Two Sides of One Coin [Luke - Part 3]
19 Jan 2017Luke3107
Luke was fed up. Sure, his Asp got him to the Achenar region quickly enough, but without a specific system to search, finding this Cutter could take hours, even DAYS!!!! It certainly didn't help that ship names weren't given on the Target Panel. It gave you the CMDR Name, Ship Type, Factions, Shield and Hull Readouts.... But not the name of the ship itself.So not only did he have to find an Imperial Cutter amongst the dozens of Supercruise signals he then had to ask each one he did find, if they'd named their ship the INS Onyx. Which more often than not just got him an abusive message back for asking stupid questions. His favourite one was a brief back and forth with a Pilots Federation CMDR.
"Who the hell NAMES their ships these days?" He'd asked
"Lots of people name their ships" Luke retorted
"Lots of assholes...." Was the simple response he'd gotten before the Cutter had High Waked out of the system.
So now he was an asshole in a ship named for the sake of a pun. That didn't bother him much though. What bothered him more was how pointlessly vague the message had been. Why not give him a Pilots name? Or a destination??? No, THAT would have been too bloody simple. He hit his fist against the cushioning of the cockpit seat to try and vent some of the irritation building up inside him.
Asking around in two more systems yielded the same results, by this point, he was just ready to purge the data and fly off to do something easier and less stressful, such as fly a Sidewinder laden with Painite through a Pirate infested Haz Res zone.
As he jumped into a fourth system he'd reached the point where his frustration took over. *To hell with it, they want their data, come get it* He thought, switching to his comms panel and broadcasting a system wide message.
I'm looking for an INS Onyx. I have news from Earl Macruik
A moment passed with no response as he tapped his fingers on his armrest impatiently. Giving up, he brought up his Transactions Panel and went to cancel the contract and start purging the data when he got a ping on his Comms Chat. A direct message had been sent to him.
This is INS Onyx. Drop out of Supercruoise and we'll follow your wake
Finally, something had gone right. He turned to face away from the star and flew a short distance, mainly to make sure that when it was time to leave, his ship wouldn't overheat, but also to make them work a bit to get to him. A small, but slightly satisfying bit of revenge for the several hours of crap he'd put in. A private message popped up again.
Do not force us to Interdict you. We repeat, drop out of Supercruise or we will be forced to take violent measures
*Alright, keep your hair on* Thought Luke as he slowed his ship to a safe drop out speed and disengaged the Frame Shift Drive. Moments later there were several loud bangs as three Jet Black Imperial Couriers dropped out and took up positions around Lukes Asp. One each to the left and right of him and one directly behind. Several pop ups on his Information Panel told him they had all deployed hardpoints.
Please keep your ship stationary, power down your shields and leave your hardpoints stowed or we WILL open fire
Luke barely had time to react before a fourth bang announced the arrival of the Cutter. This vessel was also Jet Black. *I guess they gotta earn the name Onyx somehow right?* Luke grumbled in his head. As a comms notification popped up as he disabled his shield generator. This time for an incoming Voice Chat request. Luke accepted, and opened up the channel.
"CMDR Luke3107 here. Thanks for the welcome party, I just love guns to my head when I arrive to complete missions I didn't ask for..." He practically spat the words. Not only had he spent the best part of a day searching for a ship that clearly wasn't looking to be found, but now he had found them they were more than prepared to blast his ship apart if he so much as toggled the wrong switch.
"Apologies CMDR." Came back the heavily modulated voice, almost robotic but you could tell it was a person on the other end. "In our line of work there is every need to be careful. You say you have news of Earl Macruik, we believed you enough to speak." There was no way to tell if the voice was male or female, never mind an accent. Luke didn't care though, he was just glad this was going to be over.
"I hava a data download from what I believed was a black box from a conflict zone near the Yakabugai System. It simply said to find you, and say Earl Macruik is dead and to initiate Protocol 19." He stated matter of factly. "I am sending the data over now."
A minute passed as the files transferred from the Asps Storage to the Cutters. Nothing was said the entire time, but as long as they didn't open fire, Luke would gladly sit like this for an hour. In fact, the silrence made it feel like he had been sat there for an hour before a beep signalled that the data had been transferred.
"Thank you CMDR. We trust you will purge whatever data remains on your systems and deny all knowledge of this meeting." Stated the voice. Before even awaiting a response, the connection was cut abd several messages popped up in Lukes info panel signalling that the Couriers had all retracted their hardpoints and were now charging up their Frame Shift Drives.
Taking this as a sign he was free to go, Luke reactivated his shields and began charging his own FSD. Feeling he may as well head to a nearby planet and park his ship for a few hours sleep. Four loud bangs went off around him as the vessels all left his area of space and Luke watched as the ring around his shield strength indicator filled up. They were still weak but they were on. Just as Luke located a suitable planet to land on another bang filled the area.
*Now what???* Luke looked up from his panel in time to see a Python circle round in front of him, Hardpoints deployed. A message popped up on his comms panel.
Don't touch anything else, or I open fire. I want everything you have on Earl Macruik
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Authors Note: Follow Liliths perspective here. Or alternatively, Luke and Liliths stories link together in the next chapter which you can read by cloicking 'Newer Logbook Entry' below. As always, thanks for reading!!!