Yikes
03 Oct 2024IAMDOC
Well, there's no way to describe how that went without the word "cluster."I took a mercenary job from Flint's Legacy, needed to head to a surface settlement on HIP 97950 A 5 (catchy name, right?) to a place called Bear's Folly. I stowed my Pilot Suit and picked up a Dominator Suit as well as a laser submachine gun and a kinetic one. The job was supposed to be simple: land, scan the data link terminal, find the target, take him out. The job was screwed from the start.
Maybe I was so excited to take on some old fashioned ground work that I stopped paying attention, but for whatever reason I had to fight my ship every step of the way to that godforsaken planet. Flight assist trying to keep me in orbit, ground angle randomly deciding my entry was too steep and dropping glide, even my auto-landing tried launching me back into orbit. I turned off all assists and landed the ship myself.
The bitter cold seeped into my bones the moment I disembarked. I didn't even make a full step before alarms started blaring and fines started racking up. I pushed through the wind and made it onto the base platform when the first drone showed up. It's guns ripped into the floor next to me and arced over my head as I took cover behind a pillar. I fired from around the corner with my laser rifle but the machine seemed unaffected. A dozen rounds from my kinetic rifle while playing the universe's deadliest game of hide and seek brought it down though. Then I heard the other 2 coming in.
I did a quick dash around the building but there were no terminals in sight. I traded fire with another drone as it blocked my path until I brought it down, but the few kinetic rounds it landed chewed through my armor and left me limping. I made it back to my ship and blasted off into the stars, immediately jumping to the first system I navigated to just to get out of there. My ship had taken a couple knocks but nothing had penetrated my shields. I checked my Nav screen and found that I'm now in the Arapahoma system. I made my way to an orbital station and docked up, replenishing my ammo, refueling my ship, and getting a little rest. I cashed in a couple bounties I had left to cover the repairs.
I just noticed I have a bounty now of 6,200cr. Tried paying it off at the station but apparently this faction isn't interested. Guess I'll have to hope no other bounty hunter is that desperate.
I really thought I was a better soldier than I showed at Bear's Folly. I can chalk it up to string of stupid mistakes on a cursed mission, or I can try and find someone to teach me how to do mercenary work on the surface. I'll have to think on that.
I tried departing the station to go scrounge up a couple more bounties but apparently the ship sprung a hydraulic leak or something so I can't take off. I'm not a mechanic so I can't say I know any better, guess I'll take their word for it and get some sleep. They'll have it fixed in 45 minutes but I can already feel the exhaustion from the adrenaline crash.
Doc out.