Pad squatters at Laelaps
06 Mar 2021User319792
I earned my Elite trade rank after a long run through the bubble where I topped $200,000,000 in raw credits for the first time. For the most part, I was in either Hobbes or in Cortez and stopping in Orbis and Coriolis ports. The Tange Vision to Medupe route served me real well and, at least I hope, the citizens of Medupe and Cubeo 1 made good use of the agronomics. I've been focusing on other things, since then, diversifying my wealth into my ships and networking with engineers as the suits moved me from place to place since my incident with the diplomat, trading to pick up the credits when I've needed them.
If there's one thing you learn in commerce, its that order is very good for business. With the Galactic Summit happening out here, it's hard enough to make it through to your port with your goods without pirates and outright anarchists blasting you out of your ships. The last thing a trader needs, if they actually do make it to the port, are lines upon lines of trading vessels waiting on some pilot sitting there hassling with someone at the Control Tower with this guy or that guy about who's shipment is supposed to go where and who the "Real" driver of the shipping vessel needs to be so some other jamok at some other port 8 systems away can get a better price on a deal that doesn't have anything to do with you.
It's common courtesy amongst traders. Know what you're here to do, hand over the goods, take the return on investment, and get out of the way. We're not all over here in our Type-9's and Type-7's trying to negotiate intricate multi-faction deals to ensure that the Marlinists or whomever can travel through Yuri Grom's space like all the other Imperials without any hassle while the Feds are working in Winters' space in order to make sure Torval's mining corporations can drill without Delaine's people raiding their vessels. We're here to make sure that the deals that we've made before even getting to where we're going are completed smoothly and without fuss.
We paid for our product. We took the time to get its destination. We want our money. We want to go. No one wants to sit in a queue because one idiot is sitting on the only pad during a food-drive, of all things, trying to figure out what percentage of profits would be best allocated to his next module upgrade. We want to get in and we want to get out.
I've just completed 3 consecutive deliveries where people have sat there on the pads; making a cup of coffee... sealing up some biowaste... playing with some consumer electronics... who knows what? It got to the point that I rammed some Anny that was sitting there pad-squatting for almost 10 minutes before chasing him off and ramming him a couple times in Cortez. Me... chasing and ramming an Anny... in a Type-9.
We're trying to do business, here, people. KEEP THE LINE MOVING SO THAT WE CAN ALL MAKE THE MONEY WE EARNED.
Unbelievable, these people.