Smuggler’s Run
04 Sep 2019Lapstrake
The life of crime has never appealed to me, I like to avoid going to jail or having a price on my head.The Order of Mobius petitioned me to travel to Njiri, to deliver a large quantity of Tobacco to Grant Terminal.
Tobacco is expensive but I found a good prices in Negrito, just 23 Ly away, where I had just made a separate delivery for Mobius. It was plain sailing and the easiest 3 million credits I’d ever made.
I left the Orbis Starport of Steakley Station, retracted my landing gear and engaged my FSD...and just as I pulled up to get Njiri in my sights, I received a message.
Image credit: edsm.net
“Oh, by the way, Commander, tobacco is prohibited in Njiri. Don’t get caught with that in your cargo. Good luck!”
Somebody save me. I’m heading into a system not controlled by Mobius, with illicit goods...if I get caught, I die, and if I somehow survive but lose my ship and cargo worth millions of credits, I’ll be fined for failing the mission!
There’s no better example of being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Every possibility went through my head, including just bailing out of the mission entirely, but I didn’t. I was either feeling brave or stupid, or perhaps I just couldn’t take my eyes off the 2 million credit reward. Besides, I’d have to do this eventually. At some point I’ll need to break the rules and I better learn how to do it right before I get myself in even deeper waters.
I calmed myself down and came up with a plan. Njiri is medium security, and Grant Terminal is an outpost with no letterbox, so docking is quick, I knew what to do. I set thrust to 100% and engaged the jump.
Image credit: galnet.fr
Grant Terminal is conveniently located just 192 Ls from entry. I made sure to give signal sources a wide berth to minimise the chances of running into security (or pirates), and before long I was within safe disengage distance of the outpost. I dropped out of supercruise and began my approach.
Image credit: edsm.net
I flew directly above the station, lining up in order to have a swift approach, and once I was satisfied, I took a deep breath and requested docking.
Deploy lading gear. Vertical thrusters. Enable silent running.
Quiet.
With my shields disabled in silent running, I was taking a huge risk. Poor landing - I’ll be dead. Ship scan - I’ll be dead. I was putting all my eggs in this silent running basket.
5km out, the ship started running hot - another risk of silent running. Luckily I was prepared. I had already fitted heatsinks to give me more time during fuel scoops and I had one left.
Deploy heat sink.
Just a moment later, I could hear the creaks and cracks of my cabin as the temperature fell to bone chilling levels.
And then, finally, that telltale sound KURRR-CHUNK, as my cabin shook gently.
I had landed.
The faction rep swiftly and quietly retrieved my cargo.
“Thank you, commander, you’ve done us a great service” he said, while reading the manifest.
“Anything I can do to help”
“Well, in that case, would you accept a reduced payment? It would greatly benefit our influence in this system!”
He looked up from his clipboard to hear my response...
KURRR-CHUNK
Image credit: elite-dangerous-blog.co.uk
………………………………………………………….
CMDR Lapstrake, signing out.
o7