Tales from the spacelanes...

[cim]

I'd picked up a few passengers from the eastern side of the Maer-Xeines bottleneck, heading westward. The jump into Xeines is fine, and the first drop-off of a pair of them at Edriuson all goes smoothly. For a couple of Anarchy systems, it's not been anything I can't handle. So, I launch from Edriuson station, to jump to Erinain, and on the way out I notice a wormhole blinking off to the side. So, why not, I scan it, and it's to Erinain. Great, that'll save some fuel.

Come out in Erinain and the scanner's so full I can't see the witchbuoy. Must have been an Anaconda, I think, and start lining up on the freighter-shape in front. No? Only a Python, Darling Catrina and her two escorts. I start to swing round to get the others on ident, and then the alarm goes off and most of the scanner turns red. Then the viewscreen turns red too as they all open fire, and I pitch up, hit the injectors, and get out of there. By the time I'm out of range, both my shields are gone, along with half the power reserve, and a large chunk of my equipment. Fortunately, none of them appear to have injectors, so it's a slow process but my shields are recharging and they're now sitting ducks to my aft laser.

Six or seven of them down, and that doesn't seem quite enough. I head back to the witchpoint, and things are a mess. Both the Catrina's escorts are gone, and she's under attack from three pirate Pythons, and a Cobra III. Good thing for her I followed that wormhole, since she'd never have held up against all those fighters as well.

I don't know if they were waiting for someone specific - my passenger was playing innocent, and the Python captain hadn't been expecting trouble - or if it was just some more-than-usually organised piracy. There were certainly a lot of canisters floating around after the fight, so who knows. Rumours in the station say something about a trade tariff dispute between the government and Galcop, so maybe it was that.

[Disembodied]

A lucky day for the Darling Catrina, that you were hitching on her! I don't know what it is with some passengers; maybe they've made enemies, maybe they're just bad luck - but there are times when I wonder if the bad guys can smell 'em ...

[Cody]

Three pirate Pythons and their associates can be big trouble, and hitching a ride often leads to interesting situations.

[Mad Dan Eccles]

It had been a long day, and as I approached the station at Envebe—the only tech level 11 planet for light years around (I was low on hard hat missiles), and a democracy to boot—I poured myself a glass of Glenflibbet 37 Parsec. I was low on loopy juice and was hoping to hyper jump the rest of the way, but then a Mk I Cobra wallowed into view and I couldn't be arsed using the last of the fuel to scoot past him.

Well, what the hell, I thought as I poured myself another drink. Let's hook up and go the rest of the way together.

Dead abaft of him (or her—you never know, one of these days I might get lucky) I closed to within two clicks. I moved a finger to close the throttle and match velocities, but instead my mil laser burst into crimson life, catching the poor bastard amidships.

"Our vessel is under attack, please help us" came the plaintive cry.

Fuck. What soon of a space nerfcamel put the fire button right next to the throttle?

Of course, someone with more morals (and less whisky) might have simply used the last of his loopy juice to get outta there, but as I say, it had been a long day.

Sorry.

[Diziet Sma]

What soon of a space nerfcamel put the fire button right next to the throttle?

Which is why some of us lash out on one of them new-fangled controller thingies for our ships..

[Mad Dan Eccles]

I just KNEW someone would say that!

[Diziet Sma]

[Mad Dan Eccles]

But seriously, while I do have a couple of X-Box controllers that work well (at least with LEGO Star Wars ) I've not tried one with Oolite. I do kinda like the old-skool feel of keyboard-only. When I get one of my novels finished (not Oolite-related or SciFi. Yet) I've promised myself a joystick so I can play Falcon 4...

[spara]

I do kinda like the old-skool feel of keyboard-only.

Old-skool ? This is old-skool http://www.speedlink.com/?p=2&cat=314&pid=21424&paus=1. I've got one . It's a blast from the past.

[Mad Dan Eccles]

That's not old. This is old.

[Jeffers2112]

That's not old. This is old.

Makes me feel old.... my first job in IT back in 1978 was servicing punch card machines that produced those!

[Diziet Sma]

That's not old. This is old.

<Waits patiently for a video of MDE using one to perform a manual docking>

[Mad Dan Eccles]

Oooo... sounds like a challenge!

How about I just whistle ones and zeroes?

[Mad Dan Eccles]

Word must getting around Galaxy 2 about the Null Hypothesis. It seems like I can't even hyper into a Corporate system without a bunch of two-bit pirates sitting around waiting to have a go. They must be kids, 'cos they fall for my lame duck routine every time. I'm not complaining, it's good pulling in the bounty money and watching my kills increase steadily, but the Krait pilots are a bit tiresome—they come at me guns blazing and when I swat them away with a sustained blast on the mil they're suddenly all "Leave me alone!".

You started it, pal. I'll finish.

So, I thought it was time for a change of scene. Jumped into Gal 3, and first port I call at this Commander Fortescue says he's got a mission for me. Wants me to take some plans halfway across the bloody galaxy.

What could I say? The Navy pays well, I've learned that.

This should be easy, right? I could do with a nice break.

Catch you around.

[maaarcooose]

I do kinda like the old-skool feel of keyboard-only.

Old-skool ? This is old-skool http://www.speedlink.com/?p=2&cat=314&pid=21424&paus=1. I've got one . It's a blast from the past.

My holy grail for controller would be finding a way to make one of these USB.


!m!