Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 15:12:06 GMT
Sagan System: Triarch Space
“And you didn’t even know this was happening under your watchful gaze?”
He flicked the cigarette butt over the edge of the railings and into the clean spaces below for some poor man to clear up later before jabbing a finger towards the second man who stood near him. John Triarch was in full CEO uniform, his styled hair and flarish look well known throughout the company. The second man was Dax Adrian one of the main heads of R&D at Sagan, the third man behind John as always was his heavy built bodyguard Destro.
“No sir, we thought it was for some grand company project, ordered by you or the board for deployment. We didn’t think anything strange, we used the blueprints handed to us and produced what was needed to exact specifications as always. I swear to you that we had no idea you didn’t know” The man replied, he was chubby but handled himself well. John had personally appointed him around a decade earlier.
“And so nearly 120 of these units have been distributed to various locations around the Golden Expanse, which of course, have been scrubbed from the systems and nobody in your department even knows where they would be sent, what they exactly were and who you were building them for?” John asked again folding his arms. Dax held out his hands as a gesture of non-hostility.
“No, the pattern order was genuine, there is no way anyone outside the company could have sent something like that. Only you or members of the board could order something this big, we assumed it was for the war and directed everything we had to the order” The man was clearly scared, after all this could very well mean losing his job.
“And these units were then taken by whom? And are you trying to suggest that someone on the board of directors issued those orders? Can you give me a copy of the order right here and right now?” John was crystal clear. His investigation internally had taken him to Sagan to follow leads about the seeming infiltration of his company and the links to the strange sphere that had been seen in Thramas. While Amit investigated external leads and threats and while Trastain followed up the very source of the incident (that he himself had caused) Triarch meticulously tracked down leads within his own company, usually without knowledge of the board or those to be spoken to.
The space that they occupied was a small gantry way which formed a network above the various clean rooms, each one several hundred metres across and with kilometres of them spread across a monolithic warehouse with hundreds of floors both above and below the surface. The cleanroom below them showing the workings on some new stealth unit that was carefully and slowly being assembled.
“When each unit was complete they were picked up by unmarked Hammer class destroyers which then I assume took them to the destinations, it was only until after the final 3 were handed over did we notice the signatures they had used to sign for them were 3 years out of date. As for the order I can send you it right now” Dax brought up his small holo unit on his arm, flicking through several pages of organised files before reaching one. Triarch tapped his foot as he waited visibly making the man nervous “Here this is it” He flicked it across.
Triarch looked at the order on his own holo projector unit. Opening the file it instantly flashed bright before corrupting. The entire order came up as a jumbled mess of pixels before the holo unit crashed and began to reboot. The order on Daxs arm unit also suddenly did the same thing. He was stunned.
“How… That’s statistically impossible! How could anyone corrupt such an important file, we have the best anti malware units provided by EPA, nobody could imbed a destroying agent in the file!” Dax protested, he knew the situation looked worse for him. John merely sighed. He knew what was behind this, and he knew full well that any company or EPA anti malware system could be overcome. He only had wanted to know if the order had come from a compromised board member or not. It looked like another dead end.
“Dax do you remember who sent the order at least?” John said firmly. Dax shrugged before Destro took a step forward and fear made the man talk.
“Ok! It was Elis Priam that’s who supposedly sent the message, I don’t know if it was legitimate or not from him but it passed all checks I know of, if you have a problem please direct it at him I was only following orders” Dax pleaded. John narrowed his eyes. He never liked that excuse.
“Because of your actions the galaxy is now threatened in ways that you can’t even begin to understand. You’re hereby dismissed from the company, and all benefits and future pensions are forfeit. Do you understand?” Triarch explained in a flat tone of voice. Dax almost teared up, John watched, seeing the sadness slowly and then rapidly turn to anger.
“You can’t do this I am innocent! You are targeting the wrong person! I will file an official complaint that the board themselves won’t be able to ignore!” He shouted back, the protective shields above the clean rooms preventing anyone inside from hearing the commotion above.
“Maybe you are innocent, maybe not. I gave you this position and now because of what you have done I am taking it away again. Events are transpiring too quickly and too sensitively for me to allow you to kick up a public fuss about this. If word gets out it could ruin the company” John replied calmly. Dax growled before pointing a finger back in accusation.
“You’re going to silence me! How dare you! You willingly support a murderer such as Inara and back the APP in the name of freedom and money but you try to play the game of blame and saving face! This company is doomed anyway, I listened to them because they listened, they promised their actions would make things right again! Peace John Triarch! That’s all they are fighting for! What can be said about you?” Dax was somewhat maniacal now, he knew there would be one way out of this.
“Peace at the cost of every life other than theirs Dax. I’m not stupid. I never truly supported Inara, but it was the way the money flows. I may be a businessman but I have morals, and one of those morals is to stop horrific creatures from ending us as a species, but I guess in your intelligence you failed to see that part” Triarch retorted with a smile. The head of department growled in tense anger before going to pull a pistol from his holster. Before he could draw it and point it at Triarch, the CEO of the company had already shot him.
Dax barely managed to scream before he was vaporised in his entirety, the small compact glowing white device in Triarchs hand revealing its origin. Putting it away John turned to Destro.
“See that he is replaced with someone who we know is trustworthy. Purge everyone he was close to or had ties to that we suspect might be turned.”
“As you order sir. What of Eris?” Destro replied, his blunt tone of voice ever familiar to John. The CEO seemed to rub his chin and turned to the pile of ash that now laid on the catwalk.
“I will speak to our dear board member. Inform me of any more developments and leads. I will leave this to you” Triarch gestured to the mess.
“I am obligated to come with you sir, your life will certainly be in danger” Destro stated clearly. Triarch shoot his head and grinned.
“No this I must do alone. Besides I have some allies I will be able to call on to help me. One way or another this ends.”
“And you didn’t even know this was happening under your watchful gaze?”
He flicked the cigarette butt over the edge of the railings and into the clean spaces below for some poor man to clear up later before jabbing a finger towards the second man who stood near him. John Triarch was in full CEO uniform, his styled hair and flarish look well known throughout the company. The second man was Dax Adrian one of the main heads of R&D at Sagan, the third man behind John as always was his heavy built bodyguard Destro.
“No sir, we thought it was for some grand company project, ordered by you or the board for deployment. We didn’t think anything strange, we used the blueprints handed to us and produced what was needed to exact specifications as always. I swear to you that we had no idea you didn’t know” The man replied, he was chubby but handled himself well. John had personally appointed him around a decade earlier.
“And so nearly 120 of these units have been distributed to various locations around the Golden Expanse, which of course, have been scrubbed from the systems and nobody in your department even knows where they would be sent, what they exactly were and who you were building them for?” John asked again folding his arms. Dax held out his hands as a gesture of non-hostility.
“No, the pattern order was genuine, there is no way anyone outside the company could have sent something like that. Only you or members of the board could order something this big, we assumed it was for the war and directed everything we had to the order” The man was clearly scared, after all this could very well mean losing his job.
“And these units were then taken by whom? And are you trying to suggest that someone on the board of directors issued those orders? Can you give me a copy of the order right here and right now?” John was crystal clear. His investigation internally had taken him to Sagan to follow leads about the seeming infiltration of his company and the links to the strange sphere that had been seen in Thramas. While Amit investigated external leads and threats and while Trastain followed up the very source of the incident (that he himself had caused) Triarch meticulously tracked down leads within his own company, usually without knowledge of the board or those to be spoken to.
The space that they occupied was a small gantry way which formed a network above the various clean rooms, each one several hundred metres across and with kilometres of them spread across a monolithic warehouse with hundreds of floors both above and below the surface. The cleanroom below them showing the workings on some new stealth unit that was carefully and slowly being assembled.
“When each unit was complete they were picked up by unmarked Hammer class destroyers which then I assume took them to the destinations, it was only until after the final 3 were handed over did we notice the signatures they had used to sign for them were 3 years out of date. As for the order I can send you it right now” Dax brought up his small holo unit on his arm, flicking through several pages of organised files before reaching one. Triarch tapped his foot as he waited visibly making the man nervous “Here this is it” He flicked it across.
Triarch looked at the order on his own holo projector unit. Opening the file it instantly flashed bright before corrupting. The entire order came up as a jumbled mess of pixels before the holo unit crashed and began to reboot. The order on Daxs arm unit also suddenly did the same thing. He was stunned.
“How… That’s statistically impossible! How could anyone corrupt such an important file, we have the best anti malware units provided by EPA, nobody could imbed a destroying agent in the file!” Dax protested, he knew the situation looked worse for him. John merely sighed. He knew what was behind this, and he knew full well that any company or EPA anti malware system could be overcome. He only had wanted to know if the order had come from a compromised board member or not. It looked like another dead end.
“Dax do you remember who sent the order at least?” John said firmly. Dax shrugged before Destro took a step forward and fear made the man talk.
“Ok! It was Elis Priam that’s who supposedly sent the message, I don’t know if it was legitimate or not from him but it passed all checks I know of, if you have a problem please direct it at him I was only following orders” Dax pleaded. John narrowed his eyes. He never liked that excuse.
“Because of your actions the galaxy is now threatened in ways that you can’t even begin to understand. You’re hereby dismissed from the company, and all benefits and future pensions are forfeit. Do you understand?” Triarch explained in a flat tone of voice. Dax almost teared up, John watched, seeing the sadness slowly and then rapidly turn to anger.
“You can’t do this I am innocent! You are targeting the wrong person! I will file an official complaint that the board themselves won’t be able to ignore!” He shouted back, the protective shields above the clean rooms preventing anyone inside from hearing the commotion above.
“Maybe you are innocent, maybe not. I gave you this position and now because of what you have done I am taking it away again. Events are transpiring too quickly and too sensitively for me to allow you to kick up a public fuss about this. If word gets out it could ruin the company” John replied calmly. Dax growled before pointing a finger back in accusation.
“You’re going to silence me! How dare you! You willingly support a murderer such as Inara and back the APP in the name of freedom and money but you try to play the game of blame and saving face! This company is doomed anyway, I listened to them because they listened, they promised their actions would make things right again! Peace John Triarch! That’s all they are fighting for! What can be said about you?” Dax was somewhat maniacal now, he knew there would be one way out of this.
“Peace at the cost of every life other than theirs Dax. I’m not stupid. I never truly supported Inara, but it was the way the money flows. I may be a businessman but I have morals, and one of those morals is to stop horrific creatures from ending us as a species, but I guess in your intelligence you failed to see that part” Triarch retorted with a smile. The head of department growled in tense anger before going to pull a pistol from his holster. Before he could draw it and point it at Triarch, the CEO of the company had already shot him.
Dax barely managed to scream before he was vaporised in his entirety, the small compact glowing white device in Triarchs hand revealing its origin. Putting it away John turned to Destro.
“See that he is replaced with someone who we know is trustworthy. Purge everyone he was close to or had ties to that we suspect might be turned.”
“As you order sir. What of Eris?” Destro replied, his blunt tone of voice ever familiar to John. The CEO seemed to rub his chin and turned to the pile of ash that now laid on the catwalk.
“I will speak to our dear board member. Inform me of any more developments and leads. I will leave this to you” Triarch gestured to the mess.
“I am obligated to come with you sir, your life will certainly be in danger” Destro stated clearly. Triarch shoot his head and grinned.
“No this I must do alone. Besides I have some allies I will be able to call on to help me. One way or another this ends.”