Pretty much a regular day. Traders transporting all sorts of cargo, pirates attempting to earn some cash by taking it away from rich corporations who send convoys every single day, police forces and freelancers protecting the shipments, and all of them share the same goal - ability to provide a normal life to their families and themselves. However, it was not a regular day for a man known as Stefan Mortensen.
Galileo is not the system of anyone's dreams. It is a rather desolate place, connecting two houses. The dark matter clouds block any long-range scanning attempt. In Raiden cloud, there was some kind of ship floating, but due to the navigational anomaly, it was only possible to visually detect it, but very few people have ever dared to enter the nebula, and even fewer have come back to tell the story.
As his ship was slowly drifting through the cloud, Mortensen started getting consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes, feeling enormous pain in the head. Not being able to recall what happened to him, nor what was his current location, Mortensen was desperately trying to remain calm. After fifteen minutes of staring through his ship's cockpit, Stefan realized he doesn't even know what his name is. All he had was a strange feeling that he is connected to somebody, but not being able to explain how. After checking ship's systems, it was pretty obvious he wasn't going to leave the dark place for a while. Only chance Mortensen had was being found by someone, but who could it possibly be?
Galileo, one of the two trade corridors between Liberty and Kusari was nigh empty, disturbingly so. On occasion a convoy would pass through carrying fuel or otherwise mundane objects considered 'luxurious' by the Libertonian elite. This frustrated Marcus, a being tasked with, among other things, causing tension between the two Houses surrounding the system. A difficult task considering the quiet state of the border.
Marcus took one last pass through the system, up the Raiden bend"There must be a lone KNF fighter, or a crippled trade ship at the very least, humans infest this system", he thought to himself. The trade lane deactivated at the interchange; there was still nothing. Without explanation, a dull pain began to set into his cervical and the back of his head; his sight became clouded as garbled images were projected onto his retina. One of his own was near, wounded perhaps.
Marcus enters the Raiden cloud
The immense radiation lingering in Galileo made it hard to interpret, from whom it was. Considering his proximity to the Raiden cloud, Marcus quickly set a course for the center of the cloud, hopeful that he could find the beacon from which this information flowed. As he got closer, the pain intensified - a good sign; the radar on his ship showed a feint white blip a few kilometers ahead of him, a fighter sized vessel, one lifeform, floating powerless in the celestial blight that is the Raiden cloud. As he approached the ship, the pain had disappeared, the images clarified - he was in friendly company.
As the unknown ship was approaching, the pain slowly started fading away. Mortensen was feeling different, calm. But many thoughts crossed his mind - Who could it possibly be? How did he arrive so fast? What were his intentions? Did Stefan know that person, or not? He quickly cleared his head, opening the barely-working communication channel.
"I assume you are here to finish the job? Seems like you failed the first time, what makes you think you won't fail again? I am not that easy to take out."
As the words came out of his mouth, Mortensen's ship weapon system was already locked on the target, as he was waiting for an answer.
This host is confused, perhaps damaged, a delicate situation. It's connection to the mindshare was tattered, making communication difficult at the very least. Marcus never experienced a phenomenon of the sort before, any wrong move could result in disaster. With the mindshare frayed by the host's injuries, a human tongue was necessary.
"Relax mate, I'm a friend, otherwise you'd be dead by now; you can power down your weapons. Can you remember anything? Let's start with your name."
Mortensen was nervously looking around, trying to think, but his brain was too damaged to use its full potential. Finally, after a couple of moments, Stefan managed to pull himself together and register the question he was asked. He started searching the ship's communications archive, hoping to find his name. Minutes passed, and his name was finally spoken in an old recorded communication.
"I have a reason to believe I am known as Stefan Mortensen. Aside from that, I cannot recall what had happened to me, nor where I came from. There might be some people worth contacting in my communications archive, but first things first. Who are you? Who do you work for? Most importantly - how did you find me?"
As he said those words, Mortensen turned off his ship's weapon system, because he had nowhere to go and this was his only chance of leaving this place, so he felt like taking the risk.