Force
indirectly, but getting rich at the same time. That alone was reason enough for
many who got the invite to join up, and for the others it was Brayden’s future
plans for the unit.
The former commando didn’t want to just hunt down
trash in the dark corners of the ADZ, but he intended to go outside Star Force
territory to the truly wild regions of the galaxy and bring a little
civilization to the chaos. Nothing grandiose, just a mission here or there to
get rid of some scumbag. Star Force had a huge territory, but the galaxy was
far bigger, so after the Marauders were firmly established and making enough
credits in the ADZ to support themselves, and then some, Brayden began pushing
operations beyond the ever moving borders, staying a step or two ahead of Star
Force’s creeping territorial lines…which were now surging head over heels
outward.
The Marauders were still ahead of the curve, for the Noop System was way beyond the ADZ, but not so far that some of the races here hadn’t established
diplomatic contact with Star Force. It was in that gray zone between known and
unknown that they chose to work, banking on Star Force’s reputation to give
them leverage and credibility while still operating outside their sphere of
influence. This system and others weren’t too unimportant for them to care
about, they simply couldn’t protect everyone, and it was those places that were
beyond Star Force’s help that the Marauders chose to operate within.
“We’ve got four requests for assassinations,”
Le’han’trel began to read off. “Two hijackings of freighters, sixteen requests
for permanent defensive deployments ranging from a personal security guard to
an entire moon, and an assortment of transport missions along with a few odds
and ends. Mostly trash stuff that we’ve told people time and again that we
won’t do, but they still ask anyway.”
“What about the moon?” Mason asked, raising an
eyebrow.
“Not something we’d want. It’s a vice den and they want us to set up to keep any other merc units or law enforcement out.”
“Anything worthwhile?”
“Some small stuff, wouldn’t take more than a squad of
three or four. Fuel costs in getting there would eat up most of the profit
though, because none are local.”
“By local you mean on Tieor?”
“Yes.”
Mason waved his fingers in a ‘give me’ gesture and the
Protovic tossed him the datapad. “Still haven’t got these guys up to speed on
English yet?”
“Passable, but anything complex is better handled in Klixet . Between them all they know 19 other languages, so
I’m not pressing too hard. The earpiece translators we’ve gotten configured to Klixet pretty well, so as long as they can translate into
that we can manage with our clients…mostly. For a few we’ve had races that
barely spoke Klixet , and didn’t know any of the
others. This planet is a mess linguistically.”
“What isn’t out here?” Mason asked as he flagged three
requests that he’d be willing to assign the Marauders to. One would make for a
decent payday, the others would offer a slim profit margin. Normally they would
be booked constantly, but at the moment they had a bit of flexibility and he
intended to handle one of the small ones himself after he was done here.
“Log these,” he said, tossing the datapad back to the
base chief, which the Marauders referred to as a ‘handler,’ for he handled all
the local assignments and reported directly to the Lieutenant in charge of this
Marauder sector, which was Mason.
“How are things back home?” Le’han’trel asked as he
moved over to one of the suitcase-like computer stations.
“Seems like Star Force is taking a planet a day from
the lizards,” Mason exaggerated. “They’re steamrolling them now, on multiple
fronts.”
“Just not in this direction?”
“Fortunately there are no lizards down here, but no,
this region isn’t a priority yet, and I doubt it will be for some time.”
“Good
indirectly, but getting rich at the same time. That alone was reason enough for
many who got the invite to join up, and for the others it was Brayden’s future
plans for the unit.
The former commando didn’t want to just hunt down
trash in the dark corners of the ADZ, but he intended to go outside Star Force
territory to the truly wild regions of the galaxy and bring a little
civilization to the chaos. Nothing grandiose, just a mission here or there to
get rid of some scumbag. Star Force had a huge territory, but the galaxy was
far bigger, so after the Marauders were firmly established and making enough
credits in the ADZ to support themselves, and then some, Brayden began pushing
operations beyond the ever moving borders, staying a step or two ahead of Star
Force’s creeping territorial lines…which were now surging head over heels
outward.
The Marauders were still ahead of the curve, for the Noop System was way beyond the ADZ, but not so far that some of the races here hadn’t established
diplomatic contact with Star Force. It was in that gray zone between known and
unknown that they chose to work, banking on Star Force’s reputation to give
them leverage and credibility while still operating outside their sphere of
influence. This system and others weren’t too unimportant for them to care
about, they simply couldn’t protect everyone, and it was those places that were
beyond Star Force’s help that the Marauders chose to operate within.
“We’ve got four requests for assassinations,”
Le’han’trel began to read off. “Two hijackings of freighters, sixteen requests
for permanent defensive deployments ranging from a personal security guard to
an entire moon, and an assortment of transport missions along with a few odds
and ends. Mostly trash stuff that we’ve told people time and again that we
won’t do, but they still ask anyway.”
“What about the moon?” Mason asked, raising an
eyebrow.
“Not something we’d want. It’s a vice den and they want us to set up to keep any other merc units or law enforcement out.”
“Anything worthwhile?”
“Some small stuff, wouldn’t take more than a squad of
three or four. Fuel costs in getting there would eat up most of the profit
though, because none are local.”
“By local you mean on Tieor?”
“Yes.”
Mason waved his fingers in a ‘give me’ gesture and the
Protovic tossed him the datapad. “Still haven’t got these guys up to speed on
English yet?”
“Passable, but anything complex is better handled in Klixet . Between them all they know 19 other languages, so
I’m not pressing too hard. The earpiece translators we’ve gotten configured to Klixet pretty well, so as long as they can translate into
that we can manage with our clients…mostly. For a few we’ve had races that
barely spoke Klixet , and didn’t know any of the
others. This planet is a mess linguistically.”
“What isn’t out here?” Mason asked as he flagged three
requests that he’d be willing to assign the Marauders to. One would make for a
decent payday, the others would offer a slim profit margin. Normally they would
be booked constantly, but at the moment they had a bit of flexibility and he
intended to handle one of the small ones himself after he was done here.
“Log these,” he said, tossing the datapad back to the
base chief, which the Marauders referred to as a ‘handler,’ for he handled all
the local assignments and reported directly to the Lieutenant in charge of this
Marauder sector, which was Mason.
“How are things back home?” Le’han’trel asked as he
moved over to one of the suitcase-like computer stations.
“Seems like Star Force is taking a planet a day from
the lizards,” Mason exaggerated. “They’re steamrolling them now, on multiple
fronts.”
“Just not in this direction?”
“Fortunately there are no lizards down here, but no,
this region isn’t a priority yet, and I doubt it will be for some time.”
“Good
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