Prelude: For The Mug

Frame shift drive charging. Ready to engage...3...2...1...

I'm finally heading back out into the black. Now that I've rigged a proper log system into the computer I can finally begin to tell my story. The Yellow Jacket is rocking a little more than usual, she knows where we're going. We're headed back home.

Of course I don't mean the backwater dirt ball I grew up on, I mean Hutton Orbital. I don't get back there nearly as often as I'd like but I have a special engagement, I paid a trusted friend to bring the Yellow Jacket's big sister, Workbee to the station for the first time. From there Yellow Jacket get a good rest and a little repair after our last bounty job. Then Workbee and I will take a much needed vacation. It's funny to say vacation because it's still work. While I'll be exploring the scan data I get in the process will bring in a small fortune. That and of course taking the cargo hold full of the infamous Hutton Mugs to the far reaches of the galaxy.

The Hutton Orbital Truckers call me Doog the Bounty hunter, but officially I'm registered as Commander Asheri. Granted neither of these are actually my name, the only one who knows that are my parents and my wing-man.  Like I said earlier, I come from a backwater ball of mud that didn't  even have a proper name.

I used to scavenge scrap metal to sell to the dealers at our world's only outpost. One day, while scavenging I came across the Asheri. She was a small sidewinder that had crashed in the wilderness. It was an amazing find, just for the metal alone. But when I looked inside I encountered a mystery that eventually would bring me where I am now.

The pilot, poor soul, hadn't had a chance to eject from the ship before it crashed. Amazingly the man appeared to have survived for a short time but was too badly injured to make it anywhere. In one of his hands gripped tightly, was a mug, labeled Hutton Orbital.  In the other hand, a piece of his ship, which he used to carve For the Mug into the ship console, presumably before he died.  After placing a call to the local outpost, I made my salvage claim: one sidewinder, one mug. When the authorities checked his flight recorder most of his logs we damaged, except for the last few moments. It was haunting, he was delirious, laughing hysterically and repeating "For the mug!", then he screamed, and then static. We buried him out there, facing the stars but I didn't have the heart to sell the rest of what found. Instead I worked tirelessly  to restore Asheri as best I could. By the time I was able to learn to fly her, many of the minor systems were still not functioning or were unable to be replaced due to my lack of funds or lack of parts. But it was working well enough to leave that planet behind and start off on my own.

I found the closest orbital station and attempted to make what repairs I could and find work. The idiots registering registered my name as the name of the ship. I didn't correct them, figuring an alias could come in handy. I spoke with some seasoned captains and they pointed me to Vaka's Zenbei Orbital. When I got there I took my first job, the local system authorities were looking for the captain of a mining ship, who decided that killing his wing-man was a better alternative to splitting the profits. I found my way to his last known location: an asteroid belt. The fool was there. I sneaked around him scanning him on the first pass.

He didn't notice.

As I swung around and targeted his frame shift drive so that he couldn't run. Another ship swooped overhead of me on my approach. This second commander was registered as mining detail, he was the target's hired gun. Bastard got a new wing-man. I was now outgunned. That's when I decided to be clever, I would shoot around him. The plan was that this would spook him, he'd run and I could take him down before his wing-man could follow.

It went well at first, he started to try to break the mass lock in the asteroid field and run. I chased after him. but the wing-man was pursing a behind me just out of weapons range, for now. I boosted, hoping to widen the gap when a new ship popped up on my sensors, It took on the ship chasing me and I, going with my original plan locked onto my target's frame shift drive and disabled it. I got him. My unknown helper joined me and opted for the dead part of dead or alive.

 Incoming message.

"You shouldn't tease the miners like that," the commander laughed. He offered to buy me a drink back at Zenbei, if we'd split the bounty. I scanned him, he was registered as a Hutton Orbital Trucker, remembering the origins of my ship, I agreed.

He called himself Jimmy the Mug and we toasted our shared victory, and his saving my hide from an unfortunate end to my short career. I explained about the ship and the mug and told him I was looking for where it came from.

"Hot Damn, you've got some guts commander, it's unfortunate about your ship's former owner, he was a good pilot. I was impressed with the way you flew out there, but your ship isn't really great for the job." He paused for a moment, "It's not often a mug comes back to Hutton. You keep the mug, and if you're willing to return the ship to Hutton Orbital I have a deal for you. And a job. I'm looking for a wing-man. You bring Asheri back home and you can fly a ship worthy of bounty hunting, right along with me."

I agreed, excitedly as he went on to describe the Yellow Jacket, a Diamondback Scout, armed to the teeth.

"There's just one more thing I need to know. I can't fly with someone I don't trust. What's your real name? It would help if I have to notify your next of kin should something happen to you, if I knew your actual name."

Hesitantly, I paused. But I thought, if I'm in this, I'm all the way in this. I leaned forward and whispered my name.

He laughed, "You do come from the middle of nowhere don't you?! Well that won't do. Considering your name, let's call you Doog the bounty hunter. Now finish your Gin, it's a long way to Hutton Orbital."

Ever since then Jimmy the Mug and I have been working with the Hutton Orbital truckers. Taking on all kinds of jobs from bounty hunting to trade, and now, we are going to go exploring. It's time I ended this log. We're almost home.

For the Mug.