The journey home was far from simple… to escape the Chrysalith they had to jump somewhere else before jumping again towards the Crimson Empire Border.
Where they had to come out of hyperspace till, they were cleared by the Crimson Imperial Armies (CIA).
Thankfully the Chrysalith didn't seem to bother following them to the border.
From there they returned into hyperspace and journeyed back to Erythra Star System.
Suddenly an announcement came the intercom,
[We are exiting Hyperspace]
Orion opened his eyes and looked out his window, but the view he saw wasn't what he was expecting.
A massive space station the size of a planet was right out there, it was in form of a fortress with rings around it. It looked both intimidating and mysterious at the same time.
Spaceships came and went through the docks in an unceasing manner.
The Space station that he would soon come to know as the Norda Mercenary hub. It was the main branch of the mercenary guild in the Crimson Empire.
The space station grew larger and larger in the ship's window before it soon took up the entire view.
"Damn… it is big."
Orion grabbed his bag and immediately made his way to the command centre and just as he stepped through the door, he came face to face with Alara.
Alara stared at him and a smile blossomed on her face, "Mr. Kord, how are you finding the journey so far?"
"Very lovely."
"That is good," Alara nodded before she continued, "I know what you want to ask."
"Yes, feel free to do your thing, I will send you a message when we are about to leave."
"Payment?" Orion asked.
"You weren't included in the payment plans so I don't have enough funds to pay you now and I doubt you want any of the half-destroyed ships out there." Alara explained.
"But you should have enough funds for now." She gestured at the backpack he was carrying.
"What if you just plan to go back on your words." Orion questioned unceremoniously.
"Trust me I wouldn't… You are the best pilot that works for me why would I give that up just for a ship and a couple credits." Alara chuckled as she stepped around him and made her way down the hall.
"Working with you." Orion corrected.
"Whatever you say Mr. Kord, I will be here for a few days dealing with the mercenaries."
Captain Swift followed her closely, and just as they were about to turn the corner Orion called out, "I am taking the Starfighter."
"Feel free to do so, just make your way down to Erythra Star System when you are done." Alara said as she vanished.
***
Orion threw his bag into the available space in the starfighter while he started the starfighter and connected his system to it.
"You are clear for take off Rift Dancer."
"See you soon guys." Orion said as he pressed the throttle and blew off into space.
Almost an hour of flying later, Orion could finally see the space arm that illuminated the way with guiding signal lights for ships.
Following the guiding light for Starfighters, Orion slowly navigated in the space station's docking bay.
He wondered if anyone would contact him through the communication channel that he left open, but nobody did.
Space Station seemed only responsible for guiding the ships outside to come in and nothing more.
Not only was the management lax but so was the security however the dock was in such a peaceful state, at least it seemed peaceful, indicated that necessary management was in place.
The station's current relaxed management was also beneficial for him, so there was no need to worry.
As for leaving the ship unguarded, that wasn't much of an issue to him. Not only was the insignia of the Helix Corporation boldly pated on it but it was also registered to them.
He grabbed a cloak that he borrowed from the bag and pulled it over his head, he reached back into on of the backpack pockets and pulled out an handful of coins that he stuffed into his pockets.
Making sure his face was covered before opening the hatch and stepping off the spacecraft with his bag.
He had a few goals for coming here.
One, get a new identity.
Two, get information.
Three, Unlock a bunch of these loots.
Four, sell off the useless loots.
Five, become a real mercenary.
Orion stood on one of the horizontal elevators of the dock.
Watching the scene beside him speed by, he considered the feasibility of his ideas.
He knew almost nothing about the space station beyond the basics, making everything very difficult to accomplish.
After wondering around for a while, he had begun to consider directly downloading stuff from one of the dataports around.
Finally, he gave up trying to look for the place himself and instead speak to a local.
And the best people he could speak to were most likely the mechanics that lived here.
'They should know a lot of things since this is their home, right?' He thought as he made his way to what seemed to be the maintenance plant.
He soon found two maintenance engineers in staff uniforms smoking by the structural pillar of the maintenance plant.
The older, middle-aged maintenance engineer instinctively glanced around upon noticing Orion's cloaked figure walking towards them.
When the maintenance engineer realised that he and his partner were the only one there he immediately became guarded.
He clicked his tongue, glanced up at the security camera with exaggerated motion and asked Orion, who was standing a few steps from them, "Do you need maintenance for you ship? Or maybe an introduction?"
"Introduction. Shall we chat?"
"Hmm?" The middle-aged engineer sized up Orion, suddenly chuckled and turned his head to continue chatting with the younger engineer after realising Orion wasn't a customer.
But just in the next moment, his peripheral vision saw Orion put his hands into his cloak and something glittering.
The middle-aged engineer turned his head back to see Orion with an open hand, and several gold coins in it.
The gold coins were physical representation of credits, where one pure gold coin equals one credit.
While gold wasn't exactly super rare in the galaxy everyone still accepted it as a currency because it was widely recognized.
"Care to chat?" Orion asked again as his other hands jiggled his pocket making a clinking sound, "there is more where that came from."