The primary emotion Garrick felt on the Phoenix Rises' arrival in Selbourne was relief. They had made it, along with almost twenty ships of varying sizes and specifications in their fleet. Some, like the Ezekiel, were barely serviceable, but it was still one of the largest groupings Garrick had been part of.

Mayeaux and Jansen hadn't spoken to each other since he forced himself onto the ship, and the Admiral's mood was dark. She spent most of the time sat smouldering in her chair on the bridge, but that suited him fine--less risk of a confrontation that way. On arrival, though, Mayeaux entered the bridge. He walked up to Jansen, inclined his head, and took a seat on her left. Garrick was relieved when Jansen didn't make a comment.

"What have we got?" Garrick said.

"The diffusion dump we synced with on arrival shows that there is a significant Alliance presence by the Phayao gate," Forster said. "We won't be able to have a live conversation with them until we get further along the lanes, but their last message reports their attempts to stop the insurgents were a success."

"That's positive," Jansen said.

"I wouldn't be so sure Admiral," Garrick spoke up with a glance over to Mayeaux. "They specifically said 'stop'? Not 'apprehend' or 'prevent'?"

"I can pass the report to your terminals. We have some time before we're in range."

"Please." Jansen waved a hand.

Within moments, Garrick's console logged the file transfer. He spent the hours that the Phoenix Rises took to approach the gate scouring the report. While it horrified him that the insurgents had dared to set foot on the Forge itself, two Alliance warships had cut short their visit, abandoning some of their crew in the process. The tone of the report was almost triumphant, but the truth of the matter was this had been too close. Garrick wouldn't accept that the threat had passed until Allison lay dead in front of him.

The journey through the lanes and past the two Titanic-class warships standing guard at the jump-gate was smooth, and before long the Phoenix Rises left jump space and came to a halt in the Phayao system. By now, most of the bridge crew had read the report of the battle and there was a lot of smiling and back-patting. That only made Garrick even angrier.

The viewport showed the green nebula that spanned Phayao. An array of ships spread out in front of them; smaller hoppers salvaging the wreckage of Alliance and insurgent ships alike, others moving deeper into the nebula towards the Forge to begin the repairs.

"Admiral." The helmsman turned around. "What course am I taking to the Forge? Sensors aren't functioning here."

"Follow the other ships," Jansen said like it was obvious.

"Admiral," Forster spoke up. "This course will take us very close to some gravitational eddies. I recommend that we only take a few ships with us."

"Agreed." Jansen nodded. "Send a message to the fleet. We'll take the Ezekiel with us to run support."

Garrick didn't know whether Jansen was bringing the ship along out of spite or necessity. She definitely hadn't forgiven him for what happened to Peterborough, despite her changed attitude towards him since Allison's betrayal. He didn't care, it was just another distraction that didn't matter anymore.

The Phoenix Rises began weaving past the eddies. It was slow going given the size of the Phoenix Rises, and Garrick couldn't help but think that the smaller insurgent ships would have handled this journey better.

"Forge coming into view now, Ma'am," Forster said.

The image on the viewport zoomed in on the formidable shape of the Forge as it emerged through the clouds of the nebula. It was an impressive sight, but straight away Garrick saw the damage the insurgents had caused. Blackened and charred areas regions spread all over the concentric rings of the Forge and debris scattered and floating all around the vicinity of the outer ring. The hull was peppered with blemishes, which on closer inspection were the hoppers that the insurgents must have used to travel over, abandoned in their rush to escape.

"My god Jansen muttered. "Bring us in closer and prepare boarding parties. We need to see what they got their hands on." She turned to Garrick. "Suit up and get over there."

"Yes, Admiral." Now, some answers.

#

Neat trails of destruction lead from the outer ring all the way into the central research complex of the Forge. Garrick walked around what remained of one of the labs, Glass crunched under foot from broken windows and lab equipment, workstations lay knocked aside and there were dried blood stains all over the floor. Garrick wanted to get a feel for how the battle had played out before heading deeper into the station where the warheads were prepared.

Garrick passed officers from the various Alliance ships that were helping to search the wreckage and to remove any bodies. This area of the Forge had endured the assault. As much as he detested them, Garrick admired the insurgent's audacity to storm such a fortified station. The tactics were like nothing he had seen before--he felt he had learnt something from the simplicity and brutality of them.

The damage continued right the way through the inner rising, but eventually a blast door blocked his progress. Strange. He lifted his wrist and spoke on the open channel. "Can someone open the central lab blast door?"

"I'm sorry sir, they sealed the labs when the attack began."

"I don't understand. Do you mean that it hasn't been opened?"

"That's correct, sir."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

That couldn't be right. "Who is this? Why wasn't this in the report I received?"

"Sorry--this is Ensign Falsetower, sir. The report covered the insurgents activities on the Forge, but as they never made it into the central section it wasn't deemed relevant."

He bit back the urge to smash the wall with the butt of his rifle. #2Open this door. Now."

"I'm sorry--"

"Just do as your told."

"They--they can't open it without approval from a mediator. Their instructions are to lower it at the first sign of trouble, and if the doors are breached, to detonate a gravity bomb. The technicians were relieved the insurgents didn't manage that."

This didn't add up, but the most immediate issue was to get this blast door open. He tapped his wrist again to open a channel to the Phoenix Rises. "Ask Mayeaux over here now. We need him to open the labs. Send Okoro and Ramsey too--I need their eyes." Garrick cut the connection.

Why leave? If the insurgents were that desperate to get hold of the information needed to develop a bomb, they would have stayed working their way in until the death? Leaving was as good as conceding defeat. Garrick didn't like this.

He stalked back up the corridor. There was no point waiting. He grabbed the first person he passed. "Where else did the insurgents go on the station?"

The technician looked like Garrick had given him the fright of his life. "The--the internal recording systems went down with the first detonation so we have no way of knowing."

"What about bodies--where were all the bodies found on the station?"

"There's a record on a wall further around the inner ring."

"Show me."

"I--er."

"This isn't up for debate. Take me there. Now." Garrick grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged the technician forward.

The technician relented and took Garrick to where some medics had set up a makeshift infirmary, to deal with injured in a central location. It was in a small courtyard with paths leading off in multiple directions and limited signs of damage from the fight. A few plants sat dotted around that were more to help the air filtration than aesthetics. Other than the injured, the main feature was a large screen up on the wall displaying a map of the station.

"The medics have been using the map to keep track of where bodies or wounded have been found," the technician explained. "It's not yet complete, there are crews still going through searching compartment by compartment," she sounded apologetic.

Despite this, it still painted a decent picture of where the action had been. There were lots of marks concentrated around most spurs leading from the outer ring to the inner ring and again leading into the central section made up of another ring and the core. Here, rather than being spread out as per the outer ring, the marks were concentrated in two quadrants which suggested the insurgents had targeted their attack,. A sound tactic, but it didn't reveal anything on its own.

There must be something more. "Tell me about the attack."

"Most of the bodies in the rings were from the insurgents venting its atmosphere, though there were some killed by beam fire."

"Where were the fights?"

The ensign pulled out a tablet and after a few moments of working, the map on the wall changed to highlight the bodies killed by weapons fire. "You'll see most of them are around the spokes central core, where there is a far thicker hull so there were fewer casualties from the breaches."

"What's that area there?" There was a big highlight around a hanger in the outer ring.

"The main hanger was totally destroyed by one of the insurgent ships, though there were individuals killed by rifles both outside the hanger and in the hanger control room. We think the insurgents wanted to use this as a staging point."

"Seems strange to destroy the hanger if they wanted to use it. I'm heading over there now. Have the results sent to my implant." He set off at a jog. As leads went, it wasn't much, but it was all he had.

#

Garrick was almost at the hanger when he received a connection request from Okoro. "What's going on?"

"Mayeaux opened the seal. The insurgents didn't get the information they needed on how to build a bomb, we know that much. There's nothing of note here other than a bunch of scared scientists," Okoro said. "They had even started the purge protocol that would have blown the station. I don't get it Commander, the insurgents must have known something like that would happen."

"You're right, something is wrong here. Make sure Mayeaux understands."

"Will do, Commander. Okoro out."

It gnawed at him--maybe the insurgents weren't after information on building a bomb. But that went against everything that had happened over the past few months. First through Hamasa's revelation and then the pattern of the insurgent attacks--the bank stations, the Constitution once Allison had the Forge's location, and now that station itself. Was that all wrong?

Garrick tried to follow the thought process through. If not information, what was the next best thing? What would get the insurgents what they wanted?

Shit.

He sprinted towards the hanger control room. The pace that Garrick's heart was beating at quickened with every step. He just hoped he was wrong, otherwise they had all made a grave miscalculation.

With trepidation, Garrick climbed the ladder. The room itself was nondescript, with a large viewport on the far side that had multiple views of the hanger. Clear signs of a fight lay all around; blood stains over the floor, toppled desks and smashed consoles. Garrick walked slowly around the room looking for anything of note. He went from console to console to see whether they responded--one caught Garrick's eye.

He opened a connection. "Okoro, get me a technician here now."

"Right away."

This can't be right. Please don't be right.

Okoro soon came up the ladder with Ramsey, Mayeaux and a technician in tow.

"Commander," Mayeaux began. "May I ask why you have dragged us out here?"

"Something is wrong, Grand Mediator. I'm sorry for the rush, but this can't wait." He turned to the technician. "Look at this--is that your standard operating system?" Instead of a log in screen for a user to access the terminal, it showed a series of letters running across the screen.

The technician examined it for a moment. "I don't understand--it's being wiped," she said blankly. "That shouldn't be possible."

"Well stop it then!" Garrick shouted.

"Is everything okay Commander?" Okoro stepped forward with a hand out.

"No, it's about as far from okay as we can be."

"What do you mean?" Mayeaux asked.

But Garrick didn't respond. All his attention was now fixed on the efforts of the technician to halt whatever process was going on. The minutes ticked by. The technician worked in silence, and none of the others spoke. They appeared to have picked on Garrick's mood.

The technician stretched out her arms with a yawn, shattering the stillness. "That was one nasty piece of malware, but I've extracted some of the data. Someone was downloading all the records of ships that have docked in the Forge--"

The red mist descended. Garrick grabbed the nearest screen and threw it as hard as he could against a wall. The screen smashed, sending glass all across the room. That wasn't enough. He grabbed another screen, but Ramsey latched onto his arm to stop him. Garrick nearly punched him, but at the last minute he forced himself back, panting.

He zoned back in to the room around him to hear Okoro screaming at him to stop. Belatedly he realised that Mayeaux had his other arm, and the poor technician was cowering behind the desk.

"Sorry," Garrick heaved out, embarrassment beginning to take hold.

"Explain yourself Commander," Mayeaux spluttered, not yet willing to let go of Garrick's arm.

"We've made a fatal mistake. The insurgents weren't here for the information on the bomb. You just heard it from the technician. They were here for the ship details. Ships no doubt loaded with gravity bombs. And if the insurgents could track one of them down and catch it unawares, they would be in with a shot of stealing one."

No one spoke. Now, the work of the insurgents was laid bare. And it was far worse than Garrick could ever have dreamed of.