*CLANK*

I get awakened from my nap by the sound of metal hitting metal.

Huh? Did we just hit something? I look out the window and see that another ship, twice as big as our shuttle, has anchored itself onto us.

Around me, some of the Lunarians start to panic and hide behind their Zoan bodyguards... I guess that ship isn’t here for a friendly greeting.

Suddenly an energy sword pokes through the hull of our shuttle a few centimeters in front of my face and starts cutting a hole.

I dart backwards to avoid getting cut in two and reach for the spacesuits hanging on the wall, but… Nothing happens, the round piece of metal that has just been cut out of the hull simply falls to the floor, the air doesn’t leave the shuttle and we aren’t all pulled outside into space either.

I breathe a sigh of relieve, *PHEW* looks like this is one of those expensive shuttles that have a pressure field onboard.

A weird combination of creatures suddenly rush through the hole: The first one to board our shuttle is a large frog-like person standing upright on two froggy-legs and holding an energy-spear, he’s wearing rather tattered clothing and smells horrible… I think his species was called… The Crakkuin? I heard the females are almost indistinguishable from the males, they’re just slightly larger… I can’t imagine myself having ‘romantic relationships’ with one though… Other than that, I remember they’re known for their disease immunity, resilience and horrible smell…

After The frog entered, 10 or so Sapien-sized insect-people rushed in. They all walked on 4 legs and used their remaining two claw-hands to hold onto blasters and energy weapons. They were from the Chogid race I think? Insectoids that all follow a single queen… I wonder where that queen is though.

As if to answer my thoughts a two legged, two armed, two antennaed, insectoid squeezes herself through the hole, she’s about the same height as me I think. You could immediately tell she was the queen, from her ample bosom and the cape-like wings on her back… This might sound weird, but I definitely could imagine myself having ‘romantic relationships’ with this one… She’s actually quite beautiful.

Still, I can’t let her beauty distract me, I need a weapon. It doesn’t matter what… I search the pockets of the spacesuit behind me… Bingo… Plasma cutter cartridges, I remember Mr. Gerson demonstrating how they work, press a button and a highly concentrated plasma-beam shoots out the front… The cartridges are only a couple of centimeters long and they’re pretty thin too, the perfect size to hide and use for a surprise attack if they’re planning on murdering everyone…

The queen suddenly yells at the frog-man:

“Oi, I already told you to make the hole bigger next time!”

The poor frog looks apologetic as all the other insectoids glare at him:

“S-Sorry ma’am… But look! We hit the jackpot this time! They’re all Lunarians, they’ll fetch quite the price on the slave market!”

Oh fuck, these guys are slavers? Just my luck…

A Lunarian suddenly speaks up. Of course, while still hiding behind his Zoan bodyguards:

“Y-You can’t sell us! We’re of the proud Lunarian race! S-Some of us have powerful families who would definitely be outraged!”

The queen didn’t react much, she just motioned towards one of the Chogid who thereafter immediately shot the Zoan bodyguard, that the man was hiding behind, in the head. It didn’t kill him instantly, as most Zoan are quite though and could survive a plasma bullet or two, so the Chogid used his energy sword to finish the job.

The lunarians all looked shocked and started panicking, all but Ares, who was calm and seemingly assessing the situation.

The queen grabbed one of the blasters from her subordinates and fired it at the corpse of the dead Zoan, silencing everybody in the process

“Listen up Lunarians, forget about your stupid pride or whatever. You’ll have to listen to us now if you don’t want to end up like this Zoan here. Don’t get any funny ideas either, we already jammed all communication networks in this area.  If you want to direct your anger towards someone, just blame the pilot for landing at this refueling station.”

As the queen squeezed herself back through the hole she came from, the frog-man took over command:

“Alright, listen up everyone! We’ll give ya the opportunity to contact your families, if they’re able to pay our ransom we’ll let ya go, simple as that. Of course, if they aren’t able or willing to, we’ll sell ya at the slave auction. We also expect a smaller ransom for every servant and bodyguard, if ya want to keep em’ at least.”

Oh crap… Thinking quickly I walk over to Ares and stand in front of him. The ‘prestigious’ Lurker family wouldn’t have trouble paying an extra ransom or two right?

Now that I’m paying attention, Ares doesn’t actually have any other servants or bodyguards around him… Great! More chance that he’ll pay my ransom.

Ares seemed annoyed by my sudden appearance, he probably understood what I was trying to do. Luckily, he doesn’t rat me out.

Whenever the group of Chogids finally call Ares to the front so he can contact his family, I plan to just casually join him. Wait fuck, I still have those plasma cutter cartridges with me… What if they strip-search me… I don’t plan on sticking anything up ‘there’ either… Well, I know one place they probably won’t check… This is going to hurt…

I fight through the pain, but can’t help but wince a little. Luckily nobody noticed, even Ares is focused on something else, looks like he’s deep in thought. Though he gets interrupted when one of the Chogids points at him and motions him to step forward.

After calmly walking towards the group of invaders, Ares takes the holo-phone provided to him and types in a number.

*RING* * RING* *CLICK*

A voice could be heard from the phone:

[Good afternoon, you have called the Lurker estate. May I be of service to you?]

“Yes, hello Pierre, It’s me Ares, could you please put me through to dad, it’s urgent.”

[Young master Ares? Why not just contact him with your brain chip?]

“I have my reasons Pierre, please just do what I asked.”

[Right away young master.]

…

[Hello Ares? What happened, why call me via holo-phone?]

“I’m being hold ransom by some slavers, they demand 8.200.000 UC.”

He sounds rather cold talking to his dad… But I’m glad he already incorporated my own ransom of 700.000 UC into the demand, me or my dad could have never afforded that. He might be a pretty good guy after all… Or this amount of money is just simply nothing to his family…

There was a long pause… Until:

*CLICK* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

…

Did his dad just hang up?!

Niku20

-Explanations-

Energy weapons and blasters: Instead of using physical projectiles or blade edges, they use condensed energy to harm their opponent. Usually charged by solar or radiation power.

Crakkuin and Chogid: Races beloning to the Greater Planetary Union or GPU, this alliance specializes in trade and has multiple colonies in different alliances, usually takes a neutral stance in war.