The Goliath silently glided through the heavens, away from the gravity of Huron, and towards the jump point that would take it to the Omm system. This ship was a Turncoat, outfitted with every weapon and upgrade that would fit on it. Her skipper, a bounty hunter named Duke Bullwhip, needed a tough ship that could take a beating.

The Goliath had two fighter bays and six Krait fighters. The little bit of room left in the hangar area went to the Journeyman -- Duke's personal escape vessel. Bullwhip, a paranoid man, did not trust an escape pod -- anyone (be they good or bad) could pick up an escape pod. He needed something he could feel safe with -- something with a hyperdrive. The six Krait fighters were piloted by Marauder Wing, six mercenary pilots hand-chosen by Duke.

Marauder Leader was the call-sign taken by Chris Quinn. Quinn, a former member of a renegade fleet, chose to spend some time aboard the Goliath rather than on one of the United Earth prison worlds. With years of experience as a pirate, Quinn is easily the best pilot in Marauder Wing.

Marauder Two was the call-sign taken by Mike Pearson. Mike Pearson was a lieutenant in the UE Navy -- and a veteran of the Voinian War. He was also a rather odd man. At the first Battle of Vorik, Pearson was captured and placed into a Prisoner of War camp. His memories of the camp were very vague, and came to him only in his dreams. Everyone said he had changed after the tramautic experience, but they could not blame him. Mike knew that his mind was like a cloth, unraveling thread by thread as his nightmares (flashbacks, really) of the camp grow more and more frequent and more and more tramautic. The only time Mike could escape the pain and memories was when he was in the cockpit.

Scott Kennedy took the call-sign Marauder Three. Kennedy, a loner and academy drop-out, joined the crew of the Goliath for one reason: money. Being a bounty hunter, while being dangerous, is rather lucrative when a fugitive is caught. He was saving his money for his own ship, so he could work as a mercenary and small-time trader. Besides having a bad work ethic, Scott chose to leave the United Earth Navy because he valued his freedom and would not sign it over to the government.

Daniel Wright took the call-sign Marauder Four. He was only a temporary part of Marauder Wing, working in the fighter squadron to pay for transport across the galaxy.

Stephen McNamara took the call-sign Marauder Five. He was a quiet man who kept mostly to himself. Occasionally, Stephen would join in one of the poker games, but, for the most part, he enjoyed staying in his quarters and reading.

The last pilot in Marauder Wing, Jack Lawrence, took the call-sign Marauder Six. Jack came from a wealthy family, which gave him plenty of experience in piloting ships in the atmosphere. When he first flew in space, Jack was a natural. Had he been born a few years earlier, Jack would most likely have been a fighter pilot during the war. By the time he reached the age to join the navy, the war had ended.

Duke Bullwhip, the skipper of the Goliath, sat in his pilot's seat, and stared at the astronavigation computer. A stream of numbers trickled down the monitor, eventually all becoming zeros -- the computer was making calculations for the jump to hyperspace. Duke was a tall man, whose dark eyes and hair contrasted his pale skin. He wore the usually FRA (Fugitive Retrieval Agent, more commonly known as bounty hunter) uniform: a black jumpsuit and black boots. Around his waist, he wore a hulster with a blaze pistol, and carried a few extra energy cartridges. He glanced over at his copilot, Tom Hunnicut.

Tom, whose hair and eyes were much lighter than Duke's, sat in the copilot's seat to the right of Duke. The only other seat in the cockpit was the seldom-used guest seat which was behind both the pilot's seat and copilot's seat. Tom glared out into the infinite universe, seeming to be hypnotized by the stars. The floor began to shake beneath him, and he strapped himself in -- the ship was going to enter hyperspace. The stars before him -- the infinite view of the universe -- blurred in front of him, and the Goliath was hurtled through hyperspace at unimaginable speeds.

Within a few moments, the stars snapped back into position and the Goliath returned to real space. Duke struggled to hold his head up as he looked around the cockpit. Jump shock had set in. Duke had no idea what caused it, but he seemed to remember hearing that jump shock was caused by the fluids in the inner ear being mixed around. When the pain in his head subsided, Duke removed his seat belt and walked out of the cockpit. He silently motioned for Tom to follow him. The ship was on auto-pilot to the next jump point.

Since the Goliath ran with a skeleton crew, there was a lot of leftover space. One left-over living area for crew members became known to the crew as "the lounge." It had a holo-screen, a billiards table, and many other things to keep the crew occupied. On journeys to deep space, this room helped to keep morale up. When you leave the bridge, it is simply a matter of walking down the corridor to get to the lounge. Duke led Tom down this corridor, and into the other room. As Duke suspected, the Marauder Wing pilots and several other crew members were gathered in the room.

"Deuces and snowmen wild, right?" asked Stephen.

"Yeah," grunted Chris Quinn.

Stephen glanced back down at his cards. The pilot threw his chips into the pot. "I'm in," he remarked.

Duke Bullwhip cleared his throat and everyone glanced in his direction. He saw that he had everyone's attention and began to speak. "Many of you may have heard of a renegade who goes by the name of 'Needle' Edwards. But," he glanced around, making eye contact with several crew members, "for those of you who have not, I will give you a bit of background information.

"Needle Edwards is a genius. He revolutionized the weaponry used by the renegades, making our jobs, and those of the UE Navy, much harder. He works with the Captains of Freeport, so, when we do track him down, they're going to put up a fight. In a few hours, we'll be arriving at Freeport in the Riomor system. It's not a very safe place so --" began Duke, but Chris Quinn cut him off.

"-- Marauder Wing is going to be on active duty," he finished. "Great," he threw his cards down on the table. "You couldn't have done this when I had a losing hand? A full house," he said.

There was a chorus of "I fold"'s and, grinning, Duke Bullwhip left the room.

The poker-players had the holo-screen on, and they were watching vintage horror movies from the thirties at full volume. Tom Hunnicut grabbed the remote control and changed the frequency.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" object Chris Quinn.

"Oh, shut up. You've been watching this rubbish all month," replied Tom.

"Yeah," said Jack Lawrence, "and all last month you watched those stupid documentaries. 'The Mating Habits of the New Rome Flying Shark' nearly made me vomit."

Everyone began to laugh. Tom, deciding to leave them be, placed the remote control down. "Go ahead," he said. "Rot your brains with this grabage. I don't care."

The Proxima Nebula was a forbidden place. The jump points of each system were guarded with vultures -- Human renegades in search of a weak target to prey upon -- and, as rumors have recently been saying, strange alien vessels. While the nebula itself was impenetrable, the fringes of this nebula made the perfect place for a hideaway for all the renegades, pirates, and unwanted scum of the galaxy. That hideaway came to them in the form of a space-station: Freeport.

The station, which was nearly four full miles in length, was made entirely from spare ship parts and debris. There was a seemingly endless supply of these, because the majority of the station's visitors and occupants were renegades. This meant that there was usually a good starship battle going on in the space outside the station, and, even more frequently, a brawl between renegade fleets inside the station.

Space rippled as, with a flash of bright light, the Goliath dropped out of hyperspace. Immediately, alert klaxons began to blare in the cockpit. Renegade ships were approaching on both starboard and port at attack vectors. Duke, still somewhat dazed with jump shock, called for all crew to man their battle-stations, and for all the pilots to get to their fighters. Duke maneuvered the massive Turncoat away from the approaching renegade ships.

He glanced at his scanners; the biggest threat was another Turncoat, called the Hellfire. Speaking into the comm-unit, Duke said: "Marauder Wing, get on the Hellfire and its fighters."

"You heard the cap'n," said Chris Quinn, clutching his flight stick. "Marauder Two and Three, you're with me. We'll go for the Hellfire itself. Four and Five, do you guys think you can handle the fighters?"

"Of course," remarked Jack Lawrence. "It will be a piece of cake."

The fighter wing broke off into the two groups. Mike Pearson, Chris Quinn, and Daniel Wright went after the Turncoat called Hellfire.

Mike Pearson was excited, because he hadn't seen any action for a while. Now, gripping the flight stick and tapping the rudder pedals with anticipation, the pilot could forget about his troubled past; forget about the torture he went through. Flying was, in a way, therapeutic to him.

Bolts of red blaze energy crashed into his Krait's thin layer of shields. Rolling to port, Mike avoided several more shots, while unloading many of his own on the Turncoat. The Krait's blaze cannons slowly ate away at the Hellfire's shields, while its gunners struggled to target the three fighters. Weaving in and out of blaze fire, the Kraits of Marauder Wing did their damage. More blaze fire, from the Goliath, helped take down the shields of the enemy ship.

Stephen McNamara held his finger poised over the trigger, ready to fire his blaze cannons. The Krait pilot in front of him weaved in and out of his locked. No sense in wasting energy in my blaze batteries if I'm going to miss, he thought. He waited until he heard the beeping confirmation and fired. His shots hit the target, heavily damaging the weak shields of the Krait.

The other pilot cut his throttle, sending Marauder Four right into the enemy fighter's blaze cannon range. Marauder Four rolled to port, narrowly avoiding bolts of blaze energy. Cutting his own throttle, Stephen maneuevered the other Krait right back into his targeting brackets. His blaze cannons unloaded all of their fury on him. The other Krait disappeared in a ball of flame.

A second Krait began to fire on Stephen. "Jack," he called into his comm-unit. "Do you read me?"

"Loud and clear," came the reply.

"I've got a bogie on me," said Stephen. "I can't shake 'im, he's too fast."

"I'm on my way," was Jack's response.

Nervously, Stephen pulled some evasive maneuvers, struggling to survive with such weakened shields. He noted that Jack was coming in on the tail of the other Krait. The other Krait spun around, ready to meet this new attacker, but, while its attention was focused on Jack, Stephen soared up and down, blasting the small renegade fighter. Its pilot could not continue the battle against the other two Kraits. The cockpit to the Krait slid open and, donning a pressure suit, the renegade pilot drifted towards the Hellfire.

With all three Kraits gone, Marauder Four and Marauder Five set their sights on the Hellfire. The Hellfire, which had some rather large hull breaches was badly battered. The three Marauders and the Goliath combined give it a licking. Duke gave the order to wait, while the Hellfire surrendered and hyperjumped out of the system with its tail between its legs.

"This is the Goliath," said Duke Bullwhip into his comm-unit. "Requesting permission to land..."