Serro's Ship Log

Entry 219

I was back on the Needle when Nykus came aboard. The sovereign agreed to lend the Moonspiders to help with the war. Exact details of the cost for such an alliance I am unclear on. I'm sure he will know what to do. Nykus asked us to transport him to the quiv homeworld of Melthos so he can pay us there. We would be taking a tourin lane directly to there from this system so there shouldn't be too much risk involved. I reluctantly agreed, knowing it would be the only way to get paid. I couldn't go to Krutos now that we are outlaws there.

As we were leaving the moonspider fleet, we get a call. It's from a young cha'el female named Livesz. She claimed to be Shev's sister, and wished to join us. Apparently she never liked her brother and considered herself freed from his oppression. She felt indebted to us. I reluctantly agreed and let her on board. I would be starting her on a trial period, an internship if you will.

We traveled to a lane leading directly to Melthos.

Entry 220

We pulled out of the lane in the Melthos system. The planet was a few hours journey away. But we found a larger ship hailing us. It's that hezak mercenary from the spa back on Krutos. He is here for Nykus alone, and offered to take him and do no harm to us. Part of me wanted to give him up, but a bigger part of me wanted to get paid, and this hezak merc wasn't offering any money. I tried bluffing that we didn't have him, but somehow he knew.

It was a good think that our new 'member', Livesz, knew how to fly. I immediately had her take the helm and fly our ship full speed toward planet Melthos. Once we reached the planetary defense fleet we would provide amnesty from the mercs.

The bigger merc ship was fast, but ours was slightly faster. The gunner aboard it wasn't a very good shot because we fared well getting past it. It released a small fighter though, which was very fast. The little craft wouldn't be able to travel tourin lanes, but it caught up to us. I got to the plasma cannon and took shots at it, but it persisted. It shot a torpedo which was able to get past our defenses. But the torpedo didn't explode. It attached, like a boarding pod. I didn't know of any that did that, especially since it would be impossible for anyone to survive aboard a torpedo that travels that fast and hits that hard.

It attached to our engine room, so I had Gra', Jin'kins, and the battlebred go check it out. I left Livesz manning the helm while I still worked on the fighter pursuing us.

The three found the torpedo did have occupants, but not biological ones. Four robots popped into the engine room and began establishing a foothold. It was a fierce fight, but they weren't attacking or sabotaging our engine like I thought they would, instead the robots were acting as signal relays for a hacker aboard the merc ship. I found myself in an electronic war with the mercs. It was tough, they had a skilled team of hackers. A few times they were able to power down my engines, causing the hezak ship to start gaining on us. I made it imperative that we killed the bots as soon as possible, or else we find ourselves assaulted by a much bigger ship.

Eventually the 3 warriors got them, and I was able to gain control of my ship again. Livesz throttled it back to full and we were leaving the merc ship behind. An intense close call.

Nykus better be legitimate with the amnesty claim, and he better have my money. At first I felt I may be overcharging him, but not so much anymore.