Conflicting Viewpoints

[Zapp]

It was an overall uneventful night, down to the point where Captain Debs walked off the bridge to work on his memoirs. However, it started out with a bang -- a trader passed the lane as they were approaching it, heading for Riverside. Four kilometers from the lane, Debs shouted at helms to enter the lane and continue all the way to Riverside.

"But sir, the station..." said the helmsman, hesitating. Debs pushed him from his seat and took control of the ship, flying it straight into the station's gun-range and tempting fate as he took the ship to the trade lane the trader was approaching at dangerous speeds. Entering the lane, he took it for two rings before disconnecting and yelling at tactical to put a pulse cannon into the lane.

Ten seconds later, the trader fell into the trap it should have seen coming a mile away. Debs leaned back in the helms chair and made his demand of 400,000 credits with a smile on his face. Pirating next to a base is asking them to run for the station's protective shielding, but draw 'em out into the lanes, and well... let's just say most traders don't credit pirates with enough smarts to pull that stunt.

Suffice to say, he paid up without a word of complaint.

Due to the rather slow nature of the California system, Debs moved to New York to pirate the California jump gate lane. It was really slow there too, with only some madman panhandler begging for investments in his get-rich-quick schemes. Debs went below-deck to work on his memoirs, and nothing else really happened. They moved into the Badlands and used it as a shield, shutting down all systems and becoming invisible to anyone more than forty meters away.

---