It's war, then.
23 Oct 2021Cayce Luther
In Paresa, a brand new fleet carrier hovered in orbit around Paresa 3 with a Military Dark Green Diamondback Explorer flying towards it, engines leaving an orange contrail as it approached. A rather serene sight around the earthlike world, however the interior of the exploration vessel had a far different story.
Cayce sat at the controls, throttle held in one hand as he listened on a headset to someone on the other line. It's not often he picked up a headset for communications, only when he really needed to focus on the conversation, the dead serious tone in his voice hinting at that need. "Really...so that's how it happened...is he safe? How about his passengers; any losses? No? That's a relief...thanks for contacting me, Nitsua. I'll talk to you later."
He disconnected from the call and took the headset off, hanging them just off the right side of his command chair on The Traveler. Shifting in his seat he returned his hands to the controls of the ship and started circling the carrier. The brand new Fortune-class Brewer megaship carried a Squadron Shadow paint job, orange engine trails and black name script on the side. Cayce took in the sight; it certainly was impressive, if a bit dampened by the news he received from one of his friends in Aisling's Guardians. A relative newcomer to the squadron, and pilot he'd met in passing only all the way back at Kepler, Seth Bradwell, nearly had his Libertas hijacked by NMLA extremists, looking to increase the body count at Dyson City. Thankfully it seemed that the situation was resolved with no loss of life, which allowed Cayce to breathe a slight sigh of relief.
His hand gripped tighter around the control stick of The Traveler, but then he released it, grabbing his keyboard from the left side of the chair and started to send a message to so his squad mate as he left the ship to circle the carrier. "Bradwell it's Luther; I heard what happened and wanted to check in and see how you were holding up. Can you send a full report to either Phoenix or myself the first chance you get? I'd appreciate it. Sorry I wasn't local to help."
He clicked 'send' and sat back once more, clasping his hands together and thinking. The NMLA have gotten brazen. They'd attempted to take a ship, this time. What's more they'd assaulted a DPHS ship. It isn't surprising, the squadron has been goading the extremists for months to face them in open, but to think they'd manage to get aboard one of their ships was a slim chance, if any. Cayce sat back and looked to his comms, clicking again and sending a direct line to Phoenix. "Hey. If you haven't started yet, tighten security on the Dragoness. I'll meet up with you shortly. Got one hell of a surprise"
He looked back out and finally gripped the controls of the ship, piloting the Diamondback to a small landing pad off the starboard side of the carrier, touching down and letting The Traveler settle onto the freshly built landing pad. He stood after the landing clamps locked down and he walked ahead of the controls and console to look out the window, narrowing his eyes as he stared down the flight deck of the squadron's second carrier. He settled his thoughts for a moment, trying to process the last few months, then looked back to the command chair. "...Celeste. Open channel; squadron-wide and general space. Unencrypted. Let whomever wants to listen in do so."
The Diamondback's computer responded quickly. "Open channels, Commander."
Cayce turned back to the canopy, looking out. "This is Commander Cayce Luther of the Dead Pirates' Society, and this message is for anyone willing to listen. Recently we engaged in rescue operations at Dyson City among hundreds, if not thousands of equally brave pilots to evacuate civilians from the mess caused by the NMLA. Once again, they have made an attempt to assassinate Hadrian Duval and once again, they've failed. But the station isn't all they struck." Cayce looked back at the command chair of his ship, then walked back around to the console and started poking at the interface, igniting the carrier's nav system as he punched in a destination for a scheduled jump. "Ordinarily, I'd be happy to pass along bravado and snark in the NMLA's direction, but today such wit escapes me, as one of our own has been targeted by an NMLA cell, in an attempt to hijack their ship and the passengers aboard. These are actions that can not be ignored."
He finished typing in navigation orders for the carrier and close the panel, sighing. "We will not falter, we will not bend, and we will never surrender. As of this moment; the Dead Pirates' Society declares war on the Neo-Marlinist Liberation Army. To the NMLA: there is no border you can run to, we have no territory for you to threaten. We are not beholden to any government or superpower. There is no place for you to hide that we can not reach you. So make peace with your demons...because you're about to meet ours. End Transmission."
The broadcast cuts and Cayce sits back down in his chair as he waited for the carrier to engage its jump drive. He left orders for his carrier captain to increase security and make sure all ships are secure. He rests his hands on his lap and slumped back in his seat, closing his eyes to get some rest before the carrier departs.
Outside, the sunlight from Paresa bathes the megaship's portside, glinting slightly off the new plates revealing the name of the Dead Pirates' Society's new operations center: DPHS Renegade.
