Unguided, 16: Third Time's a Charm
01 May 2021Meowers
( 01.05.3307 )
( Komotae )
"Mommy! Mommy! Look! I'm a pilot! Can I turn off these assists now?"
(Combat Elite shoulder patch photo)
And... dammit! What?! They have no specific personal patches of 'Triple Elite' class. Ta-daaam! So I decided to put Combat ones on my shoulders, like, it's the thing that I do the most.
Yup. I made it. Finally. Triple Elite. Could've made it faster, but those damn chores... So, this little sketch would be about 'how did I end up that way'. More of a... description.
Look, folks at Pilots Federation are doing a massive work of tracking all our achievements and calculating these ranks, so that we could see the mission requirements and employers could see what kind of pilot they're dealing with. But it all revolves around two words. Vigilance and Goofiness. They track every penny and every kill you made, but... What the heck with that imbalance? Years ago, before they boosted many types of payoffs, these ranks were pretty even and required some serious efforts to be maxed out, as far as I know. Well, heard some stories... They included heavy facepalming about modern ways... And what now?
Combat. Well, I'm proud of this one. It's my primary thing to do, I like it and I'll return to it soon. Okay, you know that I can be reflective, philosophising, but... kicking arse is kicking arse! And it's a kind of art too. Certainly close to poetry. And I had a strange wish to finish this one first, before going to more strategic things. Seemed fair to me. And I did it the hard way. Took three months of some serious involvement in various local wars, many of my earlier log entries were about them. And it's like... I was feeling my skills improving. So, yeah, I'm proud of this one.
Why is it so difficult? Because 1 kill is always 1 kill, no matter how big the payout is. And the calculations are based on a kill tally, not overall profit.
But the others...
Exploration. I'm not a seriously wayfaring type, maybe just a little, to take a rest, reflect, relax and see the pictures, no longer than a few days. Actually, I made my first 'almost decent' money... Mapping already known Earthlike and Water planets in populated areas, and then pushing the data to any dimwits who will buy it. In both meanings of this word. And this kind of sloppy work had given me the... 'Pioneer' rank. It's second to Elite. Oh, just awesome. At least I had this one finished off 'in the honest way' of flying into damn worthless nowhere and scanning planets on my way. Do I feel like some Elite Explorer? Of course not. But they think that I'm one. Hah. So obviously you can become one too, even without leaving the inhabited areas.
Trade. I've become an 'Entrepreneur', the third best rank of this... Mining Selene Jean's 500 tonnes of ore and selling it. On a damn cheap Cobra. Just by picking the most expensive types. Actually, I purchased a freighter just a month or so ago, and completed this rank by mining too, and not because of the rank itself, but because of money that I need now, and mining was the fastest possible way since my controls started malfunctioning. So, I was trading for... two days, maybe, just to see how it goes, and... I'm an Elite Trader now. I don't even know a single stable route, mwahahaha!
Maybe I should call myself 'Accidentally Triple Elite'.
(Marshmallow, now with Triple Elite decal)
It's one fact about trading that I find amusing. Trading with some faction will improve your reputation with them and with superpower as well, even if it's your profit involved there. And it will improve it... A lot! I was shooting down their ships by hundreds, for months, but a pair days of trading had made me an ok girl again. Phah. Like... seriously? I know you folks love money and don't give a crap about all those hired goons in combat zones... But this thing is too cynical even for me.
And there are rumours about some new ranks from PF, connected to on-foot activities... I guess that Triple Elite status isn't going to be 'the best' for long. Like...
Message from Pilots Federation:
Congratulations, Commander!
For your remarkable, astonishing success on the fields of tedious brain-numbing arse-flattening grind, that definitely made you stand out of the crowds, because now you probably look odd and have various health issues, the Pilots Federation has awarded you with special sign, irremovable ship decal, forehead tattoo, prefix to your name, highlighted marker on others' sensors, warning lights, and other means to show your distinguished success and unbelievable determination and devotion to the process of rank grind, stubbornness and the fact of having some seriously durable arse, that could help people to keep their safe distance.
You are now one of 'Sextuple Elite Plus'.
So... Now I'm kinda stuck with mining, have to bite the bullet and do it for several days more. Damn flightstick malfunctions are getting worse, but repairing or replacing this thing could take some time, and I still can compensate manually, to some extent. Was thinking about doing trading runs too, but... There's some intensive docking/undocking involved in it, and I guess any station security would be pretty pissed off seeing a T-10 randomly barrelrolling to the left and becoming stuck in an airlock. Or squishing a lesser ship. And out there in the rings nobody (well, almost) can see me trying to keep a straight direction and doing other kinds of 'on a wing and a prayer' piloting. So I'll be trying. Squeezing the last gasps of life from my controls before replacing them.
It's a quote about my entire damn life. "At least she's still trying".
* * *
Next part: #17: A Bald Move
Next part: #17: A Bald Move