My fleet? What fleet? I have a fleet?
05 Oct 2016Tristan Pacheco
So, I've been in Barnard's Star helping out with this war for about a week now (managing to completely avoid ground combat, since I'm able to retreat to Sol if necessary), and for the first time I actually landed at Miller's Depot, which was taking a chance considering the station was on military lockdown. All I needed was ammo and some minor hull repairs, so I wasn't expecting any interaction with the locals, especially an insurance agent. Lo and behold, while my ship was being repaired, I strolled into the pilot's lounge to grab a snack, and some guy in a gold (like, shiny gold) jacket casually strikes up a conversation with me about my "fleet". At first, I was confused. I thought he must've seen my naval rank and assumed I was in command of an actual fleet, but as he continued, he clarified. He said he was with Zaonce United, which was my insurance company before Two Kids' Tuition took two too many missiles to the hull. After that I just stopped making payments, assuming the vastness of the galaxy and my status as a special forces naval pilot would prevent them from bothering me anymore. At this point, I really should've known what was going on. The fact that I didn't speaks volumes about my ability to recall and connect basic facts. He went on about my "fleet", finally naming the mythical ships under my fabled command, "FNS Leviathan, FNS Dove, Chasing Infinity, and Scraps". Oh, yeah, somehow I forgot that I had tens of millions of credits worth of property sitting in hangars, gathering dust, on the border between the Federation and the Empire. Furthermore, this entire time I'd forgotten about them so completely, that I had neglected to pay insurance on them at all. So, now this insurance agent was pressing me, saying that I had to pay the staggering 68,000 credit late fee (yes, that was sarcasm; I'm a rich snob, ok?) or my insurance would be dropped. This would be enough to bankrupt my entire community before I left my homeworld. Now, 3 seconds later, my policy was up to date, and my bank account barely noticed. After we had a chat on how in the flying fuck he was able to find me in the first place (story for another time, perhaps), I moved on to the more pressing issue of oh, yeah, I have more ships.
My current line of work prevented me from ferrying them back to Sol with the classic Sidey-switch method, so I would...correction, will, have to find someone to transport them back here to be modified from their mostly stock state. For clarification, Chasing Infinity is a Lakon Asp Explorer that I bought for the sole purpose of travelling to the Pleiades, since there was no way in hell I was attempting that journey with the FNS Last Horse of the Apocalypse. It's fully outfitted, and unlike the other ships, it's sitting in Alliance space, since I actually found a better deal on aftermarket parts there. FNS Dove is a Gutamaya Imperial Courier, and FNS Leviathan is a Gutamaya Imperial Clipper. I got them both during the coronation of the new Emperor, just because they're nice to look at. I got special permission to append the FNS for diplomatic purposes. I had a plan for them that I never followed through with since the 50th fighter squadron went black ops. They're both stock and sitting in Misisture, which is a kind of fairy-tale system where no one is quite sure which superpower to side with. Scraps is a Sidewinder that I bought because I was drunk (I can feel you judging me; stop it) and apparently I forgot to sell it. I have no clue where it is, because I still haven't cared enough to check. So, for the past two hours, I've been slinking around the borders of the habitation modules and the warrens trying to find someone who will fly and grab my ships for me. I'm beginning to lose hope honestly and I might just try tomorrow, since, for me it's getting pretty late, so I need to head back to Sol, since I don't want to spend another second onboard this deathtrap of a starport if I don't have to.
I'll keep you posted,
RADM Tristan Pacheco