Chapter 3

"No, I can't be, no. It's not true!" I was locked in a cell, which he told me to expect after the projection. "It's all lies, I tell you, LIES!" my face was going red from the shouting. I had been put into a padded cell, and I was shouting at the door. "It can't be." I slid down the wall with my back to it, and cried into my hands. I had been told that the longer I denied, the crazier I would get, and the least lifetime I would have, not that 150 years wasn't enough in the first place. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. It couldn't be true. First, I saw a robbery of an armoured transport, which was escorted to the wrong place by three SAR escorts and attacked, taking its money and very rare cargo. They left the pilots to die. All the incidents were like this. Where they got the footage from was unknown. I was told, whilst in a mental mood, that scouts were cloaked and sent out to see what they could help out in, or to record, in these cases. I don't think help out is the right word.

I waited for ages, I don't know how long. I sat and took in everything that had happened over the past few days. This has got to be the most stressful week of my life! Why did they have a padded cell in a criminal base anyway? All this didn't fit together.

"How are you coping?" it was that all familiar voice, blaring through the speakers.

"I've calmed down."

"We will let you out soon, don't worry" The voice didn't speak again. I had decided to be nice with these people; I had no choice really unless I wanted to die.

The door opened and griffins came in and with two armed guards. I stood up and walked over to him, on his command. He unclipped the straps and I took off the straight jacket. I shook the cramp out of my arms.

"From now on, I'm not going to be mister nice guy, as I have work to do. These guards will escort you to the docking bay, and give you a ship. You will be pleased to know that it is one of the best fighters in Sirius."

"What is it?"

"It is a Trident very heavy fighter, with few guns on it. You will need to travel to omicron alpha, and take some equipment from the Outcast base"

"Malta? That's now under control of SAR!"

"I know. The wreck Hispania has been converted into the Outcast base, after they were forced out of Malta. You will travel there within the safety of your Clocking field, and enter the base. They will be expecting you. We have uploaded the coordinates into your computer, and it will guide you there via the safest route. Remember, you shall be destroyed if you don't follow the exact route.

"Ship 3 x 5 1. You are clear for immediate launch." That was me. I eased down on the throttle and glided out of the main hanger into the launching bay. The airlock door closed and I waited for a few seconds, while the air was pumped back into the base. The gate in front opened and I blasted into the badlands.

"This is ship 3 x 5 1. I am clear of buffalo, and proceeding to the Texas jump hole" I looked down at the controls, and admired the ease of the trident's handling. I still missed my old ship. I was trying to forget about that now.

"Ship 3 x 5 1, this is Maverix 70. I have been ordered to escort you to Aleutia. You shall take lead."

"Received Maverix 70. But shouldn't we head to Galileo to go to Aleutia?"

"Negative. A recently found jump hole was found in sector E5/6, that leads to the centre of Aleutia." That's why I though that the waypoints were wrong. We came to the Texas jump hole and my escort let me through first. I hated going through jump holes. It made me dizzy. And I felt sick, every time. I didn't do it on jump gates though. They are different to jump holes in an unknown way. Some kind of natural force, not yet detected. I came out of the worm hole structure, and glanced my eyes at the asteroids, motionless in the nothing of space. My escort came through a few seconds later, and ushered me towards the next waypoint; the new jump hole.

"Ok. I have the jump hole in sight. Now is the time to switch on your cloaking field." he responded. I flicked the switch and watched my escort disappear.

"Head towards the jump hole, and head through, I'll meet you on the other side." The hum of the engines was still detectable, but that isn't problem in space, due to there being no air. The cruise engines on the trident were slower to charge than my old ship, but they pushed me faster, at a decent 350k, rather that the normal 300. I reached the jump hole in a couple of minutes, and slowed to a crawl. I docked with the jump hole. And again, the sick feeling came back to me as I passed through the worm hole. This time, I vomited into the side bag, which I sealed off and jettisoned it when I came out of the jump hole. There's a nice present for someone! I recovered quickly, and took the course of the omicron alpha jump hole.

"Damon, can you hear me?" my escort asked

"How did you know my name?"

"Come off channel chat, and connect to channel 7.565" I did as he said and he continued speaking.

"God it's a long time since I have seen you."

"Robin! Is that really you?"

"You remembered! Thank god. I may have a chance to get out of here at last!"

"What do you mean, everyone back at west point thought you were dead, besides, I have just realised that SAR are actually pirates."

"He showed you the videos?"

"Yeah, in that weird control room."

"Dammed, he showed you that?"

"Yeah."

"All of that was that same guy all the time – it was me."

"What!"

"When I went missing, the rogues captured me and forced me to do that stuff; it was all staged!"

"Who were the other people?"

"They were rogues in captured ships."

"You are kidding me!"

"I wish I was man. Have you heard about this new formation? The hayricks or summit along them lines."

"Yeah, the Maverix. Is all that lies as well, the Nomads being involved?"

"No, that is true, but the rest is pure bull."

"What about that attack that happened a few days ago?"

"The one on Manhattan?"

"Manhattan! I wasn't told the location; I was only told that there was going to be an attack! Were you there?"

"For half of it, I was called in for back up."

"Jesus, how many killed?"

"I don't know." We travelled in silence for the rest of the trip, I wasn't sick this time, going through the jump hole, but I did feel queasy.

"There it is. The Hispania." I glared at the wrecked ship, which looked as elegant as if it was still intact.

"Is there really a base in there? It looks far too small"

"We are still over 33 k away from it"

"Ahh, I didn't see the distance gauge. Jesus, it must be huge in that case!"

"Okay, we are nearly in radio range. Speak to you soon." I couldn't believe that Robin was here! I closed the line and concentrated on looking out for loose debris. I saw a couple of patrolling SAR patrols ahead, and swerved to avoid a collision.

"Ship 3 x 5 1. You are in radio and scanner range of Hispania base. Please continue radio silence to prevent detection." I approached the base and was ordered to take off my cloaking field. I saw Robin take his off a couple of seconds later, just behind me. Wow. The Hispania was huge! I approached it and felt I was about to crash into it, but to find out I was still 5 k away. I saw a small gate open in front of me and glided into it. The gate closed and the hiss of the air lock came into hearing range. The air lock door opened and I 'parked' the trident into the docking bay, and switched off the engines.

"Welcome aboard the Hispania Mr Miller." An outcast said to me. "My name is Sergeant Helot, and I was told to be expecting you and equip your craft. So, what would you like?"

"Err, well, ummm…"

"Let's see if I can help you out. Follow me. This guy was short and had a German accent. He led me into a small warehouse area. The first thing I noticed was that it was very cold. I was shivering. Then I noticed some escape pod like structures. They weren't escape pods though. These were the remains of the freezing cabins, used by people that fled from earth, over eleven hundred years ago.

"Here are our main weapons." I looked at the rows of labelled shelves, and looked at each tag, to see what it contained.

"What type of set up would you like?"

"An offensive fully filled set up with energy changing capabilities and a super heavy capacitator unit mark VIII." The man blushed. Basically, that set up meant I had a huge power plant that could change the set up of the weapons, so the energy levels could be differed for separate guns, meaning I could power up the shield destroying guns and blast the enemy's shields to tiny fragments then transfer the power to the hull destroying guns. Logical and effective…when you have the right guns.

"Good choice Mr. Miller. You know your set up. What about the guns?" I walked along the corridor, looking at each tab.

"Ill take…2 PYRACTIC's, 2 Tizona del Cid. Also, I'll have a novaslayer torpedo launcher; two GUARDIANS' mounted on a curler with two Mark III long beams mounted on the other side of each curler." Curlers were new. They took up 10 of your cargo space each though. Basically, you could mount two guns on the curler, and connect one gun up. Whilst the other is inside the cargo hull. Then you could spin it so that the other gun is connected, and the first is in the cargo hold. "I'll also have two cannonball missile launchers, mounted in the mines slots and on the countermeasure slot.

"What shield would you like, and your equipment?"

"I'll have the civilian class 10 molecular shield, with extra long tractor beam, extra long scanner, 50 bats and bots, and the best boosters, et cetera. Also, I would like special modified armour" modified armour made the ship totally stealthy, so missiles couldn't lock on.

"Good choice. We will fit your ship with all you requirements, in the mean time, I would suggest you go and get some rest. You can never be prepared for anything, but being alert helps dearly."

With that I walked off into the main hanger, and turned off to head for the bar. I walked up to the barman and asked if there were any free bunks available, deciding against that drink in the last second. He pointed to a door, back the way I had come. I walked back out of the bar, staring at my ship, and spotted Robins next to it. I walked through the door. I sign on the wall read: Quiet. People at rest. Why didn't I have that on my dormitory door? I walked to the nearest open bunk and sat on it, set my watch to wake me up with an electric shock, and went to sleep.