[Chapter II]
Grand Theft Scout
"I'd prefer to stick to the normal docking procedures." Golo ignored the AS steering the Ship right to the entrance of the docking bay.
"Dock requested. Permission granted." Evy sighed. Golo dived into the stream of ships docking and undocking to and from the Military base, much to the discontent of the other pilots.
"We got multiple transmissions containing foul language." His increasingly scarce attempts to dodge didn't seem to bother the Lar in the slightest, until he nudged another M5.
"Muddy Boron! Pay attention you squid!" At last, decreasing the speed, Golo managed to dock the ship with only a small scratch.
"Well done..." "Quite. We need some engine and rudder tunings, and some weapons." "We can't afford both." "Balance it." "Tuning the ship to 350m/s and a usefull turning speed would leave us with merely enough cash to purchase one Impulse Ray Emitter." "Order them, I'll buy some food in the meantime. Contact me, when they are done." "Certainly."
The moment Golo left the ship, he felt relieved. "Blasto" served him good, but he was sure he'd need something bigger to take on his plans. A single IRE was an onset, but still nothing serious.
Swimming trough the station, breathing the fresh atmosphere thousand times better than that created by the small ships life support system, he made his way to shopping decks to buy some BoFu on the market. It wasn't his favorite food in any way, but long-living and easy to store even in the confined space provided by the Octopus.
After the shopping was done, our hero headed to one of the observation decks, to enjoy the view on the blue pearl named Nishalla. A pearl, He'd never again set tentacle on, until he'd have reached his goal.
"The tuning is finished and the IRE was installed. The ship is ready to set out." "Set the ship to standby. I'm already on my way."
Two hours after a rather harsh docking and still slightly dented, the "Blasto" left the military outpost and headed aimlessly into the sector.
"We need something to test the weapons on." Golo decided and looked at the gravidar. A bypassing civilian octopus seemed suited well enough for target practice. Golo accelerated to top speed and again made his first move, before Evy realised what he was up to.
The first volley however failed to hit the target and passed a couple of dozen meters starboard of it into the void.
"Damn, I can't aim with this." "I'm glad you fired at this ship, in the middle of the Kingdom surrounded by police forces in all directions, ON PURPOSE. Not to think what trouble some inadvertent hits might have caused." "Don't be picky. Help me target." "I'm not designed to take control of the ships weapons. I could calculate the necessary vectors and draw a reticule though. Still, I do not recommend attacking boron ships in boron space." "Whatever, just draw the reticule."
And she did. On the second go, a stream of impulse rays hit the targeted ship and ate good four fifth of the shields. On the next attack the shields broke and the pilot bailed without even being able to alarm the police in the process. Golo smiled, steering the ship next to the abandoned one, while the pilot crawled away.
"Are you able to take control of the ship?" "I cannot access the ship through any of the open channels. But if you open a port manually, I could be able to access and overwrite all necessary functions." "So a spacewalk it is. Eject me."
5 Minutes later, the ship changed to the ownership of Golo, just when he reentered his ship. And much to his content, there was something useful left on the ship:
"A freight scanner. How convenient." The boron grinned and steered the "Blasto" away from the other ship, to make sure they wouldn't collide.
"Send the ship to the shipyard and follow it." "A 'please' would be appreciated." Despite not getting it, Evy obeyed the command and piloted both ships safely to the shipyards docking clamps. Soon after, the booty was sold and the freight scanner incorporated into the "Blasto" enhancing Evy's "senses" further.
Golo was already out for the next coup, but this time, he considered Evy's objection about the local police forces and set course to course to Rolk's Drift after the purchase of three more IREs at the Military Outpost.
Upon entrance, Evy had to filter the public channels for salvage requests and found one without problems. A Octopus had been left in Kingdom's End for no reason. "Blasto" made a 180° turn and headed right back into the gate it came out of just one and a half minute ago. According to Golos plans the ship was claimed and repaired, since there was only a burned power coupling, and afterwards sold at the shipyard. Another easy 30.000.
"We are no longer allowed to purchase weaponry of any kind." "Again?" "I would recommend to proceed without involving boron property." Golo gnarled, but he had to admit Evy was right. He would need money and sufficient notoriety to purchase a better ship, so it wasn't a good idea to tick off his people to much.
Considered and decided, the "Blasto" turned it's back to boron space and proceeded to Argon Territory to seek new opportunities. It was not until Argon Prime, that our hero ran into another salvage request, sending him to emperor mines. Following the direction, he visited home of light and reached Ore Belt after a couple of minutes flight.
"Proximity Warning. Hostile M5. IFF Paranid." The boron targeted the ship. It didn't seem to have any hostilities towards them in mind, but that wasn't based on mutuality.
"It's legal to attack paranid ships in argon space.""It's even appreciated." Evy corrected.
"I don't see any particular dangerous freight. Only two IRE are installed." Golos Eyes turned inwards for a moment.
"Let's get him."
On the third go, the fighter finally turned into a flashing fireball, leaving nothing behind but an improved reputation for the Argon.
Then the "great theft" began. The Octopus Vanguard in Emperor Mines was secured first. Second was a Harrier Sentinel, left in Herrons Nebula by a Worker from Ringo Moon and a Pegasus Raider abandoned in the Hole by a Miner from Herron's Nebula.
Upon returning to Herron's Nebula, a Vulture crossed Golos Path, owned by a member of the paranid race.
"Evy, give me a scan on that one." "A single IRE. Four Drones. No cargo aside from that. I do not recommend attacking." Golo shrugged off his AS judgement like he was used to. Four drones and a IRE, just what Blasto would be able to handle.
Weapons blazing he approached the vulture from the the side and made a slight turn towards the nose of the freighter. After passing the ship making some distance, he performed a full turn and repeated the whole maneuver.
"Leave your ship and I'll spare your life you pitiful Priest!" "Don't dare to attack me, Lowlife! You'll pay for this insult!" "Force me." "He launched the drones." Golo laughed it off and had Evy to target the drones, one after another.
"Shields down to 50%." The first two drones exploded, another full turn brought the ship to face the third.
"Shields down to 5%" Only one of the bees was now left, but it turned out way more elusive than its comrades. Soon, the first shots burned the hull of the Octopus chasing it, but Golo managed to keep his cool.
"Evy, reverse thrust in 3 Seconds." "3,2,1." The ship was suddenly stopped, causing the drone to crash right into it, in the blink of an eye the cockpit turned red with warnings lights flashing on almost every panel.
"Okay... that wasn't the way I planned it, but I guess it... worked..." The warning lights shut down.
"We've lost no vital systems, but hull integrity is under 50%." Golo smashed his tentacle on the eject button.
"I'll mend the dents, make sure you keep track of that vulture."
Swinging his repair laser like crazy, our hero managed to put his ship back into a more reasonable shape and reentered it after only a couple of minutes, with the vulture still in sector.
Shouting
"Pray my prey!" at the Paranid, Golo harrased his target once more and kept up until the enemy finally realized, that bailing would be the better option, leaving our hero to claim the next ship, before escorting it into the safety of Kingdom's Ends Shipyard and selling it along with the other stolen ships.
"How are things going?" Golo asked, undocking from the Equipment Dock. Selling all the ships made a lot of money, but upgrading the Octopus to the maximun munched away a good portion of the profits.
"We still haven't the money nor the notoriety to afford an M4 as you wanted to." As expected by the boron. Selling Ships and spending money at the EQ raised his notoriety with the kingdom, but there was more to do.
The Gate to Rolk's Drift was passed and like the last time a salvage request popped up in the public channels. A time limit in the hours and the ship was located in Kingdom's End.
"Take it. I wonder if I will ever again enter that sector more than 5 kilometers..." The ship turned and sped back through the gate and to Kingdom's End to recover the damaged Harrier.
"There go our 30.000 Credits..." lamented Golo, when Evy programmed the Ship to return to its Owner.
"The gain in reputation is worth a lot more. I already found and confirmed another assignment. The target is floating idle in The Hole." "I didn't allow you to take assignments yourself!" "You didn't forbade it either. Besides, to the timing being you took every single mission containing these parameters." Golo hit the "I don't care, just shut up"- button (he actually prepared one after Evy ruined his legacy).
"Alright, alright I got it. You took the mission, you always wanted to fly, fine with me, I'll take a nap until we are there."
But I guess it was more likely a boron one.
