Pandora's Box
04 Oct 2021Iridium Nova
I should have known that this wasn't going to be some run of the mill fetch quest. In the end, I didn't even have to pick anything up. It was everything else that happened that made it the pain in the ass that running missions for high-profile people always is.Sirius Corporation controls a large number of military installations throughout Lyuten's Star. Of course, if LYR forgot something on one of his inspection tours, he could have some low-level lackey go pick it up for him. He wouldn't have some deniable, disposable, and highly experienced operative (me) go pick it up. The thing is, LYR didn't know what it was I was supposed to go get for him. Not that he needed to know what it was, because once you saw it, you knew you were stepping into some serious shit. All he needed to know was that there was something of galactic significance in this base and his own people were hiding it from him. Seems they were doing a good job of that right up until they weren't, and that's where I came in.
This was probably one of the most heavily fortified and highly secured facilities I've ever seen. Normally, I deal with pirates and drug lords. And while those guys can put up a hell of a fight, that's nothing compared to Sirius Corp. Normally I try to avoid breaking into the big boys like this, but LYR was offering something better than credits, and my gut was telling me this was something worth getting into, even if it'd be a hell of a challenge. Fortunately, I already have the experience and the equipment needed for something like this, and I was having trouble finding any good reason to cut and run.
The Sirius Corp guards are well equipped, but fortunately not really any smarter than your average pirate or merc. There was just... a LOT of them. And there was a pesky Omnipol officer hanging around. I found out why halfway through the mission. Turns out, most of these Sirius Corp goons had bounties on them. Mr. Omni was investigating them but I think when he realized he was surrounded by a bunch of bloodthirsty thugs carrying firepower only slightly lesser than his own, he decided to play it safe. My usual sneak and peek op got exponentially more complicated the more aware this guy was of my presence. Pretty soon I realized he was following me, right about the time I blasted my way through about 10 guards and shut down the alarms while waiting on my shield to recharge. I wasn't expecting him to jump me from behind, and figured that was it. I was done, for sure. But he didn't shoot. He just stared - past me. I turned to have a look.
Pandora's BoxFrom the looks of it, the thugs here had used a jail cell as a makeshift containment for -- something. Some kind of crate, faintly glowing, weird green gas seeping out of it. But that wasn't the strangest part. The thing was making the suit sensors go apeshit. The sound synthesizer in my suit was almost speaking to me - or something. I couldn't make heads or tails of what I was picking up from that cell, so I just backed off. My cop buddy did too. Then something cut through the audio. A transmission from LYR - somehow bypassing several layers of security, coming from somewhere I could not trace.
"Good work, Commander. Mission Complete. I'll send a team in to take control of the situation. You can leave now."
I got the impression the Omnipol guy got some kind of similar transmission because he just turned and ran. Maybe his was a little scarier, or someone informing him that this investigation was now above his pay grade. Fortunately for me, I set my own pay grade. Hmmm. Come to think of it, that's actually not as great as it sounds, in practice...
Anyway, with that done and no desire to poke my head any further into this lion's mouth, I decided to grab what I could from the facility and do as LYR suggested. On my way out of the system, I was rudely informed of my new status as a terrorist and a high-value bounty target. This isn't exactly the first time I've found myself on the wrong side of the law. Ironically enough, being a bounty hunter sometimes means getting hit with a bounty yourself. Not all authority out there is a fine and upstanding example of human governance, and more often than not they're more corrupt and nefarious than the villains they have you hunting. And nearly everyone in this universe will sell their allies out for the right price. But this was probably the highest bounty I've ever had, and without a doubt the highest notoriety rating.
I've been laying low since. I've done what research I can without drawing attention to myself, and it seems like the guys in that fortress were a renegade Sirius PMC using Sirius as a cover for their illegal operations. Odd that such a thing even grew as big as it did within a company like Sirius. I used to think they were pretty on-the-ball as far as internal affairs went, but I guess they are one of the largest megacorporations (if not THE largest) in the galaxy, and thus it stands to reason they are susceptible to all the same criminal maladies as any nation or government. I suspect LYR had intended to get them under control but they had some kind of company politics/legal fuckery protecting them, thus the need for an outside operative. I guess I got the job done. I'm not entirely happy with having to kill the innocent civilians that were working there, but they did shoot first. In any case, LYR made good on his payment and now all I have to do is lay low and pull in some favors to clean up my identity. Fortunately, that too, is something I have experience with.
Of course, if anyone tries to implicate LYR in actions against his own company, he can just disavow it. After all, these logbook entries are just works of fiction written by a bored space traveller to pass the time on long flights and Apex trips. Totally not admissable in court. Of course.