A Phoenix from the Ashes (Part 3)
19 Sep 2020Skanaby
It was a trap, of course.Suspended in my dimly lit zero gravity prison cell, itself within an unremarkable backwater Imperial system I've never even heard of, I now contemplated the last few weeks that had led me to my current self-inflicted predicament.
After the tip-off I received from Broo Tarquin about the supposed location of the Thargoid Homeworld, I carefully prepared my Krait Phantom and supplies for a few days, then made my way towards the given coordinates in the Outer Arm. I was making good progress - I had just passed the halfway point (685 jumps) by hour six, slightly ahead of schedule. No human signals detected at all after leaving the bubble's boundary, which was fine by me.
I slipped out of supercruise and killed the engines for a well-earned break at a neutron star. All was peaceful for a total of two minutes. Then, all hell broke loose.
I can't remember if it was Verity shouting at me, "Imperial ships detected," or the Majestic appearing right in front of my ship that first startled me to action, but either way, I knew I was in big trouble right then. I remember on my systems there was a Cutter, three Clippers and eight smalls (Couriers and Eagles) that had surrounded me before I could take proper evasive action. My shields disappeared in seconds, my hull even faster. As my humble explorer disintegrated around me, The last thing I heard was Verity telling me to, "Eject, Eject." Then, silence. I slipped in to the black in my escape pod. It didn't take them long to pick me up, and approximately thirty minutes later I was on board the Majestic in a holding cell being transported to my current lodgings.
I'm being blamed for the recent attacks on Imperial Starports, as well as Harold Duval's assassination. They're saying I'm a big player in NMLA, which is typical of the Empire just because I turned my back on them a few years ago. They hate the Feds and the Independants just as much as each other, but deserters even more so. Oh, well. Not the first time I've seen the inside of an Imperial Penal Colony. But it won't get to that. I have a contact in Canonn that can get me out of here, and he was notified just before I exited my doomed ship. I will be free again, soon.
And Tarquin is gonna pay.