When you get back to the bubble all the activity is a little overwhelming. Once again having to make sure I have my weapons and shields powered. I spent a bit of time around Manite, but I thought I would head to the fringes of Communist Interstellar space and do some work for rising comrades. Had some success down there, but when I heard about the new community initiative to gather materials in order to build a number of refueling stations between civilized space and the new bubble near the galactic core, I was on board.
Since I have interest in heading out there once they've established a dozen stations or so, I thought I should play my part in the goal. So, they need some power generators and a few other things? Sounds easy enough, I'll just buy myself a Type-6 and do some trading runs. However I would soon find out that the station I was delivering too--being Love station--was in an anarchy system. So naturally I expected to run into some, interesting characters to say the least.
My first few runs went pretty well, nothing very interesting. With a full load it was four jumps to Love Station followed by frantically getting docked as soon as possible since the station did not fire on trouble makers hanging around outside the station.
Overall I considered myself pretty lucky, didn't have many serious problems doing my hauling runs. The few that managed to interdict me were easy to escape from. I was trying out a new method of deploying mines behind me after being interdicted to try and slow the pursuer down, combined with chaff and full power to engines. Seemed to work, I didn't take as much fire as I normally do, but it will require further testing.
However on one of my last hauls I was interdicted by a guy in a Python, he gave me the warning before interdicting telling my to power down my engines. This guy meant business, and I knew my usual running wasn't going to work. He would most likely be able to take down my shields in seconds, and I wasn't willing to bet my life on my new mine trick. The mass of his ship would have made it difficult to jump out of there anyways. At that point I knew the only weapon I had that was going to get me out of this was my words.
I decided to take the initiative and opened a channel.
"Mighty fine ship you have there, but I'm not much for small talk so how about we get right down to business"
His ship was bearing down on me, I could see the pleathera of weapons come out of their housing and pointing directly at me. I didn't move, turned all my engines down and just looked up at his ship. But still no response…
"So, we're both businessmen here, I'm sure we can work out a deal that will be profitable for both of us. Since you didn't have to actually, you know, pay for this equipment, how 'bout I give you a quarter? You get a tidy profit, and so do I." I said again to try and get some kind of response from this awfully quiet pirate. The quiet ones are always the worst.
The silence continued, at this point I began to start thinking about making an escape. His ship was slightly above me facing mine, if I punched it I could get past him and he would have to turn that tank around in order to start opening fire. But would that give me enough time to get out of the range of his mass? I don't know.
Then something came over the channel…
"Hey! Sorry, was taking a leak. Yeah Quarter sounds good to me, how you doin' tonight commander?"
I responded with slightly sarcastic friendliness.
"Not bad, considering present circumstances." I wasn't really that interesting in having small talk with the guy currently pirating me.
"Ah that’s good! I can't say I'm too shabby myself, I'm in the top 75% of contributors for the community goal! How 'bout you commander?" he rattled off like we were old buddies.
"Uh, I'm in the top 50%" I responded.
I sat around for awhile watching a documentary on the Sagittarius black hole while he scooped up my cargo.
"Alright, I'm done here, you're free to go commander. Watch out when you get to Love station, there's some guy taking pot shots at people undocking. Fly safe." he said rather suddenly.
I didn't respond, just gave a wave from my cockpit. As I was charging my FSD one last message came through, text only.
"You made the right choice commander."
After that whole ordeal I figured I had done my part and decided to head back to CI space. But since it was on my way I thought I would stop by my old home system LTT 7979. The minute I jumped into the system the memories starting coming back. This is where I had my start as a pilot, in those days I was a pretty big bounty hunter; seems like ever so long ago. But when approaching Steinmuller Gateway something seemed different. The place seemed run down, and the traffic controller sounded, not exactly professional.
Nevertheless I past the station entranced and docked at a landing pad I must have docked at hundreds of times before. When I got out of the comfortable confines of my ship I was in for a rude awakening. Everything was a mess, the people looked thin, tired, scared. Some of them seemed to be searching through the garbage for food, in this day and age that's a pretty rare occurrence, at least from where I come from. This was not the home I knew a few years ago.
I went up to my old regular pub 'The Stein', and finally a familiar face behind the bar.
"Pep! You old son of a bitch, how did you get here without getting interdicted by your old pals?" he said with excitement.
I must have given him a strange look, because his facial reaction changed from excitement to uneasiness.
"What do you mean? Aren't our comrades of the '79 Workers Party still in charge?" I said, regaining my composure.
"Bad news son, they been bumped by the Raiders. The system is pretty much complete anarchy now, except for Flancher Terminal, they're still controlled by your 'comrades'. " He said.
"The Raiders?! How the hell did they come to power, those scumbags." I didn't do a very good job at hiding my displeasure. Risky considering one of them could be sitting right next to me, and there's nothing to stop him from shooting me dead on the spot.
The LTT 7979 Raiders are nothing but a bunch of troublemakers. I had a lot of run-ins with them in the past, them being the victims of much of my bounty hunting. Needless to say I didn't have a very good relationship with them, and apparently now the station I'm in is under their control.
"Good news though." Jerry said with cautious optimism. "The Worker's Party is back on the rise, they're having an economic boom right now. Needless to say, with a little help those comrades may rise back to the top." He said sarcastically.
He wasn't much into faction politics, as long as he could keep his bar running he didn't care much who was in power. So I was pretty surprised when he was actually talking about it seriously, rather than making a crude comment about the various leaders.
"My business is down, people are leaving, and the people who are still here can't afford to buy booze, only steal it. They make a mess of the station when they're bored, I've had to replace all my glasses and mugs three times now. Something has to be done about these guys."
I was convinced, I had to take action to help the Worker's Party regain control of the system. But I need base of operations, I could operate mostly out of Flancher, but due to its size it has its limits. I didn't want to use Steinmuller as it was under the control of the Raiders, so my only choice was a neighboring system. Because what I need right now is a ship that can kick some serious ass. My ASP is pretty good in a fight, but what I needed was something nimbler, and purpose built for the task at hand.
So I made my way over to Negidals, found they had a good selection of ships and decided to make that my secondary base of operations. As for a ship, I thought I would go with a Vulture, never used one before but I've heard good things. Its two large weapon bays should pack quite the punch. Look out Raider scum, because here I come.
Armed with a beam laser and a multi gun I jumped back into LTT 7979 and looked for a tasty target to try my new rig out on. Here we go, a Raider Eagle. Not exactly the most challenging target in the galaxy, but you know what they say. Start out small yadda yadda yadda. Can't say it was a very thrilling engagement. A few seconds of beam laser and their shields were down, and with another few seconds of multi-gun and the Eagle exploded like some kind of fireworks display. Easy as pie, or whatever that means.
Afterwards I headed to Flancher Terminal to say hello to a few friends, being the only station in the system still under the control of the Workers. It was certainly wonderful to jump out of super cruise to be greeted by that good old voice of Clint of the Flancher traffic control. The guy must be getting into his 80's, but over the comm it is like nothing has changed.
"Is that you Pep?! Why aren't you a bloody sight for sore eyes!" He said in his traditional Scottish accent.
"You better believe it Clint, and I'm not going anywhere until we get this mess of a system sorted out" I responded with typical nonchalance. "You guys better have some good intel on how to hit these guys where it hurts."
"Oh, I'm sure we can dredge something up for you." He responded. "Although you may not want to boast about that on an open channel."
"When have I ever worried about secrecy?" I responded with a chuckle.
After docking we met up in the hanger to catch up. Unlike Steinmuller this station didn't look quite as run down, and although things certainly weren't what they use to be, the state of the station and it's people were a welcome sight after the chaos of Steinmuller.
After inspecting my new Vulture for any battle scars I heard Clint yell from across the hanger, I just stood there with my hands clasped in front of me while him and his cane walked towards me and my ship.
"Permission to come aboard commander!" He said in true military fashion.
"Granted, not much space but I've got a great espresso machine on board."
I took his arm and helped him up the steps into my ship and showed him around the place, not that there was much to show around. After grabbing some refreshments we sat down to catch up and talk a little business.
"I thought you forgot about us comrades fighting the good fight isolated in Federation space, while you're out with your fancy Communism Interstellar!" He said playfully, but I got the impression that under the joking tone there was a hint of sincerity.
"Things were looking pretty stable here, all I wanted to do was go where I was needed to fight the good fight, for the people." I replied with a serious tone, but I'm sure I couldn't hide my sense of regret.
"Well, you're here now and that's what counts." He said, with his age becoming apparent through the tone of his voice. "So what is your plan with this fancy new ship of yours?"
I thought to myself, I'm not sure what the plan is. My idea was to buy a ship, and take out some of these guys. I haven't been in this game for awhile with my exploration runs. While thinking I stared blankly at him, not really realizing how long I had remained silent.
"Tell ya what" he said, cutting through the silence, "I have it on good authority that they have quite a few pirates skulking around the ring system of our 7979-4, Flancher's big ol' blue gassy. I'd say that's a pretty good place to start if you want to cause these Raider baddies some hurt. You'll have their influence down to naught in no time. But first we need to get them out of our station's sphere of influence, as small as it may be".
"... Like the good ol' days". He said after a brief pause.
"Like the good old days" I replied with a smile and a nod.
After that conversation we sat in our chairs and stared at the ground in contemplative silence for a minute or so.
Clint then looked up at me and asked "so what are you going to call this new ship of yours?"
I looked down and to the left with a blank expression momentarily, then as my lips began to form a grin I looked up at him and said.
"Allende" I replied with a tone that emphasized the moment, while maintaining a cocky grin.
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