" Captain you may want to come down here." Jack's eyes snapped open he knew that something was wrong. Looking around his small cabin he saw the clock which confirmed his suspicions. he had only been asleep for 3 hours there had to be a cause. Captain Jack Ward was a young man at the age of 23 and was not who most people would expect to see owning a ship. Jack rolled out of his bed and thru on his vac suit the bed was a self contained life pod and any event that caused it to lose seal would kill the occupant so few spacers slept in their suits. Grabbing his helmet he headed to the door. The Calegonã class freighter he had inherited when his father passed two years ago had a crew complement of five they shared rooms of two on the cargo deck while Jack had a room just behind the bridge. Stepping onto the bridge Jack called out " What have we got?" James didn't look at him as slid out of the command chair and moved to the copilots seat and responded " two contacts looks like and old anaconda class fighter and mini mako hauler." James like the other three crew members were veterans who had served under his father in the Royal Navy. After the death of Jack's mom 20 years ago in an accident his father left the Navy started this business. " Shit pirate's, can we outh run them?" piracy was a constant problem for ships in the rim or the C as it was known the major powers closer to Old Earth didn't patrol the areas of the mostly autonomous frontier worlds very often unless it was cutting into their taxes. " the Mini maybe but not the anaconda" James replied bringing up the sensors menu. Paul piped up from the pilot seat " Where the hell did they come from?" Jack knew the answer to that one he had wanted to enlist in the Royal Navy since being a teenager and his father after a few months of holding out relented and began to teach him everything he could from his career at 18 he had taken the Examine where those who wanted to be officers competed to see who could win a billet he was number 7 out of 400 and had it been his father's era would have been on a shuttle that afternoon to train for a Navy career like his father. But it wasn't his father's era now the great powers did not fight each other directly, instead they used proxy nations on the rim to harass each other the only ones getting billots on combat ships were the aristocracy and sons of admirals didn't matter if they scored 4th or 244th. The only thing offered to Jack was training to be an officer on a fuel barge or a station side logistics position Jack decided neither of those sounded appealing. " the were lying doggo" he said to Paul " they knew we were coming and waited tell we were to far from the jump point to get away" James nodded " Captain's right someone tipped them off" Jack nodded realizing that was the only logical option. "Lying dogo" means a ship parks somewhere and turns off most of its system's because space is big most sensors rely upon emissions to detect most smaller objects. But it's not feasible normally because you have to avoid any moving or power draws the ships going to be cold and you're on canned air on top of all that you have to be in place before the target enters the system. " that's a problem for later." Jack said refocusing " Mr. Jones take us towards the asteroid field I know it's a long shot but it's our best chance". Paul nodded the kid might be young but If he was half the man his father was he was their best chance. The Old man as they all called him was one of a kind Paul had been a dropship Pilot in the war with the Osarc Federation. He was dropping a team of Royal Marines on a planet that had recently been captured by the Corelian Commonwealth when a large fleet of Osarc Capital ships jumped into the system. The Royal navy commander order a general retreat and burned hard for a Jump point back to safe space. The Old man's Task group remained In orbit for five hours while the drop ships fared back hundreds of marines his retreat being blocked by the Osarcs instead took a jump point deeper into enemy space sneaking back to Commonwealth space a week later with hundreds of appreciative marines. " Hay cap?" Jack qued his radio " What's up Mr.Higgins we have a bit of situation up here." Higgins was the loadmaster on the freighter and was the last crew member Jack expected to call. " Yes, sir I'm aware but i think you need to know I was running a Scan to try to figure out what weapons that anaconda has and You'll never guess what I found" Jack shrugged then remembering Alan Higgins couldn't see him replied " I hope your gonna tell me she forgot to pack them." the crew let out a nervous chuckle " sorry sir she's got a full load of lasers but no missiles at least. No I want to tell you about the other contact it gave me do you know what we're carrying Sir". Jack caught a hint of an almost accusatory tone. " the contract said miscellaneous goods to the planet Praxar" Jack recalled "it seemed a little odd the boxes were locked but the contractor was an aristocrat and customs had screened it already so I didn't worry to much" that kind of thing was common the elites didn't want the common folk playing in there box's. Higgins replied a second later sounding no less unhappy but at least less accusatory " well yes I guess we could call 15 containers packed full of military grade high explosives and four ship killer torpedos all highly illegal to buy sell or transport miscellaneous goods but I for one would have prefered the whole list."