His ARC-170 touched down on what empty ground he could find outside what appeared to be the only settlement on Eyesore. Even if it was just a rundown old military base of some type. A few ships of various stages of rust death sat in the area. Next to him was a very old E-9 Explorer which looked to be one of the worst. For some reason it looked vaguely familiar.
Shutting down the systems, he locked everything and set the R2 unit on defensive mode. It would not do much if someone really wanted his ship, but it might scare a few of the less than really serious people away.
The planet looked dead, almost lifeless. It seemed a gray haze sat over everything, almost as some really horribly disaster happened a long time ago. Everything seemed to huddle, waiting for the death blow that never came.
Stepping out of his ship, he felt Lurk land on his shoulder. Looking around he caught sight of a few people starring at him, measuring him up to see if he would be an easy target. Stepping to the rear of his ship he keyed in a security code, and pulled out his Armat M41-A Pulse Rifle. Hooking it up to the weapons harness he looked back at the people that were starring. They decided he was not worth the effort and went back to what they were doing.
Pulling out a bag, he slipped it over his shoulders and closed the door. R7 beeped four times signaling full lockdown of the ship. Turning around he froze, a small almost nondescript man was standing two feet away, he had not heard him show up at all. The older man seemed full of nervous energy as he starred Joamer up and down. His hands hidden in the cowls of a long robe. Somehow he knew both hands were gripping some type of weapon.
"I just get here and already someone wants me dead." Joamer muttered.
"If I wanted you dead, you would be dead." The stranger said. "I have a message for the newcomer, that means you." It was said in a half snear, it was clear newcomers were not trusted at all. "Jegora says to report to the Broken Bitch, she's one of the ships in orbit."
"Wait, don't tell me that's the ship that almost ran into me when I jumped in?" He said angrily.
"That would be the one. Your ship can't dock with her at all, so take one of the cubes up. She's not expecting another ship anytime soon, and the message sounded like he wanted you off this planet now. Don't worry, the trip on one of the cubes is free." The man said.
With that the man simply turned around and walked off. Joamer watched him leave, he knew he had to earn every ones trust which would be difficult considering everyone of them was a pirate to some degree or the other. For some reason he still wanted to be part of this, maybe the darker side of his life had started to win back control.
"Fraking hell, first that bastard of a captain tries to kill me. Now I have to report to work for him?" Joamer swore loudly and repeatedly, as he walked towards one of the various cube transports awaiting passage to a ship in orbit.
The cubes were autopilots, everyone of them had a particular ship programmed into them. They were cheap, not very rugged, and more then one ship never made it to orbit. It was a quick way to get to a ship in orbit, if you were crazy enough to use them that is.
Stepping inside one that had the Broken Bitch programmed into it, he sat down and swore again. Every harness was broken, or missing all together.
"Sit down, strap in, and hold on. The trip will take ten minutes." A computer said as the ship suddenly shot straight up into the air. "Closing cabin door." It said a little late, as Joamer noted they were already three hundred feet in the air.
"I'm going to die, I just know it." He said as he grabbed hold of anything he could. By this time Lurk has simply retreated to a small bag he kept under his coat designed for her.
The ship was rocked back and forth and up and down as the autopilot simply chose the quickest route and gunned the engines. It had no need to be subtle, or even worry about it's passengers. It had no feelings in either case, besides only the most desperate people used one of these things to begin with. Everyone else, including cargo went up on separate transports. Which conveniently enough not a single one was scheduled to go up anytime soon. Somehow he knew it was designed this way to torment only him. He was sure he had already made a few enemies coming here.
The minutes passed slowly, and finally the ship entered space. He saw out the cockpit window the ship that had tried to run him down. Part of him expected a sudden and violent decompression at any second. Thankfully none came by the time the transport very violently docked with the Broken Bitch.
Jumping up Joamer rushed to the airlock, and waited impatiently as it cycled. As soon as the doors opened he rushed through and slapped the panel on the other side closing the docking rings doors. He watched as the cube detached and shot back towards the planet. Six seconds later it suddenly and violently decompressed.
"Figures, I knew someone was trying to kill me." He said. After a moment he became aware of his surroundings, turning around he froze, then swore again. Everywhere he looked wires, conduits, circuits, tubes, rather very important parts of the ship were hanging lose, some sparking as power still flowed to their frayed ends.
"You have got to be kidding me." He said softly, the deck plating under his feet swayed as he shifted his weight.
"Beautiful isn't she?" One of the crew members said as he walked up. "Names Reg Klein, everyone calls me bird. I'm the pilot of this lovely lady here."
"Joamer, and lovely is a word I would not care to use." Joamer said as he shook hands a moment later.
"Aye, don't worry. She will grow on you eventually. Cap wants to see you, she got the message about you getting here. She's in the engine room, down this hallway all the way back. It's a straight shot, so you can't miss it." Reg said, as he walked off.
Is everyone going to just walk off when they are done talking now? He thought. Shaking his head he started in the direction indicated. The trip was slow, he had to climb over various obstacles in the way. It looked like multiple explosions had gone off everywhere. He was not sure how anything still functioned in this heap. She was long overdue to be buried in the middle of a sun, if she even made it to the sun in the first place.
Stepping carefully Joamer entered what he thought might be the engine room, though with the amount of wires and cables all over the ship it was hard to say. He walked up to a young woman bent over and starred, after a long few seconds he cleared his throat and said "Someone named Reg said I could find the Captain in here." He enjoyed what was left of the view as long as he could.
The shapely young woman slowly stood up and cleaned her hands on a rag before turning around. Their eyes met, and both of them froze. The room seemed to grow cold for a split second before both drew their respective sidearms and took aim.
