...of Descendants, Ancients and Enlistments.

RedAndCosmoteer

"Way too dangerous? I thought that space warping drives commonly use exotic matter as an anti-gravity fuel source, and dark energy some times, but exotic matter is quite safe every time we've used it."

The middle-aged man on the OTHER end said, with a little bit of hostility due to the unfriendly opening moments of the conversation.

"We have enough stores of darkmat on our ship, only very little is required for the drive however that alone is not enough to create a space-time bubble that accelerates to faster-than-light speeds in reasonable timeframes."

The crew-members take note, this might be a good way to obtain currency in large enough amounts to have a practically permanent supply of... well, supplies, which includes deuterium and exotic matter.

Drakador_Chaos

RedAndCosmoteer
...the man answered, though this time he seemed to be perfectly calm..."That doesn´t change we don´t have any, I didn´t make the rules, we could contact a supply ship from the TATC, that might take a while though."

RedAndCosmoteer

Drakador_Chaos

"Well, I guess you can. We could also attempt to create exotic matter by manipulating the vaccum of space... such a process is not recommended though. Thank you for the information."

The shuttle pulls out and goes back to the ship, however after just a few seconds, it backs up before the next space-car takes it's place.

"Say, do you have any normal FTL drives for sale?"

The crew-members continue observing for a minute, and then they walked off.

Drakador_Chaos

RedAndCosmoteer
..."The guys in the repair stations might have some, otherwise you gotta look around the station, gotta ask them if they have any left from the last shipment."
...the comms closed with directions towards the repairstations, section Delta-7, green traffic lights...

The other group didn´t find anything else out of the ordinary, there was some guy who got knocked out by the security after he tried to attack one of the receptionists but things calmed down again afterwards immedietly...

RedAndCosmoteer

Drakador_Chaos (So I know they don't have dark matter, but do they have dank matter? 🤔)

The shuttle then cruises to the repair station, and then line up, and then wait for their turn...

They then fly up,

"Excuse me, do you have any FTL drives for spare?"

Drakador_Chaos

RedAndCosmoteer
...the answer came relatively quick, this time a somewhat eldery mans voice...
"FTL drives? Well, depends on what you need, Warp drives are out deu to pirate activity, rumors saying you are less likely to be interdicted with them, Hyperdrives on the other hand..."
...the voice paused for a moment, steps were heard and yelling in teh background...
"Well apparently we´ve got a class 2 for 50.000 credits, five class 3 for 30.000 credits and twelve class 5 for 5000 credits each lying around. Ya interested?"

RedAndCosmoteer

Drakador_Chaos

"Well, I'm afraid we don't have standard galactic credits, do you accept items? Warp drives are shot, we can repair that but we ran out of fuel, so I'm thinking about selling it."

Drakador_Chaos

RedAndCosmoteer
...there was a short pause, unexpectedly, the man on the other end of the comms seemed to be relatively open to the suggestion...
"No credits huh? You got any spare repair tools, materials or other spare parts lying around?"

RedAndCosmoteer

Drakador_Chaos

"Well, we do have a spare few installation tools for a spare fusion drive, quite a few deuterium pellets, a shot warp drive that could easily be repaired with the parts we have on-board, could make well over a thousand c if repaired and refueled, a bunch of hull plating parts made of finest alloys... Of course, this stuff is outdated by five hundred years, so I doubt they'd be much worth."

Drakador_Chaos

RedAndCosmoteer
..."Huh, warp drives sell quite well these days, how about the repaired warp drive for a class 3? Can trade you deuterium pallets for Hyperdrive fuel. If you need time you can park besides the traffic lane."

RedAndCosmoteer

Drakador_Chaos

"Yeah, that works. Wait here, I'll park behind the traffic lane. Do you have installation manuals for the... Hyperdrives?"

Drakador_Chaos

RedAndCosmoteer
..."Usually comes with package along with the instruction manual, if you can repair a warpdrive you can probably also install a Hyperdrive. I´ll be waiting then." ...the comms shut off and the lights went green, indicating they could move out now till they´re ready.

Drakador_Chaos

Catplayz
"The High Acquisitor will be awaiting you at system Valdar-Toran-87-Omikron-B. Escorts are allowed anything akin to an attackfleet will be considered an offensive act."
/Transmission End/
...as the transmission closed the navigator had already found the target coordinates, the system seemed to be, once more, quite a distance away, this time at the western border of the galaxy, which was registered as "claimed by unknown"...

RedAndCosmoteer
"EY, you know there´s still other people waiting for repairs, people that actually pay, goddamnit! I´m making you the courtesy of trading you a Hyperdrive for a good rate and you just stand there and block my entrance!"
After they had been standing there for a not further specified but quite notable amount of time, the man didn´t seem all that friendly anymore, in the distance they registered movements from the station security, likely to tow them out of the repair dock...

Catplayz

Drakador_Chaos
"Yes. We would appreciate that."

RedAndCosmoteer

Drakador_Chaos

sh-------

"Oh, sorry, just went ~~afk~~ drifting for a while."

They left hurriedly and then after a few minutes traded them the warp drive with the hyperdrive.

They installed the thing, and minutes later, they rocketed off to this old system Orion-Ceta-9...

Catplayz

Drakador_Chaos
The seekers jump to the target system, two of them decide to rest a little during the flight, while the third pilots the ship.

Drakador_Chaos

RedAndCosmoteer
...once they arrived the obligatory sensorsweep over the system revelaed that this system in itself wasn´t all that common as it was a binary system, though apart of the stars there didn´t seem to be that many points of interest, there was an asteroid belt further out essentially marking the borders of the system, somewhere between that belt and the stars was a small comm beacon floating in space on a stable outer orbit around the stars, a certain distance away from the beacon were several ships which apparently belonged to different groups, a few smaller ships which were red and black and two about corvette sized ships which were white with black and golden ornaments...
Double

RedAndCosmoteer

Drakador_Chaos

Drakador_Chaos that this system in itself wasn´t all that common as it was a binary system

I thought binaries were some of the most common system configurations but ok

The old, powerful fusion drives flared to life again after the FTL jump, moving farther and farther from the jump-point exit at the edge of the system. Deuterium pellets were injected, one by one, and ignited by the tried and true method of laser, these dense pellets started propelling the ship multiple light-minutes which then turned to light hours and as the ship rolled about, it flashed it's fading paintjob and name -

IAV RAPIER

Drakador_Chaos

Catplayz
...once they arrived what they saw ahead of them was interesting at least.
The system itself seemed ot be pretty normal in having a singular star and some barren planets circling it, in the shadow of one of the barren planets however was a mid-sized spacespation, with a relatively large ship patrolling the area, both in the same style as the ships they met in the Orion-Ceta system, apart of these there were several groups of smaller ships fighter to frigate sized, though less than one would expect from a station of this size...
Before they got to send any transmissions another two of the corvettes approached them, likely here to escort them to the station as denoted in their next transmission...
/Transmission Start/
"You have been expected, follow us to the station."
/Transmission End/

Catplayz

Drakador_Chaos
The Seekers follow the corvettes, leaving weapon systems inactive.

Drakador_Chaos

RedAndCosmoteer (Well have you seen anyone using binary star systems in rp about as commonly as they supposedly are?)
...as the ship moved closer the smaller ships in the distance entered ftl and disappeared while the others stayed, after passing a certain distance they were eventually contacted by the white ships...
/Transmission Start/
"Unknown vessel, this system is in possession of the Keeper Descendants, identify yourself."
/Transmission End/

RedAndCosmoteer

Drakador_Chaos

"Identification: Captain Rali Anders, in charge of the Vixian Star Republic vessel, and by extension, the Illater Agreement vessel, "Rapier". I heard something about 'Ancient Horrors' and instructions to come to this system for further information?"