《Frontier Crisis》 Chapter 1 Chapter 1 I jerked the controls left, barely avoiding the orange ball of star-hot plasma that shot past. ¡°Sam!¡± I yelled over the comms. ¡°When¡¯s the Navy going to get here?!¡± ¡°Two minutes!¡± Sam yelled back. ¡°That long!¡± I yelled at the same time as I fired the thrusters on the side of the ship. It carved out a swooping arc in the air, bolts of energy passing by our ion trail. ¡°I can¡¯t shake them! These pirates are getting to be crackshots with all the practice we¡¯re giving them!¡± I pulled back, causing the ship to shoot upwards, narrowly dodging the EMP blast. For another tense minute I swerved, weaved, bobbed, ducked, and generally pulled every trick I learned from my days as a fighter pilot in the Navy. The only thing keeping me from blacking out was the inertia dampeners. They used artificial gravity to counteract the g-force from my insane maneuvers. ¡°The Navy called! They said they¡¯re going to warp into the system in thirty seconds!¡± Sam yelled from the co-pilot''s bubble. ¡°Great! Now hold on!¡± With that warning I cut the engine and fired the rear bottom thrusters. Flipping the ship backwards, I reactivated the engine and the afterburners, giving us that little bit of extra thrust. The inertia dampeners whined as it tried to deal with the hundreds of extra g¡¯s. I was pushed back into my seat, almost blacking out from the extreme force. The three pirate fighters that were in pursuit shot past us as we decelerated at the tremendous rate. Then, in a flash of white light, a huge rectangular ship with hatches and bulges sticking out of its hull, appeared a mile above and five hundred yards to the front right of my ship The pirate fighters, which were banking to come after us, lit up their engines and flew directly away from the Navy destroyer. Five hatches on the destroyer opened and missiles launched out of them, a plume of blue ions leaving a beautiful trail behind them. The missiles flew after the pirates ships. The pirates banked rapidly, trying to avoid the missiles. Unfortunately, missiles will forever be more agile than ships with fragile creatures inside. The missiles unleashed an electric-blue sphere of light as it passed the pirate¡¯s fighters. The missiles EMP caught the pirate ships, shorting out their shields along with the delicate electronics inside. All three ships flew along, powerless in the void of space. If the pirates weren¡¯t picked up soon, their oxygen would be used up due to their life support being cut-off. The missiles used their engines to slow to a stop. The cruiser launched tuges to pick up fighters and missiles. Ammo was scarce after the galactic war. Meanwhile, I came to a stop myself. Activating the LCA (Laser Communications Array), I called the Navy destroyer. Unexpectedly, Anna, a very familiar face from my Navy days, appeared on the viewscreen. Her brown eyes widened in shock. As we stared at each other I took in the captain bars displayed prominently on her military cap, her brunette hair hidden underneath. Anna recovered quickly, immediately getting down to business. ¡°Hello Lone Wolf. Glad we could be of service. Were they able to damage your vessel?¡± Her formal tone seemed to indicate that she wanted to keep it business like, but the smirk on her face said otherwise. Anna had been the captain of the carrier that I¡¯d been assigned to during the galactic war. I doubted anyone else would be able to talk to her so casually, due to her status. We had both been honored with medals for our services during the war. I¡¯d retired but Anna had decided to continue working for the Navy, though she had refused any promotions. I smiled at her. ¡°Nah, these mangy pirates weren¡¯t able to scratch an old wardog like me, Centurion.¡± She smiled back at me. ¡°As expected from my ex-ace fighter. And what¡¯s this talk about being old, you¡¯re still in your late twenties.¡± Sam appeared on a separate viewscreen. His blue eyes twinkling mischievously, his blonde hair hanging down around his shoulders. ¡°But darling, what about me? Don¡¯t I get some loving too?¡± Anna quickly waved here hand. ¡°Oh no. Nothing for you, you grease monkey. When are you going to get a haircut? I know that your hair isn¡¯t up to standard.¡± Sam shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not in the Navy anymore sweetheart. Don¡¯t need to worry about the regulations anymore, one of the perks of going solo.¡± Anna smirked. ¡°Uh-huh. Anyways, where are you headed next?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Just delivering some mining tools. Should be back in the Veltrus System within a week though.¡± She smiled. ¡°Great, I have shore leave then. How about we catch up the, for old times sake?¡± Sam immediately piped up. ¡°Sure. I think we should be free, right man?¡± I shrugged helplessly. ¡°Fine. Let¡¯s meet on the Lunar Station, Deck 3 Bay 5. Does next Monday at five pm local time sound good?¡± Anna nodded. ¡°Perfect. Until then, Centurion out.¡± The viewscreen disappeared. Sam whistled on the remaining viewscreen. ¡°Alright, it¡¯s a date then. So Tony, you gonna spiff up for our daaate?¡± Sam asked teasingly. I sighed.¡°Shut up Sam!¡± I yelled at him. Man, Sam sure was annoying sometimes. ¡°Sir yes sir!¡± Abou twenty minutes later, I could hear Sam¡¯s impressed voice. ¡°Wow those tugs are fast. It¡¯s not easy moving that much weight with a small engine. The Navy destroyer just warped out. I¡¯m really jealous of those huge engines. They can warp a lot deeper in the system than we can. ¡°Me too Sam. Especially since we have to be 450 million miles from Veltrus¡¯ star. Speaking of which, when are we going to cross the warp boundary Sam?¡± ¡°We¡¯re still about twelve thousand miles from the warp boundary. We should be able to warp out in an hour.¡± ¡°Okay. Tell me when we can warp then.¡± I went back through the ships logs and reviewed the fight. I wanted to see if there had been any mistakes I had made during the fight. There were a few, but most of the time I could pin it to the ship¡¯s fault. It was simply too outdated and underpowered in order to fend off three fighters at once. ¡°We¡¯re ready to go Tony. Fire it up!¡± Sam called out. ¡°Let¡¯s go then. Off to the Delgatho mining system.¡± The tachyon drive opened up, capturing a load of tachyon particles. The viewscreen flashed white as we entered warpspace. The tachyon particle would allow us to travel as far as we wanted until we dumped the charge. Gravity interfered with tachyon particles, making them unstable. This caused ships to be unable to enter or exit warp space close when strong gravity was present. This could be resolved with better tachyon drives though, allowing one to jump closer to the Sun and planets. Asteroids would cause tachyon drives to be unusable with a mile or two, just a second of flight or two in space. The pirates had laid in wait along a popular lane to the warp boundary, using an asteroid as cover. Fortunately the Navy had better warp engines and we were really close to the boundary otherwise I¡¯m sure that it wouldn¡¯t have ended as nicely as it did. ¡°Alright, now we have another four hours before we reach the coordinates.¡± Sam told me. He pulled himself through the entrance hatch, floating through the air. I undid my buckles and floated up myself. Unfortunately, the power drain to stabilize the tachyon particle was too severe to power the artificial gravity except for inside the cabins and mess hall. Of course, large ships wouldn¡¯t have this problem with their bigger reactors. ¡°I¡¯ll be in my room if you need me Sam. Going to catch up on the news I downloaded in the Veltrus.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± Sam waved dismissively as he sat down in the pilot seat. The view screen¡¯s holographic display lit up with a diagnostic scan of the ship. Sam started to study it, muttering about how space jocks didn¡¯t know the pain of grease monkeys. I smiled at that. That was just like Sam. He was like that even back in the Navy when he was my engineer for my fighter. Sam had also been cross-trained in navigation and sensors during the time at the Navy. He loved learning how to use the equipment he serviced. After I retired, Sam decided to tag along. I used the money I had saved during my service and for merits earned to buy a small cargo ship. Ships were pretty expensive but it was nothing compared to what I had earned. Most of my money was in savings until I could finally buy a bigger hauler, one that had better engines and some guns. I always felt so vulnerable in this flying coffin. It didn¡¯t even have any defenses at all, not even a tractor beam. Sam chipped in for repairs, upkeep, and general maintenance. We made small runs to systems, making a tidy profit from deliveriesFind this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! I went to my room, floating until I opened the door. Adjusting myself, I floated in like I was walking, catching myself when I fell to the ground. I caught a glimpse of my blonde hair in the mirror, a flash of blue as my eyes drifted over the silvered surface. Going back to the mirror, I inspected my image. My body was rail-thin and tall, almost seven feet. My hair was a dirty blonde, closer to that of a brunette color honestly. My eyes were a greyish blue with little flecks of green close to the middle. My abnormal height was just one of the side-effects of being born on an asteroid mine. The company that ran the asteroid field didn¡¯t want to pay the expenses of keeping a gravity generator running at top capacity so the gravity was 0.8 that of earth¡¯s, causing my bones to become thin and brittle, though that was only compared to earthers. Compared to Sam though, I was still short. Sam grew up on Mars. Because he lived in the 0.6g of the habitat dome, he was actually 8ft tall. Due to nanite infusions, his bones were reinforced enough to still walk around normally in earth gravity, though he would become tired very easily. I was lucky compared to Sam. The only thing I had needed was some calcium supplements. Those nanite infusions were extremely painful. I¡¯d heard them described as every bone in your body catching on fire simultaneously. Sam also had blonde hair, though his was a very light blonde. His eyes were a hazelnut color and there were some laughter lines around his eyes. Physically, we weren¡¯t too much alike. Still, it was enough to were some people might mistake us as distant cousins. Shaking my head, I walked past the mirror before sitting down in the chair in the corner of the room. Opening up the metal case on the stand next to me, I put on the E-Glasses and pulled up the news I downloaded in the Veltrus System. It was mostly garbage. New politician elected, such and such planetary rules revisited, local marathon, local astrology and weather reports. The basics. About the only thing out of the ordinary was the large amount of pirates. Ever since the end of the fourth galactic war, many veterans became jobless. Especially those on the Empire¡¯s side who lost the war. As a result, thousands of marines and ex-pilots turned to piracy to make an income. Unfortunate. Most likely some of my squadmates would be mixed in with the riff-raff. Of more concerning news was the rumors that remnants of the empire were getting organized. Apparently, some propaganda from an ex-Admiral of the Imperials had leaked out. The Federation had made an official announcement but there were many news outlets that were covering the story anyway. I zoned out as I started thinking what this meant for the Federation until a small beep sounded. Sam¡¯s voice came on the internal comms. The space suit I had on integrated all of my comm systems, such as the ones on the ship or on public networks, into one system. All I had to do was specify who I wanted to reach and it would call them for me. ¡°Tony, we are coming out of warp in five minutes.¡± Huh. How time flies when you¡¯re busy. Sighing, I got up with a groan and headed to the mess hall, pulling myself along the handlebars in the hallway. Repeating my trick, I landed on my feet and grabbed a couple slices of Salami from the fridge. Munching on them, I set off for the cockpit. Pulling myself past the door, I noticed Sam was still sitting down in my chair. ¡°Hey! Get out Sam! That¡¯s my chair!¡± Sam jumped in shock. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t strap himself in so he shot upwards like a rocket, hitting his head on the ceiling. Rubbing his head he glared at me. ¡°You know you could have asked me nicely.¡± I shrugged unapologetically. ¡°But where''s the fun in that. Anyways, get to the co-pilot''s bubble. I need you to handle the sensors and comms.¡± Sam huffed a bit but still set off for the co-pilot¡¯s bubble. Sitting down in my chair, I pulled up my usual interface on the view screen. He kept the seat nice and warm. Way to go Sam. I looked out the view screen at the space around us. It was the solid white of warpspace. The timer in the upper right corner of the screen reached zero. Immediately the white space pulsed brightly as we dropped the tachyon particle, exciting the warpspace momentarily. Then the white shifted to become a field of stars, along with a bunch of asteroids. The view screen flashed red, alarms blaring. Even without looking at the sensors, I knew what the problem was. A large portion of my viewscreen was covered by a hunk of space rock. Quickly glancing at the sensors for any asteroids heading for me, I banked upwards avoiding the looming asteroid. A baseball sized chunk of rock whizzed by as I dodged another asteroid. Cursing our lack of a navigation A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), I started flying by the seat of my pants. Keeping one eye on the sensors and another on the viewscreen, I began dodging asteroids frantically. I could barely anticipate the trajectories of some asteroids using this method and others were too small for me to catch before they hit us, dropping our shields down rapidly. ¡°Sam! What in blue blazes is going on!¡± I yelled. ¡°No idea! We somehow warped into the middle of an asteroid field! I¡¯m scanning for the edge of it now!¡± Luckily an asteroid field is pretty spread out. Each large asteroid, most of which were a mile or two long, were separated by hundreds of miles. The real problems though were the fast moving, small chunks of rock and metal that filled the vast space between the asteroids. They were spawned by the occasional collision between asteroids and unfortunately, this one was unusually dense, resulting in a much larger amount of cosmic debris. Finally, the view screen lit up with a series of green arrows. A suggested velocity was blinking in the top left of the screen. ¡°Alright Tony, I have a path leading outside the asteroid field. Go ahead and get us out of this mess!¡± ¡°Ok partner, will do.¡± I trusted Sam¡¯s calculations since he was using the programs he created. We had used them to navigate battlefields during the galactic war before when he had been my operations manager. He had proven himself, and his skills, trustworthy. I activated the thrusters, speeding up to the velocities shown for the translucent green path. Banking, rising, twisting, turning. I followed the highly convoluted path outside the asteroid field. Sometimes asteroids would pass less than ten feet from our forcefield. As a matter of fact, our forcefield flared up a couple times, deflecting fist asteroids. But within five nerve wracking minutes, we were out of the asteroid field. Letting out a breath I didn¡¯t know I was holding, I sunk into my chair, exhausted. Dodging pirates and asteroids can take a lot out of someone. I turned on the autopilot. It would keep us away from all objects on the sensor, though it would have been overloaded in the asteroid field since there were so many objects. I got up and walked out of the pilot¡¯s bubble and met Sam in the mess hall. Artificial gravity was automatically restored when we exited warpspace, otherwise I couldn¡¯t have pulled all those fancy maneuvers without ending up a puddle of goo from the extreme g¡¯s they brought on. We stared at each other for a little bit. Finally, I broke the silence. ¡°What happened Sam? This is most definitely not the Delgatho mining system.¡± Sam shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know either, let me pull up the nav data.¡± Sam had on his black, skin tight flight suit, same as I did. Reaching out, Sam activated the mess halls holo-projectors pulling up the mess halls view screens. His suits gloves gave him tactical feedback, giving him the impression that he was touching something. That was how everyone''s view screens worked. Sam tapped at it for a bit while I waited impatiently. Sam finally looked up. ¡°Well, the systems nav data does not line up with any other known system. The computer used the stars to place us at over ten light years outside the frontier. I swore for a bit. ¡°Dang it Sam! I know this shipment was supposed to be on the very edge of the frontier but this is uncharted territory. Even the Navy¡¯s probes only go five light years beyond the frontier. We can¡¯t be out here!¡± The frontier was a border of space that was unexplored. The probes would constantly expand the border, letting us know if there were any alien civilizations that we needed to watch out for. Explorers were allowed to jump to any systems inside the border but going beyond it was something that endangered all of humanity. It was a capital offense, one punishable by death. There is a very good reason for that specific rule about not going beyond the frontier. When tachyon drives were first mass produced, the various colonies and business of Earth started desperately claiming planets as their own. A small colony ship owned by a civilian crusie company started attempting to colonize a planet they found. Turns out, that planet was the property of an alien empire. They didn''t take too kindly to being invaded and wiped out the human colonists. They then proceeded to attack the rest of humanity. This lead to the call for unity and the Federation was born in order to unite humanity. This was also the start of the first Galactic War. The number one rule of the Federation upon its creation was that none were to pass beyond the border of explored space. The Federation''s Navy would explore for them and approve of planets for colonization. All of this was to prevent another galactic war from breaking out. After humanity finished the fight, there were many calls for the aliens to be wiped out. The aliens weren''t against destroying civilians and entire planets were left devastated. There was a vote and 52% of the Federations ruling body was against it. The 48% that were for it were livid. They declared independence, eventually becoming the empire. Another was fought after the Empire and Federation separated and this one was with corporations within both factions. The Empire wanted control of all wealth inside their territory, stating that it would be necessary to protect themselves from any alien threat. The Federation simply wanted to stop several different monopolies from ripping them off with their high fuel, construction, and maintenance costs that they demanded the public and the Federation pay. While smaller in casualties than the first, it was actually more intense. The reason for this was that news reports were hard to come by with such large distances. QE comms hadn''t been invented yet, so news was radioed back to media ships and then those ships would jump back to Federation territory. The war with the corporations took place inside the Federation and the Empire, the perfect place for news coverage. The public were able to see the latest casualties and damages for the first time. Those monopolies lost to the Federation and they were split up into several smaller companies that controlled the same exact product. They simply sat back and let economics do the rest. As for the Empire, they were able to successfully take over the private sector. IT was because of this that they were able to appropriate many different scientific studies and conduct research on military weaponry. While it took a while, the Empire was able to gain a technological advantage over the Federation. It made the Empire bold, causing them to make the first move to start the third Galactic War. Sam shrugged. ¡°I know but here we are. Let me check the coordinates.¡± After a couple quick taps, Sam looked up, grinning sheepishly. ¡°Well? What did you find out?¡± I demanded. ¡°Wellllll. I put the coordinates into the tachyon drive during the fight. And when that happened, I may have added an extra zero onto the coordinates.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± I asked Sam, an incredulous expression on my face. Sam shrugged helplessly. ¡°I¡¯m fraid so.¡± I was about to tear into him. We were almost killed over such a basic mistake like that. But right as I started to yell at him, an alarm sounded. Beeep. Beeep. Beeep. The alarm was faint but at a very high pitched tone. Alarmed, we darted to the bubbles. However, none of the alerts were going off. Activating the comm, I called Sam. ¡°You got anything?¡± ¡°Nope. I think it might be coming from the cargo bay.¡± ¡°God I hope not. This day is already bad enough. I¡¯ll check on it, you keep an eye on things here.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± I immediately headed to the cargo bay. Sure enough, the alarm got louder the closer I got. Pressurizing the cargo bay, I went inside. Nothing was askew as far as I could see. The alarm was coming from the large metal structure strapped down on the edge of the bay. I groaned. It had to be a problem with this thing. The ¡®thing¡¯ I was referring to was a mineral scanner. It was also the most expensive thing in the manifest. Going over, I accessed the interface which was blaring red. Then, I just stared at it in shock. Chapter 2 "Sam, get to the cargo bay pronto." "Why Tony? You got a problem the great Ace fighter can''t handle?" "Sam, for once in your life, stop the sarcastic comments and listen to me." "Fine." I could hear the hurt in his voice but right now I didn''t care. Sam soon came down the cargo bay ramp. He threw up his hands when he saw me. "What. What do you want?" I said nothing except to point at the mineral scanner. Seeing it, Sam groaned. "Now I see why you were so short. Fine, I''ll try and fix it." I shook my head and pointed at the scanners viewscreen. Sam glanced at it for a second. He leaned forward, seeming to take it seriously now. After looking at it for a few seconds, his jaw went through the hull. "T-T-Tony? Have you seen these reports?" I nodded. "This thing says within a thousand miles there are three thousand tonnes of gold, fifteen thousand tonnes of platinum and a couple thousand tonnes of other precious metals." "I know Sam, that''s why I called you. While I fly by the asteroid field, you keep an eye on the this things readouts, record it on a datastick." Sam nodded a bit stiffly like he was still in shock. Heck, I was still in shock! Leaving the cargo bay for the cockpit, I deactivated the autopilot once I arrived. I kept the asteroid tracker on though. Using the software, I was able to avoid asteroids on the fringe of the asteroid field. After ten minutes of slow flying, Sam called me on the intercom. "Tony, the readings aren''t changing. They are actually picking up denser deposits." I just kind of fell into my chair. This discovery was.... I wasn''t sure how to describe it. All I knew was that this was going to change our lives forever. Whether that change was good or bad, I could only guess at the moment. Finally I replied back. "Sam, we need to meet in the mess hall." "Sure Tony. This.... This requires some planning." We both arrived in the mess hall. By some unspoken agreement, we avoided the mine laden topic of the scans. Instead I started brewing coffee and Sam heated up some food. After it was done cooking, we sat down and ate, saying nothing. Everything tasted like sand. I burped and sat back in my chair. Swirling my coffee, I gulped down the last mouthful. I surveyed my plate. It was empty, even the chicken bones were picked clean. I sighed. Looks like I couldn''t put it off any longer. I glanced up at Sam. He was in the same predicament. Finally I took the plunge. "Pretty unbelievable huh Sam? All those tonnes of ore just sitting there in a huge ring of space rock." Sam sighed and nodded. "Definitely. So, what do you think we should do about this?" "Well, what are our options? Let''s start with that." I said, nodding decisively. "First option, ignore it. It''s illegal to go beyond the border into unexplored space. Not to mention information on a resource like this is deadly. Bigger forces have been killed for far less." "Second option, tell the U.F. (United Federation). Even though it''s illegal they would probably pardon us since it was an accident. Plus we could expect a nice paycheck thrown our way. There is a shortage of metals since the fourth galactic war, so such a discovery like this would really help bolster our economy. The downside is that they may kill us instead so that they can keep the deposit secret but I doubt it. They know you can keep a secret since you were in the military before this plus you are a hero." "Another option is that we sell it to a private party. Some mining corporations would pay dearly for information like this. Again though, it would be dangerous. They could easily kill us to keep it secret." "Finally, we could mine it ourselves. Take a couple tonnes here or there and get rich off of it. We would have to keep it secret, maybe buy the rights to mine some asteroid fields to disguise the fact we are mining here." Sam spread his hands. "That''s all I got so far. Any suggestions." I shook my head. "No, I think you covered it all." Sam leaned forward on the table. "So what do you think we should do?" I shrugged. "No idea. All of those are feasible plans. I haven''t been following the military news recently so I don''t know the political situation. It''s also been two years since the war, so most people have forgotten about me being a hero, especially since I was purposely trying to hide. I''m not sure how well received we would be if we told the U.F. about this mineral deposit." Sam nodded. "Alright, I agree. So I say we mark this spot down on the map and get out for now. We need to make our deliveries on time otherwise we''ll look suspicious. I can replace the hard drive for the mineral scanner and replicate the software so that the scans aren''t found on it. If they''re found we would be in deep trouble." I nodded. "It''s best that we do it quickly. We can always use the excuse that we checked up on the cargo after the pirates attacked us. It is true and we have the records to prove the pirate attack." "Agreed. I''ll get started on changing the hardware right away. You go ahead and plot the course for the Delgatho system while I get everything done." "Yeah, it''s best if you let me put in the coordinates." I elbowed him lightly in the side. "I don''t want to warp to another section of uncharted space." Sam smiled at me. "Well maybe it would be better if I put in the coordinates. Who knows? We might discover another alien civilization!" I smiled back at him. It was good that Sam was back to his usual sarcastic, goofy self. It was a lot better than that serious face he had on earlier. "Yeah well, I''m still putting in the coordinates." I left for the pilot bubble and started inputting the coordinates in preparation of the jump. We were already beyond the warp boundary otherwise we wouldn''t have been able to warp in. I pulled up the comms after I was done with my preparations. "Hey Sam, you switched the hard drive around yet?" Sams annoyed voice came out of the comm speaker. "Of course not! It''s barely been ten minutes. I just finished getting all my tools together to take off the case of this mineral scanner." I shrugged. "Well, I can take off any moment now. So how about I reroute the power that would maintain the artificial gravity in the cabins so that you can keep working on it in warpspace." "Uh, no! You do realize that I have some things in my room that I can''t have just floating around. My vanilla milkshake for example." "Vanilla milkshake? You said we were out of it when I asked yesterday!" "Uhhh. About that... So anyways, could you delay the warp by about twenty minutes." "Yeah I can. But don''t think you''re getting away with this! I''m still mad about that milkshake!" "Anyways, bye!" Sam''s comm signal disappeared. "Lying, cheating, thieving sonovagun. Bet he hid some other things too." I muttered under my breath. I really was upset about that. I bought the milkshake mix when I was on the last station we stopped by. I''d been looking forward to getting the last portion when a certain snake must have taken it. I sat in the cockpit bubble, waiting for Sam to get back on the comms. After seventeen minutes, Sam finally called back. "We''re ready to go. Luckily this things computing systems are common. The only thing that makes this thing so expensive is the scanners and they don''t store any information. I had to tear out the computing system from one of the other things back here but I checked the shipping label on it. We were supposed to deliver it to the Starlon System on our way back in two weeks. We have time to buy a replacement. Also, it''s only a computer. It isn''t too expensive to replace." I nodded. That was Sam for you, checking everything thoroughly. "Why didn''t you just wipe the computing systems instead of installing a new one." I had to get this clarified. That''s what I would have done, so I didn''t see why he hadn''t done that. "Well I could have.... except the gig would have been up if they had pulled the hard drive. Data is never erased from a computer, just the way to access it can be destroyed. If they did a deep scan of the memory banks, they would have found it. It would stick out like a sore thumb since it would have been the only deleted scan as well. It''s better to say that the computing system got damaged from a pirate attack but we replaced it, then to risk them finding it. Also, I incinerated the computing system using the MFB (Magnetic Fusion Bottle)" "Great Sam. With that done, no one should be able to find out what we discovered. Anyways, I''m activating the tachyon drive. We should reach the Delgatho Mining System in twenty four minutes." "Alright. It''s your turn to monitor the ship while I finish up the programing transfer down here." "Fine, see you in a bit Sam." "You too buddy." With a click, he signed off. I activated the tachyon drive, listening to the whine as it kicked in. There was a flash of white light that covered my viewscreen. It dimmed automatically though, so there wasn''t blindness from the intense light. The white light didn''t disappear, staying prominently displayed on the viewscreen. It was a clear signal that we were, indeed, in warpspace. Letting out a deep breath, I leaned back in my chair. For next twenty minutes I just sat there. Trying to come to terms with what had happened. I only came out of my reverie when a tone went off. Stretching my hand out, I shut down the alarm. It was the one that came on to alert the crew that the ship would be exiting warpspace soon. I activated the comms. "Hey Sam, we''re exiting warpspace in less than a minute." "Alright Tony, I''ll go ahead and get to my bubble in a second." Not soon after he got off the comms, I heard a thud followed by Sam cursing. I smiled. Funny how he always seemed to hit his head on random things when he was in a hurry. The solid white of warpspace that covered my viewscreen pulsed once brightly before it suddenly turned into the black of space with stars randomly dotting the vast expanse. I checked the radar. Nothing was close enough to warrant immediate attention. I turned towards the coordinates and compared them to the ones I had written down on my smart watch. I sighed in relief. They matched. This was, indeed, the Delgatho mining system. For some reason, I didn''t trust Sam with putting the coordinates in anymore. Actually, I should have checked them before he put them in. Come to think of it, it did seem like a bad idea to manually put in coordinates and not have someone else check them. Seems like my military training was starting to fade a bit. I grinned. Well, I could do with less regulations. Though some regulations make sense, like checking the atmospheric regulator before take off, others made no sense at all, like making sure there wasn''t any damage to the paint after landing. Useless regulations made up by lazy bureaucrats was the exact reason why I decided to leave the army. "Hey Tony! Stop spacing and get going. We need to dock soon or they might get suspicious, ya know?" "I know Sam, I know. Stop nagging me will ya? Sheesh." I fired up the engine and headed towards the Galactic Surveying & Orbital-mining Corporation (GSOC) station. Funny. According to normal logic, the ''Delgatho Mining System'' should belong to a corporation called Delgatho. But if we went according to that, there would be multiple systems that were called ''GSOC Mining System 001, GSOC Mining System 002'', and so on and so on. Instead whoever discovered the system would name it and the surveyors would then come in and check what the system was viable for. If it was only good for mining, then it would become the ''xxxxxx- Mining System.'' If it was a system not good for anything it would be the ''xxxxxxx- Void System''. Things got a bit more complicated if there was a habitable planet. If there were aliens than the entire system would become secluded, not that there were many planets like that. There were a few though and some were on even terms with humanity as well. If the system was habitable, then ten years after the system''s population reached10,000 the population would then vote on the name of the system. Of course, many systems gained some weird names from that. Seriously weird names. I mean, who names the system they live in ''Sparkly Unicorn System''!? I could at least handle the ''Here Be Dragons System'' but definitely not the ''Goo Goo Gah System''. That was just too much idiocy. A tone went off that was combined with a red button flashing. I locked the heading and thrust before reaching over and tapping it. "This is GSOC Mining Station B-1937, you are approaching us at vector 3.09 horizontal and 50.8 vertical relative to our position. Please state your purpose in approaching or be considered a threat to this station and its inhabitants." I rolled my eyes. Great, I was just thinking about how much I hate bureaucratic nonsense and then these guys start on it. I just HATE it. I linked the comms to Sam. "Hey, buddy, you know the drill." "Sigh. Why do I have to deal with these paper pushers?" "Just look at it this way. I respect you for being able to understand more than half the things that come out of their mouths. So, my man, just work your wizardry." "Sometimes I get the feeling this was the only reason you let me come with you." Oops. Did I let too much slip? I can''t let him figure it out! "Whaaat? Of course not, I also kept you for your amazing engineering skills." "Uh-huh. Just patch them through to me." "Will do, thanks bud!" Score! I patched the motor mouth from GSOC Mining Station blee bloo blah and let Sam talk his heart out. I was thirty minutes away from docking with the station anyways. Most mining stations were located fairly close to the warp boundary to speed up deliveries. Of course, it also helped that most asteroid belts were close to the warp boundary as well. When the first tachyon drive had come out, ships had to travel to Saturn before reaching the warp boundary. As a testimony to the long windedness of desk jockeys, I was eleven minutes away from the station whenever they finally got done talking. "Whew. They sure can talk your ear off if you let them." Came Sam''s exhausted voice. "Wow Sam, I didn''t know that nineteen minutes could be so exhausting to you." "How about I let you experience it for yourself next time." My face twitched."Uh, how about no." "That''s what I thought, tough guy." While we were joking around, I could still sense an underlying tension. No matter how much we tried, we couldn''t forget our discovery. My shoulders wouldn''t come loose even after I rubbed them for a full five minutes. I shook my head, time to get back to business. "Anyways Sam, where do I dock, what''s the speed, you know, the usual." "Ah don''t worry about it. I got the path up on the guidance system. Go ahead follow it you dumb pilot." "Yeah well, if you want this ''dumb pilot'' to turn down the inertia dampener just enough to knock you out, continue by all means." "Hehe. Bring it on, you dumb pilot." I rolled my eyes. "I would, but with your tendency to bonk your head on the ceiling, I think you''ll knock yourself out without my help." "I do not." A smile crept over my face at Sam''s indignant tone. "Of course you don''t. Anyway, I gotta dock with the station. Be right back." "That''s right, you dumb pilot. Just follow my plan." I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, like all your plans work out." When I said that, a silence descended upon us. The accidental discovery simply weighed on us too much for me to even attempt to make a joke of it, even if it had only been a reference. Taking advantage of the stifling silence, I glanced over the trajectories Sam had laid out. Adjusting the ship and putting the thrusters on a steady backwards burn, I prepared for docking with the station. We were getting put on Deck 60 Bay 12, the lowest deck. Decks were just like floors in a skyscraper while bays were parking garages. The station was a very simple rod floating in space, made of dark grey metal with white lights blinking on the outside. The station wasn''t meant to be pretty, it was a mining station after all. The path Sam gave me required me to fly into the large open section at the bottom of the mining station. I flew into the open space. Multiple pads were displayed in front of me.Virtual overlays on my screen showed me the bay numbers. I quickly found the landing pad with the number 12 on it. I flew in close, firing the thrusters continuously to slow down the ship. I came to a slight hover just above the landing pad.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I activated the landing gear and applied a small amount of thrust from the top of the ship. The stumpy metal legs from the bottom of the cargo hauler extended. I felt the thud as they made contact with the station. The magnets on the bottom of the legs allowed the ship to remain stuck to the floor instead of floating off. In the loading and unloading bays, stations usually didn''t have artificial gravity. This made it easier on pilots since we didn''t have to worry about gravity shifting on us. It also helped keep the station''s costs down due to not needing as much power. I unbuckled my seat harness and walked back to the cargo bay. Even if gravity wasn''t on in the station, we still had it on our ship. I walked to the very back of the cargo bay. I pulled up the ramp''s control system with the holo-projectors. Motors whirred as the ramp started to descend. I tapped the tablet embedded in my suit''s left arm, activating the magnets in my boots. I could feel the gravity disappearing as I walked down the ramp. My body pushed against my suit, wanting to float upwards. My boots kept my feet anchored to the ground though. Quite a strange sensation. Even after all these years, I still couldn''t get used to it. A man dressed in a dark grey space suit was floating towards me. He was coming in at a diagonal, aimed towards the floor next to me. Upon nearing me, he slung his hands downwards towards the floor. This caused his body to flip around, his feet making solid contact with the floor. I could hear the metallic thud as his boots latched onto the ground. The man stood up before turning towards me, extending his hand. I shook it firmly . "My name is Robert Den and I''m the inventory manager of the Delgatho Mining System GSOC Mining Station B-1937 Deck 60 Bay 12." I grasped his hand, giving him a firm shake. "Captain Delgado of the cargo vessel Lone Wolf." Robert nodded as he let go of my hand. "I''ve been expecting you. You''re behind schedule though, by about a half-hour. Run into any trouble?" I sighed. "Yeah. We had some pirates attack us while we were cycling our tachyon drive. The Navy came in and took the pirates out but we had to inspect our cargo afterwards." Robert sighed. "The pirates are starting to get pretty bad back in the core sectors. Luckily, the fringes aren''t feeling it too much. Odd, huh? You''d expect more pirates to be attacking us. Wonder why." "I can answer that. The fringes are too spread out. It can take days traveling from each possible hit and the colonies are often just starting out. Takes too much to get there and for only a little gain. The core though, their defenses are weakened after the galactic war and they have a lot more credits. It''s easier to take out a transport convey in the fringes, but it pays a lot more in the core." Robert nodded. "I see the logic. Guess pirates are willing to risk their lives for more money." I nodded back. "That''s why they''re pirates. Anyway, should I send you the manifest?" "Please do." I pulled up the documents on my suit before tapping my left arm to Roberts. The files were transfered on contact. Robert looked at it for a while before nodding. "Everything''s in order. Give me a minute and I''ll have the workers down here to unload the cargo." "Will do." I clambered back on the ship. Sam was waiting in the cargo bay. "Did he suspect anything?" Sam asked hurriedly. I wiped off my forehead as I leaned against the side of the cargo bay. My entire body was covered in cold sweat from when I had talked with Robert. I''d kept calm but it had still been nerve wracking. "No. He asked why we were late but I told him about the pirates. He understood, thankfully." Sam sighed. "Thank god." "Anyway, the workers will be down here to unload everything." "Alright, I''ll go ahead and mark everything they need to take with them." Sam pulled up cargo manifest with the holo-projectors. The cables that previously strapped down several containers unlatched themselves and retracted into the floor. A soft green light shone in front of the containers that were unlatched. Now the workers would know exactly what to unload. Sam turned towards me. "So, what should we do now?" I sighed. "I don''t know. How about we go to Sigma System? I still have a house on Bonth that we can hang out at. Then we can decide what to do. They have mining equipment for sale there if that''s what we decide to do and we need to refuel as well." Sam nodded. "Fine. It''ll take around eight days to get there, if I''m remembering correctly." "It is, but we still need to deliver the other packages before we can leave. Plus, we''re still meeting Anna " "Oh yeah, almost forgot. I''ll try to take a nap then, the chase with the pirates tired me out." "See ya later." I watched as Sam left the cargo bay before I shook my head. Sam didn''t handle stress well. I''d noticed it during the war whenever we were going to battles that were extremely dangerous. He''d get nervous and start experiencing some anxiety. Not only that, he would also become extremely tired. That was the reason why I had volunteered to stay down in the cargo bay. Just by looking into his eyes, I could tell how much it had tired him out, even if it had only been an hour since we found the asteroid. I knew he''d need a break and I wasn''t going to force him, we were too close for me to try and push him. I sat down on one of the crates nearby while I was waiting for the workers to get there. About ten minutes later, there came a knock. Walking over to the ramp, I could see five men standing by my ship. A large mover was lay on the ground beside them. The one in that had knocked on the ship waved at me. "Captain Delgado, laborer Hank requesting permission to board." I waved them inside."Come on in." The whole requesting permission thing was a courtesy that was taken quite seriously throughout the entire galaxy. It was considered massively disrespectful to get on a ship without asking for permission first. Once they climbed into the cargo bay I turned towards Hank. "All the crates that needing moving are glowing green like this one." I pointed to a crate beside me. "Any that aren''t glowing are going to somewhere else." Hank nodded. "Great. That really helps." He turned to the four men behind him. "You heard him, get to work fellers." The five men spread out, finding all the crates that had a green light in front of them. Once they saw all the boxes, they got to work. Two of them would grab a box, starting with the large boxes.Then they would haul the box outside to the mover, their magnetic feet constantly activated to prevent them from floating off when they stepped into zero-g. The fifth person, Hank, would grab the boxes and strap them down to the mover, preventing them from floating off. The work went quickly while all I had to do was supervise. I simply made sure they were grabbing the right boxes. In about twenty minutes, they had unloaded all fifty boxes. Hank presented a tablet to me. It had a document with a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo about how I had overseen each package removed and that I confirmed they were the right ones. I signed off on it before going back into my ship. I closed the ramp before going back into the ship. We would have to stay until they confirmed the cargo''s contents and cross-checked them with the manifest. Afterwards, we would probably go and deliver the rest of our packages. Then we''d go to the Sigma System and decide what to do about the asteroid field. I went back to my room and put my E-Glasses on. Pulling up a game, I lost myself in the digital world. I had just got done ordering my farm to harvest the apple orchard when the tone went off. The mining station had just sent the confirmation and sent the funds to my bank. Sending back a short confirmation of payment, I went to the pilot bubble and opened the comms. "Sam! Time to leave!" A groan came from the comms before Sam''s sleepy voice sounded. "I''ll be up in a second Tony. Just, just give me a second to wake up. "No pressure buddy. Don''t fall back asleep though." "I won''t." About five minutes later, I heard Sam cursing as he knocked his head against something. I smirked. That was the Sam I knew. That simple gesture was the most reassuring thing I had heard all day. The comm activated as Sam said "Alright, I''m ready. Prep for take off while I get the navigational data pulled up." I nodded, even if he couldn''t see me. I reached up and started flipping switches. I started announcing the steps as I prepped. "Warming up engines." The ship hummed as I powered up the magnetic fusion bottle. "Checking ship integrity." On the screen to the left of me was an outline of the ship. A green line passed from one end of the image to the other. The outline, which was previously black, turned green. "Ship integrity at a hundred percent." Sam''s voice came over the comms. "I''ve got the nav-data. Go ahead and launch." "Alright. Releasing clamps." The ships magnetic landing gear turned off. "Minimal thrust deployed." Small jets of iridescent plasma fired from the bottom of the ship. It started to float upwards from the miniscule thrust. I double-checked the heading the Sam had laid out for me. "Secondary engine at 10% thrust." I felt a brief pressure before the inertia dampeners kicked in. Announcing everything I did was a throwback to my days in the Navy. It was comforting, having that training to rely on. Of course, I''d ignore all of it if I ever had to go into combat but it was still nice to slip back into old habits every now and then. We slowly slid out of the space station. After we were a couple hundred miles away, I activated the engines at a hundred percent. The inertia dampeners weren''t sluggish this time. They were programmed to kick in once a certain g-force had been reached. If it hadn''t passed .9gs, the inertia dampeners would leave it. We normally kept the ship at .8g, a high setting since both of us were born on low-gravity fields. We still had a way to go before reaching the warp boundary so I double checked the manifest. Just after I finished, we reached the warp boundary. "Alright Sam, next stop is the Warden System. Dropping off some high-end electronics." "Sweet. Any pressing delivery stops after that?" "We''ve got two more after that and then we can end for the day. Need to top off our atmo and fuel when we get to Warden though." "Fine. What''s the last stop? I think shore leave would be great." "The Voltrax Mining System." Sam''s voice was filled with outrage. "A mining system? Ugh. Those places are always so dull though!" "We could probably get a Zero-G court though, play a few games? Whaddaya say?" Sam sighed. "Okay. It isn''t the worst suggestion I''ve heard all day, though I doubt it''ll work." "Oh come on, don''t be such a pessimist. I''m sure we can get a court." I punched in the coordinates and activated the tachyon drive. The viewscreen darkened before showing the bland white of warpspace. It would be two and a half hours until we arrived at Warden. "Hey Sam. What are you going to do to pass the time?" I called out. "I was thinking about taking a nap but I could play some chess if you''re interested." "Great. Let''s do it." I unstrapped my harness. Sam met me in the hallway and together we walked to the gally. Once there, Sam opened up a cabinet and pulled out a worn box with glass chess pieces inside it. It was our go-to when we were on long trips. I had found that if I couldn''t destroy Sam in the beginning, he would always win in the end game. We set up the board and started playing. I used my knights and bishops to blitz Sam''s pawns. Sam used his rooks and Queen to set-up a solid defense. Soon, we had both suffered many losses. Unfortunately, most of Sam''s losses were pawns and a few more important pieces. I was definitely on the losing end. Sam was boxing me in, his queen constantly putting me in check. I was edging towards the inevitable when the alarm went off. Relieved, I ran out of the galley towards the pilot bubble. Sam raged behind me. "You coward! There''s still a minute left, come back and finish!" "No way!" I called over my shoulder, "I say we just call it a tie. "Why you! At least have the decency to pick up your pieces!" I laughed as I strapped myself into the seat. The countdown for the tachyon drive had just reached 50 seconds. "Sam, might wanna strap in." I warned him. "We''re coming in two hundred miles from the planet." Sam curses flew down the hallway. I chuckled before getting serious. Soon, we exited warpspace. Before us was a brown marble hanging in space. This was the planet Warden, the Navy Outpost for the Frontier, this section of it at least. The planet was actually only a hundred miles from the warp boundary. That meant that the Navy, with their better engines, could actually jump straight to the planet. Most Navy outposts were within a thousand miles of the Warp Boundary, easily allowing Navy ships to jump to the outpost right away. This allowed them to patrol areas far easier and react to distress signals faster. It was a regulation that I agreed with whole-heartedly and it had saved me during the war as well. A stern voice came over the comms the second I dropped out of warpspace. "Attention unidentified vessel, this is a restricted space. Lockdown all turrets and send verification. Any sudden movements will be classified as hostile threat and we are authorized to take action." I raised my eyebrow. This was a little over the top for the Navy, normally they simply requested that the ship remain still until they could provide verification. The warning about firing on us if we moved seemed paranoid. "Sam? You got this?" "Yeah. I just gotta get everything in order here." The comm lit up again. "You have one minute to provide verification. If you cannot or will not comply, than be prepared to be boarded." Sam''s annoyed voice came on over the comms. "Just hold it for a second. I was in the mess hall when we jumped alright? Here, I just sent you the ship license and cargo manifest. We just so happen to be delivering cargo to you, be a little happier." There was a pause before the stern voice came back on. This time it was a little softer, but it was more like a downgrade from broken glass to sandpaper. "Verification checks out. You are clear to land on Warden. I''m sending you a vector to the spaceport. Follow it or you will be shot for violating United Federation airspace." I sighed. "Captain Tony Delgado of the cargo hauler Lone Wolf acknowledges the request and will follow your directions." After answering, I turned off the comm. Sam''s irritated huff showed just what he thought of our greeting. "Tony, did you hear that guy? I don''t normally get so irritated but he managed to do it. If he knew he was talking to the hero of Kaleesh, he wouldn''t be so smug." "Sam, knock it off. If the Navy is being so cautious with even a cargo hauler, than something must be wrong. That guy was just trying to do his job, it''s nothing to get worked up about." "I know but it still rubs me the wrong way." I sighed. "Get over it Sam. We''ve still got some stuff to do." "Fine." Came Sam''s curt response. I didn''t pay any attention to it. So long as Sam stopped harping on the dude, I didn''t mind. Complaining was fine, I didn''t like the guy either. However, I was more concerned with the raised security than anything else. During the voyage to Warden, we passed by five frigates and two destroyers that were currently holding above Warden. It was a fairly good number of ships for such an out of the way outpost. The ship started to shake as we hit atmosphere. Our cargo ship was shaped like a brick and was simply not meant for aerodynamics. I let gravity pull the ship downwards, not wanting to waste the fuel. The navigational shields helped disperse the friction from the plummet but even still, the belly of the ship turned slightly red as the heat from entering the atmosphere overwhelmed the shields. The ship shook as we fell through the atmosphere. I activated the thrusters when I was six miles above the surface of Warden. The ship was able to overcome its velocity by the time we were a mile above the spaceport. Following the navy-officer-with-a-stick-up-his-butt''s flight plan, I extended the landing gear and brought the ship to a slow hover above the designated tarmac below. Lowering the thrust, I landed gently on the runway. I could see close to twenty fighters parked on the tarmac around us. It was pretty much the standard operating procedure after that. A navy officer along with several workers came out and greeted us before boarding our ship. They took the military-grade processors and computer chips using the simple pallet they brought. After confirming payment, I asked for a departure flight path and soon we were on our way. We had just cleared the atmosphere when Sam decided to pipe-up. "Hey Tony, I thought we were going to get some fuel and atmo at Warden?" I face palmed. "Yeah, yeah we were." I groaned before glancing at the system. "Well, we should be okay by all standards. We''ll be running kinda low but we''ll definitely have enough to make it to all our stops. How about you remind me next time?" Sam''s impish voice came over the comms. "How about you pick up your chess pieces next time." I grimaced. "Touche." He was certainly getting cheeky, that much was for certain. The next stop was Void System 0319. The system had a binary star and two rocky planets. Due to the planets'' closeness to the sun and their surface temperatures, mining operations were considered limited. A research station was holding orbit above the twin suns. I wasn''t quite sure what they were researching, but I knew they paid a lot to replace their equipment. We didn''t touch down this time but attached to clamps on the outside of the station. I decompressed the cargo bay, venting the atmosphere out. A person pushing a large rectangular object flew out of an airlock on the station. The person''s flight adjusted as he closed in, a jet of iridescent plasma from the object slowing him down. The comms activated. "Hailing the ship Lone Wolf. My name is Garret Houldon and I am currently doing EVA with a hauler outside your ship. Please open your cargo bay to allow me to board and transport our tools." Huh. Scientists are a really wacky bunch. "I read you Garret. Cargo bay is decompressed but please allow us a moment to get everything ready for transportation." "Will do, Lone Wolf. Over and out." I tapped on my suits left arm, activating the helmet. The black suits we had on were actually quite sophisticated. The entire suit was composed of carbon-fiber nanites, very sturdy and strong. An oxygen reclaimer was located on the base of my neck and would provide around two days worth of air without any resupply before failing. The nanites of the suit stretched and remolded according to the suits settings. It looked as if a black liquid climbed my head, encompassing everything. There was no faceplate, only a faceless black surface. A display turned on inside the helmet, showing me outside world. It was as though there wasn''t a quarter inch of carbon-fiber separating me from everything else. The camera feed was provided in real-time with basically no delay from the nanites of the suit. The suit was one of the perks from being a retired Navy personnel. It was, mostly, bulletproof and the refractive coating helped with energy weapons. The black painting also helped with keeping a low profile in space. It had saved my life during the war. A heavy blaster round from a destroyer turret had ripped through the fuselage of my fighter. I had ejected from the ship and cleared the wreckage of my fighter as fast as possible. It was a basic tactic that the Navy instructors had drilled into us. Just because the ship was trashed, didn''t mean the enemy knew. Sure enough, three more blaster rounds punched through my fighter seconds after I cleared. Several pieces of shrapnel bounced off my suit, but nothing punctured through the carbon. After that, I had floated through space until the fight was over. I started broadcasting an emergency signal and was eventually picked up by a Navy shuttle. I loved the suit and was glad that the Navy had allowed me to keep it. I went to the back of the ship and started sorting out the cargo. The gravity was still on in the cargo bay so I wasn''t worried about the cargo floating around. After I sorted everything out, I lowered the cargo bay doors. The man that was floating around the ship flew in, landing on the deck. The box didn''t land with him but hovered beside him instead. Garret waved at me after coming in. "Hello mate. Everything ready for me to ship off then?" I nodded. "Sure is. Everything lit up green is yours." "I''ll get to work than, much obliged. The payment has been made, but we would like to request that you stay docked for about twenty minutes so that we can confirm everything works." "We can stay for that long, but any longer and we might not make it to our next delivery." "Alright. Don''t worry though, we''ll have you on your way in a jiffy." There was only three crates for the station. We now had only forty of our original sixty left. We''d had a full load before we were ambushed by the pirates. As Garret was unloading his crates, Sam''s voice came on over the comms. "Hey Tony, did you ask about the fuel?" Crap. Garret was in the middle of loading the second crate and I didn''t want to interrupt him. After it was strapped down, I hailed him on the comms. "Garret, is there any chance we could buy some fuel here? We''re running pretty low." Garret cocked his head before shaking. "Nope, sorry mate. We''re running pretty low ourselves. Actually, we''ve got a fuel deposit scheduled for next week. Fraid you''re going to have to go somewhere else for fuel." I sighed. "It''s fine Garret. We have enough to go to a few more stops before we run completely out. Sorry to bother you." "No problem mate. Anyway, I gotta get this last crate and then you can be on your jolly way, alright?" "That''ll be great." I quickly ended up in the Pilot bubble again, watching Garret going into the station. I twiddled my thumbs and watched the twin suns circling around one another in the distance. The red and yellow flames of the two suns entangled with another, blending together in a spectacular show of stellar forces. Even though they were almost fifty million miles away, they looked close enough to touch. While I was admiring the view, Garret called and told me that the equipment all worked fine. Signing off, I asked the station to release the clamps and then we were back off into the void of warpspace. Another four hours later and we were in the Voltrax system. It was another GSOC company station that had requested a supply run. Mining stations usually had fabricators there and would use raw materials brought in to the miners to make anything they needed. The only exceptions to this were food, fuel, and electronics. Fabricators were good for making hull plating, but they weren''t so good at making circuits or data chips. Plastic was a very rare commodity in space after all. All GSOC stations were built the same. Flying into the bay at the bottom of the station, we quickly unloaded our cargo. This time, I didn''t forget to ask for fuel. They subtracted the fuel cost from the payment from our shipment and we also paid for docking overnight. Going aboard the station, we split up. I asked around soon found a pretty nice room to stay in. I called Sam but he had already booked a different room. We were going to play around at a Zero-G court but the court was already booked that night for a boxing match. Sam said it was alright since he was feeling pretty tired anyway. I went out to a restaurant and bought a simple cheeseburger and fries. While our ship had some supplies, the only thing we could use to heat up everything was a microwave. Our food was lacking, to say the least. After I ate, I went back to the room and passed out. The pirate attack had occured at ten in the morning and we had just arrived at the station at around six in the evening. It had been an exhausting day. Chapter 3 "What did you say!!" Admiral Belthos yelled at the communications officer. The Admiral''s thin body shook with emotion as he awaited the officer''s response." The man he was yelling at quivered. "I''m sorry admiral but your brother, Squadron Commander Belthos, has passed away." Admiral Belthos sat down in his chair. One of the attendants approached him. "Admiral," she said softly "do you need anything?" The Admiral sat there for a second before nodding. "Leave me. All of you, leave me." The attendant nodded and retreated. She walked off the bridge, along with several bridge officers and guards. Admiral Belthos was grand name before the war, the genius war tactician of the Empire. The Empire had fallen, but his ambitions had not. After the United Federation''s fleets took the capital, and killed the Emperor, the war had been declared over. Belthos was not content with such an ending and instead gathered all of the Empire''s scattered fleets. He disappeared from known space and the Federation had been hunting him ever since. He stared off into space, the twinkling stars displayed on the viewport of the Armoured Battleship The Kraken. Admiral Belthos had no idea what to do. His brother had been very close to him, even if he had been a little hot-headed. His brother had been on a robbery mission. He was supposed to rob cargo vessels as they traveled through the Veltrus system. His brother''s squadron of three Raven-Class Fighters should have been enough to handle such a task and the freight hauler would have docked with the cargo ships to transfer the cargo. It had been a necessary job since they were cut off from supplies. The only way to refuel and repair was to plunder cargo like pirates of old, along with several systems that were still loyal to the empire. Such a job was easy, especially since they would have been inside the warp boundary, safe from Navy pursuit. Their fighters were agile and fast, able to escape far before the Navy would reach them. So why had his brother been killed? The question haunted Admiral Belthos as he remembered his brother''s passion for flying and exploring space. Tears trickled down Belthos'' face as he recalled who his brother had been. After a few minutes, he recollected himself. It was not appropriate for the last Admiral of the Imperial Armada to be crying, even if his brother had passed away.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. He called his attendants back in after recovering his composure. His voice sounded out, disturbingly calm. "Communications officer. Please tell me of the exact manner in which my brother died." His voice caught slightly on the word brother but his face remained deathly still. The officer was nervous, but still relayed the information. "I received a report from the freight hauler that was assigned to Raven Squadron 6. It was posing as another merchant, which allowed it to observe the following report. They were attacking a cargo hauler named Lone Wolf with little success. The cargo hauler was alone and without escort which was why it was chosen." The cargo hauler was being piloted by someone very experienced and was able to avoid being hit by plasma fire. They called on the Navy and they sent a Freedom-class Destroyer Hammerhead." Admiral Belthos slammed his fist into the arm of his chair. That''s what went wrong. The Freedom-class were the newest ships of the Federation. They were updated with more powerful tachyon drives, allowing them to jump further into the system than other ship. Their spies hadn''t warned them of a Freedom-Class Destroyer, causing them to be caught off guard. The communication officer had paused after the Admiral let out his anger. He continued on though once the Admiral gestured at him. "The destroyer warped in less than five miles from the three fighters and launched EMP missiles. The three fighters were disabled and then brought onboard the vessel." Admiral Belthos stood up. "If he is captured, there is still hope. The Federation doesn''t use the death penalty so we should be able to rescue him." The communication officer shook his head. "One of our spies is located on the planet where they were dropping off the prisons. The fighter that your brother was piloting had an overload when the EMP hit. It opened the fighter''s cockpit, causing an explosive decompression event. The EMP shut down the ship''s oxygen reclaimer and your brother''s suit only had ten minutes of air. The Navy brought the fighters on-board twenty minutes after the EMP. By this time, your brother had died of asphyxiation." The Admiral let out a ragged breath. Dying in space because of no oxygen was every spacer''s nightmare. Imagining his brother ending up like that tore his heart to shreds. His tactical officer leaned over. "Sir, should we try to destroy the Hammerhead? Admiral Belthos shook his head. "No. By doing that we risk leading the Federation back to us. We cannot let them find the shadow planets. We cannot risk it." His hands were balled into fists, small droplets of blood dripping to the floor as his nails cut into his palm. "Officer, you said that the cargo hauler was called Lone Wolf? The communications officer nodded. "Yes Sir." Admiral Belthos nodded. "Good. See if our spies can find this Lone Wolf and place a tracker on the ship when you do. Order a destroyer captain to attack the ship when it is in an unnoticeable location. Attacking a Federation Destroyer would attract too much attention, but wiping out a cargo hauler shouldn''t raise too many eyebrows." Kindle Unlimited So, I didn''t keep to my deadline at all. Unfortunate, I was without access to electronics until just yesterday. This means that I haven''t done any editing whatsoever except for the past two days. I''m currently on page 90 of 236 pages in google docs. Since I was able to think about what I''ve wrote for about two weeks now, I''m actually going to majorly revamping the last action scene, giving it more peril and adding different perspectives into the battle. I don''t know when it will be done, but the earliest it should be done is by the end of this week, which is the deadline I''m aiming for.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Anyway, KU. I have applied for KU and taken down the rest of the chapters, as you can clearly see, in order to not be declined right away. The second I am done editing and revamping the book, I''ll make a post here and update the manuscript for the KU edition. I hope if any of you that are already subscribed check it out, and if you aren''t, then you are really missing out. Hundreds of Sci-Fi and Lit-rpg books availale to download for 10$ a month? It''s a great deal for a reader who would otherwise spend around 50$ buying all the books. Anways, enough advertisements. Please support me by buying or renting the book, hope you enjoy, and good luck finding a story you like after this one.