4 Apr 3308
04 Apr 2022Radia Daku
6:05:38 UTCI was born to a trader and a Federation rear admiral. When my father saved up enough money, he bought the Corvette the navy assigned to him and outfitted it with the best equipment he could buy. The Carion, he called it. My mother had an Anaconda that she used to trade and mine, she couldn’t give it a more fitting name—the Golden Goose.
Those two ships alone brought wealth to my family.
You’re probably wondering why, then, does a Federation-born child have an Imperial Cutter?
To answer your question, I should probably go back a bit. When my parents died to a damn pirate, all they left me were their ships. I was a spoiled little brat, and they wanted to teach me to make my own money, and know the true value of a credit, so they donated the majority of their wealth to various charities and left me with the Carion, the Golden Goose, and just enough for a single rebuy for the most expensive ship, should anything happen to me and I somehow got the ships destroyed. To be honest, when I learned of what happened, I was too overcome with anger to even focus on the point of their gift. That pirate took everything I loved away from me. My parents were all I had at the time. I still haven’t found him—and I doubt I ever will. Still, in the systems I’ve visited during that time, every pirate I ever came across begged for mercy when they saw my ship come out of Supercruise. I was ruthless. I didn’t care if they had families, aboard their ships or otherwise. To me, they were all the same. Murderers. Nowadays I have more than a few friends within those circles.
Regardless, for years, I patrolled resource extraction sites and nav beacons, killing anything with a bounty until I could afford to upgrade the meager weapons my father left me. It wasn’t until I managed to pick up enough Painite that I started earning anything, though. Back then, bounty hunters weren’t paid as well as they should have been. I wondered in and out of the bubble for a while, never really going too far, not caring about factions or allegiance. That was—until I met Leah in Moyot. It’s a small Imperial system just a hundred lightyears outside of the main influences of the bubble. Of course, she was imperial, and she didn’t know I was a federation boy until she saw my fathers’ Corvette in its hangar. She almost left me until I told her it was just a family heirloom, and that I didn’t really care about the mess that is politics. From there, I guess I kind of went back on that. Eventually, I started getting into imperial comings and goings. Ended up with a set of Prismatic shields, and eventually made my way to being a Duke of the Empire. Now I guess you can say that I’m somewhat of a devotee to Princess Aisling Duval. The good Princess has given me much to appreciate, and being a pilot of the Pilot’s Federation, I have no obligation to Zachary Hudson or his Federation.
You’d probably think my father’s rolling in his grave. Don’t get me wrong, he was a good man. Gave me everything I ever asked for, and then some—but I’ve always admired the Empire. My father knew this, and he loved me regardless. I never hid my admiration.
You’re probably asking why I’m telling you all of this. Well, I guess I’m a little reminiscent today. We woke up to a hull breach on deck nine of the habitation section of the Wayfarer. Leah and I went to help with repairs, and during the chaos, Leah almost got blown out to space. She had her remlok suit on, but nothing more. We would have never gotten her back if she did. Guess it scared the shit out of me.
After some investigation, it turns out it was an old breach from earlier this month. It was supposed to be repaired, but someone forgot to finish the repairs and a rogue asteroid struck it open again. I think I know who. They’ll be replaced when we get back to the bubble.
Anyways, after a bit of mining in the rings for tritium, Leah and I went to explore some of the local systems again. We found a few planets with life on them. One of them had a beautiful sapphire blue sky, Leah and I spent most of the day there, enjoying ourselves in the heated pool. I took her out for a spin in the Scorpion. I didn’t get any pictures of that, unfortunately. She was more interested in the various life on the surface, then came back and enjoyed a couple hours of soaking in our pool before we left the planet and headed towards another planet in the system with an ammonia atmosphere. The Thargoids would love that particular world.
6:32:00 UTC
Now this is interesting. Leah found these strange fungal growths on the ammonia world. They seem to react when they’re sampled. They all pulsating. Leah took a physical sample so Xerxies, our head of science, could look at it.
6:48:58 UTC
Of course, one of the last areas on the planet I could find the final specimens to document the last species of life on that ammonia world was so damn mountainous I couldn’t find a place to land the Hope. Ah well, we needed to move away from that system anyways. It was nice, but I need to finish this trip to return to the rings and mine.
7:34:50 UTC
Made it back to the Wayfarer. Did an inspection of the section of hull that got damaged and moved her away from the rings of the planet. The hull looks fine. Good thing Leah and I decided to buy a Nautilus. They’re built for long-range expeditions like this. They’re meant to serve as a base of operations that you can just take anywhere—then again, most carriers are. But these have factories in them to produce the plates needed to repair damage like that, whereas most other carriers have to rely on imports to repair what gets damaged. The Nautilus carriers don’t need that, and I already had the materials needed for the plates.
Leah, understandably, doesn’t want to sleep on the carrier. She’d rather stay in the Hope, or the Carion Mk II. I don’t blame her. I think I’ll be sleeping there too. As for the crew of the Wayfarer, I’ve made plans to reinforce all habitation sections with shield generators. It won’t cover all of the carrier, but it should be enough to prevent any more rogue asteroids from breaking through.
Regardless, Leah and I are going to bed soon. When we wake, we’re heading back into the ring to get the rest of the tritium I need for now. I’d like to dig into our reserves as little as possible, now that we’re out of the bubble. Can’t exactly take a ship out to buy thousands of tons of the stuff and bring it back out here.
8:22:00 UTC
Can’t sleep. I keep thinking back to that moment earlier today. I see the panic in her eyes every time I close mine. I feel the fear that coursed through me every time I take a breath of the filtered air on the carrier. Damn it. I’ll talk to one of our medical officers, see if I can’t get something for the anxiety.
Leah brought me out of a dark pit when we met. I’d been bloodthirsty for pirates, chasing one lead after another to find the one that killed my parents, and it brought me to Moyot. I’m not sure what she saw in me—maybe she liked the passion I had, or just wanted to see if she could ‘fix’ me; bring me back to myself. I don’t know. But she became the light of my life, and every bit of energy I spent trying to hunt that bastard pirate got spent doing everything I could to make her smile.
We’ve been together for six years now. My parents have been dead for eight. I gave up hope in finding the man who called himself The Red Barron. If I had lost Leah today—I would have truly lost everything. All the billions I’ve made, the ships I’ve spent years fine-tuning to perfection, the carrier that I’ve made my home—none of it would have mattered.
When my parents died, I thought I fell into a hole. That would have been a speedbump compared to the singularity I would have drifted into if I’d lost my wife to the vacuum of space today. Whatever god or gods exist—thank you. You saved two lives today.
19:12:30 UTC
Woke up in a panic attack. Had a…nightmare. Going out in the Goose to mine some tritium with Leah.
20:03:51 UTC
I need to get out of the rings for a while. Our medical officer gave me some anxiety medication. Didn’t get much in the way of tritium. Only about fifty tons, but I won’t need much more. Maybe another two-hundred tons. I’m trying not to worry Leah, but what happened last night…
She and I are going out to explore a little bit.
By the way, if any of you want to join us, we’re in the Syralie BS-Wc1-4 system. It’s about six-thousand lightyears from the bubble. Not a short trip, but definitely not out there. I don’t have a shipyard or outfitting installed on the Wayfarer, but you can refuel, rearm and repair whatever you bring with you, and sell whatever exploration data you have to either UC or Genomics.
Fly safe out there.