I was on Hurston grabbing supplies for the day when I got a message on my Mobi. It was from the Bounty Hunter’s Guild, telling me I was eligible to apply for a Journeyman Tracker’s license. All I had to do was track down a man by the name of Red and bring him to justice. My eyes lit up when I saw that name. Red wasn’t a normal mark; he was the one that got away. The last time we met was over the skies of Aberdeen where one of his goons got a lucky hit with a missile. It knocked out one of my engines, forcing me to set down hard planet side. I don’t know why they didn’t finish me off, but it would be the last mistake they made. I quickly gathered my supplies and went down to the space port. Walked into the hangar and saw my newly repaired ship, the Gambler’s Fallacy. She took some damage from my last job, so I figured she needed some love. I just hope the Hurston hacks didn’t butcher her wiring like they did last time. Ole’ Gamby looked like a normal Cutlass Black on the outside, but you know what they say, never judge a book by its cover. Because on the inside she had primo parts. I replaced the stock quantum drive with an XL-1 and upgraded the shields to an FR-76. I also swapped the Tempest II missiles for Rattler II’s. Those nasty buggers fire off smaller warheads to weaken shields and armor, before the main warhead hits to cause maximum damage. I took off from Hurston and set my quantum target to microTech. On the way to my target, I started reading the info package the Guild sent me on Red. It listed a few of his associates but that’s about it. There was a small footnote that stated he liked to hang around microTech. I called one of my info brokers to ask for more info on any safehouses, if any, he had on microTech. All she was able to give me was a general location. Close to OM4 she said. If I wanted more information, I would need to pony up some creds, which I was running embarrassingly low on. I dropped out of quantum, and I pointed my ship towards OM4. After reaching OM4 I turned on my scanner and started pinging for ships. I picked up something strange reading about 200km out. The ship ID was constantly changing. I installed the decoder blade I got as payment from my last job, and it immediately went to work. After a few short minutes it came back with a positive ship ID. It was an Avenger that was registered to one of Red’s associates, a one Brad ‘Mickey’ McCormick. I figured he would know where Red was, so I started my approach. I started getting an odd feeling as I got closer to Mickey’s position. Suddenly my radar picked up three more contacts. My dumbass flew right into an ambush. Red started to come across the comms, but I ignored him and immediately sent a salvo of Rattlers at the Avenger they used as bait. All four missiles hit their mark. A blinding blue light erupted from the Avenger as she exploded. Pieces of the ship tumbling to the planet. I boosted past the falling wreckage and set my sights on my next target, an Aurora LN. I let off a sustained burst from my Badgers knocking out the shields. I flipped a 180 and let off a quick burst from the Scorpions I had bolted on my hull. I saw an explosion and thought it was another kill. A near fatal mistake. I then trained my sights on an Eclipse that started its attack run. I let off a long burst from my guns as we boosted past each other. I banked hard left and started spooling up my missiles. The targeting computer was about to get a lock on the Eclipse when I felt a huge jerk and started an uncontrollable flat spin. Turns out, the explosion I saw on the LN was just a wing coming off. The pilot was able to wrestle control of the ship and ram into me. He ended up destroying himself and my left engine with his little kamikaze attack. Only after cycling my engines and counter boosting the spin was I able to regain control of Ole’ Gamby. I reacquired the Eclipse and let loose a volley of missiles. A familiar bright blue flash erupted from the Eclipse as she began her descent, in pieces. I checked my radar and saw no more contacts. I was about to let out a sigh of relief until I heard the shrill of the missile alarm. Immediately I sent out flares and started evasive maneuvers. But my missing engine made the maneuvering part nearly impossible. I was able to move her enough to dodge a direct hit but unfortunately the missile had a proximity fuse and detonated near the nose, destroying my left wing. It was then that I heard that sickening laugh. It was Red. Taunting me through the comms as he approached in his Sabre to finish me off. I wasn’t going down without a fight. I tried turning my ship around to try and get my remaining guns on target but with the loss of an engine and a wing I knew I wasn’t going to be as accurate with my guns. So, I hopped out of the pilot seat and ran towards the turret. I heard my shields strain as I was raised into the turret cockpit. I energized the turret and swung it around to engage Red head on. I got his ship in my crosshairs and just held down the trigger. It felt like the whole universe slowed down. I could see every laser beam coming from both our guns. My shields finally failed, and I thought it was the end. I closed my eyes with my finger still on the trigger waiting to explode. After a few seconds I heard an explosion. I slowly opened my eyes expecting to see a nauseatingly bright light and the violent convulsions that happen after your consciousness reconnects and awakens all the nerves in your new body. But none of that happened. Instead, I was greeted with a clear blue sky and the white, snowcapped mountains of microTech. I powered down the turret and exited the seat. Out of the main cockpit window I could see smoke come from a crashed ship. It was Red’s Sabre. I limped (read as controlled crash) to the surface of the planet, landed (crashed) near the crash site and grabbed my rifle as I exited the ship. Not knowing what to expect I slowly made my way to the wreck. As I came upon the crash site, I could see Red peeking out from behind a tree. Well, his head was anyway. His body was still strapped to his seat. I took a picture of his head as proof of death and sent it to the Guild. Shortly after the photo was sent, 10,000 credits were deposited into my account from the Guild along with a message. An additional 10,000 credits will be deposited if the head is delivered to the client in Orison at Crusader and congratulations on becoming a Journeyman Tracker. I obviously accepted the contract. I was going to need the money to pay for the repairs on Ole’ Gamby. So, I scooped up Red’s head and hobbled all the way to New Babbage to continue my adventure.