Story Draft

This is one way I didn’t expect to start the day.
That was the single thought that preoccupied Casimiro Valdez’s mind as he kicked his Correo’s engines into full, clearing the docking bay of Skiros Station. The day itself had started ordinarily enough, he woke up, had his usual morning victuals and went off to start the day. What was made today especially unusual however, was the strange message he had received on his Neural Net account. It simply read:

[Come to the usual spot, I have a surprise for you. Coordinates are enclosed.]

Now, the sender of this message was well known to Casimiro, it was from this person which most of his income was generated. What surprised him was the way the message had been worded. Usually the message would contain a quota of Artifacts that would have to be secured for a shipment or some other mundane detail. He provided these wares to and payment would follow. That was usually how things would go. It was through this back and forth that Casimiro’s life had improved immensely. While other Corsicans usually resorted to piracy to earn a living and earn prestige, Casimiro could do neither of these. Fate had decided early on, in its eternal wisdom, to deal him another hand. At the age of eighteen, when he had ventured into the Malvada Cloud to prove his worth to his people, his ship had suffered a catastrophic accident. While dodging fire from the in-human adversaries that dwelt within, one of the bolts of energy had struck his ship, causing several key internal systems to ignite and explode. The resulting shrapnel had ripped through the cockpit and his body. Against all odds however he managed to pilot his craft out of the nebula and back to home ground. What followed was anything but fortuitous. Now, unlike the colonies, life out in the Edge Worlds was hard, especially so on Crete.