Rescue Mission
16 Aug 2019Prochaska
Some day in early May 3305, Reedings summoned Zoe for a meeting in the Bluford office. The greeting was short, and Reedings came straight to the point. Rodriguez had contacted her, and the subject was the attack on Zoe in the system PRAEA EUQ OG-O B6-3. In the past Rodriguez had made an Imperial Senator an enemy, and he has since reciprocated with sabotage of Rodriguez and her security company. Research by the FSS had revealed that an unknown under false identity from the Empire had been shadowing the Void Stalkers for a while, and when Zoe was picked up by those at Weyn Dock, she was falsely linked by this agent to Rodriguez's organization. Her participation in Distant Worlds 2 was publicly known, which made her an easily accessible target. The execution of the attack required a lot of logistics and resources, which is obviously both freely available for this senator. Officially, of course, his involvement could not be proven, as is always the case in such cases. But Rodriguez had now figured out where Julie Price was still being held. She was in the Rishmi system, Planet 3 a, on planetary outpost Brooks' Progress. Reedings could not provide Zoe with any resources from the bureau for the liberation, but was willing to release her from her duties during the duration of the operation. It was impossible for Zoe to accomplish the liberation on her own, and at the present time, she only had Diya Glenn and Janos Sikorski, who had the necessary skills, Diya in the field of investigation and weaponry, Janos in bypassing security systems. When Zoe mentioned Janos' name, Reedings immediately rolled her eyes. She made no secret that she would still like to deliver him to the next detention centre, but left the decision to Zoe.Zoe, Diya and Janos went to the outpost in the Icarus. Diya and Janos took care of finding the hiding place. A few hours later, they returned to the accommodation with a result, and the team got ready for action. They then left together and watched the hiding place, a small warehouse in the cargo area of the outpost. There was always at least one guard inside, and there was a back door that was less secure. Here Janos forced an entrance. The guard was a fierce, beefy guy who had obviously been caught unaware. Zoe and Janos were both able to hit with their laser weapons and hurt him badly, and when his shotgun went off, it only perforated the wall. Diya then went up to the seriously injured man and finished him with a contact shot to his head; Zoe and Janos startled and shared a disgusted look. Had that been necessary? But there was no time for an argument now. After that Julies minor injuries were provisionally cared for. Zoe stood a moment apart, watching Julie. It felt strange, seeing her again, and it did not help that she knew that Julie had not fired that shot back in May, on the Copernicus' bridge. But that was not Julie's fault, and the flashbacks would get less over time. And then they left the outpost on the quickest route.
Zoe was surprised at how helpful Janos proved to be in the rescue; he seemed more focused to her than in their previous time together. How likely was it that someone with his addictive past fundamentally changes his life and does not relapse? This thought accompanied her for a long time.
But the performance of Janos not only had an effect on Zoe. When meeting with Reedings after returning to Bluford, she revealed Zoe that they had received an assignment from the FSS, in which Janos talents could be useful. The FSS had commissioned a series of security tests from Federation military installations that he could take over. In the Bluford office there was no staff free for additional tasks at that time. The only condition was that Janos remained an external, he received no access to resources in Bluford, all contact and the contracting were always done indirectly through Zoraya. She told him, and he accepted the task.