Have you heard the news, dear reader? That a few weeks ago, the wreckage of the ship belonging to the notorious air pirate Roderick La Pierre was found floating in the Barrier Ocean? You did?!

Good job! Here is a crumpet!

But hold on…I’m not going to give it to you just yet, dear reader. Did you find the willingness of the Crowndonian military and the Triumvirate Authority to believe this story and write off La Pierre for dead to be a little bit odd? Or did you say to yourself, ‘Good riddance’, and go about your day? You didn’t, and you did, you say? You didn’t question a single line of this news? Hm. I guess I’ll just eat this crumpet myself, because none of you deserve it.

‘But, Mister Oculus, wait!’ you say. ‘They presented evidence!’ you say. Did they now? You’re speaking of, I assume, the ledgers found in the remains of the Captain’s cabin?

‘Why, yes, Mister Oculus! La Pierre’s name was in each and every one!’

No! I protest, as I whack you on the nose with a rolled up, chip stained copy of the Blackwood Gazette. Bad Sheep!

Did you not notice the evidence to the contrary? That the pictures released of the wreck match the profile not of a CAF Frigate 264 class, the same class that the Pernicious Platitude is a modified version of, but of a CAF Frigate 278, introduced into service following La Pierre’s exile because it was believed his loss at the Divide had forever tarnished the legacy of the 264?

And what of the unceremonious discharge of Admiral Winston Johannes, pressed out of the Crowndon Air Fleet for casting doubts on the story? A man whose doubts, given his record, should have been treated with the utmost consideration?

This is all dependent upon whether you actually believe in the idea of Roderick La Pierre as the terror of the Imperial Skyways, of course. I, for one, posit the idea that La Pierre post exile was nothing more than a myth, a piece of propaganda and scapegoat trotted out by the Crown to serve as a flogging post whenever things go wrong. Now, I’m not saying La Pierre never existed…I’m sure he did. I’m also sure he died at the Divide, along with the other four thousand men who fell under the guns of Rinkenbach’s Firefly attack planes. The idea that he was somehow able to escape the carnage when so many others did not and somehow claw himself back to Crowndon a difficult pill to swallow.

The question now, ever as always, is why? Why has Crowndon chosen now to retire their mythical stooge? Perhaps the answers lie in darker corners…darker corners where Men in Blue Coats reside. I entertain the possibility that the La Pierre boogie man wasn’t a Crowndonian construct, but a Cartographer one, a cog in their nefarious plans that had served its purpose after the attack on the Arms Summit. After all, why should they bother to sustain such a farce to cover up their existence when our collective bias towards ignorance allows the Cartographers to exist in secret EVEN AFTER THEY’VE SO BOLDLY WALKED INTO THE LIGHT FOR ALL OF US TO SEE?

I have another crumpet here. It’s yours, if you can tell me one thing. Are you asking questions, now?

Stay Awake, dear readers.

OCULUS.