Paranid Prime/Fly to Prime part 5

layton99 · Post by **layton99** » Tue, 21. Feb 06, 17:05

Sorry about the mix up with the names, was thinking one thing and writing something else.

Part 4 is here http://forum2.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=127835

Rows and rows of Argon ships lined the hanger. Bran had never seen so many ships! The shipyards he had visited had been virtually empty but then he had only been inside of pirate shipyards or what passed as a shipyard in the pirate community, more like a strip shop rather than a shipyard he reflected.
Many of the ships were older versions but a Nova was a Nova no matter how you look at it. In fact some of the older model ships were better than their current equivalent model, like the MKII Centaur is much better than the MKIII although slower the older model is much better armed in fact so much better armed that many Centaur captains declined to change to the newer version.
It was obvious that a lot of the ships had been confiscated from their previous owners, two of the Busters were still in the red livery of the pirate clans and a Nova at the back was painted matt black showing at sometime it had belonged to either an assassin or a mercenary. He looked over at the discussion going on and sighed.
Fly his face red struggled desperately to control what was left of his patience. He took a deep breath he was getting good at taking deep breaths.
“What do you mean no shields or weapons?” he asked the yellow creature that sat at the desk in front of him.
“There are no shields or weapons available, human” the Paranid clerk growled.
“I was told they would be fully armed, when payment was made”
Three eyes searched through the Com link embedded in the desk the Com beeped and the clerk muttered something in his own language.
“The deduction of shields and weapons has been refunded to your company account”
Bran shook his head this wasn’t getting anywhere might as well try to get silicon out of an ore mine.
“What happened to the shields and weapons on those ships!” Fly demanded angrily jabbing his finger at the hanger bay.
The clerk stood up towering over Fly. This wasn’t going to turn out good.
“I said not available. Now Paranid Empire gives you permission to leave, while you can” WHILE YOU CAN was growled in big capitol letters and to further emphasize his point the big Paranid took a step forwards.
Bran grabbed Fly by the shoulder “We’re going, don’t get excited” he said to the angry creature and pulled Fly out of the hanger and into the grey corridor beyond.
The clerk grunted and sat down his three eyes glaring at them as they left.
“What the…” Fly started to shout.
“He would have ripped you to pieces then me just to save the trouble of a trail, you know the Paranid justice system, no witnesses no crime!”
Fly smiled he was going to say “what the heck are we going to do without shields and weapons” but his friend was right the Paranid would have killed them just to make things simpler.
“So what are we going to do without shields and weapons?” Bran asked.
Fly was about to snap out a reply but decided that it was a fair question. The fact that he had no answer to the question was the problem.
“I honestly don’t know and there is no way we can go through Split Fire without shields or weapons the pirates will jump all over us”
Bran thought for a while his eyes wandering back down the corridor towards the hanger. They’d only need a shield each and a weapon or two even the most rabid pirate wouldn’t attack a convoy of eighteen M4’s and M3’s even a lightly armed convoy. But where to get the shields and weapons? The Teladi would be the obvious answer but the Buster could only carry so many shields and weapons. We need a transporter.
“We need a transporter” Bran said voicing his ideas.
“Where are we going to get the credits from?”
“They refunded the shields and weapons” Bran said smugly.
Fly gave him a long look “And how are we going to buy shields and weapons once we’ve bought a transporter?”
He had already thought of this but wasn’t sure if Fly would agree.
“Strip two shields out of our ship and put them in two Busters, fly them to Teladi space sell them and buy a used transporter and the equipment”
It really wasn’t a bad idea they could always sell a Vulture freighter back to the Paranid after they had used it the Paranid would buy a Teladi ship even if Argon ships weren’t worth anything.
“Argon ships will be selling at prime prices in Teladi space” Fly mused.
Light of Heart would be better it is an Argon sector along with a shipyard but the cost of a freighter would be huge but then again they’d have to pass through Lucky Plants which is Boron and that has a shipyard too.
“Let’s strip out the ship” he said finally.
It took several hours to transfer the equipment from their ship to the two Busters in the hanger. Fly choose two of the older model Busters that had been pirate red and black but were now painted the matt black of the mercenary guild they wouldn’t stand up to close inspection but they should look the part enough to get them through Paranid space and into the Boron sectors. The plan is to remote the two ships to the Argon shipyard in Light of Heart strip them out again and sell them to the shipyard and with the credits from the sale fly back to Lucky Planets and buy an old Dolphin freighter and the weapons and shields for the rest of the ships in Paranid Prime. That’s the plan anyway. Bran still wanted to go to Teladi shipyard in Ianamus Zura but that was the thought of the profits they’d make more than anything else but Fly would prefer to sell to Argon being an Argon himself and also being an ex-Argon marine. As Fly is the captain Fly won the argument.
He also had a secret fear, the Teladi sectors could be pretty lawless at times and there was still a Falcon or the people that hired the Falcon out there looking for them and he wanted safe sectors to fly through and fly back through he didn’t want to be woken up by anymore missile warnings.

layton99 · Post by **layton99** » Tue, 21. Feb 06, 17:07

Damn it didn't format properly sorry it's a bit messy

KiwiNZ · Post by **KiwiNZ** » Tue, 21. Feb 06, 21:55

No worries, still easy enough to read

Good one. W/o shields and weapons they really are in a bit of trouble. You might want to look at the end part again. It wasn't quite clear to me how they would get the equipment back to Lucky Planets after remote-selling the two ships.

Interesting twist that should make their journey a lot harder than anticipated. I presume somebody set them up with the stripping of equipment.

Looking forward to the next part!

layton99 · Post by **layton99** » Wed, 22. Feb 06, 00:42

I guess they'll dock their own buster at the shipyard and strip them out first and then buy the frieghter and equipment from lucky planets. Well maybe who knows in the X-universe.

KiwiNZ · Post by **KiwiNZ** » Wed, 22. Feb 06, 02:13

Roght, that makes sense. When reading they were stripping gear off their Buster to equip the other two I kind of headed straight for them using the two Busters. But of course the new Busters can mount more than two shields, so they could still use theirs. Cool, question answered.

RJV · Post by **RJV** » Thu, 23. Feb 06, 13:10

Like the little twist, but just for my thick skull, where are our two heroes at the moment? Paranid Prime?

Cheers,

Rob.

layton99 · Post by **layton99** » Fri, 24. Feb 06, 01:21

Yes, at the shipyard trying to pick up the ships. Guess I should have put a mention in there about their actual location but thought people would work it out from the rest of the story. But then I shouldn't assume or make people think too much.

I'll see if I can get some more written today.

RJV · Post by **RJV** » Fri, 24. Feb 06, 11:09

Thanks.

Out of interest then, if they are planning to remotely send 2 Busters to Light of Heart, wouldn't it be quicker to remote send them to Argon Prime? Also if they are planning to sell the Busters there, how would they be flying 'back to Lucky Planets'? If the Busters are sold, there is nothing to fly back in...

Sorry if I'm being thick here!

Cheers,

Rob.

layton99 · Post by **layton99** » Sat, 25. Feb 06, 02:06

The key word is remote here I think. Also going from Paranid space directly to Argon space is going to be nearly impossible.

Mastermue · Post by **Mastermue** » Sun, 26. Feb 06, 01:40

Hi layton, catching up with this story, looking good! Like to see how our heroes are gonna get out of this quandry!

Just a couple of spots found...

“He would have ripped you to pieces then me just to save the trouble of a trail, you know the Paranid justice system, no witnesses no crime!”

Think you mean trial

and

Light of Heart would be better it is an Argon sector along with a shipyard but the cost of a freighter would be huge but then again they’d have to pass through Lucky Plants which is Boron and that has a shipyard too.

Lucky Planets...not Lucky Plants...

Looking forward to the next part!

layton99 · Post by **layton99** » Sat, 29. Jul 06, 12:39

Due to PC problems etc haven't had chance to write anything. Actually my laptop died and needed a new HDD and a new motherboard so lost everything

Luckily this story was on here but I lost part 6 and 7 so have to rewrite.

It'll be up soon guys.

KiwiNZ · Post by **KiwiNZ** » Sat, 29. Jul 06, 13:22

Sorry to hear, mate. Hope re-writing the chapters won't be too hard.

layton99 · Post by **layton99** » Sat, 28. Oct 06, 06:30

Finally part 6 is up! Took a while have to get the next couple of parts done as am building a new house in Jan and won't have a connection in the house that I am renting while the builders are doing their thing.

I so wish I could get an Orca and just drop my house in place!

Part 6
http://forum2.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php ... 43#1879143