Update: link to full story: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dZyEpNHb21rzhwclJ-BSPFGeOfUXLM0lIYhykywOkek/edit?usp=sharing It was the smell that woke him up. An indescribable acrid odor that could only come from bad air scrubbers and the persistent pollution from heavy industry. Crandell let out a long, deep sigh and managed to drag his legs off the bed and plop his feet on the floor. “Another day in Lorville.” he muttered to himself. His habitation unit was barely 500 square feet, with a single bed in the middle. Above the bed was a large industrial air scrubbing unit complete with microwave and TV recessed into the panel above the bed. He reached down and pulled the TV out and faced it toward the glass cubby that housed the walk-in shower. The ads bathed the room in pinks and blues, Crandell jumped into the shower. It was cold then scalding hot. “Damn!” He quickly shut it off. At that moment a headline stopped the ads and the AI derived face of a newscaster took over. “Good morning Stanton, this is Kyle for SSN. Another Quantanium driven explosion has killed 123 and injured 432. The offending Mole is owned by Williams Mineral LLC. The entire crew was killed by the blast. The following video shows the Mole colliding with Wide Forest Station in ARC-L1 as it tried a desperate flip and burn to halt their momentum.” Crandell shook his head as the video showed the orange bulk of the ship begin the maneuver much too late. The camera zoomed in on the cockpit as the pilot and co-pilot began a heated exchange. The heavy ship made it a quarter of the way through the turn then slammed into the top of the station ring. The resulting flash burned out the camera, so they switched to another fixed at the top of the station. The white fireball spread and collided with a Polaris at a nearby docking port breaking the ship into pieces. The view switches to a closer camera showing several UEE navy sailors getting sucked out into space. An entire chunk of the station ring was now missing, all the emergency bulkheads had immediately sealed off the damaged area but corpses now filled the view of the camera. Crandell shuddered, it was amazing just how quickly death came in space. As he thought about this he focused on the broadcast again. “...it’s a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to all of those families and loved ones who lost someone today. Although these events are rare, we all must ask how we keep letting this happen. An investigation has already been launched looking into Williams Mineral, and why their crew let this happen. The director of Wide Forest Station has demanded immediate punishment and has pressed charges against the crew and company for negligence.” The screen went dark, and then resumed the advertisements. Crandell pulled on his undersuit, took out a massive industrial backpack and began packing it with bottles of water, packs of ready made meals, protein bars, extra undersuit, and extra clothes. He then attached it to the chest armor and hefted the armor above his head. His 5’9” 215 pound frame made this simple. Once it was firmly in place over his torso, he strapped on the arms and legs. Crandell then took his multi-tool out, attached a small tractor beam and clipped it to his right leg. He then slid 4 small red vials into their holster on his hip, grabbed an Arclight pistol and clipped it to his left leg. Crandell hung his scratched, yellow helmet on a small hook protruding from the backpack. He worked for Cobalt Salvage and Cargo who owned a reclaimer, the largest salvage ship ever made. It was called the CSC Scavenger and had a crew of 6. Crandell lifted his left wrist and pressed a small button on a thin black bracelet. A holographic UI hovered in front of his face. “Messages” The UI shifted to a display showing an urgent message from Captain Oskar Frodestad. “The Scavenger is getting prepped, be at hangar 5 in one hour or we leave without you.” Crandell lowered his wrist, and opened the hatch of his habitation. The area the habs opened into on Lorville was gross. It was the only word Crandell could think of. Trash bags were piled in one corner of the upper deck meaning the robotic janitor was broken for the third time this week. He could hear people shouting from the lower deck, it sounded like a fight was about to start over the price of a burrito from the food stand near the steps. Crandell headed for the main elevator only to be stopped by a half naked, skeleton of a man laying on a discarded mattress. He had grabbed his ankle. “Please…I need some food, some water.” “Don’t you mean slam or widow?” The vagrant smiled. “Do you have some?” Crandell kicked him in the jaw in answer to his question. It knocked the man out. This place was hard, dirty, and disgusting, he had to get out. His heavy work boot had freed the few remaining teeth from the man’s jaw. When the elevator door finally opened, a short and thick man dressed as an engineer was waiting inside. He didn’t have a helmet, but had a tool box attached to his light chest armor and an open helmet with various visual aids protruding from the side. Crandell groaned as he stepped inside. “Good morning Dan.” “What happened?” Dan gestured towards a small group of citizens gathered around a man on a mattress. They were pointing towards the elevator. “The drug addict asked me for credits.” “So what did you do? Shoot him?” “No, I kicked him in the face.” “Rather brutal, don’t you think?” Before the doors closed, Dan tossed a cartridge worth 10,000 UE credits to someone in the small group. “That's for the injured man!” The person nodded and handed it to the injured addict. “Why in the hell did you do that?” “I’m your superior and even though you think it’s ok to walk around kicking people in the face, that will keep them from pressing charges. That symbol on your chest means you represent Cobalt Salvage and Cargo, so when you’re wearing that armor I’d appreciate some constraint. Besides, we made like 12 million on our last tour so you could share instead of trashing on them.” “Giving that man credits only makes it worse.” “And you know that for sure?” “It only propagates the problem!” Crandell was now angry. “You know he’s going to play those people, and as soon as he can he’s heading down to the cargo docks to secure some more drugs. They need to eject people like him into space.” “Relax Crandell, I forget what a trigger it is for you. You’ll have to tell me why sometime.” “I don’t have to tell you anything Dan. Let's just get to the hangar.” The journey from L19 Residences to Teasa Spaceport took 20 minutes. At some point two female citizens, one short, dressed in custom heavy armor and the other tall, thin, and dressed like Dan. The four of them walked into the hangar together and were not surprised by the massive man shouting at the some cowering Hose Jockeys. They had just finished refueling the absolutely giant ship that took up the entire hangar. The Scavenger was ugly, kind of like a fat spider missing half of its legs. It had been painted a dark purple and the name was stenciled on the side in bright, neon green paint. “Damn this is an ugly ship.” chuckled Cielo, the shorter woman with custom matte black armor. “But it’s our home for the next 6 months Cielo, calling it ugly might offend her.” Laura laughed at the absurdity of her own statement. “Laura’s right. Scavenger is an ugly bitch but she will take care of us if we treat her right.” “You are all full of shit.” said Crandell “Especially you Dan.” The hangar fell deathly silent as the massive man, Captain Oskar Frodestad, finally stopped yelling. His son,First Officer Axel, emerged from the drone repair station and joined his father. They both headed towards the rest of the crew. “You finally made it!” bellowed Oskar. “I was about to leave…” His voice was deep and tinged with a strange accent. He was rotund, but carried it well. He had blonde hair and a long blonde beard. His eyes were fierce, cobalt blue, and drilled into your brain each time he stared at you. He activated his mobi-glass and a hangar door opened at the bottom giant abdomen. By the time the elevator had reached the hangar floor the entire crew was ready for it to take them back into the belly of The Scavenger. “Head to your stations and strap in, we are late and need to get to our first salvage before the UEE Navy gets there.” CHAPTER 2 By the time the gargantuan hangar doors slid open and the massive thrusters filled the hangar with dust and debris, Captain Oskar Frodestad was strapped into the pilot seat, First Mate Axel Frodestad was strapped into the copilot and Fracturing Claw seat. The two of them sat shoulder to shoulder inside the small cockpit poised in the center front of the ship. Below them the fracture claw was folded, hinting at some insect-like appendage ready to strike. Lieutenant Cielo Torres was strapped into a salvage station across from Second Engineer Laura Egan. First Engineer Daniel Maxwell was manning a turret as was Cargo Specialist Ensign Crandall Williams. The custom thruster installed by the Frodestads launched the giant ship towards orbit at nearly 200 meters per second. “God I love this!” screamed Oskar so he could be heard over the roar. The rest of the crew laughed at him then cursed him as they fought against the gravity of the acceleration. When they finally slowed and left the gravity of Hurston behind an urgent call came in from Lorville.