[DiD]Lady of the last day (TC 3.2) [KIA]

Sabrina Bergin · Post by **Sabrina Bergin** » Tue, 9. Oct 12, 18:58

I take it you are going to be hurting a few bad people.

An excellent read and I look forward to more from Kayla.

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Sat, 20. Oct 12, 22:44

IT'S TOO QUIET IN HERE! Which means one thing - update time!

shaun bergin wrote:I take it you are going to be hurting a few bad people.

Eventually, yes. However, I don't have the firepower to do that. Yet ...

I'm in a little bit of a hurry, so pictures will be added in a few hours.

7 - Spread these wings ...

Clang.
Slow, steady steps.
Clang.
The hard, cold sound of hobnailed combat boots against teladianium deck plating.
Clang.
Then the soft hiss of the door as it opened.

"What do you want?"
Galeos Hismanis Rudilis the third grinned at me as I asked the question. I wasn't in the mood for any of her games, but she didn't seem to notice.
"Oh, nothing important." My eyes narrow as they met her yellowish-red gaze. "Just the sssmall matter of your freedom." I lifted an eyebrow. "Yesss, according to our calculationsss your debt isss almossst paid. Only a sssmall amount left, then you're all free to go." I felt the tension growing inside me, something my voice unit translated into a low, guttural growl.
"How much." It wasn't a question.
"Let'sss sssee. Twenty millionsss."
"What about the Dragon's Heart?" It was the name we had given the Hyperion Vanguard we had stolen from the pirates when we left. Rumor had it they weren't too pleased about us running away with their biggest catch.
"Yesss. In fact you can take it right now." Now that made me suspicious. They had kept it locked down at the shipyard since we got here, and we were barely allowed to look at it.
"And the Blood?" The four of us, Warron, Al, Lo and myself had become famous, or should I rather say infamous for our tight friendship, and we were known as the 'Dragon's Blood.' As some smart ass had said it, 'the dragon's blood make the dragon's heart beat,' hinting at how we had managed to keep the pirates off our backs for as long as we had before we came to the Yaki.
"Your friendsss will be free too." This wasn't just smelling of rat, this was wreaking. There was something she wasn't telling me, I could feel it.

"The catch?" That was a question, and one I wanted answered honestly. And quickly. The smile never faded, though, and she didn't even flinch.
"The. Catch!" I leaned forward and put my hands on her desk, something that made her guards very nervous. A moment later I had two charging phase pistols pointed at my head. I grabbed the wrist of the guard to my left, twisted the pistol out of his hand and pointed it at the lizard in front of me without breaking eye contact.
"Tell that dog of yours to back off and. Tell. Me. What. The. Catch. Is." She waved her hand at the one still holding his phase pistol. He looked at her, then at me and hesitated for a moment.
"Now, now. Threatsss will do you no good, but I'll be nicssse." She waved her hand at the guard once more, and he removed the pistol oh so slowly and put it back in its holster. "The catch is that you have one tazura, otherwise the deal is off. The Dragon's Heart will also be fitted with a self destruct mechanism, so if you fail or try to run the ship will be destroyed." She seemed to take pleasure in telling me that last bit. "You will be free in every sssenssse of the way, ssso we will no longer protect you from piratesss who might come along. Your trade and combat ranksss will alssso be removed, and your racsse notoriety will be ssset to a … sssuitable amount." If possible her grin grew even wider. I stared at her, imagining what her brain would look like after a close encounter with a phase charge.
"It'sss 00:45 and the clock isss ticking. Chop-chop."
I took a deep breath and headed for the door. As I reached it I turned around and looked at her one last time.
"A word of warning," I said as I threw the pistol back to the guard. "If you screw me you'll spend the rest of your days looking over your shoulder. And the last thing you'll see will be me." She just snorted at me as I turned around again and headed for the hangar.

Ten mizura later I had gathered the rest of the gang and we were all sitting on the bridge of the Dragon's Heart. I had just told them the 'good' news, and the looks I was getting told me I probably had to get in line to wring that lizard's neck if she tried to pull a fast one.
"So, does anyone have any good suggestions as to how we're going to raise twenty million in just one tazura?"
"Piracy," Al said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I snorted and looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "It is most logical choice," he continued. "Prior experiences suggest the probability of Rudilis setting our race notoriety to something that is less favorable for us is rather high, and building notoriety to such heights it will begin yielding the rewards we need to raise twenty million credits will take a substantial amount of time. I also suggest doing combat missions, as increasing combat rank to level where it will give us … suitable rewards will take a shorter amount of time."
I chewed on it for a while. He made sense, so in the end I gave him a short nod.
"Well," Warron said after a few moments of silence. "I guess there's only one way to go from here, so I suggest we head north." Senator's Badlands next.

The first thing that met us was a pirate bounty hunter.
"In the name of the Crimson Skulls, surrender and face the judgment of our Great Lord, or I will be forced to open fire." The four of us looked at each other, then Al made that deep, rumbling sound I had come to recognize as the Paranid equivalent of laughter. I had to smile myself, as he was sitting in a Harrier Hauler and we were flying a corvette. Fully shielded I might add, which meant he would probably have better luck trying to break up an asteroid by ramming it with that thick skull of his. I wasn't in the mood to dick around with idiots, so my response was to activate the turrets and let them fry his ass. The fact that this 'Great Lord' of the Crimson Skulls had put a prize on our heads made me curious, though. Something worth investigating, perhaps.

"I detect a mission beacon," Al said. He had taken up navigation- and communications duty and was sitting beside me in the navigator's chair. "Assassination. Pirate mark." I glanced over at his screen.
"Decent pay too," I said. "Tell them we accept." A few moments later the mission data came through, and the navcom pointed us toward Weaver's Tempest. Our employer was even nice enough to tell us what kind of ship we were looking for and the IFF transponder code. According to the data the mark was flying a Harrier Vanguard, so this shouldn't be too hard to accomplish.

We found him lingering around a few clicks west of the gate. I lined up, waited for him to fly into position and gave him a single volley from the main battery. The six CIG bolts plowed through the ship like it wasn't even there, and suddenly we were almost thirty thousand credits richer. We also attracted the attention of more bounty hunters, but they died rather quickly from PAC poisoning.

"Hm," Warron mumbled at the second bounty hunter went down.
"What?" I said.
"Naah … I just don't like this. Five mizuras after we leave the docking clamps and there's already a prize on out heads." I didn't like it much either.
"You think Rudilis is trying to screw us, aren't you?"
"Yep."
"Great." I knew I should have turned her head into a smoldering crater while I had the chance. For now, back to Senator's Badlands. And more bounty hunters, apparently. Not to mention picking up some sector maps and have a chance to play fetch for a Teladi. If I made it we only had … oh, nineteen point seven million to go.

We made it, alright. And yet again we attracted the attention of pirate bounty hunters wanting to cash in the prize these 'Crimson Skulls' had put on our heads. History repeated itself, though, and he spent a few moments trying to get through our shields with his IREs before our rear turrets riddled his Disco Vanguard with holes from nose to tail and turned him into a miniature nova as his reactor went critical. Witless wankers, the lot of 'em.

As we approached the shipyard an abandoned ship turned up on the grav. Someone had left a Buzzard Vanguard floating in the middle of the sector, and since it meant money I just hoped no one would run off with it before we could get to it. According to our sensors it only had about thirty percent hull left so my former colleagues had banged it up pretty good, but at least I would get some money for it. If I'd had someone who knew the business end from the back end of a plasma torch and the EMC* we were carrying we might have been able to fix it, but none of us knew anything worth a damn about ship repairs. We might have to sort that one out in the near future.

Two mizura later we were parked next to the Buzzard, and since I was the one with the pilot training I was also the one with the most EVA time. So, I got the glorious task of going out there and connect my data pad to the Buzzard's mainframe so that Warron could get access and make it accept me as the new owner. Another two mizura, and I was floating in space, trying my best to unscrew the cover over the access port so Warron could work his magic. I muttered some rather salty Split curses, as trying to unscrew the cover meant I rotated in the oposite direction, and the locking mechanism on the screwdriver wasn't quite up to the task of keeping me from spinning. Normally there was a handle to hold on to in case you needed to do this kind of thing, but it had been shot off and there was nothing left but a scorch mark and some molten metal. Bah. Using the suit thrusters worked kind of okey, though. Now, let's see if we can't persuade this puppy to cooperate.

"We're in," Warron said. "The ship is yours."
"Well, that was fast."
"Not too hard when you know what you're doing. Besides, there are back doors in the system that allows you to claim ships relatively easy, but they require a direct link to work. That's why one of us have to go EVA and connect directly to the ship's system. There are rumors of AI systems capable of doing the job remotely, but as far as I know they're illegal."
"Nice to know. Now, let's send this piece of junk to the shipyard and get moving."

Three mizura later I was back on the bridge and we were heading north at full speed. Since Rudilis had been kind enough to wipe our navcom it was a bit hit and miss, but we managed to find the gate anyway. I had patrolled these sectors for a jazura, and the old Mk1 eyeball still worked. We even got some company along the way, in the form of something the AI identified as a Kha'ak Interceptor. Funny critter, but the stories of what they did in President's End had reached even Weaver's Tempest, so we moved in and vaporized it. If nothing else it might give us some increased notoriety.

Hoo-frakkin'-ray. Savage Spur, a bloody heap of rocks if I ever saw one. And an abandoned ship, something the computer referred to as an 'Enhanced Pericles'. The stats were kind of mediocre, so I decided to sell it instead of keeping it. I was just a hundred meters away when the weapons lock alarm went off and more bounty hunters came through the east gate. That, and a hostile Paranid, which meant crossing into more neutral territory meant running the gauntlet between angry Paranids. Lucky for us it didn't seem to care, unlike the bounty hunters who moved in like bloodhounds following a trail. A year on patrol had taught me a thing or two, so I hid behind the nearest asteroid and waited for the sucker to get closer.

I doubt I could have gotten a better shot if I had called him up and asked for it, cause he was making a beeline for us and flying straight into my cross hairs. I thanked him with a CIG volley, and the bolts pierced his ship from nose to tail spraying twisted metal everywhere. His buddy was more careful, though, and managed to avoid my first two shots. The third one, however, hit him in the ass and reduced it to a twisted, charred mess of metal, moments before the reactor blew and turned the rest of it into dust. Stars, maybe now I could claim this sucker without getting interrupted.

A mizura later, and I had managed to claim the Pericles without too much trouble. While I was messing about with my data pad I got a call from Warron, telling me that the Buzzard had reached the shipyard. I told him to sell it, and amazingly enough that heap of slag earned us sixty six grand plus a bit of change. Only about eighteen point nine million to go, then.

(sigh)

"Ohkey," I said as we headed for the east gate and Paranid space. "Hold on to your pants, we might get a warm welcome on the other side." That might be a bit of an understatement, as Rudilis had made us Enemy of Priest Duke. In other words, we were on their 'shoot on sight'-list.
"Warron, how's the burner doing?" The 'burner' was a Split invention, using e-cells to give the engines extra juice for a limited amount of time. It could double our speed, but was prone to overheating and needed to cool off after each use.
"All green."
"Then let's do it." A few moments later we were in the wormhole, and a handful of sezura after that we were in Empire's Edge. It didn't look too bad at first, but I didn't want to stick around to find out.
"Warron, hit the burner. We're going high." I pulled the stick back and headed away from the ecliptic, hoping to avoid most of the sector defense. Good thing I did it too, because they weren't too happy to see us.

"Incoming!" The weapons lock warning klaxon tried to turn my eardrums inside out as one of the sector defense pilots got a little too close and started hammering us with his PACs. I had deliberately switched the turrets to target only missiles, to avoid making things worse than they already were, and hit the burner again. He was left eating our exhaust, and I swooped down toward the eastern gate. A quick gate hop later we were in Duke's Domain, where the usual bounty hunters awaited us. They still thought they could kill one of the most heavily shielded corvettes with their PACs and IREs, but our aft turrets made them regret that attempt very quickly. At least this kind of stupidity wouldn't be allowed to procreate any further, as they were now space dust.

We reached Emperor's Ridge, and after butchering another pair of genius bounty hunters our Paranid notoriety actually went up a notch. These idiots were obviously good for something, then. I was starting to wonder, though …
"Warron, can you search the Net for any information on these Crimson Skulls?"
"Getting suspicious, are we?"
"You bet your ass I am."
"Alright, I'll see what I can do."
His fingers started flying over the keyboard as we entered Priest's Pity. And … yep, you guessed it. More bounty hunters. I was starting to wonder if it was possible to find their base and nuke 'em off the map or something. Frakkin' hell.

Cruising into Split Fire we found pirate country, and from what I'd heard repercussions would be minimal if we attacked anyone there.
"So," I said, easing off the throttle a bit. "Who do we pick on, and who do we play nice with?"
"Be nice to the Teladi," Warron said. "They're all about profit, and they'll buy anything without asking too many questions. It'll make it a bit easier to move the things we … stumble upon." The deadpan expression he put up as he said it made me snort a laugh.
"Alright," I said. "I'll vote for the Split myself, as they make the afterburner. We might need more of those down the road, and I'll be damned if I'm going to rely on the Yaki more than I have to." I can't say for certain, but I think Lo was pleased with my decision.
"Paranid make Hornet," Al said, as if that explained it all.
"Heavy missile," Warron shot in. "Decent yield, and fast too."
"So in other words, more toys." I said. Warron nodded.
"Yep, and I think we're going to need all the toys we can get our hands on." He had a point. If these Crimson Skulls turned out to be what I suspected them to be we were going to face them at some point, and then I would need a lot more toys than a single corvette.
"So that leaves us with what, the Boron and the Argon?" I asked. Warron nodded.
"Yep." he said.
"Boron are easy prey," Lo added. "Freighters are unarmed, and only carry fighter drones for defense. Besides, due to their pacifistic nature morale is often low. Easier to make them bail."

I nodded slowly, and in the back of my mind the gears were already turning. I had to harass a lot of traders and cap a lot of ships to make twenty million in just a tazura, and then there was the pirates to think about. I didn't harbor any love for them, but even I had realized that making more enemies than I already had was kind of stupid. I wouldn't hold back if shooting a few pirates meant more money, but hunting them actively was out of the question. At least for the time being. Right now I had other plans anyway, as I wanted to take a peek into Argon territory before we started ruffling any feathers. So, Elena's Fortune was next on our list.

"Hostile contact, bearing 281 by 25. Looks like a pirate raiding party." Yep, Elena's Fortune was crawling with pirates. Great.
"Let's lend them a hand, shall we?" I turned the nose towards the closest one and opened up the throttle. It might give me a notoriety loss with the pirates, but it might also gain some points with the Argon. Besides, we were just out cruising and couldn't be held responsible if some stray shots ticked off our turrets, right? That's what I thought.

The members of the 'Shallow end of the gene pool'-clan did manage to tick off our turrets. They managed to tick me off too, so some of them died from acute CIG poisoning. CIGs are remarkably effective against small crafts, as even one bolt will send them spinning so wildly the pilots probably throw up in their helmets. The six main guns we have installed at the moment can kill most things up to a heavy fighter in one or two volleys, something the pirates found out pretty quick. Add some PACs to the mix, and you got a thing of lethal beauty.

In the end the pirates went down, and we had wasted enough of them for the Argon ranking guild to make us Federation Members. Not that I really cared, but it might be nice to have some leeway before I started shooting up their ships. Besides, the pirates had left some nice loot so I got cracking picking up what I could before other salvage crews moved in and took the juicy parts.

"Incoming transmission, captain. All channels, one way text message." I opened it and read through the message.
"Well, I'll be damned …"

----------

*: EMC - Energy-to-matter converter. Can produce hull plating and certain ship components. Used for ship repairs.

Assets:

M6 Hyperion Vanguard - "Dragon's Heart"

116 946 credits.

Date: 768-05-01 - 02:26

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Sat, 20. Oct 12, 22:56

Tazura... That's what, a week?

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Sun, 21. Oct 12, 03:35

Triaxx2 wrote:Tazura... That's what, a week?

No, it's one day. Or technically 1.27 days, according to the manual.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Sun, 21. Oct 12, 08:20

Really? I though that was a Stazura. Still, if you're lucky, 20 million in 30 hours is childs play.

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Sun, 21. Oct 12, 09:39

Nah, a stazura is 4 hours, 21 minutes and 7.2 seconds.

I can't be arsed to do the math though, so I just use the ingame clock. Artistic licence and stuff

Triaxx2 wrote:Still, if you're lucky, 20 million in 30 hours is childs play.

Yeah, well ... I think GoD hates me or something, because I have the habit of running out of luck when I need it the most. But I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there

Edit: Also, pics added.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Sun, 21. Oct 12, 14:52

Basically you're looking for two things. One is the Paranid Military Transports carrying 3 PPC's and 3 PSG's. Thats a quarter of your cash right there. The other is a Paranid trader carrying 8 Tractor Beams. Which is another quarter of your requirement.

Head for Haktikvah's young pirate. Opportunity abounds.

fasttr · Post by **fasttr** » Thu, 8. Nov 12, 18:24

wow, what a great read. i couldn't "put it down". thanks zaitsev. suspense, intrigue and just plain brutality. a great mix. a new game start with a real need for revenge sounds very interesting indeed. i has me thinking seriously about it anyway. thanks again. tr

Sabrina Bergin · Post by **Sabrina Bergin** » Sun, 18. Nov 12, 10:06

Zaitsev:

I appreciate the fact that you have time constraints etc; and that you are involving yourself/Kayla in Scions post.

I will however be presumptuous in suggesting you keep writing lady of the last day.

This is of course purely for my gratifiction but also I think you have the ability as a writer to do it, for example look at Triaxx his characters add depth to Scions post but they are also stand alone and worthy of praise in their own right.

Also you have the touch of making a character real in your writing when you are not constrained by a plotline determined by an outside scource for direction.

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Sun, 18. Nov 12, 10:59

Wow, that's a lot of praise. You guys make me blush

fasttr wrote:wow, what a great read. i couldn't "put it down". thanks zaitsev. suspense, intrigue and just plain brutality. a great mix. a new game start with a real need for revenge sounds very interesting indeed. i has me thinking seriously about it anyway. thanks again. tr

And thank you for reading. It's kind of a pet obsession I have, to give my characters some sort of motivation that the reader can (hopefully) relate to and try to find out why they do things in addition to what they do and how they do it.

shaun bergin wrote:I will however be presumptuous in suggesting you keep writing lady of the last day.

Don't worry, I will. This story isn't over by a longshot (unless I get myself killed again

). I have a few days off now, so chapter 8 should be up in 2-3 days. Otherwise, feel free to prod me

shaun bergin wrote:This is of course purely for my gratifiction but also I think you have the ability as a writer to do it, for example look at Triaxx his characters add depth to Scions post but they are also stand alone and worthy of praise in their own right.

Also you have the touch of making a character real in your writing when you are not constrained by a plotline determined by an outside scource for direction.

Aww ... Now I'm getting all mushy here. I'll admit I'm not quite sure how to deal with all these kind words, but I assure you I do appreciate them very much. You make it worth it to keep writing

Sabrina Bergin · Post by **Sabrina Bergin** » Mon, 19. Nov 12, 18:16

Simple answer:

Keep writing we all read you.

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Wed, 21. Nov 12, 08:37

Ask and thou shall receive.

It took a "little" longer to write this than I had anticipated, mostly because I let Darksiders 2 run off with most of my spare time. However, now that I've beaten it twice I'm back. I've also added an asset list, and although I won't be listing everything by the end of each chapter this time around I'll still try to give regular updates so you have at least some idea about how I'm doing.

Pics will be added after I get some sleep

EDIT: Pics added, and a few screwups corrected

----------

8 – … and learn to fly.

I read the message twice, just to be sure. It was apparently some sort of invitation to go to Omicron Lyrae and 'help' the Terrans 'integrate into our community.' Yeah, right. We all knew the story of Kyle Brennan and his arrival in the Commonwealth, and there were stories about a gate being connected to the Sol system, but integrating them …? That was a new one. It also mentioned 'advanced technology', which made me somewhat curious, and included coordinates showing the location of Omicron Lyrae on the map. It was way off to the east in what looked like the arse end of the Commonwealth, but I figured I could stop by and find out what they wanted. After I had finished my business with Rudilis.

Then there was this ... Mmm, money.

"Hm, fancy."
I was watching the last of the pirate force, a Brigantine carrier, as it hammered the local Cerberus frigate with some sort of beam weapons. The Brigantine was on its last leg though, and I spotted multiple missiles heading its way, so I recon the fight would be over in a few moments. A multitude of missile impacts and yep, there she blew. I scanned the area in case they had dropped some valuable loot, but since it turned up empty I told Al to warm up the jump drive and head for Senator's Badlands. Time to sell what we had picked up.

The numbers that popped up made me smile. It would push us well past three quarters of a million, and we had only used a little over half a stazura. If we could just find some juicy targets it would be a piece of cake to get twenty million by the end of the tazura, so I headed back to the Dragon's Heart and told Al to jump to Split Fire. Time to try and persuade some freighter pilots to drop their cargo, or, if we were lucky, abandon their ship. A superfreighter or a fighter could be worth a whole lot of money, and the sooner I got Rudilis out of my hair the better.

Split Fire, and not a whole lot going on. Except for a Paranid battle group and a Boron Military Supply Transporter coming through the east gate. It was the only viable target within range, so I flew closer to take a look. I was not disappointed, as it carried a mass driver and an ion disruptor among other things. No significant defenses to be worried about either, so I called him up.
"Drop your freight, and no harm will come to you."
"Boron say, go play with an asteroid!"
Well, it was sort of the response I was expecting, so I took aim and gave him a CIG volley to his port bow. Only about half the bolts connected, but it was enough to send him spinning. I called him up again.
"Are you going to cooperate, or do I have to start blasting holes in your hull? I've heard explosive decompression can be especially nasty for Borons, as their breathing liquid starts boiling if the hull is breached. I think it sounds rather uncomfortable to be cooked alive, then frozen to a fish popsicle. Don't you?"
"Alright. Boron give up freight."
"Good boy."
He dropped both the mass driver and the ion disruptor, which would net us some four hundred grand in total. Joy.

… if the weapons dealer in Senator's Badlands could move them, which he couldn't. Frakkin' great. That meant I would have to find someone else, preferably someone who wouldn't shoot me on sight. That left the Argon and whatever I could find at the other end of Pirate Alley. Something told me I could end up clashing with the Argon soon enough, so I headed for Pirate Alley instead. Besides, I needed to find Split and Teladi space and make some friends there, so I left the Argons alone for the time being.

Cruising through Pirate Alley was more of a breeze than I had thought. We were fast enough to outrun anything that could pose a serious threat, and we had enough firepower to deal with whatever was fast enough to catch up. I also spotted some more Boron freighters, but they didn't carry anything worth stealing so I left them alone.

The breeze turned into a storm as we entered Hatikvah's Faith, though, as we saw some fireworks behind the west gate as we entered, and came across a Paranid battle group making a mess of some pirate base when we flew closer. There was plenty of loot floating around too, so we swooped in and grabbed what we got. The Paranid obviously had other things on their mind and couldn't even be arsed to shoot at us, and the pirate forces were all but demolished.

Or so I thought …

A pirate fighter patrol came rushing from the west gate, led by a Blastclaw. I was aiming for the last piece of leftovers and thought we would be able to manage a few pirates, but as we moved in the Blastclaw opened up. With plasma burst generators. Our shields dropped like a brick, and by the time we jumped out of there we were down to forty three percent hull integrity.
"A little piece of advice, young lady," Warron said as we sped through the wormhole. "Always be prepared for flamethrowers when you're dealing with pirates. As you surely noticed they're quite effective."
"I'll remember that," I said, drawing a sigh of relief. We had taken one hell of a beating, but we were still in one piece. Barely. Diagnostics showed that two compartments had been breached, and the armor of the belly and port side of the ship was little more than molten slag.

"Blast," I muttered to myself as I checked the ship through the external sensors. "That's going to leave a mark, both on the ship and in our wallets."
"Not necessarily," Warron said. "The ETM converter is still working, and if we can get hold of someone who can tell the front end of a plasma torch from the back end we might be able to fix it."
"You mean marines?" I asked. He nodded.
"Well, I guess it's going to be a lot cheaper than getting this fixed at a shipyard. I did notice …" My voice died mid sentence as I checked the sector charts. Yep, there it was. A Military Outpost in Elena's Fortune. They usually had some marines on board that one could hire, so we headed over to check it out.

"Yesss, what can I help you with, my love?" The short, bald man in front of me looked like an Argon and sounded like a Teladi, which made my head ache.
"I'm looking for some marines," I said. "Preferably someone with some engineering skills."
"Aaah, yesss. Thisss way, my love." I felt the growing urge to impale him on the spot, especially if he kept calling me 'love'.
"Here we are, my love. Make your choicssse." My mind imagined a sound that my choker interpreted as growling.
"I will," I said, leaning forward and staring into his eyes. "But if you call me 'love' one more time, I'm liable to impale you on my lance and roast you over the exhaust ports of my ship. Do I make myself clear, 'my love'?" He swallowed and leaned backwards until he almost fell on his ass. Then he nodded.
"C-c-certainly," he stammered, his slick attitude gone like morning dew under the sun.
"Good. Now, those five in the corner." I pointed at five marines, three men and two women, who sat in the corner, a bit separated from the others.
"Uhm … T-they're a squad of ex-m-military. Came aboard a w-wozura ago."
"Are any of them any good at mechanics or engineering?" He hesitated. I stared at him again and reached for the lance strapped across my back, implying that I would beat the answers out of him if I had to ask a second time.
"W-well, sort of." He swallowed again, and a big drop of sweat found its way down his forehead. "The leader, gunnery sergeant Erine Rana, scored a 36 on engineering in the standard test. Her second in command, Leo Ohneaim, scored a 12 in mechanics. Leo Sillarn scored a 43 in engineering, and his brother Neol has a 10 in engineering and a 3 in mechanical, plus a 34 in combat. The last one, Melissa Cornell, have an 8 in engineering, a 12 in mechanics and 18 in combat." He looked at me and mopped his brow with a handkerchief he had pulled out from somewhere. "That's all I've got." He practically squealed the last word, like he was afraid he had given the wrong answer and someone was going to hurt him. His voice had grown thin and he looked like he was going to faint any second. Well, at least they knew which way to point the plasma torch, and that was all I asked for right now.
"Good boy." I patted him on the head. "I'll take them." He drew a sigh of relief that could be heard in President's End, I'm sure.

A few mizura later I had paid the man, sold off the mass driver and ion disruptor, and my new marines were safely aboard the Dragon's Heart.
"So," Rana said after they had settled in. "What do you want us to do … boss?" Both the tone of her voice and her attitude told me she respected me about as much as the dirt under her boots.
"We need someone to fix the dings," I replied, looking her straight in the eye. "In other words, you guys are going to be our mechanics until we can afford a proper check at a shipyard."
"And what about pay?" So you wanna get down to business, eh?
"Not much, I'm afraid. Fifty thousand a day for starters, but I expect that to increase pretty fast as we get things rolling." I looked at my guys. "That goes for you too, if you want to."
Gunny Rana frowned, then looked at the rest of her squad. The two brothers nodded, the third man shook his head and the woman just stood there with a deadpan expression.
"How 'bout combat operations?" she asked.
"None, unless you really want to do it. We need a repair crew, first and foremost. Other than that, do as you please. A word of warning, though. We will be going after Argon ships at some point, so if you or any of your crew have a problem with that I suggest we go our separate ways right now." Her jaw flexed, as if she was chewing on the words.
"No problem," she said, and I sensed that she didn't exactly love her kind. "You're on."
"Then welcome aboard the Dragon's Heart." I extended my hand, and she took it. Cautiously.

After that was set and done I sent them downstairs to get the ETM converter running, and fix the hull plating so the HISS would stop slowing down my ship. Damn pain in the neck, although having your engines come out through the nose of your ship because the frame couldn't handle the stress would be kind of a pain in the neck too.

We had just left the Military Outpost when a mission beacon turned up on my scope. It was a Paranid, and he wanted me to 'remove' an Argon trade convoy in Atreus' Clouds. Pay wasn't bad either, so I accepted and headed north. Good thing I sold my loot before we accepted that, because I suspected it would kind of ruin our Argon notoriety.

A few short jumps later and we were looking out at the soup that was Atreus' Clouds. Damn, what a fog. The marks were at the west gate, ready to jump out, but I cut them of and gave the first one a volley that hit the nose and sent it spinning. Another volley and the pilot was begging me to spare his life, but he was begging to the wrong woman. Many had begged me for mercy over the years when they found them selves on their knees before me, but the old man in the co-pilot's seat had taught me to never show mercy, and he had taught me well. I listened to his pleas while I let him feel the full fury of the Hyperion. Soon enough it was dust, and his friend, who had stayed behind to help his buddy, soon followed into an early grave. Now for the last one …

The third one had made it into The Hole, where an Argon rapid response Boreas was waiting. Damn. Lucky for me the captain of that Boreas seemed to be deaf, dumb and blind, because he didn't even bother to give me a warning and just watched as I slaughtered the freighter in front of his very eyes. The freighter pilot bailed, but since I didn't have any spare jump drives I just shot the ship to pieces and got the hell out before that Boreas captain changed his mind. The Argon government, on the other hand, took notice of my actions, as 'Betty' told me they had busted me down to a known antagonist seconds after the freighter blew. Yep, I cared. Not really. What I did care about was that the payment, and the money I had gotten by selling my leftovers, pushed me past the one million mark, something that meant I was one step closer to getting Rudilis off my back.

"And then the dragon will be free," I whispered, staring off into the horizon as I entered the coordinates for Hatikvah's Faith.
"What?" Warron looked at me.
"Oh … Nothing."
"That wasn't much," he said. I didn't reply, just continued to stare at the stars as the jump drive spooled up.

----------

Asset list:
"Dragon's Heart" - M6 Hyperion Vanguard

Credits:
1 048 656 cr.

Time and date:
768-05-01 04:43

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Sun, 9. Dec 12, 09:41

It's quiet ... Oh, so quiet ...

Unfortunately real life has taken a toll on my time and creative juices, but i finally managed to jot down another chapter. Hopefully it won't take another three and a half weeks to get chapter 10 up. Enjoy

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9 - Skull and bones.

Hatikvah's Faith, and the only thing I found worth picking on was a Boron hauling something the computer classified as a Firestorm torpedo. Some sort of heavy nuke, and it was worth some eighty grand, so I hailed the fish and told him to drop it. He didn't listen at first and told me to go perform something that's anatomically impossible for a female, so I gave him a few CIG bolts up the ass and asked again.
"Please? Or I can give you detailed information on what a CIG bolt will do to organic matter once we breach your shields …"
"Alright, alright. Boron yield freight."
"Good fish." He gave me a disgruntled look and cut the link, and a few moments later he ejected the Firestorm. I felt a slight bump as the tractor beam array dealing with cargo pickup grabbed the crate and loaded it into our cargo bay, and then we were the proud owners of a brand new heavy nuke.

I'll admit I just sat there for a few moments, savoring the moment. It felt kind of funny, actually. I had just committed my very first act of piracy under my own flag, so to speak, and it gave me the same rush I felt back in the arena, in the moments before the gates opened and let me out. It made my spine tingle in all sorts of ways, and I knew I wanted more. Much more!

Since we had pissed off the Argon, heading north to Thuruk's Beard was the only other option we had at the moment. I could of course have jumped back to Senator's Badlands, but I didn't want to waste jump fuel to get there in case they wouldn't take it. So, the weapons dealer at the equipment dock in Thuruk's Beard got the pleasure of buying our nuke, and if his grin had been wider I'm pretty sure his head would have split in half. I also picked up some sector charts on my way over there, as information was always useful. In my jazura guarding Yaki space I had learned that the quality was often questionable, but they would usually reveal the position of the gates in the sector they covered. That alone could be very useful if one was in a hurry.

We decided to head west into Teladi space after we had sold the Firestorm, and we were on our way when I spotted this. An abandoned Scorpion, right in the middle of the trade lane. A quick scan showed that it was obviously kept together by the paint job, as its hull integrity was down to six percent. I decided to claim it, get my marines to fix it as soon as they were done with the hull on the Dragon's Heart, and then sell it to the nearest shipyard. It probably wouldn't be worth much, but it was better than nothing.

"Y'know," I said to Warron as I hooked up the suit computer to the Scorpion's mainframe. "I really wish there was an easier way to claim these buggers. It's a pain in the arse to have to fly over here and hook up the computer manually."
"M-hm. Not to mention the risk involved if you want to claim something in a hot zone." My mind produced some vivid images of what would happen if a stray HEPT bolt hit me while I was out here, and I shuddered. The suit did have ablative armor, but it was designed to stop pistols and low powered rifles, not ship-grade weapons.
"Now that you mention it," Warron continued, "I heard something about a Teladi company that was developing a salvage claim software suite a while ago, supposedly capable of overriding the computer via the comlink. It might be worth checking out."
"Alright. We're heading into Teladi space anyway, so … But for now, let's see if we can't crack this baby."

Half a mizura later the Scorpion was ours, and I ordered it to dock at the Dragon's Heart. Then I sent a message to Gunny Rana and asked her to fix it when she was done with the hull. She growled something incomprehensible into the microphone and cut the link. Promising.

With the Scorpion safely tucked in under our shields we headed for Teladi space. Their reputation as moneygrubbing, backstabbing scammers who would do anything for a credit was legendary, and if I was going down the pirate route they were just the company I wanted to keep. Even in my … other life … rumor had it that the Teladi would buy anything if you just greased the right claws, which sounded like a perfect solution to get rid of the hot potatoes that would eventually come my way.

My first real meeting with the Teladi was a sector called Company Pride. Rather neat and small, at least compared to Thuruk's Beard. The first thing I did was to head over to the equipment dock and look for the salvage software suite Warron had mentioned, and lo and behold, they did have it. The only catch was the rather stiff price tag of roughly four million, which was about three million more than I had available right now. Frak. Well, guess I had to go hunting for missions then.

After drawing a blank in Company Pride, except for some more sector charts that might be useful, we headed north to Ceo's Sprite, and hit jackpot. Well, sort of. The pay was rather measly, but we managed to score a courier mission, a station defense mission and another courier mission within ten mizura. It did raise our Split notoriety to Known Venturer, which would, hopefully, lead to better rewards down the road. For now I was just happy to have taken another baby step away from Rudilis' grasp.

"Thanksss, your help is much appreciated. Here isss your payment." They had just hauled the last of the chips off the ship, and the little green one in front of me showed her appreciation in the form of the twenty one grand reward she had offered. It wasn't much, but it was something.
"No problem," I said as I closed the hatch and headed back to the bridge. Unfortunately the day was far from over. Then my wristcom came to life.
"Rana to Kayla."
"Go ahead, Gunny."
"I just wanted to inform the good captain that we have replaced all the molten slag from the space barbecue and fixed the Scorpion. Anything else you want us to do while you're at it?" The voice was dripping with sarcasm, but I ignored it.
"No, it's good. Take a break."
"Yes, ma'am." I heard boots clicking together and I got this weird mental image of her saluting her wristcom. Weird frakkers.

With the Scorpion all patched up and on its way to the local shipyard I decided to jump back to Hatikvah's Faith to see if I could find anything else to pick on. I wasn't quite prepared for the sight that met me.

"Son of a …" I'm sure my jaw fell all the way down to my belt buckle. Kha'ak. A full battle group by the looks of it.
"You can say that again," Lo added from behind the turret controls. He was already warming up the guns in case one of those clusters decided to take a closer look. Which they did, of course. Our shields dipped into the low thirties, but they held, and in the end Hatikvah's had some clouds of space debris where the four clusters we whacked had once been. Also, the local Ranking Guild saw it fit to promote me to Veteran for the trouble. Now I just had to make a couple of Kha'ak destroyers go away. In a corvette.

I'll admit that even I am not that crazy, so I left them milling about and concentrated on not pissing them off too much. On the upside they did create a shitload of havoc, and thus a lot of leftovers and bailed ships. I set my eyes on an abandoned Express and prayed that the Kha'ak would ignore this little speck of dust as we inched closer and prepared to claim it. Just a liiittle bit closer …

There. We stopped some hundred meters away, and I jumped in my suit and scooted over as fast as my thrusters could carry me. It was in a somewhat better condition than the Scorpion, so I didn't have to muck about with burnt hatches and stuff, and half a mizura later it was mine. Phew. I figured we had a better chance against the Kha'ak than an unshielded, banged up passenger transport, so I told Warron to beam over our jump drive and some energy and jump it to Company Pride for the time being. I still pondered what to do with the thing when I got a call from the shipyard telling me the Scorpion had made it. They did offer a nice sum for it, so I told them they could take it. A hundred and fifty seven thousand wasn't too bad for something that had fallen into our lap.

In the end I decided to scrap the Express, so I set a course for Company Pride to get my jump drive back. Kind of a nifty thing to have, especially when you're conducting your business right under the nose of a hostile destroyer. Then it was back to Ha … Hey, what's that?

A mission beacon popped up, and on the other end I found a Teladi who wanted some alleged pirate named Erine Cruise dead. It was good money, so I accepted and turned my nose north. A few short hops later we arrived in Blue Profit, and found our target drifting around some five clicks out off of our port bow with an escort in tow. Alright, weapons hot. Time for you to be a good little pirate and turn to ash for me.

And so she did. Being on the receiving end of six CIG bolts meant her shields vaporized in an instant, and the subspace shock waves ripped the fighter to shreds. And hello, reward. Then it was back to Hatikvah's Faith.

We came in through the north gate, and found the scope clear of Kha'ak. The fireworks behind the west gate told me they hadn't left, though. Instead they were making a mess out of the pirate base, which I didn't really mind. Bastards almost killed us, so I felt that someone beating their asses for once was just fair and square. Especially since I was in no position to risk open war with the pirates, at least not at this moment.

Speaking of pirates, a shady looking Teladi flying a Scorpion wanted me to keep a Paranid convoy from reaching its target. The money was okey, but I worried about Al for a moment. He just looked at me and gave me a nod, though.
"If they are pirates them selves, they are filth," he rumbled as I accepted and closed the link. "And if they mingled with pirates and made them selves a target they are stupid. In either case they do not deserve to live." I could live with that, and since the convoy was already in Hatikvah's Faith it was only a matter of tracking them down and make them go boom. Just a hair short of forty five grand, and my pirate notoriety improved a little bit to boot.

It didn't last, though. I had just claimed an abandoned Buster and was on my way back to the ship when Warron told me we had incoming. I barely managed to duck behind the shields of the Dragon's Heart before energy bolts started flying everywhere, and the last thing I saw before I closed the hatch was the Buster being blown sky high. Frak.

I was out of my suit and behind the stick in what seemed to be mere moments, and now I wanted blood. Their blood.
"Lo, turrets. Fire at will."
The first pirate to reach us, a Nova, was met by a hailstorm of PAC bolts from the front turrets, and it was cut down like wheat before a scythe. A second Nova followed its comrade to a flaming death, and the third, a Falcon, died as I opened up with the main battery. At that moment a Blastclaw came through the south gate, and rather than face instant death the pilot bailed after getting a few CIG bolts to the face. He's now enjoying my hospitality, or lack thereof, in the brig, and Gunny Rana and my marines got another fighter to fix. I could hear from the exasperation in he voice that she was thrilled, and as a bonus the ruckus left us with some goodies too.

"Mission beacon, captain," Warron said as the Blastclaw docked. "Station protection. They suspect pirates. Decent pay too." I glanced at it. He was right, and even if I couldn't risk open war, I figured I might crack some skulls on the behalf of someone else. Or rather two skulls, as the only ones showing up for the party was a Harrier and a Falcon Vanguard.

The Harrier almost turned into some sort of twisted, charred funnel as my CIG bolts plowed through his ship from nose to tail, right before his reactor blew and scattered him all over the sector. His buddy obviously realized he was in a fight he couldn't win, as he bailed and ran away as fast as his suit thrusters could carry him after receiving a few scorch marks from Lo's PACs. A Falcon Vanguard might be worth somethi … yeah, some asshole just came along and blew it up. He paid for that mistake with his life.

On the bright side, having pirates and Kha'ak rampaging through the sector had left some really juicy leftovers. There was a ton of missiles floating around, some of them quite valuable too. It also made me start thinking about setting up my own shop somewhere, in the form of a missile factory or two. Missiles were a great force multiplier, and the chances of running into something a lone corvette couldn't handle was quite high. Like these Kha'ak destroyers, for instance. I would probably need a destroyer of my own to deal with those suckers, but something like a frigate should be manageable with some missile spam. I just had one problem – I ain't no station builder. I don't have the faintest clue about what I need or how to place a station, so first order of the day, after I had dealt with Rudilis, will be to find someone who knows.

What I did know was that most stations that produced stuff needed food, power and ore, so I figured I had to start by looking for a suitable sector. That in turn meant I had to find a suitable scout and someone to pilot it, and I knew just the ship for the job. A Teladi Kestrel. Fastest ship in the known sectors, unless you counted the pirate version which was just a hair faster. From what little I had picked up I found it hard to believe someone could squeeze more out of the Kestrel's engine, as the mechanics back in Senator's Badlands had told me it was already running at 105% power under normal circumstances. Ah, I'm wandering off track here.

Ey, the Express made it. It wasn't worth much, but it was better than nothing. In the meantime I kept looking for suitable targets, but things seemed to have dried up a little. I spotted a Boron task force drifting through the west gate, and the Kha'ak were still at it, leaving a ton of loot in their wake, so it wasn't all bad after all. Yeah, that's a bloody fortune in missiles, and some free jump fuel to spare. Now, if I could just sneak past the Kha'ak and …

"Bloody hell!"

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Wed, 26. Dec 12, 08:21

Yei, another chapter! And it only took me two and a half weeks this time

I apologize for the lack of pictures in this chapter. Apparently dodging Kha'ak and looking for suitable prey didn't go too well with taking screenshots

Chapter 11 and maybe 12 should be up by the end of the week, but then I'm out of pre-written notes, and since I'm visiting my mom for the holidays and don't have access to my gaming rig until january 2nd it might take a while before I can continue.

Yeah, enough rambling for now. Update time!

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10 - Getting my feet wet.

"Mother frakkin' …!"
A panel behind me blew and sputtered sparks across the bridge deck. The Kha'ak destroyer turned quicker than I anticipated, and its kyon emitters were cutting down our shields way faster than I was comfortable with. I turned tail and hit the Mk1 afterburner, which immediately kicked us up to twice our normal speed and took us away from the onslaught.
"Damage report." I ordered once we were safe.
"We lost a PAC and a shield generator," Warron said. "Minor damage to the second backup mainframe." In other words, nothing too serious and the ship was still spaceworthy. Phew. "I thought you had learned by now," he remarked dryly.
"So did I," I said as I grabbed the stick again. "At least we avoided hull damage this time." Cause that would have earned me another earful from Gunny Rana. Time to head back to friendlier territory, me thinks.

'Friendlier territory', in this case, meant Company Pride. Mainly because I wanted to build up my Teladi notoriety, but also because I wanted to check for good trading spots. Hey, I had to learn, and the sooner the better. Hm, maybe the local weapons dealer knew of someone …?
"Yesss, how can I be of asssissstance?" The little green one stared at me and rubbed her hands together in anticipation.
"Yeah, I have some missiles to sell …" I hesitated for a moment as I handed her the list of what I had. "And I'm looking for some information." She grinned and showed me a disturbing amount of teeth. I fought the urge to shove my lance down her throat and went on.
"In short, trading opportunities. More specific; where to find them." I could almost see the cogs turning in her head, trying to figure out how much she could charge me for this information.
"How much would sssuch information be worth to you?" she asked. Now, why didn't that surprise me …
"Hm. A free Dragonfly missile? That's worth a thousand credits. Probably twice that on the black market."
"If you add thossse two Aurorasss I'll consssider it a deal." That was a hair over five thousand. Ah, what the heck. I guess I could afford that much.
"Alright. What do you have?"
"A name. Holigisss Trosssulisss Yohulisss the third. Ssshe knowsss thisss territory better than anyone elssse. Go asssk for her at the trading ssstation." I suddenly got the feeling I was being led on a wild goose-chase here, but what the heck.
"Alright, thanks."
"You're welcome."

Those missiles made us a hair over four hundred thousand credits richer, pushing us well past the two million mark. I returned to Hatikvah's Faith to scoop up some more leftovers, and when I returned to Company Pride this turned up on my scope. The interesting part was the Teladi offering it, though. It was the one the weapons dealer had talked about, Holigis something the third. So I called her up.
"Greetingsss, Argon. I trussst it you are calling me becaussse of the misssion?"
"That too. A little bird at the equipment dock also told me you'd be the one to ask about trading opportunities in this area, so I figured we could help each other. I'll take care of your problem, and you point me in the right direction. How does that sound?" She chewed on it for a few moments.
"On one conditsssion. You give me proper compensssation for the informatsssion." I got the feeling this would be expensive.
"How much?" She grinned, and I think I saw some acknowledgement in there.
"Ssstraight to the point, eh? In that cassse, ten million creditsss. No russsh, jussst come ssse me when you're ready." Now it was my turn to chew on it.
"That's expensive," I said.
"It'sss worth it, trussst me." Yeah, right.
"I have other … obligations to tend to, but after I've taken care of that you're on."
"A pleasssure doing busssinesss with you. By the way, here isss the lassst known coordinatesss of your mark."

"You trust that lizard?" Warron asked as I cut the link.
"About as far as I can throw her, but if we're going to find Terrel we need money and connections, and that seemed to be as good a start as any." He nodded.
"Okey, I see your point. I just don't like jumping into bed with the Teladi."
"Neither do I, but it's not like we have a lot of options right now. Now, where's that mark …"

Greater Profit, it seemed. A few sectors north of Company Pride, and conveniently enough I had a map showing me the coordinates to the gates. A few moments later we came through the south gate and started scanning for the signal from the transponder beacon Holigis had given us the frequency to.
"I got a lock," Warron said. "A few clicks off the west gate."
"Alright. Al, plot a short jump to the west gate. Lo, have the turrets ready in case we run into hostiles."
I grabbed the stick and felt the ship vibrate as the jump drive spooled up. That tingling feeling I always got before a fight crept up my spine again, and I couldn't help but grin. Moments later we had traversed the wormhole, and then it was just us and our mark. He had the balls, or whatever Boron have, to fly without escort, which made our job that much easier. A few CIG bolts up the ass, and he was dust. Hello, reward. And hello, notoriety increase. Apparently I was now a company trader, which meant increased rewards if I decided to take more missions from the Teladi. I won't complain about that.

After dusting the Boron we jumped to Ceo's Sprite to get rid of that Blastclaw we were hauling around. Gunny Rana and her crew had patched it up nicely, so it should be worth a pretty penny. I programmed the autopilot to dock at the shipyard, then we jumped back to Hatikvah's Faith to see if the Kha'ak had left us any more goodies.

And it did make a pretty penny ...

Yep, they were still at it. And that Kha'ak destroyer was still lingering about the north gate, making it almost impossible to get at the massive amount of loot it had racked up there. Blast.

Alright, new trick. I queued up a Hurricane, aimed for the Kha'ak stopping me from getting what I wanted and let it fly. I was hoping that it would get its attention and make it follow us, and it worked. For a while, at least. I kept us just outside weapons range and they followed us, but the moment I jumped back to the north gate they turned and headed back towards us at full steam, making it impossible to claim more than a few missiles. Bloody annoying bastards. I did spot a couple of Caimans and a Solano near the east gate, though, and the Kha'ak kept away long enough for me to pick them up.

Then things turned from annoying to Gunne damned irritating. I spotted a bailed Magnetar about fifteen clicks off the north gate, but the two Kha'ak kept lingering just close enough to be within weapons range. I tried several times to get close enough, but every time I tried kyon beams started flying all over the place. I think I was at it for the better part of fifteen mizura, and it was really starting to get to me. I'm going to need some bigger guns, and fast. Argh!

In the meantime I snatched a Perseus Raider someone had left all alone, and got Gunny Rana working on it. I could hear her love for me all the way from the hangar deck as I headed for Ceo's Sprite to dump the fighters and the other stuff I had picked up. I also decided to go ahead and buy the salvage claim software, as it would make my job a hell of a lot easier. It was expensive, but with the money I'd been making the last stazura or so I figured I could afford it. Then I headed to Senator's Badlands to see if they had a spare shield and some extra CIGs. We still had eight hundred megajoule left, but with a destroyer wandering around my primary hunting ground I wanted all the shielding I could get. That, and getting the ship's main guns up to full strength felt kind of reassuring.

I was on my way to the weapons dealer when I heard footsteps behind me. Light and almost inaudible through the noises of an operational equipment dock, but they were there. Then they caught up with me.
"Kalya, how nicssse to sssee you."
"Rudilis." I'm pretty sure my voice could have given everyone within a five meter radius a frostbite.
"Ssso, how'sss busssinesss? I heard you've been pessstering weaponsss dealersss over in pirate alley, how doesss it feel to have become the thing you hate mossst in the whole universsse?" I gave her a stare that I'm sure could have frozen the biggest sea on Argon Prime solid in a sezura. She did have a habit of rubbing people the wrong way, but since she was pretty high up in the Yaki hierarchy those who hated her couldn't touch her and she'd kiss up to those who could. Me, I was starting to wonder what Teladi skewer would taste like.
"Business is good," I said, trying to keep the images of roasted Teladi out of my mind. "Now, if you'll excuse me I have some of that business to attend to." I turned left towards the weapons dealer, and she stopped.
"Enjoy yourssself," she said as she wandered off. I didn't have to see her to know that she was grinning from ear to ear.

Muttering curses, I headed for the weapons dealer to pick up the two extra CIGs I needed. That damn lizard always knew which buttons to push, and I fell for it every time. Images of my family and all the people I had fought flashed before my eyes as I walked in, and I shuddered. So much … taken from me, because some idiot wanted a quick buck. I would find him, though. And he would pay for what he had done to me. For what he had made me into …

I shook the thoughts out of my head just as the Split behind the desk looked up and raised an eyebrow in a 'what the hell do you want?'-manner.
"Yes?" he growled.
"I need two concussion impulse generators for my ship," I said. "It's the Hyperion Vanguard in docking bay five." He snorted a laugh.
"Split say: Can human afford?" I gave him a disgruntled look.
"Yes."
"Show Split, then we can do business." I sighed and handed him my credit chip. He checked it, then gave me a single, slow nod. "Five mizura," he said. I muttered some more curses and headed for the equipment shop to get a new shield generator, hoping whoever was in charge would be a bit more cooperative. I couldn't shake the feeling that Rudilis had somehow done this just to piss me off, though.

The Argon running the equipment shop was actually a bit more cooperative, and I got my shield generator without much fuss. It had also put a hefty strain on my bank account, and I was down to about one and a half million. I would have to jump back to Hatikvah's Faith to see if the Kha'ak had scared some more suckers out of their ships, then.

Oh yes, the bugs were still roaming around. By now a Tiger and a Raptor had engaged one of the destroyers, but despite being two against one the Raptor's shields were dropping like an anvil and … Ouch. Yep, the main reactor went critical. What was left turned into a small nova, but the Kha'ak's shields were drained as well and the Tiger took it down. Moments later the other Kha'ak destroyer started moving in, and the Tiger had to pull back to avoid getting cut to pieces. Guess the Split weren't total whackjobs after all.

The show distracted the Kha'ak long enough for me to try my new toy on an abandoned Solano. Now, let's see …
[Salvage claim software suite online. Awaiting commands.]
Hm.
[Target: Solano, M4ES-38]
[Analyzing target …]
[Link established, bypassing firewall.]
[Accessing mainframe, please wait.]
[Firewall bypassed, accessing core.]
[…]
[Access codes overwritten. Ownership transferred.]

"Wow." The whole operation took less than five sezura, and it was all done without me having to go EVA and screw around trying to hack the scrapheap manually. Now the Solano was all mine, so I ordered it to dock at the Dragon's Heart and told Gunny Rana to get her plasma torch ready. I got some incomprehensible growling and a "Yes, ma'am!" in return. Yep, she loved me.

Since my new toy proved to be as effective as it was I went on a capping spree and claimed that bothersome Magnetar, along with a Buzzard, a Vulture, a Scorpion, a Scorpion Raider and a Jaguar. I sent the whole bunch to Thuruk's Beard and parked them above the gate until I could repair them and was about to follow. Then …

"Frakkin' hell!" Our friends the Kha'ak had closed in on us while we were busy salvaging things, and they were cutting into our shields again. I was really starting to dislike those frakkin' critters at this point. Even more so when their kyons blew another shield generator, and a PAC to boot. Stars, I would literally have killed for my own destroyer right now. I guess that's next on the list, after getting a missile factory going. For now, I'm going to head back to Thuruk's Beard and have Gunny Rana and her crew fix all the ships I claimed. I could practically hear her growling already.

Stars, what a collection. I ordered the Vulture to park at the nearest station since I couldn't fix it right away and started going through the list one by one.

"Warning. One of your ships is under attack." Okey, that got my attention.
"What the hell … Betty, locate nearest hostile."
"Boron weapons dealer. BM4GN-12. Mako Raider."
"Open a channel."
A few moments later the image of a Boron popped up on my communications screen.
"And what in the blue hell do you think you're doing!?"
"You are enemy of Boron. It is with great sadness that Boron feel obliged to attack."
"Then I'll make this simple for you. Get lost, or I will kill you."
"Boron attack en …" I'd had it and cut the link.
"Lo, light him up." The Split nodded, and the forward turrets started tracking the Mako as it headed for another one of my ships. In the meantime I grabbed the stick and hit the throttle, going after him at full speed.

"Please, do not shoot Boron." PAC fire from Lo's turrets had just vaporized his shields and given his hull a few scorch marks.
"You should have thought of that before you started shooting at my ships," I said coldly. "It's a little late to beg for mercy now." At that moment he leveled out for a few moments, enough for me to send a CIG volley his way. The image on my communications screen shook a bit, and the fish screamed before static suddenly filled the screen and his voice was abruptly cut off.
"Told ya," I muttered through clenched teeth.

The first batch had already reached the shipyard, when ...

"Warning. One of your ships is under attack." Again? What in the blasted, blue hell … I checked the log, and it was my Magnetar. Frak!
"Betty, locate hostile."
"Boron weapons dealer. BM3OI-31. Skate."
I was lucky, as he was just at the edge of my gravidar range. Okey, asshole. Time to die.

I hit the Mk1 afterburner, injector nozzles filled the combustion chambers with extra M/AM mixture, and the Dragon's Heart almost leaped forward like some predator smelling blood. My finger found the trigger and the first CIG volley slammed into the port bow of the Skate, sending it spinning off to starboard.
"Please, why you shoot at Boron?" He was on the horn in a hurry and looking quite anxious. I didn't care.
"Because you just vaporized thirty mizura of saving credits and trying not to get roasted by the Kha'ak." I cut the link and fired again, knocking his shields down completely and giving him some hull damage.
"Spare Boron's life. Boron leave ship." The Skate came to a full stop, and moments later a space suit came out through the airlock. I looked at the small, defenseless piece of multilayered fabric, transparent metal and ablative armor for a moment, then I took aim and squeezed the trigger.

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Sun, 30. Dec 12, 17:38

Suddenly: Update!

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11 - Fried fish, Split and accidents.

The small, slightly pinkish cloud that had once been a Boron space suit quickly dissipated, and I turned around and claimed his Skate for the trouble. Motherfrakkin' idiot. Then it was back to Senator's Badlands to get yet another shield generator and a spare PAC to replace the one the Kha'ak had knocked out. Stars, this was getting tiresome.

I had just returned from another bout with the weapons dealer and the local mechanic, when this weird looking Argon approached me.
"You a combat pilot?" he asked.
"Depends," I replied. "What do you want?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just want a pirate blown off the face of the universe."
"What's in it for me?" I asked.
"This." He handed me his data pad. Almost two hundred and forty grand to kill some pirate? And as a bonus the mission data showed that he was last spotted in Ocracoke's Storm, the sector north of here.
"Alright, deal." He grinned and transferred the mission data to my own pad, then I headed back to the Dragon's Heart.

I called up Warron while I was walking, giving him a heads up.
"Warm her up," I said to him. "We got our selves an assassination mission, and the clock's ticking."
"Warm her up, aye."
The ship was humming with life when I entered, so I just had to grab the stick and undock. Then it was Ocracoke's Storm next.

The mission itself was a piece of cake. The mark was lingering around the south gate as we came through, so I targeted his ship and queued up a Thunderbolt I had picked up. There was a slight hum as the tubes rotated and loaded the missile, then it was just a matter of pressing the button and watch the fireworks. The missile hit him right in the ass and took most of his engines with it. The reactor blew a few moments later, and ol' Endy Bro called me up a few sezura later to congratulate me with a job well done. Now we were past the two million mark and I wasn't about to stop there, so we headed back to our old hunting ground - Hatikvah's Faith.

The remaining Kha'ak destroyer was still lulling around, leaving heaps of missiles and abandoned ships in its wake. I picked up a Mercury Super Freighter and a Nova, along with a plethora of missiles and other stuff. Damn, I do love this salvage software. After that I did a swift jump to Company Pride to sell the stuff I had picked up, and got this thrown in my lap. Yep, an assassination mission. It didn't pay very well, but since I felt like raising my Boron notoriety a bit, and the mark was in Hatikvah's Faith, I accepted anyway.

After giving the mark a couple of Silkworms up the ass, turning the ship into debris and raising my notoriety to Confirmed Adversary, I went looking for more loot. Hm, an abandoned Pericles. Both my docking slots were full, something that made me think of getting an extra ship and a proper repair crew, but I claimed it anyway and ordered it to park some fifty clicks above the ecliptic. It should be out of reach from just about anyone there, and if someone tried to kill it I was going to rip them a new one. Unless it was the Kha'ak, of course ...

Bouncing back to Ceo's Sprite I ordered our fighter collection to dock at the shipyard. I was immediately rewarded with a hollow 'thud' and something rocking the ship.
"What the hell ...?"
It turned out our Skate was the culprit. The autopilot had apparently screwed up and slammed one of the wings into the side of the Dragon's Heart. Since it had already undocked it was outside our shields when it happened, so it slammed right into the energy barrier and disintegrated. Great. Note to self: bring the ship to a halt before releasing the fighters. Oh well, at least we had room for the Pericles now.

I stopped by the Military Outpost to drop off some of the missiles, and at the same time I sold the boatload of fighters we had collected. It made me about two and a half million all in all, which wasn't that bad. Then it was back to Hatikvah's Faith to pick up the Pericles and look for more opportunities.

Well, hello there, opportunity. A Boron weapons dealer, all alone. I whacked him around a bit with my CIGs and told him to drop his freight. He was remarkably obedient, and a few moments later he dropped a few PACs, a couple of mobile drilling systems and about two hundred Mosquito missiles. Dang, that's a lot of mossies. I picked up the Pericles and headed back to Company Pride to get rid of my cargo, and give Gunny Rana and her crew enough time to straighten out the dings in the Pericles, then it would be off to Ceo's Sprite to sell it. After I had brought the Dragon's Heart to a full stop, of course.

Whoa. After dumping the Pericles and selling the rest of the stuff I had picked up I ended up with a few hairs over five point eight million. The catch was that I had used up over half my time and only had about three and a half stazura left. Frak, this was taking way too long. Guess I had to up the ante, then. Try to make some of those juicy M3s bail might help, as they were generally worth at least a million each. I also needed a backup plan in case this didn't work out. Hm, maybe Gunny Rana could help me with that ...

"Hey, Gunny."
"What." It sounded more like a statement than anything else.
"Do you or any of your crew have any training in sabotage?"
"Yeah. How come?"
"I might need a ... favor in the near future."
"You mean apart from banging out dings and keeping this rust bucket flying?"
"Mhm." I heard a sigh.
"Alright, what do you need." Her voice was dripping with mock exasperation.
"I'll tell you when we find a suitable candidate."
"Great, the boss wants to keep secrets ..." Then she cut the link.
"Yep, that went well ..." I mumbled to myself as we prepared to jump back to Hatikvah's Faith.

As we returned to our old hunting ground, a Yaki ship approached us and a familiar face appeared on the communications screen.
"Greetingsss, Kayla."
"Well, I'll be damned ... Gutosos." Gogoeolos Towisaris Gutosos the third to be exact. She had been my wing commander when I first started flying for the Yaki. "What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Trying to get rid of sssome garbage. There isss a convoy in Nopileosss' Memorial that needsss to go away, and I can't do it. Will you help? There will of courssse be a reward." A Fujin Raider could hammer away at the shields of a freighter all day without getting through. No wonder she needed help.
"Sure," I said. "Just give me the mission data, and I'll make 'em go away."
"Thanksss," she said. "Sssending data now."
"Got it. Al, take us to Nopileos' Memorial. East gate."
"Nopileos' Memorial, east gate, aye."

The jump drive spooled up, and some fifteen sezura later we came through the east gate into Nopileos' Memorial.
"Alright. Eyes peeled, weapons hot." Once again the rush of battle crept up my spine, and I couldn't help but smile. The convoy turned out to be roughly in the middle of the sector, making its way west, so I hit the throttle and headed straight for them.

"Please, stop shooting. I'll give you some of my freight." Sorry, pal. I'm here to finish you. Besides, a single Rapier would barely be enough to cover my jump fuel expenses. I pulled the trigger again, firing another CIG volley at his ship. They hit him just behind the bridge, making his ship spin like mad and beating his shields into oblivion.
"Have mercy!" he whimpered.
"Sorry, left it in my other ship." Yet another CIG volley hit him, blowing large holes in his hull. I heard the decompression alarm going off in the background as he begged for mercy once again. I didn't give him any. He was my opponent, and I was going to wipe him out as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Just like the ones in the arena. Worthless scum, all of them! I dropped behind him and fired again, taking out his engines and leaving him all but dead in space. The ship was bleeding atmosphere and drive plasma like some kind of wounded animal, and it started rolling over as the engine spat white hot gases all over the place. It probably wouldn't last ... long. Yep, there she blew. It was over, and I let go of the stick for a moment. What a rush!

I got a message from Gutosos a few moments later, congratulating me and telling me she had transferred the money as promised. I did a quick estimate. That would land us on just a smidge over six million, which was good, but not enough. Almost as a response to an untold prayer I scanned an Argon Military Supply Transporter as it flew by, and lo and behold. It was carrying two CIGs, which would give me about four hundred thousand each.

"Give me your cargo, and I'll let you live." He sneered at me.
"Go play with an asteroid." Alright, then. If you wanna play hard, let's play hard. A couple of CIG volleys later, and his shield was on its last leg.
"How 'bout now? Or should I keep blasting holes in your ship?"
"Alright, alright. I'll give you my cargo, just stop shooting." Funny how big guns can soften up even the toughest of pilots.
"Good boy." A few moments later the two CIGs came flying out the cargo bay door, and I let him go.

A short argument with a stubborn Boron later, and I was once again back in Company Pride. The weapons dealer just gave me the "what do you have for me this time?"-look when I walked in, and it made me smile a bit.
"Ssso, what have you ... acquired thisss time?"
"Two CIGs. I have 'em outside." She just gave me a nod and looked at my cargo list, then transferred the money. Guess I had to do something right, then ...

"I'm picking up a patrol mission, skip. Three sectors, they suspect Kha'ak."
"Alright, tell them we'll do it." I was still in the mood to pick on something, and blasting Kha'ak could only improve my notoriety.

We didn't have to wait long before the first group showed up. Four Interceptors and a scout? No problem. Or so I thought ...

"Pauk! Kevok kv'var!" It was Split, and meant something like "Frak! Worthless shit!"
"Problems, Lo?"
"Malfunction. Damaged mainframe ejected all our PACs.* Last Kha'ak destroyed them before dying." Ouch. That was serious. And it would cost me a fortune. Blasted crap.
"Alright, disconnect the damn thing before it ejects something we really need." I took a deep breath and muttered a few curses of my own. To make matters worse, I knew both the military outpost in CEO's Sprite and the local equipment dock were bone dry, so I probably had to jump back to Senator's Badlands to replace them. That would cost me close to ... what, four hundred thousand? Frak. Double frak. I still had a job to do, though. And the mission guidance was pointing towards Thuruk's Beard now.

The rest of the patrol went by without a hitch. The Kha'ak were stupid enough to pick on anything but us and got their collective asses handed to them, which didn't exactly improve my mood. I did catch myself wondering exactly how smart it was to pick on a Split Dragon, escorted by about eight fighters, in an M4, though. The bug lasted about two sezura before it was dust, and since I got a message telling me I had done a nice job I guess that was the last of them.

Me? I was still in the mood to blow things up, and this assassination mission that popped up on my scope suited me just fine. Our firepower was significantly weakened without our turrets, but I figured I could nail one ship and get out before any escorts he might have could knock down our shields. Besides, the reward was almost half a mill, which would cover the PACs I had to replace.

First I had to fly up to Rhonkar's Fire to talk to some contact my employer had hired to find this ... Idmancketvahs, then I had to go to where ever he pointed me. Great. I had done a couple of these missions while I worked for the Yaki, and annoyingly often the mark was in the same sector I had started from. Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out these guys couldn't find their own asses with both hands in their back pockets. Alright, here we go.

The mark turned out to be in a sector I was very familiar with, namely Hatikvah's Faith. He proved to be a tricky one, and used his ventral thrusters to dodge the initial volley. It just made me grin, as I had finally found someone who could give me a challenge for a change. He obviously knew a lot of tricks, as he kept dodging my shots while we circled each other in some sort of bizarre dance of death. He opened fire a couple of times, but since he couldn't really do any damage against one gigajoule of shielding I thought of it more as an act of defiance than anything else.

"Gotcha!"
He finally made a mistake. I took the chance and fired, hitting the nose of his fighter and sending him into a flat spin. A second volley sent him tumbling end over end and winged him pretty good. He had lost a pretty good chunk of his port wing, and the ship was sputtering sparks and leaking plasma all over the place. I lined up for the kill when something strange happened.
"Mesh'laa chuuba, intarii. Ch'kek, anarée ia n'iibo." I stared at the screen, probably looking dumbfounded as hell, then I looked at Al.
"He say you fought well. Wants you to finish the job." Somehow that suddenly made it that much harder to do it. He knew what was coming, and he was apparently fine with that.
"You fought well too," I said, not really knowing if he could understand me. He gave me a slow nod, then I pulled the trigger and the screen went blank.

Moments later I got a message from my employer, thanking me on behalf of the Paranid government for my efforts against crime and telling me they had transferred my reward. My eyes saw the words on the screen, but my mind was preoccupied with what hat just happened. For a moment there I thought of what I would do when my own end would eventually come. Would I chose the honorable way, or fight tooth and nail to escape until the very end?

It only lasted for a sezura, then a Terracorp weapons dealer caught my attention. I scanned him and found out he was loaded with goodies, so I said hello with my CIGs.
"Drop it." I said. I don't know what the hell he was doing, but it looked like he was trying to hide under his seat while still strapped into it.
"Alright, alright! It's not worth my life, just take it! Take everything!" He really did eject just about everything, and moments later I had an ion disruptor, four mass drivers, some two hundred units of MD ammo and three PACs in my cargo hold. I also found a few units of space fuel floating around, which I picked up before bouncing to Ceo's Sprite to sell the lot. Then it was just a matter of heading 'home' to find some PACs.

At least it would be home for another two stazura ...

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*: To be honest I have no idea what happened here, whether the game borked up or I managed to press the wrong button somewhere, but suddenly all my PACs were gone. Oh well

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Wed, 16. Jan 13, 00:08

Hm, let's see if I can get this to work with IE instead ...

If all goes well I'll post the remaining chapters in rapid succession, then throw in the pictures afterwards.

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12 - A screw, a nut and a w(r)ench.

Hello, Senator's Badlands. I called up the equipment dock and checked their stock, and they did have the PACs I needed. And it was going to cost me. Hm, maybe this could give me a boost? I knew the distilleries were located in the arse end of Weaver's Tempest, but with a reward of over one point one million I had to try.

Well, that went to hell pretty quick. Even with the afterburner I couldn't get there in time, and with over forty clicks and about one and a half mizura left on the clock I had to abort. Frak. That money would have been really handy to have. Hey, what's this? Assassination mission? And the fish was willing to pay just a hair under one million for the job. Eh, what the heck. I decided to do it. The mark was in Senator's Badlands, so I dumped the chips and warmed up the jump drive. Coming through the south gate, the guidance pointed us toward the north gate. A short hop later, and the Viper the fish told me to take out was in my sights. It was kind of ironic to see a Boron fly a Split ship, but what the hell. I was here to kill the bastard, not philosophize on the oddities of the Commonwealth species.

The fish was surprisingly skilled, and dodged the first few shots effortlessly. However, he was in a slower, more cumbersome ship and in the end I managed to whittle him down and blow some nice holes in his hull. He jumped ship just as the reactor blew, and I thought the whole deal was over. Not so. My employer obviously wanted this one dead, so I gave the fish in the suit a few CIG bolts to the face. That did the trick, and hello nine hundred and fifty six grand. This pushed me past nine million, but I knew I had to spend some of it to get the Dragon's Heart back into combat worthy condition. Alright, here goes nothing.

Ouch. That set me back some three hundred and thirty thousand, but at least my turrets had some bite again. I also called the shipyard and ordered a Chokaro military transport to act as my mobile repair base, freeing up the docking slots on the Dragon's Heart for more suitable things. I knew it only had three docking slots as opposed to the four on most Commonwealth design I had seen, but it was fast and with decent shielding and cargo space. That set me back about one point five million with all the gear I wanted for it, but I figured it would be worth it. Besides, that meant we would have a backup if Rudilis decided not to keep her end of the bargain. I did have an ace or two up my sleeve, but four and a half jazura in the arena had taught me that very few things went according to plan. I had to plan ahead, and having a backup would make things easier. If everything else failed I could always use one of the freighters I had captured, but that was kind of a last resort. However, right now I had more pressing matters to attend to as I had about thirteen million to go and less than two stazura to get them.

Jumping to Nopileos' Memorial we started scanning for easy targets, but we didn't get far before a mission beacon popped up. Some Argon wanted us to dust a Paranid, and he was offering good money for it. Very good, in fact. Only problem was that our mark was in Light of Heart, and if memory served me right that was an Argon sector. The Argon didn't exactly love us, and chances were he would run into sector patrols before we could get to him, but for over three quarter of a million I was willing to give it, and him, a shot.

Nope, didn't work. Heart of Light turned out to be a heavily defended sector, and our dear pirate had a full missile barrage on his tail before we even got close. Something the computer classified as a Tomahawk, apparently some kind of heavy missile. I would have loved to take a closer look, but we were starting to get a lot of unwanted attention from the local sector patrols so I got the hell out and had Al take us back to Hatikvah's Faith.

Back in Hatikvah's we picked up a mission beacon from another Yaki, and I decided to have a look.
"Ah, frak ..." I muttered when I saw who was offering it.
"What?" Warron wondered.
"Rabeka Kayean." I said. "A real, bona fide nutcase. Let's say that she usually just shoot and never bother with the questions. That's why the chief usually sent her in first whenever we had incursions from the Commonwealth races, and kept her fighter locked down the rest of the time. Wonder what the hell she's doing out here?"
"You done yappin' amongst yourselves?" Her voice came through the speakers like a knife cutting through meat, a sound brimming with barely contained aggression and contempt. I turned toward her and held her gaze.
"Yeah. What's up?"
"Got a bit of a problem. Two Argon ships in Danna's Chance, and the chief want 'em dead. Can't breach their shields, so I need ..." She made a snorting sound. "... help." The last word barely made its way out through her clenched teeth. I, on the other hand, found it slightly amusing. Besides, the pay was good and the marks were in a pirate sector, which made it less likely that they would get whacked by sector patrols.
"Alright, I'll do it." She just glared at me and nodded once, then she transferred the mission data.
"Take us to Danna's Chance, Al. East gate."
"Danna's Chance, east gate, aye."

The convoy was just a few clicks ahead of us when we entered Danna's Chance, so I lined up and opened fire right off the bat. They tried to bribe me with a couple of Rapier missiles, but got roasted instead. I briefly wondered why they would try to get rid of my by offering missiles that was literally worth one thousandth of what Rabeka would pay me as I scooped up the aforementioned missiles. Like 'Here's a missile that's worth jack shit compared to your reward, would you please leave us alone?'. Stars!

As I finished cleaning up I got an offer for another convoy raid. Argon convoy in Priest's Pity, and there were three ships this time. Another million to dust some nobody who apparently pissed off the wrong people? I saw no problem with that. The convoy skippers did see a problem, and they both tried to bribe me with worthless crap and begged for mercy. They got CIG bolts instead, and one of them was smart enough to bail before I blew him to pieces. I claimed the ship and rewarded him by not shooting his ass while he was making his way for the closest station. I imagined the Paranid would treat him with just enough courtesy to avoid a political incident, which, given what I knew about the Paranid, might be a fate worse than death.

I cleaned up the few stray missiles the convoy had left and ordered the Vulture to park at the local trading station, then I headed north to Split Fire to look for more goodies. Hm, what was that? 'Paranid Communications Facility'? They did have some interesting items, though. Like the Commodity Logistics Software, a software module that was supposed to belong exclusively to the Argon. The thought of the Paranid stealing the Argon government's precious secrets amused me somehow, and I stifled a chuckle as I turned the ship around and headed north.

Split Fire didn't have anything useful for us. There was just a bunch of energy-, food- and mineral traders, and their cargo wasn't worth enough for me to pick on them. Brennan's Triumph next, then. Hey, a message from the Yaki shipyard? Hm, looked like my Chokaro was finished. I sent it to the equipment dock to pick up an extra shield, and named it 'Chop Shop' for lack of a better name. Now I just had to find a crew for it and some mechanics to fix the ships I ran across, but that would have to wait until I could pay Rudilis. Otherwise we might need it our selves.

We continued east into Brennan's Triumph, but apart from a bailed Harrier we claimed it was just more of the same. As in nothing useful for us. Flying down into Danna's Chance we didn't spot anything useful there either, so I decided to check out Freedom's Reach instead. However, I didn't get that far before an Argon weapons dealer drifted into range. I scanned him for the heck of it, and I'm glad I did. He was carrying some nice stuff, and I managed to 'talk' him into giving me one of those Hammer heavies and some mosquitoes. According to the computer the Hammer heavy torpedo was worth some eighty grand, and every drop counted. Apparently I scared the pilot so shitless he wouldn't stick around and jumped ship, but a Teladi salvager came along and snatched it before I could claim it. Crap. Also, a Minotaur battle group had just jumped in through the east gate, and I wasn't about to push my luck any further than I had to. So, next stop: Freedom's Reach.

Hm. A bunch of asteroids and a trading station at the ass end of this rock quarry. Not much to write home about, but if these asteroids were any good I might consider setting up shop here. For now the trading station was transmitting a mission beacon, which might be worth checking out.

It was. Almost two hundred and forty grand to haul some cartography chips wasn't that bad. I kind of wondered how they were going to transfer the chips between the Dolphin Hauler and the Dragon's Heart, but I figured they would have a transporter on board. Otherwise we would be pretty screwed ...

No need to worry. They did have a transporter, and we made it with half a mizura to spare. As we were offloading the chips this Teladi approached me ...
"Are you the captain of thisss ssship?"
"I am."
"Would you like to undertake a misssion for me? It'sss quite easssy."
"What?"
"Freight ssscan. You fly out there and ssscan for potentsssial targetsss for usss." So they were pirates, eh?
"What's in it for us?"
"Five percsssent of the average worth of any waresss you find." Hm. If I was lucky that would be quite a bit.
"Give me the mission data, and I'll se what I can do."
"Many thanksss, misss ..." She raised the scales above her eyes in a questioning manner.
"Kayla." I said. She kept looking at me. "Just Kayla." I thought I saw a hint of recognition in her eyes, but I wasn't sure so I let it go.

"Alright," I said as I sat down behind the stick again. "Look sharp, and let's find some juicy freighters."
"Juicy freighters aye, skip." Warron said.
"Al, take us to Danna's Chance, north gate."
"North gate, aye," he rumbled. The jump drive spooled up, and a few sezura later we were in the wormhole.

Danna's Chance turned out to be pretty dry, but we did manage to scan a few freighters before we ran out. I decided to go east next, into Nopileos' Memorial, as it had only two gates worth worrying about and usually lots of traffic. It worked a bit better, but it was still slow. I scanned what I could and then moved east to Hatikvah's Faith again. This was one of those times I really wished I had a faster ship, but I didn't so I had to make do with what I had. It worked out pretty okey, though, and netted me some four hundred and forty three grand plus change. Not bad.

Then things got busy. First I picked up a http://i.imgur.com/FGsWf0p.jpg courier mission, then an assassination mission as I still had some six mizura left on the clock before Imanckulot would get his pants in a twist. With over one point one million at stake I could at least try, even though I figured this Imanckolanks would probably be roasted by sector patrols before I could even get near him.

Yep. He got wasted by sector patrols while I was still making my way toward him. Frak. One point one million down the drain. Oh well. I got another chance when I returned with the food I was supposed to pick up for our Triskele champion, though. Another assassination, and even though it was about one third the reward of the previous mission I took it to improve Argon notoriety. Might come in handy. Or I might just use it to raid some more of their ships.

Hooray, a round trip. My employer sent me to Company Pride to talk to some contact who knew the whereabouts of the fish I was supposed to fry, and he sent me back to Hatikvah's Faith. Bloody morons. Like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't find their asses with both hands in their back pockets. Argh! At least there were no sector patrols here to steal my prey, but I didn't want to take any chances so I gave him a Thunderbolt up the ass and watched him burn. Easy money, and my Argon notoriety went up to Citizen. It also pushed me past the ten million mark, but now I only had about a stazura left before Rudilis would start playing with buttons. The wrong kind of buttons.

I looked around real quick to see if there were any more suitable targets, but things looked pretty dry so I decided to head west to Nopileos' Memorial. It proved to be a quite profitable decision, as another one of these weird looking Argons had an assassination mission for me. Antlers? Seriously? What the hell, he gave me almost half a million good reasons to do it, so I accepted and got the mission data.

Hm, my contact was in a sector called Third Redemption. I had no clue where that was, but the mission guidance pointed me toward Hatikvah's Faith so I jumped there. And now I was supposed to head … south? Paranid space? Might be interesting, although I knew I had enough notoriety to avoid ending up on their 'shoot on sight'-list. Oh key, here goes nothing.

The guidance pointed me east, so I did a short jump to the east gate and then turned around. Lucky for me the contact was on a solar power plant in the sector, because I was running low on jump fuel. Guess I had to burn some money, then. I also considered picking up a tractor beam while I was at it, as they could come in handy for my next stage. Factories. I didn't have enough notoriety, though, so I had to skip it. Besides, I had a job to do and the mark was in a sector called Gunne's Crusade. The guidance pointed me north, so I did another skip and lo and behold. My mark was lingering around the south gate, and almost flew right into my cross hairs. He got a few solid CIG volleys up his ass and died a rather unspectacular death. It was spectacular enough for his buddy to take offense, though, but since I didn't want to piss off the pirates any more than I had to I turned tail and got the hell out. I had something bigger in store for them.

As I returned to Third Redemption there was another assassination mission waiting for me. Good money, so I accepted and headed over to Clarity's End to end him. Guess I had to watch out for missiles now, as he was flying something the computer classified as an M8 bomber. A 'Gladiator', something that looked like the unholy offspring of a Nova and a planetary shuttle. He died just like the rest, though, and he didn't even have a single missile on board. Bastard.

Now, since Third Redemption had a shipyard and an equipment dock, I decided to head back there and sell the Harrier I was carrying around plus a few odds and ends I had picked up along the way. It wasn't much, but they did give me some hundred and sixty five grand for it. That, and they made me a Friend of Priest Duke. Maybe I could get that tractor beam, then.

I could, but it was quite expensive. I had plans to put it to good use, though, as I probably needed to tow some asteroids around when I got as far as setting up my factory. Either that or get a bunch of freighters to carry stuff around, which would make the whole thing more vulnerable. Pirates had a thing for picking on freighters, and since I couldn't watch them around the clock I wanted to have as few as possible roaming around. Guess I would still have some, but they would be limited to core sectors or, hopefully, have a jump drive and the brains to use it.

With no more suitable missions in sight I once again jumped to Hatikvah's Faith to see if I could find something to pick on. I found an OTAS weapons dealer, but he obviously got scared so shitless he humped himself to death against the north gate. His Solano escort proved to be a bit more cooperative, and jumped ship after getting smacked around a bit by Lo's turrets. Now, let's see if we can't use that thing to get some extra leverage …

"Hey, Gunny?"
"What." It still sounded like a statement.
"About that favor I was talking about …"
"Yeah."
"You think you can rig the reactor of that Solano so that it goes critical if you send a subspace signal to it? And set up a five minute countdown, plus shutting it down when the signal is played backwards? Also, it has to be smooth enough not to be detected by ordinary scans."
Silence. Then …
"We could probably pull that off, yes. It's going to take some time, though."
"As long as you don't use more than one stazura." She snorted a very uncharacteristic laugh. "I'll let you know. Rana out." Then she cut the link, and I leaned back. Screw or be screwed …

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Wed, 16. Jan 13, 00:10

It works!

----------

13 - Bouncin' skulls.

While Gunny Rana and her crew was working on the Solano I found an Argon military supply transporter to pick on. He crumbled like a biscuit and gave me a CIG and a couple of Hammer heavy torpedoes without even launching the considerable amount of fighter drones he had on board. Good, cause they could have given us some serious trouble. An Argon weapons dealer gave us an ion disruptor, an impulse ray emitter and two hundred and fifty seven Firefly missiles, after being knocked about for the better part of two mizura. The pilot was stubborn as a pig, so in the end I let her go. The stuff she had dropped was still worth it. Imagining the faces of the ranking guild as they busted me down from Citizen to Argon Confirmed Insurgent also made it worth it.

After scooping up the leftovers I jumped to the military outpost in Ceo's Sprite to sell the lot. It gave me a very nice sum, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. Crap. I had to up the ante, and make sure my little contingency plan was set in motion. Then, as if she had read my mind …

"Gunny Rana to captain Kayla." I picked up the intercom and answered her.
"Yeah, go ahead, Gunny."
"The Solano's reactor is rigged. Wasn't as hard as we thought it would be."
"Good, set the receiver to channel seventy eight, 63.6 GHz, and program it to trigger on this signal." I jotted down a few commands on my keypad and sent her the signal I had programmed my data pad to transmit.
"That's … Special." she said. If I didn't know better I'd say she was getting mushy on me.
"Old memories," I replied. "How long until you're done?"
"Give us another five mizura, and we're done."
"Alright, keep me posted. Kayla out." Then I cut the link, leaned back in my seat and took a deep breath. Frak.

"Warron, call up the Chokaro and have it fly to the military outpost in Ceo's Sprite. We need some mechanics for it, and I want it out of Yaki space for the time being. Al, plot a course to Senator's Badlands. North gate." They did their things , and a few sezura later we were in Senator's Badlands. We were about halfway to the equipment dock when Gunny Rana called me up and said they were done with the Solano. I planned on using it as a bargaining chip, just in case we didn't make it or Rudilis decided to screw us anyway. I knew the shipyard crew stored fighters they had gotten during the day and started working on them next morning, so hopefully my little secret wouldn't be discovered on the standard scan they put all ships through as they arrived.

The shipyard had thick hull and strong shields so the relatively small reactor on the Solano shouldn't be enough to bring it down. However, it could do some damage, and I was counting on the fact that Rudilis wouldn't risk losing valuable spare parts and production capacity. I didn't like the thought of gambling with innocent lives, but in this case it was a price I was willing to pay to gain freedom for me, my crew and my ship. And to hell with the rest of them.

I brought the Dragon's Heart to a halt for a moment and ordered the Solano to fly to the shipyard. Watching it fly away I took a deep breath and hoped it wouldn't be necessary to use it. However, knowing Rudilis, we needed all the leverage we could get.

With the Solano on its way I docked at the equipment dock to pick up a few things, namely a bioscanner and a docking computer. Apparently the bioscanner could be used to make an estimation on the skills of marines on board the military outposts, which would save me from guessing blindly and end up hiring dingbats who would require tons of training to be useful. I didn't even get half the techno-babble they had written about the docking computer, but the gist of it was that it made docking a seemingly instantaneous affair due to some gravitational space distortion or something. Whatever. I did know it would come in handy, though. Then it was time to address our little time-and-money issue …

(sigh)

"Alright, gather 'round." I said as I entered the bridge. They all looked at me. I sighed. "I'll make this as short as possible. We need to ramp up our pirating activity to get things done in time. That may include Split and Paranid ships in addition to Argon and Boron ones. I don't like it, but we need to collect nine million in under a stazura, so our options are kind of limited. If any one have a problem with this, let me know and I'll try to find another way."

"I, for one, would love to see you take on a Split ship," Lo said, grinning. "You're good, but I bet they'll give you a run for your money." Then he glanced at Al.
"If it is the gods' will that the citizens of the Paranid empire will ensure our survival, then so be it," he rumbled. "Do as you please."
"I guess it's done, then." I looked around. No one said anything. "Alright, back to your stations. Al, take us to Hatikvah's Faith."
"As you command." The jump drive spooled up, and a few moments later we were in the wormhole.

The first thing that met us in Hatikvah's Faith was a freight scan. Traffic was pretty good, so I just flew around and scanned whatever I could find. I also ran across a Minotaur full of Flails and Hammers, but I had no idea if they counted or not. With my luck, probably not. I also found a station protection mission, but since the Split offering the contract was expecting Yaki forces I declined. Maybe he could get the Minotaur to do it? Again, probably not. I still got some four hundred thousand from the scanning mission though, so it wasn't all bad.

Then things started going south a bit. I picked on an Argon high tech trader, but he wasn't willing to give up his cargo and went down with his ship. In retrospect it might have been less than optimal to use the full force of the Dragon's Heart's main battery to convince him. It also took me a while to notice that the bioscanner measured the condition of the pilot of the ship and gave an estimate of his 'bravado', or the 'how easy will it be for me to convince you to give up your freight, your ship or both'-factor. Ya live, ya learn.

The bad streak kind of continued, as I targeted a Boron weapons dealer that looked promising. Unfortunately he wasn't carrying jack shit, so it was kind of a waste to follow him. I did discover some loot floating around in the vicinity, so I flew over and picked up the consolation prize instead. A few missiles and some e-cells wasn't all bad, and I had started to appreciate missiles when it came to killing things fast. Like assassination marks. Those pesky sector patrols were annoying dusting my marks, so landing the killing blow quickly was kind of imperative if I wanted to get paid.

"Oh, nice."
I had just scanned a Terracorp weapons dealer, and it looked like the bad streak had ended. He was carrying a lot of nice stuff, so I called him up.
"Your cargo. Drop it." He snorted a laugh.
"Why don't ye go back to th' kitch'n, whelp? Gonna take more than a wee wench t' scare me." I rolled my eyes and smacked him about the nose with my CIGs a couple of times.
"So ye wanna play tough, eh? Go get 'er, boys!" A couple of Buster Vanguards launched from the TM and immediately opened fire. I sighed. A TM and a couple of interceptors against one of the most heavily armed and shielded corvettes in the entire Commonwealth? Oh, please.
"Lo, dust 'em." The sound of PACs echoed through the hull as Lo's turrets blew away the escorts. I turned my attention to the pilot again and gave him a volley that vaporized his shields and knocked out his port secondary thruster.
"Drop it. I'm not gonna ask again." He looked at me and gulped.
"Alright, alright. I'll give you some of my freight."
"No," I said. "You're gonna give me all your freight."
To make a long story short he tried to stall for as long as possible, but a little coercing in the form of a few CIG bolts made him see things my way. In the end he dropped everything except five flails, but since I had robbed him for over a million credits worth of cargo I let him go.

Yeah, that was closer to one point three million. The weapons dealer at the military outpost in Ceo's Sprite had just walked off with the last crate of mass driver ammo, and I now had fourteen million two hundred and fifty two thousand one hundred and fifty credits at my disposal. Stars, this could actually work! I only had about seventy stazura* left, but if I could keep this up I could actually make it! And the possibilities after I had gotten Rudilis off my back … Whoa! But for now, back to the grind.

"I'm picking up a mission beacon," Warron said as we undocked and flew away from the military outpost. "Assassination. The employer claims it's 'easy'." I took a look at the data.
"Hm. Pay's kind of bad, but it's still money. Tell her we accept." On the other end of the link I saw the Teladi offering the mission give us a slow nod, then the mission data came through.

"The ssship you are looking for, a Peregrine, isss located in the sssector Blue Profit." A bomber, eh? The contact my employer had hired to find my mark pointed to the map on her data pad. "I have already transssfer the ssship'sss beacon code and frequencsssy to your ssship'sss navigation computer. Happy hunting."
"Thanks."

I was on my way back to the Dragon's Heart when I heard the clattering sound of metal against metal.
"Excuse Boron many, many times. Are you by any chance a combat pilot?" I turned around and looked at the Boron as it used the mechanical arms of its containment suit to raise itself to eye level. It made them look like some sort of mechanical spiders, and to be honest they looked kind of creepy.
"I might be," I said, taking a step back and keeping the creature at arm's length.
"Serendipitous. We would like to have someone … how shall I say it, disposed of. Would you like to have this job?" It used a smaller arm to fish a data pad out of a pocket in the suit and handed it to me. I looked at it. Another assassination, and if I managed to pull off the other one it would add up to a little over four hundred grand.
"Alright," I said. "I'll do it."
"Marvelous! I will transfer the data to you now. Many thanks for your services." A few moments later my data pad chirped to tell me the information had been transferred.
"No problem," I said, then I turned around and headed back to my ship.

"Al, take us to Blue Profit. North gate."
"As you will. Jump device charging, ten percent … Twenty …"
Fifteen sezura later we emerged from the north gate. Our mark was some four clicks ahead of us, and he had a bunch of escorts. I queued up the Thunderbolt and the Banshee I had saved and got rid of the heaviest escorts, then I told Lo to keep his eyes peeled and his turrets hot and went in after the Peregrine.

"Crazy motherf …"
The ship was still echoing from the impact, but the Peregrine, who had just tried to ram us, just bounced off the shields and drifted helplessly into space. I rewarded him with death by CIG and muttered a few curses. With the stupidity some of these people displayed I felt more and more like I was doing the Commonwealth a favor by weeding out morons who should never be allowed to procreate.
"Everyone alright?" I asked. My crew just nodded and went back to work. Even Gunny Rana chimed in to ask me what the hell I was doing, then went on to inform me that her and her marines were OK.
"On to our next target, then. Al, take us to Hatikvah's Faith. South gate."

Once again I was lucky, as the pirate was straight ahead and just a few clicks away. And once again I gave the heaviest escorts a missile up the ass and left the rest to the turrets while I moved in to finish our prey. He proved to be a bit trickier than the Peregrine, but in the end he too had to bite the dust. The money rolled in, and I had apparently done a good enough job to make me a Boron Confirmed Friend. That would probably last about two mizura.

Heading toward the north gate I spotted an abandoned Pegasus. It was basically free money, so I claimed it and ordered it to dock with the Dragon's Heart. What I didn't spot was the two pirates coming in from behind, and they blew up my Pegasus literally ten meters before it was about to dock. Needless to say, it kind of annoyed me …

Whipping the Dragon's Heart around, I locked on to the two Discos and hit the afterburner. They were chipping away at a Teladi weapons dealer, seemingly without a care in the world, and didn't notice death approaching on swift wings from behind.
"Lo," I said as we closed in on them. "Light 'em up." The turrets locked on and started tracking them, and the first PAC bolts hit what appeared to be the leader just as the Teladi went down in flames. It took him about two sezura to start screaming at me.
"Hey, what's the idea of shooting at me?"
"You destroyed my catch," I hissed. "I thought claiming your life would be a fair compensation."
"Now, wait just a minute … Can't we make a deal?" The PAC bolts cutting into his hull and blowing his reactor sky high answered that question for him. His buddy tried to run, but he was too slow and went down in flames as well.

It was over. I leaned back, closed my eyes and took a deep breath while the adrenaline wore off.

As I opened my eyes again an abandoned Demeter drifted into scanner range, so I fired the engines and flew over to claim it. It even had a friend, in the form of a Demeter Super Freighter that was floating in space nearby. If I could fix them, they might become useful. I was still skeptical to the thought of having freighters roaming around, but I figured I would need at least some. Besides, I could always use something to carry leftovers for me. If I could just find a more efficient way of picking up these crates than running them over …

The computer yanked me out of my daydreams, as it had found a new mission beacon. Hm, transporting food for some champion? Must be a wild party then. Ah, what the hell. The money was good, so I accepted and told Al to plot the shortest possible course to this crystal fab. It would be a nice opportunity to test my docking computer too, to see if it was worth the investment.

The jump drive spooled up, the light of a thousand suns lit up the bridge for a brief moment, and then we were once again in the wormhole.

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Wed, 16. Jan 13, 00:12

Fourteen.

----------

14 - Reaching for freedom.

The mission was quite easy, and with a little help from my new toy we made it with one and a half mizura to spare. The docking computer did exactly what it said on the tin, and as a bonus the mission clocks were apparently programmed to compensate for the time distortion so we didn't get any nasty surprises. Nice. I only had about fifty three mizura left before Rudilis would start making our lives very difficult, but now things were rolling.

Well, at least for a while. Things were slowing down in Hatikvah's Faith again, and this Terracorp weapons dealer I just picked on would only give me an IRE. There were no other juicy targets in sight either, so I decided to take us to Nopileos' Memorial to see if I had any better luck there.

Coming through the south gate in Nopileos' Memorial I had a nice view over the entire trade lane, and even a couple of promising mission beacons.

"Oh, mama …"

This looked very promising indeed. A Paranid wanted us to attack a convoy in Aladna Hill, and he was willing to pay almost half a million for each dead ship. The Argons didn't harbor any love for me anyway, and the feeling was starting to become mutual, so I accepted.
"Al, take us to Aladna Hill. South gate."
"As you wish. Aladna Hill, south gate."

The convoy was some forty clicks out when we came through, apparently heading for the middle of nowhere. I gave the old gal full throttle and hit the afterburner at the same time, and once again the ship almost leaped into action. It was an almost intoxicating feeling, and the tingling down my spine made me grin like an idiot.

Closing in on the convoy I scanned the area for hostiles, but I was disappointed. None? You have a Confirmed Insurgent flying through one of your sectors, and can't even be arsed to chase me? Stars, what the hell is wrong with you people? Well, it's at least going to make my job a whole lot easier.

It was a pretty quick affair, and two of the ships even bailed. One of them, a Demeter super freighter, was in pretty good shape too. I claimed both, ordered them to fly to Hatikvah's Faith and got the hell out, as the Argon sector defense had finally got their collective rears in gear and both a few Novas and the local Boreas was bearing down on me. If they made it out on their own, great. If not it wouldn't exactly be a massive loss. Hell, I just made one point four million plus change. Anything apart from that would just be a nice bonus.

Back in ye olde Hatikvah's Faith the first thing I found was an Argon weapons dealer. He wasn't very cooperative, but he still gave me two PACs and a few missiles. As I scooped up the last missile the computer told me that the Demeter SF had made it out of Aladna Hill alive, and while I was happy to have gained an almost fresh freighter I kind of scratched my head as to how it had made it. The thing was clearly broadcasting my IFF signal. Me. A … well, a pirate. One might think that it would make them kill the damn thing, so I wouldn't gain any more resources. Ah, screw that. I had an extra ship, so I sent it to the shipyard in Ceo's Sprite while I decided what the hell I was going to do with it.

In the meantime my next victim showed up on the scope, in the form of a Boron weapons dealer. I must have scared the living daylights out of him, because he muttered something about 'remembering me' and dropped everything but the kitchen sink after only one shot. An Argon and another Boron, both weapons dealers, also proved to be very cooperative, tossing out their cargo at the drop of a hat. Or the impact of a CIG bolt. Either way I had a nice catch in my hold, so I headed back to Teladi space to sell the lot. As a footnote I ended up as a Boron Antagonist, so I guess it lasted a little more than two mizura after all.

After selling my catch, which got me about eight hundred grand, I jumped back to Nopileos' Memorial to see if they had more juicy missions there for me. Here I met this pirate-y looking Paranid, and while his mission wasn't particularly juicy I did it for notoriety. It probably wouldn't nudge it by much, but what the heck.

The mark was in Danna's Chance, and since I couldn't really be arsed to make an effort I just gave him a Thunderbolt up the ass and watched him burn. After that was over I decided to go visit Freedom's Reach again. They had some nice missions the last time I poked my nose in there, and I was hoping the trend would last.

When I got there it turned out I was right. The trading station had quite a few active mission beacons, so I flew closer to take a look. Hm, cargo hauler? No. Get a ship for an Argon? Nah, doubt they would give me anything except the business end of a gun or a missile tube. Assassination? Yes, please. I kind of wondered what the hell a Boron was doing working with a Split, but I accepted anyway.

He told me the mark had been spotted in Nopileos' Memorial, flying a pirate Nova, so I jumped to the west gate and started looking. Meh, he was down by the south gate. Bastard. A short skip later and he found himself face to face with eight CIGs, and about ten sezura after that I was almost two hundred and fifty grand richer. Some challenges? Please?

It wasn't exactly a challenge, but a Paranid working at one of the mines in Nopileos' Memorial wanted me to get rid of a convoy in Aladna Hill. Now, where had I heard this one before? He gave me some one point three million reasons to accept, so I wasn't exactly hard to convince. Besides, now I was getting really close to the twenty million mark, which gave me all the more reason to accept. Hooh. It made my spine tingle again.

Aladna Hill, and a shitload of hostiles. None of them seemed to care, though. Once again it was a fairly easy job, and once again the local Boreas got mad at me. This time he had a bunch of Discos and Busters tagging along, though, and either one of them or one of the freighters was wielding mass drivers. They did make a few holes in our hull, but they didn't manage to do any real damage before we had dusted the convoy and was back in Hatikvah's Faith. Gunny Rana growled something about 'damn MDs' and 'why the hell did that idiot captain fly right into it?', but they got rid of the pockmarks anyway.

I checked the bank account, then the clock. Frak, less than a quarter of a stazura left. I did have nineteen point one million, though, so another job like that convoy raid could easily push me over the twenty million limit. Then I would have my freedom. One way or another. After that …

The thought made my head spin. It started to dawn on me what I would need to reach my goal. I would have to accumulate enough firepower to pacify an entire sector, and whatever reinforcements they might have elsewhere. Ships, crew, shields, missiles, armament, the lot. I would have to build … an entire empire to fuel the war machine I needed to get to one man. One. Man. And I had no idea how to do it.

For the briefest of moments I couldn't help thinking 'is it worth it?' Then I thought about Kriss. About his father. About my family, who … who I would never see again. I couldn't. All those people … I had been forced to fight, and I had fought for survival, but I just couldn't bear the thought of looking my parents in the eye after taking all those lives. And Kriss … He had watched me die at the hands of this pirate. I couldn't just walk in the front door of his house and say 'hey, I survived'. Could I? Would he even believe that it really was me?

(sigh)

I shook my head a couple of times to clear my thoughts. I still had work to do, and I was running out of time. With less than twenty stazura left on the clock I needed a big score to get things right. Instead I got some Boron on the horn asking me to return her abandoned ship. Not too good, but it might help me raise my notoriety a bit. I accepted, and hoped it wouldn't get itself killed by pirates on its way to the station. I sure as hell wasn't going to babysit it all the way. I'd much rather go after this.

Yep, another assassination mission. I was getting pretty good at this, and the lizard was going down for sure. I ordered a jump to the north gate in Ceo's Sprite, where the mark was last seen, and hit paydirt. She was flying around with her buddies some five clicks off the gate, so I gave the escorts some missiles to play with and went in for the kill.

"Ah, bloody hell!" This joker obviously thought she was in a fighter and tried to dogfight us. In a bomber. The result was a lot of ship ramming us head on, and while the shields managed to absorb the impact I wasn't too pleased about it. I rewarded her with a volley of CIG bolts at point blank range and watched my account jump up to nineteen point six million. Whops, better make that closer to nineteen point seven as the Harrier had made it back to its owner. He, she or it also made me a Boron Acqaintance for the trouble, something that probably wouldn't last. That would have to wait until later though, as I was running low on jump fuel. Company Pride next stop, then.

Back in Hatikvah's Faith, with a cargo hold full of e-cells and looking for blood, I spotted not one, but two assassination missions. One for a Split and one for someone who looked suspiciously like a pirate. What made it particularly interesting was that this would push me over the twenty million mark, which meant freedom. I tasted the word. I hadn't been free for almost five and a half jazura. Always following the orders of someone else, always do what others wanted me to do. Well, now I was going to follow my own voice, and those who stood in my way would get a one way ticket to hell. I may only have one ship, but I have the will to fight, and that's going to take me all the way to the top!

Alright, girl. You got work to do. Time to dust these suckers and go break some chains.

The first mark, some dingbat in a Nova flying around Family Rhonkar, was easy. The second one … Well, let's just say that he was five clicks away when some trigger happy moron in a Gladiator entered the scene and nukes started flying all over the place. One of them found my Peregrine, and he was reduced to subatomic dust in about two milli-sezura. I think my resentment toward the Argon just went up a notch. I still managed to crawl above twenty million, though. Barely. I wanted a little more than three thousand four hundred credits to start my new life, so I decided to peek into Freedom's Reach to see if they had any missions that could bolster my bank account a bit before I went and had a talk with my favorite lizard …

Patrols? Nah. 'Get me one umptillion of ware X within three mizura?' Wasn't going to happen. Taxi mission, on the other hand, that could work. The Teladi offering the mission was going in the right direction anyway, so I might as well do it. Brennan's Triumph next.

The taxi mission went by without a hitch, and now we were approaching the equipment dock in Senator's Badlands. I'll admit my heart was beating a little faster as the docking clamps grew bigger and bigger in front of us. This was it. Literally freedom or death.

A hollow 'clang' echoed through the ship as the docking clamps latched on to the ship and the tunnel with the airlock connected. I looked around, then got up and started making my way off the bridge.
"You gonna do this alone?" Warron said as I reached the hatch leading off the bridge.
"Yeah," I said. "I don't want to risk getting any of you hurt. Or worse. Besides, I need someone here to hold the fort, just in case." I gave him a brief smile, but there was no joy behind it. We both knew that I was walking into the lion's den. Alone. "If it makes you feel any better you can maintain transporter lock on me while I'm in there." I said. He returned that joyless smile of mine. It could work, but chances were the station was shielded against transporters. I thought it would be of some comfort, though.
"One thing," I said, just as I was about to leave. "Get in your suits and be ready to jump ship. Just in case. I don't think Rudilis will blow the reactor while the ship is still inside the station's shields, but you never know."

I had just gotten my lance and a phase pistol from my room and was about to leave when Gunny Rana approached me. She almost seemed … I don't know, worried? Naah.
"What's up?" I asked. "I'm in kind of a hurry …"
"Just wanted to tell you to come back in one piece, captain." I snorted a brief laughter.
"What, you worried 'bout me?"
"Not at all. I just want my paycheck, and you're the one holding the money." This time my smile did have some joy behind it.
"I'll do my best," I said. "If you want to help, you can go check the engine room and see if you can find that self destruct device Rudilis claimed she planted there."
"Aye, captain." Then I headed for the airlock.

Making my way through the familiar maze of hallways, I suddenly felt a little sad. This had been my home for almost a jazura, and now I was about to leave. Chances were my exit wouldn't be a quiet one either. I closed my eyes as I went along, listening to all the familiar sounds one last time. I stopped on the way to pick up some extra e-cells and a salvage insurance, then it was time. All too soon I was standing in front of the door leading into Rudilis' office, and I couldn't afford to be melancholic here. I had to be sharp and ready. In the back of my mind I hoped Warron still had that transporter locked on.
"Pleassse enter." The hissing voice behind the door blew away the melancholy in a heartbeat. I took one last breath, then I opened the door.

Rudilis looked up from her desk as I entered and smiled at me, that big grin with way too many teeth the Teladi got on their faces when they were smelling money.
"Ah, my little rookie pirate." she said, as sweet as she possibly could. "How are you doing? Ssshot anything lately? Or anyone?" For some reason it made my skin crawl.
"I'm not here for pleasantries," I said, cutting her off. "I've got the twenty million you asked for."
"Good," she said. "I'm sssure you worked hard for it. Ssstealing and killing your way toward what you thought would give you freedom. Becoming a full fledged pirate, didn't you."
"You're stalling. I'm not in the mood, so get to the frakking point."
"Oh, so harsssh. I'm trying to be polite, my dear. Besssidesss, without me you will never get your precsssiousss ssship out of thisss sssector." I was losing patience rapidly, so I leaned forward and stared her right in the eye.

"Don't. Push. It." Her two goons obviously hadn't learned from last time and got nervous. Again. She just smiled at me, and if Teladi'd had eyelashes to flutter I'm sure she would have done so just to add to the mock innocence and friendliness she was showing me.
"Why, I'm not pussshing anything, dear. Why don't you sssit down for a while and relaxsss a bit, and we will get down to busssinesss in a sssezura." At this point I was ready to shoot the damn lizard, and she knew it. However, I had to get her to disarm the self destruct device aboard the Dragon's Heart, one way or another. She probably knew that too.
"I prefer to stand," I hissed through clenched teeth.
"Sssuit yourssself. Ssso, you got the twenty million I asssked for, isss that right?" I just gave her a single nod. "Sssuch drive," she grinned. "Sssuch … effectivenesss." It was almost like she tasted the word. Then she became all business. "Ssshow me." I handed her my credit chip with one hand, and had the other on my phase pistol ready to shoot her if she tried to pull a fast one.
"Now, now. No need to be ssso sssussspicioussss. Relaxsss."

She seemed to take joy in studying the numbers, and I was fighting against an ever growing urge to either shoot her or slice her open and then get the hell out.
"Yesss, it'sss all there. But I already knew that, you know."
"So you had me watched."
"Of courssse. I couldn't have you run loossse without a chain, now could I? It wasss ssso long you didn't even noticssse it, but it wasss there." I actually growled at her. "And now that you have proven yourssself to be a valuable assset … I'm afraid the deal hasss changed." Four more of her gorillas game in through the door behind me.
"I see. So that's how it's going to end, eh?"
"It'sss not going to 'end'. I'm sssimply making sssure my invessstment paysss off." I stared at her. Then my fingers found my data pad and pressed a few buttons. A little melody confirmed that the link to the Solano had been established, and I started to grin.

"What'sss ssso funny?" Rudilis wondered.
"Oh, just a little insurance in case you did try something like this. You should get an interesting call right about … now." As if on cue the comlink chirped.
"Boss! We got a problem!" I couldn't see the screen, but the voice sounded a bit stressed.
"What isss it!?" Rudilis hissed. "I told everyone I didn't want to be disssturbed!"
"One of the fighters in the storage room, boss. The reactor … it's on overload! Someone must have rigged it!" The lizard gave me a stare so full of rage I was worried she was going to jump across the desk and try to rip my throat out. She was more than welcome to try, of course.
"I'll get back to you."
"But, boss …" The voice on the other end got cut off as Rudilis closed the link. Then she turned her attention to me.
"You did thisss!" I nodded.
"Like I said, a little insurance. Now, let's discuss my terms for not turning millions worth of captured fighters and spare parts into molten slag." I leaned forward and looked her straight in the eye. "It's really simple. You deactivate the self destruct mechanism aboard the Dragon's Heart and remove that chain of yours. If you do that, you'll get your twenty million and we'll be out of your hair forever. We might even be nice to you in the future." Then my grin vanished. "If you try to screw me, or in any way, shape or form try to get to me, you'll not only lose valuable resources and money as the reactor aboard the Solano I sold you goes critical, but I will come back and raze this place to the proverbial ground. You have seen what I can accomplish in one tazura. Now imagine what I can accomplish in a wozura. Not to mention that I'll tell everyone who will listen that you tried to screw me and that you're the one to blame for the damage to the shipyard."

I watched as my words sunk in. I was right, and she knew it.
"One more thing. The reactor is on a timer, and I'm the only one who can stop it in time. The circuit is tamper-proof, and it has a QS-45 quantum subspace link so you can't shut me out. You have … four mizura and counting." She was literally frothing with rage now. "So," I said, "what's it going to be? Make twenty million and losing your 'asset', or … what, a hundred million in ships and spare parts? In addition to whatever collateral damage the reactor will do to the shipyard?" I leaned forward another centimeter. "If you know me so well, you know that I spent four and a half jazura killing people. I think I can handle a few more ghosts on my conscience."

The following silence seemed to last an eternity. We stared at each other, and I'm sure you could have cut the tension between us with a knife. Then she finally took a breath and spoke.
"Alright, you win. Thisss time. But if I ever sssee you here again you'll pay. Human." The last word was so filled with contempt she barely managed to get it out.
"Disarm the self destruct device and I'll be out of your hair. I might stop by for a little shopping once in a while, but as long as you don't bother me I won't bother you." She growled something in her native language, then typed in a few commands on her computer.
"There. It'sss done."
"You heard that, Gunny?" I had opened a channel for her to listen to our little conversation.
"Confirmed. And unless this lizard has another trick up her sleeve that was it. We're off the hook."
"Good. Kayla out." Then I turned to Rudilis. "Good girl, but I think I'll wait until I get out of here to turn off the reactor aboard that Solano. So pray to whatever gods you pray to that I'm safely aboard my ship again and out of here in less than two mizura." She growled something in Teladi again. I imagined it wasn't anything nice, but I didn't care.

I lasted until the airlock had closed safely behind me, then I leaned toward the wall and took a couple of deep breaths. Stars, that was intense. But now I was finally free, at least for the time being. Knowing Rudilis, chances were she would come after me at some point, but by then I would, hopefully, be ready. I undocked and got the ship to a safe distance, then I shut down the runaway reactor on the Solano and told Al to take us to Freedom's Reach. I had a pressing matter to attend to, namely payday. I needed some money to pay my crew, so the day wasn't over just yet.

A couple of quick assassination missions took care of that, although the first one resulted in an up close and personal encounter with a Tomahawk missile. Luckily the blast also killed most of the pests surrounding us, in the form of the guys escorting the Viper that fired said Tomahawk, and the rest of them was easy to mop up. The other one, also a Viper, went down without any such drama, and I now had enough to pay my crew and then some.

As the last Viper went down I suddenly noticed how damn tired I was. I had been awake for a little over a tazura, and I was starting to feel the effects of being awake for that long. Stars …
"Al, plot a jump and flight path to the equipment dock in Company Pride. I think it's time to pack up and get some rest. When we get there you have two stazura of shore leave, and I imagine you can get really plastered for the fifty thousand credits I just gave you. Just don't wreck the place, alright?"
"Company Pride it is." Al rumbled as the familiar sound of the jump drive spooling up echoed through the hull. Lo said something about not being sure if he could resist a good fight, but I was too tired to listen. The only thing on my mind right now was to get the ship to safety, update my log and then hit the sack.

Hopefully they wouldn't be too wrecked in the morning …

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Wed, 16. Jan 13, 00:14

Fifteen.

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15 - Spreading our wings.

I don't think I have slept so good for a very long time. My brain had just shifted gear into hyperdrive, though, so I woke up after only one and three quarters of a stazura. That meant I still had about twenty mizura before I had to get these sleeping beauties out of their bunks. That suited me fine, because I had some thinking to do. And some … information gathering.

The time I spent among the Yaki told me two things. One; Drunk people talk way too much for their own good. Two; spacers tend to think with their dicks and frequently underestimate girls. For better or worse it's still very much a man's world, something I had used to my advantage on numerous occasions. Three, I needed a proper drink anyway.

With a bottle on the table and a glass in my hand I started thinking. I needed a ton of stuff, and preferably yesterday. First of all I needed to get a repair crew for my Chokaro, to fix that rag-tag freighter fleet I had amassed. Then I needed some missiles, and from what I had seen the last tazura I was looking for something that was fast, hard hitting and difficult to intercept. Then there was the problem about placing the factories. I knew I could hire a station carrier to do the job, but that was cumbersome at best. Besides, trusting someone I didn't know, who probably flew for minimum wage and cared just enough about his job not to lose it … brr. The thought made me shudder.

Then there was the problem with equipment. I now had … uh, eight freighters, and they all needed stuff like shields, weapons, tuning, software, scanners and such. Shields would be the first thing to get, as flying around in space with an unprotected hull for prolonged times did funny things to your ship. I sort of wanted my own factory so I didn't have to wait for stuff to get produced, so finding who ever produced them and a shipyard that stocked the factories would be high on my priority list. Then I would need power, food and support for the factories … Stars. Wonder if it was the whiskey or the thought of all this that made my head spin.

Alright. Enemies were getting tougher, so we needed missiles pretty fast. Then a TL station carrier would come in handy, and after that we could go look for some shields. I also planned on talking with that Teladi, Holigis whatsherface the third, to see if her trade secrets were worth ten million credits. Even if it was shit it might still prove useful, as neither of us knew the first thing about trading. Or … I used to watch my father as he ran the station our family owned, but all I could remember from that was 'buy low and sell high'. I kind of doubted that would cut it, even though it was probably useful knowledge. Now to find some useful missiles and maybe some shield factories …

Men. It still held true, they were thinking with their dicks and all it took was a bottle of cheap booze and showing a square centimeter of skin to get their mouths moving. According to my new friends Cyclones and Typhoons would be perfectly suited for me, and the Teladi were the sole manufacturer of their factories. Nice to know. A half drunk and drooling TL captain also mentioned that the Paranid and the Split were the only ones making 25 MJ shield fabs, all while he was staring down my cleavage. The simpleton also told me Split Elephants were the cheapest TLs, at a mere seventeen million plus change. That was about seventeen million more than I had right now, but I had made twenty in just under a tazura so that wouldn't be a problem.

Now, since I needed money to fuel all of this I decided to get the ten million for that Teladi first. I still didn't like the thought of having ships running around under my flag, but … occupational hazard I guess. Time to get the sleeping beauties out of the bunk …

With my crew out of their sacks I told Al to take us to good ol' Hatikvah's Faith. The first thing worth taking there was a Xenon patrol, and while I didn't really give a shit about the Xenon it was a nice way to start things off. A couple of L heavy fighters showed up, accompanied by a few Ms and a handful of Ns, so it really was a nice way to start things off. They couldn't do squat against our shields, and Lo picked them off quite easily. We dusted four ships and voila, we had already passed half a million. Now, where was this weapons dealer heading …?

Looked like he couldn't decide whether to go east or south, and while he was making up his mind I closed in to take a peek inside his cargo hold. It did seem like my reputation was flying ahead of me, as he released a bunch of fighter drones when I got within scanner range. I told Lo to keep an eye on them and scanned him, and behold … treasures. I figured he was carrying close to a million in hardware, and if I could persuade him to drop it …

He was a nice man. Maybe a little nervous, but he gave me everything I asked for before he made a beeline for the massom mill and hid there. Me, I suddenly got a lot of company I didn't care much for in the form of a Minotaur battle group, so I decided to bounce to Nopileos' Memorial to see if they had some interesting stuff for me.

Indeed they did. First a taxi mission, then a double convoy raid. Guess the Paranid really got it in for the Argon nowadays. Now, let's see …

I picked up my passenger first, and he turned out to be a pirate. Of the antler-clan, it seemed. Stars, what in the hell drove these people to put … No, I don't want to know.
"You sure you want to ride with me?" I asked as he came aboard. He just grinned and laughed a hoarse laughter.
"You're an opportunist," he said. "I know one when I see one, and as long as I serve your purpose I doubt you'll do anything stupid." He had a point, but I still asked Gunny Rana to keep an eye on him. And shoot him if he tried to do something funny.

The first convoy was in Hatikvah's Faith, and since my employer told me it was heading to Aladna Hill I jumped to the east gate to intercept. I got two, and one bailed, but I couldn't stop to claim it. There was still one of these buggers left, and he was already in Aladna Hill. Frak, this was going to be a close one.

Well, this time they were at least hostile. Maybe it was that Terracorp weapons dealer I hit back in Hatikvah's? I hit the afterburner and headed right for the freighter with my finger on the trigger. As we approached I opened up, and in a stroke of luck the CIG impacts kept her in front of me while my speed dropped to more normal levels. To make it all more interesting I pulled it off right under the nose of the local Boreas, who was bumbling around as usual and arrived at the party after everyone had gone home. Or jumped out, depending on how you see it. They did manage to wing me with mass drivers once again, though. Annoying bastards.

The second one was more of the same. Two in Nopileos' Memorial, and one slipped through to Hatikvah's Faith. He didn't get far, though. Then the really hairy stuff started …

My passenger, who had been rocked about a few times by now, wanted to go to Olmancketslat's Treaty. I ran a search, and it turned out to be the sector north of Brennan's Triumph. Pirate country, in other words. This could be one hell of a ride, then.

A quick jump and a u-turn later, and things started nice and easy. Two hostile pirates and some Xenon, and the shipyard was quite easy to spot. The Xenon tried to get in my face, but Lo dealt with them pretty quickly. Then the two hostile pirates turned into at least sixteen, and they were all pointing their guns at me. Pretty soon the missile warning klaxon was screaming its head off, and the sound of PACs echoed through the hull as Lo did his best to keep them off our backs. In the meantime I dove under them and got as close as I could without putting myself in firing range from those Brigantines, then I hit the afterburner and headed straight for the docking clamps. The missiles were coming in like hails in a hailstorm, and for a moment there I thought they would get through and blow us all to pieces. Luckily they didn't, and as soon as we were in range I activated the docking computer and crossed my fingers.

"Hooh …" I realized I had been holding my breath and let go. The only thing I could hear was the sound of my breath, the beating of my heart and the engines spooling down. We had made it.
"We made it!" I yelled. "Mother of Gunne, we made it!" That was perhaps a little too close for comfort.
"Nice flying," Antler-head said as he was on his way out. "Kinda hairy, though."
"You can thank our gunner for the fact that we made it in one piece." I said, giving Lo a nod. He just responded with a sort of bow he had told me was called the ser'kavi, some sort of display of respect and honor. There was apparently a whole slew of subtleties involved, but I had never bothered to learn them.
"Then you should reward him," he said, grinning. Then he left, heading for where ever he needed to be. I might have to give Lo an extra bonus tonight … I took a look around the inventory to see if they had anything useful, then we undocked and faced a much friendlier pirate force. It also gave me an idea about what I had to fight when I was going to take Brennan's Triumph. Nice to know …
"Alright, let's get the hell out of here. Al, take us to Freedom's Reach."
"As you wish."

Freedom's Reach held another Rudilis, and a courier mission. She gave me plenty of reasons to do it, and even though it was a bit tight I managed to pull it off thanks to my afterburner and some docking computer magic. Too easy. There were a couple of other missions too, but they were either impossible or didn't pay enough for me to be arsed to take them. Guess I was getting picky, so I headed for Danna's Chance instead.

Danna's Chance didn't hold anything interesting either, so … hold on a mizura, a Boron weapons dealer? A quick scan showed that it carried some juicy stuff, but there was a Hydra with two escorts making their way through the sector and I didn't want to push my luck. I probably could have taken them down, but it would only give me notoriety loss so I waited. Hm, if I could capture one of those …?

With the Hydra out of the way I went after the weapons dealer, and once again he was very cooperative. A few slaps with the CIG and he dropped just about everything. I got a few nasty threats, but they stopped when I reminded him that I could actually use the Firestorm torpedo he had just dropped. Funny how a 1 GJ nuke can make even the toughest freighter pilot shut up.

With that out of the way I headed into Brennan's Triumph to do a little scouting. Yeah … That didn't work out quite as I had planned, as one of the stations was offering , but [url=http://i.imgur.com/5Bj3V5I.jpg]two assassination missions. And the second one … I had to do a double take. Two million plus change in reward? Gunne's nuts! Guess they really wanted this guy dead. As luck would have it they were both in Danna's Chance too, which meant I wouldn't have to bounce all over the place to get them. I think my grin threatened to split my skull in half.

The one with the two million reward was flying a Viper, and he had a shitload of escorts in tow. It was mostly M5 scouts with a handful of interceptors and a couple of heavies, but with that many they could still cause trouble. I decided to get in and out as fast as possible and made a beeline for the Viper, opening fire as it came into range. It went down fast enough, but it made the missile issue all the more apparent. The Nova went down soon after, and now my pirate notoriety boost had all but vanished. Not that I really cared, though.

By now we were running low on jump fuel, and I wanted to get rid of the loot I was carrying, so we bounced back to Company Pride to sell our catch. We were some ten clicks away from the equipment dock when Yep. Another assassination, and the reward was good too. Alright, guess I could take that before I went to see the weapons dealer.

The mark was a Peregrine in Greater Profit, and he didn't seem to know when to stay down. He went down fighting to put it that way, and I'll admit it was quite the thrill to see what a skilled pilot could do with a flying brick like the Peregrine. It got my juices flowing again, as most of these guys were just trash who didn't seem to be able to tell the difference between the flight controls and their own feet.

With the Peregrine dusted I headed back to Company Pride to sell my catch, hopefully without any more distractions. I made it just fine, and could add about one point five million to my bank account. I think both me and the little green one behind the desk was quite happy with that deal. On my way back I walked past the mechanic, and on a whim I went in and bought a mineral scanner. I had seen quite a few scanning missions lately, and while the pay generally wasn't mindblowing it seemed like a peaceful diversion from all the killing. As luck would have it a Paranid turned up around the next corner, offering a [url=http://i.imgur.com/mp1PTA8.jpg]scanning mission, so I accepted it to test my new toy.

"Mmm … Look at that." Warron showed a rare display of emotions as a Teladi Pteranodon drifted into visual range. I did a quick scan and read through the details, just for the heck of it. Hm, fairly typical Teladi design. Slow as frak, with heavy shields and … quite impressive armament, actually. Twelve barrels front, left and right, all which could be fitted with the Teladi gauss cannon. Nice. Especially since it had another Teladi trait; ****** generators and small capacitors, all to save a buck. With twelve GJ of shielding it would still be a force to be reckoned with, though.

I had just delivered the data when a cry for help reached our ears. A station protection mission, and the first pirates were already pouring through the gate. The pay was kind of ******, so at first I wasn't too interested, but then Warron suggested I get a police license for Teladi space. That way I would be rewarded extra for each kill, and with any luck I might get a decent award out of it. So, I told the little green one to hold the line, scooted over to the trading station and voila, I was now officially a member of the Teladi security forces. I did get a long-winded speech about what I could and couldn't do, but all in all it was a pretty good deal.

The main force had just arrived when I undocked, so I hit the burner and headed straight for the red dots on my scope. I immediately spotted a potential problem, as a couple of bombers were tagging along. I did have a solution, though, in the form of a newly acquired toy; the MDM, or Missile Defense Mosquito. It basically linked any Mosquito missiles to the ship's fire control, and automatically fired them at incoming missiles and drones. I had some mossies left over from my last pirating raid, and hopefully they would be put to good use now.

"Ouch." Good use indeed. I was tangling with one of the bombers, and the idiot tried to launch a tomahawk at point blank range. The MDM seemingly took that as a personal insult and fired a Mosquito right in his face, blowing up the missile and taking the bomber down with it in the process. I think the whole crew winced as the bomber was reduced to ash. The rest of the mission was kind of anti-climactic in comparison, but they did die and the police license added a nice bonus. Maybe I should step up my anti-pirate activities after all …

A quick refuel later, and I was heading for Split territory to look for a shipyard where I could obtain this 'Elephant' the captain at the bar in Company Pride had talked about. I also wanted to check if they had 25 MJ shield factories for sale, but that was probably a long shot.

After asking around a bit I found the shipyard. And some frustration, as I ran across a Split who was looking for a Split freighter. The frustration was that I had several, but they were all in such a state of disrepair that they wouldn't make it in time. Frak. That was probably a good three quarters of a million straight down the tube. Double frak. There were some good news too. They did have Elephants in the shipyard, but I lacked the notoriety to buy it. It would cost me some seventeen million plus change, and probably another couple of million to equip it and man it, and by then I would probably have climbed a notch or two on the notoriety ladder. Now, what to do next …

Asteroid scan, apparently. This Paranid was offering a scanning mission, and while the reward wasn't that big it was still money. Alright, let's do it.

Urgh. Ten asteroids across three sectors. I was going to need a faster ship to avoid blowing my brains out from boredom. I had been thinking about getting a Kestrel, and I could park it aboard the Chop Shop when I didn't need it. Fortunately I found a little fun in the form of an assassination, and a quick estimate told me it would send me over the ten million mark. Barely. I agreed to dust the sucker, then it was back to Company Pride. I had some business there. With a Teladi.

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Wed, 16. Jan 13, 00:26

... aaand sixteen. Like I said in the first post, I'm going to leave Terrel, the mysterious trio and the enigmatic alien ship for a while and do something else. For those of you who have enjoyed the trip so far and want "moar"; fear not, I already have a new character in mind. Libelnon provided a little inspiration, along with a friend of mine who gave me the name and something to work with. Until next time

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16 - Sing with me, sing for the years ...

I spent the better part of half a stazura trying to wrap my brain around the content of the data crystal the lizard had given me. To say I understood any of it would be a gross exaggeration, but I did get the general idea. So, with my head stuffed to the gills tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 wares, prices and good locations I ordered Al to take us to Thuruk's Beard to work on our Split notoriety.

The first thing that turned up was a Xenon patrol, stretching from Thuruk's Beard to Ceo's Sprite. I felt like clearing my brain by shooting stuff, so I accepted. Had I only known …

The first thing that turned up was three Ls. Not too bad. The swarm that followed them was a bit worse, so I picked off what I could with the Silkworms I had scooped up. Then we closed to knife range, and all hell broke loose. I dusted three Ls within a mizura, and Lo cut down Gunne knew how many Ms and Ns. In the middle of the chaos I heard someone tell me they were bailing, but since the next wave was incoming I couldn't look.

We got hit by three more waves, and when it ended the sector was littered with leftovers. I also noticed three bailed ships, a Chimera, an Elite and a Jaguar. The Chimera alone would be worth some two and a half million, and the others would probably push it well into the three million mark. As if that wasn't enough, I had just killed forty thousand credits worth of Xenons, and this was only the beginning. Now, what the hell do I do with all these leftovers? Bloody hell, I'm going to need a more efficient way to collect stuff.

After cleaning up the most valuable stuff, and calling in Chop Shop to pick up the Jaguar, we jumped to Company Pride, where the Xenon were already in full swing. I waded right into the middle, going after the big fish while Lo kept the smaller ones off our backs. Xenon died left and right, but they actually put up a good fight. It made me grin from ear to ear, as I rarely got a decent fight out of anyone. These … chips, on the other hand, they fought like hell. But, as often times before, they died.

Hey, what the … Well, not all of them apparently. An M had gone neutral and was floating in space. Cool, my own Xenon fighter. However, I didn't have time to celebrate, as the next wave was already on its way. It was a big one too, but mostly scouts accompanied by a handful of interceptors and a couple of heavies. In other words, not much of a problem. A third and fourth wave also jumped in, and when the dust cleared another M had gone neutral. It made me grin even more, and I called in Chop Shop to pick them up as I concentrated on the leftovers and continued to Ceo's Sprite.

And that, as they say, was the end of that. According to the data I had scored twenty seven kills, and amassed a total of over two hundred and fifty thousand credits in reward. I could live with that.

Heading back to Company Pride I spotted a couple of assassination missions. One of them had a two million reward, something I couldn't refuse. The other one paid a measly hundred and fifty seven grand, but since it was for a Split I accepted anyway. Notoriety, notoriety, notoriety. Now, let's see … First one in Blue Profit. I told everyone to look sharp and ordered the jump. It was another Peregrine, and it might prove to be an interesting fight. When we came through they had even lined up nicely, just four clicks ahead of us.

Then the missile warning klaxon went off, and the intense pinging told me someone had fired a missile at almost point blank range.
"Watch out!" Warron shouted. "Hammerhe ..."

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Zaitsev