Chapter 2

Hyperspace.

Approaching the Sepia system.

"Hyperspace emergence in 3...2...1...Emergence!"

Sarah tensed slightly in her seat as the hyperdrive gave one last surge of power, and her ship was flung back into realspace. For a fraction of a second the Seeker's sensors simply ceased to function, blinded by the flash of energy that accompanied a jump out of hyperspace.

"Status?" She asked as the hologram representing the star system started filling with icons.

"Bang on target. We're within our jump zone, 15 000 kilometers off of the center, but we did just do a 4 000 plus astra jump." Answered Elteria, her hologram materializing at her right.

Sarah nodded. The longer the hyperspace jump, and the more time it took, the wider the error margin. That could get extremely dangerous for fleet jumps, not because ships would materialized into each other, as hyperdrives just couldn't take you out of hyperspace when there was any significant amount of matter present, but because they would be too widely dispersed to support each other in case someone had, say, sprinkled the emergence point with automated missile satellites or positioned a fleet to intercept. And 4 000 astras, or in this particular case 4 164 astras, was a long jump for even the Seeker. But they'd needed to get away from the Silver Syndicate's claws, and a quiet backwater system on the fringe of Protectorate space was exactly what they needed to take a breather and have the syndicate lose their trail.

"Any other ships?"

"A few. Some in system clippers, most smaller than us. They seem to be mostly clustered around the main inhabited planet, Sepia Prime. A few patrol cutters are moving around as well, but they're about 2/3rd of our size and look like they'd fold over from a mean look. 6 of them are orbiting the world, the 3 others seem to be patrolling the system. There's a freighter leaving the planet, but that's it. The freighter's small too, I make it...1 kilometer long, silicate hull. A cheap bulk hauler, in short."

"Well, we didn't select this system because it was busy. Anything else?"

"6 orbital platforms. None of them seem to have any space port facilities or significant personnel capacity. Industrial platforms, most likely. Wait..." Her AI shook her head. "I have a positive identification on all 6 platforms. Universal space based industrial platforms, mark 1."

Sarah blinked, that was....significantly worse than she expected. Universal industrial platforms, mark 1, were part of a schematics package that virtually every newly contacted primitive world got from those who contacted them, alongside the most basic of hyperdrives and fusion cores, essentially the foundations of interstellar technology. They were cheap, durable, and extremely low tech. Their sole goal was to serve as a stepping stone for shipyards, orbital habitats, and the kind of spaceborne industrial complexes that fueled any proper interstellar nation. She knew the planet was backwater, but this...

"Well, at least we know we came to the right place."

"Indeed. I don't think the locals have detected us ma'am. Your orders?"

"400 gs acceleration, make a zero velocity intercept with the planet. As soon as they see us, transmit our transponder codes and mercenary company info. I doubt someone on this rock will have a job for us, but the government will sure as hell want to know who the hell just dropped off with a gunship in their quiet little star system."

"Aye aye. ETA 3 hours to the main world."

*****

"Identification confirmed. Welcome Eternal Seeker!"

Sarah blinked at traffic control's enthusiastic answer. She knew that a lot of their personnel had a tendency to be cheerful as a matter of policy, but their cheerfulness, even for the AIs, sounded faintly...wrong, somehow. This one sounded genuinely happy to meet them.

"Thank you traffic control. If I may ask, is something the matter?"

There was a short, stunned silence, before the traffic control channel came alive again.

"You....you don't know?"

"Negative, traffic control. What's going on?"

"There...has been an incident. Since you are a registered mercenary ship, I thought...Never mind. I've gotten an update, a government delegation wants to meet you groundside. You're being diverted to landing pad L6."

"Roger that traffic control, Eternal Seeker out."

"May the stars be with you captain, traffic control out."

Sarah blinked, and looked to the side at her communications officer, who looked as confused as she was as she terminated the connection -and for once not grumpy that her captain had taken over her duties-, and shrugged. Sarah upped her voice.

"Elteria? Any clues?"

The AI's hologram appeared on the bridge.

"Yes. We're close enough that I've managed to get some feeds from the planetary data net. It's....you better see it for yourself."

She gestured at the main holographic projection, and the system's representation vanished, replaced by a screen showing...

"That looks like a factory."

Or what was left of it anyway. She knew the signs of heavy explosive damage when she saw it. Either the place had been on the wrong end of an artillery barrage, or someone had gotten really trigger happy with some demolition charges.

"Yep. It's the Emarhaunt fusion core production site, near the planetary capital."

Sarah winced. Fusion power cores were the primary power source of, well, the entire known universe. Even the Infinite Systems Federation, which was the amalgamation of the largest and most technologically advanced nations in the universe still used fusion reactors on most of it's ships. Much better ones than everyone else's of course, but still. To a colony world like this...

"I can see the problem. What happened?"

"Terrorist attack. Some guys calling themselves the 'Sylvis Liberation Front' just bombed the crap out of it. Oh, and they also murdered around 3/4th of the plant's employees before running away."

"I see. And the government?"

"Is doing it's best, but...they're failing. Hard." She gestured again and the visual was replaced by a dozen, smaller images of similar vistas of burning buildings and emergency vehicles. "That terror campaign began 6 weeks ago. Nothing major at first, a few attacks on checkpoints, suicide bombings, the usual. Then they started upping the ante. Hospitals, factories, and more recently vital infrastructure and major industrial hubs. The government is throwing everything they have at them, but beyond a few fringe cases they can't seem to be able to stop the bastards, let alone find them."

Sarah frowned. She'd been an Alterian naval officer, and although the Alterian Directorate was one hell of a stable nation compared to this place, she'd still been trained in counter insurgency operations, ranging from 'send a few investigators and palm it off to the cops' to 'this world is lost, load missile launchers with orbital bombardment munitions'.

"Offworld support?"

"Definitely. Lots and lots of it. The only times they managed to actually engage the bastards without getting trashed was when the government's units were using Dominion imports."

Sarah nodded. The Seltari Star Dominion wasn't a particularly advanced nation, at least by her standards, but it was still centuries beyond the tech a backwater like this would be able to bring to bear. And as much as she found the Dominion to be barely better than primitives, she had to admit that they knew how to make military equipment. One didn't wage an intergalactic war without a solid military after all, even if they'd been forced to a negotiated peace in the end.

"I see. So the government called for help?"

"Yep. Mercenary board posting, for a mercenary gunship for star side interdiction plus fire support and a ground outfit with anti-guerilla warfare or insurgency suppression experience. They've got their own ships of course, but...they're customs cutters, with missiles to deter raiders, not precision strikes."

Sarah smiled.

"Well, lucky for them, we qualify for both. And I assume the government knows that too." Which was a safe bet if there ever was one, the bounty board didn't show what jobs they went on, but it did give a series of verified qualifications from their past accomplishments. Given the time they'd spent as mercenaries, that list of qualifications was getting very long. "Still moving towards the landing pad?"

"Yep."

"Did you scan it?"

The AI almost looked offended.

"Of course I did! A few grav cars, and a trio of Dominion APCs. Big ones." She shrugged. "That's about it really. The APCs are large, but they're no threat to the ship. Nice gauss cannons though, probably terrific anti-missile defence, by their standards at least."

"Okay then. Well everyone, get your parade uniforms out, it's time to put on a show."

They'd originally come to this system because it was a quiet backwater with nothing of note happening, but she wouldn't say no to some more money, and she really hated terrorists. At least the kind that seemed to think that piling on civilian corpses was a way to victory.

*****

"Miss Ciel-étoilé, it's a pleasure to meet you." Said the woman as she extended her hand, and Sarah took it, smiling as Elteria forwarded her the results of the scans the ship were unobtrusively making. It was fascinating how much data you could pull of a passive array meant to watch for starships at interplanetary distances if you pointed them at a human. Well, if you had an AI to process it of course. That kind of scans would be useless against any kind of advanced body armor or military grade implant suites, but she rather doubted the obvious politician she was talking to had either of those.

The data was...interesting. The woman didn't even have an implant suite of her own, besides some very basic Mind-Machine Interfaces, purely for data interaction like downloading news or manipulating computer files. She didn't even have a bio-regulator, which was...odd, even for this colony's technology level. They were so ubiquitous people usually assumed you had one, as besides the more mundane usages like preventing chemical imbalances or curing hangovers they made for great data systems for medics to jack into to help people in danger. Hell, with a good enough medikit you could just jack it in and it would do the rest.

"The pleasure is all mine, miss...?"

"Sarnies Eleran. Governor of the Sepia system."

Sarah blinked. She knew that most star system leader called themselves governor in this galaxy, if only because of their old colonial roots under the Dominion's auspices, but they usually stuck some more titles on top of it to make themselves feel important. Or distance themselves from their old masters (and now just 'protectors).

"Ah. My apologies milady, I was not aware you would be greeting us directly."

"It is quite alright captain. We, after all, are the ones that need your help, not the other way around. If you will follow me?"

"Of course." She gestured at her officers, who immediately followed suit as she stepped up behind the governor. A short walk later, they arrived in front of one of the grav cars, which her implants helpfully informed her was heavily armored. Not as heavily as the APCs, but...heavily enough to resist at least a full barrage from anti-tank weapons.

Now that was worrying. Planetary and star systems leader had a lot to worry about, but usually they didn't sweat about sustained heavy weapons fire. One hit? Sure, wouldn't be the first time some fanatic got their hands on an offworld missile launcher, but this thing was made to stand up to tanks. Just how bad had it gotten here?

The door automatically opened, and she stepped inside the spacious car, a limousine really, quickly followed by her officers. The governor waited for them all to be seated before entering herself, another oddity.

The door closed, and after the system pinged the occupants, indicating a good seal, the governor relaxed.

"So, miss Ciel-étoilée-"

Sarah held up her hand. She could feel that the governor was coming down to business immediately, and she'd rather not have her family name thrown at her face every second.

"Please, call me Sarah. I'm well aware my family name is quite the mouthful."

The governor smiled.

"Fair enough. So, captain Sarah, how much do you know about what our current...issue?"

"Not much more than there is on the information feeds." That was a small lie. Elteria had begun extending her feelers, and had already gotten some information from this world's equivalent of the dark net. "A terrorist group, tied to the independence movement of one of the provinces, has been wreaking havoc recently, and they are reaching for ever greater heights."

"That is...substantially correct. The SLF is indeed tied to the independence movement for the Sylvis province. They feel under represented in the system's legislature, especially since, well..."

"They're 10% of the population, thus 10% of the parliamentary seats, yet control over 40% of the system's GDP, yes, I know." She smiled at the governor's surprised expression. "A regular bunch of brawlers might have just zeroed in on the terrorists ma'am, but we know what we're doing. There's usually some very important nuggets of information buried in the underlying issues from which the insurgents sprang from."

In this case, Sylvis' economic power came from the fact that the region was home to the native, highly localized plants from which a series of highly prized biochemicals were extracted by massive refineries, themselves located in the province. In fact, Sylvis was even more powerful than the numbers alone suggested, as the biochemicals were around 90% of the planet's interstellar exports, and thus arguably it's only way to acquire better and higher tech industry from the much more advanced Protectorate core worlds.

"Indeed." The governor inclined her head. "It is good to see that you know your trade, captain. There are, however, some...wider issues at play here. Some I doubt you are aware of. The SLF is indeed spawned from Sylvis' independence movement, but the independantists hate their guts almost as much as we do now. One of their targets a week ago was the biochemical processing plant that was one of Sylvis' greatest economic assets. Now the province is up in arms, and their...sudden willingness to help has brought us our only major victory."

Sarah nodded. That much had been on the information feeds, as the government still used it as a banner that they could get results. When the SLF had pulled their stunts a lot of people inclined to protect them had suddenly turned up on the government's hotlines to disgorge everything they knew. It had been a significant operation to be sure...but even then they'd only caught around 2 dozen members, and 50 or so sympathizers. Which meant that the SLF had already moved their own base of operation out of the province, probably in anticipation of the attack.

"So I've seen."

"Good. My people have been able to dig into recovered data, and the results...aren't good. Whatever economic and material support they were getting from Sylvis and it's people is gone now. In fact the SLF has appeared to have started purging it's ranks, and gone even more hardline, stepping up their attacks to vital colonial infrastructure like terraforming stations and power production facilities." She shook her head. "And their equipment is only getting better. Which is why I needed a gunship. They're getting offworld support, from ships my own customs patrol crafts cannot seem to be able to find, let alone track. Your first objective is going to make that stop, and I really don't care how you do it."

Sarah wordlessly nodded. When a client said that, it meant that you needed to bury the evidence afterwards, but everything was on the table to get the objective done.

"Payment will be in Dominion standard megacredits. 50 for putting a halt to the influx of equipment, an extra 25 if you kill or capture whoever is responsible, and 10 more if you can bring me information on who they were exactly and where their resources came from, whether through prisoners or recordings I don't really care. Additional bonuses will be paid for captured prisoners delivered alive for trial, depending on their ranks and crimes."

Her bridge engineering officer, James Deril, whistled softly. That was a lot of money, especially for a backwater like this. They must have seriously been getting desperate.

"That is...acceptable. I am going to require a full data dump from your investigators however. Then...Then I'm going to need them to step back from their investigation for a day or so."

The governor blinked, then nodded. The subtext was clear: the government didn't want to be aware, officially or unofficially, of what her and her men were about to do. Government officials were all tied up in 'due process' and 'presumption of innocence', while she could just bust down doors and...convince people to talk, as long as she cleaned up everything afterwards. It was going to be messy, but she could do messy.

"Very well, I will give the orders. When can you start?"

"A few hours after you've forwarded the data." She smiled at the governor's surprised expression. "My ship has a fully sapient AI named Elteria. She can process the data very fast." And probably better than all the government's investigators put together, but it wouldn't be polite to say so.

The governor nodded, clearly impressed. Full sapient AIs were rare in this corner of the universe, even more so on anything less than a fully industrialized world or a Dominion capital ship.

"Very well. I will leave this in your capable hands then. I will forward my contact information to you as well, plus a copy of the contract's specifications." She gestured at the view through the limo's windows, and Sarah noticed that they were closing on a large, rather impressive building. "Will you join me for a short banquet? Members of my government insisted on a social event to be able to meet with you."

And boost their confidence in their leader, of course, but Sarah was fine being paraded around for political brownie points as long as she got paid enough.

"Of course, it will be my pleasure to attend."