All cashed up

Passing through Minnaver to collect my other paycheck from Murratz, I stopped in at the Business Centre to see if they could offer some financial advise to my current oversupply of money. They had investment opportunities with a 3% return per annum, but that seemed wasteful when we were in a war. Another option was to invest in spcase stations, and seeing Eyron already had a ranger station that I would dearly like to use more often (due to its close proximity to the Dominator battle front), adding a science station to that solar system would be very handy.


A pirate base would also improve the defenses of the sector, but might also make it undesirable to return to bleeding from battle.

I picked up my hypnotist removal reward and bounced around some trades in the sector before landing my next gig, a trek back to Eyron to deliver helmets for ... whatever. Does it matter? Just give me the cargo and I'll get it there. And have the money ready, I don't want to wait around. And make sure you let Ranger HQ know how good I've been, they are getting on my case about "Not contributing enough to the war effort". Maybe I'll buy a military base next time, huh ??!

Clean Up the Galaxy

The chancellors of Planet Rahalito had a different request than norrmal. A pirate ship has been terrorizing the Sol System, but it's not the piratic activity that has caused them grief, but that the ship is using old Chinese technology that is leaving a toxic chemical trail wherever he goes. They want him taken out to stop the pollution. I just need the money and a Ranger Centre to cash in my collected nodes, of which Oldy will do nicely.


The trip out through Minnaver to the Sun was relatively uneventful with the usual opportunist mining and trading. I dropped off the spoils at Oldy as well as locking in the nodes. The pirate was easy to find. Follow the smoking trail. Why a pirate would use a leaking ship is beyond me, but I didn't feel the need to ask him, just relied on laser talk.


With the kill confirmed, I hunted around for another task to take me back in the direction of Hese to collect my fee. Some rare artifacts to Regulus fit the bill, but I didn't press the negotiations on price as I wanted to check out how the scientific probes had gone.

Previously I had dropped off probes in Betelgeize and Tallot systems, so I plotted an arcing course through those systems to check on their progress. Both had just turned up some minor goods, but nothing of real value. One of the probes had finished so I packed it up for a fix and relocation to somewhere in Hese. The other still needed to cover some mountainous terrain, so it may as well stay to complete the survey.

The Regulus run garnered more reputation and an injection of capital, but nothing like the reward on offer back at Hese for the removal of the toxic ship. Once that circuit had been completed I was back to a free state with no obligations.

Childrens Books

The chancellor had another task waiting for me when I got back, along with a sob story about the Gaalian's child rearing inadequacies. They would be a lot better if they had a whole heap of our children's books, so they are sending 3 tonne of dusty leatherbacks over to get chewed on by an entirely different race. They are offering 2900 credits, so that's enough to spur me into action.

Looking at the star map it will be a 2 hop trip, refuel at Minnaver and then on to Regulus. Should be painless.

I'm finding the information search to be a godsend in more and more ways. First it had helped isolate the gripper I wanted, and now I've found out it lists the prices at far away planets! Digging up Redea (the final destination) and comparing back to local Mars prices it looked like luxuries would net a profit of around 20 cr each. It's a pity I'm still relatively poor, but the bonuses from the ground assault means I can take 23 tonne with me. Might at least cover the repair bills.