The Tiacken Tribune

The Hunt – Part 2

(See the Tiacken Tribune Issue #23 for Part 1)

Well, I accomplished my first goal of lasting more than 24 hours. The fact that I didn’t embarrass myself in front of the entire Pardusian community was quite a relief to tell you the truth. How much longer would I last? I’m not sure. I could always make a run for it if I’d really wanted to, but I’m much smarter than that. I’d rather play in the minefield.

Things didn’t get much better when I discovered that some of my alliance ‘mates’ were helping the enemy by providing hacks against me! With friends like these, I definitely didn’t need enemies. Fortunately for me, a series of scans by passing traders turned up that the Lord and Lady looked to be cutting off likely pathways to other sectors. So with this knowledge in hand, I was forced to stick to as many open pathways as possible, but there are a few danger sectors where you have to pass through a few danger tiles. It was very likely that the Lord and Lady would meet me there.

I did ok for a few more days finishing up my time for the day in Sol. Staying in Sol makes it very difficult for hunters. Lots of exits, many of the exits are very clean. I did well living in Sol. However, the fact that I lived doesn’t mean you’re good, it just means you’re lucky, or simply that maybe you weren’t being hunted that day. And since the hunters aren’t likely to GIVE you that information, you’ll never know.

The final day the hunt started off well enough, starting in Tau Ceti, I began running missions. I ran past the Larch, with a shipload of missions, headed but to BP made my way around, and picked up a mission back to the Larch on the way back. Had I been a bit more careful, I might have lived. I was able to pass through the Larch area once, and didn’t happen to find the Lady Aliara cloaked just off The Larch.

I made sure to find her on the way back.

It wasn’t pretty.

The Lady showed me exactly why a Babel Transporter wasn’t made for combat. With precision shots, she neatly ripped my Babel to pieces while I scrambled for my escape pod. My escape pod safely whisked me away just in time for me to see my Babel destroyed in a brilliant explosion. I guess that meant the Larch wasn’t going to receive their packages. In a slow turn, I saw the Lady’s ship turn and start heading my way… she was getting ready for another attack run… I pounded on the comm. console…

“What are you doing??!? You’ve already destroyed my ship!!”

There was a slight pause, when the silky voice I was beginning to loathe came across the comm.:

“Sorry Brack, I don’t get paid for the destruction of your ship…”

The implications of her words never had a chance to sink in.

I learned quite a bit through this experience. I know a bit more of what to look for next time. Will there be a next time? Likely – as there’s no way that the SG can keep me out of the SB&G forever, and the editor here has a drink or two to ‘share’…

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Medusa Swarmlings

What’s better than accidentally running through space and finding yourself face to face with a medusa? I’m glad you asked! What’s better is that extremely small chance when the medusa meet, mate, and create HORDES of medusa swarmlings that roam the universe with their parents looking for morsels to eat. While local hunters are thrilled at the new opportunity to test their skills, local building owners and merchants are less than happy with the new development. The swarmlings have been seen trying to rip through local buildings to get at the tasty ‘treats’ inside and the locals are screaming at the government to do something about the new menace.

Local government are in a quandary about what to do. Without a precise knowledge about the medusa, their mating habits, or their ability to warp around the universe, there’s not much they can do. To help ‘ease’ the minds of the locals, the governments have created the “Medusa Mashers”, a local militia whose sole job is to clear out these swarmlings. The “Medusa Mashers”, created out of volunteers and piloting antiquated garbage rigs, would have a tough time acting as the local dog catcher, much less taking on these swarmlings. Local residents will likely be content until the ineptness of the “Medusa Mashers” shines through.

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Hall of Fame and Shame

I’ve spent most of my time recently in my adopted home in the Federation sectors. My travels take me all over the Federation and I move through quite a few different sectors. I generally just park safely on most planets and bases so I have a clear view of what’s going on around me, and every so often, I’ll get a distress call from someone in the sector who needs fuel. Now I’m no spring chicken, but I like to give new players a chance, so if I can see the stranded ship, and it doesn’t look like something that might pull an SG on me, then I’ll generally jump to help. However, there has been an amazing trend here recently that after I help the stranded player, I don’t get so much as a hello, good bye, go to hell, or thank you. Nothing.

Now I don’t expect to be paid to do this, but an ACKNOLEDGMENT that I helped out is not too much to ask for in my opinion. Is a simple PM “Thanks!” too much to ask? (and if it IS, that’s really, really sad…)

Anyway, after ‘saving’ five consecutive people and not getting so much as a go-to-hell, I’ve decided to put up the hall of Fame/Shame. While the Hall of Shame will just be people who I come across that REALLY irritate me, the Hall of Fame will be for those people who you would like to thank someone for doing something nice during the previous week. Have someone you’d like to thank, send me a PM and have it mentioned in next week’s Tribune.

Now to start this week off on a great note – let’s start off with the Hall of Shame:

While parked on the Wily Weasel in the HIGHLY populated sector of XH3189 (yeah…right), I get a distress call from one The Irishman. The likelihood of someone actually BEING in the sector were slim, and the fact that someone was there and might actually help? Wow, that’s pretty lucky. Moving one space, I could see he was not an immediate threat and gave him fuel. He moved on, and he was off to wherever he was going. Not so much as a peep that I ever existed. To say it irritated me was an understatement.

So, to all you new players out there: be considerate. You’ll find that life is much easier when you have a friend or two on your side. A simple PM saying “Thanks” would have gone a very long way.

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Divorce Announcement

Charlie of the Tribune staff received his divorce papers after publicly insulting his wife in last week’s Tribune. Rumor has it he gets to keep the dictionaries he tried to sell. The Tribune wishes Charlie good luck in the rest of his life.

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Drug Lords Caught!

In a rare communal effort, the Empire and the Federation combined forces to complete a web around some notorious drug dealers in the neutral zone. The drug dealers, having caught wind of the attempt through an Imperial security leak, were a step ahead of the force and scattered in different directions just before the web was closed. Imperial and Federation ships chased and destroyed several of these drug lord ship as they tried to escape throughout the universe, however, they were not able to get them all. Rumor has it that many of the ships abandoned cargo just before being boarded or destroyed in an attempt to ‘look innocent’.

Federation and Imperial forces were unable to collect all the discarded goods and rumor has it that pilots searching through energy fields throughout the universe may come across a discarded drug cache. Be wary, some of the caches are armed. The drug lords had planned on picking the packages up at a later date. How and when they will pick these up remains to be seen.

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Aunty T

Dear Aunty T:

I received this letter yesterday form a questionable looking delivery man (he DID have a nametag - Bob) from Ed Fex Delivery Services. I opened the letter, and this is what it said:

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Hello,

I am Joe Blow, an attorney to Nathan Forester, a deceased pilot, and property magnate, who was based in the Neutral Zone. Also referred to as my client.On the 25th of July 2505, my client died in a wormhole explosion bound for Phiagre in his plan for a peaceful trade. Since then I have been managing his properties here on Sol and some of his properties, which he put out for sale. which I monitored the payment as his attorney, has been bought and paid for.

Now the credits paid were deposited into his Local account here. I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the credits and property left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Federation particularly. My late client has an account valued at 15.5 million credits. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for some time now, and with the Federation giving me deadline, I now seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased, so that the proceeds of this account valued at 15.5 million credits can be paid to you And then you and I can share the money. 50% to me and 40% for you and 10% for miscellaneous expenses that might arise. I have all necessary information that can be used to back up any Claim we may make.

All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through. I Guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will Protect you from any breach of the law. Trust me, as his attorney, this is a Risk free business relationship. Please get in touch with me by PM.

And send me your full name and position, and the location of all your buildings to enable us discuss further about this transaction.

Best regards,

Joe Blow.

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I am concerned that I might be related to this Nathan Forester, however, I could really use the credits. What should I do?

Dear letter receiver,

I would firstly like to congratulate you on surviving so far. If you are indeed related to Nathan Forester I can assume this letter is a hoax to get you out in the open… a far easier target to dispose of than one that moves in planetary atmospheres. If not, then you would be commiting fraud and eventually the Federation would track you down (and probably remove you cloning rights).

There is however a ray of hope. You mentioned that the delivery mans name was Bob. Well it is a not very well known fact but Bob is actually an alternate name for Dug.

Now you may have heard of the recent problems with rogue Dugs, and a small band of these broke away in a stolen ship and have not been heard of since. Dugs are well known to dislike any form of work, and find operating without low grade sustainance (such as Kit kats) very difficult.

So if you are desperate for creds I would therefore suggest meeting this “Joe Blow”. It is probably another alias for the leader of the dugs, and he has probably sold the stolen ship in question, and now wants to return to a simple life of loafing and laying about. This money is the sale credits and therefore the legal right of anyone who can get hold of them… where did you say you were going to meet again? And can I bring some friends along (moral support you see).

And please remember that this kind of moral help was brought to you by Aunty T (a councilling fee of 10% of all rewards is the standard payment… as of yesterday).

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Tidbits:

A joking announcement by Veblung that he could create a VLPC with 4 credits, a chewing gun wrapper, and a broken button landed him a job as the Scorpion Guard chief of weapon design last week. However, upon a dismal failure on the initial prototype, Veblung was escorted to Usube with a wadded up pack of bubble gum (the button was broken beyond repair, and the SG kept the four credits). He also received a legal notice that he was being accused of fraud and owed the Guard an undisclosed sum of credits. Good luck to Veblung!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 4th, 2005 at 12:00 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.