Rain seems to have always been a strange sight in the parts below the clouds of most hives in the Empire.
At first everything seemed normal, but not normal, and then the wind suddenly rose, and in just a few seconds raindrops fell to the ground. Then the road began to reflect starlight, and the high walls and spiers became damp and dark. Even after the sun rose again, the ground Still looking mottled.
Gabriel McGuire sat in a car in a parking lot soaked by the rain, his gray eyes staring into the distance.
This is Sagan 5. It is one of the main ports for entry and exit in the Sagan system. It is also the only way to pass through the main channel of the Maelstrom area. Before going to the main star of Sagan, most ships need to park here briefly, so Sagan Gan 5 also has the third largest airport in the Maelstrom after Sagan Prime and Sagan 2, and almost all the hives on the planet are for trade services.
In particular, the main planetary capital, Lassidaimon, has become a place where merchants gather and the good and the good are mixed. The Expeditionary Force's setting up of a recruit training camp on Sagan V has created a different kind of "vitality" here. ".
Naturally, along with a prosperous economy comes serious crime problems and smuggling problems.
As the youngest law enforcement officer of the Sagan Legal Department, 29-year-old Gabriel McGuire has arrested countless smugglers, drug dealers, human traffickers, illegal organ traders, and illegal technology traders during his law enforcement career. Alien commodity dealers, etc., most of them are desperadoes, and he has had countless brushes with death, and sometimes even jokingly calls himself the gold coin that the emperor cannot squander.
But in the past few years, he has encountered the most difficult opponent and the prey he most desires to capture.
Suddenly, the clouds above the hive began to glow, and the shower stopped in an instant. The entire atmosphere began to undulate, bend, and stir, creating a huge vortex in the center of the clouds.
Then the black vortex grew bigger and bigger, until a huge shuttle appeared. It rushed out of the clouds like a beast, throwing off steam and dirt, its brake thrusters burned at full speed, and its long wings were also exposed from the clouds. , slide down in front of the vantage point.
Gabriel immediately took out his telescope, and he saw the scratches on the metal of the huge shuttle's shell, which were traces left by friction with the atmosphere after nearly a thousand takeoffs and landings. The logos on both sides of it were almost worn away. Lost, such giant shuttles are often the product of cooperation between the Mechanicus and large business groups.
Generally speaking, there are hundreds of crew members operating on it, as well as a considerable number of industrial servitors. Those servitors are usually huge and ugly, but they work as tenaciously as the Gross herd.
The landing of the giant shuttle is breathtaking, its landing gear extended, its thrusters spitting fire, as it lands on the majestic platform like a fat bird on its nest.
With almost no pause, the steel cables were connected to the platform's fixtures, coolant filled the shuttle's jets, and the unloading work had already begun before the thrusters spit out the last few wisps of pale yellow flames.
"How often does this kind of takeoff and landing happen?"
When he put down the binoculars, Gabriel asked the man in the driver's seat, his most trusted intelligence officer, Babu.
The stubble-faced man thought for a moment and then replied:
"About 23 standard Terra days, and before then they will prepare extra storage locations for the upcoming cargo."
"The recent explosions near the airport must be related to this?"
The intelligence officer shrugged slightly.
"A shrinking pond always attracts predators. Everyone knows that the expedition will soon be over. Everyone wants to get the final dividend. The battle over the rights to use the airport and warehouse is ongoing. Some It comes from infighting between companies, some from various criminal groups, and of course there will always be some figures above the clouds behind them."
"Airports are never a safe place and there are issues like this, but cargo is still moving, you know what I'm asking."
The intelligence officer pondered for a moment and shook his head.
"Man, you know, no one wants to talk about the Gray Fox Group. When the surrounding gangs are fighting for trucking routes, as long as they see the Gray Fox logo, they will disappear immediately."
Gabrielle smiled.
"So you should know why I'm here. The expeditionary force's smuggling ban has actually made some industries more profitable, just like the demand for banned drugs and smuggled weapons will never disappear, right?"
"It is undeniable that medicines and weapons will be the most stable demand even at the end of the world."
"It is not easy to transport and store these things. We have reason to believe that only the largest criminal groups can smuggle through official airports with such swagger. This is also the root cause of the recent frequent violence. Everyone hopes that in Gray Fox I have been tracking this criminal group for four years, but I have not caught any of their key members. It will be useless to arrest them any more. They can only touch the most basic business. I handled it not long ago. A large-scale gang conflict occurred in Sagan 3. The violence even spread to Zhongchao, with thousands of casualties. During the inspection of the scene, the Ministry of Justice discovered that they had obtained newly manufactured military weapons-specifically, weapons of unknown origin. military-grade individual weapons.”
The lawman rested his thumb and forefinger on his chin.
"Babu, what do you think about them getting such a weapon?"
"I don't know, sir, but this is a time of war, and it doesn't seem difficult for military weapons to flow into the civilian population?"
"This is exactly the problem. During the war, such a large amount of weapons smuggling was uncontrolled? The people behind this Gray Fox are very powerful. In just a few years, they have grown from a small smuggling gang to the most prominent one in the entire maelstrom. The gray industrial group even used force to eliminate the behemoth Babu of the Thirteen Silver Coins Association. Did you know that the gang war was even called the 'Apocalypse' by the scum, and more than twenty hives were involved in it? Hundreds of thousands of people died."
"Isn't it okay for scumbags to be dog-eat-dog? Not to mention the Thirteen Silver Coin Society, which is a notorious bastard gang that specializes in the most despicable black industries such as human trafficking and organ trading."
Gabriel stared at this old friend who had worked with him for more than ten years, and then whispered, "
"Babu, don't you think the gray fox looks 'better'?"
The intelligence officer sighed.
"Sir, I walk in the bottom nest every day and deal with all kinds of people. To be honest, you should also understand that gangs and gangs cannot be eliminated. If one is eliminated, there will be another one. So why don't we choose How about one that doesn’t look so bad?”
"Then it doesn't look bad today. Who can guarantee that it won't be the second Thirteen Silver Coins Association tomorrow? What's more important is the power behind this group of people. There are enough moths in the maelstrom, soldier. When we are fighting on the front line, why should we let these damn bastards fill their heads with fat? It is not enough to be aloof, but we have to reach out to these illegal businesses!"
"Gabriel, you are too radical. In the Empire, sometimes the law does not fully apply."
"Okay, without saying so much, have you made arrangements?"
Babu nodded.
"Okay, notify other teams immediately and initiate action!"
(End of chapter)
