Freelancer: A New Generation

by Dirk3K

This is basically an idea I had for a story about the good old game Freelancer. The plot takes 30 years after the events in the campaign and involves OCs of me and my friends as well as the OG characters from the game. Expect somewhat long and inconsistent updates (sorry in advance). That being said, I am doing this because there's not enough stories about this game. Enjoy!

4. Chapter 3: Blackburned

Planet Pittsburgh, New York System, Liberty Space

1 week later

If there was such thing as an official list of unsightly planets, Liberty's best offer to the table would have to be thrown here. At the end of the far trade lane from Fort Bush sat a rather bizarre looking planet. Brown rock, smoke trailing out of steel smokestacks, and bright yellowish-green fire mixed with a landscape that consisted of canyons, fissures, and mining machinery, and one might think that it is an industrial version of hell. Yet that description is only half right. Behind the horrid landscape and few white wispy clouds, evidence of an atmosphere on an otherwise seemingly uninhabitable planet, the beauty of industry was the heart of Pittsburgh's human interaction. Home of the DSE firm, Pittsburgh is the sole source of rare minerals as well as construction machinery used to build Liberty's trade lane rings, jump gates, and main stations.

At the mining operation pad itself stood a bar that was carved into a rock formation (a perk of having an undesirable environment was the fact that the drinks were extremely cheap in price by comparison). It had a similar layout to any typical station bar: a large window that opened viewing of the otherwise lack-luster biome that covered Pittsburgh, low sitting tables with chairs, and oddly enough, no actual bar of its own. Instead, the bar was a self-serve tap, part of the fact that it was so cheap to buy drinks. There was a light crowd in the club today (most were out working on the mines); three men were leaning on the rail in front of the large window talking about a new hotspot that had opened near the southern pole. "I heard that there was about 2 trillion tons of Niobium down there. Hope we get tasked to something like that..."

At the far back corner of the club, Keegan and Logan were sitting at a table, both men empty handed as they were only an hour out from being sent with a transport over to the Colorado System. Rather than talk about the deal however, Keegan had other intentions and was leading the conversation. "I think I'm going to do it Logan. I must make sure that Blackburn knows that this is something that can cause a colony war. I'm going to march right into his office and lay the law down on him." Although he was trying to be serious, he couldn't hide the trace of doubt in his voice. Logan just sat back, stroking his beard while thinking about other possibilities. For a while, the two just sat there in silence. A repair ship slowly floated past the window drawing the attention of Logan for just a small while. Finally, after what seemed like a 5-minute pause, Logan spoke up. "You know, I can always approach him with you. There might be a better chance that he will listen if there's more than one person approaching him about the same situation." Keegan just shook his head, "No. I'm not letting you do that Logan. All that will do is throw up the risk of both of us getting in trouble. It could lead to a dock in pay, a lay-off, or worse he could fire the both of us." "Now just wait and think about this for a sec-" "No, I'm going alone and that's final. You need this job much more than I do now anyway." That much was true, the reason why Logan was making the comments to Clayton earlier about giving him financial help was because he always seemed to be down on his luck. "I'm going to head to his office. Don't worry about me man, it won't take longer than 10 minutes tops." Logan shifted uncomfortably in his seat obviously showing that he still had his doubts. "Hey, if you say so. I'll be out on the launch pad getting the ol' ship setup. Don't take too long yeah?" "10 minutes I swear." Keegan was really debating with himself now. "Do you pinky swear?" Logan said in what he thought must of thought was a high-pitch trying-to-act-cute voice. Keegan just shook his head with a grin and walked away.

When Keegan walked to the small two-story office building that housed his higher ups, he was a bit taken aback at the style of it. It wasn't made of any kind of metal or reflective material like the other 98% of buildings in the colonies. Rather, it was a large square concrete block structure that looked as if it were a giant cinderblock. Other than a small circular glass window that sat at the top middle of the building, the structure was completely windowless. With hesitance mounting ever higher as he stepped closer to the large square door, he realized why there was nobody else around. Good Lord, this place is like an old prison that we learned about in school. The kind that our ancestors had on Earth. It really was a neat strategy, this makes anyone who dares challenge authority step away for a bit. Then they would either go back only half as confident or forget about the matter they were going to complain about entirely. Keegan had to admit, it was a genius strategy, but it seemed a little bit extreme for an engineering firm. What kind of complaints are they wanting to avoid from the employees? I know that I haven't worked here for very long, but there's something that Blackburn isn't telling his employees. He was thinking this to himself when he realized that he had been standing at the door for about 2 minutes now. Well, better let myself in.

If the outside of the complex was out of touch with the rest of Liberty architecture, then the inside was in an entire class of its own. Upon walking in, Keegan noticed a fireplace in the far center wall. What was even weirder than that though was the design of the room itself. He noticed a dark, cylindrical, smoothed out texture along the walls of the room. It was unlike anything Keegan had ever seen before. The floor was of the same texture and there were portraits of vast desert lining the walls. A half-filled bookshelf sat along the end of the left wall just behind what looked like a secretary's desk. The sign that sat on it indicated that she was done for the day. "Hello? Who goes there?" Keegan recognized the cool voice as his CEO's. Thomas Blackburn was a tall, slim man in his early forties with short black hair and a mustache of the same color. Large framed glasses magnified his eyes to the size of small balloons and gave him a sort of baby appearance behind the facial features of a typical scientist. He looked particularly dumbfounded at the fact that anyone was in his office at this hour. "Show yourselves before I call the Liberty Police." His voice boomed from a partially opened door leading to what must have been to his office. The door was on the far-right wall and creaked as Keegan opened it wider to get through into the small room. "Who are you and what are you doing here. Well lemme see, judging by the jumpsuit, you're obviously one of my employees and judging by your unfamiliar face, I'd say that we had never met before unless I am mistaken and I usually never am." He rattled off the last sentence so fast that it took Keegan an extra few seconds to comprehend what he was saying. "Umm... sir my name I Keegan Sabol and I'm... an escort pilot." He had forgotten any plan on what he was going to say and was currently looking like a giant nervous breakdown of a man. "Okay then youngster, aren't you a little bit short to be an escort pilot? You seem to be a little bit young to be flying a ship at all really." Keegan just bit his lip. He hated being called short. Back in the day before he and Clayton got along, Clayton would always make fun of him. Calling him midget, Kusari man, and perhaps the one that he hated the most, runt. "Sir I assure you, I'm 25 years old, and I would appreciate that you would refer to the height disadvantage in a different way if at all. Oh, is that your family?" Keegan nodded his head towards a small picture frame that sat on the front right corner of the desk. Three people posed for the photo, one Keegan immediately recognized his boss. Just in front of him sat a young beautiful woman with long black hair and a gorgeous smile. In her arms she held a baby boy that Keegan approximated at around 1-2 years old. "Why yes, that's my wife Kimberly and my son Sanford. I never really see them anymore because work. The two of them... they're my everything." His eyes were glimmering with what looked like a combination of pride and tears. The glimmering faded as quick as it appeared however, and Blackburn was back in his demanding state. He proceeded to raise an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair, putting his feet on the desk. "Now if you would spit out what you're wanting to talk to me about. We can BOTH move on with our lives instead of being stuck here listening to drabble." Keegan was already getting miffed at this guy, but he thought he should voice his opinions anyway.

Keegan took a seat in the chair that sat opposite of the desk. Shifting around to try and get comfortable, he finally just settled to sitting upright in the chair. "Well, what do you have to say?" "Sir, I've been thinking... about the recent project that we agreed to help Ageira with... about the jump gates in the Galileo System..." At the mention of Ageira, Blackburn creased his eyebrows into a "not this again" expression. "What about it pilot?" Keegan was still trying to fabricate sentences out of thin air. "Well... I was wondering if we could... I don't know... stop this project from being finished. Or better yet, stop it before it gets started." Before he could continue, Blackburn stuck up his hand. "I'm just going to stop you right there Mr. Sabol, is it? Our company and more important, our colony, was built on the idea that expansion and profit could help us improve our lives. Ageira has the idea to expand our borders beyond what we thought was originally possible. Imagine it now. Goods being brought in from Kusari, the Sigmas, the Taus, and even the Northern Omicrons now have access to a shorter drop off point to sell their goods in Liberty. With fewer systems to have to bypass, foreign goods will become cheaper, this allows Liberty to sell goods and buy goods at an ever-increasing profit margin as well as ensuring that a higher percentage of goods gets to our colony. The more goods flowing in will make pirates weaker because their access to useful goods will be limited even more so than before. The extra goods also provide Liberty with more efficient solutions and nearly zero profit loss. All because of a few jump gates placed in a neutral system. It will give us a leg-up on all of the other colonies and make Liberty the supreme powerhouse of Sirius." He had seemed so certain in his words at first but his argument, at least in Keegan's mind, seemed to have fizzled out in its repetitiveness. "Umm... sir if I may. Let me make the case on why we shouldn't build these jump gates." "No offense kid, but there isn't an argument on why these shouldn't be built." "Except for the fact that Kusari has a fucking high-tech weapon that beats anything that we have! Except that we are in a cold war where tension is so high you could shoot through it! Except for the fact that the colonies are at the brink of war because of Ageira and DSE's greed!" Blackburn leaned forward in his chair. If looks could do anything, Keegan would have turned into ice right in front of the desk. "I feel that you are uneducated and furthermore unauthorized to make any sort of opinion that makes any sort of argument relevant to the situation. I advise you to watch your tongue." Well if I've come this far, there's no point in backing down now Keegan thought. "Admit it sir, you have yet to think about what the possible consequences of your actions are and as a result we could all die! This is not your decision to make"-"DON'T tell me how to run my operations Sabol. This is MY firm and it is MY head if things go down the wrong path." "NO IT ISN'T JUST YOUR HEAD BLACKBURN." Keegan was now in a full-blown shouting match with his superior. "THE LIVES OF ALL PEOPLE IN LIBERTY DEPEND ON THIS DEAL. IF YOU DON'T CANCEL THIS, IT WILL LEAD TO WAR AND MILLIONS WILL SUFFER. EVEN YOUR FAMILY WILL BE IN DANGER." Keegan was panting. It had been a long time since he had ever exploded on anyone like that and if he wanted to be quite honest, it felt great. Blackburn however was not amused in the tiniest way. "Get out." His voice almost cracked as he gave the order. "Excuse me sir?" "You heard me you fucking runt. GET OUT OF MY OFFICE BEFORE I HAVE TO REMOVE YOU PERSONALLY!" His face was the color of the dark red flames of the retro fireplace outside the hall. "IF YOU EVER THINK ABOUT PILOTING FOR THE DSE AGAIN, I WILL TAKE YOU OUT PERSONALLY DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" Keegan got out of his chair and walked away without answering. "YOU WILL BE DEAD YOU HEAR ME? DEAD TO THE LIBERTY CORPORATIONS!" Blackburn's voice rang throughout the small building and Keegan could still hear his voice even after he shut the door.

"Well how'd it go?" Logan was waiting outside on the launch pad by their ships. Both were classified as Hawks. Which came from the same family as all the other civilian ships in Sirius. It had an amber tinted glass cockpit with a brown frame and a long shape that arched to look like an outstretched bird, hence the name. "Well it went about as well as expected. He told me why they weren't going to stop the project, I told him that he done fucked up basically, then he proceeded to fire me and promised to put a bad name in for me to any Liberty company that I apply to. So yeah like I said, just about what I expected." Logan's eyes just got larger and larger as Keegan went further through his summary finally looking like they were going to pop out of his head. "Well shit dude, that's..." "Awesome I know." Keegan mocked sarcastically. "Hey, have you been talking to Clayton recently? I need someone to room with now that I have no source of income. Was going to see if he knew of anyone who could take me in until I got back on my feet." "Honestly, I haven't heard a word from him, but I mean shoot man I can take you in." Logan offered sincerely. Keegan however shook his head and pushed Logan's outstretched hand away. "Really don't think that's a good idea. You can barely take care of yourself Logan." "But..." Logan started to insist, "It's alright, I'll start looking for cheap spots on Manhattan. Maybe I can find some jobs in the meantime. Try to get in contact with Clayton for me though would yah? Who knows maybe he can be your new escort partner on cargo runs." They both started to laugh. "Ah shit that's a thought...that's a thought...Well I mean if you really say you're going to be okay, I'll see you around. I got me a cargo run to carry out." Logan then turned his head around to look to his left. "Hey Withers, I need a wingman for a quick run to Norfolk, want to fly with me?" A man who was working on a small repair bot suddenly turned, "Yeah sure, I could use the extra cash." "Alright then." Logan gave one last look at Keegan, who was walking back into the bar, before hopping into his ship and taking off for the Pittsburgh docking ring exit.