Hard Lesson
07 Sep 2017Darthjazzhands
Continued from "Message Intercepted"06 September 3303 - LAMBAYEQUE
At the end of my flight training, my moms both surprised me with a unique graduation gift... bobble head letters spelling the word "NOOB". My moms insisted I keep them on the dashboard of my Sidewinder and any new ship until they removed it themselves. They thought it a great joke but because I graduated in the top 5% of my class, it bruised my ego at the time. After what happened today, however, I can see why they did it...
I scooped up an occupied escape pod from a signal source on my way in to a RES this morning. Big noob mistake.
The pod wasn't the mistake. Bounty hunting in a RES with an occupied pod was. I was quickly confronted by a criminal named Cornelius piloting a Diamondback X. The prick demanded I give him the pod in 15 seconds "or I'll start melting your bulkhead off of you."
Anger got the best of me and without a word I immediately deployed weapons. He was ready. Within seconds my Asp Scout's shields were offline. I pipped everything to shields and engines and tried to rabbit. But he was on me like white on rice.
Bi-weaves were back online quickly, giving me a false sense of security. I turned to fight again. Stupid mistake. The prick took my hull down to 55% by the time I could rabbit again.
Luck was with me. Two green signals appeared on the very edge of my scanner. I quickly changed course and boosted toward them. The prick followed. I hoped he would see the cops on his scanner and break off but I think his greed and bloodlust blinded him.
The minute it took to reach the security forces was the longest month of my life. But when they went hot, I cheered. Within seconds they ripped through the Diamondback's shields and the prick suddenly had two bigger fish to fry. Shields were barely back online when I switched power to weapons and helped them finish him off.
Quick repairs in Kamadhenu while I collected the bounty on the prick. Five jumps later and I was dropping off a very relieved escape pod survivor in Federation space.
Looking at the NOOB bobbleheads jostling in front of me, I see now I should have boosted out when the Diamondback confronted me... better yet, I should have skipped the RES altogether. Hard lessons learned but I still feel like I made a difference.
"How much is one life worth?" people may ask.
They should ask the Diamondback.