War for the Universe [Revised and Edited]

[TimberWolf]

Note: This is story is based in the X2 Universe, a Space Sim, as if it had a multiplayer ability based ran from a server. The admins of the server are Gambit, Wildchild, and TimberWolf. Each have already defined their role in the universe. Gambit is the economic master, with stations and fleets of trade ships. Wildchild roams the universe capturing ships and refitting the ones he likes to add to his rage tag fleet of fighters to patrol pirate and unknown sectors. TimberWolf has collected money from assassination missions and Xenon invasion missions to build up a fleet of Battle Ships and Carriers along with support ship, making the only true space fleet on the server. Players of the server can get help from these admins and often can get donations to help them when they are broke from Khaak attacks or bad business choices. The universe has been peaceful until a secluded player uses illegal tactics to build a force with the power to bring down the server. Can Gambit, Wildchild, and TimberWolf save the universe or is the server doomed to be wiped out by this force appearing from no where?

<This story is still being written and edited as the time is made available. It was written in parts in the X3 thread and each part has a different center of attention and perspective. Instead of dividers I have reorganized this edition into sections and chapters.>

Check this link for info on ships in the story and for information about anything in the game that shows up in the story, such as the sectors or weapons. http://argonopedia.ppcis.org/ships.php? ... 93611349df


War for the Universe [Revised and Edited]

Chapter One: Section One

Apart from Gambit, Wildchild, and TimberWolf, there are no real super powers on the server. But a new force that will cause great pain to the universe had just joined in. Initially he worked as a trader, keeping under the radar. For a couple of months he operated several UT's and only a handful of fighters. But one day he wipes out Rolks Legacy and began a blockade where no one passes. It wasn't until a month later that players on the server called upon the server administrators to look into the problem. Since Gambit had already signed off for the night and Wildchild hadn't been on the message went straight to TimberWolf.

Complaints were nothing new to receive. Administrators are use to getting things about the balancing of the game and how others did them wrong because they got a deal before they did. But something about this message seemed different and demanded immediate personal attention. With that thought TimberWolf sent a Teladi Buzzard to scout out the sector to see what was going on. Clicking on one of many carriers in his fleet, TimberWolf selected one of his jump drive equipped scouts to under take the mission. If it was like all the others the player will back off in fear of the repercussions from the admin, but this wasn’t one of those times. Moments after the Buzzard entered the sector it vanished again. What was left in sight was a ring of laser towers circling the gate.

The fact that a player wouldn’t even give another a chance to run was against one of the rules the players themselves have voted for the server. Using admin sector communications, TimberWolf broadcasts to anyone in Rolks Legacy to stand down, disable all laser towers, and move to the center of the sector to be talked to. As TimberWolf waits for who ever it is to follow the orders he gathers an Argon Titan (M2) and a Teladi Condor (M1) to escort his personal Titan named ‘Lords of Steel.’ Once all the ships are along each others sides TimberWolf commands the other Titan to jump first, followed by ‘Lords of Steel,’ and then the Condor.

Once in the sector it was seen that the player had followed the orders, the laser towers did not engage TimberWolfs forces. In the middle of the sector waiting was a Split Mamba (M3). The information page has it registered to a Xenon001. There doesn’t appear to be anything besides the laser towers around the three gates and this lone fighter blocking travel through the sector. As part of normal procedures, TimberWolf launches a wing of scouts to confirm that this player is alone and that all of his assets are none hostile. As the fleet approached the center something caught TimberWolfs attention on the radar, a large group of transports docking with several TL’s. Questions began to form, and a scrutinizing eye noticed large amounts of particles in the sector and objects hitting the hull.

Chapter One: Section Two

First thing that comes to TimberWolfs mind was to bring his ships to a stop and deploy defensive fighters from his Condor. Pressing target next object brings to light the cause of the high particle concentration. SQUASH mines surrounded all of TimberWolfs fleet, and by the looks of the freighters there must be countless hundreds out there. Before the situation had been sized up the laser towers around each of the gates turned red, destroying any of TimberWolf’s scouts near by. A message appears on the screen “Goodbye to you and your rules.” The TL’s had vanished along with the Xenon011’s Mamba.

Before the message made any sense the sector maps began to fill up with red dots of the activating SQUASH mines. Without even a second passing, all turrets on the ‘Lords of Steel’ and its escorts open fire into the mine field. The defensive fighters burst into brilliant balls of fire as mines near by detonate. In fear for his carriers’ life, TimberWolf quickly orders it to jump back to Omicron Lyae. With the Condor away he maneuvers the two titans closer to help cover each other. The escorting Titan was in the lead and taking the brunt of the damage, its shields slowly draining of strength. For a moment it appeared that the mines were almost gone from the surrounding area until TimberWolf chanced a look at the sector map to see that they were still being activated. That new information changed TimberWolf’s mind to that of tactical retreat. The other Titans shield were near failing by then, not even a minute into the situation, and was ordered to jump home. The situation was starting to look bleak in the presence of so many mines. The ‘Lords of Steel’ turned around and began to make its way towards the gate it came from with the intent of making at least one gate safe to bring ships in to clean this sector out. To lead the way two Perseus’s with Beta Phased Shock Generators installed. The 6 BPSG’s were doing an awesome job of clearing the front path but it was left up to the ‘Lords of Steel’ to keep their sides clear of mines.

Progress was made quickly at first, few mines made it close enough to any of the ships to cause serious damage to the shields. But soon the now active laser towers began shooting through the mine field and striking the Perseus’s. The effort to calculate everything gong on at that moment began to slow down the server, preventing TimberWolf from giving out the recall order before his fighters had flown into the field to attack the towers. Only two fighters left on board and neither are equipped with any phased shock generators. The towers will soon be striking the ‘Lords of Steel’ and the only other option left was to jump out. The command is given to jump to the neighboring sector and the jump drive begins the powering up phase. Suddenly the ship begins to shake as its’ shields receive blow after blow from mines making it through the turrets. For a brief moment the shields fail and a couple of systems and cargo are destroyed. The count down continues and reaches 100% as the last of the explosions end.

Chapter One: Section Three

With great wonder TimberWolf ponders why his ship didn’t jump out of the battle zone. Navigating through the menus to the equipment page showed to his horror that one of the systems destroyed was the jump drive. Now as the ship sits still firing at the surrounding mines the predicament becomes painfully obvious to TimberWolf. He will have to slowly work his way towards the laser towers and handle them and the mines simultaneously. Taking a quick inventory of what was stored on board the fighters and the Titan, a tactic becomes available that would normally be absurd. But this is no normal situation. Luckily this ship was used to confiscate a hacked load of fighter drones that were modified with stronger weapons and shields. They were to be destroyed by the Perseus’s with their BPSG’s when the ‘Lords of Steel’ got to an uninhabited area.

Wishing there was someone else to call upon to ask for help, TimberWolf types out a message to any player in a two sector radius to aid in his attack on the laser towers around the west gate. After several minutes no responses have been sent and the appearance of being alone has never been more apparent. Taking a moment to recollect his nerves, TimberWolf begins to set his new plan into motion. Deploying the hacked fighter drones and targeting the nearest laser tower for them to attack. Quickly they burst into the mine field, taking several mine blasts before being destroyed, and nearly all of them reaching the target and engaging without any of the other towers being able to hit them because of their speed. Soon all of the towers are destroyed, and with victory nearly at hand, TimberWolf commands the rest to protect the ‘Lords of Steel’ as it continues on its way towards the gate. The sight of an ever advancing wall of explosions was impressive and aw inspiring. This sight was costly in that many of the drones were being hit by the explosions caused by the PPC fire from the turrets. In a sudden wave of terror a large batch of mines breaks through the defensive perimeter and begins striking the shields.

In fear for his life and ship, TimberWolf deploys the last two fighters to defend the ship. The last of the drones quickly die under the constant damage incurred by the surrounding mine field. The only thing holding the death sting of the mine field at bay is the 18 PPC’s of the Titan and the two Nova’s (M3) flying around it. In moments the shields reach critical level and the hull begins taking damage again. Weapons start to fail, systems are destroyed, and cargo vanishes from the inventory. The gate is less than a kilometer away but with the constant pounding on the hull the ship slows down ever more. A large explosion is seen off the port bough, a Nova was lost. Hull dropped to 70% and continues a steady decline as shield generators are destroyed. Another big explosion is heard aft of the ship, the last fighter has been lost to the encroaching mines. The end seems near. Switching to weapons screen, TimberWolf quickly installs any weapon that still sits in the cargo bay in hopes that it will help keep the mines at bay long enough for shields to come back online or for the ship to make it through the gate. Server lag hinders the rushing TimberWolf as the hull races pass 50% and yet another turret losses it’s last PPC.

In what felt like eternity, but was only a few seconds, the never ending explosions ended and the hull stopped dropping as the shields came back online for a moment only to be taken out by one last mine strike on the hull. No more mines were moving towards the ‘Lords of Steel’ and a line could be seen between the red mines and the green ship. A moment of breathing followed by several minutes of diagnosing his ships condition leads TimberWolf to break out laughing and near crying. The hull indicator hovered at 7%, no shields, and only a half a dozen weapons still working. The ship is blind and almost immobile just a few hundred meters from the gate. With his hand on the eject button, TimberWolf throttles the ship to full power, cruising at a snails pace of 5 meters per second.

Chapter Two: Section One

Iceman had recently logged in for a quick check on his factories and Universal Transporters (UT’s). As he navigated the screens an ever increasing delay became more and more apparent. The movement of ships in the distance mirrored the delay of the windows he was trying to access. Iceman worked his way to see if any Admins were logged in on the server, getting frustrated by the still increasing delay in response from the screens. Once to the proper screen, with great relief, it was seen that there was one admin currently logged on somewhere in the Universe. Thinking that the problem was located only in his current sector, Iceman sends a message to TimberWolf asking him what’s going on with the server. But the message is returned to him with a note saying that the server could not handle any messages at this time due to too many variables in the sector of Rolk’s Legacy. With that Iceman knew something was very wrong and set a course to head there to give any aid he could give.

Using the Jump Drive to enter the east gate of Lucky Planets to ask people in that sector what they knew about what was going on in Rolk’s Legacy. Once there Iceman noticed an ever increasing crowed forming near the east gate. Selecting the nearest trade ship, Iceman asks the pertinent question only to get referred to a player who requested for an Admin to handle who ever was blockading that sector. In a couple of minute’s time a vague and incomplete picture formed in Iceman’s mind. Thinking that TimberWolf was some how in danger Iceman tries again to send him a message. By now the server appeared to have returned to normal and the message wasn’t returned. Minutes pass and no response was received causing fear that some how TimberWolf was defeated, meaning all of his assets have become property of the AI. A second message is sent with hope that TimberWolf was only busy and not fallen in battle. Still no reply received and with that Iceman engages his engines to go through the gate himself to see.

A loud beep emanate from Iceman’s speakers, drawing his attention to a server wide message, which could only be sent by Admins. The message read “No one enters Rolk’s Legacy until further notice. The gates to the sector are to be blockaded and anyone who jumps into the sector will receive no compensation for losses. This is on the order of the Server Admins.” Moments later another message comes through to Iceman alone asking him to place navigational marker around all the gates named ‘Do Not Enter Under Order of The Admins.’ With out questioning Iceman proceeds to do so. Still wondering what had happened in there, he did as he was asked.

Almost an hour later, long after the beacons were set and Titans positioned over the other two gates, the ‘Lords of Steel’ enters Lucky Planets appearing to be held together by nothing more than twine and spit. All messages between players halted for several minutes as a TL approached the wounded ship, transferring weapons and equipment over, and an awaiting Titan was moved to block the gate. The ship limps towards the Shipyard for repairs with fighter escorts and a TL tailing it. Onlookers slowly started to ask questions about what happened only to get no answer as it appeared TimberWolf was engrossed in handling his ships and the rearming of his flag ship. Iceman flies along side of the ‘Lords of Steel’ and receives a message requesting him to dock.

Chapter Two: Section Two

Once aboard, the conference window appears with only TimberWolf and Iceman. Before a question was asked TimberWolf began to tell Iceman of what had happened and about nearly every little detail he could remember. The briefing went fast and ended with a request, for Iceman to take all of his combat worthy ships to go searching for the player known as Xenon001. To help speed up Iceman’s ability to move across the Universe TimberWolf transfers over the control of a fully armed, loaded, and jump ready Argon Colossus. Also on board were some Argon Nova’s, Buster’s, and Discoverer’s to help augment Iceman’s’ own ships. After 20 more minutes discussion what to do Iceman sets off to take command of his first capital ship and bring his forces together to help search out this new threat.

Iceman’s first mission with the Argon Colossus started in Loomanckstrat’s Legacy, searching for any signs of Xenon001. The three pirate sectors in that area have always been breeding grounds for pirate AI and players playing pirate characters. By choice of the server population all pirate sectors have been left open to criminals to operate without armada’s trying to destroy them. The occasional capital ship goes through these sectors and a handful of those have gone missing. If some body wants to hide and has a lot of money then there is no safer place. This became obvious as the gate jump finished and the radar displayed clumps of red every where. To accelerate the exploration of the sector Iceman deploys the Discoverers that TimberWolf had given him. Sending the units above and below the elliptical plane first to help avoid the squash mines that cover the sector and to help avoid falling into traps around the nearby asteroids. Using the target next command, Iceman locates near by mines for the turrets to destroy. The sweep goes by quickly with no conflicts, encompassing just over a 100 square kilometers of space.

The next sector on the patrol is Mi Ton’s Refuge, the center sector of these three pirate sectors. Knowing that there is a pirate sector to the north and south brought unease to Iceman’s thoughts, who reassured himself that the Colossus could handle any fighter attacks on it. Repeating the scouting process from before, the Discoverers are deployed along with two Buster escorts for each. Once the scout teams had gone far enough away, Iceman deploys extra protection in the count of 14 Nova’s set to defend the ship. The search went on with no confrontations for many minutes. As Iceman passed the center of the sector a red capital ship flickered on his radar for a moment. None of his scouts were showing it. Ordering a scout near the location to alter course to identify the ship, worry began to seep into active thought. Is it a pirate capital ship? If so how did they get the money to buy it let alone the race relations to get it? Is it fully armed or still in the process of being armed?

The capital ship shows up as a Split Python but it keeps vanishing from radar before Iceman can see who it belongs to. The ship appeared not to want to be seen and it definitely had the speed to stay away from the Colossus. With luck the Python came running into the radar range of another scout group without turning quickly to avoid it. With quick speed Iceman ran through the screens to get to the registry to see that it belonged to Xenon001. So the creep didn’t go running far, but why is he trying to hide? This new information demanded action from Iceman, who recalled all scout teams not near the Python and moved near by Discoverers to cover the expected flight path as their escorting Busters returned to the Colossus. It appeared that Xenon001 wasn’t trying to get away any more, seeing that it was followed by ships far faster than the Python. Iceman began to doubt his abilities to control the carrier and its many fighters. How costly will this battle be?

Chapter Two: Section Three

The Python sat staring directly at the Colossus as it approached. No signs of aggression or trickery were seen. Messages were sent from the Colossus but no response from the Python. Near by pirates started to move in close hoping to challenge or ransom the victor of the apparent battle to come. The Python begins moving forward as the Colossus deploys Nova’s and Busters in wings. A third of the launching fighters stay with the ship to defend, the rest make no waste to head for the Python. Bursts of light began to erupt from the Python as it bared its teeth at the on coming fighters. A wave of missiles blaze away from the approaching Nova’s as they change course to avoid the incoming fire. Another round of fire comes from the Python, attempting to shoot down the incoming missiles with much success. Weapons fire from Busters strike the shields and distract turrets from the Nova’s as they setup another missile attack. Fiery explosions dot the star field as fighters are destroyed. Missiles impact the Pythons shields as it grows ever closer to the Colossus.

Showing signs of inexperience, the Colossus turns broadside to the Python to try and out maneuver it. This turns it into a large target that can hardly be missed. The first barrage of weapons fire and missiles streak across the void into the side of the carrier. The tide of battle turns in favor of the destroyer as most of its turrets bash the side of the Colossus while the turrets that had defended it from missiles now attack the fighters with their mass drivers. Discoverers begin to deploy from the Colossus and attack the Python. Their speed helps them avoid being hit but the stars and the weapons fire have become one and the same. Shots and missiles ram against the shields on both ships. The pirates on the side lines begin to wonder if anything will be left for them to make profits from. A sudden burst from the dorsal side of the Python brings its shields down to their knees just before another round of missiles and weapons strike the destroyer. The Colossus shields were near failing themselves, but its constant attention to the mines around it has kept it from suffering the same fate as the Python. With victory near for the Colossus, the Python spoils the battle by deploying laser towers to strike the fighters. Knifes of white cute the stars apart as explosive balls of red expand along their paths. The sky becomes cloudy as debris and weapons fire saturates the scene. The towers began to fall at the cost of many fighters. As the field cleared it became apparent that the Python had jumped away leaving the Colossus alone with a bloody nose and scavengers ready to pounce on it.

The fighters began to dock with the Colossus, un-suspecting of the threat racing for it. The pirate ships ringed around the ship and began their approach from all sides. Some of the Colossus fighters engaged near by pirates, alerting the Colossus of the threat. Many fighters were redeployed while others continued their approach for docking. Many pirates faltered in their conviction to the assault, but many passed through avoiding the guarding fighters. Most of the guarding fighters were back in space fighting tooth and nail against the pirates as they threw everything they had into disabling the Colossus with the dream of profits from ransom. The shields of the Colossus were already weak and they began to approach failure under the stress of the attack. The dire choice of staying with the escorts or jumping for its life was made in a flash as the Colossus vanished from the sector. The pirates quickly mop up the remaining fighters that have ran out of missiles and are badly damaged.

Chapter Two: Section Four

Not being completely lost on clues to Xenon001, Iceman was looking at the Pythons cargo hold when he jumped away. He is positive that the energy cells dropped by about 200 units right in front of his eyes. There are about 5 or so sectors accessible to players that would require about 200 energy cells to jump to from Mi Ton’s Refuge. Most of those sectors are heavily traveled by Gambit’s corporation, the core sectors. After docking the Colossus with the shipyard in Lucky Planets, Iceman writes up a message for Gambit to read the next time he logs in. Using some of his own credits, Iceman stocks up on some Boron Barracuda’s (M3) to fill in the gaps he gained on the flight deck. TimberWolf had been using the carrier as a weapons stockpile so there was more than enough to fully equip enough ships to fully load the Colossus. Unfortunately there were not enough ships for sale to do so. With enough energy cells for one long range jump, Iceman decides to pay a stop to Paranid Prime to finish replacing lost fighters with the Paranid Perseus. Before jumping a message from Diesalot informs him that a damaged Python had just finished repairs and was refueling in Kingdom End. Iceman tells Diesalot to tale the ship for as long as he can without being obvious about it.

Chapter Three: Section One

The sight of a Split Python in a Boron sector was strange, but so were a lot of things players did such as trying to land on planets. Everyone knows you can’t but that doesn’t stop those believing the rumors of a UFO base being on one of them from trying. It was posted on the entry page before logging in on the server to look out for strange things. To Diesalot this was strange and the response he got from Iceman confirms that this was what they were looking for. Still being new to the game in general, Diesalot really had nothing to tell him something was amiss. Only having 2 weeks under his belt, and no kills, there were many things about the basic game that came to him as being strange. The ever present and hunted UFO that seems to be attracted to him as he has the most sightings out of all the players on the server. The only way he makes money is by doing the passenger missions and the donated sector trader that Gambit gave him. The furthest he has dared venture was Elena’s Fortune and as far south as Home of Light. This was Diesalot’s first time in a Boron sector and the strange looking ships didn’t help him keep an eye out for “strange things.”

The Python seemed to be content sitting at the dock, even after getting repairs. A Teladi Falcon belonging to the Python kept going between local Solar Power Plants and getting close to the ship before going back to another one. It was odd that it never docked to off load cargo but it must be doing something. About the fifth run the Python began moving towards Rolk’s Drift. Waiting until the ship got close to the edge of his duplex scanner range, Diesalot sends a message alerting Iceman to the Pythons movement, and then follows. Once the Python passes through the gate, striking several freighters as is did, Diesalot pushes for full throttle to catch up. This process continued for a while as the Python moved out of Boron sectors to Teladi sectors. As the Python entered Spaceweed Drift it became apparent that Diesalot was made. Once he entered the sector the barrels of the Pythons’ PPC’s were emptying themselves in his direction.

Chapter Three: Section Two

Complete inability to even dent the Pythons shields is where Diesalot stands. Still using the original Discoverer he started with, along with equipment except the engines, rudder, and cargo capacity have all been maxed out. The only thing that was in his favor was that most of the shots aimed at him stuck the gate instead causing the local AI defenders to turn red against the Python. Using the Discoverer’s high mobility and small profile, Diesalot dances around the shots and the gate in hopes that if the AI got mad at only a few shots they should be really ticked off if the guy started doing damage to it. Unfortunately Diesalot didn’t know that gates are indestructible. As the AI Teladi Phoenix (M2) began its attack on the Python, the Falcon launched and began its own attack back. With a quick thought, as the Python turned to engage the Phoenix, decides that the player must have gotten into the fighter to better defeat the attacking ship. Sending a quick message off to Iceman about what has happened, then attempting to attack the Falcon in the cross fire of the two destroyers.

The blue balls of PPC fire criss cross the field. The Falcon took a couple of hits but unloads missiles and Alpha Phased Shock Generator fire into the Phoenix. Diesalot gets a couple of good pepper shots into the Falcons shields trying to get its attention. The Python’s shields were dropping fast as it has less strength than the Phoenix. Suddenly a swarm of fighters entered the mix, shooting the Falcon and the Python. Risking a look at the radar, Diesalot sees a Colossus approaching the battle unleashing its fighters. The Python begins to falter, as the Falcon brings down the Phoenix’s shields. Doing his best to keep the Falcons’ attention, but failing at it, Diesalot fires off missiles he had accidentally bought when he first started playing. The missile struck at the same time as several Gamma High Energy Plasma shots from Perseus fighters. The Falcon loses its shields but remains alive. As the fighters turn about to fire the finishing blow the Falcon vanishes into a flash of white light. When the flash clears the screen the Phoenix comes into view as it explodes under the fire from the Python. While Diesalot tries to make sense of what is going on the Python detonates into several chain of explosions.

Chapter Three: Section Three

A quick chain of messages goes between Iceman and Diesalot ending with no clues left to follow up on. With that determined they went their separate ways, Iceman heading off to look for clues, while Diesalot drifts around the Teladi sectors to build up his funds. The opportunities for Diesalot appeared to be wide open as players who watched the battle began to ask for his services to protect their assets from their enemies. It was Ambush Bug who gave the offer that Diesalot couldn’t refuse. For his services he will receive 1,000 credits for every kill along with a Teladi Falcon with no equipment currently installed and no upgrades but full hull. This sudden jump in fire potential and a rather steady rate of income, seeing as how Ambush Bugs’ ships were currently under attack by a couple of groups of Pirate ships, Diesalot saw a bright future in defense services. Moments after accepting the job, the first Pirate goes down and his account goes up. When the threat was over, for the time being, 13 Pirates had been dealt with.

Chapter Four: Section One

The creation of the server wasn’t easy for the admins. There were concerns that access to certain things would ruin the game for other players, especially those who are new to the game and fresh to the server. With that in mind they decided to lock out the co-ordinates of the Khaak Sectors and the ability to capture any Khaak ships. Even with this measure in place there was still ways to for players to ruin the game for others but it became much more manageable. But on other servers, as well as this one, there have been players who have found ways to get around the lockouts to gain access. One such cheat is to import the single player map over into the multiplayer character info saved on the player’s computer. It had been nearly two years since the last person was caught using that cheat, and it was widely accepted that the patches since then have removed the ability to do so.

With military assets searching the depths of space trying to find Xenon001, it came as a great surprise when cries for help erupted from Tharka’s Sun, a home sector of the Split Dynasty and one of the more heavily player populated sectors. Unfortunately the only Admin logged on at this time was Gambit, who was expanding his economic empire as well as aid in the construction of other stations operated by players. With only small groups of fighters escorting his TL’s and protecting some key factories, Gambit was in no way equipped to fend off any major attack. The message log continued to fill up with cries for help and a random message of players trying to fend off the enemy ships. But none gave an idea of what the enemy force was made up of. Under normal circumstances either Wildchild or TimberWolf would handle any military problems since they have the firepower while any economic problems are handled exclusively by Gambit.

Chapter Four: Section Two

As the TL materialized in the west gate of Tharka’s Sun, Gambit was greeted with a wall of ships trying to rush through the gate he now blocked. A couple of ships collided with the hull of his ship, bursting into pieces as their shields fail. The fleeing ships soon provided him a path to get out of their way for him to continue to enter the system with no more lethal collisions. The waves of players gathering resources from their stations, assembling their fleets near by, and then leading them towards the west gate, made moving at top speed impossible but Gambit needed to get through to see what he was facing. No enemy ships appeared on the radar, no weapons fire could be seen near the other gate. From what could be seen, it was just a mass panic with no real cause. Taking a look at the sector map the list of ships in detection rang kept changing so fast that it was hard to keep straight where each ship was. Looking at stations proved no help except that the AI traders were still doing business as normal as the players manually drained their stations. As the TL finally reaches the center of the sector a glimpse at the cause brought forth the worst case scenario that Gambit had feared when he made the choice not to invest into military ships of his own.

It wasn’t the fact that there was 3 Split Raptors (M1’s) along with 6 Split Dragons (M6’s) which appeared to be escorting them that made Gambit quake in his seat. It was the 450 fighters that were swarming around helpless players and their stations. During the initial shock, a small band of player ships moved in to engage a Raptor and its two escorting Dragons. In seconds most of those ships were destroyed by a group of fighters that responded to the attack on their carrier. The shear number of enemy fighters was the problem, not the Raptors or Dragons sitting around the east gate. Looking at the list of stations again, Gambit was able to identify three stations that have vanished since he last looked moments ago. Sending a sector wide message to all the players to gather all their military assets and gather around him, Gambit hoped that between all the players there that they could amass a big enough fleet to stop the invasion before to much damage had been done. With great pride a handful of ships appeared to enter formation with the TL, but then great pain as a player finished loading up their personal carrier and jumped away along with its several dozen fighters. Another player owned capital ship jumped away after being loaded, and its escorting fighters were left to fly out of the sector. Hope of assembling a fleet faded quickly as the bulk of military power in the system slowly vanished under the command of selfish players.

The steam of fleeing players has thinned out but still shows no sign of ending. The number of ships gathered around Gambit still numbered less than 50 fighters including his own 35 fighters he had on board. But soon a new cry for help erupts from the west gate area as Split Pythons (M2) entered the sector with their guns blazing PPC fire into the crowded space around them. Near by players requested docking rights with Gambits’ TL so they could be jumped out of the sector. The heroic players that had joined up with Gambit began to question their resolve as they watched their friends risk their lives to pass the two Pythons with a strangling grip on the west gate. Gambit turned his TL around and commanded his fleet to engage the destroyers to help give cover to the fleeing traders. The area around the gate began to clog up with containers floating around from the destroyed freighters. Very few traders were making it, many more were turning around to seek refuge with Gambit’s fleet, and others began to head off into the depths of space in hopes of being unknown by the attackers. Seeing a desperate situation, Gambit sends out a Universe wide message, a power only admins have, requesting help from all players to protect the sector of Tharka’s Sun. Hoping to hear Wildchild or TimberWolf log in and respond to the message, Gambit felt alone when only Iceman and Diesalot, with only a few others, send their willingness to help.

Chapter Four: Section Three

As the reinforcements were preparing to jump to the rescue, Gambit had to try and find a way out for the players trapped in the sector. Soon the fighters leave the sides of the TL and begin their attack on the two Pythons guarding the gate. The first attack appeared to not have gotten the ships attention, but that was quickly changed as the Pythons weapons fire changed over from the helpless freighters to the aggressive fighters. A couple of Gambits own fighters fell first, and seeing how in effective they are, were quickly recalled to defend the TL as it entered weapons range. The first Python was falling and soon erupted in explosions that shattered its hull. The second Python began to move away from the gate, allowing more ships to enter faster. Gambit thought about going through the gate himself but quickly decided against it to protect the other players. As the Python battered down the shields of Gambits’ TL, the escorting fighters sucked the shields away from the Python until it collapsed under the strain. With a moment of victory Gambit recollected his fighters and began to move back to the middle of the sector to see how many more players were left to evacuate. The docked freighters disembarked as soon as they saw the coast was clear.

The far side of the sector looked empty except the numerous fighters swarming around attacking near by stations. The Raptors and Dragons were unmoved from the far gate. Gambit took up position near the middle hoping for the slower moving ships to dock with him as he provided cover. A small fighter wing approached the TL and began to attack it. The defending fighters began to assault the enemy as the turrets kept the missiles off. The player fighters had stayed near the gate to ensure that it wouldn’t be blocked, but soon were over powered. To Gambits horror, waves of fighters were entering through the west gate, over powering all around it. Soon their carrier entered with two escorting Dragons, blocking the gate again. With only several dozen players left, some with more than a dozen ships, there was no way to get them all onboard and out of the sector with this one TL. With fear building up within him, Gambit sends an urgent message to Iceman and Diesalot to inform them on the current situation and to change the mission plan. Their attack will be purely to save players; any station that is saved is secondary to the lives of the players. Shortly another enemy wing attacks the TL and the ships now swarming around it.

Chapter Five: Section One

Having been actively looking for Xenon001 for a week with no new sightings, the urgent message from Gambit struck Iceman as suspicious. After having read the message several times, Iceman responds to find out what he should do. The last tip he had followed brought him out to the Unknown sector west of Rhy’s Desire, a Split Sector in the south west corner of the Universe. The search had proved to be a waste of time as the only things out there were pirates with their pirate base and swarms of Khaak clusters that were leaving them alone. The urgency of the message made Iceman’s current situation even more painful. The Colossus he was commanding was low on energy cells and unable to jump to Tharka’s Sun, or even close to it. The fire power of the carrier along with its fighters would easily level the playing field long enough to get the remaining players out. Knowing there were solar power plants in the neighboring sector, Iceman sets off to re-supply his ship with more than enough energy cells.

Not constantly exploring the universe and checking the economy normally doesn’t hurt a player that checks their local area and only operates in that area. In this case the way out of date information about this region of the Universe almost brought Iceman to his knees as he saw what was left after a corporation battle. Rhy’s Desire and the surrounding sectors were being claimed by more than one well established company in the area that sought sole rights to provide resources to other player stations. According to the history files on the sector, many months of skirmishes between these factions lead to all out war when one group brought in several M6’s to blockade the competition. Now all Iceman sees in front of him are dozens of stations sitting idle as there is no more energy cells entering the sector or produced locally as the competing companies have destroyed each others solar power plants. This is probably one of the sectors Gambit was working on to bring the economy back online as even one sector falling out could cause ripple effects to stations all across the Universe. As a course is laid in for the next sector, hoping that there will be a solar power plant there, Iceman sends off messages to Gambit and Diesalot about his current condition and what could be done.

Ministry of Finance was just as decimated as Rhy’s Desire, but there was still traffic here as the Equipment center, Shipyard, and Warf were still operating. Beyond that everything else was idling. In the distance weapons fire could be seen but the radar couldn’t reach far enough out to see who it was. Curious as to who is fighting, Iceman launches a Discoverer (M5) scout. Soon the conflict was brought into the light and Iceman could see a Teladi Phoenix and Boron Ray fighting it out. A quick look at their details identifies them as being owned by the feuding corporations. Shortly the Boron Ray collapsed under the pressure of the Phoenix’s weapons fire. With no warning the Phoenix began to fire at the Discoverer scout that Iceman had sent out. In moments the ship was gone and the Phoenix could be seen heading straight for the Colossus. Thinking that he was being seen as a collaborator of the enemy, Iceman started sending messages out to the Phoenix stating his intentions and why he was in the area. Nothing seemed to detour the aggression aimed at him. Seeing an unavoidable confrontation heading his way, Iceman was forced to deploy his forces.

As the fighters exited the Colossus, Iceman continued to send messages that stated his intentions and that he would defend himself if fired upon. Also to help show none aggression, Iceman turned the ship further away from the Phoenix to ensure that he was not in its path to the west gate. Even with the course change the Phoenix continued to aim right for him and showed red. Wanting to know if the ship had the intent of destroying him on its mind, Iceman sends out another Discoverer towards it and watches as the ship enters the firing range and explode in a wave of PPC fire. One last message was sent from Iceman stating that the act of destroying two of his fighters was an act of war. Before the Phoenix entered weapons range of the Colossus, the swarms of defense and attack fighters had darkened the space between them. In moments the stars were outnumbered by weapons fire and missiles streaking across the darkness. The Phoenix continued its path through the fighters, plowing through them with its heavy shields, ignoring them except for its turrets that tried to clear space around it.

Chapter Five: Section Two

The bridge of the Colossus flashes blue as PPC fire strike the shields protecting it. The sheer number of fighters striking the Phoenix should have stopped its advance or at least slowed it down. Reality of the situation showed that the shields of the Colossus were falling faster than those of the Phoenix. Turning the carrier about to reduce its profile helped some but Iceman was never good with big ships. With that thought in mind he transfers over to one of the docked Perseus fighters and sets out to destroy the assaulting capital ship. Taking a moment to command the Colossus to dock at the Shipyard in Trinity Sanctum, Iceman then piloted the ship right into the path of the firing Phoenix. The Colossus will continue on a direct path to the Shipyard, now Iceman only had to get the fighters to fire in unison with him to beat down the Phoenix.

A message alert beeps onto the screen. A couple of quick keys to get to the message screen to seen that it isn’t from Gambit or anyone else Iceman knows. Deciding that the message might be helpful, Iceman risked seconds to read it. Even before the first read over was done, the reason why the Phoenix was attacking became apparent. The player owning the Phoenix is a mercenary based out of one of the local corporations but hired by Xenon001 to distract and destroy any potential danger to him and what he is doing. Even though the player was ignorant of what is happening, he is playing the very part they designed the character for. If the player wanted to stay alive, they would abandon the fight when their shields were about to fail or if they are rich enough would flee in a fighter to fight again. How much did Xenon001 pay this player? Was it enough to afford loosing a capital ship?

Once the fighters had grouped up on his wing, Iceman swooped down with his three guns blazing along with his escorts weapons. A wave of missiles flashes past the cockpit as they rush to meet the Phoenix’s shields. In moments the shields are dropped to 50% and continue to fall under the heavy directed punishment. Flying between the hulls of the capital ship, Iceman and the fighters that followed avoided the turret fire and came out the aft side faster than the turrets could turn. Before the Phoenix had a chance to get itself into a better position, Iceman was on a second attack run bringing the shields to their minimum. Hoping the player would bug out of the fight, Iceman delayed the third attack for a few extra seconds hoping to see some sign of giving up. No such sign was visible as the ship continued its attack on the Colossus which was loosing shield strength fast. With no mercy, Iceman and his attack wings came up to the Phoenix in crushing waves. The first destroyed the shields, second began the punching of the hull, the third caused major systems damage across the ship, and the final wave came in for the kill as it casts streams of missiles and plasma fire. No signs a player trying to escape from the destruction of the ship. If there was a player in there then they would be seeing the very active and populated view of Argon Prime in a few moments but if there wasn’t then they may have more forces a head.

Chapter Five: Section Three

It hasn’t been long after the attack that fear became so strong that it could be tasted. The Colossus had continued on its course to fly to Trinity Sanctum and dock at the Shipyard, but it was caught in the sector Bad Debt. The trade lane there had been surrounded by laser towers that lay dormant. The fighters had just finished docking with the carrier when the shields began to take damage. Not understanding how an enemy could have come so close without been detected, Iceman was completely dumb founded at what was happening until a white beam shined into the nose of the Colossus. It was then that it was noticed that all the towers had become active and targeted the carrier. The turrets began blasting the towers near by; fighters were being re-launched to handle towers that were outside PPC range. The shields dropped quickly under the heavy strain, towers fell just as quickly under the heavy fire. With panic running around, Iceman initiates the jump drive sequence and hoped that it would finish before the ship took any hull or systems damage. Fighters were being destroyed left and right as they attacked the towers, some surviving with a hair of hull left only to be picked off by another tower as others fly about as if they were piloted by players. The count down drew longer as the shields gave way ever so slowly to zero. Only mere moments separate Iceman’s survival from his demise.

A flash of white light blanked out the screen. First thought Iceman had was that the towers had penetrated the shields and destroyed the ship. Second thought was that the jump drive had activated. Reality showed him that it was both. The Colossus had sustained substantial hull damage, but little systems damage. The jump drive was still intact and had done its job, bringing the ship out of harms way but leaving the fighters there to be picked off by the towers. Using the last bit of energy that was in the cargo hold, Iceman had jumped to Paranid Prime and started for the Shipyard for repairs while sending the remaining fighters to the Warf and Equipment docks for repairs and reloading. With this break from the battle, Iceman remembered that gambit was in trouble and was relying on the Colossus to be sent to help retrieve trapped players. After everything that happened, the Colossus was to slow and damaged to be of any help, and Iceman didn’t have the funds to even repair all the fighters let alone even rearm them. With dread in his clouded mind, Iceman sends a message off to Gambit notifying him of what his current condition is along with a request for any funds to repair or replace the battered fleet.

Chapter Six: Section One

A mighty fleet was not to be seen, but a large fighter wing was. Wildchild had been in the middle of making the Paranid sectors around Cardinal’s Domain safe again for the average player, as well as take the time to capture some more pirate ships to further expand his combat group. The level of corruption in the southern sectors had been getting worst over the past year and had gotten to the point where the local police force was no longer able to even maintain the safety of themselves let alone anyone else. It was for that reason Wildchild and his combat group was called in. During the first day of operating in the area, there were over 26 separate battles across 5 of the 6 sectors he was asked to clear. Out of those battles came 17 captured ships, some freighters while most were fighters.

As he logged in, the current state of affairs was unknown to him. The first thing that met his senses was the local police players crying for help. Even though he has been in the region for the better part of a month, there were still strong enough pirate forces to decimate the local police. Some how a single pirate has been able to get a Split Python and been using it to terrorize these sectors. It is certain that that pirate didn’t get it on their own since some of the equipment came from races that shoot first and never ask questions. The cry for help today has attracted one of Wildchilds automated defense forces that now patrol three of the six sectors. Each group consists of 3 Paranid Nemesis’s (M6) and 9 of his captured and refitted fighters. Before he even closes the message screen, the cross fire between his forces and the pirate fighters could be seen spanning the darkness between them. By the time Wildchild had looked over his property logs to see what ships had been lost since last time the battle was over with no losses on his end. Today’s target is that Pirate Split Python hiding just north of Cardinal’s Domain in one of the pirate sectors. Once that’s eliminated then the pirates loose the upper leg on the local defense groups.

Once the business at the Shipyard was done, Wildchild undocked and summoned his personal escort wing to protect him as he conducted a raid on the pirate sectors in hope of drawing out the capital ship. As he emerged from the other side of the gate the barrier that prevents any good search of the sector stood in his way. Before any of the escorts had made the jump, the fleet of pirate ships guarding the gate had opened fire. Doing what he does best, Wildchild took his Perseus into a barrel role to avoid most of the fire, moved real close to the gate field and then moved right into the enemy position. Friendly fire quickly claimed several pirate ships surrounding his own, eliminating his cover. Firing quick bursts at any target that had weakened shields, Wildchild caused internal damage and in some cases destroying the target. The enemy blockade began to break down as the escorting fighters entered the sector. Dodging enemy fire, barely avoiding a collision after near collision between the crowded fighters, the Perseus’s shields glowed from the subtle impacts. Weapons fire dotted the sides of the gate, near by squash mines take pirates with them in a burst of light, and the space around the gate quickly empties as pirate fighters began to retreat to their bases.

Chapter Six: Section Two

With the gate area cleared, Wildchild deployed a couple of his escorts out to begin a search of the sector. As the scouts fanned out, the main body of the sector had to be searched by him since there are many mines laying around in hiding. The risk was high that one will destroy the Perseus but that would just bring a new challenge for Wildchild to over come which didn’t scare him one bit. While in transit, Wildchild took the opportunity to clear out any mines he detected to provide a path for his escorts to follow later. The stations ahead hid the danger lurking near by. The dark, red space echoed the abandoned feeling of the sector. No one had tried to setup mining stations on the very good asteroids in the system due to the huge population of pirates, both AI and player controlled. It wasn’t unheard of players vanishing in these sectors even in capital ships with escorts. As the first stations came into view, looking foreboding and useless, with no resources streaming in and out of the sector, Wildchild began a circuit that would allow him to search this area quickly. Not expecting any real challenge until the next sector after what had already happened here, his guard was lower than it should.

Coming in close to a station, passing under some of the out stretched girders and around some pylons, Wildchild sought to keep his ship has hidden as possible as to not catch the eye of passing pirates who didn’t get the message at the gate. With a quick series of hand movements a squash mine gets light up with plasma fire before it had the chance to detonate next to the Perseus. Leaping from abandoned station to abandoned station, using the protrusions to help hide his engine flames, Wildchild completed his search of the central area and began heading back for the rest of his wing and guide them through the mine field to the next sector, Mi Ton’s Refuge. The scouts caught up with Wildchild just before he passed through the gate expecting a far worst ambush on the other side. Fearing that the pirates may have finally put their laser towers around the gate to secure their sector like others had tried before with too few towers.

The flash of the jump gate faded into the undisturbed darkness of space. No signs of enemy traps or ambushes were seen. No freighter was seen in radar range, no stations, no squash mines. Repeating the search pattern from before, scouts were sent out to search the outer rims of the sector as Wildchild headed for the core to search between the asteroids. The lack of squash mines floating about brought worry to the front of conscious thought. Fearing an ambush, Wildchild sends off most of his wing to hide by dense asteroid collection off in the distance. Flying through space with a ship on each wing, the Perseus made a tempting target for any pirate who wanted to find someone to hold hostage for ransom. In this case this ‘easy’ pray hid its fangs and laid its own trap.

Chapter Six: Section Three

Waves of red targets were detected burst from the dark side of asteroids, flanking Wildchilds position. Soon all sides were covered and the enemy began to close in with a few ships, leaving most to hold the perimeter. Being out numbered by so many, nearly 30 to 1 would bring most prey to their knees. Wildchild was no prey but rather a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Using his own powers, the closing fighters where discouraged from moving any further, along with summoning his escorts from their own asteroid hiding places. The pirate sphere splintered to handle the outside threat, barring a weak spot that Wildchild dashed to exploit. In moments pirate Busters (M4) were brightening the darkness with their destruction. The enemy ships that had turned to attack the incoming fighters soon turned their backs away from Wildchild to engage him. Flying past them, dodging fire from all sides, and swerving to avoiding collisions with the pirate ships. Seeing the proximity of his fighters, Wildchild looked up to see a wall of missiles and plasma fire passing around him into the enemy fighters. The radar cleared a little as pirates cried out with their last breath. Now with the aid of his escorts, Wildchild turned about and went head long into the fight.

With the battle appearing to be in Wildchilds’ favor, it was soon seen that it was never in his hands. From behind the very same asteroids the pirates had hidden came a Split Python and two Argon Titans. The pirates must have a very wealthy friend to have supplied this much fire power to such a group. PPC fire formed large Xs as they stream through the battle field. With unconscious thought, the Perseus found itself up between the twin hulls of the Python blasting at its shields as hard as it could. The pirate fighters were busy with Wildchilds escorts and dodging the heavy PPC fire. Soon the Python began to buckle under the strain of fire on its shields. Enemy fighters spot Wildchild and attempt to force him from the position only to aid him by hitting the Python to its death. With the cover of the large explosion, Wildchild quickly strikes out at the closest enemy fighter, vaporizing the ship, and then striking then next like a bolt of lightning. The enemy fleet was now down to the two Titans and less than 10 fighters. When the pirates recognized this they began to pull out and run away. Doing as much damage to them as possible, Wildchild pushed forward to the closest Titan with all of his escorts supporting fire power quickly brought it to its knees and destroyed it. The rest got away.

Chapter Seven: Section One

Large chains of explosions punctuated the star field. Countless moving pairs of light faded in and out of sight, moving between the explosions. Dark objects with hints of light behind them followed a massive ship into the south of Tharka’s Sun. Every ship following it is fully laden with cargo, moving as fast as they can, but still can’t keep up. Scouts kept tabs on the enemy movements as the fleet continues to pass into the unknown regions of the sector. Large silhouettes in front of the gates blocked the blue light emitted by their event horizon. The few freighters not shadowing the TL was vanishing in bursts of light as their hull are broken open from streams of neon lights emitted by unseen sources.

Bright lights break out from behind the black masses blocking the gates. Another dark mass appears from the blue light, with little bursts of light striking out at the moving dots around it. Other small dots block the blue haze of the gate and begin spitting light at the other masses. The newly arrived masses soon burst into flames and explosions as they are beaten down by the stars around them. The darkness soon clouds the gate and brings the events out of view from the running fleet.

Chapter Seven: Section Two

The sight of the AI reinforcements being destroyed as they entered the sector dropped Gambits hopes of rescue for the players. The message from Iceman and the status of the Colossus further dampened the chances of a rescue plan working. The plan that was going to happen, but not any more, would have used the Colossus to carry the players out of the sector and leave all the other ships to fend for them selves until the enemy could be cleared out. But with it out of commission that idea, along with many others, were no longer possible to do with out majority of the players loosing their lives. Trying to figure out what to do next, Gambit checks his fleet positions and status to see if he had anything that could get to them and load up the players. There were plenty of TL’s that could be brought in but none of them would be able to get past all the fighters roaming the sector in one piece with their petty weapon systems.

A message appears on the screen, sent by one of the scouting players. The words were short but contained what Gambit had expected and feared. The enemy ships continued to block the gates, many of the fighters have returned to patrol around them, and the rest have begun to search the systems for the remaining players that were seen running. The AI traders are still trying to pass through or dock at stations that no longer exist. They are shortly destroyed after entering the sector and the cargo crates were being picked up by freighters that were launched from a TL belonging to Xenon001 that had entered the sector. All of the dropped freight across the sector was being picked up, billions of credits worth, more than enough to fully stock several dozens of stations. Gambits thoughts were that this attack was nothing but a cover up for something else. Why else would an attacker go though all the trouble of bringing freighters into an area that had contained some of the best stocked stations in the Universe?

If the attack was not meant to destroy the sector but rather generate free resources then it had been a very costly tactic to get what are no longer free resources. Then again it has also caused something far more traumatic. Every player that died here had owned dozens if not hundreds of stations and nearly a thousand ships. All of those assets are now under the direct control of the AI, which will increase the price off all the goods, remove hundreds of Universal Traders and Sector Traders from the market, and probably destroy the balanced economy in dozens of sectors. The image of the Universe grinding to a halt appeared in Gambits mind. His own empire slowing down as his suppliers shut down from lack of resources, and then the stations he supplied would soon stop. Once enough station closes it would be a long and hard battle to salvage enough resources already produced to restart a single loop of stations from which to rebuild. The pirates will have a hay day and Xenon001 will have destroyed the server.

Chapter Seven: Section Three

The glow of the shields faded quickly. The shots from one of the enemy patrols were well aimed and struck the TL with much energy. None of the scouts saw the patrol, only a tired and panicked player gave any warning of the encroaching assailants. As soon as Gambit saw then the few remaining fighters under his control set off to intercept them. The TL then changed course to block their path to the players and their weak freighters. Soon enough the enemy fighters were dispatched in pieces into the void of space. But the problem was that now the enemy has their exact coordinates and will be sending an even larger attack force to finish the job. Gambit had already brought the slowest of the ships on board his TL but even then most of the ships were not much faster than that. Covering enough ground to get away was the problem.

Scouts report back in that two of the Dragons (M6) along with a couple of hundred fighters has left their sight heading out towards the fleet. Gambit knew what they were aiming for and that those ships were more than fast enough to over take them no matter what. A quick flicker of messages though the fleet revealed no one had any squash mines but many had a couple of handfuls of fighter drones in their freighters. Gambit has them all transferred to his TL by transporter beam. Once the last willing player had finished transferring their fighter drones, Gambit took an inventory of what he now had available to him. Out of all those cargo holds came over a hundred fighter drones in which to protect the fleet. Now it was time to make a plan. Too bad the real military mines weren’t here to do it but then again Gambit can be just as devious as those two when he wants too.

[TimberWolf]

Chapter Seven: Section Four

Once the last of the unmanned freighters had broken away from the fleet, Gambit changed course and made his way down below the elliptical plane defined by the gates. With any luck they will be low enough that the enemy fleet won’t be able to see them when they get over head. And if they got there too soon then the unmanned freighters will play as decoys as they make their way in several different directions in groups of ten or more. The scouts had already begun to head back to the fleet, guessing where it will be and aiming for that location to get there faster. With luck this tactic will give them the time needed for Iceman and Diesalot to get into place to conduct their own rescue plan. The problem left to ponder is if Xenon001 was manning any of the ships in the system. Iceman and Diesalot have proven themselves able to handle the AI but not that many of the players. If Xenon001 was in one of those ships, that can completely turn the battle for the worst at any moment.

With fear and fatigue setting in, Gambit watched his radar for another hour hoping the enemy fleet missed them completely or fell for one of the decoys. None of the players have reported any more ship losses in the sector. The scouts have returned and taken up positions around the greatly reduced fleet to help keep an eye out for enemy ships. The fleet has gone so far out that if they decided to head to one gate or the other, the change in direction would be less than 5 degrees. Some of the players had logged off for the night and set their ships on auto-pilot to follow Gambit. Others have logged on to the horror that they were killed while docked at their own stations and now have nothing but a starting buster along with nearly a hundred players in Argon Prime. The first signs of economic troubles have already begun showing in neighboring sectors that bought their resources from here. Taking another look over the radar and manually searching the star field behind them, Gambit accepted that they were safe for now and begun punching through windows to move his resources around to help stabilize the area before it spreads too far.

Chapter Eight: Section One

A TL emerged from the gate in front of Iceman, who was waiting patiently with the remainder of his fighters, sitting in his own Paranid Perseus. Before the TL had even stopped Iceman had sent the order to dock to all escorting fighters. In quick order the TL was loaded up and heading back out to pick up Diesalot with his couple of captured fighters. Gambit transferred upgrades over to Iceman’s fleet and to Diesalot. The fighters are quickly brought up to par with pristine fighting condition. Eager to engage in combat, the TL emerged in Cho’s Defeat to launch the rescue fleet to free up the eastern gate. The hope was that most of the Raptors’ fighters will still be out in deep space looking for the fleet or to far away to return to help.

Iceman takes a last look over his fighter arrangement and checks to see if all the proper weapons are equipped. Diesalot does similar but makes sure he remembers what buttons to press to get his wingmen to do what he wants. The TL Gambit provided was ready to enter the gate first and draw the fire of the capital ships blocking the gate. If any of the ships are too close then the TL will take it out as it collides with it. With joy, a couple of players with their own fighter wings join up with them. With great excitement another player brought forth two Teladi Phoenix (M2) to aid in the rescue. Looking around at the fleet now assembled around him, Iceman couldn’t help but feel that victory was assured and that they will bring a crushing blow to the enemy fleet.

Chapter Eight: Section Two

Silence, a gate sat undisturbed as ships whip about. A moment later dotted lines of green erupt from a TL emerging from the undisturbed gate. Another moment, many fighters began to shoot out from behind the TL, engaging in combat with the fighters in front of them. The gate falls silent before another large ship emerges, quickly spitting out blue balls of light in all directions. Shortly another large ship appears; spitting blue balls of light, and catches up with the other large ships. More fighters appeared from behind the destroyers and strike out to the large, foreboding, ships in the distance and their escorts.

Bright explosions, dancing dots, slipping masses as time fights by. Bursts of waves erupt from the mussels of weapons, striking all in their path. The small fleet quickly over powers the ships around the gate and then proceeded towards their main goal. No signs of enemy reinforcements were seen. Quickly enough the fighters were engaged with the enemy capital ships and their escorts. The enemy fighters were striking out at the TL and Phoenix’s escorting it. Quickly enough a Raptor begins to breaking apart, its fighters faltering for a moment as their command structure vanishes. A group from the small fleet takes advantage of the moment and quickly singles out the unorganized fighters. The escorts quickly strike out at the Phoenix’s.

Being fast and nimble, the Dragons dance around the battleships and cast green balls of death into their draining hard shields. The blue balls of light were too slow to strike their targets. Fighters began to return to them to help when the first Phoenix went out in flames, never to rise again. As soon as the fighters arrived to help, the first Dragon fell apart as it swerved into the side of the TL. In great surprise the enemy fighters began striking the TL exclusively, as if they understood what it was there for. The remaining Phoenix tries to protect it but its weapons are too slow. Nearly all the fighters are recalled to protect it, leaving the enemy ships alone to recharge and move into a better defensive or offensive position.

Chapter Eight: Section Three

Iceman watched in horror as one of the Phoenix battleships shattered in the distance. It fell far sooner than anyone had expected. It must have been hit with friendly fire as it combated the Dragons. That’s the only explanation that came to mind. The shields wine, dropping in strength rapidly, as Iceman brings his attention back to the fight. The attack on the second Raptor was going well with the shields almost gone. A message from the captain of the other Phoenix scrolls across the screen asking for all fighters to with draw and aid in the defense of the TL. With out hesitation, even though he disagreed with the idea, the fighter quickly swings around the Raptor and blazes a trail with its wingmen back to the TL.

More enemy fighters entered radar range as Iceman approached the TL. Diesalot was still out there attacking the Raptors and their escorts, with luck he can finish what Iceman had started. Risking a look at the sector map to count the number of incoming fighters, Iceman quickly realized the entire rescue mission was about to fail. There simply wasn’t enough fire power with them to handle that many fighters at once. Then an idea formed in his mind, to use his fighter wing to slow down the larger group of fighters and if possible destroy it. A suicide mission one that he would normally pass on. But after seeing the beginning effects on the local economy, the decision that he was expendable was easy to make.

After dispatching the last attacking Dragon, and a dozen or so fighters, Iceman broke away to attack the fleet of fighters from the south. As he grew closer he realized the fleet had two Dragons with it and remembered what Gambit told him about a fleet that was sent out after the fleet containing two Dragons. With swift key strokes, Iceman went through all his fighters and switched their weapons. The Nova’s were given Ion Disruptors and the Perseus’s were given Beta Phased Shock Generators. Only minutes kept these two battle hungry fleets apart, and those minutes were going by as fast as light.

Chapter Eight: Section Four

Green bolts strike the small fighter group with no return fire. Ships crumple under the pressure. The Dragons fly by and continue their path for the TL. With defeat drawing near it was quickly cast aside as lightning erupted from the Nova’s, striking everything in their way. Seconds later the Perseus burps their waves of destruction upon the shield less fighters in front of them. Waves of destruction emanating from the small fighter squadron were seen from far away. In moments the group of hundreds of fighters was reduced to damaged or destroyed lumps of metal by a far inferior group.

With the initial contact completed, the once compact and organized fleet now lays in pieces and spread out as thinly as oil on water. The small fighter fleet continued to follow the lead of a single fighter as it began to clean up the remnants. What is left of the large fleet now spread out as they lost their leaders and left to figure out what to do next. The Dragons turn around and reenter the battle, taking the lead as the remaining fighters begin to form up on them. A wave of plasma fire wipes away a side of the small fighter fleet just as if it was nothing more than bugs to a window. The tides of battle have turned against the small fleet as they begin to get picked off by waves of plasma fire. Their leader tries to bring the Dragons down with its BPSG and with help from two following Nova’s firing their Ion D’s.

A collision approached fruition as the leader of the small fighter fleet blasted through the Dragon and swooped under its exploding body. Blue flashes across the hull of the surrounding ships as weapons fire plow through the smoke cloud and missiles hit the next available object. More fighters drop from the radar, showing themselves as stars for a brief moment. The other Dragon swoops in and leads an attack on the few remaining Nova’s of the small fighter fleet. In the confusion of all the weapons fire and missile launches, the Dragon is mysteriously struck hard enough to loose its shields. Then suddenly it is destroyed as a fighter swings around it and the tailing missiles strike the Dragon dead.

The remaining fighters brake off their attacks and return back to their course to return to their Raptors. In their wake is a tattered fleet of damaged and destroyed fighters that had defeated a mightier fleet, just like David defeated Goliath. Cargo crates float between the shredded hulls of fighter and two destroyed Dragons. The leader of the brave fighter fleet, now missing a wing and two weapons, limps back towards the gate with what is left of his fleet. Hoping that this sacrifice was enough to save the rescue effort; it was too soon to tell.

Chapter Nine: Section One

The cross fire between the two Raptors and their escorts were fierce. The density of space was thick enough to be cut with a knife. The escorting fighters had been destroyed along with his own. Diesalot was dealing the final blow to the second Raptor as a missile blast takes out his own shields, allowing for plasma shots to rampage his hull. A chain of explosions erupt from over head from the Raptor, blocking the view of the battle and stars beyond. Green glows flash past as the view cleared revealing the bow of two Dragons bearing down. Fear encases Diesalot as he recognizes that he was no longer under any form of cover since he just destroyed it.

The Phoenix passes over head as its gun ports shine brightly with blue balls of light. A Dragon fails to turn in time and slams into the battleship, exploding as it drags across the hull. The other leaves a smoking green line along the other side of the ship from its weapons fire. Using the cover of the ship, Diesalot allows his shields to recharge before strike out for the last Raptor. The TL continued on its path to the meeting point with the fleet following Gambit in his Split Elephant. No signs of movement from the ships guarding the other gate. The scouting fighters were just now returning to the Raptor and entering the battle with the Phoenix.

In a laud roar, waves of weapons fire caress the shape of the Phoenix, dotted by the light from missile impacts. Diesalot darts out from between the duel hulls and into battle with his Teladi Falcon. The enemy fighters are singling out the battleship as it is trying to take out the last Raptor. The last two Dragons were holding off the fighters from getting missile lock on the Raptor. The Phoenix attempts to hold its own but begins to falter as its shields begin to fail under the constant weapons fire. Soon enough the hull begins to fail then break apart. Fearing for his life, Diesalot attempts to break away from the battle. Hoping not to for fill his name in this game, he makes a close pass with the Raptor and leaves it by its engines and dropping some squash mines in his wake.

Plasma balls swarm around the cockpit, missile warnings blur together. Shields slowly begin to falter under the pressure from the pursuing fighters. The radar shows that the Dragons are staying with the Raptor as it moves towards the other gate. Most of the fighters are following it or docking. Only a few dozen or so are following but they have more than enough speed to keep up with him. Systems destroyed alarm started going off. Weapons began to vanish from the display; the ship begins to slow down even more, and death appeared certain. Suddenly a flash of light blinds him and silence takes hold.

Chapter Nine: Section Two

With a sliver of hull left, Diesalot watched as blue rain showered around him. Enemy fighters were struck repeatedly by these shimmering lights. The source was out of sight and out of sensor range. But just the fact that the fighters have stopped firing at him was enough to make everything else seem like it was miles away or at least in his battered state hours away. Soon enough the radar was clear of all red targets which had moved off toward the source of the blue rain. Some one must have sent in their personal battleship or Raptor after they saw the rescue team leave almost an hour ago. It is probably here to mop up the rest.

Turning about to look towards the gate, Diesalot was barely able to see it with the naked eye, only to see the dark emptiness of space. Nothing showed on what is left of his radar and with no video enhancement goggles to zoom in with there was no way of visually spotting anything until they were on top of him. A couple of stray shots entered the extremes of his sight. Following their path showed a small light show in the far distance but nothing else to see. Knowing that in his current condition any other battles will result in his death, Diesalot sets off to the east gate and towards the wharfs for repairs. In his current condition it will probably take a couple of days.

Taking his time, Diesalot puts together a message for Iceman notifying him of his current condition and his plan. The reply message was something unexpected. Iceman was also in bad shape, though not as bad as Diesalot, but the new battle was raging on near by and just barely outside of radar range. Using video enhancement goggles Iceman was able to see that one Argon Titan had engaged Xenon001’s forces along with a couple dozen or so fighters. There was another ship sitting far enough away that it couldn’t be identified but it resembled an Argon Colossus. With that bit of info Diesalot sends a message to Gambit asking him if he bought those new ships or got a hold of TimberWolf. A couple of minutes later a response comes up that neither was true and that it were a mystery of who was pushing the attack.

Chapter Ten: Section One

A large grin continued to grow across Wildchild’s face as he quickly dispatched with another five fighters in a single pass. The enemy fighters were confused about what to attack, either because someone kept telling them to attack something else repeatedly or there was just too many different things striking them. Before he even knew it the fun was drawing to a close, the last dozen fighters fell under his targeting reticule and left it as debris. Taking a moment to thank his friend for the lift and cover fire, for providing the Titan to get the enemy’s attention and the Colossus to get his dozens of fighters there.

Once spotted Wildchild regrouped his forces and made a mad dash to the fleeing Raptor that was quickly approaching the west gate and its defenders. Thinking over the messages he had received, he asks his friend to go search for survivors of the rescue attempt and get a hold of Gambit to coordinate the evacuation. With that end of the situation covered, Wildchild began to laugh at the idea of his little fleet taking out the capital ships that now floated before him. The idea of a duel with Xenon001 made the battle to come even more appealing.

Chapter Ten: Section Two

The two Raptors met up, the two escorting Dragons moved off with a fleet of fighters to intercept the encroaching fighter fleet. Soon enough fire was exchanged between these two groups. Explosions erupt on both sides, but more so for the Dragons side. Missiles burst out of the little fighter fleet, striking their targets with precision and coordination that eliminated most. The Dragons and their fighters were bumping into each other due to their massive numbers, bashing each other with their own missiles and weapons fire. Soon enough the battle had equaled out. A solo fighter launches from one of the Raptors and enters the fight.

The newly deployed Split Mamba quickly destroys seven fighters and shoots several missiles out of the void. All the fighters group up around two particular fighters piloted by players. Those two fighters begin a duel with 60 escorts on one side and 20 on the other. Neither side showed any signs of backing down or hesitation. Bursts of light soon fill the gap between the two groups as they slam into each other. Broken wings and ships fly out of the mixture in all directions. Stray missiles miss their intended target and strike another one, either a friendly ship to them or another enemy ship. Some missiles streak out of the mass only to be lost in the void of space. Only a few minutes into the battle and the odds have dropped drastically. Less than 20 out of the 60 escorts were left alive now following the two Dragons back to the Raptors to dock. Only 4 out of the 20 escorts on the other side were left operating and they were still spitting out missiles at the fleeing fighters and breaking them apart like toothpicks.

Chapter Ten: Section Three

The duel grew long as the escorts all left their masters for new missions. To Wildchilds horror, it appears that Xenon001 has loaded up all his remaining fighters into their Raptors and have sent them off in the direction of Gambit and the remaining players hoping to escape. Gambits own fighters have already broken off and started after them but won’t been able to keep up with their speed. Shields flash blue across the glass. Only a few shots from both fighters actually hit their mark, most only scratch the sides or miss by hairs. Both fighters display expert skills in handling their machines.

In a dirty trick to gain the upper hand, The Mamba launches fighter drones to attack Wildchild. The red shots from all sides hide the Mamba from his sights. Changing targets to the drones, Wildchild quickly destroys them as his cross hairs pass by them. When the last drone had broken apart the radar showed no more targets. The Mamba had vanished, probably in pursuit of his fleet. Turning about one last time to try and get a visual on the flying fighter, Wildchild then turns and makes his way off to his fighters and their chase of the Raptors. A message flashes on the screen from his friend stating that a player named Iceman has been picked up given him the coordinates of Gambit and the fleet. With the coordinates displayed on the map, Wildchild knew he would never be able to make it in time. Xenon001 will get there nearly 30 minutes or more before him.

Chapter Eleven: Section One

Red dots began to appear on the edge of Gambits radar. The perimeter scouts reported seeing two Raptors and two Dragons on approach. The decoys appeared to have failed. The other TL was still too far away for anyone to start docking with it and right on their heel is the enemy fleet. What is left of Gambits fighters and the volunteers form up and get ready to intercept the enemy with support from the TL’s. The selected players will try and dock with the other TL under fire. Once it is loaded it will jump away and off load the players in a safe sector and come back for more, if they are still there.

The fighters struggle to keep up with the Split Elephant as it raged out ahead to meet up with its sister ship. The battle was going to start as soon as the enemy fleet reached the approaching TL. Gambit wanted to make sure the ship wasn’t alone when that happened. The TL’s formed up and headed back for their escorts as the Dragons broke off from the Raptors. Moments later green dotted lines began segmenting the space around the TL’s, emphasized by other dotted lines ending on the shields of the Dragons. The Raptors began deploying their fighters into the weighting arms of Gambits defense squadrons from both TL’s and the volunteers. Shortly after launching the fighters are shot down and destroyed. After a couple of dozen destroyed, the Dragons returned to clear the launch area.

The fight seemed to be in favor of Gambit and the volunteers, with almost all of the enemy fighters being destroyed shortly after launching. To the surprise of the volunteers, laser towers began to deploy out the backside of the Raptors as they passed by the TL’s and towards the rest of the fleet beyond. Before any actions were taken eight of Gambits fighters were destroyed and another six were on the verge of destruction. Struggling to get a handle on the laser towers, the remaining fighters were manually set to target what Gambit was locked on. The volunteers continued their attack on the Raptors, using them as cover from the laser turrets. Laser towers were being deployed faster than they could be destroyed even with the aid of the two TL’s.

Chapter Eleven: Section Two

White lines of light cut the darkness, splashing along the jagged hulls of ships in their path. As old line sources vanish in small balls of furry, new ones phase into existence in the wake of large engines pushing against the darkness. Tiny engines flicker around the larger ones; dropping dots of green light along their shape, creating waves of blue that rapidly vanish. Sprays of light are emitted from the little engines as little sticks launch from their tubes, homing in on the large engines and impacting in a large red light.

Other little engines, along with two pairs of large engines race along in the white lines splashing along the hulls containing the large engines. The blue haze vanishes from one, only to be replaced with small red explosions. Chunks of metal on the ship burn off under the intense white light. Other engines emerge from the docking bay in the back, attempting to escape the impending doom of the large ship. Green dots end the emission of several white lines, but only too late to save their own source as it begins to break apart under the constant attacks from all sides.

Chapter Eleven: Section Three

The TL intended to rescue the players by jumping them away almost turned into their grave site as its pieces burned in the darkness before breaking apart again. Not all of the players made it out; many were caught in the query to get out. Some were destroyed as they left the hanger. The rest were quickly under fire from the laser towers deployed all around them. The fighters under Gambits command were almost all destroyed. Only a few could still fight, the rest were sitting ducks and toothless after the battering they received. In moments the last of those fighters fell under the strain from the laser tower weapons. The last fighters still out there were three volunteers, still skimming the surface of one of the Raptors, potting its shields with their Gamma High Energy Plasma Weapons.

Scanners reveal that all of the enemy fighters had been deployed, with two thirds of them being destroyed as they left the hangar. The rest now have begun laying waste to the freighters that have been running away from them for the past couple of hours. Many of them have weapons installed on their turrets; few have mass drivers as their weapon of choice. The fighters unlucky enough to find those with mass drivers quickly broke apart before completing their first pass. Other fighters obtained little to no damage after multiple passes from the other weapons used. But the players quickly understood that the mass drivers were the best bet in keeping the enemy fighters at bay or destroyed. The entire fleet rearranges so that those with mass drivers where on the outside and so that the enemy would spend more time in their firing arc than any other.

Chapter Twelve: Section One

The view from afar was one of horror and pain. Pain in that Wildchild knew he had the chance to end it back there in the duel but couldn’t get enough shots to land right. The deaths of those players were his fault because he wasn’t powerful enough to protect them like he should have been. Horror in that so many players were being killed senselessly, their entire life in the game being destroyed, the identity they created lost, their playing time being wasted because one player wanted to show off how powerful he has become.

Only ten more minutes separate Wildchild from being at the side of Gambit and blazing his weapons into the side of those Raptors. Time wasn’t on his side this time as more and more explosions were spotted in and around the freighter fleet that was still running away. Even with the video enhancement goggles it was impossible to identify who was winning but from the sight of all of those laser towers deployed it probably wouldn’t be Gambit and his volunteers. Frustration boiled up from below and began clouding Wildchilds thoughts. The desire to be there and blasting away and Xenon001 for the dirt trick he played back during the duel and running away in the middle of it. Xenon001 has been engraved in his mind as a dirty player that deserves to die a senseless death and to never be remembered.

Chapter Twelve: Section Two

Time drew to an end; the Colossus began firing its PPC’s into the laser towers before it, clearing the way to launch fighters to aid in the defense of Gambit and the other players. The fleet had turned around and began their attack on the enemy ships. The freighters with mass drivers were doing hull damage to both ships, with their shots passing through the shields. The other ships provided cover fire and interference. The ships appeared to be rotating their positions so no one freighter would take enough damage to take out their shields. This sight gave Wildchild hope that many of them will yet live. Waiting for the go ahead from the Captain of the Colossus to launch, Wildchild decides its time to destroy the two Dragons before they break the Gambits shields.

The green light is given to launch and Wildchild hits the afterburners out of the hanger as the first fighter out. Making a direct path towards the closest Dragon, switching between missiles to find the best one for the job, he sizes up the situation and surroundings to find the best way to attack. Less than a minute later a Dragon begins to limp, then bursts into several pieces as the final blow is dealt by a missile fired by Wildchild. More of his escorts were being launched by the Colossus as he entered combat with the second Dragon. Weapons fire is briefly exchanged as the Dragon is completely overwhelmed by the shear number of fighters engulfing it from all sides. Now the main targets lay naked in the shadows of space.

Chapter Twelve: Section Three

The final battle for sector Tharka’s Sun was about to begin. All of the stations had been destroyed. Over a hundred players lost their lives, their remaining assets being claimed by the AI, and being forced to start from scratch. All that left before Wildchild is two Split Raptors under the command of a dirty player named Xenon001. The freighters began to break off their attack as Wildchild breaks into their circle with his own guns lighting up the sides of the nearest Raptor.

The PPC fire blasting from the Raptors gun ports rush by the cockpit of Wildchilds fighter providing moments of light in the now vanquished sector. With a simple dance the fighter moves gracefully around the numerous shots now filling the void. The escorting fighters attempt to duplicate the moves only to be partially successful. The weapons fire from the Raptor begins to decrease as the weapons themselves are destroyed by incoming fire. The once great hunter is now a becoming a toothless prey with no hope of survival. Explosions rock the ship apart, ripping the different sections loose and then detonating fuel and power lines. The remaining Raptor hangs naked in the starry back drop, alone and out numbered.

The gap between the last Raptor and Wildchild evaporates in moments as both pass each other. As Wildchild lines up to do another run along the side of the Raptor, it becomes obvious why the gap closed so quickly. The Raptor was moving at full thrust and aim right for Gambit and his TL fully loaded with other players. The Elephant is nothing more than a sitting duck in the Raptors path. Wildchilds fighters can no nothing but attempt to keep up with it and make pot shots as it gets further away. If the Raptor strikes it, Gambit would be lost and all of his assets would turn over into the AI’s control. Even if the players started launching out of the TL now only a dozen would be out of it before it was destroyed.

Chapter Twelve: Section Four

Like a missile, the large Raptor barrels down on its prey with no hesitation or waver in its determination. The Elephant, appearing to only be sitting still in the path of the Raptor, with holds the players from launching and turns in place to give more of its turrets a clear shot at the threat rushing upon it. The fighters soon fall out of their weapons range as their engines fail to provide enough thrust to match that of the Raptor. Only moments separate these two large beasts.

Weapons fire is exchanged, more given to the Elephant than for the Raptor. Both shields taking a beating, but only one show any signs of fatigue. Then the nose of the Raptor strikes the side of the Elephant, creating waves of blue on both ships as their shields attempt to absorb the impact. Both ships continue to fire upon each other as their shields fail. Hull damage quickly stacks up, the hull indications drop rapidly. In a moment the Elephant vanishes in a flash of light and the Raptor begins to take fire from Wildchild and his escorts. Even before the light had faded the Raptor began to explode, creating its own blinding light.

Between the two bursts of light only the remains of the Raptor could be seen. But a small fighter had darted out of the hanger and then passed through the fighter squadron. By the time Wildchild could turn around and sight the little fighter it had already jumped away. The battle seemed to be a loss as the remaining freighters set out for the west gate, about 2 hours away for them. The Elephant is gone, taking Gambit and all the players he held aboard with it.

Chapter Thirteen: Section One

Gambit was able to get the jump drive going as soon as he saw that the Raptor intended to ram him. The jump started a second after collision and continued until after bother ships had sustained substantial hull damage. Luck was on Gambits side this time in that the jump drive wasn’t destroyed by the collision like so many other systems. The players on board have already began to disembark and to see how much of their empires is left. The Elephant begins limping towards the shipyard in Kingdoms End where other TL’s belonging to Gambit begin to approach it and transport over replacements for the lost equipment.

Deciding that it was time for his own military force, Gambit jumps into a Boron Barracuda and made his way to Seizewell. Once there he is greeted by the sight of two supply Mammoths waiting near the wharf. Slowly Teladi Ospreys began to emerge from the wharf one at a time, which were quickly outfitted with weapons and shields and then sent to nearby equipment stations to get the needed software. Only a simple drop in the bucket for Gambit, seeing that he has more credits than all of other players combined, excluding the other admins. Soon enough the wharf was out of stock of Ospreys. Gambit jumps to the next Teladi wharf and repeats the sight. By the end the devastating evening there were several dozens of M6’s under Gambits control roaming his sectors and reinforcing the AI defenses in the home sectors. The universe had run out of weapons, shields, and ships for the time being as everyone had begun building up their defenses to protect themselves.

Chapter Thirteen: Section Two

Days later, when finally all the admins ware online at the same time, Gambit gets Wildchild and TimberWolf together to discuss the war in the safe sector of Omicron Lyrae, protected by the vast military forces under the control of TimberWolf. It didn’t take long to bring TimberWolf up to date on the events in Tharka’s Sun. The current condition of the universe, as Gambit was describing them, was that of an economy attempting to rebuild itself and reducing its dependence on others. Because of this the amount of income per player has dropped drastically along with the rise of abandoning stations further away from the core to each of the economic empires controlled by the players. The number of pirating acts reported has more than tripled during the past couple of days according to the admin help request message system. Wildchild lets the others know that because of this certain shady characters have created their own fleets and been charging players for their protection. They have also begun setting up laser tower defense grids in and around jump gates to help force players to pay them or else they will be cut off.

TimberWolf brings up the constant buying of military ships from wharfs and shipyards across the universe have kept everyone of them empty. The only place left to get any was here in Omicron Lyrae because TimberWolf had setup the system in such a way that only he could M1’s, M2’s, or M6’s here. Players had complained about it at first until someone wiped out Xenon sector 347 and caused a never ending migration Xenon attempting to repopulate the sector. From that moment on no one complained as it was TimberWolfs’ fleet from the Omicron Lyrae shipyard and wharf that were protecting the players in Black Hole Sun and beyond from the Xenon fleet trying to get through. Now players are back to complaining because they fear Xenon001.

Gambit continues to report that hit and runs have been reported in peripheral sectors but no one could identify if it was pirates or Xenon001 continuing his attack. If it is the pirates then they have gotten braver because of the situation. But if it is Xenon001, the reports showed that the attacker lost almost no ships in each attack which was done with great precision, eliminating the escorts quickly with heavy fighters while the freighters were attacked with light fighters. Gambit went as far as suggest that there probably is a carrier servicing these fighters nearby and giving them easy transit from sector to sector. This would also explain why there was never any freight left when help did arrive.

The finding and elimination of Xenon001 then took the center stage in the conversation. To this end TimberWolf has dispatched search parties into the Unknown sectors to search for any signs of him. Wildchild took it upon himself to search the pirate sectors with his fighter wings. Gambit decided he should do everything he could do to rebuild the economy and reinforcing the defenses of major travel sectors to help build a feeling of security for traders. The reopening of Tharka’s Sun and Rolk’s Legacy will be great victories to this end. With that decided the three admins went off to do their parts, Wildchild jumping quickly away to take lead of his fleet again, TimberWolf returned to his Titan named ‘Lords of Steel’ and took point of his battle fleet assembled to hunt down and destroy Xenon001. Gambit jumped away shortly after returning to his Mammoth and began shifting his forces to under take the cleaning of the two sectors devastated by the unknown threat.

Chapter Fourteen: Section One

With the increase in traffic though Priest Refuge to Barren Shores and in Shareholder’s Fortune to Family Whi, it has become harder to get stations supplied in the center of the universe. Many players have sold off their stations near the sectors destroyed by Xenon001 and have begun building up loops in already heavily populated and defended sectors. This further drops income because supply and demand have grown disproportionately. Now there isn’t enough power cells going around to keep all the stations going because there isn’t enough silicon mines to keep the crystal fabrication stations going which too are also common to not getting any energy cells to produce the needed crystals for the solar power plants. An evil loop that is forever killing itself because no one seeks to leave these area to restart the silicon mines near the center of the universe that had fed the solar power plants around the universe.

All the products produced in the home sectors and surrounding system are bought and sold at max cost, netting some places with loses most only break even. Because of all of this Gambit quickly reopened Tharka’s Sun after having a dozen of his M6’s and fighters set to patrol it and finding nothing there but pirates. Very few players began using that route at first but Gambit believes that it will increase as more and more see that no one is getting attacked or destroyed there. While in route to Rolk’s Legacy, Gambit swings by one of his now many power loops that he created for the sole purpose of producing energy cells for his jump drives. But before he arrived in Aladna Hill, something strange off in the distance caught his eye. It seemed to be a battle fleet, but was trying to keep out of the way of any prying eyes. By a fluke did Gambit even see anything at this distance and after having played the game for so long and been through there so often did he understand that what he saw originally as a distortion didn’t belong there.

Using the Video enhancement goggles, it became clear that there were a couple of M2’s and a single M1 out there. It was impossible to tell if there were any fighters already deployed, but the fact that they were heading into the void was enough for Gambit to believe that they were owned by Xenon001 and didn’t want to be found. They maybe heading to their home base or they may only be heading off to lay and wait for a trap to be sprung. No matter what, they have to be followed and done in such a way that not one of them has a chance of seeing it. Too bad the only ship fast enough to keep them in sight was this big boxy Mammoth.

Chapter Fourteen: Section Two

Pushing the engines as hard as possible, mentally thanking the player who just recently wrote the script, damage was slowly mounting as the Mammoth reached a near matching speed of the Split ships in the vast distance. Every couple of seconds an engine upgrade is destroyed due to running the engines on over drive. An upgrade is mire pocket change to Gambit and worth throwing away even if this leads to nothing. Only one of the ships was still in sight using the video enhancement goggles. It was this one that he was trying so hard to keep up with because when it leaves his sights it may never be seen again.

Another upgrade is lost, the ships engines scream in pain, the target flickers in and out of sight. The hull begins to drop due to the engine heat, or so is written in the script. If is this kept up, all of the engine upgrades would be lost and the ship would have lost twenty five percent of its hull, but all of that was worth it if these ships really belonged to Xenon001. The sector was quickly vanishing behind, nearing 200 km from the nearest gate. If the ships hit the 400 km mark they may be able to completely loose Gambit as the sector loops around and they will vanish completely from sight until he reached the other side. Suddenly the fleet begins to enter view again; apparently they have come to a stop near something. The carrier comes clearly into view, and then 7 M2’s were visible beyond it. Throttling back on the engines, Gambit begins to stop and take a quick assessment of his ships condition. Only 3 engine upgrades left and his hull is down to 84%. If they went off again there would be no way for Gambit to keep up.

The blackness of the void in the distance, dotted by the 8 big ships suddenly became full. Stations and transports suddenly filled the emptiness as the Mammoth came to a stop. It appeared that the ships were being re-supplied or were they taking goods off of the ships. Noting the location, Gambit sends a message to Wildchild to come to Hatikvah’s Faith and head south-west to find him before conducting the recon. Quickly a message is received agreeing to do so and that all of his ships in the area will converge on the Mammoth to wait for his arrival. With help on the way Gambit settled in for a long wait and got back to observing the movements before him.

Chapter Fourteen: Section Three

The operations still have not ended, after having been going on for a couple of hours now. Wildchilds fleet has amassed around the Mammoth and a squadron of M6’s belonging to Gambit has arrived to be his part of the attack. Once transferred over to the leading Osprey, the Mammoth is commanded to jump to Light of Heart and under go repairs. The enemy ships were still there doing what ever they have been doing the past couple of hours. But now was the time to approach them and determine in they are forces belonging to Xenon001 or a very powerful pirate group. Gambits hunch tells him that he stumbled on Xenon001’s base of operations. It is time to test that hunch out.

The fleet throttles up and Wildchild follows Gambits M6’s. During the travel Wildchild assigns 4 of his fighters to each of Gambits M6’s, 2 heavy fighters and 2 medium fighters. Gambit organizes his ships into a tree formation with him at the point; two M6’s off of him and each of those have two M6’s off of them and so on. As they draw slowly closer, still far outside any radar range, more and more stations and freighters game into view. As Gambit panned his view around to see what is just around the target, more capital ships came into view, TL’s, carrier’s, and battleship’s. Looking harder at the factories raised a real possibility that they are not equipped yet. This looks like a weapons manufacturing site and the ships that were followed were bringing in supplies that can’t be produced out here such as ore and silicon most likely. The carrier was probably used to bring in jump drives for these ships, via the many fighters and transports held within it.

As the distance between grew smaller, more and more became visible, more doubt in their ability to destroy this complex raged through Gambits mind. If those ships had only shields then they could still be used to protect those with weapons or be used as battering rams. If they were equipped with just a couple of weapons, the sheer number of them would be more than enough to wipe out this little battle group. How many fighters were over there ready to fight back? Soon enough Gambit and Wildchild would be entering radar range and it will be too late to turn back or get any help. Distance continued to shrink before them as red dots emerged on Gambits radar from behind.

Chapter Fifteen: Section One

There was no doubt as to what they were now, seeing the wedge of Ospreys and fighters swarming about them. They were intending to attack the stations up ahead, seeing that’s all that’s out this direction in Hatikvah’s Faith. They player who owns those stations and ships is paying good money to keep them from prying eyes and even more for the elimination of anyone who does find it. Can’t let the man down, since he provided the very strike force that has allowed the pirates to strike at well defended convoys and get him the goods he demands.

Split Pythons (M2) number as 5 and Split Raptors (M1) number as 2, all of them are fully loaded with fighters, weapons, shields, and missiles. There is no hope for the little snail slow Teladi Ospreys could ever hope to out run this fleet. And like any good traps, their only way out is blocked by this very fleet, so they shall die fighting for their lives. The distance grows slimmer and slimmer, time seems to take a vacation until these two fleets have finished what they haven’t even started. Turrets swivel around to wait for their turn to speak their anger towards these intruders. The ships shift along their courses to move further apart, preparing to launch their escorting fighters. The Raptors begin to drop back and launching their countless, venomous, fighters that streak out it groups to attack their new found prey. In the vanishing time, the fighters reached the sides of the Pythons and their escorts, and then all cast out their fangs in smoke trails leaving the missile tubes and stretching out towards their prey.

Green spits appear from the rear of the prey, blunting out many of the fangs before they had the chance to strike. The escorts of the Ospreys had turned about done their duty to protect them, even if it cost them their own lives. A handful of fighters broke away from the rest and began their own pitiful attack on this mighty pirate fleet. They seemed to be targeting a single ship, the right most Python, only a couple of the fighter’s even show a hint of seeing the mass of fighters beginning to swallow them in. The captain of that ship is a fool to not recognize the threat and pull away. That ships shields blaze to life as missiles impact on them. Its weapons began their protest only to strike friendly ships spread about. The Python almost seems to have panicked by they way its weapons seem to strike everything, friend or foe, around it. It deserves to die and if the captain makes it out alive he will be killed for his foolishness in loosing such a mighty ship to a handful of ships while he destroyed his friends.

Lines of fire erupt along the hull of the fallen Python. The sections of its hull began to drift apart and fade into the void around it. Its escorts fell quickly to the assaulting fighters as the rest of the fleet passed by and continued for the prey before it, only casting views of death from the turrets as they keep their barrels aimed at them. The fighters continued on towards the Raptors since they couldn’t catch up with the rest of the fleet now that the lead was too great. The Raptors can out fun the pests if their captains decided to do so, but they will probably let loose the last of their own fighters and fight. That battle no longer influences what lies ahead. Another wave of fangs streak away from the Pythons and fighters, reaching out with hatred and anger towards the weak and helpless prey before them that has intruded into their den. This time more of the missiles struck their targets, shattering fighters and weakening the rest. They are fools to not turn around and fight back. They are fools to let themselves be shot out of the void without even trying to defend themselves.

Bright red clouds erupts along the from the front of the fleet, shields flash across the Pythons as if they were struck by weapons fire but none could be seen. More red clouds burst from fighters falling victim to some kind of attack that couldn’t be seen. Maybe these groups of invaders are not as toothless as they had appeared. Another wave of red clouds emerges in the fleet, dotting it, punctuating the fact that the battle really hasn’t even started yet. This is the type a fight a pirate likes to have from time to time. It gets boring only attacking freighters, even if they are escorted by battleships.

Chapter Fifteen: Section Two

Balls of light were vomited from the Pythons and their fighters towards their prey, as well as from the prey towards their attackers. More bursts of red dot the attacking fleet during the initial exchange of fire and for a time afterwards. Some of the prey fell, but most escaped the exchange unscathed as if they had danced around each shot fired at them. But the attackers couldn’t say the same, for as soon as one ship avoided a shot only for it to strike another further back in the dense mass. Even the cost of all that was lost would pale in compare to the reward the Man would give them for defending his privacy.

A cry for help from a Raptor catches the fleets’ attention. Apparently who ever was leading those fighters knew what he was doing for he hasn’t lost a single ship while one of the Raptors was about to fall after having spent all of its remaining fighters in its defense. This is not one bit good unless that captain transfers the controls of those fighters to someone else. Fool! The Raptor breaks apart, taking the player who was its captain with it. Fighters throughout the fleet suddenly turned blue as they are claimed by the server AI. How could such a tiny fleet compare to such a massive one? Yet they have destroyed a Python and a Raptor, removing half of the fighters from the fleet and they still continue to destroy more without seemingly firing a shot.

Squash mines. Who ever is controlling that fleet of Ospreys and random fighters would make a good pirate for taking advantage of such tactics without making it obvious. The same for who over is back there undermining the fighter escorts by taking out their carrier commanders. Another exchange of fire, prolonged by proximity, is shared between the Pythons and the Ospreys as their escorting fighters begin to pick each other apart. The other Raptor could be destroyed soon so this battle must end quickly. Missiles cross the battle field, striking anything that cross their paths being friend or foe. Balls of light illuminate the dark scene and cast eerie shadows and glows across all. Red, blue, and white clouds dot the image, showing that neither side is holding their own. The Ospreys ring around a Python, causing it to wither under their constant beatings. The mighty pirate fleet begins to break apart as its captains begin to fear for their own lives instead of that of the one who is paying them to fight.

Blue dots replaced others on the screen; the other Raptor has been lost. The three Pythons stand naked against what is left of the Ospreys and their handful of fighters. The ones who destroyed the Raptors are too far away to influence the battle any more. By the time they rejoined their friends it will have been decided one way or another. Two of the Pythons began to break off, falling victim to squash mines laying in waiting and the sudden strike of missiles from the prey. One succeeds in jumping away in shame, the other bursts in shame at having attempted to flee a battle. Death seemed to be the only end to this battle for this captain.

Chapter Fifteen: Section Three

Threats from other players can either be taken seriously or laughed at, depending on the player issuing them. Threats from an admin usually can’t be ignored because they do everything in their power to not make them. Now a threat passages over the screen asking for surrender or destruction. In the past Xeel wouldn’t listen and take on what ever was sent at him, but in this case it is two admins. The Python was still in one piece and could easily out match them long enough to get away. What kind of ultimatum can they give him to make his abandoning a contract worth wild? Life or death isn’t enough, maybe a couple of billion credits or a sector to rule without any interference.

A pair of green balls passed over the bow of the Python. The admins must be in a rush to get things done or what they are saying about the Man is true and they will do anything to end his terror on the server. Then again they may have snapped and it was all an illusion. Maybe a temporary surrender will be in order. Message sent, received, and time to turn around. Keeping the guns silent, Xeel turned back towards the center of the sector and goes full throttle away from the Ospreys that have defeated him, for the moment.

The prey has defeated the snake this time, but the snake will bit back. Gambit and Wildchild will have to watch their backs for now on for casting this shame on Xeel. The group of fighters lead by Wildchild soon passes by heading on to catch up with Gambits group to continue heading on into their target. There should have been enough of a disturbance to alert them without a message ever passing by, allowing for most of the supplies to be reloaded onto ships and for the stations to be shut down. At least that’s what the plan was if anyone ever got this close and the defenders were defeated.

Chapter Sixteen: Section One

The conflict with the pirate defenders took a lot out of Gambits battle group. His ships had used up all of their squash mines which were meant for the attack. Wildchild’s ships were devastated and now only two dozen remain, most of which are escorting Wildchild himself. Even if they made it now without any more interference, it is impossible to know if the pirates had called out an alarm or if the battle was spotted at the edge of radar range. The uncertainty of the condition of all of those capital ships was enough to cause Gambit to begin to sweat in fear that he was flying right into his own grave. Any moment now, the remains of the Ospreys and fighters begin to see the enemy stations and ships on their radar before them.

No ships came out to greet them; they all seem to be under AI control doing runs between the stations. Gambit begins to strike down the freighters, attempting to cripple the stations by eliminating their resources, and also preventing any resources from being taken away. Wildchild breaks off and begins to inspect the capital ships, striking those without shields first, then those with weapons. A quick glance by Gambit at the information on one of the targeted freighters confirms that it is owned by Xenon001, another look at some stations showed the same. This is indeed his base, but he doesn’t appear to be home.

Something struck Gambit as being odd. For the number of stations operating here there are far too few freighters. Commanding his Ospreys to continue the attack on the freighters in sight, Gambit flies off to do a circle around the area. As he approaches the far side a tail of a convoy could be seen leaving. Sudden flashes of while light burst from the left as capital ships began to jump away from the sector, casting doubt as to the importance of these stations. Ahead, several TL’s could be seen taking in the freighters. There was no way for him to catch up with the TL’s before they jump away, but maybe he could get close enough to watch their energy cells drop and get a rough idea as to where they went.

The first TL enters range, several rapid key punches bring up its inventory, a long list of weapons, shields, and ore emerge with energy cells buried some where in it. A number changes then moments that TL vanished, but Gambit was unsure by how much it changed. Another TL entered range, again Gambit quickly navigated to the inventory only in time to see a sudden number change and a flash of white like as the ship vanishes. All of the freighters made it to a TL, and each of those TL’s in turn jumped away before Gambit could see the original number of energy cells before it changed. From his best guess they must have jumped about six sectors away, which means they could be in one of 10 sectors and from there they can jump again before any of his own units could get there to identify them.

Chapter Sixteen: Section Two

The stations remained red, and all red things must be destroyed. Gambit had turned his fleet on auto pilot to continue the devastation as he headed out to follow up on the TL’s. Wildchild was getting bored of the lack of challenge and left his fighters to have some fun without him as he jumped to a gate in the sector to catch up with the surrendered Python captain Xeel. There was more information that can be gained from there, which Gambit agreed with. The capital ships could have jumped anywhere; no one was watching their inventories or even thought they had jump drives installed. Only four M2’s were destroyed in the attack, three without shields and one fully equipped.

Emerging in Ceo’s Doubt, Gambit quickly turns about and head right for the pirate sectors with the idea that those ships did the same to vanish again. The sector of Loomanckstrat’s Legacy fills the cockpit view. No signs of the TL’s or capital ships could be seen, but several nearby pirates have had their interest peeked by the sudden appearance of an Osprey. Other ships that Gambit was in control of report the same emptiness in other sectors around the 6 jump radius he had guessed. It appears that the enemy has slipped away without a trace. Some rude messages and requests for surrender appear on the screen. Gambit laughs to himself, no one ever bothers to check who they are attacking before they attack anymore.

Plasma strikes the side of the Osprey as it fires its own furry into the assailant. Another attack from the other direction, again the favor is returned by the turrets. Gambit hits the afterburners to get top speed and begins to do what really can’t be done well in such a ship, dog fighting. No side can do enough to the other to cause any real damage. The Ospreys’ shields were too powerful for their weapons to take them out unless it sat still, and the pirates moved too fast for enough of Gambits shots to land on them to finish them off. A draw seemed to have emerged. Another message requesting his surrender appears on the screen, but they don’t know something important.

Chapter Sixteen: Section Three

The battle had drifted away from the gate, far enough that it was no longer in radar range by only a little bit. Neither side was able to gain the upper hand. A pirate entered the battle with an Ion disrupter but it has been singled out by Gambit so it can’t take advantage of the one weapon that can do significant damage to the Ospreys’ shields. No other pirates in the area wanted a part of it, they just continued on their smuggling routes until one called out an alarm. Large ships began to emerge through the north gate that Gambit had recently passed through. For each Titan (M2) that entered there were 2 Ospreys (M6) escorting. As soon as the first Titan cleared the gate another one entered, and again. Pirate began scrambling to get away from the area; many broke away and headed off to Anarchy Port. Others hid in and around asteroids hoping to go un-noticed. A few demented pirates refused to lose this sector to an outsider and began attack runs on the new intruders. The pirates engaged with Gambit left him alone and headed after the big ships with glory and money on their mind.

Blue and green furry erupted from the new fleet that still continued to enter the sector. Before the pirates even got close enough to fire a shot, three of them had been destroyed by the sheer number of shots in the space around them. Missiles burst forth from some pirate ships, only to be destroyed shortly from weapons fire from the Titans which now hold the number of 7 with 14 escorts. The pirates soon see the futility of their attack and break away as another two of them break apart. Gambit proceeds to meet up with the new arrivals and takes a place in its formation. It was known from the meeting earlier that TimberWolf had created several battle groups to be sent out and where they would be. But Gambit didn’t know there was one near by until he entered Ceo’s Doubt where he saw it heading south. This group is destined for Cardinal’s Domains to reinforce the defenses along that trade route.

For the rest of that sector all was quiet. Squash mines were shot out every time they get near to the fleet. All the pirates seemed to have gotten the message to back off and have done a good job in keeping their presence unseen. Mi Ton’s Refuge quickly came, the heart of the strongest pirate sectors in the universe. Gambit remembered the earlier days of the server where players would mysteriously die here, even in capital ships. No investigation was ever done because it was done in a pirate sector where the admins had no right to use their might to bring order, a choice made by the players. The number of mysterious deaths decreased of the past two years but there is still the unknown assailant that still stalked these parts.

Chapter Seventeen: Section One

Ahead of the fleet of Titans and Ospreys passing through Mi Ton’s Refuge was a wall of M6’s from all the races. All glowed red on the radar as they appeared. It seemed that there were some nicely armed pirates still around. A sector wide message appeared on the screen requesting the pirate to step aside and let them through. No reply was received. TimberWolf made his personal presence felt when he launched the fighters from the Titans, one of which is personally helmed by himself, and announced that all of his Titans and fighters have been switched to use Mass Drivers. A few of the M6’s broke away from the wall and left, but the vast majority of them stood their ground.

The first round of fire was from the pirate M6’s, causing wide spread shield damage to most of the fleet. The second round of fire was from the Titans, casting death and destruction to every M6 in front and causing massive amounts of damage to the rest. The battle was over before it even started. The Titans and their escorting Osprey continued on their path without ever changing course but the fighters lead by TimberWolf continued the battle, eliminating the weakest of the ships before heading on to the stronger ones. Soon enough the pirates broke off from the battle and began limping back to their bases. TimberWolf and his fighters returned to their births on the Titans and continued their ride through the pirate sectors.

Dark shapes emerged from asteroids all around the fleet. Capital ships from various races appeared on the radar, all launching fighters in their defense while others launched squadrons for an attack. The M6’s must have been only a test of strength; this must be the real reason why players vanished. A pirate claiming to be the leader of this task force identifies himself as Xeel and demands the unconditional surrender of all the ships or else they will be destroyed. Looking carefully over the sector map it was obvious that they had more than enough fire power to carry out that threat.

Chapter Seventeen: Section Two

Trapped in the midst of players with nothing to loose but everything to gain by this battle; TimberWolf rallied his Titans together and set his Ospreys in a circling ring about them. Gambits’ Osprey moved towards the middle for cover, waiting to see if it would be prudent to jump away and leave the fight to continue the search or aid in the protection of the Titans. The pirate fleet held its distance for a time, but grew in numbers as more of the weaker ones joined in for the glory and the bounty money. Everything could easily be laid out on a two dimensional piece of paper, not much difference on the z axis between all the ships. That is a potential fatal flaw in their tactics that TimberWolf intends to exploit as much as possible.

The commander of the pirate fleet sends one last message out requiring unconditional surrender or else, and Gambit gives a brief overview of Xeel from their own battle. Scanning the capital ships, TimberWolf selects his targets carefully based on what they have equipped, or in some cases lack there of. Weak points in the enemy lines became apparent, the proximity of asteroids added cover to run for, but there could be enemy fighters hiding in the tunnels or the far side waiting for such a move. The Titans change their positions again to make a cylinder, deploying their fighters to defend their escorting Osprey’s who have taken up position around the outside of the cylinder. The enemy began to close in, fighters taking lead.

[TimberWolf]

Smoke streams flow from the approaching fighters, pulses of light stretch out to greet them in fiery embraces. Balls of light erupt from the fighters in hasty reply to the greeting only to see a response of the fighters being destroyed quickly and silently by the streaks of light. The Titans drift unscathed through the fire fight, their escorts taking the brunt of the shots that were remotely close to their targets. The fighters protecting the Ospreys keep the sky clear of missiles. A lone Paranid Perseus shoots out from the center of the cylinder, leaving a lone Osprey sitting the in the middle of the slow moving tube through a field of death.

Blue waves reach out from the Perseus into the carrier before it, striking its shields and the surrounding defenders with no regards. The fighters behind continue to push their way into the waves of fire streaking from the sides of the Titans and Ospreys. The carrier falters as its shields walk their way to failure, crying out for its fighters to defend it before it’s too late. The pirate lines begin to condense around the faltering carrier to reinforce its position, but the Titans change course and head away from the site towards the now thinned out side. Blue dots replace dozens of red ones on the radar as the carrier brakes apart in the blue halos emitted by the Perseus.

A Teladi Phoenix attempts to get the Perseus’s attention, only to be ignored as it races around the near by asteroid and strikes at another carrier, sitting almost defense less and alone. By the time the Phoenix caught up it was too late and the carrier was seen sliding into the side of the asteroid in panic as it broke apart. The Phoenix then had the undivided attention of the blue rings emitted by the Perseus. Hiding between the twin hulls of the Phoenix, the Perseus had an undisturbed assault leading to its destruction and the further weakening of the pirate lines. The Titans began angling up hading vertical with respect to the plane that the fleet had been occupying, now resembling a tube standing on its end. The pirate fleet began to re-shift itself to fill in the gaps formed by the loss of half of its fighters and take pursuit of the Titans.

Chapter Seventeen: Section Three

The lead of the Titans and their escorts was substantial. Most of the pirate fleet would be hard press in maintaining the fight for much longer before they were out of range. Only a couple of Split Pythons were able to begin to close the gap, leaving the rest behind to handle the one Perseus that has been causing them so much trouble. Another M2 falls under the pressure of the blue waves from the Perseus, severe damage is seen on a couple of other primarily from friendly fire. Some of the ships have taken it upon themselves to get revenge right then and there, causing chaos as to who was the enemy and who were friends. Soon enough no one could find the Perseus in the tangled web of ships and weapons fire that blotted out that part of the night sky, peppering surrounding asteroids.

The Titans change their formation into a wall facing the oncoming Split Pythons, the Ospreys sitting out front with the fighters. None of the Pythons wavered from their collision course with the Titans. Blue balls began to stream away from the Pythons towards the Titans, the Osprey’s and fighters moved out to engage. A Python continued through the advance and fell victim to the concentrated Mass Driver fire. The others attempted to handle the nearest threat only to find that the fighters too were using mass drivers while the Ospreys were covering for them. A well sprung trap to counter the trap the pirates had laid. TimberWolf soon entered the battle, having switched his weapons over to High Energy Plasma Cannons and began peppering the hulls of all that stood against him.

A message from Xeel crosses TimberWolfs’ screen announcing his surrender. The Python before him turned blue, stopped firing, and began to leave the field. The other Python was quickly destroyed under the concentrated fire power of the 14 Ospreys and 28 fighters. The confusion left behind in the now small mass of pirates fighting between themselves faded into the back ground as the Titans took back their fighters and headed back on their way. Through this battle Gambits’ Osprey had always held the point, being the first to enter the firing range of the Pythons and being the first to scream its rage into the sides of the enemy. Now it speeds off to continue its hunt of the vanished ships belonging to Xenon001.

Chapter Eighteen: Section One

The last of the stations was breaking apart; containers were being picked up by freighters launched by TL’s sent by Gambit to clean up the area. No signs of Xeel were seen around any of the gates, but that was no surprise after the quick briefing Gambit gave Wildchild. Sneaky little player Xeel is, surrendering in a loosing fight only to try again later in larger numbers. Guess that pirate is true to his character, but he has so far left the battle fields gracefully and in one piece unlike his friends.

Wildchild was back to searching the Pirate sectors near the core regions for signs of the ships that fled. Some clue did emerge from conversations with the locals but nothing confirming the passing of any of the ships, but it does hint towards more pirate cooperation with Xenon001 that what has been seen so far. It is starting to make sense, the pirates have been smuggling ships, equipment, and resources out into these sectors where they will vanish for a time only to come back in the most basic of ships. A couple of locals were able to go as far an give the coordinates of a meeting point that they have been spotted at repeatedly. With that information Wildchild began to do a steak out, watching the area with video enhancement goggles from as far as possible, posing as a pirate group waiting for a signal.

As time went by, Wildchild stepped away from his computer to take care of a few things and get some coffee and donuts, to make it a real steak out. Upon his return a caravan of freighters and ships could be seen heading towards the coordinates. A couple of Split Pythons, about half a dozen Teladi Phoenix’s, a few Split Raptors, most likely filled with ships, and several dozen freighters. At this distance it was impossible to check who owned them or what their conditions were. The freighters began to vanish, most likely docking with a ship just outside of viewing range. None of them came back. An Argon Discoverer came out of the darkness and started to fly back to normal space. With the trade done, Wildchild began his approach in hopes of seeing who was the pirate providing the services and confirm that it was Xenon001 receiving. The fleet began to jump away before they entered targeting range. With a momentary chance of luck, Wildchild was able to get a lock onto a ship and confirm that it is now owned by Xenon001, but not enough luck to see the amount of energy used for the jump. All the ships had left the sector.

With rapid taps of the keyboard, Wildchild sent out a message to the other admins and the people helping with the search about what ships were here. Now only the pirate Discoverer was left for information concerning what just happened. Jumping to the nearest gate, Wildchild gets a lead on the pirate and advances right for him with part of his attack wing with him and the rest behind the pirate. The pirate ship soon enters radar range; the information screen is quickly brought up and shows that the ship is owned by Xeel. Just then a Split Python enters the gate behind Wildchild and heads right for the Discoverer. Taking the risk, he sends out his message requesting information pertaining to the transaction that just happened. No response. The ship has no weapons and the most basic shields, but it is faster than any of the ships Wildchild has. Either a quick missile shot can destroy it or it can just fly right by without sustaining any real damage.

Xeel has been supplying the enemy with weapons and resources, there for he is an enemy himself. At least that’s how Wildchild was validating his actions in his head as he commands his fighters to begin their attack run, launching missiles. The Python is quickly gaining ground and will soon be a threat to be handled unless the Discoverer can be destroyed with Xeel inside. The missiles near their target which is trying to dance by them. The first pair missed, the second detonate near by removing the shields from the ship, another pair similarly detonates near by causing hull damage, and the last pair strikes the ship head on destroying it completely. The Python behind turns blue and changes course away to where ever the AI does with new ships. Even if Xeel goes back into supplying things for Xenon001, he can’t buy the ships needed to fuel the war on that end. But there are plenty of pirates out there to bribe to do his shopping.

Chapter Eighteen: Section Two

No more information pertaining to the search for Xenon001 came out of anything else Wildchild did that evening. After having spent several hours searching the pirate sectors there can only be one conclusion, that if there are any more bases they are either so far out there in the void that it would take hours to get to or, most likely, any more of his bases are located else where in the universe. At least this time wasn’t completely wasted. During the long waits while the scouting teams got out to their destinations Wildchild decided to bug the AI pirates to have some fun. The outcome of these battles was another 27 ships captured, 10 of which are in good enough condition to repair and refurbish to join the fleet, 5 other the same but setup as sector traders to later become universal traders. It wasn’t such a bad evening after all.

On passing through Rolk’s Fate, after having sent off his new captures to Argon Prime, Wildchild spotted what appeared to be an assembling battle fleet. There were already 23 Boron Rays grouped together with countless dozens of support and escort ships around them. It was impossible to get a count due to the high volume of traffic in the sector and the dense clustering of stations through out the region. A question came to mind: what is this battle group destined for? Are they one of the many player made race war fleets, is it a fleet to attack a competitor, or is it their response to the Xenon001 attacks on the trade lanes and the increase pirate activity. Another thought emerges, it maybe one of those genocide groups that seek to purge the universe of all AI controlled stations and ships.

No matter what it doesn’t have anything to do with Wildchild, so he just continues on his way north towards Seizewell. But something fishy, again, catches his eye while passing through Ceo’s Buckzoid where there is another fleet amassing but made from Teladi ships. Then the last straw of thinking that it was something simple was completely destroyed as a Split armada emerged in Teladi Gain and continued its way with no hostilities west. The trade lane was being plowed through by the chain of ships passing from one gate to the other. Out of curiosity Wildchild decided to follow and see what is going on. Back in Ceo’s Buckzoid the two fleets merge together and continue heading west into Boron space. Then reached Rolk’s Fate and the Boron fleet there merged with the Split and Teladi ships. The armada continued south where an Argon fleet similarly composed as the others joined up with them in Elena’s Fortune. The armada met up with another fleet consisting of Paranid ships in Trinity Sanctum and proceeded east.

Knowing that TimberWolf was in that region of the Universe, Wildchild ask for anything out of the ordinary that may cause players to amass such a large armada from all the races but there were no answer to the asked question, just more questions. It has appeared that another fleet made up of ships from all the races but in smaller numbers was now amassing in Cardinal’s Domain where TimberWolf was currently holding one of his battle groups. The fleets seemed to be converging in on the three main pirate sectors, which lend credit to the pirates being too bothersome to leave alone any more. But why such a massive armada for attacking three sectors of pirates? The armadas sat at both entrances to the pirate home sectors for a couple of more hours as more ships continued to arrive in large packs. Wildchild wish he could stay and watch but it was time to log off for the night.

Chapter Nineteen: Section One

The empty void that had once been the first thing seen when leaving the spaceweed station was no longer empty. It has been many months since Ashaman last logged on and now he sees how out dated all of his information is. In only that short time he was gone more than several dozen stations were constructed near his own station loop. Checking over his messages he was shocked to see that none of his universal traders had been destroyed. Three of them had parked themselves at stations due to damages or consistent attacks, but two others had been working all the time since he last looked. All of the stations in the loop seemed to be doing well keeping a full stock of everything and the spaceweed seems to still be in high demand since neither of the stations can keep more than a dozen in stock before they are bought out.

Checking the bank to see how much money has been transferred from his stations to himself, Ashaman dropped his jaw at the sight of the 9 digit number. Time has been good to him. Slowly making his way through Spaceweed Drift, awe struck at the massive number of stations that have been built, not knowing what had been going on recently. The trip through the gate was more dangerous than Ashaman has ever remembered basic travel ever being. The constant flow of ships in and out of the gate made navigating it as risky as Russian roulette. Everyone of these ships were far larger than the small Discoverer that he currently pilots, attempting to make his way to a ship yard or wharf to buy something a little more proper for a man with this many credits. Hopefully the traffic at those stations is thin enough to get into the line.

The screen remained lit up with green and blue dots all the way along the trip to Seizewell Wharf. The constant flow of ships through the gates and between the countless stations made it hard to find the wharf. Ships were drifting about the station, as if they were waiting to be supplied or picked up by a capital ship. Auto pilot refused to try to dock with so many ships around, so Ashaman took it in manually. The types of ships were greatly reduced compared to what he remembered from last time. Almost all the types of ships were out of stock at this time, the only ship not out of stock is the Buzzard. That is no better than the Discoverer he already flies. Guess he will have to wait it out. Suddenly a fresh inventory of ships arrives and almost as suddenly they are all bought up. What is going on around here?

Chapter Nineteen: Section Two

In the time waiting for ships to become available to buy, Ashaman has been re-exploring the universe and finding that hundreds of stations have been built in only the core sectors where traffic flows in a never ending stream of ships. The sectors near the center had far fewer stations than last seen, and what few were left sat idle as they are not receiving any resources. In these sectors pirates have taken on a dominate position, even if the sector is normally controlled by a race. A small block of sectors have now been cut off from the rest through block-aids and orders from some player who has laid claim to the now vacant sectors. If the player wanted to they now have all the natural resources needed to start up their own economic empire or weapon and shield loops for ships. Most likely they are just doing it to feel important and bully other players around.

A pirate who refused to name himself has declared Company Pride and the adjoining sectors as his personal domain and that if any one wants to pass through they will have to pay a toll or be destroyed. Another has claimed Light of Heart and the adjoining sectors as his own. Again all who pass are tolled or destroyed. This case has an interesting problem seeing as a very powerful player maintained his stations in Akeela’s Beacon and regularly has ships that travel through pirate sectors and Aladna Hill, which is adjacent to Light of Heart, to keep them going. Ashaman was able to piggy back on one such convoy to get the chance and explore those sectors without being destroyed or tolled.

In Ceo’s Doubt there was something amiss. There was a massive gathering of ships from all the races hovering around the southern gate destroying any and all pirate ships that passed through. At least to Ashaman, that appeared to be over kill but them maybe expecting powerful enemies to be passing through. After re-exploring the Paranid home sectors, it was time to head back through Argon Prime and Kingdom End to return to Seizewell to see if a good ship was available. The feeling of being a flee in a giants world has been building up as Ashaman finds a couple or more capital ships in every sector belonging to the most powerful players or a coalition of players that have joined forces. Never did the urge to stop and ask about what has happened grow strong enough to cause the action, but the ever growing sense of danger was enough to make Ashaman wish he had his own capital ship.

Chapter Nineteen: Section Three

Iceman caught Ashaman as he was passing through Ceo’s Buckzoid and struck up a conversation to bringing him up to speed on server upgrades and new scripts that have been authorized for general use by the admins. As the messages began to draw close to recent events an urgent message required Iceman to jump away immediately to Diesalot’s location. But one thing from the conversation made one thing clear, which explained all the extra fire power in the universe. That, for some reason or another, the entire Universe has gone into a state of war between multiple factions, or maybe just two big ones and a bunch of little ones trying to get in. Either way it is total war.

The implications brought forth fears of what will happen after the threat had passed. With so many groups armed there will undoubting be friction between them that may erupt into full out conflict that can easily drag others into it or cost by standards their own lives. Looking around the sector in the new light of those thoughts brings to mind a dark age for the server. In the distance a small AI pirate force could be seen under attack from everything in range, even the freighters. They are quickly dispatched before they could fire a shot. Returning to his stations in Spaceweed Drift, Ashaman takes a careful look around to ensure the security of his belongings. Several minutes later he arrives in Seizewell and begins asking players about their ships, trying to figure out what would be the best fit for him.

Chapter Twenty: Section One

Economic development and helping the players resettle themselves in the new economy has become Gambits sole concern. The sectors destroyed by Xenon001 have been reopened and small battle groups have been stationed with in them by TimberWolf. It is only a matter of time before the players began to reclaim those sectors taken over by pirates for themselves again. But for now, building of new silicon mines in Seizewell has his priority. The few asteroids left are of low yield but silicon wafers are selling at max price clear across the universe. Every asteroid that can be mined, no matter how low yield it is, needs to be mined until the silicon lanes return. Universal traders have dwindled greatly due to the absence of energy cells available to them for their jump drivers. Gambit had requested a script be written to help this problem by allowing them to do trade runs in a 3 sector radius around their current location.

The Mammoth places the second Silicon mine in place, the player owning it quickly gets his freighters into it and begin servicing its needs. The asteroid belt has been thinned out greatly recently from mobile mining of the lesser asteroids, which does help the transit of ships through the belt. But soon there will be nothing left to mine in the core sectors and they will be forced to return to the unknown sectors and the pirate sectors where they will be exposed to the dangers once again. There is a petition that is being passed around by some of the players to demand the admins to spawn more asteroids in the core sectors such as this. The Argon core sectors are well stocked with silicon wafer because of Ore Belt. More and more players are moving there because of the abundance of energy cells which will soon become like the rest and rare.

Still sitting next to the Silicon mine, waiting for the player to finish transferring over the supplies stored away in its hold, the Mammoth receives a disturbing wake up call. The side facing away from the mine is now lit up like a Christmas tree with glowing dots of green. The turrets return the favor as well as can be expected, but having far less contact. The player launches his last freighter from the Mammoth, freeing it to move away and engage in the battle that has been forced upon it. Seven ships weave their way through the crowded space to strike again, spitting their green venom onto the blue haze of a shield guarding the Mammoth as it attempts to get up to speed.

The ship strains to gain speed, after burners going full strength. The assailants pass the bridge, showing Gambit that he was being attacked by 7 Split Dragons, the fastest M6 in the game. Hopes of being able to gain some distance between them were dashed. The enemy came back around but this time from below the ship where it had no turret protection, unleashing a furry of missiles into the belly of the Mammoth. A quick check of the ships information told Gambit all he needed to know. These ships were sent by Xenon001, most likely for his part in destroying his supply line. Another line of green streaks across the bridge view, the shields begin to edge dangerously close to failing.

Chapter Twenty: Section Two

The peaceful sector of Seizewell had a disturbance that most chose to ignore as it seemed to be centered on 8 ships, 7 versus 1. It was obvious that the one was loosing, small explosions could be seen erupting from the sides of the ships where the weapons fire impacted. There was no chance of the Mammoth ever getting away under normal engine power from those Dragons. Ships started to launch from the Mammoth, some quickly jumping away, others being destroyed as the Dragons pass by again, but one fighter darted down to the near by asteroid and began to pass on to the far side from the battle. In one last swoop the Dragons cast the death blow that shattered the Mammoth like glass.

Luck not being on the side of that lonely fighter, the Dragons caught sight of it and began to hunt after it. The little Boron Barracuda had even less of a chance of flying away from the Dragons than the Mammoth, having a slower speed and far less protection. In a matter of moments the Dragons had gotten up behind it and started to protest its desire to continue to live with their High Energy Plasma Throwers. The fighter does an ungraceful dance in the fire, getting hit or grazed by some but missing most. Undeterred, the Dragons continue to lay pursuit, sweeping by the fighter similarly to what they did to eliminate the Mammoth. This tactic proves to fall short as more shots land on the asteroid than any that even get near the fighter. The fighter breaks away from the surface of the asteroid and makes it to another asteroid close by before the Dragons have a chance to attack it in transit.

This asteroid is host to a silicon mine whose defense force has already begun launching. The Dragons backed away to show their cooperation, for the moment. Taking the opportunity, the lonely fighter made its way around to the docking port for the station only to be denied the right to land. The defense wing surrounds the fighter and escorts it away, messaging that they don’t want any trouble nor be a part of any. Once the group reached 6 km away from the mine, the Dragons stuck with great furry, destroying most of the defense wing in one foul swoop. The lone fighter had the foresight to keep himself beneath one of its escorts to act as a barrier, giving him the cover needed to make it to another asteroid alive. What was left of the defense wing limped back to the mine, keeping their distance from the aggressive Dragons as they continued their hunt.

Green dots light the flight path taken by the lonely fighter as it attempts to evade its pursuers. This asteroid has no mine built on it yet and the information screen shows that it has tunnels going through it. The surface bends and curves below the fighter, features hiding in the darkness suddenly jet out into the light. A deep dark ridge appears on the horizon. As soon as it draw near the fighter broke from its path and sharply turned right into it, vanishing from all sight. A Dragon attempts the same only to impact into the surface of the asteroid, causing great damage to itself. In a burst of anger, the center Dragon begins firing at the surface of the asteroid, illuminating it and finding the tunnel entrance where the fighter had vanished into. The path was too small for the Dragons, but it confirmed that the fighter was still alive and hiding like the weakling it really it.

Chapter Twenty: Section Three

The continuing attempt to remove Gambit from the server wasn’t unforeseen to himself. They only caught him without the escorts that were undergoing repairs and rearming Light of Heart. What did go wrong was the fact that no one would step up and eliminate the threat these intruders present. For all they know this could be a scouting party to a full invasion of the sector. Yet not a player will stick their head out in defense of another in fear of incurring the wrath of Xenon001. Playing with fear is the only thing keeping the server from uniting against him.

Distant rumbles could be heard echoing through the tunnel. They haven’t forgotten him, or lost interest in shooting at something. It would be too easy if the player controlling them would jump into a fighter and come flying right into Gambits waiting fire, dieing in an unseen burst of light. Wishful thinking can be useful but that kind is unproductive right now. The explosions vanish without warning; silence brings forth wonder at what is happening out there. Most likely a trap is being laid out about each of the openings to the tunnels networking through the asteroid. Not wanting to disappoint them, Gambit begins to edge his way off to such an opening to poke his ship out for a good look.

The view showed nothing but the normal chaos for this sector. The Dragons appeared to have backed away far enough to give a false sense of safety to Gambit, who will take the bait but will not fall victim to the trap it will trigger. Gunning it out, keeping as close to the surface as possible, the Barracuda proceeds to move along the darkness to the southern hemisphere with hopes of an unseen dash off into the void. The canyons and craters provide good paths to follow with plenty of hiding spots. No signs of red dots or gun fire could be seen in the momentary glances Gambit was able to give. Such flying was never something he could do well before, always ending up bouncing off the surface in a ship that turns from brand new to scrap faster than the speed of light.

The end of the canyon is in sight, nothing but stars and darkness could be seen beyond. With hope of eluding the Dragons reaching a climax, the asteroid vanishes from below and begins to dwindle in the rear window. No signs of a chase yet. Taking the time available, Gambit quickly sends out orders for some of his M6’s to come and protect him. Then he sends messages off to TimberWolf and Wildchild asking for aid in eliminating this intrusion into the core sectors. To his dismay TimberWolf informs him of several major attacks across the universe and that no ships could be spared for the time being. In further pain, Wildchild informs him that he too is under going missions to save sectors that are under attack near by and will be there as soon as these sectors are cleared. In fear for his life, Gambit decides it would be prudent to jump away to his fleet.

Chapter Twenty: Section Four

Flashes of light burst around the peripheral of the cockpit. Shield level plummets under the new found pressure. The count down continues as the first of the Dragons fly past the little Barracuda. In a panic, it turns hard about right into another Dragon which breaks through the last of the shields and rips apart several systems before they continued on their separate paths. The count down hits zero but the sights of Seizewell continues to adorn the path of the fighter. Another Dragon passes by, casting its hatred towards the badly damaged fighter which attempts to limp back to its hole.

The suddenness of the attack along with the random positions of the Dragons made all attempts at evade hardly successful. The shields had begun to regenerate but the damage done to the hull and systems could only be undone at a wharf and equipment dock. What was originally a slow fighter has become even slower due to the damage sustained. This only gives the Dragons a better chance at picking off the fighter at their leisure than it would have been before. The sight resembles a cat playing with a spider, bating it around with its paws, watching it attempt to run only to be bated backwards. Waves of green balls divide the view into unequal sections that are continuously changing shapes as more are added and other vanish. The nearest asteroid seems so far away to the limping ship as its view is blocked out by the passing of a Phoenix all around it.

The twin hulls of the Phoenix provided a cover for the Barracuda. Weapon impacts on the shields could be heard and seen as the waves of blue energy flash along the outline of the ship. Blue weapons fire erupts from the ship in response to the 7 attacking Dragons. The turrets concentrate their power on a single Dragon, bringing its shields down quickly and then casting damage into its hull as it begins to break apart. Stars appeared again in the cockpit view as the Phoenix continued along its path now influenced by the mutual enemies firing upon them. Trying to make the most of the opportunity, the Barracuda moves back into the safety of the twin hulls, allowing the bigger ship to take all the damage meant for its weak shields.

Chapter Twenty: Section Five

Exchange of fire could be seen for kilometers around. Six Dragons rampage against a Phoenix as it tries to protect a little Barracuda under its wings. Green shots pepper the side of the great ship as blue shots skip across the edges of the attackers. Trade ships attempt to avoid incoming fire with little success due to the crowding. The blue hue to the Phoenix started to loose its intensity. Suddenly the Barracuda darted out from below and engaged a Dragon with cover fire from the Phoenix. It continued on its path back to the asteroids as the Dragons continue to bite into the now swooned bird. In a soundless cry, the wings flew off and the bird fought back no more.

The weakened Barracuda continued its run for cover as the Dragons regrouped after their victory and retargeted it. Distance vanished quickly on both sides as the asteroid rushed up to give its cover and as the Dragons reached out to give pain. In an instant, streaks of smoke erupt from the noses of the beasts out towards the Barracuda. The trails raced towards the helpless ship, as they stretch their owners’ fury out. A wave of green cuts the smoke trails short of their target, allowing the Barracuda to reach the asteroids surface and weave around to the far side. The Dragons continue on their stampede without any signs of seeing the new intruder into their hunt. They reach the asteroid and follow the surface close enough for one to run into a hill reflect out into the open into a missile and triple streams of green.

Without a chance, the Dragon bursts into quickly quenched flames about its many pieces. The other five continue on the tracks of their prey with no signs of noticing their own being destroyed. Bright spots pepper the sides of the asteroid as mass drivers impact its surface around the Barracuda. The engines of the Barracuda vanish as it dives into a tunnel. Bright flashes of impacts stop as the Dragons turn away and split up to cover both ends of the tunnel. One of the Dragons breaks off and engages the new assailant that is unwelcome into the battle. Large explosions burst from the tunnel ends as the missiles from the Dragons attempt to catch the Barracuda.

Chapter Twenty One: Section One

Turning about from his newly destroyed prey, Wildchild darts for the tunnel and switches his weapons to PSG’s. Daring not to slow down, net even for an instant, flashing past Gambits fighter wedged into a dark hole in the wall, and approaching a distant light of the end of the tunnel. Before the end of the tunnel could even be distinguished from the blackness of space, blue rings pulsed away from the three muzzles. Several explosions erupted around the tunnel’s ends, the signs of death of squash mines and to his surprise a destroyed engine drifts into view. Continuing to fire out more explosions could be heard and seen. Incoming missile alerts rang through the cockpit, red dots peppered the radar. The Dragons were in the process of deploying means of sealing this way out with mines and laser towers.

The Perseus shudders from the incoming fire and the nearby detonations of missiles. Destruction rang through the speakers, mines detonating, towers failing, and Dragons attempting to regain their postures. Twelve new blue waves began to caress the hulls of the Dragons, draining their shields rapidly then striking the sides of the asteroid. A quick glance showed that a badly damaged Barracuda had begun running towards the shipyard and cover. Until that ship is safely away, these Dragons will be the sole responsibility of Wildchilds. With the escorting fighters now by his side, he switches all of their weapons back to GHEPT’s and returns to picking on the weakest of the Dragons.

Tide of battle was very easily in his favor with the entire enemy having low shields and hull damage. With 15 steams of green another Dragon falls, its debris striking the surface of the asteroid. A quick turn about to bring the next Dragon into the cross hairs brought the hairs of Wildchilds body to full attention. Without hesitating, the weapons were switched back to PSG’s on his own ship but the other four fighters fell victim to the trap as their weapons were unable to clear a path through the mine field the Dragons left in their wake as they rushed by. Attempting to salvage a good situation gone bad, Wildchild turns about only to see three Dragons continuing their attack on him, the fourth and vanished.

With no friendly ships nearby, the continued use of PSG’s proved to be very helpful in preventing the Dragons from laying any more traps or using missiles. As soon as a good ship lined up on one Dragon, another would attempt to ram his fighter or begin breaking down his shields. The duel continued on with all ships slowing draining in shields and hull. Fatigue brought about the end of the battle, as Wildchild fails to notice that he had drifted too close to an asteroid and bounced off it as he avoided the cross fire of the Dragons. The Perseus cries out in pain, listing equipment that is now lost, failing to regenerate shields, and showing that most of the cargo hold full of weapons is now lost.

Chapter Twenty One: Section Two

The sparkling lights hung around the surface of the asteroid, like glitter. A large pot mark is all that remains of the Perseus, a sad ending to such a powerful and brave ship that didn’t falter under Wildchilds’ commands. Only a short distance away, weaving through the hills and crevasses of the asteroids surface was a slow moving blue light of a spacesuits thruster pack. The deafening silence of space held a secret which intends to snuff out that blue flame.

Dark figures move about the debris field sniffing out the gravdar reading that shows there was a survivor. Long lines of flames stretch out away from the surface as two of those figures rejoin the attack on their primary target. The last begins to pepper the surface of the asteroid in an attempt to force out its evasive target. Green balls of energy drip from the dark figure and splash the surface like venom.

Boulders, rocks, and dust rush away from the green lights, striking others and drifting away from the surface. The illumination of the blue thrusters darkens then vanishes as a hill vanishes right in front of it. Still not satisfied the dark figure continued to blast that area until the asteroid broke apart, shattering with an amazing splendor resembling that of dropped glass.

In the middle of the storm a large piece of debris strikes the Dragon head on, crushing its shields, and dropping its hull dangerously close to failure. An engine pod is crushed in the ensuring storm of its own creation. Just before the dark figure vanished in a bright white flash, it attempts to strike out at the blue light that appeared in front of it.

Chapter Twenty One: Section Three

Crakes decorate the visor of the spacesuit as it spirals and spins around in an ever expanding storm of rocks. The hissing of air leaking out adds an ominous tone that only intensifies the urgency of Wildchilds situation. Unsure of how he has remained alive through the bombardment and then the explosion of asteroid, the feeling of being manipulated and toyed by a higher power reignited a flame in his eyes. Unwilling to simply accept his fate, the commands to use up all of the fuel to speed away to the nearest station was given. The only thing stopping his survival is several kilometers, leaking air, and fast moving rocks that seem to hold him responsible for their current situation.

In the distance, a flight of Pirates could be seen. Their paths brought them nearly in arms length from the battered spacesuit. The fear of being saved only to be put on the auctioning block to be placed in the world of slavery brought thoughts of irony and a smile to Wildchild’s face. After all of this time fighting Pirates and setting slaves free, his world was about to become the one he sought to vanquish.

The ships slowed down and the Orinoco lowered its shields to bring him aboard. Instead of being met with the view of a cell in its cargo hold, he was shocked to see the ships controls along with its two Bayamon escorts have been transferred. Taking a moment to see what the ships had aboard, a message appeared on the screen. With an even bigger smile on his face, Wildchild laughed as the thought of his own nemeses being his savoir and will to help in the battle only to maintain his strangle hold of the Pirating markets in the area.

Chapter Twenty Two: Section One

[TimberWolf]

Sorry for no new chapters this quarter. Been too busy trying to keep my head above academic waters and getting my summer job lined up. I will not be able to get on the internet much over the summer but I am hoping that I can do my writting. With any luck I may have the complete rewrite of the original story done and ready for posting by September. Current plans will leave my main computer at my parents place and leaves me working on my brothers laptop, which means no playing of any X-Universe games. I am dying for a break from school right now. I only have till June 6st for my last day of finals.

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

Been there, TW. And pretty much ever since my senior year of college, I haven't had much time for gaming or writing. Except when I was out of work. But then I was looking for a job.

Right now I'm at home with a screwed up knee, but I'm trying to stay afloat on work stuff. It's hard though not having my work computer and software, and with only having a limited amount of work to do because of classification.


I have to add though that you've got a promising future if you keep up with your writing.

[TimberWolf]

Letting you all know that everything up to Chapter Twelve has been posted and that Chapter Thirteen and beyond is in the works. The story now spans 29 pages. There are still 9 more pages of the original story to rewrite. Hope you all enjoy the new chapters and look forward to more.

[TimberWolf]

Out of curiosity about the person who voted worst, what do see as being worst than the original writting?

[TimberWolf]

Just letting you all know that, even though I have no internet connection any more, I am still writting and now everything up to Chapter 20: Section Four is posted. For those of you who don't remember where I last left off, it was Chapter 13.

[XMEN Gambit]

Gah. Big ol' chunk. But the last thing in the post is Ch. 17 s2.

[TimberWolf]

Sorry about that. I cut and pasted it all over and it looked like it all took but the software cut it down to size with its limits. I have edited one of my prior posts to contain everything else up to chapter 20 which is still in the works.

[TimberWolf]

Posted two new sections. Sorry for only having a little teaser but I wrote for as long as I had time tonight.

Wildchild, I am trying to expand on your idea and put your character in some more dangerous situations, such as Chapter Twenty One: Section One.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

Im still trying to catch up. Im on chapter eleven of the rewrite.

[TimberWolf]

Two new sections are up with Wildchilds battle to stay alive. I know their short but I feel its time to finish that battle and start moving towards the end game. Going to have to get more into the writing spirit to get that far before school starts again.