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)

Space Trip

Well that was 8 days wasted. Here's your rocks, now what?

We spent the day going through the nuances of the hyperjump drive. My engine has the ability of atmospheric flight on planets, space flight for between planets and now hyperjumps to travel between solar systems. My next task is to travel to Betelgeize, an 8 parsec jump. It all sounds good in theory, but there's been rumours floating around the mess hall about monsters in the empty space between jumps. The instructor waved away the rumours as hogwash though, and personally vouched for over 40 years of hyperjump travel without incident.

With 10 grand burning a hole in my pocket, I took a trip through Trader Alley to see if there was anything useful for my ship. The first purchase was a larger capacity fuel cell that held 24 units of fuel. That's the jump capacity of my engine, so it only made sense that I needed the same amount of fuel for the jump. The merchant agreed (don't they all?).

Next up was a lightweight Subtransfer Radar. The salesman mentioned the virtues of a sleeker design was that you got the same functionality with less hull space taken up (it's 1/2 the weight at 15 tonnes). That meant more room for trading and I'm all for that. It was expensive though at 4000cr, almost 1/2 my money.

So we're all set for a jump to Betelgeize, hope I get to write about it on the other side!

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.

10k

Earth has no more Medicine available for trade, Venus is out of Equipment too, but boy are my pockets full! The trips were getting so large I left all non-essentials on Earth to take even more cargo:



After a month I've made over 10,000cr. I guess I've mastered trading? Time to head back to Oldy and see what they want me to do next ...

Time vs Money

Another potential gain is to sell the equipment quickly. If you can make 500cr profit in 5days rather than in 10 days it would be better because you could then have the potential to make more in the remaining 5 days. Eventually all trades come down to a rate of increase of your credits. The faster the better.

As it happens, Venus is passing very close to Earth in its orbit as well as Oldy, the Ranger Station. Dropping off the goods there would mean a sale in 2 days or 4 days respectively compared to an 8 day trek across the solar system to Dream. Earth being the closest is an obvious choice as long as it has around the same prices.

Turns out it's got better prices! 95cr per equipment means that I'll rake in an extra 700cr over what I was expecting. Quick! Turn around and sell some more while the prices are running hot!

Raw Recruit

Today's the big day: 1st of January, 3300. Turn of the century and the biggest party this side of Rigel. Not for me though, I'll be making my own fireworks in the Old Ranger training centre.

Space flight is different than what I imagined. They steer like the aeroflots at home when in the atmosphere, but once you get out the controls tighten up and your bearings get screwed. Dad's advice was to travel fast and watch your back. Well, I got the first part down pat and it's AWESOME!

Ranger Station "Old" is a hive of activity. Here's a pic of my training instructor along with my omni-watch overlay to translate what he's saying:



Apparently the stories Dad used to tell me about the Dominators are real, and as a Ranger they are our primary task. We're free to tackle them any way we see fit though, so trading, mercenary work, or even piracy could be tolerated if it means getting closer to information about the dominators. They are still a little cagey about the details until I've completed the training, but I'm in no rush to meet them.

We've also stumbled across a couple of extra bonuses Dad had preinstalled, a Rethone cannon and an advanced engine. I guess he was serious about the speed:



Oh hey, that was me in the corner!

Speaking of Dad I found him in the list of Rangers too. They have somewhat of a leaderboard to promote competition amongst the pilots. I'm at the bottom with Orollin above me with a couple of missions already completed and some Dominator action. Nothing like my Dad though; 39 dominators killed to be 14th on the list!




We're also taken through a briefing on map reading. Our solar system is simply know as the "Sun" inside the "Qaragon" sector (what happened to the 'u'?). Phaavy and Khisha sectors have systems within one jump, although I'm told we'll be getting to that later ..



First mission is to fly back to Earth. If it weren't for the bio exam I could have saved myself the trip!