Community Event / Creation "In The Face of Fear" an article by Max Hampart.

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Preface


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Max Hampart is a 34-year-old journalist working for one of the few newspapers still in print on earth. He has made quite the name for himself with the articles he has written. After studying journalism at the highly respectable Oxford University, England, Earth; he went on to work as the assistant to Hugh Jickson, the well renowned column editor and Nobel prize winning writer.

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“working with Hugh was a god send. I learnt how to really speak to people and make others feel that they can open up to me, which is a massive help in this field” – Max Hampart.

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After writing 7 game changing articles on Earth, Max left and set out to discover new stories and adventures that span this fine galaxy.
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Prologue

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I was sat in the arrivals lounge on the Cregglezone Station in Wolf 397. I had arrived almost 3 hours earlier, believing I was late for a rendezvous with a rather significant individual. How wrong I was. After the first hour passed with no word or sign of my guest I simply put it down to running late; but after a 3 hour slog of ordering overpriced coffee from the lounge dispenser and listening to bad adverts on Sidewinder Radio, I had come to the conclusion that my intended visitor wasn’t coming.

It didn’t come as that much of a surprise. I was extremely shocked when he had agreed to meet with me in the first place, it had seemed too good to be true. So the fact that I had now wasted the best part of a day traveling between systems and waiting in a desolate and ghostly “lounge” area, didn’t bruise my ego too much. The leads for this story were few and far between and this wasn’t the first dead end I had come to.

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A month before this, I had travelled to a desolate system, void of stations and any forms of life, on the pretence that I would meet a single member from the Pleiades Buccaneers. The location of which had been messaged to me during a random outing one afternoon from a passing Viper MkIV, that was running in silent mode and piloted by a Cmdr. Inchon. He denied all forms of communication before engaging his FSD and disappearing into the void. I was dubious of this so called information, but who was I to question it. So I made the 93.63LY trip to ROSS 633 and waited around for the glimmer of a ship in the distance that never came.

Just as I was collecting up the many plastic coffee cups that I had littered around the lounge, the doors slid open and a young man wearing an overhead earpiece and uniform strode towards me.
‘are you Max Hampart?’
‘I am.’ I replied with a hint of distrust.
‘There is currently a Vulture asking for docking at this station, with over 18 outstanding fines with the Wolf 397 Independence.’ He took pride in speaking the name of his system. ‘We have denied him access and warned him that immediate hostile action will be taken against him.’
I didn’t believe that the station would take action against him. After all it was only a small station and the security vehicle that orbited, was a second-hand, minimally equipped Sidewinder from the Federation. I decided that I should probably still put on a concerned face.
‘right o.k.’ I replied.
‘We have only restrained from firing because he has said that he has only come here to meet someone. That someone being you.’

It had seemed that my guest had arrived after all. All be it 3 and a half hours later than expected. Although, imagining that a pirate would be punctual was probably a bit of a stretch. I eventually managed to come to an agreement with the station to let him dock, pick me up and we would leave immediately. Although it was me who made this decision, it was only later, while watching him dock that I realised that getting onto a ship with a complete stranger, a pirate stranger probably wasn’t the best idea; but I had already dealt the cards and I couldn’t fold just yet. Before I made my way down to Pad 34 the same young officer explained that authority vehicles had been hailed and that we should leave promptly.

Clearly my first contact with Scarred Jack had not gone as simply as I had imagined.

Max Hampart’s Article “In The Face of Fear” will continue…​

 

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Scarred Jack

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Jack introduced himself as the brains behind many of the pirate factions. A bold statement that I needed to see proof of before coming to any conclusion. He was a middle-aged fellow with a strong stance and broad shoulders. Despite his name sake he had no visible scars to be seen. He was quite clean cut and pristine looking.

I was still a little uncomfortable at this point; after having the revelation that this probably wasn’t the best idea I’d had. He seemed friendly enough but the reputation of deep space pirates hovered over him throughout the encounter. His ship was clean and well organized. I had expected a mess; the likes of sealed crates and various litter stuffed into overhead bays and holding areas, but there was none of that to be seen. It struck me that maybe Jack had, had a spring clean; knowing that he was meeting a journalist and wanting to convey a good image. It’s probably not a good idea to have evidence of illegal activities or illicit cargo on display for any one visitor to find.

I wanted to get along with Jack and gain a rapport of sorts. If I could keep things friendly, the more openly he will talk with me. At least that’s the idea. I decided to show concern for his welfare.
‘The station told me before I boarded that they had hailed for Authority vessel’s. It might be a good idea to leave sooner rather than later, I don’t want our encounter to be cut short.’
Jack laughed ‘Bernard is a wimp. He wouldn’t dare rat on this ship.’ He flicked the switch to retract landing gear. He later explained that Bernard was in charge at Cregglezone.
‘Does that frighten you anyhow? The idea of Authority vessels being sent after a ship you are aboard.’ He spoke as if the idea of having a slight fear or respect of the authorities was madness. I suspected that he already knew what my response would be. It’s easy for someone to judge quickly upon the sight of me. I have quite the ordinary look, a real general citizen demeanour.
‘I guess so.’ I replied.
He laughed again and focused on leaving the station.

As he took off from the pad, he almost immediately engaged thrusters to maximum capacity, shooting towards the Air barrier and filling the entire station with the roaring of his ships engines. The entire procedure seemed effortless to him. Taking off and exiting the station was over in an instant. A series of manoeuvres that normally last for a few minutes to any ordinary Commander. Especially one obeying the speeding limits of a station. Something Jack clearly had no time for.
‘That’s probably fine number 19!’ he exclaimed. Grinning as if he’d just finished the punch line of a joke.

I still didn’t quite understand why Jack had picked this station to meet me at. He knew he had many outstanding fines, so why here? I thought that maybe it was for my benefit. A sort of show to display how bad he is and his complete lack of respect for the systems government. Or maybe it was a wise choice on his behalf. Maybe Cregglezone really was the best place to meet me, because the heat here was nothing compared to other stations. Either way, I was just happy that the meeting had taken place.

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Max Hampart’s Article “In The Face of Fear” will continue…​

 

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The Embargo

“At approximately 08:00 hours within the Zaragas system, 5 Cobra MkIII shuttles opened fire on 4 civilian vessels transporting; among high value cargo, 20 citizens on route to the Jenna Hub Station. The civilian vessels requested assistance from local authority ships upon attack. 3 were destroyed while 1 was left with severe hull damage and its life support module left inactive, before the authorities arrived. Cmdr. Wright, Neal, Brenton and Revain all lost their lives along with the 20 civilian travellers on board. After extensive scans and investigation, we have discovered that Cargo Limpets were deployed on the 3 destroyed ships and that their goods were collected by the hostiles. The forth ship was attacked but un-cracked by limpets for unknown reasons. Its cargo was still intact.”
-Captain Luke Ewen.

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This is a description of a pirate attack as written by the Zaragas system authority report. It was this report that concreated the idea of doing an expose on pirate factions. Two months after this attack a man named Harry Grinnad; aka Ripper, was convicted for organizing and executing the entire event. Ripper denied all charges (15 to be exact), he wouldn’t give up the names of others he was working with and didn’t speak a single word in his court case. He received 9 life sentences and sent to the maximum-security prison Green Tide, on Zaragas 1.

The case was shrouded in secrecy. It was reported publicly, “Harry Ginndad arrested for the slaughter in Zaragas”, yet no reporters or members of the public were allowed to attend the hearings. The transcripts of the case were made unavailable to the public and the post court publicity speech from General Robert Hibbott, was a typical boiler plate speech. Probably written for him by some top brass.

The secrecy drew a lot of suspicion to the case. Many news agencies reported that it was all a lie and that the authorities needed someone to go down for the attacks and they had no leads. Reporters were denied interviews with anyone involved in the case. Jerry Goldstein (Rippers Lawyer) said that he had to sign a gag order to even represent his client. A piece of information he was most definitely not supposed to share.

Everything was up in the air for quite a while because of this case and conspiracies were coming in left and right, but after a few months passed and Ripper was sent to live the rest of his days down on the blistering heat of Zaragas 1, everyone calmed down and eventually forgot. Except me. My interest was still peeked and I gathered as much info as I could and set out to find some pirate factions and write my next gripping story. At least that was the great adventure I had in mind. The real thing turned out a little more extreme than I had planned.

Max Hamparts Article “In The Face of Fear” will continue…​

 

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First Interview
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He plotted a course on the ships UI and sent us hurtling into a jump from Wolf 397. Once the procedures were completed he climbed out of the cockpit and sat across from me on the other tiny passenger bench; situated behind the pilot seat and the other side of the entrance to the Vehicle Bay. The Cobra MkIII is a sleek aerodynamic vessel; capable of agile maneuverability, but in terms of comfort for passengers, it left a lot to be desired.

Jack sat length ways across the bench so that he could put his legs up and crossed. He casually pulled out a cigarette and lit up. It was one of the first I had seen in a long time. I had heard that these space outlaws enjoyed partaking in old human habits, such as smoking and heavy alcohol consumption, despite of the adverse health affects, but I’d never really thought much of it. The very process of smoking seemed very ritualistic to him. It was clear that it was something he did on a regular basis. I speculated on weather this was how he'd obtained one of the many fines he had against him; seeming as smoking is banned in almost all stations.

‘So Max, why are you here?’ he coughed at me.
It was a good question, but I didn’t want to jump right into the deep end with my explanation that the Zaragas incident was my reason. I wanted to keep things a little more light at this stage. After all I had no idea what this man was like. If he was anything like the myths that surround these space criminals, I didn’t want to offend him.
‘I guess a morbid curiosity about the people that get involved with pirate factions.’ I replied.
‘Morbid is right my friend!’ he took a drag. ‘A lot of these folk are crazy f__kers, you need to understand that, but if you think you have the balls to see this side of the curtain, I’m happy to show you’
‘Why did you agree to be interviewed? If you don’t mind me asking; it’s just, I have been trying to make contact within these circles for quite some time now with out much prevail.’
Jack let out a belly laugh. ‘You’ve got a funny way of talking Max.’ He stood and made his way back to the cockpit. He never answered my question.
‘You ship is very neat’ I said trying to keep a dialog open.
‘What do you mean by that, Max?’ he said without looking away from what he was doing. Only now when I listen back to the recording I think that my statement may have offended him. Luckily I changed tack anyhow, probably realizing that the statement was crap anyway.
‘How long have you had it?’ I continued.
‘I've been flying this ship for 12 years. I never used to like the Cobra models but since Cowell and McGrath were taken over by Faulcon DeLacy the cobra has really found its stride.’ He stubbed out his cigarette in an ashtray I didn’t even notice on the dash. ‘I’ve always liked the ships that Faulcon DeLacy put out, you know. Their ships are all purpose. I could just as easily blow some space hero out the sky as I could, charter a new planet.’
I took the opportunity of him bring up illegal activity, to see how far I could question him about sensitive information. ‘So have you personally, ever attacked a ship?’ Jack took quite a while to respond, something I only noticed listening to the recording. When I was there it didn’t seem long at all.
‘I’ve attacked ships, yeah. Its pretty much part of this whole seen; you can’t really get very far if you not willing to follow through with a threat.’
‘Why do you feel the need to threaten people?’ I asked.
‘Targets need to know that you not someone to be messed with. They need to feel that giving up their cargo or, I don’t know, transferring high priced data, is the quickest and safest way out of a situation between me and them.’ He turned to face me. ‘You need to be aggressive and frightening to these people. Otherwise it doesn’t proceed with much prevail, right!’ he laughed, pointed at me with his thumb up and his fore finger out, like a sort of gun and turned back to his controls. I laughed back and acknowledge him using my so-called funny terminology; all be it wrongly, though I wasn’t ballsy enough to start correcting his sentence structuring.

Max Hamparts Article “In The Face of Fear” will continue…​