Picked up an M5 Starburst at the shipyards in Aladna Hill (Rebalance Mod, I'm guessing), kitted it out with a full upgrade package, including both a Mineral Scanner and Cargo Life-support, and went off blitzing the galaxy at 1.3 km/s as the Commonwealth's fastest scout/taxi. Pirate Lane was no trouble at all anymore; I didn't have any weapons, but I could literally outspeed anything the pirates could throw at me, up to and including their missiles. I could easily collect a million just for scanning ten asteroids in the Lane where other Argon M5 pilots couldn't go, which I then immediately put in my slush fund for building up my freighter fleet in the Argon core worlds, and taxi runs for anyone who wasn't too snobbish to enjoy a good old-fashioned acceleration couch helped tack smaller payoffs on top of that. I did have a couple close shaves slaloming through
asteroid fields or
docking before I got the hang of flying a ship that moved around 5-6 times as fast as my old Elite, but I was generally was having a jolly good time. Then I approached the wrong jump gate at full speed. I always approach them off the centerline to avoid smashing into anything I can't dodge, even in my Elite, and the Starburst has a far weaker hull and shield, but even so...
Second last thing to go through my head: "You know, I always worry that something's going to gate in just as I'm about to gate out. Probably just being paranoid..."
Last thing to go through my head: The incoming TS freighter's hull.