As their ships were equipped with the finest Countermeasures (Blake gave the equipment dealer an extra 7,500 credits for each Countermeasure Dropper), there were several emotions running through Keegan's head. Anger, sadness, stress… okay that last one wasn't technically an emotion, but he was feeling every bit of it. Damian was treating the entire situation as if much of it was overhyped. He was either trying to get things done the easy way or was trying to forget key components of the problem in the first place. Case in point, the Springer situation; he wanted to have his fiancé stay in Liberty with the current situation. Even after hearing his friend's personal experience, even after being told that EVERYONE CLOSE TO HIM would be hunted and taken either prisoner or executed. How big of a canvas did Keegan need to use to paint the picture for his friend? Did he have to try and explain in an elaborate way how every action in the last 27 hours involving Liberty politics was tied back to Blackburn? Blackburn. What a slimy piece of garbage he turned out to be. He didn't want to stereotype all corporate suits into the same category as him, but he was the only one he had even encountered. The words he said to Keegan as he was walking out of his office still resonated with him… what did he mean by "end you"? Is he trying to make up on that end of the deal? Was he trying to use Springer as a weapon to mop me up or is Springer acting alone. They did conclude that he had to be operating under Blackburn, but it was honestly quite hard to tell. His thoughts were disrupted as the voice channel came back alive, echoing through his still empty ship sitting in the hangar on the Missouri. "Okay, I don't know about you guys, but I would feel much safer if we could get everyone their own ship. Boothy, is there any way I can get to my ship without raising suspicion?" "Um, let me see if I can contact Stevens to mess with the cameras." Keegan heard the noise of typing bleed through the voice channel as Blake worked. "What do you think?" Logan's voice traveled over Blake's typing, yet nobody seemed to notice besides Keegan. "About?" Keegan wasn't quite sure what the question was, though now he deduced that Logan was talking to him through a private channel. "Oh, you know, whatever, the entire situation going on right now. Just wondering what you think about it." That still wasn't quite clear. "Well, I think that Blake has the right mindset on getting us out of here. Riles is a bit insane, but he was quite calm for his usual temperament. I've heard stories of him wanting to finish people off himself more often than leaving them for his henchmen. I think he's planning something." "Do you think that he's planning on us leaving the system in hopes for an attack on us?" Keegan thought about this for a bit before responding. "I mean, it's quite possible. I don't know if he's wanting to go that far though. He's always been about efficiency in his methods. Wanting to lure us out into neutral space just to have a CHANCE at finishing us off seems kind of backwards in his usual method of thinking." "Maybe it's just Blackburn giving him orders," Logan summed up. "I mean I'm not sure why he's not letting Riles do his own thing but let's just take this as an advantage for us and make use of it."
"Bingo! Alright Pohlman, the cameras are down... wait, oh no no no." Blake's voiced started confident but turned into a panicked version of itself just as quickly. "The hack wasn't clean. Stevens you idiot... they've spotted us. A patrol is on their way to the hangar bay right now!" "I'm getting out right now." Keegan started to get up from his chair, "No you're not, get ready to launch your ship. As soon as Damian can get to his ship we're all leaving." "But Blake, what about-" "KEEGAN, STAY!" "Don't worry," Damian assured, "I'll just run for it." With that, Blake's on-ramp come down from the bottom of his ship and Keegan saw Damian sprint towards the other side of the bay. Well, there's no alarms yet, so that must mean that they don't know for certain who's here. I guess things could be worse. Just as he thought about this, alarms sounded off as a squad of Navy soldiers equipped with side arms came through on Keegan's far left, chasing Damian across Keegan's field of vision going right. He saw red lasers shoot across the bay and realized that they were firing at him. Having a specific laser whiz past his head, Damian dodged to his right behind another Defender. Well, I guess they know who we are now. Keegan quickly checked his ship for any hazards with it. At the same time, he hoped his heart out that Damian could get to his ship fast enough. He looked up through his cockpit again to find that Damian was closing in on his own ship, but was pinned behind and equipment rack with the Navy troopers closing in behind him. Keegan decided right then that he couldn't wait any longer. With a pick-up of his transmitter, he shouted. "POHLMAN, HIT THE DECK!" Without even considering a response and ignoring Blake's retaliation, Keegan focused his Flashpoints towards the group of bunched up troops. Apparently, they were unaware that any ship was occupied and didn't even see the fire coming as they were blasted to bits by the guns. Without looking back Damian picked himself back up and hopped up onto his cockpit and opened the hatch, not even bothering with trying to run up the on-ramp. The four of them fired up their engines and left the battleship, along with the pile of fleshy remains, behind them.
"Hit your cruise engines, don't focus on an actual navigation target, and steer your ship towards the West Point trade lane." There was no retort, no questioning, no objections as Blake gave these quick and quiet orders across their shared communication channel. It was only a matter of time before everything on their radar turned red and started shooting at them. They took an odd maneuver compared to the typical ship flight pattern and lined up in what would have been single file if they weren't so spread out; Blake was nearly in the trade lane sequence already. Keegan assumed that he only waited so he could tell and show them what he meant. One by one they activated the lane jump sequence and proceeded to West Point. "So, what's the plan from here Blake?" Keegan asked as he entered the lane. "Are we going to go in here guns a blazing and punch our way into the Badlands?" "Well…" Blake sounded uneasy; clearly this put a damper in his otherwise foolproof plan. "Right now, I'm hoping that Stephens got the cameras again long enough for us to get clear. If that idiot tripped a security system on the battleship while hacking the cameras, it wouldn't surprise me that they came back up before Damian got onto his ship. So that would put Damian's face on camera, exposing it to any Liberty authority. It would also mean that a certain Hawk who happened to blast away a squadron of Navy troopers would have also been exposed on camera." Although they were in space, in their ships, and thousands of meters apart, Keegan felt as if all eyes were looking at him in that moment. "So, with that being said," Blake finally continued, "Right now we hope our ass off that West Point hasn't been alerted to our crimes yet. The only way for that to even be remotely possible is to hope that the cameras were down long enough, and that Keegan didn't miss a guy in hiding or something like that. If we end up making it past that damn place alive somehow, Rodgers and the women are already waiting for us by the hidden passage." They were roughly 40 Km away from West Point now. Keegan wanted to speak up and defend himself for what he did back at the hangar, but he also knew that the only thing it would do is cause more disruption. So, they sat there in the awkward silence for a few more seconds before they passed through the second to last ring and began the deactivation sequence, slowing down as they approached the final ring before the base. "Get ready," warned Blake, "if things are red, use your thrusters and fly like hell to get to the trade lane. If green, well… stay calm and collected." "Yeah," Logan replied semi-sarcastically, "I think we have that much covered." Blake, being in the front of the group exited first. Damian followed with Keegan and Logan closer behind respectively. "So far so good, just keep going." The station looked exceptionally busy today. Several Navy patrols were flying in, out, and all around it. A couple of transports were moored at the station. After a quick scan, Keegan noticed that they were shipping small and medium side arms to the station for cadets to use for practice in inner planetary battle. Probably war, once the arms race gets out of hand and Blackburn single handedly screws over Liberty. He was kind of shocked that the President didn't put a stop to the construction of the jump gates. Is the president of Liberty in on this with the DSE and the other giants of Liberty? Or does he not know about Blackburn's true intentions with the setup. Blackburn did tell Keegan that the jump gates were for economic purposes, but were they? He had put so much effort and time into thinking about these few questions that he didn't notice that he was the last one at the trade lane to where New Ithaca once stood. Well at least West Point never got word about what happened at the Missouri. He performed a quick scan of the area just to be sure that he didn't jinx his chances of getting caught. Everything seemed okay, but he was really wasting precious time right now. He docked with the trade lane and immediately saw the objects on his radar turn red as he left them behind. Guess there's no going back now. Word must have gotten out that things went down at the Missouri. Man, I can't wait to tell the guys that we're all wanted criminals. That'll make everyone's day I'm sure.
In hindsight, things could have gone much worse for the gang trying to escape Liberty. When Keegan got to the end of the trade lane in the Badlands, the others immediately disrupted the trade lane and knocked the turrets off the ring to slow down any possible pursuers. "Alright," Blake said once the second and final turret was knocked off, "Rodgers and the girls are meeting us at the gate. It's an old back way that leads to the Magellan system. You guys will all head through and we'll seal the gate behind you. From there, head to Freeport 4 and find a man known as the 'Ruby Ranger' he'll give you guys a route from there all the way to Kusari space." They then took off into cruise speed and it gave Keegan a good amount of time to survey the environment. Although it wasn't a place that offered much to look at, Keegan was fascinated by the tall, dark-purple rocks in the hazy purple cloud. He was always fascinated by rocks and minerals and the Badlands offered a unique kind in an otherwise dangerous environment. Certain spots in the field were filled with radiation, other pockets were rumored to hold abandoned wrecks of a Bounty Hunter legend and a lost Navy patrol. Regardless of what was in the field, Liberty Rogues constantly patrolled the area. Keegan wondered if New Ithaca was destroyed by Rogues or if there was a whole new enemy. He quickly shook the thought from his head as he elaborated in it. Damian would have said if they were Rogues. He's been in fights with plenty of them to understand what their ships look like along with any flight patterns that the typical useless Rogue follows. Damian never really discussed the attack in much detail. There were obvious reasons for Keegan to see as to why, but he felt that even a little bit more information for all of them would do more good than harm. They made it to a clearing that showcased a bright glowing object that was much too small to be a star but otherwise could have been considered one. It looked like a giant white flame, with particles rising in a similar fashion. Keegan has asked what they were. "Oh yeah, you'll see those every now and again when you're traveling through here. They're known as the anomalies of the Badlands going through them isn't as deadly as going headfirst into a star or planet, but the radiation will still do quite a bit of damage to your ship." "Moral of the lesson," Logan chimed, "don't fly into the unknown object that looks like fire. Think you can do that?" Keegan could feel his cheeky grin from across the formation. "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan." They continued to fly through the Badlands in a rather peaceful sightseeing sort of way. Avoiding all the hazardous areas, they quickly made it to the jump gate to Magellan where Rodgers and the girls were awaiting them. "Were you guys followed?" Rodgers immediately asked. "Good to see you too." Blake responded. "No, we should be okay." "You sure about that? We heard word about what happened on the Missouri. It's all over the news reports. Keegan decided to chime in at that moment. "They turned hostile towards me as I entered the trade lane. West Point most likely saw me head this way." "That would've been nice to know before we made our way here. What the hell were you thinking?" There was a hint of rage in Blake's voice, even though it was for good reason, Keegan was taken aback. "Well I was going to tell you but forgot. I guess I thought that they wouldn't pursue us this far in, so it wasn't a big deal." "Rogers did you run any tests on the jump gate yet? Is this thing even safe?" Damian butted in (much to Keegan's relief) to change the subject and get the group back in control. "Yeah, it's an older model compared to the normal, but she seems good. The tests I ran showed that it was still stable enough for smaller ships. Just hold on tight for the ride because it'll be rougher than what you're used to."
"So, who's going first? I don't have all day to wait on you. We have to get back to our designated areas before the Navy realizes we're gone." "But Blake, if the cameras saw you, doesn't that mean—" "That we can't go back…" Rodgers finished. Keegan knew that Blake was holding back the urge snap at him again. He could tell by the way he was acting now; passive aggressive to the rest of the group. "How are you guys going to make it back in one piece? Who is in charge once you guys are gone?" "Well Pohlman, today is your lucky day. Normally I would let the adults decide leadership matters but since you're so concerned, Rodgers and I are putting you in charge of this little exhibition. Isn't that a fantastic promotion?" "Okay whatever man, so we meet up with your guy on Freeport 4, right?" "Right, and he'll give you guys a path into Kusari through Bretonia using only jump holes. If you stay clear of military and criminal patrol routes you should be alright. Now come on already, we got to figure out where we're going to go once you all leave." "Couldn't you just come with us?" Courtney asked. "Too risky. The odds of any sort of convoy or regular patrol consisting of seven ships is astronomical. Besides, we'll be okay. I promise you." He added the last part when his cousin didn't sound amused. With that, the gate roared to life as it opened to expose the entrance to the system pathway within it. It glowed a sort of hue that reminded Keegan of Christmas lights; not exactly white, but not technically yellow either. It was a fascinating sight that always captivated Keegan in nearly every aspect. One by one they docked with the gate. Damian slipped right in, followed by Courtney, Alice, Logan, and a once again hesitant Keegan after a short order from Blake to move on with it. After they had gone through, the gate roared again as it shut behind them.
To say that the ride to Magellan was a rough one compared to the usual jump gate was an understatement. When the ride was finally over, Keegan swore that he had moderate to severe whiplash in his neck. While he sat there rubbing it, the others began talking as they tried to figure out how to get to Freeport 4 in the most discrete way possible. Where they landed was a moderate cruise away from the station. Paler bits of rock saturated the light-blue hued field. Lightning flashes every now and then kept Keegan on edge in his seat. As for the others, they didn't seem to notice or care about where they were presently at. They kept trying to talk over one another and the conversation was quickly spiraling into chaos. "We need to take the trade lane to the station-" "and risk exposure to people who want us dead?" "Couldn't we just try and fly through open space? It's only about 30Km away, I'm sure we can make that flight." Keegan finally said after he thought his neck felt as good as he thought it could get. "You don't think we'll get caught with our pants down trying to cruise our way to the station?" Damian questioned. "I mean look around you, we're shielded by a huge cloud with asteroids inside of it." Keegan pointed before realizing they couldn't see him. "Have you never been here before?" Logan asked him in a concerned manner. He quickly followed up with, "The field you're talking about only covers about half of the distance. We'll be in wide-open space for most of the flight. Besides, who knows what kind of ambush is waiting for us at the end of the cloud." "Still a bit paranoid, are we?" Keegan snarked. "Refer to my statement on the Missouri." Logan said indifferently. "I'm still not sure why you're so relaxed suddenly. We already know that we're enemies of Kusari, now Liberty is after us. We're about ready to be sandwiched between hostile colonies not to mention our friend is somehow tied to the middle of all of this." Before he could continue, they both noticed the other three charging their cruise engines. "We're heading there right now, you two can argue all you want. Meet us on the station when your bicker-fest is over." Damian wasn't angry when he spoke to them about this. In fact, Keegan noticed that he was oddly cool. His voice almost sounded as solid as steel. Like Blake's when he was giving orders as they were leaving the Missouri. Quickly hushing themselves, Keegan and Logan charged their cruise engines and followed behind the others, not saying another word about the situation at hand. They flew in silence for about a minute before Damian ordered them to cut their engines. "See something?" Keegan couldn't see why they stopped. "Just at the edge of the cloud, looks like a cluster of ships." Keegan and Logan, still being far enough behind to not see, thrusted their ships to the same position with the others. Sure enough, about 16 ships sat grouped in pairs right before the edge of the cloud. "Are those Bounty Hunters?" Keegan asked as they peered through. "What the hell are they doing out here?" "If I had to guess, they're probably waiting for us." Damian concluded. After another moment of radio silence, Damian cane up with a few options. "You guys want to fight them or fly around them?" "Which option do you think is better oh leader?" Alice piped up, clearly enjoying the fact that such a big deal was made of the leadership role. A small asteroid bounced off her ship's shield as she started to laugh. "Dammit, this is serious. What do you guys think we should do?" "Well if you ask me, I say we fly around them. Think about it, outnumbered, outgunned, outmatched, there's not much more that we can be 'outed' in." "Yeah but Logan, do you really think we can fly around them without them spotting us? What if we run into another patrol on the way there anyway?" Damian argued. "Then we fight. Look I'm not trying to question you. You asked what we should do, and I gave my opinion, take it or leave it." Without any further discussion, he and the others engaged their cruise engines to steer past the Bounty Hunter ships. Although Keegan was nervous, he agreed with Logan: it was much safer to try and fly around instead of directly engaging. As they started to fly out of the cloud, Keegan noticed his radar went off. "Uh guys, I think we have company." Sure enough, whether they were the same ones or a separate platoon, Bounty Hunter ships surrounded them. White, okay that's not bad yet. Maybe we can negotiate. Keegan told himself as he checked their status. The white color indicated that they were neutral which relieved him somewhat. Even with this glimmer of hope, Keegan readied his weapons.
"Unidentified ships, this is Bounty Hunters Red 6, cut your engines." "Something wrong folks?" Keegan could feel Damian's panic as well as his own mounting up inside. "You have your ID?" The head hunter spoke in an impatient tone. Keegan also thought he heard a sense of hunger, as if he knew who they were but was forced to take it slow. Like eating food politely instead of chowing it down as fast as he wanted to. "Of course, give me just one moment." Keegan knew that Damian was trying to buy time so that someone could do something, but the truth was, nobody knew what to do. Everyone else sat in awkward silence, waiting for Damian to send the ID data that would surely submit them to their doom. "We don't have all day. Hurry up, our patrol route is still up for another 6 waypoints." The impatience grew in the head's voice. "Waypoint? Weren't you guys sitting at the edge of the cloud?" Keegan put his face in his hands. Dammit Logan. You had one job, no not even. You just had to stay quiet and not be yourself. The hunter steered his ship in Logan's direction, adding somewhat of a menacing personality to it. "You knew this how exactly? Could you have been the same ships we saw in the field a few minutes ago? The same ships we decided to follow after they tried to steer around our ambush?" Well then, this is awesome! "Send the ID data now or we will blow you out of space and scatter your remains in this field." After a few more moments of silence, the leader began talking again, slightly less annoyed now that he finally received what he had asked for. "Well well, looks like these are the guys we've been expecting. On a classified mission with primary clearance from the LSF itself. My oh my what a couple of big shots we have here." The other hunters started to laugh (and record it over their comma no less). Keegan was just struck completely dumbfounded. Did Blake really give us an LSF ID? What the actual fuck? Everyone else seemed to be thinking the same thing. LSF ID heading into Kusari space, that's not a dead giveaway to a foreign group trying to stay stealthy. Let's go ahead and swap all our ships to Liberty vessels as well, we're already halfway there. "Listen, we know why you guys are really here. Our original assignment was to exterminate you guys right outside the jump gate. BUT-" he put emphasis on the word because Alice and Damian started their engines in preparation for battle. "someone paid a higher price to get you where you need to go. He's sitting on Freeport 4 now, we'll take you there if you want." Seeing as they weren't bits of space dust at this point of the conversation, it seemed only rational to join up with them. Flying in free space with their reputation as it was would seem foolish to even the best pilots, and it didn't take a genius to see that they, despite having good chemistry in fights, weren't even close to be the best pilots. "We're not pulling anything here I promise." The Hunter said as once again, Keegan and Logan appeared hesitant to follow. "Well," Logan started, "so long as you promise... sure, why the hell not?"
They flew out of the haze and asteroid-filled area of the cloud and were now in open space. Damian and Courtney went to a private channel to talk away from everyone else. During their absence, Logan—much to her disdain—attempted to make a move on Alice, who switched her own communicator off to not be rude. "Does he do that kind of stuff often?" The lead Bounty Hunter asked Keegan. "More than you can ever imagine." The flight wasn't terribly long but Keegan wasn't one for silence. "So, what's your name?" "Pardon?" The head was caught off guard by such a question. "Your name. Mines Keegan." "Yeah, look I'm not one for friendships, piss off." "Okay then." They sat in silence again for another moment. Logan was still talking to Alice even though it was a one-sided conversation. Damian and Courtney stayed in radio silence and the rest of the Hunters were shooting the bull with each other. The only one that had his communicator on and was quiet was the head (and Keegan of course). Let's try a different approach then. "Who sent you guys down here?" "I'm not giving names, I just said that. If I had to guess, it's probably the same guy you're meeting with." No shit, I could have told him that. Why is it that these punks are sworn by secrecy while the ones I see around can't pipe it? "Can you at least give a first name? We don't know who we're meeting." "Not my problem princess, I'm getting paid to keep you alive. Getting you to where you want to go is outside my contract." Logan was still trying to talk to Alice. "Dude," one of the Hunters called, "she isn't going to go for it, shut up." Whether he heard them and didn't care or was completely oblivious, it didn't really matter. Keegan turned his head back to the front of his ships again. "A first name. Not of yours, just the one of our informant." When he completely ignored him, Keegan thought of something. These guys run off money, so… Keegan opened his inventory HUD and immediately transferred 5,000 credits to the head. "What's this?" "A proposition, tell me some details on this guy we're meeting, and I'll give you more money." Keegan thought it was best to be general and my mention a specific amount. After all, he wasn't too rich so the less he mentioned the better. "Trying to bribe me eh? That usually wouldn't go down too well." "You're kidding right? What are you, a 'just' Bounty Hunter that won't accept money? What does it matter if it's a bribe or not? We both know that you really don't care." "That seems a bit of a harsh stereotype to throw around. Not every Hunter is a money-grabbing prick." "If it wasn't true at all, why is it a stereotype?" There was a long pause as he thought it over. "Alright, you got me." He finally admitted, "what exactly do you want?" "First off, I need a name. Who is the guy that paid you off?" "You want a name? Sure. Marcus Johnson, a guy who travels place to place and offers priceless information." Keegan's jaw dropped. No, there's no way. "Marcus…Johnson?!" He said it slow to make sure he understood what the head Hunter had said. "That's what I said. Why, you know him?" "Not sure, can you describe him for me?" "Yeah, if you give me more credits I'll tell yah anything you need to know if I know it." Keegan, really on a tight leash with money but desperately wanted to confirm his bias, transferred another 3,000 credits. "Okay let's see…" the head Hunter went deep into thought. The other Hunters were still bantering back and forth amongst one another. Keegan heard Alice threaten to knock Logan's shields off his ship if he didn't cease his approaches. Damian and Courtney were still in their own secure channel. Must've had a good chunk of catching up to do. Come to think of it, it has been an interesting several hours. Between the events on Pittsburgh, the news about Clayton, and their near-death experience on the Missouri, Keegan realized that he had yet to get any sleep since getting knocked out. That couldn't have been for more than a few hours either. Maybe I can convince the gang to stay and sleep a night. He was so lost in his thought of sleep that he nearly missed it when the head started talking again. "…skinny, kind of awkward I guess, white birthmark on the back of his head." Great… "Yeah…" "Oh you know him?" Keegan wasn't sure about how he should handle this. These guys won't care, but Logan… what if he overhears. "Runt? You okay?" "Yeah, I know him. It's my buddy there, the one getting yelled at by the other girl, it's his brother." "So, I guess this will work out for you guys after all. You're all lucky the guy had money, you should thank him when you see him." Marcus? Money? Nobody in that family has money, that's why Marcus left and died. That's why Logan worked his ass off for the DSE. Wait, if he died then why is he… oh shit. Nothing good was going to come out of this that much Keegan knew. He sat in silence for the rest of the trip, not letting anyone know about the conversation between him and the head Hunter. When they got to Freeport 4 shortly after, he thanked the man again with his last 4,000 credits and watched as the large wing flew back into the cloud for another assignment. "Let's go guys I don't have all day." Damian spoke to the group for the first time all trip. "Dock with the station, we'll meet in the bar."