The battle for Omicron Gamma

[cold_reaper]

It was a regular day, like many others before it and many others after this one. The sun threw its majestic yellow hallow on Freeport 9. The razes were reflected by a mirror in the cabin and landed on a huge bed made out of black cherry wood. Suddenly a man rose from the covers. His name was Max Render. He was a captain in a mercenary group named "The Crimson Fighters", and the best pilot there ever was on this side of the Edge Worlds. Max jumped out of bed, stretched for a bit and lit a cigarette. Suddenly, the holo-visor came to life. The hologram of Major Alexander, the leader of his group, appeared in the middle of the room:

"Ah, Render, nice to see y`ar up mate!" said Alexander with a smile on his face.

"Nice to see y`ar ugly face, too, Alex. What`s up?" asked the captain, blowing away the smoke from the cigarette.

Both the major and Max served in the Brettonian Armed Forces for many years, before deserting and taking up the life of a mercenary. They founded "The Crimson Fighters" just five years ago. Since then, this squad of low-life, ex-criminals and pirates and even some rogues did various jobs for the highest bidder. They were the best pilot-force that the Edge Worlds have to offer, with connections with various criminal elements, especially the Corsairs, who were their closest friends. Almost forty pilots were a part of "The Crimson Fighters" and they were divided in small squads all around the Edge Worlds and even in the contested territories between the Nomads, Monkeys, Robots and The Order. One of those groups was lead by Max and was stationed at Freeport 9.

"Well I`d say trouble is up, my friend..."

"Really? How so?"

"Well a few hours ago I received a encrypted message via the short-wave. It seems that some of our friends are in dire need of help."

"Go on, go on"

"The Corsairs mate. They`re in a bucket filled with such a mess. It seems that a series of fast attacks were staged in Gamma. Now, the system is tightly locked and Crete is under siege. They can`t even launch enough fighters to keep the attackers at bay. Most of the communication is jammed, but they managed to send a encrypted message to us and to Leon and Cadiz. Reinforcements will arrive but it's not clear if they will be enough. It seems that Tripoli Shipyard was badly damaged by a series of torpedoes, and all the jump holes are now under the control of the enemy." The major seemed to be under a lot of stress.

"Enemy?! What enemy? Crete under siege? This is ridiculous ! Who could have the fire and manpower to stage such a thing?" Render was furious and dazzled at the same time. Surely such a thing can't be true.

"Huh...According to the info sent to us by the Corsairs, they`re under attack by the Red Hessians and the Outcasts. The Outcasts even sent their Rheinland Cruisers. We sent a scouting force via the Unknown 2 - Gamma jump hole, and they barely made it back alive. As soon as they got on the other side of the wormhole, they were attacked by several squadrons of Hessians and Outcasts. Even a cruiser was stationed there."

"Anything else?" asked the captain with a clear note of irony in his voice.

"Aye. This one's a mind-blower...The Outcast Heavy Cruiser 'Vergeltung' is in orbit around Crete."

"The 'Vergeltung' ? This one ain't well mate..."

"Yeah...no heck? So...here's what we gonna do..."


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[[BLK_LGN][X]Zeus]

Nice!

Is it a case of 'to be continued....'?

[Vulcano]

Interesting story mate, especially when it's about defending my homeworld Waiting for the next part!

[[BLK_LGN][X]Zeus]

Maybe the next one should be between us and NS

[moltenlead]

nice

[cold_reaper]

There was a hectic movement around the docking bay. Pilots of the "The Crimson Fighters" going back and forth, finishing up loading and oiling their gun barrels. Max Render was coordinating this apparent chaos from his cockpit. The engine of his custom-designed WA1 was humming like a bee. All parameters were in the normal range and he was ready to go A.S.A.P. Sitting in his cockpit, Max reviewed the plan over and over again.

"Here's what we gonna do, mate", explained Major Alexander, " Seeing that they have the place locked down, we need to stage a diversion. Your group from Freeport 9 will be reinforced by another two squadrons (Note: A squadron = five fighters) of our men. At the same time another four squadrons of fighters will be placed near the Unknown 2 - Gamma jump hole on the U2 side. You will both jump into Gamma at the same time. It is imperative that the torpedo squadrons get to make their run at the cruisers guarding the jump holes. After the cruisers are disabled or destroyed, engage the remaining fighters. Winning is not important, but drawing more and more enemies in the fight is. With two of the jump holes under attack, and the cruisers incapacitated, the Outcasts - Hessians task force will send immediate reinforcements to assure victory and no enemy penetration the Crete. That will leave the Omega 41 hole opened and with no cover. Meanwhile, me and the Corsair reinforcements from Leon and Cadiz will await your signal. When you give us the good-to-go signal , we`ll jump into Gamma. Two torpedo squadrons will engage the cruiser, another five fighter squadrons will engage the enemy fighters, clearing the way for the main Corsair - Crimson Fighters task force: five torpedo squadrons and eight fighter squadrons will make their way to Crete. At the same time another couple of squadrons will jump in through the other two jump holes to cover your retreat. After you`re back to safety make y`ar way to Omega 41 and then Gamma and Crete. We`ll be waiting. The five torpedo squadrons will take out the cruisers supporting the massive 'Vergeltung' and afterwards a Corsair cruiser/gunboat task force will finish the Outcast heavy cruiser. If we play our cards right, we`ll be able to force the enemy to retreat. "

"I don`t know what to say mate...many things could go wrong with this plan." said Render with a skeptic look on his face.

"Well we don`t have a better one, so we`ll stick to this one. "

"Fine, I`ll start preparing the boys". The holo-vizor was turned off.

Now the captain was thinking of all of the things that could go wrong while smoking a cigarette. His second in command, a young officer that deserted from the Order forces, came to him:

"Captain, all is ready, we`re good to go!"

"Good lieutenant. They off we go. Start undocking. I`ll leave last."

"Aye sir! "

Max Render powered up his WA1, his lasers were begging to be fired, his torpedoes were ready to crash into the enemy. He put out the cigarette, lit another one, waited for all his men to undock with the Freeport and he shot into the darkness of space like an arrow.

"All right men, engage cruise mode. Next stop: Omicron Gamma!" said Render via the shor-wave.


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[[BLK_LGN][X]Zeus]

Can't wait to see what the next installment in the series brings us