I killed him, an innocent miner, not hurting anyone. I am sitting in my home station in Malkalen again nursing a large dark rum, neat. I am staring at the log of Spectre again and rereading his musings and list of accomplishments. I feel bad for that Procurer pilot. Why am I doing this?
As I read through the log of Spectre I notice that, under all the text and useless date, buried in the annals of that log is a link to another, a link to the leader of a feared and respected all female corporation. Mynxee and the Hell Cats.
I scan through the logs, finding inspiration and yet another perspective of the life of an outlaw. As I am reading, my mind started looking for the specific piece of code. The piece of code I need to be able to hardwire my onboard communicator into the radio links of the Hell Cats just as I had done with The Python Cartel. Got it.
I swig back the rum, stumble out of the bar and out towards the docking bay, mumbling excuses to people I’ve knocked into. Once in my rusty Rifter I inserted the code into my receiver and it has worked. I was now able to listen into the Hell Cats channel whenever I wanted. While still in the grasp of the marathon drinking binge I undocked my Rifter and made my way back to Aurohen, freshly galvanised, and very drunk.
Once I have jumped through the mountainous Stargate I immediately warp to my favourite hidey hole. Not far from planet three and it’s surrounding orbital bodies. I immediately started to scan the system however I was having problem with my vision and thing we’re not going well. Was that another Rifter over there? Nope it is a Retrubution. Drake? Yeah that’s a Drake. Only 20km from me apparently… that’s not right… ummm…
Then my senses started to solidify again. Yes there was a Battlecruiser sitting only 20km from me. Yes he did have me targeted and no… I couldn’t engage warp drives as they did not seem to be responding. However I was not taking damage and I had started moving out of his range. Then the Drake seemed to come alive. He turned towards my Rifter and engaged his engines. His drake was faster than my Rifter. Some how he was managing to gain on me… 19km, 18km, 17km He was not going to let me get away so I decided to do the only thing that made any sense to my drink addled brain. Engage engines and move TOWARDS the Battlecruiser. 10km, 9000m, Engage Autocannons and fire!
I think he wanted to test his shield. He let me shoot him for about 3 minutes. He then engaged his engines again. 10km, 11km, 12km… Bang! One salvo from his massive missile launchers and I had lost my first ship to piracy. I warped my pod out of harms way in seconds… but not before I heard a ‘Good fight’ echo through my speakers. I went back to Malkalen and started researching the market for another Rifter and all my fittings. This is not over…
After a night of sleep my head felt better. I barely remembered my encounter of the night before but the sight of a brand new Rifter and all the trimmings brought it back. Drake. Toying with me. My rusty Rifter being engulfed in flames. I got the ground crew to get started on my new Rifter straight away. I was looking forward to getting back into the fray. It took them 3 hours to get my ship ready for departure. I got in my pod and fused it with the newly built Rifter. Time to get back to Aurohen, time to see if I can make it as a outlaw and a pirate.
I decided that the deadspace hidey hole I had been using was probably not a good idea so decided to search for a new one. I chanced upon a nice place between two of the planets where my scanner could pick up a number of belts, stargates and also the stations. I also found that, with a bit of computer wizardry I could gain details on the people who we’re currently in the same system as me. I started trawling through employment histories and biographies to see who was around. I noticed that a few of them seemed to be in the same alliance or corp.
Intrigued I started a secure ship to ship call with one of them. I explained I was new to the system and the way of life and asked what the benefits of being part of a larger group would be. As he was a Pirate I had to descipher his ramblings as they were filled with lots of ‘Yarr’s’ and ‘Oo Ahh’s’ but I got the gist of it. He was telling me that space was a lonely place for a pirate and the best thing a youngling could hope for was for a more experienced pirate to show him the ‘yarring’ ropes.
I cut the pirate I was talking to off mid ‘yarr’ as I had just seen a prime target. An Imicus had just landed at one of the belts… I hacked into his files and checked his alliances. Nothing, School of Applied Knowledge. The starting school, learning the basics. Good.
I start my warp towards the belt he is at. I land 30km away from him. Not great but not to bad. I engage engines and turn towards him. I don’t know if he’s noticed me yet. I was now in targeting range. But I decide to leave it a few beats.. 22km, 21km, 20km, 19km, targeting computer active and locked. Warp disruptor comes online. I’ve got him. He has now turned toward me and we are racing towards each other. At 1000m I engage my guns. The pilot engaged his guns. We are both running through shield and into armor. I activate my armor repairer. He is still steadily falling into low armor while mine is now slowed as the robotics do they’re job.
He’s in structure, and I am only 500m away from him when his ship explodes in a flash of brilliant light. His pod sits in the middle of the wreck. He must be dazed by the explosion as he doesn’t warp away immediately. I check my scanner. Nothing on scan. Locked and Warp Disrupter active. 500m away. Autocannons activated and his corpse flies lonely in space. My first real ‘Kill’
The Hell Cats channel suddenly activates with a 'Roar'. Someone is actually shouting 'Roar' down the communicater! His name is Gilgamesh1980
To be continued…
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