Preparing for battle
06 Nov 2020Seth Bradwell
14:00 GMT, November 4 3306, Moon DockI was cashing in my latest load of bounties from the RES site on the rings of HIP 79138 4 when Lave Radio interrupted its usual light entertainment programme. "We interrupt our schedule to bring you an urgent newsflash. Reports just coming in now from GalNet of outbreaks of hostilities between Federal and Imperial aligned factions in the LTT 1935 system, which is located in neutral territory. Earlier today the Federation lodged a complaint after the Empire engaged in a counter-terrorism operation in the system in its latest attempt to clamp down on NMLA terrorists. Now already high tensions between the two superpowers have boiled over into open conflict through their proxy factions. A statement from Federal aligned LTT 1935 Confederacy denounced the actions by the Empire, stating that they cannot dominate and arrest their citizens like they did with the Marlinists, and claim the right to defend themselves from aggression. Meanwhile the representative of the L.Y.S Corporation responded by stating that the Imperial Internal Security Service have confirmed that the NMLA have secret bomb-making facilities in the area, and state that it vital they take control of this system in order to prevent future atrocities". Both factions have called for assistance in their conflict."
A random space called out to me. "You hear that Seth? It's finally kicking off between the Imps and Feds!"
I grunt. "It's just as I feared. Hoped it wouldn't come to this..."
"You gonna join in the party?"
"Looks that way."
"Gee, how exciting..."
"I assume you have never fought in a proper war. No, I do this out of duty." I then storm out of the Partnership of HIP 71938 office and towards the hangers.
"One Imperial eagle on the front decal. Plus combat ranks on the sides." I request to the man in the paint shop.
"What faction?"
"What do you mean, what faction?"
"What Imperial power do you want to see represented?"
"Can't I just have a plain Imperial eagle?"
"No can do, sir. We do offer a generic symbol with our customised nameplates... at a cost of course."
I pause for a moment. "Okay then, Arissa... no, actually, make that Aisling." In spite of my bitterness the People's Princess is still the one person in the Empire I would back above all others, and I was determined that my fight against the Federation and the NMLA wouldn't lead to me to turn against those seeking an Empire which truly embraced freedom and liberty. "And Imperial symbols for both nameplates."
"Will be done in a few hours, sir."
"Thanks."
20:30, The L.T. Diamond Moon
I walk though the bars to meet Anastasia for one final time before I leave HIP 71938, not knowing when, or indeed if I would return. I walk though the doors to hear a huge commotion.
"Who are you calling a tyrant, you Imp slaver scum?"
"Take those words back, you terrorist-enabling Fed punk! Don't you know how many people your friends have murdered?"
"Less than those that die every day in your hellish slave mines! If I get my hands on that smarmy witch Arissa..."
"Do not besmirch our Emperor's name! The Empire will not tolerate your outrageous actions any further, and the Emperor (bask in her glory) will chase anyone harbouring terrorists from the Pleiades to Beagle Point and back! Just you watch your back..."
"Ha! I love to see you try. Once our esteemed President Hudson is done with you lot, he's going to struggle to find enough room in Ross 128 to fit all of you when you rightfully face charges for crimes against humanity."
"YOU are the ones who will be charged against crimes against humanity. Just be thankful that our Emperor (bask in her glory) can be quite merciful to her enemies if they cooperate. She will readily commute Hudson's sentence to 20 years of reformatory labour, rather than the disintegration that swine deserves."
"That's it. Get 'im!" A brawl suddenly erupts.
"Oi! Cut it out, shut the Void up, and listen!" I shout. The fighting abruptly stops.
"Oh, Mr. Bradwell, I'm sorry, didn't realise you were here." said the Imperial, meekly. "I am sure you will understand what's at stake, this Federal pig dared to dishonour us with his filthy lies..."
"Eat my Asp, slaver scum!" yelled the indignant Federal.
"Quiet!" I shout. "You both think you are so tough, bringing the war to some armpit of a colony on the far edge of the Bubble. How far is Sol from here? 200 light years? And Achenar is another 100 still, right? How brave, how honourable you are, fighting the war in some barroom brawl where nothing is truly at stake. If the Federation and Empire matter that much to you, get your sorry hides off to LTT 1935 and enlist in the war."
"Imperial scum." the Federal said, venomously. "I should have known you Imps would stick together -"
"That goes for you too. If you wanna fight me, fight me in LTT 1935 like a real solider. But don't let me hear you talking any more crap about the war here! Now, kindly get out of my sight before I get Marlon involved."
"Why you..." The Federal lunges at me but I swiftly rugby tackle him to the ground and pin him down. "Let me at him!" cries the Imperial, who is being restrained by the newly-arrived Anastasia.
"Go home - for both your sakes." Anastasia said sternly. "Marlon's men are on their way, and the more you make a scene, the more pain is in store for both of you."
Both the Imperial and the Federal eventually comply, each being escorted to their respective quarters by starport security for their safety.
"Tough day?" I ask Anastasia once everything calmed down.
"Just the usual pest control at the RES. Several merc jobs going against the Camorra of HIP 71931 though."
"Yeah, I've had a scrap with a few of them. They now have Anacondas among their fleet, and their pilots aren't a walkover like the Camorra of a few months ago were. I have heard there's been a power struggle there of late."
"You heard right. Some new associates have moved in, and there has been a dispute between top ranked members of the family. Yet it's meant they are now a lot stronger than before."
"They don't really bother the RES sites here though. Indeed, most of the pilots with bounties are actually from the corporations based here. I am certain they don't sanction piracy but it seems many pilots end up coveting another miner's goods."
"So, how is target practice?"
"I am getting into the swing of using the fixed lasers, but gimbals are still great for finishing them off quickly. Also small ships tend to be awkward anyway when you are in something like a Python."
"I take it you are planning to go to war?"
"Aye. That's why I invited you here, was glad you came actually, since I may not be in '938 for some time to come, and come to think of it, you may not be either. How goes the quest to get back into Grom's good books?"
"That's classified, as always, Seth. Although I have no further news to not tell you anyway." Over the past six months Anastasia has been trying to reach out to organisations which continue to pledge loyalty to Yuri Grom, trying to get a good word put in for her former employer and also clear her name after she was wrongly accused of deserting her people when criminals overran Grom's forces. As an Imperial I fully understand the need to fight such a stain on one's honour, and I have become close friends with the former Grom pilot.
"Think you'll join in the fight in LTT 1935?" I ask.
"It's not my fight to join - even though I despise the Federation as much as you do, and this would be just a distraction from trying to clear my name." Yuri Grom's regime was originally a part of Federal space until Grom mustered up a group of crack pilots who subsequently broke away from the Federation to form a new power with Grom as dictator, much to the chagrin of the Federation. Grom has since maintained close ties with the Empire and provided assistance against the Federal powers, although he continues to be fiercely independent, in spite of suffering an immense setback last year when many pilots abandoned him, causing Grom's realm to be nearly wiped out had it not been for the action of the few pilots who retained loyalty plus his Imperial allies, which has led many to say that Grom is now a client state of the Empire, although Grom hotly refutes this.
"I understand, though the Empire could do with a pilot of your calibre. Heard anything more from Morgan?"
"Not since the last time we met." Arthur Morgan, our semi-reformed pirate friend and occasional smuggler of not-so-legal recreational substances had left '938 about a month ago, for reasons not wholly known to us, other than news breaking out of a fresh Thargoid incursion in the Witch Head Nebula. He was feeling somewhat down that evening, and then just left the next morning without a word. The one other clue to the reasoning behind his disappearance came from his old frenemy Milah Love of HIP 73321 Purple Electronics Inc (which had recently opened up shop here in '938), who tends to closely Morgan's activities whenever he is in her jurisdiction, who had observed him arriving in Birkhoff Ring, not bothering to evade her attempts at surveillance (which is out of character for him), going to a florist's shop, and ordering the most expensive bouquet they had, which was sent to Milah's office 'anonymously'. The one striking thing she mentioned was that he was in a new ship - a Lakon Type-10 Defender, which was designed specifically for taking on Thargoids. It doesn't take much to put two and two together - I just hope he is okay, wherever he is and whatever he is doing. When starport authorities cleaned out his old quarters they found a half full bottle of Harma Silver Sea Rum - very unlike Morgan to leave that behind.
"Never thought that Morgan would take up bug-splatting." I said. "Although he was getting a bit annoyed about the lack of challenge the pondlife was presenting him here, only to be continuously having to fend off backstabbers at home. I remember his words when someone tried to screw him out of his rightful share of a vein of low temps - 'I went legit for this...' "
"Thargoids are in a way more honourable enemies than humans. They fly ships with weaponry far more powerful than any human hardpoint, and they engage in open combat or not at all. Compare that to humans who will turn their lasers on you once you outlived their usefulness and are ruled by superpowers that manipulate you for their own ends, you can understand why people take their chances against the bugs. Also, as far as the threat they pose, all of humanity is in it together, regardless of what symbol you fly under."
"Try telling that to Nova Imperium." I say sadly. "They would have the Empire cut itself off and then debase itself in a cesspool of jingoistic decadence, hoping the bugs will come for them last. It might be brutal what happened but I am relieved that Emperor Arissa ended their bid for the throne and continues cooperation with the major powers on the Thargoid threat - at least until the Feds betrayed what little trust we had by providing aid and comfort to our enemies."
"If the Thargoids are as big a threat to humanity as people fear, then humanity must unite or die, be they for the Emperor, the Federation, Alliance, Sirius, or indeed Yuri Grom. But as always, humanity never knows how threatened it is until it's nearly too late."
"My limited experience indicates they are only dangerous when provoked. Unfortunately humanity doesn't know how to avoid provoking them. It may be we have to finish the war even if we didn't intend to start it. But for now, I have another war to contend with."
"I take it you are fighting for Emperor Arissa?"
"I will be fighting for the Empire, Anna, and for its people. It doesn't matter who started the war. Once war is declared, it's time to get behind our forces and not grant a single concession to the Federation. Having said that, it's still clear that the Federation was the ones who started this, through interfering with a legitimate investigation into NMLA terrorist activity."
"The Federation just can't stop meddling, Seth. They resent that there is anything outside the Federation and would happily bring every inhabited system under its thumb. You are right to give them no quarter."
"Damn straight, Anna. Those damn Feds think they are so much better with their so-called democracy and their supposed abolition of slavery, yet billions of her citizens have to work 16 hours a day just to get a few scraps of food on their plate, and thousands of systems have seen what the Federation's commitment to freedom is like when a Federal company muscles in. They despise us Imperials because Achenar dared to stand up and become the first system to actually shake off their yoke. Those do-gooders in the Alliance and the thousands of ragtag independent systems would do well to remember who struck the first blow against Federal tyranny."
"Hear, hear. Curse those Feds to the Void. To the Empire, and to Yuri Grom!"
"To the Empire, and Yuri Grom, may they exist in eternal friendship!"
23:00 - the Edge of Sanity's stateroom
So it's farewell to HIP 71938, at least for the foreseeable. I may not come back permanently anyway, fate is a fickle thing and there may be some far better opportunity for me elsewhere, especially since I now have rediscovered my sense of patriotism. I set course for LTT 1935 in the morn, ready to give those Federal bootlickers a damn good thrashing. The folks in the paint shop have done a remarkable job, a paint job fit for a duke - or in my case, Count - still some way to go till I can get that Imperial Cutter, shame since it's the only Gutayama ship I have any real interest in, but for now I am happy with my beloved Python. Here she is in all her Imperial glory:
For the Empire!