Spear Phishing

[Cinnabar]

"Oh, I bet a simple data collecting drone intentionally left there told you a whole lot. Especially one that does not interface with the neural net, and anything implanted in it was purposefully put there." She was not amused. Not by a long-shot. The little circus trick earned an audible sigh at best. If anything, she grew a little resentful, spending her afternoon by placing out that little drone, only to get a living solenoid switch turning her hangar into a bootleg rave party.

The weapons themselves looked like your run of the mill rogue Belial laser cannons. Hacked together in a way to be the perfect definition for the term “loose tolerances.” Except, not as rugged as the term implies. The interesting parts were the differences. On the side, there were plenty of these guns unmodified. On the craft itself however, every single piece was tinkered with in a different way. Each design facilitating a different heat management method, some combining more than one approach. Considering the improvement between the versions, the one missing must have been the most advanced product of the quartet.

"Judging from your capabilities, I’m better off not asking you any such. No matter how much the magic lamp is rubbed. I’d just get a couple of faulty lightbulbs." Her previous, pleasant melodic tone was gone for the most part. Replaced with something a bit more monotone as she jumps off the ship, in the direction of the spare gun parts.

"The original intention of the message was to figure out if the station was inhabited. Which, I got to know long before your arrival. More precisely, a second after my silly little message was received." Once near the parts she issued a few orders on a console, transmitted to two simple carrier robots. The machines lugging the parts up on top of the Bayonet. "A shame, really. I could have used that station to do my work in relative peace, without having to pay rent."