Operation IV: Phoenix Down

[Commander Garrett Garland]

I stepped into the ‘mech hanger bay in full mechwarrior gear. The bay’s cool air caused bumps to rise on my skin for it was only covered by shorts, light ballistic ‘mesh, and a cooling vest. For what I was about to do I should have donned some sort of space suit just to be cautious, but I didn’t want to waste time. As I past fellow Legionnaires I asked them politely to leave the bay—it would be depressurizing soon. My Shadow Hawk was one of the heaviest ‘mechs in the bay weighing in at 55 tons. The techs had painted it a grey-black pattern fitting for lunar and space combat. It would also function as an urban camouflage of a sort, but it wasn’t specifically tailored to that type of combat. I climbed up my ‘mechs ladder, the chains jingling as I went up. I closed the ‘mechs cockpit hatch, ensuring a perfect seal. I powered up my .mech, running through various start-up protocols. After the fusion reactor was fully on line, and I had finished my final diagnostics, I spoke over my ‘mech’s external comm.

“This is Lieutenant Commander Garland. Will everyone please clear the bay, it is going to depressurize soon.”

I switched the mic from the external comm to the radio, signaling the bay control.

“This is Garland, are the doors secure?”
Main control responded over the comm,“Yes sir, depressurizing in 5…4…3…2…

In order to not send all of the bays equipment flying out into the void, the bay was capable of slowly depressurizing, allowing for a more controlled departure into space. When the air had finally finished departing the bay, the main doors began to open. Although I could not hear the doors opening, I could feel the vibrations of their parting traveling up my ‘mech. The doors finally finished opening—they could open much quicker by way of explosive bolts—I stepped my ‘mech forward, the black void stretching before me.

I activated my comm, “Lieutenant Commander Garland requesting permission to disembark the Liberty.

Captain Maxwell’s voice came over the comm,“Good luck out their Commander, we’ll be guiding you from the bridge. Permission to disembark Liberty granted.

I crossed the threshold into the midnight expanse.

[Captain Benjamin Maxwell]

As Garland went EVA, I guided Sergeant Lourde over to one of the bridge's twin uplink interfaces.

"Sergeant Lourde, as I understand it, you and Corproal Schuster both have advanced training in bypassing encryption and command and control systems. Once Lieutenant Commander Garland has brought the recorder buoy aboard, I'll need you both to work on bypassing the lockouts on the device so that we can download whatever data might be aboard it. House Liao didn't provide us with the authentication codes, and we haven't got time to wait for a response from them at this point. I trust your login worked when you tested it on Sheratan?"

"Yes sir," Wedge replied, sliding into the terminal's chair.

"Excellent. Lieutenant Mamba - you have the bridge. I'm going down to the 'Mech bay to help Garland secure that contraption once he has it aboard."

Wedge, Hobson is an NPC...but we gave him a login.

[Dr. Jessica Saturina]

Net and I stood at attention as Garland explained that a very important piece of equipment from the Phoenix had been located and that Captain Maxwell had assigned him the responsibility to retrieve it. He also explained he needed me to stay on the bridge for now as he seen to his task.

Aye, Sir you can count on me. I will be right here seeing to things and to help Captain Maxwell if he needs me.

Garland left the bridge, I looked around. Everything seem to be moving along smoothly. Then suddenly Captain Maxwell said.

"Excellent. Lieutenant Mamba - you have the bridge. I'm going down to the 'Mech bay to help Garland secure that contraption once he has it aboard."


Aye, Captain Maxwell Sir.

I slid into the Commanders chair, feeling like I had just met up with an old friend. I suddenly remembered Net was with me.

Make yourself useful Sergeant Net. I'm sure there is something on the bridge you can attend to.

Aye, Lt. Mamba

It was a good thing Net came with me. They didn't want anyone in the mech bay for quite awhile anyway. He went about making himself busy. He was a very multi-talented person. He seemed at home around all the electronic equipment on the bridge. He also seemed very concerned about our mission. I leaned back in the familiar warm, soft leather seat, but stayed alert for any transmission from either the Captain or the Lt. Commander.

[Holms Net]

Make yourself useful Sergeant Net. I'm sure there is something on the bridge you can attend to.

"Aye, Lieutenant Mamba."

I quickly went to work assisting the men I could aboard the bridge. Although I wasn't as talented infantry, or even 'mech combat, as many of the Legionnaires, I was always good with the nice technical stuff. I was able to glance over near some of the video screens that showed an external view of the ship. On one of them was shown a machine of some type, a recorder buoy, from what I could make out. From the conversation Maxwell had with Wedge, it seemed that this was somewhere near the area where the Liberty was supposed to be located. Still no other debris was able to be found, however the Lieutenant Commander had just launched with the drones out to the asteroid field. If there was soemthing out there to be found, it would be soon.

A few speculations were going through my head as I continued to help out on the bridge. A major concern I had was that the Liberty was no where to be found. We had something to go on, though. My thoughts caused me to lean back and think for a second about what posibly could have happened. A pirate raid could of been possible, but why would they have taken the ship. Someone had to of known this ship was coming through here, and had a reason to intercept it. I couldn't see much reason as to why someone would want to endanger the planet which was on the brink of completely falling apart. Either someone was acting heartless, or there was something else about this mission that we weren't being told.

More speculation came to mind. I sat down in an empty and went through the mission briefing again. The way I saw it, there were two likely possbibilities. Either someone or something aboard the ship had enough value or had made enough people mad to get their ship attacked, or this mission was meant to lead us into a trap. The pay was considerable, indeed, and would drag any mercenary group in. It could of been possible that we had made someone mad in what we did, and may have been called off only to a trap. I was not able to expand much on my idea as a crewman called out and yelled for me to get back to work. I tucked away the pad holding the briefing and went back to assisting on the bridge.

[Commander Garrett Garland]

The sight was impressive, small asteroids flying all around. I was looking for a transponder beacon of some sort, but finding it with my ‘mech’s sensors amongst all the magnetic interference caused by the minerals in the asteroids would prove challenging. I lightly tapped my ‘mech’s jump pedals, sending my Shadow Hawk off on a trajectory which I hoped would lead me to the beacon. Fortunately, my ‘mech had a C3 computer, allowing me to tie the dropship’s sensors into my own. As the sensors synced, the asteroid field took on a much more detailed form, the mysterious signal’s origin seeming to emanate from the center of the field. I used my ‘mech’s jumpjets to navigate deeper into the field, finally losing sight of the dropship. Occasionally I would hear a small asteroid fragment bouncing off my ‘mech, but aside from the small ones I had no collisions. At once point, I was forced to use my ‘mech’s pulse laser to blast apart a substantial piece of rock which seemed intent on colliding with my ‘mech. As I continued to venture into the field I began to pick up errant sensor ghosts—almost as if something was out there.

I was getting concerned, so I sent a message back to the Liberty, “Garland to Liberty. “Are you getting errant sensor anomalies?”

I was pleasantly surprised to hear a friendly feminine voice over the comm,“Garrett—are you ok? Your voice sounds shaky; I’m not seeing any anomalies.”

Hmmm… my voice sounded shaky? I was fine… just a little spooked that’s all. It wasn’t until the comm chimed again that I realized something wasn’t right.

“Commander—are you there? Did you get my last transmission… I sent you a course correction.”

Mamba was worried—I hadn’t even heard her last signal. I looked at my instruments, my eyes were getting blurry and it was very cold. I just then noticed the sound of air passing through a very small hole. One of the asteroids must have cracked my canopy and the crack was leeching air and heat into space!

“Hold on Mamba,” I replied “I think I’ve got a leak.”

Reaching into my ‘mechs storage compartment, I grabbed some sealant which I kept there for a rainy day. The nice thing about this sealant was that it was designed for zero-g use; you just squirted some out and it would find its way to the breach. I squeezed the tube, sending the liquid out into the middle of my cockpit. It began to drift down towards the right, stopping right where my ‘mech’s cockpit structure met the ferroglass canopy.

“Thanks for keeping me awake Mamba—I would have fallen asleep… drifting in to space without that radio check.”

The radio clicked, a distorted voice coming back through, “No problem, just be careful ok?”

Just as I received the transmission I lost contact completely with the ship, my sensor connection disappearing. I had gone too deep into the field, and there was no turning back.

Using my ‘mech’s limited sensors I began to hunt for the signal, looking in the crevasses of asteroids and behind mineral vapor clouds. At last, I seemed to reach the gravimetric center of the field—where lost objects would find themselves in the currents of space. And surely enough, I saw a blinking red light. I tried to interface with the buoy, but it seemed that its signal was encrypted. Using my ‘mech’s clumsy hands, I grabbed the buoy securing it firmly. I began to make my way back to the ship.

Just as I was clearing the worst of the magnetic distortion I swore that I saw another sensor shadow, my targeting computer evening getting a lock on something for a second. My chest mounted LRM rack’s door flew open revealing 20 missiles, their warheads armed. But as soon as I had activated my weapons system, the shadow was gone, leaving me alone with the buoy.

I cleared the field seeing the impressive Liberty before me, its station keeping thruster activated to maintain the ships gravity. As the ship rotated I saw its ‘mech bay door was open, a Hellhound waiting to receive the prized buoy. As I neared the dropship I received another comm signal.

“I’m glad that you made it back—I was worried that your sealant had broken after we lost contact with you.”

“Thanks again Mamba—I’d be floating out there with the buoy if it weren’t for you.”

I brought the buoy into the ‘mech bay, presenting it as an offering to the waiting Hellhound. The bay began to re-pressurize, the sealant popping back into the ‘mech, only designed for no-pressure situations. I set the buoy neatly on the bay’s floor, berthing my ‘mech and shutting down.

[Captain Benjamin Maxwell]

As the pressure in the bay equalized, I popped the hatch on my Hellhound and tossed the emergency ladder out over the nose. I didn't want to waste time clambering around gantries - time was of the essence, and we needed to get the buoy connected to the internal communications grid as quickly as possible.

I sprinted over to device, which was already surrounded by technicians connecting a network interface to one of its ports, as Garland approached.

"Nice work out there. You've got a real talent with those manipulators. Let's hope the fruits of your labor have paid off, here."

Garland nodded, and proceeded to address a separate issue.

"I had a blow-through on my canopy while I was out there - nothing major - I patched it with pressure sealant as a temporary fix - but the glass is going to need replacing. Any chance the techs could take a look at it today?"

I waved one of the technicians over, and explained Garland's situation.

"Not a problem, sir. We'll have that canopy removed and replaced within the hour!" the tech exclaimed, before sprinting off to round up his crew.

"Thank you, Captain." Garland replied. I nodded an acknowledgement as I keyed my communicator.

"Bridge, this is the 'Mech Bay. We're prepped for data transfer down here - how's it looking on your end?"

[Dr. Jessica Saturina]

Monitoring Garland while he was retrieving the buoy got intense. I was very glad he was back in the Mech bay safely. Now that they had the buoy on the ship, the techs in Mech Bay hooked it up to one of our network interface for data transfer. Captain Maxwells voice came over the com.

"Bridge, this is the 'Mech Bay. We're prepped for data transfer down here - how's it looking on your end?"

"This is Mamba on the bridge sir, let me check on the progress with Schuster and Lourde, they are both working at the interface terminals.

Sergeant Lourde, Corporal Schuster, how are things going over there? The techs in Mech Bay have the buoy hooked up to the interface are you guys ready for data transfer?

[Wedge Lourde]

Schuster and I sat at a control interface on the bridge.

"Sargeant Wedge and Corporal Schuster- How are things going? Are you ready to download the data?The bouy is linked to the network, ready for download."

"Yes ma'am. Starting feed now."

Lines of code ran through the interface. I ran them through, and Schuster translated them as best he could. After 3 minutes of constant data flow, there was no more code. I turned to Schuster's interface.

"Mamba, Maxwell... you might want to take a look at this look at this... Said Schuster, with fear in his voice. I turned to see the final translation on his monitor, and my eyes widened.

EDIT BY MOD: [/b]Adjusted color codes slightly.[/i][/size]

[Dr. Jessica Saturina]

It suddenly got very quiet around Lourde and Schuster. Then Schuster said.

Mamba, Maxwell... you might want to take a look at this look...

I jumped up from the commanders chair, quickly stepping over to the terminal Lourde and Schuster were sitting at. I couldn't believe what I was reading.

Mamba to Captain Maxwell. I need you on the Bridge immediately Sir. You really need to see this for yourself, and Garland should come as well.

We are on our way Mamba, Maxwell out.

I just stood there staring at the monitor, waiting for the Captain and Lt. Commander Garland to join us.

[Nicholas Schuster]

The scenes were horrific. Of all the scenarios we had plotted, this was one of the worst. I sat in silence, staring at the monitors, waiting for the Captain and Lieutenant Commander to arrive.

[Lieutenant Kei-teh Kintaru]

I peered over the shoulders of my horrified friends.


“What? What is…” I said stopping mid sentence. My jaw hit my chest as images of death fluttered across the screen. The Phoenix and it’s crew had been attacked by an unknown force.



“P..Pirates?” I stuttered. No one answered, but I knew as more and more of the horrific images came onto screen that this was professional job. Small segments of silent videos showed highly trained tactics and manoeuvres of heavily armed foot soldiers silencing unarmed crew members. They wore black combat clothing from head to toe with no noticeable logos of any sort. More footage showed the unknown force shooting civilians as they laid asleep in their bunks. Another showed the force opening fire on a large cluster of personnel that these vicious bastards had rounded up. The final footage, something that made my heart sink to it’s very depth, showed a small girl wondering one of the decks that had been cleared. Bodies laid motionless as the child walk down the corridor that had been painted with the blood of so many. As the girl’s back faced the camera, a brief flash appeared and the child fell limp to the floor. The screen faded to black.

The entire bridge fell quiet for several minutes.


“… Was that the entire data?” Maxwell said grimly. The sound of dull humming of the various computers that ran the Liberty filled the room as the silence stretched on. We were all terribly shocked. What appeared to be such a simple mission… was turning out to be something quite the opposite.


“N…no sir, there are audio logs by the commander of the Phoenix.” Schuster finally said.

“Play them.” The captain replied, although I’m sure that if he had a choice he would of chosen not to do so. A few keystrokes later and speakers within the bridge and mechbay rattled into life. We skipped the previous logs to the audio logs on the final day of transmission.



(File: “#85JH96.mp3”)

“This is the audio log of Commander Karin Eagers, date systems code: #85JH96. Current time is 10:00am. The Phoenix has made steady progress since the beginning of our journey three days ago, and moral aboard has been greatly improved since then. Although transporting the cargo IS one of my highest priorities, I also feel that keeping a positive attitude aboard the ship amongst the crew is just as important. Many of the men, women and families were reluctant to accept such a mission during such a difficult time. I hope that this increase in moral will allow less hassle in future missions I ask my team to undertake.” (Foot steps and faint talk can be heard) ) “Yes… certainly…” (more faint talking) “… Give me five minutes.” (sound of door closing) It appears I am needed on the bridge. No rest for the wicked, aye? This is Commander Eagers of the Phoenix signing off.”


(File: “#85JH97.mp3“)
(heavy breathing) “This is Captain James Durrant..” (faint gunshots and blood curdling screams) “… we have been attacked by and unknown enemy… the commander is dead… crew members are being slaughtered…” (heavy breathing) “They forcefully boarded us… Commander Eagers was the first to go…. killed him instantly by those slaughterers… From their make shift entrance at the rear of the ship… they spread out and attacked in their dozens…. Such a highly trained group… Our crew wasn’t ready for this…. The rear end of the Phoenix has been taken with many of the crew members dead or dieing…” (heavy breathing slows down) “Right now we have gathered as many people as possible, brought them to the front of the ship and we are formulating a plan of escape. The commander’s men…. MY men are fighting their own with the limited amount of firearms we have… The situation is looking VERY grim. However, the plan is to--- WHAT THE HELL?!” (loud explosion) “…” (faintly) “Sir?! CAPTAIN?!…. Oh my god…” (Transmission ends.)


(File: “#85JH98”)
(Whispering) “…This is Second Officer Jake Barnes. Time is… 11:43pm. Captain Durrant died at the hands of the unknown enemy when they breached “C” deck. Without any choice… we surrendered. We were all moved to the mess hall. We are lightly guarded… however, although we out number them, they out gun us. We still have absolutely NO idea who the enemy is, however, one thing is certain. The enemy is NOT here for the cargo. As soon as the forces took over the bridge, they jettisoned the cargo into space. One of the crew members has told me that as soon as the cargo was ejected… a radar vessel of some kind was brought aboard. Unfortunately he only caught a glimpse, for all we know it could be something else… It also appears we have changed course and we could be turning back to the jumpships themselves… I’m… I’m still not sure on the details. Non of us are. I have no idea where we are going and what the enemy plans to do with us. When this transmission end, I shall eject the recorder buoy in hope that someone will find it. Please… save the crew of the Phoenix.” (faint whimpering)

The entire crew fell silent… horrified at what we had just heard. The screams of the innocent still rang fresh in our ears. The gunshots of the enemy made our hearts race. The images of death still fresh in our minds. My face screwed like a clenched fist. I was angry as hell.


“Captain… what is our course of action?!” I snarled. Whoever did this was going to pay indeed…

[Captain Benjamin Maxwell]

“Captain… what is our course of action?!”

My mind reeled as it went into overdrive. So many variables had just shifted - we were no longer dealing with a missing ship - this was a full-blown hostage situation - and time was fast running out. I charged toward the command chair, barking orders as I did so.

"First - get that buoy secured - I want Gnome Battle Armor stationed at its location around the clock - no one - I repeat - no one goes near it. Lieutenant Mamba - I need you and Sergeant Holms Net to see to this. Kintaru, I want you, Schuster, and Wedge to tear that data apart, bit by bit, and figure out where in the hell the hijackers were taking the Phoenix. Calculate every possible course and narrow it down to the three most likely destinations. Yeoman Hobson - get us back to the Slocum recharging station now. Best possible speed. Disregard all velocity limitations if you have to. Lieutenant Garland - contact the Slocum militia and have them lock down the berths - no JumpShip leaves the sector without being subjected to a gantry-by-gantry search. Transmit the specs for the Phoenix and explain the situation."

So help me if we don't make it in time...

"All hands to battlestations - repeat - all hands to battlestations. This is not a drill."

---

The DropShip Liberty executed a sudden, hard, 180-degree turn, inverting its course, and igniting its fusion drives with such force that plasma spat from its engine manifolds as it rocketed toward the Slocum jump point, in a desperate race against time. Firing its weapons arrays, literally blasting its way out of the asteroid field, it streaked toward the JumpShip berths like a bat out of hell, bypassing perimeter markers and border patrols as it raced its precious cargo inbound.[/color]

...so help me...

Click here to download the music which inspired this scene.

[Commander Garrett Garland]

I was pushed back into my seat by the force of the Liberty’s drives, their fusion cores operating at full power. As we blasted through the asteroid field the ship’s thrust increased more and more, eventually reaching 4Gs! I could hear the ship creaking as it past its safety threshold—we couldn’t maintain structural integrity at these speeds for long. Just straining to breathe regularly I moved my heavy hand to the comm. panel, opening a channel to the Slocum militia.

“This is Lieutenant Commander Garret Garland of the Legionnaires. There is a hostage situation regarding the crew and passengers of an entire cargo ship, we need you to lock down all jumpships immediately for security purposes.”

“This is Rear-Admiral,” He put special emphasis on the second half of his rank, implying that there was nothing 'rear' about this job. He also emphasized the word ‘Admiral’ to contrast with ‘Lieutenant Commander,’ a significantly lower rank. Perhaps he was offended that he wasn't being addressed by the commanding officer, but he still continued. “Fu Xiang of the Slocum militia. We do not take orders from Mercs.”

The Rear-Admiral spat the words over the comm., his disposition towards mercenaries apparent even through the static. There was no time to appease his ego; we needed to find out what happened quickly before the hostages’ time ran out.

“Admiral, surely you can see that this situation is a serious one, we are coming in at 4Gs in a Union class dropship, a full G over recommended thrust maximums. We need to check the berths of charging jumpships in order to determine if in fact the Pheonix, the captured cargo ship, is amongst them.

I could hear Xiang speaking to someone else in Chinese, the conversation becoming heated. Even though I couldn’t understand more than a few words, it seemed that the Rear-Admiral was cowed by the other speaker’s words.

The new voice took the place of Xiang’s, “Lieutenant Commander, this is Admiral Kong Mu Tian, we are dispatching aerospace fighters to check the ship’s berths as we speak, but the ship you speak of is not registered as belonging to any of the jumpships currently at the charging station. Perhaps it is one of the jumpjets using its solar sails to charge at the systems nadir jump point? I would advise that you direct your ship towards the nadir jump point—we’ve got the apex covered. Good luck, we’ll let you know if we find her. Zai-jian.”

The Admiral was wise indeed; he maintained a good relationship by assisting us in the search while simultaneously maintaining his power base at the station by not allowing us to search there. He also would gain leverage on Xiang by comparing Xiang’s rude behavior to possible friends to his own. However, I trusted that Tian would make good on his word.

“Yeoman Hobson. Make course corrections for this system’s nadir jump point; the Slocum militia is checking all of the Jumpships at the recharge station.”

Yeoman Hobson looked at the Captain, “Captain?”

“Do as he says yeoman, and push it to 4.5Gs, the ship could be jumping at any moment.”

Only aerojocks were supposed to experience these kinds of G-forces, but even the cook had to endure the immense force pulling him down. I could barely move in my chair as the Liberty rocketed forward leaving a massive heat-trail in its wake.

Yeoman Hobson struggled to speak, “Captain, I’m detecting a jumpship at the nadir point but I can’t detect any dropships in it’s ports—they’re probably on the ship’s far side.”

I could tell that we were cutting it close—I just had this feeling that we were racing against the clock. The Yeoman began to speak again, this time with more fear in his voice.

“Captain! We’re close enough to detect the Jumpship’s solar sail… but I’m not seeing it… they must have finished charging!”

On the sensor screen I could see the jumpship's outline, its far side masked by its silhouette. Just as the Yeoman finished speaking the sensor screen pinpointed an energy surge and then the jumpship was gone, its untraceable leap sending it somewhere into the vastness of space.

[Captain Benjamin Maxwell]

With a shimmering flash, the JumpShip was gone. The Liberty dropped to a low cruise velocity as her sensors frantically probed the abyss for any traces of the ship or clues to its destination. This, of course, was an exercise in futility, as a hyperspace jump was nearly untracable. The unidentified vessel could be anywhere in the known galaxy - and there was no way to know if it was even the one we were searching for.

I leaned over Sergeant Holms Net's station - the interface from the main sensor array, which he had taken over from Yeoman Hobson during the desperate return to the recharging station, and peered at his readings.

"Did we get anything - anything at all? Transponder codes...radio traffic...even a visual on the ship's passengers?"

Holms Net shook his head. "No sir...I'm afraid not - we didn't close to identification range until the JumpShip had already begun its jump - what we saw on the main screen was the extent of it. The best we can do is contact the recharging station again, and see if they can identify the vessel, and perhaps provide a manifest."

I repressed a frustrated outburst, and returned to the command chair.

"Yeoman Machia - open a channel to the recharging station itself - I don't want to have to cut through more red tape to get answers on this."

"Aye, Captain."

Within moments, the installation's commander appeared on the main screen.

"This is Commander Liu Zhao, overseer of of Jump Station Shenzen. How may I assist?"

I stepped forward to address the Commander, hoping to convey a very respectful, yet authoritative demeanor.

"I am Captain Benjamin Maxwell, of the Legionnaires' DropShip Liberty - "

Commander Zhao interjected, smiling broadly. It was unsettling.

"Ah, yes. Admiral Kong Mu Tian has informed us that you are the mercenaries searching for our missing vessel. Captain, I cannot stress to you how important it is that you recover the Phoenix. The survival of the terraforming project on Slocum is essential."

As the last words escaped Zhao's mouth, his demeanor once again became very somber and serious.

"Given the size of the Phoenix, and that we have already committed the entire station's AeroTech assets to this inspection, the fact that we have, as of yet, found nothing, does not lend itself easily to the possibility of a discovery at this point."

"What about the vessel that hyperspaced from the sector a few moments ago? Can you identify it? Was it searched?"

Commander Zhao turned his attentions to a computer terminal off-camera. The clicking of the terminal's keyboard was the only sound that served to break the bridge's deathly quiet.

"The JumpShip Infinite Conquest. Registered to...Trans-Galactic Aerospace. It's a civillian JumpShip."

"What was its destination? Was a sweep performed on it?"

More clicking.

"According to their manifest, their next destination was to Washburn, in Marik territory. They were ferrying cargo vessels."

My eyes widened.

"Were any of them - "

"No, Captain. Rest assured, you would have been notified. We will continue our search. I suggest you do the same. Zhao...out."

The main screen returned to the sector overview. I took a deep breath.

"Captain...we may not have to calculate the Phoenix's destinations."

It was the voice of Corporal Schuster. In an instant, I was at his station.

"Explain."

"Well, sir - take a look at this log entry...here. Right before the Second Officer ejected the buoy, the ship's flight computer recorded someone manually entering a course for Hamal - a Davion world not that far from here. It would be impractical to try to reach the system under conventional drives - so it makes sense that the hijackers would have turned back toward the JumpShips."

I stared at the terminal for long moments before responding.

"Compared to any other possible routes - what are the odds that this would have been the one they took?"

Schuster locked eyes with me.

"I'd say they're pretty good, sir. We have no evidence to suggest otherwise."

I nodded, and turned toward Lieutenant Commander Garland.

"Commander - it would appear we need to get to Hamal - quickly. You seem to have developed a bit of a repoire with the Admiral - see if you can convince him to arrange JumpShip passage for us. I'd rather we weren't made to wait for the next commuter to come along."

"Aye, Captain."

"Yeoman Hobson - please take us back to the recharging station - again."

[Dr. Jessica Saturina]

I left the bridge quickly after the Captain gave me his orders, with Net by my side. We got on the lift and went to the crews quarters. I went one way Net the other. I called out to him as I walked away

Have them all meet me in the lounge area immediately Sergeant. On the double. I'll get the rest. We have to get on the ball and get them into the Gnome Armour and set up a round the clock guard on that buoy.

I went briskly down the hall, knocking on the doors of the guys I needed to come with me. Telling them as they came to the door to go to the lounge and wait for me. Once I was done getting the crew I needed I ran back to the lounge myself. Sergeant Net was there with the guys he had rounded up. I walked in and stood at the front of the group.

OK gentlemen, I need you all to listen carefully. I need to assign 6 men, two on each 8 hour shift. You will all be putting on Gnome Battle Armour during your shift. You will be guarding the buoy that we retrieved. I can not stress enough how important it is to guard this device. No one, and I mean no one but the Commanding Officers, per Captain Maxwells orders is to go near it. You are to report to your assigned shift in full Gnome Armour 30 minuets before your shift is to start. No exceptions. The previous shift will inform you of anything going on during their shift and if there have been any recent changes. The first shift will start as soon as we are done here. and you can get your Armour on, go get the buoy and move it to the cargo bay, it is in the mech bay at this time. As soon as I call out the first two names you are to leave immediately, to get started. Gribble and Lasky your first up. Get going.

Aye, Lt. Mamba They both chimed in together. They were up and out the door to get the Gnome Armour. Also, to get the buoy over to the cargo bay.

OK, it is now 14:00 hours. The first shift will end at 23:00 hours. Schultz and Weber you will take the next shift. Be there at 22:30 to be briefed by the previous shift. Remember to report in full Gnome Armour.

Aye, Lt. Mamba

The third shift will begin at 07:00 hours. Flanders and Marcus you will be on that shift. Once again report at 06:30 to be briefed in full Armour.

Aye, Lt. Mamba

OK Gentlemen you have your orders. Once again I want to stress how important this duty is and no one is to be late for their shift. I want everyone rested and alert. Does everyone understand their orders.

In unison all the men called out Aye. Lt.

If there are no questions then, you are dismissed. Get some rest and be ready for your shift. I'm counting on you all to be at your best. I know you won't let me down. DISMISSED.........

They all stood up leaving the room, returning to their quarters. I turned to the Sergeant.

Well, Sergeant we have that under control. I'm going to go down to the Cargo bay just to make sure the buoy got transfered and that the guards are in full Armour. Sergeant Net I would like you to accompany me.

Aye, Lt Mamba

We went down to the Cargo Bay. I walked in with the Sergeant at my side. The buoy was there and the guards were in place around it. I didn't go close. I just saluted them. They returned the gesture. They had their orders no one was to come near except Commanding officers. Everything looked good. We left, going back to the bridge. Just as we entered the bridge I heard Captain Maxwell say.

"Yeoman Hobson - please take us back to the recharging station - again."

I walked over to Captain Maxwell.

Sir. the buoy is in the Cargo Bay. There are two Guards on it in Gnome Armour. There will be round the clock guards a new set every 8 hours.

Excellent Lt. Mamba. You and Sergeant Net take a seat. Be alert and ready for anything.

Aye, Sir.

We sat down away from all the activity, awaiting our next orders.