Lar Golo and his ruthless Fishborne Pirates [DiD] (Chapter XVIII up, game finished)

[RyuKazuha]

LOL, just lol, it'll take me a while to write down what happened in the last 3 hours of gameplay. NPC-bailing really makes you believe you deal with sentients that care about whether they die or live.

And welcome lurker.

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[Chapter IV]
Blasto's Fate

Golo moved on and into Nopileos' Memorial, having his eyes on the scanner for the whole time and watching out for suitable target.

A pair of Goner Rangers caught eye. They looked somewhat like Novas, but where considerably less dangerous, though better shielded. Judging from that, they'd net a good profit. Probably.
Evy didn't object to his idea - she was happy with targets who wouldn't try to kill both of them - and instead calculated a course to intercept the two fighters.

It took the IRE's a while to munch through the shields and one more to burn through the particular thick hull. For nothing, since the first Goner preferred to be a goner for real.
His mate still was optimistic to get out of the mess with his ship, but when the hull integrity slowly approached the 10%, he decided to take a walk in memory of his comrades destiny.
The ship was patched up a bit and send to the Argon Shipyard, because Kingdom End was just way to far away for the ship to reach it in reasonable time.

On the way to the north gate, a Military Transport of Split origin entered the scanner range, escorted by 3 Jaguars and one Scorpion. A quick scan revealed drones and PRGs on the TM, but no missiles on board of the escorts.
"Perfect." "You call that perfect? These Phased Repeater Guns will trash us in less than 20 Seconds." Evy's voice just how worried she was. Yet Golo normally did not take a risk, if he hadn't planned how to minimize it. At least not since attacking civilians in Boron Core Space.
"They won't be a problem, trust me." Golo turned Blasto, heeled the convoy, turned again and took another approach from the front, targeting the Scorpion. "Ready yourself." The distance melted and as soon as they broke range, "Blasto" opened fire on the M4, decapitating the shields an crippling the ships engines on the first go an passing by before the TM even realized what had happened.
"I'm impressed." Evy admitted, but she was still skeptic about what her creator had in mind. "Not done yet." Golo grinned and steered into the asteroids with the three slightly slower M5 tailing him and the M4 following with some distance, leaving the TM behind.
About 10km apart from the TM, Golo utilized another full turn, targeted one of the Jaguars and destroyed it in the first go, engaging the other two in another high speed dogfight.
One of the pilots clung to his life and bailed, the other one was reduced to space dust through collision with a rock, just when the Scorpion arrived at the scene and a stream of accelerated particles hammered against Blastos shields.
"Shield threshold at 5%. We will not survive another volley like this one." Golo showed a grim grin and steered behind the attacker. It was far to easy to keep the ship behind the interceptor and harassing it until the pilot bailed out.

"Here we go, let's claim the booty and get out."

When the boron left his ship to claim the idle jaguar, he failed to noticed the TM closing the distances as slowly as constantly. Our Hero managed to make it back - still without noticing anything, and steered near the Scorpion, to claim and repair it as well, when suddenly a burst of PRG-Rounds ripped the Jaguar apart. "Dammit."
Golo turned half way to the Scorpion and returned to the Blasto, right before the first rounds fizzled past the ship.
Evy accelerated as soon as he entered and flew the ship through the south gate into the safety of Hatikvah's Faith.

"That was fun." the pale boron demanded and gulped the shock. "I'd like to discuss your definition of fun. You could've gotten us killed for real this time." "Touché. Guess I've to tweak this strategy a bit."

Golo decided to take a breath, before he'd take on more acts of piracy. Evy kept an Eye on the gate to make sure the TM wouldn't surprise them another time, but apart from that, the Blasto floated idle through Haktivah's Faith, until a Scout showed up on the scanners, catching Golos Eye with his unusual speed.
"What a nice toy." he said while targeting the ship. "Almost as fast as we are." "Let's check it out." "It's Argon, you'll damage our Reputation..." The Objection was ignored and the scan showed something even more interesting: An installed CLS.
"Don't know what you think, but if we cap this, it's well worth the setback in reputation." Evy wasn't as sure as the boron, but it was useless to object, so she decided to don't even try it.

A short hard fight later, the Discoverer changed it's owner along with the CLS. And Golo already had an Idea of how to use his new asset. "Evy, I want you to pick up the previous owner of our last acquisition. The cargo bay should be big enough to make him comfortable." "Why would you want to rescue him?" Golo laughed. "I don't want you to rescue him. We'll sell him to the pirates later." "He is a sentient being. That's slavery." "Exactly, and other than that, it'll make him keep quite about what we did with his ship. As long as they don't have any evidence, the Argon won't do much more but suspect us." "If you say so... but I don't like this."

The two ships headed back to Nopileos' Memorial. Despite the former events, Golo hoped he could still claim the Scorpion or even take the pilots captive, but obviously the TM had recovered both, its pilots and the derelict ship.
A bit angry about that, Golo attacked another Goner until he left his ship and send it to Argon Prime like the other one, hoping to make up for the lost Scorpion. Like with the discoverer, the bailed pilot was taken captive with the help of the still unnamed Ship, before they returned to Brennan's Triumph, where two Split messengers met their fate. The first in fire, the second as a slave.

Selling the slaves at the local pirate base provided enough money to fit the Discoverer with the last engine tunings and cargo bay extensions, as well as some software upgrades to make handling it easier.
As soon as the work was done, Golo decided to proceed into boron territory, sell the captured ships and to upgrade to an M4 - finally.

But before that, the little ship had another fight to survive. In Rolk's Drift a Split Strong Arms Convoy crossed paths with "Blasto". And as while being still jealous towards the Royal Family, Golo was a Boron, a Boron with some fighting skills, enough to obliterate 4 M5, 2 M4 and a Kaiman within a reasonable time. None of the pilots bailed, but Golo was content with cooling down by making Split explode.

On the way to Kingdom End, a Split Caiman was the last ship to fell into the Hands of the "new star" among the boron pirates. He wasn't well renown, he wasn't even known to most of his captives, but he was successful, or at least, he deemed himself successful.

The profits of Golos Venture exceeded the cost of a Mako double, but they where still barely enough to afford a Pike. Luckily, the captured Caiman provided not only a great part of the overall profits, but also a single 25MJ Shield, that would fit into the Pike.

"Okay, I've talked to the vendor, our new ship will be delivered fully tuned within the next two or three hours." "What do we do with the "Blasto" and the Discoverer?" Evy asked, watching the boron cutting down her connections to the ship one by one. "We'll keep the Disco, I decided to name it 'Kappa'. For 'Blasto' this is the end of the line. It was junk from the start anyways." "You keep that discoverer and throw a ship that served you since you first came to space away like that?" Evy got enraged, at the least because Golo seemed to just ignore her question. "Don't treat me like that! Why do you want to get rid of our ship?" she shouted.
The boron hesitated for a brief moment. Then he stopped. "I don't want to." he answered calmly. "We need a better ship, and we need to equip it with more than just some IRE's. Blasto will be stripped from any usable part and the rest will provide as with money to fit our new ship." "Why don't you sell the Discoverer?" "Because it has a larger cargo bay and better overall shielding. It's not the better ship, but way more useful to us now."

[RyuKazuha]

Okay, it was actually that many, that I wanted to split it into two Chaps, therefore, Chapter IV was renamed.

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[Chapter V]
A Feast for the Crows

"Swordfish". The name of "Blasto's" successor had been decided. With it's 25MJ of shields and the five installed IRE it was a worthy replacement for the little M5 from the junkyard.
Lacking another gun, the last weapon slot had to be left empty for the time being, but Golo was content to fill it soon enough. The energy supply for the weapons was sufficient to allow continuous IRE fire for a rather long time and the ship was still fast enough to keep up with most other crafts.

The first to learn that were two Pegasus' escorting an Paranid owned Buzzard on its way through three worlds. Our hero took the whole group from behind, eliminating the escorts in the first go and complementing the Buzzards Captain out of his ship.
The Claimed and repaired ship was than sent to Argon Prime, to boost the relations by selling some ships to the argon. Ships take from the paranid of course - a Split convoy was very pleased to see the Swordfish leaving them unattended whle proceeding to Cloud Base North West.

Unfortunately Paranid ships where scarce in most sectors from Three Worlds to Cloud Base South East and the only Ship Golo found was a full tuned Pegasus Messenger. Way to fast to catch it with the swordfish - and the Kappa was still unarmed.
Selling the buzzard and the - annoyingly worthless - rangers to the shipyard, as well as some shield generators to the local EQD however did build up the reputation enough to provide access to a full load of PACs at the local Equipment Dock, leaving 4 IREs for the Kappa and a spare one to sell it.

Entering Presidents End, another Paranid owned Buzzard became a target practice for the new guns, leaving the ship almost entirely destroyed and abandoned in the first go. Fishing for the bailed pilot, Golo failed to realize a threat yet again.

"We are under attack. Shields down to 72%. Incoming Missile detected." "What?" A barrel roll protected the ship from another stream of charged particles. "Who's attacking us?" "A Paranid salvager. M3 Perseus." A salvager? Had he been around before? Coincidence? Probably not, but it was more probable than a instant reaction to a distress call.
The "Swordfish" turned and Evy targeted missile. A few shots later it was destroyed, but Golo was forced to take another load of HEPT-fire, before he was able to evade and get behind the Perseus. "Shields down to 32%" The PACs got to work. Bright burst of accelerated particles munched the shields and burned the hull of the enemy ship, while the shields laughed of the targets constantly firing backside IRE.
Soon the salvager found him self first spaced and afterwards taken captive by his enemy. The ship was wreckage, but intact enough to take a walk to Cloud Base SE's Shipyard, while Golo entered Elena's Fortune.

Heaven and Hell tightly entangled with each other, a massive pirate fleet wrecking havoc on the local police and the sectors stations.
Death, loot and bailed pilots all over the place and a brigantine turning anything lawful into a great mess.
Being nothing like lawful and on good terms with the pirates, Golo sent the Kappa back to Cloud Base South East and began to fly deeper into the battlefield, only to find even more bailed pilots.

"Looks like most of them barely managed to leave their ships alive." Evy stated, a conclusion mainly based on the fact, that there where way to few derelict ships for so much pilots. Observing how the Brigantine swatted whole wings of fighters like flies provided further basis for this thesis.
"Well, if there ships are destroyed, nobody will miss them." Golo replied and already fished for the first of the drifting astronauts, covered by his reputation with both argon and pirates, it was easy to scavange the battlefield for anything useful.
Including wreckages, bailed pilots and of course missiles.

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The battle refused to end. Nothing seemed to be able to even scratch the Brigantines Shields and soon it became clear, that apart from the marauding brig a Carrack had some fun between the South Gate to Split Fire and the Military Outpost, effectively covering its bigger sister from incoming fighters.

Golo worked with the tides. While the brig harassed the east, he picked the spoils in the west, adapting, when the big ship decided to change its position.

"Looks like the Argons noticed what's going on." Evy said and targeted a patrol led by a Cerberus. The Brigantine had already noticed them and was approaching the gate, opening fire soon after. "I don't think it's gonna take long." Golo leaned to his seat and turned off the thrusters. His new chunk of salvage was to be made and instead of hunting for bypassing Paranids, he thought he could as well watch the fun.

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An impressive wall of fire turned the patrols fighters into dust. The Cerberus was way to bad equipped to take on a brigantine and it was only a matter of minutes, until the ship gave in to the Brigs fire and turned into a bright flash.

Only a few ships had survived the attack badly damaged and abandoned by their owners. The amount of bailed pilots was easily triple to that of surviving ships, while not even one ship of the whole patrol was still on duty.

This fight hand ended and the crows came to feast. Golo was one of the crows, and the most hungry one, turning any other Salvager to dust without mercy and gathering not only wares and ships put also all of the pilots.

Meanwhile, the brig destroyed the Trade Station and opened fire on other stations as well. Even a Galleon joined through the south gate, wich was still guarded by the, now rather badly damaged Carrack.

Another Cerberus attempted to chase it, but was destined to fail ins his taske, since the other ship was way faster and not the patience to wait for its foe, dragging it away from the battlefield and through the north gate, while the big bad brigantine continued its work on the local economy and obliterated and attacking patrol led by a Centaur and accompanied by 4 bombers.

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To be able to take all the pilots into custody, Golo had to utilize another salvaged CLS carried by a falcon and the Kappa. While Golo gathered the pilots in the combat some, the Kappa had to travel between Elena's Fortune and Cloud Base South East, to bring the Pilots to the Falcon docked at the Local EQD, wich was than used as a "storage" for the captives, wich were declared as passengers to anybody who'd ask. Wich nobody really did. The captives themselves believed to be brought back to Argon Prime as soon as possible, and they wouldn't know anything other until given to the slavers.

Evy counted 35 of them, when Golo finally called it a day and backed off from the still ongoing battle. Mainly because the brigantine started to concentrate on the stations, rather than wrecking more fighters and freighters.
With a total of 13 claimed ships it was well worth the time spend and would net a very decent profit.
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With the next chapter, I'll include a property list. I still have to repair all these ships and to see wich carry valuable equipment. I basically just claimed everything I saw derelict, so I don't really know what these ships carry.

The bail-script works quite good. I left it at default settings and while pilots bail quite often, they usually do it just before their ship is destroyed, so that the amount of ships I get through making them bail myself is not really affected.

[X1000]

Holy cow! Look at all those M3s!

Now you can take your pick.

[RyuKazuha]

Holy cow![/color]

Beware of Loki.

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[Chapter VI]
Azula

"Okay, I think I've a purchaser for that Perseus. Would you...? Thanks." Evy's ability in multitasking was naturally way higher than Golos, so the AS was in charge of managing the details of each sale with customers picked by the hands of the boron.

Most of the scavenged ship where hardware wich beforehand belonged to the Argon military, making it impossible to sell the ships to the official market.
This, and the fact that they were used and in some cases had been abused, the ships worth was further shortened. 5 of 13 ships had been sold, when Evy received a data burst.

"Incoming transmission from 'Outlaws Heaven'." "Put them through." Evy's virtual representation left the screen to make room for a human face.
"So you're that Squid everybody is talking about." the man said and laughed rather impolitely. Golo ignored his attitude for the moment. "What do you want?" he asked, making his most serious face, wich caused another laughter. "Relax man. Azula-hime told me to contact you."
"The princess?" Golos Eyes widened and he couldn't trust the translator about what he heard. The human laughed again, this time he seemed annoyed "Never heard another Azula. At least, not on board this station. So, yes, Azula-hime it is." "How may I help her?"
"You may sell the Blue Fire Clan four of the Novas you claimed during the raid in Elena's fortune. We'll pay you a good price. You won't find many customers for stolen military Novas in Argon Space anyways, won't you?"
"He's probably right." Evy added, suspending the conversation for the brief moment she needed to say this. Golo nodded. "Deal." "Excellent. The princess will be pleased with your decision. Just leave the Novas on the Shipyard for us to claim them. Your payment will be transferred as soon as they are in our possession." "Confirmed."

"Nine sold, leaves us with four to take care of." Evy agreed and suggested: "I think we should keep the Mercury Hauler. With the CLS from the Buster Raider, it would make a decent ship to store freight and your captives."
"Okay. So we'll keep the Merc, the Falcon and Kappa. That should be all we need at the moment." "I guess. With just the two of us it'd be pointless to keep, what we don't need." "You could fly the other ships..." "Don't overestimate my capacity. It's one thing to order the Ships Autopilot around, another thing to take remote control of a ship. I may be able to do it with one ship at a time being in the same sector, but apart from that I'm not better than the average auto pilot."
"Yeah, I didn't though of that and I'd want to keep you unique. Okay, that means we need a crew." "If you want to expand, that is indeed the only way." "Why wouldn't I want to? I'll be the pirate king one day!" "You want to be." "Yes, I don't know what's wrong with my dream. Well, I don't care either. You didn't believe we'd come this far in the first place." "I admit I thought it to be next to impossible."
Golo sighed. "You could've said that a bit more polite." "I'm not allowed to lie." The Lar laughed. "I know, but you're not forced to tell the truth either."
Evy was quite for a moment and arranged the To-Do-List.
"You'll need to decide wich of the Novas to keep. Also, the Falcon and the Mercury Hauler will need some Names, if you don't want to refer to them by type." "Thought of that, had some Ideas."

"Geez, it sure was a pain to get all these Ships back together and up for sale." Maybe for the first time in his still short life as a pirate, Golo felt more comfortable in the pilot seat of the Starfish than outside of it.
They repaired, they had cargo moved around, they searched and found buyers in the local underworld. For every ship but one. The Military Nova Raider not sold to the Blue Fire Pirates was still docked in his initial bay. Repaired and stripped of everything but his SETA-Device.

The four ships Golo had decided to keep had been upgrade with everything stripped from the other ships. Software Enhancements and Hardware Upgrades of every kind had been distributed between them and the money from the sales went into tuning the engines and rudders or into enhancing the cargo bays. Also the Captives were moved from the now "Moldy Crow" named Falcon to the 'more comfortable' because wider cargo hold of the Mercury with the odd name "Rule of Acquisition XLVIII"

Swordfish and Kappa were still fully equipped with either PACs or IREs, but the choice of weapons for the falcon was somewhat more messed. With Four PACs, one PRG, one PBG, one IRE and at least a FBL it was stocked, but nothing more.
The Rule of Acquisition had to be content with a single IRE for missile defense duties.

The three fighters were fully shielded, while the Freighter had only 60MJ of Shielding from 25 and 5MJ-Modules. Not the best, but still enough to work.

Upon exiting the station, Golo noticed a lonesome Paranid Hades traveling in the direction of the shipyard. Immediately the Swordfish turned and approached the enemy from the rear.
"What do you ahve in mind?" Evy asked sceptically. "Destroying it." "You know this thing has Tomahawks on board, do you?" Golo nodded. "How many?" "Enough to turn us into background radiation." "Evy..." "Two."
The AS didn't want to encourage her creator to take the M8, but she had to answer, even if only in the second go. "Ridiculous. Lock the target."

The Hades' rear turret opened fire only moments after Golo unleashed the first volley of PAC-Fire onto the Hades Shields, wich quickly dropped. "Shields down to 57%, you should utilize the steering jets." Evy commented, while bolts of accelerated particles continued to harass both ships shields.
Golo agreed and steered out of the incoming fire, while Edy took care of reducing the Hades' hull integrity, after its shields collapsed.
"Warning, the enemy ship armed its warheads. I recommend immediate retreat." "It's alright, cease fire and let me take care of it." The ship dived, enabling Golo to aim for the launchers. When the hades launched the two tomahawks, it practically turned itself to dust.
"I'm impressed." "Thanks." "Still, it was a unnecessary high risk." "That's what a pirates life is all about. You'll get used to it." Golo turned is eyes inwar for a moment. "I doubt it.

The Starfish turned and set course for President's End, with Brennan's Triumph in mind as point of destination. The Kappa and the Moldy Crow had been ordered to accompany the Rule of Acquisition to "keep the Passengers safe on the Way back to Elena's Fortune".
Of course Golo had no intention to let go of even a single of his captives until selling them on the Slave Markets of Outlaw Heaven.

Elena's Fortune was dead silent. The pirates had called of their forces, when a Colossus accompanied by a Minotaur showed up, both of them now laying in wait near the Military Outpost.
The Trading Station, a Rhymes Factory and a Cattle Ranch had been turned to piles of scrap. A successful raid in any case.

Continuing into Split Fire, Golo loaded his weapons to fly several attacks on Split Transports in the System, destroying four Ships of various Classes without any big problems and being able to cap another Perseus before proceeding into Brennan's Triumph and right into Danna's Chance, unwilling to wait for his convoy to arrive and doing nothing in the mean time.
The system was not as busy as usual, only a abandoned Susanova and a lonesome Astronaut indicated an already ceased battle. Golo approached the bailed Yaki slowly. "Hey there, need a ride?" he commed. "That would be great. Just to the next Pirate Station." "Sure. Hop in."
"Do you want to enslave him also?" Evy asked. "No, we'll space him near the Rehabilitation Facility. I don't want a Yaki to haunt me. Separate him from the other guests." "Confirmed."
Things went like decided. The Yaki pilot was spaced near the next pirate Station and happily docked there. He wouldn't find his ship where it was though, since the boron took it as payment for the little rescue operation.

Upon exiting the gate into Nopileus' Memorial, the scanner showed a rather lively sector. Most of the traffic however went to the east, with the exception of a few paranid and split traders.
The first target to fall into the hands of the Boron was another Perseus, a dedicated weapons trader without noteworthy cargo and only a few fighter drones. Three or four attacks late it was mostly destroyed and the pilot bailed, condemning himself to a life as a slave to one of the lowlifes he despised that much.
The following scout ships pilot did choose death over slavery and was granted to and in the little fireball his ship exploded into.

Next on the list was a Demeter Super Freighter, wich carried a load of soybeans. At first, the pilot refused to give up on his ship, but after his two MK2 Drones bit the dust and the freighter was near to do the same, he finally came to his senses and bailed, choosing live over death, and regretting it the very moment he was picked up by the Starfish.

Waiting for his weapons to recharge, Golo already marked the next targets. An undershielded Split Chimera guarded by a single M5 and two more Freighters belonging to the Paranid.

The fight with the did go as every fight with them, it was hard and fast, nearly scrapping the Chimera, while the Swordfish had to endure some scratches on the hull, driving it under 90% integrity.
Golo collected the Pilot, claimed the enemies ship and repaired his own where it was necessary, before he set course for the next targets.

Those turned out more of nuisance than expected. Not only where both of them armed with PACs, but they where close enough to each other to cause the second freighter to help the first one.
"The enemy deployed drones." "How many?" "12 all together." "12?! He only had 4 on board." "Correct. But the second target seems to have decided it'd be a good idea to join the fight." Golo took a barrel roll and sheered to the left to loose the drones following him. "How troublesome. Switch to configuration two, we don't need all the PACs dto destroy these drones."
The Starfish turned, aimed and blew three drones up with just a couple of shots. "Shield Threshold 80%, dropping." Reversing the thrust, Golo stopped the ship in an instant, causing 3 of the drones following the ship to pass and get into the cone of fire. The first was destroyed upon entering, the second and third didn't managed to turn, before they also were destroyed. "Shields down to 40%, we take fire from the freighters." "Got it." The Star Fish accelerated and outdistanced the freighters for good, before turning and taking on another batch of drones. "Shields critical. 15% and dropping." Golo steered and turned like crazy to get rid of the last four drones, finally killing all of them with only 1% of Shields left on the Starfish.

Unfortunately, neither of the Freighter Pilots decided to stay alive, instead, both blew up along with their ships. "Damned Monks."

The next raids went better. A Kaiman and another Demeter, both Super Freighter Variants were abandoned fairly early, leaving them to had back for 'Outlaw Heaven' with a far more reasonable speed compared to the chimera or the former capped Demeter.

An uneventful period followed, until a Manta entered the scene. A Manta owned and piloted by a split. "Didn't you want a TP?" Evy asked and highlighted the ship. "It's a boron ship owned by a faction hated by the borons. I think you're allowed to take it back." Golo sighed. "We'll take it. But the TP I wanted was an Angel, not a Manta. The Manta is just old fashioned." "I don't really see a difference between TP and TP." "It's not about the class. It's about the status and symbolic meaning." "I see."

Apparently, the Split was a bit more interested in his TP. He refused to hand the ship until is was merely qualifying as a swiss cheese, but finally bailed and was promptly taken captive.
Golo just had Evy take over the Dolphin, when the ship was hit by a couple of energy blasts and turned into a fireball. "Golo, you should come back, Paranid Patrol incoming, Distance is just above 3km." Golo turned his space suit, having a quick glance at the Heavy Nemesis, accompanied by a dozen of fighters ranging from M5 to M3+. More Ion Shards where already on the way, failing to hit the little ship and the space suite for the time being.

As fast as possible Golo made his way back to the Starfish and accelerated to top speed, right when some of the shots hit and stripped the ship of ~70% of it's shields in an instant.
Golo steered to a nearby asteroid and hid in its shadow, while the Nemesis strictly followed it's course to the gate into Danna's Chance, casually obliterating a pirate wing and destroying one of Golo's capped Demeters.

"It looks like we're safe now." The last escorts of the Nemesis passed the Gate. "Keep an eye on the Chimera, it's still in Danna's Chance and I don't want it to get caught like the other ships." Golo replied with a grim face. "Will do. Are you okay?" "Yeah, just pissed." The Starfish sped up and left the Asteroid. Golo targeted a bypassing Perseus, the only paranid ship left in the sector, and opened fire without a warning, determined to make the pilot pay for the lost ships with his life. Even when the paranid bailed, his suit was just targeted and a few particle bursts blew the pilot into oblivion.

Evy kept silence. 'Pissed' slightly failed to describe Golos mood adequately. So instead of questioning his action, she searched for a replacement for the Manta and found it in form of a Hermes passenger transport in Danna's Chances, moving to Brennan's Thriumph. "The Chimera is save and there's something you might want to know: A Hermes filled with passengers."
Golo looked at what Evy showed him. "Paranid. What's with the Nemesis?" "She would have crossed path with the Chimera right now. I assume its destination was freedoms reach." "Why...? Well, not of concern to us. Take us to this Hermes, I'll rest for the moment." "Confirmed. Do you wish to hear some relaxing music? I downloaded 'Tracks of Nishalla' recently." "Yeah, thanks."

It was not until 4kms away from the Gate to Split Fire, that the Starfish caught up with its target. Upon entering weapons reach, Golo took the back the helm and unleashed his fury upon the TP, destroying it's 5 defensive fighter drones without even getting a single hit.
Soon after the pilot tried to get away by bailing, but as usual the Starfish gathered him out of the void and afterwards escorted the Hermes with its full dozen of passengers - all of paranid origin - to "Outlaw Heaven, where all the other captured ships and Golos little convoy already where docked.

"I'll have a look on the slave markets." The boron informed his AS, while leaving his seat. "Anything you want me to do?" "Nothing in particular. Keep an eye on the ships and enjoy yourself." "Okay."

When Golo set foot on the gangway, a Split accompanied by two armed Humans appeared at the entrance to the hangar bay. All three of them carried a stylized Blue Flame Symbol in one way or another. "You Golo?" the split asked with a harsh undertone. Golo eyeballed the three and nodded. "You come. Princess Azula summoned."
The boron figured he'd have no choice but to follow the invitation. "Lead the way." he replied and tried to sound as if he wasn't daunted. The humans flanked him and the Split led the group to an elevator at the end of the hangar deck, wich carried the group all the way to one of the top decks of the station.

The door opened into a large hall with wide panorama windows and made of precious materials. Lo pitched classic human music filled the room with a warm flair, and despite his company, Golo was quite comfortable.
The Hall was filled with several lounge suites, with about half of them occupied by people who looked as wealthy as shady. Most noticed the grouped with a quick glance and ignored them afterwards.

At the far end of the Hall an especially precious suite was occupied by a human woman in her late twenties, accompanied by two females - who looked like teenagers - of Argon and Split origin. All of them very attractive spoken in humans standards.
Even as a boron, Golo was able to notice the sizzling sexuality engulfing the three of them.

"Lar Golo, I suppose." the oldest of the three raised her voice with an undeniable grace. Her black hair emphasized her bright blue eyes, wich reminded Golo of Nishallas Oceans.
"I'm honored to meet you, Princess." he replied, lowering his head as if she was a member of the royal family.
"You are. But it is my pleasure as well. Please, raise your head and take a seat."
The boron did as he was told and placed himself at an armchair to the Left of the three womans. "How may I help you?" he asked.
Azula smiled, whispered something to her human escort and watched her leaving the scene, before she answered. "I want to ask you to join my crew. You only stepped in here recently, and now you're one of the most active pirates at pirate alley." she stated. "If you join me, I'll provide you with a ship, even a fleet if you keep working like this. You'll make yourself a name among the pirates in no time."

Golo gulped. The offer was tempting, but he had already made his decision right after the first words. "I afraid..." he started "I'm afraid I cannot join you, Princess. I plan to assemble a crew on my own. I always wanted to be the captain of my own crew, since I first heard about the pirates."

Azula still smiled, she seemed pleased with the answer beyond expectation. "I see." The younger woman returned and brought a data pad with her. Azula took it and typed something on the touch screen "I'm saddish to not have you join my crew, but I acknowledge your determination. I'm sure you'll find yourself a fine crew soon. With your skill you should be admired by the pirates around here." The princess handed the data pad back to her escort, wich gave it to Golo. "Take this as a gift." Azula explained. "It will open you some doors in our small world. However, since you want to handle things yourself, I won't spoil you the fun to find these doors yourself." Another smile took possession of the Princess' face.

Golo stashed the pad away without looking at it. "I'm honored by your generosity, Princess Azula." he said thankfully. "You are. But you deserve it. I had my first mate reserving docking bays for you to use them as you see fit. You'll always be welcome on board this station."
Golo lowered his head and rose from the chair. "Thank you. Please feel free to summon me, whenever I may be able to help you out. It was a pleasure to meet you."
Azula nodded faintly. "May the stars guide you."

On his way back, no one accompanied the boron.

Permanent Assets:
Starfish (M4 Pike)
Rule of Acquisition XLVIII (TP Mercury Hauler)
Moldy Crow (M3 Falcon)
Kappa (M5 Discoverer Vanguard)
unnamed Nova Raider

[X1000]

How much is the princess paying your for the novas?

[RyuKazuha]

I sold all ships I don't keep at the shipyard, so the payment is the same, it was just for the sake of Roleplaying to let her take part in that.

The Nova that remains won't be sold for the reason of being a military ship, until the story provides another opportunity (or until I decide to give it a purpose in Golos fleet).

[X1000]

Nice.

[RyuKazuha]

little upgrade on the Chapter, still have to write down more, but since i write it in chunks, you might as well get it that way. ^^

[kgkosio]

little upgrade on the Chapter, still have to write down more, but since i write it in chunks, you might as well get it that way. ^^

Good thing you posted this comment, or I would have missed 2/3s of the last chapter. I read the post that ended with you selling the ships to the princess when you first posted it.

How do you decide to continue a post vs start a new post?

Good story. Keep it coming.

[RyuKazuha]

Chapter VI is now finished.

@kosio: You'll see a chapter is finished, when I update the title accordingly. :3

Edit: I'll add the Marauder Shipyard to be more independent from the race yards.

[RyuKazuha]

[Chapter VII]
Doors

Golo stared at the data pad. He wasn't sure what Azula had given to him, but it sure was a precious item, if the Princess of the Blue Fire Clan presented it as a gift.
"There is a Boron waiting for you outside of the ship." "I'm on my way back." "I know. I followed your steps using the stations internal monitoring." "You did what?" The elevator doors opened. "I was afraid you where in danger. So I made sure I'd be able to hijack the internal defense systems, if necessary." The boron left the elevator with a faint smile. "Thank you. Anyways, who's this guy waiting for me?" "He's a boron. Judging from his appearance, he's a mechanic of some sorts." "Did you make contact?" "No. You told me to hide from outsiders or act like a non sentient. I prefer the first option." The boron laughed. "Guess I'd do the same."

A few minutes later, Golo arrived at the hangar bay in wich the Starfish was docked. As Evy had announced, a boron was standing in front of the gangway leading to the ship. His skin tone was a bluish green, like the color of the ocean on a cloudy day. His environmental suit was covered by a rather mucky overall with a lot of oil stains.

"Looking for me?" Golo asked friendly. The other glanced at him and nodded. "Yeah, Mr. Golo, Sir. Pleased to meet you. I am Mumi Li." Golo eyeballed Mumi for a brief moment. "You're none of Azula's man."
"No, Sir. I work here as a freelancer since I first came to this station." "A freelancer?" "Yeah. Nothing special though, people pay me for making repairs and stuff. Nothing to become wealthy, but I make a living." "So you're a wrench for hire?" "So to say. I noticed you moved quite some Ships to and from the station in the last time. Most of them weren't in the best shape." "I admit it. Most of them bear the marks of my own weapons. But I've a better idea than having you repair my ships from time to time." "You have?" "Sort of. My crew is currently short of a skilled mechanic." "You want me to join your crew?" Golo turned his eyes. "Yes. Well, actually we're only two to start with. I'd have to ask my partner about it." "Well. Sure. I guess it's better than begging the locals for jobs."
"Evy, what do you think?" "I've already analyzed all available data. Mr. Li would be a suitable addition to our venture." Golo smiled and reached out to pat his new comrade on the back. "Than it's decided." "Well..." "What is it?" "The truth is, I've quite a debt to repay." "How much?" "185.000 Credits." Golo giggled. For a skilled mechanic, he considered it a reasonable price to be paid. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it." "Thank you, Mr. Golo, Sir. I mean ... Captain."

The first task for Mumi Li was, to stay at Outlaw Heaven and to move the ships stored there to the Hangars provided by Azula, until they were stripped, repaired and repainted, afterwards he'd send them to Kingdoms End for sale.
Since Golo had no intention to pay the rent for one or two apartments aboard the pirate station - the local landlords all being Teladi was a reason for quite indecent pricing - he and Mumi decided to fit the Captured Hermes into a movable residence and adjust it specifically to boron needs, ironically called the Fish Tank.

While Mumi prepared more Ships to be sold at Kingdom End, Golo and Evy once more took the Star Fish to go hunting, and to look out for the doors Azula had mentioned.
"I analyzed the data you got from this Azula-woman. It contained specific IFF-codes, encryption protocols for pirate communication channels and a number of keywords with no specific purpose." "So that's why she said she would give me something to open doors, but wouldn't spoil me the fun to find them myself." "An appropriate metaphor." The ship crossed the gate to Olmancketslat's Treaty. Golo wanted to hunt in the northern part of pirate Alley this time. "Anything more?" "Scrambled data fragments. I think she deleted some of the information, before she handed you the pad." "Can you restore it?" "I'll try. But it'll probably take days." Golo nodded. "Tell me if you find something interesting."


Things where quite in the Treaty and in Bala Gi's Joy. Both had next to none traffic and if, it was boron or argon, with a rare Teladi springe. But for the time being, Golo had no intention to piss the Teladi off and since Argon and Boron backed him up against the Paranid and Split, he didn't attack them either.
Farnhams Legend also was quiet, but some debris told of a little battle held here a while ago. "Seems there are still some ships usable." the Boron thought and steered near the three wrecks. A Falcon, a Kaiman Super Freighter and a Mercury Super Freighter, all where in horrible shape, but two of them had a little something that made them worth to be salvaged: Jump Drives.

Sending the Super Freighters to Brennan's Triumph, Golo had the Falcon to dock at one of the local stations and paid a mechanic to quickly move the Jump Drive from one Ship to another. Afterwards, the Falcon also made his way to Brennan's Triumph. Edy devoted the most of her time to restore the deleted data and was therefore busy.

The Starfish traveled back to Bala Gi's Joy, lacking both suitable Targets and E-Cells to jump. There, the Ship docked at one of the Solar Power Plants and Golo bought a couple dozen of E-Cells for just 12 Credits per Unit, enabling him to set course for Hatikvah's Faith the fast way.

Instead of flying half an hour, a couple of seconds after engaging the Jump Drive, Starfish exited the West Gate of Hatikvah's Faith. But the Eastern End of Pirate Alley was just as empty, as it's western beginning.

"Dammit." "What is it?" "No prey." Evy giggled. "You grew accustomed to that quite fast, did you?" she ask ironically. "But I might be able to cheer you up. I've restored some of the data. It's a pathing to a place called 'Booty Bay'." Golo looked at the Screen wich Edy used. It showed a sector, with a single station in the middle. "What is this place?" "It's dubbed an Anarchy Port, apparently some type of pirate station. It seems to be located in Loomanckstrat's Legacy." "And how do we get there?" The Screen showed a galaxy map. "I already downloaded necessary information from the ExtraNet. There are three paranid border sectors on the route suggested. It starts in Clarity's End South of our current location." Golo nodded. "Paranid Sectors sure sound like fun." he said, directing the Ship in direction of the South Gate. "Do you already regret telling me this?" He asked with a grin. "Not yet. But I think I soon will."

And Evy did. Of course the first thing for Golo to do when entering enemy space, was to attack any ship he encountered, wich first was a Split Mamba. The pilot bailed, when the hull integrity was near the absolute zero, but Golo still claimed it and took the pilot into custody, as he used to do in pirate alley, ignoring the hostile environment.
A Hermes carpool was the next target upon entering third redemption, but the pilot was more stubborn than his split counterpart, leading the TP to go off in flames.
As well as an Arms Dealer, who was to afraid to use his cargo of Dragon Flies against the attacker, yet refused to bail while barking about how many way's he'd know to kill the lowlife he deemed Golo.
Very much to to Golo contempt, half of his freight didn't go of together with the ship, leaving a total of 126 dragon flies for Golo to collect them.

The next to bite the space dust was a Split owned Demeter Super Freighter in Perditions End, before a Heavy Nemesis on Patrol Duty forced the Boron to let go of another carpool.

"Great, now we have a mechanic and nothing to send to him for repairs." "Mr. Li is still busy with the Super Freighters you send back from Farnhams Legend and the Mamba has not yet arrived at 'Outlaw's Heaven' he'll be fine I think." Golo gnarled, but he said nothing.

Mi Ton's Refuge was the place to start the next battle. As the Starfish entered the sector, an Arms Dealer of paranid origin exited it, leaving behind his fighter escort, wich was quickly targeted and attacked to keep it from leaving the sector. One of the M5 turned itself to dust by tackling the gate, the second was abandoned by it's pilot after a single volley of PAC-fire.
The Pericles put up more of a fight against the attacker, but as soon as the first pilot died a not very heroic death, the second bailed his already heavily damaged ship.
Both bailed pilots happened to crawl for the gate but where quickly caught by the Starfish. Golo then targeted the nearest bailed ship, wich happened to be the Pegasus, and claimed it. Meanwhile, another salvager snug up to the battle scene and boldly stole the abandoned Pericles.

Back on board of the Starfish, Golo swore like only a enraged boron would be able to. However, Evy actively prevented him from shooting the thief, for the reason of his argon origin and the fact, that even a single hit would have turned the ship to dust.

With a pissed captain, the starfish proceeded to Loomanckstrat's Legacy.

"I hope this place was worth the effort." The boron muttered. "It was. This Place is as lively as nothing I've seen before." "There's not a single ship in range..." "I know, and still the channels are filled with radio chatter emitted from the stations. Almost every of the pirate channels mentioned in Azulas Files is in use. Blue Fire, Purple Dragon, Yaki. It seems like every of the bigger clans has a wing or two stationed at this port."
At the opposite site of the sector a Galleon jumped in.
"Some more interesting facts about this place?" "It seems there are Forges for pirate weaponry attached. Plasma Burst Generators are produced as well as Incendiary Bomb Launchers. They also have an aligned training center for marines." "Do we have access to these facilities?" "No. The only Key accepted allowed us to dock at Booty Bay's Anarchy Port. I assume the other stations only serve guests a bit more well renown among them."

Golo looked at the Port and the three Stations surrounding it. It was entirely different from pirate Stations like 'Outlaw Heaven', wich where merely old TL patched together into some kind of superstructure. This was a real space station.

"We receive a transmission from Mr. Li." "Patch him through." Mumi's Face appeared on the Screen. "Hello Captain Golo." "Mumi, what is it?" "Oh, well I called because I heard something interesting from some old friends. They heard I'd go pirate and wanted to..." "Would you mind to tell us, Mr. Li?" Mumi looked confused for a moment. "Ehr, yes, yes sure. They said there's some kind of Pirate Shipyard up in Bala Gi's Joy. It's off the ecliptic, hard to find if you don't search for it and you need some kind of special code or something to dock, but the Owner is said to buy any ship you bring him for a reasonable price." "Another one of the Doors." "Probably." "Ehr, doors?" "Never mind Mumi, we'll look into it, thank's for the information." "Ehr, okay, erhm, no problem. You're my captain and all." The connection was cut. "I downloaded some more star charts. If we jump to Aldana Hill and refuel, we'll only need some minutes to investigate." "The Ship is yours."

[RyuKazuha]

Chapter VII completed.

[eldyranx3]

Princess of the Blue Fire Clan eh?

So when do we get to meet the Grand Poobah of the Blue Oyster Cult?

*Runs*

One thing didnt like about the MS script was that you *still* had to be on good terms with one of the main races. If only there was a way to build up a good rep with one of the other 'neutral races' in the script editor.

Then again it would be awesome to have a dedicated GUI for the mission editor instead of relying on MS Visual Web Express. Then a rouge Xenon shipyard could be a cinch to work out.

[RyuKazuha]

I didn't even know what "Blue Oyster Cult" is until I looked it up so...

I'm afraid you'll never get to see 'em in this DiD.

I'd also like to be completely independent from my race reps, but since Golo is a boron and still somewhat loyal to the kingdom, it's not really a problem.

If I get to break up with the boron, I'll just buy the PHQ before that happens and produce the ships on my own. Salvaged crap in, what I need out, sounds like a good deal to me and saves me the hassle of waiting for the Hub to finish - until I got that I need good reps anyways.

[RyuKazuha]

[Chapter VIII]
Hi Jack

The Starfish entered Bala Gi's Joy trough the west gate. Golo napped, while Evy scanned through the local channels accessible with Azula's key codes.
One of the IFF signatures induced a reply by the sought station, wich happened to be located almost 50km off the ecliptic, hidden in an especially dark corner of the Sector. Evy turned the ship and had it dive into the darkness of space.
"We are approaching the Marauder." she informed Golo, who slowly opened his eyes. "The Marauder?" "That's what the pirate shipyard is dubbed." "I don't see anything there." "It's probably intended to be like this." Evy assumed ironically. "But I assure you it's there."

And of course it was. Still, it stayed invisible just until the Ship broke range to use the short range intercom. "It looks... different from what I expected." "You imagined a station based on a cluster of asteroids, barely holding together, did you?" [colro=teal]"Very funny Evy. It's just a bit to common."[/Color]
The Starfish made a slight turn and approached the central docking clamps. Evy stopped the Engines and seconds later the metallic grip of te clamps tied the Ship to the Station.

The Marauder was both, intimidating quiet and annoyingly busy, depending on the area one was in. While the docking bays were rarely frequented this day, the Vending Decks presented themselves crowded and Noisy, with lot's of merchants advertising used ships refitted especially for pirate purposes and lot's of pirates searching for new ships or a place to sell their booty

Golo let his eyes wander and looked at the ships presented. A variety of Falcons, Novas, Busters and Harriers among other ships was for sale to everyone who had the money.
Also Ships exclusively produced by the Shipyard: The Blastclaw, designed by the united engineers of the most well renown pirate clans, as well as Capital Ships like the Carrack, the Brigantine or even a Galleon. Last of wich were mostly used or to be ordered prior to production.
On the highest deck stations were to be sold, everything from illegal wares to rare weapons factories only waited to be purchased by anyone who had enough money.
Golo had money, but he wasn't all to sure how to spend it and thus left the merchants alone, returning to Evy and the Ship.

"Fascinating." The boron stated upon his return, while Evy undocked the Starfish. "Indeed. I assume we'll sell the captured ships here now, instead of Kingdom End?" "Yes. Relocate all ships not already past this sector to dock here. It'll help us to sell to the pirates" With top speed the Pike returned to the "Surface" indicated by the ecliptic and turned south.

A pair of Spit owned ships crossed its path and as always, Golo didn't hesitate to attack them.
The first target was a Mako, already slightly damaged before the Starfish spat fire on it. The pilot attempted to return fire, but upon realizing that only one of his IREs was left active and his hull had dropped to a mere 2% of hull he bailed.
The Captain of the Caiman SF who'd tried to make a run for it, when the attack on the Mako began, didn't even had the nerves to resist as long. As soon as his hull dropped under 95%, he left the ship and hoped to be left alone - unsuccessfully of course.

With this new assets, Golo steered the ship towards Brennan's Triumph.

"I think we should get us some kind of mobile base to operate from." he pondered. "We were quite successful without such." Evy replied. "Yeah, and we'll be in the future, but if i want to start with my own crew, I need a bigger ship than a Fighter." "We've the Rule of Acquisition and the Fish Tank." Golo sighed. "Yeah, a caravan and a mobile Storage, but that's not what I have in mind." "So what is it you're longing for?"
Golo grinned. "Remember the Military Transport that chased us back in the Blasto." "TM-Class, Type Boa. I do remember. Do you intend to capture one?" "I do." "This ship is better eight times better shielded than Blasto was, but it's still no good against a TM-Class ship. Especially if you want to get a Boa." Golo nodded, the ship entered Brennan's Triumph. "That's why we'll change into the Moldy Crow for this plan."

Decided and done. Half an hour later the Falcon named Moldy Crow undocked from Outlaw Heaven and positioned itself in the vicinity of an asteroid near the Trade Lane from Split Fire to Danna's Chance.

"Not really comfortable." "This Ship is designed to comfort Teladi. Well, maybe not even them. I had to recalibrate the Life Support to make it possible for you to stay in here." "Yeah. I guess I pretty much just have to get used to it."

It was only a short wait for the prey to arrive. A Split Weapons Merchant with a Boa entered from Danna's Chance and headed for the West Gate. It had only two escorts, one of them being a pretty beaten up Scorpion, the second a Jaguar.

With the amazing speed of 120m/s the Moldy Crow snuck behind the prey and obliterated the Scorpion with a single volley of 4 PACs, quickly changing to a selection of 2 IREs and a single PRG to deal with the Pegasus, when suddenly other foes showed up.
Apparently the second part of the targets escort had been delayed in Danna's Chance and now took their turn to give the Falcon fire with HEPTs and IREs. On top of that, the TM unloaded it's own PRG on the Falcons Shields too.

"Crap." "Shield Threshold 40% and falling." Evy warned, while the Boron turned the ship and headed out of range of the TM, giving it's escorts another opportunity to place heavy fire onto the shields.
Golo did his best to strafe out of the way, but the ship, while being well better shielded than the pike, was just painfully slow - with its pilot still not used to it, and got hit despite of all evasive actions.
"Shields down to 15%. You should do something about that Scorpion." "Tell me something I don't know." The Scorpion turned a full 180 degrees and unleashed the full power of it's PACs onto the incoming ship. The Scorpion refused to alter it's course, causing it to melt down in a burst of unfocused plasma fired at point blank range from the singe PBG mounted on the Crow's starboard side. For a brief moment it was quite in the Cockpit, when the falcon dived into the debris left from the enemy ship.

"Shields down to 5% still two enemies left." Evy broke the silence. Golo turned the ship to face the incoming Jaguar and switched to IREs and the PRG. A small burst stripped the ships shields and caused the pilot to bail.

And then there was the Boa. Golo surrounded it a couple of times outside of firing range. "You should surrender your ship as soon as possible, or you'll force me to take it the hard way." he commed to the pilot. "Split don't listen. Will kill you." "Yeah, I heard something like that from your dead friends too." "Split finished. So is squid."

"The Shields have regained full strength." "Give me PACs and ready the PBG." "Load out confirmed, weapons ready."
On every go the PAC whittled down the shields, while the PBG fired at point blank range bit out a good chunk of it, making the time until the shields broke quite short.
After that, Golo continued using only 2 of the PACs to burn the Hull and finally got the Split to leave the busted ship. Instead of capturing him, the boron shot the pilot in cold blood and steered near to the ship, to allow Evy to claim it.
"This ship is different." Golo, who just had entered through the airlock again, sat down in the pilot seat. "What do you mean?" "Cyber Warfare Systems, Firewalls, the structure of this ships virtual environment is completely different from that of a fighter." "What you want to say is, that you've no idea how to claim this ship?" "If I could get around these firewalls, I'd be able to do it." "What do you need?" "Someone would have to patch me through from the inside."
Golo stared at the abandoned ship. How the hell was he supposed to get onto this ship? "We'll need a boarding crew. I saw a recruitment office for Mercenaries back on pirates heaven. Maybe you could hire a batch of them to do it." The boron sighed. "Guess I have to. Com Mumi, tell him to prepare the Fish Tank for departure. It's the only ship capable to transport more than two persons in our fleet." "Understood."

A bunch of 10 Mercenaries, advertised as the best available and dubbed the "Crows" was the group of choice to be hired for the job. Consisting of Split, Paranid, Teladi and Humans, it was led by a Argon named Jack Crow.
Golo had them enter the Fish Tank and undocked from the pirate station. "I hope the ship still is where we left it." "Affirmative." "Lock it and lend me a hand, I'm not really used to paranid tech." "Of course."

The Fish Tank accelerated to it's low top speed and crawled near the abandoned Boa. The shields were still at zero, indicating the generators had been destroyed in the firefight. In the back of the ship, the mercenaries already prepared for the upcoming spacewalk. When Evy stopped the ship a hundred meters away from the target, Golo activated the internal com.
"We're at the target." "Understood. Okay girls, time for a walk. Our target is a TM, wich means we enter through the hangar bays. Same as usual, stay together until we get on board. Let's rock."

The mercs left the ship through the airlock and made their way to the Boa. Golo stayed on board of his ship to watch their progress. Soon they reached and entered the TM through its Hangar Bays. "We are inside. Progressing through the first deck." The Com remained silence. "We've secured the ... oh f*ck! Everybody get out!"

A sudden explosion teared the small carrier ship apart. Several lumps struck the Fish Tank. "What... ?" "It seems the self destruction engaged." "Why?" "I don't know. But it apparently killed every person on board." Golo lowered his head. "They destroyed my ship... I told them to take it, not to blow it up." His voice raised in anger while he spoke. "Stupid Idiots! If they had survived I'd f*cking kill'em!!!"

[RyuKazuha]

Chapter VIII complete.

I don't know if I get to write down another one within the next week, have to do some work for university.

Maybe you want to motivate me with feedback?

[eldyranx3]

I think the rule of still having to board crippled large and big ships may gimp you a bit. If your marines dont have a high enough engineering skill, then they will probably total the already damaged ship. Maybe set the chance of big ships bail low but remaining hull high?

Storywise, seems fine. Lar Golo seems to have a good balance of sadistic glee about him, much as we would expect from a Boron marine that can be enlisted in a pirate base.

[RyuKazuha]

This failure was partly wanted. The TM had only <1000 points hull left and i wanted to claim it normally first, doesn't work, i think with SOS it would, by I didn't buy it yet, so I just thought, well, it's worth a try.

I think this experience will become a major point for golo to stick to his kind instead of hiring a bunch of Xenos.

Training marines to high engineering is always my first thing to do anyways, so the problem won't effect my experience very much. I'll reconsider the bailing rate from time to time, for the moment it's good, maybe it'll get higher with Golos fame rising. :3

The main problem for the moment is to find some Boron worth buying. Forgot wich races sells the bioscanner and couldn't salvage one to date, so I had to buy Mumi judging him by prize (~150.000 for 3 Stars Mechanic). The failed boarding also was a good way to get rid of 10 unwanted marines, hrhr.

[hedge0035]

you can get a bioscanner at teracorp

[RyuKazuha]

University stuff is nearly finished, I'll add a new Chapter this week.