There I was, cruising around massive pieces of shattered titan carapace, my attention divided between scanners and the view through my canopy. I had my heart set on a couple of new, pre-engineered SCO frame shift drives, each of which requires one of those rare treasures known as titan drive components. I had one already, and if there was another floating out here in the wreckage, I was determined to find it.

Preoccupied as I was, I neglected to check my immediate surroundings before applying a hard downward thrust to get around an obstacle, and smacked my ship right into another titan chunk. The impact knocked my shields offline, and damaged the hull as well. Not severely, though, and no enemies had shown up yet. I figured I would be fine continuing my scavenger hunt for the moment. I went back to my search, picking up whatever useful materials I found along the way.

Then, just as I had slowed to a crawl with my cargo hatch open to scoop up some thargoid bits, I noticed another ship getting a little too close for comfort. I hadn’t seen any threats or demands on the comms, so I didn’t expect a pirate, but it sure looked like it was moving deliberately in my direction. And then, another blip on the scanner. It was a single limpet, zipping along on a direct path to my ship.

I suddenly remembered that this was exactly what an incoming hatch breaker looks like just before it steals your precious cargo. Damn it. My first and only drive component took hours to find, so I didn’t want to risk losing it in battle. Maybe I could outrun this thing. As I shut the cargo hatch and reached for my boost button, I noticed an identifying signature on that incoming blip:

Repair Limpet

What?? Was it possible that the would-be thief had hit the wrong limpet button? Surely my scanners wouldn’t be wrong about what kind it was. Curiosity got the better of me, so (with my thumb still over the boost button) I checked the nearby contacts. The approaching ship was a Type-9 Heavy. Not quite the typical pirate wagon.

Identification: Rescue Ship

WHAT??

As I sat there in disbelief, the repair limpet diligently sealed up the cracks in my ship, and then… poof …expired, its job complete. Hull integrity: 100%. The Lakon hulk that brought the little fix-it bot slowly turned toward a new heading, and peacefully lumbered away.

I must have laughed out loud for fifteen or twenty seconds. I have been playing this game for years. I knew it was risky to linger in the flotsam of a dead titan, where nobody ever shows up but pirates, AX teams, and thargoid interceptors. The last thing I would have expected was exactly the encounter I had: a kindly NPC mobile repair service.

Elite Dangerous dev team, I salute you. That was great.