Why I fly

[KellyR]

This is something I came up with a few months ago and I thought I'd share it.

--Begin in-character narrative
My name is Analee Winston. And I hear it time and again. Why do you fly? What posesses you to strap yourself into a pilot's seat and go out into space? To face the cuthroats, pirates and miscreants? To hunt bounties? Knowing you can lose your ship, and even your life if your escape pod malfunctions?

If you ask 10 different pilots why they fly, you'll get 10 different answers, maybe 11.

I've never stood on an outdoors world unprotected by anything except the atmosphere. I think all the wide open spaces would scare the me down to my boots. I've heard that one day in the not too distant future they will find a way to make atmospheric landing suites affordable. And when they do, I will almost certainly land on an outdoor world with a human breathable atmosphere. And it might be even be a decent place to visit. But I would never want to live in such a place.

I was born and raised on Saunders's Dive in the Wolf 1401 system. I learned how to maneuver in zero gravity before I could walk in standard gravity. I am a creature of space. I was born in space, I live in space, I work in space and I hope to die in space. Why do I fly? Because I must. If I couldn't fly, I wouldn't want to live anymore because there would be nothing to live for.
--End in-character narrative

And I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this game. Even with all the problems, I still love it. I hope it goes on for a good long time because when they finally do close it down, I'll be in tears.

 

[GunnerBill]

Why do we fly? There must be billions of people throughout the bubble and being a space pilot must be a very minority profession!

Do they see us as wonderous rare beasts or weird oddballs?

 

[KellyR]

They probably look at us like we're psychotic thrill junkies. And billions? I would say trillions and you don't know (Even I don't know) how small the minority actually is.

Person 1: "There goes another of those lunatics who make their living flying between stars."
Person 2: "I know. They must have a death wish. When I think about strapping myself into a pilot's seat and going out into the blackness, it scares me to death."
Person 1: "That's because you are a sensible sort, my friend. Just be thankful you were born with good sense. Unlike those nutters."

And that's what we are to the unwashed masses. Nutters who've gone (if they weren't already) totally bonkers.

 

[Fray]

And that's what we are to the unwashed masses. Nutters who've gone (if they weren't already) totally bonkers.

An interesting thread, but I don't particularly see that as being the case.

Whilst parallels between the 21stC and 3303 only go so far, ostensibly pilots are just another form of commercial and cultural lifeblood - an essential, and mundane, conduit for the perpetuation of trade and basic co-dependent survival. Some of the environments can be quite extreme or hazardous, making some pilots broadly analogous to oil rig workers or arctic truckers, but much of the trade within the Sol bubble wouldn't be that different to, say, bulk transport or oil tankers of today (just on a very different scale)

And so just as you'd have some interesting characters amongst today's crew of those kinds of activities, generally speaking wouldn't the answer to 'why I X' usually come down to 'It's just another job/opportunity'?

As for why my character sets out into the black/bright black, she was ostensibly motivated by an entirely relatable, mundane circumstance; from an immediate family whose work and lifestyle only kept them to their own system, she wanted to venture past her doorstep, so to speak. So for anyone from a small town in our era/s, as to those in the far flung 3303 - the motivation's identical, all that's changed is the scale.

That's something I like about the Elite universe; the combination of the awe inspiring (the whole livin' in space thing), and the relatably mundane.

 

[KellyR]

An interesting thread, but I don't particularly see that as being the case.

Whilst parallels between the 21stC and 3303 only go so far, ostensibly pilots are just another form of commercial and cultural lifeblood - an essential, and mundane, conduit for the perpetuation of trade and basic co-dependent survival. Some of the environments can be quite extreme or hazardous, making some pilots broadly analogous to oil rig workers or arctic truckers, but much of the trade within the Sol bubble wouldn't be that different to, say, bulk transport or oil tankers of today (just on a very different scale)

And so just as you'd have some interesting characters amongst today's crew of those kinds of activities, generally speaking wouldn't the answer to 'why I X' usually come down to 'It's just another job/opportunity'?

As for why my character sets out into the black/bright black, she was ostensibly motivated by an entirely relatable, mundane circumstance; from an immediate family whose work and lifestyle only kept them to their own system, she wanted to venture past her doorstep, so to speak. So for anyone from a small town in our era/s, as to those in the far flung 3303 - the motivation's identical, all that's changed is the scale.

That's something I like about the Elite universe; the combination of the awe inspiring (the whole livin' in space thing), and the relatably mundane.

I would agree with you all except for the pirates that pray on traders. We don't have that here in America. Oh, every great once in a while, maybe, but most truckers get their load from one place to another with no problems. Unlike the pilots in Elite Dangerous. They face pirates who will kill them for their cargo (if they can) every time they go out on a run. Which is why the unwashed masses think we're nutters. It's not just the flying in space, it's knowing we can face cutthroat pirates who will kill us for our cargo.