Walker & Walker

To: Lazy Swan Corporation
From: Walker and Walker Bail Bonds
Re: Work, and Skiffs

Hey guys. We found out some info on your skiff, from the Regina job. Seems a skiff matching that description was sold to the Promethea Group, out by Heinlien.

If you wanna head out that way, we’re looking for a dude out there. Don’t have a picture, but he stole a valuable item from an alliance facilty. Chances are he’ll try to fence it at Promethea. It’s a big case, you can’t miss it.

Here’s a picture of what was stolen. It’s about 2 ft by 3 ft. Maybe a foot wide.

The guy is worth 100 Credits.

Thea's Religious Adventure (from Scott)

Father Chan has some words for you. He's about 50, a calm, quiet Chinese man with workman's hands. He's been very happy to have you at the monastery. He's rather hard to think of as a man, because of his innocent and serene demeanor.

"My child, I know you're conflicted about your role in the 'Verse. The Book tells us to turn the other cheek, but often a warrior must strike first, without warning, to accomplish her goal.

But remember, these are bad men. Even innocent men who work for bad men are not innocent. They bear the blood of their employers on their hands.

I feel that you're doing good work, bringing these men to face the Justice they so richly deserve for their actions. However, it's inevitable that in a violent conflict, you will at some point inflict violence where there should not be any: A child, a mother, an innocent bystander.

Your inner conflict shows that your a person to whom these questions are not just academic: they have real consequences. To this end, I think you should consider a penance. A penance that will be meaningful, and shrive you of your sins, but one which is also meaningful to the society you're trying to protect. I think a certain amount of time, or monetary donations, to a cause in which you believe, which betters your community, would be a very good start.

Don't forget: The Lord expects us to help those we can, and do the least harm possible. Keep your faith in God, and he will guide your hand so that the good is emphasized, the bad is minimized.

Rest, and think on these words, sister. Then go back into the world, and meet it with the talents God has given you. The Lord calls us to be sheep among the wolves, but some are lambs, and some are rams. Some are called to be innocent, some to protect the innocent. Go forth, and do that.

Te absolve in nomine patri, et fili, et spirtu sanctu."

Cortex Entry: The Promethea Group

Cortex Entry: Promethea Mining Group

During the War, The Alliance’s need for cheap metal for their shipyards. Mining on planetside was simply too damaging to the terraformed environments to produce the kinds of quantities the Alliance needed, while full scale orbital processing was too costly from a start up standpoint.

However, a group of entrepreneurs from the border worlds took a bunch of older spaceships, particularly the plasma drives and fusion reactors, and converted them into mining processors. This allows them to process space debris/asteroids and get out the valuable material, while shooting the slough off into a nearby gas giant. The semi-processed ingots are then shot towards a nearby moon for further processing.

Since the war, Promethea has made its business in three areas: Cheap metal for patol boats, Cheap recycling of damaged and out of date spacecraft, and a large, poorly patrolled area for smugglers to conduct business. Privately owned by Gideon Promethea, his law is the only law that matters when you’re floating in the black.

Promethea Group runs a private security force, subsidized by the Alliance. This force is charged with enforcing the law, but as long as the peace is kept and no criminal property damage happens on any of the many space stations around the Promethea complex, business can be conducted with little oversight.

Most of the mining activity actually takes place out in the asteroid rings around the Heinlein Gas Giant. Independent mining ships land on larger, mostly metallic blocks of rock. Then, if the rock is small enough, they push it toward the ore processors. If not, they cut them into chunks small enough to move, and run them through the processors. It’s hard, difficult, cold, and deadly work. You not only have to be aware of what you’re doing, but what other miners are doing, and where they’re disturbing other orbits or chunks of rock. Many ships are lost from not realizing that the spin resulting from plasma cutting an ice pocket will smash them into a nearby ‘roid.

The giant ore processors are mobile, in the most generous sense of the term. They can be positioned in different orbital positions, but it’s a slow and energy intensive task, and not undertaken without good reason.

The Promethea group maintains an office, shopping mall/market, and supply station in orbit around Heinlein.



A mining ship cutting apart a large asteroid with a powerful laser.



A well off independent mining family.

Mel's Letter to Lizzy

Dear Lizzy,

I wanted to start off by welcoming you to the O'Malley Clan. Gohn Shi. We've known you forever, so it's not really surprising to wake up one morn and find you married into our clan. I'm writing you because you and I have been friends for a long, long time, and I want to tell you what's going on here in the black. You know the basics, I'm a pilot for a gang of Bounty Hunters flying on a beautiful ship called the Lazy Swan. Firefly-Class transport. I have to confide in someone, and it can't be the folks, since they would just say to come on back home, and hide in the family homestead. Not me. Not until I redeemed myself. Better to die on my feet than live on my knees, and all that Mi Tian Gohn, if you know what I mean.

So I'm no coward. I've said that before, but there's one thing that scares the gosse outta me, and it's so awful, so completely frightening that... Wo Bu Shin Wo Dah Yan Jing!!

We were delivering the body of one of our se duhng to her family. We landed on her planet and made contact with her family. Seems her sister, who looks just like her, is a talented gunsmith, so we did some business with my paltry earnings and I have this shiny new piece, ready for action. She's got the new Dz-07 Flash suppressor, and a kick to her that you won't find short of Nien Mohn sidearm. Back to the ship, still amazed at my find, and I find that this former soldier in our crew been bushwacked. I don't know who he run afoul of, but there he is, rubbing his head like he got walloped something dreadful, and as we go after the body...

I've heard people tell of Reavers. I heard people tell that they were like the bogeyman, coming out of nowhere and doing things to people that even writing down would make ya sick. I've heard people say that encountering them, and you'll not even think straight. Just hear a sickening scream in your mind. They ain't making that up. I was piloting and this awful big ship come up behind us, shooting harpoons and metal things in order to snag us like a fish. I jinked, I rolled that little shuttle. Did everything I could to keep her away from those ung jeong jia ching jien soh. And I wish that were just an expression, but I suspect it isn't.

We had to go back, and get to this gals family. So, the next thing I know, we're going back into a town that is under attack from Reavers. I saw one, Lizzy! This thing was maybe twenty yards away, and me and the crew were shooting from the shuttle. I couldn't leave any of my crew down there, but it took everything we could throw at this thing to bring him down. We did it, finally, but it left me with my heart in my throat. I was ready to stick that shiny new piece in my mouth rather than be taken by this thing, and that isn't easy for a girl like me.

So, why do I stay? There's this fellow. He doesn't know I exist, and I don't know if he'd be interested in me that way. But he's a great fellow, funny, tough, bounty hunter. I don't think he's married, and he was seeing someone in our crew, I think, but she's the one that got stole from us. I don't know if I just like following him into danger or there's more, but he's got this quirky strange way about him. The whole crew is First rate, but this one in particular. He's my hero, even over the Captain, and that's saying a lot. Captain first saw me as a pilot of his ship and hired me in!

I don't know where this is all going, but I had to tell you about the encounter with the Reaver. Everytime I lay myself down for bed, I can see that... thing. I know people say they're men gone wild. There's nothing about these things that are human. These things are the most horrible creatures, smelling foul with metal and pins and cutting on themselves.

So, just had to let someone know what is going on with me. Don't you breathe a word to my brother, or anyone in the family. Ma and Pa don't need to hear on this one.

Love ya, Good luck with the baby! And send along a note if the mood takes you.

--Your faithful puhn yoh,

Mel.

Mel's letter to the Homestead

Greetings to all my kin!

Your little Mel has had herself an adventure and a half, really. We went after our prey, this kuh wu killer and dealer who had much worse coming. He had himself holed up in this compound with guards and towers and the whole deal. Lucky for us, he was a menace to the local folks and their peaceable lifestyle. They helped us with a diversion while we sent a team in to the compound to snatch this awful fellow from his own compound. Zi Zi Thea, Jasmine, and Junmao (yeah, I think he's a friend. Nothing formal like "The Major") headed in to snatch the fellow. While me and my captain waited to zip in with the shuttle.

I don't like to think ill, but I thought that Jasmine going in with them had me a little worried. She's not a bad gal. Just a bit unpredictable. So, from the shuttle, we dusted off. A few five minutes to the target, and a small prayer that they didn't have any missiles to bring us down with. Be a bit of a short trip, and then Splat! into a mountain. Lucky for us, they had none.

So, there's a bunch of shooting going on as we arrived. Always, How W'rin Bu Lai, Whai W'rin Bu Jwo... Ya know? We land in the middle of what appears to have been a gunfight. Junmao is walking slowly when I saw him, looked like he was just passing out. Everyone else in the gang looks at least hurt, and there were bodies lying all over the landing zone. I suspect Thea and Junmao blasted most of them, but a few of them looked at if they had been through a thresher. Jasmine was down there, blood soaked to her armpits. It was very creepifying to think of what she had done to them.

But then, here's the crazy part. Everyone gets aboard, and I see that we got a landlock. That's a kind of electronic way to make the shuttle's 'puter Wu Toh Wu Now.

Can't just fly offa that. Bu Kuh Nuhn. Ya know?

I hear a deafening boom, and while I'm gathering my brain back together, I notice that Jasmine wasn't there. I'm crying even now as I type this. We lost Jasmine. She did something unexpected and crazy, like always, but this time, she went back into that bunker and blew up the computers that was keeping us down. I'm still shouting that we gotta get her, and the team is shoutin' back that she's already gone. Already gone. I'm always going to hear that phrase shouted in through the open hatchway up to the control deck.

I'm going numb, when I catch Junmao saying "doh-luh-mah... doh-luh-mah..." at me. Don't gotta tell me twice to get out of a killzone. Well, maybe you do!

I don't want to scare you guys, but this here job is pretty damn dangerous. It paid well though. Even after we paid off the Feds. This guy had some sort of high-and-mighty job on the planet that had the Alliance in a twist, but we let Junmao put on his old uniform and give them a talkin' to, if you know what I mean.

Got a bit of a bonus, too, so we headed off to get our cargo and Jasmine's body back to her folks to bury, or whatever.

Thanks again for the box of crumbly cake. It survived the trip, and I offered it to everyone here on the ship. Most of them turned it down, but not Junmao. He had seconds. I guess the Captain was on a diet or something. Anyhow, we broke atmo safely and bugged on out of there.

We're on a long course around the Cluster, and we're make it there in just a coupla days. I'll drop you a line from the other side.

Best of wishes from your little Mel,

Major Hong: Brave or stupid?

Mao 28, 2518, Dylan's Diary

Major Hong is either the bravest or stupidist man I know.

Ok, so we bring Jasmine's body back to her folks, and take a little cargo from Greenleaf, because we're going to Regina, out in the back of beyond. I mean, this place is the Rim, man. No port control, nothing much besides dust. As we're landing, the gol darn fuel regulator on the pulse drive goes down! Not a big deal, I guess, but we're not getting back to Santos any time fast, and it covers me in some kind of hydraulic fluid. I mean, I thought the damn thing regulates PLASMA, not fluid.

Anyway, we make it down fine, and I head out to the town to see what I can scrounge. I managed to talk a junk trader into taking my old one, and only charging me 20 platinum for it. Quite a steal, but we're gonna want to get a backup just in case it decides to fail again. The one that I have now is older than Zhan Yu's maiden aunt.

So, when I get back to the ship, Hong and Mel have sold the medicine, and we're still waiting on Jasmine's family. Mel's been driving me Fong luh talking about a gun, so when I saw a store that specialized in it, I thought I'd let her know. Figures a rim would wouldn't have a decent disco, but gun stores, now, that's a priority.

Anyway, I go fix the engine. I'm knee deep in it, when I hear the doors open. I tried coming Hong, but no answer, and I didn't wanna leave cause I'd just started getting the damn thing in place, and it's tough. So I'm working along, and I hear shouting down in the bay. I clean myself up a bit, and yell down trying to figure what's going on. Seems some fei fei de piyan smacked Major Hong, and took Jasmine's Body!

Well, I stayed and got the Pulse drive running, while the rest went to the Sheriff's. They came back with no help, but they did have a direction, so they took the shuttle to go look for the theives.


I was just tightening the last fastener, when I the music station I was listening to went off the air. I went up to the cockpit, and there were warnings and alerts going off everywhere. Port control was looping a warning about a pirate raid!

Well, I saw the first ship do a flyover, and that was no pirate. REAVERS! I commed Mel to get the hell out of atmo. I'm heading for the black, when I see the damn shuttle is blasting toward town! Now, I'm no coward, but if they wanted to commit suicide, that's there business. I found out later they were heading to get Jasmine's family at the urging of Lily, her sister. But Major Hong made the final call, ordering Mel back into the city. There's the brave or stupid part. I'm still not sure. I'm leaning toward brave, but stupid is still in the running.

Well, they get everyone on board, the whole family, but Mel seemed a little shellshocked. I hadn't seen that kind of daze since the war. She just wasn't able to function.

Then, we realized we'd lost Egg.

We had to go back. Major Hong and Mel and I all agreeed. But Mel couldn't make herself do it. I had to take over. I could just barely make it. I turned us around, and the Major took out a Reaver ship with Henrietta, but they were already leaving. An Alliance cruiser was on it's way in, trying to 'hunt pirates'.

The spaceport we had been in really got hit hard. Lots of dead, and more missing. What did they take the people for?

Lily's family stayed on Regina, but Lily came with us. She's going to hunt for the men who stole Jasmine's body. She may come with us as crew, if Martin and Thea approve. I like her. She's got a calm about her in the face of danger. Even with a Reaver grappling her, she managed to keep her wits about her.

We'll see what Martin says...

Memo from Colonel Grainger: Mel's take

Major Hong,

I'm not an owner, or much of a shareholder, so my call may not account for much. But speaking as the pilot, I would reckon that being square with the Alliance would cause fewer problems for our group down the line. Having said that, is there no way we could reduce the fine? We went through a lot to get that rascal, and it don't sit right with me that the Alliance should nab most of our take for us taking all the pain and having to bury poor Jasmine to boot.

Still, I'll agree with what the team comes up with!! Even without this bit of cash, we should be able to fuel up and get our next job.

Cheers,

-Mel O'Malley
Pilot, Lazy Swan

Incoming Wave 18112: First Bank of Shinon

To: Major Jungmao Hon (ret)
From: First Bank of Shinon Accounts department
Re: Sizable withdrawl

Your account has been debited 3000 credits, to Alliance Military Account 45398283. The reason for the withdrawl is listed as "Fine for inappropriate use of military hardware."

If this withdrawl is in error, please wave Corrections department with "Mistaken withdrawl" in the subject, and your account number and the date of the transaction in the body of the wave.

Your satisfaction is important to us. Thank you for banking with First Bank of Shinon.

Incoming Wave 18112: Colonel Grainger

To: Major Jungmao Hong (ret)
From: Colonel Ernest Z. Grainger
Re: Greenleaf Incident
Date: 18112

Jungmao:

I am deeply sorry I didn't go over the regulations with you. It's such a morass down there, and you're usually so thorough in your work, I figured you'd be just as thorough with the legal aspect. Hoja Verde just doesn't have it's shit together, and ever since the war we've been spread so thin, we've had to grant limited authority to the locals. Next time we see each other, we'll talk about the situation more.

Speaking of the next time, I have a proposition for you. We recovered the body of a Jasmine Blank, who was listed as part of your crew when you landed. We've notified Next Of Kin, and they've agreed to pay for transportation of the body. I can't spare an offical Alliance courier to take the body to Regina in any reasonable amount of time, and I can't use the post (Damn Regulations anyway). I'd be able to make it worth your while to deliver the body, get you back some of that fine, as it were. It only pays 200 credits, but it's better than nothing, and it's easy work. I can also get you a license to haul cargo from GreenLeaf to Regina. There's a shipment of Pasceline-D that needs to go out there. That'll get you another 100 credits or so.

It'd be a big favor to me, and maybe you can get some other cargo to go at the same time.

Black Horse rides again!

-Ernest

Thea's Diary: Entry 1148 (Mao 2518)

Thou shalt not commit murder.

I've tried sleepin off the events on Greenleaf, but this commandment keeps repeatin in my head. It's there, as plain as Chinese, in Exodus. Does this mean that I've commited myself to an eternity of damnation for my actions? If so, then how did it feel so right at the moment? How is it that the Bible is full of Holy Warriors fightin in God's name? Is that what I am, a Holy Warrior? It felt right "smiting" the evil and deliverin justice, but it also felt good and if I know anything in my soul it's that the only thing worse than takin a life is enjoying takin a life. Plus I don't feel like a Holy Warrior. Most of the warriors in the Bible were fightin to keep or regain their Holy Land, what was I killin for? Why did it seem no different at the time between sightin those men and sightin the Jaguar? Someone not of the earth and woods would probably say somethin about intelligence, feelings, emotions or a soul being what separates men from animals, but I've seen how soulless men can be, and how intelligent and carin animals are. Has God sent me on this path to bring justice into the verse, or have I become another tine in the Devil's pitchfork bringin chaos and death.

Dylan is givin me some time off. I had been lookin forward to spendin some time by myself, grounding myself again with nature, but maybe my time would be better spent at one of the Abbeys for reflection and discussion of God's will with others of faith. Am I to be a Bounty Hunter who is Christian or a Christian who is a Bounty Hunter? Is there even room to be both?