The last chance for some cool loot is the captain’s quarters, so I head that way.
Did I get disappointed that there’s no mecha or something here?
Ha.
The Crystals are valuable and all but not COOL.
How about an ancient alien wonder?
Nope not today.
Just another 50k or so credits and a ton of lasers: pistols, rifles, a machine gun, even a grenade.
There’s also an old kinetic shotgun, not bad I shrug, and a rocket launcher!!
Haha Yes!
A few dozen rounds of shotgun shells and 3 rockets.
Ok 3 will do.
The shotgun is a sawed off and fits on my left side.
Yeah not bad I’ll admit it.
Shottie in the right, laser pistol in the left pointed forward..
As if aiming at an imaginary enemy.
Ok I’ll admit it’s cool enough.
Guns put away, work to finish.
Tallying the loot: 3 million credits after refining Nutrium Crystals, 54k credits, lasers, rockets launcher and shottie.
Oh and A SHIP.
a ship i cant use currently but we’ll do something about that later.
All in all, hunting pirates seems to be good business.
On a hunch I recheck all the boxes of crystals and in the last one on the bottom, most covered of all, is a small IED.
Holy Shit.
Even a small boom here would blow this whole ship up.
I knew there’d be something here, but finding it and staring at it are very different.
It’s got a wireless beacon, an igniter and some Plastique, a powerful explosive.
It’s only the 3 components so I’m pretty sure there’s no touch sensitive trigger.
Without hesitation I carry the entire box to the airlock, not the one attached to Bessie, and gently throw the whole box out into space.
I’m not touching that thing.
I watch it go until it’s far enough away, and then wave as I head back inside.
One less sword of Damocles hanging over my head, but even I’m not dumb enough to think that’s all of them.
Most likely that was just some extra insurance once they got the crystals onboard.
‘Exie we are staying on Bessie for the time being.
Let’s shut this ship down completely and then do thermal scans to see if we can find some booby traps.
They usually use batteries, so maybe we can find them that way once everything else has cooled down.
Returning to Bessie with a box of new nutripack flavors and a couple crystals for testing, as well as the weapons and credits, I let Exie keep checking the ship for traps and bombs.
About an hour later, Exie completed the scans and found 2 more bombs.
After dismantling and chucking them into space, it’s not certain whether that is all of them or not.
I’ll have to let Beta drive it around a while before I’ll trust they are all gone.
No hurry.
Briefly contemplating collecting the bodies for the bounties, I decide to just leave them floating.
I don’t even want their weapons or suits, but I do make a note of the location if I ever change my mind and want to come back and collect them.
Floating in space their trajectories are stable for the next 100 years or so.
It’s better to not draw attention to this matter.
Nope I was never here.
This never happened.
What ship?
No need to make myself the target of some unknown big shots.
No thanks.
With that decided then I can’t bring it back and register the ship or they can find me.
I can’t sell the fuel rods or they can find me.
I need to stash this ship somewhere and head to Luna and sell my ores.
Then after I can come back and figure out what to do with this.
We head back out further from Earth in search of somewhere to hide the Gullwing.
Back and forth, what am I, a pinball?
80 million miles away, Freeport Station D134 This station is a smaller space station on the edges of the asteroid field.
All manner of people live there: shopkeepers and factory workers, dockworkers and machinists, even some shadier types as well, marauders and pirates, merchants and surveyors and usually a combination of many different types all in each person.
Monday they could be mechanics and Thursday they could be pirates..
Trudies is a run down dive-bar, in a middle class part of the station.
Nothing too fancy but not bottom of the barrel either.
No table clothes, just bare bar top, easier to clean blood and alcohol off it.
In a hidden room behind the main public areas, a man at the head of the table is staring at his subordinates seated around him.
His gaudy jewelry and fat face, signify he’s the wealthiest but his quiet overbearing, pressure shows he’s the true Boss.
Slamming his hands on the table he stares at them all.
“Where the hell is Skrull?
He said he was enroute over a week ago and had my crystals with him.
If he double crossed me, I’ll find him even if he skipped off to Pluto.
Darius what’s the update?
This is an important deal to us and this station.
Freeport K235 is making moves against us and we need to prepare and set up countermeasures.
Those dogs think they can take us on, they must be tripping.
Find Skrull.
Bring me my Nutronium Crystals.
Kill anyone who stands in your way.
“Yes, Aniki”