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"Captain, I must request that you allow me to ensure that the Guangzhou is fully operational before we venture to the planet's surface. After all, you are our only defense should that illithid ship return with reinforcements." "No time, Lieutenant. Get your team working on it and head down to the shuttle bay. We're in good enough shape for another fight if need be."
"Legion, take the Engineer and Dr. Yusil planetside to see what sort of assistance they need. Lt. Clausius, head down with them in case there are any problems. The way this day is going, you never know."
"Go ahead lieutenant, given them some stronger encouragement to stay away from Concord colonies."
Encourage, +2 to Clausius' shot.
"Let them go. Take the message back to their people that the Orion Space Force isn't to be trifled with. And see if you can raise Sisyphus colony!" "Lt. Krema, damage report!"
"Keep at them! Our psychoanalysts indicate unlikelihood of Illithid accepting surrender or aid." +2 to Lt. Clausius' gunnery action this round
"See what you can give us down there, Krema!"
"This is Captain Cooper! Ship-wide battle stations! Williams, activate shields! Lieutenants Young and Clausius, prepare for combat if they show any sign of hostility." "Lt. Krema, be prepared to give us whatever engine support we need should it come to that!"
"Very well. Lt. Young, plot a course for Lacaile 8760 Gamma."
"Lt. Williams, give me an initial scan of the system."
"Let's hope we don't have to put them to the test too soon, Lieutenant," Cooper says grimly.
"Now for the mission briefing. We're still 10 days out from a new Concord colony on a planet in the Lacaile 8760 system. According to the data you retrieved from the alien complex, and which Lt. Reginald-Zretaden was instrumental in helping us access, there is a Illithid presence in a nearby system. Therefore, we'll be babysitting the system for the time being to defend against Illithid incursion."
"Second, I have a promotion to report. Ensign Young, for outstanding service to Space Force, you have been granted the rank of Lieutenant. Congratulatons! An official announcement and ceremony will be set up over the next couple of days as we're en route to our destination."
"We have several business items to discuss, including personnel changes, current mission parameters, and some more minor regulations changes that I'll leave to the end of the meeting." "First, though I'm sure you've met him, I'd like to introduce Lt. Krema Reginald-Zretaden. I'm sure you'll all get to know him soon, if you haven't spent time with him already."
"This is the captain speaking. All officers to your duty stations; prepare to get under way."
Hours later, in the Guangzhou ready room with the results of your investigation of the alien facility in hand... "Now that we've dealt with our dead and injured, I've got an update from OSF Command. We're being recalled, effective immediately. Command is going under the assumption that the communique transmitted from the alien facility was hostile, and that this area of space may soon be a dangerous place for us to be." "Once you've broken camp down below and gotten all your crew members in your departments accounted for, I want full reports from all of you. Lt. Clausius, work up a threat analysis based on your combat experience below. Lt. Williams, get to work on decrypting that alien transmission. Doctor Yusil, please assist Sciences in their decrypting work as your duties allow. I'd love to have that encryption cracked by the time we reach Terra."
"Take as many security personnel as you need, Lt. Clausius. We need to sort this out; whoever or whatever is behind these psychic attacks needs to be brought to the light of day if the Space Force is to mount any effective defense against it."
"Lieutenant?" Cooper, not being a regular user of the sensors, passes the question on to Williams.
"Now that we've said goodbye to our brave crewman, and his murderer, and our little guest, it's time to return to the business at hand." "We've gathered the exact coordinates of the power signature that activated when Sandy's mental energies broke free. It's located in Region 3. Lt. Williams has done an initial scan of the area, and I'll be sending you four and CPO Phan to investigate. Lt. Williams, brief us on what you've found."
From the open comm channel (which The Whip was seemingly unaware of): "Don't be so sure of that, Mr. Kavhani. There's a Samsaran patrol ship in the vicinity. They've already messaged us they're on the way to retrieve you. You'll be well underway for a Concord prison by the time we investigate that power signature."
"Doctor, we're picking up an energy signature on the planet in Region 3. It wasn't there before. I'm going to keep base camp there until at least we investigate that anomaly, but that's a problem for tomorrow. For now, I'll contact Legion and have him call all away parties back to base."
"Computer, patch me through to the Captain." "Cooper speaking."
Meanwhile, Dr. Yusil gets a call from the Ghuangzhou in orbit. "Dr. Tanis Avram has arrived. He's the psionic specialist from Concord Psio-Medical Institute, here to give Sandy a full examination. He's requesting yourself and Dr. Greer's presence for the exam."
Ready Room "Now, as for everyone else, Ensign Young, please return to the helm and resume course. Lt. Clausius, finish up your shift on the weapons and then give me a full security report, debriefing Ensign Canny Resolve and the rest of your team. The rest of you, return to station unless you're off-duty."
"You're cleared for your evaluations. Adelstein, get the kid a nutritious meal and send it, along with any requests from the medical staff, down to the med bay. Dismissed doctor." Cooper walks the doctor and the child to the door and whispers to Yusil "Make sure you're safe as well doctor. Wouldn't want my doctor to get mind-wiped or anything."
"Well, doctor, is it possible the girl is the source of our weird disappearing hostiles?" Yusil ponders the question, and though it goes way beyond the level of power of any psion she's heard of outside of legend, she considers it a possibility.
As Dr. Yusil makes her way to the bridge, the Captain reacts to Clausius' and Williams' appearance. "What is going on out there!" he demands.
Bridge "Young, Wanjiku. Opinions on our disappearing spaceship?"
Bridge "The hell- Captain, am I reading my interface right? There's no way a glancing blow just utterly vaporized their ship." "Agreed! Ensign Wanjiku, get me a complete scan! I want to know what's going on here. The timing of a disturbance in crew quarters and an attack on the vessel by a ship that's no longer here is too much of a coincidence."
Bridge "Ensign Young, given them a warning shot. A little drain on the shields might be enough to make them think twice, they're heavily out-gunned."
Bridge Captain Cooper opens a channel. "D'Naki vessel; you are well inside Concord sovereign space. You are not sporting a Concord transponder. Please stand down and explain your presence." Cooper waits several seconds, but there is no response. "Ensign Young, activate battle-stations. Bring the weapons on line."
"Absolutely, you may, Lt. Clausius." "Ensign Young, take the weapons station and get one of your pilots up here to take over helm. I'll take the post until they arrive." Cooper rises from the captain's chair and approaches the helm.
"Bring the vessel about .37, Ensign Young. We have a new heading. Set course for Ross-154. A Samsaran gravimetric survey team has found evidence of a previously undiscovered planetary body in the system."
"We might want to make a copy of the data before handing it over, sir," Arkady suggested. "Someone didn't want that date getting out, and I would not be shocked if it 'accidently' got corrupted or damaged when we pass it on. We should be able to back it up without it touching any of our systems or looking at it, if we need to." "Excellent suggestion, Vassally-Simmons. Make it happen. All off-line, if possible. We don't want any chance of affecting our systems."
Captain Cooper sized up Ensign Knightgale, as if to consider how exactly he should put this, and how much to say. "Good thoughts all, Ensign, though I daresay a bit out of turn, at least." "The long and the short of it is, orders are orders. Admiral Revelek directly entrusted Guangzhou to retrieve the data. As yet it has not interfaced with any OSF equipment, and you can rest assured it won't, until the Computer Sciences division is good and comfortable with it. Your concerns have been noted, Ensign." "Now, the sooner we finish this up, the sooner we can get on our way, and get down to the Commissary to enjoy some of CPO Adelstein's soup and sandwich bar."
"Well, Bacchi is thanking you for getting this drive back to us, so we can get this data back to Earth in a format he feels is secure. Given the level of skill demonstrated in hacking Argent, I have to think he had a point that any digital transmission might be vulnerable." "And as for Voidcorp themselves, I suspect they're trying to get out in front of this thing before it blows up. There were reporters on the scene down there. The story's going to get out that OSF was present at a serious situation at a Voidcorp site; they want to make sure it looks as intended and, probably moreso, that whatever information is retrieved from examining Bacchi's drive doesn't come down on Voidcorp as an entity, any harder than it has to. In short, they're playing nice."
"I want to say this again, excellent work on behalf of the entire team. What was supposed to be a simple mission got complicated, and you still saw it through. Director Bacchi thanks you, and, indirectly, Voidcorp as well. They've issued a statement thanking The Space Force, that is." "Does anyone have any related issues you want to bring up before I let you get back to your duties?"
"That's a bit better, Ensign. Message received. Sending a security team, but it might take a bit. Do what you can on your own. Protect that data at all cost, and do what you can to protect civilian lives as well."
"Commander Legion, take a landing party consisting of Lt. Williams, Lt. Clausius, Engineer Vassally-Simmons, and Dr. Yusil. Your mission is to ascertain the disposition of the Auspicious and its crew and cargo, rescue any survivors, and return with limited cargo."
"Very well. We'll be on our way. I'm notifying the corporate owners of the Auspicious via Drift Beacon that one of its containers was found at this position. If you contact them, they might be willing to hire your group for recovery, you being on scene and all. If not, well, let's say certain parties won't be pleased your organization has stolen all those Credits. Good day." *closes external channel* "Lt. Williams, calculate the fastest course to 61 Cygni and pass it to Ensign Young." "Ensign Young, start charging the Drift Engine for transit. We'll be leaving the vicinity as soon as you've got your course."
*opens a channel* "Okay, Captain Avery, we read you. Thanks for the information. You're sure about that heading on the Auspicious? We wouldn't want to have to come looking for you for more...information."
Permission to bluff him and see if he knows anything about The Auspicious, Captain? "Granted, Ensign."
"This is Captain Cooper. Care to tell us what you're doing in the vicinity of this cargo container, and why you felt the need to jump us?"
"I'm opening a comm channel. Hang tight, our diplomat is about to make a statement to the enemy vessels. Let's see if she can get them to stand down before making any more attacks." "Ensign Knightgale, prepare to address the enemy."
Captain Cooper is busy discussing the situation with Oren on the internal comms.
"Belay that, Young. As you were. I'm contacting Knightgale now. If she's as good a remediator as you say, she might be able to iron this out, but I don't want to sit and get roasted in the meantime." "Lt Clausius, try to target opponents and arcs with functional shields while we're waiting on this. The more damage we do to their actual ships, the less likely they are to listen to reason."
Captain, though deferring to your experience... I would suggest taking that vessel rather than destroying it, if at all possible. "Agreed. Always better to arrest criminals than blow them up. That said, first we need to convince them to stop shooting!"
"Excellent shot, Lt! the Captain shouts to Rudo.
"Attention hostile interceptor. This is Captain Moses Cooper of the Orion Space Force. I recommend backing down before we shove those bullets back up your hindside." Intimidate (Taunt Attempt):
"Continue scanning for details. Helm, approach the coordinates."
Captain Cooper sat almost imperiously in the "big chair", his mood signified only by an occasional shift of position accompanied by a slight wince. "Lieutenant Williams, Report"
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