The Diary of a Space Scoundrel: Smear Campaign
07 Sep 2018Seth Bradwell
With our influence in Bakas and Alkuyuma sky high, and our forces poised to seize control, I have resorted to indirectly helping out my esteemed employers by working to conclude an election that the soon-to-be erstwhile ruling faction, Alkuyuma Independents (actually a Federal faction, irony of ironies) are involved in over in Namte, by helping out their rivals, of course. Therefore I have been getting rather chummy with the United Namte Progressive Party, itself a Federation faction but divide and conquer is all part of the fun. In fact I have been running some much more challenging missions in the past two days than in the past two months in Bakas, maybe it's time to start looking for a new firm to muck in with? Nothing Federal of course, independent is fine as long as their aggression is directed solely at their rivals and the Feds, and not the Empire. Not sure if I am ready to commit to any Imperial cause again yet though, I find the backstabbing and hypocrisy too much to bear. In fact I have been thinking long and hard about my future in the black, and will come to that later.Invariably when one is in the empire (with a small 'e') building business one has to do a lot of paper shuffling, so most of my work has been relaying messages of some kind or another to help with the campaign, "polling data" they say it is, but really it's a mix of leaks to sympathetic press, requests to dubious organisations to do some dirty deals and carry out dirty work against their rivals, and requests for support. That is extremely dull in itself, but more often than not the opposition like to sic some assassins on me, which highlights what would be a pretty menial role. I love to hang about, waiting for them to interdict me, even putting my delivery on hold so I can let them find me, and very soon the hunter becomes the hunted. Of course in most cases I allow the local Authority to assist me, if I am going to work for Feds I am sure as hell going to have the Feds help me out in taking down the latest hot-shot in a flash new Anaconda. However on such story has an interesting twist...
19:26 - Kettle Beacon, Ngobed
<Interdiction detected>
Okay, throttle down, the usual, let the wannabe assassin realise what happens when you go against a professional in the assassination business.
<Throttle zero, submitting>
"Our people do not like to be messed around. Time to pay the price, Commander." announced the stooge over comms.
I do my usual routine of scanning for bounties (because credits are credits), then glance at the hunter's faction affiliation - Bakas Gold Council! Now this will not do, I may not be technically be working for them at present, but I am working for their greater interest. Does my "Allied" rating count for nothing in this dump?
"Excuse me - but do you know who I am?" I snarl indignantly.
"Only that your death will pay me a pretty penny." the hunter replied.
"If it wasn't for me your little outfit would still be doing petty raids on Haulers and scurrying off at the first sign of Authority. Take me down and what remains of your pitiful life will not be worth living!" I shout back, incandescent with rage.
"Oh I think I will be just fine, you still have a price on your head, and I intend to collect it." replied the would-be contract killer.
"That is assuming you can catch up with me. Now just move along and I promise that Chief Weber won't hear about this... unfortunate misunderstanding."
"We will see about that - hey, come back here...!" The rest of his ramblings are drowned out by the thruster boost followed by the engaging frame shift drive. I make a point of completing the mission that the young hotshot foolishly took up a contract on preventing. I am not one for doing a "Brave Sir Robin" unless I am in a hurry or the odds really are against me if I was to take them on, but his death would still count against us in the struggle to build influence in this sector. However I will have words with Chief Weber about all this, making it quite clear how one of our pilots was determined to score an own goal for our cause.
22:55 - Bobko Dock, Aecerbot
I have taken on several more courier jobs, and two of them have resulted in hostiles being sent after me to ensure I do not deliver. It goes with the territory, and my trusty Python, the Ahriman, can more than take it, especially with its four beam lasers modded for efficiency, great for stripping even the largest shields before the target has a chance to pop a shield cell, and an overcharged multi-cannon for unleashing extra mayhem. The first mission has sent people in Federal Assault Ships, which the Ahriman made short work of. The other had Deadly Anaconda pilots. These were more of a challenge, but the Ahriman's modded thrusters easily outmanovered them and allowed me to boost in and out at will, ensuring I controlled the fight, even when one pilot sent a Ship Launched Fighter after me, which I swiftly swatted like a fly. Even when they managed to get my shields down, they were so damaged that I could engage silent running and continue to finish them off, and by that time they had at least three Authority ships to deal with too. So I deliver with a much jucier reward than I would have received otherwise. What made it even more rewarding is when I delivered to the Bakas Gold Council office at Khan Point, with a proposal that the Bakas Gold Council and United Namte Progressive Party joined forces, at least temporarily, against their common opponent, the so-called Alkuyuma Independents.
23:27 - Johnson Orbital, Namte
It hasn't all been dispatch riding with the odd pew-pew thrown in for good measure. I have been down planetside, scanning data, at least I have been doing after I scurried back to Bakas to collect my SRV right after my first landing (oops). Nothing too exciting, but it pays pretty generously and occasionally leads to further missions. I ended up running back to the last mission point because for some reason the missions system hadn't registered my first scan, and it was only after driving around the buildings after doing a second scan that I was instructed to return to base. As surface missions go they were straight forward, just point the ship at the search area and locate the target, I could even land right up close without fear of getting blasted out of the sky by the skimmers, although one place set off the alarms and the skimmers started to take pot shots at the SRV, and then started tickling the Ahriman's shields to no avail. I also did some black box retrieval missions, always a challenge, especially without limpets, thankfully I could salvage freely without having to contend with being ambushed by half a dozen pirates as can so often be the case with such jobs.
Having made a major contribution towards a election victory for the United Namte Progressive Party, I decide to stop for the night. Johnson Orbital is a fairly rundown Coriolis station, but it's where the key base of operations are for the United Namte Progressive Party, so for my contribution they provide me some spartan yet livable guest quarters in the middle layer of the station. It is still better than staying at an outpost, where only key staff have living quarters, and most pilots end up staying in their ships. Now a Python's habitation area is fairly ample as ships go, but nothing beats a proper bed in a proper room with gravity, and places you can walk around outside of the main dock. I did not head for the bars, I know very few people here and I was not in a mood for socialising.
So having concluded my work for tonight, I can now reflect on wider issues. The more I read further into what happened to the Gnosis, the angrier I get. I still think that it was a foolhardy suicide mission (although the people involved in such ventures tend to take that in their stride), but it seems they were left completely at the mercy of the Thargoids, and people were slaughtered due to a mixture of unpreparedness and incompetence. Pilots were blown to pieces before they could even get off the pad, and when they finally were able to push back the Thargoids they were engaging them so closely they were getting fined for violating the no-fire zone. There's adding insult to injury, and there's things like this, an utter slap in the face to those courageous enough to try and save everyone's lives. Someone finally saw sense and suspended the weapons restrictions, but seriously, did no one think this through, and realise that they may have to take on the Thargoids at close range? Forget meta-alloys, what is needed is an armada of the finest pilots in the galaxy, from all three superpowers and none, armed to the teeth with the latest in AX and Guardian technology, to get out there and just give the Gnosis a chance to pull back and regroup. I have even thought about jacking in this role as the Bakas Gold Council's chief enforcer (for all the thanks I get) and getting down there myself, but I know nothing about fighting Thargoids and I have seen enough battles on holo-vid to realise that even the most elite of Elite pilots, armed with the latest in anti-xeno technology do not know whether they will survive the next encounter, and I would surely be embracing the Void within the first ten seconds of engagement with one of those... things. Of course there are those in high places in the Federation, Empire and Alliance alike who knew they were being led there like lambs to the slaughter and did nothing. They are the ones I would love to deal swift and just retribution to. You can trust no one to protect you but yourself, my family and the people on my homeworld found that out to their cost - but that's another story and I need to not stray down such a dark, dark, road in my mind tonight. Part of me wants to head for the heart of Imperial space to see if there's anyone willing to save the Empire from itself and from whatever sinister agenda the Federation is planning with Aegis, another part of me wants to kit out an exploration ship and make a beeline for Beagle Point, as far away from the madness as possible. Should this election be over by tomorrow, I will have some free time on my hands, since preparations need to take place for whatever happens next in Alkuyuma, not that I am overly concerned at present, but I hate to leave a job unfinished, even if it's become painfully protracted. Anyway, I will finish this glass of Achenar Blue, and turn in for the night. I might go around the Engineers to further tune up the Ahriman, that might give me some focus in these next few uncertain days, or just take a break on some tourist world some 100 light years away until it's time to make a decision.