Verrik woke up one morning and wanted to race. He wasn’t sure why, and he doubted he’d ever figure out why. Perhaps he wanted an adrenaline rush. Perhaps so he could wager credits to earn more. He just didn’t know. What he did know was that his ship was formerly used in racing, though since his particular ship was a somewhat common one, he didn’t know just how long ago that was. In reality, it had been a few decades or so since the ship had seen a finish line, but with all the electronics being swapped out and or replaced, the ship’s previous data records were lost to time. He would first set to work giving it a repaint, as it needed one. It was heavily faded from years of sitting around before being bought again by Verrik, but he could see a green stripe running along the middle, which he would touch up, doing his best to recreate it. He thought about making a logo, so his ship could be more recognizable, but he wasn’t that good of an artist, so he just went without. Perhaps he’d make one to put on a bandana or something. By the end, he thought it looked pretty nice, with its pine green stripe overlaying a darker gray, an addition he chose to do. As he looked over the ship, he wondered if it would even be stable enough, as he was certain that its structure had weakened over the years, or however long it had been since its last race. Thankfully his time on the Spire had given him a few friends, some that were into ship modification. He would call one of these friends up, who went by Umot. He was a retired ship mechanic, with his popular days far behind him. But when he heard what Verrik proposed, he was intrigued and would be the first of the team Verrik would have to assemble for his future racing career. Umot himself would be rather surprised to see the ship Verrik had, which he could’ve sworn he worked on years ago. But that didn’t matter, the Xenosergal hybrid had mentioned his plan for a third support strut, which would give the ship a more unique look, as well as give additional room for electronics, storage, and the likes. Thankfully, Umot had a small warehouse full of aftermarket parts a few jumps away. So, the two would depart the Spire, grabbing a quick bite along the way. Some people at the asteroid diner they visited actually recognized the ship and couldn’t believe their eyes that it had survived decades later. Though some of them were reminded of what happened to the last owner and pilot, saddened by the events surrounding them. Regardless, it was a nice blast from the past, and they watched curiously as what roughly resembled a Xenomorph, and what they assumed was their copilot exit the ship and enter. Verrik wasn’t sure what to choose, but Umot ordered them both a Lumire soda to begin with. He hadn’t heard of the fruit before, so with his holo-gauntlet, he decided to have it generate a short description.
[Lumire] [A glowing, translucent fruit that radiates a soft blue light. It has a sweet, slightly tangy flavor with notes of blueberry and citrus. It seems to have natural caffeine in each fruit, equivalent to a cup of Human coffee, or two cups of Jovian lideh.]
He’d also have to try lideh sometime, as he recalled them serving it on the Spire within his local food court. But for now, the two drinks arrived, and they seemed to have a soft glow, presumably like the fruit it’s flavored with. Verrik took a sip, and had to admit, he liked the taste. Reminded him of some of the sodas back on Earth, but with an exotic twist. As for the food, he would find a pasta bake on the menu, along with a burger, and order those, idly reading some news article of a missing Shadowhawk Republic destroyer. He wondered how an entire destroyer could go missing, but it didn’t matter to him at the moment. He swore he recalled a dream though, where he would end up using such a vessel to rescue his hive. Before he could think about it further, the food arrived and looked quite good to be honest. Verrik would eat in relative silence, while Umot was looking over a scanned schematic of the ship he was to soon work on. He had made the scan himself while they were at light speed, but only now had his holo-gauntlet finished processing the data for a visual representation to be made. It was indeed a ship he had worked on in the past, and now he got to work on it again, which was nice. The two would finish their meal, and as they were leaving, they were approached by someone at the bar. They called themselves Carrick, and claimed they were a former opponent of the previous pilot. The three of them would get to talking, with the end result being Carrick now on their team. He would train Verrik, giving him tips and tricks on how to get the most out of his ship. They would depart the asteroid diner, arriving at Umot’s warehouse within an hour or two. From there, the three would begin to tinker around the ship. Umot would swap out the engines with a much faster one he had laying around, along with upgrading the shields, giving the ship a hidden weapon previously on a similar model, as well as short term boost function, and a third support strut, to house more computer modules. By the end of it all, the ship was vastly different, and they even managed to replace the interior, giving it updated controls better suited for racing. Verrik and Carrick would take it for a test flight, finding it to be more maneuverable, but more importantly, faster. Umot would point them out to an abandoned racecourse within the asteroid belt nearby, and they would make their way, Umot monitoring them from within their warehouse. Carrick would guide the Serglien the first couple of laps, increasing speed a bit and getting him comfortable with it, before increasing further. A few hours later, and Verrik seemed to have gotten the hang of it. They would stop by another diner, getting a bite to eat, before going to practice a bit further. The three of them would end up sleeping in their ships. Verrik would wake up about half an hour after the other two, and they’d get to work checking over everything to make sure it was secure. After that, they’d make their way to the nearest raceway, signing their ship up, and finding their assigned space within the hangar. It would be here where they would find out they’d need a logo or symbol of some sort, and Carrick would offer up his old racing symbol, giving Verrik a now modified suit, bearing said symbol. They’d also paint it on the ship itself, simply in black and white as they didn’t have any other colors. Soon enough, he was ready to race. Verrik would make his way to the starting line, seeing the other ships surrounding him and having the first seeds of doubt planted into his mind. He wasn’t sure if this relic by today’s standard would even get halfway through the first lap, but he couldn’t turn back now. He had been taught a simple breathing exercise to help calm him by Carrick, as he anticipated that his first few races may have him stressed out at the start line. They helped a little. However, his doubt would be the least of his problems that race. When it came time to the countdown, he was ready, holding onto the controls, and getting himself comfortable within his chair. As the light went green, however, something within his ship short-circuited. He hadn’t assumed any foul play, nor seen one of the nearby racers launch a small drone onto his ship, which found its way into the ship via a small opening and began wreaking havoc on its systems. Verrik would almost consider defeat, but an EMP wave washed through his ship, it seemed it had internal defenses as well as external. The drone was fried, and with a quick restart, he launched from the starting line. He never realized just how fast they’d made his ship, because it was only a matter of minutes before he had already caught up with the others, bringing him to third place surprisingly, leaving one less than honest racer surprised his drone hadn’t kept the rookie at bay. This was his track and damn it if he was going to lose to a newcomer! He attempted to launch another, but by now, the ship had kept some of its defenses up, an electric current running throughout the exterior plating of the ship fried any drone that came in contact with it. He’d have to try some of his other sabotage methods it seems. He'd use a bit of an old technique he remembered that affected that model of ship. It involved inverting the polarity of his shields and extending it outwards. The result should be a destabilized drive core on the opposing ship. However, Carrick had anticipated this ahead of time, and had added extra shielding around the core, and upgraded it with a spare he found. It would take a lot to destabilize it now. When it was clear that it wasn’t doing anything, the disgruntled pilot slammed a fist against a side panel within their ship, annoyed that this ship seemed to be immune to most of his tricks so far. He would’ve shot it, but its shields had read as far stronger than a ship of that size should even be capable of. They were now in first and second place respectively, and out of anger, he decided to anyway, his blasts alone were able to knock the ship off course a bit, but the little ship was able to compensate enough for it to not matter. Though an idea crossed his mind. His ship was larger, and he could just ram the other ship into a wall. He’d have to do it within the tunnels, where the cameras couldn’t see him. Smiling to himself, he mentally devised his plan, seeing the tunnels in question approaching the two of them. They both entered, a third ship following behind. The racers could choose to either take the tunnels or take their chance at the asteroid belt. Most were overconfident, and it resulted in their deaths. Athena, however, was better than that. She trusted her ship with her life, as it had already served her well in her career as a bounty hunter. Even within the Shadowhawk Republic, someone would want someone else dead. Her Dark Angel was rather big compared to the two ships in front of her, but her curiosity had been peaked by the newcomer, as everyone had been calling him. She had yet to see what they looked like, but Athena’s scanners showed the lifeform inside as part Xenomorph. How interesting, she thought. People would consider her ship bulky at first sight, with a large pair of wings on the back that seemed to move like an actual bird. Along with some stabilizing fins along the top of her ship. But those were either for lightspeed, maneuvering in atmosphere, or just for showing off to put it bluntly. Her ship, like the auto-mechs she so enjoyed using, was modular, and could transform itself into a much smaller profile, allowing her to participate in races like these when she had some free time. Sure, it was annoying whenever the complex mechanisms within her ship broke down, but she wouldn’t have anything else in its place. This ship saved her more times than she could count, and with its partial AI assistance, she could outperform most high-end military interceptors, let alone a few pilots with flashy ships. Speaking of flashy ships, she noticed the two in front of her seemed to be having a bit of an altercation. The larger of the two was clearly trying to ram the other into the wall. She may have been a bounty hunter, but she always had a saying that she followed strictly. Never mess with the little ones. It was something she would prevent other people from doing whenever she could, including now. Sure, it would forfeit her chance at first place, but she could live with a few silvers instead of gold, unlike this hotshot of a pilot. She readied her ship’s main cannon, setting it for a low power shot. Over in Verrik’s ship, he was damn near having a heart attack, as out of all the things he had trained and prepared himself for, being rammed into a wall wasn’t one of them. He was having to use all of his ship’s power to keep himself alive as he pushed back against the larger ship. His weapon control system had been fried at the start of the race, so he couldn’t even fire back. This wasn’t how he planned his first race to go, and looking out at the visual feed, he could see and hear the very tip on one of the fins grinding against the wall, creating sparks behind him. Just as he was about to about to accept defeat again, a shot echoed from behind and hit the ship he was fighting against. It was an ion shot, considering the ship hadn’t taken damage, and the fact that the ship seemed to have lost power as it was now floating behind him, getting further away. Next to him, a rather elegant, if not out of place ship flew up beside him. Despite neither seeing each other, he could almost visualize the salute from whoever was flying and gave one back. Through the thermal scanners however, Athena could, in fact, see Verrik doing so, and chuckled to herself as the two came out of the tunnel. The two would be neck and neck for a while, Athena already seeing some improvements the newcomer’s ship could use. Though to the surprise of her, Verrik would activate a short-range boost, something that she hadn’t detected within his ship. Verrik would activate the booster he forgot and went soaring across the finish line, the Dark Angel close behind. He was surprised he actually made it. He then noticed a message on one of the ship terminals, which simply read [GOOD JOB, NEWCOMER.] From there he’d land his ship back in the hangar. He was greeted with a mixed crowd of other racers, spectators wanting to see who the pilot behind the little ship was, and a couple news crews even. From the distance, though Verrik couldn’t see it past all the cameras, stood Athena, smiling to herself. She had a feeling this Hybrid, as her modified holo-gauntlet told her, would go big and far. Though to everyone’s surprise, Verrik would announce his retirement, much to the disappointment of everyone present. Athena understood. Being put in a life-or-death situation like that, especially on your first race, can take the will to continue out of anybody. She’d had this feeling herself a few times, but a fire within her kept her going. Though it seems his supposed crew were saltier than he realized, as he watched his ship take off, and fly into the distance before going to lightspeed. It would leave Verrik with a lot of depression within his heart. The main issue being that he didn’t have a way back to the spire, as anyone who would’ve or could’ve taken him already left, and if they didn’t, they were about to. That was when Athena approached. She appeared to be a synthetic lifeform of some sort, though her origin was unknown, even to her. She merely “woke up” one day. Perhaps she was a military prototype lost to time. No amount of searching could bring light to her origin. All she knew was the ship she had, and the auto-mechs that lived on board. Her ship alone was just as mysterious as her. It was supposedly a military prototype, but for which species, or which faction? Again, nobody knew. Yet for the first time, she was about to have an organic aboard. Thankfully, it had oxygen, so he could breath, Athena thought. She made the offer to a now rather depressed Xenomorph Sergal hybrid, and at first, he refused, that maybe he didn’t deserve it. But Athena knew how to be persistent, she’d hold him at gunpoint before taking no for an answer from someone who she could tell was not doing ok at that moment, and she very nearly did. Eventually though, the two boarded the Dark Angel, and Verrik was impressed with the interior design. It didn’t feel like a ship from this century whatsoever. But its interior was not of concern to him. Verrik would find a bed to lay on, he’d probably cry if he could, everyone had just up and left him the second he mentioned he was retiring, was it really that bad of a choice? He didn’t want to race if he had to deal with a life-or-death situation every time. Even his supposed team had left, taking the ship with them. Though as he was in his depressive state, he noticed Athena standing at the doorway, a smirk on her face. It surprised Verrik that she could even show emotion, being an android after all. “Managed to track your ship down, they just finished avoiding security. We can capture it if you like.” Verrik considered it, but a much darker thought crossed his mind, one that would satisfy him far more in the end. They would blow it the hell up. Athena was caught off guard, something rare for her, but agreed. It would be more satisfying. They would come out of lightspeed, undetectable due to the active cloaking system they had, and would monitor the ship for a while, listening in on the two of them via an internal microphone. “Can’t believe he just quit like that, after all I’d sunk into this ship!” “Yeah, I’d thought better of him. He would’ve been great, and we would’ve been rich. What changed?” “Doesn’t matter, he can live the rest of his life in that hanger, I’ve got my old partner’s ship back, and I know the two of us can make it big.” “Agreed, he’ll see just how bad he messed up soon enough, when we’re parading around the galaxy, so rich we won’t know what to do with it all.” “Mhmm, I bet you we’ll even- “ It was at this point that Verrik and Athena had heard enough, and decloaked behind them, much to their horror. Athena could already tell how Verrik wanted this done. They would toy with them for a good while, just barely missing, giving them the false sense of hope. That they could make it out alive. But when Verrik gave the signal, they would fire a single, well-placed ion shot, disabling most of the ship’s systems entirely. They would then move in front of the ship, as if looking their prey in the eyes, and lock them in a tractor beam. Verrik wished they could see him, and Athena had a surprise, they could via broadcasting either a live feed or sending a single picture to display on all the ship’s screens. Verrik would choose to send a single image, not even bothering to give them a live feed. It would simply be his face; with the most sinister evil grin he could muster. Athena would digitally add in a loud sound effect just to fuck with them further, before sending their little gift to them. Verrik swore he could hear their screams even from within the ship and chuckled darkly to himself before he and Athena moved to finalize their death. They would start by dragging them behind the Dark Angel, lining the nose of the ship up with the nearest star. From there, they would accelerate for a good while, before deactivating the tractor beam lock, and watching them as they flew towards their inescapable doom. Verrik would even get to hear them screaming for their final moments, before the ship melted away within the intense heat of the star. With a soft sigh, he would have Athena set course to the Spire. She was surprised someone who could afford to live within the Spire would try their hand at racing themselves, but didn’t question it. They would arrive within the hour, and Verrik would be given a personal communication channel on his holo-gauntlet, in case he ever needed help like that again, or if he wanted to try his hand at bounty hunting. Verrik thanked her and made his way back to his apartment, just wanting to unwind at this point.
