TDK Reaper

[marauder]

A battered and scared drone freighter approached the jumphole to honshu slowly. When it spotted the wreckage it actived it's tractor beam and swept up all the loot before turning and running back to kyoto base.

Once at the blood dragons home the drone's pilot called for some help before opening the cargo bay. About a dozen blood dragons, with weapons drawn, ran up and waited for the door to open.

"That looks like the phantom empire crest." one of the older blood dragon's said pointing at the closer pod "I heard their using ryuku base as home now."

"Open it up then Taki." the drone pilot said "Cos I'm not, their all murdering nutters."

"fine." Taki sighed and hit the open switch. "You feeling ok?"

"Yup, bit bruised but otherwise I'm fine." Reaper answered after giving all the insignias he could see a brief look "Thanks for picking me up."

"That was him." the blood dragon pointed at the drone pilot who tried hiding behind another blood dragon "He's harmless, supplies us with alot of our goods, we know him as Frank."

"Thanks, call me anytime you need any help or an escort Frank." Reaper stood up and stretched "My call-sign is TDK Reaper. Er... is there a ship I could buy?"

"Sure, we sell a ship." one of the other blood dragons said "Do you know who's in the other pod? Theres no marking on it."

"Not who, but I know who they work for." Reaper decided that it'd be best not to mention it was a bounty hunter. "Leave it shut I'll take it with me when I go. I don't suppose you found any chainguns in the wreckage Frank?"

"Nope, but I did find some other weapons, some equipment too." Frank replied "You can have them for free, I can't use them."

"Ok, thanks. Right, lets go see this ship then." Reaper smiled.

"The ship dealer is to the left of the equipment dealer." Taki said "What about the rest of the stuff?"

"Keep it, it's useless to me." Reaper shrugged "There might be some food rations in there." He started walking towards the ship dealer as the blood dragons and Frank started digging through the junk that had been tractored into the hold.

"You lost your ship and need a new one right?" the dealer asked without even looking up. "I sell one ship, but only to people trusted by the blood dragons."

"Here's my rep card." Reaper said handing it over.

The dealer took it and plugged it into his terminal, he blinked and looked up.

"What the hell did you do to get hated this much?" he asked, then took a long look at the phantom insignia "Never mind, your rep is good with the blood dragons so thats enough for me. It's this way."

They walked through a short corridor to a maintaince bay where there sat a gleaming, beautiful VHF.

"There it is, the blood dragon." the dealer said watching Reapers face as he walked up to it and started examining it. "Looks like a dragon HF, flys like a dragon HF. But it's got a better powerplant, more armour and can mount a better shield too."

"It comes without weapons?" Reaper asked as he walked around it "What shield does it come with?"

"Yup, no weapons and a class 7 graviton shield." the dealer answered. "The price is .."

"Fine, I'll take it. I'll get it moved to another bay and out of your way within the hour." Reaper walked past the dealer and into the corridor.

____________________________________________________________________

"Hi Frank, so where'd you stash those weapons?" Reaper asked, the pilot had just finished selling the scrap metal and hull plates.

"In the hold still." Frank grinned "I've got them in a cargo pod, along with a CM dropper and that BHG lifepod."

"How do you know it's a BHG pod?" Reaper replied as they walked back to the drone.

"The weapons are a pair of BHG particle cannons, class 9 too, so it's either a BH who's lasted awhile or another pirate who looted them." Frank answered with a grin. "I'm not about to tell the blood dragons, they don't pay enough for BHG pilots."

"True, very true. Besides this pilot saw something that she wasn't supposed to." Reaper sighed "I guess the best thing to do would be to kill her."

"Could do, it'd definately make sure she don't tell no-one, or you could keep her alive for now." Frank said neutrally "Somewhere out of the way would be a good idea."

"Your a phantom operative aren't you?" Reaper laughed "You guys get everywhere."

"Yup, I'm wondering why you, a phantom pilot with a rep for killing everyone, doesn't want to kill a lone BHG pilot." Frank stopped to shut the hold door "Don't worry I won't tell anyone unless they ask me about it."

"Most BHG pilots fall over themselves when the navy tell them to do something, She didn't. I want to know why." Reaper leaned on the wall

Frank shrugged. "I'll help you mount the stuff on your ship so you can get back to ryuku."