The Jita Ripper - Part 9 - A New Home

Only a couple of these left before the perpetrators can be found and taken down.

I'm looking forward to the fight and the fall-out when someone will have to make a decision.

Will they go for the moral high ground? Or will the money tempt them to the more dubious option?

Will it be you?

- Drackarn

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"So we're stuck here?" Marcus whined. The hologram gave him a look to silence any further protests.

"No, you are not stuck anywhere. I am stuck in this damn capsule. We cannot dock the Drake as our presence will be immediately flagged to the authorities." the capsuleer sound more than a little annoyed.

"What! You're stuck in that thing forever?"

The holographic projection of the capsuleer rolled it's eye's.

"I have a, well shall we say a 'friend', who is working on getting a new identity and NeoCom entry for me and the ship. However, that will take a few days. Until then it's take the shuttle to one of the local stations or stay on-board. However, touch one of my crew and I'll flush you into space."

"OK, OK, I'll take the shuttle!" Marcus turned to the door.

"You'll need to wait a while until this battleship is destroyed. Give me a few minutes."

"WHAT BATTLESHIP?" Marcus' eye's went wide as he spun back around to face the hologram.

"The Guristas pirate battleship that is attacking us. You know asteroid belts aren't generally very safe and even less so in low-sec."

The hologram of the capsuleer nodded towards the screen in Marcus' quarters and a view of the Drake appeared. Heavy missiles were streaking from the launchers.

"Shouldn't you be doing something?" Marcus' voice sounded worried. He had no real idea of the abilities of a capsuleer. Wet-wired into the ships systems they could easily handle a fight with a pirate battleship whilst holding a conversation and doing a multiple of other tasks simultaneously.

"I am, I'm destroying it. Give me two more minutes and the shuttle will be ready free to launch"

-o0o-

Inspector Avi was in his office on the comm link to the forensic investigation team who had been decoding the flight recorder of the downed transport ship.

"Petyr Ervert?"

"Yes Inspector. That is the capsuleer who destroyed the transport. However, there is a discrepancy, his NeoCom entry is too new. Given his qualification date, well he wasn't even supposed to be a capsuleer when he first showed up on our radar. The entry must be a fake."

"That can be done? The CONCORD capsuleer database is not secure?" asked the Inspector incredously.

"Sir, there is no such thing as a secure database. Yes the CONCORD capsuleer database is one of the most secure in the cluster, but it's not one hundred percent secure. However, as we now know this is a fake entry, may be we can trace who did it. Also it cannot be easily discarded. He's stuck with that ID until he can arrange to change it again."

"So all he needs to do is give himself a new ID and we're back to square one?"

"Well sir, its not that easy. We could request CONCORD monitor his current database entry and see if he tries to have it removed or a new ID assigned to him?"

"Do it. Also try and see if you can dig up any background on him. He's changed his identity once before that we know about. We need to know why. If you get anything more, I'll be in the system of Yulai."

"You're going to CONCORD HQ?"

"Yes. If that bastard has someone working for him amending database entries, I want that guy. I have some questions for him!"

-o0o-

The Drakes small supply shuttle landed with bump in the station. There were no Neg-Grav docking berths or inertial-dampened tractor beams this far down the station. This standard hanger required the pilot to manually land on the dock. Marcus stepped out into the dingy hanger. The grey walls were streaked with filth. It was light years away from the capsuleer hangers that were a couple of hundred decks above them. He knew he had become too much accustom to the lifestyle of the capsuleer.

"Sir, we'll be back tomorrow night to pick you up. The captain says you may have a guest?"

"May be" Marcus wasn't really paying attention to the shuttle pilot. The other crew had already started to load the waiting supplies into the ship.

Marcus entered the lift and pressed the button for deck 12. He leaned back against the wall and thought how all Caldari ships and stations looked the same. Grey and blocky. The lift door opened to the brightly lit security deck. 

The floors above this were reserved for capsuleers, mega corp executives and their select staff and guests. He moved forward into the scanner area as he had done several times before and stretched out his arms. Beams scanned him all over, looking for weapons, bio-agents, poisons and anything that could be used to kill. He then moved forward and held his face against another scanner. An iris scanner read his eye patterns and gave a green light to the security staff that he was authorised to enter the capsuleer decks. The laser barrier dropped and he entered the opposite lift. As soon as the door closed he breathed a sigh of relief. The capsuleer had assured him that the security on this back-water station would not have an up-to-date person database and it was usual to have 6-month updates. Plus the retinal lenses he wore and the fake ID attached to them helped. Still, he was awaiting alarms to go off and heavily armed men to charge in.

Marcus settled into his guest quarters on the capsuleer deck. Tonight he would check out the bars, tomorrow night he needed to snag himself a victim.

-o0o-

Vizell waited outside the blast-door in the bright white and spotless corridor. His shift was about to start and he needed to get to work. He fingered the small object in his pocket impaciently. A whir of mechanics sounded the opening of the secure door. He stepped into the small room. The guy he was relieving was stood there keying out on the data terminal.

"Evening" was the curt welcome.

Vizell nodded and replaced the man at the terminal. He keyed in his code and the outer blast-door closed as the other man left. When the outer door was fully closed, the smaller inner door opened. Vizell entered the next room which contained rows of data-storage banks. This was the Bureau station at planet 9 in the Yulai system and was the headquarters of CONCORD.

Vizell sat at the console and went to work. He removed the miniature holoprojector and placed it next to the keyboard. It lit up and showed a woman sat in a chair. She was clearly upset.

"Hi honey. I am well. Please don't worry I am being treated kindly. But 'he' needs you to do something more for him. He says he's nearly done and then he'll let me go soon....."

Vizell looked at the lines of code being projected through teary eyes, and started keying into the data entry terminal.

-o0o-

Marcus was disappointed. The bar was quiet, far too quiet. He'd passed through the security check again, but had changed and was now looking like a capsuleer. This time he'd only gone down a single level in the lift and was now in the most exclusive bar accessible to all in the station on deck 13. Picking up women in the top-deck bars would be too risky. The women in the bars above deck 12 were either societies elite, capsuleers themselves or high-class professional ladies. They wouldn't do at all. He needed wanna-be's, ones whose sense of judgement would be clouded by ISK signs flashing up before their eyes. The station was huge, but in a dead-end system there were much few people on it.

"Slim pickings" he thought as he glanced around the possibilities. A young and slender girl was chatting to a man in a booth across the bar. Marcus discounted her immediately. She looked too frail to withstand his special treatment for long. The next two possibilities were too plain looking. Marcus wanted beautiful women to take to his bed. The entertainment he planned for after they'd shared his bed didn't require looks, just the ability to scream. Notwithstanding that, he still wanted good looking women for the first session. He looked over to the bar and noticed a woman perched on the bar stool. She had short black hair and was fairly attractive, but much older than his usual victims. He guessed she was in her early forties, fit and attractive, dressed in a short outfit with killer heels, obviously trying to attract a man. She would do he supposed as there was little choice in this backwater place. There were two other stations in this system, he hoped they had a better selection than this. He could sow the seeds tonight and whisk her away tomorrow.

He was about to make a move when his datapad bleeped. He looked at it and saw a message from the capsuleer. He was told to come back alone and that the shuttle was already there waiting for him. Marcus made a mental note of the woman for next time and left the bar.

-o0o-

Vizell was busying typing when the door started to open. Impossible! This was a secure room. The only way in was for him to enter the small room, close the inner door and then open the outer blast-doors. It was a security lock to prevent anyone accessing the database room without authorisation. It couldn't be happening!

As the door fully opened and Vizell knew instantly he was in trouble. Four heavily armed guards accompanied by the head of internal security and, what he assumed, was a Caldari Navy Police Officer by looking at his uniform.

"Inspector Avi" the head of internal security said said, looking in disgust at Vizell, "You have him for 24 hours and he is not to leave this station. Then he's ours!".

"No! He has my wife, if I don't help he's going to kill her!" Vizell protested.

"Who has your wife?" asked Avi

"Petyr Ervert. Well that's his current name. He's a capsuleer pirate and con-artist. As soon as his security status drops too low he asks me to give him a new ID"

"Why not simply adjust his sec-status?" Avi said.

"Inspector, capsuleer security status changes are logged and approved by a superior officer. This data clerk would be instantly caught"  head of internal security cut in.

"But new entire new records can created without this oversight?" Avi asked.

"Ahem. Well obviously a loophole that we need to address. Guards take him to holding and give the good inspector the required time to get all the information he needs" he was clearly embarrassed at the discovery of this loophole in the CONCORD database.

-o0o-

Marcus returned via the shuttle to the Drake and made his way back to his quarters. He was wondering why the capsuleer had brought him back
early and empty-handed.

As he opened the door he saw a woman sat on his bunk. She looked very frightened but she was also young and attractive. Much better than any potential victims he'd seen in the bar.

"Hello. And who might you be?"

"I'm Kelli. The capsuleer..... he.... he said if I was nice to you, that he'd let me go."

"Oh he did, did he?" said Marcus as he pulled out his datapad. As he did he saw a message from the capsuleer flash up. He was obviously watching.

The woman was leverage over someone I was using. That asset is compromised and she is now a liability. Use her as you wish. I am watching.

"Ah yes. Just seen the message. So I get to decide if we drop you off at the nearest station or flush you out of the nearest airlock it would seem."

The woman let out a sob.

"There, there. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll get on famously for the next few hours and then we'll drop you off at the station. You are going to make me happy.... aren't you?" Marcus asked as he wandered over to his locker and discreetly checked everything was in place. The stun gun was easily accessible, his knife was there as were the restraints he would use to suspend her from the ceiling later.

He turned back to the woman

She nodded and tried to give a smile even though she was still crying. With shaking, unsteady hands, she started to slowly unbutton her blouse. Marcus smiled and licked his lips before approaching her.

-o0o-

In his hydrostatic capsule, the capsuleer watched the scene unfold before him over the next few hours. He saw Marcus have the woman every way a man can, before walking to the locker, pulling out the stun gun out and shooting her. He felt the blood rushing through his veins as Marcus suspended her from the ceiling and revived her. Her screams, a mix of both terror and pain, flooded through his brain as the implants relayed the sounds from the quarters directly into his head. This was good, it was taking his mind of the fact they were now trapped with no plan of escape. He knew the net was closing in on them, it was only a matter of time now before they were caught. But for now, he didn't want to think about that.

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P.S. - Yes, the screenshots used are taken in the system where the final fight will go down.