An Encounter at Odds

[Ultimatum]

The splotches in Hyperspace were most ugly.

Apparently, this was not a sentiment shared with many other persons, but Ultimatum personally detested the appearance. The incredible complexities of the stars, their formations, and appearances being replaced by the bland blue tunnel. It was a personality quirk of Ultimatum's, and he knew it as such. There was no concrete reasoning for the apparent dislike, but as with his less artificial compatriots, Ultimatum had unique traits that had developed over the course of his 'life.' He could not recall where some of these traits originated, whether it was a personal choice or an experience from his previous cycle. Whatever the reasons, Ultimatum accepted such oddities as making him unique from the other droids and robots that filled the galaxy.

Still, he had been watching the tunnel far too long. The tube of Hyperspace was repetitive and somewhat boring after a few hours. The large freighter he had managed to get hold of was not as fast as he would have preferred, but it carried a lot of cargo. The galaxy was like any world in its supply and demand; one planet needed food and another required raw supplies while yet another wanted finished goods. If a person had what the first needed, then it did not take long before that person could set up a profitably business. Perhaps it was not as glamorous as a star fleet captain or war general, but for now, it was what Ultimatum could do to earn money to exist. At least most organics could live off of scrounged food; he had to find sources of refined power in the form of electricity to survive.

The ship was plenty large enough for those purposes but was not without its flaws. Ultimatum could not maintain it by himself, which was why he had a ship maintenance droid. Unfortunately, that droid tended to wander the vessel, and so Ultimatum rarely knew for sure where it was at any given moment. Thus when the ship shuddered out of Hyperspace prematurely, Ultimatum almost smacked the console. Thr robot instead clicked the comms system and shouted, "B3! System failure engines room. Hyperdrive shunt finally wore out by the looks of it."

Somewhat annoyed Ultimatum looked out the viewport. The stars shone once more, the incandescent brilliance far more appealing. The sensors were out as well, must have been the early reversion disturbing them. Ultimatum assumed they would come back up in a few minutes. Knowing that they had extra parts, Ultimatum believed it would be possible for them to leave in an hour or so, hopefully. He strode out of the cockpit and moved over the cargo holds. Mostly salvaged ships and parts, there were some foodstuffs as well meant for their next drop off.

[member="Sol Ordana"]

 

[Sol Ordana]

30 minutes later..

"Captain, coming out of hyperspace in 3, 2, 1.."

A small-sized capital ship, no more than 600 meters from end to end, jumped out of hyperspace about 3 kilometers away from the now floating freight vessel. The untrained eye would have classified it a military cruiser, those who did know would conversely point out that there seemed to be a lot of vacant hard points across the rustic design of its outer hull. Pads where turrets should probably go, and missile banks with no warheads in them. Only every other hard point had a turret active, and here and there the occasional section of outer hull seemed to lack its armor plating. On the bridge, resting elevated above the main hull, droid and alien alike buzzed about in the dark, their faces illuminated only by the pale lights radiating from several onscreen displays and glowing control panels. Bothans, Rodians, even Trandoshans populated the floor, humans too, manned different sections and stations across the hull and bridge, accompanied by small complements of protocol and utility droids.

Yet somehow, the crew seemed inefficient and undermanned, and indeed it was - this skeleton crew had just completed its first hyperspace jump aboard a prototype "brigand" a ragtag collection of syndicates and one rickety old shipyard had been at for half a revolution now. Under normal circumstances criminal organizations preferred to "commandeer" fully finished vessels from more official sources, but the special request had come from a very special witch - one that had managed to put several ringleaders under her myriad spells. Sol Ordana, the insidious new name in the underworld and now commander of this ship, called the "Ronto", stood at the fore of the bridge, looking out into space as the durasteel blast shields rolled back down from their nests at the base of every duraglass port across the cruiser.

"Captain", a Twi'lek female in a ragtag spacesuit seated nearby began her report, "hyperspace jump successful. All systems normal, and the quantum waveform has dissipated." Another crew member, this one a Zabrak male, also made a brief report. "Target 3 klicks at bearing 020, 040, 0, captain. Jump accuracy 0.89." Sol smiled and nodded, her pale blue skin, electric blue eyes and grey hair singing in the artificially fabricated air as she turned around, and with a small raised movement of the hand and deadpan voice began, "Open a frequency with the vessel."

She continued as she sat down in the commander's seat, her voice still deadpan but with that insidious barb of a Dathomirian witch's manner of speaking, "Attention, vessel. This is the Pirate Vessel Ronto. As of this moment any and all cargo in your holds is now the property of Captain Sol Ordana. Stand down and prepare to be boarded."

Sol then turned to the Twi'lek from earlier. "Scan for life."

The Ronto had been following the freighter since they stopped at the last star system in a practice run of sorts for the free-booting pirate-eers. If successful, it meant they crew and her ship could perform at the minimum, and Sol could push for the vessel's further development.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

As if the situation had not been bad enough as it was. As always, scavengers were waiting to attack a helpless prey. Ultimatum did not have any means to resist, his ship was unarmed and only lightly shielded. He moved to a command console and typed in instructions for the maintenance droid to continue repairs as per usual. He then powered down the engines. Luckily for him, he was a droid and thus life support was a luxury that he neither needed or desired. He opened the door hatches and allowed the atmosphere in the vessel to vent into space before sending a return message to the incoming ship.

"This is 'vessel' we are prepared for boarding. Bring some suits."

He then turned and stalked quickly to a locker set aside from his own armor. The back was already open, and Ultimatum slid into it and felt the reassuring winding of pieces as it closed around him entirely. His mind connected to the circuits in the suit and by proxy to the Shard that inhabited it. Upari was ready to go, and the two felt calm, though Ultimatum was somewhat disturbed. He thought, "Wish we had the Sovereignty. Could have lost with these buggers."

"We still might. These sentients might not want much that we have to offer. Rarely do pirates look for mostly broken salvage."

Looking out a viewport to the other ship, Ultimatum responded, "Maybe we found the exception, that ship has seen far better days."

The droid took slow steps to one of the loading ramps, his magnetic soles attaching to the gravity-less ship. The ramp lowered and Ultimatum stood in the void of space. He watched the larger ship close in with mixed feelings. Coordinating with Upari, Ultimatum felt out with the Force. It was not a particularly strong sense, Ultimatum was still learning quite a bit about the Force, but he thought he could detect something on the other ship.

"This may be interesting."

[member="Sol Ordana"]