Six ships, six pilots. The Bounty Hunters' finest. Ronald, a wing leader, a Zoner at heart he had a scent for things hidden deep in vast space, but several times it caused deaths of his wing mates. With each life gone he seemed to become irritating and careless to people around him, some of his fellow guild members made him a nick: "Captain Bad Karma". Few wanted to fly with someone who is known by that name. But also those few know how valuable he is in the team.
Ron was after the one particular ship that has bothered him for quite some time. His close Zoner friend and colleague told once of a lost prison liner ship. Considering how secure the new line of those ships are it would have been absolutely impossible to take over the ship had you been a prisoner on it. But, despite all precautions and all measures taken, it happened with XT-21. Bounty hunters were called to assist in finding the liner. Of course, such task was handed over to no one else but our Captain Bad Karma. Ron had no choice but to accept, he had been deep in debts, the guild had him completely.
Looking for the prison liner that has been reported lost for month already is no easy task; by that time it could have been just anywhere had it not got destroyed. Luckily Ron got hands on Zoners' edge system reports. A few records did indeed indicate a large ship drifting in far system not so long ago. That was a chance and the only clue to it. Without delay Ron and his team went off to the unexplored system...
With not much to do but to wander around aimlessly the bounty hunters' standard communication channel was filled with chatter.
"For Eris' sake just stop it, Jones, you whiny little piece of ***. There is nothing out there, trust me. The Order has dealt with them. I may not like those sneaky bastards but just for one that thing I'm grateful, and so should be you. Now shut up and hope we don't meet Order patrol, it's supposedly their territory. Also... ah, scratch that, nevermind." - Ron has always been straight-forward and would give a hell to anyone, but now he got tired of running blind in uncharted system far from routes and outposts. "Cali, have anything yet?"
"If there is nothing then what the hell are we doing here?" - Jones kept pushing. Surprisingly he was also an exceptional pilot, but bravery was never his trait. Perhaps because of that he was still alive whereas many other laid their lives fighting honorably. Cowardice and trickery are what made him good at what he is. "This is so stupid. We're just wasting fuel here. Besides I don't like..." - before he could continue Ron abruptly muted Jones in the channel and asked again: "Cali? Have anything on the radar? Over."
Calisto, or simply "Cali", an ex-Liberty Navy she still holds to the finest traditions of military forces. Framed for killing an officer she had little choice: surrender and face tribunal or flee to Kusari space and find shelter there. She chose the later and eventually got into Bounty Hunters Guild under fake ID and name.
"No, sir. We are forty units from the jumphole. This nebula pocket seems to stretch far and wide... ...Hold on a second! Sir, we have a signal... a very faint signal". Had there was nothing Ron would have called abort, but it appears that the Fortune has graced him with her gift this time.
"Lock on it, Cali! It must be that damn liner!" - Ron woke up. This dread place has nothing at all; if anything is there it's his precious target.
"Got it, sir. Twenty-five clicks from our position, sending lock."
"Perfect! Everyone form on me and proceed to coordinates. At fifteen clicks drop cruise and proceed on drives."
Paint on the side marked "XT-21". A lost prison liner. Rumors go that it during transit to Huntsville station the riot broke out spontaneously, surprisingly prisoners broke out and took control over the ship. Before Navy could arrive the ship was gone and nobody knew where it was. Some said to see it in Shikoku, some say it has been destroyed by bounty hunters. But despite all those rumors it was there, drifting slowly through the unexplored outer system.
"It doesn't look good, Ron. It really does. We should leave it I tell ya." - Jones kept on, he always did.
"What?! Are you crazy? This could be it, our chance and you are trying to tell me to give up? No way, slime, we are going in!" - Ron blamed himself now for taking Jones into the team, but little could he do other than holding everyone together tightly. "Cali, Scan the ship, I need everything on it. If there is a trap I want to know it."
With her typical military attitude Calisto reported in monotonous voice: "Yes, sir. Defense systems seem to be offline, standard liberty issue turrets. No life signatures were detected, no motion detected, possibly in cryosleep. The ship itself seems to be operational and very slightly damaged. Artificial gravity is enabled on several decks. The docking bay seems to be completely offline. However... the cargo area is apparently shielded, signatures are scrambled, but there is certainly some cargo there. Shall we call for support, sir?"
Support. If Ron would bring more people then his plan would certainly fail. "No, it would take days. Alright, everyone listen up! Get closer to our target. Slowly. Keep your fingers on afterburners, keep scanning. We are approaching."
The team slowly got closer to XT-21, and the turrets were indeed lifeless and did not move. Prison transport was drifting slowly through the nebula asteroid field on autopilot.
Suddenly Calisto broke the silence: "Sir, there is no way I can see what's inside this ship, the whole hull appears to have some shielding to prevent us peeking inside. Orders, sir?"
Scan reflectors? Those are extremely rare and expensive. Only few ships having those and even then they are much smaller than this one. Now there must be something very important inside, of that Ron had no doubts anymore.
"Look! The docking bay door is damaged so, let's see if we can open this can."
Ron also knew that scan reflectors were never issued on prison liners. Now who could do that on this one? Some cardamine baron keeping his little treasure stash here? He hoped for it to be true, it would certainly solve all his financial problems and let him out from the guild. Order wouldn't keep their stash unprotected, he thought.
In a few minutes the docking bay door was opened. Docking arm mechanism was non operational and the whole bay had only lit with emergency lights. The only way inside the abandoned prison liner would be attaching ships to the walls manually with harpoons and proceeding in airless zero-g until they reach the first deck.