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Fan Fiction / Re: Regulations and Regrets
« Last post by PeripheryExplorer on Today at 19:29:58 »Slater Estate, Castillo en las Nubes, Nuncavoy
Nuncavoy Free Confederation, Rimward Periphery
August 5th, 2997
Evening had fallen and the stars were absolutely beautiful from the patio behind her family estate. Riley sat by the firepit in her favorite chair, wrapped in a woolen blanket. She sipped a coffee as she stared at the stars winking and glittering above her. Edward opened the patio doors and stepped out into the cool night, still dressed in jeans, flannel shirt, and work boots that he had decided was close enough to the police uniform. The shiny badge on his belt glittered as it reflected the flames of the firepit.
As he got closer he saw the massive amount of paper scattered over the table held down by rocks. He raised an eyebrow at the organization of it and made a note to get Riley red yarn when he went back to town. She looked over at him, “Don’t be upset.” She started, standing to face him, he paused, “I couldn’t stop thinking about the reports. Something was nagging at me. They don’t add up. The scattered response time from the police wasn’t due to Officer Miller’s dereliction of duty. It was due to them focusing on saving civilian lives.”
Edward nodded, “Captain Lynn feels the same way. She knows their radio alarms were triggered before the pirates touched down.”
Riley nodded, “Someone is trying to build a cover up. They are trying to prevent us from learning what actually happened. And frankly, I think my dad was targeted.” She shook her head, getting ready to defend her position.
“I agree.” Edward said simply.
She turned to face him, “You do?!” She had expected resistance. Everyone else was telling her it was just a raid.
He nodded, “No looting, no prisoners. They landed and headed straight to your father’s office, bypassing a scrap yard with actual armor and weapon salvage, a space port with undefended trade goods and DropShips, and the business district which has at least one jewelry store and one bank. This was not a raid. It was an assassination.”
She nodded, “That was my conclusion as well. They were also targeting anyone who even remotely resembled my dad.” She shuddered. “What I don’t know is why.”
Edward nodded, “Money probably. You own a JumpShip and DropShips that makes you incredibly wealthy in this region of space. Anyone who would want to muscle in on this territory?”
Riley nodded, “More than a few people. Magistracy, Aurigan, Tauran. All three or maybe Capellan? This is a main trade hub in all three directions.” She sipped her drink, “My father was very close to signing an incredible deal with business interests in the Concordat. It was going to potentially pay in the form of a fully refurbished Liberty class JumpShip.” Riley paused, “That’s an incredibly generous offer. My father had worked very hard to secure it. The Liberty class hasn’t even been produced since the 26th century, and would allow us to transport four DropShips.”
Edward listened intently, making notes of all of this. “So you believe whomever did this must have been aware that he was expanding his capabilities.”
Riley nodded, “And saw this as a direct threat.”
Edward looked down at the table, noting lists of traders who had been through the system. ATP kept being circled in red ink. He grinned, at least red showed up somewhere. “Aurigan Trade Partnership?” He asked pointing.
Riley nodded, “Yes, they’ve been unusually active. And frankly, they are the most likely to want to eliminate my dad.” She frowned, “Which sounds insane, but isn’t.” She sighed.
Edward nodded, and pulled up a chair for her. She sat down, and he sat as well. “Tell me why.”
Riley nodded looking at the papers spread out over the patio table. She picked up a list of transports that had touched down at the local port. “Over the past six months, Aurigan registered transports have landed both at the main port on the other side of the planet and here. While here, they did limited trade but had a large number of people on liberty. They stopped coming, their final communication indicating that trade opportunities at our port were not sufficient to sustain the trade.” She paused, “Which is fine, and probably absolutely true. However, why were they trying to shop for heavy equipment when we’ve never had that ability here - which they knew?” Her pause was telling. “And more importantly why did the pirate strike occur on schedule if it was an Aurigan trade mission?” She held up the plot she had created of timing for visits, showing that the pirate JumpShip had arrived a two weeks and three days after the last Aurigan JumpShip, which had arrived two weeks and three days after the last ship and so on.
“They weren’t here looking to trade. They were here scouting.” Edward nodded, following the logic - both the Aurigan officials and the pirates were probably operating out of the same system.
Riley nodded. “And they left someone behind to make sure that it worked. I reviewed the video logs,” she gestured towards her noteputer. “And the last trip had 20 people disembark, but only 19 people got back on when they left.” She shook her head. “We don’t have much in the way of paperwork or customs out here, so I doubt anyone noticed at the time.”
Edward nodded, “Dan Seavay.”
Riley looked up and her grin was predatory, “I think it’s time you share your side.”
He shook his head, “Don’t get to excited, it’s an alias. I’ve prepared a coded message back to my commander to see if he can find anything that we might have on him. But the local station here is a C class, it will be a few days before we can send anything out. He absolutely was a pirate however. That’s not the worst part.” He paused, “When we got here the local police had just gotten access back to their equipment and stations from the militia response team. Captain Lynn was furious about that, of course, but that’s not the worst part. Dan Seavay is gone, completely disappeared. No one matching his description anywhere among the casualties or among the population. The city mainframe was also heavily corrupted - which occurred after the raid. The pirates never made any effort at engaging in electronic warfare, just the assassination plus some general destruction.”
Riley growled, “Someone in the militia was helping them.”
He nodded. “You have enemies here. You have enemies out there. And right now this is all we have between us and them.” He patted the heavy Taurian made revolver on his belt.
She shook her head, “Not just that. Follow me.”
She got up and headed to the patio doors. She went inside and he quickly followed behind. The estate was large, easily 20 to 30 different rooms set into five wings: the main or center part of the house was where they were spending most of their time. The south wing including recreational facilities such as an indoor pool, gym, sauna, and sports room. The northeast wing was bedrooms and apartments for what had once been a massive extended family. Supposedly the northwing itself was equipment for maintaining the grounds and facilities, while the northwest wing had simply been marked as storage. They were heading to the northwest wing.
Edward noticed that things were getting more starkly utilitarian as they passed from the main living areas. Plush carpets and polished mahogany were replaced by rubber mats and ferrocrete walls. The doors leading to the main wing were not wood but now steel - probably blast steel. Edward whistled internally.
“I mentioned before I suspected that the Aurigan’s had the strongest motivation” Riley began to speak as she opened a panel to reveal a state of the art electric key lock. She entered a number he couldn’t see and the door beeped, hissed and began to slide open.
“My family settled here before the Reunification War.” She began, as the door moved open to reveal a very empty darkness. Slowly, lights began to click on, one row at a time. “We were Terran Hegemony peers, but we opposed the Reunification War and the Star League propaganda at the time. There were accusations we had gone native, and when the war started, the Camerons targeted us by seizing our fleet of JumpShips for the war effort.” She paused as the lights continued to flick on, revealing the cavernous space that was quickly apparent to Ed was an armory. Riley stepped into the room, standing on a large platform and Edward followed. “The Aurigan Reach became a major hub after the war, as the SLDF used Panzer and other worlds as major manufacturing and staging areas to keep an eye out on the Taurians and Magistracy.” Edward nodded as he assessed the contents of the room.
On the walls were racks of rifles and heavier weapons, many of which seemed to be energy based. The weapons were covered and sealed, locked away. Body armor and helmets were neatly sorted and stored. He saw sophisticated Star League era jump packs, communication equipment and more. Across the bay, tracked APCs would provide mechanized capability to some of the units, further explaining the heavier support weapons behind them.
There was enough to outfit a full company of Star League era infantry. “Those that settled there, the major Houses, became very wealthy off of the Star League policies - for them, the era of forced unity between the Star League and the Territorial States was an era of prosperity. My family did not get to participate in that, though we didn’t do as badly as native Taurian families.” She paused, having walked over to the first weapon cabinet. She unlocked it with another code and opened the armored door. She pulled a rifle off the wall and unwrapped the plastic from around it, revealing a pulse laser rifle. She handed it to him, and he took it, easily shouldering it and checking the charge. It hummed to life easily, fully charged, as good as the day it came off the factory line on Terra. He realized he was holding a small fortune, and this was both an armory - and a treasury. “When their trade union was formed, we were kept out. My grandfather had attempted to join some of the negotiations but those they deemed as outsiders were excluded in the end. They were nice to our face, but they made it clear that we were not welcome.”
Edward nodded, “You were Periphery barbarians, not noble Inner Sphere settlers.”
Riley chuckled, “Despite being Peers.” She shrugged, “It is what it is. However, my father’s had putting additional effort into building what he called the Rim Corridor, a secure and safe trading route and alliance intended to link the Taurian Concordat to Free Worlds League and Capellan markets. The increased shipping capacity from the Liberty combined with Taurian investment was critical to that success. However, such a route, secured by House forces of the participating trading houses, would be a direct threat to the Coalition. Somebody doesn’t want to see this route come to pass.”
She picked up an automatic grenade launcher and belt of ammo. She shouldered both and headed back towards the main house. “I plan to see that it does. And I’m using every tool at my disposal, including my right to raise an armed force as the head of my House.”
Edward nodded, another piece of the puzzle coming into the picture about why his government was so interested in this family. He grabbed a box of power cells and two laser pistols. He followed closely behind. “When do we start?”
Nuncavoy Free Confederation, Rimward Periphery
August 5th, 2997
Evening had fallen and the stars were absolutely beautiful from the patio behind her family estate. Riley sat by the firepit in her favorite chair, wrapped in a woolen blanket. She sipped a coffee as she stared at the stars winking and glittering above her. Edward opened the patio doors and stepped out into the cool night, still dressed in jeans, flannel shirt, and work boots that he had decided was close enough to the police uniform. The shiny badge on his belt glittered as it reflected the flames of the firepit.
As he got closer he saw the massive amount of paper scattered over the table held down by rocks. He raised an eyebrow at the organization of it and made a note to get Riley red yarn when he went back to town. She looked over at him, “Don’t be upset.” She started, standing to face him, he paused, “I couldn’t stop thinking about the reports. Something was nagging at me. They don’t add up. The scattered response time from the police wasn’t due to Officer Miller’s dereliction of duty. It was due to them focusing on saving civilian lives.”
Edward nodded, “Captain Lynn feels the same way. She knows their radio alarms were triggered before the pirates touched down.”
Riley nodded, “Someone is trying to build a cover up. They are trying to prevent us from learning what actually happened. And frankly, I think my dad was targeted.” She shook her head, getting ready to defend her position.
“I agree.” Edward said simply.
She turned to face him, “You do?!” She had expected resistance. Everyone else was telling her it was just a raid.
He nodded, “No looting, no prisoners. They landed and headed straight to your father’s office, bypassing a scrap yard with actual armor and weapon salvage, a space port with undefended trade goods and DropShips, and the business district which has at least one jewelry store and one bank. This was not a raid. It was an assassination.”
She nodded, “That was my conclusion as well. They were also targeting anyone who even remotely resembled my dad.” She shuddered. “What I don’t know is why.”
Edward nodded, “Money probably. You own a JumpShip and DropShips that makes you incredibly wealthy in this region of space. Anyone who would want to muscle in on this territory?”
Riley nodded, “More than a few people. Magistracy, Aurigan, Tauran. All three or maybe Capellan? This is a main trade hub in all three directions.” She sipped her drink, “My father was very close to signing an incredible deal with business interests in the Concordat. It was going to potentially pay in the form of a fully refurbished Liberty class JumpShip.” Riley paused, “That’s an incredibly generous offer. My father had worked very hard to secure it. The Liberty class hasn’t even been produced since the 26th century, and would allow us to transport four DropShips.”
Edward listened intently, making notes of all of this. “So you believe whomever did this must have been aware that he was expanding his capabilities.”
Riley nodded, “And saw this as a direct threat.”
Edward looked down at the table, noting lists of traders who had been through the system. ATP kept being circled in red ink. He grinned, at least red showed up somewhere. “Aurigan Trade Partnership?” He asked pointing.
Riley nodded, “Yes, they’ve been unusually active. And frankly, they are the most likely to want to eliminate my dad.” She frowned, “Which sounds insane, but isn’t.” She sighed.
Edward nodded, and pulled up a chair for her. She sat down, and he sat as well. “Tell me why.”
Riley nodded looking at the papers spread out over the patio table. She picked up a list of transports that had touched down at the local port. “Over the past six months, Aurigan registered transports have landed both at the main port on the other side of the planet and here. While here, they did limited trade but had a large number of people on liberty. They stopped coming, their final communication indicating that trade opportunities at our port were not sufficient to sustain the trade.” She paused, “Which is fine, and probably absolutely true. However, why were they trying to shop for heavy equipment when we’ve never had that ability here - which they knew?” Her pause was telling. “And more importantly why did the pirate strike occur on schedule if it was an Aurigan trade mission?” She held up the plot she had created of timing for visits, showing that the pirate JumpShip had arrived a two weeks and three days after the last Aurigan JumpShip, which had arrived two weeks and three days after the last ship and so on.
“They weren’t here looking to trade. They were here scouting.” Edward nodded, following the logic - both the Aurigan officials and the pirates were probably operating out of the same system.
Riley nodded. “And they left someone behind to make sure that it worked. I reviewed the video logs,” she gestured towards her noteputer. “And the last trip had 20 people disembark, but only 19 people got back on when they left.” She shook her head. “We don’t have much in the way of paperwork or customs out here, so I doubt anyone noticed at the time.”
Edward nodded, “Dan Seavay.”
Riley looked up and her grin was predatory, “I think it’s time you share your side.”
He shook his head, “Don’t get to excited, it’s an alias. I’ve prepared a coded message back to my commander to see if he can find anything that we might have on him. But the local station here is a C class, it will be a few days before we can send anything out. He absolutely was a pirate however. That’s not the worst part.” He paused, “When we got here the local police had just gotten access back to their equipment and stations from the militia response team. Captain Lynn was furious about that, of course, but that’s not the worst part. Dan Seavay is gone, completely disappeared. No one matching his description anywhere among the casualties or among the population. The city mainframe was also heavily corrupted - which occurred after the raid. The pirates never made any effort at engaging in electronic warfare, just the assassination plus some general destruction.”
Riley growled, “Someone in the militia was helping them.”
He nodded. “You have enemies here. You have enemies out there. And right now this is all we have between us and them.” He patted the heavy Taurian made revolver on his belt.
She shook her head, “Not just that. Follow me.”
She got up and headed to the patio doors. She went inside and he quickly followed behind. The estate was large, easily 20 to 30 different rooms set into five wings: the main or center part of the house was where they were spending most of their time. The south wing including recreational facilities such as an indoor pool, gym, sauna, and sports room. The northeast wing was bedrooms and apartments for what had once been a massive extended family. Supposedly the northwing itself was equipment for maintaining the grounds and facilities, while the northwest wing had simply been marked as storage. They were heading to the northwest wing.
Edward noticed that things were getting more starkly utilitarian as they passed from the main living areas. Plush carpets and polished mahogany were replaced by rubber mats and ferrocrete walls. The doors leading to the main wing were not wood but now steel - probably blast steel. Edward whistled internally.
“I mentioned before I suspected that the Aurigan’s had the strongest motivation” Riley began to speak as she opened a panel to reveal a state of the art electric key lock. She entered a number he couldn’t see and the door beeped, hissed and began to slide open.
“My family settled here before the Reunification War.” She began, as the door moved open to reveal a very empty darkness. Slowly, lights began to click on, one row at a time. “We were Terran Hegemony peers, but we opposed the Reunification War and the Star League propaganda at the time. There were accusations we had gone native, and when the war started, the Camerons targeted us by seizing our fleet of JumpShips for the war effort.” She paused as the lights continued to flick on, revealing the cavernous space that was quickly apparent to Ed was an armory. Riley stepped into the room, standing on a large platform and Edward followed. “The Aurigan Reach became a major hub after the war, as the SLDF used Panzer and other worlds as major manufacturing and staging areas to keep an eye out on the Taurians and Magistracy.” Edward nodded as he assessed the contents of the room.
On the walls were racks of rifles and heavier weapons, many of which seemed to be energy based. The weapons were covered and sealed, locked away. Body armor and helmets were neatly sorted and stored. He saw sophisticated Star League era jump packs, communication equipment and more. Across the bay, tracked APCs would provide mechanized capability to some of the units, further explaining the heavier support weapons behind them.
There was enough to outfit a full company of Star League era infantry. “Those that settled there, the major Houses, became very wealthy off of the Star League policies - for them, the era of forced unity between the Star League and the Territorial States was an era of prosperity. My family did not get to participate in that, though we didn’t do as badly as native Taurian families.” She paused, having walked over to the first weapon cabinet. She unlocked it with another code and opened the armored door. She pulled a rifle off the wall and unwrapped the plastic from around it, revealing a pulse laser rifle. She handed it to him, and he took it, easily shouldering it and checking the charge. It hummed to life easily, fully charged, as good as the day it came off the factory line on Terra. He realized he was holding a small fortune, and this was both an armory - and a treasury. “When their trade union was formed, we were kept out. My grandfather had attempted to join some of the negotiations but those they deemed as outsiders were excluded in the end. They were nice to our face, but they made it clear that we were not welcome.”
Edward nodded, “You were Periphery barbarians, not noble Inner Sphere settlers.”
Riley chuckled, “Despite being Peers.” She shrugged, “It is what it is. However, my father’s had putting additional effort into building what he called the Rim Corridor, a secure and safe trading route and alliance intended to link the Taurian Concordat to Free Worlds League and Capellan markets. The increased shipping capacity from the Liberty combined with Taurian investment was critical to that success. However, such a route, secured by House forces of the participating trading houses, would be a direct threat to the Coalition. Somebody doesn’t want to see this route come to pass.”
She picked up an automatic grenade launcher and belt of ammo. She shouldered both and headed back towards the main house. “I plan to see that it does. And I’m using every tool at my disposal, including my right to raise an armed force as the head of my House.”
Edward nodded, another piece of the puzzle coming into the picture about why his government was so interested in this family. He grabbed a box of power cells and two laser pistols. He followed closely behind. “When do we start?”
