My Ferdi. More than just a ship.
08 Nov 2020Geralt DeWitt
Hey Ed, old friend, let me tell you the story of my ferdi.
Yeah, ferdi, that's the nickname for my Fer De Lance. I know, I know, there are a lot of pilots, which own a similar ship from Zorgon Peterson, but this one here is mine. Its ship name is "gungnir", named after the spear of Odin, a god of an ancient mythology in earths past. I'm not religious, but the name fits.
I remember my long journey till I had the credits to buy this ship. I started with a Sidey, like most others do, which weren't born into an imperial noble family, and worked hard to get the next bigger, faster, powerful ship. I flew for hours in planetary rings with my diamondback scout and hunted for bounties. The DBS is not the best ship, but I learned to love it. Once I had enough credits to buy a Vulture. A hell of a ship, but its jump range is a joke. I owned this long-desired piece of modern warfare now, but couldn't leave the system, because the only available FSD there was rated D. Genius... so I sold my new ship and started over again. I knew what to do next and so the big grind started.
My grandfather Booker told me from time to time where I need to go for the next gold rush. Quince, shooting Skimmer from the skies with missiles, transport rich asses from Robigo to sightseeing spots, nobody else cares about and of course this unholy mining. If you start dreaming of rocks, you have a problem.
And so came the day that my dream of this most elegant ship, which I knew before only from the advertisement in the stations, got reality. I learned from my failures in the past and brought enough money to also outfit my ferdi with the best available hardware. But this was not the end of my journey, no no, it just started. Today you don't only need to have the most high-end modules. Engineering the crap out of your ship into each corner and angle is key. And these engineers... oh boy... these are a bunch of strange and wicked people.
First about the core internals...
I let Elvira Martuuk, a real sunshine with a beautiful smile, shield my FSD to increase its integrity as far as possible. If someone is sniping for your modules, your fsd is your only ticket to get out of the situation.
Same was done for my power plant. Hera Tani, an old beloved and hated friend from my time in the blue mafia, did me a favor to shield it and to optimize its thermal spread.
Do you know a guy called the Dweller? When I saw him for the first time, I called him Spike and asked him where his girl Buffy is.
Spacevampires... Vampires in space...He wasn't pleased... he accepted half a million credits as an apology and tuned my distributor to charge enhanced with super conduits.
And of course Prof Palin. If you haven't traveled into to black far enough to lose your mind as he did it one time too often, he will not even speak to you. Here I had only one real option, too. Dirty drag drive thrusters are a must have.
Selene Jean is an engineer as tough and hard as her armour upgrades. She made my reactive surface composite as light as possible to balance my ferdi's maneuverability and survivability and rounded everything up with one thermal and some deep plated heavy duty hull reinforcements.
Do you know how heavy sensors can be? The one and only Lori Jameson made mine as light as a feather. A 0,8 tons feather, ok ok, but don't waste time with details. Do you know Lori, Ed? Having shacked her hand is something I will never forget.
And so we come to the last core internal module. The life support. Etienne Dorn, the only engineer in this whole galaxy, who can make them grade 5 lightweight, is sitting 20.000 lightyears far away in Colonia. I had to hit the neutron highway to meet him. A hell of a ride.
Before leaving Colonia, you should also visit Mel Brandon. He is the second engineer in Colonia, who can do what his counterparts in the bubble can't. Grade 4 rapid charged shield cell banks with recycling cells. Best way in the galaxy to minimize the time window down to 3s, where feedback cascade rail guns will counter your shield recharge. He can also increase the thermal resistance of your bi-weave shields and fasten the recharge speed. And to round everything up, he will also upgrade your shield boosters. What a genius in his field.
Back in the bubble Ram Tah increased the ammo of my chaff and heat sinks. In an intense dogfight you will need everything to mitigate incoming damage.
Lets come to the weapons.
Oh Eddy, you can say about the Alliance what you want, but here you will find the two virtuosos, which can play on your rail guns and plasma accelerators like no other. Tod "The Blaster" McQuinn and Bill Turner. Both masterminds in their business, but both have also such a childish kind of humor. You will not believe how many jokes and insinuation I heard. Tod mentioned "my long range penetrator" 12 times in 5 minutes and Bill also waved unmistakable with his eyebrows after presenting me my "giant fat short range gun"...
But beside this, they improved my arsenal to its best. My penetrating rail gun is perfect for sniping modules and my feedback cascade rail gun cancles enemy shield cell banks. The long range mod fits perfect for this tasks. And of course, my plasma accelerators. I have two efficient class 2 of these with dispersal field and target lock breaker effect on it. But my class 4 PA got a short range mod. This baby has tonnes of damage and is hot as hell, but small heat peaks are no issue with my cool power plant. The modules get damaged a little bit over time, but not seriously.
If you want to know more how to use these weapons, then visit CMDR Dezpe. He's a genius with his rails and PAs.
It was a long journey, Eddy, but I achieved my goal. My fully engineered ferdi.
And you know what? Flying this incredible ship in the heat of a fight is the best feeling ever.
But enough of my story. Go and start your own journey, Ed!
See you space...