The Unity imposed Starport lockdown had been lifted. However, Matt and his crew began to prepare for their next mission. They had a bug extermination mission to complete from their new Corporate contact. It likely wouldn't be easy, and they had to make sure the hive queen was eliminated.
To that end, Matt decided to get A-113 to join him for some training. They would need to be at peak performance to take on a hive queen. Sebastian and Linda decided to head to the trading district now that the lockdown was lifted to see if there were any new arrivals that could be useful. Jeb said he was going to do his own exploring, but Tyris joined him to ensure he didn't forget about joining their mission at the cooperate instillation.
The markets were now teeming with new goods to trade. Sebastian and Linda were able to grab some new hardware for their mission, netting a new shotgun and a Beamlight sight. Jeb had been able to reconnect with an old alien merchant contact of his who'd been waiting in orbit for the last few days. Je was able to score a good deal on a Beamlight sight as well. Tyris had brought along one of the broken communicators to see if anyone could get it repaired. He happened upon Cyban's Emporium, run by a local tech fanatic named Cyban. Tyris bargained with Cyban to try and get the communicator fixed, but after waiting a few hours, Cyban said he didn't have the parts and could order some in for a steep down payment. Tyris refused and brought the broken equipment back to the ship.
Later that afternoon, Matt brought the crew together to begin a strategy briefing. The corporate contact had forwarded schematics of the facility and intel from the last few botched operations. A-113 deduced that the queen was likely located in a central chamber and that if Matt could infiltrate through some ventilation shafts, he could get the drop on the queen while the rest of the crew drew out the worker and warrior bugs.
Their plan settled, they set out to the instillation. As luck would have it, the normal haze for Jacob's Reach was very thin that evening and they had a clear sky and perfect visibility as they approached for their mission.
Matt deftly entered the ventilation shaft and began to get into position. Once he was in place, he sent the signal to the rest of the team and they simultaneously engaged the hive. Matt dropped down and opened fire on the queen with his shotgun, blasting her to bits. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew jumped out from hidden positions and began to take down the other bugs. After a short while, the crew reunited and performed a final sweep of the facility to ensure there where no more bugs remaining.
In the process, they picked up some gear from the previous teams and some left over credits that had been left laying around. Satisfied that the site was clear, they made their way back to their ship, only to find out that some local hooligans had tampered with their ships life support system and it needed to be repaired before they could leave the planet.
Sebastian made a deal with the local Starport mech shop to do the work at a discount in exchange for some of the excess gear they had, which would go a long way to helping out the engineering teams with some added security.
Later that evening, before Matt retired for the night, he received a private communication from the sector government official. They had a job, but he would have to meet a contact in the city the next day who would have the details. Matt agreed signed off for the night. It was time to get some sleep as they next day was going to be busy.