Windward Passage
Thrynn Frontier
SS Yardbird

“Well, let’s do it up,” said Boz. Yardbird was trailing two heavy freighters bound for Thoss World. It was time to break off of the main route and head for a gap in the Thrynn patrol line. “Nexbo, hit the switch.”

“Roger that, Boss.” Nexbo pulled eight sets of levers into position and the three starflighters watched the bridge lights dim slightly before the transfer conduits could allocate more power. “Bye, bye, Yardbird.” Welded to the hull, a handful of modules had just activated.

“Cloaked minesss, indeed,” muttered Yssk. The mines were invisible to eyes and scanners alike. Of course, precisely how much that did for Yardbird’s stealthiness was the subject of considerable disagreement. The plan was for “cloak bleed” to conceal the ship as it crossed the Thrynn border. “How your sspeciess survived itsss infancy,” said Yssk to Boz, “isss beyond my underssstanding.”

Diary Excerpt, 3540
Thrynn Senator Kgnrfss
[speech standardized]

…only a single, wrenching hope remains for us now…

Leghk Sector
Tandelou Space
Cargo Tug SS Raulo

The cigarette fell out of his mouth. Shady Dave and his crew were ashen. The G’Nunk warship—there was no mistaking it for anything else—had sped right by them, making tracks for the Earth-Leghk flux just a few light years away. The G’Nunk hadn’t even fired their customary courtesy shot, let alone fry and pillage the Raulo as could reasonably have been expected.

Raulo was carrying a pile of high-value heavy elements: platinum, rodnium and gold, for starters. Normally, a ship like Raulo would’ve rated the full treatment from the G’Nunk, but Tandelou space was usually fairly quiet and G’Nunk ships generally stuck to their own territory, harrying unwary interlopers—no one expected them so far out. Dave’s shaking fingers plucked another smoke from the pack and fumbled with the lighter. Wide-eyed, he lit the cigarette and watched as the vessel disappeared into the flux, bound for the Earth sector. “There goes the neighborhood,” he said, still shaking.

Thoss World, 3543
Vss’Kssh Swamps

With the terrifying speed of crazed pirahnas, the Thrynn guards bled through the hazy night darkness of the jungle swamps. They could hear their panicked prey just beyond them in the lightless murk, hissing and out of breath, but still trudging ahead, trying to escape. Desperately stumbling forward, the doomed quarry stole a last look back toward his pursuers. A flawless titanium blade drove through him, his thick skin and chest bones hardly registering a protest, and he slumped into the mud. The gleam of frenzy in his eyes, a guard pulled the wounded fugitive from the sinking ground. “Where are the ressst?” hissed the enraged voice, “where do they hide?” But like so many others, Senator
Kgnfrss was gone.

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Next: “Recent Ruins”

the Jova Lounge
Kick back at the Home of the Heroes and Villains.

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