Challenge #02240-F050: A Crucial Flaw
"New Eden Space Station Security Service, I'm listening."
"HELP ! WE NEED HELP !"
"Please keep calm. What is happening, Sir ?"
"We tried to rob Habitat 39 and there is a angry human inside ! We locked ourselves inside a locker, and the human is waiting for us outside !" -- Anon Guest
They tell stories about this kind of thing. People who attempt to be criminal masterminds and end up being criminals missing minds. As in, the right mind not to burgle a Deathworlder habitat zone. As in, one would have to be entirely out of one's own right mind to even try it. You likely get the idea.
Security Officer Draek couldn't believe her ears. "Sir, did you just confess to committing a crime?"
"Attempted," said a voice in the distance. "Attempted crime!" There was a note of urgency in the other speaker's voice. "Please just get us out of here alive and with our dermal layer intact, I swear I will go into a more honest career..."
She had a trace, now. She sent an alert to more local law enforcement and kept the comms line open. "Please remain calm and tell all who are with you to remain calm, please, Sir."
The first speaker said, "Shut it! They're on their way."
The distant companion said, "I never thought I'd be grateful for incarceration. Learn something new every day."
"While we're all waiting for Security Intervention," said Draek, "Can you detail the exact chain of events to the best of your recollection? Please remember that this conversation is being recorded and clear audio is desired in the courts of law."
They say there's no law in the Edge Territories. This is completely wrong. There's a plethora of laws in the Edge. It's just that some of them are ridiculously local and more than a few are very personally enforced with something approaching extreme vengeance.
Even things like, Don't break into Deathworlder habitats, though more of a suggestion and therefore not codified into official law, can be rigidly and ruthlessly enforced if the Deathworlder in question decides to get upset about the entire thing.
"We know that these Humans had come back with a rich haul," began the caller.
Oh dear. That just complicated things. Draek sent a ping to the responding officers. Absolutely Humans Involved. They may not have been the smartest, fastest, most toxic or strongest of the Deathworlder races, but that didn't matter because Humans has a way of grinding at opposition until it was too exhausted to continue. Some actions had a Human following a cogniscent for years, good or ill, to repay what they thought was owed.
Going in against Deathworlders was one thing, but going in against Humans? They would be lucky to escape with mere charges of breaking and entering.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / sdecoret]
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