Schutzengel - Personal Logs

[aerelm]

Chapter 9: Sigma-13
811 A.S

"[font=Book Antiqua]So you are leavin' ?" The boy heard a familiar voice behind him, and found Mark standing near him as he turned around. "Well, Yes, I prefer to move around than stay in a place for long." The boy said. Mark chuckled and said "Well then, Good Luck! Where are you headed by the way?" The boy thought for a few seconds and the answered "Sigma-13 I guess ..." Mark shook his head and said "Yea, Good luck then, And watch your head when passing through those explosive gas packs all over the System!" The boy just nodded and said "Thanks, I will" and walked to his Ship.
"Euros Vessel, This is Gas Miner Ogashawa. Safe Travels!" He heard the same voice who had hailed him before, as the Airlocks opened and he left the Station. "Which way now ?" He asked himself, then remembered hearing some explorers talking about a jumphole to Sigma-13 somewhere near the station. So he started his engines and headed to the direction he thought is the right way. After a short while of flying, he finally got what he wanted on his scanners, so he headed toward Sigma-13 Jumphole and then entered the hole and closed his eyes!
After a few seconds his ship came to a full stop and he knew he was in Sigma-13 now, so he opened his eyes and saw the endless blue in front of him. "Ouch ... Lets not get lost, alright?" He told himself and looked next to him, then suddenly remembered his Roc model in his bag, so reached behind his seat to get the Roc and notepad out of his bag, then he put the Roc model next to Ships Console and the pad next to his seat. "Well, where now ?" he asked himself and looked at the Roc, "hmmm ..." he said and scratched his chin and activated cruise engines in same direction he was facing. He suddenly heard a loud explosion above his cockpit. "Holy ...!" He shouted and changed the Flight mode to manual. He could hardly see through the gas cloud in front of him, but was doing his best to dodge his way through. "Oh! Finally! Someone! Help!" He heard a low voice on his Comm, then checked his Scanners to find a ship 13 klicks away, so he said "Where are you?" The stranger answered "I don't know, somewhere!" So he started flying in circles to see which way would get him closer to the stranger. "I'm running out of Oxygen, Please!" the stranger hissed. Finally after a few minutes the boy managed to find the other ship, It was a heavily damaged Hawk Civilian Fighter, "Please, I will eject myself, but beam me in quick so these damn clouds wont blast me off" The Stranger said and looked at the boy through his cockpit window, "Ok, Do it!" The boy said and activated his tractor beam as soon as the pod was in space. Then the boy killed the engines and leaned back to open the door to cargo hold. The stranger climbed into the cockpit and took a deep breath, then looked around and said "No Co-Pilot ?" The boy smiled and answered, "No, I have a AI installed on my ship to do that work." The stranger took another deep breath and sat down. Then muttered "Darn Clouds ... I came here to search the wrecks for some nice Prototype weapons to sell in the market, but got lost, and those damn clouds disabled all my systems ... Lets go to Naha before same thing happens to you as well!" The boy looked at him and said "Where is it exactly ? I don't have this system mapped out yet." The stranger scratched his chin and said "It should be somewhere around D4, but don't hit these darn clouds for the love of god!" The boy nodded and activated cruise engine and flied toward the sector, after a long flight they finally got in range of the Station and the boy heard "This is Gas Miner Naha, to incoming Freelancer Vessel. Identify yourself" But before he could answer, the stranger bended forward and said "Ah, This is Ralph, I got lost ..." and muttered, "again ..." and then said "And this young man here saved my life, Now let us dock!" After a few seconds the same person from Naha answered "Stupid old man, You never learn, do you ? Proceed to dock 1." The boy chuckled and headed to dock One. After the airlocks closed, the boy and the stranger got out of the ship, the stranger who called himself 'Ralph' sat on the ground right away and started taking deep breaths, after a few seconds he looked at the boy and said "I think I'll get someone to take me to medicals first, you can go to the bar, you have a free drink on me!" then got to his feet and walked to the door and shouted "For God's Sake! We have an old man One step away from death here and no one gives a damn?!" and sat on the floor again. The boy looked at him for a few seconds and returned to his ship to get his bag, so after putting all the stuff in his bag, he took the bag and got out of his ship again, and walked toward the Elevators. 8th Floor was marked as 'Bar', so he hit the button and watched the doors close, after a short while the doors opened again and the boy walked into a bar, so much like the one in Ogashawa. So he walked to one of the tables and the bartender came to him "Need a drink sir?" The boy looked up and said "Something cold." The bartender nodded and walked away, then the boy took the pad out of his bag and started thinking about what had happened today. After a few minutes, he finally started to write;

----Loading Log Entry #9----

I'm starting to get scared a bit, to be honest ...
Is there a problem with me, or everyone are really strange ?
I mean, everyone just act weird! I mean ... whatever!
Those gas clouds are beautiful but deadly, Now I see what all
those guys who came to FP9 meant about it ...!
Gonna make my way through Kusari after this one ...

----End of Log Entry #9----

"Here is your drink!" Bartender put a glass on the table and walked away, "Thanks" The boy said and took the glass and stared out of the window to the endless blue in front of him while enjoying his drink...