To Enter the Black Omega
18 Feb 2016Monolith Preacher
As I disembarked from Revelation 8:11 at Clair Dock, I was met by Marra and another girl. She was wearing a red catsuit, and had a rather well-cut dusty blonde haircut, which seemed to stoically resist the various gusts of air blasting around the dock. She also had a pair of ornate handguns at her hips. Marra gave me a warm handshake, motioning her head towards the other girl.“This is Pahn. She'll be your security escort for the week. I've got things to do, so I've got to head off!”
Without waiting for my response, Marra waved cheerfully and span on her heel to leave. Pahn levelled an appraising glance at me. Whatever she surmised, she kept to herself.
“Boss is this way”
She turned and walked towards a corridor at the end of the dock, and I followed her briskly. She kept a military pace, and I barely had time to do a quick inventory of the fleet as I left. There were a few Cobras littered about, and a couple of Pythons, but there were some rarer craft lurking in the wings. There was the unmistakable shadow of a Corvette hanging over most of the smaller ships, and a FAS had been sitting in the dock next to my landing pad when I came in. This wasn't the largest outfit, but considering they were about as far into the styx as I was, their hardware was rather impressive.
The corridor I entered was longer than it needed to be. To describe the lighting as subdued would do a disservice to the annoying flickering the bulbs so anxiously maintained. My escort provided no words of explanation for the shoddy electronics, which also seemed to be affecting whatever crude intercom was attempting to transmit on the speakers.
As we neared the end of the corridor, it became obvious the speakers inside the conference room were working better. The door in front of me was made of cast iron with the logo of Black Omega crafted, and apparently scorched, on to the front. Though it was closed, I could hear music faintly emanating from within. Pahn paid it no heed, and merely tapped the sigil with her guns. The doors opened slowly, the light spilling out only fractionally faster than the wave of sound and smoke which followed.
As I wafted a wave of Tarach incense out of my face, I was greeted to the sight of two Blood Eagles, one male and one female, flanking Victor Laius, who sat comfortably in a leather chair behind a plain onyx table. The male was still breathing. The doors closed behind me as I stepped forward, my eyes fixed on the female. It seemed from her positioning she must have died of shock.
“Y'know, where I come from, mate, we tend to look at each other.”
Victor had an Australian accent. I always had trouble determining if people with an Australian accent were joking or not. Luckily enough for me, I was too busy thinking about shop to ponder it. I turned my gaze to meet his eyes with no sense of irony.
“It is better that they die simultaneously. The train tracks on her arm tell me your handyman needs training.”
I turned my gaze upward to the row of speakers on the ceiling.
“The music sounds better from in here, though.”
Victor pondered my statement for a moment before continuing.
“Normally, we would introduce new recruits at Deggie's. But Marra has told us you're one that appreciates a bit of flair, and not so much one for large social encounters. So I thought we'd show you the kind of niche you could fill if you so desired. This was something Pahn knocked up in five minutes before you got here, we don't have a specialist in house. And for as much as we're faithless, we're unfettered too, ya savvy?”
I followed his meaning, but no employer begins with a carrot unless there's a stick involved. I nodded my overstanding, and sure enough, he got to the punch.
“But it's all about scratching backs this far out, and you've got to scratch ours. We've talked to your boys back home, and it seems you could do with a hand keeping that system together. They've also told us you're saving for a Beluga. Well, we need someone to fill a position here, and if you're willing to take residency. If you happen to use that lovely new vessel of yours to help our needs a bit whilst your here, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship!”
His eyes had been widening consistently for about half a minute now. I think he had plans for me I was not aware of, but I didn't have any plans for myself right now and I needed direction. That being said, I was in a bad place. I needed some time to make up my mind. But his enthusiasm demanded an immediate response. Scarlet's letter echoed in my mind.
“It could, but I'd need to become an adequate combat pilot to really be worth your time, surely?”
Victor winked slyly.
“Give it a week here, mate, and you'll soon start learnin' by osmosis. G'day!”
His chair was sucked down a tube and he was gone. I didn't think anyone had used that trick since that guy lost his arm in 111 Tauri. This guy sure liked to live dangerously. Still, it seemed like I was in. I turned to see Pahn, not an inch from where she had stopped walking in. She didn't seem so impressed.
“Guess that means I've got to show you around. Tell you what, you take in the sights for a bit, and I'll meet you at the HazRez when you find it.” She sounded rather uninterested by the whole idea. She turned and walked out the door, and I followed her back down the flickering corridor to the dock.
Tjakiri 1 had a rather interesting canyon run near the settlement there, and I decided to fly through it with flight assist off to test my current skills. I managed to stay relatively stable, but I had to slow down more than I'd like to corner. The constant throttle adjustment proved harder in general than direction of flight, but it's all the earliest part of a learning curve. After completing the run, I set down and realised I hadn't used an SRV since I first configured the one on my Cobra. I didn't have one installed on Revelation 8:11 either, and I didn't feel like I was missing anything inside the bubble. Those things are a horror to drive, and I'm sure the best scavenging planet side will be far past the core. But my mind was wandering, and I decided to move on.
The other planets sans atmosphere were surprisingly unremarkable, with one amazing looking green and yellow striped metal rich planet that had a remarkably flat surface. Interesting from a scientific point of view, for sure, but not too fun to fly around. I was starting to feel like I was wasting time, so I sent a wing invite to Pahn.
“Only an hour? Most people take longer to deal with shock.” Her voice was flat. It seemed I'd finally found some people with humour as dry as mine. “I'll be with you in ten” I replied as I engaged my wingman nav-lock.
Now, I flown with Marra before, and let me tell you she puts work in. But Pahn flies in a way I can only describe as suicidal. I can't say I was surprised when I got there to see her chasing down an Anaconda in a Federal Assault Ship. If it wasn't for my hatred of the Feds, I'd consider getting one myself. It's almost too maneuverable for its size, and it packs quite the punch. What did surprise me was that she was fighting a wing with two other Fed ships on her tail.
I engaged my hardpoints, and targeted the highest threat, another FAS, but only a Dangerous pilot. I swooped in behind xir, my recent asteroid field training paying its dues as my ship slid gracefully in to get a clean first hit on his power plant with my plasma accelerator. I was almost disappointed when he failed to disengage Pahn. I'd taken his shields down in one hit, and done a fractional amount of damage to his vessel already. But I was too busy unloading my pulse lasers into xir drives to care. Within seconds he was a sitting duck, and another shot from my plasma accelerator allowed me to run clear through his wreckage as I searched for another target.
The 'conda's second wingman had been caught up in a fray as I was fighting, so I decided to concentrate on the main target. As I flew in to take position next to Pahn, I overshot and hit her aft. I apologised as I opened fire onto the Anaconda's shield generator.
“Don't worry, Preacher, I've got hull reinforcements if my shields go down. I could be out here for days.”
She wasn't kidding. We couldn't have been there more than an hour, a we'd made a couple of million in bounties between us by the time we flew back to Clair Dock. As we sold our contracts and Pahn told me the nearest places to sell off Imperial and Federation bounties, I mentioned that I needed to get a taxi back home in order to start transporting my craft over.
“Don't be too hasty, we might as well start winning your system back whilst we're there.”
I thought she was joking, but she forced me to bring Revelation 8:11 all the way there and back again, and I had to do my shuttling the day after. But since then, I've been getting into a bit of a pattern. I've been doing smuggling by day, and combat by night, where time allows. It seems to be rounding out the edges, if slowly. Pahn said she's won systems before, and chased off entire wings of CMDRs. If I hadn't been fighting with her in Gcirthi, I wouldn't have believe it either. It may only have been a cycle since I moved in, and I still need to get round to popping into Deggie's, but I know that this is a place I can make a difference. And more than that, this is a place that has accepted me from the outset.
I've always had to work hard back home. Every step of the way, people were trying to keep me down. That's why Hammer doesn't feel any attachment to the place. He was raised in the orphanage, and I think he sees the same faces wherever he looks in Gcirthi. Maybe he's on to something there. I may have my duties to my people and my faith, but I also need to think about my own well being. Hammer's on a sabbatical, and if we win this war I'm going to owe Black Omega big time. But that's fine by me. Something tells me I might want to stay around regardless...
