The advice you guys gave me is great, thanks again. Carriers are gone from my nav panel. A huge QoL improvement.

Logged on last night to get Duke over the line. It took a lot longer than predicted, slower progress due to mission board RNG. Since I was flying Poison Whiskey I started mixing in a some Terrorist and Pirate Lord missions, taking the Rep+++++ rewards. I was also getting interdicted more, including three consecutive Expert FAS. Bounties are appreciated, and thanks for serving yourselves up!

Turned in the Naval rank-up mission (I farmed another courier one) and another big batch of sensitive data/courier missions and hit Duke 16%. Then I flew to Jameson and bought my new ride. I made the right choice without a doubt. As I ran down the alternatives in that other thread it's so obvious that only one big freighter was going to cut it for me. It just happens to be Elite's most expensive ship. But that money's been spent now and I am really happy with my new boat.

I confess to fears about taking it home. I had visions of getting stuck in the slot and getting blown up by the station. No SCA (sold first) or DCs on my ships. Portside operations are one of my favorite parts of the game. Landing never gets old for me. But I made it through both slots without scraping my new paint (Tactical Ice for what it is worth) and landed it like a pro, smack on the money. This experience brought a grin to my mug.

There's plenty more to do to sharpen it out. And that will come.