Liberty was doubly blessed when she settled on Manhattan. Liberty space ended up being in the middle of the other 3 house ships (Hispania and Gallia excluded), putting her at a natural crossroads for trade and transit. Combined with her mineral wealth, plethora of habitable planets, and their admittedly unique skill with jump gate and trade lane technology, Manhattan is the crossroads of Sirius. If you are looking for it, odds are there is someone in New York willing to help you get it for the right price.
Of course, there is also inevitably someone else willing to kill you for it for slightly more, but that's what keeps life interesting.
I've mentioned several times that I consider myself more lucky than good. I have no delusions about my combat abilities and that is what keeps me flying. My old man used to tell me that there are old pilots and bold pilots but there are no old, bold pilots. The first time I remember making him laugh was when I asked him which one he was. My gift is keeping everyone talking until the odds tip in my favor. Whether that's fleeing into a capital ship patrol or just getting a little help from some unexpected friends.
I was shipping Black Market arms out of Manhattan. I'd seen that the 5th fleet had one ship in the area which I wanted to avoid. Liberty and Bretonia are sincere allies against the Gallic menace, but that doesn't mean we always see eye-to-eye on issues like shipping fiendish weapons through Liberty space to give the occupiers a chance to die with a few extra holes than they were born with (seriously, some of these arms are diabolical in what they do, some are designed to leave nasty debilitating injuries rather than kill because it costs the Frenchies more to rehabilitate a soldier than bury him). I hazard a guess that he's hanging around Manhattan and so I take the long way to the California gate, only to run into him near the Missouri. David Nelson, a 5th fleet flier in a Liberty fighter on home turf next to a friendly battleship. I'm not fighting or running my way out of that.
I try to sweet talk my way through the trade lane, playing on his curiosity about seeing a privateer in New York space. He seems to buy that the arms were an honest mistake (a lie, forgive me), but it is clear that he's a solid navy man and isn't letting the guns through on his watch. We're about to start negotiating how to resolve the situation when a Lane Hacker named Metasploit comes out of the Texas trade lane and suddenly David has bigger fish to fry. I have nothing against the Hackers. Nominally, they are enemies of the crown, but with Leeds occupied and New London invaded, some fed up cyberpunk enthusiasts with chips on their shoulders are not our biggest concerns. They aren't making territorial claims against the crown, which puts them fairly far down on my list of existential threats to a free Leeds. In this moment, I'm rather happy for the distraction.
David asks for my help taking him down alongside some poor sap in a police trainer with a callsign of Valkrie. The trainer is obliged to enforce the law. I... am a neutral party witnessing an internal Liberty matter. I offer to swap out the cargo at Detroit and let him verify it at Manhattan if he survives the fight. He starts getting shot by the hacker and moves to engage, which I take as consent to the plan.
Here's the thing: I'm not a monster. I will lie to a Navy flier's face about purchasing arms, but I do respect that he and his mates are dying in New London every day that the crown might live. If I promise that I am going to do something, I will follow through. It is a funny sort of honor, but it is there. I swap out the cargo for standard light arms and wait for David to verify the cargo in Manhattan orbit.
He never comes. Screams over the radio seem to show that the trainer goes down in the first salvo. Brave, but foolish. David lasts significantly longer. I ask a passing ship, Ghod's Demi, to pass along a message that I did change up my cargo and head on my merry way. Another burst of static shows David didn't win the fight. I hope he ejected and survived, I hope I run into him again some day. But I am not entirely regretful that the Hackers showed up to let me through. I let the Liberty Navy know about what happened and that he served honorably and that I honored my agreement to swap out the weapons on Leeds.
I did neglect to mention that I actually purchased the original arms on Rochester, not Detroit. Details.
Light arms got to Leeds, and the Charlie Wilson lives to fight another day. When you are a resistance movement, survival is a victory. Every day I come back to base is another win in our column. Somehow, we link enough of those together, we end up with a free Leeds. I've made my contribution to that win column, but that's not through skill. Today a good pilot died and a lucky one got to land. Won't be the last time that happens.
Sidenote: Here's something that always bothered me. Planet New Tokyo is in the New Tokyo system, and is named for Tokyo, the capital of Kusari's patron faction on Earth (they had multiple hostile factions on the same planet back then!). New Berlin in the New Berlin system is named for Berlin, proto-rheinland's capital. New London, of course, in the New London system is named for London, the ancestral seat of the monarchy. But there is no planet New York in the New York system. Nor was the capital of proto-Liberty called "York." York was actually a proto-Bretonian city. They colonized the land that would become Liberty's precursor and named the city they founded... New York. So, in the spirit of keeping things universal, we should really refer to it as the New New York system with planet New New York at its heart. Or... hear me out, name it for the ACTUAL CAPITAL OF LIBERTY'S PRECURSOR. Yes, New York was a major city (the biggest by population if memory serves), but their government was based in a city called Washington. My Grandfather would always win pub bets with that little factoid. Being a history professor has its perks, it seems.
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