Unguided, 6: Democracy for Dummies
08 Mar 2021Meowers
( 07.03.3307 - 08.03.3307 )
( G 59-7 - Komotae )
Ah, I love the smell of burnt corporumps in the morning!
After a rather gross experience in Lenore I've been able to redirect all my attention to a nearby conflict in G 59-7. Effectively turned that 'little local disagreement' into a four day long one-sided corpo thrashing spree of cannon rounds and plasma charges all around their flying hired halfwits getting wrecked to pieces and crying for help, reinforcements and raised hazard payoffs. Was good for my combat rank too!
But almost a week of relentless fighting had made me a new enemy: the lack of proper rest. Leaving the Wolf 412 Labour folks celebrating their victory, I was literally holding on to the sticks not just for piloting needs, but also trying not to fall asleep right in the middle of the flight. Hey, people, you're nice and all the stuff, but I have to go home and ram the pillow. Sure I could have this question solved the old-fashioned way, but hell, I deserve a better end of the day than sleeping on the ship with COVAS and all the alarms set to max volume.
Synthesiser materials were an issue too. Dozens of battles drained my reserves to the very bottom, and I didn't want to see my guns stop firing because the party lasted a bit longer than usual. Had to land on some material-rich planet and crawl around in an SRV a bit (because I won't go doing any mining again, eww yuck). The person who engineered a suspension for this buggy definitely knows how to make people suffer.
(The most usual SRV situation)
So, what's up at home (in the place where I keep my stuff and sleep sometimes, who am I kidding, I don't have a home)? Komotae Resistance party is involved in election for something important, with folks from Ribn... Ribs... Ribbit... damnit, okay, some neighbouring system (Ribhniugo!) as their rivals, and the score is almost equal at the moment with locals having a minor advantage. Ah, the elections, the gift of democracy!
Democracy is oftenly being described as the most humane and equal-for-all form of society organisation, with all that voting stuff, political dialogues, fancy speeches, etc. Yet it still has its flaws, hidden beneath the very principles of equality. Imagine you're some kind of science genius on the verge of a brilliant breakthrough, you dwell in your laboratory for ages and you do some serious science bingo-bongo that will eventually push all humankind forward. You are one vote. Suddenly you find out that your comms went down completely and the whole research had stopped for a considerable time because some bunch of angry backward morons decided that your high-rate comm tower spreads cancer, and they set it on fire and painted some rude words on the front doors of your serious science building. Maybe someone even used your welcome mat for the toilet. And, brace yourself, my awesome big-brained friend, in terms of democracy, this is not a 'bunch of angry backward morons', this is one hundred votes. And many of them think planets are flat.
So when another slicky politician gathers the ultimate support of these folks by indulging their goofy delirious babble and finally reaches the shiny throne, securing the victory in clean, fair and utterly democratic elections, whole 'equal and humane' stuff enjoys an amazing downhill ride. Well, of course some individuals had already tried to improve democracy and invent various failsafe schemes, but... In most cases the only things improved were their bank accounts. Anyway, there are vast numbers (if not the majority) of systems under local corpo control with superpowers just having their cut from it.
Although I needed a little change of pace, so let's help democracy! While not the best, this type of public order is, in my opinion, the most suitable for all these billions of greedy, selfish, power-hungry and sometimes outright dumb bastards called humankind. It gives them a chance to become better. More sentient. Aware of the consequences. Komotae Resistance party also had an armed conflict going on in the BD+19 2511 system, but their opponents weren't corpofarts or govt boot-lickers, so that clearly wasn't of my concern. Anyway, it's Galactic Women's Day today (even made a special log entry for this one), so I pretended to act more civilised and (almost) not willing to chase someone with a stick. Big plasma stick.
Had to take one photo, though. One of their combat zones was placed above the planet that is absolutely charred by the heat of the nearby star. Looked like meatballs that I've 'cooked' once when I was a child. Describe your cooking skills using one photo!
(Charred world)
Most of the work here is ridiculously simple, like data deliveries. Khm, at least their data is being delivered with a goddamn maximum security. Maybe I'll stay here 'til the end, trying to ensure their victory, maybe I'll get bored and leave to do nothing except having my portion of healthy rest. Who knows?
Hell sure I'll find myself some trigger-happy adventure soon.
* * *
Next part: #7: The Art of Making Enemies
Next part: #7: The Art of Making Enemies