Chapter 1: The Hand of a Shadow

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Date – January 22nd 3035

Time – 5:04pm

System – Cetus system

Planet – Temple (Tau Ceti f)

Location – 50 meters from docking port of space station 'Cipher', 46,107km from surface of Temple.

Status – 100% Optimal

A relatively large scout ship painted in a metallic sliver and black drifted lazily away from space station Cipher. Embellished on the wings of the spaceship in large letters the name of the craft was painted on. 'The Dauntless', the ship is named, and its designation number right below it so any government vehicles would know its only a private scouting ship.

The ship was made with a variety of items for deep space travel. Equipped with a jump drive for going from one system to another and solar sails for propulsion. Also Photon rockets for going to one planet to another (because using the jump drive uses a lot of fuel and solar sails are still very slow) the Dauntless is a fast spacecraft. It also comes with a deep space scanner and a lot of storage space for holding cargo, another job the Dauntless could do.

Piloted by young adults, the craft has never seen much action other than a few times with space pirates and craft of the shadier variety. Although the WUC brags about little to no crime around the galaxy, there's still crime. Dual lasers and rockets with ion thrusters and depth warhead charges is the craft's only load out.

Slow to hit its targets but when it does it penetrates and only explodes after 'x' amount of time then bursting a hole through a hull causing the vacuum of space to do the rest, "Whichever comes first." the captain usually said when explaining.

Even though she's the youngest she's still piloting the ship. Ms. Brown or Addis, as she's preferred to be called, is the youngest on the ship but piloting through solar systems. She's a bright skin girl with a hint of red to show her Martian blood and heritage for good measure. With a PhD in, well......everything, she's sometimes considered the smartest in the group. She usually wore her favorite brand of clothes, Space candy. She had on a graphic tee with a planet drawn on it along with ravenweave black jeans and Nike's ravenweave sneakers.

Manlin, the ship's navigator, takes a liking to her Earth like nature and wears it with pride. Being the only Earthling on the ship at 18 years old, Manlin was often teased due to her 'perfect planet' life causing her to have a sweet and soft nature. Although she's soft skinned she made up with brain power. She grew up in the New Republic of Asia and went to college in New New England but as soon as a job opened up for space travel she took it.

Covered from head to toe with space candy, Manlin also wore a graphic tee saying 'I heart you' on the front with ravenweave thigh high jeans, Nike's ravenweave sneakers and, usually stolen from his room, one of Jamal's hats.

Justin, from the start, knew he wanted to captain a ship. He went to Sagittarius Prime with Addis on Mars and they became friends there. although Addis hit much higher scores than Justin. While Addis continued on with her education, Justin went off to work. He was the one to purchase the Dauntless from working around Neptune's rings as a space miner when he was 17. Now at 19 he captains the Dauntless with his crew doing scouting missions for the WUC. Justin tends to have a liking to Skull products. He simply wore a black t-shirt with a white skull painted on along with blue jeans and ravenweave J's.

Jamal tends to have a mellow look about himself even though he's the one with the most dangerous job. Being the forward scout, he tends to have to go out and collect samples on the surface of planets and take readings scanners just can't pick up. Usually using his, "I grew up on Mercury, what do you expect?" excuse for his chilled attitude for danger he mostly only wore a Skull black t-shirt, black jeans and a green military vest to cover his shirt and carry some tools along with running shoes for scouting.

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