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Chapter 1: Of all places ...

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Halifax Freeport, Leeds System
- - FLAGSHIP: "Arbiter" class - INS-Inferno
- - ID: Howard King

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Captain's Log Entry

... it's been 4 years since we broke through the navy blockade in Magellan, in the chaos that ensued we scrambled to make a withdrawal to the nearest exit point out of the besieged system. Leeds ... of all places I had hoped we would not end up stuck in this desolate backwater excuse of colony system, yet we were.

Our story goes like this ...
INS-Inferno was to leave Vespucci during Operation Duskstorm in the 3rd wave of flights out of our home-system and breakthrough to the rendezvous point in Coronado, but fate had other plans. As the last remaining ships of the Insurgency to leave pushed though Magellan, the might of Liberty was waiting, expecting us. I gave the order for the Inferno to push through and bait the enemy 's right flank, yet they wouldn't move. To my utter shock, a massive bomber force emerged from the barrier's thick mass, too many to count. Cut off from the rest, we had no choice but to take our chances on a blind withdrawal, but the devils gave chase, continuously targeting our engines. The 2 fighter wings under my command managed to hold them off enough for the ship to make an escape into the cloud then into Leeds via the immediate jump hole to our location.

On the other side ...
That was our last cruise for a while ... yes the bastards managed to damage our engines enough to cause a power leakage, all the while blowing the entire gamma wing to bits. Fast assessment was grim: no cruise propulsion, inoperational cloaking device, weapons go offline after few salvos and no shield to speak of ... but the hull wat at 90% integrity. The ship would be the perfect fit for a makeshift traffic control station, just like the old maltese Ravager back on Veracruz's orbit.

Fast forward 4 years ...
These last years have been merciless for me and the crew, we stay hidden within the abysmal West Leeds Smog Cloud and to make things worse our only contacts are the pirat... *ahem* freelancers of the Halifax Freeport. But perhaps I shouldn't be so harsh on the bottom of the barrel that Bretonia has to offer, after all we are employed in the same activities and most importantly, we have a deal with them.

The deal ...
The remaining beta wing had been engaging in piracy within Leeds for the last 4 years bringing whole transports and their cargo back to Halifax. I must admit, they got quite proficient at it, executing the operations with surgical accuracy, as it is expected from battle hardened insurgency veterans. The deal is the Inferno, moors at the station once every 3 months, we collect 35% of the goods our guys bring in, in return the distinguished inhabitants of the place keep their mouths shut about our existence and, most importantly, we get much needed assistance in ship repair and maintenance operations.

State of affairs...
The current state of things is the following: The ship's hull is fully patched, the power leakage was fixed, shields are back up and most importantly the ship propulsion is back in order... hopefully it stays that way. On the less brighter side the cloaking device is still dead, the weapon systems are still fried as energy recharge sits at 10%, and we experience continuous internal hardware systems decay, but at long last we can finally leave this hellhole behind.

Looking forward ...
There's no way I'm opening up the old Leniex channels, the last thing we need right now is the chance of Liberty placing a bounty on our heads. Our comrades might have made it through, maybe they did rebuild, but in the name of my men and their utmost safety I wont be taking any chances.
What the destiny holds for this battered ship, me and my grizzled crew's lives is still to be determined, but one thing is certain, we dare to look forward into a brighter future.

Onwards! ... but first I'm forced to contact some old enemies.

End of log entry.

Chapter 2: Verdant poison

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Providence Station, Edinburgh System
- - FLAGSHIP: "Arbiter" class - INS-Inferno
- - ID: Howard King

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Captain's Log Entry

It's been an odd journey so far since our escape from Vespucci and the Liberty's blockade in Magellan. Our forced stay in the desolate backwater of Leeds was more than we could bare but we had to take our time in order to execute it right and remain hidden from prying eyes. Now that our window of vulnerability is mostly over, we find ourselves venturing into the edge of Bretonian territory.

Edinburgh, a system we have learned much about on our long stay at Halifax, accessing it became our short term priority as the purpose is twofold: 1st it's the only way out of Bretonia without fighting our way out through the reinforced Tau border patrols or escaping by yet another system of the crown; 2nd it has a peculiar station full of gallic-bretonian war veterans, granted I do not expect them to do wonders given the station itself isn't specifically equipped for this but I was told there are quite a few proficient engineers and technicians so I wont let the tiniest opportunity to repair and fortify our battered vessel go to waste, after all anything is better than the patchwork of a job we did so far.

The guardians ...
The journey there was not without its challenges; I had no choice but to contact the Gaian movement in order to let them know of our intentions there, these people are fanatical, the commitment to defend Edinburgh's natural beauty - Gaia - is only matched by their brutality in assaulting anyone who dares desecrate it.
Nevertheless this so called "Arch-Captain" of theirs and her welcome party seemed to be more than happy to escort us to our destination, and provide an exit corridor when that time comes. Still, was it the fact that we acknowledged their rights over the system, the willingness to share our intentions with them, the allure of us helping harass bretonian supply lines in the area or maybe something more to their friendliness remains to be seen.

Onto the agenda ...
Once we stepped into the station, the first order of business was to network and built trust with the local denizens, in these sort of places credits go a long way and we did a good job setting quite a decent amount aside exactly for these sort of things, ah yes ... good ol' liberty underground dealings.
After a quick inspection from the more skilled hands on the station, the situation presents as follows:

They need to develop the station infrastructure in order to engage in such a project, will be requiring 10.000 units of construction machinery and basic alloy;
The Hull plating requires replacements, nothing out of the ordinary, we did manage to patch it somewhat back on Leeds but it was piss poor work given the harsh conditions, 10.000 basic ablative armor plating will be required;
The cloaking device requires proper energy distribution, they asked for 5.000 nanocapacitors and another 5.000 energy field conductors for this job;
The internal system require an overhaul as time and poor conditions have had their toll, 5.000 units of optronics and another 2.500 units of liberty grade quantum multiplexors from ageira's Pueblo should do the trick;
As a bonus, we were proposed to overhaul the propulsion systems, they seem overconfident about it so I don't see why not, 10.000 superconductors and 5.000 engine components will be required for this, but they specified they have to be sourced from Gallia;
Ah, and of course how could I forget ... last but not least the crew deserves some oiling too, 2.500 units of Liberty Ale.

This job will require professional hauling, will have to check through Providence database to see if I can find some reliable party, but maybe an anonymous open transmission to independent contractors wouldn't be a bad idea either, to be decided.

Unfortunately I was also informed of the less than pleasing news, they cannot fix the core recharge issue as that would mean dismantling the entire ship apart first, the other overhauls are minuscule fixes compared to this, meaning the ship will remain a mobile stronghold without proper self defense mechanisms still. I'd wager people at a proper shipyard would manage this in no time but alas, we will take with what we are given.

Business as usual ...
Our presence in Edinburgh has not gone unnoticed by the Bretonian authorities as our usual supply raiding operations of the local government installation at Perth pick up, so did the ire of its garrison. They do consider us only petty pirates and my men were instructed to act as such and operate under the radar if possible or scram if the situation so imposes; we did promise the gaians to engage in combat with the armed forces during our stay here but that doesnt mean by any chance picking a fair fight, after all we have to keep to our own.

And our own matter most, amidst all this uncertainty, these is a sense of purpose that keeps us moving forward ... is it the promises of plunder for outlawed men,
the trust in me and the camaraderie that was forged in the fire of battles that drives us, or maybe just the indomitable human spirit striving to always hope for the better, time will tell what awaits us, but one thing remains clear - we will face it together, as comrades in arms aboard the INS-Inferno.

End of log entry.

ADDENDUM

Damned Gaians! Just as I was about to close the journal I got a message from Corp. Feldt. Our missing ships were found wrecked with preliminary black box analysis suggesting they were targeted by an unknown gaian patrol and taken hostages to Islay. Do these people not talk between each other, what is the purpose of being an "ArchCaptain" if you cant even get your men to obey orders *slams the comm monitor with one hand*. Bah, we cant afford to lose half of our best men to this, I'm going to drop a not so pleasant warhead onto their precious planet if they dare to lie and cross us.

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