Assassination

Lore & Background

In the sprawling, under-policed reaches of the Galactic Core and beyond, the old rule still holds: where the law is thin, contracts fill the gap. Factions, corporations, and private individuals all need problems removed quietly and permanently. An assassination contract is the cleanest tool for that. The client doesn't want a war; they want a specific person dead and a specific system quiet. The pilot who takes the job is a mercenary in the oldest sense—skilled, expendable, and paid well for a single act of violence.

In Their Own Story

The comm crackled with static, then a voice—flat, bored, corporate. "Kessler. Third dock at the Oort cloud. He flies a Krait. You have six hours before his next cargo run." You killed the engine, let the ship drift in the black between stars, and watched the target's blip pulse on your scanner like a slow heartbeat. Six hours. You had a fighter loaded with a single burst of heavy missiles and nothing else. No room for error. You matched his vector, dropped to sublight, and watched his running lights bloom in the dark. He turned. He saw you. You fired. The silence that followed was the loudest thing you had ever heard.

Reader's Guide

Accepting an assassination is simple: open your mission board, find the contract, and read the target's name and system. Mechanically, you jump to that system, scan for the target's ship signature, and engage. A light fighter with strong missiles is ideal for the initial approach—fast, hard to lock, and lethal at range. A medium ship with a balanced loadout works if you expect the target to be escorted or in a defended station approach.

In-universe, you are a fixer. The client doesn't care how you do it, only that the name is crossed off the list. You might tail the target across a system, bait them out of a station, or simply wait in the dark until their running lights betray them. The daily loop is: scan mission board, pick a contract, jump, hunt, kill, collect. It's clean, repeatable, and scales.

Long-term, the progression is reputation and target tier. Early contracts are low-level criminals in quiet systems. As your faction standing climbs, the names get heavier—senior officers, rival executives, figures whose deaths shift local power balances. The endgame is not a bigger gun; it's a bigger name on the contract and a higher price for the silence that follows.

Did You Know?

• Assassination targets are always named NPCs with a specific identity, distinguishing them from generic bounty targets that simply carry a criminal flag.
• Multiple major factions—including the Federation, the Empire, and Corporate interests—can issue assassination contracts, meaning the same pilot may be hired by opposing powers at different times.
• The target is located in a specific system provided with the contract, turning the mission into a focused hunt rather than a sector-wide sweep.
• Completing assassinations builds faction reputation, which can unlock higher-value contracts and deeper access into a faction's mission chain.