Fully recovered from my injuries I decided to take my Crusader for a spin. Patrol route was a regular one through the Taus, starting from New London. Headed to Coronado, then to Tau-44 to refuel at Verwood, did a little loop around the foreign Taus and then wanted to go for Baffin, simply to check for new jump hole anomalies. As of right now, Baffin still seems to be only connected to Tau-29, which is a damn shame. The old corridor was so much more convenient.
Haven't heard from SIS in a long time. Thought I'd possibly stumble over Steiner or Ashikaga, but I guess the former has other stuff on his platter and the latter simply pissed off. Damn shame, really, both were fun to talk to.
I don't know what is going on in Baffin right now. I'm sitting at this Scrubby Farm here, panic-purchased a few pineal amulets as alibi for checking on Baffin as I saw both an Auxesian and a KNI operative at Shasta, while at least one more vessel was chasing me, cloaked. I think they lost their interest in me when I just pissed off without saying anything. Truth being told, the odds seemed just against me. Even with Baffin being a no-fire-zone by technicality, I doubt whatever was going on there would have made them care for it. Without back-up, I don't think it is wise to go there and keep an eye on them.
I'll lay low for a while and check later whether they are still at Shasta. God, what would I give now for a Light Fighter and an upgraded scanner. And a cloaking device.
I requested some upgrades from Sunderland and once the refit was done, I made my way to Coronado, Cortez, moved through the outer Liberty corridor and refueled at Ames in Kepler. Allegedly hunting a nomad, Caliban yelled over the comms.
I decided to stick around for a few minutes at Ames to see whether he'd come around, which he did. We had a short conversation about Director Steiner and his work with the SIS, given Victor contracted him to get rid of ██████████████.
Not much of interest, though. He said he wasn't sure why he even was in Kepler, and said that the Director was "courting" some whore. I know Victor is easily captivated by the prospect of female company, but I guess Caliban was referring to something else. I didn't bother asking, as I take it Victor can tell me more about it himself, should it be reven- relevant. Sheesh.
I'm taking a pitstop at Freeport 6 now. Other than the Zoners south of Bretonia, the people here seem rather.
Today my patrol through the Taus got cut short because of an extraordinary situation in Tau-23.
I was on my way to Tau-37 when I noticed activity near the anomalous zone in T-23. Two vessels of the Technocracy, two vessels of the Kusari Naval Forces, a Zoner and Gallic who kept complaining about the ███████ ███████ I picked up two days ago. I honestly forgot those packs were still in my hold. Lack of professionalism on my behalf, I'm afraid.
Didn't seem to bother the Kusarians, though. Or anyone else. I was about to ask what was going on there but we got into a situation there as Outcasts first deployed a gunboat, which - and I can't stress this enough - was engaged in a cold ad-hoc cooperation between me, the Gallic Eclipse and the two KNF officers. I'm not certain if this has ever happened before: A BIS agent, KNF and a Gallic officer fighting together against an Outcast gunboat. Quite a poetic moment in hindsight, but I doubt it will result in anything more than that.
We managed to deal considerable damage to that gunboat before we needed to disengage as Outcast reinforcements arrived - a Sarissa and a Ranseur, in T-23. Quite bold, but if I may be so blunt, let them waste their resources like that. The KNF and I moved to Tau-29, where we had a short conversation about the situation in T-23 and in general. Told them I'm a BIS Overseer agent, and apologized for the conduct of the SIS in the past months.
While I doubt it meant much to them, it may be a solid and honest foundation for future cooperation with the KNF and possibly their spooks in the Taus. Admittedly, the Kusari Intelligence agents are probably the most intimidating ones in Sirius by reputation. Director Steiner definitely messed with the wrong people there.
I hope the good man responds to my comms at some point. Would be a shame if I had to bother using others means to have him talk.
KNF and I agreed to a possible information exchange regarding the T-23 situation and the Technocrats. While I must say I hate dealing with the Technocrats - as there are already enough instances in Bretonia to do that - I would like to avoid sitting there with empty hands, so I guess I keep my eyes open for those freaks.
Continuing the investigation about the current events in T-23, I decided to return to the area of the Ikarus modular installation. Turns out it is not only the base of operation of Starlight Research, a(nother) Zoner research group, but also a semi-official No-Fire-Zone maintained by Starlight Research.
I met Brandon Wright, the Head of R&D of SLRC. Talkative man, allegedly with a degree from Freeport 1 about Baxter Anomalies? I wonder what the factual term for that is. Despite belittling me for not being a similar capacity when it comes to his favourite research topic, he was very cooperative although a bit unfocused. In general, the SLRC bunch seems like a very loose ragtag bunch of nerds who traded a professional appearance for a robust midriff and a few bottles of alcohol. My first impression of them is quite positive and they seem to either be extremely convincing at lying about the Baxter Anomalies in Tau-23 and Kepler, or they take these things very seriously.
I asked whether a Bretonian spook would be welcome on Ikarus, and Wright sent me a neural net document to request access to the station. I'll do that, although I am not exactly eager to walk around where Technocrats and other people would just love to divide me by zero. Then again, that's my job, anyway. Does it matter whether I get shot on that freeport or in space by some bloodthirsty idiot like this Silver Serpent? His reasons for hating Bretonians are completely relatable, but he was not interested in anything other than violence. Asshole was just waiting for someone to give him permission to yeet a warhead at me.
Wright gave me some information on the Baxter Anomalies. I'll forward that to our nerds at some point, but right now I can't be arsed to make any sense of it. It's not that I don't understand it, but it's certainly easier to listen to someone without these anomalies popping up right in front of me, them talking about losing a carrier to a large nomad, a Technocrat gunboat leering at me and that edgelord wanting to wipe his human rights violated tears with my skin.
I've also met the director of Starlight Research, another nerd called Sailas Montgomery, Dr. I really should ask for the full titles next time. He was present during the situation earlier in T-23, with the KNF and such. I was hoping to get a few more words with him, but the nerds kept talking with each other about this and that and as quickly as he showed up, he left again. Well, at least I have a name now.
Apparently, to put it short, these anomalies are some sort of baby unstable jump holes, or "pressure bursts of subspace" in Wright's words. Well, my words won't cut it precisely. The important thing is: Don't get close.
A Technocrat gunboat was there, too. It headed directly for Ikarus, and despite some uneasy tension, we managed to not open fire at each other - which is good since, you know, it's a gunboat. I guess if you are nice enough, even the Technocrats give peace a shot, pun not intended.
Well, now I sit on a big chunk of transcribed audio. I'm currently wondering whether to forward it to the KNF, or KNI, or KOI. I feel like what I have is not enough yet. Maybe I can get a few words with the Technocrats themselves. Not directly, that much is certain, but if I stay patient and just stick around near Ikarus, just to see if any kind of talk is possible that way, that would already be something.
One thing is certain: The Technocrat gunboat approached Ikarus without much word and stuck to the nerds in a protective way. I'm certain they work together regarding the anomalies. Wright certainly kept quiet about SLRC's dealings with the Technocrats when I lead the conversation in that direction. Clever, clever, but also a good way to increase suspicion.
The room I usually rent on Freeport 6 was already occupied by someone else, and the other rooms don't have showers. I simply returned to my cockpit after ordering a few bottles of water. Definitely one of the more embarrassing things, stripping down in the cargo hold, using wet wipes and water bottles to get the sweat off myself. I've come to enjoy this edgy agent outfit with the helmet and such, but it's definitely not made to be worn for a longer time.
Well, another day survived. Time for the evil spook to get some rest. Today, the cockpit will do.