Peacekeepers of the Vast/Diligence Incident
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The Diligence Incident was a galactic espionage operation gone wrong involving the Horkos cell of Peacekeepers. A Vesper Merchant Navy freighter, the VMS Diligence, was discovered to be out of control in hyperspace. The Horkos cell was dispatched to investigate and handle the situation as appropriate.
[Immediately proceed to] coordinates: Origin Sol IV Gate Zero: Perseus Alpha Bouy 1. Level: Galactic Plane. X:950 Y:-551 Z:111 H:1 Intercept independent freighter VMN Diligence before it enters Persa IV's sensor net in 12 hours. Diligence is adrift in hyperspace, believed to be holding sensitive cargo. Mission priorities: 1. Discover why the Diligence is adrift 2. Recover any intelligence assets as appropriate 3. If circumstances warrant, destroy Diligence before it enters the sensor net 4. Investigate Diligence's customers. 5. Report for further instructions at hyperspace relay XR452
The team took control of the freighter, and it was dropped out of hyperspace and into orbit around AZ6-E0012+2571 for further investigation and determination of final disposition.
Onboard were found multiple bioprinters that were spinning up to produce some type of bioweapon, a shipping container's worth of murderous tinbots, and a specialty cyrofreezer.
The on-board shipping manifest of the Diligence confirmed the vessel had departed from Riga bound to Persa IV, after having made the reverse trip immediately prior.
SOLD: 174 standard small Cargo containers of various consumer goods 48 standard S containers of various heavy goods BOUGHT: 174 standard small Cargo containers of various goods 48 standard S containers of various heavy goods
There were 173 intact containers, including the cryofreezer, and 1 destroyed container. 172 of the containers matched with expected manifest; the cryofreezer was not on the original manifest, and the tinbots' container was supposed to contain more 'various consumer goods,' and obviously not murderous tinbots.
The cryofreezer was deactivated, and the individual inside woken up; she claimed to be a Solaran Union intelligence service(which?) analyst named Rio Sousa.
Sufficient evidence and all valuable items were obtained from the freighter, at which time it was destroyed in the customary manner.
The Horkos made its scheduled rendezvous with hyperspace relay XR452, at which time they transmitted updates on the current situation and confirmed Rio's identity.
Agent "Rio Sousa" identity confirmed. Keep her alive until pick up at this location in 48 hours. Investigate the nature of Diligence cargo. Find out who sent it, find out if anyone was going to buy it. Neutralize them.
At this time the Horkos proceeded to Riga, checked in, and landed planetside.
It was determined planetside that, at Nussur Fi's direction, Omega Incorporated/Biocore was recruiting civilians to use as unwitting subjects of a bioweapons research program, headquartered on Riga. The vertical monopoly of crime syndicate, biotech corporation, political action committee, law firm, and day care facilities was all deeply involved. Their criminal arm was mostly responsible for the recruitment meetings-turned-kidnappings and transport of the new test subjects for the bioweapons program; two mobsters wisely assisted the Horkos team in determining the exact nature of the threat they faced.
Near dawn, a truck full of fireworks crashed into a gang building that served as the intake for victims of the bioweapon scheme. An incident occurred at the adjacent Biocore research and production facility shortly thereafter; the Horkos team breached the facility with relative ease, but discovered more robust internal security forces than normally expected in a research facility. While the soldiers laid down fire to maintain position, Professor defeated internal security's attempt to force her from their system, overloading their hacker's neural interface. In an attempt to recover as much useful intelligence, materiel, and persons of interest, Professor hacked extensive amounts of data from the facility, Picasso recovered a person-portable bioweapon delivery device, Tiny breached the locked-down Executive suite portion of the building using his TAG armor, and Quadrant fired his MULTI Rifle whilst jumping through the air.
Nussur Fi was recovered, the bioweapons program was exposed, the Peacekeepers were not visible in any meaningful way; it appears that the highest bidder and responsible parties have been identified, but further details are restricted and compartmentalized.