Not Saying that it's the Club...
04 May 2021Seth Bradwell
Some obscure star system in Imperial space, close to Nova Imperium territoryThe nerve of those Fednecks. They go in all guns blazing whenever the Empire makes reasonable moves to investigate NMLA activity in LTT 1935, yet as soon as baseless rumours tying Hadrian Duval to the NMLA surface they threaten all out war with Nova Imperium. Whilst we Imperials have our differences with Nova Imperium, the Empire cannot and will not tolerate the Federation muscling into our backyard unopposed. Furthermore, this all seems like a very convenient scapegoat, a smokescreen to hide who the real mastermind behind the NMLA is – someone cynically channelling the support required for them to mount such terrible attacks across the galaxy.
Meanwhile Hudson's grip on the Federation has tightened just that bit more as pilots swiftly answered the call for data harvesting for the Proactive Detection Bureau – greed being the primary motivation. Winters tried to counteract with a civil liberties campaign of her own, but it still wasn't enough, in spite of a brave attempt to rally the pilots to her cause. To any Federal sympathiser who has the nerve to say the Federation is freer than the Empire I request this of you: take a long, hard look in the mirror and start worrying about your enemies within.
The other unwelcome outcome from that ill-fated Galactic Summit is that the Kumo Crew is expanding beyond their Pegasi heartland and going truly intergalactic, with new stations dotted throughout the galaxy thanks to the help of Sirius Corporation (damn them both to the Void!), even as far out as Colonia, once considered a bastion free of superpower and corporate meddling. Many Colonia pilots have been repulsed by this turn of events and have rallied around to drive both the Kumos and Sirius out, yet they won't leave without a fight, and there are plenty of unscrupulous pilots ready to support both invaders, with some calling for support of the Kumo Crew under the auspices of supporting “freedom”. Freedom – such a vital concept for civilization yet such an abused term. I would be tempted to get up there, an opportunity to engage in reasonable action against the Kumo Crew might be too good to miss, except for more disturbing events occurring closer to home.
Presently I am carrying out pest control at RESes so I am combat ready, whilst staying within a handful of jumps from Paresa, ready to frustrate the Federation's attempt to muscle in uninvited. Nova Imperium is not strictly the Empire but it's like a wayward child, and if anyone is to deal out any punishment, it should be us – they are a bunch of reactionary fanatics but they are our bunch of reactionary fanatics, so to speak. This is of course assuming that Nova Imperium are anything to do with the NMLA or if that's a convenient excuse that the Federation has invented in order to move in and take over – why would Hadrian Duval be the mastermind of an organisation that only a few months ago made an attempt on his life? A false flag? No, surely the IISS or any other major intelligence service would have seen through that by now. Seems more like the Federation are looking for an excuse to move in – as a show of strength to show the Empire they mean business. Either that or Hadrian Duval has made an enemy of the Club, that too cannot be discounted, whilst there are far too many peddlers of paranoia who are eager to attribute every single bad thing that happens in the galaxy to the Club, it is certainly plausible that the Club has played a role in these recent events. Yet proving or disproving that is beyond the means of a humble pilot like me, that there is evidence that the Club exists at all is only due to the actions of the controversial former Imperial senator Kahina Tijani Loren, more commonly known as Salomé, and even she paid for that with her life. All I can presently do is answer the call to arms when that time comes, and I am most certainly eager to give the Federation some payback after the humiliation of LTT 1935.