I feel like I'm falling behind

It should be easy for me to keep up with this. Seriously. How hard can it be to find half an hour or so to say what's on my mind? It's not really a matter so much of being busy. I'm always busy. But recently, I've felt busy and tired. Just too much going on. More, it seems, than I had before I left the service. More, it seems, than I'd have if I went back to Ariel and took that Executive position at KHI that's been waiting five years for me.

I'm not leaving here, obviously. There's too much going on that could use my attention. I won't delude myself into thinking the colony and the people here wouldn't be able to get along right fine without me, but it's some comfort to think that folks are a bit better off because of some of what I've done.

At least Krenshar and Lily have both come back to Hale's. Not that Krenshar actually left. Just somewhere deep in the mines for a bit, taking care of something of his own.

Wish I could say we were done with the Raider problems, but that's not been the case. They've even been getting bolder. Or maybe more desperate. They went so far as to send a small team down to recover the one we'd captured while rescuing Belize. Not only did they manage to pull that off, they snuck back in later in a small shuttle we hadn't identified as theirs and made off with a a couple crate loads of badly needed medical supplies.

Up side was we could replace the loss without too much wait. Other up side was we had ident on another of their boats and more navigation data on where they were based. With a little work, Sabrina should be able to upgrade that over-worked recce sat of ours into a full fledged recon drone to go and check out the few spots that seemed likely to be their operating base. No guarantees is would work, but it was better than nothing and would save us risking anyone getting hurt on a live recon.

Working theory at this point was they were another Rim colony like ours, only in bad enough shape they'd been reduced to thieving to make ends meet. Would explain them concentrating on food supplies and the like, rather than conventional valuables. Only thing was, why risk banditry? Most folk out this way had too much home town pride to ask for help, but it was out there. Was that it? pride? Or something else?

Doubt any of us here will ever really know.

Disturbing thing though is the rumor of revolution coming out of Shadow. With the Loyalists and the Warbots already causing trouble, mayhap not openly, but trouble none the less, it didn't make a lot of sense for the Independent Movement to take up arms once again. Shadow was barely recovered enough for people to live on it. Didn't bode well for a revolution and secession from the Alliance.

Not that there was anything we could do about it. The Alliance Garrison on Shadow was under Loyalist control, and they were pushing the folk there in a powerful way. No surprise to see fumeiyo from the Loyalists. It was their Way. Just got me remembering a rumor I heard when I first came out to the Rim: that some factions in the Alliance were looking to push the Rim worlds hard enough that they'd rise up in another revolt.

Wonder if that was part of the Loyalist plot all along? Or are the Loyalists themselves just being manipulated by another layer hiding behind the scenes? Intel side of me wanted to know, but the rational side of me did not want to know anything more than I already did. I may have been raised to thrive in that kind of environment, but it wasn't what I wanted. Then, or now.

I just had to figure out how we could do our part. Not to fight. Hale's Moon barely had the resources to chase off a platoon of Loyalists or a Reaver raid. Fighting wasn't our game, nor our place. But we did have the resources, and the compassion as a community, to do what we could.

Fact was, at this point, the only request I'd gotten was to arrange a meeting between Colonel Silvermane on the Sun Tzu and one of the leaders of the Independents on Shadow. Seems they wanted to keep the Regulars out of it if possible, and I couldn't blame them. Couldn't be sure what she'd say or do, but the lady'd treated us right fairly after regaining command of the 1st Marine Raiders. Nothing in her dossier said she wouldn't treat fair with the folk on Shadow.

Just hoped that my having a few discrete words with her wouldn't raise too many questions. Wasn't the sort of trouble I needed right now.