The quiet continues

There is something to be said for a lack of gunfire. For one thing, it's easier to sleep when you're not being annoyed by stray rounds slapping the heat shielding of your boat. You can get more work done in the office when there's nothing ricocheting off Town Hall's windows, and you don't need to worry about ruining another long coat by catching a stray round walking across town to Fook Yoo's.

It might be a sign that things are honestly settling down a little out here on the Rim. Since the Alliance deployed the IAV Abraham Sinkov to our general area, the reported number of pirate and raider attacks has dropped measurably. They may have had an effect on the Reaver attacks as well, but that seems just as likely to be related to Aurora's going to Ariel and Mindo going to, well, wherever the hell he's gotten off to.

It's unlikely the Sinkov's had any effect on the warbots, and their continuing quiescence makes me nervous. While there is a finite possibility that Mother Bot suffered some kind of catastrophic failure and gone off-line, it's vastly more likely the machine's executing to some kind of plan that's got it digging in and waiting to execute whatever else it has planned.

Fortunately, or perhaps surprisingly, we haven't been hearing reports from any of the other Rim worlds about Machine activity. What actually happened to them? We know there were more deployed than the one destroyed on Blackburne and the one we know is buried under Hale's Moon. But just where were they deployed?

That 'watcher' group Imrhien and Td were involved with knew more about it, and my own intel has at least some passing connection back to the Hardliners in Parliament, but what's their real plan? The Hardliners have had a very Hawkish outlook of the Rim for decades. There's a pretty good argument to be made that the Unification War was ultimately because of Hardliner influence in Parliament.

But the Hardliners, or Loyalists, or whatever you want to call them, need some kind of conflict to maintain their positions of power. They're not really very good at Waging Peace.

What is their plan?

They got a foothold on Shadow when that world was being restored, and were subsequently driven off by local colonists and the Independent 12th Air Cav. Who were themselves driven off by the threat of four Alliance cruisers coming in to make their lives miserable. Shadow's maintained an uneasy stability since, but it shows the kind of turmoil that seems to be the lifeblood of the Loyalist movement.

The platoon they more or less abandoned here on Hale's is still out there somewhere in the desert. At least what's left of them. General's been doing some scouting on his own and found some strong evidence that they're not only still alive, but they're adapting to the situation. The question I still have is why they won't take Amnesty. What the hell keeps them out there?

I'm not sure it matters, really. This new found quiet has given me the opportunity to analyze some of the intel that's trickled in out here. There's several related threads I'm trying to get a grip on and, possibly, tie together. But there's so little to work with I'm not sure how deep I'll be able to dive this.

How deep do I want to dive this? I've stalked the halls of power. It's one of the reasons I'm out here on the Rim in the first place. There's an old saying about sticking to one's pay grade and, while mine is higher than most people realize, or my military rank would indicate, this isn't the sort of game I'm comfortable playing. Grandfather can wield that sort of power, but that's not my path.

Still. I can't even decide how deep to dive until I've looked deeper into the pool. I'm just not sure I can see what I need to see from here, which may mean another Op.

Lovely. 'Brina will be just thrilled.