The wings of Liberty
05 Oct 2020Eagle 5
I returned to my ship feeling like a man who had little to gain and much to lose. The conversation with Lady Livernois revealed one giant problem with this operation: there was a reasonably high chance that the Empire knew I wasn't just some random spacer going about my business.
The way she insisted on underscoring a need for care around patrols let me know that in the next several days it would be wise to exercise extreme caution while moving through imperial space.
Whatever would await me next I knew I had the right tool for the job: The Liberty.
The Liberty and I have been flying together for 6 long years. We've seen action throughout the human bubble and beyond. Countless pirate hunts for the Fedral navy, risky blockade running in the Alliance, the Onionhead wars, the Slave Rebellions of Sorbago and it was there with me when the Canonn first gained recognition during the great Unknown Artifact hunt of May 4th 3301.
I always knew I wanted a Cobra. When I was a kid I used to watch the feed of Lave Station's docking ring to see if I could spot one of them coming into the station. Then there was the museum which had some of the original concepts and models including the now long retired predecessor the Mk.I and the ill fated Mk.II that (thankfully) never made it into production.
It was sleek, it was fast, and it was mean... in other words perfect.
It didn't take me long to save up the three fiddy to buy one after getting my pilot's license. I had joined the Federal Navy via the Mercantile Outreach Program where you effectively got your wings and a free Sidewinder if you enlisted for 1 year. At the time it seemed like a great way to get going as a Spacer. Just one year and I'd be on my own with a ship. Luck would be on my side that I'd also made the enlistment bonus by starting early which meant I got to have a Sidewinder per the PF's regulations as well as what they were known as "Freeagles" or FNS regulations Eagle Mk.IIs. I lucked out that I got into the business when Halsey was in the middle of her term as President. This was a time of relative quiet in the Federation so the majority of the "work" I had in the first few months was checking in here and there with Federation aligned systems and do some data delivery runs and occasionally some combat air patrols.
But I didn't sit still...
I kept hopping back and forth between the Federation and the Alliance working dililgently to improve my rakings with the FNS and with the Alliance. In a few short months I gathered up a sizeable list of permits that had me being able to go places and do business in a much wider area.
Seeing how things were on hold with the FNS I decided to move about a bit and I chanced upon a star system called HDS 1879. I was looking for an in with the Alioth Independents and this was Alliance space so it was a relatively "safe" area. HDS 1879 had the great distinction of having two ports 12 LS from one another. The two ringed gas giants tangoed about their orbit and so did their respective stations, Kroenecker and Shaikh dock, and luckily they had something the other needed.
...but there was a catch
The Blue Drug Empire had established itself as the regional cartel overseeing the trade lanes.. not many ships would make the trip without attracting their attention. As far as I was concerned I was just some noob in a starter ship hauling chattels from station to station... but as this hotshot business slowly built momentum and cargo It wasn't long before I'd start feeling the heat myself.
For weeks I stretched the Sidweinder's hold as much as I could getting rid of all but necessary equipment in exchange for cargo space. Then I moved to a Hauler and really doubled my payout with each load. The Little Red Wagon as I called it did fantastic work never skipping a beat and never falling to the cartel's trap. It was here that I fine tuned my escape tactics learning to use EVERYTHING at my disposal.. exclusion zones, planetary rings etc... if they wanted me they would have had to fight for it as I wouldn't give up so easy.
This went on for several weeks. Trip after trip I had collected more funds and experience, I could fly and run with the best of them. Perhaps it was this constant pressure of pushing a Hauler to the limit with hungry pirates on my 6 but I learned a valuable lesson that I will never forget: Get a ship that can get you out of trouble twice as fast as it can get you in it.
This is where the Cobra shines.
I purchased the Liberty having enough money to buy the ship twice over with spare change for upgrades. Never fly without the rebuy they say... I'm glad I did because I started feeling like I'd be stuck in an infinite cargo loop forever and be lost in Alliance bureaucracy. Fortunately the tides were changing and the FNS was becoming more aggressive but now I had the right ship to go with that. Given I was in the mercantile outreach program I had full discretion as to my equipment providing it was sufficient for the objective. This is why you often see each power flying the ships of their adversaries. Space is an anything goes sort of place this was no different.
The Liberty was an older model.. EQ-095 was the registration ID. I did some research and It apparently came from Lave's shipworks but info on the previous owners was spotty at best.. something tells me it was special. I named it Liberty because of the freedom it represented to me. Sure I had several lightyears under me now but traversing the bubble on light fighters is a long and arduous task. I could jump further, refuel in flight and most of all.. punch harder. It took just a few runs to know that the ship would outrun just about anything... and when I felt like it, ruin some pirate's day.
I felt invincible.