Walkabout
04 Apr 2022Rixses
I spent a little time getting used to the modifications I made to Jester before I left system and headed towards Beebbs. I was fairing somewhat better now that I was hopped up on military grade chems. I'd been using the rapid regrowth enhancers liberally for the past few days and the pain from the HMI was down to a sharp burn. Mix in a dose of Slush and Rager and I was up to about 90% efficiency. The combat rush from the drugs mixing with my natural desire to do harm gave me an almost elated sensation every time a ship blew up. Only paced out by the repetitive need to restock ammo supplies. I was flying high...Slush and Rager were pretty common street names for the mil-grade chems I had helped myself to a few days ago. Slush is a powerful pain reliver and kind of melts the body and brain, making you feel like a bag full of a cool soothing slush. Rager, like the nickname implies, amps everything to maximum and gives you a razors edge response. It was designed as a combat performance enhancer for the field. Improved senses, improved reflexes, improved strength, everything to turn a typical soldier into a one-man battalion.
Mixed together you get a pretty neat cocktail to ignore pain and cut through anything in front of you. A bloodthirsty numb rush of indifference as you kill anything that twitches funny.
I went back to our old haunt hoping (but not expecting) to find Beebbs there. It's just too much to ask for things to be simple. I found my way to Beebbs room and was surprised to see that it had been ransacked.
The thought of their cryptic message "Find Me." flashed in my mind and I should have known walking in that it'd be like this.
I tapped the security panel on the wall and it noted the last entry was fourteen days ago. No breach alarms. Beebbs knew someone was on to them and disappeared. Given the message they left for me Beebbs must have known someone might get here before me, which meant that any clues would be personal.
I started by checking the obvious places and access logs on any of the equipment. Whoever searched this place did so in a hurry. Everything was accessed and queries ran on recent processes. Not even an attempt to cover their tracks. Beebbs is a true master of this clandestine shit. If they searched the systems, there was going to be nothing there for them to find. No hide-hole or hidden access would cut it here. No. Whatever Beebbs left would have been in plain sight, and only personally relevant to me.
Accessing the suite security systems data terminal, I keyed up all the security footage. Not much left. Everything from before Beebbs left was wiped. The oldest segment was Beebbs leaving the security terminal after having cleared all previous footage and walking out the door. Nothing after that until the break-in. There were two culprits, both wearing stealth suits. That explains why they didn't set off the alarm, and they were equipped with imaging scramblers so just a pixilated visual on the security feed. I took a still image of the suite prior to the break-in and transferred it to my pad, then started to look around.
It took a good hour using the image still I had taken to find anything useful. Beebbs was never much of one for art but always kept several halo frames around for schematic displays, star maps, and encryption algorithms. Why you'd want more math displayed as a focal point was beyond me. But Beebbs keeps them all on slideshow images, just ticking past more of the same. Most of the star maps Beebbs keeps are related to ongoing research projects they are involved in or Guardian sites and logistics. However, a new one I was unfamiliar with was in the rotation. The Azura Initiative.
I cleared my datapad and punched up the station security on the panel. Notified them of the break-in, nothing missing. And began to investigate this initiative. I've not heard of it before. Given the systems listed in the chart, it was a long way off...