Nah, emergency missile catcherTriaxx2 wrote:Oooh, PBG bait.
Chapter 13: Legitimate Businessman?
As I'm making my way through the corridors from the military outposts docking clamps down to the mess hall I hear a familiar voice behind me.
“Captain!” Huh?
I turn to see Sophia running up to me, that unnerving smile of hers playing across her face. The pale blue dress she was wearing yesterday has been replaced with a blood red one, cut to reveal the ample curve of her bust. For her age she really is an alluring woman.
“Sophia,” I nod at her, not really in the mood for another of her cryptic conversations, “did you just call me 'Captain'?”
“Well of course Kirlack. What else am I to call a man who commands his own capital ship?” Heh. I hadn't thought about that.
Despite my protests she follows me down to the mess hall, where some of my mercs are taking their breakfast before getting back to training, and joins me at my table. Suddenly I've lost my appetite. So whilst I'm poking my food around my plate and downing pint after pint of water she goes into great detail about how I'm going to need a working crew, and have I thought about who I'm going to employ? Well, no I hadn't given it much thought, since I've only just gotten the ship back to safe space.
“And how the hell do you know about it already anyway? I've only just docked her and gotten her systems up and running again.” She throws me a coy smile and bats her eyelids.
“Kirlack,” she says, again using that condescending tone that one day's going to earn her a bullet in her back, “you really think you can jump a capital ship into the sector and it wouldn't come to my attention? Besides, I've always got an eye on you and your activities. For instance, I know you had a run in with an assassin last night, the one they call 'The Huntress'?”
“How in Gunne's name did you hear about that?” I ask, feeling my anger rising. “Let me guess, one of my pilots is Yaki in disguise?” Again with the coy smile.
“Now now,” she says, “those of us that work in intelligence gathering know better than to reveal our sources.” Right. How stupid of me to think she might actually fill me in on the details. “You know she was one of Cali's associates?”
“Cali?” She nods. “My Cali?” Again with the nod and the smile. Well, that throws a new light on my would be assassin. If she knew Cali Le we might have something to discuss other than how she knows my name and whether or not I space her. Sophia seems to be reading my thoughts again.
“It might be worth your time offering her a job Kirlack. Enjoy the rest of your breakfast.” And like that, she was gone, like a whisper in the wind. I swear that woman is the single most terrifying person I've ever known.
She's right though. If that damned lizard is willing to work for me I'd do well to hire her services. IF. Of course, then there's the whole thing with Aaron Bailey to deal with. If she's loyal to him....she's going out an airlock at first opportunity.
So, with all this in mind I send a message to the Helix for the boys to jump down here and pick me up, and eat some of my breakfast whilst I'm waiting for them. It's not a patch on Sam's cooking, but it's enough to keep me going. Once I get the message ping that Double Helix has docked I head down to the docking clamps and meet up with the boys. Sam is busy sharpening his blades in the kitchen, ready to prepare breakfast for the rest of my crew, whilst Thane and O'Leary compare scars from last night. Rossi and Baritone are debating the merits of the basic Mamba over the Vanguard variant and each seem to be making the same argument, that their ship is better.
(sigh)
“Alright, can it. We got a would be assassin to see to. Has anybody checked on her this morning?”
“She's fine.” Thane growls at me. “Well, she's stopped bleeding and she's still breathing anyway.”
“Stopped bleeding? How the hell did she manage that?”
“Something about that combat suit she was wearing boss.” O'Leary pipes up. “It looks like the ones the ATF use during boarding operations. One of the features is a coagulant layer to prevent blood loss.”
“Is that a fact? “ I ask with a grin, to which he nods. “Any way we can get our hands on some of them?”
“Fat chance. Quite how she managed to lay her claws on that one is a bit of a mystery. ATF tech of any kind is off limits to offworlders.”
“Uh-huh.” I grin, tapping the stimulator circling my head. “I guess it's about who you know then, eh?”
So, with my boys in tow I make my way down to the brig. Whilst we're on our way down O'Leary sidles up to me and says: “You're going to give her a job aren't you?”
“What makes you say that?” I ask him, raising an eyebrow in his direction.
“Oh come on man!” He says indignantly, holding his hands out wide. “You drag me out of a bar brawl that likely would have cost me my life.” Well, yeah I did, so? “You sign Baritone on after he tried to steal one of your ships.” Alright, guilty as charged but it was a good call. “And Thane and Sam both came out of another bar fight, which you ran into willingly, specifically to try to recruit the big guy!” I blink at him a couple of times, not sure quite where he's going with this. He looks kinda exasperated.
“So what's your point Stephen? You don't approve of my recruitment method?”
“Well, I sure as hell wouldn't' sign up an assassin that's got me on her target list, but that's not my point. You're a bloody magnet for troublemakers and ne'er do wells boss.”
“Yeah?” I chuckle, “And which one of those categories would you fall into?”
“Oh I'm definitely a ne'er do well boss.”
By now we've reached the brig and are both chuckling quietly as we step up to the lizards cell. She's standing in the middle, tall and proud, as though she were waiting to accept a medal. Again I'm struck by that sense of honour she carries herself with.
“Huritas.”
“Missster Po-”
“Don't. That's the one thing that will absolutely get you killed, 'Huntress'. For a moment I see the anger in her eyes, but then it passes, replaced with cool professionalism.
“Very well, Kirlack. Have you dessssided what to do with me?”
“I'm considering my options. Right now they boil down to space you or employ you. Which would you prefer?” I see the surprise in her eyes at the notion that I might give her a job. This might just work.
“You would employ me? Why would you take such a rissssk?”
“For starters you're obviously good at what you do. Tell me, can you fly as well as you can hunt?” I see the anger again as though she takes the question for an insult, but I can sense her reading me, looking for deception, and finding none. Her back straightens, bringing her to her full height, and she nods, once. “Good. That's one reason I might hire you. Another is that word is you were a friend of Cali Le?”
“Cali hassss been my ssssisssster in battle, many timesssss's!” She snarls, letting the anger well up inside her. There's a marked change in her behaviour, something...dangerous, savage even, but she bites it back down and relaxes a bit as I hold her eye.
“Good. That's another reason I might hire you. Cali Le was my friend Huritas. She was my flight leader. She died two days ago in a botched raid in Black Hole Sun. I had to watch as her Tenjin got ripped to shreds by an Argon frigate.” There it is. The tell-tale sign of grief at a lost comrade. This is what I was looking for. She stands silent for a moment, and I can see the fury raging in her eyes, before she takes a deep breath to steady herself.
“So,” I say, grinning, “what do you know about Aaron Bailey?”
“Only how he contactssss me and where he deposssssitssss my paymentssss's. I don't make a habit of getting friendly with the Sssskullssss's.” Confirmation. Good good. Loli Lu's information was accurate. Which probably means she was telling truth about Big Mek. That's going to be a headache somewhere down the line.
“Alright. So what possible reason could he have to give you the one piece of information that would most certainly get you killed?” I can see that pain again in here eyes, that horrifying truth.
“He ssssset me up.” She hisses quietly. “He told me you were one of his smugglers gone bad. I think he wanted us to kill each other”
“Now why would he want that?” I ask, cocking my head at her.
“Becausssse he ssstill blamessss's me for the death of one of hissss lieutenant's.” Oh really? Interesting.
“That sounds like Bailey. If he genuinely believes you've wronged him he won't stop until you're lost to the void. Believe me, I know.” Okay. Decision made. “Thane?”
“Boss?”
“Let her out.”
Sam and Thane both look like they're about to protest, but a silent glare from me shuts them both up before they can utter a word.
“Issss it time for me to die?” She hisses as the big man unlocks her cage.
“No Huritas. It's time for you to join my crew.”
“And if I refusssse? Or I try to complete my contract?”
“If you refuse I'm going to have to space you. And we both know that your contract with Bailey will be null and void because we both know he knows you've been caught out. Nobody as paranoid as him sends out a hired killer and doesn't keep tabs on them. So, the way I figure it, working for me is your only realistic option.” She's scowling at me, but there's a measure of mirth behind the anger. She's in, and she knows she's going to fit. “Besides, it'll be fun.”
So, with a new pilot on my roster it's time for us to head back to Freedom's Reach and work out which of my ships she's going to be flying. Once we're docked and the boys are settling in to eat I take Huritas down to the docking bay, where she take an immediate fancy to my Blastclaw Prototype. When I ask why she tells me she likes the pirate designs, and that her last fighter was a standard Blastclaw.
“Ok then. What do you want to call her?”
“Gossssshawk three.”
“Three?” I ask raising an eyebrow.
“Both of my previous Gossssshawks's perisssshed.” I have to bite my tongue to not laugh at her lisp. I think I'm going to enjoy her company though.
So, whilst I leave the crew with instructions to get the BCP up to scratch with shields and weapons it's time for me to hop back in the hot seat and see what's happening in the 'verse today. After the command chair aboard Unexpected Perks being back in the cockpit of my Tenjin feels kinda comforting, like coming home on a cold winters night and settling in with a hot whiskey and a joint.
What? I like my creature comforts. Problem? No? Good.
As I pull up out of the gate in Danna's Chance I almost run straight into a poor unsuspecting Boron tech runner who's got far more shields in his hold than he can make use of, so I offer to alleviate him of his burden. He happily agrees to my PBE diplomacy and I call in Swag Bag to clear up the mess. His TM though has given me something to think about. I now have six pilots in six ships all operating out of the Helix, which only has docking ports for three. Since my original point in buying the Helix was to give us a mobile base to fall back to and re-arm, as well as making long distance travel for all the fighters a hell of a lot easier, it only seems prudent to me to set up another TM. With this is mind I send messages for the guys to tool up and jump down to Senator's and buy another Chokaro ready for them to set up. For now it's working under the name 'Lunacy Veil'.
I've also revised my wing set up. Rather than have all of my guys working as my direct wingmen I've split them up into two separate groups. Rossi will be my wing man in his Mamba, while O'Leary and Baritone are under orders to flay the nuts off anything hostile that Rossi targets. They're going to be based out of the Helix. Huritas, in her slow ass BCP, is running as my other wing...er...lizard...and will have Thane and Sam riding her wing, all based out of Lunacy Veil. What should happen now is that when I issue a kill order to my wingmen Rossi and Huritas will jump in first, followed by their own wingmen, all delivering massive firepower to target. We'll need an opportunity to test it, but right now I'm only getting taxi contracts from the locals. I don't much fancy making that run in the Cypher, so I call in Giggity and blaze north.
Halfway across Brennan's I spot another fare for pick up, although this one wants a passenger transport meaning I'll have to call in Puddle Jumper. I agree to the 'nids terms, more because I want his nine hundred thousand credits than anything else, and tell him I'll be back shortly to collect him, before ordering my TP to the factory and shooting through Olmancketslat's and into Bala Gi's Joy. With my first fare dropped at the pirate base I start making my way back, only to get a call from a nervous Boron wanting to get to Danna's in a hurry. It won't take me that long in Giggity, so I pick him up and blast back into OT, where I spot an Argon wanting some dirty work done. I take him up on his offer despite the poor pay for a couple reasons. Firstly it'll give me the chance to see how my new set up works with my pilots, and see Huritas flight skills first hand. Secondly it might go some way to restoring my reputation with the federal government, which I'm going to need at some point to pick up a few choice pieces of software. My Targets are four Paranid freighters making for the soyfarm in Split Fire, and since they're 'nids they won't want to go through Argon space, meaning they'll be taking the long route down through Brennan's, which works out well for me. So I rush through BT into Danna's and drop off the nervous Boron, before heading back to the rimes factory in Brennan's and picking up the 'nid wanting to go to Hatikvah's. There's a group of 'nids there now as well wanting to get to Priest's Pity and paying a healthy sum for the privilege, so I pick them up and make their drop first, before jumping to the HF west gate and rushing to the pirate base.
By now my four Paranid targets have done exactly what I thought they wouldn't and made for Argon space, but according to my contact they're still in Farnham's, so I've still got time to catch them up before they get themselves done in by the military fleets in Elena's Fortune. So I hop back to Freedom's and switch over to Indie Cypher. With a quick jump to the FL south gate I pick up my targets and call in Double Helix and Lunacy Veil, and give my guys the kill order for the first freighter whilst I take the second. Rossi, O'Leary and Baritone make it to target first and wipe him out in a heartbeat, HEPT and PAC fire ripping him to shreds as I tangle with the second. Huritas leads Thane and Sam in to lay into the third with PAC and PRG and I see a faint explosion to my left as I close on the last. I didn't even bother to fire at the last one, just let the boys mop up. So far so good. The job doesn't have the impact on my reputation I was hoping for, but I am at least no longer at shoot on sight status in Argon core sectors.
Once the guys are docked and the TMs jumped I hit up the local stations for more work. I accept another transport job for a group of Boron going to Atreus' Clouds, but despite my telling them they'll be leaving in my passenger shuttle as soon as it docks they insist on boarding Indie Cypher! Bloody squids.
So I sit and wait for Puddle Jumper to arrive then pull my pistols and tell 'em to get the hell offa my ship sharpish before sending them on their now less than merry way and jumping back down to Brennan's to hook up with Giggity. That little episode with the squiddies has got me thinking. A lot of these high profile transport missions only need a small fast ship, like Giggity, only the Disco doesn't have the sort of space to make it viable, plus it's not especially fast for it's class. Hmm.
I spend a bit of time looking over the Fujin variants available at the shipyard* in Senator's Badlands and finally settle on my very own Fujin Sentinel, before clearing a space on the Helix and sending it to pick up my new ride. Modelled on the Paranid Pegasus she's a nice little ship, 477m/s top speed, a single 5Mj shield for protection and a whopping M class 68 cargo units. With the Mk1 turbo booster transferred across it can hit a staggering 1158m/s! That should make my taxi missions a little less tedious, and give me a speedy get away should I need it. Introducing: 'High Profile'. It feels good to have a Fujin again.
By now my missioning has pushed me up into the seven million bracket and I decide it's about time to start shifting my assets into one place, rather than having them all spread out around the 'verse. The fact that Huritas knew where to find me, and that the likes of Shinzo also know where I'm based from have highlighted a few holes in my security. Yes I'm aware that I have no security. That's kinda the point, numbskull.
So with my new super quick scout ship to keep me occupied I decide to take a little tour whilst I make arrangements for the guys to jump down to the Yaki EqD and get jumpdrives installed on their fighters. They're going to be jumping around the universe picking up my freighters for the next little while, before I give them the rest of the day off and use the TMs to retrieve all of my fighters. Two of my engineers, Sendy Cornell and....bloody lizards...Towisaris Ugalirias Yahandis the fourth, have finished their current round of training and I intend to set them up repairing Unexpected Perks before I set them to work on some of my knackered fighters for either refit or sale. So for now almost every ship I own is being sent down to Senator's until I work out what to do with them. That way I can get the bulk of my freighters set up for quick repair and refit more or less any time I need them.
All of this is quite tedious and time consuming, so I zip all the way through through the pirate sectors, picking up the occasional abandoned freighter as I go, before turning north into Split territory. With High Profile on autopilot most of the time I can concentrate on getting the guys where they need to be and switching jumpdrives and cells around so the freighters can make the jump to Yaki space, before the boys jump down there to switch the jumpdrives back. It's slow going as so many of my TS class ships are in pretty bad shape, but long term it's worth the hassle.
In the meantime, I check in on my two traders who I've spent so much cash upgrading. Foologos is more than happy bringing in profitssss for me over in the PTNI region and Yagosias is finally ranked highly enough that he can follow in her footsteps. For now I'm going to set him up in Blue Profit, where he can trade with every Teladi sector from Siezwell to Company Pride. That leaves me with an opening for a new sector trader in Weaver's Tempest, but none of my freighters are fixed up and ready to go yet. I do lay out the cash to get the Mistral fixed up though, ready to replace my trusty Caiman Tanker and take up the mantle of Swag Bag II. I don't want to use the tanker for sector trader duties though, I have plans for it.
As I'm passing through Family Rhonkar I take a covert operation to follow a Boron in a 'cuda Sentinel up in Rhonkar's Fire. He's easy enough to spot but then he seemed to get lost. No, I didn't lose him, the poor bastard just didn't seem to know where the hell he was going. I swear I sat and watched him fly between every station in the sector, look like he was heading for every gate at various intervals....I even wondered if he knew he was being watched and just decided to wind me up, but whatever it was after an hour and a half of staring at his ship from eighteen clicks away I was pissed off, so I buzzed him a couple times to get his attention before he scarpered. Meh, the payout on the mission wouldn't have been worth the effort anyway.
Somewhat displeased yet again by the stupidity of the Boron as a species I hit the turbo and blaze south as fast as I can back into Hatikvah's, where I pick up a very high profile taxi for a couple of Argon wanting to get to Akeela's Beacon. This could be my way back into their good graces, so I snap up the opportunity and turn east. Heh. Akeela's offers another transport job which I take and assign Puddle Jumper to before I head south through Light of Heart into Montalaar and then east across the shortcut into New Income, where I find a trio of abandoned freighters. So they all get claimed and jumped back to Senator's via Lunacy Veil and the crew.
I head through Ianamus Zura and up into Eighteen Billion, where I find a second trio of freighters which I again claim, before dashing across X-347 and into Scale Plate Green. The crossing of Xenon space has never been so easy as it is with High Profile and the turbo booster. From SPG I head up into PTNI and make a tidy little deal with the local supply Albatross' captain, a very helpful little lizard by the name of Luuligos Ugalirias Hohindras the seventh. He's going to be shipping my first factory to it's home in Profit Centre Alpha.
What? No, of course I ain't going straight. Don't be soft. This is all a clever ruse. See, from here I can get into all sorts of shady dealings. Blackmailing the locals into buying only my product for instance. But also it gives me somewhere to train up both commercial agents, which will come in useful, and commodity logisticians, which will be essential to my long term plans. So I drop a five million credit float into the station and set my buying prices for the required energy and sunrise flowers at seventeen and twenty one credits respectively. That ought to keep my freighters buying a steady stream of both. Sale price for my nostrop is set at one hundred and ten credits per unit, meaning that I'm only selling at close to full price. With such a shortfall of oil in this region I reckon I can get away with that.
The Caiman Tanker formerly known as Swag Bag gets set up as CAG 01, whilst the other I have hanging around the SB shipyard gets fixed and fitted up to become CAG 02. I'll need to hire pilots for them of course, but being in Teladi space that won't be a problem. My two Disco Vanguards, Giggity and Problem Solved, Sam's former scout, will become my training ships for getting a couple of CLS pilots on their way, and my two local traders have been homebased as well, both to give them somewhere to sink their profits, and to offset the cash flow as my new commercial agents bring in the resources. It'll take a little while before it's worth my while selling off my product, and I don't want the station cash reserve running dry in the meantime. Everyone working for the station is under orders to go no further than Scale Plate Green to the south and Patriarch's Keep to the north, so I should be able to monopolise the local nostrop market.
Oi. Setting up factories is a pain in the ass! Time to look for something a little more fun.
So I set my course for Two Grand and get an interesting offer as I clear the event horizon. It's a good price for a defensive heavy fighter, so I take it and send it down to my refinery to await pickup. My cash reserves are looking a little thin now and my marines coming up through their training are eating what I've got left at an alarming rate. So I look through my ships and start assigning repair orders for some of the fighters I've picked up. Unexpected Perks is up to an impressive ninety one percent hull integrity thanks to the sterling efforts of my two engineers, meaning that when the boarding crews are ready for their first live op we have a fully functional warship available for the job. More importantly though it means I can pull my engineers over to the TMs and use them as mobile workshops. It'll take a fair while for them to get the fighters up to scratch, but soon as it's done I can refit the useful ones and sell the rest, giving me a decent cash injection.
(sigh)
I'm starting to feel like a corporate meat puppet.
So, I move north into Patriarch's Keep, where I'm offered a used Iguana Vanguard for a truly outrageous price and a Mamba for a reasonable one. I take the fighter and tell the other guy to shove his transport in the nearest star before taking a taxi mission back into Two Grand.
You know, I'm starting to think there's something up with the lizards. Why you ask?
This is why.
Seriously? Did I get away so clean on that last one that they're about to let me do it again? And again they're only offering a pittance for the return of a ship worth millions upon millions of credits! Well, fine then, but don't give me any shit when you don't see it again.
The ship's over in Tharka's Sun, so I zoom over there and immediately pick it up due north of the east gate and fly on over. En route I call in to the Helix and get the boys to pick me up two 1Gj shields from the Yaki equipment dock, before jumping them up to meet me. I close on the frigate and transmit the command codes only to find....oh by Gunne...twice in one day? Sweet!
So we transfer the shields over and some software from High Profile, enough for me to get the ship up to speed and ready for the jump down to Senator's. I beam over to the Minotaur's bridge and start the recoding sequence ready to wait out the coppers before sending the guys back home and my little Fujin down to the refinery. I manage to bring the engines online and get the ship up to it's astounding 23m/s....
God job I've got a jumpdrive and cells aboard.
I turn the ship for the west gate and start cruising whilst I complete the recode and settle into the command chair ready for the inevitable. As I'm passing the ore mine on the outskirts of the system I notice a station defence mission. Well, how fortuitous! If that just happens to tie in with the lizards showing up I can claim targeting malfunction under duress....until I notice that there's a Yaki task force to contend with. Bugger. And it was such a nice plan...
Okay, back to plan A, wait for the fuzz, then disappear across the universe. Suckers. They managed to get a few shots in this time but nothing my charged two gigajoules of shielding couldn't handle before the jumpdrive kicked in.
Hah! I just stole another missile frigate! And the damned stupid Teladi still haven't given me any grief about it.
Back in Senator's I set course for the equipment dock and start rolling, slowly. With the ship on autopilot I take the time to move some ships around, selling off the few repaired fighters I don't want and some of the freighter hulks that are far beyond repair. I set up a few of the really knackered ones as storage for my various wares, energy, weapons and shields, tech....you know. Splitting it all down into categories made it a whole lot easier to manage. I've somehow managed to amass nearly two thousand units of nostrop, so I ship that all up to my refinery ready for sale. With some more cash lining my pocket I decide to splash out on fixing up the Caiman Miner and setting it up as my new sector trader in Weaver's. I don't want to homebase this one to the refinery in case anyone checks into the station records and sees illegal trading. Stuff like that gets the whole setup investigated by the Profit Guild. No, for now that station has to remain strictly legitimate. Hey, I like that. I think our new Minotaur's found itself a name.
It feels like an eternity waiting for the frigate to dock but I'm grateful of the time to sort all my administrative crap. When I finally feel the solid 'thunk' as the clamps connect I shut down the ship's systems and make for the airlock. When I step through into the station I find Sophia there waiting for me.
“Two in one day Captain?” She asks flashing me that nerve wracking smile. “I think you'll be needing this.” She hands me a data pad with a list of names, lots of names.
“What's this?” I ask, caution and curiosity peaked.
“A list of people you might want to look into recruiting for your little war fleet. Just something you might want to think about, if you intend to make them combat ready any time soon. Of course. If you intend to sell them....” She says, making to take the pad back.
“No, I'll hang on to this, “I say and wink at her, “it might come in useful. Thank you Sophia.”
“You're welcome Captain.”
“You know, you keep calling me that Sophia. Am I supposed to take that as an official promotion?” She smiles, wider than usual.
“I'll be seeing you.” And with that she turns and walks away. Now, I trust Sophia, as much as I trust anyone these days, but she's never been this helpful before. Either she wants something from me, or worse she expects something of me, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what. Maybe this meeting with her on Nividereos will be a little bit more forthcoming. I hope so. I frakking hate riddles.
In the meantime I've got a list of what looks like potential crew for my Cobra, and perhaps enough for the Minotaur as well, although right now I'm not sure whether to keep that or sell it. From what I know about missile frigates the Minotaur has a fearsome reputation for bombarding targets with heavy torpedoes, whereas the Cobra would make a better boarding platform. I might make Unexpected Perks the home for my boarding party and all the equipment they need, and set up 'Strictly Legitimate' as my heavy duty combat support. I do have a significant number of missiles for it now, but without a supply line to keep them coming a few skirmishes will soon deplete that, and I can't be sure of my piratical activities supplying replacements. I also can't afford production facilities of my own...yet. Hmm.
For now I'm going to get the boys to pick up Indie Cypher for me and head back to Freedom's Reach to look for some more trouble. There's no jobs worth doing so I head north up to Brennan's Triumph where I see the local pirate clan have rebuilt their station! So I take a look at what kind of work they're offering and they tell me they need a convoy wiped out. Alright boys, I can do that, especially since it'll earn me over a million credits. I take the slow path down rather than jumping, and get another kill mission from the pirate base in Hatikvah's, for a group of Boron moving through Gunne's Crusade. The money's not much, but they're squiddies, so it's all good.
When I get to Clarity's End I move into the centre of the sector looking for my 'nid targets. Two Demeters, a Dolphin and a Vulture, nicely packed together all moving my way at a snails pace. Lucky for me I have three hammerhead missiles in my hold, so I cue one up and launch it at the Dolphin. In my haste I didn't stop to consider the two Paranid border control Perseus that where flying past them at the time, so when my missile hit and took out three of the freighters it took out the M3s as well. Oops.
The Vulture had been just out of range of the blastwave so I had to finish him up close and personal like, but as soon as he was down I got my payment and turned for the east gate. I didn't get any grief for killing those two Perseus pilots even as I passed through Third Redemption, so I'm guessing nobody noticed. Once I reach Gunne's I catch up with my two Boron marks, erase 'em from existence and receive my pittance. With that done I head north to see what other Boron shipping might be available, when I come across this lot. Bloody insects. Good job I have PBGs on board! You just can't beat fire as a bug repellent. The scouts melt under the heat of my guns, but the M3 survives long enough for me to switch to PBEs and then bails! Nice! Absolutely useless to me as I have no hope of arming it, but I'm sure it'll fetch a decent price once my repair crew have looked at it. So I claim all the abandoned ships and call in Lunacy Veil and Double Helix to transfer jumpdrives to the freighters and collect the fighters. Once they're on their merry way I turn and plot the long flight back to Freedom's. It's getting kinda late in the day and I missed lunch.
Assets:
Stations:
- Sun Oil Refinery L – Profit Centre Alpha - 5,119,171 Credits
- CAG 01 - Caiman Tanker - Courier Trantaeos Hilibis Luuligos III
- CAG 02 - Caiman Tanker - Courier Gobanis Yahinussos Wegoras IX
- LT – Profit Centre Alpha - Demeter Super Freighter – (20) Major Dealer Foologos Joranas Ganatos IV
- LT – Blue Profit - Mercury Super Freighter – (15) Small Trader Yagosias Trosulis Hurillis VI
- 'Giggity' – Discoverer Vanguard – Courier Yahinussos Hoaeos Yuyamandos I
- 'Problem Solved' – Discoverer Vanguard – Courier Wegoras Gutosos Yahinussos V
- 'Unexpected Perks' – Cobra 91%
'Strictly Legitimate' – Minotaur 42%
'High Profile' – Fujin Sentinel
'Indie Cypher' – Tenjin
'Good Intentions' – Ranger
'Swag Bag II' – Mistral
'Tidal Traveller' – Advanced Express
'Puddle Jumper' – Express
'Double Helix' – Chokaro
'Lunacy Veil' - Chokaro
ST – Weaver's Tempest – Caiman Miner – (10) Senior Paymaster Hirussusis Yosulis Yagasios I
- 'Fightin' Irish' – Mamba Vanguard – Stephen O'Leary
'Questionable Content' – Mamba Vanguard – Jim 'Baritone' Marchetti
'The Bad Touch – Solano – Thane
'Problem Solved II' – Solano – Sam
'Dark Days – Mamba – Sark Rossi
'Goshawk III' – Blastclaw Prototype – Huritas Galos Yayasios II 'The Huntress'
- Vulture Super Freighter 60% – Energy Cells
Vulture Super Freighter XL 60% – Food
Vulture Super Freighter XL 11% – Minerals
Dolphin Hauler 19% – Missiles
Vulture Super Freighter XL 17% – Tech
Vulture Super Freighter XL 27% – Weapons & Shields
- Hades x2 – 84% / 48%
Gladiator – 7%
Barracuda Vanguard
Eclipse
Pirate Advanced Eclipse 25%
Falcon
Falcon Hauler
Khaak Fighter
Mamba
Mamba 61%
Mamba Vanguard
Medusa
Buzzard 21%
Raijin 12%
Solano
Discoverer 2%
Discoverer Raider 12%
Jaguar
Octopus 19%
N
Caiman
Caiman x2 – 27% / 29%
Caiman Super Freighter 8%
Caiman Super Freighter XL 18%
Caiman Tanker 41%
Demeter Super Freighter x2 – 35% / 17%
Demeter Super Freighter x2 – 79% / 3%
Mercury 38%
Mercury Super Freighter XL 59%
Mercury Tanker XL 34%
Vulture Miner 40%
Vulture Super Freighter XL x2 – 37% / 21%
Toucan Hauler 60%
Time: 768-05-03 16:02
* Fujin Sentinel added to Shipyard with Cycrow's Cheat Package
bahahaha
(In order to collect the Vidar for instance, one of the rewards of the Terran plot, I may have to nuke half of the Mars sector defence force and then fight my way out 
