Holidays [Part 2]
03 Jan 2022Spectralfx
Holidays - Part 2January 3rd, year 3308 - Carthage’s orbit, Marker Depot.
A coriolis station was peacefully orbiting an earth-like world, a sun with an intense blueish-white shined in the distance, progressively hidden by the planet’s silhouette. Real-space was torn asunder by the arrival of a white passenger transport vessel that promptly requested permission to dock once within the minimum distance required.
A tall lady with tied up curly blond hairs, who was wearing the basic uniform of an infantry instructor of Lavigny’s Legion stared at her destination from her seat aboard a Saud Kruger Dolphin.
She was thinking back about the launch from atmosphere and how well it went. Eventually, the task at hand caught up with her and her expression changed from an innocent smile to one of a deep reflection accompanied by a slight frown.
She couldn’t help but ask herself, what was it going to be this time?
Following landing, she made her way to the core of the station, within the rotational axis of the facility where gravity was weakest, if not null. That’s where the man she came to meet had his office, one of the trickiest places to reach in the whole station for certain. She would gently float to her destination with minimal efforts, simply pushing herself in the desired direction with slight taps of one’s boot. Such movements seemed like second nature to the instructor with long tied up blond hairs.
On her way there, in one of the final corridors she straightened up, offering a military salute with a slightly surprised expression to a once high ranking officer of the Legion she recognised, he was wearing a regular black suit with thin gray pinstripes. It bolstered the Imperial eagle and Legion’s coat of arms pin by its collar, it had a purple tie and handkerchief with the official Legion’s Remlock suit under it all.
The man casually saluted back for a mere second, looked away and passed her. No words were exchanged.
She arrived at the door, while just about to ring on the intercom device to introduce herself, a familiar voice simply announced from it, on a cold tone:
-Come on in, Molly.
On that note, the door opened revealing a room with an unpowered central holographic display. At the far end of the room a collection of screens were fixed onto the wall, most displaying three dimensional plans of corridors part of some facility, while the one on the far left played footage and audio from NCN reporters from local broadcasting channels. The aesthetic of the room was otherwise reminiscent of what was found aboard Gutamaya’s ship interior designs. On the newsfeed, It occured that some local figure was about to make a grand speech about the concurring holidays. A few data pads were floating in the room, with the occasional airtight water bottle and emptied food paste container. She couldn’t help but notice a neatly stored away sleeping bag in the left corner of the room.
The whole scene was a little too familiar to her liking. She was visibly irritated.
Amongst the floating objects, a man wearing a long black straight coat with an overarching collar, purple trims and various Imperial iconography, attires typically belonging to the Shield of justice top investigators. The ominous figure was floating in the middle of the room, right behind the holographic display. He was standing in a straight position, one fist under the chin and the other under the elbow, as if in deep thoughts while staring at the screens. The man was turning his back to the woman who just came in. The sliding door automatically closed behind her.
She immediately commented:
-Alright, cut to the chase Emmanuel, what the hell is going on this time man? It can’t be about training more guys and gals as I am sure that even them would be allowed some time off at this time of the year, wouldn’t they?
It was at that moment she noticed that the plans on the screens were oddly familiar to her. The man briefly answered:
-Correct, It’s not about training.
As the man turned around, one could notice various military decorations displayed on his uniform, he had the Legion coat of arms pin by his undershirt’s collar and was wearing a common issued Remlock suit in the colors of the legion under his garment. He then approached the central holographic display in the room and turned it on. The man had a cold expression with pale skin, a vertical scar crossing over his right silvery blue eye. He stared back at the tall lady, in silence. The display came to life. The equipment revealed a galaxy map, as the man entered some inputs, the map zoomed on a particular star. Eventually revealing a system map with a gas giant surrounded by an asteroid ring. A few more inputs promptly displayed the details of said planet on screens below for the lady to consult.
The lady read the information and was quick to point out:
-An anarchy system with slightly less than 80 thousand souls in it, a gas giant with mostly depleted reserves, what about it?
The man looked at her again and offered her a smirk before stating:
-Glad you asked.
Following some additional inputs, the three dimensional model of a station built within an asteroid appeared. Said station was not mentioned in the information previously displayed. The tall lady’s seemed unamused, she responded on a snarky tone:
-You two can’t let go can you? It’s Pirate’s lament all over again ain’it?
The man seemed baffled at the tall lady’s conclusion he was about to say something when she cut him short by adding:
-You guys got to let go of that shit! it’s always been pirates this, pirates that! The Pegasi pirate war’s been over since the end of 33-O-1, almost a decade already!
The lady’s eyes were wide open with anger at that point, while the man closed both of his eyes, while holding the base of his nose over his glasses with two fingers as to think of how to properly express himself. he eventually pushed his glasses back in place and afterwards, put both of his hands on the side of the console to explain:
-It’s true that I have been going through some reports dating back to that time, but only because there has been a real issue, one left unaddressed all along that warranted further investigation.
The tall lady had crossed her arms, receiving the explanations of the man with a frown. He added:
-Back then, there were various reports of stolen construction materials in a bubble of space around this system that led our operatives to believe that there was an undiscovered base of operation the enemy used to resupply and organize from. That is, until-
The tall lady interrupted:
-And none of that could have waited a few days? What about Anna? She’s been missing you, you know?
The verbal jab the tall lady took at the man seemed to make his expression turn to pain for a brief instant, he then attempted an explanation:
-I…I chose what the patrols look for, not when they find-
The exchange the two were having was abruptly interrupted by a surprising broadcast on the NCN reporting channel, one from none other than the Emperor herself, who seemed to be in good health, she proclaimed:
-My dear Imperial citizens, on this grand day, I do not only celebrate our achievements over the past year, but I also celebrate you. Without your labor, sacrifice and diligence, the values and way of life we cherish so much could be radically different today, if not for you doing your part to uphold and defend our sacred Sovereignty against the deplorable actions of the NMLA. As we're ushered into a new year, a new chapter in our history, together we emerge stronger and ready to stand against those who wish to tear us down. Long Live the Empire.
By the end of the speech, both Legionnaires were saluting in direction of the screen and said out loud in unison, while a crowd of applause could be heard from the broadcast with reporter’s commentary resuming:
-Arissa invicta!
Then things promptly returned to the current orders of business. They both stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. The tall lady was about to say something when the man raised one of his fingers in the air to stop her. He then grabbed one of the floating PDA in the room, gave it a quick glance before tossing it in her general direction. she grabbed it as it floated. The tall lady raised an eyebrow at the man who simply commented:
-Our orders.
She diligently read through the information contained in the PDA and asked:
-Its pretty typical stuff, but what do they mean by “is to provide immediate supportive action to the scouting parties operating in the AO”?
The man answered:
-It just means we’ll be on the coms to advise as needed.
The tall lady clearly didn’t appreciate the circumstances unfolded before her, she couldn’t help but comment:
-I thought we had orders to make sure that none of that shit would resurface again and bother our beloved fancy-pants royalty or something.
The man retorted:
-Well, that’s why we have to beat the reporters to it, better take the skeletons out of the closet ourselves, instead of having others do it for us… that wouldn’t be pretty, now would it?
The tall lady let go of the PDA and moved her hands around in frustration and let go of a fustigation:
-I know that, but it’s like, isn’t there a bazillion things that should take precedence over this crap, like the NMLA, Federation or to hell if I know!
The man, stoically answered:
-There are tell-tale signs that it’s a station the Kumo crew pirates abandoned back then, something we have failed to track down until now. Certainly not a real risk to our current operations. However, It’s not the best of times to have such things resurface in the news either. Regardless, it’s an opportunity to bring closure to those who may have never known what happened to their loved ones during that conflict. More importantly, there may still be individuals cryogenized requiring rescue in there.
The tall lady’s stare was now in a corner of the room, she still looked unamused as she shook her head left and right. Soon, her tense shoulders dropped, ultimately, she had to surrender to her colleague’s arguments. The man with silvery blue eyes added:
-Besides, it’s going to be a good occasion for some of our rookie specialists to get a taste of what it’s been like to fight a bunch of cornered rats lacking a moral compass… or I’d rather say, whatever automated defenses and dirty tricks they may have left behind following their escape.
The lady closed her eyes for a few seconds, a pained expression on her face before quietly saying:
-you don’t have to remind me pal…
She then clenched her fist with frustration. before briefly acknowledging with a nod of her head. she looked the man dead in the eyes and said:
-Alright, let’s go teach these kids how it’s done.
The man nodded back. Once the equipment in the room was safely stored away and shut down, they both headed to the facility’s landing pads. Work still had to be done, Holiday or not.