graf of grafmanitou

I’ve fallen in with the Crimson Boys. Folks who understand about making ones own way in the dark. And who don’t sympathize with the simpering fools who figure people are owed just for being whelped. It was the old man who put me onto them. We were commiserating over our cups, and of course that led to politics. Turns out he was on Alioth when the Alliance declared the independents, and signed onto a Q-ship right at the start of the Independence War. He remembered some of the crew he fought with, and their children, and it turns out they were living large at the edge of Alliance space amid a cluster of Independents. A lot of things changed in the last 70 years, but out there (he said) folks still valued their freedom: free of taxes, free of oppressive rules, free of bureaucracy. It sounded like a place I wanted to be, people I could relate to.

Traveler carried me across the frontier systems to Alliance space where the Crimson Boys made their nest: Maringpho. I traded a bit, and scouted out systems along the path. The Boys gave me good coin for the info, and I did a few missions for them in Maringpho and their neighborhood. They’re tight with the Alliance, and the local commissioner has certified me as Trailblazer, meaning I’ve taken more than 1.2 million credits from him for surveying systems in the near dark.

The Boys have also profited immensely from the crap I’ve found out there, and have been quite pleased with me as a partner. In short, I’ve made myself a home with a new family. And now I’m getting Traveler ship-shape for a long haul into the void. My mission: identify and relay back to the Boys and the Alliance earth-like worlds and metallic celestials that will make me rich and strengthen the Alliance.