This is my first Star Conflict fanfiction and will feature multiple users and corporations. If you want to be in the story, PM me and I’ll see where I can fit you in. Warning This story will have some swearing in it, and violence.
Hope you enjoy it!
Prologue
“Build time has completed.”
He had been waiting for that phrase for what seemed like an eternity. He looked up from the report he had been reading to the dim glowing hologram showing him what had been finished. He walked over calmly to it, eyes staring at it intently as he made sure everything that he needed was there.
“We’re ready.”
The people around him froze, their eyes turning with suddenly wolfish grins to look at the same hologram as their leader. The leader turned, and began to walk, slowly back to his command chair. There was a time when he would have been running down to his fighter, but not anymore. He had others to fight that way for him.
As he settled into the command chair he noted how everyone was waiting for his command and he took a breath before speaking.
“Send off the scouts and begin to supply for an attack, we go after the pirates and the Cartel, then we’ll take on the Biomorphs… and then when all of them are swept under the rug, we’ll go a reclaim what has been taken from us.” The leader finished with a nod and the people around him turned into an organized chaos as they went about ordering units around and getting supplies for the upcoming campaign. It was a pleasure to see all the hard work he had done finally coming together to hit back at those that had wronged him.
It was time to show them the [ERROR] of their ways.
Chapter 1~ Sight Unseen
“Damn it they’re swarming the command center again!”
The command ship hovering over the guard and engineering ships swung around to watch as the red marks of the enemy charged towards the command center. The ship tilted slightly it its port, watching as the guard and engineering swung around before activating its weapons buff and surging forward to engage the enemy swarm.
“Torpedoes have launched!”
“Watch out someone has a bomb.”
“I’m on it.”
The furious battle chatter of the dreadnought battle was calmer then it seemed.
AdmiralStarNight, or just Admiral (and sometimes StarNight,) scowled as she heard and saw the warning of a locked on missile flashing before her on the HUD. She twisted her command ship around and hit her afterburners, surging up and around a spire on the BEAST dreadnought and ‘heard’ the missile explode against it. She pivoted around and saw a large fireball as a torpedo was destroyed.
StarNight hit her afterburners again, and moved back up to see the engineering she’d been hovering over under attack from an enemy command ship. She came in fast, launching a missile and grinning as the ship exploded.
“Hey Admiral, thanks for that.”
“No problem Old.”
“I’d rather you call me God.”
“I’d rather me not.” StarNight replied as she watched the last two enemies from the swarm retreated as the guard returned to the side of the engineering ship. “How about we settle on Finnish?”
“Deal.” OldFinnishGod said over the com.
StarNight twisted around and activated the team wide circuit. “The dreadnought released another bomb, hey Rogue, you’re fast, why don’t you take it?”
“Alright I’m on it.” TheRogueAce replied and a flash as an small ship suddenly flew by, picking up the bomb and circling back. “Can someone escort me please?! If we get this one through it should win it.”
A couple of other ships joined Rogue and together the group sped over.
“Watch above we have a gunship!”
“I know but I just a recon cloak on me.”
“The recon can wait, that gunship just activated overdrive!”
“Get that bomb in place Rogue.”
“Yeah Halfast, I got it… And placed! Nuke dropped, lets get the xxxx out of here!”
For a moment everything seems to pause and then a collective cheer went up over the BEAST communications circuit as the enemy ships retreated to the dreadnought hangar and the large ship disappeared as it ‘despawned’.
Technology was strange in this sector of space. Ever since the advent of the ‘respawner’ people never really died in battle, they respawned. Every mercenary got one of the chips which let them respawn when they got their first ships. This strange technology was alien sure, but it worked and allowed each of the three nations to only need to attract new bodies, not actively recruit or draft people. Which is why everything was always an active melee of death and destruction.
It was the same for dreadnought battles, instead of completely destroying the ships, they always despawned before complete destruction and the corporation unfortunate enough to lose had to spend time refitting and repairing, while the winner could go into another battle if they wished.
It was, StarNight thought, complex and somewhat messed up, but it earned a great amount of credits for upgrading and buying ships, supplies and fuel.
As StarNight jumped out of her ship in the dreadnought’s ships bay, she could already see most of the other pilots gathering around Rogue to congratulate him for placing the winning hit on the dreadnought.
“… was close though, at least it wasn’t OWL.” Rogue said as StarNight joined the group.
“Yeah they’ve beaten us enough that I almost thought our dreadnought wasn’t working.”
“Who is LEGA anyways?” Dagossix asked. “I don’t remember the name.”
“Legacy I think.” Halfast said, pulling up a hologram to search through the names. “Yep that was Legacy.” The CEO leaned back onto a crate. “We did well, after this you’ve all earned some downtime,” He turned to look at StarNight. “Admiral?”
“Yes?”
“Still need a bit of practice, but you did good protecting Fin and Bauder, how much longer till you get your next command ship?”
“A while, need to go finish up some contracts and earn some more money, a couple more levels and I should have the next command ready.” She replied.
“Hm, okay, Requiem, you should go and help her level, anyone else going to go salvage for credits?” Halfast asked and watched a few more people raise their hands. “Alright then, don’t forget to contribute to the building of our next turret, and don’t go getting into any fist fights, I don’t want to wake up tomorrow and find someone in jail or respawned because they were gloating. Got it?”
A chorus of ayes answered and he clapped his hands together as a tone sounded, telling everyone aboard that they were back at their shipyard. “Good! Now everyone go and relax! OR fight! Whatever, just don’t get yourself killed too much!”
A few people laughed as they headed back to their ships, jumping into them and taking off into space to go where they were needed.
“Watch out for that Recon Admiral!”
StarNight hauled her ship, currently her command into the tightest turn she could manage, lined her guns up and pulled the trigger. The assault railgun fired a tight burst of explosive rounds and the ship exploded in a bright fireball as its health finally dropped to zero.
“Thanks Dagossix.” She said as her ship stopped beside the beacon the officer was already parked beside. “Hey Requiem, do you have the LRF in sight?”
“Well no, he’s hiding, but I hit him pretty good before he got behind that asteroid.” Requiem replied. “And I see the gunship is headed towards you.”
“Can you kill it?” Dagossix asked as he turned his own guard to face the new contact
“One moment.”
A bright red burst of light lanced out from where they had hypered into the sector and connected with the gunship causing the enemy to shift and turn to look for where the shot had come from. Another red burst landed and StarNight surged forward in her command, activating her shield and firing her own weapon at the distracted gunship.
It was all Requiem needed. A last shot lanced out and the gunship turned to floated wreckage.
As the beacon beeped a confirmation and showed that it was in their hands, they waited for the enemy to come back and try to take it.
No one did. This sector was theirs.
“Okay, time to head home!” Dagossix said. “Hey Admiral, race you back to the warp gate into this sector.”
“That’s not a fair race, your ship is a brick compared to mine.” She replied as she turned her ship around to begin the trip back to the warpgate that would bring them back to their base.
“Well now… I guess you’re right. I could still kick your xxxx with this ship though.”
“Anyone could kick my xxxx with that ship Dag.” She replied with a chuckle.
“Still, it can’t do everything, though there was this one time I was hunting beacons and…”
StarNight had been listening to the man tell his story when a small glitch appeared on her sensors. She looked down at the readouts and it disappeared. An enemy they hadn’t taken care of? She twisted her ship around and pushed her afterburners to full strength, ignoring the confused question she got from her teammates.
As she rounded the asteroid she saw a blur flash past and she tried to track it, to lock on, and it disappeared… a recon maybe? She kept her ship moving as she looked around and suddenly another blur of black and a small glitch on her sensors. She watched it disappear again with a frustrated snort.
“Hey Admiral, what’s wrong?”
StarNight turned her ship around as Dagossix rounded the crest of the asteroid. She sighed.
“I thought I saw an enemy we hadn’t taken care of.” She explained. “Didn’t register on my sensors correctly.”
“It’s probably a bug from the ECM hit you took earlier. But it’s good that you’re on top of your sensors. Let’s get you back into the station and we’ll see about getting it fixed.” The BEAST officer said.
StarNight paused to glare out in the general direction of where she had seen the ‘glitch’ appear. She was kind of sure it was real, but Dagossix was right, the ECM hits can do strange things to equipment at times. “Alright, lets go.” She said, joining the guard ship in its trip back to the gate.
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**Chapter 2~ The Owl and the Beast**
"Okay everyone, stay close, be careful. Watch the engineer and stay alive." Allister said as they warped in. The 8 person team of ships followed behind Allister, the designated leader this round, while the engineering ships and a command were in the middle of the group. As they approached the center, contacts began to appear. Buffs were activated and everyone went on high alert.
they were fighting OWL this time around.
"First contact, watch their guard!" GeniusCarrot called as the bullets and plasma began to trade between the groups.
"stay behind the asteroid, Zim see if you can draw them out!" Allister snapped over the com and InvaderZim in a recon darted forward to tempt them.
someone fell for it, a gunship a bit too eager for a kill moved forward and disappeared under a barrage of fire and damage modules.
The rest of the OWL team retreated to regroup and quite a few exclamations of triumph as Allister grinned.
"Okay, time to move forward! Gurkenkoenig, stay close to Genius and Admiral I saw you took almost took a nuke to the face." He said as the ships formed up on him again.
"It okay, I survived, we have a good engie, he's been healing me." G-man replied, his usual German accent (and how he managed to keep it after living in space for so long is a mystery) coming clear over the com.
Allister began to crest over the asteroid, sensors reaching out to see where the enemy was.
and he frowned as he realized they were nowhere.
"Anyone got any contacts?" He asked and every reply was negative, even as Zim darted forward to scout ahead. "Zim any wreckage?"
"None that I can see." Zim relplied. "Not many places to go over here, I would of seen them."
"Hey at least we won." Genius replied.
"but OWL wouldn't just... Give up." Admiral came onto the circuit. "They might regroup, but never just abandon such a battle, I don't know many corps that would."
"Admiral is right. Much as I like winning, this is strange." Allister said. "We'll take a look over the whole area, everyone stay on your toes."
After an hour of looking, no enemies turned up and the confused BEAST ships retreated back to their area in confusion.
“They what?” Halfast questioned as he pulled himself out of the circuits of the gunship he was working on, wiping grease on the dirty cloth hung at his belt.
“They just disappeared.” Allister replied, picking up a tool that had fallen to the floor. “They went to regroup, fell off our sensors and we never found them.”
the CEO stopped wiping his hands after he realized he was still doing it and returned the cloth to the loop on his belt. “Well… Maybe they got recalled for a dreadnought mission.”
“I highly doubt that, they had enough pilots on stand by on the rosters to do fine without the 8 we were fighting.” G-man said, shaking his head.
Halffast, looked back up at the wiring he’d been working on. “Okay, G-man, I want you grab someone else, anyone with a fast ship, and go over to OWLs slip, discretely, and see if their dreadnought is there. Try to keep com silence and don’t fire unless fired on, i really don’t want them holding a grudge for ‘spying’ the next round we have to face them.”
“alright, hey Admiral!” the man turned to look at Admiral, as she paused in the middle of a sip of tea.
“yes?”
“got any fast ships?”
“sure, as long as you don’t expect me to attack anything.” She replied, opening up a hologram and selecting her Divrgr Why?"
“Scouting mission.” He said. “Get something to eat and maybe a stimulant if you need it. We’re leaving now.”
G-man wasn't usually nervous, but what he and Admiral were doing was a big NO in the customs of corporations. You didn't scout other corps, it just wasn't done. He turned to look to his right and got a thumbs up from Admiral in her own ship, so close he could see the holograms projected onto her cockpit glass.
With confirmation that his wingman was ready, he pulled out from under cover of the BEAST dreadnought and pushed his speed to the max, Admiral staying in close to his right and slightly behind him. As they sneaked along the docks they carefully hid from patrols and other pilots, it was slow going really.
Finally they reached OWLs dreadnought and Gurkenkoenig frowned as he saw the telltale signs of damage from a lost dreadnought battle. They were being patched over and the repairs looked like they were well along... So why did those....
_"Halt trespassers!"_
The voice cracked over the communications and G-man swore silently and reached activate his microwarp. A red status symbol flashed up on his HUD, showing damage to his modules. A large guard, two ECMs and a command appeared out of the shadow of a near by hangar, all sporting the OWL symbols somewhere on their hulls.
_"If you try and run, we'll blast you with ECM and haul you in anyways."_ The voice said as the ECMs moved into flanking positions. _"Understand?"_
"Yes." He replied tersely and Admiral echoed the word as they were escorted into the hangar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unsurprisingly, when G-man and Admiral hopped out, they were greeted by armed guards. However Gurkenkoenig could not help notice that rather then the standard sidearms carried usually, these guards were carrying rifles and dressed in partial armor.
They were led to an office in the general area of the slip. A guy sat behind a desk, looking none-too-happy as he scanned a holographic report.
"We've brought you the spies Sir."
"Oh good." He looked up and the two shared a glance, it was g4borg, the CEO of OWL Initiative. For a second he seemed to be thinking as he looked at them, then his eyes flared in anger.
"You two were at the battle our people 'disappeared' from!" He snapped.
"Yeah we're wonder if..." Gurkenkoenig began before being cut off.
"Where have you put them?!" He said, leaning over his desk.
"We didn't put them..." Admiral began.
"Well someone took our people and the only others around them was your corp!"
"We didn't touch them!" Gurkenkoenig argued.
"Then you must of used an Unspawner because they haven't turned up anywhere since that battle!" g4borg said.
Gurkenkoenig and Admiral both managed to look quite offended and shocked at the same time. Despawn just sent you back to the hangar you based at or to the warp gate, an Unspawner killed, you never got to respawn again. The German VP opened his mouth to reply when millanbel rushed in, looking a bit haggard and out of breath.
"Borg... We lost... Another set, the two new trainees..." He was breathing hard. "One minute they were dodging between structures, the next... Gone. We looked everywhere... We can't find them."
g4borg looked disturbed and then turned back to the Beasts. "I'm sorry for accusing you like that... Its just that we've never had so many pilots disappear like that I thought maybe your corp had taken them prisoner."
"Look, we were just as confused as you when they disappeared from our sensors. We looked everywhere, we couldn't find them in the sector." Admiral said and g4borg sighed as he sunk down into his chair. "We would never wish death upon anyone."
"Its just so... Strange. NASA had their top 5 pilots disappear one round and the next round, two of their officers vanished. We've heard some rumors of other corps losing people as well." The Owl CEO said.
"Maybe we can try and figure something out."
Gurkenkoenig and g4borg turned in surprise to AdmiralStarNight, who was rubbing her chin in thought.
"How?" g4borg asked.
"We go into a battle against each other, and we don't fight, we circle the wagons, so to speak, and see if something tries to attack us. We should plan to have engineering ships and commands for boosts and guards and any other ships we think we need." Admiral nodded. "It'd be our best bet."
"Thats... A good idea." g4borg said slowly. "You know what, I'll do it, and I will see if I can get some NASA ships in on it too. If I let you go, can you go back to Halfast and tell him of your suggestion and that i will be wiling to talk it over?"
"We can do that" Gurkenkoenig said.
"Good, guards, bring them back to their ships and refuel them then let them go. Millanabel," the OWL CEO turned to his VP. "Go get OregyenDuero and contact NASA and talk them into doing this."
millanabel nodded and turned and walked out of the room and g4borg turned back to Gurkenkoenig and Admiral. "Once again I'm sorry for the way I acted."
"It can be forgiven, given the circumstances." Gurkenkoenig said. "I just hope that this idea works."
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**Chapter 3~ Cooperation Written in Blood**
Halfast gave the module one last reassuring tug to make sure it was in place correctly before he took a step back.
He looked back at the 7other people he was taking with him.
Slash255, Allister, Dagossix, Flexagon, Gurkenkoenig, AdmiralStarNight, and TheRogueAce were all waiting in their various ships. After his discussion with OWL they had agreed to Admiral's idea. They would meet up in battle and hopefully protect each other while looking for any signs of other attackers.
He sighed, and clamored up into his guard, settling down into the cockpit and turning on his headset. "Everyone ready?"
Everyone said yes and the CEo looked over at the command Admiral was flying. "Admiral, how about that module we installed on your ship?"
"Its responded well to tests, hopefully it works when we get out there." She replied. "Lets get going, we don't want to be late."
Halffast nodded to himself and lit off his engines, lifting off and out of the bay where they docked with the rest of wing behind him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They warped into the sector, everyone fell into the formation, their engineering and command in the middle while the guards and others surrounded them. Admiral's command was especially important, as it had the module that would allow him to talk to the 'enemy' ships.
As they sped towards the meeting point, contacts began to appear and soon Halfast adn BEAST were face to face with 8 members of OWL.. actually three of them weren't OWLs he noted, probably NASAs.
"Admiral, activate the module."
"Aye Hal." She said and he saw a red colored buff radiate out towards the enemy ships and suddenly a different voice came over the com.
_"You know that buff you just did is illegal right?"_ g4borg's voice said from his own gunship. _"A module that allows you to tap enemy communications? Where did you get that?"_
"I got it from the Black market okay? lets circle the wagons like we need to, engies and commands in the middle, keep Admiral's command under good cover since she's the one carrying the comtap buff." Halfast said. "Who are the extras you have with you?"
_"These are NASA people here, xKostyan,_ _statueoflibroty, and_ _Mecronmancer, they lost some of their pilots, have you lost any of yours yet?"_
"No, we haven't, and we hope we don't."
It took less time then everyone imagined to get into the protective sphere with engies and commands in the middle and everyone else outside of them, all pointing out from the center where Admiral's and OWLs command ships lay protected by their engines and the outer sphere of guards and other ships. Each half of the sphere was taken up by each side to prevent them from accidentally despawning each other and breaking up their formation.
"You know this seems like an awful lot of brass for an operation like this..." Admiral said over the com.
_"Yeah we know."_ xKostyan said. _"But we get answers faster if we're the ones to witness whatever happens."_
"Yeah but your corps will suffer if you happen to be disappeared and no one knows what happened to you." She argued. "Three CEOs, five VPs that I know of, and at least two officers. What could..."
_"Don't tempt fate there Admiral."_ g4borg said as he came into the conversation. _"I know its risky, but we can't keep having our pilots disappear every time we send them out."_
"Wait... I saw something." Slash255 said, "Glitch on the scanner, flash of black... isn't that like what Admiral said she saw a week or so back?"
"Yes, activate the buffs, ready yourselves." Halfast said and the two commands put out there buffs and waited.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The bright flash of light that darkened every cockpit's glass for a moment was only a bit disorienting... when it cleared there were contacts.
They were ship models they all knew of, gunships, recons and ECMs mostly, all were painted black as night with blue glowing circuit lines on them. They showed no names, and were hellishly hard to lock up. But as they approached the two teams they opened up with all the combined firepower they had.
It was a slaughter for the unknown contacts, but they respawned faster then any pilot had ever seen and they were learning where to hit to get the most of their attacks. The battle chatter was furious as engies healed and missiles were fired.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A missile got through! do we have our healing buff back yet?" TheRougeAce asked.
"Just a moment." Flexagon activated the module and as he watched his sensors he saw another glitch and he felt shock shoot through him like fire.
A new contact, this one plain as day and it was much larger then even his engineering ship. It warped into existence and a wave of black ECMs suddenly made an attack run, rushing into range and activating their skill.
They didn't have time to kill them and for a moment everything fell silent on the com channel and everyone stopped firing as that large ship moved into range.
Admiral's red buff reactivated and g4borg's voice snapped over the com.
"Lets get out of here! that ships too large for us to take on!"
"Retreat to ours, its closer!" Halfast said as the whole formation turned on heel and began to run.
_"The large ship got me!"_ It was Mecronmancer in his guard frigate. Halfast flipped his ship around to look and was somewhat horrified to see that the large ship had captured the NASA pilot in a tractor beam of sorts and was pulling it into a open... cargo bay was the best word for it. The guard ship seemed to be paralyzed, unable to fire its weapons while in the beam.
He saw another two ships, which he later realized both were the ships belonging to the other CEOs, twist around and fire at the source of the tractor beam locked onto Mecronmancer. A bright blue explosion suddenly highlighted the mystery ship and the guard surged forward clear of the enemy.
Halfast took one last look over the large ship as it turned around and disappeared into seemingly thing air with its other black colored ships.
He'd admit that he was more scared of this unknown enemy then he'd ever been of any other enemy he had ever faced.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What the hell was that!?" g4borg said as he jumped down from his own ship, parked neatly on the deck in the BEAST hangar.
"I don't know they didn't have a corp tag or any names." Halfast argued. "And what about that big ship that almost captured Mecronmancer?" He said motioning over the NASA pilot standing next to his CEO. "Last I checked no one builds ships like that. No even the aliens or the Cartel!" He leaned back against a crate and sighed. "Why would they want to capture pilots? what benefit does it have for them?"
"So we've established that these probably are the ships making our people disappear. They can't be locked up by most missiles, their painted black and they have a kind of ship we've never seen before." xKostyan said. "Its not like anything we've faced. PIrates want to loot, the biomorphs just hate our guts, they have motives, what motive are these attacks for? its not like their just attack OWL, or my corp, pilots have been disappearing form every corp."
"Ummmm Halfast?" Flexagon said, looking down at a hologram floating in front of him.
"What?"
"Just got a report in... Sector Iota-Tauros for a dreadnought battle... every one of the pilots, on both sides, haven't reported back in." Flexagon looked pained. "MiniConflict and OldFinnishGod were among them, helping out another corporation." He looked back up. "The dreadnoughts never returned either."
"Oh god." Halfast said, slumping back against the bulkhead. "Not only did we lose some of our people but dreadnoughts are going missing now?"
"We should do the same thing..." xKostyan said. "We go into battle, pretend to fight each other and try to attract the attention of these xxxxxxxx, when they appear we turn our collective guns on them... with two dreadnoughts working together, I think we could kick anyone who tries to attack us back the hellhole they came from."
"We have to try. How are the repairs on your dreadnought coming?" Halfast asked.
"Good, give us another three weeks and we should be ready to go."
"Alright," Halfast reached up and activated his headset a tone sounding through the BEAST ship bay, his voice projected over the intercom. "Hear this, hear this, this is your CEO Halfast, all ships are on lockdown until I say otherwise, no ship is to leave dock without express permission from me, no ship is to leave this dock until told otherwise."
As he finished his message and took the headset off g4borg and xKostyan shared a look. "We'll do the same with our corporations."
"I hope your right Kostyan." Halfast said, watching as Admiral and Slash255 joined TheRogueAce in helping repair his ship. "I'd hate to have to lose anyone else."
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**Chapter 4~ The Beginning of the End**
"I still can't believe we're doing this." TheRougeAce said as he checked over the controls in his cockpit, AdmiralStarNight stood on a ladder next to it, checking off stuff as he checked over the stuff in preparation for the upcoming dreadnought battle.
"Its what the CEOs wanted, at least we'll be going in together, we won't let anything happen to each other." Admiral replied as she checked off the last thing on the list and threw the clipboard down Rogasiu to add the ready status board for this attack.
"yeah i know." Rogue replied, "its just.. You know the highest rated mercenary just went missing? And what about HEX? Didn't they just lose their dreadnought and all the players in that battle?"
"its getting worse, who or whatever this enemy is, they definitely aren't playing around." Admiral sighed, and patted Rouge on the shoulder. "See you after the battle Rogue, be safe out there." She said before sliding down the ladder and rolling it over to the next ship to be checked.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The dramatic arrival of both dreadnoughts was accompanied by the wail of their GQ alarms and the launching of the three corporations ships.
the dreadnoughts began to fire at each other, but the shots all missed and as the two ships pretended to fight. The two corporations hovered nervously over their dreadnoughts.
Over both corporations communications net a harsh static suddenly sounded.
_"What the xxxx is that?!"_
Admiral was unsure who had said it, it sounded like it might of been an OWL.
But it summed up her feelings nicely.
A ship that could accurately be described as if someone took a dreadnought a tripled its size had appeared above the two dreadnoughts in a flash of bright light, painted totally black with blue glowing circuit lines running down its length. As the two corporation dreadnoughts turned their weapons to engage the larger ship a swarm, and swarm it was, of new contacts appeared on their sensors.
And these had names.
All had the tag [ERROR] after them. But that wasn't the worst part. No. The worst part was that those names were real names, not bots.
Admiral darted forward in her command to engage a ship but was cut off by a larger gunship with the name MiniConflict[ERROR] floating over it.
"Conflict, what are you doing?" SHe spoke over the com as she dodged a deadly stream of bullets from the other ship. "You're on OUR side!"
There was no answer, only a warning tone as the gunship swung towards her and activated overdrive. She avoided the fire again and flipped aorund, unleashing her own distruction of the ship and watching as the ship labeled as MiniConflict despawned. A traitor? No not Conflict, it just didn't seem....
"God damn it!" a voice filled with harsh static called over the com and Admiral turned just in time to see one of the those larger ships with a tractor beam active... and to see TheRogueAce's ship caught in its grip. She tried to make it over there, but not before the large ship had captured its prey and turned to head back to the unknown large ship. Before she could catch up a recon engaged her ship. She pushed the thought of her now captured friend aside and focused on the battle.
it was harder then she thought it would be, but then again if those were real people over there and not bots... then this was going to get a lot more complicated.
She heard the warning wail of a locked on missile and she dove 'down' towards her dreadnought. She lost the missile and as she turned around she saw Halfast and g4borg both in the tractors of one of those tractor ships, and while Ragasiu in his ECM and a few other pilots, in this hectic battle she was unsure if they were BEAST, NASA or OWL, were making an attack run to save their CEOs. They were until two guards descended upon them, tying them up just long enough for the tractor ship to disappear in a flash of light with its new prizes.
"Oh my god they got the CEOs!"
"Aren't these the missing pilots?"
"Oh god I just despawned Conflict."
"They are the pilots, what the xxxx! They won't answer my hails!"
The chatter descended in a flurry of confusion and and fear.
It was then that they realized why the larger dreadnought was here.
A beam of bright blue light lanced out and hit the BEAST dreadnought, and Admiral watched in horror as the weapons stopped firing and the large ship was being dragged up toward the larger one like it was nothing more then a toy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was all very good timing for the unknown enemy, or now [ERROR].
Admiral's ship blew up as she despawned, thrown back into the ship bay of the dreadnought Admiral stumbled forward, disoriented by the sudden 'death' before she regained her balance.
She looked around, noting the blue glow outside the the force field and looking around.
No one was around, which means no one else had died. So she was the only one in here so she could...
her eyes landed on Spectre Falcon sitting in the bay. A totally decked out recon she forgot who it belonged to.
Right now, it didn't matter to her.
Admiral ran over and vaulted up onto the ship and scrabbled into the cockpit, her hands flying over the unfamiliar controls with the speed of someone trying to save themselves. There was no time for checklists and double checks. She was doing this by eye, by feel and she hoped nothing would break as she powered up the engines and took off out of the bay.
The Recon had more speed then she was use to, but thats exactly what she wanted. The tractor from the [ERROR] dreadnought was too large to effect her tiny ship.
Of course this meant she had damn near a whole fleet of enemy fighters on her tail as she broke free and made a beline back towards the OWL dreadnought and her allies.
"I'll cover you Admiral!" A voice came over the com and a Kris ECM flashed past her.
"Rogasiu, don't be a hero damn it come on!" Admiral said, turning around to see the ECM dogfighting with two ECMS and a guard.
"NO, you need to get out of here, I'll be fine, their leaving NOW GO!" He snapped back over the com.
"But..."
"I said Go Admiral, you're an officer. BEAST needs you more then it needs me. NOW GO!" He commanded and Admiral sighed. There was no give in the other pilots voice and as she banked the Falcon around she could see the dreadnought beginning to form a warp vortex to jump out.
"Thank you." She said over of the com circuit, almost too softly to hear. There was no response.
Admiral turned tail and activated the microwarp to the OWL dreadnought. She moved the ship into the, now crowded, ship bay and saw the flash as the dreadnought warped away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You xxxxxxxx think you can outsmart me?" Rogasiu grinned as the guard blew up and another ECM came out to engage him. He met the ship head on, killing it before it even locked on. another wave of fighters had been starting to come at him...
And then everything went black.
He shook his head as he scrambled up from he respawn. He was surprised to fine OldFinnishGod blocking his way back to the ship bay from the respawn room.
'Hey Finnish good to see you, wanna go kick some xxxx with me?" Rogasiu couldn't help grinning again... and it faded as Finnish looked at him with eyes that seemed vacant and dead. "Finnish?" He said. Now he noticed differences now, the way he stood was too proper the uniforn obviously out of place and the blue... circuits, on his visible skin.
"Rogasiu, you will be escorted to Intake 1 on the superdreadnought, any attempt to resist or escape will result in despawning and being taken back up to Intake. Any further escape attempts will result in unspawning." Finnish's voice was too formal to be real and Rogasiu glanced behind him as two guards with rifles and blue circuitry on their skin as well stepped up. Finnish's hand came up to rest on the sidearm attached to his belt.
Rogasiu shook his head. "Look, I don't know waht you did to Finnish, but you'll never do it to..."
All he heard saw was a flash of light before he reawoke in the respawn room with Finnish already standing over him, and the guards with their rifles pointed in his direction.
"You will not resist. We can do this all day."
"And who, pray-tell is 'we?'" Rogasiu asked somewhat sarcasticly as he was urged to his feet and began to be escorted through his dreadnought to some unknown place.
"We are [ERROR]." Finnish and the guards answered at the same time, in the same tone of voice.
Rogasiu didn't blame himself for being a little creeped out as he turned to look at the BEAST logo on the bulkhead.
He'd get out of here, he knew it.
He just had to find a way to do it.
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**Chapter 5~ [ERROR] Chapter Not Found**
Rogasiu looked around at the guards in the shuttle with him. Finnish sat a couple seats away, staring at the bulkhead blankly. The guards, none of which he recognized, all stared at him, ready to despawn him at a moment notice.
He felt the shuttle shutter as it landed and the guards urged him to his feet. As the hatch opened and he stepped down, his eyes widened. The amount of ships being serviced in this bay was amazing... And he'd never seen so many ships with the same paint job before. It was a busy place as people moved about. But it was... Different somehow. He realized what was different.
No one was talking... Or more accurately chatting. All words spoken were clipped and hollow, ordering supplies and statuses. But no one chatted about the last battle, or what they were going to do after they finished their repairs. It was quieter then. He was use to, and it was freaky to hear.
He turned his wrists in the cuffs behind his back as the guards followed Finnish through the larger dreadnought... A superdreadnought if he remembered correctly. This was somewhat humiliating but he was curious as to what happened to Finnish to cause him to act this way. Of course he had to make sure he didn't happen to him.
And then he'd have to escape.
It was a lot to think about.
As they turned the corner, Rogasiu eyes widened. The large area was full of guards and what he could only describe as in intake area. Captured pilots sat around nervously under guard, with more variety between them he'd even seen in sector fights. As he was brought and sat down in a chair, the sound of microphone being adjusted echoed in the large room and everyone turned to look as an official looking man with the same blue skin circuitry stood at the podium, adjusting the mic to proper height and clearing his throat.
_"Ladies and gentlemen. You have been rescued from your miserable existence by [ERROR]. I know the way in which came was not kind, but given what truths and power we bring, your nations would not allow us to speak. We can offer so much more skill and professionalism, while we fight for justice in the universe. As you see around you..."_ He made a motion to all the guards and other personnel. _"these people have found their calling in [ERROR] and so will you. Resistance to our cause will force us to have an undesirable change forced upon you when the more rewarding experience of freely joining could give you power and glory."_ He paused for dramatic effect and Rogasiu could practically see him counting down the seconds until he spoke. _"Would anyone like to volunteer to be the first of this batch? Like I was the first, you will be rewarded in kind for your obvious intelligence and honesty."_
No one spoke, a few xxxx yous were thrown at the man and Rogasiu saw the man's face darken in anger. Well maybe this way...
"I'll go." He said loudly as he stood. The guards near him tensed, as if waiting for a suicidal attack, but he just stood there, going over his words in his mind carefully.
The man regraded him from up on his stage before motioning him forward. He walked up to the man accompanied by two guards. The man looked him over. _"Why do you want to join [ERROR]?"_
"I am not an idiot." Rogasiu said calmly. "I see the winds of change and my old corporation was never much to write home about. [ERROR] obviously recognizes skill and talent when it sees it. And working for you seems to be the best way to use my talent. Not pining after some 150 person playgroup."
The man seemed impressed by his words. _"then you will go first, bring him into a private room, and I'll see you after your modifications."_
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The room reminded him of hospital room. plain, white and sterile. Rogasiu watched as a doctor prepared a needle, filling it with glowing blue fluid and tapping it.
"Why couldn't we do it in front of the crowd?" he asked conversationally.
"Oh thats because it hurts... a lot. People seeing that much pain never want to transition on their own terms." The doctor turned to look at him. "But after the initial injection, you don't have to get any more. other then the respawn chip reprogram so it doesn't spawn you in enemy space, but rahter back in the BEAST dreadnought you'll be assigned to."
"BEAST doesn't have a dreadnought. It's [ERROR]'s now." He corrected and was amazed by how easily these words came to him even though he was secretly appalled by everything. "Will I get to be like OldFinnishGod?"
"Oh no, that kind of mod only comes from when you resist. You should be able to fly your assigned ship with ease by the end of 25 hours." The doctor grabbed his right arm, cleaning off the area he was going to use. "Its going to take a few seconds to start hurting, try not to be too alarmed."
He nodded and watched as the doctor gabbed the needle of glowing blue stuff into his arm. The doctor took a step back and for a moment nothing seemed to hurt.
then the burning starting. It originated in his arm and quickly spread out over his whole body. He might of screamed, he wasn't sure.
And then he passed out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rogasiu groaned as he woke up, sitting up on the bunk and looking up at the doctor standing over him. "How.. long was I out?"
"20 minutes, shortest time anyone's ever been out. You'll be a good edition to [ERROR]." He said, opening the door and motioning him back out.
Rogasiu flexed his hand experimentally, watching the circuit lines on his hand glow. Interesting. Everything felt fine except for a bit of lingering sharp pain where the needle had been jabbed into his arm. He jumped up and walked out confidently, noting the way the guards followed but at a much more respectful distance to the stage where the man was waiting.
The man looked up from his notes and smiled as he saw the 'new' Rogasiu join him on stage and he turned back to the crowd. _"You see, this proud man had given himself to a better cause, and all of you can to, any more takers?"_
'It just means he's a traitor!" Someone called from the back."You're a traitor you hear me! You turn your back on mates that cared for you. I hope you sleep well tonight knowing you turned you back on them!" It was then the guards finally shut him up by despawning the unknown pilot and passing orders to retrieve him from wherever he would respawn.
Rogasiu just shrugged, watching as the other pilots began to be funneled into rooms to have the modifications applied "May I return to the former BEAST dreadnought? I think I could be very helpful in getting it into shape to fight for the right side of this conflict."
_"Oh sure! I'll have a shuttle called away from you at once."_ The man said, practically beaming. _"Its good to have you on the right side of this fight Mr. Rogasiu."_
"Its good to be here." He replied warmly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was some hours later Rogasiu collapsed onto the bunk assigned to him in the large dreadnought and he ran a hand through his hair. He was no com wiz, but what he'd been working on would given him what he needed. He opened a hologram and opened the backdoor to the communications section equipment and grinned as it flashed acceptance of his commands and opened a window. He could send mail back to BEAST now without them ever knowing it. It was a grave risk but on he hand to take.
He titled it 'I'm In' and got to work describing what he had seen, felt and heard through out the day.
And he hoped like hell that BEAST would get his message and understand why he'd pretended to defect.
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**Chapter 6~ Sanity's Plea**
"I still can't believe you lost Halfast!" GeniusCarrot said.
"Shut up." Gurkenkoenig snapped, running a hand through his hair.
"But..."
"I said shut up!" The Vice President (now acting CEO) snapped again and Genius fell silent, glaring at the other man as he paced back and forth in front of the briefing room where all 130 something pilots in BEAST were gathered. G-man rubbed his face irritably. "I'm sorry Genius, it just hasn't been a easy time for me."
GeniusCarrot gave a small nod, but didn't speak again.
After that disastrous dreadnought battle where both OWL and BEAST had lost their CEOs and BEAST its dreadnought, the two had put a halt on all missions and now we're working on getting together a conference of leaders from every corp out there. It was hard, because everyone had their own ideas on what they were doing.
And more pilots and dreadnoughts were going missing everyday.
"Gurkenkoenig, are you sure want to do this?"
The VP sighed and turned to face the speaker. AdmiralStarNight sat in the front row, face expressionless. She'd been that way ever since TheRogueAce had been taken in that same battle now almost two months ago. It was obvious that she missed her close friend a lot and everyone was trying to keep her, and themselves, busy to keep from thinking about their lost friends. And they had been busy. With the expertise of some of their own, OWL'S and NASA's tech experts, they had managed to create a com system strong enough to reach every CEO, every pilot out there. If theCEOs were ignoring their pleas, then everyone would know there are people out there trying to make an effort to unite against the threat.
"Yes...no... I don't know." He replied. "Its just that... Some people might not react well to what we're about to do."
"Well that's tough luck, we need this to happen." Allister said. "We've kept our losses pretty low, but other corps keep throwing pilots at [ERROR] like cannon fodder, and its not working! Surely some of them are going to put their CEOs on the spot so they can stop losing their friends."
Millanbel stuck his head into the room. "Gurkenkoenig? We're ready to broadcast."
Gurkenkoenig nodded, fixing the suit and tie he was wearing and walked to join the OWL VP. "I want everyone to be ready, if we can get even half to agree, then were going to be very busy coordinating this."
As the door closed behind him he looked over to millanbel. "Lets get this ball rolling, is OregyenDuero ready?"
"As much as he can be." Millanbel answered. "Don't really think he likes being acting CEO."
"Yeah, I don't either." Gurkenkoenig said. "I mean I can do it, but Halfast is the one who's been leading us, doesn't feel right to just have him snapped up like that."
"Its not easy to lose anyone like that, I know Admiral didn't take it too well." The OWL replied
"She didn't but she seems alright now, not the best, but alright." Gurkenkoenig said as Millanbel opened a hatch and motioned him in to where OregyenDuero, the OWL acting CEO, and xKostyan were waiting. Both wore suits and had been fixed up nice, more to appeal to the elite corps then anyone else, and neither of them looked happy.
Then again this wasn't exact a time to be happy. Not with [ERROR] on the loose. He took his place standing next to them as the OWL video manager Entersprite activated the teleprompter he'd dug up from somewhere and did a 5 second countdown on his hand, pointing to them as he reached zero. They were live.
"Greetings everyone." OregyenDuero said formally. "I am OregyenDuero, acting CEO of OWL. "
"I am xKostyan, CEO of NASA."
"And I am Gurkenkoenig, acting CEO of BEAST." G-man said, looking up into camera, trying not stare too hard at the teleprompter behind it, anyways, he already read through the speech, the teleprompter was more to make sure he didn't stumble. "This is a grave time for us all our corporations, the enemy called [ERROR] has been kidnapping our pilots and stealing our dreadnoughts."
"We cannot allow them to continue." OregyenDuero picked up seamlessly. "Everyday, reports and rumors of friends going missing, dreadnoughts not returning, and entire battlefields taken circulates among us. It creates fear, anger, resentment and hate."
"NASA, OWL and BEAST have already put a hold on all battles to prevent more losses and we urge other CEOs to do the same with their pilots and dreadnoughts." xKostyan said."In three weeks from today, at 0700 hours we will be hosting a holographic conference in which we will discuss this new unknown enemy with hopefully every CEO and anyone who has had to take up that mantel because of [ERROR]. Please contact us if you wish to attend."
"And for any corporation in which your CEO refuses to acknowledge the problem we are now facing... We will gladly host the highest ranking member of your corp that wishes to do something." Gurkenkoenig wasn't even looking at the prompter anymore as he stared into the camera, knowing thousands were watching him, and hopefully considering what to do. "If you wish to attend, contact us at 100.352.33.1, with the name and rank of the corporation representative that wishes to attend. Thank you and good day."
Entersprite signaled and the camera turned off and immediately the three leaders relax. Gurkenkoenig shrugged off jacket, draping it over an arm, as the other two went about fixing their formal wear to make it more comfortable. "Okay, lets get back to the briefing room." He said and the other two nodded and the OWL video manager and millanbel went about securing the camera equipment.
As they returned to the large briefing room, a lot of the BEAST members had left, but OWL and NASA filled in some of the gaps, most wearing headsets, in preparation for anyone who wished to contact them to attend the holoconference.
Gurkenkoenig took a seat at the desk that was meant for Halfast, watching the hologram of the various bases in which corps based themselves. Different dots would appear on it as calls came in, each dot telling where each call would originate. It would give them a rough number for how many from each of the three nations there were.
It was nearly an hour of staring somewhat hopefully at the hologram that G-man began to feel their efforts were wasted. OregyenDuero was leaned back i his chair, arms crossed and eyes closed as he napped while xKostyan scribbled on a notepad. He sighed and closed his eyes. Was this really how it was...
A soft beep made his eyes fly open and snap up to the hologram, there a single light code glowed steady. He turned as AdmiralStarNight reached over, pressing a button to accept the call and adjusted her mic.
"If you are calling for the conference, please state your name, rank and corporation."
"teofilarage, CEO, SALT." the voice said over the speaker, Admiral did seem to know that this was important. "I would like to attend, your CEOs are right, this is a problem that needs to be solved."
"You're name has been added to the list, thank you Sir." She ended the call and looked up at the hologram as another dot appeared and then another. They were appearing in droves as everyone with a headset go to work getting all the names down and going through the calls as fast as they could. There must of been well over a thousand... maybe even enough to be one from every corporation...
And G-man allowed himself to feel hope.
Maybe they could pull this off after all.
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**Chapter 7~ Bread and Circuses**
Gurkenkoenig looked up at the bulkhead, trying to relax before the conference. It wasn't really helping all that much, but it was better then pacing. OregyenDuero had been pacing around the BEASt breifing room like a caged animal and the two had agreed to retire to their quarters to relax and refocus rather then reinforce each other's misery.
"Hey G-man, the conference is about to start."
He turned to look at Allister, standing in the doorway to the room that was his. "Did you even knock?"
"Well yes, but you weren't responding." The VP said. "Wanted to make sure you weren't disappeared too."
"Yeah, if they start stealing us from the stations we are really screwed." G-man replied, standing and walking over to join Allister. "Lets go."
G-man, OregyenDuero, and xKostyan all sat at desks in the special room.
"Alright we are going active in three, two one."
The room around them suddenly changed to turn into a very large circular room with a whole bunch of seats, one for each CEO or person that had decided to come to the holoconference. The room was totally holographic and didn't exist in the real world, and had functions to bring any speaker into focus for everyone, and other handy tools that G-man hoped would make this conference less painful. It was a large clash of cultures happening here, and some of these corps were sworn enemies.
It was going to be interesting to say the least.
As people began to appear, G-man sat quietly at his desk at the bottom and front of the room, waiting as every person registered. Finally a small glowing hologram told him that everyone had arrived and he stood.
"Good Morning everyone, you all have been brought here due to the serious problem that the enemy called [ERROR] is causing among us. According to my information, well over 500 dreadnoughts have been stolen and pilots are kidnapped or 'go missing' every day." He said and he could see a few nodding, most just stayed silent. "We need a plan to deal with this enemy, as no one corporation can face it, and no single person is going to be able to fight them all off."
"Yeah and what do you expect us to do about it? They have a dreadnought which is three times the size of our own, how can we fight that?"
"No, they have more then one, I saw two of those xxxxxxxx come and steal my corps and my training corps dreadnoughts away." Someone interjected.
"We fight them together, their ships can't be invincible." G-man replied. "Look, we, being BEAST, OWl and NASA, held off an attack of the tractor ships and its escorts one time and we escaped a dreadnought battle with the OWL dreadnought, they aren't perfect, we just need to work together."
"Oh and who is going to lead us? The one who doesn't have a dreadnought at all?" Someone with a Russian accent sneered. "And who lost their CEO? Doesn't sound like the best leaders you could possibly have. We are already holding our own just fine."
"Well its better then all of us dying or disappearing so this [ERROR] can come in a curbstomp us!"
"We don't need some sniveling little English corp telling us what to do!"
"You xxxxxxxx never could see reason!"
"At least we kick your xxxx on a regular basis! You've already lost half your pilots!"
"You guys, please stop it we need..."
"yeah come on, this isn't worth.."
"We already have what we need! This is pointless waste of time. Too weak to handle things on your own you serve to disappear from the universe!"
Voices were being raised all around the room and soon it dissolved into angry shouting and a few pleas for order which were never heard. People leaned forwardm gesturing and shouting, some even reverting back to their original languages as they tossing insults and arguments back and forth across the room.
Gurkenkoenig slumped back into the chair, watching the madness around him. It had happened sooner then he thought, and it was a mess. Everyone was doomed, he was sure of it.
He heard a door open and he looked up as AdmiralStarNight appeared beside his desk, she leaned over his desk and pushed a button.
Suddenly the room fell silent and it took him a few moments to realized she'd just muted everyone, not just his connection to the room. Everyone seemed to stumbled to a halt as they realized they were no longer being heard.
"Alright everyone listen up." She snapped and every eye turned on her. She shifted a bit as she spoke but continued. "We're going to do this in a civilized manner. When someone wants to speak, you have to ask permission from G-man here, there is a hologram control that will appear next to you to use. We have a big problem, and no matter your size, strength or skill, you will eventually fail to protect your dreadnought or pilots and they too will be captured, even if you manage to win against all odds, you will eventually be the only ones left, with nothing left to use or fight against. We are trying to prevent people from being lost, even if its not your people it will happen, someone will be lost and because you didn't do anything, you will be blamed." She looked around, managing to glare at everyone and more then one CEO and representative sat back down or looked away from her. "Thank you, Gurkenkoenig, sorry about that."
G-man was staring at her in something like amazement. She touched his shoulder and the acting CEO shook his head slightly and nodded. "Alright, the floor is open for speakers, you heard her, one at a time, and lets see what we can do..."
~~~~~~~~~
It was something like 10 hours later G-man and his fellow OWL and NASA CEOs emerged from the conference looking a little worse for wear having to watch over so many different CEOs. It had taken some doing but at least everyone agreed, [ERROR] was a threat, and that all mission and fighting needed to stop for the foreseeable future. There was still a lot to work out, but at least they could assure that no one else would get stolen away during a fight.
The conference ha also brought to light a couple of other points, one that the biomorphs, pirates and cybers had all stopped attacking, that [ERROR] must have either a base somewhere or a mobile repair fleet, and that they seemed to be going for the head of each corporation, CEOs and anyone important enough to be a threat to them. It spoke that there might be a spy somewhere, then again the information about CEOs is hardly classified, but it was a good point.
"So G-man, you feeling okay?" Allister asked as the man leaned against a wall and gave a half-hearted salute to the other CEos as the left.
"Like I need a few drinks." He scowled. "Good progress but damn some of them are so damn stubborn they're going to cut of their own noses to spite their faces." He shook his head. "I'll be in my room if anyone needs me. I need to get some sleep."
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A few hours later, Gurkenkoenig was in his room, legs up on the coffee table while drinking one of his favorite beers. He'd already had four, and he was planning on having at least one more after this one. He didn't want to burn through his supply too fast. He was sure Halffast's time as CEO wasn't as hard as this, after all he wasn't the one trying to coordinate corporations so they could save themselves from certain doom.
"Lucky xxxxxxx." He muttered to himself, throwing the empty beer bottle into the trash can and a hand reached up to rub his temple. The next beer could wait. He really needed sleep. He stood and got dressed for bed, there would be time for it tomorrow. He paused to look at the holopictures projected on the wall of his room, some of them of his newer ship a few of BEAST social functions and he turned away. It really would be a shame to loose all of this.
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the loud beeping of his communications terminal made Gurkenkoenig wake up with more then a few curse words as stumbled out of bed, to hit the button to silence the noise. He glared at the clock, he'd only gotten an hour of sleep and right now he felt horrible.
He got on a shirt and grabbed the anti-intoxicants from the near-by table, took one and waited for a few moments for it to kick in. Once he felt confident enough to answer he pressed the 'accept call' button.
'What?" He snapped, not caring about who it was, he had been trying to sleep.
_"Gurkenkoenig?_ " A familiar voice said and G-man eyes widened, his tiredness chased away as he heard that voice.
"Rogasiu? What the hell, where are you?" He asked.
_"I'm in the BEASTs dreadnought, I'm helping convert it to fight for them."_
"Them?" He asked.
_"[ERROR]"_ the man replied quietly. _"And its bad G-man, really bad. you know all the missing pilots? Well they're using some sort of... medication? Not sure what it is, turns them all into slaves, though they keep their flying skills and such. Its scary. They don't respond to any sort of personal interaction, only stuff related to flight status and xxxx."_ There was a sound of movement as he shifted. _"I even have Halffast assigned under me, he's my guard when I go out flying, and the man is like an automaton."_
'Wait if their brainwashing everyone how come..."
_"I volunteered to change, they bought it hook, line and sinker, look, I'll try my best to get more info, but there is only so much I can do before I could get caught. Best I can tell the leader is called [E], and his main force is made of his own people who resemble those Bots some corps use when their too small to mount defenses. But every day I see a new dreadnought getting hauled in for refit and I'm pretty sure that the mobile repair ships we have here are helping build more of the ones the bots are using."_
G-man was silent, shocked by what he was hearing.
_"And finally... well.. whats the biggest thing you've seen so far?"_
"a dreadnought that's about 3 times bigger then our dreadnoughts."
_"Those are called Stealers, they have something bigger. Its called a superdreadnought, and its hovering over the fleet like the hand of god. I couldn't even give you a good estimate of its length, but its caliber weapons are nearly as big as our dreadnoughts, its a monster."_ Rogasiu fell silent.
"Oh my god." Gurkenkoenig whispered in shock. "oh my god."
_"I know its a lot to digest, but I have to go, stay safe, i'm pretty sure their going to send out more Stealers soon."_ Rogasiu said quickly and with a click the call ended and Gurkenkoenig sat there, staring and the terminal in shock. It took him a good 10 minutes before he realized he was still sitting there like an idiot. He jumped up, grabbing the clothes he had tossed aside only an hour earlier and threw back on before slamming his hand down on a button only used in the most dire situations.
A GQ alarm wailed through the BEAST shipyard and he switched over, opening the intercom and speaking, his voice temporarily drowning out the loud wail. "All BEASTs to the briefing room immediately, all BEASTs to the briefing room, notice to OWL and NASA, get OregyenDuero and xKostyan here as fast as they can move themselves!"
With that he shut down the intercom and ran out of the room.
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"You're joking right?"
G-man glared at Flexagon as he spoke, the acting CEO's temper was short due to lack of sleep, the anti-intoxicants and a stimulants to help him stay awake.
"No, I'm not. This problem is bigger then we thought. Now we have a spy on the inside and they have a ship, supposedly, that out-masses our dreadnoughts by what could be a factor of thousand."
"What else did he tell you?" OregyenDuero asked.
"Other then the news that the pilots that are missing are alive and being used as slaves, no much." G-man replied. "Good thing that conference made everyone stopped going out, if its true, [ERROR] is building up a fleet of captured dreads and slave pilots... lovely."
"So what are we going to do about it?" Slash255 asked. "We don't even have a dreadnought anymore."
"No, but we have allies now." G-man said, glancing over at the OWl and NASA CEOs. "We're going to stay alive, fight and kick them back to the hellhole these xxxxxxxx came from. No matter what the cost."
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**Chapter 8~ Backs to the Wall**
It was quiet.
At least in space it was. The usual engineers and police forces circled around outside Mendes-IX, but no pilots flew about.
They all stayed inside the station or their corporation shipyards. It was a depressing sight.
AdmiralStarNight stood and walked over to the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of water and beginning to drink it. What a mess this was. She ran a hand through her hair and then exited the observation room, making her way back to the dock where BEAST based out of.
After Rogasiu had contacted G-man, it had been an all out race to get ready. Dreadnoughts were getting repaired and outfitted at a rate faster then ever, pilots were training in simulations and, very rarely and under the watchful eyes of the stations, in real space. Everyone was tearing things apart to find more information on [ERROR]. So far nothing had come up.
As Admiral entered the briefing room, everyone looked up from what they were doing, said hello and went back to flipping through antique books , old station records and data to find ANY hint of what [ERROR] might of been doing in the past. She joined them, taking a seat next to Gurkenkoenig and pulled over the hologram of an old logbook and began to page through it in search of information.
"Hey everyone."
Everyone looked up and Sho stood in the doorway, with a man who looked like he was ashamed to be here.
"What is it Sho?" GeniusCarrot asked.
"I have some information here for you." He motioned to the man behind him. he is in [iT4LY], his name is Agnicourt." Sho said.
"And how can he help?"
"I..." Agnicourt paused and swallowed nervously, rubbing his hand together. "I use to be a part of [ERROR]. A Vice President to be exact."
"What!?" Someone said in disbelief and Agnicourt obviously didn't like admitting that. G-man glared around the room, shutting everyone up and turning back to the man.
"Alright, then you can tell us, we won't judge, it sounds like it was a long time ago." He motioned to a seat and Agnicourt took it gratefully.
"Al...alright. It was about 30 years ago, a very long time ago, that [ERROR] was founded by a young, bright, intelligent pilot named [E]. No one knows where he came from but one day he just appeared on New Eden station and began to recruit. He always spoke so well, he could talk you into doing anything he was that good." Agnicourt seemed to be lost in his memories. "I was one of his first followers, it was a glorious time for us, we were a popular corporation and many people hired us to defend sectors and attack targets. As we grew, so did our reputation. People knew they were battling a worthy opponent when they faced us. We had over 3,000 members." He paused and looked around to make sure everyone was following. when no one spoke he continued.
"But as we grew larger, we became more unorganized, and [E] didn't like that, so he created the Human Integration System, HIS, a nanite based injectable that would give [E] and anyone he choose the power to coordinate attacks, control movements and keep organization. The higher the version, the more powerful the HIS, the more you could control. The lower the HIS, the less you could think for yourself, you retained our skills, but you had to have orders from higher ups to operate. We began injecting the HIS from top down. [E] has the most advanced version, allowing him control over every lower entity in the chain of command, VPs were a step down and could control about 1,000 or so people, and officers around 500. The modifications gave to you blue circuits lines on your skin." Agnicourt clenched his fist and suddenly glowing blue computer circuits lines lit up. "They... didn't go over well, even with Jericho. It took away the free will of our pilots and no one like that. [E] tried to reason with them, that it was for the best, but no one would listen. I... knew it was wrong, but i didn't say anything because I was too caught up in the mayhem. [E] had become bitter as allies turned into enemies and we were banished from stations in our dreadnought."
He got up to pace the room.
"We managed to steal a construction ship and built our own station, and began to plot our revenge against the other factions and corporations. We weren't just going to go back and despawn them, we were going to Unspawn them. Kill them all for daring to reject such an amazing technology and skill. We started to build a ship, one that contained an Unspawn weapon of massive proportions, ones that could unspawn the stations if we wanted it too." His voice was bitter and he seemed angry at himself for ever believing in such things. "And we began to build bot dreadnoughts too, it was a massive operation."
He paused and swallowed. "Then the factions discovered the warpgate to our station, they came through in, united as though that was something they did every day. That battle was ugly, I was captured when they breached the station defenses and stormed the command center. I... was the decoy... [E] made an escape, in what, I didn't know where or in what but he got away. They arrested be and stuck me in jail for a few years before they let me go after I helped root out some agents that were sabotaging dreadnought construction efforts. I kept a low profile after that, and about 3 years ago, I joined [iT4LY] they didn't know who I was or my crimes and I finally felt safe from my past. Guess I was wrong."
"Did [E] escape in this unspawning weapon you were building?" G-man asked, looked disturbed by the news.
"No it was probably the construction ship. I wasn't told that information in case I was captured and interrogated... the Uspawner was 75% complete when they broke us up. I think they destroyed it and the warpgate to the [ERROR] station. They never told me and by the time I was let out of jail, all traces of [ERROR] had been wiped from every record they could get their hands on. They didn't want anyone else following [E]'s example."
"Well..." G-man said. "Agnicourt, I thank you for giving us this inform..."
A sudden alarm wailed through briefing room and the hologram sprung to life showing the station.. and a bunch of new contacts. They were blue and white of friendly and neutral contact and G-mans eyes widened as he saw dmage icons begin to flash around some of them.
"Oh my god, those are all the dreadnoughts from the Empire and Federation!" Admiral said as she looked up at the data. An alarm wailed, a hologram flashed urgent red, a priority signal. Someone activated the message and the voice that came through sounded panicked and a filled with static from battle damage.
_"This is the dreadn.... from the Imperial cor... and we have suffere massive hu...damage. A week ago the Federa... noughts warped into our station area afte... their station was attack.... we tried Jericho we tried damn it! But New Eden and Guardian-17 have fallen! They've stollen even more of our ships and pilots and we have... a lot of damage over here, please send your repair shi... as soon as possible!"_
The silence was absolute in the BEAST briefing room. The other stations had fallen, all the surviving dreadnoughts in the galaxy were here. Their back were now firmly pressed to the wall.
And it seemed like there was no way out.
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**Chapter 9~ Discovery**
"What the hell are we going to do?" Admiral was talking to herself again and she knew it.
The the dreadnoughts were pulled in so close together around the Jericho station you could probably jump from one to the next without a spacesuit. Repair ships swarmed around the ones still in need of urgent repair while those with minor damage were being worked on by the corporations and any pilot with a smigen of free time. All the hostility and hate between corporations was gone. A bigger threat had united them, and she'd seen corps that wouldn't go in the same sector as each other talking, laughing and even helping on each other dreadnoughts.
It was a shame that only something like [ERROR] had been able to bring them together.
Scouting missions had confirmed it. The other two stations had been attacked and were no under [ERROR] control. Both stations had relatively light damage, meaning they wanted to take the stations intact. They seemed to be licking their wounds at the moment, taking a small moment to recover and rest for the next push, the final push against Jericho's Mendes-IX.
She twisted her recon about and continued her patrol. The station was too crowded to enjoy properly anymore, so she often ended out in the Spectre Falcon she had stolen from the BEAST dreadnought the day it had been stolen. Turns out it had been Gurkenkoenig's, however he didn't mind that she used it, as long as she stayed safe. Thankfully only a few BEASTs had been on the other stations when they were attacked, only one of those went missing, the others were helping out of the corporations that helped them escape.
She looked down as something blipped on her sensors. She cocked her head a bit and turned to face the faint blip. It was far off and it wasn't a ship signature. She might of seen it before while out and about before this whole mess started, but dismissed it as nothing. Now she was interested. She wasn't supposed to stray beyond around 15,000 meters out from the station, the contact was about another 10,000m out, far away from anything which anyone would be interested in.
Admiral took a second to consider if it was worth it.
Well to her it was. She activated her microwarp and warped up to the contact.
And her eyes widened as she realized what it was.
It looked like an ordinary junk pile. But other then the junk floating around it, ship corpses and some asteroids it was hard to miss the shape of a sector warp gate. This one was currently shut down, inactive for what looked like a long time. She cruised around it, mildly interested in why it was here when she spotted a small black box near a service hatch on the gate. It didn't look like it was supposed to be there as she inched up close to stare at it. She moved back a good 1,000 meters and fired on it til the box went floating away. So it wasn't a part of it, if it had been it would of taken a major caliber to shoot it apart.
A ripple suddenly grew in the middle of the gate and with a flash of light and an odd 'sound that reverberated through her ship, the watery distortion of a warp gate now occupied the gate, meaning it was an active gate she could jump through.
She frowned, now where could a gate like this go? All the sectors they had currently were linked into the mapping system, so this one must either be really old or lead somewhere useless.
Only one way to find out.
Admiral coasted her ship into the distortion and hit the button and she disappeared from Mendes-IX.
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"What do you mean she disappeared!" Allister snapped at G-man. "She was taking a simple patrol, we have so many ships in this system nothing should be off our sensors!"
'Look, I don't know what happened to her, okay? She was in my Spectre Falcon for the patrol, which means she should of been able to warp away from any trouble." G-man replied frostily. "I don't like losing her eaither but..."
He was cut off in shock as the door to his office slammed open and an out of breath, and excited looking AdmiralStarNight stumbled in.
"No just where the hell did you go?" He snapped at her, more out of worry of losing yet another BEAST then actual anger.
"You....You... got... to...see...this." She said, opening up a hologram. "this is.... a record....ing of where... I went." She said, pushing it over for the two to watch.
It showed a station unlike any of the ones either of them had seen before, powered down and cold. Dreadnoughts sat parked in slips, some finished, others half completed, the recording showed an enormous amount of debris everywhere, most of them ships that had been destroyed in battle. As the recording got closed to the station, you could see the paintings of circuit lines contrasting the dark metal of the station and dreadnoughts.
"Don't you get what this is?!" She said, obviously excited.
'Its..." G-man suddenly sat up straighter. 'Its [ERROR's] old station! The one Agnicourt told us about."
"yes and think about it. They didn't destroy it, they just left it to rot because without the warpgate I found no one would be able to get to it and with [E] gone, he couldn't get back to it either. But we... we can use these."
"We can use those ships, never mind that look at those yards!" He said, pausing the recording as it looked over the giant shipyard. "we could build a fleet bigger then [ERROR]'s!" G-man said, grinning as he stood and walked around. "Come on, I have an idea, we're not going to be able to hold this station against [ERROR], but I think I know where we can go and we have to announce it to everyone." He pulled Admiral in for a hug. "I could just kiss you for bringing me such news."
"Please don't." She said dryly.
"Oh you're no fun."
"I know."
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It was a few days later that the big migration began. Since no one could hope to hold Mendes-IX with the power [ERROR] had now, the dreadnoughts, transports, repair ships, and every single pilot that didn't fit into those large ships began to migrate through the warpgate to the former [ERROR] station.
"And we're the last ones...." GeniusCarrot said from his recon. "Rear guard. Once we go through the dreadnoughts are destroying the warpgate to prevent [ERROR] from following us. Allister, you checked that the charges were set to go off?"
"Yep, the second and [ERROR] warps into this sector, the station is going to explode."
"Good." G-man said watching as everyone formed up in the gate and disappeared in a small flash of light.
The warpgate suddenly shut down as its other end was destroyed.
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"Last station Sir." Someone said and [E] nodded as the superdreadnought traveled through warpspace with his Stealer and dreadnought escorts. He was so close to achieving his goal, these corporations never stood a chance. He grinned at the thought and sat back to drink a glass of wine, a beautiful merlot from the Empire. Enjoying his soon to be triumph.
"Coming out of warp in three...two..one!"
The giant ship suddenly imposed itself on the Mendes-IX station's sector with all the grace of a predator ready for is victory, its escorts formed expertly around it. [E] leaned forward, ready to see the fleet of desperate DNs beign to fight.
But there was nothing.
He heard something break and only vaguely realized hed broken the wineglass with his own hand out of anger. _"Where are the xxxxxxxx?"_ He snapped.
"I don't know Sir, I'll dispatch scouts to the other sectors to look for them." Someone answered quickly. "And..."
The hologram of the Mendes-IX station suddenly blossomed in a huge fireball, and when it settled there was noting left of the last station to take.
[E] slammed a fist onto his command chair in rage. No they couldn't do this to him, he was the winner here, didn't they know when they had lost? The blue circuit lines on his skin began to glow a dangerous red, and more then otne person around the bridge got busy distancing themselves as far as they could manage from their leader.
_"I want them found and want to know how they got away from me!"_ [E] snapped. _"They will not win a second time!"_
**Chapter 10~Respite**
"Wow this is amazing." Flexagon said as he studied the view from the command center of the station, despite the darkness of the center lit only by the lights they had brought with them, it was pretty impressive. There were dreadnoughts everywhere, both in docks, most of the finished ones had been pulled out to make room for the damaged ones, and around the station in a defensive formation that would let no ship through without being detected. And finally, while the dreadnoughts were a bit different, seeing all the various ships flying around and exercising outside the station was a sight for sore eyes. It looked almost normal, and having escaped [ERROR] for the moment, they could train and ready themselves much more thoroughly then they had been.
"Are those Stealers?" Flexagon was asking and Agnicourt, the former [ERROR] VP looked out and nodded.
"Yep, those things you see on the end are Stealers, though we called them Proto1s back when they were made." Agnicourt looked around the command center, which still had a bit of damage from when it had been stormed around 25 years ago."Being here brings back a lot of memories."
"I bet it does," Allister said as he sat down in one of the chairs at a station and crossed his legs. "So where is this Unspawner of yours?"
"You mean you haven't seen it yet?" Agnicourt said.
"No." Allister said, "we just got here, if its hiding in a moon or something then we won't know where it is til you tell us or we find it on our own."
"You're standing in it."
'What?"
Agnicourt sighed. "This 'station' is the Unspawner, and yes, it can move, once its completed those docks out there? All temporarily attached to the hull and can be ejected.I know you haven't had much success getting those reactors online, let me help." He said, touching a hand to a control panel. The circuit lines reappeared on his skin as he touched it and he said a few words too low to hear. A soft, throbbing hum, more felt then heard, echoed through the command center. Lights and stations began to turn on, while a status board glowed steady yellow, with the number 75.3% on a display beside it.
"Yellow?" Allister asked.
"Its not completed yet, its mostly minor things now, getting all the calibers online and properly tested, finish up fitting all wires where they need to go, stuff like that." Agnicout said.
"Where is the unspawner anyways?" Gurkenkoenig asked as he leaned over the panel which was glowing amber. it was a fire control station, dedicated solely to the weapon.
Agnicourt pointed out the window at a large trench that seemed to run the length of the ship before them. "That is. Biggest weapon on the ship, it fires at a rate of once ever hour."
"Not exactly fast is it?" Allister muttered and Agnicourt shook his head.
"No, its meant to be a surgical weapon, to carefully select its target and remove it, not a 'fire from the hip' weapon for sure." the [iT4LY]an shrugged. "Its not something I proud to say i was willing to fire in the past."
"So if the Unspawner hits, what happens?"
"It messes up the data in the respawn chips and devices every person and ship has. once that data corrupts, it can't be fixed in a reasonable time frame." Agnicourt explained. "The data mess up is main part really, the rest of the weapon is pretty much a railgun with a nasty plasma-charged shot. So you get the data to mess it up and the actual weapon to kill whatever its shooting at. I'd also like to point out this superdreadnought, thats what we call it, does not have a respawn device on it, once this thing goes down, it stays down. We can't carry a respawn device on it due to the Unspawner it carries."
"Do you think [E] has a Unswpawner on his?" Flexagon asked.
"I'm not going to say he couldn't, but its unlikely. Or else he would of just showed up at your stations and unspawned them with no warning." Agnicourt sighed. "I really wish they hadn't left this thing in one piece, did they realy expect it to be lost forever?"
"At least it gives us a fighting chance." Gurkenkoenig said, watching as a command painted in black with pumpkins on it slowly coasted by, dipping its wing in a salute to the people there. _It had to be Admiral_, he thought. _No one else really knows where we are._ "Anyways, if [E] wasn't a threat we wouldn't be here while he holds two stations and where Mendes-IX once was, if he decided to stay there."
"You want to Unspawn him?" Allister asked.
'Well if banishing him didn't work then its not going to work again, and we are not going to allow a madman who can control people like robots anywhere near anyone. Just our luck he escapes." G-man sighed. "I wouldn't WANT to use it on anyone. but if its the only option we have then I'll use it. We've lost Halfast, TheRogueAce, OldFinnishGod, MiniConflict and Lance, Rogasiu got caputed and currently a spy in [ERROR]s ranks, not to mention all the people everyone else has lost." He motioned out to the damaged dreadnoughts. "But we have a chance now, I've already ordered one of those finished dreadnoughts painted with the BEAST logo, and every corp that has lost there can hopefully have one of their own."
"So you think we can win this?" Agnicourt asked.
"Yes. it might not be pretty, or glorious, but we will win it." G-man paused for a moment. "Tell me Agnicourt, can the effects of HIS be reversed?"
"Yeah, its quite easy to do actually. You might be stuck with the circuits in your body for the rest of your life, but relatively easy to deactivate and hide." The man answered, looked down at the circuit pattern on his own hand.
"Good." G-man said as he turned to watch the scene outside the veiwport.
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Where have i left my paintbrush…?