Outer Belt Patrol II
Kuiper Belt, Outer Belt Patrol.
A Tritonian-Class Patrol Cruiser is scouring a cluster of asteroids on a routine patrol in the Kuiper belt. Crime in the outer rim of the solar system is rampant, as its distance from the core worlds makes it difficult for the law to be properly enforced there.
It notices something out of the ordinary on one of the asteroids. A brief flash of light reflected of metal plating.
It approaches the anomaly and scans it.
It seems to be some kind of hatch which is almost completely covered by asteroid rocks.
They send some men out on a space walk to see what it is while the ship scans the asteroid.
The men clear the double-door hatch and search for means to open it. They find a handle.
Once they pull on it the hatch moves slightly up and the men are able to open it. They discover a relatively large cave apparently carved into the asteroid which is confirmed by the asteroid scans. It is about 10 by 12 by 8 meters and partially filled with a few small standard crates. There is a table of sorts at one of the walls with 5 drawers built into it. About three of the immediately visible crates have a cobalt cross on them.
"Hey, uh, CIC you reading this?" Says one of the Astronauts
"Affrirmative Delta 1-1."
"Proceed inside, search it."
"Copy that CIC."
They enter.
The ground of the cave is made up of some kind of metal grid, anchored in the stone, providing a flat area and also connection for magnetic boots. The table is bolted to the grid and the crates are mostly secured to it via straps of sorts.
They notice that there are a few tools drifting in the space and one of the drawers and a few crates have been opened and completely emptied apart from some packaging material. The crates in general seem to be a bit in disarray and some show scratch and bump marks as if they were deposited in a hurry. The unopened drawers have normal key locks and the crates some sort of mechanical pin code that locks them. Each of the crates has some sort of designation code written on it.
In total the find 15 crates, 6 of which bear the cobalt cross symbol. 3 of the crates with the cobalt cross have been opened and the rest seem untouched.
The crates without the apparent symbol are of different types and bear smaller markings of different transport firms.
Their boots magnetize to the floor and turn on their suits' lights.
"Alright..."
Around five Patrol Officers float in and magnetize to the floor. One of them scans the cross symbol and runs it through the CSIS database for any associated organisations using that type of symbol.
"Alright, Jan, Sophia, begin searching through the crates."
The Team leader, a Corporal, begins picking through some of the crates and cabinets.
The symbol is recognised as the signature of a criminal organisation with the same name. The "Cobalt Cross" is a criminal "medical" organisation dealing in the illegal sale of pharmaceuticals and other... substances. Only a few arrest have ever been made on that group and they stayed mostly elusive with them being one of the masters in their respective craft. Their prices are from what is known quite high but their products and service make up for it.
Breaking In the normal crates reveals stimulating substances of different make, Opioids, Enriched Heroin, meth and so on. They come in different grade of pureness.
When attempting at cracking the lock on one of the marked crates a small explosive seems to detonate inside. When they open it they find disfigured and ruptured bags of some kind of liquid and a sort of ash along with cracked and slightly singed packaging material.
Breaking into the drawers they find valid shipment papers belonging to the ids of the crates, though obviously with other assigned contents written on them. They also find some equipment for measuring liquids and solid substances, both in weight and pureness.
They secure the substances, and look for any trace of the Cobalt Cross anywhere, incriminating documents, etc, finding maps and such.
"CIC Visual on multiple illegal substances, probably a safehouse or a dealer hideout for the Cobalt Cross." Says the Team Leader into his radio.
"Copy Delta 1-1"
The Cruiser has the has the Livery: CSSPC[1] Redeemer.
They don't seem to find much else, the only document of interest they recover, besides the shipment papers, is a fabric type A5 paper with a few set of letter number combinations on it. About 3 such "codes" whatever they might be.
From the tools and make of this location they gather that it probably only serves as a little storage area and not for much else.
They take it to the forensics lab on board the ship which run all documents through extra scans, invisible ink tests, etc.
The crate with the small explosive is also run through forensics, looking for traces of whatever was inside of it inside the debris inside.
The liquid seems to be a cocktail of different chemicals. It seems to be an alteration of a military combat drug though cheaper in its composition. The ash type powder are remains of a plastic explosive with a few traces of a chemical compound found in some hallucinogens.
They find nothing hidden on the documents. They seem to be partially forged and partially legitimately acquired in some sense. Taking a few dust samples and cross-referencing them to their database they find that most of the papers probably have spent a larger portion of their time at Titan Station.
The remaining two crates are scanned in the forensics lab.
It takes some of the more powerful scanners to get a look inside these crates. The contents seem to be a few of the liquid bags with other bags of different make filling up the rest of the boxes. Almost half of these are connected via cables to a small device located at the mechanical pin lock.
It is scanned, but they assume its a censor for the explosive inside.
- ↑ Confederate States Space Patrol Cutter
