Flight Delayed.

-continued-

The commander turned to Pathfinder, "Well you'll be under my command, name's Rigel, i ran the security in the port, I'll need you to back up the other officers at the south of the building. We're still tunnelling a way through the rubble to get to them, so for now you'll have to go the long way round."

Pathfinder looked at Jonas for confirmation, "Go, if we're going to get through we need a good gun covering our backs."

The drone nodded, hitting a button on his sleeve, Pathfinder slipped into the shadows, his outline fading with the cloak field. "He had a cloak?" whispered Rigel in confusion, "Why in god's name did he charge their lines to get to us then?"

"He dislikes it, in his own words, there's no thrill if they can't shoot back." Jonas sighed, "what about me then? don't let the eye fall you, i can fight." a stray bullet glanced past, leading to a heavy thump as another of the defenders collapsed. Cursing Rigel returned fire.

"look if you want to help join up with the militia inside, it's made up of other capsuleers trapped like you, along with a few of the residents."

Jonas patted him on the back as he scrambled past towards the ruined port, "try to save some for the rest of us amateurs." He joked, only to receive a grunt in reply.

"Afte...Get a fix o...Chime...They're droppi..." The distorted messages cut off as Jonas stepped in, the group circling round the radio looked up, a couple pointed the guns towards him, only to drop them as a young man at the back pushed through.

"Ah another capsuleer! come to join in the defence?" He man stood the one arm out and beckoning, the other clutching a cane, his plain shirt was stained with soot, and his white hair was matted with pieces of plaster caught up inside it as it flowed down to his shoulders.

"My name is Aldric, and welcome to the war room." A few of the group let out lack luster cheers, while the rest remained sullen and stone faced.

"This isn't a war," one of the other men laughed, "not yet at the very least." Aldric sighed, Jonas knew why, just by the look in their eyes Jonas could tell these men had been out into null space, he had himself, although briefly, and they all knew the horrors CONCORD tried to keep quiet.

"It's odd though, why are they bothering to assault this ruin, and with actual men, they could swarm this place with drones, we all know it." Jonas picked up the radio as he spoke, no reason for this thing to cut off he mused, must have been the on the other side. "What can't they risk losing?" To his surprise the capsuleers exchanged a series of awkward glances, until on of the port attendants spoke up.

"isn't obvious? They want us for slaves right? like those true slave things." She looked around for support, Aldric calming placed his hand on her shoulder, with a condescending smile he looked right into her eye, "My dear listen to what's going on out there, you hear those screams? They are the future slaves, your families will be their harvest, they won't fight back. Wasting this many trained men for a few slaves? No, they want something else entirely." For a second Jonas thought he saw Aldric glare, but the room was dark and he couldn't be sure.

"Well first things first," Jonas began, cutting the silence. "We need to make sure we can last an extended siege, CONCORD will eventually drive these bastards off we just need to hold out till then."

"Those security officers can't man the barricades all day and night, we need to organise some sort of shift system." Aldric frowned, "and teach the less fortunate here how to shoot."

"This isn't going to be pretty, but we're going to see this through." Jonas passed the radio back to Aldric, "It's one thing to have this on to listen for rescue, but we don't need to hear the sound of others dying, use it sparingly." Aldric pocketed the device
.
The so called 'miltia' began to move.


-to be continued, again-

Lot's and lots of talking, who would have thought you could have a casual chat during a Sansha invasion?

-and so we return-


He stumbled along, blood trickling down his face mixing with his tears blurring his vision. The stale air around him, once comforting was now suffocating. an arm reached out and grabbed his leg, causing him to fall, the figure to which it belonged was crumpled on the floor. It stared at him with a featureless face, "Jonas, don't run, they'll see see you, hide. Hide Jonas. Hide Boy!" It screamed at him, blood shot out from his mouth, as his blank face melted away to one mutilated beyond recognition.

Jonas yelled, pulling himself back to his feet, he ran further down the tunnel, screams and gunshots echoed down towards him followed by laughter. The tunnel opened up to a chamber, a large machine in the centre seemingly carved out of the rock. He felt himself squeeze underneath, the ancient hum of the machine muffling the violence around him. Then came the singing.

"Come now little mocking bird, where's your voice so shrill?" Jonas could hear his footsteps as he meandered into the chamber, the butt of his rifle dragged along the floor as he walked.

"Come now little mocking bird, serenade my meal." he began tapping the machine with his gun as he walked round.

"I've come for your little head," the tapping grew louder, "I'll fill it full with lead." he paused, in front of Jonas.

""Come now little mocking bird, let me shoot you dead." he fired his gun, the sound bounced round the room, as Jonas let out a gasp. The rifle pierced through a gap in the pipes, stopping centimetres from his face, Jonas could see right down the barrel.

"Found You. JONAS!"

Jonas woke with a start, sweat dripping down his neck, his hand pale from clutching the sides of his makeshift bed. Aldric looked at him, concern on his face.

"You alright mate?" Jonas looked at him for a second, before masking his face with a smile.

"Yeah, my shift up already?" he asked, he shoved his hands into his pockets to hide the shaking. "Why do you always wake before they actually take their clothes?" He joked, Aldric looked at him, unconvinced.

"Your shifts not up yet, but something's happened, we figured you ought to see it." Jonas climbed out of the bed, he was still shaking, but he stiffened himself, letting the memory slide to the back of his head. He looked at Aldric a look of seriousness returning to his face.

"What's going on?" he asked, as Aldric led him through the ramshackle barracks they had made within the port.

It has been three days since it had all began, they, and the group on the south side of the port were the only ones left. Yet after sacking the city the Nation hadn't left. As they fighting progressed, less and less of the elite Sansha troops were seen on the front, now replaced by the very townsfolk they had captured. Now mindless drones for the machine.

Rigel had taken a stray rocket on the second day, all that remained of him was a pair of burnt out boots. CONCORD had seemed to have abandoned the planet entirely, at least if they were there the enemy was keeping them from orbit.

They came to the com interface, it seemed like they had finally got it back and running, and a couple defenders were hunkered over it, as it flashed incoherently. Aldric pushed past the duo, leading Jonas to the device.

"When we got it running we received this recorded message, we can't access it, but it seems like,"

"like it's coming from my ship." Jonas answered, as he stepped up to looked at the panels with his good eye. "This shouldn't be possible, i should have lost my ship in the initial assault." he started decoding the message, "it's a broadband signal to all corp members, shouldn't be able to leave the system, but it's been set to repeat. i have no clue how long this has been broadcasting." He pulled up the message, and dialled in the access code.

"Lets see what my ghost ship is trying to say shall we?"

"To the raven ship in orbit," the voice began, it was synthetic, it had obviously been run through a masking system, "quite the unhealthy hobby you've picked up." it continued.

"But in this case beneficial to all. Your pals are alive, for now, but if you want to get them out of this hell hole then well, you'll have to earn your keep here." The tone wasn't threatening per say, but it wasn't light hearted either. "We need you to do some things for us, firstly, we need some eyes up there, we want the location of every Sansha ship in orbit. The second, we need you to destroy any planetary scanner they have set up up there. At a certain time of course. We know you can't answer this, it would give both our locations away. I can only hope that when the time is right, and that time is soon, that you will be in position, and have the information to hand." the voice cut off, as Jonas looked up at Aldric.

"Well, it seems someone has a plan to get us out of here, who the hell was that? You said we were the last ones on this planet." Aldric nodded,

"Our two groups are the last life signs, other than the Sansha yes," he began, only to be interrupted by one of the work crews.

"We found it!" He exclaimed, waving a data pad out in front of him.

"A data pad? I thought we were digging to connect to the south front?" Anger began to rise in Jonas's voice, "What the hell is going on!"


-nearly there now, but to be continued!-


and there you go malik, no free popcorn munching for you, the citizens need you!

-last bit from me-



"Your serpentis?" Jonas had Aldric pinned to the table, his grip on the man's shirt shaking with anger.

"Technically ex-serpentis," Aldric managed to say, as he squirmed, "Drake over there is former blood raider, and we have others from each of the pirate factions." Drake took a few steps back as he was glared at by Jonas. He took several deep breaths before lessening his grip on Aldric, "Could you care to tell me why all of you ah here, and perhaps why the Sansha Nation are after you?"

"Gladly, but first we have to get to the southern group, theres nothing left here to defend, we have what we need." Jonas took a step back, still furious, but slowly coming to his sense.

"You’re going to tell me everything on the way, and in the name of, if this doesn't some how involve a way off this planet, i will kill you." Aldric nodded, before carefully turning his back on Jonas to look at the others.

"Alright guys, we have the operating system, we can finally get off this rock." A wave of cheers erupted from the group. "Don't bother brining anything other than your guns with you, we'll have to rig up a couple to sporadic fire, so that the enemy still thinks we're here." The group started moving, as Aldric turned back to Jonas, "So i guess we owe you an explanation."

"Yes, start talking." The evac was smooth, it almost looked rehearsed, and it probably was, Jonas thought, they might have had this planned from day one.

"We’ll be going ahead of the group, along with the data we need, it's imperative it gets to the others." Jonas followed Aldric as he led him quietly out of the site, outwards to the makeshift path which led to the southern front.

"I will put it simply; this was a preemptive strike by the Sansha against us." Aldric whispered, as he hobbled along, with his crutch he had difficulty navigating the rubble. "We left our factions, taking many of our best scientists with us to form a coalition against Nation. Nation is an enemy to us more so than the empires, but during our conflicts it was obvious. We were outclassed and outgunned, our technology primitive." he paused for breath, as they ducked down to hide from a nearby drone patrol.

"So you decided to pull your expertise together?" Aldric shook his head, "Yes and no, we needed to go further than that. We stole, well more accurate to say we were given the subsystem tech, not even Sansha has been fortunate to get their hands on that capability of ship to ship advancement. It allowed us to create our own type of battle cruiser, bigger and better than it's siblings like the Proteus or Loki."

"So why didn’t you use these ships when they attacked?" Jonas didn’t need to ask really, it was slowly falling into place in his head.

"Because we couldn't, to avoid detection we have to segment the development, this planet is merely the assembly plant. We had almost finished when Sansha attacked, causing us to lose the single most important piece, the operating system."

"So we've been fighting so that we could find it, and then use your ships to escape?"

"We planned to originally, but judging by that transmission, we have a set of eyes in the sky. With that advantage, we can take the fight to them." Jonas looked back, the rest of the northern defense had begun to follow them, seemingly without pursuit.

"Right well i think i understand, but i still have no idea why you couldn't tell me all this in the beginning." Aldric looked at him, his face clearly displaying the 'isn't it obvious' look.

"You have a track record of killing pirates almost indiscriminately, most of your corporation does, and i personally didn’t want to get shot."

They made the rest of the trip in silence, it wasn't far, but avoiding the enemy on the way took time. As they approached the barricades the noise of gun fire was surprisingly absent, it did not take long to discover why. Pathfinder decloaked in front of them, his body drenched in blood, and a little bit of dirt.

"So you've arrived, did you find it then?"

"You knew as well?" Jonas exclaimed, eye wide in disbelief.

"They couldn't keep it from me, for obvious reasons. Also there’s someone you ought to see." The drone led the two of them inside, to a set of lifts. The doors slid open with a hiss, and the descent was rough, the machine had felt better days, of this Jonas could tell. After exiting the lift they were met with a long narrow corridor, monitors showing the skies above them lined the top of the walls.

"You may be surprised when you get in there, you may not, but i suggest not flipping out." Pathfinder whispered to Jonas.

"You know your sounding more and more like Gyra recently," Jonas whispered, probably did some tinkering to his personality when Gyra installed his new voice synthesizer, he thought.

"You have not been drinking in three days and," there was a pause, "and a bit. We all know you have a screw lose when you are sober." Jonas couldn't really argue with that.

"It’s alright, i seem to be fine at the moment, nothing to worry abou-" As they stepped through the door at the other end of the corridor, Jonas stopped mid-sentence. In front of him he saw the gutted remains of his ship's comm panel, and a pale haggard Elane hunched over it, sweat dripping form her forehead. "Elane? Your part of this as well?" Elane looked up at him, but before she could answer a voice rang out of the comm.

"Jonas? you there?" It took a few moments for Jonas to twig who it was on the other end.

"Malik? What are you doing here?" Jonas asked as he moved over to the panel.

"I'm here to help." She paused "I assume we've come to an understanding then Elane?" Elane leaned back, a nervous chuckle slipping out, "Yes, i understand." The connection cut off, and Elane looked at Jonas.

"Are all the women in your corp that," she stopped, holding back which ever word was about to leave her mouth. "Dangerous, for a little while i didn't know who we should fear more, her or Sansha." she turned her head to Aldric, "If you guys are here then you found the OS right?"

"Wait a second," Jonas cut in, "what are you doing with parts of my ship?" She looked at him, "Don't get snippy, it's not my fault your out the loop, someone killed the guards i sent to collect you."

"Ah."

"Yes 'ah.' Now if you must know, we've been using your Rattlesnake as the lab for our OS development, half your crew was our operatives." Jonas's face went blank.

"So that's the reason why they asked for R&R on this backwater planet. They wanted to smuggle the OS here." Elane clapped her hands together sarcastically.

Getting up, she flicked a switch on the panel, and grills on one side of the room slowly opened. Looking out Jonas's jaw almost hit the floor, the grills opened up to reveal a huge hanger five foreign and exotic ships were nestled inside.

"With these five ships, and the targeting data from your friend, we'll be able to wipe out the fleet above us. We did want to name them Chimera's but that name’s taken so" Before she could continue an alarm began to sound.

"Shit, they've breached the perimeter, won't be long till they get down the lift." The room sprang to life, groups of tech's dashing about, as Aldric hobbled over to an interface and began to load the OS. Elane pulled down a monitor from the ceiling, the display lighting up to show the approaching troops. The sound of Jonas falling forwards caused all to stop, as he fell towards the monitor, hands gripping the table as he stared at the image, his face going white.

"It's him" Jonas whispered, his right eye socket began to throb from behind the eye cam, as the nightmares began to resurface. The lead soldier walked up to the door, he was older than most, hair grey, and body riddled with cybernetic support.

"The OS will be installed in about ten minutes; we need to get to the ships." Aldric called, as he hobbled towards the hanger.

"That'll be pointless if those troops get in before launch." Elane snapped, as she continued gathering her equipment.

"i'll stay." Jonas replied, his face was calm and motionless as he spoke, "I will hold them off until you launch." Pathfinder gripped Jonas on the shoulder turning him around. "It should be me not you, i'm the Duster, remember." Jonas shook his head.

"No, you die your dead, i actually have a respawn, all be it a soft clone. Besides i won't let that man kill anyone else. Go with them, and i'll see you at the club after." Pathfinder looked like he was going to argue, but after a few moments of merely staring at Jonas, he shrugged. His visor opened up, and he pulled a hip flask out form it, tossing it to Jonas.

"I'll come kill you if you get taken." He said, before turning and joining the others heading towards the hanger, they had all but forgotten about Jonas, as he turned back to the corridor. The door locking behind him. He unsheathed 'TLV,' resting it against the wall, as he then proceeded to load his pistol, staring at the lift, as he listened to the chatter over the radio.

It felt like an eternity when the lift began to move, memories echoing in his head, as it slowly made its way down. He heard the lift come to a stop, raising his pistol he waited, the door burst open, as the less intelligent of the troops surged forward firing wildly. The shots tore past Jonas as he calmly took his time, dropping each of them one by one as he walked forward. Miraculously the enemy’s bullets only hit his outer body, tearing through his shoulder, arms, and legs; he let out no cry of pain, his eye set ahead of him. The sound off from the five ships rang through his head, temporarily silencing the cries of the men dying in front of him.

“Jackalope ready for launch” Rang out Elane’s voice.

“Jörmungandr is a go.” “Lucifer and Gabriel are ready.” “Alucard prepped, OS installed.” The entire complex began to shake, as the engines began to activate. Jonas dropped the pistol, the shells empty as he turned off the radio, as the count downs ringed through. Picking up ‘TLV’ he charged forward, as the skys above bloomed into life.

The ground erupted, rubble flew in all directions, as the five ships shot forward, beams and missiles flew out of turrets and bays, searing through the clouds, sending ripples out as they exited the atmosphere. Following close behind swarms of drones darted forwards piercing through into space like a storm of hail striking a lake. Balls of flame and light lit up the dawn’s sky, as the shots rang true. The ships broke formation spreading out as they left the ruined city behind.

Jonas saw none of this as he brought his blade down on the grunt now climbing over it’s dead comrades. It severed both his head and arm from his body, blood spurting forward as the next lunged forward, knife in hand. The knife sank deep into Jonas’s arm, as he threw it up into a bong sau defence. Letting out no sign of pain, his body already fully pumped with adrenaline, he flicked his bong sau round into a back fist, blood from his arm splattering the walls as his fist connected with the man’s temple. It dazed him enough for Jonas to drive his sword up through his belly with ease. Pulling the blade out he spun round to face the next assailant, only to be met with a sharp boot square to the face, sending Jonas flying back down the corridor. As Jonas scrambled to his feet, his true target stepped out of the lift, his pale green eyes scanned across the room, before settling on the exhausted, torn up man in front of him. He slowly lifted his rifle up, pointing it at Jonas’s head. The knife shot across the corridor, embedding itself into the butt of the rifle. Blood dripped from the now gaping wound on his arm, as he ran towards him. The old man dropped his rifle, and also jumped forwards, and his fist was faster, it collided into Jonas, breaking his already bloodied nose. As Jonas reeled back, he swung his other fist, striking Jonas’s stomach, lifting him upwards as he puked, blood bile and whatever Jonas called a lunch raining down on him.

As he wiped the liquids out of his face Jonas struggled back to his feet, his fingers wrapped themselves round ‘TLV’s pommel, he walked forward, the blade dragging along the floor. As the man turned back to face Jonas, he swung the blade forwards in an arc, letting go of the pommel, his hand seized the hilt as the tip of the blade line up with the man’s heart. Thrusting out, he pressed in, the sword penetrated his chest, passing through as Jonas pushed further in, until they were face to face, the man’s eye rolled back in agony, as he struggled to find breath among the blood, two words left his lips.

“Thank you.” Jonas stood there, staring at the corpse. Then the mask broke, he stumbled back, as hysteric laughter echoed the room.

“Thank you? Thank you! What sort of shitty novel is this?” his laughing turned to coughing as he collapsed on to the opposite wall, still facing the corpse of them man who had terrorised his sober dreams.

“What now?” he cried, “I come upon an epiphany? Realise some great insightful truth?” He laughed again. “Well that can go fuck itself.” He reached into his jacket, pulling out Pathfinder's flask, taking a heavy swig before lifting it up to the sky. “Well here’s to just one life goal.” He sat there, his breathing becoming lighter, and his vision blurring, as he watched the monitors, the sky they displayed still think with explosions.

“Now one of two things is going to happen,” he whispered, “either I’ll die before they get to me, or the remaining Sansha on the ground find me first.” The darkness crept in around the edges of his blurred vision.

“Here’s hoping for a mouth full of goo.” He whispered, as he faded off into a long and deep sleep.

Yay - finished story for now. Big hugs to Jonas for letting me play....hope everyone enjoyed

Next time try and finish on your feet though