Runaway Hypnotist

Flushed with adulation, I partied on for a couple of days on the planet surface before looking to move on. Since I had to get my money back at Hese, anoth request heading that way would be nice. The commisioner dug through his options and gave another oddball task: A Gaalian hypnotist had tricked the Pelengs into forking over a wadful of money, so, in typical Peleng style they want him eliminated ship and all. It sounded more like a way to piss off the Gaalians, but with the mark currently cruising Regulus it was the right direction. Over 10k for success too, that clinched the deal.

After 2 jumps back to Regulus I managed to spot him off scanner heading to a jump point. I floored it and caught up to him 1/2 way to start doing rethone business, but he managed to jump with 1/4 hull remaining. I matched the jump to Eyron (gotta love the Black Goo for refuelling on the fly) and completed the contract before he made it to the safety of a planetary dock.


As the Ranger Base was only a few days away, I popped over to check if there were any new developments. They had another set of micromodules on offer and the cheaper 3rd tier one looking interesting. Better hull rigidity and deflection for only 60 nodes. That put my credit back to the starting 200, but it should make my ship tougher still to drop in combat.


in another life I would have tried my hand at Antares or another Dominator controlled system, but without support I doubt I'll be effective so I returned to Hese for a heroes welcome and a 9k windfall. With a bankroll over 43,000cr and another 10k back at Murratz, it's time to keep an eye out for a new ship.

Pizza Baron

After hunting down a pollutant, the next obscure task the Gaalians had lined up for me was representing their planet in a pizza competition. I'd downed my fair share of pizzas growing up on my own, so I thought it would be worth a shot.

2 jumps later and I arrived just in time for the competitions to start. I fronted up to the sign in booth, but before I could complete the registration I was whisked away for an interview. The audience started to get behind me hearing I was representing a planet so far away, but the next question floored me. "Have you been in a pizza maying competition before?". MAKING ??!? Well, uhh, no. Honestly I've never made a pizza before. The crowd went wild. I found out later on that they love an underdog, and anyone entering the galaxy cook-off without being able to cook had them in fits of laughter.

The Gaalians wouldn't be happy if I rejected the competition outright, so I thought I may as well stick around and have a go. The first couple of rounds before mine were eye opening. Each group had a different set of judges to cook for, and the tastes varied wildly between meat-eating Maloqs, vegetarian Faeyans, seafood loving Pelengs, exotic Gaalians, and well-balanced Humans. Contestants tried to balance their effort to appease as many judges as possible, but some combinations were almost impossible. What do you do when you have both a Maloq and a Faeyan on your judging panel?

When they announce my division's judges, I blessed the stars. 1 human and 4 Faeyans! My luck was sweetened when a shadowy Peleng offered bribes for perfect scores from one of the judges. With the human out of the way, all I had to do was concentrate on cooking up vegetarian for the Faeyans!

With a vast array of toppings available in kitchen stadium, our group set off with a frenzy to build a masterpiece. I headed to the fruit stall first and grabbed a little bit of everything. Starting with what looked the most exotic, I layered on the toppings in a brownian motion. The crowd were really behind me, so I kept adding more veggies, some for shape, some for colour, some because it was there.

Eventually all pizzas were baked and ready. The tasting began and silently the judges marked their scores while the crowd were chanting out their predictions with fanatical support. Such a dichotomy of worlds. My pizza was up next and a fanbase I never knew chanted my name. The stadium was surreal. Is this actually happening? The first Faeyan judge happily rose a 10 from his deck of cards and the crowd erupted. Another 10 delivered silently kept the crown on their feet. Amazing! Is this for real? The third Faeyan pondered, and then, too, rose a 10. Perfect score so far! The human was next, and had been in a grumpy mood all night with his scores following his downward attitude. I guess you can't blame him having to put up with vegetarian pizza
time after time as the contestants played to the strengths of the panel. He looked nervous, but produced another 10 that lifted the roof! Four 10's, one more judge "Could this be a perfect score? Has that ever happened before? Who is this guy? Did he say he's never made a pizza? Surely we've been suckered in?" The last judge rose from his seat, attempting to calm the crowd. He intimated to speak, but the crowd noticed the card held absently in his hand. Another 10 was on it's way and the news drowned out the judges remarks. The roar was deafening!

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.

Battle for Hese

Klaxxons rang as the warning spread through Ranger Station Agate, "Dominators invading Hese!". With the new engine upgrade, Hese was within a single jump, so I responded to the call to assemble for the defense.

A scan of the battlefield on exit into the Hese system revealed we may have the upper hand. 13 system defense battleships still remained, with 5 other rangers rushing in to help against a meagre 2 urguants and a smattering of smaller ships. The battle was over before I got there, and the remnants of alien technology were being scooped up by an increasing number of rangers. I managed to claim 38 tonne of nodes and 2 intact devices as the flotilla of scavangers, now numbering over 10, headed back to the scientific base for compensation.

Pirates

On my way to Meredito, the closest planet, a transport hailed us for support against a pirate. With revenge on my mind, I punched out an affirmation and set sights on the robber. He turned to flee, but passing close to the other planets, more and more traders joined in the hunt to clear the skies for safer trading. 6 in all were baying for blood, and with the rethone cannon slowing him down, the mob descended to tear him apart.


Back at Meredito I dropped off some cheap luxuries and equipment picked up from the Scientific station as well as a couple of fuel containers that were the last remaining vestige of piratic activity. Rumours in the mess hall indicated an armada is forming to take back Antares, but I've had my share of Dominators for now. The Gaalians have some rare Peleng critters that they want to donate back to them. Oh man, livestock transport? Is that all you've got? Think of the credits, think of the credits, think of ...

Regrouping at Hese

The closest jumpgate led to Hese and my hull barely held up to get me there. I was glad to see the other side of hyperspace and floored it to the closest habitable platform in case they followed.

The staff at Scientific Base "Quantum" were non-plussed with my report, and chided my escape without any Dominator components. They were mildly interested in the nodes, but mentioned that they had been sending all their nodes to the Ranger's Base. Sold off the lone component I managed to snaffle, a deflector from a destroyed human battleship. That and a score of minerals that made their way into my hold.

With a bit more cash in hand, I looked into their upgrade services for equipment. The scanner had let me down being unable to penetrate the Dominator's shields, so it was the first target for improvement. 1200cr to get it ramped up to 14% penetration, but that should do for now. Unfortuately that's all I can afford at the moment.

After reflecting on my performance against the Dominators, I definitely need more forepower and possibly a bigger ship. I'm super impressed with the repair droids and the extra tunnels through the ship. They saved my bacon through that fight. I need money though, and deliveries are sounding pretty good right now.