Posted by Civilian Atticus Wolf (Bounty Hunter) in For a Few Dollars More - The Wolf arrives
“We are approaching the OED System” the pilot of the sleek, civilian craft announced. It was small, capable of planetary landings and used for light transport and passenger work but Atticus was all too aware that the real job of this crew, although hidden even from him, was smuggling. There was a certain feeling of it, the crews stance, how they talked. They were obviously, to him, hiding something but Atticus couldn’t care less, it was literally none of his business.

Switching the Comm in his small and cramped quarters to silent he switched on his personal PaDD and immediately a message popped into existence, right on time. It was encoded with the latest encryption and on the screen it was only squiggles and random characters, but he had always had a knack for this and with his almost photographic memory, had no trouble reading the message without the benefit of his decoding software.

Are you here came the first line of text.

Yes was his simple and straight reply. There was no need to confirm who he or the other person was, he would never know that information anyway and if they had this address, they were part of a select few who could afford him.

The item has reached OEDV. The Contract still stands

The Contract is void, no payment has been made he sent. He sighed slightly, they always thought that they could get him to do a job without a deposit, like some rookie that was trying to make a name for himself.

The job is important, payment is made after the item is received

That’s not how this works, and you know that he sent, and then turned off the PaDD, ending the conversation. Placing it gently on the small table beside him he sat back and started counting. By the time he reached ten, his wrist communicator beeped and he turned it over and checked that display, and this time his eyebrow did rise. The deposit was twice what he agreed, somebody wanted this item very badly, and this was only the deposit, only one third of what the contract would eventually pay, and even this amount would mean he could live comfortable for the rest of his days if he so chose. Turning on the PaDD again he sent one more message, ignoring anything else that had been sent and turning it off afterwards, he already had the profile and the location for delivery, that was all he needed, all he ever asked.

Contract is accepted was all that was sent back, and then Atticus made sure his bag was packed, checked the various items on his person and checked the mirror. The face that looked back at him didn’t look all that mysterious, it was handsome sure, but he could easily have been in a Starfleet uniform, selling property on Risa or a waiter in the local eatery. He didn’t look like a bounty hunter. Maybe it was the eyes, they were always so relaxed, comfortable and, sad, perhaps. Or maybe that was just him feeling the strain of all these years and knowing this was his last contract. He slid his jacket on over his collared shirt and adjusted the cuffs and the collar, then slid a pair of darkened glasses over his eyes, a habit he had picked up that didn’t serve any real purpose except to hide his eyes. For some reason, people seemed to take notice of them and remember the eyes, so he hid them. Then, he picked up his bag and left his quarters to prepare to land at OED.

The Wolf, post 1, another coming.

The craft shook as another hit impacted the shielding, and the pilot cursed. Lights flashed over the consoles and the crew tried to deal with the damaged systems as the unknown attacker turned for another pass at them. They had barely passed the single large Asteroid that OEDV called a moon when the aggressor, hiding on the opposite side, had ambushed them. That had been minutes ago and in that time the situation had turned from bad to worse than bad.

“I’ve lost navigation control” the Pilot announced, “we are leaking plasma, shields are down to minimum and we are on thrusters only” he frantically tried to get the impulse engines working again, but it wasn’t responding. “We are entering the atmosphere” he said, pausing and looking up as the glow from the front of the ship told him they were beginning their descent.

“I can’t eject the core” the ships Engineer said, coming into the flight cabin, “everything is fused, I can only shut it down but then we aren’t going to have thrusters”, “we need them or we are going to hit the dirt like an asteroid hits a deflector shield” the pilot said, a panicked tone obvious as their descent became deeper and he worked to control it as much as he could only using thrusters.

“How long to impact” Atticus asked, strangely calm, seated in one of the empty console stations that had lost power now. Whatever he was thinking was going to happen, he was showing no fear. Why should he, it hadn’t happened yet so he had no idea what the situation was going to be. The ships rocked again as another salvo from the attacker hit them, and this time warning lights, more of them, erupted all over the consoles that still lived. “Hull breaches!” the Engineer said from his station, “Oh god, we lost Rinz and Tekko. They’re gone, we have no emergency shielding and they were sucked out.” The pilot swore and frantically tried to adjust the angle of attack of the ship.

“How long, and where?” Atticus asked. He didn’t care about the lost crew, didn’t know them, didn’t want to. The attack was too fast and direct for help to come from the Starfleet Orbital station, the fighters wouldn’t get here in time and he noted that the Pilot had sent no distress signal, more proof they were smuggling in the first place. “60 seconds, the ship has broken off their pursuit” the pilot told him and then looked around, “and we aren’t going to make it to the Colony. We’re going down in the wastes, better get the env…”

He had no chance to finish that sentence as another explosion rocked the ship, the Engineers console exploded in a flash of light and the Engineer was thrown bodily across the cabin, falling dead or unconscious to the floor. “Oh my god” the Pilot moaned, “they aren’t stopping, they’re following us down” then he and Atticus both looked up to see the ground fast approaching. It was indeed barren, lifeless, and even here they could notice the fierce wind blowing dust storms across the landscape. Nothing would survive for long out there in the open, and very soon, if they survived the landing, that was where they would be, with a ship that wanted them dead close behind.

Atticus adjusted the safety harness and watched the ground approach as the pilot wrestled with the nose of the craft and the dying thrusters. The ground grew closer and closer as if in slow motion, and seconds before impact, the pilot turned to face him, but Atticus heard no words. Instead, everything went black almost instantly after the massive jolt and sound of the small ship impacting the dusty, dead and barren wastes of OEDV.

The Wolf, post 2, last one next :D