Trading competition
12 Jul 2022Claude Lecardunoie
I went back to my regular activities in 10 Tauri for ArmBorr Ind. I was comfortably making some money and improving my skills as combat pilots and enjoying my nice flat in Clairaut City, as a mercernary or working as a courier.I like courier mission, when I don't have hostile vessels on my back, because I can enjoy the scenaries.
Two suns
Horizon out of Lawrence City
Or just flying through planetary outpost cities.
Roetgen Silo city tour
On that day, the Clairaut City docks were busier than usual. I was walking by the hangars and workshops looking for some spare parts for my Vulture when I suddenly recognized a familiar ship. It was just a regular T-7, but no mistake possible : the livery was from Juergen Michel Ehecatl Freight Inc.. Juergen was my first business partner when I fled Dromi in march 3308. He taught me the basics of galactic trading and had been my friend since then.
I recognized him from far by his usual behaviour when on the landing pads area, turning his head in every direction to check on ships, freight that was carried in and out, mechanics and engineer crews, trying to figure out how competent they were and wether or not it would be worth hiring them. Anyway, I was surprised to see him here in Clairaut City as he was mostly managing his commercial fleet from his office of Liebig Station in Ehecatl, but by the sparkles in his eyes I could tell he was excited so probably on something important. After exchanging some news with him, I asked about the pupose of his visit in Clairaut City.
- "Yes, I had to come here in 10 Tauri", he said, "business has been really good for me lately. So, I decided to expend and I acquired new ships here, in Clairaut City and wanted to check on them myself before sending them to HIP 22640 in the Pleiades to be part of this cross-superpower operation for Azimuth Biotech by providing them materials and equipment for their fight against the Thargoids. The 3 main powers are supporting it, and I am expecting political benefits from this. You should fly there too, but that's too far for the T-6 I sold you..."
- "I just got back from the Pleiades actually, I am flying an Asp Explorer these days."
- "What were you doing in the Pleiades?"
- "Some investigation I had to do for the ... well, no, I can't tell you..."
- "Wooh, I was just asking. You know me, I don't want to know when it gets to sensitive. Anyway, you should put as much cargo racks as you can on your Asp XP and fly to the Pleiades. Then go to Obsidian Orbital in Maia, and buy medecines or better reactive armour and sell them to Azimuth Biotech on a mega ship in HIP 22640. Well that is were I will send my fleet in 2-3 days. You'd better get there before them", he warned.
I know my Juergen. He added this warning with a smile, but he meant business. Being a friend of him, he was just kindly letting me know that there would be credits to make for a solo independant pilot like me between Maia and HIP 22640 for at least 3 days. After that, Juergen's hired freight pilots, like artificial wasps over a synthetic marmelade pot, would be flying around Obsidian Orbital picking every single ton of goods required in HIP 22640.
If wanted to make the most of this 3 days delay, I had to think quick and fly even faster. My plan was first to take off for Obsidian Orbital, Maia, with the Steve Zissou, my Asp Explorer and from there and then have my T-6, which can take more cargo, transfered to Obsidian Orbital.
The made the journey to Maia with problem at all, in a half day. As soon as I landed on Obsidian Orbital, I filled the paper work with the local customs and FedExpS (is paper work still an appropriate word when everything is digital?) for the transfer of the Estafette, my T-6, which would take another day. Ok, I thought, I would do my first rotation between Maia and HIP 22640 with the Steve Zissou. I filled the cargo racks reactive armours and medecines, confident that I would be able to load more the day after with my freighter.
It was a 5 jumps travel from Maia to HIP 22640, fully loaded with my Asp Explorer. But, as often, I hadn't been planning enough. With my T-6, it was impossible to plot the same route due to the much smaller jump range. I had to change my plan again: I would use my Asp XP as a freighter. But by the time I replaced some of the modules with cargo racks, well the three days were over. Twelve hours earlier, I actually saw Juergen's first vessel landing in Obsidian Orbital. They all had the logo of his company, on both flanks of the hull. And no surprise: when I was ready to fly again, the local stocks of reactive armours and medecines were empty.
I thought that in a way Juergen taught me another lesson, but I was not ready to give up. I opened several galactic market analyzers and trade route plotter on com terminal and quickly started to browse the data: PRE Logistic Support Gamma, a small outpost in Pleiades Sector IH-V c2-5, with huge supply of reactive armours! I was not done yet.