I haven’t bought a moon, nor a mannor, nor have I turned my capsule into a chandelier (I would need a mannor for that, after all).
It seems I’ve decided not to retire yet… After all, I’m still young. But the question remains: What am I going to do with myself?
When I got my pod license, I thought it was the grandest job in the world. For a long time after, I found pure joy in having my ship’s sensors as my own senses, even with the pain it sometimes caused. I understood how Sansha and his freaks could get carried away in their pursuit of union between the man and the machine, because the experience is sometimes simply… Orgasmic. I have no other word for it.
I never thought I would ever want to do something else but fly a space ship. Be one with it. Have its alloy skin as my own, unimaginable freedom and violence only a thougt away…
Expect the unexpected, they say…
Now, over two years later, there are days when I feel physically repulsed by the mere thought of entering my capsule. Days when I feel I should just liquidate my assets, buy a moon somewhere out of the way, and enjoy the rest of my days (and I can expect many of those) in comfortable wealth. To put it modestly. I’ve done more, seen more, and made more money than any member of my family has ever dreamed of.
So why don’t I just turn my capsule into a chandelier and call it quits? I don’t know. But I feel I’m moving towards discovering the answer…
My head still hurts. I’ve always liked the job of the covert scout, because I still prefer not to get shot at too much, but the job of two days ago has left me a bit stunned.
Oh, it was all right in the beginning, if you can call an operation to bust Band of Brothers’ starbases in our space (well, officially, one of our holders’ space) ‘all right’… There was some confusion, I had no orders, and when they came, they were a bit too late. The fleet commander was a bit too jittery… No, let’s be honest, he was annoying the carrot out of me with his fluttering. But anyway. Dream in the Shadows (I’m using Cheetahs for this kind of work now) and I eventually got where we were supposed to be, and I was ready to work my magic.
For a while, it was business as usual. Moving around, unseen, looking for opportunities to provide warp-in points for the people with guns, flitting around from wreck to wreck trying to get into a good position. For a while. As the number of wrecks rose, and the drones left behind by destroyed ship obscured the intact ones, my confusion increased. I couldn’t tell friend from foe or a battleship from an interdictor. At one point, I wasn’t even sure where I was headed and why, and I couldn’t even control my ship.
I used the lull in the battle to get away. Not the most heroic thing to do, but considering that just the idea of getting back into a pod makes me sick almost two days after…
To repeat the previous conclusion, Vagabonds. Ishtars, too, now that I’m certified to fly them, and I like drones. I could try Deimoses, too, but I can’t use tech 2 hybrid guns yet. See where I’m going with this? Small fleets. Raiding.
No big fleets. Bad for health. And I’m not talking about clone activations.
Never attack a Vagabond in an interdictor. I should’ve learned that when I destroyed an Einherjar Rising’s Heretic in Y-MPWL five days ago. I didn’t really want to engage, since I was certain he had reinforcements nearby. He seems to have been certain, too, since he insisted on not letting me run, but he didn’t seem to expect it would be over so quickly. His reinforcements did arrive, but a minute too late.
Four days later, I went and did almost the exact same thing the Einherjar guy did. Almost, I say, because I was in a Sabre, faster than my target, I had a webifier, and my reinforcements actually were just around the corner. I still lost the ship (I blame the drones), but it was a calculated sacrifice made to insure that my target wouldn’t escape. And it didn’t, the Vagabond’s wreck joined my Sabre’s seconds later, so I’ll call it a resonable exchange.
The morals? Don’t try to solo Vagabonds in interdictors. If you really want to run, don’t wait till your armour has been penetrated to start. And finally, fly Vagabonds more often.
