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Nova Dawn, crew quarters > Archives room

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“Void, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the pirate Mad Bat. His many-year mission to raid strange new ships, to seek out new booty and new plunder, to boldly slaughter what none have slaughtered before.” The Mad Bat mused.

He wandered the crew quarters his ear twitching every time he stepped. While shore leave had been a fantastic relief, a night with Sapkir “port mates’ always helped, He was on edge from the recent lack of action. He wasn’t claustrophobic, but being cooped up without anything to do could get on his nerves. There were bounties to be taken and yet there was no word on their next target. The captain hadn’t even been heard from when they were in port.

Perhaps it would be a good time to take his own bounty. He knew the ship's larder would be freshly stocked, and fresh meat was always better than the preserved stuff, obviously excluding the legendary human food “bacon jerky”. Somehow their ancient ancestors managed to create the tastiest preserved food ever. It was possibly the only contribution that humans had made that kept them from being eradicated as a useless lesser species.

Valk was halfway to the kitchen when the intercom went off. He audibly groaned expecting to hear that preachy amazon. She always came off as preachy to him and her voice grated on his ears. If she really was a born warrior she was a poorly made one. Anyone who had to think to fight was wasting energy.

Instead, it was the captain. Finally, there might be some useful news. He was about to turn and head for the archives, but his stomach growled. The kitchen wasn’t far, and the cook had mentioned something or other about fresh meat on the menu tonight. Valk couldn’t decide this easily. Should he sneak into the kitchen to eat the or actually do his duties and see what the captain planned? He paced his tail tapping his chin. He was torn. The primal hunter in him demanded fresh meat, but his conniving pirate wanted to play the long game. In the end, Valk chose to tough it out. If all went well he’d be feasting on lesser species in no time.

Valk was an outlier among the other officers. He had no unique title on this ship, but his experience and kill count were their own title. While everyone had experience Valk was literally born a pirate. He was the most “piratey” pirate that ever pirated on this vessel and he made that known. As well the fact that the last time he was left out of a meeting he had started eating through the meat stores gave the captain a good reason to keep the Sapkir occupied. The profit made by Valk often far exceeded his costs.

Upon entering the archive Valk grimaced. Once again he was being foiled by one of his dreaded enemies, the nefarious table. While everyone else gathered easily viewing what the captain displayed Valk struggled to get a vantage. After a whole two seconds of thinking, he determined there was no other choice and fired his hook into a ventilation grate in the ceiling. Reeling it in Valk now hung from his tail above everyone’s heads and could view what the captain laid out. Books, why did it have to be books? Valk would roll his eyes, but his lack of visible pupils made the gesture pointless. While certainly unamused by the thought of thinking Valk dared not speak against the captain. Even he knew there was a food chain to obey. Most of the crew were appetizers at best, some worthy prey, but the captain he was another predator.

Despite his initial disinterest, Valk’s ears perked up at the mention of the sector, and they stood straight up when the “Titan Hammer” was mentioned. He had absolutely no clue what it was, but anything with a name like that either could kill a lot of people or buy a lot of jerky. When the captain asked for concerns Valk was ready to answer but was beaten by their security officer who had to go about being asking reasonable questions like the joy-killing robot she was.

"Do we know exactly what this is? This 'Titan Hammer'?" She blabbed on.

"If the captain wants it does it really matter? Anything with “titan” in its name usually is worth the bother. Well unless it's just a big hammer. Please tell me it isn’t just a big hammer.” Valk quickly replied in his ever sarcastic voice, “Besides gigantiform life sounds delicious!”