by Kal Spriggs
Marcus's eyes went narrow, “Guard Intelligence didn't terminate the mission, but they're trying to acquire the technology from Odin Interstellar?”
“Yes,” Wilson said with a wry smile, “we noticed. It probably means there's some infighting within their organization.”
Marcus just shrugged at that. Mel could tell something bothered him about that, but she didn't want to bring it up in front of the others or their guests. “Okay, then, you have some copies of the contract for us to look over?” she asked.
“We can do better than that,” Wolters said. “We've included the original contract as well as the full intelligence file that the previous Company worked up. They won't be needing it anymore.”
Mel grimaced at that, but she took the data chip. “Anything else?”
“We shouldn't have to say this, but in case you didn't realize it, you won't get any support from us on this operation,” Wilson said. “Furthermore, if you're caught, we'll deny even knowing about you.” He shrugged, “It's just business. Good luck, though. You'll need it.”
He and Wilson turned and left. Malekith looked at Lace, who gave him a nod. “Well, the Colonel will remain as your liaison until your operation begins. Bane Sidhe is not contracted for the mission, so her services with you will terminate once you leave the system.”
Mel gave the other woman a look of surprise and she shrugged, “I'm a mercenary, as much fun as you lot are, I go where I'm paid... cash up front, I'm afraid.”
“Understood,” Mel said. She gave Malekith a nod. “Thank you, by the way, for setting this up.”
He gave a shrug, “I'm coming out of this deal very well, so long as your group succeeds, so it's in my best interests to facilitate things.” He started to leave and then paused near the lounge door. “By the way, in the event that you succeed, you should begin thinking of a Company name and organization chart. Believe it or not, that is something that many of Hanet's Mercenary Guild struggle with. I've seen several startups fizzle out when they start bickering over who is in charge.”
“Noted,” Bob said dryly, “though that might be putting the cart before the horse, so to speak.”
Malekith just gave a slight smile before he nodded at them and departed.
“Well,” Mel weighed the data chips in her hands. “I suppose we should start looking this over.”
* * *
“Okay,” Mel said as she pushed back away from the table, “this is ridiculous. It's impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible,” Bob said, “merely improbable.” He said it with such aplomb that Mel wanted to strangle him.
“Okay,” Mel said as she leveled a glare on the cheerful man, “then it is highly improbable that we can infiltrate the building. We can agree that it is even more improbable that we can access their core network. And as for getting back out alive again, much less without being noticed...” she shook her head.
The corporate headquarters was a fortress. The boring and pleasant corporate outer facade was only for appearances; they did their actual business buried deep in a bunker beneath the building. Access was controlled to a severe level, with full body biometrics scanners, weapons scanners, and a full security system that monitored everything from heart-rate to skin temperature... all of that in just the outer sections. No-one from the previous Company had made it past the second or third layers of security.
Well, no-one besides the two members of the recon team that Odin Interstellar had captured. “Do we know what they did with their prisoners, yet?” Mel asked as she thought about that. Both captured mercenaries had been taken within the building for questioning.
“Danzig's police reported that they were killed trying to escape, shot multiple times in the back,” Marcus said. “One thing to note is that Odin Interstellar fired their security manager for the exterior breach. These guys really take their security seriously.”
“Could we contact him, maybe use his knowledge to our advantage?” Bob asked as he paged through his set of notes. He gave a sour snort though as he found the file that Marcus had marked. “Oh, that's great. He committed suicide. Seriously, these guys take security a bit too far. I wonder how much help he had stepping in front of that train.”
“Security cameras glitched, so probably a lot of help,” Marcus said. “Sad part is, we really could have used him...” He pulled up another file, “Ah, found his replacement: Kaptain Sebastian Lokisen. It looks like they just promoted him from Foster's System Headquarters, he's headed there in the next few weeks after he finishes training his replacement.”
If he had worked Foster, a place notorious for criminal elements, then he probably had a great deal of security experience.
Mel read his file and she winced, “Ten years in Guard Army Military Police... two tours in Caverna. Reprimanded for use of excessive force on three occasions.”
“On Caverna?” Bob asked. He shook his head, “I'd heard they drag convicts out and shoot them for talking back in that hellhole.” The short man lost his look of cheer as he thought about the kind of man that would be seen as “excessive” under those conditions.
Mel nodded, “That's what I'd heard too.” She didn't want to know what he had done that had gotten him not one, but three reprimands for violence on the subterranean prison colony.
“He's a native of Danzig in the Neu Emshaven system, he's worked for Odin Interstellar for the past fifteen years, twice he's been responsible for discovering potential corruption and leaks within the company...” She blanched as she read the last part. “The one guy, it looks like he killed his entire family, wife and three kids, all of them.”
“Yeah,” Marcus said, “I read that, he firebombed their apartment in the middle of the night. Foster's police didn't even bother to do an investigation, they just marked it down as gang related. Which means a hefty bribe, Foster's planetary security doesn't bribe cheap.”
Mel didn't ask him how he knew that.
He shook his head, “These guys really don't mess around with their security.”
“Are we sure we want to do this?” Swaim asked. “I mean, we could just, you know... vanish.”
“Easier said than done,” Marcus said. He nodded at Lace. “Besides, we've got a Mercenary Guild spy in our ranks to make certain we stay focused.”
Lace gave him a toothy smile, “Thank you, you say the nicest things.”
“Can we get back on topic?” Mel asked. “Fenris, have you noticed anything we haven't?”
“I've noticed that system traffic isn't heavy enough to hide my presence without a valid transponder, otherwise I'll attract too much attention,” he growled. “If I'm going to make orbit, I'll have to have some kind of cover.”
“What about the automated ore delivery drones?” Swaim asked. “Vulcan Mining Concern has a constant flow of them to their orbital facilities. Maybe you could...” He trailed off as the others snorted with laughter.
Fenris growled, “Are you suggesting I look like an ore freighter?”
“Uh,” Swaim's forehead creased, “No?”
Mel shook her head, “Fenris is very clearly a warship. It would be like asking you to dress up in drag and go seduce and then sleep with a heterosexual male. The equipment is a little different.”
Swaim flushed, “Well, I know that, but maybe...”
Mel waved her hand, “Fenris, you could pull the ID off one of those freighters and that would get you access to the inner system.” She frowned, “But as soon as you varied from the flight plan, you would draw plenty of attention.”
Fenris's voice was an ominous grumble, clearly still insulted at the comparison to a bulk freighter, “Yes, and while my new emitters will allow me to moderate my drive field strength, I still won't look remotely like a freighter, if anyone looks past the IFF, they'll be able to see that right away.”
Mel nodded. Automated bulk transports like the ones in use by Vulcan Mining Concern were big, crude, and simple. They didn't have finely controlled emitters and their drive fields would be ma
rkedly different from that of Fenris. It was also prohibited to utilize any type of FTL warp drive on them, in part due to the general fears of autonomous warships, in part as a safety precaution so that they couldn't be hijacked by competition.
The drone craft had a number of safety measures installed so that they could be shut down if they operated outside very narrow parameters. Given the general paranoia about autonomous vessels and non-human intelligences, there was no doubt that the Guard Fleet picket in the system would react almost instantly to a 'rogue' drone freighter.
“Even if we gain access to the data core,” Bob said, “someone is going to have to upload new identities and we'll also need to modify the algorithms for the Eye, either wipe them or replace them with something that looks very similar.” He looked at Swaim, “How good are you?”
“I can probably put together something that looks fancy for the algorithms,” he said as everyone's gazes came to rest on him, “But I'm not really sure how to go about constructing a good background.”
“I've done some research,” Fenris growled. “Our, best option is to utilize the backgrounds of real people who died recently. They'll already have everything in the system and all we'll need to do is swap appearances and biometrics. At that point we can transfer money into accounts, activate them, and then fall in on the role. The same goes for me; we locate a ship reported destroyed recently and change the data, mark it as salvaged most likely. Then we tie your identities to the salvage crew and we would be clear to move on from there.”
Marcus nodded, “Guard Intelligence does that, often enough. Their other method, creating people from birth, requires a dedicated organization.” He frowned. “We'll make enough off this operation that we could go that route, we'd just have to make contact with a criminal organization willing to take our money.”
“Why?” Swaim asked, “If we can do it ourselves...”
Fenris spoke up, “Real people will have ties. I'll try to select people without contacts where we plan to operate, but if they have family, friends, or even just business contacts who knew they died, there's a possibility of someone realizing it's a false ID and then investigating.”
Mel nodded, “We'll have to keep low profiles, minimize contact in ports, avoid using ID whenever we can.”
“I think we should just keep the money,” Brian said. “Most organizations can't get us a completely foolproof identity anyway, and in case we need to go for another set of IDs, we'll have the money as a backup. For that matter, sooner or later I'll probably get bored with mercenary work or you lot will die. Then I'll need to start over again anyway.”
“Uh,” Mel said, “You seem pretty certain we'll all die.”
Brian shrugged, “Oh, that's just what happens. Even with life extension treatments, you'll be lucky to get three hundred years before an accident or murder takes your life. Most hardcore mercenaries last considerably less time than that.”
“Are you so sure you will be around if something kills all of us?” Mel asked.
He gave a flat smile, “In all likelihood, yes. If the past is anything to go by, anyway.”
“Well,” Mel said, “aside from the statement about our deaths, Brian does have a point. I think we're better off using whatever Fenris can arrange in Odin's network.”
“If he's doing the hack, though,” Swaim cautioned, “he's going to need to be close. Otherwise the time delay is going to cripple him.”
“Agreed,” Fenris said. “With the type of access I'll need, I need to be in high orbit to carry it out in any reasonable amount of time.”
Mel winced at that. It would be extremely hard to slip the undocumented warship into orbit over Danzig. The system had a substantial Guard Fleet picket along with a very robust planetary defense militia, which was basically hired corporate security, not quite mercenaries but armed better than some Guard Military commands, she suspected.
“What can we tell for certain about their core network?” Mel asked.
“They have an excellent firewall, all information is logged and scanned as it comes into the system,” Swaim said. “I could bring down their firewall if I had a few weeks of prep time, but they'll just lock the system down at that point, nothing in or out. They might have the authority to take down the planetary network. After that, they'll comb through their files for anything that doesn't match. They'll go through file access logs and even if I could modify the files from outside before they cut connection, they'll see they were accessed and they'll overwrite them with their next update.”
“I could probably bypass their firewall,” Fenris growled, “but I'd have the same problems making any changes on the inside. The only way to be certain is to have direct access to their core network.”
“So we need to get inside,” Mel said. “I assume you would want us to bring some kind of transmitter for you?”
“That would work best,” Fenris said. “I'll need something high power and bandwidth... and I'll have to do a broad spectrum broadcast or my transmission won't be certain to get through to the transmitter, so someone is bound to notice that.”
“Better and better,” Marcus snorted. “An undocumented warship broadcasting an encrypted signal. You can bet your ass some people will be responding to that.”
“Okay,” Mel said. She looked at the estimates of what security would be like on the inside. “Their senior people will have access to the network. This Doctor Farber's lab has to have access to the core network, he's the one who designed the Odin's, after all.” She grimaced. “His lab is absolutely buried in their bunker, though. What about senior corporate?”
“Less of the automated security,” Marcus said, “More of the personal, human touch, though. Bodyguards, secretaries, an armed response team, the works. Their current Chief Operations Officer, Lindsey Bader has access, but her office is buried behind all that security.”
“Maybe turn her?” Mel asked.
“No way,” Lace said, “I know her type, she's more addicted to power than money. You won't be able to bribe her, not with cash, and you can't find anything she'll be more afraid of than losing her position.”
“The monitoring scanners would probably detect if she was under coercion, anyway,” Marcus said. “She probably wouldn't be able to fool the heart-rate and skin temperature ones, not without extensive modifications. Her security would know something was wrong and they'd intervene.”
“Do we have anything?” Mel demanded.
“I know a guy who works security there,” Bob said. He shrugged, “He's a mid-level manager, not high enough up the chain to get us access, but maybe enough to help if we get in.”
“You know him, like you knew Terrence?” Brian asked.
“We worked things out with Terrence,” Bob said defensively.
“You shot him,” Mel said.
“Well,” Bob said with a shrug, “we did get the money, right?”
Mel restrained a sigh. “So we have one, tiny, possible bit of help. What else?”
“Much of their internal security is done with automated systems,” Fenris said. “Turrets, camera systems, automatic doors, even some mobile robotic units. Their primary response team is human, but I could gain control over their secondary systems if I could gain access.”
“Which brings us back to how do we gain access... and still manage to slip out unnoticed?” Mel asked. “Because all of this is for nothing if they know they were hacked.” They would review all of their files, then, and sooner or later they would find what they had done.
“We kill them all,” Brian shrugged. “Once we have control of the corporate security network, set the turrets to engage anything that moves, send their mobile robots to kill whoever avoids those systems, and we mop up the rest.”
Marcus and Bob stared at Brian completely aghast. Mel though, felt the tickle of an idea. “You can't be serious,” Bob said. “How is that going to keep what we did secret?”
Brian shrugged, “I'm not the idea man, make it look like a murder suicide.
Some security manager found out someone slept with his wife and so he kills everyone.” He smiled slightly, “You normals do that kind of thing all the time.”
“You're onto something there,” Mel said absently as she started to pull up files.
Marcus turned to stare at her, his mouth open in shock.
She looked up, “No, not the kill everyone, that would draw way too much attention to us.” She frowned, “Plus, it's really, really morbid and wrong.” She began to shift files around and slowly, she started to smile. “This... this could work.”
“Care to enlighten us?” Marcus asked.
Mel waved a hand, “It's just like the myths, we're going up against a God... we've got to be sneaky.” She spun her monitor around so they could see what she had worked on. “This is going to be hard to pull off, we're going to need some more people and resources... and we can't get any of it here.”
Slowly she saw surprise transform to confidence on the faces of her companions. It was Bob who spoke first, “That could work. Fenris, any thoughts?”
“I don't like it,” he said, “there is a lot of risk to all of you.”
“Someone will have to infiltrate ahead of time,” Brian said. He gave a sigh, “Since Bob has the contact, that would probably be me.”
“Me too,” Marcus said. As everyone else looked at him in surprise he shrugged, “I've a full set of biometrics augmentation from my time in Guard Intelligence. I haven't used them in ten years, but they're still active, if a little out of date. They should be good to fool everything short of a deep tissue sample.”
Brian gave Marcus a narrow-eyed look of suspicion, as if he had deliberately held back that information until now. Which, Mel realized, he had held that information back with a purpose... but not for Brian. He hid that from me, she thought.
“Being a little out of date with their security might get you killed,” Lace cautioned. “Trust me, I know how cutting edge their scanners can get. They have the very latest.”