White.
That was the first impression of the ship, it almost glowed in the lights of the hanger bay. Mike nodded at it and signed for delivery from the construction team he had hired. “Good job, I have another two coming down the line, keep your folks handy.”
The Foreman nodded and looked up at the ship with pride. “Yup, lot of them coming through right now. Understand they are going for a pretty isk.”
“I hadn’t looked.” Mike opened comms. “Anybody in Jita able to give me a PC on a Strat?”
Caroline voice sang out almost immediately. “Too much. Over 450 mill and I WANT one.”
Mike grinned, making some calculations. “What would be a good FAIR price for you, CG?”
“I don’t know, 350 million?”
“No, will you settle for 330 million instead? I know, I haggle backwards.”
“Really?”
Mike looked at the foreman listening in wonder. “Yup, gots one here for you. Give me a moment to set the contract.” He tapped some more controls and then called out. “Contract set, double check it for the right number of zeros.”
“Wait wait wait.” The foreman held up his hand. “You know you could have sold it for 450?”
Mike nodded. “To a stranger, yeah.”
“And she offered you 350?”
“And I worked out a fair take for my time and LP and decided that for a friend I would not take more than 330. Onc Reme used to say that the best deal is one where both folks walk away happy. Now I expect I will sell another, later for a shade more but for a friend and on the first day they hit production? Nah. Now I want the second one delivered to the GBA, they will be having a draw and giving it away fairly soon. The third,” Mike grinned, “That one be mine.”
The next day he spent some time pouring over fittings and plans and even watching a recording of a Stratios in a new found Ghost Site he made notes and slowly his own design came together. Using it as an errand ship seemed a waste but he liked to get a feel for them so he hopped from system to system when his scanner pinged.
A site. A Serpentis Research facility aka a Ghost site. In hisec and just sitting there. Mike grinned and the ship swung about and warped. Four facilities spun before him a moment later. He locked them all and started up the Cargo scanner.
“Hmm, one empty, the other three nothing special but might as well try.” He started the hack and swiftly blew through the computer defenses guarding the can and swept up the contents of the lab. He was eyeing another when serpentis ship arrived.
*Scorched Earth Protocols!* One cried as they opened fire on both him and the labs he was near.
Mike grinned and realigned to leave the area before what he had seen happen to Livingston did not happen to him. Explosions behind him dwindled to specks of light.
“Well, nothing special but least wise I can say I been there, done that.” He spun the ship about and then continued on.
****************************************************************
Lessons
Know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run. -W Nelson or K Rodgers. Those old bearded guys all look the same to me, maybe it was Ripard Teg?
Yeah, if it was all about the iskies I could have sold it for more. No I won’t give you the same deal so you can flip it and make 100 mill in 2 minutes
But
I (well, the GBA and special thanks to Lightstar) will be giving one away tomorrow. Entry via comments. It IS a nice ship.
fly it like you won it
m
A Missioneer in Eve 
I, of course, HAVE to give this one a try :-p
and so you have
Me too!
also on the list
I want to try those ghost sites just because the risk of death is actually pretty exciting.
I tripped across one today and called it out in local as I was in a domi and not fit for it.
Poor guy lost his wolf, soon after.
m
Didn’t Kenny Rodgers write the Gambler?
Anyway, I flew my wittle white Asteros alot this week, went 12-1 in it until it exploded today going down and taking a Kestrel with it. Great little ship and I’d love to give her Cruiser sister a go!
Yarp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gambler_(song)
Doh
edit time
m
Unless willie was talking about drugs and police, in which case
In a fit of ironic timing, the first part of my house move happened this week, so I don’t actually have my own, should have enough time later this week
Mike, don’t count this in the draw please.
Kenny ftw
Oh my god Kenny’s dead, you bast . . .
oh
never mind
m
So, basically, you got time to get one can, absorb the blast wave or be away from it and run away, right? I thought the NPCs were supposed to try and shoot you up or something? And yeah, pretty ship, nice to see something other than the previous flavors of drab. Will we see the minutes before the next expansion?
Gods I hope so.
I mean, I did stuff and I’d like the record to reflect that.
m
I got one to use as a scanboat and must say its not a bad little ship, gonna have to get me one or two of the big brothers too. 🙂