The National Dominion of Hungary wrote:
Derek Waudman
They had cast the bait, now it was time to wait, see if any greedy little fish came to feed. Indeed they did, they always did sooner or later. Derek felt his hand-terminal vibrate in his pocket, when he took it out he saw a new message from Sagar Bramfar, an Ulthar businessman with his fingers in pies across half the station and in several of the surrounding clusters. Well-spoken, rich, always impeccably dressed and utterly ruthless to those who stood in the way of his ambitions. He was secretive about his past, some said that he was the son of a prostitute back in Combine space where he gathered enough wealth through petty criminality to smuggle himself out into the Outer Rim to start a new life. Others said he was an orphan from the Ulthar homeworld of Kharrash, no parents, no masters, but also no roof over his head and often no dinner. No matter, he had contracted them for small odd jobs every now and then often alongside other mercenary units and he always kept his word in a deal. Derek scrolled through the message, it seems like Bramfar needed to get his hands on data from an old facility where scientific experiments of some kind had been going on, then destroy the place. They were to go to the planet of Bakkan in the Nebean Expanse cluster, coordinates to the abandoned facility were to be provided upon accepting the contract, there was a good sum waiting in payment for them should they accept, 800 credits all in all. Enough to get some better equipment and perhaps hire of few more crew-members who didn't mind mercenary work when they return to port. Before accepting however, Derek did some research on the planet in question. The Nebean Expanse was a small cluster of five systems relatively close to the Inner Rim, Bakkan was the only naturally habitable world for nitrogen-oxygen breathing life in the whole cluster. The jungle-planet was overrun by choking plant hypergrowth caused by the introduction of industrially-mutated plant species in a failed colonization attempt around 400 years ago. This, combined with its relative isolation and lack of population, has made Bakkan an occasional base of operations for drug-runners, weapons-smugglers, pirates, mercenaries, terrorists, and Coreward Power intelligence agents seeking secrecy. Sustained habitation on Bakkan is extremely difficult, where mutant and even poisonous plant-life can overgrow colonies in days instead of years. Home to dangerous plant and animal life, the trip might be harder than the contracts on the station that they had lived on so far. However, there was more than just the facility, maybe they could try and search one of the abandoned colonies for valuables? Perhaps they could swipe supplies and credits from some hidden smuggler's base? Perhaps Bakkan would be the first step on Derek's road to fame and fortune?
Trusty Sandy
Sagar had always treated him fairly and giving a fresh outfit like hiss an opportunity like he had was some show of faith, a sliver of legitimacy... A show of faith without any real risks attached for Bramfar, to be honest. If he kicked the bucket and never came back, all the Ulthar had to do was send another team, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Derek snickered at those thoughts as he sat in the Sandy's cockpit, pre-calculating the jump-routes that would take them to the Nebean expanse. His boy's were double checking the Sandy's engines and fuel-supply, without him even asking them too. They were all invested in the Sandy's maiden voyage and the amount of money, time and risk they had put into this one opportunity made this run to Bakkan a make it or break it type of situation. As the Navigation computer ran through it's simulations, his terminal, laying on the dashboard, half-forgotten began to beep again, another message from Sagar.
Derek had always attempted to maintain an atmosphere of professionalism, it didn't do well to piss off anyone on a station full of criminals and killers. A smart man didn't mix pleasure with business on Noctis Station and Derek didn't plan on breaking the rule.
His reply was short and clear to the point. They had accepted his deal and would leave for the Nebean expanse within the Hour. Another message popped in soon after, one of his boys had returned from the trade district, having found what he had been asked to retrieve.
Another swipe on his Terminal pulled back the information of Barran, such a rotten hive never had much up to date information... But Derek always enjoyed a more... Distant form of problem solving. The Mark 7 back in his cabin had ensured most of the hits he had the past had been clean and from a distance that gave him enough time to get out without being made. But trudging through this Mutating jungle, to get some distance on the facility didn't seem like a good idea... Room-clearing, especially in some god forsaken hell-hole was always best done with a weapon that was more... Liberal with it's projection of force.
With a dull beep, the Nav-computer shook Derek from his musings, the route to Bakkan orbit pre-calculated. Even with the location of the facility at hand, He hadn't lived this long by himself by being careless... It seemed best to approach Bakkan carefully, staying out of sight and out of mind of people who rather not be disturbed. If he could approach Bakkan without getting into trouble with any of the other groups that likely called the place home, the job would become a lot easier... Taking a bit of time to do some quick scans of the surface to identify some secondary targets of interest couldn't do a lot of harm either he supposed... If Sagar's Job went off without a hitch, they might have some room left in the hold to ruin someone else his day...