Tales from the spacelanes...

[DaddyHoggy]

"Honour among thieves," ha! Just the other day, twice in three jumps this happened: I drop out of witchspace and receive a distress call: "Help! The Thargoids are attacking!", along with a beacon location – X marks the spot. So I do the good citizen bit: I point my nose towards trouble and slap the torus drive, and prep the ship for tricks. I'm blasting in towards the beacon, scanning all the while. I have to say it doesn't matter how many times I've faced them: whenever I see those flickering green threads it gives me a chill all the way down my spinal cord. Nothing visible though. I was figuring that maybe I was too late when the masslock bites and I'm faced with a pack of pirates, all homing in on yours truly. Now, these guys were more than ordinary tough: one bad-guy Ferdie took a whole bellyfull of military laser and still had enough in him to light his injector and head off elsewhere. Which left his friends a little short-handed, I have to say: maybe they were hoping for a wide-eyed boy scout in a tin-plated cargo hauler, and not someone like myself, inside something like the Radio Maru ... anyway, after the dust settles, I check again for the distress beacon but nothing doing: it's gone.

Later in the station I make inquiries: any news about a bug attack? No, man, they say, no way ... not a click nor cheep nor squawk from the Thargoids round here for, ooh, so long. Huh, I think ... no survivors maybe. Anyhow, a couple more jumps down the line and there it goes again: "Help! The Thargoids are attacking!", and another X-for-extreme urgency on the compass. So once again, I turn the Maru around and put the hammer down ... and once again I find another cloud of pirates at the other end. I don't think they were too pleased to see me, either, though, come to think of it.

So: is this a new low? Fake distress calls, to lure unsuspecting Good Samaritans into a trap? If so, it's not a grade-A strategy, because those it tends to lure are, I would think, the better-armed and more combat-capable. The pirates I met were, in truth, more robust than most, though ... One final kick: the last pirate I took out turned out to have a gutful of robot fighters. Not "Alien Items", wrapped up nice, but actual – albeit inert – bug drones. Now, you don't just pick them up at your local Rock Hermit, so there had to have been a bug or two somewhere around. I don't know. A genuine distress call, that the pirates cleaned up on? An out-an-out fake? Coincidence or conspiracy? Still though, if a call comes through I'm answering it. Bugs or bad guys, either way ...

It's amazing what the system populator and some AI will do to create these wonderful moments...

[Commander Trigg]

So there I was happily hitchhiking around G2, hopping into random wormholes and cruising over to the nearest station to see what they had on special offer, when I came across a Python being harrassed by a couple of Cobras and an Adder. Being a good samaritan and having nothing better to do I naturally waded in and saw off the pirates.

Since the Python didn't seem to be particularly well armed and obviously hurting from the battle I took up position on it's stern to shepherd him into the station. Unfortunately, I seem to have developed a malfunction in my forward military laser and it chose that exact moment to play up. Unfortunately I must have hit a critical system and the Python detonated, spraying cargo everywhere, along with an escape capsule.

Naturally, I collected the unfortunate pilot and the cargo and deposited them safely at the Coriolis. They tell me the unfortunate captain should be walking in a couple of weeks and his insurance will give him a shiny new Cobby to venture into the spacelines with.

[Yah-Ta-Hey]

What insurance company did that python pilot have? When I had the misfortune of losing a ship... I always got the same ship back minus the cargo., yet this poor pilot lost his python and ended up getting a Cobby? Did he fail to pay his premium or did he choose one of those insurance policies that allow him to decide what to cover and how much he wants to pay? Other wise... it was nice of you to help.

[Cody]

Mission: [classified]

Mission crossover, they call it in the guild… you’re about to launch on a test flight, and you think ‘what the hell, I’ll re-run a stage of Coyote’s Run at the same time’. So I launch from Lazaso, ‘twitch’ the jump to Zaenza, and emerge in interstellar space… to see a right royal firefight in progress between GalCop Vipers and Thargoid warships. Too many warships for the Vipers alone, but they do have back-up… and I’m here now as well, and Rolling Thunder is eager for the fray. So I light the injectors and pile-in… and I’m suddenly weaving my way through asteroid swarms as well as green laser beams… glorious! The Vipers are taking plenty of hits, as is Rolling Thunder by now, and things looks grim… but that back-up I mentioned is on its way. The Navy [classified] is behind me in this pic, laying about itself with abandon, and the gas giant you can see is Lago. Ahh, the life of a test pilot eh… but someone has gotta do it.

[Yah-Ta-Hey]

Right On Commander!!!!! A good day to count coup.... Lay into them.!!!!!

[Yah-Ta-Hey]

I am playing a second ship as a break from my vortex... need to get back to basics.... It is amazing how rusty one gets when trying to survive with a cobra III and a front weapon that is no better than a popgun. I have been trading pretty well when I jump in from witchspace (GALAXY 1)and was met up with a green knight of Lago... Now as a commander of an Elite status in a vortex.. I eat green knights for breakfast but as a newby commander of a harmless Cobra III who is just trying to survive... It is quite a shock to be jumped and then lamblasted while in the center of a navy task force... between dodging the navy, I was frantically trying to keep my ship together as I neglected to get an escape pod( too expensive right now), so I did the next best thing... I attacked the navy expecting to see all of space to light up and to see the gecko go down with me but his cloaking device was working perfectly and as I saw the press space message,,, I read a rather nasty taunt referring to my combat skills...
I am curious as to how many non-elite commanders have been served on a platter by the green knight of Lago?

[Cody]

I am curious as to how many non-elite commanders have been served on a platter by the green knight of Lago?

I 'balanced' the Green Gecko against a standard iron-assed Cobra III, which is what I fly. I'm an Elite combateer, but the GG can still give me a good slappin' occasionly, which makes me chortle happily. I like to take it on with the hud disabled... get the mojo workin'!

[RyanHoots]

I like to take it on with the hud disabled... get the mojo workin'!

Sounds like fun!
The new EilteHUD, for elite commanders only. On Red Alert, it automatically clears the HUD... and says, "Good luck, Commander."

[Smivs]

Now as a commander of an Elite status in a vortex.. I eat green knights for breakfast but as a newby commander of a harmless Cobra III who is just trying to survive...

I'm afraid what this shows is how easy it is to become too reliant on an uber-ship. The fact is with these ships you don't develop the skills required to be a true Ace, because you don't have to.
If you 'learn the hard way' and then upgrade, fine, but by the time you're that good most Commanders wouldn't see the need for or feel the desire for an uber-ship anyway. If you get one of these early in your career, your 'status' is actually earned by the ship and not the pilot, and is therefore meaningless.
And as may be the case here, even a good Commander can get slack and lazy if they go for the easy option.

[CommonSenseOTB]

Uber ships have one of these permanantly pressed.

[Bugbear]

Well Commanders, the Pelican has finally made it to Chart 5.

In previous posts I've commented on how easy it is to make money, well here's a short tale on how easy it can be to lose money too.

My Boa, the Quantum Pelican, is pretty much iron-assed as much as can be expected. Having completed the Thargoid Plans mission in Chart 4 she was given a Naval Energy Unit.

I've also got other luxury items such as a Rock Hermit Locator, and the various combat targetting upgrades that are available.

It only takes one misjump...dispite the presence of the Naval Frigates in interstellar space (and don't the plasma turrets look amazing when they are pummelling a Thargoid warship) I took on quite a few hits and lost a lot of equipment. I'm not ashamed to say this was one instance where getting the hell out of there was the smarter choice.

Anyway, I found myself at my destination of Usaorer, home of Navy Sector Command 6. I know that Gal Navy can repair pretty much anything, and I don't like having broken equipment so off I go.

Boy oh boy, even with my Navy Bonds discount, that repair bill made short work of my 100k credits that I'd amassed over the past few months. The Naval Energy unit alone stung me to the tune of 37500!!! Before I knew it, I was a pauper again with about 20k credits.

Thank goodness I still had some trading capital and a lucrative milkrun just a single jump away (Biceenon (RI) - Inquveri (PA) ). It was time to get back to some low risk trading (and in a Boa, doing Computers, Luxury Items one way, and Furs, Liquor/Wines, Radioactives, Food, Textiles, Minerals the other can net about 15k per round trip). Include taking advantage of the sometimes crazy prices at the Pi-42 Constores, and the alcholism of the resident Rock Hermits, and my 20k was soon up to 150k again.

Time to celebrate with a new ship. It's one I've been eyeing off in the shipyards for ages now - a Boa Class Cruiser. More cargo space at 175T, and a top speed comparable to a Cobra III @ 0.315. She'll still present a nice fat target to raiders so it will be milk runs for a while yet until I can afford a new Naval Energy Unit and Naval shields. I don't know if I'm in this game to make Elite (although I'm currently Dangerous at about 1850 kills)...one of these days I'm really going to have to give a Caduceus a spin (but at 1.2mill, that day is a while off just yet).

I christen my BCC, the Quantum Pelican 2 (My ship doesn't need to have a 'bad-ass' name).

Soon it will be time for adventures again (and the repair bills that go along with them).

I really must wander down to the south of Chart 5 at some point and have a drink at the Last Eight bar on Zaquesso. I've heard the fishing is great there and while I'm not much of a fisherman, I'm sure the diving would be good too!!!

[Cody]

Boy oh boy, even with my Navy Bonds discount, that repair bill made short work of my 100k credits that I'd amassed over the past few months. The Naval Energy unit alone stung me to the tune of 37500!!!

What... 37,500 to repair a NEU? I think the Navy ripped you off there!

[Bugbear]

Not wrong there - I really should have shopped around. At the moment I'm only getting 25% discount off the Gal Navy's inflated prices.

Oh well, cest la vie...

[Fatleaf]

At 25% your getting Main Station prices. You need to get a few more War Bonds to get the full 50% off Naval prices and free fuel.
It is worth it when you get a repair bill like that.

[Smivs]

Up to 75% off with enough bonds....