Jim
Dawson
San Diego Border Station, California
Personal Log June 3, 801 A.S.
I did my
first combat patrol for Liberty Police Inc. yesterday. The assignment took us into the Tahoe
Ice Cloud, a well-known hideout of criminals, smugglers and other scum. We were looking for
a group of Liberty Rogues that have been ambushing convoys along the California Minor Lane
the past few weeks. We didnt find the Rogues we were looking for, but we did spot an
Outcast drug smuggler. My patrol leader got a little too eager and decided to take the
pirate out herself. She lasted about 30 seconds. She took a bunch of direct hits from the
Outcasts two Dragoon turrets on her shields. She lost control and hit an ice crystal while
in full cruise mode. He finished her off with a couple of missiles and disappeared into the
mists. Theyre sending up a replacement from Los Angeles tomorrow.
Some Bounty
Hunter at the stations bar last night was saying that the average life expectancy of an LPI
patrol officer is about two weeks in these parts. How did I get myself into this mess? The
recruiter back in Houston made it sound way more exciting than working in the DSE
construction machinery plant. Its not as if the pay is any better. People around the
station are grumbling that LPI didnt make the last quarterly profit projections, so
management froze salaries and increased the daily body count requirement. We now have to
deliver at least 20 prisoners a week to LA. They ship them out on the bi-monthly prison
convoy to Texas, where theyre put to work in the consumer goods factories or the Sugarland
smelter.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Dawson
Curacao, Cortez
Personal Log July 5, 801 A.S.
Well, Im about to
head out on my first mission with the Bounty Hunters today. But Im getting ahead of myself
After four weeks on the San Diego Border Station, I had become close friends with my
wing man, Kellan Hatch. He was also from Houston, so we had a lot in common. He always had
some new joke to tell, which helped alleviate the tension on our daily patrols. We watched
three patrol leaders and a dozen rookies die during one particularly bad six day stretch.
Finally, our luck ran out. We were on a routine patrol in the Tahoe Cloud when an Outcast
named Eva Mendoza appeared out of nowhere. Her missile vaporized my buddy in a flash. I
attempted to pursue her, but the Border World pirates ship was faster and more maneuverable
in the dense ice crystal fields than my standard police issue Liberty Fighter.
Back
on base, my sorrow soon turned to anger. Somehow I had to find that Outcast and avenge
Kellan. Hunting down the pirate would be problematic in my current line of work. The LPI is
more interested in live prisoners than assassinations. So thats how I found myself talking
to a Bounty Hunter named Kathy Giles a few days ago. The Bounty Hunters Guild operates
throughout the Sirius Sector, handling the often messy business of criminal disposal for
corporations and governments. They have one powerful advantage over the police and military
their knowledge of the secret Jump Hole network, which is used by the criminal element to
traverse the universe beyond the reach of the law. Joining the Guild seemed to offer the
best chance of finding my quarry.
Giles suggested heading to Curacao, the Orbital
Spa and Cruise resort planet in the adjoining Independent World of Cortez. There was a
contingent of Hunters stationed at that base that were familiar with the criminal element in
the area. Most pirates in California actually operate out of the Cortez and Magellan
systems, where theres more cover and fewer prying eyes.
Yesterday, I turned in my
resignation to the captain and headed to a new life beyond the borders of Liberty. The hotel
here is so luxurious that I immediately felt out of place. It attracts a decidedly upscale
crowd from Manhattan and New London. The Bounty Hunters stood out like a sore thumb when I
walked into the bar. They were a boisterous bunch, making loud and rude comments to passing
guests. Their pungent body odor hit me as I approached the table.
Nobody knew of any
Mendoza character, but they assured me that she would eventually turn up in the Corcovado
Field at the southern end of the system. Thats where all the bad guys hung out. They
invited me to join them on their next hunting expedition. Last night I bought a Bounty
Hunter ship and upgraded my weapons. My old LPI special wouldnt cut it out here. A
particularly rough one named Roy Sloan said he would float me the money until I got a few
bounties under my belt. So here I am, about to try one of the most dangerous jobs out there.
In the Guild you either succeed, or die.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Dawson
Roatan Cloud, Cortez
July 7th, 801 A.S.
Right now Im drifting in
space, pondering my future, which most likely wont be with the Bounty Hunters Guild. The
last 24 hours were a wild ride
We headed out from Curacao towards the Corcovado
Field yesterday morning. It was fairly long approach, so I had some time to learn about my
new comrades. It turned out that Roy Sloan and the rest of them were ex-Rogues from Hudson
that had done time in Sugarland. When they got out, they joined the Bounty Hunters Guild.
The Guild actively recruits ex-cons for their valuable insiders information on criminal
bases and jump holes.
We picked up some distant Hacker and Outcast patrols on our
radar, but my group had a more specialized target in mind. A certain Rogue by the name of
Joe Ice Pick Brown had been causing a lot of trouble on the Roatan Cloud Trade Lane
recently, robbing several transports in the last two weeks. IC had taken some big insurance
losses on one of them, so the bounty was pretty good. The mission was straightforward take
out Ice Pick and his gang, and recover any stolen goods. As we approached the Corcovado Ice
Field, criminal activity picked up considerably. We were not welcome here. Sloan spotted our
target first, and took off, guns blazing. The Bounty Hunters certainly arent much into
teamwork. I hit my afterburners and engaged the Rogues. I was totally not prepared for how
much tougher the ships in the Independent World are compared to Liberty. My ship sustained a
lot of damage and I was forced to use all my spare nanobots and shield batteries to keep
flying. Fortunately, the rest of my patrol was more than capable. It was all over in a few
minutes. There was a lot of loot that had been ejected from the destroyed pirates ships,
including some stolen Luxury Goods, but it was getting tractored in pretty fast by the
others. By the time I scanned the area, all that was left were some countermeasures and a
couple of shield batteries, worth a fraction of my repair costs.
Back on Curacao, I
was surprised when Sloan and the others sold the Luxury Goods to the commodity dealer. He
growled when I suggested that we should return them to IC. First thing you need to learn
about the Guild, there are never any stolen goods to return to the police - finders,
keepers, he said. My repair costs were so high that they ate up most of the bounty payment.
Sloan demanded all of my remaining cash, and muttered something about lousy LPI recruits.
This morning, he approached me in the bar and threatened dire consequences if I
didnt repay the loan in full after my next job. The pressure was on. I accepted an Outcast
capture and retrieval job from the automated mission vendor, which was way over my head. But
it offered enough to repay the loan, and maybe I would run into Mendoza this time. Sloan had
some mechanical problems on his ship, so we went out without him. His buddies were a bit
stressed out about taking on such a hard job, but most of them had blown their bounty money
at the casino the night before, so they had little choice. This time it was deadly quiet as
we cruised through the mists of the Barrier; everyone was on edge. Far off the Trade Lanes
we found our quarry. He turned out to have some unanticipated company in the form of two
escorts. I opened fire and the battle was joined. In the ensuing melee, I launched a salvo
of missiles directly in the path of one of my patrol mates. He exploded in a fireball. The
firefight quickly turned into a rout. The Outcasts picked off a second Bounty Hunter, so I
did the only rational thing run for my life. My sole remaining companion cursed in despair
as he was surrounded by the bad guys, circling in for the kill. I turned off the comm.
channel and flew in silence further into the clouds. Returning to Curacao and the Guild was
now out of the question. I needed to look for a new line of work
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Dawson
Kensington Platform, New London system
July 9th, 801 A.S.
Im back
on the legal side of things after a brief journey into the criminal underworld. Only two
days ago I was drifting in the Roatan Cloud in the Curacao system, a man without a future.
That reflective moment abruptly ended when I picked up a slew of contacts on my radar. A
Lane Hacker attack was in progress against a Bowex gold transport. The Hackers were rumored
to be friendly with the Outcasts. If I could get in with them, maybe I could finally find
Mendoza
I joined the battle on the side of the criminals, taking out one of the
convoys escorts. It quickly tipped the balance in favor of the Hackers. Within minutes, all
of the Bretonian ships were reduced to flaming wrecks. Although still suspicious of me, the
Hackers were grateful, and offered to share some of the looted Gold with me. Desperate for
cash, I accepted, and tractored in my share. At that moment the Bounty Hunters showed up,
headed by none else than Roy Sloan. I always knew you ex-LPI scumbags were no good, he
yelled over the comm link as he opened fire on me with his dual Warrior particle cannon.
The Hackers fled, although not before wasting one of Sloans buddies. I dropped some
countermeasures and mines and joined formation with them, heading to parts unknown.
It turned that the Hackers had some base in Magellan, through a Jump Hole somewhere
in the southern end of Curacao. As we made the long journey through the Barrier fields, I
got to know them a bit better. The patrol leader went by the name of Red Rocker. He was into
loud music when he wasnt out relieving Independent World convoys of their cargo. They
targeted the high end stuff like Gold and Luxury Goods using information they gleaned from
hacked Interspace Commerce Trade Lane scanning logs. IC had numerous bounties out on them,
but the Hackers were careful, only targeting those high value convoys that were poorly
escorted or far from help.
My pulse raced as we made the final approach to their
hideout carved out of an ice asteroid. There would be many criminals passing through here,
maybe my Outcast. When I walked into the bar, I saw her almost immediately. Sitting over in
a corner, she had that strange mask on that Id heard the Bounty Hunters talk about back on
Curacao. They said it was some sort of inhaler they need to survive outside of their home
planets atmosphere. I got a lucky break when I overheard the bartender tell someone that
Mendoza had just bought a load of supplies for her return trip to the Edge Worlds tomorrow.
The next morning, I bought the location of the most likely Jump Hole that Mendoza
would use from one of the Hackers. He uploaded it into my neural net, which saved me a lot
of searching through the fog and ice asteroids. Out in the Barrier Cloud I drifted near the
Hole for several tense hours. Finally, my prey appeared. She was alone, not expecting an
attack from a Lane Hacker ally. But Outcasts never give up easily. The dogfight lasted for
several minutes. Soon I was low on both Shield batteries and Nanobots. In one last desperate
move, I dropped the rest of my Razor mines and put on the afterburners. She stumbled
directly into my trap. Her ship in flames, she did the honorable Outcast thing and tried to
ram me. With one burst of my Gunslinger turret, the pirate ship exploded in the most
beautiful fireball Id ever seen. Kellan was avenged
I decided to head for Freeport
4 along the Liberty/Bretonia trade route. Freeports are a great place for someone in trouble
with the law. Anyone can land, no questions asked. Usually you can find someone to help fix
your reputation. The Independent Miners Guild runs this particular operation, which extracts
water ice to sell to California Minor. Theyre a motley crew of Bretonia and Rheinland
miners that couldnt take working for the big mining companies. The bartender was helpful,
though not cheap. He patched my rep up enough to allow me access to the Trade Lanes and Jump
Gates to Bretonia.
In the bar I also met a Gateway Shipping pilot, who suggested
running some cheap Liberty Consumer Goods to Kensington Platform in the New London system.
It wasnt exactly a high profit run, but it was less likely to attract unwanted attention
from the Hackers and Outcasts that I would have to run past on the Trade Lane to Bretonia.
His advice was sound. The journey was relatively uneventful. Although when I
delivered my load at Kensington, my take home pay was definitely nothing to write home
about. That gold that I had sold at the Hacker base was far more profitable. The bartender
at Kensington suggested I try my luck mining in the Dublin gold fields. So thats where Im
heading tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Dawson
Freistadt, Omega-7 system
August 2nd, 801 A.S.
I just realized its
been a while since my last journal entry. Im on Freistadt in the Omega-7 system. Pretty
gloomy place! The view out the bar window here is everything but pleasant: mostly sulfur
clouds and dust. Omega-7 lies in the heart of the Walker Nebula. Its officially a Freeport,
so you see lots of different groups. Theres a bunch of IMG personnel, the odd Gateway crew
taking a breather, a dozen Bounty Hunters, and even some Red Hessians. Really strange mix,
but everyone pretty much gets along, except maybe the Bounty Hunters. Theyre a crusty
looking group who keep to themselves over in the corner, their backs to the wall. Tomorrow
Im running some supplies down to Ronneburg, the Red Hessian base over in Omega-5. One of
the Hessians at the bar here said theres been some pretty hot and heavy fighting lately, so
theyre running low on supplies of H-fuel.
Just a quick recap how I got here: Three
weeks ago, I set out from Kensington with supplies for the Hood, an abandoned Bretonia Armed
Forces battleship in the Dublin system. The Independent Miners Guild refurbished and turned
into a Freeport of sorts. It attracts a scruffy lot, all the dregs from the bottom of the
Bretonian barrel. My initial journey went smoothly, although I was scanned twice by BAF
crews as I passed by the battleships guarding either side of the Dublin gate. The Bretonia
military currently checks everyone coming and going from Dublin very carefully. Rumor is
theyre looking for MOX or Toxic Waste, both good materials for making dirty bombs. Theres
a separatist group that operates in this area theyre called the Mollys. Theyve been
threatening to take out targets in New London for the last forty years or so and the
government is apparently very worried about attacks. Word is that the Mollys home base is
somewhere in the Dublin system, at least thats what the Gateway rep. told me. She also said
they probably wouldnt bother me too much, since I wasnt allied that closely with BMM. But
she urgently warned me about the Corsairs.
And sure enough, a raiding party of three
Corsairs jumped me soon after I left the patrol perimeter of the Essex Battleship. Only the
chance arrival of a group of Bounty Hunters saved me from certain death and I barely made it
to the Hood. Once I reached the safely of the Hood, I checked out my surroundings. It
certainly was a pit. There were no Liberty pilots in sight. The miners were pretty hard to
understand. I did pick up that the best Gold mining area in the system belonged to the
Mollys. Second best was the BMM operation, which was strictly off limits to independents
like me. My best chance was in the Independent Gold Field. Only problem was, that was
Corsair central, since the New London Jump Hole was in there somewhere. A lot of the miners
looked pretty stressed. They were doing more fighting than mining. Casualties had been
running pretty high. I set off the next morning and decided to test my luck. The mining
itself is pretty straight forward. Look for any stray asteroids flying along, shoot them.
Now and then, some gold would be revealed. Slow work, but lucrative if there are no hostiles
in the area. I went for several hours before the dreaded Corsairs showed up. Then it was hit
full cruise and head for help. You could only pray that they didnt have a lot of Cruise
Disruptor missiles on hand. I successfully evaded the pirates several times that day,
although once I started to take some serious damage on my shield.
After several
weeks of daily forays in the Gold Fields, I had amassed a pretty good load of Gold. I sold
some of it to upgrade my ship and weapons, and returned to mining. Eventually my luck ran
out. A large Corsair contingent caught me far from safety one afternoon. It was a desperate
moment. I had to pull every evasive trick in the book. Countermeasures, drone mines I used
them all. It was a long battle of attrition, but I finally killed two of them. The last one
decided to withdraw at that point, which was not a moment too soon. My ship was flaming,
most of my weapons gone. But my cargo was intact. When I got to base, the equipment dealer
gasped when he saw the condition of my ship. I was the talk of the Hood that night. The
bartender called me Lucky Jim when I ordered a drink.
It was time for me to get
out of the mining business. Id made my money and my luck couldnt hold forever. Battling
the Corsairs had been much more exciting. I asked around at the bar where my Gold would get
a good price. Everyone mentioned Rheinland, or somewhere on the way to it. Thats how I
ended up in the southern Omega worlds, very far from home. I wonder what I will find out
here.
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Jim Dawson
Baden-Baden, Stuttgart System
November 12th, 801 A.S.
The trip to
Ronneburg was pretty intense. The Walker nebula in Omega-7 is dense and full of asteroids
and explosive gas pockets. As if that werent enough, youve got Corsairs wandering around
in the mists. At least I was friendly with the Hessians. The Daumann and Kruger mining
operations in the system are subject to daily harassment by the infamous Rheinland
criminals. I fought my way through several Corsair patrols, and even got scanned by two
Hessian ships. Red Hessians and other criminals have no problem stealing from theoretically
friendly freelancers. Fortunately, a couple of Corsairs showed up just as I was deciding
whether to drop my cargo and run, or stand and make a fight for it. I was able to slip away
in the ensuing melee.
Omega-5 is a desolate system completely engulfed by ice
asteroids. Nothing to write home about, except that it contains no less than five Jump
Holes, the greatest number known of any system within the Sirius Sector. Known as the
crossroads of the Omega Worlds, it has become the focal point of an epic turf war between
the Red Hessians and Corsairs. At stake is the exclusive right to plunder the lucrative
Trade Lane routes linking Rheinland and Bretonia.
Just getting to the base once
within Omega-5 was a feat. Corsair patrols badgered me the entire way. At one point I
stumbled into one of the extensive mine fields laid by the Corsairs to protect their
interests in the area. It was rough dodging all the mines and asteroids while keeping the
afterburner on almost full time to avoid the ever present Corsair cannons and lasers. At one
point I stumbled too close to the weapons platforms that define the defensive line for the
Corsairs. Completely out of shield batteries and nanobots, starboard weapons and wing
damaged, I limped into Ronneburg after what seemed an eternity.
Ronneburg is a
pretty ratty place. A place to eat, sleep and repair ships and weapons. The casualty rate is
pretty high, but fresh replacements arrive daily from Omega-11 and Dresden, which keeps the
meat grinder fed. They were grateful for the supplies, but immediately pressed me into
action. After some field surgery on the ship, I was off on a combat patrol into the Hammen
Hole, a no mans land between the two weapons platforms lines that offers the only open space
within the entire system. Due to the easy maneuverability in this area for ships, most of
the daily battles are centered here. Fortunately the action was light that day, and we
easily disposed of the two Corsairs that we came in contact with. I noticed during our
flight that the pocket was littered with wrecks from both sides. It seemed like there could
be some good money to be made in stripping weapons off the derelict ships, if you were gutsy
and lucky enough.
When I mentioned this to the base commander back at the bar that
night, he replied, How do you think all of those ships got there in the first place? The
grave robber must be very careful here. If you are caught too far from your base when an
enemy attack occurs, its over. The dead ships you see are all those of scavengers that
became too greedy. Neither the Hessians nor the Corsairs condone such behavior, so we leave
them to drift. Eventually they prove too tempting to someone with questionable moral
standards, and the cycle continues. But feel free to rob the dead, although I didnt think
you were such a character.
The message was loud and clear. Help them kill Corsairs,
but stay away from looting. So I entered into the service of the Hessians for the next
several months, fighting someone elses brutal war of attrition that seemed to have no end.
By late October I was physically and mentally exhausted. I became more and more fearful of
the daily patrols. My luck was certain to eventually fail. It was time to go. I now had a
state of the art Hessian ship and 500K credits to my name, thanks to some looting on the
side that Id kept secret. One evening, I overheard a guy in the bar by the name of Peter
Schlupp. He boasted of great riches to be found in the Von Rohe Belt, which lay next door in
the Omega-11 system. It was dangerous, to be sure. But if you had strong enough shields and
a lot of good luck, you could rake in the credits scavenging wrecks that had been disabled
in the intense radiation fields surrounding the dying red giant sun.
It sounded
perfect - the retirement run. I requested a transfer to Freital the next day. Freital was
another lonely rock on the other side of the Omega-11 Jump Hole. It was used mostly as a
staging point for war supplies, although they also ran raiding parties against the Daumann
operations within the system. It also served as an outpost to check Corsair expansion north
from the Omega-41 Hole, which was a developing problem. Omega-11 was truly the end of the
world. The sun had gone red giant, consuming the inner planets before humans ever set foot
in the Sirius Sector.
The Von Rohe Belt was the remnant of one of them. It happened
to contain the richest diamond deposits known. But it was not easily accessed. It was
surrounded by region of intense radiation, known simply as the Abgrund. There was no other
way to access the Belt. You had to gun it from the edge of the planetary fragment fields
that ringed the perimeter of the system. Bring a full load of nanobots, youll need them.
And watch your damage bar, or youll join the many others that stayed out a bit too long,
was the advice I got from one sickly looking veteran scavenger on Freital. Radiation
poisoning was a daily fact of life for the scum that inhabited this pit.
Early the
next day, I crossed the Abgrund and entered the Von Rohe Belt. Moving parallel to the sun, I
discovered many wrecks that day and the week following, each one a little bit further out
along the Belt. In one week, I made my first million, mostly on diamonds, but also on
salvaged weapons. All sorts of dead ships were out there: Hessians, Daumann, Corsairs,
Bounty Hunters. They had all succumbed to greed.
After two weeks of life on Freital,
I was deathly ill from the daily doses of radiation. Fortunately, my net worth was now well
in excess of 1.5 million Credits. It was time to return to civilization and the good life. I
bid my comrades goodbye and headed to Freistadt to bribe myself back to respectability with
the Rheinland Police. As I flew in silence across Omega-11, I reflected on the remarkable
journey I had completed since leaving Liberty what seemed like a lifetime ago, yet was
actually less than five months.
So here I am, relaxing in the mud baths of
Baden-Baden, an exclusive resort for the Rheinland and Liberty rich. Who knows, maybe one
day the mysteries of the universe will again drive me to explore the unknown or I manage
to burn through all the money I have either way, Ill take it easy for a while.
