Chp-101
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Freefaller
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Chp-101
1.12 ABY
Myto Sector
Alvi Mola
Alvi's TIE whipped through the void, engines screaming silently into the black as she accelerated forward.
Ahead, a pirate frigate loomed. A Kaloth Battlecruiser which had seen better days, and wasn't really a battlecruiser, the species that built it had simply named it so.
Laser cannon fire erupted towards her, beams of red promising an easy death. Nimbly she dodged, her Whirlwinds engines twisting and turning, forcing the turrets to constantly rotate angles.
Soon, she spotted a gap in the fire. A single button press had an ion torpedo launch outwards, slamming into the frigate's side as she dove beneath it.
Following close behind, her squadmates launched their own torpedoes, each subsequent blast damaging the target more until something inside gave way and the entire ship was ripped apart in an explosion.
Shoddy construction, Alvi guessed. Common enough amongst pirate warships.
"Overseer, this is Tide Lead. Target is splashed. Requesting tasking."
"Copy, Tide Lead. Playtimes over. RTB."
"Wilco, Overseer. En route."
"Oh, and just so you know, you've got new orders from Command."
"Thanks, Riko." She responded, already having a good guess at what the message would contain. A quick flick of a switch has her on her squads frequency.
"Allright people. Jobs done. Form up on me for the return. I want everything nice and steady, no accidents."
"It was one time!" Cried out Tide 11. He was one of the newer recruits, and while his starfighting was exceptional he for some reason had a spot of trouble with landing.
"No way, I've counted at least five times you've half-botched a landing. Remember when you almost squashed a technician?" Replied Tide 5, voice almost laughing.
"Keep the channels clear of mischief, Squadron. None of us want another lecture from the Comms Officer on radio chatter."
A bevy of affirmatives rang out before she continued.
"Also, I just got word we've got new orders, fresh from Command."
Now a bevy of groans sounded out, and Alvi stopped herself from laughing at them. Sure, she didn't like getting new orders either, it usually meant they had to relocate again, but it was fun listening to her get annoyed.
Not five minutes later, and all of Tide Squadron was docked in the bowels of the Mytoan Pride, an Eidolon-Class that served as part of a patrol team.
The ship had been Tide Squadron's home base for the two months as it dragged them across the sector, from conflict to conflict.
They'd spent the last week in the Bresov system, fighting an increasingly annoying number of pirates while the local Governor scrounged up their PDF forces for an all out assault on the pirates in-system base. Tide Squadron was just there to provide the time they needed.
Now new orders were coming in, and the entire ship was annoyed. New orders meant they'd have to relocate, which meant all the nice restaurants and spas Bresov had were going to be out of reach.
After all, how many times can a pilot in the Outer Rim say they have the chance to take shore leave on a planet with a proper luxury relaxation industry. Sure, Bresov isn't exactly rich but its natural hot springs and amazing scenery, combined with a rich local brewing culture turned it into a soldier's wet dream.
Well, close to one. Plenty had complained about the lack of nightclubs.
Entering the bridge, Alvi made her way to the holo table. Around it stood the command staff, including Captain Brid, her current commanding officer. After all the needed salutes were made, they got down to business.
"Alright people. Words just in from Command. We're moving over to the Jornudgir system. A recent piracy surge there necessitates our intervention."
The holotable springs to life, showing a map of the system. Lines appear, showing the Mytoan Prides trajectory into said system.
"Approximatley 2 hours after we enter the system, we will be meeting with elements of Wulvo Tactical Solutions. They will be operating a Crusader-Class Corvette and assisting us in the approach on the main pirate stronghold in the system."
Projections of the corvette appeared, before minimizing to show the combined forces moving in on a structure on a moon.
"Scans indicate the stronghold is decently fortified, likely due to leftover resources from the Consortium's previous push into the sector. Intel has confirmed at least two squadrons worth of assorted fighters, and an unknown number of larger craft. None larger than a frigate."
It was here Alvi spoke.
"Why are we bringing along the Mandos? Our patrol group has an Eidolon, a Raider and a Nebulon-B. We should have more than enough firepower."
The Captain sighed. "As it stands, orders from up on high are to play extra nice with these mercs. Apparently their ground ops have been doing really well lately, and the higher ups want to keep them around longer. That means we can't just brush them off of a target they were already honing in on."
That ended Alvi's questions, but it still rankled her a tad. She understood full well that the mercenary economy was helpful to the sector, but that didn't mean she had to like it. Especially when she was forced to shack up with mercs to finish a job that likely didn't need more than Tide Squadron an the Pride to finish.
But it was good for the sector, so she supposed that was all that mattered to the higher ups in the end.
–
Las
I watched with a sense of mirth as Muguffin sniffed around the new office.
BlandBoringBoredHome
"You only say that because your catbed isn't here yet. Once the place gets spruced up, it'll be good as new."
She turned to look at me, eyes narrowing a tad.
Doubt
"Yeah yeah, doubt all you want. I, for one, am perfectly happy with this change."
And I was. The office was around the same size, sure but it was far better defended this time! Hidden behind who knows how many layers of durasteel and turbolasers.
The Golan-II I was now inside of was truly a marvel of protective engineering. Sure, my office had a transparasteel window staring out into space, which annoyed me because I hadn't thought to ask for my office to be dead center in the station, but it wasn't that big of a deal.
See, my office wasn't in the Golans central tower! It was located in a much lower deck, in one of those bulbs that bulged out of the structure. Suffice it to say, it was hidden, it had a great view, and it was well protected.
And the best part? I didn't even pay full price for the thing! No, this was a used station I bought off a Moff from the neighboring Oversector. It cost less to buy and refurbish the thing than it would've been brand new, so I was pretty happy with it.
Now my center of power wasn't literally the capital of the Minda system, but instead a platform meant to defend the Mindan Shipyards. A defender of economic interests.
And what an economic interest it is! After the damaged berths were fixed, production kicked into full gear and hadn't slowed down since. Guild patrol vessels were being replaced, orders were being pumped out, and the money was flowing in.
Combined with the improving state of the sectors bureaucracy, and the fact that my stunt with the slaver Governors had scared a lot of others into properly paying taxes, meant that economically the sector was starting to rise!
As the worker relocation program continued, people were finding their way to places were work was more abundant. Already fleets of shuttles and large transports were carting people off by the hundreds if not thousands to more frontier worlds where farms and mines were missing people.
Of course, this came with its own problem. A lot of people in transit meant a lot of targets for slavers. Thankfully, my stunt with the slavers previously had soured the state of the slave trade in the sector, making it a far rarer occurrence. But it wasn't perfect.
Just a few days ago, a transport carrying 250 new settlers from Dubrillion to Jornudgir had been attacked and many of its inhabitants captured. Thankfully, the slavers weren't careful enough in covering their tracks so forces were already on their tail.
But the entire debacle only exemplified the true problem in the sector. Despite a booming economy, despite a slowly but surely rising standard of living and lowering corruption levels, piracy plagued it all.
Holonet beacons had to always be guarded lest they be attacked and destroyed to cut off quick cries for help or be salvaged. Every single merchant convoy bigger than a smattering of light freighters needed mercenary escorts. And more and more systems were requesting help from rapid response units because pirates kept setting up bases fucking everywhere!
What was with those guys and setting up strongholds? I thought pirates loved moving about and staying nimble!
Sure, Darna, Thorne and HAVEN did what they could, and we used what info we got from Murr to the best effect, taking out the most dangerous and fastest growing gangs. But the problem wasn't any single gang, but that piracy as a whole was getting more common.
And the cause was, in some ways, obvious. More and more resources were being dragged to the Core from the Rim by the Governor-General. This meant that already exploitative sectors got worse, driving more people to desperate means. Not to mention that the galaxy as a whole was less stable.
Trust in the empire had been shaken, and the Mid-Rim Offensive had caused chaos that various syndicates were quick to capitalize on.
Make no mistake, the Empire was still the undisputed top dog of the galaxy. None could truly stand up to them. But that's the funny part, they didn't need to.
They just needed to hit the planets the Empire didn't defend as much. They just needed to waltz around the Empire while it focused on the Rebellion and important worlds. So long as they didn't hit Imperial cargo ships but civilian ones, they were less likely to be personally hunted down.
Suffice it to say, the criminal element had gotten bolder. And it was causing me headaches.
At least the Mando integration was going well. What had started as 3 clans and 500 or so Mando's total had grown to over double that, at around 8 clans and some 1100 total Mandos. Some of the clans were quite small, but they were all highly trained and deadly in their own right.
The initial special Guild contract had been simple. The clans register as a company and get a year long contract. An alright monthly stipend alongside generous bonuses for captured pirates, destroyed bases, etc… The stipend scaled with Clan size, but the bonuses stayed the same.
Now, the contract had evolved a bit as their numbers started to swell. The Clans were allowed some better weapons and ships, and were privy to purchasing those from the Guild at discounted prices. Essentially, they got the perks of being decently ranked merc companies without having to take many months to get anywhere near that.
Of course, they more than proved themselves in combat and their eagerness to take missions was a massive boon.
Sure, some other mercs complained they were taking away jobs, but honestly the merc market was the kind where you made your own fortune. The Mandos were just skilled enough to kick the merc market awake again while being small enough that they weren't going to take the entire market on their own.
Eventually, I settled into my new chair. Well, temporary chair. I was having my old chair brought up, alongside plenty of my old furniture. Sue me, I like it.
Turning around to stare out the window, my eyes raked over the shipyards. Each and every berth lit up, filled with half made hulls and workers buzzing around them.
I spotted plenty of ship types. From Dreadnoughts to Raiders and more. Shal's ISD was currently sitting in a berth, panels being removed so internal inefficiencies could be corrected. Nothing major, just some small streamlining some of the eggheads in R&D had come up with in their never ending chase to make a ship to rival the ISD. In one berth I could even see the skeleton of the very first prototype Arbiter-Class.
I doubted the prototype would be much more than an expensive way for the R&D people to figure out what works and what doesn't, but it was a price I was willing to pay.
If nothing else, the bridge wasn't something we had to produce. The ship was some 800 meters long, meaning we could just buy the bridge for a Victory Class instead and slap it on there. Standardization, baby!
After a prolonged period of 5 whole minutes spent looking out my window, I turned back to my desk. I'd only placed the things I needed there, like my terminal, hot coco machine, etc… But when I checked the time on my terminal, I realized my work day was over.
It was still an odd feeling to finish my work in a day and not have to immediately go to my bed because I had so little free time. Now I had multiple entire hours before I had to catch some z's.
So I booted up my PDA, flicked over to the app store, and started scrolling to see what I could play.
I then found a factory sim game. Suffice it to say, I got little sleep that night.
–
Yo. Not nearly as proud of this chapter as the last one. Feels more like an excuse to just yap. But I'm tired, and felt like if I didn't do something remotely productive today I would just go to bed feeling like I was wasting my life. Is this actually a productive way to use my time? No, I could be exercising or learning how to draw.
But, I got accepted into a decent college and can finally leave my community college after far too long a stay, so I guess I can excuse myself this once.
Oh, and no baking/cooking note today. Ran out of flour with those last cookies and subsisted off of protein bars and pre-made chicken tikka-masala today (technically yesterday, its 3 AM or so) so no luck this time. Next time I'll make something, promise. Maybe zucchini bread. That shit slaps.
Sonder, fellow strugglers.
-Freefaller
1.12 ABY
Myto Sector
Alvi Mola
Alvi's TIE whipped through the void, engines screaming silently into the black as she accelerated forward.
Ahead, a pirate frigate loomed. A Kaloth Battlecruiser which had seen better days, and wasn't really a battlecruiser, the species that built it had simply named it so.
Laser cannon fire erupted towards her, beams of red promising an easy death. Nimbly she dodged, her Whirlwinds engines twisting and turning, forcing the turrets to constantly rotate angles.
Soon, she spotted a gap in the fire. A single button press had an ion torpedo launch outwards, slamming into the frigate's side as she dove beneath it.
Following close behind, her squadmates launched their own torpedoes, each subsequent blast damaging the target more until something inside gave way and the entire ship was ripped apart in an explosion.
Shoddy construction, Alvi guessed. Common enough amongst pirate warships.
"Overseer, this is Tide Lead. Target is splashed. Requesting tasking."
"Copy, Tide Lead. Playtimes over. RTB."
"Wilco, Overseer. En route."
"Oh, and just so you know, you've got new orders from Command."
"Thanks, Riko." She responded, already having a good guess at what the message would contain. A quick flick of a switch has her on her squads frequency.
"Allright people. Jobs done. Form up on me for the return. I want everything nice and steady, no accidents."
"It was one time!" Cried out Tide 11. He was one of the newer recruits, and while his starfighting was exceptional he for some reason had a spot of trouble with landing.
"No way, I've counted at least five times you've half-botched a landing. Remember when you almost squashed a technician?" Replied Tide 5, voice almost laughing.
"Keep the channels clear of mischief, Squadron. None of us want another lecture from the Comms Officer on radio chatter."
A bevy of affirmatives rang out before she continued.
"Also, I just got word we've got new orders, fresh from Command."
Now a bevy of groans sounded out, and Alvi stopped herself from laughing at them. Sure, she didn't like getting new orders either, it usually meant they had to relocate again, but it was fun listening to her get annoyed.
Not five minutes later, and all of Tide Squadron was docked in the bowels of the Mytoan Pride, an Eidolon-Class that served as part of a patrol team.
The ship had been Tide Squadron's home base for the two months as it dragged them across the sector, from conflict to conflict.
They'd spent the last week in the Bresov system, fighting an increasingly annoying number of pirates while the local Governor scrounged up their PDF forces for an all out assault on the pirates in-system base. Tide Squadron was just there to provide the time they needed.
Now new orders were coming in, and the entire ship was annoyed. New orders meant they'd have to relocate, which meant all the nice restaurants and spas Bresov had were going to be out of reach.
After all, how many times can a pilot in the Outer Rim say they have the chance to take shore leave on a planet with a proper luxury relaxation industry. Sure, Bresov isn't exactly rich but its natural hot springs and amazing scenery, combined with a rich local brewing culture turned it into a soldier's wet dream.
Well, close to one. Plenty had complained about the lack of nightclubs.
Entering the bridge, Alvi made her way to the holo table. Around it stood the command staff, including Captain Brid, her current commanding officer. After all the needed salutes were made, they got down to business.
"Alright people. Words just in from Command. We're moving over to the Jornudgir system. A recent piracy surge there necessitates our intervention."
The holotable springs to life, showing a map of the system. Lines appear, showing the Mytoan Prides trajectory into said system.
"Approximatley 2 hours after we enter the system, we will be meeting with elements of Wulvo Tactical Solutions. They will be operating a Crusader-Class Corvette and assisting us in the approach on the main pirate stronghold in the system."
Projections of the corvette appeared, before minimizing to show the combined forces moving in on a structure on a moon.
"Scans indicate the stronghold is decently fortified, likely due to leftover resources from the Consortium's previous push into the sector. Intel has confirmed at least two squadrons worth of assorted fighters, and an unknown number of larger craft. None larger than a frigate."
It was here Alvi spoke.
"Why are we bringing along the Mandos? Our patrol group has an Eidolon, a Raider and a Nebulon-B. We should have more than enough firepower."
The Captain sighed. "As it stands, orders from up on high are to play extra nice with these mercs. Apparently their ground ops have been doing really well lately, and the higher ups want to keep them around longer. That means we can't just brush them off of a target they were already honing in on."
That ended Alvi's questions, but it still rankled her a tad. She understood full well that the mercenary economy was helpful to the sector, but that didn't mean she had to like it. Especially when she was forced to shack up with mercs to finish a job that likely didn't need more than Tide Squadron an the Pride to finish.
But it was good for the sector, so she supposed that was all that mattered to the higher ups in the end.
–
Las
I watched with a sense of mirth as Muguffin sniffed around the new office.
BlandBoringBoredHome
"You only say that because your catbed isn't here yet. Once the place gets spruced up, it'll be good as new."
She turned to look at me, eyes narrowing a tad.
Doubt
"Yeah yeah, doubt all you want. I, for one, am perfectly happy with this change."
And I was. The office was around the same size, sure but it was far better defended this time! Hidden behind who knows how many layers of durasteel and turbolasers.
The Golan-II I was now inside of was truly a marvel of protective engineering. Sure, my office had a transparasteel window staring out into space, which annoyed me because I hadn't thought to ask for my office to be dead center in the station, but it wasn't that big of a deal.
See, my office wasn't in the Golans central tower! It was located in a much lower deck, in one of those bulbs that bulged out of the structure. Suffice it to say, it was hidden, it had a great view, and it was well protected.
And the best part? I didn't even pay full price for the thing! No, this was a used station I bought off a Moff from the neighboring Oversector. It cost less to buy and refurbish the thing than it would've been brand new, so I was pretty happy with it.
Now my center of power wasn't literally the capital of the Minda system, but instead a platform meant to defend the Mindan Shipyards. A defender of economic interests.
And what an economic interest it is! After the damaged berths were fixed, production kicked into full gear and hadn't slowed down since. Guild patrol vessels were being replaced, orders were being pumped out, and the money was flowing in.
Combined with the improving state of the sectors bureaucracy, and the fact that my stunt with the slaver Governors had scared a lot of others into properly paying taxes, meant that economically the sector was starting to rise!
As the worker relocation program continued, people were finding their way to places were work was more abundant. Already fleets of shuttles and large transports were carting people off by the hundreds if not thousands to more frontier worlds where farms and mines were missing people.
Of course, this came with its own problem. A lot of people in transit meant a lot of targets for slavers. Thankfully, my stunt with the slavers previously had soured the state of the slave trade in the sector, making it a far rarer occurrence. But it wasn't perfect.
Just a few days ago, a transport carrying 250 new settlers from Dubrillion to Jornudgir had been attacked and many of its inhabitants captured. Thankfully, the slavers weren't careful enough in covering their tracks so forces were already on their tail.
But the entire debacle only exemplified the true problem in the sector. Despite a booming economy, despite a slowly but surely rising standard of living and lowering corruption levels, piracy plagued it all.
Holonet beacons had to always be guarded lest they be attacked and destroyed to cut off quick cries for help or be salvaged. Every single merchant convoy bigger than a smattering of light freighters needed mercenary escorts. And more and more systems were requesting help from rapid response units because pirates kept setting up bases fucking everywhere!
What was with those guys and setting up strongholds? I thought pirates loved moving about and staying nimble!
Sure, Darna, Thorne and HAVEN did what they could, and we used what info we got from Murr to the best effect, taking out the most dangerous and fastest growing gangs. But the problem wasn't any single gang, but that piracy as a whole was getting more common.
And the cause was, in some ways, obvious. More and more resources were being dragged to the Core from the Rim by the Governor-General. This meant that already exploitative sectors got worse, driving more people to desperate means. Not to mention that the galaxy as a whole was less stable.
Trust in the empire had been shaken, and the Mid-Rim Offensive had caused chaos that various syndicates were quick to capitalize on.
Make no mistake, the Empire was still the undisputed top dog of the galaxy. None could truly stand up to them. But that's the funny part, they didn't need to.
They just needed to hit the planets the Empire didn't defend as much. They just needed to waltz around the Empire while it focused on the Rebellion and important worlds. So long as they didn't hit Imperial cargo ships but civilian ones, they were less likely to be personally hunted down.
Suffice it to say, the criminal element had gotten bolder. And it was causing me headaches.
At least the Mando integration was going well. What had started as 3 clans and 500 or so Mando's total had grown to over double that, at around 8 clans and some 1100 total Mandos. Some of the clans were quite small, but they were all highly trained and deadly in their own right.
The initial special Guild contract had been simple. The clans register as a company and get a year long contract. An alright monthly stipend alongside generous bonuses for captured pirates, destroyed bases, etc… The stipend scaled with Clan size, but the bonuses stayed the same.
Now, the contract had evolved a bit as their numbers started to swell. The Clans were allowed some better weapons and ships, and were privy to purchasing those from the Guild at discounted prices. Essentially, they got the perks of being decently ranked merc companies without having to take many months to get anywhere near that.
Of course, they more than proved themselves in combat and their eagerness to take missions was a massive boon.
Sure, some other mercs complained they were taking away jobs, but honestly the merc market was the kind where you made your own fortune. The Mandos were just skilled enough to kick the merc market awake again while being small enough that they weren't going to take the entire market on their own.
Eventually, I settled into my new chair. Well, temporary chair. I was having my old chair brought up, alongside plenty of my old furniture. Sue me, I like it.
Turning around to stare out the window, my eyes raked over the shipyards. Each and every berth lit up, filled with half made hulls and workers buzzing around them.
I spotted plenty of ship types. From Dreadnoughts to Raiders and more. Shal's ISD was currently sitting in a berth, panels being removed so internal inefficiencies could be corrected. Nothing major, just some small streamlining some of the eggheads in R&D had come up with in their never ending chase to make a ship to rival the ISD. In one berth I could even see the skeleton of the very first prototype Arbiter-Class.
I doubted the prototype would be much more than an expensive way for the R&D people to figure out what works and what doesn't, but it was a price I was willing to pay.
If nothing else, the bridge wasn't something we had to produce. The ship was some 800 meters long, meaning we could just buy the bridge for a Victory Class instead and slap it on there. Standardization, baby!
After a prolonged period of 5 whole minutes spent looking out my window, I turned back to my desk. I'd only placed the things I needed there, like my terminal, hot coco machine, etc… But when I checked the time on my terminal, I realized my work day was over.
It was still an odd feeling to finish my work in a day and not have to immediately go to my bed because I had so little free time. Now I had multiple entire hours before I had to catch some z's.
So I booted up my PDA, flicked over to the app store, and started scrolling to see what I could play.
I then found a factory sim game. Suffice it to say, I got little sleep that night.
–
Yo. Not nearly as proud of this chapter as the last one. Feels more like an excuse to just yap. But I'm tired, and felt like if I didn't do something remotely productive today I would just go to bed feeling like I was wasting my life. Is this actually a productive way to use my time? No, I could be exercising or learning how to draw.
But, I got accepted into a decent college and can finally leave my community college after far too long a stay, so I guess I can excuse myself this once.
Oh, and no baking/cooking note today. Ran out of flour with those last cookies and subsisted off of protein bars and pre-made chicken tikka-masala today (technically yesterday, its 3 AM or so) so no luck this time. Next time I'll make something, promise. Maybe zucchini bread. That shit slaps.
Sonder, fellow strugglers.
-Freefaller
