Chapter 32 Entering The Criminal Underworld

Erich stepped foot into the bar and quickly found himself practically all alone. There were only two men other than himself inside the run down establishment. One was the bartender, and the other was a sinister-looking man, who was quite burly and riddled in what were clearly battle scars. After sitting down at the table, the burly man took a quick glance at Erich before posing a simple question to him.

"Are you the new guy? The one that Anna recommended?"

Erich silently nodded his head in affirmation of the man's question, to which the burly man then raised two fingers, thus ordering two shots of whiskey for himself and his new partner before introducing himself.

"The name is Drake. I heard from the girl that you are quite the experienced pilot. Is that true?"

Erich once more silently nodded his head, confirming that he was indeed an experienced pilot. Shortly there after the bartender handed them their drinks, to which Erich and Drake took their shots in an act of solidarity.

Afterwards, the bartender pressed a button beneath the counter which locked the doors and windows of the bar, while also changing the sign outside from open to closed. Once this was finished, Drake began to speak of the job while the bartender fetched them a few more drinks.

"Alright, here are the details of the job. There is a facility on an abandoned moon, just outside the Empire's borders. It sits between the Empire and the Oni's borders. This facility well, you could say that it produces a... certain product. Don't ask me what it is. You don't need to know that information. Just know that it is in high demand, and will sell for a premium within the Empire's borders.

Your job is to get us to the site, and to get us out of there, alive and with the cargo intact. You do that, and you will get an even share of the profits. You ever fly a heavy freighter before?"

Though Erich had not actually flown a freighter before, he was experienced enough with much faster craft, so much so that he was confident he could fulfill the task at hand, and thus he nodded his head in silence once more. Which put a smile on Drake's face who took another shot, and after wiping his mouth of the alcoholic beverage, he clapped Erich on the back.

"Alright, from here on out, I'm going to refer to you as Apex. I don't need to know your real name, just like you don't need to know mine. Do the job, and get paid, that's all there is to it. Just one last thing. We are expecting fierce competition, so I hope you know how to dogfight."

Erich took another shot and nodded his head once more, which put an even wider smile on Drake's face. Afterwards, the two men stood up, where Drake exited the facility with Erich in tow. The dynamic duo then took a train to the starport, where they regrouped with the rest of the crew.

If there was such a thing as overtly being a criminal, then these men met the standard. Much to Erich's surprise, many of these men were mutants like himself, thus they did not bat an eye at his unique appearance, and instead welcomed him into their band of misfits.

Erich took one look at the freighter, and could tell he would be able to fly it quite easily. It was not a giant spaceship by any means, at least not as large as many of the other heavy freighters he had seen. But it did have a long neck, with multiple compartments to store cargo or, in this case, contraband.

After entering the pilot seat and powering on the vehicle, Erich was able to effectively pilot the ship out of the star port and into orbit, where he activated the quantum drives before heading towards the coordinates that Drake had given him.

The journey to the destination took quite some time, it was not a mere day's worth of work like Anna had claimed, in fact, just to reach the edge of the Empire's borders it had taken them several stops for refueling, along with nearly two weeks of travel.

During this time, Erich got to know only the briefest information about the crew, such as the pseudonyms they went by. Most of the time was spent playing cards in the mess hall of the ship. It was only after two weeks had passed that the ship came out of quantum and, in doing so, revealed a large blue gas giant, and a small moon just beside it.

It was exactly as Drake had claimed. However, the sensors clearly indicated they were not alone, and thus Erich sent a command to the rest of the crew to prepare for combat.

"Heads up, we are not alone out here. I'd recommend getting into the turrets, because we are about to make contact with some hostiles!"

The crew quickly got themselves in order, as they entered the multiple turrets on board the ship, while preparing for combat. Erich boldly drove the ship towards the other vessels, where he immediately locked onto the smallest of the three ships, which appeared to be a light freighter.

Without even bothering to say hello, he began to open fire as he darted around the three ships with some difficulty. After all, this was not a light fighter, nor was it an interceptor, or even a bomber. This was a freighter, and it moved just like one would expect it to.

Still, Erich managed to maintain a sight picture on the hostile vessels, and when combined with the multiple turrets on board the ship, he was able to lay down some serious firepower, even if the hostiles were more maneuverable than he was.

After firing his weapons for nearly a minute, the light freighter, which Erich had targeted, ignited, expelling its cargo into space. As for Erich, he quickly transitioned his targeting array to a second target, which was a larger ship. Knowing that he would not be able to take it out as easily with just the laser repeaters, he switched to missiles, where he quickly fired three of them off in succession.

Due to the nature of his current actions, Erich was naturally aware that now was not the best time to reveal his special abilities, some of which were exceptionally rare, and thus, he did not use his cyberkinesis to bypass the enemy's countermeasures. Instead, he switched back to his laser repeaters and continued to fire at the enemy to the best of his abilities.

His shields had taken some damage, but it was nothing he couldn't handle, and thus, after another brief dogfight, the second hostile ship exploded. With only one ship remaining, Erich had just managed to shift his sights onto it, before the cowards jumped into space, leaving behind their fallen comrades and their expelled cargo. Much to his surprise, Drake shouted over the comms in a voice that was filled with excitement.

"God damn Apex, that was some mighty fine flying! Hold us here, and we will use the tractor beams to collect the enemy's cargo."

Erich did as commanded and waited for his crew to stack the containers of contraband neatly on top of one another within one of the many cargo bays that existed on this heavy freighter. After they had finished, they shut the doors, allowing Erich to continue down to the planet, where more enemies undoubtedly lied in wait for them.

After touching down on the surface of the moon, Drake entered the cockpit, where he gave Erich a fair warning regarding what was about to go down.

"Alright, keep the engines running, and wait until I give you the signal to take off. Trust me, this is just the beginning. But you don't need to worry about us. We are skilled enough to take care of these fucking dregs..."

With this said, Drake and his crew departed from the freighter and headed towards the facility with their weapons in hand. Though Erich heard an exchange of gunshots, it was not long before Drake and his comrades came back to the freighter, where they carried several containers worth of contraband with their personal tractor beams.

Erich waited patiently for some time as the crew filled up the entire ship with the contraband. It was only after there was no space left to carry the contraband that Drake came into the cockpit and gave some more advice to Erich.

"Alright, you're going to take us to this space station in Imperial Space, where we will sell our haul. I'm sure I don't need to inform you of this, but stay clear of the authorities. If we get caught with what we are carrying, it is a life sentence in a penal battalion for all of us! You understand?"

Erich silently nodded his head and began to take off after charting the new coordinates into the freighter's nav computer. His heart was beating more so than he had ever experienced. Even after over five thousand hours of active combat, Erich did not ever feel as anxious as he did now.

The journey back to their destination was perhaps the longest, and most dreadful thing Erich had ever experienced but, thanks to his knowledge of Imperial patrol routes, as well as the fact that most of the Empire's forces were currently engaged in the war abroad, Erich managed to make his way to the space station in question, where the freighter gently landed upon the platform.

After which, the crew began to unload the cargo, where they then sold it to a criminal syndicate, who would distribute the illicit substance across the Empire. Once they had successfully earned their pay, the crew met in the mess hall of the ship, where Drake distributed the profits. Erich's eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets when he saw the number of credits transferred to his account.

Five million credits! He had more than enough to afford the starship he wanted. Hell, he could easily spend the remaining cash on some proper gear for himself, and upgrades to his ship. Just when he was about to ask how much the crew had made in total, Drake smiled as he grabbed hold of Erich's shoulder before explaining just what they had sacrificed for him to get such a massive payday.

"There is a bit of a bonus thrown in for you Apex, We had some time to talk while we were in the facility, and we had to admit, if it was any other pilot we could have hired, our gooses would have been cooked the moment we came across such a large number of hostiles.

Not only that, but even I have no idea how you managed to so expertly avoid the authorities. The entire journey back, even when we were refueling, there was not a single Imperial warship anywhere near us. Thus, after a unanimous decision, we decided to sacrifice a bit of our pay to give you a bonus for your hard work. You more than earned it! I don't know who you are, but you are more than welcome to come back and pilot for us whenever we get our next job.

Enjoy your fortune, Apex, because it sure disappears quickly. From here we go our separate ways. After a job like this, we are going to attract some unnecessary attention, and it would be best if we made ourselves scarce for a little. You can take a shuttle from the station back to Quadi, where I am sure our mutual friend is waiting for you. See you around the stars, kid!"

After saying this, the crew did exactly as Drake had said, and split up. Soon enough Erich was back in the industrial world of Quadi where he met up with the sales representative Anna Paulsen, who had an exciting smile on her pretty face as she welcomed Erich back to the store which she worked in.

"You're back! I suppose this means the job went well? So tell me, are you still interested in the Hydra Privateer?"

Erich smiled as he nodded his head and in doing so accepted the offer that Anna had previously given him.

"Good! I will get the transaction ready for you in just a moment."

After saying this, Anna leaned in close and whispered something to Erich, yet again.

"Oh, and by the way, now that you are a part of our world, Hydra has a special offer for you. For only an additional five hundred thousand credits, they will give you lifetime insurance. For whatever reason, if you manage to misplace your ship, or it becomes damaged beyond repair, they will give you a new one, no questions asked, and free of charge! Sounds great, doesn't it?"

It was only now, after hearing this exclusive offer, that Erich realized the arms corporation known as Hydra Interplanetary, which specialized in starships, and other vehicles for the civilian market, was actually heavily entrenched in the criminal underworld. Even then, he would not dare report such a thing to authorities, or else he would have to explain how he found out about this information. Thus, Erich smiled and nodded his head before accepting Anna's generous offer.

"Sounds good to me!"

With this said, Anna began to file the necessary paperwork. However, much to Erich's surprise, the information that would be sent to the department of transportation was under a pseudonym with other false information. Before he could question Anna if she had made a mistake, the attractive woman made a slight wink to him, silently conveying that this was Hydra's way of looking out for their exclusive clientele.

Erich graciously accepted this offer, and was informed by Anna where he could get the proper identification documents attached to the name and address,which he immediately did after acquiring his ship. Thus, after a brief and dangerous mission, Erich had not only gotten his hands on his own personal starship, but had also gotten his first contacts into the criminal underworld, which he could use when he was not deployed to engage in any number of lucrative, but illegal, activities.