A Trading Nightmare

Aaargh!

I get to Redea and they have a completely different view of what my luxuries are worth. 158cr. 40 less than what I bought them for! So now I have a hold full of expensive paperweights that I'm stuck with. Theoretically I could sell them, but not much else is on offer as a good deal and I'm blowed if I'll take a loss on a trade!

After handing over the books (should have burned them, lying bastards) I pocketed the credits and headed to Pune-Anita to see if they had a need for luxuries. Their price was a lot better, but still under what I paid for them. They needed a delivery to Orlenon but i'm in a sour mood.

Precious little else was on offer, so getting out of here sounded better and better. Just then a broadcast came over the holotubes, "Dominators are attacking Antares!". Wow, that's just in the next solar system! Time for some action O'mallor!

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.

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!"

Open Space

After returning to Earth, they welcomed me back with fanfare. I've completed my training, I'm now a fully fledged Ranger!


As a ranger, the true impact of the Dominators was revealed; they control more than half the solar systems in the galaxy! I'm tasked to find out more information at Proturbance Research Station.

Hah, they are a set of comedians in research. "First you enrol in the Army, then you come to us to findd you you're fighting?" Good one. The Dominator information seemed sensitive, so I'll leave it off these open channels. Suffice to say that they aren't like us and not much is known about them.

A lot of the research oriented services on offer didn't seem to appeal apart from enhancing components of my ship. It's a pity I'm a poor boy because I'm sure I'd like to improve the performance of just about everything. The only thing I could afford was an upgrade to the 10 tonne fuel cell to make it hold 22 units of fuel. Almost worth swapping out my 27 tonne tank for the extra space. Actually a quick glance at the starmap and there's nothing past a 20 parsec jump in range anyway. There may be other jumps that need the extra 2 units of fuel, but for now I'll swap over.

They also showed me a research droid that is able to locate abandoned items on uninhabited planets. Sounds worse than scumming for rocks, but at least you don't have to wait around while it does the scanning.

Now it's a trip to .. well .. anywhere. There's no set agenda now apart from taking down the Dominators whenever I have the chance. I might pop back to Earth and see if they know of any more problems to fix ...

Back to Earth

I had to report back to Earth after destroying the robot, so another quick jump and I'm back in Sol system. The promise of another good trade coaxed me toward Venus first, but the rock trail led me over to Dream instead.


Uhh, how did they get in there? Maybe they misheard me order the new laser I picked up from The Golden Calf?
Maybe ;)

On Dream there was an AWESOME new ship. It was a special order from the Minnaver Space Docks, complete with droid tunnels for increased droid repair. Don't quite have enough, but it looks like an excellent buy!

Nothing else was worth buying on my way to Venus, so I left the hold empty for more rock collecting. There seems to be quite a bit just floating around the solar system. Why isn't anyone else hoovering it up?

At Venus I may have found the answer. My gripper was almost broken from overuse and took 100cr to fix! Still, that's only ~10 tonne of rock. I must have shunted close to 150 tonne by now.

The Venetian traders also had a repair droid for sale that I had my eye on last time through. It's an early model, but it's been enhanced from the normal 5 units of repair to 13 units. The trader had indicated that they help fix minor damage from, say, running into asteroids, and can also be a godsend in a dogfight extending your lifespan. Well, technically the hull's lifespan, but once the hull goes, you go. So I think the important thing here is ensuring I don't .. err .. go.

Most of my equipment (including the shiny new droid) had to be left behind on Venus to make way for ~230 tonnes of medicine destined for Earth. Prices for Equipment had reversed too, so I made a double trip to keep the trader in me happy.

There was enough in the kitty to head back to Dream to see if that Gaalian hull was still there. It was, and now it's mine. A dream come true! (heh)


There was a slimline gripper on sale too. It was pretty busted up, but worth the 1200 credits to complete the set of lightweight components to go with the new hull. Now I'm flat broke, but grinning from ear to ear!

The Golden Calf

After the explosion there were salvageable parts left drifting, a laser and a fuel cell. I nabbed both and headed to the closest port, a Business Centre called "The Golden Calf".

It turns out I have a mounting point available for another weapon, so I may as well install the salvaged one. The fuel cell is light at 10 tonnes for 15 units of fuel, but still too small for a serious jump. Might hang on to it anyway, could be handy keeping some fuel in reserve.

Since I'm at a Businesss Centre I checked out what other services they have on offer. They offer loans as well as investment opportunities. A long term loan looked Ok since 2595 days sounded a long time until they wanted their money back.


You can also organize to get a trading analysis done to see what goods are worth shipping. For 32cr it's a bargain. The analysis revealed a previous trading circuit: Medicine from Venus to Earth.


.. Wait, what? Medicines FROM Venus?

I guess the medical crisis is now over and they've realized that they now have far too many medicines (because I dumped them there) whereas Earth have none (because I took them from there). Oh well, I better get back over there and rectify the situation (and make a profit, teehee)

Astaron

Hyperjumps were a piece of cake. Point & click on the starmap and everything else is autopilot. I was expecting stars warping and my body being strecthed to infinity, but it's not that bad at all. Inside hyperspace it's like a glowing tunnel; hard to describe really.

We flew from our exit point on the edge of the solar system to Astaron with only minor diversions to fill my hold with rock. Astaron is another Human colony with an orbit close to Earth's, but the surface looks more like Mars.

Digging through the spare parts on offer I found a lightweight Trasion Scanner to further increase my default carrying capacity. The trader let me in on a little secret though, the more expensive the item the more expensive the repair bill. With this scanner being double the price I could expect to fork over double the money in repairs too. Maybe the expensive lightweight Radar wasn't best option?

The chancellor made sure I had refuelled after my first jump before giving another task to shoot down a moving target. Whoah! Space combat! Awrighty!


You're on IP-4.. err .. robot.


Nearly got ya! (and so did the Asteroid!)


And there he goes. Piece of cake!

Tagging along is another pilot called Orollin. He's a wannabe Ranger, but didn't have the credits to get started (thanks again, Dad). He was so impressed that I shot down the droid that he offered to follow me around for a year to 'learn from a real Ranger'. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was only a training mission.