Vigilant Bard on course to Black Hide.

After several days scouring for materials and salvage on the Luminous Vim I’m back to the ‘Bard. Too many cargo runs for Li-Yong-Rui have left me wanting for something nimble and quick. Now, I understand the irony in referring to the Python as nimble or quick but it’s an improvement over the lumbering maneuvers of the Anaconda.

I’m ever wary for pursuers. It’s been weeks since my usual suspects have interfered with me. And actively sporting the social flags for Li have put me on alert. And yet nothing. Hundreds of units of flyers and industrial equipment have left me somewhat bored. All told, the most exciting thing to happen was a mild overheat while scooping a star coming back from a wreckage site.

Worrisome to say the least.

Thargoid attacks have pushed deeper in human systems. Deciat was hit and support is flowing in to bring her back into working order. Meanwhile wanderlust has found a team who’s beginning another jaunt into the far corners of our galaxy. So it looks like business as usual. I like that, the sense of normalcy is appreciated.

Here I reside on Broo’s Legacy. Remote tinkering outpost for some remarkable engineer capable of eking out improvements. A soothsayer for lasers.

A redress on my ship, the Vigilant Bard has left me considering renaming her. Malicious elements caught up to me a few systems back. While I took care of them with little trouble it’s made me think that i’m over due for covering my trail and masking my ship ID once more.

For now, I’ll have to settle for some light recon duty and salvage opportunity while i’m in-system.

Thargoid attacks are something new, but nothing I trouble myself with. I don’t much think picking a fight with aliens is a great plan. But they’ve disrupted trade routes and supply chains. I pass through three systems on my way to Agrippa City that were suffering a shortage of medical supplies.

Hunting pirates preying on those medical transports was the order of the day.

GM Cephei. Why was I in GM Cephei?

Oh right..
I was being followed.

I had thought I was being paranoid. That the number of would-be pirates interdicting me was just unluckily high this week. But I indulged my paranoia once again.

Having your ship ID tags reset and your name obfuscated isn’t cheap. Several select bribes and a crate of Lavian Brandy later and once again I was merely some pilot in some ship plying the space lanes trying to make an easy credit. Using a series of independent and previously unknown brokers I selected a trade route moving easily obtainable goods. Nothing rare or noteworthy. Some medicine going one way, bismuth going another..

I had thought this was going well when the computer starts blaring alarms and the helm pulls like an angry bull. Interdiction. As is customary I throttle down and spare my FTL the stress of trying to evade. I figure, if it’s system security, a quick scan and I’ll be on my way. Unfortunately this wasn’t system security, unless someone in procurement decided that the time-honored Viper wasn’t meeting expectations. A lone Diamondback Scout greeted me with scans and conventional threats. Not a long-range combat vessel, certainly no match for my ship and my skills as a pilot. We danced among the stars for several minutes, his agility was outpacing mine and I was only able to land a sparing few shots but my beams cut deep. Not two minutes later his ship exploded.

The whole time they didn’t shoot back, just what I assumed was the jockeying for position before a well place railgun or plasma cannon shot. My suspicion was validated not ten minutes later when another would-be pirate, this time in something more dangerous, found me. Fortunately I found him on sensors first and made a short jump out-system.

The question became “Who had I pissed off?”

It took me a few days to get out to GM Cephei. A contact I’d made back near Ao Qin was promoted to foreman for a low-key mining opportunity out there. He claimed to have some information. The kind of information you don’t just broadcast over normal channels. He was vague but certainly emphatic that this information would answer a few questions regarding my current plight. In GM Cephei.

Of course I get there and he’s nowhere to be found. Nobody under his name on comm channels. Nobody who had even heard of him. Weird. Suspicious. I didn’t even leave my ship, this was too strange and I’m not inclined to wait for trouble to find me. several thousand light-year from home, I turned around and left about as quickly as I had arrived.