The Phoenix Chronicles

Federal Criminal Biometric Database

Entries 1458 to 1463: The Phoenix Gang

MOST WANTED

Harold Phoenix

Bounty: 1’000’000 credits

Crimes:

-ship plundering

-hostage taking

-theft of classified information

-possession and usage of unregistered guns

The leader of the gang. While not necessarily a physical threat, he is a master of disguise and false identities who has outsmarted even secret agents, and is also decently skilled with a blaster. Not much is known about his past before the Phoenix gang, but intel points towards links with the Callistoan mafia, although this has yet to be proven. Proceed with caution, and report any suspicious profile that you suspect might be one of his false identities.

Gabriel Greebles

Bounty: 500’000 credits

Crimes:

-data forgery

-data theft

-theft and unlawful use of private code

-manufacturing, possession and usage of illegal equipment

The gang’s second in command. A former engineer from Earth who was expelled from Melbourne University for plagiarism of code. While not a physical threat, he is a skilled programmer, hacker and engineer, and excels in the use of cyber and EM weapons. He and Alpha-One are known to operate under the same hacker identity of “Meta_Phoenix”. Proceed with caution.

Alpha-One

Bounty: 500’000 credits

Crimes:

-unregistered AI

-data theft

-data forgery

An unregistered sentient AI created by Gabriel Greebles, and the plagiarised project that got him expelled from Melbourne University. A skilled hacker who has outsmarted even the most advanced security algorithms. While not necessarily a physical threat, she has been noted to have basic self-defence capabilities. Patterns in her behaviour have led some experts to believe that her plagiarised code was written by the late Professor Sam Garnett of Titan’s Aurora Academy, although this has yet to be proven.

Ly'oa

Bounty: 800’000 credits

Crimes:

-ship plundering

-hostage taking

-murder

A N’vath alien born on Ganymede to refugees from the planet Wy’gan. A skilled warrior using an alien martial art, she is easily capable of overpowering any average human. She is also an expert in stealth, and is equally capable of killing or using non-lethal means of incapacitation. She has also been noted to be able to easily slip out of restraints. Proceed with extreme caution.

Jack Steel

Bounty: 800’000 credits

Crimes:

-ship plundering

-hostage taking

-murder

A survivor of an indigenous Martian clan massacred by a rival clan. Much of his body was replaced with cybernetics at birth as per the Martian tradition, and his originally primitive cybernetics have been greatly upgraded by Gabriel Greebles upon joining the gang. An extremely powerful fighter with both bare hands and plasma blades, he has been observed to gain enhanced strength and aggressivity when under stress, which his indicated by his cyber eyes turning red. Little is known about the reason behind this. Proceed with extreme caution.

Kalya Oscarion

Bounty: 450’000 credits

Crimes:

-ship plundering

-hostage taking

-possession and usage of unregistered combat ship and guns

The youngest and most recent member of the gang, recruited by Phoenix at the age of 15 after finding her in a foster home. A marksman and ace pilot, she is a physical threat both in space and on the ground. Her feats of strength include making three Federal Defence Force chasers crash into each other during a chase, and killing dead-or-alive-wanted rival pirate Atticus Bane from 100 metres away with her off hand. Proceed with extreme caution.

Prologue

Ganymedan border control air station, 22 o'clock local time. Jerry was on watch, and he had been told to be extra vigilant. His superior had told him that according to the Federal Defence Force, a dangerous gang of space pirates was trying to smuggle several tons of stolen platinum to the planet’s surface. The ship they were looking for was a light cargo painted in black without any logo. “Well, that musn’t be hard to spot,” Jerry said to himself. “Damn, Commissioner Duroy is gonna be so proud of me for catching those pirates.” He took a sip of his coffee and watched the arrival monitor. Seven ships were awaiting authorisation to proceed : three cargo ships, a space train, and three shuttles.

One of the latter was the first ship to enter the inspection area. It was a small utility shuttle with four people inside. The driver was a middle-aged man with short dark hair, a wide smile, and shades that completely obscured his eyes, while the man on the passenger seat looked slightly younger, with dark skin, curled hair and a worried expression. In the seat behind were two young people. The first one was a boy with fair skin and short hair. He was wearing baggy clothes and a beanie and kept his eyes closed, probably listening to some music. The other was a girl with fair skin and shoulder-length black hair, with bright blue eyes and a prosthetic replacing her entire left arm. Her expression was inscrutable, a complete poker face.

“Hello border-boy, '' said the driver.

“What are you coming to Ganymede for?” asked Jerry.

“My husband, the kids and I are finally arriving from a two-week-long trip from Earth,” replied the driver. “We're visiting my mother for the holidays, and we couldn't afford to take the space train because we're having trouble finishing the months. My brother told me she's pretty sick, so we're desperate to see her, especially since it could be the last time, ya see.

-I'm sorry for your mother sir. I hope she's going to be well.

-Thank you, you're a rare man.

-Oh, I'm flattered. But that doesn't mean I'm not here to do my job. You got anything in the trunk?

-Nah, just some clothes for the stay.

-Mind if I take a look, just to be sure?

-What, you don't trust us?

-Of course I do, but I was told to watch for smugglers tonight, so you never know.

-Sure, do your business. It's good to see that some people still care about the law in this unhinged world.”

Jerry went to the landing bay's platform and opened the ship's trunk. All he found was four packed suitcases.

“You're alright,” he said as he closed the trunk. “You can go. Enjoy your stay on Ganymede!

-Thank you for everything!” said the driver before proceeding to the landing route.

The next ship was one of the cargos. It was small with a black hull, and its logo’s paint was fading.

“Musk Industries cargo n°134876, '' said the captain on the radio. “Requesting authorisation.

-What are you transporting?” asked Jerry.

“Aluminium, five hundred tons,” answered the captain.

Jerry looked at the ship towering in front of him.

“Mind if I take a look? '' he asked. “I've been told to watch for smugglers tonight, and your ship looks an awful lot like the one I was told to watch for.

-Oh, uh, of course.”

The captain came out of the ship to meet Jerry.

“Wanna take a look at my cargo, uh?

-Yeah. Mind showing me?

-Sure. Follow me please.”

Jerry followed the captain inside the ship. A dozen men and women were working inside it.

“Inspection, uh cap? '' asked one of them, a young man with tan skin.

“Yeah, apparently there are smugglers trying to pass the border.

-Don't worry sir, I'm sure you'll catch them,” said the young man. “You want some coffee while you inspect?

-Thank you, but I already have one in my cabin,” answered Jerry.

“No problem.

-Yeah...”

Jerry followed the captain to the cargo room.

"If you please” he said while gesturing him to enter.

The room was dark and dimly lit and stank of mould and old remains of food.

“Pwah, do you ever wash that room? '' asked Jerry.

“Sorry, we were planning on washing it here once we've unloaded, before leaving. The company doesn’t really put priority on clean working environments.

-Yeah. Yeah, of course.

-Wait, what's the problem? Don't tell me that...

-Yeah, you look sus,” said Jerry. “Here, are we on better terms now?

-Oh, I...

-Now if you’ll excuse me, off to inspecting those crates.”

Jerry took his element detector out of his pocket and scanned the large white crates with it. Once the blue light was done scanning all the crates, a robotic voice came out of the detector.

“Diagnosis : 98% aluminium. 2.5% platinum. 0.4% silver. 0.1% gold.”

“Hmm,” said Jerry. “I was told the pirates were trying to smuggle several tons of platinum, and judging by the results, if you're carrying five hundred tons of metal, that means that...”

Jerry could see that the captain was sweating. Bingo! Those pirates were going straight to jail. Jerry was going to finish his sentence when he received a call on his comm bracelet.

“Commissioner?

-Hastings, you horsefucking idiot! You had literally one job! One!

-Excuse me, what? What do you mean?

-I just received a call from the ground police in Kaon! They saw the pirates we're looking for on the ground!

-What??? But... But the ship is right here! I'm inside it!

-According to the police chief, they passed the border in a shuttle, with the plat hidden in suitcases in the trunk.”
It took almost a minute for Jerry to process the news. A family ship... Suitcases in the trunk... No...

“I, uh, now that I have the details, I may indeed have made a mistake, '' he replied in his comm bracelet.

“Grrrr... You can say goodbye to your promotion Hastings. Damn, these pirates are getting smarter every day. But we'll get them one day, we'll get them!”
Jerry turned to face the captain.

“I'm sorry sir, looks like you're clear after all.

-Oh, thanks. Did you catch the smugglers?”
Jerry didn't answer. He went back to his cabin without even saying goodbye to the captain and his crew. He was going to need more coffee. Way more.

Chapter 1: How It All Began

Kalya

I still can't believe it worked. I can't believe the border guy was naïve enough to not see through our disguise. But hey, was I really going to complain? We were on the ground now, and on our way to our client.

“Good job guys,” said Captain Phoenix. “They suspected nothing. Hey, gimme five.”
Jack, Gabe, Cap and I all clapped our hands together.

“Man, I wish Ly'oa had been there to see it,” I said.

“Yeah, I know,” replied Gabe, “but unfortunately having a N'vath with us would've made passing the border way harder, criminal or not. Hopefully things will change in her lifetime, but for now, Alpha is gonna have to keep her company.

-The tin can, keeping her company?” laughed Jack. “Might as well be alone. Pretty sure she'd prefer that anyways.

-Come on, don't be harsh with Alpha,” replied Gabe. “She's not that sociopathic. Okay, maybe she is, but still.

-I still don't understand why people hate the N'vath so much,” I said. “Like, they're just defenseless refugees who had to flee their planet because of a civil war. They're already vulnerable enough as is.

-Guess people watched too many alien invasion movies, replied Jack.

-Yeah, sometimes it's hard to imagine that a society that cured cancer hasn't managed to get past racism,” said Gabe.

“Pigs!” suddenly yelled Cap.

He was right. We were followed by cops.

“I knew it couldn't be so easy, '' said Jack.

“Shut it and brace yourselves guys, we're going into maximum overdrive!”

Cap switched the shuttle to manual control and stepped on the gas. We were going full speed in the night streets, barely dodging the other cars. Autonomous cars were barely able to react to us and get out of the way, while their passengers were cursing and yelling at us, and the police vehicle behind us activated its siren. After several minutes of reckless chase, we took a sharp turn right into a small dirt road.

“Do you have any idea where you're going?” asked Jack.

“Of course,” replied Cap. “I'm following the map Mashima gave us. The rendezvous point is in a field outside of the city. And I know how to get rid of those pigs.”
The shuttle started shaking violently. Its wheels were merely landing wheels: it wasn't made for long ground travels. And that wasn't the worst part: we were out of the city now, but the dirt track we were following was a one-way road that led right into a brick wall.

“What the fuck Cap!” yelled Jack.

“Observe the pro” said Cap.

With a swift movement of the steering wheel, he managed to get us donutting in the grass untouched, while the police car crashed right into the wall.

“Hasta la vista, baby!” yelled Cap. “We won't be back!

-I didn't know you were such a good driver Cap,” I said.

“Hehe, looks like you still have a lot to learn rookie.”

***

“I was worried you wouldn't make it,” said Mashima as we finally reached the rendezvous point, his mature voice and groomed black hair contrasting with his leather jacket, torn out jeans and smart specs.

“Ah, Light Yagami, how's it going?” asked Cap. Takeshi Mashima was a regular client of ours, a black market merchant who relied on us to smuggle all sorts of supplies to Ganymede, usually rare materials and fuel.

“Just as good as you'd imagine. I see you haven't stopped calling people nicknames. I was wondering what you'd come up with this time. Are y'all alright? Where are the others?

-Ah, we're fine, don't worry. Ly'oa and Alpha are still on the ship, slightly out of orbit. We couldn't all make it, otherwise we would've been sus at the border.

-I see. So where's the loot?

-In the trunk. Wanna look?

-Yeah, duh.”

Mashima opened the trunk, took one of the suitcases and opened it. It was full of platinum ingots, freshly plundered from a cargo ship a month ago.

“Ah, it's good to see it arrive in one piece this time,” he said.

“Yeah, that other time was an accident. This time we took precautions to avoid having the coppers up our asses.

-Hence why the non-humans couldn't make it, I presume.

-Yeah, unfortunately.

-A shame, really.

-So, I guess you have the money.

-Ahah, of course. 20'000 as promised,” said Mashima.

“Nice,” replied Cap as the two proceeded the transaction on their comms.

“This one is super important to me, you know?,” said Mashima. “I've been supplying the N'vath refugees down in the valley for a while now. That place is a complete slum, so it's nice for them to be able to get some better stuff for cheap from me. I've done similar discounts for other alien communities in the past, so they decided to come to me. Human decency over money, you see. Unlike the ones at the top.

-Do they really need to make a deal with pirates to get it?” I said. “I'm sure the Ganymedan government would help them if they asked, right?

-Ah, I wish. But when they tried asking them for help and a little fucking decency, they told them to basically go fuck themselves because human rights don't apply to aliens, and their dosh would be “better” invested in yet another gold mine. They don’t give a shit.

-Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know.

-No problem. Have to admit that sometimes it's hard to imagine how cruel our fellow humans can be. Oh, by the way, I've been waiting to tell you something. I have a contact for a job that might interest you.

-Really? What is it?

-I've read in the news that a mining team from Maxwell Inc. claims to have found an infinite helix while mining in the outer rim of the system.”

“Wait, What? '' yelled Jack. “An infinite helix? You mean those ancient alien artefacts that supposedly contain infinite energy? Man, that's an urban legend. They don't exist.

-Actually they do, Jack,” replied Gabe.” Humanity hasn't achieved this level of technology yet, but scientists 100 years ago have discovered proof of an ancient alien civilisation that used such devices.

-Yeah, there's even one on display at the Aurora Academy Museum on Titan,” I said.

“A derelict one, yeah,” continued Mashima. "It was recovered by a scientific survey team in 2426. That's how we learned about them.

-And Maxwell claims to have found a functional one,” continued Cap. “Of course we've heard about it. It's all over the news.

-So you see where I'm heading?” replied Mashima.

“Wait, you don't think we can steal it, right?” replied Gabe.

“Why not? I've heard that a certain illegal collector known as Aaron Nemesis is ready to pay millions to anyone who can bring it to him.

-Really?

-Yeah, heard that from a previous guy I employed. He even gave me the guy's contact details in case you're interested.

-It's true that we haven't been to Galilea in a while,” admitted Gabe. “Maybe we simply missed the news.

-But it would be straight up suicide,” said Jack.

“Not necessarily,” said Mashima. “You'd be surprised how easily Maxwell got robbed of the plans for his next mining ship design a few years ago. He's going to hold a private salon in two weeks to show the helix off to his circle, on the Moon. Maybe you could try to infiltrate it.

-Risky,” I said. “We've never done something like that before. It's just asking to get busted.

-Come on guys,” said Cap. “We can't succeed at something if we don't try. The word impossible isn't in our vocabulary, remember? We defeated Atticus Bane and his crew. We can definitely do this.

-If Maxwell really has an infinite helix, that thing would be better off in the hands of someone who's not going to use it to exercise power over others,” said Jack. “To me that's motivation enough. As long as we're not going anywhere near Mars, I'm ready to face any challenge.

-So, you're in?” asked Mashima.

“Oh, you better bet we are.” replied Cap.