-- Across the Bridge --

Fanfic by
Unsheathed-Gyroscope

Disclaimer: I don't own Freelancer, nor do I own any of the characters, systems or ships within... except the characters, systems and ships I made up, of course.

IMPORTANT Note: I don't care if it's spelled Dom Kovash! Daun Cavashe looks cooler. And fits the pronunciation. This is based off a mod I was going to make for Freelancer but I stopped after designing the ships, weapons and systems because Milkshape went sour (no pun intended). So I decided to put all fifty-something ships, thirty-plus systems and a couple new factions in. The main characters WILL be featured (pretty much all of them) and there'll be a bit of romance between characters, but not telling who. The story is set 50 years after the events of Freelancer, and read on to find out how the heck all those wrinklies are still alive here.

There are TWO prologues, heaps of chapters and an epilogue (and hopefully a sequel). Should prove interesting, cuz I have no clue as to how long this'll end up.

I'll answer your questions in review so that things don't look like crap. This is the only rant I'll go on with.

-- Prologue One - Simple Patrol --

Unknown Omicron system, 90k from Order Base Ramses - Order Battleship Cairo

"Report, Colonel," a very important-looking man stopped beside a wall of computer monitors. He was in his thirties but had already lost most of his thinning grey hair, and his skin was pale because of the constant radiation bombardment he'd had to face as a Red Hessian in the Omega systems.

"No activity as of y-- wait, scratch that. I've got multiple incoming contacts. Not Order, Nomad or otherwise... they are cloaked, but have actual pilots, as shown by our initial scans. They're carrying very odd weapons..."

"Do not engage yet. Look..."

The man pointed past the female officer's shoulder at a whole ring of Nomad-tagged fighters (the Order had designed a system to show faction on the scanners). These seemed to be chasing the fighters for their focus seemed not to be them but the other fighters.

The unknown fighters broke formation - one stayed on its course to the battleship while the other three cut their engines and spun around to attack the oncoming nomad ships.

"Launch two wings of Order fighters to assist them. If the unknown vessels attack, launch another to destroy them."

Seconds later, ten Order ships poured out of the two docking bays and shot off to where the action was.

The first of the unknown vessels came into view. It was a deep green colour - two huge, energy-lined prongs adorned the top of the ship's hull, extending from the back of the craft to over ten metres in front of the main body. Three black weapons sat on each, and five engines the same colour were mounted on the back - one each on the prongs and three on the main body of the ship. It had obviously decloaked when the Nomads arrived...

The commander of the battleship opened a comm channel to the unknown vessel.

"Unknown craft, this is The Order Battleship Cairo. Please state your designation."

Surprisingly, a broken reply came.

"I ... Leta Ye, ... Daun Cav... Nomads have attack... my communications are dama... I need to dock..."

The commander held the link for a while as his tech administrator enhanced what was just received.

"I am Leta Ye, an emissary of the Daun Cavasche. The nomads have attacked us, and my communications are damaged. I need to dock for repairs..."

The commander reopened the comm channel. "I hear you. Dock, and my mechanics will do what we can for your ship. You'll have to decloak first though."

"My ship is decloaked, but it gives no readings to regular sensors. It... No, my communications have died --"

Meanwhile, the Order ships had since reached the battlefield - and were not fairing too well. Three had been destroyed while five remaining had lost weapons or wings, and the other two had lost shields and were taking a beating. However, of the fifty-seven Nomads who had attacked, only twenty-three remained.

Just as a fourth Order ship succumbed to the barrage, things started going sour. A nearby planet, known as Alla, exploded, and a deep purple energy surge erupted from the middle, aimed straight at the Order Battleship.

-- Prologue Two - Xeno Pests --

"Wonderful," Amelia thought as she lay on her very uninteresting bed in her apartment in the middle of Manhattan's capital, also called Manhattan. (She thought this was very original.) "I somehow managed to get on the Xeno hit list because I accidentally knocked an undercover agent out in a bar. Wonderful."

Three days ago, she'd been in the gym section of the local pub, working out, when a shady character approached her as she was unloading on the punching bag and grabbed her, and just in time to end up on a collision course with a recoiling elbow, which just so happened to break the guy's nose and give him a concussion. Amelia was one who liked to work out a lot, unlike most Manhattan girls, who flirted with criminals and mercenaries. She hated flying and she rarely stayed in her house for more than 10 minutes because she was busy working out.

Of course the Xenos found out about her little accident and ended up putting her on their kill-on-sight list. She knew she'd be lucky to get to the gym and back without having to knock another shady undercover agent out. Haha. Undercover agent. Xenos surely aren't that organised.

But, true to their indirect word, the previous day while she was out getting food she had been shot at by a passing ship and then attacked subsequently by a couple black-clad trigger-happy Xenos. She knocked one out (and the other one was kicked off the skywalk she was travelling on, and ended up being spiked on a communications antenna) escaped only to be attacked by a further three. She had a great day apart from that.

But this time was different. Walking back to her fridge for a drink of milk, she heard a roar and glass shattering. She looked out her window and saw the next-door neighbour's house on fire and a black-clad Xeno with a rocket launcher escaping down the street.

"Holy shit! If someone got killed because I accidentally elbowed someone in the nose, I am gonna be more than just knocking those fools out!" She gulped down her beverage (and coughed half of it up anyway because she'd downed it too fast) and sprinted over the featureless concrete and into the burning building next door.

And straight back out again with three more Xenos chasing her.

"So it was a set-up. Hah," she thought as she ducked, rolled forward and came up facing the assailants. She leaped up and then skidded under the leader's legs, pushing them both outwards in the process. She thanked herself for putting her leather jacket on top of her stack of clothes and the smooth concrete for that, in the second that the assailants had to wonder what the hell was going on. They spun around and aimed at her, their guns blurting out lasers faster than the eye could follow.

And every single one ploughed right into their leader's unconscious figure, behind which was a very annoyed Amelia Oxedis. She threw the limp body at the right assailant as they both flinched at the thought of their demotions and then leaped at the left one. The right assailant careened off the street and into a man-made abyss while the second was thrown straight into the path of a passing Pelican Freighter, whose engine burned the helpless wench to a crisp.

She dusted her hands and jumped back over the fence to her own apartment.

Spotting the rocket launching assailant who was inspecting the damage she cried out, "Try that again and I'll be the one rocketing your ass back to Ouray where you belong!"

She laughed and had a second drink, this time a simple beer.

Although her inside emotions weren't so cocky. She knew she'd have to leave the planet.

And she hated flying.