The Nisos
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 2:44 am
Chapter 1
Captured. Again. Seemed to be the fate of the Nisos’s crew to end up incarcerated in a Federation prison. Even with the Rebels beating down their doors the Feds still found time to lock up the Nisos and her crew. It probably didn’t help things that their ship was a re-purposed and ‘privatized’ Federation Cruiser of the utmost, what some might say, ‘classified’ variety that had been crusing through highly contested Federation space. Though to be completely fair Ferris had been senior officer on board when he took it out from dock those few years ago to ‘test the inertial dampeners’ And the dampeners had certainly been tested. Alongside the FTL drive and weapons system when putting as much distance between Ferris and his upcoming court martial.
It seemed the Federation frowned on desertion quite a bit even during their war against the Rebels, and they had sent a sizable taskforce to bring the Nisos back into dry dock. A paint job at a less than reputable space dock, the acquisition of a crew made up of Ferris’s old friends Alex and Valeria had delayed capture but not prevented it and now the three crewmembers were sitting in a Federation pen waiting for the order from on high to have them imprisoned for life sentences.
The Nisos herself had already been impounded and was sitting painfully still, grounded in the Federation hangar. Before the three crew had been whisked away Ferris noted that the impounding lot seemed to be searching the ship quite intensely, as if looking for something specific, beyond the extent of the customization put into it by the crew. Not that the customization was much to speak of. Ferris had sold the burst laser originally equipped on the cruiser in order to afford an improvement of the ship’s artillery beam and the minimal scrap gained in their short time as mercenaries had only afforded them the basest of weaponry to replace it. Still, the secret Federation weapon had saved them more than a few times before their eventual capture so Ferris held no regret for his actions.
As they sat in their cell Ferris glanced over towards Valeria. The Slug seemed on edge and Ferris could hardly blame her for that, but the way she kept glancing at the Federation guards outside as if expecting something made Ferris curious and a bit nervous.
Ferris stood up, pretending to pace back and forth for a bit before coming to rest next to the Slug.
“What’s up?” he whispered so that the guards couldn’t hear.
“You remember those Rebels we ran into out near Sigma 6 a few months ago?” The slug replied telepathically.
Telepathic reply wasn’t the most comfortable for Ferris but he understood Valeria’s reasoning behind it. Nothing was quieter than mind speak.
“Sure I do, they seemed real interested in the Nisos, the kinda interest that got them shot down if I recall events correctly.” Ferris whispered back, still unable to master telepathic communication himself.
“Yes, but I read something off them before things escalated. They seemed to think the Nisos had information about their fleet. Do you know anything about that captain?”
“There’s lots of classified information on the Nisos,” Ferris admitted, “The kinds of information a lieutenant in the Federation doesn’t have access to. I figured it was mostly about the Artillery Beam and since we figured that one out on our own I assumed we didn’t need it. You think the Rebs wanted the information on that?”
“I don’t know captain, but they certainly seemed intent on trying to capture the ship, and the Federation sent an entire task force to retrieve us. Even if the Nisos is a state of the art ship, they’re fighting a war, what’s one ship lost to a deserter if that’s all it is?”
Ferris nodded and felt a warm buzz of electrically charged air as Alex approached his two shipmates.
“Guys, I dunno what it is but I’ve been picking up a lot of comm. chatter in the air. I think something’s going on outside.”
Ferris squinted his eyes as he thought. These were the benefits of a multi-racial crew. One of the many reasons desertion had not led him into the arms of the xenophobic rebellion.
“What do you think it is they’re talking about?” he asked quietly.
“I couldn’t say Rick, I’m just picking up the buzz of-“
“Get down!” Valeria shouted to the minds both of her companions as an explosion ripped through the far wall of their cell, roasting the Federation guards and leaving a gaping hole into the hallway beyond.
The three prisoners stood dazed as the world ran by soundless, their ears still ringing from the explosion. Outside the cell in the hallway fires were spreading and Federation guards armed with weapons were racing down the hall.
Ferris recovered first, grabbing both his companions and shoving them towards the hole in their cell. He stooped to recover the blaster from one of the now deceased guards and Alex and Valeria did the same. Sound slowly returned as the three companions raced down the halls, following the signs that seemed to indicate the direction towards the hangar. As they ran the sounds of laser fire rang out in the halls and glimpses of scorched uniforms, Federation and Rebel, skipped by.
“Stop right there Federation scum!” A rebel had appeared in front of the three companions, weapon drawn and leveled.
“You think working with those filthy aliens will save you? The only true peace is through conque-“
Three shots rang out, ending the Rebel’s soliloquy. The three companions glanced at one another rolling their eyes in three different ways before continuing on down the hallway.
Chapter 2
The door to the hangar was open, klaxons sounding and lights flashing red as small skirmishes lit up parts of the hangar. The Nisos sat placidly in the middle of the hangar. Occasional small laser fire glancing off her hull harmlessly, causing Ferris to wince each time it did.
Ferris took careful aim at a collection of FTL fuel barrels and squeezed the rigger on his pistol. The explosion rocked the room and drew attention giving the three crewmembers time to race across to the Nisos. The boarding ramp and door were sealed, Ferris moved to address the key pad while Alex and Valeria moved to cover him, crouching behind some storage boxes to prevent their own death by laser fire. Ferris input the codes he had assigned during his time as captain.
Valid. Welcome back Captain Ferris.
“This is why the Federation’s losing the war,” he murmured as the hatch began to open and the ramp lowered.
Laser fire, which had so far avoided the three convicts, now began to focus itself in their direction as the opening hatch drew unwanted attention.
“Get in, get in!” Ferris motioned for his crew to ascend the ramp and followed behind them, “Everyone to stations! Let’s get the hell out of here!”
Ferris could hear the small laser fire pinging off the hull as he raced to the pilot’s seat, closing the hatch they had entered and prepping for takeoff. Or at least he would have started prepping for takeoff if the console hadn’t been locked down. A forced grounding by the Federation.
Ferris slapped the comm. button, opening a channel to flight control.
“Federation flight control this is the Nisos requesting permission to depart, emergency override Alpha one nine-“ as Ferris began reciting his no doubt outdated emergency codes a massive explosion erupted outside the ship and the console cleared of lockdown warnings.
“We’re down one missile captain but we should be able to depart,” Alex’s voice came over the comm. system.
Ferris grinned, spooling up the engines, the Nisos lifting off of the hangar ground and heading out of the bay, lifting up into the sky with her nose towards the outer atmosphere.
Chapter 3
Free and clear would not have been the best way to describe the skies above the base. Rather, harsh and packed with laserfire would have been a better description. Ferris regretted once again his lack of a cloaking system as he dodged weapons fire, spooling up FTL for a jump to the next sector. Capital ships were slugging it out with one another as fighters and bombers danced wildly in the inky black above the blue-green world below. It might have been beautiful if it wasn’t so damn frightening.
Two fighters swooped in on the Nisos, one Federation, one Rebel. Together they could have easily overtaken Ferris and blasted him into submission but when they caught sight of one another they moved instead into positions of attack against one another. Deciding their fight was not his fight Ferris moved the ship hard starboard and out of their weapons range.
Hails were bombarding the Nisos almost as much as weapons were. Rebels, Federation. They all seemed very interested in what the Nisos was up to. Ferris didn’t reply to any of them as word came from Valeria that FTL drive was fully charged. Ferris punched the jump button and the odd sensation of FTL jumping swept across the ship. They arrived in an empty sector. Just the FTL beacon and space, no planets, no stations. Ferris breathed a sigh of relief.
“This is Captain Ferris to crew, we’re free and clear. I’m going to take us towards somewhere uncivilized where hopefully neither Rebels nor Feds mess with us and we can get back on track with our lives til this whole war business sweeps over.”
“Very good captain,” Valeria’s voice sounded in his mind.
“You got it captain,” Alex said over the comm.
Chapter 4
Ferris contemplated resting at this beacon but decided it was best not to risk the possibility of either of the two fleets tracking their jump and prepared himself for another jump.
While he waited he reviewed the Nisos’s logs from the time he had been incarcerated. It seemed the Feds had been going over the Nisos’s flight data from its time under Ferris. Guess they wondered where their little pride and joy had been wandering about. Ferris chuckled, the first stop had of course been the bar at Alpha Kioni in Zoltan space where he had found Alex Rigopulus, fine ensign of the Zoltan border police, attempting to use his rank to get a free drink at the bar. It might have worked too if his rank had been anything even resembling legitimate. As it was though he had been thrown out just as Ferris had arrived and was eager to join up again with his old pal from the academy, even more so once he had made sure they hadn’t been ‘called out of retirement to fight one last battle for the Fed.’ Ferris chuckled, poor bastard watched too many Old Earth action movies.
They’d moved pretty fast after they noticed some Fed workers checking ship Ids at one of the other docks. It had been pure coincidence they had even run into Valeria on their way off planet. In fact, they had both suspected the Slug was one of the inspectors when they first saw her.
Valeria had always been quite adamant about proving herself and her people in the Federation and that had meant avoiding, shunning, and holding a general disdain for hoodlums of Rick and Alex’s variety. Turned out however that her captain had turned Rebel, booted her and the rest of his alien crew off at this spacedock and her attempts to find another ship and give information about her captain had been bogged down and ignored by Federation bureaucracy in favor of ‘other more pressing matters.’ Needless to say, in her disillusioned state, she had gladly agreed to join the two hoodlums from the academy in their trek into merc space to pursue the lives of freedom one simply couldn’t find in structured space.
Ferris reminisced as he browsed through the jump logs, losing himself in a particular memory in which a Slug ship had tried to convince Ferris quite adamantly that he needed hull repair at an exorbitant price, attempting to nudge his mind to agree with mental suggestions unaware Valeria was preventing any modicum of success on his part. As he remembered the look, of what can only be described as irate shock, cross the Slug’s visage the FTL recharge light binged and Ferris grabbed the comm.
“Prepare for FTL, we’re moving out.”
Ferris put the records away, leaving the investigation into what the Feds had uncovered for a later date as he prepared to engage FTL.
Captured. Again. Seemed to be the fate of the Nisos’s crew to end up incarcerated in a Federation prison. Even with the Rebels beating down their doors the Feds still found time to lock up the Nisos and her crew. It probably didn’t help things that their ship was a re-purposed and ‘privatized’ Federation Cruiser of the utmost, what some might say, ‘classified’ variety that had been crusing through highly contested Federation space. Though to be completely fair Ferris had been senior officer on board when he took it out from dock those few years ago to ‘test the inertial dampeners’ And the dampeners had certainly been tested. Alongside the FTL drive and weapons system when putting as much distance between Ferris and his upcoming court martial.
It seemed the Federation frowned on desertion quite a bit even during their war against the Rebels, and they had sent a sizable taskforce to bring the Nisos back into dry dock. A paint job at a less than reputable space dock, the acquisition of a crew made up of Ferris’s old friends Alex and Valeria had delayed capture but not prevented it and now the three crewmembers were sitting in a Federation pen waiting for the order from on high to have them imprisoned for life sentences.
The Nisos herself had already been impounded and was sitting painfully still, grounded in the Federation hangar. Before the three crew had been whisked away Ferris noted that the impounding lot seemed to be searching the ship quite intensely, as if looking for something specific, beyond the extent of the customization put into it by the crew. Not that the customization was much to speak of. Ferris had sold the burst laser originally equipped on the cruiser in order to afford an improvement of the ship’s artillery beam and the minimal scrap gained in their short time as mercenaries had only afforded them the basest of weaponry to replace it. Still, the secret Federation weapon had saved them more than a few times before their eventual capture so Ferris held no regret for his actions.
As they sat in their cell Ferris glanced over towards Valeria. The Slug seemed on edge and Ferris could hardly blame her for that, but the way she kept glancing at the Federation guards outside as if expecting something made Ferris curious and a bit nervous.
Ferris stood up, pretending to pace back and forth for a bit before coming to rest next to the Slug.
“What’s up?” he whispered so that the guards couldn’t hear.
“You remember those Rebels we ran into out near Sigma 6 a few months ago?” The slug replied telepathically.
Telepathic reply wasn’t the most comfortable for Ferris but he understood Valeria’s reasoning behind it. Nothing was quieter than mind speak.
“Sure I do, they seemed real interested in the Nisos, the kinda interest that got them shot down if I recall events correctly.” Ferris whispered back, still unable to master telepathic communication himself.
“Yes, but I read something off them before things escalated. They seemed to think the Nisos had information about their fleet. Do you know anything about that captain?”
“There’s lots of classified information on the Nisos,” Ferris admitted, “The kinds of information a lieutenant in the Federation doesn’t have access to. I figured it was mostly about the Artillery Beam and since we figured that one out on our own I assumed we didn’t need it. You think the Rebs wanted the information on that?”
“I don’t know captain, but they certainly seemed intent on trying to capture the ship, and the Federation sent an entire task force to retrieve us. Even if the Nisos is a state of the art ship, they’re fighting a war, what’s one ship lost to a deserter if that’s all it is?”
Ferris nodded and felt a warm buzz of electrically charged air as Alex approached his two shipmates.
“Guys, I dunno what it is but I’ve been picking up a lot of comm. chatter in the air. I think something’s going on outside.”
Ferris squinted his eyes as he thought. These were the benefits of a multi-racial crew. One of the many reasons desertion had not led him into the arms of the xenophobic rebellion.
“What do you think it is they’re talking about?” he asked quietly.
“I couldn’t say Rick, I’m just picking up the buzz of-“
“Get down!” Valeria shouted to the minds both of her companions as an explosion ripped through the far wall of their cell, roasting the Federation guards and leaving a gaping hole into the hallway beyond.
The three prisoners stood dazed as the world ran by soundless, their ears still ringing from the explosion. Outside the cell in the hallway fires were spreading and Federation guards armed with weapons were racing down the hall.
Ferris recovered first, grabbing both his companions and shoving them towards the hole in their cell. He stooped to recover the blaster from one of the now deceased guards and Alex and Valeria did the same. Sound slowly returned as the three companions raced down the halls, following the signs that seemed to indicate the direction towards the hangar. As they ran the sounds of laser fire rang out in the halls and glimpses of scorched uniforms, Federation and Rebel, skipped by.
“Stop right there Federation scum!” A rebel had appeared in front of the three companions, weapon drawn and leveled.
“You think working with those filthy aliens will save you? The only true peace is through conque-“
Three shots rang out, ending the Rebel’s soliloquy. The three companions glanced at one another rolling their eyes in three different ways before continuing on down the hallway.
Chapter 2
The door to the hangar was open, klaxons sounding and lights flashing red as small skirmishes lit up parts of the hangar. The Nisos sat placidly in the middle of the hangar. Occasional small laser fire glancing off her hull harmlessly, causing Ferris to wince each time it did.
Ferris took careful aim at a collection of FTL fuel barrels and squeezed the rigger on his pistol. The explosion rocked the room and drew attention giving the three crewmembers time to race across to the Nisos. The boarding ramp and door were sealed, Ferris moved to address the key pad while Alex and Valeria moved to cover him, crouching behind some storage boxes to prevent their own death by laser fire. Ferris input the codes he had assigned during his time as captain.
Valid. Welcome back Captain Ferris.
“This is why the Federation’s losing the war,” he murmured as the hatch began to open and the ramp lowered.
Laser fire, which had so far avoided the three convicts, now began to focus itself in their direction as the opening hatch drew unwanted attention.
“Get in, get in!” Ferris motioned for his crew to ascend the ramp and followed behind them, “Everyone to stations! Let’s get the hell out of here!”
Ferris could hear the small laser fire pinging off the hull as he raced to the pilot’s seat, closing the hatch they had entered and prepping for takeoff. Or at least he would have started prepping for takeoff if the console hadn’t been locked down. A forced grounding by the Federation.
Ferris slapped the comm. button, opening a channel to flight control.
“Federation flight control this is the Nisos requesting permission to depart, emergency override Alpha one nine-“ as Ferris began reciting his no doubt outdated emergency codes a massive explosion erupted outside the ship and the console cleared of lockdown warnings.
“We’re down one missile captain but we should be able to depart,” Alex’s voice came over the comm. system.
Ferris grinned, spooling up the engines, the Nisos lifting off of the hangar ground and heading out of the bay, lifting up into the sky with her nose towards the outer atmosphere.
Chapter 3
Free and clear would not have been the best way to describe the skies above the base. Rather, harsh and packed with laserfire would have been a better description. Ferris regretted once again his lack of a cloaking system as he dodged weapons fire, spooling up FTL for a jump to the next sector. Capital ships were slugging it out with one another as fighters and bombers danced wildly in the inky black above the blue-green world below. It might have been beautiful if it wasn’t so damn frightening.
Two fighters swooped in on the Nisos, one Federation, one Rebel. Together they could have easily overtaken Ferris and blasted him into submission but when they caught sight of one another they moved instead into positions of attack against one another. Deciding their fight was not his fight Ferris moved the ship hard starboard and out of their weapons range.
Hails were bombarding the Nisos almost as much as weapons were. Rebels, Federation. They all seemed very interested in what the Nisos was up to. Ferris didn’t reply to any of them as word came from Valeria that FTL drive was fully charged. Ferris punched the jump button and the odd sensation of FTL jumping swept across the ship. They arrived in an empty sector. Just the FTL beacon and space, no planets, no stations. Ferris breathed a sigh of relief.
“This is Captain Ferris to crew, we’re free and clear. I’m going to take us towards somewhere uncivilized where hopefully neither Rebels nor Feds mess with us and we can get back on track with our lives til this whole war business sweeps over.”
“Very good captain,” Valeria’s voice sounded in his mind.
“You got it captain,” Alex said over the comm.
Chapter 4
Ferris contemplated resting at this beacon but decided it was best not to risk the possibility of either of the two fleets tracking their jump and prepared himself for another jump.
While he waited he reviewed the Nisos’s logs from the time he had been incarcerated. It seemed the Feds had been going over the Nisos’s flight data from its time under Ferris. Guess they wondered where their little pride and joy had been wandering about. Ferris chuckled, the first stop had of course been the bar at Alpha Kioni in Zoltan space where he had found Alex Rigopulus, fine ensign of the Zoltan border police, attempting to use his rank to get a free drink at the bar. It might have worked too if his rank had been anything even resembling legitimate. As it was though he had been thrown out just as Ferris had arrived and was eager to join up again with his old pal from the academy, even more so once he had made sure they hadn’t been ‘called out of retirement to fight one last battle for the Fed.’ Ferris chuckled, poor bastard watched too many Old Earth action movies.
They’d moved pretty fast after they noticed some Fed workers checking ship Ids at one of the other docks. It had been pure coincidence they had even run into Valeria on their way off planet. In fact, they had both suspected the Slug was one of the inspectors when they first saw her.
Valeria had always been quite adamant about proving herself and her people in the Federation and that had meant avoiding, shunning, and holding a general disdain for hoodlums of Rick and Alex’s variety. Turned out however that her captain had turned Rebel, booted her and the rest of his alien crew off at this spacedock and her attempts to find another ship and give information about her captain had been bogged down and ignored by Federation bureaucracy in favor of ‘other more pressing matters.’ Needless to say, in her disillusioned state, she had gladly agreed to join the two hoodlums from the academy in their trek into merc space to pursue the lives of freedom one simply couldn’t find in structured space.
Ferris reminisced as he browsed through the jump logs, losing himself in a particular memory in which a Slug ship had tried to convince Ferris quite adamantly that he needed hull repair at an exorbitant price, attempting to nudge his mind to agree with mental suggestions unaware Valeria was preventing any modicum of success on his part. As he remembered the look, of what can only be described as irate shock, cross the Slug’s visage the FTL recharge light binged and Ferris grabbed the comm.
“Prepare for FTL, we’re moving out.”
Ferris put the records away, leaving the investigation into what the Feds had uncovered for a later date as he prepared to engage FTL.
