So we dropped off dem parts on Badwater, didn't intend to come back to this pile of gosa backwater station, but paying cargo is paying cargo.  Stop of at Charlie's to get a quick drink and Jimmy and Johny catch wind that maybe one of their old war buddies is in town, and might have been just recently forcibly seperated from his mortal coil.  We got a bit of time so they checks it out.

 

Merciful Hera things got weird.  Let me run it down for ya in no particular order...

Now what?  well we drop off 300ton of cargo on Regina, ahh how i'm sure Jimmy will just love being dragged around Frisco by EMay being introduced as the father of her child.  mmnn.. thinkin i might just send them a note let them know were coming in case they want to throw a party.

 

Then to Torval Station, about the only place civilized in this part of the verse, to pick up mail, supplies, etc.

 

Then to Greenleaf, assuming we can find some cargo.  Mysteries are great and all, but they sure don't keep Betty Mae flying.

 

- JD

So, I don't recall to much, on account of my allergics, and heavy supply of food stuff apperently seeded with it. Yeah, it's a ruttin' word. You wanna make a fuss over it? Anyway, I was talkin'. So, there was this pair of cooks or some such by the names of Jacob and Samuel. The captain musta thought he heard "crooks," cause he treated their cargo as some illicit goods. I thought I missed something, and cracked their casing to get a peek. As the Cargo Master, I gotta know if there's anything amiss going on, right? Right. The criminal association might have something to do with those IAVs' that were floating around. The Idaho, and the Magellan, which I guess took off a week before we got to the station.

 

Later, I over hear Jimmy talking about taking a peek inside, and I go to mentioning that it's just food. How do I know? Cuase I lifted me some! HAW! That's why they call me Lifter! Damn right, lao sheong! I got me a little parcle of the stuff. Some kinda pasta noodle and sauce canned meal. Damn fine eats... to bad there ain't no ingrediants on the label. Mighta saved me the ruttin' trouble of getting poisoned.

 

I kinda blanked out for a while. I started getting sick, and drinking my problems away. That... didn't work as well as I had planned. We got a mutt and a litter of mutts? A horse job (Appaloosa horses even, nice), and I guess Jimmys ma tze has a babe? Jimmy don't seem that thrilled. Ruttin' shame. The lady is as cute as can be. I'm starting to think that maybe he'd prefer Johnny? Heh, don't tell him I said that. Just all those gosa war stories I hear. I doubt they ever did half of them. They talk about the war like it was the highlight of their lives. Every Coat I've met woulda prefered to forget about that war, and here these two laugh and pat each other on the backsides over it. I tell ya, there's gotta be more to them than we see. They came together, we hired them together, and they're always around each other.

 

Anyway, I digest.

 

Things get real fuzzy. I keep passing out or something? We took on passengers, and one of them was apperently some wanted murderer. I couldn't tell who though. Everything was real spinny. I was kinda scared to see our half-pint of a doc. He's a creepy fellow.... Then one day, things on the ship start tossing real heavy. Like after Pennys' been drinking my brew and dropping into lower orbit. Real shakey. I try to climb outta my hatch, and get rumbled back down. The wall plumb jumped out and smacked me!! I'm not sure what all happened. I just know I woke up with a beer. Kinda strange. Oh, and then we got boarded by the Allience, and they hauled us away. Then put us back. How does that work? I just went back to my bunk, and tried to sleep my sickness off. I ate some more of that tasty canned stuff and drank that brew. Lookin' back, that was mighty dumb.

 

So, eventually, I mustard the courage to talk to Nick. He puts me though the ringer, and tells me I gots the Allergics. I knew I had this condition, but now I had to figure out what it was. I pin it to those ruttin' cans. So damn tasty though!! Nick gives me a shot and a bed pan, tells me to take two, and call him in the mornin'.

 

Well, the next morning rolls around, and I find out that I missed all the excitment! Gorram cans! There was a sour deal with the guy buying those horses. They got sick too, like me, and the horse man wouldn't take 'em. Said they was nothin' but varmits. He had a real mean lookin' possy, by the sounds of things. The sherif asked everyone to stow their arms, so no one was packing anything serious, whereas the possy had all manner of six shooters. Thankfully, Jimmy was a smart guy, and was still carrying. He out drew some itchy ri shao gou shi bing, and plugged him square in the heart, so they say. Ifin' I was there, it'd have gotten worse, I'd think. But the Horse man calls a cease fire, and contacts his friend the judge-lady, mad-register-something. Then things get real ugly! Jimmy gets pinned for plugging a man, and the captain gets paid. Not to bad.

 

Then all manner of confusing happens; Jimmys' girl comes and sees me in a panic. Says she needs guns. I thought she was getting guns for the boys. But then she starts strapping iron to her hips, throwing a bandana over her head, and a mesh vest. This girl was serious about getting Jimmy out of the clink,-- Another sign that he's not good enough for her. She also gets some blasting tape from me. I know things arn't looking that great, so I go find Captain JD. He talks some sense into the girl, and she disarms... sorta. She rearms by going to the kitchen. She's a smart lady sometimes. She covered the blasting tape up with some mash and greens. She was giving that guy another chance for a break out, if the gang couldn't do it. He ain't good 'nuff this one.

 

Sounds like everything went off without a hitch. We went airborn to avoid any implications to busting Jimmy out. Johnny did the rest, and met up with Derick at a hiden shuttle. Everything was real smart! Johhny even had a good time with my "Small Bombs." But then that Alliance ship we keep bumping into, the IAV Magellan shows up, throws us all into Lockdown, and makes a real show of force by sending a swarm of their fighter ships down to the planet.

 

Looks like they were looking for the Mad-Register lady. They let us go, and we were on our way. I'm feeling a heck of a lot better, even if I missed all the excitment. You of course know you'll be seeing more of me in the coming days. Oh yeah, not even my Allergics can stop me.

Captain's Log, Johnny Crockett here.

 

Ha! I'm just jerking your chain.  Gorram it, I ain't no captain.  I am an enlisted man thru and thru.  All those shiny bars and stars do is give the snipers an easier target.  I know this because I was a sniper during the war.  I could put a hole in a plat from 1000 yards back in the war.  Good times that war was.  Good times.  Except for all the bad times when we had to eat Jimmy's shoes 'cause we had no ruttin' food.

 

So back to the matter at hand, I'm stickin' this up here 'cause I wanted to clear the air a bit.  Now our Captain is a pretty good folk mind you.  Better than that fe fe pi gao of a Lnt. that tried to lead us in the battle of Notthing Hill.  I'd swear he was a gorram Fed spy if I didn't know for a fact that he was indeed dumber than a post.  Oh sure he could spout off high faluting things that would impress some scrawny boned, air-brained Core collegiate types, but this was a frickin' war zone.  All that crap don't mean a ruttin' thing once the lead starts flying.  If he hadn't taken one in the head I'm sure he would've taken one in the back.  Better him than me or one of my squad.

 

Anyways, back to the capt'n.  Good folk, but a little short when it comes to real good sense.  The man won't even carry a ruttin' gun.  And no, that little four-banger doesn't count.  There is something wrong with a man who won't carry a real gun in the black.  I appreciate him trying to be all freindly like, but you also gotta show these types of people that you are ready for trouble.  Not that the cap'n knows what to do in a fight.  But he has some smarts and hired Jimmy and me to watch his back.  I wouldn't say Jimmy has no discipline.  And he is a little jumpy.  But when we are trying to protect the Capn's backside it seems like he'd be a bit more appreciative.  If someone is drawing on you then you got a right to defend yourself.  And if someone rolls up to your home packing alot of hardware then you have a right to defend your home.  I ain't got no problem if a town wants to be all peaceful-like and not allow guns.  But they best be returning the favor and if some thugs to roll up to my house with a gun you are sure as shootin' knowin' that Jimmy and I are gonna meet them with the like.

 

I think the town got what they deserved.  They asked us to be peacable-like and we was.  The townsfolk are the ones who came up to us brandishin' steel and tryin' to be all intimidatin' like.  And when one of them threatens us and tries to draw he got what he deserved.  He's just lucky that Jimmy was being kind and only winged him.  I would've had no problems with Jimmy putting one between his eyes.  And I know that Jimmy is more than capable on completin' that type of deal.  I could see some normal folk wanting to know why one of there tonsfolk got shot, but there was no question of Jimmy's innocence.  If they wanted him to pay a fine or sumthin' then we woulda grumbled, but paid up and been on our way.  But throwin' a man in jail over such a minor offense and demandin' the death penalty was downright tyrannical.  That's when I knew they was Fed sympathisers and were looking down at ol' Jimmy because he was a Browncoat.  That's why I had no problem blowing up half the town.  Nobody was hurt, but they will remember not to mess with Jimmy or me.  In fact they were lucky.  I wasn't above plugging one of those gao fe peng deputies if they followed us into the woods.  They were lucky the patrol boats showed up if you ask me.

In Oakridge were meeting with this fancy rancher who contracted us to bring him these horses, he hires the town vet who says they are sick. He blows a gasket declaring they are worthless and he won't buy them.  Derick and I finally get him calmed down when one of his hired thugs makes threats and draws his pistol.  Jimmy bing the fast draw, no-dicipline, jumpy kinda person draws first and shoots him with his derringer.  Not really too bad cept he seemed to hit the guy right in the heart for all the blood that was leaking out of him.   So Solomon (the rancher) calls his buddy the Magistrate to have a hearing, i'm thinking this is bad news, Solomon is buddies with the magistrate, but I have a chat with the Sherif who says Jimmy will get a fair trail, so I figure what the heck, not my neck we'll see how this plays out.

 

An hour later in Hank's Saloon with the drinking townsfolk and whores looking on the Magistrate (a fat ugly little bitch) agrees that since the horse contract said nothing about the health of the animals Solomon needed to pay us in full with fuel costs(yipee), but since Jimmy shot a gun in the town he would be hanged at noon the next day (bummer).  Which most of us figure is illegal since the Alliance outlawed corporal punishment a while ago.

 

Not that we can do anything about it.  We tried a bunch of plans, involving sowing confusion and distrust amoungst the law, getting evidince of previous hangings, sneaking Jimmy explosivs and tools to escape, and preping to blow him out.  Which we did, just as the Alliance dropped in to arrest the magistrate and bring her to justice (praise Dike). 

 

Anyway, we got out with the cash, and a hold full of cargo, nothing sweeter then that.

 

- JD

 

 

We dusted from Eaveasdown docks with cargohold of horses, some speculative cargo and 4 passengers.  All bound for the Rim.  Passengers were not your boring farmers, one was a wanted murdrer, one a non-guild prostitute, one an BlueSun scientist with heavy alliance influence and one.. ok one was a rancher, but at least he was alergic to horses.

 

on the trip the crew made money seling them steaks and the alliance decided to stop us and fine us for not being up to code with our ship markings.  We got to Badwater, a boring place.  and expensive, I need to think about carrying and selling fuel as cargo or better yet fuel processors.  mmnn...

 

Anyway, finally we got to Three HIlls, dropped off the 3 passengers we had left, our cargo, and promtly cut all the crew's percentages.  things were getting tight and if I hadn't found that 900c on the murderer and silently put it in the ship fund I would have had to ask the crew for loans.  not good.  We should be better now, i'm no accountant, but supply chains I know, and you cash is something you need to have a ready supply of at all times.

 

- JD