Commander Altsain has been hard at work, working for Shadow President Winters while Fuel Ratting, saving other commanders stranded in the depths of space. In fact, she has been doing so well with the latter that she was awarded some very exclusive decals to add to her ships, proclaiming her as a Fuel Rat to everyone in the starport. These decals are awarded to any Fuel Rat who has earned their tail and is credited with at least ten successful rescues (this weekend, Commander Altsain topped 60!).

She was so pleased with her new gift that she plastered it all over her main Fuel Ratting ship, the Orca-class Exxon Valdez.

However, she did not stop there. A recent invitation from Professor Palin meant that the tuned engines of the Exxon Valdez could now be uprated further with galactic-standard upgrades from the Professor. As the Orca tends to run cool, the commander opted for dirty drag drives, and did another tour of her favourite engineers to further lighten the ship.

It is now unbelievably fast.

Leaving the station for the first time with the new refit, Commander Altsain brought the ship to a dead stop, and then engaged the vertical thrusters. She could not believe it as the vertical speed just kept on increasing.

It topped out at 400 metres per second – that is faster than any stock ship can boost in a straight line, and faster than most upgraded ships can do flat out.

But what about the Orca’s top performance?

The Exxon Valdez now cruises (cruises!) at 500 metres per second, and boosts to a little over 630, while carrying enough limpets to refuel a fully laden Type-9. That is fast by any stretch, but the commander wanted to know just how it would match up; so, she travelled first to Shinrarta and then the current community goal in the Pleiades – and proceeded to troll the space lanes for gankers.

She figured that if she could escape a dedicated ganker, then no catcall (where a client puts in a request for Fuel Rat rescue with the aim of destroying said Fuel Rat when they arrive) would ever worry her again.

The mission was a complete success.

There was a particularly spirited Clipper in Shinrarta that forced her to high wake out as, while its Pack Hound missiles were left far behind, the Clipper itself has enough speed and firepower to at least strip some shields. But, aside from that… no ganker holds fear for the commander now!

So, everything was going well with Orca, but a conversation with some other commanders in the starport bar (a chain of bars found across civilised space, known as the Reddit Bar) got her thinking in another direction.

And so work began on another ship…