The thing about salvage operations, they were dangerous. Now, the uninitiated would assume the danger came from the job itself. Exploring derelict ships and abandoned colonies certainly did have risks of course. Strange pathogens, weird alien critters, and of course the occasion murdering psycho, all of these things and more could happen, but they weren't really the issue. No, the issue was the government. Or rather, governments.

A hundred years ago, there were just the two. The Empire, and The Legion. Of course they had longer more fanciful names for themselves, but nowadays, that's what they were remembered as. And like all egotistical overreacting governmental bodies, both wanted the whole universe. And neither could share. So obviously the only choice was a war. And the thing about two hyper advanced civilizations going to war? It destroyed everything. Moons thrown at planets with gravity emitter ships, stars snuffed out with anit fusion bombs, entire solar systems wiped out like it was nothing.

The entire universe was changed forever, irreparably damaged in the decades long conflict. Nobody is sure how many people were alive before the war started, so it's difficult to be sure how many were lost. Conservative estimates start at sixty percent, some put the number a lot higher. Either way, there were many dead. Entire spices wiped out dead. All for nothing. The war ended. The Empire and Legion just sort of keeled over after years of hemorrhaging people. In the nether side one, and the universe was left occupied by deserters, wounded, and the few groups that managed to stay neutral and avoid conflict.

Still, power craves a vacuum, and with the big guys gone, suddenly every group with a few ships and weapons wanted to carve out a piece of space for their own. Which brings us back to today, and why it's dangerous to run a salvage operation. Everyone wants a cut. Every planetary defense force, every two bit warlord, every imperial or legionary inheritor, every single one of these assholes felt they were owed a piece of the pie. "Oh, you're stealing from our sacred wartime pile of scrap, give us half the profit or we'll blow you out of the sky."

It went on and on like that, and frankly, captain Kalya Sliversec was exhausted of it. Nobody cared about any of this junk until someone else did all the hard work of finding something valuable in it. Someone like her. And she would be damned if she only got a crumb of profit for doing all the work. Which meant she was an outlaw in... well, most places really. Most salvage ships were though. This universe wasn't kind to independent ship captains. But to the ones who could do the work, there were fortunes floating out there in the stars.

Kalya was hoping she'd stumbled onto one of those fortunes today. It was a rare find. A nearly intact Legionary warship, apparently untouched, drifting just at the edge of an asteroid field. Sure, it was a bit difficult to actually get to the ship, considering the high risk of being crushed by rocks, but Kalya was a good pilot, and The Blue Horizon was a good ship. Most people would call her a junker, with her mismatched engines, one jutting wing, and blocky body, but the ugly exterior hid Kalya's life work. Plenty of weapons and armor, engines that could hop from Verko 6 to Regnare Prime in a two days, and sensors that could hear a rat fart on a moon on the other side of the solar system. Yes, Kalya was very proud of her ship, and she guided it through the asteroids without issue, before docking with the derelict.

Kalya set her sensors to work as she pulled on her suit, a faded orange jumpsuit, with a bulbous helmet that kept the air in, and everything else out. She grabbed a pair of duffle bags, one filled with a general supply of tools she made need, and the other empty, so she could carry anything particularly valuable back to the ship in a hurry. Finally, she strapped her laser pistol to her hip, her second most valuable possession second to her ship. After the war, technology had taken a hit. Suddenly the advanced stuff wasn't being made anymore, save for a few very skilled individuals, so things like working energy weapons were as rare as they were valuable. But Kalya just couldn't bring herself to sell it. Firing a bullet in zero g was a good way to drift for the remainder of your very short life, but you could fire lasers off all day long with no trouble. The little pistol had saved her ass more than once, and she never went on a spacewalk without it.

Speaking of, the sensors confirmed that the derelict was lacking in both atmosphere and gravity. Not that she had been expecting anything else. She put on her helmet, checked her air supply, and then made her way over to the warship.

It was creepy. Legionary architecture was always so... alien. Claustrophobic and oppressive, and only illuminated by her flashlight and the occasional floating glow stick she dropped to mark her trail, this ship was definitely off-putting. Still, she'd been in all kinds of creepy places, and she wasn't going to leave empty handed. So, she continued deeper into the belly of the beast, unsure of what she would find.

(So this was really long, and the thing I wanted to happen to set up the story didn't even happen yet. But I realized leaving it there will give you, whomever is reading this, an opportunity to more easily add your own idea. So. My original idea is that Kalya finds an old cryo pod with someone still alive inside. She proceeds to take said pod back to her ship, and cracks it open, to discover a hot alien lady inside. And that's still the idea I want to pursue, unless someone else brings me something better. I'm also open to someone being a GM and running the rest of the universe while Kalya explores it. Either way, other than the things established above, everything else is open. So feel free to world build whatever you like. I love collaborative world building, so whatever you make up, I'll roll with.

Oh, and because you're wondering, Kayla is a human woman. She's in excellent shape, athletic, with nice curves. Kind of like Wonder Woman, but still human lol. She has dark brown hair that's been dyed purple, but the roots are usually showing since she doesn't get to civilization to touch it up very often. Blue eyes, pale skin, usually wears a tank top, panties, and a jumpsuit, so classic sexy sci-fi look. For kinks, I prefer romance and affection, but I'm opener to darker things if they're well written. Limits, are the usual suspects, underage, scat, being horribly mutilated, things like that. Anything else, I'll at least consider. And yeah. Feel free to jump right in from where I left off, or if you prefer, we can talk some ideas before we get started. Last thing, non human ladies go to the front for what I'm looking for, but I'll take anyone with an interesting character/idea. Chats will be ignored. Thanks for reading.)