Worth IT
20 Apr 2020Maggie Oz
God knows how many jumps and scouring through ruins later here I am, all loaded up with the kit I have to give the Tech fellow and he'll give me the Guardian Drive Booster. Although I did all the leg work in Tiny Dancer, I'm going to put the upgrade on Queen of Hearts first.
A quick jump to Regir and I head over the Tekker and offer up all the bits and bobs I've gathered.
The guy consults a register , mubles to himself a bit and then punches some keys on his tablet.
"Congratulations Ms Oztraya, I have transferred a purchase authority to your account. You may buy yourself a Guardian Frame Ship Booster where ever quality devices are sold"
I stand and shake his hand, "Thank you..." I look at the nameplate " Travis, I look forward to doing business with you again"
"As do I, of course, if you ever decide the Naval garrison of your system might need some enhancement ..... " He replied, ever the salesman
"Of course you would be my first port of call" I lied.
Like a child on Christmas morning, I have to restrain myself from sprinting back to the ship and interfacing with the Outfitters.
I look eagerly on the interface and yep, sure enough there it is!
I authorise the Cr6million and trade out a cargo carrier for it. It takes a moment or two to integrate with the ship and then the jump range updates to 52!
FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC
It's a quick trip back to Tannhauser and I arrive in triumph .... of course no one notices, it's a big Galaxy, no one cares.
Still, that doesn't dampen how clever I feel about myself right now.
I head back to the palace to bath and change and then jump a shuttle "downstairs" as they refer to Nexus737
"Rachel's" is crowded and dim, as usual, but she's easy enough to spot, I walk straight over
"You," I say sternly pointing at her, she looks fearful " are amazing! That drive mod was spot on"
I kiss her, she's taken aback for a moment but joins in.
We come up for air,
"I can't thank you enough for that data, it has really helped me out with my plans"
"You're welcome," she says, still a bit shell shocked, "ummm, to be honest, I didn't know if it was real or not, I'm glad it was though"
We drank and danced and sang too loudly, then, on the promise of a gift of a Guardian Artifact I had retrieved for her she accompanied me back "upstairs" where we drank some more and it turns out she has some skills she is a lot better at than data mining ..... and she was very good at data mining.
It was well into the morning when I woke, she'd gathered her things and left sometime before.
I noticed she had taken the Guardian Tablet.
I rolled over and looked out the window.
Today is the day.
Trolling through Galnet I find the reports of Thargoid attacks and pick out a system in distress.
I find HR1185, only 7 jumps now with my new drive.
I set off, intending to have Tiny Dancer sent out by freighter once I get there.
For the first time in this life, I have her fitted with guns. 2 AX Cannon and a Rail gun.
I took the advice of a Thargoid learning module I downloaded and put in a heap of structural reinforcements, enhanced the shields and the Xeno scanner.
I've never been big on taking other's fit outs for ships but this is all new ground for me.
The last jump before my destination, I notice a series of "Non-Human Singal Source" Threat levels from 3 to 9, I felt a chill down my spine and thought "oh wow, you are in this now girl, right up to your neck."
I land on a ground base, and the procrastinate for a while doing nothing in particular.
-sigh-
- ok let's do this-
I contact traffic control and gain a launch clearance, I let the computer do it.
Once clear I pull the nose back and point it skyward, going to full throttle. Established on the climb I check the system scan report, my God there are a lot of unknown signals ...... only a fool doesn't know what they are.
Now I have some altitude I can start manoeuvring and getting some detailed scans.
Nonhuman signal source - Threat 9 ...... ah don't think so
Nonhuman signal source - Threat 7 ..... not this time
Nonhuman signal source - Threat 4 ....... ummmm any lower?
Nonhuman signal source - Threat 3 .... that's the one.
Lock on and in we go .... closer .... closer .... the cue to drop from supercruise comes up and I punch it
BANG I'm in real space
I see them!
Two of them, strange looking polygons, like seashells
They flash by like lightning
Under attack
Holy crap that was quick
I punch the boost to get away and crank it hard, vectoring off the radar, -shit they are fast-
I keep turning but I just can't line them up!
Under attack
Taking hull damage
Jeez there are sparks flying everywhere
Taking hull damage
I keep turning but it's just not happening, by the time I get them lined up they are gone
I am being systematically shot to bits
One flashes across the crosshairs and just for a moment I track him, press the fire button ...... nothing happens
WTF? Why aren't they firing ???
I press the button again, this time I notice the cannon whirring up and it fires a short burst off to nowhere
Oh ok
Beginning to think I should have probably done some study on how this combat malarky works in this life before heading out
"It were much sim'plr in my day"
Something about hull contamination shows up, I think, then both scouts are pounding the life out of me
OK, time I wasn't here.
The one thing of this whole sorry encounter I did right was lock in the Megaship just before the shit show started.
I punch the frameshift and it starts to build, slowly, it's being inhibited but not too much
They come racing towards me once again and this time I manage to squeeze off a railgun shot in the heartbeat the target is in the crosshair, it's so close I can't miss and I see it strike home.
YAY ME !
2 1
And I leap into the safety of Supercruise.
Uh oh, this is bad really bad
The ship is falling apart around me, I go full pelt for the Megaship but Tiny just hasn't got the legs
EJECT EJECT EJECT
I'm sorry my baby!
I punch out, it breaks my heart to see her little silhouette, after trying so hard to keep me alive, break up and become just more space flotsam.
I use the time in the escape pod to review
-that was terrible.
-I need to find someone who knows what they are doing with all this.
I arrive at the Megaship, order a replacement on insurance.
Time to hit the bar I think.