OOC: We're not the Free Huron forces yet. Huron is still independent as of now, and we are its militia. That won't prevent us from becoming the Free Huroners later, though ...
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Shayborg leaned back in his comfortable captain's chair on the Dauntless and smiled. He had reason to be happy. That Nash-burn character had left, and he had been an egotistical annoyance to everyone. He hadn't even been that good of a pilot, and he only looked out for himself in battle. Shayborg had also heard that he had been blasted out of space and pirated upon jumping into the Iothe system. Served him right.
Then, of course, through Telnan Ted, he had gained news of the large donation and assistance offered by that mysterious (and rich) man, LaVec Kordun. Staring out the viewport at the unblinking stars, shayborg lost himself in thought. 20 million credits was an incredibly massive amount, not to mention all the funds that would be needed to finance all that helian production and the station addition. Kordun had used the word "we", which meant that he represented an organization -- one rich enough to afford 20 million credits, one immoral enough to deal with these renegades, one that could use a foothold in renegade space, and one that had ships that they wanted protected interference from pirates. That last meant that this was a trading or shipping company. It also had to be one that had enough influence to span the whole southern arm of human space. Thinking through his choices, he reached two possibilities -- Stellar Corporation and Frontier Express. Of these two, FE got too much of its profits from the UE to risk antagonizing them by allying with their enemies. Even if the deal was secret, there was too much risk that some UE official would find out. So, it had to be SC, which always took pains to separate itself from the UE government. Those snakes , shayborg thought to himself. The damage had already been done, though, and the renegades had 20 million credits on hand now -- enough to buy 250 or so kraits. (OOC: kraits are a new ship, and are still a little expensive.)
What to do now? The renegades already had gotten a massive amount of money, but they hadn't yet taken delivery of the helians and the station portion. Kordun couldn't risk sending the order by hypercomm -- no one was sure if the UE was able to monitor renegade transmissions, but they did sometimes seem to have a supernatural knowledge of pre-planned raids -- so he would have to transmit the orders himself. Ted had reported that he was piloting a heavily modified transporter, the Starhunter Omega , but that he had no escorts, presumably because the fewer people who knew about this deal, the better. He couldn't have gotten a renegade escort either; jumping into Thoso in a well-known SC ship with an escort of renegades wouldn't have looked good. This meant he was a ripe target for an ambush. Shayborg's mood lightened a bit, and the corners of his mouth turned up in a grin. This is going to be fun. "All pilots report. We're hopping over to Riomor for a little ride."
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Jumping into the Riomor system a few days later, the HMF fleet immediately detected the Starhunter Omega. As they had been approaching the Riomor system, after every jump, Ted had given shayborg updates on what Kordun had been doing. The SC official (the vice-president of inter-organizational relations, shayborg had found from SC's HoloNet site) had been busy looking around the station to see what kinds of parts he would have to order. Shayborg had planned it so his arrival would coincide exactly with Kordun's departure from the station. Hiding at the edge of the system, shayborg's sensors showed Kordun's ship leaving the station. It was definitely fast; after a few seconds, it jumped northwest, towards the DSN-8584 system. Shayborg smiled and set his navicomputer in that direction.
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Immediately after entering the system, the HMF fleet saw the Starhunter Omega taking the time to fill up its ramscoops in the empty system. Without warning, the fleet barraged the lone ship with needle missiles, quickly disabling it. Shayborg's Dauntless matched velocity with Kordun's vessel and boarded it. Walking into the ship (with a personal defense shield, just in case), shayborg found it eerily quiet. Walking past the luxurious quarters, he moved towards the cockpit of the ship. He found Kordun sitting in a plush captain's chair. Kordun, still looking unruffled after what must have been a rough attack for him, smiled wanly. "Pray tell, how may I be of service to you to avoid my demise? I think we can make arrangements that will be beneficial to both of us ..." Gruffly, shayborg ordered him into the cargo hold. "Strap in tight," he told him. "You could be useful." After seeing to it that Kordun was safely locked away, shayborg told his copilot in the Dauntless to set a course for Huron. Relaxing in the Starhunter Omega 's cockpit chair, he set a course for home on Huron, with his prize.
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