight back for their lives. Big mistake. The first one threw a punch and I dodged to the left, quickly grabbed his wrist and forcefully extended his arm. A quick but strong punch to his elbow and a popping sound echoed in the hall even with all the noise. He only got a second to scream because soon after I spun low and kicked him in the chest. Just then the other swung and missed. I hit him with an assortment of hits and rips to his stomach area and shoved him back. He spit up blood and fell down.
The other guard got up to run, but I brought my foot down quickly down to the middle of his back and dug into it. He fell to the ground at an awkward angle, dead as a doornail. I rose back to my full height. I saw a brief flicker of something to the right of me, what looked like a blue dial. I shook my head and looked back ahead to see Takashi hunched slightly with a smile on his face. He looked at me and nodded.
"Lets move."
We encountered several more patrols but chose to ignore them. We had caused enough of a possible uproar. We moved quickly and quietly, crouched low and dodging guards. I couldn't tell if this was an old battleship, or station, but whatever it was, it was rusted and falling apart. Support beams leaned up against walls, and entire rooms had fallen over to reveal huge pitfalls into darkness. Eventually we came to an old warped panel that looked like it had been kicked a few too many times in it's life. Takashi grabbed it and forcefully removed it, he slid it to the side quietly. Behind the bulkhead was a long tunnel that extended what seemed like forever into darkness.
He waved for me to follow and we began to crawl. We came to a ladder and Takashi began to climb.We climbed for what felt like forever. Eventually we came to an outside seal and Takashi began to open it. Once open, I was staring at open orange sky. He turned t oface me and motioned to follow him on into the forests. He reached down and helped me out of the hole. He shut the hatch and spun the lock back. Memories were coming back of this place. I had been here several times, I knew it. Malta. Planet Malta in the Edgesystems. Home to an assortment of pirates and criminals. The major group here were the Outcasts, part of the lost sleeper ship "Hispania".
The massive ship was sabotaged before it reached Sirius, and came to a halt in Omicron Alpha, only after drifting for several hundred years. Here, in Omicron Alpha, they discovered Planet Malta, the only planet capable of life with in lightyears. The Hispania survivors celebrated their good fortune. They launched the last remaining escape pods and sat down on the small sparse planet. They sent out explorers to scout the planet, when they didn't come back they went looking for their lost comrades and found them high in fields of orange grass. Orange grass that eventually became known as Cardamine.
A few hundred years passed and the Malta planet was thriving with life. Until several unknown ships came into the system and claimed Malta as their own. Naturally, this upset the Outcasts and they attacked the ships, sending them crawling back in their wrecks, back to where they came. These ships were from another sleeper ship named "Liberty" named after its patron nation of America from the Sol system. This is where the Outcasts got their name. Soon after the attacks, the Outcasts tried to make peace with Liberty and the other house systems, but they refused.
Soon after the house systems proven hatred of the Outcasts, they decided to get their people addicted to Cardamine, which after much research, was discovered to change the user's DNA, getting them addicted to thet substance. They began their massive drug opperation. Traders looking for a quick buck became drug smugglers. The Outcasts were making fast money and eventually began building battleships and destroyers to further their cause.
After a while the Outcasts began to explore again, stumbling across a group named the Corsairs. The Corsairs claimed to have been from the "Hispania" as well, but fled the ship while it drifted past Crete, the Corsair homeworld. The Outcasts, both discusted at their cowardice and many beliving them to be lying about their orgins, attacked them, thus starting the Outcast-Corsair war that rages to this day.
Takashi began walking down a trail that lead through a Cardamine plantation. As we walked, I noticed children and adult slaves working in the fields, they slaved for the Outcast owners day in and day out, many times they were traded for by Cardamine, because the users needed it to survive. Takashi entered a small hut and reached down to the floor and pryed up a small door, he ushered me down and followed suit. We walked in silence for what seemed like forever...
The hall was long, but after a while I just zoned out and walked. The past few hours had been either traumatic or an adventure, I couldn't decide. Memories were cluttering my brain, all disorganized nad jumbled up. From what I could figure out, I was trained to be a dangerous assassin. My memory had apparently been wiped clean of who I previously was before the procedures and training to become what I am now. There was no other explination...only thing I could remember was my mother flying the ship to Chugoku...and then it hit me like a ton of mox injectors.
The memory of my mother was more refined, it seemed more hazy like a memory should, but the memories of my father were detailed down to the letter. Almost to the point of suspecting someone of tampering with my memories. One occurance my father was teaching me how to pilot a ship around Kyoto, but the next memory of him was me murdering him in cold blood, and for no reason. Then there was the instance of the Kyoto commander saying I joined because of my dislike for the way Kusari was being run. He never even mentioned my father. You would think that if my bloodline was amongst one of the most dangerous in Sirius, that they would have mentioned my father somewhere.
I focused on Takashi ahead of me. He too was zoning out, thinking hard about the situation no doubt. On his back was the same dragon tattoo that Sarah had, thought it looked nothing of the blood dragon tattoo that I had originally thought. It was two dragons, fighting with one another, locked in combat. Takashi Katacuchi, the older brother of Shan. He looked a lot like her, espically the breathtaking blue eyes. She thought he died, and still believed it. Probably thought the same of me at this point. Which would only make her even more bitter than she already was. Espically towards men.
"The exit is up ahead." Takashi said breaking the silence and stopping abruptly. "This is where we part ways."
"So, that's it? You free me and then leave? What are you playing at?" I said astonished.
"You want me to hold your hand?" he spat a little.
"No, just give me an idea of what the hell to do, I don't know how to navigate this planet or system."
He snarled a little and then smiled.
"You'll be fine, take care Leo...and good luck.
"You're going to need it." and with that he ran back from the direction we came from. I looked ahead to the hatch he had led me to and I got a sudden bad feeling in my gut...
I approached the trap door slowly. I heard noises from up above and stopped abruptly. When I stopped, the noise stopped. I reached for my gun, and found it missing. Damnit, that Takashi stole it while I wasn't looking, damn he was good. Stole my gun from right off my hip before I even noticed it was missing. The noise started again from up top and stopped once again. The sound resembled something of a grinding sliding noise. I took a step towards the door again, and the noise started again, then stopped abruptly.
"Hello?" said a voice. "Is anyone there?"
I remained quiet. I had no idea what I was to face. It could be an enemy playing me, trying to get me to reveal my location. I wasn't that naive. This person obviously didn't know who I was, either that or did because a few minutes later the door opened a slight bit and a pair of eyes looked down the hall. I rolled to the right wall and stayed there, not revealing myself. I heard an audible snarl and then the hatch slammed shut and the grinding noise started again. I eyed the hatch with suspicion. Whoever was up there was obviously doing something they weren't supposed to.
I slowly approached the small ladder leading up to the door, I stayed to the right, to keep my noise while moving reduced. I eyed the ladder to the door with great interest. There were several knots missing and one of them looked about ready to fall off, the nails sticking every which way like a porcupine. Just above the cockeyed piece of wood was a nearly invisible string, tied to what looked like a rock embedded in the wall, but I knew better. That "rock" was actually a grenade. Which lead me to believe that this floor, and that door, were armored against type three grade explosives.
What I was under was a base of some sort, and on an Outcast planet, that wasn't the safest place to be. I was on an Outcast planet, by myself, in a place I wasn't supposed to be, not the best place to be in the world if you ask me. The dragging noise stopped again and the hatch flew open, I fell back as quietly as I could and a rather ragged old man peered down into the hatch. His hair was pointing in every which direction that it could, and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked to be on an Cardamine withdrawl. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin was peeling, and his breathing looked rather heavy and ragged.
"If you're there I suggest you show yourself, I'm not a man to be trifled with." He said, his voice barely functioning. I rose and approached the light staring up at him with every piece of anger I could muster. I stared him down and he returned the stare. After a while, his face relaxed and he laughed. "I wasn't expecting you for a few days Leo." I blinked, he knew my name? "Of course I know your name child, come on up, I've been expecting you, even if you are early."
Had he just read my mind? Or was I going crazy? I approached the ladder and climbed up, paying special attention to the broken wooden piece and the string attached to the grenade. The old man made an approving sound and nodded his head. "I see it's still programmed into your head like it's supposed to. Interesting..." I paid no attention to his mindless rambling, I had heard several Cardamine addicts go off on random rants about things that made no sense what so ever, but his rants were making sense. He kept talking about something called the "Tainted" and something about a Junker woman making the wrong turn into a system.
"Are you insane?" I asked.
"What is insane Leo? Are you insane? Or am I? Maybe you're not comprehending what I'm saying." He said becoming serious. Huh...he made sense...in a roundabout kind of way. "Regardless, you made it here."
"Good luck, you're going to need it." Takashi had said. What had he meant by the last part...I half expected something bad to happen. That's when the old man smiled and lunged at me. I barely had a few seconds notice. Son of a bitch, I had let my guard down, the feeble old man was nimble for his age, I should have suspected the armored floor, I had from the beginning, but his kind nature had led me in to a sense of false security. Damnit all to hell! He came at me with a needle full of what looked like an orange liquid, Cardamine. I dodged to the left and came up with a hook with my right hand to his jaw. His old bones couldn't take the pressure and I heard a pop emanate from his body. He screamed and fell to the floor holding his face.
"They never said anything about physical injuries! Damnit!!" he said falling to the floor in a heap.
"Who sent you old man?" I said rising to my feet and standing over him holding my palm to his neck to keep him from moving, that's when I realized he wasn't moving anymore, I felt around for a weapon but found something else, a small what looked like rigged up device tied to his belt loop. From the device, was a tube that ran into his leg. A blue substance oozed into his body and his eyes rolled into his head. He started shaking and then stopped and I felt his pulse fade away.
They used him to kill me, or to shake me up, one of the two, I paid no mind and approached the exit to the small shack, into the fading Alpha sun's light.
Night had settled on Malta and the it's moons were in clear view of where I was walking. The sun's reflection brightened the path in front of me that I had discovered shortly after my departure from the old man's shack. Up ahead I could make out a cityscape and walked towards it. It seemed close at the time, but as it turns out, it was rather large, and only looked close, I had been walking for a few hours now, or maybe it was a day or so, I had lost track of time.
Strange creatures blinked at me from the shadows, Malta's natural creatures naturally, each of them looked crazed, almost drugged. Cardamine did hang in the air, but not enough to drive creatures to the verge of mental break down. It would take centuries of someone or something walking around on the surface of Malta to get fully addicted to Cardamine. I realized that I was a few miles away from the cityscape. I sighed with relief and walked to the gate. Three Outcast guards eyed me carefully.
"Halt." one said and I stopped. "Where are you coming from stranger?"
"I went hunting, as you can see I came back with nothing."
The guard smiled.
"Aye, seems the critters are a bit spooked tonight, we can't figure out why, a lot of the creatures around here are jittery, why the Don had us come out in force tonight, normally it's only one guard, but he's worried something is about to happen, a little paranoid if you ask me."
"Well, better safe than sorry I always say." I replied, making the guard snicker.
"Suppose you're right, you're clear to enter."
"Thank you."
The others nodded to me and I entered the capitol of the Outcast empire. Sabres and Drom's flew overhead at breakneck speeds, I saw drug runners doing combat landings on the landing pads, offloading what looked like slaves and uploading Cardamine back into their holds and jetting from the landscape towards the docking rings. I sighed and rubbed my hand through my jet black hair and entered the bar just to the right of me. Cardamine smoke hung thick in the air along with smoke from other drugs. I waved it aside and looked around. An ATM sat in the corner, looked like it had seen better days.
"Bretonia National Bank..." I said aloud, underneith the text was a symbol with "BNB" behind it. BNB...that's on that piece of paper I found in the black Eagle! I quickly took it out and looked, sure enough, BNB, and with what looked like an account number. I went over to the machine and entered in the code and watched as the info came up on the screen.
"Greetings Leo. You're current balance is...142,324,796 credits. Would you like to withdrawl?"
It felt like my jaw hit the floor. One-hundred and fourty-two million credits...in my account. I hit the yes button.
"How much would you like to withdrawl?"
I entered in four million and took the credit ship, and went straight to the ship dealer and procured my self a Sabre with much bribing of the ship dealer. He was happy with his money and I took the ship to the arms dealer and outloaded my ship with whatever I could and took to the stars. With this much money, I could fund my travels, with out relying on others to do so.
I piloted my ship towards the cloud in the distance and set a course...
Warning, sensor visibility reduced. The computer onboard said. The ship rocked slightly and something flew just past my range of vision and the ship rocked even harder than before. Nomads. I jammed the throttle to full and scanned for the nearest jumphole. I wasnt detecting any in sight. Then, one faded in and out of phase alignment, just off my port bow. I yanked the controls hard in that direction. Warning, shields down, recommending evasive maneuvers.
Will you shut the hell up?! I yelled at the top of my lungs. Christ! Its like the Outcasts ship design has to tell you everything that is wrong! As I came up to the jumphole, it phased out and back in just as I jumped, causing the entire ship to lurch to the right in a violent manner. My arm slammed into the left side of the cockpit and I yelped in surprise. Cursing my bad luck I held on for dear life as the non-phase aligned jumphole began to tear my ship to shreds. I came out on the other side, in a bright system that looked like it was surrounded by a Nebula, and just ahead on my scanners, sat two Nomad Battleships.
My vision started to blur and I got a very painful headache. I grabbed a hold of the controls as steady as I could and yanked the ships controls off into another direction. The ship didnt obey at first; the jumphole must have done more damage than I thought it would. Eventually the ship cooperated and changed direction. Blue haze hung in front of my vision as I leaned into the ships controls. Jumphole detected. The computer said over the comm. system. Omicron Delta Jumphole. Approximately 4K ahead.
I directed the ship towards the hole and braced my self against the right side of the ship. The ship came out the other side, with yet another Nomad Patrol in front of me. Cursing my bad luck once again, I attempted to hit cruise, but was disrupted. Blood dripped out of my nose onto the console of my ship as I righted the controls and began to thrust away from the Nomads as quickly as the ship would allow. The two Nomad Battleships jumped in right behind me and began attacking with the others. All of a sudden, my mind was clear, and I saw symbols flying past my field of vision. I shook my head and continued to thrust away from the Nomads. I detected a Freeport 11 on long range scanners and went towards the station. The Nomads backed off as they noticed a Order battleship heading our way. I thrusted under the huge battleship and attempted to right myself straight into the docking port on the Freeport, however, it seemed the Order had other ideas. They turned their turrets on me and the Nomads both.
This is a Human vessel! Cease fire! Cease fire!! I screamed into my comm.
Negative NOMAD, we know your tricks all too well.
What?! This is Leo Uzamaki, cease fire already!
That did the trick. The Battleship immediately backed of and pursued the other Nomads that were now scattering in an attempt to regroup themselves into a more formable enemy towards the Order vessels. I quickly docked with the Freeport to avoid any further confrontations with either side, got my ship repaired and attempted to undock, only to find my docking port locked down.
So, Nomad, you take on Order ships in a futile attempt to escape. Said a deep voice behind me, I turned to face who it came from and saw a medium height man with a similar completion as my own. He smiled with an all knowing grin which made me uncomfortable in the biggest way. although, all your efforts are for naught.
For the last bloody time man, Im a human, look at me, do I look like a fracking Nomad to you? I said with an angry overtone.
Nomads never look Nomad until they reveal themselves.
I slapped my hand to my forehead and stared at the man. He wore several ugly scars on his face, many showing his age. One arced from the top of his right eye brow all the way over his head. It looked nasty from what I could discern from it. He frowned this time, as I watched him closely.
Although, I will say youre acting peculiar for a Nomad.
Thats because Im not a flipping Nomad man! Christ!
Then how did we detect some strange signals coming from your ship on the way in to the Freeport?
Hmm, maybe because I was leaving Omicron Alpha and flew through three systems to get them off my ass? Maybe? I dont know, what do you think?
The last sentence obviously angered him because he charged me. It was like my arms took on a mind of their own, before the man could blink I had him pinned against the opposite wall, his arm behind his back and his face against the wall. He got loose with a strange spin and kicked me in the chest. As I fell down, I managed to get a hand to the floor and twisted my lower half around to kick him in the face as he came at me on the floor. Stunned, he fell back against the same wall he had just come from. When he got up, I introduced my elbow to his head, and he slumped down.
I looked at him, now able to get a more accurate idea of who he was. He was in his middle forties I would guess. The rank he wore on his jacket was that of a high ranking Order operative. Naturally they were out this far into the Omicrons, after all their base was rumored to be somewhere in the Omicrons. I searched him for anything worth while and found nothing that could tell me anything about him. Of course, they shielded themselves from being discovered, that was only natural.
I picked up what I could from the room and loaded it into my hold, I drug his unconscious body out of the bay so he wouldnt get blown to space and left him inside. Something told me I would be seeing him again in the future, and I wanted our next little meeting to be more of a challenge, this time he knew I meant business, if we met again, he would know to try a little harder to take me down, than just thinking I was a pushover. I opened my exhaust ports and ignited my ships engines with force. The resulting g-forces slammed me into my seat as I busted through the sealed docking doors. The Freeport turned its turrets towards my ship and opened fire. I hit two switches and jetted as quickly as I could towards the north of the system. I came to a jumphole labeled Omicron Kappa and took the hole. I came out in a very strange looking system that looked like it over looked Sirius space. A strange Nebula surrounded this system as well, however near the end was a tunnel that continued on for what looked like forever.
Nomads showed up almost as soon as I came through and the headache returned. I kept my eyes open for as long as I could and discovered an Omicron Gamma jumphole. I quickly took it and came out in a Nebula, with no Nomads in sight. I remembered Gamma as well, the Corsair home system, enemies of the Outcasts, and here I was flying a Sabre. I targeted the nearest jumphole out of the system and accelerated as quick as I could towards itno sense in getting killed by Corsairs when I had just survived what I had been through. The Order mans face remained in my head.