Realities of Salvage.
02 May 2022Willow Thorn
After my experience at the Galactic, and like 10 more restart job for people in random systems, I rearmed myself and got a new ship. I’ve been chased off a few work sites by scavengers, and in one time, they destroyed my Scarab and like seriously shot the shit out of my little Winder before I managed to get it out of range. So I’m the proud owner of a Diamondback Explorer, and a new Dominator suit with like enough guns to fight a war. There are good credits in cleaning out abandoned sites, but the scumbags of the universe know it as well. So I’ve been looking into other ways to make my doubloons, and I have found that rich and lazy commanders have an in for me and my chosen profession.
Ok so there’s like a bunch of stay-on-boards with enough booty to get themselves a capital class ship, and they like, place orders for the parts they need for customising their equipment. Some of them are offering like, three or four times market value for the parts I can pick up doing what I do.
So I don’t know if it is them being lazy or spreading the wealth, but I’m not about to like bite the hand that could be feeding me, I’m going shut up and get to work. With a list of the best offers on my pad, I set off looking for contracts that could give me what the carrier commanders want.
There was this guy looking for someone with a ship to go pick up his sister from the planet like 63 light seconds away from the station, and he was offering a couple of data files I was looking for, and promised me normal salvage rights. So like, I took that contract real quick and checked out the details on the way.
Her distress beacon had activated, and her comms were dead. It could be a malfunction that caused her to use the beacon, but like, that’s almost never the case when someone is on the surface. I start with a fly buy, and there’s no activity from an SRV. It’s freezing cold down there, and black as the grave, so I hover over the beacon and take a look.
So I already know what I’m going to find when I land, but a contract is a contract and the guy is like, not going to want to hear it, but he’s going to want to know. If there was anyone alive, they would have done something to get my attention. Keeping The Wisp's light on the SRV, I land and drop out my ship for a fingertip investigation.
So I found Jayden Franklin and as I suspected, she’s dead. This is like, the part of the job I was lumbered with by my brothers. It’s not that I like dealing with the dead, I like just can deal with them. When you’re the smallest member of the work crew by like almost three feet, you can get into all the tight spaces of a wreck, and that’s where you find the ones that didn't make it, so I got used to it.
Like I took the pictures and filled in the insurance evaluation form, now its time to get to work for me. It’s mercenary as fuck, but I have to make a living, and Jayden doesn’t need it any more. As agreed with her brother, salvage rights are mine. Salvage crews get called all sorts of names, like Vulture, Jackal, skav and the one I kinda like. Ghoul. The way I see it, there's worse people out there by far, but I guess when you claim the property of dead people, it's hard to see past that.
While I cut open the SRVs hatch, I try to piece together what happened here. Best I can say is something like, shifty. This place is like, so close to the station, I can see it in the sky and I can tell its rotating. At a guess, she was here to make a black market trade judging by the open goods create, and it went bad. Like, I’m not putting that on the form because she’s lost her life and her ship, so her brother doesn’t need another bill because I was honest. Besides, the deceased woman’s SRV gave me a big ticket item.
Power Regulators are like a fuse, a battery and a jump starter all in one, and I got charged 100k for stealing a reg on my first independent job, even though I didn't steal it. Those Carrier Commanders are paying like 400k for these, so like now I wish I had stolen it. Even after paying the fine, and losing the pay, I'd have been 200k up. So, with everything I can do done, I take the last pictures Daryl will need and leave.
I like, wish I could bring his sister back for him, but in this universe, procedure must be respected, or like, someone will fine him for being distraught, and like wishing to give his sister a respectful send-off before the authorities have done their investigation. So this part is the hardest part, but also another job the family laid on me. Like, I'm not good enough to meet the clients because I'm so morbid and creepy, but like, I'm perfect for telling relatives what has happened to their loved ones. Right, ok what ever. It's true, but now I got a head full of a thousand faces reacting to that news.
So I can read this guy, and he cares for his sister, this one is going to be messy. Already he's looking nervous because I've come back alone. I have to think of me, so before I take him to a quiet place to talk, I show him the pictures and transfer the completed evaluation form and get paid. Before he can read the evaluation, I take his hand and we go sit down.
You don't need to read this part, it's like privet and hard on the guy. But like I do what I can for him in my almost emotionless detached way, and add another face to my memory locker. I wonder what will happen to me when that is full