Untitled(for now)

[Mr. Stubb]

Name: Jasper Stubb
Race: Human
Gamestart: Aldran Adventurer
Mods/Scripts: Hangarmod, Pirate Guild, Improved Races(though I don't use the “true relations” part of the mod, only the hot war and sector takeovers), Improved Boarding, and Advanced Jumpdrive(which I've found a unique and, I believe, “fair” way to use.)

Chapter One, Part One
Date and time: 768-05-01 00:04

So here I am, sitting in the “commonwealth” sector known as “Omicron Lyrae.” Looking at my scanner readout I find myself somewhat in awe. There are so many ships, so many different races. I tried to prepare myself for this before leaving Aldrin and I thought I had, but actually being here, seeing it for myself is...I don't know...I'm at a loss for words. Fascinating? Incredible? Awe inspiring? I suppose all of those are accurate, but none truly describe what I'm feeling. That's the difficult part, though, right? Translating thoughts and emotions into words? I've always had a difficult time with it, and now that I'm beginning to log my adventures I'm realizing that fact all too well. I suppose it's something I shall have to get used to.

I left Aldrin not five minutes ago(yes, we still use the old Earth system for measuring time) and I had to take a minute to admire what I'm seeing, and log it while it was still fresh in my mind. Aldrin...I don't even want to think about what my life was there, and I never intend to go back. As of this moment all of that is behind me and I've come to the commonwealth to begin anew, to carve out a fresh and, if I can help it, exciting existence for myself in this strange new universe. I will do what I must to earn riches and prestige for myself which never would have been possible back in that wretched place. For fame and glory...and whatever may come with it.

-Jasper Stubb
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Most of the story will be written in the third person, however, this log and possibly a few other ones will be written in the first. It represents the character speaking into the log and describing things as they happen, as opposed to most of the story, where he will be reflecting on them at a later time. I figure this will be obvious to most people, but I wanted to avoid any “you keep switching from first to third person” types of comments. I assure you, I am aware.

That being said, I haven't done any writing in quite a while so please forgive any errors in grammar or punctuation, and I hope you all enjoy the story.
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Chapter One, Part Two
Date and time: 768-05-01 01:21

Well, I've taken and completed my first mission since arriving in the commonwealth. I left Omicron Lyrae through the east “jumpgate” shortly after my first log, arriving in a sector known as Treasure Chest. From there I elected to take the eastern gate once again and found myself in another Argon controlled sector called Black Hole Sun.

Upon my arrival in Black Hole Sun, I was hailed by the pilot of an Argon freighter asking if I was interested in some work. “Possibly,” I told him, depending on the nature of the work of course. Apparently he and his fellow freighter pilot needed an escort to the Trading Station in the sector I had just come from, the one known as Treasure Chest. Seeing as I hadn't encountered any hostile parties since I arrived in this part of the universe I figured it would be a walk in the park, besides...he was offering nearly seventy thousand credits! Now I had only amassed a little over four thousand in my entire life in Aldrin, so to imagine making that kind of money in a few minutes' time was astonishing. Needless to say, I accepted.

Did I mention I thought it would be a walk in the park?. Ha, not quite. We ran into several small pirate ships, of the M5 class. They weren't much of a threat to me in my Spitfyre, not only because my shields and weapons were far superior, but also because they completely ignored me and pounced on the freighters like a pack of wild dogs. With the amount of fire they were taking I was amazed they weren't destroyed in the first few minutes of the mission, and destroying those pirates was NOT easy. It didn't take much from my EEMPC's to destroy one, but they were so damn quick I could barely hit them.

Anyway, eventually I took care of the pirates and checked to make sure my clients were safe and sound. Despite having severely weakened shields, they seemed to be doing just fine. Sooo, into Treasure Chest we go. Well, into Treasure Chest the first one goes. I followed him through the gate and realized I wasn't paying attention and the other one hadn't followed us through. So, after a quick check of my scanner to make sure there weren't any hostile contacts, I went back through the gate.

Arriving back in Black Hole Sun I immediately noticed several little red blips on my grav. I also noticed that somehow my other client had ended up on the wrong side of the gate, and said blips were quickly closing on him. Not bothering to ask how the HELL he got back there, I selected the target nearest to him and went a-hunting. It took me a good three or four minutes, but I managed to dispatch another group of pirates and waited for my directionally challenged companion to make his way to the correct side of the gate, and into Treasure Chest we went.

Fortunately for my pocketbook, and the first of my clients to enter the sector, there were no pirates attacking him when I arrived. It didn't last long, however, and soon I found myself once again scrambling to destroy a swarm of the pesky little bastards and in short order my clients were safe and sound at the trading station. Note to self: @#$% escort missions. Even if they do pay a small fortune.

After completing my mission I decided to head back to Omicron Lyrae to see what sort of upgrades my newfound wealth could buy me at the Equipment Dock. Well, apparently credits don't go as far as I thought. I had just enough money to finish maxing out my engine tunings, rudder optimization, and cargo bay extensions, plus purchase a trading system extension, which I thought may come in handy. So here I sit, recording this log and thinking about how I may just have to rethink my policy on escort missions. So far that's all I've run into, which isn't saying much, but if I can't find any other work I'll have to do what I'll have to do. Surely, however, there's got to be something better out there...I cringe at the thought of fighting any more of those annoying little pirate sons of bastu's.

-Jasper Stubb

[Mr. Stubb]

Chapter One, Part Three
Date and time: 768-05-01 02:00

Alright, well after I left the EQ Dock I jumped back into Treasure Chest via the south gate and did a quick 360. I found myself in another Argon controlled sector called Nathan's Voyage. Upon entering the sector I got my first taste of my Spitfyre's new speed and DAMN! This baby can move! After a quick glance at all the stations in range for missions, I hit the eastern gate in less than three minutes and was in yet another Argon controlled sector by the name of Wastelands. The first thing I noticed upon entering Wastelands were two peculiar fighters with the simplest of names. One was known as a Xenon L, the other, a Xenon N. They were both hostile so I wasted no time in blowing them to bits.

After my brief encounter with these “Xenon,” I scanned the local stations for jobs and found one that peaked my interest. Apparently someone had stolen this poor lady's child from right under her nose, and though she knew she'd never see her precious whatever-the-hell-it's-name-was again, she wanted said child-snatcher taken care of. She was paying nearly forty thousand credits and it wasn't an escort mission, so I was more than happy to oblige.

Jumping back to Nathan's Voyage I spotted my unsuspecting victim, a pirate Buzzard. Oddly enough, this was the first pirate I'd seen so far who wasn't openly hostile, it was almost a shame that I had to blow his ass to smithereens. Oh well, maybe in the next life he'll be a little more careful about who he chooses to kidnap from. Right, back to the point. I zipped on over there and...BOOM! Dead as hell.

Now, on that note, back in Aldrin I'd only ever seen someone die of old age, or an accident, or something to that effect. I'd never heard of murder, or piracy, or any type of crime really. It was an extremely simple existence, so you'd think being exposed to so much death and destruction in the space of barely two hours would be quite traumatic. In fact, I think that that's the reason it's not. Besides, it seems to be fairly commonplace over here, everyday stuff if you will. That being the case, I don't seem to have, nor think I should, any problem with a little killing here and there...or a lot of killing everywhere. As I said before, for fame, glory, and whatever comes with it...even if that whatever happens to be an assload of death on my hands. Ok, now that we've gotten that out of the way, on to the more exciting bits.

After making spacedust of that pirate, I got to thinking about how many I'd seen since I entered this neck of the universe. “There must be something to this whole pirating business,” I though. Seemed I ought'a have a go at it. But first I found myself wondering about what was is to be a pirate. Killin' folks? Got that down, yet for some reason I didn't quite feel like one. Well, in my first encounter with them they were attacking those freighters. “Must've been after their cargo,” says I. It's only logical, unless they just go attacking anyone they see for no apparent reason, which I wouldn't have dismissed at that point judging by their behavior. “Still,” I thought, “if I could get my hands on some free goods, I may just be able to turn a profit. Beats the hell out of an escort mission anyway.” And so that's just what I tried to do.

I targeted a Paranid weapons dealer. Back on the EQ Dock I noticed that those commonwealth weapons went for quite a pretty penny, plus anytime I'd spoken to a Paranid they were quite rude. Also, the Argon didn't mind me attacking them, this I know because I'd already killed a few for aforementioned reason. Anyway, I shot at him. A lot. Once his shields were low I commed him and told him to drop his shit or I'd blast it out of his cargo hold.

“Paranid not frighten so easily.” Very well. So I shot at him so more and commed him again.

“Paranid not frighten so easily,” he repeated.

“Paranid not speak or think so well either. Drop it or I blow Paranid to hell.” He didn't drop it.

Needless to say, Mr. Tri-eye wasn't around long enough to speak what were, apparently, the only four words of my “unholy” language that he knew. Now, I'd noticed that when I destroyed a ship, there was usually something left behind. A missile, a few energy cells, something. Not with this guy, just frozen Paranid and spacedust. So I figured that those really were the only four words he knew, or he didn't have anything on board. Probably both, either way, my first experience at piracy was a failure to say the least. So I made a silent promise to myself to try it again sometime and decided to continue my exploration of the universe.

I didn't have to wait long to get my second shot. I went back to Wastelands and, finding no more job opportunities, took the south gate to yet ANOTHER Argon controlled sector(gods, do these guys control the entire universe? Better keep them close), this one called Interworlds. In Interworlds I ran across a Paranid military supply transporter. Sounded expensive, I decided to see what I could take. I closed in and fired, and before I had even finished my strafe he was dropping cargo. That was more like it. “Energy cells? Those are your damn military supplies? I could probably wipe out the whole bloody fleet in my spitfyre. Now there's an idea...” So I finished greasing that scum and picked up my booty. I was running low anyway.

After that little escapade, I was hailed by the lizard-looking bastu claiming he worked for some organization called the “yaki.” I'd heard of these guys while having a drink at the bar on the EQ Dock back in Omicron. Apparently they were a pretty bad bunch, the type I might like to get involved with sometime in the future. So when he offered me a job, and one with a very handsome paycheck at that, I didn't hesitate to accept. He wanted me to destroy a trade convoy in Nathan's Voyage consisting of four ships, and paying roughly thirty seven thousand per ship. Nice. Off to Nathan's Voyage.

I jumped into the east gate and the convoy was off to my left, a little ways out. So I hit the boost extension and thundered toward them at 452 miles per second. Quickly closing the distance, I chose my first target and fired. Wash, rinse, repeat and a few Argon freighters later I was nearly a hundred and fifty thousand credits richer. Yippee! One problem though...they were ARGON freighters, which didn't sit very well with the Argon. In fact, they were quite unhappy. They even went so far as to label me a “known antagonist.” Not cool. They'd still let me accept missions from them, however, so all was not lost.

I was given another assassination mission, only this time I had to meet with a contact in order to discover the whereabouts of my would-be fireworks display. Namely, a Mr. Val Brak at Cahoona Bakery Alpha in Treasure Chest. Upon speaking with Mr. Brak, I was informed that said fireworks display was awaiting my viewing pleasure in a sector one jump west of Omicron Lyrae, known as Nyana's Hideout. So I jumped to the west gate in Omicron to pull a 360 and head to my destination when a rather angry Argon male told me something to the effect of “get the hell out of my core sector.” I didn't plan on sticking around anyway.

Upon entering Nyana's Hideout I noticed that it was, wouldn't you know it, another Argon sector. Anyway, I found my quarry and made a b-line for his Buzzard-flying-rear-end and promptly got my fireworks. Easy kill, easy money, and the Argon are happy once again. So here I am, back in Interworlds having a drink at the EQ Dock before continuing my journey into the great unknown. It's been two hours since I entered the commonwealth and I'm sitting on nearly five hundred thousand credits, nearly as many kills it feels like, and my ship is fully upgraded. Not a bad way to start the day if you ask me.

-Jasper Stubb

[Mr. Stubb]

Changed the layout slighty and had to put something here.

[Mr. Stubb]

Chapter One, Part Four
Date and time: 768-05-01 04:14

I wonder why I always seem to end up recording my logs at EQ Docks? No matter. Anyway, After I left the EQ dock in Interworlds I took the only other gate available, namely the south. I found myself in, finally, a sector not controlled by the Argon. Unfortunately, not quite so much for me but for the inhabitants, it was controlled by the Paranid. Needless to say, I euthanized a few for good measure before hitting the west gate into yet another Paranid controlled sector, this one a core sector called Cardinal's Domain. They gave me some mumbo jumbo about making myself scarce, and I told them I would as soon as I'd concluded my business. Well of course, killing is my business...and business is good(kudos to whoever can point out the reference here). I proceeded to hammer into a nemesis near the north gate when a swarm of fighters came pouring into the sector and forced me to conclude my business. Fine by me, I'll catch one of those bastards alone one day and reinforce my point of view on the “might” of the holy Paranid. Anyway, I left them in my plasma trails and made for the north gate, ending up in a pirate sector called Moo-Kye's Revenge.

With nothing interesting to see there, I continued north and wound up in another pirate sector known as Mi-Ton's Refuge, where I found two exciting opportunities. The first was an Argon woman selling sector charts, and the second was a high-paying assassination job provided by a boron...do they even have genders? No matter, I was to meet with a contact in Great Trench, which I had just conveniently bought the coordinates to. So I jumped to Great Trench and met up with a Boron named...something, and was informed that my mark was flying a pirate Falcon Vanguard in a sector called Loomanckstrat's Legacy directly to the North of Mi-Ton's Refuge. I made my way to said location only to find my target seconds away from being destroyed by a Boron military heavy Hydra. Apparently I wasn't the only one hired to do this job. Needless to say, I was quite unsettled by this turn of events and was inclined to give that Hydra a piece of my mind. Tearing into him with my plasma cannons, I managed to nearly completely drop his shields before he decided I was trying to kill him and blew me half to hell with some crazy blue death launcher, which sent my ship flying halfway across the system. “Best to give this one a wide berth,” I thought, staying out of range and proceeding toward the north gate and Teladi space.

Yes, Teladi. Apparently those lizard-men DO have a name, and apparently they'll do just about anything for the creditssss. For example, I stopped off at the local trading station to take a piss and had to pay a fee just to gain access to the head. However, feeling as though I'd become a bit wealthy in my last few hours in this neck of the universe, I decided to give the lizard at the door a little something extra on top of that just for the hell of it. Mistake. He followed me into the bathroom and, being what I assume he thought was quite the gentleman, he politely asked if I needed an extra hand or someone to give my tool a good shake after I'd finished my business...I respectfully declined. Unpleasant though the whole experience may have been, it showed me the value of the credit in the mind of a Teladi, something I shall not soon forget. I don't know what one would have to offer me for the same service, but it'd be a hell of a lot more than an extra twenty credits.

After putting that awful endeavor behind me, I decided to head north rather than back into boron space, those things give me the creeps. I took the gate leading to another Teladi controlled sector called New Income. As soon as I entered the place I noticed a trail of navigational beacons off to my left. I elected to follow them and they led me to a gate far to the west which wasn't recognized by my computer. Odd. Sounded like an ambush waiting to happen, so I ended up scouting the rest of the sector and taking the eastern gate into a system known as Ianamus Zura.

In this Teladi core sector I ran into a Paranid high-tech trader flying an M3 and decided to try and liberate it. After wittling his hull down little by little it was becoming apparent that he wasn't going to bail, so I simply put him out of his misery. For some reason this offended the local destroyer captain and I had to hail him and assure him that it was simply a weapons malfunction. I didn't expect him to believe me as my weapons had been “malfunctioning” for nearly five minutes at that point, but whatever. Perhaps he felt the same way about the Paranid as I and was only running me down because it was his duty, or perhaps I accidentally clipped a Teladi ship. Either way, he was off me arse so I spent some time mapping the sector and checking the local space stations for jobs.

I ended up finding an assassination mission paying a whopping 500k and, much to my surprise, there was no catch. I didn't have to meet with anyone to get the location, it wasn't a bloody frigate, nothin'. Just a lonely pirate Buzzard in Great Trench. So I flew to said sector and greased said pirate. Easy money.

After taking care of business in Great Trench I decided to, against my better judgment, have another look at that unknown sector to the west of New Income. I figured that if it was an ambush, I'd be a handful for whoever was doing the ambushing and could always run if I wasn't feeling lucky, and if it wasn't then there's no telling what I might find. Well it wasn't nearly as interesting as either one of those situations may imply, if fact it was boring as hell. Just empty space, other than an asteroid field which I spotted off to my left after I got a little ways into the system. I flew in a straight line for what seemed like an eternity, trying to keep from getting lost while seeing what I could see, and just as I was about to head back toward New Income, I spotted a gate directly in front of me. It wasn't quite within scanner range, but I could see it. Once I was close enough I bracketed it, and my computer identified the sector beyond as one “Montalaar.” “Strange,” I thought. If this sector wasn't recognized in the database, you'd think that the computer wouldn't know where the gates led. Either way, I prepared myself for some business as the name sounded Paranid.

I entered Montalaar and, to my surprise, it was controlled by the Argon. Perhaps they liberated it and decided to keep the name or something. Either way, I found nothing that tickled my fancy and headed toward the north gate after nearly smashing into an asteroid I hadn't seen because I was busy looking at the sector map.

The north gate led me into more Argon space, namely a sector known as “Light of Heart.” As soon as I arrived I discovered yet more assassin work and found myself heading north to Aladna Hill to neutralize a pirate Falcon Vanguard for another easy five hundred thousand credits. I debated going back to Light of Heart to take a look at one of those military transports. They're fairly cheap as far as ships go, plus it'd give me a place live and dock the Spitfyre. I wasn't looking forward to another experience like the one at that Teladi Trading Station, but it was still early in the morning and, though I hadn't slept in nearly twenty four hours, I planned on keeping myself awake until night time so I didn't throw off my biological clock too much. So I decided to continue exploring. I mapped the sector and decided to take the east gate and see what I could see.

I didn't find anything of interest in the system called “Akeela's Beacon,” no jobs, no enemies, no nothin'. Before I left the sector, however, I decided to take a peek at a station I saw in the distance to the south. As I was approaching scanner range I noticed a gate not too far off and, seeing as the station had nothing to offer but some very powerful missiles I couldn't use, I decided to take a look.

Upon entering “Legend's Home,” the fist thing I noticed were the huge, beautiful stations belonging to a company known as “OTAS.” I docked at their HQ to purchase a triplex scanner and docking computer and, on my approach I noticed a shipyard belonging to the company. I figured I may as well have a look, and boy am I glad I did. It was there that I met my soul-mate, a military transport called the Zephyrus. It was far superior to the regular Argon TM in terms of shields and armaments, hell I could probably take on a few fighters without even needing to launch the Spitfyre. I had decided earlier to hold off on buying a new ship, but I was quite enamored by this marvel of engineering and couldn't resist the temptation. So I bought my first brand spankin' new home away from home, wherever that was.

I equipped it with all the upgrades available in Legend's Home and conveniently enough, they had just enough shields in stock for it. Then I had it undock from the shipyard and I got my first look at the thing. It was a beauty in my opinion, slightly resembling an old Earth submarine in many ways. I docked and took some time to explore the halls and corridors before jumping to Light of heart to finish equipping her. So here I sit, at yet another EQ Dock recording my log on the bridge of my new home. I think after I leave here I'll head west from Aladna Hill and see what exciting new opportunities await in this vast universe so far from the misery and monotony of the wretched place I used to call “home.”

-Jasper Stubb.

[Triaxx2]

Wall of text eye glaze.

I'd like to know your fair way to use Advanced Hyperdrive. I've just added it to mine and I'm curious to your method.

[Mr. Stubb]

Wall of text eye glaze.

I'd like to know your fair way to use Advanced Hyperdrive. I've just added it to mine and I'm curious to your method.

I'm using an old version(I think) of Cycrow's Advanced Jumpdrive. I noticed a bug where, if you buy all of the addons for the drive, but not the advanced jumpdrive itself you can still use the FTL sector jump and the gateless jump features, but it drops your shields completely for some reason. I don't understand how or why but it seems a little for fair than the "jump anywhere for free" bit, even though the advanced jumpdrive and addons goes for millions apiece. I'm not sure if this is still the case with the newer version and if so, I could always upload the one I have if you're interested. I like the idea of being able to instantly jump straight to one of my ships to save the day, but at the cost of possibly being killed due to the jump draining the power from my shields.

And yes, wall of text indeed. I suspect that I'll have some more fighters and, therefore, some pilots soon to add some dialog into the mix. I imagine that it'll make the story a bit more interesting. I hope you follow it.

[Triaxx2]

Ah. I use Loky's, because I don't like Cycrow's version.

I will try and follow.

But I mean that the paragraphs seem to be just blocks of text, rather than having any of the character that makes them an interesting story. It reads more like an even tempoed lecture, instead of a story that makes me interested.

There's... no flow, no excitement in the writing. It's flat, and monotone. Like an after action report, rather than a story. I don't feel anything from the character except boredom.

[Mr. Stubb]

Ah. I use Loky's, because I don't like Cycrow's version.

I will try and follow.

But I mean that the paragraphs seem to be just blocks of text, rather than having any of the character that makes them an interesting story. It reads more like an even tempoed lecture, instead of a story that makes me interested.

There's... no flow, no excitement in the writing. It's flat, and monotone. Like an after action report, rather than a story. I don't feel anything from the character except boredom.

Ah. Well I'm glad that you, unlike the other 70 people who've read this so far, are charitable enough to offer some criticism. How can I imrpove without knowing what it is that needs improvement? Thanks for the advice, and hopefully the next update comes out a little better.

And I'll give the advanced hyperdrive a go and see how I like it.

[Triaxx2]

You're welcome.

Loky offers free jumps but notes it's cheating, it also allows you to set point to point to use normal, or 2x energy cells. There's also a Singularity Slope Tension Converter which gives you free Hyperjumps, but for 61 million+ credits a piece.

[Master of the Blade]

Where'd you come from? It's pretty good so far, but I'm with Triaxx2 in that the paragraphs are a bit blocky - I used to have the same problem. It makes the story easier on the eye if you have somewhat shorter paragraphs, even if they technically aren't necessary.

If you can, screenshots always go down well, and help to illustrate your point or give extra comedy/shock/cool value. I use Imageshack to upload pictures, though it doesn't like the .bmps which TC saves screens in. Use paint or an equivalent to change them into jpegs, which have a smaller file size and can be uploaded.

[Triaxx2]

Yeah, big paragraphs are for descriptions, while small ones work well for thoughts, or musing.

I've gotta point to Nuklear Slug, and Scion Drakhar for great examples of this.

Can't wait for more though.