It was dark and quiet. Rocks and debris floated in silence. Scraps of metal left behind from former conflicts and exploration. Somewhere in the midst of the scrap sat a small ship. A lone recycler bomber drifted in the black, powered down, and blending into the waste around it. Jake sat in the cockpit looking out into the black. A contact had just appeared on his scanner.
You got that Weasel? He called down to his gunner and scanner tech.
I see him. Hes moving pretty good. From that heading Im guessing he came from the Hudson jump hole and is headed for California.
Can you identify him?
Negative, hes about 9k away from us and well soon loose him.
Ok, keep tracking while you can. He reached down and activated his com, Hey Tallwood, you there?
Roger Jake, whats up?
Looks like we got a single ship headed you way. Its probably just what weve been waiting for.
Excellent, well be ready to intercept.
Roger, well be bringing up the rear. He turned his chair slightly towards the rear looking at the six heavily armed men strapped into seats facing each other in the back. Heads up boys, were moving!
Weasel called up from his station, Hey Jake, they just moved off scanner heading toward Tallwoods boys. You should be able to fire up without them noticing.
Jake reached down and activated the startup sequence for his engines. The massive bomber began to come to life.
Rick Haynes sat nervously in his chair on the bridge of the transport. He had two men on the bridge with him feeling as tense as he was as they cruised through the debris field.
Anything yet Pete?
Naw boss. I got a weird signal in the debris a little ways back, but theres noting there now.
Ok, stay on it. God only knows what well find out here.
Hold on! Ive got two contacts on the forward scope. Moving to intercept.
Alter course and go around before they can scan us.
Too late, their spread out, if we move away from one, well be moving towards the other.
Pull up and try and go over them. I really dont feel like being social right now.
Boss, theyre 4k away now, theyve got us.
How the hell did they get that close?!
They must have been sitting there powered down, which means theyve been waiting for a ship like ours to come along. Oh great, theyre hailing us, we need to stop.
Elijah Tallwood sat on his bridge looking at the smaller transport vessel that was dropping out of cruise in front of his salvage frigate. What did we catch today?
His first officer called across the bridge, looks like some class of pirate transport. Not much too it. Oh, and guess what? Looks like their filled to the rafters with munitions.
More indie smugglers. Not a bad catch. Have they responded to our hail?
Its coming up now.
The com on the bridge came to life with a half angry half scared voice on the other end. Ok, you seem to have us at a bit of a disadvantage so just tell me what you want with us.
This is Captain Elijah Tallwood of the Junker Congress. Youre not at any disadvantage Captain, welcome to our neck of the woods.
Ive got two salvage frigates pointing guns at my ship. You call this a welcome?
Calm down Captain, were all friends here. You know theres a war on, and Texas has become a rather dangerous place for merchant ships. Not too mention the recent spike in pirate activity. Fortunately for you the Junker Congress is in control of this corridor. We stand ready to see to your protection.
Protection huh? What makes you think we need protection? How much does this protection cost anyway?
Its a very modest fee trust me. Well assess ten percent of the value of your haul. Tell me thats not a good deal to ensure your safe passage. Just think what might happen if the Liberty Navy, or God forbid the Liberty Rogues should find you hauling all that ordinance.
Well it does sound like a good deal, but Im kind of a fan of living on the edge. I dont really think we have to worry about Navy patrols out here.
Maybe Captain, maybe. Still, you never know what might happen to you way out here.
Just what are you thinking might happen to us out here?
No sooner had Rick asked that question when his transport shook. What the hell was that?!
Shields are down! I think we just hit with an antimatter cannon!
From where, those salvagers dont have that kind of firepower.
Just then the ship shook again.
Rick, something just hit us. I cant find anything on the scope now so my best guess is that whatever fired on us is now attached to our hull.
Great, and theres no way to call for help with our cargo.
No, but the guys we met up with in Sigma 13 will be up behind us soon.
Not soon enough Im afraid.
Just see if you can stall him and see what happens.
Rick open up the com channel again. Ok Captain Tallwood, lets see if we can talk about this. You can see the kind of ship we are in and Im sure you know what kind of operation Im running. Were not exactly in a position to be making any large payments right now.
Youre stalling me Captain and I really dont like that.
Youll forgive me, were not used to being pirated by Junkers.
Pirated? Is that what you call this? After everything weve done to set up a market for second rate smugglers like you. Im in no mood for name calling today. The com went dead with that transmission.
Jake this is Tallwood, you ready to go?
Roger Cap, were good to go.
Ok, tell Bruiser hes up.
You got it. Jake looked back again and the armed men seated in his ship. Bruiser, lock and load, Tallwood says its your ball.
Oh joy, party time at last, lets go boys. The men grabbed their weapons and moved to a hatch in the floor. I gotta say Jake, this is really nice work.
Thank you my friend. Not many pilots could land a bomber on top of a transport let alone drop in on the aft escape hatch as Jake had done.
Bruiser looked at one of his men, you think theyd just open it if we knock? The man looked at him and almost laughed, yeah, youre probably right, just blow it.
The charge blew in towards the transport and a portion of the hatch flew into the inside of the ship. The six men slid through quickly as they tried to orient themselves to the artificial gravity on a new ship. No one else was around. Bruiser pointed his rifle forward and the men moved toward the bridge. His men spread out and began to clear all the hallways and chambers leading up to the front of the ship.
The six men met in the forward section of the ship where they were met by a large locked bulkhead. You rats find anyone?
Not a one. Looks like theyre all in there.
Great, just great. Bruiser began to bang on the door with the butt of his rifle.
Uh, yeah. Im sure thatll work.
Well I had to try. As he said that he heard the locks disengaging and the door began to open. The six men took defensive positions and pointed their weapons toward the door. Attention on the bridge. This is your boarding party. Were coming in there now and anyone holding a weapon will end up with his cerebral matter on the deck floor. Do you understand me?
There was no answer. Bruiser advanced slowly to find five men sitting on the bridge with their hands on their heads. Well, that was easy enough. At least this time we found us a somewhat intelligent crew.
Rick looked up at him, Somewhat intelligent?
Yeah thats right, Bruiser told him, if you were any smarter, youd be cooperating with us and wed be avoiding all of this unpleasantness.
Lovely, so what do you want from us now Mr. Junker?
Not a damn thing. Just sit there and let take care of this. Two of Bruisers men moved to a control panel and started to access the controls to the cargo bay. The panel lit up and one of them flashed him a thumbs up.
Bruiser picked up a com device. Tallwood, this is Bruiser, were ready to deliver.
Nice work Bruiser. Were moving into position to receive now.
So, how much are you going to take from us? Rick asked him.
Bruiser leaned back on the wall and looked over at the man laughing. You dont really think that after going through the trouble to board this ship Im going to start divvying stuff up do you? Its all going out the hatch.
So, Junkers are just a bunch of pirates then?
Im no pirate, but I am quite short tempered, so Id advise caution in your case.
Just what do you call this? Youve stopped us, demanded money, damaged my ship and now youre stealing everything we have.
Just business my friend, just business. We do a pretty good job of maintaining order along this corridor. Weve kept it from becoming a free for all with pirates and thugs. Foolish little freelancers like you dont help much.
One of the men called out to Bruiser, Its all out to space boss, and Tallwood has started salvage. Lets get moving.
Nice work, ok boys, back to the ship.
Rick protested again, So, just like that you are going to leave us here with nothing.
Thats pretty much the plan.
You son of a. He stopped when he saw the barrel of a gun pointed at his face, inches away from his nose.
Think about it Captain. Take a moment..just a moment to think about what you are going to say before you finish that sentence.
Rick stood there staring down the barrel of his gun. So now Im going to be shot on my own bridge. Take everything Ive got and shoot me.
Sit down and shut up Captain. Youll calm down soon enough. Maybe your friends will even come to your aid, if they dont shoot you losing their cargo.
What are you talking about? I never told you who we were shipping anything to.
No. No you didnt. And dont think for a moment I didnt notice that. You see if you were shipping to the Rogues or the Hackers, that probably would have been the first thing you made known to us. Were not really anxious to piss off someone like Slypheed by jacking his shipments. Lets say you were planning to move through California to Bretonia and sell to someone there. Theres still a lot of room for you to negotiate there. But no, you didnt say anything. You didnt say anything because you knew that we werent that worried about pissing off your buyers because they couldnt possibly hate us more than they already do.
Rick turned white and sat down in his chair.
Yep, were a little smarter than you think. You were going to sell all these lovely explosives to the goram Xenos. Then they can make more things go boom outside of Rochester. I ought to shoot you just for that, but no, were not that savage. Your friends in Ouray will deal with you soon enough. See what greed can get you? I' betting that you could have unloaded this stuff in Hudson but you thought you'd make the extra money by going all the way to Colorado. Not now you aren't. By the way, if you are able to seal off your rear compartments, you may want to think about doing that, or else youre going to have a really bad day when we undock.
Elijah Tallwood stepped through the airlock onto the decks of Beaumont Base. Another good weeks work patrolling the debris fields of Texas. He saw his first officer talking to the dock chief as their cargo was being unloaded into the base and went over to speak to him. Take a break already. These guys know how to unload our ship. I want you to make sure the crew gets some rest, theyve earned it this time.
No problem boss. You should do the same.
Dont worry about that. Ill be in the bar and then off to get some sleep. Ill talk to you some time tomorrow.
He walked into the bar and took a seat. There was a good crowd in there today. Junker bars were always such interesting places. A great mix of people from all over Sirius, most of whom would not be welcome to land on most planets but found themselves welcome here. He ordered a drink and sat in a booth. He was there about five minutes when the station administrator walked up to his table.
Captain Tallwood, I need to speak with you.
I thought Crow was going to meet me here.
Thats what I need to talk to you about. Arbiter Crow left six hours ago. Hes on his way to Rochester. He left instructions for you.
What kind of instructions?
He needs you to get to Manhattan ASAP.
Manhattan?
We have a new situation unfolding. Arbiter Crow is en route to Rochester to handle in from there. He will need you to run an errand in Manhattan. Take this. All your instructions are on this recording. Listen to it once youre in space.
I just came off a week cruise, Im tired. Why am I getting tapped for this?
The Deputy Arbiter asked for you.
Ok, fine. Im gonna punch Jack in the head when I see him. Whats so damn important anyway?
An independent Junker transport was attacked and destroyed in Manhattan orbit. The captain has asked for the Congress help.
In Manhattan orbit, good lord who attacked them?
The Liberty Navy.
Oh wait just a minute. Dont tell me were going to bat for some stupid smuggler who got himself caught. We should be cutting him loose right now.
Its not like that. When you listen to Arbiter Crows instructions youll understand.
Ok fine. Has Jakes bomber landed yet?
I believe it has.
Good, tell Bruiser to meet me in the docking bay.