:: Data stream detected ::
:: Downloading message ::
:: Type: notification ::
:: Source: Series X "Dagger" Border Worlds Light Fighter ::
---- :: Callsign: LH~Queue ::
---- :: Location: Mactan base ::
Good day!
My name once was Daniel Jeffers. It probably still is, somewhere, but for me it is as much a history as my status of a code-monkey on Ageira's payroll.
I worked my daily 8-hour job for a mediocre pay in one of Ageira's Manhattan's branches. Write the some lines of unimportant code for a few hours, debug some other code for some more, not what you would call a challenge. Nor a hazardous job, either.
I was proved wrong though. I made a mistake: I got curious. Being a quite fast worker, I often found bits of free time in-between my tasks, I used those to widen my view on the world and the company. I couldn't get deep into the system without rising alarms and tipping off the security, getting deep wasn't even my my aim at the time. I just followed some routine communications going on, read a few files of interest in archive. This and that, all the things any bored employee with enough expertise to bypass the most basic security protocol would do.
I don't know if you follow matters so trivial, but if you do, you probably remember an accident that took place in Manhattan's orbit a month ago. A Starflier crossed the landing pattern of an Armored Transport and turned into a miniature debris field on its own. Two people, both of them Ageira employees (positions not disclosed to public), killed on spot.
It didn't surprise me at first when a week later I stumbled upon an ongoing communication about those two. Getting a bit deeper into details did rise my interest, though. The content of messages was rather vague, but reoccurring references on "Issue" and "Successful solution" did make me wonder. I ran a search on the dead emplyees and found that they were part of a team developing a certain functionality of RTS. The records also noted that they've run into financial difficulties recently.
Out of my foolishness I told this to a friend and colleague of mine. He was interested more than I was, and I'm afraid he took an initiative to find out more on his own. In my naivety I did not suspect anything.
Three days later, I came to work in the morning to find out my friend unexpectedly had volunteered for a deep-space research team and have left overnight.
Right!
I maybe was naive till then, but to hell with everything if I ever bought that kind of lies.
I also knew that I will probably the next one to "volunteer".
I did not return to work after lunch that day. I had a personal Starflier and a bit of reserve cash, I gathered all I could, changed the callsign of my ship to buy me some hours of time and left to the debris field in search of Junker base where I could find a temporary refuge. As I was entering the field, a patrol of bounty hunters nearby went on an intercept course and launched a disruptor at me. Luckily, it failed to stop me due to the range but it did get the message across: "There's quite a bit of cash on your head"
My cash reserves depleted quickly and I had to make a living doing a bunch of minor favors for Junkers and later Rogues. Things no-one else wished to do, such as safeguarding a jumphole from an overly eager Bounty hunter and alike.
First mention of Lane hackers I heard from a pilot calling himself an Admiral of Hellfire legion. After a while of inquiring, a rogue took me to a base in Buffalo, gifted me a second-hand Dagger (taking half of my savings as a payment, of course) and told me to get going to Magellan, where I could probably put my talents to better use (taking the remaining half of my savings for this invaluable advice).
It did took a while for me to get to Magellan. I was lucky enough to be greeted and met there by one of yours, known as Mr. Krimmler. I was told then to contact you on this channel as soon as I sort out and repair my ship's systems.
They say crime never pays. Ageira and those of the same shade feel like an exception. They think to able to make people disappear with no consequences. But they will have to pay. I'm ready to see to it.