After changing out of my long leather cloak and throwing my boots into another corner of the room, I quickly did my night routine in the bathroom, tied my white hair into a small ponytail at the back of my head, changed into more comfortable sweatpants and, with a marker between my teeth and Wisp's folder in my hand, I threw myself into my bed. I was looking past the pink frosted hair tips that were too short to make it into the ponytail as I carefully studied all the files I was given about the Captain. Some 6"3 punk who wasn't satisfied with daddy's money alone and broke free to do things his own way, the criminal, murder way that is. Definitely not relatable to anyone who's ever struggled to pay their bills on time. His crew seems to consist of seven more individuals. I flipped through the folder to see if there were any reports on who these people were but not a single sentence was written about them other than that they didn't hold back for anyone. Apparently, they didn't include murder in their plans but in case someone, anyone really, got in between them and their plans, they would be forcefully removed. No matter the consequences. 

Their space shuttle was a model ST-EED-26, short for Stealth-Speed built in the year 3226, that they stole from a darker corner of the solar system. They were smaller than the common shuttles and could fit only up to 15 passengers, very hard to get a grip on without using harpoon guns to hook it, or the knowledge of which gas station provides ST-EED fuel. Their thrusters required a different fuel,  that was a lot more explosive to achieve the speed, which makes me wonder how they have remained uncaught for this amount of time already when they have to dock at special space stations that provide this fuel. Even if the personnel were under a rug with them, the amount of liters used by the stations was strictly monitored due to the fuel's high explosivity. Something just didn't add up and I uncapped my marker, drawing a big yellow line over that section of the file. I was gonna have to get some more research done about this bunch of villains. There were still loads of papers at the back of the folder, which after a peak, I realized to be all the missing and dead people associated with their actions. It was a good stack but after a peek at my wristwatch, I decided to deal with all that the next day. There was gonna be a lot of further research for me to do before I would be ready to tackle this case. Shoving the folder on the floor, alongside the pen, that I tried to haphazardly throw back onto my desk, I stretched out on my mattress and threw the blankets over me. I turned to look out my window into the vast expanse of space and cuddled into my many pillows, slowly letting my eyes fall closed.

The next morning started early and peaceful as I fell straight out of my bed when the alarm ripped me from my dreams. With a headache and a bad mood, I went to get washed up and ready for my first day of planning out my biggest heist yet. I could try and piece together all the important information on the Wisp crew by sifting through the archived newspaper articles stored on our station's data processor, but quite frankly that would be too boring and an objective listing of facts about them could get me killed. What I needed was something else, I needed to create a web of experiences collected by people who were actually present and survived when the pirates struck, and to do that I needed a disguise. I was not about to accidentally question someone who was on friendly terms with their crew that could then report back to them who I was. As much as it pained me, I knew exactly what sort of disguise I had to go for. I went into my closet and pulled out the most ragged-looking pieces of clothing that I had collected over the years for this very reason. Next on the list was paint to cover my blue skin, since it wasn't too commonly seen in these parts of the galaxy, and finally I was gonna have to ask our hairdresser Marelie for a one-day-cut chip. With my plan laid out I squeezed my gauntlet wristband and with a tug pulled it up towards my elbow, where it started unfolding and piecing itself together, and with a low hum and a sharp pressure release my right arm was fully functional again. I left my quarter to go see Marelie, who, like myself, was in her mid-twenties. I think they let her rent her studio on the station after she had proven herself as an ally capable of lending a hand for undercover makeovers.

After a fifteen-minute walk, I stood in front of her studio booth and walked to her front desk, scanning my left wrist. The implant updated my data on her computer and sent a message to Marelie, who was currently braiding a young girl's hair. Everyone living on this space station was part of, or related to members of Whisper's crew. It was like our own little society, we had a little grocery store and a decoration shop, a school for the workers' kids, clothing stores, and obviously Malerie's beauty salon. After she received the ding of the message notifying her of my presence, she quickly tied off one of the braids on the girl's head and came to see me at the front desk.

"Jace, what can I do for you today?", Malerie tended to always be in a good mood and smiling, so it was hard not to like her.

"I'm going to need a one-day chip and some white body spray, please. If you have some contacts in stock that would be great as well.", I listed everything I would need for my disguise to her and she started typing on the holographic keyboard of her computer.

Next, she pulled out a drawer, grabbed a microchip out of it, and plugged it into a small box on her desk.

"Any preference on hair and contacts?", she asked as she looked up from her work.

"Hair doesn't matter, if you can match the contacts to my right eye that would be perfect.", It was vital for me to cover my eyes since they were mismatched, one of them was completely black with white iris and pupil, while the right one looked like a normal white eye but with black iris and pupil. The disguise had to be as basic looking as possible so I wouldn't stand out of the crowd too much or be remembered for too long.

Malerie held a small scanner to my right eye for a couple of seconds and after the computer let out a sharp beep, she typed some more and then pulled the chip out of the box, wrapped it in paper, and after that, grabbed a bottle of the skin paint I've asked for. She placed it all in a little bag with her salon's logo on it and handed it to me after letting me know the price, which came together at seventy-eight credits, and thus more than I was willing to spend on a trip that was essentially part of my mission. Whisper did pay with the company's money for any disguises we would need but since he would just tell me to go see the archives to gather my information I doubt he would allow me to put these items on his tab.

"Put it on Mr. Whispers tab please.", I told Mal with a charming smile and held out the same wrist to her that I checked in with.

She gave me an unimpressed stare for a few seconds before she typed a couple more things and gestured for me to proceed scanning my wrist implant. "You know Jace, one day you're gonna have bled his account dry and he's gonna make you earn it all back for the rest of your life."

"I'm not gonna have to do that for long then because after I cashed in the bounty on Wisp's head I'm gonna have enough credits to last me three lifetimes.", I saw Malerie's eyes widen in worry after I mentioned the bounty, but I already turned my back on her and started the walk to return to my quarters.

As soon as I stepped through the door I nudged off my black high-rim shoes, kicked them into the corner, and stepped into the bathroom where I emptied the bag into the sink.

First, I grabbed the chip and carefully inserted it into the small slot right under the implant on my wrist. As soon as it clicked into place my hair changed to a dark blue, almost black, and grew down to my shoulders in an even cut. At the same time, a holographic layer projected directly onto the surface of my left eye and changed the color to match the other one. I grabbed a hair tie and pulled the top half of my hair into a small ponytail at the back of my head, to not have the strands floating around my face.

After that, I popped off the lid of the body paint and started spraying it all over the visible parts of my body. As soon as everything was rubbed in properly and no more of my blue skin was visible, I changed into my ratty clothes, put my shoes on again, and left, I was gonna have to detransform my gauntlet into the simple bracelet, to pull off the non-threatening, just a curious, handicapped citizen look I was going for since I don't think anyone that's shady and carrying important intel tell it to a guy armed with a gun and huge claws. On top of that, it was custom-made which made it very recognizable.

My first stop was gonna be a bar connected to a refuel station in Crador. Crador was a huge metal construction that posed as a city, it was connected with heavy chains to its own space station that was keeping it from floating off into space, that was where all the people lived that could afford pure luxus. Crador had beautiful town squares and architecture inside, with some lovely restaurants, but because of the cities' divide between the rich and poor, there was a heavy swap of atmosphere as soon as the day cycle changed to night and the rich folk returned onto the space station leaving only the poor and the scum. The dim lights and winding alleys posed as a breeding ground for criminal activity. This heavy divide of characters was what I was counting on though, because it meant that I would get to speak to all sorts of different people who may share all sorts of different, useful knowledge.