"Alright, that should be it for this location… Or am I missing something?"
[Please bring the container to your direct right too, the one 3rd from the roof]
"Alright"
Mark flew up along the high storage rack and pulled out a cargo container, it was a cylinder container around a meter long filled with… Whatever was inside it
"What's in this thing?"
[Precursor chemicals for pharmaceutical manufacturing]
"...Sure thing, tell Lisa I said hi"
[I knew you wouldn't buy it]
Mark nodded and flew out through the hole that had been blasted into the side of the storeroom and out towards the Sparrow that waited for him a few meters away from the station
"What's really in this thing anyway?"
[High-end soap and other assorted beauty products… Required stock for the lady]
"Got it"
Mark pushed the cargo container through the open cargo hatch before he flew in though the open hatch besides it
[Container retrieved, I've placed it near the 3rd cargo access port according to a request from the lady]
Mark nodded and entered the small airlock that cycled for a few moments before the internal door opened up and Mark flew into the internal hallway of the Sparrow
"I'm back"
A few moments passed before Mark heard Lisa's voice echo out further inside the Sparrow
"Welcome back Mark"
Mark flew in further and found Lisa in the cockpit, she was floating around with her face glued to a terminal watching some sort of show on it, Mark felt a little annoyed at her choice of clothes as she was partially living in the set of training clothes he had brought from the guild, his set of training clothes to be more specific
"How are you feeling Lisa?"
"I'm fine~"
Mark still found it unbelievable, only a day and a half earlier she had been badly malnourished, her skin and eyes had lost their luster, but now she looked perfectly fine
"Are you sure there wasn't any magic powder in that IV bag, Luna?"
[...Yes, however, I will admit Lisa's recovery is astonishing]
The little one, who Mark had named Luna (to cement her imagined fairy like features) and to avoid jealousy, still responded a moment slower when he used her name to refer to her
"Come on Mark, stop teasing me about that will you?"
Mark showed a thin smile before he retrieved a reusable squeeze bag from its refill mount and handed it to Lisa
"Sure thing, here water"
"Thank you~"
Lisa took the water bag and simply dragged it closer to herself before she let go of it again before she continued watching her show, Mark continued watching her for a few moments as he wondered how she had appeared so noble the 2nd time they had met
"Alright, what's next on our shopping list?"
[With the last 4 containers you secured from this location, we don't need anything else from this station. Next on the list is the 4 ships I secured in the Creh-8 asteroid belt, after harvesting them for useful modules and cargo then we'll use them to trailblaze a new stellar lane to leave the system]
"Alright, did you have anything else you needed from the station, Lisa?"
Mark addressed Lisa that had latched on to his arm as per usual, she thought for a few moments before she shook her head
"No, all the personal effects I had the pirates that captured me stole… And there weren't anything I really needed among those either"
"Alright… You never did tell me how you ended up being captured by pirates in the first place?"
Lisa shrugged before she casually admitted
"Well, it was just the usual, I failed to escape from the clutches of my old man"
"You've tried to escape before?"
Lisa nodded, she stared ahead into the wall for a few moments before she spoke
"Yeah… The last time was the 6th time I got out of my home system… Well, with everything going on, he properly thinks I am dead and gone already"
Lisa shook her head a few times, properly shaking off some bad memories before she looked straight at Mark and spoke with a wide, slightly strained smile
"He's probably busy cloning a new daughter for the order I was supposed to fulfill around now"
Mark kept his silence for a bit as he fed off her negative emotions, after a moment he asked
"What are you so worried about?"
Lisa didn't hesitate to answer, she knew he was going to ask already
"Trailblazing, it's not exactly the safest thing"
"Right, well it'll be alright"
As Lisa said trailblazing was one of if not the most dangerous flying a pilot could do, the act of establishing a new stellar lane was therefore reserved to automated crafts and the most daring of nut job pilots
[As Mark said, it will be fine. And it's not, it will be over before any one of us is able to react]
Establishing a stellar lane, or trailblazing, was the act of finding a safe route between two systems which could then be used by oneself or others to initiate a FTL jump between the two systems. Stellar lanes weren't natural occurring phenomena and while crafts doing a FTL jump had some maneuverability, no sensors could keep up with the faster than light speeds, while small debris weren't a problem anything bigger than a few meters across would instantly destroy a ship in a FTL jump with predictably devastating consequences
"Right… I guess that's true Luna… No need to worry ahead of time"
Despite her words Mark still felt her unease rising, he understood why she was worried, and to be frank he was too
'I wonder if I'll die on impact if we hit something, or starve to death… Well, only one way to find out'
Mark extended his senses into the Sparrow and took control over it before he spoke
"Alright, let's get out of here… First stop Creh-8 asteroid belt, second stop the deep void"
The Sparrow burned clear of the ravaged Creh-2 trade hub, numerous souls were still left onboard fighting desperately for the scabs that were left behind for a while longer
'A shame I can't stomp this particular playground a bit… Oh well, no need to cry over spilled misery'
-
After tracking down the 4 combat ships Luna had hacked and sent to loiter in different locations of the asteroid belt it took a few hours to strip them of weapons and cargo which they stored in the Sparrow's cargo bay
"Can't we get a spare reactor out of one of these too?"
[No, we need them to trailblaze for us, if they survive the journey we can strip them then]
"Alright, that's fair I guess… So how are we doing this again?"
[It is already underway, I have re-tasked the sensors of all 5 ships to find us an initial route, after that I will send one ship ahead to probe it]
"Heh… Probe…"
[You really do behave like a child sometimes, Mark]
"Well, I'm only 1 or so old, so that tracks"
[That's true, I guess I'm not one to talk either, by this logic Lisa is the oldest one onboard]
"Yeah, how old is she even?"
[I haven't asked, and given her extensive biological enhancements I couldn't tell when she was in the medical pod either]
Mark shrugged, he wasn't really interested (Daring) enough to ask any woman, let alone Lisa, her age
'I don't think she would mind though…'
"Man, I really forgot how long people normally sleep"
[It's only been 3 hours since Lisa's breathing steadied enough for her to be asleep, by my records she'll be out cold for at least another 3 hours]
"...Does she know you're keeping watch on her sleep?"
[...I will count on your discretion, Mark]
"Alright, I got you buddy"
Mark let out a sigh and scratch his stomach, he was currently floating freely inside the cockpit of the Sparrow, the interlocked bulkheads that made up the front of the cockpit were opened up because he felt like star watching
'It doesn't really sting from this far away, however I still feel it prickling in my eyes though…'
Mark extended his senses into the Sparrow and closed the bulkheads before he repressurized the cockpit again
[Mark?]
"I'm bored with looking at the stars, how are you getting on with the gun project, Luna?"
[I've finished a prototype, would you like to try it out?]
"Sure thing"
[Alright, please exit through the port side airlock]
"Port side?"
[Your left when you are looking ahead, starboard would be your right and the stern is the back of the ship]
"Alright, weird how those terms are still used in the space age…"
Mark waited for the airlock to cycle before he exited the Sparrow, he was shaded by the gas giant Creh-8 from starlight and arriving out in the void he felt slightly reinvigorated, after stretching he noticed a cargo container get ejected out in front of him, flying over he opened up the lid of the container
"Hello beautiful"
[I am also glad to see you Mark, what do you think of the rifle?]
Looking at the long rifle Mark marveled at it for a bit, the long ported barrel was covered in a skeletonized hand guard that covered the entire length of the barrel, the lower receiver had a simple fire selector with a safety, single and fully automatic fire and a wide magazine well which currently fitted a wide, short magazine with a left side magazine release
The pistol grip had the same skeletonized style as the hand guard and was made out of some sort of polymer, Mark gripped it and found it modeled perfectly to his hand, the upper receiver sported an ambidextrous bolt and was fitted with a simple metal folding stock
"It looks sick"
Mark picked up the rifle and released the magazine before he cycled to bolt, catching the bullet that was ejected the shouldered the rifle and looked down the top that featured an empty rail system for scope mountings and two foldable iron sights, taking aim at a random asteroid Mark squeezed the trigger slightly to get a feel on its sensitivity, however since he was out in the void he didn't hear the dry 'click' as the hammer went down, instead he felt the rifle shake slightly
[I modeled it after references I found on the SubNet, however I am already working on an upgraded, more modular version, do you have any requirements?]
Mark raised the barrel and clutched the stock between his arm and body while he cycled the bolt a few times to get a feel for it, from there he played around with the fire selector a few times before he spoke
"Yeah, a vertical forward grip would be good, maybe also a mount for a strobe light on the right side of the hand guard… Besides that, a sling mounted from the stock to before the magazine well… That and a set of back-up canted folding iron sights would also be nice"
[Noted, please try firing the rifle and tell me how it feels]
Mark nodded, before inserting the loose bullet into the magazine Mark inserted it and pulled back on the bolt fully once before he pulled it back slightly as he did a press check, seeing the round sat neatly in the receiver he released the bolt and shouldered the rifle before he lined it up against an asteroid and found a small creator to aim at, slowly squeezing the trigger Mark fired a single shot that handed right where he aimed
"Nice, it feels good enough to fire"
[Okay, please test it out on some longer ranges too]
"Sure thing, chief"