Back in the Swing
13 Nov 2023Oak7603
Talk about hitting the ground running. So much has happened that I don't even know where to start. There's been death, destruction, millions of credits spent, light years travelled, new faces, new enemies, strategy, intrigue, deception and that's not all of it.As you know I've started back up as an Interstellar Relations Manager, and the faction that reached out to me was The Parallax Federation. They are a tiny faction, only in one system, theIr influence there is shocking too. But, they have given me an opportunity to get back into things, see how the bubble really works, the wheelings and dealings that the majority of Commanders have no clue is going on in every system out there.
Lets start at the beginning. I woke up on day one at McCulley Ring - a typical Ocellus Station 1500ls from the main star. It orbits a typical Class II Gas Giant as do 3 other moons. All pretty ordinary stuff. I'd left The Mighty Oak orbiting one of the moons the night before so that I could get a feel for how things worked right from the start. I then did normal IRM stuff, checked the logs, crime reports, trade reports etc and then headed to meet my new employer. Now as bad as this sounds, I don't remember who I first met, but as normal, I didn't get to meet the top dog. That would need a little trust in me first. We chatted about the top faction - Canadian Space Enterprise and how the Councillor was just not running things right, but to be fair,, what would you expect from an Independent!
Anyway, we talked for an hour or two, I gave him some info, a little heads up on my plans of how I would be able to work for them. Not everything of course. I'll save most of it for the top guy, and even he won't get to hear how I do everything. He'll get a good flavour. He just won't know the ingredients.
After that I went to meet the Councillor that is running things around here. Councillor David Stephens. What a smarmy looking bloke with the most ridiculous eye brows I've seen in a long while. He welcomed me to the station, laid down some basic rules, you know the sort of stuff I mean. I played my part, nodded in the right places, acted a little dumb and green, made out we'd work well together and then left. I don't think he had any idea. Too busy with his morning papers to really pay much attention to me. I left there and headed down to the docks and got to work.
Without going into details, I can summarise the last 2 days as busy. I've completed between 15 and 20 missions for the faction. They've been simple data delivery, some pirate killing which I will get to in a minute and also some donations and the like. I've done some other things too, Councillor Stephens won't be impressed but he'll never suspect me and it's probably best I don't write them down here yet, what I will say is that I've taken a lot of work on, so much so that I probably won't finish it in time which will cause some issues for how things are running around here. Whilst down in the docks I also made some enquiries with the less law abiding elements of the station and I can see how they can help me out too. I will definitely be using them in the future.
So getting back to the bounties and pirate killing which is where the most action has been, I took on a few missions and then whilst that paperwork was clearing, I headed down to the station outfiters to sort out the Cabbage Killer. Friends know this has been my recent AX ship but I've had it repurposed and is now my primary fighting ship. It's been renamed the Harpe as this will be the weapon I use to castrate and take depose thos that run this system.
I took the Harpe out to Wyrd for The Dweller to run his magic through the ship, tightened up the hard points and added some modifications to soup things up and then headed off to sort out these pirates. My combat skills, not the best to start with were decidely ineffective but as the time passed, I got into the swing of things and was able to get a lot of work done. 12 pirates killed, as many unrelated bounties too, and this is when some bad luck started. Firstly, I'd picked up a stupid 100Cr fine due to some system forces drifiting into my line of fire. Then whilst the Harpe was leaving the port, it was shot at, damaged and almost destroyed completely by the station weapons as apparently I had fired my weapons! I have no recollection of this but found myself out at the Mercy's Hammer with a new ship, but over 5MCr lost in unclaimed bounties. I do think that this had something to do with the Councillor here. Maybe he's on to me already. During these missions I was interdicted no end of times to and from missions areas and there were even times when they tried to interdict me 3 times in a row. It was like the bounty hunters were working together. Some I dropped into on purpose, others we more deliberate.
Finally after all that and some failed missions to megaships that turned out to be too far away I got the call from the top men at The Paralax Foundation. Minister Williams Cameron wanted to meet and would be my main point of contact from now on. As I said before , he got a flavour of what my plans were, we said our goodbyes and then he left with a firm handshake as allies do.
Other things I have done - I took The Mighty Oak to get some work done. We now have a working Black Market with some buy orders on there. I was also promoted to Lieutenant Commander in the Federal Navy and have started the rise to the next level already. All in all, I've been busy. It's been hectic and relentless. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.