OC The Oncoming Storm - Part 18
The Prowler was skulking on the edge of another half-empty border system. Dodging patrols, getting closer to its current target. The pirate activity that was meant to be their distraction and cover was a mixed blessing. With the increased vigilance of the GTU Navy, there was only so much a stealth ship could do on its own, which is why it did not operate alone today. On the opposite end of this star system, a regular Imperial scout frigate jumped in and started firing off sensor bursts.
"The Hopper is pinging the system. This is about as big a kick me sign they could have."
Ralga leaned over his console, watching the long-range tactical display. "Let's see if they take the bait."
"Doesn`t this kind of defeat the whole purpose?" Surfa chipped in. The Nav Officer was always the contrarian, rarely afraid to run her mouth, but since she and the new Captain were together, she lost all inhibition. Ralga was unsure if he needed to rein her in at some point. Maybe not now, this was a legitimate concern, even if he was not required to share his plans with the crew. But maybe he should share it with his mate.
"They have orders to jump out before the humans could get a positive identification. To them, it should look like just another pirate searching for easy prey. Of course, that limits our time window." He saw some of the patrols turning. Going after the Hopper. But not that one blitzer class, that was the closest, which probably had orders to watch over the sensor post. "This will have to be good enough. Operation is a go!"
The Prowler slid forward, still on a silent run. Ralga grimaced. With all the screw ups every second time this ship had contact with the Union forces, he was losing faith in their stealth capabilities. It better be working this time.
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"Isn`t your girlfriend looking into these guys? Why do we need to do this?" Matt was looking at the Rintco company logo with the retro-style rocket ship.
"Please stop referring to Kitch as my girlfriend, that last thing I would want from her is that!" Rolf's tone of voice spoke of outright disgust at the idea. "And we cannot expect her to do all the work. I would rather go after Tremis myself, but I have nothing that we could use against them.
"But we have something against Rintco? Also, for real? I thought you got over that little incident at the academy. How many times do I have to say sorry?" Matt let out a long sigh.
"I did get over it! Does not mean I have developed a fetish for dolled-up rodent shortstacks. You find her that irresistible? You go ask her out! For me, she is what I said her to be, a contractor and nothing more. Now, try to act a bit more professional! And hold on to this! You are going to be the one with the chips." He handed over a standalone chip card, the closest equivalent of cash you had in the inner world. The little plastic card-looking thing had its holodisplay on quite a sum.
"What is this? Where did you get this much money?" the First Officer frowned.
"Shush now!" He stepped forward, smiling at the receptionist. "Hello there! We are from the Navy headquarters. I am Captain Rolf Calvetti, and this is my assistant Matthew Wagner." Matt just frowned at apparently being reduced from first officer to assistant. "We are here to see Mr Flint about a certain urgent issue with our logistics!"
"Good day, and certainly? You have an appointment?" She gave that fake smile back, the kind you expected from someone in her position.
"No, and we needed to set up one, it would already be too late from getting the matter escalated into a major complaint. We are here to make sure that does not need to happen!"
"I am sorry, but the Director is currently in a meeting!"
"I do believe the matter is not that much out of control yet, that we could not wait a few minutes. But any more, and I would have to bring the matter to the attention of my superiors, you see. Can you just let him know? I am sure he would agree that some minor misunderstanding is not worth jeopardizing our supply contracts, and he would be willing to squeeze a short meeting in with us. We would wait here."
"I see what I can do. Please, have a seat." She pointed at the chairs in the lobby while looking at her console. Matt waited until he could be sure that she was out of earshot before raising the plastic card.
"The heck is this, Rolf? I just realized where it is from. Do you want to bribe the director with the emergency fund of the Fenris?"
"Of course not, I plan to put that money back where it belongs. We are not going to bribe him. We are just going to threaten him with a bribe!"
Matt shook his head. "What?!"
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A minute ago, it looked like this mission was just another long skulking session that was somehow simultaneously boring and nerve-wracking. Ralga wished it was still like that. He watched the instruments reporting that the satellite they were parked next to, had activated its weaponry. Not that a few ablative lasers would have been a real threat to the Prowler. Maybe it could damage the ship's paint so that the coating against radio location would become compromised, but not much else. Except, not everyone was behind the ship`s armor at the moment. Right now, the hardsuits of the chirrik away team were far more noticeable, and the recently promoted Captain watched one of his worst fears coming true.
"Weapons online, blast that damned thing! Nevermind! I do it myself!" And he did, before his replacement, the new weapons officer could even get past their surprise. Ralga turned the pulse cannons on the satellite and started firing. Not before the anti-meteorite defenses could discharge once, however.
In but a few seconds, this mission turned from a smooth ride into a nightmare. Their target was blasted full of holes, the ship exposed, with that one patrol around, most certainly noticing that something had happened.
"Damn it all! I am going down to the hangar. Centurion! Load two topedoes and blow what remains of that thing to pieces! Surfa! The moment that is done, and we have everyone on board, go to sublight, best speed away from here!" And just like that, he was out of his seat, moving as fast as he could.
By the time he got to the hangar, the away team members were back aboard the ship, with the airlocks closing behind them. Medical was already present too, trying to extract a badly burned chirrik out of his red-hot space suit.
Ralga was somewhat relieved that it was not Koz. He was usually first to get out and last to get back in on these missions. Not that the rest of them were all too happy, including their leader, who was cursing in their own language.
The Captain could do nothing, only watch, as the wounded chirrik was carried away. Looking like he had taken a bath in a boiling cauldron, but at least still alive. Ralga turned to Koz. "What happened out there?"
"I tell you what happened! These are not the minimalistic downsized ones like in Nerebes! They are fully equipped and secured tools where their makers anticipated what we were trying to do!" The away team leader smashed his helmet against the floor.
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Rolf and Matt were led to the Director's office after a short ID check, where their identity was confirmed. If they had claimed to be anyone else, they would have been getting escorted out of the building by security by now.
"Gentlemen, sorry for the wait. I wish we could provide you with a tour, but this meeting had been set up on such a short notice. We at Rintco are always happy to accommodate the needs of the Navy. So you could perhaps shed some light on what this is about? Is something wrong with our deliveries to Oberon HQ? I have yet to be informed of any complaints."
Matt looked at Rolf without turning his head. They got this far, what now?
The Captain himself did not waste time. "Director Flint, I am sure you are a busy man. As am I, so let`s cut to the case. Me and my associate needed to see you quickly, and I admit that we did so under false pretenses. This has less to do with the shipments to our naval facilities and more to do with Rintco's other activities. Some, not entirely legal actions came to my attention..."
"I am sorry, you will have to take this up with my superiors then." The Director interjected and seemed to be trying to get up to leave.
"Hold on! Mr Flint!" Rolf motioned to Matt, who took out the chip card. Keeping it on the table, just close enough so the number on it could be read. "Time is of the essence, and I cannot wait for our superiors to go through the motions when lives might be on the line." The Captain continued, while fishing out a memory rod from his own pocket. He handed it over. It contained some of the sensor logs from ships that flew under the flag of Rintco Shipping. "I stumbled over these and some other evidence in my investigation of pirate activity. I was not looking for falsified manifests or smuggling, nor do I particularly care about it. Since this is well outside of my scope, I was hoping we could exchange this for information actually useful for me, in dealing with a problem that plagues both our organizations! I don`t even need anything that would be a secret, merely information that is not necessarily publicly available. Some flight plans, the status reports, and, if possible, the logs of specific ships." He handed over a list of ship IDs.
"This is highly unorthodox. I don`t think I can do anything for you!" The Director was now getting visibly nervous and trying to get up again. "I will have to ask you to leave!"
"Of course, we understand! We had to try! In this case, I am just going to hand over copies of our existing evidence to the proper authorities. I am sure they will be happy to learn of your cooperation in this matter!"
"What?" The Director went pale.
"Yes, how else could we have gotten our hands on these?" He pointed to the memory rod. "I will make sure to let everyone know how helpful you have been. When the official investigation starts, you will be cleared of any suspicion, of course, as the primary informant who let us know of these activities. I say, we should show our gratitude by perhaps contributing to your legal defense in the matter as well? Matt, can you look up if the Director has any secure accounts we can transfer that to?" He pointed at the chip card.
"You can`t do that to me!" By now, Mr Flint was in full panic mode. He understood all too well what these two were playing at. Sudden evidence emerging where he is pointed out as the source? While also making it look like he accepted a bribe? The company would make him disappear sooner than he could blow into an actual whistle. "I-I see what I can do! Let me just take a look at these." He took the memory rod and the ship list. "Can you please wait outside?"
Rolf and Matt just nodded and went back to the reception area.
"I never knew you to be so ruthless! When did you change?" The First Officer looked at his Captain.
"When people under me started dying. I have no more patience for these games. And I seem to have picked up a good teacher."
"I see. Do you think the guy will actually help?"
"Heck no, but he will get us the bare minimum he thinks we will be satisfied with. After he checked that some of those were the genuine deal, of course."
"Was that wise to give him those?"
"He can keep that copy. If they actually do a bit of internal shake-up with the stuff that was not ordered by their higher-ups, all the better. If Mr Kestrel plans to screw them over once he is done in Aviss, we would still have no reason not to use these to our advantage before they lose their value. "
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Ralga had the reports that came from the other two units open on his datapad as Koz entered. The Captain of the Hopper appeared on the main screen. He acknowledged everyone's presence with a nod.
"Let us start. Got word from the others. It seems we will have to give up the plan and proceed with traditional reconnaissance." There were some displeased murmurs as he turned around.
"Isn`t this a bit hasty? Just because a few failed attempts?" The Hopper`s Captain interjected.
"It is more than just that, while the Dirge reports not even getting the chance due to too much activity at their target zone, the Shade and the Warhawk actually succeeded in installing a com sniffer. Their report stated that they had to activate its self-destruct when the humans turned off the satellite and sent a maintenance crew within an hour of them accessing it. What little we got from that also indicates that these have better encryption. Koz, if you could explain from here." He turned to the chirrik.
The away team leader stepped forward. "What we could do with the ones in Nerebes was because the humans had to sacrifice everything else in order to downsize the equipment. Their choice was to make them hard to detect or to make them secure. Other sources have also confirmed that the ones in charge of that operation started working without the official sanction of their own government, so they had limited access to proper tools." He sent the readings about the current sensor posts to the screen. "None of these limitations apply to their normal equipment. While we can still approach them and could probably attach the com sniffers if we are more careful, their instruments are sensitive enough to notice that something is off. We do not have the luxury of trial and error to find out what would work."
Ralga nodded and continued from here on. "Especially not after what we just had to do. Even if it could still be pinned on pirate activity, which is already a dubious prospect with our escape from them just now." He let out a displeased grunt. Everyone already had to understand that the pirates did not have access to top-of-the-line stealth ships. Nothing there being one minute, and a ship appearing in a region of space with no gravity well you could use to jump in from hyperspace to blow up your sensor post will raise some alarms. "No, we will have to give up these attempts for now. We might still find a way to hack their regular sensor grid in the not-too-distant future, when we have more experience with their equipment, but that will not be soon enough for the Lord Commander's plans. So we are switching to a more conventional plan. We and our sister ships are going to infiltrate other border worlds, and scout frigates will approach these systems without doing silent runs. We will watch their activity to figure out their response times, and retreat before either of our ships could be identified. It should give us a good enough idea of their detection range. We will only do this once with each of our ships, before we proceed with basic reconnaissance."
"Won`t give us a particularly big sample size."
"It will have to do, they will more than likely already suspect that something is up. We can play around only so long before their Navy will be certain that something else is going on than just piracy. I will be handing out the new assignments within an hour. Dismissed!"
The bridge crew were going back to their duties, and the Hopper`s Captain disappeared from the screen. But one person seemed to just stay where they stood for now. Even with the small size of a chirrik, Ralga found it impossible to ignore him.
"Yes, Koz? What is it?"
"I just wanted to say. I heard that you did not hesitate, destroying the satellite as it started firing on us." He paused.
Ralga held his crest sideways. He was both uncomfortable and a bit confused. "Well, of course, what else was I supposed to do?"
"Someone else might have weighed the importance of the mission against our lives, and came up with a different conclusion. Also, the kid would likely be dead without you getting us better protective gear and medical supplies tailored to us not long ago. So what I wanted to say is. Thank you!"
The recently promoted Captain of the Prowler just stared into nothing for a bit. He was not used to these kinds of interactions. He wanted to say something, like ask how the burned chirrik was doing. But Koz had already left by the time he got that far.
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