Sivran's Auspicious Beginnings

[sivran]

((OOC: Hello, Discovery-FL! First-timer on online Freelancer. Be gentle. :$Most of this happened last night, though some is from a bit before that, last night was my first real session of any note, and boy, was it a lucky one. Afterward, I felt compelled to write it all down, and perhaps embellish, just a tad. Oh, and Hi, SpoolDonkey, whenever you get around to signing up on the forum. I owe ya!))


It had been several hours since he'd taken his first tentative flight into the cosmos, strapped into the cheap cloth seat of his father's beat up old Starflier. He still wasn't sure what he wanted to do with himself. Free of obligation to anyone, he had an entire galaxy of possibilities open to him. Yet, here he sat, watching the trade lane rings go by as he hauled scrap metal--of all things--from Fort Bush back to LPI Sugarland prison station. Not a very profitable venture, but relatively safe and it gave him time to think.

He'd already tried the more "exciting" method of taking on bounty hunting jobs, but found himself woefully unprepared for the task. His Starflier's puny weapons barely scratched the Rogues' Bloodhounds, and worse still his aim left much to be desired. Suffice to say, it was an experience he'd rather forget. Thus, he resigned himself to becoming a hauler for the time being, and a small time one at that.

A sudden bleeping at his comm startled him. Someone was trying to contact him, and it wasn't the all too familiar police scan. It was a freighter captain, coming out of the void to quite unexpectedly call upon our lackluster hero for aid. Nothing so dramatic as escort, oh no, all this captain wanted was a partner to help mine in the Colorado system. At first, Sivran was leery. Who was this guy? But, he promised riches, an equal cut of the take. And there would be more, Sivran learned later when the two finally met up in the Texas system.

"Let's get you a better ship," said the freighter captain, as he suddenly handed over more than ten times what Sivran had to his name, "this ought to buy you that CSV there. She may not look like much, but it's just a means to an end. Buy it, and we'll go make a small fortune."

Sivran was overjoyed. He gladly bought the Junker freighter, fitted it with guns far better than his Starflier could ever hope for, and rejoined his mysterious benefactor in space. The two headed out to Colorado, where they mined copper, and made a fair bit of money doing so. The other part of this money-making scheme, Sivran learned, involved Xenos. Xenos were plentiful in the field they were mining, and one could make good money capturing their pilots, as the Kusari would pay a not insignificant bounty for each. Sivran had no qualms with this plan. As far as he was concerned, the Xenos were just a bunch of terrorists, and, from what he had heard, even other criminal groups hated them, and he needed the practice flying and fighting anyway. So much the better to get paid, and paid well, for it.

They did this for some time, alternately mining copper and, in a way, Xenos as well. The trip to Deshima to deliver the Xenos into the hands of the Kusari was fraught with danger, taking them through the untamed Kepler system. As soon as they emerged from the jump hole which they'd used out of sheer convenience, they were set upon by Xenos. These Xenos weren't pushovers like their Colorado brethren. They flew Hawks, and fired cruise disruptors with uncanny timing. By the time Sivran had flown far enough away for them to break off, he'd used up most of his shield batteries. The payoff was well worth it however, as his cut of the take brought his personal bank account up over the two million mark. Now, this was a good day indeed, but his benefactor had even more generosity in store for him.

Whilest they'd been mining, a friend of the freighter captain's had shown up in the area, and the two discussed plans for later purchasing gunboats when they had the cash, and exacting revenge on some pirates. They had offered Sivran to join them in the plan. He accepted their offer, but commented, "I think a fighter would be more my style."

Now, his new friend--SpoolDonkey was his (fairly odd) name--said to him, "Come, I'll show you a fighter I think you might like." And so, Sivran followed SpoolDonkey to the battleship Rio Grande. "Check out the black ship," he had said.

Sivran was awestruck. The black, angular, almost evil-looking ship was actually within his grasp. He woulddn't have much money left over to kit it out, but it was within his means to purchase. It was called the Raven Claw, and it was much more than Sivran ever could have dreamed of. He'd never seen such a ship before, but now that he had seen it, he wanted it.

"I'm going to buy it," he told The Donkey, "I'll not have much left over to equip it, but I'm going to buy it."
"You should mount the class nine Magma Hammers on it, at least two. Then you'll be well set for killing," his friend suggested.
"Ah, I see them. I can only afford one."
"Take this then, and later, get some fast guns to go with the slow Magma Hammers. Some eco-chains, maybe."

Once again, Sivran was shocked at his friend's generosity, first buying him a CSV, then splitting the cut evenly from their mining operation, and now, giving him a bit of extra cash to equip his second new ship of the day.

With the transfer and kitting as complete as it was going to get, the two headed out for a brief bit of mining, and then, SpoolDonkey offered to try and find some more weapons for Sivran's new ship, but warned that the places they would be going would be dangerous. Having little fear of anything in his new--albeit underequipped--fighter, Sivran agreed.

Off they went, with Sivran barely paying attention to which systems they were going through, concentrating mainly on keeping formation with The Donkey so as not to get lost. In one system, they ran into a group hostile to SpoolDonkey, but indifferent to Sivran. Feeling a twinge of guilt at letting these "Dragons" as his computer identified them pound on his benefactor, Sivran engaged them. It was almost a fatal error, as they reached the jump hole to the next system just in time, and Sivran escaped with his hull intact.

"Suppose I'll need a full loadout to deal with the likes of them," Sivran remarked.

This expedition of theirs was not so fruitful. The Donkey led Sivran to a series of wrecks, but none yielded anything useful. In fact, none yielded anything at all. Exhausted, they returned to Kusari space, and retired to planet Honshu, if this writer recalls correctly.

"I owe you big time. I'm going to work on getting some guns for this ship, and maybe some spare cash, but I owe you. If you need anything, look me up." Sivran told his friend as they parted ways for the night.

It was a good day, an auspicious beginning indeed. But, there was one niggling little problem. Sivran still hadn't decided what to do with himself.

At least now, he truly had the means to do it, whatever it was he decided on.

((OOC again: Okay, so I had actually read the laws of Liberty before playing, but I suppose you could say, the law was the furthest thing from my mind when I saw the Raven Claw sitting there, beckoning me with its 1980s angular styling. Overwhelmed with SpoolDonkey's generosity and with the cash burning a hole in my pocket, how could I not buy this sleek devilship? Well, we shall see what happens next. Perhaps reality will come crashing down on our naive young protaganist here. Perhaps given the choice, he'll join up with the police, if only to keep his precious Claw. After all, Donkey was wearing police ID, though RP-wise he probably should not have been. Or maybe it was all a scheme to get him to join up.;)Or perhaps, he'll thumb his nose at authority, flee Liberty, and make his home elsewhere. Time will tell...

Though, in all seriousness, I do wonder: what's the population spread like here? Are there too many pirates? Too many cops? Is it somewhat balanced? Sivran could go either way.))

---

Brought to you by Sivran The Newb
I've suffered RSI in my right hand and am now even more useless in PVP. I now fly with a trackball!
\CS\Helkos - Teh cyborg Newb, formerly Sivran the Clueless Freelancer, gets pwned in PVP.
SmallTimeTrader - Teh Trader Newb, under new management!
Oracle|Randy - Randall Lamar, Teh Pacifist, Oracle-follower Newb (at least I don't have to worry about PVP on this char!
Texan_Twang - Texan Bounty Hunter, flies a Bomber, rarely played. Almost wish I could move him to another account and sell him.