The Big Chase - Real story, by Avi "KnightDelta" Dorf

After chasing down some cargo, and getting enough equipment to really start my adventures, I decided to start by doing something thats in my blood. Stealing some high-quality, expensive, luxurious, Maas Corporation loot from a mega freighter, just under their noses in their own security base.

I took off in my Tug, with all the basic equipment, my trusty Rapid Fire PBC, and my Quad Light PBC. As soon as i finished taking off and powering up my ship, I took up the starmap, and set course to the Maas Security Station in the Hoffer's Wake Alpha area. I turned on Auto Pilot Approach, and entered LDS. After flying for about 30 seconds in full speed, which is a VERY big distance, I turned off the Auto Pilot and slowly approached the station. I was 30 KM from the station when i was seen and warned not to get any closer, but me, as a pirate who wants a big juicy Mega-Freighter's cargo, ignored the warning and kept going.

I saw a Mega Freighter just dropping out of LDS and getting near the station, so I took it as my prey and used the Thruster Override to get to a very high speed and I unleashed my Rapid Fire PBC upon the mega-freighter. I was threatened by the station to leave, so I also shot the station a couple of times. I never imagined that these few rounds of energy would bring me to the biggest chase i'v ever had...

As soon as the first few rounds of PBC hit the station and the Mega-Freighter, I noticed that suddenly my Contact List was getting filled with enemy Corvettes, Fighters and Interceptors. That was surely a nice fleet, all after me! I quickly brought up the Comms menu and called Jafs for pickup for the cargo while I aimed to my home base, Lucrecia's Base, held the Thruster Override button pressed and started moving. I was doing great then. when they were after me in convensional drive, and they were obeying the speed limits while i was far faster than them. That is, until I left the LDSi Field generated by the station, and so also left the speed limits, and here, it began... As soon as I left the LDSi Field, I tried to enter LDS. As soon as the engine was loaded and I entered LDS Mode, after passing only 100,000km from the station, my LDS Drive simply cut power - I was definetly hit by an LDSi Missile!

Before I understood anything, my contact list had about 20 new additions - Fighters, Corevettes, and Interceptors, a whole fleet, from Maas Corporation was on my tail!

Quickly, I used the Thruster Override. I kept getting hit here-and-there from PBC fire, sometimes also Missiles and Gatling. I was getting so close to being destroyed - it was only by the hand of god that the LDSi wore off just as they launched the missile that would have been fatal to me, and I entered LDS. I traveled some 200,000 km until I was hit again by an LDSi Missile. I could not understand how could they have tracked me and make it to launch an LDSi Missile so fast, but they did. I was dropped out of LDS at zero speed. I had to gather speed all over again, and it was hard. Here, I had no choice but to fight. I turned around, activated the Reverse Thruster Override, and start blasting away their ships. I had destroyed about 5 until their backup arrived - ANOTHER pack of brand-new ships! I understood they are too well enforced for me to fight them, so i quickly made a 180 degree turn and turned on my Thruster Override. The LDSi effect wore off again and once more I entered LDS mode. I managed to travel one quarter the distance this time, until I was again hit by an LDSi Missile.

This time, it was the record of all flights. All i could do was to aim to my base, press the thruster override button, move left and right and up and down to evade the enemy fire, and pray. In this flight, i broke all records ever made. I steadily kept getting hit by Long Range LDSi Missiles to prevent me from entering LDS Mode. Then, I noticed a unique signal between the ships - it was a Police Patcom, and it's missiles were very accurate, indeed. One of the missiles even gave me a good push of another 500 meters per second! This chase was tough. I was getting hit, pulled back, pushed forward, spinned, everything you could think of but destroyed! It was only by luck that my systems did not malfunction or burn out. My speed reached so fast that the HUD could not view my current speed - it was over 10 km per second. I was getting hit over and over again by LDSi Missiles and the enemy was catching up with me - until I got to the speed of 30 km per second, on the Convensional Drive and not LDS! By the time I got to that speed, the enemy ships had to get into LDS on low speed to catch up with me - and that meant they can't shoot me.

It lasted for a while, with several shots followed by a LDSi missile every minute. Until I got to a speed so high that the LDSi Missiles could not catch up with me without entering LDSi and miss me. The chase went on like this for 10 minutes, and I even almost got destroyed by lucky missiles that did not miss me and enemies fast enough to catch up with me, until the LDSi effect wore off. I could not believe my eyes, but the LDS drive did not charge and there were only two signs that were unusual - the LDS Mode marker was on and the HUD Lines were green. I understood that during that big chase, I had manually entered LDS Mode.

That way, the chase went on for over an hour. I had almost arrived at my base, but i missed it by 60,000 km. What was lucky though, is that I did pass through The Effrit, and only ten enemy ships survived the travel, and the police interceptor wasn't a survivor.

I was again pulled out of LDS by a regular LDSi Missile, but this time, the enemy came from my forward - I could fight them while heading home! At least three of them perished this way. I finally had managed to enter Dock Auto Pilot and docked with the station, ending the Big Chase, after two, whole hours of chasing and evading...