*BRINNNG*
The speaker roared with the load bell Jai had set to be her alarm, shocking her back into consciousness.
"Docking procedures are complete, Pilot Ulrik. Six hours have elapsed. Good morning."
"Thanks, RAVN." Jai said groggily, rubbing her eyes.
She hopped out of bed, careful to return the sheets to a presentable condition before leaving her room. Usually she'd take care of her personal hygiene after waking up, but on days like this when they visited an ancient space station it was worth it to skip that step. A station this old almost certainly had proper landing pads and filtration units, which meant she'd be able to get her first breath of fresh air for days.
Jai headed down three levels, reaching the very bottom of the ship; the cargo bay. It was currently fairly empty and Jai wasn't sure if that was because this mission didn't need anything or because they needed the space for bringing something back. Of course, maybe filling the cargo bay was part of why they were here.
The cargo bay doors were already open and two women were standing next to each other at the foot of the ramp, mindful to stay within the bounds of the landing pad. The first of the two women had a massive build and a shaved head. The other, despite being quite broad-shouldered and stocky herself, was smaller and currently on the second cigarette out of a new pack.
The smoke rose in lazy spirals, curling toward the unseen ceiling of the gravity field. At its edge, the plume slowed, then spread outward—flattening into a dark halo just above the landing pad, as if draped across an invisible glass dome. Beyond that boundary, it began to unravel, free-floating in zero-G, twisting in place like ink in water.
"Hey Neera." Jai said cheerily. "Brick."
Her greeting earned a warm nod from the latter and a smirk from the former.
"Ohoho, was wondering when you'd get here princess. Still too good for filtered air, huh?"
Jai cringed hearing the moniker. Who was Neera kidding, most people were used to natural air!
"And I see you're still smoking the minute we land anywhere. You'd think the last time the captain caught you smoking inside would have helped you kick the habit."
"Key word's 'catch,' princess." Neera rolled her eyes. "And hell yeah, I'm gonna smoke the whole damn pack. Gonna be my last chance for a long while."
"And how would you know that?" Jai asked. She'd more or less figured the same out herself, but that was with a few hints. "I had to dig for that. If you've known this whole time I'm gonna be mad."
"Passed through this sector a few times." Neera muttered after a drag, smoke pooling out of her mouth as she talked. "Carina ain't the end of the line but it's damn close. Past this? Nothing but gas stations and sob stories."
Brick grunted in agreement.
"And since those gas station clerks get twitchy if you so much as think about lighting up inside, I may as well smoke everything I have now."
"Why? Aren't we landing planetside?" Jai probed. Even if Neera was one of the few people she was pretty sure actually was clueless, it didn't hurt to try.
"Maybe, maybe not." Neera chuckled. "With my luck we'll end up in some domed mining colony for months on end."
"Care to be more specific?" Jai nudged the older woman with her elbow. "Maybe tell me about some of your previous missions?"
"You know the rules Jai, I know but I ain't telling." Neera scowled. "I like this job and I intend to keep it. Why sweat it? Pilot like you ain't gonna be in any danger. Never met a psion with so little fight in 'em."
"All I can do well is fly." Jai said with a helpless shrug. "And so you know, fear's not the problem, boredom is. Solving the mystery of what it is command doesn't want me to know keeps time from dragging."
"Not much mystery here." Neera pulled out a fresh cigarette. "We'll find out when we're done either way."
At that moment, Neera froze, her eyes fixed on something in the distance.
"Shit."
"What're you seeing?" Jai looked in the same direction as Neera, but there was too much going on in the landing bay for her to tell what had caught her eye.
"Let's just say I've suddenly got a bad feeling about this run., You were smart to be on edge. We're hitting planetside for sure so I'd better save the rest of this pack. Gonna need to smoke a lot with her on board." Neera said while lighting the cigarette.
Jai waited patiently for Neera to explain further, letting the older woman take a long drag.
"See that purple haired woman on the cargo lift?" Neera pointed above them towards a motorized platform racing along the spine of the station. "That's Ilryn Sethe, and she is a massive red flag."
Jai followed Neera's finger and found the woman in question, Ilryn. What she saw made her gasp slightly. Standing over two meters tall on the cargo lift was a strikingly beautiful woman. She had deep bronze skin and sharp, angular features. Her limbs were long and wiry, the kind that usually looked out of place, but on her created an inhumanly gorgeous harmony. Half her hair was shaved, that side of her head covered in small metal plates, the other half long and perfectly maintained. Despite the distance between them, Jai could clearly make out Ilryn's pale grey eyes, and she could swear they were staring right back into hers.
"Wherever my foot treads, grass never grows again." Brick's voice was soft but raspy from disuse as she spoke.
Brick stunned Jai out of a trance. She tried to keep the image of Ilryn in her mind, but the only thing she could remember were those placid eyes, the rest of her features were like sand slipping through Jai's hands.
"Brick's not wrong." Neera said, either understanding her nearly mute companion or pretending to. "Been running missions on the Iron Raven for eight years now. Seen more dead crew than I care to count. And you know what? Most of 'em went down when that bitch Ilryn Sethe was around. Her and her pack of jackals drag everyone around them straight to hell."
Jai glanced back at the cargo lift, forcing herself to focus on something other than Ilryn despite how hard that was. Other than a few boxes and something big under a tarp, there were three people with her. To Ilryn's left was a short girl that looked like a doll, literally. Her skin was pale gold and softly metallic, clearly artificial. To Ilryn's right was a heavily scarred man whose physique gave Brick a run for her money on keeping the moniker. Finally, behind the others and next to the tarp, was someone wearing light power armor.
"Hey!" Neera said, snapping her fingers in Jai's face. " Try not to stare at that walking war crime. Ilryn's the type to collect souvenir's, so you really don't want her remembering your face if you like it the way it is. She plays nice when the captain is around, but don't bet your life on that."
"What about the others?" Jai quickly looked away and forced her crazy heartbeat to return to normal. Remembering how piercing Ilryn's eyes had been, Jai was more than a little worried that she may have already caught the woman's attention.
"Psionic freakshow. Ilryn's been hoarding 'em since she got booted from the Concordance for being too volatile. Which is saying something considering their standards." Neera said, her voice getting quieter even though the cargo lift was still some distance away. "Scarface is Tekk. Despite how he looks, he's the sanest one. Makes him the safe option. Relatively speaking. Gold one's Vessa. Don't talk to her. Don't look at her. Hell, don't even let your thoughts wander in her direction. Whatever her gift is, it plays rough with your head. No clue who's in the armor but Thorne's not here which means he died and that's his replacement. Good riddance."
Neera then jerked her thumb at the tarp. Now that the cargo lift was closer, Jai was able to see that it was actually a massive poncho, and underneath...
"You especially need to be careful of Drel. Ilryn's dog. Never seen what he looks like, but I've seen the aftermath of his fights and I'm pretty sure whatevers under there ain't human. Blood and guts everywhere. No bodies."
Neera stopped talking after that. The cargo lift had started slowing down as it pulled up to the landing pad. Far too close for her to feel comfortable saying anything else.