So I just came back from a two week expedition and I was feeling really happy because for the first time ever I'd got first discovery on an earth-like world... even better, I'd found another really soon after on the way home!
Although there are many ships better for exploring, I have a favorite ship that I use most of the time for everything. She's a Cobra Mk III and she's called Three of Hearts. If I could get a red and white paintjob and card decal for her, I would. I use her for bounty-hunting, smuggling, exploring... well, generally for most stuff I do.
I have other ships - a Python, a Diamondback Scout, an Imperial Courier and an Imperial Clipper. But I just love my Cobra's eye-watering speed and she's got me out of so many scrapes and we've seen so much together I still prefer to use her for most things. I actually bought an Asp before the expedition, fitted it for exploring and then at the last minute I stopped, stripped it down and sold it. I love the Asp, loved flying it. But somehow it seemed wrong to not be in Three of Hearts when I left into the black.
So there I was, fresh returned, with my first ever two first discovery earth-likes found with my Cobra too. I was so happy. I took some smuggling jobs, just to relax, hopping around my home system and its neighbours on the edge of inhabited space. There were some bounty hunting jobs being offered to hunt pirates, so I took those two.
It was all going great. I'd sunk probably way too much cash into occasional new fittings and upgrades for my other ships, which I like to tinker with in the hangar. But I had plenty to cover my insurance buyback, which is around 500K for Three of Hearts.
Then I found the pirate Anaconda, by itself. No cops were ever going to show up where I was hunting him. It would be just my Cobra. Now, a few times, I've managed to take an Anaconda alone. It had always been hair-raising. I thought long and hard. But greed got the better of me, as it usually does. I'm a bit mercenary about most things and sometimes it makes me stupid.
I attacked. It went wrong very, very fast. It was covered in turrets, multi-cannons and beam lasers, that tore down my Cobra's shields way too fast. I blew all my SCB's, working the Anaconda down to one shield ring. My shields went down and I turned away, full power to engines, boosted, boosted, boosted, flight assist off, heat sink, silent running.
As I drifted, the Anaconda tried to chase. Three of Hearts could stay ahead just by drifting. I switched out of silent running to let my shield come back.
The fact that my beautiful Cobra could even do this gave me misplaced confidence. Once my shield was back, I started making attack at full speed. But I couldn't do enough damage to its shields during each pass and mine collapsed each time. I repeated the attack-lose shields-boost-heatsink-faoff-drift pattern over and over. Eventually, I had one heat sink left. I lost patience and got even more stupid. I attacked and tried to hold it, gritting my teeth when the shields went down. For a while, my Three of Hearts held it together as I stayed under the Anaconda's belly and just fired as much as I could... and then it went wrong. The Anaconda twisted and rolled suddenly and I failed to anticipate... and it all went very, very bad. My poor ship took a pounding as the turrets poured fire into her. The powerplant malfunctioned, something I'd never seen before, and everything stopped working. Her hull began to groan. The canopy shattered, and my emergency oxygen cut in. The malfunction was temporary and as soon as my thrusters cut in, I desperately put everything to engines, and boosted, boosted... faoff-heatsink-silent running... the firing stopped.
As the shattered wreck of my ship drifted far enough away from the Anaconda, I began to get a hold of myself and try to work out what to do. The Anaconda was still there, trying to close. I turned flight assist back on but kept the reverse throttle low for a second. I looked at the hull. And this is what I saw. I have redacted the system name and pirate faction with the system name in it, to protect the not-so-innocent (that would be me... I don't want to get hunted down in Open!):
1% Hull. 1% Hull! I've heard of the legendary first-Triple-Elite commander One Percent - and how he got his name. It wasn't as funny somehow when it was happening to me.
I decided that maybe I ought to let this Anaconda go. It was pretty stupid to go back and attack it after the first few passes, let alone when I had no shields anymore. My Three of Hearts had given her all. It was only because she'd held together with the last scrap of integrity left in her hull that I was alive at all.
I went to supercruise. I tried to jump to the only system nearby with a station and then go the thousands upon thousands of light seconds to it from the nav beacon. Did I not mention that part of my brilliant planning for my bounty-hunting excursion? Yup, I'd been stupid enough to work from a station that was miles away.
That's when the nightmare began. The server disconnects. Over and over. I kept getting closer. And it seems when you reconnect, you get some oxygen back to make up for it. But I'd come back a different distance away from the station. I watched my A-rated Life Support (Three of Hearts is almost completely A-rated - she's my baby) oxygen dwindling. I couldn't believe it.
Finally, I'd been flying so long between disconnects that at one point I logged on and noticed this:
0% Hull? I thought the only thing it can mean is that wear and tear has reduced my last 1% of hull to less from constant supercruising. My ship was holding herself together with a fraction of 1% integrity. I almost cried with frustration.
I began almost begging my ship to hold on long enough to get me home. I would never do anything that stupid again, I promised. I couldn't bear to see her blow up, not after the earth-likes... I realised I'd been so stupid putting her up against an Anaconda, especially with me so rusty after two weeks with no combat.
I dropped out, finally, at the station. I burned towards it. No other ship but a Cobra even had a chance. And mine was at less than 1% hull. I prayed there would be no thruster malfunction.
I stopped looking at my oxygen ticking away as I concentrated on getting docking permission then getting through the slot without crashing. At the end, I could barely see straight because my eyes were so wet. I just relied on Three of Hearts to get me through as I flew in blind with tears.
I remember feeling a little sting in my eyes when I first saw the scan come up 'Earth-like' when I was exploring. But it was nothing compared to that moment, when I finally cleared my eyes enough to mash F10, as Three of Hearts slowed down when atmosphere restored with 2 seconds to go. I took about a minute to land her after that, because I was so messed up with what happened and I was shaking.
Today wasn't just a good day. Today was a day like no other. I don't know if it's some kind of record, but I'll never forget it.
Here she is, after the repairs:
This is my Cobra Mk III, Three of Hearts. She isn't the toughest ship. She isn't the most dangerous. She isn't the biggest, or the flashiest or the most expensive. None of that matters to me because I know the one thing that she is. She is the best ship in the galaxy.
Although there are many ships better for exploring, I have a favorite ship that I use most of the time for everything. She's a Cobra Mk III and she's called Three of Hearts. If I could get a red and white paintjob and card decal for her, I would. I use her for bounty-hunting, smuggling, exploring... well, generally for most stuff I do.
I have other ships - a Python, a Diamondback Scout, an Imperial Courier and an Imperial Clipper. But I just love my Cobra's eye-watering speed and she's got me out of so many scrapes and we've seen so much together I still prefer to use her for most things. I actually bought an Asp before the expedition, fitted it for exploring and then at the last minute I stopped, stripped it down and sold it. I love the Asp, loved flying it. But somehow it seemed wrong to not be in Three of Hearts when I left into the black.
So there I was, fresh returned, with my first ever two first discovery earth-likes found with my Cobra too. I was so happy. I took some smuggling jobs, just to relax, hopping around my home system and its neighbours on the edge of inhabited space. There were some bounty hunting jobs being offered to hunt pirates, so I took those two.
It was all going great. I'd sunk probably way too much cash into occasional new fittings and upgrades for my other ships, which I like to tinker with in the hangar. But I had plenty to cover my insurance buyback, which is around 500K for Three of Hearts.
Then I found the pirate Anaconda, by itself. No cops were ever going to show up where I was hunting him. It would be just my Cobra. Now, a few times, I've managed to take an Anaconda alone. It had always been hair-raising. I thought long and hard. But greed got the better of me, as it usually does. I'm a bit mercenary about most things and sometimes it makes me stupid.
I attacked. It went wrong very, very fast. It was covered in turrets, multi-cannons and beam lasers, that tore down my Cobra's shields way too fast. I blew all my SCB's, working the Anaconda down to one shield ring. My shields went down and I turned away, full power to engines, boosted, boosted, boosted, flight assist off, heat sink, silent running.
As I drifted, the Anaconda tried to chase. Three of Hearts could stay ahead just by drifting. I switched out of silent running to let my shield come back.
The fact that my beautiful Cobra could even do this gave me misplaced confidence. Once my shield was back, I started making attack at full speed. But I couldn't do enough damage to its shields during each pass and mine collapsed each time. I repeated the attack-lose shields-boost-heatsink-faoff-drift pattern over and over. Eventually, I had one heat sink left. I lost patience and got even more stupid. I attacked and tried to hold it, gritting my teeth when the shields went down. For a while, my Three of Hearts held it together as I stayed under the Anaconda's belly and just fired as much as I could... and then it went wrong. The Anaconda twisted and rolled suddenly and I failed to anticipate... and it all went very, very bad. My poor ship took a pounding as the turrets poured fire into her. The powerplant malfunctioned, something I'd never seen before, and everything stopped working. Her hull began to groan. The canopy shattered, and my emergency oxygen cut in. The malfunction was temporary and as soon as my thrusters cut in, I desperately put everything to engines, and boosted, boosted... faoff-heatsink-silent running... the firing stopped.
As the shattered wreck of my ship drifted far enough away from the Anaconda, I began to get a hold of myself and try to work out what to do. The Anaconda was still there, trying to close. I turned flight assist back on but kept the reverse throttle low for a second. I looked at the hull. And this is what I saw. I have redacted the system name and pirate faction with the system name in it, to protect the not-so-innocent (that would be me... I don't want to get hunted down in Open!):
1% Hull. 1% Hull! I've heard of the legendary first-Triple-Elite commander One Percent - and how he got his name. It wasn't as funny somehow when it was happening to me.
I decided that maybe I ought to let this Anaconda go. It was pretty stupid to go back and attack it after the first few passes, let alone when I had no shields anymore. My Three of Hearts had given her all. It was only because she'd held together with the last scrap of integrity left in her hull that I was alive at all.
I went to supercruise. I tried to jump to the only system nearby with a station and then go the thousands upon thousands of light seconds to it from the nav beacon. Did I not mention that part of my brilliant planning for my bounty-hunting excursion? Yup, I'd been stupid enough to work from a station that was miles away.
That's when the nightmare began. The server disconnects. Over and over. I kept getting closer. And it seems when you reconnect, you get some oxygen back to make up for it. But I'd come back a different distance away from the station. I watched my A-rated Life Support (Three of Hearts is almost completely A-rated - she's my baby) oxygen dwindling. I couldn't believe it.
Finally, I'd been flying so long between disconnects that at one point I logged on and noticed this:
0% Hull? I thought the only thing it can mean is that wear and tear has reduced my last 1% of hull to less from constant supercruising. My ship was holding herself together with a fraction of 1% integrity. I almost cried with frustration.
I began almost begging my ship to hold on long enough to get me home. I would never do anything that stupid again, I promised. I couldn't bear to see her blow up, not after the earth-likes... I realised I'd been so stupid putting her up against an Anaconda, especially with me so rusty after two weeks with no combat.
I dropped out, finally, at the station. I burned towards it. No other ship but a Cobra even had a chance. And mine was at less than 1% hull. I prayed there would be no thruster malfunction.
I stopped looking at my oxygen ticking away as I concentrated on getting docking permission then getting through the slot without crashing. At the end, I could barely see straight because my eyes were so wet. I just relied on Three of Hearts to get me through as I flew in blind with tears.
I remember feeling a little sting in my eyes when I first saw the scan come up 'Earth-like' when I was exploring. But it was nothing compared to that moment, when I finally cleared my eyes enough to mash F10, as Three of Hearts slowed down when atmosphere restored with 2 seconds to go. I took about a minute to land her after that, because I was so messed up with what happened and I was shaking.
Today wasn't just a good day. Today was a day like no other. I don't know if it's some kind of record, but I'll never forget it.
Here she is, after the repairs:
This is my Cobra Mk III, Three of Hearts. She isn't the toughest ship. She isn't the most dangerous. She isn't the biggest, or the flashiest or the most expensive. None of that matters to me because I know the one thing that she is. She is the best ship in the galaxy.
