Kapitel 14: Chapter 14: Gainfully Employed
Daniel watched as his three new drones orbited his ship, gliding through space with ease.
He had decided to forgo the "Pharaoh" Drone Commander, instead choosing two of the Mk ll "Montu" Assault Drones and one Mk ll "Heka" Repair Drone.
He wasn't willing to change his tried and tested tactical stance by adding an unknown variable like the "Pharaoh" just yet, since he didn't know what an autonomous Drone Command meant yet.
He trusted the System by now to not kill him with his own ship, but he wasn't going to start trusting limited AI quite yet.
AI were severely regulated by every star nation in the galaxy, ever since a prototype AI Battleship fired on a city from orbit.
Daniel wasn't quite sure what had happened there, but enough horror stories had been spread that he wasn't going to give weapons to one he didn't trust.
He didn't really have a choice about trusting the System, since it was, for intents and purposes, part of him now.
While his mind was running through all the potential disasters the System could cause, a notification popped into the top right.
[Ding}
[30,000 Galactic Credits transferred to your account.]
Daniel flinched at that.
Where the hell had that come from?
"System, what was that transfer for?"
[Commander, the transfer was for the bounty attached to the three Parkare-Class Corvettes you destroyed. This Unit sent a picture of their hull number to the ITA's bounty office, and the office deemed them to be apart of the Forsaken Pirates, whom each member is assigned 10,000 Galactic Credits as a bounty.]
Daniel had never actually met another Bounty Hunter before, even as a Navy Captain.
Bounty Hunter's, true to their name, accepted bounties to find people, hunt down pirates, escort merchants, whatever someone was willing to pay for.
The hunter part of the title came from the fact that most of the industry focused on finding felons evading the Federation Department of Interior Investigation.
There weren't actually that many Bounty Hunter's in Federation Space, since the FDII was really good at it's job, but Imperial Space was much different.
The Ministry of System Security was basically inept, being a dumping ground for the Navy's incompetents, as well as getting barely any funding from the Imperial Court.
So they opted to use their limited budget to fund bounty hunters instead of hiring regular agents.
10,000 GC's was a nice amount of money, but he knew that with the cost of the Components he would need on the market, there was no point in hunting for small fry or even Lieutenants among the galaxy's underbelly.
Only the Underbosses of the truly influential gangs were worth anything, and almost all of them stayed on their planets of influence.
Since Daniel was now a 5 million tonne Destroyer, he wouldn't be kicking down any doors.
Then a thought struck him.
Sure, he couldn't use the money from bounties in a meaningful way, but he could use the ITA Bounty Office's Job Board, which posted the bounties the FDII was too busy to hunt down, and the MSS was incapable of finding.
That would provide him a source of information on where to find pirates, and more importantly their ships.
"System, are you able to access the ITA's Job Board from here, or do we need to be in a station?"
[Commander, this Unit is only capable of copying information found in any given Memory Core. It is unable to connect to a constantly updating server.]
Well there went the easy route.
"System, set a course for the nearest inhabited Star System, preferably one with a pirate problem.
[Setting course for the Jal System.]
A dull hum reverberated throughout the Venator, and the Hovarth Drive cycled, forming an Albrecht Field around the ship.
And for a short time immeasurable by modern sensors, the Venator ceased to exist, before materializing in the Jal System.
Daniel was looking in shock at the travel path.
Apparently, his new Hovarth Drive was able to jump two systems now, something that was impossible to do with modern Drives.
Well, now he could always run away if things got dicey.
The Jal system was one of the few Inhabited Systems that had a Blue Star, something astrophysicists had been unable to figure out for a long while.
The System had been settled by the Jal Clan, a disgraced family from the Empire, who'd found the anomalous system and settled it, to the chagrin of the Researchers already on the planet Flor, the only habitable planet in the system.
Once Daniel was in the system, the System was able to use the Sensor to break into the local ITA branch and get an updated bounty list.
He selected the Class 3 Target section, since anything lower involved going on a planet, which was impossible for him.
**
[Job Board]
- Rory Barke: Class 3 (30,000)
- Jak Feald: Class 3 (45,000)
- Kerr Lars: Class 3 (50,000)
...
**
Not a single one of the Bounties available included any mention of a ship, so Daniel moved on to Class 4.
The Classes were meant to signify difficulty, which meant the higher you went, the harder you would have to work to claim the bounty.
Class 10, the highest, meant you were hunting either someone with a private army, or someone with a functioning Dreadnought.
Obviously there were only two of the former and none of the later.
Both the Federation and the Empire had exactly 10 Dreadnoughts each, according to the Treaty of Gar, which was signed at the end of the last war.
Daniel kept surfing until he found what he was looking for.
**
[Class 4 Targets]
- Grackle Pirate Base: Class 4 (500,000)
**
Apparently the FDII was having a good year, since this was the only Pirate Base in the Class 4 Section.
He selected the name, and an expanded description was displayed in front of him.
**
[Grackle Pirate Base: Class 4]
- Bounty Giver: Magistrate Rellter
- Amount: 500,000 Galactic Credits
- Description: The Grackle Pirates have been raiding the Jal System Ice Hauling Transit Route. Recently, they took more than usual, and are ransoming it at too high a price to pay. Please destroy the pirate's base, kill their leadership, and any Ice retrieved will result in a bonus.
**
Daniel read though the description, anger rising with each word.
Pirates were scum, but messing with an entire's planets water supply was lower than most.
Flor, while habitable, was full of heavy metals that were dangerous to humans.
Thankfully, the deposits were only found under ocean water, but since the planets only continent had very few fresh water sources, the planet relied on Ice Hauling to supplement their lack of water.
These Grackles were literally forcing a drought on an entire planet.
Daniel had asked the system to pull up any local news broadcasts, and reports were that nearly 200,000 people had died of thirst just this year, and the number was climbing.
Daniel quickly accepted the bounty, before immediately filling up his ammunition stores and departing the station.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein