SOL EXPLORATION LOG 3 - Pirates?
23 Jun 2021Alexander Rozhenko
23 June 3307Made a slight detour on the way from Earth to the Moon...
Got word on Galnet of an offer of a seriously engineered detailed surface scanner over in Luyten's Star. All I needed to do was deliver some relatively common resources into the Luyten's Star system. Sounded like easy work, and it was for the most part. Last day over there proved a little tougher though. Pirates!
Luckily for me, my ship with the best cargo capacity vs jump range is also pretty quick in a straight line. The INV Nemesis is a sleek and fast Imperial Cutter which I've fitted out to carry 700 tons of cargo. Inbound to Ashby City yesterday and I was almost there. Must have been asleep at the stick. After all, it had been completely smooth sailing for a couple of days. I didn't see him on my scanner display until he was interdicting me. I know my ship is fast so I used the submit maneuver. Throttle back completely and just wait for it to happen. As soon as I dropped I went to full throttle and boosted away. Decision time now. Bolt for another system or....I was pretty close to Ashby...maybe I can make a run for it and deliver this cargo. And that's what I did. By this time the pirate had dropped in but I was already doing well over half a kilometer per second away from him. Because the submit maneuver allows the frameshift drive to cool down much more quickly, I was able to jump back into supercruise before he could even get a shot off.
Damn! It seems I was further away from Ashby than I thought and didn't make it. This pesky pirate was back on my tail and interdicting in no time. OK, he's not going to let this go. I can't fight him. He'll be loaded for bear and I'm loaded down with Muon Imagers. Ordered the system into submit mode again and got ready to get busy. As soon as I dropped I'm boosting away, but this time I'm straight into the Nav panel and selecting Sol. Check out the bad guy and it seems he's also in a Cutter. That means lots of weapons and he could also be fast although that depends on his loadout. Better take him seriously or I could lose this 'tasty cargo' as well as my ship. Taking the time to plot a course has given him a chance to close on me and all of a sudden I see a whole bunch of white targets on my scanner. Pack Hounds! And more than one volley! Luckily I've already hit the hyperspace button and he's not mass locking me. My point defence is going crazy so those missiles must be getting close....the hyperspace conduit starts forming and I feel like I'm getting away.
Twenty seconds later I'm in Sol and quickly selecting another destination. I want to be out of here and put another jump between us before that guy gets here. And look at that...Wolf 636, and the Valley Forge, is only one jump away. I made it. Land on my carrier, refuel and reload the PD, take 30 minutes to down a burrito and some chips then I'll try again.
Back to Luyten's Star and there's no sign of pirates. Straight into Ashby and delivery my cargo. That was the last trip anyway. I've delivered enough to get the reward. Made a cool 85 million credits profit into the bargain so that'll do. On the way out though, I thought I'd take a poke around in supercruise and see if I can find out who this persistent pirate is. And I was right. He was there. This time I just waited until he interdicted me. If I'm empty hopefully he'll leave me alive. Turns out his name is Commander Atomic117. And believe it or not, he's a reasonable pirate. I don't know if he's 'reasonable' good at what he does, but he's a reasonable guy. "Stop immediately, this is a robbery!" he hails. OK, so you want me to stop? I'm ready to jump out again if I have to. No way I'm taking this guy on. I'm Elite and he's only Dangerous but that doesn't count for much when he's outfitted for pirating and I'm only loaded for carrying loads. I hailed him and asked what this is all about and his response is "you're empty! What a waste of time!" So he was just going to let me go. "o7 CMDR"..."o7 back at you".
What do you know, a civilised pirate, hehe.
Maybe sometime we'll meet again, but hopefully then I'll be in the Delta Flyer and will be able to teach him a lesson for his nefarious ways.
So where was I. Oh yeah...to the Moon!
-- Close log entry --