The Further Exploits of Captain Antares

[Binski]

Time Enough for Sleep in the Grave

"There it is again..." Jonas spoke aloud from his station, glancing up at the captain as he did so. A slight irritation could be detected in his voice. Immediately after, the ship began to shutter slightly. Then over the next 3-4 seconds it began to shake rather heavily, before dying back down, and fading away.

Antares stood from his chair and approached the forward viewport. He put his hand on the ship's hull near the window's frame, and gave it a rub.
"Don't worry, we'll make it home. But, ah, Rister, you better get down to the engine room and start running some diagnostics. I think we'll stay at port 'til we sort this one out" he said. Rister nodded in acknowledgment and quickly went below.

The ship had been creaking and moaning in a few places more than once recently. He'd been thinking about having her stripped down to the chassis again, and have the whole frame re-ligned with some super alloy. All of the various EM fields, along with the general stress of cruise speeds, combined with a few bad hits taken recently in combat...and the ship was feeling it harder and harder. They had been going flat out for months, and regular repairs were only patching holes. They were going to have to hit a shipyard eventually, one of the very few they could show their faces at.

"Warning: Sensor Efficiency Reduced"

Jonas looked upward as the computer's voice called out, "We've entered the cloud sir, 30 minutes to dock" he called out.

"Alright Jonas, I'll be down below taking care of the logs. I'm hitting the bar as soon as we're docked. You know the drill" the captain replied. He also made his way to the main hatch and began to climb down the ladder. As he did so, the ship started another shutter, and practically rattled him off the ladder. As it passed and he regained a full grip on the rungs, he was still within eye sight of Jonas at his station, who also looked at him as he smiled and rolled his eyes. "Don't say it" the captain snapped and pointed a finger in the young crewman's direction. With a slight frown on his face, he disappeared down the hatch.

* * * *

"Begin Log.

I've kept the ship operating around the Liberty/Kusari borderworlds for the last few weeks. With only a few exceptions for trips down to Texas and Cali. The Kusari frontier is fairly unprotected, and so that's where we lurk...

We caught up to this little DSE convoy on its way down into Liberty. We got lucky there, and made double the pay.

Scan 1
Scan 2
Scan 3
Scan 4



Not far from there we caught up to a Luxery Liner, loaded with wealthy passengers...I assumed anyways. Most gotta be to travel with that kind of style. Well, robbing from the rich isn't something I lose too much sleep over, and besides, those boats have plenty of escape pods these days...don't they?

Scan 1
Scan 2
Scan 3





I should really start blasting those Samura goons when I come across 'em. But, we can get pressed for time and its sometimes faster to just take some cash and scram...Next time I think it'll be more profitable to cash in on the bounty.

Scan 1
Scan 2
Scan 3



This rather strange bugger was empty, so we let him off cheap, but not for free...

Scan 1
Scan 2
Scan 3



Then there was this Ageira transport who had a hard time stopping his ship. We almost thought he was gonna make a break for it. Finally they got around to handing us over the bread...after we fired a few warning shots into him.

Scan 1
Scan 2
Scan 3
Scan 4



Another Interspace Commerce ship, another quick buck.

Scan 1
Scan 2



This freelance trader made for some good practice, the lanes inside a nebula are always golden for this type of work. We don't even need to cloak beforehand...

Scan 1
Scan 2
Scan 3
Scan 4



And not too long after, we booted over to the other end and hit the other lane...and got lucky twice that day.

Scan 1
Scan 2
Scan 3
Scan 4



While in Liberty patrolling for Xenos while passing through, we came across of couple of out of place ALG ships out extracting Premium Scrap in the PN. I always love pulling a double whammy on unsuspecting traders. Being neither Xenos, nor Junkers, I hit them up for a personal toll, and bade them to be careful."

Scan 1
Scan 2
Scan 3
Scan 4
Scan 5
Scan 6
Scan 7

* * * *

Antares was sitting back in his little office chair in his quarters, with his feet kicked up on the desk. He dropped his feet back to the floor and stopped the recorder. After thinking to himself for a moment, he resumed.

"Only other things were a few trips down to Liberty. I see a lot of stuff on my way though. Things are the worst they've even been with the Xenos running around causing havoc. The Junkers don't like it one bit. We've done our best to lend a hand when we can, but we're only one ship. I wish I could take 'em all on with this broken down old bird. The Argo can only last so long in a fighter battle. But, times do come when we can hit back, and hit hard. There was one peculiar case of a Xenos Train I had a run in with a few weeks back. Where I caught them it was all too obvious they were using a stolen corporate ship to smuggle out scrap from the Paquena Negra. Although the ship wasn't worth destroying it was in such bad shape, we had a good laugh at taking its haul of Premium Scrap, depriving the Xenos of tens of millions of creds. A nice little blow to their operation.

I've also spent a bit of time with some disguntled Dischordians who'd turned from simple Zoners to pirating ships, and giving their hauls to less fortunate types. One of them I knew from dealings with the Junkers, they seemed to need some pointers on how to pirate, but otherwise seemed like my kind of folk. They managed to drag in a recruit and take his ship. Not bad for beginners.

"Captain Antares, we're about to dock" Jonas's voice buzzed out from the little speaker by the door. Antares stood and reached over to hit the comm button.

"Carry on Jonas, I'll be at the hatch in 3 minutes. We'll do a full systems check and hull inspection. Then, I suppose it'll be time to hit a shipyard" Antares responded.

"Sounds good to me sir" Jonas said, Antares could hear the smile in his voice. As Antares opened the door and stepped through, another slight jolt occurred. He stopped and looked around thinking If we can make it to a shipyard...

...To Be Continued...

---

The Further Exploits of Captain Antares (August 2015) │ (alt) JonasHudson
*Argo | Special Operative ID (Approved Request)* | Argo Compilation Video
################ *Proposed OF Challenge System* ################
############### The Book of Piracy (Piracy Tutorial) ###############
############### Binski Alamo (Youtube Channel) ###############