very nice, wondering what will come
Bad things
-----
11/07/3069 08:19 Location – ONI Mischief Night, Aea Zenith Point, Taurian ConcordatDeep within the bowels of the Seeker was the “Black Chamber” where the hyperspace transmitter/receiver was kept under observation at all times. ONI Signals Operator Timothy Colorado paged through todays transmissions, incoming and outgoing, the latest incoming was unexpected. He checked the codes again, and once more for certainty.
“Red Gold, that can’t be right. Jane take a look at this, make sure I’m not dreaming.”Jane Fontaine looked over the print out from the K-6 Black Box, the machine was built into the Seeker, the armored casing complete with a kill switch that would detonate sixteen kilograms of Pentaglycerine that would shatter the immensely expensive and highly sensitive piece of equipment,
“Let me see that codebook.” He pushed the metal bound binder toward her and it floated end over end until she grabbed it. She paged through the recognized signals.
“You’re not dreaming but that doesn’t mean this makes any sense. We need the Major.”
“Already paged him.”ONI Major Terrance Vuri was not pleased to be woken up during his off shift, he arrived in the black chamber in a fury.
“What the hell? I just need started some rack time. What’s so damn important?”“Sir, we have a high priority transmission from an unconventional station on four channels.”
“What do you mean unconventional? Speak up Timmy!”
“Sir, the transmission is coming from Victor Steiner-Davion’s old station using his personal priority codes.”
“That’s not possible! The Camelot and its black box was decommissioned by the Archon-Princess years ago and even if it was active no one would have access to those codes.”Jane opened the codebook to the sequence used,
“It’s an older code sir but it checks out. It was never removed perhaps in error since the codes were never used.”
“What does it say?”She held up a thin strip of paper taking a moment to be certain she decipher it correctly,
“Shortform: it says that Taurus is about to be hit with an Asteroid on the Twentieth. That the Asteroid was put in motion by The Word of Blake as a KEI weapon. Additionally Grover Shraplen and his inner circle were killed in a coup.”“What?”
“That is what it says sir.”
“Where would they get that kind of tech? It’s a major escalation if true.”
“Don’t know sir. It’s your call whether you want to inform the Admiral or not. I think we should check it out just to find out who transmitted this message assuming they survive.”“I don’t know if we will be able to make it to Taurus before the Twentieth. We are just beginning to recharge the cores now and can’t leave the other jumpships without escorts this deep into enemy territory.”Terrance put his hand to his forehead, this was just too bizarre. They were so close to Regis’ Roost and the Concordat Cageworks for these kinds of detours, the Admiral was going to be just as confused.
“I will talk to the Admiral right away.”12/05/3069 11:32 Location – TDF Asteroid Defense Base 7, Taurus, Taurian ConcordatRabid Fox Team 456 waited while two of their number prepared a heavy electric cutter to breach the airlock. One man held the device in a harness and had an extra shield covering his helmet while the other had the large power pack it drew upon and assisted when it was in use. Warning signs indicated the station was in quarantine and that meant the Rabid Foxes had to breach the door; the TDF didn’t exactly give the DMI access codes to their bases.
Their C-7 Forced Entry Transport was docked inside the hanger of a cored out asteroid defense base dating back to just past the Reunification War several centuries ago but the inside was renovated less than five years ago according to records and was well maintained.
Two massive 55 centimeter capital lasers and dozens of smaller lasers for defense had been installed to protect Taurus from further Davion aggressions. Karmic perhaps that a Federated Suns cruiser task force was now leading search and rescue operations rather than destroying the last cage-works capable of making a warship in the periphery.
The Foxes had taken their time coming in, frequently attempting to hail the TDF defenders on multiple frequencies but all they received was dead air. Their scanners determined that the nuclear fission reactor at the core of the station was still active and intact, surface features showed no signs of external damage, the weapons did track automatically but didn’t engage without a human in the loop. This team and four others were working their way through the bases to determine why they didn’t fire on the asteroid that hit Taurus slightly more than two weeks ago killing almost all of its nearly four billion inhabitants.
“Almost ready Sergeant.”
“Helmets on, we are under full hazard protocol, don’t know if the station is in quarantine for a reason but have to assume that it is. Buddy checks on seals. Everyone check your rad tags and chemical sensors. Maui get your biologicals kit ready, I want samples for analysis if we find anything off inside.”The Rabid Foxes donned their full vacuum armor and engaged the over pressure in their compartment to keep suspected airborne contaminants out.
“Lock us out El Tee”The C-7 was based on the S-7 Orbit to Orbit transport and had two cargo compartments to handle the frequent empty space transfers of material. The commandoes were currently in the smaller air-locked compartment isolated from the main body and follow on crews. The light on the large bay doors that separated them went red indicating complete isolation in the event of a contamination.
“Don’t do anything stupid Sergeant, if you find hostiles or acute hazards fall back. Can’t trust anything these days.”
“Roger El Tee”
“Crush it”The two commandoes maneuvered the cutting jaws into position and used them to break through the military grade armor protecting the airlock with a crashing noise only softened by the built in audio filters in his helmet. The gap widened and the over pressure filled the antechamber. The Rabid Foxes carefully entered the jagged hole in the airlock. One of their number deploying an airtight membrane to seal the door behind them.
“One more to go.”The ‘chewy’ walked forward slowly followed by his ‘sparky’,
“I hope so, this thing is damn heavy. We don’t want to carry it around all day.”
“Her Majesty’s Department of Military Intelligence made it as light as possible Greg.”He hefted the device to the second door,
“Yeah? Really feeling the love in my lumbars Katrina. Ready when you are Sarge.”Sergeant Palisade looked toward the sealed gap behind him, its installer gave him a thumbs up, indicated that no over-pressure was making it through.
“Go”The noise was much louder in the smaller antechamber than it was in the C-7 but the audio filters helped. Rabid Foxes deployed an auxiliary membrane to keep the area somewhat clean of additional contamination. Bright white lights illuminated the large cargo bay that tied into the hanger complex, idled industrial exoskeletons waited in their charging cradles, but the place was abandoned except for a cleaning drone that worked its way through the racks of supplies and a variety of overhead transports.
“Well at least no one is shooting at us.”
“I hope it stays that way corporal but if it doesn’t draw your side-arm. I still have a suspicion that this might be a trap. Greg and Doug commandeer one of those overhead rail transports.”The two of them found a working sled out, unencumbered themselves by strapping the unit to one of the sides, drew their sidearms, and pushed it into position. The railway was attached to a series of similar ones that lined up with five stories of wide corridors, each capable of housing a buckets and two men abreast or a heavy exoskeleton on either side. Transporting bulky goods in fractional gravity was hard and the only way to do it economically was an overhead bucket system like this. Individuals could hitch a ride on a self-propelled handle or sled to traverse the station rapidly,
“We’re ready”
“Alright team we have to reach the command bunker. Smith, Jones, you two stay here and watch our ride out. The rest of you with me. We’re going to tie this sled to another one. Keep an eye out for signs pointing to the command bunker and then we’ll figure out what is going on.”The Rabid Foxes held onto the handles and about a hundred meters before they came upon the corpse of a TDF soldier floating in the hallway. The dead man was facing away from them and putrid. The Foxes stopped their sled and Sergeant Palisade looked at the dead man. He was lucky they had taken the anti-vomit medication before coming here or else he might be choking on his own puke. He motioned to the medic that was coming to examine the corpse.
“Maui, I don’t need your biologics kit to tell me what this man died of.”
“What is it Sarge?”“I’ve seen this before, on Indicass in Sixty Two.
UrbStryc-A
This base was nerve gassed, probably only hours before the asteroid was sent toward Taurus. Since it has been two weeks the agent is probably inert now but we still need to keep biologics out.
We are a morgue detail now Four Fifty-Six, so you can holster your sidearm.
Jenkins, tell the Commander to bring in a Chaplain and another shot of Ex-V (no vomit medication). We might be here for a while.”