I was alone in LHS 3447 - Oleskiw Station waiting to receive my docking clearance. After several denied responses a ship left the station and shot off to parts unknown and I was cleared for docking. This was at around 5:30 – 6:00 am and I had been playing all night trying to raise cash with trade runs since I had only been playing for a week now (Thought I've had the game for months, just saving up for HOTAS and finishing some other games first).
I came in and lined up perfectly for my landing on top of the pad. As I slowly dopped down all was fine until the computer warned me I had forgotten to lower my landing gear. “Oops!” my tired brain thought as I reached for the docking controls. “That could have scratched my paint a bit!”.
Before I could lower the gear I suddenly heard “tink… tink tink tink.. tink tink… tink tink tink”. What the hell is that? Then I realized I was being attacked! At a station while docking! Was the station shooting at me for some reason?
I had no space to maneuver as was nearly landed and maybe a couple meters above the pad. Within seconds my canopy was cracked, sparks flying in the cockpit and then suddenly my lateral thrusters malfunctioned sending me flying off the deck and down the side of the station!
I fell a few hundred feet before regaining control and spun around bringing my weapons online! Suddenly I really regretted selling my Eagle's shields to install extra cargo space for trading. If I opened fire on my attacker I would probably come under fire from the station for violating the no weapons fire rule, but if I was going down I was going down fighting!
For a fraction of a second I saw and locked onto my attacker “Commander Death---- something???” He or she dropped down the other side of the station under a barrage of station fire and exploded a moment later. I didn’t get a long enough look to even fully read their name before they dropped out of my limited line of sight.
I retracted my weapons and limped back to the landing pad this time with my landing gear lowered. Once in the station it cost me around $1500 in repairs and I had all of 10% hull left. Another few hits and I would have lost my first ship! Plus a full cargo load which would have set me back a lot!
Overall some griefer must have thought I was locked onto the pad and opened fire on me from behind like a coward. A stupid coward at that as they must have known the station would kill them for doing so! If I had not been tired and forgotten to lower my gear I would have been locked to the pad and killed. Luckily one of the shots made my thrusters malfunction sending me off the pad and out of the line of fire long enough for the assailant to be destroyed by the station.
I dropped my cargo off on the market, turned in my mission for supplying fabric and called it a night.
My next ship will be a Adder which I will not replace the shields for cargo space. It has enough space without doing so until I can afford a Cobra. Hopefully if all goes well I'll get it tonight then focus on beefing up my defenses a bit.
The little Eagle held together though and luck was on my side that night!
Moral of the story... Griefers are not very bright, but very annoying and sometimes a stupid mistake can lead to unexpected rewards!
I came in and lined up perfectly for my landing on top of the pad. As I slowly dopped down all was fine until the computer warned me I had forgotten to lower my landing gear. “Oops!” my tired brain thought as I reached for the docking controls. “That could have scratched my paint a bit!”.
Before I could lower the gear I suddenly heard “tink… tink tink tink.. tink tink… tink tink tink”. What the hell is that? Then I realized I was being attacked! At a station while docking! Was the station shooting at me for some reason?
I had no space to maneuver as was nearly landed and maybe a couple meters above the pad. Within seconds my canopy was cracked, sparks flying in the cockpit and then suddenly my lateral thrusters malfunctioned sending me flying off the deck and down the side of the station!
I fell a few hundred feet before regaining control and spun around bringing my weapons online! Suddenly I really regretted selling my Eagle's shields to install extra cargo space for trading. If I opened fire on my attacker I would probably come under fire from the station for violating the no weapons fire rule, but if I was going down I was going down fighting!
For a fraction of a second I saw and locked onto my attacker “Commander Death---- something???” He or she dropped down the other side of the station under a barrage of station fire and exploded a moment later. I didn’t get a long enough look to even fully read their name before they dropped out of my limited line of sight.
I retracted my weapons and limped back to the landing pad this time with my landing gear lowered. Once in the station it cost me around $1500 in repairs and I had all of 10% hull left. Another few hits and I would have lost my first ship! Plus a full cargo load which would have set me back a lot!
Overall some griefer must have thought I was locked onto the pad and opened fire on me from behind like a coward. A stupid coward at that as they must have known the station would kill them for doing so! If I had not been tired and forgotten to lower my gear I would have been locked to the pad and killed. Luckily one of the shots made my thrusters malfunction sending me off the pad and out of the line of fire long enough for the assailant to be destroyed by the station.
I dropped my cargo off on the market, turned in my mission for supplying fabric and called it a night.
My next ship will be a Adder which I will not replace the shields for cargo space. It has enough space without doing so until I can afford a Cobra. Hopefully if all goes well I'll get it tonight then focus on beefing up my defenses a bit.
The little Eagle held together though and luck was on my side that night!
Moral of the story... Griefers are not very bright, but very annoying and sometimes a stupid mistake can lead to unexpected rewards!
