Take off

The crew was gathered at the bridge of the Flying Saucer. The pilot and co-pilot seats sat in front of the windshield made of hyper-glass, revealing the exit port leading to the star-filled infinity of space. The hologram console was located in the middle of the room. On the left side of the ship was a ladder leading to the upper level of the ship, weapons and defense systems. To the right, a ladder going down to the living quarters and engineering. At the back of the room, was the door to the cafeteria. The four members of the crew were gathered around the circular holographic console on the ground.

Turgen entered some commands on his wrist console, bringing up a map of the star charts of the entire galaxy.

"All right... take it away, Trace..." he said, noticing her going up and down, almost jumping in excitement.

"Yes!" Said the young mechanic with a fist pump.

She took out a small handheld command console from the front pocket of her overalls and started tapping away. A section of the galaxy was highlighted and the image zoomed in seamlessly.

"This is the Thelvar system" she continued. "Porlasks are a mammalian species known to inhabit the frozen planet of Thorboria."

The image on the map zoomed in once more, showing a hologram of the planet. Trace then carried on:

"Temperatures are at a constant minus fifty degrees Celsius, with possibilities of going to two hundred under zero on a stormy night."

The little engineer then pressed another command on her console, bringing up the target of the day: the Porlask.

Instantly as the image showed itself, Mirto couldn't help but whistle in awe. The hologram showed a quadruped predator, made evident by the two sharp fangs descending way longer than all others coming out of its maw. It resembled a tiger at a quick glance. Its fur was made up of a dense long coat, probably well layered to survive the freezing environment and colored white as snow, making it probably hard to spot from a distance with all the snow.

"The Porlask is definitely one of the top predators of Thorbora" started explaining Trace. "They stand about four feet tall and at least six feet long. Their peripheral vision is unmatched, sporting one pair of eyes on each side of its head and another frontal pair, giving them a one hundred and eighty degrees field of vision. They also have two tentacles growing out of their back. If they catch you with those, they will hold you down and instantly go for your neck with their jaw. The tips can also bring out claws out of them, they are able to use them like a slicing whip or spearing you right through."

"Getting one of them down will be all about taking out the tentacles first, taking away its range" deducted Mirto as he walked around the hologram of the alien creature, analyzing it as Trace explained. "Going at it from the back will definitely be the surest way of taking it out, meaning someone will need to take the attention off the attacker and be the bait."

"The offense needs to be able to jump a good distance to land on its back. Taking these moving tentacles out with a ranged weapon would require gold like aim and one missed shot could be enough to destroy any chance at an opening" pointed out Turgen. "Best bet is a heated blade and slicing through 'em quickly..."

The oldest member of the crew tapped his cybernetic legs proudly.

"I'll get on that damn freak tiger no problem with these" he reassured.

"What about me? What can I do?" Asked B3N, looking forward to stepping outside the ship.

Turgen didn't like letting his droid outside the Flying Saucer at the hole. Angry outlaws had a way of getting pretty brutal with robots when they got heated up and Ben was definitely a great asset concerning navigation and course plotting. Being mostly custom made, Trace had made sure he was loaded with lots of information from the Federation's databases she hacked. The droid was a walking library and had the speed of a super computer. Unfortunately, the temperatures would be impossible for a droid...

"It's a no go, Ben... I'm sorry bud, but those conditions are gonna freeze your joints and turn you into a statue, we'll need you with the ship on this one..." the chef replied, sadly.

A sad face came on B3N's head screen.

"F.U.C.K..." He cried in his electronic voice.

"One good thing to note, Porlasks are known for being solitary beasts" continued Trace, taking back control of the briefing. "They are also highly territorial predators and since the Federation has its eye on Thorboria for its richness in crystal caves, they probably won't mind that we take out one of them."

"I don't necessarily like helping the Feds, but a job is a job!" Exclaimed Mirto, excited at the challenge the target presented.

"Yeah, they'll be happy being able to open another one of their settlements to exploit this world... But at least we won't have to watch our backs the whole time" confirmed Turgen. "What's the preferred habitat, Trace?"

"Caves are definitely where they nest, but being predators, we are just as likely to run into one on the open field."

"All right, we'll need to scan the surface, find an area with a good amount of caves in the vicinity and just go one by one, hopefully running into a target sooner rather than later" said the chef.

A red light started flashing on the hologram console.

"Incoming call" explained B3N. "Its Breneck..." Did he say as a Devil's head appeared on his facial display.

"Put him through..." odered Turgen.

A large holographic head appeared in the middle of the room. Breneck was the leader of the Darvoshnian Cartel and the man in charge of the Hole. His hair was a short red mowhawk, with a beard of the same color decorating his strong chin. He had a bar code burned under his eye, apparently given to him by the Federation when he was once captured. Unfortunately for them, Breneck was a powerful man with many allies loyal to him. The raid to break him out was easily considered one of the hardest blows the Feds had ever suffered.

"Taking off soon, I presume?" Asked the floating head of the outlaw leader.

"Yup, going to the Thelvar system" confirmed Turgen, standing tall and straight before the Cartel king.

"I heard Hemtosh was the client..." Said Breneck in his heavy menacing voice.

"Yeah, daughter's wedding" the chef answered.

"Let me know when you're on route to the event, I've got a message for the rich bastard..."

"Sure thing, Bren..."

Brenneck had a slight smile and suddenly disappeared from the holo-console. Turgen instantly turned around and started walking towards his pilot seat.

"Trace, get the engine running. Ben, plot course for the system. Mirto, go do the dishes" he ordered without breaking pace.

The chef sat himself at his piloting console, while everyone else went to their respective positions. In front of him was a throttle, managing the speed of the ship and a joystick for direction. Four triggers were on each of the controls, powering the eight directional propulsors to send the ship on a different path with a strong burst of power. A foot pedal for a quick thrusters shutdown, putting on the breaks, with a special function were double tapping it would activate the small frontal thrust system for backward maneuvers. There were other various commands on a console to the side, providing further piloting options. The custom work of Trace was all over this, no one could pilot the Flying Saucer like Turgen.

B3N was typing away at his console, calculating a safe and fast route to the target system. Sub-light speed travel was no joke. One wrong digit entered and they could find themselves flying through a sun. Some humans could do it, but most pilots had droids achieve these sorts of mathematical feats.

"In position!" Confirmed Trace's voice, coming from the vessel's intercom.

"Hit it" ordered the crew captain.

All the lights in the ship started lighting up. The zoom of the engine started humming through the entire hull, slowly building up energy. A slight pull towards the floor could be felt, meaning the gravity field was operational. The system kept everything stable inside the Saucer no matter how turbulent things got outside. There was nothing worse than being thrown around during a space fight, making this Trace patented upgrade another unique feature of the craft. The compact and simple design of the ship also made it so such a system wasn't too costly on energy reserves.

Turgen gently pressed the four lower triggers of his controls, powering all the bottom directional propulsors enough to slightly lift the ship from the landing pad.

"Ben, confirm sortie with the control tower"

B3N turned to face his master, a thumbs up blinking on his face screen to confirm the approved leave of the station. Without hesitation, Turgen pushed the throttle to full power and let go of the triggers.

The Flying Saucer zoomed through the exit port in mere seconds. In a Federal station, such maneuvers would land you a quick fine to the ship's ID as it went through the phase shield. Obviously, speed limits weren't a thing around the Hole... In only thirty seconds, the vessel had made enough distance between itself and the Asteroid station for a safe sub-light jump.

The navigation droid pressed away at his console, setting the complete calculated route to the Thelvar system. The stars around them appearing as dots began elongating themselves, soon filling the cockpit's window with almost complete light. It was as if they were suddenly inside a tunnel of light, meaning they had successfully achieved full speed.

Another adventure had just begun...