Altered structures

Colonel Corriene Silvermane had been the commanding officer of the 1st Marine Raider's for several years, with a brief gap while she recovered from an assassination attempt while on Hale's Moon.  The Loyalist faction wasn't especially fond of an Officer that was not only good at her job, but generally opposed to abusing the colonies her unit was responsible for.  She'd done a lot to normalize relationships between Hale's Moon and the Alliance forces in the region.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I guess, depending on your perspective, Officers get moved around.  No matter how good you are at what you do, or maybe because of it, you'll get moved to another position.  It was only a matter of time then before they reassigned Silvermane to another unit.  

I was actually happy for her, and for the professional relationship we'd developed.   They'd promoted her to Brigadier General a couple months back and, now, reassigned her to a Divisional position as the Assistant Divisional Commander for the Marine's 4th Frontier Division, which the 1st Marine Raiders was part of.  For her it was a full step up the food chain and, for me, I wasn't actually losing a resource.  It was just maneuvering into another position.

The disadvantage for me, and us as a colony, was we didn't know yet how the new CO would treat the colonies in their patrol area.  Silvermane would still have her influence from above, but she'd have her hands full and now had several other Brigade sized units to deal with in the Division.  If the new CO turned out to be an mudak they could do a lot of harm before word came down from above to back off.

While I had their resume on my desk, along with their background, it was no substitute for actually meeting them.  But when would that happen?  Would that even happen?  While I had official channels to work back up through, I wasn't going to reveal my Intel position to the new CO until I was sure it wouldn't compromise my own plans.  The liaison, Lionheart, could recommend they speak to me as a representative of the colony, but that wasn't an official position.  We had some makeshift law enforcement, but we had no established government.  Yet.

That was something else I'd have to keep my eyes on.  I knew folks feelings on my leadership were mixed.  The folks who'd liked anarchy and the presence of pirates and smugglers weren't so happy with me.  The folks who liked a modicum of safety and stability did.  The inevitable trade off between competing factions.  Thing was, I'd done what I thought was best for the colony then and I'd do the same now.  Should it come to that.  I'd make some noise about what I thought was best, but I wasn't the leader here.  Just a colonist with a vested interest in keeping things stable.  Seing how most folk here still gave the farmhouse a wide berth it wasn't much of an issue.  Bram, and his lackey, I mean "Deputy," weren't giving me any issues either so, for now, it was business as usual.

But for how long?

Home for the holidays: Or not.

I'm not fond of this time of year.  Not the weather, because that's easy enough to change with a short shuttle flight.  No, it's the social aspects of this period on the Old Calendar.  When it was just Earth that Was, the calendar made sense.  So did the holiday periods.  The seasonal cycles were predictable and fixed.  Since the dominant cultures for the last couple thousand years before the Exodus were in the Northern hemisphere, the "holidays" were winter holidays.  A hodge podge of various cultures, all mixing together and distilling down to a set of social traditions that usually involved family and giving presents and stimulating the local economy by the purchase of same.

The holidays are depressing.

Winter is depressing.

I've been out on the Rim now for the holidays for the last seven years.  Even before I went to Hale's Moon, and now on Dragon's Egg, I'd been out here.  I was alone for most of those years, but 'Brina changed that for me. Unfortunately, this year wasn't one we'd get to spend together.  Some sort of technical emergency on the platform, which I actually understand.  She's the best they have and she came back out here to help run the place.  This time of the year is only significant to us because we got together at Firefly's, back on Blackburne, this time of the year.

The girls were off-world, again.  Somewhere.  Actually, I knew where all three of them were.  Keeping track was an ongoing test of my growing network.  But I missed them.  Not that we were a normal family.  Or ever would be a normal family.  Or even could be a normal family.  It was what it was.  Lonesome though it was.

Even Simon was off world for the holidays.

But at least Haley's around.  If you'd asked me, well, ever, whether I thought a Beagle would be the most stable companion in my life, I'd have called you Baka.  But here she was.  Snoring blissfully away in her bed.  Rescued from Reavers, in order to be a stable influence in a lonely Spook's tumultuous life.

Deep Black

The situation on Dragon's Egg is becoming too unstable to continue with my plans. While I've still got a secure link to Saule Silencieuse, and my own Wave Equation on tap, the influx of PMC's and other unsavory types to Dragon's Egg isn't helping my situation. It helps that I've had the entire communications network jacked almost since I arrived, but it'll only be a matter of time before the Alliance takes notice of what's happening and increases their presence even more.

The farmhouse was an unlikely base of operations for me, to be sure, but it was what I had after the decision to move the platform. Though, in truth, Simon had built the place with me and my needs in mind. There was a layer of hull metal between the outer brick layers and the inner wood paneling. The windows were made from the same material they made spaceship viewports from, and there as a concealed fire suppression system built into the ceiling. Add to that a generator that had come out of an Alliance landing craft and more than adequate computing and communication stacks, and I was set. At least I had been set.

There were some things to be said for mild anarchy, of course. For one thing, it was much easier to hide an Intel operation when no one was sure what was going on outside the limited scope of what they could see. But anarchy was, by definition, unstable. And unstable wasn't what I needed for the kind of work I needed to do. So far, it hadn't been an issue. Maybe it was my reputation that was keeping people at bay, but even the Reavers were giving the farmhouse a wide margin. But how long would that last?

It appeared I would need to find a new base of operations.

But where?

Assuming I couldn't secure the situation on Dragon's Egg, of course.  But what would that entail?  There was a subtle push from several directions to establish some form of local government on the colony.  That would actually suit my needs, provided it wasn't too intrusive.  A few of the old Hale's Moon residents had approached me about reclaiming my spot as Mayor but, to be honest, I wasn't sure I wanted it.  The social makeup of the colony had changed.  The feel was different and I knew there were some people who'd actively oppose my leadership.
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That being what it was, I'd be willing to go with more or less any government the colonists decided to implement.  If it became intrusive, I'd leave.  Or, at the very least, move far enough from the settlement to declare independence from their government.  So far, the nearest thing to a government was our self declared Sheriff, Bram, who'd been in the role on Hale's before we had to abandon rock.  His authority was marginal without even a council, though if the Alliance made him a Deputy Marshall he'd actually be the local law.  Though his deputizing Nick was probably a mistake.  We'd have to see how that turned out.

Logistically, Surfer's New Paradise was potentially a good option.  The local government was one of the most laid back in the entire 34 Tauri system and I was well familiar with the colony and its customs.  It was also closer to the Core and better positioned than Dragon's Egg for my needs, also, the locals wouldn't give my girls any hassle when they came to visit.  Honestly, it was a strong contender, but I was a little reluctant to place any kind of burden on my kinfolk.  Even if Uncle Sobi wasn't biologically my kin.

The other option was, of course, to settle onto the IAV Saule Silencieuse.  I already had an office there, the crew was pleasant, if a little odd.  Though who in Signals Intelligence wasn't?  I was comfortable in the Deep Black.  I'd spent a lot of time there, alone, when I went into semi-retirement the first time.  But a Kamkamoss class Corvette wasn't exactly the best place to receive casual visitors.  Her mission required a good deal of obscurity and having people flying out in unmasked civilian boats wouldn't make things any easier.

I could always move back to the platform.  But there was still the matter of traffic and having less control over what was coming and going at the new location.  No.  That wasn't really an option, at least as currently deployed.

For better or worse.  I was staying where I was.

Home is where your dog is.

A new location
A place to do my calling
Home's where your dog is

So then these Reavers show up . . .

Aren't these guys dead yet?

Seriously. How long can they maintain enough of a population to remain a coherent group, let alone a measurable threat?

There were never more than about thirty thousand Reavers to begin with. While there weren't extensive surveys done, it was estimated that one tenth of one percent of those exposed to the Paxilon Hydrachlorate expressed the Aggressor response. With Miranda's population of around thirty million, there would have been about thirty thousand Reavers. That's it. Even if we double, or trebble the count, we're talking well under a hundred thousand of them.

To put it in perspective, that's between one and three Corps worth of Alliance military forces.

Sounds like a lot, until you realize the Army Group deployed in the Kalidaza system alone has more support personnel then there were Reavers in total. And that was roughly twenty years ago now. The days of Reavers raiding and pillaging have been on the wane for a long time.

Attrition's a bitch.

It doesn't help them that, contrary to some of the more insidious conspiracies, there is no evidence, at all, that the Reavers were an intentional result of the Pax. Everything anyone can find on the Pax indicates that the coverup of the incident was quite real, but the actuality of the aggressor reaction was an unexpected and tragic accident. In clinical trials, Paxilon Hydrochlorate was a mood stabilizer and mild sedative. What led Prescott Pharmaceuticals to suggest a massive scale airborne deployment on Miranda is still buried deeper than I've looked, but it wasn't an intention to create a small army of Berserkers to terrorize the Rim.

Even with the occasional "convert" and Mindo's crazy experiments, their numbers have fallen. They've had to. They die in combat. They fly ships that have marginal containment, which leads to more of them dieing. They don't breed. At least not that anyone's ever been able to document. The only children of Reaver rape-survivors I can find reference to were born normal. They didn't inherit the Reaver madness. It's Entropy at its finest.

The Reavers are dieing out, and have been since their were spawned.

So where the Gorram hell do they keep coming from?

With the recent attacks on Dragon's Egg, we can only assume their is either a Nest nearby or a mothership somewhere. Unfortunately, with the KHI Orbital redeployed elsewhere, we don't have anywhere near the array capability we once did. We'll find it, of course, eventually. But in the meantime, I've got to hope the colony can deal with the threat.

Dragon's Egg isn't Hale's Moon. We've got some skilled soldiers, but we don't have the well drilled militia we had on Hale's. Though, fortunately, the scale of the attacks seem to be smaller. Also, they seem to be steering clear of the Farmhouse. Maybe it's a few well placed shots from my long gun, or maybe they identify the place as mine and give it a wide margin. Either way, I haven't had to deal with them directly.

Though that may change.

Lily'd taken K2 with her days ago, but he was with her here on Dragon's Egg when the Reavers attacked. And, now, he's missing. Whether they have him or not, we don't know. Acting on their own, they'd have eaten him already. Acting on AuroraBlue's order? Different story. Does this tribe treat her as their Queen? If so, would she really send them here to get him?

Not sure I want to know.

But I will.

It's what I do now.

Little child of sand

Have the Reavers come for you?

Or unrelated?