"Oh, yeah. Koji should grab their cargo and data," he remembered. In Astria Online, players could harvest cargo and data caches from defeated space pirates' ships. It wouldn't make anyone rich, but decent loot could be scrounged up, and sometimes even the location of other nearby pirates could be learned. If the stars aligned, players might even discover the coordinates of a pirate home base. Locating, attacking, and defeating a whole pirate base would net some serious treasure.
There was also the more noble route of reporting it all to the galactic police—not a bad payday either way.
Koji navigated the Warhawk in closer and gleefully stripped the pirate ships' corpses of their cargo, data caches, and less damaged equipment. All Astria Online ships carried drones for this very purpose, and his beloved Warhawk was no exception.
"Nothing important, as far as I can see," Koji muttered. He mostly found low-quality food and some booze among the pirates' cargo. Alcohol could sell for a decent price, but some galactic empires—empires that governed star systems—outlawed it, making it a tough item to profit from.
Outlawed or not, if someone found the booze, the worst they'd do was confiscate it and give a warning. It didn't carry the high fines and potential exile that illegal slavery or hard drugs did.
Those items might even provoke a physical response from the galactic police, and Koji definitely didn't want to go toe to toe with them.
"Ooh!" The data caches were a hit. Not only did Koji glean the coordinates of the main station in this galaxy, but he also learned the location of the space pirates' home base. He'd get more from selling this info than from anything he'd pilfered from the ships.
Unfortunately, the cache also revealed there were no habitable planets in this star system. Nothing out here but asteroids rich with ore. That didn't mean it was deserted, though. Those asteroids would have mining stations, prisons where criminals were forced to work, and several trading colonies stationed nearby.
"No data on nearby star systems, huh?" Koji muttered. Unfortunately, the cache didn't provide information beyond this star system. It wouldn't help him find a neighboring system that might be friendlier. He had no clue where this star system was in relation to the rest of the galaxy, but accessing the information network at a station or colony was probably his best hope of finding out. "Might as well head for the trading colony, then."
He set his sights on the largest trading colony in the star system. According to the data, the police headquarters for this system was also located there. It would be a convenient place to collect his bounty and sell the information he'd stolen.
Koji set the main generator's output to cruise and turned the Warhawk toward the trading colony. A little nudge on the throttle got the ship up to ample acceleration, and he activated the faster-than-light (FTL) drive.
The engine roared to life. The scenery around him bent and warped as stars bled into streaks flowing past the windows. Koji didn't know the practical theory behind the FTL drive, and Astria Online never really explained the details, but he knew it was mostly used for long-distance travel within star systems—and now, he could definitely see why.
He was moving insanely fast. The universe rushed past his windows. Debris pinged against the ship but didn't leave any real damage.
Maybe there was some special technology keeping him safe? Koji's beloved Warhawk had a system for navigating between star systems: hyperdrive. The ship could slip into the hyperspace lanes between star systems to travel at speeds far faster than light.
Koji didn't know the particulars of the underlying theory, but the important part was that it let him hop between star systems. He didn't need to know all the technical details to make it work. He just had to sit back and enjoy the ride, which was fine by him. The Warhawk could also travel super-long distances via wormholes. Of course, it wasn't as simple as just jumping into any wormhole he happened to find.
They were usually managed by NPCs belonging to galactic empires and heavily regulated. Some players could help out the empires and gain access to wormholes, but a normal mercenary like Koji wouldn't be so lucky.
Even as he sped along, pondering the mysteries of interstellar travel, he passed an enormous gas giant. The incredible sight made him want to turn off the faster-than-light drive and admire the awe-inspiring scenery of space, but he had to hurry to reach the trading colony.
If he sat around admiring the wonders of space, he risked being attacked by more pirates. For now, his top priority was reaching the safe harbor of a trading colony and gathering information.
He hoped he'd have time later to admire all the gas stars, asteroid clusters, and the other wonders of space. Still, Koji took in as many of the incredible sights around him as he could. He wasn't a sci-fi nerd, but who could turn down a display like this? Curiosity was a valuable thing; indulging it a little wouldn't hurt.
Koji was still stargazing when the Warhawk's support AI notified him that he was approaching his destination. He braced himself to turn off the FTL drive, but the craft decelerated much more smoothly than he expected, handling the transition on its own.
Whatever happened to inertia and all that? Maybe there was some force field protecting the ship that Koji didn't know about. He used a touchpad in the cockpit to message the trading colony and request permission to dock in their hangar.
They responded promptly. "This is the Port Authority of Nexus Prime, accepting your docking request. Um, Captain…I'm sorry. It seems the data regarding your name is corrupted."
"Huh? Oh… This is the Warhawk. My name is…" Koji hesitated. His real name was pretty darn boring and common. However, his in-game name might sound interesting and unique compared to the naming conventions of this universe. His in-game name was probably a safer bet, though. "Von. I'm Captain Von."
Thus, on the first day of the sixth month of the 2,462nd year of the Duskthorn Empire's calendar, the mercenary named Captain Von was reborn.