Introduction
There are very few moments where there is an absolute right and an absolute wrong - and most of those involve body counts.
-The Memoirs of “Gentleman” Jack Cartwright
18-19 February, WY603 – Helena
Current Contract: They’re Trying To Make Slaves of Us
In the moments when the reactor is out, Calliope speaks to Dirk privately. She tells him that she’s scared, and that after six months of being part of the ship, it’s possible that she’s inseparable from it. Dirk attempts to comfort her, telling her that everyone is scared. She tells him that the difference is that she is a tool, which will be used callously for war if necessary. “Aren’t we all,” Dirk responds.
The reactor gets patched enough to come back into sputtering service, and Legitimate Salvage is back in the fight. They detect a large vessel powering up in the rings, but are receiving no IFF and don’t have enough data to identify it.
The crew’s last missile barrage manages to destroy Unsubtle Request for Calm, and a second volley combined with a shot from the rail gun disables Figaro’s Sordid Past. A maneuver from Julian shows that the torpedoes aren’t targeting the ship, so they allow them to approach and, combined with another salvo, destroy The Horse I Rode In On.
Tomoe finally gets a fix on the new player, it is a Murphy-class destroyer, and is quickly identified as WDF San Anastasia, one of the ships stolen in The Great Theft. Cara is seemingly paralyzed for several moments reading a private message on her phone, and finally when prompted looks up and says “I think that’s Felicity…” She forwards the message to the rest of the crew.
I was wondering if you’d ever take off the jackboots…
San Anastasia launches a volley at Fear My Boomstick, destroying it, and gives chase to Spare Me Your Platitudes as it alters course to burn out of Helena’s well.
By this point, The Finality of the Gun and Big Tittied Valkyrie has made landfall several kilometers outside of Anderson Northwinds and were deploying troops. Now that the crew had space superiority, they offered to allow the Free Corps troops to pack up and leave under a flag of truce, which they accepted.
The crew started rescue operations on the remaining Free Corps ships, recovering a few still alive from Unsubtle Request for Calm, including Colonel Vidrickson. They hand over the survivors to the Free Corps ships before they begin their push out of the well.
Over the next thirty hours, the crew conducts repairs, as well as respectfully recover dogtags and personal effects of the crews and salvage a small number of missiles from the wrecks of the Free Corps ships. The prevailing logic is that any response is weeks away at least, so people begin to celebrate on ground and on Legitimate Salvage.
