POWER_GOOD
BIOS Complete
Bootup RAVEN
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Complete
Bootup FOX
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Complete
Initializing Start-up. . .
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'Guildies have a mission for us.' That was Fox, speaking on their private channel.
'Don't let them hear you call them that.' Raven chided, even as the contract details dumped into his wetware.
The Assassins Guild was the official name, back when Raven first got involved with them. Now they were just the Guild.
Raven reviewed the contract. Multi-trillionaire. Well liked, charismatic. Highly respected. Made his fortune acting as a third-party trustee in high profile transactions. He holds the cash while the asset is delivered. Once delivery is confirmed, he passes the cash for a small percent.
'I could have come up with that.' Fox chimed.
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'You couldn't come up with anything that doesn't involve shooting people, Fox.'
'That's a good idea, we should go shoot people, especially this Baro guy.'
Raven ignored him. Baro was approaching his 1000 year birthday, several hundred years short of the record, but respectable. For some reason he declared he would be the one to finally achieve immortality.
'Looks like bait,' Fox interrupted his analysis.
It did look like bait, why such a character would put up such an act eluded Raven. Gene therapy got more complicated and expensive the longer a human lived, with the kind of wealth Baro had on hand, he could have easily lived another 300 years before the Guild decided to take action. With his boasting, they wouldn't let him live it down. It didn't matter to Raven, his own understanding wasn't needed.
'Let's go.' Raven picked up Fox, and thumbed the safety off.
Fox lit up in wicked glee, flaring orange lights before the cloaking took effect.
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Raven's body had been stashed in a derelict satellite, orbiting a third rate manufacturing world. The satellite was large enough that he had to float through long tubes and empty rooms, relying only on his micro-impulse drives. His eyes were locked on the guidance reticle bringing him to a nondescript corvette. It was a standard Federation shuttle, his mission brief told him, not too old and not too new. For Raven, it was completely alien. Almost everything changed when you spent centuries offline.
It was no bother, he was done processing the spaceflight manual from the shuttle in nearly the same moment he'd recognized it. Settling into the pilot's cradle, he allowed the ship to link with his primary logic center and detached the ship from the old satellite. Only after drifting long enough to stop a detective algorithm from connecting his presence in the satellite did he power up its systems and warp out of system.
His first priority was to update his and Fox's hardware. Weapon technology was always the fastest to change and Raven wouldn't settle for less than top of the line equipment. Once he was dangerous again, he would learn everything there was to know about his target, Baro. Raven didn't trust the Guild's brief 100%, as it was said: one hundred rumors can't measure up to a single observation. Finally, he would plan out the assault and execute.
Plotting a course to a local low-security sector, Raven activated the autopilot and powered down for the duration.