Viola Kessler
The Rusty Cog, Inverness.
December 11, 827 AS
What the heck have I got myself into
Alright, alright. This is gonna be an interesting one. Boss said to take the Cog out and grab the Chief some components he needed to make sure the ship 'vanishes' whatever that means.
So I made a quick stop on Freeport 1, spent a bit of time at the bar and got absolutely smashed with a few of the Zoners. All I wanted was some information on any newly opened shortcuts in or around Liberty, I didn't fancy having to deal with the locals and I just wanted to get in and out as fast as possible. Turns out some Zoner convoy headed out in the same direction only a few weeks ago - some sort of humanitarian mission, I didn't pay much attention, but what I did get was a faster route that completely bypasses Liberty. Jackpot.
So here I am, about a billion miles from anywhere in some backwater called 'Inverness'. I'd never heard of it before now and I'm 90% sure nobody else has too, what with the complete lack of any recognised form of life out here. Literally, i've not seen a single soul, it's got so bad that I've been talking to the control panels and hoping they'll respond to me.
The Zoner told me the convoy should've almost made it to its destination by now so i'm cruising along through this vast empty void. I'm getting a faint ping on the very edge of the sensors range, it'd match up to what the Zoner told me, Apparently another day or so of flying and i'll be there. Hooray, another day of trying not to lose my mind.
Viola Kessler
The Rusty Cog, Alberta.
December 12, 827 AS
Darkness
So here we are in the midst of a massive DARK MATTER STORM. Yup. You heard that right old gal, we're so far up the creek I don't think a paddle would even matter anymore. I found the Zoners I was told about, some old Bustard they've got headed into this system too, 'Alberta' they call it. I didn't much care for why they were here but I did have to slip them some credits to find the route I've been looking for, apparently some old Ageira experiment somehow managed to leave a remnant jumphole to the Kepler system - right where I need to be.
They said it'd only be a short hop through the storm but I wasn't quite prepared for the magnitude of this storm, the ship barely wants to respond to my inputs and we've narrowly avoided so many lightning strikes that I've stopped counting. This isn't my first rodeo flying through a dark matter storm but this one is different, its absolutely massive and it covers the whole system. Not only that but there are some VERY hostile people lurking in this cloud, opened up on me the moment I entered the system, lucky this old gal is faster than most other ships, especially those that can survive in this mess.
I'm coming up on the location given to me, the scanners aren't giving me much beyond a massive structure about ten clicks ahead, they can't make much sense of pretty much anything in the vicinity, I'm not even sure I'm gonna make it through this in one piece. I'm gonna have one hell of a repair bill if I make it to Ames.
Viola Kessler
The Rusty Cog, Ames Research Station, Kepler.
December 15, 827 AS
Alive
So I woke up with some guy standing over me, apparently I'd almost died going through that jumphole. A passing Zoner found the Cog drifting in the midst of the Denko Cloud and towed me back to Ames Research Station, apparently she was pretty banged up and I was out like a light, they didn't think I was gonna survive, a panel I didn't properly screw down the last time I did some repairs decided to land on my head and knocked me out.
Hey ho, here I am. After recovering and managing to scrounge up enough to pay them for their 'rescue' I met with the guy that Chief sent me to meet with. I came all this way expecting some real fancy high-tech gizmo that would solve all of our problems, what do I get? Data storage devices. All this way for a couple of god damned hard drives. Apparently there's some sort of important software on it that he needs, will give the Scorn a fresh new start or somesuch.
I've started the Cog up and we're heading back to the Sigmas, I'm gonna try and slip through Kusari, hopefully I won't end up going through any more unstable jumpholes like that last one, it's done a real number on the ship, had to give the reactor a good kick just to get it chugging away.
Its off the pad at least, lets see how far we get this time before something else explodes.
Viola Kessler
The Rusty Cog, Sigma 13.
December 16, 827 AS
Straight Lines
So it turns out the trip through Kusari was completely uneventful. The only moment of slight concern was a checkpoint at the New Tokyo gate, fortunately I didn't get stopped, apparently a small freighter like me wasn't much concern to them so I slipped through unnoticed.
It wasn't until I entered Sigma 13 that I was rudely awoken by an alarm, turns out the right side Engine has decided it wants to stop working, I've been having to switch between the left side and thruster to keep the ship on course. It's slow going but I can't really afford to give away the location of the Scorn to anyone who might try and intercept communications in this cloud.
GMG patrols are few and far between this far out so it looks like the Boss made a good choice hiding out here. I'm just hoping I've got the right coordinates and I don't end up drifting in this field forever.
Viola Kessler
The Vile Scorn, Sigma 13.
December 17, 827 AS
Home sweet home
I found the Scorn and i've delivered the goods to Chief. He's over the moon and the boss has got him started on reworking the computers. Way over my head, I'll be honest.
I've started work on repairing the Cog. Lucky for me the Scorn has spare parts for the old gal all over the place. Might take a few days to get her ready to fly again, one heck of a ride I just had though, definitely one to remember.
For now, time to go and get drunk, Chef owes me a few.
Mathias Grendel
The Vile Scorn, Sigma 13.
December 17, 827 AS
Finally, progress.
Viola delivered the goods today, I knew she was good but I didn't quite expect her to actually pull through with this one. Chief explained the process to me, apparently all ships computers will have to be offline for a period of eight hours, during that time we're going to be dead in space and completely defenseless. I've ensured that the Sichel's are ready to fly out at a moments notice and will be able to offer us cover should any trouble arise. Fortunately I don't think anyone is currently looking for us and we're so far into this cloud that'd it'd be like finding a needle in a haystack if they attempted it.
The crew are fairly anxious about the whole process, Chief has got a lot riding on his shoulders right now, notably everyones ire should it go wrong. I'm confident he'll get it done though, he's never let me down before and I doubt he'll start doing so now.
All there is to do now is wait, if this works we're one step closer to true freedom. I'm keeping my excitement in check for now, if this goes to plan then we can celebrate.
Aidyn Adilov
The Vile Scorn, Sigma 13.
December 17, 827 AS
I'm not a Lane Hacker.
This software is complex. I've never seen anything so advanced, the crap we had on Jiangxi was all cobbled together from salvage and was nowhere near as high tech as this.
I've started pouring my way through the code to try and make sense of all of this - the Lane Hackers didn't include a nice handy instruction manual with how to operate and utilise this, Captain wants me to start as soon as possible, I'm thinking in a few days I might be able to figure it out.
Chef said he'll cook me up something special if I actually manage to get us through this, food is one way to motivate me, hah!
Aidyn Adilov
The Vile Scorn, Sigma 13.
December 19, 827 AS
Got it.
A couple of sleepless nights and I think I've figured out how to make this work. It looks like I'll have to completely wipe the main computer databanks and then totally replace the operating system with this new version that I've hacked together. I've told the crew to start making backups of any important data they might need to keep, or risk loosing it all, the Captain has sent Viola out again to retrieve some more data storage units just in case we run out.
I've started compiling the code with all the necessary edits to make it compatible with our computer. It's saying it'll take a day or two to finish which means its time for me to pay a visit to the galley, get some food and then back here to pass out til its done. I doubt I'll be getting much sleep once the procedure is started and I've no doubt the Captain will be on my case the entire time, there's nothing quite like having someone looking over your shoulder the entire time you're doing delicate work, reminds me of working back home.
Mathias Grendel
The Vile Scorn, Sigma 13.
December 21, 827 AS
The Black Market
The Crew were getting restless and we're in a position to head into the core worlds and see what we could drum up, Chief tells me it'll be a few more days before he's ready to go so there's little else to be done.
We'd heard rumours around the Newport bar of a shady dealer operating somewhere within Rheinland, managed to pin him down in the Stuttgart system with a bunch of Hessians swarming him, now, me being the honest sort that I am, hated to see a fellow honest businessman in trouble and so we decided we'd get involved.
We managed to obliterate a Hessian cruiser with the aid of the dealer's escort, he was packing some serious ordinance but I wasn't about to ask questions. Unfortunately for us the rest of the Hessians were in smaller craft, and beyond providing covering fire for the retreating transport there wasn't a whole lot the Scorn could do. It wasn't entirely for nought though, our contribution was recognised and we were gifted with an experimental weapon of some kind - Its been placed in the hangar for now until we can see if it can be adapted for use on the Scorn but it'll give Chief something to do once he's rebuilt the ship operating system from the ground up.
No idea what happened to the dealer after we were seperated, maybe we'll meet him again sometime - perhaps with less Hessian interference next time.
Aidyn Adilov
The Vile Scorn, Sigma 13.
December 24, 827 AS
Here we go.
I started the process this morning, all ships computers have been shut down and the software has begun wiping them clean. Captain has the fighter wing on alert as we're currently adrift and completely helpless. Its slow going, maybe a percent every few hours, I suppose the Unioner's unique digital signature is all over this stuff, every nook and cranny. Can't imagine they'd be too thrilled to let one of their ships disappear like this.
I told the Captain before, we should be unrecognisable provided someone doesn't board the ship, beyond knowing the model of the ship, there should be no indication as to where it was built or by who. Looking forward to being able to do what we like, when we like.
4%, I wouldn't mind the slow progress if I knew for certain this was going to work. At least once the system is wiped, installing the new protocol shouldn't take anywhere near as long, maybe an hour tops. Viola brought us a shipment of data storage devices, I managed to backup everything personal onto them without much issue.
Might as well go and find something to eat, nothing more I can do here for now.