Blue Star Enterprises

DATE: 2398

Travers made his way down to the briefing room. He knew they had a new contract already but not what it entailed. It wasn’t rare for the Hawks to have contracts close together, but it was pretty rare for them to get back-to-back ones. That meant someone wanted the best and had a ton of money to throw at the problem. Not that he minded, it meant a bigger paycheck.

He was not the first to arrive. Anthony Baru was already in his normal seat speaking with Captain Matthews.

"Gentlemen," Travers nodded as he walked in. He poured himself a cup of coffee and grabbed a snack from the service tray before taking his seat.

Both men nodded to him. Travers was glad the Hawks treated everyone equally in the company. He knew some other companies that tried to run them like dictatorships. It worked until your leadership was taken out, then they usually crumbled under a lack of direction.

That didn’t mean the Hawks of Ganos didn’t have a formal structure, they did. But any one of a dozen people could step into a higher role if necessary.

Soon the rest of the Field Team Leaders arrived. The full conference room filled up quite fast, leaving all twelve chairs occupied. It was rare to have the entire company assembled for one mission, now Travers knew this upcoming op was a big one.

"Thank you all for attending," Baru spoke. "We have a bit of an interesting one this time around." The man clicked a remote and the table came alive with a hologram of a massive building.

"This is an abandoned research facility from the tail end of the Great Expansion. This facility is located in the Y6X-3H2 system on the fourth planet in the system, colorfully named Y6X-3H2-4."

That earned a chuckle from the gathered people.

Travers had no idea where this system was located. He had never even encountered a system or planet so remote that nobody had bothered changing the scientific designation to something more palatable. He supposed he would find out where this place was soon enough.

Baru waited for the laughter to subside before continuing. "Now for the bad news. This facility is fifteen square miles of tunnels, living areas, expansive atriums, and this doesn’t even include the maintenance and support areas."

A few people groaned at that. Travers wasn’t one of them. He knew based on the brief projection that the place was huge. He didn’t think it was quite that large, but he already knew it was going to be a pain in the ass to secure.

"Please hold your grumbling until I get to the actual bad news," Baru stated in his normally unflappable tone.

That got Travers and everyone else’s attention. Clearing out a facility of this size would be a pain on any normal op. If that wasn’t the bad news, he wasn’t looking forward to what the man said next.

"Our theater of operations is outside of STO-controlled space."

Travers watched Captain Matthews’ expression but the man didn’t even flinch at this news. Considering he was responsible for space superiority, he must have been notified ahead of time.

One of the team leaders raised their hands. Travers didn’t recognize the man but his nametag read ’Jallen’. "Does that mean we should expect pirates?"

"Unknown," Baru replied. "The station has been dark since 2310. That brings us to the next issue. If the station is empty, it’s likely degraded to the point of being uninhabitable. In that case, we will transition to field repair instead of clearing."

"And if it isn’t?" Travers asked.

"The client… has asked us to clear out any criminal elements, but not to evict anyone else who might have taken refuge there."

The room erupted into annoyed shouts and grumbling. Baru simply waited for the field leaders to vent their frustrations before continuing.

This was going to be the most difficult op Travers had ever been a part of. Clearing out and securing or even repairing a facility of this size was a big job, but now they had to act as a police force as well.

Someone else asked the question on Travers’ mind. "How long is this op?"

"It will be a minimum of six months with an open-ended extension if the client has the money."

He really hoped this client realized the logistical nightmare of keeping squatters around and changed his mind. Extra money was nice, but not if it meant they were stuck playing nice for the next few years.

"Will there be some downtime before the op kicks off? Most of us just came off rotation," another leader asked.

"There will be three weeks of downtime before we are wheels up. I suggest everyone take it and relax. We are on a bit of a time crunch at that point, so if anyone gets arrested we will not be bailing them out. That’s about all the information I have. Any other questions?"

There were some follow-up questions, mostly aimed at equipment. Seeing as the op was taking place outside of STO space, some of the leaders were asking about the use of restricted weapons. Travers wanted to shake his head at that. Who needed a railgun or laser rifle for urban clearing and control? At least they would have their combat rifles since it wasn’t a space station and the air wasn’t immediately deadly.

The rest of the meeting went into logistics and supply.

***

The Talon exited FTL at the edge of the system. Matthews watched his displays as his crew went about their work quickly and efficiently. If there was something he needed to know, they would tell him.

"All clear, Sir," the sensor operator responded a few minutes later.

He thanked the man and looked over the system holo. Varlen was the end of the road for STO systems in this direction. As such, it had little to no infrastructure. There were no inhabitable planets in the red dwarf system. Any planet that could be terraformed was too close to the star’s radiation and was tidally locked. That didn’t stop humans from trying to live out here though.

There was a rocky satellite that orbited one of the further-out gas giants. On this dead satellite was a sprawling complex. But even that wouldn’t have been there if not for the STO’s Naval Yard in the system.

Soon Matthews received the challenge request he had been expecting. He responded to the message with his ship name, reason for being there, and their destination. They would have most of that through his transponder ID, but he liked being thorough. A few minutes later he got a response back.

Good luck!

He didn’t need the STO to tell him that. Matthews knew that every stop beyond this system and their eventual destination could be infested with pirates, or maybe even the Shican. It’s why they had pulled two of their gunships out of storage to act as backup. The Talon had enough firepower to defend itself, but their client would be meeting them here.

For the next three days, the Talon flew across the system to the next safe jump point. There they waited.

"Sir, we have received the confirmation code from a ship named the Zephyr, flown by Captain Daniel."

Matthews nodded. "Send it to my terminal."

Not knowing the transponder ID of the ship their client would be arriving by, they had given Mr. Kane a security code. This prevented misunderstandings.

As he waited for the message to arrive, he looked up the ship’s information. Class 4 hauler, nothing fancy. Eventually, the message finished buffering.

Greetings Talon,

Thank you for agreeing to wait for us here. While we could have probably crossed the intervening space without issue, this is a much safer option. Before we leave the system, our mutual client wishes to speak with you over video once we are within proper communication range. As the Captain of the Zephyr, I will be attending as well so we can go over any operational information you might need us to follow. Once we are under your umbrella, we will comply with whatever orders you issue that do not place my ship or crew in harm’s way.

Captain Daniel

Well, at least Matthews knew this Captain was competent. He lost count of how many arrogant captains he had been forced to work with over the years. Working for the rich, they sometimes thought they could get away with the same level of nonsense. He was always quick to put them in their place.

I will set up a meeting time once you are closer.

Captain Matthews

He sent the response, preferring to be short and concise. There was no telling who was picking up the open radio traffic.

***

A day later the Zephyr had finally moved into video range. Matthews was glad the smaller vessel was faster. If it came down to a fight, they could run while the Talon took the hits. The old STO transport may be slow to accelerate, but she was heavily armed and armored. The old warhorse had been designed to tank shots as drop ships disgorged their troops in the middle of a battlefield. The Talon had cost the Hawks a considerable amount of capital and a few favors, but it put them far above anyone in terms of battlefield superiority.

With a tonnage nearly the same as an STO battleship and the ability to launch dozens of shuttles filled with ground troops, there wasn’t much that liked to tangle with you. They may be outgunned by most STO navy ships past frigates but he would bet on the Talon against any pirate ship out there.

Captain Matthews was the last to arrive in the much more cramped conference room aboard the Talon. All of the Field Leaders were here, the only person missing was Baru, but he remained on Ganos. That left operational oversight of the mission to him.

Unlike the fancy holo table at their headquarters, a large monitor came to life on the far side of the room, only moments after he sat down.

What he saw shocked him, but Matthews was principled enough not to let it show. A large robot sat crouched next to a man probably in his early thirties.

"I assume you are Captain Daniel?" Matthews asked. Going by the wings on his skin suit, he was unlikely to be anyone else. "I thought we were going to meet with Mr. Kane as well."

The robot moved, touching its arm to its chest. "Apologies, Captain. I am Mr. Kane. Or more aptly, this is the body I need to use to communicate. I suffer from an incurable illness that requires my real body to remain in a medical capsule."

Matthews rolled with the unexpected situation. "I see. I apologize if I caused any offense."

"That is not necessary, Captain. This is one of the reasons I wanted to speak via video before we continued. I didn’t want to throw this surprise on top of all the other things that might greet us out here."

"So you are aware of how dangerous this trip could be?"

Kane made the holographic face projected in front of his body nod.

"Are there any changes you wish to make to our action plan?"

"No, you are the experts, I trust that you know what you are doing."

Matthews nodded. The meeting went over what to expect and how to act if they were attacked en route. Daniel seemed competent and asked questions for clarification if he didn’t understand something. All in all, the meeting went well. Kane didn’t come across as some rich snob who wanted everything done his way, no matter how impossible it was. Maybe this op wouldn’t be so bad after all.