Today I turned twenty. My Uncle Seth Bought me a light fighter. "You've got to earn your own way now my boy." He said. He suggested I take on jobs and get some money to upgrade my fighter. He even suggested I my try trading when I can afford a freighter. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do so I just went out for a fly around. I was attacked many times by Liberty Rogues, but I managed to get away from them with no trouble. I even came across a wreck in the Bad Lands. I got some guns and a CM from the wreck. The rogues were persistent about killing me and my shield went down a time or two. It made me feel a little vulnerable. After I made it out for there I went to Norfolk. They gave me over a million credits for the CM. So I bought a better shield and a generator to go with it.
After the upgrade to my ship I did some more Exploration. I found another wreck in the pitsbergh debris field. It had some drails on it. That was a lucky find since my fighter didn't have the power for those class 4 guns I got from the first wreck. Naturally I was assaulted by many Rogues in the debris field. The new shield gave me plenty of confidence. In fact I never really felt threatened. Though I'm sure if I had stayed too long that would have changed as more pirates showed up. I also found some cardamine on that wreck. No wonder those pirates were so eager to do me in. I have to admit I felt more nervous coming in to Manhatten than I did among the pirates. What would I do if they refused to let me dock while the police were shooting at me? But I got lucky and no one scanned me as I made my approach.
I got a nice chunk of change for the drugs and the guns. Still I can't afford a better power plant for my ship. Uncle Seth asked me if I'd found a job yet. I told him I was looking. To be honest I didn't think much of the jobs available. There were plenty of jobs paying 2,500 to 3,500 for killing rogues or Xenos. I thought the risk was not worth what they were paying. Maybe if I had more experience or if they offered a group mission where I'd have help. Maybe I'll look for some jobs like that later.
I heard there was still some silver left in the silverton field. So I headed out to Colorado. I found silver there alright. I also found a lot of Xenos who for some reason wanted me dead. I managed to kill some of them. Several time I got some help from bounty hunters who patrol the area. Even the Liberty Navy helped out a few times. So in spite of the Danger The mining trip was not too bad. When I got back to Manhatten I was paid 14,000 for my silver. Since I didn't find that any more dangerous than battling it out with half a dozen pirates I decided that mining was better than working as a fighter pilot. Even Uncle Seth was surprised at the money I made.

I continued mining in the silverton. Ocaisionally I'd see rogues. Mostly I'd see Xenos. After a while I noticed that the rouges were not so eager to kill me. I guess that was because they hate the Xenos and I was killing their enemies. One time after a fight there was trouble with the Bounty Hunters. One of them demanded that I hand over my prisoner. Ha! I worked hard to get that prisoner. No way I was going to just hand it over. Needless to say I now had to take on Bounty Hunters. After that I was much less liked by bounty Hunters and much less hated by Liberty rogues. I also decided that bounty hunters were not going to be my friends. Who needs friends like that? I also noticed the the bounty Hunters have good equipment and I was able to get a delux-thruster from the fight.
Now that the rogues were not shooting me on sight I decided to do some more exploring. I went to Texas. The Junkers have a base there in the old debris field. A lot Rogues dock there as well as Outcasts. Their daggers were all well armed and I was glad I didn't have to fight them off. I strayed into the dense particle field in North Texas. It's still radioactive there even after all this time. While i as there I came across a couple of wrecks. One of them had diamonds in it's hold. One of them was a well armed Bounty Hunter wreck. I found another CM on that one. After that I went to Houston and got repairs. I also bought more diaomnds since they cost much less than on Manhatten. I made good money from the looted equipment and the diamonds. In fact i had enough to buy a better ship. A cheap one anyway.
Since the Rogues were not hating me any more I went into the Bad Lands to find their hidden base. It was hard to find, but I managed to find it by looking for the trade routes. The ship dealer there sells Blood Hounds. They aren't the best fighters around but they are cheap. Even though they look like scrap metal the armor rating is much better than the patriot. It's even a little better than the defender heavy fighter. It's main drawback is the insufficient number of gun mounts. But with the turret mounted so high it makes up for the limited number of gun mounts. So basically you have about the same firepower as the patriot with added armor protection. So really it turns out to be a step up. The ship even comes with a class-4 graviton shield. That's going to make it hard for those bounty hunters to take me down. Since I still need a better power plant I decided to keep the turret turned off and use the two drails with the stun-pulse. That way I still have just enough firepower to get the job done with a little effort.

After buying the Blood Hound I took it out for a test run. I an a few patrols along the trade-lane from Norfolk to Ft. bush. I had no trouble finding B.H. there. The drails worked OK. I figure with my larger cargo bay I can make money trading if I want to. or I could just get more B.H. pilots to sell at Rochester. They 1,248 credits for them there. There are few legal cargoes that bring that kind of money. Besides you can make more money from the equipment that falls off of their ships. I sold a few shields for 52,000 each in New York. It's hard to make that kind of money trading with a fighter.

Today I did my patrols in Colorado and killed more than 30 B.H. even the Xenos are starting to like me now. I've earned over 2,800.000 in just a few days. That includes the money I got from looted wrecks. Still I'm doing better than I expected. Uncle Seth doesn't know what I'm doing to make money. He still thinks I'm mining. I won't tell him if I don't have to. I suppose he'll find out sooner or later. Rumors fly fast in Liberty.
I came back from colorado and there was a freelancer offering me a shield. At first I told him I didn't want it. but He said it was a Nomad shield. Since you can't get any better than that I accepted. He even gave me some guns with it. I told him I'd pay for them when I could. I tallied it up to about 82 M for the equipment. It payed off right away. Within the first hour after mounting the guns I made over a million credits From the B.H. It sounds hard to believe, but when you pick up CMs they really pay off at the shipyard.
Any way I made my first installment on my debt and headed to the Mississippi to buy a Defender heavy fighter. It's not the best heavy fighter you can buy, but I couldn't mount the nomad shield on my Blood hound. I had to sell one of the guns to get the money for Defender and a Zeolot power plant. With the Mk-1 I can just get by using only two of the Nomad Cannons. The power drains in ten seconds, but I can kill a Piranha in three seconds with those guns. So as far as liberty goes they don't stand a chance. later I'll make my way to Britionia. I think the B.H. are better equipped there. Better equipment means a better payday at the shipyard. Besides; now that I have this new freedom I might as well enjoy it.
The B.H. are better equipped in Britonina. They are also harder to take down. My nomad guns were still more than adequate for the job. I till need more power when there are a dozen of them to take down. I tend to spend a lot of time dodging and waiting foe power to recharge. That's not going to go well when I come against some real heavy weights. I hear the B.H. use the hammerhead in the independent worlds. Those ships have well armored hulls. I'll need to fire many shots to take one of those down.
When I first arrived in Britonina the Mollys gave me a hard time. After a while they wised up when they saw that I was killing their most hated enemy. Even the corsairs were tolerant of my presence. I made my way to Cambridge where the B.H. are thick as flak. I picked up quite few prisoners there. I found a wreck in one of the ice clouds and took over two mill worth of guns from it as well as a nice load of gold. I used most of the money to pay down my debt. I've still got seventy eight mill to go.
While I was in New London I traded my Defender in for Crusader it has more armor and a bigger cargo bay. I feel I can make more money with a bigger cargo bay. When I bought the Defender I got a smaller cargo bay than what my Blood Hound had. But now I'm much better off than before.
So I've done well in just a few days. Uncle Seth still doesn't believe it, he's beginning to get suspicious.

I've been able to get to the sigma-19 and sigma-17 systems. I saw the remains of free-port-7. Not much left. just a lot of junk floating in a tight orbit.

It's funny that after all the rumors about it's destruction it turned out to be the nomads who blew it up after all. At least the houses are finally at peace again and the real enemy is known. As long as the Nomads are a threat the human race will have someone other than each other fight against. That seems to be keeping us somewhat peaceful with each other. It's hard to believe we were almost wiped out by a clever deception from an alien intelligence.
Any way I'm thinking of buying a Falcon heavy fighter. I only need about one and a half mill to buy it. With it's heavy armor rating I should be able to survive almost anything in that ship. I certainly hope so. And the large cargo bay should help me earn more money.



I met a man on Kurile who suggested I bring Alien organisms to Newrak. I think I'll give it a try.

I did the trade rout like that Samura guy said. I made almost 200k on the run. I can see what Uncle Seth was saying about trading. Imagine how much I could make with a freighter full goods. I don't think I'll be getting a freighter though. Trading is not really my thing. I'll do it for awhile I suppose. At least the B.H. give me some excitement along the way, and they give me a chance to pick up an extra million credits while I'm at it. When I have the right upgrades and the right ship I think I can make plenty by taking out the right ships.
At least by running goods from Kurile I can honestly say that I'm trading. I can also claim the B.H. are attacking me out of spite. It's a win win situation for me.

While I was in Kusari I took a trip to Chugoku. I found a Blood Dragon base there. Good thing my dealings with the Bounty Hunters made me worthy of their respect.



I met a nice looking Blood Dragon pilot there. She told me a story about a great warrior who took out many battle-fleets for them. He hasn't been heard from in a while and the Blood Dragons are worried that he may have met an honorable death. She seemed genuinely concerned about him. I couldn't help thinking that I wish she'd be that concerned about me. Being jealous is not a good thing, but I think I'll check in on the Blood Dragons again sometime. They seem like a friendly people. In spite of the rumors I've heard about their xebophobia for other races I found them friendly and hospitable.

Nice yarn stevo, told you it would go good.

I made another round trip to Kurile. On the way there I picked up a heavy thruster. When I was leaving Sig-17 I picked up a class 10 turret that sold for 400 k. I made almost one and a half mill just on loot. Trading may be profitable with a large freighter, but for a fighter pilot the money is in the hunt. I'll keep the ruse up for a while. I know can't fool Uncle Seth forever. But why break his heart any sooner than I have to.

This morning I picked up two million in equipment on my way to Kurile. Nobody's going to pay me that kind of credits to risk my life against pirates. I still haven't found any work. I don't really think I'll bother.



The Bounty Hunters keep me in enough danger all the time and they put some money in my bank. Why would I waste my time on small pay jobs when I can be pulling in millions doing what I want to do?

I do have to be a little careful when I pass by Deshima station.



Those turrets look like they could wreak havok on mu hull. I keep my distance, but sometimes I get to kill a few B.H. who come out to challenge me.

Uncle Seth seems a bit incredulous concerning my rapid rise in fortune. He's too smart to think I'm earning this money by trading in fighter ship. I suppose I'll tell him soon how easy it is to make money from those Bounty Hunters. Sometime I don't believe it myself.

I made another stop at Kioto on my way back from sig-17. My cute little warrior wasn't there this time. She was probably on patrol or defending the base from Kusari military ships.



The bar there is kind of cozey. The right place to try my moves on a gorgeous girl.



The landing deck is an awsome sight on Kyoto. It must'v taken quite while to hollow out this asteroid.

I Had a slow day today. I made it out to sig-17 with not much in the way of loot. Then I got there and there were a few battles with no loot. I really spent a good bit of time taking in the scenery and waiting for for some action.



Eventually I came up with a buckshot after several intense fights.


After that I headed to the Hawaii for some rest. All those fights and mines nearly hitting my ship take a lot out of me.

I got back to Manhatten and Uncle Seth said he wanted to talk to me. The bartender had been spreading rumors and he wanted to ask me if it was true.

I couldn't lie to his face so I just told him everything. I thought he'd be more understanding seeing how the Bounty Hunters were always trying to kill me and all. "You'l just become one of them!" He said. "At least this way I only have one faction trying to kill me all the time!" I told him. That didn't make him any happier. He suggested I find someone to fix things up with the Bounty Hunters. "They have friends in high places.You could end up a fugitive! " He told me. I told him I'd look into it.
After our spat I decided to get out of Liberty. I headed to New Berlin with a load of luxury goods. I don't plan on being a freight hauler like Seth. He's been at it for 28 years and still he's not much better off than when he started. Of course he chose to stay close to home so he could keep an eye on me and Aunt may. Sometimes I wish my parent's hadn't died. Seth could'v had a better life without me.
Any way I'm going to keep making money while I can, and in the meantime I'll take a look around sirius while I'm at it.

I did some exploring. I went Hamburg New Berlin Dresden and Omega-11. I stayed too long in omega-11. The radiation did a lot of damages to my ship. It cost me four million to repair everything. The biggest expense was the Nomad shield. That cost over three mill to repair. But the more expensive things are the more they cost to repair.

Omega-11 contains a red giant in the last stages of life. It's surrounded by a debris field which is the remains of planets that orbited in the habitable zone. There are diamonds in the debris field. And the miners risk everything to get them. I found several there. victims of the high radiation. I even found a Red Hessian Base there. There are jump-holes there to Omega-5 Omega-41 and Dresden. There were also many Bounty Hunters. I don't think I'll linger long there if I go back to that system.