The End of the Tracks (feat. unedited SAGi interview)
02 Dec 2017Monolith Preacher
So a lot has happened since I left Degastani. Marra has left the wing, citing a need to be her own woman again after giving the better part of two years to our cause. It was an amicable passing of the reins, and now I find myself in charge of PR. The timing couldn't have been worse. Whilst I was away, one of our wing and his friend aggravated some random CMDR who was looking to close down local slave trading markets. As it turned out, this CMDR was the head of a small guerrilla unit who systematically set about disrupting our operations.To begin with it seemed like a small threat to keep an eye on, but once they flipped one of our low-pop systems, the steamrolling began. You see, in the old days wars used to affect the area in which they occurred. Nowadays, they shut down a faction's influence across the board. Once it starts, you can find yourself locked up in a war of attrition that is extremely hard for the defenders to prevail. This was exacerbated by the fact that the Galactic Railroad, as they called themselves, had no place of their own for us to strike back at.
Long story short, I found myself sitting at Deggie's cradling a bottle of Harma Silver Rum as a reporter from SAGi was interviewing me about the whole scenario after the fact, and feeling pretty sorry for myself. We had lost a few members of our wing just prior to this due to them not pulling their weight. By the end of this scenario a long standing member Ouberos had left because he had wished to engage the leader of their faction in a duel. Their leader Daman had aggreed to do so once our faction war had comem to an end, but that was not good enough for our resident daimond thief so he left to do his own thing. What was worse was that we had a spy in our ranks. I still hadn't found out who it was. We'd had some new recruits recently, but I was also aware that Daman had made offers to a few of our standing members. In light of this, and the fact that Ouberos and he seemed to engage in suspiciously cordial discussions after he left us, I began to assume it might be him. I still had no proof, and I was having trouble keeping my head straight with so much going on. Maybe I was wrong, but the point was moot by now.
By the end of everything, we'd had to concede more than I'd've liked, but it was better than losing all our systems. Eventually, we settled on an agreement which was broadcast throughout the Pegasi sector:
"The Galactic Railroad shall take Nuen, HIP 106296, Unkto, Wongo, and Supera. They also want us to not take HIP 105192 or col 285. We will be free to expand again once they leave our space. They want us to guarantee to sell them after 5 years to their freedom in one of the liberated systems [...] : no physical mistreatment, decent clothing and food while under ownership."We can allow this if they can concede that their "freedom fighting" cost untold lives and they basically engaged in terrorist action by making pre-emptive strikes against us without first coming to us with any amount of negotiations. They must also realise that any treatment of Archonian slaves without Black Omega space falls outside of our jurisdiction. Beyond this, it has been arranged that once they leave, they shall not return."
This was repeating on a loop via a specially designated channel for people to hear over the next month, and luckily that channel had been blocked within Deggie's so as not to sour the feeling of the place. Deggies itself had been on the up since the publicity, so there were some fringe benefits. I had managed to get a permit to Crom recently, which meant the rarest drugs in the galaxy were now being fed into the dry ice which lined the dance floor. The bar staff and bouncers had been given treatments to make them immune to them during work hours. Our resident new DJ was composed of nanites, or so his PR ran, so it didn't mind much. Preacher had gotten used to fesh a long time ago, but it this new brand did get his jaw aching after a while. The distraction was welcome as the reporter sat down and began his interview. He was honest about the fact it was likely to be truncated for the sake of making it readable, so I decided to wax verbose and put out an unedited version for the locals. Louis Calvert had come straight to my booth without visiting the bar. I wasn't sure if he was afraid of the place or just eager for the story. He got straight to business as soon as he sat down.
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Q: How would you describe Black Omega, for people outside the Pegasi region who might not know you?
Black Omega are a paramilitary group offering hardware, bodyguard units and advisers to those in need within the Pegasi Sector. We operate within the laws of the anarchic systems we find ourselves, and offer a measure of protection to those who wish their own freedoms to be respected. We are proud members of the Pegasi Sector Commonwealth, and members of our wing are free to engage with whichever powerplay factions they wish.
Our detractors claim that we are also involved in funding juntas, illicit smuggling of chemicals into systems where they are forbidden, gun running, people trafficking, forced religious conversion and brainwashing, manufacturing knock-off clothing ad jewellery....the list is as long as they can make up crimes to ascribe to us, but none of them have any proof of such slander. The fact is people just don't like to admit that self-governance can work with the right people at the helm.
Q: The Pegasi Sector has long been a hotbed for conflicts. 3301 saw a share of Galnet news coverage as the Kumo Crew went on a rampage and the superpowers took notice. What has life in the sector been like since the focus moved away?
The preacher looks somewhat surprised as this question is asked, and takes a long swig of his drink before replying.
You must be aware that as a long-serving member of the Kumo Crew myself, that my opinions here do not represent Black Omega, but rather my understanding of that conflict as a free man of the Archon.
I suppose that things look quite different from the outside of Pegasi. The superpowers had been engaged in a protracted campaign of trying to subjugate the Kumo Crew, and it was only when we proved resilient enough to withstand their attacks that they eventually turned their focus back to each other. Things have not been easy moving forward in that regard, but as far as Black Omega are concerned, we never offered direct assistance as a wing so such things mainly affected our supply lines and meant that we had to maintain good relations with the factions nearby so as to avoid outbreaks and famines in our systems. Moving forwards, the relative stability of the sector has allowed us to better look after our constituents and something approaching "life as normal" had ensued for a while until this unfortunate event with the Railroad appeared of late.
Q: You've called the Railroad Terrorists, how has their involvement affected your business dealings in the sector?
Well our public statement echoed our concerns, but for the sake of your readers I shall elucidate the matter further. The Railroad have engaged in protracted guerrilla warfare against our systems with minimal provocation. It is my understanding that a member of our wing and a certain prolific commander who shall not be named responded badly to their leader's idea that he would free slaves within our sector. Instead of following the proper channels, we have instead been subjected to a war from within which has cost untold lives in the process. As you may know, when a war affects a system it stops us being able to properly serve our other systems, and without having a home of their own, the Railroad must have been hiding out within our own territories. This is not an insurgency as has been claimed, but rather a systematic escalation of terror tactics.
Q: The treatment of Slaves was the stated reason for disruptive measures taken by the Railroad, how do you respond to that? Many Imperials would say they Slavery is helping to supply jobs, food and healthcare to those that would normally be abandoned by society. Is that your view?
I spent some time doing diplomatic work for the Archon in the space or Arissa Lavigny-Duval, and from what I have gleamed from them their view of slavery as indentured servitude is down to their specific understanding of debt. Personally, I find it unethical to put a person into slavery for having lost their job in order to pay their debts, but every locality has the right to govern their own people as they see fit in my eyes as long as they do not press their way of life onto others. As far as "those who would be abandoned by society" are concerned, I think one must look at the reasons they have been put in such circumstances on a case-by-case basis if one wishes to make an accurate assessment of whether this was deserved or not.
Q: How do you respond to the accusation that many slaves are simply people who were the victims of kidnapping, or rescued after ship disasters and sold into slavery, these don't appear to be the unfortunate, downtrodden members of society, just people in the wrong place at the wrong time?
there is an inherent misunderstanding in regards to who becomes a slave within the Pegasi sector, and this is something I feel a need to address. Before the advent of VIP services, I myself transported no less than two million slaves within these spaces, and I read the manifest of every single person who came aboard my ship. What you need to understand is that we are an anarchy system, which means people are free to do as they please amongst consenting adults as long as it doesn't hurt anyone unwilling. Now I don't wish to go into specifics which will scare our readers, but suffice to say that we have a range of activities available here at Deggie's which would not be seen as "correct" in the eyes of other governments, but everything happens with the agreement of the parties concerned. Basically, as long as there aren't kids or animals concerned you can probably find someone who can accommodate what you want. If you have ever read the old "Culture series" of books by the 20th century author Iain M. Banks, you might see how things work around here. I also must stress we have never rescued anyone from a ship disaster in order to bind them in chains. Everyone in the Pegasi sector is a pyrat to the outside bubble, and we hold by nautical standards and pyrat honour due to this.
So I would ask your readers and our critics a question: if people of opposing factions are let back into the general population after wars are over, and we do not allow cross-pollination from Archonian slaves, what kinds of offences must people engage within to be considered for slavery? People are quick to judge, but perhaps one should wonder at what lengths freedom can really be given to people and still maintain an amount of moral conduct.
Q: You're a signatory to the Pegasi Sector Commonwealth, did that have any impact on the attacks carried out by the Railroad? Did you get any aid during this time?
We do not petition the PSC for help with our day-to-day activities, and although a couple of commanders decided to help us out in our initial battle, we did not avail them for assistance afterwards as we felt that any war of attrition would likely hurt all of our systems in the long run.
Q: You to reach a settlement with the Railroad to end the conflict, how did that make you feel? was it what you wanted? How will this affect Black Omega moving forward?
The settlement was a necessity. As I stated earlier, there was really nothing we could do beyond wait to see if they ran out of steam in time, and we did not wish to lose our systems and yet more lives waiting for this conflict to end at some indeterminable point in the future. Obvoiusly no-one likes to admit defeat, but considering we had been facilitating a changeover in management when this situation arose, and we also lost a member who was tired of chasing after their fighters only to have them high or low wake when interdicted instead of turning to fight. He felt this was an insult to his pyrat's honour, and left when his attempt at organising a duel under his specifications was not reciprocated in time. This is another example as to how we have been stuck playing their game due to the nature of their attacks and "headless presence", so to speak
Moving forwards, we shall do what we have been doing. We shall continue to offer protection to our constituents where we can, although it should be noted that many of our smaller systems will undoubtedly fall to more duplicitous democracies and republics with their own stringent sets of rules and regulations to allow people to be enslaved by their beliefs, social classes, or other vague and unexplained circumstances. We shall continue to work with the PSC to keep Pegasi a free and independent sector akin to the mythical Libertatia, and I personally will continue my work with the Kumo Crew in order to try and keep this a reality on multiple fronts.
Q: Do you have any closing comments, or a statement, feel free to say anything you like here.
In closing, I wish to say that peace has been made, and once all this is over we look forward to attempting to regain some semblance of stability here for the sake of our constituents. By now our rare Crom Silver Fesh should be entertaining your mind so I'll ask you to look around this club and see how many people are enjoying themselves. The kid behind the bar can mix more and better cocktails than most men thrice his age. The folks having a knife fight in the pits are seasoned fighters who do so of their own accord and make a good amount of money for "first blood" combat, and we have medics on hand should anyone get too seriously injured. I myself am the reigning champion, and my title defence matches resulted in the loss of but a single drop of blood in each. Our drugs are traded in the open and a cut of all the proceeds go to help local charity concerns. The...adult services have similar security, allowing people to indulge their vices with people who share them without fear of slander. Our resident DJ is said to be a collection of Nanites who refuses any attempt at gender or species classification and mixes the most unique music in the galaxy.
I took a long swing of my rum, and then offered Louis some. To his credit, he drank it. Maybe the fesh was loosening him up finally. I decided to end on a decent soundbite.
More than anywhere else in the galaxy except possibly Harma itself, we feel this best encapsulates our motto: Freedom Sells Itself.
We don't need anyone to liberate our populace. They are more free in Pegasi than anywhere else in the bubble.
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As he left, I wondered what information he would get from the Railroad, and how it might suit his article. A few weeks later I read through it and realised he'd done a fair amount of research. He'd talked to a few other people in the Black Omega bubble besides me, getting information from our resident scientist Dr Glaboski and some leaked information from both my wing and the Railroad. Luckily our data leak was set up by Marra in such a way astute readers could read between the lines to gain hidden insight as to its real meaning. I heard there was a counter-spy in the Railroad's ranks as well, but I was yet to work out who was leaking us the information, as it would come through anonymously on encrypted messages. Whomever it was, I was glad for their help as much as it didn't help us stem the tide. It might have done if there was any way to actually fight back, and I couldn't imagine how dangerous it must have been. These Railroad types talked like humanitariens, but as I looked through the casualty list and the varied states of digress that our systems had gone through, I wondered if they understood that they'd caused more harm than good in their passing.
Overall, the whole scenario led me to a realisation. In earlier times, we had more CMDRs and the Pegasi sector was far less populated. Nowadays, we were a smaller fish than we used to be, and this whole situation had made me realise how vulnerable we were. It was interesting how long a legacy can follow you around. We used to be one of the largest slave tradin operations in the whole sector behind the Kumo crew themselves, but we hadn't been atively involved as much since the advent of space tourism which I helped spearhead as a Saud Kruger patron. In fact, I was the person who got the title of "Tour Operator" added to the list of occupations, something I was rather proud of. However, the fact that we facilitated slave trading through other parties still left us in a place which was exploitable by the Railroad due to our lingering legacy from the old days. Time moves pretty fast in the bubble, and if you don't stop to look around every once in a while, important things can pass you by.
As I shut down the terminal which I was reading the article in, Deggie buzzed me and told me he wanted to have a chat. As I walked into his jacuzzi which had always been his office I felt he was about to chew me out as usual. Instead, I was rather surprised to find out he and the rest of the wing, along with the PSC and the Kumo crew had all thought I'd handled the situation with tact and managed to keep my head where others would have lost it. That made me feel good. I was worried that I'd walked into a clusterfuck, but at least we had weathered the storm. The Railroad were keeping up their end of the bargain, even if they needed a little help staying abreast of the situation at large due to their being used to the minutae rather than the macro of system states. Deggie wanted to know what I was planning moving forwards considering everything I'd learnt. I decide to be honest with him, myself, and the wing at large.
"I've decided we need to rebrand our image. This whole scenario came dangerously close to blowing our cover, and we're not really as large a paramilitary unit as we used to be."
Deggie's eyes narrowed somewhat, and I wondered if he was going to be annoyed with my train of thought as it continued. This was no time to be coy, however, so I continued regardless.
"So moving forwards, I think we should focus on keeping this bar as our front and acting more as intermediaries. We can facilitate things within our space, but after our current plans have finished then we should probably work on consolidation and keeping our ship in shape, so to speak. If we get a reputation as a wretched hive of scum and villainy, that'd only help bring the right customers to our door, and it's better than being known as an expansionist force of slavers when we don't have the manpower to maintain it. Joining the PSC has made me realise there are real armies out there. We are not big enough to be an army, as we've always been a ragtag group of ne'er-do-wells in reality. We just got lucky for a while. I feel that luck may have run out, and it's best for us to not rest on our laurels if we want to survive."
An awkward silence followed as Deggie smoked his cigar and changed the bubble settings on his jaccuzi. After a few minutes and some convoluted somke ring patterns later, he looked me in the eye for the first time since the Degastani operation started.
"It seems my plan has worked."
I looked at him quizzically, and he chuckled in a way that could only make me imagine he was missing a white cat to stroke.
"You needed to get over your mid-life crisis, Jaquel, and it seems you've finally managed it. I'm not sure if it was Marra leaving, that damn-ed slaphead reporter, or the little rare run break you gave yourself recently to get back to your smuggling roots, but you've finally got your head on straight."
My surprise must have been obvious on my face, as he almost seemed to be belittling my ego on purpose to test my resolve here.
"Well I'm not saying I'm a father figure here, lad. I'm saying you've got your plan together, so it's time to set it in motion. Just remember who owns the place and we'll do fine. Now fuck off out there and have a dance already, you still need to learn how to enjoy yourself before you can truly be ready to start running this bar. I won't live forever, and neither will you, so you'd better have some fun before you're dead!"
I wasn't sure how to take this last remark, but I decided if I could slip DJ Nanite a decent album to get my juices going then I might be able to bust out some of my old drunken Taiji dance moves and show people who's the boss of this dancefloor [[OOC: that last link contains some swearing]].