A risky job

You look across the smooth table, its surface immaculately tidy bar the sidearm still within arms reach of the Colonel, and a few ornaments and trinkets, such as a stubby blade, which is battered and shows signs of long use in harsh environments, as the pattern on the sheath is faded and the strap holding the blade in place looks worn and battered. Much like the owner of the blade it shows signs of hard fought life and yet still stands before you to tell the tale, you look up to the Colonels face as he seat himself and opens a small compartment under the desk, before turning the chair and making a hand gesture towards the huge glass windows behind him, the vast vista behind his slides away, as the impressive view only shared from your room last night of above the canopy layers, you catch the top of the place you saw to be home for the next month slowly disappear behind a thick dark curtain, and you feel a sense of dread, as you try and shake the fear that it would be the last time you got to see the outside of this building.

"Now then, lets get down to brass tacks as they said in the days of old." The Colonel says is a cold and calculative voice, as the room slowly regulates the loss of light source by activating a few glow cubes in the ceilings as a pale blue glow fill the room. "I know that you are a lot more than you seem, and the fact you went straight for the bar you did, only helps confirm it. My gut tells me you're trouble, but as a leader of a merc group with a history as rich as ours, I've learnt that trouble can be a blessing if properly directed." The Colonel says as he leans forward, a smile plastered across his grizzled features, which chills you right through. You consider you options and decide that running is a very poor choice, with the room almost certainly secured, and a weapon so close to the mans reach, not that you'd think he'd need it.

"So what sort of trouble do you think I am?" You ask in a meek voice as you try and buy yourself more thinking time, as your eyes try and steal glances across the room in search of tools or implements that might aid you in the worst case.

"Mmmmmm well I can tell you're no killer, from the fear in your eyes, and the way your eyes are scanning for escape rather than to strike, so from my estimation you like to find your way into places you might not be welcomed, and also find yourself in possession of thing that might not belong to you." The Colonel says as he leans back into his chair as he continues to smile, while he deconstructs you and exposes what you tried you best to hide.

"So if you suspected I was a thief, why did you invite me into this place?" You ask with an expression of frustration in your voice, as you dislike being cornered like this, and being toyed with up until now.

"Surely the better question is knowing who I was, and therefore how insane this plan was why did you come here? There are much easier people to rob, hell the corporate execs are usually too drunk to notice, or a woman such as yourself would only need to give the hint of something on offer, and they'd drag you up to their penthouse apartments and basically give you a shopping list of what to take. So either you grossly underestimated me, grossly over estimated yourself, or you figured that even If I saw through you, that there still might be hopes of an arrangement that could benefit us both." Colonel Grimes says as he leans back in his chair never taking his eyes off you.

"Well if you did see through me like I thought you could of, then chances are I would be watched, and you wouldn't of offered me to come here today if you weren't serious about wanting my services, I suppose at least this way I get a proper test of them." You say as you're brain begins to regroup, and you drop any remaining pretenses of not being the rogue you are at heart, and begin to sell your talents up, although I will admit, I had hoped you'd not seen as clearly through me as you had." You say in a soft tone, as you wearily resign yourself to your predicament, and wait to hear what job awaits you.

"Honesty in the guise of flattery, very impressive, I hope you physical talents are as good as your social ones." The colonel says as he reaches into the hidden compartment and takes out a purple cloth wrapped around an uneven shape about the size of your dainty fist. The colonel places it on the table, and slides it over to you and nod at you to examine it. You cautiously reach over and grasp your slender fingers around the cloth covered object and lightly grasp it, and find that whatever is beneath the cloth is pretty solid, and rougher and more uneven than the shape would suggest. You slowly unwrap the object from its cloth cladding and reveal a stone as dark as the endless voids of space, and yet somehow glimmers with a faint ethereal shimmer like star light from a distant galaxy, without any determinable source of the faint glow, while beautiful the stone also makes you feel uneasy as if its very presence offends some deep understanding of the galaxy.

"What is it?" You say as you marvel for a few more seconds, before the repulsion inside of you well up and you violently shove the stone away as it slides across the table, almost friction-less, leaving no scrapes or evidence of its passage, despite being connected with several sharp points to the metal table.

"Not a damn clue, quite frankly It makes me feel as uneasy as you every other person who's seen it, there is only one person who seems not to be bothered by it, but they are of little to no help." The Colonel says as he scoops the pitch black stone up into the purple cloth, and shivers slightly as he places the cloth and its contents back into his desks hidden compartment. "No-one I know can tell me anything about this stuff, and bar some first settler superstitious stories it appears that it's either never been discovered, or intentionally ignored. What I do know is the location of more of it, and that some very high ranking board members of some very prestigious Core world Conglomerates are interested in this discovery, and while the stuff makes me sick to my stomach it does pave a way off this back water, and off all these back waters assignments, and into the comfortable life of luxury that I've fought so hard for, and my flexible friend will help me out with this." The Colonel says as he stands up and walks over to the curtained window and does a two finger gesture which turned the material white, and a display begins to emerge onto the curtains.

You look at the image as it settles and see a highly detailed map of the northern hemisphere of this planet, the colonel continues to gesture making the map zoom in further until you have a large area of canopy and the settlement you recognize in the center. An green square fixes over a large patch of Jungle and you make out the smallest gap in the canopy. "This right here is the site where our geological scans and covert specialists inform me is where a strong deposit of what one of our own scientists dubbed void stone. This clearing here however is the research site of a new fledgling science base for a relativity new corp know as the omni group, they have some bizarre goals of pushing gene tech to unlock the true potential of mankind, if you can believe such drivel. Needless to say they are less than popular with many worlds and factions, and I've read enough mission reports of lab experiments gone awry to realize that they are bad news to many people." The Colonel says as a few horrific images of dead monstrosities and holo vid news sites reporting on research posts going dark, and nearby populaces being evacuated or having no survivors.

"How the hell does a group like that ever get funding, let alone the rights to conduct this kind of research." You say as you look away from the screen and at the Colonel. His eyes narrowed as he stares in disdain for the Omni Group, before turning back to you and shaking his head.

"Well the problem is, no matter how far we run or travel, there's one small problem that we can never truly escape, and that is the whims of the rich and powerful, elevating people and groups above the law, by shielding them with favors and bribery. In other words, they are scarily well connected, and that is the only reason their board isn't rotting in a high security penal facility orbiting some godforsaken stretch of space." Colonel Grimes says as he rummages around the hidden compartment before take out a long rectangular holo tablet and holding it out for you. "Thankfully this research station seems to be a low key mundane cosmetic research post, most likely a front or tax boondoggle but all of their research and projects are highly vetted, thanks to my own intervention, however they have a heavier presence than I'd like, and than is necessary and also they've dropped their facility right on top of the only known vein of void rock, whether they are aware of what is beneath them or if they picked this spot to spite me, as I had a public claim in the works is unknown, but I intend to use your skills to help eject them off this planet." The colonel says with a big smile on his face as he takes out a long tubular object, and places it between his lips, before lighting the end with what your thought was an antique on his desk. A heavy smell fills the room and the Colonel inhales smokes from the tubular object and breathes out a cloud of the smoke, and blows it skyward into the tall ceiling of the office.

"So how am I supposed to get them expelled from this planet?" You ask as you sit back and study the lifeless tablet in your hands, tapping and turning it for some kind of on switch.

"Well there a few possibilities, you could smooth talk your way into one of the crazy parties their execs throw, and try and get some incriminating photos or something that you could pass for me to leverage against their main body until they decide the planet is more headache than its worth. You could sneak into their outposts and sabotage their operations until they have a repair bill so costly they abandon the planet, finally you could try and break into their site and try and find something that you can use to make them leave, I have no doubt they have some small operation that I can evict them if you can expose it. I will warn you though, they have some strange people on staff, and from what I know of the group, they are into some fucked up stuff, so whichever path you take watch your back." The colonel says as look you in the eyes with a stern look which tell you that he is deadly serious about the staff.

"With all this talk, it's like you're not even giving me a choice about not taking this job." You say with a nervous laugh, but you'd be lying if you wern't intrigued by the job on offer, it would be a good test of your skills, you basically sanctioned all but in name to do it by the law of the planet, and also a chance to stick it to a corrupt and seemingly horrid corporation.

"Well for one you seem intrigued enough so I'll skip the hard sell about throwing that cute butt in a cell to rot so lets talk the language I think you'll understand." The Colonel says as he reach over and taps two fingers to the tablets screen, and it comes to life. "For starters I'll let you operate with almost immunity, but it goes without saying about abusing this, you're not a killer so I don't have to worry about that. Secondly If you can do this for me, I'll ensure you are well compensated, with some black ops funding I can call upon for such tasks, there's also anything you can lift that isn't critical to the mission, so you get a hard drive of research on there gene studies and want to sell it on, fine by me. Lastly I could use my position to release a reasonably credible report of your demise, if you wanted to have your troubles off your back for good, I can set you up with a new identity, and maybe even get your old records lost if you do a good enough job." The colonel says as he leans back in his chair, as you look down at the information on the tablet, and you see vast amounts of information on the staff and offices of Omni Group's presence on this planet.

One file in particular strike your interest is a small dossier on a project Lilly, there is only a shadowy grainy picture of pale skinned figure in black, and a ginger streak on their head. You try and read more, but the information is nearly non existent, all that is listed is that the person is some kind of project that Omni Group uncovered, but seems uninterested in them or their goals, and seems to wander freely around their site. There is a personal note signed off by the colonel himself, which reads, that subject seems to be a unusual specimen, and dialogue was established, but subject didn't provide anything useful and confirmed that subject shares no interest in Omni Groups goals, and seems to only serve her own self interest.

"Whats this project Lilly all about?" You ask looking up at the Colonel who seems to be enjoying his tubular object as it slowly burns and produces smoke.

"No clue, she's beyond anything than those crazies could come up with, so my guess the pet discovery of one of the chief execs or scientists here, we did detain her yesterday, but she kept walking out, and after I spoke with her, it seems I settled her curiosity and she left. She seems like trouble to me, but if you want to try and speak with her I have some scouts observing her still, or rather some scouts for her to observe, not sure which way round it is these days." The colonel says as he shakes his head. You consider how a meeting with her might go, she could give you some insight, if you can interest her enough, any extra help beyond the clinical reading and schematics that the Colonels tablet can provide.