This kind of sloppy record keeping is what happens when a:) bad news is severely reprimanded as if that makes the misdeeds of people not writing the report go away, b:) there are a hundred layers of bureaucracy to get through before any report is even seen, and c:) you keep your military in line with psychotropic drugs instead of giving them gear that works, decent food, adequate health care, and paying them what you promised. Or at all. Not to mention loyalties are expected to lie with the Federated Trading House’s profits and not to soldiers’ lives.
Transcript:
Page 29 panel 1
(Scene change; Caine’s argument with his husband is interrupted.)
Jentse: Um, sir? I’m sorry to bother you sir, but–
Panel 2
(Caine rubs head in exasperation)
Caine: What it is, Jentse?
Panel 3
Jentse: We were cross-referencing our database against missing communicators from this system and we came across something. Something big.
Panel 4
Caine: (to husband) Honey I gotta go.
Husband: But–! (Screen blinks off)
Panel 5
Caine: What did you find?
Panel 6
Jentse: This. (A report comes up, featuring an old photograph of a man in military garb and a ship)
Panel 7
Caine: (eyes open wide) Oh no.
Panel 8
Jentse: LCDR Roger Townsend, 45th Samis heavy artillery division, deserted during the Quaii offensive on Jeyna 2, stole sub-cap FSS Coltrane.
He was fired upon by the Horsehead and fled in this direction. Then we lost his signal. He was assumed dead and the ship destroyed, but… Nobody followed up on it.
Panel 9
Caine: Son of a bitch. That’s an entire sub-capital ship rigged for wartime on a planet barely out of the iron age in the hands of an outlaw. This is bigger than a couple of old communicators and a missing research team. This is bigger than any damn thing I should be getting involved in. I just wanted to complete my survey and go home. God damnit, Gillespie, what did you get me into?
