This is a story about my character in the Elite Dangerous game. A story of love and adventure, with a taste of science and beauty of space ships. A diary written by Commander Rhea, passionate fighter pilot.
Read the first chapter before you start with this one =)
List of mini-chapters:
A few universal months later…
“Thank you, pleasure doing business with you,” said a man in a holofac display. “Likewise, you know where to find me if you need my services again,” I replied and terminated the connection. “Kirea, engage thrusters and open comms to the flight control.” *bleep* “Hello, this is Fer deLance Romeo Hotel Echo Alpha, requesting permission to jet,” I jokingly said and to my surprise I received the same grade of humour back. “Commander Rhea, permission to bail granted.” I chuckled, gently pushed the vertical throttle up, and boosted out of the Coriolis’ docking bay squeezing my Fer deLance between the Type9 that was just entering and the edge of the “mailslot.” It’s actually a lot bigger than it looks, you could probably fit two Cutters if you would try really really hard. “Damn girl i’m gonna fine you for that!” I’m not surprised, breaking speed limits and causing quite a lot of noise and shockwaves in there. I still like it! That feeling of sudden 20G’s accelerating from zero to 400m/s in but a second or two. The few hundred credits is a lot for regular pilots, but hey, I just earned a hundred thousand for escorting that Anaconda and taking out a bunch of pirates! Party time!
“Kirea open comms to Eric and set course to Achenar.” “bleep… bleep… bleep… Hello? Who’s this?” He sounds sleepy. “Hi! It’s me! Did I wake you up or something? I’m sorry I didn’t check what time it’s there.” - “Yeah it’s 3am, but it’s worth it, I’m really happy to hear you. How have you been?” We didn’t see each other for a few months, altho we do talk quite often. “Been busy, but I wanted to ask if you have some free time in next few days, because I do!” I’m so excited! “Frame Shift Drive charging.”
*Yawns* ..I’m so tired. This trip is so long. “Kirea open comms to Achenar air control.” *bleep* “Hello, this is Fer deLance Romeo Hotel Echo Alpha, requesting permission to enter the Baynes airspace.” I’m not actually landing at the space-port. He said that they are actually going out for the weekend again, so I’ll be joining them there. I spent almost the whole day traveling (and sleeping,) it’s late afternoon, perfect time for dinner. “Commander Rhea your permission was denied.” Huh? “May I ask why, what’s wrong? I’m pretty sure that I’m still a citizen of the Empire.” I’m a little annoyed with all this bureaucracy that’s been rising recently. “Security lockdown, no ships are allowed in or out.” Interesting. “Kirea request Naval secure channel.” “My apologies Commander, I see that your naval clearance permits you to override the lockdown, should you wish to help with the matter at hand.” One problem after another, and my job never ends. Wonder what is it this time. “Yes I do, the faster it’s over the earlier I get to enjoy holiday.” The man in the holofac portrait bows and disappears. I smile and bow in return to see an incoming encrypted message.
Hmm… So apparently someone thought that it’s a good idea to run a deathrace in the Baynes city airspace. Deathrace is a race from point A to point B with weapons armed. A lot of illegal money in that, and dead people, including innocent citizens walking in the streets of the city, to not mention the damage crashing ship at 500m/s will do to the infrastructure. I would even consider it a form of terrorism. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for racing, but not in the city and I’m not for killing people in the process. “Kirea open comms to Eric” *bleep* “Hi, you here yet?” “Uh yes, past security lockdown. I was worried about you for a moment… you and friends all okay?” “Oh yeah, just one ship got shot down on the other side of the city. There were a couple people injured but nothing too serious. And yey for your naval rank getting you in!” “Indeed, this could take days. I’m going to look for them around our camp site, what do you think?” He quickly caught on and chuckled. “Haha sure, you must be hungry as well, hurry up!”
Blazing plasma lighting my shields in all the colours from blue through purple to red, as I enter the atmosphere a little bit over the safety speed limits. Paper limits anyway. And so I boost as the clouds part at around 5km altitude, leaving an echo of a thunder behind over the city. *bleep* “Bring your ship to hover immediately!” A tiny Eagle demands of me. I’m gonna comply but that’s not how he should talk to me, to scare him I flip the switch to deploy hardpoints. “Commander Rhea, Fer deLance Romeo Hotel Echo Alpha, Elite. Entering on security lockdown override.” I calmly reply as my Kirea decelerates. “Uhh.. Apologies Commander, we have reports that the perp in a tuned up Imperial Eagle is in this sector. Please follow me as I head to the reported location.” Damnit, I’m hungry! “Roger.”
We’re entering an industrial area with several large warehouses to hide an Eagle in… “Why didn’t they send at least Vipers after them?” I’m curious, standard old Eagle doesn’t stand a chance against Imperial Eagle, neither with firepower, nor with top speed. “I’m asking myself the same.” He responds as he’s slowly flying between the warehouses. “At least you can fit down there!” I jokingly chuckle, Eagle is only about 30 meters wide and similarly in length, while my Fer deLance has just under 75 meters nose to tail and wing-span of 50. “Quite a lot of heat coming out of that warehouse.” It is indeed, he’s right. “Seems like we’ve got somethi…“ Multi-cannon fire right at our Eagle! “Get out of there!” I’m shouting at him as I spray the warehouse with my huge multi-cannon when the Imperial Eagle boosts out through the walls, leaving nothing but rubble behind. “Damn he’s fast.” I boost after him using all the tricks in the unwritten book to not lose that thing. Boost, 30 degree roll, pitch and yaw, vertical and lateral thrusters, all at the same time, to turn around as fast as possible. “Holy…“ came out of my comms before I closed them. I need to focus. I triggered all of my railguns as soon as I managed to line-up behind the Imperial Eagle, hitting him from the tip of the wing to the other. Fer deLance has good enough hardpoint placement to still hit even an Eagle with all four of them. “Warning, critical heat levels.” His shield just flickered and went down right before he pulled up. Another sharp boost maneuver for me to keep up - boosting and squeezing yaw and pitch with slight roll, pushing thrusters vertical and lateral in the direction up from the ground. I’m tracing the Eagle with multi-cannon while he’s within reasonable range, he takes but a few hits before disappearing in the clouds. I lost him.
“Kirea re-enable comms and open channel to the Baynes naval command.” *bleep* “Commander Rhea, Fer deLance Romeo Hotel Echo Alpha, Elite. Reporting shots fired in the sector G14. Target Imperial Eagle suspect in the Deathrace last seen headed towards the city center, lost shields and disappeared in the clouds, I was unable to keep up.” - “Thank you Commander, at least you’re the first one who managed to hit that thing.” I’m not gonna chase him, I’m hungry…