Wild goose chase? -- The Cat Chase Part I --
25 Dec 2015iModar
December 24, 3301. Merry Christmas, everyone!I'm camping out over at Plexico in Wayaliti. The past 48 hours have not been kind to me. I already miss trading, going from station to station; system to system collecting goods and bringing profit back to EXO. I've typically operated alone. Oh, I know there are trading wings that EXO runs, but being by myself yields the greater result. I've left my shop on Saunders's in the careful hands of my chief assistant, he tells me that pilots are leaving EXO feeling the call of this "Space Cat." No, EXO isn't the only wing that's happening to. I'm sure pilots are leaving the other stations affected by the artifacts for a similar "calling."
Whispers and secrets are all around me. A wandering pilot came through Plexico. He drifted this way after leaving one of the other stations that shut down. He had been gathering information as well, so I asked him to share some of it. Reluctant at first, he handed me a datapad containing flight data of several traders operating in this quadrant. Apparently, one ship had a scientist on board as a passenger. He had ties to Dr. Palin's staff, one of the researcher groups investigating the UAs.
Mantja, Currie Plant. It turns out I just missed the scientist; however, pilots seeking the Space Cat had literally left just minutes before I arrived. I had to bribe the dock master for information on one particular ship...which I am dubbing 'Target 1.' Target 1's destination was Harris Claim over in the Tomas System.
Tomas, Harris Claim. Target 1 is a ship originally from Korolyov Hub, a Diamond Back Explorer. As the name suggests, its main function was exploration; it may have been one of the first ships to bring an Unknown Artifact to that station. I traded some information with some pirates who said they spotted Target 1 leaving the system by literally supercruising out of the system's edge. It's as if he plans to supercruise to the next system. I doubt that was the case. It turned out that he traveled beyond the rim so that he could hyper jump away without being tracked. A quick scan of the high energy wake revealed his destination.
8D+24 543, Proteus Orbital. Of all the random dumps in the galaxy to jump to, this was it. There wasn't much I could find out here. Interestingly enough, some of the station personnel had no idea what the artifacts were, much less heard of them. I decided not to push the issue further and grabbed some food. I had learned that CMDR DARKXXPHOENIXXX had resigned from EXO and quietly slipped away. He posted a log that explained his reasoning. Space Cat. Of course. From here I decided to return back home, which will take a couple of jumps.
Wolf 1301, NAV Beacon. Patrolling has been dull for several hours now. Not many criminals are coming to the system. I lost track of Target 1 back near Proteus Orbital, but I'm confident that I'll hear a report about him somewhere. A troubling thought has been in the back of my mind: I've been acting somewhat erratically. I did notice that one ship had been "conveniently" going to the same star systems I've been going to. Might just be a coincidence, but never can be too careful. Chasing phantoms from system to system all because of some artifacts?! Maybe I should spend a few days over in Wayaliti to relax?
DrunkRenegade12 sent a Christmas greeting to everyone in Wolf 1301. I almost forgot the holidays were here.