Eye of the storm - DiD (TC 3.2) [KIA]

[Zaitsev]

Thanks!

You're welcome

Writing has been kind of slow as of lately and I apologize for keeping you waiting. So behold, an update And a rather long one at that.

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Chapter 6 – Let it roll

Personal log – 768-05-01 – 12:15

First priority was to make my newly acquired pile of money grow. I already had the first stage planned, which was to start feeding the factories in and around PTNI Headquarters. A couple of Caimans and some strategically placed satellites would take care of that. Given the fact that the refineries in Scale Plate Green were supposed to feed three sectors worth of factories I could probably build a power core there and set up a few food factories of my own. A sun oil refinery and a power core should do the trick, keeping the customers happy and avoid saturating the market. It would give me a place to replenish jump fuel too, making me more independent.

Also, this friend of my father's, something as unusual as a Split trader, named Spi t'Tic, used to brag about the 1 MJ shield complex he had in Blue Profit and if it was true I could set up a station there. I figured I needed to rack up at least fifty million to initiate phase three, establishing a base in that unknown sector. I really needed to come up with some sort of name for that place if I were to settle down there.

The first thing was power. I figured I would need a massive power core to run everything I had planned, and solar power plants were kind of expensive. The cheapest XL power plant I knew of would cost me some seventeen point six million, and then I needed mines, food factories and crystal fabs to feed the darn thing. Then the Morrigan needed missiles, and I needed to start thinking about infrastructure. Guns, shields, power, ore, spare parts, freighters, the lot. An XL power core would cost me about forty million, so I guessed I would have to start there and work my way up. I also had to find out if I could get my paws on a shipyard or if I had to rely on one of the Commonwealth races when I needed someone to fix the holes in my ships. Then …

My train of thoughts was derailed by the Eris coming through the gate. The comlink crackled to life.
"Hey, captain." Tracie said. "How was geology class? Did you find any interesting rocks?"
"To say the least." I smiled a bit. She already sounded a bit more confident. Just don't blow the second mission. "This sector is stuffed to the gills with goodies. Lots of ore and silicon, and I think you heard it when I found those nividium roids."
"Oh yes. Shall we go home?" I had already started to think of this as home, but time would show if I was right or not.

Safely aboard the Eris I plotted a course for Home of Opportunity and the equipment dock they had there. I had to pick up a spare navcom module, then it was off to the pirate guild outpost in Mines of Fortune to get an extra jump drive for the Morrigan.

Entering Home of Opportunity I plotted a course for the equipment dock and let the autopillok do the flying for a while. It was a nice, open sector so there was little risk it would screw up. As we closed in I checked the local stations for the heck of it and noticed someone had topped off the local shield factories. Maybe I could find a 200 MJ shield before I left for the pirate base? Then the Eris would be fully shielded, and only needed … sigh … six Concussion Impulse Generators and a PBE to be fully armed. That would have to wait though, cause the only CIG forges I knew about right now were all Boron. I'd be damned if I bought heavy weaponry from someone who could draw the attention of this … Puppet Master. I knew both the Split and the Teladi had some CIG forges further west, though.

Oh well. We're getting close to the equipment dock, so I'd better reactivate my little disguise if I don't want to blow my cover.

For once luck was on my side, cause when I had gotten that extra navcom module the shield complex had a fresh 200 MJ shield waiting for me. Now, if I could only get there before some freighter jockey beat me to it I would be very happy. If not I was already considering shooting the bastard as he left. No freighter jockeys turned up, so I didn't have to explain to Teladi authorities why I had shot a freighter without provocation and as a bonus the Eris now had full shields. Off to the pirate base to pick up a jump drive then.

"'Ello, matey, and a hearty welcome to this pirate station." Thanks, I think. I couldn't say I felt like a 'matey', but what the heck. Now, where was that mechanic?

"Wha' can I do for ya, ma'am?" A young Argon stuck his head up from behind the counter.
"I need a jump drive," I said. "And a two hundred megajoule shield," I added, spotting the four shield generators standing in the back of the shop. I needed them for the Elephant, and although I had to save just about every centi-credit for stage one of my plan one shield was better than none.
"Will tha' be all, ma'am?"
"Yeah, that should cover it for now."
"Where d'ya want tha jump drive, ma'am?"
"The Drake in docking bay four. Take the shield there too."
"Very well, ma'am. It'll take about six to seven mizura then." About twenty minutes. Enough for me to get a drink, if I could find the bar.
"Thanks." I smiled at him. He blushed a bit. "Say, you don't happen to know where the bar is?"
"Take right and then third corridor to tha right, ma'am. Ya can't miss it."
"Alright. Thanks again."
"No problem, ma'am."

Let's see … Right, then one, two, three … Yep, that sounded like a bar alright. Lots of chatting mixed with some roaring, the sound of flesh hitting flesh and even a couple of phase shots. Good thing I remembered to bring my pistol, and a fresh power pack.

The place was crawling with every shady character you could imagine. Split, Teladi, Argon, even some Paranids and a couple of Boron. The first thing that caught my eye when I walked in, however, was the Teladi behind the bar. She could barely see over the bar counter, and her five foot frame looked kind of misplaced among all the Split, Argons and Paranid scattered around. Truth be told there was a fair amount of Teladi zipping about too, but they looked more like mischievous kids than pirates.

"What can I get you?" the little green one behind the bar asked as I walked up.
"Space fuel. The good stuff." I knew they tended to watered it down a bit to stretch the supplies, but if you asked you usually got the undiluted version.
"That will be a hundred and fifteen creditsss." I gave her hundred and twenty and was rewarded with that big, predatory grin they used to give you when they had made an extra credit. It was somewhat disturbing if you weren't used to it and I often wondered where they hid all those sharp, pointy teeth when they didn't use them to scare the crap out of people.

I had just gotten my drink when I heard the sound of metal against metal behind me. The next thing I knew I had a hand on my ass and someone was breathing heavily into my ear.
"Hey, kitt'n. Wha's a purdy li'l thing like ye'self doin' here whi' tha big boys?" Great. I was being hit on by the local Don Juan. I turned and looked into the eyes of a big, burly Argon who looked like he was used to getting his way. I downed my fuel in one gulp and put the glass on the counter, noticing the bartender who slowly moved out of the way from the corner of my eye.
"I'll tell the big boys when I see them," I replied, totally calm. "Now, do yourself a favor and get your hand off my ass while I'm still in a good mood." He laughed, then looked at me and cocked an eyebrow. The hand didn't move.
"'Ey, guys!" he yelled. "This broad wants me to get me 'and off her ass while she's still in a good mood." Then he turned back to me.
"Wha' 'appens if you're not 'n a good mood?" he said to me. He had barely finished the sentence when I grabbed his hand and twisted it, hyperextending the wrist and forcing him down on one knee. At the same time I pulled the butterfly knife I had strapped to the small of my back, flicked it open and pressed the blade against his throat.
"Then you're gonna end up on the floor with a nice, pink necktie. Get it?" I growled into his ear. "Now, get lost."
I let go of his hand and put away the knife. He ran for the door with his tail between his legs, but I knew his kind. He'd probably be back, sooner or later.

Silence.

The bar became so dead silent you could have heard a Teladi swamp fly fart. Everyone looked at me.
"What!?" I snapped. They hurriedly turned away and started talking again. Stars, couldn't a girl even take a drink without everyone and their grandmother staring? Morons and wankers, the lot of them. I turned around and ordered another drink. The Teladi stood like someone had nailed her to the floor, staring at me with those big, yellow eyes. She looked like a sad puppy or something.
"Do you know who that wasss?" she asked. I sipped my drink and shrugged.
"No. Should I?" I hadn't been in these sectors for some time, and things tended to change rapidly among the pirates. The little green one gave me a slightly shocked look.
"That wasss Krisss Ssseldon, leader for one of the mossst powerful pirate clansss around here." I took another sip and just sighed. Then he would definitely be back, to take revenge because he had been beaten and humiliated by a girl. Just then the mechanic stopped by and told me the jump drive had been installed and was ready. Oh well, time to drink up and get moving then.

I was heading for the bar when I heard this noise behind me. The next thing I knew I felt a sharp pain in my back and then I was on the floor.
"Well, wha' ya know, a stray kitt'n." Well if it wasn't mister pirate boss. I rolled over on my back and looked up at the big man in front of me. He had brought a couple of his monkeys too, which meant he would probably have some 'fun' with me before he beat the snot out of me and left me to die. Great.
"Wha' ya gonna do now, kitt'n? Hiss at me? Scratch me with that claw of yours?" He waved a phase pistol in my face as if to make it clear that he was the big dog around here and I was just some small whelp he had by the scruff of the neck. I just stared at him as my hand slowly slid down to my data pad.
"Go ahead, go for your claw. I'll turn your head into a canoe before you can even reach it." He didn't get it, and in about five seconds it would be too late.
"I ain't reaching for my claw, I'm stalling." I grinned at him. He gave me a slightly puzzled look in return and decided to raise his gun. Bad move. Five, four, three, two, one …

The hollow sound of a custom made long-barreled disintegrator rifle echoed through the hallway. In an instant the phase pistol was just a smoldering piece of metal, slowly turning to dust as the material's molecular bonds were being ripped apart from the inside.
"Fight fair, boys!" Mikal shouted from behind me. "It's not nice to point a gun at a defenseless lady." I stifled a laugh. He knew very well that I was fully capable of taking care of myself. However, if I had taken down these goons everyone would know there was an angel on board within five minutes and turn the whole base against us. With Mikal backing me up they would just assume I had mercs on board and let us sort this out on our own.

In the meantime the pirate and his goons were obviously contemplating about how to deal with this new player. That ended rather abruptly when Jo and Marissa showed up, repeater rifles at the ready.
"Oh, please make a sudden move," Jo grinned. "I haven't shot anyone in days." The pirates wisely turned tail and ran away, and I cut the comlink on my data pad and got up.
"Making friends as usual?" Mikal said as he slung the desintrgrator rifle over his shoulder.
"Hey," I said. "He grabbed my ass. You should know how that usually ends." He just rolled his eyes and grinned. He had spent a couple of days rubbing a sore wrist when we first met.
"Yeah, but it was worth it," he quipped. "You do have a grade A oh-so-nice ass. Cap'n." I just shook my head and laughed. Marines …
"Funny. Let's get out of here."

A few minutes later we were heading for one of the solar power plants in Family Whi. The Eris still lacked a PBE in its right turret and it had no main armament, so I had to park it somewhere while I explored a bit and looked for some guns. Then … Then I had a war to fight. It made me feel sick, because I knew I would have to fight, and most likely kill, men and women who were only following the orders of their superiors. Superiors who were desperate to protect their secrets. So desperate they had eradicated most of my family. For a moment there I felt the hatred burn in my heart, and I tightened the grip on the stick so much my knuckles turned white.
'Mom, dad …' I whispered silently. 'I'll get the ones who did this, no matter what.'

I left Tracie to fly the Eris the last bit of the trip and headed off in the Morrigan to explore and continue my never ending search for missions. I didn't have to look far, as this Split was offering a taxi mission and was willing to fork out a pretty substantial amount to get to Family Pride. Both money and a chance to explore? Yeah, I guess I could be arsed to do that.

Traveling in short hops, jumping from one gate to the next within the same sector and then making a U-turn, I managed to get my grumpy friend in the back seat to his destination without problems. He paid me and ran off with his important documents, and since I was in a sector with a shipyard I decided to pick up a Caiman. I knew it was a little light on cargo space, but speed was more important for the use I had intended. Besides, it had to fly across Two Grand on a regular basis and if I remembered correctly that sector was friggin' huge.

Now, what's this? Protect station? Well, with all the hardware floating around here I could always pull that ol' stunt again. Let the military deal with the dingbats, then I can take your money and avoid rep loss. Then … What. The. Hell?

Xenon!

I clutched the stick so hard I could almost feel the metal give in under my fingers. Xenon. Bloody, soulless chips! Five Ns came through the gate and were making a beeline for the station. Oh, I definitely wanted a piece of this!

Placing myself between them and the station I used the Morrigan as a fighter sized turret and filled the path of the leading N with plasma bolts. Its shields were decimated in an instant, then green death ripped through its shell from nose to tail and turned it into an ever expanding cloud of debris and dust. The next N suffered the same fate and I got another one as well before the military got involved and vaporized the remaining two with missiles. Still, it felt like I got a piece of my soul back every time I killed one of those bastards.

While I was staring at the map I noticed that Omicron Lyrae was marked off, and remembered that escort mission for those Terran diplomats. Or 'We're looking for a scapegoat'-mission as I had come to call it. Might prove handy though, cause if I could get on the good side of the Terrans I might be able to lay my paws on some of their ships. They were frighteningly powerful, and I had heard through … unofficial channels that they had developed some interesting new designs. I guess they had to keep up with the Commonwealth, as new designs seemed to crop up almost every week. So I decided to head that way and find out what all the fuss was about. Unless I managed to get distracted, of course.

Remarkably I got as far as Rhonkar's Clouds, where a Split gave me a few thousand reasons to fly back to Thuruk's Pride with a bunch of people who were late for work. Of course I couldn't say no to so many good arguments, and since it was just a quick jump away I decided to pick 'em up and ship them to work. Smooth sailing as usual, but since the time limits were steadily shrinking I had to start thinking about getting a faster ship for those kinds of jobs. The problem was that the alternatives were either too slow or didn't have enough cargo space. Oh well. Hey, maybe the Terrans had something that could fit the bill?

While I was messing about in Thuruk's Pride I noticed another mission. Surprise, right? Anyway, this Split wanted me to pick up some medical supplies for him and since I'm a softy deep down I accepted. I should have checked how big those things were first …

Yeah, the dealer was waiting with something that looked like a cubic kilometer of supplies and it was no way in hell I could fit it all into the cargo bay of the Morrigan. Some quick calculations told me I would need some three hundred units of available cargo space, and by the time I found that out I was running short on time and had to abort. If I'd had a few more minutes I could have called in the Eris, but it wouldn't have made it in time. Frak.

I felt like shooting something, but ended up checking out another taxi mission instead. Good pay, the time limit was okey-ish and the bastard wanted a TP-class passenger transport. Of course, riding in the back seat might hurt that soft, delicate ass of his. Stuck-up moron. It did make me consider getting a TP though, so I could satisfy their needs. I knew the pay would only go up, and as my rep increased I would probably get more and more missions where the employer demanded a passenger transport so I might as well get one sooner or later. I wanted to wait until I had gotten phase one of my plan rolling, though. Time to head back east.

Or not. Another taxi mission showed up, this time for an Argon. She had ten people who wanted to get to 'a station' in Rhonkar's Clouds, which usually meant it was a black ops team on the move. Me and my Angels had used the technique numerous times to minimize the risk of getting caught. On one hand I risked blowing my cover, but on the other hand I could make a quick hundred grand. I thought about it for a few moments, before I decided to accept. It could be the ultimate test of my disguise, and if everything else failed I had the airlock controls within reach and could depressurize the entire ship if I had to.

Lucky for my passengers they behaved rather nicely and hardly said a word during our little trip. One of them yawned, probably because I was out of jump fuel and had to slowboat to Rhonkar's Clouds, but that was it. As usual I made it in time, and the one who was obviously in charge paid me before they shuffled off to where ever they were heading. They were grateful enough to make me an Argon Federation Associate though. Not that I really cared, but it would come in handy later.

After hauling that bunch of asses I felt like shooting something again, and as chance would have it a combat mission landed in my lap. It was a patrol mission from Rhonkar's Clouds to Cho's Defeat, and since I would be heading in the right direction I accepted. I was slightly worried about my pirate rep in case some of the local merry buccaneers showed up, but I guessed I would just have to wait and see.

*beep*

Nope, not pirates. Xenon! Two N and an M showed up at the edge of my gravidar, and for a moment I wished I had a faster ship. Might be worth it to invest in one of those Split afterburners, although I would have to keep e-cells aboard to keep it from draining my shields. Blah, more logistics. I could of course hire a pilot to deal with that and put him, her or it in my Caiman but that cost money and even with all these missions I couldn't afford that. Yeah, slight digression there.

Finally the Xenon were within weapons range, and I moved to intercept the M. They were slowpokes so I had no problem keeping up. It weaved and turned in an attempt to get out of my cross hairs, but to no avail. I nibbled away at his shields, one volley at the time, and at last it made a fatal mistake. Slowing down for a turn it stopped almost right in front of my nose, so I opened up with all guns and blew away half its tail. Another volley hit the reactor and boom, no more M. In the meantime the Ns had bit over more than they could chew, and the local military was now hot on their tails. A couple of missiles blew them both away, and then I was told to move on into Tharka's Sun.

Oh, great. A welcoming committee in the form of a M and a N camping the gate. They greeted me with a hailstorm of PAC bolts, so I returned the favor and blew the M out of the sky while the locals dealt with the N. Come on, bastards. Gimme some resistance! Stars! Silicone based dimwits!

I think they heard me, because the next thing that showed up was a M and five Ns. Not really a problem, but five Ns could easily overwhelm the Morrigan's shields if I didn't watch my back. Luckily I still had my twin PBEs back there, so anything getting too close would be roasted pretty quickly.

I had the M in my sights when the local sector patrol decided to get involved. I caught a glimpse of a missile, then the light of an artificial sun filled my cockpit and half my shields were gone.
"Frakkin' hell! Watch those nukes, bloody dovreths!" Calling a Split a retard might not have been the smartest thing I've done, but right then I didn't care. A little closer and I would have ended up glowing in the dark. Arguing with a Split would just be an exercise in futility so I looked for more Xenon instead. Bleh, that nuke had killed half of them and winged the others enough for sector patrols to catch up and put and end to them. Crap.

One of them left a Rapier behind, which I scooped up as I passed by. You never knew when that would come in handy, although the Rapier had too small a yield to be of any particular use unless you launched bucketloads of them. I preferred Hurricanes, but then I would have to butter up to the Paranid first. I wasn't looking forward to that task, to put it mildly. Besides, if they recognized me they would probably hunt me down and kill me in the slowest and most painful way possible. The 'Nids were infamous for holding a grudge and I had killed a couple of hundreds of them during border patrols, so if they caught me I would end up very dead. Oh well, onward to Cho's Defeat.

And that was all she wrote. As I entered Cho's Defeat I got a message telling me the patrol was completed, plus a pat on the back for nailing two Xenon. Yay me. I was now a Privileged Associate of Rhonkar, which basically meant I could go nuts at the shipyard once I had racked up enough money. The only things I couldn't buy were carriers and destroyers, but that would probably come soon enough.

Still thirsty for more blood I accepted a station protection mission in Cho's Defeat. Blast, pirates. I wasn't about to lose any more rep with them than I already had, so I let the locals deal with them. They probably needed some practice anyway, and they were even nice enough to leave some presents for me. I'll just swoop in and pick those up, thank you very much.

A few moments later a taxi mission turned up, and since the good Mr. Yo t'Ktt was willing to fork out a nice amout of cash to get his people to 'a station' in Patriarch's Keep I accepted. I was heading in that direction anyway, so why not.

I made it. Of course I made it. Quiet crowd as usual, but they were probably under strict orders not to say a damn thing unless it was absolutely necessary. As I approached the station this Split contacted me and asked me if I wanted to participate in a Xenon patrol in Patriarch's Keep. Stupid question. Hold on a sec, I'm just gonna dump some cattle first.

I had less than ten meters left to the docking clamps when four contacts showed up and headed toward the trade lanes at full speed. An M and three Ns. Four pieces of my soul. I gunned the engines as soon as the station would let me undock and headed for the closest ones, two Ns who had broken off from the rest of the group. They were attacking some freighters when I got into weapons range, and the closest N got its attack run cut off rather abruptly by a HEPT volley. It rolled away from my line of fire, but it was too close and I wanted its CPU on a pole. I whipped the Morrigan around and cut it off again. Plasma bolts ripped through the nose and almost took it clean off, slowing it down considerably. Another plasma volley smashed into the engine and made its way through to the reactor, killing it instantly. That's right, you worthless piece of junk! Burn!

The other N met the same fate, with the addition of a Rapier up its butt to soften up the shields before I landed the killing blow. It broke left to avoid my missile, which put it right in my cross hairs. The Rapier hit first, followed by a HEPT volley that smashed its shields, blew clean through its side and sent the reactor sky high. Up yours, chip! Things died down after that, and a few minutes later I got a message telling me the patrol was complete. Money, money, money …

Then I pulled my sneaky trick again and accepted a station protection mission with no intention whatsoever to fire even a single shot. It almost worked, as the local gaver took out the Yaki Rajin coming through the gate. They seemed to lose interest after that, leaving the Fujin to me. Maybe they were on to me? Oh well, time to use that Wasp I picked up in Cho's Defeat, then. A few seconds later the Wasp connected and the Fujin turned to dust, knocking my Yaki rep down a notch in the process. Guess I had my work cut out for me, then. Continue east, I think.

Two Grand was just as big as I remembered it. A friggin' hundred kilometers plus between the gates, and stations sprinkled across it like cinnamon on that latte Mikal used to drink. I mapped it in as fast as I could manage, kicked out one of the navigation satellites I had picked up in Split space and moved on.

Flying through Profit Center Alpha I picked up a roid scan mission for a Split. The pay wasn't terribly good, but since it would take me into PTNI Headquarters I accepted it anyway. Exploring and getting paid for it? Yeah, I could live with that. I dropped another navigation satellite in PTNI HQ while I was at it, and yet another one in Profit Center Alpha as I returned to deliver the data. Got a healthy bonus too, I might add.

Now I only had to drop the last one in Scale Plate Green and I would have covered my entire turf. That would have to wait, though, cause now I was more than ready for a nap. I headed over to PTNI Headquarters, ordered the Caiman to come join me, then I docked at the equipment dock and found a bed to crash in for a few hours. G'nite.

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Assets:
M6 Drake - "Eris"
M3 Cougar Vanguard - "Morrigan"
TL Elephant - {unnamed}
M2 Asgard O'Neill - "SGC-028 'Lux Aeterna'"

2433381 credits

[Zaitsev]

My apologies for the late update. Some real life issues got in the way, but they're sorted out for now.

EDIT: Cleaned up things a bit and added pictures. Enjoy

Oh-key, time for ...

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Chapter 7 – Starlight, star bright

Personal log 768-05-01 - 21:15

Five hours later and it was time to rise and shine. Funny thing. I've never needed much sleep, and even after being awake for days I've always been fit for fight after getting just four or five hours of shut-eye. Maybe it's good genes or something?

Anyway, my Caiman, which I had named 'Mule 1' in lack of a better name, had arrived just fifty minutes after I went do bed and was fit for fight. Well, almost. I needed to get a best buys and best sell locator for it, and since I couldn't afford a crew right now it would have to run on remote for the time being. The ships were generally fully capable of running without a crew, but if something went wrong it would go horribly wrong. Oh well, that was a risk I would have to live with, at least for the time being.

First thing I had to do was to map Scale Plate Green, as it had the only Teladi food factories around here. There were a few in the sectors around Ianamus Zura, but since the freighters would have to cross X347 and the Teladi were too stingy to equip them with jump drives the factories between Scale Plate Green and Two grand were usually pretty starved for both food and energy.

As I left the equipment dock I spotted a couple of Terran destroyers milling about, and I kinda wondered what they were doing so far outside Terran controlled space. With the Terran's xenophobic nature lurking behind the scenes most of the Commonwealth races saw them as a threat, and having destroyers flying around certainly didn't change that impression. That Nagoya looked rather juicy though, so I put one on my wish list, along with the Osaka, in case I ever made enough money to get one. Okey, time to stop drooling and get moving.

Funny. A patrol mission from Scale Plate Green to Eighteen Billion, including X347. Yeah, nothing like trying to hold off a bunch of Xenon capital ships while on patrol. Or as my wing man used to say when we spotted Paranid capitals: 'Welcome to Puckerville. How tight do you want it?'

The taxi mission I found was more my cup of tea, although I still had to cross X347 to get to her destination in Eighteen Billion. However, I wouldn't have to clean out an entire sector and the Morrigan could easily deal with anything fast enough to catch it. Okey, lizard, hold on to your scales.

As usual I gunned it and headed straight for the south gate. And as usual there was a bunch of incredibly brave, insane or stupid traders, depending on your point of view, that were trying to cross a Xenon sector in a freighter. I knew from experience that these sectors usually had at least a couple of capitals making a mess of the trade lanes and probably some fighters flying around taking pot shots too, which made that trip a very hazardous one at best. I took the opportunity to pick up some missiles while I waited for the gate to clear, then I let this big, fat Mercury fly through first and followed the bait … ehm, brave freighter pilot through the event horizon.

The sector was unusually quiet and for a second there I wondered if the Teladi had gotten off their tails and cleaned up a bit. Not likely, but one never knew. Especially not with the Hardware I saw camping the south gate in Scale Plate Green. I only spotted a single N and a K-class destroyer blasting away at the string of freighters plodding across the sector, but that just meant more distractions and less to worry about for me. My passenger had also been nice enough to give me the position for the south gate, so I locked on to it and jumped. Better to spend five e-cells on an in-sector jump than risk being turned into dust by that K.

Eighteen Billion. I briefly wondered if this sector had gotten its name from all the rocks floating around, but since there was a lot less than eighteen billion of them the chances of that were probably pretty slim. We were just a couple of clicks away from the station when the passenger started nagging. I considered getting in my EVA suit, drag her out and see if I could make her hit the air lock by kicking her, but then I wouldn't get paid. 285 grand was a bit much to turn down to satisfy my urge to whoop her ass, so I kept my mouth shut and kept flying.

As I approached the docking clamps I got a broadcast from a Paranid, offering a roid scan mission. He only called me an unholy creature four times while he explained that his schedule was too full for him to be able to do the scanning himself, so I decided to help him. Besides, I needed that Paranid rep to get my paws on some Hornet- and Hurricane missile factories. It would give both the Morrigan and the Eris a lot more punch, and if I threw in some medium missiles as well we would really start rocking the place.

So, the little green one shuffled off to her important meeting and I headed back to the Morrigan to start scanning rocks. The time was a bit tight as I had to cover three sectors, but with the jump drive I wouldn't have any problems making it. I knew I would need a faster ship sooner or later, though, and those Teladi Kestrels looked nice. The second fastest ship in the Commonwealth, as the pirates had managed to squeeze just enough extra juice out of the engines to make it a bit faster. Still, 605 m/s relative speed should be enough to satisfy everyone. That meant I would need to keep grinding rep with the Teladi, as I was still a few levels short of being able to buy a Kestrel.

Hm, the locals were restless. Glad they left me alone, cause no matter how valuable those jump drives were I would defend myself.

I was on my way back to the Paranid to deliver my asteroid data when I got this Argon on the horn, asking me to do a taxi mission for him. He wanted me to move four military personnel to a shield production complex in Acquisition Repository, and although I didn't like the idea of having Argon marines on board my ship it was nice to get paid to explore. After some consideration I accepted and told them to hold on until I had delivered the data to the 'Nid. I heard some murmuring as I closed the link, but didn't care. They would just have to wait until I was done, or get in their EVA suits and put their thrusters to good use. On the upside the 'Nid gave me a rather nice bonus.

The trip itself was rather uneventful, but I did find something interesting. A pirate shipyard popped up on the gravidar in Acquisition Repository, and they had all kinds of goodies. I could get my hands on the factories for just about every rare or illegal ware out there, which made it all worth it in my book. Suddenly doing missions for the Argon wasn't so bad after all. They even had an Incendiary Bomb Launcher Forge, which meant I didn't have to suck up to the Yaki or go blast capitals to get my hands on some IBLs. Making it in time and getting promoted to Argon Confirmed Friend was just icing on the cake.

As the marines wandered off I was approached by this Teladi, who wanted me to pick up some entertainment chips for her. No big deal, and with the jump drive it was a five minute trip each way to get from the gate to the station. I had just delivered the chips when absurdity struck …

The shipyard sent out a mayday, and the station manager claimed they were under attack … by pirates. It turned out to be a Boron patrol, and they hardly qualifies as 'pirates', but since I needed to work on my pirate rep anyway I thought I might as well sacrifice some Boron rep for a good cause. Or something.

The first attack resulted in a Mako interceptor bailing, and the pilot ran as fast as its suit thrusters could carry it. I wasn't about to butcher some defenseless Boron, but I didn't mind taking its ship and a quick patch up later it was heading for the shipyard. Two hundred grand, thank you very much. As an added bonus my Boron rep didn't drop as much as I had expected, and a few missions would get it back up in no time.

Someone on that shipyard must have been busy pissing people off, cause a few minutes later they screamed for help again. It was a Teladi patrol this time, and I'll admit I was a little more reluctant about blowing them away since I had a trader running around in their sectors. However, since I had managed to escape the incident with the Boron relatively unscathed I thought what the heck. Apparently the Teladi looked the other way too, cause my rank only dropped one level. In other words, easy to repair. They even left me a slightly scorched Harrier to sell, and it still had a 5 MJ shield on board. Oh joy!

I turned my nose north again to map Homily of Perpetuity, the sector north of here, and at the same time I ordered Mule 1, my Caiman freighter, to move to Scale Plate Green and start looking for good deals. As the Teladi had expanded their industry in the sector quite significantly I knew I wouldn't have any problems getting things rolling, and the way things looked I might have to get another Caiman to keep everything fed. The extra factories also meant the sun oil refineries had that many more mouths to feed, which made it all the more viable to build my own food loop. I also noticed that a lot of the factories needed Teladi swamp plants, and with the closest dream farm in Eighteen Billion they were running short. If I remembered correctly the pirate shipyard in Acquisition Repository had dream farms for sale, which meant it was time to look for a crew for that Elephant and go ask if they were willing to sell me one.

"Morrigan to Eris. Come in, Eris." It took a moment while the gate communication relays worked to send the message across a few thousand lightyears.
"Morrigan, Eris here. What's up, captain?"
"Just wondering if you could jump to Family Pride and get me another Caiman. The one I got is a bit overworked at the moment." I figured they were tired of staring at the walls, so a little work might do the trick.
"Can do, captain. Besides, it beats sitting here on our asses doing nothing." I smiled. "We'll get right on it. Eris out."

I would probably need two more to keep all these factories fed, but I decided to take it one step at the time. The sectors down here could use a couple of freighters too, but then I had to either get a jump drive for them or have them slowboat all the way around X347. That would take bloody ages, which meant I had to visit the pirate base in Mines of Fortune again. I really needed to get something to carry some jump drives for me. In other words, a military transport and a couple of cheap fighters was next on the shopping list. Right now it was time to get that Elephant out of the unknown sector.

A quick jump later I was cruising across Scale Plate Green, looking for a good place to drop my last satellite. Dang, I would need more of them if I was going to start trading in the sectors around Ianamus Zura. Perhaps I should make my own just for the heck of it? It was legit business, so why not. Now, right here next to that nice, big roid would probably do it …

After kicking out the satellite I called in the Eris and had Tracie park it just above the north gate, then I docked and we headed for the unknown sector with the Elephant and our shiny friend. Then I beamed over the extra shield, a jump drive, a navcom module and some e-cells and had it jump to Family Tkr for repairs and a refit. The shipyard told me it would cost me one and a half million to repair it, which was about half of our current funds. Yikes. And then I still had to get a crew for it and find a way to pay them. Now I finally understood why my father looked like he was thinking about a thousand things simultaneously all the time.

With the Elephant safely on its way I jumped to Tkr's Deprivation to pick up some e-cells and then headed for Home of Opportunity to replace the navcom module. As the Eris was making its way to the equipment dock I spotted a mission to return an abandoned ship for a Paranid. Well, I needed the rep boost so I accepted. It turned out to be a Harrier Sentinel, in other words a fighter which the Eris could carry, so I sent the Morrigan on autopilot to the pirate base in Mines of Fortune and started looking through my star charts. Family Njy sounded familiar, and I knew I had seen the name somewhere …

Ah, there. South of Ghinn's Escape. I had Tracie plot a course to the south gate in Ghinn's Escape and fired the jump drive. Ten seconds later a bright flash filled the bridge and then we were in the wormhole, covering thousands of lightyears in mere seconds. A quick u-turn as we came through the gate and voila, Family Njy. The Harrier was some thirty five clicks southeast of us, and as usual it was pretty banged up. I sometimes wondered if the pilots went nuts on it with a monkey wrench or something before they flew off. It could of course be that they'd had a little scrap with some of the local pirates or something, though. Ah, didn't know and didn't really care.

I decided to fix the Harrier up a bit before I sent it home. After some quick welding it was good as new, and I ordered it to dock with the Eris before I got back inside and told Tracie to take us back to Home of Opportunity. Couldn't harm to fix it, and it would save a few minutes when we dropped it off. As I entered the bridge I got a message from the pirate base. The Morrigan had made it in one piece, so I told them to install a jump drive and a freight scanner. I had a feeling it might come in handy sooner or later …

Whoa.
We had just entered Home of Opportunity when I spotted this Argon woman offering a taxi mission. Seven people who needed to get to Mines of Fortune, and she was willing to fork out four hundred and five grand for it. That was a lot of money, and since I was planning on getting some guns for the Eris I needed every centi-credit I could lay my hands on. Okey, lady, you got yourself a deal.

I figured the whole bunch were spies, and even if they were I didn't want them roaming around my ship so I ordered my marines to gently advice them to stay in the common area. That is, stop them if they tried to wander off and shoot them if they didn't listen. Preferably with stunners, but live rounds wouldn't be out of the question if they decided to get rowdy. Luckily they behaved nicely for the duration of the trip, which meant I wouldn't have to explain to the Argons why seven of their people had suddenly ended up in space with repeater holes in their bodies.

Lady Luck was obviously smiling at me, because I got another taxi mission just as I was about to dock in Mines of Fortune and deliver my Argon 'spies'. A Split needed a pilot to ferry two passengers to Family Tkr, and he was willing to pay a good deal of money for it. Oh yes, baby. That would give me more than enough to arm the Eris, and I would have a few credits to keep my traders busy too. Which reminded me that Mule 2 had arrived in PTNI Headquarters a while ago and was waiting for some upgrades to get things going. I equipped it with a best buy/best sell locator, plus a booster, SETA device and some other snacks in case I ever needed to fly it personally, and sent it south to meet its 'brother'.

A couple of quick jumps later and we were back in Mines of Fortune to pick up the Morrigan, after dropping off the passengers for that Split. As we headed toward each other I started going through the records to find possible sources for some Concussion Impulse Generators, or CIGs, to replace the ones that got fried during the beating we took in Argon Prime. Hm. Argon equipment dock? No, I risked blowing my cover. Ocean of Fantasy? Hell, no. Hila's Joy? Oh, hell no. Two Grand, perhaps? I checked the CIG forge there via my satellite, and it had three CIGs in store. It was running low on food too, but right now the factories in Scale Plate Green couldn't even feed them selves so I had to dig up three more somewhere else. I knew there was a CIG forge in Thuruk's Pride and another one in Rhonkar's Fire, so I would just have to cross my fingers and hope at least one of them had some for me.

[Zaitsev]

Well, to those of you still reading this I have some bad news and some bad news.

The bad news is that my main computer decided to die on me a while ago, and the bad news is that it's going to take me a while to scrounge up enough money to rebuild it. Being a paranoid computer geek I do have backups of everything, but it's probably going to take about a month before I get my hands on something that's capable of running X. Combined with a few things I wasn't completely satisfied with I'm still argueing with myself over whether I'm going to continue Rahne's adventures when I get my rig back up and running or start something new, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there. One way or another, though, I'll be back

[Triaxx2]

I'm sad to hear that. I'll mark this as Suspended in the DiD list, pending a decision. I hope you come back to it though, I was enjoying it.

[Zaitsev]

I'm sad to hear that. I'll mark this as Suspended in the DiD list, pending a decision. I hope you come back to it though, I was enjoying it.

Well, a little encouragement can go a long way

Some good news as well. Thanks to some unknown customer giving my boss capacity headaches, and thus landing me some extra money, and my mom being generous (thanks, Ma ) I now have enough for a new gaming rig. I'm still waiting for some parts that are supposed to come into stock on thursday so it'll probably take at least another week before I get things up and running, but so far things are looking promising. I've also decided to keep writing and see where this thing ends, and since I managed to get access to my backups I'm going to post the rest of the chapters I've written while I wait for my computer parts to arrive. Next chapter should be up either tomorrow or monday, so watch this space

[Triaxx2]

Then it shall be returned to glorious active status once that happens.

*bounces up and down like a small girl*

Ahem. Glad you're going to be back up and running. I'm planning a new computer at the moment. Though I suspect it might take something running several dozen processor cores to keep X3 from grinding to an occasional halt.

[Zaitsev]

*gets funny mental pictures of Triaxx2 in a dress, jumping all over the place*

You could try an AMD Bulldozer. Eight cores, although I'm not sure it's suited for gaming I'm gonna try a slightly overclocked Intel i7-3820 combined with a GTX670 and see how that turns out

[/e-peen waving]

Alright, enough jabbering. I promised you an update so here it is

...and it took a lot longer to hack it out than I had expected, thanks to my oh so slow backup computer. Pictures will be added later, cause right now I'm so tired I can't even see straight. Hope you enjoy

EDIT: Pictures added.

----------

Chapter 8 - Grinder

Personal log – 768-05-02 – 03:32

The forge in Thuruk's Pride turned out to be bone dry. It lacked food and energy too, which made me consider setting up a freighter here. Oh well, better head south then.

I let Tracie handle the helm while I juggled my freighters around in Scale Plate Green. Things were starting to run smoothly now, and my two mules were making good money. The place was still pretty starved, though, so I figured I would have to set up yet another freighter there in the near future. Kind of a luxury problem when business is so good your freighters are running at full steam all the time and people are still screaming for more.

Arriving in Rhonkar's Fire we started scanning the stations and lo and behold; the CIG forge had a CIG for sale, the local Military Outpost had another two and the Medium Weapons Complex even had a PBE for sale. With the three CIGs in Two Grand it meant the Eris would be fully armed again. For some reason that made me grin like a mad woman. I felt tempted to let the Argons know I was still alive, but decided to keep my head down instead. No use in blowing my cover now.
As an added bonus I got a Split on the horn who wanted a ride to Tharka's Sun, and since we were heading in that direction anyway we might as well get paid for flying. He wasn't too happy about the fact that I took my sweet time picking up 'my' weapons, but he got there in time for his important meeting, I got my guns and everyone was happy.

Lady Luck kept smiling, as I picked up two roid scans in rapid succession. One in Tharka's Sun for a Boron and one in Cho's Defeat for a Teladi. I wondered if these prospectors had time to do as much as scratch their asses with all these full schedules they were all complaining about, but as long as I got paid I didn't really give a crap. It was quick money, and I needed it so I could afford the last three CIGs. They even gave me some nice bonuses, so I couldn't complain.

"What the … Hey, check this out."
We had just delivered the data to the Teladi, and now this peculiar mission had turned up. A Split wanted us to deliver an M5 scout to him, and with a shipyard a few dozen clicks to the south I think we were all wondering why he didn't just call the shipyard and ordered it himself. Not being the ones to turn down easy cash, we accepted the mission, called up the shipyard and ordered a Jaguar Raider. Fast little bugger, and it only took some five minutes to construct. Ah, the fun of ship-sized nanite weavers. It felt a little like ripping him off, but since it would push me over the one point four millions I needed for those last three CIGs I didn't give a flying frak.

We were about to head east when this Paranid contacted us, looking for a combat pilot. I only had some five years of experience, so I wasn't sure if I was properly qualified, but I decided to give it a go anyway. I'll admit I was hoping for another 'protection' mission I could leave to the local military, but no. An assassination mission. Alright, I could do that. Hopefully. If the dumbass could keep his six clear of missiles. With a good 375 grand in sight I accepted, switched to the Morrigan and told Tracie to go get those CIGs. Then I fired the jump drive and headed for Family Rhonkar.

Oh, he was there alright. Camping the gate. Bastard. I was immediately attacked by a bunch of not too friendly pirates, something I had hoped to avoid. Right now they were my only source of jump drives, and if I pissed them off enough I might end up with jack shit. So I had to play nice, at least for now. I headed straight for my mark and filled his path with plasma bolts, blowing away his shields and giving his hull a few scorch marks too. The second volley turned him to dust, and I was hoping that would make the other pirates go away.

Not so, as they were on my six like gadflies on an argnu's ass. I didn't want to fight them, but they obviously wanted my blood for killing their buddy. I ended up taking a small rep loss, as the idiots kept insisting on shooting at me, which my rear turret wasn't particularly happy about. Yep, the whole bunch got mowed down like wheat before a scythe by that little stinger covering my six. Morons. Didn't even bail or leave me something I could scoop up and sell.

Speaking of selling, as I approached the north gate and was about to call Tracie and have the Eris pick me up, I spotted a Caiman Super Freighter XL for sale. Dirt cheap too, and with the Split rep I had it could give me a nice cash injection. I considered sending it east to help my two slightly overworked Mules, but in the end I decided to patch it up and send it to the shipyard in Family Pride. Some fifteen minutes of welding later, and it was good to go.

Now I wanted to see what Pirate Alley had in store for me, so I had the Eris jump in and asked Tracie to take us south. In the meantime I kept my freighters busy, but they were still screaming for more. Seemed like I would have to get a third mule before the day was over, and even then I would probably have problems keeping them all happy. Stars! A Commercial Agent would probably help, but they were bloody expensive. Besides, they were generally fresh out of flight training and dumb as fence posts, so they needed friggin' ages of training before they were useful to me. The only place that had experienced pilots available was Herron's Nebula, and I sure as hell wasn't going to wander into an Argon core sector to look for pilots. He-e-ell no!

(sigh)

Guess I would have to manage with what I had for the time being, then expand as I switched to phase two. And now …

Thuruk's Beard. I had often wondered what made this Thuruk and his beard so magnificent that it had gotten a sector named after it. Maybe he could deflect phase shots with it or something? Revive Split warriors who had fallen in combat by rubbing them with his beard? Gunne knew.

One thing I did know was that this Boron was dangling a very juicy mission right in front of my nose. Six hundred and eighty five grand to pick up some entertainment chips from the pirate anarchy port in Hatikvah's Faith. I knew that sector quite well, it was the start of Pirate Alley and the Pirate Anarchy Port in question was located in the middle of nowhere, some thirty clicks behind the west gate. I only had ten minutes, so I told Tracie to dock at the equipment dock and jumped into the pilot's seat of the Morrigan. This might be a close one …

With the clock ticking down way too fast I locked on to the south gate and fired the jump drive. A quick hop and a U-turn later I was in Hatikvah's Faith and the anarchy port seemed oh so far away. I fired my engines and crossed my fingers, hoping for the best. As I raced toward the station I aimed for the west gate and activated the target scanner. If I jumped the second I got a lock I could save another couple of minutes, and with only ten minutes on the clock every damn second counted.

Come on … Come on … Yes! Twenty five clicks and two minutes saved, almost to the second. But wait, what … Hostiles? Oh crap. I really didn't have time to get into a fight right now. Luckily they just fired a Banshee missile at me and then disappeared, and my rear turret dealt with that rather swiftly. Now for my ace up the sleeve, the docking computer. It allowed the autopilot to interact with a complex set of guiding beacons and tractor beams, allowing the ship to approach at full speed and then dock at the last possible moment. It was a very fast process, and it had a funny side effect as the gravimetric component of the tractor beams created a time dilution effect that made it appear as if the ship had docked instantaneously. It saved tons of time, as ship computers were programmed to halt mission timers while the docking computer did its trick. I just hoped the bozo with the entertainment chips was ready to load them.

He was. Then it was just a matter of jumping to the north gate, dock at the equipment dock and deliver the chips to that Boron. I made it with just under two minutes to spare, and I was so happy I gave my docking computer a hug. Time to head back to Pirate Alley and see what I could find there.

Hatikvah's Faith, and minimal action. A few Argon task forces making their way across the sector, a lot of freighters and that was basically it. I'll admit I was tempted to capture one of those juicy Argon corvettes, but since they all had fighter escorts or was part of a larger group with frigates and other nasty stuff it would be too dangerous. If I only had some missiles I could have blown those pesky escorts out of the sky and gone straight for the corvette, but no. All I had was five Wildfires, and those wouldn't be able to get through the shields of a heavy fighter. I needed something bigger, like Thunderbolts, Tempests or Typhoons, to pull off that kind of job. Ah well, phase three for ya.

*beep*

Hm? Ah, the Caiman Super Freighter had made it to the shipyard. I sold it for a cool million plus change, money that was much needed. Now to look for some exciting missions.

Ouch. A Split wanted me to haul six passengers, which was fair enough. However, he wanted me to drop them off at the Military Outpost in Aladna Hill, which would more than likely end up getting me in a whole lot of trouble. I couldn't risk it, so I had to turn down over half a million credits. Crap. As a consolation prize I got a roid scan mission for an Argon that would give me a couple of hundred grand, so it wasn't all bad.

I decided to take the Morrigan and have Tracie park the Eris above the trade lanes. It was like shooting fish in a barrel, but it gave me much needed rep. Rep I would use to shove some Firestorm torpedoes down their throats later. I also spotted this funny critter along the way …

… what the heck? Looked like two roids trying to mate. Maybe that's where all the little rocks come from? Not likely, but hey. You never know, right?

Lady Luck obviously decided to be nice again, cause when I returned there was a Split offering a taxi mission. That would be some four hundred and seventy thousand total, which almost made me forget about that taxi mission costing me half a million. My MORTs, or Manually Operated Remote Traders, could make the rest in a few e-cell- and nostrop runs, so I couldn't really complain.

After a quick trip to Family Rhonkar I was once again back in Hatikvah's Faith, some two hundred and thirty nine thousand credits richer. Lady Luck kept smiling, because I was asked to return a ship someone had abandoned in Company Pride. An M8-class Hades bomber, nonetheless. The most sexy warship out there, if you ask me.

Not only that, the Split who wanted his ship back was willing to fork out eight hundred and sixty five grand for it. If I hadn't already been strapped down I think I would have fallen on my ass. I knew I could easily get at least a couple of million for it at the nearest shipyard, and figured I would need a bomber sooner or later, but I decided to play nice. It wasn't exactly hard either, just fly over, claim it, transfer jump drive, some e-cells and a navcom module and ship it home. Fixing bombers was a little out of my league, so I had to leave it to the owner to bang out all those dents the pilot had put in it. Oh-key, that should do the trick. Now it's just the equipment juggling left and we can send you home.

Following the Hades into Hatikvah's Faith I ordered it to drop my equipment and head 'home'. No point in giving that Split a jump drive worth a hundred thousand credits for free. Yeah, I had done that before.

"Okey, that does it," I said as the tractor beams snagged the crates and guided them into the cargo bay. "She's all yours, Tracie." I had a couple of freighters to play with.
"Aye aye. Where to, captain?"
"West," I said. "Nopileos' Memorial. See if there's some juicy loot there for us or some Xenon to smash."
"Nopileos' Memorial it is."

As we approached the gate a major Split fleet came through. And I mean major. Two Python destroyers, two Adder frigates, a Panther light carrier and a number of fighters. Ouch. I wouldn't want to be at the receiving end of that kind of firepower, and I briefly wondered if they had been blasting pirates. In that case there might be some leftovers for us to pick up, but with my luck they had probably just returned from a Boron bashing. Oh well.

We had just entered Nopileos' Memorial when Tracie told me she had found a possible mission.
"It's a roid scan for a Boron, captain. Nine roids, almost eighteen and a half grand a piece." Decent money, and since I had to kiss up to everyone and their grandmother …
"Okey, tell it we'll do it."
"Aye, captain. Receiving data now."

I felt a bit like a lovesick spacefly as we zipped from roid to roid, but we needed both the rep and the money. We were close to four million, and while I wanted to get a station up and running I also wanted to establish a power core somewhere so I didn't have to depend on others for jump fuel. I was considering setting up one in Profit Center Alpha, and that would cost me at least twenty million. If I was to expand the station I had planned in Blue Profit I would need one there too, which would cost me another twenty million, plus about three and a half million extra if I wanted to feed it. Damn, at this rate I would have gray hairs popping out within a month.

Lucky for me Tracie derailed that train of thoughts.
"We got a 'Nid asking us if we can transport him to Perdition's End," she said. Hm, a 'Nid. Oh well, I guess the air scrubbers needed their weekly stress test about now.
"Tell him we'll do it, but he, she or it will have to wait about five mizuras." Thirteen minutes, more or less. Might be fifteen, depending on where those roids were.
"Aye, captain." She sent the message and waited. "He say he'll wait, but only because he's carrying documents of such importance that us unholy beings and our pityful minds can't possibly begin to grasp it, and we are so far the only ones who have been willing to take him." That sounded like a Paranid, alright.

Fifteen minutes later and then some, miss, mister or lar Kunklu Do had gotten the data and we could fly over and pick up the possibly slightly steaming Ramanckabssit.
"Unholy being, do you have any concept of how important this meeting is?" Yeah, he was steaming alright. "Your feeble mind can not possibly begin to fathom the importance of this meeting. Now, get this b'elqwch'xianzu'shanji moving." He didn't just call the Eris a rust bucket, did he? Yeah, I had picked up a few words from the Paranid language too. I couldn't speak it, though. No human could.
"Relax, we'll get you there in time."
"You better make it, unholy one. Otherwise there will be no payment."
"Just hold on and watch. Tracie, plot a course to Clarity's End."

Yeah, the Commonwealth's most heavily armed taxi ...

Perdition's End was two jumps east of Clarity's End, and the roid scan I had done in Clarity's End would make things a lot easier. A few seconds later we came through the north gate, and the east gate was lit up nicely by the navigation data the 'Nid had given us. A few short hops later and we were in Perdition's End, with plenty of time to spare.

"High Yield Production Complex alpha, here you go." He raised his eyebrows. All three of them.
"You managed to do it, unholy one. Not bad for an inferior being. You have my gratitude." And his money and a healthy rep boost, as we were now Paranid Priest Confidantes. I would turn that into a Hurricane factory soon enough. Right now I needed some e-cells, though, as I was almost out. The map showed some solar power plants in Third Redemption, one jump west of here, so we headed over there to refuel.

Ten minutes later we were back in Nopileos' Memorial, and was met by this fellow. Wonder what fleet command had been smoking this time ...

I considered continuing west to check how things were further up in pirate country. We didn't get that far, though.
"Possible mission, captain," Tracie said as we flew past one of the ore mines. The other mine was gone, which made me worry a bit. "Roid scans, one for a Teladi and one for a Paranid."
"Well, since we do need to kiss a lot of ass … Tell them we'll take both. Double pay. Or something."
"Aye, captain. Mission data coming through now."

As we trundled through Danna's Chance I noticed something peculiar. The plasma burst generator forge was flagged as friendly, as was the Duke's Dangerous Materials Transporter making its way across the sector. The Duke's freighters, part of Duke's Buccaneers, some shady Paranid organization, usually hated everyone and would normally just shoot you and don't bother with any questions. Wonder what the hell I did wrong to get on their good side?

"]Another mission, captain." We had just delivered the roid data and collected a cool two hundred and ten grand plus pocket money. "Some shady looking Paranid wants us to do freight scans." Weren't they all shady looking?
"Good thing I had the Morrigan equipped with a freight scanner the last time I visited that pirate base, then. Okey, tell him we'll do it. I'll take the Morrigan, in the meantime you watch our sixes."
"Will do, captain."

Half a minute later I was behind the stick of the Morrigan, running through the pre-flight check list. Everything green, let's go. As the engines fired I briefly thought about getting a faster ship for jobs like these, but then I would need something to carry it as well. Then there was the everlasting problem with jump fuel. Crap. I felt tempted to capture one of those juicy Argon corvettes after all, but I would have to play nice. At least for the time being. Grr.

Nine minutes and some seconds of frantic scanning later I was done, and I didn't do too bad. According to that 'shady' Paranid I had scanned almost eleven million credits worth of goods, and with my six percent share that would net me over six hundred and sixty thousand. Nice. I would have to keep an eye out for these kinds of missions in the future.

I took a mission to return what turned out to be an Express TP-class personnel transporter for a Teladi before I left. I was starting to get tired, so I couldn't even be arsed to fix it before I sent it home. I could probably have gotten ten times what she paid me at the nearest shipyard, but I had decided to play nice with the Teladi no matter what. They were the only ones out there I trusted, specifically because they couldn't be trusted. They would try to backstab you, out-connive you, cheat you and generally do anything to earn a credit, and I knew it. I had dealt with Teladi for the first eighteen years of my life, and the ways they worked was in my blood. So even though I felt tempted to stiff a Teladi she got her ship back.

"Where to, captain?" Tracie asked as we picked up out equipment from the Express.
"Company Pride," I said. "I think I need a nap, and I plan on heading north to explore Blue Profit and the areas north of it tomorrow, to see if the local industry can support a shield factory."
"You're thinking about the old story Spi told your father?" It was Jo.
"Yeah," I said. "Can't hurt to at least take a look." She nodded, then the light of a thousand suns filled the bridge and a few moments later we were in Company Pride. I was so ready to find my bed, but …

"Xenon alert, captain. The local sector patrols are expecting a raid, and they're asking us to assist." The tiredness was suddenly gone like dust in the wind. I was always ready to bash chips.
"Tell them we're good to go. Jo, Aron, Marissa, man the turrets. Tracie, load the tubes with the Wildfires we have. Weapons hot in three, two, one, go." The ship felt almost alive as I grabbed the stick. The air was thick with excitement and anticipation, and all eyes were glued to their respective sensors. We didn't have to wait long …

"Hostile contact, bearing two hundred and thirty by two hundred and three degrees." Behind us on the port side, and slightly below. The ship vibrated as I whipped her around, and the engines roared as I pushed the throttle against the firewall. It was like awakening a bloodthirsty beast from its sleep. I zeroed in on an M interceptor and headed straight for it. Now look at the sweet spot, you bastard.
"Fighters approaching," I said. "Prepare to engage any hostiles within range." The M was nice enough to fly in a fairly straight line, so I rewarded it with a CIG volley to the face. Or whatever those chips-for-brains have. The shields went down, and as it flew past I heard the sound of pulsed beam emitters hammering away at it. I whipped the Eris around again and followed it, giving it another CIG volley that almost killed it. The turrets did the rest, and I noted one down for me.

An N flew by, and since I still had my Wildfires I gave it one up the tail. A bit of an overkill to use a fifteen megajoule missile on a fighter with only two megajoule of shielding and paper thin hull, but what the heck. I wanted to make sure it died, and stayed dead. As the N was blown to pieces I made a beeline for the remaining N, but it was too far away and sector patrols took it out. That, as they say, was all she wrote, and a few minutes later the mission ended. I now had a grand total of some five point seven million, and the Teladi was nice enough to make me a Majority Shareholder for my efforts. That meant I had enough rep to buy that 1 MJ shield factory I was thinking about, so tomorrow I would start phase two.

Right now, however, I was off to get some much needed sleep.

As a footnote the Express made it in time. Yay me. *snore*

[A99899]

First of all great story . next I have been running a 8 core AMD
for a while and it handles games really good. Have every thing to
the max . no stalls.
enjoy all the stories in Creative Universe. Keep up the great work.

[Sabrina Bergin]

Zaitsev:

realy enjoying your work. I know it is hard but please continue as you can I sense you have a great cast of characters around you waiting to be developed and it will be rewarding to see where this goes.

[Zaitsev]

Yay, feedback

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it, and now that I know the view counter isn't going up because people accidently clicked on the wrong thread I'm even more determined to finish this one way or another.

That reminds me, I might need a pilot brave (or dumb) enough to fly a scout in the not too distant future. I can't promise more than a ship with your character's name on it, but I'll see what I can do. To make it simple I need

Name:
Race:
Gender:
Callsign:
Preferred ship and armament (No matter what, you'll start in a Kestrel armed with whatever I can scrounge up):
A bit of backstory and personality. The more details the better, but try to keep it under one page

Aaaand to avoid a doublepost - behold, an update!

----------

Chapter 9 – Brave new universe

Personal log 768-05-02 – 14:25

Mmm. It's been a while since I slept this good. I glanced at the data pad. 09:27? In other words I had been gone for almost six hours. It didn't matter. I felt fresh and ready for another day, and after a quick breakfast and a cup of coffee we were all set to go.

The rest of the crew found their seats, and we left the equipment dock ready for another day.
"Keep an eye out for missions," I said to Tracie as I eased the Eris out of the equipment dock's embrace. "We need every credit we can get our hands on."
"Will a Xenon patrol do?" she replied. Xenon. I had to take a couple of breaths before I could answer.
"Yes." I said. It sounded short and terse and filled with hate. "That'll do. Tell them we'll take it."
"Done."
"Alright, then. Battle stations, everybody!" Jo, Marissa and Aron manned a turret each, ready to roast everything within range. I considered doing it in the Morrigan, but since I had no idea what kind of forces we would be up against I preferred to place myself behind the six hundred megajoules of shielding the Eris carried.

It turned out I could have done it in the Morrigan after all, as all the Xenon had to muster was an M interceptor and five N scouts. I ended up killing a single N, as it wandered a bit too close to the Eris and found out the hard way how lethal pulsed beam emitters was to a fighter. Bleh. I suddenly felt like pushing for phase three a bit earlier then I had planned, to get some missiles for the Eris and the Morrigan. At least my two freighters in Scale Plate Green had their hands full moving e-cells, sunrise flowers and nostrop oil to the local factories, which meant the morning wasn't a total waste.

A rather nice amount of sunrise flowers and nostrop oil later and I was looking at six million plus some spare change. Time to head north and check out the local market to see if it could support a 1 MJ shield factory in Blue Profit.

Moving into Ceo's Sprite, Tracie picked up another patrol mission against Xenon activity. The money was good, so I accepted and ordered battle stations again. Two Ms and two Ns jumped in shortly after, and I made a beeline for them with weapons hot and missiles ready. One of the Ns went down to a Hurricane we had picked up earlier, and one of the Ms met its untimely demise as it fount itself at the receiving end of a CIG volley. I sure as hell wouldn't shed any tears over it.

We continued north to Blue Profit after picking up and selling some of the leftovers. I also learned that microchips were crazy expensive and in high demand, which made me consider filling Mines of Fortune with chip plants. Or at least a self sufficient complex with a chip plant or five. Besides, if it turned out to be a good earner I could always expand. It wasn't like there was a lack of roids there, and if the Teladi had taken interest in the sector then at least some of them would be good. So, onward to …

… Blue Profit. Food and power was readily available in the sector, which meant I only needed ore to get things rolling. And money. I could never get enough money. Okey, if I reached a billion or two I probably wouldn't care, but right now it felt like looking for hen's teeth. Guess I would have to grind rep like a mad woman, as that would increase the rewards I would get for missions. Speaking about missions …

"I've got a taxi mission, captain," Tracie said. "162-odd grand. Ten military personnel to a crystal fab in Greater Profit." Think I just found a hen with a tooth.
"Tell 'em we'll do it. Jo, would you make sure our guests don't wander off and stick their noses in places they don't belong?"
"Sure thing, captain." She picked up her repeater and headed downstairs, something that made me snicker. Marines … Let's hope they play nice, otherwise I'll have to space the whole bunch.

"Another taxi mission," Tracie said as we approached the solar power plant to pick up the military personnel. "She's going to Spaceweed Drift, eighty grand and then some." Well, I was heading there to look for an ore mine anyway.
"Tell her we'll come pick her up as soon as we get these marines on board. Shouldn't take long."
"Will do, captain."

I left the flying to Tracie, while I juggled my freighters around. I thought about hiring a sector trader, but they demanded the Trade Command Software MK3 which cost half a million. I couldn't afford that kind of money right now, so I figured I would have to make the best of what I had.

"You mussst fly fassster. I lose profitsss."
Yeah, the lizard downstairs had the nerve to nag. I wondered why they always nagged when we were approaching the station. It wasn't like we had locked them up or something. The common area had portholes they could bloody well see out of, and if they bothered to take a look outside they would have noticed we were just a few hundred meters away from the station.
"Relax, we got a whopping three hundred meters left to the docking clamps. Of course, we can always toss you out and make you walk the rest of the way. Without an EVA suit." I could almost hear her swallow at the thought of that. The Teladi were resilient, though. She would probably survive, if she hit the station airlock. If she bounced of the hull and drifted into space … Well, that was an entirely different matter. Needless to say, we made it in time and the little one wandered off to her important meeting. She even made me a Teladi Company Owner. I don't know if it was because we made it in time or because I scared the living daylights our of her, but who cares. I don't.

I was about to head north when I spotted this mission. Oh, almost six hundred grand to ferry a Boron to Menelaus' Frontier. And the bastard wanted a TP-class passenger transport. Bleh. I figured I could get an Iguana and do it … Oh, the irony. Transporting a Boron in a Split slave transporter. Considering the fact that the Split had almost wiped out the Boron and that they had been in a state of cold war ever since I'm sure our fishy friend would have been very happy about that. But then I would have to get a jump drive and all kinds of fuss, and that would take forever. Double bleh. If I could find a nice, fast transport with decent cargo space, then perhaps …

Jumping into Profit Share we immediately got hailed by this Split who wanted us to return an abandoned ship for him. He told us the ship was in Shareholder's Fortune, and it turned out to be an Argon Express. Yeah, a TP. Right after I had been thinking about it. Double irony. I had promised myself to play nice, though, so he would get his ship back in one piece.

Well, almost. The wrench monkeys had gone bonkers again, so it had a few dents in it. I ironed out most of them, then had Tracie beam over the spare jump drive, a navcom and some e-cells before I sent it home. Then it was just a matter of getting back in and follow it, and we would be a nice hundred and twenty grand richer.

I decided to pick up some e-cells in Profit Share before we continued, and I also picked up some star charts covering Seizewell and Ceo's Buckzoid from a Teladi explorer. It didn't reveal much besides gate positions, but if I had to jump there it would come in handy. Then it was Seizewell next.

Great, another heap of rocks. Both gravel and boulders this time. I think the Commonwealth need a rock removal service or something. Either that or stop shooting up roids. I took a look around and picked up another star chart from a Paranid scout. One never knew when they might come in handy, besides it saved me the trouble of flying around to find everything.

"Incoming transmission, captain. Courier mission to pick up a shipment of entertainment chips in Teladi Gain. The Teladi offering the mission is willing to pay two hundred and fifteen grand for it." Well, whaddaya know. And I just bought a map over Teladi Gain. It did come in handy, and a quick jump later I was heading for the sun oil refinery to pick up the chips. A little docking computer magic shaved a minute off the time, and although I had to sell some of my e-cells to get enough space I had more than enough to get back to Seizewell. Another quick jump, a bit of flying and the docking computer worked its magic again. Yeah, made it with just under a minute to spare.

"Thisss looksss good. You have my heartfelt thanksss." And some of your credits, thank you very much. The little lizard loaded her chips onto a cargo hauler and scooted off. Guess she had a lot of guests just waiting for her to get the movie rolling. Whatever. As long as they paid us I was happy.

As we left the station I spotted a little present left by some unknown benefactor in the form of some missiles, then a 'snatch and patch' mission brought us to Company Pride and a pretty banged up Manta. Bleh. The Manta was slow as hell to begin with, and with the hull damaged, leading to the HISS getting its pants in a bunch, I had a fair bit of welding to do if it was going to make it home in time. Oh well, better jump in the suit and warm up that repair laser then.

There, now off you go.
I watched the Manta disappear in a bright flash of light, then I climbed back aboard the Eris and told Tracie to follow it. Coming out of the gate a few clicks behind it I ordered the computer to kick out my navcom, jump drive and the remaining e-cells, and then …

"Emergency transmission, captain. They're asking for you." Hm. Now what?
"Tell them not to get their tails in a twist. I'll be there in a minute." By the time I got out of my EVA suit they had asked for me another three times. Stars, I hate nagging!
"Yeah!?" I snapped at the lizard on the screen. She involuntarily leaned back an inch before regaining her composure.
"Are you the captain of thisss ssship?"
"I am."
"Good. Our ssscoutsss report an increassse in Xsssenon activity and we need to ssstrengthen our patrolsss. Do you ssse profit in thisss job?" Oh, I was always ready to bash Xenon. With all the hardware the Teladi had in this sector I kind of failed to see the logic in adding a single corvette, but I guess every gun counts. Besides, they were willing to pay me.
"Yeah, I'll do it." I said.
"Good. The patrol ssstart now. Be ready." Pff. When it came to smashing chips I was always ready.

Bleh. Some increase. An M and a handful of Ns, and aside from the N I killed the local sector patrol got trigger-happy and nuked the rest. Might be a little overkill to use a tactical fusion warhead to kill a fighter, but at least they made sure it stayed dead. They even paid me, which meant I was now looking at almost seven and a half million. They also managed to make me Teladi Venture Profiteer, which meant I had enough rep to buy a friggin' shipyard if I wanted to. Too bad it would cost me sixty eight million to get one. Guess I would have to settle for selling the missiles I found after the fight.

I was about to fuel up and head for the Elephant, which I, in a stroke of inspirational genius, had named 'White Stripes', to give it some fuel and transfer it to the shipyard in Ceo's Sprite. I didn't have a crew for it, which was a bit of a drag, since we had to man it our selves. Seven people to fly a two kilometer long, under-shielded TL-class transporter was way below skeleton crew, but as long as we had someone to navigate and someone to watch the reactor and engines it would work out. Hopefully. Wait, what's this?

Yeah, I managed to distract myself. Tracie told me she had a Boron on the horn who was slightly desperate because it needed to have some roids scanned in a hurry and it was way too busy to do it. The pay was good, so I accepted and warmed up the mineral scanner. Might find some decent roids to put some mines on, too. Time to play lovesick spacefly again.

Data delivered, the boron was happy, and I could add a cool two hundred and eighty grand to my bank account. Time to jump to Family Tkr and … Hot damn! I did the old double take. Almost six hundred thousand to ship fifteen people to Teladi Gain? Oh mama. She told me they needed to get to work, but the destination was "a station" so I figured they were either mercs or black ops. Whatever, as long as they didn't give me any trouble. My ship, my rules, and I really didn't give a flying frak if I had to fly back here and tell the lizard I had to decompress the ship because her passengers couldn't behave properly.

They did behave nicely, and a couple of quick jumps later I had dropped off the passengers at the trading station and was now looking at the shipyard in Family Tkr … And a pirate raid. Great. At least the gravidar was littered with missile crates, and a quick estimate told me I was looking at a couple of hundred grand in missiles and other leftovers. Well, at least the pirates were good for something besides giving me jump drives.

I scooped up what I could, sold the lot and then docked at the shipyard. A quick fuel injection later and the White Stripes was officially good to go. Since it was heading from one shipyard to another I took the chance and sent it to Ceo's Sprite on autopilot, then called up the shipyard and told them to treat it nicely. Then it was a quick jump to Tkr's Deprivation to refuel and after that I would have to head for Family Pride to get a Caiman. Time to go to phase two.

[Zaitsev]

Aaand we're back again. Just took me a friggin' month to get my gears spinning again ...
For those of you thinking (or hoping ) this story had died, it's still very much alive and kicking. Besides, I finally managed to get the last parts for my computer out of customs hell, so I will hopefully be able to get my new gaming rig up and running by the end of the week. Yay

Okey, enough yapping. Time for an update.

----------

Chapter 10 – If you start me up …

Personal log 768-05-02 – 18:26

I was about to dock at the solar power plant when the shipyard called me and told me the White Stripes had made it. I ordered them to check the systems and engines, and then load it with a 1 MJ shield factory. I'll admit it made my spine tingle a bit. I was finally going to set up my first ever station. Mine. Just mine. It made me grin like an idiot, and the Teladi I was talking to gave me a slightly worried look. I didn't care, I had a business to run now. A legit business nonetheless, which meant 'Judith' had to be extra nice, at least for a while. At least until I could afford to grease enough greedy claws to keep the local Phoenix off my back.

After ordering the Caiman south and taking a roid scan mission, plus giving the local military something to shoot at and picking up not one, but two roid scan missions along the way, I finally jumped to Ceo's Sprite and switched to the White Stripes. Damn, it was like flying a brick compared to the Eris. I muttered a few nasty words and called up Jo and Aron, who were on reactor and engine watch duty.
"How are we doing?" I asked.
"Green across the board, captain. We're good to go."
"Okey then, let's see what this baby can do."

The answer to that seemed to be "a lot, but it takes its sweet time getting around to do it." Truth be told it wasn't all that slow as opposed to the Eris, but it turned like a glacier and the long nose made me worry I might accidentally kill someone. With only 200 megajoule of shielding anything larger than a fighter would probably kill us too, so I was really careful when I took it out of the shipyard to put it that way.

And yeah, talking about slow. There was a Phoenix destroyer making its way toward the shipyard, and it took bloody ages for it to get that big ass clear of the gate so I could fly through. I thought about jumping, but I wanted to learn how it felt to fly it so I would just have to suck it up and twiddle my thumbs in the meantime.

Finally the gate cleared, and I could fly into Blue Profit and drop my station. I was so excited I had to keep myself from jumping around on the bridge. My very own station, bought with the result of my own blood, sweat and tears. Ok, mostly by sitting on my ass and flying something, but still. I wanted to jump, scream, laugh and cry all at the same time, and I'll admit my had was shaking a bit when I typed in the commands to deploy the station. Stars, this was exciting!

The tractor beam array on the White Stripes gently pushed the station out the hatch, and I watched as the station unfolded and took on its final shape. It was like watching a flower blossom, a masterfully orchestrated piece that came together in front of my very eyes. It felt almost like my baby or something. A high tech, twenty thousand metric ton baby, but still my baby. I'd hate to give birth to that big a baby, though, so I was happy the White Stripes did the job for me.

I even had the wits about me to take a few shots (no, not that kind) of my new and shiny acquisition.

Here's one.
Here's another.
Yep, a third one too.

Then a beep yanked me out of my thoughts. The Caiman had arrived, so I had to find a Commercial Agent, or CAG, which was just a fancy name for 'freighter pilot', and get it moving. Lucky for me I found a Teladi one at the local trading station, and although she was fresh out of flight school and a little green – no pun intended – I figured I could use her. Then we could both learn the ropes together, although I had a feeling she would have the easier job. Okey, Yagosias Gustiosanis Huritis the first – damn the Teladi and their tongue twisting names – let's see if you can keep my station stocked with energy and ore.

I'll admit I watched the station and little miss Huritis the first like a hawk, checking it every five minutes to see how they were doing. After she had spent fifteen minutes sitting on her ass and doing nothing I started to worry and wondered if I had done something wrong. I checked, double checked and triple checked everything, but no go. Turned out I had forgot to give her something to trade for, so I transferred 300 000 credits to the station and tried again. Success! Ya live, ya learn …

With my CAG on the way to get some resources for my station I relaxed a bit and started thinking of a name for my budding company. Since I was already heading down the mythology route with the Morrigan and the Eris I landed on Nyx, the old Terran personification of the night. Like the night I would cover the world, and no one would see what it was hiding. Thus the Nyx Trading Company, or NTC for short, was born.

Now, I just had to do it. I docked and wandered into the factory, sucking in the smell of fresh oil and listening to the sound of the machines that would soon be producing shields for me. There were some fifty Teladi zipping about, making sure everything was running smoothly, and I couldn't help it but grin. It was a beautiful sight indeed. Oh well, time to do something remotely sensible.

As the factory started rolling out shields I decided to head south. I needed to work on my pirate rep a bit, so next stop was Hatikvah's Faith. Just as I was about to jump I spotted an Octopus Sentinel for sale. It was cheap-ish and would probably make me about ten grand at the shipyard, so I decided to buy it. A quick patch job later and it was on its way to a new life as rivets in a Teladi ship while I jumped south.

That thing is rather tiny compared to the Eris ...

Hatikvah's Faith. The southeast end of Pirate Alley. And someone offering a covert mission. Bleh. I hated them, because the targets were usually a lot of cards short of a full deck. I've watched them get them selves killed in every way imaginable, from hitting roids, stations, gates and other ships to trying to fly through a Xenon sector in a slow-as-snails bloody freighter! I've even had a couple who flew into the atmosphere of a nearby planet, burning them selves into a crisp because they were obviously convinced that a ship shaped like a brick with no wings could somehow survive reentry if they just wanted it hard enough. Brainless idiots, the lot of them.

Still, against my better judgment, I accepted it. Yeah, I know, but it was good money. The joy lasted until I found out I was supposed to follow a Disco Raider. I still headed over just in case the dingbat had forgot to tune the engines, but it was a no go. It was way faster than both the Morrigan and the Eris, and since I couldn't keep up I had to abort. Frak. Guess I had to get a Kestrel sooner or later. At least they wouldn't be able to outrun me then.

I did get a consolation prize, though, as Tracie picked up a transmission from the local Pirate Guild Outpost.
"They want cartography chips, captain," she said. "Almost six hundred thousand in reward, but you'll have to make it to their supplier in Brennan's Triumph and back in a little under eight minutes." I chewed on it for a moment. Hm, didn't I pick up a chart over Brennan's Triumph? I did, which meant I could use the autopilot to decided the shortest possible route.
"Tell him we'll do it," I said as I rose to my feet and headed for the Morrigan. It would be pretty damn close, but with a little docking computer magic I knew I could make it.
"Will do, captain," Tracie shouted as I ran for the access hatch.

No time for pre-flight checks, so I just waited til everything was online, released the docking clamps and hit the throttle. As soon as I was far enough from the Eris I plotted a course for the soyery where they had told us the chips were and fired the jump drive.

Brennan's Triumph, and the soyery seemed so far away I wish I could get out and push. Technically I could, but the suit thrusters wouldn't do much good as long as I had four matter/antimatter thrusters in the back of this boat. Come on, come on, come ON!

I had about four and a half minute left when I was finally within docking computer range. I hit the button, the computer worked its magic and the next thing I knew was the sound of the docking clamps latching on to the Morrigan's hull. The chips were shuffled aboard in a hurry, and within half a minute I was on my way back to Danna's Chance. Oooh, this was going to be a close one …

I had a little over three minutes left on the clock when I came through the gate in Danna's Chance, and the pirate base was just over thirty clicks away. A quick estimate told me I could make it in about two and a half minutes, which meant the docking computer would have to save me again. So I watched the distance with one eye, the clock with the other and had my hand on the docking computer control, ready to hit it as soon as I got within five clicks.

The clock was ticking awfully fast, and once again I wished I could get out and push. Come on … Come on … There, five clicks! I hit the docking computer and the station's tractor beams grabbed the ship and hauled it into the docking clamps. As they latched on I checked the timer. Twenty three seconds left, but I had made it in time! Yeah, baby! Five hundred and eighty three thousand credits!!! Too bad the cockpit of the Morrigan didn't have enough space to jump around, because I was that happy. Wohoo! It made my pirate rep climb a bit too. Nice bonus.

The lower hull of the Eris was just a few meters away when I got a message from the shipyard in Ceo's Sprite, telling me the Octopus had made it in one piece. I told them to scrap it and it made me a rather nice ten thousand credits in profitsss. Damn, I think I've been spending too much time with the Teladi. Oh well.

"Nice work, captain," Tracie said as I entered the bridge.
"Thanks," I said. "A little closer than I liked, but as long as I made it in time I guess I can't complain."
"Well, you've got … five hundred and eighty three thousand eight hundred and thirteen reasons not to complain, so I think you did pretty good." I just smiled at her.
"How's the station doing?" I asked. She typed in a few commands and brought up a summary of the station's status.
"Sittin' there with twenty four shields in stock … No, they just disappeared. That's about … one hundred and twenty four-odd thousand."
"Not bad. And much needed income at that."
"Mhm. Where to now, captain?"
"Let's head north and see what Brennan's Triumph has to offer," I said. "The last visit was a little too short for sightseeing." She snickered, and we turned the nose of the Eris toward the north gate.

The answer was a roid scan. For an Argon. Yuck. The money was good, though, and that was all I really cared about. How to get as much money out of these bastards as possible, before I laid waste to their most precious pearl. Yeah, I was planning on going after Argon Prime. More specifically Argon One, Ban Danna's supercarrier. Home of both Fleet Command and ASS, the Argon Secret Service. And yes, they do live up to their acronym. I was painfully aware of the fact that the patrols stationed there would be unwitting pawns, carrying out orders from their commanders, but if this Puppet Master turned the fleet against me I would have no choice but to cut them down.

"Hey, captain. You all right?" Tracie and the marines all looked at me, worried. I shook my head.
"No," I said.
"What …?" I sighed.
"I don't want to talk about it. At least not now." They looked at me, then at each other. No one said anything for a long time, and the only sound that could be heard was the humming of the computers and the deep, rumbling sound of the reactor and the engines. If someone had dropped a pin down in engineering I'm pretty sure we would have heard it.

We flew the rest of the trip in silence, and then delivered the data to that Argon woman. We got a rather healthy bonus too, but I wasn't in the mood to celebrate. Instead I felt the sudden urge to shoot something, and this Yaki had just the right medicine for me. A convoy raid in President's End? That could be interesting, in more ways than one. Too bad these bastards never told you what race you would be hitting. Ah, what the hell. I could always repair any rep loss I took.

The marks turned out to be three Teladi freighters. Crap. I could abort, but that would cost me valuable Yaki rep. Rep I planned on using to get a very special ship, namely a Chokaro TM-class military transport. It could carry three fighters, it was fast and pretty well shielded and it had a massive cargo bay for a ship its size. In other words it would be a nice fighter bus and jump drive transport. Oh-key … Better grab those EVA suits while you can, lizards.

They were about to pass through the gate as I arrived, so I targeted the closest one, a Mercury, lined up and fired a single CIG volley. All six bolts connected to the side of the ship, and the subspace shock wave pushed it back a good twenty meters before the pilot got it under control again. The Teladi contacted me and begged me to stop shooting. She was even willing to give up her freight, but I was here to keep them from reaching their destination. A second CIG volley hit the rear end and sent it spinning. That was apparently the famous drop, as the crew jumped in their EVA suits and got the hell out. Hey, I had a free freighter now.

The other two bailed as well, and suddenly I had three freighters on my hands. The locals got a little cranky over my little stunt and threatened to turn the Eris into space dust. While I didn't really see that happen unless the Buster interceptor he was flying was packing mass drivers, I apologized and told him we'd had a computer malfunction and that our weapons had fired accidentally. Yeah. Six times. That was about as likely as running into a pacifistic Split, but incredibly enough he bought it. Gullible idiot.

The rep loss was surprisingly low, and I had just picked up my reward when I spotted this little joker. Yeah, a Kha'ak Cluster. Damn bugs. The only thing I hated almost as much as the Xenon, after they had attacked and decimated the very sector we were in. For a moment there I wished I had a Hornet or some other high yield missile, but I would have to make do with my guns.

"Here we go," I said to the marines manning the turrets. "Weapons free, fire at will."
The ship was once again silent, but this time it was due to battle readiness. We all knew what to do, so we wasted no unnecessary words.
As the Cluster drifted into range I said hello with my CIGs, and it responded by splitting apart and swarming us. I went for the Fighter that made up the core and left the Scouts that buzzed around us like gnats to the turrets. The bastard was fast, but I managed to keep up thanks to creative use of the throttle and maneuvering thrusters. The Eris had a big ass, but I knew how to handle her. Meanwhile the high pitched sound of pulsed beam emitters echoed through the hull, accompanied by the deep, thunderous 'thoom' of CIGs every time that bastard found itself in my cross hairs. The first volley missed, but the second one connected and blew away almost half its shields. Come on, you bastard. Look at the sweet spot.

The bug flying the thing proved to be quite good, staying close to the Eris and using its greater maneuverability to avoid my main guns. Unfortunately for it I had more tricks up my sleeve, and Aron and Jo soon caught it in a deadly crossfire between the top and right turret. Four PBEs whittled away its shield in no time, and then there was just a matter of seconds before they would eat through the hull and … Oops. Yeah, hit something that didn't like energy bolts. Apparently they did hit something, and the next thing I knew it was just static in our shields. We took a pretty good beating our selves, with the shields dipping down to some forty five percent, but the turrets weeded out those gnats so fast they never really threatened us.

When things calmed down a bit I spotted a Mercury Tanker for sale. It was cheap-ish too, and I imagined I would make about thirty thousand off of it when I patched it up and sold it. Then I claimed the rest of the freighters, gathered the whole bunch and sent them to the shipyard in Ceo's Sprite as it was the closest non-Argon shipyard I knew of. There was one in Cloudbase South East, but I would rather go one-on-one with an angry Paranid than sell something to the Argon.

I also saw this, which was more on the ridiculously expensive side. What 'n the blue hell did he do, coat the entire hull in nividium?

After gathering my herd of cats … eh, freighters and sending them on their way I decided to head for Farnham's Legend. It was the other end of pirate alley, and I knew the neighboring sector, Bala Gi's Joy, had some solar power plants where I could dock and refuel. I really needed to get a power core going, but I was still some twenty seven million short if my math was correct. Now, if I hooked it up to the shield factory I could eliminate some of the cost of keeping it running, and increase my earnings. Then maybe some food factories, a silicon mine and an ore mine somewhere, and I could eliminate the need for external resources and grab everything it earned for myself. It would be a huge investment, but it would be worth it.

Next, Farnham's Legend and … Hey, what's that?

----------

Asset list

Ships:
M6 Drake - "Eris"
M3 Cougar Vanguard - "Morrigan"
TL Elephant - White Stripes
M2 Asgard O'Neill - "SGC-028 'Lux Aeterna'"
TS Caiman - "Mule 1"
TS Caiman - "Mule 2"
TS Caiman - Blue Profit CAG 1

Stations owned:
NTC 1MJ shield factory, Blue Profit

9163484 credits

[Zaitsev]

Finally got the new rig up and running, so now I just have to gut the old one, transfer all the data and cross my fingers hoping the savegames will be all right. Yay

Sooo ... Since I haven't slept all night, the sun is rising and I still don't feel particularly tired, I thought I'd do something (not too)useful, like posting an update

----------

Chapter 11 – High on the flames

Personal log 768-05-02 - 23:49

Well, whaddaya know. Farnham's Legend had a pirate shipyard too. The first thing I did was to halt my freighters and have them come here instead. I might lose a few thousand credits on it, but it was better than letting a bunch of unshielded freighters cross Nopileos' Memorial and risk having them running into angry Xenon. As a little bonus there were leftovers littered all over the place, probably after some military patrol had flown through or something. I spotted a Beluga and a couple of Remote Guided Warheads, all of them high yield missiles. Highly valuable too, and a quick estimate told me I was looking at around two hundred and fifty grand in missiles. Not bad.

On top of that the freighters made a pretty penny too, pushing me past the ten million mark. I even found enough e-cells floating around to get back to more civilized parts of the Commonwealth. What was this, a late birthday present? Nah. I knew what it was. Money. And I needed a lot of it. Some thirty seven million just to establish an XL power core, including a silicon mine if I could find a suitable roid, then I figured at least ten million extra if I actually wanted to produce anything other than e-cells. Back to the grinding, then.

I stopped by the local Pirate Guild Outpost and sold whatever I could there, then we prepared to jump to Company Pride to get rid of the rest. However, before we could do that we got a bug problem dumped in our laps. Yeah, it was the bloody Kha'ak again. A Fighter and a dozen Scouts roaming around. I ordered battle stations and mowed them down, and once again they were unable to get through the shields of the Eris before they had been cut down like wheat before the scythe. Sometimes I do love my life. Next stop, Company Pride.

We had just dumped the missiles and were about to head north when we got this slightly stressed Teladi on the horn.
"Ten bucks says she's a prospector," Tracie whispered to me, holding down the mute button on the communication console. I looked at the lizard.
"I won't bet against you," I whispered back. "Let's see what she has to say."
Yep, she was a prospector. And yes, she wanted us to scan some roids since she didn't have the time to do it herself. Wonder what's with all these overworked prospectors? Oh well, I figured I was looking at about two hundred grand so I accepted.

Smooth sailing, baby, and she gave us a nice bonus too.
"Incoming transmission, captain. Uhm … A courier mission. Pays pretty well too." That might be a tiny understatement. Over half a million to pick up some food for a lizard. I didn't know military outposts had cooks capable of making something that didn't look like rat puke, but I guess you learn something new every day. The time limit was a little tight, probably to keep the 'Nid they were supposedly celebrating from going off his rocker and tear the place to bits, but I figured I could make it. This time around I didn't take any chances, so I took the Eris and made sure we had plenty of cargo space available.

I'll admit that the Military Outpost in Ceo's Sprite had never looked farther away than it did when we came through the gate, and the clock was ticking way too fast for my liking. This one might be a little too close for comfort. Luckily I had the docking computer, and that could easily shave a couple of minutes off the approach here since I didn't have to fly all the way around and line up with the docking bay. That might save this one, as the one aboard the Morrigan had done when I was hauling those chips from Hatikvah's Faith to Thuruk's Beard. Or so I hoped.

There. Fifty six crates of food on board, now let's get the hell out of here.
"Jump device charging." Tracie started the countdown. "Jumping in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one … Go!" The wormhole opened and a few seconds later we were back in Company Pride, heading for the trading station. I imagine I looked like I was trying to stare a hole in the holographic screen in front of me, with one hand on the stick and the other on the docking computer controls. One minute left. Fifty seconds. Forty seconds. Thirty seconds, twenty …

I had seventeen seconds left when we were finally in range of the stations tractor beams. I hit the docking computer, and the ship was grabbed and guided safely into the docking clamps. Phew. That was really close. They seemed to be pleased, though, as that mission made me a Venture Capitalist, the second highest Teladi rank. Nice rep boost.

We were about to leave when a Teladi came running after us.
"You are a pilot, yesss?" she said as she tried to catch her breath.
"As far as I know, yeah."
"Are you interesssted in a misssion?"
"Maybe. What do you got?"
"I require the ssservicesss of a ssstation builder. Are you interesssted?" Well, I did have the White Stripes docked at the shipyard a sector north of here.
"What do you need?"
"A Mosssquito factory, in Ceo'sss Sssprite. I will pay you well." She handed me her data pad so I could take a look at the details. Hm, one point one million for a factory worth less than half that? Yeah, I figured we could do that.
"Consider it done," I said. She gave me that big grin with way too many teeth in it that the Teladi used to give you when they smelled money and scooted off to Gunne knew where. I looked at my crew.
"Looks like we're going to take the brick for a trip again," I said with a skewed smile. Jo rolled her eyes, Marissa snorted and gave me that big grin of hers and Aron, Val and Mikal just gave me the poker face. Yeah, we definitely needed a proper crew for that thing. However, they didn't exactly grow on trees so for now we had to make do with what we had.

The mission itself was like finding argnu dung on a cattle ranch. In other words, not that hard. Buy the station, fly the fifteen clicks to the beacon, drop it and receive half a million credits. Easy as pie. The trip 'home' was more exciting, as we got back just in time to watch a few pirates attack the shipyard. My pirate rep was good enough to keep them off my back, which was good, because the White Stripes had one fifth of its maximum shielding and no guns. We would be sitting ducks if they decided to attack, but lucky for us they didn't. Phew.

Heading down south again we picked up a 'snatch and patch'-mission from an Argon. The pay was rather ******, but I needed the rep so I accepted anyway. I was planning on becoming the poster girl for good behavior, then I would find the bastard who was behind this mess and burn his house down. Now, let's see. A Vulture Super Freighter in Rhonkar's Fire? Bah. Teladi ships were slow as snails even at hundred percent hull, and this was probably pretty banged up, which meant a lot of welding time for me and my crew. Time to get going, then.

Yep, it was pretty banged up. Only 52 percent hull integrity left, but we got it back in pretty good shape. Then it was just a matter of transferring a jump drive, a navcom and some e-cells and send it home. Pretty standard operation, in other words.

As we followed the Vulture into Company Pride to pick up my jump drive and navcom I got another food courier mission. Seemed like the legendary Triskele champion was celebrating quite hard, since I had already done one trip for him. Looked like he had trashed the place too, as he had moved from the Trading Station to the Gauss Cannon Ammunition Forge. Oh well, since they were willing to fork out six hundred and sixty grand plus change I didn't complain. On the contrary, I accepted. And made it in time. Thanks, Imanckulot. Your hard partying have made me over one point one million in total.

Next thing on the list was something I'd been thinking about for a while, namely to set up a dream farm in Scale Plate Green. It wouldn't make that much money, but a little was better than none at all. Besides, it would keep the Teladi happy and my traders busy. Oh well, time for a refuel then.

After picking up some e-cells from the local solar power plant we slowboated north to the shipyard. I let Tracie fly and played with my freighters in Scale Plate Green in the meantime, making some nice deals on Teladi sunrise flowers. When you can buy them for 7 credits a crate and sell them for 32 it's really a no-brainer.

"I found a mission, captain. A Teladi wants us to build a Hammer torpedo factory in Blue Profit. Kind of rotten pay, though. Just a hair under 240 grand." Yeah, it was kind of ******. However, it would mean there was one more factory to feed, and once I had gotten a bit more money I was planning on connecting a food loop to my shield factory and sell the surplus. Profitsss ...
"Well, we're taking the White Stripes out for a trip anyway so we might as well get paid. Tell her we'll take it, then contact the shipyard and order the factory plus a large dream farm."
"Hammer torpedo factory and large dream farm, aye." She paused for a moment and looked at me. "You going into the drug business, captain?"
"Nah. Not yet, anyway. I was thinking about feeding the bliss place in Scale Plate Green. It won't be much of an income, but it'll help." The thought of setting up a bliss place of my own had crossed my mind, though. Space weed was completely legal in Teladi space, and it was highly valuable. Cynical? Maybe. Immoral? Probably, but this was war and I intended to win by any means necessary. Even if it meant I had to turn into a drug dealer.

(sigh)

Okey, let's get moving and deliver this baby.

Yeah, if one could get through the bloody traffic jam at the north gate. I thought about jumping, but I wanted to save e-cells for the jump to Scale Plate Green. In the meantime I sent the Eris south on autopilot to pick up some e-cells for the trip home. I suppose I could have diverted one of my freighters, but bringing in the Eris and using its transporter device was easier than screwing around with crates and whatnot.

At last the traffic cleared, and we were able to move into Blue Profit and drop the station, then it was off to Scale Plate Green to drop the dream farm. It went by without a hitch, and soon enough it was ready to make me some money. I decided to take Mule 2 and make it a commercial agent, so I didn't have to worry about keeping it stocked all the time. It would take a few credits off the income once the pilot's probation period was over, but I figured I could live with that.

While Mule 2 finished its final run I transported aboard the Eris with my crew and sent the White Stripes home on autopilot. I didn't like it, as that thing has a habit of screwing things up, but I planned on heading east to Omicron Lyrae and it would be too much of a hassle to fly it home and then jump back here. I even found an escort mission for some Argon freighters heading in the right direction, so I figured I might as well get paid for flying there.

Yeaaah … That didn't turn out quite as I had planned. The local sector patrol sent out an emergency broadcast as their scouts had discovered a buildup of Xenon forces in X347. Not only did they pay three times as much as the Argons, but I got to smash chips as well. My hatred for the chips took over, so I told the Argons to go frak them selves and headed over to hunt Xenon instead.

"Okey, people. Battle stations! Tracie, load the tubes. Jo, Marissa, Aron – turrets. Weapons hot in three, two, one … mark." Once again it felt like the ship came alive with the anticipation of battle. The humming of the reactors, the deep, rumbling sound of the engines, the high pitched whine of capacitors charging … All of the sudden it sounded much more prominent. It was like she was flexing her muscles and preparing for battle along with her 'riders'. It made me smile a little.

The buildup turned out to consist of a couple of Ms and a handful of Ns. Time to put those Wildfire missiles to good use.
"Tracie, gimme a solution on the closest bogey. Jo, Marissa, Aron, keep your eyes peeled for any stray fighters."
"N at one o'clock, straight ahead. Distance, fifteen kilometers."
"I got him. How are we doing with those Wildfires?"
"Wildfires loaded and ready to fire, captain."
I watched the marker pointing at the N. It looked like it was heading to our left, which would leave it wide open to our missiles. I had a solid lock, so I queued up one Wildfire and let it fly. It streaked toward the barely visible dot up ahead, and connected just as it was about to attack a freighter.
"That was a clean hit. One down," Tracie reported.
Two more died from Wildfire poisoning, but the last one was a tricky bastard and shot down my missiles. Stupid chip tried a frontal attack, but was met with a hailstorm of PBE fire from our turrets and died due to some rather big holes in its reactor core. That, as they say, was all she wrote, as the local Phoenix destroyer dealt with the last of the Xenon. I got my reward, and could concentrate on getting my dream farm up and running.

What the hell? I found a suitable pilot to act as Commercial Agent for the dream farm, but she's just sitting on her ass and refuse to board the freighter. I tried every option, twice, and even flew over to PTNI Headquarters to try and sort it out, but she just told me the ship was 'unsuited' according to regulations and refused to move. Ah, crap. Guess I had to keep operating it via remote control until I could sort it out.

It wasn't a total waste though, as we picked up a taxi mission for a 'Nid. He wanted to go to the pirate base in the unknown sector east of PTNI Headquarters, a sector that was infamous for being the base of operations for some of the most notorious pirates in the eastern sectors. The angel teams had raided it several times, but they kept coming back so in the end we left them alone and just tried to limit their raids into Argon space. Small digression there.
Yeah, our 'Nid friend. He wanted to go to that pirate base, and he was willing to fork out quite a bit for us to take him there. Some twenty four grand per minute of flight time wasn't bad, not bad at all.

Not only did we make it in time, we also picked up a star chart over Nyanna's Hideout and was offered another taxi mission. This one was for a Boron pirate and didn't pay quite as well to put it mildly, but it was for a pirate and I needed to keep myself in the good graces of the pirates if I wanted access to those jump drives of theirs. If I could find another source nothing would be better, but until that happened I didn't have much choice. So I told it we would carry it over.

The Boron shuffled aboard in its enviro-suit and parked in the common area. I say 'parked' because they're some two and a half meters long, about one and three quarters of a meter in height and supported by six metal tentacles that makes it look like some sort of overgrown insect. So, pretty big in other words. The Boron inside is just one and a half meter long, and the rest is made up of life support, a translation device and a power supply to run the monstrosity. I always felt like the Boron were twice screwed, being an aquatic species in a space faring community populated mainly by air breathers. Ah well, as long as it paid me.

"Hey, what the hell!?"
We were making our way toward the pirate base and had just met a pirate patrol when those jokers suddenly got funny ideas and started shooting. I dodged the first volley by using the maneuvering thrusters to push us out of the line of fire, but I knew the Eris was too big and heavy to avoid it for long. Further more, we were on a bloody taxi mission and didn't have any hostile intentions, a fact that was seriously starting to piss me off.
"Incoming transmission, captain." I sighed.
"On screen." A few moments of static, then a familiar face appeared.
"'Ellau, kitt'n. Thought we'd drop by and say hi. Y'know, maybe paying you back for last time." Ah, crap. It was that bloody pirate from Mines of Fortune.
"Too bad you didn't bring a faster ship, then." I checked the sensors, and only the Harrier was fast enough to keep up with the Eris. He started yelling something, obviously at someone else, and cut the link. Friggin' moron. More shots hit the shields of the Eris, and I was rapidly running out of patience.
"Aron, would you please teach the pilot of that Harrier some manners?"
"With pleasure, captain." A second later the high pitched, rapid 'pew pew' sound of twin PBEs echoed through the hull, and I watched on the sensors as the Harrier's shields dropped like a stone. A few seconds later he was down to twenty two percent hull and probably had his hands full keeping his ship from falling apart, which meant he was in no shape to bother us anymore. We could easily outrun the rest of them, but if this kept up these assholes would feel my wrath soon enough. So much for pirate rep.

I dropped off the Boron and decided to jump to Scale Plate Green to avoid any trouble. Those jump drives were simply too valuable to risk losing pirate rep by fighting these dingbats, but I wouldn't forget it and if this lowlife returned later I would be more than happy to introduce him to my CIGs. Motherfrakkin' idiot.

After replenishing my jump fuel in Scale Plate Green I decided to head east. I wanted to see what all the fuss in Omicron Lyrae was about, and maybe make some connections in Terran space. Besides, rumor had it they had some very nifty toys there, and they might be what I needed in my war against the Argon. So I I thought I might pay this … Darel Ohneaim a visit and hear him out.

A quick jump to the east gate in Nyanna's Hideout and an equally quick u-turn later, and we were looking at the pea soup that is Omicron Lyrae. Green fog so thick you would need a map just to find your own ass. Luckily this joker Ohneaim had put up a beacon announcing his presence, cause if I'd had to look for him in this hell hole I would have shot someone sooner or later. Sooner rather than later, I imagine. Oooh-key. Time to get this show on the road.

[Zaitsev]

It seems my savegames survived the transfer to my new rig, which means you'll have to endure my writing for the forseeable future

Speaking of wich, here's another update. Enjoy

PS: I'm dead tired as I write this, so if you see any typos or grammatical eyesores then by all means, let me know.

Edit: Asset list added.

----------

Chapter 12 - Runnin' 'round

Personal log 768-05-03 – 03:25

So we flew into communications range, and I asked Tracie to open up a channel and hail this Ohneaim.
"Channel open, captain." A dark skinned, bald Argon came on screen.
"Pilot, we have some Terran diplomats in need of escorting back to the sector
Heretic's End. We'd like to show them how we handle things around here. This will
look good on your record. I'm loading the mission briefing into your mission menu now.
If you're interested follow the instructions."
"Sure I am." I gave him the cutest, most eager smile I could muster while images of Argon One in flames drifted through my mind.
"Glad to hear it. I've added you to to the flight group and updated your mission briefing. Have a safe journey, pilot." Then he cut the link and my HUD pointed me to an Eclipse heavy fighter and a couple of Buster interceptors some fifteen clicks out. Guess I had to follow the flying turd and his flies, then. And in case you haven't noticed; no, I don't harbor any love for the Eclipse.

"Alright, boys, don't be slack." A pale, chubby Argon appeared on the communications screen. His IFF said his name was Persi Gallet and according to the mission data he held the rank of lieutenant, but he looked like he'd been commanding a desk for the last twenty years. "We gotta be on our best," he rambled on. "That goes for everyone! The Terran diplomat's transport will be here in a few minutes. Xenon activity has been on the increase, especially near the Terran border. The mission should be uneventful, unless the Xenon decide to crash the party. Check your systems and form up."

"'Boys', lieutenant Gallet?" I couldn't resist.
"Just a figure of speech, girl. A corvette may be a bit overkill for this mission, but tell your captain to be ready anyway." Oh, you did not …
"I am the captain," I hissed, and I'm pretty sure my voice gave his ears a frostbite.
"Uhm …" His cheeks turned beet red and his lips moved, but no words came out. Then he was saved by the bell, as the transport arrived. "Terran transport is inbound. Loading mission guidance information to your head-up display."
"This is Terran transport T9-alpha en route to sector Heretic's End. I understand you're our escort."
"Yes, ma'am. We'll be looking after you guys on your trip home."
"I hope you're all better than our last escort group. I was under the impression that the Argon military are a bunch of jokers. Iovis out." Quite a feisty one. The good lieutenant got his pants in a twist, though.
"Arrogant little … Let's move out!"

The Scabbard headed for the north gate and I took up standard 'loose deuce' escort position above and behind it, while lieutenant Jerkules and his merry band of greenhorns obviously had their hands full trying not to ram each other. Stars, where did they dig up these dimwits? Fortunately we reached the gate without incident, friendly or otherwise, which was nothing short of a small miracle. Alright, onward to Circle of Labor.

"Latest reports indicate there are no Xenon on our flight path." Why, thank you, lieutenant Obvious. My sensors showed a clear sky too.
"No AGI detected in the vicinity. We'll let you know if we see any."
"With respect ma'am. Your scanners have a slightly larger range while ours offer clearer information. If the Xenon jump in you won't be able to tell if it's a ship or a rock any faster than we can." Arrgh.
"With all due respect, sir," I said, breaking into the channel, "bickering amongst our selves will only draw attention away from our task and leave the formation open to attack. Not to mention that all the radio chatter will act like a beacon for bogeys."
"With all due respect, ma'am, this is a military operation and I won't let some greenhorn merc teach me how to do my job. Now keep your mouth shut and keep an …" That was about as far as he got before lieutenant Iovis interrupted us.
"Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen! We got incoming fighters" Oh, great. Friggin' great! I rolled my eyes and cut the link, wondering how long his 200 megajoules of shielding would hold up against my six CIGs.
"Setting course to engage the enemy." Yeah, a couple of pirates. They might get through the shields of the Scabbard if we left them alone for five minutes, which I didn't intend to do. I aimed for the Buster, lined up and cut engines, letting him come to me. A few adjustments with the maneuvering thrusters and I had an almost perfect solution. I ordered weapons hot and waited.

Easy does it … There. He was within range, and I let rip a single CIG volley. The pirate on the other hand, wasn't willing to die that easily, so he twisted his fighter around and avoided it with the narrowest margin possible. Then he made a beeline for the Scabbard, passing just a couple of hundred meters off my left bow. I fired again, and this time the distance was too short for him to avoid my shots. All six bolts connected to the side of his hull, sending him flailing sideways for some fifty meters before he regained control of his fighter. I fired the engines and hit the booster, closing the distance in a few heartbeats. The top and left turret opened up and ate into his now exposed hull, and he died in a few seconds. In the meantime the Busters proved that they weren't completely useless, as one of them finished the remaining Harrier. Not bad, actually.

With the pirates out of the way we trundled on to Heretic's End and the orbital defense station. We had just gotten a few clicks away from the gate when the alarm went off. Hostiles.
"Check your scanners, we have incoming fighters." So, captain … Pardon, lieutenant Dimwit spotted them first for once.
"Confirmed," Iovis chimed in. "It looks like a small attack group. They're heading this way." Four Ns showed up on my gravidar. Not nearly enough to pose any kind of threat, so I stayed close to the Scabbard and told my marines they could fire at will.
"But watch it," I said with only a hint of sarcasm. "We don't want lieutenant Gallet to risk loosing a percent or two of that precious shield of his." Someone snickered behind me. I just hoped they did miss and shot him up so bad he had to get into his suit and push that flying turd home.

"That's the last of them," lieutenant Iovis said as the last N went down. "Damn AGI they always send a shiver down my spine. Resetting course for Heretic's End." You're already in Heretic's End ...

(sigh)

I was starting to wonder if this was a bad idea, but thought of shooting miniature singularities at other ships convinced me to go on. Luckily we had the orbital defense station in sight, otherwise I think I would have gone nuts.

"Thanks you for the escort. You guys were not that bad. Come to think of it we could use some of you. AGI, that's xenon to you I guess, have been attacking this sector for the last month. The UFC and ATF are holding up fine, but anyone with experience fighting the Xenon would be of some use to us. Lieutenant Gallet, do you have anyone in mind?" Probably not.
"All of these pilots have had experience fighting the Xenon. I can't imagine any of them wanting the job though. No offense, but side switching is not part of Argon character." But backstabbing and cooperating with criminals is? "I think we're done here. G'day, ma'am. Good work today, pilots. Dismissed." I decided to stick around a bit longer, while the flying turd and his friends headed back to Argon space. As he had so diplomatically pointed out I was a merc, and didn't have to play by his rules.

So I gave lieutenant Dimwit the bird and asked Tracie to see if she could get that Terran girl on the horn.
"What's biting you?" she asked.
"Well, as opposed to lieutenant Jerkules over there I'm definitely interested in working for the Terrans. What have you got?" She smiled at me.
"Hold on a second … Yeah. We might be able to squeeze you into a patrol today. I don't have the details in front of me, but I'll tell the boss you're interested. He'll get in touch with you shortly. Iovis out." Then she cut the link and I was left to sit there twiddling my thumbs.

I had other things to do, so I jumped to Omicron Lyrae to play with my freighters while I waited. It didn't take long for them to get back to me though, and a few minutes later I had a dark skinned Terran in shiny uniform on the horn.
"Hello, pilot. This is lieutenant Plinter, UFC. You've been assigned to our patrol today. Come join us when you're ready." Then he cut the link. Okey, short and sweet in other words. And … 'Samuel Plinter' …? S. Plinter? Splinter? Weird frakkers. Anyway, he was kind enough to update the mission data so the guidance system now pointed me toward … Uranus. Now, there's a sector that just begs for someone to crack lame jokes about it. Oh-key, let's not go there.

Still, this sounded so wrong in so many ways.

We jumped to Heretic's End and did a quick u-turn through the gate leading into Asteroid Belt. The first thing that hit me was the stupendously large Terran stations, and I caught myself wondering if they were this big to compensate for shortcomings in other … areas. The second thing that hit me was how absurdly large these sectors were, and the third was these funny things called Trans-Orbital Accelerators. It looked like some sort of overgrown rail cannon, and since it gave off a gravimetric pulse each time a ship left or entered the sector I figured they used gravimetric fields to hurl ships across the solar system.
Kind of impressive to be honest. It also made me wonder how many ships they had lost while they were working on the aim. Hitting a target roughly the size of a jump gate across interplanetary distances was no small feat, and I imagined you would be pretty screwed if it was off by as much as a nanometer. Ah well, we would probably die pretty quick if it screwed up.

I also saw a Terran frigate in action, something called a 'Sendai', variant A. I wondered how many variants there were, and what the difference was between them. This one looked pretty impressive, though, hammering away at a Split Python. They were even nice enough to leave some presents behind.

Passing through Jupiter we spotted this taxi mission, and it bugged me to no end that I didn't have time to take it. Damn, what a juicy reward. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure the Eris would have been fast enough to make it, not to mention that I didn't know where the hell Mars was, and if I entered without permission the Terran military would probably blow us to atoms. Yeah, they stacked enough hardware in their sectors to make a Split green with envy. A lot of that hardware seemed to be for sale at the local shipyard too. Nice.

So, here we were. Uranus. Funny, I've never seen a blue … Errh, yeah. About those lame jokes … Anyway, we found lieutenant Plinter sitting in a Scimitar, some sort of heavy fighter. Nice stats and almost as fast as the Morrigan, but without a rear turret … Naah. With 125 MJ of shielding it could survive most Commonwealth missiles, but I still wouldn't fly it. Well, let's see what this joker has to say for himself.

"Tracie, open a channel to the good lieutenant."
"Channel open, captain."
"Eris to Terran Scimitar. Lieutenant Plinter, I assume?"
"Yes, do you have something to report?"
"I'm here for patrol duty. You called me, remember?"
"Ah, yes. Our new recruit." Heh … 'Recruit' …? My professional paranoia was tingling again. "Good to meet you. My name is lieutenant Plinter, I'm your flight leader. The USC is very interested in you and what
you are capable of. Most of our boys have never fought against anything before but from what I hear skirmishes are commonplace in the Commonwealth. Well, let's move out, shall we?"
"Roger that. Eris out."
"Recruit?" Jo asked as I closed the link. "I thought the Terrans were kind of xenophobic …?"
"They are, at least as far as I know."
"So why did they suddenly let us in and welcome us with open arms?"
"Probably to use us as pawns," I said. "They need eyes and ears in the Commonwealth, and most of the races don't trust the Terrans. Enter us, a ship that can move relatively freely in the Commonwealth without raising suspicion. At least that's what I would do."

It made sense. Draw in an outsider under the guise of fighting a common enemy and send them in to snoop around where you can't go yourself.
"I knew it, they're a bunch of screwballs," Aron shot in. "They even have a sector named Uranus! That's just wrong. Seems to fit them, though, as they look like a bunch of pompous assholes." I was waiting for that one. Kinda surprised that he managed to keep his mouth shut for as long as he did, actually.
"Well, I'm mainly here for their toys," I said. "I don't really give a rat's ass what they call their sectors, although I think this one has been the butt end of way too many jokes." Aaah, what the hell. I couldn't resist. It took a second for him to catch on, then he started laughing so hard he almost fell out of the turret control chair.

"Pipe down," I said. "We got an incoming transmission."
It was one of the pilots, rambling on about an 'unusual echo' on his gravidar coming in from the outer solar system, where ever the hell that was. I checked my grav, but didn't see squat. Lieutenant Plinter didn't see anything either, and went on about 'maicromitioraits' being sucked into the trans-orbital accelerator and shot across the sector. Then the other pilot picked them up too, and finally they showed up on Plinter's screen. I still couldn't see shit, but that didn't mean there wasn't something out there.

Then an unknown lady broke in and told us there was a terraformer attack in Neptune. A moment later Plinter told us to form up and follow him, but since he was such a damn slowpoke I decided to show him the engine nozzles of the Eris instead. I slammed the throttle to the wall, and seconds later it felt like a giant hand was gently pushing us against the back of our seats as our four Jonferco S54-C M/AM-engines pushed us toward the TOA to Neptune. So long, Splinter.

Neptune, and a handful of Ns. They kept their respectful distance, which meant little fun for me as I couldn't catch them and the few missiles I had were quickly gone. Then the Terrans get the bright idea that the Xenon had to be using some sort of jump beacon to get into the sector, and guess who's job it is to find it, scan it and then destroy it. Yep, mine. So I'm basically ordered to take out the garbage now. That's just swell. I caught myself wondering if this was such a great idea. Again.

It wasn't too hard to find, and one scanned and dead jump beacon later we were ordered to fly to the Oort Cloud. Apparently the handful of Ns was a decoy to keep us busy, while these message drones hacked a research facility in Mars and ran off with some important data. So Miss Serious told us to head to this Oort Cloud to have a look around and see if we could find anything interesting. I stopped to pick up some leftovers first, just in case. A couple of Wildfires were floating around, and since I didn't have missiles of my own I had to work with what I could scavenge. To the Oort Cloud then.

Passing through Pluto, another big ass sector, we entered the accelerator into this Oort Cloud. The sector on the other side didn't look the least bit cloudy, and if it was me I'd rather name it the Oort Rock Quarry or something. Maybe there were some other reasons it was named 'Cloud'? Ah, frak if I knew. Now, since the pilots had been talking about 'mitioraits' my gut feeling told me these drones would be fast, so I left the Eris in Tracie's hands and jumped into the Morrigan. It might not be able to keep up, but it might just be fast enough for me to find out where these drones were heading. In the meantime I could admire Terran engineering, in the form of a UFC Kopesh, some sort of enhanced interceptor, on patrol. It was a pretty ship indeed.

I didn't have to wait long before sector command told me they had spotted a drone coming through the TOA. I gunned the engines and plotted an intercept course, trying to get a rough estimate of where it was heading. It seemed my estimate was good enough, because I found another one of those jump beacons and a … Nova?

The Nova destroyed the beacon and jumped out before I could investigate any further. Then I was ordered back to Pluto, so I docked with the Eris, joined up with lieutenant Plinter and headed back in time to be greeted by an M and a couple of Ns. The Ns died from a severe case of Wildfire poisoning, and Plinter and the greenhorns proved their worth by killing the M. So, they weren't completely useless after all.

After cleaning up Pluto, Neptune was next on the list. A couple of Ns waited on the other side of the TOA, so I decided to spend some Rapier missiles I had picked up from Gunne knew where and watched as they blew the Ns to pieces. Then a couple of Ms and a handful of Ns showed up, so I spent my last Wildfires wasting three Ns. The remaining M pulled a suicide attack and was rewarded with a face full of PBE fire. Or sensor array or what ever those things have.

I picked up the leftovers and headed toward Uranus when I suddenly spotted this funny little guy. Wonder what a Paranid was doing so far from home? And why hadn't he been vaporized by the Terran military, xenophobic bastards that they were? Maybe he had bribed his way in here or something. Gunne knew.

The Xenon seemed to have been driven back, because Uranus only offered an M and a N. Lieutenant Plinter and his jolly band of greenhorns went after the N, so I concentrated on the M. It was nice enough to fly in a straight line for me, so I said 'thanks' by blowing holes in it with my CIGs. The bolts all connected to its nose, slammed through the entire hull and made its way out through the back of the ship before it exploded in an ever expanding cloud of plasma and debris. Well, at least it looked nice as it went to chip heaven.

We had just cleaned up Uranus when we were ordered to dock at the research station in Saturn. Apparently they wanted to analyze the sensor data I had picked up, which made me somewhat skeptical. That would mean they could fin the unknown sector and our shiny friend there.
"Val?"
"Yeah, captain?"
"You think you can back up the navigation data from that sector you know and then make it look like it never existed?"
"Sure thing, captain. Just give me … oooh, ten minutes or so."
"I guess I can fly around aimlessly for ten minutes. Go do your magic then." He sat down at the navigation console and started hammering away at the keyboard. In the meantime I took a look at our mission status and found out our xenophobic friends had decided to give us a small compensation for our trouble. Some thirty one thousand plus spare change … I had spent more than that in missiles, but I decided to take whatever I could get. We weren't picky.

Ten minutes later Val had done his magic and I headed for the research station and docked. I had Val monitor the ship's systems just in case, but aside from looking at our navigational data from the Commonwealth and making a few probing attempts they didn't do anything too obvious. Then Val told me we were clear and that the Terrans had cut the link. Then I got Plinter on the horn again.

"Pilot, you've been ordered to meet with major general Ichiyama at the ATF outpost in the asteroid belt. Seems you're getting yourself noticed, pilot"
"Thanks. I think." He just smiled at me and cut the link.
"So, are we heading to the Asteroid Belt?" Tracie asked.
"Hell no," I said. "It's frakkin' three AM in the morning, and I'm so tired I could sleep through a bloody war. Head back to the shield factory. I need a nap."

Five minutes later we were safely tucked in behind the shields of my station, so I said good night, staggered downstairs to my quarters and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

----------

Asset list

Ships:
M6 Drake - "Eris"
M3 Cougar Vanguard - "Morrigan"
TL Elephant - White Stripes
M2 Asgard O'Neill - "SGC-028 'Lux Aeterna'"
TS Caiman - "Mule 1"
TS Caiman - "Scale Plate Green CAG 1"
TS Caiman - "Blue Profit CAG 1"

Stations:
NTC 1 mj shield factory, Blue Profit
NTC Dream farm L, Scale Plate Green

14 680 957 credits

[Triaxx2]

Awesome work there. I find that very few people like the Terrans if they don't start as Terrans.

[Khayul]

Great fun reading

Yeah, same with the paranids though, no one seems to like them, unless they start as paranids

Also, the Terran economy is really... crap. And they seem to stay out of the commonwealth too much, otherwise I actually quite like them and their ships.

[Triaxx2]

Yeah, I mean, my characters don't mind them, they just sort of come off as jerks. They get all haired up over the Xenon, and the rest of us just go: Meh, call the bombers.

And yeah, the economy is garbage. Fortunately if you can stop the decline, you can restart it pretty easily. The hardest part is the tremendous size of the sectors. You've got to spam ships in and it's not an early game exercise unless you're Terran.

Can't wait to see more Z.

And Paranids are the biggest jerks around. Plus they contribute nothing useful except for one guy, in one plot.

[Khayul]

Yeha, but think about it Earth and all of it's colonies got pretty much wiped out by the AGI, I'd think anyone would freak out at the sight of something that almost made your race extinct. The commonwealth together has a greater firepower vs. the Xenon, as they are many races, so they don't get all wound up about it.

Actually, I quite like the Paranids, at least they are honest about what they think of you, even if it's not even meant as an insult, it's just the way they are raised ^^
The other thing is that they are actually quite right about the other races being "inferior", as they are truly intelligent and a lot stronger than every other race around. True, they are jerks, but I can live with that hehe.


Want to see more Zaitsev!

[Triaxx2]

Of course, if they had some guns that actually worked...

Mostly I don't like the Paranid because my character doesn't and I need to remain in the mindset of the character to write effectively. Which I'm able to do again, somewhat. Which is nice.

Agreed. Get writing!

[RyuKazuha]

Finally finished reading this.

Like it so far, even though the start felt a bit to constructed around the SG-Reference. I'm curious what you plan on doing with this.

Keep it up, I'll certainly enjoy the read.

[Zaitsev]

Wait, what? Comments? And ... and ... people asking for more?

*sits down on the floor in the middle of the room and grin like an idiot for five minutes*

Thank you so much for the comments and encouragements, I really appreciate it

Like it so far, even though the start felt a bit to constructed around the SG-Reference.

I know I tend to go with what I would like to read and most of the time others like it as well. And just in case - I only see your comment as an opinion and constructive critisism. Keep 'em coming, it's only going to make me a better writer

On a more general basis, when I started writing on this again I saw all the things I could have improved and/or done differently, but that will have to wait until my next DiD. And yes, I'm planning on doing another one.

Agreed. Get writing!

Your wish is my command, good sir. One update, comin' up

Footnote: I got sloppy and forgot to take screenshots of some of the mission, just in case someone was wondering why they were missing. Shame on me.

----------

Chapter 13 - If you close your eyes ...

Personal log: 768-05-03 – 15:05

I snored until my data pad showed 08:50 and woke up to discover that my little shield station had made me a Paranid Friend of Priest King. It had also hit me while I was asleep that I had forgot to assign a home base for that stubborn lizard in PTNI Headquarters, so I set the home base to my dream farm in Scale Plate Green via remote and now everything worked just fine. Duh. I wish this stuff would come with some sort of error reporting system, telling you where you screwed up. Alt least our new recruit, miss Gantelios Yagosias Trantaeos the sixth, was now hard at work buying e-cells for my dream farm. Note to self, check if freighters have a home base set before you go chewing out the pilot.

"Mornin', captain." Tracie said as she looked up from her data pad. She was just finishing breakfast, and I was just about to get mine. And a cup of coffee. I get cranky if I don't get my coffee.
"Morning," I said. "What are you reading?" She smiled
"Looks like you've made yourself noticed, captain. It's actually kind of funny." She held up her data pad for me to read. It was just a small notice, but it made me smile too. It mentioned an unknown Argon freelancer on the rise in Teladi and Split territory, and apparently both the Patriarch and the CEO of the Teladi company thought very highly of her. They had even gotten hold of a name. Judith Ukada.
"Looks like you're famous, captain."
"Aw, shucks. It was nothing." Just us working our asses off.
"False modesty doesn't suit you, captain." It was Jo.
"I'm not sure I could have done it with out you," I said, and I meant it. Knowing I had someone who covered my back had made it so much easier to pull this off.
"So what's next?" Jo asked. I chewed on it for a second.
"Push for phase three and establish a base in that sector we all know," I said. "I'm planning on putting the visit to this major general Ichiyama on hold until I can get some missile production going. I've got a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more action before this is over, and I'll feel a lot safer carrying a few missiles. Now, according to my estimates we need some fifty million to get a power core up and running and start building some missiles, so I guess we have our work cut out for us." I looked around. "Okey, let's get moving."

After breakfast and a cup of coffee we were ready for another day. The first 'customer' of the day was a Teladi at the trading station, wanting us to return an abandoned Kite in Ceo's Sprite. A hundred and seventy three grand was anything but a bad way to start the day, so we accepted and headed south to pick it up. We had plenty of time, so I decided to fix it and let it fly home on its own while we looked around for other juicy stuff.

Heading south into Company Pride to refuel, we spotted a Kha'ak Cluster a few clicks west of the gate. I felt like shooting something, so I ordered battle stations before we turned toward it and started the hunt. It ended like the last encounter, namely with a lot of dead Kha'ak in our wake. I took out the Fighter with my CIGs, and our turrets cut through the Scouts like a hot knife through butter. Oh, I love the smell of burnt Kha'ak in the morning. Or something.

The Kite needed a little patching before the HISS was happy, then it was just a matter of sending it home and cross my fingers, hoping it would make it in time. Then I jumped to Family Pride, as I was planning on setting up a local trader to keep the factories around Blue Profit happy. It would cost me a fair bit of money, but if it could keep my shield factory from running dry it would be worth it. The pilots were usually fresh out of the academy and could hardly find their own asses with both hands and a map, so who ever I got would have to lurk around Company Pride until he or she gained enough experience to only need one hand.

With the Caiman on the way I started looking around for missions again, and while I didn't find anything useful I did find a slightly used Boa for sale. I had been thinking about getting a fighter bus to carry those abandoned ships home and maybe use as a mobile base of operations, freeing up the Eris for use elsewhere, but I never got around to actually buying one.

Well, here was my chance so I bought it and was about to send it to the shipyard when something caught my eye. There was a Split marine on board. Somewhat inexperienced, but nothing a little training wouldn't fix. Unless he got pissed and ran off with my ship, that is. Anyway, welcome aboard, Pu t'Knt.

I ordered the Boa to the shipyard for some repairs and jumped south to Hatikvah's Faith to see if there was any action going on there. I also needed to grind Paranid rep, as they had a couple of missile factories I wanted. Hurricanes would give both the Morrigan and the Eris much improved bite against scouts, and getting a Hornet or three up the tailpipe could ruin anybody's day.

Now, I didn't find any 'Nids, but I did find an Argon and a Split, both offering roid scan missions. A quick estimate landed me in the vicinity of half a mill, so I accepted and flew off to scan some rocks. It was smooth sailing, although I did see some action along the way. A Brigantine was making short work of the trade lanes, and once again reminded me that I should get a freighter to store all these leftovers in. The OTAS Mistral Super Freighter would be ideal, but I'd be damned if I were to buy an Argon ship. The next best thing, at least when it came to cargo space, was the Boron Dolphin SF but it was slow as heck and didn't have as much as a single gun. The Teladi Vulture SF had almost as much cargo space as the Dolphin SF and it did have a gun, but it was even slower than the Dolphin. The Split Caiman SF had the least amount of cargo space, but it was fast and had plenty of armament. The Paranid Demeter was somewhere in between the rest, and I was planning on grinding 'Nid rep. Then I had to consider the possibility that the Terrans might have something up their sleeve if I ever got access to it. Now, where did I …

Xenon!

Yeah, some Split had just broadcasted an emergency message calling for every available pilot to participate in a patrol against possible Xenon incursions. I'm sure you all know what my reply was by now.

An M and four Ns entered through the north gate, so I whipped the Eris around and headed for them at full speed. I could of course have jumped to the north gate, but my mind was set on smashing Xenon and I really didn't think that far. Yeah, some military strategist I am.

There was a fair amount of hardware in the sector, but I still managed to nail an M and a N. After that was over we were asked to pick up an abandoned ship in Akeela's Beacon, and while the pay was kind of mediocre it was a chance to explore, so I accepted it. Jump to the east gate in Aladna Hill, u-turn, snatch, patch and send home. Easy as pie.

Back in Hatikvah's Faith we picked up a freight scan mission for a 'Nid. He was obviously getting ready for his morning raid and needed some suitable targets, so he hired us to find some. I took the Morrigan to cover more ground and went to work. I think I did pretty good, considering the amount of money he paid me. As a bonus the Brigantine was still making a mess of things and I spotted something peculiar. Beam weapons. The last time I checked, which I'll admit was a while ago, they were still prototypes, but now these guys had obviously gotten hold of some functional ones. Wonder if I could get my hands on something like that?

Just as I was about to dock with the Eris I got a message from the pirate base in Mines of Fortune. The Caiman I sent there had just docked, so I told them to give it a jump drive and send it to the solar power plant in Shareholder's Fortune for a refuel. Then it was just a matter of waiting. After that I had to go look for a pilot, and he, she or it would probably cost me a fortune. Urgh.

We were heading into Nopileos' Memorial to look for more missions when I got word from the power plant that the Caiman had made it. A quick refuel later and I ordered it to jump to Company Pride to get an Mk3 trade software command module and try to find a pilot. It only cost me half a million and I got a rookie pilot, but now I had a sector trader running. Yay, more income. As an added bonus a Pirate Guild Outpost had popped up in Company Pride and yes, they had jump drives. Shorter travel time to get jump drives equals increased profits. As for my rookie pilot I would place her in Greater Profit once she gained enough experience to manage more than one sector at once, where she could keep the food factories my shield complex depended on happy. Logistics is such a friggin' headache.

At least the taxi mission this 'Nid was broadcasting was less of a headache. The pay wasn't all that good, but since I needed 'Nid rep I accepted anyway. Every drop counted, and with 44 minutes on the clock I couldn't fail. I didn't fail either, and my Paranid rep jumped up a bit. One step closer to a Hurricane factory.

After dropping off the passengers we headed for Third Redemption, since it was the closest sector with a solar power plant and we needed a refuel. I knew there was a power plant in Aladna Hill, but since it was Argon and I didn't particularly feel like looking at the business end of a repeater any time soon we headed for Third Redemption. Paranid space. Besides, they had a shipyard there and I wanted to check out what they had in store.

On our way there I got a message from the Split I was working for, telling me his Buzzard Hauler had made it home safe and sound. Nice to know.

We arrived just in time to see this Paranid offering an assassination mission, and he was willing to fork out a nice amount of money for it. I still had enough e-cells to jump to Perdition's End, so I gambled at the south gate and fired the jump drive. Some fifteen seconds later we emerged from the south gate, and found out the mark was tumbling around near the west gate. A short hop and a Banshee missile later and she was dust, while we cashed in the reward.

Flying back into Third Redemption I spotted another mission. Hm, cartography chips courier? And the 'Nid offering the mission was willing to pay a bloody fortune for it. Oh yeah, baby. I transferred just enough e-cells to the Morrigan to make the jump to Perdition's End and back, undocked and let it rip. A quick jump later I was racing for the crystal fab at full speed, and a glance at the mission timer told me this was going to be a close one. Hooh.

A little docking computer magic later, and my contact shuffled the chips on board and sent me on my way. Those cargo haulers are really effective.

I waited til I was clear of the station, then plotted a course for the equipment dock in Third Redemption and fired the jump drive. Three minutes left, and that clock was ticking awfully fast. I suspected the docking computer was going to save my ass again … and it did! Made it with ten seconds left on the clock. Thanks, Lady Luck. Bloody hell, that was close. The 'Nid thanked me, and I think he was in a good mood because he only called me an inferior being twice and made me a Paranid Priest Protectorate. The fifth highest 'Nid rank, and it meant I could get my paws on a Hurricane factory. I only had some seventeen point seven million at the time, though, so it would have to wait until I had saved up … oh, another thirty five million or so. If I could get this kind of reward on a regular basis it wouldn't take too long, though.

"The local authorities are broadcasting a sector wide message, captain," Tracie said as I got back on board. "Patrol against possible Xenon incursion." Xenon ... I had to take a breath before I responded.
"Tell them we're in. And call for battle stations."

Meh. Too much hardware in the sector to make any sort of difference. I did manage to nail an N, though. There were also loads and loads of leftovers there, including 23 Wraith missiles. I couldn't use them, but they would make a very nice addition to my bank account.

The leftovers netted me just a hair over one million, and I got this bright idea that I should expand the shield complex. It had made some decent money since I put it up, so I thought why not. Action followed thought, and a quick jump later we were in Ceo's Sprite heading for the shipyard.

I picked up a construction mission for a Teladi on the way over, as she was looking for someone to set up a crystal fab way out in the middle of nowhere. It would only give me a couple of hundred grand or so, but it meant more factories that would eventually need food and I was considering expanding my complex to sell food as well. With a power core providing e-cells the cost was negligible, and everything it sold would be pure profits.

"Where did you hide all the tubes?"
I was staring at the complex construction kit, which used to be a huge mess of tubing and conveyer belts. Instead this was a huge mess of wires, electronic devices and antennas.
"Thisss isss sssomething new," the station manager hissed. "Itsss a quantum link, basssed on the transssporter devicssse. Eliminatesss the vulnerable tubesss and sssave materialsss. More efficsssient, and cheaper." Why was I not surprised? Everything to make a buck, eh? Anyway, I loaded the stations and the construction kit into the White Stripes and headed for the bridge.

Dropping the station was fairly quick. The trip to Blue Profit, less so. The problem with something as big as the White Stripes was that it had to wait to pass through the gate, and that took time. Lots of time. I twiddled my thumbs for nearly twenty minutes before the gate was clear, and I was rapidly running out of patience. I could have jumped, if I had only remembered to bring jump fuel, but clever me thought it wasn't necessary since I was going to the sector next door. Yay.

Logistics. Headache.

After messing about with the new transporter system for a few minutes we finally got the second factory up and running. Funny thing, actually. It used gravimetric projectors to keep the stations in a fixed position relative to each other and a specialized transporter array took care of the transport of resources and products between the stations and the hub. According to my station manager it was just as effective as the old system with tubes and stuff, and we didn't risk having anyone fly into the tubes and kill them selves on approach. That's one less headache, something I appreciated very much right now. Oh well, time to head home and rack up some more money.

"Oops." The comlink let out a scream that was suddenly cut short, and our shields fluctuated for a few moments. Yep, I managed to get my very first roadkill. Or gatekill if you want. Some Teladi scout was obviously messing around in front of the gate as the White Stripes came through, and my Elephant steamrolled the poor bastard without as much as loosing a single percent of shielding. That's the risk of gate travel for ya.

We got back to the shipyard without further incidents and then took the Eris down south to Company Pride for a refuel. While the e-cells were being loaded I kinda considered taking a look at that Terran mission, but I quickly dropped that thought. Missiles first, then we could talk. Instead I jumped to Family Pride and got two Caimans to set up as sector traders. Income and all that.

I also needed to talk to my guys and gals about money. Up to now we had always pooled our money into one account and just taken a few credits when ever we needed something. However, with our little company growing and income climbing as a result of that, I felt it was time to give my crew some proper payment. I also needed to work something out for when we got a crew for the White Stripes, whenever that was going to happen.

A mission beacon yanked me out of my thoughts, as both the shipyard and the local IRE forge needed "protection." I pulled a fast one and accepted both missions, then let the local military deal with the numbskulls coming through the gate. I can be such a stinker …

While the locals dealt with the pirates I played with my freighter a bit, shifting some sunrise flowers from the farm in Scale Plate Green to the refinery. Hm, maybe I could hire a pilot and make it a sector trader? Now that I was getting more work it was starting to eat into the time I had to work the market, so setting it up to keep the locals happy on its own seemed more and more like a good idea. It might not generate as much income as it would with me babysitting it, but a little was better than nothing.

Alright, enough thinking for now. Time to get back to work, and "work" turned out to be us ferrying a bunch of entertainment chips from Thuruk's Pride to Family Pride. It was for an Argon, but she was willing to fork out nearly a million for it so I accepted. I was kinda short on time, so I took the Morrigan just in case and left the Eris in Tracie's capable hands. Besides, if anything should happen they were in the home sector of the Split, who had stacked enough hardware in there to level anything several times over, and they had plenty of jump fuel to get the hell out if things ended up taking a bad turn.

What happened? Squat. I made my way to Thuruk's Pride, got the chips on board and flew back to Family Pride without a hitch, and Family Pride was so quiet you could hear a space fly fart. I returned to find not one, but two station protection missions, both being broadcasted from the same station. Wonder if these guys even talk to each other before they get on the horn and start screaming for help …

Anyway, I pulled another fast one and accepted both. Of course I didn't intend to fire a single shot, so I sat back and watched as the sector patrols ripped them a new one. Easiest money I've ever made, and the two Split offering the missions didn't care as long as their asses were safe. As the last pirate died I got word from the shipyard that my two Caimans were ready, so I gave them the basic equipment and sent them to Mines of Fortune to get their jump drives. I love it when things work as they were intended to do. Now I …

"Incoming transmission, captain. The local authorities want available pilots for a Xenon patrol." Xenon. Brrr. No matter how many I destroyed, it never seemed to be enough. However, this one I actually had to consider for a moment. It was likely to be a minor incursion, and the aforementioned Split hardware in this sector would probably whack everything before I even got into range. Ah, screw it. If I got the chance to nail even one of those soulless bastards I would be happy.
"Tell them we'll accept." I took a deep breath. "Alright, people. Battle stations!" Everyone knew the drill, and found their places. With the sound of ship-sized weapons capacitors charging in my ears I grabbed the stick and started looking for red dots on the grav.

Yeah, that worked out well. Or not. An L heavy fighter and a handful of Ns showed up, and they all got reduced to dust before I could get within weapons range. Crap. Oh well, I did get a small compensation for trying. I also got a consolation price in the form of a build mission, worth about three times the reward for the Xenon patrol, so it wasn't all bad. Oh-key, one Rastar refinery coming up. Time to go fly the brick again.

Unless I manage to get distracted on the way, of course. This Teladi offered me some six hundred and twenty five thousand reasons to put the build mission on hold for a while, as she wanted me to ship four military personnel to 'a Split station.' Teladi black ops? You've got to be shitting me.

Nice mix too. An Argon, a Boron, a Paranid and a Teladi gunnery sergeant who roared like a rabid lion. It was actually kind of funny to watch.
"Get your tailsss movin', ladiesss! Our ride isss here! Jovi, move that lead arssse of yoursss!"
I'll admit I had a hard time keeping my face straight. I think it was the long s-sounds that did it, combined with the fact that she yelled loud enough for the entire lower deck to hear her.
"You the captain of this russstbucket?" she hissed at me. Oh-key … Don't stretch it, lizard. You ain't that funny.
"I am," I said, returning her glare. "And it's 'Eris', not 'russstbucket'." I try to be as tolerant as possible, but people who insult my ship or my crew really pisses me off.
"Touchsssy, are we?" She eyed me up and down like a piece of meat and snorted.
"Only when it comes to my ship and crew," I said with a hint of frost in my voice.
"Hrmf. Well, let'sss ssse what thisss russstbucket can do." I briefly wondered if I could shoot her and kick her carcass into the nearest sun, but decided to swallow my pride and get them off my ship as soon as possible.

"Move us away and fire the jump drive," I muttered at Tracie as I entered the bridge. "Thuruk's Beard, north gate. Then head to the equipment dock. I want these tossers off my ship as soon as possible."
"Well, someone's been getting on your nerves," Tracie replied, rolling her eyes. I took a deep breath and just sat down in the pilot's chair without saying a word.
"Thuruk's Beard, north gate and equipment dock, aye." The drive charged, and then we were in the wormhole.

----------

Asset list

Ships:
M6 Drake - "Eris"
M3 Cougar Vanguard - "Morrigan"
TL Elephant - White Stripes
M2 Asgard O'Neill - "SGC-028 'Lux Aeterna'"
TS Caiman - "Mule 1"
TS Caiman - "Scale Plate Green CAG 1"
TS Caiman - "Blue Profit CAG 1"
TS Caiman - "NTC Sector Trader 1"
TS Caiman - "NTC Sector Trader 2"

Stations:
NTC Shield Complex - 2 x 1 mj shield factory, Blue Profit

18 358 053 credits