I was invited by one of the mods to share this here as a mega thread, so here goes...
Edit - apparently this saga was so long that I had to split it into two parts. This is part 1-4.
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Well, apparently I need to put this in here. I do not give consent for my posts to be read/interpreted/posted to any monetized or ad-supported platform. Examples include YouTube or other platforms. Short version: If you make money off reading someone else's posts, I do not give consent for you to make money off of my posts.
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PART 1:
After years of hearing stories of problems with HOA's (and having no tolerance for busybodies ourselves) my wife and I were both solidly in agreement that we would never purchase a home in an HOA.
When we finally did find a house and purchased it, we knew for a fact that we were NOT in an HOA. However, just behind us, we learned there was a (not really) HOA.
About a week after we moved in, there was a knock on the door. One of the neighbors behind us, announcing that she was President of the HOA, and welcoming us to the neighborhood. Seems civil enough, but we asked, "what HOA".
"Oh, we're behind you, the home behind yours is where the HOA starts."
"Ok, that's nice, nice to meet you..." Just general pleasantries.
We were hopeful. We were shocked, even. Someone associated with the management of an HOA that wasn't a complete busybody psychopath!
How wrong we were.
The way our lot was, there was a sliver of green space between our property line and the sidewalk, in a somewhat triangular shape (the street ran west southwest, our property line ran due east-west). So there was a wedge of land there. We'd always been told that this belonged to the HOA, yadda yadda - no big deal, just meant we didn't have to deal with the upkeep of this land.
Now that this set up is all in place, it's time to start the story of how we got the (not really an) HOA dissolved.
We had a couple of trees in our yard. Literally on the property line, so we took responsibility for taking care of these things. They're *MASSIVE*. They're also a pain in the butt, incredibly dense/heavy, and because of the way the limbs grow, they're prone to splitting and dropping limbs. There was a huge limb that extended way out into the street adjacent to the green space owned by the HOA. This thing was a major risk of dropping and severely injuring/killing someone. We didn't want that on our conscience (or our insurance!) and so we decided to take that limb down entirely, as well as clean out a lot of the deadwood in the two trees. Hired an arborist, they came out, did their thing. $1400 later, we were left with some decent sized rounds that we were going to move over the next weekend (I was out of town the first weekend after we removed the limb). I should not that the wood was neatly stacked in the green space on the barkdust, out of everyone's way, and in no way a hazard or eyesore.
Enter the shrieking harpy...er.. .President of the "HOA". My wife had stepped out the door the day I had left on my trip and she pulls up into our driveway, rolls down the window, and starts yelling at my wife:
"YOU NEED TO MOVE THAT WOOD NOW!!!!! THAT'S PRIVATE PROPERTY OF THE HOA!!! MOVE IT NOW!!!!"
My wife is *not* a confrontational type. She's also somewhat petite, and tried to explain to the harpy that I was out of town and that we would be moving it as soon as I got back in town the next weekend.
Nope, not good enough. She shrieks at my wife some more, and my wife ends up grabbing the wheelbarrow and somehow moves this stack of rounds (some of them weighed close to 100 lbs) around the fence, up our driveway, and into the backyard. She was pissed.
So was I. We knew where the harpy lived, so when I got back I went over to talk to her, and explain that I was rather displeased in how she treated my wife. Didn't pound on the door, wasn't aggressive or anything.
They wouldn't answer the door. Cowards (we knew they were home).
This left us with a bit of a displeased taste in our mouth. The next spring, the hedge that is planted outside of our fenceline, well, it wasn't maintained very well, and pushed over two sections of our wooden fence. So I emailed the harpy and explained that their hedge had damaged our fence.
"It's not our hedge!"
"um... it's growing in your green space"
"That's not our green space!"
Waitwut?
"Then why the [censored] did you decide to screech at my wife last summer when we had the wood stacked there
Silence.
Well, at that point I fixed the fence so our dog wouldn't escape, after pruning the laurel back sufficiently that it wouldn't damage the fence again. And started making some phone calls. I contacted the county, and ended up speaking to about seven different departments in order to figure out who actually owned that strip of land. After probably two weeks of trying to find the right people to talk to, I got to the roads division. The green space was marked as part of the right of way for the road, and therefore no one actually "owned" that space.
"So I can chop down that ugly overgrown hedge that's encroaching on the sidewalk and knocking down my fence?"
"Yep," says the kind gentleman from the roads division.
"As an aside," he asked, "you mentioned something about there being an HOA associated with the plots to the east of your property?"
"Yeah?"
"well, part of what took me so long to get an answer for you is that it turns out there is no HOA registered with the county there, so we were looking in the wrong place entirely......"
"Wait, there's no HOA there?"
"No, hasn't ever been one since that subdivision was built..."
"Huh.... Interesting...."
And a plot was hatched.
We had befriended a couple of people within the neighborhood behind us, and they were rather fed up with Ms. "President of the HOA" and her antics. She was the typical busybody, bullying anyone she didn't like, and apparently for the last 10 years or so had been collecting HOA "dues" from everyone in the neighborhood to the tune of $300/year. There were 36 homes in the "HOA". Right around $100,000 in dues. For a non-existent HOA. With no real maintenance. Oh, they hosted an annual block party - potluck style.... They pulled weeds from the green space - on a volunteer basis.
So I did what any red-blooded American would do. I got 36 envelopes. 36 stamps. And printed off 36 copies of a letter with my findings from the county that there was not now, nor ever had been for the recorded history of the subdivision, any HOA, neighborhood association, or any similar organization. And that they, collectively, had paid in excess of $100,000 in dues over that time to a non-existent entity, plus any fines the non-existent HOA had decided to levy.
The neighbors, in turn, did exactly what any red-blooded American would do.
They sued the hell out of her for every penny they'd paid over the last 10 years.
Won, too.
And there's no longer an "HOA" behind us.
EDIT: Forgot to mention this. In all the digging into this mess, we learned she's a real estate agent. I figure I'll wait until she pisses me off again and report this whole mess to the state's real estate licensing board. *evil grin*\
Edit to the edit: as others have pointed out, this needs to be reported to the licensing board. Will look into that process....
Edit of the edit to the edit: I have sent an initial e-mail to my state's Real Estate licensing board (Real Estate Agency), and will post any updates as things develop. I did look her up in the licensing system, apparently she's licensed as a principal broker for her agency. This should get interesting.
Edit the fourth: And this should be interesting - her license is up for renewal at the end of this month. This should put one hell of a speed bump in that process. *evil grin*
Regarding the criminal charges, since I wasn't a victim of the fraud, that's not something I can pursue. However, I spoke w/ my friend who was one of her victims and he and his wife are talking to other people they trust about coming together and seeking criminal charges.
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PART 2:
Today, my wife and I had dinner with our friends who were among the victims of this psycho. And I learned a lot. Probably definitely more than I should have. I learned a lot about the lawsuit that was filed when I sent out the letters revealing that there was no HOA. There was, in fact, a settlement to make the lawsuit go away. I will say this, the Harpy got a good lawyer. A *really* good lawyer. One of the terms of the settlement was that the total amount remain undisclosed, but our friends confirmed that they were made whole. Another part of the settlement was a pretty stringent non-disclosure agreement.
I'm gonna have to start pretty far back in this mess, because it explains a lot about how this all went down. The subdivision that Harpy lives in was built back in 2000. And it turns out that at the time the subdivision was built, she was the first one to buy in this brand new neighborhood. The developer had actually planned to set up an HOA (the correct way) but because of delays in construction and selling the homes, they never actually set it up. [Based on one of the comments below and a glance at the relevant state law, this is apparently bad information that was passed on to me.] That didn't stop Ms. Harpy though, not at all. So as soon as the next owners moved in, she reached out to them. "Hi, welcome to the neighborhood. We are setting up a neighborhood association, a voluntary HOA if you will. That way we can take care of the common areas, and keep property values up." The usual excuses behind an HOA.
Well, after the first 5-6 houses were bought and the owners moved in, and agreed to this voluntary "HOA", well... The pitch changed. It went from a "neighborhood association" to just a straight, "Hey, welcome to the neighborhood. I'm the president of the HOA, nice to meet you!" Most people went along with it. They figured they had missed something in the disclosures, or in the listing, or something. But this was a brand spanking new subdivision. And at the time, you couldn't find a brand new subdivision that *didn't* have an HOA. There were a few people that *did* in fact pay attention. When called on it, she would change her pitch back to the "Well, it's not *really* an HOA.... It's more a voluntary neighborhood association... But we do have some rules we've all agreed to (that it turns out she wrote all on her own), and we do collect a small amount of money, just $25 a month, that's not unreasonable, is it? Just to keep up the common areas, and the rules help keep everyone's property values up!"
All of that came to light during the depositions and testimony in this lawsuit.
And she sold them on it. Everyone signed the "rules" (She even called them CC&R's - with the argument that this gave them a certain legal weight to be able to enforce the rules), either under the guise of the "HOA", or the "Neighborhood Association". By the time all the properties were initially sold, it was roughly 2:1, those that thought it was an HOA, and those that thought it was just a voluntary association. And as people sold, and new owners moved in, well, the HOA pitch just got easier to sell. To the point that at the time of the lawsuit, it was somewhere between 3:1 and 4:1.
As testimony was wrapping up, her attorney put forward a proposed settlement. I was able to find out from my neighbor that in this proposed settlement the only people that would be, in the legal jargon, "made whole" were the ones that signed on under the impression that it was a legitimate HOA. Her attorney successfully argued to the judge that the people who signed up under the "voluntary neighborhood association" were not actually defrauded, and therefore couldn't be a part of the settlement. That *really* pissed off those people.
Because of the timing of the whole house of cards tumbling down around her, she had sufficient equity in her house that she was able to refinance her mortgage and pay the settlement amount. So she had to pay a lot of people back out of her own pocket, losing that equity that she had built up over the last ten years. I'm guessing that her husband was *not* in on the scam, as he was not one of the named parties in the suit, and he filed for divorce in the middle of the lawsuit. As for how he didn't know? No clue. Maybe she just had him convinced that her commissions from real estate sales were just that good. I have no idea what the terms of the divorce were, but it was apparently rather acrimonious. Our friends more than once heard shouting matches from the Harpy's house as they were out walking the neighborhood.
So hopefully that clarifies how she was able to sucker people in. Our friends were some of those that were convinced that it was a legitimate HOA, and they told us that she was so smooth, so convincing, that they didn't doubt it for a minute. At least that meant that they were "made whole" even though they couldn't legally disclose how much they got back.
Now, for more recent happenings. One of the things we talked about tonight was our neighbors going to the district attorney and pursuing criminal charges. Well, they talked to the DA's office this morning, and apparently the statute of limitations has passed. For a crime like this, even though it would be a felony level charge, the statute of limitations is only 3 years for that type of crime. BUT I passed on to them the idea of reporting her to the IRS. Since they were among those who lost money, I figure it's only fair that they get the reward if there is one. They both got a rather gleeful look at that idea. So yeah, that should be interesting.
One of the reasons that I said the Harpy got a good lawyer was that one of the terms of the non-disclosure agreement was that if they signed on to the settlement, they agreed not to report her to any professional board or any licensing agency. So she obviously had concerns that something like this might possibly, just maybe, perhaps have an impact on her license as a real estate agent.
Too bad for her that I wasn't part of that settlement. Because after my initial email to the state Real Estate Agency, I got a response back this morning, and after a couple of more e-mails back and forth, I was interviewed over the phone by the head of the professional standards division. They appeared to be *very* interested to hear what I had to say. I gave a recorded statement on the grounds that it would remain confidential (don't want her trying to make my life a living hell). And at dinner tonight, I learned that our friends have a pretty good friendship with several of the people that were *NOT* paid off in the settlement agreement, since they signed up under the "voluntary neighborhood association". The ones her lawyer insisted were not defrauded and therefore couldn't be part of the settlement. Which means they also are not covered under that pesky little non-disclosure agreement.
Before I started writing this update, I e-mailed the names and contact information for three of those owners who still live in the neighborhood to the head of the professional standards division. Because while I had to deal with her craziness and general pain-in-the-assitude, I didn't actually lose any money. But actual victims of her scam? I imagine their testimony will carry quite a bit more weight with professional standards. I also (solely for their convenience) included the state court case number for the lawsuit. Who knows, maybe they can see the records of the lawsuit and the terms of the settlement since they are a state agency.
That, kind Redditors, brings us up to today. If I hear more updates (which hopefully I will through my friends) I will gladly share them here, and I'll happily answer any questions I can.
PART 3:
And now, for Part 3 ladies and gentlemen, a couple of new characters have been introduced. Government agencies have gotten involved.
My friend and neighbor texted me this afternoon, saying only, "CALL ME!!!"
As soon as I was able to, I gave him a call. And he could barely stop chuckling.
He caught me up a bit. After we'd talked the other evening, he'd started talking to some of the people in the neighborhood. And it turns out that Ms. Harpy of the Not-Really-an-HOA is apparently kind of a slow learner. Because in the last couple-three years, while she hasn't tried to bilk anyone else out of their money, some of the newer owners in the neighborhood were being told that there was still a "neighborhood association" and she kept trying to enforce arbitrary rules on people. Except everyone had heard about her antics. And promptly told her to get bent. So if anything, her nonsense has actually created a more cohesive neighborhood. Everyone is united in hating her! :D
But that's not the reason he was chuckling. He was chuckling because he'd just gotten off the phone with an IRS agent. Now normally, that's not your expected reaction when speaking to anyone from the government with the word "Agent" attached to their title in any way. But no. He was chuckling after he spent over an hour on the phone detailing everything he knew about her dealings as "president of the HOA". As well as providing contact info for quite a few others in the neighborhood who knew what had happened over the years. I *really* hope I get to hear more about what happens with the IRS.
As if that wasn't enough good news, I popped over to the state real estate licensing board website (I've been checking it every day since I spoke to the head of professional standards) and saw this:
https://i.imgur.com/4zpahUU.jpg
Sorry I had to redact the hell out of that, but I really want to try to keep this entertaining for you all here while maintaining anonymity.
If I may direct your attention to the section titled "License Information" the column titled "Status"
Additionally, if I may direct your attention to the "Disciplinary Action" section, specifically the columns titled "Resolution" and "Found Issues".
From a little cursory reading of state law and associated regulations, this decision is temporary until the full investigation is completed. Once that happens, the professional standards board will decide if there is to be permanent action against her license. If there is, then there will be a date in the "order signed date" column, and a *really* entertaining link in the "documents" column in the disciplinary action section that lays out the entire case, from start to finish. (I've read a couple of documents in other cases I found where there was a final order - and wow, they lay *EVERYTHING* out).
So there we have it Reddit. I was almost kinda feeling bad for bringing up stuff from years ago to government agencies, but the fact that she is *still* trying to pull off this crap (albeit without the money part) made any of that evaporate like the HOA she thought she had. So it may be the end, or it may not, but at least for now, we've reached the conclusion of the saga of the Harpy of the Not-Really-an-HOA.
PART 4
For those who have read my scribbling on here regarding the Harpy of the Not-Really-An-HOA, hopefully you have enjoyed the saga so far. I am adding this last post on here as a place to put the aftermath of this saga and any updates that I may hear. Because unbelievably, this is a crazy situation that just keeps on giving.
When last we left Ms. Harpy, she was being investigated by the state Real Estate Licensing board, as well as the IRS.
Well, I learned something interesting in this whole saga. Apparently, while the statute for limitations for criminal tax evasion is only three years (or possibly 6 years, depending on the situation), there is apparently no statute of limitations on how far back they can go in civil court. So while she may dodge any federal charges of tax evasion, the IRS will be crawling up in her business however the heck far they want. I suspect that will end.. poorly (and expensively) for her.
Additionally, the state department of revenue has also caught wind of this. Can't imagine how that may have happened. Similar to the feds, while they can't charge her criminally on the tax evasion, I'm sure they also will be digging through all of her tax records for the last, oh, FOREVER.....
I've already had an interview with a rather pleasant IRS agent, and was able to go through everything that I knew, the timeline for what happened, and how it was that I discovered there was not an actual HOA there. When I explained how this all started because she decided to be a bitch about a couple of relatively small issues, and it has since snowballed into, well, THIS, she (the agent) laughed so hard it took us several minutes to get back on track. And she continued to chuckle and giggle throughout the rest of the interview.
And the state department of revenue has contacted me as well, wanting to set up a time for an in person meeting. So that will be fun. :)
I've considered going to the local news media about this as some suggested, but decided against it for a couple of reasons. The story isn't really as fresh as it was 7 or so years ago when it was all going down, and I doubt the news medias ability to keep my name out of it... Maybe not on the air, but somehow it would slip. And that would add needless complication to my life. If somehow she avoids getting her real estate license revoked, maybe that will change the equation enough to where it might be worth letting the media know. Plus it gives them a recent hook to tie the story into. "State Real Estate board refuses to revoke license of crooked agent! News at 11!". You get the gist.
I don't have the screenshot of it, but on the state licensing board website, there's three new items in the "Disciplinary action" section of her license. An additional proposed suspension sanction, and two proposed revocation sanctions. I'm guessing the second proposed suspension is so she can't default back to a "regular" real estate agent. And the proposed revocation sanctions are for her Principal Broker and regular Real Estate agent licenses as well. So that will be interesting to see what happens once it's finalized. I imagine that process will not be quick. Once I get home tonight and have a chance to redact the relevant information from the screenshot, I'll post that as well.
I've heard through my friend who lives in the subdivision that there have been several people contacted by the state Real Estate board, as well as the state department of revenue and the IRS to set up interviews (and some have already been completed).
And just out of curiosity, I checked the website for the local branch of the national real estate company she works for. And lo and behold, she's no longer listed on there as either the principal broker or an agent, and someone else is listed as principal broker. I'm going to take this development as a cautious agency making sure they don't get caught up in any legal messes. But I think someone just learned the lesson, "you are merely a cog in this machine. you are easily replaced."
In a final bit of entertainment for this saga, I was shown several screenshots by my friend of a post in the subdivision's Facebook page that was quite, well, I guess entertaining would be a great word. She's since deleted the post, but essentially she was on there shrieking about how they were "all" under a non-disclosure agreement, and she was apparently threatening to sue any of them that talked to anyone for violation of the NDA. This was met by cricket chirps from anyone who knew what was going on, but there were several "what the hell is she talking about" type of posts by a few of the newer owners who weren't in the know. But my favorite response was by someone who apparently is an attorney (based on how they phrased things) who wasn't here when the not-an-HOA was in effect (she's only lived in the neighborhood for about a year) but apparently caught a quick heads up from somebody. The short version of her post was that while she wasn't aware of the particulars of what was going on, she stated that NDA's don't cover someone answering questions from a regulatory or investigatory agency, either state or federal, as well as not covering any testimony being given under oath. And trying to bully someone into not speaking to such an agency by means of an NDA or otherwise might even be considered witness tampering or intimidation. And a few hours later the Harpy's post (and all the associated replies) mysteriously disappeared... But you know, FB will gladly hand over the whole conversation with a subpoena. And the IRS does not mess around with the possibility of witness tampering. So maybe she might end up facing criminal charges after all. Depends on how stupid she gets, I guess. If past performance is any kind of indicator, she may very well get to spend some time in the gray bar hotel.
And as any more updates come in, I'll add them on as edits to this post so there's one convenient place to watch for updates.
MAJOR UPDATE!!! See the attached photo. The state Real Estate Agency has finalized their orders on her license. Folks, I wish I could share the text of the final orders associated with this action. But because it is public record, it is also searchable, and would all too easily reveal her identity and open the doors to headaches for me and my family. So I'll summarize. The first revocation for Fraud or Dishonest Conduct and Failure to Disclose is of her Principal Broker license. The second revocation, for Incompetence or Untrustworthiness and Records, that's for her regular real estate agent license. There are some bombshells in the final orders. Apparently, as a few people suspected in the comments, there was a lot more happening than just what was happening in her neighborhood. I was shocked at how quickly the final order was released (from what I was seeing in other cases of revocations, the investigation usually lasts anywhere from three to six months). But reading the final orders, the Principal Broker revocation was based mostly on the information in the lawsuit that was filed by the neighbors back in 2012 and the ensuing settlement. However, their investigation apparently turned up quite a bit of other STUFF. Including lying to clients, falsifying records, not disclosing relationship between herself and sellers or buyers, and other instances of outright fraud. I will quote one line nearly verbatim from both final orders... Because it's just so delicious to read:
"While this Board has taken the strongest action granted by the [APPLICABLE STATE STATUTES], much of the information that was discovered during the course of this Board's investigation is beyond the purview of this Board. Therefore we are turning over all records and witness testimony to the [REDACTED] County District Attorney and the [STATE REDACTED] Department of Justice, Criminal Justice Division for further action."
https://imgur.com/qDKNVTg
ANOTHER UPDATE!: Folks the world of legal hurt his woman has brought onto herself just continues to avalanche. This morning, I had walked my daughter to her school bus stop (right on the corner where the not-an-HOA starts) and a unmarked SUV with government plates comes around the corner. Picture every unmarked law enforcement SUV you've seen in a movie. That stereotypical. And they park a couple of doors down from the Harpy's house. I risked being a couple minutes late to work to watch what was about to unfold. And was not in the least bit disappointed. Because out of the vehicle step two individuals wearing dark blue jackets with bright yellow letters. Some very specific letters. BIG letters that may or may not have spelled out "IRS" and underneath in smaller letters the words "Special Agent".
I may have giggled when I got to my truck. I may have laughed uproariously on my drive in to work. Because the first thing I did was look up just how big of a poop-pile she may have landed in. Apparently, a really deep one. Because from what I could find, the only people authorized to wear the "Special Agent" jacket are in the IRS's Criminal Investigation Division.
I texted my friend who lived in the neighborhood this as I was leaving for work around 7:15 this morning.He texted me back around 10ish.... He's been watching all of this unfold out his front window since I texted him. In addition to the original SUV (which is now right in front of her house) there's another SUV there as well. Apparently some other people wearing IRS jackets (just without the "Special Agent") got out of the second SUV, and he just saw them carrying out some "banker's boxes" sealed with red tape, and a couple of computers. And because this poo-pile is not yet deep enough, apparently they were checking something (assuming VIN) on the Mercedes SUV she started driving a few months ago.
I'll update this as he sends me more info. We're seeing the undoing of the Harpy in nearly real-time.... Oh, how sweet it is.
The second post (parts 5-8) can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/NuclearRevenge/comments/kst2vl/how_i_got_a_not_really_an_hoa_disbanded_and/

Hey everybody, this is my first post on here. I'm on mobile, so forgive me for any format errors.
Also, profanity in the story is censored
So backstory: I work for a subcontracting company that does really niche IT work for various municipal governments, and my truck is loaded with equipment for computer repair, and roadwork (like I said, it's niche, but this becomes important later.) As such, I currently have a two hour commute, and while I do use the interstate during the day, I usually head home closer to midnight and prefer to take state highways and backroads due to the lower speed limits.
So, now for the cast, we have:
Me: OP Brad: The entitled driver (fake name) Renee: My fiancee and coworker (fake name) Nice GF: Brads female companion Chad: Brads absolutely chill father (fake name)
Now for the story: So as Renee and I were driving home tonight, we had noticed that a large rotted poplar tree had become uprooted and fallen into the road, covering both lanes. Normally, I would have called local officials and then either waited for the tree to be removed, or simply wait for them to arrive and then take a different route.
Unfortunately, I had no cell reception in this area, and rerouting would have added an extra hour to my already long commute. As such, I figured I'd try to use my demolition hammer (the best thing available to me) to try and at least weaken it until someone came by with cell reception that we could flag down and get to call local authorities.
So, I turned on our hazards, turned on our beacon, and Renee and I both put on our reflective vests and hard hats with built in lamps. While Renee brought the tools over to the tree I began grabbing the traffic cones to block off the road.
Enter Brad
As I finished setting up the cones behind the truck, Renee began handing me the cones to put in front of the fallen tree. No sooner had I begun reaching for them when we heard the roar of a brand new sunrise orange Dodge Charger RT flying up the back road with a 30mph speed limit at highway speeds. I ran in front of the fallen tree, shining my flashlight on the already well illuminated tree, and tried to flag down the Charger. It was no use, he never even hit his brakes. I dove out of the way at the last second, as the Charger plowed into the tree, turning it into a horizontal fulcrum, and me into a baseball, as the tree struck my shoulder and launched me about 10 ft.
I got up, extreme pain throughout my left side, and unable to raise my arm up. Adrenaline coursing through me, I ran (err, hobbled quickly) to the remains of the poor obliterated Charger, now smoking, and leaking fluids all over the road. Miraculously, Brad and Nice GF (both about my age, early twenties) got out and were completely unharmed (though understandably shaken.)
Renee (who miraculously found the one spot with coverage) called emergency services, and Nice GF called Chad...thats when I heard it.
Brad: Oh god, my car! How could this happen?! Why does this always happen to me?!? What woul--
And that was when he looked at me, looked at the clearly uprooted tree, and proceeded to have a unique reaction. One that I never thought really ever happened...one that sounded like...
Brad: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Me: (thinking maybe he's injured too) Dude! Are you okay?
Brad: NO, idiot! Because of you, my car is completely totalled! What kind of moron cuts down a tree in the middle of the road?
Me: Actually, the tree was already here, we only got here maybe two or thr--
Brad: BS, you blinded me with that flashing strobe light (pointing at the yellow hazard beacon on my truck, which I've used for years)
Nice GF: Actually, I think that--
Brad: SHUT UP! All of you! I'm gonna sue you for failing to illuminate the tree properly (this is irrelevant)
Me: (trying to be nice) Well, actually that's--
Brad: If you open your mouth one more time I'm gonna--
Renee: (in all of her four-and-a-half foot glory) Enough! It's not his fault that you clearly acquired your drivers license in a happy meal. That tree is very well illuminated. You clearly weren't paying any attention, and you hurt him, look at him, he's limping, idiot. You're the one who ought to be apologizing for that stunt you pulled, and the mess you made.
Silence. Deathly, unnerving silence, as Brad stood slack-jawed, and making a strange choral noise. Suddenly, Brad goes on an absolute rampage. Kicking and throwing my cones, tools, and various other items from and around my truck, into the forest, and off the roads fifteen foot embankment. I wish I could tell you more, but it was about that time that Chad arrived along with first responders. We gave statements, and I spent the rest of the time being checked out by EMS. I'll update you tomorrow after his insurance company calls me.
TL/DR: Entitled driver hits me with a tree, blames me for his totaled car, and then throws my belongings off a cliff.
Update 1: I have not yet been contacted by his insurance company, and have slept for most of today. My arm and leg are more sore today, and there's an odd crunching sound in my shoulder. I will be getting a copy of the police report tomorrow, and I will be seeing my primary care physician first thing in the morning. I'll update you guys tomorrow.
Update 2: Well, my primary had no open spaces, so I'm now at urgent care. I'll let you know the verdict once I get out. Wish me luck
Update 3: Well, nothing's broken, but the muscle on my scapula is bleeding. They just gave me a muscle relaxer.
Update 4: I'm in a sling. Unfortunately, there's nothing they can do about my torn muscle, except wait for it to heal. As far as a lawyer and a copy of the police report, no lawyer is willing to take my case as I'm "not injured enough," and the police report is gonna take us at least a week to get ahold of. Also, still no word from his insurance company. I'll let you know whenever I make contact with his insurance, and when we get the report.

Three questions NewToEMS community:

1. What are questions you've been asked while interviewing at a private ambulance company?
2. Perhaps more importantly, what are questions that you yourself have asked to determine whether that company is a good fit?
3. Any other advice or recommendations you have?

Recently got my EMT certs and have first-time interviews coming up this week at five different private ambulance companies. I made my best effort to consolidate what has been posted over the last few years, and linked/credited the original author. I'll continue to add what you suggest below!

Questions you might be asked

• Describe yourself
• Why do you want to be an EMT? With us?
• How did you handle XYZ challenges in your previous job?
• What is a strength you can bring to the team?
• Tell us about a time you had a conflict with someone
• Why did you choose this company/department?
• What is you 5 year plan? (Paramedic school, nursing school, etc)
• What is your end goal? (Full-time fire, ICU Nurse, Doctor, PA?)
• How is your driving record? (Be prepared to be honest about anything on it)
• What type of schedule are you looking for?
• Define customer service and how it relates to EMS? u/MKEsteakout
• What do you consider a perfect partner? u/westofeden0404
• What do you do with an injured unaccompanied minor? (implied consent)
• What do you do if you witness a collision en route to a call? (report it but keep going, stopping=negligence) u/GoldenBeaRR6
• While on a call you see a fire captain pocketing a bottle of the patient's prescription narcotics. What would you do? u/invertedbottles
• Could you give me examples from past experience where you demonstrated the ability to control a crowd during an emergency situation?
• How would you respond if you were to arrive on an emergency scene too late to be of assistance, and bystanders hold you accountable?
• How did you display the ability to maintain equipment proficiently in your previous position?
• Do you have the ability to remain calm at all times, and why would you say so?
• How do you prevent your personal problems from affecting your performance at work? u/kingacejj
• You arrive on scene and there is an AOx4 person refusing care (who probably need its) what would you do? Ok, same scenario except now the patient is AOx2. u/rjb524
• How serious are you about this? How long do you plan on staying in the area? (Trying to suss out whether they’ll get a good return on investment.) u/CentSG2
• You and your partner who is higher rank than you (Paramedic) get to a call and your partner is doing a procedure that will harm the patient. What would you do? u/fairlysocial
• Come prepared to go through your medical assessments and trauma assessments (its common). be prepared to answer questions to career goals, simulating conflicts with coworkers (what would you do if your coworker was breaking the rules etc), your strengths and weaknesses u/lpbtime
• Be prepared for general things like “tell us a little about yourself” of course, or “where you see yourself in 5 years”, but also chain of command questions are popular for EMS positions, and scenarios asking what you do when your coworker is late to their shift or leaves you a messy unstocked ambulance after a busy night. u/Scribblebonx
• Name a dangerous situation you were involved in. Name a POTENTIALLY dangerous situation you were involved with and what you did to resolve it. Name a situation you had to use other resources to resolve an issue. u/ItheCardinal
• Why you want to be an emt, why you want to work for them, why prn instead of full time (they might try to talk you into it if their short haha), comfort level, do you have your license already, experience, ever driven an ambo before, when can you start, anything going to pop on your background, clean driving record (no moving violations), are you familiar with the area, are you familiar with the fire depts, are you familiar with the hospital, ever used a lifepak/zol/ect, and a few others possibly. 7YearOldCodPlayer

Questions you should ask the company

• How do you define success in this role? u/Seal_Team420
• Is this a new position or would I be replacing someone? If someone left, why did they leave? What measures has your service taken to protect your employees during this pandemic? What are some common challenges new hires encounter during their probation? Are there any in-house education/training opportunities? u/I_Am_Ron_Burgandy
• What is your turnover rate? Why do people leave your company? How would you describe the attitude the employees have about working here? u/MKEsteakout
• The things I look for in a company (7yrs in EMS) are the benefits the company offers you; aside from pay, insurance, PTO. You'll want to see how well a company treats it's employees as well as any extra incentives it can provide (Holiday pay, hazard pay, vacation, additional benefits such as company stock, etc). u/TexasMedic556
• EVOC and FTO training and everything. These should all be points that should be addressed in the in-person interview. Either they bring it up or you do. Grill them as hard as they grill you (but respectfully, it's still an interview). u/KrAzyDrummer
• Call volume, call type (IFT, pure 911, fire turfs), shift schedule, staff turnover rates, amenities of quarters, training opportunities (none, recert, higher cert). u/500ls
• Where do they cover? Is there mutual aid (locally we spend a lot of time in our secondary areas due to staffing)? They know you’re new- ask about how they do orientation and what the expectations are. Will you work split trucks or straight BLS? Do you need EVOC or other driving training? How are you “cleared” for duty after getting started? u/calyps09
• What kind of details do you do? 911? What’s the dispatch type, is it from base or patrol style? Shift length? Commitment to safety, PPE stocks, shift length, average length of employment (if low maybe a bad place to work), call volume? u/CoffeePie87
• How often do you have to beg someone to take an additional shift? How often is my time off subject to you calling me asking me if I'm available to take a patient transfer. What is your internal competency training like? I want to be proficient in all of my skills and acquire new skills by practicing them. What is the overall attitude of the service and how is it perceived in the community? Also, what is your operating budget in terms of funds for making improvements and upgrades to the service. Is your living quarters, livable? What equipment do you have for my own health and safety, like power cots. Also, what resources are available to me on calls, for example is the fire service available to help with lift assist, CPR in progress, etc. u/piemat

Other advice/recommendations

• STAR method. Situation, Task, Action, Result.Research and practice that bro. Good luck. u/themikelee
• Most companies will do a written and skill assessment post hiring, typically in the form of a protocol test and "mega-code" assessment to ensure a new hire is able to perform his or her duties to the company standard. Just because one does or doesn't isn't a direct indicator if it is a good or bad company in general. u/TexasMedic556
• I would wear full suit that's what I did when I interviewed and as for the interview we had to use a BAR response format. If you don't know what it is it's when they ask for an example for like customer service or whatever. When talking about a story you talk about the BACKGROUND behind the story, the ACTION you took and why you took it and the RESPONSE that people had to your action/the outcome. That will get you though a pretty standard interview. u/Burns0425
• I would get a cheap folder or two or three, put a copy of all of your certifications, you’re driving record, resume, and anything else listed as require in the posting. Make sure it’s put together nicely and give it to those that are going to be interviewing you. You could also get a cheap flash drive if you have digital versions of everything to provide them that too as it may be easier to add to your employee file later down the road. I would have a list of references available and with you should they ask for one. Look presentable. Business casual at a minimum, I would recommend a suit and tie. If you are a smoker, make sure you don’t smell of it. u/8berner8
• Be honest, be professional, and look the part. Hair cut, shaved/beard trimmed or 'conservative' make up, and clean clothes. Whoever you're interviewing with will likely give you some kind of dress code. If you're unsure, it's always better to be over dressed than under. Review some of your major notes on medicine, look into your state regulations, and be at least passingly familiar with them. If you know what area you'll be operating in, try to be a little familiar with it as well. In all likelihood, you'll be perfectly fine. Just be polite and friendly. Most places are hurting for EMTs, so the game is in your favor. u/LefthandedLink
• What types of scenarios should one typically expect in an EMTB interview?u/Diabeetush

So look at your state protocols. Every medical/traumatic event in there you should know how to recognize and treat at the EMT-B level.
Pick a topic, and ask these basic questions to study:
What are the presentations/signs/symptoms? This will help you identify what line of treatment you want to follow.
What are the causes? This will help specifically tailor your treatment, and in reverse, help confirm/better identify the specific problem with the patient.
How do I treat at the EMT-B level? This is pretty straightforward. This may be specific assessments (stroke scale) or direct treatments (provision of 0.3mg of IM epinephrine)
Here's a good list of stuff to have a competence in:
Abdominal pain/nausea/diarrhea, seizure, sepsis, breathing problems, chest pain, stroke, allergic reaction/anaphylaxis, diabetic problems, cardiac arrest, overdose/poisonings, hypehypothermia, dehydration, and trauma of all kind

Navigation		Destinations
« Back	26	Forward »
1-10	11-20	21-30
« Beginning		End »

Note: This is a complete standalone story. It ties into the larger story arc (specifically side events on how other systems are handling an invasion problem) but doesn't require any backstory to be complete by itself.
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With A Sound Like Thunder
Fifteen miles of payload tether burned an arc across the evening sky five thousand miles long, so hot and bright it was difficult to look at directly.
Half the population of Seraherd township stood on the roof of the processing plant, hands shading concerned eyes while they talked in low tones. More than a few passed a bottle around, tipping measured draughts into offered cups as their skyhook left a smoking trail from one end of the horizon to the other. Alcohol wasn't in their resource portfolio; no official still or moonshine apparatus ever found its way onto the colony shipment manifests. But they were resourceful. Colonists always found a way to provide for themselves; it was a point of pride so ingrained as to be almost religion. Not to mention agro cattle feed was mostly soy and corn to begin with so half the booze supply practically fell into their laps every harvest. But the pride thing mattered most.
The sonic boom began twenty minutes later, riding two hundred fifty miles of atmosphere to reach their town.
Bass so low it was more felt than heard rolled across the hills, shivering bioengineered quick-grow wheat and sending anything lightweight rattling around like it had legs and a bad attitude. It was a primal sound that spoke of danger: Thunderstorms, tornados, earthquakes. The holding pens east of the quarter-mile square plant turned into agitated waves of movement, groups of cattle shifting restlessly as ancient instincts pushed them to seek cover, find shelter... or just plain run until they left behind whatever predator was coming. Which would have been quite a trick as the boom went on and on, chasing the blazing end of the tether across the horizon in a shockwave seven times the speed of sound.
Agro cattle were huge-- twenty-two hundred pounds of meat after processing. They were immensely strong as well, easily able to flip a solid steel drone combine if one had a mind to. But they sure as hell weren't fast. And running away from that vengeful burning spike of fire in the sky would require a flat sprint of nearly a mile per second. That right there would be some supersonic beef protein.
Oscar Hile couldn't make himself believe that was possible.
Although to be fair he didn't consider himself to be the imaginative sort anyways. Downright practical, honestly. It was only lately (while watching the slow, spectacular death of the orbital tether) that he really started imagining things. He pictured just how much worse it would have to be from the spaceport, directly underneath the hook. In his mind's eye it was a mass of burning gantries and support structures, slagged buildings slowly toppling over on each other. Sonic booms so loud trees came right up out of the ground with the bark ripped off. Everything remotely flammable catching fire from radiant heat. Access roads so cooked construction vehicles sunk into them like soft candy, only to slowly harden into statues as the searing tether passed by. Then doing it all over again as the giant lift assist swung through again sixteen hours later, pitiless and unstoppable.
This imagination thing might be a bit overrated.
While Oscar considered the merits of human creativity he kept half an eye on the herds, watching for a stampede. Animals could become accustomed to anything-- humans included-- but even after three days of sonic booms you just never knew when one of them would suddenly take it as a signal to run. And when a couple thousand of anything got going it was best to get out of the way. Or start checking if your property insurance covered a hundred thousand hoof dents.
The other half of his attention was occupied with Jeffrey Hentley, the local Colony head currently holding court from the top of a turned-over harvest crate. Between the agro animals and Head Hentley he wasn't quite sure which might cause more long term damage.
"-preemptive attack! That's right; I heard it from the GravComm not even two hours ago. Corporate headquarters issued an advisory that our entire system is being invaded in a hostile takeover! Can you believe it?" Jeffrey certainly could. His black eyes and ruddy face pointed at everyone in the small crowd, energetic and animated. Some people saw adversity as a reason to buckle down and find solidarity with their neighbors. Others, like their colony head, saw it as opportunity. "But what is even better-- even better, hear this!-- is the bounty for aiding in the fight! For every person that signs up, a generous stipend will be added to our entire colony balance every week, to be redeemed when Corporate regains full control of the system! And I, for one, will be-"
"Who's invading?" That was Pat Irons, yelling from the back of the crowd. Oscar knew without even looking around. Pat had a voice made for calling fieldhands across a Colony mile-- raw, rough, undeniable. He didn't yell; he just sort of refused to acknowledge the existence of obstacles in between his mouth and the person receiving the words. It helped he was built like a rain barrel with four limbs attached, hands rougher than old leather. "Who 'xactly are we fighting with? We're a Colony, for crying out loud! Our value is our production!"
The crowd muttered about that, agreeing. It was true: They made what they ate, sold generous leftovers by the megaton and in between their planet grew more habitable every year. On the Corporate ledger they were firmly in the black, even with hundreds of atmosphere processors running and high altitude terraforming bombs every year. But as a target to attack? Ludicrous. How do you seize crops that aren't grown? Cattle that haven't calved?
Hentley hesitated, derailed from his personal speech at the interruption. He squinted at the dark crowd, picking out Pat from a sea of rough denim and stained work jackets. "Well, Corporate says they're-- I mean we are fighting drones. That's right! Drones. The enemy is so cowardly they sent machines at us!" He picked up steam again, pointed outward toward (presumably) space. "Right now two warships are holding off the invaders, but even their best efforts couldn't keep them off our resource stations! I'm told the system headquarters is nearly overrun and now we're seeing landings on both Colony planets. Not to mention the loss of our shuttle tether: That will set us back decades!"
Another mutter through the crowd, rippling loud enough to be heard over the continuous rumble of the skyhook entering atmosphere. Corporate stations and system transit was one thing; they didn't get involved and the spaceheads returned the favor. It was widely accepted that for anything in vacuum they could expect Corporate to handle it (at a premium, of course), which also included an unspoken caveat to keep cutthroat budget fights far away from their gravity well. But bringing the fight Colonyside was another matter: That was personal. A betrayal of the silent agreement.
"So we're fighting drones? Metal boxes, with weapons on them?" Gerald Garner that time. Oscar could almost picture the old timer nervously plucking at his overall pockets while he talked. "How are we supposed to fight that? With what? Farming machinery and cattle prods? I got two daughters at home, how can you expect-"
Oscar tuned out the debate as he noticed Harland Gum come up the stairwell and onto the roof, floppy boonie hat thrown back and an annoyed frown on his bearded face. He paused briefly at the top, knocking mud and manure off his boots, then caught Oscar's one armed wave and ambled over with an easy grace. "Hey there, Prickles." He thrust a hand out in a crushing handshake, then plucked a sheaf of papers from one front pocket. "Got them maps you were asking for. Most of the western range here, where all them ships crashed a while back."
"Any trouble getting copies?" Oscar accepted the folded maps, flipping them open to the range markers with a prospector's deft touch. "Corporate on you for it?"
"Nah, I know Sandra down at Archives. Used to see her on the side-like when we first settled in. Quit off it a couple of months in, but we're still a bit sweet." Blue eyes roamed the crowd, then settled on the Colony head. "He pitching them on being some kind of militia?"
"Seems like it." He unfurled maps along the edge of the roof, lining up markers until they were staring down at hill ranges with a birds-eye view. He spotted Seraherd colony right away, a small dot for seven thousand souls nestled right at the bottom of the north hills. Flat country bordered them on the south, hundreds of miles' worth bioengineered grasslands and micro-seeded waterways that abruptly ended at the edge of the terraform markers. All of it marked off with seasonal rotations for the herds. West of them was more grassland, bisected at a distance with a long red scar over the remains of Palos-1's spaceport. Hazard and danger symbols covered the map over there, warning of imminent collapse of the skyhook. But east..
He tapped the map to the east, just over some alluvial hills. "That's them?" Four small red circles encompassed an area about fifteen miles square. It was a lopsided pattern with small gaps, like someone flicked red ink onto the map and smeared it while cleaning up.
Harland glanced down and nodded. "Yup. Ships crashed down in that area. Can't get a better reading-- satellites stopped responding. Whatever got the tether station must have also snapped our birds out of orbit. Speaking of which, did our Head over there explain anything about that?" He pointed unsubtly at Hentley, who was currently in the middle of a wheedling argument with a coalition of produce farmers.
"Drones." Oscar grunted the explanation. One slim finger traced a path from the crash sites to Seraherd, tapping small black dots along the way. "These farming homesteads; they reported in lately? Anyone visited, talked to them?"
"Drones, he says." Harland looked quietly amused. "I think we both know that's some quality bullshit, Prickles. We both been in enough engagements to know that autonomous combat crap doesn't work. Hell if Corporate could replace us with machines they'd 'ave done it by now!" He slicked a thick head of black hair backwards with both hands, then ran fingers through an absurdly luxurious beard. "Don't fuckin' miss it for a second. Grooming standards? Ugh."
"Hale." Oscar tapped the map and looked up at the taller man, grey eyes intense. "The homesteads?"
"Oh, it's 'Hale' now, is it? You must be feeling the old days. Or maybe our boxtop prophet over there got you spun up a bit. And before you blow your top, Prickles, that's a hard negative. Homesteads not reporting in, even before we lost satellites." The humor drained out of him by degrees, taking a little humanity with it. He crossed both arms over a barrel like chest, rolled sleeves pulling up to display tattoos on both biceps. "What are you thinking?"
"Not sure." While Harland reveled in the loss of grooming standards, Oscar still kept his shaved to regulation Navy standard. Force of habit, mostly-- he couldn't imagine doing otherwise. But it left him without anything to do with his hands while thinking through a problem. He jammed both into the stained overall pockets. "Still got your Ricochet?"
"Those are illegal for Colonists to own."
"So that's a yes?"
"It's a maybe, dammit. Look, hey: I've seen you like this before and yeah, there's shit going down." He motioned towards the setting sun and the black scar of smoke trailing the skyhook's uncontrolled re-entry. "But that don't mean we have to get involved. Dead stars and supernovas, we bought out our contracts! We don't owe Corporate startups a damn thing any more. Can't we just... settle? Come on."
For a brief second Oscar genuinely considered it. Just let it go, work the herds, spend evenings in the town's small community hall buying drinks for women with an ear for off-world stories. They'd been doing well for the last three years at being civilians. But responsibility wasn't something he could really put a leash on. It was what made Oscar a good Acquisitions team leader, let him climb the Corporate ladder one engagement at a time, taking Harland with him the whole way. Responsibility and preparedness saved lives... but they were also habits: Once you picked them up it took more imagination than Oscar had to just throw them away again.
Harland read him like a book. "Oh fuck me with a stun stick."
"It's just a quick check." He threw both arms up in a 'what can you do?' expression.
"For drones. Autonomous, combat equipped drones without any sort of human assistance." Harland kicked the edge of the roof in frustration, knocking more mud off his boots and drawing a few surprised looks from the crowd. He waved them off with a big smile, then lowered his tone to a hiss. "You know that's bullshit! Nothing operates by itself for very long. It just... quits. Or runs into a color it can't process and hard locks. Or starts shooting at moving bushes until the power runs out."
"I know, I get it." Oscar looked up. "But still. The hell is going on? Stations getting overrun? Warships -- multiple warships!-- in prolonged battles for weeks? Weeks?" He snorted in disbelief. "You've seen what those things can do. We've been aboard when just one of those behemoths sterilized a whole startup system. Tell me two of them fighting anything for weeks makes any kind of sense."
There was a long pause, filled only with a steady rumble of distant sonic booms and the closer mumble of low speed propaganda.
"Fine! Fuck, you got me!" Harland looked annoyed enough to chew nails. "I can't think of anything a warship wouldn't atomize in an hour or less. But you're not going to convince me we're fighting dumb-as-rocks drones, especially not some sort of crash-landed... I dunno, robot recon force bullshit."
"Robot recon force?" Oscar looked faintly impressed. "Where did you get that?"
"Some of us watch entertainment feeds once in a while, Prickles." He levelled a stubby finger at Oscar's amused smile. "I'll get my Ricochet, give me an hour to dig it up and get ready. You're driving. I'm going to be drinking. But listen to me real good," he glared, beard and stylized hair in full, glorious display. "It ain't any kind of fucking drone."
"I cannot believe it's fucking drones."
Oscar shifted slightly, trying to find a more comfortable spot on bare rock. They were both currently belly-down across a shale escarpment, overlooking an extensive crash site below. Less than a mile away the wrecked remains of a transport thrust a burned metallic fuselage into the night sky like a raised middle finger, torn and curled metal flayed upwards at every angle. An impact crater a quarter mile south and a long slide mark full of debris showed how it ended up in that position. The crash itself must have been pretty spectacular: Bio-wheat fields were burned back a half mile along the entire length.
But what really had their attention were the drones.
"No, seriously. There has to be a human controller in there somewhere. Guiding those things, tasking goals, getting them directed." Harland looked pissed off on a professional level. "They never work on their own."
"Anything organic that went down on that freighter either got smashed into paste or incinerated." Oscar turned slightly, panning the scope of his Ricochet along the crash site below. "What the hell are they doing?"
Below them a churning mass of drones crawled on and around the ship remains like horrific spiders. Each machine was roughly triangular in shape with blunt, rounded corners and beveled long edges. The casing looked about three to four inches thick, made of some kind of mottled metallic looking composite that flashed a rainbow of oily colors when the light hit it just right. There didn't seem to be a defined front or a back to the things: They moved in any direction by flipping themselves completely over or skittering along their edges, pulled or flung by a series of cables that snapped out of each corner. Every now and then a group of them would suddenly snap together, cables pulling and compressing the triangular casings into complex open-sided hexagons.
That last behavior gave Oscar goosebumps. He spent several minutes zoomed in on one of the hexagons, ignoring Harland's complaints in favor of focusing on the small movements within. "Factories."
"-absolutely stupid, how could anyone even trust a machine to wait, what?" He cut off mid-rant. "Say again?"
"I think those are factories. The hexagon things they combine into. See how some of them bring pieces of the ship inside the shapes, then a little later another drone will drop out? They're making more of themselves somehow, inside there."
Harland got low, then snuggled into his Ricochet scope. Five feet of magnetic railgun whined as it cycled up, powering the sight and preparing a tungsten slug for deployment. Breath held, the bearded ex-trooper carefully scanned the activity below with both eyes wide open. "Alright, I see it." He exhaled slowly, controlled. "I don't believe it, but yeah-- that's what it looks like. Well... shit."
Oscar nodded in agreement, then elbow-walked backwards away from the edge to avoid skylining himself. He wasn't sure the drones used optics but old habits died hard. Clear of the edge he sat up, clicking the safety on and setting the railgun within easy reach just in case. He got out the satellite maps and laid them on the rock, tapping the red X marks over the farming homesteads. "So, they're hostile for sure. Everything between the crash sites was razed in a straight line. But are they targeting the farming homesteads, or are they just going from crash to crash for the resources?"
"Does it make a difference? That's a couple dozen people dead already." Harland patted his rifle. "I'm of a mind to spend a couple hours making incendiary loads, then sit back a couple miles and blow large, flaming holes in everything."
"That's definitely a plan." Oscar didn't look up from the map, eyes thoughtfully tracing out elevation markings.
"How come when you say it like that all I hear is 'what a horribly bad plan'?"
"I didn't say that."
"Maybe I should put large, flaming holes through you."
"I might have been thinking it." The taller man snorted in disbelief. Oscar relented, gracing his partner with an apologetic grin. "There are some... holes in that plan, though."
Harland's eyes came down to half mast. He let the pun die in the stale air, then continued to wait until the desiccated remains blew away. "I'm going to let that slide just once, Prickles. But why are large, fiery explosions not going to work?"
"Couple of reasons. First, they rode down on a broken transport and survived re-entry. That's, what? Over three thousand degrees? If we had military-grade thermal rounds or white phosphorus loads we could beat that, but otherwise I don't think it'll be good enough. Then there's the other problem."
Harland scratched his beard, then started patting his pockets. "I'm going to need another drink for this shit."
"It's quantity, since you're not interested in asking. There's too many of them, all over the place." Oscar frowned, using one fingertip to backtrace their route from town. Their path dipped and angled in places around rolling hills, but mostly ended up in a straight line from the crash site directly into Seraherd. "You're a hell of a shot, Hale-"
"Damn straight."
"-but even if you hit every single time we'd need over five thousand railgun casings. I doubt you have even a hundred, even if you managed to smuggle them out in every single piece of clothing you had when we left headquarters."
He raised one short finger in protest, then put it down again. "Okay. Good point. So I'll take the first hundred, then you can shoot the next four thousand or so."
"I have no ammunition at all, actually."
Harland recoiled with something like actual disgust. "You went full civilian? Prickles, I am... whoo. I don't even know what to say. This might be the closest I'll ever come to disowning you." Then he looked down at their rifles, side by side like two lethal birds on sleek tripods. "Wait, why the hell did you keep your Ricochet without any freaking ammunition for it?"
Memories rushed up, breaking a hard seal somewhere deep in Oscar's heart. They stormed through his mind, grabbed his hindbrain and took every emotion for a vicious joy ride through the years. Dozens of engagements. Hundreds of buddies, casualties, friends made and lost in the face of Corporate greed and hostile takeovers. Screams, explosions, triumphant yells and the cold vacuum of soundless conflicts.
He opened his mouth to explain it all, then realized he was eye to eye with Harland's sympathetic expression. "Memories."
They both looked away. Harland cleared his throat, turned and spat somewhere far out into the grass. "Yeah. Memories. Fuck 'em."
Oscar deliberately changed the subject, breaking hard away from an unspoken minefield. "Anyways, I think we have a way to take care of them all of once."
"I'm listening."
"We'll need the mining explosives from the dig site up north-- do you have any left over?" He knew the taller man was a pack rat when it came to explosives. Odds were good a couple of the small charges somehow ended up 'misplaced' into a personal backpack.
"Yup, got ten of 'em. But ten small packages isn't going to do much for that swarm down there. And I don't mind telling you I sure as shit am not volunteering to run my ass straight into them chucking bombs everywhere."
"You won't have to. In fact we might not even see them at all. Here's what we're going to do..."
Early morning in Seraherd was a quiet affair, if one ignored the constant susurrus of several thousand farm animals calling wake-up sounds to each other. Residents typically didn't get out of their premade habitations until the crack of six, when daylight was just starting to crest the horizon enough to walk around unassisted. It was better that way: The town was an agro startup, not a city, so things like streetlights and always-burning exterior LEDs were a luxury most people skipped out on. Which meant trips outside in the dark required a flashlight, a keen eye and a set of footwear you didn't mind getting a permanent slurry of animal shit stuck on.
Not to mention the town layout. Specifically the eastern side of town where the large meat processing facility was, right next to the enormous stockyards of docile protein still on the hoof. It was a fact that life on Palos-1 involved a certain knowledge of prevailing winds, most notably that night time gusts tended to travel west while daytime currents drifted eastward. Accordingly absolutely everyone lived west of the plant and fields, choosing to take the biological smells in the dead of night while they were asleep rather than suffer through sunlight-scorched biohazard breezes during the day. It made for a fragrant morning, but usually paid off later.
This was not a typical morning.
Shortly before dawn the far edge of the processing facility erupted in a cacophony of explosions, a ripping tear of five blasts in a timed series ten seconds long. It was so loud residents nearly a mile away bolted upwards in bed, hands out and clawing for light toggles as they yelled in surprise. Men hollered, women screamed and children burst into tears, sure that some kind of calamity was falling out of the sky to destroy everything. If that seemed like an oddly specific fear then, well-- it was on a lot of people's minds recently.
But the blasts had a similar (and more powerful) effect on Seraherd's primary purpose as a settlement: Their entire herd of bioengineered beef startled as one, then tore straight through the retaining wall of the paddock in a straight line away from the facility.
Oscar watched through his scope as several thousand animals stampeded shoulder to shoulder directly east in a wave nearly a mile long. It looked like a black-and-tan tide of death sweeping the grasslands, leaving nothing but pounded dirt and shattered fencing material behind. A small harvester just behind the barrier never had a chance, going over in a flash of metal as a ton of machinery got rolled, then smashed to pieces and crushed under ten thousand stomping pistons.
He panned the Ricochet upwards, tracking the stampede progress. "Harland, you copy?"
"Copy." He was only about a mile out, sitting on a hillside near where the herd would have to make a decision to cut north or stay east. "Now?"
"Give it about ten seconds." Oscar timed it, eyes intent. The lead animals reached the edge of the hills, hesitating as two directions suddenly opened up for easy access. "Go."
Somewhere out on the hillside Harland squeezed a detonator, triggering another timed series of blasts across the north hills. Instantly the lead herd animals turned away, heads down and legs pumping eastward. "That got it. They'll be on the crash site in about a minute."
With a small smile, Oscar sat up and started disassembling his weapon. "Alright, pack it up. Let's put everything away and report in for work. Don't want to scare anyone, and I have a feeling we're going to be catching stragglers off that herd for at least a week. Better get started early."
"Yes, mom." Harland sounded smug. "Hey, Prickles?"
"Yeah?"
"Ever imagine you'd be using cows as a carpet bomb?"
He laughed once, sharp and pleased. "Never. I'm not that creative."
"You don't say."

So this happened two days ago, I apologize for the formatting as I am on mobile.
A little back story, My wife and I doordash as our full time jobs. It pays our bills well and we get to make our own schedule. win win.
Sunday night around 5:30 we decided to go doordash. We live about 45 minutes from the city we dash in, but it’s about the only decent paying work we can find so hey we do it. We always talk on the phone too, another perk of being a dasher. So she got her order and went her own way, and I got my order. It was $7 for 6.6 miles, I wasn’t going to accept it but i was like hey whatever, I’ll do it.
I pick up the order and head to the location. To add to how ignorant I feel now, the location was 103rd st, jax. My wife and I had always had very friendly customers and saw some nice areas there and never understood why everyone said it was so bad. Now before you flame me i’m only 19 so forgive me.
Anyway, I get to the apartment complex and at this point it’s already dark now, around 6pm. I’m getting frustrated because while the roads are lit, the building numbers weren’t. I circle the whole complex and then finally found the building that i had passed on the way in.
Normally I park my car in any available spot, especially since i’m rarely parked for more than 1 minute, literally. And this is the part where i fucked up.
There was no parking spots, so i pulled off to the side, put my hazards on, and left the car running....
Unfortunately the apartment was in a different spot than I expected. I made the awful decision and broke like of sight with my car. So I knocked on the customers door, waited 10 seconds, gave them the food, and walked back to my car.
or so i thought i was.
I was in shock at first. This neighborhood looked like a really decent one, bright led street lights, JSO parked by the entrance.
I looked around and thought to myself, maybe they moved my car?? I did park in a bad spot kinda. Then after about 30 seconds I realized how badly I fucked up. I had left my car running, with my phone in it also UNLOCKED TOO, and it was gone.
I saw a lady getting into her car and asked her if I could call my wife who was about 15 minutes away, but decided to call the police first after thinking about it for a second. The lady who I happened to talk to was the daughter in law of the JSO officer that worked at that apartment complex, who unfortunately happened to be off duty on a date with his girlfriend.
I called the police, my wife is on the way, and the lady stayed with me until my wife got there. I am so thankful she even let me use her phone because knowing what i know now? I won’t be in that area again, and if I am, I certainly won’t let anyone use my phone.
The other good thing that happened through all this is i had my wallet on me. So at least that was safe.
Finally my wife gets there, we talk to the lady, who is also in shock about what happened to me, as we literally see 3 cars in the 20 minute time span we waited on the cops, do exactly the same thing that i did. Leave their car running, hazards on, come back and leave.
Remember how i said my wife and i talk on the phone while dashing? She actually heard them stealing my car!! But she thought it was me talking to a customer, because the male voice sounded like me, it didn’t click for her until she heard a lady go “oh my gosh” and hang up the phone. She immediately tried to track my location as we have iPhones, but they either put it in airplane mode or turned it off because i haven’t had a single location update since they hung up the phone.
The cops show up and i tell them what happened. They didn’t seem too enthusiastic about being able to get my car back.
But wait, This is the best part. I drive a 2019 chevy SPARK. A SPARK. With blacked out taillights, a light bar in the grille, the muffler cut off, and two 10” subs in the hatch.
They picked not only the Cheapest car around, but also the most OBVIOUS one. The cop basically said go home after this, and at this point i had already lost hope.
About 40 minutes later after hundreds of facebook post and being in shock, my dad who I was on the phone with, reminded me of a brilliant idea. If I wasn’t in so much shock I should have realized it too, but my car has onstar. Now i don’t pay for it, but I did at one point and canceled it, so i could reactivate remotely at anytime! I log into the mychevrolet app and woah that’s convenient, I have a free trial that includes car location tracking, because the crooks at onstar never fully canceled my plan! While i’m thankful for this, I still hate onstar and they are crooks lol.
So I call JSO immediately and give them the address my car is supposedly at. They sent the officer to the location and my car was there, Locked LMAO, in the middle of the road. I was an hour away but they waited on me so I could come get it.
While I was able to retrieve my car, unfortunately my car keys, that had my wife’s car keys and my house key on it, and my phone are no where to be found. My registration was also on the passenger seat. So now they have my address and whatever keys they need. Great.
The car was only about .3 miles away from where my phone pinged it’s last location, so i guess my wife being on the phone spooked them, but the phone was no where to be found within that area.
So I got my car back! Undamaged! But unfortunately my phone is still stolen so i essentially just got my income cut in half, because i cannot afford to buy a new one. And of course i’m still paying off that phone. Merry Christmas, right?
Yes I know that I should change the locks, but unfortunately my father in law owns the house, and we currently live with him, as we are saving to move out. He is dead set on not changing the locks even though the 4 of us feel unsafe. He basically just said if they come he’ll just shoot them. So now I can’t sleep at night so yeah that sucks. Anyway.
I don’t have insurance on my phone so At&t won’t cover it. I also don’t have GAP insurance so i’m really glad i got the car back.
All in all, i learned some really important things through this. Just because an area doesn’t look bad, doesn’t mean bad people aren’t around. From now on, I will be locking my doors when leaving my car, ALWAYS, and never leaving it running. The next car I buy WILL have GAP insurance. The next phone I but WILL have the insurance until it’s paid off.
The absolutely most ironic thing to me about this whole situation is that normally my wife is the one who leaves her car running, unlocked, all the time while delivering. She told me she’s done the exact same thing in the same neighborhood before too! Normally I am the one who is crazy about locking the doors and not leaving the car running. We live in a small town where you could leave your car running in the middle of the road for days and it would still be there, but I would always be telling my wife to lock her doors. So the one time i slipped up and did what she does, I get my car stolen.
While this whole situation really sucks, in some ways I’m glad it happened liked this. Sometimes my wife and i would take one car and dash together, and after a long day my wife would take a nap in the back seat while I finished up our shift, if that was one of these times, I could have been looking at a way worse situation. I’m also glad because maybe i would have been mugged anyway, and the outcome would have been worse because they would of had my wallet too, along with my car, and phone.
Realistically I know it should go without saying, but we are all human. If you’re reading this please never leave your car unattended, eventually you will be reminded that bad people are everywhere, and bad things happen to good people.
tl:dr I was an idiot and left my car running while doordashing, it was stolen for about 4 hours. My phone was in the car and it has not been found but i got the car back.

So, you've just started the game and want to build wealth. This guide will take you from the Sidewinder and explain the process of both the trade in rare commodities, then later how to trade in bulk commodities and also present builds for trade ships from the first Adder up to the Type 9 Heavy. It is not necessary to strictly follow this guide in its entirety at once. Taking some of your accumulated profits to buy a second ship to explore or engage in combat is recommended so you don't burn out on one activity. You'll make sufficient credits after a few hours (particularly once you reach The Real Money) to afford such ships.
Or maybe you've been playing for awhile, but have been exploring or engaged in combat and now want to trade to make money to further your pursuits in those fields or just want to try trading for a change of pace. In that case, you'll want to skip forward to a ship that matches your available means.

Part 1 : Welcome To The Galaxy Commander.

If you're a brand new player, you'll want to play around within the Pilots' Federation District for a while. Missions will be your main source of money, as trading isn't too hot. I would recommend trying some of each kind of mission to get a feel for what each of them involves. All the missions in the District are deliberately simplified so you can perform them in your starter Sidewinder or one of the other early ships available in the District. Bounty hunting is another option, which will involve going to either a nav beacon or a resource extraction site (Avoid the Hazardous ones. These are maximum difficulty places where system authority ships won't go) and killing wanted NPCs. Watching for the sight of lasers firing in the distance, which will indicate that there are System Authority ships (space cops) in a fight with a criminal, then dashing over to help out and collect some easy bounties is a good money maker, though it can be a bit risky if you shoot a bit too much and end up catching the attention of someone with heavy guns.
If you insist on trading within the District, I believe the best route available would be hauling Superconductors from Otegine to Dromi, then hauling Resonating Separators back. This will yield you about 3600cr each loop for each tonne of cargo space you have.
When you advance in a rank, you will be offered a second mission named "Exploring The Galaxy", offering a very tempting 100,000 credits. Ignore that mission for now. That mission will send you out of the District whether you're ready or not and your District permit will be permanently revoked as soon as you land at a station outside of the District.
A recommended early ship progression would be first to the Adder, then to the Cobra MkIII. Both of these are good multipurpose ships suitable for doing anything. When selling a ship, it is advisable to sell off all the modules separately and downgrade all the core internals to the cheapest ones possible. This is because selling modules gets you 100% of their cost back, whereas selling a ship only gets you 90% of its value back, including for any modules it is equipped with. While this won't matter much in the District, where you're dealing with small ships and low rated modules, but that 10% loss can become quite significant later in the game, so it's a good habit to get into.
As an aside, when upgrading ships, be sure to keep the pulse lasers from your starter Sidewinder (store them before you sell it). Gimballed weapons seem to be hard to come by within the District (which seems ridiculous to me), so you're likely to reuse those lasers as you upgrade ships.
If you're sticking to cargo and courier missions and really want to get out of the Sidewinder, you could move up to the Hauler early on, then to the Adder and Cobra. Or if you like the combat stuff, the Eagle, Viper MkIII, and Viper MkIV are worthy options. The Viper MkIV can also be used as an alternative to the Cobra MkIII. It can be outfitted almost identically to the Cobra below and will have only marginally less cargo capacity and jump range.
A Cobra MkIII outfitted with the District's finest parts will look something like this. I would recommend building your way up to that, then building a stockpile of credits (I would recommend a million or so, but more is always useful if you want to spend more time practicing) so you have the cash available to do further upgrades when you leave.
Now that you feel confident in your skills and are probably bored with the limited offerings of the District, take that "Exploring The Galaxy" we mentioned above. This mission will send you to a random nearby system.
Once you've arrived there and turned in the mission, I would recommend making your way to Celsius Hub in the HR 6828 system if the mission didn't send you there. This station has reliable outfitting so we can spend some of that money you saved up on making your ship better.
Now, upgrade your frame shift drive to a 4B (or 4A if you saved up enough extra), your shield generator to a 4D, your class 3 cargo racks to class 4, your fuel scoop to 2B, and install a point defense turret on your second utility hardpoint. The end result should look like this. (A Viper MkIV will look like this). Whether to keep the weapons on or not is your choice. Dropping them will net you a little more jump range, but only a little (about 0.25ly), so keeping them is entirely fine if you don’t want to go unarmed.

Part 2 : A Commander's First Trade

Now you're ready to start trading.
For a first foray into trading, I would recommend rare trading. This is optional, as rare trading is less profitable than bulk trading, but I recommend doing a circuit or two of it as it gives you practical experience in navigation, long distance travel, fuel scooping, and how the mass of your cargo affects your ship's characteristics.
Rare trading involves Rare Commodities, which are special, unique commodities that are only sold from one specific station in limited quantities and are in demand everywhere else. Their prices are not subject to normal supply and demand forces, but rather are determined by the distance from the purchase station. The further you go, the higher the price gets, up to a point of diminishing returns at about 140ly and a hard cap at 200 or so. They are specially marked in the commodity market with a star, a different colour, and their unique names.
My recommended rare circuit is Rares Circuit 1. It is an old and proven circuit that has been around since shortly after the game's release. It's also quite simple, involving just grabbing as much rares as your ship will hold moving along the top or bottom line, then jumping to a sell location, at which point you sell everything you have. Then run along the opposite line, buying up commodities until full, then going to the opposite sell location, selling, then starting over. The Rajukru Diamond is another option for a rare trading route, though I personally find it excessively complicated, with juggling multiple commodities to sell at different locations.
Note that you want to make sure to select the "Fastest" routes when plotting rather than the "Efficient" routes. The latter will take the smallest jumps possible to save on fuel, whereas the former will take the longest jumps to get you were you're going quickly.
If you’re fortunate and a system is in a Boom state, you may be able to fill your hold right there without needing to use the other systems in that branch of the circuit.
As you get money, feel free to upgrade your ship modules, especially your FSD. As mentioned above, you get back exactly what you paid for it when you sell a module, so upgrades are never a waste. But always make sure that you have enough money on hand to cover your rebuy, as shown at the bottom-left of the home tab of your ship’s Internal panel. This can be thought of as your insurance deductible and is the amount you will have to pay to get your ship back should it get blown up. If you don’t have enough to cover that, you will be given a free Sidewinder like the one you started in, basically putting you back to square 1 (though with your remaining credits, ranks, etc. still intact).
Continue this for a run or two or until you feel like advancing.

The Exploration Alternative

Rather than going to rare trading at this point, Road to Riches offers an alternative means of money making and progression (it will also guide you to unlocking your first engineer if you have Horizons). This is an exploration-based method that involves going around within and near human inhabited space ("The Bubble") scanning known Earth-like and Terraformable planets. As among the changes in 2.4 was a very large buff to the value of these scans (to hundreds of thousands per planet), this is a highly effective means of making money, and it can be done in the Sidewinder you start with (with some upgrades). Down to Earth Astronomy has a good video on this subject. You can potentially do this in just the starter Sidewinder with a few upgrades, like this build. If you don't have enough money for the detailed surface scanner, you can omit that and just do the FSS scanning, then buy the scanner later when you've got a couple scans under your belt and turned in your first load of data. The Hauler makes for an excellent ship upgrade from the Sidewinder for this task, with much better jump range, more fuel capacity, and ability to fit a bigger fuel scoop. This is about the kind of build you would aim for in that regard and could afford after just a handful of scans. The Cobra MkIII can also be used, in a build like this, though it will end up with less jump range than the Hauler, making travelling between systems slower In addition to money making, this is highly useful for getting rep with factions (e.g. for obtaining the permits to Alioth and Sirius), as handing in exploration data will quickly raise your rep with the station's owners.

Fuel scoop usage

Your fuel scoop will automatically deploy and start collecting fuel when you come close enough to an appropriate star. Since you usually need to fly near a star to line up with your next jump destination, you can refuel on the way using "passive" or "rush" scooping. Just simply fly tightly in supercruise at full throttle around the yellow line (this indicates the area where your FSD cannot function. If you fly inside that circle and get too close to the star, you'll be yanked out of supercruise and take some damage. If this happens, you’ll have to wait 30 seconds for your FSD to cool down. Then you’ll need to point your ship directly away from the star (on an “escape vector”) in order to jump back to supercruise and continue what you were doing) until your can see your destination This will get you perhaps half a tonne of fuel per star. While this isn't enough to fully refuel from the jump, it does significantly extend your effective travel range.
While you're running the rare circuit, you will need to stop for fuel on the long legs to Witchhaul and Orrere even with the above rush scooping. Rather than finding a station (the graphic lists several inhabited systems along that line), we will just stop to do some serious scooping to refuel. To scoop for fuel, go to an O, B, A, F, G, K, or M class star (these are the first 7 class of star in the galaxy map when you select to show by star class. Mnemonics to remember these include Oh Be A Fine Girl/Guy Kiss Me (keeps them in order of temperature), and KGB FOAM (Putin in a bubble bath), among others). See this guide by the Fuel Rats for guidance with pictures. When you plot a route on the galaxy map and don't have enough fuel to make the entire journey without refuelling, it will mark the last scoopable star in the route before you run out as a "fuel star". Due to the above passive scooping, you'll likely get a jump or two past that before you run out, but you should open up the map and glance at the route every so often to check what your fuel and refuelling status is. If you don't see a yellow circle, go into your Internal panel, select the Ship tab, then the “Pilot Preferences” tab, and turn on orbit lines. A "fuel scoop active" display will appear in the middle of the cockpit display when you get close enough, showing the scooping rate (in kilograms per second), a fuel gauge, and your ship's heat level. You want to fly in and get the scooping rate to about 2/3rds of the scoop's maximum rate to prevent overheating (This is assuming a D-rated power plant. you can go higher if you have a higher rating power plant, which output less heat). For the 2B scoop you should have on your Cobra, that will be about 43kg/s Once you're near that rate, throttle down to zero. This will leave you sitting near the star scooping and creeping along at 30km/s. Now you just wait until you have finished refueling, then just throttle up to full, and pull away from the star. Wait until the "fuel scoop active" display has disappeared before activating your FSD for the hyper jump, or you will likely overheat and damage your ship.
As a last resort, if you've messed up and stranded yourself in an uninhabited and unscoopable system, contact The Fuel Rats. These guys are an awesome player group that assist stranded players by delivering fuel to them.

Dealing With Interdictions

It's likely you'll get interdicted at various times while trading. Your objective in the interdiction minigame is to keep your ship pointed towards the "escape vector", which moves around randomly. When you have your ship pointed on the vector, but your interdictor doesn't, you gain in the game and vice versa. If you fill your blue bar, you'll dump them out of supercruise while you go on your way. If you lose, you'll suffer a 30 second cooldown on your FSD, during which you'll be vulnerable to their weapons fire. So if you feel like you're losing the minigame, you should throttle to zero and surrender to the drop, which will only incur a normal 5 second cooldown before you can jump back to supercruise. Once you're in normal space, immediate hit your boost (default tab) to open up the range. Even if you can't get out of range, the damage of most weapons drops off considerably with distance. Now just wait 5 seconds until your frame shift drive has finished cooling down, then either jump back to supercruise or jump to the next system in your route. If you find yourself mass locked (this occurs when you're close to a ship larger than yours), fire your chaff to scramble their weapons, then choose whether to continue charging back to supercruise ("low wake") or to select another system to jump to ("high wake"). Intersystem hyperspace jumps are immune to mass lock from other ships, which makes it a good option if you've been interdicted by a ship much larger than yours, which will slow your supercruise charge to a crawl. Just select a random nearby system in your

On Armament

The builds I offer in this guide are all weaponless, relying on shields, chaff, and point defence to allow them to escape from pirates. Those of a more aggressive disposition may instead wish to remove any would-be threats rather than fleeing from them. While mines were briefly useful armament for traders, improvements in NPC AI have rendered them basically useless, with NPCs easily dodging them, even at low ranks. Thus, if one intends to act as a Q ship, you will want to select more conventional weapons. Lasers and multi-cannons have long been a standard loadout for the good reasons of being easy to use and providing a useful balance of thermal for shields and kinetic for hull. I personally use such a loadout on my trading Cutter.
Alternatively, the new ship-launched fighters are another option for pirate swatting if you have Horizons and are using a ship capable of equipping one. Equipping a hangar will require sacrificing at least a class 5 compartment (32t of cargo), and likely more as you'll probably want stronger shields than the basic A rated minimum shields I use on all this guide's builds. Further details on SLFs can be found in my writeup on the subject.

Part 3 : The Real Money

So you're tired of rare trading and are ready for real trading, yeah?
Go to eddb.io and use the loop finder. Set the search to the following parameters

• Min Demand to 0 - this is the really key parameter. For the purposes of bulk trading, demand doesn't matter, only the price. Stations will happily buy your wares at full price regardless of whether they have no demand or even if they have a supply of the good. *Min Supply to 10-15x your cargo capacity (So 400-600 in the Cobra, 1000-1500 for the T6, etc.).
• Distance to taste - default is 200ls. I personally prefer to set it to 0 and see what is available overall, then only tighten it if I get ridiculous loops going to stations several thousand ls out.
• Max Hop Distance to taste - Currently, I'd recommend doing a first search at maximum range (50ly), and look at the full offerings, then try tightening it and see how the profits change by distance, as profits can be quite variable and it may be quite worthwhile to do multiple hops for the higher profit.
• Max Price Age to 1 day - You may wish to expand this, but in general, I find that many modern loops get depleted quickly, either through player actions or changes in system state.
• Include Planetary to No - Landing at a planet is much slower than docking at a station, so much so that it's practically never worthwhile trading to a planetary port.
• Optionally, enter your current location in the Your Location box. This will add a line to each loop telling you how far it will be to get there.

Now hit Find Loops. It'll sit there for a moment, then give you a list of loops, sorted by their profit. If you like the look of one of them, start running it. Otherwise tweak your search and hit it again.
If you run out of commodities on your loop, hit the finder and get a new one. This can be quite boring, so I would recommend Netflix (or another streaming site or your favorite torrent site) and a second monitor. You can often find the latter for cheap on second-hand sites like Craigslist, Kijiji, and others.

Part 4 : Time For A Real Trading Ship

Once you’ve collected about 5 million credits, you’ll be ready to advance to a new ship. Specifically, the Type-6 Transporter, otherwise known simply as the T6. This is a significantly bigger unit than your Cobra and will more than double your cargo capacity, and with it your profits. This is your general build.
I would recommend purchasing your ship at a system under the influence of Li Yong-Rui. The effect of this power on his subject systems is that all ships and modules are sold at a 15% discount, which lets you upgrade ships significantly sooner. This purchase price reduction also translates into a reduced rebuy cost, meaning that getting blown up won’t hit the wallet quite as hard. Conveniently, there is a station near Witchhaul that is within his sphere that has all the parts you need, specifically, Zamka Station in LHS 191. For all other builds in my guide, you can find an appropriate Li Yong-Rui station by hitting the $ icon at the top-right of the Coriolis display. That will send you to an EDDB search page. There, simply select Li Yong-Rui under the Powers dropdown and hit Find stations again. If you don’t get any results, remove modules (preferably starting with the cheapest ones) from the Station Sells Modules box and redo the search until you do get results.
Optionally, if you don’t mind staying in the Cobra for a hour or two longer or want to upgrade from the Type 6, you could opt to upgrade to an Asp Explorer (commonly known as the AspX) when you accumulate about 14 million credits. While it only offers a small increase in cargo capacity, it gives significantly better jump range, allowing you to run longer loops faster and thus improve your credits per hour.
Now back to looping!

Giving back

EDDB.io relies on contributions of station data from users in order to keep its trade information up to date in the dynamic universe of Elite:Dangerous. The most popular tool to submit said data is the Elite:Dangerous Market Connector. This program pulls the commodity market data (as well as information on available ships and equipment) from the Elite Dangerous API server and sends it off to the EDDN (Elite : Dangerous Data Network, the system that eddb uses for its data). It can also record that data locally for use with other tools, as well as send star system information to the EDSM (Elite:Dangerous Star Map) and keep a local log of all systems visited.

Contingency Planning

In the event that you find yourself with little money, a low-capital method of rebuilding your funds is to use the galaxy map to locate a system in the Outbreak state. Stations in these systems will have very high levels of demand (and consequently, very high prices) for Basic Medicines. Use eddb.io's Find Commodity tool to locate a nearby system with a decent supply of them, then start hauling them in. This will yield profits in the 2500-3000ct range. While this is less than for the above loop trading, it requires much less in the way of starting capital. A T6 full of high value will cost you several hundred thousand credits, whereas a full load of Basic Medicines will be less than 30,000, allowing easy rebuilding from poverty.

Part 5 : Further Progression

When you’ve acquired about 25 million, it’ll be again time for another upgrade. This time, you’ll be getting a Type-7 Transporter (aka the T7). This will nearly triple your cargo capacity. Though note that you’re moving up to a Large ship, which means outposts will no longer be trading destinations for you, so on the loop finder, you will want to set Landing Pad to L rather than Any.

An Optional Upgrade

When you’ve gotten your credit balance up to about 70 million, you may wish to trade in the Type 7 for a Python. While this will entail a minor downgrade in cargo capacity (16t), unlike the T7, the Python is a medium ship, capable of landing at outposts. This gives it the freedom to select sometimes-more-profitable loops involving those stations. Additionally, it’s a significantly more enjoyable ship to fly and I personally consider it one of the best-looking ships in the game.
You may wish to stay in the Python for awhile longer so as to make enough money that you can purchase the next ship outright without selling it. The Python is a highly versatile ship usable for many game activities, including being an excellent mining ship and great for background simulation play, so I would recommend keeping it around for your non-trading career.

Part 6 : The Ultimate Trading Ship

Once you have 110 million, you’re now ready for the ultimate trading ship in Elite:Dangerous, the Type-9 Heavy. This massive brick of a ship is the slowest and least maneuverable thing in the game, but it also carries a huge 752t of cargo in its depths for huge profits with every trip.

Part 7 : Beyond The Ultimate?

For progression past the T9, the Imperial Cutter is the only competition, with no other ship coming close to the cargo capacity of either of these ships. Purchasing a Cutter requires one to hold the rank of Duke in the Imperial Navy, which will take some effort to acquire. This post gives a highly effective method that will get you a Duchy within hours. I personally regard this ship as the best trading ship in the game. While it has slightly lower cargo capacity than the T9 (720t vs. 752t), it more than compensates for that with it’s superior jump range, better speed, stronger shields, and gorgeous looks.

Part 8 : Player Trading

With the introduction of fleet carriers, trading with other players is an option for making money. Carrier owners can create buy and sell orders on their carriers and will often post them to this subreddit, /elitecarriers, and /PilotsTradeNetwork for others to fufil. Loops invovling these carriers are usually not quite as profitable per tonne as regular loops (as the carrier owner is taking their cut), but are much faster, as the carrier will typically be parked right within a few lightseconds of the buy/sell station, allowing good profits per hour.
Though it is important to note that profits from trading with fleet carriers do not count towards your Trade rank progression. If you're wanting to get to Elite in Trade, you'll want to ignore carriers for the time being and stick to station to station trading.

This is taken from the book Chernobyl. Days and Years by Vladimir Maleev (Чернобыль. Дни и годы / В.Н. Малеев). Translation is mine. The full transcript of this Politburo meeting regarding the Chernobyl disaster relief efforts and the shortcomings being faced is a historical record of tremendous importance, yet it has never been translated to English. Only brief summaries of it have been included in some books. Author Vladimir Maleev is a retired colonel commanding the chemical warfare troops which were tasked with the removal of nuclear waste. He became a historian and professor in the military academy after leaving active duty. A few interesting things to note:

• The Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (prime minister) Nikolai Ryzhkov appears to be on top of everything including the technical aspects as a veteran engineer of heavy industries. His report is quite frank and exposes all the good and the bad, dealing harsh criticism to everyone who turned to be incompetent and clueless, he is not shy about naming names. He has repeated the shortcomings and weaknesses listed in this report in a number of interviews over the years, both print and video. This two part video interview from 1998 includes many of the details from this Politburo meeting: part 1 and part 2
  
• There is a lot of tension and stress, evident from the attitudes of some of the attendees.
  
• Legasov mentions the disagreement between himself and Velikhov, who was his chief rival and one of the people who played a role in his suicide.
  
• Gorbachev wants the Nobel Peace Prize badly and it shows.
  

Meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee
May 5, 1986 Chaired by Comrade M. S. Gorbachev Attended by: Aliyev G.A., Vorotnikov V.I., Gromyko A.A., Zaikov L.N., Ligachev E.K., Ryzhkov N.I., Solomentsev M.S., Chebrikov V.M., Shevardnadze E.A., Shcherbitsky V.V., Demichev P.N., Dolgikh V.I., Talyzin N.V., Biryukova A.P., Dobrynin A.F., Zimyanin M.V., Medvedev V.A., Razumovsky G.P., Yakovlev A.N., Kamiyunov I.V.

1. On the course of liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the measures to intensify this work.
2. On the admission of the IAEA Director General H. Blix to the USSR.

GORBACHEV: We need to take stock of the work done by the Task Force and the Government Commission in recent days. Is there clarity about what is going on and what might happen? Some hypothesize that the development of the situation may necessitate the expansion of the eviction zone to 500 km, others believe that in any development of events it will not be more than 150-200 meters. Still others are of the opinion that such measures will not be required at all. We must carefully listen to reports on these issues and summarize them. In conversation with Velikhov, I felt that one way or another the case was approaching an outcome. Now is not the time to deal with the reasons. The main thing at the moment is what to do. Should I invite foreigners? Velikhov said that it would be possible to invite Kindner (USA) to Moscow. Another question is the robots from Federal Republic of Germany. Need to clarify these and other issues and act more decisively, because time is running out.
RYZHKOV: As you know, on the night of April 25-26, a serious accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant Unit 4, associated with the explosion of a nuclear reactor and radioactive contamination of the adjacent area and the spread of radioactivity through the atmosphere, the other parts of the country and abroad. The main directions of work to eliminate the consequences of the accident were determined by decisions of the Politburo. Immediately after the accident, the Politburo set clear tasks for the party and state bodies, the Armed Forces, the Academy of Sciences, ministries and departments to localize the accident, carry out the necessary work among the population to find employment, create proper living conditions, maintain order and discipline. To investigate the reasons and take the necessary measures, a Government Commission was created on April 26th under the leadership of the Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, Comrade B. E. Shcherbina -including leading specialists and scientists, senior officials of the KGB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor’s Office, and the Council of Ministers of Ukraine. The commission started the work on the same day. The work to eliminate the accident from the first hour was under the constant control of the Politburo of the Central Committee and the General Secretary of Comrade M. Gorbachev. On April 28 and 29, this issue was specially considered by the Politburo. At the second meeting of the Politburo, a special Task Force of the Politburo was created to manage the elimination of the consequences of this accident.
Since April 29, the Task Force has been reviewing the state of affairs on a daily basis, analyzing the state of affairs and making operational decisions. These are the organizational forms. Allow me, as instructed by the Task Force, to report on the state of affairs, the measures taken and the problems which need special attention. In our report today there will be no conclusions about the causes of this emergency in such a scale and the consequences of the accident. The commission is working, but there are no final conclusions yet. There will be no final conclusions on the actions of all services, divisions, and local bodies in these conditions. The preliminary conclusion is that, extreme circumstances have shown in practice the high level of organization of some and the absolute helplessness of others.
Presumably, after the situation is normalized, these issues will be the subject of a special investigation by the Politburo for the necessary conclusions and approval of a whole range of measures. The decision of the Politburo about our trip with Comrade E.K. Ligachev to the area of ​​the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was timely and correct. Familiarization with the situation on site, consideration of the main issues there related to the elimination of the consequences of the accident, as well as meeting with people – all this made it possible to draw a more complete and realistic picture of what happened and assess the tasks we are facing more in depth. The trip to Chernobyl has shown: -that it is necessary to act faster in all areas, using all available opportunities and resources, that any departmental barriers are unacceptable;
– that our main task is all sorts of acceleration of the work to prevent the dangerous consequences of the accident in the reactor;
– that the elimination of consequences at the nuclear power plant will take a long time and therefore all organizations and services related to this issue must have well thought out and coherent long-term work plans among themselves.
What is the current situation and what are the priority issues requiring urgent solutions?
First, the Unit 4.
Considering that the explosion has destroyed the reactor and all the equipment was out of order, the Government Commission, on the recommendation of the scientists, decided to use the air force to throw sand containing boron and lead into the reactor. This made it possible to reduce the emission of radioactive particles and normalize the radiation situation. Helicopter aviation has proven itself very good in this business -working well, harmoniously and selflessly. The most dangerous situation is now emerging at this very facility. As you know, there is no chain reaction process in the reactor, but decay of radioactive elements. Scientists put forward two versions of the further course of the events: a) gradually the heat release will weaken, the temperature and radioactivity will decrease. According to their calculations, it will take several months; b) the second hypothesis about the further development of the process is that there is an extreme danger with unpredictable consequences. This is substantiated by the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Comrade A.P. Aleksandrov, Academician Legasov, and others. Its meaning lies in the fact that the temperature can theoretically rise to 28,000 C, all metal elements in the reactor zone will melt, in this high temperatures the concrete ceiling will practically not be able to hold this mass and it will fall into the pool of water below the reactor.
The effects:
a) instantaneous vaporization occurs with the final destruction of unit 4 and destruction of unit 3, the release of a huge mass of radioactive elements with consequences hard to predict, but many times more severe than it is now;
b) prerequisites for a chain reaction are created, that is, an atomic explosion with even more catastrophic consequences. The operational group of the Politburo and the Government Commission firmly believes that this is the main danger today and even if there is one percent of such a possibility, all efforts must be made to eliminate the conditions for the development of these processes. To do that, it is necessary to remove about 5 thousand cubic meters of water.
This is a complicated matter. There are still no final decisions, although engineering troops, the Ministry of Transport and Construction, the Ministry of Coal Industry, and Ministry of Geology have been sent to solve it. Certainly a solution will be found, but every minute is precious now, since according to data for May 4, the temperature inside is rising and the core is sinking. The latest news from Comrade I.S. Silaev, The Ministry of Energy, together with the Ministry of Defense, has taken measures to control units 1,2 and 3. The work is organized and everything is under control.
Second. Radiation situation in the station area.
As you know, the settlement of the Pripyat station was the most affected. The population was evacuated from it on the first day. The evacuation was carried out swiftly and in an orderly manner. About 40 thousand people were moved out. The population welcomed the evacuees well. Taking the radiation situation into account, it was decided to evacuate the entire population from the zone with a radius of 10 kilometers and this operation was carried out on May 2 and 3. It was decided to evacuate the population from a radius of 30 kilometers. The evacuation was carried out yesterday. Thus, about 100 thousand people were removed from the zone (including two regions of Belarus). The zone is now practically empty.
Despite the organized work on the first evacuation, it is necessary to draw conclusions from the existing shortcomings. Inspection on the spot showed that there is no complete clarity regarding the location of the people, there is no clear record -part of the evacuated population of about 5-6 thousand people are lost in fact, it is not known where they are, including the communists. Many issues of employment, providing money for living, warm clothes, etc. have not been resolved. People sometimes do not raise these issues acutely, because they think they would return to their homes in a week or two.
And the issue of medical care for the population is especially acute. It is completely unacceptable that in such a potentially dangerous area, the health authorities were not ready, did not have a clear plan of action in the face of a threatening situation. People who arrived at the place of evacuation were not even given a basic blood test. You can imagine what would happen here if something more serious happened.
Third. The healthcare.
Medicine turned out to be one of the weak points. Minister Comrade Burenkov was simply unable to cover this volume of work, he was simply helpless. The question arises: Is the right person in charge of the country’s healthcare? The medicine of Ukraine and the government of the republic were not in the best position. In the evacuation areas, a system for checking the people moved out of the contaminated areas has not been organized yet, at best they were washed and their blood pressure was checked -people are nervous, not knowing whether they were irradiated or not. Comrade Shcherbitsky and Comrade Lyashko should not take offense, but in my opinion, they did not even know the true state of affairs in this matter, and if they did, they did not take effective measures.
A decision has now been made. From May 4, all medical work in the area of the zone will be entrusted to the medical service of the Ministry of Defense. Yesterday at the Operations Group, General Komarov reported on the turn of work. This is done on a large scale and thoroughly. 7 thousand people will be examined per day, if necessary, primary hospitalization is carried out with transfer to the hospitals of the Ministry of Health. In the system of the Ministry of Health, the Task Force has created a special medical commission headed by the First Deputy Minister, which is entrusted with the task of solving all issues of hospitalization and treatment of victims, providing medical instruments and medicines. I must say that this issue is not worked out at all in the Ministry of Health, and you have to develop and make decisions on the go.
After the creation of the group (May 1), the work intensified. As of May 4, the medical situation is as follows:
1882 people were hospitalized, including 445 children, including 570 people were admitted on May 3 (454 of them in Ukraine); radioactive objects detected in 201 people, including 61 children. According to experts, the victims will keep coming. It was decided to involve the world-famous scientists from the USA in the treatment, Professors Gale and Tarasaki .
Further on. Decontamination of the contaminated area. The affected area is conventionally divided into 3 zones:
a) directly at the nuclear power plant and the energy facilities of Pripyat, where an unprotected person is not allowed. This zone is not controlled by the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – units of the Ministry of Defense work in it;
b) a zone with a radius of 10 km;
c) a zone with a radius of 30 km.
In all zones, and especially in the first one, a huge amount of work is to be done to decontaminate the area. For these purposes, chemical troops numbering more than 2 thousand men with the appropriate equipment were deployed into the zone, forming the civil defense. Capital work on cleaning the area has not yet been carried out, which, in the opinion of the Operational Group, is unacceptable, since we can’t wait for the emission from the damaged reactor to stop in the near future. We need to work out the technology. The biggest difficulties will be in Pripyat where it is necessary to flush all the houses and plow the land several times.
The chief of the chemical forces was instructed to draw up a work plan and submit it to the Task Force with a tight deadline on May 6, since, according to the information of the chief of chemical forces, this work will take 1-2 years. One cannot agree with this. It is quite obvious that the chemical troops must be significantly strengthened, and comrade Sokolov should start this work immediately. The performance of civil defense work will not be significantly affected. It is not established and basically duplicates other branches of the armed forces or party organizations. This applies to both the central administration and Ukrainian republican bodies of Civil Defense. There is no clarity, no plan, no proper organizations that we have seen earlier in reports and boards. The highest priority today is to protect in the first zone from the possible washout of the rain with contaminated particles drifting into the rivers. This is a very dangerous business.
A decision has been made, and yesterday the forces of the engineering troops of the Moscow District have deployed to work on the construction of a 10-kilometer dam, laying a 3-kilometer pipeline to discharge storm water from the station and the village into a special reservoir, and sheltering a highly contaminated area. We must continue this work, not dwell on the bare minimum. It is necessary to create dams 30 kilometers long in the next day or two. Instructed to make purchases of some chemical reagents and equipment controlled by radio from France and West Germany. Units and equipment are being sent to the zone as the need arises. Currently, about 7 thousand people of the Ministry of Defense units work in the zone, about 3 thousand people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs troops and the same number in the reserve. Heads of ministries and departments, scientists and specialists, equipment and materials have been promptly sent.
The radiation situation
The zone of increased (to varying degrees) radioactivity now covers the territory from the western border of the Soviet Union to Ryazan and Volgograd in the east, the North Caucasus, Crimea in the south, Estonia and the Leningrad region in the north. In recent days, radioactivity has spread mainly in the southeastern and southern directions and according to the latest data, it is already registered in the North Caucasus and in the coastal regions of the Black Sea. Egress to Turkey is possible. The value of radioactivity in most areas exceeds the natural background by 5-10 times, which is, of course, an alarming factor, but does not yet require special immediate measures, but requires our respective services and all local authorities to be on alert. On the western borders of the Soviet Union, there was a gradual drop of radiation levels. On the border with Poland and in the western part of Belarus it fell to natural background level. On the Romanian border, there has been no further increase in radiation levels over the past two days. However, the egress of radioactive products to the territory of Romania and Bulgaria may continue in limited quantities. In the area adjacent to the nuclear power plant, the total radiation level has decreased by about 2 times over the past few days, but remained at a dangerous level.
Due to the southerly direction of the wind, the situation in the Kiev region has deteriorated, the radiation level from April 30 (7x the background) to May 4 rose to 85x the background. However, at 7 am the radiation level in Kiev was 45x the background. In Zhlobin, where many foreign specialists are located, the background radiation has decreased by 2 times in 3 days (to 2x the background). In Moscow, the radiation level remained within the background (although Iodine elements were noticed).
The General Situation
During the trip we were able to make sure that our people, party cadres are enduring the difficulties that have arisen, showing forebearance, a great desire to do everything possible to eliminate the consequences of the accident as soon as possible. On the most positive side, military pilots, chemical troops and units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine proved themselves. At the same time, it is quite obvious that the party committees had no close connection with the governing bodies involved on site, the party influence on the process of the main work was lost. The scientific, technical and production potential of the republic is not utilized to the full extent.
After the specialists give their opinion on the causes of the accident and the experience of working on eliminating its consequences is summarized, we will have to seriously think about what lessons should be learned from this case, what measures must be taken to ensure safe operation of our nuclear power industry and to improve our readiness to act effectively in the conditions of a special period. Many questions arise here – from medical examination and treatment of sick people to defining the role and place of civil defense in these matters, and the precise coordination of the actions of military and civil services in such cases. The operational group of the Politburo will keep the entire course of the necessary work under constant control and take the necessary measures, in accordance with the real situation, to eliminate the consequences of the accident and report to the Politburo.
SHCHERBINA: We were facing a situation that had not been previously worked out, in connection with the fact that there were no regular measures for such a case. The project itself contains the idea of ​​inadmissibility of such situations. The result is an uncontrolled acceleration of the reactor. Immediately after the accident, there was a lack of readiness to assess the situation on the spot. Civil defense did not warn people. Weddings went on in the city until the evening. It was necessary to quickly put out the fire, reduce the radioactive emissions. 4 thousand tons of cargo was dropped onto the reactor. The surface temperature was brought down from 500 to 200 degrees. What to do at the bottom of the reactor? People went to the pool. Maybe there is an opportunity to release the water.
LIGACHEV: Don’t get carried away.
RYZHKOV: It still needs to be seen. The main thing is to get away from the explosion.
SHCHERBINA: The most difficult thing is decontamination.
GORBACHEV: The main thing is to remove the danger below.
SHCHERBINA: People are working selflessly.
LEGASOV (Academician): The work is organized as follows: comrade Shcherbina is engaged in organizational matters, comrade Meshkov is studying the causes of the accident, I make recommendations to prevent long-range emissions. Groups in Moscow are conducting analysis. Considerations that were expressed in the West for preventing the consequences of an accident should be considered. This is not just guesswork, but the result of research carried out considering the accidents that have taken place at nuclear power plants. We had to make calculations on the spot, because there were no regular measures.
GORBACHEV: Plus, there’s water right under the reactor.
LEGASOV: This was done for cost reasons, so as not to build two buildings. Ministry of Medium Machine Building did not agree with this. If there were 4-5 pipes laid out to a distance there would be no problems. This is a miscalculation of all power engineers.
GORBACHEV: And the caps?
LEGASOV: With the explosion power that took place, caps wouldn’t have saved us.
GORBACHEV: We need to focus on what awaits us.
LEGASOV: After 10 hours, we halted the operation of the reactor. But it continues to emit radioactivity, since isotopes have accumulated in it during the year of operation of the reactor. The power of heat release from such fragments in the first day was 14 megawatts, and today it amounts to 8.5 megawatts, as if 60 tons of coal burned per day. In addition, the graphite is burning. It totals 2.5 thousand tons. 1 ton is burning per hour. This is equivalent to 24 tons of coal per day. Graphite will completely burn out in one third of the year.
The first task is to create a means for filtering the radioactive isotopes. Now they are going into the air 100 times less than they would have been if no measures were taken to airdrop sand and other materials into the reactor. The area located near the reactor has been forfeited, since when the cargo was dropped from a height of 200 meters, dust has risen, increasing the radiation around the station.
Now the molten mass in the reactor is moving downward. It is difficult to control this, since remote devices were not provided that make it possible. This is also my fault. But this is not the case at any nuclear power plant in the world. On the first day after the accident, the temperature of the molten mass was 1100 degrees -it is rising by 135 degrees per day. An experiment was carried out tonight: the molten mass fell into water but the explosion did not take place. However, if the molten mass from the reactor reaches the water, then there will be powerful vaporization. The situation is still alarming. Cooling of the reactor from below is required. It is necessary to drill underground and pump nitrogen through it. For 2-3 days, you need to give air circulation. No sacks were thrown into the reactor yesterday, in order to provide traction. It is a potentially hazardous area. It cannot be more than 250 km. At the same time, the active one is 30-50 km. Our institute has developed the topic “Barrier” related to this problem. So we have accurate calculations.
GORBACHEV: What happens if there is contact with the aquifer?
LEGASOV: Here Velikhov and I did not find a common language. The water from the tank must be siphoned off, not shot, in order to drain it.
GORBACHEV (To Comrade Shcherbina): It is necessary to inform the site so that they do not break through (comrade Shcherbina leaves).
LEGASOV: As for concreting, this is a finishing operation.
GORBACHEV: What is the fate of the other three blocks?
LEGASOV: The first two blocks remained operational. If there is no explosion, then nothing will happen to them. In the third block, in case of an emergency, a fire might occur.
GORBACHEV: Do I need to invite foreigners? It’s not for nothing. But if necessary, then don’t let it bother you.
LEGASOV: They began to acquaint us on this issue with cipher telegrams. Only two moments were unknown to us. These are the French foam and German remote robots. So there is no need to give a general SOS signal, and considerations abroad for their accounting should be sent to the group.
RYZHKOV: If you get an option with pumping water through a pipe, is it possible to put liquid nitrogen through the same pipe?
LEGASOV: Yes. But this does not exclude the undermining.
RYZHKOV: You need to do both.
SHCHERBINA: We have just received a message that the water pumping has started.
ALEXANDROV: Legasov reported everything correctly. Regarding foreign aid: it would be nice to invite doctors who specialize in bone marrow transplants.
ALIYEV: Such a specialist is already working.
LIGACHEV: Is a chain reaction possible?
ALEXANDROV: It is possible. But not an explosion, that is, not an instantaneous process. But abundant vaporization will occur.
SLAVSKY: The ministry is involved in localizing the consequences of the accident. My first deputy is there. One of the reasons for what happened was the zero work of Nuclear Regulatory Authority. What is being done is correct. There are no other suggestions.
BREZHNEV (Minister of Transport Construction): Together with Comrade Shchadov (minister of mining) and Comrade Usanov, on a visit to the site, we studied the issue of drilling to the water. The beginning of pumping eases the situation. After pumping out the water, you need to start pumping the clay-cement slurry. Drilling is complicated by the fact that you cannot approach the reactor closer than 250 meters. We agreed with the military to carry out decontamination in order to get closer to the reactor by 50 meters.
GORBACHEV: We need to accelerate the pace, to act not only as in a military, but as in a nuclear situation, around the clock.
RYZHKOV: Comrade Brezhnev must return to his place in order to organize this work.
GORBACHEV: Yes.
GROMYKO: What percentage of emissions goes to the atmosphere?
LEGASOV: Excess in CO is 22 times. Zirconium will appear. First came Iodine, and now rare earth elements. Dangerous zone is within a radius of 30 kilometers. The most dangerous is the Uranium fission products. Iodine decays to half in 8 days, and after 80 days there will be nothing left.
SEDUNOV (Deputy Head of the State Committee for Hydromet): We monitor the radiation situation from aircraft and ground stations. The spread of radioactivity depends on the wind direction. First the cloud went north, then west and south. There was an increase of radioactive air to Poland, Scandinavia, then to Romania and Bulgaria, yesterday to Turkey. In Kiev, its level increased to 80x background, this morning it is 45x background. The norm for the population is 10x background per year. There is 3x background in Minsk and Lithuania. There is 2x background in the North Caucasus. We believe there will be a decline in Kiev. When the wind turns, the cloud may head to Moscow.
SHCHERBITSKY: Tangled up in roentgens and milliroentgens.
SEDUNOV: It is important to monitor the isotopic composition of precipitation. Iodine goes into milk. This is the most dangerous thing today.
GORBACHEV: What to do with the livestock?
SEDUNOV: There is no need to destroy. Perhaps the contaminated Kiev reservoir.
LYASHKO: Water samples are taken every hour. Radioactivity was detected only in the upper reaches of the Pripyat. We forbade drinking from open reservoirs there.
SEDUNOV: Everything is still normal in Moscow.
SHCHADOV (Minister of the Coal Industry): Breaking through the wall is dangerous. It is necessary to pump out the water, and then pump the mixture. If necessary, we will go through the mining work under the building.
AKHROMEEV (Deputy Defense Minister): The first task is to control the radiation situation. We began decontamination of the roads and other places. Three thousand people are working on it. Today we will complete the preparation of the decontamination plan and report to the Operations Group.
SOLOMENTSEV: What is the cleaning efficiency?
AKHROMEEV: Radioactivity has been reduced by 3-4 times. We’ll have to make burial grounds for soil and water. We have deployed medical checkpoints for Seven thousand people.
LIGACHEV: Akhromeev, what doe you think about penetrating the water under the reactor?
AKHROMEEV: My opinion: to pierce the wall with a cumulative projectile.
RYZHKOV: There are enough people.
AKHROMEEV: If necessary, we will bring in more.
LYASHKO: Water from the Dnieper basin provides for 32 million people. Water samples will be taken within an hour. There was no alarm until yesterday evening. And today thre already is. On small rivers, the radioactivity has increased and is 10 minus the fourth degree (at a rate of 10 minus the eighth degree). An order was given to these areas to switch to the use of water from sealed sources. Fortunately there are artesian wells here. If necessary, we will deliver water by cisterns. It will be more difficult if we have to discharge water from the Kiev reservoir. There is already a lack of water in the south. We need recommendations from the State Committee for Hydromet on how much water to keep in the reservoir.
GORBACHEV: What about the evacuated population?
LYASHKO: The evacuation was carried out in 3 hours instead of the planned 6. The bad thing is that there were no established standard measures for such a case, no exercises had been conducted. Meals are being provided for the evacuees. There was a lack of coordination between the services of the 3rd Department of the Ministry of Health and the regional medical services. They have classified too much. I spoke about this with Comrade Burenkov. Now the situation is getting better. The registration of the evacuees was complicated by the fact that on the eve of the holiday many people went to other cities to visit their relatives by car.
The builders were sent to work at other stations. Three and a half thousand people were assigned to the filial branch of the Mayak plant. Many went to agriculture. We will pay them average wages. Since people have lost their property, they need to be compensated through the State Insurance. The rural population must be given a lump sum of 100 rubles per chapter and 50 rubles for family members. The population urgently asks for more information, recommendations: what to do in the current situation.
SHCHERBITSKY: This is very important now.
GORBACHEV: We agreed to provide such information on site.
LYASHKO: It is necessary for the Minister of Health and the scientists to speak, broadcast to the region and the districts. Water from under the reactor cannot be discharged even into the heaped earth. We need to make a pool. We will build such a container. We also need containers for soil decontamination. But in such places you need to put a perimeter.
VLASOV: We will do it.
LYASHKO: The academic year continues. For elementary grades, it must be completed within a week, and tenth graders must be graduated as usual. All children; the evacuees must be taken to the campgrounds. Request for space to be provided for them. The milk is under double control. If contamination is detected, it is sent to be processed into butter and cheese
GORBACHEV: We have a draft resolution. How to supplement it? We must proceed from the fact that the situation is very difficult in all respects: the radiation, huge territory. Scientists have no unequivocal answers for the future. Therefore, work must be carried out with an orientation towards the worst case. To put the reactor issue in the foreground, taking all the options into account . The task force will pull up all the necessary resources and mechanisms for this. At the same time, emphasize work with the population: everyday life, employment, medicine, etc. Especially the water issue. How to proceed. Everything needs to be calculated, predicted. Particular plan of everything that needs to be done in the danger zone. Separately decide how to deal with the outside world. Give information calmly and carefully, without overconfidence, but rather firmly. Panic is a luxury for subordinates, not for the Politburo and the Government.
More extensive information should be provided in Ukraine through local channels. Provide factual information through the Union channels. Maybe expand the scope of information to the outside world. The enemy asks us questions that would make it possible to evaluate us as a whole, and at the same time to throw mud at us. If we add information, then it will be natural, because time passes, we have more facts. But don’t create a picture of arrogance. We stand in order to make a signal of this fact to everyone, to turn public opinion towards our steps towards disarmament. This incident at a peaceful site speaks of the inadmissibility of nuclear war. Talk about it at the press conference. So the information needs to be added, but responsibly. To bring in foreign specialists? I understood that according to Legasov there is no need for that. Shall the need arise, we will decide.
DOLGIKH: This is written in the penultimate paragraph.
GROMYKO: I agree with what Mikhail Sergeevich said. It is true that the situation remains serious. The second paragraph of the draft says: take note.
GORBACHEV: It must be said: approve the measures taken and step up the work.
GROMYKO: Point ten. We raised this issue with the UN. Need to use what we said earlier.
SHCHERBITSKY: The ninth paragraph can be expanded to tell about the population being informed about the situation.
GORBACHEV: Add it.
MEDVEDEV: Maybe, tell about periodically informing friends.
GORBACHEV: This is in the plan. There is a proposal to introduce these elaborations and to adopt the project.
MEMBERS OF THE POLITBURO: Agreed.
GORBACHEV: Boris Evdokimovich, you said that the analysis of the causes of the accident is over.
SHCHERBINA: Yes. On April 25, an experiment began at the station to check the reliability of work, approved by the chief engineer. It was a gross mistake to make such a check without taking the operation of the reactor into account.
GORBACHEV: What kind of experiments are these? After all, this is a nuclear power plant.
SHCHERBINA: Such experiments are being carried out at power plants. But atomic authority should be aware of this. There was no chief deputy for science.
GORBACHEV: And the hydrogen version?
SHCHERBINA: No, there were two explosions in the reactor.
GORBACHEV: And the automation?
SHCHERBINA: None of the three systems worked.
GORBACHEV: After all, decisions were made on violations of the operating mode at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
SHCHERBINA: Staffing was not provided.
CHEBRIKOV (Chief of KGB): We have two reactor systems – dual-loop (more reliable) and single-loop. This reactor is single-loop. It does not tolerate fluctuations in the operating mode. Non-design things lead to adverse consequences. There are three systems for cooling the reactor everywhere, but only two here. Additional heat removal is what the experiment was for. Its program was formulated without the participation of the designers.
SHCHERBINA: We immediately eliminated the question of hydrogen. The point is the vibration and acceleration of the reactor.
DOGIKH: We must wait for the final conclusions.
GROMYKO: We need to conduct a discussion on the state plan. Misfortune befell us. Someone made an oversight, committed a crime and must be punished. How the experiment was conceived. The solution must be such that generations do not forget this fact.
GORBACHEV: It is proposed to adopt a resolution on liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident and the invitation of H. Blix to the USSR.
MEMBERS OF THE POLITBURO: Agreed.
Resolutions are adopted.

Are you always running into potholes left, and right? Winters always make road travel difficult leaving potholes in them, the main cause of misalignment of your wheels. The life of your tires will be adversely affected if your wheel alignment is faulty and cause unevenness and rapid tread wear.
On the other hand, if the vehicle’s tires are aligned perfectly, they enhance the driving controls, improve driver’s safety, increase the efficiency of fuel and maximize the tires’ life. For the prescription of the right solution to your motor problems, a thorough diagnosis from an expert technician, using the latest alignment equipment available is required. Save your tires before they are completely lost!
Is Alignment Important?
The misalignment of wheels could be for many reasons such as unavoidable potholes or curbs or simply hitting a road obstruction or even in a car crash. Front wheel drivers always opt for a 4-wheel alignment for their vehicles. If your vehicle is not correctly aligned, you may lose proper control over it, experience hovering brake stability, adding discomfort to your ride.
After a routine oil change, always check with your technician if your Wheel Alignments Raleigh NC is intact. Normally, you should get the alignment of your vehicle checked as a precautionary measure annually, but otherwise if you face any of the following situations, it is best to contact an auto repair shop providing services for 4 wheel alignment Raleigh NC**:**

• When the vehicle starts deviating sideways while driving
• When you buy new tires for your vehicle

Alignment Services
The motorist can opt for a wheel alignment warranty as per the time span or according to the number of miles the vehicle runs. The insurance cover also includes the damage to wheel alignment due to road hazards such as potholes, curbs and obstructions. When you take your vehicle for an inspection of wheel alignments Raleigh NC, the steering and suspension are thoroughly evaluated by a professional technician.
The suspension components are always repaired prior to the alignment repairs. The alignment specifications are then analyzed in detail and restored to its original measurements to the best mechanical possibility. For an additional charge, you can even get wedge adjustments and shim kits for your vehicle at the auto repair shop.
Technical Expertise
What does wheel alignment entail? 4-wheel alignment ensures that the Best Tires Raleigh NC of your vehicle are angled correctly, as in they are pointing straight ahead, they are in level with the ground and parallel to each other, to maintain a straight-line track. Three angles are promoted for a perfect wheel alignment i.e. caster, toe and camber.
Caster is the steering pivot that allows the wheels of the vehicle to turn along with the steering. Toe is the measurement between the tires i.e. the 2 sets of tires should be parallel and placed at equal distances from each other. Camber represents the wheels’ angle, which should always be perpendicular to the ground. Tire Guy NC proudly serves the 4-wheel alignment needs of its customers in Raleigh NC and the surrounding areas as well.