Adachi had been on the terminal for over a hour, trying to bypass the layer between the public network of Newport, and the security network where the registry and access permissions where. Over an hour to get the new hacking tools to tune properly and decrypt the codes, and now the results started showing up. He got the location of the hangar where the ship of the outcast was docked, and in a few minutes more he would have the codes to open the doors without making a ruckus like in the old ways.
"Blessed be, my Hacker friend. Your stuff is a work of wonders." He muttered to himself, thanking the Lane Hacker that had sold him the tools, which shielded him from the search programs of security, and hastened the infiltration procedures.
"Seems to be only one ship, a fighter." He pondered. He wouldn't have that dromedary or similar freighter to plunder, but the data on the ship would probably offset that missed chance.
At that moment, a call came to his terminal, and he picked up immediately.
"Adachi-san, we have word that the Outcast has arrived, and has been waiting for a while for us to move." said Mori, the trader.
"Well, just in time. We are almost ready here, so you can go ahead with the deal." "Gyoi, we begin then." Mori replied, ending the call.
Adachi switched off the terminal, and seeing that the transport unloading was completed, headed on to the markeplace, sending a written message to Zettsu.
["We are starting. Meet me at the market, western entrance. "]
Buzz. Zettsu looked at his datapad and read the message from Adachi. A moment later the Outcast left the bar. Well, so it begins.
The Outcast was about to be fooled, his ship was about to be stolen and everything was about to go down. He finished his tea, paid the bill and stood up. He had no idea how to get to the marketplace, so he decided to quietly tail the Outcast, and after a few moments of stroll he arrived at the market.
Unlike the hangars and corridors, this place seemed busy. Well. Relatively speaking, various commodity and equipment traders were presenting their wares and a couple dozen people walked around looking to throw away their money. The miracle of free trade, indeed.
The western entrance was on the other side of the market. He went by the wall, trying to spot the Hogosha traders, but he couldn't discern them from the crowd. He noticed Adachi waiting at the entrance.
Hector walked into the market. It was a huge place with a lot of people, or at least that's what first came to his mind. He looked for the dealer he was expecting. A thought crossed his mind that the dealer might not appear, but he rejected it. The last time he seemed like a solid person. After a few moments Hector finally saw the dealer walking towards him.
"You got the stuff?" he asked. The dealer nodded and took out two transparent containters filled with green pills.
"A'ight," he passed him a card and took the containers. "Keep the change."
Hector smiled lightly and walked towards the elevator to the upper decks of Newport, where the living apartments were. His head kept aching and he finally had his cure. He dragged a card to open the room 38B, and after a while he sat on his bed, with the doors carefully locked.
"Oh, man, that's going to be great--" he thought, and swallowed two pills. He then laid on the bed and waited for the magic to happen.
It has been 5 minutes since Adachi had arrived at the entrance of the marketplace. The area was crowded as usual, and he could only see the store where his contact was from time to time. He only noticed Zettsu approaching him when he was already close, given the quantity of people walking around.
"Ah, good. Did you find who the buyer could be? I figured it out that there is only one pilot in fighter here today, so he probably will buy a small supply." Adachi said, measuring the movement around the faraway store, and the general mood of the markeplace.
-----
A few moments later, he noticed a change in the flow around the store, although his position couldn't let him get a clear vision of the area and who was there. He waited a while more, and then he saw Mori appearing amongst the crowd, giving a signal that the deal had been made, a short supply.
Adachi turned his attention to the entrances, trying to locate the buyer. He managed to see one man whose outfit and equipment were markedly Outcast, with a number of containers in his possession.
"Is that the one Zettsu? Seems he's heading up, instead of the Hangars. This is our chance. If we are correct, the poor fella will be in the land of bliss very soon."
He made a signal to Mori, and turned to Zettsu again, pointing to the entrance they were in.
"Time to go claim the prize my friend. Once we clear the hangar and ship securities, I need you to take her out of the station to our area." He said, making way to the elevators that descended to the Hangars.
Zettsu followed Adachi to the elevators. A few moments later they were where they started - in the hangars.
Adachi firmly walked to where the Outcast's ship was stationed. He looked for a second at the authorisation terminal and searched through his pockets. Zettsu positioned himself on the other side of the door. The Hogosha dragged a fake card through the terminal. "Authorisation successful".
"Nice," Zettsu whispered as the door opened quietly. He loaded his taser and looked into the hangar. Only one guard was inside, visibly bored, with his back turned. He didn't hear the door open. Behind him, there was their prize - a Rapier fighter, belonging to the Outcast who by now has probably passed out from the Synth Marijuana. He would be into a really unpleasant surprise.
He told Adachi with a gesture to be quiet and stay where he were, pulled his scarf up to muffle his breath and started sneaking towards the guard. He kept his right hand with a taser aimed at him, in case the guard would turn around, but he never did. When Zettsu was three steps away, he moved his left hand behind his cloak and took out the spring baton.
"Sweet dreams," he whispered suddenly into the Outcast's ear. He put his right hand over the guard's mouth and felt a shiver running through his body. A short hit in the back of the head and the Outcast fell unconscious to the ground. He looked around the hangar for any more threats but didn't find any.
"Come here and close the door," he said. "We need to figure out how to pry this thing open."
Adachi secured the door, and approached the side of the Rapier. As a reaction to Zettsu comment, he began touching the surface of the cockpit borders, looking for the cover of a... control panel. He found it, and opened it.
"Ok, here's our lock. Now I just have to try my new set of "keys".
He picked up his device, and plugged it to the panel. The device soon sprang up to life, and began identifying and breaking the security codes for the ship.
"Seems we have received the best luck we could draw. The ship has little to none tampering safeties. We will take the ship without the owner being aware of it until it's long gone."
The hacking device beeped, and the canopy of the Outcast Rapier opened, releasing a strange odor into the hangar. Small traces of the consumption of cardamine were still noticeable.
"Ehhh, I suggest you refill the oxygen tanks before taking off with that.." He said, averting his nose so that he didn't breathe in the foreign substance.
Adachi then moved into the cockpit, plugging the device now into the main console of the ship. A few minutes after, he had managed to turn on the ship commands, and reset the pilot related securities.
"Excellent. It has eve.... oh, ohohoh. It has more data than I imagined. This fella has been in places." Adachi mentioned, as he was downloading most of the ship's data into another electronic device.
He turned around and found Zettsu staring at him, with a look of someone whose patience was wearing thin. He realized he had been hogging the ship to himself for a little while.
"Ah, gomen, it's not that." *ping* "Yosh, I have the data. Guess it's all yours to handle now." He finally said, removing the devices and getting out of the cockpit, leaving the ship free for Zettsu.
"Thanks for what you've done," he said and shook Adachi's hand and watched him leave the hangar. He then proceeded to prepare for launch. This was not the time for courtesies and he had no moment to spare.
He pulled up the scarf to cover his nose and got into the cockpit. "Venting first..." he mumbled. A moment later, the quiet hiss of drained air could be heard and the air started to feel a lot more breathable. He sealed the ship and sent a request to open the hangar door.
Everything seemed right. The air was vented and hangar door started opening. He fired up the engines and prepared for takeoff.
A short while after, the Rapier was cutting through the Crow Nebula. Zettsu left a short message for Adachi to meet back at Golden Dragon and started browsing through the ship NavMap.
"Outcast convoy routes... Jump Holes in Kusari... Omicrons... This is a jackpot," he mumbled again and set his course to Honshu Jump Hole.
Walking with a quick pace, Adachi arrived at the hangar where the Hogosha vessels were stationed, and it was evident that the crews were finishing the preparations for departure.
He found Mori at the entrance of the Hayatomi, and showed triumphantly to him the storage device.
"We have successful. Our friend has got a new ship to cause havoc, and we got almost 3 petabytes of intel about the sniffers routes, ship systems, and astrological surveys. Probably got some spam mail included, hehe."
Mori tried to contain a small smile from showing up on his lips, and shook hands with Adachi.
"It's been a pleasure to work with you, Adachi-san. Hopefully future schemes can go as smoothly as these." Mori whispered
"We are finishing our preparations here, and return to Lagos and our usual trade. I wish you a safe voyage back to Kusari."
Adachi entered his ship, and soon the Hayatomi was departing form the Newport, using a secure route to Honshu. On the panel of the system map, a signal could be seen approaching the Honshu jump hole, before disappearing.
A few moments later, the beacon resurfaced on another map, this time in Honshu.
"Seems my software extension is working." He smiled wryly. "We will keep in touch, partner." He said to no one in particular, even throwing out a evil laughter. One of the crew members wondered if he wasn't high on the cardamine residue, or if it was part of his personal quirks.