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Join Date: Jan 2008
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The Razor Wynd had been traveling through Interstellar Space for several hours. Just four hours away from its destination, Samus Prime, the ship was rocked violently by something that can be describes as resembling turbulence. However this was space and the absence of air made turbulence impossible. The vibrations running down the hull of the ship brought Erin Karr out of her meditative trance and back to the present.
“Gryphon what the shard is going on?” she demanded o f the combat DROID who had been acting as navigator while she had been trying to focus her magical energies.
“Apologies mistress” the DROID replied “we seemed to have exited Interstellar Space quite abruptly. There are warships in the vicinity.”
“What are warships doing out here?” Erin asked herself then asked the DROID “can you make out their designation?”
“The lead ship is a Devastator Class warship with the call sign X-Calibre.”
“Coalition forces” she said wondering what they were doing so far away from the Inner Core systems.
Due to the vast size of Devastator Class warships they projected their own gravitational pull. Any ship passing by a sector of space that one occupied would automatically be yanked out of Interstellar Space and that is precisely what happened to the Razor Wynd. Erin made her way to the cockpit in an effort to better assess the situation. She knew the Coalition wouldn’t be out here unless it had some business to be.
“Mistress, the X-Calibre is hailing us.”
“Open a channel” Erin replied coolly.
The robot tapped a few buttons on a control panel and the communicator beeped letting them know it was now activate. Erin cleared her throat readying her reply to the question she knew was going to come.
“This is Admiral Tobias Kane of the Intergalactic Coalition, you have entered restricted space. Identify yourself now or face the consequences.”
“ICSB Bounty Hunter authorization 4436-79” Erin rattled off her information from memory “and this is my ship, Chimera Class light transport 8519-1 call sign Razor Wynd.”
After several seconds the voice came back “identity confirmed Razor Wynd. Prepare to be boarded” Admiral Kane ordered.
Erin was outraged and she was about to demand an explanation until she remembered the penalty for disobedience. So she bit back her remarks and disengaged the security lock on her cargo ramp so that it could be lowered and the chamber decompressed to allow for entry.
Admiral Tobias Kane strolled into the cargo hold of the Razor Wynd trailed by two armed guards who wore the rank of Master Chief. He walked with an air of confidence that is only gained through years experience working your way up the naval chain of command. He wore an expression of what appeared to Erin as arrogance but the admiral himself would see as authoritative.
Erin Karr stood at-ease as the admiral approached. She felt no qualms about keeping her casual stance instead of snapping to attention and saluting. After all she wasn’t part of the military; she was a hired contractor plain and simple. Tobias Kane let his gaze slide over her body from head to toe sizing her up before speaking. He seemed to let his eyes linger on her chest for a few seconds longer than necessary before continuing down. This told her she wasn’t going to get a fair shake regardless of what went on he would see her as nothing more than an object to be ordered about.
“Nice ship you have here” he said with obvious sarcasm “Ms. Karr your services are required by the Coalition and therefore your holiday has been suspended.”
“You can’t do that” she snapped before catching herself “I mean I already received authorization from Human Resources.”
“My apologies but the needs of the Coalition outweigh your personal needs” the admiral replied with obvious enjoyment “you are to turn your course to Imperial Sandor. Everything you need to know about your assignment is on this disk” he said handing her a small envelope.
With that he turned on his heels and marched back toward the small shuttle that would take him to his ship. It was good that he turned his back on her because the look on Erin’s face would have sent the admiral into a frenzy and she might’ve been shot by his security team.
She was furious at having her leave cancelled like this. When she returned to Katar she would have to talk to HR about revising her contract or cancelling it all together. She would rather find work elsewhere than continue to be treated like this. She stood in silence as the shuttle departed taking Admiral Tobias Kane back to his awaiting warship.
Then as the X-Calibre and its small fleet consisting of four other ships entered Interstellar Space the Razor Wynd was left alone. It was as if the fleet had only sought to ambush her without any other agenda whatsoever.
“This is curious” she mumbled to herself as she opened the package she’d been given.
Inside was a small round disk and nothing more. Erin inserted the disk into her computer and sat back in her pilot’s chair to absorb the information on her assignment. The disk came up with a diagram of a detonation device of some kind and a clock that began counting down starting at 5 standard minutes.
“What the frag?” Erin swore as realization dawned on her “they’ve planted a bomb on the ship! Gryphon I need you to scan the ship and locate it quickly!”
“Already on it” the DROID replied hacking away at a node “it is on the outside of the cargo hold. I will deploy and disarm.”
With that the robot ran to the cargo door and hit the button to open it. Spreading his wings Gryphon took flight and found his way to the underbelly of the ship. Activating the magnets in his feet, the robot sealed itself to the hull while he located the bomb.
“Device found” Gryphon spoke over the ships comm unit “serial number 771-98-4325 ACKER” the DROID rattled off the type of explosive as his four arms began disassembling the bomb casing.
Erin entered the information into the computer search engine and brought up the blue prints of the device. She was sweating profusely now as the counter ticked down to 3 standard minutes. The bomb itself was a military class explosive used to destroy meteors before they impacted into a planet’s surface. Which explained why the Admiral had his ships leave this sector before verifying her demise, the blast radius would have damaged any other object within six hundred meters.
An audible click could be heard over the ships comm before Gryphon spoke “the countdown has been cancelled. However the device is still armed. A stray spark of any kind could set it off. Attempting to remove it with a demagnetizing torch” he finished.
“Don’t you dare blow us up Gryphon or you’ll be sorry!” Erin yelled at the DROID.
“Robots do not feel sorrow” Gryphon replied “in general robots do not feel anything at all.”
“It was just a…oh never mind” she said throwing her hands up in despair.
“Bomb has been detached” Gryphon said in a lighter tone than that a human would be using while attempting to disarm a bomb “should I launch it away from the ship or attempt to disarm?”
Weighing her options and the confidence she had in the DROID she decided at this point it would be safer to launch it and get as far away as possible and so that is what she ordered him to do. Then she realigned the navigational computer with their intended destination, Samus Prime.
Gryphon threw the bomb out into space and reentered the ship just before the Razor Wynd entered Interstellar Space. The ACKER bomb hit a small particle of space dust and ignited just as the ship left the sector. The explosion wracked the small section of space but with no one there to witness it or any planets there to feel its impact it is hard to say how grand the detonation was.
“Mistress, would they not pursue us to our original destination? Should we not have changed course?”
“Gryphon it stands to reason that they will believe the bomb had worked and we are nothing more than space debris now. However if they do realize we managed to escape unscathed then they will determine as well that we would not continue on to our original point.”
“That is illogical,” the robot said and then went silent.
Erin Karr had made many enemies over the decade that she has worked for the Intergalactic Coalition of Sentient Beings but not any she thought would try to take her out. There were some political leaders who did not see her way as the right one. They expected bounty hunters to shoot first and ask questions later. But she did not do that. She took into account both sides of the story as often as could be allowed.
Sure there were some instances when the criminal was so ruthless they didn’t give her any other choice than to vaporize them on the spot. But others such as her latest catch may have been crooks but not inherently evil ones. Erin was never one for the politics of the cosmos. She thought of herself as only a paid mercenary and nothing more.
But it seems fate has deemed otherwise for it had to be someone very high up on the governmental pedestal to have sent an Admiral and his fleet after her. Seeing as how Samus Prime was no longer remotely a part of the ICSB then she concluded it would offer her a refuge until she could devise a course of action. And she could continue her original goal of finding out as much information as possible on the Druidic Knights.
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