Well-Known Member
It isn't uncommon for one to forget about the simple things in life. The natural beauty of flourishes of blue and white painting a contemporary artwork across the viewport as they streaked passed while the 'Renegade' effortlessly surged through open space. In the far off distance, a nebula left an odd eruption of color against the colorless backdrop the vacuum offered. It really was something different. Something unique. No image was ever the same and that was the beauty of it all because this same lesson played heavily into all living things. Not one person or being in the galaxy was the same. Nor was anyone or anything true and absolute. Darkness and light reigned in all living things, though Jedi and Sith may try to argue on technicalities for good and evil. Light and dark were simply nothing more than an eschewed point of view. One might think their actions serve as perfectly fair and just where another may view them as very much the opposite. Crude. Violent. Unnecessary. Who were any of us to judge in that capacity? We are not gods. We do not cast judgement on where one serves out their days in the afterlife, if you believed in such a thing.
Suddenly that peace shattered as the 'Renegade' plunged out of hyperspace and into the void of open space, far from any inhabited planet. Fire. Explosions. The ship writhed in pain as alarms billowed forth and lights flashed. A concussion of explosions erupted from the outside of the ship now as a trio of unmarked vessels converged on its location, seemingly emptying their various payloads against the now failing deflector shields of the YX-1980.
Pirates! It had to be pirates. He'd known when he'd taken the job that the area was known for harboring such outlaws. Preying on any they felt were easy targets. Their aim was no more than to raid and pillage whatever supplies they could manage. Not leave a witness and disappear once more into the darkness. But they'd managed to take him from hyperspace which meant they'd managed to plant some kind of device within the ship to render the hyperdrive inactive at a certain point. Leave him as a sitting duck for the attack. Kriff! He'd had the ship a month now and already found himself in a situation where he might lose it.
Another flurry of bursts rang out as the cargo hold was hit, compromising the structural integrity of the ship and ripping a whole through the durasteel and sucking the two members of his crew out into the vacuum. He'd ordered them there after the initial attack to secure the cargo and hide it if they were able. Now they were gone. Any loose cargo they were moving was gone. Their lives and the lost cargo were now on his hands. A blood not easily washed clean. Still, though, he had to fix the hyperdrive or he was soon going to be dead with them, swept off into space to freeze and suffocate. Fortunately it would only take him a moment longer to pinpoint the device that forced the failure and soon enough it was removed and disabled, allowing Bucket, the aging R4 unit, to make the quick repairs needed to restore the hyperdrive's functionality and send the ship hurtling back into hyperspace. The payout better be worth it, that was for kriffing sure.
The astrological charts were set and the seasoned Morellian man sat back leisurely in what one might assume to be the "captain's chair." Whether it was or not served no purpose, especially when the man was Captain of the vessel that barreled toward some undisclosed destination. He ran a hand across the scruff which clung to his chiseled chin, red in color. Held in the other hand that lay comfortably on the arm of his seat, he had a beverage of some kind, no doubt of the adult variety. His eyes were closed, one leg crossed the other at the knee, as he sat back in his thoughts thinking of the past. Of where he came from. Of where he had yet to go. He shook the vivid memory from his mind as he took another swig of the fiery beverage before lighting a cigarra and putting it to his lips and taking a drag from it. He let the carcinogens loft out gently and fluidly through his nostrils and mouth seeking their escape from the captivity of his lungs.
A lot had passed during the nearly six years that had passed since his near death experience with the pirates. The event that lost him the two crew members and half the cargo load he'd carried on that day. Just the same, the payment for the delivery had been halved with only half the cargo making it to the destination. "Half the shipment, half the payment . . ." they had said, holding to it even as he argued his point and his loss of the crew all for a collection of something he would never be able to properly pronounce. Repairs to the ship ate all the reward for his delivery and without a crew, he was forced into accepting smaller contracts than he had been before. But such was life, was it not? Needless to say, repairs had been made and now he was on course to deliver on his latest contract.
He turned to the droid and let out a kind of grunting sound. "Bucket, alert the buyer we're on course with the package."
"Beep boop beee boob bzzt bzzt beep . . ." Bucket seemed to retort in some ill fated fashion and it brought Dain's brow to a furrow. It seemed the droid was getting snippy about something, but what, he wasn't entirely sure.
"Oh . . . really?" Dain's response was stern in nature as a possible inflection of authority. He was the Captain of the vessel. His word was law; it was final should it need to be. "Perhaps a memory wipe would do you some good, then? I could decommission you, too. Find a more updated model."
"Bzzt bzzt beee boop bzzt boop beep beep." Bucket's response seemed to be another spurt of defiance though Dain's reaction might suggest this outcry was in good fun instead of the unruly bit just before.
Dain raised a brow and spoke once more. His voice would be a normal tone with no justification and force put behind it this time. "Put the transmission through. Now."
Without any kind of retort, Bucket spun around and plugged into the communications array and opened a secure channel to the buyer and transmitted the encrypted message. It took all of a few seconds to get a positive response on the successful receipt of the message from the buyer, followed by a return encrypted message. "Bzzr boop beep beep boop bee bzzt . . ."
"What?!" Dain spoke out in exclamation and then drained what remained of the fiery beverage in hand after taking another longer drag of his cigarra.
"Bzzr boop beep beep boop bee bzzt . . ." Bucket's response was exactly as he had previously chimed in, but it didn't make sense to the Morellian. The buyer was changing the delivery location. A last minute change and it wasn't even to just a different dock on the original system. No. Now they wanted to go elsewhere. Another system around another star. The cost for the fuel for this change would be enough to make any common smuggler grimace. He didn't like it and he honestly suspected foul play could be at hand here, but he needed the credits. The recent run ins of bad luck had left his account rather light and he'd rather it didn't remain that way.
He pulled a lever by his chair and the ship lurched and whined as it exited hyperspace in a void of open space. Dain turned again to Bucket and ushered another command. "Input the changes and get us there. I'd rather not sit here too long. Don't need another run in like the last time we exited hyperspace in such an isolated location."
Bucket connected with the ship's computer and made the course corrections and locked the coordinates in place. It wouldn't take long for the ship's navicomputer to calculate the course and once it had, Bucket chimed up once again. "Bzzt bzzt beep beeee . . ."
With the confirmation, Dain pressed the lever forward once again and the vessel slingshot itself back into hyperspace with the destination in hand.
Suddenly that peace shattered as the 'Renegade' plunged out of hyperspace and into the void of open space, far from any inhabited planet. Fire. Explosions. The ship writhed in pain as alarms billowed forth and lights flashed. A concussion of explosions erupted from the outside of the ship now as a trio of unmarked vessels converged on its location, seemingly emptying their various payloads against the now failing deflector shields of the YX-1980.
Pirates! It had to be pirates. He'd known when he'd taken the job that the area was known for harboring such outlaws. Preying on any they felt were easy targets. Their aim was no more than to raid and pillage whatever supplies they could manage. Not leave a witness and disappear once more into the darkness. But they'd managed to take him from hyperspace which meant they'd managed to plant some kind of device within the ship to render the hyperdrive inactive at a certain point. Leave him as a sitting duck for the attack. Kriff! He'd had the ship a month now and already found himself in a situation where he might lose it.
Another flurry of bursts rang out as the cargo hold was hit, compromising the structural integrity of the ship and ripping a whole through the durasteel and sucking the two members of his crew out into the vacuum. He'd ordered them there after the initial attack to secure the cargo and hide it if they were able. Now they were gone. Any loose cargo they were moving was gone. Their lives and the lost cargo were now on his hands. A blood not easily washed clean. Still, though, he had to fix the hyperdrive or he was soon going to be dead with them, swept off into space to freeze and suffocate. Fortunately it would only take him a moment longer to pinpoint the device that forced the failure and soon enough it was removed and disabled, allowing Bucket, the aging R4 unit, to make the quick repairs needed to restore the hyperdrive's functionality and send the ship hurtling back into hyperspace. The payout better be worth it, that was for kriffing sure.
The astrological charts were set and the seasoned Morellian man sat back leisurely in what one might assume to be the "captain's chair." Whether it was or not served no purpose, especially when the man was Captain of the vessel that barreled toward some undisclosed destination. He ran a hand across the scruff which clung to his chiseled chin, red in color. Held in the other hand that lay comfortably on the arm of his seat, he had a beverage of some kind, no doubt of the adult variety. His eyes were closed, one leg crossed the other at the knee, as he sat back in his thoughts thinking of the past. Of where he came from. Of where he had yet to go. He shook the vivid memory from his mind as he took another swig of the fiery beverage before lighting a cigarra and putting it to his lips and taking a drag from it. He let the carcinogens loft out gently and fluidly through his nostrils and mouth seeking their escape from the captivity of his lungs.
A lot had passed during the nearly six years that had passed since his near death experience with the pirates. The event that lost him the two crew members and half the cargo load he'd carried on that day. Just the same, the payment for the delivery had been halved with only half the cargo making it to the destination. "Half the shipment, half the payment . . ." they had said, holding to it even as he argued his point and his loss of the crew all for a collection of something he would never be able to properly pronounce. Repairs to the ship ate all the reward for his delivery and without a crew, he was forced into accepting smaller contracts than he had been before. But such was life, was it not? Needless to say, repairs had been made and now he was on course to deliver on his latest contract.
He turned to the droid and let out a kind of grunting sound. "Bucket, alert the buyer we're on course with the package."
"Beep boop beee boob bzzt bzzt beep . . ." Bucket seemed to retort in some ill fated fashion and it brought Dain's brow to a furrow. It seemed the droid was getting snippy about something, but what, he wasn't entirely sure.
"Oh . . . really?" Dain's response was stern in nature as a possible inflection of authority. He was the Captain of the vessel. His word was law; it was final should it need to be. "Perhaps a memory wipe would do you some good, then? I could decommission you, too. Find a more updated model."
"Bzzt bzzt beee boop bzzt boop beep beep." Bucket's response seemed to be another spurt of defiance though Dain's reaction might suggest this outcry was in good fun instead of the unruly bit just before.
Dain raised a brow and spoke once more. His voice would be a normal tone with no justification and force put behind it this time. "Put the transmission through. Now."
Without any kind of retort, Bucket spun around and plugged into the communications array and opened a secure channel to the buyer and transmitted the encrypted message. It took all of a few seconds to get a positive response on the successful receipt of the message from the buyer, followed by a return encrypted message. "Bzzr boop beep beep boop bee bzzt . . ."
"What?!" Dain spoke out in exclamation and then drained what remained of the fiery beverage in hand after taking another longer drag of his cigarra.
"Bzzr boop beep beep boop bee bzzt . . ." Bucket's response was exactly as he had previously chimed in, but it didn't make sense to the Morellian. The buyer was changing the delivery location. A last minute change and it wasn't even to just a different dock on the original system. No. Now they wanted to go elsewhere. Another system around another star. The cost for the fuel for this change would be enough to make any common smuggler grimace. He didn't like it and he honestly suspected foul play could be at hand here, but he needed the credits. The recent run ins of bad luck had left his account rather light and he'd rather it didn't remain that way.
He pulled a lever by his chair and the ship lurched and whined as it exited hyperspace in a void of open space. Dain turned again to Bucket and ushered another command. "Input the changes and get us there. I'd rather not sit here too long. Don't need another run in like the last time we exited hyperspace in such an isolated location."
Bucket connected with the ship's computer and made the course corrections and locked the coordinates in place. It wouldn't take long for the ship's navicomputer to calculate the course and once it had, Bucket chimed up once again. "Bzzt bzzt beep beeee . . ."
With the confirmation, Dain pressed the lever forward once again and the vessel slingshot itself back into hyperspace with the destination in hand.
