Umji wound down the simulation as she let out a breath, removing the headset that had her plugged in. Her eyes were dry, and she blinked them rapidly to get moisture back in them.

A low cough by the door got her attention, and Umji spun around on her chair, beaming when she saw Yerin leaning against the wall, who had apparently waited a while for her. Surprisingly, there was no Yuju by her side, which was odd by Umji’s reckoning. The last couple of days had seen the shaman almost surgically attached to Yerin whenever they were out and about in the base, though they did tone it down around Eunha to some degree. 

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the triangle had been resolved, and while Umji felt bad for Eunha, she was also happy for the new couple. Yuju-unnie was smiling more and being more active, and that was a good sign. Umji thought the girl was being a little too anxious about letting Yerin out of her sight sometimes, but then again she had never been in a relationship herself, who was she to judge how a couple behaved? Certainly the other pair in the team also had what Umji considered to be a dysfunctional way of relating to each other (why did they like fighting so much???), but at this point the young hacker had just resolved to be fully zen about it. It wasn’t like her opinion was going to change anything, so why bother?

“Thanks for decoding the data, by the way.” Yerin pushed herself off the wall, flopping casually on one of the other chairs that was free of clutter. Umji nodded in acknowledgement, leaning forward with a thoughtful expression.

“No problem, the files were pretty interesting too. I hope you don’t mind I kept a copy of the research data, I didn’t realize Hyeongdae was this far along on wetware manipulation.” 

Yerin grinned. “I was expecting you to keep backups anyway, don’t worry about it.” The assassin grew serious after a second.

“I think I’m going to need your help on something else. Bit of a big project, might take a while.”

“Oh?” Umji looked interested. While most of the team had been laying low and not taking any jobs for the last few months, Umji had no such restriction, since most of her work could be done remotely anyway. Most of the time she was infiltrating business networks and databases to sieve for useful data she could barter off for either credits or favors on the dark web. It kept her sharp, and it passed the time. Plus it also meant that she could always afford to get the latest toys she wanted without having to go through Sowon for it. Umji was nothing if not resourceful.

“You don’t have to do it though, it’s pretty risky. Sowon will have my head if you get in trouble.” Yerin warned, but that only piqued Umji’s curiosity further. The hacker gestured at her to continue, and Yerin bit back a smile. Of course danger didn’t deter the girl. If anything, the challenge would only spur her on. She had counted on that happening.

“An old friend of mine left a backdoor in a system a few years ago. She’s gone now, but I remember her mentioning it.”

“You want me to find that backdoor? You have the bypass protocols?” Umji frowned, steepling her fingers together. “It’s tricky though, if it’s old. No telling if it has been removed by now.”

Yerin nodded. “I’m not an expert, but she said something about subverting the compiler.” Yerin smiled a little sadly. “She was always paranoid about access. You would have liked her I think.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Umji said simply. It was obvious in Yerin’s eyes that the friend she spoke of was no longer in this world. The hacker cocked her head.

“What do you have for me though, if you want me to locate this?”

“Access into BlackStar. That sound good enough?” Yerin watched Umji carefully, noting with satisfaction the way the hacker’s eyes widened.

“Wait, BlackStar is real? I thought it was just a spook story.”

Yerin smirked. “It’s real. I have the access credentials. Outdated, but according to my contact, they haven’t updated the format. That and the protocols are still the same. It’s somewhere for you to start.”

Umji looked like she had struck the lottery. Then she blinked, staring at Yerin.

“You want me to break into BlackStar’s server?”

“One of the delinked nodes. My friend left something for me in there, but I never got a chance to access it before. I never thought I would have to, but I can’t do it on my own now.” Her own access rights had been deactivated following her apparent death three years ago, and Yerin wasn’t going to set off system-wide alarms by announcing herself on the network if she tried to login now. Umji was her best hope. 

Umji eyed Yerin cautiously, thinking it through. As tempted as she was by the thought of accessing the rumored BlackStar -- which was the hidden arm of Tristar as whispered on the dark web -- it was still incredibly dangerous to risk going up against a triple A-ranked megacorp, much less their less than legal side. 

It was an open secret on the dark web that most of the A ranked megacorps and above had black ops teams contracted directly to them, since not everything could be palmed off to shadowrunners. BlackStar wasn’t just the black ops division though, if the rumors were true. It was an organization within an organization, but more importantly, no one had ever actually verified its existence, even among the hacker community. Umji had heard stories about how people talked about unearthing BlackStar for the clout it would bring, but those voices often vanished or stopped talking about that entirely after those claims had been made. Even the name ‘BlackStar’ was coined because of the alleged links to Tristar, but other than idle gossip on private channels, no one really dug much deeper into it. It was one of the bigger unsolved mysteries in Korea, and the consensus was that no one really wanted to risk getting caught and erased like all the others who had tried.

“I know you have your doubts. I wouldn’t ask this of anyone. But Hayoung’s dead. As far as I know, she kept her trace programs to herself. The next generation isn’t anywhere near as effective.” Heechul had said as much, expressing his disappointment with the recruits he had to work with. It was why he was so eager to bring her back into the fold. The ongoing operations needed an experienced field commander, and Yerin was the only one left from the old Magitek elite. Yerin had been stalling on it the entire time, but continued doing him favors in order to buy herself more space to maneuver. 

“Your friend was BlackStar.” Umji gaped at her. Yerin nodded curtly.

“She went on a mission and never came back. Asked me to check her private servers for a key if that happened. I would have, but then stuff happened.” Seongnam had happened, and she almost died there. Now that she thought about it, it almost felt like a purge. Yerin had spent too much time on the run to fully consider the implications, but it made her blood run cold to think of it. They had been valued assets, but just as disposable as anything else when the time came. 

“And you…” Umji started, eyes still wide. Yerin raised a finger to her lips. Umji got the hint, leaning back in her chair as her mind raced, weighing the odds. She bit her lip, setting her jaw with determination.

“I’ll do it.”