Here I Go Again On My Own | Personal Log 10.11.3308
11 Oct 2022Mark Zero
-//Log Entry Start[Date: 08.21.3308]
[Location: Sadi Carnot Hub, Arnais]
Things have been a bit hectic lately, and some recent events made me realize I haven't really committed anything to my personal logs about the squadrons I've run with. The short of it is that things went a bit sideways with my latest crew, at least for me, and so I've struck out on my own again as a freelancer. Which, for now, I feel pretty good about. Part of being a Commander is the desire to "blaze your own trail" across the galaxy, rather than being truly beholden to some government, corporation, or other faction. The idea of calling my own shots for a while is pretty appealing. But now that I'm out on my own again, it's worth looking back on the crews I've run with and how it got to this point. Fair warning, this is a bit of a long one.
First up is Lebowski Interstellar, a squadron of Commanders who operate out of Gungamato in support of a cooperative called Wraith Shipping. Wraith's... interesting as far as co-ops go. In theory, they're a shipping and transport operation owned by its constituents. But, seeing as they're in charge of a healthy network of systems a few jumps out from Deciat, they end up needing combat pilots about as often as space truckers. Weird thing, doing criminal wetworks for people who mostly deliver liquor and food cartridges.
Lebowski Interstellar themselves are an interesting bunch. Their head honcho, Mersozz, found a Generation Ship a while back, callsign "Treehorn". During the salvage op, he came across some kinda old world documentary footage of an old Earth philosopher named Lebowski, or "The Dude". Something about The Dude's message must've really resonated, because the whole squad took it on as their philosophy. Thankfully they ain't a cult about it like any of these Far God worshippers, seeing The Dude more as a very wise person, not some kind of messiah.
Good group, those guys, but the ties are loose ones. They're all about "abiding", which seems to translate to "do your own thing, man". Rarely did the crew really coalesce around a unified purpose, unless it involved protecting their sphere of control from interlopers. I felt a touch directionless, listless, needing something to work towards. So it was when I met CMDR Gaz Ubermick.
Gaz is, if nothing else, motivated as all hell when he gets going. We started out chatting via Pilots Federation discussion forums, then private text comms when we realized we had similar views on the state of the galaxy and how we found our way in it. He belonged to a squadron of trade moguls operating out of Itzamnets, simply called "The Emporium". Ominously vague name, but hardly the first org in the galaxy to go short on details. I did some preliminary ops with them to get a feel, expeditions to Guardian ruins, even my first forays into some Anti-Thargoid combat in the Pleiades, and ultimately took the plunge and joined up.
My time with The Emporium was short, but the most lucrative trade run I've ever seen. These were very experienced Commanders, with massive trade networks, and a penchant for catapulting the careers of their members like they were a Neutron Highway for banking credits. When a call went out from The Pilot's Federation to refuel the Golconda generation ship with Tritium, The Emporium sent off an entire fleet of carriers, filled the damn things with Tritium, and then parked 'em a jump away from the drop-off system.
Gaz earmarked the entire stock on board his carrier, the Fortune's Pawn, as my cargo to haul out, but an administrative misunderstanding saw it offered to another new recruit while I was working my way across the bubble. By the time I showed up with the Heavy Metal Queen, the Tritium had already been transported. "Stuff happens", I thought, but turned out this was one of a long trail of falling dominoes towards a break, and wasn't even a month before Gaz and a group of pilots struck out from The Emporium to found a new venture.
Oh, and worth being clear; they did right by me over the mishap. Brought up another carrier full of Tritium and raised my bank account by a factor of six. High enough to land me a carrier of my own; the Amaurot's Legacy. Still feels a bit un-earned, but I'll always be grateful for that.
So I followed Gaz and the rest as we tried our hands at carving out or own little slice of the bubble, branding ourselves as Foxworks Celestial, and staking our claim in a little backwater system called Nedos. Gaz's vision was a modest one; assemble a small tight-knit crew, plant our feet in our new system, and see what kinda work we can find as independent pilots for hire, working as a team. It was a simple plan with great potential, and the future looked real bright.
Unfortunately, things got hectic for both of us, way faster than we were prepared for. Gaz got mired down in some long term, heavily demanding jobs that pulled his eyes away. I got caught up in the news coming out of HIP 22460, and shipped out as an independent combat pilot after rationalizing that holding back the Thargoids after Salvation provoked them was more important in the short term than my objections to supporting Salvation. Then the Proteus Wave happened, everything went sideways, and I damn near died. Laid low for a while after that. Probably too long.
Back in Nedos, things were changing. New voices sprang up in the space made by our silence. Recruits with a mind to build an empire started filling out the ranks. Outside pressure from Pranav Antal's sphere of influence and other local power holders started becoming a factor. By the time Gaz and I both found our way home, we felt a bit like strangers on our own doorstep. Became crystal clear in short order that our original ideas for Foxworks had passed us by, and it wouldn't be right to try to force it into that shape now. Gaz passed the torch, and we moved on.
So... here I am. I pointed the Legacy towards a system at random, and I'm taking some time to gather my thoughts, put my ear to the ground, maybe do a little work. In a way, it's liberating not answering to anyone for a while. Who knows what the next venture is, but it's nice to look back on the road behind. I've had the pleasure of working alongside some great Commanders, even when things didn't go quite to plan. Hope they're all doing well.
-//Log Entry End