Cryptai - Prologue

The steady thrum and pulse of the Fury engines were just soothing enough to make the peaceful drifting descent into microTech atmosphere almost serene. He read the mission brief again, discarding the youthful bravado for the specific details.

"BitZeroes are paying well for some talent to swing by a microTech Security outpost and pick up one of our strays that ran into a goon squad. Easy in and out, we got the entry codes, shift change times, it's a total cakewalk. We'd spring her ourselves but this requires face time with armored and armed unfriendlies. Spectrum traffic says Nine Tails has also sent a team. Get there before they do and it's easy money. The package is easy to spot, she has purple hair, twenties, goes by Ty. Message us on the freq provided on acceptance when the job is done and creds will be in your account by the time you hang up. Drop off the package at Rayari Deltana.

Dealing with BitZeros was always tedious, but they paid on time and generally didn't leave out anything really important. He checked the altimeter and air speed, reaching up to retract the heat shield. The cold dark of the planets night swallowed the tiny ship. Stealth mode activated, running lights off, coolers set to maximum and all heat vents closed. Time to be invisible. The engines dimmed to a faint blue glow. The Xi'an engineer he paid for the black market stealth engines was worth effort to find, and the money she asked for. Although not as quick or agile as the stock thrusters, these were well shielded and low power draw. He could nearly land on the anti-aircraft turrets and they still wouldn't see the ship.

A blinking red light in the darkness signaled the destination. microTech Security Outpost One, where they kept high value assets and secured important informants or prisoners. He didn't want to test the air defenses tonight. Fast and discreet. The Nine Tails team mentioned in the mission brief was barely ten minutes behind. This needed to be perfectly timed with no errors. Fortunately the Fury had excellent thermal and night vision sensors. The pitch black night made landing amongst the obsidian rocks of the freezing landscape much easier. Eight minutes until the Nine Tails assault team reached atmosphere. Six hundred meters of freezing, rocky, barren landscape to cover. Minus twenty degrees celcius. Almost balmy for this planet. A dozen guards and automated anti-personnel turrets. Tuesday night.

The hiss of decompression and mechanical whir of canpoy sliding open melded with the harsh alarm from his helmet computer. Trespassing. The cockpit chair extended forward. He pressed the autopilot engage, reverse plotted course and autodocking procedure buttons on the control panel before locking the controls. A Fury was good for getting in, but even better for getting out. This time though, he wasn't going to be the one going for the ride.

A strong breath out and his armor suit tightened, the rush of heat and oxygen hissing through tiny tubes. Night vision made avoiding the jagged obsidian easy despite the rapid jog toward the facility. If they followed doctrine, the Drake Cutlass Black would be arriving to drop of the assault team and the Nine Tails ship crew would disable the anti-air turrets. Normally he wouldn't include something like this in his plans, but they were nothing if not methodical. Almost reliable. He checked his loadout. Best to stay quiet. Suppessors installed, flash-bangs and smoke. He pressed the control panel on his wrist, and the high pitched whine of exoskeletal amplifiers briefly broke the night calm. Faster, stronger and quieter.

The night gave way to harsh glares of floodlights on metal. Shipping containers were stacked in clusters near elevated platforms. Stark shadows disappeared into the obsidian stones that littered the ground. No one had done any significant work around the main building in some time. The entrance ramp lead up to a shadowed doorway, the access panel glowing faint blue. The exoskeletal boost of the Artimex armor allowed him to jump over the ramp entirely, avoiding the pressure plate system that detected movement approching the door. Fortunately the camera systems didn't operate well at these temperatures, or the approach would have had to have been through a ventilation shaft. A long climb down that time could not afford.

He entered the code provided by the mission brief. The heavy metal doors groaned as the locking bolts retracted. The door failed to open. Grinding machinery sounds filled the air. The door was frozen shut. He let out a curse, snatching his Grey Cat multi-tool from the latch on his thigh. Practiced hands popped open the beam head on the tool and with swift movements the tractor beam attachment head was removed and the cutting torch head was inserted. The device closed and the night air was met with the sizzling hiss of a laser melting ice. The door groaned again before violently springing open, shards of ice clattering to the floor.

Lost time. He would have to move faster. The lift ride down was almost a full minute. Nothing to be done but be ready. He reached over his shoulder and detached the submachine gun from its magnetic latch on his back. Weapon safety off, fully automatic set. If she wasn't already wearing a flight suit, this was going to get problematic quickly. The lift settled with a dull bang.

Practiced steps quietly moved across the metal grated floor. He came to the first corner, peering quickly around it. Automated turret and camera pointed at the entry, but no guards were present. He unhooked a smoke grenade from the latch on his armor, pressed the activation switch and with one smooth motion, rolled the grenade across the floor towards the turret and camera location. There was the satisfying pop and then hiss of the grenade spinning and filling the area with smoke. He raised the weapon and advanced. Guards would see the camera whiteout and go to alert status, but it would take them a few minutes to arrive. The landing area was vacant.

Hissing from the grenade continued as he pulled a small tablet device from the storage compartment of his chest plate. A slight tug and a cable emerged, connector fitting the small, nondescript panel under the camera and turret. The tablet sprang to life, displaying a small map of a series of connected spheres. He pressed several buttons, and within moments the sound of the camera powering down overtook the dying hiss from the grenade. The defense turret whirred and pointed down the hallway, away from the entrance. A young womans' voice broke the brief silence.

"Uh, hello?" "Hello Ty. My name isn't important right now. Your friends are paying me to help you get out of this facility. Please no questions, we do not have time. You have become very popular with people you do not want to know. When the door opens, exit your cell to the right, and run. Up the stairs, straight through the office, right, then left, left again, and up the stairs again. When you get to the top you will see a lot of smoke on one side of the room. Run towards the smoke." "The guards are coming, I can hear them!" "I did say run."