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Ella breathes a sigh of relief when the fight is over. The android archivist seemed unsteady on her feet afterward. "As things go that wasn't a total disaster." She calls for medical attention for many of the wounded bystanders. She swaps batteries out of her rifle and into her backup generator to recharge them.
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When the last enemy falls, Saeron immediately begins administering first aid to the injured civilians and gate attendants.
Breathing a sigh of relief as she finishes, she leans back on her heels where she crouches. Watching on as the medical teams arrive to attend to the injured, she brushes several errant strands of hair away from her pale and weary face.
"Well done, everyone," she says simply. "Well done."
Naiaj calls you back into the Lorespire, once again, Naiaj has a furrowed brow as if thinking of too many things at once, and the trademark strictly-business tone they are known for.
"We've no time to rest, there is a lot on and we have the opportunity to keep building our sphere of influence so we need to take advantage of it"
"I’ve selected you for a secretive mission. A rival dragoncorp, who wishes to remain nameless, has enlisted the Society to gather data acquired by Frozen Trove Labs in one of their hidden communication outposts. Through contact with an old ally of mine, Captain Argente, we’ve discovered a small outpost in the Diaspora that Frozen Trove calls Whitescale. Your mission is to act as part of Argente’s crew and deliver supplies to the outpost. While there, download the data acquired by the long-range communication network; the data is going to be located with the station’s sole occupant. We expect there to be significant security measures in place to keep Frozen Trove’s adversaries out, so be prepared for anything.”
"Questions?"
'The delivery is mostly sustainment good - food, personal supplies, fuel, that sort of thing. The sort of things that someone living on a space rock can't just head down to the shops for"
Frozen Trove Labs is a Triaxian megacorporation that develops genetic modifications.
Working for the company in research and development is considered a prestigious and lucrative scientific career.
Frozen Trove has made enemies of several other Triaxian dragoncorps, and corporate espionage has become the norm on Triaxus. Frozen Trove has a few “deep cover” stations in distant parts of the Pact Worlds and elsewhere in the Vast to gather and collate information for Frozen Trove’s use. These outposts act independently, but rely on similar security protocols and usually have automated or small crews running them.
In these remote outposts, Frozen Trove frequently employs out of favor research or security personnel with extra training to watch for spies or other types of espionage. For a scientist looking for a promotion, these postings are the death knell of potential career growth.
"What is Captain Argente like? He's willing to put himself at risk?"
"He's a long term personal friend, I trust him completely. He will treat you well, and he will get you safely to your destination and maintain the ruse"
"If no one else has any questions he is waiting for you in the star port"
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After taking numerous tablets for his cough, Gargalus came back at the Lorespire, this time, his armor sealed off!
He listen carefully to what Venture-Captain Naiaj has to say and the info his comrades have gathered on their objective.
Do we need to have some disguise? We don't bear symbol of Argente's crew.
Do we need to have some disguise? We don't bear symbol of Argente's crew.
"Good point. My plan is for you to load crates marked for the station on pallet carts and use your coded crew coded badges to get inside, I expect you'd have little trouble blending in with the crew"
Your ship moves to its point in the Diaspora, a place nearly anonymous amongst the multitude of neighboring subplanetary bodies. Asteroids in this region often act as mining facilities or remote hideaways for those with something to hide. Whitescale Outpost is a small, seemingly abandoned mining site on the asteroid bearing the designation KV-441F.
Whitescale would be almost unnoticeable on its tiny asteroid if not for the light bleeding out from a handful of thick translucent windows and the faint shimmer of \ the force field protecting the only obvious entrance, a loading bay in a cavern entrance too small for the Ercinee to dock directly.
The glow of Whitescale’s force field bathes the loading dock in a faint blue light while holding the atmosphere within. A small amount of gravity bleeds off the sparse deck plating, allowing an easy transition of the Ercinee’s cargo into the storage chamber to the east. The double door to the roughly hewn storage chamber stands wide open in anticipation of impending delivery. The well-lit chamber cut directly into the asteroid’s stone surface has an airlock to the south and a long-out-of-use mining chute on the east wall.
Through the coms system you get a slightly bored voice "Hello? Hello? Drop off going to schedule?"
"Yeah I'm kinda busy, just leave it out there, I don't need to come out. You must be new guys" - he sounds bored and a bit disaffected.
You can see the area is pretty unkempt and this was clearly an old mining operation some time ago.
"It's ok, it can wait."
You hear laughter as the door clicks open "Touche! Sure come in - if you could just pop through the bio check on the way through, just to make sure you don't have any strange organisms - just scan through in the next room"
You can see through to the decontamination chamber, which is actually what appears to double as a toilet block. There is a small scanner on the wall.
Convinced that everything is on the level, it does indeed turn out that the scan is a fairly routine bioscan and nothing untoward.
"Pop the perishable in the kitchen fridge, you can join me in the rec room"
This kitchen area seems to be alive with grime accumulated over years of misuse. A door to the south bears the word “Medical” in Common. The two doors to the east have similarly say “Karezen” and “Recreation” respectively.
In Ellas expert opinion, this is the fridge of someone who rarely or never cooks, and likely used by people passing through, based on the eclectic items still held within - not so much a frat house, but certainly short stay accommodation.
This large room has a wall of enormous windows overlooking a vista of rock and ash. Several tables are covered with discarded datapads. A gravball court is the room’s most prominent feature with the gravity plates turned off below the spongy green surface.
A Ryphorian in a lab coat with a name tag that reads Karezen greets you welcomingly, "Welcome my rock, how was the flight - I assume you are the new guys?"
Karezen parks himself at the one computer terminal, sitting on the table and talking animatedly...
"I've got some drinks and snacks, sorry about the kitchen but I don't really use it - just cooking for myself, you know, bing-bing food, put it in the microwave then 'bing-bing' dinner for one"
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"Flight was uneventful - a little boring, really - but it sure beats the alternative, right?" Saeron replies to Karezen, casually leaning on the planter box in front of her. "What you growing here?" she asks with interest. "Growing herbs and plants is a bit of a hobby of mine."
"You play?" she asks, continuing Orrian's line of discussion regarding the gravball court. "Never really got to try it, but it looks like a lot of fun."
He talks to Orri and Ella in his open and relaxed manner"Mostly alone. We do get teams dropping by occassionally. And I have a couple of pets for company - but they don't distract me from research, I'm a bit of a boring bookworm anyway, mostly stick to coding and dabbling in biotech"
To Saeron he looks half-interested "We're growing potplanticus genericus, not sure, just the usual indoor plants and decorations that people from human resources insist be used as decorations to keep workers 'relaxed and comfortable' and they can pretend they care. Not much of a grav-ball player, and I think we only have it so the same department can meet its metrics on providing fitness and recreation as part of some mandated wellness initiative. Feel free to have a go, we can run it as a simulator too - I reprogrammed it to run all sorts of different things, even a shooting range"
Saeron can tell the plants truly are some really common indoor type that get used in places where no one has a clue and would otherwise probably kill their indoor plants.
His mood continues to lighten.
He looks at Gar and has a chuckle "What, and get soundly beat? No way, you look like you're benching three plates a side or something. Nah hard pass"
"Shooting range is a bit more my style, more about the reflexes, and can be done without spilling your coffee"
"Ella was it? There's a couple of terminals, but mainly I just use the good one in my office - the rest are a bit meh. Reprogramming the simulator is easy enough, I had to come up with a way to entertain my pets before they destroyed the furniture. Probably not in accordance with head office protocol, but hey they aren't out here checking"
"Hey speaking of my little furbuddies, want to meet them?" as though letting the group in on a secret and taps a button on his data-bracelet. A door opens and two large felines with draconic features and leathery wings move to the holoball court which begins a combat sim... then they begin fighting holographic enemies, showing off their combat prowess.
"Triaxian Drakecats, beautiful and deadly, and they are loyal as can be!"
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Saeron smiles and takes a step forward as she glimpses the feline forms. She quickly halts in her tracks as she notices the unusual shaped heads and wings.
"Beautiful!" she breathes, watching the Drakecats play. "What wonderful creatures. Where did you get them from? I'd love to visit Triaxus one day. It's on the bucket list."