Chaos ensued.
Clampbots, stupid and fragile. Poorly programmed or broken. There is a factory producing them.
Colonel Silvermane declared Martial Law while Seana is offworld in the Core. Silvermane is on the Abraham Sinkhov, no? This Commander Tyran from the Ticonderoga is sniffing around. When Seana came back, she moved out of the Town Hall and up to the Orbital Repair Station. Then there's this Alliance liaison officer of some sort. There are 50 billion people in the verse, how is it this Podunk rock of 300 or so rates two Alliance Frigates and this much brass?
Someone with some very specific technical information took out Krenshar's power core with a knife. They musta had skills yo! That is space-hood talk, I am trying to fit in. I managed to keep him online for a while using nipple clamps and liberal application of my stungun. The same day, some Alliance Dude (space surfer talk) is in Krenshar's secret lab taking money from the Casino, saying it is fees for the Destiny Compound. Lily and Geth talked tough while I tried to figure out the settings on my stungun. He left with many threats of reprisal.
Major Siamendes executes a search warrant on Cody's Ship. Sorry, no pics, only hearsay
I ran into Marshal Cyrano on the main landing pad. Fella came all the way from Persephone looking for two slavers. This is the same marshal that Cody popped a cap off in his ass. (More space-hood talk, I think I said it correctly.) Nice enough guy, he didn't want to tell me if we were in imminent danger or anything. Serve and protect, pfft.
Days earlier, there was gunfire on Eavesdown. There was some threatening chatter on an open channel about Calina. I know some slaver types broke into her shop a while back. I hid her in the cargo hold of my ship until they were further away and then we ran up to her shop to see if it was ransacked again. It was probably the same guys that the Marshal was looking for; Calina said she made a report to the Marshal. Cap'n Griffy's crew was there at the time. They probably had a flight plan filed like the good upstanding folks that they are, so the marshal know to find them at Hale.
Or it was all just an elaborate cover to find the guy that popped a cap in his backside. (space-hood, oh you get it now)
There were some other Alliance troubles, which resulted in a downed Alliance Shuttle. According to Vega, it was caused by those darned Guertsler engines, "just fall out of the sky".
Some bounty hunters caught up with Cody and he was held in the clink (ummm, some kinda space slang for jail. Slammer. Umm, the joint. Ack. whatever) Anyways, the next day two Alliance jack booted thugs umm soldiers transport Cody to the Ticonderoga. Later in the day, the Alliance Coroner picked up Cody's corpse. Sorry, no pics, only hearsay. I am not actually everywhere. I don't know why he was transported to the rogue Alliance Ticonderoga instead of the Abraham Sinkov who has jurisdiction.
Krenshar was looking for a DNA sample from this young girl. Cody and Gallagher watched with interest, me with confusion.
Ran into Major Siamendes while on Eavesdown, she was looking for Companion Calina Tereshchenko. I took advantage of the Major putting her in an awkward position making her try on clothes. I don't think she ever got around to asking Calina what she was looking for. Jade was very helpful when she was not fussing at the chickens she was keeping upstairs.
Always new faces around. MisAxhu Kohime is some sort of explorer/trader. Geth and Krenshar were friendly also.
This is Cid, mechanic, moved into the Destiny Compound, Crews with Cap'n Griffy. I was showing Thoth and Cid our new Deuterium, Helium-3 and Tritium fuel cells, when you need that extra kick.
Maybe we don't mention it too often, but Miya is the Overlord of Caliban and by unanimous vote continues on as the overlord of the Destiny Compound.
The Destiny Compound is fraught with peril....
....As even local law enforcement can attest to. Have you even been walking around minding your own business with your weapon drawn and there is someone face down in a puddle of their own blood in front of you and then there are witnesses. This actually happens to me a lot.
When Overlady Miya tells Geth to dance, she dances, although that is not her function. Geth is nice, despite a few regrettable incidents with Clampbots, nipple clamps and... well, she is nice despite some unpleasantnesses.
WHODAT?
If it is not Lilybell, is it a cat? Discuss amongst yourselves.
I found this dog at a construction site, I named him reese. Ignore the stories you have heard about talking dogs or people whose brains were transplanted into the body of a robotic dog, but now prefer it. I am not saying those stories are untrue, but like readers, it is best to pretend that such things don't happen or don't exist. These are not the droids you are looking for. OoooEEEEOoooo.
Some strange bloody handprints and ominous words outside of the church and the sheriff's office.
Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia (CATZ) hired an intern named Lynx. I originally met him on MacLaren, he has been out of sorts since Shadow glassed over. He has been on Eavesdown where he got shot up and is doing his own trade on the side. He is Pepper's ward and our new cargo agent intern. He looks spiffy in his new uniform.
To that effect, to set a good example, I am wearing the official Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia (CATZ) uniform too. Sigh. Strangely enough, I look good in the Gestapo Flight Attendant garb. Shame it does not come in red.
The week that Shadow redeclared independence, my Firefly Kei64 lightbulk transport was shot down by folks posing as Alliance. Loyalists, pirates, hardliners, I dunno. BAD PEOPLE SHOT AT ME! Well, that ended my brief adventure as a small independent trader as my 75 year old inherited ship was in the shop. Fortunately, Zeno who used to crew with Coop got me a job with Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia (CATZ). Now my ship if finally repaired, sucking up all the money I made in the past year, but I am neck deep in the corporate career thing. It is good to have her back though. I mostly use her for ship to shore and within system work. Like around Lux or Murphy, Heinlein, etc, the protostars and Jovians with lots of moons.
She flies better than almost anything other than a fighter jet. Lot of ships can outrace her, but most are so loaded up with gear, gadgets and toys that they fly like a load of...well not like a leaf on the wind, whatever that mean. Stupid space pilot Zen koan talk. Pirates all talk a big game, but they fill their ship up with Nancyboy sissy stuff. Maybe it's to impress girls.
Trade has been good. Coffee here and there. Got some good asteroid mining. Okay, it is technically near earth meteorites. An asteroidal body is defined as 50 meter diameter minimum, but everyone calls them asteroids. They just like saying roids. "Hee hee, he said roids." Pfft. A lot of real asteroid belt mining in Halo, Motherlode and Uroborus Belt. Interplanetary travel, especially trade uses fusion. Cheap fuel, cleaner, simpler. But most asteroid mining uses low delta-v fission thermal rockets because they only need to reach Hohmann transfer orbit is an orbital speeds, roughly 5600 meters/second. Slow enough that it will be captured by the targeted planetary body. We transport gruntsicles (cryogenically frozen workers, 81 to a container) along with spacer food (Soylents, SPAM and Smeat) along with low grade fissionable fuels for the mining thermal rockets. The prisoners, ummm workers, can't really use the rockets to escape ummm leave. At a maximum speed of 5600 m/s, it takes 10 months to go 1 Astronomical Unit. We take back any high yield ores, the low grade ores moves with the thermal rockets in their launch window. Alliance shepherd cruisers check the route for pirates and mischief, but frankly the ore is low yield that it is rarely worth their time. We usually only go when we have Alliance or private escort.
What's the latest and greatest in spacer food? MEAT BEETLES! Yaaay. Never touch the stuff myself. Got hooked up by the famous bank robber Ziggy and Rottengirl. Nice folks. They can survive on minimal water, can be fed irregularly and can be shipped live. If you are eating meat beetles, you probably don't have a choice in the matter. The important part is that they can be shipped live economically. I am told that you get used to the screams...eventually....hopefully....theoretically...or so I'm told...whatever. After a hard couple months eating S.P.A.M. (Synthetic Protein Artificially Manufactured), Smeat (spreadable meat by-product) and Soylent Yellow Red or Green, Meat Beetles sounds good. If you are eating S.P.A.M., Smeat or Soylent products, you probably don't have a choice. Yay for recycled foods, good for the environment, okay for you. From the finest institutional cafeterias in the Verse. S.P.A.M. is the secret ingredient in those food replicators the fancy ships keep talking about. Eww. They think I am odd for smuggling sushi in morgue stasis or Emma for turning a morgue cold chamber into an ice cream dispenser. But food replicators, eww.
Arilla set up a meat beetle ranch; they thrive well in the desert. We have an export agreement with them. They sell the excess; grind them down into Beetle Juice, big seller in her territory. The locals like naming the beetles as they emerge from their nest, then shooting them. The first one they named Vooper, the second one they named Wind.
Had a good meeting with Baroun of House Kira. We are collaborating on some space mining ventures, also some technology transfers.
There was a reception for House Kira at the Main Keep Hall. Zeno and I went, Lynx showed up towards the end. Tillery was there with his bodyguard. Also Calina and a couple of her companion sisters. A gentleman I saw at fightnight on Eavesdown was there too. A smuggler dude according to Trishy. Check out the guard snoozing in the back.
The UAP assigned a coroner to us in Al Raqis. Go figure, she spends most of her time hanging with the paramilitaries.
A lot more has happened and unfortunately a lot of pics didn't come out or were lost during a recent technological problem. I apologize for things and people I neglected and thank you to the folks who got me pics to make up for it.
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