Yue

 24th January

18:06 GMT

Lantern Xor is standing at what I suspect to be parade rest just outside the local military barracks. A small group of ungarans appear to be taking a moment away from their regular tasks to stare at him, while Xor himself is just ignoring them. Huh, I suppose they didn't know until just now that other colours of Lantern exist. Though-.

"Has Sinestro ever come here?"

"Not since he went bad." John still flies in the swimming position, going vertical only when he lands. "That I know about."

"I was just thinking: he was married to Arin Sur. He probably visited, right?"

"I guess." John shrugs as we walk towards Xor. "I never met him. You wanna know about his personal life, you should talk to Hal."

Xor takes a look around and then marches over to meet us. "Illustres. Orders?"

Out of the corner of my eye I see more locals gather, those already here using personal communicators or taking pictures. Funny thing is, while they're far more technologically advanced than humans are, the damage Ungara has taken to its industrial base means that I can recognise a lot of the technology. Simpler things are easier to make. Why build a Bleed-tech communicator when there's now plenty of room in the electromagnetic spectrum and radio-based communicators are a fraction of the cost? Similarly, though there are a plethora of different synthetic cloths they could use to keep themselves warm, local wool variants are far more popular. I guess it's.. a post-apocalyptic thing, though I'm a little surprised that things haven't shifted a little more towards pre-Devlos norms yet.

"Lantern Stewart has a government contact. We're going to get a situation update and then go from there."

Xor nods, and John takes the lead as we head into the air and towards a bulky building near the city centre.

"Lantern Xor, wasn't it?"

Xor looks at me for a second before answering. "Yes."

"Paul says you were a soldier. You do any anti-piracy work before?"

"No. Warhounds are heavy assault infantry, not marines. Pirate ships are best fought by warships."

"You don't board them?"

Just for a second, Xor looks at him in confusion. "I was a soldier, not an officer."

"And?"

"I was not taught strategy. I don't know why our commanders would want to attack pirate ships with infantry. I just know they didn't use my unit for it."

"Yeah, realistically, boarding isn't really a 'thing' in space warfare. It's easier to just shoot your target than go through all the effort of getting someone on board a ship that's.. probably trying quite hard to evade you. Even for pirates, it's usually far easier to pick up valuables after destroying the ship. Pretty much the only reason to even try is if you're trying to capture the ship intact or take someone alive, and doing it successfully requires a combination of high technology and a disregard for the life of the boarders that not a lot of people have. Citadelians used to do it, but they used teleporters and didn't expect to get their boarding teams back."

John frowns. "I've boarded ships before."

"You have a power ring. Most navies can't equip their soldiers to quite that level." We land in front of the well-insulated front entrance, the soldiers on guard duty nodding respectfully at John as we head inside. Xor only has to duck a little. "Who are we here to see?"

"Prefect Malo. After the time he got ordered to kidnap Hal, he volunteered to act as go-between whenever we needed to work with the Ungaran government. I called ahead, so-."

One set of internal doors opens and a heavily-built ungaran man in a lighter variant of the uniform the soldiers outside were wearing comes through. "Lantern Stewart."

John nods. "Prefect."

Prefect Malo looks at Xor and I curiously. "I.. wasn't aware that power rings came in other colours."

"Most people aren't. I'm the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. This is my trainee, Lantern Xor."

"Is this your first time on Ungara?"

"I'm afraid so. I don't strictly speaking have Sector-wide responsibilities, but I'll.. give you an emergency beacon before I leave."

A slight rise in his eye ridges. Yes, alright, I know that Jordan got his knuckles rapped on several occasions for ignoring the rest of his Sector. That was part of why he gave up having a full time job in addition to his Lantern Corps work. And… Yes, I was calling myself Orange Lantern 2814. But it's not like I ever told them that.

He smiles politely. "It would save me from having to grab you off the street."

"Do you have any problems that require my immediate attention?"

"No, I don't believe so. Not unless you're an expert in altering climate systems."

Hm. Mother of Mercy has finished spinning up Mars's core, and is helping the locals install the telekinetic system they're going to use to concentrate the atmosphere. But they don't need her for that. Mars doesn't have a surface population, and as far as I can tell Martians regard the changes their world is undergoing with hope-tinged disinterest. There's no real reason I couldn't send her this way for a month or two.

"I'm not, but I do have one on staff. I'll send her your way."

"Thank you. But what brings you here today?"

"A guy calling himself 'Effigy' is going after the Black Circle Syndicate. Unfortunately, no one trained him to tell who's a pirate and who isn't."

"Ah. A bounty hunter?"

John shakes his head. "Some guy with a weapon. If he was a professional I wouldn't be so worried. What sort of shipping do you have going on at the moment?"

"Not a great deal. We have a small number of ships we use for local patrols and repairing the solar reflectors. There's a mining station in our asteroid belt with a few hundred robot miners, and… That's it." I frown, and he notices. "We never went in for off-world colonisation, and our only significant space colony was destroyed by the Traitor. We don't really have any reason to send ships anywhere else."

"No unexplained disappearances from amongst your fleet?"

"We never found out exactly what happened to every ship the Traitor destroyed, but if you mean recently?" He shakes his head. "Not to my knowledge. I can check, but we really aren't a good raiding target."

John nods. "I'd appreciate it."

He nods and walks over to a terminal. "The only thing worth a pirate group taking interest in would be the wrecks left over from the Traitor's fleet."

"You didn't try salvaging them?"

"They were booby trapped. But to someone who had the codes, they probably represent a lot of money. Hm."

"Find something?"

"No, not really. There's been a slight increase in robot miners being disabled." He shrugs. "It happens. I doubt that it really means anything. They don’t have shields, so small asteroids are a constant danger. It's generally more efficient to keep them simple and repair or replace them."

"It won't hurt us to take a look."

He nods. "I'll let the crew know that you're coming."

I frown. "No… Don't do that."

He looks at me with a frown. "Do you have a reason to suspect them?"

"Nothing specific, but I'd rather take a look around without anyone tipping them off. Just in case."

He nods. "Very well. I will need to notify the picket guarding the wrecks if you're planning on going there."

John nods. "Can you notify just their commander?"

"If you think that's best. Is there anything else?"