Rylan sat in the living quarters of the Sarthach as he pondered his next move. Garner had set him on the task of eliminating one of his rivals within the Nightshade Syndicate and while he was investigating his target, Lythan Irun, a hooded figure from some type of secret organization that referred to himself as Azran had stalked him.
Thinking about this Rylan leaned his head back against the red velvet couch and scrunched his forehead with two fingers. "First day in this cesspit and to even get on the planet I have to kill off a criminal overlord and deal with some secret society tracking my ass? Great, just great." He sat up, went to the ship TDPA, and pressed a button on the table in the center of the room to which it was attached.
With a low hum a 3D projection of the space station schematics appeared before Rylan that Garner had been generous enough to give him, though it was only a partial map of the station it was enough for Aylward to use. "The Greykeep." He whispered to himself as he looked at the map before him.
The section of the map referred to as the Greykeep was in an old abandoned industrial sector of the station, because of this it had a wide open floor plan allowing for the construction of a massive castle crafted from scrapped steel.
Where there weren't guards there were automatic turrets controlled by basic AI targeting chips with sensors that can detect who is allowed and who isn't allowed into the keep. Rylan's eyes flicker with curiosity as he notices something interesting in the schematics. He shakes his head and clicks his tongue in disappointment.
"Well, well, well. Looks like they forgot to guard a certain area." Aylward said with a sly grin as he stared at the waste disposal system the Greykeep uses. Seemingly it was unguarded and forgotten.
"Perhaps Lythan couldn't convince his thugs to guard down there, no that wouldn't make sense for someone as paranoid as him, he would have at least put turrets there. Hm curious." Rylan whispered to himself trying to piece together any clues on why the area was unguarded, then his eyes lit up as he finally came to a conclusion. "The entire space station has a single waste system but the Greykeep has its own separate one."
As he stared at the overall blueprint for the space station he saw that there was no way to access the main plumbing system since the pipes ran through the walls and weren't even big enough to crawl through, while the Greykeeps had an entire sewer system for it's plumbing.
The Greykeeps system shoots out the waste through a pipe outside of the space station and into space while the normal plumbing for the entire station recycles it into farms on the station.
The Sewer Drain that leads into space was big enough to fit a mansion inside of it, this made Rylan put a wry smirk. "When did I become a plumber?" He chuckled at himself as he had already formulated a plan on how he'd get in and out for assassinating Lythan.
"The Sarthach is small enough to fit into the sewage drain and since it leads out of the station into space I can just fly into it. My flight suit is airtight and my helmet allows me to refilter my oxygen supply, but the main issue would be wading through the waste and not being pushed into the void of space."
Rylan pressed the button on the table that had the Sarthaches TDPA implanted into it, shutting the advanced projection device off. He then took out his phone and dialed a number on it. After a minute of incessant ringing, a low guttural voice responded in a displeased tone: "What is it, mercenary? I have better things to do than talk to a hired gun."
Aylward clicked his tongue unhappy with how his contact talked to him. "Yeah yeah, whatever. I've hatched a plan to handle Garners' little problem but I'm going to need him to give me permission to land anywhere on the station I want or it's not going to go over well."
The man on the other side of the phone stayed quiet for a few minutes before giving Rylan a response. "Done. Don't call me again unless you've finished the job." The man hung up on the mercenary before he could get in another word.
"That piece of-" Rylan shouted in frustration as his contact hung up on him however before he could finish his profanity, he received a message on his phone that stated 'Free landing pass' with there being the strange amalgamation of multiple gang sigils that within a kite shield border that he had seen on the patches that the stations staff had. "At least he did what I asked efficiently enough" the hot-blooded mercenary sighed.
Aylward walked over into the cockpit of the Sarthach and started her engines. "Should I do some recon first?" he questioned himself, but a massive grin spread across his face as he exclaimed, "Nah, that would take the excitement out of this!" When the Sarthach's engines began to roar, he requested take-off and flew her off of the station into the star-filled abyss of space.
Rylan flew close to the station as he headed to his destination, the drainage pipe that disposed of the Greykeeps waste was on the other side of the moon-sized space station, so it would take him some time to get there.
Due to this fact, he set the Sarthach to auto-pilot and headed back into her common area. Instead of relaxing, he walked over to a door to the left of the ship's entrance.
Entering through the door revealed an armory filled with guns, armor, explosives, and some select tools. Crates stacked upon crates of ammunition lined the floor with some even magnetized to the roof to use the space as efficiently as possible while still giving Aylward plenty of room to walk about.
This entire room was his arsenal, anything he could ever use as a mercenary for his missions was right here and he grinned as he looked at everything in the room like they were his treasures. Rylan rummaged through the armory with the care and familiarity of a chef selecting ingredients for a signature dish.
His hands hovered over a row of antigrav detonators, which could come in handy in particular scenarios or be used to give him an advantage to give him just the right edge in combat or escape.
Rylan then grabbed a short snub-nosed Uzi that he had gotten modified to shoot plasma rounds instead of the usual kinetic rounds commonly used throughout the galaxy.
The sounds the gun makes are much quieter than that of a normal gun when shot and this weapon doesn't emit any seeable light as it was adjusted to use Thz Radiaton as the basis for its rounds. Rylan affectionately calls this SMG "Ghoststar".
Ghoststar has a foldable stalk and adjustable grip. Its short barrel has specifically been designed with ventilation vents for cooling and an inbuilt emitter housing. While the barrel is relatively short, it is wider than a normal Uzi.
Ghoststar's main body is made of titanium alloy, with carbon fiber composite material making up the stalk, grip, and barrel of the SMG.
The Uzi can fire up to 80 rounds per minute and its charges can last for 112 rounds, with the weapon needing time to cool if shot continually after 340 consecutive rounds of fire or risk being overheated.
The weapon has an effective range of 87 meters but is most effective at 40 meters or less. It's not the perfect weapon for an assassination but more than good enough for the job done, at least that's what Rylan thinks.
Aylward then slips on a backup airtight flight suit not wanting to get his usual one covered in crap and grime. After that, he places his flight helmet on his head and locks it in place then a smoke of air pressure is released from it when it seals. The last thing he puts on is clunky-looking padded metal boots.
"Alright, now I'm ready." He murmured to himself when suddenly he launched to the other end of his arsenal.
"Fuck I forgot the Impacat guard again!" he yelled as he slammed against the wall and face-planted into the Sarthaches metal flooring where his flight helmet bashed against it with a loud clunk.
He slowly stood up while holding his head in his hand "Ugh, I really need to remember to put that on next time. This your way of saying were here Sarthach?" Aylward joked to himself as he walked over to the cockpit to see the drainage pipe.
Rylan sat in the piolets seat and turned off the auto-piolet quickly before pressing a few seemingly random buttons and waiting for a few seconds. After on the ship HUD he saw a 'permission to dock: Granted' and instantly flew the Sarthach down into the massive sewage pipe landing it on a sidewalk way inside it.
Having landed the Sarthach without issue Aylward decided to get off board the ship since the sewers seemed to get narrower the further in they were.
Rylan checked his weapons and after making sure they were loaded and functional began to descend into the catacombs of sewage thinking to himself 'If it wasn't for my flight helm the stench might have killed me before Lythan's guards could.'
A sea of yellow, brown, and green poured through in between the metal walkways that produced light thudding sounds from each step Rylan took forward, mold somehow managed to slather itself against the roof and walls despite there being no oxygen and only dim electrical lights.
After an hour of walking through the sewers, Aylward finally came across the exitway he had been heading to. A large partially broken metal ladder led up to the Greykeeps inner sanctum. He quickly popped his head out of the top and looked around for any hostiles that may be around.
When he noticed the coast was clear Rylan stepped out of the hole and entered into the electrical room of the Greykeeps inner sanctum. The room was shrouded in the red luminescence of the lights above and filled with tools that were covered in dust and a hard black tar that stuck them to the ground.
'Clearly, this place isn't a popular spot. I guess that's good for me.' Aylward thought to himself as he walked to the door that exits out of the electrical room and planted himself against the side of it before poking his head and SMG into the hallway looking both left and right. Then he rushed to the side of another door across the hallway before moving inside it after checking to see if it was clear.
Rylan moved with a blend of caution and confidence, keeping Ghoststar leveled and ready as he slipped deeper into the Greykeep's inner sanctum, the facility's isolation suited him, it was less likely for Lythan to expect a strike from this unused sector.
Aylward scanned the hallway behind him, quickly noting two surveillance cameras bolted to the ceiling in opposite directions. He sighed in relief that he had moved when they weren't focusing in on his direction otherwise he could have been swarmed by guards by now.
"Should've brought a signal jammer." he muttered under his breath. Aylward turned his attention to a narrow gap between a ventilation duct and a series of steel beams just above the cameras' line of sight. Taking a quick breath, he leaped up and hoisted himself into the shadows, moving silently past the watchful lenses.
The route he'd mapped led through a cramped stairwell off to the right, but he knew better than to take the obvious path. Instead, he found a narrow maintenance shaft to his left.
A bit of a tight squeeze, but it allowed him to bypass a trio of guards standing at the main stairwell below. Their voices, low and muffled, drifted up through the open space.
"Lythans crazy I'm telling you, the bastard bought this relic for more than will see in our lives and then armed it to the teeth and he's still buying more security!" One of Lythan's guards complained to the others.
"We all know the bastard is paranoid but at least it gives some job security, I'd rather be a guard here than a grunt on world." A more robust guard replied to the one complaining before spitting on the ground. "Besides no one would even be able to get this far in, were basically paid to walk around and look intimidating."
Rylan continued through the shaft, coming out near what looked like a central observation post. The dim room was lined with holo-screens that displayed real-time feeds from security cameras across the compound.
Aylward carefully avoided stepping into the screens' soft blue glow, eyes flicking over the scene. One monitor caught his attention. A view of the courtyard outside Lythan's quarters, where a cluster of heavily armed guards patrolled the entrance.
"Perfect," he whispered, smirking as he noted their positions. They were all fixated on the front entrance and main passageways, which suited his plan. Rylan's exit route, through the Greykeep's hidden waste shaft, was far from their watchful eyes.
Cautiously, Rylan crouched low and crawled through the observation room, past rows of equipment racks, before arriving at a utility door leading down to the final stretch.
He gripped his SMG tightly, the weapon feeling almost alive in his hands, humming with quiet energy. He activated his helmet's internal HUD display, which pinged Lythan's location just past the thick iron door in front of him.
Rylan checked Ghoststar one last time and smirked. This was exactly the kind of excitement he'd come to Lausgaiegüse for.