During the two weeks that it took Erich to return to the industrial world of Quadi, he had experienced the best sleep that he had been able to obtain in nearly a year. Thanks to the intense effects of the Asuran Palm Wine, Erich had managed to sleep in his rather rudimentary cot within the captain's quarters of his ship as if he were a fat drunken baby.

By the time he arrived in the atmosphere of Quadi, Erich felt fully rested for the first time since the Dvrakian War had begun. And though the effects of shell shock still lingered in his mind, Erich was able to perform his duties to the extent he was required.

Officially, he still had two months left of his ongoing leave of absence from the Navy, and thus, he found himself debating on how he should spend his free time. After a day of nothing but drinking, Erich came up with two ideas. One was to unlawfully flee from the Empire's borders, and enter Oni space for a brief vacation, however after calculating just how much time it would take to visit the Great Oni Empire and return to Imperial Space, he quickly dismissed this idea.

Instead, Erich decided on pulling off another job for whatever underworld faction was willing to pay him the most. After searching through his new underworld contacts, Erich found a Syndicate known by the name of "Splinter" that was looking for a pilot to transfer some contraband from Imperial Space to an interstellar civilization that was classified as a minor power which lie somewhere between the Empire's border, and that of Oni Space.

The job required his ship to have a certain cargo capacity, which his privateer was more than capable of meeting, and was paying 500k for a simple delivery job. And while he would have to avoid the authorities from both civilizations, Erich was confident that he could manage just that.

Thus, after calculating the distance between himself and his destination, as well as the time it would take to get there and back, Erich realized that he would have enough time to make the journey, and spend three days' worth of vacation on one of the alien worlds. Which after doing some research, he learned that the home world of the alien species was a tropical paradise.

With this in mind, Erich accessed the underground network, under the alias of Apex, and accepted the job. Where he would have to head to a nearby space station which was on the way to his final destination and covertly pick up the contraband before smuggling it into the borders of the neighboring civilization.

It took only a few hours for Erich to land at the space station, where he immediately headed to the bar of the facility, which was the destination he was supposed to meet his contact at. After sitting down at the bar and ordering himself a liter of beer, which was his legal limit for the day, Erich waited patiently for his contact to arrive.

Contrary to what he was expecting, the person who sat down next to him, and began to speak to him, was not a burly or battle hardened man like the outlaws he had experienced so far, but was a beautiful mutant woman, with a particularly busty figure, cobalt hair, and scarlet eyes. Despite having a scar across her right eye, this only added to her attractiveness. The words she spoke were slightly hushed, but not obviously so as she began giving Erich his instructions.

"I'm assuming you're Apex?"

Erich was about to nod his head when she interrupted him.

"Don't move a muscle, and don't you dare look at me! As we speak, your cargo bay is being filled with the product. Don't ask what it is, as it is not your job to know. All you need to do is to transport the cargo to Vaxkorvia, where your contact will be waiting for you at the following coordinates. Your contact will take the cargo from your ship, and will transfer the balance to our account, where we will pay you the agreed amount.

Enjoy your trip. Oh and whatever you do, don't sleep with the Vaxkorvian women. I don't know what kind of weird shit you may or may not be into, I'm not one to judge, but if for whatever reason you are attracted to amphibian humanoids, trust me when I say that your dick will melt off if you try to fuck one of those things. And before you ask, no, the syndicate will not pay for your medical fees if you are so daring. So unless you want to waste your paycheck, I suggest you follow my advice..."

After saying this, the woman chugged a liter's worth of beer in a matter of seconds before exiting the facility. Once Erich had finished his own drink, he entered his starship to find that his cargo bay was filled with what he could only assume was drugs.

Erich climbed into the pilot seat, and started up his engines, before requesting permission from the space station to take off, which once gaining approval, he then activated his quantum drive, before following the route that his nav computer had set for him.

It would take Erich a little under a month to reach his destination, as well as make his return to Quadi. He would only have three days of relaxation on the Vaxkorvian home world before he had to head back to the Empire. Thus, he planned to enjoy some time on the sandy beaches before he was once more forced to pilot a starfighter into battle.

The journey to Vaxkorvia was quite dull, he was all alone in the 55m long ship that was the Hydra Privateer, and thus all he could really do was entertain himself with the Asuran Palm Wine that he had transferred from his cargo bay and into the mess hall of his ship, while watching the latest news about the ongoing war with the Dvrakian Consortium.

With each passing day, the Germanic Armed Forces gained more ground against the enemy, and it was beginning to appear that the war might even be over by the time Erich returned to active service. If that was the case, then he honestly did not know how long it would be before he was able to see combat again, which was something that filled his heart with hope.

Eventually nearly a month had passed, and Erich had landed on the tropical paradise that was Vaxkorvia. The world was ninety percent ocean, and because of this, the amphibian species which inhabited it lived primarily in underwater cities. However, for the sake of interstellar trade, they had built cities on what little land their home world had, as well as space stations in orbit.historical

It was abundantly clear by the level of technology that Erich saw aboard the Vaxkorvian vessels that they were perhaps even inferior to the Dvrakians when it came to military technology. Which was not a surprise as the Vaxkorvian Collective just barely qualified as a Minor Power with only one hundred star systems and habited worlds under their control.

Erich used the universal translator onboard his ship to request permission to land within the planet's primary star port, which, once approved, he managed to do so with relative ease. However, despite the fact that things had been relatively smooth sailing up until this point, his luck appeared to have run out. Waiting in the hangar bay for Erich was a group of Customs Security Officers who appeared to be heavily armed, as if tipped off about potential criminal activity. Upon seeing this on his ship's security system, Erich quickly ran throughout his ship's interior, and entered the armory, where he found the equipment he had purchased at the Outlaw's Outpost well over a month ago.

Since he did not have time to equip his makeshift power armor, or the desire to go out guns blazing into the hangar bay of an interstellar space port, Erich had quickly grabbed hold of a revolver which had been illegally modified into a railgun, one which was affectionately nicknamed "the hand cannon" by those who wielded it.

The railgun revolver had a 1x reflex sight mounted on the top rail, with a weapon light and visible laser combination device on the bottom rail. All in all, it was a solid option to carry with you when you needed to be less overt.

After ensuring that the weapon was loaded, Erich stashed it on the back of his belt before approaching the cargo bay, which was now being surrounded by the Vaxkorvian security officers. After opening up the ramp, Erich walked into the open with his hands raised, before using the universal translator in his helmet to speak with the officers who were pointing their ballistic weapons at him.

"Woah there! Everyone just calm down! I don't know why you guys have decided to show up to this hangar fully armed, but I can assure you that I have received permission by your customs department to bring my cargo into your world..."

The amphibian humanoids looked almost like a mixture of human beings and frogs, as they continued to aim their sights upon Erich. The officer in charge stepped forward and reached out his hand before speaking in his native language, which was translated to Erich via his helmet's functions.

"Passenger and Cargo manifest.."

Upon hearing this, Erich reached into a nearby container at the aft of the cargo bay which contained the falsified documents that the Germanic syndicate known as "Splinter" had forged for him. The Vaxkorvian security agent who was in charge scanned the digital manifest with his eyepiece before handing it back to Erich.

Just when Erich thought he had gotten away scot-free, the agent in charge made a shocking demand of Erich, which immediately put him on high alert.

"I have orders to check your cargo for any contraband. Move aside and allow my agents to fulfill their job. If you try to prevent us from doing so, I will have you charged with obstruction of justice..."

Erich sighed heavily. He knew for a fact that he was carrying some serious contraband, one which commanded such a high price that the syndicate which had hired him was willing to pay him half a million credits just to deliver it.

Knowing that he would be facing criminal charges here in an alien civilization, as well as AWOL charges when he finally got back to the Empire, Erich backed away from the ramp, and leaned his back against the wall, seemingly allowing the security officers to check his cargo.

While the officers began to break open his crates, Erich silently placed his hand on the grip of his rail gun revolver, and cocked the hammer back. The audible clicks went entirely unnoticed by the officers who were too busy investigating his cargo for contraband. At the same time Erich had managed to quite easily slice into the star port's primitive security system, where he put the camera feed on a loop, ensuring that nobody would come looking for him after what he was about to do.

Within seconds the amphibian humanoids had found the drugs which Erich was smuggling into their territory, however before they could officially react, Erich walked forward, and reached his arm around the commanding agent's neck while pointing his rail gun revolver to his head, where he immediately voiced his demands while the other officers pointed their ballistic weapons at him.

"Toss your weapons aside, and your eyepieces! Now walk away slowly. If I see even a single attempt on your part to call for reinforcements, I am blowing this bastard's brains all over my ship! Just like that.. Nice and slow, nobody needs to get hurt here!"

The security officers did as they were instructed, and tossed their weapons away, while backing out of Erich's ship slowly. They then got on their knees, waiting for Erich to hand over his hostage. As for Erich, his heart was beating more rapidly than when he had done that job for Drake and his crew.

As anxious as he was, he was also high with adrenaline, as he used his nanites to connect to the Vaxkorvian interstellar network, where he called his contact, and in doing so, alerted the local syndicate about his ongoing situation.

"Yeah, I'm here, Hangar 3 at the Star port, you might want to do some investigating into your organization, because someone ratted me out to customs."

Erich's contact immediately responded with several questions.

"Are you alright? Have they seized the cargo?"

Naturally Erich began informing his contact of everything that went down, and after a brief summarization silence prevailed for some time before the contact finally spoke.

"Alright, I understand. My team is on the way. In the meantime, you must maintain control over the situation, and whatever you do, don't let those bastards call for reinforcements. When I find out who ratted you out to the authorities, I will skin them alive! I will also contact Splinter and have them investigate their own organization in case the fucking rat came from their end. Stay tight!"

With this said, the call was immediately cut, and Erich transitioned his full focus to the customs security team which he was now holding hostage in the middle of an alien star port. There was only one way to describe the situation that he now found himself in. Erich was truly and utterly boned...