Scouting mission day 40
26 Jul 2020Excess Fire
Daughter has dropped me on board Greybeards Hope, my cargos retrieved and locked away and she's gone, papers an all, that's a headache I wont have now, not that I get them anyways... poor humans... sensitive to everything they are. Anyways, Destiny hasn't been been refitted yet so I'm gonna take Gonzales back to the and grab supplies for Destiny and the kitty cat, couldn't send him back with daughter, she's going elsewhere, Krait's to small anyways, prolly would have eaten her after a while anyways.Ah look, the bars open, I could use a coffee, I go to remove my blaster at the door but hear the tender growl shaking his head, "no need" so I walk in, up to the bar just as finishes pouring a hot coffee, seriously, how the frak does he do that, how'd he know I was after a coffee... he's good, the coffees good too.
Wireless goes off again, this time it's Destiny, intruder alert, a request for boarding received, screen shows it is who I expected, "requested granted, full monitoring, restricted access as directed earlier" cant trust anyone these days aye. That's my que, get the supplies and head on back, they wont take long at all. Back on the carrier now, yep, they all gone, Carrier's sensors show only the crew onboard, Mon Capitaan is on his way, ha! he's bought a new ship too, no surprises there, was yakkin about that earlier in the expedition.
Carriers frame shift drive spinning up now, getting ready to jump, when we arrive I have 1 minute to leave and jump so the Carrier can move to mask my jump signal so I cant be tracked if any one thought to follow the carrier, the process is quite simple really, just need to move quick, Destiny can.
And we're Jumping... this way. Course set for Beagle point for now, the destination 280 odd jumps, 7 hours for Destiny, cant use neutrons or it would be less but trackable. there are no pauses, no scans, dss or fss, not even a honk, every jump is a hot jump, 1 of the amfu's operating as required through the entire distance and only one being can leave the fighter bay at any time, Destiny has only 3 seats on the flight deck and the cat has one of em. No trace can be left of our course, no deviations unless we run into traffic or trouble. No wireless transmissions either, had to turn that off as well, lovin the peace aye, heheh, even the women are locked away from me... perfect huh... Oh, hi missy manager, have a seat, we're well clear now... um, your seats over um... never mind, here's fine. Lilo... go to bed... sure I just heard a growl.
260 jumps completed, a clean run so far, not a single contact till now, only know that cause I saw him on entry, almost like I was supposed to, doesn't matter, jumped almost immediately, by the time he scans my wake and jumps, I will have jumped again. The next system, same thing, how is this possible, nobody knew we were coming, missy manager? "I think we have an escort" ha! if they could keep up, maybe... now we have 3, ships are looking identical, all Fer-De-Lances, and they aint keeping up, fraking useless, 4 jumps to go, now in inhabited space, time to switch everything on, don't wanna attract attention now do we. 3 jumps, 2 jumps, last jump, whoa... 3 frigates and a shite load of traffic, all federation, um missy manager, you better get on the wireless, just go land at Daedalus, we're ok, this is our protection.
Landing at Daedalus went smoothly... somethings not feeling right though, I see outside to many people just hanging around, doing nothing, this is not permitted normally, I see missy manager looks concerned as well. "Destiny! prep max jumponium jump, select a system 1000 light years from here, the instant I step off, use emergency escape protocols to get there and then run the no contact protocols on arrival" "missy manager, you and I are getting off" "Lilo... Defend Destiny" "Come on missy, grab ya blaster, lets go"
We step off Destiny via the forward hatch, they didn't expect that, most use the main hatch, as we drop down to the we half dozen armed men around the hatch waiting long enough before realizing where we were for Destiny to get her landing gear up and engage the boost for the exit, by the time the departure warning for exiting without permission was over, she was out and boosting out erratically before the station lasers got a shot off, I saw one strike but the shields seemed to absorb that, there was no explosion before the station lasers went quiet, hope she got away, cant call her, not safe to. Two incoming vessels managed to avoid her, barely, could have been a different story if Destiny's shields weren't at full power when the station lasers hit her. I hear multiple fsd launches, the chase is on, she'll be right, my no contact protocols have never let us down yet... yet.
Missy and I step over the half dozen guys that had been blown over by Destiny's boosting outa there, medics and security are running out, ignoring us, clearly we couldn't have done this, we get inside and missy gets me to follow her. "we've been crossed missy, set up for a fall here" "I don't believe that" she replies "my father would never do that" "your father? who's your father?, what the frak is going on?" "you've met him, bartender" well frak me... I wondered. Missy leads me in to the back area of the station through into a security area where we are escorted into an office where a rather well rounded military man sits. "Where's my fighter bay" he demands. "I dunno, you tell me, you're the one following it and while you're at it, how about telling me what the frak that reception was all about". "That wasn't us, I couldn't warn ya, just had to hope you figured it out in time which I see you did, so where is the ship, I will send a frigate to her" "yea, that's not going to happen, no ways anyone's getting close to that ship, autopilot protocols will only allow one vessel of a certain type to get near her and even then certain measures have to be followed, no transmissions will be acknowledged by anyone cept for one, by now its likely more that a million light seconds from any jump points and counting until half a light year, now ones sneaking up on it and any trace of fsd residue will be long gone by the time anyone got half the distance if it detects someone heading towards her" Looking at missy beside me, she see's my trust is gone and I can see she has no idea where to go from here, now the general here in front of me... I just do not know. "So... how do we fix this" he asks, looking slightly defeated, this is what I was looking for, no suggestions, no demands, no plans, its now up to me, and all I need is some information and a wireless that is not mine. "How many frigates are passing through this system in the next few days," I enquire," I need their names and locations, nothing else, only the ones you trust, on paper, in pencil, oh yeah, and and a room... here, for the night.