Regrouping

Return to the hidden base
Arriving back at the Wildeman base after an in-system jump, the travellers worked out after some careful measuring that the freighter would just fit through the main doors and into the main hangar.

Once inside the prisoners disembarked and were welcomed into the newly renovated residential quarters. About a third of the freed prisoners had decided to join with Admiral Slayed and among these was a subdued Zheukvi the Corsair.

The remaining pirates showed their appreciation by swearing alliance and sharing the whereabouts of bases and safe planets. An arrangement was made whereby all those who didn't wish to join would be taken to Theev. Of Darokyn, Irontooth, Vallis or any of the other pirate lords there was no sign.

Plunder
The ships that had been captured by the Imperial Navy were removed from the freighter. Those that could be repaired were moved to the shipyard, but most of the ships were wrecks and were sent to the smelter and refinery. Some recognisable parts of the more significant wrecked ships, like those belonging to pirate lords, were kept.

Two of the repairable ships stood out. The first was Meatgrinder, a 1200 ton Aslan pocket warship which had been Hrol Irontooth's flagship. The second was Sorrowful Maiden, a 1000 ton destroyer escort which had been Admiral Darokyn's flagship. Whether that meant these two pirate lords were dead or captured, or on the run, the travellers did not know..

Among the other ships there was a mercenary cruiser, a gunship, a yacht, a 300 ton pirate carrier (with space for 10 light fighters, none of which remained), a salvage hauler that had also belonged to Admiral Darokyn and which the party were familiar, and more. Their fleet had doubled in size and more than doubled in capability.

Visitors
After two weeks a small sleek ship arrived at the asteroid and stopped there as if waiting for something. It didn't try to make contact and the occupants did not seem to be trying to find a way into the base. Eventually, after preparing the Harriers to rush out and confront the visitors should it be needed, Slayed opened a comms channel and asked what they wanted.

"We're here to speak to the Drinaxian delegate and to Admiral Slayed" they said. Slayed said to wait there and he would come out to see them. They agreed, and when the harrier was adjacent Slayed invited them to come over for a talk. The newcomers introduced themselves as Tipper and Hanz Waltz from GeDeCo. They had two pieces of information to impart from their masters.

The first piece was news was that the Imperial Navy taskforce had left Byrni and was en route to Oghma. They seem to have agreed upon Oghma as the main den of pirates and would teach the locals a lesson. They would then leave the reaches then head back to Imperial space.

The second was that GeDeCo had held up their end of the bargain that Lady Nitrane had unknowingly and unwittingly made in the Vorito vault. GeDeCo had started sending trade ships and support to Drinax to boost its position within the reaches. System Defense Boats were being given to Lord Wrax, and missile defense stations were being put in orbit.

They had also started clearing parts of the surface of toxicity and were working to help the Vespexers. Away from Drinax they had commenced negotiations to spread TL15 knowledge to lower tech worlds in the area in order to boost the general level within the reaches. Lastly offers had been made to the ruling elite within the area to send their children to the Scholar's Tower for the best education in the sector. This was a quite unsettling amount of effort on behalf of GeDeCo and the travellers didn't know what to do with the information.

The party asked what DeGeCo needed from then, and the answer was that the corporation needed nothing. Their plans for Drinax simply needed the agreement of a legally appointed representative.  The party then asked if it might be possible to get supplies and trade goods - about 50,000 tons would be sufficient. Tipper was bemused. What did they need that for? Why not ask for money? But he shrugged and said that if his GeDeCo superiors authorised that they they would most certainly want to know what it was for. The party paused at that.

Finally Tipper asked how he might get in touch with them in the future. The party said that if they needed to be reached then in addition the base at Wildeman they should try Drinax or Salif. Tipper and Hanz Waltz left.with a promise to ask about the trade goods, and to keep them informed.

Preparing to go to Theev
Spending a few more weeks at the base gave the party time to let things die down, repair the TL12 ships, and plan their next moves. The decided to leave a crew at the Wildeman base to keep it running and hopefully make some money by selling manufacturing goods. They would also start work on some system defense boats for Tech-World.

Also staying at the Wildeman base would be the Patrol Corvette for defense, the trading ships to take goods to and from the Wildeman spaceport, and a bug-class salvage hauler to move materials around.

Deciding that the refuelling costs of the freighter were prohibitive (9000 tons of refined fuel would cost 4.5MCr) a fuel processing plant was manufactured to handle 3000 tons of fuel per day. This 150 ton system was installed in the cargo hold of the freighter and connected to the fuel system so that once the shuttles returned with fuel from skimming a gas giant it could be purified relatively quickly. This approach would not only save money but also allow the freighter to avoid inquisitive people at space ports.

The remaining ships were loaded back into the freighter - this time more carefully - and everyone prepared to make the three jumps through Exocet and Borite to Palindrome, before going on to Theev.

To be continued.