"Insert Bio-Material."
"Error."
"Insert Bio-Material."
The repeating messages of the Dead-Drop were starting to drive Ruri insane. The insertion hatch was a little too small to comfortably stuff an entire head into it. It was meant for normal heads - where “normal” meant the average head size across more than 60,000 known species. The one Ruri was slamming with all her frustration against the machine, however, belonged to a Gurlag and measured easily twice the size of a human head.
"Insert Bio-Material."
"Error."
"Insert Bio-Material."
Pushing with all she had and occasionally jumping to put her weight behind it resulted in a dull sound. Hope flared – briefly - only to realize that it was stuck halfway in. She kicked the machine, slapped the casing and her head fell flat against metal leading to another dull sound.
“Fuck.”
Staring directly into the mushed face of the Gurlag, she did the only sane thing that came to her mind - at least sane from her perspective. With her Avian-Huntress knife - arguably her most precious possession - she tried to cut down the head so it might fit.
“Error.”
“Insert Bio-Material.”
The hatch snapped shut. Pressure hissed as the chamber was sealed.
“Accepted.”
“Warnog Gresmoa the Gurlag.”
“400 Credlons awarded to Ruri Emilia Sinclair.”
The screen changed to the balance sheet of her official BHC account – The Bounty Hunter Collective.
415.52 Credlons.
Not exactly an amount to impress anyone. Not exactly an amount to live a good life – or these days any life at all - but working with what we got remained one of the unwritten mantras of Ruri and her crew. Seeing three digits on her balance again, she allowed herself to smile – just a little. A deep sigh followed.
“Man, why am I always this poor?”
Not really a question she wanted an answer to but an invitation to ramble for Corvo nonetheless. Her AI board companion loved to miss social cues.
“It is the result of a chain of poor life decisions, lack of critical thinking and frequently missed opportunities.”
“I know why – It’s a figure of speech.”
“Oh.”
Corvo had witnessed the whole procedure in silence. All things considered, it wasn’t really out of the ordinary. Ruri took a moment to collect her thoughts. It had been a while since she could just stand still. Warnog Gresmoa was one of the Ravage Pirates - a small, but yet very dedicated group of outlaws. His head came at the price of broken ship parts, deep flesh cuts and sleepless nights. The crew followed him to some forsaken outpost on a planet whose name Ruri had already forgotten. She had almost taken a bullet. Corvo had almost been dismantled and the coffee machine had exploded – again.
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They tried to flee as far away as possible. As far away as their remaining fuel allowed them to, leaving them stranded here on some small space station in the Branec-system.
“Where are the others?”
“I don’t know.” Corvo replied.
Her stomach growled and one of her flesh wounds just opened up again – not that it really bothered her.
The space station had a little hangar fitting for two to four small-class ships or one commercial cruiser. The small pathway between the hangar and commerce deck was quite generously labelled as Promenade, while only consisting of the most common automated vendor machines – The Bounty Hunter Dead-Drop, a first aid automat and various vending machines for bullets and snacks. She was eyeing the first aid automat for a second but decided to not waste any money. The faint moment of peace was already gone as Ruri was hit by a wave of sadness. Maybe she thought her life would be better at this point, that she didn’t have to constantly watch her back or check her balance, maybe the wounds started to hurt after all. At least standing at the rim of the promenade watching the colourful play of the distant stars wasn’t half bad.
“I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t running.”
She said this almost unconsciously, more to the emptiness of space than to herself.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
A light flash. Corvo made a picture, something Riga put him up to. A little annoyed and frankly too tired, Ruri just accepted this. The picture shows her leaning on the railing of the promenade. A faint smirk and sad eyes glanced through her bangs. Riga always says she’s a beauty but Ruri rarely cares for it. She has short black hair and wears an almost ancient leather jacket with pulled up sleeves and worn-out gloves. Under the jacket a plain black hoodie – practical and simple.
“You don’t put that on the wall.”
“I think Riga will love it.”
Her stomach growled again as she decided to go to the commerce deck.
Meanwhile already there Leido and Riga had found the only shop that wasn’t closed at this hour. The Barkeep watched Leido closely. He was used to the looks, rarely did anyone ever just accept his appearance. He was somewhat humanoid, but also a lizard, while his whole body was merged with metal armor parts. While Leido loves to talk about his rich history, Riga usually doesn’t listen and when asked she says:
“He’s a Lizard but also a machine – It’s a whole thing.”
Leido smashes the glass of beer on the table almost breaking it.
“That’s good. Really good.”
Riga on the other hand had her head deep inside a bowl of ramen, tumbling her legs back and forth, as she wasn’t able to reach the floor.
“That’s good ramen lizard man.”
Leido hated being called that and only accepted it from Riga. He loves the kid and she was already presenting a spoonful of noodles to her companion. He took a bite, she smiled and both couldn’t be happier – for the time being.
“I’m glad to see you guys enjoy yourself.”
Ruri found her way to the shop.
“Captain!” both said sincerely.
“Here take a bite.”
Riga, in one clean motion, had already another spoonful of noodles ready. The bowl ever so slightly moved to the middle of the table and got shared between the three, something that was quite natural for the crew to do. The bill – 15 Credlons.
“Make it 15.52.”
That wasn’t really considered a decent tip, not even in these parts, but it made Ruri proud anyway.
Corvo's body vibrated shortly. There were only so many reasons why this could happen. It’s usually a distress signal, an alarm or his core is about to explode – that happens more often than one might think.
“Ruri – The bounty got flagged.”
And yes, the one Ruri likes to forget. The BHC can send direct messages.
---
Author’s Note:
Cover art generated using AI.
Thanks for reading—more to come soon.
