Jack's Back in town

[Hawk]

The pilgrim liner Metaphysical made its way through the depris field to Rochester base. It had been a long time since this ship had flown in Liberty. At the forward portion of the bridge in a long black coat Jack Crow stood looking out a large window as they approached the base. One of the bridge crew walked up and handed him a report. He looked it over and handed it back. Then he walked back over to the captain's chair where his old friend Stephen Cruz was seated.

"Any contacts since we've been in this system?" He asked the captain.

"Nothing but scrappers and a few freighters Jack. No navy or police contacts. The smugglers know to keep clear of us so we won't be seeing them."

"I can't believe I'm back in Liberty."

"Somebody had to come back here and deal with this. You've definitely got the experience playing their games."

"I never liked their games. I left for a reason."

"Well, we're about to dock. I'm going to stay on the ship for a while and get her ready for maneuvers in this system. I suspect we're going to be playing games soon."

"Ok, I'll go see about getting a ride to Denver."

"Are you sure you want to go planetside? You know the LN is not going to be happy about you coming back. If you step onto their turf, their bound to find an excuse to arrest you."

"Then I'll go there very quietly. No need to start making too much noise yet."

"They're bound to know you're here by now. There's going to be plenty of noise."

"I know how to deal with that. Get the ship restocked and get back in space. Stay off the grid and out of sight. I'll contact you soon enough for the next phase. When is Lije supposed to get here?"

"He left Gallia to come back for this little party, so it's going to be quite a trip. I'm not expecting to see him for almost a week."

"That's fine. We'll still have time to put everything in place." He turned to walk off the bridge. "I'll see you soon my friend. I've got a meeting to get to now."

He left the bridge and walked to his quarters on the ship. Retrieving a small bag and throwing in over his shoulder he walked down several decks to the airlock. Rochester was very much the way he remembered it. It was pretty much the way it had always been. There was always so much activity everywhere you looked, at any time of day. He walked through familiar corridors, finding his way to an old familiar gathering place. It was a large bar near the center of the station. There were several different sections and three different levels. He walked toward the back. The person he was looking for was sitting in a dark booth. He went to the bar, ordered a glass of rum and then sat down in the same booth.

"The large figure in the booth looked at him from across the table, "You actually came back."

"I heard there's going to be quite a party. I didn't want to miss it."

"There's only going to be a party if you are sending out the invites."

"I've sent a few actually. I'm about to send the grand one to the Liberty Government. They are going to be so thrilled to know I'm back."

"They'll be camping this station by tomorrow. That won't be good for business."

"I'll really don't care. I'll be gone by then."

"Where are you going to be?"

"You let me worry about that. Is everything ready on your end?"

"Ready as we can ever be. Most of my ships are hiding in the Pittsburgh debris field with a few in the Badlands. I've got scouts in Texas and California."

"Ok, you can pass information to me through my agents on this station. I've also got a few agents on the ground on Manhattan."

"You're really going all out for this one. What's going on?"

"I'm just going to nip this one in the bud. Polstari is not just hurting business for those around here. It also affects what I'm trying to do far away from here and I'm just not having that. If he wants to puff up his chest and make a big deal about this so be it. I'll show him just what a big deal it is and he'll wish he'd never heard of us."

"Ok, what do you want my ships to do while you're getting set up?"

"Pretty much what they've been doing. Just keep gathering intel. There are innocent pilots being harassed by the LN every day. Collect as much data on that as possible. Find out all you can about the people who own the ships the LN have been targeting. The atmosphere is pretty toxic around here right now. It won't take much to expose what the navy is doing here. They are going to have a much bigger problem on their hands than they ever thought they'd have from Junkers