<div style="text-indent:1em;">"When exactly did I piss God off?"  Erix Treye quietly asked himself, sitting on the cold metal stool as he replayed his life story through his head.  He was not a religious man by any means, but when so much goes wrong in such a short amount of time a man begins to wonder.  "Which exact moment of my life landed me on the shit-list of some divine being."  The problem was not a hole in his memory, but a excess of possible culprits.  "It might have been the time I wrecked a space station, but those guys were corrupt so I doubt that.  Maybe it was when I assassinated that preacher.  He was leading a doomsday cult but who knows, maybe he was right and his god is taking vengeance for his prophet.  It might have been that last job but... No, I wasn&amp;#39;t to blame for what happened, and I did all I could to set things right."  Erix leaned back against the wall, eyes panning his dingy little cell.</div><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">If this wasn&amp;#39;t bottom of the barrel then he was getting pretty damn close.  The only light came from the far side of the bars, a plasma lamp swinging from a frayed wire, making the brig rock to and fro like an ocean boat.  There was three guards outside playing cards on the table, tossing credits about with reckless abandon.  Why would they need to worry about money now?  They had just caught the biggest score of their lives.  The largest bounty in Alliance space history.</div><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">Well, technically only third, but it was the first to get an equally large bounty from the Alliance government, and the criminal underworld.  Give his body to the cops and his head to the crooks and you were set for life.  Erix gave them two months tops before they manage to blow it all on a diamond sex-bot or something and go right back to pirating.</div><br/><br/><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">Erix tilted his head sideways, trying to use his ear to scratch at the energy slug attached to his massive left arm, sucking all the power out of it.  It was a fairly cheap one, just a small metal bump that hooked onto his metal arm, sucking all the electricity from it and turning it into a high frequency energy cloud.  That stuff would leave a trail a mile wide, but it wasn&amp;#39;t like Erix was going anywhere.  His ship, the Hull Tap, was hooked into the cargo and his equipment was locked in the armory.  Well, most of it anyways, these guys weren&amp;#39;t very good at searching him.  Honestly they wouldn&amp;#39;t have had a chance of catching him if he hadn&amp;#39;t waltzed onto their ship.  He had been desperate, hitching a ride onto the first ship out of Alliance space, should have realized they&amp;#39;d be pirates.  They had waited until a few days into the trip, they all of them just walked up to him, guns drawn and smiles like Christmas.</div><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">But none of that mattered now, he was going to be carted back to Alliance space, slaughtered like a prize pig, and if he was lucky toasted by the wine they bought with his blood.  He wondered what would happen the rest of him though, market for cybernetics was fairly strong.  His right arm would probably go to a collector, he wondered how long it would take them to find the secret compartment in his forearm.  If he could only get the thing open he could probably break out of here, but for that he needed to get the energy slug off his left arm.  Speaking of which, it would go on auction, no question.  It was a one of a kind piece, the work of years slowly adding more and more compartments to fit all of Erix&amp;#39; equipment.  It looked like it belonged to a metal gorrila now, but it carried nearly everything Erix needed for his job so he loved it anyways.  The rest of his cybernetics where more common, replacement shinbones, right shoulder blade that double as rifle storage.  Those would probably go to some up and coming headhunter, hopefully he&amp;#39;d treat them well.</div><br/><br/><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">Erix was shaken from his reprieve by a sharp crack of laser cannons.  "What the hell is going on up there?" He ask aloud, and surprisingly one of his guards answered.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"We foun&amp;#39; some company for ya, a transport ship.  Maybe ya&amp;#39;ll stop talkin&amp;#39; to yourself with more people down here."</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">Erix turned his ear to the sound of more cannon fire, an mournful sigh escaping his lips.  "I feel really sorry for them."  He admitted.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Don&amp;#39;t, its a Con&amp;#39; ship."  The pirate said back, laughing to himself.   Erix paled as he turned to face the pirate, standing up and walking to the door.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"The hell did you say?!" He yelled, then Erix heard the boom of a rail gun amid the cannon fire.  Erix attempted to brace himself against the cell wall before the entire ship shook violently, sending everything in the room flying about.  Erix laid against the far wall, little stool crushed beneath his left arm.</div><br/><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Your captain has killed us all." He stated grimly. The guards looked about in shock and horror as screams of pain come from above.</div>