He had been so close, so close.

Everything had been going so well. A successful company, more money and food than he could have ever dreamed of. Striving Step had it all. But he was never a pony who was satisfied that easily, he always wanted more…

That was often where it went wrong for him. Never being satisfied was his downfall. He always pushed just that little bit too far to see just how much he could get away with. This time, it had been a pad heist gone wrong and the authorities were hot on his tail.

Right now he was waiting, despite letting everypony know that his intention was to stay on the colony that was the stupidest thing he could have done. Eventually they’d catch him, outside the cities there wasn’t many places on Sleipnir a pony of immense size such as himself could hideout for very long. He had a plan, a contingency that he had put into place many years ago.

As he had found out his headquarters were about to be raided, he had run a special program on his computer made to send a signal to a ship, long ago he had made a deal with the captain that if he got word, he’d come for him. There was a pickup location set and all the blubbery stallion had to do was wait there for himself to be collected.

He pondered what he might do next, he had a pick of any colony he wanted to go to and he had siphoned off enough funds to a separate bank account that meant he would be comfortable for life. But that wasn’t his way, he had to be doing something. Perhaps setting up another pad company on another colony...hmm, do what he did with Sleipnir. Start on a fledgling world again. It was certainly a thought.

For now, all he could do was wait until the familiar rumble of a starships drives could be heard. Right now he was a little outside the city, in a small abandoned warehouse that had been of use long ago as a way station to transport goods. All that surrounded him were empty, silent fields. He contemplated ordering a last takeout meal but that would be rather silly. There was most likely a warrant out for his arrest. It would lead the Sleipnir police straight to him.

Back at the station, Lethal Force was tired. Very tired. She had exhausted every lead she had. Nopony had any clue where the owner of Sleipnir’s only pad company might have vanished to. Everypony she had interviewed or spoken to said the same thing, that they didn’t believe he had plans to leave the colony. Even Fireflash had been useless, but then again he didn’t have a great relationship with Striving Step anyway.

She had contemplated shutting down the docking ring and preventing all ships leaving the colony, but that required a lot of convincing of officials. Even though Striving Step had done some terrible things, it wasn’t enough to throw the whole of the Dockyard into disarray. Besides he wasn’t going anywhere, to her knowledge, so it wasn’t an issue…

She sat at her desk. There was nothing she could see right now in front of her that would tell her anything more about his getaway. Perhaps she needed a break, it would clear her head and she could at least think a bit more about her next course of action. A small nap in the precinct quarters for a short while would help. The mare pushed herself back from desk, waddling her way towards a free bed for a nap.

Back in the warehouse, Striving Step was getting anxious. The longer he waited the more chance there was of getting caught and the hungrier he got. He hoped he wouldn’t be caught or heard by somepony by an errant stomach growl.

But there it was, faint at first. But it got louder and louder. Outside he could hear that familiar roar of drives that were pushing a huge hunk of flying metal across a planet. Quickly however, the noise abated. As if it was landing.

Powering up his pad, the lardy stallion ventured outside. There was a ship, a reasonably large one sitting floating slightly above the fields. Towards the back a cargo port had opened and a rather thin looking stallion was stood leaning by its entrance. Only exchanging a nod, Striving Step piloted himself inside and was followed in by his host. Wasting no time, the ship powered up its engines and made back for the docking ring to escape the planet’s atmosphere and get back into deep space.

Lethal Force, having woken from her nap on a hunch was looking over the manifest list of ships that had left the colony in the past few days that were registered cargo vessels. All had notes about their visit.

E.M.F Tranquility - Put down in Docks for 2 days, took on passengers. Bound for Haizum colony.
E.M.F Harmony - Refuelling stop. Bound for Arion colony.
E.M.F Unity - Cargo dropoff, outside docks. Bound for [ERROR].
E.M.F Cadance - Put down in docks for 1 day, food delivery. Bound for Embarr colony.
E.M.F Ataraxia - Refuelling stop. Bound for Tulpar colony.

Nothing out of the ordinary except for the Unity, although sometimes destinations weren’t decided when the ship left and it showed up as an error on the destination log. Regardless, the name of the ship was somewhat familiar and she was curious about the fact it had a cargo drop off outside the docks. All landing ships on the planet had to come into the docks for inspection, a ship being allowed to land outside of those either belonged to a very wealthy individual or it was some sort of special jurisdiction that was given. She got on her communicator to one of her officers.

“Can you check out the Unity, left a few hours ago with no destination? It had a permit to land outside the docks. I want to know why.”

It was just a hunch, Lethal Force had no idea why but perhaps it had been a ruse all along. Maybe Striving Step was already gone and he had made his way off the colony hours ago, or he was still here, planning his next move. Regardless she felt bound to follow up on an error in the logs, despite it being a common one. Whatever the case, despite a nap the mare was still exhausted. She decided enough was enough for the day. Time for a fresh start tomorrow.