"He is alive???"
I said as I bolted upright in my bunk. Pulling on my sweater and
fumbling to zip my boots I hurriedly followed Ryder to the briefing room my
heart pounding in my ears as I walked in behind him. The room was packed with nearly everyone
aboard. The Commodore was standing near
the front of the room idly running her hands across the back of one of the
chairs as she stared at a comm sheet on the table. Ryder walked up to the Commodore and spoke to
her with his back turned to the rest of the room. Commodore Nadine tilted her head leaning
slightly to hear what Ryder was saying above the low rumble of voices in the
room. Pushing her hair back behind her
ear she straightened and addressed the room.
"Now that everyone was here, we have a report from an
intercepted Advocacy transmission stating that an unknown civilian was captured
after a short encounter near the Terra ship yards. The capture was performed by an unnamed UEE
Marine flight group." Commodore Nadine
paused for effect and continued. "We have reason to believe that this
unknown civilian is Major Wayland.” There
was a sudden barrage of questions and shouts wanting to know when we were going
in to get him. Ryder raised his hand demanding quiet to allow the Commodore to
continue. “The next step is to find out
where the military is holding our 'civilian'” she said as she scanned the room.
The shouts were deafening especially from behind me where
two always armed Mercs were standing.
These rather large square-ish men both volunteered to go in and get him
unassisted, shouting their offer above everyone else in the room. Several others joined in the chorus of shouts
until the Commodore raised her hands asking for quiet. The room eventually quietened down some and
Nadine held up the comm sheet. She
crushed it in her hand and said “We need more information and we need someone
to go get it“. She looked towards the
back of the room and gestured towards the Mercs. “After we have his location and assess the
risk to our Org we will go get him” she said as she tossed the crumpled comm
sheet to the center of the table.
Pointing at the wadded up paper on the conference table she
called me by name saying, “Lander, since you are so eager to ‘get back out
there’, you have been volunteered to verify this comm at the source. Verify only, do you read me?” “Aye Sir” I responded quickly. I could feel tremors in my chest and hands as
the gravity of what the Commodore had just said soaked in. I did really want to be back out there and if
there was a chance I could help get Mitch back I was ready to go now. “Sir, when can I head out?” I added my
thoughts taking hardly a single instant to gel into a response. “Soon” Ryder said answering for the Commodore. “The comm wasn’t specific about location but
we have a trace on the origin. You should
have intermediate details on your glass now.
Complete info should catch up to you by the time you reach the Terra
system.” He finished with a swipe across the face of his glass.
I nodded my
head in agreement and waited for the rest of the briefing to continue. I didn’t hear much of what was said but I did
perk up when the Stealth ship was mentioned as part of the equipment the team
would use. As it turned out I wasn’t flying the Ghost but one of the ‘sanitized’
Reds on hand. When my glass flashed I
immediately flipped to the incoming comms screen and read the message describing
the mission in four short lines.
1.
Intermediate destination: UEE
Medical Center, Terra
2.
Infiltrate local computer
systems
3.
Locate our downed pilot
4.
Report back to Command
As I walked around the Cutlass inspecting the external
systems the two Mercs from the briefing crossed the flight deck and waited
outside the ship staging perimeter until I finish the inspection. One of the big men held up his extremely
large hand motioning me over to them and said, “Lander .. we hear you are bad
ass behind the stick.” I respond with a
sort of grimace that was meant to be a grin, “I do alright I guess .. luckier than
most I suspect.” “I hear right about you
being a chem user? Slam, widow, super stims and the like?” the other one questioned. “Not for a while” I say, thinking to myself
this was exactly what I needed, a couple holier than thou Mercs, sarcastically
I add “Why? You worried I might go all
junky on you?” “Nah .. we been around”
he said indicating his partner and himself with an armored thumb “.. just that
this might get a little intense later on.”
“Yeah, know this .. we got your back Lander.” The other Merc added. Both these big guys loomed over me but I got
the feeling that a sort mutual respect flowed evenly between us. “You get us where we need to be and we will
do the rest.” I nodded.
Then he leaned closer to me and said in a low voice. “Like I said we been around, if you need
anything .. anything .. you just say.” Almost whispering the last bit he taps
the med-kit on his right hip. Straightening
up he looks around the flight deck.
Seeing no one around he reaches for my hand. I think this a bit odd but reach up to shake
his large gloved hand. He enclosed my
hand in both of his and I felt two small glass vials in my palm. Just like in the not so distant past I discreetly
shoved the vials in the breast pouch of my lightweight flight armor.
My body seemed to remember this motion and where it
leads. Almost at once I felt the almost
sexual quickening associated with breaking Slam. Slam has a less than subtle effect on one’s
body and mind. Everything goes into overdrive. It is like your heart and suprarenal glands
have been super-charged. Reflexes are subdued
but there is a powerful desire to press yourself beyond the bodies limits,
handy if you are an on the edge kind of pilot the military churns out. The suck part? Right when you need what it does for you the
most, Pfffftt it leaves you hanging, totally unpredictable.
As I walked up the ramp I removed my handgun from the
holster on my left calf plating and checked ammo and safety. Patting my ammo pouches again for the 10th
time I slid into the pilot’s seat and started the preflight.
In the back of the ship I heard the Mercs talking to the med
tech that ‘loaned’ the gear and the ship we would be taking in to locate
Mitch’s whereabouts. “Preflight
complete, closing hatch, prepare for departure.” I heard a final ‘good hunting’ from the med
tech and the rear hatch vacuum sealing pumping out atmosphere.
On the comms I listened to the Mercs going through their own
version of preflight. Weapons are
cycled, harnesses tightened, equipment energized. One of the Mercs says, “Let’s do this.” “Roger that” I respond. Spinning up the engines we lifted from the hanger
deck and headed towards inner system.
A short while later, I took a moment to wallow in the
routine by pulling back the throttle and watched our speed dissipate as we
coasted down from 0.2 entering hi sec UEE space. The Cutlass should come up clean on the space
port scans. The Mercs have tech to
obscure our identities should the scans go deeper. “Systems Check” I say through intership
comms. “5 by 5 back here Cap” grunted
one of the Mercs. “Acknowledged” I
responded crisply.
At about 0.1 AU out our velocity had diminished to UEE system
max and I did a resync of the chronometers onboard to system local time strobe. My mind slowed and I tried to remember how
many times I had watched the chronometer readjust. I
always thought, however absurd it may sound, that flying in the black as my own
personal time machine, dilating a couple minutes every time I sat here at max cruise
of 0.2 for an hour or so.
Suddenly we were scanned deeply. “Fucking bounty hunter” I say over intership
comms. “Can’t the twat see that we are a
Red?” I added while running my fingers around the edge of the offline weapons
controls. These assholes just can’t pass
up an easy cred. I open comms ship board
so the Merc’s can hear the ship to ship exchange.
The comms blast out “Hey Red what you in such a hurry for?
Got a hot one?” “Just trying to do my
gig Freelancer, you have business?” I
respond calmly. “I’m not getting a good
read on you, curious what that means.” He adds with a bit of an aggressive
tone.
With my finger poised above the scanner console and I
respond as soon as the pirate uttered his last syllable, “I’m going to scan you
Freelancer. Don’t get excited.” I quickly scanned the Freelancer and saw the
ship, crew, and available weapons at ready.
“This is UEE Space Freelancer.
You seem to be coming in a little hot, don’t you think?” I said with what I hoped would come across as
a sultry promising tone. “Not that
close. Why not make this easy. Kill momentum and open the rear we will have
us have a peek.” His tone steadily becoming
more insistent “And break off the scan Red.”
_-o-_
Disclaimer:
I do not work for nor represent Star Citizen, Roberts Space Industries, Cloud Imperium Games or any other Star Citizen related entity in any form or fashion with the possible exception that I am a Backer and have a huge passion for this game already.
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