Defending the Delta

[Sombs]

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These log entries are created in secret and aren't available to any other entity.

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Log - Ezrael Vertiga

It's time again to reflect about the events of the last month. Much happened, few good things, many bad things. About that entire Loyola story, she seems to be in a relationship with Eliza Valdez. of course she didn't bother telling me about it during our date on Corinth. With other words: Eliza was horribly mad at me, showing it with her typical super-cynic-ironic-sarcastic way as if she wanted to impress someone with that kind of humor. It's stupid, and so are those two Maltese girls, really. The less I have to deal with them, the better it is.

The video clips on the neural net have reached many people, including Elena Voigt. I had a meeting with her on Los Angeles, simply to talk about stuff, and she knew about my, as she named it, escapades. Elena herself looked like a wreck. She broke up with her generic Navy John, she lost her unborn child and Maren seems to have had fun sending the Wild after her, if not even herself. Before I told her to leave her alone, that is. I really hope Maren didn't do anything stupid again. I really hope.

The dinner with Elena reached a point where she accused me of being infected or a nomad supporter, which made any other interaction with her impossible. I proposed her to take her to the Apahanta, to show her the Auxesian scans on me and Maren. So we moved to Kappa, to the Apahanta and I showed it to her. It was a relief to her, obviously. For a short moment we were also able to talk about what happened to her and her child, but she suffered an emotional breakdown, a pretty dangerous one. I was about to call both Dr. Carr and Camillo, but I had things under control, it seemed. We didn't talk about it again, and I believe the only people who should would be therapists. I offered Elena to make use of Lindsay Camillo, our counselor, whenever she wants. Later, Elena stayed over night. I showed her Sombra's cartoon playlist and let it run during the entire night. Elena fell asleep after a bunch of honest laughs. Next day I showed her the Apahanta's hydroponics, and our apple tree. She liked it. She ate an apple of it for breakfast.

Together with Leon and her we moved back to the Colonies. It was Leon's last day on the Apahanta, he was done with all the repairs. The ship was ready to fight again. We took the gunboat and moved to Cortez, where Elena headed back to Liberty.

Leon.

Looks like one of my technicians wasn't really happy about him leaving. Annie Reese, our youngest crew member from Freeport 5. Elena and I found her and Leon in the hydroponics, enjoying popsicles they stole from the canteen. It looked pretty harmless, until we saw them at the airlocks, where she said goodbye in a very intimate way, tip-toeing to give him a breathtaking kiss. Elena and I talked to him about it, and it seemed like he didn't know what was happening either. It was cute, and it seemed to have boosted his ego again. Maybe it was what he needed, looking at all the horrible stuff happening to him in the last months. He's been happy now since he left the ship, got his job at the OSC workshop back and repairs all kinds of hovercrafts at the beach.

Meanwhile, Curacao seems quiet. There is a strong deflux of traffic. Less people come to visit, HOT GEARs profits are decreasing based on that, at least on Curacao. It was a rumor first. A rumor about Gallia having found the Magellan-Cortez connection. The Montezuma Rogues have turned silent. A few days later we got the confirmation. They are here.

Gallia has reached Cortez, and it is a matter of weeks now, instead of months. I'm currently preparing for the worst case scenario. Chairman Pines told Paige a while ago that Curacao may remain unharmed but under blockade. I really hope he is right with that. I don't want it to turn into another Leeds or Harris...

I have many brochures about houses on Planet Denver in Colorado, LPI seems to do a great job keeping the planet safe. I really don't know how this war will go on, maybe Gallia will even reach Colorado. Maybe Planet Stuttgart would be a better choice, or Planet Hamburg in Rheinland. They have a general problem with their unlawful populace there, but nothing like Gallia. Corsairs might be around every now and then. I don't know what's the lesser evil, to be honest. The next alternative would be Planet Honshu in Kusari. I don't speak a damn word in their language, and I know it's not really necessary as most people of Sirius can speak english, but it might be weird. To be fair, Honshu is my favourite, as there seems to be nothing that harms it in any way. Kishiro has a damn good reputation. New Tokyo would also be an alternative, seems pretty quiet around it, but I know about their weird civil war nobody cares about, and Gallia is only so far away.

Finding a safe home is pretty hard right now, really. I think the most likely solution would be to invest into another Corvo. A new Hoffnungsschimmer, to cover up the... disappearance of the old one. A new home ship to be able to move from A to B whenever I want. Making it nicely decorated inside, and all that. It's obviously more expensive than anything else, but mobile. It's not that I have a money issue, looking at how much profit we're making with HOT GEAR and Netspace Logistics and the other companies I invested into.

Or the other stuff I do. I've been roaming around with the Rovers, doing some jobs here and there, earning a few millions here and there. Some by disrupting torpedos and other warheads, some by selling smaller, let's say, loot. Turns out the Rovers were a pretty good investment, as they allow me to be at the right place at the right time without being in danger myself, with the ships operated from the distance, over neural net link. I've done some bookkeeping recently, and it looks like with all the income I'm back at over two billion credits. That's pretty damn nifty. Allows me to get more stuff for the Apahanta and more quality-of-life improvements, as for example another Corvo and some other investments.

But speaking of it.

There is a new conflict going on in the Omicrons. Zoners and Core have made peace with each other, finally. Order didn't like it. Corsairs didn't like it either. There has been a siege on a station Core and Zoners built together, Port Carthage. I used that opportunity to get in touch with the Core again, as well as to remind the Zoners I'm on their side.

It was a test. And an investment. The crew has been mostly evacuated to Livadia, leaving only the combat-approved people on the ship, as well as threehundred KSRs. We've taken a look at how effective we are in combat without risking too much. Sadly, at least in my case, this was recorded by Freeport 11, so everyone saw the Apahanta during their live feed.

It was the final battle for Port Carthage and the Apahanta didn't do bad at all. We got our few kills and then in the end the Corsairs and the Order overwhelmed us with their mighty fleet. We managed to cloak away, using the typical decoy deployment method. No crew casualties, just a few KSRs need to be replaced. The damage at the Apahanta itself was, I say, acceptable. We've headed for Livadia for repairs, the internal systems have been alright, just a matter of hull replacement and some secondary stuff. I personally know where my mistake was during that battle, as I tried to help the CoF ship to get out of their focus. Two corsair warships targeted us and we got the full load to the side.

I personally don't care about Port Carthage being destroyed now. I think the Core and the Zoners are pretty close to each other now again, the way it should be. Freeport 11 has been really lively recently. Reminded me of the days when I met Maren for the first time, drunk and in the arms of a lesbian corsair. Turns out the recent Freeport 11 administrator was Kyu Akibara, a former member of my crew during Core times, I believe he was the resource manager of the ship. Had only a short talk with him, offering my assistance. Sadly they forced him off the station when Order threatened to use NEMP warheads against freeports and Gran Canaria. Isn't that funny? If the Order used all those means to eliminate the Nomads, we'd probably be all fine by now. Although I really doubt a NEMP weapon could harm anything beyond the Omicron Iota gate.

The hull repairs are almost done. It's progressing rather slowly as we can't risk being seen at Livadia directly. So we're deep inside the nebula now and they sent two repair drones for the outer hull repairs, while the KSRs and the damage control team does the stuff from the other side. It's well coordinated, both my crew and the Livadians get along pretty well. I mean, we've been here for a year now.

As soon as we're done here, I'll return to Maren. I didn't see her in a while and that often means she did some horrible things out of boredom or helped Mittens to evolve into an intelligent cat. I still remember how she told me Mittens won at Scrabble against her. Maybe we can just have a few days of love with each other, without troubles.

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