Tales of a Renegade

[JonasHudson]

Part VIII:
Back in Business

Freeport 6, Tau-29 System
January 827 AS

An extremely large vessel slowly crawled its way from the trade lane towards Freeport 6. It was a 'Bustard' Class Civilian Carrier. They had been widely used in recent years to bolster small Freelance and Corporate operations, usually outside of House space. They were large enough to serve as mobile HQ's and could house several small craft.

Hudson was standing on the bridge, observing out the main viewport, watching the crew flutter about. He sipped a cup of tea on this occasion, and had stayed fairly sober for the last few weeks. He and his crew had had a few busy days lately. He'd set aside raids to work on some other projects, mainly, outfitting a jump capable Freelance carrier. It was a big move.

"Sir, the docking master reports we are cleared to moor" a crewman spoke to Jonas after reporting to him.

"Good, take us in. After everyone has had a chance to go aboard, one of my officers will be taking the ship back out to maintain standard orbit of the station until you hear back from me. As soon as we're docked, I'll be disembarking for a few days."

"Understood sir" the crewman responded, and returned to his station.

Jumpstart and Bulldog came onto the bridge and proceeded directly to Hudson.

"That's it sir, everything has checked out. All of the new equipment is operating at 100%. We're in good shape. This thing turned out to be not so bad after all. I'm still not used to all this room to walk around though" Jumpstart reported as well.

"I know the feeling, I hate big ships. But we've had to use big ships before, when it became necessary. Well in the future, it may be necessary. From now on this will be my public command ship. Of course, the public won't know its just part of the picture. For now, she'll be on stand by in case we need to secure our fallback position." He'd also constructed a new 'Sanctuary' for them to withdraw to at a secluded location, and had been working on upgrading that as well.

"Jumpstart, you'll be taking command of her until the rest of us get back, take Boltcutter with you. The rest are with me. We'll be back within a day or so. Now that my new investment has been sorted out, its time to get back to raids."

The men nodded, and as they finished speaking they all looked out the viewport to see the ship finish docking with the station.

Hudson made his way onto the Freeport, and from the station looked back out at the ship. It had been a risky investment, buying such a big ship, in need of so many crew, and so much space! It wasn't what Hudson wanted, he liked being independent, on his own, and a ship only big enough to get in and out of a keyhole. This was more like riding an elepant. However, he'd had his old civilian Liner kept in storage there since the war, and he had no plans to use it for transporting people again anytime soon. They did deal the Carriers via the freeport, so a trade in seemed logical, and helped offset some of the cost.

In the final days of the war in Bretonia, when he evacuated his ships and property from Leeds, he'd had several smaller transports load up on Gold Ore from BMM's Goldgeist base in Dublin. It was his intention to store some extra gold until things blew over and he could pick himself up again. Finally he found reason to finally sell the gold. The rest came from playing some market investments, some savings, and re-cycling of some equipment he still had. He'd now outfitted the ship with some of the best stuff money could buy. It would make an excellent mobile base, and was far more capable than the old destroyer ever had been. And now, they had an FTL Jumpdrive installed and successfully tested.

His new plan was to maintain a front as a civilian Freelancer, but do everything he could to combat the Enclave, and any other belligerent parties in the Taus. How to do this? The same way he always did. With any luck, he could attract some friendly parties to join him as well.

He'd recently discovered that the Enclave was dealing in high quantities of arms and munitions. A great deal of transport traffic in Brittany was carring Small Arms, Black Market Muntions, Black Market Light Arms, Munitions, etc. They made for perfect targets, and were easily sellable on the black market. It hurt the Enclave, and helped their cause at the same time. Hudson had figured out the best tactic. Fly in via a back route in the Islay nebula, fly out and hit Enclave transports, make off with the goods, flip them elsewhere. It was guerrilla warfare in space. He'd decided to hit only those ships carrying weapons.

Finally, he and the crew found the Queen Carina's Revenge at its moor, and boarded. After days of sometimes getting drowsy in the big chair of the Bustard, taking to a small raider again was an exciting change.

"Alright folks, stow your stuff and get to your stations, we blast off immediately. I want to hit Enclave space as soon as possible. We'll be making in and out trips, so the faster we're in, the faster we're out with the goods" He spealed as the crew entered the ship and dispersed. He smirked a bit and made his way to the bridge.

* * * *

Hours had passed. They had conducted a couple of successful raids into the system, and fell back to dump their goods safely. Hudson was really getting the feel from the old days, back when he was the gunner aboard the Argo, which was even smaller than the Bullmastiff.

The raids were a bit precarious though. The had to linger quite close to Issoudun Shipyard, which was the focal point for trade in the system now. Except every once in a while, an enemy patrol would appear and make them sweat a little. Just a little.

But the ship was equipped with a cloak. This raid had been the one. After lingering for some time, an Enclave Gunboat appeared near the station.

Hudson had ordered an immediate abort, they hit the cloak and barely made it clear. Thankfully, after a few minutes, the scanner cleared and they went back in, scooping up another cargo load of arms.

It wasn't until they were heading back into the Islay Nebula that he had realized he had broke a bad sweat for a few minutes as they were being chased. It had been enough. The crew was a little frazzled after 3 raids, and figured a forth would definitely mean combat. Hudson walked over to his chair and reached up to grab the hand held reciever,

"Alright folks, well done. We're turning in after this. Course is set to return to Tau-29. Comms, notify the boys aboard the Maidstone we'll be home soon. "

The crew breathed its sigh of relief, and he knew it finally eased the tension. The way out was almost the hardest, as the last thing they did before tractoring the loot, was dump their cloak batteries, leaving them exposed as they withdraw. They dreaded the hard parts, but he always found folks who'd do the job they signed up for right to the letter. It wasn't hard these days. There were so many who'd been hurt by the war, there was still plenty left with who'd make no bones about getting some revenge in over Leeds.

Hudson sat in his chair as he and watched giant ice chunks fly past them as they zipped across Tau-31. He smiled at the thought of stocking up on free arms provided by the enemy, or simply selling them for cheap to smugglers. Either way, it seemed for a while they might be 'back in business'. He took out his pad from a pocket inside his coat, and began to file guncams of the raids...


Edinburgh Raid - 01-01-827

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