King for a Day
08 Feb 2016Monolith Preacher
"Life moves pretty fast, even out here in the styx. If you don't stop to look around every once in a while, you might just miss it"Scarlet was sitting in her pilot's chair reading the news. I could see her bored face look through me in the video feed as I was talking to her. I could also see the dull red glow of the her HUD cast a glow over it, serving to highlight her hat more than her face itself. As if it wasn't hard enough trying to make her out when her whole ship interior was red. I turned my head and flicked the feed on myself. We've only got one news company out here, but they're so disliked they have to change their name and start back up again whenever someone gets pulled up for a felony. In a system like ours, that equates to a daily name rotation at best. So I pay more attention to the headline than the source nowadays, and the headlines didn't look good.
Every move we made was being matched. I checked the local faction influences in my information panel. Everything was proceeding exactly as I had foreseen. This decoy war 'twixt the Federation and the Gcirthi Defence Party had served to equalise the Gcirthi Gold United Group's influence with that of the Pirates of Gcirthi. I'd tried to sway the war already, and I'd come up with nothing more than hurt pride and a very large bar tab trailing in my wake. No, I needed to change tack, think outside of the box.
I had a look at what was happening on the bulletin board. Scarlet was talking, but she talked a lot, and I didn't care to hear about her musings on Blix's plausible skeleton closet right now. If we were going to use propaganda, better it make me look better than him look worse. I could do with making a good first impression as king.
Then I saw it. A contract, given by the boys to take out KalZakath in neighbouring Sumod. Now, there's always been something of a friendly rivalry between Gcirthi and Sumod. By "friendly rivalry", I mean prolonged war of attrition that's been going for so long no-one can remember if it was due to stealing someone's wife or eating someone's Vega Slimweed. We just know that one day, one side will win. We're not trying to take over each other's systems, mind. At least, that's not been the plan thus far. Rather, we engage in duels for bragging rights, and the winners get to wave their wakes in the losers' faces 'til the next duel.
KalZakath had been the Kal of Sumod for quite some time. Don't ask me what "Kal" means, I didn't learn a fraction of the titles those Imperials give themselves when I was in their employ, and I'm not going to trawl through Eddings to find out. I just know he was the boss, and he owned a 'conda. I was feeling pretty confident in my abilities, all things being said. I'd weaned my teeth on an Elite 'conda before I get involved in the war, and although I didn't change the war's outcome, I did make a fair few ships turn into debts whilst I was there.
"You away with your pylon, holy man?"
Scarlet was staring straight at me. She must've clocked on to the fact I was paying her no attention. And I hated it when she called the almighty Monolith a pylon.
"You can construct additional pylons, but you can not construct additional Monoliths. For there are many pylons, many receivers..."
Scarlet tried to interject, but I continued.
"...many antennae, many scanners, many guidance systems....but there is only one Monolith!"
Her face showed no great sense of epiphany, and I realised she had only said it to get me worked up. I don't know why she did that, but she seemed to be good at it.
"If it's not telling you to listen to me, your Monolith's gone crooked. I said the civil war's going to be over soon, and you're going to have a lot of trouble on your hands if you don't work out what to do when the next one hits."
She had a point there, but I was already miles ahead of her by now. "And if I'm not back in an hour, smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!" I set course for Sumod and fired up my engines. It was time to show KalZakath what a Revelation feels like. She was shouting obscenities at me as I left the dock, but I didn't see her follow me out.
It took an hour of flying around the system hopping in and out of signal sources and scanning every contact in range untilI finally dropped out facing the dread KalZakath. Not much to see, I thought. Yeah, a 'conda costs a pretty penny, but he was a mere Expert in ranking. A couple above mine, but nothing compared to what I had thought. I guess it explained why the lads had only put 75k in the pot. But he was insolent from the off, as he flew straight at me firing ere his ship scan had even initiated.
"To succumb to my power is nothing to be ashamed of!" he roared over the voice comms.
Quite the introduction. I was going to introduce myself and set conditions of the duel, but apparently it was too late for that. I decided actions should speak louder than words, and began to engage my vertical thrusters to help me positioning as I began to pitch my ship in the direction of his underbelly. Standard procedure is the best way to initiate if you can, and the option to begin the assault from an advantageous position was taken from me at the outset. The best I could hope for on the initial pass was that I could position myself beneath him.
Unfortunately, that wasn't to happen. He disengaged his flight assist, and span his 'conda round for a second pass before I had time to properly engage my hardpoints. Sure, they were deployed, but I hadn't positioned myself up for a shot yet. This was odd. I hadn't missed a first pass since I got in my new Fer-de-Lance, and this 'conda had no rights to be more maneuverable than the Cobras I was mincing in conflict zones a few days previous.
Luckily, these musings only took a fraction of a second to pass through my mind, and I stuck full pips to shields and two to engines. Sure, some CMDRs would put those engine pips to weapons instead, but I wanted to ensure I could re-position if he tried dodging another way on his second pass. They would have been right to do so, as he didn't pass me the second time as much as push me out of the way as both our shields went down.
Now I was in trouble. I couldn't disengage and wait to re-charge my shields. There was no-one else in this patch of space, and he'd blow me to smithereens ere I managed to charge my friendship drive. And besides, I'd need to disengage my hardpoints to divert enough power to get out, and that'd be a clear sign of my intention on his scanners. No, there was only one option. Four pips to engines, two to weapons, and pray to the holy Monolith I can take this turn in without flight assist faster than he can.
I managed it, and rammed his underbelly. I quick reversal with a full-powered plasma accelerator to his shield generator and it was at 50% integrity. a few more volleys of fire and I'd have his hull down to a quarter as well. If I could just match my acceleration to keep my position...
But no, my reversing had merely given his engines enough time to initiate a boost, and he shot away from me to gain the distance for a full sweep. I tried to match his bearing, forsaking weapons for the hope of staying on his blind side for just a moment longer. I proved unable to do so, and it was all I could do to eject my escape capsule towards Kent Station and hear him laugh on my intercom the whole way there.
But there was. As I walked into the hanger to inspect my new craft, I saw Scarlet standing there, cigarette in hand. She didn't even look surprised. She drew a breath, but I cut her off at the start.
"I'm going back out there."
She waited a moment, and a small trickle of smoke wafted from her mouth up her nostrils. She exhaled fully, threw the cigarette to the ground, stepped on it with a twist of the heel, and left without saying a word.
Women. As long as they're talking, you might be in with a chance. If they're quiet, you're probably already in more trouble than you know. But I'd already lost enough face in front of my people since I'd left, and I refused to end my first day in office with a nigh-on six million credit defeat. I decided to change tack. If he was going to play aggressively, I merely needed to pick the opposite side to turn to account for his erratic behaviour, and he should play straight into my trap...
So I jumped back to Sumod, straight back to where he was. But he'd bought another 'conda in the absence. I'd been gone fifteen minutes, and was lucky enough to have my courtesy vessel in stock from my insurance already. He'd managed to source a whole new vessel, and he'd done so to save himself the time of sending his last one in for repair. Whilst Hammer might find that admirable, as a preacher I found it decadent.
"I am invincible!" he roared over the voice comms. We'll see about that.
I didn't even say anything as we sped towards each other for our initial pass. I knew he'd wait until the end of the allotted time. His ego wouldn't allow him to do otherwise. I didn't know much about him, but his ego had at least preceded its proof. So I had dropped in with four pips to shields and two to weapons. I wasn't going to make any of the same mistakes twice. I moved my lateral thrusters in the opposite direction and began to pitch forwards, pre-empting his movements.
But he wasn't planning to move. Instead, he stayed his course and fired. Blindsided, the bottom of my ship literally cracked asunder as my shields found themselves unable to cope with the sudden stress of a 'condas entire payload and nose-driven weight. He slowed his craft as he moved into the wreckage, and the front half of my ship arched towards his windscreen. I was helpless. If I tired to activate my escape pod, my chair would pop out and hit his craft before the mechanism deployed, and I'd be done for.
The pompous cur flew all the way back home with me on his dash like some kind of trophy figurehead. Then, as I began un-clipping my restraints to work a way out of the craft in the docking bay, his voice came back, crackling over the comms units that must surely be running out of what little battery power was remaining in my half-a-craft.
"Don't bother. I'm taking you home once I'm done in my own."
So here I am, 12mil in the hole, and possibly the poorest king in the galaxy. Hammer's said he's out for now. Until something comes along he can be bothered to spend his money on, he's going to spend it on the usual frivolities at Steakley Port. Blix is baying at my doorstep, and it seems my beginner's combat luck has run out. Scarlet, obviously watching the live feed and feeling rather sorry for me, has offered to take my to an asteroid field to work on my maneuvers, but I'm not sure it's the right thing to do at this juncture.
A notification came through that now I am officially instated as King of Gcirthi, my assets must be transparent. Well, that's going to add some salt to the wound, but I'll do it. Jake the Knife, Pyrat King of Gcirthi, Monolith Preacher, and Hutton Trucker....has but 25million to his name. Glorious Monolith, there are kids that got their licenses last month that have more money than me...
When I return to see Scarlet, I tell her I'm off to do the one thing I can managed not to do wrong: smuggling. Everyone and their pet dog has been running Robigo dry for months. It might be the only game it town, and I'm a preacher, not a sheep, but sometimes you've gotta go with what you know. Heck, maybe I can finally meet a few more CMDRs, I tell her, it's been a while since I've chatted to any of them. Marra's said I might be able to help out in Tjakiri as well, and that might help improve my reputation somewhere...
It would've been easier if she could've looked less disappointed as I left, but then, she's been looking disappointed all day. So have I. And so have the faces of every Pirate of Gcirthi I see.
Do you know where the phrase "King for a Day" comes from? In the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, which we continue to practice here in Gcirthi, one day a year someone would be chosen to become king for that day. Usually it was a slave. During this day, all slaves would control their masters, but this one ruled the roost. At the end of the day, he was sacrificed to appease their gods and life resumed its normal pace.
I'm thinking it might be a bit late, but I might be filling the same role....only time will tell, I suppose...