“Of course I’m in, old dog, what do you think?” said John with a mocking tone. “Come on, you know I’m in for a bit of merc work every now and then, so you have your gunner. Now, that the mystery is unraveled, let’s prepare. What do we need and how much time do we have?”
“I like your eagerness. Most likely we’ll leave tonight, so stay sharp” said Derek in a low voice. “Let’s grab some food to go and see our operator.”
Helena was waiting for them. “Ok gents, so you have made the introductions, you will move fast. Not tonight, NOW.” The two men looked at one another, puzzled. Good they had taken some food with them.
“Here’s the mission – meet Mark on level 42 in his apartment, grab an access key from him. Go to the first hideout, pick up a package, then fly to Microtech North Pole, the landing codes will be sent on a secret channel as you’re near, they have your ship signature. You’ll meet a contact there. Make the exchange, then get out of there as fast as you can. Make sure you’re not followed of course, and if the situation gets hairy, destroy the package. Got that?”
“Yes ma’am”, they said in unison. This was getting really intense, really fast.
On level 42, there was no Mark to be found. Just as they were getting close to the meeting point, a message popped up on John’s mobiGlass out of nowhere, with no source, no signature. Just an address. What choice did they have? Just follow the breadcrumbs, as the story goes.
They decided this time to take some precautions. Back in John’s ship they changed their clothes fast, and got some weapons. Derek took the Metro, which would help him blend in better and John took his ship to the rooftop above the meeting place, a derelict storehouse.
John was nervous waiting for his friend there but he knew the risks. All the ship’s systems were powered down to avoid any signature scan. It was freezing inside with no systems running. Half an hour later Derek showed up, very agitated.
“Take off fast. The situation is bad. Got jumped by a guy in there and I managed to take him down. In the back room I found Mark with a bullet to the head.”
“What?! Microtech is more dangerous than Hurston I see!” John took off quickly and just to the first Orbital Marker as fast as he could. They were followed and their path was predictable, two ships on their tail. Derek took the pilot’s seat, while John jumped in the gunner turret.
“So what happened down there? Did you get the package?”
“Yeah, I got it”, said Derek as he started to do evasive maneuvers. “The guy I popped dead was a dumb merc, he didn’t find the package. Mark left it in a safe and as I got close to him a message appeared on my mobiGlass with a clue where to find it and a set of coordinates. The first access key opened the safe, my biometrics were also needed. The guy knew what he was doing in securing this. Found the package in there, a small cube, looks alien. Also grabbed Mark’s mobiGlass for good measure. Enough chit-chat now, let’s get rid of our tail, they’re firing on us!”
John shouted in agreement and started to fire back at the attackers. It was like the old days when they were on the Caterpillar hauler ship, getting rid of pirates. One of the ships following them dropped fast, but the other one was nimble and had a good pilot. “It’s hard to escape this guy, Derek, go around that asteroid at 4 o’clock.”
“Roger that”
Derek’s piloting skills were legendary both in slow ships and fast ships, he could do stuff nobody else could, knew exactly when to turn, when to dodge and more importantly how to give John a clear shot. He quickly reversed the ship behind the asteroid and got behind his attacker, allowing John to fire straight into the enemy’s engines.
“That’s a wrap”, John said laughing. “To the North Pole then. What do you think we’ll find in there?”
Derek’s stomach growled, reminding him he had not eaten his lunch. They put the ship on cruise control for the final descent and sat down to eat.
In between morsels, he mumbled, “I don’t know, but my guess is that we got the real package. Remember what Helena told us, that there are several couriers to throw the spies off? Well this alien cube looks too well made to be a fake.” Derek, put in the coordinates in the computer and started spooling the QT and spline jumping to get close. Near the North Pole their instruments started to go haywire, but they still had the computer to guide them. “The coordinates are pointing to a desolate plain, only rocks in there, but I have a feeling there is something underground.”
He was right. As soon as they got close, a high-powered beam from the ground took over their ship and guided them down to an unremarkable spot. Once landed the patch of land around them started to move down and the hologram was disabled to show they were actually on a landing pad. They were going down to an underground facility.