Mad's Dash

Mad’s Dash

Out in the Easternly reaches of the rim, Kolde’ta sat relatively undisturbed. Settled long ago by an empire lost to the annals of history, the people there lived their mundane lives as they always had. Unfortunately, a coup d’état was brewing within the planet’s major cities.
The cost of living had far exceeded the means that could be achieved through city life. As such, they turned to far more extreme forms of government. A fascist party was formed, and quickly swept through the cities. It’s propaganda swindled the desperate with it’s false promises, and it’s followers silenced the few who poked holes through the flimsy logic. Most worryingly of all, it spread into the Military, and through the combination of civilian militia, and the indoctrinated military, there was little that Parliament could do when they marched on the capital.
such a revolution was welcomed by Madilta’s family. Her entire family had seen some sort of position that was either directly under, or aided by the military. Matilda however detested the government as they continued to restrict her personal rights and made her family’s life harder.
The Government decided that, in order to deliver on their promises of securing the lifestyle of those in the city, they had to increase the tax on those in the countryside. As a result, Matilda’s family now struggled to make end’s meet. But, they still continued to act as if the Facist Government could do no wrong as the food disappeared from their dinner table.
Luckily, Matilda was rather unsurprisingly not alone in her hatred of the dictatorial regime that had spread over their country. She partook in riots, joined partisan groups and spoke her mind to anyone who would listen. This quickly backfired as she rather quickly said the wrong thing to the wrong people and found herself with a target on her back. She knew that her family would pose no support, and would likely serve the state’s interest. As such, a plan was formed.
Her survival at this point almost entirely relied on her ability to get off-world. But, doing so was easier said than done. The government had nationalised nearly all of the shipping companies going off of the planet and closely controlled what went in or out. She would need to make a mad dash to a spaceport and find a way to smuggle herself off-world. Her main saving grace would be the old car they kept in the barn. It was dusty and old, but she had taken the time to refurbish it with her grandfather when she was younger and she was sure it would get her where she needed to be. It was settled then; She would pack her bags and leave later that night. Once everyone was asleep she grabbed her bags and made her way out of the house.

Once she had gotten to the bottom of the stairs, she saw her great-grandfather’s rifle and revolver sitting up over the mantle place. “Perfect.” she thought to herself, She pulled a chair over, pulled them both from their display case and ran to the barn. She knew that her great-grandfather bought ammunition for his old guns when he had left the military and had kept it in the barn with all of his old military kit. All she was able to find was two boxes, or 80 rounds for the rifle, and 32 bullets for the revolver.
Both of the guns were laughably old and antiquated, but they were better than nothing, and would have to do. Matilda grabbed the keys to the old car and put them into the ignition. The engine coughed and sputtered several times, but would not start. She turned the engine over again, but got similar results.

Panic set in as the lights came on in her house, the sound of the engine had woken them up. “Shit…” Matilda cranked the engine again, pulling back the choke and feathering the throttle. “Start you fucking bastard!” She slammed her fist into the steering wheel, and almost like clockwork, the motor coughed to life.
“YES! FUCK YES!” it was at this time where the front door to her house would slam close, her father had heard the engine start, and she doubted he was happy. Matilda quickly put the car into gear and floored it out of the barn, driving right past her father and then down the road out of the family farm. She could’ve sworn that he had yelled something at her as she drove past, but she couldn’t pick-up as to what it was. Frankly, she didn’t care either, there was little he could do to stop her now, she was already gone.

The next day, her family would call the police informing them that their daughter had ran away. Officially they would place a warrant for her arrest so she could be returned to her family, but behind the scenes all hell was breaking loose as it didn’t take a genius to figure out that she was trying to get off world. As such, a bounty for her capture would go out through most comercial channels for those who were willing to take the job. The description read as follows:
"22 year old female named Matilda, may go by “Mads”. Last seen in an olive drab jacket, tank-top and grey pants, driving a Green TR6. Subject is Armed and presumed to be dangerous, wanted alive."

Dumb
The Queue through Customs was laughably short. The only thing in front of them was what seemed to be an oil tanker, though, if that were the case it was a particularly well armed oil tanker.
Regardless, the Cruiser pulled up to the gate and was asked the standard boiler plate questions via radio; Where they were headed, how long they planned to stay, the purpose of their visit, What weapons they had on board and anything else they would like to declare . Oddly however, their was no request for passports or any documentation of the sort.

The man’s voice was coarse and dry and didn’t sound particularly enthusiastic about his career. After all, who could blame him? The orbital platform they used for customs seemed old.. Exceedingly old…. Rust covered most of the exterior, and the only decorations seemed to be the two flags bracketing the gateway. The flags in particular looked inherently threatening too, almost dictatorial.

While the two answered his questions, a large scanner passed over the ship, checking for any contraband to prevent smuggling of any kind. Or, items that the two had not declared.

Dumb
The Customs officer chime right back in “while I thank you for that, don’t attempt to strong arm me. You are cleared for entry. Happy hunting.”

The customs officer knew he should have questioned Ao more thoroughly about the mysterious orb of energy wandering about the Ship’s scan, but, he figured it was better to not push the line and see what exactly the “ol’ merc way” was.

As such, the Cruiser would be given access to Kolde’ta in it’s entirety. One of the only major spaceports on Kolde’ta was in Blackpool-upon-Sea, Kolde’ta’s capital city. This would likely be a prime area to begin their search, however, the Bounty’s Broadcast had stated that Matilda’s previous residence was in the backwater town of Paramo; Paramo itself was an extremely long distance away from Blackpool and lacked a sizeable port, but would still be available to land at.

Dumb
Mads turned off the motorway and pulled into a rest-stop that contained of the few remaining Petrol stations on the whole planet. Blissfully unaware to the whole situation unfolding around her she would pull her old car up to the pump, turn off the engine, and start filling the Petrol tank, along with a collection of several 2 Gallon Jerry Cans. The rest-stop would rather unfortunately be stationed right off the motorway near the town limits, and would place the dark green TR6 in clear view of the motorway.

It was dark out, seeing as Ao and Ralmia had landed late into the night and the moons were high up in the sky. Regardless, the roads were illuminated by several street lamps, each one flying the same Red and Black banner found on the customs gate, which would only help to give the empty streets an eerie feel.
The town was small and bracketed by large swaths of farmland on all sides with two major roads spearing through the Town Centre, and the fields of crops. Blackpool was Several Hundred miles away and only connected to Paramo via a four lane motorway that seemed to stretch on forever down through the empty expanse of nothingness; to make matters worse for mads, the petrol station she was currently at was, as mentioned, right off the side of this motorway.

Mads’ house was out on the other side of town, some distance from the town centre and surrounded by fields of grain on all sides. In the middle of these fields laid the Farmhouse and Barn, which were within walking distance of each other. The Farmhouse was Two stories tall and the barn was rather small all things considered. Perhaps it was used more so as a storage area for all of their old broken and ageing farm equipment?

luckily for Ralmia, one of the windows on the farmhouse was left open, likely the window to Mads’ room do to the rush in which she left; Though, the barn also looked more than easy enough to enter as well due to it’s age and general lack of security features.

Dumb
“oh, right, right… and yer welcome, the tea is my pleasure, really…”
He would eventually walk back into the room with two mugs, milk, sugar and a Kettle. He’d set it all down on the table, pouring Ralmia some tea, and then making himself a cuppa.
“Weeell.. not entirely. I know the she done up ’n left for some reason… Took my grandfather’s old Service Rifle, side-arm and also the old car she was always working on…” He’d sip his tea, then add some more sugar “Might’ve had something to do wit’ her political views… She’s not a big fan of the new government ya see..”
“is a shame tho… Miss her dearly…”

“uhh yes mam… why do you ask..? Also, if i’m correct, a TR6 is a type of car. But, those things are old, like, wicked old. Hardly ever see ’em anymore.” The Clerk would eye her carefully. “You alright? you look on edge lady… Oh, also, i’m not even entirely sure if i’m supposed to be telling you about who’s coming in and out of this store. Breach of their privacies or something like that..” the clerk would sigh and lean back into their seat some more. “but, who cares, i’m getting paid minimum wage after all..”

Dumb
“Thank you, honestly, I can’t thank you enough..”
Mads’ father wipe up the ring of water left behind by his mug and than set the mug back down onto the table, this time using a coaster.
“Oh.. and if it helps… i got some old photos of Maddy and that Damn TR6… The uhh, TR6 was an old car that she bought and then started repairing as a project of her’s.. If you’d excuse me for a moment..” Mads’ father would go upstairs, and then return shortly after with a collection of photos of not only the TR6, but also mads.

The Motel would seem to be a touch old, and also relatively small but would be perfectly fine for the time being. Before Ao could even get into the Motel, they’d notice a Small Green sport car parked out in front of the Motel, it seemed exceedingly old compared to the much more modern cars parked next to it; Fitting most of the descriptors that the clerk at the Petrol station had told them.

The person behind the desk was a nice old lady, seemingly in her 70’s. “oh yes… She came in not too long ago.. about five minutes before you..” the sweet old lady would smile warmly at Ao. “Are you two travelling together? I could instruct you to her room if that’s the case..? I remember a trip i went on with my friends once, I had a great time”

Darkstar
As Hayes pulled his ship towards Kolde’ta, a message requesting his ship go through customs would pop on the ship’s HUD, or whatever it’s equivalent was. Included in this pop-up was a series of directions to the nearest Customs checkpoint, which was luckily within visual range of Ghoul. There was no queue for customs so the Ghoul was free to pull right up to the gate

Assuming Hayes would go through the proper procedure expected by him and the ship would go through Customs, he would be asked the same boring old questions that most customs officers had become accustomed to; How long he planned to stay, the purpose of his visit, if he had anything to declare to customs such as heavy weaponry, etc. While the wholly unenthusiastic customs offer asked his questions, a scanner would pass over the ships confirming that the Ghoul wasn’t carrying any contraband, or that Hayes had declared everything of note.