What a day, Had barely warmed up the Aerie and slipped my usual mooring at Trenton when a good friend of mine sent me a comm burst that he was on the way to pick up a new ship, but that there was a bit of trouble brewing in Texas, so, I kicked on the cruise engines and took the lanes to norfolk...
'lo an behold... there was a lane hacker gunboat, bold as brass making a fairly daring raid against a trading vessel, and dancing around the fire of the navy forces stationed there. Needless to say, I took it rather personal, since that ship was one of the guys causing my fellow captain's delay. My batteries spoke, and his shield disintegrated, and then I started blasting hull plating off into the void. He pulled a runner... down the lane... and of course I follow.
Dropped out by a disruption, my scanners lit up with at least 2-3 bombers, a pair of fighters, and the gunboat, coming about with weapons charged. Sounds grim no?
Well, lets put it this way, within seconds one of their fighters had a close encounter with the brand new battle razor class cannons i had recently mounted, while under a barrage from my main batteries. that ship LITERALLY evaporated.... After that, the fight went steadily downhill for them as I picked off the bombers, not only with the main batteries, but with sparing blasts from the Razors, and before long, the only remaining ship was the gunboat, who took a tremendous pounding, and beat a hasty retreat into the badlands.
Damn rocks... if I had only been a little luckier, I would have had that ship as well, but no matter, I have his number, and he knows it.
After that, stopped off at norfolk and picked up a few supplies and sold some of the loot from their combined wreckage. met up with my comrade and held over some paperwork while he switched into an old starflier for the trip into kusari space. The trip was uneventful, except for a tussle with what i -thought- was a bounty target in new tokyo, but it turned out that it was someone only related to the target... Bummer, but oh well, a criminal is a criminal.
Sat outside Yukawa shipyards as my friend finalized the sale of his customized Kusari destroyer, the "Broadside". God that ship is small... but for her size, she packs a wallop and a fair bit of stamina. Outmaneuvers the Aerie any day of the week to boot, but in terms of raw firepower and ability to stay on the front line, the Aerie still wins out. So, we took it on a whirlwind tour of sirius, breaking her in and so he could get a solid feel for the command of the ship. Scared the hell out of the poor ol black pearl in sig 13, a cruiser and destroyer staring his little gunboat down. Rough day for him i guess. Decided to test the Broadside's mettle against the nomads, so that called for a little trip through sig 17, and theta... and then into gamma, where guess who I met up with again... Captain |LEE| in his Osiris... the only transmission he sent was "Die Cowboy". I'll give him this much, he's got balls, but no damn brains... we cut that Osiris to ribbons in the asteroid field around the theta hole. He never stood a chance. Chalk up a second flag class vessel loss for the order in less than a week. My only reply while his ship was starting to break up, and before it slammed head on into an asteroid was "Die Lee."
Made a fairly solid amount of cash on the corsair pilots we picked up, and varied squiddies and their tech, then my friend decided he needed a rest and so we went back home to new york, he docked up, and I went on a little patrol. Good thing I did, found the outcast destroyer "Skywolf" parked at the manhattan lagrange. That marks the second time I've sent that ship down in flames so to speak. I wonder if the cardamine actually makes these pirates think their destroyers are somehow invincible... cause they sure seem to fly them as if they were. I'm all too pleased to teach them that they're anything BUT.
Anyways... done with the log for now, I have a good cold drink waiting in the mess, and a bite of food to eat.
-End voice log-
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.Cowboy : Back to being a bounty hunter due to Liberty politics, Flies a manta.
Gyrfalcon: The bounty hunting Bretonian corvette. At least, it will be if approved, Flown by "Cowboy" also.
LNS-Patriot : The little gunboat that could.... and then someday will be a beautiful LABC.
Freebyrd.II : insane trader/geneticist who has a whole hydro lab in his ship, he designs and grows his OWN.
Sky.High.Marin : Corsair praetorian pilot, with a love for fuzzy dice.
Kane.Taggart : Mad scientist in a hacker gunship being a buccaneer of the spacelanes.
==========================================================
*Feedback fades into the ambience of a fighter cockpit*
HELOOO.... IS THIS THING... AW DAMNIT....
*recording cuts out*
*recording resumes*
There, Jesus, I swore i lost this thing... managed to find some damn junker peddling it on Manhattan. Must have gotten it when they cleaned my apartment on Newark out.
Well well well, where to begin.... Uhh...
*scratching of a beard*
It's been a while i guess, Don't have the Aerie anymore, but I heard the Gyrfalcon's been impounded by the brets. Some smart cookie noticed it in the hangar here and had it shipped back to them as it was their design originally. Guess that's a good thing. Sent them a message, they said it's in the holding area in southhampton shipyard, but man oh man the fees are gonna bankrupt me.
As to where I been, well... took the Aerie into outcast space, had some hot tips on some gathering of big-wigs, was gonna roast whatever station they were meeting in and collect a pretty penny for my troubles. Sad part is, it was a damn motherf****** doublecross.... some slimy weasly bastard in the guild got wise with some cardi heads, sold em the info I'd be going to X spot at X time...
It was an ambush, ship was destroyed, but i nailed em good, and for my troubles, I was taken prisoner and turned into a slave. Guess they thought killin was too good fer the likes of me. I've been drugged, subjected to torture after torture, indignities without end... Hell, they even took my right arm, then, on a whim they had a cybernetic one attatched, and sent me to be a laborer. They underestimated my patience however. managed to steal little things, bits and pieces, they knew I was good with electronics so they had me doing real basic stuff, workin on station powergrids, greasemonkeying around the wiring of ships... course this wasn't the pretty stuff, this was the junk their own techs were too scared to do, too dangerous they said... yeah... chickens.
Where was I though...
Oh yeah... *sound of a long gulp from a drink pouch*
Ahh... yeah... anyways, scrounged up bit and pieces, improved my arm somewhat, even managed to find an old laser pistol some schlub had lost under the deck plating, got the core and components out of it and built it into the arm here... *sounds of flexing metal joints and faint servos* Bided my time see, managed to get em complacent about this dirty broken slave... got on a little ship, some borderworlds transport hauling scraps, skeleton crew, no real guards... That laser came in handy. I offed the crew, and stole the ship for meself, managed to bullsh*** my way back into lawful space, and sold the clunker off for passage back to liberty.
Now, I'm sitting in a Guardian heavy fighter, orbitting manhattan bewteen patrols. Workin as a contractor for the navy isn't such a bad racket, I don't actually get paid, well, anything beyond basic living expenses and free maintenance, but in lieu of a naval salary I have some measure of freedom in what and where I do things, and most importantly, how. Yeah, that's the key... I got some restraints, some rules i have to abide by, but I'm weapons free when it comes to pirate scum, and believe me, I been rackin up the killcount.
Anyways... gonna turn this thing off, time to grab a hot cup of joe and some grub, then it's back into the black with me, got more bastards in need of my brand of "law an order".
*the recording clicks off with the sound of warming thrusters*
==========================================================
.Cowboy : Back to being a bounty hunter due to Liberty politics, Flies a manta.
Gyrfalcon: The bounty hunting Bretonian corvette. At least, it will be if approved, Flown by "Cowboy" also.
LNS-Patriot : The little gunboat that could.... and then someday will be a beautiful LABC.
Freebyrd.II : insane trader/geneticist who has a whole hydro lab in his ship, he designs and grows his OWN.
Sky.High.Marin : Corsair praetorian pilot, with a love for fuzzy dice.
Kane.Taggart : Mad scientist in a hacker gunship being a buccaneer of the spacelanes.
==========================================================
*coughs* Ahh... yeah, uhm, well, hello again, got some new batteries for this thing. Seems to be more reliable now.
Been a boring day and a half, haven't even launched into orbit, been doing paperwork mostly, that and catching up on sleep.
OH! well, two developments, got an upgrade on the arm, had ordered some plating for it since, well, it wasn't exactly very pleasing to the eyes. Also got some new servos for it. Tested the grip strength out on my work table, thing's made out of moderately heavy steel, and, well, I dug an imprint of my fingertips into the surface, so, yeah, I think I'll have to take the doctor's recomendations and go with skeletal reinforcement treatments so I don't accidentally break any of my own bones.
Second development is I am now the proud owner of a somewhat stripped down marine assault suit. Works like an EVA suit, but has a compact shielding system and good thick armor plating, also has a lightweight exoskeleton built in, I'm gonna work on it and remove the right arm section since well, I don't need it, but it should make the rest of me at least closer in capability to what this arm can do.
Still waiting on my real toy though. Got a "compact" mag-rifle on order at the local gun shop. Thing's a miniaturized mass driver, capable of punching holes even in light ship plating, but it's heavy, and kicks like a mule. I have a feeling it might come in handy.
Anyways, I got work to do, finishing the paperwork for the damn rights to own this crap, and then the actual gear twisting I need to do. so, signing out for now.
-End voice log-
==========================================================
.Cowboy : Back to being a bounty hunter due to Liberty politics, Flies a manta.
Gyrfalcon: The bounty hunting Bretonian corvette. At least, it will be if approved, Flown by "Cowboy" also.
LNS-Patriot : The little gunboat that could.... and then someday will be a beautiful LABC.
Freebyrd.II : insane trader/geneticist who has a whole hydro lab in his ship, he designs and grows his OWN.
Sky.High.Marin : Corsair praetorian pilot, with a love for fuzzy dice.
Kane.Taggart : Mad scientist in a hacker gunship being a buccaneer of the spacelanes.
==========================================================
Got the mag rifle in today, took it out to the range for some practice, and god.... I'm in love.
Got three modes of fire, Semi auto, full auto, and overcharge.
First two, are self explanatory, spits out a five milimeter slug at something like mach eight or so, one pull fires on slug, or hold it down to spray them like creds at a strip club. The overcharge though, that is where it's really at. Draws a lot of juice to do it, so it can overheat and damage the coils, but man oh man, instead of the mach eight for the usual mode, this one spits it out at about mach thirteen... gotta watch the temp on the coils REALLY close though, they get too hot and poof... that's 20k down the tubes.
Anyways, planning a trip to see some old friends on Sheffield this evening, heard they had a surprise for me, and hey, I miss the bar.
I hope this surprise has red hair, freckles, jiggles in all the right places, and loves to do more than just lapdances.
-End voice log-
==========================================================
.Cowboy : Back to being a bounty hunter due to Liberty politics, Flies a manta.
Gyrfalcon: The bounty hunting Bretonian corvette. At least, it will be if approved, Flown by "Cowboy" also.
LNS-Patriot : The little gunboat that could.... and then someday will be a beautiful LABC.
Freebyrd.II : insane trader/geneticist who has a whole hydro lab in his ship, he designs and grows his OWN.
Sky.High.Marin : Corsair praetorian pilot, with a love for fuzzy dice.
Kane.Taggart : Mad scientist in a hacker gunship being a buccaneer of the spacelanes.
==========================================================
HAH! WHOOOO! yeah, I'm so damn happy I could almost... ALMOST hug an outcast... for twenty creds... and a case of fine drink...
What do I find when i reach Sheffield but some of my old training mates and a whole bar-full of rowdy raucous bastards ready and rearin to toast anything and everything! Not to mention... mmm... some of the female hunters, *makes a hissing noise* man... I'd have loved to get under the hood on some of those killin machines, know what I mean? hahaha!
But, Biggest news is, they pulled out my old wrecked Manta, patched her up and set her on the pad, pretty as a new penny!
*he coughs back something... almost like, tears?*
Yeah... eheh... uhm... well, since certain naval pilots been givin me flack for flying a guardian as an independant patriot, I decided I'd switch out my personal equipment and ship the fighter back... She was a fine vessel, served me well, but maybe she can serve some bright eyed young recruit at west point better. Anyways, party's over now, work you know... always gets in the way.
Heading back to Liberty space... Home...
Somehow though, it doesn't feel as much like home as it used to though. Saddens my heart to even say it.
*he sighs*
-End voice log-
==========================================================
.Cowboy : Back to being a bounty hunter due to Liberty politics, Flies a manta.
Gyrfalcon: The bounty hunting Bretonian corvette. At least, it will be if approved, Flown by "Cowboy" also.
LNS-Patriot : The little gunboat that could.... and then someday will be a beautiful LABC.
Freebyrd.II : insane trader/geneticist who has a whole hydro lab in his ship, he designs and grows his OWN.
Sky.High.Marin : Corsair praetorian pilot, with a love for fuzzy dice.
Kane.Taggart : Mad scientist in a hacker gunship being a buccaneer of the spacelanes.
==========================================================