I also want to give some credit to a few show's and all the people that have created them. Cowboy Bebop, Appleseed, and Firefly (Serenity). They are what got to start toying with the idea of space and it's inhabitants. There are probably a number of other shows that are similar but these are it for now. I'll gladly give credit if there are others later on or someone brings it to my attention. However, all characters, items, and locations are of my own (and my friend's) overactive imaginations. Anything out there that are the same or similar are coincidental.
Anyway,
enjoy out creation and let us know what you think at our email
address... this site apparently will not let me do that unless I want
to make everything Italicized and bold (it's "anonlinestory" at yahoo).
Purgatory:
Space, an incredible void of air and light, only the stars lined the everlasting walls of the universe. Forever man had looked up at them wondering whether or not there was life among the planets that lined our little Milky Way. Earth, the only planet that people once remembered to have blue skies and rich soils. A long time ago, people remembered peace, until they came along and sucked the life from Earth and left it for dead. Since then, human kind had been forced underground or out into space to find their way in the deep void. Three factions had formed and a never-ending war sprung from hate between them wages on.
Chapter One:
Space, so vast and open, full of opportunity, yet cold and unforgiving to those who are foolish enough to take it for granted. Xaelth stood within his private quarters, gazing out his re-enforced window. I was large enough for him to nearly stand in. He liked it that way, knowing there was only six inches of weapons-resistant glass seperating him from the icy vacuum of space. It reminded him of his person fighter-class ship. He sighed and wished he was back in his fighter right now.
Xaelth pressed the button to lower the blast shield and stepped away from the window towards his desk deep in thought. He thought back to the time when he was starting his training in the Scytherian Naval-Space Academy. His first instructor told Xaelth that his cocky attitude would earn him nothing more than an obituary. Then he remembered how only a few short years later, he had "accidentally" turned the safeties off and destroyed his instructor's ship during his on-and-one dogfight that was supposed to be Xaelth's final test.
Xaelth sat at his desk and put his feet up. He looked at the small ring he wore on the middle finger on his left hand. The ring itself was nothing more than a solid platinum band that had an intricate pattern carved around it. To the normal man, this ring was nothing more than an extravagant decoration... but it was not simple decoration.
Deep in relaxation, Xaelth had taken off his ring and was examining it as he leaned back in his chair. He let the memories of how he ran off from the empire to join and elite vigilante group flood his mind. He remembered how he had earned that ring from them as a sign of superiority for being one of their top hunters. Xaelth would have fell asleep then and there had it not been for the quiet, yet still disturbingly annoying, intercom alert to suddenly go off.
Suddenly reality rushed back to him–no longer was he dreaming of his past days as a vigilante. Xaelth, Grand Marshal of the 6th Scytherian Acquisition Fleet, sat up at his desk and pressed the intercom button.
"Yes commander? This had better be good as I was about to take a nap."
"Grand Marshall, we have located the fugitive and are only minutes away from being within visual range."
Xaelth grinned to himself.
"Has the counsel issued a pardon?"
"No sir."
"Very well commander, I shall be there shortly."
Xaelth stood from his desk.
"Today would be a good day," he mused to himself.
If the council doesn't issue a pardon, Xaelth had authorization to apprehend the fugitive using any means necessary. In these situations, all the council needed as proof that the job was done was the criminal's body–or at least most of it.
He put his ring back on his finger and decided he would personally deal with this fugitive. He could only sit in the captain's chair for so long before going crazy. He needed a good dogfight and he needed one soon.
Xaelth stood up, and adjusted his uniform then started for the automatic door to his room. Before he left, he stopped to admire the painting of his ship that hung on the wall to the right of the door with a freshly polished gold plaque displaying the name "Harvester" below it.
The Harvester is a medium class Scytherian battleship that has been specially modified by Xaelth to hunt, capture, and kill various criminals of the Scytherian Empire. The ship has the ability to sustain a crew of no more than one hundred people, but Xaelth chose to keep a skeleton crew of twenty. Ten to fly and maintain the ship and ten to fly the ten fighters held within the ship's docking bay. Armed with the latest weapons that ranged from non-lethal weapons meant to ensnare and immobilize, to weapons of the maximum lethality. In addition to the docking bay, the ship was equipped with a holding bay designed to hold and incapacitate up to five captured fighters, or one medium frigate. Likewise, the ship had enough small cells to detain each person found within each ship they captured.
As Xaelth left his quarters and headed toward the bridge, the ship suddenly lurched to the side. After he regained his balance Xaelth decided to pick up the pace and ran the rest of the way to the bridge.
"Grand Marshall on deck!" Said the first in commade upon Xaelth's entrance.
"What the hell just happened commander!"
"It appears that our prey has a few tricks up its sleeves sir."
"What sort of tricks?"
"He was able to lay a small mine-field in our path. The mines appear to be stealthed, tracking mines. They appear as floating space debris, but we got too close to one and were forced to detonate it before it could reach us."
Xaelth moved to his captain's chair and sat down. Gazing out of the view-screen, he could definitely see the space debris. Massive clusters of rock and ice, mixed with the remains of a large space battle from decades ago–this whole sector was know for its massive collections of debris. The mines could be anywhere.
"Commander, have my ship prepped for launch. The Harvester could never make it through this junk without taking massive damage. After I leave, make out prey think we gave up. I shall lure the fool out of this debris."
"What if he doesn't take the bait sir?"
"Well commander, if he doesn't take the bait then I guess I'll just have to have all the fun myself and bring back what's left."
"Yes Grand Marshall! Your ship will be ready by the time you arrive at docking bay 3."
"Commander–I know this if your second week serving as my second, and believe me, I'm very happy with your skills thus far–but what have I told you about calling me that? I hate that title with a passion."
"y-yes Gran–"
Xaelth quickly drew his laser pistol and pointed it at the commander's head.
"What was that commander?"
"Yes sir!" Said the commander who quickly composed himself while many of the crew that had served with Xaelth longer merely chuckled and Xaelth put his gun back in his holster.
"That's what I like about you commander, you're a quick learner." Xaelth said as he smiled and patted his first in command on the back on his way out.
Xaelth made his way through the long corridors of his ship with a slight spring in his step. He loved his fighter more then his battleship. More so, he loved the more intense feeling he always got when dog-fighting.
When Xaelth walked through the doors to the docking bay, he stopped to gaze upon his ship aptly named "The Reaper." The main part of the ship was long and narrow, while three blade-like wings extended from the rear of the ship in a triangular fashion. One from the top-center and two from the opposite side of the hull, angled down. Originally this hip was built fro racing, but Xaelth had it modified for battle. However, he hated missiles, Xaelth saw no sport in simply firing a missile had having it track its target. So each wing had two imbedded high power laser cannons. While the body of the ship had five more, two on each side of the ship just in front of the cockpit, and one on top of the ship a few feet in front of the cockpit as well. The power of each laser could be adjusted by the pilot to fire blasts weak enough to immobilize the target, or strong enough to cut right through the strongest of metals.
Naturally, Xaelth had to outfit the ship with a power generator capable of handling the high amounts of power this ship now demanded. While the generator is one of the best in existence, its power was only enough to support all the lasers set on full power for no more than ten minutes without then requiring all the laser to be shut down to allow the generator to recharge. While the ship is fast, it can still be seriously damaged by an even faster missile, so Xaelth had eight small point-defense ejectors installed on the back of the ship that would launch small pods that emitted a signal that would attempt to draw the missile towards it instead of the ship.
Xaelth climbed up the ladder leaning against the side of his ship and hopped into the cockpit. He settled within the leather chair and buckled his harness and tapped some buttons on the console.
"Computer, run a systems check,"
The computer beeped in acknowledgement and started to check over its systems.
"Life support: Nominal, Computer: Nominal, Engine: Nominal, Generator: nominal, Weapons: Nominal, All systems: Nominal," the computer replied in a digitized female voice.
"Commander, all systems are go, open the bay doors,"
"Yes sir, opening bay doors."
Soon the white light that typically filled the docking bay was replaced by the darkness and slowly spinning yellow lights. The ladder that was propped against the Reaper was retracted within the floor as the Reaper started to expel some excess gasses in preparation for flight.
Xaelth pressed a few buttons and took hold of the two flight sticks located next to each hand. The Reaper slowly started to lift off the deck as the docking bay doors were slowly opening. When the doors were open, Xaelth pushed forward slightly on the flight sticks and the Reaper flew out of the Harvester.
The Reaper was fast approaching the debris field, and out of the corner of his eye, Xaelth noticed a hidden mine reveal itself. The mine had stopped rotating and was now following the ship and closing the distance between them as each second passed.
He wondered how advanced these mines truly were. Xaelth pushed forward on the sticks and shot the Reaper straight into the debris field. Looking back, he noticed that four more mines had locked on to him and were still gaining on him, though not as quickly as before.
Xaelth dodged and weaved his ship between pieces of debris and asteroids. Had an inexperienced pilot flew in this mess, he wouldn't have lasted very long. Off in the distance, Xaelth noticed the remains of what once was a massive and powerful ship. Now it was nothing more than a slowly spinning husk of a ship, anything of value long ago looted by pirates. He altered his course towards the dull brown remains and took note of the hold that went clear through the husk. Taking a quick scan, Xaelth saw that the inside of the ship had been pretty much stripped clean, including most of the metal that had once made up the various decks of the ship. It would be tight, but he saw a path that he could take the Reaper through inside the ship in hopes of shaking the mines.
The Reaper flew into the derelict ship and immediately started to fly to the opposite end. The sudden turn caused one of the mines to fly into the side of the ship and the resulting explosion took another one of the mines with it. However, the explosion also widened the hole in the shell of the ship, letting the remaining three mines in. With the mines in close pursuit, Xaelth piloted the mines out of the hole in the nose of the derelict ship. Once back out in the debris field, he looked around for my ways to shake the remaining mines. Then he noticed tow asteroids that were close to colliding to his left.
Xaelth engaged the afterburners and shot towards the asteroids, narrowly avoiding the various pieces of debris. As the Reaper got closer and closer to the asteroids , Xaelth saw that they were nearly about to collide with each other.
"Hmm–This is going to be close," Xaelth said aloud to himself.
Xaelth tried diverting all power to the engines, pushing the limits of the made for speed ship. The Reaper shot right between the asteroids, not taking any damage what so ever, but the Reaper passed so close to the asteroids that the engine kicked up a plume of dust on each one before they collided together. The first two asteroids rammed straight into the larger asteroid and blew it completely in half, while the final mine flew through the two halves that was once a larger asteroid.
"Now–how to get ride of the last one," Xaelth said to himself.
After running a quick scan, he found the fugitive hiding behind an asteroid fie hundred kilometers to his right. Xaelth turned his ship towards his target and rushed towards it at full speed with the mine in tow. Rapidly dodging some debris his way and blasting the rest, Xaelth got closer and closer to the fugitive, who must have detected Xaelth flying towards him as the fugitive circled around the asteroid and was preparing to a fight.
With only fifty kilometers left between Xaelth and the fugitive, Xaelth shot one of his laser cannons at the fugitive, but taking care to miss slightly and hit the asteroid behind him, causing him to turn his ship slightly to avoid the blast. With the fugitive distracted, Xaelth suddenly banked his ship and cut power to his engine, bringing him to a quick stop. Too bad the mine's computer had not anticipated that maneuver. The mine rocketed forward, right under Xaelth's ship, and towards its original owner. Catching on too late, the fugitive only had time to eject his cockpit and ride the explosion from what was once his ship.
After the explosion had dissipated and went away, Xaelth flew over to the semi-charred, yet still functional, escape pod and tractored it into his cramped storage bay.
"I hope your escape pod's oxygen generator isn't too damaged–it's a long flight back to my battleship." Xaelth said while grinning, as he flicked off the switch that sent his voice through to the speaker located in the storage bay.
Xaelth wished he had been kidding about the long flight back to the Reaver. While he told them to hold position and wait for him, he knew they would have to move to avoid the constantly moving pieces of scrap and asteroids.
"Bah, they probably moved outside the edge of the debris field."
Xaelth sighed and switched on the auto-pilot and set the ship to lock on to the Reaver's coded beacon. Then he flicked on another switch and a detailed scanned image if the contents of his holding bay popped on screen. He noticed that his bounty's vitals we're starting to slow.
"Guess his life support systems were damaged. Well you're just lucky I'm bored." Xaelth flicked another switch which activated the holding bay's life support. Then he reached for the cockpit's small hand held com-system and held it close to his mouth.
"You awake back there?" Xaelth said nonchalantly.
"No thanks to you–"
"Actually–you do owe me thanks. If it wasn't for me and my working life support system, you wouldn't be breathing. That is, unless you like to breath re-circulated carbon-dioxide."
"If it wasn't for you, I'd still be in my ship right now–"
"Point taken. It's nothing personal though, I'm just doing my job. The same job… again and again." Xaelth said
"You don't sound to thrilled about it, why don't let me go?"
"Hah, just because I'm bored with the job doesn't mean I'm bored with the credits."
"Hmph, I never thought a grand marshal would be greedy."
"How little you truly know then, and you know what? I don't even care what you did. How do you like them apples?"
"Why are you even talking to me then?"
"I'm bored."
"You're bored! Why in the hell do you think I'm going to amuse you? You blew up my ship, captured me, nearly killed me, and now you're going to turn me into your government. Which I'm not even part of I might add, and for what! Credits. Just credits."
"You confuse me for one of those rag-tag bounty hunters. Catching you is part of my job and I will get my credits no matter if I catch you or not, and because I caught you I don't have to pay some filthy hunter the bounty we put on the head. I guess that means I'll be keeping those creds for myself… so yes, you're right afterall. I will be getting credits for catching you."
"Whatever asshole, you do realize they are going to execute me just because I didn't want to become part of your government!" the captive pilot yelled.
"Of course I do. But you seem to think that just because you are not part of our government that you can kill our citizens."
"Your 'citizens' were soldiers that were trying to kill me and force me out of my house."
"Where in lies the problem, it was not your house, that house belongs to citizens of the Scytherian Empire. Seeing as how you admitted you were not part of our government, you were trespassing on that land… and you killed our citizens."
"Out of SELF DEFENCE!"
"It doesn't matter, it says here we gave you ample time to leave our space. You ignored our warning."
"Your government gave me two days!"
"You obviously knew what would happen, seeing as how you had plenty of weapons at your disposal. You should have just left. Now you are here, and soon you will be no more."
Quickly growing tired of his guest, Xaelth shut off the comm device and put it back in its holster. He sat back in his chair and double checked the ship's auto-pilot course. Seeing that it had locked on to the Harvester's coded signal Xaelth relaxed and allowed sleep to find its way to him.
Xaelth awoke to the sound of his first officer's voice over the cockpit's comm.
"This is the Scytherian battleship Harvester contacting the Reaper, please respond Reaper."
"It's ok Commander, I'm here. I was just taking a small nap."
"Welcome back Sir, how was the hunt?"
"It went fine, the fool thought the debris field would stop me and left me a few more surprises inside the debris."
"Mines?"
"Yeah, but he didn't expect me to use one against him. He must have thought I was playing chicken with him because he started to charge right for me. He never saw the mine that was following behind me. At the last second, I pulled up, he flew right into the mine and ejected. Open up the docking bay and ready the brig, I'm coming in and I'm bringing a guest."
Xaelth slowly flew the Reaper into the docking bay and landed it. Then he flipped a switch that opened the cargo bay and dropped the escape pod to the deck below. After he called in some guards, he opened the escape pod and pointed his gun towards the pod's pilot.
"Get up. It's time to go."
The pilot just looked at him lazily and laughed.
"Heh heh, in a few seconds, I will already be gone."
Then the captive pilot started to violently convulse in his seat.
"Get me a med-unit NOW! This one will NOT get away that easily!"
Shortly after Xaelth called for them, the med-unit was at the escape pod, pulling out the pilot and setting him on a special stretcher surrounded by many complex machines, then hooked the pilot up to these various devices and machinery. When the members of the med-unit had finished the pilot was no longer in control of his life. Machines were breathing for him, stimulating his heart, cleansing the toxins from his bloodstream that the pilot had ingested to end his own life.
Xaelth held up his hand before a member of the med-unit could put the brain-suppresser, a device that basically puts the subject into a deep sleep.
"Wait." Xaelth then looked down at the pilot.
"Your name is the only thing you truly own right now, and that is the one thing I will not take from you. I will not have my men look up your name while you are on this ship. Your name will remain yours. So, while you stay on my ship you will be referred to as Bounty 3632."