Silence is Golden
STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE AGENCY |
|
LORD-IMPERATOR OF BYSS |
BRIEFING
"Marlon Sularen has openly defied The Alliance’s justice system for a trial. He claims innocence but we suspect otherwise. Investigate Byss, their planetary defence force, and all privately registered ship assets. This is an official warrant for the audit –– this is without the Lord-Imperator’s permission. Expect hostility."
License to kill granted if engaged.
-M
M had been clear in her briefing. Whisper could read between the lines. She wanted blood, in the courts or from the shadows. Whisper would give her the pint she desired one way or another.
They leaned over the collection of matte black hard cases that contained the hardware they deemed necessary for such a task. One part sophisticated surveillance equipment, one part tools of a more lethal craft. Whisper’s finger pressed over the keys in sequence, inputting a six digit pin code to hear the locking bars behind the latches retract.
They lifted the lid, eyes narrowing in appreciation of the sight in front of them. The Locke and Key Jackal sniper system was a professional’s weapon. A high caliber electromagnetic gauss rifle with integral report suppression. A gloved hand reached into the case’s interior, withdrawing a single round that lay isolated on the plastifoam padding. The three-hundred grain trimantium slug had an inscription painstakingly carved into the side.
Sularen
Whisper was ambivalent when it came to the idea of it coming to violence. This was the first operation in which the SIA extended a significant amount of trust to them. A desire was held to please those who held their leash in hopes that one day it might slacken. That didn’t stop them from also holding a faint hope that it ended in bloodshed.
Some people just needed to be shot.
“We should have brrought airr freshenerr too.” Maijan suggested, breaking the silence with her unimpressed observation of the odour the aquatic tanks carried with them. The commentary was more on their mutual experience than the intimate one that seemed to be happening between the skeleton and their weapons. Perhaps drawing Whisper’s attention from the manufacturing back to their predicament might be prudent given the approaching security checks.
Whisper’s head turned just slightly, the round held between their fingers at the sound of Maijan’s voice. The manner in which they flicked it back into the case suggested irritation as they closed the case once more. A thumb pressed a button on a small device they carried on their belt. As they held it the high pitched, chipmunk-like sound of a voice being played in reverse at high speed emanated as a tape spooled within. They released suddenly, and the tape reversed direction. Slowly, a woman’s voice bent up from a low octave from a small speaker on the device. “wwwwWWWe will be there soon. Jee-jee widd shul--” It began chirping once more as audio was skipped with a touch of a button.
“Do you have anything left?” The question from the device didn’t fit the context of their conversation perfectly. Their chosen method of communication rarely did, leaving much of what they ‘said’ up to interpretation. To quarry it was unnerving. To colleagues it was frustrating. Golden eyes narrowed in Whisper’s direction, folding her arms across her chest to add a layer of body language to her communication. That’s right. That’s why they’d been silent for so long. Speaking was…irritating at best. Whisper’s response landed flatly between them, caught in a communication vortex that whirled the words around until they made even less sense and Maijan swatted away the potential with a dismissive gesture. “All drrried up.”
They stared at her in response for a few moments. Brows crinkling in returned animosity from beneath the deep hood and mask they wore. Whisper finally shook their head, moving the cased rifle towards the back of the equipment tank before taking inventory of the next case...
Zivos had picked up the anonymous advertisement for delivering cargo. Been hustled here and there before finally meeting both passengers and cargo. Been given and promised enough credits to only have the bare bones questions given the appearance of the passengers and cargo in question.
The route had been set, and details of his end of the job squared away before he had gotten much further than a simple shrug to the amount of possible risk involved.
He'd been in worse spots.
This likely wasn't to be the last.
Having picked up a job delivering live exotic marine life to Denon for some corporate lass, the job he'd taken shortly after played well into the custom shipping container that came with the fish delivery.
They'd wanted an almost complete ecosystem with prey and predators alike. The whole setup seemed like it would take up near enough a whole floorspace of a suite. But customers got what they paid for, and the container was his to keep after the job was done if he delivered it without issue.
Custom sensor masked containers and sections were built into the container. Overlaid with wiring and other self contained life support systems to present an electronic reading against the masked spaces. The container itself was held low and in front of the other containers in his hold.
Necessary given that he had to check the shipment at regular intervals for any irregularities or other issues with the separated ecosystems contained within the large, albeit temporary aquatic containers.
He'd cursed his luck at first, seeing the open topped things. Something that required him to allow the inside systems time to acclimate to the atmospheric pressure outside when he touched down.
A detail that added some serious down time to his remaining trip through the hyperspace lane. Never mind that his tumble drive system was being maxed out and required some leeway between jumps to cool down.
While he waited, his scanners had been set to idle scans in between jumps. Derelict ships being found and tagged for his return trip when he had more time to stop and salvage bits and pieces for resale.
His last trip had garnered a bit more than he had bargained for when he stumbled into a mynock nest and got himself tagged by the blighted things. They had played havoc on his private cabins life support systems.
He was hemorrhaging atmosphere at a slow but alarming rate. Something made worse given the fact he couldn't breathe oxygen like every other fethin race abroad. He had enough time to make landfall safely, his shipping manifest double and triple checked as the alarm sounded for drop out of hyperspace.
Setting it aside, he triggered the communication system between himself and his passengers.
"Last chance to stow in. Hyperspace drop coming up." Zivos called before closing the line. Given the large bio signs some of the marine life gave off, there wouldn't be too much issue with life signs in the container, he hoped.
The pair had been less than chatty the entire time. Something he had appreciated even when he had informed them of the last incident that had occured with the mynock nest.
Something that weighed heavily in their favor given his disposition towards oxygen breathers in the first place. To fethin chatty some were. Too many questions. And more often than not, looking for a score on what they figured was a simpleton well outside his scope.
"Brace for drop." He opened the line again, prepping himself for the shift back to realspace.
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