Luiken City, Reshas - 3306-03-13 13:41
Hiroko Watanabe took a drink from her beer. She was sitting in a small bistro bar near the outer edge of Luiken City with a journalist from The Luiken Gazette, Clive Glover. She'd been there for about an hour trying to get some insight into who in Isinor would want to attack Tewanta. So far Clive had spent he time boasting about his expense account, talking about how expensive the food was and dropping names about the famous people that he'd met. They were just finishing dessert on a delicious, but very pricey, lunch. Hiroko was bored and impatient. She put up with it because so far she learned that the guy across the table from her was the most likely person on the station to know about any shady dealings that Isinor factions were involved in. He had a reputation for uncovering corporate and faction corruption. He also had a reputation for being a bore and spending beyond his means. At least the last one would make cash a strong incentive to share information. Her budget was generous for this operation.
"So, are there any Isinor based factions, that acting out of the ordinary?", she asked.
"We should get coffee and a digestif before we talk business.", he countered.
Hiroko shrugged and he caught the attention of a waiter who took their orders. She politely sat through another five minutes of boring conversation while they awaited their coffees, CD-75 Kitten Brand Coffee, naturally, and Lavian Brandy.
"Okay. What can you tell me about the Isinor factions activity."
"We could go somewhere more private and comfortable to discuss this. My apartment is nearby."
"Here is fine for me. No offence, but you are not my type. This is a business lunch, nothing more, so if you are wasting my time we'll split the bill and I will be on my way."
A parade of emotions washed across Clive's face: anger, disappointment, and finally dread. He picked up his brandy glass and drained it.
"Okay. Listen. We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot. It's just that discussing this stuff isn't good for a person. The Chapter of Isinor isn't fond of people poking into their affairs. The last time I started digging into what they were up to, I got threatening messages sent to me and I was followed by their acolytes for a month. They are not people to mess with. I can't say more."
"I understand, and that's enough to be helpful. Thank you."
"So you'll think about coming back to my place...?"
"No, but I will pick up the tab for lunch. Have a nice day Mr. Glover!"
Mieville Terminal, CD-24 10619 - 3306-03-15 19:11
"Yeah, Chapter of Isinor. We had trouble with those guys a few months back."
Hiroko was sitting at the bar on a high stool in Joe's, the small bar in Mieville Terminal. Beside her was Marie Papin, an officer with the local system defence force. They were on their third beer and Hiroko had finally managed to steer the conversation around to the Chapter of Isinor.
"They were yanking ships out of supercruise and scanning them. They were looking for someone they called The Betrayer. Apparently he was some apostate from their cult, and they wanted to catch him bad. They had multiple wings and it took the threat of a civil war to get them to quit doing it."
"What can you tell me about this Betrayer guy?"
"I don't know much. He was in system for a few months spreading rumours about corruption in the Chapter of Isinor and helping to escort escapees from the cult to other systems. I have no idea what happened to him."
"Where was he sending the refugees?"
"Primarily to Quator, as far as I know, but that was mostly rumours."
Marie picked up her beer and finished it. "Okay, three is my limit. Time for me to get going. It was nice talking to you Hiroko.", she said.
"Likewise! Have a good evening Marie"
"You too. And thanks for the beers."
"It was my pleasure!"
Quator Station, Quator - 3306-03-16 20:31
Hiroko walked through the narrow corridors of Quator Station. She was near the core of the Coriolis Starport class station so the artificial gravity from the spin was weak. The whole station looked a bit run down. It had apparently just been hit with an infrastructure failure in their water treatment and electrical systems, so panels had been ripped off in the panic to fix things. Lights flickered. The air was moist and in this part of the station there were misty patches and condensation on the wall. She was on her way to a little storage room to meet with a man who had once been a member of the Chapter of Isinor faction. Max Sideous was what he called himself. Randomius knows what his actual name was, but Hiroko didn't care. The Chapter of Isinor called him The Betrayer. He was once an Elder in the organization and was willing to offer information on the cult in return for cash and nonlethal weapons. The weapons had already been delivered. William18, and two other marines, Mark Kruger and Roger Green, dropped them off at a warehouse in Weber Settlement. They were on their way back up to Quator Station with Manpreet on the Kirschtorte.
A lighting strip overhead flickered and died. Hiroko picked up her pace. So far she had met nobody. The station was underpopulated and this section of the station was empty of people for the most part. Apparently, system security would sweep through it from time to time, but at the moment they were busy trying to contain food riots. Many of the factions on the station were in famine state and food was in short supply. Her team medic, Albert, had requested an aid shipment and he was busy helping distribute a full Type 6 transport full of food, with Ada's assistance, under the protection of station security.
Hiroko arrived at the store room and used the access code she was given to open the door. The room was small and badly lit, with aisles of shelves to her right. The wall on the left was covered in shelving. The wall opposite had another door. In front of her was a table with a pair of chairs on opposite sides. When the door closed behind her, a man stepped out of the shadows of one of the aisles and holstered a laser pistol. He was middle aged with unkempt, shoulder length hair, that was mostly black but which had grey streaks. There was a pale patch on his forehead where he appeared to have had some reconstructive cosmetic surgery, a skin graft perhaps. He was wearing assault armour.
"Miss Watanabe, it is a pleasure to meet you. Apologies for the precautions, but Chapter of Isinor are pretty keen on finding me. Please, sit."
Hiroko sat down in the nearest chair. The situation made her nervous: his armour give him a massive edge if things turned nasty. However, he wasn't wearing a helmet and Hiroko was pretty sure that she could manage a headshot. However, so far he appeared pretty friendly. He sat down in the chair opposite her.
"You have kept your side of the bargain, so I believe I should keep mine. What do you want to know?"
"We have detected a build up of mercenary forces near our home system, Tewanta, that we have discovered is being paid for by Chapter of Isinor. We'd like to understand what their motivation is? What makes them tick? How do they think?"
"Chapter of Isinor are an old cult, dating back to the original settling of Isinor. The initial days of the colony were hard and the people found solace in religion. Their problems seemed to come from space so they developed a deep distrust of space travel. They believe it to be a corrupting force that only the strongest and purest can resist. Only their most trusted acolytes go into space. There are no proper orbiting stations in Isinor, only one surface port and some civilian installations, most of them unregistered. There are also parables in their scriptures about the dangers of genetic engineering. They see it as a corruption of the natural order and a grave sin."
"Okay. I can see our spacefaring nature being a reason to hate us, but why us in particular?"
"It appears that the live streaming from your wildlife sanctuary on the agricultural installation has come to their attention. Not only have your faction housed innocent apes in space, but you have allowed them to mix with genetically engineered creatures. This is an abomination in their eyes: a great evil. Many of the Divines would see it as their holy duty to purge the creatures lest they come into their full evil nature from the corrupting forces of living in space."
"Ah! Not much room for negotiation there. That's a pity. Anything else you can say about them?"
"Individual followers are fanatically loyal, but are seldom seen off world. Mostly they work through mercenaries. They have a distrust of technology, favouring kinetic weapons over energy weapons, for example. Their leadership is formed of a council of senior cult members, the Divines, who make most decisions collectively, but are given significant leeway to act independently. Most cult members will not question the action of a Divine, not even other Divines. They are considered infallible agents of God, and it was this that drove me from the cult: more than one Divine has abused this level of faith to enslave and abuse those lower in the hierarchy. While many are good people, some are profoundly and sadistically evil and the good often follow the evil due to blind faith."
"Any idea how they could fund a mercenary army?"
"I cannot help you there. They do mining and refining to fund operations, but they are not a particularly rich faction."
"Thank you. This has been very helpful. We know their motivations now and that a peaceful resolution is unlikely. I need to get this information back to Tewanta."
"Good luck! If you could leave by the same door you arrived through you should be able to make it back to your ship easily enough. However, I have heard that a few acolytes have come aboard the station in the past few hours, so be careful"
Hiroko left the room through the door that she entered through. Fifteen minutes later she was back in the more inhabited areas of the station. The main concourse had small kiosk shops and some vending machines. There were a few people buying electronics, clothes, and coffee. The food kiosks were closed though. She spotted two people wearing hooded tunics reading the menu of one of the closed kiosks and ducked into cover. They looked like Chapter of Isinor acolytes.
She put an earpiece in her ear, activated her throat microphone, and connected back to the ship.
"Ada, this is Hiroko. I have talked with Max Sideous and I am on my way back to the Battenburg, but I have spotted some Chapter of Isinor acolytes here. I am going to take an indirect route. Let the team know that we should be ready to head home when I get there."
"Roger that. I'll track you until you get back. Keep the communicator on."
Hiroko backtracked a little bit and took a side corridor. She checked her hand terminal and had it plot a route back to the ship that stayed out of well trafficked areas. She was about 300m away from the entrance to her ship's docking bay when she reached a t-junction. Her route took the right hand passageway. She glanced around the left to see two cultists coming along that passageway. They spotted her and she took off at a run expecting to be shot in the back at any moment. She turnned a corner and continued running. She was half way along the corridor when an auto pistol round hit her left thigh. She screamed and fell. Fighting the pain she drew her laser pistol and rolled over on to her back pointing her gun back the way she came. At least her flight suit was containing the bleeding a bit. An acolyte peeked his head around the corner and Hiroko fired her laser pistol narrowly missing him. He pulled back.
"This is Hiroko. I've been hit. Two cultists caught up with me, but I have them pinned down. I need some back up."
Hiroko looked in horror as a hand flicked around the corner and a small cylindrical object bounced down the corridor towards her. The EMP grenade went off causing a screeching noise from her earpiece and completely frying her laser pistol. Four cultists came around the corner and drew knives as the slowly walked toward her. They were grinning maniacally. Hiroko slid over to the nearest wall and using her the wall for support at her back pushed herself up into a standing position. She tried shift a little of her weight on her injured leg. The pain was agonising and nearly caused her to fall again. The bone felt intact but the muscle in her thigh was too badly damaged to bear her weight. Against four armed attackers with one of her legs next to useless, her chances didn't look good, however, she wasn't going to go down without at least trying to fight. Her attackers advanced, laughing at her attempt to take up a defensive stance. She threw her laser pistol at one of them, who dodged it.
"The faithful here, and in CD-24 10619, have told us that you have been asking a lot of questions. You should have stayed away, defiler. Now you will die."
They were almost within reach when her earpiece crackled. "Hiroko! Down!", it said.
Hiroko dropped to the floor and covered her head. The impact of the floor sent waves of agony from her leg. Almost immediately the corridor above her filled with noise, heat, and light. Hot wet fragments rained down on her and the area smelled of smoke and frying meat. The noise stopped. She lifted her head to she William18 advancing down the corridor with a minigun. Albert was behind him with his medkit and Mark was carrying a foldable stretcher. Roger covered the other end of the corridor with an assault rifle.
"She looks in a bad way. Manpreet, Ada, get ready to lift off under fire. I expect system security will be pissed with us.", said William18.
"We got you, Hiroko!", said Albert, wrapping a compression bandage over her thigh. As it tightened she blacked out.