I am Trader Elite! Watch me Haul!
09 May 2016Lurkstrober
I finally get to see that word associated with my name. Wow. Trade Elite. It's been a long haul (pun intended 
) but I have finally arrived. Well I arrived back on the 23rd April but you know ... CGs wait for no man I tried to have it so that I would be doing a CG when reaching this milestone but the profit was just too low (500K instead of the normal 2mill round trip). I headed back to my normal route and did the last 20 million or so to get over the line.
I wasn't sure how I'd feel when I finally reached Elite status. Honestly ... I felt pretty good.
It was a real sense of achievement and brought a smile to my face. It was basically a billion creds worth of trading ... mostly legal with a 'little' bit of smuggling ... about a 100-150 million or so mostly from Sothis) and some smuggling from 17 Draconis when I wasn't working my way up the Federal Navy ranks. I made a little holo-vid of the moment and watch it every now and then. It still brings a warm glow My journey to Elite was marred by one event that still haunts me. When I was caught up in the Solthis smuggling gold rush I made the fateful decision to take a slave run. Not Imperial slaves (which I have no problem with as it's really indentured servitude to pay off debt) but actual slaves. There were 8 million reasons why I took that job ... but every now and then I think of them, wondering where they are and what hell I may have helped put them in ... let's just say the charity missions at 17 Draconis helped serve a dual purpose. I may not be able to go and free those people but I can try and use some of my ill-gotten gains to help others and balance the scales.
On a more positive note, once I hit Elite I could finally reward myself with a new ship! While my Imperial Cutter has been a great trader ... oh the irony ... The Federal Corvette is one mean looking beauty that I hope to greatly advance my combat ranking in
After checking the funds I headed over to a Li-Yong Rui system that sold the Corvette (I still can't believe that he can offer 15% off ships as well as components! That's better then you can get on Founder's World ... which I can now access but for as long as he does, Li-Yong Rui systems are my go-to for any upgrades or new ships). $176 million credits later I had a shiny new Corvette with what upgrades I could afford at the time. I've painted her black and called her Black Storm ... yeah I know, creativity isn't my strong suit but whatever.
I've since then sold a bunch of ships I wasn't using and gutted my Python and Conda to afford to combat outfit her. I'm currently saving up the 143 mill needed for the military composite bulkhead and then she's fully operational ... and incredibly expensive to replace so I'll probably need another 50 mill ... just to feel safe. Good grief, whoever thought I'd be thinking in these sorts of numbers when I started out in my free Sidewinder a year and a half ago?
And now I'm hearing rumours of these mysterious engineers who can really help me to get better than the best out of my ships. The Corvette could really use a boost in jump range ... a large one ... so I'm keeping my ear out. I've got a couple of leads which will hopefully pan out soon.
Fly safe and see you out in the Big Black!