Hardwired
two.
The first shot rocked her ship, the alarms that were blaring before paused when the ship’s electricity flickered before it began thundering louder, the whole of the ship bathed in red light as the emergency systems kicked on.
Kaja returned fire, the blaster system of her ship taking several moments to draw power from less essential components before landing a direct hit to Rickenn’s ship, she whooped in short celebration as she fired up her engines, the two of them whirring to life as she immediately slammed forward on the throttle. The ship jerked dramatically before shooting forward, shaking loose the catwalk that Rickenn had already deployed.
She maneuvered her ship expertly around the piece of space junk she had just salvaged. It wasn’t the first time she had to lose someone; it was common knowledge she wasn’t able to hold onto a crew and often flew alone, making her the easiest target in the Yuhunr Galaxy.
Her comm buzzed and Rickenn’s expletives flooded her ears, “You human mutt, I swear I’m going to blow your head apart with my blaster.”
Kaja couldn’t help but loud out loud, even as she prepared the hyperdrive, praying silently that the engines would hold, “I must have really fucked something up on your ship to get you all hot and bothered. You know words like that get me all worked up, Rickenn,” she taunted, watching the horizon as she continued to round Pilerea Si II.
Ricken cursed at her over the comm in Kvasirian, his native tongue, just as she felt the blast from behind. Kaja checked her defense system and saw that it was in the last stages of malfunction, and knew she couldn’t take another blow. If she did The Culprit would likely lose an engine.
She armed her blasters again; the lights of the ship dimmed before they completely turned off as she routed all power to the weapons. The distinctive vibration of the blasters rattled the whole cabin before they fired; she heard the blast hit over the comm and Rickenn’s defensive alarms beeping incessantly on the other end.
“Have fun piecing your ship together now, you frakking oillick!” Kaja yelled at him as she broke from the darkside of Pilerea Si II and Pharsouk came into view. Taking off the helmet, she disabled her comm and tossed it back onto the dash with a sigh before disengaging her weapon systems. Unstrapping from the Captain’s chair she did a quick check of all the gauges, several of them in the red, more than one system stressed beyond operation.
Kaja couldn’t afford stressed systems, it meant that her ship wouldn’t make it to Veron without first landing on Pharsouk for fuel and maintenance, “Fucking Rickenn,” she cursed as she pushed a hand through her curly hair. From the looks of her systems without actually taking apart anything it would be weeks before she was able to get to Veron to sell off the salvaged parts, weeks she couldn’t afford.
Walking back towards the cargo hold, Kaja decided to assess the damage to the hull of the ship. If it was too bad she wouldn’t be able to land in Euryale and would instead have to dock on at the Ulan Station location the opposite side of Pharsouk.
Kaja was knocked off her feet when a blast hit her ship, her body crashing violently against the hard wall of the hull before she landed on the floor another blast rocked the ship. Despite the pain in her side, Kaja scrambled to her feet trying to reach the cockpit before her ship was blown to bits with her on it.
She broke the threshold of the cockpit as another blast sent her flying face-first into the command console, her head colliding with the dash painfully. Kaja groaned and grabbed her head, feeling the blood rushing between her fingers from the no doubt gaping wound. Lifting herself slowly, she punched a few buttons as she tried to arm the weapons systems again but they wouldn’t respond.
The ship rocked as Rickenn’s ship deployed their catwalk, bridging the gap between the ships. Kaja limped to the far end of the cockpit to grab two handheld blasters from the holsters mounted on the wall, turning the settings from stun to execute. She could hear the plasma cutters piercing her hull and her anger piqued, if Rickenn wanted to play dirty, she would blow another hole in his chest, this time she intended to kill him.
Snatching her helmet off the floor of the cockpit she situated it over her head, ignoring the blood that still freely poured from her wound. The helmet conformed around her neck as she shuffled towards the glow the plasma cutter radiated, she could see the circle forming almost completely closing.
Kaja lifted the blasters pointing both at the hole, waiting patiently. The glow died just as the six inch thick hull of her ship fell into itself, the loud bang of the circular piece of wall hitting the grated floor was deafening.
The first person that stepped through the hole was blasted square in the chest with her first shot, yells and curses rang out as he flew backwards into the group assembled behind him. Blaster fire was returned and she managed to dodge the first shot before the second shot crippled her, hitting her high on her thigh. Kaja continued to fire until her blasters were out of charge and she fell to the ground on a bent knee.
Kaja watched as the crew of The Thrule Tereshkova boarded her ship, the injured ones staying outside and the dead ones no doubt left floating where they fell. The first figured touched a button on their bracer to lighten the blast shield of their helmet, the features were reptilian in nature. Green skin covered in scales, oval eyes with thin black slits, no nose to speak of except for two holes directly in the center of his ugly face.
“Rickenn, I’ll fuckin’ kill you,” Kaja seethed as she dropped on dead blaster to the floor to grip her side, bracing herself as she slowly stood tall.
She could see him smile, his forked tongue snaking out briefly before he spoke, “Your blasters are dead, not much else you can kill me with.”
“I’ll beat you to death with my damn fists if I have to,” Kaja yelled at him, “Fight me like a man, you slimy snake!”
“Where’s the load, Kaja? I know you offloaded that ship before we got there,” he asked her ignoring her threat and subsequent challenge. “Come on, your old man and I salvaged together, show me the same respect he did and I won’t kill you.”
“My old man was as much of a loser as you and wouldn’t listen to me when I told him you were ripping him off on the prices; there is no way a Ionic Input Modifier was only eight hundred credits, it was more like one thousand fifty!” She hissed at him before adding, “And kill me. I’d rather die than have you leave me and my ship drifting. I spent a week circling Ja’Quen the last time.”
Rickenn scoffed, “Markets change, definately on Veron and drifting is better than me hollowing out your ship and jettisoning you. I bet you wouldn’t be towed in then.” Tilting his head to the man on his left he said, “Check everything, it’ll be close at hand.”
Kaja watched intently as the other Kvasirians searched the cargo hold, their search sending them closer and closer to the bags filled with the salvaged components, “Come on, Rickenn, this is my haul! You can’t do this to me. I need the credits, definately after you just fucked up my ship!”
He laughed, “Yeah, I did. You lost an engine too, it's probably halfway to Pilerea Si III by now.”
“I got a bag full of weapons components!” one of them called as he dug through a bag, “And shield guards. Damn! That ship was loaded down.”
Kaja glared daggers at the man reading off a list of all the parts she had found before turning her attention to Rickenn, “You really did hit Byrinium with that junker, huh?” He asked as he wandered over towards the group of his men going through the bags, grabbing out a converter coupling and magnetic gravity regulator and tossed them at her feet, “That will at least buy you a few necessity when you get towed topside.”
“You’re a son of a bitch,” Kaja growled as she looked down at the two parts at her feet. It was meager, chump credits compared to what she had forecasted her haul to be.
Rickenn opened his mouth to reply but quickly shut it, his hand going to his bracer as he pressed a few buttons and let out a curse, “It’s the Enforcers, they’ve locked onto my ships signal.”
Fear struck Kaja at Rickenn’s words, more fear than floating endlessly through space for all time, “Are you fucking shitting me? I fucking told you! I told you that you were gonna give away our coordinates.”
“Grab the haul and let's get out of here!” Rickenn called to his crew over his shoulder, “As always, Kaja, it was nice seeing you.”
“Fuck you, Rickenn. You dirty snake! You can’t leave me here? Do you know what the hell they’ll do to me?!” she yelled at him, advancing even though his blaster was still pointed at her. The bounty on her head was nearing astronomical, well, not her head specifically. The bounty had been written out for the captain of The Culprit long before she had taken over, crimes from her father’s past coming back to bite her in the ass. “Come on, Rickenn, take me with you and drop me in Veron.”
Rickenn barked a laugh, “Wouldn’t happen even if you were the most sexed piece of Jeraxian pussy there was. Guess you’re testing your luck with the I.E.C. today. See you around,” he told her as he backed out of the hole in the side of her ship before calling over his shoulder, “Or not!” Kaja limped towards the hole just as the catwalk retracted and moments later The Thrule Tereshkova came to life and flew past, disappearing as it entered hyperspace.
Kaja leaned against the side of her ship and stared out at the endless abyss of space, at all the suns and moons staring back at her even as the sight of the Intergalactic Enforcement Corps ship came into view.
Kaja returned fire, the blaster system of her ship taking several moments to draw power from less essential components before landing a direct hit to Rickenn’s ship, she whooped in short celebration as she fired up her engines, the two of them whirring to life as she immediately slammed forward on the throttle. The ship jerked dramatically before shooting forward, shaking loose the catwalk that Rickenn had already deployed.
She maneuvered her ship expertly around the piece of space junk she had just salvaged. It wasn’t the first time she had to lose someone; it was common knowledge she wasn’t able to hold onto a crew and often flew alone, making her the easiest target in the Yuhunr Galaxy.
Her comm buzzed and Rickenn’s expletives flooded her ears, “You human mutt, I swear I’m going to blow your head apart with my blaster.”
Kaja couldn’t help but loud out loud, even as she prepared the hyperdrive, praying silently that the engines would hold, “I must have really fucked something up on your ship to get you all hot and bothered. You know words like that get me all worked up, Rickenn,” she taunted, watching the horizon as she continued to round Pilerea Si II.
Ricken cursed at her over the comm in Kvasirian, his native tongue, just as she felt the blast from behind. Kaja checked her defense system and saw that it was in the last stages of malfunction, and knew she couldn’t take another blow. If she did The Culprit would likely lose an engine.
She armed her blasters again; the lights of the ship dimmed before they completely turned off as she routed all power to the weapons. The distinctive vibration of the blasters rattled the whole cabin before they fired; she heard the blast hit over the comm and Rickenn’s defensive alarms beeping incessantly on the other end.
“Have fun piecing your ship together now, you frakking oillick!” Kaja yelled at him as she broke from the darkside of Pilerea Si II and Pharsouk came into view. Taking off the helmet, she disabled her comm and tossed it back onto the dash with a sigh before disengaging her weapon systems. Unstrapping from the Captain’s chair she did a quick check of all the gauges, several of them in the red, more than one system stressed beyond operation.
Kaja couldn’t afford stressed systems, it meant that her ship wouldn’t make it to Veron without first landing on Pharsouk for fuel and maintenance, “Fucking Rickenn,” she cursed as she pushed a hand through her curly hair. From the looks of her systems without actually taking apart anything it would be weeks before she was able to get to Veron to sell off the salvaged parts, weeks she couldn’t afford.
Walking back towards the cargo hold, Kaja decided to assess the damage to the hull of the ship. If it was too bad she wouldn’t be able to land in Euryale and would instead have to dock on at the Ulan Station location the opposite side of Pharsouk.
Kaja was knocked off her feet when a blast hit her ship, her body crashing violently against the hard wall of the hull before she landed on the floor another blast rocked the ship. Despite the pain in her side, Kaja scrambled to her feet trying to reach the cockpit before her ship was blown to bits with her on it.
She broke the threshold of the cockpit as another blast sent her flying face-first into the command console, her head colliding with the dash painfully. Kaja groaned and grabbed her head, feeling the blood rushing between her fingers from the no doubt gaping wound. Lifting herself slowly, she punched a few buttons as she tried to arm the weapons systems again but they wouldn’t respond.
The ship rocked as Rickenn’s ship deployed their catwalk, bridging the gap between the ships. Kaja limped to the far end of the cockpit to grab two handheld blasters from the holsters mounted on the wall, turning the settings from stun to execute. She could hear the plasma cutters piercing her hull and her anger piqued, if Rickenn wanted to play dirty, she would blow another hole in his chest, this time she intended to kill him.
Snatching her helmet off the floor of the cockpit she situated it over her head, ignoring the blood that still freely poured from her wound. The helmet conformed around her neck as she shuffled towards the glow the plasma cutter radiated, she could see the circle forming almost completely closing.
Kaja lifted the blasters pointing both at the hole, waiting patiently. The glow died just as the six inch thick hull of her ship fell into itself, the loud bang of the circular piece of wall hitting the grated floor was deafening.
The first person that stepped through the hole was blasted square in the chest with her first shot, yells and curses rang out as he flew backwards into the group assembled behind him. Blaster fire was returned and she managed to dodge the first shot before the second shot crippled her, hitting her high on her thigh. Kaja continued to fire until her blasters were out of charge and she fell to the ground on a bent knee.
Kaja watched as the crew of The Thrule Tereshkova boarded her ship, the injured ones staying outside and the dead ones no doubt left floating where they fell. The first figured touched a button on their bracer to lighten the blast shield of their helmet, the features were reptilian in nature. Green skin covered in scales, oval eyes with thin black slits, no nose to speak of except for two holes directly in the center of his ugly face.
“Rickenn, I’ll fuckin’ kill you,” Kaja seethed as she dropped on dead blaster to the floor to grip her side, bracing herself as she slowly stood tall.
She could see him smile, his forked tongue snaking out briefly before he spoke, “Your blasters are dead, not much else you can kill me with.”
“I’ll beat you to death with my damn fists if I have to,” Kaja yelled at him, “Fight me like a man, you slimy snake!”
“Where’s the load, Kaja? I know you offloaded that ship before we got there,” he asked her ignoring her threat and subsequent challenge. “Come on, your old man and I salvaged together, show me the same respect he did and I won’t kill you.”
“My old man was as much of a loser as you and wouldn’t listen to me when I told him you were ripping him off on the prices; there is no way a Ionic Input Modifier was only eight hundred credits, it was more like one thousand fifty!” She hissed at him before adding, “And kill me. I’d rather die than have you leave me and my ship drifting. I spent a week circling Ja’Quen the last time.”
Rickenn scoffed, “Markets change, definately on Veron and drifting is better than me hollowing out your ship and jettisoning you. I bet you wouldn’t be towed in then.” Tilting his head to the man on his left he said, “Check everything, it’ll be close at hand.”
Kaja watched intently as the other Kvasirians searched the cargo hold, their search sending them closer and closer to the bags filled with the salvaged components, “Come on, Rickenn, this is my haul! You can’t do this to me. I need the credits, definately after you just fucked up my ship!”
He laughed, “Yeah, I did. You lost an engine too, it's probably halfway to Pilerea Si III by now.”
“I got a bag full of weapons components!” one of them called as he dug through a bag, “And shield guards. Damn! That ship was loaded down.”
Kaja glared daggers at the man reading off a list of all the parts she had found before turning her attention to Rickenn, “You really did hit Byrinium with that junker, huh?” He asked as he wandered over towards the group of his men going through the bags, grabbing out a converter coupling and magnetic gravity regulator and tossed them at her feet, “That will at least buy you a few necessity when you get towed topside.”
“You’re a son of a bitch,” Kaja growled as she looked down at the two parts at her feet. It was meager, chump credits compared to what she had forecasted her haul to be.
Rickenn opened his mouth to reply but quickly shut it, his hand going to his bracer as he pressed a few buttons and let out a curse, “It’s the Enforcers, they’ve locked onto my ships signal.”
Fear struck Kaja at Rickenn’s words, more fear than floating endlessly through space for all time, “Are you fucking shitting me? I fucking told you! I told you that you were gonna give away our coordinates.”
“Grab the haul and let's get out of here!” Rickenn called to his crew over his shoulder, “As always, Kaja, it was nice seeing you.”
“Fuck you, Rickenn. You dirty snake! You can’t leave me here? Do you know what the hell they’ll do to me?!” she yelled at him, advancing even though his blaster was still pointed at her. The bounty on her head was nearing astronomical, well, not her head specifically. The bounty had been written out for the captain of The Culprit long before she had taken over, crimes from her father’s past coming back to bite her in the ass. “Come on, Rickenn, take me with you and drop me in Veron.”
Rickenn barked a laugh, “Wouldn’t happen even if you were the most sexed piece of Jeraxian pussy there was. Guess you’re testing your luck with the I.E.C. today. See you around,” he told her as he backed out of the hole in the side of her ship before calling over his shoulder, “Or not!” Kaja limped towards the hole just as the catwalk retracted and moments later The Thrule Tereshkova came to life and flew past, disappearing as it entered hyperspace.
Kaja leaned against the side of her ship and stared out at the endless abyss of space, at all the suns and moons staring back at her even as the sight of the Intergalactic Enforcement Corps ship came into view.