STARDATE 06.06.3302 - Search, Rescue & Salvage
06 Jun 2016Vograx
Our new ship arrived at Messier Port today!A beautiful new Lakon with all the tools fitted to ensure successful rescue and salvage missions in the future.
Not long after she arrived I had the first task handed to me. A salvage run to Kongan system. Simple enough task, so it seemed, so I set off immediately. While this new bird doesn't handle quite as nimbly as the good ol' Viper and sturdy Fer-de-Lance I am used to she did purr beautifully as I pitched her around and aligned for the jump.
On arriving in Kongan the scans revealed the primary planet for my search would be on Kongan 7. A purple looking planet with bright canyons. It looks more like a rotting fruit than anything else, and the rough and hilly terrain is quite frustrating to navigate with the Scarab. I decided to fly low and scan for the site from higher altitude and it did not take long until I picked up the signal and could start homing in on it's location.
As I decended upon the wreckage it was clear that this was a pure salvage run and not a rescue mission.
The wreckage was both old and almost entirely obliterated. Piece of what used to be a ship was scattered all over, as was the cargo. I set the Asp down about 100m from the site and strapped into the Scarab to start loading the cargo.
Shortly after I had begun loading the cargo into my ship a contact appeared in the sky above me. It came in at low altitude and seemed focused on my Asp. I was still loading the last containers when suddenly a flash of blue lit up the area around me as the shields of my Asp glowed furiously as they warded off the first shots.
The new arrival had opened fire on my ship!!!
I rushed my Scarab back towards the ship and in the haste I nearly dislodged one of it's wheels as I rushed it over some wreckage. Luckily the shields were holding up as my Scarab was lifted into the belly of the ship. The controls in the ship were all lighting up and the blue hue of my shields were still lighting up the area. The shields were holding, but down to 30% and would only hold off a few more shots! I had to get her off the ground and quickly!
Quickly was a term this bird did not know about though... being as large as she is, and with heavy equipment onboard she was not a nimble fighter. She lifted up slowly and once clear of the ground I fired off all thrusters and blasted off across the surface. Hot in pursuit came the aggressor, still trying to land their shots... fortunately I had insisted on the ship being equipped with Chaff and once more, as so many times before, the chaff was my saving grace!
We skimmed the surface as we raced away, chaff spewing out behind us and coating the surface with an odd, alien looking trail as we shot across the hills. Shields were holding up, and not a moment too late the cavalry arrived.
"Security Patrol arrived on scene and responding to reported crimes!" ... the boys in blue were here!
I fired off another boost, punched out the last of the chaff and pitched my poor Lakon up hard to turn her around. The engines roared in protest and right then I vowed to myself to get that heavy 5B FSD upgraded to the lighter 5A variant... but first, to get out of this pickle! She turned around slowly and once her nose was aimed in the direction of the Security ship I fired off the boosters again.
What followed was an unfamiliar scene for myself. Dogfighting near the planet surface in a heavy crate like this Rescue & Salvage ship. Several times we were a cargo containers width away from impacting on the planet surface, yet we still prevailed and together with the Security we managed to not only fight off but also destroy the aggressor.
Seems doing these Rescue & Salvage missions have a high probability of making me the one in need of rescuing.