They had called it disciplinary action. A decision made to save both time and face. He saw it as an excuse to get away from that damn space station, seeing no point in staying aboard Helios when most of his privileges were revoked. Jack had thought the punishment he’d earned extreme-- in his mind all he had done was commandeer a unused Hyperion satellite, re-configuring it to serve his own purposes during his tenure spent observing Pandora for the company. It in no way deserved a suspension-- and yet that was what he had been served with.
It was a sour loss to accept, especially when he realised how him being caught red handed would delight that rat Tassiter. All the work he had conducted, with little to show for his efforts. That needed to change, not only to help his reputation recover in the eyes of his employers. And so, deciding a change of scenery, Jack gathers up what few possessions he has and heads down to the hanger bay, bribing the guard to let him borrow one of the ships parked there on the pretence of returning it soon. Not only would Jack not do this, by the time he had finished using the vessel it would be reduced to a pile of scrap on a distant world.
As for what that same very same destination would be, he remained undecided, frowning at the projection of a star map as he takes a seat in the ship’s flight deck, ready to depart. From the list of options available, the majority of planets that he could see boasted inhospitable climates, being either a frigid hell or a blazing nightmare. Once he eliminated the negative matches however, he was left with two dozen or so planets to choose from, all existing in solar systems that his current craft could be pushed to travel to. Thinking this sample still too large, he applies one last filter to it, in the hopes of returning a particular match: planets that had the potential to house the mythical Vaults of legend.
Initiating the launch sequence, he places his fate in luck’s hands, deciding on a whim to feed the few sets of coordinates that are retrieved from his filtered search into the ship’s flight navigator, leaving the on-board computer to choose which destination to visit first. With that done, the ship’s landing gear retracts, thrusters kicking in to bear the craft aloft as the main engine started to cycle, building charge. Letting his fingers whisk over the switches and dials that surrounded him, Jack pulls up a screen that presents him with one last look of Helios. The sight manages to annoy him more than it should. Knowing that he was not wanted back here until his suspension had expired causes the frown he wears to become a grimace. All they did was hold him back anyway, turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to the numerous opportunities he had tried to bring to their attention.
And then he was gone in a flash, destination locked in with thoughts concerning Helios pushed to the back of his mind. Where he was venturing, Hyperion had no place. If he had their way, they wouldn’t be relevant for much longer-- not without him in their employ.
