Synopsis: Rubicon

Formerly a military support craft, the spaceship Rubicon is now used as freelance cargo vessel. Though they occasionally break the law, the crew does not consider themselves as low-lives, outlaws or renegades. They are respectable and have a lot of connections to a diverse group of people - underground, military, politics, business - and can get things that need to be done, done quickly.

Zhiv, the captain of the Rubicon, and his crew are in somewhat dire straits. They ran into some major trouble on the last job, took a good amount of damage in fighting and spent most their money to repair his ship. Once they get the repairs finished they are looking for new work but not much is around since it's not one of their normal systems, and they aren't quite as well known here.

A good looking woman in a business suit, early 20s, comes along looking for a crew and ship. Zhiv's certain the woman's pitch, Relena for now, is a load of BS, but she needs to hire a fast ship to take her to a planet a half dozen systems away, and fast. Not the easiest job in the world considering the quickest path takes them right through two major nations currently at war with each other. She is offering well above standard rate though. He and the rest of the small crew know it'll trouble, but figure they need the money, and they'll at least have a new woman to try and impress during the long days on the ship.

Knowing the high possibility for trouble, Zhiv sends a message to a couple good friends from his military days and pick up two more fighters for their crew.

Only a couple hours into the trip they get attacked by military ships trying to board. Since they were already expecting trouble they manage to get away, but it's close. Unfortunately the military ships don't just give up, but actively track them, and instead of trying to board again, now they're just trying to destroy.

Even knowing they were going in to trouble, being attacked by the military directly was not at all what they expected. They're not sure why the ships keep tracking them as well, only thing they can think of is that they don't want survivors figuring out that Nation1 (still need a name), or at least certain people in its military, are attacking civilian ships.

Relying on tricks, tactics and more than a few contacts, the crew is able to survive and loose their enemy a few more times. Eventually though, the military group catches disables his ship and are in the process of finishing him off when help arrives.

Zhiv never contacted his military friends after he should have arrived, so they started looking into things. They found out the woman's real identity, that she is Military Intelligence, and realized he got himself into more trouble than he thought. Contacting a few friends and calling in some favors, they managed to snag a military scout ship for a quick unofficial rescue mission, saving Zhiv's sorry ass.

After confronting Relena with what they know, and the fact that she nearly got them all killed, they finally learn the truth.

Basically Nation1 and Nation2 are at war with each other and Nation3 - their destination - will be hosting a secret peace summit. Some factions of the governments want peace, while others want the war to continue. Most likely for profit and greed though possibly hatred as well.

Relena is part of a the military intelligence team that uncovered a plot to destroy the peace talks. Maybe assassination, maybe something else, but whatever it is, it'll definitely keep the war alive if the plan succeeds. The group reported their information to the chain of command, but nothing ever came of it. Her CO tried to look into it and next thing she knew, half her team was dead. The rest fled, realizing that someone from that 'evil' faction must also be in their chain of command. Relena no longer knew who she could trust, so she tried to get to the planet where the peace summit takes place in hopes of preventing the attack.

What they don't realize is that withdrawing from battle after taking heavy damage and losing two ships complicated matters greatly for the enemy faction. Before it was a black op and very few people knew about it, but with a battle between military ships from two different governments and the loss of lives, they can't hide it anymore. The faction takes advantage of the situation though and blames it on the Zhiv's people, Nation4 - showing a video of the military ship coming in and firing on their ship, and then playing up the damage done, they claim Nation4 is now providing military assistance instead of just humanitarian aid to the enemy.

Instead of just facing one military unit, they now have several being sent out to capture/destroy the two ships, which are official wanted for spying.

So we have the entire military trying to kill Zhiv and his friends. They still need to get the girl to the peace summit before the plan to destroy it happens and the two systems escalate the war even further. But, at the same time, their continued interference is actually causing just as much, if not more damage to the peace process.