shaun bergin wrote:Zaitsev:
Nice to see you writing again, I love your work.
Thank you
Then I'm sure you're going to love the next one ...
I tried to make William, which is our hero's name, a bit different from Rahne, but I don't know if I succeeded. Anyway, enough rambling.
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Chapter 2 - Ignorance is bliss ...
Captains log, 768:05:01 - 16:23
Nice.
A soup sector. I had been trying to avoid them for ages, but somehow they seemed to show up when I least expected it. Time to check how nice the locals think I am.
"Durandal to Sanguis Angelus. Do you copy?"
"Loud and clear, captain. How are things out there?"
"Foggy. How are we doing with the locals?"
"One quick and dirty rep hack coming up … Yeah, the nerd says
about average, but we're running low on pirate rep. You might wanna start there." I heard some growling in the background as "the nerd", Kyra Logan, muttered something I imagined were rather salty curses. She was well aware of the fact that she was one of the most skilled computer hacker I had ever seen, and she hated to be reminded about it. And yeah, she's Kali's sister and almost complete oposite.
"Maybe we should stop raiding supply convoys when we need stuff and don't have the money to buy it," I said. "Thanks anyway. And be nice to her, or I'm gonna let her control the temperature of your morning shower tomorrow."
"I heard that!" she yelled in the background. Someone on the bridge snickered.
"Alright, I better go butter up to the locals. Durandal out."
And now for the oldest trick in the book, namely to find some traffic and follow it until I hit a gate.
The place looked kind of deserted at first, but it didn't take long for me to
find some ships drifting across the sector. They seemed to be moving in an east-west pattern, so I was probably looking at two other gates here. I picked
one of the ships heading east and tagged along, or rather overtook him in two minutes. They had obviously never heard of engine tuning, so the pace was rather glacial.
"Oh, bugger."
Hostiles. I quickly scanned them to see if any of them posed a threat to me, but the only one of them even capable of catching me was the Harrier and I could easily deal with it. If I had to. I didn't want to, as making the locals even more angry seemed like a bad idea, so I pointed the nose a few extra degrees to starboard and kept my distance. I didn't plan on sticking around for too long, and the Sanguis Angelus packed enough of a punch to go toe-to-toe with just about anything the pirates could throw at us, but still. Bad idea.
Speaking of which, the ship was in need of an overhaul, as the navcom was just another one of an increasing number of things not working properly. I needed to find a Split shipyard and take it from there, though, as I didn't trust any of the others to not bork up or rat on us. I did have a contact in Family Tkr, but that was going to be one hell of a trip and I would have to raise my Split rep again before I tried something like that. It was probably going to cost me an arm and a leg too, I figured somewhere around five million or so. In other words, a bit more than the thousand credits we had to spend right now.
There, now.
The east gate, leading into a sector called Maelstrom. If I remembered correctly it was mostly empty, except for a few pirate stations and the gate leading north to Teladi sectors, so I turned around and headed back to check out Gaian Star instead.
West gate, and
more hostiles. Again, nothing that would pose a real threat to the Durandal, but I kept my finger on the trigger just in case. Lucky for me, and them, they behaved nicely.
Ah, Gaian Star and all the red sky you can take. Now I just had to find the pirate base … Ah, there it was. Hiding behind an asteroid, not saying a word. The local boss obviously thought high enough of me to not turn his laser towers against me, so I headed over to check things out. That, or he didn't think a Chimera would pose enough of a threat to his base that he could be arsed to mark me as a hostile.
That's the nice thing about flying a fighter. You're a nobody. Things small enough to care are either nice, stay away or die quickly, and the bigger things just don't give a frak because they know you'll die of old age before you get through their shields. A frigate, on the other hand, is noticeable and not so much about sneaking around as puttin' your foot through the front door. Add the fact that there are few mercs who fly anything bigger than a corvette and you could just as well put up a sign saying "I'M HERE!" …
But I digress.
I docked at the station and had a look around. It was the same as I had seen a hundred times before. Husks of old ship welded together, then it seemed like they let a bunch of kids loose with fifty packs of chewing gum each to make it airtight, bolted on a reactor that threatened to blow every minute or so and dug up some age old air scrubbers that obviously had an option every normal commonwealth counterpart lacked, namely "extra stale air". Throw in some extra stale pirates and start rockin' the place.
They didn't have anything of interest that I could afford, so I picked up fifty e-cells and left, heading for Maelstrom. I noticed a 'Nid offering a
station construction mission as I left, but the pay was bad, I couldn't afford the station in the first place and I seriously doubted I would be able to convince some TL-captain to haul his big ass across some Xenon sector and then head straight into pirate country. That's the disadvantage of being a nomad, you're kind of limited when it comes to resources. Heck, I wouldn't even know what do do with a TL anyway. My sister got the trading genes, I think.
Crossing the unknown sector between Gaian Star and Maelstrom I ran into some
old friends. Yes, the hostile pirates were still there. They had even gotten a few
new friends to keep them company, so I pulled up high above the ecliptic to avoid … misunderstandings. They would probably lose the following argument, but it was too great a risk to take. Not to mention that it was getting
pretty cramped out here and the whole gang would probably jump me if I as much as looked at them funny.
Maelstrom. Another soup sector. I'd had enough soup for one day though, so I just wanted to get out as soon as possible. I found a pirate Caravel to follow, but since the concept of engine tuning seemed a bit like showing a lighter to a caveman for these folks he wasn't exactly blazing across the sky.
After testing my patience for about five minutes I'd had enough and started looking for other ships to follow. Seemed like luck was on my side, as a
Teladi recon ship, a Harrier Hauler, came through the gate behind me and headed northeast. Presumably to the north gate and the more civilized parts of town.
Heh. 'Civilized.' What an irony that I longed for it, when I had been living like some sort of barbarian for the last year. Scavenging, stealing, begging, killing and doing all kinds of dirty work just to put food on the table for me and my crew. Then again, I would sell my soul to keep my crew safe.
Drifting into Merchant Haven I started looking for missions, but it seemed Lady Luck had turned her back on me. Go fetch
a ship? Nah, couldn't afford it. Get 197 tanks of space fuel for some dubious Splitl? You wish.
Convoy raid, now that was interesting. A Paranid wanted me to make sure a convoy that was setting out from Nathan's Voyage never reached its destination. To make it even more tempting it was an Argon convoy, and to put it mildly I didn't exactly harbor any love for the Argon. They could go dance on the surface of Sonra for all I cared. That, and he paid rather decently for someone who was as broke as me.
Since I didn't have any coordinates for Nathan's Voyage I had to pull a fast one and use the mission data to lock on to the gates of the unexplored sectors and then make an in-sector jump to the next gate. Simple, but it worked and I had the convoy in my sights in no time. Time for one of us to die, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be me.
He was trundling along with no worries whatsoever as I closed in and lined up. I gave him a wake up-call by strafing his Vulture from nose to tail with my HEPTs, something that earned me an earful of squealing on all frequencies. Geez, if I didn't know better I'd say it was a girl screamin', but the face appearing on the comlink and begging for mercy belonged to a man. I think. Sorry, pal, I'm all out of mercy.
I was sort of hoping that one of them would bail, but they both chose to go down with their ships. That, and they both squealed like pigs. All I got for it was a couple of Rapier missiles and
making the local gaver angry, so I picked up the missiles, targeted Grand Exchange and got the hell out. It didn't exactly
make me popular amongst the Argon, but the gullible bastards would thaw up soon enough if I just did a few missions for them. Wonder why they were always willing to forgive. Ah, heck if I knew. I didn't really care, either. What it did was make me 10 676 credits richer, plus the Paranid now viewed me as a Friend. Race ranks. Bah. Could be worth it to raise it enough to get some Hurricane missiles, though. Unless they were still mad at me after I raided that convoy in Unholy Descent last month.
Back in Grand Exchange I went looking for more missions and found
this little treat. M-hm. Xenon patrol. I could kill those bastards all week long. For free. That says a lot when you have to twist and turn every credit at least four times before you go and buy anything. So I accepted and moved to the center of the sector, waiting.
"Ah, frak."
Oh yes. Two Xenon G missile frigates, three L heavy fighters and three M interceptors, all wrapped into a nice, tight formation. None of them posed any real threat to me, though, as the fastest ships, the Ms, were 17 m/s slower than the Durandal even when fully tuned. And these guys weren't fully tuned.
And now a little demonstration of Xenon inner workings 101. They may appear fearsome, and in large numbers they are. However, they have a rather simplistic programming that says 'go medieval on anything that attacks you', which leads to the following …
"Rapier missile installed."
So I sat at a rather comfortable twelve clicks, targeted the rearmost L in its formation and sent a Rapier up its tailpipe, turned around and ran away. As predicted they went bonkers, and since every ship in the formation had different top speeds they spread out rather nicely across the sector. I couldn't take on the entire group, but I was perfectly capable of dealing with three Ls who were suddenly all alone without the support of their brethren. Three Ls soon became three clouds of space dust, and since one of the Gs had taken
a particular interest in me I thought I'd introduce it to the two Pteranodon heavy destroyers guarding the shipyard. That
got ugly in a hurry to say the least, and I even managed to nail one of the Ls zipping around.
The other one ended up tangling with a fighter group close to the east gate, so I scooted over to lend them a helping gun. Since the CPU running the show had obviously forgot to actually give them some missiles it was being manhandled. Or chiphandled or whatever.
It blew, and I got my money. Plus the Teladi rank of Company Trader, a combat rank increase to 'Skilled' and
a rather substantial load of missiles floating around. Okey, scavenging time.
I distinctly remembered passing a Military Outpost in Merchant Haven, and I was on my way there when I checked this mission beacon. Nah, not a mission, but a Boron
selling star charts. I bought the one over Zyarth's Dominion, as it contained jump gate coordinates and would save me the hassle of either flying across X598 or have to fly all the way around. Money well spent, I'd say. Now, where was that military outpost …
"Hey, are you the weapons dealer?"
"No, I'm a houssseplant. What can I do for you?"
"Funny. Well, I've got something I think you'll like." She gave me an inquisitive look. "A Hammerhead, plus some other goodies." Her jaw dropped and she looked like she was on the verge of wetting her pants.
"Do you have it here?" I swear she was drooling.
"In my ship. Chimera, docking bay seventeen. You'll get it after you've paid me." The drooling disappeared, and instead she looked like she had swallowed a bag full of lemons. I might not be much of a trader, but I knew how to deal with Teladi. Very, very carefully.
After a bit of haggling I got just a hair over ninety one thousand for my missiles. Not all bad, but far away from the five millions I needed for the overhaul of the Sanguis Angelus. I planned on being gone by the end of the week just in case the gaver caught on to us, so I didn't really have much time. Urgh. What was it Rahne said about trading? 'Supply and demand. And know your market.' Or something to that effect. I might give it a shot if the opportunity presented itself. Soldier, scavenger, mercenary, pirate, killer, taxi, freighter pilot and now trader. Wonder where it would end?
"Probably nowhere good," I said to myself as I launched from the military outpost. As I drifted into space I spotted a
taxi mission, and while the pay was miniscule it would give me a chance to explore a bit. Besides, Teladi were usually decent passengers although they had the habit of nagging and screaming about 'lossst profitsss' if you took too long.
I was passing through Tears of Green when I spotted
a convoy looking for escorts. I looked into it just for the heck of it, and damn what a reward. Almost three hundred thousand. I could probably do it and still make it to Company Strength with the passenger, as she had given me some two and a half hours to complete it. It was tempting to try and cash in that kind of reward, but high risk often followed that kind of money. I was alone in a relatively slow ship, and I only had four Rapiers to help me out of the inevitable tight spot. In the end I accepted, though, as the benefits of the possible reward far outweighed the disadvantages. Besides, if all went to hell in a handbag I still had my passenger.
And to hell in a handbag it went. First I got
three Fujins, which I knocked out of the sky pretty quickly. Then I got an assorted gang of
Fujins plus a Raijin Sentinel, which proved to be a bit more problematic. One of the freighters got shot down, and I knew that spelled trouble since it meant less targets to spread the fire across.
Yet another assorted gang came through, and I knew I was screwed. I knocked down two of the Fujins, but the freighters had lost too much of their shielding and they popped like balloons. Frak, that was a week of supplies down the drain. Oh, well. Back to the taxi mission then.
Passing through Bright Profit I spotted
a Yaki offering
a mission. Pretty substantial pay too, but since I had to fly back through a whole slew of hostile sectors if I did it I declined. Besides, I had to keep myself on
someone's good side if I was ever going to get my paws on enough money to give the Sanguis Angelus the overhaul she needed, and I had already pissed off the Argons. I might piss them off even more, if the opportunity arose.
Company Strength, and
another taxi mission. For a 'Nid, this time. This one had a more decent paycheck attached to it, so I accepted and told the lizard to shuffle over to the side. There was plenty of room, and the little green one was getting off in a few minutes anyway. Onward to the flail factory to drop off my first passenger, then.
Both missions went smoothly, and I suddenly found myself some 21 000 credits richer. In addition I was promoted to a Telado Shareholder and a Paranid Priest Confidante. Then again, gaining rep was about as hard as hitting the floor after you had jumped off a chair. And no, zero-G environments don't count.
Bright Profit, and I somehow managed to get myself involved in another
escort mission. The Teladi offering it said it would be 'easy', but then again freighter captains had the habit of calling anything short of a full scale attack 'easy'. She told me they were expecting Xenon company, which made it all the more tasty for me. I do enjoy a good chip smashing. Alright, I'm just gonna drop off these passengers, then we're good to go.
First wave consisted of
a handful of Ns. If these guys would stay nice and tight, this wouldn't be a problem. That worked for about fifteen seconds, before one of the freighters turned around and started heading for the local flower farm.
"Excuse me, miss … Galeis Huridis Tissmaneos the third, but what 'n' the blue hell are you doing?"
"Xsssenon fightersss. Mussst protect profitsss."
"You do realize that we will lose a defender if you run off like that?"
"Sssave profitsss."
"Oh, I beg your pardon. I didn't know stupidity was one of your more prominent features, so I'll try to break it down; We need your tail gun out there to put some extra hurt on the Xenon and spread the fire amongst the targets. If you run off I'm gonna put you in the 'collateral damage'-bin and leave you to die. You read me?"
Apparently not, as she hissed something about 'profitsss' again and kept going. In the meantime I had three other freighters to worry about, so I turned and burned to engage the Xenon.
It worked. Sort of. Only drawback was that one of the freighters was now so dinged up it limited the convoy's top speed to 19 m/s. This could get interesting.
I sort of got my herd of cats through the gate when miss Tissmaneos the third decided it was safe to come out of hiding, a very relative term since
I had an M zipping about, and started heading for the gate. I, on the other hand, considered shooting her myself. Nah, bad for business. And my already minimal patience, but that's another story.
I also spotted
this little guy. Wonder if it was heading home or something?
And back to reality. The bloody nightmare continued in Tears of Greed as the freighters ran off left and right to protect their 'profits', leaving me in the middle running back and forth like a whipped dog to try and keep the Xenon off everyone's back. After the third freighter had sought refuge by docking at some random station I felt the urge to introduce 'head' to 'navigation console'. Preferably the Teladi pilot's head to her own navigation console. Repeatedly.
In the end two freighters made it, as the first one was killed on approach to the station and the last one – that's the slowpoke who hid in the first place – got some nice holes drilled through her cockpit when
six Xenon jumped us and smashed her already drained shields. Told ya it was going to kill ya.
With the mission a complete and utter failure I headed for the first station I could lock on to, docked and went looking for the bar. I needed some
very stiff drinks to wash the stupid out of my brain.
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Assets
M7 Wolf - "Sanguis Angelus"
M3 Chimera - "Gram"
M3 Chimera - "Durandal"
149 489 credits
)
Seems it was just one of those stories that were never meant to be told ... 
