The Freelancer

[JonasHudson]

Part III:
The Job

September 5th, 829 AS

So there I was, just sitting there in the cockpit of the Stratocaster, as it sat out on the main landing pad of Freeport 1, ready to depart. It had been a quiet couple of months. I was just getting ready to head back to Sprague after a long evening of wallowing at the Freeport bar...

When along came a Freelancer.

He was hesitant at first, some kinda young hotshot Freelancer I figured. He seemed to recognize the ship and lingered close by for a moment. I noticed the fighter of Rheinland origin and hailed him. We talked for a short while about Leeds, and the LRF. Post war Bretonia.

I advertised my services as per usual out of hope he might be looking for a decent operative, he seemed curious about my experience. Finally he cut to the chase. He was looking for some "preferably" active Nomad Power Cells. Not impossible in this day and age, but you can't just snap your fingers to get 'em either. 30 years ago these things had only just been discovered, only one was ever thought to exist at first. Now we know the Nomads use them for a variety of high energy consuming activities, like cloaking. You might find them dropped off a destroyed Nomad Marduk or Ishtar, or you might find one still stashed away on a wreck somewhere, of a ship that almost made it back to civilization with one in its hold. The Nomad War of 801 A.S. started over one.

So I told him give me 48 hours. I made my way out of the Omegas not long after, and zipped my way in the Stratocaster out as far as Omicron Delta. Freeport 11 is still kicking after all of these years, now under the administration of a sub group of Zoners called the 'Outworlders'. Another name but they seem to be about the same kind of quiet Zoners.

After a brief rest I grabbed the crew and we set out on a major patrol of several of the surrounding systems. Even let myself get carried away and ventured out into the Nomad Edge Worlds to test my luck on some highly secluded wrecks.

Unfortunately, luck didn't save me. We churned out one CODENAME turret from an old wreck, but that's about it. Not a piece of Nomad technology in sight, and sadly, the old freighter was no match for anything but the smaller Nomad fighters. Taking down a gunship or battleship was totally impossible. But the small ship with it's high speed, maneuverability, reinforced armor and cloaking device, made it ideal for the odd 'surgical' in and out trip. As long as we didn't linger in one spot for too long, it can be done. But my flight recorder proves, if you let down your guard, even for a second, that's all it takes.

Groups of Nomads can appear on you suddenly at point blank range, and in only seconds reduce you to scrap. We stuck it out as long as we could to scan a pilfered wreck, and got the hell out of there. Still, there's always something intriguing about the entrance to the mega structure out there. According to the stories, it's a huge Dyson Sphere the Daam K'Vosh built to encompass an entire star, and there is a great inhabitable surface on the other side. Only the famed Edison Trent and his few fellow Order operatives were said to have been inside and survived to tell the tale. For 30 years since, explorers have only ever been able to get photos of the outside. Too bad the Nomads still guard the area vehemently...

So after a long search I packed it in. The freighter took a few bad scratches, and the crew was starting to think I was crazy. At least I took the chance to chart most of the Omicrons that can be charted safely. Well, there was always the backup plan. I had already found one out here within the last year on a trip out in my Waran. Captain Antares had a Nomad Power Cell in storage since the war. Both were at my disposal, and technically were just collecting dust in the cargo hold of a storage freighter back in the Taus. Yet it's never easy to let these go without a backup or something.

We doubled back and hit the road out of town, zipping quickly across Corsair space, until returning to Omega-3. Once there, I contacted the operative "Caliban" and offered him a deal on what I had, but by that point I wanted him to convince me why it was worth it. Lucky for him he decided to come clean on his ties to Bretonia Intelligence. I'd suspected he might work for an organization. He said he'd seen my old report files in the database, and knew of my direct involvement with the SIS from that. I figure he must be telling the truth there, else security at the SIS has gone lax. So I let him have it after he convinced me it was going towards some Intel project to help combat the Nomads. We met back up at Freeport 1 and made our way to the Taus where I finally offloaded the items. They were burnin' a hole in my pocket anyways...

Days later, I hear some talk about a surge in activity up in Kusari, in the Tottori System. We bounced back up to Freeport 10 in Tau-37, and I had one of my bombers meet me there by remote. I figured I'd leave the Stratocaster behind for this one, since it would be double illegal in Kusari House space. I'm trying to avoid the ire of the House authorities these days, so I jump into an old Lance and made my way over to Tottori. I did a bit of scouting to get my bearings and then returned to the area of the Tojimbo Ice Field. It's a large asteroid field permeated by an ice crystal field that is theorized to have once been a small ocean world, long destroyed and scattered by time.

The Hogosha, civilians, and Kusari's vagabonds that compete with the Junkers, had built a base smack dab in the middle of the asteroid field, near one of their other bases. It had attracted the attention of local Outcast warlords and their drug addicted slaves in the criminal gang Golden Chrysanthemums. Their purpose was clear, to suppress local business competition in the area. Sadly these days, the big guys often succeed in driving the little guys out of town. Personally, I have no attachment to the Hogosha, back in my Junker days we did what we could to avoid them. At this point, it seems prudent to keep the Outcasts from having too much, too easily. Plus its always a chance to get some trigger time in, maybe make a few million credits.

Well, we did succeed in that. Yet there was no easy way out for this one, with a civilian operation on the line, there's no bugging out when it gets too hot. That's what ejection pods are for. So I went in, guns blazing, and woke up back at Jeju Mining Facility hours later. The base was destroyed by then, not surprising. But we gave them a hell of a fight! After recoving my composure from a few bumps and bruises, I slipped out back through '53 to Tau-37, and back to the Stratocaster. The things we do for the job.

*sounds of the bar at the Sprague spaceport can be heard in the background, chatter and the sound of ice on glass*

Made it back to Sprague safely, now filing my log for the record. Looks like it's back to the
bar until something else comes up...


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