The trip to Sag A went well, and we docked at that station that's a few systems over called Explorers Anchorage. While there I completely neglected to repair ships integrity and made it back to Ray Gateway showing 18%. I dunno what happens when it hits 0% but I imagine its not good. I was helped along the way by a carrier that jumped a couple thousand light years with me on it, so I'm sure that was a factor in my safe return.

Anyways, that being done I am now in the process of fitting out a Type 10 Defender for mining. Also I have pledged to Aisling Duval, mostly for the prismatic shields, and partially for the free credits and Empire missions.

While out and about in my SRV, I heard the sound of a ship flying around. I assumed it was just Sloopy VI going to wait for me in orbit, but the contact was orange on my scope. I jump into the turret, and target up, and its an Orca. OK an Orca. Respectable legs to get out this far, I guess, because on my way here I didn't see a solitary soul the entire way. The closest station is Morgan's Rock, about 7000 light years back down my route. Not an unreasonable haul for an Orca, which took a few laps around the Site and jumped out.

A few min later, another ship. Another Orca. So, maybe the Site is a tourist spot. No worries there and I go about my business of exploring the surface. Not really easy because there are NO flat spots except for the site area. Yet another ship and this one happens to fly right in front of me. Its not an Orca, its an Adder. Now I'm wondering where these ships are coming from. 14,000 light years round trip in an Adder? Nah.

Might be more to this, Ill let you know.

So I guess you can say we took a slight detour to Hawking's Gap, and found the Hawkins (not misspelled) Gap Alpha Site. There's a bunch of stuff on the ground and it looks like a bigger Dav's Hope. Also a four part settlement log, which alludes to something else that is around that place. Probably no mysteries there, but maybe there's an off chance of something to discover. Maybe a crashed ship or alien site or something. This site was allegedly built to keep an eye on a Thargoid civil war, so maybe some Thargoid stuff is available here. In any case, what with my wingman headed off to Florida (in real life) I will be here a week. Lots of exploration time.

Good thing I have two SRV and a lot of ingredients to make fuel. On that note I'm happy that I brought the AFMU along because wear and tear on a ship over thousands of light years is a thing. I may just keep that on board permanently. Never know when you will need to fix life support or something. Plus, if you die out here, you get to go all the way back to your last station. No thank you.

So im back. With an A rated Conda so I can actually do stuff that I couldn't before. Like make rank. I am now a Post Commander, so I guess you could say that I've been doing the grind and I'm about 50% from that Vette that I have my eye on. Wonder how much THAT'S going to cost to A-Rate? In any case, my brother (Redshift) and I and maybe a couple others have decided to make the trip to Sag A and see what all the fuss is about. Its probably going to be slightly underwhelming, but hey, there's a badge for that on EDSM and you know its all about the bling.

Upon my return to Ray Gateway from gallivanting around the Witch Head area, I have found that a group a undesirables has shacked up there, ganking all who show up looking like an explorer. Oh well...they didn't bother me, and also that's why I fly a tank. Just in case. Last actual CMDR that jumped me wasn't thinking straight, and also the Conda serves as a gravity well, preventing smaller ships from jumping quickly to safety. Now I just have to make the thing faster.

On ships, I understand that the Fed Corvette has a crappy jump range, although "crappy" for some is "more than I had before" to others, amiright?

In order to get that shiny new Federal Corvette, I need to get promoted. So the grind began a week or so ago and I am almost done with lieutenant... and most of the missions are black box missions, illegal or otherwise. That's where they send you to some system where everyone hates you and you have to retrieve the black boxes from destroyed (presumably Federal) ships. Usually under fire.

So I park Sloopy IV in the middle of the debris field, let loose the max number of collection limpets and wait. Generally, three guys in Sidewinders/Eagles/Cobra III will show up and declare "What do we have here?" To which I respond by vaporizing the nearest one. Then they all fly right at me, like idiots, and meet their doom. At which time I am about dome with the mission cargo, so I scoop up the bits of ship and illicit cargo the pirates were carrying.

Then I hop out and go to the next one, and the next one. Ugh, why do they have to be 10kls from the jump in point....

The grind continues.

OK soooooooooo I'm not sure how I end up in jail after popping a dumbass that jumps me, but whatever. In any case I had to fly back to Ray Gateway with no fuel scoop (again) after being the stand up guy that I am and handing myself in. Does that get you anywhere? Anywhere at all? Well.... yes. It gets you unceremoniously tossed in the klink. Also, I may have accidentally blasted a cop that was "helping" but that would have been totally avoidable if he hadn't flown RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME at a range of 1 meter whilst I was blasting away.

Whatever.

So then I re tooled the Sloopy V (Python) to NOT do mining because mining sucks marinated goats dicks and a mining laser is worthless for scaring off pirates. Seismic charge launcher doubly so. So I now have 200 cargo so I can raise my trade rank and also get points for advancement. Thats how it works right? So then after I do all that I also need to raise money for a horribly beweaponed big ass ship that is laser proof and can carry anything I want and also kill Thargoids at will. If I find any.

Which is another thing, I really need to find a Thargoid and find out what happens when I shoot it.

Whose leg do I have to hump to get promoted around here?? I mean seriously people, I need to buy a really badass ship (cough Anaconda! cough) and I don't really want to shell out a bunch of credits to A rate a Conda, so all of you can just shut it.

In any case, I didn't really want to beat up on the BJP today, so I took a pile of random courier missions to random places.

All the places you can see in my flight log, but it doesn't point out that pirates have taken to interdicting you instead of just scanning your empty cargo hold. After about the third one of these, someone WANTED interdicted me so I submitted and found an Expert Krait II. Blew his slow turning ass up, and was shocked to see the bounty in the upper right screen was six figures! I could make a living bitch slapping pirates who interdict for no good reason.

Flew a basic meds cargo mission (yes, in a Fer de Lance) and got to see a few new platform docks too. BTW not all platform stations have gas... so that necessitated a few extra dockings because my FDL has a limpet controller and cargo bay instead of a fuel scoop.

Anyways I get back and saw that i was finally promoted to Warrant Officer! Wow, that gets me... well that gets me nothing in the new ship department. Damn.

Standing in the hangar, staring at Sloopy III and Sloopy IV. What do I want to do? Explore? Find another system and get credit for it? So I go to the mission clerk. "Hey bro," I say casually, "What do you have for me?"

"Oh! There are some EXCITING missions for you Commander! Black box ops, surface mapping, cargo runs, wetwork...you can even get a few Federation approved extermination missions!"

"Yeah?" I asked, "who does the Federation want dead today?"

The clerk showed me the list. And there it was. My calling for the day. Exterminate 8 Balante Jet Posse criminals for 2.2 mil. I had him throw in all those other extermination missions too, since they all involve blowing up BJP ships. "Thanks bro!" I called as I headed for Sloopy III, my mildly engineered killing machine. The clerk stared at my back oddly, shaking his head slightly, wondering what "bro" meant in human parlance.

I exit Ray Gateway and FSD to Balante. Supercruising along I start ticking through tar-- I mean, ships running through the sector. Clean, Clean, Wanted but not my target, Wanted but its an Elite Anaconda and fuck that, and finally, A wing of three Eagles, all BJP and all Mission Targets. What luck! One interdiction later I am in a flaming furball with three very annoying Expert BJP Eagles. Lucky that are slow and lightly armored. As I finish off the second one, another ship jumps in and starts bashing away at me. I figured it was a big deal because Celeste started talking, which, in a battle, is hardly ever good news. I concentrate, dispatch the last Eagle and turn to see an Adder, and the scan says Dangerous.

Oh.

So that's why my shields are almost gone. Alrighty then. Adders don't seem to turn well no matter who the pilot is, and I'm pouring it on when yet another ship pops out of supercruise. Man, I must have earned another demotion in the BJP! Celeste was silent so I keep my attention on the Dangerous Adder and finally finish it off (was that a dead hooker that flew out of the trunk?). With no shields and less than 70% hull, I was going to bolt, but I had to see who this last ship was, so I kept some speed and turned around to see...

...and may the good lord bless us and keep us it was a 1974 Faulcon DeLacy Sidewinder. I just stared at it for a few seconds, then checked the lower left panel to see Mostly Harmless, and Mission Target. No wonder Celeste was not saying anything. The absolute newest member of the BJP was here. So of course I blew him up because hey, I have to get 8 of these mahfahs. The AMC Pacer, I mean Sidewinder makes 5 and its off to Laplace Ring for repairs.

But noooo, on my way there I get interdicted (submitted) and turned to face the attacker since my shields were sort of recovered. Expert Cobra IV. Shortly thereafter, floating bits, and I resume my journey to Laplace. Land, Pay 90K!! to repair the Sloopy III and back into space to find two more BJP.

While looking for the BJP targets, my assassination missions conveniently showed up to be, well, assassinated. All fairly easy, limpets working overtime to pick up the mess and that possibly made me relax a bit. Now where were those other two BJP targets? I decide to try the Nav Beacon.

Long story short, they found me, and it was one Expert FDL, then another jumped in and while I didn't know what the second one's rating was, it was two FDL against one, so I wasn't really inclined to check the lower left panel. After a few tense moments, I finished the mission, and cleaned up the bits with my limpets, wonderful things that they are. By "tense moments" I mean that I left a trail of wing panels, access doors and cockpit glass on the way back to Ray Gateway .

When I left I was 89% along the path of Chief Petty Officer (ironically) and when I returned I was 93%. After all that, 4 lousy percent! No wonder they call it "The Grind"...

"Sooooo...." I said to the Mission Clerk "you're sure this deserter is only a combat Novice, right? I have new guns to test and if it goes south I don't want some whack job blowing me up before I can escape"

"Yeah sure he is, at least when he deserted he was" the clerk said, although he didn't seem all that positive. I already have 4 missions so I might just skip this one. But that little voice in the back of my head (not Celeste, my Fer de Lance's COVAS, but close) kept mentioning rank in the Federation, and these were Federation missions... "OK, I'll take it."

Packed up, climbed into Sloopy III, complete with shiny new 4A Multicannon parked on the huge belly hardpoint. The Beams and Multis on the other points were no slouches either, but I really hate it when some target bails on me just when I got them down to 3% hull. Because you know when you find them again, they will be fully repaired, even if you catch them right away. Strange thing, that...

Launch, FSD to Balante to see my good friends the Balante Jet Posse, home to deserters and displaces pirate lords galore. Oh, and they hate me. 7 seconds in system and one of my targets interdicts me and the game is on. I submit to the interdiction then accelerate to fighting speed and get to it. I glance at the lower left panel and see "Competent". Hmmmm might be a little tougher but no problem since the Cobra III is really no match for an FDL unless its running. Then I hear that little noise a ship makes when it pops out of super cruise right next to you. Quick targeting indicated an Expert in a Fer de Lance, and then that noise again. Another FDL with another Competent pilot. All this while bashing away at the Cobra III in front of me.

I thought about breaking into the Competent FDL, but I remembered last time I did that the other two rendezvoused on my ass and sent me floating away in space to the nearest station to pay my ship replacement fee. "No", I thought to myself, "stick to this one then get the other two. Right, Celeste?" Celeste didn't have an opinion, but that little voice kept telling me that the two FDLs were more dangerous. And it was a 1v3 so I should be prioritizing...

I broke into the Competent FDL anyway....

Aaaaaand the other FDL and Cobra found a spot on my tail and started whacking away. Did I mention the new huge multicannon on the bottom of my ship? Well its pretty fantastic if you can hold the other ship in its firing arc. I kind of got carried away with that until the FDL in front of me suddenly blew up, and I took a quick glance at the shields.... What shields? and what hull for that matter?? 42% and no shields! Well then, it looks like Laplace ring is right there. Stow the points, hit the supercruise, boost and move for dear life while you escape the gunfire (did I mention that the Cobra III is faster?).

BANG Supercruise...finally. 1 min to Laplace and then dock. Slowed down for auto dock and....nothing. Fantastic. Managed to dock myself without banging into too many things and shut it down for the day while the crap gets fixed.

I waved the sock salesman away and headed to the bar...and made a note to talk to the mission people at Ray Gateway.

"Incoming Message" the COVAS chirped. Well, not really chirped per se, but that's what it sounded like at the time. A far off chirp. In Sloopy IV, my Diamondback Explorer, it was Victor. Victor was prompting me to read a message, which I didn't want to read because it was just a thing about the degraded emissions I had just pulled from the wreckage of a ship. A ship that was 770 light years from Ray Gateway.

What in hell was this ship doing way the hell out here in Synuefe TW-R b47-0 anyway? Nearly 1000 light years from Sol, and I had not seen a station in probably 40 jumps. There was no cargo floating about, so no clues except for the data stream. Curiosity finally got the better of me so I opened the message, and all it said was "this data needs to get into the right hands".

Thanks, message.

"I wonder where this ship came from? Victor, what do you think?" I wondered aloud. Of course, Victor didn't answer. He only spoke when he wanted to, in his proper Queens English, and it wasn't always the greatest news. Always "Frame Shift Drive Charging" and "Landing gear deployed" and everyone's favorite, "Temperature Critical". The COVAS didn't answer your questions. Unless you had crew out here in the middle of literally Orion's taint, or a wingman or someone on Discord to talk to, you were on your own. I wonder if the Fuel Rats even came out here? On the plus side, you didn't have to worry about some douche canoe trying to interdict you way the hell out here...

I jogged a little left to ensure I scanned different systems, then set a course back to Ray, in the Diaguandri system. I was careful not to fly through Balante, as the Balante Jet Posse takes a pretty dim view of my presence in that system and I didnt want to get jumped in the relatively toothless Sloopy IV. Doesn't matter anyways, the only place i visit is Laplace Ring and that's to turn in bounties from all the BJP Pirates I killed. Maybe that's why they hate me. Oh well, jut remember not to buy socks at Laplace, those damn things are made with some weird material and they keep sliding down into my boot.

Didn't take long in the Diamondback Explorer, only 47 jumps. Thankfully I wasn't trying to explore in my Fer De Lance AKA Sloopy III. That thing has no legs whatsoever, but it does have a huge fuck off gun on the bottom turret so there's a trade off there. So, back to Ray Gateway and I decided to park it for the night here. I'll see to the data later, it will probably amount to nothing more than a trade for something else I need to engineer Sloopy III into an even meaner killing machine.

I need new socks anyway...