Well, thankfully I'm out of jail. I'm too old to be getting into these messes. My old log burned with my old ship, so I'll run through a bit of what's happened in the past to get this log up to speed.
I captained a Rogue Gunboat named La Villa Strangiato. My crew was extremely loyal.
We got captured by the LPI (separate occasion). I spent some time in jail, and they only impounded my ship that time. In jail, I heard Xeno propoganda and really listened for the first time. It made sense to me, so I started talking with other Rogues, especially once I got out of jail. They didn't appreciate it, and I got some threats from the bosses to shut up and fall in line. They were probably just scared of more defections to the Xenos. Can't blame them for that.
I decided it was time to leave before our differences got the best of me. I took my ship (rather, stole it back from the impound lot) and crew and we became free pirates, wandering Sirius.
Years passed. We were pretty damn good at what we did. We had run-ins with all sorts, from militaries and police forces to organized criminal groups and Nomads. Made a few friends, but not many.
My idiot first mate thought it would be a good idea to return to Liberty. Big mistake. The LPI caught up with us again and this time, when they took the ship, they destroyed it and threw us all in prison. Last I heard, the crew blames me for the mess, so I seem to have fallen out of favor.
I may be glossing over some of the details, but that's the long and short of it. I'm sitting on Niverton right now after getting out, hoping to get started with a new ship. I'm not expecting much, though, especially since my credits mysteriously 'vanished.' God I hate Liberty. Nothing but bad things happen to me here.
They lent me a Mule, which I paid off by running a couple of missions and errands. Piranhas are flighty buggers, especially when they're three times as maneuverable as you, and I was never much of a pilot myself. Oh well. Once that was paid off, I started filling in the blanks of the navmap by visiting all the old haunts and spooks I was aware of between Niverton and Cortez. Montezuma was my last stop before heading into Coronado. I had almost no cash, but I had decided the most profitable business venture was to get up to Malta to try my hand at smuggling Cardamine which, as always, is in huge demand in Liberty. While I frown at its general usage, I've never been one to be squeamish about jobs.
On Barrier Gate now. This place is lightyears better than Liberty.
Oh, and before I forget, I asked around the Niverton, Alcatraz, and Montezuma: no one's seen or heard of any of my old crew. Either they're still in prison, decided to quit the life of crime, or went to the Xenos or some other group. I'll keep my eyes open. Once I get a proper ship back, I'm going to need a crew.
In Tau 23, I saw a pirate with an "SR" identifier (I want to say Strontium Raiders, but I know I'm thinking of the old BHG outfit "Strontium Dogs"... curses, my memory is starting to go) and he was fighting a Bounty Hunter. After forcing the Hunter to land on Java, the pirate was nice enough to give me a bunch of spare ammo he had. It added up to a pretty penny when I sold it on Malta, and let me fill the hold with Cardamine.
Well, here's to the long trek back to Liberty. And I was having so much fun on the fringes, too.
The past several days have been a blur of moving Cardamine from Malta to Buffalo, then slaves back. I don't much care for this. I'm not a drug trafficker, and I'm certainly not a slaver. I decided to move off the beaten path after dropping some slaves off at Malta. I stumbled across some wrecks with valuable loot, and decided to try and sell the three guns I found: Prometheus, Iron Hammer, and Diamondback.
After that, I headed south to check out Hessian territory. I figured smuggling blood diamonds might be a bit better, but the profits are much lower. I ran one load up to Niverton. Now I'm just waiting for a buyer to get back to me on these guns I found.
A Freelancer ended up buying all three weapons at once. I met him in Tau 37 and made fifteen million credits on it. Time to load up with Cardamine and head back to Liberty. Ah, I feel like my bones are going to split from the monotony of this. Hopefully it pays off in the end.
Met an interesting bunch... I was in California when I received a private communication from a ship tagged as "CL"-- Contari's Lance, as I'd come to find. He asked if I could report police movement in Magellan in California, to which I responded that it seemed to be fairly quiet. I'm not the one to ask though, I avoid the trade lanes like the plague. Once they found out I was moving the same cargo, we grouped up at Allentown in Pennsylvania and I flew with them a while.
I say 'interesting bunch' because they squabbled incessantly. That's not entirely fair. I'd say it's more likely I found myself in the midst of a lover's quarrel between Rina and Alessan. It appeared Alessan was the leader of the convoy, though his father holds more power. I'll have to keep my eyes on those people. Also, they offered me employment. I... don't like the idea of that. Friends and allies are one thing, but the idea of being under someone else's command chafes.
Still, Alessan did give me 5 million credits towards La Villa Strangiato's reconstruction. And they seem trustworthy... to a point.
I'm on Malta now. I have all the equipment together to get started. The only things I'm missing are my ship, the turrets, and my crew. We'll see where the winds take me next.
A feeling of trepidation washes over me as I write this. I've received a communication from my former first mate, Mr. Samuel Gompers. He didn't say what it was about, he just requested--more like demanded--that I meet him on Padua in three days. This raises questions: does he know where the rest of the crew scattered to? What has he been doing since we were arrested? Why is it so urgent that we meet?
I think I'll wait on Malta a bit before heading that way. I have things to think over.
I've arrived on Padua and checked around. No sign of Mr. Gompers. I am a bit early, but I feel nervous about this. We didn't part on the best of terms, since it was his recommendation that led to our incarceration.
If there is a God, he smiles upon me. Mr. Gompers arrived on the station shortly after I did, punctual as usual. The man is large and slow, but still sharp. His face is scrunched a little so he always looks like he's squinting, but his face brightened up when he saw me. We clasped arms in embrace. I could see he, at least, wasn't bitter about getting caught. When I expressed my surprise at this, he just said, "It happens. Can't win 'em all, Captain."
We went to the bar and found a nice corner to talk. And as he began his story, my jaw slowly unhinged.
He had gotten out of prison a couple of months before me. When he couldn't make contact with me, he decided to start looking for news of the other crew. He only found our helmsman, Terrance Powderly, who was flying a Mule for the Rogues, ferrying cargo between bases. Once in the life, it's hard to get out...
What he did next amazed me. I kicked myself for not thinking of it. He looked for news of the wreck of La Villa Strangiato. After months of scouring the Colorado system for any signs of it in a cheap CSV he bought from a Junker, he found the ship floating far off the beaten path.
This was the best news I had heard in a long, long time.
The bad news, though, is that there's a giant gaping hole in the hull where the LPI set off a bomb to destroy the ship. Apparently, they considered it crippled beyond repair... well, we'll see about that. We're going to set out tomorrow to investigate. If we're lucky, we'll be able to have it towed into a friendly port and get some repairs done. I might have to do some more smuggling to afford it all, though.
We went to the coordinates that Mr. Gompers had, and sent a message to Mr. Powderly to meet us there as well. He responded that he'd be there as soon as possible, and that he also had with him Robert Prior, my former chief engineer. He'll be useful to have with the repairs.
As for the repairs...
When I pulled my Bactrian up to the wreck, at first I was optimistic. There was little visible damage. Then we circled around and saw it from the other side. There's a gaping hole, just as Mr. Gompers said, in the forward section. Thankfully the engines are intact, as is the bridge (my comfy captain's chair can't be beat). We docked with the ship and had to use pressure suits to board. It didn't take long to restore power and repressurize the sections that weren't compromised, but unfortunately there's not a lot we can do here. We simply don't have the tools or resources available. The ship likely wouldn't survive a jump. The power core is also damaged in what I assume is a permanent manner, only giving off 75% efficiency.
What pisses me off most is some buggers got to La Villa Strangiato before we did and stole the cloaking device. Tore it right off and left the rest of the wreck floating, apparently figuring it wasn't worth the cost to fix. We'll see. We'll bloody see.
![[Image: u8rHEaq.png]](http://i.imgur.com/u8rHEaq.png)