320-2509 Gateway News Service- New Texas
Natasha here dear readers. Have I got the tea to spill for you! I managed, as a powerful and influential member of the press to get myself assigned to the “Interstellar Patrol” [giggles], yes, and I scored an interview with Prince Roger himself. So let us go and see what he has to say:
Natasha: Hello your highness, or should I call you Colonel?
Prince Roger: Colonel is fine, we are pretty laid back on Sutekh, and really don’t go into the whole scraping and bowing thing. I am a Marine Colonel, and now an Interstellar Patrol Colonel.
Natasha: And that is pretty obvious from the fruit salad and other do dads that you have on your uniform; Let’s see; Anti slavery patrol ribbon with the number 12, Gilfig war decoration, New Africa mission ribbon, Hades Station Rescue Mission ribbon, Bronze and Silver stars for bravery, 2 purple hearts, Impressive. But there is one I do not recognize, that brown, tan, and red one? Then we know that you graduated from the academy close to the bottom since you were an indifferent student, not a bad one, but one who was not there to apply himself. Lots of action as a marine, well liked and respected by your troops.
Prince Roger: Well the academy was all “fluff and feathers” as we called it, and yes there was a lot of stuff to learn, but it just did not interest me. I leave the academics for those who like book learning, like my brother and sister Amanda. I am more of an action sort of person. I am proud of the fact that I have the lowest casualty rate of any marine commander, I make darn sure I take care of my people, and they take care of me as well.
I was part of the final assault on the Gilfig Temple complex, and got shot up in the Inner sanctum battle. They also ended up mopping me up with a sponge on Hades Station when some of the Black Sun guys broke through and were trying to destroy the hospital, and I shielded some nurses and patients from an RPG round. I almost bought the farm on that one.
I am very proud to have volunteered for anti-slavery patrols, we have rescued over the course of my time close to 1,200 slaves. I call that a big win. Slavers know that if they space their cargoes, then we space them. So as a result they stopped doing that sort of silly nonsense. Heck, my brother the King encourages them to live on Sutekh after we rescue them. The brown, tan and red ribbon is the Herpes Brothers action ribbon, we made sure that those reprobates never got close to Sutekh. It is a pretty rare ribbon among Sutekh forces.
Natasha: I have heard rumors that Elaine made your life miserable as you were growing up?
Prince Roger: Yes, she tried to have me eliminated twice by encouraging me to do very dangerous things, and there were some “accidents” that I still think were not accidents. She was a bully, nasty, hated every other sibling, and was always competing to try and make herself look good to Daddy, and the others as losers. She is responsible for my brother being banished for life, she made him look so bad, and egged him on to the point he was banished, and then she LAUGHED.
She made it a point to find someone she could torment, and she never knew when to let up, I know that there are a couple of people in Cheval Industries that ended themselves over her bullying. She always had to win, and she had no clue how to take accountability for her actions. While I was at the academy, she tried to get Daddy to banish me over my grades, and tried hard to keep me from coming home. When I got home she was there with her big fake smile, and gave me a hug, and whispered that she would end me yet.
Natasha: Your actions on Nuevo Sol really pissed a lot of people off, how do you address that?
Prince Roger [Annoyed]: You don’t understand, I have been assigned the mission to get her, and that is what I am going to do! Those yobs on Nuevo Sol were obstructing, and I suspected that they were trying to let her and Rachel get away, so we had to act, and act decisively. If I hurt their itty bitty feewings, then too bad, they knew that we needed to get those two for crimes against humanity and they were all: “Well we are a sovereign nation, and you can’t come down here, we will let you know in six months or so”. So I forced the issue.
Natasha: Yes, you did, but you also caused an interstellar incident!
Prince Roger: I had my orders. I am not going to let those two scumbags get away. So [deleted] those [deleted]. I could tell they were delaying, and attempting to cover things up, so we had to act, and look what we got, so much evidence, and the vaccines to boot.
Natasha: Yes, I agree that was a good call, but Nuevo Sol being in the sphere of influence of Xin Zhongguo, you made them upset, and there might be diplomatic repercussions over it.
Prince Roger: Well [deleted] them! We managed to save enough of the vaccine and antidote to get production jump started on Xanadu! I call that a win! Besides that is what the striped pants crew is for, to push cookies, and smooth over ruffled feelings, my job is to actually get results, and that is what I am going to do!
Natasha: So tell my readers about this whole Interstellar Patrol thing, since you are a Marine, and these are obviously warships loaded with Marines and lots of guns.
Prince Roger: Well that might be correct per se to the uninformed outside observer who is not lettered in these matters, but in reality, we have been commissioned with police powers under the Sutekh Interstellar Crime Control Commission, which has authority over the Sutekh Binary System so we are officially police officers.
See, I have this really impressive badge and credentials detailing me as a Sutekh Marshal with the Patrol, as do all of my men and women. So for this mission we are the cops. And as such we can call upon other law enforcement agencies under the Interstellar Police Treaty to assist us in “hot pursuit.
Natasha: Is that not just a polite fiction? I mean, how many police agencies are equipped with plasma guns and battledress? Also how can you call it hot pursuit when no one knows where they are located?
Prince Roger: On Sutekh, quite a few. Mostly the SWAT teams, which we have a lot of, and we are just one big SWAT team here of course. [Natasha snorts at this assertion] As for hot pursuit, we know they are in the sector, so that qualified as hot pursuit, but obviously a civilian such as yourself would not know such things, and as such your ignorance can be forgiven, but those professionals such as my crews know these things. I will attempt to mitigate your ignorance of these matters.
Natasha: Ok, so granting that you are Dudley Do-Right, Interstellar deputy on a white horse, what is the next move?
Prince Roger [visibly annoyed]: I don’t like your tone, but we as Interstellar Patrolmen and women are looking for clues as to where my annoying and criminal sister and her partner in crime have fled. We are here in New Texas waiting for information, we suspect she is working her way to try and get to the Outlands, but we are not sure. That is why we decided to get the old Essex some yard time so we could deploy quickly when we get hard and fast information on the scumbags locations.
Also we are waiting on some tanker support to arrive, which will give us some greater flexibility, and also a faster response time once information comes in as to where they are located. Since you are a reporter, you are obviously not skilled in the art of intelligence analysis, and intention prediction, we of course, are experts in that arcane art form which allows us to predict her movements.
Natasha: So, assuming you find her before every Cowboy in the sector, what are you going to do? And how are your predictions so far, you just admitted you have no clue where they are?
Prince Roger: THERE IS AN ART TO THIS! And as for my sister, well we will, of course allow her and her co conspirator to surrender, if they elect to do things the hard way, well that’s on them, and they have to face the consequences, something Elaine is unfamiliar with. I have told my people to try and shoot to cripple, not to eliminate. She can go to the gallows in a wheelchair, it will just require some extra engineering to make that happen.
As for Cowboys, there is no way I am going to let some mere bounty hunter or cowboys as they call themselves to make it sound better get to my sister first. If those people think that they are going to try and get to her before we do, they have another thing coming! The Royal Sutekh Navy, I mean, the Royal Sutekh Interstellar Patrol, is going to drag that murdering [deleted] back to Sutekh for her justly deserved execution!
Cowboys are a pimple upon the buttocks of the galaxy, and if those wanna-be pay to play idiots think that they are going to succeed where the finest and best trained units in the entire sector will fail, then they have another thing coming! I am going to be the one to drag her in front of my father, and my brother!
