Ch 1

I woke to a sudden jolt of the ship.

Groggy but awake, I asked Maggie, "What just happened."

"The ionic propulsion system simply had to reboot after an efficiency update," the AI responded. "If you are so worried, maybe you should try to stay awake."

"You know me Mags. Sleep is for the weak."

"If I could laugh, I would sarcastically laugh. Please get some rest, Captain. I will wake you if need be. I will continue to navigate our course to the Jexian System."

"Ah, Mags. You always know how to take care of me," I responded with a sigh.

"I would hope I know how, considering I'm stuck with you."

I both loved and hated that AI Units were programed with personality.

I began to doze off again to the soothing hum of the control console.

Because what I dreamed about was a bit personal, I'll just fill this gap of my Adventure Log with some much needed information. My name is Wes Jackson and I am the Captain of the beautiful Red Ray. She's a fine little ship, but a bit old. She gets the job done, though. I'm an intergalactic bounty hunter. I tend to work alone.

To be honest, at this point in my adventures the most interaction I had was with my Ship's AI Maggie. She was a good companion and all, but I was on the hunt for a few crew members. Three to be exact. That's why I was headed to the Jexian System, a collection of small planets haven to small time bounty hunters.

I wasn't a big time hunter myself, having only started the occupation a couple months prior to this, but I had enough experience where I felt I needed to help others hunt and get some help myself.

After my lewd dream, I woke up to Maggie's soothing voice.

"Captian? Captain? Wake up. We are approaching Jexian One," the AI whispered.

"Alright. Give me a minute and then switch over to manual control," I yawned.

I opened my eyes to a small turquoise planet. Jexian One. The planet was mostly water, but there were small clusters of islands here and there. The capitol, Sea City, was the large gray mass that stuck out like a sore thumb. It was an artificial floating island that housed most of the planet's population.

I felt pretty awake, so I placed my hands on the throttles.

"Switching to manual, Captain," Maggie stated.

"Taking control," I responded.

As the planet became larger and larger, I began to pull the ship ever so slowly into a good angle of descent.

"Prepare to activate the heat shields and radiators, Mags."

"Already on it, Captain."

As the ship reached 60 thousand meters from the surface, I cut ion propulsion to 25%. Even on small ships, thrusters are much too powerful when used in an atmosphere, especially one as thick as the planets in the Jexian system.

"Activate heat shields and radiators."

"Activated."

I felt the ship convert to its heat shield mode, covering most of the bridge window with a clunky metal cowl. The cowl began to glow a faint red as we began to rocket through the atmosphere. The ship began to rumble and rattle as we dropped into the thicker stuff. Then, the Red Ray began to slow down and the red glow faded away. We had successfully entered the atmosphere.

"Easy peasy," I sighed.

"Don't act like such a tough guy," Maggie taunted. "We both know you hate reentry."

"Deactivate heat shield and radiators," I chuckled.

"On it."

After the ship converted, I saw a beautiful turquoise ocean through the window. Ahead, I could see the outline of Sea City. I slowly began cutting thruster power more and more as the ship slowly glided closer to the ocean. My favorite thing about the Red Ray was her design. She was modeled after a Manta Ray, so she was not only a space vehicle, but a boat and submarine as well.

The ship was feet about the surface of the water, so I braced for splashdown. As her belly split the waves, the Red Ray slowed down drastically to a well-paced glide across the ocean surface.

"Splashdown successful," Maggie reported. "We are approximately 10 miles from the coast of Sea City. I calculate our time of arrival to be about 15 minutes from now."

"Alright. It's smooth sailing until then," I responded. "Mags, take control. Just get us to the Western Harbor."

"Aye aye, Captain."

I let go of the controls and Maggie kept us on course. I decided I should gather my stuff and, more importantly, my Credits. I would probably need a decent chunk of change to hire three crew members. I unharnessed myself from the captain's chair and stood up. Slightly dizzy, I stretched for a moment before making my way to my quarters behind the bridge.

In my room, I grabbed my holster, gun, duster, and Credits. I buckled my holster belt around my hips and spun my fully charged .44 R-Tech Magnum in my hand, placing it into the holster like an old cowboy. Railgun Technologies, or R-Tech for short, was the galaxy's leading hand-held space weaponry producer. By compacting the technology used in railguns, their weapons were able to run off of electricity, and be used in the vacuum of space. I also made sure I had extra .44 Rail Rounds in the clips on my holster belt. I put on the long, brown overcoat, covering my weapon, and shoved my credits into the duster's inside breast pocket.

I made my way back out to the bridge. Through the window, I could see that we were closing in on the harbor.

"Mags, can you take us in?"

"No problem, Captain."

As we pulled into the large harbor, I saw hundreds of other bounty hunters. Most were clearly beginners, as they had freighters and passenger ships they were slowly converting to combat ready craft.

The Ray turned a few heads, despite her worn down exterior. She may have been worn and scratched here and there, but she was sleek, bright red, and incredibly unique. From what I understand, there was a very limited number of Rays produced. I was just lucky enough to find mine at the old scrap yard I worked at. I was able to patch her up and get her back into fighting shape.

Mags finally found a spot to dock. She pulled us in and shut down the ship, anchoring to the magnetic docking port on the walkway. Maggie, of course, remained on and would go about a few tasks. Inventory, software updates, security, etc.

I made my way to the starboard entrance of the Ray and hand scanned my way through the airlock doors. As the outer door opened, I was hit with a refreshing ocean breeze. I could taste the salt in the air. I closed the ship up behind me and headed for the primary place to hire bounty hunters; the bars.