Eliza Valdez did not expect that Don Arturo 'Muerte' Sforza's invitation for a casual drink to actually be a facade into getting her involved into a scheme she had no pleasure being part of. And how did the old man obtain this information that he shared with her in the first place? She did not know. Perhaps there was more to Arturo than what meets the eye. He was a Don after all, even if he voluntarily decided to serve under Valdez in the Maltese Legion. Perhaps all Dons were as cunning and secretive, even if their outwardly appearance sometimes made people think otherwise. Either way, if what Arturo said was true, it was imperative that the Outcasts reacted before it was too late. And Eliza's prior experience with the location in question made her the prime candidate for this mission.
On the next morning she was ready to leave the safety of her homeworld Malta and head into the vast cold void that was the expanse of the Sirius sector. Flying towards Omicron Theta, Eliza did feel somewhat nostalgic about her old ship of choice - the venerable Series Z "Sabre" fighter, but at this point she felt comfortable enough to be in the newer and much more lighter LHX3-F2S "Longsword" that she had purchased many months ago in what some would consider a rather spontaneous buyers impulse while being in Liberty. Once in Omicron Theta, the more dangerous part of her journey began. But her choice of space chariot had an extra benefit of being much more sleek than the heavier "Sabre" and with that it was much easier to avoid being caught on scanners while traversing the Amarus and Napo clouds. With a flick of Eliza's hand, her breather mask injected Cardamine straight into her lungs and from there the orange powder was absorbed into her blood stream. Soon enough she was about to enter the home system of the Corsairs and every possible advantage in reaction time and concentration was going to be well needed. The next system on her route greeted her with yet another green cloud - the Malvada. Visually it looked much like the previous two, but in reality this was the most dangerous one of them all as it saw the most enemy patrols. Luck was on her side and she managed to slip undetected to the Omicron Kappa jump hole that was a few sectors away. The gravestones that were the derelict Corsair fighters around the jump hole reminded her of those in Siniestre Cloud back home, perhaps a testament to the fact that as different as the Corsairs and Outcasts were, at one point centuries ago they were the same people aboard a Sleeper ship traversing this very same vast cold void. Something to think about, but not here and not now. Her next waypoint was sector 3F in Omicron Kappa where the connection to Omicron Delta was located according to her navmap computer. Passing by Planet Primus meant she had managed to slip through the Corsair defenses successfully without being detected. Not the first time she had done so, but still as exciting as it once was. Some more klicks of cruise flight and she made her way to the Omicron Delta system. This was where her final destination resided - planet Nauru, a barren desert world, devoid of anything pleasant. Eliza Valdez's history with this planet had a bad track record and the Outcast pilot had a feeling that this visit would very likely not be far different as those before...
The docking ring was not an option. She had to do the landing the old fashioned way - atmospheric and unassisted. Thankfully Eliza had done such landings on Nauru before back in the days when Enma Loyola was the Guildmistress of the Core. One would wonder how someone like Loyola could end up being the head of the Core, but then again that Edge World organization was not the only faction guilty of employing Loyola's services as a leader. Perhaps one day Sirius would learn its lesson, perhaps it wouldn't, Eliza couldn't know, she was no farseer or soothsayer. Still one could not deny the fact that Eliza's brief employment in the Core thanks to Loyola did come handy at this very moment. Nauru was a hellish world, vast deserts, frequent sandstorms, barely any landmarks to help with orientation. And some five years ago or so, back when Eliza was briefly part of it, the Core did not have the luxury of a working docking ring system either so atmospheric landing was the only way to go. With a rather shallow descent, Eliza aimed to achieve as little drag as possible. The ship's shields were holding well and soon enough she made her way into the planet's lower atmosphere. Unfortunately for her though the lower atmosphere was also where the sandstorms of Nauru formed and she was just entering one. Not five minutes into being on Nauru and she was already reminded how much she hated this planet to the very bottom of her being. Effectively being blind with nothing to rely on but the navmap's altitude meter, the Outcast had to figure out a good place to land. The ship's console beeped, all this sand was causing a lot more tear on the shield's capacity than expected. The pilot uttered some slur under her breath and pulled the throttle down. Landing in the middle of a sandstorm was far from optimal, but it was her best bet at this moment. "Danger, Low Altitude, Danger, Low AltitTHUD! Not the best landing, but Eliza was alive and in one piece. Quickly opening the damage assessment console showed that the ship's hull had sustained 8.73% damage. Definitely not the best landing. Now what was left was to wait out for the sandstorm to pass, if such a thing was even possible on this god forsaken planet. And in the mean time Valdez could enjoy watching all this sand ramming into her cockpit window at concerningly high velocity.
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