CHAPTER II: RECOVERY

Bo' Braggs was a loner, a social outcast on his home world of JunKar, one of the Outer Rim planets being attacked by the Sith.

When war first broke out, Bo' (short for Boman) was eager to join the JunKar Army but was denied because he was both a thief and techno-scavenger that held no honor. JunKars are powerful industrialists whose whole society is dominated by emerging technologies. Every JunKar private citizen is employed constructing something. To be unemployed was illegal, and Bo' Braggs was a rebel. He rejected the lifestyle of the JunKars and instead thrived through constant theft of technology and scavenging through failed units- serious crimes according to JunKar law.

Disgraced and laser-branded a criminal, he escaped his home world and made a living selling war scrap that was often found along the photon guideways. Bits and pieces of anything from small scout ships to huge Sith military transports. In fact, if one looked hard enough one could find various technology still intact: weapons, complex instrumentation, and especially precious metals. The trade route war had produced a thriving black market paradise.

That is precisely how Bo' had discovered this small planetoid while treasure hunting and decided to make it his home. The place was deserted and uncharted. How lucky could a JunKar outcast get? He named it Na' Baiya, which in the JunKar language translates into Empty Place;  more specifically, Nowhere.

But tonight Bo’s sleep had been disturbed by the powerful explosion of something really Big! Perhaps one of the huge Sith transports filled with all sorts of weaponry. Scavenged weaponry would sell well in both Rims, unless the Sith actually caught you selling their equipment. Then you would be Tyrenga meat. A horrible way to die.

Still, the explosion and resulting debris field would be worth a look.

Rummaging through a pile of techno-trash Bo grabbed his Zomba – what the JunKars call a tri-ocular imaging plate, and raised it to the heavens. Scanning through the scattered debris a warning light appeared on the Zoomba’s inner display. Possible radiation contamination. D-RADS eliminators and primitive Radiation-Scrubber RS units were hard to find in this part of the galaxy so Bo decided to take a reading with a probe.

Launching the Radiation Probe RP-6 into a debris field was never fun. Nine chances out of ten it registered positive and either blew the probe itself apart or rendered it useless. Bo was exhausted from scavenging and could barely set-up the RP launcher before the probe’s ignition widened his eyes. The RP-6 climbed into the night sky in a flash and after a short time reached the outer debris field. On the instruments below Bo could see that the debris field held a huge radiation signature, with traces of Rekurium and Gamnon. These were from the cores of Whill and Sith starships! Must have been a tremendous battle since there was no sign of any part of either hull.

Bo' sighed in disappointmen; but then the probe was attracted to another object in the field, one which could not be penetrated by any sensor. Bo' grabbed the Zoomba again while the probe fed the coordinates to him. (The other encapsulator, detached while empty, had already ignited its power plant and headed in a random direction until its fuel supply either ran out or it located a safe landing area. It was a standard automated procedure as more than one encapsulator surviving a blast unscathed might arouse suspicions.)

What Bo' saw was an enigma. It looked perfectly intact, not a scratch on the thing and it could not be identified as any known part of any ship he’d ever encountered. This was worth investigating. Better snatch it up before someone else comes along and grabs it.

Although Bo' lived in a rather shabby broken-down version of a JunKar Wohnrad (Life Circle) dwelling in the midst of huge piles of scavenged parts, his recovery vessel was something else altogether.

The ISR-1099.

ISR stood for Inter-Stellar Recovery, but this vessel was also used by bounty hunters and was nicknamed the "Icer".

Rumor was a Kraal bounty hunter named Ligris found a way to make the ISR invisible to tracking sensors by adding an auxiliary power unit fuelled by liquid Crytium; in essence, a cold filter exhaust just as cold as surrounding space. Several wanted fugitives and even a few overzealous Sith assassins found out the hard way what the Icer could do when it suddenly appeared out of nowhere- heavily armed.

Bo' had disappeared many times in the former bounty hunter’s  ISR-1099 and that is why no one had yet discovered Bo’s planetoid or his activities.

But what he would find tonight would forever change his life.

Suiting up, Bo' entered the massive glossy white ship that resembled a smooth civilian drooping-wing Skyliner and performed all his pre-flight checks. WEAPONS -  armed. CARGO HOLD - empty and secured. FUEL -  tanked. LIFE SUPPORT -  functional. Rest of list  - forget it. Bo' strapped in as the ISR powered up, its four huge Keldett Megapulsars online and ready to head up and out. The roar of the engines gave Bo' a supreme sense of pride and a bit of overconfidence. He would need it tonight.

The object drifted amongst the debris almost unnoticed. It was rectangular in shape with strange box-like instrumentation devices covering it. Near the top and at bottom it looked as if some form of conical devices had detached from it. It was dark, gray, and very heavily plated, with recesses where restrainers looked like there had been. But what was it? Just observing it from a distance made Bo' nervous. No carbon scoring, no heat degradation nor deformation, no visible warping, no radiation signature; in fact, it was completely unscathed. What kind of technology was this?

Bo drew the ISR closer and decided to just take a chance and recover it. He was about to open the main hold when suddenly his long-range sensors picked up an object moving at high speed in his direction. Before picking the object up he had second thoughts, What if that thing is hostile or a bomb of some kind?

Traveling at maximum speed the Sith GR-25M Gretch delta-winged reconnaissance and attack probe picked up both the object and Bo’s ISR-1099 almost simultaneously. Scanning the object revealed nothing but the probe was analyzing why the ISR-1099 was attempting to pick it up. Bo' suddenly found that his ship’s data was being siphoned from the strange unmanned obsidian armored probe ship approaching just ahead of him. He was caught is an intense scanning modulation wave while the Sith vessel was also moving towards his object at the same time.

Now the gloves were off. No stinking Sith probe is going steal my treasure; and with that said Bo unleashed four Blue Nova tactical missiles and opened up with his pulse-laser grudge guns. The Gretch was quick to react and destroyed the incoming missiles with a massive graviton wave that shook Bo’s ship. The grudge guns fared no better as Sith obsidian armor easily deflected the blasts. The GR-25 was built by Tirahnna’s Suvoi Industries, renowned for their innovative design work and reliability.

But now the Gretch’s attention was on Bo' and it opened up with two slung mini C-Packs which the ISR easily dodged. Even if the attack probe had hit the ISR’s hull the charged armor plating would have easily deflected each blast. Bo' wasn’t worried, just annoyed.

With all of the activity going on the alerted mystery object came to life with hidden sensor arrays and fired up its concealed engine, moving away from the area. The Gretch broke off the attack with the ISR and fired at the object. Oh No! There goes my prize,  thought Bo' as the Gretch continued to pursue the object.

Multiple hits struck the object but they had no effect so the Gretch deployed a grappling beam which stopped the object. Straining against the beam, the encapsulator motor shut-down after overheating. A strange projection emanated from the Gretch which probed the entire object with its Magic Eye. Bo' was sure it was holomorphic screening - that some Sith back on Tirahnna was viewing the object with intense interest.

Back on Tirahnna, in the capital of Hael, someone was watching and inter-linking the Gretch’s scanners to a MD-13 Mindstorm Deducer which made incredible calculations at lightning speeds. Within seconds the MD-13 had made a comparative analysis of the dimensions of the object with all conceivable power units known in the galaxy for transport since the object was ruled out as a weapon. Once the dimensions of all available power units were known and the proper one identified for this craft’s size, then its theoretical removal from the object would reveal the dimensions of its hold. The ID came back as RX-RP 001- an Elysian experimental power pack for emergency use only.

The MD-13 then deduced the internal load capability and inner dimensions. This unit could carry only 300 lbs and was the size of a human coffin, meaning only enough room for one average size human being and/or a small load of cargo. Since the smallest Sith escape pod was three times that size and the fact that there was no world for an escape pod to escape to in that sector of space, the MD-13 incorrectly ruled it out for that purpose and suggested that in all probability it was a secret Whill cargo carrier.

Lord Rexor was anxious, believing that Lady Kaliah had perished after long range tracking sensors lost both ships. Yet maybe she had placed her Halo-chron in the carrier- which obviously survived the battle. How careless to leave it drifting in space, especially near an established trade route frequented by Sith warships. The investigating Gretch was ordered to bring it home immediately.

This has got to be worth saving, Bo' thought to himself as he pushed the throttles forward until the ISR rammed the Gretch and broke its hold on the object. Caught off guard, the Gretch spun out of control temporarily as Bo' opened the forward cargo bay and scooped up the object which was held inside by powerful internal field locks. The Gretch rotated back with micro-thrusters and then locked onto the ISR in attack mode.

In no time the Gretch was in fast pursuit and Bo became agitated. Time to show this Sith toy what the Icer can do and after dodging parts of the debris field he headed directly into an asteroid belt on purpose. The Gretch was firing wildly - all C-Packs blazing but it could not keep up with nor maneuver like the ISR. The asteroids were everywhere. Bo' turned and dodged repeatedly as the Gretch tried to remain within visual range. Another wild turn and the Gretch lost the ISR completely.

Bo' had shut down all four Megapulsars and switched over to the liquid Crytium engine. The Gretch stopped and scanned intensely for the ISR which just disappeared off the scanners. Self-diagnostics revealed no system errors. Slowly, the armed Gretch snaked around each asteroid prepared to open fire as soon as the ISR came into visual range of its Magic Eye. With persistence the Gretch made turn after turn.

Another slow turn and the Gretch made a serious error. Bo jettisoned a reserve Crytium tank into its path and the Gretch fired immediately, rupturing the tank. Ultimate cold liquid Crytium poured over the Gretch and stopped it dead. The machine made an effort to push forward but the splattered cryo-liquid cracked the obsidian armor and was running a path to the probe’s central core. Yet the Gretch was fighting it and turned red hot in self defense. The probe was named after a Sith raptor that once it spotted its prey never gave up attacking it until either the prey or it died fighting.

Bo' didn’t feel like waiting for the attack probe’s demise, so he fired a single Blue Nova into the Gretch and blew it to pieces. Now that was one hell of a fight, Bo' mused to himself, talking out loud, better get my war prize back to safety. But Bo' was wrong. The Gretch had managed to pull his ship’s data and reported its location back to Tirahnna. Its last hypercom transmission confirmed the carrier’s ship was an ISR-1099 of unknown registry. Lord Rexor was already ranting and raving. By his side was Syrenia, a Dark Seer and also known as Lord Rexor’s Dark Mistress.