Catching up
03 Mar 2024Claude Lecardunoie
So...Where was I?
I haven't writen for while now and didn't fly more in the last months. Hard to pick up the thread...
So where was I? Oh yes, August 3309...
In late August 3309, I timidly involved myself in the war against the Thargoïds. With my poor fighting abilities and lack of experience against xenomorph ships, I worked as a first responder, delivering food, medecines and any stuff useful to repair and restart a damaged planetary base or spatioport.
I also had to board on my ship two reporters from Rewired, one of the many news feed of the galaxy. They wanted to cover the Thargoïds war. After a month, of at times, a difficut cohabitation with them, we split ways, as one of them, Rufus DeNeuville, wanted to investigate on alleged connections of Zachary Rackham and Archon Delaine. "This kind of investigations, digging into the dirt of our glorious and untouchable Federation politicians, that is more my stuff", said Rufus, "and I might need a person like you to infiltrate, say a settlement or a plantery installation with dubious activities..."
After their departure, I carried on contributing with what you could call the "secondary line" of front in the war: supplying and repairing human settlements under Thargoïds attackcs. I came across various humanitarian organisations then: The Galactic Red Cross, Pilots Beyond Systems, guys from MediCorp too.
I also had the chance to meet the famous engineer Liz Ryder. There, in her base, which rather look like a quarry or a mine field, she improved the armour and bulkheads of some of my ships.
But lately, it was time to take part in the global war effort by providing Ion Distributor and Energy Grid Assembly in YZ Ceti, to assist Aegis, this time, as they were industializing their AX torpedoes. As usual, this kind of operation brought all sort of pirates and worse, pyscho pilots only here to kill. I had to drop some my cargo to some of the pirates and hopefully escaped one of these killers, as my T6 proved to be faster than his ship.
I also came across other independant pilots. And after some chats on the comms, they convinced me to join their squadron, the Order Of Twelve. Altough mainly composed of Empire supporters, it seems to be a rather loose organisation, officially independant. So while keeping my independance, I'll have access to their fleet carriers, in exchange for occasional support.
As I picked up my reward for this Aegis operation, in Clement Orbital, I got offered a position as one of the Deputy Marshalls in YZ Ceti. This job means patrolling the main star of the system to scan and destroy ships with bounties as they exit from hyperspace. After some days, many pirates ships destroyed and some pirates pilots rescued in their escape pods, first, then detained in a stationl, I had to attend an important briefing.
To my surprise, the only other person in the room was not my regular squadron leader, but Bedevere Ohotsk, the Intelligence officer, in Clement Orbital.
- "Good afternoon, Lecardunoie", he started, "We need your help for a very discrete mission: neutralizing a specific target in Ross 780, one of the neighbouring system"
- "Doesn't seem to be much different than what I usually do for you", I said
- "This time you'll be operating in an other system and probably drag the attention of Ross 780 local authorities"
- "Why?", I asked, "Who are these targets?"
- "You are not allowed to have this information", said Ohotsk, "They are dangerous people to us. That's all. The reward will be pretty hefty, between 7 and 10 millions".
In Ross 780, I found the target signal. I opened fire right after exiting supercruise. The ship was already badly damaged when the scan result came up: "NO BOUNTY". I was confused. I kept firing until complete destruction. But I was wondering: no bounty, who did I just killed? On the way back to Clement Orbital, I contacted Bedevere Ohotsk.
- "I need some information", I said, "It seems that the target of you mission was a civilian ship"
- "Yes it was. That kill was a Spec Ops for the Federation Intelligence Agency", he answered, coldly, "Colateral damages are part of the job. Any problem?"
- "Damn right, there's a problem. At least you could have warned", I yelled while closing the communication.
I resigned from the YZ Ceti system police after that last mission. Yes, the reward was huge, yes that will probably help me moving up in the Federal Navy hierarchy, but still, I felt bad. So better leaving.
I checked my new squadron comms chanels. They are involved against the Thargoids near some Imperial systems. I've decided to go there.
On my way across the station to the landing pads, I realised that many people were gathering on the main concourses and rings interchanges, following live reports from new channels on giant screens. I forgot: it is the 02/03/3310! The final assault on Titan Taranis has just begun. Well, I had too much to do, so I made my way across the crowd to my landing pad.
So... Here I am.
In the docks. Packing my stuff and about to leave YZ Ceti: weapons, exploration, exo biology and reparation tools, space suits, computers, cables, various spare parts, food and water supplies and my personal luggage. When I heard the clamor and the chants from the station corridors, I decided to go to one docks lobby. They are all standard, added by Brewer Corp some years ago, next to the pads, with basic services: APEX, Pioneer Supplies etc.
And a bar. It is from there that I followed Taranis annihilation.
All eyes on the bar screen, following Taranis Titan final assault from Rewired live video stream
It was a contrast with the rest of station, because it was rather quiet: only half a dozen people there. Everyone of course prefered to be in the station main plazzas for this historical event.
Rewired live video stream: Titan Taranis fall
Ok. One Titan done. But still some more to be destroyed. Time to take off and to catch up with the rest of the Galaxy.