Raymond couldn’t contain his excitement. It was all falling into place, exactly as he had planned! He would be lying if he said that he had complete confidence in the intel Jio provided about Halcyon’s off-the-books research facility. Especially when he heard that it was supposed to be in such an obscure star system. At first, Raymond thought that Jio was simply sending him on a wild-goose chase.

But after some thought, it made complete sense! In most movies and shows on business intrigue and subterfuge, the villains usually hid their most valuable assets in the last place the heroes thought it would be.

And now that his gamble was validated, even if it was only a vague indication, Raymond was on cloud nine.

The only thing that was bumming him out was the fact that he had to now meet the peons who’d have to fetch his prize, in person. Even worse, he had to leave the comfort of his penthouse suite and dock his precious cruiser, “Angel”, in the prickly desert exposed to the harsh elements.

‘There, there Angel. My baby.’ Raymond comforted as he caressed the walls of the pristine cruiser from his bedroom with one hand, and fondled the buttocks of one of his dolls with the other.

The cruiser was one of his most precious possessions. The original model was a high-end cruiser with Rank 2 stealth technology, and it was the first item he’d purchased using his very first paycheck. Although, as a scion of a prolific household with deep roots, he already owned a vast collection of vehicles, Raymond considered Angel his only true possession. Something that would remain with him even if his family fell from grace.

Over the years, he had upgraded the cruiser and overhauled it completely to his liking. For instance, his bedroom housed over 30 pleasure spots to accommodate over 100 different sexual positions. It also housed a dedicated AI that learned the user’s preferences and tendencies to prepare the room beforehand. It was truly a worthy expenditure!

The entire ship was also fitted with state-of-the-art security systems, consisting of AIs and bots that had latency in the hundredths of a nanosecond, able to decimate a threat at an instant’s notice. Moreover, the ship also had one of the best cleaning subsystems in the entirety of human space, on par with that of nanochip manufacturing clean rooms. Why? Raúl never really understood the reason for that last one. But once he entered Raymond’s bedroom after Raymond finished using it, he realised that even the thoroughness of the cleaning subsystem really was insufficient.

As Raymond was lost in his thoughts, Raúl’s voice jolted him back into attention. “Excuse me, Mr. Obiekwe. The fixers are here.”

Raymond lightly tapped the buttocks of the women in his arms and nudged her to stay in the bedroom. “Lead them directly to the workspace. Oh, and make sure that they’re thoroughly cleaned. I don’t want them mucking up my Angel.”

Raúl walked at a brisk pace to lead the guests, while Raymond slowly sauntered by himself. And as he made his way through the brightly lit, ivory-white hallways, Raymond slowly drifted off into his fantasies wondering how he should present himself and awe the backwater peasants.

Simon, Byron, Rhona and Colin arrived at the specified rendezvous point at 6:00 PM OET. The location was a near-abandoned outpost in the endless desert. It used to be a hub of trade activities when the Hartwell system was being colonised. But after the area was completely stripped of resources, it was abandoned as the industrial plants shifted to a different location.

Byron let out a long whistle in admiration while he observed the cruiser before him. It was massive and majestic. As he ran some mental calculations, he estimated that the cruiser had a maximum capacity of around 80-100 people, with a hangar space to accommodate 3-4 standard Mekas or 15-20 fighters. He’d seen a model similar to the cruiser on Nova Corps. website, it was a stealth model. One thing he found weird though was that it was washed in a vibrant neon white, with gold and black coloured wing-shaped decals on its sides. Not only was it not included as part of the commercially available options, but the conspicuous shade was antithetic to the cruiser’s primary directive.

It was also his first time seeing a Rank 2 space vessel since most of the transports he’d worked with on Eaton I were at most of Rank 3 level. The design was sleek, unlike the bulky and edgy local models. There were no blatantly obvious weapon platforms and turrets jutting out of the cruiser’s surface. He figured that they were most likely retractable.

“Man, looking at her makes me want one for myself,” Byron commented.

Colin turned towards him with a confused expression, “Her?”

Byron patted the boy’s shoulder as he clarified his comment. “Don’t ask me how I know. You just get a feeling for these things after a while. I bet she has a really slutty name.”

Byron then inhaled deeply and continued, “Mmmm. I smell some sacrilegious undertones too.”

But his thoughts were interrupted by a sweaty and exhausted man running down the hangar door.

The man stopped in front of the group of four and panted loudly. While catching his breath, he greeted them. “Good evening… evening?” He stopped abruptly with a look of confusion as he scanned the sky once again and verified the time on his watch.

“*cough* Sorry. Good evening and welcome to the Angel.” When he heard that Byron quickly nudged Colin and gave him a glance that screamed ‘What did I tell you?’

The man then continued, “I am Raúl Hernández, Mr. Obiekwe’s personal assistant.” He then held out his hand towards Byron who was the closest.

Byron smiled back cordially and reciprocated with a handshake. “Byron. Pleased to meet you. This is Colin,” he said tapping on Colin’s shoulder, “that’s Rhona - you were talking to her via the comms - ” he indicated by pointing towards Rhona who was carefully positioning the LChair next to the van’s back door, “and that’s Simon,” he concluded by pointing towards Simon who casually shifted his body onto the LChair stationed next to the van door.

Raúl’s eyes scanned through the faces and stopped on Simon who was calmly making his way towards him. A look of disdain flashed on Raúl’s face, but it only lasted for an unnoticeable second. However, Simon caught it. While prosthesis and treatments for paraplegia were possible in this era, the costs were beyond the budgets of most low-class families. Hence, in Rank 4 and most Rank 3 star systems and planets, those affected didn’t bother with it.

The look of contempt on the man’s face indicated to Simon that whoever he was about to meet was definitely someone with considerable wealth or was a native from a star system of Rank 2 or above.

The man then led the group into the cruiser. Following an unusually long and thorough cleaning operation - where the group had to be subjected to a series of surface and one invasive cleansing process - they were directed through pristine hallways towards their workspace.

While they were on their way, Byron and Rhona simultaneously asked relevant and trivial questions. Once Simon felt that the man’s guard was lowered, he commented, “I don’t see any crew members.”

The man casually replied, “The entire ship runs on advanced navigation AI. So we don’t really need a dedicated crew.”

Byron got the gist behind Simon’s line of questioning and followed up with another question. “Then what about security? Just warning you guys, this planet is not safe for foreigners. I used to know a guy who grifted foreigners by posing as a guide. You really can’t trust anybody here.”

But before the man could answer, another baritone voice oozing with pride spoke up. “I’d like to see any one dare to do anything funny near my Angel!”

A tall, dark-skinned man with a large build walked from around the corner of the hallway and made his way towards Raúl. The man then turned to face the group and scanned each member with his eyes. One thing that Simon noticed was that while Raúl only displayed his contempt only towards Simon and his disability, the dark-skinned man displayed his contempt for everyone equally. It appeared as if none of the people before him were worth his time.

Raúl quickly introduced the man. “This is Mr. Raymond Obiekwe. General Manager of-” But he was quickly interjected by Raymond with a subtle gesture.

“You girl!” Raymond pointed at Rhona, who was jolted by the sudden outburst. “Were you the one who talked over the comms?” The man’s bearing and tone carried a sliver of power. Simon guessed that it was most likely due to his upbringing.

Rhona nodded timidly, to which he commented, “You were pretty feisty when talking over the comms. I didn’t expect you to be so… small.”

Byron cleared his throat audibly and stared daggers at Raúl. Noticing the glare, Raúl quickly steered the conversation. “According to our conversation, it seems as if the technology you folks have access to is insufficient for the task at hand. Worry not, our cruiser is fitted with state-of-the-art equipment. Right! Here we are.”

With the last exclamation, Raúl stopped before a circular doorway. After running a two-factor bio-metric scan, the automatic doors opened and welcomed the group to a sight that would give most hackers wet dreams.

The room they walked into had an elliptical cross-section. The walls arched and joined up at the ceiling, forming an almost pod-like shape. In contrast to the rest of the cruiser, the room was dark, with pitch black walls and a singular light source at the center of the ceiling, like a star in the night sky.

Right at the room’s centre was an advanced hologram projection platform. Based on its design, Simon knew that the model was high-end, with realistic tones and low latency. Along the walls of the room, there was a row of workstations with a four-by-four grid of wide curved screens allocated to each cubicle. The single row was bisected at the far end of the room - from the entrance - by two sleek machines that every budding hacker dreamed of operating.

The NetDive Board.

During the age of war, one particular device made an appearance but was completely overshadowed by the advent of Mekas. While Mekas made a significant impact on the physical battlefield, the covert wars that took place in the QNet were spearheaded by the development of the NetDive Board. To call it a board would be a misnomer since it more closely resembled an adjustable dental chair. However, the gist behind its name was attributed to its primary use.

The unit was developed by removing the neural interfacing system installed in a Meka, and connecting it directly to the QNet. As a note of caution, that description was simply an elevator pitch version of what the NetDive Board did. In reality, the ability to neurally interface directly into the QNet, allowed the user to literally dive into the convoluted net that the behemoth was made of. The NetDive Board also allowed the ‘NetDiver’ to directly interact with programming at a more personal level. Similar to the way Simon’s bio-implant interfaced with CPUs.

The widespread usage of the NetDive Board revolutionised covert cyber warfare. While a regular hacker could at most cripple an entire network or override it, the NetDive Board allowed a hacker to morph host programming and perform more drastic changes, almost as if the hacker was physically present in the breached system.

With all these new possibilities came the inevitable dangers. Generally, a regular hacker was insulated from the system by a physical barrier. If an opposing hacker performed a counterstrike, they wouldn’t face any direct harm. However, a NetDiver’s consciousness was not safe if an opponent breached through the Diver’s defences and initiated a counterstrike. There were known cases of a Diver’s consciousness being sucked into the convoluted QNet, or the Diver’s entire neural system getting fried. The consequences of a misstep or an oversight were fatal.

In fact, there was a direct correlation between a person's neural capacity and their ability to use the NetDive board. A Diver with a high neural capacity would completely outshine any regular joe who decided to plug into the board.

Thus it was needless to say that a NetDive Board was an intricate piece of equipment, almost as expensive as a Meka. In fact, a NetDive Board in a Rank 3 planet was akin to finding a needle in a haystack. In a Rank 4 planet, a NetDive Board was like a unicorn.

It was because of that fact that Simon quickly turned towards the clients and asked in a serious tone. “Sir are you sure that you want us to continue with the job? I sincerely believe that it would be preferable for you to contract experts with a speciality in this field.”

Raymond frowned before retorting, “Why? You guys can’t do it?”

Simon shook his head in disagreement and replied, “It’s not that we can’t. It will take us at most a day or two to intimate ourselves with the machines here, and we’re confident that we can accomplish the task. But the issue here is not about capability. We are low-ranking fixers who operate out of a forgotten Rank 4 planet. The job you’re asking us to do will eventually incur some liabilities which in the end will be directed towards us and, by association, you. We are fine with it. We’ve done jobs like this before, although they didn’t require us to use tech of Rank 2 and Rank 1 level. But what about you? Are you fine with getting us involved? I know that most corporations have experts in doing tasks like this, and have a greater level of loyalty and confidentiality.”

Raymond’s frown intensified, morphing into anger. “Are you threatening me?”

Simon responded candidly, “Not a threat, but a fact. If by chance someone comes looking for us. We do not hold any responsibility in this matter. While we are good at our jobs and we are confident that we won’t leave any trace, we only take calculated risks. We accepted this job with the added clause that you take full responsibility for the consequences. That is why we are asking you once again if you are confident in entrusting the job to us, and all the baggage that it entails?”

Raymond shrugged and commented, “Yes! Just get on with it will you?”

With that, Raymond left the room. Before Raúl followed he made sure to provide instructions on how to contact them should they need to leave the room, and locked the room when he left.

As the door closed, Colin showed an uncharacteristic level of excitement and began to move around the room with a skip in his steps, inspecting every single device. Byron casually walked towards Rhona and Simon who were still standing next to the entrance.

“I don’t know why he’s so eager and insistent that we do this job. The contract really stinks of corporate warfare. And like Simon said, there are specialists for jobs like this.” Rhona sighed.

Simon pondered for a few seconds and replied emphatically, “Don’t get too comfortable. I have a bad feeling that the danger isn’t what’s before us, but what’s behind. And as the saying goes, it’s better to wear two belts than to get caught with your trousers by your ankles in a difficult situation.”

Byron chuckled as he scratched his head, “What does that even mean?”

From the far end of the room, Colin answered loudly while tinkering with the NetDive chair’s computer. “I think he means for us to take precautions. The second belt is precautionary.”

Simon decisively moved towards the far end of the room as he rattled out instructions on how to set up and get accustomed to the workstations.

Rhona, on the other hand, contemplated what Simon said about taking precautions. She was also a little worried about the consequences and possible dangers of taking on this job. Before, she was used to Simon managing the back-end tasks and took it easy. But after her most recent failure, and the resulting near-death experience that her brother had, she felt that it was imperative for her to also carry some of the load. With that in mind, Rhona decided to make some covert purchases.