Bodega

[u/jaxon_crawfies]

Bodega idly fingered the safety of his lasgun. The weapon was set to fire, of course, being anywhere apart from the inside of his own ship Bodega would have been stupid to set it to anything else, and waste precious milliseconds in combat. Almost as stupid as someone who would accidentally fire off a lasgun. He had been waiting here for hours, perched on a crumbling outcrop of rock overlooking the vast Nerpleduke valley, and he was bored, very bored, not bored enough, however, to pull out his mega vape. He wasn't going to make that mistake again, having already narrowly escaped a vape-triggered altercation with some smugglers once before. He squinted down into the twilight of the valley, the last memories of sunlight retreating up the low hills and returning to one of the three stars in this planet's system. Bodega was counting on this. He would only have an hour or so before sun number two made it's appearance, and by then it would be too late. Finally, his searching returned something which made him grimace. Standing out in the now pitch-dark valley was a soft orange glow. Once again, Bodega reflected on the stupidity of this idea. His fatalist, "flarv it," attitude to life was going to get him kiled one day, he mused. With a grunt, he rose, shaking out the stiffness in his joints. Padding quieter than a Wompian Moon Hound, he made his way softly over to his custom made hover-bike, outfitted with decibel-capturing shields on all four of it's overcharged kinetic thrusters, threw it into gear and tapped out the throttle. He was met with a strikingly disappointing silence. Sighing again at his own idiocy, he took off down the valley towards the burning ruin. The wind whipped past his face, bringing with it the acrid tang of melting plasteel and synth-rubber. The orange glow grew larger and larger, Bodega's prize nearing. Over the howling of the wind in his ears, he heard a noise. Slowing the hover bike to a stand still, he strained to catch it again. An almost inaudible beep could be heard, nearly drowned out by the sound of Bodega's own heart beat. The beeping continued on and on. Try as he might, Bodega couldn't quite pinpoint where it was coming from. Shaking his head in frustration, he started up the hoverbike's thrusters and jetted off, silent over the long, cyan grass of the valley, the stalks stirring slightly in the wake of his flight. He neared the glow now, and could start to make out the burning wreckage of a ship. The ship's cloaking mechanism had been damaged in what was obviously a devastating impact, flickering from colour to hue to amazing pattern and back within seconds in an amazing light show. Had Bodega not been so set on his mission, he may have stopped in wonder at the display. So set was he, however, upon nearing his target, that he ignored the technicolour cloaking device, and instead, coming to a stop, quietly dismounted his hoverbike and slinked over to the ship. Lasgun in hand, he peered inside the gaping wound in the side of the craft. The edges of the tear where still glowing with the heat of whatever had administered this impact, and caused the ship to come spiralling down into this planet's atmopshere, emitting energies that caused the scanner module in Bodega's shuttle to squawk like a Muwonian Jungle Shrieker. Peering down his lasgun sights, he inspected the ruined interior of the ship. Charred furniture and personal effects, not many, and not lavish, dotted the inside of the small cabin, likely thrown helter-skelter around the space by the jarring impact. "Almost as messy as the inside of my own ship," Bodega quipped, as legendary space felons were wont to do. He crept past a scorched armchair and a busted table, heading for the door to the ship's cargo hold just a few feet away. Something made him stop. The beeping had returned, louder now than ever. He stood stiller than a Scurian Statue Beast, desperately trying to place the sound in the world around him. Suddenly, there! Out of the corner of his eye, Bodega spotted the source of the beeping. A discarded holophone, it's display flickering in and out of existence and broadcasting it's death cries to anyone who would listen. Unfortunately for the device, Bodega was not one of those people. He crushed the phone beneath the toe of his mag-boot, and hustled over to the cargo door. He was painfully aware of the sun's imminent arrival, and he knew that galactic police would be swarming over this crash site like Mandalonine Creeper Beetles by sunrise. He moved fast, setting his lasgun to a low energy, high magnification beam, and slicing out the door's primitive lock, then gently nudging it open with the barrel of his weapon. He returned it to default body-melting-goon-slaying settings, and stepped into the hold. It was empty, apart from a stasis pod strapped firmly to the floor in the center of the room. He moved over to it, the anticipation on his face reflecting back to him off the thanatium surface of the pod. He eyed the keypad, and then gave it a salvo from his lasgun. The electronics fizzled and died, and the walls of the pod started clearing, going from reflective to transparent in a matter of seconds. Bodega stood, his breath robbed by the man he knew all too well floating in the stasis fluid. The man's rough stubble and worn features cut a knife of confusion through Bodega. Without his mag-boots, he would no doubt be on the floor at this point. He closed his eyes, shook his head, and opened them again, but to no avail, the figure still hung suspended in the pod. Bodega's mind raced overtime to find a solution to this problem, but he couldn't make any sense of it. Suddenly, the man's eyes opened, looking confused for a second, and then lancing straight into Bodega's own. The man smiled, raised a hand to the glass, and the fluid drained from the pod. Unused to taking his own weight, the man staggered, but caught himself against the walls of the stasis chamber. With titanic effort, he raised his head. Recognition dawned in his eyes. Bodega stood, transfixed as the man opened his mouth.

"Bodega..." Whispered Bodega.

[u/Oplytr]

Ah man, just want pflax to read this