Out in the Grey [08.02.3302]
02 Aug 2016Milwaki
I awoke to the sounds of Verity adjusting the computers, the distant bleeps and bloops pinged down from the bridge into my private quarters. The rations left in the mess hall are going stale, and the coffee following close behind; we'll need to pick up some more on our next run to Raluvii.We'd spent a few hours docked at Galileo so I could get some shut eye. Now the afternoon traders were clogging the docking port along with comms echoing constant reminders to pilots of what happens when you break the rules. I think everyone in the black knows the price for a mistake, those not aware don't live long enough.
We'd managed to locate enough chemical manipulators just in orbit above Earth from destroyer haulers, without having to resort to gunning down civilians in an anarchy system. Joined thereafter by fellow a Commander and friend, Dave, we headed to Europa around Jupiter in search for the final elusive component: arsenic.
The low-G ice world wasn't particularly friendly. Despite it's already incredibly low traction surface, the 0.13 G's made it even less responsive. Our SRV's struggled constantly with accelerating and braking while throwing themselves into a spin with no chance of saving it. Suffice to say they took a beating, but fortunately Europa gave up her goods, as we were able to locate numerous samples of arsenic and other valuable materials.
Parting ways with Dave, who returned to Galileo, we pressed on, making our way to Steiner Platform in the Aasgaa system to fetch the easiest component on the grocery list, magnetic emitter coils; a custom emitter used to focus and guide wireless forms of energy transfer. While it sounds impressive, the high tech systems around Aasgaa sell them for 50 credits a pop; less than the cost of a single round for the massive multi-cannons sporting the rear of Umbra.
The tip off was solid, Aasgaa had the goods I was looking for, and we continued on our way, finally, back to Martuuk's Long Sight Base in the Khun system. It took more than a while, making over thirty jumps to the system, gathering a little cartographic data along the way. Eventually we hit Khun, where a stubborn FDL sat patiently waiting for us. The bastard must've known we were coming, whether or not he got a tip off, tracked our jumps, or just wanted to shoot at the next ship who showed up, I guess we'll never know.
Ripping us out of supercruise, the Corvette rattled and shook violently. Can't say I'm a fan of those damn interdictors; there we were, sitting dead in the sights of a brave bounty hunter, looking to scrape up the reward for a few unpaid fines trade running in Sothis. Verity deployed the hardpoints, throwing full pips to weapons, then handing them off to me. She's earning her keep so far.
The massive gates hiding the multi-cannons slid back, echoing through the ship as the mounts rose out, barrels extending. Meanwhile the front mounted beam lasers were charging up, just as the plasma hits from behind started landing. The shields went unfazed. Hurling the nose around I caught a glimpse of his red paint glisten against the star, my turrets followed him up and over, slowly inching the nose to get a good clean shot; the sucker was agile. Eventually he leveled out, the G-forces must've been getting to him, opening a window as I pulled the trigger dissolving his shields to all but a thin veneer. Snapping the secondary switch, the cannons overhead tore through the sky hammering the poor pilots power plant, rinsing his hull. There was a noticeable shift in the way he was flying, perhaps the reality of assaulting a more than combat capable war ship was starting to set in, and it wasn't much longer before the hull gave way, collapsed, and explosively decompressed into fragments of debris and dust.
I don't often reflect on the motives of my enemies, I frankly don't care, but in this instance I wasn't sure who had been the bad guy. A lone pilot looking to make a name for themselves, taking down high ranking Federal ships for an arguably massive payout, or the freelancer with no bones to pick, forced to defend themself. I suppose the black is ironically a shade of grey. Sure I had fines, but the cargo that brought those fines helped a lot of less fortunate people, so who's to say?
I snapped out of my daze as the Long Sight base rolled into view. The relatively high-G world gave the thrusters a bit of a strain, but touch down was gentle. The docking clamps lowered into position, and the ship lowered into the ground, sealing itself inside the base.
Elvira was happy to see I'd brought all of the requested materials and in relatively large quantities giving her plenty of room to experiment. I'd given her the rest of the evening to build and eventually came up with a modification to the drive that, in testing, resulted in an FSD capable of an additional 2LY's per jump all while reducing the mass, power consumption and increasing the FPJ values. This arguably small increase was monumental for such a heavy ship, and feeling somewhat inspired, I decided to strip out a number of less used and less important modules to reduce the mass of the ship even further.
Now we'll of course have to return to Sol, and bring back Astrid and Clio so Elvira can once again experiment with the frameshift components.