Untamed Space. (For Scarves)

[Ecnalab]

Galen clutched the controls of his ship as it rumbled around him. The small scouting vessel surged up through the atmosphere of the planet it had been on mere moments before as it broke free of gravity, and entered low orbit. Sadly it was not the only ship doing so, as three other comet-like trails of light slipped into space. You had to give the void credit, they were persistent. The three fighters had already trailed him across half the planet, and all over one crate of who knew what that he had managed to lift off their loading deck as he had buzzed that base. What the hell where they even doing out this far?

Questions for later. Galen still had a few minutes before his ships computer managed to plot a course out of this sector, so he had to by time somehow.

 

[Scarves]

Galen looked at the three fighters that were trailing him. "Well shit." Galen contemplated if what he did was really worth it, there was way to much risk in stealing from the void. Well it was to late to think about that now, the deed was done. He quickly started to think of a way to survive this without much harm. He had a solution. It was dumb, risky and plainly idiotic but it was all he had right now. He did two things, first he decided to abuse the high level scanners of the scouting vessel scanned the area for any meteor/asteroid formation that could provide him cover, and secondly he tried to contact the other ships to try and stall for time.
"Dam, you guys got really upset over nothing. Come on i dont think its 3 fighters worthy. The fuel costs more than what i took. Like come on cant we resolve this in a less, violent way."

 

[Ecnalab]

The fighters ignored his hails, no surprise there, but Galen did pick up something on his scanners. A large incoming celestial body; comet, from the looks of the energy readings. If he couldn't make use of that somehow... The fighters were closing in, there weapons armed.

 

[Scarves]

Realizing his efforts to stall for time by trying to talk to them were not working, he grit his teeth and focused on the only other thing that could help him, the comet. Galen quickly changed his course for the comet and started to brainstorm of a way that could help him evade his pursuers. He quickly looked at the ships capabilities, weapons, engines, shields and such. Desperately trying to come up with something, a cold sweat running down his brow. Running dozens of possibilities in his head, all ending in death or worse. Suddenly a Idea came to his mind. Galen thought of deceiving the fighters that he left using his hyperdrive. His plan was to start to create a fake hyperdrive signature using his engines for a split second, while he was behind the asteroid and out of sight of the fighters. He planed to use those fake readings to throw off the fighters, make them think he fled the system. Meanwhile he would land on the asteroid in some secluded spot that could hide him from their scanners and turn off his ship completely relying on the leftover lifesupport while the fighters retreated. At this point it was the only chance he had. But first he needed to check if the engines were up to the task. Galen took a long sigh, he didn't think that he would get this close to death. Thinking to himself. (If this doesn't work the only other thing i can do is dodge them around the damn thing and pray to not get hit.....)

 

[Ecnalab]

Galen's timing was on point, and just as the meteorite passed between him and the fighters, his ship seemed to disappear. The fighters just kept on going, as Galen's ship clung to the side of the meteor. The magnetic landing was really paying for itself today.

 

[Scarves]

The moment the fighters passed by Galen leaned back in his seat. His tense body relaxed for a bit, beads of sweat came down from his forehead. Not expecting this plan to work, he had already prepared for his inevitable doom. Thinking to himself that he was lucky, lucky the void that chased him weren't very bright. This did not mean that he would ever underestimate them, no, it just meant that he got lucky this time.

Galen waited for a while for the threat to pass and when it seemed to him that the coast was clear, he powered up his ship and set a course outside of this sector.

 

[Ecnalab]

Jumping out of the sector was a simple affair. Once he was out of immediate danger, the only question was; where to now? At least until he remembered the crate that he had snatched from the void. Just what had he gotten his hands on that had made them chase him like that?

 

[Scarves]

Leaned back in his chair Galen was thinking about his recent encounter. Now he had the void on his ass, probably hunting him to be made a example of. Thinking about it he almost forgot about the crate he stole from them. Remembering, Galen rushed to the storage on his ship to check out his recent loot. He hoped that it was worth all the risk, and prayed that it wasn't worthless junk. Entering the storage on the ship he looked at it for a while, before deciding to open it.

 

[Ecnalab]

The container was secured in the cargo hold of the ship. It was about the size of a refrigerator, bright orange in color, made of reinforced steel, and locked. A small number pad on the side of the crate flickered to life as soon as Galen came near it. Apparently, this container required a ten digit pass code to open.

 

[Scarves]

As Galen looked around the container for a way to open it, he saw the small number pad. "Aghh....Fuck me...Damn void." he exclaimed, slamming the wall of his ship with his fist. He was enraged for a while, even thinking about breaking open the box. After a while he calmed down to look at the situation objectively. He thought this was a good sign in a way. If the void locked this box there must have been a reason for it, this piqued Galen's curiosity even more. First thing that came to mind is to find a way to crack or even break the lock. Galen scanned the crate and its lock to see if he could get any more info about it, or the contents of the crate. He wanted to see if there was a method to this. Maybe the code was even hidden on the crate in some way, or even lazily put on the crate. While the scan was going he decided to try and find a contact that could come in handy if he failed to open it himself.

 

[Ecnalab]

Sadly, the void were not so dumb as to leave the code on the very box the lock was on. And, the container was pretty standard; fully sealed, with a stasis effect inside to keep any perishables that might be inside from spoiling. The only thing that made it stand out was the lock on it. As for getting it open, any code breaker worth his salt should be able to handle it with little trouble. It was just a matter of finding someone willing to break into someone else's property. But, there were plenty of places in the galaxy where people like that could be found.

 

[Scarves]

Galen was disappointed that the void did not make it easy for him, but it was to be expected. He sighed, and went to the bridge of the ship. Galen had to open and dispose of the contraband before it could be traced back to the void. Knowing this, he tried to find the nearest planet, or space station that could have a code breaker. Even if it was risky he had to go and try before the void could catch up to him.

 

[Ecnalab]

The nearest planet to where he was would be that new frontier world, with all the jungles on it. What did people call it, Mhen'ga? Galen knew that it had a space port, but being such a new settlement, law enforcement was pretty slim. The perfect place to look for people willing to take under the table deals.
Other than that, he could always head back to Tavros station and look there, or plot a course to someplace else.

 

[Scarves]

Galen thought about his options. Mhen'ga was a far better option than Tavros in his eyes. The law and even void agents can be found there, far to risky he thought. Plus who knows, exploring frontier worlds can be very profitable sometimes. Galen set a course for Mhen'ga.

 

[Ecnalab]

The jungle planet came into view a day later, rich and untarnished by civilization. If he made straight for the spaceport, he would arrive in the sole settlement just as the sun was beginning to rise.

 

[Scarves]

Galen set his sights on the jungle planet of Mhen'ga. Heading towards the spaceport his eyes looked upon the planet. The sun rising over the planet, bringing out the prominent green color of the vast plant life The thick jungles piqued his curiosity, who knows what could be hidden deep inside the vast jungles of this planet. But perhaps that was for some other time, quickly brushing it off he looked at the spaceport. First he needed to deal with the matter at hand. He then went to start the landing procedures. Hopefully he could find what he was looking for here, and if so maybe even go on a bit of exploration.

 

[Ecnalab]

Landing proved easy, the port of Esbeth was quite welcoming of off-worlders. The next part might be a bit harder; getting a stolen shipping container through customs.

 

[Scarves]

Thinking about customs, Galen tried to find a way to hide the crate. He did not really need to bring it to the code breaker, bringing them to the crate should be simpler. The inspection should not be to thorough and if anyone asked he could say it was sensitive equipment to explore this world and its resources. He first looked if it was possible to hide it behind a false wall/panel, and if that didn't look to well. Maybe he could cover it up with something. But one thing was sure he had to remove any markings on the crate that signified where it came from.

 

[Ecnalab]

Sadly, his ship had no hidden compartments, at least none that were big enough to hold an entire shipping container. Fortunately, the large metal box had no icons on it that would indicate that it was anything other than a normal piece of storage equipment. Not that it should matter, most customs agents were more interested in what you brought off your ship, than with what you left on.

 

[Scarves]

Well considering he could not hide it, Galen hoped they wouldn't search his ship. If worse comes to worst, he could at least try bribing some of the customs agents. With that done, he grabbed his gear and set off to leave the ship and start his search for the code breaker.

 

[Ecnalab]

The secretary, a busty gel-girl, gave him little more than a polite greeting, and Galen soon stepped into Esbeth proper. The community, little more than a trading post really, consisted mostly of prefabricated buildings arranged around dirt roads. Making a loop around the small settlement, he found that the only structures that looked like they had actually been built here were the spaceport, the local bar, and a small junkyard.

 

[Scarves]

He walked around the town admiring the scenery a bit before scouting out to try to find someone who could help him. Looking around the town and his options he sat down to think for a bit. Galen thought it over closely and decided that he should try his luck first in the junkyard, and if that failed the bar. Junkyards usually deal with shady business, so the owner could be a code breaker, or even knew someone of that sort.

 

[Ecnalab]

Galen walked in to see a small, middle aged man with walnut skin, completely bald, dressed in sandals and a brown shift which might once have passed for an ancient monk’s cowl, before it got completely covered in oil stains. He was perched cross-legged upon a big shipping crate, surrounded on all sides by meticulously cleaned metal parts and pieces. His eyes were closed, as if in meditation.

 

[Scarves]

Looking at the strange man, Galen stood there for a moment with a confused look on his face. "Um....Hello? Are you in charge of this place?" he spoke up looking for any reaction from the strange man.

 

[Ecnalab]

"Sorry, the boss is meditating right now," came a voice from the back. Galen turned to see a much younger man step in through a doorway that likely lead to the main scrapyard. "Was there something we can help you with?" the young man asked.

 

[Scarves]

Galen jumped up for a moment, startled by the mysterious voice. As he turned around and saw the young man he quickly recovered his composure. "Oh...Hello, I didn't see you there. Yes...um...well...I was looking for some help with a situation I have, and I figured I could find some assistance here. The issue is I need a code breaker to open a shipping container, and well, I figured considering all the types of junk flying around a junkyard, that even you sometimes could use one. So I hoped that you could point me to one, or even in the right direction."

 

[Ecnalab]

"Oh, got a malfunctioning lock?" he asked, curiously. "Sure, we have a spare code-breaker that we can loan out. Though, there is an eight-hundred credit deposit."

 

[Scarves]

"Yea pretty much. Just..let me check if I have enough." Galen opened his credit balance to see how much he had to work with, hoping it was enough. He caught a lucky break with the junkyard, he thought.

 

[Ecnalab]

With his last mission being something of a bust, save for the container he was now trying to open, Galen was running a little low on funds. He only had six-hundred credits in his account.

 

[Scarves]

"Ughh...Fuck...Well I only got 600....Hm..." Galen sat pondering for a second on what to do next. "Well Is there any good way to make credits around here? Or if possible for you to give me it for 600?"