The BMM Percheron dropped out of the trade lane, its captain rather confused. Once he ascertained the situation, he threatened to call for the help of the LNS Nevada, a nearby Navy capital ship, but in the end saw reason: his ship was poorly armored, and by the time support arrived, he would be destroyed. Apparently deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, he paid up and moved on.
Then the LNS Nevada, a Carrier, dropped out of the lane, and Debs made sure to order helms to activate cruise and run.
After the incident of the LNS Nevada, Debs thought some. The aid of a bomber sure wouldn't go amiss, and he knew just the man... Oh, they didn't get off so well together, but Chris Davidson was good enough at his job (embezzling thousands from traders at gunpoint and blowing capital ships up) that Debs was willing to overlook his compunctions of hiring a ruthless homicidal maniac.
He told Gompers to get a Chris Davidson on comms, and a few hours later the bomber Venganza.de.Strangiato was born...
* * * * *
Their first day together was rather... amazing. Debs raked in more cash than he ever had before, two Gateway vessels, numerous traders, even a slaver paid when they threatened to kidnap her prized personal servant. Some odd BAF Templar even paid up before he even got in range, handing over three Rogue pilots as well.
Two traders ran; one Gateway, and one Research ship. Both were chased and pulled down, and charged extra besides. The Gateway ship offered to pay extra for the pilots Chris was holding captive, but that he'd have to finish his route. Sadly, he reported later that Xenos made him drop his cargo.
The last trader of the night, an FTG transport named Andiusthegreat, ran without a word after demands were made, and was destroyed, which seemed to make Chris happier than getting paid...
Well, we received call to head back to Cassini for a general upgrade, but the presence of a PFI convoy proved too tempting to pass up. Stationing ourselves on the New York jump gate to Mojave trade lane, we soon encountered a smuggler moving legal goods. Demanding 600,000 credits from him, he offered an extra 500,000 if we'd escort him to Leeds. Talking to my bridge crew, we agreed. We then escorted him to the Leeds jump hole in Magellan, and received payment.
Then we began to move to Cassini, going back to California and then through Ontario, Alberta, and Yukon. A fairly safe route, seeing as the lawful presence is rather light.
In Cassini, our gun setup changed to two Pulse cannons and four Cerberus turrets, heavy weapons that I hope will be more suitable in taking out traders. The Razor drained too much energy, was too slow, and had too little punch. Two salvos of four of these turrets offer the same amount of damage for less energy. We encountered a Rogue Werewolf named Bunter.Munter.Hunter, an alright lad. His ship had... *ahem* room for upgrades, so we offered to let him tag along with us. He accepted, and we returned to Alcatraz.
However, outside Alcatraz an ion storm swept by, leaving us in this current situation. Logging our most recent escapades now, as we wait for the storm to pass.
La Villa Strangiato moved quickly into the Whitney Ice Field. It had been a rather spectacular battle. Previously, however...
Debs and company met a Rogue Barghest along the lane. Sadly, he had to move on before the action happened. When it really started was when a Gateway transport fell out of the lane.
After demands were made, he told that it was a company ship and the company was, get this, broke. Eugene Debs, however, insisted on payment. Then came the LSF agent known as Fred Hertz. He made grandiose orders that, despite being outgunned, the Rogues should leave the trader alone.
Then an LSF bomber came, and all hell broke loose. The trader ran, and though the gunnery crew of La Villa Strangiato managed to put a dent in his hull, they quickly abandoned it for the more threatening bomber.
The new Cerberus turrets performed phenomenally. They cut through the bomber like a hot blade through soft butter, destroying it in under five minutes. As it exploded, however, the sensor operator yelled in alarm that multiple new contacts were inbound.
The LPI had shown up.
Debs yelled for a full retreat, but a CD slammed La Villa Strangiato, stopping it dead in the water.
"HELMS! GET US OUT OF HERE!" Debs yelled as the cruise engines refused to respond. Thrusters fired, and the ship began moving for Alcatraz. Just then, a freak localized ion emission engulfed La Villa Strangiato and a minute later they were quite a distance from the LPI and Fred Hertz.
Bunter Munter Hunter was fighting fiercely for his life, but Debs had no qualms with leaving his fellow Rogue to the wolves so that he and his crew might live to pirate another day...
It was an overall uneventful night, down to the point where Captain Debs walked off the bridge to work on his memoirs. However, it started out with a bang -- a trader passed the lane as they were approaching it, heading for Riverside. Four kilometers from the lane, Debs shouted at helms to enter the lane and continue all the way to Riverside.
"But sir, the station..." said the helmsman, hesitating. Debs pushed him from his seat and took control of the ship, flying it straight into the station's gun-range and tempting fate as he took the ship to the trade lane the trader was approaching at dangerous speeds. Entering the lane, he took it for two rings before disconnecting and yelling at tactical to put a pulse cannon into the lane.
Ten seconds later, the trader fell into the trap it should have seen coming a mile away. Debs leaned back in the helms chair and made his demand of 400,000 credits with a smile on his face. Pirating next to a base is asking them to run for the station's protective shielding, but draw 'em out into the lanes, and well... let's just say most traders don't credit pirates with enough smarts to pull that stunt.
Suffice to say, he paid up without a word of complaint.
Due to the rather slow nature of the California system, Debs moved to New York to pirate the California jump gate lane. It was really slow there too, with only some madman panhandler begging for investments in his get-rich-quick schemes. Debs went below-deck to work on his memoirs, and nothing else really happened. They moved into the Badlands and used it as a shield, shutting down all systems and becoming invisible to anyone more than forty meters away.
Assiduous, honorable, genteel; Debs is a man that has principles, a nobleman amongst thieves.
First Mate: Samuel Gompers
Fiercely loyal, disciplined; Gompers is Debs best friend and closest supporter. He would follow his Captain to Hell and back.
Helms: Terence Powderly
Young, brash, skilled; Powderly is a man that made his position through skill, luck, and talent.
Gunnery: William Haywood
Gambler, polite, skilled; Haywood has seen his fair share of action, and loves nothing more than lobbing pulse cannons at stubborn traders or attacking the Navy when the odds are against him. If he were captain, the ship would likely get into a lot more fights.
Gunnery: Thomas Hagerty
Young, uncertain, humble; Hagerty is a new addition to the crew, as yet uncertain how he fits in. As a gunner he is adequate, but does not like to boast.
Gunnery: Mary Jones
Flirty, middle-age, experience; Jones has been in the piracy game for longer than most of the rest of the crew, and doesn't like to rub it in while hitting on them.
Engineering: Ralph Chaplin
Knowledgeable, trickster; Chaplin graduated from Manhattan Tech only to be unable to find work, and thus turned to organized crime to make a living.
Engineering: William Trautmann
Wise, quiet, introspective; Trautmann is a long-time friend of Debs, though not as long as Gompers. He has done his fair-share of time, and is also very friendly with Walsh and Miller. He dislikes Jones, however.
Engineering: Uriah Stephens
Impulsive, greedy, none-too-bright; Stephens possesses a surprising knowledge of machines and the economy, but otherwise lacks the common sense or street smarts to survive on his own.
Engineering: Wendy Fletcher
Quiet, observing, 'shadow'; Fletcher is well-known for her ability to blend in. Some believe that in another life she was an LSF covert operative, but such is conjecture. Whatever her past, she possesses a general knowledge of ship systems, particularly the sensor array (which heightens speculation that she used to be in covert ops). She only socializes in any meaningful capacity with De Leon, whose outgoing nature seems to compliment her quiet ways.
Medical: Daniel De Leon
Gregarious, good bed-side manner; De Leon has been to medical school and has his degrees, but an unfortunate malpractice suit lost him his practice. He has come to specialize in treating the kind of wounds that come with the life of a pirate, and is friendly with the entire crew, especially Fletcher.
Communications: Lucy Parsons
Determined, no-nonsense; Parsons is dedicated to proving that her being a woman has nothing to do with how well she does her job.
Security: Jack Walsh
Shifty, cunning; Walsh received his training from the LPI before being fired and jailed on charges of corruption. Close friends of Miller and Trautmann, he joined the Rogues during his stay in Sugarland
Cargo Master: Monty Miller
Bean-counter, nerdy; Miller was at once time an employee of Interspace Commerce before being fired and jailed for embezzling money. In Sugarland he ran into Jack Walsh and William Trautmann, and the latter got them into the Rogues. Aboard La Villa Strangiato, he serves as the man who counts and sells the loot.
Cabin Boy: Tom Barker
Lethargic yet hardworking; Barker is a boy of about twelve who lost both his parents in a mysterious manner. "Mysterious" because he doesn't talk at all; he is mute. He does the work such as cleaning with a slow yet unrelenting intensity.
Fear. Captain Eugene Debs stood on the bridge of La Villa Strangiato a short distance from Freeport IV and stared it in the face.
It started with Lucy Parsons picking up strange readings from the Cortez system while moving some pillaged Luxury Goods to Montezuma. Moved by curiosity, Debs ordered their course changed to the Magellan system. There, they went to Mactan and then the Freeport, and there it was. Mon'Star. Light Mortar after Light Mortar streaked from that large, obscene ship and slammed the station.
Debs was immobilized by fear. He began to voice the order to move off to Terence Powderly, but the words stuck in his throat. Finally, the fiend began threatening the ship directly. That propelled Debs to be able to yell the order to move back to California, and they did so before the large ship could turn its devastating firepower on them.
In California, Captain Debs received a distress call from what he presumed was a smuggler fleeing Liberty Navy ships. As he asked for its coordinates, he ordered the course changed to intercept. They were far away, however, and before La Villa Strangiato could reach the smuggler, the Liberty Navy announced that they were too far out and that they were turning back.
Courteously, Debs offered an escort anyways. So they met at the Pennsylvania jump hole, where the Heavy Tanker "Jadaan" proved to be a Cardamine runner. On to Niverton, they chatted all the while. The system seemed to be infested by some dread disease, and Debs ordered Lucy Parsons to shut down the system-wide comm system, as their blathering was annoying him to the umpteenth degree.
From Niverton, they returned to California, then Cortez, Coronado, and finally Baffin. The entire way there was no incident, and Captain Debs came to enjoy the company of Jadaan, which turned out to be the man's name, not the ship's.
In thanks for the escort, Jadaan paid three million credits and continued on his way. Debs ordered a course set back to Alcatraz.
Eugene Debs heaved a sigh of relief as he crashed into his rather comfy command chair on the bridge of La Villa Strangiato. That had been fifty kilometers of hell, and the most tenacious Bounty Hunter he had ever encountered. After a rather boring morning of no traders paying up and opting to get blown to bits instead, the Hunter Gunship had proven too nimble for the Pulse Cannons to track. Now, inside Alcatraz' protective shielding, he massaged his brow as he wondered how much Mr. Miller would whine about the cost of repairs.
It was spectacularly played. Out of the trade lane came the LPI gunboat Leavenworth, an LPI bomber, Liberator, and a Navy Avenger. Captain Debs began to call for a retreat, but was cut off by a cruise disruptor and forced to a screeching halt. Demands were made by the LPI, including the transfer of 'guests' being held aboard La Villa Strangiato. Some Xeno and Pirate Transport that arrived about the same time as the law beat a hasty retreat (though definitely not together, as they had been shooting each other).
Then the Leavenworth demanded that the Rogues surrender and come with him to Sugarland. With little choice in the matter bar being destroyed, Debs complied and let them law lead the ship through the New York jump gate and down to Texas, where the Rogue Gunboat was parked in an impound lot on the far side of the blue planet that Sugarland orbits.
The crew of La Villa Strangiato was taken aboard the Leavenworth for transfer, and as Eugene looked around the bridge one last time, he felt a tad bit sorry he had ever hated the name that had been given it. It had certainly been a good run.
He walked off the bridge and into the careful watch of some LPI SWAT members.