Unknown Heroes - Chapter 2 (v1.1)

[Warenwolf]

As promised, here is chapter 2 of Unknown Heroes. I encourage people to write their opinions about this story.


EDIT: This chapter has been updated to version 1.1 - I rather liked this chapter so unlike chapter 1 this rewrite had only 20 +/- words added. Basically, it is same chapter as before so old readers can drop reading this chapter…

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Links to other chapters:

Chapter 10: The Khaak
Chapter 9: New Player
Chapter 8: The Hunt Begins
Chapter 7: Among the rogues
Chapter 6: Anger of the Giants
Chapter 5: Awakening of the storm
Chapter 4: Trade run to Hell
Chapter 3: Old connections
Chapter 2: Means for revenge
Chapter 1: First kill

The glossary of Unknown Heroes

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Chapter 2: Means for the revenge




Federal Trading Station, Ore Belt sector
Present time, 7 jazuras after Argon Pride tragedy



Otto Dahl was not a stranger to Billy’s Place. In fact, entire crowd in this dark and somewhat smelly bar knew him and most of them disliked him. Entire sector have heard the stories about him. More often then not his appearance in the sector coincided with some bad news, like an ore hauler disappearing or some supply convoy being ambushed. He would come with his ship having marks of the battle, scorch marks of laser fire or gaping holes in the hull from plasma or particle fire. Otto easily deflected any enquires from the Station Security, not that the Security bothered to dig too deep as long as the ships of the more important people were not hurt.
Because of this, more experienced miners expected something big to happen soon, because Otto was a sure omen, like vultures on horizon from goners’ stories. One Paranid pilot even made a sign against unholy evil while two tables away group of Borons used their PDAs to hire more escorts for their convoy.

Otto looked around the bar, made sure nobody was reading their knives or laspistols to use against him, and then walked to Billy himself. He put one credit chip worth 1000 credits in Billy’s hand and said,“This is for the last time and something for the next time”.
One trader smiled, remembering the last time Otto was here. Otto had just entered the place when some Independents attacked him claiming he attacked their convoy at the approach route trough the belt. The Security was indifferent to their complaints since they, as Independents often like to proclaim, were not citizens of Federation. The Independents decided to take matter in their own hands. He sent all three of them to the station’s hospital section, but not before the entire place was looking like a war zone.
Taking one more look around him, he picked a place to sit, seemingly not bothering to look at two men that had just arrived.

The crowd became curious seeing the one of the newcomers that had entered the bar. One of the two men was a familiar face for the crowd, a local boy named Tony, a 19-jazura old local miner who had worked in one of the local mines since he was 13. Never in his life had he been outside the Ore Belt, his entire life revolving around local mines.
His father died recently and entire crowd in the Billy’s Place knew how it happened, most of them present when he drunken and angry climbed on the one of the tables in Billy’s Place and vowed to take revenge.
It was Tony’s company that led to raised eyebrows, two men calling attention to themselves because they obviously did not belong together.
Stranger’s suit was more expensive than any ore miners’ year wage. That in itself would not have attracted too much attention – sometimes some of the stations wealthier visitors would make wrong turn in one of the station’s corridors and end up here in lower levels of Trade Station. Billy would politely show them way to the restaurant that was meant for the more upstanding customers. Billy did not care where the customer spent his money, owning both places.
200.000 credits suit had a hard face that showed clear scars of tech implants which civilians in Argon space were forbidden to posses. Only Argon Armed Forces were allowed to install such chips on their soldiers and even that was controversial. After a soldier ended his service, his implants would be removed. Fact that this stranger had such scars told the crowd in Billy’s Place that this man was an ex-military. The men in the bar, who knew how to think for themselves and listen for the right information, connected this ex-military man’s presence and Tony’s vow for the revenge against NSM for father’s death. Then they stopped listening. Curiosity was a dangerous trait in Ore Belt.





Ore mine Tony’s father was working on suffered explosion when dust, which was a residue from the mining process, ignited in old storage section. Explosion tore apart entire two sections of the mine but no one died. Miners thought themselves lucky. However, explosion also destroyed stations old gravitation generator. Mine’s director sent a request for the replacement to Aragonia - the only answer he got was to continue production. Director and miners did not expect any other answer from the owners; ore mine was on the asteroid that was too large to be rotated conventionally and gravitation generators cost were equal to 70 % of the cost of a brand-new mine. Beside production could continue, with few adjustments, without gravitation generator.
With ore prices at all times high, miners did not worry, expecting that new generator soon could be afforded. They would be disappointed. Jazura later NSM, NorthStar Mining, opened new mine in the sector and told miners to be patient. When one more jazura passed, 120 of the mine’s 300 workers developed “Space Death”, a miner’s term for series of symptoms human body shows after a lengthy period of time in an environment without gravity. Tony’s father was one of them. It took him five mazuras to die. Tony never forgot who was responsible.

Tony started to frequent one of the hidden bases pirates had in the Ore Belt. He asked around for the right piece of the information until one tazura Sector 21, anarchist terror organization, approached him. Majority of the few members of the Ore Belts Sector 21 were angry young man just like Tony, but they were led by a beautiful, charismatic, and more importantly well-connected leader.
Tanya was sent here from the far away Circle of Labor system. In core systems around Argon Prime progress of recruitment was going slow so Tanya’s sector leader sent Tanya to Ore Belt to start local branch of Sector 21. Because of the sector’s position and composition of the local populace, revolutionary council thought that Ore Belt was a key to the core sectors, or so Tanya was told.
In reality, sector leader in Circle of Labor felt threatened by this young, charismatic and beautiful woman. By sending her away, he was securing his own position. Tanya was intelligent enough to see through her leader’s lies but she could do nothing about it. And now here in Ore Belt, she felt trapped with local miners mistrusting strangers and even more strange ideas. Pirate population never cared much about any political ideas. She knew that her stay on their base was barely tolerated and that many argued about it in the open. Local pirates did not have troubles with local authorities since their base was only considered a pit stop to more profitable pirate destinations. The base was a last retreat to pirates who were too old to go on raids and with too large bounties on their heads to go back to the normal life. For the youngsters with burning desire for quick cash but with too little funds to buy a proper ship this was a starting point – good place to learn from old timers while waiting to be recruited by passing pirate warlord.
Pirates liked their peace and considered Tanya a potential disturber of that peace. Only thing that kept her alive on the base was that no pirate yet have found any economical gain that could justify potential hostilities to Sector 21. Tanya knew it was only time before that justifying reason was found in the bounty she had on her from the Montelaar sector.
In Tony she finally saw a chance. She needed the local figure to preach the message to the people, the young man was already an established figure among miners, and everybody talked about him. Even workers and engineers that worked on Sun Power plants that viewed them self as a caste above miners, greeted him when passing by him in the Trading Station. He was gifted orator and the story about his father’s and other miners’ fate was already reaching outside Ore Belt. But Tony refused to help Tanya before one thing was dealt with. And Tanya knew who to contact.

Her former lover, who introduced Tanya to Sector 21 in first place, was member of intelligence gathering section of Sector 21 and if anyone could help Tanya with her problem, it was he.
She met Toby when she was studying at university. Already then she was politically active, holding speeches at student rallies and writing petitions to local senators. She was brilliant student her first jazura at university but already second jazura her grades plummeted because the politics took more and more of her time. As the time went, her views became too extreme for her friends and she felt increasingly isolated. Then she met Toby. He was tall, handsome, well-spoken with great sense of humor but best of all he agreed with her political views. At some point they became more than just close friends. She even invited him after only couple of months to move in with her, but he gently declined pointing out that they could not afford their own place and that their current rooms at campus were too small for two people sharing them. In reality, Toby had different reasons to rejecting her suggestion – Sector 21 planned some action on university, Toby didn’t know what kind of action but he was told in firm words that Tanya’s was crucial for operation and that Toby and Tanya should stay apart. Tanya’s and Toby’s relationships were tensed from this moment, mostly because Tanya felt that Toby’s refusal to move in with her meant that he was not ready to move their relationship forward.
Three mazuras later Toby was again contacted by the Sector people. They explained to him finally his role in coming operation. One of the Montelaar’s senators was supposed to come to university and speak to students. The senator was supposed to speak in university’s aula. Since politicians and other important figures often held speeches there, this particular aula had unusually high level of security with CCTV systems and reinforced chobham alloy doors that could only be opened by handful of persons using their fingerprint as identification. Since Tanya was member of universities newspaper and a political group, she was one of the people with access to the aula. It was the main reason why Sector 21 ordered Toby to approach her. Initial plan was to use Tanya’s amputated hand to gain access to the aula, but fortunately for Tanya, Sector 21 realized that fingerprint scanners with use of simple IR-scan determinate whether correct body temperature and blood circulation was present in scanned hand. Therefore it was decided that Tanya was needed alive for operation and Toby was ordered to seduce her.
When Toby asked Tanya to show him the aula she accepted despite that she did not understand Toby’s sudden interest in the aula. They met late at the evening and Tanya unlocked aula for him. She started to give him introduction about aula’s history, but Toby seemed uninterested.
Instead he walked over to the podium and removed one of the planks there with tool Tanya had never seen before. He took out from his bag a similar plank with measurements and texture similar to the one he removed and inserted it where old plank were.
Tanya asked him what he was doing but he simply answered smiling, “Oh it is just a prank me and my pals plan to do to the senator when he comes here. Don’t ask me what kind of prank. You will see for yourself”. Despite Toby’s smile, she felt that something was wrong. However, she did not say anything; she just smiled back and nodded. They then walked to her place and talked about other things. Suddenly Toby turned to her, looked her directly into her eyes and said, “Tanya, listen to me carefully now. I must tell you something that has been bothering me for a long time. I am member of Sector 21. That was reason I could not move with you when you asked me to do it. Doing so would put you in jeopardy. I love you and it would break my heart if something happened to you. I know that our political views are similar and that you have defended Sector 21 actions against people’s enemies”
Tanya nodded at that. Many times, in her political group, she has justified Sector 21’s terrorism as the result of society’s injustice.
“So join us” Toby continued, “don’t waste your time talking with your fellow students. You know that more action and less words is the medicine our society needs for its illness”
Suddenly Tanya understood what had happened last few mazuras. Toby had used her for his own gain. She understood that “prank” he had talked about was more serious than that. The speech Toby had just held was just an act. She knew that Toby loved her but that his love for the cause was greater. Tanya knew if she rejected Toby’s offer to join Sector 21 her life would end up soon, a thought reinforced when she noticed two men with large sunglasses, something few peoples used at dark evenings, staying behind Toby and Tanya ten meters away. She felt used, but she also realized that action was something she craved. She wanted society to change now, not in a century when she would be dead. Tanya believed truly that only action could achieve such rapid change and not endless dialogues, speeches and political meetings.
Perhaps Sector 21 was a right organization for her. So she finally told Toby, “Yeah you are right. I was thinking along these lines for long time. It is good to have someone who sees things same way as I do”. Toby hugged her and looking over his shoulder Tanya saw that two men she observed before were gone.
Same night they left Montelaar’s Sector in old hauler ship. They flew whole time, never stopping until they reached Teladi territory. Tanya began her career in Sector 21.
As for the bomb, it never went off. Argon Police sniffers easily detected Sector 21’s nitrate based chemical explosive and disarmed device. Using CCTV, they identified Toby and Tanya as culprits, but by then they were long gone…

The romance between Tanya and Toby ended that faithful evening, but Tanya knew that Toby had soft spot for her and she used that for her advantage from time to time.
She met him at Trading Station in Cloudbase SouthEast sector where Toby was on an assignment. Traveling between sectors was dangerous but Tanya thought that gains outweighed the risks. She did not leave the ship; instead Toby came to the ship posing as a trader who wanted to arrange fast delivery of his goods. He looked differently now, more older than he should be, with long hair tied in ponytail. She realized that this was part of his disguise. He smiled when he saw her and sat in only another available chair in the small cabin that of navigator. Tanya’s pilot excused herself and left for the local bar. When they were finally alone Toby spoke feigning anger, “It seems that I only hear your sweet voice when you need something of me”
“When Sector 21 needs something of you”, Tanya answered coldly.
“Of course. I am always ready to serve you when you help the cause”
“Our time is limited Toby. Let us go right to the core of the matter.”
“Yes, let us deal with work first. There will be time for play later…”
Ignoring his remarks and attitude, Tanya began explaining, “We are on verge of recruiting a local figurehead among Ore Belt’s miners, but his ultimatum in joining us is to help him get his revenge on capitalists that murdered his father.”
“Why is he so important?”
“Local miners listen to him, he talks the language that they understand. He has also many admirers at sector’s power and trading stations. People who ignore me are willingly listening to him. You know what it would mean for the organization if we gained foothold in Ore Belt. The door to core systems would be open to us” Tanya spoke with glowing eyes. Privately she thought about what that would mean for her position in the organization. With careful planning, she would be sector leader of the most important sector and have keys to the core sectors. That would catapult her into a seat in revolutionary council, a decision making body in Sector 21. Finally then Tanya would be in position to change the society to her liking, a just and perfect society free from cleptocratic governments and capitalists.
After few moments of silence, Toby finally began to speak, “As you know alarmingly high numbers of our operations have failed because of the fact we fight against an enemy which had centuries to perfect methods of oppression”. Tanya nodded at this. Indeed many operations failed because Sector 21 lacked the skills and know-how.
“So recent jazura we have turned to mercenaries when it comes to the most complex operations.”
“What!? That scum is epitome of evil we are fighting. Those people are government’s undercover armies. Driven by greed they kill and maim.” Tanya said, her face red from anger. Her parents, who were independent traders, were killed in a mercenary raid against a station where they had docked.
“We are simply using government’s own evil against it”, Toby answered defensively.
Tanya calmed somewhat, not by Toby’s dogmatic and predictable argument, but by the thought about who target was. Perhaps only professional killers were skilled enough to eliminate the target, something that was beyond Sector 21’s abilities.
“I guess you are right.” Tanya finally said. Glad that she had calmed Toby asked her who the target was. When she told him, his eyebrows arched upwards. After a long pause he said, “That task might be beyond people I usually deal with”
“So it is impossible?” Tanya asked her hopes dropping.
“Well, I don’t know. There are certain rumors circulating about a mercenary boss in Anarchy Port. Rumor says that he have stolen a Paranid experimental Assassin Robot”
“And you believe in that garbage?” Tanya asked skeptically.
“Hmm…Not that the assassin is a robot, but I do know with high grade of certainty that people do die when this man takes a job. No matter who the target is, their life ends soon when this assassin goes after them”
“There is one more complication, Toby. My man wants to deal with the assassin or assassins directly”
After few moments of thinking Toby answered, “Well, I don’t see why that is a bad thing. Perhaps it is best if we don’t get directly involved.”
They talked for half stazura more, arranging details and codes for encoding messages before parting.
Old Teladi eying Toby returning from what appeared as an unsuccessful attempt at getting transport for his wares, asked, “You look for transsssport for you goodsss, perhapsss? Make profit with me! I have plenty ssspace. Special price!”
He was startled when he saw Toby looking at him with utter contempt before turning away. Teladi scratched his scales not understanding.




Erich Campbell hated meeting his clients in bars but it seemed as one third of his clients had seen too many movies, since they insisted in meeting him there. Bars, such as Billy’s Place, were frequented by regular clientele that tended to remember uncommon visitors. Usually people in systems like Ore Belt minded their own business but Erich did not survive this long by taking chances. He had arrived with false id-papers and had arranged for one of his associates to smuggle him out. In Trade Station's log it would appear like he never left something he could use if anything went wrong. The bill for the room and residence tax would be charged to Mick Spacefield, an ex-military man like himself, who died 15 jazuras ago in Argon Prime.
Such simple arrangement was actually quiet easily detected by station’s Security if they did their job properly. Erich knew from his experience that this was not the case. Most station’s guards were men and women who did take their job out of necessity, because of the unemployment or they were throw-outs from the local armies, who thought any job in uniform was cool. Station’s Security rarely did go after the criminals; they just waited passively until situation forced them to react. Height of the day for most of them was when some drunk needed to be thrown out from one of station’s watering holes.
More troubling for Erich, was security hardware station possessed. Meant for discovering unreported deaths or people falling into coma-like conditions, it actively searched for discrepancies between usual and unusual behavior. If it discovered that Mr. Starfield never left his room, never used his toilet or that his nutrition intake was zero for five days, it would start alarms forcing Security to react.
Because of that, Erich had to spend credits for right information of what type security hardware and software this station used. Luckily, this Trading Station was using the cheapest variant that, according to the law, a station of this size could use. Using his associate, Erich discovered that pattern evaluating software could be circumvented easily if he could make someone to spend money in his name. That presented minor problem for Erich. He assumed that weakest spot in this operation was his employer, young kid that was sitting across table.
Erich switched his eye implants to IR-vision. The scan showed half of the bars clientele armed with knifes and few laspistols, nothing out of the ordinary for such place. Surprisingly his chemical sniffers detected traces of explosive compounds on some of the patrons. Another scan confirmed that few people had hand grenades on them. Must be handy in a bar fight, Erich thought. He noted the exits and showed Tony place where they would sit. From his seat he could watch all exits and more importantly he could, trough walls with his IR-vision, see any police assault squad forming up for attack if such thing happened.
Never taking his eyes from the exits and the people in the bar, he asked Tony,
“My contact told me about the target but I wanted to hear it from your own mouth”.
“Max Rudel, owner and CEO of NorthStar Mining”, Tony answered.
“You sure about that kid? The price tag for such target may perhaps be beyond you”, Erich said. He did not want this kid making a decision he would later regret, he wanted to be absolutely sure about Tony’s motivation.
“I know what you are thinking. Here is some kid with hate in his heart and dust in his pocket”, Tony said raising his voice, his lips trembling. Erich could see trough his IR-vision that blood was streaming to young man's face, a sure sign of anger.
“Calm down kid, we don’t want them hearing us in Kingdoms End, do we?”
“Well, my pa saved for 35 years so he could buy me freighter so I could make something out of myself. Together with what my sponsors could put on table it would be 2.6 million. Now if you can’t do your job I will find someone who can.” Tony replied with defiance.
Erich shifted his eyes to Tony long enough to give him a mocking stare,
“Sorry boy, but my species are rare and it isn’t easy hiring one of us. Authorities seem upset whenever someone advertises after an assassin. However, I will take on job if you give me your account number so I can authenticate your credit rating. After that I we will arrange how I will receive my payment, a rather complex issue which is very important to me.”
Tony did as he was told and Erich sent some information trough his PDA suggesting to Tony that he had a coworker nearby. After some time he got a sound signal. He turned to Tony and nodded his head signaling that everything was in order.
“How will you do it?” Tony asked.
“I will observe the target and decide on the best method”
“What are your chances?”
“Believe it or not kid, he is already dead man.”, Erich answered confidently.

Across the bar, Otto was observing the two men through corner of his eyes. Before long, they parted, 200.000-suit man walking away, while youngster ordered another drink. Probably to calm his nerves, Otto thought. Otto paid his bill and then left the bar. He walked inside nearby shop specializing in mining equipment. Otto was not interested in beginning as mobile miner, but he picked this shop because he, trough display window, could observe the bar’s only exit. Shopkeeper herself, middle-aged Argon, was certainly surprised to see Otto here. She, like many of the citizens of Ore Belt sector, had heard about this suspected pirate, although he rarely bothered small time miners. Seeing her questioning look, Otto almost laughed. It was obvious that his reputation preceded him. He put on the serious face and solemnly said,
“I am thinking of starting as mobile small time miner. Salvaging business is slow these days”
“Yeah, I heard that sector police numbers are increased…” Shopkeeper began saying but then remembered that Otto would probably not like talking about it.
“Well, let’s rather talk about this magnetic scanner you have at display”
Shopkeeper happily complied and reeled off about the particular scanners specifics, which to Otto’s surprise were many. He noted that Tony was just leaving the bar so he interrupted the shopkeeper, “Thanks, you have been helpful. My time is limited today so I will come another day for more information”. He hurried out of the shop following Tony.
Tony went off straight to the Trading Stations Magazine Shop, searched for few mizuras and bought a spaceship magazine. Then he walked down to the docking level for another meeting. Otto followed behind, staying in shadows, carefully making sure that Tony did not notice him.
When arriving at dock level, Tony looked around, as if searching for someone, and then walked over to a woman. Nice, Otto thought. Woman had a body of a model and was not afraid to show it. That one had not smiled for jazuras, if she even knew how to do it at all, Otto’s next thought was when he looked at her face. Otto walked to the nearby terminals, pretending to be after news updates. Once there, he turned on a device that registered sound waves traveling trough atmosphere. Possession of this device was illegal even in Teladi sectors unless you were researcher. It had ability to detect and store sound waves enabling user to listen to conversations held hundred of meters away. Now, because of the sound of people talking and engines roaring at the docks, he could not hear anything. Otto did not worry. As long as he kept device recording while conversation was going on, he felt sure that his ship computer could go trough gathered data and isolate the particular voices so at the end he would have enough extracts from conversation between Tony and the woman for Otto to know what it was about. Otto made mental note to himself, to hack into station’s surveillance systems so he could obtain the photo of the woman.

“So how did it go?” Tanya asked, nervously looking around to see if Tony was followed. She did see a rough looking man giving her a look, but he walked over to station’s terminals. Just looking at my body, Tanya suspected. She was used to men giving her such looks and did not give it second thought.
“Well, I had to prove I could pay him.” Tony said, he too looking around to see if anyone was around to hear their conversation. Seeing that this was not the case, he continued, “He looked like real thing to me. Not that I would know what real thing is, but I have good feeling about this”
“Well I did not find anything about him. Starfield is a common surname and at least fifty thousands Starfields have served in Armed Forces. Information about how many of them were cyberborgs are not stored in any to us available database. Statistically it could be up to hundred of them. Beside I suspect that if we could check every Starfield in the universe we would find out only one thing – that our guy was using an alias”
“How about a bio search?” Tony suggested.
“That would require a bio scan of him, and even if managed to get out hands at such data we would not have access to a database containing such information. Beside if he was borne in border sectors I doubt they ever preformed a bio scan on him as kid” Tanya dismissed idea. She was nevertheless impressed by Tony’s way of reasoning, always looking for solution, not waiting passively for an answer to be given to him, as was the case for many people. Tanya was also surprised that Tony, who had probably only Basic Level education, had ever heard about bio scans. He would be great asset to Sector 21, she concluded.
“But Sector 21 have other resources. We could put several ships to trail him. Eventually he would leave the station.”
“Are you sure that it is wise to keep a watch on this guy? If he discovers that he is watched by us, he might abandon the assignment.” Tony asked.
“This is something we are good at, Tony. If we use enough ships, he would never have chance of discovering that he is followed. Beside we must make sure he is doing what he was supposed to do. Paid killers have no loyalties…” Tanya answered.
“All right then. I’ll trust your wisdom. He did give me instructions on my part of the operation”, Tony said, and then explained what they were supposed to do.

Later that evening Otto looked at the result the ship computer gave of data he uploaded to its memory banks. Partially recovered conversation between Tony and the woman gave enough information to Otto. Next, he hacked into the stations surveillance systems and got good picture of the woman. He would use that picture to identify her. He suspected that she resided at the pirate station in the asteroid field beyond sector’s North Gate. Otto had contacts there that would obtain to him necessary information.
When he had erased all traces of him accessing surveillance systems, he activated fire alarm systems all over the station and ordered the computer systems to reset themselves. He knew that would cause Station Security to think that their systems were under virus or hacker attack. They would shut down all systems and call in person that was responsible for system’s security. Unfortunately, that man had been severely beaten few tazuras ago, nothing serious beside pain and broken arms. Otto figured that surveillance systems would be out for nearly half stazura, enough time for Otto’s plan. When the systems came back online Station Security would assume that some teenager have used some virus to disrupt their system, something that happened from time to time.


Tazura later Tony and Tanya picked a used but fully equipped transporter ship. In time before it was delivered, Tony quit his job at the NSM ore mine and registered as free trader. He and Tanya used the credit chip worth of 200 credits, which Erich gave Tony, to shop in Mick Starfield's name. According to Trading Station’s logs it would appear that Mick Starfield was still here and pattern evaluating software would not give any alarms.
Having posted a man on docks watching for Mr. Starfield and the ship he would be using, Tanya realized, after few days, that assassin must have already left the station. Tanya used her contacts on the trading station to find out how the person she knew as Mr. Starfield had managed to do that. Her contacts offered no answer, being baffled just as she. Tony even walked to the room Mr. Starfield used and knocked on the door, getting no answer. It seemed like Mr. Starfield had simply vanished. Tanya got bad feeling that something was not right. She did not dare to inform Tony about her suspicions in fear of how he might react. Beside, probably assassin’s professional aptitude allowed him to escape watching eyes of Sector 21, Tanya thought. It would be wisest to proceed as if assassin was still alive. She did not dare think of what would happen if third parties somehow detected the assassin.


When the ship arrived, Tony named it Faith and used his remaining credits to fill its cargo hold full with ore. At Billy’s Place entire crowd congratulated him, experienced traders giving him tips how to find best markets, secrets that they usually never parted with.
Pirates and former-pirates, that were there by chance, gave him advice how to avoid other pirates.
Many people in crowd secretly mourned Tony’s choice of profession. They hoped he would get interested in politics, something he seemed to do last few mazuras. Trough his speeches, many discovered that Tony was great speaker who echoed in his speeches feelings of local population. Even local authorities had noticed him, beginning to respect the young man. Now with Tony’s choice of work, local populace had a strong feeling that they have lost a potential leader.
Large crowd have gathered at station’s docks to wave Tony good-bye. Tanya stood in the crowd, feeling elated. She knew this moment was more historic than people around her realized. Still, everything depended on the assassin. Tanya hoped that assassin’s traceless disappearance was on of his tricks and not by involvement of potentially hostile third party. Time will show, she thought.

Despite all the good advices Tony got, he was brought back to Trading Station exactly wozura later by a different ship. He was slightly wounded, one side of his arm burned. To gathered crowd he told, with tear in his eyes, that pirates destroyed his ship in Farnham’s Legend sector.
They came out of nowhere just as he exited the North Gate. Blasting his shields to zero in couple of sezuras, he managed to eject just sezuras before his ship exploded. He had been drifting for half tazura in his EVA suit and almost out of oxygen, when a passing ship picked him up.
Crowd in Billy’s Place mourned together with Tony. Not only did he lose his father but in same jazura all his savings, which were substantial some rumors claimed. Supervisor at Terracorp’s Solar Power Plant, who knew his father, felt sorry for him and offered him job that Tony thankfully accepted.

There were those in this crowd who knew better. Some of them were pirates themselves who preferred Billy’s Place before bases where they usually did business. Others were former pirates who knew about pirate trade enough to understand what happened. They said nothing and waited to see how long it will be before Tony got his revenge.



Continue to chapter 3

[Mailo]

Interesting story, looking forward to reading more

The English is quite readable (even for a not-native speaker ). One thing I noticed is you don't really use "the" and "a" in your writing

For example here:

The Ore mine Tony’s father was working on suffered an explosion when dust, which was a residue from the mining process, ignited in anold storage section. The Explosion tore apart two entire sections of the mine but no one died. The Miners thought themselves lucky. However, the explosion also destroyed the stations old gravitation generator.

Changes in bold

[Warenwolf]

Interesting story, looking forward to reading more

The English is quite readable (even for a not-native speaker ). One thing I noticed is you don't really use "the" and "a" in your writing

For example here:

The Ore mine Tony’s father was working on suffered an explosion when dust, which was a residue from the mining process, ignited in anold storage section. The Explosion tore apart two entire sections of the mine but no one died. The Miners thought themselves lucky. However, the explosion also destroyed the stations old gravitation generator.

Changes in bold

Hmm.. A serious grammatical mistake.
Should have payed more attention in my english class and less on that blonde's ... Well I will try to minimise such mistakes in future chapters.

[Mailo]

Was the blonde at least worth the attention?

Don't worry too much about it, I learned English by learning by doing myself (having to spend a year in the US without anyone around speaking german will do that to you ).

As long as the story is worth it, people will read it even with mistakes.

[The_Hypo]

As long as the story is worth it, people will read it even with mistakes.

Damn straight! I was enjoying the read to much to care about spelling!

Also what happend with the blonde?

Bye

[Warenwolf]

As long as the story is worth it, people will read it even with mistakes.

Damn straight! I was enjoying the read to much to care about spelling!

Also what happend with the blonde?

Bye

I don't know. Her family moved second year in the highschool causing all my grades to improve. Then I discovered that brunette and ... Well that's long story - it ends up with me having average grades whole my live.


Anyway, just as with before, I will post a short extract from chapter 3. Perhaps it will be posted this month, perhaps not (It is 25 percent done, however I don't know how long time will grammar checks take).

[KiwiNZ]

Very good read! As has been mentioned before, the lack of articles (a,the) made it in some parts tricky to read but in terms of content a pretty deep story! Well done.

Looking forward to the continuation!

[Warenwolf]

Here is a sample from chapter 3. Still 2/3 of the chapter needs to be written and I have much to do nowdays so don't expect anything before April.
..................................

Chapter 3: Old friends




A Mercury transporter, Otto 45, with remarkably similar specifications as Faith , a ship reportedly destroyed few tazuras ago, docked with the Seizewell Shipyard Station. Station, in usual Teladi style, consisted of several wharf modules each operated by private ventures. Otto 45 docked at a module owned by Thalikimanstir 14th, a notoriously liberal interpreter of the Company’s Law, even for the taste of her own Teladi species.
The dock master was already waiting for ship’s crew to disembark. She recognized pilot’s id as the ship hailed the station, so she was waiting prepared with the ownership transfer and purchase certificate documents ready. She had done dealings with Otto Dahl before, a well-known salvager in the Seizewell system. From time to time, he would turn up in damaged ships with scars from plasma or laser fire. More often then not, ships he brought in also lacked shields.
To the dock master’s surprise, station’s scans showed entire ship to be intact, highly unusual status for the ships Thalikimanstir’s wharf module usually dealt with.
When the ship’s airlock opened, dock master saw that Otto had brought another Argon man with him.
“Welcome Otto and good profitsss to you. I see you have a friend with you. Transssfer or ssstay?” the dock master asked.