Took a flight out with another fledgling today, ‘Slag’ Hobbs. Don’t know his first name – “just call me Slag” – doesn’t talk much either. Still managed to survive it all, though.
Started out from Valley Forge after I got my clearance from Eye-See. Few weirdos on the way to New York, but nothing worth reporting. Linked up with Hobbs at Manhattan. Guy somehow didn’t have his ship yet. Managed to wrangle another Havoc for him after too many forms and a (literal) credit check. Makes me wonder if the pay is actually worth it in the end.
Interspace TradeSec wanted us to take a flight out to the Eastern Borderworlds to see if we could find anything to clear out. Briefing indicated that we’re officially acting to “secure commercial liquidity and ensure regional architectural stability” – not a huge surprise, considering all the chatter from Up North and the Coronado Disaster. Sounds like the shareholders are scared of losing our eastern flank if things get hot. Think I saw an article somewhere saying that the other houses aren’t happy about how things are going. Guess it makes sense – Rheinland’s always willing to close the gates when they don’t get their way. But everyone knows that Bretonia’s been in the slump since the 810’s. Literal slums included. Can’t afford to cut us off, it’d be suicide.
…
California was a breeze. Some light rogue trouble at the Yellowstone. Magellan was something else.
Flying in from the Cali’ gate was easy enough. But it became pretty apparent what we were sent in to do once we hit Cordova – hard not to notice the roving pirate fleets. Or the Elesef cruisers.
...
We set after one of the Northern groups. Did pretty well in thinning the herd, but we could only do so much. Destroyers and their transports slipped away. Couldn’t go after ‘em – got too distracted. We’d gotten jumped by a Zoner Destroyer (reporting as ZDF-DarkStar) and a Hacker (callsign BlueHat). Considering we’d been exhausted by the preceding fight, things went as well as they could. Callsign BlueHat was downed, but we had to break away separately to avoid the Destroyer. I’d managed to land and rearm in California, but Hobbs was intercepted at Curacao by the Destroyer. We’d managed to put a real dent in it, but eventually we were both forced to eject in orbit. Guessing they’re regretting trying to extort a couple of Interspace fighters by now after seeing that repair bill.
As for our own liabilities, I’m glad to report that EyeSee’ll be covering everything. Turns out a public shootout with a pirate destroyer in full view of civilian traffic is good enough for insurance to cover in full. First time they’ve ever paid for anything. Didn’t mind the stay in the Curacao hospital, either.
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