| Beyond the Wall of Hope - Downtime Squared |
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Downtime Squared (13/02/00 )
1100 hours - Station Sorvol, Alliance Fleet Tender Station
Whoosh, the door opened revealing the well-lit interior of a transport tube. The fox peered in, surveying the pod for occupants.
None... good, He thought, I can be alone.
He sat down and contemplated, he wasn't in any mood to make small talk with every ensign and yeomen in the known universe or the endless, overpowering thought traffic they spilled out at every second. His head hurt from the strain of maintaining a mind shield. If only there was another way he could screen-out the noise, sometimes being an Esper is just to much trouble. He also couldn't understand why he was sitting in a backwater tender station, waiting for an assignment, while a major engagement with Gyran forces was happening. It's war, after all, and every able bodied being is up in arms and this special ops fox is going to be no exception!
"this is my dad's work I just know it, I wish someone would give me some answers"
His link responded - BEEP BEEP "Major Tycko Ko'dayn this is OPS please respond"
Tapping his link, he answered "this is major Ko'dayn, go ahead...."
"Major, you've been ordered to conference room CC-12, Sunrise Wing, immediately."
"roger, out" he leaped to his feet "yes! An assignment.... Sunrise Wing is the next line unit into the fight! Pod... Sunrise Wing sector CC."
The pod stopped, changed directions and in a short time arrived at its destination. He exited the pod and surveyed the deck, quickly he raised his mind block.
An Accipteron mek unit, not the kind of assignment a Fenrir Special Ops officer looks forward to, but definitely doable.
It took a few minutes, but he managed to locate the room CC-12. Without a thought he entered and rather unexpectidly came to attention with a salute.
"Colonel Alycron Sunclaw, I didn't know...."
Raising his hand the aged, yet very regal, Accipteron smiled "It's General now, Tycko, relax.... you used to call me Uncle Acorn when you were this high," Alycron gestured with his hand. "Sit, Ty, this meeting is informal."
Tycko blushed a little and pulled up a seat. He studied "Uncle Acorn" intently.
Alycron scatched a talon along the table, "The room is shielded, so you can drop your shield.... just don't try to scan anything while in here, there are blockers running."
Tycko looked a little shocked, "General, I wouldn't....."
The Accipteron raised his hand, "It's not for you, the sensitive nature of things that will be discussed requires some precautions. First of all I've got a mission for you and your team."
Smiling, Tycko inquired "what are the mission specifics, General?"
"Well, at 800 hours this morning a Gyran 'bot raiding force intercepted one of our hyperspace courier drones. It was in route to a rendezvous and I'll leave it at that. The 'bot unit was performing reconnaissance work along the border and was lucky enough to come across the drone. One of the drive systems on the drone had failed causing it to lose power." He paused to let Tycko absorb the details and then continued, "the drone had valuable and sensitive information in its computer core, it is imperative that this core be retrieved or at worst destroyed. Their carrier is here, computer display grid coordinates 185 blue," a holographic tactical map appears at the center of the conference table,"due to the large amounts of x-ray and electromagnetic radiation from that pulsar.... there, it makes it impossible to hyperspace into or out of this sector or transmit any type of standard communication. It will take the carrier two hours to clear the sector, plenty of time to mount a mission. Now..."
"Excuse me, general, how will we be able to reach our target if we can't jump into sector, let alone travel that massive distance in two hours?" interjected a perplexed Tycko.
"I was getting to that, son, now as I was saying... computer display the Star Pheonix I. This is one... actually the only one.. currently, of the new Firestorm-class assault ships. It uses an experimental Vortex jump drive system that enables it to fold time and space. It accomplishes this by moving the ship extra-dimensionally at a point between time and space... or some such thing like that... temporal mechanics has never been a strong point of mine."
The fox blinked,"Wow, who's commanding this piece of work?"
"Hmm? Well you are.... now this is a new mesh-mech suit..."
"What? I'm Ops not a fleet officer, I wouldn't know what to do..."
"Your aptitude testing shows an extremely high proficiency in tactics, operations and fleet procedures, higher than your small unit, intel and espionage scores... you'll do fine." General Alycron shrugged.
"I'm not familiar with the ship or its crew.... I...." Ty studdered.
"The ship is designed with simple controls very similar to any common assault shuttle, as for the crew your own pack and its shuttle support personnel will be the crew." The General smiled.
"I.......I........I......." Ty studdered.
"Hmmm... I see, this is about Admiral Torvaine, your father. " The Accipteron shook his head, "he's carrer military, 30 years. He and I have been good friends for that long."
"He was never around when I was a cub...."
Alycron pointed a talon at Ty, " Then when he was you avoided him. You wanted to be a pilot when you were small.... about the same time you were calling me Uncle Acorn, but you joined the regular guard and then special ops..."
"I wanted to be a soldier, I wanted to do my part, I like what I'm doing......."
"Perhaps, but it seemed you wanted to avoid your father, to rebel against what he wanted you to do..... " the General sighed, "look, I'm not your father, this is the assignment and this is the future, many units will be transfered to this type of post, yours is just a test group and the only available unit with a commander capable of both mission specific tasks, the naval skills and the training of an ops specialist. Now, the other new gear that we will be issuing your unit, mission details and objectives are in this data pad, your crew is standing by on the Star Pheonix I. We don't have the time to discuss this further... the ship is in the main docking ring, good luck Ty." And with that he stood and saluted.
Ty returned the salute and left the conference room, errecting a mind shield as he exited. He took the corridor route to the docking ring, rather than a pod. While he walked he studied the mission profile, it seemed simple enough: rendezvous with a stealth frigate that has been shadowing the carrier (it held the jump beacon neccessary to find the system), mount a penetration assault on the carrier to secure the data core, return..... a little routinue, but it beats sitting around here. The logistics report showed a hefty amount of new expermental gear: A heavier MM suit with strength actuators and light reflex plate armor, new EM Pulse guns (for disabling and confusing 'bots) and a new plasma pulse rifle.
"Excuse me......... pardon me........... sorry......." He deftly dodged between people that crowded the hall, without even looking up from the datapad. THWAPP...... Ty stepped back rubbing his muzzle, people give off thought patterns that can be sensed, doors do not. He gazed and scanned around, Ty found this section to be empty and he breathed a sigh of relief. He stood before a security door, locked and blocked to psionics. Scanning his access card at the reader, he cursed himself for not watching where he was going, the door opened and two security meks immediately came to attention. Nodding to the security he proceeded down the docking shaft, from the shaft he could see "his" ship. The Star Pheonix I was styled like a starfighter, only the size of a corvette, the specs listed atmospheric flight and landing capabilities, a heavy weapons compliment with anti-robot point defense systems and a small mek hanger. The last door stood like a forbidding portal, he shook off the feeling of apprehension and stepped on-board. He made his way for the bridge and stopped only briefly to get a reading on the ship, the material gave little resistance to psionics, except near private areas and quarters.
Tycko stepped into a transport pod, "pod... bridge" The pod hummed briefly and then stopped. He stepped onto the bridge.
"Captain on deck!" Major Kailli shouted and a ship's whistle was blown in the traditional fashion.
The group stood at attention, crisp attention with all the spit and polish of a cadet reform. Blushing brightly enough to be seen through fur, Ty took the captain's chair.
"Welcome aboard Cap........." Kailli's bubbly sarcasm was cut short as she noticed Ty's ears flat back and barred teeth, she did not know what to make of the reaction. There had been some interesting things between them, but she was dumb-founded at his current reaction. She sent: Is there something wrong?
Ty answered out loud, "No, everythings fine..." He sent: I'm sorry Kailli, I'm in a bad mood.... "Mr. De'thier, clear moorings and prepare to cast off. Mr. R'tan, contact ops and tell them we're heading out."
In unision both responded "Aye."
"Ease her out at 1/4 thruster."
The Star Pheonix I cleared her moorings and headed out of the docking ring.
Bregan De'thier, in a rather excited way, commented "she flies like an intercepter...... I could get used to this."
"Let's not forget that we're special ops, people, not navy boys. But..... take her up to full and head for the beacon." Ty said with a wry grin.
"Uh, major, the beacon is only 50,000 Kilometers, we won't be able to stop in time......" said Meilyn with concern.
"We aren't going to stop, Mei, Goen signal the beacon to link with the frigates transponder and Mei.... activate the jump sequence." Ordered Tycko.
Swinging close inside of the beacon, the Star Pheonix triggerd the beacon and a blue portal opened before the ship. The crossover was quick and there was a momentary disorientation for the crew. With its first successful crossover, the Star Pheonix proceeded to the rendezvous at best possible speed.
| Downtime Squared (Foxmage) - 13/02/00 |
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