I am heading out into deep space again; the dock crew is prepping Longshot (which mostly consists of loading the beer, chips, and ramen noodles, and trying to get the smell of cat pee out of the cockpit)
Last night I had a frightful experience that is driving me back out away from humanity. I had decided to do a bit of the pewpewpew and collect some bounties at a nearby resource extraction site. So I swapped my Clipper's multicannon for some big beam projectors, tabbed some synthemeth to keep myself on edge, and boosted out to the RES. When I got there things were pretty quiet but soon waves of "Silver Crew" pirates started appearing, clearly planning to prey on the local miners.
There was a flathead in a Type-9 kitted out for mining (what, did he plan to mine the entire belt?) and a Silver Crew pirate fell on him; I could see the flicker of the beams between the rocks, even from 10km away. So I boosted hard and heated up my weapons, while I fumbled with my in-cabin soundbar for something appropriate to the moment. I already had a solid 250k in bounties in the bag and a Cobra bounty would be good - I engaged the pirate from maximum range with a perfect crossing shot from my matched turretted beam lasers and my front gimballed beams. His shields popped like a soap bubble and we started the turn and swerve and my beams were vaporising his armor when suddenly...
... the !*#&!&!*!& started venting cannisters of slaves.
I'm no big fan of pirates' morals but I've never seen anything this low before. I polished him off quickly, deployed my scoop, and started tryin to collect the cannisters. My years of mining paid off; I was able to nail one cannister pretty fast but then ZING ZING "Incoming Missile" alert and I kept on course to scoop the cannister I'd lined up on. With a horrific crash my shields went down, and I had two Cobras, one chewing me up with multicannons and another peppering me with missiles. As I watched, one of them sideswiped a cannister of slaves on a pass at me, tearing it open and scattering pieces of people among the rocks. I was down to 40% and dropping as I angled in on the last cannister. 30% ... 300m away... 20% 100m... canopy blew. I couldn't. Do. Anything. Except boost out of there and head back to Nijland station with 3 minutes to go before I was breathing vacuum like the poor souls back in the cannister were about to do.
Once I got my ship fixed and paid off the monstrous fine for bringing a cannister of "stolen" slaves into the station, I freed them with a substantial sum of credits and went back out and did my best to eradicate the Silver Crew pirates. If any of you run across Silver Crew; I suggest you shoot them as soon as the 'wanted' flashes on your screen. I've never encountered pirates that much lower than the usual run of the mill filth.
So that's it. I can't handle being around creatures that do that sort of thing to eachother. Compared to my fellow humans, a black hole is good company, and a neutron star is downright friendly. I'm going out until I miss humanity enough that I want to come back. Which, the way I feel right now, means I won't be back until the beer runs out.
Last night I had a frightful experience that is driving me back out away from humanity. I had decided to do a bit of the pewpewpew and collect some bounties at a nearby resource extraction site. So I swapped my Clipper's multicannon for some big beam projectors, tabbed some synthemeth to keep myself on edge, and boosted out to the RES. When I got there things were pretty quiet but soon waves of "Silver Crew" pirates started appearing, clearly planning to prey on the local miners.
There was a flathead in a Type-9 kitted out for mining (what, did he plan to mine the entire belt?) and a Silver Crew pirate fell on him; I could see the flicker of the beams between the rocks, even from 10km away. So I boosted hard and heated up my weapons, while I fumbled with my in-cabin soundbar for something appropriate to the moment. I already had a solid 250k in bounties in the bag and a Cobra bounty would be good - I engaged the pirate from maximum range with a perfect crossing shot from my matched turretted beam lasers and my front gimballed beams. His shields popped like a soap bubble and we started the turn and swerve and my beams were vaporising his armor when suddenly...
... the !*#&!&!*!& started venting cannisters of slaves.
I'm no big fan of pirates' morals but I've never seen anything this low before. I polished him off quickly, deployed my scoop, and started tryin to collect the cannisters. My years of mining paid off; I was able to nail one cannister pretty fast but then ZING ZING "Incoming Missile" alert and I kept on course to scoop the cannister I'd lined up on. With a horrific crash my shields went down, and I had two Cobras, one chewing me up with multicannons and another peppering me with missiles. As I watched, one of them sideswiped a cannister of slaves on a pass at me, tearing it open and scattering pieces of people among the rocks. I was down to 40% and dropping as I angled in on the last cannister. 30% ... 300m away... 20% 100m... canopy blew. I couldn't. Do. Anything. Except boost out of there and head back to Nijland station with 3 minutes to go before I was breathing vacuum like the poor souls back in the cannister were about to do.
Once I got my ship fixed and paid off the monstrous fine for bringing a cannister of "stolen" slaves into the station, I freed them with a substantial sum of credits and went back out and did my best to eradicate the Silver Crew pirates. If any of you run across Silver Crew; I suggest you shoot them as soon as the 'wanted' flashes on your screen. I've never encountered pirates that much lower than the usual run of the mill filth.
So that's it. I can't handle being around creatures that do that sort of thing to eachother. Compared to my fellow humans, a black hole is good company, and a neutron star is downright friendly. I'm going out until I miss humanity enough that I want to come back. Which, the way I feel right now, means I won't be back until the beer runs out.
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