All Hail Archon Delaine, Hero of the People!
29 Jan 2023Iridium Nova
Man, even all the way out here in the middle of nowhere, the bubble never ceases to entertain. So, the Kumo Crew has decided to be the hero California needs, even if it's not the hero they deserve. I'm all for it. If a bunch of bloody murderers can't defend humanity, who can? Sure, it's a power grab. Of course it's a power grab. It's a moderately organized group of humans. That's what humans group up for - to get power. "We'll know what Delaine's real plan is soon enough.". As if there's some secret subtext to this. He's defending his assets and taking advantage of superpowers stretched too thin to defend theirs. Simple, straightforward power play. He becomes a hero, more people grovel at his feet, and he gets even more powerful. That's it. That's all it needs to be. I've dealt with Delaine and his Crew before. They're pretty much the only power you can count on to be up front with you. They won't stab you in the back because it takes too long to get behind you and they're really good at stabbing you in the face instead. Simple, straightforward folks who are easy to deal with. There's no legal maneuvering, no shenanigans, no bait and switch. You either deal or you don't deal. If someone doesn't like you, they can try to kill you and all you have to do is kill them first. Simple.
I'm all for this. Pirates defending humanity? I can't see any way this could be bad for business. Especially my business. Of course, I can't speak for all those defenseless civilians who will likely get caught in the crossfire. Guess they should probably invest in some guns. Or people like me. Really, though, in this galaxy, you're stupid if you're not armed - unless, I guess, if you live in one of those ignorant paradises that nobody can get into except the super wealthy.
Existence in one of those is apparently like nothing else. Though, I seem to remember having visited a few places like that back in the Quirium days. Those ones weren't so hard to visit like the ones these days. I don't know if they've changed much in all these years but from what I remember they were pretty impressive. Violence was all but impossible there due to suppression fields and low gravity combined with ubiquitous automation meant that life was easy and simple. You could do anything you wanted - though what you wanted to do was likely influenced by the particular configuration of the local suppression field. I guess that's a kind of free will. At least that's what they called it when they were trying to claim that they were havens of liberty, or peaceful utopias. On the one hand, it's an attractive notion, living in a place where everything is easy and you can trust everyone you meet. On the other hand, the idea of weird devices screwing with your brain's natural function all the time creeps me out. Eh, I guess everything's got a trade off.
I haven't been allowed into one of those places for a long time. I could probably buy my way in if I wanted to. Hell, I could retire on Earth or The Founder's World if I wanted to, but yeah, I'm not really ready for the blissful lobotomite lifestyle just yet. I wonder how those poor blessed souls will hold up when the Thargoids decide to visit and forget to play by the brain machine's rules. On that note, I wonder what effect the suppression field would have on a Thargoid brain, if any. I'm willing to bet it wouldn't be the intended effect. Eh, maybe not all of the utopias have the suppression fields now. I know they were pretty popular back in the old days. It might be that that technology got dumped along with all the other Quirium innovations. If they don't do things like that anymore, I wonder how they keep the bad thoughts under control now? Maybe I should ask Zachariah Nemo about this next time I see him. I bet he'd have some interesting thoughts on the subject.
Hey, maybe if Mr. Delaine gets his way all those little enclaves will be anarchist hellholes by the time I get back to the bubble and the Thargoids will all be dead and there will be plenty of fun mischief for me to get into. I kinda doubt that'll be the case though...
Hmm, well maybe the mischief part.