A Fantastic Day for Capitalism!

[UnStellar]

"Well, it's settled then, off we shall go!" Veritas was out of his desk in two shakes and put on a heavier coat, checking his tie in a mirror.
"Gather your mercs and bring them to dock 4-A! Unfortunately, my ship is undergoing some renovations, so we will be flying in a just completed prototype, the Venture III. It's got all the new bells and whistles, however, and I think you'll enjoy it." Veritas smiled his little smile. It was encouraging, enlightening. Despite his gruff exterior and his rough past; in a way, Veritas was still very innocent. Not naive, but idealistic. He held his beliefs very strongly, and he sincerely believed that with enough firepower and smooth enough words, one could accomplish anything on the mortal plane.

After about thirty minutes, Veritas and his new crew of mercenaries, twenty in total, found themselves admiring the craft. It was fresh and new, it had yet to see space. It was the brand new Jabra Mark 3-class corvettes, one of the first of its kind. It was fast, and it's communications array was next to none. The crew would have enough bunking, although it was very basic.

"Ah. I love a new ship. Everything in the right place. So full of hope, and promise. No one knows what it may accomplish. Well, it's already been commissioned properly, so we will just have to do the traditional maiden voyage ritual. Nigel!" Veritas called out to a nearby worker. Some folks milled about the Venture III, running checks on their clipboards, redundantly making sure it was space ready. One of these people rushed over to Veritas, a very nervous little man with big glasses that made him look like a ferret.
"Yes sir?" He asked quickly, eyes darting to the twenty-odd armored mercenaries behind him.
"The bubbly!" Veritas said simply.
"Hm?' Nigel asked, cocking his head. After a few brief seconds, he realized.
"Oh! Yes! Of course! Right away, right away, I'll go fetch it immediately, sir!" He said all this as he shambled away to find it.
"You have to crack a bottle of sparkling wine on the aft of a ship as it takes off. It's tradition. I shouldn't have to tell you about the importance of tradition in spacefaring." He pulled a smoke out of his jacket pocket and lit it with a regal looking, engraved flip top lighter. Nigel rushed back as he took his first draw, presenting him a sizable corked bottle of Zon Zorleon.
"Ah, excellent. You can't use the cheap stuff." He remarked.
"Alright! To business. All aboard. You men will be flying this new craft. It's a prototype, but it's predecessor never had an incident, and this design is nearly unchanged. Let's be off, I'm anxious to get on with this." Veritas took a long draw off the cigarette and dropped it, putting it out with his heel; wasting most of the tobacco still in it. The flight crew opened the large cargo hatch and it slid open gracefully. Veritas' entourage stepped inside the fine virgin vessel, and to their surprise, found the cargo hold mostly full.
"These are the products we are selling." He explained. "Latest and greatest, just rolled off the line at our factories."
 The firm metal crates were labelled with simple serial numbers and titles like "Skybreaker".

The bridge was fairly simple, and Hiro's mercs would no doubt have it up and flying in no time. About a dozen of his men, the most qualified, would be manning the guns in case of emergency, which left two. One would guard the cargo hold, the other wold mind the critical systems from sabotage and malfunction. Their engines revved up and boosters ignited. The dock was cleared and airlock open; they were clear for take off. Just before they punched it, a lone man in a space suit cracked the bottle across the aft of the craft. They took off, clearing Castlemark's protective fleet around Pleasure Planet and spinning up their FTL drive.
--

They appeared in the atmosphere of an enormous planet, and they could spot gigantic cities on the surface of its ocean. Their communications array scrambled up, and a transmission would be sent to the nearest city on the surface. The array was so powerful the message was clear as a bell.

<<<Vionix city, we are Zarethian businessmen looking for trade opportunities. Our craft is the Venture III. Requesting docking and audience.>>> 

[@Pokemon Master Red]

The Mercs were indeed quite impressed with the ship. At the remark of cracking a bottle on the ship, Hiro felt a sense of nostalgia. He may have lived on a island for most of his life, but he'd heard stories...The tales of Earth's past and present beyond his island home. Wasn't much else to do there, truth be told...But thats probably for another time "Heh...Guess we humans aren't the only ones with that tradition. Wonder just how far spread it is...Or how it came to be? Ah, well. Dont s'pose I'll ever know, in any case." As they explored the ship, most of the Mercs were somewhat disappointed by the relatively lackluster accommodations but knew complaining wouldn't get them anywhere. Besides, it did make sense-As a prototype, the main focus of the ship would of course be the main systems, not the luxuries for the crew.
Before they launched, Hiro went over to Veritas. "Hey boss, not doubting the abilities of your ship or anything, but I wanted to run this by you before confirming it. Flora and Alycia wanted to know if it'd be alright with you for them to launch the Dark Heart as a escort ship for this one. Barring of course protecting all of us...They figured that, this being a prototype vessel, having a primarily-combat based escort ship to ensure its survival would be advisable. If nothing else, they say they could run interference while this ship escapes if we do happen to find enemy forces. Running the ship with just Flora will probably tax Alycia quite a bit, but she says she thinks she can handle it for now."

[UnStellar]

Veritas waved him off.
"We are businessmen my friend, visiting a friendly world. An escort corvette would only raise eyebrows, we want to seem as friendly as possible. Besides, this ship is armed with a dozen double pulse turrets, half as many medium pulse turrets and a rail launcher in the bridge with a nuclear payload. We can handle ourselves." He said reassuringly, as they found themselves in the bridge.
"Set off, gentlemen."

[The Blade]

Arcanis VIII was a rather eerie world from orbit. The oceans seemed to be a fathomless black, absorbing all light and causing the entire globe to appear like a massive black marble.

The space around it was quite a different story, floating around in the opposite black, that of space, were many Vionix vessels. From small personal cutters of high ranking nobles flitting about like small mackerels to the larger forms of the frigates transporting the latest batches of recruits from Arcanis VIII to be taken away and trained up to be true soldiers of the empire.

There was one other thing in the sky above the water planet. These were Installations, the size of moons and there were quite a few dotted around the massive star space above the Vionix planet.
 
As soon as the Venture appeared in system it raised alarms. Usually any ships didn't know the exact locations of the planets so instead appeared out system but Veritas' ship had appeared behind the defensive lines and, being of a class the Vionix hadn't seen yet, was instantly locked on to by many thousands of cannons mounted upon the three nearest Aegis Stations and the lock was held until the message was sent and then the weapons switched off and the sensors turned elsewhere in case of other threat from true foes.

The city hailed by the Venture III was one of the smaller cities, a town by the planet's standards but still larger than most other cities on other planets. The city itself was called Armistice and it sent a hail back to the Zarethian vessel.

<<Welcome, friends. You gave us quite a scare there with your in-atmosphere appearance, please try to keep yourself to the designated warp zones or next time you may not be able to message quick enough. Don't worry though, you can land here and we'll receive you. It's been a while since we've had the pleasure of Zarethian company>>

A set of co-ordinates was sent to the ship that would direct it down towards the floating city.

[UnStellar]

Veritas smirked, practically beaming with self satisfaction.
"Told you it would be overkill. If we had had your ship with us we might not be here right now. Bring us down, boys, I'll get started on my sales pitch." He left them alone on the bridge,  Walking down a narrow hall that held the officer's bunks, passing through the gunnery bridge.
"Stand down boys; we won't be needing the guns. Four of you stay behind in case of emergency, but don't activate the guns unless I tell you. You, you, you, and you," He said, indicating four random mercs,
"You come with me, you'll be my escort. Just smile and appear inconspicuous unless somebody threatens me with bodily harm. When I tell you to shoot, shoot, when I tell you to holster it, holster it. We're business men, not a raiding party. I need four other volunteers."
Four mercs (OOC: Of your choosing Hiro) would raise their hands.
"I want you guys to help your friend in the cargo bay. Be on guard. Nobody will be coming here without me in their company. If somebody steps on board without me, unless it's when your fellow mercs, take em' alive. If they come in shooting, kill the motherfucker." He said the last word almost cheerfully, with a smile.
"The rest of ya can go to your bunks, but don't leave the ship for now. It's going to be a pleasure working with ya'll."