Friend or foe?
30 Oct 2022Claude Lecardunoie
Just a short tale of an humble pilot.It occured in HIP 22460, some weeks before the Azimuth Initiative failure. I was delivering goods on the Heart of Taurus to help the Proteus Wave project. I had the Estafette, my T-6 merchantman, stuffed with medecines and reactive armour. I was about to exit supercruise when I had to deal with an interdiction. The other pilot identified himself: Commander Scarlett Tiberius. The very same pilot who helped me some months before for a humanitarian operation to help Didio civilians under Thargoids attacks.
I first thought he forgot about that, so I stopped my thrusters and sent him a message. The answer was rather clear:
- "Hey, Lecardunoie, I told you back then, in Leesti, I was into piracy. Just drop 2 tons of your cargo, and I let you through."
I didn't answer. I just started my engines again and loaded my FSD to jump in supercruise as quick as possible. After all I was really close from the Heart of Taurus. But Tiberius is a much better pilot than I am and he had an Imperial Clipper, so it was no problem for him to interdict my T-6 once more... I escaped again. He had to interdict me 3-4 more times. The last time, my ship had too much damage, I prefered to surrender. In panic, I actually dropped 23 tons of my cargo.
- "Wow, Lecardunoie, I only asked for 2 tons. I am a pirate, but I got rules. I'll pick up the extra 21 tons and you can buy them back on my fleet carrier one system away. I'll do a nice price for you".
I flew there to his fleet carrier. I rebought my 21 tons. Actually I came back several times there as more goods required on the Heart of Taurus was available there.
Tiberius, friend or foe. Well, both I would say... Like most of the independant pilots in the galaxy. Tiberius, at least, has decent rules.
All of this happened in july 3308, and I left HIP 22460 some days after to fly back into the Bubble, two weeks before the Proteus Wave fiasco. 3 months later, rumors from the spatioports docks and reports from Galnet or Vox Galactica are rather worrying: unexplained phenomena in HIP 22460, major Thargoids attacks in the Pléiades and California Nebula.