Merodek Baladan slammed his fist down onto his desk, knocking his cup of liquid bubble to the ground where it foamed as it spread across the ornate tiles, filling the cracks.
“What do you mean purchased?” he demanded. “When? By who?”
“A small holding corporation,” Piko answered. “Six days ago. I’m sorry, sir.”
“The price?”
“Seventy-six trillion zenny.”
“Seventy-six trillion?” he shouted. Such a paltry sum. “But how?”
“Perhaps they simply placed a lucky bid?”
“What is the statistical probability of that happening?”
Piko processed in silence for a moment. “One in seventy-five centillion, three hundred and sixty-“
He cut her off before she could continue to rattle on the long chain of numbers. “So statistically impossible.” He thought for a moment. “Who owns the holding corporation?”
“The majority shareholders are Satellite Concepts and Way Sun Services, both Omnicorp subsidiaries, with a small portion of non-voting shares held by Ultrastellar Technologies.”
“Omnicorp…” He rubbed the top of his flat head. “The computing power necessary to interrupt an auto-bid…” His voice trailed off. “Check the Omnicorp holding reports; were there any interruptions in their workflow, their purchases and sales, day trades - anything like that at the time of the sale that would indicate they focused the computational power needed to make this purchase?”
“One moment,” Piko said as he scrubbed the neural net for news reports.
Merodek tapped his long finger on his desk as he hung from the lattice of black bars using his four prehensile tails. This was not good; losing the mining rights to an entire planet. The board would be furious.
“No, sir. Not at the time of the purchase.”
He swung gently, lost in thought as he ran through various scenarios. They must have had inside information. It was the only possible explanation. That such a small corporation thought they could get away with such a blatantly illegal action was puzzling.
Unless they were after something else. His heart sank.
“Piko,” he finally broke his silence. “File a purchase dispute with the lower courts. Make sure you choose a jurisdiction we have a handle on.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Connect me with Colonel Gerra. Let him know this is high priority.”
“Right away, sir.”
Seconds later, Merodek found himself staring at the jagged scar that surrounded the mechanical eye snaking from Colonel Gerra’s leathery face.
“What is it, Merodek?” the Colonel growled.
“I have a situation that needs your immediate attention.”
“Go on.”
“A holding corporation has made an illegal purchase of our mining rights to the planet Sitatara in the Corus System. We’ve filed a complaint with the courts, but unfortunately in the interim, the holding corporation will have full access to our mining colony on the planet’s surface, along with our advanced robotics and R&D facility.”
“I see.”
“We need to move to secure our holdings and protect our intellectual property until the courts are able to sort through and resolve the issue.”
“What sort of resistance should we expect?”
Merodek swiped the defensive schematics to the Colonel’s HUD. “This is what was in place at the time of the purchase, but I expect they will have added some additional defensive measures of their own.”
Colonel Gerra nodded as he scanned through the document.
Merodek watched him read in silence. Colonel Gerra was expensive, costing millions of zenny annually. But in moments like these, he earned his keep.
The Colonel’s aglets danced as he scanned through his troop reports. “I can have a detachment of Janni class fighters there within the hour. They should be able to disable most of the automated defenses with their heavy lasers, and a Naga class cruiser will deploy the ground forces shortly thereafter.”
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Piko did some calculations. “Total expenditure, after estimated losses and survivor benefits: thirty-seven million zenny.”
“Execute immediately,” Merodek told the Colonel. “I will personally be there in four hours. I expect the job completed by then.”
The Colonel nodded. “Won’t be a problem.”
“Thank you, Colonel.”
Colonel Gerra cut the feed.
“Shall I inform the board of the expenditure?” Piko asked.
“No. No, transfer the funds from my personal account. This action falls in a nebulous gray area as far as the law is concerned, and I don’t want any hesitation on the part of the board to cause delays or jeopardize the mission.”
He swung his way through the jangled maze of bars and ladders that were Kamesa’s roadways to the hanger bay. There, his personal cruiser, the Pazuzu, awaited, rocket thrusters primed and ready.
Three hours later, the Pazuzu had jumped to the Corus System and hung in low orbit over the Moora mining colony. Merodek watched through the glass steel wall of his personal quarters as the squadron of Janni fighters finished their bombardment of the planet’s surface.
His long range scanners followed every detail of the battle.
“Mister Baladan” a voice commed. It was one of the captains of the other ships; Merodek hadn’t caught their names.
“Yes, Captain.”
“We’re registering minimal resistance on the ground. The defensive schematics were… outdated.”
“How so?”
His HUD lit up as the captain shared the battle feed. “The turret system has been completely dismantled, and the grav mines are gone.”
“Is that a problem?”
“Far from it, sir. According to our scans, we should be able to take the colony with no losses.”
“Very good. Keep me informed.”
Two hours later, he found himself stepping out of the Pazuzu onto the dry, cracked stone at the center of the Moora colony. A platoon of marines fell into step around him, their Echinate Rifles glowing a soft green in the smoky twilight.
“The area is secure,” Staff Sergeant Camunda said, her raspy voice barely above a whisper. A zig-zag of scars along her neck explained her strange voice, and Merodek almost asked about them. But he had more pressing issues to tend to.
“Casualties?” he asked.
“None, sir.” She held up her Echinate Rifle. “We were told to keep losses minimal on both sides. I sent my soldiers in with benzo-needles. Put the enemy right to sleep.”
They moved past a private leaning heavily against a burnt-out wall, nursing a bullet wound with a portable medkit. Merodek nodded in his direction as they passed by. “Will he be alright?”
Camunda nodded her head. “Yes, sir. Just a flesh wound. Won’t even need to spend time in a kyphosis chamber.”
They made their way from the landing field along a dusty road. Wind whipped the air, scattering dust and sand toward the main mining facility.
“How much resistance did you encounter?”
“Nothing like what we had planned for, sir. A skeleton crew of soldiers manning the guard posts. No robots, no mechs, no auto-artillery. The place was wide open for the taking.”
The only thing preventing Merodek from openly celebrating their victory was the nagging sense that he had missed something. He glanced at the clock in his HUD.
“Can your men stick around for another three hours Staff Sergeant?”
She nodded her head. “Colonel Gerra ordered us to do whatever you needed.”
“Aeon Chemical’s private security force will be arriving shortly; you and your team can withdraw once you’ve been debriefed.”
“Yes, sir.”
She hesitated, licking her lips that had dried and cracked in the hot atmosphere. Even within the protective dome that surrounded the colony, the heat was unbearable.
“Did you have something you wanted to say, Staff Sergeant?”
“May I speak bluntly?”
He nodded. “Please.”
“Something feels wrong about this.” She gestured to the expensive-looking mining facility. “Why leave something so valuable unguarded? Anyone could have taken it; the Syndicate, Raiders. It’s just too good to be true.”
He eyed her shrewdly.
She leaned in close. “My father had a saying. If it looks like deng, and smells like deng, then it’s deng. And I got the feeling we just stepped in a big steaming pile of it.”
Merodek laughed. “What was your name again, soldier?”
“Staff Sergeant Canda Camunda, sir,” she snapped automatically.
Merodek swiped his contact information to her HUD. “If you ever grow tired of the military life, I’m always looking for good soldiers.”
She grinned.
“You’ll make a hell of a lot more zenny. Give it some thought.”
She nodded. “Yes, sir. I will, sir.”
“Now if you’ll excuse me…”
She saluted as he ducked a loose hanging beam and entered the sterile research structure at the center of the mining complex. Making his way past the abandoned reception area, he followed the map on his HUD through the twisted hallways. Swiping his hand, he unlocked the restricted section of the research and development building.
He scanned the login records. More good news; no logins since the sale of the facility. Merodek changed the login passwords, deleted the admin accounts, and locked all external access.
“Anala,” he commed.
“Yes?”
“I’m initiating a data transfer of the R&D data-files to the Pazuzu’s databanks. Once the transfer is complete, please mirror the databanks to our holding facilities, and begin a data comparison between the most recent backups. I want to make sure our data hasn’t been tampered with.”
“Understood.”
“I’ll be wiping the databanks here once the transfer is complete.”
“Cutting your losses?”
“Preventative measures,” he answered. “Hope for the best, plan for the worst. There’s no guarantee the low courts will find in our favor. And even if they do, Cosmodynamics could tie us up in appeals and litigation for months, maybe even years. I want to make sure we can bring this tech to market if that happens.”
“What do you need from me?”
“Find out what you can about the board of directors of the holding corporation. See if you can sniff out a thread that ties them together.”
“Yes, sir. Will there be anything else?”
“No. Thank you, Anala.” He cut the channel.
“Sir,” Piko said. “You’ve received an audio message from Sam Meyer.”
Merodek sighed aloud. “Play it.”
“Merodek, I hope you are well. When you have a moment, of course presuming you aren’t busy losing more of our hard-earned zenny, if you could let the board of directors know how you managed to lose the most valuable mining contract in the Seven Systems, I’d greatly appreciate it.”
Merodek swallowed the rage and bile that were inching their way up his throat.
He watched the data transfer, monitoring the progress on his HUD as the exabytes of valuable research data transferred to his ship, his long fingers folded, the top of his hand pressed to his wide lips.
He felt as if he were engaged in a chess match against some unseen opponent. He hated being on the defensive, but he needed more data before he could plan his counter-offensive.
But soon, soon he would make his move. And then there’d be hell to pay.