It's stupid how these things work these days, why couldn't it be just pen and paper. Damn shopkeeper here don't even sell real logs so i pick up this black box he calls a logbook and gave the jerk his money. I didn't even ask him how the damn thing worked, took me almost an hour to find out that thing don't actually open.
So anyway here I am at Freeport six "soaking up the free space". Yano it aint as good as they say it is, Freelancin'. Yeah i spose you do get the feelin' your in charge of your life, your destination, your job, your ship. But o'course you gotta get a ship first which is provin' harder than I thought when I came here.
I grew up on Cardiff, yano that IMG mining depot they got in Cambridge. God I hated that place, the constant sound of those damn machines. You get used to it over the years but the night before I left i could hear 'em clear as if they were in the room with me. My Mom made a livin' in the old Pilots Bar and my Dad.......well let's not go into that. I had to get away from that place for a hundred reasons. So I got my overcoat, pistol, cigarettes and about 500 credits and got on the next Armoured Transport headin' for Kusari.
And this is how far 500 credits got me. I got ripped off, but before i'd realised that b**tard BOWEX pilot had charged me double he was half way to New Tokyo.
That was a week ago, i've been staring at recruitment posters and job boards for the past 6 days and not one has offered me a pair of wings. Although I did apply to RepEx for a Starter Loan for a Freighter employment contract, have'nt heard back yet though. Look's like i'm stuck here for now, surviving off a crummy mechanics job for the equipment dealer here.
That application for RepEx turned out to be my way outta this joint. They accepted my request and gave me a start up loan contract, but I had to get my ass to Houston first. The spare change the cheap skate Equipment dealer gave me for the Mechanics job got me as far as Manhatten.
I got there through by gettin a ride with some small time space taxi driver called Brent. It would'a costed me 800 credits to get to Houston but I only had somthin' around 650. So he asked for my hat to take me all the way and we had a deal.
I dunno' what it is with taxi drivers and clothing, they always seem to accept cash, credit cards and clothing.
The guy flew a starflier; piece of junk in my opinion but it was better than nothin'.
So I was stuck on Manhatten but not for long. I managed to sneak aboard a synth foods cargo container headed for Rheinland. I read up on the transports flight plan on the bigscreen info board in the spaceport and it was makin' a service stop at Houston; and that was my ticket offa' Manhatten. Luckily Synth Foods convoys aint' so high on security or they'd have thrown me outta' the air lock for sure.
So I get off at Houston when we land and waited around a while at the bar for my CO to show up. But then the Bartender calls me over says theres a phone call for "Mr Stevens". I hear the gal' on the other end of line shoutin at me askin why I aint been home for days and why i can't get ridda my drinkin' problem. Didn't take me long to realise that I aint' the Stevens this p*ssed gal's lookin' for.
So I order another damn liberty ale from the bartender and go back to my table and find a note from my CO sayin' that he's been and gone and that he had better things to do. I cursed so loud that I almost silenced the place. So I guess i'm stuck again on another rock till I can contact my CO again.
So my CO managed to get back to me sooner than expected and before I know it i got 80 million credits rollin around in my pocket and a callsign RepEx-Shipping|501 uniform with the company. I head to the ship dealer and get me a new whale, a monster of a freighter. With a 4800 cargo hold I aint gonna run that thing on my own, so I head down to the recruitment station and ask around, and before I know it I gotta crew of 24 men.
I make a short stop at the commodity trader to pick up some good's and two crates of light arms encase things get hairy; before headin' to Rheinland to pick up a Republican ID.
So i've finally got my own ship and i'm makin' a livin'. I might not be in charge of my own job but it sure as hell beats Cardiff.
I've been sticking to the Naha-Myoko route recently, in and around Kusari, getting used to the commodity ratios of the bases around here. I haven't been earning much in the way of millions, on average about 3 mil per one way shipment.
I've also found out that my Whale is'nt really the greatest when it comes to a hold up with pirates or some other bozo tryin' to get a piece of my pie. It's got one turrett for god sake! I thought about hiring escorts but their so damn expensive, I'd have barely any profit.
On the way here I ran into a few outcasts that distrupted the Akita -> Sigma 13 Jump gate trade lane in Honshu. Seemed pretty confident they were gonna get what they wanted. They all demanded 2 million credits, each. There was no way I was gonna give these guys my money they just didn't know it yet. One of 'em pulled up to the command bridge window; old trick; tryin to make it more personal. By now stalling for time just weren't gonna work i'd already taken up about 3 minutes wasting what time i could.
So I hit the thrusters with full engine power and plowed him outta the way, then swung the ship around and shunted the other two with the stern of the ship. Charged the cruise engines and headed for the trade lane.
I gotta feelin next time I wont be so lucky. I'm conciderin' gettin a better ship, somthin thats able to put up more of a fight.
I've been doing the New Berlin <-> New Tokyo Diamond/Niobium run for some time now, occasionally heading out to Gran Canaria for a change of scene. Even though it's not advised in the handbook to go into Sigma 13 I figure it's one of the quickest ways to pay off my loan. Plus im not half shabby at outsmartin' pirates either.
Anyway, the whale's gone now, replaced it with an Advanced Train Vessel. It sure as hell beats the whale thats for sure. More space, more firepower, less meneuverability but at a good price. Soon enough i should be able to pay off my loan.
My shippin days are over, I payed off my loan, and I handed the ship over to some other Republican freighter pilot; that's not before I took my pay of about 50 million credits. After all i didn' wanna spend all my years shippin' other peoples stuff around.
So I decided to head for Liberty and get me a descent ship to do what i'd always wanted to do. I got a ride with a civilian transport headin' to Manhatten. Every since the embargo's been in place, ways to get into Liberty from Rheinland are decreasin all the time so i had to pay the guy a good part of 5,000 credits to get me there.
Once i was on Manhatten i got another ride to Houston with a Universal Transport.
When I got there I hooked myself up with Mercenary ID and hit the bar to celebrate my earnings. I ended up talkin' to this IMG pilot and he said he was locked in this tradin contract with the IMG and that he needed to pay off his loan just like i had. He offered to take me to Freeport 4 for a few hundred credits so I agreed since there wasn't much in the way of descent ships on that rock anyway.
We left the next day and got there around midday Magellan Time. So I hit the bar again since there wasn't a ship dealer there and started askin' around; and bumped into this guy Tristan, a Hacker. Now i've never been taxed by a hacker so I guess I dont have anythin against 'em. He said that the Hackers had just manufactured this new model ship that I may be interested in.
He asked 250k to take me to the Hacker Base and he said if I liked the ship he'd chop a bit offa the top of the price. It was pricey but it was nothin to me so I just handed him the money and waited for his ship prep-dep to come over the radios.
So it took us about 5 minutes to get to Mactan, but it was worth it. This ship was unbelievable. A Slipstream XV-1700. It had one of the fasted meneuverable stats i'd ever seen. So I went straight to the dealer and we had a deal.
To celebrate my new career as a Mercenary I bought some of the Hackers some drinks at the bar and they seemed to take a likin' to me after that.
So I set out towards Manhatten but as soon as I got there a few Gunboats from the Liberty Navy "Elite Division" said to sling my ass outta' Liberty or taste some fire. They don't allow Mercenaries in Liberty space apparently. So I agreed and they requested that I be escorted out.
There was no way I was gonna let these Navy jerks push me around cause'o some half made up rule they decided to apply. So as we were in the trade lane headed for Texas I jumped out and headed into the Badlands.
Which means i'm officially outlawed by the Liberty Forces.
I've been doin alot of runnin' work latley for the rogues and local Hackers but nothin' directly illeagal. As soon as i get my hands dirty those damn cops will have somthin to nail me with. So i', stayin' clean for now.
I don't wanna head to Rheinland or Bretonia since they have the same damn law in Rheinland and there no work in Bretonia. So I guess my place is here. Unless I head to Kusari and get some escort work there.
Anyhow the rogues got summat planned for sure, they keep givin me these weird experimental cargo, mostly biohazard stuff. Now I aint gonna ask what they got planned with it but as long as I get paid it's fine.
I've had to avoid most of the Liberty forces since they got me on their blacklist as being associated with enemies of the state. But I've been managing. I just hope I can get these to understand that I aint gonna blow em up all on my lonesome.
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