Ingrid's Log Entry 16: Had to get the Fly Swatter!
26 Jul 2018Ingrid Elfridr
It's been awhile since I've taken any time to sit down and write anything, mostly been busy earning enough credits to finish outfitting the Challenger. That and the things that I've been doing have been either too boring or things that I'm simply not at liberty to share. Needless to say it wasn't long before I got bored of bounty hunting and got the Diamondback out of the hangar, wanting to fly something much faster. Sure I take a pay cut with data running missions but her thrusters needed some engineering at the time anyways. Two birds, one stone.I took some data courier missions, any that paid over 75K at least. Otherwise they just aren't worth the time in my opinion. After loading up with a few of those Skuld and I tore out of port to test the modifications to the frame shift drive. Definitely worth all the trouble of getting all of the components together. After almost an hour I was on my way to the LHS sector to deliver the last data package before heading home.
What happened next was rather strange. I'll admit that this ugly Diamondback of mine is heavily outfitted with sensory equipment but it didn't help one bit. Ever since I'd jumped to LQ Hydrae to make my first delivery some contract killer in a Fer de Lance had been following me everywhere I jumped. That on its own is no big deal, especially in a ship that is so quick. However when I was in the LHS systems making a delivery it attempted a sixth interdiction attempt. However what was strange was that just before I had evaded the interdiction the escape vector shifted directly towards a nearby planet.
Talk about almost crapping my pants. Despite the risk I followed it anyways, though it would've been smarter to simply do an emergency frame shift drop. By the time it was all over in the space of five seconds the interdiction had been evaded, due to speed the Diamondback had bypassed orbital flight and was in the process of plunging to the ground. Luckily there was hardly any gravity so it didn't happen, if I had waited another half second things might have not panned out so well. It's a wonderful way to feel as though you're about to have a heart attack.
By 'wonderful', I mean about as wonderful as a swift kick in the teeth.
I decided to go back home and get the Challenger before making the delivery. Herja is slower than the Chieftan and does less damage but at least she has the class A internals. It was about time to take her for a test flight. To my amusement the jackass flying the Fer de Lance had followed me the entire way home, and had even followed me into the no-fire zone. Once I jumped to LHS space the ship picked up the wake signal of my hanger-on without fail. Once it started to interdict the Challenger I simply killed the throttle.
Sure the class 3 hardpoint housing had a class 2 beam laser turret, but three of the buggers have a way of burning the shields even off something as large as an Anaconda-class ship. It wasn't long before he regretted having messed with my little Diamondback in the first place. I've always been a fan of irony, and it's always a fun thing to be the one that dishes it out by killing the contract killer. Even the enemy pilot took a moment to tell me that what I did was f*ck*d up.
Anyways, it's a nice way to make some credits while doing a little bit of cleaning up. It brings a nice bonus anyways. Now there is just the matter of seeing how f*ck*d up things get once Herja gets her class 3 beam laser turret...