Matthias approached the bar, picked a chair and sat down. Bartender looked at him and asked: "A drink?"
"Give me something cheap", said Matthias.
Bartender asked, with interest: "Bankrupt?"
"Yeah"
"We seem to get a lot of these lately..."
"Yeah, yeah, I don't think you're paid for talking..."
"Oh, c'mon, it's boring here. Tell me what happened. In return I'll be giving you free drinks while you talk.
"Sounds good. Alright, you've got the deal."
Bartender filled the glass with liquid and handed it over to Matthias.
Matthias started: "Alright, where should I start? Ok, I know..."
One month till present day
Matthias approached the office. The final moment has come. If he doesn't do it now, it'll never happen. While entering the office, he said: "Mr. Lemoine, I have to tell you something."
"You know you shouldn't bother your boss with unnecessary things."
"I'll be short."
"Alright."
"I know I've been working here for long, but I can't do it anymore. We fly underpowered ships risking our lives on every run. You know, that we could destroy a few pirates easily, but with such old equipment we can't do anything. Because you didn't wanted to invest just a bit more in escort ships, you lost hundreds of ships, convoys, let's not talk about the pilots. And I know that I may be next that would see the fate of being dead. And you probably know what happens now. I quit."
Boss looked at him, smiling: "Quite an impressive speech there, Matthias. But know, Republican isn't going to miss you."
Present day
"Ooohh, you were brave one, but with such ambitiousness, how could you have become bankrupt?"
"Just keep the drinks coming and I'll explain."
"Alright, here it is."
Matthias made a guip and continued...
10 days till present day
-You can see a mini-razor hit a VHF while consequently destroying it.-
"Yeehaaw!"
"Ah, finally. This has been taking such a long time. I can't believe it, this one's been stubborn, he just didn't wanted to die. And by the way, Mattheus, don't "yehaw" too much, or people may think you're a Xeno."
"Heh, I just like it so much. And yes, it's been a pain to hit that one."
"Our next stop is Bretonia, Leeds. We have a Molly to kill there. Quite a nice bounty. 15 millions."
Mattheus sighed and said: "I just hope we'll get paid soon."
Present day
"Wait, who was that guy hunting with you?"
"Just an old friend who also decided to quit, but he did it like 2 years before me. It actually took me 20 days to get a fighter and its equipment. The problem was, I had to loan money from a rich trader, and he demanded that I should give back twice as much. I thought I could get enough money soon... Where's the drink?!"
"Oh, here..."
"Well, where was I? Oh, yeah. I wanted to pay back so I could live without any debts. But that trader was demanding just too much. First he wanted 2x of the money back, then 2.5x!"
"And you just let him do that?"
"What could I do? He had agents everywhere. Anyways. I was very happy when we killed that guy. It was second bounty I collected in my whole life. After that we had to kill a Molly in Bretonia."
"You already said that"
"Don't interrupt me! As we were on the way..."
5 days till present day
"I hate that system. It's so... I don't know what, but I hate it."
Mattheus said while smiling: "I like it. There's a lot of scum here to kill. I can't believe you don't like Omega 3."
"Meh, just concentrate on the flight. We're at the next trade lane... Lane jump initiated."
The two ships entered the trade lane, accelerating to high speed. But there was something wrong...
Mattheus yelled into the microphone: "Get out of the lane, there's a mine disrupted lane!"
"Mine what?"
Mattheus was too late, his friend's ship exited the lane automatically - the lane was disrupted. Unfortunately, right on automatic exit point there was a mine planted, and ship flew just into, consequently being destroyed.
"Nooo! You'll pay for that, pirate scum!"
Three Corsair ships turned towards him, ready to engage.
"ARGH!"
Mattheus jousted first Corsair, taking a few shoots, but the unlucky one was Corsair. The poor guy had its shields down on first joust. On the second joust, Corsair got hit by a razor, and second after that with a mine. Fortunately for Mattheus and unfortunately for the corsair...
Second one proved to be easy too, a few mini-razor hits and he was down.
Unfortunately, while jousting the other two ships, he received a lot of damage from the third Corsair.
Mattheus thought by himself: This one has some good skills. With such a damaged ship, I wouldn't be able to hit him enough to destroy him.
After a few jousts Mattheus received a lot of damage, his ship went into critical status. As he didn't have any chance against the last Corsair, he said: "This is for you, my friend!"
He put the throttle to full, and turned towards the Corsair ship. He activated all the mines on his ship, ejected himself and left the ship to fly towards the last jousting Corsair. The Corsair didn't see that Mattheus ejected himself, he engaged the ship, which was ready to ram him...
Unfortunately for the Corsair, of course he couldn't survive a blast from almost 40 mines that exploded in his face.
Present day
"You really have some guts, do you?"
"Indeed, but the problem was, I was alone in an escape pod. The battle carried us away from the ship patrols and lanes... And so I was alone out there for 3 days. After that, finally a Zoner trader passed by and picked me up. I still have no idea what was he doing there."
"Oh, you were that guy we got here 2 days ago? I though you were dead!"
"Well, I was close to death, being in an escape pod for 3 days isn't a nice experience. And so I'm here, without my ship, my credits..."
"I see your story has come to an end... No more drinks for you, mister..."
