Just switch to all mc with incendiary, one medium with corrosive.

Not likely, because she's nice and cozy in the Lakon box. As cozy as you can get in one of those.

Would make for an... interesting sight, though. And not exactly useful to the purpose of remaining undercover.

Lol, just don't say Kira is going to squeeze herself into an ordinary Azimuth uniform. :p

"Nothing yet. I think the machine is still loading cargo." I quickly listened in for sounds of activity down below. Sure enough, I heard some metallic noises in the cargo bay. "Yes. It is. And there is nothing from them."

No suspect or suspecting comms anyway.

"I think, it might be... your lucky day."

And I decided to lay out my idea, which came up suddenly as I saw the 'crash room' scene unfold - with a disdaining look toward the poster with the woman, even with me being the only one to be aware of the expression - and could as well have come straight out of a spy movie. But if it had a chance of working...

"Why not... try to disguise yourself? Use the uniform, and try to pose as one of them. But you would have to come up with an excuse, why you are there, and hope they believe it long enough, to do your thing."

I paused momentarily, not quite able to resist some teasing.

"I'm sure there could be worse for you, like living how I do."

Though I was able to hold off the "Or maybe you worked with Azimuth before, and they'd buy it from there" remark... partly because I wasn't quite over that suspicion yet, and so wouldn't have been able to make it fully come out as a joke. That kind of tension would have been a rather unnecessary diversion, for this very moment.

“Here I am, risking my neck, and my feed still isn't good enough to track,” I quipped.

I placed the little tech marvel against the hatch’s keypad and fired it up. Moments later, I heard the metallic clank of bolts retracting, followed by the whir of a motor kicking in. Slowly, the hatch swung open upward.

I grabbed the ladder with my right hand, pulling my left arm out from between the rungs. Then I climbed a bit higher, peeked through the hatch… and froze.

“Damn you, Randomius!” I cursed under my breath as I came nose-to-toe with a pair of polished black boots, their tips looming large in my view.

But then it hit me - something was off. No voice shouting at me, no shots fired. And those boots were pointed right at me - you’d have to be blind AND deaf not to notice my presence… I eased my head up first, then my upper body through the hatch. Well, look at that, I thought. Just a pair of boots standing at attention, all neat and tidy. And behind them, hanging on a wall bracket, was some kind of uniform coat or cloak. I clambered out of the hatch completely.

“Looks like I’ve stumbled into some sort of quarters - there’s a bed and a locker right next to me. One wall’s got a sink and a mirror… and there’s that uniform thingy hanging on the other. Might be a crash pad for the next shift. And the hatch probably doubles as maintenance access and emergency exit.”

I took a quick look around. The room had no windows, but there was a closed, solid-looking door toward the wall. I tiptoed over and listened for footsteps or any other sounds. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“The bed looks untouched. The locker isn’t locked…” I cautiously opened its door. Inside hung an empty laundry bag, and in one of the top compartments lay a dark helmet with the Azimuth logo. On the back of the door was a large picture of a scantily clad lady sporting rebel insignia in a rather suggestive pose - some kind of pin-up girl, I guessed. Otherwise, the locker was bare.

“Looks like someone’s got a thing for the dark side,” I joked, “And it looks like I’m still undetected. Anything unusual on your end?”

"Try to hope nobody is on the other side.", I dryly replied. "And a little bit less sarcasm. If I was so good and perfect... I would never have gotten good at hacking."

"And I am glad that I am not having to follow the ladder, behind you. Your passage looks quite narrow, on top."

Probably better to not mention that I had my eyes off the screen with the camera feed while it was getting shaken around. Though, in my defense, I'd partly kept an eye on what scanners were picking up, but nothing out of the ordinary so far, no particular movements that would have alarmed me.

"You could, bring a third person next time. I am watching three different displays, at the same time. And then there is your camera, too. So, if you need a thing, call. I may not always have my eyes on it, directly."

"I’ve got three of those handy-dandy, highly illegal gizmos in my backpack… and it’s crystal clear I gotta tread lightly. Even without a locked hatch, anyone catching me in this tower or on the other side of the wall would know I do not belong there."

The shoulder cam was still going, broadcasting my adventure, and swaying like a drunkard since I was rummaging through my backpack.

“Oops, sorry about that. Hope you’re not getting dizzy. And I wanted to express my utter shock that such a morally upright citizen as yourself would ask if I’m packing these illicit toys. But I’ll chalk it up to you thinking I’m some kind of no-good scoundrel anyway.”

I was grinning ear to ear as I slid one security breach device into my belt pouch, but of course, you couldn't see any of that.

“Let’s see where this little adventure takes us…” I said as I climbed the ladder, wedging my left arm between two rungs to hug it tightly, safeguarding against any potential tumbles while I fished out the device with my right hand and then reached up.

“Typical of my love life that I’m getting intimate with ladders now. Any last words of wisdom before I try to crack open this hatch?”

"Hm ..."

Looking at the video feed in front of me, I gave off a 'thinking' sound.

"Maybe, you could try to overload it, but that would trigger an alarm. Do you have any of those... what are they called... the security breach devices? That could get you through. Because, I doubt, the code for that could be found anywhere on my side. Or anything I could try to, hack into. But, you would need to be careful, then. Anyone that sees it, would be able to tell somebody snuck in."

"But if you have another idea... tell me. And I could try to... figure a thing out."

My boots clanged against the metal grating of the ship’s freight ramp as I stepped out of the Gullveig, the landing field stretching out before me - a vast expanse of metal and concrete illuminated by harsh floodlights. The tower loomed in the distance, its top silhouette punctuated by the blinking red lights of the anti-air unit scanning the skies, and with its back snuggled against the wall which separated us from the lone and seemingly damaged ship on the other side.

The ground grate lay just ahead - a nondescript metal panel that concealed the hidden corridor below. I crouched, and drew out my trusty arc cutter. Its blade flickered to life, the light hidden from other ships as planned by the stapled containers of the power generators, which were directly in front while our ship was behind me. With deft precision, I traced the outline of the grate. Little sparks danced around me as the cutter sliced through the metal.

As the last section of the grate fell away, I dropped into the narrow passage. The dim lighting revealed kind of a maintenance corridor with several groups of thickly clad horizontal pipes running along the walls. I switched on the video transmission of my shoulder camera and followed the corridor towards the tower. From time to time, side passages branched off from the corridor, a labyrinth full of shadows. I approached them slowly and carefully, always expecting a camera or drone, but there was nothing. Sometimes I could feel the vibrations of nearby activity - shaking of the ground from landing ships.

Finally, I found myself in the basement of the tower. A ladder led up in front of me and towards a closed hatch. Some of the tubes also ran upwards along the walls, perhaps containing power lines.

“Kasumi, you catching this? I’ve made it to the lower part of the tower, right up against the wall... Got a hatch way above me playing hard to get - looks like it's locked up with some fancy electronic seal..."

I zoomed in on the hatch above.

"I can see a digital keypad begging for a code... The ladder itself is stretching up a bit longer than I’d like, feels like it’s leading straight to the tower’s first floor. The ground floor is hollow - it contains just this ladder, and a bunch of pipes running upwards. Any ideas regarding that keypad`?”

One doesn't need six plasma accelerators with efficient engineering to run out of power with this class 6...


That's an issue. I don't have more firepower than the Krait MK II after 11 sec of lasing my target, and I need my lasers to get the shields down, I also need to be able to boost during engagements, and this is made impossible in this configuration.

As I said, after the 3C BEAM LASER is off, I'm in the same configuration than the Krait minus the reserve for boosting...

The class 6 distributor exists so you don’t just slap six plasma accelerators with efficient engineering on it without any care in the world, like you could if you had a C7 distributor with it.

That’s my best guess, anyway. C7 distrib with 4 pips to wep and charge enhanced engineering would last a minute of sustained fire with 6 efficient PAs. If you pulled the trigger on them all at the same time, anyway, which is unlikely, but there’s quite a difference between 11 seconds and 57 seconds of sustained capacity to fire six plasma accelerators at the same time.

“Yes. It is time we get to know more. But try not to be away for too long. They may start to ask questions of why we are not leaving. And I would rather not take off alone.”

In no small part thanks to the fact that the equipment on the ship wasn’t particularly suited to me and my unique ‘challenges’ in piloting.

Now that I was alone, I began to get a bit nervous… and reached for my pistol. Instead, I found thigh. Reaching further to the right… more thigh. And further again, a lot more thigh. As if I’d gone for where it would have been, without the… ‘significant upgrade’ which that area had gone through a few months ago.

For another moment, I was also afraid that I’d just forgotten it, but following the thigh curve down I found it… sort of hidden between the softness and the shifting seat material. And put on a stupid face, because I could’ve made the seat slightly less uncomfortable around there if I’d noticed.

Much to my dismay, there was no pistol holder present on the side of the seat. Whether that was an intentional omission or because the designers thought I could just hold it on the side of my fat, oversized thighs, I’d just have to ask, later… if I didn’t forget about it.

I just kept it on my lap for now, well aware the weapon being there could eventually get rather irritating. But that could be a good thing, because shuffling along the big thigh had caused some rather unwanted - for the current situation - desires to be stirred up in my mind. The kind that would lead to hands poking in other, more… sensitive, places.

For now, I put myself back to listening in to Azimuth comms and keeping track of where my companion was… though, first, closing the cockpit window shutters. I stood up and wandered over to the main seat, mostly confident in my stability - helped by not having the full weight of my upper half pulling down - to fiddle with the control panel until the shutters started comimg down.

That made me feel safer, because I was kind of just staring at a wall, but sealing away the outside made me feel safer. And prevented anybody from peeking in to see my face. I hoped she wouldn’t mind me doing that, particularly as I had to mess with the control panel. Back over to the seat, quite enjoying a bit of movement for my enhanced shape, and the work. So far, Azimuth didn’t appear to be suspecting anything.

… and those distracting, wayward thoughts about the - my - body, didn’t quite agree to leave my head.

It is unbalanced as it is now, the Krait MK II has a Class 7, so how a ship 130 t heavier would suffer from it?


I got plenty of power on tap but Power Distribution doesn't follow.

It will make the Pee Mk2 absolutely unbalanced.

Are you using fixed weapons?

Because what is acceptable with gimballed weapons can fast become a problem with fixed weapons, particularly against fast and agile targets.

I'm using a brand new TWCS Throttle and it works fine, what I noticed while testing solution to gain weight with the Fer-de-Lance, is that the lighter she was, the more difficult it was to control the Yaw axis with precision, so I added a Guardian Shield Reinforcement Package and a couple of Shield Cell Banks.

With the extra weight, she is a little bit calmer.

That's where she stands in her actual configuration and below the (incomplete) "Lightweight" configuration.


That's the Python MK II configuration. Yaw rate is way too high for controlling with a TWCS Throttle...


I recon Power Management is an issue with the Python MK II, she'd deserve a Class 7 Power Distributor, she can overheat when using the Lasers but otherwise not, I guess it depends on fits.

What I've done to gain weight is strictly a personal fit procedure: She doesn't have any Fuel Scoop. The Fuel Tank is very small. The FSD is a Class 2 D. Jump range and endurance matters little because I use my combat ships only from my Carrier (Ross 342). The ships have little distance to travel to go to the hunting grounds.

“Would be peachy to dig up more dirt. I’m itching for something to break soon… because this ‘acceleration’ of the Dawnbreaker project ain’t exactly soothing my nerves.”

As the comms of our ship buzzed to life, announcing our cargo delivery, I swung out of the pilot’s seat, my boots clanking loudly against the metal deck, chattering away as I sashayed through the ship.

“Judging by the numbers, it looks like there are indeed four objects registered to ABEL. And ABEL2 seems to be dabbling in research or at least involved in this weapons project. That’s the juicy bit we’re after. The snagged message tells us it’s something mobile… maybe a Lowell-class Researcher or some such beast. Not too shabby, conducting research on a roving rig, especially if you’ve got rivals and enemies breathing down your neck. You could stash that baby just about anywhere.”

I sauntered towards the cargo bays, and hence, the freight hatch.

“Time to shed some light on this caper. Keep an eye peeled on my surroundings and whatever else is cooking. We’ll keep the line hot.”

“I… don’t know.”, I replied, shrugging in the ‘Kind of lost here’ fashion. “There is this ‘ABEL2’, but also ‘ABEL4’.”

Each individual letter of the acronyms pronounced separately, as if to put emphasis on them.

“That means… there are two more. But what they do there… I do not know, either. We have Guardian… things, to one” And my right arm stretched out to one side. “But escape pods, prisoners, to the other …” The left arm to the opposite side.

“I do not think they are retreating. But just… moving things to a different place. Where it is tracked less easily. They will not leave as long as, they have their stupid ship here. So, maybe, we should just continue searching. Here, and up there.”

Up there being where the Musashi was - thankfully, only in orbit around planet 3… or 4, both being in a binary orbit. And, of course, I pointed upward… with a slight thought spared to how those theatrics looked to someone else, because I could certainly feel them causing some ‘movement’.

“But I will not stop because of it. They were never going to… make it easy.”

That's weird for I do not have any issues with yaw on my Thrustmaster. Sensitivity there is similar to the FDL I would say.

My issues with PMKII are mainly powermanagement and heat. In combination with few optional slots, this leaves you with little room to play. While PMKI was sort of a JOAT types of ship, the PMKII certainly isn't.

“Seems like we’ve got ourselves a plan, then.”

I placed an order for twenty units of power generators through the local commodity market. Firstly to keep up our charade as traders, but also because the delivery of those generators would serve as the perfect cover while I sliced through the ground grating.

As we waited for the delivery, I mulled over the cryptic message my passenger had intercepted.

“Seems like everything in this system is getting shipped out to god-knows-where. Strategic retreat, perhaps?”

I tapped my fingers against the console, my mind racing.

“And that Dawnbreaker Project keeps cropping up.” I spat out the name like a curse. “The ‘mobile research lab Herald of Salvation’ has something to do with it, they are ferrying Guardian tech to that thing. But what’s the deal with those ‘rescue pods’ and the poor sods they’re hauling around? Seems they go to some other location that’s not named. ”

“Makes me wonder what kind of trouble we’re about to waltz into. What do you think about this?”

Would you like to hear about Military Supercapacitors?

I swear they’re even worse for me, because if you find a HGE signal source in Outbreak(marked as such when targeted) it should always be PIs, barring Elite being a piece of jank and filling with with Core Dynamics Composites despite being the right faction and state.

The Supercaps, meanwhile… points middle finger behind self shared with the Alloys and like they’re set to a 10% spawn rate comparatively, you have no goddamn idea how ridiculously infuriating they are. (Though you probably actually do)

Alas, at this point I just trade for both anyway. And rarely run the signal sources through.

LOL!

Anyway, with this civil war going on, my home system blossoms with signals.

264 military grade alloys, 200 exchanged at the nearest Material Trader (1 Jump) for Pharmaceutical Isolators which seems to be the rarest of Grade 5.

I can't complain, but now I need to do the same with Encoded and Raw, the latest being a pain to farm...

Half way through the engineering process of the FDL, I think it is fair to say that she remains a more lethal ship than the Python MK II once properly engineered, it's good to have a MK II but if I have to do bounty hunting with them I'll chose the FDL, she is easier to use with fixed weapons which make her more lethal.

Of course I can't talk about PvP players out there but I don't think the Python is going to supplant the Fer-de-Lance any time soon.

For one thing, Physics still work against the Python and she is showing her weight (450 t) even if developers have given her a superior Agility Rating (134), once equipped she looses on the weight alone, even with drastic weight saving measures, if the same methods of engineering are applied to the FDL she comes on top.

On top of that she (Python MK II) has a rather difficult to control YAW axis, a high rate with an onset making precise targeting with fixed weapon more difficult than with the FDL, the extra hardpoint can't be exploited to the full because of her Class 6 Power Distributor, mine looses her b3C BEAM LASER fast and then can't boost, so it's one case of more is too much.

So how is the Python MK II O.P then? Well, a ship weighting 130 t more than a Krait MK II shouldn't beat her on maneuverability UNLESS developers applied a totally biased Thruster efficiency ratio to her, which is most probably what they've done...

Note: I purchased one FDL when I didn't know anything about engineering and sold her because I didn't like her.

Or...
Yell Ow.
It was removed because yellow is the most painful color in the english language.

You're a customer, write a ticket.

It could be anything, a bug, a mistake, an over-zealous employee...

“I would guess… there’s going to be a lot of it. Unless they are stupid, or don’t expect someone, to sneak around. But you may want to take a look from up there… on those towers. If you can. To see how things look below.”

I could have mentioned the possibility of running into somebody up there, but decided that my counterpart in this mission was more than capable of thinking of that as well… and the necessary actions to avoid getting reported.

“Maybe, if you find some kind of access point in the towers, you can let me into the system and try to keep security off where you need it. But that will only work for the things which I… can shut down, of course.”

I glanced at the other data displays again.

“A map of whatever is over there could be good too. And I am seeing some kind of Azimuth transmission here, telling their ‘forces’, or something, to ‘keep the opponents busy’. Not sure who they mean. Maybe the… ‘anarchists’, as they call them. But there is more… here. Take a look yourself.”

I flashed up the message on the display by the main pilot’s seat, separate from the map.



Whatever they wanted with escape pods and prisoners couldn’t be good. Certainly not when I knew projects like Seraph existed.

I let out a sigh and laid out my discovery and the ensuing plan, once again.

“If we snag some goods from the local market and stash them right here“ - I marked a spot near our ship’s cargo hatch - “those stacked containers will block the view for any nosy ship that lands behind us. That’s when I, with my trusty arc cutter, can sneakily pop open this floor grate close by and slip into the passage below.“

I traced a line on the shared display, highlighting a narrow corridor running right under our landing pad, leading straight to a tower with an anti-air unit perched on top.

“This tower’s got a twin on the other side of the wall, and I bet they’re connected underneath that barrier.“

I zoomed in on the display, focusing on the spot where the two towers stood facing each other across the wall.

“I reckon it’s possible to infiltrate the towers on either side without tripping any alarms, since those anti-air units only have eyes for threats from the sky. Once I’m over there, I’ll either find a way out or I’ll have to carve my own exit. Won’t be far from that lone ship, but it’s a gamble how tight their security in that area is.“