Chapter 5: Above the law
24 Jun 2023Nick Euphrasia
I made my way back to the inn to check out, gathered my belongings and left for Diaguandri. Back in Ray Gateway, I made my way to the outfitting station. The woman was at work fitting something blue and glowing into another pilot’s ship. It was Krait Phantom. “What is that?” I asked as she was startled, almost dropping what seemed to be alien like hanging off a hydraulic crane. “Commander, do not come up to anyone like that, you almost disabled my blood circulation” She said catching her breath. “Sorry I didn't mean to, I was just curious about that thing” pointing to the alien-like thing. That looks pretty heavy. “Oh this? It’s a Guardian FSD Booster, gives you an extra 10Ly boost on top of the fitted FSD '' She said, explaining to me something I’ve NEVER heard before. It was blue and the mechanism does have some alien-like carvings and blue-ish glow to it without any power attached to it. It was almost mesmerizing… like I could stare at it for hours, or days… or forever … “Commander?” she said loudly, I snapped back and said “Yes?”“Are you here for what we spoke about the other day?” She asked.
Without hesitation, I said “Yes, let's do it” a grin snuck onto her face “Alright, follow me”
Took about what would be almost the whole day, fitting the kit into the ship, it was done finally, the final touch was installing two heatsinks and a chaff launcher. “Alright, you’re all set, also…” she pulled me to the side, looking around to make sure nobody’s listening or looking our way. “The goods are on board, look for Macy The Keeper in Zholobov Gateway, tell her Trix said hi”
She handed over ship controls to me and said “Safe trip Commander, don't forget to come back once in a while” as she got off the landing pad hangar and on to the safety railings. I prepped for launch, she gave me the o7 as the hangar raised to the station surface.
This time the launch felt different, like as if a flick of the throttle could send me flying, it's no faster than Viper obviously, but it felt …. Different. Every turn and slight movements felt more responsive. As I exited the station mail slot and cleared the station perimeters, I boosted. “Holy Fuc-” my words caught in my throat as the ship went flying from 230m/s to 356m/s it was the greatest feeling I’ve felt ever. Every pitch, roll and yaw felt so responsive, I looked over to the right panel and configured my firing order. Set my heatsinks, chaff launchers and my scanners. Plotted my navigation to Rana. “It's only 5 jumps away?!” I asked myself, astonished by the A rated FSD module. Align my ship with the vector to the next system. “So long Diaguandri, noice knowing ya!” FSD Charged, and off I go.
It didn't take long to reach Rana, and each jump was cut short as the temperature was better than ever, A rated fuel scoop is the way to go. Zholobov Gateway, as I was coming close to 20Ms towards the station and ready to drop out of supercruise, I remembered something important, my cargo hold has something that could ruin my life if I’m not careful. My left hand planted on the throttle and my right arm gripped the flight stick tightly as I carefully dropped out of supercruise. Station is 8 km away. “I got this… “ I tell myself, trying to calm my nerves. Memories of my past started flooding my mind. Station security all around, scanning vessels as they go, 7.5km mark, requesting for docking permissions, I’ve been assigned landing pad 26. As I inched closer to the station, I popped one heatsink. No scans so far, that was loud, also the ejected sink fell out of the utility slot, how did they not notice that? I popped another one, as I reached the mail slot, and popped another, just as I reached the landing pad.
-I touched down. A sense of relief washed over me as I entered the hangar.