All told, it took a month for the fruits of their labor to pay off. During the day, the CAG went about their liaison business. It sounded more important than it really was. Zhang had been entirely correct when he had said he could come up with a intelligence collection plan that kept the Pictor off of their backs. Their duties were largely focused around responding to Guard requests for analysis.

A shuttle would be disabled, mining equipment would be sabotaged, or a person would simply disappear and then the Guard would ask the intel hub to send someone out and take a look. On their first outing, Zhang and Kronos had discovered that all of the requests up to that point had been denied. Pictor had been doing all of his investigations remotely. He didn’t assign any of his analysts to the field and had simply let the Guards come with their own reports.

The problem with the strategy was that the Guard didn’t know what they were looking for. Different units were assigned to different crime scenes depending on their area of operations and they weren’t communicating with each other. It was a gross inefficiency but one that the duo quickly rectified.

The efforts against the Empire were clearly the work of an organized group. At multiple crime scenes, they had found a raven etched into the metal nearby. Now that the group knew what to look for, they were finding the symbol everywhere. There were even miners that wore the symbol proudly on their atmospheric suits.

Neither Zhang or Kronos bothered with those kind of people. They tagged them for the analysts to watch, but they both knew that the real organizers wouldn’t be walking around with the symbol brazenly on their chest.

In the meantime, they frequented the various bars around the station. Kronos got into more bar fights than he could count, but he racked up a reasonable amount of credits at night working as muscle for the establishments.

During his day job, both Zhang and himself let it be known that they were willing to do questionable things for the right price. They had used their authority to help smuggle goods of the station, they had pretended to ignore crimes if the perpetrator had the credits to spare, and generally acted like disaffected, corrupt Imperials.

It wasn’t much of a stretch for the two men. Kronos had no real love for the Empire and Zhang had once been a rebel himself. They did their job well enough to prevent anything really dangerous and to make sure Pictor wouldn’t be breathing down their necks. Everything else was fair game and the station knew it.

By the end of the first month, they were turning down jobs that didn’t pay well enough for their time. They also shied away from anything that smelled of overt rebellion. Zhang was confident that they had made enough of a reputation to catch the attention of whoever ran the ravens.

Ironically, it was in the same bar they had visited a month ago that he was proven right. Zhang was drinking at the bar, and Kronos was pulling bouncer duty. It was already late in the evening and most of the clientele were retuning to their berthings. Most of the miners worked long shifts every day of the week and sun, such as it was, rose early on the Zodiak. Kronos had been looking forward to returning to his rack himself, when he was approached by Maia.

She was a regular at the bar, and over time they had developed something of a professional relationship. He kept her safe while she was working, and she provided information in return. It wasn’t a surprise when she came up to him in his customary corner seat, but it piqued his interest.

“Hey Maia, have a productive night?” He greeted.

“It wasn’t bad,” she replied. “It seems like the miners get more desperate every night. The only thing that sells on this hunk of space debris is sex and alcohol.”

Kronos nodded his agreement. He had noticed the same. There was a reek of desperation in the air that even alcohol and sex couldn’t fully dispel. He thought that would be the end of the conversation, but she awkwardly stuck around.

“You need something?” He pleasantly asked.

“Well,” she shifted from one foot to the other. “Not me, exactly.”

“Oh?” She had Kronos’ full attention. She sat next to him and spoke lowly enough that the normal sound of the bar would drown out her voice beyond the two of them.

“You remember that guy I introduced you to? Spurius?”

“Yeah,” he said carefully so that he didn’t sound too interested. “The guy hasn’t contacted me. I assumed he got what he needed and moved on.”

Maia nodded. “I thought so too, so it was strange when he reached out to me and asked me to give you a message.”

Kronos raised an eyebrow but otherwise remained silent.

“He asked me to give you this location—“ Kronos received a ping on his HUD. “—and to tell you that there’s ten thousand credits waiting for you if you were interested.”

Kronos sent a recording of his conversation with Maia over to Zhang. He saw as his partner paid the bartender and then got up from his seat. He casually walked out of the bar and went in the direction of their berthing. Kronos knew that he’d be grabbing the two pistols that they had stashed there. He wasn’t going to go into what clearly smelled like a trap by himself. Maia didn’t know that though.

“I see that you’re thinking about it, big guy.” She said slowly. “But trust me, I don’t think this is something you want to get involved in.”

Kronos looked her over carefully. Despite the time that they’d known each other, they didn’t have a personal relationship. Maia and him were simply business. It was unusual that she would give him any kind of advice.

“What’s got you spooked Maia? This is good money for me.”

“It’s good money for anyone, idiot.” She hissed. “That’s why I’m saying you should leave it alone.”

She calmed down before continuing. “Look, you’ve got a good thing going. Don’t think that everyone doesn’t know what you’ve been doing on the side, but so far you’ve been on the outside of all the bad shit going down. If you do this—“ she stopped and looked directly in his eyes. “—you probably won’t make it back. I don’t know anything about these people, but they’re bad news. It’s better just to keep your head down and make the credits where you can.”

Kronos was touched by the sentiment, but he had a job to do. He was only supposed to be on this station for another month before he was transferred to another duty. So far, they didn’t have any real progress to show for their efforts and Kronos was itching to do something else than beat up drunks and dodge Pictor’s attention.

“I get what you’re saying Maia.” He started. “But this is good money for me.” He wrapped an arm around the woman’s slight shoulders.

“Besides, you know I’m tough enough to handle anything some miners can put together.”

Surprisingly, Maia leaned into the hug.

“No you’re not you big idiot. You’re an analyst and everyone knows it. Hell, you’re an analyst in training acting as a messenger boy for the Guard. I don’t know what god blessed you with the body of Adonis but that’s no substitute for a big gun. You’re not the Guard.” She finished sadly.

She knew he had already made the decision. He could hear it in her voice. He released his hug and stood up from the stool he had been perched on. She didn’t try and stop him or say anything else. He almost felt guilty for leaving her. She was a survivor and she had come out of her shell enough to give him the warning. He respected her for that.

He made his way to the bartender and asked if he still needed to stick around. The bartender took a look at the bar.

“Nah, you’re good Kronos. It looks like they’re settling down or heading out. Thanks for being here tonight.”

“No worries, let me know if you need help any other night.” Kronos replied. As he was walking away from the bar, he heard the now familiar tone of credits being deposited in his account. He shot Maia one last look as he left the bar but she didn’t meet his eyes.

He exited the bar into one of the commercial hubs that served the station. Looking around, he noticed that the food vendors and other bars were starting to shut down for the night. The only place still going was a nightclub across the hub that never seemed to close. Kronos had never been in because they hired their own security and Kronos thought that what passed for modern music in the Empire was an assault on his ears.

Once he was satisfied that nothing looked out of place, he pulled up the waypoint that he had been given by Maia. It led to a part of the station that he visited often near the docks. It was a maintenance bay for the various shuttles and light freighters that operated from the station. It hadn’t seen much use in recent months due to Imperial shortages, but it was still a prime place for smuggling. It was one of the locations that Zhang and he had kept an eye during the month they’d been investigating. Kronos had even earned a few credits here and there by turning a blind eye when someone wanted to slip contraband into a ship undergoing maintenance.

He started his journey to the bay and then pulled up Zhang’s location on his HUD. Their berthing, the bar, and the maintenance bay almost made an equilateral triangle. Kronos would have to slow his pace if he wanted to give time for Zhang to meet him there.

With that goal in mind, he stopped by a few of the food vendors that were still open. He grabbed a few skewers of meat that he refused to analyze with his HUD and something to drink. He ate his snack while people watching. There was nothing interesting to speak of. It was the same tired people, going about their same tired lives. A guard passed and gave him a suspicious glance. Once the man scanned him with his HUD, he gave a respectful nod and moved on.

That had been an interesting realization for Kronos. Even if he was here ostensibly as an analyst in training, the Guard treated all the intel types like they were a half step from the Emperor. It was for that reason, that Kronos hadn’t been able to make many friends in the Guard. They treated him as if he were reporting on every move they made instead of as just another man trying to get a job done. If they had known half of the things he had gotten into while on the Zodiac, they might not be as tight-laced.

Once Kronos had judged that he’d given Zhang enough time, he set off again. The station was built like a a series of spinning tops that were attached together in the shape of a spoked wheel. In general, each of the structures had upper levels where the Imperial power structure worked and dwelled. Beneath those were the levels that held the commercial hubs and associated berthings. Anything below those were the domains of starships, engineers, and the mechanics that kept the whole station spinning. Lifts allowed a person to go up and down within the structure and trams gave the citizens a way to efficiently get around the various hubs.

Kronos hopped on the nearest lift and it took him to the lower levels where the ships docked. After that, he hopped a tram to the hub where his waypoint led. When he arrived on the right hub, he found Zhang already waiting for him.

“This might be it,” Kronos said with a grin.

“Yeah, finally.” Zhang agreed. “I was getting tired of this place.” He tossed Kronos a pistol. Kronos looked at the weapon appreciatively before sticking it the holster on the inside of his trousers. He checked the knives he kept in his boots and then gave both of them a once over. They were both wearing the casual clothing that they had taken to wearing while off duty. The miners didn’t bother with casual clothes. They wore their atmospheric suits so much that it probably felt like casual wear.

Since Kronos and Zhang were no longer pretending to be miners, they went with the clothing that everyone else wore. Kronos was wearing a gray long-sleeved shirt, black trousers, and heavy mag boots. Zhang was wearing a variation of the same but in a more flamboyant red and white floral pattern on his shirt. Underneath their clothing, they had the ever-present biosuit, but it was set to sit underneath their shirts so that it wouldn’t be exposed by a casual glance.

“What’s the plan?” Kronos asked as they started walking again.

“You go in alone, but send me a live feed. I’ll try and infiltrate so that I’m close by if anything bad happens.”

“Sounds good.” It was as good of plan as they could come up with on the fly. If they’d had time to prepare, they might have arranged a Guard detail as backup. The invitation had likely been planned at this time so that Kronos could get there, but wouldn’t have the time to arrange any nasty surprises.

When they got close, Zhang peeled off with a parting “good luck.” And Kronos continued toward the main entry door. He pulled up a live feed and then streamed it to Zhang. When he reached the door, it slid open on it’s own accord and Kronos stepped inside.

The maintenance bay was no different from any of the other he had frequented. At this time of night, it was dark with only a few overhead lights to allow someone to navigate their way around the bay. He noticed a trio of shuttles that were partially disassembled and an airlock at the end of the bay that likely led to one of the larger light freighters in maintenance. There were no nefarious groups of people waiting for him and he took it as a good sign.

When he was in the center of the bay, he waited for a few minutes and looked around.

Maybe I got here too late? He thought.

A pneumatic hiss from one of the shuttles caught his attention and he turned to see the access ramp being lowered. A man walked down the ramp and Kronos recognized his old friend Spurius. He walked over to the shuttle.

“Hey Spurius, I didn’t think you were interested in me anymore.”

The ratlike man’s grin was his only response until Kronos got to the end of the ramp.

“I didn’t forget about you, Kronos.” He said snidely. “We simply had some other business that came up first. Come on in.”

Kronos followed the man’s instructions. As he stomped up the ramp, a message from Zhang caught his attention.

[I’m in. I made it through a maintenance hatch near the ceiling. I can see you walking in.]

There was a pause that made Kronos miss a step and he banged his foot against the ramp. He cursed as Spurius laughed at the blunder.

[Shit, Kronos. There are four men with guns entering the bay. They’re probably going to spread out and make sure you don’t run anywhere.]

Kronos didn’t answer because he entered the cabin and came face to face with five individuals who were sitting and chatting amongst themselves. Two were woman and they were dressed in casual clothing like he was. The other three were clearly miners. They were still wearing their atmospheric suits and looked like they had just come off shift. When he approached, they stopped talking and turned his gaze.

One of the men spoke first. “That’s fine Spurius, you can leave now.”

“Got it Petrus, Ill get lost.” Spurius said with a wave. Kronos noticed that his voice was light, but his voice sounded annoyed. Clearly, Spurius wanted to be in on whatever was happening and the other man, Petrus, had the authority to tell him to fuck off.

When Spurius left the craft, the ramp closed behind him. Kronos turned to the assembled men and women and sat in one of the seats opposite them. They stared at each other for a long moment before Petrus continued.

“I’ve been hearing a lot about you, Kronos.”

Kronos shrugged. “I’d say the same about you, but I have no idea who you people are. I came for the promise of credits. Are we going to get to business? Or should I go back to my berthing.”

One of the woman laughed and covered her mouth with a hand. “You were right, Petrus.” She said. “He only cares about credits. That’s perfect.”

Petrus smiled. “When I’m right, I’m right.” He said as he stroked his long black beard.

“Listen, we have a job for you and we’ll give you ten thousand credits in payment.”

“What’s the job?”

“Nothing demanding. We’ve noticed you’ve been running errands for the Guard. All we want is for you to take—“ He reached into a pocket of his suit and withdrew a small data card. “—this and insert it into the main terminal in the Guard headquarters.

Kronos reached out and Petrus handed the card to him. Kronos turned it over in his hand while appearing to study it. Meanwhile, his multi-tool was already accessing the data and putting it in a secure partition on his PCD.

“What’s it do?” He asked.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Petrus answered him. “You only need to put it in the terminal. Preferably, it needs to be done in three days from now. However, we can give you five if it’s absolutely necessary. We’d rather you be safe than hasty. The card cannot be discovered.”

“I don’t like not knowing what it does. I’ve stayed under the radar with my gigs so far. I haven’t drawn any attention from my boss and I’d like to keep it that way.”

While Kronos was talking, he was receiving the preliminary report from his Omni-tool. The data card held a nasty piece of malware. It was designed to scramble the friend or fie identifiers on the guards weapons and shut down the life support system in the Guard headquarters. It also had a provision that allowed an outside entity to control the access throughout the Zodiac. If Kronos allowed it into the Guard mainframe, he’d essentially be handing control over to whoever was running the software.

“Well, I can’t reveal that to you. Trust that it’s nothing too serious. We merely want some cover for more of our smuggling operations. I know that’ll be a dent in your income, but we were hoping that the payment would more than make up for it. You aren’t likely to get that much if you spent the next six months running small time gigs.”

Kronos nodded as if he were agreeing to the man’s point. “Okay,” he decided. “But if you aren’t going to tell me what’s on the card, then I want half upfront and half when the job is done.”

Petrus shared looks with the rest his party. Kronos had no doubt that they were communicating over their links.

“Look, it’s a fair ask.” Kronos pushed. “You’re asking me to trust you and then also to trust you to pay me once the job is done. I can’t bank on that. It’s too much risk for too little reward.”

Evidently, what he said was convincing because they seemed to come to a decision.

“That works for us,” Petrus said confidently. He pressed a button on his PCD and Kronos received a chime informing him that he was five thousand credits richer.

[Shit] A message appeared on his HUD from Zhang.

There was a clanging outside the shuttle and half a second later the woman that had laughed earlier pointed at Kronos.

“He brought backup!”

Adrenaline flood Kronos’ body and he drew the pistol from his waistband as he dove from his seat. The other five were already pulling their own pistols when a shot from Kronos caught the second woman in the forehead. A small hole was already smoking in her brow while the others were trying to get a bead on him. Kronos didn’t try to save the situation and instead he kept low as he moved toward the aft of the shuttle. Blaster fire was impacting over his head, but his opposition weren’t used to using pistols. The weapons were banned for anyone but the military.

When he reached the back of the ship he waited behind a chair as his Omni-tool cracked the shuttles encryption and instructed the ramp to open. He sent shots back at the four remaining rebels to keep them from boxing him in. He was more skilled than they were, but they had more guns so it was something of a standoff.

When the ramp opened behind him, he could make out blaster fire in the maintenance bay beyond. He didn’t know the situation outside, but he knew it had to be more tenable than the one he was in. He dove from his position and forward rolled down the ramp. When he hit the bottom, he sprung up with his pistol in hand.

Two men were firing at a collection of stacked durasteel crates and periodically there was return fire that kept them at bay. Kronos noticed that there were already two bodies that had been disposed of. He crouched next to the ship and then aimed his pistol at one of the rebels. His first blast missed, but the second caught the man in the side of the neck. He crashed to the ground, but Kronos knew that he was disabled, not dead. The lasers from their pistols cauterized any wound on their way in. A neck shot wasn’t a guaranteed kill shot.

The other rebel turned toward where Kronos was hiding, and that proved to be a fatal mistake. Just as he turned, he caught three shots in the chest. When his corpse fell, Kronos was already sprinting from the shuttle and laying down fire on the ramp to the ship. He caught the leg of someone exiting the shuttle and he heard a cry of pain. That was enough to keep the rest from following, but they still had an advantage in numbers.

As Kronos passed the form of the first rebel he shot, he added a few more just to make sure he was dead. Zhang covered his escape as they ran toward the main exit. Kronos checked his HUD and saw that a Guard unit was already en route to the bay. Both of the agents knew that they wouldn’t arrive in time and they wouldn’t be able to keep the rebels from escaping.

When they burst from the maintenance bay and into the adjoining hallway, Zhang turned back and used his Omni-tool to seal the door closed. He was breathing hard while doing so, but Kronos had barely broken a sweat.

“Should we go after them?” Kronos asked.

“No,” Zhang said between wheezes. “We should let them get away. We already have a recording of their faces. Once we feed that to the analysts, they can look through the entire station’s footage to start picking up the rest of the cell.”

“With luck, when they flee here, we’ll be able to identify even more of the rebels.”

Zhang just nodded as he slumped against the bulkhead.

Kronos laughed and sat down next to his friend. “Well, that was a good nights work. We even got a nice payday.”

Zhang punched him in the shoulder. “We’ll see how happy you are when you have to report that to Pictor. Remember we have you on tape accepting the money.”

“Fuck.” Kronos deadpanned. “Is there a way to delete that part?”

Zhang laughed, “Yeah, I’ll see what I can do.”