Well, the Alliance had dumped me here in this “Evochron” sector with nothing but a Scout class ship, 10,000 credits, a Flarebeam cannon, and two Echelon missiles. My name is Eve Dunning – 23 years old.
I was luckier than most new pilots – I already had a friend working in this sector. John Markham. My father went to college with him. He’s taught me everything I know about flying my Scout.
One thing I’ll always remember – he told it to me time and time again.
“Eve – use your IDS, not your jump drive! You’ll only use a fraction of the fuel flying at 2000MPH with your IDS off – your Fulcrum Drive will use up much more fuel!”
With John escorting me, I flew towards the station and carefully maneuvered into the docking bay.
The first thing he said I needed was a mining beam. But there were none available for sale.
“Head for the planet – the station there probably has one.” he told me.
I accelerated to 2000MPH and turned my IDS off again, rocketing toward the green orb.
“Put your shields to +5 and slow up as you enter the atmosphere to around 440 MPH.” John instructed.
“What’ll happen if I don’t?” I asked.
I could hear him chuckle over the radio.
“Eve, your Dad wouldn’t be happy if I brought you back to him cooked like a steak.”
“Look for the red indicators.” he said as we neared the planet.
I spotted them and quickly decreased speed, pulling the nose of my Scout up to slow the ship.
“Good, good.” John approved.
Through the front of my cockpit I could see the blocky buildings surrounding the station, nestled in a crater on the surface of the planet.
The space around my Scout glowed red and I jerked back in apprehension.
“Don’t worry.” John radioed. “It’ll died down after a moment.”
I breathed a sigh of relief a few seconds later when the glow disappeared.
“I thought I was a goner for a minute there, John!” I radioed.
“Dock at the base in the middle of the cluster of buldings.” he radioed back.
“Right.”
I flew toward it and cut my engine as the station’s tractor beam grasped my Scout, pulling it down.
“They’ve got one for sale!” I exclaimed happily.
“How much?”
“10,350 credits.” Unfortunately, I only had 10,000.
“You can sell your missiles to get more money.” John told me.
Echelon missiles were priced at 4200 credits, so I sold one of mine and bought the Mining beam.
“Let’s go.” John said.
I disengaged the docking tractor beam and pointed my ship upward, accelerating to 440 MPH. A series of green indicators appeared on my HUD.
“Following those will get you into space the safest and fastest way.” John explained.
We cleared the atmosphere and I shut off my engine to avoid wasting fuel – and my ship started drifting back toward the planet.
“Whoa!”
I quickly turned my engine back on and shot away from the planet.
John laughed. “Gravity, my dear Eve.”
“I knew that.” I mumbled rather shame-facedly.
“Where to now?” he asked.
“Let’s go to Olympus Prime.” I answered.
“You got it.” he acquiesced.
Entering the coordinates for the station in my Navigation console, I pressed the Jump button.
“Augh!”
The acceleration pressed me back into the seat as my ship sped up and disappeared in a purple flash of light.
A few seconds later my ship slowed down and appeared in Olympus Prime. John’s Striker jumped in next to me.
“Hey, there’s a container floating over there.” I pointed.
John nosed his ship up next to mine.
“You’ve got some charts there for the locations of cargo containers. Check ‘em.” he told me.
“Oh, right.”
I quickly pulled out the charts and looked down the list.
“Hydrogen Cells.” I reported.
“Well Eve, time to use that mining beam of yours.” John said. “Pull your ship up next to that container and get to work.”
I slowly flew toward the container and activated the mining beam. A blue shaft of light appeared between my Scout and the container as the beam pulled a unit out and deposited it in my cargo bay.
“Alt-B will keep it on.” John told me. “That way you don’t have to keep your hand on the control.”
Once my cargo bay was full up with 25 units of Hydrogen Cells, we were about to head for the station when two pirate Fighter class ships appeared and headed directly toward us.
John cursed. “Those Monty brothers.” I heard him say, swinging his Striker around.
“Eve, there’s a container of missiles over there – head for ‘em now!” he shouted.
“But – “ I protested.
“Now!” John ordered. His Striker sped up and headed toward the pirates.
I gasped, seeing a yellow stream of light streak off his ship and touch the foremost Fighter, causing the shields to pulse.
“I’m not leaving you alone, John.” I muttered, turning my ship and flying toward them.
The Montys circled John’s Striker, blasting his shields. I heard him curse again and swing his ship, firing at the first one again.
I hit my afterburner, then cut straight across their bow, firing my Flarebeam wildly as I passed and shooting off my last Echelon missile.
“Hey Sam, she’s got a load of Hydro!” Pete Monty said gleefully, locking on to me and firing off a missile. He skillfully evaded the one I’d fired at him.
“Eve, get out of here!” John yelled at me. I heard my missile indicator alert beeping and panicked, shoving my throttle to the floor. Foolish of me – Echelon missiles are hard to evade, traveling at 1400MPH.
John whirled his Striker around and shot between the pirates and me, dropping flares everywhere.
They neutralized the missile, but John was unable to evade a string of energy beams from the Monty’s Fighters.
I screamed in terror as I saw his ship explode.
“JOHN!”
The Montys circled John’s Striker like vultures, looking for his cargo.
“Dang, the explosion blew up his cargo bay too.” Pete ejaculated.
Furious, I picked up my radio and blurted out, “That was your last mistake, you mongrel!”
The Montys turned on me, their cannons blasting again. I set a nav point for the nearest Nebula and jumped as fast as I could.
As my ship disappeared into the vortex of silver, I looked back, tears staining my cheeks.
The blue space swirling about me disoriented me at first, and I turned off my engine.
My Scout floated there motionless as Nebula thunder pounded it.
“Pull yourself together, girl.” I scolded myself. John had told me that a Nebula was a good place to hide because radar couldn’t spot you easily, so I was safe – for the moment.
My console beeped – the hull was damaged – 75%. Several cannon blasts had managed to pound down my shields.
I needed to repair my ship – and I needed missiles. Deciding that the latter was more important, I loaded a nav point into my console and pressed the jump button again.
No one was around when I jumped in next to the missile container except for a few traders, dickering over a container of Platinum.
I loaded up two missiles and headed toward the station at 2000MPH with my IDS off, not wanting to waste anymore fuel.
The missiles I sold at the station for 8400 credits – but I needed more money. I still had plenty of fuel – but it wouldn’t last forever.
I traveled back to the container of missiles and had loaded two more into my weapons bay when a pirate appeared and flew toward me.
“Leave me alone, you scumbag.” I radioed.
He ignored that and kept coming, so I carefully placed him in the center of my ship and locked on, firing both missiles at his Scout – then pressed my cannon trigger frantically as the pirate closed in.
A moment later his ship exploded. I breathed a sigh of relief and quickly loaded in two more missiles.
My first kill. John would have been proud. As I flew back toward the station, the wreckage of the destroyed Scout drifted away through space…
