Pirate Watch

Posted on Mon Jan 18th, 2010 @ 2:45am by

1,397 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: FORGING AHEAD
Location: Tiberius V
Timeline: Current

ON

The star system had a serious Orion problem and so far it showed little evidence of going away. Reports had filtered down of possible attacks, but no evidence of the Orions to confirm it. Some scientists said these attacks had come from wild life, others were clueless on the matter.

"Ghost Squadron to interlinks for launch" echoed through the halls, calling one of the handful of spec ops squadrons to take off on a more boring patrol and recon mission. The objective was to seek and destroy any Orion craft within Neyel territory.

"I'm betting we'll find nothing" Ghost Four, Lieutenant Scott said, "last four flights have been dead quiet."

"I'll take you up on that" Ghost Three, Lieutenant Alexandra said, "there's something out there and we're gonna find it."

"That's enough of that" Captain Davis said, "we've got work to do."

[Flight Control Room]

The cities were flown via neural links and so were a great deal of fighters, not all but enough to be worth mentioning as every fighter could be flown this way and most could be flown in the cockpit. The connection rooms were all round with what at first appeared to be biobeds coming out of the wall, just they had a few extra pieces.

"Configure one through four" Davis called as he walked past the control station at the center. At his link for the day he jumped on, laid down and keyed up the link sequence from the panel on the bed's side.

"Run sequence one" the lead scientist called, "pattern B."

Immediately the bed slid into the wall, once it had stopped a series of neural connectors came down, glowing, on a lattice work that conformed to his body. The chamber glowed blue as various particles were sent throughout the space to attain the connection between biology and machine. To Davis it seemed to get brighter and brighter until his vision was all white, then it faded back-up, putting him at the heart of a fighter.

Back in the control center, the rest of the squadron was undergoing the same thing and one by one finding themselves 'in' a fighter already up on the tarmac, ready to roll out. The fighters were known as F-401 Jagers, built to be adapted to any situation, down to the point that they were variable geometry. The body of each craft was hexagonal, wide, rounded and not too tall. On top a pair of engines sat, air intakes prominently sticking out just behind what would have been the cockpit. Each wing came off and made a triangle on either side, giving the craft the form of a giant rounded diamond. At the very back, there was no rudder, just the tail, a pair of square shapes with the outer edges streamlined and pushed back.

"Ghost One, cleared for take off runway four whiskey. Ghost Two, cleared for take off runway four alpha. Ghost Three cleared for take off runway four charlie. Ghost Four, cleared for take off runway four bravo" came over the pilot's coms, as soon as it did they started to clear out. The runways intersected so there was a bit of timing to be gotten right, but that was by now natural.

"Ok, squadron form Route formation on heading one five zero, angels six til' we hit Aurorus" Davis said, "copy."

One by one, the indicator lights on Davis's hud lit up as the flight confirmed the order. It was a simple patrol around all the major points; all the research posts, the two cities, all the DZ's and so on.

"Lead, we've got a wreck eleven o'clock" Ghost two said, "looks bad."

"Split up, fluid two's" Davis called, "tight defense, I'll get on command to get us ground support."

"Geez, this place just brings mystery after mystery" Ghost three said, "I can't find any life around it, just wreck. No weapons signatures either."

[Aurorus City]

The marine barracks were quiet as the shift from day to night came in. Then the call for a recon team cam and half the barracks got woken up by the alert klaxon in their little part of the city.

"Alpha squad on your feet!" Lieutenant Rey yelled as he headed into the briefing room, followed by his squad's sergeant and not too much later the squad. "Suit up, we're taking medics up to recon a wrecked shuttle of some sort. We've got no intel, just spec ops top cover, lets roll."

"And I thought we were here to find paradise, not martydom" Private Gomez said as the their Lieutenant walked out, hopefully without him hearing.

[City Launch Bay Four]

The city was underwater, it wasn't going back up and that meant the marines were going to be taken some alternate means of going to the surface. The skiff's, despite appearances actually functioned quite well under water when correctly outfitted. It was just a different experience to live in a city of water and have to do all your work in the air.

"Seal's up, we're pressurized, lets go!" Rey said as he closed the hatch behind him and walked into the air-filled passenger area/cockpit to strap into a seat just behind their pilot of the day, Gomez.

The craft would head out into the ocean and climb to the surface, bring up the rotors and take off there. Until then, it would have a retention field keeping the water out, even though these were water breathers. Of course, their surface gear didn't work well with fifty or more pounds of force on it.

The craft moved forward on the aquatic thrusters, slowly as it cleared the hangar and then the second it was in open water, it rocketed forward and up towards the surface. Ordinarily, such would get these people busted so low, they'd look up to see 'toilet scrubber' and 'potato peeler', though a crashed shuttle meant running every red light in town.

Within minutes, the craft had hit the surface and broke free of the water. The second they could, the rotors came up and the craft flew on to land. Rey stood up took get a look at what was ahead, so far all they could see was a rapidly growing plume of smoke. =A= Alpha Squad to Ghost Squadron, status? =A=

=A= Bogie is just sitting there, no movement since we got here. =A=

=A= Roger, ETA tally five. =A=

[Beach/Crash Site]

The Skiff rocketed up onto the beach, just past the wave's and turned broadside to the shuttle wreck. Even as it was still moving, marines poured out over the sides and towards the nearest cover, under the assumption that something big, bad, and ugly was going to come out to make filet's out of them.

"Status" Rey whispered to the corporal next to him, who had been scanning for some sign of life, past-life, movement or any threats.

"Nothing sir" he said looking out from under his baseball camp, something Corporal Dunns was never without. "If anything's alive there, it decided to cease existing for a while."

"Right, squad, move forward and from a perimeter" Rey said just before leaping over his bit of cover, a rock and taking cover behind another near the shuttle's aft hatch. The round craft still sat their, back hatch open, flames coming out from around a few ports and inside. The trench was still there and just deep enough to hide something, but it was found empty.

=A= Ghosts, this thing's dead. We've got it from here. =A=

=A= Roger, we're rolling out. =A=

"Alpha, we're playing baby sitters tonight" Rey called as he walked out from behind cover, "three watches, Gomez you've got lead of the first. Everyone else in pairs and grab some sleep. Should I find you not in pairs, your going to wish something out there had." He pointed out into the unknown forest for emphasis, it was a pretty common thing that the swimmer's didn't like being out of water, especially in the forest.

Some marines headed for the skiff to make 'camp' under the rotors or the front stabilizers and the cockpit, a few others headed for the water for the shallow areas and the four or five left spread out from the edge of the forest to the water to keep watch. It was going to be a long night.

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