Misery loves company (16/01/3304)
17 Jan 2018Archived
Smiling Pilot pubWilson Gateway
Karsuki Ti System
He was drunk. No, not drunk. He was wasted. Wasted to the point that he barely could hold the glass in his hand. Myriad of glittering stars outside the thick window turned into haze with each move of his head and he wasn't able to focus his eyes on any point anymore. It was all blurry. But it was good. He wanted it that way.
Bloody Imperial pricks.
In the morning he had two well outfitted ships, a good First Officer and plans for the future.
Now, barely 12 hours later, he had nothing... nothing apart his credits and wounded pride.
(10 hours earlier)
(Wilson Gateway, Karsuki Ti System)
"Well, James, that was a very stupid move if you ask me" - for the first time since he met her Sib was visibly annoyed.
"I didn't ask" - he replied harshly. Of course she was right. He made a whole series of stupid moves since he got onboard 'Lepricon' this morning. While waiting for the full stock of Karsuki Locusts he took a local hostage salvage mission hoping to make some extra credits and to save one poor soul (in that order). When they got to the planet he didn't set the data on the target into the computer and finished ending up in a completely wrong place, trespassing in the Scarab on some private property and destroying several skimmers that quite rightly tried to chase him away. Then seeing he got wanted status and being followed by the Local Security he decided to pay off his bounty.
"And of all the stations around you had to choose this one?!" - Sib pointed outside the cockpit glass - "you didn't get a fine for those sentries, they put a bounty on your head! You are *WANTED* here. You cannot just walk to victim's family and say 'Hey, I killed your kid, but here's 60 000 credits and we should be good!'.
"Fine! I was wrong. Let's jest get out of this accursed place, OK?"
She didn't say anything else, but stormed out of the cockpit. He shrugged and continued with pre-flight checks.
As soon as they left the station and turned towards West Market, Betty announced:
"Scan detected"
"No, no, no, you bloody bastards, not now!!!" - James shook his head in disbelief. He was too close to the station for a jump. Even boosting away would not get him beyond the range of Wilson Gateway defences in a Keelback. He just sat, frozen, looking at his comms window.
"Wanted status detected. Use of deadly force authorised" - came the verdict.
"Hey, I surrender! That was a mistake you bloody morons!" - the amount of incoming fire wiped out the shields within a second. Cockpit filled with smoke, sparks erupted from several onboard instruments.
"Get to the pod!!!!" - he shouted on the internal comms channel - "get to the pod Sib!!!"
When hull went down to 5% he reached for the ejection handle.
(4 hours earlier)
"She is stable, sir, but she will have to stay here for at least few days, maybe weeks. And to be honest, she is lucky to be alive"
"I see. Take good care of her, doctor" - James shook hands with the on-duty surgeon at the local Hospital and caught a shuttle back to the spaceport. 'Rose Tattoo' should be already waiting for him, urgently brought from Cubeo.
He was furious. He didn't feel welcome in the Empire, but he got used to that. They treated all outsiders as inferior, but then again, they treated many of their own citizens in the same way. Besides, if you have legal slavery as part of your social system, then something must be wrong with you.
He wanted to get out of this bloody station. Through the very same airlock next to the very same cannons that destroyed his ship for a mere bounty of 4800 credits. Now isn't that crazy?
He fired up the engines, took off and turned his Cobra MkIII towards Karsuki Ti B2 to search for his mission target. And that was the beginning of another series of wrong decisions...
On the way, he spotted an USS identified as "Combat Aftermath". This time something told him NOT to check it, but he did anyway. Surely enough, an Asp Explorer was waiting among the debris of his previous victim. That actually made James grin - he needed to vent his emotions. Somewhere half way through the venting, when pirate was down to 40% of hull integrity, Barrett made another stupid mistake - decided to let him live a little longer and scan him for any additional bounties. If he just finished him off, things would have been different. But they weren't.
He saw three new blips on the scanner - local security. They jumped out of the FSD literally on him - first two flashed past his nose, but the third one was just too close. "Rose Tattoo" slammed into a small Eagle, breaking it in two. Before he realised what was happening, the other two ships started shooting at James instead of the pirate.
"What the hell is wrong with you guys!?" - he shouted in the intercom - "I was the victim here, you idiots!!!"
When he finally regained his senses and decided to put up a fight, it was already to late. He pulled the ejection handle for the second time in one day......
*** OOC ***
Yep. Lost two ships in one evening, both due to complete stupidity. Following self - imposed rules I payed insurance for both and then sold them (I don't think that insurance system with a new, fully outfitted ship waiting for you the moment you loose the previous one is particularly realistic). I also checked if James gets out OK from both ejections - again, a self - imposed rule of setting chances of survival depending on the class of the Life Support System installed (as described here). Rolled 74 and 25, so no need to delete the save. Ufff...