The Duke of Painite - Part 1 - How Hard Could it Be?
29 Nov 2019Smertkopf
The thing that mainly spurred me on to rush back to the Bubble from Colonia was the lure of a fortune to be made in the painite mining business. Thanks to a tip from an old-timer back in Colonia, I had a line in on a network of mining spots and good places to sell the stuff at a massive profit. I had even decided which ship I would use as the foundation for my mining empire, but the one I chose could not be had for simple credits...I had decided on the Imperial Cutter, the two massive size 8 bays just begging me to fill them with five hundred tons of painite, promising billion-dollar profits in a very short time to an industrious miner. There was only one problem: In order to purchase a Cutter, one must be a member of the Imperial aristocracy. And you can't be just any old fop with a pedigree; you must be a Duke, among the highest echelons of the Empire's nobility.
Luckily, the modern Imperial peerage is open to those with ambition and resources, and I was thankfully flush with both as I got in touch with a contact of mine, Commander Mysh Meister, whom some might remember from a previous entry recorded during my trip to Colonia. He and I are old friends, and I was going to bring him along into the painite business in exchange for his knowledge of the inns and outs of the Imperial Court.
We based ourselves out of Hawker Vision, a station in the Kutjalangai system. The system itself was perfect, having four orbital stations all within 150ls of the star and each one with a number of Imperial factions clamoring for donations and people to do every kind of work that can be done in space. After the first round of million-credit donations, we began to get the attention of Kutjalangai Patron's Principles, the Imperial minor faction in control of the system, as well as offers of work and solicitations for donations from the other Imperial factions in the system.
This began a whirlwind of intrigue, assassinations, and...deliveries. Mysh and I began a meteoric rise through the Imperial ranks upon a road paved with so many pirate corpses that I lost count days ago. This series of logbook entries will detail my journey from a lowly Serf up into the heights of Imperial rank, and give you some pointers if you want to mine painite in a Cutter someday, too. Today's lesson is this: find a good system with a lot of stations in it and go from one station to another, donating to the Imperial factions whenever you can and taking on whatever missions suit your talents. Most importantly of all, when the time comes to turn in for the rewards on the many missions you will take, it is important that you go for maximum reputation payouts whenever possible...this will drastically increase the rate at which you advance in rank. Follow this advice and you are already well on your way!
The first few ranks will fly by, and before you know it, you will have crawled through the lowly ranks of the Outsiders, Serfs, and Squires to officially join the gentry when you become a Knight. It is upon my own achievement of that illustrious office that my next entry will begin. Until then, fly safe, my friends!
CMDR Smertkopf