Well, it's about time I got a lucky break. Today there was an incredible battle behind Planet Manhattan between the Hellfire Legion and the Liberty Navy. It looked for sure like the Navy was going to win, but then out of nowhere this massive battleship - like a brown Liberty Dreadnought with red cannons - showed up and wiped out the Navy dreadnought in about a minute! I'm pretty sure everyone was surprised. It was an incredible fireworks show. Unfortunately, most of the Navy people ran after that, and this other Junker ship called the Iron Maiden, captained by a guy named Damian Steele, had already claimed the Dreadnought's scrap. It was a shame.
Damian turned out to be a really nice guy, though. We talked for a while, and he ended up showing me an old wreck he'd found and hadn't had a chance to salvage. It was an old Dromedary out deep in Pennsylvania. It had a massive gash straight through the fuel bays and into the cargo bay. It looked like it had hit an asteroid. All the fuel and cargo was long gone, of course.
In the end, I ended up going inside to have a look around. It was in pretty bad shape, right up until I found... found the bodies. Ug, that was horrid. I still can't get it out of my mind. Even with Damian's reassurances... I just kinda broke down for a bit. They were just... all cold, and frozen, and huddled together in the corner. I think they froze slowly. Urg.
I eventually wound up in the cockpit of the Dromedary. It was actually in pretty amazing condition. I guess the impact had all been in the back of the ship. All the computers were there and everything. Unfortunately, they weren't powered; the ship used a reactor-based power system, which I guess is why the people froze like that.
We assessed the damage and figured out the ship could be re-floated fairly easily. Damian, again being really nice, not only said I could have it, but also helped me move it to Inverness in the Invergordon system. Amazingly, all he wants in return are the historical archives from the ship. He's been great.
Now I just have to figure out how to get this working.
Well, here I am, in an tiny little depot in the middle of nowhere in Kusari, under the hospitality of a bunch of women called the "Golden Chrysanthemums" who are apparently criminals for wanting to be equal with men. Pretty stupid, but that's Kusari for you. Either ways, these Chrysanthemums are good people. They took me in, and... oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
A couple days ago - the morning after I got that wreck, actually - I decided to head out to the northern Independent Worlds. I'd heard of a jump hole from Galileo to Kepler I wanted to find, and someone had mentioned some old wrecked trade lanes up in Kepler I wanted to find anyways. So I went home, grabbed my Kingfisher, and took off for Galileo.
I figured I'd be there all day, but I actually found a jump hole pretty quickly. I went ahead and jumped. I mean, how many active, aligned jump holes could there be in one sector? And if I was wrong, I figured I could jump right back. Boy, was I ever wrong.
When I came out the other side, the first thing I saw was blue everywhere. Then I saw the Kusarian ships. They yelled something about arrest, and surrendering, and being boarded, but I was already running for it. My mind wasn't even really working - I was just running on instinct. Kusarian ships? That was bad. Before I knew it, they were shooting, and then I just barely managed to get away.
The next couple hours were just kinda a blur. I basically cruised randomly trying to avoid patrols, but they were everywhere. I got shot at so much. I just ran. I didn't have a plan, I had no idea where I was going, and I was just hoping to get out. I kept trying the random jump holes I kept running into, but no luck. Every time I came through, there was just more blue, and more shooting. Finally, I came out in a big orange cloud. At first I thought I'd somehow made it to the Omegas, but then I ran into even more Kusari patrols. So I kept running.
When I finally got away from them, I was out of the cloud, in the open near the sun. Someone had heard me yelling for help over the comms, and she told me to stay where I was while she tried to come help me. My Kingfisher was in pretty bad shape by then, and the system's incredibly hot star wasn't helping at all. By the time my rescuer got there, it was all my nanobots could do to keep the core from breaching. We talked for a bit, and when she was satisfied I really was running for my life, she took me back into the orange cloud to a little base about the size of Trafalgar.
We met up the bar and sat at a table to exchange stories. She said her name was Urumi Kanzaki, and this was Ainu Depot, a Golden Chrysanthemum base. We talked about Kusari for a while. It turns out that Kusari thinks women shouldn't be allowed to work normally or anything, and pretty much doesn't like women who do anything but live to get married and have kids. It's like they're a whole inferior species or something. It's weird. So the Golden Chrysanthemums exist to stop that, and to try to fix Kusari. Wow, I don't think I could do that, but it's great that they try.
Urumi told me a bit more about Kusari. She had an idea of why there might be an arrest warrant on me, too. She said Kusari doesn't like outsiders or half-bloods, or any threat to their honor. Apparently, if you're offered a place in Kusarian society, no matter how low - such as my uncle trying to force me to be his pet servant girl a few years back - and you decline it - or in my case, run away from it and steal a ship to get away - it's considered a great offense. She also said Kusarian officials are horribly corrupt and it's fairly easy for a high-standing member of Kusarian society to bribe them into putting out a warrant. Guess that must be why they've been chasing me down, then. Kusari's just weird.
My Kingfisher apparently had a leaky fuel line. It burst on the cruise in, and now it can't even get enough thrust to take off. Urumi offered me a place to crash while I'm here, which was really nice of her. I took her up on the offer. I should really find a way to repay her for all this she'd doing for me. But oh well.
So here I am, in the middle of nowhere in Kusari. Life is weird.