Task Force Predator departed the Cinach System with incredible montum. Nurous light carriers, combat carriers and so swift logistics ships moved in unison towards one of the nearest Lagrange points.
Once there, the fleet practically transitioned into FTL in unison. With over 40 carriers of different shapes and sizes making up the bulk of its composition, it didn't take much of a guess that the Larkinson Clan was about to go off on an expedition to the Nyxian Gap!
A lot of observers in the system imdiately sent ssages to other parties. As one of the most prominent Journeyn in the star sector, Ves already knew that his movents would be tracked.
There was no way to stop it as long as he and his fleet remained in civilized space. If he wanted to shake off pursuers, his task force would have to enter within the realm of the Nyxian Gap.
That would take a while. Until then, Ves could spend his ti on nurous matters.
The first issue he addressed was setting so solid goals for his excursion.
Once his implant connected to the Rim Exchange, his consciousness entered Granada Pri, a virtual city set aside for associates originating from the nearby star sectors.
A butler-like android with a curly moustache imdiately greeted his arrival.
[Welco back to the Rim Exchange, Apollo Radiant.]
Having entered the virtual portal of the Rim Exchange a few tis before, Ves had grown used to Gamma-Gamma-Hogan's presence. His personal attendant actually provided him with nurous useful functions.
"Have I received any mail?"
[You have received 351 ssages. Of these ssages, 351 of them have failed to go past the filters that you have configured. The total amount of ssages that await your perusal is 0.]
That was to be expected. During his previous visits, he couldn't resist spending so ti to tweak and update his Apollo Radiant avatar. Its ornate, clockwork-like bronze shell beca even more exquisite. His raised ch affinity elevated its quality further, allowing him to stand out from other low-level associates!
There were hardly any stupid people in the Rim Exchange. The Rim Guardian Fraternity specifically approached the best and most promising professionals in the galactic rim to take part in the Rim Exchange.
Combined with the fact that Granada Pri was filled with associates from the Komodo Star Sector, it did not take long for so of them to equate the Apollo Radiant avatar to the male half of the Miracle Couple!
Ves had no intentions of hiding the connection. His avatar advertised his current design ability, and conveyed his distinctive design style. On top of that, it also carried one of his characteristic glows. As the only ch designer able to incorporate them in chs, the evidence was rather conclusive!
Previously, Ves deliberately flaunted his avatar on the streets of Grenada Pri in order to attract attention and solicit offers.
It was too bad that most associates sought to leech from him or take advantage of him. This was why Ves did not react with surprise when Hogan filtered out all of the 351 ssages his Apollo Radiant avatar received.
"Hogan, please convert to my second avatar."
Within the snap of a second, his artful appearance as Apollo Radiant disappeared. In its place was a humanoid avatar that looked anything but elegant.
Consisting of rusted steel and other garbage materials, Junkyard Joe was the antithesis of his forr Rim Avatar. It looked like a shambling ss and every movent caused sothing inside to rattle or squeak. Its construction was so poor that it was already at risk of falling apart!
If that wasn't enough, a ratty, oil-stained piece of canvas covered the avatar's form, making it seem as if he was so kind of beggar in so neglected space station!
No one should be able to associate Junkyard Joe with Apollo Radiant. The differences were night and day. Even the worst Novices would have been able to cobble up sothing better!
The ugly lips of his avatar bent into a crooked smile. "I won't be disturbed this ti."
There were no limits to how many Rim Avatars an associate could make. The way the Rim Exchange was set up, it was easy to maintain anonymity. Ves did not wish for other associates to learn which missions he wanted to pursue.
"Stay here Hogan and continue to monitor my ssages. Please continue to monitor any announcents relating to high-priority missions."
[Very well, sir.]
When Junkyard Joe stepped into the public areas, the avatar hardly attracted any attention. Those that did study its construction only beca repulsed by what they saw.
Ves had practically taken every lesson he learned from Gloriana and perford the exact opposite! His ch was crooked, unbalanced, asymtrical and filled with so many flaws that it would have constituted as torture to his fiancé!
What he found amusing was that he was hardly the only associate who played this ga.
Multiple associates designed ugly and misleading avatars to obscure their identities and avoid attracting attention. Other people already knew that there was no point in approaching these kinds of people.
Ves even received so accolades from fellow connoisseurs!
"I love your creativity, Junkyard Joe." A crab-shaped avatar made out of rotting wood raised its malfunctioning claw. "You're in my top 10 list!"
"Thanks."
A human-sized cleaning bot stumbled upon his path next. "Wow, you look like you crawled straight out of a pirate dump. Can you teach how you're able to keep your avatar working at such horrible quality?"
"Get lost!"
Okay, maybe Ves had overdone it a little. Fortunately, he didn't encounter too many interruptions before he reached the rit Hall.
Hundreds of associates, so of them accompanied by their android attendants, looked up at the huge projected bulletin boards. Nurous missions issued by the Rim Guardians blinked on it. Ves imdiately approached the section of the hall that allowed him to view the missions related to the Nyxian Gap.
A very small number of avatars lingered in this section. Among the elites who managed to earn the acknowledgent of the Rim Guardians, hardly any of them possessed the stomach to venture in a region filled with danger and death!
"That's all the better for ." Junkyard Joe smirked.
The rit Hall operated according to supply and demand. Easy missions and those that attracted a lot of associates offered little reward. The ones that were difficult, risky or cumberso had to offer a lot more rits in order to solicit interest.
While there weren't that many missions that took place in the Nyxian Gap, almost all of them offered rewards that were well above average!
The ones that took place in the periphery already provided two to four tis as much rits as an equivalent mission in civilized space.
anwhile, the missions that required the associate to travel a little deeper could easily earn an associate ten tis as much rits as normal!
His Junkyard Joe avatar raised a rusty finger and rubbed its rough, rust-stained chin. "Many of the sa missions are still on the list."
A lot of listings consisted of deep, latent missions. They essentially demanded the associate to take a huge risk in order to travel deeper into the Nyxian Gap. Since hardly anyone was crazy enough to accept them, these missions had been languishing on the list for years, sotis even decades!
The longer a mission remained unfulfilled, the greater the rewards. As long as the Rim Guardians refused to delist the mission, the amount of rits and other benefits they yielded continued to balloon!
None of the missions were easy, though. Ves spotted nothing that sounded easy.
Right now, Ves just wanted to check if anything changed. He morized every outstanding mission, but accepted none of them. It didn't matter if he did because they were open missions, which ant that anyone could fulfill them at any ti.
So consisted of bounties. Others consisted of retrieval missions. A fair number even directed the associate to travel straight to a hazard zone and scout the life-threatening circumstances!
Ves just took note of them all, especially the ones that he might encounter along his planned route. He adopted an opportunistic mindset towards these open missions. If he could fulfill them along the way, he didn't mind doing so, but the odds of that happening was rather slim.
"I need to set a solid goal for myself."
He browsed the list until he found the mission that he had been eying for a ti.
[Rescue Mission
29 years ago, Solok Reyva, a talented Journeyman and a mber of the Rim Guardian Fraternity, ventured into the Nyxian Gap with a small but powerful fleet. Ten months into the journey, the MTA has lost contact with the entire fleet.
Solok Reyva was presud lost.
Several years later, small batches of high-quality chs began to circulate among the Nyxian pirates. Rumors have erged that the Krella Alliance, a minor but elusive pirate group in the Nyxian Gap, has captured a very capable ch designer and coerced him into working on commissions issued by various pirate clients.
The Rim Guardians have reason to suspect that the Krella Alliance has captured Solok Reyva and are exploiting him to this day. The design characteristics of the commissioned pirate chs bear at least so resemblance to Solok Reyva's prior work at the MTA.
The Krella Alliance is a fleet-based pirate group that is often on the move. It is well-connected in the deeper portions of the periphery of the Nyxian Gap and is always able to evade pursuit.
Track down the Krella Alliance and retrieve the ch designer that is responsible for designing the commissioned pirate chs. If the identity of the ch designer is Solok Reyva, then he must be brought back to MTA custody alive and as healthy as possible.
Due to prior failed rescue attempts, the Krella Alliance is on guard. Its fleet has beco much more difficult to track, and the chs its captive ch designers have designed no longer bear the design characteristics associated with Solok Reyva.
Reward: 2,500,000 MTA rits
Bonus: 2,500,000 MTA rits and 1 level associate status promotion if the rescued ch designer is Solok Reyva and alive]
This was the big one. Considering the composition and capabilities of his task force, Ves believed he had a decent shot at fulfilling this particular mission.
Rescuing Solok Reyva not only awarded him with a huge amount of MTA rits, but also elevated his associate status by an additional level!
The latter was pretty rare! It took a lot of effort to promote his associate status. While Ves had already gained one level due to receiving a masterwork certificate, that was just a one-ti deal.
Each level after 1 granted him a 5 percent bonus in every good and service offered by the Rim Guardians. If Ves was able to rescue Solok Reyva, then he'd be able to gain a 10 percent discount in total!
Compared to his old situation, Ves effectively had to pay 5 million rits less for a second-class fleet beyonder ticket.
Therefore, while the rescue mission only awarded him with 5 million rits on the surface, he effectively gained double if he obtained the additional discount!
Putting him one-tenth closer to fulfilling his great ambition was well worth it in his eyes!
"Six months. I'll spend six months at most."
If Ves failed to track Solok down, then he was ready to cut his losses at that point.
One thing was for sure. It wasn't going to be easy for Ves to close in on Solok and the Krella Alliance.
The pirates covered their tracks so that Ves effectively had to trace them by following the breadcrumbs in the form of the commissioned chs they sold.
Ves would have to access and inspect these chs in person in order to ascertain whether they were Solok's handiwork. This was incredibly arduous and required a ch designer of high skill in order to make this determination.
The reason why it wasn't possible to determine whether any ch was designed by Solok was because he was actually a rational ch designer!
The man was able to emulate multiple specialties!
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