The ship landed and I realized that the ship docked at the refueling station. I can board any ship and escape in any direction. These places are automated which means there won't be any cameras to identify me. I could get a job and travel anywhere. Stowaways can get jobs that others would reconsider. I applied to work as a salvager. I found a discreet crew who was looking for workers. I volunteered and they took me in without question. I was a member of a salvage company called The Abyssal Buccaneers. The team that I work with is called the Void collective. We were sent to war zones to get useful parts to repurpose. I was amongst those who had to assess the parts before they were taken. The first ship was an Umbra dreadnaught. The ship was intact but was drifting helplessly. The ship looked like an egg with a shaggy peeling outer shell. We wore protective gear to survive the cold vacuum of space. The owner had sent a few small scanning bots to see whether the ship was safe to salvage from the start. We first retrieved them to examine the extent of the damage. The scan shows an Electro magnetic pulse had disabled the ship. The surface cannons and main guns were shot off. Once we are certain the ship was stable enough to cut and we won't blow ourselves up. We use a cutting torch to get past the hull. The gravity generator was destroyed so a few broken components were floating. We avoided any and all sharp objects to ensure the integrity of our suits.
We divided the ship into several compartments. The deck where the main computer still holds valuable information. The next was the armory. Weapons that were being used to harm innocent people. The last was the shield generator. I went to the armory to collect the weapons. We had twenty minutes before the Orion Corp sends a demolition crew to blast it to bits. We used the elevator shaft to get there and start unscrewing the payloads. Some housed antimatter. It was held in suspension in glass cylinders with their own power core to make sure it didn't detonate by itself. The power cell was deteriorating so we had to move very quickly. My companion sent a signal to summon the ship. It activated the magnetic clamps and he started to cut out a circle. Once we removed the barrier between ships the first thing we transfer was the cylinders. We started removing the missiles and the plasma charges. We removed all of it and managed to get on board before the wrecking crew came to demolish the ship. The on board computer sounded the alarm as the wrecker class ship named Basher had opened the star bridge and was trying to bypass the floating debris to enter the area for demolition. The others also acquired whatever useful information they could scrounge. Once everyone was on board we flew as far as possible. We were flying by a torned piece of hull clearly belonging to the Yevchenkov class cruiser when we heard the bang.
The brief communication burst had mentioned that some salvage company has strip mined the ship clean. Once we got back to the compound. The company quietly sold the items in their underground auction house. All of the proceeds were divided. The owner gets forty percent. The people who repair our ships get ten percent. Security stationed in the auction house gets ten percent. The transport ships hauling the auctioned goods get ten percent. The rest is divided amongst the salvage team who got the items. I had to open a new bank account under a different name. I chose be Ossian Null. They assumed that I was a refugee who had faced the Umbra or the purist and survived. And that is how I am introduced. They never asked me to do anything that they weren't willing do. They are a joking and clumsy bunch. After we got our money I got to see the news showing the fire that burned the military base. They had no clue who had set the place on fire but they are hoping anyone could come forth and provide them with information. The servers were all damaged so no one saw the culprit. I sat down to enjoy dinner and the others went to spend time with loved ones.
The next morning we were assigned to strip mine a military craft of unknown origins. The onboard computer says it is a spectre class X-32 named The Infiltrator. It was painted to absorb light and reflect nothing. It had double wings on either side. Four engines but still very quiet. The front was angular with large windows and the back had four retractable drive fins. Two plasma guns in the front and three on the back. The ship malfunctioned and no one has claimed the vehicle. Means it can't be fixed. I decided to buy it so I contacted my bank and had them broke the deal. I got it and I made my official home. If it were anyone else it would have been confiscated. Since it is illegal to call a spaceship a home. But since my cover story says that I am from a drifter colony I can't actually have a residence unless I get married. So the ship became my home in every legal sense. The company wasn't curious so they let it go. We were ordered to go to the northern hemisphere clean out a berserker class ship. I recognized it as a Trojian attack ship. The hull was a dull yellow and had five gray stripes which means their speciality is orbital bombardment. The guns on the underside have been shot off. The cockpit windows were long gone. We quietly moved in and started to cut off the essentials. We were hauling the last piece when a Wrecker class ship came out of the star bridge. It opened fire and we had to scramble. I used telekinesis and moved the last piece into the cargo hold and pushed a button that reeled us in. The ship closed and flew away as fast as possible. The ship kept firing at us but we kept dodging.
I recommended going towards a gravity well. The pilot flew straight to where an old ship was destroyed but its still active artificial gravity generator and tractor beam was causing havock. The pilot swung away at the opportune moment. He was very careful as he took the turn but the wrecker had an inexperienced pilot so he was stuck as the ship slowly began to tear in two. The escape pods shot out as we flew away. The captain gave me a thumbs up as we opened the star bridge and got Magnus bay. The curator was pleased to see we were safe. He promised to get us a new ship and I volunteered my new ship. He was shocked that I had purchased the ship but if it can help the crew get the stuff he wanted to sell then he had no objections whatsoever. In fact he was annoyed he didn't do it. Between missions I spend my time going through the ship trying to figure out exactly how it operates. After a few trial and errors I realized it was a Devourer ship. It travels by opening wormholes. Once the ship was activated the computer program explained how to repair ship. I explained the ship was no longer a Devourer so it better disengage the protocol permanently. After several repairs I took it for a spin. I changed the name to Ion. The others thought the name was silly. They came up with Ebony Vengeance. Telemetric Oddball. Midnight Hullbreacher. Cosmic Wrecker. And last one was the Winged Menace. When the paperwork was completed I named the ship Midnight Menace. The on board computer was named Ion. No one objected.
I took scrap from the yard that was deemed unusable. I got permission from the curator so there would be no objections. I used it to make a few weapons. A deployable laser grid that unfurls and attaches itself to anything and slices anything chasing me. The computer would stay active at all times. So if I say take off it will engage autopilot and get me as far away as possible. Midnight was placed inside the ship I was working in. So if things get bad it will be our escape pod. We were gathered to learn about our next pay day. A group of Mangalers showed up and started shooting. I wanted very much to stay still but instincts took over. I walked over and changed back to me. I raised my hand shot fireballs at them. Then I melted their weapons and raised spikes to kill them all. I changed back and stayed on my knees. The captain told me to get up and he promised to keep me a secret as did the crew. The old man had questions. I was told not to mention Hypogean so my answer was that I was born this way. He asked if anyone has experimented to try and acquire my abilities. I explained that I had spent time with the scientific community. I explained that genetic experiments were conducted for years but the evolution project was a failure. No one has succeeded yet. Since all volunteers died. He stared in shock. He didn't have to ask around. He saw what I did and he didn't want to be in a galaxy where bad guys could do what I do. So he came to the same conclusion that the evolution project must not continue. The crew were strictly ordered not to tell anyone about my existence. He didn't want the repercussions of this secret getting out. He was sure the result would be devastating