Having started to play X Rebirth, I figured, I'd put down my experiences in a slightly more creative way than a log book. Apart from the obsvious bugs, I love this game and the plot really is fun to do.
I hope you enjoy my adventures.
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Man on a Mission
'Highways, I can't imagine they didn't have them 40 years ago! Slipstreaming
is so much fun! Talking of fun. What would happen if I pulled the trigger
right about now?'
"Oops."
"Caution, large section of fuselage inbound!"
"Oh poop!"
"Hull integrity compromised! Engine cooling failing! Engine temperature
critical!"
'So much to fun! Better pull off the highway and abandon ship before it goes
boom!'
'Well, that was interesting. At least the ejector seat was still working.
Note to self: Don't shoot other ships on highway unless own shields are MK2+
and fully charged!'
Looking around, I quickly realised that I was stranded in the absolute
middle of nowhere. Two hours of oxygen in the suit and nowhere to go.
Nowhere, at least I was there already.
Drifting around aimlessly, waiting for that desperately needed bright idea,
I suddenly saw something in the distance. Jetting closer, I recognised the
shape of a ship, a pretty beat up ship at that. With only 90 minutes of
oxygen left, I was strongly inclined to take my chances.
'Help anybody!' That stupid manual door release is stuck and no tools around
to pry it open with. Well, I do have this blaster.
'There we go. Will need to get a new blaster though. Might keep this one for
shooting around corners.'
After I had made my way to the cockpit, I was glad to find that I could
enable basic controls.
"Life support system now online. Please wait for two minutes to allow for
purging the old air from the ship."
Ok, so here I was and had found myself a new ship. It didn't look pretty but
was quite a bit bigger than my previous one. Most of its systems weren't
operational but I managed to kick some life into the engines.
"Hello, anybody out there?"
'Distress call out here? I should be careful, as it may be a trap.'
"Ya, I hear you. What's the matter?"
"I need your help! System failures and all. Can I come onboard? Pretty
please?"
"Well, this ship has a docking bay but I'm not sure it is operational!"
"It'd better be, as I am coming in hot!"
Well hello. Hot girl inbound. Way to start the day!
"Uh hi, welcome aboard."
"Thanks, got a drink by any chance? You know, being shot down on a highway
must count as one the most unpleasant experiences. I hope that b******
choked at the piece of fuselage I sent his way!"
'Oops, embarassing.'
"Uhm yeah, travelling is so dangerous these days! You never know what will
happen next!"
"Exactly ..."
With that she left me standing in the docking arrea and vanished into the
cockpit. 'Better follow her quickly or I could find myself without a ship in
no time!'
"You know, if this is some sham to steal my ship, you should have waited
till I repaired it!"
"Oh be quiet. You do realise that most of your ships' systems aren't
working?"
"Ya, found it that way out there. Still assessing what is and what isn't
working."
"Found it out there? How did you get there without a ship?"
"Well, ah never mind ."
This girl had talent! In no time at all, most systems came to life!
"It's the Albion Pride, isn't it?"
"Well, actually the Albion Skunk, according to the ship manifests. I do like
your name better though. Any idea how we can change it?"
"Nope. Was given to me by my parents and I like it too much to consider
changing it."
"Well then not! I guess I had better take you to some station, ey?"
"That'd be terrific, thanks. I could call some friends to pick me up from
there."
So we stopped at the next station and while I used the time to improve my
account balance, Yisha, ya, that's her name, called some friends. Trading in
missiles and drones really works well.
The highway speed of the ship was bordering atrocious and I wondered how
that could be improved before I would happen to be passed by pedestrians.
The ship manual states that this can be improved by an engineer. Maybe I
should find and ask one.
Yisha suggested we visit an acquaintance of hers to fix up some damage the
ship had taken before I found it. Honestly, it wasn't me! The chap wasn't
too pleased to see her once he realised the reason of our visit. Can't blame
him. Regardless, apparently he owed her enough to fix the ship and fit it
with some pee shooters. These Masers wouldn't make much of a dent but were
one step up from 'no guns'.
"Why the long face?" Yisha asked me when I entered the cockpit.
"Well, I spoke to this friend of yours about our highway speed and there was
no conclusive answer to be had."
"Maybe engineers will only share such wisdom if they are on your payroll?"
"Wouldn't surprise me!"
"Having an engineer is actually not a bad idea. Add a few construction
drones and you won't have to worry much about repairing shields and guns,
without the need of a shipyard."
So I went to hire an engineer, only to find out that they don't appear to be
able to speed up this tub after all. Maybe I misread and it was a mechanic.
Back at the ship, Yisha told me that she'd like to tag along. I wasn't too
keen after our mutual past, which she was still oblivious of. However, she
had really kicked some life into this ship and all systems were go now. So I
felt a twinge of guilt and let her stay.
We had only just departed and I got a call from the engineer.
"Oi boss. I just checked the ship computer. Its software hadn't seen any
updates in seven years!"
"So? It works alright if you ask me."
"Well, not actually asking, just informing that ..."
"Thanks, consider me informed."
"But ..."
"But what?"
"Well, I was wanting to inform you that I upgraded it to the latest software
version. It has only just gone gold and hit the market."
"You didn't!"
"Actually, I did." He had this puppy look on his face like he had done
something terrific. The word I'd have chosen would have been terrible'. They
do sound very similar, I have to admit.
"Isn't that a bit risky with all the potential bugs and all?"
"Nah, good as gold. I ..."
"Huh, did we just blow the main breaker?"
"Err nope. I think the computer just crashed. Let me restart it."
It took a couple of minutes for lights and screens to come back on.
"There we go. Just a fluke."
"Well, let's hope so. Have you had any recent experience in suit less space
walks? We could do a refresher ..."
Fluke my buttocks! We had to have this discussion a few times over the next
days. With new software patches arriving on a daily basis, our journey did
get smoother again eventually. To avoid being blasted to tiny little bits
due to a crashing computer, I avoided fights for the time being.
Next we met this Borman guy or what's his name and guess what. He didn't
want Yisha on his ship either. Instead he paid me 50k to take her with me
for a bit longer. Ended up him transferring 100k but who am I to complain.
After we picked up my old trusty freighter and got it a crew, we spent the
next few days scouting the area with me trying to improve my account balance
and improving the ship. That actually did work quite well. Boasting some
nifty 2m credits in the bank as well as a police scanner and trading
software in the ship. Next step will be shields and engine.
When we got into a short skirmish with a couple of pirates that tried to
claim my freighter, Yisha appeared to have realised just how much she
enjoyed being alive. Under the disguise of doing me a favour, she suggested
we should visit a friend of hers to get some proper guns. Apparently
delivery of some 100 energy cells would be our ticket to the new hardware.
"You know, next time you are on a station, you should look around a little
for err ... unclaimed items. You can find those in ventilation shafts but
also in all sorts of boxes and even in lockers!"
I looked at Yisha in disbelief. Was she really suggestion scavenging through
other people's stuff?
"No seriously! These items don't have an owner, even those in the lockers!
People just drop their unwanted stuff for others to put to use."
Ok, so she was serious.
"I will think about it."
Anyway, next time on a station, I ran around opening any unlocked container
I could find and picked up quite a lot of stuff. Had to return to the ship a
few times just to empty my pockets. Imagine roaming through the station
balancing fifty space suits or three dozens of Teladianium panels on your
head. It did go ok for a while. The other day it became a bit of a
challenge.
That one day, when I roamed through a number of lockers, this voice
disrupted me.
"You do see me standing here, right?"
"Sure I do. Big shiny silver suit, hard to miss. You have to be a defence
officer or something like that, ey?"
"That's right."
"Well sorry, haven't got any job openings right now but I'll look you up
when I do. What was your name again?"
"You can see my name when you look at the door of the locker that you have
just cleared out."
"Oh right. Thanks, I'll write it down."
"You wouldn't mind giving me your name, would you?"
I think this as a trick question.
"No, I wouldn't but you already have a name. What do you want with two of
them?"
He looked puzzled for a moment.
"Care to explain what you are intending to do with my possessions?"
"Err well, I am from cleaning. We clean the things that are in the station
lockers and also the lockers. I am the one to fetch the stuff, another guy
will come and clean the locker."
"You are going to clean my Teladianium panels?"
"Sure, we launder everything, even money if need be! Besides, I won't ask
how you come to store these panels in a clothes locker. It's meant for dirty
space suits, you know."
"Huh? Oh, well, I mean, I thought ..."
"No need to explain. As I said, I won't ask. Come back in a day and you'll
have it all back."
This could have been a tricky situation but there is always room for
gullible people in this world.
Our planned rendezvous with Borman to finally free me of Yisha didn't
happen. However, something was different about the system. That's right! The
jumpgate appeared to be active! Not that there was any traffic going or
coming but we could see the swirl of the event horizon.
Sightseeing had to be cut short when Plutarch noticed us and started opening
up with everything they had. And what does precious Yisha do? She navigates
the ship through the only supposedly active jumpgate there is. Matter of
fact, the gate really was active and we ended up in somewhere else. I must
admit, when thinking about somewhere else, I always imagined it to look
different.
"Look, there are ships. They look different, a bit like Terran ships."
This call from Yisha woke me up from my short but certainly deserved rest.
Terran indeed.
"We are being hailed."
"So what? Open a channel and tell them that we come in peace, one piece
even, and the usual chat-up lines. Maybe they'll buy it and won't shoot us
right out of the sky."
"They invite us to land. You go and talk to them."
"Why always me?"
"Because I just spoke to them through the comm."
"Keep the engines running, in case they are cannibals."
The chat to their leader, Pedro Nakano was his name, was interesting. Looks
like they have been stranded for ages and without connection to anybody
else. With all that space around them, one wonders why they haven't managed
to build up their own society. Matter of fact, they didn't and I was too
polite to bring up the topic. After explaining our situation, they filled us
in with their background, which was quite interesting. I guess it stirred up
some emotions on both sides finding out we actually belong to opposite sides
of the old war fronts. Yet, with them and us both being in a tight spot, we
have good grounds for working together. So they ask us to go to some Crystal
Castle or so and meet this Karen woman.
If you associate the term castle with dilapidated structure, you will have a
good picture of this Crystal Castle.
Our entrance there would have made a Split smile. The moment we arrived, we
were entangled in a fight with these people's nemesis, calling themselves
the Reivers. After killing the raiding party we land. Nice lady, even
offered us some free Terran shields. Well, would have been nice some weeks
earlier. The Behemoth MK2 were made available at a very cheap rate, maybe
quarter of normal price. But they weren't a match to my Dashings MK2, so I
was not going to commit to the trade.
As we had some idle time at our hands and nobody appeared to be shooting at
us, I went for a stroll through the ship. You could have fooled me but I had
the distinct impression my crew wasn't on their respective posts. And fair
enough, the snoring from the bunks resonated through the sleeping quarters.
I have a feeling Yisha might wake them up whenever I tell her that I am
going to see the crew.
Heading back into the cockpit, I noticed that my seat wasn't swivelling as
it usually did.
"Shouldn't that chair of mine be swivelling to make it easy to get in?"
Yisha was quick to respond. "Ya, it should. But you haven't seen half of it
."
I realised what she was referring to when I opened the map.
"I am so going to kill him! Still graphics issues!"
"Try landing on a station and returning to the cockpit. Or go see the crew
and come back. That sometimes fixes it. No promises, though."
"Great advice, thanks! As for crew, they are all sleeping."
I could be wrong but I think she paled a little when I said that.
"How do you know?"
"Because I was just there and none of them was on their respective post.
Don't know what I am paying them for actually."
"But you didn't tell me that you were going to see them!"
"Ya sorry. I was also at the toilet at the same time. There was nobody there
either but that was a good thing because I couldn't wait any longer."
Thought so! She really does wake them up!
We did explore the sector a little, trying to get an idea of its potential.
When we reached Fervid Corona, there were quite a few Reivers harassing
ships and station. Trying to earn some brownie points, we blasted them to
bits.
At this point Yisha came around and started to feel more sympathetic to
these people. Perhaps she also just smelled a good opportunity to setup shop
without being harassed by Plutarch. Anyway, so we agreed to help these
people against the Reivers. First task was to free a hijacked freighter.
Easy enough to just camp at the highway exit and blast the Reivers to bits
as they arrived.
Yisha suggested that the situation in Albion should have settled and it may
be worth taking a peek through the jumpgate and check it out. Well, if we
are to help these people over here, we will need supplies from Albion. So
might as well go and have a look.
I wasn't too keen on going through the gate, as I almost expected a bright
welcome from a Plutarch fleet. However, their ships had dissipated and were
spread about the zone. Hence it was an easy task to sneak by.
There was this old meeting point of the Albion Heart organisation that Yisha
knew about. She suggested we'd go there and see if somebody would contact
us.
Sure enough, Borman had another lovely suicide mission for us.
"We need you to feed our data stream into the Plutarch news relay. They are
engaged in slavery and really bad stuff that we need the world to know."
"Sure, I have never done anything else in my life. Piece of cake! Do you
have a cable long enough? Oh, and should I get you a free subscription to
their late night channel also while I am there?"
This Borman guy had to be nuts.
"Look, we know it is going to be difficult but we couldn't find anybody else
stu.. err, brave, skilled and good-looking enough to pull this off. We'll
also give you these brand spanking new Beholder and Trojan drones."
"Try it!"
"Oh, you already got a full rack of drones. Alright, we'll keep them and you
just buy your own. How's that?"
"Whatever. So we go there, hack into the network and broadcast. That's it,
right? I am assuming your ships are flying CAP while we do this."
"Well actually, not quite. You go there, find a safe location, enter the
drone, hack the relay. And once you are done with it, defend the relay. This
part may entail you having to shoot stuff. Shouldn't be a problem for you,
though. Those plasma cannons you have, they used to be in my personal
fighter before somebody stole them from my station locker. So I know they
will shred through stuff no sweat. To ensure you don't accidentally hit any
of our ships, we won't send any for support. Means all the glory will be
yours. If that isn't cool, I don't know what is!"
He should have become a salesman. Perhaps that was his previous line of
business.
As I had scanned the station previously, I didn't bother with the Beholder
drone and just got myself a Trojan. Luckily I managed to find a spot so
close to a station, the Plutarch patrols didn't find my fighter. They must
have been quite baffled at the sudden disappearance of the Skunk, as there
were police ships scanning everywhere. I got a feel of that when I was
roaming around in the Trojan drone. Amazing how quickly they picked up the
drone and opened up on it! Goes without saying that they did more damage to
the station than to my drone. However, it did make the whole mission
unnecessarily tricky. They should have just sat still and allowed me to get
it over and done with. Anyway, after hacking through what must have been a
dozen interfaces, I finally found one that would grant full access. Mission
accomplished.
Next we were asked to meet some chick. Yoghurt or such was her name and she
was supposed to have possession of the Schwartz. Anyway, I am terrible with
remembering people's names. So this Yoolus was a bit of a celebrity in the
Albion resistance and turned out to be not that cute girl from the comm
screen but a Teladi of all races.
Looked like they were ready to make a move against Plutarch. If I wouldn't
like to join? I'd love to join and throw my life away ... NOT. Anyway, Yisha
would join that madness anyway. So against my better judgement, I agreed to
join. Naturally, also the small matter of me being the one hijacking the
prison ship smells like a lovely reward may be coming my way ... If we
survive, that is! I then did have this idea of boarding the prison ship and
get it under my control that way, just to be on the safe side, in case there
is no reward after all.
So I got myself a marine officer and some eight marines of varying quality.
The battle was rough. Considering I had never done such thing before, it
took me a while that my badly communicating marines refused to get on their
way before I had severely crippled the other ship. Taking down not only
defences but also any kind of propulsion meant major repairs were in order
should I ever get out of this alive. There were moments that I loved the
fact that I had upgraded my shields to Dasher MK2 recently. I think I might
have been toasted on a couple of occasions without them.
Eventually we appeared to have achieved our objective and dashed out before
reinforcements arrived.
Borman did still have something for me that he made out to be a reward. It
was a construction ship. Considering the price tag of building these babies,
I would have to agree it to be a decent reward. Still, it'd probably cost me
millions to turn this ship into that drone production facility.
To get this on the road, we returned to the DeVries sector and the
Canterans.
I decided to sell the prison ship. Netted me some lovely 26.5 mill and I can
use that money to build the drone factory. Will be building it close to the
shipyard. Bought a new container freighter, costing me some six mill with
all bells and whistles. This was sadly required, as Plutarch had seized my
old freighter while I was away.
The lack of availability of cargo lifter drones in DeVries was posing a bit
of an issue, as my brand spanking new freighter could do diddly squat
without them. So I employed the services of a renowned hacker to edit a
certain file and certain add a line. I was then able to help these people
out by buying and delivering food to a zone suffering from famine.
I do believe other traders had similar issues with these cargo lifter
drones, as there was an abundance of food available only a short trip away
from this zone.
A news story about the trading union calling for galaxy-wide strikes stirred
me up. Apparently, managers complained about massive delays in freighters
approaching loading sections of stations and then the loading process taking
way too long. To prevent that happening to me, I made sure I was always near
the loading bay of the station, guns charged, when I ordered my freighter to
go and get or deliver goods. This is a major hassle but I will have to keep
doing that during the duration of the strike. Overall it is still a lot
faster than waiting in another zone for a freighter whose crew has gone for
a smoke.
I believe my freighter crew is thus not best pleased with me but I have
bigger fish to fry.
Whilst scouting out the area, I come across this Reiver Titurel. It was a
bit of a dark moment when I had to get myself a completely new boarding crew
because the first one died a brave but sad death attempting to take over
that ship. Luckily local stock of marines was decent and even a marine
officer was available for hire.
Having a hunch of what might follow, the Reivers engineer must have
mobilised just about all drones and then some. During my second attempt, I
had to find out just how fast people (and drones) can work when their life
depends on it! I had only just destroyed one turret, so they had repaired
another! What a tough cookie. However, eventually my marines got to the
engineer and ... well, he refused to work for me. What can I do?
Anyway, ship only had 43% hull left but the overall stats encouraged me to
keep it. This thing could transport ANYTHING! So I got it a crew and would
sort out repairs later. Checking with the shipyard, it turned out that this
Titurel must be the Reivers' equivalent to our construction ship. Value of
ship: low. Price of hull repairs: low. Ok, I can live with that.
Visiting my construction site, I had to realise that these people don't
really provide much else than energy cells, despite the large margin I am
offering! I will have to organise the rest myself, I guess.
---
To be continued ...