You'd better draw quick
29 Jun 2022Claude Lecardunoie
I flew back from the Pleiades to 10 Tauri last week. As much as was happy to get back to my luxury appatment in Clairaut City, paid by by Armborr Ind., plus extra paid by the Federation, I was sad to leave the Pleiades. There was still so much to be discovered in this galactic region. But I had to come back in the Bubble, to make some money.My appartment was still there and I was happy to see Silvius, my "buttler" there. I found my place even cleaner than when I left it: fresh flowers, fruits and vegetables from Clifford Botanical Hub. The bar had been refilled with Eranin Pearl Whisky and Indi Bourbon and the fridge with Ceti Rabbits, HIP 10175 Bush Meat and Esuseku Caviar. I took two days off enjoying all this fine food, wondering what was point of exploring remote systems in the Galaxy when you could have all of it here, comfortably paid by the Federation... Or for that matter, Alliance, Sirius, Empire...
I went to ArmBorr Ind. headquarters to report from my mission in the Pleiades and also to look for a job. I met with Klaus Zielenski in his office. He seemed worry.
- "Claude, good to see you. The report of your investigation has been transfered to the Federation. As for you exploration data, they have been cross checked by Universal Cartographics. You should earn about 2M CR for it"
- "What? Only 2M??"
- "Yes. See, no matter how far you travelled, the data you brought, well they aren't premium. Most of it, we knew about it, and the rest of it were only confirmation. Real exploration business requires a ship and equipment that you probably can't afford".
- "Okay, I just collected data on my way back here, didn't expect more than the 2M. I'll do better next time, but for the time being, I am looking for contracts..."
- "There is a lot to do here. When you left, we thought that Armborr Ind. would prevail in 10 Tauri, but it didn't. We have sensitive data that need to be urgently transfered to nearby systems and we are looking for someon..."
- "Okay, I'll do it!!"
I guess I was a little bit over confident in my abilities to pull out these sensitive data deliveries. The 2 first were okay. I was flying with the Steve Zissou Explorer , my Asp XP. I really liked it: it brought me to the Pleiades, it had enough cargo cap to trade, basic exploration equipment and decent fighting capabilities or so I thought. Because, although I had been warned by ArmBorr Ind. Intelligence Services that I had hostiles trying to intercept me on my last data delivery on Tau-1 Eridani, I hadn't been careful enough. Got interticted by Dave Silverdust, a 10 Tauri Group mercenary. This time, I decided to fight.
Silverdust shot first: no suprise. The fact that my chaff launcher didn't respond, that was, actually, the surprise. My pulse laser were not either!! What the f...
It went really fast then, as I was trying to manoeuver my ship to escape, I realised that I kept my HUD in Analyse mode, and even when I switched back in Combat mode, I wasn't set on the right weapon group... I had just the time to read Dave Silverdust text com message:
"You'd better draw faster next time..."
... And then, nothing for 2 minutes. I opened my eyes in my escape pod, my ship had just been destroyed. The only message on the pod com terminal was actually from the Commander Silverdust: "Stay calm, I called the system authorities, a rescue team will pick you up in while. Be ready next time we face each other."