[DiD][AP] "The Mechanic Privateer" or "Piracy for Love!"

[KingsMongoose]

Personally, I really hate doing this, but I am rewriting "Still Alive" because I really don't like how it came out. Reading it the day after I posted it, I realized I can write much better than I did and was determined to make up for not putting my best effort forward. So here I present you with the fully rewritten Still Alive. On a bit of a side note, with Still Alive version 1 I was at 4800 words written for Piracy For Love, not counting notes, comments, or equipment and ranks lists. Still Alive version 2 adds another 600 words which ups the word count to 5400 and change, breaking my first personal goal with this story of 5000 words. Hopefully many thousands more are just waiting to be written! Now, with no further ado:


>Still Alive (Redux)

Log 768-05-02 00:05

>>I wish I had thought to ask the Captain of the Styx for her name, so I can properly curse her. After extorting almost everything I had in my semi-anonymous business escrow accounts out of me, then agreeing to the very simple request that she drop me anywhere but Argon space, she drops me off in Argon Prime. At the insistence of the wrong end of a squad of marines. Very big, very mean, very well armed Teladi marines. They were all of a meter and a quarter tall if they were a centimeter, but I saw one punch out a dent in the Buster I had just purchased with her bare hand. So despite all my misgivings about being in Argon core space, I politely accepted their invitations to leave. Especially since their "or else" came in such large calibers.

Normally I would feel comfortable in the middle of some of the most well defended Argon sectors, but there is still the issue of some forged orders that released me from the Argon military with a brand new prototype Nova fighter. Nothing like committing a capital crime for providing motivation not to stick around the neighborhood, or the homeland entirely. If that wasn't enough, I'm also trying to fake my death at the hands of the people who just kicked me off their ship. There's enough information in the Argon computer systems to identify me even with this new identity hacked into a couple key databases. The only hope I have of pulling this off is to stay off the systems until I'm actually declared dead by Argon authorities. The only problem is that this new name of mine doesn't have a history beyond a couple lines, so I have to establish Runin L. Ell in some Commonwealth databases if I want Ricker L. Helbeck to stay dead and unconnected to the new me. Apparently, as explained to me by the man whose services I purchased (for slightly less than extortionate prices) to hack up this new identity, the system will flag my face as belonging to dead Ricker and will run a brief activity history on both identities. If Runin has been busy somewhere far from where Ricker died before Ricker was reported deceased, then the computer will conclude that one person can't be in two places at once and that Ricker and Runin are two separate men who look a lot alike. I hope that's true.

Thanks to taking a look at the charts a navigator of the Styx was trying to sell me, I know that Boron space is a few sectors "north" of Argon Prime, and from there it's "east" to get to Teladi space. Boron space is theoretically safe enough for me to operate in, but they're closely allied with Argon and frankly the Teladi just don't care who they work with as long as they make a profit. Kicking the throttle up on the newly repaired Buster, I resolve to buy nothing in Argon space, which should be easy since I have no money, and to accept no offers for work which is as easy as not looking for those offers. Thankfully I was able to get an accurate chart for this sector from the Captain as a parting "gift" so I orient the Buster, which is being dubbed "Tin Tomb", to the north gate and let the engines work. Which is all that can be said for them. This thing is a hunk of junk and I am thankful I took the time en route to repair it. While it may be slow, has shields that are only that in name, and only two Impulse Ray Emitters for weaponry it doesn't leak atmosphere and moves. Better than trying this in just my spacesuit.

Passing into Herron's Nebula, as informed by a slightly drunken warble from the ship's computer, I think I'll just keep heading north until I can't, then work my way west until I hit a gate north. So I do, and in Power Circle (seriously, I have never heard a computer sound this sad), I discover a significant lack of a gate in the generally accepted "north" direction. If the gate I came from is the south gate and behind me, then west should be to the left. Looping around that way I see the pleasant glow of the gate across space, and near the gate in the asteroids a laser light show. Well, at a concert this would be part of the show. Out here though, I am quite certain that lasers and pyrotechnics is the universally accepted sign for one being trying to kill another. Getting closer the scanners finally come back with an ident on the embattled parties and reveal the almost cliche scenario of some pirates in heavy fighters harassing traffic, and the traffic valiantly defending themselves from the scum. If this was a cliche holovid I, as the hero, would jump right in and slay the pirates to protect the innocent. I think I'll apply a little lateral thinking and a lot of lateral rudder, and just slide right through the gate here. And I'm through into Three Worlds.

No one is innocent in space.

There's a gate to the north I can see, and I jump through with no issues into Kingdom End, and my first destination. I am now in officially official Boron space, and can breathe a little easier. I should pick up some jobs on my way towards Teladi space, in keeping with Runin's image as a down-on-his-luck spacer. Of course, that's the truth of my situation so it shouldn't be a hard role to pull off. Unfortunately there's no jobs I have a hope of doing here, so I continue on my way. Here in Rolk's Drift is a chap begging people to defend his station from pirates, and going by what he's offering me I'm not surprised no one has taken the contract. But I will take it, because even though I don't trust my Buster to be worth spit in a fight, I have a plan. The pirate comes on a straight run at the station, screaming in a Harrier and I have no hope of intercepting before they can open fire. Which is fine by me, because almost like I asked them to, the police patrol fulfills their role in my plan and blasts the pirate ship into nothing more than a rapidly expanding explosion. The station manager may be a little confused, but he is grateful that there's no mean pirate light fighter shooting up his heavily shielded station and still pays me. I wish I could complete every job without having to fire a shot, but for now I have a little more than I did a bit ago so I continue on my way.

In Ceo's Buckzoid I have finally made it to Teladi space. So comforting to know that while my memory shares many qualities in common with a wire screen I can remember information I consider very important. While I'm here I accept a simple job to fly out to Kingdom End and return a Jaguar. The being hiring me even rates the job as being easy. I head for Kingdom End, and make it with no issues. Carefully pulling Tin Tomb in close I notice that the Jaguar in question has some hull damage so I go EVA to commence repairs so that the computer will increase it's safe top speed. A lot of people think that space craft slow down when they take hull damage because the engines take damage. In some cases this is true, but in all cases it's also true that the weaker a ship's hull is the less stresses it can withstand before flying apart. Engines designed and tuned to put out thrust for a fully intact hull put out way too much when it is damaged. To prevent catastrophic hull failure, aka the engines wrecking the ship, the computers are hardwired to limit engine thrust. And since I am on a time limit here, I'm repairing this Jaguar, but even at nominal speed this ship can't make it to Ceo's Buckzoid before being reported stolen. So I try my hand at a little fraud and blow the ship to pieces hoping an insurance payment will satisfy my client.

Judging by the language and threats I'm getting over the comms, my employer is not thrilled. The last sentence uttered was "you will pay for this!" So note to self, don't destroy a client's property. Thankfully this incident has finally proven to me that Tin Tomb has simply too many less-than-ideal characteristics to be useful right now. Here in Kingdom End there's a shipyard, and while I have never flown a Boron ship (and have rarely seen them), I need a new ship with speed at least. This way I can do fetch jobs faster, explore much faster, out run anyone I can't out shoot, and maybe even take a stab at doing some asteroid scans for pay that I've seen people offering. I part with Tin Tomb with absolutely no regrets, and then nearly die of shock when I see how much the resale value is. Looking over the ships on offer, and keeping in mind that I still have to pay for any after market additions, I settle on an Octopus. It looks like it can be fast, and the fact that it is cheap makes up for it's lack of everything else.

Getting in to my new ship and it's slightly humid cabin I set off for the nearby equipment dock. The Octopus lives up to the promise of being fast, and with a broad smile I dub it "Slick" and thoroughly enjoy my flight. Now, what to outfit my new purchase with? Well, I have a decent chunk of credits, so I shouldn't skimp on anything. The basics I cover quickly, maxing out all tuning for engines, rudder and cargo. There's no drawback to improving those three things except the initial cost. After that it's a duplex scanner system so I can see where I am going, a boost extension for acceleration, and a trade extension so I don't have to dock to see what the prices of goods on a station are. Hmm, what else. Ah, right, a basic combat software package so I can hit what I am aiming at with the stock twin IRE's, and a SETA device to slow down my perception of time so those long flights go "faster". Now what will help me make money I wonder. Well, there's a mineral scanner that should enable me to scan asteroids for anyone willing to pay me. And a cargo life support system so I can taxi around folks. Probably only folks who don't care how they get somewhere as long as they can do it quickly, but it should work. Something's bugging me about the CLS system, something that has to do with cargo classifications but I can't quite put my finger on it. No worries though, it'll come to me. Now off to work I go.

Purchasing Slick was a brilliant decision. No longer am I slogging through the universe praying not to die, instead I am now screaming around easily returning ships and scanning asteroids for profits. I also discover what the doubt was I had about purchasing the CLS, too. It seems that I forgot about cargo size classifications, and while passengers are only counted as one unit of cargo they are one unit of medium sized cargo. My Octopus only has cargo space for small size cargo. Oh well, I can always install this system in another ship capable of transporting medium cargo. It's not a buying error, it's a business investment.

While business is good, there's another glaring doubt that I can now face. My dream is to be a space fighter, a great fighter, a well known fighter even, and I haven't even discovered if I can fight. With the Nova I blew up some pirates, true, but that was with a well shielded heavy fighter that could make up for my lack of skill and talent with sheer firepower. That ship got shot out from under me simply enough by pirates, which is feeding into me doubting my capabilities. There's no lying about my capabilities in Slick here, with it's measly armament and shields that I don't even pretend will stop incoming fire. I can put this question to rest now, I think, since newly arrived into Mines of Fortune here by way of Home of Opportunity is a Duke's Freighter. No one likes the Duke's crew, their ships are reportedly always armed, and if I'm a failure I can out run it. Guess there's no time like the present then to test if I can fight.

Pilot Out<<


The Sum of All Parts, or, Progress to Stated Goals:

Opportunist / Nuisance

127,300 Cr

1x Octopus, fully tuned, "Slick"
--Essentials: 2x 1MJ Shields, 2x Impulse Ray Emitters "IRE", Boost Extension, Trade Extension, Duplex Scanner, Combat Fight Software Mk 1, SETA
--Non-Essential but Useful: Mineral Scanner, Cargo Life Support System

Standings:
-Argon: Federation Member
-Boron: Queen's Guard
-Split: Shameless Creature
-Paranid: Unholy Nomad
-Teladi: Profit Opportunity
-Goner: Believer