Despite their small size and manoeuvrability, Cobra-Class destroyers were lacking in bulk and fire power. They had speed and grace, but never amounted to much more than a pretty tin bucket in a [i]real[/i] firefight.  

In plainer words, they were the antithesis of Lithalia Blissponis. 

The former arms dealer had grown used to the dull thumping of the Golden Aquila’s engines, to the point that it had become a sort of soothing mechanical melody in her day-to-day life. Much like quitting Lho-sticks, it had been difficult for Lithalia to ease into her new role as a member of Horatio Drake’s crew, but it was becoming easier and easier as the days crept by. The dull monotony of life had always rubbed Lithalia the wrong way, so she’d persisted in doing everything she could to keep pushing the limits. Including signing up with a Rouge Trader. 

[i]Why would an upstanding member of the Imperium of man take a career criminal with him on his adventures through the dark beyond?[/i] Lithalia knew the answer. The God Emperor might protect, but even his holy reach didn’t extend to the Koronus Expanse. You needed more than faith to survive in the xenos-ridden badlands of the 41st Millennium. 

Letting out a grunt as spine cracked, Lithalia steadily eased her enormous bulk out of her bunk, the metal piercings which adorned her body jangling with each movement. 

The claustrophobic hovel she’d been provided with would have been taxing on someone of a lithe stature, but when it came to someone Lithalia’s size she barely had room to shuffle about the place. Dressing took longer than it should have, as bumped and banged into cold metal walls, hissing in frustration with each painful knock. 

[i]It's like living in a cramped little cupboard[/i]. She frowned inwardly.

Moving through the Golden Aquila’s sprawling metal corridors was considerably easier. If Lithalia’s room was a cramped little cupboard, then the rest of the ship was a city of polished metal, with the void of space serving as the limitless skies above. 

It didn’t take her long to cross the hanger’s hard metal grated floor, and to arrive at Drake’s shuttle. 

“My lord,” She greeted the nobleman with a smile, and a slight nod of her head “Ready when you are.”