The last month has been pretty eventful. It started when a Corsair attacked the Aedos outside of New London. I knew I couldn't fight him, but I didn't want him to get away either. I figured that if I simply dived into the city, the jerk would get away and molest other honest traders later. I decided to keep him as busy as I could while I called on the local authorities for help. Brave, probably, but stupid. My controls jammed, his shots landed, and my reactor went critical mere seconds before help arrived. I ejected safely, and the Corsair was destroyed by the Bretonian forces, but I was out a ship. So much for bravado: owning the rights to call my ship the Aedos doesn't mean jack when you don't have a hull to bolt the nameplate onto.
I managed to hitch a ride back to Manhattan, where I ran into a recruiter for the Liberty Navy's South Alliance. It didn't take too long for him to convince me to sign on as a fighter pilot... I needed something to do while I arranged to get a new ship of my own. The freedom to fly and explore as I please is incredibly important to me, and blast it, I might as well do my part to maintain that freedom. Just as important, I would be allowed to continue freelance trading in the Aedos while on leave, as long as I didn't do anything against the interests of Liberty. No problem there: I love Liberty, and I never have and never will do anything against my house. They must be a bit desperate for recruits: the amount of leave I got was quite generous, and they even let me pick my own callsign. I've decided to call myself Sushi: I've always liked Kusari food, even if their government seriously creeps me out.
Soon after I was issued a fighter, it became clear that the decision to sign on was the right one. I'd never heard of the Hellfire Legion before, but I soon realized that if they weren't opposed, millions would die and even worse, Liberty would cease to be free. That freedom is worth defending, maybe even dying for. Those Lane Hacker scum, and all others like them, can't be allowed to continue their reign of terror. Not in my house.
Easier said than done though. I've already been forced to eject after a nasty battle against the HF, and cheating death twice in one month is a bit much for me. Hopefully, I'll get better equipment soon (and maybe even some training).
Once I went on leave, I immediately started looking for a new ship. Not having my own hull to fly how and where I please felt like not having any legs. A man claiming to be an IMG pilot offered to sell me an old freighter of his for an extremely reasonable price. Naturally, there was a catch. Actually, several catches. It took a few drinks to get him to spill them all, but I eventually found out that the ship had been impounded by the Rhineland Military for smuggling and stripped of most auxiliary parts. Worse, the ship was way out in Omega-15, and I would have to go there to retrieve it myself. And I would have to pay the fee to release it from impound. After some...heated negotiation, the price became even more reasonable, and I bought the license to the ship. I just had to go pick it up.
Instead of trying to find someone crazy enough to fly me out to Omega-15, I decided to do it myself. The price of a StarTracker was probably a lot less than what it would have cost me to pay someone else to do it. Fortunately for me, none of the pirates I ran into were interested in such a puny target. I got to Omega-15, and found my freighter in the secondary hangar of a Rhineland battleship. The ship was fully operational; lucky again for me, that IMG guy (or was he?) hadn't lied about that. It was also very dusty and smelled faintly of Cardamine. I paid the impound fee (curse the Rhineland military for extortion) and welded a new nameplate on: the Aedos was back. With what leave I had left, I made a few trading runs and picked up some more advanced equipment for her. The Navy even let me keep her parked at Willard: that surprised me a bit. They're so accommodating it almost seems desperate.
Meanwhile, it looks like I'm being redeployed to California Minor along with other SA pilots. It's not a big move from Willard Research station, but it'll be nice to get out of that cold ice cloud and onto... well, a cold icy rock. At least I'll be able to see the sun now. Naturally, I'll bring the Aedos with me--I'm sure the Navy will appreciate having their hangar space back. She's a good little freighter, although it seems her ID card has gotten out of whack. That Phantom who attacked me in Magellan must have knocked it loose...apparently the Aedos is broadcasting herself as a member of the Liberty Police! I'll have to fix that before the real police bust me for impersonating them.
![[Image: aedos_mini.jpg]](http://students.cs.byu.edu/~sushi/aedos_mini.jpg)