Another day, another successful raid. As the Seventh Mark glides towards the station, Zoe leans back in her chair and takes a deep breath.
Zoe honestly couldn't remember the last time something went south for her. These last few weeks have been really, really easygoing. She waylays a poor unsuspecting ship, warps herself onboard, teleports back whatever she wants, and leaves without a trace.
Nowadays, as soon as they recognize Zoe, the crew doesn't even put up any resistance. But they are taking photos of her. For some reason. Maybe it's because she's gotten so notorious? She'd like to think that's the case! They just walk up to her with their camera or tablet or what have you, snap a picture, and walk off.
Oh, she's being hailed. That's what the beeping on her console is about. Enough of the self indulgent monologuing! Zoe leans forward to accept the request, the connection coming through clearly.
"STC Sickle to vessel ID '7MS3', please state your intentions."
If Zoe had to pick between getting interrogated just after coming away from a successful robbery or getting interrogated days afterwards with no incriminating evidence, she'd certainly pick the latter. Who would pick the former, anyways? It just seems like a hassle, to be honest. Zoe would be wasting both the officer's time and her own.
Oh well. All she had to do was lie again. Lying is actually pretty easy. She lied her way into becoming a space pirate, so what's stopping Zoe from just... lying to the inspector about what she's doing?
If the answer was "nothing at all", then that's correct. Grabbing the microphone, she turns it on and clears her throat before beginning to speak.
"STC Sickle, understood, I am carrying valuable material for Sakero Tech!" Nailed it.
It goes pretty smoothly after that. STC Sickle drifts into view across the window, deploying a laser to guide the Seventh Mark into the listed docking bay. "Received. Maneuver to Bay 12. Welcome to Antelope Station."
Nobody likes to mess or delay corporate deliveries because corporations really, REALLY, hate when it happens. What happened with the Serpent's Drift's hijacking basically solidified that maxim. While it's commonly agreed that MagriTech didn't exactly need to deploy the equivalent of a small private army to deal with three ships plus the one stolen cruise vessel, the message was received loud and clear.
As a side effect though, some of the courier vessels Zoe targets have started tagging their transponder as "CORP VESSEL / CORP CREW". It makes her laugh everytime. Sakero Tech is her favorite company to use just because of how many ships come into port bearing that origin. You don't decide that out of 500 ships bearing deliveries from Sakero, the 501st is the one you pick for a surprise check. Complacency is her best friend.
Breathing a sigh of relief after the click signals a successful docking with the station, Zoe stands up and moves to exit the Seventh Mark. Time to get on with what she was supposed to do today! Which was... a lot, actually. Pay her dues for the ship, pay for her apartment rent (due today, for some reason), feed her latent anime addiction, go visit that highly reviewed restaurant on the 56th level of this station...
Meh. She'll figure it out as she goes. Pirates don't really have plans. They just steal stuff! Zoe already filled her stealing quota earlier, but surely a bit more couldn't hurt.
