Coronation Crashers 3 of 3 - A Glorious Ruse
15 Jan 2016Monolith Preacher
Well, that's the official version of the story, anyway. The majority of that was not as it seemed, but it all worked out better than expected. I had organised the whole chase between Hammer, Orpheus, Clancy, and myself in order to accomplish a few things. Firstly, and most importantly, to implicate Springheel Jack. That bastard was willing to sell me into slavery, and had the audacity to do it whilst making me play double-agent against the Archon. I didn't mind the idea of stealing some Hammers for Harma, and I didn't mind stealing them for my people either, but that wasn't enough for him. Greedy bastard.Secondly, getting to Sheng to re-fit those Couriers and Asp meant that we could sort out the wiring and take my Asp back to how it was before we made it up to look scary for the show. It also meant we could take the Imperial trackers off them all and dump them somewhere. The rest came as a bit of luck. Talking to Sheng about our predicament gave him an idea. He had some contacts in LYR territories, and he could organise for them to harbour us for a month and liquidise any paperwork we needed them to. The fee would be somewhere in the region of fifty or sixty million, but this could be offset by moving propaganda for them or buying their equipment. It was a little steep, but considering Orpheus had mentioned a kingship, I'd assume we'd be getting towards times of greater money ahead if we could pull something out of the bag.
The last part came as a bolt out of the blue. Remembering Marra's work over at Vishkyamu only came as Sheng told me I needed some Onionhead to chill out. We'd been brainstorming for hours, and Hammer, whilst not as angry as he had pretended to be, was certainly as drunk. None of us had slept since morning, and it was now approaching midnight. Not that long normally, but it had been an extraordinary day. As I took a hit, I choked and remembered it was that new strain Marra had warned me about already. Too heavy. That was what made me realise the last kernel of my plot.
If we could make out that Hammer had lost me and taken the ship back to LYR, the Imperials would consider the return of their secret weapons top priority. If I made a deal with LYR to create paperwork saying an Imperial Courier was destroyed in their system, Sheng and I could hack the black box to make everything seem legit. Then I might as well just wait patiently until the end of my contract and buy a load of Pack Hounds to ease the money off that bill. Then, after half a year of pilgrimages, slaving, smuggling, and planning, I can finally go home.
Speaking of going home, there's one more thing I forgot to mention: When I was made a king, Orpheus informed me it was Imperial policy to assign a system to any king regardless of whether they were purebred Imperial or an outsider. The difference here, apparently, is that Imperial citizens can have a system now, and non-Imperial citizens get promised a planet the Empire has yet to conquer. Go figure. Well, they decided that seeing as no-one else had eyes on it yet that had made Kingship, they would give me my home system of Gcirthi....when they conquered it.
You know what? I can't wait to laugh about that with the guys when I get back. If the Archon turned up and asked for an alliance we'd probably debate the idea, but the Empire aren't going to be half as welcome. That being said, if they do happen to move through, I'd be in a position to turn a blind eye to almost everything that my boys do there anyway. Still, I'm postulating now, and it could always be worse. Better dead than Fed.
So I've taken the golden Fer-de-Lance they've given me for a quick spin to try and get the hang of combat. It seems there may be trouble ahead, whatever happens, and a king must always watch for the shadow behind the throne....was that what it was? I'll have to ask Orpheus. I'm a preacher, not a poet!