Bootlegging for Azimuth Biotech and tales of the Second Prohibition (EDITED)
21 Aug 2023Claude Lecardunoie
The flight from Harma to Xi Wandga had been rather quiet. 20 hours earlier I loaded my cargo with Harma Silver Sea Rhum, one of the finest spirit in the Galaxy, to deliver it on the Musashi, the Azimuth Biotech's capital ship, for the corporation business convention held in July 3309.I was still flying with this journalist of Rewired, Rufus DeNeuville and his young photographer, Almira Keita, who were reporting on the Thargoid War (Read Dipping the toes).
Actually, Rufus was the reason why I decided to supply Azimuth with Harma Silver Sea Rhum and other luxury goods for their corporate event. While supplying food, medecines and ammunitions to Maybury Enterprise, a planetary installation under Thargoids attacks, he published an article on Rewired revealing part of my past without my authorization (Read Embedded with journalists). The day after the Thargoids lifted their siege, there were some celebrations, and it was then that a rather drunk Rufus tried to make it up for this article:
- "Commander Lecardunoie, there you are! Look around, big fiesta, right? And it is partly thanks to you, isn't it?. Well, I know that you didn't like that last article, but look at all the comments in support of the Pilot's Federation and their involvement against the Thargoids", he said, showing to me the display of his pocket terminal, "Listen, you helped me, and yes, I kind of used you, but I know how I can help you now. Azimuth Biotech will soon have its big annual corporate event and they'll need huge stocks of the finests food and drinks. I have some contacts at Gabriel Enterprise, I could bargain Harma Silver Sea Rhum at a good price for you. And with my contacts at Azimuth, I might be able to get some of their AX experimental cannons"
And here we were, some days later, exiting from hypercruise in Xi Wandga with my Krait Mk.II fully loaded with alcohol. And it didn't take long before I attracted the attention of pirates and Anti Azimuth pilots, some of them very likely also members of the Pilot's Federation. I doubted that Rufus DeNeuville would report that in his next article!
- "Ok, guys, it is going to shake a little bit", I said as I was started my manoeuvre to escape the interdiction.
- "Woooohooo, all right! Yeah", yelled Rufus.
Unfortunetaly, I couldn't escape the second interdiction. So I disengaged my flight assist to take a short ans swift U turn, dropped some chaffs to avoid beam laser shots from the attacking ship, pushed my throttle and boosted my thrusters to rush toward my opponent while I was watching my FSD loading gauge slowly filling up.
- "Come on, come on, come on...", I said out loud, as this would help my FSD to reload.
I popped some more chaffs, and I was about to burn a shield cell when I heard the sweet sound of the beep indicating the my FSD was finally charged. I engaged it and finally escaped the attack. Thank god, I had it engineered with a faster boot sequence.
- "Yeah, well done Commander. That was tense!!", said Rufus with enthusiasm, "Aaah! that reminds me my youth. I am sure, you kids never heard of the Second Prohibtion, right? That was back in the 3270s, I was not older than you are. Well, let me tell you that story..."
"Oh boy, here we are", I thought as I looked at Almira. I could read a sort despair in her eyes, yet with a smile on her face. She probably had already heard these kind of stories from old uncle Rufus...
"The year was 3275, I was starting my journalistic career at a local branch of the Federal Free Press. A couple of years earlier, Antonia Madison, the president of the Federation had to face a risky mid-term election, and in order to win it, she passed a law prohibiting alcohol to please members of all kind rigorists religious movement, very powerful then: the New Church of Sol, the Neo Mennonites, the Sagittarius Râ worshipers etc. It didn't take long before illegal alcohol tranport and trade got organised here and there by black market distillers and smugglers and in few years they became powerful. Archon Delaine and the Kumo Crew were big already, but they made billions, then.
It turned out that I had the chance to follow some of these pirates and wrote articles for the Federal Free Press about that. And just like today's incident, it was dangerous. The ships of the Federal Alcohol Agency would chase bootlegger convoys up to a point where the Federal Fleet and pirates squadrons engaged large scale naval battles.
By 3281, the law was so unpopular and the cost of enforcing it was so heavy, that the Second Prohibition was repealed by the Senate... to the great disappointment of all these illegal organisations... Some of them kept their black market operations. Others, well, they tried to get more respectability by shifting their activities. Some bought real estate others invested into legal business... There is no proof of course, but Zachary Rackham's father, Ricardo Rackham is strongly suspected to have started his fortune as a Second Prohibition's baron..."
I have to cut Rufus here, as he fed us with so many details on his adventures then, during the Second Prohibition that he kept talking during the rest of the flight to the Musashi... and all the way from the docking pad the local bar... and all the time it took the three of us to finish the first two rounds of drinks.
EDITED ON THE 23/08/3309: Until today, I thought of Rufus DeNeuville as some kind of buffoon, a once famous journalist, but ready now to do anything to make the headlines again. Well that was until the 23 of August 3309... Because he told me this story about Zachary Rackham dubious past and his potential relations with Archon Delaine as a pirate in July 3309, one month earlier!!!
And today, questions on 'Calico' Rackham's backgrounds are raised on the main topics of GalNet or in Bryanna Blanco's articles of the Federal Times...
Never trust your first impression, Rufus DeNeuville might actually be much more than I thought, and I admit it now, a damned good and well informed journalist!