No wonder they offered double.
29 Nov 2015Aymerith
So I got an itchy trigger finger today... the whole ordeal from before (See last entry) had me all wound up. Someone had to pay. No, I don't mean that. I mean pay, credits. I did have a mouth to feed.Maybe I should start over...
I was hit up by the Thunderbird Progressive Party to find a few more pirates. Actually, they were begging me, offering to pay double the usual. Their neighbors in Mamitu had a serious problem.
So I think... Mamitu, yeah, I can do that... not a problem! Maybe cash in any local bounties on the side, I'm sure these pirates have crossed enough folks by now, if they're begging me.
It's an easy job. Six kills. Enough to make them think twice.
I get in, and straight away I'm bombarded. Hostiles swarming the main star, I knock one down just to see another pop up, total chaos. For them. By the time I've bagged half my quota, they wise up and vanish. I head for the nearest mining operation, a small ring system just a few clicks out. Very small... the miners were so bored they were betting on who would get jumped first. No one had a claim on the pot. I soon found out why.
Security ships, dozens of them, buzzed passed me. I was scanned, scanned again, scanned until I felt naked. They had the run of the place! I helped a little, chipping away at the few rogue ships that dared approach the site, but it was really just for show. I was completely redundant.
I finally made my quota, then set course for the nearest dock to cash in. I had to at least get something out of this. It was then that I knew why they were begging me. I must've been the only pilot back at Hawley Port who hadn't any data on the system. The nearest station was... ugh.
So here I am, twiddling my thumbs, watching the time fly by. Another pirate flew by, maybe, maybe not. I'm too peeved to care. I end up writing most of this entry on the way, in between bouts of Pikwhun. And of course, as if getting there isn't bad enough, I finally get a look at the port.
Now I know why they call it "The Furnace."
I was sweating by the time I landed. The station's broken environmental controls didn't help. They were at least grateful, though, I'll give them that. Mamitu is so out-of-the-way, they were ecstatic just to be noticed. I did understand their plight, perhaps more than they expected. It's not easy being so isolated.
I did find out the official reason for the order, and why they were so keen on getting outside help for a problem I thought was, relatively, contained. Turns out, it all tied into the make-up of the system itself. See... they'd been used to being out of the way, backwater, and having the resources to deal with their own problems. The security detail guarding that mining operation, for example, most of them were like family.
But that isolation turned against them when the local gangs started growing. Eventually it became too much, and the travel lines between the two stars were far too risky. They were losing business. They needed someone to show the gangs this wasn't helping, that the greater community was noticing, stepping up. (Personally, I think if the leader of their police wasn't in bed with the gang leader's daughter, they could at least trust their own forces, but I'm not one to spread rumors...) So here I was. Baking under Mamitu B while trying to justify to myself that I've done some good, scared off the riff-raff, made a dent, the usual. Maybe I'm just getting heat stroke.
If there's a lesson in all this, I didn't learn it until about 10 seconds after launching on my way back to Hawley port. I'd said my goodbyes, wiped the prying local's fingerprints off the Cirrus Fire's armor, and taken a big dab of sunscreen before shooting off into the black. I'd only just made the jump when it hit me. The reason I usually don't do these sorts of jobs. The reason I've had that sinking feeling like I'm wasting time. But really, it's not that it was a waste. It's that it was a surprise. A very rude surprise. What's the lesson? Okay, there's two. First, the hardest part of any job isn't the work... it's getting paid. Second... Check the !#!@#(* system map!
Damn you, Hawley Port!