Tales from the spacelanes...

[Zireael]

A hijacked generation ship?!?! Holy smokes!!

Agreed completely.

[Commander Wilmot]

Rolled out of the station only to find that the traffic controllers must be crazy. As soon as I cleared the tube, I rear ended a viper! Thankfully he didn't write me up. I then on a later jump (ooc: I believe I died after jumping to the next system) was trying some smuggling.

It really is true about downward spirals, I had been a law-abiding privateer (ok, ok, there was that thing with COomunists, but other than that,) killing pirates to haul in cargo. Many would call this bounty hunting, I prefer privateering as it is basically legalized reverse piracy, the bounties are just a perk; spare change to buy a unhardened missile or a drink at the bar after a long hard jump.
Then I saw one time in station that narcotics were only 1.4 credits and the other system I had been milk running to was buying them at 101.4 credits a ton. You start hauling narcotics, then you branch into slaves. I was content to run narcotics occasionally when I got a good price, then one day I saw slaves were pretty cheap and tried to run them.

So I began a run in system with a hold full of slaves. I ran into a couple pirates, and one of them dropped a cargo pod or two. I eject one of the slave pods and scoop it to see what it is. It is also slaves, only thing is... I couldn't remember how to rotate between cargo to eject. So I began frantically dumping more canisters to get to the non-slave pods. I eventually had to quit that and realize that it was hopeless. I began scooping as many of the slaves as I could. I had dropped around 11, but a scavenger came in and retrieved the rest, so I had 32 tons instead of the full 35. I was relieved that all of them were retrieved, no slaves left floating around the system in cryogenic pods until the universe's heat death, or an impact with an asteroid or other object ended it's journey, whichever happened to come first. But I couldn't help feeling I had sold my soul; and I wasn't sure whether I had at least gotten a suitable Faustian bargain in return. After that I ran maybe one load, then I quit.

I don't believe in karma, but I have to wonder whether karma believes in me; or maybe Giles is trying to get to me. I made some more jumps, the usual milk runs, over the next two days. Counting time in witch-space, that might be more like a week. I ran into thargoids on three of those jumps. First I was told to "Eat batoid" and addressed as "nightlife." (ooc, may have died that time) Then I was told to guard my shyness, and apparently the thargiod thought I was a "human lungfish." Last thargiod insist on chanting Mausno! at me three times. It's weird, the thargiods can't make a working translator, but they spend an awful lot of time trying to talk to us; or at least at us. It would be hilariously pathetic if all they wanted was to buy all our cheap narcotics and food, because they are trying to keep up their megaweed high and have the biggest case of the munchies in Ooniversal history.

So there is my tale, sorry it is so long.

[Cody]

Good tale!

[Ranthe]

Nice one!

[UK_Eliter]

Sorry for the delay, but the new version of the OXP is finally here. That said, it is here in a . . test version. Please see the end of this thread for download link and information.

To see the hikacked generation ship, you will need to both (1) be very patient (i.e. do a lot of misjumps) and (2) look around you when interstellar space seems empty. And it helps if you are ranked Elite. Alternatively, you could hack the main script file within the OXP . .

It is (now) possible to dock with the hijacked generation ship (!).

[Cody]

While out on patrol with HIMSN, I got distracted by a teaser. No problem really, but it led me off at a tangent and I found myself in an unwanted dogfight with one of Galcop's finest in a Viper. No matter how hard I tried to discourage him, he wasn't giving up - so finally I was forced to take him on. Now, it's been quite a long while since I duelled with a GalCop Viper in earnest, so imagine my delight when he eventually ejected, and I was able to scoop my first cop-in-a-pod. I duly delivered him to the nearest station and collected a 125Cr reward (though I was tempted to deliver him to a rock hermit instead).

[UK_Eliter]

While out on patrol with HIMSN, I got distracted by a teaser. No problem really, but it led me off at a tangent and I found myself in an unwanted dogfight with one of Galcop's finest in a Viper. No matter how hard I tried to discourage him, he wasn't giving up - so finally I was forced to take him on. Now, it's been quite a long while since I duelled with a GalCop Viper in earnest, so imagine my delight when he eventually ejected, and I was able to scoop my first cop-in-a-pod. I duly delivered him to the nearest station and collected a 125Cr reward (though I was tempted to deliver him to a rock hermit instead).

Nice to hear about 'teasers'; the ultimate (i.e. at bottom) inspiration here is, I think, Douglas Adams.

[Diziet Sma]

imagine my delight when he eventually ejected, and I was able to scoop my first cop-in-a-pod.

That is just excellent! Thank you, cim and/or whoever finally added this long-awaited feature to Oolite!

[Duggan]

Found Ra to be under attack by Thargoids,

The Flag ship being a Thargoid carrier and spawning all kinds of foes, As it approaches the Main Planet the Armada increases in size .

Swarms, Cruisers, Battleships, Invaders, Warships, Gruntbuggly's ..Anti Poet variants ,Guardians, Controllers and way too many Robot Fighters to count...

But then I did like Relaes, Reckon I should go back there quiet sharpish.

[Zireael]

While out on patrol with HIMSN, I got distracted by a teaser. No problem really, but it led me off at a tangent and I found myself in an unwanted dogfight with one of Galcop's finest in a Viper. No matter how hard I tried to discourage him, he wasn't giving up - so finally I was forced to take him on. Now, it's been quite a long while since I duelled with a GalCop Viper in earnest, so imagine my delight when he eventually ejected, and I was able to scoop my first cop-in-a-pod. I duly delivered him to the nearest station and collected a 125Cr reward (though I was tempted to deliver him to a rock hermit instead).

Heh, this is a neat reward!

[Cody]

I was on the penultimate drop of a long, cross-chart multi-parcel run, and I had a deadline to meet. I'd been given clearance to dock and was on final approach, with the station filling the screen, when a crazy Hognose started firing at me. I thought I'd simply leave him to the Vipers, who were onto him instantly, and slammed Mercurial Amethyst into the slot - but due to the 'emergency' caused by the bloody Hognose, clearance had been revoked and I copped a 5000Cr fine for illegal docking! That was roughly a sixth of the run's total payout! <sobs quietly>

[Yah-Ta-Hey]

Even when you are legal... there is no justice dealing with galcop and it's cronies. 18%!!! spaceway robbery,That's what it is. (sympathy pat on the back)

[Bugbear]

I've been musing lately on the most effective way of raising funds, whether it be milk runs, cargo contracts, assinations etc.

Actually, I've never entered into an assination contract; while some of the miscreants seem to be deserving of elimination, it has always seemed to go against the grain.

Anyway, I'm experimenting with cargo contracts for now, criss-crossing chart 5, and I'm making a stop through Zaeredre. For a high tech Democracy there was an awful lot of laser fire between the witchpoint and planet.

Anyway the Quantum Pelican (Boa Class Cruiser) is fully iron-assed. In addition, I know when to run so I figured there was nothing ahead of me that I couldn't handle. I lined up the planet and hit the torus drive.

Soon enough I was mass-locked by a pair tussling. I don't know what started the fight and as usual, it really was none of my business.

Ordinarily, I would exercise my own judgement, pick the Offender or Fugitive, then fly in to the resuce. This was different though. To my suprise it was an Asp lined up against a Caduceus Alpha.

Now I've coveted the Caduceus for quite a while, drooling over it as I walked past the shipyards, but this was the first time I'd seen one in the wild. I started anticipating this fantastic demonstration of the superiority of the Caddy, a ship that I've always considered to be uber. Cracking open a cold one from the Beer cooler, and dialing up some popcorn from the Nutrimetics food dispenser (yeah, beer and popcorn...go figure), I sat back to watch the action.

Pretty soon, though, I was bitterly frustrated and disappointed. The Caddy pilot could not hit an asteroid, let alone the evading Asp. He would lazily loop around to point the nose at the Asp, fire impotently once or twice, obviously missing, then loop again to point the aft laser - evidently he had overheated lasers after totally wasting opportunity after opportunity and failing to unleash photonic hell on his adversary.

I mean, seriously? I lost all respect for the Caddy pilot. Probably some overprivileged S.O.B. that has no appreciation of the technological work of art under his questionable control.

The Asp was tagged as Offender (no suprise there - by this stage it was too much to expect the Caddy pilot to be a bad-ass), so I reverted back to type and lit up the Asp's shields. Straight away the wussy Caduceus pilot cries his thanks for the 'rescue'. Again, Seriously? Mate, you are such a waste of space. Now I was totally disgusted with the Caddy pilot.

The Asp now realised that playtime was over and there was a more competent opponent. Unfortunately for the Asp, after unloading half my front military laser, he was no more. See, Caddy pilot, THAT'S how you're supposed to do it. Now go away before I decide that you should be breathing vaccuum too...

I still want to acquire a Caduceus (I'm still about 500KCr shy of the base Alpha model), if only to keep them out of the hands of fools...

[Cody]

Good tale, Bugbear! I came across a fellow courier tonight (a poor little Adder) being challenged by assassins, so of course I had to intervene - and things became a little confused, as a few bandits and a GalCop Viper also got involved. Both the Adder (at least I think it was the Adder) and the Viper eventually ejected - and a damn Ferdie set about their escape pods. Murder most foul - a heinous crime! I couldn't get to them in time, nor could I ascertain whether the Ferdie was one of the assassins or a bandit, as I had my own troubles by then. Shame that, as I wanted to hunt that Ferdie down! It was an excellent firefight, though!

[CaptSolo]

How quickly the tide is turned against the unrighteous.
Mistake #1: Thinking Kaine was a trader.
Mistake #2: Thinking he needed escorts.

Many thanks to the Dev's for Oolite 1.79, and Cim, for your most entertaining Comm's Pack WIP.