The bitter taste of vengeance
27 Jan 2019User151063
Maybe I'm greedy, but if you want a successful career as a trader you need to expand when you can. So I bought a Type 9 Heavy and fitted it out to carry as much as possible as far as possible, 750 tonnes of cargo which would have produced almost three fold increase in profit. I had Oshine fitted out and took her on a maiden voyage carrying Bertrandite to a nearby system where I would buy polymers and return home. Profit for the out and return would have been C4 million. Unfortunately, the void is not empty.Word spreads pretty quickly around the criminal classes and we were interdicted almost immediately. Oshine is significantly more ponderous than Pongo and I could not keep her on track with the escape vector. Once interdicted she was cut to shreds and I was left with no option but to bail. They say the definition of stupidity is repeating the same actions and expecting different results. I met this definition fully and tried the same thing two more times with precisely the same outcome, rebuy was killing me.
I was angry and wanted, recompense, justice, revenge, something. I didn't want to feel like a helpless victim to be preyed upon by the criminal scum of the galaxy. I boarded Piquita, my Viper Mkiii and took on a mission to kill a pirate who is operating in the area that Oshine had been shot down. I have very little combat experience but my blood was hot and someone was going to get it, if I ended up getting spaced so-be-it.
I caught up with my target, a Cobra Mkiii, near the star in the expected system, no doubt he was waiting to ambush an honest trader going about lawful business. I circled around him at a distance and got into an attack vector. I locked on with my beam lasers and gave him both barrels. He started screaming down the coms channel that he only wants to help people. "We honest traders can do well without your help" I replied. He tried to shake me off his six with various twists and turns before turning 90 degrees in his upward direction to attempt an Immelmann maneuver. Rather than follow the climb, which would have resulted in us coming at each other face to face like ancient knights jousting, I cut my speed while rotating 90 degrees and yawing to match his vector. His shields were gone and I opened fire with my multi cannons smashing his hull and canopy. In that moment I could see he was just a youngster barely old enough to apply for an orbital shuttle licence. I urged him to bail and reflect on his actions during the pod ride to safety. He mistook mercy for weakness and turned his ship towards me and opened fire with his pulse lasers. I slammed Piquita into reverse while firing off a couple of torpedos, in a moment of blinding blue flame the young pirate was vapourised.
I had gone in to combat seeking revenge but as I plotted my route back home and spooled my FSD I felt only a deep sense of remorse. I wondered how that kid found his way into the life of murderous piracy. At his age I had just made it into flight school and was full of hope and ambition. Although far from coming from a privileged background I grew up with opportunities and a sense of possibility that anyone can make it in this galaxy with hard work and ambition without the need to rob and kill. Engaging the FSD I headed home towards a bottle of Lavean brandy and temporary oblivion.
Cmdr Casa_Del_Seany signing off
Fly safe commanders