Chapter 1
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It had only been a few hours since I got back from a tour Id been on with the Liberty Navy.
My brother and I sat in a small bar in Manhattan, hunched over our mugs of Liberty ale.
It seemed like a lifetime since we last saw each other, and it felt good to
reminisce. He was trying to fill in all the memories that I missed while I was gone. The
worst of the events was the death of our parents. They had been waiting for a connection
flight back to Manhattan on Freeport 7 when it was destroyed.
We talked for hours,
throwing stories back and forth at one another. Being brothers, we got along much better
than youd think. It was hard to believe Dave was the only family I had left. Time slipped
away from the two of us, and before we knew it we had lost ourselves in the
evening.
Walking out of the bar, the crisp air of night pressed against our faces.
The bright lights and television screens made my eyes squint. It was good to be home. Dave
walked ahead of me a few steps and looked out over the balcony. We watched ships pass over
and under us for a few minutes. Manhattan, just like its ancient counterpart, was busy at
all hours. A large freighter slowly roared through the sky over head. Do you remember
back when we used to dream about being fighter pilots? Protecting cargo shipments, leading
raids Dave smiled and looked off into the distance. Its been a long day bro, lets go
home. I walked past and lightly tugged him to follow.
Dave was a few steps ahead of
me up a flight of stairs that lead to the landing platform when he froze. I caught up
quickly, and stopped when I saw what was happening. From the looks of it, a Liberty
Security Force unit was making an arrest on the platform. There were either five or six
agents, I couldnt tell, and they had their weapons drawn. The agents were escorting
criminals off a ship. Something didnt seem right though, I could feel it. They looked
like Liberty Rogues; and Rogues never gave up with out a fight. Just then I noticed one of
the Justice Cannons change direction, now facing towards the agents. Hey look out! I
screamed as I ran out onto the platform, Dave following close behind. The Cannon fired,
slowly sweeping its way across the platform, ripping apart the agents. The cannon didnt
stop after it finished them, and it continued to turn towards us! I dove onto the ground,
feeling the heat from the blast wiz by my head. Hitting the metal platform with a thud, I
gritted my teeth and tried to bear the sting of pain. Dave moaned behind me. Could he have
been hit?
The engines of the ship fired up, and the last of the rogues got in. I
planted my hands and tried to lift myself, but my strength hadnt returned. Dave!? I
called to him. He replied with another moan. Gathering all my strength, I took a deep
breath, and groaned as I struggled to stand. I could hear sirens now; the LPI mustve
caught on. Dave was curled up, and shaking. His back was to me, I couldnt see what was
wrong. I knelt over him, and put a hand on his shoulder. You okay? I asked. Slowly, I
rolled him over onto his back. His chest was scorn, smoke still pouring out of the wound.
I scooped him up into my arms. Somebody help me! I screamed, rushing toward the
steps.
It had only been a few hours since I got back from a tour I was on with the
Liberty Navy. The last living member of my family was dying, and there wasnt a thing I
could do about it. I sat on a seat in the corner of Daves hospital room, and looked over
at him. He lay on the bed, almost lifeless. Dr. Kimball walked in and startled me. He was
a short, bulky old man who was starting to bald. Hello there, you must be Ian, Davids
brother?
Thats right.
Im Doctor Kimball.
We shook hands, and he
pulled a clipboard out from under his arms. Kimball studied it for a moment, and then
looked up. His eyes were filled with tremendous fear and sadness, led me to believe
something was very wrong. Mr. Michaels, Im not going to lie to you: your brother has a
very slim chance of surviving this. He has radiation poisoning, and without the proper
treatment and removal of the damaged cells, he will die.
Then lets do the
operation to remove it!
Its not that simple. The operation is very
costly
Costly? Doesnt the insurance I have from the Navy cover it?
The
operation costs roughly sixteen thousand credits. Your insurance will only cover
seventy-five hundred.
I was getting so frustrated it was making it hard to think. I
turned away from Kimball. He may have only been the messenger, but it felt like he was the
devil himself.
How long does he have to live?
About five
days.
Just be ready to do that operation in four.
I walked out of the
hospital and let out a heavy sigh. How the hell was I going to get that many credits in
such a short period of time? I could probably get some work from the navy, and I bet
Charlie Summers is still hanging out over at Reds Tavern
From the looks of it,
nothing in that ratty old bar changed from when I was last there two years ago. The place
smelled musty, and a cloud of smoke loomed over the bar. Sure enough, Charlie Summer was
perched on a bar stool, nursing his drink. I approached him with a smile, and patted him on
the back when I got up to him. Hey buddy, how you been? Surprised, Charlie turned to me
and smiled when he found out who I was. Well look who it is, how you been
ace?
Great! Whats going on?
Same story, different day man.
I
hear you bro. You dont have any work available by any chance, do you?
Sure do.
Rogues have been running a muck over in sector 5D, and we need somebody to take care of
them. Well be dispatching some of our own units as well, who will meet you
there.
Whats the pay?
2,100 credits.
I need to make eighty-five
hundred dollars in the next four days.
Charlie looked me straight in the face for a
second, and then laughed. Id ask you to sit down and have a drink, but it sounds like
youve already had enough. I continued to stare at him with a straight face, and he
stopped laughing. Sorry kid, I cant help you. We dont get contracts for that
much.
Thanks anyways man.
Charlie went back to his drink, and I turned to
walk out. A man wearing a faded leather jacket and tan cargo pants turned right into my
path and bumped into me. Sorry feller. He apologized, but didnt get out of my way. I
heard youre in need of some quick cash?
I just might be, why are you
asking?
This communiqué came in just this morning
He handed me a sheet of
paper, and I studied it briefly. Apparently a Wall inmate named Uriel Khan was rumored to
have been planning an escape, and a large army was going to pull him out. If youre in,
Ill make sure you have more than enough to take care of your brother. I looked up at the
man, and he was gone.
It had been about three hours now, and still no sign of
anything. Id been sitting and waiting, lying adrift on the outskirts of planet Houston.
Huntsville Prison lay quiet and peaceful in front of me. I spent the past few hours getting
friendly with a few other bounty hunters who responded to the communiqué. Their names were
Daniels, Jackson, and Smith. They also filled in a few of the gaps in information I had
about this Khan guy. Hes a leader of the Xenos, and theyre supposedly massing up an
entire army to get him out. Hopefully they were planning to try to break him out before my
next birthday. Daniels and the others continued on to tell me how they spent most of
yesterday outfitting their Barracudas with new weapons (and how they managed to dig
themselves 15,000 credits into debt at the same time). Jackson added three Lava blade MK II
turrets, and seeker mines. Daniels outfitted his ship much in the same way, but instead of
seekers added Wardog mines. Smith had attached sweeper missiles and two Magma Hammer MK
IIs. I sat staring blankly at my inventory manifest, listening to the electronic hum of my
Heads up Display system. My ship was dog meat compared to theirs. I was in your run of
the mill navy issue Defender; never the less I was armed to the teeth. I spent most of
last night pillaging a cache of weapons and parts from a navy ware house (whose location I
cannot disclose). I can tell you what I made out with though: A slingshot missile launcher
(with enough missiles to send Manhattan back to the Stone Age), and two Vengeance cannons.
Ian, how long are we supposed to just sit here and wait? Daniels called to me over the
ship to ship radio. Youre welcome to stay as long as wait a second I got something
coming up on my screen. I got up from my relaxed slouch, and sat forward in the seat. The
radar showed two Xenos Starfliers coming in from the Hudson Jump Gate trade lane. Here we
go boys, get ready to roll. I commanded over the radio. Smith let out a YEEHAW and we
started to head towards the Starfliers. When we began to get close, they hailed us. Bounty
Hunter Ships, we advise you to step aside, these matters do not pertain
you.
Thanks, but no thanks.
You have been warned, over and
out.
Break formation gentlemen, lets get to business.
Jackson, Smith, and
Daniels all broke off into different directions while firing towards the approaching ships.
We all threw on our afterburners, screaming through space right past the Starfliers. Smith
and I threw on our port thrusters quick, making a 180 degree turn, while Jackson and Daniels
kept heading in their direction and firing with the turrets. The Starfliers were caught off
guard and lost most of their shields. Jackson and Daniels looped around me and Smith, who
were now coming straight at the Xenos Ships. The Starfliers separated and headed over
towards Jackson and Daniels. The blasts of their Lava blades rained down on my two wingmen,
leaving quite an impact on their shields. Just then my warning indicator went off.
Warning, incoming missile detected! The computer shouted. I looked down at the radar I
had been ignoring and realized that more ships had been coming in while we were fighting the
Starfliers! Heads up boys we got a boat load of trouble coming in on our sixes. I said
as I threw on the afterburners, hoping to outrun the missiles. The rumors about them hiring
freelancers were dead on. Aside from four other Xenos Starfliers and two Xenos Startrackers
coming in, there were also three patriots heading in our direction. Thank god we stocked
up on weapons Jackson Joked.
Its going to take a lot more than weapons to make it
out of here alive.
I turned the ship around and headed towards the oncoming fleet.
Jackson, Smith, and Daniels moved into position as my wingmen. Heres what we do boys:
Jackson and Daniels, you guys pound your way straight through em; use the turrets to blast
everything around you. Smith, you and I are going to loop around through them; hit
everything you can with your seeker missiles. There is a ton more of them than there are of
us, so hopefully if we do enough ducking and weaving theyll cause damage to
themselves.
You think there is a reason they havent fired on us yet?
I
have no idea, dont worry about it. Our job is to just make sure they dont break Khan out
of Jail.
Understood
Suddenly, the three patriots broke formation from the
Xenos and decreased their throttle. All the other Xenos ships began charging their cruise
engines. What the hell is going on? Smith asked. Looks like theyre going to try to
keep us busy with the freelancers and buy enough time to get Khan out of jail. The
patriots pelted us with laser fire from Justice Cannons. Two of the three ships broke left
while the third broke right. I returned the favor to the ship that broke right, and buried
him under a barrage of Slingshot missiles. Jackson crossed his flight path and dropped a
seeker mine. The poor bastard barely had a second to react, and flew right into it.
Jackson, who was now behind the guy, finished him off with a series of lasers blasts from
the Lavablade turrets. Smith and Daniels were busy trying to handle the other two
freelancers when I came to join. I fired my slingshot missiles at the patriot on the left,
and he threw on the afterburners and shot up. Damn! I thought to myself, I just missed him.
He wasnt going to get away that easily. The pilot was good; Id seen his maneuvers
somewhere before. He wasnt up to navy stature though, and I caught up with him quickly and
ended his flight with a few blasts from my vengeance cannons. Jackson had run into some
problems of his own, and was being tailed by the last ship. Daniels had broken off and was
returning, heading on a collision course with Jackson. At the very last possible second
Jackson activated his port thrusters while Daniels threw on his starboard, and they just
grazed past each other. Both Jackson and Daniels dropped mines as they flew by, and the ship
tailing Daniels rammed into them. Jackson quickly killed his engines, and as the injured
ship flew past he fired his Lavablades. The Lavablades tore the Patriot apart, and Smith
hovered past, quickly rummaging through the debris to see if there was any loot worthy of
the taking. A distress call came through on the radio, If there are any ready and abled
ships in the area please respond! A prisoner has just successfully The radio turned to
snow, and the operators voice was drowned out. Looks like Khan escaped Daniels blurted
over the radio. He isnt out of the deep end yet. Smith replied. The four Xenos
Starfliers and two Startrackers were now returning on the same path they had originally
taken. Adrenaline shot through me as I awaited the ships. 5K4.5K3K2.5K. They kept
getting closer and closer. Get ready I muttered over the radio. Just as they were in
attack range, three Starfliers and one of the Startrackers dropped their cruise engines and
began to attack. The other two ships continued to head for the Hudson Jump Gate trade lane.
Despite our advanced evasion techniques, the Xenos werent by any means a bad shot, and we
took a good deal of damage. All at once, Jackson, Smith, Daniels, and I released a wall of
lasers towards the coming onslaught. They took a serious amount of heavy fire, but just
managed to survive the first pass. Something kept running through my mind that I can
guarantee you was passing through every one of my wingmen as well: we had to dispose of
these lug heads as fast as we could in order to catch up to Khan. If he escaped, then this
would have just all been a waste of time. Smith fired the sweeper missiles and got lucky,
hitting one of the ships. These Xenos had poor evasion techniques, and every time they would
turn to make a pass it was easy to make them eat lead so to speak and pound on them with
laser fire. The diversion tactic the Xenos devised failed miserably, and within a minute we
were closing in on Uriel and his escort. Dont think Ill be putting up a fight as weak as
the others have, youll be in for a surprise. Uriel threatened. It seemed like we had him
running scared, when just then he quickly killed his engines and ended up behind us. Khan
had two pair of his own Magma Hammers, and he opened them up, unleashing a sea of laser fire
upon our rears. Daniels and I banked left while Jackson and Smith Banked right. The
Starflier had made a turn around and was heading back in our direction, now releasing his
own barrage of missiles and laser fire upon us. You got to be kidding me! Smith cried out
over the radio. I dont remember exactly, but we had all been victim to an insane amount of
fire, and probably had less than one quarter of our shields left. Khan and his team mate
flew past each other and made a turn around to repeat that same attack pattern. Dont let
them finish. I called out. Jackson and Daniels quickly zig zagged through Khans route,
blanketing it with seeker and Wardog mines, and Smith and I emptied the last of our missiles
out at them. Khan was an incredible pilot, and maneuvered right through the mines. Out of
no where, three more Startrackers appeared, surprising us with a handful of laser fire! I
couldnt believe that Khan was getting more assistance. We were all violently getting hit
left and right by the Xenos, who were swarming around us. Im not going to let my brother
die! I screamed out. We werent about to give up easily, and pressed onward, blindly
attacking anything that got close. My hull wasnt even at 40%, and I figured I had probably
a minute left before lasers ripped me into small space dust. Thanks for keeping them
busy. A voice rang out over the radio. I glanced over to my left, and couldnt believe my
eyes. It was a squadron of LPI fighters! The small team flew right into the heat of our
battle, chasing down the Startrackers one by one. Out of the cloud of debris, laser fire,
and wreckage flew Uriel Khan, who was desperately trying to make an escape. You boys go
take care of him, we got this. One of the fighter pilots said. I couldnt see Jackson,
Daniels, and Smith, but I can guarantee you they had smiles as big as mine. We detached
ourselves from the others, and began to pursue our fleeing bounty. With almost no aim at
all, we all fired towards Khan, who was almost at the trade lane. Probability took the
upper hand, and one of our laser blasts disrupted Khans engines, making Khan a fish out of
water. As we approached, we slowed and circled around him. Uriel Khan you are under
arrest for destroying Liberty Property, and escaping from an incarceration
facility.
It had only been a few days since I got back from a tour Id been on with
the Liberty Navy. I earned enough money to pay for my brothers operation, which happened to
be a success. The only thing I have to worry about now is a very angry message I received
from the Xenos this morning
