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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1334837" data-attributes="member: 515">Argent listens carefully as Martha, Swann, and Ian express their opinions on the idea of installing one of the weapons in the port turret, then replies, "You bring up a very good point, Martha. We will inform the reception picket about our intentions. Depending on what has been happening, they may be a bit trigger happy. I hadn’t planned on asking you to work on the power connections or targeting system calibration — which would certainly alarm them — just yet, but it doesn’t hurt to be safe. In the meantime, will you go ahead and suit up, and make any other preparations until I give you a yay or nay? "Mr. McConnell? Please suit up and prepare to assist Martha and Swann since you know how to handle yourself in zero G. -----"Aye, Cap’n," Martha begins reluctantly moving toward the ship’s locker. A painful memory flashes across her mind’s eye as she reaches for her suit, but she quickly suppresses it and begins preparing to do her job. -----Ian hands his clipboard to Vasilii with a broad grin and reaches for the nearest ship’s comm: "Aye, aye, Captain, I’ll be suited up and at the lock ASAP. I don’t think we need to space the explosives. After all, they are pretty much harmless play–dough without the detonators plugged in. You never know when a big mound of plastique might come in handy. Go ahead and space the detonators. Don’t want them going off unexpectedly. Of course, we could always space ’em a bit later and test the laser on it for a little extra fun." Ian then thinks, "Some detonators of our own shouldn’t be too hard to come by in a war zone, either." As he leaves the cargo bay, Ian says, "Hey Vasilii, we could always sell the explosive somewhere." "Or use it for fishing on some backwater," Ian thinks. "I’m sure you would have more uses for the explosives that I would, S.O. McConnell," Vasilii responds. "On a war-torn nation, I’m sure I would be able to find a buyer. You just have to know where to look." With a smile, Vasilii thinks, "Finally, we may make a profit." "Alright, let’s get to work," Vasilii suggests to Darishun. "We should start with those containers there as they will be inspected first, then we’ll just work from front to rear. Let’s get to it." -----After speaking with Martha and Ian, Argent turns to key the comm, "Bray Keaven to incoming picket, over." After a moment, a response from the destroyer escort rumbles back, "Ashigaruai is incoming picket lead. Go ahead, Bray Keaven." "We’d like to do the outside installation of a pulse laser on our port turret while we wait. The engineer got the port turret working again, and we figure that we might need it when we get close to the planet. We’ll do outside installation only, no power connections, no targeting calibrations." "One moment, Bray Keaven," comes back followed by silence for a few minutes. "Bray Keaven, this is Ashigaruai. Clearance is granted. I have advised the other picket ships. Be advised that powering any weapons or going to active sensors will be treated as hostile actions that will be dealt with lethally. By the way, there’s a good chance you’ll need that port laser: things are getting ugly down there. If you’re headed towards the planet, you can find some debris from ships trying to run without submitting to quarantine at about 40 AUs that can be used to help power and calibration tests. Ashigaruai out." "That’s comforting," thinks Argent. Keying the internal comm, he announces, "Martha, Swann, and Ian. This is Argent. We have clearance. Don’t even think about doing the power connections or targeting calibrations just yet, though." Keying the comm again, Argent then hails Seri’s Dagger. "Bray Keaven to Seri’s Dagger, over." "Seri’s Dagger here. The Marquis is involved in negotiations, so please be brief." "Be advised that we had a bomb onboard hidden in the cargo that was set to detonate shortly after jump. We disarmed it. We have no evidence of origin or intent other than the bomb was clumsily added to an imaging table after shipment from the factory and before delivery to the ship. We’re transmitting the information that we have now, but it looks like it’s unnecessary if the other ships emerged without problems." "S***. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about. No other ships have reported anything suspicious, but we’ll transmit your information to them as well. You probably should hold the bomb’s components and give them to the Marines for safe keeping. Thanks for the information, and I’m glad that you’re here in one piece." "So are we. Bray Keaven out." -----Once all the documents are prepared, Vasilii heads to his stateroom to get some clean clothing on, get washed up and prepare himself for the inspection at 1500 hours. "1500 hours. Sigh," he thinks. "I’ll have to talk to the captain about changing our schedule to a 32–hour clock as opposed to the Terran 24." -----1030 hours. "Geez, what’s up with the flag? We could use an update over here," Argent thinks to himself as he and Vargas watch the cutters inspecting the ships of the aid fleet. As if on cue, the comm system chimes. "Seri’s Dagger to Sentry Aid Fleet, this is the Marquis. We have completed our discussions and have some information and plans to share with you." At these words, Argent turns on the internal and suit comms so that the crew can listen in. "The situation is quite serious as expected. Alief has plague outbreaks in seven countries on the planet’s surface. They range from relatively small outbreaks in a single city to outbreaks covering a wide region. Interestingly, all three of the regional outbreaks are in countries bordering a nation called King George’s Land, but King George’s Land itself is unaffected. King George’s Land has sent troops into the three bordering countries to ‘aid’ their neighbors in this time of crisis. Naturally, there is considerable suspicion that the plague is not a natural occurrence. "The smaller outbreaks seem to be isolated to four cities, each in a separate country fairly removed from King George’s Land. It is suspected that a traveler got infected and returned to that city from one of the affected regions. "Panic is spreading in and among the various nations, particularly the affected ones or those bordering the affected ones. A couple of conflicts have broken out among nations that are unaffected over pharmaceutical facilities. "The Imperial Rules of War prohibit this sort of biological warfare nonsense, and I expect that Imperial forces will eventually come down hard on King George’s Land if and when proof of the use of biological weapons is shown. "Normally, the local interdiction forces would be plenty to punish this fool of a nation. However, some of the crew of the Juishiaa (the second destroyer escort) and the Wall of Stone (the interdiction tender) had shore leave in one of the affected cities. At this point, the Juishiaa is crewed by a volunteer skeleton crew from the Ashigaruai. The Wall of Stone got a bit luckier: she’s only lost 60 percent of her crew. "The refueling depot was also decimated. There are now naval personnel running the station. Luckily only two private ships were affected. The depot is still servicing transit ships, but the crews are being run ragged. "Our situation is good given the speed of the preparations. And, we are lucky to have the Bray Keaven with us because someone planted a bomb onboard. All other ships are double checking their cargoes now and have reported no explosives. We will inform the Sentry Investigation Bureau when we return to Sentry. Until then, we have work to do. "So, here are the plans. S-19193 will proceed to the refueling depot to assist the naval personnel and provide medical support if needed. "Seri’s Dagger will assist in the interdiction of Alief. "Wellorn Light and Relia will proceed to the Wall of Stone to set up a study and treatment facility on the ship. Relia has the elements of a pharmaceutical development facility onboard, so they should be able to manufacture a vaccine if we can get more information. "Ashorn’s Hope, S-38989, Icsikt, and Bray Keaven will proceed to the planet and assist the nations that have the smaller outbreaks and are uninvolved in fighting King George’s Land. These nations have remained relatively neutral in the past, and are among the more Imperial–friendly nations on the planet. Actual assignments will follow once we complete negotiations. "All ships, as you complete inspections, proceed towards your stations. A medical report from the surviving medical staff of the Wall of Stone will follow. Good luck to us all. Seri’s Dagger out." With the last few words hanging in the air, Argent shakes his head, keys the internal comm, and comments: "Well, this ought to be fun."</blockquote>

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