Day 6: „The state of you!“ Aunt Moira would have loved that. Seeing me crouched on the floor near the EZ heater of my EZ hab apartment, wrapped in a cozy blanked, wearing that old MISC beanie and a pair of thick x-mas edition socks, brooding over a tablet showing financials, a cup of hot tea placed on it in a space between the charts (don’t like stains on the floor). „My child“, she would snort in her typical condescending tone, “you look like a homeless!“ Then she'd be leaving the room as if she couldn’t stand the sight any longer, mumbling something about culture. Thanks, auntie. And maybe she’s not wrong. I am after small Credits here, collecting the scraps where I can, the smallest amount earned re-invested in ship parts, on the spot. Praise the makers, fuel, repairs, food and lodging don’t cost much. Still, I would make a poor match. If somebody was looking. Can’t even call this an apartement. It’s more like a toilet with a big entrance room. At least, on HUR L3 it is. Wait, where is the toilet? Never mind. Looking at it, I AM homeless. Four different cockpits and multiple bunks, two flying medbeds and all the „apartments“ of the system to take, but nothing that comes close to a safe place to stay and to like. Well, I wanted to be a pilot and to be free. Free. What’s free? What’s home? Stanton is my home. ALL of it. I can choose between a hundred exciting sites to call it a night, be it amidst asteroids, on icy plains, green hills, rocky canyons, howling scrap yards, dark caves, creepy ship wrecks, the shore of a red ocean or just next to the sun. Homeless my butt, auntie! Also, I did quite okay with the rescuing business in the last few days. And I thought, everybody was off for The Show on Microtech. Not true. They still get stranded all over the place. Two of my customers were to be picked up in dead space. Good to see that there are pilots that know about their ejection systems. And use them. Smart. Apart from that, I stopped asking questions about what happened. Like somebody floating above Crusader, which is not even a location to hunt for bounties. New policy is: „I don’t ask questions, you don’t shoot me.“ Should write that on my ship in big white letters. And that’s also cool about the last few days: Nobody has been shooting at me. Hooray!! Now, let’s see. Ship parts. What do I need next? (italic thingies already bought and installed) Prospector - Mining Head Helix ...............................100.000 - Klein .......................................................10.150 - Modules .................................................10.000 (scrap those, they are stupid) - Quantum Drive Voyage .........................15.600 ========================================= to spend ........................................................15.600 315i (Stealth) - Quantum Drive S1 Spectre ...................36.150 - Shields S1 Stealth Mirage x2 ...............57.200 - Laser Cannons S3 FL-33 x2 .................38.400 (no use, not into fighting with this ship, anyways) - Coolers S1 SnowBlind x2 ....................25.700 - Power Plant S1 Slipstream .................18.600 ======================================== to spend ...................................................... 57.200 Cutlass Red - Quantum Drive S2 Crossfield ..............60.050 - Lasers S3 FL-33 x2 ..............................38.400 - Distortion S3 XJ3 x2 .............................12.300 - Shield S2 FR-76 .....................................38.250 - Power Plant S2 JS-400 .........................53.150 - Coolers S2 CoolCore x2 .....................119.600 ======================================== to spend .....................................................223.300 Aurora MR - Laser Distortion S1 2x XJ1 ....................2.900 - Laser Cannon S1 FL-11 .......................10.400 - Shields S1 2x ........................................51.800 - Power Plant S1 ....................................19.700 - Coolers S1 2x .......................................43.700 - Quantum Drive S1 ................................15.600 ======================================== to spend .....................................................130.800 Greycat PTV (for golfing) ...............................5.145 ======================================= a total to spend ............................................426.900 Cool. That’s only around 100 VLRT bounties. Or 28 rescue beacons. Or 14 freed caves. Maybe I should have gone for Mad Scientist. Like my auntie. p.s.: Found another painting. This is me, my hands on the single most beautiful engine tube around. Another love of mine. And another useless dream. How can some thing be called data runner and got the lowest fuel reserve? Riddle me this ...