For those of you thinking (or hoping
) this story had died, it's still very much alive and kicking. Besides, I finally managed to get the last parts for my computer out of customs hell, so I will hopefully be able to get my new gaming rig up and running by the end of the week. Yay 
Okey, enough yapping. Time for an update.
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Chapter 10 – If you start me up …
Personal log 768-05-02 – 18:26
I was about to dock at the solar power plant when the shipyard called me and told me the White Stripes had made it. I ordered them to check the systems and engines, and then load it with a 1 MJ shield factory. I'll admit it made my spine tingle a bit. I was finally going to set up my first ever station. Mine. Just mine. It made me grin like an idiot, and the Teladi I was talking to gave me a slightly worried look. I didn't care, I had a business to run now. A legit business nonetheless, which meant 'Judith' had to be extra nice, at least for a while. At least until I could afford to grease enough greedy claws to keep the local Phoenix off my back.
After ordering the Caiman south and taking a roid scan mission, plus giving the local military something to shoot at and picking up not one, but two roid scan missions along the way, I finally jumped to Ceo's Sprite and switched to the White Stripes. Damn, it was like flying a brick compared to the Eris. I muttered a few nasty words and called up Jo and Aron, who were on reactor and engine watch duty.
"How are we doing?" I asked.
"Green across the board, captain. We're good to go."
"Okey then, let's see what this baby can do."
The answer to that seemed to be "a lot, but it takes its sweet time getting around to do it." Truth be told it wasn't all that slow as opposed to the Eris, but it turned like a glacier and the long nose made me worry I might accidentally kill someone. With only 200 megajoule of shielding anything larger than a fighter would probably kill us too, so I was really careful when I took it out of the shipyard to put it that way.
And yeah, talking about slow. There was a Phoenix destroyer making its way toward the shipyard, and it took bloody ages for it to get that big ass clear of the gate so I could fly through. I thought about jumping, but I wanted to learn how it felt to fly it so I would just have to suck it up and twiddle my thumbs in the meantime.
Finally the gate cleared, and I could fly into Blue Profit and drop my station. I was so excited I had to keep myself from jumping around on the bridge. My very own station, bought with the result of my own blood, sweat and tears. Ok, mostly by sitting on my ass and flying something, but still. I wanted to jump, scream, laugh and cry all at the same time, and I'll admit my had was shaking a bit when I typed in the commands to deploy the station. Stars, this was exciting!
The tractor beam array on the White Stripes gently pushed the station out the hatch, and I watched as the station unfolded and took on its final shape. It was like watching a flower blossom, a masterfully orchestrated piece that came together in front of my very eyes. It felt almost like my baby or something. A high tech, twenty thousand metric ton baby, but still my baby. I'd hate to give birth to that big a baby, though, so I was happy the White Stripes did the job for me.
I even had the wits about me to take a few shots (no, not that kind) of my new and shiny acquisition.
Here's one.
Here's another.
Yep, a third one too.
Then a beep yanked me out of my thoughts. The Caiman had arrived, so I had to find a Commercial Agent, or CAG, which was just a fancy name for 'freighter pilot', and get it moving. Lucky for me I found a Teladi one at the local trading station, and although she was fresh out of flight school and a little green – no pun intended – I figured I could use her. Then we could both learn the ropes together, although I had a feeling she would have the easier job. Okey, Yagosias Gustiosanis Huritis the first – damn the Teladi and their tongue twisting names – let's see if you can keep my station stocked with energy and ore.
I'll admit I watched the station and little miss Huritis the first like a hawk, checking it every five minutes to see how they were doing. After she had spent fifteen minutes sitting on her ass and doing nothing I started to worry and wondered if I had done something wrong. I checked, double checked and triple checked everything, but no go. Turned out I had forgot to give her something to trade for, so I transferred 300 000 credits to the station and tried again. Success! Ya live, ya learn …
With my CAG on the way to get some resources for my station I relaxed a bit and started thinking of a name for my budding company. Since I was already heading down the mythology route with the Morrigan and the Eris I landed on Nyx, the old Terran personification of the night. Like the night I would cover the world, and no one would see what it was hiding. Thus the Nyx Trading Company, or NTC for short, was born.
Now, I just had to do it. I docked and wandered into the factory, sucking in the smell of fresh oil and listening to the sound of the machines that would soon be producing shields for me. There were some fifty Teladi zipping about, making sure everything was running smoothly, and I couldn't help it but grin. It was a beautiful sight indeed. Oh well, time to do something remotely sensible.
As the factory started rolling out shields I decided to head south. I needed to work on my pirate rep a bit, so next stop was Hatikvah's Faith. Just as I was about to jump I spotted an Octopus Sentinel for sale. It was cheap-ish and would probably make me about ten grand at the shipyard, so I decided to buy it. A quick patch job later and it was on its way to a new life as rivets in a Teladi ship while I jumped south.
That thing is rather tiny compared to the Eris ...
Hatikvah's Faith. The southeast end of Pirate Alley. And someone offering a covert mission. Bleh. I hated them, because the targets were usually a lot of cards short of a full deck. I've watched them get them selves killed in every way imaginable, from hitting roids, stations, gates and other ships to trying to fly through a Xenon sector in a slow-as-snails bloody freighter! I've even had a couple who flew into the atmosphere of a nearby planet, burning them selves into a crisp because they were obviously convinced that a ship shaped like a brick with no wings could somehow survive reentry if they just wanted it hard enough. Brainless idiots, the lot of them.
Still, against my better judgment, I accepted it. Yeah, I know, but it was good money. The joy lasted until I found out I was supposed to follow a Disco Raider. I still headed over just in case the dingbat had forgot to tune the engines, but it was a no go. It was way faster than both the Morrigan and the Eris, and since I couldn't keep up I had to abort. Frak. Guess I had to get a Kestrel sooner or later. At least they wouldn't be able to outrun me then.
I did get a consolation prize, though, as Tracie picked up a transmission from the local Pirate Guild Outpost.
"They want cartography chips, captain," she said. "Almost six hundred thousand in reward, but you'll have to make it to their supplier in Brennan's Triumph and back in a little under eight minutes." I chewed on it for a moment. Hm, didn't I pick up a chart over Brennan's Triumph? I did, which meant I could use the autopilot to decided the shortest possible route.
"Tell him we'll do it," I said as I rose to my feet and headed for the Morrigan. It would be pretty damn close, but with a little docking computer magic I knew I could make it.
"Will do, captain," Tracie shouted as I ran for the access hatch.
No time for pre-flight checks, so I just waited til everything was online, released the docking clamps and hit the throttle. As soon as I was far enough from the Eris I plotted a course for the soyery where they had told us the chips were and fired the jump drive.
Brennan's Triumph, and the soyery seemed so far away I wish I could get out and push. Technically I could, but the suit thrusters wouldn't do much good as long as I had four matter/antimatter thrusters in the back of this boat. Come on, come on, come ON!
I had about four and a half minute left when I was finally within docking computer range. I hit the button, the computer worked its magic and the next thing I knew was the sound of the docking clamps latching on to the Morrigan's hull. The chips were shuffled aboard in a hurry, and within half a minute I was on my way back to Danna's Chance. Oooh, this was going to be a close one …
I had a little over three minutes left on the clock when I came through the gate in Danna's Chance, and the pirate base was just over thirty clicks away. A quick estimate told me I could make it in about two and a half minutes, which meant the docking computer would have to save me again. So I watched the distance with one eye, the clock with the other and had my hand on the docking computer control, ready to hit it as soon as I got within five clicks.
The clock was ticking awfully fast, and once again I wished I could get out and push. Come on … Come on … There, five clicks! I hit the docking computer and the station's tractor beams grabbed the ship and hauled it into the docking clamps. As they latched on I checked the timer. Twenty three seconds left, but I had made it in time! Yeah, baby! Five hundred and eighty three thousand credits!!! Too bad the cockpit of the Morrigan didn't have enough space to jump around, because I was that happy. Wohoo! It made my pirate rep climb a bit too. Nice bonus.
The lower hull of the Eris was just a few meters away when I got a message from the shipyard in Ceo's Sprite, telling me the Octopus had made it in one piece. I told them to scrap it and it made me a rather nice ten thousand credits in profitsss. Damn, I think I've been spending too much time with the Teladi. Oh well.
"Nice work, captain," Tracie said as I entered the bridge.
"Thanks," I said. "A little closer than I liked, but as long as I made it in time I guess I can't complain."
"Well, you've got … five hundred and eighty three thousand eight hundred and thirteen reasons not to complain, so I think you did pretty good." I just smiled at her.
"How's the station doing?" I asked. She typed in a few commands and brought up a summary of the station's status.
"Sittin' there with twenty four shields in stock … No, they just disappeared. That's about … one hundred and twenty four-odd thousand."
"Not bad. And much needed income at that."
"Mhm. Where to now, captain?"
"Let's head north and see what Brennan's Triumph has to offer," I said. "The last visit was a little too short for sightseeing." She snickered, and we turned the nose of the Eris toward the north gate.
The answer was a roid scan. For an Argon. Yuck. The money was good, though, and that was all I really cared about. How to get as much money out of these bastards as possible, before I laid waste to their most precious pearl. Yeah, I was planning on going after Argon Prime. More specifically Argon One, Ban Danna's supercarrier. Home of both Fleet Command and ASS, the Argon Secret Service. And yes, they do live up to their acronym. I was painfully aware of the fact that the patrols stationed there would be unwitting pawns, carrying out orders from their commanders, but if this Puppet Master turned the fleet against me I would have no choice but to cut them down.
"Hey, captain. You all right?" Tracie and the marines all looked at me, worried. I shook my head.
"No," I said.
"What …?" I sighed.
"I don't want to talk about it. At least not now." They looked at me, then at each other. No one said anything for a long time, and the only sound that could be heard was the humming of the computers and the deep, rumbling sound of the reactor and the engines. If someone had dropped a pin down in engineering I'm pretty sure we would have heard it.
We flew the rest of the trip in silence, and then delivered the data to that Argon woman. We got a rather healthy bonus too, but I wasn't in the mood to celebrate. Instead I felt the sudden urge to shoot something, and this Yaki had just the right medicine for me. A convoy raid in President's End? That could be interesting, in more ways than one. Too bad these bastards never told you what race you would be hitting. Ah, what the hell. I could always repair any rep loss I took.
The marks turned out to be three Teladi freighters. Crap. I could abort, but that would cost me valuable Yaki rep. Rep I planned on using to get a very special ship, namely a Chokaro TM-class military transport. It could carry three fighters, it was fast and pretty well shielded and it had a massive cargo bay for a ship its size. In other words it would be a nice fighter bus and jump drive transport. Oh-key … Better grab those EVA suits while you can, lizards.
They were about to pass through the gate as I arrived, so I targeted the closest one, a Mercury, lined up and fired a single CIG volley. All six bolts connected to the side of the ship, and the subspace shock wave pushed it back a good twenty meters before the pilot got it under control again. The Teladi contacted me and begged me to stop shooting. She was even willing to give up her freight, but I was here to keep them from reaching their destination. A second CIG volley hit the rear end and sent it spinning. That was apparently the famous drop, as the crew jumped in their EVA suits and got the hell out. Hey, I had a free freighter now.
The other two bailed as well, and suddenly I had three freighters on my hands. The locals got a little cranky over my little stunt and threatened to turn the Eris into space dust. While I didn't really see that happen unless the Buster interceptor he was flying was packing mass drivers, I apologized and told him we'd had a computer malfunction and that our weapons had fired accidentally. Yeah. Six times. That was about as likely as running into a pacifistic Split, but incredibly enough he bought it. Gullible idiot.
The rep loss was surprisingly low, and I had just picked up my reward when I spotted this little joker. Yeah, a Kha'ak Cluster. Damn bugs. The only thing I hated almost as much as the Xenon, after they had attacked and decimated the very sector we were in. For a moment there I wished I had a Hornet or some other high yield missile, but I would have to make do with my guns.
"Here we go," I said to the marines manning the turrets. "Weapons free, fire at will."
The ship was once again silent, but this time it was due to battle readiness. We all knew what to do, so we wasted no unnecessary words.
As the Cluster drifted into range I said hello with my CIGs, and it responded by splitting apart and swarming us. I went for the Fighter that made up the core and left the Scouts that buzzed around us like gnats to the turrets. The bastard was fast, but I managed to keep up thanks to creative use of the throttle and maneuvering thrusters. The Eris had a big ass, but I knew how to handle her. Meanwhile the high pitched sound of pulsed beam emitters echoed through the hull, accompanied by the deep, thunderous 'thoom' of CIGs every time that bastard found itself in my cross hairs. The first volley missed, but the second one connected and blew away almost half its shields. Come on, you bastard. Look at the sweet spot.
The bug flying the thing proved to be quite good, staying close to the Eris and using its greater maneuverability to avoid my main guns. Unfortunately for it I had more tricks up my sleeve, and Aron and Jo soon caught it in a deadly crossfire between the top and right turret. Four PBEs whittled away its shield in no time, and then there was just a matter of seconds before they would eat through the hull and … Oops. Yeah, hit something that didn't like energy bolts. Apparently they did hit something, and the next thing I knew it was just static in our shields. We took a pretty good beating our selves, with the shields dipping down to some forty five percent, but the turrets weeded out those gnats so fast they never really threatened us.
When things calmed down a bit I spotted a Mercury Tanker for sale. It was cheap-ish too, and I imagined I would make about thirty thousand off of it when I patched it up and sold it. Then I claimed the rest of the freighters, gathered the whole bunch and sent them to the shipyard in Ceo's Sprite as it was the closest non-Argon shipyard I knew of. There was one in Cloudbase South East, but I would rather go one-on-one with an angry Paranid than sell something to the Argon.
I also saw this, which was more on the ridiculously expensive side. What 'n the blue hell did he do, coat the entire hull in nividium?
After gathering my herd of cats … eh, freighters and sending them on their way I decided to head for Farnham's Legend. It was the other end of pirate alley, and I knew the neighboring sector, Bala Gi's Joy, had some solar power plants where I could dock and refuel. I really needed to get a power core going, but I was still some twenty seven million short if my math was correct. Now, if I hooked it up to the shield factory I could eliminate some of the cost of keeping it running, and increase my earnings. Then maybe some food factories, a silicon mine and an ore mine somewhere, and I could eliminate the need for external resources and grab everything it earned for myself. It would be a huge investment, but it would be worth it.
Next, Farnham's Legend and … Hey, what's that?
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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 - "Mule 1"
TS Caiman - "Mule 2"
TS Caiman - Blue Profit CAG 1
Stations owned:
NTC 1MJ shield factory, Blue Profit
9163484 credits
