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The company was all powerful, all mighty.
The looting corporation is responsible for the majority of metal recycling these days, but there was also a darker, more hidden side to it.
Once you started investigating, things started sticking out as… red flags almost.
The way the company no longer fired people. It was a little odd, but reliving to everyone.
Not having to worry about being ejected into space was a godsend for most crews.
But why?
Surely not everyone was hitting the quota every few weeks or so?
Why would you keep losing credits on crews that misuse company time? Surely it was better to expel dead weight?
Daukey had often asked himself that, when the new announcement had come out. Instead of cheering like the rest of his crew had, he'd frowned in suspicion.
“Honestly, something seems fishy with that all…” he muttered, as Fitz rolled his eyes.
“Lighten up Dauks. It ain't that serious.” The slime hybrid had laughed, before making the ship take off.
The duck hybrid bit his tongue, watching his friends chat happily.
…
39 - Acheron
Nothing about the planet honestly screamed dangerous. It was just another name in a very long list of moons and spatial entities.
S+ planet. Minimal loot, with low monster spawns to reflect that. Apparently nothing hostile even spawned outside the building.
The weird thing was, Daukey's never even heard of other crews travelling there. It apparently has no routing fee, like some of the other planets do, instead its coordinates are just blank, as if someone forgot to input the location into the database.
Surely minimal loot was better than no loot though? The higher the planet's rating, the more money you make from it. So even if you only managed to grab a couple pieces of scrap, you should make a neat profit.
It's something that stays in the ducks brain as he muses over the control panel, waiting for his friends to return.
He can hear laughter and whooping from the outside, so he turns to offer a hand.
“I pushed Sovi into a land mine! I am not going to lie to you.” Fitz guffawed, as Daukey frowned, looking at the body in the slimes arm.
“Okay… That was probably racist but… What happened to Mccreamy?” He asks, as Swagger shrugs, chucking the body down unceremoniously at the front of the ship.
“Incident with a spider and a sign post… I may have missed a few swings on the spider…” Swagger admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.
Daukey let out a slow exhale as his friends emptied their pockets, doing a calculation of the value they had.
“Might be under this quota… She'll be right!” Fitz laughs, nudging Swagger. “They changed the rules, we ain't gotta fear shit anymore.”
“Oh you're so right!” Swagger laughs as Sovi and Mccreamy respawn, arguments filling the ships hallways.
Daukey routes them back to the company's base, sighing a little.
Yes, just because they wouldn't be fired, doesn't mean the company would be… happy.
…
Daukey sits down in the large cafeteria, focusing on his meal tray, the company's angry note still on the forefront of his mind.
From and Tucker wave to him, as Daukey gives a weak smile back.
“Heard ya came in under for the third time this cycle… Aren't y'all playing it a bit risky?” Flom says, taking a bit from his own tray.
“Yeah… I know we all hate this place, but you'd think y'all would just quit or something.” Tucker agrees, as Daukey chews his food.
“Since the rules changed they're just so.. I don't know. It's like they don't care anymore.” Daukey admitted with a sigh, as Flom gave a sympathetic grimace.
“I would offer you a spot with us, but we're full at the moment. Some crew lost a man, so they got reassigned to us. One of them is that ram guy who used to follow Mccreamy around back at the academy. Schlatt I think… Remember him?”
Daukey nodded, recalling the way Mccreamy had screamed in panic at the man following him everywhere. Almost amusing.
“Yeah, I remember him. Is he still as loud and deranged as he used to be?”
Flom and Tucker both shook their heads. “Nah. He's a completely changed man. You can see glimpses of it, but it's like he's scared now or something. They're all a bit weird honestly. Two of them refuse to go to any S or higher rated planets, one of them had a panic attack when they saw it was 11am? Musta thought it was 11pm or some shit… and Schlatt? He's always making sure everyone's communicating. Trying to help guide us back to the ship. It's kinda odd.” Flom explains.
Daukey nodded as he finished the last pieces of his meal. “Well… At least they're working hard… More than I can say for my guys…” he shrugged.
“Ahh, you love ‘em still. I know you!” Tucker says, as Daukey’s stern expression falters a little.
“Yeah I do… Speaking of working hard… The company's given us a special assignment, making us go to a specific moon to prove we can do the simplest of tasks… Patronising… You guys ever been to Acheron?” Daukey asked as Flom and Tucker frowned.
“Nope. Didn't even know it was a place that we could go to… I thought it was some higher ups holiday home to be honest.” Flom admits, as another figure sits on the other side of him. “Oh hey man… Wondering where you all went.”
The pink entity ignored Flom’s greeting, instead looking over at Daukey. “Did you say 39-Acheron?” it asked, as Daukey nodded.
“-Uh yeah… You been there?” Daukey asked, as the creatures eyes widened.
“Oh, this is Panda by the way… One of our new cremated…” Tucker whispered, as Daukey nodded.
“Dude. That place is bad news. Like. BAD NEWS. You're not supposed to talk about it though… They're always listening.” Panda mumbled, eyes flicking around.
Daukey frowned, confused by the expression Panda had on.
“You okay man?” Flom asked as Panda shrugged off a hand.
“I am telling you this. Get loot. Get the fuck out. Do not go back. The ship leaves EARLY. Like earlier than usual. Don't waste time ordering shit. You can't risk it. We-”
A hand landed on his shoulder, a skeleton shaking their head.
“You're going to get us in trouble… again..” she muttered, as Panda paled.
“Sorry.. Sorry. Um.. Good luck.” he instead said, turning back to the skeleton, getting up and following her away.
“You know the fucking rules! -ka and Te- They were good-.” her harsh whispering drops as they leave the table, the pink entity slipping over.
Flom and Tucker turned back to Daukey. “See, weird right? He starts rambling about the time anytime we go to a planet. I wouldn't worry about this new place, he's like that with everywhere.” Flom said, reassuring Daukey, who suddenly had lost his appetite.
…
“No monsters outside? Sweet!” Sovi cheers, as Daukey nods, preparing to land the ship.
“Um.. Daukey. There's one of those fuckass metal robot things outside the window..” Fitz’s voice yells out, as Daukey looks over.
“What the fuck? I've never seen one of them off a moon before!” Swagger yelps, Daukey turning back to the controls.
“Hold on everyone… I think it spotted us.” Mccreamy exclaims, the ship rumbling as a rocket strikes the side.
Daukey grimaces, before spinning the wheel. “Aight. Time to do evasive manoeuvres and land this bitch… Uh. Look out for a body of water we can land in y'all.. this is going to go to shit very quickly.”
Another couple rocket strikes rock the whole ship, as lights start flickering. Daukey grimaces as the ship shudders, before finally getting an angle he's happy with to begin the descent.
“Okay… There! Large fucking lake!” Sovi yells out, and the ducks immediately looking at where he's pointing, turning the wheel quickly to the right.
“It's not following us anymore!” Fitz yells, as they all breathe a sigh of relief.
“Thank fuck.. Okay.. This might be a little rough, because I think it shot out our landing gear.” Daukey admits.
Everyone braces as the ship plummets into the lake, driving into the side of a small island in the middle of the water.
They're alive.
“Okay… Fuck…” Sovi gasps, covering his face and screaming.
“Fuck that… Okay. The ship’s gonna need repairs… Guess we better take a look inside or something… Find some scrap to repair it… And then some to sell..” Fitz mumbled, as the rest of them nodded.
“Yeah… the building is about a 6 hour hike away too…” Daukey announced, looking at the map, groaning. “I couldn't risk landing closer… There weren't any safe areas.”
“Fucking..” Swagger groaned, as he grabbed a sign post. “Let's get to it then guys… No time to waste.”
“Least there's no monsters outside…” Sovi said again, a lot less enthusiasm in his voice this time.
…
“No monsters but weird ass fucking manticoils and tulip snakes staring at me.” Mccreamy grumbled, frowning at the flying creatures.
Daukey followed his gaze, watching as a black and white spotted manticoil stared back at his friend, eyes almost judging.
“Ignore them Jay… We need to get to this fucking building…” Fitz grumbled, wiping the sweat from his face.
“11am already, and I'm fucking tired.”
”Yeah one of them had a panic attack when he saw it was 11am.”
“The ship leaves EARLY.”
Daukey swallowed, ignoring the worry prickling in his mind.
…
“”Okay. We made it. Activity detected nearby? What the fuck?”
“Guys… It's just a spore lizard. They're harmless. Hurry up.”
…
“That place is BAD NEWS.”
=======
"Nothing much seems to be inside here guys!" Droid laughs, as Pezzy sighs.
"Yeah.. I was expecting more from an s+ planet but... What do you know..."
"There's a thumper, a nutcracker and a spider all camping out in one room, but none of them seem interested in us. Theyre really deep in the building too." Smitty's voice crackles through the walkie talkie.
"Bwah blah blah blah." Matt replies, before a high pitch static noise of feedback rippled through the walkie talkies.
"I've confiscated Matt's walkie talkie for that. Over." Smitty then added, as Droid rubbed his ear a little.
"Shit... that was loud." He mumbled, as Pezzy crouched and picked something up.
"Look... a duck. Here."
Droid placed the item in his pocket, looking around.
This place didn't seem all that bad.
Honestly, tame for an s+.