Henry "Ogris" Smith

[Ogris]

When Henry Smith woke up, he looked at the time, it was 9am, however, the streets were already buzzing, deciding he needs a drink he dressed up and made his way to the local bar. Inside he saw many faction representatives, and they all gave him a quick eye, Smith thought nothing of it and ordered himself a drink and sat down, he was soon approached by a business man, he quickly looked at him, he seemed 30 years old, the man spoke first.

Man: May i sit down here?
HS: Go right ahead.
Man: I know what you are thinking right now, this guy wants me to join his faction bla bla, that is not true however, i present you a different offer, that could make you rich very quickly.

Smith looked curiously at the man, he saw this was not just another faction representative, but someone else, the man continued talking.

Man: Let's just say that this could be an easy 5 million credits for you, but only if you are interested
Smiths eyes glowed with excitement.
HS: I'm interested... but only if it does not involve me blowing up, i don't have enough money to replace my ship
Man: Don't worry, there is not much more danger involved then a regular trip through space, and everyone get's free insurance. If you are interested, be at Fort Bush at 4PM LST(/berty standard time.. just made that up).

The man left the table, and smith looked at his drink that he still didn't even take a sip from, he quickly drank it and started looking around the bar again, he soon noticed a man that looked liked a freelancer, he quickly spoke to him, the man turned around.. Smith thought he saw that face before but couldn't make it out, but instead of just staring at him he started a conversation.
HS: Uh, hello, do you maybe know of a quick way to gain some money?
He knew that sounded awful, but he felt confident.
Man: Hmm, i heard that Pittsburgh is in need of water right now... i am sure you can find some somewhere on Manhattan, now if you do not mind, i must be on my way.
And the man left the bar, Smith tried to follow him, but he lost all trace of the man, he sighed loudly, paid for his drink and went to the commodity dealer.

He managed to secure a full hold of water for 500 credits, which was very cheap, he quickly hopped into his Starflier and made his way towards Pittsburgh, it was 10 AM, when he arrived there, he sold his entire hold of water for 1000 credits, which made him very happy, he looked around and the only commodity to ship back to Manhattan was Boron, he bought a full load for 5,000 credits, he risked a lot on it, but he sold it for 6,500 credits, he knew he hit a great opportunity and kept trading, time flew by, it was 3 PM, and he landed on Manhattan, he figured it was enough for the day, and when he checked his cash reserves he had a total of 25,000 credits, which was a lot for him. He went into the ship dealers office and looked around, he saw a new Startracker being sold for 35,000. After a while he had himself a new Startracker, however, it lacked weapons, and the only thing he kept was the strange AI from the old ship.

He looked at the time, it was 30 minutes until 4 PM, he quickly undocked and flew towards Fort Bush, where the man told him to go, when he arrived there he got greeted by captain Bill Mason of a liberty cruiser,
BM: Here for the race i guess?
Smith hesitated, but answered
HS: Uhh, yeah, i guess so
BM: Well line up, we got a few more people to come here and then we start racing, it's from here to FP4 to New London and back.

New London... the place where his mother died, he just froze for a second before he entered formation with the cruiser, he was then briefed on the race details, straight to FP4, dock there, go to New London dock, go back to FP4, dock, and finally back here. Smith had never been in a race before so he was unsure of how well he would do but he was ready for it. Before the race in the chatter he met another pilot, his ship had the codename KingAbbott, he found him friendly and quite a competitive character, he met a lot of other people as well, and his loneliness suddenly disappeared.

He was enjoying the chatter when he suddenly heard "race starting in 1 minute", his heart started racing, he knew if he would win he would receive 5 million credits. But then he heard over the comms "We appreciate every racer, so everyone who finishes the race receives 150,000!" Which was met by cheers all around, a huge weight was lifter off his shoulders, he knew he just had to finish it. However the race was about to begin. Five... Four... Three... Two... One..

GO, the racers were off, He engaged cruise engines and headed to the tradelane, he had no idea what he was doing, but that is when his AI suddenly started up and said "Get as close to the center of the top tradelane ring before you dock, it will save you some time". Smith followed, unsure if what he was doing was correct, but he found himself in the tradelane in 3rd place, something he didn't foresee happening. When they dropped out of tradelane, he quickly ran to the other tradelane, he did the same and found himself in the lead! Smith was shocked, but soon they dropped out, a Rouge patrol shot the tradelane down, that is when the AI started talking again "Wait by the tradelane, dock as soon as it comes back up". And that is what he did, two other racers engaged cruise and ran for the next ring, but the tradelane was back up in a few seconds, he docked through and sped away, he kept going and soon was at the California jumpgate. He quickly ran for the gate, and managed to go through first, with 3 other racers right on top of him. When they reached Mojave however, pirates attacked again, Smith barely fled while the other two racers were shot down and now had a big lead, however he did not stop racing, he ran for the jumpgate, and arrived in Magellan with half a huge lead. As he left FP4, the race report came in, the other racers were barely arriving in Magellan, and so he jumped into Manchester with a huge lead. He was near the New London JG in Manchester when he heard that the Magellan Jumpgate was sabotaged, he now had a whole systems lead. He arrived in New London with a huge lead, and from this point on only cared about bringing the ship back to Fort Bush...

And it did arrive at Fort Bush, he had won the race, he was unsure how he did it, but 5 million was his, and he was on his way, he went to FP4, to see what he could do now, he was free, and he had the money to buy a good ship. When he arrived at FP4 for the third time ever, he stepped into the bar, there he met an old co-worker when he still worked on LD-14. He sat down next to him, and they exchanged words, they talked about women, they laughed, they drank, and they had fun. At the end of conversation his old co-worked said "You know, the IMG are always keen to have people working for them, and their pay policy is "you get what you earn", consider it friendly advice..", and his old co-worker left the bar. Smith was confused, but knew he had to get a job, 5 million credits was a big advice but it wouldn't last him forever, so he went to the bartender and asked him how to sign up for the IMG. The bartender just grabbed his card and did something to it, Smith just watched, he got the card back with the words "Welcome to the IMG".

Smith left FP4 and decided to try his luck, he was free now, he was free to go where he wanted, he was free to mine where he wanted, trade whenever he wanted... he really felt he had no limits on what he could do. He met a guy who called himself 'Nemesis', he said he was going to LD-14 with boron, it sold for alot, so Smith decided to tag along for a bit, When they dropped off their cargo and collected their credits, Nemesis said he had to meet up with a friend called Sovereign. Smith decided to tag along, and soon they found themselves in Munich, that is when Smith put his eyes on a freighter, he knew he had to have it, he just did, he didn't know why, but something was drawing him towards it, it was a Kushan Freighter. 1.8 Million credits later Smith had himself a new ship, one that had a very sizable cargo hold, Nemesis also purchased himself a new ship, it was what people call the "Humpback".

The group worked their way back to New York, Smith thanked them for the trip, but said he must be off, as he has to earn some money as well, and the group parted, and Smith worked his way over to Dublin. Smith just drove around the system, and managed to chart all of it, once he has done that, he worked is way over to the Independent Mining Field, and started mining. He arrived on the hood with a full load, and made quite a bit of money selling his 360 pieces of gold, but it was very late now so he decided to head to the bar to have a quick drink before going to bed.

In the bar he ordered a quick drink, but soon found out that they also hold betting competitions on races, he decided to skip the betting, but met the same person he did on Manhattan, he still could not recognize who he was, despite trying his hardest to, he could not recall who he was. The man only said one thing "Go to Tau-23, Java Outpost, there is great fortune to be made there". And the man left the bar. Smith did not follow him as he was too tired, he called it a day and turned into his bed and decided to sleep, before he fell asleep he thought to himself: "Tau-23? Java Outpost? What is there that could make me money?", he eventually decided not to focus on it today and fell asleep.

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