My name was Jason Miles, I use the term 'was' because Jason Miles is now dead as far as Sirius is concerned. I grew up on Planet Denver, and after graduating basic studies I was accepted as a student of Ageira Industries Technical College, on Los Angeles in the California System. The College was the primary training center for all Ageira employees, but I later discovered that it also served as a front used by Ageira to hire gifted individuals which would go on to study and develop some of the most advanced technologies Liberty had to offer. I was one of these 'chosen ones', having displayed an affinity for Artificial and Synthetic Intelligence programming and Data Encryption Systems, as well as some degree of knowledge in the field of Mechanical Engineering.
During my fifth year at the Institute, I was contacted by a man who I would only know as "Smith". I never learned his last name, or his first if Smith was his last. The man was an enigma, he always wore the same suit, always had a comm device in his ear, and always wore dark glasses to hide his eyes. "Smith" informed me that Ageira had a position opening in a high-security facility, researching mechanical and artificial intelligence systems, and that I was the only one qualified for the work that needed to be done. I was, of course, excited and eager beyond rationality, and accepted without pause. "Smith" told me that I would no longer use my full name in any situation whatsoever, and that I could choose to be called either "Jason" or "Miles" for the rest of my time employed with Ageira, for security purposes I assumed; I chose Miles.
After an initial briefing on some of the conditions I would have to operate in, and the work I would be doing, I was told a ship would be waiting for me at the starport on Los Angeles to take me to the research site. The vessel was a converted Rhino Freighter, all the windows had been closed off and the cockpit was sealed from the rest of the ship by a doubleplated security door. I was the only person onboard the ship, other than the pilot I assume, and I sat in complete darkness and silence for what seemed an eternity as the craft moved me to my destination. When we arrived, the airlock opened and I was greeted by armed security guards bearing Liberty Navy insignia... though the rankings were something I did not recognize. I deduced almost immediately that we were aboard a space station, and not on any planet; the corridors were narrow and gravity was lower than I was used to, the entire place was dimly lit as well, creepy if you ask me.
The facility was massive, and I occasionally heard what sounded like dying screams coming from distant rooms. Suddenly I found myself wishing I hadnt so readily accepted the task presented to me, but the pay I had been promised would leave me a rich man once the job was finished; a million credits per week with an estimated project time of one year, seemed too good to be true. The guards led me to a small, sealed off research lab, most likely at the core of the facility. I was told that I would not be able to exit that lab until my work was finished - all necessary rations, equipment, clothing, and the like were supplied through a small transfer airlock, it was like working in a prison. The lab was not large, and consisted of a single central room with a smaller room to the side for personal use. The center of the lab was almost completely taken up by... something. At first, it looked like a ship, and it was; but it was a design I had never seen before... alien.
Prior research files were stored in the lab's computer, and I spent the first several weeks of my time aboard the station simply trying to catch up. Simply put, the 'ship' was an alien design that had been encountered on the borders of Liberty space - the LSF referred to it as a 'harvester', and believed it was entirely unrelated to the Nomads which Liberty had fought in the past. Up until this point, I had only heard rumors about these Nomads, but the case files on this ship included numerous comparisons to Nomad specimens trying to find some relation between the two, with no success. Oddly enough, there were great deals of information missing from the prior research files... gaps in log entries which immediately caught my eye. Something had been erased from the system, and nobody had put in the effort to cover it up.
I spent the next few months studying the Harvester. It's design was unlike any human ship, there was no room for any occupant meaning it had to be AI controlled - most likely a drone of some sort. The engines didnt seem to have any exhaust ports as human vessels do, leading me to believe it was most likely propelled by emitting photon or ion particles... or perhaps some form of radiation. Human design had never perfected these engine types, they werent impossible to create but didnt provide enough thrust for practical purposes. Some ancient exploration and scouting probes had used Ion drives, but took weeks to cross a single system - it was effective for unmanned craft designed to explore, but not for anything combat oriented. The lab files did include a great deal of past study on the Harvester's engine and weapon systems, probably enough to replicate the technology with enough time and money, but the drone itself had been damaged heavily during it's capture and none of these systems were in working order.
My primary interest was getting at the ship's control board, trying to figure out how this thing was programmed and if any information was still stored in it's memory banks. Despite the unusual alien design, the Harvester's data systems still functioned much like our own Artificial Intelligence prototypes that I had worked on in the past, though this thing was far more advanced. Rather than metallic wires and circuits for data signal transmission, the Harvester was based on fiber optic cables made of an unknown material, some kind of crystalline polymer allowing for flexibility without light loss. Fiber Optics are used by our own ships, but generally not for internal computer systems... rather, they're used for distance transmissions across planet surfaces or around space stations. Most computers still used simple wiring, far less expensive and easier to replace.
Eventually I was able to figure out the wiring, after that it only took a week to hook up the Harvester's memory core with the lab's computers. What I found was disturbing, to say the least... most of the original data stored by the core was either wiped clean or too corroded to understand, but the entire system seemed to be running on a single, simple source code that continually repeated itself. I was unable to decipher most of the code, but the letters "F" "T" "G" and "W"... what FTGW stands for, I still do not know.
Regardless, the disturbing part came about when I uncovered audio and optical recordings from the core, from only the past few years. Apparently, despite being disabled, the drone had continued taking in it's surroundings as myself, and past personnel, studied it. The Harvester's memory storage capacity was beyond anything humanity had yet developed, there was a constant stream of recorded data going back several years, it would have taken me just as long to review all of it. Curiosity got the better of me, however, and I matched up the deleted timeframes from the Lab records with the drone's recordings... only to discovery that in all of those deleted periods, the researchers who had been assigned to this project had been killed by Ageira for learning too much. Apparently, the corporation was bringing in talented scientists who would study the drone for roughly six months to a year, and then these employees were killed so that they wouldnt discover the truth about the project, or the past researchers. Fortunately for me, I was quicker than the rest and discovered these recordings in time to make my escape.
My discovery wasnt a bit too soon, either. It was only the next day that my 'termination notice' showed up on the lab's computers, and I remember that fondly... "Subject: Miles, the Corporation has deemed you a danger to the security of it's operations and has marked you for termination. Erasing all relevant files. Deleting personal neuralnet data. Initiating nerve gas release systems."
Nerve gas... that would be why they had put me in a completely hermetically sealed laboratory, to gas me to death. I took a breath, struggled against the burning in my eyes and nose, and frantically worked at the console to the equipment transfer airlock. I got through just in time, and shoved my way into the tight bay - the transfer airlock was only designed for letting supplies and equipment through, and was barely big enough for me to fit into. The door sealed behind me and a rush of air cleared the gas inside, followed a few seconds later by a clean swish as the other end of the airlock opened up and I was dumped into the hallway outside of the lab. Luck was with me that day, there were no guards in the immediate area and I was able to make my way across the station without any opposition. I did end up taking a few wrong turns, not knowing the layout of the facility, but eventually found my way to the docking bay where numerous craft, ranging from Navy Fighters to Supply Transports were being stored.
I stowed away on one of the transports, nothing left in my posession other than my clothing and a datapad with minimal information on the facility. Ageira had burned me, my neuralnet file was wiped clean, all the money they had promised me was cleared from my account, and I later discovered that they had manipulated the CNS news network which pronounced me deceased after a lab explosion on Los Angeles. I was cut off from everything and everyone, and all I knew was that I had to somehow make this public, I had to warn the citizens of Liberty that Ageira, and likely the other corporations in conjunction with the Government, were killing off their own people for greed. From that day on I have referred to myself only as "Cypher", a handle I used long ago while partaking in less than legal activities over the neuralnet. Soon, Ageira will come to fear that name, and it will be the voice of retribution against the sins they've committed in their ever continuing search for power and wealth.
The transport I made my escape on eventually landed at California Minor to load up on more supplies for the station. I discovered that all supply ships travelling to that place were stocked up on out-of-the-way starports to maintain anonymity and security. I left the ship behind and walked nearly half a mile across frozen terrain in even colder temperatures before reaching the hub of the starport, a small terraforming facility that sood out against the stark white surface of the planet. I warmed up in the bar at the port while looking for any way off the planet, and preferrably out of Liberty.
After talking with several personnel in the bar, I met with a seedy looking man who claimed he could get me into the independent worlds beyond Liberty's borders. He revealed himself to be a smalltime smuggler for the "Outcast Alliance", and that he primarily moved supplies out to someplace called Mactan where members of the criminal organization known as the Lane Hackers resided. I had heard of these Hackers before, they were mostly Ex-Ageira employees, disgruntled at poor wages or ill treatment at the hands of the Corporation, and turned to piracy to survive. Most of these Hackers had been involved in the Ageira tradelane division, and had the expertise and knowledge to track information moving along the tradelanes and intercept valuable shipments.
I couldnt help but feel a bit of disdain towards the group, to my knowledge they were no better than highway thieves - script kiddies using the proven work of others to do their job for them. Regardless, as someone who had worked for Ageira and was subsequently burned by them, my best chance at getting some money and the opportunity to strike back at the corporation was by associating myself with the Lane Hackers. The smuggler gave me a free ride out to Mactan Base on the terms that I use my own technical expertise to help him avoid Liberty Police and Naval patrols during the trip, a task that proved easy enough. Hacking the lanes was no difficult feat, and from there it was a fairly simple matter to throw out false tradelane disruption reports and distress signals to manipulate the Liberty patrols out of our way.
My arrival on Mactan wasnt greeted with any applause, most of the Hackers had fallen into depravity, sucking frantically on cardamine inhalers while their bodies withered away. These lackeys probably couldnt hack a garbage terminal anymore, much less the Liberty network; they were shadows of their former selves, geniuses that had lost any mental capability they once had. I made my way to the bar on the upper deck to see what this group of misfits had to offer, and was almost immediately approached by a grungy looking individual with dialated eyes and a dinged up cardamine inhaler.
"You! you're new here, yes? Yes! New! You dont have good rep, no, not good rep, BAD rep! But I can fix it! Yes! Yes I can! You pay me, with credits, no, better, with cardamine, yes! I get you good rep!"
The man was hyperactive, overstimulated on the filth being shot into his lungs, and looked as if he could barely keep on his feet. He smelled of urine combined with the stringent odor of the drug. I backed away a bit to take a breath and looked at him with disgust, "I dont have money, and I dont have cardamine. Further, I wouldnt want to gain better rep with you lot of druggies if I did have either. What I do need is a ship so I can get away from this hellhole, think you can get me one of those little man?"
"A ship? YES! I used to fly, I can still fly, the cardamine makes me fly good, very good, yes!" He took a deep inhalation of the cardamine and his body twitched a bit, like he was having a minor seizure, "But no! I dont have a ship anymore! it crashed, bad crash, hurt much, still hurts! Cardamine makes pain go away though, want some? NO! You cannot have my cardamine! Get away!"
I sighed in aggravation at the cringing idiot, "I dont want your drugs, I want a damn ship, now tell me where I can get one you little worm!"
The haggard cringed even more, "I dont have ship! dont hurt me!"
I shook my head, slightly more annoyed that this imbecile couldnt even understand what I was trying to ask. He was high as a kite and not likely to come down anytime soon. A sudden commotion on the other side of the room caught my attention, and I turned to see an Outcast in the corner of the bar gun down one of the other patrons for trying to steal his cardamine inhaler. The mess of a man I had been speaking to pointed with a shaky figner, "Dead man! He has ship, ship is yours if you get it quickly! Docking bay two, yes!"
Finally things were going my way, I wasnt used to dealing with this kind of environment... a bit more chaotic than the sparkling white terrain of a robotics laboratory. I shook my head at the situation as I left the bar and hurried down to the docks to claim the dead man's ship. Turns out he was the owner of a less than clean Sabre-Class borderworlds fighter... it was cramped, but had been rigged with improved scanners and interfacing systems to allow the pilot easy access to the tradelane network. Not exactly my first choice in craft, but it would do for now. It was time to get off this rock, and after arguing with the control room for a few minutes I rocketed off into space.
Browsing through the Sabre's databanks, I found map logs of numerous systems I hadnt even known about prior to then. Vespucci, labelled as the home of the Lane Hacker leaders, caught my eye... perhaps they were less drug influenced than the misfits at Mactan.
Not entirely to my surprise, the leaders of these Hackers couldnt spare five minutes to speak with me. No doubt, they were preoccupied with cardamine inhalation and figuring out where to get the collective of scrubs their next fix. No matter, I met with someone in the bar on America Base who referred to himself as "Tox"... strange name, but calling myself Cypher I cant exactly argue with one's choice of hackhandle. This "Tox" informed me that, since most cardamine came to the hackers through Bretonia and the Tau systems, the influence was strongest at Mactan and the surrounding Hacker facilities. He informed me that there was a Hacker base hidden inside a Dark Matter cloud in the Galileo system which was a bit more "clean" of the substance, and that there may be someone that direction who could help me procure a ship or some private space to conduct the work I needed in order to get my revenge against Ageira.
Tox provided me with the coordinates and a 'back door' into the Galileo system via a series of uninhabited systems that few law enforcement patrols ever entered. The route was considered somewhat of a shortcut around Liberty by Hacker pilots, but it ended up taking me several hours to make the trip, and I had to deal with some Rogues badgering me about flying near their station just before jumping into Galileo. It took me quite a while to find the Hacker base, the Dark Matter was playing all kinds of havoc with my scanners; I barely managed to dock before the radiation ate completely through my ship's hull. Radiation... apparently that Tox had forgotten to mention the fact that pilots out here fly with reflective armor to survive it, and that lack of information almost got me killed. Mental note, I'm going to have to hack that idiot's neuralnet file later and take the payment for my ship's damage directly out of his account.
Leiden, like Mactan, was hidden inside a large chunk of rock... more specifically a kind of rock which miraculously prevented radiation from breaching it's interior. Most of the pilots here still had to pop Cryer anti-radiation pills daily to prevent cancer and other cellular mutation; I managed to barter the cardamine that the last pilot had been hauling around in that Sabre for a week's supply of the drug, and a few drinks at the bar where I stumbled upon my next informant. This... contact... was a surprisingly attractive woman with an unnatural lust in her eyes, which I found later to be a direct result of cardamine. Despite that she didnt seem out of control like the Hackers I had met, so she obviously wasnt overdosing on the stuff. She approached me at the bar as I was indulging in some drink that tasted like it could strip hull off a ship faster than the radiation I had just flown in through, wearing a mischievous smile on her face and dressed in something a bit too revealing with so many men around... as far as I was concerned.
She introduced herself as Meiko, and she was a pilot for the Golden Chrysanthemums... some group of women from Kusari trying to overthrow the government, also conveniently addicted to Cardamine and near slaves to the Outcasts who provided them with it. She spoke with a soft, feminine voice... but with an underlying tone that to any listening ear told she meant business and knew how to deal with the local pigs.
"Hello there handsome, what brings you out to this cloud of galactic trash? You certainly dont look like the average Hacker around here... much more intelligent, and attractive..."
Her voice was like a alluring dagger, just trying to pull me in close enough to take a stab. It was unnerving, but I was not about to be manipulated by this space Harlot. I motioned at the barkeep for another glass of throat searing acid, sooner or later it would numb the nerves. "Business... of a sort. I need to find a ship, something big enough for my own private operation against Liberty, concerning the uselessness of the average Hacker. Dont suppose you'd have any leads for me?"
She shook her head a bit, dissaprovingly, "Tsk Tsk, men are all about business, never about pleasure... but I might have something for you." She shifted to make herself more comfortable in her seat, "A while back a few of my girls went after a mining ship that was moving a shipment of Diamonds into Kusari from Liberty. They disabled the ship, but before they could board it for the goods it drifted off into the dark matter clouds here. That ship wasnt built for that kind of radiation, it's probably disintegrated by now, but if it is still out there, I want a chance at those diamonds. My girls could have a few months worth of cardamine and luxury goods from that single shipment of diamonds, and we do love our luxury goods..."
She seemed to go into a bit of a daydream for a few seconds, then directed her attention back at me with a flirty grin on her face, waiting for my reply. "So how exactly do you propose that we find this ship, bring it out of the cloud, unload the cargo, and somehow retrofit it for my own use, considering I've just used the last of any money left in my name on this drink?" I asked, a bit curious if she actually had planned this out.
She let out an astoundingly attractive giggle, as if to say 'I'm one step ahead of you' before speaking up, "There's a group of Junkers onboard Leiden, probably off dismantling your Sabre right now... that ship looked pretty bad when you brought her in y'know. A little coersion from my girls and they'll do the job, they're good at salvage work. As for getting the ship repaired and ready for your own use, well... I hear the same men are looking for a talented hacker to solve some financial trouble they've gotten into. If you're up to the task, I'll get them to find the ship and bring it back here, not a credit need be paid from your pockets, and everyone is satisfied. Well, almost satisfied..." She gave me another flirty smile while licking her lips.
I tried to ignore the suggestive behavior, "Alright, let them know I'll do what they need, but let's get it done quick... I'd like to get off this chunk of rock."