M179
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lost star
Connoisseur.
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As much as she disliked to say it, the carrier she'd inherited from her estate was useful. The thing was capable of holding enough mechs to be useful, fast enough to avoid most problems, and durable enough to handle any problems that did catch it. That was without the tuneups Gadget had done. It was in essence perfect for their goals, if you discounted the cost of maintaining it. As a high quality carrier that did everything it was on the upper end of expensive for a ship. Most of their profit from the job was being spent on that and supplies for the mechs. Really the upkeep of all of it was such if they were just restricted to their salvage income they would have almost no profit at all. You got what you paid for in this instance, and they paid a lot.
Fortunately Bolt pulled in enough independent income that the could likely maintain several ships like the carrier if they needed. Military contracts could be extremely profitable, and Bolt had gotten two sweetheart deals by this point. This meant that the only real issue they had was in maintaining their operating was keeping their secrecy when gathering supplies. If no one knew where they were in the void before they hit a place, predicting where they would strike next was extremely hard.
Lilly tried to be careful while she helped arrange the supply runs. Her contacts with the space-born clans had continued to grow, and they weren't afraid to route her the required supplies for a small fee. That meant they'd have to supply in what amounted to dead zones in space, but that was more a bonus than a problem. The carrier had plenty of ways to keep people entertained and the wide open void gave them the perfect viewpoint to avoid ambushes. It also meant she could pay a bit more for news and the like, though the results from that were always going to be mostly rumor and heresy.
"All Hail the Arch Heretic!" The man said on the short range radio as the shuttle approached.
"Why do I get the feeling that asking you to look into things was a mistake." Lilly muttered back.
"Why miss blasphemer, I could never guess." The reply came with a chuckle before the man continued. "But yes, the Hexxers are squawking about you, and have issued a bounty. They also refer to your husband as the Arch Heretic, the Corpse Thief, the Blasphemer, the Defiler, and any other name they think could stick. Really the amount of curses going your way would make me blush if I had any shame at all. I think the last tale was him laying on a mountain of bodies with you chained up on a throne."
Lilly genuinely wanted to cry about that. "Oh god." Neither she nor her husband had wanted fame and now she had the worst possible images stuck in her head thanks to her talks with Sami. "All right, so I regret even asking now."
"If it helps, even the witches don't really believe most of it. The propaganda peddlers are really just throwing things out there. They don't like that you got something that rivals what they consider holy mechs. Gotta say I like the look of the Ice Maidens. They're one of the most cinematic mechs I've seen in ages." The man paused. "Are yours different? Cause I saw the versions they're rolling out and they aren't nearly as good as yours."
"The Hoarfrost model is internal. The Yuki-Onna are what the Friday field. There was a bit of a problem with the exotics when sourcing them." Lilly explained.
"Does explain the order and price changes then." The shuttle docked with the carrier at that point. "We've got another load by the way."
"No rush." Lilly replied and kept Dowry at an active scan.
Trust but verify and all that. Dowry wasn't the best in space, but her scanning was good enough to pick up anything reactive. Plus it was easier to deploy when you were already out there and all that.
"Friday news is a bit different. There's still a large hate towards Ves, but with the victories and your stuff it's dying down a lot. Your group's considered some flashy maverick that has been running around doing random prison breaks like a modern day superhero. You'd be the talk of the town if the internal salty conflicts weren't sucking up airtime." The man said after a few beats of silence while his shuttle was unloaded.
"Venerable Lilly, two bugs, three instances of skimming, and two improper orders." A man on another channel informed her.
Lilly nodded. "Isolate the bugs. We have to assume we missed a few, so you know the drill." She ordered.
"Into the melter!" Her subordinate said with a laugh.
Some bugs and sabotage could get really tricky. The easiest way of dealing with all of that was just processing it all immediately. Only First Rate stuff could avoid destruction after that, and if that was being used they were screwed anyway. (Bolt did have a few discrete ways of checking, but they didn't want that known.)
"Got a few misfiled supplies." Lilly forwarded the records of two of the skimming attempts and all the mislabeled orders. Had to both keep them guessing and get the proper materials they needed. Letting one skimming go through would make them uncertain as to what they were catching.
"Blasted packagers always try to stiff us. Don't worry, I can get that solved." The supplier didn't miss a beat blaming someone else. "I'll get that on the next trip. Any last minute requests?"
"I'd rather not pay the extra surcharge for that." The woman said with half a smile. "So trouble in Friday paradise?"
"They like to dress it up, but there's about five separate factions with different ideas in the Coalition. It's probably going to be one less soon, especially if you get that disinheritance done. When the last heir is gone the people using that faction as a sock puppet are going to have to find another front." The shuttle pulled away and moved back to the visiting ship as the man explained. "That plus how things went will really shake things up. Anyone not the Guagers were getting hosed until your husband's mechs came around. Now that they're not drowning they have questions about certain behaviors and it's loud enough that I'm hearing it. Only the fact that the Hexxers are insane is keeping things together, and even that won't last forever."
"Ah." Lilly breathed out. "Lovely."
"Ain't that the truth. This is why we live in space. Sure you get issues in some areas, but if you don't like your neighbors you up and leave." The man chuckled. "Be right back. Next load should finish up the order."
Lilly made the mic click and settled back in her cockpit chair to think. It would figure that winning wasn't going to make things easier. They didn't want to pull back either. The Hexxers were going to start losing soon, and desperate people did very stupid things. Threading the needle here was going to be difficult.
"So that's general news." The man said as he docked in the supply station several minutes away. "More local news is a bit mixed and more specific. Not sure if you care much about it. Biggest thing is actually people wondering what mech your husband does next and what heroics you're going to do."
"Can't say anything about either really." Lilly responded with a small chuckle.
"Don't expect you too, but if you take requests, we'd love to see a space mech. I'd even chip in for something myself." The supplier said.
"I'll relay that. Knowing him he'll take it as a challenge."
"Hah! If he does something good I'll get you a discount of one percent!"
"Stinnngy!"
Fortunately Bolt pulled in enough independent income that the could likely maintain several ships like the carrier if they needed. Military contracts could be extremely profitable, and Bolt had gotten two sweetheart deals by this point. This meant that the only real issue they had was in maintaining their operating was keeping their secrecy when gathering supplies. If no one knew where they were in the void before they hit a place, predicting where they would strike next was extremely hard.
Lilly tried to be careful while she helped arrange the supply runs. Her contacts with the space-born clans had continued to grow, and they weren't afraid to route her the required supplies for a small fee. That meant they'd have to supply in what amounted to dead zones in space, but that was more a bonus than a problem. The carrier had plenty of ways to keep people entertained and the wide open void gave them the perfect viewpoint to avoid ambushes. It also meant she could pay a bit more for news and the like, though the results from that were always going to be mostly rumor and heresy.
"All Hail the Arch Heretic!" The man said on the short range radio as the shuttle approached.
"Why do I get the feeling that asking you to look into things was a mistake." Lilly muttered back.
"Why miss blasphemer, I could never guess." The reply came with a chuckle before the man continued. "But yes, the Hexxers are squawking about you, and have issued a bounty. They also refer to your husband as the Arch Heretic, the Corpse Thief, the Blasphemer, the Defiler, and any other name they think could stick. Really the amount of curses going your way would make me blush if I had any shame at all. I think the last tale was him laying on a mountain of bodies with you chained up on a throne."
Lilly genuinely wanted to cry about that. "Oh god." Neither she nor her husband had wanted fame and now she had the worst possible images stuck in her head thanks to her talks with Sami. "All right, so I regret even asking now."
"If it helps, even the witches don't really believe most of it. The propaganda peddlers are really just throwing things out there. They don't like that you got something that rivals what they consider holy mechs. Gotta say I like the look of the Ice Maidens. They're one of the most cinematic mechs I've seen in ages." The man paused. "Are yours different? Cause I saw the versions they're rolling out and they aren't nearly as good as yours."
"The Hoarfrost model is internal. The Yuki-Onna are what the Friday field. There was a bit of a problem with the exotics when sourcing them." Lilly explained.
"Does explain the order and price changes then." The shuttle docked with the carrier at that point. "We've got another load by the way."
"No rush." Lilly replied and kept Dowry at an active scan.
Trust but verify and all that. Dowry wasn't the best in space, but her scanning was good enough to pick up anything reactive. Plus it was easier to deploy when you were already out there and all that.
"Friday news is a bit different. There's still a large hate towards Ves, but with the victories and your stuff it's dying down a lot. Your group's considered some flashy maverick that has been running around doing random prison breaks like a modern day superhero. You'd be the talk of the town if the internal salty conflicts weren't sucking up airtime." The man said after a few beats of silence while his shuttle was unloaded.
"Venerable Lilly, two bugs, three instances of skimming, and two improper orders." A man on another channel informed her.
Lilly nodded. "Isolate the bugs. We have to assume we missed a few, so you know the drill." She ordered.
"Into the melter!" Her subordinate said with a laugh.
Some bugs and sabotage could get really tricky. The easiest way of dealing with all of that was just processing it all immediately. Only First Rate stuff could avoid destruction after that, and if that was being used they were screwed anyway. (Bolt did have a few discrete ways of checking, but they didn't want that known.)
"Got a few misfiled supplies." Lilly forwarded the records of two of the skimming attempts and all the mislabeled orders. Had to both keep them guessing and get the proper materials they needed. Letting one skimming go through would make them uncertain as to what they were catching.
"Blasted packagers always try to stiff us. Don't worry, I can get that solved." The supplier didn't miss a beat blaming someone else. "I'll get that on the next trip. Any last minute requests?"
"I'd rather not pay the extra surcharge for that." The woman said with half a smile. "So trouble in Friday paradise?"
"They like to dress it up, but there's about five separate factions with different ideas in the Coalition. It's probably going to be one less soon, especially if you get that disinheritance done. When the last heir is gone the people using that faction as a sock puppet are going to have to find another front." The shuttle pulled away and moved back to the visiting ship as the man explained. "That plus how things went will really shake things up. Anyone not the Guagers were getting hosed until your husband's mechs came around. Now that they're not drowning they have questions about certain behaviors and it's loud enough that I'm hearing it. Only the fact that the Hexxers are insane is keeping things together, and even that won't last forever."
"Ah." Lilly breathed out. "Lovely."
"Ain't that the truth. This is why we live in space. Sure you get issues in some areas, but if you don't like your neighbors you up and leave." The man chuckled. "Be right back. Next load should finish up the order."
Lilly made the mic click and settled back in her cockpit chair to think. It would figure that winning wasn't going to make things easier. They didn't want to pull back either. The Hexxers were going to start losing soon, and desperate people did very stupid things. Threading the needle here was going to be difficult.
"So that's general news." The man said as he docked in the supply station several minutes away. "More local news is a bit mixed and more specific. Not sure if you care much about it. Biggest thing is actually people wondering what mech your husband does next and what heroics you're going to do."
"Can't say anything about either really." Lilly responded with a small chuckle.
"Don't expect you too, but if you take requests, we'd love to see a space mech. I'd even chip in for something myself." The supplier said.
"I'll relay that. Knowing him he'll take it as a challenge."
"Hah! If he does something good I'll get you a discount of one percent!"
"Stinnngy!"