During the two weeks that it took Erich to return to the industrial world of Quadi, he had experienced the best sleep that he had been able to obtain in nearly a year. Thanks to the intense effects of the Asuran Palm Wine, Erich had managed to sleep in his rather rudintary cot within the captain's quarters of his ship as if he were a fat drunken baby.
By the ti he arrived in the atmosphere of Quadi, Erich felt fully rested for the first ti since the Dvrakian War had begun. And though the effects of shell shock still lingered in his mind, Erich was able to perform his duties to the extent he was required.
Officially, he still had two months left of his ongoing leave of absence from the Navy, and thus, he found himself debating on how he should spend his free ti. After a day of nothing but drinking, Erich ca up with two ideas. One was to unlawfully flee from the Empire's borders, and enter Oni space for a brief vacation, however after calculating just how much ti it would take to visit the Great Oni Empire and return to Imperial Space, he quickly dismissed this idea.
Instead, Erich decided on pulling off another job for whatever underworld faction was willing to pay him the most. After searching through his new underworld contacts, Erich found a Syndicate known by the na of "Splinter" that was looking for a pilot to transfer so contraband from Imperial Space to an interstellar civilization that was classified as a minor power which lie sowhere between the Empire's border, and that of Oni Space.
The job required his ship to have a certain cargo capacity, which his privateer was more than capable of eting, and was paying 500k for a simple delivery job. And while he would have to avoid the authorities from both civilizations, Erich was confident that he could manage just that.
Thus, after calculating the distance between himself and his destination, as well as the ti it would take to get there and back, Erich realized that he would have enough ti to make the journey, and spend three days' worth of vacation on one of the alien worlds. Which after doing so research, he learned that the ho world of the alien species was a tropical paradise.
With this in mind, Erich accessed the underground network, under the alias of Apex, and accepted the job. Where he would have to head to a nearby space station which was on the way to his final destination and covertly pick up the contraband before smuggling it into the borders of the neighboring civilization.
It took only a few hours for Erich to land at the space station, where he imdiately headed to the bar of the facility, which was the destination he was supposed to et his contact at. After sitting down at the bar and ordering himself a liter of beer, which was his legal limit for the day, Erich waited patiently for his contact to arrive.
Contrary to what he was expecting, the person who sat down next to him, and began to speak to him, was not a burly or battle hardened man like the outlaws he had experienced so far, but was a beautiful mutant woman, with a particularly busty figure, cobalt hair, and scarlet eyes. Despite having a scar across her right eye, this only added to her attractiveness. The words she spoke were slightly hushed, but not obviously so as she began giving Erich his instructions.
"I'm assuming you're Apex?"
Erich was about to nod his head when she interrupted him.
"Don't move a muscle, and don't you dare look at ! As we speak, your cargo bay is being filled with the product. Don't ask what it is, as it is not your job to know. All you need to do is to transport the cargo to Vaxkorvia, where your contact will be waiting for you at the following coordinates. Your contact will take the cargo from your ship, and will transfer the balance to our account, where we will pay you the agreed amount.
Enjoy your trip. Oh and whatever you do, don't sleep with the Vaxkorvian won. I don't know what kind of weird shit you may or may not be into, I'm not one to judge, but if for whatever reason you are attracted to amphibian humanoids, trust when I say that your dick will lt off if you try to fuck one of those things. And before you ask, no, the syndicate will not pay for your dical fees if you are so daring. So unless you want to waste your paycheck, I suggest you follow my advice…."
After saying this, the woman chugged a liter's worth of beer in a matter of seconds before exiting the facility. Once Erich had finished his own drink, he entered his starship to find that his cargo bay was filled with what he could only assu was drugs.
Erich climbed into the pilot seat, and started up his engines, before requesting permission from the space station to take off, which once gaining approval, he then activated his quantum drive, before following the route that his nav computer had set for him.
It would take Erich a little under a month to reach his destination, as well as make his return to Quadi. He would only have three days of relaxation on the Vaxkorvian ho world before he had to head back to the Empire. Thus, he planned to enjoy so ti on the sandy beaches before he was once more forced to pilot a starfighter into battle.
The journey to Vaxkorvia was quite dull, he was all alone in the 55m long ship that was the Hydra Privateer, and thus all he could really do was entertain himself with the Asuran Palm Wine that he had transferred from his cargo bay and into the ss hall of his ship, while watching the latest news about the ongoing war with the Dvrakian Consortium.
With each passing day, the Germanic Ard Forces gained more ground against the enemy, and it was beginning to appear that the war might even be over by the ti Erich returned to active service. If that was the case, then he honestly did not know how long it would be before he was able to see combat again, which was sothing that filled his heart with hope.
Eventually nearly a month had passed, and Erich had landed on the tropical paradise that was Vaxkorvia. The world was ninety percent ocean, and because of this, the amphibian species which inhabited it lived primarily in underwater cities. However, for the sake of interstellar trade, they had built cities on what little land their ho world had, as well as space stations in orbit.
It was abundantly clear by the level of technology that Erich saw aboard the Vaxkorvian vessels that they were perhaps even inferior to the Dvrakians when it ca to military technology. Which was not a surprise as the Vaxkorvian Collective just barely qualified as a Minor Power with only one hundred star systems and habited worlds under their control.
Erich used the universal translator onboard his ship to request permission to land within the planet's primary star port, which, once approved, he managed to do so with relative ease. However, despite the fact that things had been relatively smooth sailing up until this point, his luck appeared to have run out. Waiting in the hangar bay for Erich was a group of Customs Security Officers who appeared to be heavily ard, as if tipped off about potential criminal activity. Upon seeing this on his ship's security system, Erich quickly ran throughout his ship's interior, and entered the armory, where he found the equipnt he had purchased at the Outlaw's Outpost well over a month ago.
Since he did not have ti to equip his makeshift power armor, or the desire to go out guns blazing into the hangar bay of an interstellar space port, Erich had quickly grabbed hold of a revolver which had been illegally modified into a railgun, one which was affectionately nicknad "the hand cannon" by those who wielded it.
The railgun revolver had a 1x reflex sight mounted on the top rail, with a weapon light and visible laser combination device on the bottom rail. All in all, it was a solid option to carry with you when you needed to be less overt.
After ensuring that the weapon was loaded, Erich stashed it on the back of his belt before approaching the cargo bay, which was now being surrounded by the Vaxkorvian security officers. After opening up the ramp, Erich walked into the open with his hands raised, before using the universal translator in his helt to speak with the officers who were pointing their ballistic weapons at him.
"Woah there! Everyone just calm down! I don't know why you guys have decided to show up to this hangar fully ard, but I can assure you that I have received permission by your customs departnt to bring my cargo into your world…."
The amphibian humanoids looked almost like a mixture of human beings and frogs, as they continued to aim their sights upon Erich. The officer in charge stepped forward and reached out his hand before speaking in his native language, which was translated to Erich via his helt's functions.
"Passenger and Cargo manifest…"
Upon hearing this, Erich reached into a nearby container at the aft of the cargo bay which contained the falsified docunts that the Germanic syndicate known as "Splinter" had forged for him. The Vaxkorvian security agent who was in charge scanned the digital manifest with his eyepiece before handing it back to Erich.
Just when Erich thought he had gotten away scot-free, the agent in charge made a shocking demand of Erich, which imdiately put him on high alert.
"I have orders to check your cargo for any contraband. Move aside and allow my agents to fulfill their job. If you try to prevent us from doing so, I will have you charged with obstruction of justice…."
Erich sighed heavily. He knew for a fact that he was carrying so serious contraband, one which commanded such a high price that the syndicate which had hired him was willing to pay him half a million credits just to deliver it.
Knowing that he would be facing criminal charges here in an alien civilization, as well as AWOL charges when he finally got back to the Empire, Erich backed away from the ramp, and leaned his back against the wall, seemingly allowing the security officers to check his cargo.
While the officers began to break open his crates, Erich silently placed his hand on the grip of his rail gun revolver, and cocked the hamr back. The audible clicks went entirely unnoticed by the officers who were too busy investigating his cargo for contraband. At the sa ti Erich had managed to quite easily slice into the star port's primitive security system, where he put the cara feed on a loop, ensuring that nobody would co looking for him after what he was about to do.
Within seconds the amphibian humanoids had found the drugs which Erich was smuggling into their territory, however before they could officially react, Erich walked forward, and reached his arm around the commanding agent's neck while pointing his rail gun revolver to his head, where he imdiately voiced his demands while the other officers pointed their ballistic weapons at him.
"Toss your weapons aside, and your eyepieces! Now walk away slowly. If I see even a single attempt on your part to call for reinforcents, I am blowing this bastard's brains all over my ship! Just like that… Nice and slow, nobody needs to get hurt here!"
The security officers did as they were instructed, and tossed their weapons away, while backing out of Erich's ship slowly. They then got on their knees, waiting for Erich to hand over his hostage. As for Erich, his heart was beating more rapidly than when he had done that job for Drake and his crew.
As anxious as he was, he was also high with adrenaline, as he used his nanites to connect to the Vaxkorvian interstellar network, where he called his contact, and in doing so, alerted the local syndicate about his ongoing situation.
"Yeah, I'm here, Hangar 3 at the Star port, you might want to do so investigating into your organization, because soone ratted out to customs."
Erich's contact imdiately responded with several questions.
"Are you alright? Have they seized the cargo?"
Naturally Erich began informing his contact of everything that went down, and after a brief summarization silence prevailed for so ti before the contact finally spoke.
"Alright, I understand. My team is on the way. In the anti, you must maintain control over the situation, and whatever you do, don't let those bastards call for reinforcents. When I find out who ratted you out to the authorities, I will skin them alive! I will also contact Splinter and have them investigate their own organization in case the fucking rat ca from their end. Stay tight!"
With this said, the call was imdiately cut, and Erich transitioned his full focus to the customs security team which he was now holding hostage in the middle of an alien star port. There was only one way to describe the situation that he now found himself in. Erich was truly and utterly boned….
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