I, John Shark was looking outside, watching some collectors incoming with metallic scraps. Nothing interesting, my life was a total routine. And then, I made the decision to change this.
With the first occasion I took a transport towards Manhattan, the place everybody goes to get rich. I worked as a maintenance technician for several months, until I was able to purchase a ship... to go back in space again, where I felt I belonged. But, my blood is still Junker. I couldn`t let it pass. I have contacted a friend of mine who was living in Liberty for years... And I asked for a loan. I decided to make a work out of it.
My friend summoned me on California Minor, where he handed me a Credit Card. And an additional bonus, what goods the Junkers need... or what their business partners expect in return. I thanked him for the invaluable help he offered, and ran towards the ship dealer.
I still remember his words: "Have you ever had a trading vessel like the Mammoth, boy?"
I answered that I don`t know what that means, and he was kind to explain, that the Navy or the Police might arrest me if I won`t have an ID which will allow me to trade, under the letter of the law. That was new. I hurried to close the deal; and I took the ship back to Manhattan.
I`ve met a fellow Junker there... who gave me directions towards a base of ours in New York... and once there, I went under the Junker`s IFF, I got a Junker ID, with the obligation to pay them 50.000 Sirius Credits, per month.
Continuous trading, has finally paid off. I managed to get my hands on a more potent ship. An old Pirate Train, ready to be decommissioned. Bought it for... basically nothing. The repair and refit on this new ship was quickly done, it was abit pricey, but it was all worth the effort. The increased cargo bay helped me to gather funds pretty quickly.
Time has passed over me and my ship... And I had already gathered up a few hundreds of millions of credits. What should I do with this fortune? Retreat to a nice place and live there to the end of my days? No. I am not the lazy type. I like risk, I like action. I decided to invest my fortune into something, which would either make me more rich, or will bankrupt me. But what would be a good investment...?
My path took me back to Yanagi, where all this started. Then, the idea came to me. This whole... disaster, in which the Junkers and the ALG race to salvage the leftovers of the 80 Years War... might be what I was dreaming for.
Yet, I was alone... with quite a few credits in my pocket. It`s said that money are a person`s best friend. You don`t have the help you need? Very well, then hire it. And that`s exactly what I did...
I knew some... machines, which would do an inquiry for me, and for the right place...
The information came. All great. All I needed now was to get my hands on it.
I discovered that if you frown the cash first in a discussion, people become your best friends. In a matter of minutes I hired some 20 Collector pilots to help me move the damaged hull and the leftovers to a more safe location. The technology advanced so much in the last decade... back then the shields were barely enough to provide the basics of protection to the ship, but now... impressive.
I asked the Junkers to engage the shield projectors and encompass the hull, to prevent degradation of the ship when it`s going to be moved around. It was a very good idea, and we saw the fruits when a few Valkyries came out of nowhere. Wilds. Something was amiss with them, and they thought that the hull is actually an operational Battleship. They fired on it, but the shield held. We managed to take it to safety.
In the time span of two weeks, I managed to pump in enough credits into getting that ship operational.
It had basic propulsion, and my men were working on getting it`s ability to execute FTL jumps from system to system. Right now, it would break apart if I`d try something with it.
There were impediments at every step, the lack of life support systems were severely slowing my plans down. I had to wait, to have Artificial Gravity on the ship, which will mean the repairs will speed up abit.
One day, we managed to break through a titanium wall, 10m thick, protecting the main black box and ship computers. They were in prime condition, after all this time in which they were left to survive at the mercy of spatial elements. We rushed in with a backup generator, and reviewed the logs.
The original name of the ship, "Thor" wasn`t suitable for us now. I decided to think at a decent replacement later.
It has seen action in the 80 Years war. Being a part of the first wave, it took massive damage, and lost all sorts of propulsion within seconds. A few minutes later, the GMG bombers managed to hit the central power conducts, rendering the ship useless. They saw it crippled, and switched to the other capital ships which were coming to assist. So, that`s why it survived.
The ship missed the A-G decks. We moved the ship`s HQ to deck S, which had no battle damage. From there, we accessed the ship`s plans, and that`s how we found out of the ship`s MCU (main computer unit).
For the ship to conduct a travel of any sorts, it`d need functional engines, which were getting patched up. All we needed was some sort of protection against asteroids, and a mean to power it.
Later on... it struck me. I wanted to inform the Rheinland authorities that we salvaged one of their precious Battleships. They were doing just that for quite a while now, with all their new Battleships popping up in Rheinland. So, they would at best pay me some money, and confiscate the ship...
I cannot... allow that... to happen.
The Battleship had it`s guns. Perfect. Now, the propulsion was ready. One step remained: to power it. Shielding it was a luxury we didn`t had. The secondary command deck S will do just fine, so we won`t focus on repairing those decks. We`ll have to leave them to open space.
I contacted some outcasts, for a fusion core. It came at a hefty price of 100.000.000 Sirius Credits. I would`ve preferred not to give away that sum, but it was required to make my dream come true. I delivered it personally, from Malta, to the building site, 40 clicks upwards from Sigma 13 Jump Hole in New Berlin. That`s where the secret assembly operation was taking place. Right under their noses.
There was a problem though. It is a Rheinland Battleship after all. Even if it looks like a rock orbiting the star, and nobody cares about it, since it`s one from another few billions in the same area, there was a high possibility that it will be detected when it`s power core will start powering the ship. Damnit. We had to move fast.
I was undecided. I wouldn`t risk the ship out like that. But I got help from an unexpected source. Someone was selling a Battleship Shield Generator. Perfect! The bad side of this was that the deal was in Omega 49... and if I`d be catched with a Fusion Core in my cargo hold. I`d be arrested and tortured to spill the bait. I had to smuggle my way out of Rheinland.
Easier to say than actually do it, but with my generosity, a Hessian helped me out. When I got away from that hell hole, I made my way towards O-49. The other bidders offered 3-4 million credits, but that Zoner couldn`t refuse my offer... 25.000.000 Sirius Credits for an used Battleship Shield Generator. He didn`t knew how to sign the deal faster. He even offered to take me back to New Berlin, under the radar.
When I arrived there, we took care to replace the old Battleship MCU with another, last generation. This way the ship won`t activate it`s emergency transponder and it will not signal our position to every Rheinland Military ship in the area.
I was in my Train, just outside the ship, when the power core was connected to it.
"This ship will serve as a Junker mobile base" I said. My ancient roots lead to Earth, Australia. What a better name, to represent the origins, and my mission, to help all unite than....
[color=#330033][TERRA]-Australis.
I saw all the readings going on the green, engine starting up... shield activating...
The main weapons array was down, so only a portion of the power could get to the guns. Nevertheless, even if the ship couldn`t fight, it could run.
I`ve set the autopilot of my Train to dock with the Australis. The main docking area was still a mess, but I squeezed the ship in. We were ready to go.
I never flew a Battleship. Or a military ship for that matter. I contacted some old Veterans to help me out. The young pilots who were members of the RM are leaving the military. It`s an exodus. They all go haul goods for the major shipping companies, where they are getting 10 times better payment. The ones remaining are middle-aged, who love this job.
Some elders would relish the chance to get back in action, but they are retired, and suspended from duty. All of that because if they were a part of the Military, they would`ve been under trial for the murders they took against Kusari Citizens in the Nomad war, at the orders of their Nomad-infested commanders.
I contacted an old Commodore, former commander of a Battleship from the Northern Fleet during the Nomad War. He was emotionally unstable because of the actions that resulted in deposing him of command. "The cure isn`t pills, hospitals and the such" -he said. I gave him what treatment he most wished for. The Command of the Australis.
The new Commodore, Gerd Torben, contacted a few of his old comrades-in-arms. The ship had a skeleton crew, enough to basically operate it.
Our worst fear became true. The Rheinlanders must have detected the ship`s power signature, when the Core went operational. Strange readings from the Outcast Core with recognizable Imperial patterns, Capital Class.
We knew that they would send a team of investigators. Just that we didn`t expected them to be a wing of Bombers. We didn`t knew their position, but we knew that they are hunting us. We decided to make a run for it.
The plan was to make it to Liberty, to Beaumont for restock, then to Rochester, for refueling. Then to go to Vieques Shipyard for any remaining repairs... but before that we just hoped to make it out, alive.
They caught up with us somehow. Our last hope was to use their Tradelanes. We had the codes of the Gates in our computer. We will run. We will never surrender. We were probably declared as Enemy of the State, since they didn`t wasted too much time and started doing torpedo runs on the Australis.
We tried to fight back, but because of the damaged arrays, we weren`t able to fight effectively. The shield was underpowered, no energy in the buffer. They broke through the shield, and tried to destroy us once and for all. All their combined firepower went on the rear of the ship. They knew that they can`t disable our engine, but they tried to cut the power to it. That would`ve stopped the Australis dead in it`s tracks.
The hull integrity was failing. At this rate we won`t make it to Liberty. At least, if the ship will be destroyed, I will die along with my dream. But I decided to make their life a misery even if we`re going down.
Whatever power we could spare went to the weapons. Obviously we were leaking the power in space, but some 30% were reaching the weapons. We started shooting back. We made the Rheinlanders understand that we won`t go down without a fight. They began evasion maneuvers which gave us the time to run away. We powered the Cruise Engines, and before they realized what are our intentions, we had a considerable lead.
We... made it. Although the ship suffered damage, we made it. Emergency repair nanobots rushed in. They restored the hull strength. But the Rheinlanders had a last ditch surprise for us. They... contacted the Liberty Navy and informed of our presence and status. They have sent a huge fleet to Texas, to greet us. We went through the Badlands to avoid contact.
Even with specialized crew, in that place, it took us 20 minutes to get through a distance of 20 clicks and reach the In-System jump hole. It was phase-aligned, so we jumped through. We took a route, to slingshot the Star and get to our destination. We made it safely, and we did a pitstop for refueling.
After all this trouble... We sailed our way towards the last destination, Vieques Shipyards. We had the wind blowing our sails, so to speak... and we made it. Alive.
My dream... is complete. We will remain to serve the Junkers. Forever.
It`s time for me to take care of the ship now.
Journal entry #1451 - status complete.
ooc: I would like to thank to all of those who interacted with me ingame, and gave me a chance to develop the current role play story. Special thanks goes to "HM_VOICE_02" for the ingame RP quest, "[RM]-Friedrich.Lang" and "-Ranger-Paladin" for role playing the investigation unit.
My crew... I was betrayed. They... were Rheinland Military spies. They... they relayed our position back to RM HQ... Which disclosed our position to the Libertonians. We were under attack.
We thwarted the first wave. Then a wave of bombers. The Australis suffered damage. We couldn`t take this for much longer. I had to do something.
Gerd came next to me, and told me that he suspects the crew. And his suspicion were correct, we found logs of the communications between Australis and the RM HQ. I asked him if he can fly the ship alone, while I will send the crew to their quarters, and jettison them into space.
... a Libertonian Battle Group, comprised of two Dreadnoughts, six cruisers and countless support vessels were sweeping through Texas. Only a matter of time before we were going to be intercepted... We... I had to escape.
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