"Then I could not help wondering what the watching gods thought of us, with our clever

masks and our jokes. What we think of crickets, perhaps, whose singing we hear with
pleasure, though some of us smash them with our heels when they venture into sight."
—Gene Wolfe
 Contents
01 Aces High
The only laws out in the black are the ones you make.

02 You Keep What You Kill

Pride goeth before a fall, but you can always try to take a few of 'em with you when you go.

03 One for Sorrow, Two for Joy

It's bad luck to have a ship without a name, so we name them after things we love, fear,
revere, miss, or can't live without.

04 Stop or You'll Go Blind

Hunting ain't easy, but it certainly is profitable.

05 Why Does Rice Play Texas?

We are explorers—but why do we explore?
 Contents
06 Call of Booty
There are dangers in the deep, and they'll try to take what's yours.

07 It's a Kind of Magic

Politicians play for power, but at what cost to the pilots who bleed and die?

08 Home, Home on the Fence

Some ports prohibit what you can sell on their markets. Some pilots don't care.

09 Luck be a Lady Tonight

At times Lady Luck has a most un­ladylike way of running out.

10 The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree

They are coming.
 01
Aces High
 02
You Keep What You Kill
 03
One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
 04
Stop or You'll Go Blind
 05
Why Does Rice Play Texas?
 06
Call of Booty
 07
It's a Kind of Magic
 08
Home, Home on the Fence
 09
Luck be a Lady Tonight
 10
The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree
afterword
"Fangs" was originally a joke—a couple of images on
the Elite: Dangerous subreddit where I put some
noir­style hardboiled text over a pair of black­and­
white screenshots. But the starkness and cynicism
of the words stuck with me for days after, and as
cliched as it sounds, I found that there were more
images waiting inside of me, demanding to be let
out and put down on paper (or at least on pixels).
The result is this series of loosely connected
vignettes, which I hope to make the first of at least
one more full volume. This initial book, which I have
collected under a somewhat portentous title
(though "pretentious" is probably a more apt
description), is not so much a narrative as a series
of short windows into the world of Elite: Dangerous.
There is no single protagonist because we are all
the protagonists at various points—and the villains,
as well. "Fangs" is about us—whether we trade,
fight, run, pirate, explore, steal, or just sit and
watch the slow turning of a space station.

I am indebted to the Elite: Dangerous community

for all of the praise and encouragement received,
and also for so graciously allowing me to use
screenshots posted to the official forums and the
subreddit. Special thanks also to Mike Gapper,
Matt Frary, Brendon Morgan, and all the others at
Frontier Developments.

Fly safe, commanders.

Lee Hutchinson
CMDR GARRUS
 Fangs, copyright © 2015 Lee Hutchinson

"Elite: Dangerous" and all associated names, brandings,

and logos are the property of Frontier Developments and
are utilized under the terms of its Non­Commercial license.

Except where otherwise noted, all content in this document

is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution­
Noncommercial­ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Originally published online at fangs.ink