Freelancer - The Void

>:P

I can't believe it happened again!!  Total wipe.

I had been zinging thru Voidian space for months, searching for answers ever since i flew thru a Blackhole and ended up in VOID.  So many months, or is it years ago.  Dang...can't remember. Will it ever end?

Gads, it was that dang Blackhole again!!  I found it after all those months searching and looking.  As I maneuvered into a prime position to observe it from a safe distance all hell broke out.  I was attacked by some strange aliens I instantly knew I had flown into this bunch before, but this time it would be differernt. This time I was Pit Viper, Master Trader of Void and flying in my feared Anibus Mark II.  This was not to be an ordinary trade run in my AT, I was out for blood!

I met these creeps head on, blasting 4 into oblivion....then it happened!  Arrrrrgggggghhhhhhh.

These creeps knew they were in big trouble and called out for immediate assistance from who knows where.  I flew right into these new monsters in 3 huge ships  I had never encountered before.  One down....two to go.

Zip, bright flashes, my head is spinning and I am unable to control my ship.......noooooooooooooooo.

Too late  I realized I had been maneuvered into that awesome blackhole again.  Oh no, I screamed.  Not agaaaiiiiiin.

Then total blackness.

Where am I?  What happened?  Am I alive?  Who is that on the flight deck?  Oh, no.  Oh, no.  This is not my Anibus!  What the heck?  This is not Manhattan!  Oh no. This can not be I moaned.  

I climbed out of my ship which looked vaguely familar, but one I had not flown for eons.  A STARFLIER??  What the.....  I jumped onto the flight deck.  I wanted to kill that flight deck commander but I needed answers and I needed them fast.  

Look Captain, you came out of the docking ring, landed, and that is all I know, now get the heck off my deck so I can service this little thing, I never see them all the way out here in Babylonia,  Selucia is used to the grand ships like the Anibus MKII.  He laughed as he walked away and mumbled something about idiots flying Starfliers into Babylonia.

 >-)   I am seeing things, what was that?   =:)   Gads another one.                          8-X

I need a drink.

The dried frog pills are in the cabinet on the right hand side of the flight controls - wash them down with some Jack Daniels - it might help......

Cardamine will solve all your problems  :D

i have some of that good stuff for u if u need

Deleted.

I don't know why, but the Warp was responsible for bringing you here...it works in mysterious ways, even though the select few who are at one with the Warp do not understand it's intentions.

/:)

Holy moly.  Bar is absolutely empty.  Is this a Void bar?  Only the bartender....and me.  Well, at least I can get a drink.  As I swagger (in my best Alliance manner) to the bar the bartender says, "Your reputation stinks!"  $60,000 credits?!  I don't even have 7,000.  What happened to me?  I am known throughout Void as the Master Trader.  Even the best of Pirates could not catch me.  I trade with Nomads, Pirates, Fugs, and all, I mean ALL factions.  I have 1.2 billion credits in the Void Central Credit Exchange.  I am the best 90 Level Trader in all of VOID!....and he tells me my reputation stinks ?!

As I open my mouth, and before I can say anthing...."I don't care who you say you are.  You stink!", he says.  I didn't say, I was only thinking.  He continues, "And that crummy little ship sitting in the bay for service, may set there forever, cuz you will never get out of Babylonia alive.  HaHaHa!  Here, this is on me.  HaHaHa!  Trades with Nomads, Pirates and Fugs.  HaHaHa."

I didn't say.

"Thank you."  I say as I shakily grasp a glass and a bottle?? of ??  Hey it is a drink, I think as I walk to the empty table.  I slip some bills into the Void Astral Net.  I can at least send out a Void wide commo.  Oh I already did, it responds.  Well I can see and read all my concerned friends' response......surely they will be happy to know I am alive and can explain things and help get me outta here.  Oh, an extreme pain just shoots all through me......I scream!

Zebulon.  Zeb?  Frog pills.  I took them but don't know what Jack Daniels is.  This stuff made frog pills nasty tasting.
Zeb. Zeb.  He doesn't know me anymore.  

Hans-olo.  Hmmmmm.  Sounds like another "Warped" here.

Burn Baby Burn.  Pain!  Pain!  I scream.  It doesn't work.  I still have PAIN!

Zeus.  Now here is a guy that knows something about that darn Warp--------responsible, mysterious, at one with warp?  I don't understand.  Pain!!!! The pain is soooo intense!

Whiskey Pete.  Hmmmm.  Now he sounds like he has experienced the Warp also and it has driven him to drink.  But I suspect, he too was once one of Void's best.  Recruit, I don't think so, but perhaps drummed out of some Alliance Military Force.  Gawd I hate this Warp.

I getting out of this place, i think to myself.  I turn to the bartender. What was that?  He looked like some kind of alien.   >-)   but quickly changed back.   "Bel," he hollers in a different voice than before.  I start for the exit......."And take the bottle with you, Ingrate." he yells in a louder voice.  HaHaHa! rings loudly as I go through the exit and head for my Anibu.....Starflyer.

Deleted.

lol

This is a pleasant experience to the suffering of others at the hands of the Warp that pleases us so much.

PV ! ! ! ! ! ! !

My GAWD is it really you!???

*Flings himself at his Ol' Friend, mentor, confidante, wingman, just plain good guy to embrace the grizzled old trader (in a purely manly way, of course)*

Where you been?? I was afraid something'd happened to you!

Oh I sure missed you, Pal. It's not been the same. Things sure are a bit different around here. I was gone a while too and when I got back seems like the whole place was different. Things changed after the Second Nomad War. Those damn Nomads tried to take over the Gates in Alex and we had to send in a team of "specialists" to blow them up and save the Capital Systems. But it backfired and sent a shock vortex through the Passages that flung the gates in all directions on both sides. The Nomads found a way into new systems and got help from some old friends and now they're loose. You thought the Nomads were bad, you ain't seen nuthin' yet. The new systems are vast and rich, you're going to love them. The War took its toll on the economy and trade has had to adjust. Most of the old lanes are gone but there's more and some very lucrative ones to be found.

I'll help you out, Buddy. I owe you. Look me up.

Oh, and Annie's gone. *snif*

I'll be looking for you, PV.

 ~Wolf

Watchwolf;  'Oh, and Annie's gone. *snif*'
Artifact Annie?, saw her in another galaxy.
Dun remember much, ... ? vauge... started with a 'D' I think.

Bel.  Okay to Bel.  Anyplace but this place.  The bartender gives me the creeps.

What the heck is going on?  Nomads, Pirates, Fugs, Outcasts, all dip their wings as my Starflyer zings close to thier formations and I expect to get vaporized long before I reach Bel.  Suddenly a flight of 6 Bounty Hunters pop up on my scanner.  Great, an escor.........

"Kill your engines or die." I hear a calm voice say as my hud suddenly flashes red. BH's my enemy?  I dead stop.....fast.  My head hurts

Wow!  A brilliant, blinding flash and the 6 BH disappear from my scanner and off my hud, suddenly gone green.  Gawd 6 BH vaporized.  Hud flashing green, as 3, tightly formed transparent craft in their familiar KOS formation become visible.  Green hud!  They know me, the master trader, friends to all of VOID.  They know me, I scream as my Starflyer is suddenly grasped in the autodocking system of BEL and is auto towed to the service deck.  

Silence. Sweat is poaring down my foreheaad, my back, hell, i am soaking from head to foot.  BH my enemy?  Why?  Pirates, Fugs, Outcasts, Nomads dip their wings to me.  Nomad save my life cuz I was fixing to blow some BH out of space.  Wait, the Nomads knew what I was thinking, thinking I was in my Anubus MK II, 6 BH were no match.

I need a drink.  I reach for the bottle of ??.  Empty.  Empty?!  I must be drunk.  What else could explain what just happend.  BH....red.  Gonna kill me.  Nomads....green.  Vaporize BH.  Dip their wings as I am tractored in by Bel's docking command center.

I really need a drink.

As I walk into the bar a madman attacks me, I reach for my vaporizer, always set on M, for maxium effect.  "He just bit off more than he can chew." I say to myself.

PV ! ! ! ! ! !  

He is yelling at me in a joyous sounding way.  He knows me.  He is talking sooo fast words flyng into my ears, friend, wingman, good guy, pal.  Not the same, Nomads bad, second Nomad War, gates of Alex blown up, loose, help from old friends, lucrative trade routes.

My head is spinning again.  I need that drink.

Wait, only one fighter pilot ever called me PV.  My Pard.  Then I see his eyes and I know him!   "WATCHWOLF!," I shout.  Suddenly I am a wildman, crazy, laughing, crying, incoherent, babbling as I fling myself at my old wingman, my best friend ever, my Pard.

"I'll help you."  he says after we have talked and talked and was getting up to depart.  "Look me up." he says as he heads for the exit.  I am disappointed, I need to be with someone I know and who knows me.  Then I see something I overlooked before,  My Pard, the best dang fighter pilot in VOID, is wearing the uniform of the VOID  Server Guard Corp. where only the best fighter pilots are wanted.  "Good for him." I say to no one.

With a parting word he yells over his shoulder, "Annie's gone!"  Annie is gone?!  The ultimate in flight control, enemy engagement and tracking computers in all of VOID.  She saved Pard and me on many missions.  She was almost human, but better.  I don't believe it.  Something bad happened.  WW would never get rid of Annie.  She was special.

Silence.  I can't think clearly.  I see vision of a sign in some distant place.  I feel an urge to fly through it.  Too much.  Too much is happening, has happened.

I turn to watch 4 pilots walk into the bar, patting each other on the shoulder talking about a great mission.  The gal, Dreadful Bride they all called her, walked right up to me and said, "I saw Artifact Annie in another galaxie."  She must have heard WW as he left and hollered to me over his shoulder, I thought.  I looked away from her, "Surely she jests.  Annie? an artifact?!" I ask myself.  Wait she could not have heard WW, he left 20 minutes before the came in.

I need a drink.  "Bartender! I'm buying!"  (oh man, I hope my 7000 credits is enough)

They all pull up a chair.

Zeus tries to console me about all this being a "pleasant experience."  Hmmmm, an all seeing eye in his logo seems to sparkle upon the utterance of his words.

"HaHaHa!"   The bartender laughs that wierd laugh.  Wait!  That was Wolfie.

Burn Baby Burn tells me to throw my flight control and engagment computer out the window.  (Now I know why he has the handle Burn Baby Burn.)

"Bartender, another round", I scream.

As we sit there, all in silence and all locked in our own thoughts, fears, uncertainty and secrets, I look at my new found buddies (all pilots are buddies) through blurred vision.............I see the bartender serving us ?? out of a bottle of ??

"HaHaHa!" I hear as visions slowly float before me......   >-)                8-X
                                                                                                  =:)        

                                                                                                                                       >:)

I feel my selfing becoming sick, voices are ringing in my ears.   "Give in, Pit Viper."    "Cross over, Pit Viper."
"Cross oooooover, Pit Viper."

I pass out.  Mercifully.

*Cross over......*   They call.

Some have the ego. Oh yes, they do. They're not hard to find.

Some the alter-ego. Many ways, many faces. Oh yes, many do. Many. They are the changelings. Hard to tell who's what at any given time.

But some have that one. The lucky ones. The strong ones. The few. One way, one being, one self. Oh yes, they do. They're there. If you can find them.

The Pit Viper was one of those. A sure oneness about him, a solitary man, a daring trader, a sure pilot. Always fighting against injustice, against evil. The prototypical "good guy."

They call.... *Cross over...*

The pull is strong, darkness alluring. Come. The darkness will be your bride. Come. My bed is soft and warm. Come. You will sleep as never before. Come. You will sleep the sleep of the dead. Come......

Fighting... fading... The pain is all that tells him he is alive...

Come. It only hurts for a little while. Come. Give in. Come. We will heal your pain. Come.

The darkness embraces him with warm, quiet reassurance.