June and the crew of the Tori had assembled in the meeting room for their daily update.

"Good news and bad news." Bjorn pushed the latest cargo manifest onto the screen. "Good news: We're nearly ready to go. She's filled to the brim with food and fuel." He gently patted the table, then smirked at Rip. "We've also stocked up on mining equipment."

"Mining?" June looked puzzled.

"Yeah, Tori can't have weapons, but she is a registered mining rig." Rip pushed spec sheets onto the screen. "So we have a bunch of asteroid breakers."

June skimmed the sheets. "Those are missiles."

"They usually don't hit as hard." Rip shrugged, then grinned. "Unless you're going after sturdy stuff." They pushed a gold rimmed certificate onto the screen and beamed. "And we have PERMITS!"

June chuckled and turned towards Bjorn. "So then what's the bad news?"

"It's your contract. They won't let us buy you out, and we can't raise the offer anymore without drawing suspicion." A bunch of pictures popped up on the screen. "Those were the contacts. Know any of 'em?"

"Well fuck." June grimaced and highlighted a sleek looking man. "Let me introduce to you all: Alain, my supervisor and a professional nosy bastard. I suspected that he suspected that I was up to something." She looked at Marga. "We spent the last few days throwing smokescreens on the feeds, apparently it wasn't enough." Then panic flooded her face. "If I go back now, they will make me talk."

Captain Konrad was chewing his lower lip and sat in silence for a while. "I'll get us auth for an incursion."

"Incursion?" June looked around the table with a confused face.

Marga sat in her chair with a slight smile on her lips. "I'm going to burn you out of their system."

12/X

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