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Hawk · (This post was last modified: 03-30-2012, 01:48 PM by Hawk.)

Captain Elijah Tallwood sat on the bridge of his Salvage frigate as the massive ship came into view. From the bridge window he could see the Junker Congress barge, The Forum sitting off his ship's starboard quarter. 'Did you hail them?'

'Yes and they have responded, ' his tactical officer replied, 'Crow is on board waiting for you.'

Tallwood couldn't help but notice that the docking bay on the barge was almost big enough to fit his salvager inside it. There was certainly enough room on the interior of that ship for more than a dozen salvagers. As the airlocks came together and then opened, Tallwood stepped onto the deck of the barge. There were crew members waiting for him. After leading him on journey that seemed to last forever, they opened the doors to a large room and invited him inside. He saw Jack Crow sitting at a large table with some other Congress officials.

'Come on in Lije. It was so good of you to come to dinner.'

'Yours is a hard invitation to refuse.'

'Well, it's been a while since you've been to one of our little meetings in person. I figured it was time to get you over here again. It gives us the chance to have a real chat if you know what I mean.'

'Yes I think I do. Am I really on a ship? I mean, I realize how big this is, but this room alone is huge. It's not only huge, but a wood paneled dining room. You aren't the same person anymore. Definitely not the grunt I remember barely scrapping by on that old scrapheap you used to fly.'

'Life has been good and I am enjoying it. It's what we are all about Lije. We don't complaint about all the things that are wrong with the world. We just find a way to make our own little part of this world better. Now sit and have a drink. Tell me how the trip was.'

'The trip was uneventful. You've got this thing sitting in a place no one comes looking so there was no one along the way to harass us. Not even Reavers.'

'Oh yes, my favorite Reavers. How are they treating you these days?'

'They haven't gotten close to me lately. A few of the others have had run ins with them. They're getting more lippy than anything else right now.'

'Lippy?'

'Yeah, they even have a new name for us now. Dock Junkers. Don't you love it?'

'It's got an interesting ring to it. Should I really care?'

'They're using it a lot now to describe us. They don't like not catching us. They went after Widowmaker yesterday. He pulled an absolutely brilliant maneuver and outsmarted them allowing him to get on a trade lane even after they shot it out. I think you need to keep your eye on that captain. He's going to do big things. Anyway, Silver was so upset that he got away she started the whole Dock Junker think again. We're hearing a lot about it.'

'This is such a non issue Lije. Docking is what we do. We make it to the dock when no one else can. What do you think paid for this ship and everything we have on it? Junkers making it to the dock, that's what. Silver is nothing but a goram Absalom.'

'And what is that supposed to mean?'

'It means that she doesn't get it.'

'Well, we knew that already didn't we?'

'Back on Earth, there was an ancient kingdom called Israel.'

'I thought Israel was a country in the last days of Earth.'

'It was, but long before that it was also an ancient kingdom, with several centuries in between the two. Anyway, the greatest king to ever sit on the thrown in Israel was a man named David. David was a warrior king well known for his great victories. Well into his reign, one of his younger sons, and man named Absalom wanted to take power for himself. He rallied many supporters who were all willing to follow him as king. Now what do you think the great warrior King David did when news reached him of Absalom's plot?'

'I imagine he would have gone out and crushed this insurrection like a bug, even it if was his son leading the charge.'

'Actually, he gathered up whatever he could grab in a hurry, he rallied all of his supporters, and they all fled the capital city of Jerusalem immediately.'

'That seems to me like a strange way to respond to something like that.'

'Why? Do you think he was a coward for doing something like that?'

'It would certainly seem so.'

'Lije, now you are starting to think like our enemies. David was the youngest son of a humble man from Bethlehem. He had no inheritance and no status in society. The only chance a man like that has to become anything in life is to make a name for himself in the military. He not only made a name for himself, he became the greatest king Israel had ever known. He did it not just because he was a great warrior, but because he was also a military genius. He knew that Absalom had a considerable force behind him and had set things in motion so that he would have an advantage when he made his move. David fled the city because he was not going to let Absalom carry out this attack on his terms. Never let your enemy call the shots Lije. David knew that he could immediately go out to face Absalom on Absalom's terms and he might even have a chance to defeat him at a great cost. He also knew that he could withdraw and choose him own terms for the conflict in which his enemies would stand no chance whatsoever. As it turned out he crushed this rebellion and died many years later as a very old king.'

'Ok, I'm beginning to see your point.'

'We don't do thing their way and they hate it. I don't care. What we do works for us. Here's another example. One of my personal heroes, is a man who also come from earth history. His name was John Paul Jones. He was a captain in the American Continental Navy during the revolution against England. At the time the British Navy was the greatest military power in the world. No other navy stood a chance against them. Jones knew that attacking the British head on was foolish. He had to come up with a new plan. He knew their greatest weakness was their arrogance. They were so convinced no one could threaten England that they didn't even patrol the coast. Rather than face the British ships of the line in the ocean, Jones sailed to England and raided a few small ports. In the end he did very little real damage and didn't come away with very much. However, he forced the British to start patrolling their own coast. The ships being used to patrol the coast were ships that had been in the Atlantic harassing American merchant ships. Jones' small tactic was brilliant. Don't play their game, make your own game. The Reavers are perturbed because we won't do things their way. Like anyone would really expect us to challenge bombers with transports. I read the report from the Widowmaker incident. You are right, they were great. Then Silver did what, cry Dock Junker? She is just mad because she lost a kill and now wants us to give it to her. So you've been outsmarted and embarrassed by a brilliant captain, what do you do next? Oh wait, maybe if I call him names, he's turn around and present his ship and cargo to me as a holy and righteous sacrifice. Yeah, I'm sure that will work.'

'Ok, you've made your point. You know we do have a lot more to talk about.'

'Yes I know. We've got time though. We'll go through everything. I trust all the deliveries are still being made to GMG, the GC, and the Dragons?'

'They couldn't stop that if they wanted to. It's all going very well. Deliveries to the GMG were delayed by the Reavers going after the Widowmaker, but as I have said, that was only a small delay.'

'Good, what about the other end of Kusari and this Gallic thing?'

'I'm still working on that. We know that Samura is smuggling military vehicles into Gallia, but we don't know where they are going. It's highly unlikely that they are supplying the crown since that represents the greatest threat to Kusari security at the moment.'

'Do you think the emperor has made some kind of deal with the crown?'

'Possible, but not likely, it's more probably that they are supplying the opponents to the crown. We'll stay on that. One of our units in the Taus did get attacked by a Council vessel recently.'

'Really, so they are treating us the same as the Gallic Junkers. That's really not that surprising.'

'Actually, this council chap claimed to be trying to collect a bounty. Probably the same one everyone else is out to get.'

'And still no word who is funding this bounty.'

'Not a clue. We have had some offers to help with that though. It just takes some time to sort through them all.'

'Yes, so I've heard. Where are you with the broker guy?'

'Well, he made an offer. We made a payment since it really wasn't that much anyway. I guess we'll have to see where it leads from here.'

'Good enough. JT and Finn will be joining us later, and a few other via hologram. We're going to have a good time catching up. Just relax and enjoy yourself for the next few days. '

'No problem. You know I can do that.'

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