Family Ties

[Knucklehead]

Incoming Transmission
Name: Eman Modnar
Comm ID: Eman_Modnar
Encryption Key: Public
Access Granted
Begin Log

Where to begin...

I suppose I should mention that the Cambridge job I'd been hearing about for a couple weeks now was today. Things went well. The reps at Cambridge provided me with an escort for the journey, an Asgard Warrior. Had a nice little fighter, too. I'm sure Dad would be jealous.

After loading the scientists and their belongings onto my ship, we headed out for the Omega 5 system. We knew the journey would be hazardous, so we kept our eyes out for pirates along the way. Sure enough, there was a group of them on either side of the Omega 5 jumphole. I dodged the pirates on the Cambridge side easily enough, but the Omega 5 side gave me some problems. They managed to get my shields down a couple of times before I managed to get away. From there it was a fairly smooth ride out to Corfu. Except for the asteroids bouncing me around that is...

Once at Corfu, I unloaded the scientists and loaded up with H-Fuel, as the contract stated. I was preparing to leave for California Minor, when all the pirates who had been following us from Omega 5 started swarming the base. I managed to get clear when I noticed one of them was following me. My escort told me to lure the pirate toward him, which I was able to do easily. The two were locked in battle, with me providing cover fire, when without warning a tear in the space-time continuum opened up, sending me back to Corfu and several others back to the Omega 41 jumphole.

We called a truce while we figured out what had happened. Once the rep from Cambridge arrived, my escort and I were paid for the safe delivery of the scientists.

The truce was called off, and we made tracks for the Omicron Gamma system, to follow the route we were contracted for. Getting to the Gamma system was simple enough, but that wouldn't last long, as the entire time we were in the system was spent inside a particularly nasty asteroid field. It's a good thing I had scouted out the route before hand.

After a little while we made it into a strange system that seemed to be home to a large number of Nomads. We didn't spend much time here, but there were some pirates waiting for us. I managed to shake them off and was soon in the Omicron Delta system.

Delta and Minor were fairly simple for me, as my escort was busy keeping the pirates occupied. The rocks in Minor were a bit of a nuisance, but not as bad as in Gamma.

Once I arrived in the Alaska system, I managed to catch three more pirates by surprise, and was well clear of them before they could react. Once I got to the Connecticut system, the path was clear all the way to California Minor, and I didn't even have much trouble with the tradelanes this time.

Back at California Minor, the rep paid the 1 million credits for the delivery of the H-Fuel, but I had to remind him about the 500,000 bonus promised for completing both legs of the journey. Fortunately, after he confirmed it with his boss, I was given the rest of the promised money.

While I was waiting for my escort to make it to California Minor, an important communication came in that pulled me away from the controls. When I returned, my escort and a couple of his allies were under attack from one of the other groups in Sirius and left me to return to Cambridge on my own. Once I got there, I was given the runaround about not having my escort with me. Finally I was given permission to make another run to Corfu, without an escort this time.

Fortunately, it seems the majority of the pirates had become discouraged with their lack of success in the previous run, so my trip to Corfu was fairly quiet. I made the delivery, had gotten paid, and was making another run to California Minor when the word was given that the contract period was over. So I decided to take the H-fuel I still had to Manhattan and rejoin my regular route.

Things were going well until I was on my way out from the Hawaii. Another pirate decided he wanted some of my cargo. The way I saw it, he was in no position to make demands, and so I refused.

He ended up following me all the way to New Berlin, where a handful of other ships were waiting. Normally I don't go through New Berlin, but I knew there were people there who could help me drive him off.

Sure enough, once I arrived over the planet, he engaged and I began my defense. It was a fairly close battle, as he had some fairly tough shield busters on board, but with the help of a container transport who happened to be in the area, I managed to finish off the pirate.

After the fight, I landed on New Berlin to make a few repairs and restock my supplies. As soon as I took off again, a Corsair who also appeared to have followed me was attacking the same container transport who had helped me earlier. So when he called for help, naturally I engaged the Corsair. While I didn't finish the Corsair off, I did manage to keep him busy long enough to let the container transport escape.

It was looking like I might be able to take the Corsair out as well, when a strange vortex swallowed my ship, and I was sent to another dimension for a few moments.

When I finally reappeared, I was polite enough to depart the scene of the battle. The vortex had done a number on my hull, and it would not be fair to return to battle with a rapidly restored shield. I returned to New Berlin for repairs and headed out for the Hamburg system, saluting the Corsair on a well fought, albeit interrupted, battle.

On the way past Alster Shipyard in Hamburg, I decided to acquire a few improvements to the ship's defenses: a new armor upgrade, and a new missile turret for the center hardpoint.

From there, I continued my run up to Manhattan, where I decided to put in for a little rest. It's been a long day, and the temporal distortions have gotten to me a bit.

Catch you on the flip side.

Eman Modnar, signing out

End Transmission.

---

It's official, I have too few ships now...