More Musings from a Starship Captain

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Elkhorn
CE STAFF
CE STAFF
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Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 1:41 am

More Musings from a Starship Captain

Post by Elkhorn »

Nine years, yup almost nine years since I was exiled to this god-forsaken place. Hard to believe that nine years ago I was a wet behind the ears idealistic kid with grand ideas on how the universe should be, and how it should be run. I guess I was a little too impassioned about my beliefs and aired them a little too loudly. I was declared a malcontent and exiled from the Core.
I woke up in the Sphere with the title to a marauder ship, a hand full of credits and a letter of introduction to give to Jonas Hawk at Starbase 51. Make it or break it was the rule of the day. No safety net, no alternatives… That’s when I began to understand what the real world was about. I realized the safety net that was provided to everyone in the Core, but I also began to realize the trap we were in. I was right to be a malcontent. I was right to not settle for what was and to ask “what if?” Now was my chance to put my beliefs into action!
The first thing I realized was that this was a HAPPENING place! There was always something going on somewhere, in fact everywhere! Bots were rolling, gliding, walking everywhere pushing carts, pulling trolleys, moving things from one place to the next. And the people! People moving with PURPOSE! You could see LIFE in their faces! And now, I was one of them!
Jonas started me off and I began to learn my way around the Sphere. I did some minor crafting, a little bounty hunting, but I found my niche in mining, freight and passengers.
Like I said this was a happening place, growing, thriving, expanding. People needed resources to build things, and they were happy to pay good credits for them! Were there restrictions? Yeah, some; like the GBM, that’s Galactic Buyers Market, had minimum pricing on the price you could offer for the goods you wanted, and depending on where you went either GalFed or the Republic had their say over what went on, but it was like a dream come true to someone coming from the Core where almost every profession was monitored, governed, controlled and taxed.
Was it easy? Heck no! There were times I didn’t know where my next meal was coming from. Credits were hard to come by and every docking cost you, the bio-gen engines produced their own fuel, but it was slow. Then there was protection, you had to arm your ship or you would fall prey to a pirate, or just a down in the luck pilot looking for an easy mark. Slowly but surely I started turning a regular profit. I learned what people wanted most and learned where I could find it. Sometimes the legality of what I was delivering was questionable and that cost me a year in a GalFed lock-up but here I am.
The nice thing about the ships is everything was modular. It didn’t take a whole lot to swap out a cargo hold for a passenger hold, or to change out your load-out from mining to bounty hunting. If you had enough credits and the experience you could purchase and use just about anything… and I did. I hauled emergency supplies to starving colonies, mined asteroids throughout five galaxies, hauled businessmen and families from A LoOnY biN to Zwanziq Station, and hunted bounty on some of the oneryest vermin that’s ever slithered across a promenade, just to get another do-dad to add to my ship. Pretty soon I was able to afford some automated systems, mining, nebula harvesting, and the rest. Yeah, they still needed tending to, fuel, repair, dumping the hoppers, but they could be earning money while I was off on a courier run.
I reached the point where I stopped buying off the shelf ships and began having them custom built. Still modular, but I could trade out some armor and hull strength for speed and cargo space.
I staked out a claim on a planet and established a settlement. Sure, it wasn’t much to start with, but there were people out there just starting out and they were looking for places to pick up cargo and passengers, or just looking for a place to park their ship and get out and stretch their legs. One day I looked around my settlement and realized IT was a happening place! I was actually turning a profit! I could sit back and relax and let the credits roll in… I could, but then again I couldn’t.
There was the Expanse to explore. The technology they had was adaptable and applicable to what we had but better! More cargo space, more powerful weapons. I didn’t like the aliens, they were not only ugly, but hard to deal with. They sure didn’t care much for outsiders and there was one faction that just plain wanted to kill every human that showed up in their galaxy. It’s tough and I’m still trying to make my way but I am making progress.
I’ve started a second settlement and recently purchased a Genesis plot so I can take a hand in dealing with the AI threat. From the comms we’ve intercepted and been able to decode the Core might not be in very good shape now.
Maybe that’s what’s in our future, going back to the place that rejected us and rebuilding it, maybe in OUR image, doing away with the things that held us back, that caused us to be malcontents in the first place...maybe, who knows. The only thing I know is I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me right now with what’s going on here!
I’ll catch you later and maybe, for the price of a drink, I can fill you in on some of the specifics of my journey.
Rule of Acquisition #1 Once you have their money...never give it back!
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