A few hops into California, Mojave.
The desert world looks hot, a change from the ice.
A large cargo train in the distance, hull full of boron, jumping towards me, Navy tag.
I fire, the lane goes down, the transport slugs into view and halts at my command.
Piracy commences, my hold is now full of Boron.
He claim to be a reincarnation of a member of [AR], engaged on some illegitimate trading business.
I did not enquire further as I was more interested in scalping his cargo hold than knowing his life story.
Freeport 4, Magellan.
A Bounty Hunter is detected passing through.
I command him to HALT and he does, foolishly. I scan his cargo bay, empty, he doesn't look that rich, I scan his ammo and "Bingo... I've found what I'm looking for..."
I demanded all his ammo, ten cutter mines and twenty five advanced countermeasures, told him to never come back to Magellan with that tag unless he wanted to die, told him to leave BHG, he claimed, interestingly, that he had nowhere else to go.
Well perhaps if he ever turns towards Magellan ever again, we shall send him to hell, with the rest of the BHG.
Mactan, Magellan.
A group of strange ships from [AR] have been floating around. All members quickly acquired Lane Hacker gunships from some unknown seller who would surely be questioned as to his motives.
Much as in old earth history, Iran ended up flying Russian SU-27's (stationed out of Tabrak), Chinese antiship missiles, and American helicopters when it defeated the Americans, I feel these [AR] will take their weaponry from anywhere to win.
They were noted to use both Corsair and Outcast turrets on their gunboats, leading to a confrontation in Magellan with a different Lane Hacker (not LH).
[AR] quickly decimate the opposition and a short time later depart for the outer systems.
Personal:
When I look through the composite carbon shell seperating me from the Ice of Magellan, shivers run down my spine. Still, it hasn't broken yet
So cold out in space, so cold you freeze in a second if life support fails.
Still, Mactan is warm, and the feasts of Valhalla will welcome me when the cold inevitably comes.
And sometimes so hot you burn before you knew the heat hit you.
I'd hate to be left out there, to die out in the cold. I guess thats why I pick them up, the prisoners from the ships we destroy.
Do we give them a worse fate than death when we bring them back to Mactan?
It pays not to think about it, to just focus on the job, the slow steady grinding down of the opponent.
I've got a bit of a problem with the cardamine, it's like a perishable good when I ship it... I just can't make money out of it, it's always half gone by the tenth hop, I'd way rather get fried up on the stuff and blow some BH's away...
Besides, noone in Manhattan trusts Cardamine that's depleted. It got worse after the Manhattan News Network ran stories on the cardamine spiking, spiking it with anything powdery and white, anyways, someone got a bit desperate and spiked the cardamine they were selling with some nanotechnology bots, only white powder they had handy.
Bots were medicinal in nature, designed to ensure the free flow of the digestive system. Anyways, over 500 users were hospitalised in that incident, and did the LSF change its thinking about prohibition? Don't they realise that prohibition delays medical treatment? If you think your mate on card is dying and you know the LSF are gonna send you to 20 in an LPI Prison ship if you turn him in, well.. Alot of people run is all I'm saying...
Noone cares about the history of the cardamine trade anymore, all they want is the next hit.
