3301-01-19: An enemy and a friend (?)

Today I met an old enemy, and made a new friend in an unlikely fashion.

First was CMDR Exorial, who'd previously killed my Cobra on 3301-01-11. He was docking right in front of me at the Solo Orbiter in Altair, in a Lakon Type-6 Transporter. A Type-6 is a cargo ship, probably not well armed... hmm, maybe I can have some revenge.

I undocked again and hung outside the station but above the undock airlock, assuming he'd be coming back out on another cargo run. And sure enough, he undocked in the Type-6 a couple minutes later. Once he'd cleared the docking airlock, I got behind him and opened fire.

Unfortunately, my weapons were all laser beams -- not the best at punching through the Type-6's relatively heavy hull armor. He hit his FSD, and escaped off to another system before I could finish the job. But I did do a fair amount of hull damage, so at least he'll have some repair bill. And hopefully he's a bit more skittish when hauling goods around near Altair :)

--

Later, I was bounty-hunting in a newly-acquired Viper (more on that later, maybe) near a nav beacon in an Anarchy system. I had engaged with a wanted criminal who was piloting a Federal Dropship -- a pretty big ship, and worth a fair amount of bounty. I'd been working on the dropship for a couple minutes, using my superior maneuverability to slowly whittle down its shields and hull while staying out of the line-of-sight of its heaviest weaponry, when another CMDR by the name of "Tatty Go Lightly" flew by in a Cobra Mk. III and joined in the combat.

The dropship's hull was more than half gone at this point, so I didn't want this unknown CMDR to have a chance at stealing my bounty. So when the time was right, I lined him up and switched targets briefly, pouring my lasers and multi-cannons into him for a bit instead of the dropship.

He ran away, and a few seconds later, a message popped up on my comms window: "Too slow!"

I ignored it -- my goal wasn't to kill him, but to drive him off -- and finished off the dropship.

After the fight was over, I re-opened the comms channel and sent CMDR Tatty Go Lightly a reply. I explained that I was just making sure he didn't steal my bounty; he seemed understanding, and explained for his part that he was only interested in picking up the loot that had dropped from the dropship during the fight.

Since I didn't have any cargo capacity remaining, I told him he was welcome to take whatever he wanted. We parted ways, but not before adding each other as friendly contacts.

So that's one way to make a friend in unusual circumstances.

3301-01-16: The closest call

I've heard a lot from other CMDRs about the power of turning off my ship's built-in "flight assist" feature for more powerful and creative maneuvers during combat. I've never tried flying without flight assist on, but I'd like to learn. So I headed to a nearby Anarchy system (NLTT 55164) which has a Resource Extraction Site (RES).

RESs are a favorite hangout of people who want to make money by mining minerals from asteroids. In anarchy systems, they're also a favorite place for criminals to hang out for piracy and murder. So my intent was to go between the NLTT 55164 RESs and see whether I could get in any good fights and collect some credits from bounties.

Long story short, I got my practice at flying without flight assist, and finally came up with a weapons loadout that I'm pretty happy with. I probably made 100k credits. And then...

I was in combat with a couple pirates also in smallish ships, and hadn't noticed a hostile Python that had somehow gotten on top of me. A short time later, my shields were gone... and then my Cobra's canopy. The pressurized atmophere of my cockpit rushed out into space, and my life-support system kicked in to provide emergency oxygen. But the life-support must have taken some damage too, because there were only 3-and-a-half minutes of oxygen remaining.

Shit.

I escape the fight and pushed into supercruise with my ship barely alive -- 8% hull integrity remaining. But now I had to get to the platform and dock, with little time to spare. Thankfully, the nearest outpost is only ~100 light-seconds away; my supercruise drive ought to get me there in enough time.

And then INTERDICTION DETECTED pops up on my HUD.

Shit.

Normally I'd try to fight the interdiction and get away... but while I'm doing that I'd be spiraling across the system, and probably end up further away from the outpost than I started. And even if I escaped successfully, the interdiction itself will eat away precious seconds of oxygen. So, fine.

Throttle down and submit.

And burn away from my attacker.

And re-engage supercruise as soon as my FSD comes back online.

I drop out of supercruise 8 km from the outpost, with about 40 seconds of oxygen left.

What followed was the most rushed and stressed docking attempt I've ever made. Thankfully the docking bay was on the "top" side of the platform; if it were on the opposite side, I'd have been dead.

I came in way too fast for my usual taste, and at a weird angle, and honestly it's a miracle I didn't just smash into the ground. But I landed with 11 seconds of oxygen left, and got into my hangar for repairs (and atmosphere!) almost literally at the last second.

3301-01-14: Stand and deliver?

While flying my Cobra, I came across CMDR Meurgl. They were flying a Lakon Type-6 Transporter -- not exactly a combat ship. Sure, let's try my hand at this piracy thing.

I fire off my FSD Interdictor to pull the Type-6 out of supercruise. I open comms with the CMDR and demand that they drop their cargo or be shot. No response. I close to within a short distance and deploy my hardpoints -- still no response. I wait a bit longer. No response.

I open fire and the Type-6 quickly goes kaboom.

Lesson: if you meet me in space, respond to comms, unless you intend to fight. But if you reply, and do what I say, I will honor my promises.

CMDR battle record to date: 4 kills, 1 loss.

3301-01-13: A Merchant's folly

I've done more trade along my usual route, which has gotten me two things: the rank of Merchant from the Pilot's Federation, and the credits to buy an A-Type FSD, which increases my maximum jump range to over 20 light-years, even with a full cargo hold.

With the new FSD, the one-way journey on the route is only 7 jumps, which means that I can run it faster than ever. More speed is more profit, so I'm pretty excited about that!

... maybe too excited. I came in way too fast on my approach, and the remains of my Cobra are now scattered outside the docking bay of the Epsilon Indi Mansfield Orbiter.

Whoops.

3301-01-12: Pilgrimage to Sol

I've been running some missions for the Federation, and their agents have seen fit to grant me the rank of Midshipman and a permit to visit Sol -- the ancestral home of humanity and capital system of the Federation. It's not far from Altair -- only 16.7 light-years away.

I jump in, and the obvious first place to view is Earth. I'm amused that my ship's scanner informs me that Earth is an "Earth-Like World". Australia, Asia, and the Pacific Ocean were in the sunlight. Earth has three stations orbiting it: the Abraham Lincoln, the Li Qing Jao, and the M. Gorbachev; the Moon also has a station, Galileo.

Mars was terraformed long ago and is now an "Earth-Like World" as well -- blue and watery, unlike the red rusty-iron look it was known for in the days before terraforming. There's a Mars High Orbiter there, and other stations or platforms around Mercury, Venus, Jupiter's moon Io, and Saturn's moon Titan.

There's also a Federal capital ship orbiting Sol: the Farragut-class battlecruiser FNS Angelos.

But I spent the most time studying the stars. The constellations of Earth's night sky are visible here too, if you know where to look -- I was able to find the Big Dipper, Lyra, Orion, and Cassiopeia based on what I remembered from studying old Earth sky maps. And by using my ship's galaxy map to point myself back at Altair, I could pick out its constellation Aquarius as well.

3301-01-11: The tables are turned

Flush with confidence from yesterday's successful attempts at combat, I consider whether piracy might be an interesting supplement to my usual staples of trade and exploration.

I'm in Bhritzameno, one jump from Altair, in supercruise from the star to the nearest starport, when I think to myself "hey, the nearby gas giant is right between the star and the port; its gravitational effect will slow pilots down as they approach the station, which makes it a perfect place to hang out and look for targets sometime".

10 seconds later, as I'm slowing down to approach the port, I'm the one being interdicted by a hostile CMDR. I'm pulled into combat with a hostile Cobra, guns blazing behind me. I deployed my guns and tried to get him in my sights, but my maneuvering skills are apparently pretty poor, as I was unable to get a good bead on him at any point. With my shields about to fail, I pulled my guns back in and re-activated my FSD, trying to run away. Unfortunately, my evasive maneuvering skills are pretty poor, so he was doing me a lot of damage... and in my rush to get away, I punched the wrong controls and turned my FSD back off again. Welp! ... and kaboom.

Combat record against other CMDRs so far: 3 wins, 1 loss.

3301-01-10: Mostly Harmless

I've bought some beefier armaments than the stock Cobra Mk. III lasers, and spent a bit more time hunting criminals with bounties. The Pilot's Federation has upgraded me from Harmless to... Mostly Harmless. :)

--

Now that I've got some spare credits banked, and a not-laughable combat setup, I'm curious at trying my hand in combat against other CMDRs. I fit a FSD Interdictor to my Cobra, which can pull targets out of supercruise and into normal space, where we can fight. I want to find commanders in Anarchy systems, or ones with no population -- so that I can shoot at them without receiving a bounty.

I find one CMDR in a Sidewinder and use the FSD Interdictor to pull it out of supercruise. Frankly, this CMDR didn't put up much of a fight... or much of a run. It was a short engagement that ended with the Sidewinder going "boom".

Soon after I found a different CMDR, also in a Sidewinder. This CMDR put up a better fight, doing a good job of using the Sidewinder's maneuverability to keep out of the way of my guns (all of which are forward-facing). He managed to get about halfway through my shields, but simply couldn't hold out against the Cobra's greater firepower, and also went "boom" after a couple minutes.

My third and final engagement was a more fair fight -- at least on paper -- against another CMDR in a Cobra. Frankly though, he put up less of a fight than the second Sidewinder; it wasn't too long until I'd melted his shields off and was pounding on his armor too. Unlike the previous two, he at least tried to run, but didn't manage to charge his FSD and jump out until it was already too late.

3301-01-09: Trading rare goods

One of the commodities on the Altair market is Altairian Skin -- micro-organisms which feed on dirt and skin flakes and produce a bright color. Apparently it's considered fashionable?

Anyways, it's an item that only Altair has to offer, and as such it can be worth a considerable sum when sold in faraway systems. With only a few trade runs, I've made enough credits to upgrade ships again, to the Cobra Mk. III (cost: 379K). It's got a cargo hold that feels quite spacious -- 32 tons of goods, as opposed to the ~12 I'm used to.

I've heard that a lot of CMDRs run rare goods from Altair to Lave (118 LY away) and back, because Lave and the systems nearby produce a variety of different rare goods, and it's a nice profitable trade route in both directions. I made one such run myself, but I got jumpy with so many CMDRs about, since you never know who might be hostile, and I'm not well-equipped for fighting.

So I found another system -- about 130 LY in a completely different direction -- that produces rare goods at a good quantity. Most of the systems along the route are typically nearly empty, so it feels much safer.

Altair itself is still pretty busy, so I have to be careful there, but once I'm out of Altair I'm hopefully safe.

--

A few runs back and forth, and the Pilot's Federation has upgraded my trade rank from Mostly Penniless to Peddler, and then Dealer. More concretely, I now have over a million credits to my name. This might seem a paltry sum to some commanders, but as someone who started with a measly 1000 credits, it's nice to finally feel like my bank balance is comfortable.

3301-01-07: Exploring the Alliance

I've amassed enough credits for my first new ship: an Adder! It cost 87,000 credits in its default configuration, and is still pretty flimsy in terms of armaments. The upside is a much more powerful Frame Shift Drive, allowing jumps of 9 LY in its default configuration, compared to the Sidewinder's 7.5 LY range. It's got more cargo space too.

I buy an FSD upgrade so that it can jump even further, and fit it with a discovery scanner. I hear that Universal Cartographics pays good money for scans of previously-unexplored systems. The basic discovery scanner won't get me as much information (nor as much money) as some of the more expensive models, but those upgrades are way out of my price range for now, so let's see what I can find!

My destination is Payayan, an Alliance system ~60 LY out from Altair. All the systems I've seen so far have either been aligned with the Federation, independent systems not aligned with anyone, or anarchies which respect no law at all. The Alliance interests me, as they're an upstart group who mostly seem to have their hearts in the right place.

Anyways, Payayan is one of the nearest Alliance systems, so that's where I'm going.

--

Back at Altair, after a safe and relatively uneventful run to Payayan and back, scanning all the unexplored systems along the way and a few other systems in the Payayan area. Turns out the more "boring" systems -- those with just a sun, or a couple icy planets -- are only worth a measly few hundred credits. But the bigger systems with metal-rich or earth-like planets are potentially of interest for colonization or mining, and those pay pretty well -- closer to the 10,000 credit range.

Overall, I explored about a dozen systems, and the Adder's halfway paid for itself already. Also, the Pilot's Federation upgraded my exploration rating from "Aimless" to "Mostly Aimless", and then again to "Scout". Not bad!

3301-01-03: Altair at last!

I've finally arrived at Altair! My friend Riff is currently away on an excursion, but it's nice to be at a place that I can call home, at least for now.

Excited to explore the local area, I upgrade my cargo holds and try to find some profitable trade routes nearby. The Solo Orbiter station in Altair is paying good prices for Semiconductors, so I find a nearby source that's offering them cheaply enough, and make a few runs.

The Pilot's Federation ranks each commander according to their experience in the three separate areas of combat, trade, and exploration. When I first stepped into my Sidewinder, I was Harmless, Penniless, and Aimless. With my profitable trade runs, I've now been upgraded to "Mostly Penniless". Thanks, I guess?

3301-01-02: Wanted!

I've scraped together enough credits to pay for an upgrade to my Frame Shift Drive, and am working my way toward Altair. Along the way I run into the occasional criminal, who show up as "Wanted" after being targeted and scanned. Killing these criminals and collecting their bounties is a good source of credits, at least relative to the delivery missions that have been my bread-and-butter lately.

Criminals often hang out in Unidentified Signal Sources (USSs), which show up on my Sidewinder's HUD while in supercruise and can be tracked down and dropped in on. So I'm usually eager to explore USSs when they pop up.

I drop into an USS in the LFT 1404 system (37 light-years from Altair) and am surprised to instead find several canisters containing... rare artwork? Weird. It's just floating here in space -- finders keepers, right? I scoop up the artworks into my cargo hold.

Only to find that the local system security are now here with me, and have give me a 14,000 credit fine. Now I'm the wanted one, and the cops are firing on me! I hit my Frame Shift Drive and get the hell out of there... and out of LFT 1404 entirely.

14,000 credits is more than I have to my name. I sell the artworks at a nearby black market, but they're only worth 6,000 credits. I can't possibly afford to go back and pay the fine, so I'm just going to have to be careful to avoid LFT 1404. At least they're an Independent system -- if they had been allied with the Federation, I'm afraid that fine would probably follow me to all the nearby Federation systems, and then there'd be a whole ton of systems I'd have to avoid.

3301-01-01: A new year and a new career

A new year, a new friend (?). And a new career!

I unexpectedly received an encrypted message from the Pilot's Federation. Apparently an anonymous benefactor found my aptitude-test results promising and has provided me with a free spaceship: a Sidewinder, located at Trevethick Dock, a station orbiting my home planet in the LHS 3447 system. No strings attached.

No apparent strings, anyways -- I wonder who this benefactor really is, and what they want of me.

I have a friend, Riff, who registered with the Pilot's Federation a while ago and is a Commander himself. Last I heard, he was based out of the Altair system. Once I get the hang of flying this thing, I guess I'll head that direction too.

--

I've used supercruise to travel around my home system, done some sightseeing of the nearby planets, and practiced docking and undocking at a few of the different stations and outposts available within the system. Some of the smaller outposts are quite busy here, and deny my requests to dock due to their docking bays being full.

I yearn for someplace quieter, and use the Sidewinder's Frame Shift Drive to jump to an unexplored system in the nearby Alrai Sector. It's indeed a lot quieter here, and more barren: no station or outpost in sight. I continue on for a few more jumps, then learn my first hard lesson...

Always check your fuel.

I find myself stranded in an empty system, with insufficient fuel to get out. It's awfully lonely here, but there's nothing to do but broadcast a distress signal and wait...

--

Back to LHS 3447. Somehow, my anonymous benefactor already had another Sidewinder ready for me. Curious.

This time I check my galaxy map, and make sure that I plan routes which take me through systems which offer refueling facilities. I realize that the road to Altair will be longer than I expected. It's not too far away -- 55 light-years if I could fly in a straight line -- but there's a big gap of empty space between here and there. The stock Frame Shift Drive in this Sidewinder can only jump 7.5 light-years at a time, which isn't far enough to jump the gap... so my "shortest" path to Altair is circuitous one, over 40 jumps away. And many of those jumps are through the sort of empty systems where refueling won't be possible.

That won't do -- I'll need a better FSD. And for that I'll need credits. Thankfully, there's plenty of people in LHS 3447 offering jobs for new pilots like me. Time to get to work!