Protecting home
17 Oct 2015Tiger61378
Checking over my systems as I sit docked at Parsons City, Fenis, and waiting for the local security guy to verify my bounties, I started looking back over the past 24 hours. I started out way over near Achenar, doing some smuggling runs in my Asp, the Long Haul. Things had been going horribly, with constant interdictions, some somewhat hefty bounties on my head, and just overall bad luck...and it culminated in me hitting the wrong button while scooping, and having my ship's computer lock up trying to load the system map (damn glitches, hopefully the computer on this new Asp won't have the same problems). That cost me almost 2 million credits, between the lost bounties, lost (admittedly) illegal cargo, and insurance fees. But, oh well, it gave me a reason to get away from the Sothis Run. Then I got some news...in honor of Arissa's Imperial coronation this weekend, there's a call out for slaves to be brought to Achenar! This sounds like a great plan, I'd been meaning to get over there since I earned my Master rank, but hadn't had a chance. So...off to a station I knew sold Imperial Slaves for cheap, load up the cargo holds, and set course for Capital. 4 runs later, I get another message over my comms. Back home at HIP 16607, Red Dice Systems has come under a strong attack by the local Imperial faction. I guess they don't like an independent mining cooperative taking over. I'm sorta torn on this, being a good Imperial citizen, but RDS is my home, and I have to defend it. So...pack up the ship, set course, and head back to start running missions again. When I arrived, there wasn't too much interesting on the board, just a single easy smuggling run to Frenis. So...load it up, zip over, and zip back. But I've had enough of cargo hauling for now...maybe it was time to get the Emperor's Hand out of drydock and go hunting. No sooner had I put the Long Haul into storage mode and fired up my Courier, I get a call from the Expert System. RDS is having pirate problems all over the nearby systems, and will pay me well to...deal with the issue. 15 kills needed over 3 systems, and one of the systems is giving me 2 weeks to do it. No problem at all! I also took on a bit of a long range cargo haul, just because...well...it was a hundred grand and only about 4 jumps....just to carry scrap.
A few hours later, here I sit. There's a fair amount of bounties on hand for the 6 kills I had to rack up here, although the station's security forces must be on lunchbreak or something (nobody there the last couple of times I've contacted it, and there's been a lot of security ships heading off station over that time). So, I'll just sit here and wait, then head back home to see what else RDS has for me. Maybe in a day or so I'll head back out again, go visit Capitol for the Coronation, then go pound the hell out of some Emperor's Dawn goons. But until then...its back to defending what's ours, no matter the costs.