Three hundred light years out from earth, a corporate husk of Sirius' wider expansion it appears as it looks; a remote mining station void of anything of value, but to dispose of mined resourced and stock up on limpets for future runs out into HIP 5440, 8396 and so on. Its easy to get lost out here in the naming convention and jumped to the wrong system more than once.
Stepping Stone Base, a civilian outpost importing explosives, mineral extractors and lichen; all far too lower value to bother with unless overly invested in the station (which i wasn't). Sirius Corporations hold over the station long forgotten on the broken promises of Li Yong-Rui. More letters of complaint, begging for a quick reassignment, or beguile lay in the out tray of the porter loo of an outpost and little more.
Hitting the mining for the day I forget the yocal silence and dust littering the station and head out to the more pristine rings of the surrounding area. The state of Sirius corporation rings like a bell in my head; did i pick the loosing horse? A strange conversation with another pilot, representing LootTech industries. Pleasant fellow, left a card. He seemed to like the call sign i'd chosen, sold a few hundred tons osmium his way over a few runs that day, kept the card.
