Exhaustion.
01 Dec 2020Teafox
Kid's asleep again. It took less time than I thought it would to get the message home, if war comes, It's not going to be fun.I'm not sure how long we've been here in system, ships clock says it's been three days and change. I guess that seems about right. The empire says they need people keeping pirates and raiders off the backs of the folks running cargo. What they didn't say is that all the attention on those big trade ships bringing materials in for their fancy new capital ships? Yeah, that means there will be plenty of raiders picking off the little guys running food and other supplies out to the lesser stations.
The briefing said they didn't care where we score the bounties, as long as they were bounties issued by the correct authorities, so we spent a few hours listening to the local comms to see what was getting ignored, found a spot where folks were getting jumped as they tried to fuel up and get their bearings to get to a station and. Well, I thought we would have to wait. We jumped in and the COVAS started yammering constantly that we were being scanned and it just did not shut up.
Just as soon as the locals saw we weren't carrying anything, they decided they weren't going to pay us any attention and went back to waiting for something that was nice, and plump and slow.
'kid couldn't even believe that they didn't care when we started lighting them up. Why would they care? Less competition that way.
And then a wing of trade ships turned up and it all went to hell. Pirates attacking the traders, pirates attacking other pirates to kill off the competition, the traders brought some of their own fighters too, but they didn't last long... And then there was us... Just a big ball of shields, armor plating and all the ammunition we could cram in the hold. We shoot until the guns run dry, fight on using the lasers only until the shields go out and then book it before the armor buckles.
Then, back to HQ to replace all the plating, load up on ammunition and go again.
For the first two days, the bounty vouchers barely covered the repair bills. If it was just military supplies at stake, I think we both would have just slipped away in the chaos.
Then the empire's composure slipped. Things can only be out of control when the government declares that they're putting a flat increase on all bounty payments galaxy wide. Can you imagine how stretched the local law enforcement must be if those bounties go up tenfold in some cases?
Thee days, best part of four days, I guess. Just land, repair, kill, repeat.
And then, as if it doesn't matter anymore, some bureaucrat or automated message system just sends a message saying Thank you, that's enough law enforcement, we've defended what we care about and some nonsense about a special honor for exceptional service and just like that? Regular law enforcement is back on patrol and telling us to move along, our services are no longer needed.
Neither of us trusts getting some shut eye in the station, something feels wrong about all of this. So once I'm done matching orbit with one of the local rings, I'll cut the power to everything but the life support and to any passer-by, we'll be just another rock with maybe just a tiny electrical field running... Lord knows if anyone scans us, COVAS has enough practice to let us know.