Commander BigOzzy390 log
30 Dec 2018BigOzzy390
29 Dec 3304Log Entry 1
At the turn of the new year and the time for resolutions I guess Its time that I start to keep a log of events for you know, should the worst happen to me out in this vast and hazardous galaxy, having had a particularly slow and relatively quiet start to my career around 6 months ago.
Like most pilots I could only afford to sign up to the Pilots Federation in the old faithful workhorse of the galaxy the Sidewinder Mk1. I bought her probably 8th hand from an old smuggler who had let the old workhorse sit and rot within his allocated dockyard. She was a mess, barely operational let alone safe to use for interstellar travel. It was clear she would need some long sought after TLC. I tried to haggle with the salty ol' smuggler but his bartering skills are clearly more honed than my own and we came to an agreement on 10,000 credits for her. In all honesty 9000Cr too much for her, but she had already stole my heart and I knew the owld gal still had life in her yet. Like she was looking for one last hallelujah before retiring to the local bone yard on Eravate 2. We parted ways with the smuggler almost skipping back to the local tavern to tell his mates of how he managed to rip off a middle aged greenhorn looking to leave his old life behind by stopping working blindly for the corporations and strike it out on his own. I was already past it.. I knew this rust bucket would be my ticket to a new life, pre flight checks complete I hit the engines start. Nothing. I tried again. Nothing. Thinking to myself that my dream would be over before it started I instinctively felt the systems warm up and purr and I knew just when to cycle the engines to achieve combustion. As it turns out I had a gift for engineering and could read the needs of my ship like any good pilot should be able to. The engines of the old Sidey coughed and spluttered into life, I knew this would be a miracle for me to make it over to the landing zone i had reserved over on the other side of Russell ring. I swallowed hard and moved out of the dock carefully listing and juddering my way across to my landing pad no 10, this was to be home for the next 6 months.
Upon reaching the landing pad I had a hard time putting her down. The left hand landing gear had not extended all the way out and she took quite a hard landing. It was a bad landing but it was still a landing and she was still in one piece for the most part. Once on the deck I could take my time and get a good look at her. Man she was in worse shape than I imagined. I spent a whole week grafting like a champion to get her cleaned up lubricated and tuned. Its amazing what you can achieve if you take proper care of your equipment. Throughout the overhaul I noticed signs of her past life, I had worked out she started life many moons ago as a part of the Federal Navy, she had been used as an Interceptor in a Quick Reaction Alert - Interceptor (QRA-I) role. Probably at one time the first line of defense responsible for protecting countless thousands or millions of lives across a Federal system. She still had her military designation 101-03, 101st Sqn no 3 AC. A faded bird of prey grasping a ship in her talons was adorned next to the designation, this must have been her Sqn emblem, now long since forgotten. I decided to keep the designation and refresh her emblems. She was a new ship, given a new lease of life. She still looked old and tired, but now she looked reliable and any old veteran elite pilot from the "good ol' days" would have felt nostalgic in her. Upon registering her with the Pilots Federation and receiving my licence I set off to earn my crust running missions around the local system. Eravate had multiple starports and was a hub of activity. I started off by running little bits of cargo and courier data missions from Russell ring to Cleve Hub, Maine Hub, Sylvester Dock, McMahon Dock and Ackerman Market. After a solid month I had amassed a small fortune and decided to spend my creds earned through many hours of mind numbing starport jumping by upgrading the ol' Sidey. I pulled some strings with an old contact I had working for Core Dynamics. He ran the local warehouse and stocked parts from anything to cutting edge technology going into the latest pride of the Federal Navy to old stock from long defunct ships like the Sidey. I blagged what I could from my contact but even though he had been a good mate he was taking a very big risk selling corporate tech, even if it was defunct. His prices near wiped me out. All that work down the drain, it better all be worth it!
Oh boy it was. Upon delivery of my stores of equipment was a prototype FSD drive, uprated lasers and sturdy cargo racks from what I assume would have been a Federal drop ship along with countless amount of thruster components.. Perfect just what I needed to breathe a bit more life into the old Sidey and get he out around the local cluster. It took alot of work, blood sweat and tears and bodging to fit all the parts, but the Franken Sidey was ready for her first long jump in a while. 2 months in and I was about to accept my first big contracts. This needed alot of rep with the local faction Adel's Armarda, fortunately I had built up in the months of starport jumping previous. I wearily accepted a bunch of missions to a system called GD215. The pay was substantial gaining rewards into the hundreds of thousands, too good to be true I thought. But then I had earned a high standing with the local factions, this could be my reward...
I set off on a Thursday, thought i'd get a early start and was one of the first pilots out at around 0430L. Taking her out of Russell Ring I plotted my single jump to the GD215 system, this was a long jump for an old Sidey like mine i'm just glad I uprated her, I just hoped she'd hold together. The FrankenSidey whirred, hissed and groaned as the FSD spooled up. Then the countdown "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Engage" Verity said. BANG! I bust through into Hyperspace, stars and nebula's flew by at an instant. The ol Sidey shook and clattered but she was holding. Boom! emerging from Hyperspace I was immediately blinded by a bright blue light, taking a few second to recover and gather my thoughts I realised I was in trouble when I was about to hit the exclusion zone of a neutron star! the temperature rose immediately and before I knew it, BANG! I was emergency dropped from super cruise. Running around the cockpit I put out flaming and sparking terminals with the hand held fire suppression system. Stupid Noob I thought. That's what I am, who plots a jump with gathering Intel as to the destination? Blindly I had jumped straight into the gravity well of the nuetron star. Gathering myself together I punched my uprated thrusters to counter the gravity pull and headed in the direction of one of the relativistic jets heading out of the poles of the star. Whilst my FSD was resetting and recharging i thought i'd ride the wave of energy out. I just hoped my shields would hold. Upon entering the highly charged stream of particles i twisted and turned Verity spoke up again warning my that the FSD was "operating beyond safety limits" and a few seconds later that the module was operating beyond its capabilities. Supercharged if you will. I gathered myself and checked out the ships systems i had sustained moderate damage but i was functional. I punched the FSD to enter Supercruise to gain some distance between myself and the dangerous blue monster behind me. I plotted my destination in the system over 300K Ly away.. I was in for a long journey.
If only this was the end of my problems. I had no quicker settled into the transit when I realized this was a big mistake, this was pirate space!. No relaxing transit for me i was being interdicted left, right and centre. But they were no match for the old Interceptor, she was agile and responsive in the the turn I managed to evade every interdiction without fail. Wow why didn't more people still use the Sidewinder, what a good old ship, the designers got it right with this one way back when. She could still bearly hold her own even now against ship many generations ahead of her. It filled me with nostalgia and pride. Eventually I arrived at Farraday Orbital for my big pay-day. A well earnt one at that. I picked up a few courier missions for my return journey to Eravate and returned without misshap. This run would be my life for the next few months, amassing a small fortune...
More to follow
Cmdr BigOzzy390 signing off for now.