Krath Empire Forums

Location:
Planet: Dalicron-1
System: Dalicron
Sector: Dalicron
Galactic coordinates: (-35, -400)
System coordinates: (8, 8 )
City: Stepping Stone (6, 9)

Thirty minutes to Stepping Stone.
Diallo Delavegas, at the armor-glass front of the observation deck, watched the landscape rush out of the horizon and varnish beneath the ship, ten thousand feet down. He thought he knew how an hourglass must feel with the sand slowly draining out.
It had been seven months to Stepping Stone when the Voltron 2X2 , a personal luxury yacht lifted out of the Darkness Spaceport (NPC Transport), Mandalore's Land in far away Honoghr and he watched his Homeworld dwindle away. It had been four months to Stepping Stone when he lifted off from the landing pads at the ocean city of Kentares on Karedda. It had been 11 hours to Stepping Stone when the Sherman Dice detached itself from the airship dock on the Grand Noctru space station in orbit of Shesharile. He had had all that time, and now it was gone, and he was still unprepared for what he must face at the place he now called home, ever since the Mandalorians conquered his homeworld, forcing most who had engaged in combat against their colonization into exile.

Thirty minutes to Stepping Stone.
The words echoed in his mind as though he had spoken them aloud and then realized that he never addressed himself as Don, he turned. It was the first mate.
He had a datapad in his hand, and he was wearing a Galactic Alliance Space Navy uniform of forty years, or about a dozen regulation-changes , ago. Once Delavegas had taken that sort of thing for granted. Now it was obtruding upon him everywhere.
"Thirty minutes to Stepping Stone, Don," the first officer repeated, and gave him the datapad to check the luggage list. Trunks, two; vertical locker, one. The last item fanned a small flicker of anger, not at any person, not even at himself, but at the whole infernal situation.
He nodded.
"That's everything. Not many passengers left aboard, are there?"
"You are the only one, first class, Don. About fifty Alazhi Farmers on the lower deck." He dismissed them as mere cargo. "Stepping Stone's the end of the run."
"I know. I was born there grinned the mate as he looked again at his name on the list. "Well, the Minos-Mestra Munitions have been giving us a lot of freight lately. Thanks for the business connections. It really helped when you were away."

I've been away for awhile. Tell me, what's been happening in the realms?
The mate grinned, well there was talk of a public televised execution of a criminal. I never follow the news as I'm much to busy to keep sitting in front of the Tv. Furthermore, some kind of trouble in the industry union.

"Labor trouble?" How come I never got to hear about it? Delavegas frowned. The mate was surprised. "You probably didn't hear of it as it didn't include the Munitions industry unions."
"Well, I noticed you have steel gratings over the gangway heads to the lower deck, and all your crewmen are armed. Not just pistols, either."
"Oh. That's on account of the pirates."
"Pirates?" Delavegas echoed.

"Well, I guess you'd call them that. A gang'll come aboard, dressed like farm-tramps, workers; they'll have Bryar Rifles and sawed-off shotguns or MG-15 Carbines in their bundles. When the ship's airborne and out of reach of help, they'll break out their guns and take her. Usually kill all the crew and passengers. They don't like to leave live witnesses," the mate said. "You heard about the Starbuck incident, didn't you?"
She was Minos-Mestra Munitions, one of the biggest contra-gravity ships the department had, though it was on some kind of double charter and owned by his Seneshal, Les Barin.
"They didn't pirate her, did they?"
The mate nodded. "Three months ago; Utono Brutza's gang. There was just a tag end of a radio call, that ended in static. Time the Minos-Mestra Munitions freighter escort got to her estimated position it was too late. The ship had engaged evasive measures after it's crew had wiped out the cut-throats already on-board and almost got destroyed when it tried to hide between the system's solar flares. The pirates gave chase but got blown away due to their ship's inadequate shielding.

"Well, great Krath; that was impressive though suicidal. What other option did the pilot have?" He mused. "It was death either way. With one chance of success though slim. Isn't the Government doing anything about it?"
"Sure. They offered a big reward for the rest of the pirate gang, dead or alive. And there hasn't been a single case of piracy inside the city limits of Stepping Stone," he added solemnly.

The Great Pillars of Jeattie mountain ranges had grown to a sharp blue line on the horizon ahead, and he could see the late afternoon sun on granite peaks. Below, the fields were brown and brown, and the woods were autumn-tinted. They had been green with new foliage when he had last seen them, and the Alahzi fields had been in pink blossom. Must have gotten the crop in early, on this side of the mountains. Maybe they were still harvesting, over in the Vencar valley. Or maybe this gang below was going to the Alahzi harvesting or to any of the Ducrete/Rock Ivory mines located in nearby suburbs. Now that he though of it, he'd seen a lot of cask staves going aboard at Kentares.