Phoenix
14 Nov 2019ParkTyGreen
Tiberius Captain’s Log - 14th of November 3305Fozard Port, Upaniklis
She still flies!
I can’t even describe how wonderful a feeling it was to navigate the battered Tiberius out of Fozard Port today. The engines were straining a bit, and the panels rattled as I kicked the throttle up, but she held together. The Tiberius was back. And I smelled blood in the water.
There were reports of a Federal Corvette interdicting people, so I barely hesitated to pursue him. Almost forgot to mention, Sloane agreed to come with, but only because of the prospect of retribution for Kaylyn. Other than that, he said, if we didn’t die trying this, he was done for good with being a member of my crew. I don’t blame him.
I winged up again with a few of the folks I met back at the rings. They inquired as to how I was doing, and I told them everything. It surprised me to find out they were actively tracking ExaltedHierarch themselves, and through our comms in system-wide chat, found another like-minded pursuer of justice, a man with a thick accent and a federal corvette of his own. Commander “MasterCheif,” joined our wing and promised to help after hearing what had happened to me and my crew. A few people voiced concerns about hunting down a Vette in a Krait Mk2c, but I assured them the Tiberius was well up to the task.
Some time later, we find the bastard.
He’s cruising across shopping lanes, chasing down a type 7 ranked mostly harmless. A new commander, probably trying to make ends meet and pay for bills. We promptly tailed him and demanded him to stop.
He broke off, but tried circling around us, presumably trying to interdict us.
“What seems to be the problem, fellas?” He said over system-wide chat.
I was frozen in the pilots seat for a second. This was the man that killed Kaylyn, nearly killed me, and nearly destroyed everything I’d made of myself. I scowled intensely. “You are going to fucking pay. You can’t run from me. You think you’re safe in your Vette. You watch yourself.”
He played dumb. “I’m sorry?” He said. “What is it I’ve done?”
“Fuck you,” I said. “Cut the bullshit. You picked on me and my crew while my shields were down and hull at 50%. You did so knowing how much it would cost me.”
“So real professional then,” he pulled hard up, and I quickly followed suit, trying to stay behind, but still out of range for the interdictor. “4 vs 1. Seems fair.”
The ship rattled intensely as I pulled up as hard as the FSD could handle. Metal creaked and snapped, until just as I was about to get in range for the interdictor, the ship lurched and careened our of supercruise. I was furious.
“What the actual fuck just happened?” I shouted. “I thought she was ready!”
“Apparently not,” Sloane mumbled into the comms. “Maybe this wasn’t such as great idea.”
I stumbled out of the command chair and hurried over to the FSD compartment. And it was bad. Three conduction coils were burned out, and a fire was in the process of being suppressed by the automatic fire suppression’s systems. It took a few minutes of reallocating power and quickly fumbling replacement parts into place to get the ship ready for supercruise again.
By the time the ship lurched into supercruise, something was, of course, going horribly. As I was quickly informed, ExaltedHierarch had challenged BadassDrummer to a 1v1. Subsequently, the icon for Badass was showing his shields quickly dropping. I watched with intense anticipation. I couldn’t just watch him kill another. And he could not get away. Just as Badass’s shields failed, I dropped into the low wake, hardpoints jilting into action. The twin multi cannons on either side of the cockpit quickly erupted with a blaze of fire. My attack diverted the attention of Exalted, while Badass was able to get more shots in at his shields. Sloane launches his fighter. Being a classic grade-a asshole, Exalted turned and ran. His Vette was fast. He was going at least 500 m/s. The Tiberius clearly could not keep up for long, but I pushed her engines to the very limit. The hull was crackling and bursting as I boosted to follow pursuit, still opening a barrage of gunfire. The g-forces were intense. His shields were just about to give way before he jumped.
That was the last I ever saw of him, at least for now. But not the last I heard of him. Later, after I frustratedly returned to Fozard, he sent me a series of messages.
“I don’t know what tasted better,” his message read. “All your merits, your rebuy cash, your friend proving himself a worthless coward, or maybe it was how pathetic you were against my Vette.” I wanted to punch straight through the screen of the comms panel. I wanted to reach across the fucking galaxy and fling him into a neutron star and watch him turn to ionised radiation. I pulled myself together and kept reading. “...or maybe it was you saying how I’ll pay shortly before, you know, nothing happened.
“I quickly typed a response. “You are quite possibly the most despicable and vile person I have ever had the extreme displeasure of meeting. Go burn in hell.” I frowned, then added on. “And, we tracked you down. You ran away like the cowardly little rat you are.”
“You were shooting me in the back interrupting the 1v1 you were told to stay out of, actually.”
“A 1v1 that would have ended the same way it did for me in those rings, actually. You think I was about to let you possibly kill someone since you’ve got such a vapid, empty joke of a life the best thing you can think to do is attack people for no reason? You think that 1v1 was ever supposed to be fair? Fair like how you nearly killed me?”
“I stalked you for like 8 minutes in those rings,” he quickly replied. “Maybe it would’ve been fair if you’d payed attention. It’s not my fault you have the observational skills of a desk lamp.”
“At least I’m not a little weasel like you. I’ve never seen any ganker run away from a possible loss as fast as you did.”
“Guess your friends with vettes are broke like you with no dirty drives then.”
I waited a second. “Well, it’s not my fault you’re a scumbag.”
I promptly disconnected comms and blocked him. Later, he’d send me another message through secondary channels and threaten me, both in the pilots federation and in general.
Aside from all that, in Fozard Port, a blue imperial clipper was stuck in the mail slot, and some commanders were surrounding the guy and keeping him from leaving. The station would’ve fire upon him within minutes. So I did the only sensible thing, went full speed into the mail slot, slamming aside the assaulting commanders and freeing the clipper.
So yea, a lot happened.
Needless to say, we’re leaving Upaniklis as soon as possible, and never coming back. Not sure if Sloane is staying, I might be able to convince him though. I’ll figure it all out. Eventually.
But regardless, I have some engineers I want to get back in contact with. The Tiberius is getting some upgrades, I think. It’s taken all these times nearly dying and being pushed around to realise that the Tiberius needs some more of everything. I’m heading out to Khun in a few minutes, regardless of whether or not Sloane comes.