Tales from the spacelanes...

[mossfoot]

Although the important thing to remember is, Space Captain Smith is the Anti-Flashman, and surprisingly it works just as well. Flashman is a bully, a coward, a liar, a womanizer, but has a unbelievable talent manipulating people and wooing women. Smith on the other hand is a considerate, brave, honest, and loyal person, but is absolutely rubbish motivating people or wooing women.

If anyone here does end up reading the series, I'd love to hear what you think about it

[mossfoot]

So I am restarting a hardcore game (continuing Mossfoot's adventures later) and had an odd encounter. I was docking at a station when I bumped into a ship that was leaving, and rather than blowing up, I ended up getting flung half way around the planet's orbit. I got hit so hard my thruster jets were coming out the front of the cockpit for like five minutes before I finally somehow righted myself.

[Diziet Sma]

That sometimes happens if you have a hard collision.. I keep intending to report it, but always forget.

[mossfoot]

Just interesting that I didn't get killed really. You'd think that kind of impact would destroy you

[cim]

The only thing I can think of is that the collision damage code is sometimes a bit odd when dealing with subentities. Possibly either you or the other ship lost a frangible subentity in the collision, and this somehow messed up the momentum transfer code? Certainly an impact hard enough to send you at that speed would normally also destroy your ship...

[mossfoot]

It was interesting for sure. Flying out of control, trying to somehow reestablish myself. No idea how I did it, though, or if it was some kind of "refresh" moment. I could adjust the thrust just fine, but, as I said, the thrust was coming out of the front instead of the back for the longest time in a weird way.

I'm just gonna say it was some kinda weird shield collision effect, reversing the polarity of the neutron flow and all that

[Bangbangduck]

[immersion mode]Sounds like your shields got deformed by the impact causing a bottleneck at the thruster ports. The emissions would have circulated inside the shielding until they, the shields, re-asserted themselves.

There are times when a well placed Ganymede screwdriver or Stalos gyro will resolve this issue[/immersion mode]

BBD possible on something illegal

[Ranthe]

It's a tough life flying an Anaconda sometimes - especially when hauling several tons of valuable I-couldn't-possibly-tell-you exotic gemstones towards the borders of the Citadels of Chaos. I've had a number of scrapes just getting out of the station aegis lately with some wanna-be pirate deciding to make his first kill, in fact I think someone out there has tipped them off to my cargo...

Anyway, I'm about to depart from Oneded to Lainor (TL5 Poor Ag Multi-Government) and I figure that for a change I'll hire some escorts, after all with the potential profit on this run a few hundred credits in escort fees will hardly be a drop in the bucket and eminently affordable. So after wading through a few references I finally pick a couple of seemingly-capable Sidewinder pilots, and after the contract is signed - usual deal, escort duties completes upon docking at planetary main station - we launch out of Oneded, clear aegis, and jump into witchspace.

Upon arrival at Lainor I set course for the outer fuel station, intending to refuel inflight to extend my escort coverage, and soon Atomic Annie is slurping down high-grade Quirium into her massive tanks. The inbound warning was that there were pirates about, so I was glad of my Sidewinder companions watching my back as fuelling completed. As per normal procedure, I eased Annie out of the refuelling cage and engaged engines to clear for the next jump, my two escorts idling behind me around the fuel station...

... then I get an automated message over the comm: "Escort terminated."

What? We were the only ships in scanner range! No pirates, no Thargoids, not even some laser-toting hotshot bowb in a Sunracer! But sure enough, a hasty check of my scanner revealed that the two magenta lollipops now numbered only one. Where was the other...?

Then it hit me. The Sidewinder pilot must have been so busy showing off his flying skills to his mate that he must have blundered into the side of the fuel station and offed himself! Probably just as well we weren't engaged in combat - with flying skills that bad he'd probably have put a missile into Annie's belly instead of a Thargoid... What a gimboid!

[Falcon777]

After some time doing bounty hunting and kitting out my very nice Supercobra, the Red Lightning, in the best equipment the galaxy had to offer, I grew tired of fighting...somewhat. The call of the bounty will get me again someday, and it's hard not to stop by the local NavySec station to help out against the 'goids. But I think I found something else that is challenging: making a profit from being a courier!

At first I couldn't believe the ridiculous offers. Some of them wouldn't even begin to scratch the surface of the maintenance bill for my highly effective combat ship. However, I had heard from an old spacer that the courier business could get interesting after a while. So, I just figured I'd follow the routes given and try my best to do trading while I was at it.

I tell you what, first time I come out of witchspace to find myself being attacked by assassins with a clean legal status I knew that I was hooked. Surely they realized that I was only getting paid a few hundred credits for these holovids of mud tennis and corporate research, right? But no matter, I splashed the two fugitives and left the rest in the dust trails of my exhaust.

After doing several drops, I finally had one that was going to the other side of the galaxy and paying a decent 900 or so credits. Not even a third of what I can make from one trip with a hold full of computers, but it was progress, ya know? It was during that trip that I then found another parcel going in the same direction, offering a solid 1600 credits and a tight shipment schedule. I couldn't help myself, so I took it, even knowing that I had already committed to a few other ones that were slightly out of the way.

On my way across galactic chart five I found myself facing off against incredible odds, sometimes fighting against or fleeing from over ten or twelve ships. They were always trying to ambush me at the witchpoint beacon, a lot of good that ever did them. Ha! A few times I even bothered to reply back to their broadcasts, saying things like "What, another bunch of nincompoops that can't even do their jobs? Bah!" or "Catch me if you can!" or even "Yaaaaaawwwn. You guys going to get this show on the road?" Oh, it made them so angry at times it was hilarious!

Now I find myself heading back across the chart, nine separate parcels all along my routes, nearly everyone offering 2-4 thousand credits. I even managed to snag one that was offering over 12000 credits, and with nearly 600 hours between when they expected I would arrive and when it needed to be there! Needless to say, I'm totally and completely hooked.

Ah, there's my mocha frappuccino. Well, gotta run, these packages aren't going to deliver themselves.

[Cody]

Needless to say, I'm totally and completely hooked.

<chortles> Yeah, the life of an interstellar courier can be highly addictive. The other night, I had two cross-chart parcels onboard, which together paid over 45k!

[Cmdr Wyvern]

Over the past month, I've grown accustomed to the fact that pirates are generally cowards, almost always staging assaults in packs of four or more ships. Then their bravado swiftly collapses as soon as a couple blossom into flaming debris.

Though on occasion, one particularly snide little p'elk will think he has what it takes to best me in a one to one duel.

As we exited witchspace, Em'lei announced a hostile contact. Hrm, an ambush at the beacon, no surprise by now.
"Savage Grace, drop your cargo..."

As I turned about to focus my laser on the lone Mamba, I opened the comm. "On who's authority are you to make demands?"

"umm... The resistance!"

"*pfft* There is no 'resistance', void brain. Go away, be a bother to a viper or something. The police need something worthwhile to do."

As expected, the bastard started shooting. Beam laser. He managed to take my military boosted shields down a few notches despite being an obviously poor marksman. Two could play at this! My own, well aimed beam lanced out, making a mockery of his shielding. He turned away and tried to flee, while begging for mercy.

By now I was in no mood for it. "Shut up! You shot at us first. I'm merely finishing it." As the front beam was overheated, I enabled a newly installed toy and closed for the finish. "You've brought this storm upon yourself," I told him as I lined up the railgun. "Let it rain."

It didn't take long for the slugs to tear his ship apart.

[ClymAngus]

It's good to see you back on channel mate!

[Falcon777]

I tell you what, I must be the luckiest son of a gun there is. Today was the first day I got to fly in space on my own ship. Oh wait, don't leave yet! There's more to this story than a wide eyed young boy looking for adventure among the stars. No, this is a tale of luck and woe.

So, my parents were poor and were forced to live on the wrong side of town. You probably know how the story goes, mom gets accosted, dad gets shot, mom gets shot, robber gets away, I'm left an orphan. Well, you'd be mostly right, but my grandparents lived on a fairly nice farm out of town. They'd been saving up money for years, hoping to have an inheritance to pass down to my mom and dad. Well, the police were kind enough to give me a lift to my grandparents place after they found out what happened. I lived with them until I was 21. Then, my grandfather revealed a big secret.

"Son, I've got a surprise for you today," my grandfather said. "Oh, what is it?" I replied.

"Tickets, to the space station. You're going to get to go to space today!" "Oh my gosh! I can't believe it! You're the best grandparents ever!"

The trip was marvelous, and we three had a ball up there. Then my grandfather told me he had another secret. "I know that you've dreamed of going to space for years, son. And of course commanding your own ship. Well, today you got to go to space, and today you get to have your own ship too. I talked to an old contact of mine and he said he had a ship that he's been trying to get rid of for years. I wish I could do better by you, but well, it's still a ship. If nothing else you can sell it and start your own life back on the planet. Or...perhaps you'll find your luck among the stars."

I was nearly jumping up and down with excitement. That was, until I saw the ship. It was an adder. Oh, and not just any adder. It was a broken down adder that had it's quirium fuel and single missile stripped from it. Oh, quite a few of the inner parts had been stripped from it as well, so it could only hold two tonne cannisters. The Squirt of Lave, it was called. I nearly wilted...but then I grinned. It was still MY ship, and I was going to at least take it for a spin.

"Thanks grandfather. You know how much this means to me." "Yes, well, do us proud son. And if you can, write to us." "I promise, I will!"

So, after double checking all the controls, I requested to launch and off I went.

Space! It's so beautiful while riding in your own ship. Despite how beaten up it was, it still handled quite well. It was, of course, quite slow, but still.

So, I knew that with no credits to my name and with no fuel, I needed to find a way to make some money (or perhaps hitch a ride. The least I could do for my grandparents would be to find a job on Zaonce or Leesti after selling the ship for scrap). Well, I started blasting astroids. Made just enough credits from them all to fill up the tank and to get two tonnes of food. And off I went, to Leesti!

When I arrived I realized that I might have made a mistake. Sure, I was going to make a profit from selling the food. But even if I blasted all of the astroids in the system, I wasn't going to be able to purchase anything from the market that would sell at Diso or Lave. Computers and Luxuries were simply far too expensive.

Again, I nearly lost all hope and headed towards the space station, intending upon scrapping the hunk of metal. But then I thought: what if I got enough credits just to jump to Diso and have a few credits left over? I might be able to purchase something at diso that I could sell at Lave or Leesti, right? There was no way I was giving up this easily! So I took my time, tore apart what astroids I could find and then headed towards the space station on the torus drive (thankfully at least that worked).

And then disaster struck! My scanner showed a thargoid heading my way! I panicked, and tried to run, but the thing was ridiculously fast. I then got angry. "If I'm going down, you're going with me!" I shouted over the broadcast. I had heard that thargoids loved to launch little remote controlled ships and that they had powerful shields and advanced laser weaponry. So, honestly, I didn't think I was going to live. I'd be lucky if I could take down a single drone, let alone the mother ship, right? Well, that thargoid must have been drinking some serious alchohol, because he couldn't have hit the broadside of a space station! I parked my ship and just targeted the mothership, keeping my laser plinking away. The darn thing almost didn't even launch its drones before it was spewing gobs of plasma. And then it exploded! I couldn't believe my luck! I just earned my first kill and had acquired 100 credits from the bounty! So, I then raced back to the space station and sold my food, allowing me to get fuel and two tonnes of computers! I am now set, ready to face the galaxy!------

"Sonny, you didn't say whether or not you destroyed the little thargoid drones after killing the mothership. You do know that the cooperative offers 50 credits per drone destroyed, right?"

[Paradox]

"Sonny, you didn't say whether or not you destroyed the little thargoid drones after killing the mothership. You do know that the cooperative offers 50 credits per drone destroyed, right?"

[Neelix]

Currently free of any contractual obligations I launched from the main station at Texebi looking for trouble in my Cobra Mk III, Clara.

The plan was to hitch a ride to a multi-government or lower system, and engage in a bit of bounty hunting and cargo collection. So I proceeded to hang around in the aegis keeping an eye out for wormholes on the scanner.

The first one I spotted was headed for Recexela. Being a Corporate State that wasn't really what I was looking for, so I moved on.
Moments later I spotted an Anaconda disappearing into a wormhole, so once again I lined it up to get a read on where it was going. Anonmabi - another Corporate state. I had however caught the name of the Anaconda before it disappeared, and on a whim I followed it through the wormhole anyway.

When I came out of witchspace the Anaconda and it's lone escort were a fair way ahead, but they were they only ships in the vicinity, perfect! Now I want you to keep in mind, I don't normally engage in outright piracy. If I fire on a clean ship it's usually because they fired on me first, but every now and then - if there's no-one else about - I'll give into my darker instincts. In this case the ships name had painted a target on it's ass, and I just couldn't resist the temptation to take a shot at it.

I pulled up about a kilometre or so behind the Anaconda, and double-checked the scanner, still clear. I opened fire. Under Clara's military laser the Anaconda didn't last long, and it had disintegrated into a cloud of cargo containers and fragments of metal before it's lone escort had had time to do more than fire off a missile, which had immediately fallen to my ECM. The escort apparently decided that discretion was the better part of valour at that point and didn't make any further moves against me, so I ignored it, and it jumped into witchspace as quickly as it could, leaving me free to scoop the debris field, happily ignoring the two GalCop vessels that that had just shown up on the scanner.

The Anaconda had lived up to it's name. Easy Pickings.

- Neelix