#5 by Ghost

It had been somewhat like a bolt of lightening, they were there and then they weren't. An entire war had ensued, one of the most technologically advanced nation's was now just a reach away from pirate control and they had only flown eleven missions throughout the entire ordeal. He could've made assumptions, mental accusations about what was "really going on" and who might be pulling the strings, but it was clear. High command had been just as confused as he was. Kusari had been on a rampaging warpath that could have cut Liberty down the middle and in one day, refocused its military strength back into itself. Rheinland, who blind sided both Liberty and Bretonia with an unannounced alliance with Kusari was now pleading for peace. President Abma and the Liberty DoD had dug in and still refused come out of full defensive posture. All the while, Her Majesty's military stood by and watched the events unfold with an expression of disbelief and confusion.

Ghost sighed as he entered he watched the Tau-29 --> Tau 31 Jump Gate open and begin its artificial phase align. The White Dawn and Angel's Embrace, hospital ships of the Queen, activated their docking strobes and slowly lumbered into the bright light that would take them to the now fortified Tau 31, from which, they would proceed on to Leeds. The Planetform Inc. terraforming outpost on Planet Harris would now be home to some 3,000 Armed Forces fighter pilots and the gates to the other Taus on the far side of the system, the new front line. They'd been ordered to gun down any pirate elements unlucky enough to be found and it had been hinted that High Command wanted no prisoners.

As his wing prepared to jump, a large BMM convoy came through. The company, along with Border World Exports and small contingent of Gateway traders were cashing in on the unstable gold mine that was Kusari. With the Emperor dead and the military tied up with the pirates and themselves, the embargo on Bretonia had been unofficially lifted. The civilian companies, at least the ones who hadn't fled the house, placed an overflowing amount of orders to the western trading companies who's cargo they'd been starved of the since the beginning of the war. Prices on exports to Kusari shot up like a ship in atmospheric escape. A "Danger Tax" had been added to the original subtotal of all orders, since traders would now be flying into "hostile territory", but even this hadn't lessened the number of orders Bretonia received.

As the SAS wing of three passed the convoy, Ghost thought he caught a glimpse of the smiling freighter pilot - the dollar signs nigh visible in his eyes, and the thought of danger absent from his mind. Business and politics..had they both not been able to flourish on each other's failures what kind of world mankind be living in.


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#3 by Dragonslayer

Dragonslayer sat in the bar of Freeport 6. He had bought a new ship here and changed his transponder to identify his ship as a Kishiro Technologies ship. As he sipped his sake, he contemplated his delima. The Emperor was reportedly murdered, the Empire was crumbling under the combined Dragon and Outcast assaults. Even the Seii Taishogun had disappeared. He had no illusions what would happen to him if he was caught by the Dragons, being the last Samurai of the old Emperor. He had no idea where to go from here, other than to occasionally try to kill a few Outcasts for revenge.

#2 by Blackrain

It had been a surprising time for all during the Outcast campaign of Kusari, but least expectant of this were the Corsairs. The Outcasts had long been enemies with the Corsairs, and when Kusari had let out a hand to help the Outcasts, months ago, the least they expected was Kusari to then be attacked by the Outcasts. It happened too fast for the Corsairs to rally.

I was aboard Cadiz when I first recieved news of this from our spies in Kusari. The naval forces had been defeated at Kyushu. Then fell the Nagumo. We first recieved a call for help the day before Honshu was taken, but at the time our forces were too spread out to assist. Then the Emporer was murdered. The Kusari citizens were told to flee. Since then, the old Seii Taishogun turned up in Omicron Gamma. We let him stay, we would let out a hand to help anyone fleeing Outcast rule. Kusari crumbled, one week at a time. There is just a small resistance left at New Tokyo and Shikoku now, the rest are either dead, fled, or submitted.