Getting to the planet had been rather easy for her. The asteroid field had been light though the black hole had been more of a challenge. The effect on gravity around it had been easy to determine. When she grew close to the planet she was contacted by flight control and given her coordinates to land. It was underground and the doors opened to accept her ship into the mostly hollowed out planet. The surface city did not possess the environment for organic life and it was protocol to draw ships here unless supplied with a code during the exchange with flight control.

The under city was more magnificent then the one above as that only functioned for the droids. This had artificial lighting and the ceiling appeared to be a sky giving the illusion she was on the surface. Of course she realized that the sky was holographic but just how much of the ceiling was designed in such a way?

The port had several other ships. She had not been the only organic one here though. There were many spacers that were dealing with droid custom agents and she had to deal with one of her own that asked what she was bringing. Some ships were search and others were not, hers had been too small for them to bother with or more likely the computers directed the droids in a random logarithm.

She felt that she was being scrutinized though by some of the aliens, though more in a way that they seemed to be checking her out rather then having any suspicions about her. One seemed to heck her out more then most, his desire was there without a doubt but the aliens seemed well behaved with the droids around at least.

Either they didn't want to loose privileges or realized that even the strongest among them would be trapped here unless the central computer allowed for them to depart. She saw why she was being checked out with such intensity though. The alien was a slaver. His cargo had been six slaves that he exchanged with a massive droid that seemed rather out of place. It was tough to determine if it or Aegir had been taller though it looked more like a war machine then a merchant.

It did something with a datapad, transferring funds no doubt and gave it to the slaver then took the slaves loading them into the back of a paddy wagon marked with strange symbols … not galactic basic yet familiar, she could not read it at present but could commit the symbols to memory at least. The droid turned away from the slaver, the slaver looked at her, hot her a smile and drifted to the ramp of his ship though it remained open as if in invitation though she realized that his business had not been finished here more likely than not.

For a pilot like Lieutenant Minerva Rocha, flying to the planet was not very difficult for someone of her skill. The asteroid field was not very dense and fairly easy to navigate. It was the black hole that required some thought on how to reduce the impacts of its gravitational pull. But as long as Minerva was not to intimidated and did not underestimate the work involved, she would be able to make it through just fine. It did not take long before she was give coordinates to land her ship inside the city within the planet.

As Minerva’s Lancer soon begin to approach a set of large doors that allowed access from the surface city to the underground city. According to Aegir the surface city was for robots and droids only and did not support any organic life. It was only once she got inside the planet, that the agent saw the underground city was just as impressive as the surface city. Complete with an artificial sky for the organics in the city.

As she landed in the port, the redhead noticed that there several other ships, with other organics in and around them. As soon as she landed, she moved to back to the ship and change from her flight suit to her dress uniform. Just as she finished putting on her red uniform with pink mini-skirt, the agent noticed a customs droid approaching her ship.

Minerva stepped out and claimed that she had small precious metals to trade, something the customs droid seem to accept at face value since it did not ask to scan her ship. As she dealt with the customs droid, she could feel the aliens in the port checking her out. One in particular seemed to be viewing her as if she was a piece of meat to be savored, but at least he seemed to be his behavior among the droids.

The alien soon went to work discussing something with the custom droids while still talking an occasional look at Minerva. Soon it became clear what he had to sell, as he directed six women out of the ship and into full view. He then pointed to a massive droid even as he spoke to the customs droid. Apparently he was exchanging the women for the massive droid, something that looked like a war machine.

This raised lots of questions in the red head’s mind. Why would these merchants have war machines for sale? What would the droids need slaves for? She watched as the droids loaded the females into the back of a paddy wagon with some unfamiliar markings. The slaver took one last of her, smiled, and then began to move up the ramp into his ship. It looked like he was going to stay for a while. She would have to finish her deal with the custom droid before she could investigate further however. Hopefully it would just take the previous metals at face value and allow her to move on.

The massive droid did not go with the slaver. From what she made out the large droid had taken charge of the slavers. There must have been some exchanges going on though eventually the slaver returned to his vessel and the war machine left on foot.

Her time hadn't been held up long. The customs droid just made a note of what she was bringing in, where she was docked and offered any maintenance services at reasonable rates. Her fuel levels were good and vessel had not been damaged so repairs and replacement parts had been unnecessary at this time.

She was left their and while she drew more then a few looks from the organics, particularly some nasty ones no one made a move. They knew they were trapped here if the droids sprang into action or suspected them of anything though she still had to keep her guard up. There was a chance something could happen and elude notice until the perpetrator was well away from here.

She had a few options though. There was the slaver, his ship was opened and ramp down as if he was waiting for something. Being direct with him or sneaking aboard his ship to snoop around had been options … there was looking into that logo on the paddy wagon or even dealing with the war droid who walked off entering a building note to far down the street that looked to be a pub of some sort.

It seemed that most of the immediate needs of the organics had been near the port. There was a plethora of maintenance droids. Some security droids and even some protocol models that were kiosks for information for new arrivals and old alike from what she gathered. At least they seemed so, they were out of the way and immobile. Occasional she would see someone ask the droid something and it would point or answered though she was too distant to make out any words. The alien would then move along. For the most part though the kiosk droid wasn't getting too much attention though she only noted it for a short while now.

Minerva watched as the massive droid seemed to go with the slaver but then stop after a moment it stopped as another saver approached. It began to interact with the other slaver making it clear that her first impression was incorrect. Instead of going with the slaver, the machine must have been here to ensure the slavers behaved. It continued to move among the slavers until it was satisfied and the massive war machine left on foot.

The custom droids quickly seemed to record what the agent claimed to have to bring for trade and quickly offered her a list of maintenance services. The redhead noticed that the rates seemed reasonable compared to what she had seen in other places in the galaxy. Stilll her Lancer seemed to be in fine shape and had plenty of fuel, so she shook her head at any requests. The custom droids then moved on leaving her be for the moment.

That only left the other aliens that were in this massive dock, many of them seemed to be undressing the agent with their eyes. Still none of them did more than watch as the red head moved across the room, too afraid of what the droids would do if the aliens dared to attack her. Still the agent knew better than to let her guard down.

While she moved she reviewed her options, there was slaver ship. He seemed to have left his ramp down for some reason. There was also the logo on the vehicle that took the slaves away. In addition to the security droid which seemed to be heading to pub. Minerva knew she would have to track down all these leads to understand what was going on. For now though the agent would need to follow the lead that was least likely to stick around.

That was the slaver. Though he did have his ramp down in anticipation of something, she had no idea how long he was going to stay. For now the redhead would sneak up quietly to the ship and see if she could sneak in without being seen.

The advantage with the droids had been clear. As long as she was not interfering with them she could do just about anything in front of them. Surveillance models and security ones would have been the exception.

But otherwise most paid her no mind even if she was doing something wrong. This allowed her to sneak about easier as there were few of those sorts of droids around. Enough to dissuade people but unless there was a huge commotion she certainly had an easier time of matters.

Organics were different though timing was key there. Many were distracted by their own business. Though several had gazed at her when she was out and about though taking care to sneak about she was able to keep out of their sights.

When it had been clear enough she got aboard the ship of the alien slaver. It was cool as if an air conditioner had been running, some sort of environmental control she figured. It was clean too. There didn't seem to be anyone else around either. The transport could be handled by one person though a second person would have made things easier it was not mandatory.

The ramp lead up into the cargo bay. She could see the large cage there for the slaves that where just exchanged. There were other crates here with equipment that a slaver would find useful like slave collars and restrains. Some electro shock lances to stun slaves and so on. Most of the collars were simple though there were a few expensive models too that could recondition slaves.

The alien was probably expecting to load up something soon given that the ramp was still down.
Getting out of the cargo bay she would find that the ship was still. The lights were still on and she would soon hear noise from one of the rooms, probably a bedroom.

It sounded like someone going through a box in search of something. She could hear things being taken from the box and set on the floor as something was searched for deeper in. Then a brief pause, perhaps the alien had a memory at seeing something that he wasn't searching for as soon after she heard the noise resume again.

He seemed occupied though she had options too. Checking logs and hoping that he stayed occupied, even interrupting. Either way there were risks if anyone came to load the ship. Checking logs would bring her to the cockpit so she wouldn't have to worry about the ship suddenly blasting off either since the alien would have to arrive there before hand.

Dealing with the alien was more direct but if she was discovered here and the droids found out then that could be worse. Of course if the droids didn't know she could keep him unconscious or in one of those cages and just hope no one discovered him until she was long gone.

The droids for their part, did nothing to interfere with agent’s efforts as she snuck over to the ship. They seemed to be uninterested in the redhead’s movements for the moment. It seemed as long as she didn’t disrupt any activity, her actions didn’t interfer with their activities.

Even better the droids seemed to be act as a sort of cover. Most of the other organics really did not want to move through in sight about the droids, their instincts to cover their tracks influenced their behaviors.
The aliens that were interacting with the droids seemed to only do so to conduct their business. Though her attractive frame caught their eye every once in a while, business allowed her to escape their view and get out of sight.
As soon as she thought it was clear, Minerva snuck on board the alien slaver’s ship. A blast of cool air hit the agent as she entered the ship. The redhead now reconsidered her pink mini-skirt though it was too late now. She continued into the ship, amazed at how clean it was considering there appeared to be only one alien running the ship.
The cargo bays showed the earmarks of a classic slaver. It had a large cage where the alien could keep the slaves. The agent inspected some of the boxes nearby and found collars and restrainsts to hold the slaves as well as electrical stun lances to make sure they cooperated. There were some fancy collars as well but the agent needed to move on.

That made the agent wonder where the owner was. He clearly waiting on something since the ramp was still down. A quick check of nearby hallway showed that its lights were still on and the agent thought she heard something from one of the rooms.
The agent quietly snuck up to the door and placed her ear against it. She could hear what sounded like someone was searching something. The searching stopped for a moment, making Minerva’s heart skip a beat. Did he hear her? No, as it turns out, the young woman heard the searching began again focused on a box or something.

This gave the agent the opportunity to checkout the bridge and see if she could find some logs that would give her clues. It had the added the benefit of keeping the redhead away from the cargo bay where someone was eventually going to load something on board. She would have time to figure how to sneak out once they begin loading.

As the agent headed into the bridge, she silent cursed herself for not taking the one of the shock lances with her. If the alien found her she could shocked him and put him the cage. She still had her own hand to hand skills and most likely the element of surprise, but hopefully it won’t come to that. She wanted to check the logs and get out.

As she made her way along she did see a droid. It was small, about the size of a shoe box and wheeled. A maintenance model or cleaning droid, probably not one from the planet. She could guess that it had all sorts of retractable cleaning agents and had been the reason why the ship was so neat.

If it spotted her it ignored her. Droids without AI were simple and stuck to their tasks. Even those with AI were rarely those that dealt with anything beyond their duties unless they were exceptional or security models that dealt with them because it could affect their primary role … essentially it was an interference with their primary goals.

Making it to the bridge she checked out the computer. The logs were easy to get through for the most part. Criminal activity would be hidden but the ADD had to take the backdoor with security systems and what not. There were some tricks too.

Such as when a ship erased logs of visiting certain planets. A blank log would be too suspicious and looked at thoroughly for evidence. Often planets were deleted especially places like Vanejen. It was a simple matter of checking fuel logs at that stage to find a range between fueling, sectors and so forth.

Complicated information was left to the agents with the skills to handle it but most agents had a basic understanding of a few tricks. Though she was in luck. Slavery was not illegal here and the ship had been sticking to areas that the ADD hadn't patrolled mostly the lawless fringe.

Logs showed activity from the ship going to place to place and this world had been a frequent stop. There were two others. Vanejen she recognized but the other she did not. It was just a string of coordinates indicating it was discovered but not explored or logged as of yet.

Whether or not there had been additional information on that place had been another matter. But what she found had been odd. The cargo brought here had been slaves. The numbers varied but the log showed a list of slaves and a date that they had been unloaded. Then the same number of slaves were taken from here on the same dates.

A transfer of sorts? Though she remembered the slaver making a transaction too. Was it a transaction for the slaves though or did it just seem that it was? Comparing times between unloading and loading cargo she had a good deal of time. Hours in fact so getting out of the ship should be easy if she could avoid the slaver.

There was some contact information too. Most were possible criminal contacts though there was one that stuck out since they were on this world. Ven … that name somewhat familiar, there was another string of numbers so she would have to prioritize or search for a means of recording the info as that planet had just been a string of coordinates she wasn't likely to retain all that information in her head long enough to write it down. One maybe but both was more than a challenge.

Minerva continued to make her way along, as she did saw she spotted what seemed like a droid. It was a tiny droid, it seemed like more of the a remote controlled model car than that of a droid. Still it had apparently been designed for cleaning.

The little droid ignored the agent as it simply went about its task of cleaning the ship. As long as the redhead did not interfere with its assigned duties, the droid was going to leave her alone. Even if did get upset with her, there seemed like it would be able to do little but complain and probably simply move on.

Soon the agent made it the bridge. Quickly Minerva began to explore computer logs to see if she could find anything. The agent was by no means an expert hacker, but she had been taught a few tricks about computers.

For example there was large sections that were blank, clearly sections that had been erased. Often this meant a ship had visited a slave world like Vanejin. The agent would have to calculate fuel logs to determine which of the erased logs covers such a world.

Minerva continued to explore more of the tape. Fortunately for the young woman she had found that the planet they were currently on was in the logs. Apparently this planet allowed slavery and its trip through the fringes of space made it easier to track.

Vanejin was way too obvious place and Minerva instantly recognized it in the logs. However, there was the two other planets in the logs and Minerva did not recognize any one of them, what ever planets they were the ADD did not have any information on them.

The logs contained more information, more information on exactly what the ship was carrying. Bringing slaves here had already demonstrated, but it made little sense. Worse than that was a few hours later a number of slaves equal to ones taken off were placed back on board. Were they same ones? If so what was going on here?

She had thought the transition was for slaves? Now it seemed like it was that the girls were being placed in the robots hands for some sort of service. Minerva need to find out now more than ever, fortunately the slaver was not expecting to load the cargo for several hours. This would allow the agent to sneak back off the ship and explore a bit more.

There was some information on contacts, which would give Minerva some leads on where to look next. There was somebody named Ven, the agent was sure she had read a file him somewhere. And there was another string of numbers. It was simply too many for the redhead to remember, she would have to make a copy of those numbers. They were most likely a string of coordinates, but the agent would have to print them. She began to the look for something to copy the logs either through a drive, or maybe as simple as printing the info out.

There had not been a means of printing a hard copy of the material though a search of the area uncovered some data cards where she could record the information to. Data cards could be read by any datapad and she found five blank discs that must have been used in similar fashion. There was no datapad though and she could surmise that it was with the captain. It made the most sense seeing that datapads were in common use in most places though a card could hold an enormous amount of information they were often sold by sets so she could infer that the captain had one loaded into his datapad already.

Able to record the information it was a few tense moments though the droid continued to go about cleaning no one arrived fortunately. She was able to sneak back off the ship and that was easier then sneaking on in the first place since it was expected that people would leave a ship.

No one was paying her too much attention and the droids that may have seen her didn't seem interested at all. Since it was fairly standard getting a datapad was easy by simply grabbing one off her ship though on of the information droids could have read it too as there were slots designed in those things that would allow her to insert one.

Getting a datapad herself was no problem and she could access the information whenever plus jot down any other details onto the card herself as she learned more.

Once that had been all taken care of there were a few options open to her. There was looking into that stone for Aegir too, the war droid she saw or even the logo on that van. The logo, if she described it to one of the information droids as the kiosk may be able to grant her an idea about it.

Other options included checking out either of those planets and making contact with Ven though she may not have wanted to do the later until she knew more of what was going on here.

Minerva could not find a way to print a copy of the material, frantically she looked up that for some data cards nearby. The redheaded agent eventually found five blank discs, perfect for copying the data. She would have to get herself a datapad, but that would not be hard as they were in use throughout the galaxy. The young woman did not see one on the bridge, she assumed the captain probably was holding on to his and it would not be available for the redhead to “borrow”. For now the agent would just have copy the data, put the disk in a pocket.

There was a few tense moments as the copying files icon seemed to take forever. The droid continued to clean completely unaware of the tension in the room. Finally the files were copied and the agent was able to sneak back off the ship.

Once she was outside she found herself back in the world of the droids. They did not seem to miss her or even notice she was gone. The droids continued on with their business and tasks as if she was not there at all. This made it easier for the agent to figure out what to do next as she moved away
from the slaver’s ship.

Minerva knew she had to see if she could find more information on Aegir’s stone. She also wanted to find out more about the logo on the van. The redheaded agent decided to head over to one of the information droids to see if she could gather some basic information on both. It would also give her a chance to read up on the basics of the data she retrieved from the slaver’s ship.

The information droids were shiny and among the best maintained droids always updated, repaired or replaced. Some of the security models, the few she had seen, had been dingier reflecting the fact that they did dirtier work or got banged up but even these were in relatively good working order. Their color wasn't as shiny and there might be some scratches or dents.

As she approached the droid became more animated. The droid had been more then happy to help designed to deal with all sorts of off worlders. She had to be a little more specific about the stone, ore was imported to the planet the droid informed her. Unusual stones that met the described parimeters of shape caused the droid to pause. It asked for any sort of properties or materials about the stone itself and took three or four minutes to run through a data base.

-NO MATCHING CONFIGURATIONS REPORTED-

It concluded. No matching properties or stones of a particular type if provided. A triangular shaped stone with runes etched in it may have been set aside as a curiosity or a droid just ignored it and carried out it's duties. It may have seperated any unusual materials that it was not designed to smelt. In any case it was not reported and would be virtually impossible to discover if it were. In any case it was easy to deal with Aegir's task leading her to wonder just how much he disliked dealing with machines if it were this easy, perhaps he may have been compelled to do a bit more digging but she doubted he would have uncovered much else.

As far as the logo went that was a bit more detailed. A portion of the chest of the machine opened revealing a computer screen. Downloading image took a minute or two before those images started scrolling by, the first ones being those that could have fit with her description.

It was the eleventh image. -THAT ONE … PROCESSING … IT IS REGISTERED TO THE DEVIL'S EMPIRE … THEY HAVE A BUSINESS HERE CALLED POSSESSION DO YOU WISH FOR AN ADDRESS OR FURTHER INFORMATION?-

The data card she had could even be inserted into the droid where she could have information recorded for her or even read that which she had. For the moment though the droid waited for her response.

The information droids were pretty easy to spot among the many droids on this planet. They were the least worn among the droids here. It made them look brand new compared to the dinged and scratched droids that was made up security. Clearly the security droids had seen a lot of attention during their use here.

The first information droid the agent found become more and more animated as she asked for help. The first thing she asked for was the stones that Aegir had been looking for. Providing a description of the shape and color, the agent was not sure if a legendary item would be in the memory banks of some droid. However, the droid after several reported did not find anything in its database that matched the stone that Minerva described.

Minerva sighed. This meant that if a droid had found some sort of stone of that description it would probably discarded it. That would make it far difficult to track down. Unless they had some place they dump their discarded stones. Even then it would take a while to sort through those stones to find something that clearly did not need to fa into the wrong hands. She would eventually find it but the task would take longer than she wanted.

The droid went on to check the description of the logo that the redhead gave. Minerva was rewarded with a computer screen that showed many logos. The droid began to the show many logos scrolling through each one. Most were close, but not what the agent was looking for. Eventually, one did match what Minerva remembered. That one! The droid stopped and explained that is assigned to someone called the Devil’s Empire and they have a business called Possession.

Really, that doesn’t make any sense. She wondered if maybe the slaves were being possessed by entities or something. Add what information and address you have on this “Posession” on to this data card. Also read it to me outloud.

The information was written to her disc in little time, quicker than the droid explained it to her. She was given an address and the droid even brought up a map with her present location marked and the “offices” of this place. It was not far, a ten minute walk or so, a brusque drive when transporting a lot of stuff.

The droid relayed that a company name could be anything that was submitted and not taken by others. There were few off worlders that established businesses here though and most that had just left droids to run things.

Possession was much the same way. There were no organics here that ran it and their offices had been little more than a warehouse … it rattled off that it was powered now, and even could look into some of the expenditures. The van was something that had been purchased as well as tools, cybernetic components and security droids.

It was started up by a Hel'Corian named Cinder representing members of the Lemur Cluster, also known as the Devil's Empire to some. Perhaps the name that they filed their business under was just a play in that.

Their permits and the like were all up to date. They were new too, just entering into three months but there were no records as to what they sold if anything. It seemed there was a record of them buying things but not selling them. Minerva wouldn't find anything under slavery but there had been expenditures for cybernetics with transactions moved from their finances to various off worlders. Droids had no use for cybernetics though if they exported them had been another matter. Of course the cybernetics could be the slaves too.

In charge of everything at this site was an AI from Possession. Contact details could be brought up. It was been a droid that had been constructed off world and left here that went by the designation Tinman. It had seemed to her that the information droids were connected with a wide array of computers or that they had all been connected to a central one and thus gaining detailed information would take mere minutes at most.

The agent had conveniently copy the company’s information as part of the data dump she got from the ship. It had taken far longer for the droid to report the address of company than for it to even find it on the disk. The droid was able to bring up the location of this company’s offices, they appeared to be not too far away.

The droid explained that even though this was a company created from the outside, it was really run by droids that were here. How that arrangement was made was deep in the details of the paperwork and something Minerva would investigate later.

The droid relayed that a company name could be anything that was submitted and not taken by others. There were few off worlders that established businesses here though and most that had just left droids to run things.

Based on what the droid was stating, that the “office” was in fact nothing more than a glorified warehouse. Surprisingly to the agent, the droid could detect what was powered on in the warehouse and could list of some of the purchases such as the tools and cybernetics components. The redhead made a note of the security droids.

Apparently a Hel’Corian named Cinder found this company with backing from a group from the Lemur Cluster. Minerva did not know much about this Lemur Cluster other than she had heard rumors that it was called the Devil’s Empire.

Strangely the company did not sell anything, simply purchasing stuff. This was odd to the agent for she would have thought that business would have to sell something to remain in business. Apparently they had been purchasing a lot of cybernetics. Were they being used on the slaves that were being transported here? The agent find the implications of such cybernetics to be frightening to young woman. Still she had nothing to go on at the moment, she would have to investigate further to get a better understand this company.

There was some sort of droid named Tinman that was in charge of all the operations of Possession. The droid apparently was not built here, but ran anything anyways, probably an oddity give the way this world works. She needed to head to warehouse to see if she could get a better understand of how it worked.

The warehouse/offices were in a respectable area. There were no slums here but none of the droids paid her any attention as long as she wasn't in the way and when she was they went around her. The only droids that paid her any attention were those she addressed or some of the roving security models. She was not singled out but they seemed to keep tabs on organics.

There were fewer security droids away from the port and the vicinity around it as there were fewer organics elsewhere so the only security models she had to worry about were any that happened to be inside. There were a few droids about other locals in the front of the warehouse. None at the back.

The grounds of the warehouse had been large. In the yard was the same van she saw at the space port earlier. Creeping about she saw that it was empty but parked near the rear doors of the warehouse. They were two doors present, one larger for moving in cargo, crates of cybernetics she guessed and a smaller door sized for humanoids.

The yard itself had a few other vehicles and she had to avoid a security droid that was doing the rounds. There seemed to be only one on the outside so it was easy, security may have been tighter inside. It seemed that they didn't expect anyone to brake in.

The larger doors were locked but the others had been unlocked. The warehouse was active. Half of it was dark, inactive areas. That made sneaking about easier knowing ahead of time where the problem areas would be.

Security droids did not seem to be active in the “dead” sections other then the warehouse itself but it was so large with plenty of crates that it was easier to hide and move about. Getting into the crates would be tough without the proper tools but there were a few terminals that probably listed the contents of the place.

It was tough to say how many security droids were here but she could hear their repulsors before she saw them and thus it was easy to figure out when to make herself scarce. The droids hovered with their repulsors they moved themselves along. She had to be careful though as a floating droid made no noise at all she noted more then once as a droid passed her by, stopped and scanned then moved along once again. While they were paused there was no noise.

The droids were cheap, mass produced models that would be a threat in large numbers but easy to deal with otherwise. They were about the size of a basket ball with two arms ending in blaster cannons. They were known for having internal comlinks that allowed them to make updates to a central computer or receive orders and the weapons were often able to switch to a stun setting good for dealing with riots. A trained soldier shouldn't have much of a problem dealing with them. Their intelligence was meager too, unless receiving updated orders their habits were quite predictable.

Access the computers she would discover there were no locks on it. The crates possessed cybernetics for the most part and some spare parts and tools for fixing droids. Oddly there was some medical equipment here for organics. A blueprint of the building could be found here as well, there had been several areas like this and a few offices that were used when the organics were here she guessed. What caught her attention was an area in the basement labeled as the holding area and a spot down the hall from their that was a fairly large area listed as the theater.