Crime and politics - summary (11/04/3304)
11 May 2018Archived
What you will read below is the outcome of a 2-week long RP session involving several commanders and groups. The discussion between James and Park is just a summary of what happened, with links to separate logbooks describing the events in more details. I hope you will take the time to go through all of them if you find it interesting. Many thanks to all those who participated, listed in the end!
Yurchikhin Ring
41 Lambda Hydrae System (Federation)
An unmistakable quiet hum of medical equipment was the first thing he heard after waking up. James didn’t feel any pain, and that already was a good thing. Then he noticed another sound, as if someone was shifting position on a chair, and a sigh - a woman’s voice. James slowly opened his eyes. A pleasantly - looking girl in a pair of jeans and a leather jacket sat next to his bed.
“You’re not a nurse” - he said feebly.
“Of course not” - she frowned - “and you are awake. Which means I will finally be able to leave this system”.
“Oh no you won’t, lass. Not until you tell me who you are. And where we are… And why” - he tried to sit on the bed, but as he did the pain suddenly came. A lot of it. He gave up with a moan and focused his sight on the girl.
“Name’s Park. Danae Park. I am a cre.... co-pilot of commander DevilOnTheWall. He sends his regards.”
“Devil.. that’s good news. Where are we?”
“41 Lambda Hydrae, Winters Wolves den” - she raised her hand seeing alarm on his face - “relax, they are the good Feds. Sort of..”
“How did I get here?”
“It is a long story. Tell me what you remember first. I may be able to fill out the holes”.
“Fine. Would you do me a favour and fetch me a glass of Whiskey? Dublin Reserve would be grand, but frankly any will do”.
She smiled and left without a word. Yes, he needed a drink, but above all he wanted a few moments to put his thoughts together. Besides, he somehow doubted that she would get any alcohol in a medical facility. Other than 98% spirit, that is. Park was back after 15 minutes. To James’ great surprise she fished out a whole bottle from her rucksack.
“Here you go”- she waited for him to taste the drink before continuing- “so, your side of the story”.
“Fair enough. I went to San Tu to learn more about the death of my good friend, Blasius Hajdu. He was a vice admiral in Federal Auxiliary Naval Forces and has been murdered with cold blood by commander of an unmarked Federal Corvette. I recovered the black box from his ship containing an audio recording of the last minutes of his life...” (read more)
“Why San Tu?”
“Blasius hinted that he uncovered some kind of criminal involvement of a politician high up in President’s Hudson administration and that the report he sent about it to Auxiliary Naval Forces bras was intercepted by somebody that should not have read it. Anyway, I arrived in San Tu and took some intel delivery missions. Oh, and I took out a Fer-de-Lance flying an Imperial Eagle. Quite a feat, eh?” (read more) - he smiled faintly, but any pride he felt was wiped from his face by Park’s answer:
“The FdL pilot must have been quite a looser then. It is a very potent ship, especially in good hands”.
“Maybe. Anyway I found some interesting stuff. There was a lot or of intel flying - literally - between the Dragons and other criminal organisations and one Federal corporation, the San Tu State Network... a pattern was there, I just needed to grasp it. Though it seems that my actions were noticed by someone, as soon I had another FdL on my tail… (read more)
“Nice. So you got some evidence after all?”
“Aye. Eventually I did. Had to swap my ship for a Cobra and install passenger cabin though. But it worked. On one of the runs I transported a guy by the name of Malik. I overheard him and his associates talking about things they shouldn’t have mentioned in my presence. I dropped them off at their destination and waited..” (read more)
Park nodded her head. She helped herself to James’ whiskey and said:
“I’ve arranged for the Cobra to be brought here, guess you don’t want to visit San Tu in the near future..”
“Who knows, lass?” - his face became stern - “there are some fuckers there I need to say ‘hello’ to... anyway, Malik and his group were looking for a transport out of the system a few days later. Of course I offered my services. The rest was child’s play: I tricked them into entering the escape pods and ejected them into space. They told me all they knew about the Feds cooperating with the pirates and, most importantly, where to look for the evidence. I was so excited, I made a stupid mistake - I let them live…” (read more)
“You didn’t kill them? Stupid of you, indeed”
“Nay. Their leader must have found the way to send the message to San Tu State Network... I got arrested as soon as I landed at one of their stations. What happened next is a whirlwind of interrogations (https://inara.cz/cmdr-logbook/7134/27894/) with one interstellar travel in between. So how did Devil find out about my problems? He got my message I managed to send when they were taking me planet side?" (read more)
“Probably, but it is way more complicated than that. A person crucial to your rescue was commander Malcolm Godwin. Rings a bell?”
“Aye, it does. A friend from Arbuda times. Come to think of it, I met all my friends there”.
“Well, good for you. Godwin received a standard order from the Federal Auxiliary Forces command about an operation in San Tu, where your name was also mentioned. That made him go there and investigate...” (read more)
“That’s cat. So they mobilised entire Aux fleet to catch me?”
“Not exactly. In the hindsight it looks as if Aux command was trying to investigate the same thing you have. But they weren’t sure about your role... from what we heard from Malcolm, in a short period of time he was asked to scan some Federal planetary installations in the vicinity of San Tu and then to send the findings to two different places: Aux Navy Command and directly to somebody high in Federal Administration on Sol. Of course both sides claimed that the info cannot get into other’s hands. Politics” - Danae shrugged. (read more)
“Shit.. this may be the evidence I wanted to find! Where did he send it?”
“To both I’m afraid. Though he made it conditional upon your release.. obviously it didn’t really work.” (read more)
James eyes opened wide in a sudden realisation.
“Holy shit.. it didn’t? It saved my life, they were about to shoot me when the message came that they have to transfer me to the prison ship... though I never got there”. (read more)
“Well.. in that case you have to thank Goodwin for that. Then as I understand Matt Horner tried to find you on that prison ship, but it turned out you never showed up onboard..” (read more)
“Aye. I got brutally transferred to another vessel and taken to an unknown location. Luckily, before landing on the planet I managed to get to a comms terminal and send a distress call to Matt”. (read more)
“Well, Matt received your message and sent it to Devil and Crashbx. He also managed to pinpoint your location thanks to all the hints that you included in it. So the cogs started to turn on the Terran Colonial Forces side (read more), while Macolm was pulling his own strings trying to find you and get you out”.
“Did he now?”
“Yes. He convinced his fiancée’s mother, who is a Senator in the Sol system, to put him in touch with someone in Shadow President’s administration. He figured that evidence incriminating a person close to Hudson would be a good bait and in order to get it Winters’ people would push some resources our way...” (read more)
“Grand” - James took a swig from and then made a circle with a bottle in the air - “I assume these… Winter’s Wolves were the resources?”
“Yes, so it seems. We will get to that. Where was I... oh yes, Malcolm and Devil. We knew where you have been held and by whom. It was a fortress and there was no way to get you out by force without sending ther a whole fleet. But Devil came up with an idea: use fake comms to make your captors think the attack was imminent. Then hack into the Federal comms relay with the Master Code and send the message to the convoy transporting you to change their destination. Malcolm did it, while Devil with his 315th, Gen. Crashbx and Matt waited in an ambush...” (read more)
James looked ahead for a moment, thinking about what he just heard. Finally, he said:
“Looks like I have a huge debt to pay to several people. A damn huge debt... did Furbisher’s people fall for this trick?”
“Oh yes. They pulled together a lot of resources to transport you, but this small flotilla wasn’t enough... the battle was intensive but brief, Crashbox with his corvette played a pivotal role. After all was over we scooped your escape pod - you were in a pretty bad shape...” (read more)
“Oh, tell me about it, lass” - Barrett frowned - “and then you brought me here? To Winters Wolves?”
“Yes. They promised to take care of you and to make sure your name is cleared in the Federation. I think you also have to pay for the medical fees here... but I’ll leave you to discuss this with N.R.Crosby.”
“Thank you, lass.. thanks for everything.” - James’ head was spinning from the sheer amount of information as well as the whiskey - “I need some rest now. Please pass my thanks to Devil, General and Matt.”
“I will. Yes, you look like you should get some sleep. I will see you later”.
[color=#3399ff] Many thanks to all those listed above, especially Mmmmmalcolm, DevilOnTheWall, Matt Horner and N.R.Crosby!