THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF COMMANDER NOOBY
Part the First.
Here I am, in a shiny stock Cobra III, the Beginner's Luck, with Cr100 to my name and space travel in my blood. First things first: let's get a bit more working capital. I sell 2 of my 3 missiles, netting me enough to buy 5TC of Liquor and Wines, and 1TC of Food. I pick Zaonce as my jump destination, and launch from the station. I cruise away, bid farewell to Lave, and hit the countdown. Ooh, hyerpspace is sparky ... and red and green. Witchdrive malfunction! Oh poop. I manage to persuade one Thargoid to launch its drones, before expiring in a ball of indignation.
Oh, what a horrible dream I had! I hope it wasn't a premonition ... with a strong sense of déjà vu, I launch from Lave station and open a wormhole to Zaonce. What a relief - I arrive at the Zaonce WP safe and with most of my molecules where they were when I left Lave. Right: line up on the planet ... I can see laser fire flickering against the darkness, up ahead. Lots of traffic around, too. Some of those weapons flashes are purple ... I'm masslocked in traffic but to be honest I'm in no rush to find out who's fighting the Law right now. Ooh look, an Escape Pod, drifting by ...
I spend most of the trip in masslock, but that's OK. On the way in I unleash the full force of my Pulse laser on a couple of dangerous asteroids, and make a couple of bucks. I reach the station, dock, sell my cargo, and congratulate myself for not spending Cr68.4 on Furs on Lave - they'd only be worth Cr68.0 here on Zaonce. That's the fashion trade for ya. Anyway, there's always a market for fine wines: I sell my cargo and have Cr166 after refuelling. I'm on my way!
Where next? Isinor is the obvious choice: sure, it's a Confederacy, only the third-safest sort of system, but I feel lucky (and after my "bad dream" earlier, I reckon the universe owes me one). It's also the most stable Agricultural system in range: the other two are Lave (Dictatorship) and Bemaera (Multi-government). And it's a Poor Ag, to boot: ka-ching! Right: what do I take? Dammit! Not enough for 3TCs of Computers ... but I do have enough for 3TCs of Machinery. What will bring me the better overall profit? 2TCs of Computers or 3TCs of Machinery? I go for the bulk, and buy Machinery. I launch from the station, and witch out to Isinor.
All's quiet round the Isinor WP ... lots of laser flashes up ahead, though. Oh well: onward!
There are the flickers of 2 firefights visible now ... and I'm masslocked behind a Moray Medical, named T.E.E.T.H.. Let's hope he's got some, because I'm still pretty gummy ... Oops, here's a Python, the Osprey of Ontiat, and he's swirling around - he's locked in a dogfight with the Fer-de-Lance Twisted Ass. Nice. The Moray Medical and I fly casual, and leave them to it.
The combatants fall behind, and I overhaul T.E.E.T.H.. I hit the torus and scoot on, and find 4 ships in barney mode. 3 are definitely engaged, but as I twist my course in the direction of "away", one peels off and swings towards me. The klaxon sounds and the lights flash red: I'm under attack! Laser fire snaps at my forward shield, and I bring my sights to bear ... there's a bit of good news: it's only a Sidewinder, the Vanguard Corsair - which is appropriate enough, I suppose, for my first pirate. He pops his laser at me, I pop mine at him, and my aim, and my shields, are better than his. He breaks off the attack and squirms away. I don't need a second invite, and fall onto his six. The Pulse laser is barely even registering a temperature, and it's not long before the Vanguard Corsair is a puff of plasma. My first kill, and it's a doozy! Cr94 in bounty, whoop-de-doo! That'll take the edge off anybody's moral qualms. But I'll think about that later, because two more ships have just swum onto the scanner at extreme range. They're between me and where I think the station is, and I've got a nasty feeling they're two of the ships from that barney I mentioned earlier ...
Oh crap, they are. It's a Cobra III, the Buccaneer's Gold, and something small ... I angle away from them. Have they seen me? I think they might have seen me ... yup, they've seen me, and they're swinging in. Crap, crap, crap. I can see the station, but it's a way off yet. I head up, and away, and over, trying to keep my distance. I've managed to put them astern. Bugger: one blip goes red as it gets a weapons lock: it's overhauling me. A quick glance out the rear view, and I get a ping on it: another Sidewinder, the Swings and Roundabouts. Laser fire starts coming in, and I twist and shake, looping and spiralling my way nearer and nearer to the station. I can't turn to fight him, because then the Buccaneer's Gold will be on me too, and there's really only one way that fight will turn out. I have to reach the station. It's hanging there, closer, closer ... my rear shield is yellow, then red - then maybe his laser's overheated, because there's a lull in the laser fire, and my rear shield starts to recharge. But he's closer still, and then he opens up again. I've got no choice: I lock a missile on to him. I'm still twisting and turning, but he's wearing me down - the shield collapses, I'm taking hits to the hull, and now the Buccaneer's Gold blip is burning red too, as he locks his weapons. I cross my fingers, and launch the missile.
The Swings and Roundabouts breaks off the attack, his blip turns yellow, and he's running. I point myself square at the station again and will the ship onwards. On the scanner, I see my missile rushing in on to the Sidewinder then - both blips vanish, and I get Cr27 in bounty, which doesn't quite cover the cost of the missile. Still, though, I consider that Cr3 well spent. The Buccaneer's Gold is still there, and still red, but it must be extreme range because he's not firing. It's my Cobra III versus his Cobra III. Some people will tell you that other Cobra IIIs can seem slower: well, not this one. I'm flat out, full speed, and he's hanging on my scanner like a tick. But he's not firing, and now - at last - here is the Isinor station aegis.
The Buccaneer's Gold is keen, though. Keen and mean. He keeps on behind me. I don't see any Vipers, either. Why aren't they spilling out to help me? Why won't the Buccaneer's Gold let me go? I did missile his buddy, right enough, but there was nothing personal in it.
Finally, he turns yellow, and I'm aiming at a point between the station and the nav buoy when some fat twit in a Boa blorps out, followed by a long tail of escorts. I slow down, and suddenly the Buccaneer's Gold thinks it's game on again, even though there's a purple blip footling in from the other side of the station! Dammit, no! Good thing I majored in unorthodox docking: I let the last escort Mamba piddle on out the road and punch the engines, coming in to dock on a fast curve that probably caused a few drinks to be spilled in the dock bar - and then I'm in, and the Buccaneer's Gold is left there, all alone, with a cop coming in and a cloud of escort fighters just waking up around him. Hell mend him, I say.
Dammit! I should have taken the 2 tons of Computers. I only made Cr15 per TC on the Machinery, and would have made Cr34 per TC on the Computers. Stupid. Live and learn, I suppose. Speaking of "live", I buy another missile when I refuel. And after all that, I have enough to buy 13TC of Isinorian booze at Cr22 per TC, with enough left over for 2TC of Food at Cr2.4. My cargo hold is close to full: how about that? Platinum is mouthwateringly cheap, but at Cr65.6 per kilo I just don't have the capital to take advantage of it. I've got precisely Cr0.6 to rub together, and a course plotted for Ensoreus. Rich Industrial, TL12, fat black felines - what's not to love?
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You must be using a joystick, I guess?