The Raven's Birth
30 Apr 2021Benito Stone
After twenty plus jumps in that heap and all the side trips for refueling I arrived at the system I was given by Sam and found myself in the middle of a damn war zone. The system was buzzing with military ships and fleeing civi ships. I targeted the ID of the carrier they told me to meet at and found it just outside the fighting. That carrier was one of the biggest things I'd ever seen in my life outside a prison mega-ship. Add to that the Cutter lifting off as I arrived and I felt like I was a fly landing on the back of a Rhino. Way more cops buzzing around than I expected too. Thankfully they did not seem interested in me. I was cleared into the hanger and some chunky little guy came out to tell me to wait here and the old man would be out to see me shortly. Hells the power games get tiresome. I really just want a bunk and glass of something to get drunk with.Meeting "the old man" was a trip. Not at all what I expected for an Imp, In fact if he was a born imperial then I'm Lord of the Galaxy. Didn't beat around the bush. Said I was extracted from the prison moon on the request of the family of the little imperial piece of tail that got my whole crew dead or scattered to the winds. Seems they heard what became of me after getting picked up by the Imps and felt they had to fix it. So they asked this guy to see if he could arrange the job. I honestly have no idea what to feel about that. Imps run around wrecking lives day in and day out so I have no idea what makes them decide to bankroll the break-out of some smuggler. I mean don't get me wrong here... I'm happy never to see that damn ice mine again, and I'm not angry at them really. I mean I told the boss getting involved in this job would be our undoing and he decided to go at it anyway. Not their fault they wanted to keep their kid away from the the little perv politician that wanted to press her into a slave. But, my best friend is now floating somewhere in the void. My old life is over and I'll never see the kid I had again and they were the authors of all of it.
Anyway, the thing that floored me was when he said I was setup with a ship from a nearby port. Said to go see Marco and he'd have something a step up from this bucket of crap I could fly. I said, "No thanks", since I was not interested in being a pilot for him. As much to test where this little relationship was headed as much as it was true. To my surprise he said the ship was not a loaner nor a company ship. It was mine. That those were the wishes of the girls Grandmother. Well. "Fuck me", I mean Imps or not, I have admit the girls people were straight up. He transferred the 1 million credits she left for me over and we parted with a handshake and he said he knew my record from before and there might be jobs along my lines down the road, but no obligation. Seemed like a decent guy to know. I asked about the woman who had flown me out in that Clipper. I guess her name was Kayley and he said she was flying that black Cutter to a combat zone. Also said she had planned out the extraction from the prison. Damn. Was hoping to get another look. A kick-ass pilot, raid planner, and a looker
So another 5 jumps in the crap box got me to Marco at the shipyard. I guess he had a gently used Cobra that the grandmother's money would cover. The thing was a dog of a ship. Stripped bare other than core decent thrusters and FSD. I was checking it out when I spotted a Viper MK4 parked at the back. He said it's thrusters and sensors were shot to shit and it was mostly stripped out, figured I'd be happier with the Cobra. Thing is, I hate that damn ship, flown it several times and never could learn to love it. The Viper was a bit more of a pig flying but didn't feel like flying a tupper-ware lid. A Viper MK4 would go a long way towards a decent ship to pick up some smuggling work.
So I spent a week at the yard working on swapping the modules from the Cobra over to the the Viper. Some extra money from cartographics got me some decent core modules to replace the stripped out stuff I couldn't get from the Cobra. Marco offered a decent deal on painting her up for me.
"What do you want to name her", Marco asked.
"Raven", I said after a moment.
"Ahh the blackbird from Earth", Marco nodded.
"Nah mate, the Escort in Piasa", I chuckled. Serious.... look her up sometime. Change your life man.
