A Chronicles of Nethra Story
Ora Monroe did not need to personally supervise the exchange. Tashania was more than capable of running surveillance and was doing a flawless job; though her tone took on a slightly annoyed clip when Ora decided to perch herself on the couch directly behind her.
At least Tashania had the good sense to bare that annoyance with relative silence. Though her position within the Grey Wings meant she answered to Ora, and Ora alone, she respected that final link in the chain of command with unquestioning, militaristic loyalty.
Hoping to show her subordinate that she was watching the show for sheer entertainment, rather than a need to evaluate her activities, Ora made a great display of opening the bottle of wine on the end table and pouring herself a glass. She grasped the glass stem with her perfectly manicured fingers and swirled the contents with the calm assurance of a connoisseur; doing her best to look upon the screen with feigned indifference before carefully sipping at the dry vintage.
Her ruse had the desired effect, as Tashania’s shoulders relaxed—by a matter of degrees, perhaps, but it was still an improvement. She sounded less peevish when she reported over her headset, “They are on site. Package is in the cradle.”
By “they,” Tashania meant the representatives from Red Hook. The “package” was a crate containing a sizeable shipment of ghost and stym. The Grey Wings had never purchased from Red Hook before, hence the tensions and precautionary measures exceeding even the stringent standards Ora held all of her illicit dealings to.
“Acknowledged,” came the deep voice at the other end of the comms. The voice had an edge of a growl to it, a feature not uncommon when Maur spoke in the Standard Lexicon. Ora would have recognized Roaren’s voice even absent the racial tick. She also noticed that Tashania had turned the comms on the general speaker so that Ora could listen in.
How thoughtful.
Ora watched as her team approached Red Hook’s team of brokers. Each had a party of three, as was agreed upon, but Ora didn’t believe for a second that Red Hook had honored that arrangement. Of the six present, Roaren was the only Maur. The rest were Terrans.
As if to confirm the passing thought, Tashania pulled up two more windows that showed Red Hook fire support lying in wait. Tashania tapped the corner of her headset, switching channels for the transmission. “Fireteams one and two, please proceed to positions Bravo and Charlie. Keep it quiet, but make it hurt. Let these assholes know we meant what we said.”
“Copy that, Shani,” coughed the first team lead with easy familiarity.
Team leader two spoke in a digital rasp, her voice a cold reminder of old war wounds that drove her out of the service and into the private sector. “Copy, Actual. On the move.”
Ora hid her smirk behind another sip of wine. Just because she was allowed to break the rules on her home territory, didn’t mean their guests were permitted to do the same. What was the ancient saying? “Home field advantage?”
On the two side screens, two squads of Grey Wings operators quietly disabled the Red Hook snipers. From the looks of it, the attacks weren’t going to be fatal, though the Grey Wings teams did relieve their unconscious opponents of any weapons or tech they found on them.
Finders keepers.
“Good work, people,” Tashania praised. “Roaren, you are clear to approach the rendezvous.”
“Copy,” Roaren grunted. “Initiating pick-up.”
Even as he spoke, the holodisplays suddenly glitched, fragmenting in places before stitching themselves back together. Ora frowned. “Does that happen often?”
Tashania did not need to clarify what Ora meant. “Hells no. Hang on a sec. I’m lookin’ into it.” A new display appeared to her left and Tashania rapidly tapped a series of commands into the virtual keyboard. Lines of code and data metrics flashed across the screen like emerald raindrops in a midnight thunderstorm. “Everything’s reading stable, but…” She trailed off, examining the scrolling green characters on the black display intently.
“But…?” Ora prompted.
“Are we runnin’ surveillance from somewhere else on the network?”
Ora’s eyes hardened cautiously. “This is the only active operation.”
“Well, someone else just tapped into the network.”
Who else would be on the network? “Trace it,” Ora said, setting aside her glass and leaning forward.
“Already on it. I… what the frag?” The surveillance footage froze and the text prompt screen vanished. When more of the green characters appeared on the screen, the text was doubly large—large enough for Ora to read it from where she sat.
???: [I wouldn’t do that if I were you.]
Tashania turned to Ora, her brow furrowed with worry. “Orders, boss?”
Damn it. Ora had just been hoping to enjoy a nice glass of wine while being impressed by the efficiency of her own operation. So much for that. “Take the bait,” she instructed. “Try and figure out what they want. Stall them, at least.”
As Tashania began typing, Ora stood and stepped aside. She swiped the metallic band implanted above her left ear. Immediately, one of her operators came on the line, their voice being routed directly into her ear as the implant did its work. “Ma’am?” the operator asked.
“We have an incursion in the network,” Ora reported. “They’ve locked out access to surveillance here at Annex. I need someone to get into the datahub and find the son of a bitch that’s fragging with us.”
“On it,” the operator replied. “Give us five minutes.”
Less would be better, but Ora didn’t harp on the man. She knew her people would be doing their best. She pulled out her MoDAC, set a timer, swiped at her implant again, and returned to stand next to Tashania. In reading the text flowing across the holodisplay, it was obvious that the discussion was yielding little fruit.
Tashania: [Who are you?]
???: [Just a poor sap that needs to borrow some of your toys for a minute.]
Tashania: [This is a restricted network. You can’t be in here.]
???: [Well aware of that. I must compliment you, though: you’ve got some good shit in here. Better than station security, that’s for damned sure.]
Tashania: [Terminate your connection.]
???: [Relax. This’ll just take a moment, and I’ll be on my way.]
Tashania looked over to Ora. “Someone is working on it,” said Ora. “Just keep him talking.” Rolling the tension from her shoulders, Tashania resumed typing.
Tashania: [What do you want?]
???: [Just taking a quick look around, is all.]
“Negotiate,” said Ora. “I want eyes back on the exchange.”
Tashania: [Well, we just want access to our system again. How about you unlock us, and we can pretend like this never happened?]
???: [Can’t do that. Not sure you won’t try something stupid again. This is for your own good, really.]
Tashania: [We could help you find what you’re looking for.]
???: [Not necessary. Now, quit bothering me. This will only take a minute.]
Tashania threw up her hands. “Nine hells! This fragger has us over a barrel, and he knows it. There ain’t a damned thing I can do from here. All of Annex is completely cut off.”
Ora looked at the timer on her mobile. Less than two minutes left. “Just wait,” she advised with more surety than she felt. “They’ll have this fixed over at tech ops any—” she was cut off as another line of text appeared on the holodisplay.
???: [Uh oh. Now you’ve gone and done it. You lot just couldn’t be patient. Looks like you need something to keep your hands busy.]
No sooner did Ora finish reading this message before alarms began sounding all around them.
#
Roaren didn’t like the three Terrans from Red Hook from the second he laid eyes on them. That wasn’t unusual—he didn’t care for most of the lot the Wings had to deal with from out-system—but his distaste was affirmed the second the tall man in front opened his trap.
“Took ya long enough,” the tall man said. “Was beginnin’ t’ think ya weren’t gonna show.”
Not even sparing him the effort to scowl, Roaren just shrugged. “Had to make sure you were alone. Didn’t want to hand over the krets just to get a bullet in the brain, yeah?”
The tall man spat upon the sheet metal floor. “Ya accusin’ us of somethin’?”
Nothing that hasn’t already been confirmed, Roaren thought. Aloud, he said, “You got the product? Or did you just come out all this way to flirt with me?”
The snarl on the man’s face threatened to twist his mouth off. Still, he nodded to the man on his left, who kicked the large crate in Roaren’s direction.
Roaren signaled for his cohort on his right, Jackie, to check the package. She calmly approached the crate, unhinged the latch, and looked inside. “First check is good,” she reported, reaching for her MoDAC. She scanned the cargo with her mobile. When the device chimed approvingly, she said. “Second check cleared. It’s what we were promised.”
As Jackie closed the crate and backed away, Roaren signaled the man on his left who walked calmly up to the tall man with a kret chip held between two fingers. “Check it,” he urged.
The tall man obliged, slotting the chip in the back of his mobile device. He opened his mouth, presumably to report that the payment was all there.
Roaren would never know what the man was about to say— because that’s when the alarms sounded.
“Son of a bitch!” shouted one of the Red Hook cronies. “That’s station security! It’s a fraggin’ setup.”
Roaren barely heard the words. He raised his hands placatingly. “Easy now, this isn’—”
He didn’t have a chance to finish. All three of the Red Hooks drew their weapons, and all descended into the chaotic whine of blasters discharging and the flash of bolts lancing through their targets.
#
Ora paced anxiously for a full minute after the alarms had died down. Tashania had at last regained access to their surveillance system, but it was proving frustratingly slow in loading. Every second spent awaiting news of her people’s fate was another degree added to her already boiling blood.
Tashania’s sigh gave away her message before she could put voice to the outcome.
Before the words even fell, Ora felt her chest tighten and her breath slow.
“They’re dead,” Shani reported. “All three of ours, two of theirs. Package is still in the corridor. Looks like one of ‘em limped off with a bleeder.”
“Do you have eyes on him?” Ora asked, her calm voice betraying none of her rage.
“Negative. He’s in the wind.”
Ora bit back a string of curses. Fragging Red Hook meatheads. They’d done exactly what the hacker had hoped they would do. Fragged everything up in the process. And they’d taken out Roaren. She’d liked him. He was… reliable.
“Send Fire Team 1 to retrieve the package. Team 2 can hunt down the survivor and take them out. Make sure to take their mobiles.” Chances of this incident not making it back to Red Hook were next to zero, but at least Ora could get her krets back.
“Copy,” Tashania replied. “What else?”
There could have been any number of responses to that question, but Ora knew exactly which one Tashania was looking for. “Open bounty,” she said. “Post to everyone we know on station. If they’ve even tried to do work for us, I want them on this. Find whichever piece of whore-spit that caused this mess and bring them to me.”
“Full copy, Or—”
“And Shani?” Ora interrupted. “I want them alive.”
#
Thurn was just about to call it for the evening. He’d nearly fallen asleep in his chair twice already, and he’d knocked out three of the five programming contracts he’d booked for this week. He now had enough krets to keep himself fed, even if his crew didn’t end up finding a job to pay for the fuel to get off this gods-forsaken station.
Yes, it was time to call it a night. The Orchallen cyborg shifted his massive frame and made to rise from his chair.
A priority alert flashed in his periphery, catching what thin strands remained of his attention. He checked the source. The Grey Wings? That woke him right up. He used his retinal interface to pull up the message.
[OPEN BOUNTY: 200,000 krets. Find the source of this network incursion (details attached). Bring perpetrator(s) to Annex alive along with evidence of how the network was breached. Grey Wings network security will verify evidence upon delivery. Attempts to fabricate evidence or falsely lay claim to this bounty will result in forfeiture of future Grey Wings contracting opportunities.]
“Kadath!” Thurn roared into the ship’s comms channel. “Wake up! Yer gonna want t’ see this.”
While he waited for his captain to make his way over to the network terminal, Thurn downloaded the attached file and began to analyze it. Damn. This was recent. The breach had occurred scarcely two hours ago. Whatever this was, it must have really pissed the Grey Wings off.
Furthermore, the attachment was incredibly thorough. It revealed an incredible amount regarding the Grey Wings’ network defense architecture to anyone with the know-how to reverse engineer it. The incident must have been beyond bad for the Wings to reveal this level of detail on an open bounty. A real kick in the balls. This kind of move basically invalidated the core of their network security. They’d be rebuilding it from top to bottom; hells, they’d probably already gotten started.
While an organization like the Grey Wings could probably afford to have a new security infrastructure installed overnight, Thurn did not even want to calculate the premium for a rush order on a job that complex. Add in an open bounty of this size?
Thurn whistled low and long.
A lot of krets would be changing hands this week. That set one hell of a precedent. Anybody smart enough to take a shot at the Wings’ network after this exercise would also be smart enough to not run the risk.
Kadath announced his arrival with a theatrical yawn, tossing his long dark curls back with one red-skinned hand. “Thurn, if this isn’t good, I’m going to demand you give me a neck massage before I go back to sleep. What in the nine hells is worth waking me up at this gods-forsaken—”
“Shut yer trap and Ah’ll show ya,” Thurn growled, spinning away from his console and projecting a hollow display right in front of Kadath’s sleep-deprived gaze.
Blinking wide and slow, his silver eyes shot open as he realized what he was looking at. “Holy shit. An open bounty that size? The whole station is going to be looking for these assholes.”
“Ma thoughts ‘xactly. Now ya see why Ah woke ya?”
“My sincerest apologies for doubting your judgment.” Despite his flowery phrasing, Kadath managed to thread in an undercurrent of sarcasm. He glanced over at Thurn’s terminal where the attachment was still unpacked. “That’s all they gave us? It’s just a bunch of code. How are we supposed to find the hackers based on that?”
Thurn sighed dramatically. “Ah wouldn’ ‘xpect no trigger-puller like ya t’ make sense of it. That’s what ya got me for.” No small amount of pride tinged his words.
Kadath rolled his eyes. “Here I thought it was ‘cause yer so pretty. So, you can find the hackers?”
“Already on it. Ya should go round up the happy couple. Tell ‘em we got work to do.”
Kadath grunted, rubbing his smooth jawline. “Damn. I think Jeagan might be pulling a late shift with his side gig out on R-4. How much time do we have?”
Right on cue, Thurn’s terminal chimed. One of his algorithms had finished its analysis and had found a matching signature. He looked at the output, and his stomach churned. Really? It had to be this guy? “None,” he reported. “If this’s who Ah think it is, then he’s already mobile.”
#
Normally Kadath liked the occasional excursions up to the higher tiers, but not when he was hunting. Firearms were technically illegal in the entire Sigma-4 space station. In the lower rings, though, those rules were more like “guidelines.” Up in mid-tier, even on the lower rungs like R-7, getting busted with a rifle minus a special permit was going to get you locked up or sent planet-side.
That was why he only had his blades: twin swords secreted beneath his leather jacket. His companion, Siv, probably had far more than that hidden on her leather-clad person, but Kadath couldn’t spot a single weapon. The dark cloak and hood helped with that.
He smiled at her as the glint of her reptilian gaze met his cybernetic gleam. “Couldn’t talk Jeagan into tagging along?”
Siv’s face was completely covered, as always, but her eyes portrayed her exact feelings on the subject. “I didn’t even ask him. We need the steady money. Bounties and other jobs have been coming in slower of late, as you know.”
Kadath shrugged off the subtle accusation. “That’s all about to change, my friend. We nab this one, and not only will we be set for the next few months, we’ll be on the fast track to bigger and better things.”
“If only you could earn us a few krets by selling that sparkly confidence, we’d be set for life.”
“Believe me, I would if I could.” He tapped his earpiece. “Alright, Thurn, we’ve made it to the market district. You’ve landed us right in the center of the peaceful, middle-class throng. Where do we head next?”
Despite the bustle of the inner-ring marketplace, the team’s tech seemed to be working just fine. Thurn came through loud and clear over Kadath’s earpiece. “Keep goin’ in that same direction. He’s on the move.”
“What’re we looking for?”
“Not sure yet.”
With effort, Kadath bit back a sharp retort. “Then how do you know we’re going in the right direction?”
“He’s got somethin’ pingin’ the system every five minutes or so.”
“What is it?”
“Ah dunno.”
Kadath worked his jaw around as he bit. “Well, what do you know?”
“Exactly what Ah told ya,” Thurn snapped. “He pinged the network about three minutes ago from a block ahead of ya, headin’ down the main drag. Now, if ya’d just shut yer trap and use them fancy eyes Ah rigged up for ya, ya might spot somethin’ that’ll help us.”
Great. They were walking through the most crowded area of the ring, with no real weapons, chasing a target that they couldn’t recognize and who had completely unknown capabilities. Those were even longer odds than usual, which was no mean feat.
Kadath felt his earpiece buzz. “What in the nine hells was that?”
“Ah didn’ wanna hear no more bitchin’ from ya so Ah set yer piece t’ vibrate when the ping came in.”
“Well, shut it off. That scared the shit out of me.”
“Shut yer mouth off and take the next right. Go two blocks and start movin’ spinward again. Yer gainin’ on ‘im, but he’s still half a click away.”
Bastard. Kadath really needed to get some better-paying jobs so he could afford a more respectful crew. He nodded to Siv. “You heard the orc. Turn up here.”
Siv was already ahead of him, moving effortlessly through the crowd like a shadow, urging Kadath to pick up his pace by setting it for him. So much for him being in charge. Yup, definitely need a more respectful crew. He hurried forward, chasing after his backup.
His earpiece buzzed thrice more, every five minutes, before Thurn’s voice came back over the comms. “Stop. He’s three doors ahead of you, Siv. In that shop—the one with the purple tinted windows. Been there since the last ping.”
Perfect. They’d caught up to the target. Kadath motioned to Siv and she veered left, taking up position on the opposite side of the street about two doors down. Meanwhile, Kadath parked it on a bench and pretended to fiddle on his MoDAC.
“While we’re waiting,” he whispered, “maybe you can give us a little more detail on this… what did you call him?”
“Shift,” Thurn replied.
“Yeah, that’s right.” One would think I’d remember a name like that. “What’s he look like?”
“No one really knows. Guy uses a lot of disguises. Kind of a legend in the major hackin’ circles. He…” Thurn broke off as Kadath’s earpiece vibrated again. “He just stepped out of the shop. Heading spinward again.”
“I’m on him,” Siv reported, and into the shadows she went.
A second later, Kadath spotted him. The guy was completely bundled up in dark fabrics. He would have been easy to miss if Thurn hadn’t called him out. Kadath fell into step, doing his best to look inconspicuous. He couldn’t vanish into the shadows like Siv could, but he could do something she couldn’t: look non-threatening.
Granted, from the way Shift was hurrying forward, it seemed like Kadath needn’t have bothered. The hacker never so much as turned his head. Kadath risked stepping in a little closer. As he approached, he noticed two silver orbs that hovered just over Shift’s shoulders. What could those be?
When his earpiece pinged again, Kadath got his answer. As soon as his communicator began to vibrate, the orbs split open to reveal a tiny red dot spinning along a central strip. The lights on each device immediately stopped spinning and focused directly on Kadath.
Kadath froze as the hooded head turned to gaze at him. He knew the truth a second before Thurn’s curse crashed over the comms. “Shit. He’s spotted ya!”
Shift moved quickly, producing a handful of black marbles from within the folds of his garb. He tossed these on the deck plating between him and Kadath and broke into a sprint.
Kadath made to follow.
The black marbles exploded in blinding flashes of light and smoke. The crowd screamed. Everyone fell into a panic.
Now it was Kadath’s turn to curse. “I’ve lost eyes on the target,” he reported.
“I’ve still got him,” Siv reported. "Ducked into an alley two blocks spinward. I’m—” She was cut off as the sharp whine of laser fire erupted in the distance.
More cursing. Kadath forced himself through the panicked mob hastily fleeing the scene. The sound of lasers continued as he reached the mouth of the alley.
He didn’t find any sign of Shift or Siv in the darkened alcove. He did, however, find those spherical drones: four of them. As soon as his brain could process what he was seeing, four angry red dots focused their attention on him. They opened fire.
Kadath lurched to the side. One of the lasers grazed his leg, burning through his combat leathers. Damn it. In his haste to reach the alley, he’d forgotten to trigger his static shield. The mistakes were piling up, and he could feel himself getting buried alive.
He fixed the shield problem first, shed his coat, drew his blades, and launched himself back into the alley with fresh determination to make up for lost ground.
The drones swiveled suddenly as if surprised by his reappearance. Kadath took advantage of this and cleaved the nearest one neatly in half with a slash of his sword. Unfortunately, by the time this was done, the other three had managed to recover from their momentary surprise and reacquire him as their target.
They unleashed a relentless barrage of laser bolts. Kadath’s static shields absorbed each impact, but the hazy green barrier was growing more opaque with each strike. If this kept up, they would burn right through the shields before he took the rest of the bots down.
He threw one sword like a spear, managing to skewer one drone, before diving into a roll. He felt his shields pop just as he found cover behind a large metal protrusion. With his free hand, he killed his shield emitter. The device hummed in three ascending notes as it started its recharge cycle.
It wasn’t quick enough. The two remaining bots hovered into place straight in front of him.
Absent defenses, Kadath attacked. He launched himself into a cartwheel, bringing his sword down on the one to his left. He scored a kick against the other just as it fired, sending the errant bolt ricocheting skyward.
The drone flew out, colliding with the far side of the alley. Its red sensor spun errantly for a moment, seemingly disoriented. Kadath took advantage and brought his sword up in a wide arc. He didn’t split the thing, but he did take a sizeable chunk out of it. What remained of it fell lifelessly to the ground and sparked pitifully.
Before Kadath could so much as draw breath, something collided with him hard.
A body, he realized. A dark-clad body.
Acting on instinct, Kadath seized one of the layers of black cloth as the figure tore past him. He twisted and yanked down. The figure’s torso snapped backward, and its feet flew out from underneath it. It tried to rise, but Kadath followed up with a spinning kick to the side of its head. With a satisfying crack, his boot made contact, and the figure fell again. This time, it stayed still.
“That could have been me, you know.” Siv admonished, approaching from the shadows.
“Nah,” Kadath replied. “If it had been you, it’d be me on my ass right now, not the other way around. I wasn’t worried.”
“True enough.”
Kadath smiled. “I’m actually a little surprised he managed to slip past you.”
Siv’s eyes narrowed, the closest thing she ever showed to genuine chagrin. “Drones slowed me down. I wasn’t expecting there to be twelve of them.”
Twelve? Kadath had almost been vaporized by just four, and Siv’s cloak wasn’t even singed.
He quickly turned his attention back to their captive. “Hopefully I didn’t crack his skull.”
Siv moved over and checked him. “Just a bruise. He’s still breathing.”
That was a relief. “Bounty said ‘alive.’ Didn’t say ‘unharmed.’ Which means it’s ours. Bind him,” Kadath directed, stepping forward to scan the Terran’s shaggy face with his MoDAC. “What do you think, Thurn? This our guy?”
“Can’t tell by the ugly mug, but his implant signatures match.”
Siv finished tightening a cord around the hacker’s hands. “The bounty notice said we needed to be able to prove he was the one who initiated the hack. Is that something we can provide?”
Thurn chuckled. “Ah’ll have the proof on yer MoDACs before ya reach the nightclub. Just get him there safe and sound. Oh, and, uh… Ah might be gettin’ on that. Station security is comin’ t’ check out what caused those explosions back there.”
“Understood.” Kadath was beaming as he hefted the unconscious man over his shoulder. He winked at Siv. “Come on, let’s go get our payday. Annex, here we come!”
