Shadows of Zeon Quest: Aphelion #8

You are Carrina Marseille-O'Hara, a former Newtype ace pilot serving now as a Captain in the Colonial Transit Authority. Your investigation of a derelict stealth vessel found adrift in deep space has taken you through Mars, where some of the technology that went into her construction was designed and where you turned up some evidence of conspiracy within the Royal Dockyards. While you didn't find the ship in any of the registries, official or otherwise, you did find a group of mobile suit-armed revolutionaries to stop and secured the support of the Martian Queen, Mineva Lao Zabi. It was because of this support as well as your old association as her former guardians that she lent you a trio of advanced space fighters, intended to escort you through an area of space known to be invested by pirates operating out of a base on the asteroid Cuithe.

The intended destination of this little task force was Luna, where you would have been checking the registries of those dockyards for any evidence of your mystery ship. However the discovery of three wrecked freighters threw a wrench into your plan: a closer investigation revealed that whoever sank the Antioch, Ramilles, and Scipio did so without first removing the cargo or fuel. It was absolutely inconsistent with your initial assumption of piracy, as even if the cargo wasn't interesting to a pirate crew they would have certainly taken the fuel. You also discovered that at least one of the ships was carrying contraband: automatic rifles, stored inside a crate full of bananas.

After being chased out of the debris field by an unknown vessel, which ran “dark” with no active IFF tags, you've finally forced your way onto the asteroid Cuithe itself in search of answers to your newest set of questions... only to find yourself face-to-face with the last person you'd expected.

“Of all the gin joints in all the galaxy,” Cima Garahau greets you, gesturing to what you can only imagine is her bar.
>1/4

“Can't help but feel it must be fate that brought you here. Grab whatever you want from behind the bar and pull up a chair.”

“You're running a gin bar on Cuithe!?” you demand, smacking the side of your head. “We looked for you exhaustively for a year before we gave you up for dead, and you're in a gin joint at a pirate... God's sake, why are we even pretending to be surprised?”

“That's your business, Captain,” Cima replies as you pour yourself a tall glass of Foxdenton's gin and cut it with some ginger ale. “As for why you're here, I think I can help.”

“You don't even know why we're here,” you observe. For her part the former Zeon pirate turned politician glances about the bar to ensure that nobody else is present... must be a slow day.

“I don't care,” she tells you in a low voice. “But I can tell you everything there is to know about pirate operations in this system if you promise to do me one thing.”

“And what's the price, then?” you ask, leaning in and adopting the same hushed tone.

“I need you to get me off this damn rock before I lose my mind!" she hisses.

You stifle a chuckle. "Retirement not all it's cracked up to be?"

"You have no idea."

“Then maybe you shouldn't have run off when we needed you,” you shoot back in a low tone. “Do you have any idea how helpful you were just by being a contact in the Republic?”

Cima shakes her head in clear frustration. “There was a demographic swing in our representative government, just before I left. What came to be labeled the 'old guard' were pushed out, either by popular vote or party politics... lots of the former military officers in government posts were sacked or resigned, replaced by young idealists with bigger words than resumes.”

“And guess who was first on their hit list?”
>2/4

“The notorious space pirate and accused war criminal Cima Garahau didn't even get a trial in the court of public opinion,” she continues, not waiting for your answer. She does however take a pause to swill her gin. “They knew my service record, they knew that I'd been used as Zeon's patsy then abandoned by my superiors. They knew that I'd fought Principality loyalists in space and militarists and isolationists in the government. None of that mattered.”

“So... I came here. The democratic leaders of the Republic of Zeon branded me for life, and so I came where I'd feel more welcome. I opened a bar... seemed the only thing to do, really.”

“And you hate it here,” you summarize.

“Passionately,” she agrees. “None of the things that used to matter even exist out here. Principality loyalists, EFSF veterans, civilian criminals... they're not fighting for anyone or anything but themselves. You know what the number one cause of death for a pirate on Cuithe is?”

“Murder?” you guess. Cima shakes her head.

“Sabotage. More people die out here when rival crews sabotage their ships than from any other cause.”

“Sounds like a lovely vacation spot,” you tell her, finishing your own gin and ginger ale. “We can see why you'd want to get the fuck out.”

“You haven't even seen the way they behave in here,” she adds, gesturing around the room. “I've had to ban firearms, football colors, uniforms and insignia, flirting, music players... hell, they even used to get into fights over each others' music!”

“So what do you play now?”

“Jazz,” Cima replies, switching on the sound system with a remote she produces from her pocket. The baritone voice of Nat King Cole greets your ears. “First guy got belligerent with me over it caught a bullet in the head for his trouble. Stopped getting complaints that day.”

“You shot him?”

“Didn't have to,” Cima tells you. “These louts know who gets them their booze.”
>3/4

“So you want to leave with us?” you ask, seeking to confirm Cima's intentions to leave Cuithe.

She nods firmly. “Yes. I'd been planning to stow away on one of the transports that come through here and drop off contraband like what we've been toasting with, but you being here gives me an alternative.”

“What will you do once we get you out of here?” you press.

“Don't know, don't care,” she admits. “I'll come up with some way to survive. I always do.”

“Do you still have that mobile suit of yours?” you ask her, already suspecting her response. “We could use a little help getting clear of Cuithe, in the event someone decides to treat this as a defection.”

“What do you think?” Cima replies grimly. “When I was chased out of the Republic I lost everything. The Gerbera Tetra's probably gathering dust in a warehouse somewhere, unless it's been stripped down for parts.”

>Does Cuithe maintain its own mobile suit force? Could you possibly steal something useful?
>Do you have any sympathizers among the pirate crews? Any contacts we could make use of?
>We want to see this asteroid's dockyards and manufacturing plant first. We have a hunch.
>What was that about ships bringing in contraband? Can you check for a few specific names?
>Other?

>>We want to see this asteroid's dockyards and manufacturing plant first. We have a hunch.

>What was that about ships bringing in contraband? Can you check for a few specific names?
And whether it was a legit Anaheim cargo, or if it was done under their noses.

>>Other?
Ask if she knows anything about that ship that buzzed us, guns blazing. If there's no leads...

>We want to see this asteroid's dockyards and manufacturing plant first. We have a hunch.

>Do you have any sympathizers among the pirate crews? Any contacts we could make use of?
>We want to see this asteroid's dockyards and manufacturing plant first. We have a hunch.
>Other
"We had to leave a crewmember in space. He's still got air and consumables for 3 days, but we'd rather get him back if we can. Know anyone who can go out there and look for him?"

A pirate scavenger scavenging in the ruins of an ambush, won't raise any eyebrows.
And they can even keep the fuel and cargo they find to sweeten the deal.

>music players... hell, they even used to get into fights over each others' music!”
Were those involved amputees during the OYW, by any chance?

Also this. >"We had to leave a crewmember in space. He's still got air and consumables for 3 days, but we'd rather get him back if we can. Know anyone who can go out there and look for him?"
Can't believe I forgot about the crewmember left behind.

>Were those involved amputees during the OYW, by any chance?
Glad someone caught that nod.

I'll give it another five minutes or so then get to work writing up.

Siding with this.