Accomplice Antecedent, A Posteriori
19 May 2018Kitaen Silva
It’s been about three weeks since I last took a bit of time to actually write anything into my log - though I already figured I probably wouldn’t keep this up as a daily thing when there’s countless other things for me to be doing with my time. Today, however, I decided to kick back in my cockpit and take a bit of a break to relax and have myself something to eat before I bounce outta here again, as stuff’s apparently about to be very different while out there in the black. Waiting for my equipment to come back from Narri is the perfect opportunity to go over some of what’s happened so far, after all.So, to start from the beginning, I suppose - rather, the beginning of stuff I haven’t already written, I guess? Yeah. Three weeks ago, at any rate. Shortly after my previous, uh, log entry, I crossed paths with a freighter pilot named Nimak - they had just arrived in Eravate to deliver a hold of cargo to Russell Ring, the Orbis station I’d been mainly operating from. Hadn’t actually met another pilot or commander that didn’t try to shoot me on sight until then - at least that I could remember - so it was a pleasant surprise to meet someone who was genuinely friendly. They offered a lot of helpful information, and while I already learned quite a bit of it the hard way, I just didn’t have the heart to stop their kindness, so I simply gave them my attention while they shared everything they figured would help me.
At some point during the conversation, some fresh news came across the GalNet - an organization called the Vadimo Patrons of Law had just posted a broad-reaching call for aid from any and all commanders willing to provide it. Something about trying to stage a gigantic party in the hopes that it will lift peoples’ spirits and morale despite all this Thargoid business. Nimak hadn’t left yet, but apparently this “community goal” - as it was being called - was very near to Nimak’s home system, and they were calling for freighters to bring supplies, as well as fighters to help keep them safe by eliminating pirates and wanted criminals in the system of Vadimo. At the time, I hadn’t thought much of it because I was simply trying to stay in the general vicinity of Eravate just in case something would kick-start my memory back into gear, and didn’t really intend to go running off across civilized space to heed every call for help. I’m not some big damn hero-type, I just mind my own business for the most part and try to enjoy myself as best as I can, given the circumstances.
However, Nimak had other ideas.
I hadn’t really informed them about the whole amnesia thing, and I don’t know that I’ll really make a point of doing so, but we’d gotten friendly enough to discuss our ships and general interests. Nimak knew that Melrose is a nimble, combat-oriented fighter-type ship, and while I hadn’t been using it for combat very much at the time, I was reasonably confident in my ability to fly by then, and at least knew how to hold my own against ne’er-do-wells and ruffians. So I didn’t really have an on-hand reason to turn down Nimak’s request to participate in the CG with them. I didn’t have any particular fondness for troublemakers, and if blasting a bunch of them out of their ships would keep my fresh-faced freighter pal in the green and out of more danger than necessary…
“Why not?”, was my response, accompanied by a shrug.
They seemed pleased by this, and we had set out within the hour, but the entire week of working the CG was a whirlwind rush of adrenaline and weapons fire. It’s difficult to recall anything specific from it all, but Nimak helped me register with the necessary contacts, and they told me about the rewards and such. Not only would I earn the worth of every bounty I turn in, but depending on my contribution percentage, I would earn a cash reward - and if I turned in enough bounties, there was a reward for these decorative decals to put on your ship. I wasn’t interested in the cash - though I had a use for it later, of course - but I hadn’t yet personalized any of my ships at all, and this was a prime opportunity to earn something that would help me develop a proper attachment to my ship. At the time, Melrose was the stock green colour, and quite honestly, I hated it. The reward decals offered came in four “flavours” so to speak - standard, bronze, silver, and gold - and which one you earned depended on your contribution ranking. I didn’t intend to keep the stock green on Melrose for very long, so the bronze wouldn’t match anything that I would repaint it to, and I figured the same thing for the gold, so I set my sights on the silver, then went to my hangar.
Melrose was already optimized to the best that I could manage, so there really wasn’t any outfitting for me to do, but I checked the shops anyway out of habit, then checked and double-checked my ammo, fuel, systems, and collected my thoughts. Once I was as ready as I was going to get, I informed flight control that I was ready for launch. A few moments later and I was rapidly leaving Sikorsky Station behind for the first time - though I would return to it many, many times throughout the week. My ability in combat made considerable strides throughout the week, but there were a few close calls that had Melrose limping away from a hot zone to seek repairs at Sikorsky. At several points, I dropped into a hot zone only to be greeted by ongoing combat between pirates and other commanders that had arrived to help with the CG, and many of them were quite happy to have another set of guns to tackle bounties - I’d find out much later that there’s incentive to bounty hunting in groups, as the payout is much larger for every participant - so I ended up meeting a handful of new acquaintances on the battlefield, which was a nice surprise. Hopefully I won’t find myself pitted against them at some point in the future.
At one instance, one of the other commanders sailed right into my path in his gigantic combat ship - I have no way of knowing if they saw me or not, but I definitely had no opportunity to stop or avoid them, and smashed right into the dorsal surface of their hull, directly in front of the bridge. Melrose bounced off their hull and didn’t leave so much as a scratch on it - they kept trudging along without even acknowledging it, while I whirled out of control into an asteroid field and had to collect my wits about me and perform a systems check before I could rejoin the fight. At the time, I didn’t exactly spare a moment to decide whether to be angry about it or not, but after the conclusion of the CG, I definitely had choice words to spill unto the ears of my entire ship’s crew - which was zero at the time and is still zero even now, but Melrose’s empty interior was plenty enough to receive all that I had to say.
As for the conclusion of the CG itself, somewhere in the middle of it all, I must have gotten carried away with the flying around and the pewpew, because I came out of it with just shy of 70 million credits, a gold decal - as well as silver, bronze, and the normal one - a newfound sense of entertainment and enjoyment in combat, and a few new ships, with parts to put in them. Before I even left Sikorsky, I purchased a Dolphin and a Vulture, which I named Ripple Cascade and Halcyon Forge, respectively. While embroiled in the bounty hunting, I’d lost track of Nimak - who’d kept busy with the freight duties as far as I knew - and caught sight of a new ship that I wanted to add to my collection--
Is this a collection? Am I collecting ships?
Hmm… Well, it probably doesn’t hurt to have different ships available - most ships are meant to be outfitted to perform one or two specific types of job anyway, leaving other jobs to other ships and other commanders, so technically I’m broadening my capabilities and access… even though somewhere along the way I’d inadvertently decided to own at least one of every ship available to commanders.
Oh well. At any rate, I had to do a bit of wandering around and talking to people, but I was able to learn that I could get this new ship - a “Chieftain”, as it was called - by making a trip into Alliance space. So that was the next thing I did. It didn’t take terribly long, something to the tune of 19 jumps or so. Could’ve been a lot less if I’d known to adjust some parameters in the route plotter, but hey.
Not that this text log can see me shrugging at the holoscreen, meaning I’ve to write this sentence about shrugging at the holoscreen, because shrugging at the holoscreen is apparently some sort of important context to the word “hey”.
. . .
Shrugging at the holoscreen.
But yeah, now I have a Chieftain dubbed Caliburnus of Annwfn - in a spell of boredom and spare time, I read some old compendium archives regarding the mythos and legends of human’s oldest recorded history, and decided to name a ship after a legendary sword as if that’s so original. Because why not. It was, however, a really nice ship, and despite it very clearly being combat and military focused, it struck me as being a potentially great planetary lander - the gimbal thrusters gave it that extra bit of control that would make descent and landing just that much less of a strangely terrifying prospect. At least landing on planets was nowhere near the same level of horror involved with landing on a sun every time you enter a system.
At this point is approximately when I decided that I should really make a decision on the first real place where I was going to centralize most of my work and use as a home base or headquarters. I needed a location that I could feel comfortable thinking of as a home, even if only temporarily, and I needed it to be a place where I could safely keep the rest of my growing fleet, as well as work on outfitting my ships for future jobs or projects. However, outfitting a ship requires money, and I didn’t have quite enough to finish setting up a proper exploration vehicle or lander, which I would need later for some of my more personal goals.
Which is how and why I came to be involved in the next CG as well. This one was essentially identical to the previous one in general needs - a station required deliveries of materials, and called for the aid of freighter commanders to transfer the necessary goods to the necessary location, while also calling for the skills of combat-capable commanders to aid in facilitating the safety of the freighters by hunting bounties. It didn’t offer any sort of decal, but there were the same monetary arrangements, and considering the Vadimo CG brought me into the possession of multiple millions of credits, this new one in Narri would probably help me get some decent equipment into a few of my ships.
“Soon, I’ll be out there, exploring and researching,” I figured.
Well, the Narri CG has been over for about a week, and was approximately as eventful as the Vadimo CG - lots of dodging and flinging bullets and lasers, and all that comes with these happenings - and I certainly earned enough to pull together a decent exploration rig, though now that I’ve arrived back home in Saffron, I’ve found myself confronted by the flickering visage of some mid-level ranking official in the Pilot’s Federation, his disgruntled-looking composure almost tangibly leaked from my HUD out of his photo, pegged to the header of a message detailing a mandatory personal summons and the general nature of the summons’ premise.
I glance over at the time. According to the uncaring digits which inform me of this arbitrary concept, my equipment will arrive…
...four hours ago.
...I’ll return to this shortly, because clearly I am late for signing off on my delivery.
= = = = =
Well, now that my main reason for waiting around here has been finished, all that’s left is to finish this entry and close it. Before I do, though, here’s where I should probably elaborate on how and why things are soon to be very different for me while I’m out among the stars, like I vaguely mentioned in passing at the very beginning of this log.
This message here in my HUD. About the summons?
Part of it is just a bunch of garbage formality and empty congratulating - blah blah blah “we’ve acknowledged your capabilities” blah - the usual bunch of tripe you’ll get when some fat money-bag that you know thinks he’s better than you needs to butter up some poor sap he’s absolutely certain is hardly even human, so that he can convince them to do something that he can’t or won’t do. I could consciously feel my eyeballs glaze over from trying to read it in earnest, so I skipped over the hollow bullshit and got right to the point by finding what they wanted from me.
As I already mentioned, the first thing was that it was a summons - “monkey, go here” - which by itself isn’t exactly unusual. All kinds of people summon commanders to ask them to do all manner of things, and we’re generally expected to just do them without asking questions, as I’ve come to understand. Unfortunately, I ask questions - and I ask a lot of them. I’m not motivated by money, either - sure, money is a necessity, and goals are achieved through the expenditure of credits, but I’ve no interest in being rich or efficiently earning credits, which has resulted in many confused prospective customers. But back to the summons, and why this matters at all. This particular summons was phrased strangely. To begin with, it was issued by a ranking official of the Pilots Federation itself, which meant that it was something internal. And then there’s this bit about it being mandatory. Of course, it comes pre-packaged with the cookie-cutter ultimatum of “failure to comply is punishable by death”, because society has lost its damn mind and somewhere along the way picked up the idea that a “polite request” includes threatening to murder them if they don’t do your bidding. But a mandatory summons is still unusual.
But all of that strangeness is just the first bit. Granted, I’ve only about three to four weeks of intact memory to begin with, so maybe the misplaced part of me - possibly camping out with the part of me that accepts casual death threats on intercoms, if such a part of me exists - is well aware that this is normal procedure within the Pilots Federation.
The next bit of the message details the “why” part of the summons.
“You have been selected to assist, facilitate, and accommodate growth in the ranks of commanders within the Pilots Federation. In this process, you will be tasked with mentoring, advising, and providing actual experience to a new commander while they are under your care. This new commander will be your responsibility, even while they are acting independently, and you are expected to directly interact and wing with them frequently to provide them with a full experience of what role Elite commanders play in the galaxy. Consider them to be an actual assigned co-pilot and partner under the orders and authority of the Pilots Federation, and adhere to expected procedure and protocol in that regard.
Travel to Azeban City, Eranin, to file all necessary records and documentation, and receive further instructions and information. While there, you will be properly introduced to your assigned partner, at which point your duties in this task will immediately begin. The duration of your assignment will depend entirely on the combined performance of you and your assigned partner, and will be declared complete when it has been determined that your assigned partner has acquired enough experience and skill to formally become an independent.
Arrive within two days of opening this message.”
So yeah.
Absolutely wonderful.
Totally wanted my plans to be steamrolled by some paramilitary bureaucrat telling me that I’ve been “selected” to babysit some freshfaced pilot trainee for gods-know however long, and that I’m supposed to feel honoured by the opportunity. I don’t feel the slightest bit up for dragging a “partner” around.
Though, in re-reading the message, it doesn’t really suggest that I’m disallowed from simply going right back to what I’d already been doing, so there’s at least a bit of hope in that angle, I suppose. All it really says is that this newbie is my responsibility, they have to accumulate experience, the job ends when they’re capable of doing their own thing, and that there’s a bunch of paperwork to deal with when I get there.
Not that I really have a choice, but I may as well just go and look into it. I have nothing else to do right now, and I’ve already wrapped up my business here in Cresswell, so I can just launch straight away.
= = = = =
Well, everything’s a done deal. Signed off on everything that needed my John Hancock and now as far as the paperwork is concerned, I’ve been lumped in with some newbie partner.
I’m sitting next to the access ramp beneath Melrose and have been kinda idly skimming through a bunch of docs, but I remembered that I didn’t exactly finish my log.
I thought about it a bit on the way here to Eranin. Not much else to do in witchspace, after all, but I’ve decided to be a little more optimistic about it. I might not have any tangible memory of it, but I can reasonably assume that at some point, I was in this newbie’s position. I don’t know what kind of commander I was partnered with, but I think that if they had been an asshole and rejected the very premise of being partnered with me, I’d probably not be here. It’s kinda nice, being a pilot. I mean, aside from the constant death threats and shit, of course - but as far as I can imagine, there’s no greater freedom in the galaxy than being a pilot. Great things to see and do. I’ve no memory and I still have aspirations for what I want to do out here, so this newbie almost certainly has something similar.
It doesn’t cost me anything to treat them with kindness and support, and according to everything I’ve read so far, this really doesn’t interfere with my existing plans at all - exploration and research are valid pilot experiences, after all. It really just depends on whether they’ll be agreeable and cooperative.
It’s been great, piloting alone. I get to operate by my own rules, and only have to worry about feeding and entertaining myself. But anyone who’s done this for even a day will know that space can be maddeningly lonely.
I don’t like being lonely.
I’m not a gambling man, but I’d like to hope on the chance that whoever I’ve been assigned will perhaps be someone that I could get along with. If I can think of them as an actual partner instead of having to pretend, I imagine it could be a different kind of great, to experience the stars and wonders with someone nearby.
. . .
Well, I’m gonna keep sitting here and reading for now, I guess. I was told that they’d bring this prospective partner to the hangar for us to be “formally” introduced, but I’ve been sitting here for an hour and a half already and my ass is starting to go numb from this cold toolbox. I almost objected and voiced a preference to meet my supposed partner somewhere more comfortable and clean, but Azeban City is unfamiliar to me. Melrose is the most comfortable thing for me in the entire system at the moment, so it likely wouldn’t have made a difference.
I’m gonna wrap up and end this log here, then probably be a bit too occupied with chasing around my intended partner to write anything in here for a while.
At least I know I’ll probably have plenty to write about, whenever I get around to it again.
Fly safe, fly kindly, but carry a big stick and the willingness to use it when necessary.
… What an ironic thing for me to feel is necessary to write at the end of my logs, considering I’ve recently discovered that the customary farewell is “Fly dangerously, commander(s)” - but I think I like my closing words better. Anywho, yeah. Next log’ll be whenever I guess.