First of many / Message in a bottle
15 Jul 2019Montgomrey
To whoever reads this:Fellow Commanders, this is the first time I've recorded a log that is open to the rest of humanity. I hope you will enjoy and learn from it as I have from my travels.
I started off my day accepting a salvage contract. Apparently, a small transport that worked for a precious metal trading Corp had crashed in a nearby system. The contract wasn't for a black box or any metals they were transporting but for some fine vintage liquor. I was told that anything else I found I could keep. I knew what system the ship crashed in, but I didn't know anything else. So, upon arrival in-system I initiated a wide range discovery sensor scan. Then in order to isolate and identify the crash site I activated my FSS sensor system. Using a combination of computer aided radar, visual and radio telescopes and computer interpretation of other spectrum energy I was able to home in on the planet where the ship finally came to rest.
As I approached the planet where the crash site was located, I began to get a feeling of slight unease. I was told by my father that one should trust what their body is trying to tell you, it's usually right long before your brain figures ot the same conclusion. Still though I pressed on. As I descended in my Alliance Challenger my sensors began to further refine where the crash site was. Every so often I had to make course adjustments to continue to close the distance. Then finally I was on site within 1,000m. Before leaving my ship in a scarab rover I noticed that the were at least 2 automated sentry units scanning the area as well. I thought this was odd. And they can't carry anything and the were no other ships in the area that could act as their carrier vessel. I also noticed they were broadcasting a signal that showed on my HUD as "Do not
Enter" for an area that was part of the site. I quickly identified which canisters (that had survived the crash) we're the ones containing the fine spirits. I also upon closer observation of the wreckage came to conclusions that this ship was brought down due to an internal explosion. Most likely from a reactor going critical and loss of fuel containment. Beyond that I was unable to figure anything else out without closer and detailed analysis of the wreckage. Something I was not being paid for.
After I had collected the canisters that I could without going into the no entry area and filled my rover's cargo bin I went back to my ship to transfer the cargo so as to free up the space in the rover. As I made my way back to the site I carefully observed the automated sentry bots, especially their patrol pattern. Whoever had programmed their patrol algorithms didn't do a good job. I (quite cleverly I might add) found a small window of time where I could slip past the sentry bots and grab the last 2 canisters and get out of the "no entry" area and race back to my ship before the bots could turn around and engage (fire at) me. This world was a barran desolate place. No atmosphere and only .9 gravity. Also, it was currently night time. So, after doing the equivalent of Formula One racing around big rocks and hills I made it back to my ship and transferred inside. I quickly started up the various systems and fired the engines, lifted off. I, without incident, gained altitude and activated the Supercruise FTL drive. Then after that I had the ship's AI (Aurora) plot and calculate the course for the jumps needed to get from this system to the one where these salvaged spirits are to be taken. After a couple of short Frame Shift Drive FTL jumps I arrived into the star system where my contract stated I was to take the canisters. I noted that the station that the canisters were destined to go was on the edge of the system. Orbiting a moon of a gas giant that was easily 250,000ls away. Thankfully this distance has been taken into consideration with regards to amount I would be paid upon delivery.
Now I usually don't like my nose into other people's lives but this time my internal alarms were going off pretty loud. So, I had Aurora take the flight controls while I went to cargo bay to take a closer look at these canisters. They were more than a little suspicious to me. I mean who pays to have liquor recovered from a crash that you don't even know exactly where they are? I retrieve a canister from one of the standard cargo bay clamps and after inspecting the outside, and finding nothing unusual, proceeded to open it. And what do you know, inside is a large glass bottle of old fine liquor. At least that's what the label stated. I wasn't yet satisfied, that internal alarm was still going off. So, I took out the one bottle and brought is over to a small workstation that was inset into the wall of the cargo bay. To the immediate left of the workstation terminal was an analyzer. This was normaly used to identify samples taken from asteroids during mining. It was used to detirmmine what was there and it's purity. This time I had Aurora scan the bottle. After less than a minute the scanner dinged, as if it were an old microwave oven, signifying that the scan was complete. I asked Aurora to give me her report. She promptly replied, "Curiously, this liquid inside is indeed a hard liquor, specifically Wiskey. However, it is neither a rare or old spirit. Quality and other analysis shows it to be a middle shelf quality no older than 1 year. The glass of the bottle on the other hand is much more interesting. Not only is it not a usual silica glass but more likely is something closer to carbon. The carbon molecular arrangement is in itself interesting. For the molecules aren't arranged in a natural pattern but a pattern with unique sequences that repeat. My estimate is that the molecular arrangement is actually a language code. I also think that the cypher is the bottle label. After I ran several hundred permutations I was able to decode the glass into a readable message. There's also some diagrams in there as well. The message and diagrams are for a new biological based weapon to be used against the Thargoid aliens. I can't come to a complete conclusion without first scanning the other bottles, but my initial impression is that this new weapon could be extremely effective and extremely profitable to whomever produced it."
Well, that explains the secrecy and covert nature in the method of transportation of these plans. Just to make sure I'm not transporting anything illegal I said to Aurora, "let's scan all the bottles and canisters. If the client gets unhappy I'll just remind him that the military is supposed to be the one transport such items that pertain to the military, but they actually charge more."
After having thoroughly scan all the canisters and their contents I secured them again in the cargo bay for safe transportation. It turned out that not all the bottles had information on the new Anti-Thargoid weapon, some were some sort of intelligence and internal security briefings. Apparently, the precious metal trading company was in fact a Corperate for hire intelligence agency, who worked for whoever paid them. In the internal security report they were worried about outside interference and sabotage. Which made a lot of sense given how the small transport crashed. Someone probably sabotaged the primary power plant. After hearing Aurora read me the report I quickly came to the realization that now I too could be in danger from this third party. As if I had somehow jinxed myself alarms started blaring, they were the alarms to warm that another ship was attempting to interdict my ship out of FTL. I ran to the cockpit and tried to evasively maneuver out of it. While Aurora had been flying the ship and is quite capable I was simply better. But, this time the other ship managed to successfully pull me out of FTL. I didn't hesitate. I switched over to combat mode, deployed the weapon hardpoints, targeted the other aggressive ship, started to scan them, and I accelerated my sub-light engines to a good combat maneuvering speed. My scanner finished and showed me a Viper mkIV fighter. No other information, not even a registry number. As our two ships closed distance we both opened up on each other. The enemy was firing 3 pulse lasers and 1 dumb-fire missle. I managed to evade the missile shot but took some hits from the lasers to my shields. Thankfully they were holding up under the fusillade. I started to maneuver my ship before we had even passed so that I would get the upperhand more quickly. I expertly used the manual controls to cause my ship to change direction and attitude. This put me on the tail of my prey and at good speed and distance for firing. The hunter had become the hunted. I armed my missiles and acquired a missile lock. All the while I was firing my own burst lasers and kenetic rounds cannons. I fired a missile, which the enemy tried to avoid but failed. This brought down their shields. I moved in for the kill and fired off more missiles and lasers and cannons. This barrage quickly ate through their armor and hit the power plant, resulting in their ship exploding into many hot steaming bits.
After checking my ship's systems to make sure all was well I activated my Supercruise FTL. Thankfully the station where I was to make delivery was now close. I made sure that my ship's log had recorded the interdiction and attempt at my destruction. I would use this to get a reward as my contract stipulated that if such an even were to occur I would receive a reward. As I came within 1 thousand Kilometers I dropped from supercruise FTL to sub-light. As I approached the station I was warmly greeted, and I requested access for docking, which they granted. I handed over control to Aurora as she was faster at this sort of thing. That and stations liked it that way as with auto-docking systems the stations computer talked to your ship's and this made for smoother, faster, and safer docking. After successfully docking I chose to enter into the hanger. I then sent a quick text message to the person listed on the contract as the contact to take delivery. After just a few minutes a young attractive woman and a large muscled man came to the hanger and requested entry. I allowed them to come aboard, and I then verified their credentials. After bringing them to the cargo bay but before handing over the canisters containing "liquor" I showed them my ship's logs which showed my engagement with the unknown Viper fighter. The woman took out her data pad and prepared to transfer the agreed contact amount plus the reward for surviving an engagement. I then handed over the canisters to the big muscled man who loaded them onto a anti-grav cart, and while doing so I could see that he was indeed carrying a firearm pistol in a shoulder holster under his business jacket. I on the other hand wore my pistol in plain sight in my hip holster. Something that was legal to do on one's own ship pretty much everywhere. After they took delivery both the woman and I verified all was in order and we each took turns placing our hands on the data pad to authorize the transfer of credits to my account for completion of the contract plus the extra bonus reward for surviving the attempted interdiction. Without so much as a goodbye or thank you they left.
After they had left the hanger I instructed Aurora to take all the information regarding this contract including the data that was imprinted on the glass to be placed into a secure portable drive and the contents to be encrypted. I wasn't going to tell the Intel agency for hire what I had discovered, but I was going to hang onto it fir just in case. Cause you never know where life may take you. The possibilities are as endless as the universe itself. That's all for now. See you out there in the void.