Sunlight and Hearts
31 Dec 2020Renardine
31DEC06 @1618In Transit, FCS Trafalgr Base
Listening to: Chris Christodoulou - Now I Am Become Death
[Audio dictation transcript]
[1619]
Fifty tons of composite laminate.
Two extraction borers
Thirty tons of hydrogen mono
All written off because some miner decided to pick a fight with our top FDL ace. In a Python with stock parts and almost no actual weaponry. From the logs, he blew the canopy out of spite long before the ship was incapacitated. Needless to say insurance wrote it off and said miner is no longer in our employ. As fun as it is to get my hands in some freighter guts, ship-breaking is depressing work. At least I have some time now to tinker with this gunship while we're en-route to [REDACTED] .
[1621]
[Inaudible: please reduce background noise]
[1622]
Right, Paresa. There are certain circles of Imperial-occupied space where making certain comments about certain individuals is highly frowned upon. Getting a bit too drunk and being a little too descriptive about a certain wine-aunt-in-chief landed me in hot water. After being handed none-to-gently from officer to officer to be carted off for heresy charges, one of them made me a deal. Weird guy, crazy hair, accent seemed off, but heard him out. Apparently not all Imperials are happy with Queen Karen and go so far as to say some brat of a distant relative is the rightful ruler. But every revolution needs a push, and this push would need to come from a strike carrier, something this guy already had in dry-dock. Just needed a miner to help build startup capital and a maintenance crew. Both are rare shining spots on my resúmé. I sign up, my new "sponsor" clears my record and I get my own bunk and a garage for life. Beats jail or 'involuntary manual service' on some terraforming hellhole.
[1625]
Unfortunately our political venture was wasted on people more interested in security than power. After more than a month of work, they folded to the competition and signed the most lop-sided treaty since the Convention of Kanagawa. The squadron nearly folded. Many jumped ship and we were left twisting in the breeze without a purpose for months. Finally, we received word that a rise in piracy and smuggling had prompted the Pilots Federation to increase payout guidelines which worked to their favor: combat pilots came back into the fold in droves; we finally had a way to make bank and have an excuse to work on our combat skills as a unit and not as an individual interest.
[1626]
So now we're a happy little band taking the odd massacre contract and occasionally moving cargo to keep the lights on, I pitch in with the fleet maintenance/re-fueling and provide the odd engineering consultation, everything is peaches and gravy. Meanwhile I develop a knack for xenoarchaeology and tracking the bugs, even took out a few Cyclops, but now we have a new problem. Sirius. They're poking too hard. It's bad enough they move to occupy Coalsack, but tampering with the ammonia world's... we're fucking with enemy real estate. The bugs responded by launching a probe campaign, something they haven't done in two years. Worse, Sirius just recalled damn near their entire security force to Coalsack. They aren't just going to sit back and watch while we shit on their lawn.
[1634]
[Session will automatically timeout in ten minutes]
[1636]
Right, that's the gunship settled. Thing idles at 11 degrees background emission. Cutters won't know what hit 'em, ha. Just got to tweak the thermal vent on the Chief and ... wait, witch space envelope's closing.
[1636]
[Inaudible: interference]
[1637]
Oh you have got to be shitting me.
[1637]
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[Inaudible: please reduce background noise]
[1638]
[Inaudible: please move closer to the receiver]
... hands to general quarters, condition 3, this is not a drill. TP fighters will set up a combat air patrol at 10 kilometer radius, all ships verify FoF prior to takeoff; point defense screening is safety-off. AX squadron will engage interceptors and assist Alliance personnel in ... Confirming presence of Medusa and Basilisk ...
[Session terminated: intranet shutdown by system admin. Please purchase Professional Edition for offline access.]
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