The Frontier of Time [ GUIDE | Investor ]

[Magdalena Lethe]

Space
"Random Ass Place"
Syndicate Blacksite
Hub Ship, one that can move.


"Ok, seriously, where the heck are we?"

Question of the day.

The Magesteria exited hyperspace with the usual shudder, coming out upon a vast black span lacking any sort of notable planetary beacon or star. Trail markers had disappeared about 12 parsecs back and Magda, for all her natural affinity to space travel, was even finding herself questioning their exact location.

She tapped a few keys on the holodisplay of the command console, watching the readouts. The Magesteria seemed to be a bit lost, too.

"Well, these are the coordinates he gave us. I think," she itched at her head and backtracked their projected path, "we're somewhere between Montitia and Kayri systems. Right about here-" she pointed to far right of the Spar Sector.

"Magpie, that's a whole lot of place you think we could be."

"It's an educated think."

Gabe sighed and crossed his arms, "Alright, so now what?"

"Well," hands on her hips, Magda lifted her gaze to look out the viewport of the Magesteria's command deck, "now we look for a ship. I mean, there's not a lot of places it could hide. So let's see..."

She missed Gabriel's expert eye roll as she began checking off in each direction.

@Sarge Pottegier

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

She wouldn't have to wait long before a flicker of power coursed through the skeletal remains of what had once likely been a battlecruiser. Like a mauled animal its flanks lay open to the harshness of the void, its engines flickering on what appeared to be the last vestiges of life as it limped its way through darkspace. Nothing was going to find this vessel that would give it a second look, save those who knew what they were there for.

Or, those who had been invited.

Cater would be pissing himself with rage right now if he knew what was going down, but Sarge wasn't particularly taken to care. Relays studded the hull like plantgrowth on an abandoned abode, and a pair of flickering lights told her where to find the hangar. Sarge would be waiting when she landed, clad in old, scattered, olive drab armor with a polarized orange visor honeycombed to show where it was reinforced.

He would sitting there, waiting, a man alone in the arsehole of space.

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"No..."

"We're wasting our time."

"...ah, nope..."

"Should have known all these investors were too good to be true."

"..nothing there."

"We're out here in the arsehole of space unprotected. How do we know he's not some lunatic?"

"OH MY HAWK LOOK!" Magda promptly shoved her brother aside to get to a smaller viewpanel behind him, "Gabi look! There it is!"

Gabriel promptly shut up. For a second.

"You see what I mean, that thing is creepy as hell!"

Magda jumped back at the controls, tongue pinched between her teeth, and began steering the Magesteria over towards their destination. The lights continued to flicker on as they neared, the brightest of which illuminated the hangar bay in a somber golden glow. Gabe watched, standing at the back of the pilot's chair, jaw visibly setting.

"We're not seriously docking in there are we?"

She didn't answer. That look of spitfire determination had taken over her expression and all he needed to do was glance down and know, for certain, they were absolutely going in there Gabby.


A short while later...

Engines slowly winding down, Magda descended the cargo hold ramp at the nose of the Magesteria, pulling the cowl of her traveling robe over her head at the sudden wash of dry, cold, stale-old-space-air. It smelled strongly of rust, oil, and century-old stuff. It smelled like history.

"Oh if only dad were here..." she remarked as she stepped across durasteel plate flooring, "he'd just love this. Gabe are you coming?"

Meandering around the front of her ship, they didn't get far before she noted the singular entity sitting atop a stack of crates, suit of armor looking to be as old as the ship, and were it not for movement offered as they appeared she might've mistaken him for a petrified soldier still watching over his ship after all those centuries.

"Hello...hello?" a tentative greeting with a wane smile, "I'm Magdalena Lethe, this is my brother Gabriel. You must be ...uh, ... the Sir."

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

History hadn't been made here, per say, but it had been shaped. From here, blackmail, extortion, assassination, and all other manner of coercive efforts were coordinated and used, guiding the galaxy as best it could out of the dark ages of the Plague and back into a galactic socioeconomic whole. Black armored fingers settled around thighs encased in olive drab plate, pushing himself up.

Just over seven feet tall, the figure turned towards the pair, assessing them momentarily. "In years past, I was called the Silencer." It begins in a tired baritone, clearly masculine in nature. "I see you both made it here safe and sound. I extend my gratitude that you both took the leap of faith necessary to dock here." A hand motioned, a single step moving back and causing dust to lift from the floor.

It had been disturbed by his movements before, but there was still so much it was almost layered visibly on the ground and every surface it could find. "If you would come with me." He says, turning towards the hangar door. Broad shoulders sway as his hunched upper body adjusts and shambles off, arms hanging low to either side as though too heavy for his sockets. The gaping maw of the hangar gave way to sharp sided corridors, broad in width but squat in height.

His helmet was almost scraping the ceiling.

There was really no choice. They had to follow. That or they would leave, but then they wouldn't get what they came for.

"I was called that because wherever history turned for the worst. Key worlds came under the sway of despots, shipyards were turned into forced labor camps, or politicians stopped working for progress... I arrived." The implication was obvious. He corrected them.

"This took me to all corners of the galaxy, from the Core to Wild Space, and I spent considerable time on such unique worlds as Dathomir and Dac. It has allowed me to become well traveled, and form a basic understanding of the cultures in which individuals will find themselves immersed."

Where they moved was clearly a spinal corridor extending much of the length of the ship.

"While we move, do you have any questions?"

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Magda eagerly followed, given her youthful naivety. Gabriel was not so taken and far more leery, but he followed in that dutiful, concerned, suspicious sort of walk he had whenever Magda dragged him places he'd rather not be. Like shopping. It was a bit like shopping.

If shopping had an air of dread about it in the middle of bumblefeth, space.

With no one to call for help.

No planets to escape to.

Just them, this huge fething, creepy-ass ship, and this equally creepy guy.

Magda followed the man with rapt attention despite her wandering gaze. She clutched her pack close at her side, strangely aware of how narrow the ceiling felt in this very long hall. "So...you were an Assassin? A Mercenary? What exactly is this...ship?"

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Without looking back, he takes a side corridor after several minutes and moves down it, the ceiling rising a little. "I was whatever I was told to be." He says. "My path was the one pointed out to me. Such was my experience with life." He replies, "And this ship was where I left from, and it contains all of the reports I made, all the video I took. All of my orders. Everything. But more importantly..."

He paused next to a nondescript door, fingers tapping out a complex series of numbers into a keypad with no digits displayed on the keys. "I have sorted through it all, filtering out all the relevant information for you, leaving you with enough to start work on a number of worlds. From Republic Space to the great expanse of the former Protectorate and all the way out beyond the Mandalorians, I have been to too many places to count.

But I've never had a use for all this information on people, and their likes, dislikes, acceptable habits and unacceptable actions. But you do." The inside of the room should they follow was rows upon rows of datastacks, extending deep into a darkness that said he hadn't turned the lights on down there in some time. Set on a table in front of him, however, was a lone tactical datapad with an added storage device.

"This." He says, holding it out to her. "Will do you some good."

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Magda stared at the datapad he held out, blinking at it.

"Wow..." she said after a moment, seemingly at a loss for words. It was, for some reason, a bit heavier to take in than she thought. Blue eyes slowly lifted to the visor of his helmet as she leaned forward to gently take it from it, "this is... do you mind if I just..." Without another moment of thought Magda took a seat and engaged the datapad giving the files a quick browse and scrolling through the presented information.

Gabriel hung back at her side, quiet. The concern on his face still evident regardless of how excited she was, he gave [member="Sarge Potteiger"] a strange look.

"Just out of curiosity..." Gabe began, "why have us come all the way out here to get this? Wouldn't it have been easier to just meet up somewhere normal? Like a cafe ..."

"Gabe," Magda hissed at him, "this is - just - it's absolutely everything I-" words, sentences, thoughts, emotions. Everything was just pot luck in a bowl. Toss it all in, set it on simmer and see what you get!

"it's amazing," she managed finally, "remarkable even. How old you must be to have seen all these places...I can't even begin to imagine."

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"Because," he begins, looking at the two with arms folded over the jutting prow of his chestplate. "I needed you to understand that this wasn't a prank. That this wasn't information I conjured up out of nowhere. This is your golden ticket, a firm starting part that puts you leagues ahead of where you would otherwise be. If I walked up to you at a cafe, put that down and went 'here's 400 years of my experiences... would you believe me?"

A rhetorical question. "It is better to have you walk through where it has occurred, to see and smell the history of this place, so that you can better understand that I do this out of a belief that you will do the galaxy good. That is what we did here, even if through ill means. I would like to see that legacy of pain turned to better things."

"The world most off the beaten path that you will find information on in there will be Dathomir. Otherwise, many of the outer territories will be sparse at best. A starting point, little else. By Dathormiri standards, I am a Free Man, the highest honor you can bestow upon a male. I have spent considerable time there, and I imagine it will go a long way to perhaps dispelling some of the beliefs people have about that world."

"As for the money, I will provide for you an account number and a code. It will start a transferal process that should take about three weeks. When it completes, you will find twenty million credits in your coffers. I wish it were more, but I do not wish to drop too much on you. This will draw enough attention already."

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Magda listened, her sense of awe and wonder growing with every word. By the time [member="Sarge Potteiger"] finished speaking she'd coiled that datapad tightly in her arms, hugging this invaluable treasure to her chest, rocking slowly from side to side, grinning from ear to ear.

She turned that grin to her brother.

"Stop that," Gabe eyed her, "it's creepy."

"It's fantastic," Magda proclaimed before turning to face Sarge again and unleashing upon the man a sudden hug around his massive metal middle. Well, if he'd let her anyway. She definitely went for it. "you're fantastic. Thank you so much! It's just what we need to really get the Guide off the ground. Are you certain there isn't a name I can put for this invaluable addition?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

He didn't stop her, but he didn't return it. "He's right." Came the simple response. "It is a little creepy." That was said for whatever it was worth. "And no, no name. Trust me when I say this will bring a heaping helping of attention onto your head, some good, some bad. There's going to be a lot of questions."

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Magda gave a faint chuckle, stepping back, rubbing at her nose a bit.

"Sorry, I get it from my father. He always got a bit ...overzealous when learning new things. Bit of a geek I s'pose." A deep sigh followed, Magda held up the datapad before her to regard it appreciatively one last time before slipping it into her shoulder bag. She nodded, "Then you'll simply be Anonymous. I can't thank you enough. I hope what we create will meet and exceed your expectations."

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"I hope so too, but judging by your passion, I don't imagine you'll stop until such a thing is accomplished." The armored figure lifted his head, scanning her brother for a moment before pulling out a much smaller 'burner' datapad. The sort that was used and tossed, with nothing traceable in it. "This holds the account number you'll need to activate the transaction. It'll work at any bank you take it to."

"I'll take you back to your ship. I can't stay in one place too long."

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Gabe took the second proffered datapad, giving it a quick look before pocketing it, "Thank you very much," he said with a nod and a faint smile, grasping his sister by both shoulders and giving her a squeeze. Magda couldn't tell if it was a squeeze of delight or one of concern. He seemed equal parts happy and uncomfortable.

The pair followed [member="Sarge Potteiger"] back down along the spine of the ship in silence. Magda overwhelmed with thoughts and plans, Gabe just wanting very dearly to get out of here. They were, after all, out in the middle of Bumblefeth - the arsehole of space. Best not to linger to long, like the creepy mansuit said.

He shuffled his sister to the ship as she said one last thank you and goodbye before disappearing up the ramp. Soon enough the Magesteria was alive, and not long after that it was but a speck in the distant blackness.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

When they left the hangar, he watched the ship disappear.

"Computer."

"Yes, Brandon?"

"Take us somewhere else."

The massive vessel tilted, powered up engines that shouldn't be working, and launched itself into hyperspace.