Jumping further
01 Dec 2022Claude Lecardunoie
These ten days in Deciat, at Farseer Inc. were a welcome break from the feverish atmosphere reigning in all other stations and spatioports. I spent this time with people only dedicated to science and technology. There were talks about the Stargoid, of course, but overall, this small and remote planetary base was like out of time.I flew back to LFT 133 with an upgraded Asp XP and with the specs to improve its FSD jump range even more. Well, if the Thargoids set the Core Systems on fire and bring chaos, at least I would have a chance to fly to out of the Bubble.
I had settled down in various systems since I escaped from Dromi. Ehecatl, Veroandi, then 10 Tauri. But LFT 133 seemed to have it all. A very profitable trade route with LHS 142, the "Silver Train", as I call it. But also a material trader, a human technology broker not too far and even some decent mining spot like Tau-3 Eridani. As long as you didn't mind working for the Federation and trading with Independants, LFT 133 and the cluster of systems around were a really nice place to live and work in 3308.
Of course, in November of that year, it was slightly different. LFT 133 was a system where individual civil rights and freedom of speech were implemented by the dominating factions, Independants or Federation. A kind of "speakers corner" existed then, near the plazza on the level 3, in front of the administration buildings. In a small park, there were both actual podiums and virtual ones, where a holo-speaker could deliver a speech through telepresence. Before august 3308, you could hear the usual weirdos: zealots of what was left of the Far God Cult, self-proclaimed NMLA spokespersons, independantists from The Pléiades or Witch Head and wannabee entrepeneurs looking for investors in Colonia. Aside from the random arguments between all these fine people, quickly settled by the local police, it was more like a circus where the audience would take a lunch break or a walk with their kids, barely listening to the speeches.
But in the end 3308, it was different: Anti-Xeno extremists and warmonger would chase down pro-peace partisans and Far God Cultists were harassing anyone working for a warship or weapon corporation: Brewer, Core Dynamics, Falcon DeLacy and above all Azimuth. And both sides were spitting on any official news media. With the Thargoids threat getting closer and also the pressure of the growing flow of refugees from the outer systems, it seemed that people had radicalised.
Where did I stand in this mess? Nowhere, really. I still think that we, I mean humans, were better being prepared with the best AX weapons possible, while trying to negociate with the Thargoids. Therefore I worked with Azimuth Biotech in the beginning of November, even fought the Anarchists Armed Forces to help securing them and I also helped this pro-Peace initiative shipping muon imagers and medecines on the late Kingfisher megaship.
The destruction of the Kingfisher, some days later, although tragic, didn't really come as a surprise. For what we knew then, Xenos also, were divided, but sadly, our ancestors actually started the war against the Thargoids faction which was eager to start diplomatic exchanges. I wouldn't say it was by stupidity but rather by fear and ignorance. And two centuries later, here we were: facing a danger like none before...
In this context, and the money I had, I had to keep working on my assets. I improved the FSD of all my ships: my liner, my freighters and above all my exploration ship. Combat wise, The Monitor, was a heavy and slow fighter with a really small jump range, but it didn't matter: its purpose was to fight in local conflicts. No need for cutting edge FSD module. Instead, I bought a Krait mkII, and turned it as a multipurpose fighting and bounty hunting vessel, with a Frameship Wake Scanner which would help me collecting FSD data. Because from what I learned from Felicity Farseer such data are always necessary to improve your FSD computer parameters setting.
In those days, I didn't really know what would come upon us. But in any case, the further you could jump, the better it was.