"Is this thing on?" The young Balados finally rear his head?

[Sorrontis]

Balados is starring at his new comms system. Completely confounded, he presses buttons randomly until he finds what he's looking for.

*beep*

"Well, that was frustrating. I guess that's normal when you get a new ship; and boy, do I have a story to tell you."

"I finished a few runs to London. This gentleman had a thirst for Liberty weaponry. I went through the proper Ageira channels, it was all okayed. Anyways, I made the eleven million I needed to buy my new transport. A brand new Mammoth! That's right, I own my ship now! I'm my own captain! Isn't great!? I no longer fly that second hand Sunburst. Anyways, that's not the story."

"So, I get to Manhattan, money in hand. I go down to the shipyard, and I start chatting up one of the sales dudes. His name was... Mareck... something. Well, it doesn't matter, he doesn't work there anymore. Anyways, I talk to the dude, and we get talking. I already know what I need, so I do the thing were your indecisive to see if he'll drop the price. He did, 100k credits discount! So that was awesome!"

"Well, while were signing the papers and all that jazz, we're talking about my work. He's asking me questions like 'What do you haul?' or 'Where are you going?' and 'What's your route?' Just friendly questions. So, when everything signed, he says the ships all good to go. So, I go to the commodity trader and fill up my hold with Liberty Ale.... mmmhmmm Liberty Ale."

"So, I do my route, go through Cortez like I usually do to get to London. That's when three lane hackers knock out the trade lanes. No big deal, I'm in a mammoth, I've got five transport turrets. They'll do nothing to me. So, I take aim and fire. 'CLUNK' 'What?' I fire again and again 'CLUNK' 'CLUNK'. I look down to my weapons panel... I don't have turrets. He didn't get them installed. So, like any smart freight pilot, I start flying straight to the nearest port. My shields and armour should last long enough."

"So after a few seconds, the lane hackers realize that I'm not firing, and they start their attack. 'THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK' All in rapid succession. Their shots are going right through my shield, turning my ship into Liberty Cheese. So, I'm scrambling to the ship's core. The shield's there, but not connected. This definitely wasn't a coincidence. I made it to Curacua, with a semi damaged ship. Most of my cargo was intact at least. Luckily, I'm known on Curacua now, so I was able to get it all fixed."

"Talking with the ship repair guy, he told me he could put on the turrets on my ship, but it was going to require some refitting of the cargo hold. So, I ended up losing 2% of my capacity so I can defend myself. Big deal, right? I prefer making it home than making a few thousand credits more. But still, its quite frustrating. That guy on Manhattan should have told me all of this. But of course, he probably wasn't a good person. So, I called Liberty Security. Let them figure out if he made a mistake, or if he's working with the hackers."

"It's the end of the day, I might as well sign out and go to bed. It really was an eventful July 8th. ... ... 823 A.S."

*beep*

Balados continues to browse the comms. He's looking for the Ageira database.

"I really need to update the roster. I don't want to get in trouble."

Finding his name, Balados starts editing the entry.

Vessel Identification: The Fat Whale
Freight Class: Mammoth
Crew Size: ..... .....

"Umm... is that including me? I'll put one for now."

Crew Size: 1
Cargo Size: 2,155 [with armaments]

Armaments: 5 Civilian Transport Turret
Shield Designation: Medium Transport Graviton Shield
Shield Capacity: 50,000
Engine Designation: Advanced Thrusters