And I swear these chapters look alot bigger on Word.
And about the name... don't ask xD
Kalen 278345
[ONE]
In the deep darkness of space… no one can hear your screams. There is no sound, no warmth. Utter darkness.
And in the grim darkness of the future… there is only war.
These thoughts were oddly comforting to Kalen, as he headed towards the west jumpgate. In a sector about to be engulfed in war, it was best, he thought, to move to safer grounds. A universe trader, self-proclaimed engineer, and small time fighter pilot, he had no qualms against moving bases.
Sector Patrol scanned his ship on the way out.
An image of the bored pilot appeared on the upper right of the HUD.
“You are clear of any illegal goods and substances, thank you for your cooperation.”
Kalen chucked as the pilot frowned and appeared to be checking his readings before his comms cut off. He wasted no time maneuvering through the jumpgate.
“Best not to give him a chance to think,” thought Kalen.
The sleek black lines of the Terran Sabre emerged from the event horizon. It was a captured ship, from the early days of the ‘Terran Conflict’. He wasted no time personalising his ship, though now tagged with an allied IFF, he did not want some trigger happy sector defence pilot shooting down his ship. Neither did he want vengeful Terrans on his tail in a firefight. After some paint work at the Omicron Lyrae Shipyard, his ship was now abyss blue, which appears black without direct light. He also applied some of his “specialist” work on the ship, turning the old fashioned stick controls into 2 separate touch panels, the one of the left for manoeuvring, the one on the right for strafing. Turret control was integrated into the panels, a second finger on the same screen activating the turrets when safety was disengaged.
Another modification he made was to the shields. During his travels as a universe trader, he acquainted with a great many people; one of his favourites was a Bala Gi researcher. Together they built a new shield system, turning any plasma based weapon into a makeshift plasma shield in addition to the normal shields. While not entirely legalised, he found this gave an edge in spacefights, so he kept quiet about it mostly.
“Entering sector, Nyanas Hideout.”
[TWO]
A lot of Teladi and Argon ships on the grid, doing their usual business. “Whatever that may be.” he thought. Aside from wanting to get to his destination Argon Prime as fast as possible, he wanted to say goodbye to a good friend as well. He checked the list of known persons on the Argon Trading Station, and sure enough, he was there.
+++Connection Established+++
“Markus, how are you?” he greeted the old friend with a smile, Markus’ image appearing on the window HUD as his would be on whatever device his friend would be carrying right now.
“Hey Kalen, been a long while eh? I’ve been getting good income with all this tension around here, the military is scared the Terrans might attack so they increased patrol in the border areas, which means less protection for stations elsewhere… that’s where I come in.”
Kalen could still see the fire in his friend’s eyes, burning as fresh as they were the day he met him. However time wasn’t so kind on his features, he looked a lot more old and worn, but still retaining the sturdy look that marked him out as a combat pilot.
“So how are you doing? Have you finally got a proper name yet?” Markus joked.
Kalen smiled.
“You know I haven’t”, he said. He paused. “Hey, I’m going to go stay in the Argon home sectors for a while… at least until this tension passes, I’m just saying goodbye to an old friend. You know, you should think of sitting this one out as well…”
“What, and miss out on all the fun? I’m still waiting for some real action ever since the last fight at Malestrom… boy were those pirates angry,” said Markus. “I see you got yourself a new ship.”
“Oh, this thing? I got lucky. Some Terran took it out for a cruise alone along the border sectors; god knows what he was doing. Unfortunately some pirates came along and turned it into a firestorm. When I got there to help, he was already dead, and the pirates were gone,” he explained.
“Knowing you, I’d say those pirates were gone only AFTER you fired your turrets,” said Markus with a knowing smile.
“Yeah? Well then you know me too well.”
They both laughed a long while at that.
“Just like old times eh? Listen, I’ll escort you to Two Grand, then you’re on your own. The Split doesn’t really like me after that last mission I did for them,” said Markus. “Hold up, I’ll get my ship ready.”
+++Commlink ended at 1456. Duration 20 mizuras.+++
Kalen reflected on meeting his old friend for a second before resuming his normal thoughts.
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