Wanderlust: The In-Flight Magazine of OSC

[Jonathan Seabourne]

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Wanderlust Magazine


"Tales From Where Angels Fear to Tread"
A White Spa Lines Publication, A Division of Orbital Spa and Cruise
25 February 827 A.S.

Gallivanting to Gallia

Another crucial step towards peace and reconciliation between Gallia and the houses of Sirius was taken earlier this week with the establishment of regular commercial service between Baden Baden and Monte Carlo Freeport. Captain Jack Ashton inaugurated the new route with a VIP tour from Rheinland through Liberty and Kusari before ending up in Confederation space. After much careful planning, the Democritus class vessel Boundless Pleasure met up with OS&C escorts in Baden-Baden along with a few extra freelancers under Forlorn pilot Sanada Junko. Little did they know, they would need all of the extra firepower they could get.

Even the best laid plans of mice and men cannot foresee every eventuality. The convoy moved out of Stuttgart and jumped into New Berlin. "And that's about when the plans started going haywire," said Captain Ashton. "Com issues meant that our scout's reports of hostiles in New Berlin was delayed and the BP along with the remaining escort vessels jumped straight into the wolf's den as a group of Hessian pilots, vastly outnumbering and outgunning us, was waiting for us." The leader of the band of radical Rheinlanders, a pilot named Heinrich with the callsign SOA-Vanagandr, stopped the convoy but mysteriously made no demand for credits. "They started going on about how they were the true defenders of Rheinland and how the military could not protect us," said Captain Jonathan Seabourne who served in the convoy as an escort. "It made me more nervous than a straight-up stickup when they started pontificating. When a pirate says your money or your life, you know the deal. Here, we had no idea what we were dealing with."

The pilots demanded that the convoy follow them through Rheinland space. With a lack of military or federal police assets in the area to challenge the Hessian claims over who truly controls Rheinland, the convoy complied and followed the heavily armed pirates through Hamburg to the jumpgate to Hudson. Having picked up several Coalition fighters and a cruiser along the way, the Motley crew of legal, quasi-legal, and criminal ships made the jump into the Independent Worlds

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A Mexican Standoff

The Gallic-Bound convoy jumped into the Hudson system only to find an even larger squadron of Unioner vessels and their Corsair and Rogue allies staring back at them. A tense standoff ensued as the Unioners and Hessians traded barbs centering on their respective turf and zones of influence. "At this point we had already decided to black out the windows of the BP and start the in-flight entertainment 4 hours earlier than planned," said Captain Ashton, but not all parties involved could simply close their eyes and pretend everything was ok. One Bowex vessel, the Aeolus, found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time, shouting an exasperated plea to their overwhelmed comm channel for clarification on just how many ships were trying to simultaneously rob them.

However, the Unioners were not the only ones mustering in the Hudson system. Orbital Spa and Cruise maintains close ties to partner house navies for a reason, and in this case a chance conversation between Captain Seabourne and Lt. Jeremiah Sawyer of the Liberty Navy earlier in the day paid dividends. "When I heard what OS&C was planning, I knew they'd encounter trouble at least in Texas," said Sawyer, the skipper of the gunboat LNS-Monitor. "Unioner activity has been booming there as of late, so I contacted all available channels for reinforcements, and decided to rendezvous with the OS&C convoy in Hudson."

Sawyer formed an impromptu battlegroup under Commander Nicolette Micheaux of LNS-Invincible. The capital ship flew into the middle of the standoff via the tradelanes along with LPI-SWAT-Rikers and several other LSF and freelance agents in the employ of the Liberty government. Meanwhile Rheinland also mobilized its forces with the cruiser RNC-Karlsruhe moving in.

Soon, shooting broke out. "We shot at basically anything that was red," said Sawyer. "It was a real mess. We managed to deal with the Unioners first, while Rheinland Military reinforcements managed to arrive to assist us, thus we could finish off the Coalition there as well, and finally whatever pirates were left. We took some losses as well, but we still managed to come out of that chaos as victorious. That kind of mess is something I would wish only for the worst people out there."

Commander Micheaux confirmed that coordination against the Unioners was the key to success, with several Hessian forces moving to defend the capital ship from bombardment. "Coordination by anti-Union forces was critical," said the Commander, "and we owe it to the rest of the men and women who arrived. Invincible would likely have suffered far worse without them."

Gunda Riehl, a spokesperson for the Unioners, summed up the battle more succinctly. "The captain of the battleship smacking his [sic] magnum sized <expletive> around the trade lanes. How do you think this usually goes?"

Meanwhile the OS&C assets slipped through the battle lines without casualties and made for New York at top speed before heading to Pennsylvania for the first layover on Eerie. The first part of the journey was finally complete.

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A Duel in Provence

After an overly exciting beginning, the convoy settled into a more comfortable groove. The vessels made their way from Pennsylvania to Kusari without incident. A Kusari State Police battlecruiser, the Hatakaze, and an Imperial Navy pilot named Asakura Nagamoto offered to guide the convoy through Kusari space to the Gallic border. While the extra guns were most welcome, coordinating the larger group ran into logistical issues. "The following stretch of our journey was refreshingly boring compared to the beginning," said Ashton, "except for some Nav problems that saw the BP twice leading the convoy in the wrong direction."

Navigational issues got worse when the convoy crossed into Gallic space. The New Paris system is a confusing roundabout of horizontally oriented trade lanes. The Sirian vessels, an odd sight in the Confederation still, attracted the attention of local vessels who found the bewildered travelers amusing. Fortunately, some were also feeling altruistic. "Because of this," continued Ashton, "a local IDF vessel volunteered to show us the way on the final leg of the journey, from New Paris to Monte Carlo."

IDF, the main shipping company for Gallia, had extremely close ties to the crown and even now there are rumors of continued relations with the exiled royalists in the Enclave. A lone IDF bomber conveniently showing up to escort the OS&C convoy raised some suspicions. "IDF acquired most of Solar Engineering's hospitality assets," said Captain Seabourne, referring to Gallia's former tourism corporation. "They focus mainly on transporting cargo, but they have their own liners and resort worlds and constitute a rival for us as Gallia and Sirius start to get closer together. Part of me wondered if Prise.d'Orange had been sent to sink that relationship before OS&C could get a foothold in the Confederation."

Fortunately, the fears were unfounded. The IDF pilot seemed intent on hunting for Maquis fighters. He did not have to search for long. Waiting at Monte Carlo Freeport was Juliet.Crux, a Maquis who was quick to label the IDF bomber a Royalist and open fire. The two bombers proceeded to dance a deadly dog fight with each one dodging the devastating ordinance of the other. Eventually, both went in for the close range kill, only to end up destroying each other simultaneously. It was a fitting final batch of fireworks for a red letter day for OS&C. The Boundless Pleasure delivered her passengers, safe and sound, to the freeport where the VIP's were all too happy to eat, drink, and be merry to make up for all the death they had cheated that day.

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OS&C|Breezewood

Captain Jonathan Seabourne, Editor-in-Chief, Wanderlust Magazine

"Where Angels Fear to Tread"

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Orbital Spa and Cruise

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