As the new day dawned on Danilov, the crew were preparing for the day ahead. There was an electric feeling as they now had a quest to focus on. Bishop had determined the location of a lightly defended data terminal that was accessible via the sewer system. All they needed to do was make their final preparations and then hit the terminal.
Matt invited Jeb to do some training with him so they could share some of each other's techniques. It was also because Matt wanted to asses Jeb if he would be more willing to operate in the field after his last mission. After a couple of rounds, Matt felt confident in Jeb to be able to handle himself in the field, and felt the training had boosted his confidence.
Sebastian and A-113 went out for a quick supply run to the Brothers. There, they were able to sell off some scrap from the Bug-out and picked up a new colony rifle for the armory. The brothers also told them that things on Danilov were starting to hit a fever pitch. The economic situation was growing more dire and it might come to riots! Sebastian thanked them for the heads-up and they made their way back to the ship.
Lucas asked Tyris if he'd like to join him for drinks at a local Freelancer pub he knew of. Tyris agreed and the two set off to a pub called Quazar's. When the two of them found the place and walked in, they were treated to what passed for an old Earth Irish pub. As there was no wood on Danilov, the tables and a bar were made out of polished stone from the local mines. There was brass accents all over the place.
Tyris went and ordered a drink, then wandered over to a group of freelancer's sharing stories about their travel's. It didn't take long for Tyris to start sharing his adventure as the group listened in awe at some of the missions he'd done. Lucas, just ordered a drink and sat back watching Tyris regal the freelancer's with his tails. When the bar tender returned with Lucas' drink, he also gave him a note and said that it had been left there for him. Lucas took the note and read it. It was from an old contact of his, and that they needed his help in a personal matter. Lucas tucked the note into his armor and thanked the barkeep.
Linda decided to try something new as part of her personal refresh and joined Bishop in the workshop to try and help fix some gear. Bishop was happy to have the company and let her try her hand at fixing up one of the dazzle grenades they had recently acquired. Linda pulled on some of her old military training and was able to fix the priming mechanism that was damaged. Bishop kept an eye out on her just in case while he patched up the flex-armor.
Once Lucas and Tyris returned to the ship, Lucas went to chat with Matt before the mission briefing to let him know that after this mission he'd be away for a few days to take care of some personal business that came up. Matt understood and hoped everything turned out well. Then the two of them went to meet the others for the briefing.
The briefing was straight forward. GalComp had a sub-level in one of their warehouses that was accessible by sewer. There would be minimal guard presence as A-113's network monitoring algorithms had noted only 4 individuals assigned. They would sneak in to the sub-level, knock out the guards and get the decryption key. Jeb and Bishop would guard the ship.
The team departed for the sewer access and made their way across the colony. They made quick work of the locked hatch that lead into the warehouse sub-level. Then they crept into position, getting the jump on the four guards. With well placed non-lethal rounds, they knocked all four guards simultaneously. The console was left unguarded and Matt and A-113 advanced to secure it and download the cypher. With the swiftness they had used to secure the area, no alarm had been sent and so the download went unhindered.
They covered their tracks and made their way back into the sewers and then back to the surface. The last leg back to the ship they had to take their time, as the locals had taken to the streets to start protesting. The lack of resources had driven the ruling Syndicate to exact even more taxes and the people had had enough. The colony was now falling into economic collapse. Even as Matt and the team arrived at their ship, the local tax collector was back again for another collection. Flanked by armed guards, he was in the process of trying to coerce Jeb into a very high tax payment.
Matt slipped into the conversation and introduced himself as the captain of the ship. It took some finagling, and some "gifts" from their cargo hold, but he was able to lower the tax collection to just 2 credits and sent the tax collector and his goons on their way. The last thing Matt wanted was undue attention on their ship before they could use the cypher and decrypt the data files.
With all of that settled, Matt, A-113, and Bishop set about decrypting the files while the rest of the crew went to get some rest. Lucas slipped out to attend to his personal matter, heading back into the town. The sounds of the riots echoed though the space port.