"Fuck… FUCKING HELL!"
"I get it, Xavi I do. But you don't have to scream about it over the radio"
Xavi was about to yell again, however given Maci was his best shot at leaving this system alive he held it and responded
"I got it… How far are you with the repairs?"
"I'll be done in half a day at most, get some rest, we'll be safe in this belt for another day or two"
"... Alright, I'll knock out for a few hours then, ring the alarm if anything happens"
"Got it"
Pressing the mute on the side of his helmet, Xavi unbuckled his harness and pushed off the pilot chair, floating around in the cockpit Xavi began stretching, the hours of piloting had made him somewhat stiff
"A simple job he said, that fucker… I am never working with him again…"
Xavi was a unregistered mercenary pilot with his own ship, ever since the guild had terminated his contract over a few minor errors in his work and conduct
'Bloodsuckers the entire lot…'
However 2 years of mostly combat flying and a few expensive arguments had earned Xavi a particular set of skills, and it wasn't long after the guild gave him the boot that he had found other employment. His current employer had more… Flexible morals than the guild and paid way more than the alternative, so much so that Xavi could afford to buy a hab suite in a decent station and live out the rest of his life in relative luxury after this last job
'And of course he didn't mention the transport would be packing that much fucking heat!'
Xavi's baby, a highly modified medium multipurpose ship, had taken a beating. Everything had gone well, he had interdicted and disabled the target transport, however shortly after establishing a breaching tunnel, disaster had stuck, the transport ship had opened fire with a high-powered laser turret mounted inside its hull which had cut Oscar in fucking half
'Shit… They weren't supposed to have fucking combat androids on board…'
Shit had gone completely sideways at that point, only by using quick thinking Xavi had taken distance and sterilized the transport ship, thanks to Maci's quick patch work the two had managed to secure the target and escape out of system where they found themselves now, hiding in an ice belt while Meci completed more extensive repairs
'No matter how many credits I pump into this rust bucket, I won't get the ship confirmed for insurance again… Looks like it's time for you to go to the great scrapyard… Well, you served me well for an old hunk of junk'
Valec heavy manufacturing had launched the Sparrow almost 150 years ago, according to the records when Xavi had picked it up this particular one it had been 40 some years old, doing which about half the total components worn down such much they had to be replaced
'...My head is spinning… Do I have any stims left…'
Xavi pulled himself back down to his seat and strapped himself down again before he retrieved a stim from a secured compartment which he inserted in a accesses port on the side of his left wrist
'...That's the stuff'
Feeling his worries fade away, Xavi closed his eyes as he slipped into a shallow sleep dreaming about the payout once he finished the job
-
'Hmm…'
Mark hid behind a asteroid as he looked at his target, it was a ship about 12 meters long, 4 meters high, and 6 meters wide, its shape and all black paint job made it look like a giant whale shark, a large hole had been punched in its right flank where a person wearing a yellow space suit along with a small fleet of maintenance drones were working busily to patch up the damage
'So not leaving any time soon at the very least… How should I do this…'
Mark circled around to the opposite side of the battle damage where he closed in on the ship and put his hands on the hull, after closing his eyes for a few moments he sensed another person inside the ship
'I guess jumping the guy outside won't be an option then… Hmm this is kind of a long shot, but maybe…'
Mark focused on the smooth surface of the spaceship hull, beneath it lay a will like the little one but compared to it this one was massive, it laid slumbering when Mark first interacted with it
'...You are pretty beat up'
The will was massive and powerful, however it felt like it had been battered, muzzled and beaten down for decades, as much as Mark felt sympathy for this one he was thankful for its weakened state as it made it significantly easier to influence it
'...Listen to me'
Several hours passed as Mark kept nourishing the slumbering will and eventually he managed to awake it enough fo it to listen to his commands
"Let me in"
A moment passed before a hatch next to him opened up, Mark pulled himself inside what was clearly a maintenance tunnel and after a bit he made it into the cargo hold of the ship, looking around Mark saw a lot of metal containers secured on some sort of rail system
'Which way is the cockpit? This way?'
Mark moved across the cargo bay and opened a hatch which lead into a internal hallway that was depressurized, most of the left wall had been shredded by what looked like battle damage however the outside hull had already been sealed up
'Cockpit looks to be this way…'
Mark pulled himself along and after waiting for a few moments outside the cockpit as he listened for movement inside
'One person inside… Sounds like he's asleep…'
Mark carefully unlocked the hatch before he pulled it open, in the cockpit seat sat a figure clad in a red space suit, however before Mark managed to sneak up on him a bright light flashed from the side of the pilot seat as the space suit clad man fired a shot from a laser pistol striking Mark in the stomach
"ARGH..! IT FUCKING BURNS!"
Mark quickly shook off the pain and looked ahead, the pilot was frozen in shock at seeing Mark, perhaps it was the fact that Mark wasn't wearing a space suit, or maybe it was because the hole he had shot in him was ashy white and visibly closing
"You fucker!"
Mark slapped his hand down onto the side of the hatch and immediately commanded the ship, at once the drive roared to life before it the ship suddenly accelerated ahead sending the pilot flying towards Mark that immediately grabbed onto him and tore the laser pistol away from him
'You're done now!'
Having disarmed the pilot Mark struck him in the face with a elbow strike to try and disorient him, however to both Mark and the man's surprise Mark's elbow went right through the reinforced visor and half the man's skull killing him instantly, a moment of confusion later Mark began feeding on the negative emotions of his fresh kill
"...Hot damn… That was good…"
After a moment Mark once again leveraged his control over the ship to bring it to a stop once more before he pushed the mutilated corpse off himself and floated over to the cockpit seat where he sat down and reached out towards the controls
'All right, one stick, one throttle and two pedals, should be relatively easy on that front…'
Testing out the controls Mark quickly got the hang of maneuvering around, leaning the stick forwards and to either side pitched the ship forwards and to the sides, twisting the stick made it roll to either sides
'Pedals seem to yaw from side to side… Yep, throttle is easy, forwards goes forwards, backwards goes backwards…'
Haven gotten the basic controls down and with more slowly flowing in though the dead pilot, Xavi who's knowledge he was confident that he would be able to eventually leave the icy asteroid belt behind
'Now then…'
Mark turned the ship around and looked down towards the small group of maintenance androids that slowly floated towards him along with a speck of yellow
'Hmm…'
Squeezing down on the trigger for a moment Mark felt the ship shake for as a heads up display appeared
'Targeting, targeting…'
Trusting his guts Mark pressed a button at the side of the stick which locked onto to one of the maintenance androids, pressing it again his selected target began cycling through the maintenance androids until the target crosshairs moved over the small yellow speck
'...Night night'
Squeezing the trigger for a moment a line of tracers flew out from under the ship and decimated the man in the yellow space suit
"Can't have you telling anyone about this, sorry my guy"
Mark let out a sigh before he flew the ship back into the icy asteroid belt and stopped it next to the mutilated corpse of the guy in the yellow space suit before he let go of the stick and used his connection to the ship to bring it to a stop and powered it down
'Alright then…'
Letting go of the stick Mark let out a sigh before he floated up from the seat and made his way out of the ship where he flew over to the mutilated corpse and feasted on it, however just as he had begun it was over
'What the heck…'
Mark felt more than a little cheated, like he had just bit into a burger and found it completely hollowed out on the inside he grabbed the corpse and threw it towards a open hatch on the ship as he muttered
"What a boring person… Time to head back before the little one starts to worry…"
Having secured a ship and filled himself up Mark felt no real urgency to leave the icy asteroid belt behind, so he decided to return to the wreck he had called home for so long already