Moving Forward (Vitale, Lasky, Pacifica)

[Roger Davis]

0900 Hours, April 21st 2582
Peerless Operations, in orbit over Hera

Roger watched out the forward viewport as Bullet passed by in front of them. It wasn't long until the tiny moonlet was clear and continuing on it's own rotation and once again the Peerless was looking down at Hera further out in space.

It had been two days since their last operation and up until this point the ship had been moving with little to no direction. Davis wanted them to make some distance between themselves and Elphame in case anyone came looking, but other than that they had no next destination. Hera was as good a port as any to seek shelter in: big enough, well supplied, and one terminus of the gateway.

The lack of direction, however, was what brought him to the bridge today. The 19th was their day of rest after a successful mission, but yesterday they were back to work. For a select few, that meant finding their next lead, the next target against Lee and Cobalt.

Roger turned back toward operations where the three waited for him, an unlikely bunch, one more different from the last. But their differences was what made them successful, a sort of combined arms of personality. Hopefully they'd cracked some of the many puzzles set before them and had good news to report.

"So. What've we got?"

[Deleted]

"The drive," Lasky began, the undertone of exasperation edging into his voice and demeanor. He leaned against the briefing table, shoulders hunched, before gesturing with a swing of his left arm towards a nearby station where he and Vitale had been spending entirely too much time together.

Sitting there all smug-like, were the off-network computers they'd been working from - and that ta ma duh* hard-drive Esmay had swiped from Corvey back on Santo.

"I uploaded a virus to the drive's closed-source firmware and used a rootkit to secure our access point," Lasky started to explain, his eyes almost glazing over.

"Then it was a matter of getting through the encryption algorithms and deciphering the fragments of code so we could collate..."

"...So we could read the damn files," Vitale cut-in, adding, "Which we're still working on by-the-way. We managed to piece together a few, but so far none of the documents make much sense - like tryin' to unscramble a gorram egg."

The Technical Specialist nodded. He hated not being able to finish a project in a timely and orderly fashion, especially when it concerned his fields of expertise. Momentarily looking back at the screens, Lasky watched the lines of code scroll by as the virus he'd uploaded continued to pull more and more file scripts for the cypher he and Demato had constructed to work on.

'I could really use a nap right now...' he thought.

------------------------------------------
* ta ma duh: damn, damned

[Deleted]

"The drive,"

The drive, as in hard drive, disk, data card, derelict piece of crap, and to cap off the d train, Vi was pretty sure it was a diversion. He didn't want to say anything just yet, being as the idea they were working with here was that Lee was somehow transferring large quantities of information in this highly encoded smoke screen, but it just looked like a lot of nothing. At any rate, Lasky while being informitive, was from word go pretty much going above everyone's head in the room, including Vi, and Vi had been sitting beside him all the night before, as he'd done all those things, and he didn't know what the kid was saying... After a few seconds or so, he decided to sum it up a little better, "So we could read the damn files. Which... we're still working on by-the-way. We managed to piece together a few, but so far none of the documents make much sense - like tryin' to unscramble a gorram egg." He paused and pulled up their actual findings, which weren't much.

"This is three pages of unedited script after Lasky deciphered it, which as near as we could tell, is just a lot of information on biological psychology, also known as..." Vitale stopped and double checked the screens, "Behavioral neuroscience." He stopped there and looked at the Captain. "Uh, that's an interesting process in which you read behavior or brain receptivity or..." Vi paused, he'd been tracking his words by waving his hand in the air with each point, but he'd frozen it, "I, I don't know what it is. It's a bunch of crap. It's... It has nothing to do with anything. It's just a bunch of useless information."

"Behavioral neuroscience is a real concep 'tali. Jus 'ecause.." Chuck started to correct him, but Vi knew what he was saying, they'd already taken that approach yesterday.

"No it is. You're right, I mean, it's a real thing. It just has absolutely nothing to do with Cobalt. I mean, sounds impressive sure, but the basics of this type of study date back eight hundred years, and also. What the hell does it have to do with anything? It's garbage, it's just, a lot of clutter on a disk." Vi opened it up for Lasky to agree with him, and after another technical dose of explanations, Vitale added, "See? Even the," He motioned at Lasky, "Expert... agrees."

"Our current theory is that it could be encoded through the words themselves. Like uh... cipher, that would be picked up every fifth word or something. We're working on it, but the process of elimination is slow going." Vitale sat back, and looked to Davis. It wasn't a lot of information compared to the time they'd put in it, but they honestly didn't have a lot. Just a long technical list of things that they'd confirmed weren't on the disk. His next line of thinking was a hard one. Esmay had been a sweet gal in the short time that he'd known her, but what did they really know about her? Vi didn't want to be that guy, but it was the only other logical explanation. "I think it's time to consider the very real possibility, that there's nothing on the disk. And that our guest's bargaining chip is nothing more than a red herring."

"I don't understand," Ollie said aloud, he'd been following along with the report as he'd so often been known to do, "You're sayin that of an entire hard drive copied, the only thing she was able to get was a bunch of stuff about this one research thing?"

"Well no, yeah." Ollie gave Vi a look, and Vi shook his head and rubbed his temples in frustration. "I don't think the disk is anything, I think it's just a bunch of useless crap. As you pointed out," He motioned to Lasky, "Even if it were some kind of cipher there's not enough context to pull anything from. Every time you increase the cipher's word count, you eat up that much more of the original data. So a one in four word cipher of a thousand words becomes two hundred and fifty words. You get it?" Ollie nodded, "So even if there's something there, at this point we're up too," Vi paused an looked over at the screen that he'd been taking notes from Lasky on, "One in forty two words. Even if there is something there, is it worth all the time we're giving it? And like I said, there is always that other possibility..."

[Deleted]

It was 0900, Pacifica had been up for 3 hours or long enough for 4 cup of coffee if you used her way of tracking time, and now they were gathered up around operations. Now pacifica was no computer genius but she did spend most of her time looking at a screen and the coding of all the different systems they used. There were types of coding she could look at and see the raw code the same as The finished product. Lasky had only helped her understand it more. The man was a wiz, for more then she was. He had a way with computers and all that went with them. She wouldn't admit it, not this quickly, that was for sure. She had spent hours of her free time looking over the information, trying to find what they hadn't. 

With all her time, all her effort, she could not figure out anymore  then they had. If there was something to be found she wasn't the one who would find it. "Whatever is on there has to be something of value. It just  makes no sense to put so much effort encrypting nothing in case someone steals it." It really didn't make any sense to her, unless is was like Cordoba had said and the while thing was just there to give the doctor a bargaining chip. If there was nothing to be found in the data it would keep them looking longer and buy her more time.

In fact they had little to prove she was really trust worthy. Pacifica had run the checks on her when she first showed up and there wasn't much of interest. No red flags side from her working for the Empire of Athens but nothing screamed untrustworthy. Even so Pacifica couldn't help but think there was more to this situation then was being let on. The doctor was a fugitive from Athens with a reward for information leading to her being brought in for questioning. The specific crime or details on it were kept under wraps. 

What was there to say she wasn't playing the whole crew. Now Pacifica wasn't a big conspiracy theorist but Lee and Cobalt had already shown they had more to them then had been expected. A Mech, a real much right there on Sweet Home. What did they need that for and all that equipment and other things found in the crates. There was more then meets the eye and Esmay might just have been part of that. "Cordoba brings up a good point, how do we know that Dr. Willows isn't just using this to keep us fumbling around looking for something." The real question Now was what they needed to be doing from here. Was there anything to find on this drive and if so what could they do to speed up the process of finding out. If that was not the route they wanted to keep pursuing then where would they go from here.

[Roger Davis]

The three quickly replied in turn. Lasky was first, quickly explaining what he'd done to access the files themselves. As complex as it all sounded, Lasky explained it as if it was routine and an easy bypass as was to be expected from their expert. Unfortunately, Lasky's introductory report was the only good news so far.

Vitale, with occasional interruptions from others on the bridge, detailed what they'd found once Lasky had finished his work. If Roger didn't have a perpetual frown on his face, he would have frowned at that moment. As of now it seemed like an absolute dead end with hardly any information on it and all of that being completely irrelevant. The captain's first thought was to some second layer of security hidden behind the facade of an actual scientific report, but it seems his men had already thought of that as well. Roger was an amateur cryptographer, but those skills were for fun rather than any practical use. He delved in tricks one could workout without a computer, the kind of thing which worked seven hundred years ago.

Roger was far outclassed here where Lasky had the computers running at full capacity to break through any cipher with the brute force that would take a thousand lifetimes for any one man to do by hand. And if Vitale was right and there was no secret cache of hidden information, even if they did solve whatever puzzle might be there, the information remaining would be incredibly limited.

Finally Pacifica cut in with exactly what Roger had been thinking. If anyone on the ship had a paranoia streak to rival the captain, it was their operations officer. Yet, although all this fruitless effort pointed toward the data being at best a dead end and at worst a decoy and intentional ploy by Esmay, it was just hard to believe. They'd run her story and it checked out, and the young researcher's performance had been believable. It was a possibility, certainly, but Roger wasn't convinced.

"Keep running through the various ciphers until we've exhausted that as a possibility." the captain ordered. "I assume we're all out of ideas." They'd been at it for about two days now so it seemed a safe bet that they would have tried something else if they'd though of it.

"Then we need to start looking outside. Ru Jiang, Jackson Grimm..." he started listing names. "My cousin Aiden might be able to help as well." The captain's frown subsided slightly as he said that and Chuck grinned at him from the other side of the room. The boatswain had remarked before that Roger had a family member for every situation and perhaps that was true.

After another moment, the captain turned to Vitale, "What about Corvey? Any chance he might be able to help?" It was a long shot that he would know AND be willing to help. "Has Black made any progress with him?"

[Deleted]

Lasky nodded again and gave the assembled group a short exposé about a few other types of encryptions that might explain the obfuscation of relevant content on the hard-drive, or why it would take them many more hours to break through such techniques. Of course he should've realized that he was once again using jargon largely unfamiliar to those around him, but the tech's mind was running on auto-pilot. In his head, Lasky had been over all this again and again.

The possibilities were practically endless, if in fact there actually was something still to be found. Unfortunately, Lasky's current level of software-infiltration couldn't completely rule that out, and there was no one else aboard that could either. Thus their current predicament.

Pacifica's comments hit the nail on the head. If there really was nothing of import on the damned thing, why go to such lengths to secure its data? It made no sense. People didn't go to this much trouble for nothing - it had to have a purpose. Still it was hard to imagine li'l Miss Willows being involved in some nefarious plot. Even if she had been forced into something like that, why would she continue to play along now that Davis and his men had rescued her?

'Unless she was never really a captive at all.' But that was a rabbit-hole Lasky's fatigued grey-matter wasn't ready to jump down into.

"Will do," Lasky responded in affirmation of the Captain's orders. He gave a disappointed shrug at Roger's next words, exchanging looks with the Italian. Neither one of them wanted to admit defeat, even after working on it for two days with few breaks.

When the Captain started talking about bringing in outside help Lasky subconsciously tightened his grip on the briefing table, especially at the mention of the Sydicate. He again gave a look at Vi, subtly shaking his head. Thankfully Davis moved on to naming his cousin, and then ending with the notion of dragging some information out of their hostage Corvey.

"That could work." Asher said, adding "...The part about Corvey or your kin I mean sir, anything other than involving the Syndicate frankly. I know Peerless works for them on this whole Marcus Lee thing, but respectfully I don't think it's wise to tangle with them any more than we already have."

Lasky straightened his posture as he spoke, placing his hands behind his back as he watched for the Captain's reaction. He hoped he hadn't overstepped his station or touched a nerve.

'Shoulda let Vitale be the one to say it...'

[Deleted]

Pacifica repeated the million platinum question and Davis again narrowly dodged it. Vitale knew the captain well enough to know that he had a soft spot for the doc, and his continued believe that there would be something on the chip was just further proof. At the end of the day though, regardless of what his choices were, being captain meant that Davis' word was still law, so Vitale agreed to the order to continue digging with a yessir. He'd just wanted to be sure that the entire group had in fact considered, that the good doctor may have been a liar. Davis had a few more suggestions for as to the how the might break the magical cipher that Vi wasn't all to impressed with. Ru was a gun runner whom they'd dealt with very little over the years, so while an understandable option for his ability to get new hardware, they needed tech help. God love the captain, but his family wasn't the best in every field, and tended to ask to many questions when involved with anything, so Vi wasn't chomping at the bit to involve any of them. Then there was the mafia moneybags. God Vi hated these people, it was bad enough that the Peerless worked for them, did they have to work with them at every turn? A bit harsh of a thought, it wasn't as though Davis had 'em on speed dial, but they were a bunch of child slaving thieves. Vi would rather answer Aiden for six days than be the one to make that wave. Of course, he wasn't going to say that. The child slaving thieves had also once upon a time helped the right side of a conflict wage a war, had given Vitale one of his best friends, and a gal who he was kind of sweet on. And of course a few jobs that paid well, we couldn't forget to be reminded of that. So Vi had his reservations about just coming out and saying something. Lasko, on the other hand, was young and opinionated and apparently had no qualms with saying no.

"The part about Corvey or your kin I mean sir, anything other than involving the Syndicate frankly. I know Peerless works for them on this whole Marcus Lee thing, but respectfully I don't think it's wise to tangle with them any more than we already have."

You know those awkward silences that young people sometimes earn? The kind where, as a young man or woman, you kind of step out too far, and everyone ends up looking at you and you get the feeling it would have been better to not have spoken your mind. Yeah, Lasky might not have ever felt that way prior, but from then on out, he would always have that one moment. Vi happened to agree with the kid however, and he was not known for passing on an opportunity to take a dig at the Syndicate.

"Well I gotta say I agree," Vitale started to say when Ollie broken in with, "Well there's a surprise."

Davis had his own words of solidarity to add and then Vi got back to the point. "Black, well. Black isn't helping in any way. In fact, I'd say that he was just getting worse. Everything we say he counters, every command we give he doubles back on, he is uncooperative, too large too hurt and to dense to work with. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was acting against us. In the last interrogation, he straight up gave Corvey the courage to persevere his latest beating. Desmond was hoping that he would have something to give us in private, but Dez said he was as belligerent behind closed doors as he was in the brig. So I don't know what to do with him, I think it's time for you to go see him personally." Vitale finished looking straight at Davis. Then his eyes flicked away, and he continued, "As far as Corvey goes, Ros said he needs three days rest before he can go again. So don't look for any new leads until then."

[Deleted]

Pacifica traded glances with the others evaluation their thoughts on Esmay. She didn't trust the doctor. Pacifica had been in charge of looking in to her background, finding the details and any dirt on her. She had found that she was a biomedical researcher working on some sort of project that was kept under pretty tight raps. The issues that Pacifica wasn't the hidden project she worked on but the people she worked for. It was a government contract, and even that wasn't an issue really but the government she worked for was. As far as Pacifica saw it the Empire of Athens was an enemy of peace in the 'Verse. They were a secretive government that had aspirations of indefinite expansion. An aggressive government like the one she had fought against in the Red Pact War. Nothing good could come from the Empire including oits people. The doctor would have to prove her worth before Pacifica would offer up the opportunity for her to slowly earn her trust.

For this exact time though the thought was dropped as the captain passed over the concern and moved to the next topic of discussion. What was their back up plan for the data drive. They hadn't run through every option for decrypting the code, at the same time an outside source was not a bad plan. Lasky and Cordoba where quick to make their opinions know on the subject, and though Pacifica may not have been the largest fan of having a criminal syndicate be their go to for obsticals she was also a believer in the logical approach. Davis had offered of his options on how to process and the syndicate was the optimal choice for the situation. 

As soon as the others had made their thoughts known and created the awkward moment of revealing their dislike for the ones paying the bills Pacifica proceeded with her thoughts skipping complete over the awkward feeling herself in that familiar robotic, emotionless approach she had become known for. "Logicly speaking sir I believe the syndicate to be the fastest and best option. Despite the hesitation of some on the crew I would start there if we are to go outside the crew for assistance. I can make the call if needed." She stated clearly with no concern for how it may come across to those who had been opposed. Vi had become accustomed to her forward and blunt approach, but Lasky was newer to the crew and was more likely to take offense to the comment. She knew that her forward approach had been an issue from time to time but it was a calculated risk. The mission before personal feelings was a must, that was no different today then any day in the past. "As for Black and Corvey we have a few options. First off if Black is proving to be counter productive to the mission it is lost on me why he is not relieved of his position on the ship, but I defer to your good judgment captain and assume there is more to it then what I know. Now the matter of Corvey, as I stated I haven't come to trust our new doctor and if she working with him then a little meeting of the two might show some new lead." Of course if they were in league together the rendezvous could offer a chance for messages to get passed and that creates new risks for them all. She could debate the back and forth of the idea in her head for the next hour, but where she stood right now is that it could be more of a benefit to them then a liability. For now it would be on the captain to decide what he thought of the concept and if he thought there to be value in it, then Pacifica would weight the best approach to protected the crew from any trouble arising from it. 

Pacifica pulled up on the screen the data from the inventory reports from the Sweet home mission so it was ready for the captain when they got to that point in the briefing. For now it was just,on standby while they contained to profess with the other topics that carried more weight,in the briefing. It had been a substantial hall but what details it might give them about Cobalt she wasn't sure of yet.

[Roger Davis]

The response was mixed.  Lasky voiced his concerns about working with the Syndicate and Vitale quickly added his agreement.  As expected, Pacifica was on the same page with the captain and approached the situation from a purely rational rather than emotional perspective.

Lasky was new to the crew and still young, relatively speaking.  There was a time perhaps when Roger might have refused such work as well.  Even now, the captain wasn't thrilled to be working so often and so closely with the Syndicate, but the 'Verse was not a storybook land where everything was perfect.  Life is a spectrum of grays rather than the purely black and white distinctions some might like to apply.  There was no doubt that the Syndicate was in that moral gray area, but then again the Peerless was in that area as well just as all mercenary crews were.

History had taught Roger that what mattered was where you were on that sliding scale.  The Syndicate was a criminal organization, but when compared to others it couldn't even compare to their levels of moral evil.  They sold ships, not drugs or guns.  They used force, but only to defend themselves and their business.  Their employment practices were questionable, but their salaries were incredibly generous.  If the suspicions of the crew were to be believed, even a crime boss like Knox wouldn't execute a cop like Samuel Gunn.

Then there were all the things the Syndicate had directly done for the Peerless.  The ship itself had come from that organization, part of a large supply to support the Commonwealth's war effort.  Vitale had come to them through the Syndicate as had Ollie and Kyle.  More recently Abigail and Lewis had both been given to the crew as well.  They were all exceptionally well trained and were only on the ship because of their history.    Furthermore, Knox knew exactly the moral character of the Peerless and he specifically gave them all the "light gray" jobs he had.  Over the years, the Syndicate had given them plenty of work with great pay and perks.  And if the present mission was any indication, whatever ulterior motives Knox might have had, by accomplishing this mission they were doing the 'Verse a favor.  Onas Knox wasn't a good guy, but he certainly wasn't a bad guy either.

What alternatives did they have?  Ru Jiang had his own network, but it would be a shot in the dark whether he had a cryptographer, particularly a skilled one that might actually have an answer.  Aiden could be trusted, but he also wasn't the most skilled nor did he particularly have any resources of his own.  The Syndicate was the only real option.  They had an extensive network, skilled personnel specifically dealing with intelligence, and experience dealing with Cobalt.  This was right in their wheelhouse.

And what would the dissenters have of him?  Ignore the most promising source of information because we're too proud to ask for help from them?  We'll take your money, your personnel, and complete jobs for you, but we don't want to actually come to you for help.  We'd much rather ignore the potentially valuable information we have and do nothing with it.

The more important issue was their conundrum and its relation to Esmay.  If they didn't look to an expert for help then they couldn't determine whether there was something they were missing.  The doctor's gift to the ship would remain just a useless piece of shit.  And then what?  We have these suspicions but fail to follow up on them.  Do we just ignore them and leave Esmay on the ship?  Do we kill as a spy based on just about zero evidence?  Do we dump her off alone on the next world to likely be picked up by the first bounty hunter to spot her?  Although her story had this cloud of doubt over it, the odds still favored her being just what she claimed.  Could they claim the moral high ground by staying away from the Syndicate but in the process doom an innocent girl to death or imprisonment?  The answer was obvious.

"Alexander, send a message ahead to Persephone." the captain ordered.  He then turned toward Lasky and Vitale.  "It would be unwise not to use the resources available to us.  The only reason we're looking into this in the first place is for the Syndicate.  A quick wave isn't going to entangle us any more."

Then Vitale briefed them on the Corvey situation, all bad news.  Pacifica added her two cents about Black's failures to contribute to the mission in any way.  It was a long shot to begin with, but Roger never thought that the plan could actually make things worse.  It was indeed hard to believe.

"We'll cut him loose when next we make landfall," Roger announced, "if he doesn't improve drastically before then."  It was unlikely, but Paicifca was right that it was doing no one any favors to keep him on any longer to hurt the mission.  "I'll have a chat with him.  In the meantime, if anyone is freed up from other duties, I want James Black looked into."  It would a hell of a thing if this "random" hire actually knew Corvey or was somehow connected to Cobalt.  Some sort of ulterior motivation is the only thing the captain could think of for his obstinance.  "We'll hold off on using Dr. Willow for now."

After a brief pause, Roger moved on to the next topic.  "Sweethome.  What've we got?  What has it told us?"  A cargobay full of gear, numerous recordings of the battle, and a mountain of information mined from Cobalt computers was sure to be a goldmine, or at least the captain hoped so.

[Deleted]

Davis made his decision, ordering Miss Alexander to send a wave ahead of them to the Syndicate's headquarters on Persephone. Pacifica herself sided with the Captain, saying it was "the best option". Obviously, Asher found fault with their reasoning. It may have indeed been the fastest route to go, but it certainly wasn't ideal or the best. Also, dealing with thieves and murderers in any way was a bad idea that he believed always came back to bite one in one's proverbial ass. Period.

But Lasky -with support from Vitale- had already respectfully stated his take on the matter and there was nothing more to be said. Especially after that lapse of silence. Apparently, he had been right to worry about saying too much, and not for the first time Lasky found himself pondering whether working under a mercenary command was a wise undertaking, or one his sense of morality could live with for very long.

'Ah yes, the big brute loudmouth. Yī dà tuó dà biàn...'*

Lasky hadn't liked James Black since moment one. The tech shook his head as Vi, Pacifica, and the Cap'n discussed the disruptive influence the egomaniac had been ever since coming aboard.

'Man I'm cranky today...' Lasky reflected with a mental sigh. As for the Sweethome op? It'd taught Lasky that magnetic accelerator cannons were a helluva thing, much more than that he couldn't say. Once again, he stayed quiet while the others talked, occasionally taking a glance at the decryptions still running on the console behind him.




--------------------------------------------
* Yī dà tuó dà biàn: a big pile of shit

[Deleted]

Nobody immediately stepped up so Vitale felt inclined to do just that, as was his nature. Before he did though, he made one more jab, just for spite. "I still say," He started, putting his hand out sideways in a wave to encompass himself, Lasky and Pacifica, "We have our own techs. We don't have to turn to the criminals for help. A little more time." He could feel Pacsun's scolding eyes without looking so he went ahead and addressed her without waiting for a reprisal, which was a surefire way to get underneath Hurricane Pacifica's bulletproof skin, "I know what you're sayin, both of ya. But I'm just throwin it out there, their a bunch of child slaving scumbags..." Who could pass on an opportunity to point that out? Nobody, that's who.

Before anyone could say anything to him, Vitale changed the subject back to the track of Davis' original question. "That said, Lee's still a worse scumbag and yesterday morning we proved it." Vi nodded to Pacsun who brought up hours of research in two dozen printed pages. They were bank records in the most schematic sense. Some language that only Pacifica and Lasky spoke, and no one else. Seemed to be mostly phrases that hackers used and turned into word vomit. Vi may not have understood all the technical bs that got them to the finished product, but who cared? He understood the end result. "This," He started to say as he swooshed all of the pages onto the main holoboard on the center console, then stood and began to circle it slowly for the remainder of the briefing, "Is the last six months of the base commander's payroll logs. This is a rabbit hole, and I'm gonna try to explain why, guys jump in any time here. So the payroll comes in from a main bank account in Jing wu," He started to say when he was corrected by an irritated Lasky.

"Jong Li."

Vitale answered in a single huffed word before continuing. "Whatever... It comes in and is dispersed throughout the pay periods. But we know a few things right here that raise red flags. One thing, there were one hundred and six bodies by our count, and the redneck corroborates those numbers by his own count. The thing is, the payroll," He highlighted it so Davis didn't have to search, "Is for two hundred and sixty employees, give or take. Only twenty or so of which are labeled as 'base personnel'. That rose some questions, so we dug a little deeper. The records that you pulled have a hundred and sixty trained mercs, twelve tanks, two mechs and a partridge in a pear tree sent off ta some planet or moon er, some'n. Their spose to all be on Sweethome. There were no official records ordering them off world, but the entire packet we liberated, that's what they called the cargo lift, a 'war packet', was assigned to head off to the planet in Kalidasa along with jus about everyone else there, the mech an the tanks. So we couldn't figure out what that was all about, but what we did figure out, was that Lee got double payments. And, he was shipping out cash, all from this one account that isn't linked to Cobalt specifically. And, to sweeten the conspiracy pots, if you trace payments, you'll find this..." Vi highlighted a name that perhaps only Davis would catch right off the top of his head. The name was attached to a small amount when compared with all around it, and it when through a stop first. The stopping point was Patricio Corvey, then it made its way into a blackmailer's hands who went by the name of Cheverus. Chevy they knew, but what they didn't know was the end of the line for a few of those transfers, Guan Zhong.

But they did know the man, albeit, through a different name. Ru Jiang, whom they'd personally done business with for a good long while now, for guns and stuff you couldn't hope to get anywhere else. Desmond made nearly anything you could want, and a good bit of the Peerless' tech could rival most Alliance grade hardware. Of course it wasn't legal in the best of circumstances, but only the actual hardware they originally bought was illegal. Dez' favorite way to get those specs was to reverse engineer guns and other toys that they bought off the black market, then patent his own version, and dump the original material into the cold of space, preferably in an asteroid belt as they passed. Jiang had gotten them a lot of that tech and Vitale couldn't ever remember him mentioning being in league with Cobalt, not even once. Not that it was their business to know, but still, what happened to professional loyalty? You get in bed with Cobalt thugs, or any Alliance goons for that matter, and its only polite to tell your most loyal customers. Its just good business. "Think he'd of said something about that..." Vi said candidly to the boss.

"Still, more on the point, Lee has money and supplies on the books that aren't on the ground. Sounds like he's got his mits where he shouldn't have them. May be something there we can exploit."

"All that's fine and good to know, but it isn't really the main point..." Pacifica started to say, but Vitale quickly shushed her.

"Duuu du du du du du... jus let me, let me jus have this moment. Jus dis one moment.  I'm the one who saw it, let me be the one who tells him."

"Well hurry up."

Vi smiled and dropped the real bomb, "It's the bank in Jing Wu," Vi said, this time collecting a correction from Lasky, Ollie and Pacifica in unison that it was Jong Li, to which he again brushed off, "Whatever!"

"It's only like, one of the most influential cities in Tauri Cordoba," Nate said with a chuckle.

"Nobody cares," He rebuttaled.

"Vi!" Pacsun said sternly.

"The point is," Vi said at last, "Is it's Lee's account. It's not Cobalt's." As he laid that one on Davis, he gave a raise or two to his eyebrows, indicating how sweet that was, "All of this, originates from an off the books account that comes out of Lee's own pocket. Now getting back to my earlier point, why keep all this out of your own pocket? Instead of out of company finance? But, and perhaps more importantly, we have Marcus Lee's personal bank account. With all his holdings. Every... Last... Platinum..."

_{(((OOC: I took some liberties with Pacsun and Lasky. You guys weren't on Skizzy for me to ask, so I took the addage of "It's better to ask forgiveness than permission." If anything needs to be changed/added/removed, please don't hesitate to contact me via skizzy, pm or the mother ship. Thanks ahead for being team players!!!)))}

[Deleted]

The conversation on Black and Corvey moved quickly and it seemed the captain was more willing the Pacifica was to trust the new doctor. Of course Pacifica had never been one to trust anyone quickly. Even Lasky had not fully gained her trust, though there was less reason to mistrust him than there was with Esmay. They were passing over that for now so Pacifica let it go and would dig deeper in to her past on her own time. 

The subject changed to the documents she had pulled up on the computer about the inventory they had conducted on their new goods. There were plenty of things that spoke of the kind of work Cobalt was doing but nothing spoke as loudly about Lee then the 'payroll' they had found in the crates.  Vitals quickly pulled the information she had brought up to the forefront of the conversation and displayed it on the main screen. Of course in topical Vitals fashion he continued on with his conspiracy theories and looking deeper in to it all then what was needed at this point. "All that's fine and good to know, but it isn't really the main point.." She said in an effort to rush him to the point and keep the conversation moving forward efficiently and effectively.

"Jus let me, just let me have this moment. Jus did one moment. I'm the one who saw it, let me be the one who tells him."

"Well hurry up." Then finally he was moving in the right direction. Vi might have been a conspiracy theorist but in this case there was one random  series of thoughts for Vi that lead them down the right path. "If Cordoba's theory is correct we have the ability to not only keep tabs on where Lee is using his money. And this is where Vi has gotten a bit over the top in his high flying, anything goes planning, we could figure out some way of relieving him of this pile on platinum." The idea of taking that from Lee would be ideal and would give them a stronger chance of taking him down but there was no part of Pacifica that had even looked at that plan as being a possibility. It was to far fetched and dangerous from what she could see to be worth taking on. "Let me interject before Vitals gets to wild on planning this. I don't believe this plan is anything we should attempt. Getting in to the banks is almost impossible with out a legitimate reason. The thought of going in there with out knowing the details of their security and actually taking funds is next to impossible."

Pacifica had never been to Jong Li or any world in white sun before actually. Sure the Peerlessm had landed on many of them in the time she had been with the ship but she had never been off the ship while they were there. That isn't to say she avoided going off ship there , there just never had been a need for her to be off ship and in fact Ashe had just been tied up with work on board that kept her there. 

All that said she knew more than her fair share of what white sun was like and what each planet had to offer. She knew that Jong Li and the banks there were the place all the top businesses stored their liquid cash along with many other things. Security was top notch. She had run through the ideas she had for getting in and out. Sure getting in might have been possible, though unlikely, it was getting out that was themreal trouble. Even if they could get in it would take them so long to learn how to get through the place that they would have taken to long and been in trouble.

[Roger Davis]

There was some protest, a bunch of hot air, that Vitale was lucky the captain didn't stamp out. Their own techs had already failed the assignment. That's what they'd just told him. Nothing had worked so far, they were out of ideas, and if any of their ideas did work then they'd be coming up with so little it wouldn't even be worth it. The captain was giving them a little more time, but only the time it took to get them to Persephone which was on their gorram way anyway.

Whatever propaganda Colt's people had fed him over the years apparently had done it's job though. The Syndicate had trained Vitale and set him up with work to the point that he was better off now than he'd ever been at any time in his life. Some of those "child slaves" were now good friends of his. They'd come out of that line of work after only a short period of time with incredible marketable skills and a boat load of cash to show for it. Of all the things wrong in the 'Verse it was hard to single out Knox as a bad guy especially after all the things someone like Cordoba had seen in his own years.

Moving past that last minute complaint, Vitale went into his next report with supporting interjections from Lasky and Pacifica. It was both encouraging and troubling at the same time. Encouraging because it was a solid lead and indeed a way to hurt Lee. "The sinews of war are infinite money." Hitting his secret accounts could cripple Lee's operation and reduce his strength. It would also be a solid blow to the man himself, eliminating all his hard work. Even if they didn't eventually take Lee out, this would be a mark as a win for Knox and shift the scales in his favor. Assuming it was theft, that also meant a big payday. And of course, from a political angle, proof of these accounts and secret transactions was more evidence to alienate Lee from his superiors and allies. It was also a gold mine for information, tracking the funds to other major operations Lee was running, and then taking them out in turn.

It was troubling for two reasons. First, It was Jong gorram Li. Any bank there was a literal fortress and it was safe to assume Lee was in one of the more secure facilities. The city itself also had a lot of unique quirks that made infiltration and escape all the more difficult. This would also be a hit on a prominent bank in a prominent city on a prominent planet. Sweethome was unlikely to be investigated at all by any authorities. Beaumonde was likely to get a police report. Santo maybe had a few detectives scratching their heads. This would get all of the local interpol branch chasing after the Peerless. It would be an absolute mess if that happened.

The second reason was the hint at the purpose for this line of funds. A "war packet" didn't sound good and from what they'd already found on the base, that vague term seemed all the more menacing. "Kalidasa?" the captain asked. "Where specifically?"

"Don't know." came the response. "The logs call it Sapphire, but I don't know of any Sapphire."

"There is no Sapphire." Pacifica confirmed.

"A code name then." the captain concluded to nods from the others. It seemed Cobalt had been smart enough to cover its tracks with such a simple method even if they hadn't been smart enough to protect anything else.

Still, it was odd. There hadn't been anything worth of being called a "war" in Kalidasa for fifty years. Yet the system had been in a cold war for just as long. If Lee was involved, the possible repercussions could be massive. Still, it made little sense for any of the major players to even deal with Cobalt. The entire PMC let alone Lee's splinter group wasn't of the scale necessary for such a conflict. It had to be some backwater "war" that didn't really matter on the grand scheme of things, the sort of conflict that people could make a lot of money on and impacted the locals but nothing else. Elijah had fought in one such war against opportunist mercs. Maybe that's what this was... time would tell.

Pacifica voiced her own assessment and concerns and as per usual they were about on track with Roger's own thoughts. "It's not something we can ignore." he stated. "And unless we get another strong lead it's worth a shot." Black and Corvey were turning into a dead end, Esmay's drive was a dud, and the Sweethome mission had only pointed here. It was all they had. "But no commitment." he added to assure the operations officers and any other concerned person in the room. "We recon and assess."

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[End Of Thread]