Logs from the Sevantya / #010 - "Operation Sarcophagus"
09 Jul 2023Tosh Vraugen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SEVANTYA / X8F-55N -------------------------------
-------------- COMMAND BRIDGE TERMINAL - 08/07/3309 - 16:13 ---------------
Login: Tosh Vraugen
Password: ****************
Authorization Code: Bravo-5-Kilo-7
----- ACCESS GRANTED -----
Welcome commander, you have 2 unread message.
- From: Tori Melendez / Received: 07/07/3309 12:43 / Subject: "Recruiting new SLF pilots"
- From: [ENCRYPTED] / Received: 07/07/3309 00:00 /Subject: "деловое предложение"
CARRIER STATUS: Nominal
LOCATION: HIP 20019 - Orbiting the main star
>/ INITIATE_LOG_RECORDING
Log Title: "Operation Sarcophagus"
P r o c e s s i n g . . .
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Access Granted / [Voice Recording ◉]
Been a while since I recorded one of those... things have been more busy than usual lately... there is ARRC and the war with CEC, the Thargoid War, the sampling ops of the Titans... hell there has barely been any time to just sit down and relax for a few minutes, but after the defeat we suffered in [REDACTED] this week, we decided to withdraw the fleet and take a break to repair our vessels and regroup. Yesterday however, I received a message from "El Gordo", at first I thought it would be another one of his crazy job offers, but this time it was something different:
||| ENCRYPTED VOICE MESSAGE ||| 08/09/3309 09:58 ||| Subject: "You will like this hombre" |||
"Toshy boy, que pasa hombre? Been a while since our little business in Iah Bulu eh? Listen, I got something interesting for you my boy, some corpo guy has been sniffing around, looking for mercs, fella been to Rochester station and even spoke to the mistress herself, of course she dismissed him, said the Frogs would have nothing do with it, but I saw the opportunity here, so I fetched the guy as he was about to return to his ship and after a few minutes talking to him he explained he is assembling a crew or something like that, and he need some top tier mercs for a top secret job, so me... the good guy that I'm... recommend you! Sure I know you are with the Alliance now, playing the good guy or whatever, but this is the real deal Toshy, this guy mean business, so hey, I arranged a meeting for you two, at the Pirate's Lament in HIP 17519, you know, safest place to conduct a business like this. You have 12 hours to get there, so andale and don't make me look like a fool! Look for a man in a brown worker jumpsuit, his name is Erick Devaine, and tell him that "El Gordo" sent you, like I said, this is the real deal boy! Come by Chinicollo once you are done eh? Tell me what went down with this guy, I might even pay you a beer or two, buena suerte Toshy, e no te mueras, ok?"
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Shit... I promised myself after all the bullshit that went down with David Brisco in Leesti, that I would avoid taking jobs from suspicious rich morons, but if there is one thing that "El Gordo" is good at is smelling bullshit and bad deals from 100 Ly away, so if he says this guy is the real deal, then it is probably true... what worries me however is that "El Gordo" doesn't do things from the good will of his lovely heart, sooner or later he will want something back in return.
After a couple of Kamitra Cigars and a few glasses of Lavian Brandy and of course some time thinking about why the hell he recommend me to some random corporate guy, I finally decided to go to HIP 17519 and check what this corpo guy is about... "El Gordo" was right about Pirate's Lament though, this asteroid station is located in an extremely remote, low pop system, ruled by a mysterious pirate gang that somehow manages to keep the Superpowers and Omnipol away, most if not all the "super illegal" stuff that happens across the bubble was probably planned and paid for here: terrorism, high profile assassinations, purchase and sale of prototype tech, alien artefacts, experimental weapons, illegal chemicals and pathogens are the day-to-day business in this place, there are even rumours that the assassin that killed Johann Fleischer, CEO of Caine-Massey, was hired here. The last time I've been here was in 3306, when Frederick was still alive... we came here to sell weapons to arm some communist revolution in a god knows where Federal system, it was then that I saw how this place worked and why it was considered a safe haven for the top dogs of the criminal world, there is an immense level of trust in the ruling pirate faction, the so called "In the Black Gang", they enforce a very strict set of rules that guarantees that whatever happens in Pirate's Lament stays in Pirate's Lament, once you dock your ship, you are stripped of your guns, communicators, recording devices and anything else that might compromise the "safety" of the station, fighting inside the Concourse of the station is prohibited and if you disrupt the peace, there is a pretty big chance you will be jettisoned out of the station airlock... and so far it seems that these rules have been working pretty well, since the system is still ruled by the same faction after all those years.
Once I docked, I went through the procedure I mentioned before, local militia took my guns and my comm devices, but this old merc still knows a few tricks, I have a sound recording device from the 2000s or so, extremely old piece of tech but still reliable if you want to bypass modern security scans, I remember Frederick told me he got this from a junk merchant on Earth, paid 250,000 credits and had it repaired, at the time I made fun of him: "Wow boss, paying thousands of credits for junk when you can get top of the line stuff for just a few hundred credits" and look at it now, this tiny piece of ancient human tech is right here helping me out. After the "formalities" were finished, I entered the Concourse with the old recorder online and looked for the man that "El Gordo" told me, it wasn't too difficult to find him but I didn't expect him to have company:
>/ PLAY AUDIO_LOG_0001B
Tosh Vraugen: Sorry to interrupt, I suppose you are Erick Devaine?
Erick Devaine: Ah yes, you must be Tosh Vraugen the mercenary that "El Gordo" recommended, I'm glad you arrived safely.
Tosh Vraugen: The one and only, however I didn't expect you to have company.
Erick Devaine: Oh there is no reason for concern, this is Helena, she is with me to guarantee my safety.
Helena: Howdy... partner...
Tosh Vraugen: So Mr. Devaine, how can I be of service?
Erick Devaine: I'm glad you asked Mr. Vraugen, I'm here representing Azimuth Biotech and we are searching for capable operatives to conduct a very delicate mission for us, as you are probably aware, the support for Azimuth Biotech has diminished considerably since the Proteus Wave and the death of Salvation, so finding people that would work for our cause has proven to be... difficult.
Tosh Vraugen: Can't blame them, shit has really hit the fan with the Proteus Wave failure, the Alexandria sabotage, D-2 and so on...
Erick Devaine: That much is true, yes, however I can assure you that we are a completely different organization now, our focus is completely on researching and developing new ways to counter the xeno threat, no shady secret experiments or anything of the sort.
Tosh Vraugen: I will be honest Mr. Devaine, despite the things that Salvation has done, it was him and Azimuth that managed to deliver the best tools to fight the xenos, I support your cause.
Erick Devaine: You don't know how happy I'm to hear that, as a matter of fact, before our meeting I did some research on you and to my surprise you were one of the Top 10 donors of Titan Tissue Samples on our last campaign, so you clearly know how to navigate through Thargoid infested territory.
Tosh Vraugen: You can say that I guess and as I mentioned, I'm a supporter of your cause, I believe that only through researching those damn xenos we will finally be able to develop ways to kill the bastards for good.
Erick Devaine: Indeed, people think we are the bad guys and that somehow we are against what Aegis, we have also been facing terrorist attacks on our assets from the so called Operation Wych Hunt, these fools think they are doing "justice", but the only thing they are managing to achieve is hindering the research on ways to defeat the Thargoids and save humanity.
Tosh Vraugen: I'm afraid that is true... so, about the job...
Erick Devaine: Yes, right... As I've said we need a skilled pilot that knows how to operate in Thargoid Infested systems, more specifically HIP 22460... where it all started.
Tosh Vraugen: I'm listening...
Helena: Recently one of our Server Banks from Fort Asche, codename "Sarcophagus", that was thought to have been destroyed long ago, went online and started emitting a signal, despite the thargoid interference, we managed to triangulate the signal to the coordinates of Fort Asch, so we can confirm it is there, we just don't know where.
Erick Devaine: And this is where you come in Mr. Vraugen, the Server Bank looks like this (shows image on datapad) however extracting such a large piece of equipment and in a condition that we don't know is too risky, so we need you to cut open the side panel and extract the Data Banks no matter the state they are in, get everything you can recover.
Helena: The ARC Cutter from your Maverick Suit should do the trick, the panels are thick so it will take quite a while to cut it open.
Erick Devaine: Our scouts also reported suspicious movements in the system so we believe that there are other parties interested in the content of our Server Bank, hopefully you won't come across human resistance at Fort Asch, but if you do, well... you know what to do. As for the payment, we have 50 millions credits worth of Void Opals ready to be delivered at your carrier, they are clean so as far as the Bank of Zaonce is concerned you and your crew mined these commodities and they can't be traced back to Azimuth Biotech, this is for opsec, I'm sure you understand.
Tosh Vraugen: Absolutely, I'm in.
Erick Devaine: That is great! Operation Sarcophagus begins now, this transponder shall guide you to the Server Bank, you must depart as soon as possible, I will eagerly await for your return Mr. Vraugen.
The job seemed fairly simple: go there, cut open a panel, grab whatever is inside and get paid 50 mil for it, I departed to HIP 22460 shortly after our conversation was over, my Krait Mk2 was geared up for Anti-Xeno combat so if any of the bugs decided to get smart he would meet his end. I've been doing ops in thargoid infested systems since this bloody war started, so I was expecting to be hyperdicted on the way, and just when I was about to jump to HIP 22460 I got pulled... two Cyclops Interceptors decided it was a smart move to pull this human vessel, sadly for them our encounter was short, I managed to finally jump to HIP 22460 with 87% hull left and two dead xenos behind me. As I arrived in the system, there was no way to ignore the fact that this place was now a massive graveyard, lots of signals popped up in the Contacts Panel... lots of debris fields and of course, whatever was left of the massive capital ships deployed by the superpowers... the thargoid interference was still strong here, perhaps even stronger than near the Titans, whatever was going in at the Proteus Wave Site was still up and running even after all these months. It didn't take long to reach Fort Asch, after all this time one could think the Thargoids would have completely destroyed the place, but somehow the ruins were still standing... I carefully watched the scanner for any contacts, thargoid or human, that could be lurking around the facility but nothing showed up, the place was clean... or so I thought...
Shortly after I landed, Frame Shift Anomalies started appearing above Fort Asch, the xenos must have tracked me from supercruise, I quickly dismissed my ship and looked for cover, it didn't take long for the xenos to show up, about 6 Scouts and a Basilisk showed up to see what was going on, luckily for me they didn't detect me on the ground so they left shortly after. Now the real tricky part was to find the Server Bank, the facility ruins were mostly instact but there was a lot of it that had collapsed downhill or was buried underground, if the bloody thing was buried then it would be game over for this op. I followed the transponder signal for a couple of minutes and managed to find the Server Bank, it was pretty damaged but somehow still working, I grabbed the ARC Cutter and started working on opening the side panel. As Helena said, if that is her real name, the panel was extremely thick, took me about 5 minutes and two Suit Batteries to open the damn thing, inside there were 20 Data Banks, about 11 were heavily damaged but the others seemed fine, I recovered them and tried to find a suitable spot to recall my ship... it was then that my suit picked the signal of a vehicle nearby...
I carefully approached the vehicle signal, it was close to a Security Post at the entrance of Fort Asch, as I came closer it was possible to see it has been abandoned... the track marks were still fresh though, so someone was here recently and by bringing a Scorpion, it surely expected trouble, but something made them flee, no doubt they were tracked by the Thargoids too and had to bail, but what truly intrigued me was the canister that was close to the abandoned Scorpion. It was slowly leaking a green gas and as I tried to approach the Maverick Suit alerts went off and the shield was automatically activated, apparently it was some pretty strong toxin or chemical, I tried to use the suit scanners to further investigate what was that gas but it gave no results. It seems then that whoever was here earlier tried to retrieve this canister but either by damage caused by the leaking gas or the thargoids presence it had to leave, and fast... I also investigated the inside of the Scorpion but there was no clue left behind, the board computer was shot with a plasma slug, probably from a Tormentor pistol, the vehicle also had no marking or decals that could help identify it's origin. Erick Devaine was right about other parties interested in Fort Asch and the Server Bank, but who were they? Aegis? Sirius? Or perhaps another crew sent by Azimuth? I had more questions than answers, it was time to head back to Pirate's Lament and finish the job.
I spent the whole trip back thinking about what could be in these Data Banks and the "other" people that are also looking for them, it was something so intriguing that by the time I noticed it I was already at HIP 17519... once again I went through the "formalities" and made it to the Concourse, both Helena and Erick were waiting for me.
Erick Devaine: Mr. Vraugen! I take the mission was a success?
Tosh Vraugen: Mission accomplished, the 20 Data Banks were recovered but only 9 seem to be in working condition.
Erick Devaine: That should do, I must say, impressive work sir. By the way, did you meet any resistance?
Tosh Vraugen: The system is still crawling with Thargoids, a small squadron of them showed up as soon as I landed at Fort Asch, as for humans, well, I found an abandoned Scorpion at the facility, it was there for perhaps... a week maybe? It seemed like they were trying to recover a canister but either by exposure to the gas that was leaking from said canister or the thargoids they had to leave, there were no corpses or crashed vessels, just the Scorpion.
Erick Devaine: Interesting... we will have to investigate that, so our suspicion was confirmed... but oh well, let's talk about your payment! Shall I authorise the delivery of the Void Opals to your carrier and the retrieval of the Data Banks from your ship?
Tosh Vraugen: Please do.
Erick Devaine: Helena, could you handle that? I must have a talk with Mr. Vraugen.
Helena: Yes sir, I will be right back... and congratulations Mr. Vraugen.
Erick Devaine: Mr. Vraugen, Azimuth is very interested in employing operators like yourself, we need people with skills like yours to win this war, we are also aware that you operate for an Alliance faction, so what do you say to work as an independent agent for us? Shall you accept, we will give you access to our systems, stations and megaships and you will be added to our payroll list.
Tosh Vraugen: I accept... count me in.
Erick Devaine: Very well, I will ask you to sign this digital term then (handles datapad) the woman that was with me, her name is not Helena, actually I don't even know her real name, her designation however is SVI - 046, from now on, at least when working for us, your designation shall be SVI - 552, these codenames are only known to Azimuth personnel, this is also how you will recognize allied agents in the field.
Tosh Vraugen: I see... I suppose you are not Erick Devaine then?
Erick Devaine: Actually I am (laughs), these codenames are only used by our elite operators.
SVI - 046: The transfer was complete, the Data Banks were also transfered to our ship.
Erick Devaine: Very well, SVI - 046, meet your new comrade in arms, SVI - 552.
SVI - 046: Good to know you made the right choice.
Erick Devaine: SVI - 552 you are cleared to go now, once again, thanks for your service, we shall be in contact soon.
Tosh Vraugen: The pleasure was mine, I hope that whatever is in those Data Banks can help in the war effort, see you guys soon. o7
And there I was, working as an operator for Azimuth Biotech... Personally, I despise Salvation, it was that egomaniac that got us in this mess, but I do trust that Azimuth alongside Aegis with their scientists and engineers can take us out of this shithole of a situation and develop a way to destroy the Thargoids for good, I know that my decision may upset some of the crew of the Sevantya, but now we shall answer Azimuth Biotech call when they need it and we will face anyone that stays in our way. The dices of destiny are cast... Tosh Vraugen, signing out.
>/ END_LOG
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