Interstellar Online

17 - Free system

"Well shit..."

Having returned to the Scorpion after a lengthy investigation of the camouflaged drug lab, Mike waited for his cockpit to repressurise before removing his helmet and turning to face River through the fighter's intercom. Although Mike very much wanted to know why Lu biomedical conglomerate of all companies wanted to take control of the Trane imperium, the fact that they operated in this area was bad news for River and Mike that were both already being hunted by them for reasons not yet known to Mike.

"You can say that again, if it really was Lu biomedical's goons we killed in that alleyway they'll already know that we're here. Sure now that their plot failed it'll be a bit hard for them to get us, but we're still not safe here."

On that front Mike agreed, what's more, they owed nothing to the Trane imperium after already having saved their fourth princess once and gotten paid for that their score was settled, the problem was the 4 pirates and this container, sure the pirates had quite reasonable bounties on them but getting back into contact with the Trane Imperium wasn't without risks as River and Mike might get stuck with the Imperium until Lu biomedical finally got to crossing them off their shit list.

"Yeah no way I'm willing to get assassinated someday far into the future, I'll rather leave this world the same way I entered. I saw we drop a beacon and cash out the bounty somewhere else taking the hit in earnings, we need to reach the galactic centre before time runs out."
Agreeing with Mike, River started looking at the navigation systems and went over nearby systems and local powers.

"Let's see here... Roughly in the direction of the galactic centre we have 2 more empires, a republic and a corporate free state."
"Let's go with corporate then, they always have a larger variety of goods and services on tap. I figure we need to hit up a gun range so I can give you a few pointers."

"Yeah that would be a good idea, I'm still not entirely sure how to use this thing..."
Receiving nav data from River Mike started warming up the Scorpion's reactor as he popped out a nav beacon and made preparations for departure before contacting Crown station a few light seconds out.

"Crown station security, this is GCV-43 affiliated with the pilot's guild. We've found what looks like an illicit drug production lab and marked it with an encrypted navigation beacon, standby for data packet."
Springing the local security forces with a major intelligence break Mike could almost hear people tripping over each other as they were rapidly getting their shit in order.

[GCV-43, please lock down and secure the area, we're dispatching fast responders to your location now.]

(Yeah no, we're not waiting here so you can try and recruit us again...)

"Crown station security, we're both unable and unwilling to hold our position, please await bounty claims for the pirate wrecks in the area, goodbye."
[What do you mea-]

Closing the communication channel, Mike immediately started accelerating for FTL jump as he confirmed with River.

"Ready for jump?"
"Ready, punch it."

Entering hyperspace Mike double-checked the navigation and autopilot before taking his hands off the controls and stretching best he could in the cramped cockpit.

"ETA 6 hours... We'll need to be on our toes when arriving, there's a decent chance Lu biomedical knew we were in the Trane Imperium, so there's a chance they'll be looking for us in nearby systems too. We can't afford to stay in one system for more than a few days at the most, at least not until we're out of their sphere of influence..."
With the conversation naturally dying down, Mike was about to turn in and get some sleep when River finally spoke up.