My next meeting with the rangers did not sound so good. While they did praise the wonderful work I had been doing for them. It appears there has been quite an uptick in farmers reporting people threatened to murder them over their lands. Some kind of critical key on why some farmers were being threatened while others were being left alone was still unknown.
I was at least getting closer to the ones pulling the strings. I was now fighting people who were closer to the source of it all. To fly to yet another location to see what information I could gather. I ended up getting ambushed above a planet.
Those flying the ships, however, were not very skilled. It was also clear they did not have a lot of money either. The ships went quickly down. It was more mild irritation than anything else their attempt to stop me was.
It was then time to scout out a factory that was having some unusual activity around and inside it. I was hoping I was closing in on the headquarters of the people behind everything. I, however, would not know for certain if this was just another lead that would be led elsewhere or if this was going to be the one.
There were quite some hostile lifeforms on this plant. I had not even made it yet to the structure and was looking to get a closer eye on it before needing to open fire. It must be some type of bird. All I do know is it did not like me being there. Almost like it was on the payroll of the people trying to stop my investigation.
The building itself was quite massive. There were lots of places for someone with a sniper rifle to hide. I took my time sweeping from one location to another. Eliminating any threats that crossed the hairs of my scope before proceeding to venture deeper into the abyss of the building. While it was a slow process, I felt like I was getting closer to the end.
For a while, I came across very little resistance. I’d find the social person that was guarding this place. Many times, they were not even aware I was there. I shot them before they realized an unauthorized person was inside.
That, however, did not last forever. There was this large bridge covered in molted lava of metal. There were snipers everywhere. It took me quite a while of popping in and out trying to snipe off what I could while avoiding any large hits on myself in return.
While exploring I found a computer that controlled the robots inside of this building. I ended up messing with the friend or foe settings and enabling the robots in combat mode. While I can’t quite tell how much of an easier time that gave me. On occasion, I’d come across a unit of dead soldiers.
It’s just a shame I was not around to see the robots turn on their former masters and take them out. Occasionally, I’d come across a robot that had failed its mission and was defeated first. They however soften up the remaining targets for me by quite a bit.
I then came across an area I was hoping their leader was held up in. It seemed to be quite a fortified position. I was, however, mistaken. It would not be that much further along till I found him. I was looking more for revenge at this point for any farmers they had killed than fully understanding why they were doing what they were doing. I was tired of the endless roadblocks and having to go from one person to another for yet another lead that was not moving things along fast enough for my taste.
I then found a separate section of the building that was labeled as command. In there was the person I had been seeking since the first farmer was threatened and I was in the mood to shoot first and ask questions later if anything survived. Granted everyone here was trying to kill me first leaving me little choice.
I managed to weaken their leader enough that he was willing to put down his gun and talk. At that point, I had taken out all his support around me. He was like a king without any subjects left. He could provide me with all the answers to my questions if he wanted.
What I was most shocked by was the fact I was given a chance to walk away. Not walk away and keep my life. I was given a chance to walk away and not be told what had been going on. As if it would be some kind of gift not knowing. Some say that would have been the best. I, however, had to get to the bottom of things.
The leader of the first was named Paxton. He was not someone who could be bullied around. While those who ended up funding him wanted to remain annoyances he refused and the people who needed his services bad enough agreed to reveille themselves.
It turns out the CEO of HopeTech was behind it all. He set everything up so he would look like a victim if anyone came to ask any questions. He also had quite a lot of pull being the political figure he was. He must have assumed no one would dare double-cross him let alone investigate him. He was wrong.
Paxton and his people were offered quite the contract to steal certain farms. When they could not do things at the rate HopeTech was hoping he even gave them information on how to steal one of their ships as payment for the services they were performing and to help speed things along.
Thankfully Paxton had kept some documents to prove everything. He, however, would not be living much longer. The battle with me left him in quite a weakened state and it was not long before he took his long breath. At least the conversation I had with him proved to be a valuable one.
It was then time to go after the man himself. The one pulling the strings this whole time. The CEO of Hopetech. I marched down to his headquarters and not wanting to waste any time flat out told him he was being implicated in quite many crimes. I wanted to see how he would handle the news.
After confronting him he then attempted to bribe me with a large sum of money. Hopetech themselves would not be paying for the bridge. Nope, he would use his position as a member of the council to pay for it. Which was far worse using public money than the private money of his company to do so in my eyes.
I not only rejected this bribe. I did so in a manner that allowed his second-in-command to fully understand what kind of evil things he had been up to as of late. She was rather outraged and no longer feared the company losing him as a leader.
While he tried to act like if I put him in jail his company would go under. It turns out his second in command was more than up for running the company. There would just be the massive mess he had left the company within their attempt to murder people and steal farmland.
As far as why he did what he did. It all boiled down to the company not doing so well. They attempt to diversify into fertilizer. Fertilizer that turns out to kill the crops but increases the mineral content of the ground providing the very resonances they needed to come back out ahead. So, he planned to let people use the fertilizer, steal the land, and mine the resources.
In the end, he was not willing to come with me to be put in jail. He left me with no choice other than to defend myself and take him out. It seems he was not willing to try and run his company from prison or find some other way to get out of the situation he put himself in down the road.
Final Thoughts
With the case now closed I was promoted to the rank of Ranger. I was given a ship as my final reward but the one I have is already quite amazing. Along with some other stuff that I’d later toss into my base and long forget where I even got it from or why I was holding onto it.
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Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Starfield.
Disclosure: Starfield received for free through AMD rewards from the graphics card I purchased.