The RSS Arkos, a Jupiter-Class asteroid mining and shipping freighter, glides smoothly through the inner Remnant System, enroute to its home planet of Vale. Two thousand tons of iron, nickel, palladium, platinum and gold mind from the asteroid belt are cut into perfect 1x1 meter cubes and stored nice and tight in the back of the Arkos. This will be the last voyage for the old ship before it's converted into a museum.
One of the two crewmembers, Jaune, sits at the pilot's seat, head on the control panel, staring out into the gloomy, silent space. When he first graduated mining school and embarked on the Arkos, he was in awe at how beautiful the universe was; white stars polka dotting the pitch black backdrop, nebula made of gases of every color imaginable, supernova that outshine whole galaxies as its star collapses in on itself, sending matter flying up to speeds of 30,000 kilometers per hour, only a mere 10% of the speed of light. But now, after staring at the same clusters of stars and galaxies and other bright, mystical things for the past eight months of the Arkos' mining expedition, all those things are just far away objects that, even if the technology existed to get even a few thousand light years close to them, wouldn't even exist anymore.
"How's everything up here, Jaune?" Jaune's crewmate, Pyrrha, asks from behind him. Jaune bolts upright in surprise.
"Uh, everything's good, all good here, hehe," he says, turning to face her. Even while wearing a dirty, old mining uniform, Jaune still finds Pyrrha incredibly cute. Her red hair is in a messy ponytail, her bangs hang close to her eyes haphazardly, and her green eyes show signs of sleep deprivation. Still the most beautiful woman Jaune has seen by far.
"Do you want to get some sleep? I can keep watch," she says.
"Nah, it's fine," Jaune says. "I don't need sleep...until I get really tired...which I'm not…" Jaune subconsciously berates himself for his rambling.
"You sure? I don't have anything else to do," Pyrrha insists. Jaune's mind freezes.
"Say yes, and she walks away," Jaune's mind tells itself. "Say no, and I'll have to walk away." Jaune tries to find a situation in which they can talk.
"You ok, Jaune?" Pyrrha says, waving her hand in front of Jaune's face. Jaune's eyes shoot wide open and look around wildly.
"Huh, what?"
"Geez, you really do need some sleep," Pyrrha says. "Go ahead, I'll wake you when we reach Vale."
"Seize the opportunity, you fool! Declare your love once and-wait, don't do that, that's probably not gonna work. But yeah, do that first part."
"Uh, I'll just rest here, if that's all right," Jaune says. "The bunks never smelled very good anyway, heh."
"Sure, that's cool," Pyrrha says. She sits down in the co-pilot's chair and starts pressing buttons on a touchscreen, checking their inventory.
"It's cool! I'M COOL! Now declare your love-stop thinking that, you idiot! Just, uh, keep the conversation up or something."
"So…" Jaune says after five minutes of silence and intense concentration. "Space, huh?" Pyrrha momentarily looks up from the screen to look out the window.
"Yep," she says.
"...Lot's of it, huh?"
"About 99.9% of the universe, yeah."
"Yeah...wait, seriously?" Pyrrha turns to him and nods, smiling. "Huh, I always thought there was more stuff out there. I mean, not like a lot lot, but definitely not 0.01% lot."
"Yeah, it's crazy," Pyrrha says, looking back out the window again. "The universe seems like such a small place, but that's just because we can see so much of it at once. In reality, we only notice a miniscule amount of what's out there; everything else is either so far away that we can't see it with our telescopes, or light isn't travelling fast enough for it to become visible to us.
"Either way, it all doesn't exist by the time we do see it," Jaune grumbles.
"I don't like to view it that," Pyrrha says. "Sure, all those star clusters and nebulae died out thousands of years ago, but we still have their ghosts, right here, right now. The universe can enjoy the wonderful colors of them long after their existence is over, so in a way those things never really die; they only die for a certain distance over a certain time, but there's always something look up at them."
"WARNING: Cannot compute. Voice too gorgeous. iuhgyvhjiuyegvwaijq SAY A THING!"
"Do you think about that kind of stuff often?" Jaune asks. He's quite surprised with himself for thinking of something sensible that quickly.
"Yeah, I guess," Pyrrha shrugs. "I wanted to be a space pilot since I was a kid, mostly because I loved the night sky. Hopefully after this job I can find work on a non-corporate ship, and get some real freedom up here."
"That'd be cool," Jaune says. Without hesitation, he shakes his fears away and continues. "Say, Pyrrha, maybe after we get to Vale we can-"
A computer monitor starts beeping, and a red flashing light goes off. Pyrrha presses a button, and the beeping stops.
"We got three untagged bogeys approaching our sector," she reports. Jaune looks outside, and can see three small, pale white dots slowly growing larger.
"Could they be private vehicles?" Jaune suggests. Pyrrha shakes her head slowly.
"No, these have a placeholder over old tags, it looks like. Gotta be pirates, probably White Fang."
"White Fang? In this sector? No way, we're way too close to Vale," Juane says. The bots continue to grow. Pyrrha turns the red light off and puts on a pair of headset.
"They probably think we're a Schnee transport or something. Only reason why they'd take this big of a risk," Pyrrha says to Jaune, then into the headset, "This is the RSS Arkos to unknown vessels, we are enroute to Vale shipping port, requesting your tags for verification." Jaune and Pyrrha wait a few minutes, but it feels like a century.
"What do we do if they fire?" Jaune asks.
"Get an emergency signal ready, but don't send it until they move in," Pyrrha orders, which Jaune follows with no hesitation, typing in a distress message on a touchscreen, hand hovering over the send button.
"RSS Arkos to unknown vessels, please flash us your tags for verification, or move your trajectory out of our path." The three vessels immediately spread out, moving to surround the Arkos.
"Should I turn around?" Jaune asks, moving over to the yoke of the ship.
"No, bear 20 degrees left. Don't get caught in between them."
"Roger, 20 degrees left." Jaune gently nudges the controls to the left, crossing in between two of the ships.
"RSS Arkos, this is unknown vessel," the radio crackles.
"I hear you, unknown vessel," Pyrrha quickly responds. "Please flash us your tags for verification."
"RSS Arkos, you are deep in White Fang territory. Please power down your ship and await boarding."
"We're only a few million miles from Vale, unknown vessel, you sure you're in the right sector?" A bright yellow light flashes from one of the dots, and hundreds of tracer rounds flash by the Arkos, like a torrent of raindrops. A few bounce of the ship with an abrupt clanging sound. Luckily, they're too far away to do much damage.
"Send it?" Jaune asks.
"Send it," Pyrrha confirms. Jaune sends the message. If they're lucky, a patrol from Vale will be close by. If not, well...Jaune doesn't like to think about that part.
"Big mistake, Arkos," the pirate growls. The dots begin to grow faster now, and Jaune can make out the rough outline of the ships, all three small one man fighters.
"Stop the ship," Pyrrha orders.
"What?" Jaune asks. Pyrrha reaches over and flips an old-fashioned switch, and the room goes dark.
"Stop now!" Pyrrha repeats. Jaune immediately decelerates. "Unknown vessel, hold your fire, I repeat, hold fire! Me and my crew surrender our cargo to you."
"So why do we still have your heat signature?" the pirate asks. The ships are only a few hundred feet away by now. They aren't wasting any time now that the message was sent. Pyrrha was right; they are taking a huge risk being this close to Vale.
"It's an old ship. The life support system is hardwired with the internal heating and engine."
"Oh come on, you think that's gonna fool them?" Jaune asks.
"No, but they don't have time to question it." Pyrrha says. The ships, painted white with black and red stripes, are less than a hundred feet away. They're Beowolf-Class attack fighters, not very tough, but they carry plenty of weapons. One of them towing a storage trailer which glides passed the starboard side of the Arkos.
"Your RCS even flickers, and we turn you are your crew into space dust," the pirate threatens.
"Roger that, unknown vessel," Pyrrha says into the headset, then momentarily takes it off. "Get ready to move."
"Move? Didn't you hear what he said?" Jaune asks. From a side camera, he can see the pirate align himself with the docking port for the storage area. The two other pirates rest on either side of the Arkos.
"They're bluffing, there's no way they'll risk losing that much loot. We just have to keep their buddy facing them."
"Wait, we're gonna maneuver with him attached?" Jaune asks. The pirate slowly moves towards the docking port.
"When I give the word, you punch it forward, then whip around 45 degrees to the right. We'll use their guy as a meat shield."
"What!?" Jaune exclaims. The pirate docks successfully. If there's a patrol in the area, it should be here by now.
"Accept our docking procedure, Arkos," the pirate orders.
"Ready?" Pyrrha asks. A hail of yellow gunfire flashes passed the port side of Arkos. Pyrrha reaches over and presses the button to accept the docking, then straps herself into the seat. Jaune does the same with shaking hands
"Alright, take it easy," she reassures the pirate. The docked White Fang begins transferring the cubes to his ship via vacuum system. It's messy, but quick. "No one wants to see this much cargo go to waste." Pyrrha looks at Jaune with stern eyes and flashes a thumb up. Jaune returns it, gulping loudly.
"And this is how I die."
"Damn right," the pirate says. "You Schnee goons seriously are a pain in the-"
"NOW!" Pyrrha shouts. Jaune guns the engine, and the entire ship moans under all the extra weight of the pirate. When he's cleared the two other pilots, he then jerks the controls to the right, swinging the whole ship wildly. He swings it too much, in fact, and nearly exposes their front to the pirates, who are already locking on with their missiles, but corrects himself just in time.
"Hold your fire, guys!" another voice, most likely the pirate attached to the Arkos, screams on the radio. "Don't shoot me! Crap, the vacuum is jammed!"
"Arkos, this is your final warning," the first pirate says. The computer starts beeping again. Jaune looks to see what it is, and instantly regrets it.
"They have a UV gun," he tells Pyrrha dreadfully. UV guns burn a small hole in the side of a ship in a matter of seconds, without the worry of any friendly fire.
"One more move, and you're cooked," the pirate says.
"Roger that. Slight computer malfunction, sorry," Pyrrha remarks. There's a brief silence, then the pirate bursts out laughing.
"That's good, Arkos," the pirate says. "Real cute. 'Computer malfunction,' huh? Let's see if a gaping hole in your hull with be a computer mal-" The third pirate ship explodes in a huge fireball, sending its shockwave and small bits of debris into the Arkos, rocking it wildly out of control before the autopilot stabilizes it again. Even so, the sudden lurches of movement makes Jaune want to puke.
"What the-" the docked pirate exclaims.
"This is the VSS Goodwitch of the Hunter Patrol Force," a new voice on the radio announces. "All Beowolf-Class ships in this sector, stand down or face immediate annihilation." Outside the window, Jaune watches six Hunter-Class fighters, some of the newest and most advanced starfighters decloak in front of the Arkos, then gracefully move in to secure the last two pirates, who immediately power down their weapons.
"VSS Goodwitch, this is the RSS Arkos. Thanks for coming," Pyrrha says.
"Not a problem, Arkos. You're crew alright?" Goodwitch asks.
"We're ok, Goodwitch. Just gotta let the adrenaline run out."
"Roger, Arkos. Stick around, we'll provide escort for the rest of your journey after we wrap up here."
"I'll take you up on that, Goodwitch. Arkos out." Jaune slowly rotates the ship so he and Pyrrha can watch the Hunters board the two Beowolfs, which now look miniscule in comparison of the massive starfighters. The Hunters are almost as large as the Arkos, but most of that size is in heavy armor plating and weapon systems.
"Well, that was fun," Pyrrha says, breathing out a sigh of relief.
"I'm gonna puke," Jaune says.
"You're funny."
"No, really-BLEGH!" Jaune covers his mouth, looks around, and snatches up an empty tool box and unloads his lunch into it. Pyrrha covers her mouth and laughs.
"Geez, Jaune!" Pyrrha laughs. "How did you ever pass the flight simulation in mining school?"
"Uh, hehe, fake test scores?" Jaune replies without thinking, wiping his mouth. He immediately freezes when he realizes what he just said, and slowly turns to face Pyrrha.
"She hates me now," he thinks. "No one as smart and beautiful and level headed would think some loser like me-"
"You faked your flight simulation?" Pyrrha asks with, surprisingly, a smile of curiosity. Jaune nervously shrugs.
"I can fly, I just don't have the stomach for it," he explains.
"Isn't it a federal offense to fake test scores on a space occupation requirement?" Pyrrha asks. Jaune shrugs again.
"Hehe, yeah...can you please not tell anyone? I just really want to fly and, well-"
"It's fine, Jaune. Your secret's safe with me," Pyrrha reassures, touching him on the shoulder.
"Is this too much?" Pyrrha's mind questions herself. "Will he think this is just friendly, or, you know, TOO friendly?"
"You, uh," Jaune stutters. "You doing anything once you get to Vale?"
"Yes, this is the perfect opportunity! Declare your love for hi-Don't do that! Play it cool, girl!"
"Probably look for a new ship to ride with…" Pyrrha starts. "...wanna come with me?"
"Yes!" Jaune immediately replies. "I mean, uh...heh, I don't really have anything else to do, and…"
"RSS Arkos, this is Goodwitch," the radio interrupts. "We're ready to go, just start and we'll follow you." Jaune looks outside and sees that the two pirate ships are secured behind four of the Hunters, two Hunters per Beowolf. They'll most likely be melted down when they reach Vale.
"Roger, Goodwitch," Pyrrha responds. Without waiting, Jaune ignites the Arkos' engines. He can see Vale clearly now, a pale blue dot that will soon fill the entire window in a few hours. Then, the ship named Arkos' journey will end…
...But a new one has only begun.
