Ice and his new friends worked to clear the capital planet but no matter how many nests they cleared there was always another one. Brigham began to come with them on combat missions using the Companion's Sword Drake had given him. Even with all three of them it seemed impossible and after three months they decided they needed help.
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"Listen Ice, these fancy systems of ours may be powerful and your new drones might pack a punch, but we don't have the numbers to take back this world. Everytime we clear a nest another one pops up, usually somewhere else we have already cleared!" Drake pounded a hand against the table in frustration.
"Well what do you propose we do about it? We can't exactly ask Emperor for help! And he's the only other System User we know about." Ice demanded equally frustrated.
"Well that's not precisely true… There is a rumor among the navy enlisted of the shadow man… he provides information… for a price." Brigham looked distinctly uncomfortable bringing this up.
"That's just a rumor Brigham besides the Information Broker was supposed to have died before the fall of the Capital. Are you saying that he has remained hidden. For a thousand years?"
"I don't know if it's him… But he is someone who could point us towards help… probably. What I do know is how to supposedly get in contact… but we will have to go to one of the Core Worlds."
"That could be … difficult…. If the Navy even suspects what ship we are on they will do everything they can to capture it. The Nano Forge is the most advanced ship in space besides maybe the Automated Dreadnaughts." Drake looked at Ice. "I'm not saying we can't try but I don't see how we can land on a core world."
"We could use the nano field to camouflage the ship if we have enough material and enzymes for it to use. Allanna did so more than once when she wanted to move around quietly." Ducky said from his place on the couch behind Ice.
"That… could actually work." Drake said, blinking his three eyes. "I didn't know we could do that…"
"Well it's not actually something we advertised back than would have kind of defeated the purpose." Ducky answered, raising his wings in a shrug.
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One week later…
"I'm telling you Drake we can't go in as a military ship. They are too regulated and tracked; we would never be able to fake it as one. A tramp freighter on the other hand only needs a registry. Which you said you can get for us." Ice argued for the fourth time that week as the nano field slowly built a hollow shell around the ship.
"But a military ship gets priority landing and the civilian authorities won't look twice at it!" Drake gestured at the image he had pulled up on the main holoprojector of a dragon class frigate. It was roughly the same size as the Nano Forge.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
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One month and fifteen days later
"I hate picket duty." The ensign leaned back in his chair on the bridge. He had his feet up on the console.
"So you've said every time we pull the night shift in the Corvette Barry." The other man had rank bars on his uniform shirt.
"Yea but why's the captain always assigning it to us?" Barry complained again.
"Couldn't have to do with the shine still he found in the space between the inner and outer hulls near your cabin now could it?" The 2nd lieutenant gave a long suffering sigh.
"That was never proven to be mine!" Barry denied sounding only slightly guilty.
"Sure and your hat and jacket just happened to be left there by whoever was brewing moonshine using the heat from the fusion drives cooling system."
"I reported those stolen that mor…" Just as Barry was about to launch into an oft repeated denial the ladar system gave a return on a ship two light minutes out.
"You want to check the registry or should I?" The 2nd lieutenant looked up from the holographic map showing a tramp freighter of indeterminate origin moving slowly through space.
"Yea yea … says here that tramp is registered to Bo Barnum and Sons Emporium of Celestial Deals and Antiques."
"Well that's a mouthful. Anything on the contraband list?"
"Nah says they are carrying mostly salt and small curios from the Tritanic Nebula."
"Well I'm not waking the Captain or the Boarding team for a tramp freighter. Signal them to pass onwards."
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Ice watched the small Corvette on screen ready to blow the cover and use the nano cannons at even a hint of the ship discovering who they were. He breathed a sigh of relief when the message telling them to continue into the system came. It meant the falsified codes Drake and Alice had inserted at the last communication beacon a week had worked. At least for now.
They slowly continued into the star system using only 25% of their normal system drive speed. Any faster and they would lose their cover of nano generated not to mention they were probably already going faster than your average tramp freighter. Coming in when they detected the Corvette on picket duty instead of the Frigate had been Brigham's idea. Something about usually a punishment duty probably drunk anyways and lazy if not.
It took them another day to limp across the system to the space station near the only habitable planet. Where they again transferred their phony codes and prepared to run at the first sign of trouble.
Again there was none. Brigham had proposed he be the only one to go off the ship but Ice had vetoed that as soon as he said it. "Drakes going with you in case of trouble."
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Drake and Brigham slipped out of the ship later that evening when the docking bay was busy and returned some hours later. "I sent the contact signal with the necessary information for them to get a hold of us. We should have a response within three days. Brigham seemed confident. Drake less so.
"Then we will wait for three days before leaving to try some of Drake's ideas about PMCs."