Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"This has got to be the most boring job in the company."

A young human man in his mid-twenties tapped away at his terminal while sitting in the cramped cockpit of a small ship that had been provided to him.

He was playing a game that he had already beaten over a dozen times in order to pass the time during a four-month stay out in the middle of nowhere.

Since he had gotten his current job, this was already the fifth time he had been given this post.

"Yeah, it's not exactly exciting, but we're getting paid well to do practically nothing but wait around. Just think about it as building up a nest egg to have fun with later." The young man's only companion aboard said.

She was one year older than him and had long light blue hair and striking red eyes.

By most people's standards she would be considered pretty, but there was no attraction between either of them at all. They were cousins after all and had been raised together in the same household and were basically like siblings. Of course, this was why they had been paired together in the first place.

"Sure, but when is that going to be. I'm always exhausted when we get back, and by the time I've finally gotten readjusted to colony life, we're sent right back out. Plus, it's not like we can be completely relaxed. What we're doing out here isn't exactly legal, Sasha."

"Oh, you worry too much, Dustin." Sasha said, passing her cousin a bottle of a drink that had a high caffeine content.

With a long sigh, Dustin popped the top off the beverage and took a long swing. He had not needed something this strong to keep focused when he first started this job, but now he would nod off if he did not stay caffeinated through his shift.

"I really wish that we could just nap when we want to. It sucks that our sleep is being monito-"

As Dustin was complaining about his job for the thousandth time, a notification suddenly popped up on the console in front of him.

His eyes went wide-eyed as he saw this, and for a few moments he merely sat there frozen in shock.

"Hurry up and read it already. This is the whole reason we're out here." Sasha said frantically.

In all of their time doing this job, this was the first time they had ever received a non-scheduled alert.

Still, this was their job and after the initial surprise had worn off, Dustin accessed the transmission that had just come in and used the cipher provided to decode the message that had started out as incomprehensible gibberish.

"This isn't good."

When Sasha heard Dustin's mumbling, she leaned over and read the details of the message herself.

It seemed that the unmanned vessels that their company had created to mimic strexnoids had detected a few anomalies and sent out a transmission to them.

"Somes ships were poking around but they have already left. Gah, and not much longer after that, one of the tracking tags became active. Talk bout a series of unlucky event." Sasha grumbled.

"Why did something like this have to happen on our watch?"

Dustin was a bit dismayed, but he began following the necessary producers his superior had drilled into him.

The first thing was to craft a message and send it off to headquarters. Though, the distance that the hyperspace transmission had to travel would take several days to reach its destination, and an equal length of time to get a response.

"Do you think that what our company's doing has been discovered?" Dustin asked once he had finished sending out the required message.

"Hm, I don't think so. Since they're fully automated and most of the equipment and processing power is focused towards imitating a strexnoid, the information we received isn't all that detailed, but it just seems like those ships were looking for a way around and promptly left after only a few hours. The tag didn't become active until a bit later, so I think that the two situations are unrelated. Two strexnoids probably just rubbed against each other and one of them is equipped with a tracking tag and the camouflage cloth got knocked off. This isn't the first time something like that has happened. The other team working this job encountered something like that before."

While Dustin was a bundle of nerves thinking that the scheme the company they worked for had been found out, Sasha was far more relaxed.

As far as she was concerned, all they needed to do was stick to protocol.

"We just have to wait for four days, and if no other transmissions come in, then we go and check out the problem and fix it if we can. Seeing as how it's merely an active tracker, I don't think it will be a problem. The strexnoid collective isn't in a particularly high traffic area, and the only hyper lane anywhere in the area is connected to the Phregon System. From the news broadcast we picked up a couple of days ago, it appears that that system is in a state of near turmoil right now. I doubt anyone coming from there is going to care about some benign space beasts."

After being reassured, Dustin calmed down. Sasha was right. They only had to stick to the guidelines presented to them. After the appearance of any ships, they were supposed to wait for four days to receive word if there was any more activity. If nothing occurred, then it was safe to assume that the vessels that had been within the vicinity of the strexnoids had moved on.

Over the next four days, the two of them were more alert than normal, but as expected, no other reports of ships showing up arrived, and one of the mimic strexnoids sent them an all clear signal.

"Okay, let's go deal with that tracking tag before it becomes a problem." Sasha said, activating their craft's engine and powering up the light speed drive.

A couple of hours later, they arrived within the vicinity of the strexnoid collective.

Naturally, the giant space beasts noticed the small vessel but paid it no mind. However, there was something else that had picked up on Dustin and Sasha's arrival that went completely undetected. Had they noticed the small, camouflaged probe amongst the strexnoids, they would have immediately plotted a course out of the area and ran way at full speed.

"Looks like it's that one. Let' hurry up and repair the camouflage and get out of here."

While Sasha piloted the ship, Dustin accessed the controls for the multipurpose drones stored in the cargo bay and activated the program to disable the tracker tag and replace the camouflage cloth.

Yet, right as they synced up their flight path with the strexnoid with the tag, an unknown vessel dropped out of light speed.

"What the hell!?" Sasha shouted, jerking on the ship's controls because of the sudden surprise.

Panic started to set in for the two of them, but it was only a few moments later that an Alliance Police light cruiser arrived.

It was at this point that Dustin and Sasha knew they were in deep sh*t.

No doubt a trap had been laid for them.

"We need to get the fu*k out of here Sasha!" Dustin screamed.

"You don't think I know that?!" Sasha shouted back. "But where do we go. They've got a light cruiser and six corvettes. Plus, those other three ships. We don't stand a chance."

The two were naturally frantic considering the situation. They had just been caught doing something unquestionably against the law, and the police were ready and waiting to catch them in the act.

"Go towards that one. The craft that dropped out of light speed first. I'm not picking up any weapons readings from it. That thing's probably a fast and sturdy scout ship. We can slip by it and jump to light speed. If we can make it to the nearest hyper lane hub, we should be able to slip away."

Sasha did what Dustin suggested and hastily brought their vessel's thrusters up to maximum output and gripped the controls tighter than she ever had before.

At first everything seemed to be going well, they blew past what they assumed to be a scout ship, and the way out seemed so close.

Yet, just as they thought that they might get away, the craft that they had just left behind whipped around to chase after them and three panels on the front of the ship opened up to reveal military grade heavy laser cannons.

Both Dustin and Sasha screamed as alarms blared in the cockpit when a weapons lock was detected.

Sasha did her best to avoid the red flashes flying towards them, but it was all in vain. She was not an expert pilot by any metric and had no combat experience whatsoever.

The vessel that they had been provided with was decently sturdy with strong shield and reflective plating, but these defenses did little to stop the blasts hitting them.

It was all over in just a few seconds. A few volleys had knocked out their shields and a final one destroyed their thrusters and left them without any means to propel their vessel.

Still, Dustin and Sasha had truly believed that they were going to die for a moment. Seeing that the ship attacking them had stopped now that their thrusters were disabled, the two of them were momentarily relieved and thankful to be alive.

However, the full gravity of their situation soon came crashing down on them. They had just been caught by the Alliance Police in the midst of an obvious crime.

"We're screwed, aren't we?" Dustin said, a dismayed look on his face.

In response, Sasha merely nodded her head while her eyes were filled with fear. They were definitely going to be losing their jobs and receiving a hefty fine at the very least. And the possibility of jail time in a far from accommodating prison was incredibly likely. Neither of their futures were looking especially great.