The "Office", or marketed as Johnny's Office - picture it with neon lights. Maybe purple, was really the objective of Johnny, still in the Omicrons for business, he should come back soon. After years in the LPI, ignoring the blatant corruption of a private police force, of course. He left, not without burning anything behind him. His local office exploded three years ago at night, killing about everyone still working late. His records were wiped, from birth - to now. He never existed. The bomb used was a bomb they found days ago, probably built by Xenoes, he sent a message with the account of another fellow "partner", to their superiors, finding the bomb "not correctly disarmed" -- Three hours ago after the message was sent, the skyscraper that hosted this section of the LPI burned down. The LPI still consider this as an accident, and the way of handling of disarmed explosives evidence was changed.
First and foremost, an unclear number of technicians, but especially "agents": specialized in various tasks such as infiltration, deception, assassination or bounty hunting. All agents that are sent into the field were ex-LPI, BPA, KSP, Gallic Gendarmerie, and Rheinland Police agents, disgruntled by their Houses, and finally, a contingent of ten (10) ex-Marines, rescued from a flaming gunboat destroyed by their own during a Libertonian black bag operation within the borders of Bretonia - as they said... -- all stuck in this Frigate.
Although, they became more and more effective at their new job as "homeless bounty hunters". They will soon be able to afford to propose their own close support services to anyone within acceptable radius. We don't know much. The finalization of finding the training simulators for the Starfliers was finally finished, and it really gave us a breather. We could finally maintain our ship, and repair the fighters and bombers
parked under a myriad of shell companies.
This search was not without impact. The OSI, and The Polaris Inc. decided they were better than us. It was understandable for OSI, as we really are, an intelligence agency, but, we're not affiliated to anyone. Our motto is, we don't ask questions. You give us a task, and we do it. We could have had a very good provider of services and goods in the Omicrons, but, seems like we'll have to do the handy work ourselves. We should buy a Dromedary with forged documents, maybe Daumann. The Polaris Inc. are simply irrelevant. Karl has made his mind, though. We need a supply line in the Omicrons, a reliable one, for our future "Red" and "Blue" and... whatever "squadron" he came up with again.
Months went by, and we managed to take off. Morale has never been this high. Heh, to be honest, I rarely saw the crew of a ship being this happy. The contract we made with the Starfliers really boosted us up. As I wrote earlier, we can afford snubcrafts now. Karl still won't say what his little project of his is. Maybe it's better that way.
Still, everyone thought about what we are doing. The search for the FRS Roanoke was what drove us in the beginning. Then, the glue that is holding this office together; hatred and long-awaited revenge on the Houses who made of us outcasts. We were swimming in contracts. But all that means one thing: we really are giving up our identity as a citizen of the House, each one of us. Like the Bounty Hunters. It's funny. We tried hard not to end up like them, but they are now the closest thing to us, and probably only thing.
This lingering feel, of betraying one's House. We're not fighting against the House, yet...
"Hey. Did you check the last communication from the representative of the Technocracy of Auxo?", Karl said, as he sat next to Emily in the CIC.
"Yes, what about it?" she replied, without letting any doubt transpires from her face.
"They want us to create dissent. I don't know where yet. Are you fine with this?" Karl asked, as he let himself go on the comfortable commander seat.
"Our motto is that we don't ask questions. I've read it. We'll see what they'll ask of us." she said, without hesitation.
She too knew what it meant - or worse, not knowing exactly what it meant. Creating dissent. Where and how?
The Technocracy of Auxo. We finished our first contract with them. It made us use many of our agents. Agent Marc, Agents Zoé and Lili. Our representatives, Karl and Emily. We contacted many factions, met many people, even one of their priority target; Caliban. But they remain quite mysterious - Caliban did warn us of them. However, Johnny's strategy with them is to continue working with them. "We only follow orders". So we will.
The Frigate, renamed the Black Silence - "Swift Silence" being reused for one of the Office's newly acquired supply vessel, was getting crowded. Not in terms of agents or contracts, these were... awfully low. Items, tokens, armaments gathered throughout our missions. We even had ground equipment. The inventory lists, a howitzer, multiple artillery, a cruise missile, and even a Ground Vehicle, you know, the ones used to actually invade a planet. We couldn't just dump them in space, we could use them eventually. We were always looking to get a new vessel, a true flagship. A battleship, a carrier, anything that's actually worthy of being called a flagship.
We knew we could reduce the need for hands on a capital-class ship, since that's exactly what we have done for the frigate. Many small usually manned utilities such as turrets, are manned by a single person, the gunner, thanks to our engineers, and additionnal help from the stations we stayed in.
The engine of the ship was also changed. We switched to an engine that was more fuel-efficient. We also had to purchase a water purificator, ours was starting to let us drink piss-flavored water. Good thing the machine told us in advance that it was malfunctioning, but nobody knew what the error code meant. That'll teach us. We also bought a few tons of water, and food that aren't just military rations. We bought actual vegetables, fruits, herbs, meat,etc. One of our mates, was also a cook before, so we enjoyed multiple times actual, real, meals. The kitchen, and the table, were used for the first time ever since we bought the ship. We also purchased wine and champagne, and we feasted over the completion of the Auxo contract with the rest of the team.
More than 200,000,000 in a few days, huh? Seems like Johnny was right. That's an untapped market though, I wonder how much time we have left until we eventually get persona non grata'd. Liberty doesn't know we exist pretty much, neither does the other Houses, we're simply Freelancers.
Though, Johnny should be contacting "Cobra" soon, and we'll step in Liberty again. A bit afraid of that but, it is what it is.
We also need to consider getting better equipment. Since we use so much snubcrafts slopily attached to our Frigate, a carrier might do the trick, but who has a carrier lying around? I know the Zoners may have the perfect ship for us. The Aquila-class. I remember it from my recon. missions a few years ago. I think a group named Phoenix, of Zoners, might be able to help. I'll propose between refitting and repairing a damaged one, or just getting one ready to go. Either way, It's going to the Omicrons for me now. When Johnny will come back, I will go for the Omicrons.
Johnny's back, and the first potential contract we get is a blanket one from who else than Liberty. Absolutely fantastic. The pay was low, the ships, completely missing. We haven't advanced on that case - the Roanoke. But we did try other things. We contacted the Zoners after having a tip about how their carrier might fit us perfectly - 5,000,000 wasted. The Zoners declined. It was obvious they would, but we kept going. We don't have their maintenance capabilities of the Zoners, or any House really. Either way, it's yet another pressing issue.
Before then, we had the opportunities but not the money, and now that we have the money, it seems as if there is no opportunity anymore. A cruiser might be better, but we would need to deal with a House.
Just like that call to investigators from the First Armada's Office of Naval Intelligence. They're looking for the Roanoke as well, and it seems they've seen it too. As I said, the pay remains too low, but we're on it already, so it's bonus - but it's still Liberty.
Quite the least busy days we've ever seen... Except that a potential competitor doing what pretty much what we are doing just appeared out of thin air. Thank God it's in the Taus, so either they'll vanish and be sold as "meat", or be just killed by the Outcasts. Zoé is on the case. Our first case where we don't expect money, but to actually contract them and... examine.
A difficult road that will interest pirates. A cargo, relatively interesting. Basically everything. Hell, if we developed the reverse version of a cloaking device, this is probably the only time it'll be used, although... or not? Anyway. It was maybe bound to happen. Good thing our Red Squadron is ready.
Johnny managed to meet the FRS Roanoke again. This time, we took the proper measurements and scanned the entire ship. We have sent the album to the ONI of the 1st Armada. Awaiting the wiring of money and a reply, from their pawn, ONI-36. We still want to talk to their Admiral.
Talking about the FRS Roanoke. The contract with the BAF is basically dead in its track. One of our top agents decided to pay a visit to a convoy going to the Taus. We have no position or opinion about Bretonia except that they have money and we want money. But now, we have money on our heads. 500,000,000. After Karl pointed out our investigations on what transpired, we could not simply give up one of our agents and give them to Bretonia. We covered it as best as we could but it seems the Bretonian Armed Forces are omniscient. I have no further comments to make on this expect that they outright lied to us. Being told that the behavior was not acceptable, and/or a fine.
No, what we got was 150,000,000 initial single bounty on the Redemption vessel. It already went to the shipyard five [EXPUNGED] times in two days, we simply can't pay up once more. Of course, when we pointed out that we can still recieve the information, and that they lied right to us, and kept a straight face, we pointed it out. It's simple as that... And once they figured out their error, whether it is that or something else, the bounty was lifted up to a grand total of 500,000,000 and to the entire Office. I really wonder what Zoé, Marc or even Johnny did to deserve being valid targets, but now they are.
I'm pretty sure it's part of a way of embezzeling the Bretonian government, because it is simply ridiculous.
The Bounty Hunters Guild - whom we already dealt with in order to provide adequate training to the Starfliers - quickly deployed the big guns, and we saw at least one Bretonian type gunboat with BHG IFF in Bretonia searching for it, a Hammerhead, and a Freelancer light fighter that damaged Marc's main fighter. The Redemption was also damaged in Leeds.
Basically, the Guild is fighting a proxy battle against us, and we have no real chance of "winning", as they can just "print" out more pilots, more ships, and it won't change the fate of the bounty. I wonder what will be the relations between the BAF and our Office after this. We still want to make money, and don't give a fuck about the Guild nor them, we have a job to do, and we'll do it.
But now, it's up to Ezra, I wonder if she will step up or not about this affair.
The AI cores weren't tested before being installed hastily inside the Frigates. One is more advanced than the other, but both are leagues ahead of what is usually sold on any type of market, legal or not. A gift from Agent Zoé. Well, now, she's just in cryo sleep, awaiting medical help, after being shot down by a Freelancer. They didn't even make a claim... Yet, of course. It remains a mystery as to why the Crown decided to not only lie to our "lie", and upped the bounty for a single ship up to 500,000,000. It's now down to 250,000,000 credits, but we have an idea.
This AI core... We can copy its content, and it'll work regardless, even on a different system, if it is tinkered correctly. We have been experimenting with drones before, but this might be too much for me and Johnny to do. Although, the second, advanced core, installed on the other Frigate is "smart" enough to reprogram itself to fit in lesser hardware. This is the answer! The Redemption can fly again, and be intercepted, but there will be no pilot inside. Just like how the two other Frigates are at this very moment.
The question of after remains, however. No legal action have been taken so far. Just this bounty. Maybe it is to "put us back into the right direction". Well. Regardless, it is in the future. Anyway, the Crown went too far. Just like those two installation in the orbit of Leeds. Something sure isn't right with Bretonia for the time being.
