Welcome to Gaia! ::

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Aegis chewed her lower lip. It was a nervous reaction that she usually made a conscious effort to hide. Tells were extremely dangerous in her business, especially when playing Blood and Metal for high stakes. Of course, this wasn’t a game of Blood and Metal and she didn’t need her poker face. She had been forced into a game of Kith Su, a game similar to an Ancient Earth game called Russian roulette. The objective of the game was to place a single shot in a projectile revolver, spin the cylinder to put the projectile in a random spot, c**k the hammer back, place the gun to your head and pull the trigger. First one to blow their brains out loses.

Twenty minutes ago she had been negotiating a trade with the Kethian in front of her. The b*****d’s pirate crew had overwhelmed and captured her ship as she was delivering a shipment of illegal Martysian chargers to a Jellatine encampment on an asteroid just outside the Nevarian rift. They had seized her crew and cargo. Aegis’s crew had wanted to fight them, and to be honest Aegis had too. The Lady Jackal had more than enough firepower to blast through the Kethian’s ships, but Aegis hadn’t want to run the risk of losing her valuable cargo. She had a reputation to uphold after all. Her smuggling crew had never damaged or lost a single piece of cargo in the two years that she had been a smuggler. The Lady Jackal was well known throughout less than reputable sources, as the best smuggling ship in the galaxy. People often contacted Aerlon Brant, the man who technically owned her ship, to get a contract with Aegis.

She had been navigating through Kethian Raider territory alongside the Nevarian rift when her communications and radar officer, Soren Wells, had alerted her to the presence of five Kethian ships. A nervous rustle moved through her crew, but Aegis had only recrossed her legs and settle back into her command chair, her body language singing smooth confidence. This seemed to settle her crew down. Soren kept his attention on his captain, calmly awaiting her orders like a well trained soldier. “ Mr. Wells, keep monitoring our friends, I suspect they will be hailing us soon. When they do route the call to my person comm screen.” Soren nodded at her orders and then turned his attention back to his console. “Miss Bruder,” She said and turned her attention to her helmswoman.

“ Aye, Captain?”

“ Miss Bruder, maintain present course, speed and heading. We don’t want to aggravate our tails, especially not with a whole cargo hold of blaster charges.” Aegis grinned at Alexandra Bruder as she paled with the thought of the explosion that a shot to the wrong place on The Lady Jackal would cause. She turned her attention back to the helm and focused herself on the task her captain had assigned her.

“ Captain, the Kethian lead ship is hailing us. I’m transferring it to your screen now.” Soren called over his shoulder to her. Aegis nodded and watched as a screen flipped out from the side of her command chair and rose to eye level. Lines of static filled the screen and then cleared to reveal a reptilian humanoid.

The skin around the Kethian’s teeth pulled back in some semblance of a disgusted sneer and it made a series of clicks, hisses and whirs at her. It paused for a second and then flicked its forked tongue out to run along its elongated snout. Aegis maintained a perfect poker face and only smiled at the Kethian. “ Of course we’ll surrender to you, Captain, we are after all at your mercy, it would be suicide for us to attempt to escape. However I do implore that you not harm my ship, you see I’m carrying some very volatile cargo that will cause a massive explosion if mishandled. It will, of course, be an instantly fatal death. You will feel no pain, however I know I don’t want to die in the middle of barely charted space and I can only assume you feel the same way.” The Kethian hissed at her in response, but Aegis could tell that he had conceded to her point as he waved to someone off screen. He turned his attention back to her long enough to warn her to prepare to be boarded before cutting the transmission feed.

The communication screen slipped back into its slot on the side of Aegis’ command chair and Aegis looked out across her small crew. “ Well, this is an annoying hitch in our travel plans/”

“Captain, you do have a plan, right? I mean, we could blast these Kethians into the rift right now if we wanted to. I don’t want to end up being sold to Nevarian slavers.” Said her gunner, Michael Solon.

Aegis smiled at him, her violet eyes glittering with a dangerous amusement. “ Don’t worry, guns, we’ll make it out of this alive and with our cargo completely intact. I fear that I failed to have my mail forwarded to hell before this trip, so I can’t afford to take a journey there. ”

The Lady Jackal shuddered as a transfer tube docked against her airlock. Aegis inclined her head at the sound of her airlock hissing open and then rose gracefully to her feet. She straightened her jacket and dusted it off. She readjusted her hair so the onyx braid fell neatly over one shoulder. Aegis tossed one last look over her crew and then offered them a comforting smile before clasping her hands behind her back, looking everything like the Imperial Captain she once was. She turned to walk down the hallway to the airlock and greet their captors.


Aegis glanced over her shoulder at her crew. They were held captive in stun cuffs, all four of them looking incredibly nervous. Her navigation office, Maerlyn Kael, looked pleadingly at her, begging her captain to save them. Aegis’ mouth set into a firm line as she nodded at Maerlyn. To lose at this game of Kith Su would mean not only Aegis’ death, but that her crew would be sold to Nevarian slavers – a fate worse than death. After careful negotiation with the Kethian captain, Aegis had managed to convince him to play a game of Blood and Metal. If she won, she would be allowed to leave with her ship and cargo. It had been an easy win for Aegis, but it wasn’t until after she was being escorted back to The Lady Jackal that she realized that she had failed to ask for her crew to be returned to her. So just before she stepped into the boarding tube Aegis had turned to the Kethian captain with a cocky grin and suggested the game of Kith Su. Winner takes Aegis’ crew, ship and cargo, loser dies. The Kethian laughed as he agreed to Aegis’ terms and her smirk turned cold. Playing on the Kethian’s love of blood, gambling and danger had worked to her advantage and the brilliant thing was he had no idea that Aegis had an ace up her sleeve. She had never once in her twenty eight years lost a game of Kith Su.

Aegis turned her attention back to the projectile revolver on the center of the table. She motioned to the Kethian and he nodded before pushing the weapon across the table to her. Aegis allowed a nervous smile to cross his lips before inspecting the weapon. As it wasn’t her gun she had the luxury of being allowed to inspect it, remove the projectiles and spin the cylinder. She did so with careful movements, looking everything like a woman stalling because she didn’t want to die. In reality, Aegis was inspecting the make and model of the weapon as well as the stiffness of the cylinder. Once she was satisfied she removed five of the six projectiles and made a casual spin of the cylinder before flicking her wrist to the side and locking it into place. She placed the weapon carefully on the table and slid it back to the Kethian who caught it with a sharp black talon.

The Kethian bared his teeth at her in some sort of reptilian grin before placing the weapon to his head. Aegis casually raised an eyebrow and motion for him to pull the trigger. The Kethian paused, “ Unless, of course, you’re a coward. In which case you forfeit and I will leave with my crew and ship.” The Kethian snarled menacingly at her, but Aegis only shrugged. With a hiss, the Kethian pulled the trigger, in the same instant a cruel smirk crossed Aegis’ lips and a second later the purple goo of Kethian blood and brains splattered again the wall. Aegis was on her feet a split second later; pulling the blaster that had been returned to her from the holster at her hip. She shot the Kethian closest to the table in the head and then turned and cleanly executed the two Kethians guarding her crew. As they fell Solon grabbed the control for the stun cuffs and disabled them. The cuffs fell to the floor with a loud clatter and her crew quickly stole weapons off the dead Kethians and disposed of the few left alive.

Aegis bolted towards the boarding tube of The Lady Jackal, her crew close on her heels. In a few minutes they had boarded the ship and had her online ready to book their way out of Raider territory. “ Helm! Make fastest speed on course zero one niner niner to the Asteroid belt. Guns, you have permission to fire at anyone who manages to follow us! Radar, keep a look out for more Raiders and keep Guns updated. Navigation, get Helm the best course out of this hellhole.” A chorus of “Aye Captains” was her only response and within seconds they were blasting their way out of enemy territory.


The remainder of their contract had gone off without too much of a hitch. After dropping their cargo off and each member of the crew getting paid a small fortune, they had run into and imperial scout ship on the edges of the Riiamar central quadrant. Aegis had already set The Lady Jackal To transmit the bogus transponder codes of a Nevarian armed merchant ship, and after a quick inspection the Imperials had let her go.

Now she and her crew were waiting in one of the bars on the M-5 fueling station as The Lady Jackal was undergoing refueling and inspection. Aegis was nursing a Wraith Supernova, a potent drink that few humans could actually drink without burning through the lining of her stomach. Aegis had built up an immunity to it over the years, granted a single Wraith Supernova got her wasted, but she had made a science of nursing the steaming blue liquid for hours. She turned to look out the bar window, focusing her prosthetic eye so that she could see the dock workers moving over her ship. She didn’t trust them not to scratch The Lady. She grunted when she saw them moving with some semblance of care.

“ Captain?” Asked a cautious female voice, snapping Aegis’ attention away from her ship. “ Captain?” Maerlyn asked again, “ How did you manage to know that the Kethian was going to blow his brains out?”

Aegis smiled and took a small sip of her drink, her violet eyes twinkled mischievously. “ My parents were weapons engineers on Nevaria. I know the make and model of just about every small firearm in this galaxy. After that it was a matter of simple math to determine how much force to spin the cylinder with to get the bullet to lock into the chamber. ” Aegis covered her mouth as a small giggle escaped her lips, “ I have never lost a single game of Kith Su. My secret is to never bring my own projectile revolver to the table so the other party is forced to provide one, giving me the opportunity to set the weapon up so they lose.” Maerlyn paled some at the explanation, suddenly slightly afraid of her captain. Aegis only smiled at her and returned her attention to her ship.
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... and then exploiting it for my own personal gain.

Grace stepped off Fate's ship and wrinkled her nose, taking a look around at the available facilities. She saw a couple cafes, a repair bay... And that was it, really.

"Well," she mumbled. "If nothing else, I can at least buy parts and build myself a ship..." She wandered into the run-down little repair shop and looked around briefly, but walked out almost immediately after.

"This place sucks," she muttered, reminding herself suddenly of her teenage years, and walked into one of the cafes, sitting down and ordering herself a drink.

Grace frowned. "So that's it," she asked, but Fate was already gone. She pursed her lips thoughtfully, played briefly with the card with one hand, then tucked it into her jacket pocket.

When the server came, she ordered a coffee, drank it, paid, and left, walking outside again to look for a shipyard.

Her hand strayed into her pocket, and she frowned thoughtfully. It wasn't like Fate to do anything that nice... She brushed the thought aside, and glanced over her shoulder at some imagined noise, then continued her walk.

The shipyards, as things turn out, were right outside the docking bay, so she didn't have to walk too far... She browsed the selection briefly before she found one that caught her eye-- a sleek, sporty model. Finding the price to be reasonable and the design easy to customize, she handed over the card Fate had given her. She had a ship again, and that was definitely a start.

Exit to Trantis