I can
only imagine who it was I annoyed to get this assignment. Maybe it was
Scientist Wallis After I proved his theory about 26th century Rasalhaguian
influence on Tamar culture to be a load of hot air. I know he’s had it in for
me ever since then. Regardless of who it was, this assignment is some sort of
special level of hell, and I have no idea what I did to deserve it.
The
Black Mountain people are not the fascinating study in neo-primitivist culture
that I was hoping for. No, they’re a bunch of machismo savages who’s only real
interest is proving their manliness by slaughtering hapless wildlife and
occasionally wrestling each other. That their leader wears the skin of a Skatha
Ape is not encouraging as to their sanity at all. Fortunately, I haven’t been
here for one of their occasional wars with the Red Rock people, a nearby tribe
of equally bloodthirsty lunatics.
But yet
I am stuck here using them to do surveys of the local area for me. Why? Because
Star Colonel Kendra Tutuola is convinced that there’s a lost Star League
storehouse or outpost or whatever else somewhere on this blighted ape-infested
planet. And so, despite centuries of dead-end expeditions sponsored by the League’s
government, private enterprise and whoever else that has found exactly nothing,
I have to keep looking for it, because i have been ordered to.
I know why
she wants it. This assignment is a dead end for her, and she is desperate for a
way out. She is in charge of a bunch of adoptees who can barely tolerate each
other, let alone the Clan lifestyle they once embraced. And while she does have
a bloodname, she is also considered to be ‘past it’ by the insane standards
that Trueborns use for measuring their career standards. So she is hoping for
some amazing find that will get her reassigned to a Frontline galaxy, or, at
least, a less awful second-line one like Theta.
And as
a result, I have to stand around pretending to be one of these savages and
blending in, while directing a search for nothing. We gave the Black Mountain communicators
so they could report their findings, but all that means is that there is a lot
of nothing. I think they’re only humouring me and my job because they want to
stay on the Wolves’ good side. That the Red Rock niow have firearms is giving
them an added incentive, and only serves to make my life a lot more terrifying.
(Admittedly,
it is interesting how the Black Mountain came to be pro-Wolf. They value
physical strength above all else, and were in awe of the few Trueborn
Elementals in the Cluster, including the Star Colonel herself. Some of them
have even become Elementals themselves)
Buyt
this latest incident... I should demand a guard or something, because what
happened was terrifying. (I‘ve had no luck convincing the Black Mountain to
provide me with one. I’m pretty sure they all laugh at me behind my back). A
group of mercenaries entered the village and had a short, terse conversation
with the Chief. Most of it was the usual sort of ‘we have no quarrel with you’
stuff, which makes me wonder if they hadn’t been put up to it by the Red Rock
or something. However, during the meeting, one of them obviously made me.
Later
that night, they broke into the village and specifically the wretched hut that
I had been provided with a accrual mockery of accommodation. I’d been at least
blessed with a small generator to run my computer, holo-projector and other
equipment off, but it was still thoroughly detestable. They easily got in by
cutting through one of the walls and ambushed me, knocking me out with ease.
After tying me up, they rifled through my equipment, including taking a number
of my maps and data chips.
The
Black Mountain (eventually) found me and (eventually) released me, but the damage
has been done. At least I know those mercenaries didn’t get anything; all my findings
will tell them that there is exactly nothing on this damned mountain worth
fighting over. Of course, now I’ll have to explain what happened and where all
my equipment went, which will not go over well.
And this
is what happens when we let warriors run everything.
Note to
self: make sure this does not go in my official report.
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