Tales from the spacelanes...

[Cody]

Hey Cody still in Galaxy 7? Me too. There is something about it isn't it?

<grins> Aye, the seventh octant is the place to be! I've done half a dozen circuits of the Eight, and although I like the fifth a lot, the seventh is my home now.

[ClymAngus]

<Clym takes off his bifocals and lowers the holo-map he has been studying>

Ah yes quite the contrary thing chart 7. Home not only to the Galcop Central intelligence Sector but also, embarrassingly, the Kleptocratic Swathe. The Anquerbians are literally spitting feathers about that particular nest of vipers. It's completely ruined them as a trade route. Only iron asses take their cargo's anticlockwise to Ceor and Usvera, less risk.

Not that most captains bother, not with 2 solid trade routes running through the system. Anyway if you do get trapped there what with Maanusre just a stones throw away, as prisons go I can think of worse! I know a few burn outs happily do that shuttle run for years.

Then there's the rift. Some people bounce between the 5 points and the Rubicon. Treating that place like their own little sandbox universe. The GCI would love to directly regulate it but getting a behemoth into the 5 points is easier said than done.

Have fun Commander Cody, and watch your 6.

[Cody]

Then there's the rift.

Aye, the Rift Worlds are a major attraction - I journey there regularly!

Have fun Commander Cody, and watch your 6.

There's nearly always something on my six, Mr Angus - such is the lot of an interstellar courier!

[ClymAngus]

It is "sadly" the reason why they invented the rear firing laser.

[Cody]

Until recently, I never used the aft laser - but I've been forced to amend my RoE in order to deal with heavy assassins!

[ClymAngus]

Why do I now have this indelible vision of fat men in ninja suits?

"heavy assassins"

Ah yes, that'll be why;

"We are here to assassinate your fridge and steal away it's booty! Got any pork pies you need 'assassinating' whilst we're at it? No? What about pastries?"

[Obsidian]

While I doubt the AI can plan tactics like that I'd love to think they deliberately lied to lure me away from the main station for an ambush... Sneaky Petes.

Assassins will try to lure you out of the aegis - or follow you out of the aegis and/or through your wormhole. One of your passengers has probably upset the wrong people.

Usually they broadcast a warning, though-- 'You should have thought twice before doing business with Namey McName!' Seems a bit odd to me but maybe so. In this case /they/ offered to let /me/ tag along on their wormhole. AI might have gotten a bit confused, there.

I've seen assassins broadcast warnings coming out of a jump, but I also had this pack of ships just casually tag along behind me as I exited a station and thought, "Hey, that's strange." Luckily, I was paranoid enough to have my finger on the injectors coming out of jump(after a couple of parcel runs, you learn to get twitchy); yeah, I got a warning... after they materialized right on top of me firing missiles. That was a close one.

[Cody]

<chortles> Yeah, one does become rather twitchy in this business - and those assassins do sneaky stuff. I once had a trio buzz me as I waited for docking clearance, even got nudged by one of them - and they were still waiting when I launched. There are ways of dealing with them!

[Bugbear]

Decided to take the Quantum Pelican II back out into the black. Those mothballs really stink up the cockpit, but she's a good ship and it's great to be back.

Jumped into the Ribege system and was minding my own business heading in system.

I'm a sucker for helping out those in distress so when I heard the plaintive cries of the Mamba: Rider of Tears VII, I had to investigate.

'Help! Anyone!'
'Please don't shoot!'

It wasn't the Rider's lucky day though - it was tagged as an Offender and in hot pursuit were a gaggle of privateers and a small patrol of GalCop Vipers.

I hadn't deployed my analogue controllers - this was only a casual flight and I was travelling by keyboard. Perhaps if I was flying by joystick, and the Vipers weren't present I may have been tempted to come to the rescue.

Even still, I found it a little difficult to hear the Rider's appeals for help as he fled the attackers. A death sentence seems pretty harsh for an Offender.

I only hope the end was mercifully quick.

[Cody]

At that, an Anaconda proceeded to launch, followed by its five escorts - all six of them offenders!

I think I encountered the same bunch of miscreants again last night. I pulled into an aegis, just as an Anaconda was docking, and got told I was number six, then number five. Ahead of me in the queue, its four escorts were mock-jousting with each other as they waited their turn to dock, having a right old time, they were - and all of them were offenders. If I ever see them outbound again, I'll simply have to follow!

[Obsidian]

Officially *DEADLY* for the first time... yep, I dig the stars which surround my rank.

Ridiculously, my jump from 1.77 to 1.80(a couple of months back), and now 1.82, is the first time I didn't begin again with a brand new pilot... so no killing the Constrictor for a fifth or sixth time, but at least I finally got to Thargoid Plans, which provides an opportunity for a rapid rise in the kill-count I've pleasantly discovered.

[SteveKing]

My Commander Hennessey arrived in the relatively quiet system of Solageon in Galcentre G1 and chugged off to the local rock hermit and mining site to trade some much needed machinery for the hermit’s accumulation of PM’s and gems; surprise, surprise, he just happens to be harbouring the local pirate element, a small fleet comprising a Python and four escorts – a couple of Mambas, a Cobra I and a Gecko. After a brief to-and-fro (at a moderate range), the escorts were picked off and the Python was ripe for the picking. It didn’t last long under Hennessey’s mils and he has a derelict tub and a tonne of pirate scum to deliver to the main station. “No worries,” thinks Hennessey, “I’m pretty much on line with the hermit, so anything that breaks off I can find again.”

Suffice to say, in Hennessey’s sojourn to the main station; I made dinner… ate dinner… fired up the Tea Maker… drank said cup of tea while catching up on all the bb news from around the Ooniverse… watched a bit of Ootube, listened to a bit of sub-aether radio (unfortunately the Milky Way Kid was off-shift) and all the while jumping Hennessey when he was in empty (scanner) space only to have the towbar break just as he got to the Aegis – luckily he had Towbar Repair Kit. So after a brief eva and re-attachment of the Python and a wait at the nav buoy for Galcop to permit Hennessey to dock (after 3 or 4 entries and exits) he tucks into the slot. And what was the reward? 1700 or so credits for the piece of junk he was towing (plus a couple of pieces of equipment) and 250Cr bounty! I think it’s about time Hennessey bought those Towbar Injectors!

Ps Hennessey even scooted back along the lane to pick up what got broken off the Python – no luck there either, most of it had been scavenged in the meantime, bah humbug!

edit: Oh btw WB, are you having a bit of an identity crisis at the mo'

[Wildeblood]

Oh btw WB, are you having a bit of an identity crisis at the mo'

That was a long shot, I never read this thread. Go and buy yourself a lotto ticket.

[staggerlee]

It's pitch black, and cold. I know I'm hurtling through space, but everything is still and weightless in here. I don't know how long the air will last, or how long it needs to last. Maybe forever. I shift the freezing knife to my other hand, try to breathe as slowly as I can, and wait.
--
I'd been stalking Gaffer ever since he betrayed me on Rigebi. We had a good scheme going, selling arms to both sides of the civil war. We'd pick up a shipment from a pirate base in Raave in my Boa, Gaffer dealt with the felines on the station, I supplied the rebel colonials via a rock hermit outpost. Gaffer got selfish, and cut a deal with the felines. He switched two of my shipments of energy bombs for booby-traps. When I turned up with shipment number three, the colonials were looking for some payback, and they weren't accepting store credit.

If the aftermath of that battle taught me anything, it's that three weeks in an escape pod and the recent loss of a fully-loaded Boa Class Cruiser is a potent stimulant for planning revenge.

An asteroid miner eventually picked me up. I'd got into the habit of keeping a stash of gemstones in the escape pod, and the miner was more than happy to take me to Raave for a couple of kilos. He was less happy when I boosted his Moray and left him tied up in a Coriolis washroom facility, but I'll make it up to him one day.

I traded in three containers full of alloys for a single refrigerated container and a nifty little remote control device, flew the Moray out close to Gaffer's arms dealer, put on the mayday beacon, and prayed that nobody else got to me first.

In a couple of hours, the vintage Ferdy turns up, right on cue. Spies me straight away. "On our way to help," comes the incoming message. Yeah, right. I send him text, tell him my comms went down with my main drive. Thank you oh thank you. Of course, when he pulls up behind me, he tells me to eject my cargo or be destroyed. Tough break for the stranded Moray. Gaffer's standard play.

I eject the cargo, all right. Using my remote control after getting myself snug inside the container. Gaffer didn't even wait to scoop before he blew the Moray to pieces.
---
The turbulent clattering of the cargo scoop is like an orchestra to my ears. I hold the knife away from my body as the container tumbles into the cargo hold. I have only minutes to wait before I hear the heavy footfalls of Gaffer. I imagine his salivating traitor's face eager to see what bounty the Moray has provided.

The container clasps release with a clunk, and warm air rushes in.

I finger the knife.

Come and get it, Gaffer.

[Cody]

I'd got into the habit of keeping a stash of gemstones in the escape pod...

<grins> Yep!