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The tasks on offer weren't that appealing in the Tallot system. It's right next door to Dominator fighting, but I'd rather still wait for better firepower. Through a scan of the records it seems Mars has a similarly small Lezka as the one I have, so a trip home might be on the cards.

With no time-based tasks to set the pace, I took my time getting back to the Sun by picking up flotsam and intercepting asteroids. There was a welcome surprise when planet Astron in Betelgeize gave me a reward for cleaning up asteroids on a collision course with that planet. Nice!



Arriving at Sol I popped back into Oldy Ranger Centre to check up on our progress and donate the nodes that had been clogging up my hold. Mars was next to sell off minerals, refuel, and pick up the Lezka that was still available (luckily, the last trip based on looked up prices turn into a disaster).

Mars also had an oversupply of luxuries, so if I can string together a couple of runs to Earth I could make a substantial amount of money.


2 trips netted another 5k, bringing my current total to 18,539cr. With 2 Lezkas and a full bank I'm happy heading back to the front lines. Maybe I can hook up a delivery going that way?

Ground Offensive

I actually did pick up one of those research droids. Felt like something to do while no-one was asking me to do stuff. Dropped it off a Neptune and it indicated over 300 days to finish a full scan of the system. I won't be waiting around for that.

Mars is next in line as a potential revenue source and the Chancellor obliged by requesting help in a ground offensive. I hadn't tried being a General before, but as an avid strategy fan back on Earth I felt confident it was something I'd like to learn.

The ground offensive started slowly with the enemy happy to sit back while I built up an invading force. The robots in use were the best-of-breed components for long range warfare, with mobility and healing thrown in for good measure.

The ground offensive went well with only 3 droids isolated and destroyed. All 3 bases were captured in just over 7 minutes, gaining almost 4000 credits and a wealth of ground experience. They looked impressed at the ease of which I finished the task. I just gave them a wink and said: "Computer games, mate. Pew pew!"

Mining (officially)

The next mission from Earth is to demonstrate how to mine. Haven't i done that already? Actually I've still got some rocks in the hold from the trip over, does that count? 

Apparently not. All recruits need to go out and shoot down the lonely asteroid and return with the remains. Ho Hum.

Venus arrival

Lasers definitely work on Asteroids. Managed to blast 2 rocks down into smaller chunks for pickup, but one still hit me !!?! Space is a dangerous place.

One of the pieces scanned up at 68 tonnes! That sucker would have filled the hull, but my gripper couldn't drag anything larger than 40. Maybe I can nudge it down to Venus? Nup.

The Venus landing pad was full of traders with the same idea; drop off medicines while the price is sky high. It didn't matter much though, the meds went for double the price I bought them for. Nice little tidy profit. They weren't so keen on the rocks though as the disease had halted production of equipment and ore was everywhere.

The government's placed an export incentive on the remaining manufactured equipment to keep the economy moving during the crisis. Basically means they're cheap. Cheap enough to buy and make another trip to the medical centre for another double-up in money. I still have rocks clogging up my hull though. Do I sell them here for a crappy 6cr a pop or hold on to them for 11cr at Dream? Choices, choices...

Rocks for Medicine

On my way to Medical Centre Dream, an asteroid ploughed into my ship! Shook me up a little and bent the mining laser a little. Hmm, mining laser. Maybe I'm supposed to shoot the rocks? The explosion left a couple of lesser rocks that the ship's scanner picked up as valuable, so I let the gripper do its thing and dragged them aboard.

Turns out the scanner was right. Traders were happy to part with more meds when shown the rocks I'd collected. Might be a worthwhile venture; I give you rocks, you give me money. Win / Win.