It was in one of those cities, a fortified private spaceport in the former native capital of Islata’ahn, that the Horizon Risk Management mercenary officers that had overseen the cleansing of hundreds of thousands gathered.
They were a varied lot, sitting at a lavish mahogany table in the spaceport’s small board room clad in their various combat-forms. Each appeared as a grey humanoid android ranging in height from six to eight feet, carbon muscle and fullerene plating composing the majority of their visible bodies. All were of different heights, and many had different facial and head designs. None had jaws though, or nostrils, instead simple filtered openings allowing them the sensations. Their eyes were hidden behind clear plastics, robotic and unblinking as they glanced from person to person. Various hardpoints covered their bodies yet were free of the weapons that would have been normally mounted upon their shoulder, backs of their forearms, and other near invisible locations. The only thing remaining from their old bodies was less than two thirds of their brain, even that subject to extensive replacement and upgrade. Such was the sacrifice for increased combat efficiency, and it wasn’t like they didn’t have synth-bodies they couldn’t slot themselves into after payday.
Tiktik was one of those officers, the odd one out with two extra arms below his upper pair, and he was the head of the HRM branch contracted by the Gwerder corporation. At seven feet in height and probably near a short ton in weight he was glad not for the first time that the Gwerder pencil pushers only bought the sturdiest chairs, a small blessing while he and the other nineteen officers waited for one of those same corporate bureaucrats to show up. While they waited Tiktik amused himself by making his combat-form send a small rush of drugs into his brain, a pleasant distraction from idle musings until the representative arrived. It took her only a couple minutes, Razonites were punctual if anything.
One of the doors to the room slid open automatically to make way for the corporate flunky, the woman striding in. She was an even six feet tall, wearing a modest double-breasted jacket and pants overtop a sleek skintight MCP suit. All that really showed of the suit were the reflective gloves and neckline that touched the base of her skull and jaw along with the silvery boots and left hand armlet which she wore overtop her jacket sleeve. What wasn’t covered was her face and head. She was towheaded with her hair held back in a low ponytail that managed to swish around her elbows, her pale skin and shapely face set in a light smile as her bright blue eyes stared at the assembled guns for hire.
“Good evening,” her voice flowed smoothly, proud and self assured, “I hope you are all in good health.”
One of the officers at the table spoke up, an eight foot tall mechanical soldier, her voice deep yet feminine in the manner typical of atoran women, “If we weren’t we wouldn’t be sitting here like a bunch of overpaid lawn ornaments now would we? No, Novalisk would be pouring over us and poking our brains like it says they can in our fucking monster-huge contracts.”
The businesswoman just smiled as the metallic woman made her statement, blue eyes meeting those of metal once the officer finished her little tirade, “Are you done? Good. Now, seeing as you don’t appreciate pleasantries I’ll move right onto business,” she brushed a stray hair out of her face before tapping upon her armlet, activating a holographic projector in the center of the table which pulsed a representation of the world they sat upon into view. It was blue and translucent, with yellow dots covering it and a few green spots here and there, “As you can see this is the world, the yellow dots being Iron Law led paramilitary forces and the green the last Horizon manned locales.”
“I noticed matron, have been giving the orders,” Tiktik spoke in quick chatters, his smaller lower arms each twitching their three long finger as his harsh and throaty words met the air, “We are moving, where to? We kill again soon yes?”
She laughed, “Very blunt Tiktik, I like that about you. And to answer your questions, yes you shall be departing soon. I am to give you your new assignment and paperwork,” she clicked a few buttons on her armlet once more, sending digital copies of the PMC contracts to each of the officers’ internal HUD, “As you can see the Gwerder corporation wants to gain a further basis in the region, particularly a system that already has modern or near-modern infrastructure. We have a world lined up, one rich in industrial and sapient resources. As per the contract your outfit will receive two percent of the sapient resources, decided upon by region as well as five trillion marks upon successfully capturing the system and securing it from reprisal. Should you fail you won’t receive payment apart from the forward payment of one hundred billion marks.”
Tiktik scanned the contract as he listened to the human woman, making sure to read the fine print. It all seemed good, pretty much a carbon copy of the contract to attack this world but with more money and risk. He signed it and quickly noted the others doing so as well in a sidebar in the contract’s overlay over his vision. It was all cleared rather quickly, the corporation’s emissary smiling at them as she received the good news via her armlet.
“That all?” Tiktik stared at the woman as the overlay blinked away, snapping up from his seat when she nodded, “Good, we will go now.”
Uh’idk System
The wormhole was rather underwhelming all things considered. It was only visibly a scant few tens of meters across, yet exotic particles and cosmic radiation emanating from it in regular pulses as it blossomed into life from apparent nothingness within the void of space within the Uh’idk system. It would quickly be registered as an anomaly, a wormhole. It sat there for a couple minutes, spewing out its foreign particles and even light as it stabilized.
Then the fleet burst forth.
It was an array of vessel, two battleships and five battlecruisers, seventeen cruisers, and two dozen destroyers along with as many frigates. They were of a variety of shapes, sizes, and heat outputs within their classes, different drive technology employed among the vessels and each of different outward aesthetic design. It was clear that this was an amalgamated force, half the vessels using fusion torches to accelerate while a quarter used well placed gravity wells and the remainder employed highly volatile orion drives as they kept a fair distance from the other vessels and detonated nuclear warheads behind themselves.
The vessels were arranged into two groups, both led by the capital ships at the fore while the destroyers and frigates kept moderately close to act as screening vessels. The cruisers were interspersed amongst the vessels, and all of the orion vessels maintained distance from their counterparts, hanging on the fringes of their formations. The formations were not evenly distributed, the formation that came out closer to the star containing an extra battlecruiser and cruiser.
The fleets wasted no time in belting out a message in the soft and svelte voice of a human woman reading from a script.
This is Horizon Risk Management. Under the mandate of the Gwerder Resource Extraction Company this system is to be reallocated to corporate holdings. We are obliged to offer you the option of surrender under Fringe corporate law. Should you not accept the offer you waive all rights to prosecute the company for damages to property or personages during and after the process of acquisition for a period of five years. If you have any complaints contact Gwerder Customer Relations after the acquisition has occurred. We hope that loss of life in minimal, have a pleasant day and remember to buy Gwerder.
