(OOC - Character Development Post - Extended Background)
(Between the Qotile and Gaftikari systems)
The Noss'hoks was gliding through hyperspace having just picked up some spice from Troiken in the Qotile system. It appeared to be a simple run. Shiss and the rest of the crew were already preparing how to divide up their shares. I was still new to the starship and was studying the arrays and cockpit design of the archaic and heavily modified Y60 Thallasian freighter when the alarms began.
The drop from hyperspace was abrupt, nearly throwing me against the vehicles controls. From the various grunts and yells in the rear I could only guess the crew was taken by surprise as well. We had been headed to Gaftikar and our drop point, but obviously something had been miscalculated. Peering out of the cockpit I could easily see the asteroid that had brought us out of hyperspace rolling through the deep.
Shiss was behind me in mere seconds, barking in her dialect to move. I stepped aside as the Z-95's came barreling in from behind the obstacle. I had suspected that rogue asteroids were certainly rare amongst the space lanes, but the outer rim was far from the tranquility of the more mapped inner core. I immediately ran, making two halls and leaping into the small crawlspace that housed my quad. I could feel the concussions rock the vessel as Shiss and Ch'iel, the co-pilot, began maneuvering the ship in sublight.
Reaching my turret, it was tight and quite compact. The Trandoshans had given up using it until I had come along and they immediately realized the advantage of my physique. I snapped on the targeting sensors and charged the systems, maneuvering them a bit to warm them. Scirzsh the other gunner and Shiss were calling in the approaching vessels as they appeared. Four headhunters were our targets and as I heard Shiss laugh at their attempt to force our surrender I began to smile.
I saw two coming in from my vantage and snapped some preliminary fire toward them, aiming wide and low. They took advantage just as I had surmised. As they drew in closer my turret snapped toward the lead. I could see the look of surprise upon his eyes as he met a fiery death. I could hear Scirzsh proclaiming that he too had finished one of our foes.
The bombardment was severe, they had obviously assumed we were an easier target then they had originally guessed. Never attack a vessel this old and this heavily modified, it was quite literally a thick steel case full of very aggressive individuals with nothing to lose. The other two having seen our capabilities and calculating their chances immediately pulled off. We had no way of catching the quicker vessels, our own freighter so modified that although it could withstand a very potent assault it moved at a gronk's pace.
I could hear the hyperdrive motivator start minutes later and glimpse that mere second that all light becomes sharp lines. I sat for some time in my small alcove pondering what I had learned, wondering what secrets lay in the deep. What I needed to know and what my own people needed. After some time I returned to the crew area, Shiss' mouth agape in what passed amongst their kind as a grin. I can only assume she had not anticipated my first kill, nor my demeanor. They resumed their discussion of how to split the creds and I went back to the bridge.
That was the first battle in which I had assisted in their conquest, one of many that had led me to where I am today...
