DiD: When you can't do it your way... do it the Yaki way. (Pt.II Ch.2)(Open to ALL!)

[dragondream]

I have had to change image host so please bare with the fact that the thumbnails aren't as good, but you should be able to see the pictures full-size and save them now.

Chapter 6 - Argon Whiskey and an Evil Agenda

Before leaving the sector, Derrik spotted two Firelance missiles, hopelessly floating through space. He sped up to the first one and picked it up and then got the second one.

"We'll get a couple of bucks from these ones."

"But wait a minute," Alex said. "I thought Argon EQ Docks don't buy and sell Firelance missiles..."

"Watch and learn. All EQ Docks will take any missile, gun or shield in infinite numbers! Only the wares that the EQ Docks sell you can only sell to them up to the maximum stock number."

"How did you learn that?" Alex asked amazed.

"Ohh. Something they teach you in the military if you ever have an overstock of weapons or missiles that you can drop them off at any EQ Dock... and not just an EQ Dock for that matter! It's the same with Military Outposts and even the Corporation Headquarters."

Selling the two missiles they quickly got 6000 credits and bought some more Engine Tunings with it.

"See?" Derrik said with satisfaction. "Our ship now goes twice the speed it did to start with. Now we're making progress."

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Going through President's End, Alex stared through the window, stunned to see the quantity of debris scattered through the sector.

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"Take a good look friend... soon Argon Prime will look just like that, nothing but a sector of debris and destruction."

Alex did not dare ask why, but was confident it fitted into Derrik's big scheme of plans. Up until now he was not sure what exactly it was, but he had the feeling that Derrik's plans included eventually going against the Yaki...

"The time I finally return to Argon Prime, it will be with M1's and M2's as my wingmen. Until then, I will never set foot in Argon Prime again."

"Why do you have such hostile feelings for Argon Prime?"

"It's a long story... but it goes back all the way to my grandfather."

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Derrik went through The Wall, while scanning and targeting all the stations round him. Then going through the North Gate he went to The Hole. The dense nebulae cloud that surrounded them blocked their view from seeing past a couple kilometers.

"Ok, this is gonna be tricky finding the West Gate to Herron's Nebulae," Derrik said. "We don't have any triplex or duplex scanner and the West Gate is not in a normal location. The thick nebulae cloud stops us from seeing past a few kilometers as well."

"What are we gonna do?" Alex asked.

"There's only one thing we can do. These sectors can have pretty heavy traffic at times. We just follow try and keep in the main traffic stream and hope we find our way to the other side. Now this is a little trick we used in the military when hunting down Pirates in a sector with really low visibility. You scan the ship furthest from you in the direction you are going and head straight for him. Then when you get near him you scan for the next furthest ship and so on..."

"Sounds like a plan... so what ship are we gonna head over to first?"

Derrik checked his sector map and tried to find a ship in the general direction to the West Gate. He soon spotted a Split Bio Transporter heading away from the South gate and caught up with him. He then saw an Argon Recon Discoverer. He followed him for a while but found he was going much faster than the Fujin was.

"You're gonna lose him..." Alex said.

"No. The ship's targeting system will always track the ship you've got as target no matter how far he has gone. It will stay as a target until you either change targets or he leaves the sector. So we follow him until he leaves the sector and then head in that direction or we keep following him until we spot someone else."

The Argon Recon Discoverer obviously wasn't heading for the West Gate when he spun round and started heading back to the South Gate. Derrik immediately targeted another ship and followed him. By practicing this technique they eventually got to the North Gate and started scanning for ships leaving the North Gate and heading west. They waited and waited but it seemed that the route between the North and West gate was obviously not very popular, probably due to the lack of visibility. So Derrik took an alternative route and went through Antigone Memorial. While going through Antigone Memorial a Split Cartographer commed him and offered him data on Asteroid Yields for a bit of cash.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” he said. “Although I know some other guy who might be interested in them.”

“Tell Split so he may find this man,” the Split replied.

“Yeah, so what you gotta do is go to Getsu Fune and then go through the North Gate and you’ll find some interested buyers.”

“You insult Split! Split knows North Gate leads to Xenon Sector. Split hopes you get missile up your…”

Derrik switched off the comm. to cut him off.

“That was pure evil,” Alex said laughingly, beginning to enjoy Derrik’s twisted sense of humour.

Going into Power Circle, Derrik couldn’t resist accepting another Protect Station mission.

“Oh no…,” Alex said. “Not again.”

“Hehe. Don’t worry, those Pirate Harriers won’t stand a chance and even if they do, it will just be an extra bonus to have one less Argon station around…”

Derrik steered his ship to Herron’s Nebulae – now the 20th sector explored – and headed straight to the nearest Spacefuel Distillery without hesitation.

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“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Alex said. “You said trade runs not Spacefuel smuggling!”

“What did you think I meant when I said that? You want to be a pirate? Then you got to start acting like one and stop being sensitive to the illegal side of things then…”

Derrik docked at one of the Spacefuel Distilleries and bought three Spacefuel. He loaded it hastily on board and got back into his Fujin. He turned to Alex to talk to him.

“Here’s the reason why trading Spacefuel is so profitable… Argon Free Trading Stations and Pirate Bases always buy Spacefuel at the highest price unlike with other goods. So you should always make a profit selling it as long as you have somewhere to sell it to.”

After about the 10th trade run between the Spacefuel Distillery and the Free Trading Station, Derrik received a message from the station owner in Power Circle that mission was complete and payment was being transferred…

“The idiots don’t realize I am doing everything except helping them!” Derrik said. “Yet they blissfully pay me not knowing my true motives.”

Derrik took one last trade run for a bit of extra cash and then headed to Home of Light to look for some equipment – but avoiding Argon Prime by all means. When arriving at Home of Light Derrik docked at the Terracorp HQ to see if there was any interesting equipment for sale.

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Nothing. Derrik spun the ship round and headed for Cloudbase Southeast.

Assets:

1 x Yaki Fujin "Fudge"

Credits: 49,424
Game Time: 08:32:22

[EmperorJon]

Actually, as a note, the reason they buy at max price is because any dock which buys a good which is illegal in that sector buys it a max. So, for example, pirate bases in pirate sectors buy stuff at average. That trading station buys spacefuel at max. A pirate base in an Argon sector will buy fuel for max, and spaceflies, and spaceweed, and illegal mines. One in Teladi space will not but Weed for max, it is legal. Just so you know.

[dragondream]

Actually, as a note, the reason they buy at max price is because any dock which buys a good which is illegal in that sector buys it a max. So, for example, pirate bases in pirate sectors buy stuff at average. That trading station buys spacefuel at max. A pirate base in an Argon sector will buy fuel for max, and spaceflies, and spaceweed, and illegal mines. One in Teladi space will not but Weed for max, it is legal. Just so you know.

Ahh, ok thanks. Now that you mention it, I do seem to remember seeing that in Reunion, but must have just forgotton when I got to TC...

[TTD]

There's a lot of Reunion things that I'd like to see in TC...maybe the bonus pack...if we get it.

But I started off TC thinking the Reunion way and then realised that TC was very different and yet the same,so I sometimes get confused as to what I can buy or sell and where.

I do like your spin on station protect missions.

However,you do realise that your goal of laying Argon Prime a desolate waste is impossible without scripts ? You can't get rid of Argon One and stations respawn as and when needed .

[dragondream]

However,you do realise that your goal of laying Argon Prime a desolate waste is impossible without scripts ? You can't get rid of Argon One and stations respawn as and when needed .

A few things:

1) No scripts - determined to stick to vanilla.

2) No one said whether or not Derrik will succeed or not. Just depends on how well things go...

3) When the time comes it will be a one-off assualt to level the sector, blowing an enormous punch in the Argon's economical stomach.

4) Don't worry 'bout that Argon One... Derrik's got his own set of plans to keep that ship busy...

[EmperorJon]

Set a Deca loose one it!

Unstoppable force meets immovable object!

[TTD]

Norman Fudge sats ,"Awh,Allroight then,go gett'em Der,but leave me ol' 'owse intac. Oi'l be a wantin zomewer ta rest afer Oi done same wid ta Taladi."

[LordForrester]

As there first Flight together continued Alex started to enjoy himself. The success of there cruse had loosened up Derrik a lot. The mood of depression and disappointment seemed to have fully lifted off of Derrik. He was enjoying himself now. He was constantly telling Alex lots of little tips, things that Alex had never known or had to know as a fleet officer. He had always had the crew to take care of the little things.

He now started to fully appreciate the job that Master Chief Edwards had done on his ships. He had met the Edwards on board his first command, the M6 Dependable. Edwards became his most reliable noncommissioned officer and friend. Alex made sure he was transferred with him to each new command.

Edwards had shared his religious ideas. When the government arrested Alex and his family it was Edwards that had arranged there escape in a small transport ship. Alex had tried to get him to go with his family but Edwards said he had to play his roll till his own family was safe then he would find Alex.

As Derrik turned the ship towards the southern gate of Home of Light Alex thought to himself.
“I will rebuild a home for my friends and family. Derrik is just the man to make that happen.”

[dragondream]

XUN - X Universe News - presented to you by Charlene Hudson.

"The Terrans have refused to ban any goods considered illegal in the Commonwealth sectors, saying that the trade of goods such as Spacefuel and Spaceweed are a conscious decision to traders whether or not they will trade such goods. Terran Vice-President Lune Attik has stated that "there is minimal Pirate activity in their sectors and that places to buy and sell goods such as Spacefuel and Spaceweed are rare, if not non-existent". The Argon Senate however have said that "the Terrans are lacking morally and do not have enough rules and standards".

Further in the news... Reports have been made by eye-witnesses that the Split have actually been secretly capturing Spaceflies and breeding them in underground laboratories to keep a steady supply of them flowing through their economy as the rest of the universe suffers the near-extinction of the species. Protesters have gathered at Split stations, demanding the end to Spacefly hunting and killing. However the Split have responded to these protests only by ejecting the angry protesters off their stations with a limited oxygen supply..."

[dragondream]

Chapter 7 - A Pirate's Life and Split Fire

Derrik looked through the whole of Cloudbase Southeast for weapons and shields to upgrade the Fujin with.

"Look at this," Derrik said in disappointment. "Not even a 1MJ Shield for sale anywhere. Ok, let's stop at the Light Weapons Complex and see what we can get."

Docking the ship manually, Derrik and Alex went to the weapons store to see what was for sale. Derrik nearly choked when he saw the prices.

"One PAC is nearly the entire amount of money we have!" said Derrik.

"So what are we gonna do?" Alex asked.

"We'll use the money to upgrade the speed and rudder of the ship instead. Speed and agility can often make up for lack of firepower. Let's head to the Free Argon Trading Station and get some engine and rudder tuning... let's call it FATS from now on."

Derrik undocked his ship and shot towards the Free Argon Trading Station. He docked and bought all the engine tunings he could get his hands on, several cargobay extension and some rudder tunings.

"Ok, that's half our money spent. Let's go and "convince" some traders that their ship is better used by us."

Alex rolled his eyes. "I take that as you're going to do some pirating now. Where are we headed?"

"The best place to do pirating... where there's no law," Derrik said chuckling in an evil way.

He shot at 400+m/s through the gate and through President's End, headed straight for Elena's Fortune.

"Ok, now it's your choice, Alex. North to Farnham's Legend or South to Split Fire?"

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Alex gulped audibly. Going straight into dangerous Pirate Sectors wasn't his idea of fun. He deeply feared being made fried as a BBQ in two seconds by some lone angry M6 while they were in a puny little M5. Derrik got tired of waiting for a reply that wasn't coming and sped towards the South Gate. Afterall, Paranid are the easiest to cap, he thought. Derrik docked at a nearby station and looked for a juicy mission to do.

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"Hmm, this one looks interesting," Derrik said.

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He accepted the mission and waited for a reply.

"Uh oh," Derrik said. "I don't think the Yaki would appreciate me doing this mission. Not since the mission is to assasinate a Yaki Fujin."

He quickly aborted mission and carried on flying through the sector. Scanning through the Sector Map, Derrik spotted some more ejected missiles and quickly picked them up for a bit of profit later on.

"Ok, now let's pick our target..." he said. "Hmm, Paranid Bio Transporter. TP Class ship. It's stats says it can pack some pretty dangerous weapons such as the Phased Repeater Gun and PAC's, deadly weapons to fighters. Let's look for a TS ship instead. Now the Paranid ships often come through the South Gate of this sector. We will wait there until a Paranid ship comes through the gate."

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He flew to just outside the South Gate and put SETA on, waiting for his target to come through the gate any minute. Another Paranid Bio Transport cam through the gate and Derrik quickly saw the stats of the TS ship.

"Ok, it can fit Fragmentation Bomb Launchers, but from my experience traders can normally not afford these. If it gives us too much trouble we can always run away with the speed this thing can go now."

He directed his ship towards the unsuspecting Paranid trader and opened fire. He shot many times at the ship, but hardly dealing any damage at all. Derrik noticed something odd.

"The shields are going down... and I didn't even see a single shot fired so far!" Derrik said in astonishment. "No, something's not right."

He quickly sped away, apologizing to the Paranid for the "accidental" fire.

"That was really odd. If we had stayed second longer we would have been fried and that would have been a very short attack. Ok, let's check hull damage. 3% damage. Ok, I'm going to go outside and repair the damage with the Repair Laser."

Derrik ejected out of his ship and fired a a couple shots with the Repair Laser until the damage was fixed. He got back inside and clapped his hands once in accomplishment.

"Time for a different target. Maybe an M4 or M5 this time, eh?"

Alex nodded his head, still pale white from his near death experience and he was certain be experiencing many more of those...

Assets:

1 x Yaki Fujin "Fudge"

Credits: 23,380
Game Time: 08:58:51

[dragondream]

Chapter 8 - Hungry Lions and Paranids with a Death Wish

A lone Paranid M4 High Tech Transporter came wandering through the South Gate.

"Here comes target No. 2," Derrik said.

He sped up to the M5 and opened up a full barrage of fire. The ship didn't even seem to notice the existence of the small M5 attacking it until the shields were down to 75%.

"You will pay for this," the grumpy Paranid said.

"Pay for it?" Derrik laughed. "Nah, but I'll do so much as take that ship of yours when you've had enough of it."

The energy for the IRE's were now completely drained and the shields of the M4 were stuck on 75%. Derrik launched a Dragonfly missile in desperation to lower the target's shields. He was only partially succesful for the shields were now at 25%.

"What kind of shields this guy got on his ship?" Derrik asked. "3GJ?"

He did not dare to launch one of the other missiles in fear of the amount of damage it might cause. He did not want to destroy the ship, only make the pilot bail from it. For five minutes he sent a continuous stream of IRE fire right at the target's hull. Out of frustration (and temporary lack of flying skills), Derrik rammed into the target, bringing his own shields down 90%, but the targets shields 5%.

"What the... Run for it," Derrik said without hesitation.

For as much as Derrik was a daredevil when it came to combat, he very well knew when he had lost a battle, or at least when it couldn't be won. He apologized again and again to the pilot, but he just didn't accept the damage he had caused. He turned the ship away and sped into the distance, receiving a heavy dose of PAC fire as he did so. When safely in the distance, Derrik apologized to the pilot once more, who in turn accepted and turned blue on the radar. Alex checked the ship's shields and freight.

"Oh great, we took some hull damage, but luckily no freight was destroyed."

"Ok," Derrik said. "I'm going to go outside with the repair laser and patch up the hull."

Derrik turned around and saw that the ship was directly in the path of the oncoming Paranid. He quickly strafed until he was safely out the way and then ejected, but he did not check to see that the ship had stopped moving! He soon got an unpleasant surprise as the fin of the ship nearly swatted him in the face. Luckily, he strafed out the way just in time to avoid getting hit.

"Whoa, that was too close," Derrik said uncomfortably.

Quickly patching up the hull, Derrik returned to the ship.

"Ok, let's go and sell off these missiles," Derrik said, looking at Alex. "We'll try Elena's Fortune first and then come back."

"Derrik, promise me one thing. Next time you pick a target in this ship... make sure it's not bigger than you."

Derrik grinned. "Why? That's half the fun..."

He flew to the North Gate following a Paranid TS with two M5 escorts.

"Hmmm..." Derrik said while thinking hard.

"Oh no. C'mon! You just can't leave well enough alone, can you?" Alex said angrily.

"What? I'm just thinking."

"Yeah, well tell me what you're thinking then."

Derrik leaned forward. "I'm thinking that if we wait for the TS and one of those M5's to fly through the gate, then we can pick on the M5 still left behind."

Just then a Paranid Courier came whizzing past and Derrik opened up a few shots at him.

"You wage war against the Paranid," the Paranid pilot said. "You will regret this."

"Whoa, dude," Derrik said. "You're headed right at the..."

SPLAT!

"...gate."

Derrik turned the ship around and looked at Alex.

"Back to Plan A."

He looked around and noticed the Paranid TS had already gone through the gate and so had the M5's. Disappointed, Derrik flew through the gate to sell off the missiles he still had onboard at the Elena's Fortune Military Outpost. He quickly offloaded the missiles as soon as he docked and then made his way back to Split Fire.

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He went back to the South Gate there and hovered over the gate, hungry for his prey to arrive as a lion waits to be fed.

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He spotted another Courier and shot down his shields in seconds, but just when he was confident he had caught his first prey, the M5 hurriedly shot through the gate and out of sight. A Recon Pegasus came shooting through the gate and Derrik shot after him firing at him with all his energy. Then when the shields of his target shields were lower than 10%, Derrik lowered the amount of IRE's fired to one. He methodically shot down the hull bit by bit, but in the end the Paranid refused to bail even at 1% hull left. Derrik apologized and flew away, again in disappointment.

"It's useless," he said. "You can't do much with only an M5. Nobody takes you seriously."

Alex leaned against his chair. "Maybe it's time we tried to sum up enough money to buy and M4."

"No, no. We need to cap something before we go back. Somebody has to bail..."

Assets:

1 x Yaki Fujin "Fudge"

Credits: 28,772
Game Time: 09:38:27

[LordForrester]

After watching Derrik try over and over again to capture a target Alex had begun to like the idea of doing some more missions till we had the cash for an M4 or M4+, but Derrik was determined to get his fist capture as a pirate. He thought that Darrik was uses to flying much better equipment.

He is a good fighter pilot but is always in a little bit of a hurry and it almost got him killed. I have no doubt that if we can survive till we have a proper fighter we will do very well.

[TTD]

Master Derrik,You have an in coming message...

"Well Oi've bin a tahlkin' te a few space travelers ,loik an' Oi 'eard of te way some guy called Derrik is operatin'.
Oi'm a peaceful sart ov trader.Don' foight iv Oi kin avoid it.But gittin bucks for doin' nowt an' increasing rep too is sumtin' Oi loik.Especially iv Oi kin keep dem Teladi busy an' dey pay for it.
Zo Oi'm a addin this te moi moi strategeez."

- Norman Fudge.

[dragondream]

Sorry for the delay on the next chapters... been busy (as you can probably guess) with holiday-related stuff and other things. Will try and start-up X3 this coming weekend or so.

[Llama]

Loving this, I did the same thing with my *yaki* start as the Unholy tratior. While the proto has significantly higher firepower, I was still running from anything bigger than a m5 because of the crappy sheilds they give you...

[LordForrester]

I am really looking forward to how it moves on it was just really getting interesting. I would like to know how he gets his start. Hey on a side note how much does the Yaki TM cost. IT looks like it is the best TM of all the TMs. it has almost 2x the cargo space.


I would like to get my hands on one.

[tidurlagi]

IIRC, about 440k. Yes, indeed its one of the best TM out there.

[Thermo18]

I killed the Yaki race in my game, and took them over using sector takeover script.

I dont like them.

[dragondream]

Loving this, I did the same thing with my *yaki* start as the Unholy tratior. While the proto has significantly higher firepower, I was still running from anything bigger than a m5 because of the crappy sheilds they give you...

Thanks. This kind of start is definitely a lot more slower because of starting with the bare minimum, but it's a heck of a lot more challenging and very fun to for the first time actually be running away from stuff in the game instead of pounding them into mashed steel all the time.

I killed the Yaki race in my game, and took them over using sector takeover script.

I dont like them.

The Yaki Prince writes a thoughtful and inspiring reply to this:

"BOOOOOOO!"

[dragondream]

Chapter 9 - "No Fishing" and a Change of Plans

Alex leaned comfortably back in his seat. "So, oh excellent pirate," he said with an obvious hint of sarcasm. "Who is going to be the next victim?"

Derrik punched the throttle as he undocked. "I spotted a Boron Courier headed for the South Gate. There's sufficient time for us to catch up to him."

Without hesitation Derrik swung his Fujin in the direction the Courier was headed. When he was within 1km of the target he shot some IRE's up his opponent's exhaust to let him know he meant business.

"You offend Boron," the aquatic creature said in reply to the damage he had taken from the IRE's.

"Don't take it too personally, you're not the first," Derrik said with an evil-like grin.

You have lost notoriety...

"Now there's a surpise," Derrik said sarcastically. "Here i was thinking this was an acceptable fishing spot."

When the shields were lowered to 10% Derrik quickly switched to just one IRE to slow down the damage his Boron target was receiving. Bit by bit Derrik's lasers ate out the little hull the Boron M5 had. Repeatedly comming the Boron to surrender, the Boron refused to bail.

"I can't let this one get away as well," Derrik said, frustrated.

When the target had 5% hull left Derrik rammed it to finish it off.

"He was never going to bail," Derrik said, kicking the side of his chair.

Alex sighed heavily. "Look, perhaps, instead of continuously putting dents into this space ship, you should boost both your combat ranking and your money so we can get a ship that can actually pull this off. No one is going to be afraid of a puny little M5. At least an M4 should make them just a little bit more willing to cooperate."

Derrik put his face in his hands. "What do suppose we do?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something," said Alex grinning. "You're the experienced one."

Alex walked over to the coffee machine - a bare necessity for all ships - and chuckled. "I'm just the apprentice."

Derrik sat up straight. "Get me an espresso," he told Alex. "We're going to see how 'the scum' are doing and if they have any business for us."

Entering system Brennan's Triumph...

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Assets:

1 x Yaki Fujin

Credits: 28,772
Game Time: 09:48:08