Tournament of Shadows - Part 03 (A Tale of the Outer Colonies)

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==Tournament of Shadows - The Outer Colonies Region==
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=== Tournament of Shadows - Part 03 (A Tale of the Outer Colonies)===
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Hark Family Estate
New Tasmania
Outer Colonies
The Periphery
February 10th, 3066
Anna Hark looked out across the crystal clear water of the lake that her family home sat on the shores of, the forested mountains on the far bank a tranquil backdrop for what was supposed to be a family getaway. She had planned it as the perfect time to inform her new husband that she had missed her last period by two weeks and was most likely pregnant with their first child, but work, as ever, had a way of rearing its ugly head. Turning her back on the view from the sun-deck she made her way back through the spacious lounge area, her bare feet making no sound on the thick carpet. The villa was one of the few places she wasn't followed everywhere by at least two members of her personal protection detail, a hard fought for concession by the head of corporate security, a distant cousin who she had grown up calling Uncle Barney. The solid marble steps leading down to the lower levels were cold against her skin, but it was a welcome change to the heat outside.
The building had been carefully designed to maintain a comfortable ambient temperature, and had the kind of climate control systems normally seen in a biological research lab. It also had military grade defences, both active and passive, allowing the entire compound to be turned into a fortified bunker with the flip of a switch, but thankfully those precautions were carefully hidden from view. This allowed the house to maintain its open, tranquil feel, while still affording its owners the protection the family had occasionally needed down the years. Reaching the ground floor, Hark paused for one last moment of peace before she crossed the hallway and entered her private office. The thick, metal reinforced oak doors closed and locked behind her as the bleeding-edge anti-surveillance devices came on line, throwing up a field of static and interference that could defeat any known bugging device. Sitting behind her antique mahogany desk, she activated her personal server and brought up the communications system.
While there were still a handful of working HyperPulse Generators so far from Terra, they were few and far between, and only the Outer Colonies were known to have the ability to build new units, rather than simply repair the old ones. That was not to say that they were cheep, but thankfully they were not the only form of FTL communications available. The older Data-Box system could send text and basic images, but it was omnidirectional and far slower, limiting its use to that of a universal media distributor, with news stories from across the Outer Colonies passing from world to world in a constant stream, much like the ancient telex system. Fortunately it had limited range without signal boosters, so there wasn't too much of a risk that someone might stumble upon the transmissions and back-track them. The military had a much more advanced and versatile system code-named ENIGMA II that could be fitted to something as small as a Mobile HQ vehicle, but that was subject to the most stringent controls, with each unit programmed to self-destruct if the incorrect operates code was entered. They also tended to take issue with a civilian using such a system, so Hark relied on the portable HPG transmitter that had been built into a nearby mountaintop, a relic that one of her ancestors had brought with them from the long-gone Terran Hegemony.
It took a moment for even the powerful server buried another two floors down to run the full security and encryption program, then acquire an definitive lock on one of the Hark Corporations own dedicated HPG arrays on Port Stanley A wall of alphanumeric text scrolled down the large monitor on the desk, and Hark took a moment to look at her own reflection; while it had been watered down a little over the centuries, there were still hints of her families Asian heritage around her eyes and nose, and her shoulder length hair was jet-black, something she had actually inherited from her mother's side of the family, rather than her father's unruly flaming red main. But she did have her father's jade-green eyes with just a few specks of grey. The faint traces of a scar ran just above the bridge of nose, officially the result of a horse riding accident while she was still young, but actually the result of a close call from an assassins blade.
No one had ever been able to conform just who had sent the young, hard-eyed woman to kill her; she had opted to take her own life rather than be captured. It was well within the means of medical technology to completely remove the scar, but Hark had insisted on keeping it as a reminder of what happened when you let your guard down, even for a moment. Even there, in her private officer, surrounded by the most advanced security system her people had been able to put together, and a small army of security, including two Battle Armour squads housed in one of the old stable-blocks, she was still keenly aware of her surroundings. The only place she had ever felt secure in letting her guard down had been in the arms of her now husband, but he was still asleep in their bed upstairs, where she would have been given the choice.
The computer bleeped, bring her back to reality and confronting her with the reason she was not laying in the arms of the man she loved.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your little getaway." David Wolfsbane, director of the Ministry of Intelligence, was sat in his San Carlos office, as ever a wolf in sheep's clothing. As head of the almost legendary 'All-Seeing Eye', all the plots and counter-plots, all the words whispered and knives in the dark were his to unravel and employ. He was remarkably good at his job, making him one of the most powerful and feared men in all the Outer Colonies: even members of the Council of Eleven lived in dread of waking up one day surrounded by his nameless inspectors.
"Needs must when the Devil drives." Hark waved her hand to one side, having long grown accustom to the fact that managing an interstellar corporation with the net income of a small world was a 27/7 job at the best of times, "Your message said it was important, so here I am."
"My people have picked up some chatter between the New Americas and the Reman Imperium that I thought you might find interesting." a predatory smile played across Wolfsbane's thin lips, and Hark was reminded that while she respected the man and his abilities, she would never like him, "We've finally identified the wet-works team behind the Amber Cloud attack."
Hark jerked suddenly, as if someone had stabbed her through the heart with a dagger. The destruction of the Monarch class DropShip Amber Cloud as it entered the atmosphere of New Jamaica had killed hundreds, both on the passenger liner and the planet below where debris had impacted. Among those killed had been her parents; Mackenzie and Jade Hark. Publicly it had been put down to mechanical failure, but the truth was that it had been a carefully orchestrated attack that had struck the ship at its most vulnerable, when there was no hope of survival. Hark had been made aware of the truth as soon as it had been uncovered, and she had dedicated a significant amount of time and money into finding out who was behind it. The New Americas and the Reman Imperium had always been the most likely targets, given her family and companies strong ties to the Alianza Española, but like the attempt on her own life just a few short years before, there had never been any proof as to just who had given the order.
"You have names?" She asked, her mouth dry, voice shaky.
"We have code-names and a location where we believe the team is hold up." The Director responded, "I've already given the order to launch a snatch-and-grab raid to pick them up and bring them in for questioning."
"I want to be kept advised of any developments." Hark responded resolutely, "You still have to play by the rules; I don't. Just get me the name of the person who gave the order to have my parents killed and I will take care of the rest."
"I do have to play by the rules." Wolfsbane nodded, "And that's why I can't give you that information; I can not be party to an illegal operation." His face softened, "Enjoy the rest of your holiday; I'll let you know if we find anything else." With that he cut the link.
Hark sat her desk for a moment, then pulled a small communications device from a hidden compartment under the desk. Turning it on she typed out a short message.
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 TO: Phoenix
 Wolfsbane has identified the team responsible for death of Eagle and Dove, and is planning an operation to capture them. Suggest Falcon or Hawk get to them first. Also possibility that position has been compromised. Will go off-net until nature and depth of breach can be identified. Request that Kestrel triple checks all communications protocols.
 Will report back in when safe,
 Lark
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Shutting it down, she put the palm-sized device back in the same hiding place she had found it when she had inherited the desk from her father. The shock that her parents had been part of the almost mythical Deep Midnights Voice had stunned her, almost as much as the surprise when they offered her a place in the same organization. She had never met any of the people who's identities were hidden behind the code-names, or if she had, they had never said anything to give themselves away. All she knew was that, for generations, her family had been using their business to conduct off the books research and development for several agencies within the Outer Colonies, while their extensive network of contacts both at home and abroad made them a natural intelligence gathering tool that could go places and do things that no government agency could risk getting caught at.
In return, a blind eye was tuned to some of the more legally questionable avenues of research the company had looked into over the years, including their completely clandestine advances in genetic engineering that were the result of a close working relationship with the Wolverines. While the same basic genetic enhancement package was available to anyone, screening out most of the less desirable genetic conditions, while boosting the reflexes and scenes, there had been a more extensive project that had born some fruit. The untimely death of the project director it what was still being called a 'tragic accident' had ended that line of enquiry before it had reached its conclusion, and of that Hark was happy; while she was a strong supporter into advances in life sciences, even she felt unhappy with the idea of playing god.
The End
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20
Category:Short Stories
Category:Works by Starbug