BTHB: Sector 13 : Operation Icarus!.

[Kaboose the Moose]

"The Captain's right Marcus, there is no such thing as monsters in space. As the Admiral said, there have been no reports of lifeforms out in the expanse, so no reason to believe that a star eating, planet destroying monster lives on the edge of our galaxy" he leaned over to whisper into Marcus's ear. He was about to respond to Mike's statement when he noticed that the Specialist, the man called Walter had remained silent for the whole time. He seemed to show no emotional response to what had been said throughout the day, it was as if he was almost mechanical. Roach cleared his throat, "Walter is it?" he began. "What is your role on this ship?. You do not appear to be dressed as part of the crew or a commanding officer"

 

[Shapsters]

"I would suggest, you keep your mouth shut on my ship. If I go on your ship, you say whatever the fuck you want, but on my ship, keep your damn thoughts to yourself." Mike glared at Alexis, this meeting is not off to a good start, "Lets just all keep our mouths shut before I need to use weaponry."

Spoiler: Hehe

I like being a prick!

 

[Captainguy42]

" Captain if we do go past the Helios Belt I'm worried the Sakkara might not be strong enough. You remember Ullr IX, we made it, but the Sakkara took major damage to her structure. If we plan on going further I say we gotta retro-fit the old gal. We're going to need stronger supports, a more powerful engine, better shields and a meteor defense laser," Extra's breathing began to quicken and a smile appeared on his face. " We could get an XRL-294 hydro sync it to a TWN-20, then re-route the extra power to MWPT-75, giving us more mega-joules in the warp-core!" Wow I really need to get a handle on my tech fetish.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

"Also, we will need more medical equipment. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed but I have had a throbbing headache and we're running low on medicine for it. Also, we have very few bandages and casts left over as well. I also have a couple of other things we need to pick up but I won't mention all of them now. In short, we have very little if any medicl supplies, and going past the Helios Belt without supplies would be just stupid.

 

[Shapsters]

"Standard UPD protocol states that no ship should be without supplies. I am obliged to offer you some emergency supplies. Medical apparatus, spare ship parts, a few weapons, I would be 'glad" Mike cringed at this word, "To give you the supplies you may need."

 

[Captainguy42]

"Finally, one UPD protocol I can be happy about."

 

[Shapsters]

Mike grunted.

Giving away my supplies to a bunch of freelancers! Freelancers! Fucking ridiculous!

"I am glad to hear that." Mike cringed as he said that sentence.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Jamie leaned back in his seat. "Man this protocol is useful on my behalf, and also that of the crew."

This could be really beneficial for us. I'm starting to love this idea of a mission more and more.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

"I agree with Jamie and Extra" Roach said turning to the captain. "If we end up jumping beyond the Helios belt, we are going to need a lot of supplies. Food, water, medical equipment and not to mention fuel. I mean, our engines gave us all it could when we went to Ullr IX, but the Helios belt, now that's a whole new yardstick. The Sakkara's navigational computer would have to be upgraded and we would have to download new star charts to the navigational library. That region is a giant blind spot to the computer and if the region is experiencing strong magnetic radiation then I recommend a full overhaul of our navigational shields,the last thing we want is radiation seeping in through the hull or frying our electrical systems".

"I'll admit though..this is exciting!" a wide grin appeared on his face.

 

[Captainguy42]

" But I got one question," Extra turned to face Mike, "Captain Mike, why us. I'm sure the UPD still has the resources and men to launch this expedition. And even if it automatically had to be Freelancers why us in particular? We're not the most experience Freelancers by far, and the Sakkara was built for inter-galactic transport not deep-space recon, plenty of other Freelancers have ships much better suited for this mission."

 

[Shapsters]

"The UPD has its reasons for what they do. It is not your place to question what the UPD does," Mikes face remained emotionless, he wanted to give no hints toward the fact he literally knew nothing about the concerns of this meeting.

 

[Spicy meatball]

"You're right, I apologize, all this is making me nervous is all. It just seems odd to me how a large vessel just disappears in space given the technology we have for space travel. Though, I don't know about aliens Issaria, I mean, there is nothing out there in the void" he looked at Extra as he spoke to Captain Mike. "A good question" he interjected "Though, the Sakkara is a deep space transporter, I hardly doubt we are the people for going beyond the Helios Belt. Don't you have some fancy UPD ship to go there instead of us?"

As Captain Mike responded Marcus responded with a groan. "Typical!" he grumbled. "The blind leading the blind"

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

"Why can't we all just get along?. We stay out of your way and you stay out of ours. While you are doing that, how about you ease up on those speed regulations eh?" he motioned at Mike. "0.2G, you kidding me?. Space slugs move faster than that, some of us have faster ships you know!" he retorted

 

[Dragonearl]

Spoiler: OOC

Admiral Troy's dialogs will be carried out in green. Just for clarification and ease of distinguishing who says what

Admiral Troy, re-emerged from the hallways and back into the meeting room. "Good, it's nice to see everyone getting along" he said with a fake smile, noticing the banter in the room. "Anyway, where was I?" he asked returning to his seat and shuffling through the papers that was organized before him. "Yes, the disappearance of the Briony. Well, the UPD was understandably upset about this occurrence and wanted a full investigation. The probes and drones we sent after the Briony were inconclusive or transmitted corrupted data packages, it became evident that we needed human eyes on the spot and fearing a repeat of whatever happened before, the UPD authorized the launch of a Heavy Cruiser into the region to investigate, they didn't want to take any risks in case it was a new hostile entity that we hadn't encountered before. The UPD cruiser, Argos, was deployed to sector 13 on the 13th, the day before yesterday at 0630 hours CRT. We received a total of 10 minutes of clean communication, in which Captain Luke, reported that all systems were operational and no anomalies were detected either internally or externally, before we lost communication and transponder signal with that vessel too.

UPD High Command when on Priority 1 alert. It's bad enough that we lost a science vessle with all hands on board, but to lose a UPD cruiser as well...needless to say, all resources was bent on recovering both vessel. The UPD wanted the disappearance of both vessels to be kept under wraps for fear of external influences undermining Fleet HQ's authority or questioning their leadership. A third deployment of UPD tech in the region was deemed unwise, so as of the 14th, the UPD authorized the commissioning of external assistance. The Freelancers" he took a breather to let the news sink into the others around him.

The problem with Freelancers are that, unlike us, they do not have a command structure, there is no discipline amongst the ranks. Anyone with a floating piece of metal that they called a ship roamed the space, doing whatever they pleased. It makes it very hard for us to ask for Freelancer help, because not everyone is qualified nor are their vessels equipped for the job. So, given the urgency of the matter, UPD Fleet HQ, ran a registry check for all Freelancer craft traveling within the Inner Core Regions and we then crosschecked it with a list of ships that have been operating for over 5 years and crosschecked that with the list of those that we knew were Warp capable and built for deep space travel. Out of the millions we got two hits. The Bragi and the Sakkara.

Our computer records indicated that these two ships were the only two, known to have gone beyond the Outer Rim to Ullr IX. We theorized, that if these two ships could survive the extremes of Ullr IX, then the Helios Belt wouldn't be too much of an ordeal. We immediately contacted the nearest ship to our position, the Bragi was just in the right place at the right time for us. We persuaded the ship to dock with our cruiser, and we approached Captain Armstrong with the information we gave you. He was hesitant at first, but we, persuaded him to cooperate with us. We didn't know the situation beyond the belt, so we didn't know how much time, the survivors, if there was any, actually had. So, after a hasty debrief we set the Bragi on it's way. We had given the ship the necessary charts and coordinated to make the Warp jump successfully and we instructed them to jump to the edge of the belt rather than straight into sector 13. They complied, the warp jump was a success, Captain Armstrong reported that they had made it through unscathed. We then ordered the ship to approach Sector 13 from a different vector at sub warp, all the while maintaining an open communication channel so we could monitor the progress of the crew.

Reports began to come in, as they entered sector 13, of a single ocean planet in the system. The scanners on board identified it as a M-class planet, capable of sustaining human life. We ordered the Bragi in closer for investigation, to see if the crews of the Brionyor the Argos had made it to the surface and was still alive. Captain Armstrong radioed in saying that they had picked up a faint distress signal coming from the surface of the planet but their scanners picked up no life signs in the area. We were just uploading the UPD decryption codes to the Bragi so that they could pinpoint the signal location, when we lost communication with the ship, a minute later, their transponder went off line. This was 0800 hours yesterday. We have no word from them yet. We launched over 20 probes into the sector but we couldn't find a trace of the Bragi and we lost over half our probes in the process" Admiral Troy paused to rub is face. He turned to Captain Alexis

"Two UPD ships, one a heavy cruiser and a Freelancer freighter and over 4 dozen probes and drones, mysteriously disappeared near a M-class planet in Sector 13. The last we know is of a distress signal coming from the planets surface. We don't know if any of the crews are alive, or if their ships are undamaged, we don't know what or who has done this. It's a mystery and a grave one at that.
We outfitted the Bragi, with some powerful scientific equipment before her departure, capable of measuring quantum anomalies. We got nothing throughout the whole expedition from the equipment. No signs of an alien craft was detected on any occasion, no space anomalies, no life signs in space or the planet" he threw up his hands in despair. "All we know is that there is an emergency beacon active on the planet. Despite what the scanners say, there has to be signs of life, if not anyone else, then the crew of the Bragi may be alive. Even if no one is alive, we have to get that beacon, it may hold information about the fate of all those vessels and souls on board" Troy looked straight at the crew of the Sakkara.

"You are our last hope. Your ship, is the only other Freelancer vessel capable of making a Warp jump into deep space. Your crew history is fantastic, together for 7 years, you all work as a well oiled team. It's about a perfect team that we can hope for, a team to lead a reconnaissance and potentially a rescue party to Sector 13". "What do you say?" he paused for a response.

Spoiler: OOC

Go nuts guys, I'll post the rest of Troy's debrief when I have a sufficient talk going on here

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Jamie paused for a second. This mission did seem interesting, but there were risks to it. A heavy cruiser just doesn't go missing with no reason, and it takes an extra-ordinary amount of firepower to take one down anyway. This did seem like a very risky situation, and would it be worth it in the end?

"Say we do get there safely. Say we find the ships and the cause for their crashes. Say we manage to rescue some survivors and make it back out alive. What do we get out of it in turn?"

 

[Bibliomancer]

Walter was concerned. The issue with the disappearing ships was a major one. Since it wasn't even in his briefing, Walter assumed that it was only known at the highest levels of command. Walter didn't have any orders concerning this, and decided to stay quiet and observe the meeting.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

"Jamie's got a point" Roach said. "Why should we risks our necks for what basically is a UPD venture?. We don't know what's caused those ships to disappear and you want us to go an investigate just willy nilly?. As exciting as that may be, I don't think we should just walk in there, or have you forgotten already, the Briony, Argos and the Bragi, I for one don't want the Sakkara added to that list" he grumbled at the Admiral. "Why don't you send on of your own ships or better yet what do we get from this venture?"

 

[Dragonearl]

"All very valid question!" the Admiral began. "First of all, sending another UPD vessel is prohibitive, fleet HQ has ordered the regions beyond the Helios Belt a no-go zone, till the disappearances are resolved. Personally, I think it's more of a political decision than anything else, HQ is finding it more and more difficult to explain the missing ships to the relevant authorities, hence why only a few in the fleet know of our current situation. They don't want to start a fleet wide panic or concern about something that we still do not yet fully understand. Which is why we need the Freelancers. You all are the ideal candidates for this kind of job, you don't have bureaucracy and legal issues that needs to be circumvented for this rescue operation to commence.

As for potential benefits, well, we can start with the unending gratitude from us, the UPD and the survivors, if there are any. Also, should you accept this mission, we will ease all restrictions for your vessel in all UPD and Inner Core sectors indefinitely, you won't have to re-calibrate you engine schematics everytime you enter our domain and you will be free from insepctions. We will also clear your records of all reports of misconduct in this sector, you'll have a clean slate to start over with. Also, any upgrades we do to your ship, you can keep with you for as long as you like and finally,

each crew member that undertakes this mission, will receive 60,000 Crubixes. That's right, 60,000 credits, each!. What say you now?..any more questions?"

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Jamie listened to the Admiral's reasoning for selecting them and the rewards as well. At first he found it hypocritical of the UPD to want to investigate this, yet not want to send their own ships to investigate. But then he thought of the rewards. He could see himself and other members of the crew interested in this. Marcus never liked the inspections, so it would be beneficial to him among others as well; Extra would like the permeanent ship upgrades if no one else would; Roach would probably like the lack of restrictions on us; all of them would probably like the clean reports;

and the money... 60000 Crubixes each...

He had never even thought about that much money before. He thought he would never even hear those words in the same sentence unless it was either "You'll never earn 60000 Crubixes ever." or "You owe me 60000 Crubixes.", and he even had doubts on hearing the second one in his lifetime. This really did seem like a chance to finally get a good life after the mine on his homeplanet ran out. He was full of interest for this mission now, and nothing could get rid of that.

 

[Captainguy42]

Moneys nice, moneys always been nice but I didn't really become a Freelancer for the dosh. But permanent upgrades? That is fucking awesome! I am going to milk that Kestra till its dry! Total overhaul, by the time I am done we won't need UPD immunity because we will be unstoppable! Wonder if I can get and entertainment deck out of this?. Wait a minute... how much is 60,000 credits again?

"Can somebody put 60,000 credits in perspective for me?"