Oh boy, it's getting busy! I can't remember the last time I was able to just kick back and relax. There seems to be an unending stream of scum and villainy making there way into Bretonia these days. It's nice to be busy, and it keeps the balance good, but damn I need a rest! And paperwork! I got so sick of paperwork I had to hire an assistant. She's a good lass. Pretty I guess, but she ain't my Vole. She keeps the guild off my back, and for that I love her dearly!
I can't remember the last time I saw Esther around Bretonian space. She seems to be spending all her time elsewhere. I can't say that I'm surprised. She's never been one to get tied to a single place. It was a bit of an eye opener when she accepted the guildmastership, I thought she'd have run a mile at the first whiff of responsibility. Still, I'll be happy to see her when she next shows up around here, and I won't be calling for her removal from the role of guildmaster, that's for sure. She's far too useful when she is around to consider that.
Corsair activity in the core systems seems to be falling. They still appear here and there, but their numbers a re greatly diminished. The Mollies are still kicking up trouble, but I find it difficult to target them directly, unless I catch them in the midst of piracy. I feel some sympathy for their cause, I must admit, though god help me if that ever gets out! They do good work in keeping the Corsairs out of Bretonia, and considering what was done to Cork.......... well, I think they need every break they can get, and there are plenty of BAF around to chase them if they see fit. That's a political argument I'll not want to be getting involved in.
The SCRA are getting bold again. Their presence within the core systems is definately increasing. I ran into one just the other day. Death's Hand it was, a gunboat, and a right nasty piece of work. I picked him up on my scanners around the Dublin jump hole, and went to investigate. I did my best to keep my distance, and scans revealed he was packing two missile racks. I'm not qute sure how it happened, but as I was advising the BAF as to his presence, he got within firing range and before I knew what was happening I was fighting for my life. He was relentless, and those twin missiles meant that my bomber was no match for him. Try as I might to run, he kept on catching me, and my supply of bats and bots was worn away. I finally managed to evade him when he was engaged by some freelancer with a grudge. I've no idea who she was, but her appearance gave me just the diversion I needed to get away, so I headed for New London. It wasn't long before I heard her falling to the missiles of the SCRA vessel.
I limped to Southampton, and was regrouping myself when something made me head for Kensington. I still don't know why I did it before docking, but as I popped out of the trade lane, there was that damned SCRA vessel again. As soon as he saw me he engaged again. He chased me towards New London, scoring more hits with those missiles, and I could feel my ship coming apart. It seemed like hours that he pursued me, taunts coming all the while. I was finally able to lose him in the asteroid fields new New London. A single BPA vessel was able to intercept and delay him long enough for two Mandalorians and an independant hunter to get there, and finally one of the Mandalorians was able to take out the ship. I have never felt so relieved! I have never been hunted like that before. The experiance wil doubtless make me into a better hunter.
My bomber had to be destroyed though, it was completely beyond repair. Thankfully a vessel I know, Isolde's Demise, was in the area of Southampton shipyards and he vapourised the craft at my request. There's no way I was going to risk having any of our technology finding its way into the wrong hands. I have a day or so more of waiting for a new model to arrive from Sheffield.
It seems a new load of paperwork has arrived from headquarters. I'll be leaving that to Evelyn, while I do what I'm best at.
The SCRA seem to be busy elsewhere these days. Now it seems that we're getting inundated with independant outcasts in Tridente gunships!
Evelyn is still here, which is good news for me. She excels at paperwork, so I can just get out. Esther seems to be kicking around again, though she keeps odd hours, that's for sure. The guild is going from strength to strength, and apart from a few ...... ahhh, overenthusiastic members, all seems well. We've had one or two disciplinary matters to deal with, but they have gone smoothly enough. I feel like we have finally managed to weed out the trouble makers.
The Mollies..... hell, the Mollies are a problem, moralistically speaking. The more time I spend in Bretonia, and the more time I interact with its governmental organisations, the more I come to sypathise with the Mollies stance. I'm not going soft on them, far from it, but if I run into them in Bretonian space, I'll give them their chance to retreat to Dublin. If they are foolish enough to decline that opportunity, then they become just another target. Personally I won't hunt them within their own territory, but I cannot, and will not, insist on anyone else following suit.
On that note, I have just issued an order banning all guild hunters from taking Kusari contracts within Bretonian space. It seems to have been well received so far. I guess only time will tell. The Junkers Congress seem understandably happy with my decision. I just hope I don't regret it..........
Well, I'm out of hospital, and back in the saddle pretty quickly. That was close. Too close for my liking. Not quite sure what the hell I was thinking taking on three Barghests and a Falcata, all over a million credits offered by the QCP. I suppose I got what I deserved. Still, the caution I've learned from that little cock-up has already paid dividends. I had an Osiris and a Praefect run right into me in New London. I hid on Southampton until they'd moved on, and then joined the BAF in hunting the bastards down. I was most satisfying to see my SNAC shot taking the Praefect down, and I got to Cambridge in time to see the Osiris go to hell in a ball of plasma. The commanders of the vessels got away, unsurprisingly, judging by their threats of retribution directed towards me.
The MidnightRun is proving to be a fine ship. She was only completed a few weeks ago, but is already showing her abilities in a combat situation. I think I might have to take a short leave of absence from Bretonia, and head out to Delta to take command. It should be interesting if I happen to run into one of the commanders of the two corsair caps I just helped take out.
Esther appears to be back in the office, and actually doing some work, so I guess my time recovering in hospital had some benefits.
Damn, I'm getting rusty! Too much time spent behind this bloody desk, and not enough hunting down the vermin that infest Bretonian space. I ran into three of them yesterday, attempting to pirate a miner not 10k from the Essex. 10k!! And the Essex did nothing. Not a single ship despatched to deal with the pirates.
Anyway, I was able to interrupt the pirates sufficiently for the miner to escape, though the ingrateful sod didn't even bother to transmit so much as a thankyou to me. Anyway, they turned on me, unsurprisingly, and even with assistance arriving in the shape of the BHG vessel Smoke, I still went down under the fire of two bombers and a Sabre. I've no idea what happened to Smoke.
Thankfully my escape pod was working, and the crew and I were soon picked up and returned to Planet New London. I've put in a request for a replacement Orca, but that'll take a few days to arrive apparently.
Been getting lots of reports filtering in from our hunters stationed on the freeport in Omega-3. Seems like the Wilde are getting more active recently. One report from a couple of days back lists three Hegemons taken out, and a Molly gunboat heavily damaged by a single vessel.
There's also reports of them being seen in Cambridge, Dublin, New London and Leeds recently. Even the BAF have reports concerning "unidentified vessels" attacking military targets in Newcastle.
There's rumours that some of the attacks are coming from the Chester system. I've sent out a couple of remote probes, but they've been lost. The complete lack of any data coming back has me suspicious. I think a manned sortie into the area might be required. Just gotta get some data from the BAF first.
My initial foray into Chester has proven inconclusive. Planet Shirley is a dead end. There's no way anything could be basing itself from there. Jumping through to Newcastle lands in the middle of nowhere. While attacks could be originating from Newcastle, it seems unlikely. The BAF, I am sure, would be hard pressed to withold information of that nature, although the hostilities with Kusari certainly provide them with a suitable blanket to hide things under, should the mood take them.
No, my suspicions lead me towards the nebula towards the outer reaches of the Chester system. As I headed in that direction all my sensors went red. There's something in that field, and it's generating a massive field of some sort. I turned back without getting closer. My Manta just isn't a ship to carry out risky surveying in. On my return to Leeds I accessed all the data the Bretonians have on Chester. It seems the survey ships never got to the edges of the system. With Shirley being the only body there, and the insane emissions coming from the nebula, it seems a decision was made to withdraw until such time as suitable surveying equipment could be developed. Again, the war with Kusari has put all this on hold, if not discarded completely.
It looks like I'll have to assemble a team from the guild for this. My initial enquiries to the Core have been met with favourable interest as well.
The Core have agreed to send One of their Moray wing, Piranha, along to assist in a recon mission into the nebula in Chester. I'm still waiting to hear back from Sheffield as to who's available to assist. Bloody red tape, I can't even escape it as a damn guildmaster. I can see this is going to be another last minute job.
Three of us took a long look at Chester. There's something there alright. Energy and radiation signatures went off the charts as we approached the nebula. In the end I'm glad we waited for the enhanced armour panels to be fitted to our ships. Going into that nebula with anything less would have been suicide. As it is, all our ships took extensive radiation damage, and the hulls are heavily scored and pitted. Some of the damage reminds me of acidic attack. There was nothing obvious from our scans of the area, but maybe the techs can find something in the samples we took.
What really interests me though is the structure we discovered in the centre of the nebula. We're still waiting to see what can be recovered from the guncam and senor logs, but whatever it was, it was huge. Seemed to be shaped like some kind of donut, of all things. All sorts of weird stuff started happening as we approached. Power fluctuations, static charge build up, hell I even had St Elmo's Fire flashing around the antennae on my Bottlenose. It was nigh on impossible to get any sort of lock on the structure to scan it properly, and with what was happening to our power arrays, I'm not sure we'll get anything useful back anyway.
Whatever the structure is, it's not something that's been built by human hands, of that I am sure.
Well, the technicians have done their thing, sure enough. They were able to retrieve a dozen or so images, of varying quality, from my Bottlenose.
. . . . . . . . . .
What I'd forgotten was the presence of those nomad patrols. Could this structure be some sort of base? A far flung outpost of the old city in Newcastle perhaps? Whatever it may be, I can only venture supposition at this point, but it is certainly not dead like the Newcastle city is supposed to be. Whatever is going on in Bretonia, I am becoming more and more certain that it is originating from here. I must forward this data to the Core, I think. No doubt the Core operative that flew with me has data of his own, but given the damage my Bottlenose sustained, I wonder if any of his data survived.
I also feel I must approach the BAF about this. With the research that has already been done in Newcastle, they could undoubtedly provide information that might yet prove invaluable to the Guild.
Sleepless nights. How many more sleepless nights? I awaken to sweat-soaked sheets, and a sense of foreboding, but no memory of the dreams that must be plaguing me. I have even taken to recording myself sleeping. I have no idea what I hoped to achieve in doing so. Maybe some understanding of the terrors I can only suppose stalk my imagination, yet I lie there, seemingly untroubled. Does this all stem from my recce into the Chester system? The feelings certainly coincide, yet I recall no event that might have triggered such. I am at a loss to explain it to myself. Perhaps I should.......................