Agent 57 - Sol Federation Assassin
Neo Anderson - Chronically Depressed Tech Specialist
Capt. Richard "Dick" Falcon - Alcoholic Pilot/Ex-Cop
Bob Glob - Merchant Prince/Face Man
The party (minus Agent 57, who had not yet joined them) were gathered at the Glob family space-villa, relaxing amongst the various marble statues of Bob, when a Sol Federation shuttle landed nearby and a functionary trailed by a pair of armed guards walked out to meet them. Facing the slow collapse of his family's wealth, Bob had agreed to work for the SolFed in exchange for them repairing his ship's hyperdrive, a technological art now lost to all but a few. The bureaucrat invited Bob and the party to a meeting with Captain Carl Anders aboard the Second Horizon space station, which he accepted.
Centauri Orbit - An Offer You Can't Refuse
Shortly after leaving atmosphere, the sun disappeared behind the looming shadow of the Sol dreadnought SFS Genghis Khan, a constant reminder that, though Centauri had rejoined the Federation peacefully, they hadn't really had much of a choice. As they neared the Second Horizon station, which was now under SolFed control as a dual-purpose spacedock and administrative hub, they could just make out the distinctive hot pink paint job of the Glob family's Gambit-Class armoured freighter, the SS Patrick.
After docking with the station, they were lead to a large office with a breathtaking view of the planet below, and asked to take a seat by Carl Anders, alongside a silent, bald man of indeterminate age dressed in a crisp suit and holding a briefcase. Anders launched into the details of the mission they'd be undertaking as part of the Civilian Retrofit Program: they were to negotiate for and acquire 170 tons of hoverbikes from Winslett-Bentzen Industrial Technologies on Gral, a Mars-like planet in the Centauri system, and deliver them to the SolFed embassy on Quann, a system close to the Beta Wormhole, for 16.7 million credits. In addition, they would carry an encrypted datacore with messages for SolFed civilians in the embassy. Their contact on Quann would be Lieutenant Diane Morry, a member of the Logistics Service.