Malious sighed gruffly to himself in his cockpit, popping back the pilots chair of his Hawk dubbed "Grey Wolf" named after a friend of his he hadn't seen in many years. after a minor skirmish on a deal gone wrong he sat stranded, engines blown, his booted feet kicked up on consoles and him taking in the sights of the pretty trinary system. "bloody corsairs, give em an inch they take a mile."
He reached over lazily hitting the distress signal on his crippled ship and sent out an encoded message to one specific ship. "Suria, sigma 17, stranded, near atka" relying simply on short burst messages to save power in his ship for fear of life support dying out on him.
He set the message out on repeat bursts, he also continually burst a local system message. much to the key of: "Freelance pilot stuck in the middle of nowhere near to atka. any assistance would be appreciated"
Malious sighed to himself quite the proverbial helpless damsel. He ran a hand through his black and silver speckled hair looking out at the three suns in the system equally in awe of the sight and bored with nothing to do. Nothing he could really do about it, so in his mind there was no real reason to stress the situation. just float about aimlessly waiting patiently.
The warp gate opened before her, the shining lights something she had become used to long ago. Work seemed to be few and far between as of late, and even she had no idea why she had traveled this far looking for simple pay. Perhaps she had come for the view of the trinary stars that made this sector their home and for the beauty they offered to the eyes.
With a nonchalant movement her hands set course for the nearest dock, the cruise engines revving to life. Her ship was fairly new, and thus yet to be christened. The shopkeeper had told her it would be bad luck to fly an unnamed ship, but she had told him that’s why it had a serial number. The same movement went over to her radio, turning the dial back up to a more audible volume. Her dislike for the civil bickering between nations had made her develop the habit of keeping transmissions to a minimum, letting her guns do all of the talking.
A transmission, oddly enough all the way out there, came through the line almost instantly. She didn’t comprehend the message as much as the voice of the stranded pilot. She leaned forward; eyes alight with a blue fire, ignited by excitement. She took up the navigation controls and started forward, trying to calm her nerves. “This is freelancer Suria, I’ve received your distress call. What’s your status?” She knew not if whoever had started the distress call would still be breathing, but if the wolves tattooed upon the spacecraft gave any clues, Suria expected a very event filled day. Regardless of whether they decided to answer her or not, she engaged the towing system on her vessel.
Malious was on the verge of falling asleep in the cockpit, mind listlessly wandering though the many horrible ways in which to die out in this nothingness. His ears perked hearing the vaguely familiar voice, with the all too familiar name. A smile crept across his face, it was rare for him to smile anymore but this by itself merited it. He saw as the unmarked ship flew up near to him and dropped back the normal standard threaded cable within an umbilicus to protect it from the vacuum.
Malious rifled through his cockpit securing the spacewalking helmet that came standard in almost all ships, barring the occasional deathtrap some of the less reputable ship dealers might sell. He secured the helmet clamping the system down around his piloting suit and punched in a few keys on the ships console, a deep hiss of decompression filling the cockpit. He waited as the system cycled itself and the cockpit glass slid sleekly open and zero gravity took hold. He was careful slowly pushing himself off to balance inertial force and floated forward under the thrust of a slow personal jet built into pilot suits for ejections.
Malious seized the cable making no effort to speak while unwinding the system. seasoned as he may be this particular action took concentration, panels on the front of the hull snapped open and the cables snapped in very snugly. Systems automatically locking to ensure that everything was copacetic. Malious shifted himself awkwardly back to his cockpit punching in a few keys on the console and fastening himself back into the seat, as the glass slid down and the system hissed yet again sending compressed oxygen back into the cabin and re pressurizing the system. once the readouts read green he un-clipped the helmet and tossed it behind him.
"Suria... It's been a long time." His smile never dropping as the comm systems kicked up and sent the picture of his face back to Suria's consoles. "Seems as if you caught me with my pants around my ankles." His face was slender with a squared jaw, and his olive complexion stood in contrast to his bright green eyes now beaming with a mixture of pride and utter delight. "We're all hooked up, give it a moment for the magnetics to adjust and ill be able to assist on the tow back with the directional thrusters, it wasn't enough for me to get back though." He laughed gently awaiting the tow and the likely deluge of questions. He had quite a few himself but it wasn't yet time. He was all too happy to simply bask in the moment.
All things considered, his situation went from damn near the absolute worst to becoming something he no doubt would live down, but would be more than happy to remember for the rest of his days. Something of poetic righteousness all being said.
Suria sat ever so impatiently as the figure went through the process of hooking the two ships up. The screens began popping up with the relevant programs, and eventually everything read go.
She sat with her arms crossed as the video feed appeared, her midnight black hair falling across her shoulders almost as irked as she was. Her mind raced with what could possibly be said, and in the end the options were numerous enough that only a computer could quantify. Eventually, she settled for, "Five years, and 'it's been a long time' is the first thing you say?" He had been accepted as dead for those five years, and his sudden appearance had thrown a normally calm Suria into a fit of different emotions.
Moments ran by before her fingers ran over the console, directing them back towards Atka where perhaps they could get his ship repaired enough for him to fly. "Good thing you taught me to fly, or you would be rotting out here." Her face had gone from emotion laden to serious, the boosters beginning their work. Her eyes were steady upon the radar, ready to shred any who might try to junk Malious' ship."We can talk more at Atka." Though, she did not close the video feed.
Malious' smile never once dropped as he felt the ever so light tug from the forces being applied to his ship. "Well, to be honest, we're out here in the soup. I may have pissed off a select few of the local wildlife. Namely some of the corsairs. Hence my current predicament, take my cargo and shoot out my engines." He sat back and crossed his arms trusting his ships computer systems to help compensate thrusters for the trip to Atka.
He sighed "I suppose I owe you an explanation, don't I?" his shoulders slumped somewhat as his mood started to burn from pleasantly surprised to serious. "Why I didn't make contact for those years?" Malious once again leaned back internally debating on what to tell her. "Well I guess you deserve one, but not today, its a long and arduous story, I don't want to get into. Just.. rest assured I would have contacted you sooner and not in these circumstances if I was able. It was more or less a lucky break I got you out here as is. Rumor from the bars and freeports, heard you had some work out this way so I figured it was high time I came out and settled a debt I had with some of the corsairs. The messenger they sent was some punk who thought it'd be happy times to shoot out my engines before meeting up. Claimed it was for 'insurance'"
Malious shrugged as if disinterested with the predicament. "Yes, Suria, it's very good to see you. I honestly expected to just kind of float out here with no chance of getting back. Seems as if lady luck smiled upon me though." He smiled at the screen "Honestly though, I'd have said something sooner if I could have. I'm just happy to see you Suria, alive and well. I was worried for you ever since that day" He looked out the cockpit to see Atka growing larger in the distance.
"Atka Station this is Freelancer Malious, having a bit of an issue from the locals, mind opening a port for a broken down hawk? I can guide her in, just need the ports opened." he waited for the dull voice of the traffic control operator to come over the comm link. and looked back at his direct line with Suria. "ill disable the couplings when I get the approval, the inerta from the tow will get me in so i can maneuver without fear of slapping a wall and you know... dying." He thought for a moment. "Come see me in the bar when we get in there. We've got some catching up to do."
He smiled at the monitor and punched in the commands to drop the magnetic links with the umbilicus connecting the two ships. His ship continued moving towards the station small directional thrusters guiding his path. After some of the slow maneuvering the port bays closed solidly behind him.
Soon after he was up and free of his ship, making his way to the mechanics and equipment dealers. "get my bird flying again." pointing back to the docking bays. "I'll be in the bar, I can pay whatever it takes. thanks." He was in a hurry and didn't want to waste time on getting to the bar to seeing Suria again. He was practically jogging along the small stations halls to the local bar. He poked his head around the corner seeing many of the Scientists and workers of the station. Malious walked into the place and found a nice corner booth away from the small group of people already in the bar. He flagged the robot waiter over, as was normal in these small stations. "Coffee, bring a pot, two cups"
Suria sat back with her arms crossed, taking in her long lost friend's smiling complexion, but couldn't find it within herself to return the relief. The girly teenage Suria felt only petty rage at who could be called her best friend's disappearance. Those little flames would die down, eventually, but for now she stuck to keeping her arms firmly crossed as her ship did the flying for her.
Even as he told his story, she knew he was a better pilot than to get his engines blown out. Malious had always been sly and tactical, expecting every turn. Sloppy, is what it was, but she held back all retorts as his ship disappeared into the port. She notified the ports that she too would be entering, and the port promptly gave her the ok.
She climbed out of her bird, nimbly landing upon the ground. A pair of earrings appeared from her pocket, and she swiftly bore them on her lobes. They hung down about an inch, the earring itself a symbol passed down from her mother's side. It was obviously of Kusari make, and it shone a gentle, bright blue which matched Suria's eyes. She began running her fingers through her hair, a habit of frustration, and then kicked a piece of trash before deciding that she was calm enough to confront Malious.
The bar didn't seem to be too crowded, but regardless she felt eyes upon her. She fingered one of her earrings before she found him, sitting in one of the booths awaiting her arrival. "Five years to catch up on." She said almost thoughtfully as she sat down opposite of him. She rested her cheek on her closed hand, looking intently at her friend. "Where in the stars have you been, Mal?"
Malious looked at Suria and thought about it.... alot had changed since they last saw one another... he got to thinking about the fight between Kusari and Bretonia and what happened to him. After a long pause in the conversation he was snapped from his reverie as their coffee arrived. He felt that his smile had left as he thought about that particular fight. He sighed to himself pulling himself from that mental hole.
"Suria it was not by choice, of that, you can be sure." he paused for a moment thinking of the best way to word it. Finally coming to the conclusion that simply being direct about it would be for the benefit. "Well... I was in a prison for part of it, on suspicion of war crimes and what have you..." again the pause "... you know me, always the kidder." he shrugged. "I spent two at the glorious request of the Bretons, they promised me a buffet so who was I to say no.... well that and ultra max prison, and the fact that I was unconscious when they caught me."
He sipped from his coffee taking it black as was his norm. "It was deniablility that put them in the position to grab me up like that. They hired me back then as it was. easiest way to silence suspicion is to grab the person you hired and lock em away in some dank, dark hole and accuse them of a crime so it diverts the attention away from you." He shrugged "crafty, that, but once they got their jollies out of the torture and imprisonment I finally got out."
He looked at Suria then to his coffee. "After that it was odd jobs till I got the money together to get another Hawk... and finally me going home... I was on the way out there today. Stopped to pay an old debt and I got jack hammered by one of my contacts little cronies." He took a drink. "Nothing else to say really." It was obvious he hadn't revealed everything... he never was good at hiding stuff from Suria but wasn't going to go further into it just now. He leaned back in the booth.
"It's your turn, what have you been up to in this time since we parted?"
Suria listened quietly, filling her coffee with creamers and sugars until it was at the brim of the cup. Prison after capture wasn't exactly was she was expecting, but it made sense. She had been lucky to avoid capture by interested parties, mostly by finding the nearest asteroid belt or scrap field and losing them within the confines of dangerous and threatening satellites.
Still, she knew there was more to the story than those few words. For five years, only a few breaths was not nearly enough to explain all of the events. He icy eyes narrowed at this realization, but there was nothing for her to say to it. He had just gotten out of another sticky situation, where anyone could have come along and swept him away back into whatever prison they wanted. She took a sip of her own diluted brew, clearing her thoughts.
"Just being a Freelancer. Managed to get a hawk as well. Explored a bit... looked for you." Suria shrugged, using less breath than he had to explore his experience in the Breton prisons. "The details are a wash of firefights and luckless nights." She cupped her hands around her coffee, pondering if she really go into any further explanation. In the end she let silence reign, drinking more of her caffeinated liquid.
Malious sighed gently and looked to Suria smiling warmly as something new came to mind. "Look Suria, it's been a long time. I'm happy to see you, I can't imagine its the same for you after how much worry I put you through." He looked at her as if considering something. "Needless to say there is more that happened. It's just not something I'm willing to go into right now. So all this considered, I say we start this whole shindig over, I'm getting back into the freelance gig and I can think of no other person I'd trust to back me up like you. So what do you say?" He leaned back and took a drink from his coffee.
Suria also leaned back, folding her arms across one another as she did so. She had spent years searching for this character, and he turns up floating around in the spatial soup. And just like that he had offered her a partnership in freelancing. A part of her was in disbelief that he would move things along this quickly. Not even a meal together and he would have them launch from Atka and blow up enemies together. Really, though, was that so much to ask?
Her left hand had secretly begun running through her hair again. She sighed as she looked towards the rest of the people in the room. "I'm done being stiff about this. If you want to show up stuck in the middle of no where, fine. If you want to be freelance partners, fine. But just for your information, I've graduated from shooting asteroids and chasing you through maneuvers." She huffed, blowing a bang out of her face and giving him a stern yet somehow playful look.
"I haven't had any luck scooping up a job lately. Maybe having two pilots will be an advantage. And we were heading towards this, anyway." Slurps accompanied the words as she took coffee in between sentences. "This time, at least, if you get arrested I'll be there to break you out. Or blow you up. I'm much better at blowing things up." The more normal Suria emerged, able to actually crack a joke. She had many more... insulting and personal ones, but she would spare him the torture on their first get together.