Entry#: 037
Date: 07 - 11 - 817 AS @ 06:52 SUT
Title: Up to my old tricks.
We had docked with Rochester Base for some supplies, and to cut a long story short I hooked up with an old mate of mine from the Rogues. Old, as in, I know what his face is and could pick him out of a crowd, but bugger me if I could remember his name - I just called him "mate". He said he was going on a hunt for supplies and asked me if I'd like to tag along.
I'd given up piracy when Misaka came along, but now, I think the situation calls for it. I'm finding myself scraping the bottom of the barrel - the Maelstrom has eaten up nearly all my credits. So I agreed, to the disdain of the crew.
I tried to lay down some conditions to alleviate the complaints being issued behind me. It would be a smash-and-grab operation only. The Rogue would fly in, blast shipping containers off unescorted transports, leave the ship itself intact, and run like all hell back into the dark matter clouds. I would then scoop up the goods and run like all hell back into the dark matter clouds; from there we would offload the goods to the local pirates.
We stashed the pirates' bomber into the Alsatia's hold, next to the two ships I own. We flew, discreetly, to the Galileo system. Upon reaching Padua Base, we offloaded the "Push Button", as it is known, and after a quick brief flew in formation out to the tradelane.
"Mate" shot out the lane's generators and took it down. Now all we had to do was sit and wait for something to drop out of it.
Sure enough, after a few minutes along comes an unescorted Samura transport filled to the brim with H-Fuel. "Mate" opened comms and told the transports' captain about how he should sit still or get fried, how if he tried to run lovely things would happen to him, and how his family would be sent parts of him in boxes if he shot us up. Naturally, the captain agreed to our request.
The rogue, using his battle-hardened skills, demolished the clamps holding the fuel canisters to the transport. As he did so, Misaka begrudgingly picked them up with the Railgun and shoved them into the open cargo bay doors. While they were doing this, I kept an eye on the scanners to ensure no Navy ships appeared on the scene.
After a few tense minutes had passed, the Samura transport had been stripped bare and given orders to disappear. The three ships sped off towards a secret jumphole, the location of which is known only to a handful of Rogues and allies, located well off the travelled areas of the system.
After about 5 hours in space we had reached our destination, the capital home system of the Liberty Rogues. An impenetrable fortress, guarded by 3 Cruisers of the same design as the Maelstrom, greeted us on the other side of the jumphole.
The big boss of the Terre Haute logistics department (if it can even be called such a "professional" thing) paid me my dues for the cargo, a healthy 500,000cr for each canister. I paid "Mate" his cut of 50%, leaving me with a million credits for my effort. Not a bad sum for one day's work.
I attempted to bribe Misaka with some of the credits. That didn't work. Then I tried to bribe her with my body. That didn't work either. Tried bribing her with food. That worked, for a little while. But she is completely against this line of work.
We went out again yesterday. Much the same as above, except it was in a different location. We camped just inside the dark matter cloud eyeing the Reppu Bend for any tasty transports that came along. Sure enough, an unescorted convoy presented itself after a short stakeout. It consisted of two trains and scans returned steel plates, girders and angle iron. The Rogues pay a very handsome price for steel and alloys as their cruisers consume vast quantities of it during construction. I should know, I'm trying to build one.
The trains were jumped and given the same spiel as the Samura transport from the other day. Once again, the Rogue skilfully procured our booty without killing the cooperative crew. We cheesed it back to Terre Haute where I received a very handsome sum of 2.5 million credits after splitting the profit in half with "Mate".
Easiest money I've earned in a very long time. I might be getting a bit addicted to piracy, now. It's invigorating not knowing if and when a Navy patrol is gonna rock up and start cracking heads or whether the transport is going to take the chance and start blasting.
We will be enjoying the hospitality of the Rogues again tonight, who seem mighty pleased to have women on board, before heading out again. Just looked at the clock and it's 7AM by SUT time. Hmm. Time to get some sleep, I think.