Operation: HIP 11586
22 Jul 2020Rosareven
"Twin stars huh? They sure know how to pick a fun system to colonise." Rosareven muttered under her FSS. Two class F stars were right up her canopy at where she warped into HIP 11586, and she found three more lesser stars 7000Ls away. The system might have a small population of only 200k, but it was bustling with many settlements of extraction and mercenary nature.Rosareven casually targeted a passing-by Orca in supercruise. "SCAN DETECTED," The commander of the Orca jumped at the alert. "There... There is no reason to scan me! You are wasting your time! I have nothing of value." Rosareven smirked on her seat, wondering if that commander even knew who they were talking to, among the industrial traffic. She let the Orca go, while savouring the joy of that little tease.
Galactic Rangers owned two space stations and one planetary settlement here. There was another planetary settlement not under their control. She had plenty of options from here - either side with that independent settlement, or hook up the local hooligans. After all, every colonised space has to have an anarchy faction to keep the authorities employed.
Then she just recalled the original instructions from Erinir - "Undermine GR by supporting Imperial faction". Off to Vess' Inheritance then - the only settlement here not owned by Galactic Rangers, but HIP 11586 Imperial Society.
The settlement was located on a tiny moon, which her Cobra unfortunately overshot at first. 3 minutes of floating above ground later, she was greeted by the ATC who recognised her Imperial status. The Cobra glided to the landing pad like a gentle fallen leaf, and Rosareven touched down with a slight grin - any day without scratched landing gears would be a good day for her.
"Greetings, CMDR, my name is India Carrillo," the overseer personally came to her hangar and extended a hand. "We don't often get visitors here. May I ask what drew you to our humble home?"
Rosareven shook the overseer's hand, then switched to Universal Cartographics on her terminal, showing over 700k credits worth of discovery data. "First, a little souvenir for you and your people." She smiled generously at the overseer as she pressed the "Confirm" button, putting the society as the new owner of the valuable information from the void. "You are too kind, CMDR," said Overseer Carrillo, "We have a variety of missions for you to perform, if you are interested in any jobs. All help is appreciated." Rosareven said her thanks with a smirk, noticing the mission board terminal had changed from only 2 available missions to 7.
She flicked over the board up and down, before stopping at several rows of planetary scan missions. "Our society only have this settlement to call home," said Overseer Carrillo, as she noticed Rosareven lingering her finger over those missions. "It would be a great help if you can provide us data on these planets beyond HIP 11586. Maybe we can develop elsewhere instead of struggling with the Galactic Rangers here."
"You're in luck, overseer. Scanning is my specialty," Rosareven raised her cheeks as she pressed the "Accept" button on no less than 4 planetary scan missions. At least two of those, she realised, were under Galactic Rangers' control. She hopped back inside her canopy. "See you in a day!" She said to the overseer, closed the canopy, before the overseer could reply that she actually had 3 days to complete these missions.
Next stop, Mezanik.
***
"Caileus Nothing? What kind of a name is that?" Rosareven grimaced at the scan result of a Type-7 belonging to Galactic Rangers. She made it to the nav beacon at Mezanik now, and the mission directed her to planet 7 C, 2k Ls away. When she reached the planet in supercruise, she picked up two signals - Ah, so Overseer Carrillo wanted two buildings from this one planet. She glided to the closest one from her drop point.
Nervous delight washed over her body as she read that the building belonged to Galactic Rangers.
She was glad she decided to bring her Cobra for the day's activity. This new pilot friendly ship was nimble enough to allow planetary scan without a SRV. All she had to do was hovering over the data transmitter, then take off like nothing had happened. At least that was precisely the result with this first building.
It took her a little longer to reach the second building, due to poor drop point from her supercruise. She decided to glide for 10 minutes instead of leaving and trying to enter orbit again. The second building gave her no trouble either, but there were more than mission data from the transmitter...
"Finally, the wait is over and it's worth it! We're going to be rich, but only if we are the first to report what we have found out here. The transmission amazingly blends into the background noise around us. Don't worry honey, I'll be home in a few days, and we'll get everything sorted in no time. What the..."
Rosareven turned her head towards the building.
There were eyes staring back at her.
"Warning: Trespass Detected!"
The shield indicator of the Cobra lit up like a light show on her cockpit, as the security drones showered bullets upon her. She flicked all pipes to system power, leaving 2 in engines, and with a racing heart, she pitched the Cobra up towards the sky and low waked into the stars.
That was a close call, she thought, hands still trembling on the throttle.
She would have to make sure that the press reported this as a hacking attempt from HIP 11586 Imperial Society, leaving no traces of her identity, or her true employer's. She opened a direct channel to Erinir, while trying to calm down her breath.
"You'll want to hear this, boss... One of the GR buildings spotted me. I don't think they know who I am - not beyond a contract from the Imperial Society. Just in case if you know anyone in the high places of press releases, I might need your help."
"Thanks for telling me, CMDR Rosareven. You have done very well," said Erinir in reply, "Try not to overdo yourself out there. I'll need you back in one piece. There are more important jobs than GR waiting for you..."
There was a pause. Rosareven drummed her fingers on the throttle. "Actually, you just gave me an idea," she said, before pitching all the way back towards the planet she had just escaped from.
"Rosareven, what are you doing?"
"Making fake news, boss. That was my original mission here, wasn't it?"
Concern began mixing into Erinir's transmission. "And how are you going to do that right now?"
"Trust me boss, I know what I'm doing. I promise you I'm coming back in one piece."
Once the Cobra was facing perpendicularly to the planet surface, Rosareven pushed the throttle all the way. If the planet had any atmosphere, her Cobra would have been a raging meteor by now. Just when there were 10 seconds left to the impending impact, she entered her escape pod and ejected back into the stars, leaving the Cobra to become spectacular fireworks and sparks on the planet.
Rosareven let out a sigh. No one would suspect a thing now - for the suspect was now "dead".
Next stop, HR 943.