January 31st, 2262. 07:36 Mu Arae System – Planet of Villam
The CNS Des Moines had successfully, all things considered, translated back into real space. Two more slipstream generators blew up in the process. A couple of armor plates had also sheared off their welds and flew ahead of the ship, but the disturbance in the portal caused them to fly back into the vessel. Thankfully one bounced off an armor plate that was well angled on the bow of the vessel.
The other armor plate got stuck in the bridge. That area of the ship had already been sealed off, so no real harm was done other than scaring the hell out of anyone on duty near there. Or anyone that was awake in that area. John unbuckled the seatbelt and slid back in his seat.
“Holy shit, we made it,” John felt emotional at seeing the bright blue world on the view screen.
“Captain, not going to lie, I thought we bought the farm back there.”
John turned and smiled, “So did I. Fire up the engines and get us closer. Who’s working in CNC?”
“Ensign O’Connor was pulling a double I believe.”
John pressed the communication button, “Beth you there?”
“I am, captain.”
“Send a tight beam communication to the station. Indicate we are closing on the station. Clear traffic away from us and ready rescue teams. This is a priority request.”
John then pressed the ship-wide communication button, “This is your Captain. We’ve translated back into real space near the planet of Villam. We’re en route to the main orbital station. Leave everything onboard. Your personal effects will be returned to you in the near future. The focus now is a quick and timely disembarking of this vessel.”
“Sir, beginning the deceleration burn. Will be in a stable orbit in three minutes.”
“Deniz,” John then directed his next request to the engineer, “I want main power brought offline once it’s no longer needed. The emergency backups can work. Program them so that they too are shut off once everyone’s disembarked.”
“We’ll have that done in ten minutes.”
John then stood up from his seat, “Chase, once you finish the orbital adjustments head to the hangar bar. I’ll meet you there.”
John then left the bridge and jogged to the main hangar. He quickly stripped down to his boxer briefs and squeezed into the void sheath. He went over to the terminal and quickly finished the updates he wanted to make to the VI.
“Captain,” Beth said from the terminal he was using, “The station has dispatched rescue craft. The first one will be here in ten minutes.”
“Advise them to only use the aft main airlock for docking.”
Five Marines and several crewmembers arrived in the hangar bay. John glanced at them but continued his work with his suit. Then he swapped to the communication screen and sent another ship-wide announcement.
“You need to be dressed for a void transit. Marines, gear up in your power armor. Helmets are not to be removed until safely onboard the station.”
The people in the hangar then scrambled to find the appropriate gear. The marines then ran over to the corner of the hangar he was working in. They saluted him quickly but then got into their armor as quickly as possible.
All while this was happening John was creating copies of the sensor data and logs of the ship. Four hard copies of each were made quickly. He also uploaded a secret VI onto three of the Marine power armors. The VI would activate at different times and give instructions to the wearer.
If John was correct, then at the very least he would keep the shell game going so that Intelligence couldn’t claim the upper hand until he was onboard the station too. Of course, this was assuming they’d be both there and expecting to be first onboard the ship. This shell game could simply be the product of an overactive imagination.
John began suiting up in his power armor when Deniz walked up, “Main power is offline. The generator is set to shut off after the last person exits the ship and the final shuttle disconnects from the ship.”
“Good work,” John couldn’t nod or even look at him as the reliquary was busy gearing him up, “Take one of those data slates. Make sure the people on the shuttle spot that but hide the thumb drive.”
Deniz nodded and did as he was told. More than that he didn’t ask any questions. Deniz trusted John enough to know that he wouldn’t have him do something illegal, but it was important enough to go along with it.
“Don’t give any resistance if they want that slate either. Or the drive.”
“Understood. Good luck,” Deniz turned and grabbed a helmet from the wall, “I’ll coordinate the exit here.”
The reliquary was attaching John’s pauldrons and power pack, “I’ll take care of the first shuttle. Speaking of how many did they send over?”
“Mark III station shuttles. Five of them.”
“Makes it easy then. Sixteen a ship plus a pair of marines on each of them,” John said.
Their conversation was interrupted by Sergeant Miller, “Captain, Zach here. What do you want to do with Lieutenant Guetta?”
John grinned, “I’d say space him but that’d be against the regs. Give him a void sheath to put on but afterward cuff him behind his back too. I want him in chains when he’s offloaded on the station. You have five minutes to get him prepped, I want him on the first ship off.”
“On it, sir,” Zach said.
The reliquary then presented John his helmet. The micro-fusion power plant began humming with power. John rolled his arms a bit to make sure they worked. He did the same with his legs before turning to face Deniz.
“I’m not going to ask,” Deniz smiled as he slapped John’s left pauldron.
“Good, I wasn’t going to share,” John grinned as he hung his helmet on his right hip.
John walked over to the line of people in the hangar, “Alright. Line up single file. The first shuttle ends at Lieutenant Fortin. Everyone else, hang back in the hallway. Chief, prep the second ship.”
Deniz nodded and ushered the crew out of the hangar. John walked back to the armory and grabbed an oversized pistol and a couple of extra magazines. Better to be safe than sorry.
John hollered over at the Marines, “Elvis. You’re going with the Sergeant on the first shuttle. Impress upon the prisoner that cooperation isn’t being asked of him, it is being demanded.”
“Understood sir.”
Just then the hangar doors opened, and Zach appeared. John walked over to him and handed him a data slate. Zach took it without questioning a thing.
“Lieutenant Guetta. Corporal Jenkins has orders from me to ensure you board this vessel and are remanded into the custody of station authorities. Your cooperation is required. He will hurt you badly if you act up. For your sake, I suggest listening to him.”
John turned and handed Darrel a thumb drive. He looked surprised and was about to whisper something, but John walked to the airlock. His suit interfaced with the terminal. The viewscreen showed the first shuttle inching towards them.
“Helmets on!” John said as he put his on.
“CNS Des Moines, we have hard lock,” a voice said over the suit’s coms channel.
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“Unlocking the door, the first batch is coming in. I am closing the door when the last one enters the shuttle.”
“We have…”
“No one is to enter this ship while there is crew remaining to disembark. Do not attempt to offload any personnel,” John said sternly.
The door then opened. John waived the crew by. The suit detected movement beyond his scope of vision and displayed it in the lower right corner of his view screen. John drew his pistol with his right hand and pointed it right at the individual who was trying to make it on the ship.
“Take one step onto this ship and your head blows up. This is a rescue scenario, not a data-gathering one. Now step back,” John snarled the order.
The individual put his hands up, “I have orders…”
“GET OFF MY SHIP!” John turned and loomed over the man.
The man stepped back behind the shuttle’s outer airlock door. John stepped back and closed both airlock doors. Then he messaged the shuttle.
“Shuttle Hyperion, disconnect and bring my people back to the ship. Please share with the other shuttles that the marines have orders to shoot any Naval personnel that attempt to board my ship while the crew is trying to disembark.”
“Sir, we have orders to make sure…”
“You have my orders and by God, you will follow them,” John was not budging an inch.
The communication channel shut down. The hallway doors opened. John waved to them as he walked toward them. Deniz noticed this and walked in with them. John handed Billy a data slate.
“What the hell is this for?”
“Get it to a communications officer for transmission to Fleet Command,” John smiled internally at Billy’s obliviousness to the request.
Billy nodded then walked closer to the airlock.
“Chief, I want you on shuttle five. Sorry, but I’m disappearing when the third one gets here,” John then turned and hollered, “Marines! You are to shoot anyone that tries to board this vessel while there is a crew still on board. Get me?”
“Oorah,” they responded back to John.
The shuttle outside the airlock bumped into the Des Moines. The metal-on-metal sound rang out in the hangar bay. John chuckled at that.
“Fucking amateur backed into us,” Brian said.
“Helmets on,” John said as he walked back to the terminal.
Hard lock was achieved and confirmed by the shuttle. John opened the airlock doors. The second batch group of evacuees filed into the shuttle. Once more another individual tried to get on board the vessel. And once more a gun being pointed at them caused them to stand down expeditiously.
When the shuttle pushed off John ordered the next batch in. Deniz then began barking out orders. John handed off the last data slate and thumb drive to Eileen and Ana. They both gave odd looks at him but were more curious seeing him walk to the far side of the room. Ana slid the drive into a pouch along her waist secretly. A pair of shrugs later and they were facing forward waiting for their turn to board the shuttle.
John had exited the hangar using the small single door that led back to the third deck’s ancillary hallway. The first thing behind that door was a small airlock, primarily used for docking with single or dual-seat craft.
The door opened and showed holo-emitters being set up already. John closed the inner airlock door behind him and activated his suit's holo-emitters too. The outer door opened, and John kicked off the side of the bulkhead and flung him at the docked shuttle.
He fired a small pulse from his harness to send him toward the shuttle. When he looked back there were several drones inspecting the ship. Whether they were from the station or intelligence he didn’t know. Just as the third shuttle began its decoupling procedure John gently grabbed onto an exterior ledge and pulled him onto the vessel.
His suit’s magnetic locks kept him from falling off. The shuttle then gently began flying back towards the shuttle. While this was going John fired up his VI.
“Eve, can you confirm if there is an Intelligence Operation working here?”
“Many communications are being encrypted abnormally high, using similar ciphers that they would use. Strongly implies that these ciphers evolved from younger ones.”
“Activate the VIs I loaded on the Marine suits.”
“The first shuttle has docked and is in the process of disembarking now.”
“Did they confiscate anything?” John was curious to see if they were looking for data devices.
“Unknown. Do you want me to try any known ciphers?”
“No, it’ll take too long to crack. Bring up the station’s schematics. I want to know external entry points near their primary communications station.”
“Working.”
The station was growing ever larger as the ride went on, but that was interrupted by a coded message from Deniz. ‘Derek Kurth is role-playing as you on the last shuttle.’ The game was afoot now. The VI then displayed several options for John to follow.
“Eve, do we know if any of the override codes will work?”
“Recommend against trying remotely when we aren’t at a door.”
“Right right. We’re going to choose the inner ring option near a military communications center. Display route please.”
There was a brief pause, then the HUD began displaying the route. The shuttle began to slow down as it began its final approach to one of the hangars. John deactivated the suit’s magnetic locks, then activated the harness. He accelerated forward outpacing the shuttle.
John was wondering how good the thermal scanners were, but it was entirely likely that they wouldn’t catch John. Obviously, that would be preferred, being shot at by the station defenses wouldn’t be all that pleasant. He pushed those thoughts aside and flew towards an airlock on the station.
“I have successfully intercepted and decoded Naval Intelligence traffic,” the VI said flatly.
“Bring it up,” John tilted his head a bit to the right.
There was some static then a voice began talking, “Lieutenant Lief is on the fifth shuttle wearing power armor.”
Another voice responded, “We’re sending them to a private shuttle bay. We’ll have them disembark but we will guide the captain to a holding room for interrogation and if necessary, silence him.”
John shook his head. He was beginning to feel like he was the jilted partner in their relationship. Why was Naval Intelligence so keen on burning him? That was yet one more thing that he’d fight for an answer.
John did send a message to both marines on the fifth shuttle. ‘Leave your sidearms on the shuttle and remove your helmets as you descend the ramp on the station.’ Now wasn’t the time for them to suffer for this sleight of hand trick that John was playing.
“Distance to airlock is one point two kilometers,” the VI said.
“Adjusting course to account for drift,” John said as he maneuvered himself back on track.
The Intelligence officers spoke up once more, “Found a data slate on one of the crew's people on the second shuttle.”
“I found one on the first shuttle too. It had a copy of the ship’s sensor readings.”
“Multiple copies? We need to investigate everyone now,” the agent was sounding especially concerned and worried.
“The survivors from the first shuttle have already been transferred to Naval personnel.”
“Send a team and scan everyone for data slates or drives. I need teams in communication centers on the station,” another agent said.
“I’m shutting down outgoing communications on the station. We’ll manage things in the main traffic control tower.”
“Well fuck me,” John said, “Eve where is traffic control, and are there any external access points near where this room is?”
“Highlighting on the map and on your display. Look up and to your right. It is a grey building with several red lights flashing. There are several external access ports. We have access to the current Intelligence ciphers which should allow us access.”
“Adjusting course there, please show the most efficient route.”
The thrusters changed direction and lifted John up and away from the ring that he was cresting. He was now heading towards the uppermost peak of the station. It was too bad that he was invisible to the naked eye, or even agametic one for that matter. The suit's movements in zero-gravity were as graceful as an Olympic gymnast.
John’s joy was then cut by another communication, “Found two data slates and a drive in the survivors on shuttle four. Just heard from the team on the Des Moines, they aren’t able to access the logs or sensor readouts.”
“Fucking typical. I’m going to shoot that motherfucker if I’m given a chance,” Agent Jerad Brock shouted.
“Stow that chatter,” Special Agent Sherman said, “If we play our hand too soon, he’ll go hostile. If that happens, we’re dead. We have to play this smart.”
John smiled; the special agent was right. They did have to play it smart, sadly they were now playing at a disadvantage. He, not them, had the intel and a leg up. The HUD read that he was under a kilometer from his target.
“Sherman, I’ve got four data slates and four drives confiscated.”
“Good work, the fifth shuttle is about to enter our special hangar. Again folks, do not make any hostile moves.”
The HUD was reading down the distance. The airlock was getting larger and larger on his screen. Thrusters began firing to decelerate John.
“Eve, is it possible to open this but scrub the records of any access to it?”
“Possible, need to interface with the system to confirm that possibility. There will be an access port on the right-hand side a third of the way up from the base of the airlock.”
“Yup, I see it already,” John said as he squinted his eyes.
John reached up and grabbed a hold of a railing with his left hand. With his right, he held it out under the access ports. Cables shot out from under the wrist’s armor plate and plugged into the station’s system.
“Concealing the external access of the door now. And opening the door,” the VI said matter of factly.
John retracted the cables and pulled himself into the airlock. The door closed behind him quickly. The atmosphere was pumped into the room, then the internal door opened. John drew his pistol and scanned down the hallway both ways before stowing the gun and stepping into the hallway.
“Ok, what is the fastest way to get to get to an access point where I can transmit this information.”
“That will be impossible without Special Agent Brent Sherman’s authorization.”
“Is he the one heading the communications dealio?”
“He is.”
“Can we get there without being seen in spaces like this?”
“No, this buffer zone ends when we get to the portion of the tower controlled by traffic control. I have calculated a route that should enable us to sneak up to that point from the shadows though.”
“How is the crew?”
The first four shuttles worth of crew are being inspected by medical personnel now. They are being guarded by a combination of Naval and Naval Intelligence Assets. A small wing of First Fleet ships has requested docking permission, but Special Agent Sherman is delaying their permission.”
“Can we spoof an order on the download without his knowing?”
“Checking.”
John began to walk down the hallway. There was a small lift that would take him up six stories. From that point forward it was going to get much more delicate in sneaking around. For starts his suit wasn’t exactly quiet, so anyone with ears would likely be able to hear him if he got within twenty or thirty feet.
He was wearing power armor though. The likelihood of the Intelligence agents running around the station with anti-material guns was slim to none. But he wanted this to be as secretive as he could be.
“EMERGENCY ALERT,” hollered an Agent over their coms, “LIEF WAS NOT ON THE LAST SHUTTLE. REPEAT. LIEF WAS NOT ON THE LAST SHUTTLE.”