Ouray isn't so much a base as it is an idea. Before I properly found myself within the ranks of the movement I was as dumbfounded as any other citizen whenever the vague story would come in concerning attacks on Kishiro transports passing through Colorado, how on earth did a group of rickity fighters find themselves deep within the territory of the most technologically and militaristically advanced house in the Sirius sector?
Election times invariably brought up a story or two about how politician A had spearheaded an initiative to crush some 'Xeno' base or another in the region, but few explanations were ever given, or sought, as to how such a mission came to be in the first place. In retrospect I suppose it was always the accomplishment of the act that drew the obligatory reaction than pondering over why the act could even be comprehensible in the first place.
My surprise as to the nature of "Ouray" was doubtless one shared by many pilots before my time. My first Ouray was a derelict mining ship from which loading crews were operating out of battered Rhino freighters to re-arm and re-fuel attending fighter wings. Since then it's been anything from hollowed out rock bases to the broken remains of ancient smelters.
All of which, I suppose, requires a little history for the uninitiated.
Back in the day, Liberty's commercial giant was fueled, in part, by the largess that could be pulled from the silverton and copperton fields. The bonanza of mining opportunities sparked a production rush not seen outside of Bretonia, as workers scrambled over themselves to stake a claim and put the fields to task. In their wake was left behind hundreds of abandoned outposts and refineries, all built to sustain operations within a sector of the field and left fallow when resources dried.
In a show of irony, the leavings of the forefathers of the movement in turn became the staging points for the restless movements of their descendants. Improvisation of available infrastructure and flexibility in its utilization has become the core backbone of what allows the movement to continue. The sheer resourcefulness demonstrated by a group of men hot wiring the powercores of century old freighters to meet the needs of older still base support systems repaired with components salvaged from burning transports never ceases to amaze me.
The Navy, Police or whatever forces array against us will never truly be able to 'destroy' Ouray no matter how many times they may chance upon a pulse of the movement's life out there in the fields. Our future is built in a very real way upon the legacy left to us, a legacy that cannot be denied so long as we've the will to see it restored.
