Riza glared at the data on her chip as they displayed before her, it was odd. As a leader of a research crew, it was rather simple for her to decide where to allocate new skills with the experience she'd accrued. However, now that she was a fugitive, she was a little more uncertain. It was always satisfying for her to watch her talent in physics increase. But as she scoured through her rather short list of skills, she figured it would be valuable to start learning combat.
The way the chip improved such a skill was rather simple, since it was experience-oriented it centralised all the combat-related data that she'd witnessed up until this point, such as Pilo and the different soldiers she'd fought, turning that data into a subconscious stream of information that allowed her to remember and incorporate the techniques she'd observed. Not to perfection, but well enough to execute in a shoddy manner. It would be better served with a few combat tutorials or lessons, but it would be enough for her to see a rather significant improvement, considering she knew next to nothing at the moment.
_NEW SKILL ACQUIRED_
_SKILLS_
Advanced Physics [Lvl. 67]
Piloting [Lvl. 13]
Light Specrumation [Lvl. ERROR]
Basic Combat [Lvl. 1] [NEW]
_AUGMENTATION LIST:
DNA Resequencer
“We'll be landing in Liveria in a few hours,” Pilo noted.
“Alright,” She responded. “I took a look at the initial contract. The Operations manager has the tag Fourteen H B K- The data logs suggest his name is Ben Kanni.”
“Any idea where we'll find him?”
“Somewhere in the main facility. He's probably got an office of his own.”
“Think you can handle it alone?”
“Yeah, I'll just put on my scary face,” Riza said. “Why, you got somewhere to be?”
“There's someone I need to check in with. I won't be seeing them for a while, so…”
“I get it,” Riza nodded, “How much time do you need?”
“No more than two hours,”
“Same,” She agreed, “We'll meet back at the ship after two hours then.”
That should be plenty of time for Riza to get the information she was looking for, although she wasn't so sure what it'd contain or how exactly she’d convince the Operator to hand it over. Liveria is a storage unit for the various mining operations that Kythera operates. They would sort and purify different raw materials and ship them to the labs and manufacturers that ordered them. It was an important step in Kythera’s pipeline, and the Operations managers would oversee different projects from these facilities.
“Boss, you might wanna see this,” Pilo said with a concerned shake in his voice.
He swiped his hand across the air, sharing a window from his chip to Riza’s that read ‘Atlas Most Wanted’. Her stomach sank, somewhat aware of what was to come, and as she scrolled down the list, she finally saw it– their names alongside a bounty.
_ATLAS MOST WANTED LIST_
_#2394: RIZA BELEKE - 125,000?
_#2395: PILO SAMA - 125,000?
“Holy crap,” She muttered as a wave of anxiety washed over her.
The lowest possible bounty was 100,000?, with the lowest rated person at #2500, but she presumed the recent curfuffle at the port in Sashin raised their bounties and position on the rankings. It took quite a lot to reach the list, as it wasn't for all criminals, but those that The Atlas deemed to be the most dangerous individuals in the galaxy. There was officially a hit out on her, and anyone who wanted to cash in on some units could take their shot. Her hand shook as she swiped the window away. Probably best if I don't look at that again.
“We’ll need to be extra cautious from here on out,” Pilo noted.
“Right,” She mumbled.
“By the way, we need to rename the ship.” He added.
“What do you mean, for the ID?”
“Yeah, it'll be the name that anyone sees when the ship's ID comes up.”
“Hmm, any ideas?” She asked
“Nah, I've never been one for naming things. This is all you,” He shrugged off the responsibility.
“I'll give it some thought,”
“No rush, they'll see an ID code in the meantime, but we ought to do it sooner rather than later. It can seem odd to anyone who accesses the ship's history if we take too long to name it.”
As they made their approach to Liveria, they successfully gained access to a landing pad thanks to the changes Pilo made to the manifest. The ship having a new ID would allow them to access different areas without the Atlas getting tipped off about their location. The only real struggle would be their own identities, and making sure they stay under the radar for as long as possible. Having considered this, Riza took a headscarf from the clothing unit to cover up her rather identifiable look and lifted the lower half of the scarf over her nose to conceal her identity further.
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The ship landed in the large landing bay of the central facility, where various cargo ships were entering and exiting almost continuously as they transferred raw minerals from around the galaxy to be stored or distributed. The Liveria storage facility was one of Kythera's largest, but Riza was familiar with the layout, having spent a lot of time here before being assigned to Prion-A.
When she worked here, she specialised in the purification of various minerals and spent most of her days ensuring that the raw materials were up to standard– it wasn't the most glamorous gig, but she found the simplicity of it rather peaceful. Most days were easy for her and consisted of little to no drama. In hindsight, the struggles she'd faced were nothing in comparison to her current situation.
As she walked into the facility, she scanned her thumb to gain entry, curious to know if she still had access, and when the little light beside the rotating gates blinked green, she was rather unsurprised by the slow update of her information. Kythera, despite its advancement, often struggled with data updates at a galactic scale– as did many of the large corporations in the galaxy.
It was rather complicated for an organisation to share and update information in real-time at such distances and often required an update schedule from the central offices on Cath that would happen once or twice a month, depending on circumstances. Updating the entire system for a few ex-employees wasn't worth the technical cost of a galaxy-wide update, so she was likely to have access for another week or two.
The interior of the Liveria storage facility was like that of a city, with streets and roads where logistic vehicles hauled their loads. Between the roads were warehouses and offices. After taking the automated tram system to the operator's office block, she made her way up the multi-story building to find Ben Kanni’s office. It didn't take long, as there were plenty of signs and information systems with the layout of the offices and all the employees who worked there.
“Yes?” He responded to the knock on his door.
“Dr Kanni?” Riza asked.
“I'm a little busy right now. Was this scheduled?”
Riza didn't respond, and slowly opened his door to see him with his eyes glossed white and control gloves on his hands– presumably operating a remote vehicle of sorts. As she quietly entered his office, she looked around for some sort of blunt object that she could use as a weapon and happened upon an obtusely shaped award that was on a shelf beside the door.
“No, no. We'll need to re-integrate it from scratch,” He continued, unaware of Riza's presence. “I'm certain, the problem is a–”
Riza smacked him across the face, startling him out of the E-aug as she bore the trophy overhead in preparation to strike.
“Oh my god!” He panicked, raising his hands to guard himself.
“Relax. Just do as I say, and I won't hurt you.”
“W-what do you want?” He stammered.
“All of your data on the Prion-A disaster. Logs, files, comms, all of it.”
“Okay, okay. J-just please don't hurt me.”
“Hurry it up, or I'll change my mind.”
Dr Kanni slowly reached for his keyboard, and Riza pressed the button that linked her chip as well, allowing her to see the screens he was working with.
“Try anything stupid, and you'll wake up on the floor.”
Dr Kanni's hands shook as he began shuffling through files, sharing each one with Riza's BCI. As she received the folders, she'd take a glance at the titles, uncertain of what she was looking for but aware that she'd know it once she saw it.
“The breach in Mine shaft E-Seven, is it in here?”
“Yes, it's somewhere in–”
“Why can't I see it?”
“It's here, I swear, I handled the case myself,”
“What happened? Was there a flaw in the supervisor's solution?”
“Not that I can remember,” He responded, rather surprised by her assumption. “E-seven was just a minor breach, it wouldn't cause–”
“Where is It?” She pressed further.
“It was here, I swear, I–” He paused. Startled and afraid, he murmured, “It was here two days ago, I don't– This doesn't make any sense.”
Riza could see the issue he'd run into; the folder containing her entire crew and the logs from the time of the supervision had been erased.
“What the fuck? Where is it?!” Riza yelled, frustrated and winding up the blunt object in jiterring hand.
“I don't know! I don't know, p-please I swear,”
“Move,” She grunted, pushing his chair aside and accessing his computer.
She scoured through all the folders on Prion-A, dating back two years before her assignment, but there was nothing on her. It made no sense. If she still had access to the facility, but the data had been scrubbed, then why wouldn't they also disable her access?
The moment the thought occurred to her, the screen flickered, disabling access to the folders, and an alarm rang throughout the facility. A bright red light lit up the office hallway as the main lights switched off, and she turned to Dr Kann,i who still had his hands raised. He didn't do anything. Was this a trap? Shit.
“Pilo?” She called out over comms as she ran to the hallway, “Pilo!”
There was no response.
///// /// /////
Pilo entered a small warehouse to the north end of the Liveria Storage Facility, one dedicated towards the upkeep and rental of different engineering technologies. As he walked into the dimly lit building, he saw a familiar face at the main desk, typing away at the invisible screens on his chip.
“Still don't hear the entry bell, huh, Sbu?” Pilo grinned.
Sbu looked up at Pilo as a look of joy and surprise lit up on his face.
“No fucking way,” He chuckled as he stepped around the desk, eager to hug Pilo. “I thought you were dead or something.”
“Dead?”
“The shit they're saying about you on news, bro. It crazy. They say you destroy mining rig on Prion-A and killed many, many people.
”They've been saying a lot of shit, lately.” He responded.
“What you doing back here?”
“Just came to say goodbye, maybe steal a couple things.”
“You not posed to be here. Atlas soldiers everywhere.”
“Really? I didn’t see any on my way here.”
“They in main facility. Been on high alert since disaster. Why you comehere?”
“I just really needed to stop by. You remember my primary rental?”
“The arms?”
“Yeah, I'm gonna need them one more time. Let's call it a long-term booking.”
“Right…” Sbu said, a little uncertain. “Did you… Kill those people, man?”
“Sbu, seriously?” Pilo raised an eyebrow.
“I mean, nobody know that you a–” Sbu nodded discreetly. “You know… It the only reason I ask. You one of few… people… that could do this,”
“You're still the only one that knows, but you know me, man. I'd never do something like this.”
Sbu took a moment to glare into Pilo's eyes, and his suspicious expression slowly shifted into a soft smile. “Yeah, you too much of softy,” He chuckled as he made his way to storage.
“I gotnew set few weeks ago, latest model.” He brought out a large, cylindrical container. “All yours.”
“Seriously?” Pilo grinned.
“Yeah, fuck these guys. They on serious dogshit if they accuse you of murder,” He lightly punched Pilo's shoulder from across the desk. “I once saw you carry sick Dassie over forty-kilometre trek and take it to vets, first thing. No way crap they saying true.”
The lights in the room switched to red, and a distant alarm began to sound. They both passed one another a worried look, and Sbu placed the container on the counter.
“Thanks, Sbu.” Pilo said as he strapped the cylinder to his back.
“Take them good care, you they first.”
“Will do. I owe you one.”
“Nah, nah– this one I owed you, remember,” Sbu winked.
“Nah, I owe you for owing me when I owed you.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Sbu rolled his eyes, “Get out of my shop.”
