The year was 2681... Yeah I know that's over 200 almost 300 years ago and I don't look any older than 30, but stay with me here.
I was sitting at the edge, looking out past Orion wondering if there were more jump points out there shrouded by the thick cold black. You might ask yourself why was I. Why was Renshnard all the way out there? And, yes I was named after the 4 headed mercury lake beast of Xi’an mythos.
Ok, to recap. I, Renshnard was in the Orion system contemplating a suicidal deep space run to try and find my own Jump Point.
"Big bucks come to those who are willing to risk the biscuit." Pappy always said, but then again Pappy was a spice fiend who thought the Xi'an were the Creator from the Old Bible of Earth.
Any how, I was on my third strike and trying to stay under the radar. If the UEE found me this time, I would be up for a nice long probably permanent prison stretch on a mining rig somewhere. I had already done 5 years in the G Pit. A maximum security joint nestled away in class 2 gravity well. Easy enough to enter but impossible to leave without a large engine battery behind you. G-Pit supplied the UEE with all the raw rocks it could need and we the unlawful with all the work force they could handle.
The first two strikes were for borrowing ships. I never kept them, I temporarily took possession of them, but I guess the law doesn't make that distinction. The third was a bit more macabre. I made the mistake of breaking into what I thought was an empty storage facility tucked far out of orbit. The Kuzahi mafia was using the facility as a Xi'an genetic material harvesting plant. In those days there was a large demand for Xi'an tech and people parts. Some wanted them to study, others sought it out as an aphrodisiac. What it was for didn't and doesn't matter, because it came from the needless death of sentient life. They would kidnap and kill any Xi'an they could, then chop them up like animals, parting them out like steaks and then putting the leftovers in a blender to make a creams and powders to be sold as cure-alls and boner pills.
I was horrified and the real monster had yet to rear it's head.
I'm pretty sneaky but also way too curious, so I stayed to investigate, but the further down the rabbit hole I went the more a darkness welled from with in me. The things they did to the Xi’an while alive were abhorrent. It was more than torture or hatred. It was business.
As I snuck past a few operating tables towards the cargo holds to see if I could find some fuel cells, so I could over charge them and blow that place, a cold clawed hand reached from above and grabbed me by the neck. It's grip was sure as I felt the lack of blood flow making me woozy. I struggled to turn and see who had me. The hand was coming from under a sullen sheet.
It was a Xi’an who was thought dead. His body butchered but his heart still full of fight. The room was turning red as my heart thumped harder and harder to try and force blood to my brain. I pulled back the sheet from it's face and saw its golden eye full of fire. It must have seen something in me, because it quickly let go. I tried to hide my gasps for air as I promised the Xi’an I was going to kill them all and blow this place to stardust, but the Xi'an grew frantic and I feared it would inadvertently alert the Kuzahi thugs. I took it's bloody hand in my own and put my hand over its mouth to calm it. Its eye's shot frantically to a Xi'an shipping container not far away. I crawled over to the container, broke its seal, and to my horror found an infant Xi'an asleep in stasis. I heard the the Xi'an on the butcher's slab give out a long forlorn sigh as it's arm went limp. I scooped up the baby and made my way to the docking bay where I daisy chained their ships fuel cores to each other and fired them up. This caused a redundant power chain that increased exponentially, until one fuel cell failed. Then BOOOM! in a very big way.
The only problem was there were still a few living Xi'an caged up and I had no way to free them. The best I could do was save the child in my arms, while giving the Xi'an still aboard a quick and painless death. I got back to my ship and made a B-line away from the station and a quick flight back to Armitage.
I sat in the dark corner of a cantina in a small farming post, sipping a Nebulan ale wondering what to do with the kid before making that suicide run I was talking about earlier. When a couple of Blues grabbed me and dragged me halfway around the planet to a cold dark room.
They informed me of the colossal nature of my fuck up. I had just blown their investigation up, literally. I had also killed 3 Xi'an and 32 Kuzahi members. They branded me a mass murder out of sheer frustration. At least they were going to return the kid to the Xi'an.
I was never to see the light of a star again.
That's when everything went super nova. All around me I could hear and feel explosions rattling the walls. Warning alarms started to blare. The men interrogating me dashed off slamming the door behind them. An explosion ripped through the wall behind me throwing me into the adjacent wall. The wind from outside cleared the smoke away only to give sight to a new horror.
Flying daggers tore through civilian ship and military alike. They were like a hive of bees on a rampage. I had never seen anything in the Verse like that. It was a new race. A deadly race.
I was sitting at the edge, looking out past Orion wondering if there were more jump points out there shrouded by the thick cold black. You might ask yourself why was I. Why was Renshnard all the way out there? And, yes I was named after the 4 headed mercury lake beast of Xi’an mythos.
Ok, to recap. I, Renshnard was in the Orion system contemplating a suicidal deep space run to try and find my own Jump Point.
"Big bucks come to those who are willing to risk the biscuit." Pappy always said, but then again Pappy was a spice fiend who thought the Xi'an were the Creator from the Old Bible of Earth.
Any how, I was on my third strike and trying to stay under the radar. If the UEE found me this time, I would be up for a nice long probably permanent prison stretch on a mining rig somewhere. I had already done 5 years in the G Pit. A maximum security joint nestled away in class 2 gravity well. Easy enough to enter but impossible to leave without a large engine battery behind you. G-Pit supplied the UEE with all the raw rocks it could need and we the unlawful with all the work force they could handle.
The first two strikes were for borrowing ships. I never kept them, I temporarily took possession of them, but I guess the law doesn't make that distinction. The third was a bit more macabre. I made the mistake of breaking into what I thought was an empty storage facility tucked far out of orbit. The Kuzahi mafia was using the facility as a Xi'an genetic material harvesting plant. In those days there was a large demand for Xi'an tech and people parts. Some wanted them to study, others sought it out as an aphrodisiac. What it was for didn't and doesn't matter, because it came from the needless death of sentient life. They would kidnap and kill any Xi'an they could, then chop them up like animals, parting them out like steaks and then putting the leftovers in a blender to make a creams and powders to be sold as cure-alls and boner pills.
I was horrified and the real monster had yet to rear it's head.
I'm pretty sneaky but also way too curious, so I stayed to investigate, but the further down the rabbit hole I went the more a darkness welled from with in me. The things they did to the Xi’an while alive were abhorrent. It was more than torture or hatred. It was business.
As I snuck past a few operating tables towards the cargo holds to see if I could find some fuel cells, so I could over charge them and blow that place, a cold clawed hand reached from above and grabbed me by the neck. It's grip was sure as I felt the lack of blood flow making me woozy. I struggled to turn and see who had me. The hand was coming from under a sullen sheet.
It was a Xi’an who was thought dead. His body butchered but his heart still full of fight. The room was turning red as my heart thumped harder and harder to try and force blood to my brain. I pulled back the sheet from it's face and saw its golden eye full of fire. It must have seen something in me, because it quickly let go. I tried to hide my gasps for air as I promised the Xi’an I was going to kill them all and blow this place to stardust, but the Xi'an grew frantic and I feared it would inadvertently alert the Kuzahi thugs. I took it's bloody hand in my own and put my hand over its mouth to calm it. Its eye's shot frantically to a Xi'an shipping container not far away. I crawled over to the container, broke its seal, and to my horror found an infant Xi'an asleep in stasis. I heard the the Xi'an on the butcher's slab give out a long forlorn sigh as it's arm went limp. I scooped up the baby and made my way to the docking bay where I daisy chained their ships fuel cores to each other and fired them up. This caused a redundant power chain that increased exponentially, until one fuel cell failed. Then BOOOM! in a very big way.
The only problem was there were still a few living Xi'an caged up and I had no way to free them. The best I could do was save the child in my arms, while giving the Xi'an still aboard a quick and painless death. I got back to my ship and made a B-line away from the station and a quick flight back to Armitage.
I sat in the dark corner of a cantina in a small farming post, sipping a Nebulan ale wondering what to do with the kid before making that suicide run I was talking about earlier. When a couple of Blues grabbed me and dragged me halfway around the planet to a cold dark room.
They informed me of the colossal nature of my fuck up. I had just blown their investigation up, literally. I had also killed 3 Xi'an and 32 Kuzahi members. They branded me a mass murder out of sheer frustration. At least they were going to return the kid to the Xi'an.
I was never to see the light of a star again.
That's when everything went super nova. All around me I could hear and feel explosions rattling the walls. Warning alarms started to blare. The men interrogating me dashed off slamming the door behind them. An explosion ripped through the wall behind me throwing me into the adjacent wall. The wind from outside cleared the smoke away only to give sight to a new horror.
Flying daggers tore through civilian ship and military alike. They were like a hive of bees on a rampage. I had never seen anything in the Verse like that. It was a new race. A deadly race.
