The Hearse Incident

You awaken and immediately feel numb. Time has passed, you are sure, but you don’t remember how you got here. You feel as though something has sat on your limbs until they are devoid of sensation. A cold, hard surface meets your back. You attempt to open an eye but as you struggle to regain motor control something pulls back your eyelid and shines a bright light into your retina. You manage to lift your head up and slowly your vision bleeds into focus. Sensation streams back across your body as a warm nausea greets you. Sitting up, you swing your legs over the side of the medical slab. A resleeving engineer in a hygiene mask greets you silently as a message pings into your entoptics. Upon seeing who the message is from, your hazy amnesia suddenly makes sense… [Incoming Message Received. Source:Unknown] [Quantum Analysis: No Interception Detected] [Decryption Complete] Greetings Sentinel, We apologise for the hasty resleeve, but it is for good reason. You have done a great service to transhumanity this last week, but of course you will not be able to recall that. For security reasons it is best that you are not completely aware of the full details, however you are permitted to know that you stopped a terrorist consortium from nuking a Jovian hab. Sadly the device detonated on their ship with you on it, meaning we could not retrieve your cortical stack. Again we apologise for having to resleeve you from backup. Please do understand this is a standard occurrence for many Sentinels. Onto business. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of your previous deployment it will be best to brief you on your target in full. You will be attempting to arrest, eliminate, or otherwise stop a Barsoomian radical going by the name of Marco Shepard. So far he is wanted for seven different attempts to detonate nuclear arms within civilian and hypercorp habitats, multiple counts of forknapping, sleeving into illegal morphs in nine different territories, and trading in countless black market deals. It is worth noting he is also primarily sought after for the full scale egonapping of his ex-wife Angela Hearse, a gatecrasher who Shepard cornered immediately after her return to the system. Multiple hypercorps are willing to reward anyone who can return her safely to them. Marco’s full agenda is as yet unknown, but it is assumed he wishes to provoke a large scale armed conflict between the Planetary Consortium and the Jovian Junta. Intel has tracked his movements and heavily suggests he will be heading to a scum barge currently in the Belt to negotiate the purchase of a nanoswarm canister.

We have contacted the vendor and asked to meet in order to bid on the canister. This will give you the cover you need to arrive in person. Once you’re there, it is up to you how you will deal with Marco.

We would also like you to trace where the contraband originated from as accidental release of a nanoswarm could prove a potential existential threat. However, treat this as secondary, your main goal here is to apprehend Marco. You will be working with your team from last week. Of course, as far as you are currently concerned, you have never met them. They will have received this exact message too. Please find encrypted the approximate location of the barge. Good luck Sentinel. We are counting on you. [End Message] [This Message Has Self-Erased]