The HIP16607 Space Flier

[Predy]

INFO: This is my first story in this section. I'm trying with a simple story, nothing too complicated cause it's been 10 years since i wrote my last roleplay "book" (and it was in my native language, also) so i'm sure i'm a bit rusty and sorry if this will be boring.

Just PM me if anyone has comments, suggestions or even wants to participate in the story, adding his pilot's POV.

Link to the BG of my pilot, just to have an idea who is he and if you want to use some information.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=23854&p=3637843&viewfull=1#post3637843

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Hip 16607, Damn Observatory.

There's a reason or two why i get here so often. First of all, most of the pilots running around here seems to not enjoy planetary flights. They just keep traveling from a station to another, often sleeping inside their ships while the onboard computer or a co-pilot are supercruising.

So this moon colony is a quiet place where i can rest in front of a huge glass showing the sun dawning in the rocky horizon.

And most important, in this colony there's a huge and comfortable gym where first i can train my body way too much used to lay down on the main pilot's seat of my ship, then relax my self in the deserted pool while watching GalNet news on the commodity monitors.

What the hell, this treatment costs me just few credits, while doing the same things in the same gyms around Empire or Federation Capitals would need a common human to sell his own ship only to get an hour in the water...

It's while i'm thinking about this and drying myself with a towel that an unusual Galnet report comes in the broadcast.

I'm used to read bounty bulletins and security traffic controls, but this one is weird, and shows a disturbing number of malfunctioning ships crashing around hip 16607 moons and planets.

Also the speaking reporter seems to find the whole thing very strange. All the ships seems to be various types of vessels from different manufacturers, all civilians, no combat ships at all. Every one of these should have hundreds of security systems preventing the ship to crash on a deserted rocky planet, but again, all of them seems to have brutally crashed after sudden malfunctions.

No words about ongoing investigations, of course GalNet is always fast for the news and never for the background details...

This little story got my attention, maybe because i just have free time these days from my usual pirates hunting , or maybe because as former military i'm used to emergency situations such as landing crashes, but for a civilian this could be a very terrifying experience and it's not to be taken lightly. So if there's some problem in the Hip 16607 skies maybe it's worth to take a look.

Back to the docks

The main cockpit of my clipper lights up as i get back in my ship.

"Welcome Back Commander"

The voice of AURA, my artificial co-pilot, welcomes me as usual. That AI is omnipresent in almost every ship flying in space but most pilots disable or radically remove her cause they just find her annoying. Personally, I fly alone every single moment and i admit to be in need to speak to someone from time to time, so i left her online just to resemble more to the actor of that old movie... uhm... how he was called? That guy talking to a volleyball... ah, whatever....

"Connect our frequencies to the police comms, then access their databases using the passwords left by Duval's men last time we worked together, this should help us go unnoticed around their archives" I give my orders to AURA while sitting on my chair

"What i must look for?" she asks

"Every type of emergency broadcast sent by civilian ships from one month 'till now. Start looking in this moon comms as filter, so you will give me faster results. Patch me up on the HUD with every written report"

"As you wish Commander"

After two minutes AURA shows me the first results on my monitors. All of the crashed ships refer a powerplant malfunction, after this, the life supports go down and the crew is forced to evacuate in the cryo pods while the emergency computer brings the vessel down to the nearest planet, which is always distant only few hundreds of kilometers.

"So those ships start to get malfunctioning always around a planet or a moon, and never in deep space. Weird..." i speak outloud.

"There's more commander..." AURA suddendly answers to me "...from the wreckage engineering reports seems all of these ships engines stopped working while the computer was performing the safe landing, my database indicates that at least the 98% of the ships around this year are provided with an emergency energy cell to feed the engines and let them bring the vessel to safety even during powerplant failures"

"Just like our military life supports, right?" I ask

"Yes, just like it Commander. Every time you break the ship's main canopy the emergency system allow you to survive half an hour just to give time to you, or me, to bring the ship back in station.... and this system is well protected in every type of spacecraft, unless something damage it or..."

"Shoot at it" i end the sentence yelling.

"Correct" AURA confirms. "Also, engines failure on those ships make them violently crash on the surface, so no proof is left to investigate on. All reports shows wreckages ready to be wasted, nothing recoverable, not even the seats."

I stand there watching the written reports and some of the pictures on my monitors, after a bit, i ask again

"But the pods alloy is meant to be indestructible from those crash. So what about the survivors? What they referred?"

"This section seems classified commander, i can't access those informations with our passwords unless i try to force the databases, but it would be a crime and..."

"Do that in the most silent way" i interrupt the AI while i stand up again from my seat "no problem if you need two days, just stay in the comms and call me immediately if something interesting shows up, i'm going to eat something at the dock's restaurant..."

"No need to wait commander, seems like an emergency broadcast is already incoming"

I immediately turn back to my seat

"Guess my dinner can wait, patch me up"

"A wedding vessel just sent an emergency request 20 seconds ago. Their computer already transmitted the landing coordinates and i uploaded them on our navigation system. However, we shouldn't interfere in the local police work"

Just before answering my annoying AI companion i rapidly power up my ship and give full power to engines. My clipper roars while leaving the ground and start travelling in the direction of the uploaded beacon.

"The police is not a S&R unit, they will queue that request and wait until those cryopods drain their batteries before sending out a team. You know AURA, they are just good at fining pilots on the docks, trust me"

"As you say, commander...."


　

 

[Predy]

SOMEWHERE AROUND THE PLANET

I spend the next hour flying, while listening to some old rock music playlist AURA uploaded in the ship's system. I could have gone supercruise to get outside the moon's gravity and then back down to the ground to save a lot of time, but i'm not used in rescue missions and this time i preffered to let the sub light navigation system do all the job.

After some more time my scanners indicate a huge red marker to let me know i've reached the uploaded beacon. I slowly drive my ship down towards the ground, trying to see the crash site with my bare eyes. As soon as i am less than 100 meters away from the terrain i successfully spot some wreck in front of me.

"There it is" i say "Nothing much left as we imagined AURA, seems like another bad crash happened here..."

"I'm scanning the area for details, two pods spotted, no more points of interests around" the AI replies.

I loose my seat belts to stand up and then move towards the hangar bay's door.

"Bring the ship to the ground while i prepare the SRV for the rescue"

"Sir" AURA continues "The SRV's oxygen tank is almost empty. Last time you used it for that race inside the Guaithi Outpost you used all of its reserve and never replenished it once we were back to base"

I stop just in front of the door, lot of thoughts passes my mind, first of all if i should insult my AI for not remembering me to refuel the SRV at the right time, but that would be just insulting myself to not be able to instruct an AI correctly. So i take a deep breath and then calmly answer to the computer.

"If i well remember, at least one hour of oxygen should be left inside the cockpit, that would be enough, i'll stay out just 15 minutes to rescue the pods"

I then leave the main cabin without waiting for an answer.


ON THE SURFACE

Fifteen minutes are exactly what is needed for me only to reach the crash site. From the air, distances seem nearest than they really are, so i landed the Black Lotus at least 3 kilometers far away from the hot spot.

Once i finally get there nothing much is left from the falling Wedding Barge. Another vessel that should have emergency landed opening its hull at least in two or three pieces is now only a wasteland of smoking alloys scattered around the rocks.

Following my SRV's scanner beeps i easily recognize the two pods laying among the wrecks.

"Ah there you are, well, many wishes for your special day. Sorry it went this way, but you're lucky i was around. Otherwise your honeymoon would have been in one week thanks to the... excellent... police effort"

I basically talk alone to the comms, knowing that people in escape pods are cryogenized for a lot of security and emergency reasons. The married couple is basically sleeping and can't hear me, even if i would like to be greeted while rescuing a poor soul. I find it satisfying...

Managing the Cargo scoop of my SRV the pods rapidly get in my hold. After closing the hatch i just get a look around for some clues but the oxygen meter is getting really low now and it would be ridiculous to ask AURA to come and rescue me at once before i can get back to the ship. So i get full throttle in the direction of the Black Lotus and travel another fifteen minutes backwards until i reach my ship's cargo bay.


BACK TO THE SHIP

Once back onboard, i scoop the pods inside the pressurized bay and get a look on their glasses. Both the girl and his husband seems to be in one piece, sleeping, with a terrorized expressions left before they were iced by the cryogenic system.

"Would like to wake them and ask a few questions, but i'm not a medic, and they could be needing assistance, better take them immediately back to the outpost"

While i get again in my main cabin to take my seat, AURA don't lose time to argue me.

"Commander, if we bring the pods back to the outpost the police will soon get you out of the way and classify this event like all the others, maybe you should find a way to talk to them before the authorities know we are traveling with illegal cargo marked probably as unauthorized slaves?"

I get a quick laugh on it.

"Slaves in one of the ships that took part in in "Stop Slavery Stupid" organization campaign. That would be the right time to escape to the other site of the Milky Way. You're right AURA, start the engines and let's go back to the outpost, meanwhile i'll think something before we get there."

 

[Predy]

While heading back to Dahm Observatory many ideas come up to my head. But no one is going to be fully viable. Planetary outposts have Goliaths patrolling the perimeter and they do not run cargo scans. So i could slip to the decks unnoticed. The problem comes up later, cause i can't take to pods and bring them around the base with a smile on my face, i would be arrested in less than two minutes. Of course neither i can call in for medical assistance in my ship, or a public report would be filed and i will have policemen watching around in my ship immediately.

After twenty minutes the only good way to have those pods opened up by the right hands is to have a silent friend coming in my ship to do the dirty work. But i have no friends around on this rock unless i make a desperate call...

"AURA, connect to the Duval's SSS secure connection, see if Alan Patridge is reachable by the floating beacons around this system"

"Affirmative, Commander" AURA answers then executes the given command, opening a little comm screen on my right holo-monitor.

Alan Patridge is one of the Stop Slavery Stupid directors, he contacted me for my very first job with them long time ago and basically is thank to him if i'm flying the Black Lotus and not a dirty malfunctioning Cobra from the discount market. I don't owe him nothing by now, cause i've paid all the favours received those years with a very good service to their cause. But we are good friends, and he won't refuse me some help if he can do something.

"Alan Patridge answered results online " AURA update the video comms with the classic trembling horizontal line indicating the incoming sound "No video feed, too much latency detected"

"That would be enough" I press my push-to-talk button on the right throttle "Hey old boy, how are you doing?"

"Well i would be damned, Commander Roman called in after months, we're fine here, how are you crazy killer?" Alan's answers comes in after few seconds, he must be located in a system very far from here

"I'm fine too, thanks. Just wandering around hip 16607 since weeks"

"In the Arissa Lavigny's territory? Have you decided to become a slaver or what?"

"You know i'm not in that kind of job Alan, and i would never let you or the Princess down... oh sorry, the Princess doesn't know me at all, so it's just between you and me... my dear love" i smile towards the monitor

"Well you could meet her one day, who knows, it's just up to you. Wanna contribute some more to our propaganda?"

And that's now the real minefield i have to be wary of. When it comes to propaganda, Alan always means i have to fill my ship with hundred of tons of paperworks to deliver in every corner of the galaxy and that's not quite my preferred style of flying. I did it once while i was alone after i... leaved... the Federation Navy and did it again for the Stop Slavery Stupid organization, but would avoid it if i can now. However, this is the right time to ask my favour.

"Oh... sure... will do that. If you can help me with a trouble i will be dealing in the next thirty minutes. I'm investigating strange ship crashes around the moons and i have two hot pods in my hold to interrogate. I need a medical unit to join my ship in the decks and to the work, silently... i know what i mean right?"

After the usual seconds of lag Alan laughs at the comms

"Always the same old Andrew"

"It's callsign Predy, actually"

"Yeah, you still have to explain me that weird callsign. Sure pal, i have someone even on that useless rock at Dahm, just be sure to reach the Eastern Dock number 12 and wait, i'll make the call"

I raise my head towards the ship's ceiling in relief.

"You're the best Alan"

"Yeah i know, oh by the way, soon around Facece system we will be establishing a conflict blockade because of the Lavigny slavers, i'm sure i can count on your..."

And this is the right time to cut this comm out.

"Hey hey! A giant worm just came out of the sands and wants to eat my ship... something attracted him, maybe the Spice... i'll call you again as soon as i deal with it, bye Alan!"

I press the logout button on the holo monitor before any answer comes back with other favour requests from the SSS. I check out the navigation path and decide to go in manual control. Flying the Lotus around the mountains will relax me a bit.


DOCK NUMBER 12, DAHM OBSERVATORY

As soon as my ships lands and get transported inside the hangar i notice a little vehicle clearly waiting for me standing near the SRVs exit bay.

As soon as my landing gears are secured by the hangar's mechanical arms the little vehicle gets closer and i can then notice the red medical cross painted on his top. Without losing any more time i open up the cargo hatch and hurry myself to the ship's rear section.

When i get inside the cargo bay the little truck is already onboard and two guys dismount from it. The first, a tall man, white hair and a coat of the same color is clearly the medic, while the second one in a orange suit must be his assistant judging also from the hover-stretchers he immediately takes down from their vehicle.

"Where's the problem?" The tall man asks while shaking my hand.

I point my fingers to the two pods, he then walks towards them followed by the orange guy.

After less than few seconds they press some buttons on the pods and the capsules ejects white fluid all around them in a creepy explosion.

"Uh... hey i just want to save and talk to them. Can you avoid killing th..." I try to say something more but the bride comes up from her pod gasping and screaming. The medic blocks her head firmly with his hand and puts a light on her eyes, probably checking her status.

The operation takes just few minutes to be completed. The couple is then set on the stretchers, both of the victims awake. The medic walks towards me before getting back to the vehicle.

"Five minutes, then i must take them to the med-bay and alert the police. You will better not to be in this dock when i'll do it, or you will have to answer lot of questions to the authorities"

I nod my head and move myself near the stretchers. Both the girl and the boy are still in a shock and i feel uncomfortable talking with them. However i must do it.

"Hey"

The bride slowly looks at me

"Who are you?" she asks

"Well i'm the one who answered your SOS, i brought you here and i was wondering if you can give me some information about what happened"

The girl starts crying

"Where's my father?"

"Your father? Maybe you're still confused, you were with your husband"

"No, my father was coming with us in the ceremony" She insists "Where is he? He reached the pod in time, i'm sure"

"Yeah, i helped him getting inside the pod, i'm sure he was in it" then agreed her husband

I get a bit stunned by that talk, then decide to not worse things

"Oh yeah, maybe they are opening his pod right now, i'm sure he's fine. Can you tell me what happened up there?"

"Who are you?"

This conversation is going nowhere

"I'm a... corp investigator, i must assure the safety protocols of some vessels, would you please tell me what happened during your wedding?"

They watch each other for a while, then finally the boy answers me

"We don't know. We heard a noise, a crack on the port, then our shields went down immediately. After this another weird noise on the tail and we got a massive power failure, we followed emergency procedures and reached immediately the escape pods"

I already know all of this. Some sharpshooter in silent mode gets the civilian shield down, that's why the laser's sound seems like a crack and no one is noticed on the radar, then it's the powerplant turn and while the crew run to safety the griefer can open the vents, become visible and detectable again and destroys the engines undisturbed.

But what about the missing pod? I'm not a master but neither a novice using scanning equipment and i can bet my whole ship there were only two pods on the site. Where the third one's gone?

While i'm thinking about all of this my time's up and the orange guy starts to bring the stretchers towards the medical truck. When all is set, the two paramedics rapidly greet me from the vehicle with a gesture and get out of the ship. I then close the hatch manually from the bay and get back to my seat.

"Any news about this investigation, Commander?" AURA asks curiosly

I remain in silence on my seat for a while, touching my face, then after a minute i answer to the AI

"We're dealing with a slaver, probably. A strange one. Shoot a civilian vessel, take one slave and leave the younger one. "

"Seems illogic to my programming"

"Seems illogic even to a human, AURA. Start the engines, let's get back to the crash site. Maybe i've missed something important"

 

[Predy]

ON THE CRASH SITE AGAIN

Before setting back to where the barge had crashed i hurry up to replenish my SRV's oxygen tank. Using some orbital supercruising flight and the coordinates AURA took on our first visit this time the way back takes me only few minutes.

As soon as i land near the still smoking wreckage i immediately start my work inside my little exploration vehicle. At first sight everything seems like before. No signs other SRVs has passed around at all, and of course no trace of the third missing pod.

"Well i didn't expect to find their father around here, but whoever was to kidnap him is a professional, for sure. He left no trace around, seems like a ghost passed here" i talk to AURA using the SRV short range communication system.

"Commander, you should look for the ship's black box, should be around here somewhere" the AI answers inside my helmet.

"That's not so easy AURA. What you think we would find inside the logs? I'll tell you in the precise order: shields offline, power failure, hull breached, 3 crew in the pods, emergency protocol and safe re-entry engaged, engines failure.... nothing more. The crash destroyed all the emergency cameras inside the hull, that's why our pal here wrecks his victims before kidnapping them"

After some minutes of continuous wandering around that mess i suddendly have an illumination

"Wait a second... he doesn't use an SRV but he takes only one pod. Maybe he does the work onfoot with an EVA suit and then covers the footprints easily with some portable gardening tool. In that case, however, he can't cover the...."

I immediatley full throttle back the SRV to my ship. As soon as i run back to my seat inside the cockpit i instruct AURA to turn off all the secondary systems.

"Why Commander? If i may ask"

"No, you may not ask, try to understand it by yourself and evolve your matrix, after all you're an AI, right?"

I start the engines at full power charging the distributor to get the maximum gainable capacity, but still holding my throttle to zero. As the indicator bar goes full i press the boost command on my flight controls, then in less than a second, while the engines are roaring and preparing to spring ahead i revert the throttle redirecting all the power to the compensation thrusters.

All i have to do after this is to push the control bar ahead to get the nose of the clipper go down while the whole ship jumps like a frog from the ground as the final result of my crazy maneuver.

The hull trembles around me as the moon's gravity tries to suck me back to the ground, but for some precious moments my ship is now perfectly aligned in front of the surface, so i can get a full look at once to the entire area as i am staring to a painting hanged at the wall.

After a quick inspection, i find the clue i was looking for. Hidden in a canyon, far from the sun's light, the markings of a landed ship are clearly visible from this position.

"Here you are mr.Ghost, with your... Diamondback Explorer judging from the shape of your landing gears"

"Sir, the compensating thrusters are overheating" AURA comes in with her annoying voice while i'm still examining the traces.

"You don't say, now you understand why we had to turn off half of the ship?"

"The ship is overheating slower Commander, you're right. However it's getting hot while trying to compensate the gravity, should i disable the assist?"

"No AURA, we would stall the entire vessel and join the wrecks on the ground, reactivate the rear bay and drop an heat sink charge. I will start to equilibrate the ship manually"

After the huge hot pellet is expelled from the Black Lotus i gently pull up our nose and start spinning around to slowly regain an acceptable flight condition. Before reaching few meters from the ground my ship is again in horizontal position and cooling by herself. I then slowly get towards the spotted landing site.

"Commander, if i may ask again, you could have brought the ship higher with main thrusters and then pointing back to the ground lowering the risks and doing a much more simpler maneuver"

"That's true AURA" i giggle "But where's the fun if you don't do something stupid sometime?"

As soon as i get to the canyon and start to examine the landing marks from my cockpit, my AI talks again, this time in a much more synthetic way.

"Commander, radar spike bearing 244, incoming flying vessel, unknown type"

"Oh great, i'm sure they are only some poor wandering teenagers lost in this desolated world... " I bring my fingers to raise the Weapons Safe on my stick and i press the button . My lasers and cannons come out from the wing locks with a huge noise.

"Combat mode, divert all the power to our weapons"

 

[Predy]

It's just a matter of seconds before the radar spike becomes a fixed signal on my radar. I slowly bring my ship to the ground level and activate the silent mode to avoid being detected from the incoming ship.

"Target heading North East, 44 degrees, altitude 500 meters" AURA keeps updating me

"Exactly in our direction" I answer while keeping the ship leveled at few meters from the ground

"Eye contact within 20 seconds"

I start to maneuver with side thrusters, my clipper begins to slide mantaining the same altitude.

"Commander..." AURA insists "...some of our modules are still cooling down from your previous flight, using thrusters in silent running will heat us up again very soon"

"I just want to avoid his radar waves to bounce on our big hull and get a lucky spike, we're not invisible like in open space AURA, and if i move quickly i can get on his side before we transform into a fireball"

I try to talk with self-confidence, but in reality i'm a bit worried too, and as my flight stick starts to become warm aswell, i soon realize we don't have much time before we have to launch another very visible heat sink to not blow up.

"C'mon , hurry up and show yourself"

My "prayers" are soon answered. From a rocky hill finally a little ship shows up heading towards the crash site. I'm already in a good side position to not get seen, so i take a comfortable look to this new visitor.

"An ASP Scout... ravagers?" i turn my head to the empty co-pilot's seat, as like my AI was sitting there

"I'm not detecting weapon systems installed on the vessel Commander, perhaps there could be some internal salvaging module, i can't go further while our systems are overheating"

"Well let's discover it in the good old way, shall we?"

I finally open back the engines vents and the Lotus turns back to its usual flying noise, my weapons were already pointing to the target, so i just have to open the comms and play my part

"To anyone piloting the Asp, identify yourself"

This short message warning gets always a stunning effect, the scout banks slowly left and right cause the surprised pilot is automatically trying to spot me. It's funny to see how everyone not suited to military operations reacts always in that way. This already gives me proof i'm not facing a fighter pilot and i'm not going to have a hard time trying to talk with him. However, being careful is always the best option.

"Wha-who's there?" a man answers at my question, obviously the one piloting that Asp. This is the right time to push him a little

"Wrong answer pilot, identify yourself or you'll be shot down in 10 seconds"

"D-don't shoot! I'm a civilian!"

"Civilians don't get lost around suspicious crash sites, 5 seconds and i'll open fire" In most cases i'm going to really do that. I hate ravagers as much as some type of pirates, in particular those always eating on other's disgraces. But this guy is obviously on panic as his ships stops and start to yaw around like a wounded bird.

"I'm just a civilian i swear! I'm an investigator, i work for the police, well basically, now i'm on a private contract for some clients. Does it sounds enough? Can't we just talk?"

I bring my palm to my face. If i were an outlaw, listening to "i work for the police" would have immediately be translated as "Yeah! Nuke me now!!", i'm just about to insult this guy when AURA comes up with new information.

"Scan completed Commander. The Asp carries decryptors and lot of surface scanning modules for data gathering. No signs of salvaging tools. The pilot could be really who he says to be"

I gather all my patience back, then i answer to the comms.

"Ok, fine pal, just stop spinning your ship like a mad man and point your nose to 190"

"One nine zero? What it would be?" he asks

"Oh god! Your compass pinhead!" i yell "Whatever, turn yourself to the south!"

He finally executes my order as i bring my clipper higher to help him see it.

"Oh, wow, hello there" he giggles

"Hello" i answer placing my elbow clumsy on the right holo-monitor to keep my head up

"Well, thank you for not shooting me, i'm Eric, and i really am an investigator so... what are you doing here?"

"Enjoying the view"

He giggles again "You're investigating too on the Space Flier? Who hired you?"

"The Space Flier?" Now i'm the one confused here "I was just investigating on a crash site caused by a slaver, is that as he's being called?"

"A slaver?" The guy begins finally to relax and picks up a serious tone "No, he's not a slaver, sorry to disappoint you"

"And what he should be for good?"

"Well, sorry pal, i don't share work informations with everyone"

I look at my safe button, weapons are still hot, i grab my stick and fire a burst of pulse lasers directly on the asp. The ship's shields go down immediately "Not even to the one who just spared your life?" i ask

This time the guy sighs, without panicking a little. Maybe cause of his work he already understood i'm never gonna hurt him. Probably examining my tone of voice or with some other psichological technique. However my laser shot seems to have worked in a way or another.

"Ok pal, maybe after all we can share something. As you can see i'm not a pilot and i use this ship only to move myself around. Maybe you can help me with my investigation. You seem better skilled than me at shooting people"

"Well, thanks for the compliment. Wanna follow me at Dahm and talk a little in a good restaurant?"

"Of course not. Too many spies at Dahm, trust me. This case is bigger than it appears. We can go and talk quietly to Haro Station, but since you fly in that huge thing we can arrange something at Thome Gateway, the only place were you can land"
Suddendly this man seems a docking size expert.

"Then let's meet at Thome's docks, think you can get there before the next month?" I ask while picking up again my flight controls

"Funny" he giggles again "i'll follow your wake"

I don't answer back hurrying myself to retract my weapons and plotting a course to Thome Gateway. As i bring my ship towards the Escape vector AURA comes in

"Commander, would you please notify to the Asp pilot i'm not a 'huge thing'?"

"Later AURA, this situation is getting too much confused to think about details"

I bring the throttle forward and after few seconds we're in deep space.

 

[Predy]

THOME GATEWAY

I arrive and dock in Thome station soon after my supercruise jump. As i go out from my ship's cockpit i leave the rest of the procedures to AURA. When i'm finally on the docking platform i try to see if my new acquaintance made it to follow me or he's still spinning around in open space.

Luckily, i spot him doing a very sloppy landing on a dock not very far from my position. This is another proof, according to me, not everyone should be flying ships around. If this guy is an investigator, then he's the usual civilian with some money who buys expensive ships and can't handle them properly. This is often done on planets with expensive cars, but since the Federation is giving piloting licenses to everyone for small fees, flying around seems now to be the galaxy's brand new fashion.

To reach the Asp platform in a quicker way, i manage to get a lift from one of the trucks driving around the ring, so it takes me just half a minute to get to the landing pad finding this Eric guy waiting while sitting on one of the empty crates left around by the previous pilots.

He's a tall and slim man, about 6.2 fts, brown beard and hair with deep blue eyes, judging from the complexion he's around 40 years old. As he see me, he greets me with a smile and shakes my hand

"Nice to meet you, even if you just shot my shields down" on the ground he doesn't seem the person i've talked to the radio before. He doesn't seem scared anymore, not even a bit, and his handshake is very strong.

"Nothing your big ship couldn't sustain" i reply watching him directly in his eyes, but with my 6ft i have to turn my head sligthly higher "now, will you explain me something about this 'Space Flier' story while we eat something in a restaurant around here?"

"In a restaurant?" he starts "Of course not, we can talk here around my ship cause as i told you, this is not the best station to let important information go around"

"Well pal, to be honest..." i scratch my head as i walk back a few footsteps "... i had my gym training today and i was about to get my dinner when this story came up to me. I've spent the last 4 hours or more flying around so i'm very hungry. And when i'm hungry i'm not very talkative"

We discuss the matter for another bit, then i finally convince him at least to go and have a seat to the station dock's bar. Usually those places are good for drinking any type of liquid, but lacks the availability of real eatable food. Luckily i manage to have the bartender prepare me a simple salad with greek sauce. Better than nothing i guess.

As we sit down at a table in a separate corner i start to spice my meal while staring at Eric

"So, let's hear this story" I say

He takes a deep breath, then picks some papers and a tablet from his suit's pocket and dispose them on the table

"As you may know, many ship crashes are occurring in this system since months"

"Yeah, i was snooping around one of those crashes" i answers while finally beginning to eat my meal

"And i'm sure you noticed this is no incident. The ships are getting shot down by someone" Eric begins handling with this tablet. On its screen many other pictures of wrecked ships are showed in sequence

"Cut to the chase" i stop him from browsing his entire picture gallery "I already know everything, just why you said this is no slaver? I rescued two pods from that site today, but one's missing. If not a human merchant, who else is after kidnapping people?"

"And this is where the story becomes weird" Eric then shows me the papers. Seems to be security and police reports "The authorities are after this kidnapper, but can't solve anything. So i was hired from one of the victims looking for her missing son. Thanks to one of my contact in the police it's obvious that no slave is registered after the events, neither is sold in the black market. They just disappear, and someone is starting to think they've been used for experiments or worse..."

"Worse?"

"A security agent renamed him 'The Space Flier', after a very old movie called 'The Night Flier', where a black plane carrying a vampire flies through airports killing people for no reason"

I start to laugh nearly choking myself with the remaining salad "So you're after a vampire! Now this is a great investigation!"

"Of course not" Eric cross his elbows on the table "But i'm sure the authorities are covering this event for some reason and i'm stuck with my case, so what do you know about? It's your turn to help me now"

I drink a glass of water

"Diamondback, coolest ship in the galaxy so far, he flies out of radar range in prolonged silent mode behind his victims, do a surgical operation on them and retrieves one pod in EVA suit. No traces left behind. A professionist, not a vampire. Is that enough for you?"

The investigator open his eyes wide before answering

"Is that possible to do that? I mean, i knew silent running mode is for short periods..."

"yeah, also you don't actually know what is a magnetic compass while navigating you're ship so... "

"Yeah, you're very funny Mr. Former Navy fighter pilot"

"... anyway, i had some friends in the federation who used to run Diamondbacks in permanent silent mode, with just multicannons installed. Those weapons do not heat the ship up and with the help of some heat sink you can... " i stop for a second, realizing only after a moment what Eric just said "... how the hell you know i was a fighter pilot?"

He grins in a way i do not like at all, i automatically bring my hand on the fork i just used to eat my meal

"Investigating is my job. When we came here i used my time in space doing some research. You don't want to know my method but i found something about you and your black ship. Pretty impressive curriculum if i can say, but someone in the Federation Navy still want your head on a pike uh?"

"And i hope you're not one of them" i ask seriously

"Of course not pal, i'm not a spy. I told you, i'm a private investigator, and now i can seriously solve this case if you help me. I couldn't go further very much, this... vampire... seems to be very dangerous and if even the police is letting him go around i would have no chance if i encounter him in deep space. But you are a dangerous one too when flying, so if we team up we can catch this        ... " he turns back smiling again "... of course i'm ready to share the payment"

I finally let the fork loose and place it inside the empty salad bowl "I'm not doing this for money"

"I know" He then pauses for a second "You're doing this for redemption"

"Well damn you, you had a look at my Federation service status too?"

"Something like that"

I stand up from my sit and point my finger to the man "Stop talking about my past, you don't have to convince me. You already have your fighter pilot for free, what we're gonna do?"

"I was about to ask the same thing" Eric stand up along to meet my eyes at the same level

"Do you have access to the emergency communication channels?" i ask

"All of them around the systems here" he smiles again

"Stay tuned on them at every hour, as soon as a civilian SOS comes in, reach me at my ship immediately. I'll be there anytime"

I don't wait for an answer and hurry myself to the exit. Talking about my past always get me nervous, and someone who spies around my records is even worse.

As i get back to my landing pad i take a look at the hull of my black ship. After staring at it for some minute i get back inside, and before my AI can welcome me back i say out loud in the cockpit

"We'll need to double our heat sink reservoir. This is gonna be an hard chase"

 

[Predy]

TWO DAYS LATER

I spend the next 48 hours in my clipper. Fortunately, possessing a large ship without needing large cargo for my activities allowed me to have much more space to arrange my personal room in a very interesting way.

My cabin comes in with all the comforts one must have when flying in deep space for long periods, so i spend most of the time watching movies, listening to music and also doing some training around the deck. Basically, i have to leave the Lotus only when it's lunchtime and just because i do not store can food in my reserve.

On the third day Eric finally calls me in the only moment while, of course, i'm having a shower. When a reach the interphone he informs me another vessel is calling for help so i tell him to reach me in my ship in less than a minute. After dressing my operating suit up i immediately get to my cockpit and begin to start my clipper's engines along with AURA's help.

"Hey man, so what's the plan?" Eric comes finally in, i point him towards the copilot seat.

"We're going to meet this guy, so take your seat and let's go" I start to raise the ship from the pad even before the investigator reaches his chair

"We're not gonna make in time pal, traffic control will slow us"

"Just see what do i care about traffic controls"

I power up the ship's boosters and the Lotus jumps ahead racing at full throttle inside Thome Gateway. I just have to maneuver doing the shave to a taking off Type 9 and a poor Cobra passing by. As i reach the letterbox two incoming eagles spot my clipper and break away from it just before i pass through occupying all the available space.

Eric screams incomprehensibly.

"Are you nuts?"

"You know i'm a fighter pilot" i giggle "This is normal flight routine for me, i'm the less dangerous one flying around this station, trust me"

"Commander..." AURA breaks in "...station control fined us for reckless flying"

"Asnwer them with a text based message:- i did not hit anyone, learn to fly- then post a medium finger using punctuation lines"

I turn my head to the investigator, he's staring at me, scared

"Oh come on... i'll pay the fine once we get back" i tell to him

"Oh yeah, and what if they follow us now for an arrest protocol?" he stutters

"That would be great! But we're heading to do their job so... no, they will never follow us"

I get a quick laugh as i bring my ship in supercruise flight.

　

As Eric calms back himself after this little experience he uploads the space coordinates of the SOS just received. I push my throttle to full hoping we're not already too late.

As the target moon becomes bigger, i ask AURA to adjust our alignment to not drop too close the distress call. We need at least 10 kilometers of distance to not get caught by almost any of the sensors available on the market. My AI corrects immediately our course so i drop in at the requested distance.

"Here we are" i say as we get out from supercruise "Engage silent running, power down weapons, decks and services, keep us cool AURA, and inform me if the engines begin to melt down"

"As you wish Commander"

My ship closes down its vents and i try immediately to visually catch up with the falling ship.

"Any news on the distress channel Eric?" i ask

My flight partner operates on the ship comms using his personal keycard

"The channel is in total silence, they must be in the pods already"

Suddendly, a brim light flashes just in front of us. Immediately we move towards the source and after few seconds we finally meet our so called Space Flier.

A total black Diamondback Explorer is standing behind a poor Sidewinder, opening its back engines using a beam laser

"What... " i stutter "... he's using a heating weapon while in silent mode? That ship must have some odd modification"

After a while the sidewinder begins its fall to the moon. The Space Flier stops shooting and then follows his victims down to the ground. As they go out from our visual, i immediately turn off our silent mode before the Black Lotus becomes a fireball.

"What we're gonna do now? Eric asks

"We're going to drop an heat sink, and wait him in supercruise mode. He will have to leave the planet using his frame shift drive, so it will be easy to lock him in that mode. I want to follow him"

"Follow? We should go down along and stop him while he's recovering one pod outside his ship"

The investigator is not wrong. That would be the right time to stop this guy. But this story still have some answers to give and i don't think we will find them in this way.

"If we follow him, maybe he will bring us to all the other kidnapped victims. Maybe even to your client's son" I reply

"Yes, but we could also interrogate him after arresting him"

"But what if he won't talk? And what if the security service takes him into custody after we get back to the station?"

We stare at each other for some moment, then i take my decision

"My ship, my rules, we're gonna follow him. The people in the Sidewinder will be rescued by the police, but we're gonna catch this Space Flier"

 

[Predy]

I soon realize i have to gain some speed while in supercruise travel to not get distanced by the outcoming Diamondback and at the same time be aware to keep my ship at a safe distance so our friend will not get suspicious, and a gravity-assist maneuver is the only option i have.

I quickly engage my frame shift drive then instruct AURA to set a course around the orbit of the moon. After the first two minutes being captured from the gravity we obtain a powerful boost as the Black Lotus gets fired as a bullet. While completing the full round of the planet i spot a light heading away from the ground very fast. The scanner soon indicates it's the Space Flier getting out with his prey.

"Now let's hope he doesn't see us" i say to a silent Eric.

He doesn't seem to agree to my decision at all, but i don't care much. After all i don't have a job like him on this matter, i'm just curious on who we are dealing with.

After some supercruise flight the Diamondback seems to be headed directly to Thome Gateway, but as soon as it is in range of dropping on the station it banks again towards the near planet, precisely on its ring. As usual, no security patrol comes around to check this guy even if he passes near a populated station.

"He's going in a RES or what?" Eric finally talks again, i do not answer immediately as i keep watching the little light following its mysterious flight path.

When the target hits the ring it still doesn't drop from the supercruise, beginning instead to surf on it, in the direction of the dark side of the planet.

"He's going for a black spot" i finally answer "maybe he will stop where the sun is not visible and do an exchange with someone, another slaver maybe?"

We fly together on the other side of the giant planet and finally the Space Flier seems to have met his destination. I quickly follow the weak signal source he left to drop in along.

We find ourselves in a pitch black asteroid belt, nothing is visible around except for the little Diamondback's engines going inside the abyss.

"Now this will be difficult... AURA, turn off external and cockpit lights, engage silent mode" i then turn to Eric " go to my cabin, i will unlock the door for you, check in the right closet as you enter, there's a green suit inside, take it here as soon as you can"

The investigator doesn't reply and hurry himself to the rear side of the ship.

Meanwhile i keep following my target using my bare eyes inside the field. I manage to avoid a dozen of asteroids as soon as they come up in front of my cockpit's glass. The Space Flier however keeps flying around and after a while i have to align my ship behind a huge asteroid to deploy some heat sink and don't get it caught by any sensor.

Eric finally come back after some time with the green suit in his hands

"This one? What it should be?"

"It's my Federation Navy fighter suit" i grab the clothes quickly looking for the item stored inside the jacket "it has a lot of useful upgrades like this one"

I put off the suit's helmet and wear it quickly. It's a weird piece of light armor, covering half of my upper head and face. There's no glass on it, so my eyes are not visible, and a little monitor inside update me with better information around me.

"The F63 Condor doesn't have external lights, so we were provided with infrared visors, pretty useless in ships like these, but we can't use our torches in this case"

Managing the buttons on the right upper side of the helmet I turn on the enhanced view mode. My view becomes bright green and finally i can see what stand in front of my ship

"Now, let's see whe...."

I stop talking, attracted to a weird liquid floating in front of us and almost invisible before. I get my eyes close to the glass and i notice only in that moment the Diamondback has gone, leaving a black squared little object floating.

"What's happening?" Eric asks after noticing my sudden silence

Looking at that floating fluid i start to ask myself where i've seen it before. It doesn't take me much to remember that girl and his husband two days earlier, coming out from their pods.

"Holy s... " i yell "AURA engage cargo scoop istantly! Now now now!"

I drop another heat sink and move forward to the black squared object wich happens to be a decompressed escape pod.

"Do you want to explain me what the hell is happening?!" Eric starts yelling along after seeing my reactions

"You were right!" I answer managing to capture the pod "Your Space Flier is not a slaver... is a psychopath!"

"And why he should be?"

The noise of the captured cargo informs me of the success of my maneuver, i close the hatch immediately, take off the helmet and stand up from my chair.

"Follow me!"

We hurry in the cargo bay where the pod is standing on the ground, still losing cryogenic liquid from its edges. As i get near it i kick the main door and the entire box opens without opposing any resistance.

Inside it, an unconscious woman is bleeding form her closed eyes and judging from the noises from her chest she's hardly breathing.

"At least she's alive" i state watching her

"She doesn't seems to be in good conditions though" Eric kneels on the pods, trying to touch the body "We should bring her back to a medical bay. Do you have something here to help her breathe?"

I slowly shake my head "I'm not equipped for cases like this"

Suddendly AURA triggers a global alarm, talking through the ship's speakers

"Commander, your presence is required in the cockpit"

I leave the investigator taking care of the poor woman while i hurry back to my seat, wearing back again my Navy helmet.

"What's happening AURA?"

"The Diamondback is standing in front of us, it spotted our heat sinks"

I turn on again my infrared vision, the Space Flier is facing towards me, but i'm not sure if he's wondering we are only a black strange rock or a ship, after all the Black Lotus is painted in this way to get better disguised in a lot of situations. In this case perhaps, i'm too upset to play the stealthy part.

"AURA, silent mode off, reactivate all the systems and power up weapons setting them to trail mode. As soon as i open fire turn on all the lights. I want to scare to death this idiot"

[OOC]

Edit: i noticed some words were canceled, maybe moderated. I changed them with equivalent ones.

[/OOC]

 

[Predy]

[OOC]

As i said in another thread, sorry for the hundred of errors around the story, but writing in english for a native italian actually is a REAL challenge. Also, seems like my word editor keeps ninja-editing lots of words (it tries to match them to italian terms, of course), so i notice only after a day or two my post are incredibly full of grammatical horrors. [

Thanks anyway to everyone who left reputation points
[/OOC]


As soon as my weapon systems are online i grab the stick and open fire with my secondary multicannons. The machineguns start to rotate on themselves for a second before a rain of bullets begin to flow from my ship's wings.

At the same time AURA follow my order and turns on all the available lights. The surrouinding area is suddendly flooded with bright colors, the Space Flier is stunned just as i expected and immediately breaks his ship away from me.

Driven only by my hands on the controls my cannon rounds follow a straight trail, and lot of them hit the target. Unfortunately this guy is traveling permantently in silent mode, which means his Diamondback is not equipped with a shield generator but heavily plated on the entire hull, so many of my bullets begin to bounce away as they land on the reinforced alloy, creating a spectacular show of sparks and flashes around the asteroids.

"Yeah! As you wish pal, i'll melt that piece of crap like a bean can"

I start to use my primary pulse lasers. Once the first two shots land on his tail, near the engines, the Space Flier decides it's time to get away and sets to full throttle.

The chase begins.

Still trying to become undetected again the diamondback starts banking around the asteroids, but my ship is not the slowest one around so i start following him without loosing my finger from the fire controls.

I follow him for some miles, until the asteroid field starts to be more populated with giant rocks. Using one of them the Space Flier try to leave me behind climbing it with a sudden maneuver, but i'm too used in CQC techniques to fall to a cheap tactic like this. I bring my nose up before meeting the asteroid and roll my ship to have its surface above my head. Keeping the flight stick pulled towards me i shave the rolling rock and meet the face of the enemy coming back on the top of the "hill".

Our ships are set to collision course: its exactly what i want and the reason because the Black Lotus is about 120 tons heavier than a standard clipper. The diamondback tries desperately to avoid me, but collides on my upper right starboard, scratching itself until he meets my right wing.

I only hear a huge noise outside my cockpit and my ships suffers only a little change on its path, but nothing more. My bi-weave shields go down, but they are just there to illude a potential enemy, cause the real defence core lies underneath.

"AURA, status report"

"External plates from R-5 to R-27 are gone, hull integrity not compromised, all systems nominal"

I turn off the flight assists to quickly rotate the ship. Doing this strongly flings me on my seat as my belts try to pull me back in place.

I found the space flier still rotating without control not far away from my ship, however his silent mode system is still online and i can't take a good final shot with the tracking gimballed system, so i align for manual aiming.

"What the hell his happening out there?" Eric comes in from the comms system "All this rolling wrecked the pod here! This woman is bleeding from everywhere, she's about to die!"

"She have to be patient a little more, i'm about to close this matter, forever" i answer with blood in my eyes and without loosing sight of my target. It's no secret i become war addicted every time i fire more than two shots from my ship's weapons.

"Wha-? Are you nuts? Wait for what? Andrew, an innocent person here is about to die! We have to hurry back to station"

A ghostly lance pierces me apart as i freeze my hands on the controls.

*Innocent people...*

I lose eyesight, i start traveling elsewhere with my mind

*Those are innocent people...*

I stay away for an eternity, in another world, in a dream, in a nightmare, until AURA's voice brings me back to reality.

"Warning! Collision alert!"

The first thing i see is a huge rock coming towards my face. I immediately stop the thrusters and compensate reversing the throttle. My ships stops at few meters from an asteroid.

"Frame shift charge detected" AURA keeps me informed on what's happening around. Obviously the Space Flier regained ship control and hurried up to escape. It's too late now to catch him, and i'm no more in the right condition to fight.

With Eric still yelling at the comms, i mute all the incoming transmissions and quickly fly back to the station.

　

THOME GATEWAY
As we step foot on the landing pad, outside the ship, an emergency team called by my noisy companion climb up the service ladder of the Lotus and give proper medical attention to the poor victim in the escape pod.

After a while, when the woman is finally ready to be brought to the hospital we are left alone in front of my Clipper.

- Wow, we took some damage out there uh?- Eric asks

- It's just the external plates, a mere scratch. I will replace them in no time-

-But they are pretty expensive, arent' they?-

I turn myself towards him pointing my finger. I would like to punch his face, maybe for no reason, or maybe for his last words before i could take the shot.

- I told you. I'm not doing this for money and i don't need money. As you said i'm doing this for redemption, and you just interfered with that-

He looks at me curiosly, but still remaining very calm

- You just saved an innocent civilian from death, i don't see how this could be bad-

- We just discovered the Space Flier is a sort of madman torturer wich kidnaps civilians and open their pods in open space to decompress them. Like in horror movies! And he's still around, while i was about to blow him up like a firework. This is bad, cause hundreds of civilians out there are not safe now-

-Well maybe you just scared him now. No one has never met him before, maybe now he will be afraid and vanish forever-

I take a deep breath thinking about what Eric just said, then i walk to the iron railing around the pad and sit on in while the investigator follows me.

- I think it will be worse now - I whisper - He has been challenged and will increase his activity. And of course someone around helps him. Did you see how near he passed from this station without any police scanning him? Probably he's watching on us now from some service camera, and will monitor all the activities of my ship. Probably i will never be able to meet him up in space-

We both remain in silence for a while

- There must be a way to catch him up again- Eric states

I snort

- Oh yeah, there is a way, the classic one-

-And that would be?-

I look at him smiling sadly

-I have to ... bait him... of course with me starring the bait-

-What do you mean? Do you want to go out with a sidewinder and get destroyed by this guy? It's craziness-

I take a look at my ship before answering

-Talking about that... maybe not...- i scratch my unshaven face, then an illumination comes up -Hey, you said once you have friends in the police, right?-

-Of course, it's my job, why do you ask?-

I suddendly stand up, the crazy idea is taking form

-Whoever he is, call him and stay in touch, i have to check a thing or two around the shipyards to know if we have a chance-

I give him a pat on his back then i start running towards the starport exit bay

- What i have to do after i meet with my friend in the police?- Eric asks from the distance

-Just ask him if he can create a false flight log, then nothing more! This time i'll be alone out there!-

 

[Predy]

The preparation for this plan must be really accurate. Just one thing goes wrong and the Space Flier will escape again, or in the worst case, kill me.

After leaving the spaceport i head quickly first to a GalNet terminal around the station to connect my personal datalink, then to find an isolated cafe to order a drink and browse the last digital newspapers i've just uploaded in my personal pad.

If the guy i'm chasing is looking at me from every spot, i just can't use the ship's system to browse official onboard facilites and bulletins. I have to move in the civilian way.

In this case i need to browse the secondhand ships currently on sale. After an hour spent around hundreds of offers the only ship available that could take on this challenge is an old messed up Adder.

I don't care about the price neither its past description, so after i get the owner's contact i send him a private text message asking him to deliver his ship to Haro Station. Standing on what Eric said, that's the only place where the security system are not public to informers and spies.

Later, i hurry up to get back to my clipper's cockpit. The room is dark and a bit cold, while only the starport lights are visible through the main glass. My AI has set all systems in shutdown mode waiting for my return.

"AURA, i have orders for you" i say while manually powering up the main MFDs.

The lights switch back on and the cockpit is soon restored to its nominal status.

"Ready for instructions, Commander" the AI responds

"I'm calling in the starport service to replace the external plates. When the Lotus is fixed, take off and head to Guathiti in Auto Mode, dock to Messier Port and wait in Ready Five mode. In the meanwhile, i'll stay here in this system"

The Ready Five is a very old concept they taught us while in Academy. We used it in many planetary situations and most of us were afraid of it a lot, basically because this protocol was meant to have some F63 ready for takeoff and assistance within five minutes. I remember endless hours of infinite boring inside my little cockpit, listening to radio comms and nothing more.

After receiving this Black Clipper from Alan Patridge, i decided however to program AURA with this option, so in case we would have to separate, she could be instructed to protect me in any possible way within five minutes from her auto takeoff.

"Acknowleged sir" a blinking sound is emitted from the speakers "However i have to inform about the risk i may not be able to respect the Ready Five priority staying so many lightyears away from you"

"I'll take the risk my dear. Just don't let me down" i answer opening the comms "Now call Eric the investigator, please"

I call back the investigator to arrange a meeting at his landing pad. Before leaving the Lotus, however, i head to my cabin to pick up a backpack and fill it with my Navy suit and all the tactical gear attached to it.

After locking again my room, i hurry up to meet Eric by his landed ship.

"So, news from your friend?" I ask without greeting him as i step on the pad

"Of course, no problems about modifying flight logs after i told him what we saw out there. Just tell me what you need and explain your plan"

"I'll do it while we fly away from here. Take me to Haro Station"

Without waiting for an answer i climb up his ship ladder and find myself soon in his cockpit. As i supposed, i find a wealthy civilian interior, with pelt seats and carbon dashboard. Looking around i keep repeating myself it's a shame to see a ship meant for rough exploring riduced in this way.

After Eric gets in after me, we set course for Haro and start talking while travelling in space

"So, i need your friend to release a traffic log within a couple of days. It will state no imperial clippers are around the system, and civilian ships will be busy flying near some sort of event around Dahm. Just tell your friend to be creative. Then leave a single Adder traced around Haro"

"And who will be flying in that adder? You?" Eric asks

"Yeah. My ship will soon leave the system so the security cameras of Thome will be showing it going away. I need the Space Flier to be calm and sure to hit again. If i scared him he will need to come back to work soon to regain self confidence"

"Are you going to fight him in an Adder? Are you sure it's a good idea?"

I give him a friendly punch on his shoulder

"Don't worry, i'll show you what i have in mind"

Some time later we finally dock to Haro. As the ship is lowered inside the hangar by the elevator we both reach the internal compartment were the Adder i'm interested in and its owner are waiting us.

The guy selling the vessel seems some sort of miner: tall, long beard and shabby clothes. No signs of happiness in his face. Looks like he's selling his ship cause he got a bigger one, or he's retiring...

"Here's my little boy" he says shaking our hands "Taking it here costed me a little so..."

"Not a problem, pal" i interrupt him while fiery watching the ship "Just tell me the overall price"

He hands over his datapad with the private invoice for the transaction. I just have to put my finger on it to transfer the credits on his account. I just do it without watching the exact numbers, just making sure myself the price isn't craftily set on millions.

After the pad blinks the guy retracts it and doesn't even smile a little about the money he just received

"It's done" he says "Just treat this ship with regard please. I had a lot of adventures flying this little one"

"Don't worry pal" i say smiling "I'm going to wreck it within a day or two"

 

[Predy]

While the still concerned former owner leaves the dock i can finally open the hatch below the Adder and climb inside to have a first inspection.

The ship's interior is well kept indeed, the entire cockpit is still brand new, and unusually for a former mining ship, all the ceiling's and surrounding service lights are still functional.

I take place on the main seat and start powering up the systems, Eric stands behind me, watching, until the initial jingle of the main OS welcomes us.

"Zorgon Peterson systems online, welcome Commander" the classic female voice starts talking

"System check" i order

"All systems online, no weapons installed"

"List available side functions"

A well known beeping sound comes in along with the AI voice "Cannot comply"

I hesitate for a second, then try again

"Weapons hot"

"Cannot comply"

"Oh great!" i yell "Cooldown ship!"

"Cannot comply"

I hit the front dashboard with a punch "Damn!"

"What's wrong?" Eric asks

"I should have expected that. The previous owner brought back the ship's AI to original factory settings. Now i could talk to a coffe machine and have a better conversation" i pull my head back on the seat grumbling

"What's the problem? You can upload your ship's AI, right?"

It's not that easy for me. I spent months programming AURA with all i know about fighter piloting, techniques and customized orders. Also, her matrix is evolved and sometime when i stay alone for days in space she's the only way for me to have some conversation and don't feel lonely. Even if she's just a voice from a speaker, as now i consider her like a daughter, or a little sister, and i don't want to copy or backup her in another ship like a lousy software. But i don't think the investigator would ever understand me, so i quickly have to come up with an excuse

"I... i don't think there's enough hard disk space in this little ship to contain AURA's entire matrix. I'll set up this piece of junk with basic functions, in the meanwhile i have to settle another question"

I stand up again from the seat and leave the ship at once. When back in the dock i head for a public terminal to browse some station wares. All i need now is just to fit a pair of small pulse lasers and one single torpedo launcher.

My ordered weapons arrive within minutes, transported by an automated truck. As the robotic arms lower them on the ground Eric stares at the big Pylon and its missile, ignoring the two small lasers at their sides.

"Are you going to nuke him with a missile?" he asks

"Of course not" i answer laughing "This weapon is basically made to explode, and in this way i will never make it on that demonic ship"

I pick up a screwdriver from my backback's pocket and start to unscrew the center panel of the single missile on the ground.

When the plate is opened i insert my hand inside the metal body and extract a squared stuffed box showing it to Eric

"What's that?" he asks

"This is the explosive charge, take it" i toss it to him, he screams and hurries to catch the flying object

"Are you crazy or what!? he yells red-faced

"Relax, it's not gonna explode if not connected to the primer microchip, now take this charge to a lab around this station, or even a simple chemistry"

"Why?"

"We need to reduce the explosive charge and enhance its thermic capacity, you said this station is a discreet place, so do me this favour, will you?"

Surprisingly, Eric doesn't question me anymore and head towards the station's facilities. In the meanwhile i hurry up to fit and configure the ship's weapons and ready up the AI with some basic vocal functionalities.

After doing that i finally take out my Navy suit from the backpack and wear it up. When i'm done i barely reflect myself on the ship's glasses, and a weird sensation surrounds me. It's been a year or more last time i wore this suit and it still creeps me out. However this is a very efficient tactical gear, covering my entire body with a protective armor resembling those of exosoldiers troopers.

Of course this is a very much lighter version, leaving only my mouth uncovered, but the suit's emergency life system is always on standby for decompression situations, in that case the lower plate on my neck would raise and lock me in, transforming the suit into an operational EVA gear. That would allow me to survive at least a couple of hours in open space, or let me walk around a deserted planet waiting for rescue.

At least Federation Navy always cared about the safety of all of its fighter pilots, maybe because training a new one always cost years and about 2 million credits...

When i'm finally done i start doing my final checks on the Adder's hull. While i'm walking around the ship Eric comes back with a clearly modified box in his hands.

"Had luck?" i ask

"Yeah, pretty simple as you said, now would you explain me why you need this... thing... and why are you wearing that green armor?"

Actually my mouth is the only visible thing to Eric, so i smile to him

"I can't fight a Diamondback with this ship, but i can disable it to be challenged. Now this guy is probably running a very rare stealth system used only in CQC tournaments. I don't want to know who gave it to him, but i need to melt it and bring back the Space Flier to be visible to a normal scanner. This heat charge will do the work, running around in silent mode there will be no shields protecting him from the missile"

"And if you fail hitting him? You have just one shot"

"Well... i hope AURA will be fast coming in my aid" i finally hold out my hand to him, Eric shakes it in response

"Do you need anything else?" he asks

"Just do your part with that flight log pal, and maybe this story will be resolved. If you don't have any news from me i failed, otherwise, see you soon in a couple of day"

　

HOURS LATER

After i made the last preparations and loaded the modified torpedo in its housing, i bought some provisions and waited for AURA to reach Guathiti.

When my AI confirmed the Lotus has safely landed in Messier Port i finally took off from Haro Station and started supercruising around space for a long time.

Spending time eating synthetic food in my cockpit and listening to radio comms, finally after two days the flight log i requested comes up in the local GalNet network.

"Great work mr. investigator, now let's stay close to Haro Station... computer disengage auto navigation"

"Cannot comply" The onboard AI answers

"You don't say!" i pull up the throttle manually pushing some buttons on the right console and the ship soon falls again under my manual control.

I immediately reach the destination getting out from light speed travel and beginning a slow trip in front of the Haro Station's moon

"Now it's up to you my dear Space Flier" i say

"Cannot comply" the AI insists

"Shut up!" i throw a direct punch on the left console, where the voice was incoming. My forearm's light armor hits the holo monitor and as result it turns off for some seconds. Maybe it's better to calm myself a bit...

After two hours flying around no one still shows up. I end up thinking my plan was not so great as i tought.

"C'mon pal, i'm just a defenseless Adder flying around, why you don't wanna play with me?"

"Executing Robert Withmere playback" the onboard computer starts playing a lousy pop music of an unknown singer in fashion last year, i stare to the monitors with an idiot look below my navy helmet.

"Are you kidding me!?" i start pushing random buttons on the just appeared playlist in the right monitor "Stop this crap, now!"

As the music finally gets away a strange noise keep coming from the speakers. I bring my ear close one of them and try to listen to the source, but i soon realize this claking sound is not coming from inside but... from the outside.

My eyes soon catch up the shield status: 58% and dropping

"Here we go! He's attacking me!"

I grab the flight control and start and immediate evasive manuver, releasing a chaff cartridge from my tail i boost the engines to gain speed. After two second i disengage the automatic assist and pull up roughly to keep drifting in one direction but still turning my ship upside down.

When my nose completes its 180° turn i re-engage the flight assist and have a look to my aggressor: the black diamondback is there, with its beam lasers still recovering their tracking capabilities from my previous countermeasures drop.

"Great, now let's see how good you are in piloting"

I boost again the engines and bring the Adder towards him, as the enemy beam lasers come back hitting me i'm about to collide with the Space Flier. I suddendly bank slightly to the left and shave his ship with a close fly-by. I then repeat the same previous maneuver turning upside-down again in two seconds.

The Diamondback realize my shields are already recharging and start his engines to catch me and keep its weapons on target. Before he could even see me, i do another fly-by in front of his face, forcing him to change is maneuvers again.

As i repeat again ad again the previous technique, the Space Flier start trying to imitate me, the only way he believes he has to gain a clear shot on my ship.

We start a rough dogfight without opening fire, after 5 minutes keeping on my enemy falls exactly in my trap: his ship starts to get slow, his maneuvers even slower.

"You're suffering Over-G stress pal"

After years of planetary flights, training and operative missions every fighter pilot is used even to 8g accelerations and more. But a lousy psychopath hitting civilians is not trained in this way and this simple dogfight stressed him way too much.

"It's time to show up" i finally deploy my hardpoints, as the Torpedo Pylons shows ready on my HUD i have a clear straight shot on the still recovering Space Flier

"Say hello to your little friend! Fox Three!"

The Torpedo charge head straight on the enemy hull and explodes in a huge fireball on contact.

The Diamondback drifts and spins away dissipating the flames, as my radar finally begins to lock it up and scanning every bit of its metal body. My plan is working and the heat charge has melted the ship's silent mode systems.

When the Space Flier is finally trackable by my little gimballed weapons a devilish grin surrounds my face as i immediately open fire on his unshielded hull.

The situation seems to have changed and the relentless civilian killer is now in some serious trouble. Realizing it, he immediately boost his engines trying to overrun me. Unfortunately i'm not flying the Black Lotus, and this messed up Adder can't follow a Diamondback so easily.

As soon as our masses unlocks, the Space Flier triggers his Frame shift and jumps away in supercruise.

"No! This time i won't let you escape!"

I follow him immediately in light speed mode, catching his ship flying away and heading towards Thome, again.

After few seconds of chasing i'm ready to engage the little interdictor system i previously arranged inside my bait-ship. However, as i'm ready to trigger it, the diamondback drops out in open space.

At this point, my battle trance has showed up, so i follow his wake without suspecting any risk. When i'm out of supercruise i soon realize it's my turn to have fallen into a trap.

Waiting me, along with the Space Flier, two Cobra MKIII painted in total black. As i drop out they immediately attack me with deployed weapons.

My battle trance keeps up as i deploy my little lasers and charge the incoming enemies without fear. We quickly exchange some shots before we make a dangerous flyby. As my vision clears i see the Space Flier enjoying the show from apart and my blood begins to flow to my head again.

The two Cobras however are again on my tail shooting and making my shields collapse in a blink of an eye. i take some hull damage and the previously punched holo monitor explodes after an electric spark overcharge hit. A metal dashboard piece hits me, but my armored suit is made for cases like this, preventing any body injury.

As i finally regain a bit of consciousness after the blow i finally realize to be in danger. As i boost away trying to outmaneuvers the two thrilled attackers i hurry up to establish a comm link with my black ship.

"AURA! Alert five, now!"

 

[Predy]

Sending AURA to Guathiti was not the smartest idea, but i had to be sure the Space Flier hadn't some observers in the systems around.

Waiting for her to come in time is foolish, so the best option i have right now is to keep outmaneuvering and try to charge my drive to get in supercruise. Those two guys will follow for sure, but i will earn some more time for the Black Lotus to get here.

As i trigger the sequence the masses around immediately interfere with my drives

"Fifty seconds until Frame Shift drive" the AI says

"We will be good as dead in fifty seconds!" I yell

"Cannot comply"

I just don't have time to argue with this stupid computer and keep banking left and right... the two Cobras keep throwing a rain of multicannon bullets at my hull and start piercing my armor.

"This is not good, i'm not on the right ship to fight back"

I start thinking it would be better to use my suit and eject from the ship somehow, thinking about the Space Flier and his friends winning on my plan just make me mad, but i still care much about my life to throw it away so soon.

I start loosing the seat connections to prepare for eject, when 3 surge lights comes in along with a radio communication on my comms channel

"This is Authority Vessel Zero-Eight, we're engaging hostiles on your six Commander"

I bring my sight above me, two vipers are closing in fast, followed by an Asp Scout

"Eric!"

"Hey there pal" he answers "i brought some friends in, tought you could use some help"

I laugh loudly

"Of course i can use some help! Just take care of those two dogs behind me while i finish the job"

I give a rapid check on the ships systems. We are damaged but still running, as the vipers break the enemy's formation i head back my ship towards the damned Diamondback.

The Space Flier foresees my intention and hurries to escape in supercruise. Fortunately, my drive is almost charged up so i quickly intercept him in supercruise few seconds later.

"Now no one will save you now!" as i get on his tail i finally establish an interdiction tether.

The blue tunnel ties us both as we start maneuvering to win the challenge. The diamondback's pilot is not a very good one, but still, i am in a messed up ship so our battle prolongs for a minute until one of the moons around the system becomes bigger

"Wha-? Are you going to break up using the moon's gravity!? Smart move! Computer, disable the security protocol on secondary fire groups and flight assist"

"Cannot comply"

Expecting this answer i manaully disengage the protocols using the right side console. This time the AI comes up with a different message

"Warning, too much speed to engage orbital flight"

Our run proceed towards the ground, as the AI said, i'm not in the right condition to fly at this speed, but hopefully the Space Flier is having the same problem. My canopy begins to crack and the heat levels increase.

"Warning, taking multiple damage from heat and speed. Hull integrity compromised"

"We need to light up the ship" i answer "Engage module dissection protocol"

"Cannot comply"

"To hell with it!"

I punch again the console and break up another dashboard piece, the second monitor goes down as i manually start the requested protocol. Keeping up the interdiction tether i soon open the Adder's hatch and start to detach some hardpoints. The ship drops away the little internal cargo rack, the weapons, heat sinks and some of the internal avionics. Few seconds later i'm flying a simple metallic glider using the old fly-by-wire system.

As we reach the last few kilometers before touching the ground the tether breaks up and the Diamondback begins a terrifying and uncontrolled spinning, while i keep gliding gently to avoid further damage.

As i prepare for a belly landing i lose sight of my target and only a huge crash noise informs me that the black diamondback's flying days are finally over. As i touch the ground my canopy explodes and all the oxygen flows away from the cockpit.

My suit locks up immediately and a little counter on my visor informs me i have two hours of air inside it. As i finally stop my run i clean up the glass felt on my armor and stand up from the seat. The AI is not talking anymore as the ship is totally shut down. I get out from the canopy window and take step on the rocky ground taking a watch at the Adder.

"With proper salvage equipment, this ship could be repaired back and fly again" i think before heading towards the other crash site.

As i run slowly trying to reach the Diamondback i bring my hand to my holster. This suit has only an ordinary gun to barely defend myself from hostiles and a knife in case i have to hunt down some squirrels to eat before rescue arrives... of course in case a pilot crashes on a normal planet, not a rocky moon....

After a while i get to the location. As i come up from the hill i finally have a closer look at the Diamondback laying destroyed on the ground, and a shiver runs down my spine.

What seemed to be black and red painting in space it's an horrible and disgusting collage of human bones and blood painting on black metal. This psycopath probably took back his dead victims and glued their rest on his hull as they were trophies.

Suddendly i feel again i'm not the one in advantage here, and having a pair of trained exosoldiers by my side would be great. However, i can't get back right now so i step forward and descend the hill to get closer to the wrecked ship.

As i finally stand near the smoking hull, the show is even more terrible. Some skulls are visible scattered on the ground as long as little bone fragments of various nature. I lower my pistol losing focus and watching around, when a shadow closes behind me and a direct punch on my armored helmet grounds me at once.

I shake my head to regain focus and watch upside. A man tall about 7.8 feets is standing in a black EVA suit. The Space Flier is now finally watching me personally, but his gear like mine doesn't make possible to see the person inside. This guy however is very tall, resembling a huge black bear, luck is still not on my side.

I roll on my back and regain a kneeled position, i'm still holding my gun so i take aim and fire. The Space Flier suit seems armored aswell so my first two bullets bounce away from him.

In response, he charges again with his head, locking me with his huge body and slamming me on his ship's hull. After that he takes a step back and slaps me with his entire arm, making me fly away again.

As i touch the ground gasping, my visor informs me that the suit's armor is having a bad time. I aim again and shot desperately, but my gun is not enought to pierce the enemy gear.

After emptying my clip on the once again incoming bear i throw my weapon towards him and draw my knife. I really don't know how to survive the next assault when i notice that the Space Fliers boots are made of regular fabric. Maybe i can decompress his suit and have a chance.

I keep laying on the ground, waiting for the right moment and as he gets near me i try to attack his feet with my blade.

My try doesn't reach the target, as he picks me up on the neck like a puppy and raises me at his level. The next punch is on my shoulder, my armor cracks and i lose hand sensitivity, dropping my knife away. An internal alarm alerts me that i'm starting to decompress due to the received damage.

Another punch on the face and i'm flying back to the ground, landing with my face towards the sky.

I'm about to lose my senses and surrender to destiny as the space flier closes in again to kill me, when a light source illuminates the area and a voice erupts in my suit's short range communication system.

"Black Lotus inbound"

I raise my head above me as i listen to AURA's voice, my ship traced my signal and is now closing in at fire range.

"Well i'll be damned, the prodigal son returns" I moan

This is my last chance, the Space flier is distracted by my ship's lights so is not watching me, i take a look around and locate my knife. I grab it and cut trough the enemy's boots.

As the oxygen begins to flow away the guys steps back surprised, i quickly stand back with my last breath and start running away.

"AURA open fire with cannons on my position, now!"

My AI doesn't question me and executes the order.

A rain of 20mm bullets begin to fall around me making me close my eyes. At the end one round hits the remains of the Diamondback making it explode in a huge radius.

I get thrown away from the blast and lose consciousness.

　

SOMEWHERE

I open my eyes, in a strange place. Brown sky and an unusually white ground. I don't feel pain.

As i watch around a boy, about eigth years old, appears talking to me

"Why you killed us?"

I think about it for a second, then realize who is talking to me

"I... i didn't do that on purpose i was... on mission"

"But you dropped the bombs" he replies

"I'll never do that again, i'm trying to redeem myself"

The boy turns and start walking away

"Wait, where are you going?" i ask starting to follow him

After some steps i feel my body heavier. I try to keep the pace but the little boy starts to get away. As i hurry up i lose control of my legs and fall to the ground, on my hands.

"If you really want to redeem, follow me" the boy's voice is still near to be heard, but his figure is vanished

I start crawling on my hands, keeping the same direction as before. Suddendly the ground starts to be brighter and blinds me in a total white view.

I keep crawling with my eyes closed when some sort of alarm comes up in my suit.

　

BLACK LOTUS

I open back my eyes and find myself crawling in the Black Lotus cargo section with the hatch closing behind me. My suit alarm indicates i have only 2 minutes left cause of decompression but shuts down as soon as the internal compartment is pressurized again.

"Commander, are you ok?" AURA asks through the speakers

"What happened?" i ask keeping my hands to the ground

"You passed away, i landed the ship but couldn't reach you in any way. Then you started crawling towards the Black Lotus so i opened the loading bay for you"

I reach the nearest wall and sit slowly on hit, opening my suit and removing my helmet to breathe some fresh air.

"What about the Space Flier?"

"The explosion radius cleared any life sign apart from yours. Should i take a quick scan of the area?"

"Leave it be, someone will do"

I take a deep breath, calming myself

"It's over"

 

[Predy]

EPILOGUE

The next day i find myself docked again at Thome, sitting in my cockpit.

I'm half-wearing my ordinary black flight suit while i'm naked on my chest, applying a big ice sack on my shoulder.

"Without any armor that crazy man would have torn apart my arm" i groan

"Commander" AURA comes in "I finally decrypted the police files about the Space Flier"

"Took your time, patch me in"

My main monitors start updating me with lot of police reports, a huge quantity of informations i'm actually not interested in reading. At the end, the complete profile of the Space Flier shows up, and i feel a sense of concern watching this guy on his face for the first time.

This psychopath was not only very tall, but also evident signs of his face denotes the typical lineaments of a mental hospital patient. Big unnatural ears, little nose and unaligned eyes, this guy resembles those monsters used to scare people in horror movies.

Reading his profile is much more interesting however.

"Mark Bonnieur" i stand thinking about it "Hey, wasn't Gerrard Bonnieur a politician of some sort?"

"Correct" AURA answers "Mr. Bonnieur is actually the one in charge about the Agriculture exports in this sector"

"That's why the police wasn't after him, the little kid was let free to play, otherwise daddy would have been very angry. AURA, send these files to Eric and even a report to Alan Patridge, then i'm done with this matter"

As AURA confirms the order i stand up and head to my cabin to put on a T-shirt. Later i drop down on my bed and start relaxing a bit, still aching for the wounds received.

After half an hour, my cabin's little communications terminal blinks. I stand up again and answer the call, Eric's face appears on the monitor.

"Hey there Roman, how are you doing?" he asks smiling

"Well i risked my life more than one time yesterday, so i can say i'm fine after all. By the way, thank you for the well-timed support"

"Ah, don't mention it. I just received the data your AI sent me, very interesting for my case"

"I'm happy to hear that, what about the two mysterious cobras?" i bring the terminal near the bed so i can lay down again

"They self destructed shortly after you jumped away. They didn't even try to escape, seems like they wanted to clear any evidence. But further investigation on the wrecks revealed a very useful data storage which survived the explosion"

"And what was inside?"

"Analysis confirmed the affilitation with a strange cult, seems like the Space Flier was some sort of adept doing some initiation"

Once again a a shiver runs down my spine. I've often heard about cultists flying around for some self-invented gods, but never dealt with one of them personally.

Noticing my silence Eric go ahead talking

"Anyway, the fact this guy was Bonnieur's first son will bring some scandal around the system very soon. Are you going to stay arond and see what happens?"

"No!" i answer directly "Sorry pal, i'm really tired of this story. Politicians are not my business and neither cultists are. I'm going to head back to Cubeo very soon"

"Well that's a shame, i admit i feel much more safer with you around, can i put your comm coordinates on my address book at least?"

"Of course, but call me only when they are shooting to you"

We both laugh at the screen then when i'm about to say goodbye to him, he asks one more question

"Will you explain me the meaning of 'Predy' now?

"Of course not. Not until we go to bed together"

We get another laugh, then finally close the communication.

As my terminal goes off i hurry up to put back my suit and head to the cockpit again.

I want to set off immediately for Cubeo. Maybe Alan Patridge is there and have some work for me, but for sure, i will not fly again in Hip 16607 very soon.