Lore by Cliff Vandercave

Void Angel

The chill of recycled air draws plumes of oxygen and dust into the empty corridors of the ship. Gleaming stars shine off the 16 cargo pods filled with methyl backdropped by Iridium satellite flares from the nearby asteroids, silently illuminating the main deck with flashes of light. The lighter cargo load allowed for easier navigation, but less room for failure on this particular mission. A terminal flickers on in the main deck and a glow fills the room as words begins to populate the screen:

[ ok ] Dock Engaged

[ ok ] Started Crew Unfreeze

Starting Crew Unfreeze…

A cryobed opens with a sigh as Brek lifts the glass door above… Even during peak excavation in this area a lugger cargo ship would be unusual to see - the tight trajectory requirements in such a field depreciate thrusters at an accelerated rate. This far out between the closest star system and the Void, components can be difficult to come by. Especially since after the trade authority had picked this zone clean of promethium with their Scoots, pirates found it a perfect spot to hide and intercept cargo on long voyages. There was a collective attempt to terraform many of the larger ones to create a safe haven far away from the Galtrauth Space Force radar. But now all that remained were some defunct vapor-farm equipment, not too dissimilar to the kind used to terraform Mars.

  "Cargo delivery Success. Please proceed to loading bay" the intercom echoed throughout the ship. Without hesitation, Brek entered the airlock while putting on his helmet. The airlock decompressed and the outpost door opens with a swoosh. The payload was loaded onto the conveyor belt ready to be processed. Despite being built by pirates, the outpost had a militaristic aesthetic since they were mostly sourced the tech from backdoor deals at Galtrauth auctions.

Part 2

Here though the atmospheric conditions proved to be too extreme for such dated tech to produce the conditions necessary to create atmosphere in any long term capacity.

Brek overheard a rumor back at the Deep Space 814 bar about a legendary ship that had been hidden away here among the forgotten asteroid field. Bounty of a not so lucky pirate mostly said to have been lost to the void. The ships name is VRGF-1. It was rumored to be somewhere on one of the many abandoned vapor farms. One day Brek had found coordinates hidden inside a dead fusion reactor after intercepting a dilapidated ship broadcasting an SOS on its return trip back from the void. As the saying goes, a mechanic works for $Gredits but lives for efficient cargo flow. Since then Brek spent the past 6 months in their own modified lugger to this one field in particular that curiously matched these coordinates. The luggers thrusters could handle the rapid maneuvers required to navigate the asteroid field but this sacrificed the size of the cargo load.   

Upon arrival this farm was indiscernible from the rest. This one had many misters across its surface. The only thing that made this one particularly unique was those coordinates.   

After some fiddling with the controls, Brek manages to boot the hydroOS and feed the methyl into the core chamber. The theory was that injecting the methyl into the purge lines would melt and reveal anything covered in energized silicone camouflage. Purging misters on a vapor farm is done to clear contamination in the system and prevent system wide failures yet here there was not a living organism to be affected here. A standard purge function would make easy work of this legendary ship hiding in plain sight. "Hose Junction Jammed***" read on the console. There wasn’t enough methyl to try again and this had to be fixed now. With 2 hours of oxygen left, Brek, spanner in-hand, engages the propulsion unit and hurls towards the junction…|

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