Caelum Crew / CAELAE

Captain’s Log, Caelum III

02/02/2945 02.37
Heavy meteor activity in the system where my healthcare specialist is located prevented me from returning to base in time to avert my handlers’ suspicion. I had to put down at a heavily-shielded space station owned by a couple of old friends. In order to prevent my handlers from suspecting our association, my old friends sent my handlers a ransom note before staging my escape once the meteors cleared. They’ll be disguising the station and breaking orbit now as they must avoid the retribution of the Advocacy.
Additionally, my association with these old friends has cost me my Verdant Eye membership. I’m just making all sorts of enemies now.
—Biro

1/29/2945 21.43
My new SLF r/t unit has attracted the attention of an information brokering organization who’ve recruited me into their covert illegal force. This should be interesting.
—Biro

1/24/2945 14.00
I’ve secretly obtained an illegal SLF receiver/transmitter. I’ve no immediate plans for transmission, but I figure it can’t hurt to hear what’s going on in the less-than-legal communities around me.
—Biro

12/23/2944 12.33
I’ve just returned from a long assignment, the first phase of a three-part mission which requires me to go dark for the duration. I’ve begun covertly recording against orders & on my own initiative, without the knowledge of my team.
I was assigned a regular rendezvous with three agents I had never met; a pilot, a navigator, & a comm specialist. Our comms girl was lucky; she was reassigned early on, having completed her part of the mission within weeks of launch. Our navigator, on the other hand, won’t be making the next two trips. It’s just me & my pilot now.
The instant I got back, I was assigned to write & broadcast a code to about a hundred operatives. Next, I was assigned to set up the Interstellar Border-Crossing Alert System, a network which ostensibly protects star system’s borders, but I’ve been instructed from the beginning to establish an unofficial task force which is about to use the IBCAS to smuggle people across borders. As per usual, I will be disavowed if I should be discovered at these tasks.
—Biro

10/12/2944
poisoned by implant

10/08/2944
recovered handler’s vehicle

10//03/2944
handler borrows ship, recalibrates the same way as the thief

9/29/2944
raid

9/25/2944 14.07
I’ve got a full schedule today: I spent the morning installing a manually-routed redundant contingency power coupling to get around the Advocacy’s wave-scanner plugin that allows them to remotely control the frequencies that I can scan. Then this afternoon I’m supposed to start teaching a cadet the subtleties of interstellar navigation, after which I’m required to attend a “meeting” where I will be required to account for all of my time over this past week along with other forcibly-conscripted parolees. This will be the third such meeting I’ve attended, & I have an entire standard year’s worth ahead of me. Hopefully I can keep them fooled for that long.
Also, due to my newfound Advocacy connections, I’ve been forcibly removed from the Frost Eye organization, many of whom will now be actively gunning for me, as I’m considered a danger to their members’ (mostly illicit) livelihoods.
—Biro

9/20/2944 21.00
I’ve spent the last 11 hours being briefed on a raid into Vanduul space coming up on the 29th. There were 10 agents being briefed, all of us being given different assignments. My handler wasn’t present, but he knew about the briefing (if not the raid). I’m to rendezvous with one of the senior agents who will be carrying heavier ordnance than the Advocacy trusts me with on my own, an absolute necessity given the nature of the assignment & considering that the only personal weapons I carry these days are a chemstick & a set of vibroclaws. My handler even damaged my shock torch, although I intend to get a replacement soon.
—Biro

8/25/2944 10.38
I’ve just returned from a four-day posting at an understaffed Military Medical Outpost that was experiencing a heavy influx of casualties from a nearby Vanduul raid. My medical role was minimal, with me only stepping in to hand a surgeon tools or hold a light over a gurney & things like that, but during my brief posting there I was still receiving assignments from the Advocacy; I followed up with my protected witnesses, confiscated contraband cargo & co-signed a death warrant. It’s been a busy weekend.
—Biro

8/19/2944 23.55
I received my reissued credentials from the Navy & the Advocacy today, along with my first two assignments;
I transmitted new identity codes to some protected witnesses & dropped off a massive bribe. Exactly the kind of thing I left for in the first place. That & the unbearable guilt over the consequences of my missions & the incredible pressure of maintaining a military career like everyone in my family ever.
—Biro

8/18/2944 22.31
I was checking on a clutch of flying turtle eggs outside my hangar this afternoon when I received a transmission through the implants from my recent abduction offering to reinstate my position as an Advocacy pilot, along with my old Naval rank of Commander; if I accept, I expect generally to be flying solo missions for the UEE with the Caelum, modified as it is, acting almost as an unrated sloop-of-war, but with the potential to lead two or three other similarly-classed fighters as a Wing Commander. I’ve worked very hard to get away from that life, but they’ve finally found me, & I really don’t see that I have any other viable option; they’ve clearly demonstrated that they can get to me whenever they choose & that they are willing to go to extreme lengths to retrieve what they consider their property. I am, after all, just an asset to them, & I suspect that the only reason they want me so badly is that they didn’t lose my services on their own terms.
—Biro

8/1/2944 19.13
I’ve worked a way around the Caelum’s scanner upgrade; I adapted a microscanner to broadcast what it reads at short range on whatever frequencies I choose & greatly amplified its pickup radius while being careful to maintain filter quality, so everything comes through five by five.
The best part is that the whole setup looks far less suspicious than the “outdated” wave scanner I had before, should I ever prove temporarily unable to avoid Imperial entanglements.
—Biro

7/28/2944 21.41
I spent the day servicing the Caelum. Most of the systems are calibrated again, except my wave scanner.
The idiot who stole my ship upgraded with some fancy new hardware that only reads preset lengths & doesn’t even have one expansion slot for the old 8c cartridges, which are far more versatile, reliable & easily programmable than these ridiculous preset units. Also the hull integrity of my cargo bay has been compromised. It’s just a slow leak through a ruptured seal, but it still means that I can’t rent out the bay as passenger space or use it as a backup oxygen storage unit or even walk in there without a suit on long rides until I can manage to locate & repair the damaged portion of the seal.
Still, I love having my ship back. I’m going to enjoy hunting down the stinkweed who ever thought he could get away with messing up my ship.
—Biro

7/27/2944 16.43
I took the Caelum out for a spin today as a final test of what exactly needs recalibrating. It wasn’t much of a trip;
I didn’t even break orbit, but I learned what I needed to know & I’ll have her back up to my specifications in a matter of days.
—Biro

7/26/2944 10.12
My ship was delivered last night. Sporting a fake transponder & a paint job, but I’d know her anywhere.
I’ve been sorting through the auto-recorded systems logs in attempt to piece together exactly what happened, but there’s still plenty of data to sort through. I also need to recalibrate most of her systems, as the thief apparently couldn’t handle my usual settings; they even changed the lock codes, but that was an easy fix. I’ll have her back to her old self in no time. Except maybe the new paint; I think blue suits her.
—Biro

Captain’s Log, Magpie

7/23/2944 09.07
I’ve heard from the man I hired to retrieve my ship. He sent a highly encrypted one-way tight-beam transmission late last night confirming that he has the package & will have it here within a week.
—Biro

7/22/2944 09.45
The internment facility has taken my ship.
The Caelum, not the Magpie. Magpie’s still available to me at a moment’s notice, but nobody here needs to know that. There’s no proof, but I don’t know who else would want me trapped in this locale, & my ship is too well protected for just any random opportunistic thief to simply abscond with on a whim. I would love nothing more than to charge across the galaxy & put a bolt in the thief’s gut, but I’m still working out what’s going on at this facility & what it has to do with my abduction. To that end, I’ve created the perfect excuse to visit the facility on a regular basis: I’ve gotten a job as a healthcare provider.
—Biro

Captain’s Log, Caelum III

6/25/2944 10.58
I’ve had word from the internment facility. They want to see me back in five days, although they wouldn’t say why. Hopefully I’m not about to be forcibly admitted or something.
—Biro

6/24/2944 16.55
I reached the address given to me by the nurse on Terra; it seemed to be some kind on internment facility for the terminally ill. Not knowing exactly why I was sent there, I told the receptionist that I might need to check in, which set in motion a lengthy application process. I’m hoping that the entry screening will include some kind of test that I wouldn’t normally have access to & which may reveal the nature of what was done to me, but I guess it’s possible that the nurse simply thinks I won’t survive my ordeal.
—Biro

6/23/2944 22.25
A nurse at one of the medical facilities I had used in attempt to discover what exactly was done to me when I was abducted has reached out to me privately to give me an address. She didn’t say what it was, but I’m hoping to find some answers there & not just a private apartment or a “naughty nurse” den or something (although the nurse who contacted me…)
I don’t want to record exactly where it is, but it’s a bit of a hike from Terra. If all goes well I should be there in approximately fifteen hours, early afternoon local time.
—Biro

6/22/2944 15.33
I ran into an old friend today. She was one of my most reliable contacts back in the day; she was everything from information broker to hired gun to me, & I to her. We’ve known each other for more than a decade, & we parted on good terms about a year ago. That said, I did not expect to see her today. I told her a bit about my current situation, & she invited me to her new base. Hopefully she’s got a good lead for me.
—Biro

6/20/2944 19.27
I spent the whole day contacting doctors, dentists, factories & more trying to find out what exactly happened to me earlier this week. Most of the medical personnel I’ve met with have had no idea what was going on, or at least weren’t very forthcoming with what they might’ve known. Of more immediate value was what I learned from a certain factory manager whose plant is about to go under due to the loss of a major account; It seems that most of their work has been outsourced to a factory in a place called Horuun Port.
—Biro

Captain’s Log, Magpie

6/18/2944 17.58
I tried to find the orbital station on which I awoke yesterday, but it appears to have vanished. I would assume that means that it’s come into port somewhere on this planet, but it is possible that it’s broken orbit entirely & left the system. Interstellar travel doesn’t seem incredibly likely, given the general disrepair of the station as a whole, but two days ago waking up in the middle of my post-abduction probing didn’t seem terribly likely either, so it’s probably best not to make too many assumptions.
—Biro

6/17/2944 13:27
I woke up later than usual this morning, strapped to a board as people in masks prodded me with files & drills & hot pokers. I saw images on their monitors of my teeth, sinus cavities & other pictures that were less readily identifiable. The state of the facility leads me to believe that my abductors were privately run & did not feel the need to pursue medical licensure. I did manage to escape in short order, but it was far too easy. They let me go.
—Biro

6/14/2944 09.01
A trio of Scythes were sighted inbound toward Terra early this morning. Myself & two other civilian pilots responded before local patrols could scramble, & two Scythes promptly had their wings ripped off in the “battle” that ensued, not being up to their usual standard of maneuverability or hull integrity. It was surprising at first to see that the damage had almost no noticeable effect on any of the affected ships’ systems, until the “Vanduul” in question broadcast general distress signals requesting police intervention. Turns out a couple of kids knocked over a military history museum on Gen & attached their stolen Vanduul scrap to the airframes of a their Auroras for a laugh. Apparently they timed their little prank specifically so that the local patrollers would be on the other side of the world, hoping to cause a minor stir until landing & debarking, the picture of nonchalance.
What they didn’t count on was the presence of a number of ex-military pilots in-system & ready to respond regardless of authority or jurisdiction, which partially explains why they apparently had no qualms over losing their ejection capabilities because of all the Vanduul trash welded to their hulls.
In addition to myself were two other former Navy pilots, a woman called Vic & her wingman, who just went by “Two”. I don’t know if that was his Navy callsign, or his old rank relative to Vic, or if he was just protecting his identity from me, but they fly like they work together often.
The three of us were offered public commendation, but it seems we all prefer to fly under the radar. Better than Imperial medals, the idiots who raided the Vanduul exhibit reacted to our counterattack without thinking, & may be charged with attempted homicide for firing on civilians in addition to reckless endangerment & a host of other charges.
—Biro

6/13/2944 19.27
Finally got the Magpie back in the air. An old, uh, “contact” (referred to in less-than-legal circles as Quokka) set me up with a simple code for changing transponders that even most UEE patrols would have to actively dig through to see anything out of order, & even then they might not always be able to read the official registration code through it. The only thing that worries me is the cost of this code; she (Quokka) absolutely refused upfront material payment, insisting instead on taking my marker. Given our history together I’m inclined to trust that she won’t ask anything of me that she wouldn’t do for me, but that doesn’t mean that payment will be easy when called for.
At any rate, the Magpie’s flying again, currently under the name Heissmann, although I’m sure aliases will abound now that I have Quokka’s code.
—Biro

6/13/2944 12.03
I tried to bring the Magpie online today, but the new UEE patch has it landlocked. Apparently Harper’s backers didn’t have the legal right to give me the ship. Had I known I could’ve taken care of the documentation myself, but now that I’ve attracted Empire attention, I’ll have to call in a favor or two to get the registration looking square for the feds, but the Magpie will be flying again soon.
—Biro

Captain’s Log, Caelum III

6/12/2944 22.20
I didn’t make my deadline. Predictably, a Vanduul swarm brought down our craft halfway through the search & it was every man for himself from there on out. I did not find conclusive evidence as to the fate of the missing crew, but I did find one of their ships: an abandoned RSI Aurora Essential called Magpie, black box & all, went down with a blown catalyzer on one of the compression coils. An easy enough fix if you have the right parts, all I had to do to escape was discreetly poke around some of the other wrecks, a luxury which the missing salvagers did not have, seeing as they were being actively pursued by their attackers when they were made to set down. Due to the relatively large scale of my expedition, pursuit of many individual members of the rescue operation was negligible, allowing me to lose my tail long enough to bring the Magpie online & get out of there in the early hours of this morning. I did have to fight my way out of system, but I didn’t manage to bring anyone down. The Essential does lack slightly in weapons & engine power relative to what I’m used to in my modified Marque, but the shields are slightly better, which came in useful in escaping the system. I offered the ship to my employers, but they refused to take it. Instead, they kept only the official logs & recordings, as well as the few personal belongings the salvagers’ scout left in his ship & turned the Magpie over to me along with my full share of pay for surviving the rescue mission myself. I don’t know what has become of the salvage crew, or even of the rest of Captain Harper’s rescue mission, but I have no intention of travelling within a light year of Tiber anytime soon. I suspect that my backers may intend the combination of my survival & the addition of the scout ship to my pay to be used as a way of buying their way out of my addendum to their contract, but I can guarantee that I will not be on the next expedition.
—Biro

6/4/2944 21.42
A civilian salvage crew was due back from Grinder today. They didn’t return, & all attempts at contacting —or even locating— their ships were unsuccessful. Although widely considered one of the most foolhardy destinations for any enterprise, I can think of about three hundred captains & crews all too ready to cast everything to the winds for a chance at the wealth of scrapped tech from generations of Vanduul conflicts.
I myself once pursued the fortune of Tiber, & I lost everything escaping that place; It took me years to recover my lost investment, but I was grateful to escape at all. Now here I am, seriously considering taking a contract to go back & discover the fate of a missing scrap crew.
I know, you’re thinking that I’m tempting fate, that I’m about to die, & that I should’ve learnt my lesson the last time. All true. But I’m taking a different approach this time; I’m not putting up any of my own cash, kit or crew, & I’ve been brutally honest with my backers as to what they can expect from this mission. What else could I say, when I’m not even willing to risk a heap like the Caelum III? All I can lose is my life, which is the only thing I’m willing to gamble with these days. On the other hand, I stand to gain everything if I survive, & if I don’t, what does it matter now?
I’ve arranged adequately for my inevitable demise a long time ago. The only addition I’ve made to my post-mortal arrangements is the caveat in my contract which stipulates that they send no further expeditions if I don’t make contact confirming my escape within one week of departure.
They’ll have their answer one way or another.
—Biro

6/2/2944 08.11
After invitation from a Board Member called Swedenland, I have accepted membership with the Index Space Exploration Corp (CEO joemama427). The process was much the same as that for joining BCM; looking into their history, connections & key members, but if I’m honest, this was an easier decision than joining BCM. I mean no disrespect, it’s just that ISE seems to be as willing to establish affiliations as they are to gain full members. They’re a smaller organization than BCM (at the moment), but as I said yesterday, it’s good to have allies. Both of these organizations have explicit statements in their charters against taking aggressive action against other members, & they even have a few members in common, so I think that these will be very beneficial arrangements for all involved. The Caelum III is my first priority, & these alliances look like they’ll be nothing but good for her in the long run.
—Biro

6/1/2944 15.03
Today I received an invitation to join the Frost Eye organization, also known as the Black Cloud Market. After carefully considering the offer & examining their history & activity, I decided to accept. Endnight seems to have similar goals to my own (albeit on a socially larger scale) & it’s hard to have too many allies in this ‘verse. BCM doesn’t tolerate betrayal, but they do tolerate just about everything else, so I’m hopeful that when our birds are launched they’ll be as good as their word.
My one reservation is the fact that they explicitly stated in their invitation their preference of more commitment from members than a simple affiliation, but my first loyalty is, as always, to the Caelum. No matter; if they prove to have my back, I’ll have theirs whenever I can.
—Biro

5/30/2944 18.54
Today I purchased a new spaceship, an RSI Aurora Marque which I have named Caelum III, in anticipation of eventually reclaiming my old fleet, an RSI Constellation and a P-52 Merlin which are called Caelum I & II respectively. How much my fleet expands beyond that I leave for the future, as it doesn’t seem entirely wise to plan too far ahead. I have also purchased an Arena Commander Pass, so that I may commence dogfighting just as soon as I overcome some minor hardware difficulties.
—Biro