Intro / Crew Picture:
It was a calm day for officer Sabo and his crew. Anna, his second in command and dedicated pilot, just finished the hyper-jump into the Corvus sector with their hound-type frigate. It was an old ship with quite some history. The veteran crew of five had known each other for a long time. When their old captain died in a tragic accident, Sabo took over. Since then the Tekka served as their home. He gave them plenty of opportunities to broaden their field of expertise by letting them take initiative. This allowed them to run an extremely small crew.
Fewer team members also meant they didn't have to split their profit – more work but better pay. This seemed fair. As an added bonus, it was much easier to keep smuggling-runs secret.
Due to old age and missing spare parts some non-essential systems were beyond repair. This also resulted in compromised armor. Jessica, the mechanic had clear orders to prioritize the engines with makeshift augmentations, over all other systems. Given that Tekka was a cargo ship without any combat-shields and barely armed, it was just natural that it had to rely on its speed to escape pesky custom inspections and on some rare occasions even an opportunistic pirate. Fortunately Benjamin, the financial planner managed to acquire a little generator to shield their cargo-holds. This meant they didn't have to worry about their little ‘extra cargo’. Pjotri was responsible for the weapon systems and "customer relations". Over time, he managed to accumulate a number of contacts that supplied them with a steady stream of illegal jobs to make the usual trade runs more lucrative. In his former career he used to be a marine and his accumulated experience with weapons and ‘negotiations’ came in handy for these jobs as well.
A typical run would encompass a trip between the Valhalla and the Corvus system. One controlled partly by Tri-Tachyon and the other by the Hegemony. It was definitely more risky to trade between two sectors hostile to each other but the extra credits were too tempting to ignore. Especially since the whole team was looking forward to buying a new ship and switch to a legitimate business eventually.
This was also the reason why Sabo, usually a cautious captain, continued with their last two successful trade missions which were very profitable. This was potentially dangerous, mostly because their contacts on Tri-Tachyon and Hegemony side remained the same.
The whole thing just became more dangerous because the chance of sabotage increased. On the flip side this meant if Ben calculated correctly this would have to be the last run they had to make in order to finance their new ship. Fortunately their contact on the hegemony side, Alex was an old acquaintance who seemed trustworthy, whatever this meant in a smuggling context.
“Hey Anna, I will wake up Ben and Pjorti. They need to prepare our cargo”, with this statement Sabo got up from his command-chair and headed towards the airlock that separated the 4 small living quarters from the bridge. “In the meantime keep an eye out for any unusual blips on the radar, patrols … and check the station’s trade data. We want a fast-in, fast-out manoeuvre if possible. No need to hang around for any longer than necessary.” “Roger that. Do you want me to make contact with Alex and ask about our new ship? I can’t wait to see the Valkyrie for myself.” “Yes but wait till we are a bit closer to the station, we don’t want to expose ourselves too early. Also I find it quite strange that when we checked last time literally no Valkyries were on sale – there should have been plenty given all the past speculation about restriction and overproduction. Hopefully Alex has managed to prepare one for us in time.”
Sabo made it through the airlock and into a narrow corridor. He knocked at two of the doors and rushed to the engine room, bypassing a few blocked passages with the aid of a maintenance tunnel. There, Jessica had been working for the last eight hours straight. She concentrated fully on calibrating the augmented engines and rerouting some flux conduits. “BUH…”. “Aaahhh … Sabo, don’t scare me like that!” Sabo couldn't suppress a little chuckle but quickly followed up with a short statement: “Hey sorry, just wanted to let you know that we will be docking soon. Leave the engine as it is, we need you in the cargo hangar. You have half an hour to get your cabin ready. If everything goes smoothly we will be leaving with the Valkyrie.” Jessica seemed to be a bit shaken – this engine was her baby and this ought to be the last time she had been working on it. Sabo recognized her hesitant behaviour: “I know it will be a significant change for all of us but we have discussed it time and time again. Anna and Ben are expecting a baby and if we want to stay together as a crew something is going to be changed. Besides, the engine on board the Valkyrie will offer at least the same amount of tweaking potential.” With this sentence Sabo winked a bit and gave Jessica an encouraging push on her shoulder. “I guess you are right but I think I will need some time to process it. This engine… this ship… all those memories… you know that our tenth anniversary is just around the corner – hmm?! At least we are sticking together.” Jessi gave Sabo a little peck on the cheek and started collecting all her different tools and instruments. “Take care and don’t forget to prepare the flux distributor unit. It will come in handy on the new ship.”
Meanwhile Pjotri and Ben were already working in the freight hangar. Checking the inventory list, powering up the small crane and adjusting the little cargo shield generator. “Ben, is everything alright? We need to hurry up” indicated Pjotri. “Yeah, just making sure my handgun is fully loaded. We don’t want to screw this up, do we?”. “Don’t be a chicken! I don’t wear this power armour and assault rifle for fun… or maybe for a little fun, hehe”, answered Pjotri jokingly. “Hey guys, joking around already? I thought you were still tired. Anyway, prepare our special cargo. We need to get rid of it as soon as possible. Anna will give us the details once we are closer and have contact to Alex. The current plan is to wrap it in opaque foil and transport it together with one of the crates with volatiles towards a quiet meeting place inside the relatively secluded Z-A-331 hangar. It should only take us five minutes. You two will secure and move the package while Jessica and I follow closely” instructed Sabo who had just arrived in the cargo-bay. “All right captain!” answered both simultaneously. Ben pointed towards the blue shimmering box within the shielded area. “But did you see blue emission, Sabo? I don’t think the opaque foil will prevent the radiation from leaking. It will be visible and it might attract some unwanted attention.” “That is the reason why we have to be fast and why we decided to use hangar Z-A-331 for the transaction. It is not like we didn't do risky stuff like that before.” “tschzz… cargo hold, here is Anna. Sabo, get your ass moving. We have a situation here and I need a second opinion – be quick!” With a crackling sound the intercom stopped transmitting and Sabo started sprinting leaving Ben and Pjorti behind with a puzzled look on their faces.
When he arrived on the bridge Jessica and Anna were already checking out two different screens. One was their combat radar while the other showed a list of nearby Hegemony military ships. The latter screen was full and Jessi seemed to be busy scrolling and sorting different ships into different groups by identifying their combat strength. Sabo’s mood darkened quickly. “What is going on? Why do they have an armada here? The conflict levels in the past few months were very low – this does not make any sense!” “I know Sabo, there is something brewing. They even have an Onslaught in its elite configuration let alone all the other smaller ships… this is too big… this has nothing to do with us. But we have to stay under the radar and this will become much more difficult with all the fighters and frigate controls around” remarked Anna without lifting her head from the radar. “Any news from Alex?” “I didn't contact him. They are tapping and analysing all frequencies. In fact we are flying with our transponder off and are in the slipstream of a Phaeton tanker.” “You disabled the transponder THIS close to the station?! Disabling this thing only attracts the attention of patrols … I only hope you know what you are doing and they won’t discover us.” Sabo’s face couldn’t hide his tension and anxiety any more. This was exactly the kind of situation he tried to avoid. His thoughts drifted off a bit – he knew Anna was a very experienced pilot and her idea to use the Phaeton as cover was a daring as it was brilliant. But did it have to be on the last run with this ship? It was in a setting like this when his old captain met his fate. Sabo shrugged it off. He didn't really want to think about it anymore.
“What is the ETA, Anna?” “About five minutes - plus, minus one, depending on the Phaeton’s course.” “Roger, keep us updated. Jessica you come with me. Our friends in the cargo holds need us to make the final adjustments for the transport.” “Roger! Cross your fingers Anna. Till later, sweetie.” Tekka’s hangar became quite busy when all four members of the ground crew made their final preparations. “tschzz… Anna here, can everyone understand me on the headset?” “Loud and clear”, “Yep”, “Pjotri reporting in”, “Five by five, we are ready to roll, Sabo out” all the voices were now crackling out of their radio devices. “Anna here, ETA ten seconds, get ready. I will now start the ramp’s opening process” and with this message the little red lights on each side of the ramp began blazing. Steam, leaking out of several pipes, obstructed their view but as quickly as it started, it was over again. “Ok, let’s go” commanded Sabo and entered the well-lit hangar.
A short time later they arrived at the agreed meeting point but nobody was there. “tschzz… Anna here, Sabo, there are some strange guys around our ship, you should hurry up.” „Roger that. Alex is not here yet. Any chance you can identify these guys?” “tschzz… one of them is wearing a special kind of coat. I will try to zoom in with our rear-facing camera. Oh *** … Sabo get everyone out of there, quickly! These are … tschzz ….” Only unintelligible static was coming through the radio now. “You heard her, let’s take only the blue box and hurry back!”
While Pjotri and Ben separated the two cargo containers several Hegemony marines surrounded them from three sides. One of those was wearing a distinctive coat with a special emblem on it. Sabo and Pjotri, both with former ground combat experience, immediately knew this was no ordinary marine or even officer. This was one of the rare intelligence commissars used by Hegemony’s highest commanding apparatus. Sabo immediately tried to diffuse the situation: “Good day sir, we were just on our way …”. “…back to your ship”, the commissioner interrupted. “We took the freedom to tap into your communication. Let’s make this short and simple. You four come with me, everything else will be taken care of” commanded the commissar with a deep voice. Sabo took a quick look around but against roughly twenty marines there was no chance of getting out alive if his crew tried anything provocative. “You heard the man, let’s go”. On the way through the hangar they passed the Tekka but there was no sight of Anna. Several engineers were disassembling the outer hull while others had already managed to clear the cargo holds. A quick glimpse at his companions revealed their state of mind – everyone seemed to be highly stressed and intimidated. The probably feared the worst.
A few minutes later they reached a long corridor that reminded Sabo of his own time in prison. The commissar separated the group and put everyone in a different room. Sabo was last and his room darkened when the heavy security door shut abruptly. He knew they were in big trouble… . After a few hours sitting alone in the cell, Sabo started hearing the muffled cries of someone. It was a female voice but he couldn't make out who it was exactly. Judging by the screams - someone was being tortured in the room next door. It frustrated him immensely because it was likely one of his crew members. He felt responsible for them and at the same time he was in no position to change their situation. A set-up like this was highly unusual and although they had their fair share of ‘close calls’, they managed to stay safe… until now. All kinds of thoughts went through his head. He even considered the possibility of a traitor but quickly suppressed this unsettling idea. He started to slowly recount the events. The commissar didn't even look at content of any of their crates. Either he already knew what was in it, which would be very surprising, given that Sabo didn't even know the exact content. Or he simply didn’t care. On second thought though, Sabo remembered all the marines securing only the blue cargo container. So they did know it was something valuable – maybe even the exact content. He came to the conclusion that either the Hegemony was after them or after their cargo – or both. This was as unsettling as it was no coincidence either. Sabo had inspected the ‘blue package’ initially on the Mimir Siphon platform. He came to the conclusion that only very few things of this size and form would emit blue light. Actually he could only think of one item – a magnetic field projector necessary for powering an antimatter blaster – a technology the Hegemony did not possess but was very adamant about acquiring. The only time he had ever seen one before was when he was young, imprisoned on a Tri-Tachyon patrol ship.
Again he could hear screams from the nearby cell – it was too much to handle for him. His intestines cramped up and a shiver came over him as he dropped to the floor. He felt miserable and was about to get into the fetal position when a small, white note under his seat got his attention.
Sabo quickly grabbed it and started reading. “Hello S. - I am sorry I couldn't warn you, they were already here. 16:00 - be prepared! Be quick! A.” This message was likely placed there by Alex. It was a good thing they had always used pseudonyms for safety reasons because it seemed like Alex was still able to pull some strings here, even if he was under surveillance as probably the whole hanger happened to be. Sabo contemplated the whole situation. Maybe he was being played by figures high up in the military. Maybe they wanted the technology but eradicate all traces how it was procured. Either way he had to focus on the task ahead.
“Could be a dirty trick … but what else is there to do …” Sabo whispered desperately to himself. Just as his clock signalled 16:00 the pressure-door began to whizz and fill the room with steam. Then Sabo could hear a loud bang and all lights faded to black. A few seconds later a dim red light was activated and the emergency sirens were ringing. Sabo stood up, came to his senses and dashed for the door. This was his chance and he knew that the window of opportunity was closing fast. He quickly peeked out of his cell and despite the fact that all doors had been opened – no one was there… yet. Sabo stepped forward into the corridor and picked up a rather big wrench from a toolbox next to maintenance shaft. He just wanted to further explore the long hallway when he heard some noises coming from the cell next to him. A short glance confirmed his fears. There was Jessica, heavily beaten up, laying on the ground. A huge marine was standing next to her with his back towards the entrance. “Now or never” Sabo thought to himself and swung the wrench with full force, knocking out Jessica’s torturer with one blow. “Jessica, you are alright?” he asked comfortingly. Only a little groan was the response. In all the darkness Sabo couldn't make out all her injuries but she was covered in blood, he could feel it while holding her. She was in a critical situation and this really made him fear for her life. “Ok, we need to find the others first and then organize an escape” Sabo whispered to Jessica who could only reply with a quiet noise. “I will get you out of this - I promise!” and with these words they got up and headed for the corridor again…
(Thanks at “|WASP| Infussle” for helping me proofread)
(Illustrations are taken from the Starsector folder / in game)