Tales of a Renegade

[JonasHudson]

Part VII:
Gone Renegade

Freeport 6, Tau-29 System
December 826 AS

Hudson had spent a lot of his time recently at the bar on Freeport 6. It was going on 4 months since the scortching of Leeds, and collapse of the former Kingdom of Gallia into what now seemed like several small interstellar fiefdoms. One literally calls itself a Royal 'Enclave', and hangs on in Edinburgh under the banner of deposed King Charles. The entire region that had been the main warzone during the Gallic invasion was now fractured, but things were changing fast. The Gauls were split, Bretonia was getting some respite, and the Crayterians were asserting themselves. As always, it was anyone's guess as to whether it all be for better or worse.

He was up to his usual routine, which mostly involved eating that Kusarian chow they served on the station, and mulling over news screens at the bar while endlessly rotating a glass of whiskey. He'd stare into the drink sometimes, and every so often look back up at the screens. Every once in a while there was someone making some small talk, but he was still reeling from the dastardly end Leeds had suffered. The war had ended in a burn out, and it left him with the same burnt sentiment. All he could think about was all of those people, all of the men he'd had on the surface. All lost.

News reports of the day came in, but this time he was unwinding after a long day of flying, not just drinking. Headlines in were of a recent skirmish between the now splintered remnants of the Gallic invasion over in Edinburgh. There was also reports that it was because Bretonia had been returned the system via peace accords, and it seems like not all of the remaining Gauls agreed on that. *he smirked at the thought*

And it had indeed been a long day of flying. He'd gotten his things back together finally after the collapse in Leeds. His ships had been sent to various bases as fallback positions with the last of his stores of ammo and supplies. He'd finally collected and prepared his "Z" line vessels for private piracy again, as it had been before his time in the privateers or intelligence service. So, he'd been staging small raids over into Edinburgh, Brittany, or Languedoc, hauling back whatever supplies they could scoff to flip somewhere else. Today it had been a GMS vessel.

He'd hit them a few times over the last 6 weeks. Sometimes he'd go alone in just a bomber for the exercise. He'd finally collected his assets from the now decommissioned destroyer Repulse, which he'd first 'borrowed' from the BAF under the authority of the BIS, and transferred his operations to his old pirate transport, which he'd aptly renamed the Queen Carina's Revenge. It seemed only fitting. Like in years past, this former privateer had also been soured by unjust losses, which eventually seemed more due to his own side's cowardace, rather than the enemy. Quite frankly, there was no excuse for letting Leeds be destroyed.

He'd had his own suspicions of the motives of some of the BAF brass for some time. It was like sometimes they were holding back, or purposefully sabotaging counter offensive efforts with poor descisions. Now, it was too late to do anything. Or was it? He wondered if it was time to take a deeper look into who'd really be doing what over the last 12 months of the conflict. If he could find out if there'd been traitors in the SIS or Admiralty, he could expose them finally. Who knows what damage they could still do. Sadly, evidence was still lacking for now.

With the chaotic situation still being juggled by the local powers, his plan was simply to fly under the radar of all of them while exacting his own post war 'accord'. It was all he had left for the moment, and he was through with the 'allies' he'd fought with against Gallia, as they were all up to their usual tricks anyways. The transport made for a perfect raider after the right upgrades, and would make a good mobile base while he bounced in and out of the Gallic Borderworlds.

He took out his pad and reviewed the guncams of a couple of recent attacks, and filed them while he listened to the news.

GMS Miners-11-16-826

GMS Hauler-12-08-826

He then pulled out a handheld mic and send an alert. After a few moments, a fuzzy voice finally answered,

"Bulldog here boss, I was awake, I swear"

"Sure you were Bulldog, its fine. The new codename guns and scanner just arrived and were fitted aboard the Stratocaster. Keep her systems online and the engine 'warm', I might want to grab you and Cylcone to take her out for a quick run as well. The Bullmastiff has lots of power, but I sometimes feel too...cumbersome"

"Roger that boss, I heard Jumpstart's report, she should be a deadly little weasel now" he retorted as he then followed with a hard snicker.

"Good, good. We may need to get around fast again. I've got an idea" he said with a smile on his face,

"Not sure I like the sound of that boss" Jumpstart finished with a gulp.

Hudson closed the comm and pulled out the pad again, and prepared to send off a communiqué...

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