Chapter 2
The first thing I noticed was that my skin felt like it was hanging off the bones, until I realised I was in a Compression chamber. A bit like the decompression chambers used for scuba divers, apart from this was used for extreme pressure loss. I assumed I had fallen out of the pod. I closed my eyes again, to try and take away the weird feeling. It seemed to get worse. I turned over and lay face down.
"He's awake!" a young voice exclaimed. "Sir, he's awake." A pause "The man in the compression chamber." I heard a whiz of mechanical sounds, then my skin seemed to curl back around my bones, and I opened my eyes to see what had happened. The Pumps were pumping air back into the room, and I found it easier to breathe. The door swung open, and a shadow spread over the floor. I asked all the obvious questions.
"Where am I?"I raised my hand over my eyes, to protect them from the intense light, coming from behind the open door. I squinted my eyes, and looked up at the silhouette of the man standing at the doorway.
"I am happy to hear you made it. You suffered quite a tragic accident.
"Who are you?" I asked, getting quite concerned.
"I am sorry, where are my manners. My name is colonel Griffins. I am leader of the rogues." After that I went through what he just said, over and over in my head.
"You can't be, we won, you lost, we-"
"I know what you are thinking, but we want you, otherwise you would be dead already.
"What do you mean, want me?"
"We want you. We want you to join us."
"What, with the rogues? No way!"
"No, not with the rogues, with the Maverix."
"Who?"
"The Maverix. It is a new clan. New to Sirius anyway. Over 1100 years ago, the Solar system, home to our native planet earth, had a secret force, which kept the two sides even. One day, the main station was destroyed by a stray laser, which hit the tanks. The strongest force pushed further, which is why we launched the sleeper ships from earth, in the desperation."
"Liar!" I turned around and dropped my head into the palm of my hands.
"No, my friend, I am not lying. We have kept this a secret, and no one knows apart from ourselves. The Maverix are new. The Maverix are going to destroy the SAR, and bring honest peace to Sirius.
"Who is part of the Mavrix?"
"The Maverix are an allied group of pilots. We are the Rogues, Outcasts, Corsairs, Hackers, Bundschuh, Red Hessians, Junkers and the Nomads in one"
"What did you say?"
"Yes, we are allied."
"No, did you say the Nomads?"
"Yes, I did as a matter of fact, and they are due to attack within the hour actually."
"Attack who!-"
"Yes, you will ask questions, and I will see you again after the battle"
With that the door closed, and the mysterious figure was no longer to be seen. This was too much. First I find out I have been captured, then I realise that the nomads are still alive, now they are attacking something! This could be the end. With over half of the population split into two sides, there could be another war, a war in which we fled to avoid in the first place. If the war takes place, the Nomads could strike back. That would be the end of human life in Sirius.
I tried to get some sleep, but the thought of what was happening at the moment was dreadful. I couldn't stop worrying. All I could do was sit here in this dammed compression chamber, until I was freed. No way was I going to join up with the rogues, or whatever the call themselves, the Maverix. Why can't everything just go back to normality, and be like it was before. Me patrolling Liberty with Ellis. Ellis! She would be fighting the Nomads.
Last night was dreadful. I couldn't get a wink of sleep. Breakfast had been put on the floor in front of me a couple of hours ago. By now it must be stone cold. I didn't feel hungry, although I felt very tired. I really tried to forget everything. I couldn't. I walked to the door and slammed it with my fists, and kicked the tray into the wall. The cup of water splashed over the floor, spraying everything in it way.
The door opened a minute later, and the man walked through. For the first time, I saw his face. It was struck with war. He had a large scar across his nose that touched the corner of his mouth. He looked very angry.
"You will be pleased to know that we were overcome. There was a convoy of liberty's finest battleships, being transported to Detroit munitions, for a replenishment of supplies. They had a detour, for a trade request, made by the general. At that exact moment, the Nomad fleet attacked, and with half of Sirius defending the four battleships, they didn't stand a chance." I didn't reply. "So have you though of my offer?"
"Well, it seems I have no choice."
"Good. I will let you free. But only in the base. If you are caught outside the base, you will be hunted down and killed. Do you understand?"
"Yes." He opened the chamber door, and led me through to the next room, which was covered in gleaming white tiles.
"This is the medical deck, bang in the middle of the base, mainly for protection against attacks and for convenience." He took me through the ward and I looked into a few cubicles, seeing all of them full. We approached a lift.
"We are going to go to the control room, which is where I will show you some shocking footage of your comrades." I ignored what he just said, and tried to think of something different
"How long have Maverix been around, as there is nothing showing any evidence of them."
"We have been around for a couple of days now."
"Days?"
"Yes. It may surprise you but we have been planning this for over 200 years, apart from the Nomads who are a late arrival."
"That reminds me, the Nomads are hostile to all humanoids. Why are they on your side? How did you make contact with them?" The lift doors opened and he lead me onto a platform, which gave a rather spectacular view of the control room from above. Instead of white and grey, like our command room at west point, this seemed almost undoubtedly evil looking. The one way window at the front of the asteroid gave a red tint, and all the lights from the computers were glowing red.
"We have established contact with the Nomads through this artefact which was found in a lone system called omicron alpha. One of the sleeper ships crashed there, and an unknown force, which I can only describe as a kind of magnetic resistance, pulls all alien artefacts in around the area. The outcasts gave us one piece of artefact, which interested them, and they didn't have the technology or resources to analyse it. So we gladly took it into our hands. This artefact was approximately two hundred and eighty four billion, billion years old. It has been to over four hundred galaxies, one of them was 'the solar system'. It picks up and stores any frequency it can detect. We were fascinated by the fact it could hear a human whisper at planet Denver from here. It is basically a translator, which has been forgotten about. About seven months ago, we decided to test it out. We went over to Alaska, and tried to get a signal to the Nomads. It worked, and their reason for attacking us was that all of Sirius belonged to them before, and they wanted it back. We explained to them, and discussed with them until we came to an agreement. If they helped us bring peace to Sirius, they could get back all of the outer systems, like Alpha." Griffins licked his lips and took a sigh.
Once on the main control deck, Griffins ordered all the technical experts out of the room, and told them too isolate us. One of the technicians punched some digits into a small panel, which activated a separating screen. It lowered from the roof, and looked as if it was made of the same stuff as the glass showing the badlands.
"I want you to sit in this chair, and let me restrain you. I don't want you to panic and get yourself killed." I sat in the chair that was in front of a hologramic projector. Griffins tied my hands to the chair, and injected me with some adrenaline, so I didn't fall asleep half way through the hologram. Then he stood back, and shouted one word at the computer: 'Commence'. A large circular wall rose from the ground, and it created a room of my own, of about two metres in diameter. The hologram started, and the movie began.