The Casual Rocket Wranglers / TCRW

RECLAIMING THE STAKES

UEE Officer: “…The Grand Acquisitor, a prominent vessel under the banner of some… group, usually going by their shorthand – TCRW… its actions have become a frequent subject of our analyses… a ship surrounded by an air of intrigue… consistently altering the dynamics of our operations… recognized for unconventional tactics… an entity that commands both caution and respect in our strategic considerations…”

Civilian encounters with ‘The Grand Acquisitor’:

Merchant Captain: “…just appeared like a ghost… demanding a ‘toll’ for passage… intimidating but fair, could’ve taken everything but settled for just a fraction…”
Local Bounty Hunter: “…there it was, ‘The Grand Acquisitor’, looming large… weapons aimed but never fired… they took the mark without a single shot… a silent message to stay clear…”
Rescued Pilot: “…adrift and losing hope… then, salvation from ‘The Grand Acquisitor’… not just a band of pirates, there’s honor there… fixed my ship, asked nothing in return…”
Relieved Trading Convoy Pilot: “…thought we were done for, pirates closing in… then out of nowhere, ‘The Grand Acquisitor’… not sure why, but they intervened… might’ve saved our lives, then just left as quickly…”

The following messages have been obtained from the remains of the Navy’s attempted interdiction of ‘The Grand Acquisitor’ above Daymar, dated just before losing comms:

UEE Navy Tactical Analyst: “…last skirmish, it was almost standard procedure until they deployed that support ship. Hidden inside the Reclaimer, it emerged right off their main elevator… completely blindsided us. We were prepared for the Reclaimer, but not this… a smaller, agile ship – especially a Fury – adding to the fray… it changed the entire dynamic… We had to recalibrate our approach on the fly… It’s not just the firepower that’s challenging, it’s their unpredictability… every engagement teaches us something new about them… They’re not playing by the usual rules of engagement… It’s both impressive and incredibly frustrating… they have this ability to surprise us every time, despite our preparations…”
UEE Navy Security Officer: “…despite our extensive surveillance and intel, ‘The Grand Acquisitor’ remains an enigma. One moment, they’re the bane of pirates; the next, they’re salvaging in contested zones without a care. Their motives are a mystery. Are they rogue heroes, savvy opportunists, or something else entirely? It’s hard to pin them down, and that unpredictability makes them a constant subject of discussion at Command recently. We’ve tried to approach them for joint operations, but they keep their distance, ignoring us… getting into contact with them is futile, they do not respond… There’s something about them that doesn’t quite fit the usual profiles, and it’s both intriguing and frustrating for us.”

The following audio has been found in a crashed ship’s security footage located at the aforementioned site, post-interdiction:

Crewmate 1: “…heard something interesting about the crew of that Reclaimer, ‘The Grand Acquisitor’. You know, the one everyone’s talking about…”

Crewmate 2: “Yeah? What about them?”

Crewmate 1: “Well, word is, they weren’t always flying solo with that… scrapyard runaway of a ship. Started out in another pirate crew, or so the rumors say.”

Crewmate 2: “Really? So, what made them leave?”

Crewmate 1: “That’s the intriguing part… seems there was a falling out. Ideals, tactics, who knows? But they split, took a few loyal crew members, and somehow got their hands on ‘The Grand Acquisitor’.”

Crewmate 2: “So, a rogue crew with principles, or just another ambitious pirate group?”

Crewmate 1: “…could be a bit of both. Whatever their reasons, they’re not your average outlaw, you too, have seen them fight. They’ve been playing at a different level since then… making waves in ways we haven’t seen before.”

Crewmate 2: “Interesting… that explains the unconventional approach. They’re definitely not following the usual pirate playbook.”

Crewmate 3: “…makes you wonder how they got their hands on such a thing. Aegis ships like that are not the easiest to come by, especially not in working order…”

The enemy of my enemy…

Advocacy agent 1: “So it looks like they really are as unpredicatable as they seem… Look at the radar feed, see it? that is an Aegis ship, a Reclaimer, but not ours, seems to be the one which belongs to that crew that’s been annoying half the system recently.”

Advocacy agent 2: “Heard the news. Should we take care of them? Although, looks like they aren’t here to annoy us this time. Hmm… looks like they are fighting the XenoThreat terrorists from what I can tell looking at the battleground.”

Advocacy agent 1: “Yeah, well, looks like they are doing solid work so far. Let’s hope they aren’t here to run away with the supplies from the wrecks, we need to have that Jav in working condition as soon as possible.”

…

Advocacy agent 1: “They have been staying clear of any supplies, and haven’t touched any other CDF recruits either, not even the ones trying to retrieve the cargo…”

Advocacy agent 2: “They sure like looting the XenoThreat ships though… Look at it, you can see the wrecks’ signal dropping – well, the ones still in somewhat working order. See, right there… they seem to take the easily removable parts off of those, cutting those parts off of the wrecks for… whatever reason, in the middle of the fight…”

Advocacy agent 1: “As long as they aren’t shooting our own, taking down enemies, and they aren’t disturbing the wreck extraction process… Looks like their EM is increasing significantly – and they are gone.”

Advocacy agent 2: “Just like that?”

Advocacy agent 1: “Just like that. From what I heard, this isn’t unheard of when dealing with them.”

Home delivery

“Right… well, P, we could take Specs for a run. Been a while, and it doesn’t burn through fuel faster than a Drake ship through hull plating.” D said.

“Fits stuff easier for sure.” answered P, agreeingly.

“How much are we carrying?” D asked, leaning back on the sofa.

P thought for a second before answering, “Like… three boxes of 1/8 SCU of Maze, a couple baker’s dozen Altruciatoxin, and some osoian hides.”

“Okay…” He sighed. “Should fit nicely as well. Got the necessities too? Do we expect company?” D asked with eyes closed, facing the ceiling.

“Unlikely,” P replied, while checking the Mobi and the status of the ship. “Though a Fury is on board if the need arises. O also fixed the top turret since last time.”

“Sounds good.” D stretched, looking towards the ship. “Wanna fly? I’m not in the mood right now.”

P sighed, “Yeah, let’s get this over with. Need the money to repair the shields on the Granny. O hasn’t managed to fix the inner workings fully.”

Grabbing O from The Granny, abruptly canceling the repair tasks of his, they have embarked on the journey, repairs proved to be sufficient, which wasn’t a given since Spectral Gambit hasn’t been tested or flown for a few months at this point. Although the trip was easy in UEE-monitored space, outside of it was a different deal. The cargo wasn’t exactly theirs to begin with, worse than that, has only been recently nabbed from people less than friendly, though this was of no concern for them – not like the contract said anything about this fact.

D broke the silence, “How much is the contract paying anyways?”

“It was around, like, 110 grand, give or take,” P replied.

“Right… just delivery, right? Anything on the radar? Still no company?” D inquired, slumped back in the copilot seat.

“None.”

“Well then, I’ll go to the back, get some snacks, check on O, see if he needs any help.” said D as he got up from the chair lazily.

D got an approving grunt as a response.

After chowing down on a granola bar, D decided to look for O, quickly finding him at the power plants, so he decided to offer his “help”.

“Is anything working? You have been screwing around here since we took off, what’s up?” D asked.

“Entire thing sucks, but it will hold fine for some time.”

“Okay, so how much is the Acquisitor situation gonna cost us? Sounded like Granny took quite a beating.”

“The shield for The Grand Acquisitor?” O asked. “Not certain, depends on where and what kind of parts I can get my hands on. If we wanna buy something new, around half a million.”

“The current trip is paying us 110 thousand.”

“I know.” O replied simply.

After a short pause, D continues, “Gonna take a while this way, and I take it you don’t actually want to buy new parts.”

“I don’t. I also don’t want to spend my entire life clubbing together a defunct ancient shield generator – though not like they make many of these generators anymore.” O exclaimed.

WE ARE GONNA BE LANDING SOON screamed the interphone, with all its low quality crunchy glory.

“Alright, let’s grab the tools and let’s get packing!” said D.

And that is what they did, quickly finishing the job at hand, getting paid – tip included! Nothing over the top, but a comfortable 20 grand extra and some change – a few steps closer to the new shields.

“So what’s our shared balance, P?” D asked.

“We got exactly… 135 thousand credits for the delivery… minus our cuts… so… should have around… 300 grand…” P replied while looking at his MobiGlas with a sigh. “Yep, it is 303 grand.” said P.

“Wanna do one more trip? Got any interesting contracts?” asked D.

“Nope, can’t find any – it is also getting rather late, we have been up for the last 20 hours, ought to get some bedtime,” P argued.

“Let’s just hope we can find something to fix the Granny once and for all,” D said.

O was quick to reply, “I’ll call in some favors, look up some scrapyards, possibly,” said O while the three of them were walking back to the ship. “That’s our last hope in this system, can’t find anything promising around here, looks like the Navy did good cleaning up that crash site… Gotta grab some repair supplies too, just in case she shits the bed.” pointing at Spec.