The run for Run

After the liberation of the citizens of Danny's World in Run, Autumn and the small following she had gathered took sanctuary in the port city of Shepard's Point. The Imperial faction they had defeated on Danny's World still had control of Run, and they were not very enthused with their loss. They were constantly on the lookout for Rogue Runners who went off world.

The Rogue Runners had established themselves as an underworld trading company, and they spent the better part of the year, after liberating Danny's World, helping get goods to places that needed them as well as keeping Danny's World supplied. The Run Guardians of Tradition were very sore with the planet and refused to allow trade to pass, through Smithport, to the planet. It came to the point where trade ships were requesting Rogue Security escorts just to make it down to the planet. Once in range of the planet's AA gun placements, they were safe, but until then, the Guardians of Tradition fighters were always a looming threat .

Autumn finally became tired of watching the people of Run be stifled by the control of the Guardians of Tradition. Once again, it was time to do something about it. It would not be as simple as supplying weapons and food to rebels this time around. She needed to take control of Run. To achieve this, she knew she would need to keep hiring more pilots, and she would need allies. At first, she chose another faction within Run to ally with. Run Organisation was an imperial aligned company that did not quite agree with how the Guardians of Tradition were managing the system as a patronage. With the help of the Rogue Runners, Run Organisation was able to win a civil war against one of the Guardians of Tradition’s supporting factions, The Run Values Party. Run Organisation took Langley Dock from the Values Party and helped the Rogue Runners establish a presence there to work from. However, it did not take long for Autumn to realize that Run Organisation’s imperial principles did not sit well with the denizens of Langley.

She brought her concerns to the Vice President of Run Organisation, Susana Haley, and to Autumn’s pleasant surprise, Susana agreed with her. Her company had noticed a drop in profits since taking control of Langley. She believed this to be due to the fact that they were still enforcing imperial policies and were beginning to become associated with the Guardians of Tradition. She had no interest in governing if it meant a loss to her profits. Autumn proposed an election to let the people decide which company would run Langley Dock. In this manner, Autumn and the executives of Rogue Runners Co found themselves in control of Langley. Rogue Runners now had an outpost to work from, they could more easily get goods to people by using Langley as a more reliable layover for traders and smugglers. The problem of the Guardians’ harassment was far from over though. Escorts to Langley were still necessary and Autumn knew the only way to end it was to take Smithport and gain full control of Run.

To Autumn's pleasant surprise, a group known as the Paladin Consortium approached her during the election for Langley Dock. They explained that the Guardians of Tradition had expanded into many surrounding systems and were causing trouble everywhere they went. They offered her company assistance in taking Run back from the Guardians, as it helped their own cause as well. With the Paladin’s putting pressure on them in the surrounding systems, and the Rogue Runners weakening their influence within their home system, Autumn knew that the system would soon be free from the grasp of the Guardians. She still had a lot of work ahead of her and her Rogue Runners though. They began taking on more and more jobs for the people of Run and its surrounding systems. The more they expanded their influence, the better chance they would have of peacefully removing Smithport from the Guardians of Tradition’s grasp.

Everything was looking good in Run for awhile. Rogue Runners were becoming the system favorite quite easily due to all of their cargo getting where it needed to be. Everyone likes an on time delivery, especially when that delivery contains the essentials for you to live. It looked like Rogue Runners were going to be able to take Run without conflict.

However, The Guardians of Tradition Governor, Jarod Wade, was well aware of what was going on and he would not stand for it. He started bringing in more and more Imperial security. This made the civilians of Run restless and worried, but he didn't care. He increased patrols and wing sizes across the system and made the Rogue Runners job more and more difficult. Several of Rogue Runners’ pilots found themselves barely escaping interdictions and encounters with the new Guardians of Tradition forces that were attacking their escorts. Despite their best attempts, Guardians of Tradition had not managed to stop a single delivery that was escorted or run by a Rogue Runner.

The closest reported incident comes from a Rogue Security and Fleet Runner on a solo delivery to a settlement near Shepard point. He went out system to source the material, came back and was headed to the planet with the rations. It was Business as usual until he noticed a Guardians of Tradition Anaconda patrol coming around one of the planets. He quickly dropped into a nearby ring hoping to hide in the asteroids while it passed. He was confident he could take it on, but did not want to risk the goods being damaged. The people really needed this delivery of food. Despite powering down all non-vital systems, the patrol still spotted him and was headed right for him. When he realized there was no hiding, he powered up, put full power to weapons and shields, and got ready to blast his way out. Just as he was about to be within range to fire his first salvo, two more security ships dropped into formation beside the first. This had turned into quite the delivery mission. Outnumbered and outmatched, he diverted all power from weapons to engines , deployed chaff, and started boosting straight towards the bristling formation. His shields melted under the firepower of three fully armed anacondas and his own annie was taking heavy hits to to the hull in no time, he angled the ship to protect his cargo racks as best as he could and slammed the fsd on as soon as he was away from the asteroids. It charged, and he warped just as a final salvo of rockets zoomed through the empty space he had been in moments ago. He landed on the dark side of a nearby moon and repaired as much as he could before finishing the delivery and returning to the safe refuge of Shepard's Point for full repairs. Encounters like this kept building and Autumn was beginning to realize a peaceful solution was not possible.

Finally, the conflict reports grew too numerous for Autumn to ignore. One of her Rogue Security pilots was hunting wanted pilots who were assaulting Rogue Extractors when suddenly two unnamed pythons leapt into the asteroid belt and opened fire on him. The only warning given was a brief declaration of war followed by an onslaught of bullets. The pilot was completely off guard as he was already engaged with several wanted pilots as it was. His ship melted under the combined fire of the new arrivals and the pirates previously engaged. He was able to safely eject and hide in the wreckage until another Rogue Security could pick him up, but his ship was lost to the void. This encounter was the tipping point for Autumn. This was war. She issued a company memo informing all pilots with the ability to fight to fit up and get ready. She also put one of her executives, Amos, in charge of issuing bounties on known Guardians of Tradition VIPs. He dispatched some of Rogue Security best pilots to hunt down these high value targets.

One of the most noticeable and influential of these bounties was a Guardians of Tradition aligned pirate named Sprindil I. He was notorious for attacking freighters and passenger liners for Guardians of Tradition in order to hurt the Run economy. One of Rogue Security’s finest vulture pilots was dispatched to put an end to the pirates economy crippling assaults. He spent days tracking him from system to system gathering hints and clues along the way until finally, he tracked him to Mebekre. Once the vulture pilot was in system, he immediately picked up a distress signal from a passenger liner. Upon dropping on the beacon to assist, he was pleasantly surprised to find his quarry. He instantly began tearing into the pirates shields to get his attention. It was no easy fight, but the Rogue Security pilot was more than a match for the notorious pirate. With Sprindil I dead, pirates began thinking twice before assaulting RR protected ships. With the mercenary pirate problem dealt with, Autumn now focused all her forces on preparing for war. She meant to siege Smithport and drive Guardians of Tradition into the deepest hole she could find.