Ryal Stone and her twin sister, Clara were 7 cycles old when the Cleric seared the Ship Runes into their skin. Their father beamed with pride while their mother cried for the joy of it. They were 9 cycles old when those runes turned gold, and their mother and father, along with the rest of their family, shot them, stabbed them, and threw them out an airlock.
Chapter 1: Adrift
Ryal
Ryal woke from a pleasant dream of a bartender on Mor ‘Val station, the proximity alarm blinking silently in the top right of her HUD.
“Go back to sleep princess, it's just another plaking asteroid and it's not going to hit you.” Her sister’s voice barked in her helmet, not trying to put her back to sleep at all.
She stifled a yawn, “Ok calm down. The info we got gave us a 48 hour window. You want me to stay awake for 48 hours”
“Through the power of stimulants all things are possible” Clara intoned reverently.
“I don't really feel like coming down in the middle of a gun fight” She checked her tank levels- almost full. She allowed herself a deep breath, then sighed. “Besides, soon we won't need stimulants, or sleep.”
“Plake don't start this again. You're going going to get us plaking killed with this scat” Clara’s dismissal was tired: they'd had this same argument several times.
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“I was careful this time, and I think I've found others With the money from this job we can-”
“Nope, no, plake no! You can plake right off. You can do whatever you want with your share but that plaking cunt Turek almost split Jasmine’s rear gyro last week. She needs upgraded shields.”
“Maybe if you actually armored your racer-”
“Do you even hear yourself right now. Your sitting on top of little more than a booster and stealth paint, about to free fall onto an Imperial frigate-”
“The suicides are YOUR design. A great illustration of-”
Her HUD flashed again, but this time it was one of the sensor buoys they had set up. Their quarry came into view, a long black dagger against the background of the asteroid field.
The Medronis Imperial fleet had 6 standard vessel types, and the mid-sized Frigate was the most versatile. They could be adapted to fit almost any function. This one, the INV Justice, had been adapted into a prison vessel, its long range sensor and weapons packages exchanged for power plants to support internal stasis chambers and disciplinary fields: they were more worried about internal threats than external.
Ryal sent the command to Simon and tightened her grip on her flight controls. “Count down to detach in 3, 2, 1” Her whole body shuddered as thrusters shot her away from their ship. Side by side, they fell towards the frigate. Or rather, where the frigate was going to be in 30 minutes. They would not be able to maneuver or adjust their trajectory until almost close enough to touch the prison ship- even with a layer of stealth coating too much thrust would betray the fact that they were not just two more pieces of debris.