Here we go again...
19 Oct 2021Seth Bradwell
Once more into the inferno, my dear friends...
People may think that one can get used to seeing such terrible carnage after running enough rescue missions. So let me tell you all, you never get used to it, you just learn to suppress that initial wave of anguish and keep a cool head, which is the only way to survive such a situation, since there are many great hazards to negotiate when docking at a damaged station which can catch many an inexperienced pilot unawares. The station's interior is invariably full of mangled wreckage, and explosions can send you out of control at any time. Then there is the heat - it is essential that you have heatsinks on standby, if not for your arrival, then definitely when launching for your journey out, since the heat alarms will trip even before you have even been decoupled from the pad, and with some ships this is enough to start singeing their internal modules even if you fire a heatsink on launch.
Imperial flight controllers are a breed above. Even in times of great danger they keep that stiff upper lip that the Empire is famous for, displaying a veneer of calm and level headedness throughout the crisis. Whilst this doesn't mean they are immune to fear, they can provide a reassuring influence to stop everyone else from losing their heads. However I am not too impressed with the attitudes of many of the Nova Imperium, who lest we forget I fought alongside not half a standard year ago. The rank and file civilians are fine, they just want out, but by the Void those Nova Imperium in positions of authority really have such a smug sense of superiority, looking down on the rest of the Empire in the way that many an Imperial looks down on outsiders (which the Empire is rightfully maligned for), they are almost aspiring to become a caricature of what the Empire is usually portrayed as by our rivals. One of their executives had the nerve to call me out for not prioritising transporting them before other Imperial factions, and worse still, opening up my ship to non-Imperial citizens before Imperials. Every trip to that passenger lounge was accompanied by yet another barb from yet another disgruntled Nova Imperium official. In the end I got so sick of it I started deliberately assigning the offending passengers cabins shared with members of the Paresa Blue Family, the system's main criminal faction. Then knowledge of my past Marlinist sympathies started to spread, and then I was getting stonewalled at every opportunity, like when they failed to acknowledge a docking request even though I swear to the Void that I was within the 7.5km required, leading to me getting slapped with a trespass fine which I had to go to the rescue ship to pay before I could take on any more passengers. Then the stream of passengers slowed to a trickle until I decided that Nova Imperium could sort themselves out for a while, so I went over to fetch my T9 the Hercules, and do some essential supply runs to the rescue ship. At least there it's all Pilot's Federation, where no one cares what faction you take. Sometimes I wonder why I still commit myself to the Imperial cause, I can take flak from the Fednecks but it hurts when it's your own fricking side (although only just when it comes to Nova Imperium, many in the Empire still don't trust them). I forgot how therapeutic doing trade runs can be, relaxing into the rhythm of jumping from star to star from origin to destination, with a hold full of either basic medicines or liquid oxygen, both of which are essential to saving the lives of the inhabitants of a station that has suffered a bomb attack.
After a few hours of static I finally get a message from Dyson City. Someone in Nova Imperium's top brass finally realised that I was one of the people who contributed so much to keeping the Imperator out of the hands of the Feds back in May, and issued an apology for any misunderstanding and requested my assistance in transporting refugees of the station. Naturally I accept and park the Hercules back at Koishikawa Port and return to the Libertas to help with the evacuation effort once again. The passenger lounge was not quite as hostile this time, although I still got the occasional tut when Nova Imperium's personnel were not immediately at the top of the queue, instead allocating space in accordance to how urgent it was for that person to be evacuated. After several runs the passenger lounge started to become less and less crowded due to the efficient operations of the rescue pilots in the area, but there was still going to a constant flow of evacuees until the station is stabilised. But my work was done for the moment, so I left it for other pilots to pick up the slack and headed back to Koishikawa Port to get some rest, unware that there was more drama to come in the next few days. I will end this entry with a picture of the Libertas taking another consignment of refugees out of the hellmouth and towards the safety of the rescue ship.
