It had only been 10 years since the great fall. The loss of the uplinks and gates brought chaos to the galaxy. On many worlds, it meant annihilation. Centuries of terraforming had populated countless worlds. Worlds that were never meant to support life. As soon as the supplies were cut, the machines failed and worlds were lost. On many other worlds, life became slower. More dangerous and exciting. A world called Greyfax, which was once considered undeveloped and primitive, quickly found itself the center of the universe. It was the center of hub of the few reaming jump gates that were able to be repaired. A total of four systems were able to connect and make Greyfax the trading and service center. Hyper fold capable ships were counted in the dozens these days, so traffic was nothing like before the fall.

Today, Scut is searching for a bottle of Balorean Cave Beetle slime. It can be processed into dirty Balorean crystals. These crystals are the key ingredient in a certain type of hyper fold fuel. Which is in high demand these days as the processing plants are now lost.
The question some dealers might ask, why is a scruffy newt such as Scut looking to obtain fuel for a ship that very few have access to. Only royalty and a tattered military still have access to the power ships that can make the fold.

The answer lies in an abandoned mining field several short hops from Greyfax. Scut had traded for some information about salvage opportunities after the fall. One that was of interest to him was the possible wreck of a mining transport nearby. It took them many years to save up the fuel to make the microhop journey, but the data was correct. There was a derelict ship in the field, but it was not a mining ship. It was a pirate attack cruiser. Fully build out for war and high speed runs. The ship was configured in a way to confuse local sensor sweeps, but up close you could see it was a top of the line, hyper fold capable war machine.

To be continued....