Stardate 3306, February 2nd
16 Feb 2020Chillswitch Engage
My foray in the open expanse of the Milky Way has been a great success so far. I have lost I believe two or three ships due to my negligence but I have managed to climb my way back up with ease. The insurance cost for rebuying the ships has certainly helped, only 5% of the total cost. After the first Sidewinder that I christened “Dixie Normous”, I bought the tried, true and tested Cobra Mk III. What an absolutely marvelous piece of engineering and I now easily understand why it’s such an iconic ship. It is extremely versatile, maneuverable, and with the right loadout can be quite deadly. It proved its effectiveness time and time again while I was bounty hunting and defending capital ships and other points of interest. I recently learned of burning stations in the Witchhead Nebula due to the ongoing Thargoid attacks. Feeling a sense of civic duty (and also spoils and excitement to be had), I stripped down my ship to its bare essentials with no shield and all passenger cabins and made the journey. With this loadout, I was able to fit 30 passengers a journey with an average of ~500,000k credits per trip. I figured out fairly soon that the average going price per passenger was ~10k so I tried to only accommodate those willing to pay that amount or more. Wanting to maximize my runs and profit, I bought a Diamondback Explorer which is a higher end combat and exploration ship, but didn’t realize it actually holds 2 fewer passengers (oof). Realizing my mistake, I traveled again to purchase an Orca, a dedicated passenger vessel that could carry 40 passengers in total. With this new vessel, I was able to make ~750k per run, even more if the passengers threw in time bonuses. Ferrying them back and forth, I was able to make over 12,000,000 credits in the span of a few days. The first few times going into the blazing stations was fun and exhilarating, especially with no shields to protect me, but quickly grew boring and routine the more I got used to it. No matter, the pay was well worth it.
With my newfound wealth, I was able to buy a lot of A-rated modules. 5A FSD, 4A thrusters, 4A power distributor, and 4A power plant for the main modules on my new Diamondback Explorer. In my optional internals, a 4A shield generator and 3A fuel scoop. With how my ship is set up, I can fuel scoop at the maximum pick up rate and my heat does not go above 66% unless I use the thrusters. Combat has certainly been a very rewarding and learning experience. It’s true what the other pilots say, you must learn to pick your fights wisely and be ready to high tail it out of there as soon as you know the tides are turned in their favor. After some more combat experience, I plan to get more into smuggling, and even exploration. It’s a vast, vast galaxy out there and I plan to leave my mark on it.