I don’t know what we are anymore. Revolutionaries. Rebels. Maybe just people still standing. Erie Defense Fleet is just a name. We’re not a fleet. We’re a handful of ships going up against real ones. Doesn’t leave us much room. One of the crew started calling us Rangers. Some of the others picked it up. Don’t know if it fits, but a name gives people something to hold onto...who am I do dissuade them?
[Avunhuvepl] is coming along. Systems are coming online piece by piece. I thought carving out an asteroid was a bad idea. Maybe it still is. But the Absolution can’t carry everyone forever. People need somewhere that’s theirs. A berth. A place to put things down. Erie’s out of reach unless you want to gamble your life. This is what we’ve got.
One of our transports ran into an Outcast ship tonight. Same name: Absolution. Either they’re copying or it’s not as rare as I thought. They chased our people into the Badlands. Took credits and kept coming anyway, almost all the way to Texas. That’s a problem. Liberty’s already on us in Pennsylvania. Prometheus is flying our flag. Xenos are being Xenos. Don’t need more on top of that.
Our transport crews are reporting more piracy in Pennsylvania too. Liberty tears the place apart, then leaves it open for scavengers. We’ve pushed back where we can with help from Prometheus, but I don’t trust them. Not yet. Their ties to those Inverness types don’t sit right. We’ll watch them. See if they hold up or fold.
Hearing rumors about Order Overwatch moving again. Out in the Omicrons and beyond. Haven’t seen much of them since before everything went bad: Corsairs hitting Freeport 9, Liberty cracking down on Erie. Might take a smaller ship out there and check it myself out of curiosity. Could be something. Could be nothing.
If we’re going to take down something bigger than us, we’re going to need more than luck.
--Hatcher
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“The worst kind of loneliness is feeling alone while surrounded by people.” Do you think anyone would notice if I was gone?
Gave Prometheus an open berth. Some of the crew didn’t like it. We fought alongside them in Pennsylvania. The Absolution took a beating, but we pushed Liberty back into New York. She’s back in the fight. Nothing she hasn’t handled before despite our lack of workable spare parts. That'll be a problem sooner than later.
Not much else. Just hit a few supply lines out in the independent worlds and had to blow up one of them. Dropped their pods near an active shipping lane to make sure they got picked up by passing ships.
--Hatcher
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“The worst kind of loneliness is feeling alone while surrounded by people.” Do you think anyone would notice if I was gone?
Had to change the Absolution’s transponder. Getting flagged as that Outcast ship hitting traffic. Not something we can ignore, and not something we can fight head-on.
One of the engineers handled the recode. Had to be exact. Get it wrong and we light up like a star to anyone watching.
New name is EDF-Requital. That should hold. Don’t want to do that again.
Made contact with the Order in Omicron Minor aboard the Foxtrot. Waited at that old Junker station for hours and got lucky. Caught an Overwatch ship passing through. Gave them what we had. If they come back for more, we’ll give them a place to work from.
Nothing else to report.
--Hatcher
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“The worst kind of loneliness is feeling alone while surrounded by people.” Do you think anyone would notice if I was gone?
Word is Liberty’s moving cargo. Plenty of Militant chatter about it. Not sure we want to hand anything over to Pinnacle even if it’s real. Might keep it. Don’t trust the other cells to use it right.
Could be bait. We’ve run the same kind of play. Leak something valuable, wait for people to show, then hit them when they commit. Let Bowman and Prometheus go first. If it’s real, we take the cargo and bring it back to [Avunhuvepl], not Pinnacle.
The other cells aren’t reliable.
--Hatcher
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“The worst kind of loneliness is feeling alone while surrounded by people.” Do you think anyone would notice if I was gone?
We’ve started hitting pirate transports in Kansas to clean the area. Some of their cargo is useful for [Avunhuvepl]. Calling it OPERATION IRON SWEEP. All units are briefed.
Sent out the Oblivion to lead it under Captain Xander Faust. The hull is built to take those transports apart fast.
Got some intel on a lot of activity between Prometheus and the Xeno Alliance lately. Looks like they're coming to blows again. We’re staying out of it. Our focus is Liberty, its corporations, and anyone threatening its people. Territorial disputes and old grudges aren’t our concern.
--Hatcher
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“The worst kind of loneliness is feeling alone while surrounded by people.” Do you think anyone would notice if I was gone?
Operation Iron Sweep is holding. Oblivion has taken out over twenty pirate transports in the last two days. We pulled what we could from the wrecks and put it to use. Faust’s earned a promotion.
The log update went through clean. The engineers needed something to do and rebuilt the system. Works fine.
Some of the crew want to open recruitment. I’m not sold. Bringing people in means vetting them, digging through their past, and still missing something that comes back on us later.
For now, we stay as we are. Independent, or not at all. That can change if it has to.
--Hatcher
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“The worst kind of loneliness is feeling alone while surrounded by people.” Do you think anyone would notice if I was gone?
Kansas is quieter than it should be. Expected more traffic, more patrols. LSF, Navy, something. Instead it’s mostly empty. A few Zoners passing through, keeping their heads down. The occasional pirate cutting through from Vespucci.
Iron Sweep continues. Oblivion’s still stacking kills. [Avunhuvepl] is stocked for weeks off what we’ve taken. Might be time to push the station further, but without a clear goal we’re just building for the sake of it. I’ll put it to the crew. See if anyone’s got a direction.
--Hatcher
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“The worst kind of loneliness is feeling alone while surrounded by people.” Do you think anyone would notice if I was gone?
Ran into a Zoner in Vespucci while I had the helm of the Oblivion. Friendly enough, but they kept talking while we were working pirate trains in the area. Said they’d never seen a ship like ours at Pinnacle. Told them we don’t go there. Let them think what they want. Better they don’t know where we’re from.
Made it clear we’re not working with other militant cells. Took what we earned and headed back with it. They left us with a message about everyone needing to work together or we’re all done.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe they’re not.
We’ll see.
--Hatcher
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“The worst kind of loneliness is feeling alone while surrounded by people.” Do you think anyone would notice if I was gone?
Had another run-in out in Kansas while Oblivion was working Iron Sweep. Freelancer this time. Faust said something felt off. Too friendly. Couldn’t explain it, just didn’t like it. I trust his read. He RTB after the pirate trains scattered from all the chatter on open comms. Not a loss. We’re stocked for a week or two.
War between Kusari and Liberty is heating up. Not my problem anymore. If I was still in it, I’d be running black ops or counterintel. Now it’s a distraction we can use. They’re focused on the Kusari border, which gives us room to push in Pennsylvania. If the pressure holds, it turns into two fronts for them. We don’t have the weight to do that alone. The other Militant cells might, if they’re willing to act. We don’t trust them, but that doesn’t change the situation. If we’re serious about taking Erie back, we’ll have to work with some of them.
Don’t have to like it.
--Hatcher
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“The worst kind of loneliness is feeling alone while surrounded by people.” Do you think anyone would notice if I was gone?
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