Junker's Remorse

[Shush Muppet]

NEW YORK SYSTEM
LIBERTY SPACE, 09.10.823 A.S.

Cory Walsh brought his hand down hard on the pilot console and silenced the annoying dweeping noise that had roused him from a warm and pleasant sleep. The panel sparked in protest, sending a small shock through his hand. Cursing, the man landed a shattering blow with his wounded limb that ensured the panel would not shock him again. Ever.

He stumbled over to the small galley with sleep-heavy eyes and groped around until his hand closed upon the small sealed container of coffee extract paste. The gritty substance flowed into his mouth like toothpaste. Synth Foods surely could have found a better way to make coffee space-friendly, couldn't they? Walsh gritted his teeth and swallowed while trying not to gag.

Soon enough, he was beginning to feel slightly more alert and aware of his surroundings. Sagging into the sweat-stained pilot chair he reflexively braced his right knee against the console to prevent the chair from swiveling off-center on its worn bearings. The dweeping had been a new message from one of his many acquaintances. He made a hand motion that should have sent the message text to the main viewscreen.

Nothing happened.

Walsh made the hand motion three more times before realizing his sleepy rage had damaged the image-capture panel. He sighed in resignation and proceeded to input the command manually. Still making stupid mistakes after all these years...

The message contained a brief explanation and the coordinates to what his acquaintance described as 'unclaimed shipwrecks'. As he paged through the different locations he noted several that were deep in hostile space. One entry in-particular grabbed his attention.

"Interesting..." he muttered, "That one might be worth a look."

He waved the message away and turned to find his boots. He was puzzled for a moment when he looked back to see the message still clogging the viewscreen, and promptly smacked himself in the head.

"Idiot..."

He pressed the corresponding key, and the message closed, revealing a swirling inky darkness beyond occasionally pierced by wicked-looking spires of obsidian. Walsh shuddered inwardly. There was something unsettling about this place. Perhaps that was why it had come to be known as the Badlands. One thing was certain; his current destination would be far worse by comparison...

---

Characters:

Cory Walsh - Unknown
Ari Kova (Yaroslava Ivanov) - Active
Declan "Owen" Quinn - Active
Agent 1854 - M.I.A.

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