Tales from the spacelanes...

[Fatleaf]

With the introduction of some special features of 1.75, I have become somewhat hostile to Galcop. If they even get on my nerves now I engage them. But make sure you have worked your way up to affording a [wiki]Caduceus[/wiki] Omega with all the bells and whistles before you unleash your righteous indignation and avenge yourself upon the corrupt!

So I run about mostly with a fugitive status avoiding the Navy (I like them boys) but taking no cack of Galcop! Might need to install [wiki]Anarchies_OXP[/wiki] to look for an amnesty.

[CaptSolo]

Man I love witchspace fuel injectors. The bad guys always seem to attack with the sun at their backs making them harder to see and target. But, light up the injectors while trying to avoid being hit (yeah, it's not easy), get between them and the sun and they are in for some punishment. I've also learned to keep my distance from a charging pirate because I've been blown to bits too often from the last second launch of a hard head.

[TGHC]

I've been blown to bits too often from the last second launch of a hard head.

He he those jousting runs are character builders aren't they, if you vere off and hit cloak you'll be fine. It's those ferdies that are the worst.

[Sarin]

I actually found Sidewinders most annoying, too often they smash into my windscreen.

[Pluisje]

I actually found Sidewinders most annoying, too often they smash into my windscreen.

Time for the WindscreenWipers.OXP, I think.

[CaptSolo]

I actually found Sidewinders most annoying, too often they smash into my windscreen.

Time for the WindscreenWipers.OXP, I think.

I turn away and try to hit them with port or starboard lasers. But you are correct about the Sidewinders, they like to wind their way straight into my cockpit.

[Smivs]

I actually found Sidewinders most annoying, too often they smash into my windscreen.

Time for the WindscreenWipers.OXP, I think.

WindscreenVipers?

[Sarin]

Wipers, from wipe, not Vipers, a snakes. That one would be interesting too tho....

[onno256]

I also use fuel injectors alot. Hit 'em from a distance, then charge 'em, get them with the plasma cannons on the side, and get behind 'em. You gotta love the Caddy... It's also smart to hit ECM when you're near 'em, they do indeed sometimes launch a hardhead when tey are close to you...

Greetz,
Onno.

[Ganelon]

Ok, so there I was.. Just minding my own business, when the drive punks out, dumping me into witchspace. Ok, that happens to all of us, right? It's usually just a whole lot of nothing except for a few Thargoids.

This time, I drop into witchspace and there's already folks there! Two Imperial Freighters, Four Imperial Lictors, and.. Get this.. An asteroid field? Oh, and three or four Thargoid warships that are in the process of dropping off their robot drones. So far as I could tell when my scanner finally registered, the fight was already underway.

Nobody even had me targeted. Now that was rude, y'know? But I'm a good sport, and decided it was probably just an oversight and promptly introduced myself to one of the warships via my usual laser calling card. That got me a little attention. As soon as I was sure I had a warship and a couple drones after me, I hit into the asteroid field.

Now, this wasn't an asteroid field like you might see around a Rock Hermit's place, oh no.. Those have plenty of space between them, but this particular asteroid field was pretty packed. There was only a couple ship widths between some of the asteroids, and some not even that. So I dived right into the asteroid field. I *love* an asteroid field like that! Especially when I can get a few opponents on my tail. Usually you can thread your way through, and ships chasing you get crushed or at least get some of their showroom shine knocked off. It's good fun, y'know.

However, Thargoids and their drones are apparently not strangers to asteroid fields. The drones mostly made it through. I had turned my ship around when I came out the other side and was picking them off as they came clear of those rocks, when the warship came skimming over the top of the field and started firing on me. Apparently not dumb enough to follow me in, or to waste shots trying to tag me as I was weaving through the asteroids.

I closed fast on the warship, since one of the Lictors had started firing on it, and that was *my* kill, Gilesdangit! The white lasers those Lictors pack are something to see. I shut down that warship hard, and finally all the drones went dead. One of the Imperials had sent me some sort of message early on in the fight, but I'd been kinda busy at the moment to read it.

Anyway, they went back to their business, whatever it was with that bunch of asteroids. I waited a bit, and couldn't see where they were actually doing anything, but they were hanging close around that pile of rocks. I went ahead with my jump and hit for the station.

I wonder what the heck was going on, though? Not used to having that much company on a witchspace failure.

[CaptSolo]

Random Hits OXP: After several attempts to locate and eliminate a certain job on Anusa I finally succeeded, or so I thought. I have learned to keep my distance as these pilots frequently carry Q Mines, so when I finally targeted her I armed a hard head and launched it. I saw a white blip on the scanner just before she blew up. Uh Oh, time to get out of here, but it wasn't a missile or a Q Mine - must be escape capsule. I turned around and closed in but I noticed this clean Cobra Mk3 going after it and he scooped it. Crap! Now I have to waste this poor devil - which I did, and there was the EC. I targeted and blasted it with the laser. When I docked the RH email stated that my target "was abducted and filleted...". Guess who did that?:-) Made me feel a little bit better about the poor Cobby. What a game!

[Zigson]

This is my first post here, though I'm a veteran of the game. So grab a drink and gather round, I'm going to tell you about the first time I took a shot.

I was a peaceful Jameson back then, the pulse laser on the front of my Cobra 3 had never been fired in anger, guess I was just trying to raise enough creds to back bring back to Lave for the wife one day, buy a farm, raise some sprogs maybe.

Milk runs had taken me out to Onrira and I had a pretty good thing going, shuttling computers and food back and forth, back and forth. 100 credits had slowly become 200.

That life changed on my fourth run to Onrira, when I got jumped by an Asp near witchpoint. He was carving me up, I didn't stand a chance. Couldn't outrun him, couldn't hit him, shields were gone, when I saw the message that 2 tons of computers had been destroyed. Man, that was all the profit I'd ever made, gone. I never hit him once. I'm still here though! A cop showed up in the nick of time, saved my sorry soul and no mistake.

Not that I cared much - no cash, nothing much to live for now.

But that wasn't the biggest thing to happen to me that day. Halfway to the planet, the jump drive slammed shut and I rubbed my eyes to see I was mass locked by, I don't know, 15 or 20 ships all over the radar. Yellows, reds, purples. Flashing... Aliens? Yep, aliens. That asp should've killed me, now I'm going to die at the hands of filthy aliens.

If those computers hadn't blown out, I would've tried to skirt round the action unnoticed, but instead I found myself heading slowly into the action, and soon got my first glimpse of the navy in action, and my first sight if a Tharg.

Real close-by they were, trading blows, and there I was. Right there, watching. I targeted an alien, and almost froze as it swept right by me. As it passed, I squeezed the trigger for the first time in my life.

Is the first shot from a virgin laser the hardest shot it ever fires? Is it blessed by the gods, or maybe just lucky? All I know, is that Thargoid blew up. To be honest I thought it was me that had blown, the shock was that great. But no, I'd got my first kill, and it was a Thargoid! I didn't see the bounty message, didn't give it any thought, because soon something else happened that set me up for life. The navy turned their attention to more Thargs, two more I think, at least 10km away, and I was in my own. Just me. And a dozen little alien baby craft, spinning, missing their mother. What would you do?

Well, I shot em. And when the navy had polished off the rest of the mother craft, I found more of the little pups, and I shot them too. Bounty for nothing, a turkey shoot.

It wasn't heroic and it certainly wasn't skilful, but lady luck had smiled on me, bought me a drink, and handed me her number.

I arrived at Onrira a different man, no computers in the hold, but 500 credits in the bank. More than twice what I'd had before.

And I never looked back. I never did go back to Lave. So if you see my wife tell her her husband died at at Onrira, and in his place a lucky man was born.

[Zireael]

@ Zigson: brilliant story!

[Smivs]

Nice one!
As first posts go that's good......and of course Welcome.

[Cody]

Now that's what I call a tale... welcome aboard, Zigson.