Personal Log 122: 2nd - 8th May, 3302
18 Oct 2016Jemine Caesar
2nd - 8th May, 3302 Once back at Beta Hydri, I couldn't wait to get stuck in to work again. A consignment of humble fruit and vegetables took me to Epsilon Indi. There, at the Krylov Installation on Alisonworld, I spotted a job on the board that made my eyes pop; take clothes to Gliese 875 in return for payment of 126,000CR! I snapped up the contract, and wondered just what sort of gorgeous clothes I must have been loading into my hold. Too bad I couldn't open one of the canisters to take a little peek.
Sam, meanwhile, had opted for a change of pace with a bit of exploring. On May 3rd he was in the Quapa system. Speaking by k-cast, we talked again about our plan to visit PLX 695.
"Let's not put it off any longer," I said.
"Agreed," replied Sam. "I'll rendezvous with you at Beta Hydri, then we can set off." The trip would take me just over twenty jumps, so we agreed to break the journey about halfway.
We passed through Kokary, LHS 1723, Ross 33 and Atagat, before making a brief stop at Fisher Orbital in the Erne system. This stop was at my request; at the risk of sounding indelicate (and no one else will ever read my personal logs anyway, so it doesn't matter), I was desperate for the toilet. I've always hated using the contraptions onboard ship.
After a few more systems, we docked at Reiter Terminal in the LHS 1706 system. The sysdatafeed said that this was a Federal system, but was currently being exploited by Li Yong Rui. I had no idea what this actually meant in practice, and I considered asking Sam to explain it to me.
However, as I peeled off my flightsuit having booked in to our room, all thoughts of talking about politics flew out of my head. What Sam and I did instead was so very much more enjoyable.
*****
We agreed on a leisurely attitude towards our voyage to PLC 695, and spent the next few days exploring and trading in the systems local to LHS 1706. My missions took me to G97-54, G83-13, 111 Tauri, LP 417-213 and, a little further than expected at six jumps, Lalande 10797. These trips were quite profitable, despite the unwanted attentions of a couple pf pirates.
The first of these, a Cobra III flown by a 'Master' rated pilot, happened close to the star LHS 1706. My attacker was well-prepared, taking good advantage of the star's proximity to his chosen interdiction point. The Last Thing rapidly began taking heat damage, and I decided to 'cut and run', as my papa used to say. Usually when he was losing at cards. Which was more often than he liked to admit.
The second interdiction came at Lalande 10797, and was probably down to the cargo of power generators I was carrying at the time. The attacker, a Viper IV, went down under my lasers relatively quickly. Unfortunately I received no bounty notification, which was irksome. Sam had previously suggested I get a Kill-Warrant Scanner. I offloaded the power generators for 60,000CR at Neff Hub in Lalande 10797, and called at the ship's outfitters. A short while later The Last Thing had been fitted with an E-grade KW Scanner, at a cost of 13,500CR.
My new equipment was called into action the very next day. While exploring the M Tauri system, Sam and I dropped down to investigate an unidentified signal. We were immediately fired upon by a Viper III, with a 'Master' rated pilot at the controls. While Sam returned fire, I scanned the attacking ship. Once the scan was complete, I switched to lasers and joined the attack. The Viper didn't last long.
A second attack followed soon after, this time by an Adder. The 'Novice' pilot didn't really stand a chance against the two of us, and the battle was over quickly.
Back at Reiter Terminal we redeemed our bounties. My KW Scanner had picked up another 16,600CR of bounty, but I would have to travel to Imperial space to redeem it. Oh, well, one for another time.
On May 7th we decided to press on to PLX 695, though a string of new systems; Flech, LHS 1681, Geras, Ndozins, V491 Persei, 50 Persei, Itza, and Wolf 225. During the journey I received a message from my mother, saying she had been cast in a holovid based on a popular holosoap called 'Heart & Sol'. Barnes, however, was still waiting for something to come along.
We were one jump away from PLX 695. Having just taken off from Edwards Port in Wolf 225, we picked up a distress call, and decided to investigate. The distress call turned out to be coming from a lone Adder, under attack by a wing of four deadly ships. As soon as Sam and I dropped down, the wing turned their lasers on us. My shields were whittled down to zero in mere seconds. My FSD was offline, and my thrusters were malfunctioning. The Last Thing started to break apart...
*****
I woke some hours later, in a medicentre bed. Sam had been forced to flee the battle, intending to return to look for my escape pod when the coast was clear. In the meantime a passing ship had found me, scooped me up and taken me Dover starport at PLX 695. I had lost my ship. With her had gone my Empire bounty vouchers and all my unsold astrocartography data. But at least I was still alive, and thanking Gaia for the pilot's code of honour that prevented the wanton destruction of escape pods.
Sam and I quickly found that PLX 695 was, for the moment, a system at war. An all too common occurrence throughout human space, it seemed. Our long-talked-of trip to the system hadn't gone too well, so far. We decided to leave.
On Galnet was an article about an appeal being run by the Fuel Rats. Pilots were being asked to take hydrogen fuel to the Gliese 1269 system, where the famous Jaques Station was waiting to buy it.
Jaques Station was a legend throughout the bubble. Jaques, a cyborg over four centuries old, was the owner of the galaxy's only moving starport. He had fitted it with huge engines, and had been roaming the bubble for decades. But now he was planning his most ambitious trip yet, clear across the galaxy to Beagle Point. The appeal for fuel had captured the imagination of the spacer community, and pilots were flocking to contribute.
The opportunity of seeing the one and only Jaques Station was too good to miss. Once my replacement ship was ready, Sam and I embarked on the journey to Gliese 1269, more than 200LY distant.
We broke our journey at Puiki, having covered just under half the distance to our destination, and booked into a room on Haise Gateway.