The Boom, War, Expansion Cycle ... and the odd Election
02 Mar 2016Jim Beaumont
So there you are, telling the lads to get their Combat gear ready for the oncoming dark days of War for control of the station and system and then you rise in the morning and set off down the promenade to get some breakfast, when your met by party activists of both sides asking for opinions and who your going to vote for. Vote? What vote? In the coming election thats due in a few days. What election? The one to find out who is going to run the station and system they tell me. What the hell's going on?It would appear that the Coalition party didn't fancy the idea of a war for control, and instead at the last minute have called an election. I suspect it was a case of trying to wrong foot the WP and disrupt what can only be assessed as a rapid rise to the top. Public opinion has swept across to the newcomers. Public gossip has obviously got across the short 6Ly from the Commie homeworld, and how life has changed since their takeover and fancy a bit of a change here too. The loss of bloodshed in a pointless war would, to be honest, have been pointless and so although they will undoubtably lose the election it is certainly the better option. Still the Coalition activists are out in force trying to generate support and defeat the infilltrators.
In the meantime, I carried on doing what I do. Picking up contracts and hauling stuff left, right and centre for the WP and hopefully gaining a good a reliable rep with them. The economic boom is still in full throw at the minute, but will no doubt be cut short by the election. And when that happens, the homeworld looks set to expand elsewhere again. I'm not even going to try and guess where they have plans for. It just doesn't seem to follow any plan or rules. Hopefully not some remote backwater.
One contract I picked up was for a couple of tons of Platinum, which was lucky as I knew the guys were in the rings again, an all day job today, helping Toby make his fortune again. A quick call through to Oppo, and a jump to the rings and he supplied me with the 2t I needed and I headed back. Same thing happenend again not an hour later. Another contract, another call and another 2 delivered. Dead easy when you got people mining out there already.
The WP office had been handing out nice contracts all day, election persuaders I presumed. Well they get my vote, but then they already had it. Still it was another opportunity to get with Pastolis
'Your grabbing a few of these today Jim'
'All good money, all in a good cause, and all helping to restash the funds after I purchased a new Anaconda today'
'You must be doing alright for yourself them'
'Yep, and now the bigger contracts for haulage are an opportunity for me. And if these guys win the election, I can haul in loads of goods for them too without the need of contracts. Just put them to the market'
'I have a large contract here. You might need to be a little quiet about it though'
'Oh' I questioned.
'They need these Imp Slaves moving out of here. Wouldn't be good to be seen with them, election coming and all that'
'And the prize for shifting them?'
He slid me a slip of paper, obviously discretion was required. 600k.
'How many?'
He wrote next to the 600k. 78.
'Done. Anaconda, bay 37. 20 minutes'
He passed me the billing reciept. Hand it in at the destination, auto cr transfer will be completed.
Just as I was walking out, he shouted across to me.
'Come find me when you get back ... we may be able to help each other.'
I gave a gentle nod, and wandered to the docking bay. Now we are getting somewhere. Earn the trust, repay that trust. Slowly slowly catchy monkey.
My old mans favourite phrase.