NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: For the sake of getting the ball rolling, I made use of a few, somewhat generic, Star Wars craft, if anyone wishes to take responsibility for the underlying organizations, I’m willing to entertain such prospects, as I believe I left it vague enough I think for just about anything to be used in their regards if it is so desired.
IC posts here only please, for questions, entry requests or additional information, please see my FT OOC Thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=554761).

There were many words one could use to describe the Kilrany people, and they varied wildly with some more complimentary then others, but ultimately one of the most common was the one that had stayed with them the longest, their innate sense of paranoia. If they had thought it possible, they would have happily stayed quietly out of sight in their little corner of the galaxy without contacting any other species, but there’s a saying about necessity, and it doesn’t always apply only to inanimate creations.

With inevitable discovery on their minds, coupled with the innate curiousity present in the Indrii who shared their homeworld with the Kilrany, the Kilrany had created five exploration vessels modified off an existing battleship design to make official, if still somewhat cautious contact. This was not however their only strategy for gaining information about other species and organizations, and after their encounter with the GAS Belldandy, they had gained enough information to put this secondary mission into effect.

Working under the assumption that official meetings would never give them the full insight they desired, coupled with their intent to keep the location of their homeworld secret for the time being, they went forward with this less conventional intelligence gathering method. This wasn’t to say more conventional means of gathering intelligence wouldn’t be used, but it did offer some benefits other options didn’t, while retaining deniability.

Simply put, the Kilrany Imperial Guard had convinced their Empress to authorize an operation that would have some portion of their forces masquerade as a mercenary company in the universe at large. While it was not an entirely original concept, it served their purpose to gain intelligence behind the official word of governments and insight into any potential, and less savory elements, while at the same time allowing them to put to the test their military equipment and tactics without directly involving their people.

Using knowledge obtained from the Ganoxa; roughly six months after their first encounter with them, the 4th Division of the Kilrany Imperial Guard would use a handful of their Spectre class scouts to approach the edge of several major trading hubs. Here they would use public channels to let it be known that a new private military company going by the name of the Arcani Corporation was looking for business, covering everything from high profile security, escort, and even simple bounty hunting.

They knew that it would take time for this knowledge to spread and for trust to build enough for them to acquire more prominent assignments, but if they succeeded, they felt it would be worth it, and if it failed, they would be no worse off then they had been before. Those few who would make use of their services early on would however find that they were a valuable resource indeed, as unlike any real corporation looking out for their bottom line, there was no such concern here, as income from their ‘contracts’ was a secondary bonus to their overall objective. Adding to this was the simple fact that no one had yet to see an actual Kilrany warship, leaving them free to use any class the Imperial Guard had access for their assigned mission.

As they knew they would be starting small, the initial task force assigned to the operation was equally so, being comprised of thirty-one warships from 4th Division, and six from 5th Division. 4th Divisions contribution was made up of three Tyemniy class Battlecruisers, six Sword class Cruisers, twelve Vanguard class Destroyers and ten Spectre class Frigates, while 5th Division contributed three Vanguard class Destroyers and three Spectre class Frigates. This force was all they had to begin with until the operation could be proven to warrant a larger deployment of forces.

While the origin of their supply line would be from their homeworld of Mir, their ‘base of operations’ for their task force; code named Venture, would be the empty space between two uninhabited star systems, a location they figured was unlikely to be accidentally dropped in on. With their plans underway, the vast majority of Venture; minus five Spectres out attempting to scrounge up work for the Arcani Corporation, sat here in this empty space, and for the most part they sat there under silent running.

Silent running was a term used by the Kilrany when one or more vessels started running under full EMCON and activated their cloaking devices, using only their passive sensors to guide them. When under full silent running, a Kilrany warship was just about flying blind, as it was totally reliant on passive systems such as signal receivers and visual sensors, greatly reducing its effectiveness, but at the same time rendering it, in an effect, non-existent.

They weren’t all on silent running however, as in this case two Spectre class Frigates on either side of the task force, and a dozen sensor drones spread around their perimeter continued to scan the space around them with their active arrays, while also transmitting an omni-directional encrypted data link, sharing their sensor data with those ships on silent running that could passively receive it. Not only though did both these Spectres and their sensor drones serve as early warning for the task force, they also acted as beacons for them, allowing these warships to hold a prearranged formation based off their scouts’ positions.

Much like their comrades in 5th Division, 4th Division relied far more heavily on AI controlled systems on their warships in order to cut down on the number of required support personnel, though they did not quite do so to the same extent. In the end this simply meant that 4th Division could get away with only half the crew complement normally required for KIN warships, leaving them more room for their infantry forces and allowing them greater ease in carrying out their long held task as light infantry and close air support for the other combat arms of the Imperial Guard.

While they relied more heavily on AI for individual ship use, the task force was still under the command of a human Kilrany military officer, in this case a Rear Admiral by the name of Alexandr Aksakov. A full six years older then Captain Alexei Vyshinsky, who commanded the KIN Redeemer, the Admiral was six foot one and had thick brown hair, which he typically had cut short.

Seated comfortably in what could be best described as the ship’s CIC, the Admiral used the Divina, one of the three Tyemniy class Battlecruisers; named after an old Kilrany province, as his flagship. Unlike smaller craft and the Athena class, the Tyemniy class and above had a separate room aside from the command center that allowed flag officers such as him self to use it more readily for fleet command and control.

Shaped rather simply in the form of a circle with his chair in the center, there were two wide command consoles located to his left and right, each with two chairs attached to them for members of his command staff who used them to communicate with the other ships in the task force. When empty, the room was rather bleak in its spartan décor, but when manned as it was now, projectors in the wall created a rather impressive holographic display of the fleet and known contacts all around him, the viewpoint of which he could manipulate from the arm of his chair or by speaking to the ship’s AI.

Just this moment though there was little for him to see besides the two Spectres and their sensor drones, as they were unable to detect their own ships when they were cloaked and on silent running. The display did however contain a silhouette of the other warships in his task force; an extrapolation by the Divina AI based off the formation the Admiral had ordered Venture to take up relative to the position of their scouts.

In keeping with usual procedures, he and his four staff members were not the only members of the Imperial Guard present in the room as he was also joined by a pair of 5th Division personnel, in this case intelligence officers. Both of them chose to stand not far to his front right and both were dressed identically in their organization’s standard black uniform and armour with their faces concealed by their well-fitting helmets, they each even wore their ceremonial sword on their backs.

For the most part it was fairly quiet around him, none of them had anything particularly important to be doing just then, including the 5th Division operatives who merely conversed between themselves. He didn’t have to be there, he knew this, but compared to his current alternatives, sitting there in that chair and watching the holographic display was by far the more entertaining option.

He was just about ready to try and strike up a conversation with the 5th Division operatives when a new contact appeared on the display before him. Still some distance out from the task force, its IFF beacon immediately identified it as one of their Spectres that had been out ‘job hunting’ for them.

Pushing with his right foot, he caused the chair to swivel to his left as one of his staff members held a short conversation over her earpiece. After another moment the officer turned in her chair to face him, “Admiral, Commander Borodin reports that he’s found us an op, he’s transmitting over the details now, sending them through to you.”

He nodded his head in acknowledgement as she tapped a key on the console in front of her, he did the same a moment later to a console on the arm of his chair that caused a separate holographic projection of a screen a half meter square to appear a half meter in front of his face. As he started reading what was displayed, he addressed his subordinate again, “A simple escort mission, what’s the catch?”

Taking her cue she gave a summary, “Apparently we’ve got a commercial corporation looking to add some protection to a convoy of freighters through several jumps that are considered high risk.”

“Disputed territory, unclaimed or just sporadically patrolled?”

“Sporadically patrolled according to the employer, they must be rather desperate to get this convoy through unharmed.”

“How did we manage to grab this gem of a operation then?” his sarcasm was quite evident in his tone.

“Apparently we were the only ones willing to accept the offered money for the risk of the operation.”

“Oh fantastic, I suppose that speaks volumes about our own desperation for a contract as it does to theirs. Were we given any intelligence on what we could be facing?”

She shook her head slightly, “No sir, either no one survived to speak of what attacked them, or this company is deliberately holding back so they might find someone gullible, or desperate enough to take the offer.”

Aksakov grunted in amusement, “Now isn’t it useful I suppose that we’re not concerned with turning a profit?” it was a rhetorical question and his subordinate recognized it as such.

Taking a moment he tapped a few keys and brought up his squadron roster where he selected a number of vessels to run the escort, “Send information along to Captain Richter, inform him who he’s got under his command and tell him to only have one ship visible, he can decide which.”

“Yes sir.”

-----

“So what do you think, figure we’ll actually run into anyone on this run?”

Sergeant Annika Lopokova listened passively as Corporal Vaslav Gerdt address Private Solomon Pavlov from within their section’s quarters. Despite sharing it with eleven other soldiers, Annika thought it was reasonably comfortable given they were aboard a Sword class Cruiser.

“Oh I should think so. I had a chance to speak with Commander Orlov before the last jump.”

Solomon’s reply clearly got Vaslav’s interest, as well as a number of the other members of their section in the room, “Oh did you now, what did he have to say?”

She saw a smirk came across Solomon’s face as he replied, “He was in the command center when Captain Nureyev had a word with the fellow in charge of the convoy,” she recognized Nureyev as being the Captain of the Sofia, a Vanguard class Destroyer and the only one of their ships to remain off silent running, “Apparently he expressed ‘concern’ over the fact we only brought one ship along.”

This elicited a number of chuckles from the soldiers in the room and brought a smile to Annika’s face as Vaslav replied, “Oh did he now? Did the Commander say just how ‘concerned’ he was?”

“Oh yes, apparently it involved a lot of curses,” Solomon grinned before he continued, “The Commander also mentioned the freighter Captain’s interest in the design of Captain Nureyev’s Destroyer.”

“Did he actually call it a Destroyer?”

“No, but the Captain’s reply apparently had a number of colourful expressions that amounted to ‘mind your own damned business and worry about flying your barge’.”

A few more chuckles followed before Annika waded into the conversation, “Are you sparing us from the ‘colourful expressions’ Solomon? That’s not like you, usually you go into explicit detail.”

Whatever response was going to come from Solomon was cut off abruptly by a klaxon, itself broken into a moment later by Commander Orlov’s voice punching in through the intercom, “All hands, set condition one on all decks, this is not a drill, I repeat, set condition one on all decks, prepare for engagement.”

-----

Much to the chagrin of the Kilrany, the latest jump on their escort mission took them dangerously close to an asteroid field, and little to their surprise, Captain Nureyev’s Destroyer and sensor drones were now detecting incoming contacts they assumed were hostile. The true surprise however would soon be upon the approaching craft as his Vanguard class Destroyer was not the only Kilrany warship present, though it was the only one not under silent running and actively scanning the area.

The Kilrany hadn’t been familiar with the type of freighters they were escorting, mostly due to being relatively new to the galactic scene; as such they didn’t know that the eight craft they were protected were known as the Virella Systems’ Cargo Freighter, a modular and versatile transport. This was however somewhat irrelevant information in any regard, but their bulk made them useful for those Kilrany warships on silent running to maintain position near.

It didn’t take long for the new contacts to announce their intention, broadcasting a rather arrogant order for all the ships to stand down and prepare to be boarded or be fired upon. Needless to say the Kilrany did not take kindly to this order from pirates, and their own order to take action was quick to spread. Now perhaps it was a result of their ignorance of the universe, their innate sense of paranoia, or perhaps it was simple, unadulterated overkill in a desire to ‘make a splash’ as it were on their first mission, but in any regard, for whatever reason, anyone with practical knowledge of the situation could have told them that sending three Cruisers and three Destroyers to escort eight freighters was wholly unnecessary, advice they would have likely ignored anyway.

The Sofia was the sole vessel in their group to be fully visible and running active, thus it had stationed itself in front of the convoy with the other two Destroyers placing themselves behind and to the right and left. This left the three Sword class Cruisers to form a simple line and maintain a position inside the freighters’ formation, a position they were now leaving. If they had been visible, the three long Cruisers would have appeared to rise up from amongst the defenseless freighters, but as they were still cloaked, the pirates did not yet know of their presence.

Almost as one, the five warships still cloaked broke EMCON and began slamming their active signals out into space, obtaining their own returns off their adversaries while powering up their own communication arrays to transmit their own encrypted data link to their other ships. This rather unsurprisingly confused the pirates and the freighter crews alike when the new signals started to appear from nowhere, but unlike the basic equipment in the freighters, the pirates were able to trace the new sensor signals to their source.

Initially the pirates thought it was a ploy to scare them off and they pressed in to engage the seemingly lone escort, believing that they had the edge in numbers. Had it just been the single Destroyer, it was possible they could have succeeded in running it off with their Interceptor-class Frigate; a heavily modified Corellian Engineering Corporation Action VI transport, bracketed by two Marauder-class Corvettes, which were preceded by a flight of twenty Rihkxyrk heavy fighters.

Their thoughts of victory were quickly shattered moments later as a stream of new contacts appeared as all six Kilrany warships unleashed their load of Scythe class drones while at the same time all three Cruisers opened fire on their large vessels. They did not however sit idly by as they came under fire and they opened up with their turbolasers and missile batteries, firing at both the Sofia and the unseen vessels showing up on their sensors.

While there was no atmosphere to carry the sounds of battle through the vacuum of space, the light show that developed from this battle could easily be described as spectacular by the inexperienced freighter Captain near the rear of their formation. From this vantage point he could see the lead Kilrany Destroyer and the pirate vessels as well as the eruptions of light as the cloaked Cruisers threw their own weight into the battle.

Red and green mixed together as energy-based weapons crossed each other’s paths towards their intended targets and they impacted the shields protecting their respective craft, occasionally the premature detonation of proton missile’s warhead added to the fray as it was downed by concentrated defensive fire. He became so enraptured by the sight that he abruptly and instinctively snapped backwards in his chair as a pirate Rihkxyrk flashed past the front of his view port with two Scythe drones hot on its tail.

Outside the field of view of the freighter Captain, the piloted craft desperately maneuvered dangerously close to the freighter to prevent the Kilrany capitol ships from engaging it while simultaneously preventing the unrelenting drones from getting a clean shot on him. For several more seconds this kept him alive until a third drone came in on him from an oblique angle that gave it a clean firing line on him without risking striking the freighter.

He never saw the drone as its weapons fire slammed into the underside of his craft, breaking down his shields, impacting the hull, and damaging several key systems. Rather suddenly he found himself fighting the controls of his craft, which pulled him away from the freighter and into a clear firing angle for the other two drones, both of which opened fire on him mercilessly until he was nothing but an expanding cloud of vapour and debris.

-----

Less then five minutes after the battle had begun, there wasn’t a single pirate vessel still operational, having come under withering fire, their Interceptor Frigate was shattered in two pieces and one Marauder was missing its forward section. Noticing a last ditch efforts to escape, the Kilrany warships detected a great many escape pods launch from the capitol craft while three fighters attempted to break for the asteroid field.

While the Kilrany celebrated their victory as most of the pirate ships drifted dead in space, they were under no illusion as to the ease in which the victory had come to them. Outnumbering and outgunning the pirates from the beginning, they could hardly have called it a battle and knew it was no real test of their vessels capabilities, thus they logged it as a simple skirmish and little more.

While the freighters continued on with the bulk of the Kilrany forces back under full silent running, including the Sofia leading them still, one of the Cruisers and a Destroyer hung back to clean up the remnants of their engagement, tractoring in a half dozen escape pods while using their drones to eliminate the remaining ones and the escaping fighters. Adding to their desire to leave no trace, the Cruiser opened fire on the remaining hulks that had survived, smashing them apart until it was all that was left was an unrecognizable field of debris before both ships moved off to rejoin the convoy, recovering their drones as they did so.

It was perhaps something of a mixed blessing at that point that the freighters were relatively basic in their design and did not include visual recorders, thus it would fall upon the word of mouth of the crews as to the effectiveness of the ‘Arcani Corporation’. At the same time however, their stories would be blown out of proportion as most stories were and only a few of the more experienced among them would have realized that cloaking devices were used, not that the Kilrany really expected that knowledge to remain their own for long anyway given the Ganoxa were already aware of it.

-----

Aboard the trailing Cruiser known as the Tunguska, Sergeant Annika Lopokova and her section, currently fully armed and equipped, led a group of six captured pirates down a corridor away from the ship’s hangar. Already these men had been thoroughly scanned at the checkpoint that led in from the hangar and they found them devoid of anything they didn’t want them to have, though one did attempt to hide a knife, and it was taken forcefully.

They had offered no resistance as they exited their escape pods, obviously favouring living over a meaningless and suicidal last stand, something that didn’t surprise these Kilrany. It wasn’t so much that they were pirates that bothered them, as it could have just as easily been privateering, and that was at least something they could understand.

As they walked along the six pirates had their hands locked in behind their backs and were spaced two by three deep, with the 4th Division infantrymen behind and in front of them, leaving a clean lane for other traffic to their left. At the front of her section, Annika let her Disruptor Carbine hang by its sling as she examined a weapon they had taken from one of the pirates, she didn’t know it was known as a T-6 ‘Thunderer’ Blaster Pistol, but she readily recognized it as a weapon by its layout.

As a pair of officers passed them by, one of the pirates leaned in slightly and addressed one of his compatriots who walked alongside him, despite his hushed tone, her helmet picked up on his words, “Raynn, I don’t think these are Imps.”

Raynn clearly wasn’t pleased with his colleague and replied harshly in an equally low tone, “Quiet.”

Annika smiled under the cover of her helmet, unaware of the pirate’s true meaning of his words she was curious what he meant, and without turning around she addressed them both after a flick of her wrist set her communication set to external, translating her amused Kilrany into basic; otherwise known as English, “Oh but Raynn, why not speak up, I’d like to know why you don’t think we’re Imps?”

All six men behind her fell completely silent then, had she been looking at them she might have seen their confused looks as they realized that the six foot four, armoured soldier in front of them was a woman. She wasn’t the only woman in the section, but for those who knew Kilrany culture, this would come as little surprise.

Raynn replied a few moments later and his response was both arrogant and surprising to Annika, “I don’t answer to whores.”

Rather then actually be insulted in this case, Annika only shook her head slightly and smiled in mild amusement at the gall Raynn had given his current situation, though she also knew someone else would take care of it. As she anticipated, Corporal Gerdt came striding up from behind and to the left of the pirate and slapped him on the back of the head, something that took the man completely off guard as he was focused on Annika to the front, causing him to stumble slightly while also bringing the column to a halt.

Recovering, Raynn snapped his head over to look at the soldier who had just hit him, and fortunately for the pirate, he was spared the menacing look from the Corporal who appeared quite ready to strangle him to death right then and there. As Raynn turned his body to face Gerdt in a further display of defiance, the Corporal took a step backward and raised his Carbine, pointing it towards the pirate while snapping the safety off to semi-automatic with his thumb while speaking up with his external settings, “Permission to execute this arrogant ass, Sergeant.”

If Annika so desired, she was well within her authority to give Gerdt the permission he sought without repercussion, but unlike the angry Gerdt, she knew where these pirates were destined to end up. With this in mind she replied evenly, “That’s a negative Corporal,” which was very much a relief to the other pirates who didn’t feel like dying, and were quietly wishing Raynn would, quite simply, ‘shut the hell up’.

She did however put them on back on edge when she continued a moment later as the Corporal lowered his weapon slowly, “You could break a couple of his joints though if you’d like, but you’d have to drag him down to the medical bay afterwards.”

“Hmmm, tempting Sergeant, that may just be worth the hassle, they might even let me break a few more when we’re down there. What do you think Raynn, do you like that option?”

A few seconds passed before Raynn backed down, lowering his head, he shook it slightly in response before stepping back into the formation somewhat humbled, as he feared the prospect of continued pain over a quick death. Content, with that for the moment, Annika looked at the collection of prisoners under her watch and addressed them again, “Now then, anyone else have an inflated sense of their self worth?”

She smiled to herself as each of the six men shook their heads quickly, all illusions as to where they were and who held them shattered as they now debated the wisdom of having surrendered to these strangers.

OOC: Glorified bump.

“Welcome to your new home boys, at least for the time being.”

Sergeant Annika Lopokova smiled under the cover of her helmet as she led their six prisoners into the Tunguska’s brig through an open blast door. It wasn’t much to look at initially, as it appeared to be little more then another smaller corridor, wide enough for three people to walk abreast at most, it did however end abruptly some twenty meters in.

On each side of the corridor were four evenly spaced heavy set looking doors with a panel near the center of each for the passage of a tray of food for any current prisoners. At each end of the corridor there was a small dome in the ceiling roughly fifteen centimeters in radius that came down some ten centimeters, within each was a twin mounting for a small-arms class Disruptor, equivalent to the popular Carbine in terms of range.

There was only one obvious guard and it was clearly visible down at the end of the corridor, looking very much like a manned suit of powered armour, here a single Assault Droid stood in a tireless vigil, despite the current lack of any inmates. Armed for anti-infantry work, both of its arm modules were equipped with twin light repeating Disruptors, rather then the usual layout with one containing a medium class MPATD.

For the sake of space, most of her section waited just outside the door, which happened to be a security room containing half a platoon’s worth of shipboard security, leaving only her and five others in the corridor itself. Stepping off to the side so the small formation of prisoners could see forward more easily and so she could see them herself, she gestured with her left hand, “Gentlemen, please meet your temporary warden.”

The pirates were slightly caught off guard when a woman dressed in a black uniform snapped into existence halfway down the corridor, not familiar with the more photo-realistic holograms. They also didn’t realize that this twenty-something woman with long black hair standing just over two meters tall was the preferred avatar for Tunguska; the Cruiser’s AI, who addressed them in an all too pleasant tone, “Good afternoon gentlemen, and welcome to my brig. I do hope you find your stay here to be extremely uncomfortable until your transfer.”

As the image finished speaking, Raynn cursed under his breath, which to his dismay only caused the image to look directly at him with a knowing smile, “That’s right Raynn,” here her voice darkened in tone, “This ‘whore’ is responsible for keeping you alive,” abruptly though she went back to a pleasant tone, “But don’t worry, unless you do something stupid, I won’t be killing you, or any of you for that matter, so please, don’t try anything stupid in here.”

Annika chuckled slightly before she addressed Tunguska again, “Where do you want them?”

“Doesn’t really matter, the cells are all the same,” before she even finished speaking six of the eight heavy set doors snapped up into the ceiling.

One by one Annika’s remaining fireteam released one of their prisoners from their cuffs and pushed them inside one of the four-meter by four-meter cells before the AI promptly shut the door behind them. With that task complete and all prisoners locked away for the time being, Tunsguska’s avatar disappeared and Annika led her fireteam out of the corridor, the blast door closing behind them as they entered the security room and rejoined the rest of their section.

-----

After their encounter with the pirates near the asteroid field, the rest of the escort mission went without difficulty for the Kilrany as the convoy of freighters made several more jumps. Their ultimate destination appeared to be a less developed world; not so much in the sense that they were behind technologically speaking, but they were not a major destination for trade routes, being somewhat off the beaten path.

At this point as the convoy approached the fourth planet in the system, the majority of the escorting Kilrany warships chose to hang well back so as to prevent any potential collisions while they were under silent running, only occasionally breaking it to send short-ranged directional communication bursts to each other. This left only the Sofia to run the final leg with the freighters, though while the system was supposedly secure, the ships that held back remained on alert.

They received little in the way of challenge as they approached, seeing as the convoy itself was expected and much needed apparently; though the Kilrany only assumed the latter based off of what they could infer from a few open communications. The Destroyer herself received little challenge in turn from the meager defense forces; which amounted to a handful of trade stations, some strike craft, and a Frigate of some sort, beyond a simple request for identification.

Not long after entering orbit the freighters began to offload, and a Republic orbital shuttle approached the Sofia and requested permission to land, the passenger identifying himself as being from the company that had hired the Kilrany PMC. Promptly this request was granted, though the shuttle was tractored in and placed at a specific point within the Sofia’s hangar rather then trusting to the pilot to land properly.

As an executive strolled down on the shuttle’s ramp into the Sofia’s hangar, followed by an assistant, he was struck by the relatively barren surroundings, as besides a contingent of twelve fully equipped 4th Division soldiers and a number of Scythe class drones attached to the ceiling, it appeared empty. Tilting his head over slightly towards his assistant, he jokingly addressed her, “So much wasted space in here, though that’s nothing new now is it Shala.”

Shala merely forced back a sigh and continued to smile slightly, knowing full well his comment was directed at her as an insult, as he held her in low regard despite her skills and intelligence. Had she not valued the pay so much she likely would have struck him in the face and quit long ago.

As they moved towards the only other people in the hangar, the Sergeant of the twelve-man section stepped forward and greeted the two, like most Imperial Guard helmet communication systems, there was no obvious sign their voice was being re-transmitted, “Good afternoon, welcome aboard the Sofia, I’m afraid the Captain couldn’t join us, he needed to direct some damage control parties after our little action,” he lied of course, simply put the Captain had no desire to meet with a ‘suit’ if he didn’t have to.

“That’s no problem I suppose, I’m Marn Karkin, I’m the one the board had seek out protection for our convoy, I have to say, I appreciate your taking on the job, I was concerned no one would take it.”

Trying to keep up appearances, Shala didn’t say anything as her boss spoke, she knew full well that the board had budgeted more money for the job then he had offered, he was a greedy bastard in her eyes and had his own agenda. If it wouldn’t cause her to become a pariah and get herself black listed she’d have reported his actions to the board, but as it stood she had her own plans to deal with him in due time.

“Not a problem sir, it’s what we do, though I’m afraid this conversation will have be brief, we must be on our way again soon.”

“I understand, my assistant here will see to your payment, but first, I’m curious, I’ve not seen this ship type before, what yard made it?”

“I couldn’t tell you sir, I just work for the corporation, I don’t know where they purchase their equipment.”

“A shame that is. Well, you did good work, we may call upon you again in the future.”

“My employers would like that sir, does that mean you’ll need those freighters escorted out again?”

“Oh no, nothing that soon, besides, those freighters will be leaving with a larger government convoy, got their own protection for that,” he paused a moment as he turned towards his assistant, “Shalla, pay the man will you, I’ll be on the shuttle, it’s a shame there’s no time for a tour.”

Again she fought back a sigh as he walked past her and back up the ramp, leaving her to deal with the faceless goon that stood in front of her, “Alright then, just let me call up the specifics,” she took a moment to double check a datapad before transferring the agreed upon number of credits and passing it towards the man she believed to be little more then a mercenary.

Taking the unfamiliar currency, the Sergeant gave a slight nod of his head, “Thank you ma’am, you have a good afternoon now.”

As she turned around to follow her boss, she genuinely smiled for a moment, At least they’re respectful goons.

OOC: Bump

“I almost feel bad for those poor bastards, they have no idea what they’re in for.”

Sergeant Annika Lopokova grunted lightly in amusement at Corporal Olga Dyagileva as her section walked into their designated barracks aboard the Tunguska, only recently had they come off their assigned duty shift. As a result, they were all still in full armour and carrying their complete equipment load out, even Dyagileva, who carried one of their section’s MPATD, a tubular, lightweight anti-armour weapon, which current rested by a sling behind her back, while a Carbine rested in front.

From near the back of their little column she heard Private Anton Kopelev; the youngest in her section at twenty-two, pipe in as she removed her helmet, “I just hope the brigands have a long, unhappy stay in their new home.”

A smirk came upon Annika’s face at that, “They’re in Fifth Division custody now, that’s just about guaranteed there Anton,” referencing the fact that upon their recent return to Venture, the six prisoners had been transferred off the Tunguska to one of the 5th Division controlled warships.

Behind her most of her unit shrugged or smiled slightly at that, each of them aware of the reputation 5th Division continued to maintain. Ultimately though it was no longer any of their concern and they broke off to their individual bunks, striping off their armour and equipment to stow them away in their personal locker or footlocker.

A sense of modesty between the sexes in Kilrany had long since been overcome, especially given the fact that men and women had been fighting alongside each other in wars since before the Kilrany Empire existed. As it was, not a one of these infantrymen had any second thoughts to undressing in front of each other, changing out of their combat gear for slightly more comfortable off-duty attire.

Not far from her bunk, Annika heard Corporal Gerdt speak up, “I’m going to see if any of the sim units are available, anyone feel like coming along?”

Olga was the first to reply, “Certainly, beats any other options jut now. Baja Estate isn’t a bad film, but I don’t particularly feel like seeing it again.”

Private Solomon Pavlov spoke up next, “Is that what they’re showing in the commons tonight? Haven’t seen it yet, not all that good do you think?”

“Oh don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but like most mysteries, they’re best seen the first time.”

Annika heard a few others in her section chime in shortly there after as more of them opted to follow Gerdt for a little excitement on their time off, which amounted to just over half, while the rest minus herself and Private Anna Kashina, chose to follow Pavlov to see the film. While she didn’t go with either of the two groups, Kashina, their section’s medic, did however choose to head out for the mess hall, seeking an evening meal.

This left their Sergeant alone in their barracks, something Annika had no problem with as she plopped down on her bunk with a small datapad in her hand, content to read an old novel by a long dead author. Normally she had a preference for more modern work, but being an introspective on the 5th Division of the Imperial Guard, she had thus far found it a fascinating and entertaining read, despite the obvious conjecture in most of its subjects.

-----

The room was not a large one, being no more then ten meters long and four meters wide, and was very simple in its appearance aside from the presence of nine semi-transparent capsules alone each side of the wall. Akin to simple stasis pods, these devices served a somewhat more chilling purpose then merely keeping a body in suspended animation, and out of the eighteen devices, six were currently occupied.

Standing inside the room near the only entrance were two tall individuals, both wearing the distinctive black uniform and armour worn by both the 1st and 5th Division of the Kilrany Imperial Guard, along with their customary semi-ceremonial swords sheathed on their backs and face concealing, well-fitting helmets. In this case a small insignia on their right shoulders, a blood red dragon, denoted them as being 5th Division in origin, and aside from a difference of one centimeter in height between the two, the only other distinguishing characteristic between them was the distinctive hue around the one on the left, denoting this figure as being the holographic avatar of the ship’s AI, which was admittedly a rather significant disparity.

While physically there were no obvious signs as to gender, the operative on the right spoke with a clearly male voice, “Mishka informs me there were some initial difficulties, I assume they’ve been worked out?”

The holographic avatar responded with a decidedly female voice, “Indeed. Their brain chemistry was a little different to what I’m use to, so it took a little longer to interpret the data.”

“So they’re not entirely human?”

“No, they’re human, there’s no doubting that, but there are slight differences, much akin to comparing us to the Indrii.”

“I see,” he paused a moment before continuing, “anything useful thus far?”

“Nothing substantial, no, there are pieces here and there that show promise, but it will take time to sift through it all and compile it into something legible, human memory isn’t quite as efficient or easy to access as that of a machine.”

“Quite true,” again he paused before asking curiously, “What sort of environment do you have them in?”

Gesturing with her right hand to the right side of the room, she replied, “Those on the right are all sharing the same reality, they still think they’re being held in the Tunguska’s brig, nothing spectacular needed for them,” she then gestured to the left, “This one on the other hand is living a slightly less comfortable existence. Tunguska informed me he had been rather rude to his escorts, as such I have him living his own personalized hell, everything that brings terror to him is hounding him, whether they were real or imagined.”

Unlike the normal simulation units employed by the Kilrany military for training purposes or those used in the civilian markets for entertainment, these allowed the AI to scan the minds of those within without the need to deal with lies and deceit. The added feature of the stasis pods allowed 5th Division to keep the prisoners trapped in their simulation.

“Trapped in one’s own nightmare, hardly unique though.”

“But highly entertaining against one so deserving of it as he is.”

The operative nodded his head slightly, “Do you have an estimate?”

“I’ll put one at around an hour given my current progress”

“Very well then, I’ll leave you to it.”

“So what do you think Sergeant?”

Sergeant Annika Lopokova suddenly looked over at Corporal Peter Krylov, the man in charge of her section’s second fireteam at a momentary loss. Gathered around a table in one of the Cruiser’s common rooms with several other members of her section and sharing their daily ration of vodka, she had zoned out of their conversation.

She looked at him for a few seconds before she decided to simply be truthful, “Sorry, wasn’t paying attention.”

A small smirk came across the Corporal’s face, then a gleam in his eyes made it appear as though he was about to tell a joke, but a raised eyebrow from Annika made him think twice about it and he just shook his head slightly, “No big deal. Solomon just mentioned that he heard that the Plovdiv and the Lom were being sent on another escort run, and we were just speculating on whether or not they’ll see any action like we did.”

Annika grunted slightly in amusement, “Speculating huh? Reading a thesaurus in your spare time are we?”

Peter shrugged his shoulders with a grin upon his face, “Maybe, but sometimes you just have to bring out the big words.”

Though she shook her head slightly a smile was still upon her face, and realizing now what the question to her had been, she replied, “Tough to say Peter, though technically ‘we’ didn’t see any action from inside these barges.”

“Bah, you’re no fun.”

She smiled, but her response was cut off by the sound of the ship’s intercom and a male officer’s voice, “Sergeant Lopokova, please report to Captain Hakanov in fifteen minutes.”

Just before she stood up, she downed the last mouthful of liquor from her glass and looked over at Private Anna Kashina, who was seated with them, and lightheartedly parted with, “What did you do now Anna?”

Their section medic merely responded with a shrug and a halfhearted, mystified expression on her face that brought a chuckle to the Sergeant.

-----

Roughly eleven minutes later, Annika was standing outside the door to Captain Ivan Hakanov’s cabin, which also doubled as his office. More out of habit then anything, she tapped on the hatch rather then touch the small control panel underneath the latch, and from inside she heard the Captain call out, “It’s open, come in.”

The hatches to personal cabins were not particularly special in any way, serving simply to provide a measure of privacy, and unlike the large and heavy set blast doors; they were not linked to the computer. They did have a small servomotor attached to them, but this served more to slowly close it if it was accidentally left open then for any other purpose.

Lifting up on the latch, she pushed lightly against the servomotor and stepped inside to see the Captain seated behind a simple looking desk in his relatively small cabin, appearing to have none of the commanding height he held standing. While he held the rank of Captain, he wasn’t actually the ship’s Captain, but that of the infantry, and in that regard, one of her direct superiors.

He looked up at her as she came to a stop in front of his desk, “You wanted to see me sir?”

He nodded his head slightly and leaned back in his chair, “I did-yes, at ease.”

As she took up the customary ‘at ease’ position, he continued, “The Major wants me to find a section for a quiet little joint operation with Fifth Division, and I’m giving you first chance Sergeant, strictly voluntary though.”

Intrigued, she didn’t hide it from her tone, “Oh? Can you tell me anything about it in advance?”

He nodded slightly, “I can actually, which is a rarity as I’m sure you’re well aware. Apparently they were able to obtain some useful information from the pirates we brought back with us last week, and it brought up some information they want to double check. Nothing overly fancy here Sergeant, they’re just going to a lightly populated world to do a little reconnaissance, and they want a little backup incase things go badly, plus they might want to do a snatch a grab, so one of our reconnaissance sections will come in handy by their reckoning.”

“Sounds deceptively straightforward sir. What’s the timeframe?”

“Well, they want a section ready by tomorrow, and they say it shouldn’t last more then three days, four at the most, on site.”

“They manage to make that sound boring don’t they sir?”

“That they do, and we all know just how boring Fifth tends to be.”

They both shared a momentary smirk before shifting their focus back on the matter at hand, and Annika nodded her head slightly, “We’ll do it sir.”

“Good, they’re planning to use a civilian craft, so just meet them at the hangar, they want to be off this ship by fourteen hundred hours, so I recommend you not be late.”

“Oh I’m not about to make them wait.”

A slight smile played across his face again, “Alright then Sergeant, that’s all, dismissed.”

Without another word, she merely nodded her head, turned and left the Captain’s presence, and as she walked down the corridor she heard the slight hum of the servomotor close the door with a slight click behind her.