Tales from the spacelanes...

[Cody]

On a mid-length parcel run, I pulled into the aegis at Mararere - three jumps still to go, but I needed some repairs and I'd got enough time in hand. I requested docking clearance, only to be told I was #7 in the queue, behind an Anaconda plus five (an untold tale about the missing escort there, methinks). So I waited patiently, enjoying the scenery. Finally, as the last Cobra escort approached the slot, I eased Mercurial Amethyst forward, perfectly aligned and ready to hit the injectors as soon as clearance was granted, which was immediately given - but before I could hit the injectors, a whole bunch of ships began to launch, one of which was a Holy Joe in a Hognose who promptly set about me. He was right between me and the station, so expert marksmanship was called for (no problem for this ace). However, my docking clearance was revoked due to the emergency, several Vipers were now buzzing about - and three wormholes were blinking on the scanner (none of which were going my way, unfortunately). So I pulled out some, then requested clearance again - which was granted. I headed cautiously for the slot this time, expecting something - and sure enough, a Viper dashed ahead of me and atomised itself on the Coriolis. I'd expect to see that very occasionly from a rookie maybe - but not from one of GalCop's finest.

[uua90]

I've been away from oolite for, oh, about three years now. Real life has a nasty way of throwing every curve ball in the book sometimes. Well, that's the way of the world, and the best we can do is make a good life for ourselves and not let our fears hold us back.

Ahem, at any rate...

Fired up the old PC yesterday and started a new commander-- sold the coby 3 for an old mk 1, but that gave me some extra cash for some upgrades. I stuck a passenger berth in the back hoping to make my name transporting well-paying passengers, but I left some empty space in case i happened to run across a dogfight and find some "souvenirs". But with a little mk 1, being an active participant in a fray could be dangerous work.

I picked up a horned bird headed a good way across the chart from isinor, which meant a nice payout if I made it there on time and in one piece. Getting there on time was a piece of pie, but as for the getting there in one piece bit, well, read on.

Most of the trip was uneventful- witch jumping and sun skimming, pretty tedious stuff. I saw flashes of laser fire in the distance in some of the more unsavory systems and I almost collided with a cop flying out of the station bay, I can only assume he was on his way to a distress call.

But things got interesting towards the end of the trip. I was passing through an asteroid field on my way to the sun for some free fuel, when the tell-tale red dot flashed. Someone was gunning for me, and I hadn't even saved my game yet. This could be messy. I spun around hit the ident scanner-- a moray star boat. I immediately thought of the loot I could potentially grab and headed into his line of fire. My shields took some damage, but my beam laser ended up giving me the advantage, and after a confusing tussle amidst asteroids and a few wary miners, I finished him off. I greedily eyed the new white spots on the scanner and scooped my new treasure...

...one ton of minerals. Barely enough for a free tank of gas. Fortunately, the bounty was surprisingly handsome, so my first were not fruitless. And besides, my ship was okay, my passenger was okay, and I could finish this run in time for dinner. I scooped some fuel, engaged the witch drive, and...

Witch drive malfunction, thargoids everywhere, my little coby 1 getting hammered from every side. I was in trouble. I re engaged the witch drive and prayed to Giles for the longest fifteen seconds of my life.

When I came out the other side, my second (and last!) energy bank was near depleted. But somehow I had gotten through with my minerals and passenger intact. I warily cruised outside the main shipping lane of the multi government system and dropped my passenger off, collecting a large enough fare to get me some much needed repairs.

That horned bird has no idea he is one of the luckiest Avians in the Eight.

[Cody]

Welcome back... you got Oolite 1.77.1 (recommended)? If so, look at the parcel contracts too - they need no cargo space.

[uua90]

Yes, I saw those and wasn't quite sure what to make of them. It really has been a while.

How much could I put in the bank running parcel contracts? A little bit of pocket change or quite a bit of credits?

[Cody]

Parcel contracts are free money, as they take no space - choose ones going the way you're going anyway.
It's pocket-money at first, then as your rep rises, it becomes a little better.

In the next version of Oolite (currently known as trunk), they can be very lucrative - but with big bucks comes big trouble!

[uua90]

I picked up a parcel that I can drop off on the way to my passengers destination, can't complain about 300 credits for free.

I've always wanted a Suspicious Passengers OXP, where criminals pay big bucks for passenger contracts. But of course, Galcop will gun for a player with an illegal passenger.

[Ranthe]

I recently received a hyperwave message from my fellow Lave Academy graduate Jim "Pathfinder" Inskipp (currently in transit from Chart 2 to Chart 7) about his recent harrowing experience in Chart 4 at Oronceri. It certainly makes the sobering point that the biggest danger pilots in the Ooniverse face aren't pirates or Thargoids, but Nature herself. Here's some of that message...

... On arrival in Oronceri (TL10, Communist, Average Industrial) it seemed that we'd stumbled into a planetary emergency, as the witchspace beacon was broadcasting that the local star was in danger of going nova. As a result, all inbound ships being instructed to make for the Oronceri station without delay to assist with the final stage of the evacuation. No problem, especially as Angelina - my Serpent-class cruiser - had suffered a fuel leak while in witchspace, so we had to make repairs at the station anyway.

We got to the station aegis and docked - no mean feat considering the frenzy of inbound and outbound vessels - and immediately I was met by the Oronceri Station Master, pleading for us to take as many Oronceriians as possible to safety.

"Of course," I said. "We'll need to get my ship's fuel leak repaired first. How soon can we get that and refuelling under way?"

"There's no time for that!" the Station Master shouted. "We only have a matter of a day or so, maybe even only hours before the star blows! Even if we did have the time, most of the engineering staff have already evacuated! We have to load and leave NOW!"

What choice did I have? Within forty-five minutes we'd taken on just under eighty Oronceriian evacuees - the most that we'd calculated that Angelina's life support could sustain for enough time to get to another system - and were launched back out into the big black. As we hurtled past the main station doors I briefly saluted the Oronceriian traffic control, those brave souls sacrificing their opportunity to escape so that the last remaining transports could depart. Then it was on to clearing the station as fast as we could. With our witchspace drive effectively inoperative, there was only one escape method left - and I could only hope that it would work in time.

"All crew to jump stations," I ordered over the ship public-address system. "Standby for activation of -"

"Captain! Look!" my First Officer exclaimed, pointing to the scanner - and the tell-tale blue lollipop of an open witchspace wormhole less than a dozen clicks from our present position. I immediately brought Angelina about and flew at full impulse speed towards the welcoming blue halo, but already I fancied I could see the first flashes from Oronceri Stellar's impending destruction through the viewscreen.

"Wormhole destination computed... Veusar -"

"That'll do!" I shouted. "No matter where that this, it's got to be better than here!"
[...]
Sure enough, upon traversing that blessed witchspace wormhole we arrived in Veusar, along with a large number of other Oronceriian evacuation transports. After the events of the last few hours, the business of getting to station aegis was seeming like child's play...

One of the Oronceriian refugees - a heavy-set human - came up to the bridge, looking very much the worse for wear. "Captain... Thank you for saving us, we owe you our lives," he said. "If you hadn't arrived when you did..." He looked out the viewscreen. "Where are we?"

"We're safe," I told him. "We're clear of out Oronceri, out of witchspace, and are en route to Veusar station."

"Veusar"? he repeated. "A Level 5 Anarchy? This seems to be a new definition of the word 'safe' that I wasn't previously aware of."
[...]
We disembarked our evacuees at Veusar and stood down, with Angelina being scheduled for emergency repairs. As far as Oronceri was concerned though, the system no longer existed in any significant form on the charts - an entire world and associated stations gone, just like that. And of all the Oronceriians that didn't get evacuated in time? Vaporised. Blasted into their component atoms.

That wasn't the last we saw of Oronceri though. Or at least, what was left behind.

One intrepid soul took her ship back to evacuate more survivors, and we saw from her transmissions from the witchpoint beacon an armada of Gal Navy vessels on the scanner frantically trying to get the remaining survivors out of system as what was left of Oronceri Stellar's corona grew larger and larger. We could see from her instrument readings that her Space Compass was inoperative with no planet to lock onto any more - and for some reason the cabin temperature gauge was also not functioning.

The final transmitted image showed an extraordinary sight - the Oronceri ZGF and GalNavy base smashed together and glowing rosy red with increasing radiation from the nova. Somehow the gravimetric disturbance of Oronceri Stellar's destruction had cause the orbits of both these stations to intersect in a one-in-a-million chance of collision, and the remaining GalNavy ships were desperately trying to evacuate the trapped factory and Navy personnel. But it was at this point that the ship's cabin gauge came online again just as the hull temperature red-lined... and shortly afterwards the last fragments of telemetry showed the ship's shields collapsing as hull integrity was breached. Her ship - along with the ZPF, GalNavy station and the remainder of the Oronceri GalNavy squadron - was melted and vaporised by the intense stellar radiation.

No-one ever went to Oronceri after that. As it was, Angelina was one of the last transports that got out.

[Cody]

<applauds>

[Zieman]

Entertaining tale, as always.

[Zireael]

This is a brilliant tale!

[Sendraks]

Superb stuff!

[UK_Eliter]

Hi all

Here's something that you might encounter via my Interstellar Tweaks OXP (a new version of which will be uploaded shortly; but the existing version does feature the scenario in question).



EDIT: Sorry the image is a bit small, and various things that are green on the scanner should be in red. Still, these problems preserve the air of mystery, I suppose!

[Sendraks]

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

[UK_Eliter]

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

Indeed! Rather aggressive, and rather hard to destroy - and very rare - and with a whopping bounty.

The new version of that OXP (containing a few bugfixes; sorry it's so hot on the heals of the last release) should be out in a few days. I'll post in this thread when it is. Thanks for the interest!

[Sendraks]

I'll certainly be downloading it as and when you make the next version available. Sounds fab.