The Routine

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Unmarked ships didn't tend to remain so for very long.

There was little by way of activity in the far eastern reaches of Dominion space. Traffic was slow and regulations had to be put in place to keep pirate groups from performing their illicit activities on what most of the galaxy would consider backwaters. While it was indeed true that some of the outlying worlds had relatively small populations, such populations still deserved the same amount of protection afforded to any of the core worlds.

It was as such that Alexander found himself somewhere between Neelgaimon and Lorrd. The commander was performing a rather routine inspection of the trade route's security. Given recent military losses, illegal elements might have thought the run between worlds to have become a safer journey. Alexander was here to make sure that the local worlds' PDF forces proved that not to be the case.

"Have you reached out to Marcus yet?" Alexander's AI companion asked. The soldier shifted his gaze to the top right hand corner of his visor, where the image of Stanley's cowled green features was peering at him. "Not yet. I don't want to bother him until the initiates are ready."

"Why?"

A heavy sigh fell from Alex's lips as he looked up from his shuttle's controls. "Because things are complicated right now Stanley."

"You say that like you don't want to see him. Did something happen between you two?" Stanley's robed form projected itself on a nearby holoemitter. "I don't -" Alexander held up a plate-bound hand. "Wait a tick, getting something on the proximity scanner."

The vehicle's scanners shifted to the object in question; a ship by all accounts. One unregistered within the trade union or any civil bureau. "Fething pirates," Alex hailed the ship. "Rogue vessel, this is Dominion Sector Security, power down your engines and prepare to be boarded. Prepare a proper means of identification."

"Not taking any chances today then?" Stanley sneered.

"It's been a long flight and I'm crapped. Better to catch them with their pants down anyway. Bring us in."

[member="Mary Ragnos"]

 

[Mary Ragnos]

As the ship began hailing, Mary's freighter did not respond, though the ship only seemed to be cruising in a single direction, and at a fairly slow speed. Through the scan, reports then show that the ship seems to have all systems down besides the shields and life support.

Your ship then approached, one of your scans would show a bio-sign. Female, and active whiten the back of the ship.

Meanwhile, while all this took place Mary was inspecting her cargo hold upon her ship. Looking through the fuel stock and the ammunition for the ships small personal defense cannon.

"So I will have to stop by a system soon to purchase some more fuel cells" Mary would begin sorting the remaining fuel cells to the left of the cargo hold for accessibility.

Upon finding a picture of the old home on Dantooine, Mary would smile a bit "It's been a while, maybe I should visit them or atleast comm them from a long range station"

As time passed, Mary would hear a voice coming from the bridge. She bolted to the room "Damn I knew I shouldn't of left this ship on auto-pilot.."

She would enter the bridge and listen to the incoming hail from [member="Alexander Ontonas"] , "Boarding?.. This is not good.." Mary would run to her cabin to equip her blaster for self defense and waited for her new 'guest' to board.

 

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No reply. That confirmed Alexander's theory then.

The vessel grew deathly silent as Stanley angled it toward the rogue ship. It most certainly was not the first time Alexander had boarded a seemingly dead ship in search of pirates. During the height of the great war, that had been one of his more common duties alongside his brothers and sisters. Of course, he'd always had a team with him back then. Things were different these days.

"Thirty seconds to the latch." Stanley's voice chimed in through his helmet. "Let's go say hello," the soldier replied as he pulled back the slide on his shacklebolt rifle. The soldier's vessel would latch onto the rogue ship via a docking umbilical.

"No response from the rogue vessel. How do you want to open the door?" Stanley chimed in. Alexander responded by plugging the AI's core into the door's access panel. A few seconds later, and the rogue vessel's door hissed open.

Two loud thuds signalled Alexander's entrance into the vessel. Clad in heavy phrikite power armor and a thick fur cloak, he looked more akin to a machine than any kind of man. His rifle whirred as it shifted from one corner of the room to the other, though Alex held it toward the floor for the sake of avoiding hostilities.

"DSS coming aboard!" Alex shouted, "You wanna come out and keep this civil?"

Stanley's voice projected from intercomm across the umbilicle. "I would go with civil if I were you!"

[member="Mary Ragnos"]

 

[Mary Ragnos]

As the boarding took place, She ran to the cargo hold to hide behind a crate. The moment Mary finally hid [member="Alexander Ontonas"] entered the ship through the boarding hatch. Mary grasped her rifle in her arms and set it to stun and awaited for him to enter her line of sight.

"Could it be a bounty hunter? or a pirate.." As she says that she hears the two voices having a conversation..

"No no.. He sounded to professional.. and wanna be civil.. get of my ship" Mary from this point simply waited for her 'guest' to approach the cargo hold or enter the hall

"And what was that second voice, Oh no.. is it an entire boarding party?" She prepared a small stun grenade by her side encase of multiple people

 

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No reply yet again.

Alexander's brow furrowed behind his helm. He brought his rifle up to bare, his gaze shifting from one corner of the ship to the next. It was quite possible that this vessel was a decoy, and if that proved to be ture then Alexander was about to have a very bad day indeed. the other possibility was that the pilot had died in some unfortunate accident, and the ship had been left to float freely for gods knew how long. Each was as plausible as the other, but Alex couldn't just leave an abandoned ship to the void. Not until he knew what dangers it held.

Heavy footfalls foretold of his coming. he moved from one section of the ship to the next, his helmet switching to a thermal vision so that he might catch sight of anything living. Nothing of relevance was coming up, save for...

"Last chance to tell me you're here. This vessel is undocumented and right on a primary trade route. Lots of pirates in the area lately. Thinking you might be one of them." His voice echoed throughout the ship, though it was highly modulated.

He stepped into the doorway leading into the cargo hold. "Last room." Stanley quipped. "I think this may be a decoy. Just our luck, eh?"

[member="Mary Ragnos"]

 

[Mary Ragnos]

Right at the moment @Alexander Ontonos entered the doorway of the cargo hold Mary shivered hearing the sound of the step imaging then the size of the man. Though, she did realize that by listening into his conversation with his 'friend' he had no intention on stealing or killing.. meaning he was no bounty hunter or pirate.

Upon coming to this conclusion Mary decided she was safe in regards of not dieing, With this knowledge she stood up becoming faced to face with the metal man, realizing it was in fact just one man.

Holding her pistol then in a defense stance she looked upon the metal man and stared not knowing what to exactly say as she was full of fear of this situation which she was faced with.

 

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Not the sort of pirate he was used to.

"Stun?" Stanley asked over the helm's private comms. Rook snickered.

"You can lower that weapon. Wouldn't do much for you anyway." That much was true. The armor itself could stave off the blow of a lightsaber, and the shielding it was sheathed in could shrug off a number of high caliber rifle rounds without failing. A sidearm wasn't going to do much to stop him, not when he was already this close. Still, it was the thought of being able to defend oneself that counted. Alexander understood that much - it was why he chose not to demand that she relinquish the weapon all together.

"Your ship is unregistered, you won't respond to hails, and you're flying through a region of space that's been plagued with pirate attacks recently. Forgive me if I seem a little overzealous in my duties, things just look suspicious." The rifle was lowered, "What are you doing out here lady?"

[member="Mary Ragnos"]

 

[Mary Ragnos]

Mary with a quick sigh of relief lowered her blaster pistol and holstered it on her belt. She emerged from the cover which she was hiding behind moved in the direction of [member="Alexander Ontonas"] to sit upon another crate and face him.

Mary began pulling out her identification card and looked up at Alexander.

"My name is Mary, I'm the outer rim world of Dantooine, well the farm world" She laughed.

"Its my apologies I did not respond to the hails, I was in the cargo hold and my ship was left on auto pilot to continue down the trade line" She looked over at her almost depleted fuel cache

"I was following the trade line in hope of locating a depot where I can refuel my ships almost depleted fuel reserves.. I had no idea it was so populated with pirates, Thank you for boarding the ship though, you sure saved me in the case of pirates." Mary smiled and stood up from where she was sitting and waited for her 'guest' to respond.