In the Golbetron system, on the planet Raqis. An entire planet covered in a mega city. There is a young woman, 20 years of age, she sits watching people. Waiting for her compad to light up. And after her coffee had become cold and her patience thin, it lit up. However it was not for the same reason she had hoped. (Agent's name has been redacted to avoid exposing assets)
"Hello, *******. I know that's your real name. And if you don't want your anonymity sacrificed, you'll do as I say. There is a man on Raqis that needs capturing. Do not kill him. If you kill him I leak your name to some very interested people. Bring him to room 26 at the Jalt'inn." The message included a picture of the man wearing his Raze embassy uniform. He was a middle management guy, happy because he landed himself an office on the top floor! Well, the third floor. Which is technically the top floor, since the upper two floors haven't been built yet.
The woman's name is Riviera, Riv for short. Or at least that's what her handlers called her. She was someone different to everyone. She was a ghost of a woman. She joined the protectorate when she was 15, she had always dreamed of true anonymity. She chased leads and landed herself a spot as a Protectorate agent. 5 years later and she has true anonymity, and this fucker has somehow figured her out. This wasn't something she could ignore.
She made her way to the embassy to case it out. She marked the guards and their routes in her compad. She could only pretend to drink coffee at this new shop for so long though, she had to go in and find him. She had Tagger Nannites installed a while back, all she would need to do is touch him once. She calmly walked past the guards and after a lovely chat with the front desk attendant (who now knows Riv as the cheerful Samantha, an inner city Raqisan who just can't help looking on the bright side); made her way up to the third floor under the guise of an HR rep from the knight ship in orbit. The third floor didn't really exist, save for one room that had been built first on demand of the floor manager. The rest was all I-beams and plasteel framing. She found him in his office having a very important phone call, so of course she waited. And listened. He talked about how he can't come home just for a baby, how he has to stay with the planet dwellers under Queen's orders. Exasperated, he slams his fist and ends the conversation with "then why don't YOU go talk to the damned Queen! I'm sure she she'd love to obey your orders!" And him punching the desk again. She walked in casually and chatted with him about the bullshit she could remember about HR. That is to say, the things she heard people complaining about. She of course never held a documented job. He nodded and answered, he ranted about his employees making him lose sleep. His stress, his joints ache all the time... She slowly transitioned the conversation into a more friendly jaunt one. She invited him to dinner later and they shook to agree on it. Contact info was exchanged and she took off. The rest of the day was spent watching people in a mall just down the street from the motel she would be taking this guy.
He liked talking about himself, being the boss, and being on the top floor. She couldn't imagine this dude really had much of a home life, not once did he talk about his wife.
She met him at the restaurant, Bolton's Bouillon Barrel. It was pretentious, and also his choice. He insisted. As they ate and talked he let slip, accidentally, that he worked for something higher than the Embassy. Something secret. She got him drunk, and the rest was easy. Drag him to the motel, stick him with some truth serum, and have some fun while she waited for her new contact to come get him.
He woke up in the late morning, she had been awake since dawn. He was tied up and laying on the carpet. Dazed and confused, but he realized very quickly what was going on. His demeanor had entirely changed. Now he was a calm and collected individual. The Gerald Hoyt she met at the Embassy was simply a mask. She expected this, though wasn't certain. She had thought maybe this new contact had simple jobs, nope, and she wasn't mad at all. He really was a spy, she thought. She dosed him, interrogated him, and eventually trusted him enough to not run away. Under truth serum he had admitted to having two wives, and that the empire wouldn't like knowing that. He said they might end up killing him anyways. That night there was a sudden shift in the room, a teleporter had dropped in. He looked around frantically at Riv with her knife drawn, and Gerald with his Raze uniform (untied at this point). He panicked and teleported again, not wanting to deal with whatever the fuck that was. Riv sat stunned, knife still out waiting for something to move. That's when a knock at the door launched her forward with cat like reflexes. She flew to the door terminal and opened the hallway viewscreen. It was Raze knights. A whole squad checking each door. If she played calm they wouldn't notice anything. She told Gerald to hide and he ran to the bathroom. She let the knights in, and they explained they were looking for a teleporter who was loose in the area. Riv pointed out the area in the room that the teleporter had stood moments ago, and in they filed 6 Raze knights one by one. They set up this device in the center of the room and people with datapads circled typing and glancing at the device. It crackled with electricity and and the light in the center grew brighter and brighter until she had to hold her arm in front of her. When the light dissipated a hole in reality the shape of a man had appeared in the room. On the other side of the hole was a magrail terminal. The guy was running up stairs in the distance. Each knight filed in chasing down the teleporter. Each one of these knights wearing heavy armor, pointed at the edges, was a terrifying sight to behold. It reminded Riv that the Raze were not simply pirates. When everyone had disapeared and the device was folded up and walked out, the hole had disapeared. Along with her prisoner. He was not in the bathroom, nor the little kitchen, and not in either of the bedrooms. Frustrated she made her way down to the ground floor where her gravcar was parked. She didn't know what car she was looking for but there was no way he climbed out the 28th floor window and down to the ground. There had to have been an accomplice. She started looking at cars who were beelining through the buildings, ones that were flying lower to avoid detection. That's when she saw him. It was a grey minivan with tinting on all the windows. Gerald had been leaning out the open door, while a pale arm tried to pull him back in. Perhaps there was still hope for Gerald. The driver pulled him back in and the drove low and slow, which made it hard to tail. She was spotted before she could act casual and turn, they fled full speed ahead. She took off chasing them, rising higher and higher, they flew close to buildings. Whoever this driver was, they were better than her. She clipped a building and went spiralling. By the time she got control of the vehicle, she had too much momentum to stop. She slammed into the ground hard, but shallow. She got out with mostly bruising and severe whiplash.
She woke up in the hospital after passing out in the crash. The doctors informed her of her injuries, and she checked herself out. She had been put on record as Jane Doe, as she had no paper identification and had turned off her neural uplink. She had shitty instant coffee and waited for a cab. She had tagged him with the Nannites so all she needed was a car. She scoffed at herself for forgetting that yesterday and turned on her Inner Eye(tm) connection to look for the glowing gold trail that would lead her to Gerald. She followed the trail from the city over her head and down into a neighborhood nearby. This just got a little easier. When her cab arrived she told him to start the meter and she'll tip good if he follows directions. She led him to the end of the golden trail. A small house in a suburban neighborhood, it kinda reminded her of her family and their house. She dismissed the thought and told the cabbie to stay nearby, he assured her he'd keep the meter running. She snuck in through the back to find the house empty save for Gerald Hoyt sitting on a couch tied up and muffled. There was a shuffling at the front door, keys being inserted into the lock. She pulled out her tranq gun and slid into a bedroom. The door swung open, and light filled the dark living room. A mellow low voice rang out.
"Good morning Gerald. And good morning to the one hiding. I heard you go in the back when I was walking up to the house. Don't bother hiding I won't kill you first."
Riv inched around the corner. She aimed her gun at him and he sat down on the couch, comfortably. He slowly pulled out his pistol and aims it at Gerald. Riv is confused for only a moment before she realizes what's going on. She engages in light conversation with the man briefly before his cocky attitude annoys her and she shoots him with the tranq. He also fires when she does. His bullet however, was much more lethal. Gerald Hoyt's brains get spread across the wall like raw beef. The man in front of her takes two more tranqs to knock out. She drags him to his car out front and ignores the cabbie waiting for her. She leaves Gerald, there's no reason to bring and unidentifiable corpse. She lugs the man she just tranqed back to the motel hoping she can trade in this one instead. When he wakes, she is ready with her tools for her favorite pass time. She injects the truth serum and finds the truth, that Gerald Hoyt and him (Aleron) are spies for the Raze empire. Gerald is to be killed for his selling information to suspected Protectorate agents. However, after a while she cannot stand his cockiness. So she decides to shoot him with an actual bullet for once and aims for his foot, but at the last second something in the back of her head says.
"Aim for the head, kill me"
She jerks the gun up to his head and pulls the trigger. She grinds her teeth at having done that. Now she wont have anything to give to her contact. Fuck, fuck fuck!
Later that day she sends out a message to her mysterious contact. She outlines the complications, the other agent. She mentions he was a telepath, that he made her kill him. Her contact doesn't care about it. The result is the important part. She gets a message that she will be sent to protect two Giridions while they transport a box to the Giridion homeworld in Arkeas. There is a possibility of a Raze spy invading their ship.
