The Stellar Wild - Chapter 1

This is another short story set in the same universe as Solaris. @jedau, @thebluepanda, and others expressed interest in the world I built, so I'm taking characters me and a friend of mine started fleshing out and bringing them into a more complete picture. Let me know what you think of the story in the comments!

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The quiet of space was one of his favorite things about his line of work. Sure, he rarely got to enjoy it like this, sitting in the bubble cockpit of his Resilience XS-7 interceptor, but the days that he did, he unbuckled his five-point harness and let himself float just above his seat. Today he had the pleasure of seeing the blue-green sphere of Taralon Prime in front of him, gray-white banks of clouds moving lazily above the fertile ground below. It reminded him of Earth, and what it must have looked like four or five centuries ago. Taralon Prime hadn't been colonized extensively yet, despite being a garden world; he figured it probably had something to do with the Intrepid Five incident five years ago or so. Since then, Alistair Logistics and Innovation had suffered a dearth of eager colonists, even to relatively nearby worlds from more populated systems.

"More's the pity," Cole mumbled to himself. He'd retire to a world like this, when he finally had enough money to hang it up. If you ever have enough money to hang it up, he reminded himself. It was a miracle that he and Edward made it through day to day. Odd security jobs, bounty hunting, and freelance transporting were anything but glamorous professions. That's what he was out here to do. He and Ed had picked up a bounty on a Ruktan identity thief worth a cool 25,000 GUC. It would have been more lucrative if they'd offered to pay in starcoin, given how well it was trading, but Galactic Union credit jobs were more abundantly available, and beggars really couldn't be choosers.

"He should be dropping out of FTL any minute," Edward said, his voice crackling over Cole's earpiece. The feedback just reminded Cole they needed to invest in some new comms equipment next chance they had. Hopefully that would be after this pay day.

It wasn't more than five minutes later that their quarry dropped out of FTL drive and zoomed past Cole without noticing him. This particular Ruktan, a low-life outcast by the name of Galis Paraken, was still sporting the angular and sleek Jiian-class interceptor that he no doubt skipped out of the Heirarchy in. They always reminded Cole of arrowheads, with a split down the middle that provided a greater field of view for the single pilot. He let it zip past him in its way to the atmosphere, waiting until the blue flare of its sublight engines were almost indistinguishable from the planet below before he powered up the XS-7's engines and fell in behind. His interceptor was smaller and slightly more maneuverable than Paraken's more heavily armored Jiian, and this would give him an advantage as soon as they hit atmosphere.

"Dropping out of orbit, Ed. Track my location and try to cut him off," Cole said over the intercom before the atmospheric friction began to interfere with the signal. He kept his hands on the joysticks, steadying his small craft as the denser atmosphere of Taralon buffeted him about. Paraken was about a kilometer ahead of him and braking to atmospheric speeds already, so Cole angled himself down a little steeper and cut his descent time. Within seconds, they were both cruising through the lush stratosphere of the planet, descending towards one of the larger cities some 100 kilometers to the northwest.

He took a second to look down at the scenery below and admire the lush forests that were still predominant this far from the city. A massive aqueduct cut through the middle of the green, carving a straight line to the edge of the forest where colonists had taken advantage of prevailing grasslands to use for farming and crop cultivation. The landscape was dotted with automated threshers and collectors, lumbering along their pre-plotted paths like metallic beetles crisscrossing the floor. In a word, it was beautiful. Serene. Just the kind of place he wanted to settle down on.

He would have kept admiring the scenery if not for the fact that Paraken dropped a few thousand feet in the span of a couple of seconds; the Ruktan had caught wind of him tailing. Cursing quietly, Cole dropped down to give chase. He let go of the throttle and punched in the general alert channel, which Paraken should have been monitoring.

"Galis Paraken, this is Joshua Cole of Interstellar Security Solutions, claiming the bounty placed on you by the Telus Governing Authority for securities fraud and identity theft. Ground your ship at the port up ahe-" Cole said, before he was cut off by gruff laughter.

"Gonna have to try a lot harder than that, Cole," came Paraken's voice over the intercom. Cole cursed off the line.

"Fine, have it your way, snakehead," he snapped back. Fucking avian reptiles, he thought, ducking down toward the aqueduct as Paraken dove down to ground level. In a flat out race, the Jiian craft would beat him in speed, but Cole could maneuver much better thanks to the fixed wings on either side of the craft, attached to fuselage through the control wings that extended out ahead of the cockpit. This gave him the advantage, and he brought his forward guns online. If Paraken wasn't going to come quietly, he was going to force him down. He cut the comm panel off, relying on his earpiece instead. "Edward, we're following the aqueduct. Swing around to 3655-6122 at 1500. I'll try to funnel him to you. If I can't put him down, spin up the chainguns and take his legs out."

"Got it," Edward replied. Cole squinted up at the blue sky some miles ahead. He could just barely make out the dot that was the Hound making its way to take up their agreed-upon position. Now came the fun part of his job. He took aim and laid down fire, aiming for the engines. He squeezed off a few rounds, snapping the trigger back for just a second to test the waters; maybe he'd get lucky and disable one of the three engines in the back.

No such luck found him today. The rounds sparked off the engine cowling and the armor plates that lined the top and sides, doing little more than annoying the Ruktan behind the stick. Paraken dropped down to skim the water, kicking up a wake that immediately hampered Cole's ability to maneuver. Cursing again, Cole pulled up and swung over a bridge that crossed the aqueduct, taking the high road. Swinging up again and turning inverted, he turned back down at an angle and fired across the top of Paraken's engine housing again. This time, one of his rounds hit something important and caused an alloy plate to come loose, damaging a control coupling and causing the engine to sputter. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to put him out of commission, and Paraken slammed up his air brakes, forcing Cole into the unenviable position of being pursued.

Paraken immediately opened up with his forward-facing cannons, raining heavy metal down on the back of the XS-7. Cole juked back and forth, ducking down and pulling back up to try a loop and put him back where he needed to be. Unfortunately, the Ruktan got lucky and scored a few hits to his engine cowling and one of the control arms on his lateral wings. The interceptor shuddered and lurched, but Cole stayed on the sticks, completing the maneuver. Unfortunately, so did Paraken, and he was still being pursued.

"Shit! Ed, tell me you're almost there. I've taken a few hits and this assclown is going to put me down if you're not where I need you," he yelled over the earpiece.

"Fifteen seconds and he'll be in range, Cole," Edward replied, maneuvering the lumbering mass of the Hound to the coordinates. The control deck was mounted underneath the crew and passenger quarters and cargo deck, and despite it not being a bubble cockpit like Cole's XS he had a wide field of vision. To his starboard side from the cockpit he could see the two ships making their way down the length of the aqueduct, approaching rapidly. His fingertips flew over the command console and spun up two deck-mounted chainguns, inputing the tracking parameters for the Jiian interceptor.

Cole juked to the left to avoid another volley of fire, a round glancing along the top of his cockpit and streaking the top section. He cursed loudly. Another round had punched into his primary drive engine, causing the whole interceptor to shudder as he tried to outrun the now much better-positioned Ruktan ship chasing him. He could see the Hound directly ahead, and that was all he needed to see.

"Smile pretty, asshole. We got you," he muttered, pulling hard on the stick and climbing sharply. With Paraken now exposed, Edward let the guns do their work. Heavy metal tore into the engine house and rear compartment of the small ship, causing it to buck and shake. Realizing he was outmatched, the Ruktan tugged back and tried to maneuver to his starboard, but it was already too late. The ship shuddered and listed, limping as he was forced to take it down to the ground. The dart-shaped ship drove down into a clearing, carving a path in the dirt before finally coming to a halt a few hundred meters away.

Cole swung his XS-7 around and darted to the far side of the clearing, landing his craft with some difficulty a stone's throw away from the downed craft. He had to force open the cockpit door open, thanks to the pressure Paraken's fire had exerted down on the plexi-alloy sceen above him, but he made it out. Climbing over the bubble dome and sliding down the forward control wing, he drew out his sidearm and approached the craft. The emergency hatch on the underside of the cockpit exploded down, billowing smoke and depositing a choking Paraken onto the dirt below. He stumbled onto his hands and knees, giving Cole the opportunity to close the distance and bring the pistol up.

"Galis Paraken, you are hereby collected pursuant to bounty agreement DS 31-6557R under the Telus Governing Authority for the charges of identity theft and securities fraud," Cole said, watching him closely. The avian reptile snarled and moved to stand up. Cole fired a shot into the ground beside him as a warning, which only made him chuckle.

"Careful, smoothskin. You need me in one piece," Paraken replied, gravelly voice hissing on the s-sounds. His flat-topped head turned up, examining the human in front of him through slit-pupil amber eyes. Slowly, he raised his arms up, standing on his broad lower claws. Cole took advantage of the fact they were the same height to pistol-whip him in the side of the skull, dropping him back down to his knees. With him in the perfect position, Cole knocked him one again in the side of the skull, causing Paraken to lose consciousness and slump to the ground.

"Don't tempt me. You've already cost me about as much as you're worth," he muttered, rolling him over and pulling his arms behind the small of his back so that he could put the restraints on his wrists. Ed brought the Hound to the far side of the field, landing it within walking distance and lowering the ramp up into the cockpit and to the holding cells they'd fashioned out of part of the passenger quarters. The payout wasn't going to be much after the costs were factored in, but salvaging the Jiian interceptor might turn them an additional profit. "Ed, come give me a hand. We're a few days away from a pay day!"