Eye of the storm - DiD (TC 3.2) [KIA]

[Zaitsev]

You have a bad link. The one about Shit Storm and More capital ships are pointing to the same picture.

Fixed it. Thanks

Great chapter though. Why do you keep selling the good ships? Caiman's, Magnetars, FALCON SENTINELS? Are you mad, man? Yeesh.

Can't wait to see where you're going.

Again, thank you To take a page from your book; it's nice to know I have readers.
As for the selling of "good" ships it's a mix of needing money and having a personal preference for speed over shielding. However, after the power core in the US is up and running and I've hooked up a few missile fabs and food factories ... Who knows

And yes, those who know me claim that I'm (slightly) mad

[Triaxx2]

Ah. That explains it. I meant that you seem to have a lot of shipping that you need and the Magnetar is perfect for that. Slot in a jumpdrive and it can bounce around returning ships without you having to do it yourself. I don't like it quite as much as the Zephyrus, but it's still a solid ship.

I can understand not wanting to fly the Sentinel personally, but I know of no better capital defense craft. It can shrug off FAA rounds like nothing, and even being clipped by IBL's don't phase it. I guess you're not expecting to do the Hub plot.

And I know all about ships not docking when they're supposed to. I just lost my Pirate Kestrel when it didn't dock and I jumped without checking and some Paranid Three-eye ganked it in Sacred Relic. I shall hunt down and destroy his Paranid Military Hyperion Vanguard!!

*cough*

[Zaitsev]

Actually I am planning on doing the Hub plot. How come?

I also got a Chokaro that I forgot to put in the asset list, but maybe you were thinking about getting the Magnetar in addition to it? I'll also think about keeping the next Falcon Sentinel I find, mass produce it and use it as a carrier defender. Along with a bunch of Pikes, thanks to you

And why destroy the 'Nid? According to the X-encyclopedia Paranids can survive up to one hour in space without a suit before they die from hypothermia, so I guess you can keep him alive for two hours by slowly roasting him over the exhaust of your engines
Just remember to turn him once in a while, so you don't burn him. I've got this idea that burnt paranid smells like burnt fly. Or ant.

*wanders off to find a 'Nid and an enormous magnifying glass*

[Triaxx2]

I'm planning to shove a Brigantine somewhere terribly unpleasant.

I'm not really sure what's worse. Losing a bunch of hull to a Q, or loosing a bunch of hull to your own ships trying to.. 'help'. I had a Phoenix come up behind me and try to help destroy the Q's and hit me instead. Sheesh. Spent an hour while the MARS goblins repaired it enough to get it somewhere to finish the repairs.

On the other hand if you're looking for a fun time, wipe Xenon 472 and then sit somewhere in Argon space to the south, or Split to the north, and try to stop the migration. It's enjoyable, until you find yourself trying to fight off four Q's at once.

I just was wondering why you weren't saving a Falcon Sentinel to RE. I know I have one tucked away waiting RE as soon as I complete the Hub and PHQ plots.

I'm liking Lucike's Jump Beacon scripts more and more, even considering the necessity of the Navigator to use them. I mean, flying to the Yaki Shipyard all the way from the gate is pretty annoying, particularly if you're in a cap ship. I mean, a Pirate Kestrel is pretty quick, but when you're going 50km at a rollicking 121m/s, it's really a long, boring trip. Being able to jump 10-12km off the station is much easier. And it's no savings, so it's not a cheat.

And I do love the Pike. It's an amazing ship, and it's more than capable at the job I put it up to. I've had to add some Tenjins though, just out of the sheer necessity of needing a more potent fighter craft. And it is, it really, really is. I need a couple of weapon forges in order to arm them though. They don't seem to use PBG's so I'm going to remove those. I'll stick with PRG's and PAC's for the main guns and turrets. I think my personal one will have a more mixed load out. Pikes are still a staple though, since they are so absurdly versatile. I'm also going to add some M5's to the mix for fast mover killing. I'm torn between Jaguar Vanguards, or trying to put my hands on some Fujin Sentinels. I like the Sentinel since it has M cargo and so it can carry Wasps. I'll have to check the Marauder Shipyard it seems.

And I've completely rambled on. Sorry...

[Zaitsev]

I think even something as big as a Paranid might feel it if you stuff a Brigantine up his ... Uhm ... Let's not go there

I think being shot up by my own ships it both the best and the worst. Worst because they should know better, and best because you can keelhaul the bastard. Using a Phoenix. Without an EVA suit.

"Hey, Johnson! Can ya hold yer breath for five minutes?!"

And I might try to clean out X472 when I have something with a bit more firepower than an M6. Like a destroyer. Or two. Or three.

Hm, guess I might give the Falcon Sentinel a second chance, if GoD decide he's willing to give me another one. If not I guess I have to find one and give the pilot the choice of bailing or develop a sudden and intimate relationship with my CIGs.

I prefer Loky's Advanced Hyperdrive, partially because it just give me a "B5-moment" where all the ships are in hyperspace ready to jump in to normal space, you can almost taste the tension and you just know something big is about to go down. But it's a matter of personal taste, I guess.

I don't mind a little rambling, as long as you keep it under four pages. If you go over that limit I'm gonna track you down and spank you with a mostquito leg. Or something

Enough talk. Update time!

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Chapter 16 - Let's light it up

Personal log: 768-05-04 - 13:23

Stars, that was good. I had slept like a rock, and the clock on my data pad said 08:34. Oh well, time to get to work I suppose. After my morning coffee.

Sipping my morning coffee I ran through the numbers of my budding … uhm … did I dare call it 'empire'? Four stations and a handful of ships? If not, it might grow into one some day. Ah, enough musing. Numbers. Right. My shield complex and traders had pulled in some three and a half million while I was asleep. Not bad, actually.

I finished my coffee, stretched my body a bit and headed for the bridge. I wanted to accumulate at least twenty eight million before I completed the power core, just to be on the safe side. It probably wouldn't cost that much, but you never know how many bumps you'll run into along the way. I had a few missiles taking up space in my cargo hold, so the first order of the day was to jump to Company Pride and get rid of them. Then it was mission hunting time.

Ask, and thou shall receive. Or something. First a taxi mission with a rather hefty reward, then I was apparently about to play dog and go fetch a ship. Woof. It was a nobrainer, since the taxi mission would take me to Ceo's Sprite and the shipyard there sold the Buzzard Vanguard this Teladi wanted. To birds with one stone, and some three and a half million in reward. Then it was just a matter of moving these folks to Ceo's Sprite, order the ship and cash in.

As the Buzzard finished I jumped north to Blue Profit, both for a refuel and to scout for possible places to put that dream farm I'd been planning. As mentioned earlier it wouldn't be a great earner, but it would provide a slow trickle and keep my Teladi rep up. Alright, four hundred e-cells in place. Let's go north then.

Moving into Greater Profit I did spot a couple of decent places. I also spotted a build mission, which meant I could pester Kao before his breakfast. He was going to love me so much for this.

"Yeah?" A slightly tired, hung over and grumpy Split growled at me from the com screen.
"You look like shit, Kao. Celebrating your new command last night, did you?"
"Thanks, and good morning to you too. What do you want this friggin' early?"
"Got a mission for you. HEPT forge in Teladi Gain. I've already sent the coordinates to you." He muttered some rather salty Split curses and cut the link, then the remote panel showed the station being loaded before the White Stripes drifted away from the station and jumped.

"I'm gonna charge you double for this one." The White Stripes had just entered the sector, and Kao was already on the horn.
"Yeah, yeah. You can get one percent of what we earn on this joker." I paused for a second, watching him considering it. "Which means your cut amounts to about two thousand credits."
"Funny." He looked dead serious for a moment, before giving me a skewed smile.
"I know," I quipped.
"Okey then, let's do this."

A few minutes later the station had unfolded nicely, and I got the Teladi on the horn telling us she was quite happy with the placement. I just smiled and took her money, knowing that her factory would starve if I didn't do something about it as the food factories in the area were strained enough as it was already. I would have to dig up another jump drive supplier, though, so my freighters wouldn't use frakkin' ages to get to their destination. Maybe the Yaki could help out? I had to check if they sold jump drives separately or if they were bundled to the ships they sold, in which case I had to get a few cheap fighters to carry them. Oh well, more work for my Chokaro then. Wonder if the station manager had another one of those up his sleeve? I had to check out that too.

The White Stripes had just jumped home and I was about to follow it when this mission popped up. Yeah, another taxi mission and another ridiculous reward. Hey, I'm not the one to complain. If people are in such a hurry they are willing to fork out millions of credits to get to where ever they're going in time I'm happy to help. The more money the better, as I needed to start thinking about building a power core for the Blue Profit complex too. That would run me another forty million or so, including adding another two shield factories. Yeah, those shields were selling like hot cakes.

Jumping to Greater Profit to drop off my passenger I spotted a cheap-ish Vulture Super Freighter for sale. It was a bit banged up but I needed something to haul energy and silicon between the mine and the power core in that unknown sector. Ah, damnit. I really needed to come up with a name for it. Anyway, I bought it and parked it at the local chip plant, which reminded me I had to take a look at Mines of Fortune to get a few chip plants rolling. Which of course needed power, food and raw materials, which meant I needed more money. Gah!

Aaanyway. Time to get things rolling, so I sent the Tartarus north from Company Pride to refuel the White Stripes. In the meantime I jumped down to Hatikvah's Faith to look for leftovers and see if I could find any more of those juicy freight scan missions. Probably not, but it wouldn't hurt to check.

Nah, pretty dead here. Except for Argon patrols roaming around, but that hardly counted as 'juicy'. Now, if I could get my paws on a missile frigate and some more marines it might have qualified as juicy, but since I only had five of them and no missile frigate I would have to play nice. Not to mention that I didn't want to blow my cover just yet. And that made me think what if … Ah, bloody hell! Concentrate, Rahne!

Mission. Taxi. Family Rhonkar. Some four hundred-odd grand. Yes, please. Anything to derail my thoughts right now. Hm, strange. The chelt space aquarium they wanted me to fly to wasn't even on the map. I had just flown straight through Family Rhonkar after our navcom went down the tube, so it was probably just outside my sensor range. It could take some time to fly there, though. Better get cracking.

Oh yes. The chelt space aquarium proved to be some fifty clicks off to the east of the southern gate in Family Rhonkar. Not a huge challenge, but enough to make me check the clock from time to time. Oh well, as long as we made it in time …

And we did, pushing us close to the twenty nine million mark. I figured that was enough, so I got Kao on the horn, told him to get a crystal fab, jump to 'that' sector and take up position beside the solar power plant. This was it.

"Take us to 'our' sector," I said, turning to Tracie.
"Affirmative. Jump device charging." Ten seconds later we entered the unknown sector, where Kao and the White Stripes were already waiting.
"Get me Kao on the horn," I said as we flew closer. I just had the urge to see this up close, as it sort of felt like laying down the foundation for something way bigger than me.
"Channel open, captain." A moment later Kao appeared on the screen.
"What can I do for you, o captain?" he said in a slightly teasing voice.
"Oh, are we formal today? In that case I ask for permission to come aboard. I want to see this from the first row."
"And dictate where we should put the thing, I'm sure."
"What? Nooo … Okay, maybe a little bit." I gave him my most innocent look.
"At least you're being honest … when I twist your arm a bit." He grinned at me. "Permission granted."

I took us into transporter range and headed down to the pad. Stars, my hands were shaking.
"Be nice to her," I said to Tracie as I headed off the bridge.
"Always, captain." A blue tint filled my vision for a moment and I felt a slight tingling as the transporter basically ripped me apart at the molecular level, transformed me into an energy pattern and shot me across hard vacuum, then reconstructed me on the bridge of the White Stripes. I had done it a thousand times, but I still got kind of nervous every time I did it. But now I had other things to think about.

"Welcome aboard, captain," Kao said as he stepped forward and extended his hand. I took it, and my hand almost disappeared inside his. Yeah, he had some huge paws.
"Thanks. I think." He just gave me a knowing look and pointed me to the captain's chair.
"I'll let you do the honors this time," he said. I took a couple of deep breaths and then started positioning the station.
"There," I said, as much to myself as to anyone within earshot, as I typed in the final command. "It's done. Now we only have … five stations left." Which meant five trips back and forth, as the White Stripes' cargo bay in most cases was too small to carry more than one station at the time. One of the few disadvantages of the Elephant.

Five trips and a refuel from the Tartarus later, and the final station had been dropped and connected to the complex. To be honest it looked a bit like a rat's nest, but as long as it worked I didn't really care. Now all I had to do was to equip that Vulture SF with CLS software, hire a pilot and move it here. Which meant juggling jump drives and dealing with the … urgh … Argon. They were the only ones who sold the CLS software, and they were the only ones who had pilots trained to use it. The thought of having argons in my organization made me shudder, but if they didn't keep their mouths shut I could always toss 'em out and see how long they could hold their breath.

Another problem was that the pilots were usually green as teladi scales and could hardly find the stick without assistance. It seems to be a common problem, doesn't it … Anyway, I either had to find another freighter to ship silicon from the mine I had set up or (ab)use the Tartarus by remote until my pilot gained enough experience to handle both silicon and e-cells. I would eventually have to get another pilot anyway, but for now I wanted to keep the headaches to a minimum. To be honest it would probably be more of a headache to babysit the Tartarus, but what the heck. So, time to send the White Stripes home, transfer to the Eris and get rolling.

First I filled up the Tartarus with e-cells and sent it north, then I shuffled the e-cells aboard the Vulture and transferred the jump drive and navcom. Next I had the Vulture raid the local crystal fab to get some crystals so I could kickstart the power core. Then I ordered it to fly to Omicron Lyrae to get the CLS package and pick up a pilot, and then I could finally move it here. Stars! Headache!

"Hum …" I was watching the Vulture trundle across Omicron Lyrae when this ship caught my attention.
"Something wrong, captain?" Tracie asked.
"I don't know, to be honest. There's a ship in OmLy that is transmitting a priority signal, similar to the ones used to link mission targets to our HUD. So either this 'Exterminator' is very important, or he wants someone to come take a look."
"You thinking about being that someone, captain?"
"Nah. At least not until I can get a missile factory up and running, and since this little construction project has drained our funds almost completely it's going to take some time." We were down to a bit over six million, and according to my calculations I would need around ten million to get a basic missile loop up and running. That, and I needed to find a jump drive supplier so I didn't have to juggle my jump drives around to move stuff from one place to another. Guess it was Yaki space next then, after I had gotten my freighter up and running.

Finally the freighter made it to the equipment dock in OmLy, and I bought the CLS package and hired a pilot. She did complain about the condition of the ship and that it only had a single one megajoule shield on board, but she calmed down when I told her I was going to straighten out the dents and that she would be assigned to a safe sector with minimal traffic. It was true. Sort of. I didn't tell her about the neighbors though. I figured she would adapt or get her pants in a twist and leave, in which case I would have to inform her that her contract said the ship belonged to me and if she wanted to get out she would have to get in her suit and fly to Getsu Fune by herself. I figured she would get about half way there before she ran out of oxygen.

With our somewhat reluctant pilot on board I jumped the Vulture here by remote and got my suit ready. Teladi ships usually had a pretty thick hull, so it was going to take a while to get it back into ship shape. Jo and Aron joined me, and under the watchful eye of miss Erine Halter, the latest addition to our growing empire, we started patching up the Vulture.

"There," Jo said over the suit comlink. "That was the last bit. Now let's get back to the Eris."
"And tell queen Wha's'ername to stuff it," Aron added.
"Agreed," I shot in, cutting through the nagging from the Vulture. Yep, she had found out who our neighbors were and she was having a bit of a meltdown.
"I-didn't-know-I-had-to-work-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-with-frickin'-XENON-next-door! If-i-had-known-I-would-never-have-taken-this-assignment-Besides-the-working-conditions-are-horrible-I-hate-teladi-ships-they-are-slow-and-cumbersome-and-filthy-and-I …"
"Pipe down, or I'll vent the entire ship and kick your carcass into the local sun!" I snapped. That worked for about ten seconds, before she was back at it.
"Stars-I-knew-it-you're-probably-one-of-these-awful-pirates-we-heard-about-at-the-academy-you're-not-nice-you-should-be-nice-to-your-employees-an-if-I …"
I typed a few commands on my wrist console, setting off the decompression alarm in the Vulture. Not very nice, but it finally shut her up. Gunne's nuts, woman!

"Let's pick up the jump drive and get the hell out of here," I said to Tracie as I entered the bridge.
"Trouble with the employees, captain.?" Tracie said as she flew toward the jump drive I had ordered the Vulture to eject.
"Just a little bit. Tell her to dump the crystals at the power core, give the e-cells to the silicon mine and then keep it topped off. Then jump to Greater Profit so we can transfer the jump drive back to the Tartarus."
"Aye aye, captain."

A quick jump later and the Tartarus had gotten its jump drive back. Then it was just a matter of giving it some fuel and send it to its new home. As I followed it on the remote monitor I watched the Vulture crawl its way toward the silicon mine, and for a moment there I regretted not getting a Caiman instead. Even with a full tuneup it was still slow as snails, but it would have to do. After fussing about with the CLS software a bit I even got her to follow orders, which meant my power core was now officially up and running. Yay! And for my next trick, jump drive hunting. After the inevitable refuel, of course.

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Asset list

Ships:
M6 Drake - "Eris"
M3 Cougar Vanguard - "Morrigan"
TL Elephant - White Stripes
M2 Asgard O'Neill - "SGC-028 'Lux Aeterna'"

TS Caiman - "Scale Plate Green CAG 1"
TS Caiman - "Blue Profit CAG 1"
TS Caiman - "NTC Sector Trader 1"
TS Caiman - "NTC Sector Trader 2"
TS Caiman - "NTC Sector Trader 3"
TS Caiman - "NTC Sector Trader 4"

TS Vulture Super Freighter - "Powe Core CLS 1"

TM Chokaro - "Tartarus"

Stations:
NTC Shield Complex - 2 x 1 mj shield factory, Blue Profit
US Power core 1 - XL Solar Power Plant, 2 x L Crystal Fab, 2 x L Flower Farm, 2 x L Sun Oil Refinery, Unknown Sector west of X534
US Silicon mine, Unknown Sector west of X534

7 044 736 credits

[Triaxx2]

Forgot to close the first bracket on the last image. Good chapter.

The hardest part of clearing 472 is actually knocking out the shipyard. The other station doesn't spawn fighters, so it's not a threat, but the shipyard is constantly spewing ships at you. Mostly I like massive fleets, but you can demolish them all with a single destroyer if you're lucky. If not, that's what bombers are for.

I have Advanced Hyperdrive as well, but the AI won't use it automatically, and with the Beacons, if you have a complex placed off the ecliptic for FPS reasons, you can drop the beacon and CLS ships will take advantage while delivering resources. That way they don't have to make a run all the way from 0,0,0 to wherever the complex is.

Aw, but all the good ramblings are eight pages at least...

[Zaitsev]

Another ingame week or so, and I would have had the perfect tool to clean up the Xenon. Unfortunately I got whacked while defending Scale Plate Green from a Q, so now we'll never know.

It really annoys me too, as I had so much of this story left to tell. The story I had planned also started to unfold here, so getting killed was kind of meh. But hey, that's the rules of the DiD game.

I might try to tie up some of the loose ends in my next DiD story, as I've had way too much fun writing this to quit now. Guess we'll have to wait and see how things turn out. I'll post the four chapters I have left, then try to form the ideas in my head into something coherent.

Alright, update time.

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Chapter 17 – Hey, stoopid

Personal log: 768-05-04 – 17:32

I had to babysit the Chokaro until either my CLS pilot leveled up enough for her to handle both silicon and e-cells or I found some scrapheap I could use to ferry silicon wafers to the power core, but I figured that would be a manageable job. So, time for some jump drive hunting, which meant next stop was Company Pride to get more e-cells, then onward to Senator's Badlands to see if the Yaki had managed to keep their equipment dock in one piece.

I decided to take it slow, and jumped to Ocracoke's Storm first to assess the situation. That, and making my presence known so I would avoid being shot on sight just in case sector defense in Senator's Badlands had gotten their pants in a twist over that Teladi. A Yaki Akuma was patrolling the sector as I entered, and while the captain gave me the evil eye he let me through after scanning my ship and confirming that I didn't carry any surprises. He would probably jump in and vaporize us if I as much as looked sideways at a roid, so I did my best to keep my nose clean.

Drat. Looked like the Teladi had slagged the entire sector, because all that turned up on my scanners was a bunch of station wrecks. Charred, lifeless husks of metal, floating in space. So I pulled an old trick and started looking for ships coming from or going to directions that didn't make sense. Like way out to the east, for instance, where that freighter was heading.

Yep, I found an equipment dock by tailing a freighter. And yep, they sold jump drives, which made me a very happy camper. It meant I could give the pirates the bird for the time being, and also that I wouldn't have to fly all the way south to find Atreus HQ. I didn't like dealing with the Boron either, because of their close ties to the Argon government, but at least they didn't try to shoot me on sight. Oh well.

I bought a spare jump drive for the Morrigan and headed back to Empire's Edge for another refuel.

(sigh)

I'm going to need something with a bigger cargo hold, I think. I was seriously considering a Hyperion Vanguard, but then I would have to steal one and I didn't want to piss off the Paranid just yet. The next alternative was to get a freighter, equip it with CLS software and have it jump in from my power core and refuel us, which meant I would have to get some spare freighters and another … Argon. Yuck.

"What the …?"
We had just jumped to Empire's Edge, and the jump gates were filled with Yaki laser towers. Some sort of blockade or something? Heck if I knew, but I was glad my Yaki rep was high enough to avoid being shot on sight. Even the Eris' shields wouldn't last long under the assault from what looked like a dozen laser towers. I also noticed Yaki fighters running around, and although they were quickly annihilated by sector patrols I was starting to wonder if this was some sort of foreplay to an invasion of Empire's Edge. That could get really interesting. As for now, there were loads of leftovers floating around. And a rather juicy roid scan mission.

The roid scan went smoothly, despite the blockade of the gates. I also got a funny message. Hm, someone had apparently lost a carrier. Might be a juicy reward for it, if I could be arsed to go look for it. For now I was happy getting a cool mill for inspecting rocks in space. The next mission, however, did not run nowhere near as smoothly as this one …

I picked up a nice taxi mission, checked the mission data and was one hundred and ten percent sure I had activated the guidance. This would come back to bite me in the ass in a moment, as the mission data apparently pointed me east. I was so focused I just followed the arrows, and to make a long story short it turned out I had been following the guidance for that blasted Terran mission instead, as the damn thing was active by default and you had to turn it off manually to keep it from interfering with other missions. Needless to say I didn't make it, and although I'm sure I'll laugh at this some day I wasn't too happy about blowing one point eight million credits on a navigational error. Oh well, I couldn't do much more than get rid of the 'Nids downstairs, suck it up and go vent my frustration by shooting someone.

A station protection mission provided the much needed venting of my frustration, and a handful of Harriers and Discos came through the gate. Three of them immediately developed a severe case of wildfire poisoning, and the rest went down either to my CIGs or turrets. My pirate rep took a nasty hit, but I didn't really care at that point. Besides, I could always repair it later should the need arise. Which it kind of would do, after I had saved up some extra cash. Yeah, I was planning on going for a … morally challenged complex in the unknown sector between Montalaar and New Income. It was a pretty well known shortcut, and I had often wondered why none of the Commonwealth races had claimed it.

Anyway, I was thinking about placing a few bliss places and maybe a space fuel distillery or two in that sector, and since buying that from the Argon would definitively attract attention I neither wanted nor needed right now the pirate shipyards were the only options. The sectors around it had a nice surplus of cheap energy, so all I had to do was to get a freighter and assign a CAG pilot to feed it with e-cells. It wasn't something I would normally do, but desperate times called for desperate measures and I needed a heap of money. Preferably yesterday, since the need for a tractor beam had become painfully clear.

I could of course go off on a capping spree, but with just a corvette and five marines it could easily go down the tube. Besides, I didn't want to risk the lives of my closest friends, and again, it would attract unwanted attention. If everything else failed I could of course go blast those Nividium roids in that … urrrgh … unknown sector, but then I would have to find a place to sell it. Hm, maybe Kao knew someone who could help? However, for that to happen I would have to get a miner, which would mean more logistical headaches. Blast, why couldn't things just be simple?

Right now I knew what I could do, namely clean up this place. The Yaki laser towers were happily zapping anyone and anything getting close, and leftovers were floating all over the place. Man, I really needed somewhere to store this. I had been thinking about a Dolphin XL super freighter, despite the fact that it was unarmed and I would wreak of ammonia for a week after I had been on board, simply because it had the second biggest cargo bay after the Mistral super freighter. It was also relatively fast and well shielded, and the lack of weapons wasn't that much of a problem since I didn't intend for it to get in a fight anyway. Just clean up the mess afterward. I could stuff some fighter drones on board, that would probably give it enough time to fire the jump drive and get the hell out. Yep, one more thing on the wish list. I had promised myself I would stay out of the arms business, but I figured I could just tell people they were strictly for self protection.

After scooping up the valuable stuff and selling it at the local military outpost I once again planned to jump to Split Fire and snoop around Pirate Alley looking for more of those juicy freight scan missions. And once again fate seemed to throw spanners in my works, as a rather nice construction mission fell into my lap. I would make a little under a million on it, so I guessed it was time to pester Kao again. Which reminded me I had to pay him and his crew by the end of the day. Well, there goes that million.

"Rise and shine," I chirped as Kao's face appeared on the screen.
"Well, at least it's not in the middle of the friggin' night and I'm not quite as hung over now as I was the last time. So, what can I do for you?"
"I need you to jump to Third Redemption and pick up a CIG forge for me at the shipyard, then dump it in Duke's Domain. Think you can do that?"
"Dealing with 'Nids? Oooh, boy." I knew he didn't like them, but I had never found out why. Probably some history between them, I guessed.
"Yeah, dealing with 'Nids. Relax, it won't take long."
"If you say so, captain." Then he cut the link, and the remote tracking told me the White Stripes had undocked and was charging her jump drive. Me, I headed for Duke's Domain.

Duke's Domain was next door, so I slowboated over and watched as Kao used half the sector to get the White Stripes' big ass in position. Wonder why they hadn't put some decent rudder thrusters on those things. Ah, frak if I knew. The deployment itself went smooth as Paranid silk, and soon I was heading back to Empire's Edge almost a million richer. I was just going to take a peek and see if the victims of those laser towers had dropped something that was either useful or valuable, and then I would get out of here.

Nah, didn't happen.
An assassination mission turned up, and although I've had several of these idiots being wasted by sector patrols I thought what the hell. It would be four hundred thousand plus change, and I couldn't just pass that up now, could I? That's what I thought.

First I had to jump to Priest's Pity to talk to a contact this 'Nid had hired to track down the mark, then the real fun would begin. Turned out the dingbat was in Empire's Edge, the very sector I had just jumped from, and now I was supposed to head back!? Idiots! Oh well, since most of the sector patrols there were either trying to get rid of those laser towers or had been wiped out by them I guess I thought I had a chance.

Jumping to the east gate I took the Morrigan and headed for the Nova the mark was flying. He was milling about at the west gate, so I decided to sneak up and see what he was up to. If he had brought a lot of friends I could always call in the Eris, but if he was alone or just had a couple of friends with him I could easily deal with him in the Morrigan.

It turned out to be my lucky day, as the only company he was keeping was a Disco Hauler. Soon enough he was on my tail lobbing IRE bolts at me, and just as soon he was reduced to dust by my turret. Didn't you ever learn to check if the thing you're about to attack might be packing a few surprises? Friggin' dingbat.

Oh well. With the 'company' reduced to an ever expanding field of debris I snuck up behind my mark, armed my guns and let 'em rip. He complained and screamed about being attacked, but did little else to get me out of his hair. Basic combat flight training, idiot? Ever heard of that? Like 'what the heck do I do if I have an opponent behind me, trying to rip me a new one?' Common sense should be able to tell you that you do not keep flying in a straight line, but the former pirate, now charred metal and static in my shields, didn't seem to have that much common sense and paid for it with his life. Four hundred grand, thank you very much.

There were some nice leftovers, and I noticed some twenty five crates of flail barrage missiles floating around. They went for a good thirty three thousand a piece, so we were looking at somewhere around seven hundred grand for that thing. I picked up the most valuable stuff, sold what I could to the local military outpost and finally got the hell out. I'd had enough of Empire's Edge for a while, and besides I needed to get some cheap-ish fighters to act as jump drive storage for the Tartarus. Which meant a trip to PTNI Headquarters, as the shipyard there was the only one I knew of that sold the Kestrel. PTNI HQ, here we come.

As my three Kestrels were being built I looked around for possible missions. Nope. Nope. Hell no. Hm. Covert mission. I thought about it for a while. They had the habit of going to hell in a handbag, courtesy of the stupidity of the sentient beings involved, but since we were looking at two million credits I thought what the hell.

'Hell' turned out to be a keyword, as the the mark was in Eighteen Billion. Right next to X347. Yeah, that had me worried. Big time, as the pilots frequently suffered from some sort of god complex, making them think they were invincible. Yep, I was worried the stupid frak would try to fly through the aforementioned Xenon sector and get his ass 'Q-ed'. On the bright side, the Iguana was slow enough for my ships to keep up so I crossed my fingers and hoped this guy's lack of functional brain cells wouldn't cost me two million.

I took the Morrigan and parked the Eris at the local military outpost, just in case I needed the extra speed, and closed in on my mark. It was a little touch and go for a while, as I got a bit close, but in the end I avoided detection and … Blast. Yeah, he was heading straight for the east gate. Gunne damned stupid limp wristed fish tank scrubber for a Boron dive bar. I wanted to wring his neck with my own bare hands, but that meant I would blow the mission. Besides, I might get lucky and have him make it across. Yeah, and I might get lucky and find a planet where it rains nividium from a clear sky every day at three am.

He was actually surprisingly lucky though, and made it almost all the way to the north gate before he ran into a Q. Facing the Q the aforementioned god complex obviously kicked in, because he tried to fight it. Yeah, that's right. Fight one of the most feared frigates in the known sectors. In a passenger transport. I felt a sudden urge to smash my head against the navigation console. Repeatedly. And now I knew I was in for it.

Oh yes, the Teladi who had hired me was all over me the second that idiot died. She looked a bit like a rabid animal and hissed and cursed like some old spaceman who had spent too much time hauling cargo and drinking with his buddies. In the end I'd had it and told her that her less than brilliant employee had tried to cross a frakkin' Xenon sector in a passenger transport and even tried to take on a Q. I then told her that she was more than welcome to get her ass down here and try to get some information from this ever expanding cloud of burnt metal and organic molecules, and if she was too chicken to do that she could shut the hell up. She shut her trap immediately, looked at me and gulped, before cutting the link. Yeah, that's right! Hide in that nice, safe office of yours! Stars!

"Gunne damned scaly little …"
I cursed the lizard, her ancestors, their dogs and the swamp rats they rode in on as I turned around and headed back to Eighteen Billion. With my Kestrels finished and waiting in the shipyard dock it was time to plan my next move.

[Zaitsev]

This and two more.

----------

Chapter 18 - Take it on the run

Personal log: 768-05-04 – 20:33

Apparently my next move would be to mess about with the CLS software, as miss Halter had gained enough experience to handle both silicon and e-cells. At least according to the software manual. Yeah, that didn't work at all and I spent the next ten minutes trying to get the CLS module to understand that I wanted to add a supplier to the wares list. To no avail, I might add. Blast. Oh well, since I needed to train more pilots anyway I might as well get a new freighter, hire another pilot and set him or her to haul silicon. I also needed to start thinking about that bloody tractor beam, which meant I had to save up another four million. Then there was the missile complex I was planning on doing, which would cost me another ten million, and the expansion of the Blue Profit complex which would cost me yet another eight million.

(sigh)

Stars, if this doesn't kill me I don't know what will. But first things first, namely to get the Tartarus to pick up my Kestrels and then move them to Senator's Badlands for some jump drives. In the meantime I'd better go find some juicy missions.

Lo and behold, a juicy mission. Or … kind of. Four hundred and thirty-odd grand to haul some radioactive waste from Ianamus Zura back to the military outpost in Eighteen Billion wasn't that bad, I guess. Maybe I'm just getting picky or something. Anyway, it was a start so I accepted and headed for Ianamus Zura. With twelve minutes on the clock it would be a little tight, but nothing some docking computer magic couldn't handle. So, I called up the Eris and told Tracie to come pick me up, then we headed south.

After delivering the radioactive waste we picked up a roid scan mission. I figured this one would give me around half a million, which would make me a little under a million in total for about twenty minutes of work.

Not bad, and now things really started rolling. The legendary Triskele champion and now legendary party animal Imanckulot had moved his celebration to Ianamus Zura, and the hosts wanted me to haul some food for them. For the kind of money they were willing to pay me I guess I could be arsed to do that. The roid scan mission had started with nearly forty minutes on the clock, so I had plenty of time. I also picked up a job for Kao and the White Stripes, as some Teladi wanted me to build a Bliss Place in Homily of Perpetuity. Geez, busy day. And a good one too. Now, let's organize things a bit.

I called up Kao and had him buy the Bliss Place for me, then I had the Tartarus jump to Ceo's Sprite and refuel the White Stripes. In the meantime I delivered the food and finished scanning the rest of the roids. Then it was just a matter of getting the Tartarus home, move my ass to Homily of Perpetuity and have the White Stripes jump in to deploy the station.

Amidst all that I had the Tartarus refueled and sent it to Family Pride to pick up a couple of Caimans. If the Vulture wouldn't do the job on its own I'd have to find another solution, and two Caimans might do the trick. That, and trying to find out how that CLS software really works. Stars, I never knew it would be such a fuss to be a trader. Alright, let's move to Homily of Perpetuity and dump this station.

As I entered the sector I spotted a fighter announcing a It turned out to be a pirate who wanted me to do a convoy raid. Funny looking bloke too, looked like he had antlers growing out of his head. Ah, whatever. I did accept, but after I found out I was supposed to take on a Teladi convoy in the very sector we were in I told him to shove it. I figured attacking a Teladi convoy in a Teladi core sector might upset the natives, and with three factories and a lot of ships flying around in Teladi space it was just too risky.

I did get another [url=http://i.imgur.com/JYMeP.jpg]station construction mission, though. The little green one wanted an Energy Bolt Chaingun ammunition forge in New Income, and I was happy to be of assistance. For a price, of course. Guess Kao would have his work cut out for him today. Now, let's get this show on the road.

A few moments later the White Stripes had jumped into the sector and we went to work placing the station. It went smooth as ever, and a few minutes later the station was in place and the White Stripes was on its way to the Ianamus Zura shipyard to pick up an EBC ammo forge. If it kept up, this could turn out to be a very promising day. Gunne knew I would need it, with all the expenses I was looking at. Some thirty five million, give or take.

(sigh)

Just then I got word from the shipyard in Family Pride that my Caimans were ready, so I transferred the spare jump drives from the Tartarus, gave them some e-cells and sent them to Omicron Lyrae. Blargh. Wonder if I could get someone to reverse engineer that software? I would need to set up a lab somewhere and get a hold of some competent hackers, and I had a couple of candidates for the job too. They might not be very happy to see me, though.

After loading the Caimans with the CLS software, now going for CLS 2 in case that would be easier to handle, I sent them off to the unknown sector. Blast, I really needed to find a name. Hm. It would be home of sorts, and probably filled to the brim with complexes. It made me think of another sort of complex, one I had heard of when the connection to Old Terra was reopened. What was it again … K-something. Ka … Karnak. I liked the taste of it. It sounded old, mysterious and somehow a bit bigger than life. Karnak it was, then.

As we slowboated across Ianamus Zura I picked up yet another station construction mission, this time a Gauss Cannon ammunition forge. She too wanted to place it in New Income, and I wasn't the one to complain. At least not when each station would net me a hair short of a million. Each. It would push me close to the fifteen million mark, which meant I could afford getting a tractor beam factory if I wanted to. That would completely drain my funds though, so I decided to save up a little extra.

After whipping Kao and the White Stripes back and forth between Ianamus Zura and New income a couple of times, the stations were in place and I sent Kao and his crew home for a well earned break. He would probably have to get back in the saddle before he knew it anyway, so I kinda thought he deserved it. Now, let's see if we can't find …

Yep, there it was. The west gate that led into the sector they used to call Avarice. It had kind of a hairy history, with great empires being built in there and even greater battles being fought. It had been almost two years since the last … inhabitant had been wiped off the map, and now the only inhabitants were station wrecks and rocks. That would soon change, if I could have it my way. I just needed to fix my pirate rep first.

The sector looked just as I remembered it. Charred husks that had once been stations, and a few handfuls of asteroids appearing out of the mist off our port bow. If I remembered correctly it would be enough silicon here to operate a power core, but since I had lost the data when the Eris was attacked I would have to scan them all over again. Maybe I could get one of the Kestrels aboard the Tartarus to do the job? They did have explorer software, so all they needed was a mineral scanner. One of the few things that Yaki equipment dock didn't have.

"Keep heading west," I told Tracie as we drifted into the sector. "I wanna see if I can find the west gate, cause then we will have a back door into Argon territory." I felt my grip around the stick tighten as I thought of the Argon. I just had to put up with them for a few more days, then I would make them regret that they had let me live. I would find the one or ones responsible and hunt them down. Then I would take my sweet time making them pay!

In the meantime I had other things to do, like feeding my power core. The CLS 2 software proved to be much more cooperative, and one freighter was actually enough to keep both the silicon mine and the power core happy. Which meant my other Caiman was kind of unemployed at the moment. Ah, whatever. I would probably find some sort of use for it soon enough.

"Gate spotted, captain," Tracie said, tugging me out of my thoughts. I looked at it as it drifted out of the mist and grinned. The gate on the other side was located in the arse end of Montalaar, and only a few knew of it. That might change when I got my little business up and running, but I decided to cross that bridge when I got there.
"Good," I said. "Now, let's call in the Tartarus, refuel and do something about that bad pirate rep of ours." Next stop, Hatikvah's Faith.

Hatikvah's Faith didn't have any pirates offering missions, but they did have a Split who, conveniently enough, wanted a Split TS-class freighter. Funnily enough, I had one available. It even came with its own pilot, which I told him he could do whatever he wanted with. He would probably use the poor sod for target practice, but that would at least stop him from running around shooting his mouth off about some secret sector with a strange ship in it.

I also picked up another station construction mission, which meant the break was over for Kao. It would be a short trip though, as the Teladi offering the mission wanted me to build a Flail factory in Company Pride. The shipyard in Ceo's Sprite sold them, so it was just a matter of buying the station and tell Kao to fly south. Easy as pie, and it would add just a hair short of a million to my bank account. Not to mention that it would mean more work for my local traders and add yet another factory to feed for the already strained food supply in the area. Looked like I needed to expand the Blue Profit complex, and fast.

Right after we had dumped the station I picked up a transmission from a Boron who wanted us to get it a Boron M4. Since I was looking at about three quarter of a million I couldn't just pass it up, so I accepted and prepared to send the Tartarus to Ocean of Fantasy to pick one up. After a refuel I had it park one of the Kestrels to leave room for the Boron ship and sent it south. It would be easy money. Or so I thought.

The Tartarus had jumped in through the north gate a few moments earlier and I had just gotten off the horn with the sales … Boron after ordering a Pike when it happened. The Tartarus was hovering over the gate and I was just about to move it south to the shipyard when a Xenon Q showed up on the sensors. Moments later we lost contact, and I knew the Tartarus was space dust.

I felt the same rage that I had felt the day my parents died light up inside me, and although I knew Ocean of Fantasy had enough hardware to deal with five Qs my only thought was vengeance. Luckily the Tartarus had been unmanned, but it still felt like I had lost a good friend and if that Q was still around when I got there I would make it feel my pain. Thoroughly.

Okey, okey. Relax. Use your head, Rahne. My corvette would be no match for a Q on its own, so I needed an equalizer. That meant missiles, and since the Q had decent turret coverage my best shot would be to use a swarm missile. The heaviest Commonwealth swarm missile, with the exception of the Tornado dumbfire missile was the Typhoon, and according to my records there were two places that sold them. The first one was a Paranid missile complex in Emperor's Ridge, and the other one was a Split complex in Patriarch's Keep. Damn. Lots of jumping, and I had just lost my fuel truck. The Vulture was still available, but it lacked a jump drive and all my spare ones had gone down with the Tartarus. Frakkin' great!

"Plot a course for Emperor's Ridge," I muttered to Tracie. "And if we live through this, remind me to make missile production our number one priority."
"Jump to Emperor's Ridge and remind the captain to build a missile complex if we survive, aye. Jump device charging at ten percent, twenty, thirty …"
Ten seconds later we were in the wormhole, and another fifteen seconds later we emerged through the west gate into Emperor's Ridge. I made a beeline for the missile complex and almost kicked in the station manager's door.

"Inferior being, what is the meaning of this? Have you no respect for the Priest Emperor's sacred property?" He growled.
"Not today," I hissed. "Your Typhoons. I need them. All of them." We stared at each other for what seemed to be an endless moment. Then this little smirk slid across his face and he nodded.
"I sense great anger, unholy one. Loss. Vengeance. It will be yours, infidel. For a price." Seems even the holy 'Nid aren't immune to greed, as he made me pay through the nose for those missiles and added a few extra insults to boot. Right then I didn't care. I was going to get me a Xenon scalp.

Unless I get distracted, of course.

"Unholy one, I have a mission for you." He was big, even for a 'Nid, and now he was blocking my way.
"Not in the mood. Now move it, or I'll move you." I reached for my phase pistol, ready to shoot him on the spot.
"Then you will miss the information I have to offer … Rahne Kylara." Now, that got my attention.
"What? How do you …?"
"Your inferior mind cannot hope to deal with the reach of the Holy Priest Emperor. His knowledge is wast beyond your imagination, and only the great mind of his Holiness, the great Priest Emperor Xaar, could tie together the threads of which you, o inferior being, have become a crucial part." I raised my eyebrows and reached for my guns again. "No!" he thundered. "This goes beyond your quest to satisfy your primitive needs! Do this mission for us, unholy one, and you will find something you seek even more."
"Look …"
"Remember Tortuga Bay, inferior beast." I'm sure my jaw dropped to the floor two decks below. Tortuga Bay was the codename for a top secret raid me and my team had done in cooperation with my brother, and no one outside the team knew it. No one! If this 'Nid knew of it he'd been talking to either my team or my brother, despite his ramblings about the knowledge of the great Priest Emperor. They were the only ones who knew.
"How …?" I sighed and lowered my gaze. The look on the 'Nid's face told me I wouldn't get anything out of him. "What do you want me to do?"
"Military transport, inferior one. Eight soldiers to Soyery M gamma in Empire's Edge. Good pay. When we have confirmed that they are on board the station I will give you the information I have." I sighed and rolled my eyes.
"Alright, bring 'em on. Docking bay seven, by I'm sure you already knew that." He just gave me disdaining smile and stepped out of the way.

"Change of plans," I said as I climbed on to the bridge again. "We're ferrying eight goofballs to Empire's Edge." The whole crew looked at me like human sized question marks.
"Some 'Nid claimed he had important information," I said. "Probably some scheme to prove their superior intellect, but he knew … things. Things he wasn't supposed to know …"
"So you felt you had to take the chance," Jo finished. I just nodded and grabbed the stick. As soon as the last marine was on board we launched and headed for Empire's Edge.

I couldn't help but wonder where the hell this would lead us.

[Zaitsev]

This is mostly fiction, so lots of talking and not a great deal of screenshots.

----------

Chapter 19 - Before I forget

Personal log: 768-05-04 - 21:37

Well, the good news was that they didn't try to highjack our ship. We docked at the soyery without incident, and I got a message from the 'Nid telling me I had done a good job.

"Was that it?" I said, as much to myself as to anyone within earshot. I was considering flying back and take my marines to beat some answers out of him, but that wouldn't do any good.
"Maybe …" Tracie started, before she got interrupted by a beep from the communication console. "Incoming transmission. Encrypted subspace link. Text only."
"On screen," I said. A few moments later this popped up.

Heaven's war, 4th. Last lines. One of the three.

"What the … That was his 'important' information? I wasted my time for four words an a number?"
"Wait, wait," Tracie said. "Uhm … 'Come warriors and fighters, from near and afar …" she started.
"… and gather under the banner of the Black Star." It was part of a poem, written by a young boy during the Xenon war. We had just recited the last two lines of the fourth verse. Some sort of riddle …?

Then it hit me. Black Star! Lady Drala Fi, the Boron pirate queen. Also known as the Black Star, the thing that should not be, the embodiment of Boron evil and other cozy names. She ruled the southwest Boron sectors and usually operated out of Barren Shores. If she was involved we were in way over our heads. Besides, word had it that she had close ties to the Yaki, which would complicate my life even further as I had to rely on them for vital equipment, at least for the time being. Drat.

We had tried to nail her several times, but she was always very careful not to get her hands dirty in any way. She had an endless maze of coverups, middle men and companies she could use to get things done without ever touching it herself. The Angels had hunted her for years, but we had never been able to catch her red handed, and witnesses and evidence had a nasty habit of disappearing every time we got close. Besides, she had her tentacles everywhere and it often seemed like she knew we were coming and had the place cleaned out before we could get there. And now I had to catch this slippery fish alone? However, I didn't have to follow the rules this time and could play dirty if I wanted to. I still needed heaps of money to pull it off though, so I'd best find me a nice fat freighter and put it to work mining nividium. Which reminded me I had to ask Kao if he knew of someone who could move the stuff. Best get it done right now.

"Tracie, would you open a secure channel to the White Stripes? Captain's eyes only." I trusted Kao, but I couldn't say the same about his crew members so I decided to play it safe.
"Secure channel to White Stripes, aye." She typed in a few commands. "Channel open, captain."
A few moments later Kao's face appeared on the screen.
"What have you got for us this time, since you're calling me on a secure channel? A UFO base?"
"Funny. No, but I wondered if you knew of anyone capable of moving large amounts of nividium. As in 'freighter stuffed to the gills with it'-amounts." He rubbed his chin and chewed on it for a moment.
"Y'know, I might just have someone in mind. I'll have to get back to you on her whereabouts and if she's willing to do it, though."
"I see. Let me know if you find her, eh?"
"I will, o captain. White Stripes out." Then he cut the link.
"Where to now, captain?" Tracie asked.
"Patriarch's Keep," I said, then I looked at the amount of e-cells we had left. "Or as close as possible."

'As close as possible' got us as far as Cho's Defeat, then I would have to make a u-turn and head into Patriarch's Keep, slowboat to the arse end of the sector to find that bloody missile complex, pick up the typhoons he had in stock and slowboat into Two Grand for a refuel. I had wasted enough time for the hardware orbiting the shipyard to kill that Q ten times over, but I just had to check in case they hadn't managed it.

I found some pirates in Two Grand that weren't too happy to see me. I wasn't in the mood to play their game, so I loaded two of the Banshees I was carrying and prepared to blast some holes in them if they as much as looked at me funny.

Finally I reached one of the solar power plants in Two Grand and got my precious e-cells, then we jumped directly to Ocean of Fantasy with all tubes loaded and all weapons hot. I didn't exactly have high hopes, but if that Q was still around it would definitely feel my wrath.

Hrmf. So much for hoping. The sector was clean as the flight suit of a Terran, and there were no Qs as far as my eyes or sensors could see. I did pick up a Xenon patrol, so the trip wasn't a total waste. Besides, it would give me the chance to see how these typhoon missiles performed in battle. If they were good I might consider adding them to my soon-to-be missile complex, along with the hurricanes and hornets. I would also need a heavy fighter missile, like the thunderbolt or tempest, but that would have to come later. Right now I had Xenons to worry about.

Hm, a handful of Ms and Ns. Not exactly the greatest challenge I had seen, but the Ms could carry PBEs, which might become a problem. There was a simple solution though, and I had several versions of it. Three Ns suffered a sudden and horrible death from wildfire poisoning, and two of the Ms ended up having a surprise date with a banshee. The third M, either very brave or incredibly stupid, ended up with a face full of CIG bolts before my turrets turned it into Herron's Nebula cheese. In other words, lots of holes.

The last N was running away, engines screaming, so I loaded a typhoon and fired. It was quite a bizarre display, actually, as the chip was running for its 'life' and the swarm of missiles behind was slowly gaining on it like some sort of high explosive jellyfish. Yeah, these suckers could actually catch up with a fully tuned N. Moreover, they packed a very decent punch, being a swarm missile and having a yield of thirty megajoule per warhead. I would definitely get me some more of these in the near future.

The patrol ended a few minutes after my typhoon had wiped out the last N, and I got another six kills under my belt. It also earned me a good one hundred and forty-odd grand, but I wasn't quite ready to become a full fledged combat pilot again. At least not yet.
"Where to now, captain?" Tracie said as the boron was done saying thank you.
"Head back home to Karnak," I said. "We need to figure out what we're going to do next."
"Karnak, captain?"
"Yeah, that's what I decided to call that unknown sector. We also need a refuel, so you can dock at the power core."
"I see." She nodded to herself. "Interesting name, by the way. I kinda liked it. Course plotted and jump device charging now."

The ship was quiet. We had just docked at the power core and refueled. Kao was watching us through the comlink, as I wanted him to know what he was about to get himself into. I took a deep breath, getting a slight feeling of déjà vu.

"I'll try to make this as short as possible," I said, turning toward Kao. "Less than an hour ago we received information which, if true, just put us in a whole hell of a lot of trouble. It indicates that the female voice on that recording you know is none other than the Black Star, Lady Drala Fi." I noticed raised eyebrows from Jo, Tracie and Kao. A couple of his crew also stirred in the background, the rest just waited.

"She's something as self contradicting as a Boron pirate, and they don't call her the embodiment of all Boron evil for nothing. Just about every government has tried to nail her over the years, but in the end they only found smoke and mirrors. She never leave anything that can incriminate her and although there are many indications and rumors about her ties to the Yaki no one has ever been able to prove anything. She hides behind a vast organization and never gets her tentacles dirty, and anyone getting too close has a nasty habit of ending up missing or have an 'accident'."

I took another breath before I continued.

"Hull breach? Bad welding? Some ten credit chip failing and resulting in a containment field breach, making you breathe reactor plasma before you die? Maybe a navcom malfunction so you end up in the middle of a Xenon sector instead of where you were actually going? Space is a very dangerous place, and you're zipping around in a jigsaw puzzle with two million parts where your life depends on all of them working together."

I took yet another breath.

"All nice and clean," I said. "Until now." I took the memory crystal from my pocket and put it on the console in front of me.
"You all know what's on this," I said, pointing to my crew, "so I'm just going to give Kao and his crew the cliffs notes." I put the crystal in the C-ROM and fast forwarded to the part where my brother started the recording.

The captain of the White Stripes stared at me as I stopped the recording. As did many of his crew members. I think this is one of the few times I've seen him speechless, which in my experience was never a good sign. He looked at me, and it was like the fires of hell had been lit in the depth of his soul and was now threatening to burn its way out into the world through his eyes.

"Where … did … you … get … this?" he hissed through clenched teeth. I could see the tension in his neck and shoulders, and I knew him well enough to be able to tell that he was forcing himself to remain calm.
"It came from my brother," I said, holding his gaze. "Why …?" He shook his head once, an almost unnoticeable motion. He obviously didn't want to talk about it, and I knew better than to push it. Especially now. He just stood there, radiating pure and utter fury, barely kept under control by an equal amount of self discipline. Even his crew had pulled back a bit, and I couldn't really blame them. Trust me when I say that being in the same room as an angry Split just makes you wanna run as far away as you possibly can.

I gave him a slow nod, signaling that I understood, and changed the subject.

"Right now we have a gazillion things to do and very little time. Ideally we need missiles, shields and weapons, we need a research station of some kind and ideally we need to get a hold of a shipyard for our shiny friend. We also need freighters, warships, more marines, pilots, crew and captains, and all of this is going to cost an arm and two legs. As the last few hours have shown us we also need to think about who we trust and how much. By the looks of it this runs very deep, and only Gunne know who's involved. In other words, we have to chose our allegiances very carefully."

I looked around at the men and women under my command. I felt nowhere near ready for this. It could grow into a full scale war before we knew it, and I certainly didn't feel like fleet commander material.

"How 'bout the Terrans?" Marissa suggested. "I mean yeah, they're tryin' to use us as pawns 'n all that, but since they're so suspicious t' ev'rythin' an' ev'ryone I doubt they'll turn us over to who ever's runnin' this show." I looked at her and found myself smiling. She did have a point.

"And the Teladi," Jo added. "As you said yourself, you trust them because you know they can not be trusted. Besides, they are in it for the money and unless someone digs up a rather healthy amount of credits I do not think they will be a problem. Also, although amoral and conniving, they do have their code of conduct. And if all else fails you can always bribe your way out of any predicament."

"What about the Split?" Tracie wondered.
"No." Kao's voice rumbled through the speakers like distant thunder. "At least not for the time being." She looked at him with raised eyebrows, but didn't get any answers. I looked at her and raised my right index finger, shaking my head slightly. Don't push it, girl. She gave me a disgruntled look, but kept her mouth shut. Something was obviously bothering him, and I didn't know what. I hoped he would tell me when he was ready for it, and that it wouldn't affect his game in the meantime.

"And the rest?" Mikal asked. Good question.
"Well, I'm sure you know how I think about the Argon …" He rolled his eyes and snorted. "I also think it's safe to say that dealing with the Borons are, as of now, out of the question. Drala Fi has informants everywhere, and we don't want to attract her attention too early. Which means we have to put a lid on this sector, since we have a Boron power plant here." That's what you get for being a cheapskate. "Jo, can you take care of that?"
"Sure. Val, would you give me a hand?"
"One gate communications relay hack coming up." Then they both got up and headed downstairs.
"As for the 'Nids," I said as Jo and Val disappeared, "I really don't know. I do know we're going to need a tractor beam, and they got some other nifty toys too. My gut tells me they would never work with either the Argon or the Boron, but to be honest I don't know."
"Then take their toys and kick 'em out of the sandbox afterward," Marissa said, flashing that grin of hers. Well, I was planning on doing that with the Argon, and if the 'Nids proved to be involved after all …
"I'll think about it," I said, returning the grin. "After I've found a suitable replacement for the Tartarus and the Kestrels we lost, gotten hold of some extra jump drives and decided if we're going to expand our 'official' complexes or start missile production." She just looked at me and smirked. Bah, decisions. We needed more money, and expanding our factories would give us much needed income. Then there was the problem of getting hold of a tractor beam, and the Terran mission that still loomed in the horizon, for which I had a feeling we were gonna need some missiles. And that led me to …

"Kao?"
"Yes, captain." His voice was totally flat, without the usual good mood behind it.
"Have you gotten hold of your contact yet, regarding the nividium?"
"I have. She's currently in the Grand Exchange shipyard, but I don't know for how long. I'll send you the information now."
"Thanks, Kao."
"Captain." Then he cut the link. I was really curious as to what had disturbed him so much in that recording, but right now he would probably bite my head off rather than giving me some answers. Guess I had to play the waiting game.

In the meantime I had to decide what I was going to do next, and since I still needed a jump drive carrier and a fighter bus, checking if the Yaki had rebuilt their shipyard would be next. If not, I had to settle for a Helios or go see if the Terrans had any useful and how much rep I would need to buy one. A Boa would be ideal, but then I suspected Kao would get his pants in a twist.

On a sidenote I seemed to have forgotten that the Caiman still had a jump drive on board. That meant I could use the Vulture to refuel the Eris after all. I think I need to start writing down notes so I know what I own at any given time or something. Ah well. Yaki space it is, then.

[Zaitsev]

And the last one. It feels kind of sad to end this journey, but I hope the next one will be just as exciting. Besides, I've learned a lot from this and hopefully I'll get the chance to put it to good use in my next story.

Until next time

----------

Chapter 20 - Wait and bleed

Personal log: 768-05-04 – 22:43

Well, at least the yaki had gotten their defenses back up since the Teladi dropped by. Now it was just a matter of heading south and crossing my fingers.

"Yes!" I checked the scanner twice to be sure. The Yaki had rebuilt the shipyard, which meant I could get my hands on a Chokaro. I docked and headed for the station manager's office, and was met by a familiar face.
"Wha' ya want this time?" Yeah, it was the same guy.
"Well, another Chokaro if it's not too much trouble." I looked at him and smiled coyly. He snorted a laugh.
"Weeell … Since it's you I guess we can strike a deal. I actually have one fresh off the assembly line this time."
"Why thank you. Would you give it a full tune up and install … this for me." I handed him my data pad, where I had downloaded the equipment list and marked the things I wanted. He snorted again.
"Sure thing, hon. If ya got the credits, I got the gear." I just smiled and handed over my credit chip.
He swiped it, and a few moments later my data pad beeped, confirming that the credits had been withdrawn.
"I'll have it ready for ya in five mizura. And if ya need another one, don't hesitate to call." He grinned like a Teladi smelling money.
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."
"No problem," I said as I walked out of his office. Then I headed back to the Eris.

"Let's get out of here," I said to Tracie as I entered the bridge. "Tell the scream queen to dock at the power core, wait for the Caiman and transfer its jump drive to the Vulture. Then tell her to load up with e-cells and get her ass down here. Also inform her that I will self destruct the ship if she tries to run."
"Aye, captain."

While the orders were being relayed I headed for the north gate. No use in …
"Emergency transmission, captain. It's the CAG in Scale Plate Green."
"Patch her through." A moment later a very anxious Teladi appeared on the screen. She only said two words.
"Xsssenon Q …!" I took a deep breath. If it kept rattling around it would probably kill one of my ships or even my dream farm. Frak. Which meant I had to deal with it myself, in a corvette.
"Relax, we're on our way." Then I cut the link and turned to Tracie. "Tell the scream queen to sit tight in Karnak and plot a course for Empire's Edge instead. We'll refuel there and then jump to Scale Plate Green and try to deal with the Q."

Coming through the east gate the Eris was put on high alert, and we spotted it almost immediately. We all knew the Qs fearsome reputation, and normally it would eat us for breakfast. However, with the lives of the men and women working for me in the factory plus the crew of my freighters I had to try.

"Tracie, load every typhoon we got, then open fire on my mark." I closed in from behind, where the missile defense would be thinner, and at the ten kilometer mark I let it have it.
"Hit it." The rumbling sound of twelve typhoon swarms being launched echoed through the hull. I floored it and closed in on it, but not fast enough. The typhoons all connected, knocking its shields down to fifty percent, but I had miscalculated the distance and was too far away to take advantage. Drat. Then it turned and headed right for us. This might get ugly …

We ducked under the volleys from the front battery and opened up. Our CIG bolts connected, knocking its shields down into the forties before our own shields were drained and we had to turn and let them recharge. With Incendiary Bomb Launchers snapping at our heels we headed away at full throttle to avoid getting roasted. This was not good. Not good at all.

Another run, and this time we tried to hit it from above. We managed to avoid most of the hits on our way in, but the bastard was just too maneuverable and kept squirming around taking pot shots at us. Frak! This time we didn't get away fast enough, and he clipped away some fifteen percent of our hull and killed one of our PBEs before we got out of the way. The marines headed downstairs to deal with the hull damage, while Tracie and I tried to keep us out of harms way and let the shields recharge.

We led it on a wild goose-chase into the outskirts of the sector, and while it was trying to catch up with us I called up the Chokaro and sent it to Empire's Ridge to look for some more typhoons. No use, as the friggin' factory was empty. They lacked e-cells, and although I could probably send the Chokaro to get some it would take too long. Typhoons were, like other swarm missiles, very slow to manufacture and the factory only made six per hour. The main problem for us was that the shields of the Eris simply weren't strong enough. We managed to take a fair chunk out of the shields of the Q every time we passed it, but we got our own shields hammered into oblivion in the process and they didn't recharge fast enough for us to take advantage. But we had to pull it off somehow. We …

"Captain, the sector trader! It's going after the sector trader!"
"Blast. We have to keep it away. We have to! I sure as hell don't want their lives on my conscience. Prepare all weapons! We'll try to stay behind it."
"Roger that, captain."
"It's turning, captain!"
"Ventral thrusters! We'll climb over it!"
"It's turning, captain! The engine pod! It's trying to …"


---------- Commonwealth News Network: Special report ---------


"This was the last from the flight recorder of the "Eris," a Split Drake corvette belonging to rising business star Judith Ukada. Her friends and employees mourn her loss today, as her ship was lost with all hands while defending her property and ships from a Xenon Q. She had achieved remarkable feats in only a few days, and who knows what the result would have been if she had been allowed to live. This is Erine Bydnah, CNN."

----------

Asset list (at the time of Rahne's death)

Ships:

M6 Drake - "Eris"
M3 Cougar Vanguard - "Morrigan"
TL Elephant - "White Stripes"

TS Caiman x 4 - "NTC Sector Trader x" (x = ship number)

TS Caiman - "Blue Profit CAG 1"
TS Caiman - "Scale Plate Green CAG 1"

TS Caiman - "Karnak Logistics Supplier 1"
TS Vulture Hauler - "Vulture"

M2 Asgard O'Neill - "SGC-028 'Lux Aeterna'"


Stations:

Blue Profit: NTC Shield complex alpha, 2 x 1 MJ shield factories
Scale Plate Green: NTC Dream Farm, 1 x Dream Farm L
Karnak (Unknown sector west of X534): Karnak Power Core 1 , 1 x Solar Power Plant XL, 2 x Flower Farm L, 2 x Sun Oil Refinery L, 2 x Teladi Crystal Fab L, 1 x Silicon Mine L (yield: 57)

17 692 871 credits

[Triaxx2]

Q's are simply amazing versus Corvettes. There's just no other way to say it. I can deal with a Q in an M3, or even an M4. And doing it with an M7 is very little challenge, even one like the Cerberus.

But I've never successfully defeated a Q with a corvette.

Sorry to hear that it's over, but you had a great run.

Of course, remember that she has a brother out there somewhere if you want to keep the mission alive...

[Zaitsev]

Hm, maybe I should have tried the Morrigan instead? If I'd had more typhoons I would probably have made it, but meh.

Sorry to hear that it's over, but you had a great run.

Thank you. I really appreicate that

Of course, remember that she has a brother out there somewhere if you want to keep the mission alive...

Good point. I never really thought of that, but now that you mention it I'm gonna do it. I already have a few ideas as to what sort of character he is, so it's probably not going to be too hard developing him into something useful.

*jumps around, laughs manically, grin like an idiot and proceed to hug Triaxx2 in a very unmanly fashion*

[Triaxx2]

Yeah. Speed is life, and being able to duck right up close to a Q is not nearly as bad an idea as it sounds. You know, if you haven't deleted the saves, you might go back and have another go, just to see if you could manage it.

Of course, if I read your post right, what happened was that the Q killed you with 'Dat Ass', instead of a gun. So it might not have made a difference.

[Zaitsev]

the Q killed you with 'Dat Ass'

*shakes weird mental images out of the brain*

Yep, the bastard turned and did a roll just as I was about to duck under his nose, and since the Drake is kind of not nimble I got hit by one of the engine pods and died.

I still got the saves as I plan on passing the entire empire on to William, Rahne's brother. I figure the Teladi can be bribed into to transfering ownership and cover up the whole thing, so I'll just fiddle around with the race ranks a bit to represent William's attitude and choices. Then I'll probably use Ketraar's plot reset thingy to reset the plots, as I can't think of a good storywise reason to allow William to continue what Rahne had started.

(Geez, I always feel funny when I talk about my characters like they are real persons)

But right now I'm gonna find out how I'm going to introduce William and then go see how the Q fare against a fully armed Ocelot

[Triaxx2]

If at least one person a day doesn't reach for the Brain Bleach, I'm not doing my job.

Sounds like an excellent plan. Should probably make him prove he's her sister before letting him see the Lux Aeterna though.

[Zaitsev]

...and that plan fell flat on its face as my computer somehow managed to bork the saves. I suspect it didn't agree with me resetting the plots, as that was when the problems started, but I can't be sure.

I will return to this tale in one way or another, I just need to figure out how I'm going to pull it off first. In the meantime, something else might pop up in the near future

[Triaxx2]

That's why the great god Cycrow created the cheat package laddie.

I however will start playing and posting more soon. The problem didn't resolve, but we held it back for a bit.