Deniable Asset #2
02 Sep 2020Servatrix
>$ ls -a OCSN-Servatrix/Records
...
>$ ls -a 3264/Records
...
>$ xdg-open Incident1-TravelFootage
Playback Begins:
[Camera starts in the passenger lounge]
A man is seen walking with a woman and two young adults, one male, and one female. They are seen boarding a battered Type-6, carrying minimal luggage.
[Camer shifts, perspective is over the boarding ramp]
The woman and young female are clearly in distress, the man appears mentally defeated, the young man appears dazed.
"Dad," the young man speaks, "Why do we have to move again? We just got settled at the station."
The man sighs deeply, the slouch of his shoulder increasing. "I know, son. I was promised work on building an outpost but... looks like they don't need me anymore. I just-"
He stops as the ship's captain entered the camera frame. "Ah, Mr. -[Playback corrupted: 2 seconds]- ust you are able to find your own cabin? We've got a tight schedule and need to leave quickly. A new shipment of foodstuff for a colony needs to leave ASAP. We've got clearance to leave in the next few minutes."
"Yes, I'm sure we'll manage. We'll stay out of your way. Thank you for making room for us."
The captain nods and leaves.
[Camera shifts, perspective is in a cramped passenger cabin meant for two.]
The son and daughter are sitting on a bed, the parents are arguing.
"I don't see why they couldn't have just made you a general laborer! At the very least janitorial staff! At least then we would have had a place to live, a proper place! Nowe we are just..." she trails off, at a loss for words.
The man, who was facing the porthole which showed the rapid star movement of pre-FSD FTL tech, pounded the wall with a fist, the son stiffens slightly.
"I told you. By the time we got there, all positions were filled. Had I known this was going to happen I would have stayed beyond my enlistment period. At least the military provided for us."
"Don't start that again. You left the military because you were unhappy with dead-end assignments and no promotion path, despite promises. You were barely there for our kids, you weren't going to get a desk job either. It took months of convincing -[Playback corrupted: 2 seconds]- shouldn't join the military! I've had enough of the military, they-"
The daughter gets up in tears and storms out of the room, screaming, "Just stop it already!"
The father and mom are silent for a long while, the son is staring at the floor, his shoulders and fists appear tight.
"I still think I should have joined. it would have taken some of the pressure off you, dad. Maybe then we wouldn't have had to move away. We could have stayed-"
He's cut off as the camera lurches and shows static for a few minutes. When visual returns, part of the wall is exploded inward, there are no people in the room anymore. Lights and sirens are going off, indicating an emergency: hull breach. The camera feed dies entirely as the ship is destroyed.
-------------
Servatrix slowly opens his eyes as a soft pinging wakens him from his slumber. It's a proximity alarm: a ship entered sensor range. After a few seconds, it fades to a ghost, the ship went silent.
"Commander, I believe the ship has activated silent running," Michelle, the fighter pilot, stated over an encrypted frequency.
He grunted affirmative, "Let's find him." He sat up straighter in the pilot's chair of his ship. the C.S.V. Schwermetall, a Federal Corvette, and flicked a few switches bringing it to low power. Just enough to get moving, but not hot enough to light up his location and scare off his quarry. He slowly snuck out from the asteroid he was parking behind and pushes his ship closer tot he projected pathway of his target, judging by the brief heat emission upon FSD exit, it was a Python. He pulled up the information that was gathered about it, some pirate from a few systems over was trying to make a name for himself.
Servatrix cleared his throat and keyed his comms, "Python, think we found our target," he spoke, his voice guttural and coarse.
Michelle and Servatrix kept flying slow, not wanting to spike thermals and spook their quarry, until Servatrix found their target.
"Recall to my position, he's just found a target," Servatrix commanded." He waited for a moment, briefly hoping the pirate would fly away. Judging by the local radio broadcasts, his hope was misplaced. Not that he knew it would turn out different, it rarely did.
The Python deployed its hardpoints, getting angrier at the miner as he discovered hadn't had time to start mining materials. Just as the Python opened fire, Servatrix hot-started the rest of his whip.
Wrong target, idiot, Servatrix through as he locked his beam lasers on the Python. Just as the beams started cutting into the Python's shields, Michelle came from below the Python and unleashed a full volley from her Condor's plasma repeaters, dropping the shields entirely. The Python started to move away at a hard burn, angling to get behind a nearby asteroid. The miner also hard-burned away from the Python, intent on escaping the asteroid field.
Servatrix rolled his ship and flew on the opposite side of the asteroid, surprising the Python as he arose next to it, and opened fire with his cannons. The Python's pilot screamed as multiple cannon shots cored his ship, front to back almost, and detonated inside. Micro-explosions burst from all over the ship as the power core went critical. Eventually, the ship exploded and debris bounced off the Schwermetall's shields.
"Target destroyed commander, nicely done. Coming back to the mothership for docking," Michelle commented as she flew around the rapidly growing debris field. Servatrix idly checked his scanners, no escape pod. A thin smile appeared on his face and he nodded. He waited for Michelle to finalize boarding before turning away from the belt, eventually they jumped out of the system and headed back to their current base.
As they docked, Michelle was waiting at the boarding ramp. "Not bad for a few hours work. What are you going to do with your cut of the bounty? Don't think I've ever asked that before."
Servatrix walked down the ramp with her, holding a datapad in one hand as he carefully scanned the landing bay. "Nope, you never have." He looked at the pad before checking a few boxes, repair and rearm orders for the berthing crew. Satisfied with that being done, he handed the pad off to a local quartermaster that was waiting and continued walking on. "Same thing I always do," he said as he pointed behind him to the Corvette, "prepare for the next one."
Michelle frowned slightly and walked with him to the elevator leading to the faction barracks and lounge. "You should grab a drink with the rest of us sometime. You ain't nearly old enough to just go to bed, it's barely 1600. I'm sure some of the other pilots would love seeing you. And a little R&R never hurt anyone either."
Servatrix pushed the button for the lounge and waited for the doors to close, the elevator rapidly dropping away from the landing area. "Maybe next time," he answered. Once the elevator reached the correct level, Michelle exited and jogged towards the bar, waving to the other crew she saw there and exchanging hellos with everyone.
Servatrix walked down the hall and paused just before he was within the door access. He looked in the bar window briefly to see who was inside, before stepping away and continuing on to his quarters. He entered and sat down on his bed, staring at the wooden picture frame on his wall for a while. It held a folded flag and a faded, 2D picture, both covered in a thin layer of settled dust, that he brushed away as he moved to shut off the lights. Before he could shut them off, his terminal rang; it was a call from Korie.
"We've got another job for you. Some of our people were captured in the war, their ship was taken out and they survived a crash landing. We need you to rescue them immediately, they are vital for the war effort."
Servatrix nodded, "Send me the location, I'm on my way."