Pick Your Poison
03 Dec 2020Stunnedsundew32
Time is money, and money can buy many things in the galaxy. Not everything, but most things. My credit balance isn’t quite where I need it to be right now. After pledging to Aisling Duval and financing an array of brand spanking new prismatic shields, my credits seem like they disappear into thin air. Aisling doesn’t seem like she’s hurting for money right now. Maybe she could lower her prices a bit to help a working commander out…Anyway, I digress. This credit bind I’ve put myself in is entirely of my own making. I didn’t appreciate the gold mine in Borann until it was gone. I just took it for granted, thought I would be able to mine at my leisure whenever I needed a few extra spending credits. Oh, how wrong I was.
Honestly though, I wouldn’t feel poor if it weren’t for the new Drake class Fleet Carriers fresh out on the market. Sitting at an entry price of 5 billion credits, these puppies are nice. I have landed on many since they came out, and they never fail to impress. With cargo capability, 500ly jump range, and sweet paint jobs to boot, who wouldn’t want one?
Another aspect of these carriers that amazes me is just how ubiquitous they are throughout the galaxy. Before fleet carriers I rarely used the filter option on my nav panel. Now, if the system is popular at all, this is my only course of action. I have seen systems with damn near 100 fleet carriers in them, and this is only a slight exaggeration. Sometimes I will just hold the scroll button down on my nav panel while the blur of fleet carriers zoom by, and think “How the hell are people this rich?”
But who am I kidding, I could easily have a carrier if I had made it a priority. Except I didn’t. I had dabbled in core mining for a while and found it fun at first, but the luster quickly wore off after the first 20 or so hours of mining. When you are boosting through an asteroid field mindlessly firing your pulse wave scanner over and over your mind tends to wander, and by the time I would finally find a core deposit I would be ready to get into something else. Many times I would set out to fill my ship’s cargo hold, only to realize that I did not enjoy the last hour of what I was doing. It would put me in a bad mood. Dare I say, it started to feel like a… GRIND.
But that’s what work is, right? I mean, who REALLY honestly likes their job? And I don’t mean who can stand their job. Many people can stand their job, and even get small amounts of enjoyment out of it. The enjoyment I’m talking about is more than that. For example, if you woke up in the morning and your boss called and said- “Hey, you can come in if you want, but if you don’t feel like it don’t worry about it. And don’t worry about the credits either. We will still pay you regardless.” How many commanders do you think would still choose to work? I know this one wouldn’t.
However, you can’t just get credits for free. That is not how the galaxy works (unless you are a Duval and get fleet carriers and more for free because you are born into it). But for most of us normal commanders out here, you have to work for your credits. That is just how it goes.
So then the question becomes- What do you prefer to do? You could be a slave to the wage and continuously grind the mind numbing laser mining (although this method has recently lost some of its appeal due to unstable market prices). You could seek out adrenaline and action by bounty hunting your way to a few credits (but let’s be honest, even after the recent increase in bounty prices it still pales in comparison to other money making opportunities). You could focus your efforts on trade and work the commodities market to your advantage (which requires large amounts of time on the road, and many of the sights quickly become the same). You could become a luxury cruise pilot and make the transportation of passengers your life’s mission (but come on, nobody likes tourists). Or, you could set out into the black and discover unknown phenomena for your income source (which is essentially the same as getting a degree in Philosophy or Art).
Pick your Poison.
This is the beauty of the galaxy we live in. You get to pick your poison.
Sick of staring at rocks? Go out exploring. The loneliness of the never-ending void getting to you? Start transporting passengers. The neediness of the rich tourist making you want to crash your ship into the next white dwarf in a fiery blaze of glory? Start transporting commodities (They don’t talk. It’s nice.) Getting sick of living station to station and never using your hardpoints? Start bounty hunting. Getting sick of feeling like a rogue who’s only in it for the cash and has no loyalties? Start mercenary work in combat zones. Starting to feel the moral weight of constantly being involved in war after war? Start mining. Sick of staring at rocks?...
The freedom this galaxy affords us is truly beautiful. Yes, it may seem like a grind sometimes, but it is a beautiful grind. A grind that can take you all over the galaxy and to all different walks of life. The grind is what you make of it, and only you have the power to truly balance it to your specific interests and passions. What this grind looks like for one commander may be completely different from the next, but it is important to realize that not everything in the galaxy can be measured in credits and fleet carriers.
Maybe one day down the road I will find this log on an old dusty disk drive shoved into the back of my walk-in closet on my fully upgraded Drake class Fleet Carrier. Maybe then I will smile and take a sip of my martini as a recline back onto my sofa and think “man, it must have sucked to be poor.”
But probably not.