Two pints of Freedom

[James Greed]

‌"Oh, that's not a hard task to achieve, even if it'll be longer just by a hair." Nathan usually left these horrible puns scattered along his dialogues. Let that be an awfully outnumbered combat scenario, or just a patrol sortie in Ontario. The man leans against the side of the ship, describing his flight in detail.


"Had a sortie from Leyte. Scoured around the asteroid field for a while, then took the Spatial along the lanes. Got a word that there's a Junker Salvager out and about." He paused, taking a cigarette out of his uniform's front pocket, offering Damien one. "Ship is pretty much built to handle the heat from one, so I followed the route it might have passed. That being the Leeds jumphole. Pretty sure you can see where this one is going."

After lighting the cigarette and taking a short drag from it, he continued. "Chased the fucker till it fled through the hole. Once on the other side, I blasted it with everything, cutting the Junker into two equally rusted parts. God those ships look like cockroaches on the inside too. I flipped my ship around to go back towards the gate, and this thing was looking right at me." He patted the side plate of the Paladin, which echoed with a hollow thud. With the parts laying around, he probably took some of the ship apart already.

"I was a trigger pull away from blasting it with a shower of plasma, if not for the guns being a bit too overheated after scrapping the Junker. Realized it's empty, did a few loops around it. Seemed remarkably intact, figured I could lug it back. Worst case, it'll be good for scrap, or as a once-off unguided missile. The hardest part was to direct it through the jumphole. If there was a crack, or the structure was fractured, it would come out in pieces on the other side. Since it got through, I towed it home." He soon put out the cigarette by pressing it against the Paladin.

"Since it followed me home, figured I'd keep it."

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Greedback