A Futile Grind
09 Nov 2020Seth Bradwell
I write this from the relative safety of the Strength of Purpose as I conclude another day of work at the conflict zones. The overall outcome is still very likely to be in the Federation's favour, but I have shaken off some of my rust and gotten better at taking out enemy ships, even managing to turn the tide in our favour during skirmishes. I check the leaderboard and note I have made it into the top 25% of contributors to the Imperial cause. Yet all that will result in is an eventual retreat, and I will be paid a few million credits that I could have earned after a few hours of mining, be promoted a rank or two in the Empire (which is nice), plus bragging rights. I tell a lie - what bragging rights? The Feds have convinced most pilots that we are the bad guys and we should subsequently be punished for it, every day that goes past results in a handful more pilots abandoning the battle. Today's Imperial Herald reported on how there was a riot in Lave as several dozen disgruntled Imperial citizens tried to storm the offices of Lave Radio after they did a particularly nasty hatchet job on the Empire's actions. For their trouble they were expelled from Lave which has triggered a minor diplomatic incident, not helped by several reports of reprisal attacks on Imperials remaining in Lave. As a result neighbouring Leesti is experiencing a refugee crisis as Imperials flee. This afternoon I landed on the megaship to chants of "Lave Radio sucks!" and holo-monitor reports of citizens across the Empire pouring bottles of Lavian brandy down the drain - in one starport in Facece, they jettisoned cargo crates of it through the airlock for pilots to use as target practice. The Imperial ambassador to Lave has appealed for calm, and urged the Lavian government to protect Imperial citizens.Yet I still carry on, wanting to see this through to the end. Combat bonds are a fairly steady way of making money even if it's not the most effective. Also my combat rank progress to Elite crawls determinedly upwards, thanks to conflict zones being full of particularly tough ships with tough pilots, especially the Spec Ops teams which come descending down, picking off most inexperienced pilots. One time today I attempted to carry out an assault on one of the Federation's Farragut-class capital ships, I took out three of their heat relays before I ran out of shield cells and had to head back to base to restock. We were still forced to retreat, as is quite common in this conflict. However my kill rate has indeed improved, I am grateful for investing in fixed lasers since many enemy ships will resort to chaff. It won't be long before this conflict has concluded, and the Imperial forces withdraw. Already it's falling down the news agenda as the latest excitement about the ghost ship and the untapped sources of meta-alloys in the Coalsack Nebula dominates the headlines. How long before Thargoids start causing havoc there too, I wonder. I for one won't be in a hurry to go there. Indeed after this is all done, I am tempted to do a few days of quiet mining, and maybe go clean house at a RES site should I start to get bored of that.