>>6432388
>Dakka
>OFFER 3: Raid
>Vincent Kepler

Time For morality and being a space scumbag....and I'm all outta morality.

>>6432400
Support.

>>6432388
>>Write-in (you can also pick one of the above and change the name)

>A Corvette, named "Last Light". A large for its class ship which you bought at a military selloff, the vessel makes use of a strong network of PD lasers and one large pulse laser as its offensive and defensive weaponry. This setup, caused by its usual support role in fleets as an Anti-fighter craft allows for persistent damage good against armour and hull, at the cost of a high manoeuvring skill ceiling to keep weapons aligned on target as well as poor damage. Strong shields for its size and good at most ranges, but nearly unable to deal with anything above an equal match if it has effective shields. Due to the oversized (for its class) reactor given the ships weaponry, the thrusters allow for high manoeuvrability, as long as power is diverted to thrust, which can throttle laser damage if done while attacking. Additionally, the AI suite has the potential for a modernized and high end AI due to its military origin, but one did not come with purchase.

>NAME: Cathrine Lorenz
>Very tall and nearly Albino from her Oort-cloud upbringing, Cathrine visually looks far from the normal view of what is healthy for an Earther or anyone living on a planet. Having grown up in low G in a station orbiting a dwarf planet, she seeks to make a better life not just for herself but also her family back on her home station whenever she has paid off her debt accrued to purchase her ship and fit it. Choosing to take on the role of a private contractor knowing that if anyone deserves the riches of the inner system, it is her and those in the outer reaches who have the least to their names.

>OFFER 3: Raid a mining station for a megacorp to help harm their competitors.

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50 KB JPG

>>6432435
This is the "Weak start but upgradable and with good fleet potential" gameplay, and "Eww, what the fuck are you?" character design and a revolutionary while greedy mindset from a poor upbringing. She is MASSIVELY IRRITATED by planet-borns and their mindsets of just having free resources around whenever they want to take any, and it allowing greed to swallow their hearts with what is or is not owned by one or the other party. Thus, there will be a lot of difference between if she meets someone from a habitat vs a planet born.

Essentially, this meme.

>>6432435
>>6432439
Anon, I appreciate the high-effort write-in, but I've got more of an "el generico" type of male protagonist in mind (albeit with some past to influence him) so I can't accept your character suggestion.

The ship is fine though, I like the idea of manoeuvrability-firepower balance through reactor usage. Also did you mean "high manoeuvring skill *floor*" as in requirements to be good enough at it? Skill ceiling I believe is like high potential for performance in that area, and its growth as skill grows.

>>6432490
aww, well fair enough.
And ship manoeuvrability-wise, I meant that the ship works without NEEDING a lot of skill, but the damage potential is severely limited by how easily one is able to keep the lasers on target, as well as how much of the laser network needs to be dedicated towards point defence instead of the projectiles being dodged.
So effectively, damage increases not with accuracy, since lasers are nearly as accurate as possible because of the attack-to-hit being lightspeed. So instead, damage increases with "dodge" and effective manoeuvring.

But yeah, if that is the case then, then I choose to say:
>Ship, "Last Light"
>OFFER 3: Raid a mining station for a megacorp to help harm their competitors.
>Vincent Kepler

>>6432400
DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA

>>6432435
>Point Defense ship
I remember Starsector, these are brutal to use in any kind of pitched combat.

>>6432495
>ship mechanics
Ok, I see the idea, thanks for making the description clear. It's certainly a cool craft!

>>6432388
>A fighter, name "Scarlet Dawn". An all-rounder, no particular strengths or weaknesses. Twin kinetic cannons for long-range harassment, a laser for close-range blasts, "Sinica" shield system, an up-to-date, if basic, control suite, and thin titanium armour that stops some of the weaker guns.
Can hardly go wrong when starting out with an all-rounder.
>OFFER 2: Scientific databank escort into a system 2 jumps away. From your contacts in the labs a few years back, you learned that they usually transfer it by galactic network, but the most important pieces are delivered on physical storage in case the protocol is compromised. This is a tasty target for some rivalling megacorp mercenaries.
>Zhuo Bei Hilter
Chinese & German? Count me in.

>>6432388
Support >>6432435 but with Zhuo Bei Hilter as the name, since you had a generic male MC in mind.

>Fighter "Dakka"
>OFFER 3: Raid the mining station
>Vincent Kepler

There's some hidden channels and networks where the more clandestine work offers get posted. You just have to know where to look. On one of these, you send a message -- encrypted, of course -- to your potential employer. They respond quickly, and after a short discussion, you reach an agreement with "X CORP", name concealed. You feel a small pang of guilt as you think of the mission once the discussion is done. Makes you thankful your morals are not dead yet. You close the chat and dismiss it to go through the rest of the day.

You wait for a day, going through the routine of checking the ship, some chores on the station and general time-wasting on the 'net, while your employer assembles a small wing of contractors. Finally, it's time to depart. The rendezvous point is in the orbit of a frozen planet, Dagart system, a few jumps away. Wouldn't want to be seen together as you go -- a wing travelling together would raise a little more suspicion at the waypoints, and it's best to keep it as low as possible.

You note that the system doesn't have a jump gate -- uncolonised, then, or even unlisted. Gonna have to triangulate the subspace navigation yourself. And with your outdated AI suite... you probably need to upgrade it at some point, but the specifics of the hardware ramp up the price quite a bit.

It takes a few days of cruising to get there, but thankfully no complications arise. Your communication module picks up signals from the other contractors as you enter the orbit. One of them is familiar...

"'WRECKER' SPEAKING," the channel bursts with deafening neo-cosmic-mortar style music the moment you open comms, making you jump in your seat. "WHO'S APPROACHING?"

You adjust the volume to the minimum. It's still really fucking loud. "'Obsidian' speaking," you say. Fake callsign, as is common practice for these kinds of missions. You transfer the pass-key, which is flashing by now on the other captain's screen. Confirmation of access.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU."

"WELL TURN DOWN THE FUCKING MUSIC OR RAISE THE COMMS VOLUME THEN," you yell into the channel.

"AH SORRY I FORGOT," the music stops. "Hey, wait a minute. Vince, is that you?"

"Yeah. Hi, Ferdi." No point hiding it now...
(cont.)

Ferdinand Roth. You've been on a couple missions together. You have no idea where he got his ship, but it's a proper cruiser, crew and all. He's the only non-company or corporate private contractor that you know has such a craft. Usually works alone, but not this time.

Too bad he's one nasty motherfucker. Never leaves witnesses after whatever dirty work he does. "No eyes, no problems", as he says.

"Are you still watching that Solar uh... anime or whatever it's called? Those cartoons for kids?"

"I'm closing the comms if you have nothing else to say."

"Ah, wait, wait, wait. Let's talk business, fine. So you know how this system is unlisted and all, yeah? I did some investigation, and the mining station is not listed either in the Renaria Corp's assets list. It's probably something secret. And 'secret' means they're mining something good. So we had a discussion with the boys that already arrived, and, y'know, we're a bit split on how to approach this. I have a cargo hold where we could put whatever they're mining and sell for a little more profit in addition to what our employers are promising. But we'd need to leave the station intact and storm it, not destroy everything we can like usual. So the split is whether we try that or just wreck 'em and leave, plain and simple. What do you say? We've worked together, so, y'know, I trust your judgement a tiny bit more than the randoms the higher-ups pulled together for this venture."

You sigh. You don't know how to feel about gaining the respect of this fucker, but the question stands.

If the station is not to be harmed too much, you'll have to be much more careful with what you point your big gun at. It also depends on the type of defence they have, which the employer's intelligence didn't provide info on. You glance over the data transferred after the pass-key unlock. You've got a well-rounded wing, so you could probably deal with pretty much anything a regular station, even if highly-guarded, could field. Storming though... it's always dangerous. Even if the staff is all just miners and civilian workers.

Ultimately, both plans sound viable. What's your call?
>"Fine. Let's destroy what defences we can and storm this thing."
>"Just wreck it. No need to make it more complicated than necessary."
>Write-in

>>6432742
>"Fine. Let's destroy what defences we can and storm this thing."

We took the the shady op, may as well go full sleazy merc and get greedy for an extra payday as well. I'm sure this will be plot relevant.

>>6432747
supported. Besides. If something terrible happens to Ferdi, someone will need to make sure that cruiser is safe. We're good people like that, always looking out for others.

>>6432747
I'll support this. After all, what is a ruthless mercenary without merciless raiding?

>>6432742
>"Fine. Let's destroy what defences we can and storm this thing."

Update took a long time due to length and some other reasons, but here it is.
>"Fine. Let's destroy what defences we can and storm this thing."

"I was thinking the same. There's still a few partners to arrive, but they should be here soon. I'll relay our decision to them. Good luck in the fight."

The comms channel closes. A few hours pass, but eventually, everyone's here, and your wing gets moving towards the target.

The asteroid belt the station is in is peaceful, rocks coursing under the white sun's silent rays.

It takes a bit of a search to locate the station, but you find it. Scanning it for defences, your wing identifies a network of small and medium cannons scattered on the main body, the hub. Mining drones beeline towards asteroids and back like ants bringing bits of sugary cake to their hill. Your electronics throw a brief error before returning to regular operation.

In response to your wing approaching, the mining station sends out an inquiring call to state your intentions. The cannons lock on the ships with automatic precision. A hangar door opens in one section of the station at the same time, and two fighters fly out.

"It's time," the gruff voice of an allied fighter's pilot states into your shared comms.

The battle doesn't take long. You fire the opening shot with the big gun while the enemy spaceships haven't gained speed yet. The chunk of metal accelerated to tremendous speed impacts your target like a wrecking ball into a shack, obliterating it. For the rest of the battle, you focus on the larger cannons that the station sports, while your wingmates deal with the other fighter and the smaller guns.

It doesn't go without casualties. A couple allied fighters don't manage to manoeuvre quickly enough and get torn apart by the station's defences, shields overloaded and armour pierced. The rest make it out alive, if not unscathed. Ferdinand's cruiser just tanks whatever they shoot at it, laser and ordnance getting stopped by the shields.

The storming is ugly and dangerous, as it always is. It takes a lot of time to crack all the blast doors open and deal with the station's workers. Some beg for mercy, so you leave them tied, but alive. You don't tell them that Ferdi's most likely going to put a pulse through their skull later. Some fight, using whatever plasma cutters and meagre arms are stored for self-defence on the station. You kill them outright, helped by other pilots.

As you go through the halls and rooms, you note that the miners are all wearing hazmat suits. Rings some bells about the danger of whatever you plan to extract from here.
(cont.)

You find yourself with Ferdi as you near the storage area. A hazmat-clad guy walks out of the far end of the hall, hands raised.

"I don't know what you're after, but the material here is not to be tampered with! You can't even imagine how dangerous it is!"

"Yeah, sure. I've got plenty of protection for whatever I'm transporting. Can't be too difficult," Ferdinand trains his gun on the hazmat guy.

A fighter pilot, callsign "Scryer" pulls his hand down.

"Let's at least listen to him, Wrecker."

Ferdinand remains silent for a few seconds.

"Tell us more, but make it quick."

"I don't know as much as higher-up engineers and scientists, but we're mining an ore with a provisional name of Wanderlust-2. It affects an alternate space other than subspace in some way that connects it to realspace. There's ongoing internal experiments at the Renaria testing how this whole thing interacts with reality, and I heard this site had to be 'cleaned up' from some things related to Wanderlust-2. It needs special storage. I can't tell what will happen if you don't contain it properly."

You glance between each other.

"Sounds like it's best to leave it here," Scryer points out.

"Explain the mechanics of storage to my engineers," Ferdinand says, "and you're coming with us in case shit goes south. We'll need you to deal with problems if they appear."

"Are you seriously still going to loot this material or whatever?" You say, incredulous. "It's 100% gonna blow up in your face."

"It's 100% gonna bring me a ton of credits. I'll just offload it to our employer soon as possible, I'm sure they'll be salivating at taking the super secret new ore from their competitors."

You sigh. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

"Don't worry, I'll still give you guys your share of profit. Promise," Ferdinand says with what must be a shit-eating grin behind the opaque mask.

The deflated engineer helps out with the transfer of Wanderlust-2 from the station storage to the cargo hold of the cruiser. You don't follow the operation for the couple hours that it lasts, preferring to scan the surrounding space from your fighter. Just to be safe.

Once your business with the station is done, you blast whatever is left, rendering it inoperable save for extensive repair, and plot your way to one of the colonised systems as the wing disperses, mission done. The payout from the company comes as agreed. If Ferdi is still alive by the time he sells Wanderlust-2, he'll transfer part of the profit, but that may take some time.
(cont.)

For now, you've got money to last you a month or so. You could take up another work offer right away... or rest for a few days to a week, doing something else on Dakka, the station or the planet itself, Ezera.

>Browse the work offers. Legitimate ones this time, it's bad practice to chain shady missions one after another. Maybe it's time to start saving up for a control system upgrade.

>Check the contact list to call someone you know. The galactic network reaches far, so long as someone is docked in a system that's connected, which is pretty much all the colonised, and most listed as outposts, the call should reach them.

>Check the galactic news. Maybe there's something interesting happening across distant stars. Maybe there's something interesting in local systems, even.

>Land in one of Ezera's main cities for a couple days. Maybe visit the local holo-theatre. Take a walk through the streets. See what events are ongoing nearby. It doesn't seem like this dry planet has been colonised long enough for them to make the atmosphere breathable, so the city air is the same old recycled one from space stations and ships, but it is, for some reason, nice to have earth under your feet once in a while. [You can input what to do while on the planet]

>Write-in

>>6433893
>>Check the contact list to call someone you know. The galactic network reaches far, so long as someone is docked in a system that's connected, which is pretty much all the colonised, and most listed as outposts, the call should reach them.
this seems like a better way of looking for a good job. im tempted to go planet side and look for gear but might as well save for a control system upgrade. might as well ask around about that as well.

>>6433893
>>Check the contact list to call someone you know. The galactic network reaches far, so long as someone is docked in a system that's connected, which is pretty much all the colonised, and most listed as outposts, the call should reach them.
Do we know a guy, or gal

>>6433922
You know a few people, but this time you'll be calling a gal.

>>6433893
>Check the contact list to call someone you know. The galactic network reaches far, so long as someone is docked in a system that's connected, which is pretty much all the colonised, and most listed as outposts, the call should reach them.
Got to stay in with our contacts if we want to stay in the game.

>>6433893
>Check the contact list to call someone you know. The galactic network reaches far, so long as someone is docked in a system that's connected, which is pretty much all the colonised, and most listed as outposts, the call should reach them.

>>6433893
>Check the galactic news. Maybe there's something interesting happening across distant stars. Maybe there's something interesting in local systems, even.

>Call someone you know

You open up the long-range communication interface and scan the, admittedly short, contact list. There's only one person listed as online, Amber Syrakusa... well, then.

As the call remains unanswered for half a minute, you think of hanging up, but a woman's voice goes through.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Amber."

"Ah, hi, Vince. How's it going?" You note that her usually upbeat tone now has a shade of tiredness.

"Fine. You?"

"Would be fine if I didn't have to deal with the damn birds every day for the past fortnight."

"Birds?"

"I'm in Quirqar space. Contract for escort of a passenger ship, some big names. They constantly call me on the comms for no reason, and they just WON'T SHUT UP. Asking what I'm doing, who are my relatives, what's their jobs and status, what're they like, telling me bird stories from their bird lives, and who THEIR relatives are, and every single one of them needs to do it personally. And, and, the autotranslator is going on over their chirping, so I'm listening to 2 streams of sounds at the same time. It's insane. I've tried telling them to keep it short, but they must have a very different understanding of 'short' than I do."

"Sounds like paradise to you, honestly speaking."

"Oh, shut up," she laughs, then sighs. A weird combination. "I don't talk that much. Anyway, I don't have much rest besides a few hours of quiet at orbital stations, did you want anything or did you call just to chat?"

"I'm looking for some work. I thought maybe you'd have a job on your radar to team up on after your current contract."

"Hmm. I do, actually. It's not a job per se, but I know a pion who found some derelict cargo ships in an unlisted system, but there have been pirate signatures there, and his own vessel is, you know, pion, can't carry much. So he's pulled together a team to investigate these ships, take whatever cargo's still intact, and sell it all to split the profit. Transport, a few military, some fancy engineering vessel to see what's left of the systems. I'll be in Quirqar border territories for a few more days, then we're deciding on a rendezvous point and meeting up like 2 weeks from now."

"Sounds interesting."

"Buuuut if you wanna join, I'll be taking half of your share since I'm such a good girl and shared a very lucrative secret deal with a friend."

"Hmm..."
>"Sure. Keep me updated and I'll be wherever you decide on time."
>"Nah, it's probably not worth it for what I'll get. Sounds like there's a big team to split the loot already."
>Write-in

You'd also usually chat a bit about some miscellaneous stuff, but given what she said, it's probably a bad idea to do that right now. Maybe later...

>>6435178
>"Sure. Keep me updated and I'll be wherever you decide on time."
Cargo is cargo. As long as we survive, it doesn't make much difference if it's a small profit or a big one, and this one doesn't sound too difficult.

>>6435178
>>"Sure. Keep me updated and I'll be wherever you decide on time."
need moneys

>>6435178
>"Sure. Keep me updated and I'll be wherever you decide on time."

Sure. We've got cash on hand to last a month, and our share of the Wanderlust-2 sale coming in on top of that, if Ferdinand keeps his word. With the time in between then and now, we can relax planetside, or do another job if it is nearby.

>>6435178
>"Sure. Keep me updated and I'll be wherever you decide on time."

>>6435178
>>"Nah, it's probably not worth it for what I'll get. Sounds like there's a big team to split the loot already."

Sorry for the super short "choice registered, what next" post for such a long wait, I really should've put the vote up earlier. I'll try to write the next one tomorrow to compensate, provided votes come in time.
>"Sure. Keep me updated and I'll be wherever you decide on time."

"Aaalright then," Amber says. "Just don't go offline for too long, I'll relay you the info in a few days."

"Sure. Until then."

"Yep, bye-bye."

The call ends, leaving you alone with the almost unnoticeable buzz of ship hardware. You consider taking up another small contract in the mean time, but with how long escorts and other such missions usually take, you're not sure you'd make good on your promise to Amber.

Seems you'll have to find something to occupy yourself with while docked... Browsing the galactic network for these few days is an option -- it's got plenty of neat little places to have fun -- as is watching your Solar cartoons, but you could also go planetside.
>Go planetside. Even on a dry, border space planet like Ezera, there's things to do. [write-in if you have any specific goal or just want to wander and have fun with your time]
>Just waste some time on the ship until the call comes. Browse the news, watch something, visit some network domains, things like that.
>Write-in

>>6436508
>Go planetside. Even on a dry, border space planet like Ezera, there's things to do. [See if this planet has unique going on, a specific industry or institution, criminal environment, someone famous that was born or lives here, even just interesting sights. If not, look for ship upgrades, then just spend the rest of the time until the rendezvous having fun after we've made our selection.]

No problemo QM.

>>6436508
>>Go planetside. Even on a dry, border space planet like Ezera, there's things to do. [write-in if you have any specific goal or just want to wander and have fun with your time]
id love a training sim so we can practice

>>6436523
>>6436946
Wanted to wait until tomorrow since there was only one vote, but 2 is good enough. I'll lock this in and write now for
>Go planetside
>Find out if there's anything unique or special about this planet
>Spend some time flying in a training sim to practice

Update has grown to 3700+ symbols, so at least one full post on the board, and I'm still not done. It's getting late, I'll write the rest and post it all tomorrow.

>>6437013
much gratitude Herr SpaceQM.

You read up about the planet for an hour, checking what's worth visiting when you land, what its industries are, whether any famous people were born here. But the info just swims through your memory without leaving a big impact. You need to see it firsthand. Only then can you truly grasp Ezera for what it really is.

It's morning in the city you land in, Jakar. Against your earlier judgement, the atmosphere has been generated a few decades ago and is now stable, with oxygen from both the gardens and the generators mixing to create something better than what you're usually breathing in the stations and on the ship. Still, Ezera is dry, and the air is somewhat sparse. The locals seem to be fine, but you're a bit out of breath. Nothing out of the ordinary though. On that note, you notice that most of the people here are tan. Your fair skin stands out in the crowd.

You take your time to visit different places. You attend a holo-theatre performance, a drama-adventure about a man searching for his lover across worlds. It's a classic motif. "There's nothing new under these suns," you repeat a phrase you heard somewhere as you look through the leaflet they gave at the entrance. The movie is called "Da Vinci Collection 23: Performance 124: Viselitan Memoirs: Ezeran Remake". The name means nothing to you, but it was a fine performance. You move on.

You spend most of the day going around the city, visiting various places. The sun is beating down by now, and you take whatever respite you can in the shade and air conditioned places.

One monument you'll remember is a giant structure of glass, shimmering like a thousand droplets of water in the light of the sun, dedicated to an engineer born here. The plaque on the base lists his achievements, among them some theories in astral and thermodynamic studies.

There's an open stage, one of several in the city, deliberately left rustic and old. You stay for a while, listening to the music played here and some people's powerful voices unfiltered by sound amplifiers, but resounding on their own above the small gathering of people, reciting poems and excerpts from prose. Apparently it's part of a colonist tradition that they brought with them from somewhere. It's certainly nice.

You browse the local network for advice about other neat places. You visit one where they trade movies and cartoons recorded on physical drives. You have no idea why they'd do that when posting some on the galnet is easier than ever, but this is not the first time you've visited such places. You buy a couple cases. The package designs are certainly nice. It's "Astral Threads" and "Where Wind Wanders", something fantastical. You'll have to upload them to Dakka's database later. You heard some people collect cases, but your ship doesn't have that much space, so you discard them after you're done uploading.
(cont.)

As the sun starts to set, you feel tired. The sparse oxygen doesn't help, and you've sweat buckets as you went around. You've covered your skin as much as possible, but where it shows, it's red, burnt by the harsh rays of the sun. You muse that you should've bought some cosmetics to protect it. Too late for that now.

You decide to stop by one last place, a vantage platform in a park, rising above most of the city outskirts by virtue of being on a hill, where you've read on the net is a good view of the sunset. There's a bunch of people here already. Some couples, some lone men and women. You spot a woman alone, leaning on the railings, and approach to burn some time while you wait for the view to appear in earnest.

"Hey," you say. "Waiting for the sunset as well?"

The woman is tan, like all locals, and pretty for her age. You can tell she's at least as old as you, probably even older, in her thirties. Her black hair flows freely down her shoulders. She wears clothes apt for the weather, a plain t-shirt and rough shorts.

She glances at you sideways.

"If you're gonna hit on me, you're out of luck. I've got a husband and kids already." She has a subtle accent, probably from one of the Solar core worlds. You can't place it though. Not like you heard many to distinguish between them.

"Nah, I'm just looking to burn some time."

She doesn't respond, inspecting you for a bit.

"You a spacer?"

"I pilot a fighter," you say, then pause. "Is it the skin?"

"Yeah. You bunch are always pale as death. The ugly visible veins, too."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," she grins.

"Have you been living here long?"

"80 years, give or take. I'm a first-gen colonist."

This information gives you pause.

"Nanomachines?"

"Nanomachines, son," she mimics some intonation, but you have no idea what the phrase is from. "Took the procedure about 20 years ago, on one of the Solar core worlds."

"Didn't expect to meet someone rich here."

"I'm not. Just worked my ass off for half my life to save up for it."

"Hmm... Do you like living here? Any gripes? Anything special?"

"I don't know," she shrugs. "I've never lived for a long time on other worlds to compare... I like the little bits we preserved from our youth. Someone brought ether music, someone was a gardener so we have plenty of proper parks now. Just the little things that we came to call our own. There's bad stuff, too, of course. We got a gang in one of the districts that our governor can't uproot for the life of him, and since the megacorps arrived, the labour market went to shit with a billion qualifications requirements. The immigrants, too -- coming in over the years once we set up properly, having the gall to call Ezera their home just like ours. But, I mean, every planet's got their own problems. I'm just an old-timer grumbling. It's fine. Where I was born, they said the same about my own parents."
(cont.)

"You were 'born'?"

"Yeah. Bore my own children, too. It's... an irrational decision, really. A desire to be bound by pain and blood to someone related, even if you risk defects. My kids didn't share the sentiment, though. Grew their own children at gene clinics, like everyone," she stays silent for a while. "Are you born or spliced?"

"Spliced."

"Thought so," she sighs. "It's here."

The sunset is here, indeed. The colour of the sky on the horizon turns a warm orange, then red, then pink. It's a magnificent sight. You spend half an hour observing how the sky changes.

"Didn't catch your name," the woman says as night starts taking hold.

"Vincent."

"I'm Aurora. Was nice meeting you. Good luck on the ships," she gives a brief wave, then leaves for the stairs leading down the platform. You take the opposite path.

It was an exhausting day. You get back into your fighter and fall soundly asleep in the capsule.

The next day, you take the ship data and visit a training centre. The machines accept Dakka's specs, thankfully. Sometimes they don't -- the publicly available ones are not military-grade, and have limitations. You spend a couple hours training before returning to the ship, tired, but hopefully at least more skilled. You'll need it on the mission...
(cont. later)

OOC: The update turned out big and is not yet finished, but I thought I should post at least something for such a wait. I'll get to the ship salvage operation later.

After wasting a day more on your ship, you receive information about the destination system from Amber. After a short check of ship systems and restocking your rather compact supplies storage, you depart.

A week of jumping between systems later, you arrive at the meeting point. Your wing is small, just like Amber said. A utility vessel, an engineering one, transport and a few fighter ships, including your own. Exchanging brief greetings and setting up short-range encryption for comms, you begin your flight towards where the cargo ships are orphaned, in the middle of space.

Once you arrive, the investigation into the derelicts and loading of cargo goes on for a few hours as you patrol around with the other combat ships. The ruined fleet bears standard, blocky designs akin to cheap ones made by Solar rim shipworks. The cargo turns out to be construction, engineering and manufacturing equipment meant for setting up outposts and ensuring their proper function.

The derelicts don't seem to have been damaged by conventional weapons, from what the crew of the utility vessel tells you. It looks as if they took completely random damage tearing off chunks of hull and crippling the systems to the point of being inoperable, stranded and left to die in an unlisted system.

Telltale signs of an emergency jump.

Usually only undertaken in risky circumstances, as a way to escape certain death and gamble on the subspace being kind to you instead, it uses quicker, rougher calculations that may damage the ships performing it. The gamble didn't work out for these vessels.

The utility ship lingers in the wrecks, downloading what data is left in the systems and extracting the hardware for the bigger part that can't be downloaded. It seems the records remains undamaged on some of the ships, and information stored there may shed light on why the fleet undertook the jump.

After everything is done and the machinery is loaded on the transport, your wing departs in peace.

It doesn't last.
(cont.)

The detection systems show ships approaching at speed. They don't respond to your pings. It looks like the pirate warning Amber gave was right.

The battle is short and brutal, with neither wing capable of enduring much damage to their small vessels. Your side loses 4 combat ships, 5 remaining, theirs 7, left only with 2. You're not damaged by virtue of your experience with the ship and recent training putting you in shape for evasion. Neither is Amber's vessel. However, just as you think you're safe, and move to see whether any of your comrades can be rescued, you detect torpedoes coming from the last 2 pirate ships as they try to escape. Slower than missiles, but with greater payloads, they go a strange trajectory that evades the point defence and guns of your wingmates, and you detect disturbances in your systems, perhaps from some kind of pulse.

Damned pirate engineering. You can never know what ace they've got up their sleeve.

"VINCE THE T###EDOES ARE IN##NG CAN YOUR GUN TARGET THEM WE NEED TO SAVE THE T###T AND DATA I CANT ##N AROUND QUICKLY YOU NEED TO INTERCE-"

You cut off Amber's comms as she finally explodes into a stream of words interspersed with errors induced by the pulse. She has evidently been holding back all fight with only short comments. The rest of your wing are busy pursuing the pirates.

The torpedoes target the utility and cargo ship respectively. One last, parting "fuck you" from the losing side. With your experience, you can train your big gun on one of the torpedoes manually, in circumvention of the glitching control suite, but only one -- Dakka's cannon won't be able to fire fast and precisely enough for you to destroy both.

But which will it be?
>Save the utility ship with the data on it.
>Save the transport ship with the cargo.

>>6439385
>Save the utility ship with the data on it.

>>6439385
>Save the transport ship with the cargo.

data is interesting but the mission was to get the cargo and sell it. I feel like in character he'd be profit driven than just curious about why they felt they had to do the risky jump.

>So he's pulled together a team to investigate these ships, take whatever cargo's still intact, and sell it all to split the profit.

>>6439385
>Save the transport ship with the cargo.

I concur with >>6439474

While the data is interesting and could be plot relevant, this time our in-character interests diverge from our RL curiosity. It's not like before where we could be both greedy and follow a potential plothook. We need money to keep living, and maybe finally afford some upgrades.

Also, I really enjoyed the long update, the chat with the old woman was nice.

>>6439385
>>Save the utility ship with the data on it.

>>6439385
The Data is probably worth more than the cargo, is cheaper to move, and you can sell it at least twice before someone gets smart about it.

If possible advise the transporter to eject it's cargo in line with the torpedo and make space.

I'm not dead but updates may be erratic.

>>6439536
>Also, I really enjoyed the long update, the chat with the old woman was nice.
I'm glad you liked it.

>>6439385
>>6439865
support, get the cargo ship to make a dump in the path of the torpedo.
>Save the utility ship with the data on it.

>Save the utility ship with the data on it.

"Mule, eject the cargo and evacuate," you tell the cargo ship crew as you home in on the utility ship torpedo. Carefully. Can't miss this shot. Mule accepts your communication with a short confirmation. They'll be really busy these upcoming few minutes.

Dakka's thrusters blaze, stabilising the ship as the gun sends a projectile towards the torpedo at massive speeds. It impacts and blows up the payload. The utility ship is safe. What must be the residual radiation from the torpedo's disruption systems shocks your systems, but they regain operation after a moment, just in time to glitch again as the other torpedo blows up Mule. Like little stars, the evac pods burst out of the wrecked ship. You'll need to collect them later.

"Did you get the pirates?" You ask your wingmates, sweaty from the tension of the combat that's wound down now.

"Yeah. They're dead," designation Sphinx responds.

"Great. We'll need your help with collecting the survivors."

The next hour is spent gathering the escape pods based on the data they transmit. 2 of the fighter pilots can be saved. 2 perished in their craft. Most of the cargo ship crew made it out alive. Their wrecked ship hangs in the void, machinery that you looted spilled into open space like the guts of a slain beast.

The rest of the way out of the system goes without trouble, as does the journey towards the nearest station. You collapse into deep sleep once you're out of danger. It'll be a couple days while the Herald utility ship crew analyse the data. Days when you can relax and rest.

The only thing interrupting your watching of Solar shows -- it's about time you took a break from cartoons to watch regular holo-movies and series -- is a message from Amber asking if one of the destroyed fighter pilots can crash at your ship while she looks for a proper lodging. You respond that you're broke, and your craft only has one capsule for sleep, and what the hell is she even doing if a bed at a colony's orbital station costs only 3000 credits a month.

Amber replies "okay, fair enough" and doesn't disturb you any more.

On the topic of comms... as you glance at the contact list some time later, you notice Ferdinand's entry greyed out. You select it to see why, and the error message informs you "Both the main and all backup keys for this contact have been destroyed. Please register a new entry in person."

This gives you pause. This would mean either something fucked up both the comms module of his ship AND whatever storage he has the backup key in so much that it's impossible to restore the connection again... or that his ship is simply destroyed and he's either dead or lost the key. Both very troubling prospects.

Shame you didn't save any of the other raider's contacts. Maybe then you could ask them what's up.

As you think of ways to find out Ferdi's whereabouts, you receive another call from Amber.

"Hi," you greet her.

"Hey, Vince. Herald's crew finished decoding the data and we may have some good stuff," you can sense she's smiling on the other end. "So you remember how we looted manufacturing equipment from the wreck, yes? There's been a whole fleet of Devia, Echtara, even some Centorian Federation imported machinery. Based on what they've decoded, the fleet was heading for an unlisted system to deliver it to some pirates so they can build new stations. But they met another group of raiders, were forced to emergency jump, and the rest we know. Herald also pulled out the name of the governor that ordered the fleet to travel there. Damn officials, am I right? I remember a similar thing, from back when the governor of Hirt came to a gala on one of the core worlds, and there was this independent captain, Albert Orleans, invited that told everyone of all the dirt he dug up about the Hirtian, and it was A LOT, I still remember how he grew paler and paler, like a fish with bulging eyes, bet he didn't expect that kind of welcome at-"

"Amber. The data."

"Ah, sorry. So anyway, the governor WE have found out about is still administering the Capella system, 2 colonised planets at once, a rarity. Name's Farhad Al-Sufi. And we're discussing what to do now, so, of course, I'd ask what you think. We could sell the data about his collaboration with the pirates to the central Solar bureaucracy. Could net us a decent amount of credits, the more the bureaucrats end up digging up about him, the better for our tip. Ooor, we blackmail him and maybe get some better rewards. Depends on how generous and threatened he feels."

You think on this for a bit. The first impulse is to propose double-dipping and getting both the blackmail credits and the reward for report, but for all its skulduggery, there's a small code of conduct -- "honour" seems like too positive a word -- among the subtler networks and both blackmailing and exposing the governor would put a small dent in your reputation if this spreads there.

So it's either this or that option. But which will it be?
>Blackmail this Farhad Al-Sufi.
>Report it to the Solar Union.

In addition, what kind of reward would be preferable, if you could choose?
>Write-in

>>6444517
>Blackmail this Farhad Al-Sufi.
>Cold hard cash if we're blackmailing. A premium quality, hard-to-get ship upgrade if reporting legitimately.

The logic being we can't trust the person we're blackmailing to not get us equipment that isn't sabotaged or inserted with some sort of remote backdoor or tracker installed, but we can get enough cash to get good all around upgrades and live the good life for a little while. Whereas getting in the good books with the powers that be could open doors for us, and get us access to equipment that is hard to obtain legally, or is just rare. Either way, it seems like the PLOT (tm) is catching up with us, and Ferdie is either dead or about to drop into our lap half dead with a Macguffin or plot coupon in tow, and in both cases with some very scary spooks on our tail.