A New Friend

[Malen]

Having yet received no contact from the Collective, Malen decided to return to work. A contractor for the cyber-merc company, Aladon, the up and coming slicer needed to show his boss, "Enigma", that he was still active. That meant setting up contacts, and expanding their growing network.

One of the people on their list of people they wanted to contact was a Muun. From what they had gathered using open-source intelligence, it seemed he was a member of the Tonith clan. It seemed also that the Damask clan had united with them in a bid to restore the once great financial empire of the Muun. He was not aware as to how the InterGalactic Banking Clan was doing. Nevertheless, from what information they had gathered, they were a growing company, one that could possibly need an ally.

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Somehow, a datapad would smuggle itself to the the headquarters of Tonith-Damask Incorporated, mysteriously appearing at the doorstep of [member="Mars Tonith"], one of the top executives in the company.

"Sir, we have a package for you." a mailman stated. If the Muun opened the datapad, he would find a mysterious message, encrypted with quantum cryptography. A small amount of text however revealed the key that could be used to unlock the encrypted message.

"We will help you, and you can help us in return." the message would read if deciphered, along with a meeting place, if the Muun accepted.

 

[Mars Tonith]

“Sir, there is a package for you.” Arinda Hill, Mars’ secretary got his attention. “This has quite an advanced encryption, but there’s also a bit of text here.”

“Is it the decryption?” Mars asked, and the secretary nodded. Mars put out a low sigh. He neglected to see the point in encrypting a package if the decryption key was put in the same package. “What does it say?”

“We will help you, and you can help us in return.” Arinda answered. “It also contains an address, some independent world outside the major governments, and a meeting time in a week’s time.” She replied, and Mars thought on it. The combination packaging was not promising, but after inspecting the device it was quantum encrypted, and that sort of thing didn’t come cheap. A potential benefactor with some measurable amount of resources.

“Dispose of the device, and alert Officer Chandrex that he will be attending a meeting for me, and make sure he brushes up on the goals of project Blue Web.” Mars ordered, and Arinda got to work. The benefactor had potential, sure, but no one gave an anonymous letter without a reason. Mars would be cautious, sending a member of the Iotran Exiles who dealt specifically with this sort of matter. Plausible deniability and the like.


A week would pass, and Malen’s crew would easily find a squad of the Iotran Exiles setting up a perimeter, confirming exit strategies, surveying potential wiretaps, and the like. They wouldn’t try to hide this fact, conducting their business openly. It was part of the negotiation in truth, signaling terms of discussion before it began. The Exiles were good at their job, and once they determined there was little threat they would signal the arrival of Chandrex.

Chandrex was their superior, and one of the few Iotran Exiles Tonith-Damask was comfortable having negotiate. He was savvy enough to deal with the situations the Muun preferred not be public. The Iotran would sit at the appropriate booth, and wait for the negotiator to come to him.

Move: [member="Malen"]

 

[Malen]

No slicer, no matter how big or small, ever showed their face to anyone safe for the organizations they worked for. If they did, they should have a multitude of back up plans, otherwise they were not anyone's time. Even then, there was also saying of "never trust a Muun." or maybe he had heard it wrong.

The "crew" that Aladon had was small, only consisting of two hunter droids, each of them carrying a datapad, and two verpine shatter rifles. One of them dropped it on the ground, revealing a man whose body was made of bits, or more commonly known as a string of 0s and 1s. Malen however was someone else, at a warehouse close by, but also conveniently close to a VPN, and a proxy, which he was both using,

"Your leader is not here?" he stated, having done enough research the Iotran Exiles to know who they were.

"We come bearing an offer, an alliance. " he stated, his voice having been modulated as to not reveal his true intentions. The body was also larger than his normal size, as to further protect his identity.

[member="Mars Tonith"]

 

[Mars Tonith]

The Iotran hid a snort behind his helmet. This creature didn’t physically arrive or even show his face, but was surprised when the Prex of a financial institution took similar precautions? Perhaps the tone was more curiosity than dismay. It was impossible to tell with the voice synthesizer evident in the streaming software.

“While my client is impressed with thusfar with your abilities abilities do not earn trust. Some discretion must be afforded. However my client is still eager to hear your proposal.” Chandrex was careful in his wording. Never mentioning who his client was, what their client represented, what their clients species was, etc. One could never really know when they were being monitored, whether by [member="Malen"] or other sources.

 

[Malen]

"Yes, your client, a Muun I believe?" Malen replied back. Aladon had been the one to send the datapad to a specific person, a specific Muun, so they were well aware of who [member="Mars Tonith"] was. The statement he had said was to show they were a serious organization, and sooner or later, they would rise to be among the top cyber-merc groups in the galaxy.

"A friend must always show they are a true friend, which we always are." he stated. "We offer you the ability to conduct a takeover of any rival company you wish in your area of operations. I believe your client does do that, correct?" he asked, a list of noteworthy rivals of Tonith-Damask Inc later appearing, showing that they were serious about their offer.

 

[Mars Tonith]

Chandrex groaned at the man’s lack of tact. Mentioning the species of his employer was not a clandestine method of operation. Still, Chandrex kept patient and observed a list of rival banks appearing. Some were small, some were noteworthy. Aurum-Saccs was propped up by the near-ubiquitous Arceneau Trade Company. The First Bank of Tion wasn’t expanding, but served a variety of high-priority clients. The Intergalactic Banking Clan was something that many of Tonith-Damask held a personal stake against after the schism.

Overall though? It wasn’t in the Tonith-Damask’s immediate business plan. Attacks could certainly be beneficial, but Tonith-Damask needed to bolster it’s name before it could absorb client bases leaving other banks reliably. That didn’t mean that [member="Malen"] wasn’t useful to the company, or even that he didn’t have a purpose to serve now, just it wasn’t what he’d be expecting.

“Such an attack isn’t in our current interests, however we believe we have another job for you.” Chandrex replied, before pulling a datacard out of a pocket in his armor. The Hunter Droids were keen on his motions, but didn’t open fire. He handed the data card to one of the droids.

“Transfer that data to your boss.” Chandrex ordered, and it took a moment. Any slicer would be cautious about receiving unplanned for data after all. When the slicer got the data however, he’d find blueprints of an old supercomputer.

“Tonith-Damask wishes to create a series of computers modernized from this technology. They would be required to monitor a large number of financial transactions instantaneously from across the galaxy, while remaining secure against any potential slicing threat. What can you do to help us achieve this?”

 

[Malen]

"That's quite an ambitious project." Malen stated, his tone however not showing that he was surprised. Aladon were not specialised in this area of operations, but any man who knew how to program/code could be of any asset. That, and the fact that they were helping what seemed to be a promising business would most certainly increase their own noteworthy as well.

"It is the first time we have ever been asked for this, and it will probably be the only time we will ever offer such a thing. We can be able to create a series of programs to safeguard your data, as well as an AI. Maintaining such a huge network would be extremely useful if you had artificial intelligence helping you. Of course, if we meet your demands, and satisfaction, we will require extreme,extreme compensation in regards to what you request. Only someone with a background in IT, and infosec can realise the difficulty in working with what we assume will be a large network." Malen stated.

"This is also non-negotiable." he further replied, this time his tone showing that he was being serious.

The ball is now in your back, [member="Mars Tonith"]'s representative.

 

[Mars Tonith]

If the Iotran Exile flinched at anything the man said, he didn’t show it. There were demands of course, this was a ‘special’ project, demands a ‘special’ price. None of if phased Chandrex. He merely took a napkin wrote a number on it, before showing the it to the screen. It was substantial. Tonith-Damask was not looking for a man to do a job, they were looking for a business to perform a contract, and [member="Malen"] 's payday would reflect that.

“25% up front, 25% upon delivery of a prototype, the rest when the job is done. In the future assignments will be 50/50, but my client is wary of over leveraging on a first transaction. You understand of course.” Chandrex replied before taking the napkin and systematically beginning to tear at it. “The payments can be wired directly to an account, or delivered in bulk if you prefer hard currency.” The napkin was now in several pieces, quite literally a puzzle to anyone attempting to discern meaning from it.

“Enclosed in the file are protocols on the delivery of the product. How soon can you be done?”

 

[Malen]

"A few months at best. We will dedicate an entire team of specialists to the operation." Malen quickly replied.

"In an offer of us being serious to show that we are allies, we ask that you give us 100% of the money up-front if you are fully satisfied from what we have delivered. We also urge that your slicers analyse the code, in order to continue to show that we are serious about an alliance." Malen replied.

"The arrangements for the payment can be discussed at another date. There is a possibility that credits won't be enough, and I will have to discuss it with my subordinates." Malen replied. His job was to also show he was a top member in Aladon, even though he wasn't. He would need "Enigma" 's approval, but he knew no doubt that he/she would most likely accept it.

"As we have stated before, we are serious in our belief that we wish to have a fruitful alliance. Aladon however is specialised in other areas, specifically cyber-mercenary work.. We kindly, and humbly ask that this be respected in the future." Malen replied, waiting for the response. [member="Mars Tonith"]

 

[Mars Tonith]

Chandrex let out a smile, though it couldn’t be seen through his helmet. A few month’s time was good for a real crew. Anything less and he would have known the man was blowing smoke. And then there was the offer to pay in full, presumably when the job was done. This was promising. The hoops were admittedly annoying, but a sign of a professional.

“My client appreciates your gesture.” Chandrex replied. “Past jobs are always taken into consideration. You’ll be put at the forefront of all considerations for infosecurity contracting.” The Iotran pulled out another datacard from his pocket.

“This is a contact number. It is off our site, and checked once per week. Alert us should have any other needs or complications.” He presented it to one of the Hunter droids, who stored it. “Do you require anything additional from us?”

[member="Malen"]