Welcome home, my old friend
10 Mar 2016Tiger61378
Recently I've been making the Robigo Run with my old Diamondback, the Endless Transit, and I decided it was time to find something a bit...bigger for hauling more illicit goods back to the bubble. So, sitting around my apartment in Thome I realized I needed another Asp. So, I headed on down to my hangar, got a hold of Dave, my mechanic, and had him strip out the modules on the Endless Transit and Shadow, sell the parts, and build me a well armed Sidewinder to head out for Harm, where I'd sold the old Long Haul last year. Unfortunately, when I arrived I discovered that not only was the hull gone, but they didn't even sell Asps any more. After a quick chat though, I found out that their stock had been transferred to Ye'Kuana, at the Herzfeld Orbital ship dealer. Back into the black I soared, and made a beeline there.On arrival, I quickly headed over to the shipyard and started chatting with the dealer, asking about any used (and cheap) Asp hulls that were available. He told me there were 5, with a couple ready to be scrapped. Curious, I had him show me. And then something amazing happened. In amongst a few clearly worn out explorers was a familiar looking reddish hull. But that can't be right...its been months, and I sold her at a different station, but sure enough, its the Long Haul. The dings from making the Hutton Run 15 times were still visible in the hull, not to mention carbon scoring and pitting from being recovered and rebuilt out of combat zones across the bubble, the Red Dice Systems logo mostly scratched off but still visible, the Hutton memorial tag next to the remains of her name...
Immediately I told the guy to strip and sell my Sidewinder, and that I'd take her. 5,661,356cr later, she was mine again. As I headed back up inside to check things over before refitting, I noticed more memories. There was some small chunks of Sothis Crystaline Gold stuck in the cargo bay's gratings from many trips out there to bring back that rare, valuable commodity for RDS to use in our specialty computer components. Over in a corner was some Painite dust from mining the HIP 16607 extraction sites. There was the Hutton Mug I thought I'd lost the last time she got blown out from under me in a combat zone (it was jammed in a crevice under the pilot's chair, and somehow the scavengers who had been picking her clean missed it). I noticed a patch on part of the canopy where I'd had to make some emergency repairs running from a pirate while smuggling out of Sothis. Man...its nice to be back.
So, off to the outfitting department, and I found that this station had a very good selection. The only thing missing was the A5 FSD, meaning I'd have to go hunting for one (fortunately, I remembered seeing a few back at Harm, and even if they arn't there Thome stocks them). Time to take her back out...although before I left I did one last thing. I gave her a new paint job. The red was nice, but the Gold that they were stocking is far better.
Now I'm back in Thome, relaxing at home a bit before I take the Long Haul out to Robigo. Its so nice to have her back in my hangar, although Endless Transit and Shadow both look a little forlorn with hatches open, wires hanging out, and horribly small modules stuck into the spaces where the A rated equipment had been. Ah, well, a few Robigo runs and they'll be back to normal, and an old friend was able to return!
