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Rifts: Dual Genesis
Prologue
When Bale opened his eyes the front sensor controls where sending sparks all across the bridge. The front deflector shields glowed red on one of the few active monitors to his left. He pitched the small cargo ship hard to port in a vain attempt to outmaneuver the plasma blasters of the attackers.
"God Damn Pirates" he muttered to himself.
The ship rocked again as more bolts of green and blue plasma lit up against the drab gray hull of the ship. Bale struggled to get some computer systems back online and sighed a small breath as the navigational systems came back to life. He quickly thumbed in some keystrokes and eagerly awaited the response from the computer. In only a few moments the screen glared the name of a planet. Alceteron.
"Better then floating home I guess"
Bale plugged in the coordinates into the navigation computer and as soon as the last key was pressed the ship rocked hard to one side as the ship adjusted course for what Bale hoped was a safe haven for both his cargo. It had only been in the last year he had started carrying larger loads, and this was certainly the largest. His old partner, had warned him that larger loads brought more attention, but Bale had bills to pay, especially to Roarke, his off-track bookie.
Another plasma blast hit the front of the ship and now all the screens went blank. Of the nose Bale saw the outline of the green and grey planet. He knew the pirates would not destroy his ship, since there was no money in his small ships wreckage. They would try to come in close and dock to plunder the goods. Bale had one chance.
As
the two ships came closer together Bale opened one of the airlocks using the
manual override. The sudden thrust moved the two ship apart just long enough
for Bale's ship to hit the outer atmosphere of the planet. The Pirate ship
would need to wait for planet fall before grabbing their bounty.
If Bale was lucky the pirate ship would not be capable of atmosphere breach and they may be able to find some local civilization. Even better, maybe one of the passengers in Cryo Sleep was a mystic or portal bender.
Bale considered for a moment as the hull turned red with heat just how well he had outmaneuvered those pirates. He was never military or even genetically enhanced. His parents had forbid it and by the time he was out on his own running short inter-planetary runs for small business' he could not afford any. He had to sell one of his real eyes just to get the down payment for his first star-cruiser. Now it was just an empry husk waiting for some cool cybernetic replacement, but Bale did not mind. Today he had outsmarted a crew of seasoned pirates, or so he told himself. His grin was strong and wide as the green plasma flashed before his eyes.
The front section of the ship shuttered in green light then broke apart from the rest of the ship. The aft cargo hold went tumbling down as the breaking thrusters tried to correct the trajectory. The front of the hull had not thrusters left to slow it down and rocketed toward the ground. Bale, nearly dead in the captains chair of the front of the ship no longer smiled. As he saw the ground coming at 600 miles per hour he simply tilted his head down and mumbled.
"Fucking Pirates"
The front section hit ground and Bale was suddenly missing more then just his eye as the hull crumbled in upon itself.
Still circling the ship that had made the final kill circled above. The captian turned to his first mate.
"And the cargo?"
The first mate turned to him dryly.
"We are tracking it, it has touched down in this forest area of the planet sir."
The Captain turned back toward the screen showing the drop zone of the cargo hold
"Excellent. Lay in a landing course and prepare our search team. We need to get to the cargo before some locals find it and free our slaves."
And with that the pirate ship changed course for the downed cargo hold.
Below on the planet, a twisted
hulk of wreckage lay burning, the bits and pieces of the cargo hold itself.
Dazed on confused, Scion lifted his arms slowly as they dripped with clear
thick ooze. He sheltered his eyes from the sun as he looked upon several cylindrical
glass tubes dilled with other humanoids. He turned to his side and saw the
broken Plexiglas from the tube he had been evacuated from. His last memory
was working at a Naruni Qwark mine and heading from the mess to his bunk,
then it all went blank.
The memory was broken. From the distance he heard what he swore was gun fire. He spoke to himself as he rolled over to get to his feet.
"Where the hell am I?"
And as he felt the projectile pierce his chest he had another sudden if not short thought.
"Shit."
And with that the world went dark again.