Elite Dangerous: Gemini
Prologue
July 17th, 3301 A.D
Morgor System
The sound of raw, rocky Painite clunking into the cargo scoop reverberated in the ship's bridge, though it could just barely be called that with a single seat, missing panels and exposed wires everywhere. Still, to Leon, it was home. Long gone were the days of standing on the bridge of a Federal Corvette, receiving orders to board enemy ships or hop in an F63 Condor and give the mothership some breathing room.
Now he was like any other regular pilot out in the black, with a regular ship and an immense amount of freedom. He smiled to himself as he pulled his Diamondback Explorer out of the asteroid field, having taken a fair amount of Painite from his very own secret mining spot. His Cargo Bay at maximum capacity meant he'd be earning a hefty amount this time around.
Nobody else had seemed to know about this spot of his. Granted, it was nearly 200,000ls away from the main star, so that helped quite a bit. Not many people were willing to travel that far in-system, especially when it was an Anarchy, low-security system, where anyone could attack anyone else and not face any consequences other than immediate reprisal.
"Scan Detected" The ship's onboard computer said.
Leon's eyes widened as he looked around for the ship that was scanning him, chastising himself at not paying close enough attention. Then, he saw the ship and realized why he didn't see it before.
It was a blacked-out Vulture which had just appeared on his sensors. Vultures highly specialized ships meant for one thing only: Combat. They were incredibly agile which meant that they could easily out-maneuver most other ships and lay into them with their two large hardpoints. It was a serious threat to almost any ship.
'Give me all of your cargo if you want to live' Read a text-only message coming from the Vulture. Leon grit his teeth, knowing that he was in for trouble even if he handed over the Painite. The Vulture was named Hydra, which meant it was just one ship from a fairly large pirating group known by the same name. If he fought back, it wouldn't be long until they placed a black-market bounty on his head. If he handed it over, there was 50/50 chance they'd try to capture his ship to sell it off and enslave him. However, Leon was never able to adapt to that part of the Pilot lifestyle. He spent half of his career fighting pirates and the like, so to bow to them was out of the question.
'You have 15 seconds to comply' Came a second message, following by a warning from the ship's computer that the Vulture had deployed its hardpoints. Further investigation on the left holo-screen told him that they were two gimballed cannons. Leon smirked, realizing he had a way out.
"Ground crew dispatched. Welcome back, Commander."
Leon sighed. The fight with the Vulture was easy enough thanks to his two Chaff utility mounts, but that meant it was only a matter of time before they found him, and next time they would be shooting first and demanding cargo later.
Leon disembarked his Diamondback Explorer to oversee the ground crew when he noticed a group of them staring at a docked Anaconda on the pad adjacent to him, talking to themselves. As he approached, he heard what had them so riled up.
"An Imperial Princess, on this station?! Why?"
"She's in an Anaconda too, not one of those Clippers or Cutters. The men she had guarding her didn't seem like any Imperial Knights I've ever seen, either. More like Mercenaries or something."
"Look, there she is!" One of them said, pointing.
Leon looked to where they were pointing and saw a young girl with crimson hair dressed in red and white. By the looks of her she wasn't any older than 15, but in the Empire age meant little to people in power. Surrounding her were grizzled older men, each one with various weapons in their hands. To the eyes of an outsider, this meant the Princess had hired these men to escort her to avoid drawing the attention half a fleet worth of Imperial Warships would. However, to Leon it seemed like something different.
"I'll take 'Mercenaries or something' for 500, Alex." Leon mumbled to himself. Still, there wasn't anything he could do, and it wasn't really his business anyways. Especially with Fool's Gold, his ship, low on ammo and outfitted for mining.
Leon went about instructing the ground crew and returned to his ship to go over his profits.
He felt bad for turning his back on such a situation, but there wasn't much he could do even if he wanted to help. All the chaff in the galaxy wouldn't be enough for a prolonged battle with an Anaconda. His ship was faster and more nimble, but the amount of firepower an Anaconda brought to the table meant even the slightest error would doom them both. He could possibly take the girl and run, but that would just put him on yet another black-market bounty board, this time with a much higher price.
Imperial royalty were extremely valuable as hostages. The Empire would always pay up, even if the royalty in question was disgraced. They wanted to keep their bloodlines pure, after all. Very few times would a captured noble not be offered up as some kind of leverage, and even fewer would the Empire fail in seeing their royalty returned to them.
Though the Empire would likely be willing to reward him if he managed to bring her home, he knew the likelihood of her being returned was fairly high anyways. She'd just have to endure it for a while longer.
The sound of the cargo scoop opening woke Leon up. Jumping out of his bed and grabbing his side-arm, he began clearing his ship. 'If Hydra's best idea is to board my ship while on a station, maybe I overestimated them.' He thought, making his way to the cargo bay. Leon thought it was strange that the ships onboard computer hadn't alerted him, but put that aside for the time being.
Leon opened the door to the cargo bay ready to fire and went in only to find that a box of MREs had been broken into and several were littered on the floor, some partially opened and consumed. He followed the trail to a utility closet door.
"Alright, I know you're in there. Open the door slowly or I'll undock, leave the station, and vent this entire cargobay." He said, threatening with the cold, unforgiving vacuum of space. He heard a small gasp before a response.
"I- I'll open the door. Please don't shoot." A small, fragile-sounding voice said. True to their word, the door unlocked from the inside and opened slowly, revealing a small figure covered in a tattered, brown cloak that seemed to be put together from a burlap sack. They were clutching the remains of an MRE tightly, as if he would snatch it away from them. He couldn't see their face since it was obscured by the makeshift hood.
Leon sighed and lowered his weapon. "Alright, let's start with some easy questions. Who are you and why are you on my ship?"
"I'm just a stowaway, sir. I was hoping to get off this station in your cargo bay."
"You picked a bad ship, then. I depressurize the cargo bay when I'm out in the black to save power. On top of that, I'm pretty sure I pissed off a local Pirate outfit, so it's not exactly going to be safe flying for me. Why do you want to leave the station so badly?"
It took the cloaked figure a moment to answer. "I'm homeless here. Nobody will hire someone like me. I thought that if I made it to an Imperial station, I could sell myself into slavery."
That made sense in a certain way to Leon. Imperial slaves were treated fairly well despite the name and were almost always in demand. However, it only made sense to someone who knew the detailed inter-workings of the Imperial caste system. To anyone else, Imperial slavery was just as bad as the Colonial Era on Earth.
"That might make sense if this was anywhere near Imperial space, but you're a good ways away from that. You obviously know a fair amount about Imperials, but you're here in Federation space. Judging by your size you're a child, so you're either a regretful refugee or an Imperial spy, so which is it?" Imperials had been using children as spies for hundreds of years, and it had been a relatively strong tactic.
Leon, wanting the truth this time, didn't give his stowaway a chance to concoct another lie, choosing to reach forward and pull off their hood to reveal their face. What he saw shocked him. Underneath the tattered cloak was a young girl with crimson-red hair. The very same Imperial Princess he had seen before.
"You're that Princess that was with those Mercenaries."
The girl in question opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by the ship's onboard AI. "Commander, urgent video message received."
Leon blinked. "Play message at the nearest video terminal." He said, leaving the girl in the utility closet and walking over to the nearby screen. On it was a group of three men, each with a rifle in hand. The video was obviously recorded by the camera at the rear door of his ship. The video began playing as the girl walked up behind Leon.
"Excuse the interruption Pilot, but a valuable asset of ours might've gotten onto your ship. We'd appreciate it if you would give us the chance to search for it."
Leon closed the video, instead bringing up the real-time rear camera to see the men waiting there, decked out for a war with body armor, rifles, and various other combat-oriented equipment. He looked to the girl beside him. She looked both angry and scared.
"Not your escorts, I take it?"
She shook her head. "Kidnappers. I was on my way to an important event when my shuttle was interdicted. I had just barely gotten into the lifepod before they jettisoned it. Nearly half of everyone I knew was on that ship." Her eyes began to water, but Leon could clearly see she was trying to stay strong. "Our escorts were too late. By the time they were within firing range, the ship had scooped up the lifepod and entered Supercruise."
"I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm going to have to let them search the ship. Otherwise they'll just chase us down." He grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the living quarters of his ship.
Leon quickly opens a door and shoves her through it before she can react. The girl lets out a yelp of surprise when she begins getting blasted with warm water before realizing she's in his ship's shower.
"I'm going to lock this door. Unless I announce myself, shoot anyone who opens the door." He said, shoving his pistol in the girl's hand.
Leon closes the door, deciding to grab one last thing before letting the men outside search his ship.
"Sorry to keep you gentlemen waiting. Please, come inside." Leon said, beckoning the men towards the boarding stairs. The men shared a look before doing so, all three of them ensuring that their weapons were loaded and the safety was off. Leon was quick to follow them inside.
"So, who's this asset of yours? Some big-shot pirate lord you guys caught?"
The man Leon assumed was the leader looked back, answering the question. "Pirate Lord's daughter, actually. We're planning on having him give himself up in exchange for her safety."
Leon nodded, playing along. "So that whole stereotype about pirates having soft spots for their daughters is true, then. He must have a pretty high price on his head. Probably about ten million?"
The leader laughed. "Hah! I wish." He stopped at a door, hearing running water behind it.
"My wife is in there. I was about to join her when I got your message." Leon said, remaining calm.
The leader looked to Leon, sizing him up before responding. "Understandable. Still, I have to check every place to be sure." He said, his hand reaching for the door handle.
Inside the shower, the Princess cowered in the corner on the floor with the gun she had been given aimed at the door, finger ready to pull the trigger at any time. She heard a thump, a scream, and then a small burst of gunfire, causing her to cover her ears at the amplified sound. Still, she heard some struggling and a bit of yelling before everything fell silent again. Then, a knocking at the door made her flinch.
"It's me. I'm going to open the door now. Don't shoot." Leon said, slowly opening the door to avoid startling the girl. However, what startled her was his appearance. He was covered in blood. Absolutely drenched in it, like she was with water. She flinched again when he crouched down after turning off the water.
"It's okay. They can't hurt you anymore, but we need to leave the station. It won't be long before their scheduled check-in time."
It was then she noticed he didn't get out of that fight cleanly, a single gunshot wound on his left arm.
"You're hurt."
Leon cocked his head before looking down at his newest wound. "This? This is nothing to worry about. Come on, I've got some dry clothes that might fit you."
In addition to his injury, she noticed that he held something that she had only seen once before: An Imperial Nanoblade Sword. Incredibly rare and more expensive than some of the more expensive ships in the galaxy. A total of ten were said to have been made and handed out by the very first Emperor, given to his most-trusted Knights who guarded him day and night, no matter where he was. She blinked when she saw the blade retract inward into the hilt with the push of a button in an incredibly smooth fashion. It was obvious to her that it was well taken-care of.
Leon could feel her eyes on the sword, his most prized possession, as he guided her to the drawer where he kept his clothes. "I take it you know what this is, huh?" She nodded, but said nothing, obviously wanting to know how someone like him ended up with it. "It belonged to my Mother, and my Grandmother before that. I ended up with it when she passed away."
He laid out some clothes for her and gave her some privacy to change, choosing to prepare to leave the system. He thought about making a beeline for Imperial space, but decided against it. There was no telling how long they had before they were found out. Their best bet would be to take it slow and steady, without arousing suspicion. Hearing bare feet on the floor behind him, he turned around only to choke back a laugh.
The Imperial Princess looked at him with a pout and blush on her face from embarrassment, standing behind him in clothes that were not only meant for a man, but a large man at that. She had cleverly tied the excess materials together in such a way that ensured they wouldn't fall off of her, but that did nothing to prevent her from looking like she was drowning in his spare clothes.
"Sorry. I guess you're even smaller than you look."
"Small?! You're a giant. Of course your clothes wouldn't fit properly!"
Despite the several past minutes, they both let out loud, genuine laughs. They were practically polar opposites in so many ways.
"Say Princess, what's your name, anyways?"
"Eridani. Eridani Duval." She said, holding out her hand.
Leon clasped her hand firmly, yet gently. "Nice to meet you, Eri. I'm Leon Caelum."
Leon turned back to the screen to his left, re-plotting their course. "Well, I suppose our first stop should be getting you some clothes that fit." He said, earning another laugh out of Imperial Princess.
Fool's Gold shuddered as the landing gear disengaged from the surface of the landing pad, its engines roaring to life. Neither living occupant in that ship knew just how much of an impact they had made on each-others future, nor the trials that laid before them.
A/N: I bet this was a bit of a surprise to those of you who read my other stuff. It was pretty fun to write and I've got a decent amount of ideas of where I want this story to go. I hope you've enjoyed the prologue and stick around to see where ED: Gemini takes us.