(Til Death Do Us Part) 1: Prologue
14 Jan 2023Silvia Sharpe
This logbook series will take place throughout the year and will finish on December 31st of 2023. The events of this will follow my commander Venus Duval and her wife Silvia through a hostage, revenge, tragedy. I will attempt to upload every week. Thank you all and I hope you enjoy! If you wish to take part in this project please message me privately and we can see what we can work out.January 7, 3309
Silvia and her research partner Raya, are returning from an expedition in the Norma Arm having collected a few large fungal samples for their research team to analyze. The two are close to missing their return deadline. The 4T of samples they have onboard Longshot are some of the largest samples of Roseum Bioluminescent Anemone gathered and transported from EEPHAIM YJ-Z E1364.
Longshot drops out of hyperspace in Amenta Venus' birth system and the location of her family estate. Silvia is nervous about being in Imperial space in Venus' Krait Phantom. The two of them had not returned here since Venus had been wrongfully convicted of murder. Ava had told them to lay low for a while and keep out of imperial space for fear Venus' old squad mates may come after them. Silvia adjusts their course towards Amenta A6 to deliver the anemone samples to the research division in the northern province. Just as they are about to arrive at Amenta A6 a message comes through from system security and Longshot is interdicted.
'Submit to interdiction for a mandatory scan.'
Silvia complies and submits to the interdiction. She prepares the ships manifest for when they arrive at the research station. What she couldn't have known was the system security ship was a decoy and that a serious threat was lurking nearby in supercruise waiting for the signal to attack.
'Raya please head back and check on the samples and ensure they are secured.'
'You got it. I need to stretch my legs anyhow, been sitting for too long.'
Raya gets up and heads down to the cargo bay to ensure none of the samples had shifted and everything was still secured. While the ship is being scanned another ship drops from supercruise and targets Longshot.
"WARNING!!! Incoming missile."
"WARNING!!!!! Hatch breaker limpet incoming."
"Shields offline taking damage."
"WARNING!!! Incoming missile."
'RAYA!!!!!!! ACTIVATE YOUR MAG BOOTS NOW!!!!'
'SILVIA!!!!! THE CARGO IS........... SHUT THE......... AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!...............'
A blood curdling scream followed by a loud crashing sound is heard as Raya is struck by a large container being ejected from the cargo bay and crushes her lower half against the deck. The impact causes her to cough up blood and her spine is broken immediately paralyzing her from the waist down. As she is sucked out into the void a sample canister strikes her in the head shattering her emergency helmet causing her to suffocate to death.
Just before a final volley of frag cannon rounds meant to destroy Longshot strike, a single message pops up from Nicholas Grenshaw. One of the individuals who had testified against Venus during her trial and one of the people from her old military squad who wanted her dead.
'Hahaha. I've got you now Duval!'
The rounds impact the hull near the ships fuel cell rupturing the lining and spewing superheated plasma sparks set off the fuel causing detonation of the ship. The ships onboard A.I. Verity activates commander evac protocols.
"EJECT! EJECT! EJECT!"
The emergency escape pod deployment system slams shut around Silvia just as Longshot explodes. The force from the blast causes Silvia to strike her head against the side of the pod rendering her unconscious. The front glass shatters as a piece of the ships hull slams into the front of the escape pod. A shard of glass strikes Silvia in the face, just before her emergency helmet deploys, creating a deep laceration from the side of her mouth to just below her right eye.
Just as quickly as it started the attack was over. Longshot, an exploration vessel, stood no chance against an ambush ship like Grenshaw's Chieftan. Grenshaw scoops Silvia's escape pod up and a couple sample canisters, then disappears from the System. All that remains is the destroyed hull of Longshot, some of the sample canisters and Raya's corpse.
The system security ship sticks around for a bit and writes up a false report stating the ship had been stolen and the pilot attempted to flee with illegal cargo. The pilot states that the commander of the ship had initiated the self destruct sequence and was attempting to get to an escape pod before the explosion occurred. Firing a few plasma rounds at the cargo canisters and a couple well aimed shots at Raya's body they rid the scene of any contradictory evidence.
The pilot leaves the site and turns in her report to the lead security manager of the system. Once completed she heads off to meet up with Grenshaw and Diaz to check over the cargo haul.
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69 G. Carinae C 5 A Gardner point.
Grenshaw drops out of supercruise just above the outpost Diaz and his crew are setting up shop in. As Grenshaw is touching down Diaz calls over the comms.
'Grenshaw you're late. And where the fuck is Jules?'
'Sorry boss took longer to track her down than I had hoped. Jules should be right behind me.'
Just as Grenshaw finishes speaking Jules comes screaming into the air space in her Imperial Eagle "Pit Viper".
'Hey guys sorry, had to deal with System security shit. Ya know keep the heat off us. You managed to get the cargo right Grenshaw?'
Jules seems excited as she speaks to the others. She jumps down from her ships cockpit. She is only about 5'6" and 140lbs. She is pretty muscular for her build. Her leftt arm has been replaced with a cybernetic one. She has messy brown hair and crystal blue eyes.
Jules walks into the cargo bay of Grenshaws ship to see a severely damaged escape pod as well as some very large anemone samples. Jules thought they were only going after an exploration ship that was hauling some valuable cargo. What she didn't know was the valuable cargo was Venus' wife. She checks the vitals panel on the pod.
"Status unresponsive. blood loss detected."
She grabs a pry bar and breaks open the escape pod. Jules picks the girl up and brings her into the outpost. She makes her way into one of the buildings and places her in one of the rooms. She removes Silvia's helmet and sees a nasty gaping wound on the side of her face. Her brow furls and a she purses her lips.
'Damn it we were supposed to be grabbing cargo and jetting out of there. They said nothing about taking a girl hostage.'
Jules does the best she can to close the wound and clean up Silvia's face. She walks towards the door pausing to look back at Silvia then closes the door. Jules makes her way to her room and sits on the side of her bed. When she accepted this role she thought they would only be going after cargo, but this.... Taking this girl was not a part of the plan and she knew the other two would surely try and have their way with her. If not they would certainly torture her and it made Jules sick to her stomach.
Upstairs Grenshaw and Diaz are talking about the next steps.
'I say we make the girl our own personal slave. Haha. I can just picture Duval's face when she sees her wife being wrecked by me.'
'NO! She is to be used as bait to draw Duval out. Once we deal with Duval you can do what you want with the girl. She's certainly not my type.'
'Ah come on. Why do you always have to ruin my fun?'
'Whatever. Send a message to Duval, be sure to show the girl is alive. Use the encryption key. We don't need Duval sneaking up on us.'
'Yes sir.'
Grenshaw throws up a shitty salute and steps out of the map room. He makes his way down to the room Silvia is in and shouts down to Jules.
'Hey! What's the code for this door?'
'Why do you need the code?'
'Boss says I need to show Duval we have her girl.'
*Duval? As in Venus Duval? Their old squadmate who turned them into their commander for keeping slaves on their ships?*
Jules thinks to herself as she walks down to the room and inputs the code. She quickly places herself between Grenshaw and the door and in a very serious tone almost aggressive in nature she states.
'Try anything with that girl and I'll put a bullet in ya.'
She steps out of the way and opens the door allowing Grenshaw to take a photo of Silvia to send to Venus. Grenshaw gets the photo and stands there staring at Silvia. Jules grabs him by the back of his jacket with her cyber arm and pulls him with enough force to send him flying back into the wall behind them.
'Alright you got the photo now get the fuck out!'
Grenshaw types up a brief message and sends it off to Venus.
'Such a beautiful woman. It would be a shame if something were to happen to her. You have 48hrs to contact us. ---Raven'