3 - Stable employment

Walking into the now very familiar bar, Mike was quickly greeted by one of the thugs who spent most of the day hanging around the place.

"Ah, welcome back boss."

Sitting down at the bar, Mike could barely make out the faintly orange tint from the former bartender's blood which had stained the wall a few weeks prior.

"Yeah, is Adam in?"

Asking for his employer, Mike was served a glass of beer without even asking for it as the thug updated him on the state of things.

"Not yet boss, and boss lady is still sleeping."

"Of course she is, when she wakes up tell her we need to talk. If you guys need me I'll be in my room."

Downing most of his beer, Mike left the bar behind with a lazy wave and made his way deeper into the den of filth which he now called his home.

As Mike left the bar remained in awe for a few more seconds until silence finally broke.

"Our new boss really doesn't do anything other than work…"

"Yeah, he doesn't even touch any of the goods either. Perhaps that's just the kind of person he is?"

Over the time Mike had been 'working' for the organisation, no one had heard about him partaking in any of the 'goods' and 'services' the organisation handled, something which was extremely strange of a person in his position.

"Perhaps doing the job is what's satisfying for him?"

While the thugs were part of the lowest part of society, they had all heard rumours about the darker parts deeper below them, freaks, professionals and stone-cold agents of the mega-corporations which ran amok inside independent space.

"That's… I was about to say impossible, but that might not be the case."

Speaking from experience, one of the thugs who had been with Mike doing 'work' felt his entire body shudder in fear.

"W-well, good thing big brother is on our side."

Although Molly and Adam were still calling Mike kiddo, the rest of the crew had started referring to him as 'boss' or 'big brother' out of a healthy mix of fear and respect stemming from his recent endeavours.

As soon as Mike entered his own private room he immediately pulled his arms out of the vacuum suit, still wearing the leg part of it as he tied the arms around his waist to remain in a semi-ready state while escaping just a bit from the suit he had been wearing for a considerable amount of time. Over the last few weeks, Mike had made himself known in the local underworld making his new employer and himself rich by wiping out most of the local competition that wasn't used to Mike's style of operating. By hacking into the station security system Mike would identify and 'tag' the management of hostile operations, from there it was just a matter of tracking them to find out where they laid their heads at night, then severing said head.

(Normal Interstellar online grind tactics seem to work wonders around here, that would indicate that whatever happened to me hasn't happened before, at least not in this part of space anyway.)

While Mike had spent a lot of time working he had also worked hard to gather information about his current world but had yet to find a single star system or power he had heard of before.

(Yet the ships, weapons and major trade goods are the same as in Interstellar online… Ships and weapons aside, it kind of makes sense that trade goods are the same, as those goods are needed in this sci-fi world.)

It being Interstellar online or not, a futuristic society spread out over multiple star systems would trade in things like algae, raw ores and prefabricated stabilisers for surface colony construction. The real issue was the former irregularities, such as the ships made by companies Mike could list off in his sleep. The likelihood of these manufacturers with their specific strong points and long history would be highly unlikely to arise multiple times when everything else was different.

(Well, logic aside, all these similarities make it easier for me to use my in-game knowledge effectively, and the NPC's are as easy to exploit as always.)

Unwrapping his wrist-mounted display on his vacuum suit, Mike looked at the now very impressive amount of credits that was safely stored in his personal account.

(503K… Not good, not bad. With that amount of cred I could get myself a relatively decent jump-capable fighter with C rated equipment.)

If this had been Interstellar online Mike would have been happy with that amount of credits, with it he could afford a fairly decent fighter for bounty hunting, from there he could work his way up the ranks.

(But without knowledge of profitable hunting grounds I would need just a bit more to properly pad out my account.)

Mike's current advantage and disadvantage was information. While Mike knew the in's and out's of ships and goods, he lacked essential knowledge on the political and geographical structure of this world he now found himself in.

"I need a local guide, perhaps a slave?... Nah, that would be stupid, this isn't some shitty harem web novel."

After pondering his upcoming moves for a bit longer, Mike was about to nod off when someone knocked on his door.

"... Come in."

Sitting down on his bed, Mike reached under his pillow and grabbed his pistol before giving permission to enter.

"Hello~ I've come to play."

"Go away."

Finding his visitor to be Molly wearing her usual tight-fitting mini dress, Mike's answer was as quick as it was ruthless.

"My, my~ No need to be so cold~"

Inviting herself inside regardless of Mike's words, Molly quickly sat down next to Mike before moving way too close to him.

"We might have a really great opportunity, but carrying it out might be problematic and needs a bit of groundwork."

Still acting the same as always, Molly's voice carried an uncharacteristic amount of seriousness which made Mike not just throw her out.

"So, any reason you're not talking to Adam about this?"

"My, my no need to-"

"Drop that usual tone of yours or I'll tell Adam."

Sensing Molly wanted to keep this out of Adam's ears for some reason, Mike finally had something to pressure her on for once.

"Okay, it is the kind of job Adam would never agree to, but it pays great."

"Fine I'm in, how much will my cut be?"

With the promise of cash, Mike was quickly broad onboard Molly's scheme.

"There's a corp who has had some issues with local fee's recently, so they would like someone to make a statement for them."

The kind of job Molly suggested wasn't something a criminal organisation would normally undertake, as selling out one of your 'own kind' to a corporation was seen as an invitation for all other local elements to dogpile you for their own security.

"So crushing a local pirate faction and making an example out of them?... Do we have any fighters to do that?"

The problem with Molly's suggestion was a critical lack of combat craft to do said crushing, being pirates they spent most of their time in space and were unreachable with normal tactics. What's worse it would be troublesome if Mike and Molly couldn't squash all of the pirates at once, something which would normally be done by luring them in with some grand prize to sack.

"Adam is the one controlling our combat ships so I can't access them, but that's not a problem as the group spends most of their time here."

(That shouldn't be the case, even if this isn't Interstellar online there's no way pirates would be dumb enough to do something like that… Molly is hiding something from me.)

"Ah, that sure is great news. So you just want me to do the usual? And you still haven't told me about my cut."

Thinking fast on his feet, Mike decided to go along with Molly's suggestion.

(As long as Molly continues to think I'm being blinded by greed I can swing the situation to my own advantage without her being overly cautious.)

Mike quickly realised that the fact Molly was willing to move on a local group of pirates while keeping Mike in the dark would make her a very attractive target should their current situation happen to leak.

Consequently, Mike's vacuum suit had this strange glitch where it would randomly start recording audio and biometric data of nearby people out of nowhere.

"For crushing them all your cut would be 124K, but there is a bonus waiting if you're willing to do something more~"

Convinced she had hooked Mike, Molly put on a quite seductive smile as she grabbed his hand.

"Like what exactly? I'm not sleeping with you if that's what you're after."

Remaining blunt and seemingly unaware that he was being taken advantage of, Mike nevertheless was open for a bonus.

"Sleeping together would normally be *the* bonus but that isn't it this time… The corp in question is willing to pay us 500K more if we just do one little thing for them…-"

-

(... Time to work then.)

In the end, Mike accepted Molly's job offer, but she wasn't quite a stupid as he had initially believed.

"Unit 1, get ready to breach."

[Okay boss, we're ready.]

To keep an air of plausible deniability, Mike, who had become quite notorious in the local underworld, would only be supporting the main raid, along with a few minor parts.

Well, calling the operation a 'raid' might be a stretch, this was nothing more than a public, corporate-sponsored execution, plain and simple.

"Unit 1, breach now."

Casually fastening a silencer to his pistol in a dark alley, Mike sealed the fate of a lot of people with that single line. A few seconds later an explosion rang out nearby as unit 1 made its entrance. Doing something as flashy and outright dangerous as risking a fire inside a cramped station was an entirely deliberate move on Mike's part to make it seem like this was the work of outsiders.

Although Mike was currently recording everything other than the alley he found himself in, it was the thought that counted.

Immediately following the explosion, the familiar chatter of small calibre automatic gunfire rang out, but this wasn't anything more than a simple greeting.

The real show was still yet to happen.

Soon the one-sided chatter of gunfire was answered by the opposition, from there it quickly devolved into a quickly deteriorating one-sided suppression effort as the defenders vastly outnumbered unit 1 who had made their incursion and long since lost the element of surprise.

"Draw them out just a bit more, unit 2 ready up."

Doing a final check on a magazine, Mike loaded his pistol and chambered a round while giving out orders.

[We're ready boss, just say the word.]

While unit 1 continued falling back they didn't suffer any casualties from attempting to dig in and hold their ground, but of course, the defenders didn't realise that before it was far too late.

"Unit 1 hit the deck, unit 2 do your thing."

[[Yes boss!]]

All of a sudden the chattering of gunfire completely seized on the attacking side as they hit the deck as Mike instructed, seconds later the somewhat balanced duet of gunfire was drowned out by something far harsher sounding as unit 2 went to work. From the other side of the street where the fighting was going on, a group of high calibre heavy machine guns normally found on light fighters opened up, needless to say, the result was as quick as it was ruthlessly effective.

(Ever since I saw something like this in a movie I really wanted to pull this off in a raid like this, but Interstellar online didn't really allow for tactics like this inside their sandbox…)

After 30 seconds of continuous fire, the heavy machine guns finally cut out and an eerie silence once more spread throughout the area. Glancing at the live camera feed running in the corner of his heads up display, Mike issued his next orders as he cracked his neck.

"Unit 2, pack up. Unit 1, wrap it up."

[[Roger boss.]]

With the silence once more broken by the occasional 'pop' of unit 1 cleaning up, Mike blended in with the shadows as he brought up his pistol to shoulder level, a red line appearing on his head's up display at the same time. A second later a door opened up 2 metres in front of him, as it did a pair of figures rushed out from it.

(Oh no you don't.)

Zeroing in on the leading figure's head, Mike squeezed the trigger. With a sharp pop like the cork on a champagne bottle being popped, the first figure fell over, as it did Mike zeroed in on the second figure's back before squeezing the trigger again. This time a considerably lower velocity round flew out of Mike's pistol, but it still found its target nonetheless. With a few unsteady steps, the second figure also collapsed, as it did Mike finally lowered his pistol.

(... Easy as that… Now for the slightly more irritating part.)