Elite V
10 Dec 2024Travers
It's been a long road, getting from there to here. That's a line I heard once, I think it was from one of those ancient entertainment non-holo things. They can be cool but oh my god they had an optimistic vision of their future. Matter transportation and replicating food and materials just from energy. That would have been a thousand years ago now, hilarious. A friend's dad had a collection of vintage video that he'd show us when we went to stay for the weekend. It's hard sometimes watching a flat image, but the storytelling is good, and let's face it, there's no Thargoids in any of it.It has been a very long road though. I can remember when I was working towards my first Elite rank, in trade. I spent a good couple of years just hauling goods in and out of Toxandji. There were good trades to be made but there was nothing like a personal carrier back then, so it was slow going. I've built a fair few Elite ranks since then, everything but combat, I try my best to stay away from that, all too hazardous if you ask me. Sure you can get some ganker blowing you up when you're hauling gold, or even crash into a star when out deep in the black, but actively shooting at a pirate or a Thargoid... no thanks.
I didn't quite know what to expect with that first Elite rank, but then I visited Shinrarta and browsed the shipyard and outfitting. Oh my god, that was incredible, I didn't even know half these weapons and modules even existed. It was definitely worth it. Since then I've mostly been focused on exploration and exobiology. I've been out deep in the black now for about seven months, looking for good colony locations in Tenebrae, the most easterly arm of the galaxy, and I found a few good systems too.
I'm slowly on my way back to the bubble now, with my carrier Olympus in tow. There's not much star density in the places I've spent most of the last few months, but I found a dealer that could deliver me some new ships all the way out, so I've been in a Mandalay for much of the last couple of months. It's an amazing ship, so incredibly maneuverable that I've almost crashed it into a planet's surface, several times if I'm honest. Well, it's either the maneuverability or the shipping container they strapped to the underside. Damn fast ship.
Any day now the same dealer is delivering a new Cobra Mk V to me. The Cobra has always been my favourite ship to fly, and there's decent star density where I am right now so I'm back in my Mk IV and it's a lot of fun. I've been out looking for stratum to catalogue, as it's highly sought data and pays a huge amount of credits, no idea why. I've gotta be able to pay for a colony somehow though, and stratum definitely seems to be the way to achieve that.
So there I am, out deep in the Formidine Rift headed for the Heart and Soul nebulae. I've had a few days honking systems and scanning stratum where I can find it, and I headed back to Olympus for some rest and, let's face it, some decent food, a replicator would be a good thing to have on a small ship. I'm pretty tired and sore from the cramped cockpit when I get back, and there it is, sitting on my desk. A message from the Pilots' Federation, and I could hardly believe it.
"Congratulations, Commander Travers. In recognition of your continued tremendous successes, the Pilots' Federation has awarded you the rank of Elite V for Exobiology." Wow, incredible, Elite five, me? It's kind'a hard to believe. We had a big party in the bar last night I can tell you. Broke out some more of that Lavian brandy and Bast Snake Gin the bartender had squirreled away, and then drank a few cases of Gerasian Gueuze Beer. I had to hunt around in the hold for some more rares after and, thank god, found some Any Na Coffee for the next morning for us all. It's strong stuff, but that's definitely what we needed. After that I went for a long run around the main ship storage bay to try and ease the headache.
I've been out exploring for so many months now that I pretty much forgot about the rank increases you can earn, but damn, Elite V, FIVE, I could hardly believe it, I can still hardly believe it. Those people at the Pilots' Federation are good and hard working, but they never forget the little guy either. All credit to them I say. Some of the carrier crew asked me what I'd do now. Five is the top Elite rank. I guess I'll get there with Exploration one day, maybe soon, but I can't ever see it happening with the others. We joked that they'd have to introduce more Elite ranks, but I have to admit I think the rank of Elite X sounds pretty cool, so who knows.
For now though I'm not stopping, there's bridge bases and outposts still to pay for, materials to buy and systems to stake a claim on. I'm gonna press on, out deep into the black.