Spirit of Boudicca

[Fletcher]

Be advised this character bio is now out of date and deemed void.
Yours sincerely, Fletcher.
4th March 2012

Disturbing Iridium

After another hard day of mining gold in the Dublin system, the Spirit of Boudicca was on its way to Rochester base to unload the hold of gold onto the black market. Every gold shipment that the ship hauls can bribe a few small wings of LPI to turn a blind eye to the local Junkers ‘profitable’ business.

While on the way to the base, the crew are asleep with tired Liam on the helm, cursing every boring minute as the bland space rolls by the external hull cameras. But he kept himself a little busy with a crate of tobacco and his fathers stash of Belfast Moonshine.

The captain however was having a rough time sleeping, as he had to explain to the Mollies, Junkers and Zoners about what happened to the hired hands while mining the Iridium in Omicron Delta. It was meant to be a standard fair of mining, keeping the gun pointed at the hunters, and most importantly keeping an eye for anything… non human. Or so the Zoners say.

***Accessing Report Spirit of Boudicca ‘A-3’***
Written by: Rhodri Jones

Well, I’ve been asked to write up as to why… or what happened in Omicron Delta several weeks ago. Well, I’ll start as to why the Spirit was out in such a far flung system. Mainly, it was for the money, and that was with Iridium. That stuff was very rare, and would be… a good bargaining chip on the black market, in our hands off course.

However, we only got rough co-ordinates of the system since we had to bribe a rather odd Zoner off the co-ordinates to the system, it was through Corsair space. I hate those cannibalistic rogues; they’re nothing but thugs and hit men with a poor taste in food. Sadly, to preserve the ship, and the crew, I had to bribe my way into their ‘don’t kill on sight’ list. That is one bribe, I really did not want to do, but I’ll make that money back, and then-some, with some good intel that I can sell on to the Outcasts.

After a long trip through some odd systems, we arrived at Freeport 11 and intact thankfully. We then hired some locals who wished to mine on our ship, we picked a few miners up and made our way to the Iridium fields. The locals warned us to take care for the ‘Nomads’, I have only heard tales of them, and thought they were some strange faction of religious zealots. But apparently, their aliens, strange as it may sound. But, as long as they keep away from me and our money, we’ll be alright.

Sadly… that was not, it… it wasn’t the case. I think it’s better if this went into the audio logs of what happened that day. I don’t want to type this up.

***Opening ‘A-3’ audio log attachment***

• Rhodri Jones –
  Ewan, report time mate, how’s the mining going out there?
  
• Ewan O’Brian –
  All good, just a hunter now and again to keep the miners on their toes, we’re nearing ninety percent capacity in the cargo bays. Should be done in less than fifteen minutes.
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  Sounds good, let me know if anything strange, well, violently strange happens all right.
  
• Ewan O’Brian –
  Will do, out.
  

Approximately 10 minutes later

• Liam Hughes –
  Hey, I got a weird sensor reading on the CISS, (Close In Sensor System) no IFF’s, no codes, nothing but weird returns.
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  What are they? Ships? Debris? Are you sure it’s even a vessel?
  
• Liam Hughes –
  Well, I’ve in all my years never seen debris heading towards us at cruise speed!
  
• Rhodri Evans on intercom –
  All hands, return to the ship immediately we’ve got company! Get back into the cargo bays and seal the doors!
  
• Stuart McKay–
  May I suggest we fire up the engines? Those things may catch a miner before he’s back in?
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  I won’t leave a miner out there, move the weapon arcs into a good position to defend, Clive power up the weapons! Liam, take us into firing position.
  
• Clive Hughes –
  Yeah I’m on it, shunting power to the weapon systems!
  
• Liam Hughes –
  Rotating into position, bring it on! I’ve been looking for a fight!
  
• Ewan O’Brian –
  Rhodri, we’re boarding now! But there’re still stragglers out there!
  
• Stuart McKay –
  I got the ships in sight, they’re firing on the open air locks!
  
• Clive Hughes –
  Sir, those weapons pack a wallop! Shields weakening!!
  
• Liam Hughes –
  Come on Ewan we gotta go!!
  
• Ewan O’Brian –
  Just ten more seconds that’s all I need!
  
• Stuart McKay –
  Returning fire! By God those things are fast! This will take time!
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  We don’t have time!
  
• Clive Hughes –
  Shields collapsing!
  
• Stuart McKay –
  I got one sir! Oh no, the shields are gone! Their energy readings are going erratic! They’re firing!
  
• Clive Hughes –
  Sir the airlocks have been hit by some kind of… uh I’ll get back to you on that what the--
  
• Ewan O’Brian –
  We’re aboard, but I got injured down here! You get the medkit now! This one is convulsing!
  
• Stuart McKay –
  The Nomads are falling back, looks like some Hunters intervened.
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  Good, Clive stabilize all systems get the engines up, rip power from the weapons. Liam, get us the hell out of here to the Freeport!
  
• Liam Hughes –
  Aye, charging engi--- hang on, the engines aren’t responding…
  
• Stuart McKay –
  The core is shutting down, all systems are failing, shunting available power to life support systems.
  
• Liam Hughes –
  Tadcu, what’s going on down there! Where’s my power?
  
• Clive Hughes –
  ---
  
• Ewan O’Brian –
  What the hell! Stuart! Get your pistol and lousy arse in gear! My own miners are fighting each other! Hey! Yeah you just try it you little-- *shots fired, screams are heard in the background*
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  What’s going on down there? Ewan respond!
  
• Ewan O’Brian –
  I’m *cough* down mate, they went to enginee-- *thud*
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  Ewan? Ewan!! Stuart get down there now!
  
• Intercom –
  All hands, there is a group of miners attacking each other in cargo bay 3, arm yourself and await Stuart’s arrival! Shoot to disable at best, I say again, try not to kill them!
  
• Liam Hughes –
  What you want me to do? I gotta get to my dad!
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  You stay the hell in here, and lock the door. As soon as we restore power, full speed Boudicca back to the Freeport.
  
• Liam Hughes –
  A-a-all right, but please, help my dad!
  
• Stuart McKay –
  Rhodri, its best you stay here, who knows what’ll happen. We need someone to pay us when we get back.
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  All right, get going and be quick about it!
  
• Engineering intercom –
  *Pistol fire can be heard with loud screaming* Argh!! What the hell is with them?! Why are they firing on us!? What the--- no, no!! *Audio cuts out*
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  What the hell… biohazard warning?
  
• Liam Hughes –
  This isn’t good… the core is destabilizing!
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  Stuart, do what you got to do, use lethal force if necessary, the core is in need of repairs, they must be trying to tamper with it. Get in there, kill anyone who looks at you funny.
  
• Stuart McKay –
  Aye, will do. All right guys, get the pistols charged, and stay alert! GO GO GO!!
  
• Engineering intercom –
  *Gunshots are heard and an explosion* What the… his eyes… what the? Don’t gawk shoot! *More gunshots are heard*
  
• Stuart McKay -
  I found Clive, he’s hurt, but stable, but we’ve got a problem, the shielding for the core is hit and leaking gas everywhere!
  
• Clive Hughes –
  Vent… vent….
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  He can’t mean… all hands! Get out of engineering! Seal it off! Turn on your EV suits now! I’m going to vacuum engineering! Stuart, secure engineering!
  
• Stuart McKay –
  Already done, we’re clear and ready down here, had to patch Clive with the stimfoam.
  
• Liam Hughes –
  Vent command ready, thank God he’s alright…
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  Vent engineering now!
  
• Engineering intercom –
  *A voice is heard as the vents open up* Human… unclean… filth— *The room fills with silence as whatever was left in the engineering room is blown into space*
  
• Rhodri Jones –
  Cymru forgive me… Restore engineering.
  
• Stuart McKay –
  Hey, Clive can you repair the core? Can you walk?
  
• Clive Hughes –
  This is nothing but a scratch, I just need to realign the magnetic stabalizers, then redistribute the power, and we’re set. What the hell just happened?
  
• Stuart McKay –
  No idea, but I got to go check on Ewan, just work on getting us out of here!
  

Audio attachment ends

After those events… the core was stabilized, and we set a course to the Freeport to count our losses.

Ewan was alive, but he’s gonna have to carry a head wound for the next few weeks; he was knocked out before the real gunfights occurred. But, we lost thirteen miners that day; five Mollies, six Junkers and two Zoners. That is a price no captain needs to pay, pirate or navy.

We still don’t know exactly what happened to cause the crew to riot, nor an explanation to the glowing eyes the rest of the crew has been talking about. We did however manage to trace the riot beginning around the time the Nomads fired on the open air locks with an apparently non-fatal energy. We have no idea if it even was energy.

This has lead to high tension in the crew since the trust is low, and a fear of another fight is boiling in their eyes.

After we got repaired, and ‘inspected’ by some weird shady people, we were told to get out of the system. Not waiting, we fired up the engines and made full speed back to Trafalgar. This is one shipment, where the price, cannot be reclaimed by credits.

These Nomads… who, or what are they? Never again will I set foot into these systems.

Signed
Captain Rhodri Jones of the Spirit of Boudicca

Report ‘A-3’ ends

---

"Oh chuffing blimey, another day, another person being whiney!"
Fletcher's Feedback and Stories Thread