Voidhop - Chapter 3 - Boarding crew (Patreon)

“Get that idiot look off your face.”

Branx merely continued to tap away at the terminal, ignoring Shirel. His smile unrepentantly large.

On the terminal, a small feed of what the sensors had picked up was projected. On it, he saw rivers of credits falling from the heavens. With the sleek lines, he saw himself riding space yachts with some of the finest alcohol in hand, Trix in the other. He didn’t hear the successful reconfirmation beeps so much as he did the cash out whir that came when you gambled big and got a payout on big spinners. Bells went off and Branx couldn’t stop himself from grinning even if he wanted to.

And he really didn’t want to. Shirel’s pinched expression was really just the icing spice sprinkled into his cigar.

“Don’t light up that stick in here! The support systems won’t handle it Branx!” snarled Shirel.

Branx considered that before looking to the rest of the crew around the projection. They’d hate smelling his ‘celebratory smoke’... but the look on Shirel’s face… He almost considered it worth it. He felt a little let down as he decided to not light up the first smoke in nearly a month. He instead contented himself with a pat of his datapad where he had Shirel’s gobsmacked look.

Branx continued to grin at the ship. It looked glorious. It looked like a battleship that would have flown through firestorms of enemy armada. It had a noble air— “Does anyone else think it looks like a bug?”

Branx spluttered at that. “What!? No!” He paused to squint at it. “It looks more like one of those… sea creatures.”

“Dolphins?” said one person.

“Nah Dolphins are built like all smooth and shit. Ain’t there an aquatic species like them floating around the verse? Porpoisimian?” said another.

Branx rubbed his chin. He thought the ship was a bit dated but it had style. It had a thick bulbous head that tapered back with each segment of the ship curving downwards from the top. It stopped before becoming too thin at the back and the flat sections cutting underneath the armoured top showed that there was likely a lot of room for storage and other structures. Interestingly each section had at least four our five appendages on each side. “Those thrusters?”

“Yeah looks like it. This would have had some serious maneuvering capabilities. Likely outdated now.”  Branx met that comment with a snort. The visor-wearing shipman, a hairy looking Gozila,  raised both eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Sometimes old tech’s just better. More reliable. The trash some of the corporations are coming up with these days just doesn’t have the tenacity old stuff does. Not to mention they only do micro upgrades these days. Plus, while I might not have gone to any good academy—”

“Let alone pass.”

Branx ignored Shirel and instead bulled ahead, “— but I know that the Dawn war was some of the galaxy’s best. Best weapons, best drive systems, and the best ships by far. They made things last! Years! Decades!” He gestured grandly at the projection, “Centuries damn it!”

He smacked his hand into his palm, letting the meaty thwack draw the attention of the crew. “This is our big score! An entire ship! Now! I’ll be leading the boarding crew, and I need at least four others to come with. Adjutant Shirel? Who is our boarding party?”

Shirel pursed her lips and squinted at the crew. Some faces that apparently had been eavesdropping looked up. Shirel pointed out five beings before indicating her ‘head lackey’.

“Good, alright folk! We’re going to come in and do a sweep. Bring us close so we can attach cables then we tow it into space where we don’t have to worry about any little planet atmosphere or creatures.”  Branx ignored the mutterings of ‘Charox eight’ from two of the older crew members. Instead, he gestured to the other members of the boarding team to join him in prepping for the void hop.

As he swaggered his way down to the loading bay he passed one of the long corridors that was a mess of non-vital systems which had been converted to sleeping areas. Within, he found the Rookie firing away at a target. Branx paused and whistled aloud, impressed wat what he was seeing. “Nice one Rookie!”

Branx’s shout caused the young human to flub the next shot before he misfired again as he tried to get the safety on. Branx snorted. “Learn where that is Rookie. You were impressive before that.” He glanced down at the burnt-out profile of a Space Ranger that all of the crew used for target practise.

The kid brushed his hair back from his eyes. “C-captain! Sir! I’ve been practising!”

Branx nodded. “So I can see.” He rubbed his chin and considered the kid. “How about a change of pace? Wanna come on an adventure with me and some others? We’re gonna check out the prize we just found. You can join the boarding crew.”

“Really?!” the young man gaped and Branx winked.

“Yeah, come on! Life’s for living let’s let you experience it eh?” he waved a hand, and the kid practically fell over himself to join Branx in his walk down to the loading bay.

He led them into the loading bay as the ship shuddered around them. He ignored that though as he unlocked the space PPE, handed the kid one of the adjustable cuffs. Shirel joined them with the rest of the boarding crew. She gave the Rookie an unimpressed look but merely huffed when Branx smiled at her and indicated he’d invited the Rookie.

A clang rang out through the ship as one of the cuffs slipped through nervous hands. Shirel leaned over and cuffed the Rookie. “Those aren’t cheap! Don’t screw around!” The human’s already bright colouration turned brighter.

“Maam!”

Branx rolled his eyes and handed out the half-helmets, making sure ‘pinkie’ had a hold of his this time. “Relax kid. I’d otherwise think you’d never space-walked before.” He considered that before eyeing the Rookie. “You have Space walked before right?”

“Eh?! Oh! No! I mean yes! I have! I’m just nervous I guess.”

Branx huffed at that before shooting Shirel a look. She rolled her eyes at him, adjusting her cuffs more securely on her tentacles. She then had to adjust a few of the boarding crews cuffs herself. Branx stared before flicking his eyes to the Rookie who had actually gotten it on right.

Shirel waved a tentacle in Branx’s face. “Don’t mind how green some of them are. They’ll follow orders.”

Branx turned away from that, activating his half-helm to make sure it worked before they did their spacewalk.

“Damn shame our ship doesn’t have a docking port,” Shirel prodded.

Branx ignored her but Rookie spoke up. “Eh?! Why not? I thought all spaceships had to have one of those? In case of emergencies or being boarded by the Rangers?”

As one, Branx, everyone else in the room bar the Rookie made noises of disgust.

One of the crew shook their head. “Idiots a fan boy.” Others nodded with more grumbles breaking out. “Must be green.” “Doesn’t know how the void works.” “Stole the sky then they tried to steal the void!”

Shirel ignored them and gestured a limb at Branx. “Well we had one until it got damaged on a job. Which we still need to pay to fix!” Branx this time ignored the way she’d implied ‘we’ to mean ‘you. Instead, he turned and glowered at her.

“We needed to make a tighter turn through the asteroid field. No one died, and we got the payout for that mission.”

“Which didn’t get us enough credits!”

“You gotta be successful to earn more jobs Shirel. You used to know this. You ain’t gonna get anywhere without some risks.” He glanced through the small gluxplate leading out into space. “Not in the void.” Shirel didn’t reply to that as a rumbling began before the ship rocked.

“Captain! We’ve got our clamps set on the ship! We’ll tow her out of the planet, better hope the ship can handle it though!”

“Send any spare hands we have down to Engineering to work with the team there… But only the ones that can lift a wrench at least!” he said after remembering how thin some of the bridge crews arms were.

“Roger captain, we’ll begin rising now, should be outside atmo in two minutes…” A shudder went through the ship. “...threeish minutes make that.”

Branx shut his eyes. “If this ship is in good enough condition, I’m calling dibs on changing over and being captain for the first few missions!” he said cheerfully. He ignored the way the ship shuddered around them as it strained to lift up. But then again the only reason he was saying it was because of how the ship was struggling.

“Yeah, no. you can’t call ‘dibs’ on a ship like that.”

“Can and did.”

“Our contract—”

“Doesn’t have a section regarding the finding of another ship. Void, Dawn ships are tough old broads. She’ll probably still be flight-capable.” Branx tilted his head. He’d initially said it as a joke but the more he thought about it, the more attractive an idea it seemed.

“We’ll sell it, Branx and lower our debt.”

“Hnnn, keep playing the corporate game you mean.” He glanced about at the boarding crew. This wasn’t the time and place to have this discussion. “Hmmm, let’s talk about it more later alright?” he turned back to the Glux to watch as they slowly drifted upwards, rumbling all the way.

“... Sure, later,” Shirel muttered.

Branx continued to look forward. He kind of hoped the ship in front of him had a few gluxplate sections. It let him dream by being able to see the galaxy move as you accelerated through it.  It spoke to Branx, making him want to try his hand at poetry. Right now though, the window reflected the look Shirel was giving the Bosun as they ran light touches over their blasters. Branx didn’t bother touching his. He knew where they were. He knew how to use them.

He just really hoped he was wrong about having to shoot someone today. A signal pinged from the bridge, showing that they were now out of the atmosphere of the planet. “Alright crew! Let’s go earn our pay!” a punch of the button led to the first of the airlock doors hissing open. Branx led the way to the second door, pausing when a scrambling commotion made him look back.

“Hey! Only four to the initial chamber! Shirel! You lead the second group!”

Shirel shot him a look at that but nodded after a second; hitting the button to close the door and allow Branx to tap his mask. Green took over his vision before evening out as the mask’s visor and encap systems kicked in. Branx paused before opening the door to cast a final gaze over the group he was with.

He winced as he realised the rookie was wearing his mask upside down. “The Encap system won’t kick in if it doesn’t have solid suction to your face rookie.”

The weedy looking man tilted his head. “Encap?”

“Encapsulation system. The shield that stops you from losing your guts through your mouth cause of space being, you know, empty?” another of the boarding crew growled.

The rookie adjusted his mask, sneaking looks at how Branx and the others had done it. Then he tapped it on resulting in a shimmer to appear over his body and for the visor to cover his eyes. “Oh, shiny,” he said.

Branx shook his head and punched the button to let them out. “Commencing voidhop, got any more readings on our prize?”

“...No Captain. I expect the hull is plated against it. I also think comms won’t be too accurate once you get in unless we have a relay set up?”

“Hmmm, well you know how it is. I wish we had that, but no chance of that on our budget,” Branx replied before eying off his prize. For just a moment the system’s sun bounced off it, making its bronze plating shine golden. Branx felt his lips tug upwards.

Some days, it was great to be a spaceship captain.

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A.N. Unedited as this is just one of my little projects. OC stuff that I have had time to play around with. Last few days have been rough with getting time to write as I had family around.  

Slowly losing out on my buffer of 30 chapters due to various reasons but still got lots for Hard Enough with it continuing on as planned this week.

I'm not super confident about Red Riot. ( I wrote this on Tuesday AEST and posted for Sunday while swinging for a chapter of Red riot. I want to prove myself wrong.) I do have it planned out. I just need the time that is in such short supply. That's what makes these smaller chapter stories so prevalent on RR and such. Much more manageable. 

Hope people enjoy this chapter of Branx's story continuing.