lol, I think I'm averaging an episode a month now, hope no ones losing interest
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“WHAT!!” Julian half yelled at her. The hair down Tracie Fisty's back stood up on end. She had never seen Julian quite so mad. Her employer's fists were clenched so tight his knuckles were bone white and he had developed a twitch under his left eye. “HE DID WHAT!?” Julian screamed into her face.
“H..h..he's brought the situation to the President's attention” she stammered “They w..want you back for a trial, Herron is pretty frakked off”
“Oh he is is he?” Julian thundered “Does he not know what we've got at stake here?”
“I'm afraid not sir, Jovi has only told him that GSS seem to be engaged with Split forces down in Rhy's Desire.”
Julian's face was pale, he looked very sick. He sat himself down on the padded blue sofa and ran his fingers through his hair
“You know what this means don't you Tracie? A frakking court hearing thats what this means!” He suddenly looked weary, his face showing signs of age and stress. He looked up at her. “Tell them I've found something of vital importance to the X-Universe and I'm not returning to Argon Prime until I have it”
Tracie still looked shocked but nodded and mumbled something. Julian saw the fear in her eyes and immediately softened
“Look Tracie, I'm sorry for shouting, I'm not mad with you. It was a shock to the system thats all. I didn't expect it”
She nodded again and managed a weak smile. She then turned and left the observation enclosure. Julian turned back to look out at the stars. The GSS Thunderhawk idled a few clicks away. Julian stared at it's torpedo-like appearance for a few mizuras and then turned and headed for the refectory.
The double doors hissed slid open and closed again neatly as he stepped across the threshold into the refectory. He walked over to the bar and asked for something strong. The bartender complied and Julian found himself bearing a large tumbler of Red Light Premiere. He walked over to a table and sat down with the tumbler. He took one deep drink of the liquid, plonked the tumbler on the table and leaned back in the chair with his eyes closed. Julian sensed someone sitting next to him and opened his eyes to see who it was. A woman had sat herself next to him and a man opposite her. The woman had short black hair that she had hanging loosely, just covering her ears. Her hazel eyes looked out at him over her pristine features. Her Identification tag labeled her as Larice Scalter, gunner for Umbra lead. Julian looked over at the man across the table and recognized him as Lance Blansher, the newly appointed wing commander of Umbra squadron.
“Wing Commander, Captain” Julian addressed the two of them
Blansher spoke first “You wanted to see us sir?”
“Oh, yes of course” Julian took a big swig of his Red Light Premiere “I need a good pilot to do me a favor”
“Anything sir” Blansher replied, a little touchily Julian thought. “I need to get through Rhy's Desire to start with, and then into the new system. I need to make some measurements.”
“My ship is equipped with a Jumpdrive sir, if you give me the coordinates we can jump straight there” Blansher informed
“Or that, yes” Julian said, taking another drink from his tumbler
“When were you planning on going?” Scalter asked
“As soon as our scientists have worked out how to immunize the ship against those bugs. I got a message from Jo earlier saying that they are onto a possible solution and are working on one of my Novas. If the tests work, then we can have the same treatment done to your ship Mister Blansher.”
Blansher's eyebrows hiked up at this, but he said nothing. Scalter was studying Julian's features intently
“Is everything all right sir?” she asked politely “You look a little stressed”
“Bad news, nothing I cant handle” He look another gulp of beer and grinned at her “Strong stuff this” he pointed at the tumbler
“Indeed” she said “Well, if you'll give us a buzz when you need us sir, we'll come as soon as we can”
“Appreciated” said Julian, drinking from his tumbler
The two pilots looked at Julian and then at each other. Scalter shrugged her shoulders and the two of them turned and walked from the refectory. Julian placed his tumbler back on the table and sighed. His face contorted into a grimace as he twisted his head around to pop the tendons at the back of his neck. The noise caused several off the clock crew members to wince.
The Earth Ship
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KiwiNZ
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Scott Jovi was a tall man, with steel gray eyes that matched his white hair. The current head of SpaceTech Incorporated, he was a very tactical man, willing to use any means to benefit the company and his pocket book. This is why he had taken the opportunity to get his arch adversary, Julian Gardna of Gardna Space Systems in deep fodder with the Argon government. Warring with a friendly alien race was sure to get Gardna’s pilot license taken from him and with luck, would see the fall of GSS, leaving SpaceTech a clear path through to dominating Universal trade in technological hardware. Jovi and Gardna hated each other. They fought over the rare minerals in the edge systems and tackled each other mercilessly with different law cases. The situation had once come to a GSS transporter being intercepted by two SpaceTech Centaurs, critically damaged, and the prize Nividium cargo being stolen and sold, profiting SpaceTech greatly. Julian had reacted to this by the systematic nuking of a SpaceTech Depot in the outer systems by ‘pirates’.
Many said that the two factions were as bad as each other, and the much older, wiser, TerraCorp considered both younger corporations as childish. This, however, was an opportunity for Jovi to bankrupt Julian and take over as the second most profitable Argon Corporation in the whole of the X-Universe.
He sat drumming his fingers together as he watched the secret footage of Julian’s meeting with his staff on board the Samarkand. When the tape finished for the second time, Jovi sat thinking about what Gardna had said. An unknown ship? Possibly from Earth? This was interesting. If Gardna really had found some Terran ship then Jovi was interested. He stroked his goatee for a second and then turned quickly to his desktop computer and began to compose a message to his agent onboard the Samarkand.
Jo Rider stood in the dimly lit hangar bay surveying the work they had done. Jo and her accomplices were the last team in the hangar bay. Their workstation; around the Argon Nova, Gamma 1, was lit by two floodlights, the only lights still on in the hangar. She looked down at her wristwatch. It was nearing the Samarkand’s night mode and she was getting quite tired. Her team had been working on covering the Argon Nova with the plastic for over the past stazura and they had only just succeeded in covering the whole port wing. They had been testing bits of junk like empty containers or old computer terminals to test inside the vacuum chamber. The first terminal they had thrown in had been eaten in a matter of Mizurae, but that was thanks to one of her technicians not spraying the covering properly. Every other test however, had gone swimmingly. They had gradually increased in size the objects that they were testing their new poxy on. The last test object had been the cockpit from an old Argon Discoverer that had been critically damaged at some point in the past and left to rust in the Samarkand’s spare parts area. The cockpit had been fully coated with the poxy and launched into the vacuum chamber. The results had been very pleasing.
Jo, however, was getting quite overwhelmed with fatigue now and wanted to go and drop down on her bunk.
“Ok guys, time to call it a day” she said to the technicians gathered around Gamma1. They all looked tired as well and didn’t complain when Jo dismissed them. The group of techs trotted off towards the hangar bay door, leaving Jo alone by the Nova. She sat down on an empty canister next to Gamma 1. She leant back on the Argon Nova and listened to the new peace that had fallen on the hangar. Except it wasn’t peace. Jo sat up and looked around her. All should have been quiet, yet Jo could hear something. She could hear voices coming from somewhere in the vast chamber. Cautiously standing up, Jo looked about the hangar in search of the source of the voice. An Argon Buster sat on stilts in several pieces over at the far end of the wide hangar. It was shrouded in darkness, as the two remaining lights up at Jo’s end couldn’t reach that far along. As Jo looked however, she could just make out a light source emanating from behind the exposed starboard engine of the Buster. She quickly moved over into the shadows along the edge of the hangar and made for the Buster. She crept along the small gap in between the rear of the numerous fighters lined up for maintenance, avoiding power couplings and fuel ducts. The voices grew louder. Jo could just about hear what was being said. It was a recording. A synthesized imitation of a message someone ad sent to a personal hand-held. Jo strained her ears.
“...you to find out what exactly this ‘ship’ is that Gardna has found and see if he is telling the truth. SpaceTech could benefit from this greatly. With GSS on the down, I can move in and easily take the reigns. You just have to do this for me and, trust me; it will be worth your while.”
There was a sudden pause as the speaking stopped. Jo froze, hoping that whoever was around the back of the Buster couldn’t hear her heart beating. Then someone began to talk. But this time it was someone in the hangar. Whoever the hand-held belonged too. Jo recognized the voice as well. She recognized it from the meeting earlier, but couldn’t place a finger on who the voice belonged too.
“Gardna has made public claims to this ship of his in the new system. The Split will want it too if they find out it exists. I’ll try and get myself onto the team that goes in to retrieve this ‘ship’. If it exists, I would give GSS a 60 percent chance of successful retrieval, since Gardna found it in the first place. I will notify you when I have secured myself on the team.”
Jo heard the distinctive beep of the hand-held shutting down and then silence. She held her breath, waiting for the traitor to get up and go. But he didn’t seem to be going anywhere. After a few long drawn sezurae, Jo let herself breathe out. As she turned to move, her own palmcomp, attached to her belt, knocked something over. It was a fuel gauge stood next to her. It moved only slightly as Jo’s bodyweight pushed the palmcomp into it, but the noise it made echoed around the quiet chamber...
Many said that the two factions were as bad as each other, and the much older, wiser, TerraCorp considered both younger corporations as childish. This, however, was an opportunity for Jovi to bankrupt Julian and take over as the second most profitable Argon Corporation in the whole of the X-Universe.
He sat drumming his fingers together as he watched the secret footage of Julian’s meeting with his staff on board the Samarkand. When the tape finished for the second time, Jovi sat thinking about what Gardna had said. An unknown ship? Possibly from Earth? This was interesting. If Gardna really had found some Terran ship then Jovi was interested. He stroked his goatee for a second and then turned quickly to his desktop computer and began to compose a message to his agent onboard the Samarkand.
Jo Rider stood in the dimly lit hangar bay surveying the work they had done. Jo and her accomplices were the last team in the hangar bay. Their workstation; around the Argon Nova, Gamma 1, was lit by two floodlights, the only lights still on in the hangar. She looked down at her wristwatch. It was nearing the Samarkand’s night mode and she was getting quite tired. Her team had been working on covering the Argon Nova with the plastic for over the past stazura and they had only just succeeded in covering the whole port wing. They had been testing bits of junk like empty containers or old computer terminals to test inside the vacuum chamber. The first terminal they had thrown in had been eaten in a matter of Mizurae, but that was thanks to one of her technicians not spraying the covering properly. Every other test however, had gone swimmingly. They had gradually increased in size the objects that they were testing their new poxy on. The last test object had been the cockpit from an old Argon Discoverer that had been critically damaged at some point in the past and left to rust in the Samarkand’s spare parts area. The cockpit had been fully coated with the poxy and launched into the vacuum chamber. The results had been very pleasing.
Jo, however, was getting quite overwhelmed with fatigue now and wanted to go and drop down on her bunk.
“Ok guys, time to call it a day” she said to the technicians gathered around Gamma1. They all looked tired as well and didn’t complain when Jo dismissed them. The group of techs trotted off towards the hangar bay door, leaving Jo alone by the Nova. She sat down on an empty canister next to Gamma 1. She leant back on the Argon Nova and listened to the new peace that had fallen on the hangar. Except it wasn’t peace. Jo sat up and looked around her. All should have been quiet, yet Jo could hear something. She could hear voices coming from somewhere in the vast chamber. Cautiously standing up, Jo looked about the hangar in search of the source of the voice. An Argon Buster sat on stilts in several pieces over at the far end of the wide hangar. It was shrouded in darkness, as the two remaining lights up at Jo’s end couldn’t reach that far along. As Jo looked however, she could just make out a light source emanating from behind the exposed starboard engine of the Buster. She quickly moved over into the shadows along the edge of the hangar and made for the Buster. She crept along the small gap in between the rear of the numerous fighters lined up for maintenance, avoiding power couplings and fuel ducts. The voices grew louder. Jo could just about hear what was being said. It was a recording. A synthesized imitation of a message someone ad sent to a personal hand-held. Jo strained her ears.
“...you to find out what exactly this ‘ship’ is that Gardna has found and see if he is telling the truth. SpaceTech could benefit from this greatly. With GSS on the down, I can move in and easily take the reigns. You just have to do this for me and, trust me; it will be worth your while.”
There was a sudden pause as the speaking stopped. Jo froze, hoping that whoever was around the back of the Buster couldn’t hear her heart beating. Then someone began to talk. But this time it was someone in the hangar. Whoever the hand-held belonged too. Jo recognized the voice as well. She recognized it from the meeting earlier, but couldn’t place a finger on who the voice belonged too.
“Gardna has made public claims to this ship of his in the new system. The Split will want it too if they find out it exists. I’ll try and get myself onto the team that goes in to retrieve this ‘ship’. If it exists, I would give GSS a 60 percent chance of successful retrieval, since Gardna found it in the first place. I will notify you when I have secured myself on the team.”
Jo heard the distinctive beep of the hand-held shutting down and then silence. She held her breath, waiting for the traitor to get up and go. But he didn’t seem to be going anywhere. After a few long drawn sezurae, Jo let herself breathe out. As she turned to move, her own palmcomp, attached to her belt, knocked something over. It was a fuel gauge stood next to her. It moved only slightly as Jo’s bodyweight pushed the palmcomp into it, but the noise it made echoed around the quiet chamber...
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The_Hypo
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RSDark_Angel
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Raptordraco
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Mastery
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, poor Jo, she is bound to get hurt now 
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KiwiNZ
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Very good read! Looks like they may have a chance of catching the traitor but at the same time Jo may be in BIG trouble right now. The spy obviously is in a bit of a dilemma, too. He can't really 'remove' Jo because she is too high profile. So that should be very interesting.
Looking forward to the next part!
Looking forward to the next part!
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Mastermue
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Raptordraco
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@ Mastermue
Have a read of this http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=87055 then..as it is the lead in story to The Earth Ship
Have a read of this http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=87055 then..as it is the lead in story to The Earth Ship
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Mastermue
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To be fair....no, not yet, but intending to read it over the weekend. Just got so 'into' this story with the great battle sequences and plot twists, I just couldn't stop reading it!
Thanks for highlighting it for me though!
Also got a few chapters of terraformer dreams to catch up on!
Time is my current enemy......especially being an old git!!!!
Thanks for highlighting it for me though!
Also got a few chapters of terraformer dreams to catch up on!
Time is my current enemy......especially being an old git!!!!
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KiwiNZ
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Mastermue
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![[ external image ]](http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/2452/darkangelxtreme9bf.jpg){kind=link}
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RSDark_Angel
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Jo instantly froze at the sound, holding her breath.
“Who’s there?” the man called. Jo heard the distinct click of the safety being removed from a blaster pistol. She gulped down her fears and ran down the small path behind the parked fighters. The thump and sizzle of blaster rounds impacting with the wall behind her made her run faster. Her sides began to ache as she exerted herself just to get to the bulkhead at the end of the hangar. She ducked pipes and leapt over discarded girders as she ran. A collection of cables stretching across her path exploded in a shower of sparks as a shot aimed at her head slammed into them. The cables fell aside and Jo ran straight through, terrified. She finally reached the bulkhead and slammed her palm onto the switch. The huge double doors began to slide open slowly. Jo looked back the way she had come and saw a shadowy figure running towards her, pistol raised. Jo didn’t wait to see his face. She darted through the widening crack in the middle of the doors and hit the switch on the other side. They immediately began to slowly slide shut. Jo collapsed down the metal wall, gasping for breath. There was a traitor onboard the Samarkand! And they were working for SpaceTech, for Scott Jovi. She had to get to Joules and tell his a.s.a.p. She stood up, a little shakily, and made off down the corridor towards Julian’s personal quarters.
Julian was pacing up and down his living room going over the ideas of the technicians he had spent the last half a stazura working with. The one he liked most was probably the crudest of all. A construction created from the body of an Argon Buster and the cockpit of an Argon Discoverer. I had been dubbed ‘The Mole’, thanks to the large drill attached to the Buster chassis with the Discoverer cockpit placed on top where it could oversee the drilling. The Drill bit, which connected to a large power pack back along the Buster chassis, was huge in proportion to the rest of the contraption. It was large enough to shield the working parts of the Buster and the Discoverer cockpit but gave the cockpit a wide enough view over the top for the pilot to see where they were driving. It was, pure and simple, a design to drill down into the heart of an asteroid.
The other ideas were good, but involved laser cutting, a procedure that would eat away too much of Julian’s time. The Mole was perfect for the job; it would drill down into the rock and into the chamber where Julian and Jo had found Pathfinder.
It would need a lot of escort though, and an M6 to carry it. And that mean a lot of spraying to protect the ships from the bugs in the nebula, yet more time that Julian didn’t have. He thought for a moment and then walked over to the comm. Unit the wall. Just as he was about to punch in the key for the bridge however, there came a knock at the door. He turned and walked across to his desk, calling “Enter” as he went. He sat down in his revolving chair just as Jo Rider entered the room, looking worn and out of breath. Julian immediately stood back up again, knocking his chair back across the room on its wheels.
“What? What is it Jo?” He demanded, his voice betraying his concern.
Regaining her composure, Jo looked Julian squarely in the eyes and said
“We might have a bit of a situation here Jules. I just ran from an armed SpaceTech spy in the main hangar”
“Who’s there?” the man called. Jo heard the distinct click of the safety being removed from a blaster pistol. She gulped down her fears and ran down the small path behind the parked fighters. The thump and sizzle of blaster rounds impacting with the wall behind her made her run faster. Her sides began to ache as she exerted herself just to get to the bulkhead at the end of the hangar. She ducked pipes and leapt over discarded girders as she ran. A collection of cables stretching across her path exploded in a shower of sparks as a shot aimed at her head slammed into them. The cables fell aside and Jo ran straight through, terrified. She finally reached the bulkhead and slammed her palm onto the switch. The huge double doors began to slide open slowly. Jo looked back the way she had come and saw a shadowy figure running towards her, pistol raised. Jo didn’t wait to see his face. She darted through the widening crack in the middle of the doors and hit the switch on the other side. They immediately began to slowly slide shut. Jo collapsed down the metal wall, gasping for breath. There was a traitor onboard the Samarkand! And they were working for SpaceTech, for Scott Jovi. She had to get to Joules and tell his a.s.a.p. She stood up, a little shakily, and made off down the corridor towards Julian’s personal quarters.
Julian was pacing up and down his living room going over the ideas of the technicians he had spent the last half a stazura working with. The one he liked most was probably the crudest of all. A construction created from the body of an Argon Buster and the cockpit of an Argon Discoverer. I had been dubbed ‘The Mole’, thanks to the large drill attached to the Buster chassis with the Discoverer cockpit placed on top where it could oversee the drilling. The Drill bit, which connected to a large power pack back along the Buster chassis, was huge in proportion to the rest of the contraption. It was large enough to shield the working parts of the Buster and the Discoverer cockpit but gave the cockpit a wide enough view over the top for the pilot to see where they were driving. It was, pure and simple, a design to drill down into the heart of an asteroid.
The other ideas were good, but involved laser cutting, a procedure that would eat away too much of Julian’s time. The Mole was perfect for the job; it would drill down into the rock and into the chamber where Julian and Jo had found Pathfinder.
It would need a lot of escort though, and an M6 to carry it. And that mean a lot of spraying to protect the ships from the bugs in the nebula, yet more time that Julian didn’t have. He thought for a moment and then walked over to the comm. Unit the wall. Just as he was about to punch in the key for the bridge however, there came a knock at the door. He turned and walked across to his desk, calling “Enter” as he went. He sat down in his revolving chair just as Jo Rider entered the room, looking worn and out of breath. Julian immediately stood back up again, knocking his chair back across the room on its wheels.
“What? What is it Jo?” He demanded, his voice betraying his concern.
Regaining her composure, Jo looked Julian squarely in the eyes and said
“We might have a bit of a situation here Jules. I just ran from an armed SpaceTech spy in the main hangar”
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KiwiNZ
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Mastermue
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The_Hypo
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WOO christmas comes early! This AND Farnhams legend on the same day(that i noticed anyway 
)
Personally if I was the spy i would have tried to capture her rather than kill her so as to have a hold over julian and force him to do something like giving over a certain ship?
Dont take any notice of me i'm just passing through.
Bye
Wonder if the reverse psychology worked he he
)Personally if I was the spy i would have tried to capture her rather than kill her so as to have a hold over julian and force him to do something like giving over a certain ship?
Dont take any notice of me i'm just passing through.
Bye
Wonder if the reverse psychology worked he he
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Syndrome
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