Tales from the spacelanes...

[TheOldGamer]

I was just pulling into Riantiat with a bellyful of old, outdated processor parts; one of them outlying ports is paying through the nose for cheap stamped silicon. For once, the Witchpoint was clear...all that was in range was an Atlas chugging patiently towards the planet. Tempting...but no; not this time.

I turned for the Waspline station on the outskirts of the solar system and settled in for a nice long Torus cruise with a bun and a coffee. I was just taking a bite of runny cinnamon goodness when WHOOOAAAAAAAAA!!!! A Space Dredger appears right in my path and nearly rips my nose off! I grab for the joystick, the sticky bun goes flying and I juuuust scrape paint on the massive Lady Bell. After a few choice words (very carefully chosen, of course; one does not irritate someone in a ship a kilometer long with a few very sharp Sabres hovering close) I steered around the monster and continued my cruise; recovering the sticky bun off the floor.

5 second rule.

A few more minutes and WHOOOAAAAAA! ANOTHER Dredger! This time, I had enough time to steer clear.

A few more minutes, WHOOOAAAA! Well, you get the picture.

What is this? Someone's celebrating Queen Liz's 90th with the biggest, slowest and most ponderous flypast in the history of people looking up and going 'Oo'?

A total of 7 of the blasted things seemingly intent on kamikaze-ing innocent little Yasens into spacedust.

Well, at least by this time I was close enough to Riantiat IV to make out the station - about 300km. So once again into TTS drive, steer for the station...

And straight face-first into a cloud of pirates in Aphids and Gnats, backed up by a Fer-de-Lance Carrier.

Umm....Yikes!

Well, I fought myself clear, but not before taking serious damage to the internals and losing some cargo. Aphids and Gnats - Man, those little buggers are hard to hit!

At least I was able to recover a few of the derelict fighters afterwards; a couple of Fer-de-Lances and Gnats on my Escort Deck and an Aphid dragged behind me recouped my losses somewhat.

After the necessaries were taken care of and repairs arranged with the Maintenance Depot, I disembarked and wrinkled my nose...the smell of burnt insulation is not what you want to smell when you're standing outside your ship.

I headed up to the bar...I think I need a little maintenance too. (sigh)

Edited to add: Ooo - I better explain. I recently expanded my solar systems thanks to Spara's excellent work, and now have a long flight time between planets. The longest I've seen so far is about 72,000km. so here's hoping I don't lose TTS for any reason...

[TheOldGamer]

I found a buyer for electronics on an outlying Tetrahedron in the Zaaxeve system (Galaxy 2) and unloaded, making a tidy li'l profit. They had some nice luxurious items the Commisars back at the home planet would like, so I bought them up and headed back in-system.

On the way out of the station's Aegis I noticed two Worker's Commuters heading in the same direction. Poor sods, I thought - what a life; being trucked from system to system to work in the fields and mines.

Hmm...and here's me in a whoppin' huge Lira decked out to the absolute max with shield capacitors, acres of armour plating and brand-new examples of Lance and Ferman's finest on all my arcs. You know something? I bet those poor downtrodden masses would love to be lifted out of their life of drudgery.

A couple hundred kilometers outside the Aegis, I moved in on the big square boxes, determined to do some good. I lined up on the first one and fired. WHAM! The bloody tin-foil box vapourized!

Erm...oops? (wince)

I paused briefly to read the owner's manual of the L&F military cannon to see just what kind of output that thing has, and to wonder just how cheap these people-movers are.
I switched my forward mount to by backup Williams, and hit the second Worker's Transport, with much more pleasing success. In moments, an escape pod launched away from the stricken crackerbox and, after pausing to scoop it, went in to 'rescue' the workers.

OK - a word to the wise; this isn't a good idea. Those things are so damn long hooking up the towbar caused our two hulls to grind together. It soon became apparent that there was no way I was going to be able to rescue the downtrodden masses. I finally had to leave the Transport to its own devices.

Oh well, lesson learned. I waited until I was well-clear and entered Witch-space for the loooong jump for Ceiner.

Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! went the alarm; the familiar Blue Hell was streaked with crimson. Well, whaddaya know? The Buggies haven't made an appearance in at least a week - trust them to show up just in time to round out the troika of bad news. (sigh)

Of course, if you do get hauled out of Witchspace by the bugs, you can certainly do worse than having a Boehemoth patrolling the area. I don't have any particular fear of the Thargoids, not in this monster, but some heavy firepower is always nice, don'tcha think? I went running to Mommy, swatting bugs with my aft Cannon until they shifted aim onto the huge carrier, then turned to join in the fun. It turned into quite the rumble with frigates, pathfinders and Gruntbugglies popping up left and right. Lovely! Pop, pop, poppity pop, Bugs went down under my Cannons. Whenever shields dropped, I ducked behind the Navy vessel and its screen of enthusiastic fighters. It took a while, but I managed - once the Thargoid finally gave up - to cruise around and fill my cargo hold with drifting robot fighters and still had plenty to shoot and bring my score up a bit more. I came into dock at the other end of the jump with a surprisingly satisfying profit. Nice.

[NEANDERTHAL]

Hello, everyone!

I just finished my very first parcel run ever - carrying weapon designs from Leesti to Ararus in the starting Cobra Mk III with one basic missile, a pulse laser and no injectors. I got to Ararus with a group of hired killers waiting for me at the witchpoint, forcing me to corkscrew down the main corridor on basic engines. I picked up a pirate group along the way. By the end of the journey I was docking with 14 'ships on my butt, but I cot a cool 400 cred as payment. Needless to say, I spent it on injectors over in Ensoreus.

[Cody]

Impressive - welcome aboard, Commander!

[RockDoctor]

I got to Ararus with a group of hired killers waiting for me at the witchpoint, forcing me to corkscrew down the main corridor on basic engines. I picked up a pirate group along the way. By the end of the journey I was docking with 14 'ships on my butt, but I cot a cool 400 cred as payment.

Hi NEANDERTHAL, got your aft hull plates re-painted yet?
Generally I stick to the trading life until I've built up enough money for at least injectors, and I re-mount the forward laser aftwards - which does tend to keep the more enthusiastic suitors at slightly more than arm's length. But a trick I resort to occasionally if I'm picking up too much attention is to keep my eyes peeled looking for a nice cluster of escorts around some big fat freighter (or even better, a formation of Vipers on patrol!) and dive through their middle with my unwelcome tail. It doesn't necessarily deal with all my problems, but ... what did Granny say? A problem shared is a problem halved?

[Disembodied]

A rough introduction to the courier life. But it's the "life" bit that's important … kudos!

[Cody]

... keep my eyes peeled looking for a nice cluster of escorts around some big fat freighter (or even better, a formation of Vipers on patrol!)...

Or even better still, a bunch of Thargoid warships!

[RockDoctor]

Or even better still, a bunch of Thargoid warships!

Out of the frying pan and into the Laser Ignition Facility.
Besides, bloody insects never turn up when you need them. They didn't just have their fear glands removed, but had the space filled with the "Really Great Timing" and "Thanks, M-8-legs" glands of a senior Vogon. Thankfully their poetry isn't to Vogon standards.

[Cody]

Besides, bloody insects never turn up when you need them.

Never say never... as they say! A while back, I witched into Oredveus and got jumped by a bunch of heavy assassins, but they'd hardly started on me when they in turn got jumped by four warships. A rather spectacular firefight ensued! Of course, one could gather a bunch of aegis-botherers and drag them into interstellar space, then sit back and watch the fireworks! Not that I'd do such a thing, you understand...

[Fritz]

I did it once... I survived it, but there was some luck involved.

[Malacandra]

Starting up a new Commander, a few Jumps in and I'm running cargo from Isinor to Ensoreus trying to keep the margins up, and a couple of bad guys decide to come and bother me. I'm only toting a Pulse Laser so things don't look good, but I try corkscrewing towards the station more in hope than expectation. Then a bunch of rebels and traitors show up so the odds are like eight to one. I'm taking hits and I drop a couple of TCs in the hope they might be easily bought off, but I'm expecting to be Pressing Space, Commander any moment now as my rear shield has had it and there is a stench of burning Furs from the cargo hold...

And then the Vipers show up in the nick of time, Eesti bless 'em. They've never appeared in time to make a difference before in all the time I've been playing. Just a couple to begin with but as they encounter resistance I see some more purple traces appear and I do my best to dodge towards them while trying not to take any more hits... and one by one the miscreants decide to de-target me and bug out of there.

I wound up with about 4TC short between what I dropped and what got torched, but I still dropped a couple of credits in the police benevolent fund.

[Cmdr. Aiden Henessy]

I had a pretty long and arduous time attempting to slay my first stellar serpent. I had traveled nearly half way across Chart Two to track the blasted creature. By the time I got the planet in question, it had jumped to another system. I refueled and did a few local in-system runs to cover the cost of the fuel I’d spent, then jumped to the new location, which was an anarchy. The delay, although a few days, gave the serpent the ability to hitchhike to yet another system. I followed, waiting at the beacon for any signs of trouble. Off in the distance, I saw the tell-tale lines of laser fire being exchanged and I flew to investigate. The lasers stopped long before I got there, and by the time I did I saw a long trail of cargo and a rapidly diminishing wormhole. And… then I got notified that the stellar serpent had left the area. I locked on to the wormhole and realized it was the one…. I hit the injectors and tried to get to it in time, but just as I was about to enter it collapsed. Curses!
I took a lengthy drive to the main station, making it safely, but wasting precious time in the hunt. I refueled and set out, jumping to the system. Alarm bells rang, and the purplish haze of the wormhole became laced with red. Oh, man, what now? I dropped out of witchspace only to discover… Nothing. I was in the middle of empty space. My first ever wichspace misjump, and of all times when I needed to get to the next system as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, I had enough fuel to complete the jump, but I’d be running on dry tanks. As I jumped to the system, I sighed. Another setback. I had no clue what I was going to be up against, and I didn’t want to get into a fight with a giant space snake with no injectors. It was too much of a long haul for me to sunskim, given that I already felt pressed for time, so I determined to head to the station.
Upon exiting witchspace, I took a ninety degree turn and shot away from the main trade routes, hoping to make record time. With clear space and no major trade routes in the way, I lined up the station on my compass and hit the torus. I was guessing I was about forty seconds out when suddenly I felt a deceleration. My computer beeped at me.

Mass locked.

Looking around the scanner, I spotted the offending ship. And, after giving it a quick scan, I realized it was literally an offending ship. Hah, well, no reason to withhold my vengeance if I’d get paid to do it. I lined up a shot and let loose with a long and serious burn.. Immediately my scanner pinged red, and the comms garbled to life,

“You won’t live to regret that.”

Hah! Sure! I thought. I’m Above Average with a tricked out Miner Cobra, just a few steps away from an Iron Arse. Come at me. I advanced towards the lone ship, waiting momentarily for my laser to cool. All of a sudden, I watched with horror as my scanner came to life with rapidly-advancing red dots. The front view screen blasted to life as golden rays approached from every angle. I stared, as the unmistakable hammerhead glint of a carrier flashed in the distance. Well, that was NOT what I was expecting. I ducked and weaved, groaning as I watched my shields disappear faster than a cargo hold of food in a trumble-infested Boa. I corkscrewed down, avoiding a majority of the shots but taking enough burns to keep my shields from raising from the red.

I desperately scanned the star-filled horizon for any avenue of escape. Off in the distance, I spotted a stream of purple tails. They looked just outside of scanner range. I slammed the injectors before remembering that I was out of fuel. A majestic second and a half burn time was hardly enough to put any serious distance between the attackers and my ship. I continued to corkscrew and attempt evasive maneuvers, but it was obvious I wouldn’t hold out much longer. My aft shields disappeared, and text began scrolling by with the damaged systems. I had maybe thirty seconds more, if I was very lucky. I knew I was finished, when my luck suddenly changed for the better. For the first time in my space career, I felt overjoyed to see a V-formation of purple dots on my scanner.

I managed to duck behind the wall of Galcop fighters, and in the insuring chaos, got clear enough to torus drive out of there. I wouldn't give a credit to the survival chances of the pilots, but hey better them than me.

After refueling at the station, and a few repairs of essential systems, I headed out once more. Time to find the blasted serpent. I lined up the witchpoint beacon and waited. A white dot appeared randomly on the radar, but I didn’t pay it much attention. I was looking for a space monster, not an asteroid. I arrived at the beacon and patrolled around, but saw no indication of any space snake. Extraordinarily disgusted, I headed back. I happened to pass the same white dot and, frustrated at my utter lack of luck, I stopped to blow up the apparent asteroid. As I turned the ship and lined up the dot, my ID showed the target with the most unexpected words ever.

Stellar Serpent.

I stared in disbelief. You’re KIDDING me! Adrenaline pumped, and I flew towards the ship. Oh, this was awesome. The realization dawned that I finally found the wretched creature, and I flew in a joyful loop-de-loop. I had no idea that the serpent was equipped with laser-like weaponry, or had the ability to shoot globs of poison at me similar to plasma balls. I thought it was restricted to melee attacks. As I lined up the snake in my sighs once more, I was momentarily paralyzed by the blinding flashes of light smacking against my shield. As I reeled against the onslaught, I saw a mass of furious white balls descending upon my craft. I attempted to dodge, but I was so startled that my hand slipped off the joystick and I lost control.

Game over.

[DredgerMan]

It really doesn't pay to be good.

When I arrived at my destination to deliver the gold from my cargo contract I noticed a single viper happily shooting at a lone pirate, a Gecko in this case. Since I had some time to spare (still 4 days on the contract) I decided to give the police a little helping hand and targetted the Gecko as well. As I headed in his direction, suddenly a group of two pirates came into view from the edge, followed by a single viper. Then another three pirates arrived, two of which were fugitives. They were happile trashing the police so I just sat back and enjoyed the view and the sometimes hilarious comm messages.

By now there were twelve or thirteen pirates and 7 vipers all happily bashing away when I saw at the edge a lone fugitive, a sparking Boa, who must have been hit heavily by the vipers.

I duely targeted and shot at the Boa since the vipers were busy fighting the others who were now all over the place, when ..........

at exactly the same time one of the pirates ran away on injectors and suddenly all vipers injected out after the miscreant.

Then my last shot hit the Boa and it blew up.

Yay .......

Uhhmmm, why are there now 11 red flags around my ship?

Oh, bug.....

-PRESS SPACE COMMANDER-

[Cody]

Nearing the end of a cross-charter, ten or so jumps away from delivering two parcels worth 75k, I dropped into Gexean, hit the injectors while shouting 'meep-meep' at a squad of assassins, and headed for the rock hermit. Nearly there, a bunch of bandits jumped me, so I shouted 'onion sauce' and hit the injectors again. Left 'em all behind apart from a Ferdie which clung to my six. Okay, thinks I - I'll dock and tank-up, unload some booze, grab some metal, and then deal with the Ferdie. I docked at full-tilt on injectors and got tanked-up okay, but before I could hit the market the hermit disintegrated around me and I was in space again. No sign of the Ferdie, so I assume it must have slammed into the hermit on injectors. I can't remember the last time that happened to me - if it ever has.

[Diziet Sma]

I docked at full-tilt on injectors and got tanked-up okay, but before I could hit the market the hermit disintegrated around me and I was in space again. No sign of the Ferdie, so I assume it must have slammed into the hermit on injectors.

Damn.. that's just..

This game never ceases to surprise, does it?