MadCap's Fiction Corner - Jenny Journeys: "The Ghost of the Warlord" (Chapter One)

The tang of the metal all around him did not invade his nostrils due to the pressurized suit he wore. The junkyards of Milix Five were often picked through by scavengers of all stripes from across the Empire. Today, however, was an exception to that rule thanks to the work of the Harrow Corporation. A geological survey was under way, and the planet had been placed under a Level 1 quarantine with nothing but approved vessels in or out of the system, much less the planet itself. Such as it was when the Champlain III had come into orbit and this particular team had made the drop down into one of the particular areas for the first phase of excavation efforts.

Andrew Caitlinson walked along the literal mountains of debris, the flotsam and jetsam of hundreds of vessels having been smashed, crushed, and compacted together by impact, weapons damage, or just time and left only the fragments of empty shells of what they had once been.

"Alright, lads. We scoop this up and we'll all be hitting the year end bonus a little early!" The leader of the group, another man in another pressurized suit spoke through the commlink to Andrew and the others. "Caitlinson! Get your stabilizing rod ready! We're moving into retrieval!" Andrew quickly raised the metallic rod he'd been holding in his hand, holding it parallel with himself and over the spot within the debris mounds that it would need to go on the signal from his superior. He did not have to look back to see the three others doing the same. "Alright! NOW!" The four rods were slotted into the ground, a pair of lights - one red and one white - flickered into life. "Alright, the retrieval field is stable! Stand clear!" The five suited humanoids quickly moved out of the way, moving beyond the perimeter created by the rods. As soon as they were clear of it, arcs of energy traversed the space between the four rods, forming a kind of net.

"There's our girl!" Andrew looked up at the words of his comrade to see the lights coming off the Champlain, the noise of its engines roaring overhead as the vessel took its place over the enclosed area.

"Alright, Champlain. This is Captain Jones giving full clearance! Begin retrieval!" The leader called over the commlink.

"Copy, Captain. Champlain retrieving." The voice of their pilot, Kraisem, came over their commlinks as the belly of the Champlain opened up and a tractor beam shot down toward the ground. The mountain of metal began to rumble beneath them as it was pulled up into the beam and into the ship. The five men on the ground moving back to avoid being pulled into its center.

"Hope this was worth the effort." One of the men commented over the commlink. "You know the company's not gonna reimburse us on the power costs."

"We get this set up for Harrow, we're not gonna need them to reimburse us." Jones said. "Or reimburse me, I think you mean. I own the ship."

"Right, right, Captain. Sorry."

"That's better." Jones said. "Hey, Caitlinson! Are you picking up any access point here?" Andrew realized he was being spoken to and suddenly snapped to attention.

"Sorry, Captain. Checking now." Andrew said, pulling out his handheld scanner. Milix Five had, once upon a time, been a planet for mining rather than scavenging. Instead of dropping the husks of vessels upon it, the former inhabitants had mined it and it had been believed that they'd strip mined the entire thing centuries back.

"What do they even want this rock for, anyway?" One of the others asked. "Things are literal scrapyard."

"It's not ours to question why while the credits are good, Vortex." Jones replied. "How's it looking up there, Kraisem?"

"We're at twenty-six percent, looking good, Captain." Kraisem's voice once more came over the comms. "How's it looking down there?"

"That depends." Jones looked over and raised his voice. "Caitlinson! Have we got the access point?"

"Yes! Yes, Captain! Sorry." Andrew said, having been going over the scans again. "According to the old records, this is Shaft A-126. It should spread out into most of the network."

"Good. Good. We got the goods and the way open." Jones grinned. "When we get back to the Champlain, drinks are on me!"

"Oh, c'mon! C'mon! C'mon!" She was frantically flipping switches for power regulation. The last few patch jobs of rocket had held it together, but she was now seeing the thing was on its last legs. Particularly when it was being fired upon by a duo of enemy combatants.

"Surrender! For the glory of the Sontaran Empire!"

"I'll pass, thanks." Jenny said, activating the slip drive stabilizer. She'd fallen from slip space due to the sudden appearance of the two scout ships and the arsenal of heavy weaponry that had they'd brought along and had tried to use to repaint her hull. With holes. "Any chance you boys could point me to Alfava Metraxis?" The response was another pair of laser blasts. "I guess that answers that question." Her glance over at the sensor panel was showing nothing. Given that they were still in pursuit, she imagined that they weren't flying into a star or the like, but that was little comfort. Pulling open a panel on the side, she with one hand tried to do some rewiring while she still steered the ship.

"Front viewscreen online."

"Okay, not what I was going for, but I'll take it." Jenny said, watching as a large, purple planet came into view before her.

"Planet Milax Five. Based on visuals, five million kilometers and closing..."

"And closing? Why?!" Jenny asked.

"The engines do not have sufficient thrust to escape the planet's gravity well."

"So we're being pulled toward the planet?"

"Affirmative."

"Great. Wonderful." Jenny said, pulling a few more wires about to try and get the sensor grid back online. "I don't suppose you have any good news for me, do you?"

"Life support is onli-" The computer's automated voice began, then another pair of blasts struck the ship, and Jenny could have sworn she heard something sparking. "Life support is offline."

"Oh, you're just full of good news today!" Jenny huffed, with her newfound vision of the world outside her rocket at least allowing her to put her efforts back fully into steering the rocket. "Alright, throw everything we have left into the thrusters. Maybe that will be enough to break us free and-"

"Negative. There is not enough power remaining to provide sufficient thrust. We are still subject to the gravity well of Mila-"

"Yes, yes. Right then." Jenny said, hands on the control yoke. "To the planet, then."

"The environmental conditions of Milax Five are not conducive to-"

"Yeah, yeah. Never the easy road, is it?" Jenny grimaced as she glanced at the planet that they were drawing much, much closer to now. "Don't take anything out of the shields, just the rest." Her grip on the control yoke tightened. "Here goes, Dad..." The rocket careened toward the planet at breakneck speeds...

"Captain, we got a vessel on the short-range sensors!"

"What's it's ident?"

"Doesn't have one." Kraisem said. "It's a rocket. Exploratory class. Probably came from one of the colonies."

"There aren't any colonies out in this sector, what the hell is it doing here?" Jones asked. "Any life signs onboard?"

"Just one. Humanoid." Kraisem said. "They're within range to intercept." The others, including Andrew, could see the captain thinking things over.

"Can you give us projected landing coordinates?" Jones asked.

"I can."

"Alright, boys. Looks like we have another salvage." Jones said. "Let's get back to the Runner."

"Wait, Kraisem said there was a lifeform onboard!" Andrew said.

"Yeah, if they're crashing here, that won't be a problem for long." Jones said. "Salvage rules, pup."

"Look, shouldn't we try and save them?" Andrew asked. "If Kraisem can intercept them, he can use the tractor beam to-"

"I'm not running a charity." Jones said. "If they live, we'll deal with it. If not, we'll give them a nice pyre. Does that help put your mind at ease?" He tapped into the commlink again. "Kraisem, maintain position and finish up the retrieval. We'll let you know what we find."

"Yes, sir. It's hitting atmo... now." Kraisem's words were followed by the immediate appearance of a streak of smoke and fire high up above their heads, arcing over them all and hitting a point beyond the horizon. "...got you exact landing coordinates, Captain."

"Splendid." Jones said. "To the runner, boys!" Soon enough, the five were in the Runner - an armored hovercraft that was standard all (and no) terrain for missions such as this. The thing had more than a few plates that had been replaced over the years, but Jones had had the thing since he'd started salvage and Andrew knew well that the man wasn't going to even consider replacing it. Needless to say, the anti-grav being a bit of an older model meant their progress was a bit slower than it would have been. It was an hour, largely in silence, before they arrived at the wreckage.

It was indeed an Exploratory rocket, or rather the remains of one that were now almost a jumble with the junk piled underneath every part of it. The thrusters were ice cold by the time they got into close proximity, though they could see the clear trail where the impact had melted not a few pieces of metal that had since cooled. The rocket itself looked like it had been beat up before the wreck, Andrew able to pick out several bits of paneling that were off-shade or just a completely different color from what he presumed had once been a uniform look for the vessel.

"Caitlinson! Give me some news!" Jones said as he circled around the aft section of the craft.

"Still have the lifeform in there, Captain." Andrew said, checking the handheld sensor. "Engines are cold, though. No radiation leakage."

"Damn. Complete wreck and we have a sealed engine. Looks like our lucky day." Jones said.

"The person onboard might have a problem with that, sir."

"Oh, stow it, Skip! What are they gonna do? Object? They're wrecked on a quarantined planet. Not a lot of options there." The Captain said, bringing them to a complete stop. "Alright, get the anti-grav clips. We're heading in. The gear was soon retrieved, Jones being the first one to activate his clip and start scaling up the side of the craft to an access point. "Alright, who got the welding torch?"

"I have it." Andrew said, scooting over on his own clip and pulling it from his belt. With the press of a button, a flame burst into life at the tip and the twist of a dial focused the beam until only the blue flame could be seen. With it, he began to chew into the hull at the appropriate point, burning through fairly quickly and then backing away from it. "Good to go, Captain."

"Alright, let's go." Jones said, shouldering the fragmented bit of hull, which collapsed inward and opened up into the rocket proper. Lighting the lamb on his helmet, the man stepped forward into the vessel. "Yeah, it looks like a one-person rocket, alright. You said there was an occupant, Caitlinson?"

"Yeah, still picking up the one life form." Andrew said.

"Where the hell is-?" Jones asked.

"Hello!" The voice of a woman came from above their heads. Glancing up, they saw a humanoid figure in an impact suit poised perfectly between two bits of piping. "Sorry. Crashed. Not a lot of fun here. Mind if I pop down? You don't look like you're here to kill me, which is a bit of a relief."

"Who are you?" Jones asked as the figure dropped down, showcasing an opaque visor to the Impact Suit that, when they pressed a button on the wrist gauntlet, revealed a woman's face. Unblemished pale skin, blue eyes with a glint of mischief in them, and an angular nose seemingly perfectly proportioned to her face. And a bright smile twisting her lips. "And how did you get from one of the colonies in an exploratory rocket?"

"Wasn't easy, believe you me." The woman said. "Crashed into a moon, picked up by some Zocci traders who were nice enough to help me patch up. They were really nice. Then there was that whole bit with the Uvodni and that computer simulation and then, just now, the Sontarans and I mean, really, is it actually stealing if it was something that was already stolen before the first time? Those people were going to die without those medical supplies and there wasn't any way I was gonna-"

"Stop!" Jones huffed in exasperation at the incredibly rapid paced speech from the woman. "Stop. Stop talking! Shut up!" He heaved a deep sigh. "Simple answers. So this is your ship, then? Registered to you?"

"Not exactly, no." The woman said.

"What do you mean?"

"I... kind of, sort of borrowed it... on an extended loan."

"Why?" Jones asked.

"Fun." The woman replied simply. Jones stared at her blankly, then looked to the rest of the crew. All of them looked absolutely confused. All of them, except for one.

"Caitlinson!"

"Huh? What?!" Andrew snapped out of his seemingly stunned state. "Oh... sorry, Captain." The young man was blushing bright red as he looked back to the handheld sensor device.

"Captain, not to spoil the moment, but you've got incoming."

"Incoming what?" Jones asked, tapping his commlink to speak to Kraisem again.

"Looks like a raiding party... there was another junker crew on the planet when we hit atmo."

"How long have we got?"

"They're two hundred kliks and closing. At the current rate of speed, you have... six minutes."

"Alright, boys. Get back to the Runner."

"Captain?"

"What's going on?" The woman asked.

"Another junker team is coming in and we don't want to have anyone mishap." Jones said, gesturing for his men to head out. He turned back to the woman. "They're also with the Company, but unless you want to have this conversation again, you better come with."

"Just as well. I was getting ready to leave when you got here." The woman said, snatching up a pack that had been set against one of the walls. Andrew recognized it as part of the standard issue from such a rocket. "It's Jenny, by the way."

"What?" Jones asked.

"Jenny. My name is Jenny." She said, moving to leave the wrecked vessel with the others. Andrew moved to follow as well, but Jones stopped him with a raised arm. Andrew looked up to the man, confused.

"Do a background check on her and this vessel." Jones ordered him. "I want to know everything about her before we proceed any further on this." Jones then used his anti-grav clip to scale back down the side of the rocket.

"So do I..." Andrew commented after the captain was out of earshot before using his own to follow him.