FastJack looked out of the window of the anki freighter that had been stolen for this operation. Texas was past by now and the team would soon be headed for New York and whence to Pittsburgh. The job was LA, but the intial meet was a small abandoned mining facility.
Fastjack looked around the confines of the vessel, Tank was dismantling all the guns he'd carefully assembled after they'd undocked from Barrow. Silverfire was staring out the window, all pent up energy and nowhere to spend it. Nymph was, well, Nymph. Cool, unflustered, almost cold.
As the ship made the jump into the badlands of New York from Texas, FastJack mulled the words of Coachwhip.
"You're meeting an important fellow, he's got a job for you. He hasn't told me anything. Less chance of it escaping that way. he knows what he wants, Get it done."
Nothing useful, but FastJack was used to that sort of thing from the Knights high command. Useful briefings weren't in their vocabulary. It wasn't necessary to avoid the Rogues here, the ship was flashing Rogue transponder frequencies at the moment, as soon as it left the badlands it would start flashing Junker colours, the better to get to Pittsburgh without hassle.
"This be Junker freighter Junker Alpha-6 ready t'hit the earth." Jack didn't like even pretending to be a Junker, but when the boss told him to fly the ship he hadn't had the gall to deny it. Permission was soon granted and the freighter moved into the docking ring and began the final descent to the planet.
FastJack waited for the ship to touch down and then hit the door release. Exiting the vessel he noted the man who awaited the team. The very man they'd stolen Liberty gunboat plans to help rescue.
Saint Del is considered a holy healer of diseases of children, but also as a protector of cattle.
He approached them casually, and yet, nothing about the man was casual. Adam Greerson was dressed imacculately in the latest tailored suit designs and appeared impeccably groomed, a far cry from the usual attire one became accustomed to among the rank and file of the Xenos.
Greerson knew this team, he knew what they were capable of and had specifically asked for them for what he had in mind. "Glad you made it" he said, smiling warmly, or trying to appear warm - Nothing about Greerson could be called "warm" by any stretch of the imagination and everyone knew that behind the facade was hidden an extremely dangerous and cold individual.
He glanced over the team, and then cast a glance at their ship. "You came in under a Junker IFF". He chuckled... "Curiously perverse, though i do see the humour in it...." He indicated to a building behind him. "Follow me, we'll talk inside."
The team followed, Fastjack noticed straight away that the innocous looking building was anything but. The untrained eye might simply see a wharehouse beside a landing platform, he however, saw what wasnt meant to be seen by untrained eyes. There were two snipers on the roof, concealed in shadow, and judging from the positioning of the door to the landing pad he assumed - correctly- that there would be at least another two armed men inside the door.
They went inside, the gaurds opening the door as they approached and quickly surveyed the area before closing it again.
Greerson was cautious, and well he should be - as one of Liberties' most wanted men had much to be wary of. They went into another room in which there was a desk and a host of computer terminals, all being busily worked on by a team of unknown technicians. Greerson noticed Fastjack surveying the place and smiled "Yes... you can't be too careful" he said "On Houston last week we were almost sprung by the LSF....." he moved and sat down behind the desk, motioning the group to sit as well - they moved several chairs into place and did so, looking more than a little out of place in this corporate looking environment.
"Right, you will recall the particulars of your operation that was connected to my... " he paused as if considering his words and then went on "liberation from Huntsville". He opened a drawer beside him and took out a large manilla envelope.
He tossed it to Tank who took with without opening but waited for the briefing to continue.
"That mission" Greerson continued, "was a great success, My associates and I got out, we aquired the warden's... little ship and made good our escape."
He gestured to the envelope - "The ship however, lacks a certain... punch".
He stood up and pressing a data pad activated a monitor built into the wall behind him. "All Liberty Navy Gunboat vessels are equipped with powerful forward firing weaponry which as you know, is removed and reused on another vessel and when the ship is decommisioned". On the screen, the schematics of a Liberty Navy Gunboat appeared.
The team looked at it emotionlessly and Greerson went on "She should be able to crack anything thats thrown against us within reason, but right now, she is struggling with some of the armour that these foriegn corporate parasites are covering their ships with."
He turned off the monitor and sat back down... "And THAT situation, is simply not good enough, i want you people to remedy that situation."
"The pariculars are on a Data pad in that envelope, as well some of the paperwork you will need."
He nodded to a gaurd behind them and the man opened the door.
"I have the utmost faith in your abilities - Good hunting."
FastJack and the others walked out. Greerson was a scary fellow and being in his presence too long made you wonder whether or not the LPI were right about the Knights being nothing more than terrorists. Best to get out his presence and into the company of other Knights, the better to realise that Greerson was simply a zealot, he wasn't the norm for the Knights.
FastJack turned to Tank.
"Orders Boss?"
Tank just stood there for a few seconds, FastJack never knew if Tank had just crashed like some computer system, or was actually thinking about what to do next.
"Okay, we move out into one of the mining settlements, we have sympathisers here so we can pretty much guarantee to remain undetected. We'll need to procure weapons and equipment. We'll also need a base of operations and a security perimeter . FastJack, you get on the cortex and find me the kit we'll need, Nymph you're to procure us a safe house. Silverfire and I will talk to the locals see what we can find out. Move out."
FastJack knew where he was going, the spaceport. The most likely place to find a decent cortex connection. Tank had given Nymph the basic location of where he wanted the safe house to be. Camp 42 a place 30 miles from the spaceport, it was one of the few active mining camps on Pittsburgh, but the pay was lousy and the conditions terrible. The Knights gathered a lot of folks from these kinds of places. This made it the perfect place to hide. Less likely they'd be ratted out.
Saint Del is considered a holy healer of diseases of children, but also as a protector of cattle.
Lights pulsed as FastJack's cortex persona traveled through the datalinks. Faster than normal travel moving trough the cortex happened at the speed of thought, no need to stop so long as you knew where you were going. The satellites that transmitted the cortex throughout Sirius had checkpoints between the Houses, but between those \checkpoints was where the real gold was hidden if you were on the unlawful side of things. Various Junker's held cortex nodes for the discussion and procurement of weapons and kit, but FastJack wasn't headed for that.
FastJack dialed up; the location of a little known encampment on Curacao, the Knights didn't have much work out there, but somehow they still had sympathisers, and this particular sympathiser was well known amongst the shadier types for being able to gain hardware that the lawfuls would rather wasn't available on the open market.
Opening a direct neuralnet communication FastJack hoped for an answer. His hope was rewarded.
"Grinder, here you better be on the trusted list or this communication is dropping like a stone down a well."
FastJack's persona grinned a toothy grin. He'd never met Grinder, the neuralnet account was likely routed through half a dozen systems so as to be untraceable. The only way to get the code to call him was to have done business with him before. Which meant having been introduced through a third party.
"FastJack here, gonna cut to the chase, as I suspect I don't have much time. Knights are doing something and we need some tech, the usual stuff plus additional hardware in case things get nasty. Likely well be infiltrating a navy installation, so it'll need to be high tech."
Grinder paused.
"Doable. Usual payment methods apply. I know where you are already, but don't stress you ain't getting sloppy. Give me a location and I'll get it delivered on payment."
FastJack was impressed, evidently Greerson had pulled some strings already.
"Roger. Encampment 42. That's all you're getting. Payment can be drawn form the usual sources. Fastjack out."
FastJack didn't wait for a response, simply cutting the connection.
Returning to the real world, he gathered the kit he had with him and grabbed the first transport over to the base camp.
Saint Del is considered a holy healer of diseases of children, but also as a protector of cattle.