Week 6 - Jump to New Covenant

The crew spend the week in jump, prepping for the next mission. The jump is uneventful, the jump-exit smooth and Kirth feels pleased with himself.
"Just routine," he thinks as the jump finishes, "just doing my job...."
The second world in the New Covenant system is only a small world, so the trip from the jump exit is not a long one.

Week 5 - Aerin refueling

Kirth sat at his console on the bridge, boredom starting to take hold as the refueling approached the third hour. Suddenly the surface sensors started beeping, startling Kirth. He zoomed in on the sensor detection, right at the edge of the sideband sensors. The sensors indicated a surface vessel and at current speed it was an hour out from the coast. Kirth feels the adrenaline kick in. He keys the intercom to the captain's cabin.
"Captain, Kirth here. I think you should come to the bridge and have a look at this."
"What is it Mr Gersen." comes the reply.
"Inbound water vessel, about an hour out."
"Very well." responses Teanna, "send out a recon drone to get a visual, get the engineers to wrap up refueling and prep for launch."
Teanna pauses for a moment. "Mr Gersen, the recon team should be inbound by now but to be on the safe side break comms silence and make contact to confirm their location. I'll be on the bridge in five."
Kirth taps out the commands to send off a drone, then calls the engineers on the com.
"Bridge here. We might have to leave in a hurry. Could you make us ready for launch ASAP ?"
Amalric's voice comes back "We're at 80 percent fuel load Bridge, we need another half an hour to complete the job. Then another 15 minutes to fire up the M Drives. What's the hurry?"
"I'll get back to you on the refueling, we got an unknown inbound."
Kirth signals the Captain again.
"Wait only until the drone gets a visual" comes the reply.
Kirth then turns on the radio and tries to contact the recon team "Base to Carrier. What is your situation right now?"
Heather comes back over the radio.
"Had a small run in with some locals but on our way back. ETA to the Trailblazer ten minutes. Out."

Soon Teanna is on the bridge and Kirth gives an update. His console then pings.
"Drone has a visual."
"Bring it up." Teanna responds.
The blue ocean fills the screen. In the center is a very old, very large ship that looks a lot like a fishing trawler. However mounted on the decks are several large guns that look decidedly out of place.
"That does not look friendly." comments Teanna. She comms the engineers.
"Possible hostile contact inbound. I want thrusters hot in thirty minutes."
"Yes Captain," responds Amalric, "but we will be short ten percent fuel load."
"Can't be helped, just make it so."
Kirth looks at the images coming in from the drone.
"Hmmm..." he wonders. "Is that all they have in the way of weaponry, or do they have something nastier hidden below decks ?"
He then goes once more through all the data coming in from the drone to see if he can sift out any more information. Looking closely he notes the guns look like old era naval guns, which might do some damage to the ship. He then spots the tubes off the back of the ship, which to Kirths trained eyes look distinctly like missile tubes.
Pointing to the screen he indicated the tubes to the Captain. "Might be missiles Captain."
"Agreed. That's enough reconnaissance, recall the drone."
"Yes Captain." replies Kirth.

Five minutes later the G arrives back and preparation begins for launch. As the carrier docks TK lifts his visor and looks at the whole crew sitting opposite him in a dead serious face and says "Well that went to someone's plan! But who are we gunna talk to about being ill-equipped to handle the situation..."
Smiling he continues "I mean seriously all we needed was some marshmallows man!"
Sterlkar looks at TK with a deadpan face and asks, "What are marshmallows?"
TK Looks at Stelkar wide eyed, jaw dropping to the ground!
"You mean originally??" Without missing a beat TK continues. ".....Well an ancient Solomani legend from a country on Terra filled with dangerous creatures. The most notorious of these was known as the DROPPIE or Drop Bear! Falling from great high trees on top of their prey....mainly children or visitors from other countries or places." TK was now finding it hard to maintain a straight face.
"So originally the marshmallow was the faeces of this predator which was a white or pink soft spongy balls which floated down from above! For some reason of biological process, or maybe the consumption of over sucrose filled children??, they smelt and tasted sweet even more so when cooked on an open fire on the end of a specially prepared stick from the Gum Tree the drop bears inhabited!"
TK was now grinning.
"Also legend said that if you ate it you were less likely to be attacked by them! Me I just like it for its metaphoric value which it brings for us here today!"
"Shit Happens! Burn it up! And Eat it! Makes it much sweeter to swallow!!" It was almost a marines war-cry for TK by now. He gestures, palms up, eyebrows raised and smiling.

Back on the bridge Teanna stands up. "Mr Gersen, get us into orbit. I'm going to see to the recon team." Teanna says as she stands.
"Evasive action if needed but don't fire back if fired on."
"Not a problem Captain," Kirth says grinning, "there's no gunners available anyway."
Teanna nods and heads for the G-Carrier bay.
Kirth listens in on the coms as the recon team debrief begins. Nigel explains briefly how the mission went, the lack of salvageable material and the virus infected bot. Kirth was not quite worried about the development aound the shuttle, but the parts would have been handy.
"Well", he thought as he watched the head-cam feeds, "That bonfire looks like it was fun. Now it looks like this are going to get a lot more interesting..."
As the Trailblazer heads toward space the ship does indeed fire a missile at the ship, but Kirth is well out of range by the time it runs out of fuel.

Once out of orbit and heading for the jump point Teanna pulls the crew together. Nigel gives a debrief of the starport recon and the crew goes over the scans, tagging anything of interest for follow-up teams.
"Amalric, what's the fuel situation?" Teanna asks.
"We got just over 90 percent fuel load in the end," replies Amalric,
"just enough for the jump and 11 days maneuver."
"Doesn't leave much room for mistakes." adds Nigel.
"We'll just have to rely on good engineering and sharp navigation then." replies Teanna.
Teanna wipes the holo-display with a wave of her upper arm. A blue/green/white world appears in front of everyone.
"The first of our major targets is next. New Covenant had a Knights' Legion base on it before the crash and the old records indicate there is a good chance a cache of some sort exists within the system."
Teanna zooms in the map, pointing.
"There were major population centers here, here and here. The was a population of 4 billion humans before the crash. It was a fully fledged police state, complete with a dictator that they viewed as some sort of high priest. Though they were friendly to the then Imperium."
Teanna spun the world to its southern ocean, then zoomed in on a small green island.
"The KL base was on this island. This is our next destination. We have complete access codes and base layout, for 70 years ago. Any questions so far?"

Like Sterlkar most of the crew sit in silence. TK sits contemplating all those involved in the debrief and his place in the pecking order .
"Too bad about the fuel" thought Kirth, "I just hope I can do as well as the way over here". He does not say anything out loud, waiting to hear the rest of what Teanna had to say.
Nigel, glancing at the landing party members, says "What's the former tech level just so we have some idea of what to expect in term of leftovers, like say robots?"
TK Looks at him and raises his eyebrows, then looks towards the captain and nods his head appreciatively like a non-verbal "yeah what he says."
Teanna nods and replies "New Covenant was tech level nine before the collapse, however the Knights' Legion base was a mix of tech level thirteen and fourteen."
Teanna pauses, as if recalling details.
"As for robots, the KL did use them from time to time but never in a combat role. They did have smart equipment, drones and other remote strike equipment, so there is always a possibility of virus infected equipment. Just make sure virus protocols are in place and always go in hot."
Nigel nods, "Any gas giant to refuel at before we hit dirtside?"
"Crap" TK thinks to himself. He really fraggin hates skimming, its really shit unless you have a fraggin good pilot! He makes a mental note to make sure he has plenty on antiemetics ready or at least some ginger from the galley.
"There are three gas giants in the outer system. We would have to do an in-system jump to refuel from them, taking extra time we don't have. Instead we are jumping to the next orbit out, the rocky world there has an ice cap we can refuel from. There was a mining base on that planet, but we don't expect it to be manned now. We can then maneuver into New Covenant."
"Mission contingencies," Nigel then asks, "What do we do if we find the base intact as opposed to its being occupied by the locals?"
TK and the others straighten almost imperceptible to Nigel's third question, trying to be non verbally supportive as in the first question. TK figures being the Tail End Charlie should also be represented in all situations, even moral ones when presented with higher ranks. Always there to back you up from the rear! He laughs on the inside..now that's a joke for when we are dirt side next time he thinks to himself!

Teanna looks at TK and blinks several times. TK suddenly remembers the Islaiatians are telepaths and thinks "Sorry Captain, I'll keep it a little more on mission from now on."
Teanna looks back to Nigel.
"There is always a chance the base may be compromised. The base is not our primary target. We are to recon the base and look for information on the cache. The reports suggest that most of the high tech gear was removed from the base and transported to the cache once it was certain the base was going to be over-run."
Teanna brought up a schematic of the base.
"To be honest Command doesn't think there will be much left of the base as a free trader report tells the base was hit by a virus infected Imperial Destroyer Escort that crashed out of orbit onto the base. We're just hoping the computer core under the base is still intact."
Teanna looks around the crew and, seeing no response, dismisses the crew. "Very good. Prepare for jump."

Week 5 - Aerin survey

The jump to Aerin is smooth, with the Trailblazer precipitating out of jump at the 100 diameter mark of the world.
"Well done Mr Gethens." says Teanna. "Saihe, please scan the world, mark any hostiles. Gunners at the ready."
Sterlkar responds over the coms "Aye, aye."
Minutes later Saihe gives the all clear signal, no hostiles detected.
Teanna nods and comms engineering. "Mr Strawn, stand down jump re-entry protocols."
Within minutes the air was pumped back into the ship's interior, bringing it back up to one atmo, and the crew could remove their compressor masks. Teanna started to monitor the sensor feed coming in from Saihe's sensor computers. Pre the collapse Aerin had been a human world; 12,800 kilometers in diameter, a dense but tainted atmosphere with 60% water. There was some 300 million humans on the world with a Feudal Tech government, a Tech Level 8 economy and class C starport. The preliminary data indicated nothing but debris in orbit and an unchanged biosphere.
Teanna looked up from the feed and tapped her comms. "Gunners stand down, but stay at your consoles. No hostiles detected, we're going into orbit."
"Standing down." Sterlkar is heard to say over the coms.
"Mr Gethens," Teanna looked up at Kirth, "please monitor the sensor feed while I maneuver into orbit."

After a while the Trailblazer was in orbit over Aerin.
"Report Mr Gethens." Teanna asked as the braking thrusters fired.
Kirth looked up from the sensor feed.
"Latest scans show the starport is trash, nothing more than a few derelict buildings and a few craters. No detectable tech above early industrial. However significant population centers have been detected away from the starport."

Teanna ponders for a few moments.
"OK then." She triggers the comms.
"Attention crew. Saddle up for a touch and go. Incursion team to the G in 15 minutes. We will be landing on the coast about 15 klicks from the starport. Nil contacts within 200 kilometers of the area."
"Acknowledged." Sterlkar heads to the armory to don his armor and collect his weapons.
"Let's make this quick then," Teanna says to Kirth, "keep an eye on the sensors until we're back in orbit."
Teanna taps the control screen and the Trailblazer begins to dip into Aerin's atmosphere.

Nigel comms the others in the team. "Collect your gear. Be in the G in 10."
Nigel collects his CES, but with civilian clothing underneath, and in his previously aquired medium pack will be a coat long enought to cover the CES if need be along with assorted gear. Weapon load will be his Auto snub with two 20rds mags of Tranp and a few extras in HEAP along with his carbine and a pair of AT RAM grenades (carbine previously fitted with an adaptor) and maybe a few smoke loadouts. The rest will be what he usualy carries (knife, flash light, light, pen & notes book ect..) Nigel likes to be prepared. He will wait for the others to get to the G and see what they bring, but he indicates to them that CES will be prefered over Combat-armor.

Week 5 - Aerin Starport Recon

The Trailblazer drops smoothly out of orbit and begins the descent to the world's surface. The air burns as the Trailblazer slices its way towards the ground. The kick of the thrusters is felt throughout the ship moments before the grav systems overcame Aerin's grip on her. Teanna guides the ship to the coast below and settles in the shallow waters 100 meters off the beach.

Teanna taps her comms to open a channel to the G. "Team away." she calls.
She taps another channel. "Engineering, begin refueling." Amalric and Saihe confirm the command.
She then turns to Kirth. "Mr Gersen, please take the first watch." She gets up and retires to her stateroom.

Heather guides the G-Carrier smoothly out the Trailblazer's hold and set off towards the starport at cruising speed, keeping one eye on the forward scanner and one eye on the landscape ahead. Vegetation was moderate through the rolling hills as the team sped toward their target. The controls, adjusted for his physique, respond instantly to Heather's commands. Sterlkar manned the G's gun while TK and Nigel readied themselves in the back. Heather breathed deeply as he piloted the air raft toward the ruined star port. He was alert of course for in a place like this danger was ever present. Still, it was good to be back in the natural world and if time permitted he would explore the habitats and creatures of the planet. The trip was uneventful, except for a startled pachyderm that bounced off the side of the G, and thirty minutes later the G glided into the wrecked starport. At the star port perimeter he settled the carrier just a meter above the ground, just above the low grasses and looked about.

It didn't take the team's trained eyes long to realize that the craters pocketing the starport were from ship's missiles. Most of the major liftoff zones were blasted, as well as three quarters of the buildings. All the craters had bushes growing across them but they were still recognizable. Bushes and trees also sprouted out of the crushed buildings. Heather stopped at what was left of the starport perimeter fence. He looked at the scanner screen, gave it a slight tap, and had another look.
"No movement detected Mr Strawn." he said, not looking back from the screen and his view of the starport. "Do I deploy the drones?"
The G-Carrier came stocked with 4 short range recon drones that could be controlled remotely or set to an automated search pattern.
"Yes by all means, patch a couple of those feeds back here." replies Nigel.
In reply to Nigel Heather tapped the control screen with a finger, careful to leave the claws retracted. One, two, three and four taps. "Drones away. We will maintain position on the perimeter to relay comms." Heather manipulated the controls to patch in a feed of each of the four drones into the small console in the carrier. Each of the four drones glided silently out until they reached their pre-programmed survey height of 50 meters and began scanning. Within five minutes the consoles started to beep as contacts came in.

The G-Carrier sat at the southern perimeter of the starport. Several launch zones sat before them, with the wreckage of several light craft scattered about within view. To the north-east of them, about 500 meters, was several small buildings and what was left of the control tower. To the north-west at 750 meters sat a dozen medium to large buildings, possible repair hangars, as well as the main gate. Directly to the west of them at 1000 meters sat huge rusting tanks, hydrogen storage. Two blips showed on the console, a possible humanoid contact in a small building behind the control tower, and a low level fusion energy signiture in one of the larger hangars.
Heather examined the readouts of the drones. He kept three on their programmed search pattern, tagging the humanoid contact, then he taps the control to release the last drone and begins to take it closer to the hangar with the fusion power source. Sterlkar moves his targeting screen to the side and brings up the drone feed so he can focus his attention on the energy signature in the hangar bay.
"I will try to localize the power source first. Then it may be best to scout forward on foot alone." says Heather.

The hangar is full of wreckage. Heather could pick out the remains of a couple 100 ton traders, a shuttle and three ship's boats. One trader's upper hull had been ripped apart, its innards laying across itself, the floor and half over a nearby ship's boat. The damage to the trader is old as clear signs of oxydization and rust are all over the damaged pieces. The energy signature emanated from inside this shattered ship. Bringing the drone in closer Heather could see the fusion power plant now lay exposed to the outside environment. A console to one side of the plant flickered weakly.
"There's the source of the power readings." says Heather. He hovers the drone in and around the wreckage. No movement is detected.
TK leans in over Nigel's shoulder to look at the display.
"We going in then Mr Strawn?" he asks.
Before Nigel can reply Sterlkar asks "Can you zoom in to tell if the trader has been abandoned or attended to recently?".
"Sure." replies Heather. The camera on the drone zooms in.
The damage to the trader is old as clear signs of oxidization and rust are all over the damaged pieces. Nigel looks at the vision.
"Even on such low power output that the plant is currently putting out a full tank of fuel would only last four or five years." he says.
"Humm, the power plant would seem to be the obvious mystery here. Somebody or something is keeping it going. Why?" he says to no-one in particular.
"Alright, keep a drone on the life sign," Nigel says to Heather "spread the two others out to cover a rough triangular perimeter. Use the last one to continue to search the hanger. If it's clear have it join the others to expand the perimeter."
"Redeployment underway." responds Heather.

"I'll take one trooper with me to check the hangar, the rest hang back in case we need it. So who want to come along?" Nigel asks.
"Ah Mr Strawn," responds TK, "standard recon procedure for a four man team is for the driver to hang back to monitor while the rest of the team goes in."
Sterlkar nods in agreement. "Yes, combat members in front with tech resources following."
"Then lets do this men." replies Nigel as he begins to do the seal up on his suit.
"Make sure you cover your IR signatures" Nigel says when he saw the others watching, "any suggestions on how we should to infiltrate?"
"The Legionnaire way, straight in" replies TK.
While the others are getting ready Nigel will pay attention to any signs, cables and what not, to see if the power plant is feeding something else as the drone continues to scan.

"Stop there!' Nigel suddenly commands Heather.
Heather tapped the controls and the drone vision stops.
"There," Nigel points at cables snaking out of the power plant, "the plant is feeding something. Where do they go?"
Heather zooms in on the cables to follow them. Eventually they disappear under the wreckage. No cables are seen outside of the Hangar.
"We can't go into the wreckage without risking the drone." states Heather.
"OK then." responds Nigel.

The team finish getting ready and head across the field, leaving Heather to monitor the situation in the G. After 10 minutes of dodging brush and debris they arrive at Hangar 11. Nigel looks up at the nearest hovering drone, giving it a thumbs up. One of the large hangar doors nearest to them stands open, the gloom of the interior broken by the light coming through the broken skylights and roof panels above.
"Right," says Nigel to the other two, "how are we doing this?"

"Lets check it out then." replies TK.
"Right," says Sterlkar to Nigel, "I'll go in first, TK fans out to the right and you hang back 10 meters."
Sterlkar nods to TK and they head in.
Sterlkar and TK check each of the ships, in turn, as they head into the hangar. Nigel notes the ships are in quite poor condition, stripped of a lot of electronics. After checking the first trader and ship's boat the team approaches the shuttle in the middle of the hangar. Suddenly Sterlkar signals a stop. He briefly speaks softly to TK and, in a crouch, comes back to where Nigel is standing. He points to the side doors of the hangar and the tail fin of the shuttle.
"There's been a fight here, see the holes in the doors, and in the shuttle tail fin?"
Nigel sees a combination of holes by laser and ballistic hits."
"Can you pinpoint the source?" he asks.
"Judging by the angle, best guess is the far end of the hangar. Maybe the other side of the debris. Be alert and keep your head down."
Nigel nods and Sterlkar heads back over to TK. Together they head to the other side of the shuttle towards its entrance hatch.

As Sterlkar turns to head up the entrance stairs TK takes up position next to the shuttle landing gear, covering the other end of the hangar. Just as Strerlkar steps on the stairs the grinding scream of metal on metal breaks the quiet of the hangar. Rising up out of the debris beside the other trader is a mound of steel and pipes. To Nigel's trained eyes it looks a lot like an old cargo handling bot, 30 tons of raw power used to load containers onto starships. Strerlkar and TK only see the laser canon and dual auto-cannons turning slowly towards them. Sterlkar's combat training kicks in and he instantly evaluates the situation. Sterlkar doesn't believe that either of his weapons is any match for a 30-ton robot. Hoping the thing is slow and its targeting system has bad "eyesight" he heads for the nearest cover, the shuttle's open hatch, even as the sound of the auto-canon whirring up to full power reaches his ears. Seeing TK bunker in behind the landing gear and Nigel backing off as he races up the ramp to the shuttle he attempts to shut the hatch, but finds it jammed open.
"Maybe the shuttle can be powered up and flown and shield the others so that they can get back to the G-Carrier" he thinks just as robot's auto-cannon opens up with a clak, clak, clak. Sterlkar dives for cover inside the shuttle but realizes there has been no impact from the shells. He risks a quick peep out the hatch and sees the auto-cannon's firing mechanism going back and forth. Sterlkar lets a little breath go, it's out of ammo. Then the laser opens up.

Nigel backs off, putting the shuttle and the other trader between him and the cargo robot, screwing on a RAM grenade as he goes. He sees Sterlkar take off up the shuttle's boarding ramp and TK go flat behind the shuttle's landing gear, also screwing on a RAM grenade.
"Holy crap" he thinks as he tabs his radio and announces the following, "Everybody out NOW. Heather we've got a heavily armed 30 tons cargo loader about to attack. Need pickup, give the ship a SitRep, we're gonna need its guns."
Nigel takes up position near the ship's boat to cover the other two's retreat, ready to back off to the hangar's entry point. He holds off on the AT grenade for now.
Thinking about the laser on the G-Carrier he thumbs his comms. "Heather, we really could use the G's laser right about now!"
He also thinks how a disposable AT missile or two on the G-Carrier would be useful right now.
TK listens to the empty auto-cannon firing and smiles to himself. He pulls out a RAM grenade with a flame painted on the head and stuffs it in the launcher while watching Nigel retreat back to the ship's boat. The bot's laser then opens up on the shuttle's hatch, hot metal spraying down from above. He tabs his comms.
"The laser isn't fully powered, it's not penetrating the hull. Prepare to move on my signal."
He taps the launcher with his index finger then rolls over and pulls the trigger. The HEAT round flies across the hangar towards the bot, but the bot lurches sideways at the last minute. Still the round catches its target in the right shoulder joint, blowing off the arm containing the auto-cannon. Smoke, flames and debris fill the area. Instantly TK is to his feet, loading another round.

Sterlkar uses the smoke from the hit to get in the cockpit. He goes in low through the door to keep out of sight, then curses upon discovering the cockpit has been stripped of electronics. Most of the glass in the cockpit is still intact however, and the glass facing the bot has several fist sized holes in it. Sterlkar opts for a sniper approach and uses his Yeheal to target the laser on the cargo bot.
Heather makes the call to the ship to report the situation even as his well trained reflexes brought the G up from concealment to move forward toward the hangar. He gets nothing but static, then remembers the ship is on radio silence during refueling.
"I am on the way comrades, hold fast. Draw the robot forward if you can so that I can slave the pintel mount forward at the 'bot."
Heather speeds the G across the starport at full throttle, aiming to bring it around to fire into the hangar at the bot.
"Negative," Sterlkar says. "Fly over the hangar. The doors on the far side are open. You'll have a clear shot of the robot's backside from there."

From the cover of the ship's boat Nigel sees the shot is safe to take and while TK is loading another grenade and to keep the robot distracted he fires off his own grenade. He aims for the robot's center of mass, hoping if it lurches he can still get a hit. Nigel pops off his grenade, scoring a shot dead center of mass. The bot lurches sideways slightly, it's sensor bundle swiveling to focus on Nigel's location. Hydraulic fluid starts to flow down its front, like black blood from a wound. It's tracks begin to spin up, crunching through the debris, just as Sterlkar's shot hits its laser, doing minor damage. The bot begins to build up speed as it smashes its way through the hangar.
"20 seconds and I'll be there." comes Heather's voice over their coms.
Sterlkar decides to keep firing at the laser until he's certain it's no longer a threat. As he fires TK pops off another RAM round into the bot's tracks, causing Sterlkar's shot to hit the chest. Hydraulic fluid sizzles and bursts into flames even as the track comes off. However the bot has built up a frightening amount of speed in such a short distance. Sterlkar realizes the bot has veered off course from Nigel and is headed straight for the shuttle nose. Nigel also sees this and holds off his next shot. Sterlkar dives for the cockpit door just as the bot crashes into the shuttle, its laser 'arm' coming through the plexiglass windows. He makes it in time through the door, but now has bigger issues as the cockpit becomes engulfed in flames. The bot attempts to extract itself from the shuttle but with no traction on the right hand side it just thrashes about. Flaming debris is ejected from it, starting spot fires around the shuttle and the thrashing threatens to collapse the shuttle's landing gear. Sterlkar, being familiar with this model of shuttle, knows there's a rear exit on the shuttle as well as the cargo hatch. But he also knows that without power he would have to hand crank the hatches open, something he knows he doesn't have time for, so he decides to go out the way he came in. Nigel holds off firing any more rounds, knowing Sterlkars limited options and prepares to cover him as the bot and cockpit is engulfed in flames.

“Sterlkar, do you have bead on an egress option?? Is there an emergency hatch handy??” TK calls over the comms while moving steadily from the position of cover near the landing gear, which is no longer a viable option for him. He firstly backs up to the wall directly behind him, looking for visible emergency hatches on the outside of the shuttle to might give Stelkar a way out and sees the cargo bay door.
"Nigel, have you got a bead on any fire fighting gear handy?"
Nigel comms back negative.
TK starts to look around for any type of fire-fighting gear close by.
"Sterlkar if you have O2 get clear of the fire and hunker down, oh and if you can see a fire extinguisher handy grab it we may need a plan B".
Just as TK says this he sees Sterlkar come down the shuttle ramp at a full run. As he hits the bottom of the ramp Heather pops up at the other end of the hangar, over the broken door, and lets loose a barrage of laser fire into the back of the burning bot. Sterlkar continues straight at TK, indicating the open office door behind him, and dives for the doorway behind TK just as the bot explodes into a fireball, engulfing the front of the shuttle in flames.
TK attempts to make the same precautionary dive for cover as Sterlkar dives past him, attempting to avoid landing on top of him of course. "OOOHHH SHHIIT!" as he goes.
As the dust clears he gets back into a position of cover and over-watch and coms "Everybody good!?"
Nigel looks over towards his team mates to make sure they're alright.
"Man, the fires you go to and you don't have any marshmallows!" TK yells in his mic, "Heather.....love your work!"
"OK, so irate loading droid '0', us '1'. Lets get this over with! Whos in the lead?" TK says, a little more settled.
"Alright guys, time to leave. TK, cover the back." Nigel comms back. He then radios Heather.
"We're coming in Heather, any more contacts in the area?"
Sterlkar cautiously steps out from cover to see if the bot is truly toast. Seeing it is, he asks, "Are we sticking around to sift through this mess, or are we moving on to scout out the locals?"
"No, I think we have drawn enought attention to ourselves already." replies Nigel.
The shuttle is now well and truly engulfed in flames, giving TK and Sterlkar the options of heading towards Nigel and the way they came in, or towards the G and the mess of debris between them. Black smoke is starting to fill the hangar and the fire is spreading rapidly.
"Ah boss," comes Heather over the comms, "contact is moving towards the hangar from the east, 200 meters to contact at a moderate pace. Hang on while I redeploy a drone..."
Seconds later he comes back "Contact is human, rough clothes, looks like it is carrying a rifle."

Nigel spins on his heels and, looking out the hangar doors, sees the lone figure. He holds his carbine at the ready.
"Guys we have company. Would be nice to have some of my own!"
Nigel quickly evaluates the situation then says "Heather swing the G-Carrier back this way, set the hatch to face us and the nose and guns toward our friend. Hopefully he will decide to leave. I really rather not pop a RAM at this guy."
Sterlkar and TK rush over to join Nigel, careful to give the burning end of the shuttle a wide berth, and taking up covering fire positions.
"Will do." comes Heather's response.
Heather pops the G up and over the hangar and in front of the hangar doors. At the sight of the G-Carrier the figure turns and sprints back the way it came.
"That works." comments TK.
Everyone piles into the G and Heather points the nose back towards the coast and hits the power. Half way across the starport the drones return to the carrier. Ten minutes out from the ship the comms comes to life.
"Base to Carrier. What is your situation right now?" Kirth's voice breaks radio silence.
"Had a small run in with some locals but on our way back. ETA to the Trailblazer ten minutes. Out." replies Heather.
All is quiet until the G docks with the Trailblazer.

Week Four - Jump to Oirue'ea

After exchanging data with the Dawn Chaser the two ships head out to the system jump point.
On the bridge Captain Teanna feeds the next jump destination to Kirth, a gas giant in the Oirue'ea system.
"I want a jump as precise as your first one Mr Gersen." she says.
Turning to her comms Teanna activates the ship-wide intercom.
"Attention crew, this is the Captain. At this point we will be parting company with the Dawn Chaser. Full staff meeting in the crew lounge after jump insertion."
Teanna switches off the intercom and turns back to Kirth.
"Lets punch it."

After the jump insertion the crew gathers in the lounge. Once everyone settles the Captain begins.
"As you are all aware our mission, as with our four sister ships, is to explore the systems around Alliance space." Teanna brings up a chart of alliance space on the holo projector.
"One ship coreward, one spinward, one rimward and two to trailing. Now we are outside of Alliance space I can tell you that while that is true of the the other ships it is not exactly our mission."
The holo projector zooms out to the four subsectors coreward and trailing of their current position.
"We will be heading into the Scotian Deep subsector. Our mission is to scout the old Knight's Legion bases at New Covenant, Dunmarrow and Hernne looking for relic tech. Our surveys of the intermediate systems is to be only as much as we can squeeze into the refueling window. The primary target is those bases."
Teanna zooms in on the three systems, six parsecs apart.
"New Covenant had a population in the billions before the collapse, and a tech level ten class A starport. Dunmarrow had a population in the millions with a tech level ten class B starport. Hernne had a population in the hundreds of thousands and a tech level nine class C starport. We don't know what we will find now but we do have extensive data on the secret bases pre the collapse."
Teanna switches off the holo projector and turns to face the crew.
Kirth mind starts to wander and he just hopes that he will keep up the precise navigation in spite of the out of date charts. He thinks of the ancient maps that showed sea monsters in unknown waters.
Nigel asks "Are we to make formal contact with the goverments of the world you mention or do we stay invisible?"
"Given our small number we are to remain invisible." replies the Captain. "We are to report back on possible allies and enemies. Our primary mission is to identify tech for retrieval."
"As a side note," continues Nigel "our route will take us close to the Principality of Caledon. While planetside, I met a Freetrader who says he encountered a hostile ship from the Caledonian Freetrade League. From their name it stands to reason they are base somewhere in the old principality! From their behavior it also stands to reason they wont welcomes us, but migth actively try to hamper us. So we migth want to keep a low profile!"
"Yes," replies the Captain, "intel has indicated the CFL may be hostile. We will have to take each encounter as it comes."
Heather listened and looked over the data. "Do we know anything of the governments or military of the worlds we are targeting? Also, how well were the secret based hidden?"
"No." replies Teanna. "We have whispers, rumors and 70 year old data. This mission is strictly observe only with regards to populations."
Teanna breaths deep, an unusual action for her species.
"We have details of where the base is and how to find it, but nothing on its defenses, layout or contents. All the data was lost."

The Trailblazer arrives in the Oirue'ea system and wilderness refuels without any issues. Within a few days they push out-system and jump to their next destination, the world of Aerin.