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Chapter 8 - This used to be a funhouse
With the patrol completed I scanned the stations for more missions. No rest for the wicked and all that. The Disco reached Light of Heart, and gave me six hundred and twelve grand plus change to work with.
I decided to put my hard earned cash to work by buying a lightly banged up Sturgeon military transporter. They were basically TS-class ships with expanded cargo bays and corvette-grade shielding, which meant it could survive the odd stray shot without much trouble and still be able to get the hell out. More importantly this one would be worth about ten million once I got rid of all the dings and fixed the leaks in the hull. So yeah, I was planning on selling it, as I needed the money more than I needed the cargo space right now.
After fixing the Sturgeon I sent it north and started hunting missions again. Yeeeah … Xenon patrol? Apparently I'm unable to learn from previous mistakes, cause I grabbed it and went hunting.
(beep)
It took me exactly two mizura before I had Xenon on my scanner. It was only a handful of fighters, and since this was an easy mission it would most likely be just this one wave. My prediction held true, cause after blasting two Ns and an M I got a message telling me the mission was over and that I had earned a hundred and fourteen grand plus change. Joy!
Getting tired of shooting Xenon I turned to my satellite grid and checked the closest sectors. Lo and behold, there was some leftovers in Light of Heart. And a disabled L and an LX in Aladna Hill to boot. Double joy!
Heading north I cleaned up Light of Heart, then set my sights on the two Xenon ships in Aladna Hill. Unfortunately I only got the LX, but since that was three to four million depending on what it was carrying I didn't care all that much.
Now things really started to heat up. Atreus' Clouds was stuffed to the gills with loot, and while I was there I managed to grab two prisec missions which ended up giving me a Buster and a Mistral TS in addition to my payment. I also spotted a Mamba in Thuruk's Beard, but since the Split appeared to have a pirate problem at the moment I decided to wait a bit. In the meantime I managed to sell both the Sturgeon and the Buster, netting me a hair under thirteen million in total. Just a little bit more, then I would go shopping for a bigger stick.
Since the local forces in Thuruk's Beard had cleaned up the pirate mess I moved in to capture the Mamba. It was in surprisingly good shape, and fixing the few dings in it was pleasantly easy. With the Mamba safely on the way to the shipyard in Ceo's Sprite I jumped to Cloudbase South East to up the size of my stick. That is, I went a bit bonkers with the credit chit and bought a Heavy Centaur. It wasn't the best, nor the latest, but it would have to do until I could afford an upgrade. Now I just had to get someone to run it …
Yeah, getting a crew for a ship with nothing but fairy dust and promises of future riches can be a real pain in the neck. However, I did manage to dig up some misfits who would work for nickles and dimes at the local bar, so now I have a pilot, a navigator, an engineer, a mechanic and three gunners. We were still a couple of people short, so I had to manage sensors and communications for the time being.
"Where to, captain?" Rita, my new pilot, looked at me and apparently expected me to have all the answers. Yeah, I might have to work on that one.
"Hold on," I said. A mission had just popped up. Some Argon named Kaylen Poler had just sent out a distress call, claiming that some shady people had threatened "her" station. I doubted she actually owned the shipyard, but since she was willing to pay and we were almost broke I accepted.
"Kit, Jim, Kara! Man the guns! We got a mission, so look sharp!"
My gunners got into their seats, and the turrets swung into action as they tested the controls. Everything was green, so I ordered Rita to head toward the north gate. Hostiles had this habit of coming in through the closest gate, mainly to minimize flight time in enemy space. I knew, cause I had used the same tactic when I flew for captain Amira. Quick in and quick out, with minimal exposure.
Anyway, my new 'stick' proved far superior to my Mamba, and the handful of fighters that jumped in got cut down as soon as they got within gun range. Speaking of which, I made a mental note to upgrade my guns as soon as I could afford it, cause even though they were effective against fighters they would probably struggle against bigger targets.
Now things were speedingreal fast. We had two more private security missions dropped in our lap, and when we flew over to Ore Belt to refuel at the Solar Power Plant there we got an offer for a patrol to Elena's Fortune. We also picked up two Ns and a Rapier along the way, which got us a very welcome cash injection.
I did screw up in Home of Light though, as I picked up a Xenon patrol there and kinda forgot the whole thing when the other patrol I had going pointed me to President's End. Having to slink back to finish it I gave myself a 'penalty' by picking up a local patrol in Elena's Fortune. It wasn't as much of a penalty as a chance to grab some extra money, but hey, who cares.
After that we took a break at the Military Outpost, and while my crew got some shore leave I flipped through the reports from my satellites to see if I could find something valuable.
Holy crap …
Yeah, Black Hole Sun was stuffed to the gills with loot. Same with a few other sectors, which meant we were in for a very busy day.
As my crew returned I ordered Rita to make the jump to Black Hole Sun, and we spent the next half hour or so picking up loot. It was ridiculous, and when we dumped the load in Thuruk's Beard, making the local weapons dealer somewhat elated, we had earned twenty eight million eight hundred and twenty two thousand three hundred and twenty four credits, boosting our account up to a hair over forty three point two million. Yeah, baby!
After that I … #& 2§! … 3€...
*** File corrupted ***
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Unfortunately that's all she wrote, so to speak. One of my hard drives died a while ago, and sadly this game, along with the saves and most of my screenshots, went down the tube. I could probably recreate it up to the point where I left off, especially since I'm hardly out of the starting blocks. However, LU has gone through some significant changes since I last played this, and since I'm a real stickler for consistency the result would most likely just end up irking me to no end because I would be unable to get it "right." So Triaxx2, I guess you can add "hard drive failure" to your list of my causes of death
I've been cooking up some new stuff over the last couple of weeks though, so you definitely haven't heard the last of me. And this time I'll have backups, so stay tuned.
