I've made up another route that makes the smuggler 90 credits per unit/minute.
It takes about 55 minutes altogether and uses only jump holes with a single exception - a gate from Cortez to California, and in the said direction
only. It's almost in the end of the whole run. (Cardamine to Rochester).
Here are the details:
Rochester Base (NY) Counterfeit Software > Arranmore Base (Dublin)
Arranmore Base (Dublin) Gold > Montezuma Base (Cortez)
Montezuma Base (Cortez) Light Arms > Planet Malta (Omicron Alpha)
Planet Malta (Omicron Alpha) Cardamine > Rochester Base (NY)
I'm posting this because shipping Cardi to Rochester is way better than having to cross the whole California system unnoticed.
And it's faster. The price differences on Beaumont and Rochester are negligible. And there's also another, a lot more daring route.
If you've got the guts, burn your way theough California From the Cortez gate straight to the NY gate and on to (oh yeah) Virginia.
Just make sure you can outrun the Avengers in your transport and have strong enough shields to survive St. Petersburg's turret fire.
The platforms are relatively harmless. A Border Worlds Transport or Pirate Train work well, because they won't have their cruise engines
disrupted by ordinary CD missiles fired from the rear.
---end-of-update---
From my personal log:
I've also tried getting from Rochester to Malta with Light Arms through Kusari space, but it's either slow or very unsafe. Using a hole from Shikoku to
Kyushu and then to Tau-23 may be cool, but the journey through those systems just takes all day if you want to avoid the lanes.
For you ignorants that have never been to Leiden's Bar:
There are quite a few rumors regarding dealings with the Golden Chrysanthemums and the Hogosha. Sometimes you can even meet
a GC girl sitting at one of the tables. It's quite about Artifact trade there. Smuggling Artifacts from Kagoshima Depot in Kyushu
through the hole to Shikoku, then Galileo, Colorado and NY (Rochester) - using jump holes all the time - does also make a modest amount.
The problem is what to take back, cause Light Arms on Kagoshima (~$680) are even cheaper than on Leiden ($700). If you take your chances
and use trade lanes all the way from Shikoku to NY gate, then cruise to Rochester after jump, this one-way run does make $90 per minute/unit.
So if you end up in Kusari somehow, this may be an option. Although, I admit, it stinks. Kagoshima is run by the Farmers Alliance.
From what I've heard they're used as puppets of Samura Heavy Industries ... and the Hogosha.
So I'd like to scrap the Artifact smuggling idea, because it ain't worth a shot (of Cardi).
Instead, I'm going to explore further interactions with the GC and their cardamine supply depot in hokkaido. Stay tuned for more!
(Photographs of hot cardamine-ladden girls at $10,000 each)
![[Image: lhprofessorsmall.png]](http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e15/rnathanmorris/LH%20clan%20images/lhprofessorsmall.png)