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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 2363742" data-attributes="member: 515">Chapter VII Date: 210-993Location: Kerin's Tyr, Linkworlds Cluster, Ley Sector Without much fanfare, but with some tension, the Bray Keaven emerges from jump space at 0015 hours Standard Imperial Time. The F class star that Kerin's Tyr orbits glows faintly 35 degrees up and 15 degrees to starboard off the bow of the ship. Kerin's Tyr lies directly ahead, 800,000 km away. Almost immediately upon emergence Vasilii, monitoring communications, receives a broadcast transmission on the emergency band, audio only. " — hit. Please help us! Message Repeats. Signal GK, Blue Donovan declaring Signal GK. We’re being boarded! Oh St. Elvis, they’re com— " The transmission ends abruptly. At the same time Martha, on sensors, receives a transponder squawk indicating a ship called Blue Donovan, a 200 dTon far trader registered out of Sentry, is about 60,000 km away. Her plot indicates the ship is also about 800,000 km from Kerin’s Tyr (about 100 planetary diameters). -----"The fun starts already," Swann says to himself as he starts to adjust his targeting sensors to pick up the ships. -----Checking her sensors, Martha does detect what appears to be a single, 600-dTon blip at the location indicated by the transponder squawk of the Blue Donovan. Trying to refine the picture further, Martha continues scanning. She manages to get a picture which looks rather like a standard far trader docked with a 400 dTon, winged ship of some sort. There is no transponder squawk from the 400-dTon ship. -----"Can you get any idea of their velocity relative to us, Miss Smythe?" Vasilii asks over the comm, figuring that if both parties were stopped for jump entry/emergence then it might actually be possible for the Bray Keaven to match. He mutters to nobody in particular. "A four hundred dee–tonner engaged in piracy, that might be too big for us to chew. Six hundred, if the victim’s a put–up job." Then he continues in a more professional tone. "I’ll relay to the planet, in case there’s Navy listening, but we may be just too far out." "Thank you, Mr. Kugiikishshi," Kevon replies to Vasilii’s initiative. "Mr. Vargas, can you get us close enough to do some detailed scans? I don’t want to present an easy target to their long guns, but we should at least give some data to the local Navy if we can. We run at the first sign that they’re interested." "Understand Captain, maneuvering for best scan and minimum target presentation," Vargas says. "I hope we don’t have any other surprises waiting out there." Vargas proceeds to maneuver the ship presenting the smallest possible target and the minimum possible electronic signature — a bow–on approach. -----Swann says over the comm: "Martha, since they probably know we’re here already, give ’em a hot ping." -----"I wonder if the package we have on board could have anything to do with this, and that ship is a corsair?" Vargas queries verbally to himself. -----Martha mutters under her breath as she works away. "Damn, did these guys discover FLT radio, or what?" -----"Ms. Smythe," Kevon says through the comm system. "Get me as detailed a scan as you can. Turrets, power up and stand by. I’m hoping we won’t need you, but I’m sure that 400-tonner already knows we’re here." -----"On it, Chief. One sec . . . " -----Vasilii creates the following message: "Far trader Bray Keaven to Kerin’s Tyr authorities. Other vessels please relay. We have received a Signal GK from far trader Blue Donovan which reports hostile boarding attack from another ship. We have Blue Donovan on sensors and she appears docked with a winged vessel of 400 displacement tons, which is not using its transponder. Coordinates and vectors follow." He sends it, loops it, does his best to boost it on the off chance, and tells Martha about it since she’s much better at comms than him and she might be able to do more. -----"After Tactical, you’re next in line," Martha replies, swearing softly by Elvis’ Blue Suede Shoes as she works her electronic magic. -----Vasilii goes back to monitoring comms while attempting to boost the signal for his message as much as he can on the new communications system. A few minutes later, he is apparently successful because he receives a partial reply. The image is sketchy and broken, but a female human in a light blue uniform replies (broken by static), "Under—, Bray Keashen. Hue Mer— Boats Botswann and Kaf— will respond. — lend assistance if — can. ETA — ." -----Vargas turns the Bray Keaven so that the ship is bow–on to the pair of ships 60,000 km away. -----Swann and Aidan power up their turrets and start to acquire the two ships on their sensors. -----Saro and Ian hang out in the improvised sickbay and the lounge (respectively) while monitoring the situation. Saro rolls his eyes, grits his teeth and begins to sing his shanty again in a slightly louder, slightly forced–cheery voice. He does keep his comm open to receive updates on the situation as he dutifully pretends that everything is fine . . . perfectly normal . . . no need to be alarmed at all . . . not a bit. -----Martha goes to active scanner to find more information about the 400-dTon ship. Unfortunately, in her rush to find out more information, her attempts at more detailed scanning seem to be easily defeated by jamming which is now emanating from the 400-dTon ship. She does manage to get an improved image of the ship at least and spots what she suspects are four turrets: port, starboard, and two dorsal. The ship looks streamlined and appears to have large doors forward on the lower level (of two). -----Just as Martha is about to get the computer to search the limited ship–configuration database in the ship’s computer, Vasilii receives a broadcast transmission from the Blue Donovan, audio only, spoken in a calm male voice: "Blue Donovan to all ships. We are canceling the Signal GK. We have fought off the pirates and are returning to Kerin’s Tyr immediately. Blue Donovan out. Message repeats." The message seems to repeat every minute or so. Turning back to her scanner display, Martha sees the two ships separate (a minute or so after the Bray Keaven hears the "cancel GK" message). The Blue Donovan rotates and lights her maneuver drives at 2G headed for Kerin’s Tyr. The 400-dTon, winged ship also rotates. After a few minutes, the 400-dTon, winged ship jumps out–system. Martha insures that all sensor data is being recorded, in case the Blue Donovan (or the authorities) requires outside, unbiased confirmation of events. -----"Anyone get a match on that ship?" Aidan asks. He checks his own memory for recollection of that model from the limited bit he was able to see. "And does anyone believe that message? Personally that’s just a slight bit suspicious. Of course, being the knight-errant may not be the best thing, but I am rather curious. "Hmm, it’d be a good idea to look up the Blue Donovan, too." -----Martha renews her efforts to identify the class of vessel of the 400-dTon "corsair." -----Swann says, "I think we should follow the Blue Donovan in, at a safe distance. Hopefully, the authorities will stop it and check it out anyway." -----"Agreed. I think it’s passing strange that the Signal GK stopped a minute or so before the ships separated. Doubt I’d have that much time in repelling boarders to make a message sound that calm, were it me," Martha offers. -----Swann comms Martha: "Can you save your scanner info on that 400–dTon ship? Just in case we encounter it again." -----"Doing so, now. Also running a comparison against known ship profiles, in the hopes of identifying the ship’s class of design." -----Swann also searches his memory for any recollection of a ship that matches the profile of the 400-dTon vessel. -----When he receives the message canceling the Signal GK, Vasilii gives the comms suite an evil look. "And if you believe that . . . " he mutters. He aims another message in-system. "Bray Keaven to Kerin’s Tyr authorities and relays. Blue Donovan has cancelled Signal GK. She reports repelling borders and is proceeding in–system. The other vessel has gone into jump." Again he loops it and tries to boost it, and tells Martha about it for when things slow down in case she can do a better job. -----"Once I’m done here, I’ll amp it and cycle it for you," Martha replies, her hands flying over the computer’s controls. -----Vasilii sits back, looks vaguely around at the other people on the bridge. "Well, you don’t see that every day. I wonder if we just saw a ‘small package hand-over’ and got their standard ruse to drive off onlookers? "We’d better watch out for Blue Donovan’s crew in port. Watch our backs, that is. "I suppose we could transit over to their rendezvous point and see if there are any small packages just drifting in space. Or we could mind our own business. Planetwards. At 2g." Vargas turns to the captain and states simply, "Either that man is completely without feelings or that little show was a complete ruse. I seem to remember after our little problem at the last port of call, it took quite a while for the nerves to calm down. This voice has a complete calmness about it. I do not trust it at all. I agree we need to watch our backs." Vargas goes into contemplation for a few moments. He then states, "That ship design reminds me of several corsair ships that I saw in my service in the Vargr Extents. I wonder if that other ship was mistaken for us and the raid was intended for this ship?" -----Martha, in engineering, grimaces at Vargas’ speculations, considering the Bray Keaven’s recent track record. It didn’t make sense to her, unless somehow the raiders were psychic or something. That the crew had encountered psionic raiders before gave some uncomfortable weight to Vargas’ words. -----Vargas then asks, "What are your orders, captain?" "Ms. Smythe, keep your scans on the Donovan. The first thing we need to know is her acceleration rating and armament," Kevon orders. "Record everything you scan. We’re turning it all over to the local authorities as soon as we’re within comms range. "Mr. Vargas, keep us on the edge of sensor range. Be as ‘casual’ as you can." "Roger, captain, I will remain on the edge and fly as though we are not alarmed," Vargas says. He then contacts Martha. "Can the sensors reliably detect a ship that is laying in wait in a powered–down state? I just don’t buy that last transmission from that freighter. That voice is too calm and the message just keeps repeating. I may be called paranoid, but I can not help feeling there is more to this than meets the scanner." Vargas continues to shadow the Blue Donovan as though the Bray Keaven was following a planetary approach, keeping proper traffic spacing. -----Martha continues her attempt to determine the vessel’s design class from the ship’s library files. On the flight in, she continues to man the sensor array, making sure that this isn’t the only pirate in this space. -----As the Bray Keaven follows the Blue Donovan towards Kerin’s Tyr, Swann thinks about what the crew just witnessed. "What was going on back there?" he wonders. "Maybe the mystery ship was a corsair vessel, and it took over the Blue Donovan with the help of some of the crew members. They killed or captured the crewmembers not in on the scheme, then replaced them with part of the boarding party from the corsair ship. Now they are returning to port to allay suspicion. "Or maybe it has to do with what that crazy Scout mentioned back on Fonnein, the one who arranged the frozen cattle shipment. He mentioned he was being called back to active duty to help track down some SolSec deep strike teams. Maybe it was a deep strike team that docked with the Blue Donovan. They are going to take over merchant ships and use them as raiders. It would make a good cover. Almost like a Q-ship; the victims wouldn’t suspect until the merchant turned on them." Over the comm, Swann asks Martha: "What sort of weapons does the Blue Donovan have? Can you tell from your scans?" -----Swann tries to remember what ships he has seen before that might be the same class as the mystery 400 dTon ship based on the sensor image that Martha was able to acquire. His initial thought is the ship was one of the standard winged subsidized merchant designs, but most subsidized merchants only carry two turrets. -----Aidan has better luck. He recalls one of his cousins talking about some sort of upgunned/upgraded version of the subsidized merchant designed for use off the mains near the border of Imperial space that she was working on — which was a copy of some custom design. The conversation was a number of years ago, though, and he can't remember the class designation. -----Martha searches the limited ship–configuration library in order to try and match the profile. She gets a number of possible hits including several different variations on the ubiquitous subsidized merchant and a "frontier merchant" manufactured by Argentii, ILC. The Aswan–class frontier merchant is the closest match in terms of apparent turret placement. Listed stats are 2G/2J, four turrets, 100 dTons of cargo. -----Vasilii gets no response to his new message. -----After completing her search (and reporting the findings to the crew), Martha tries to boost the comm strength in order to get Vasilii’s message out. The new system works wonderfully for her, and she manages to reach the Hue Mercenary Boat Botswann and relays the message. The sandy–haired Hue Mercenary officer replies, "That is a little odd. We’ll continue our intercept, but we’ll probably send the Kaferian back. "Please relay this message to the Blue Donovan: ‘Blue Donovan, Hue Mercenary Boat Botswann, under contract to SPA Warne High Port. Please plan for a zero speed inspection at coordinates 1382.33 by 2832.5762 by 18101.2749. We have medical staff onboard if you have casualties.’ "Bray Keaven, thank you for your assistance. Please continue to monitor and relay messages if possible. Botswann out." "Roger that, Botswann," Martha replies as she cycles the message back out, focused on the Blue Donovan. -----The rendezvous coordinates would place the Blue Donovan and the Botswann 20 planetary diameters, or 160,000 km, from Kerin’s Tyr. -----Martha relays the message to the Blue Donovan, but receives no response other than the repeated "cancel Signal GK" message. "Ain’t nuttin’ but a Hound Dog," Martha mutters a hymnal verse under her breath as she continues her work. More openly, the engineer notifies the others of the lack of response from the Blue Donovan. -----Vargas pivots the Bray Keaven towards Kerin’s Tyr and proceeds to follow the Blue Donovan in–system at a discrete distance just within nominal sensor range. -----While following the Blue Donovan in, Martha scans it. The ship doesn’t appear to have suffered any external damage and is maintaining a steady 2G acceleration. The Blue Donovan appears to have two dual turrets, probably a laser and sand caster in each. -----The repeated "cancel Signal GK" comm message from the Blue Donovan continues to be repeated every minute for an hour, and then the message changes to, audio only in the same calm male voice, "Blue Donovan to Warne High Port approach control. We were attacked by pirates, and we have suffered some communications damage and casualties. Proceeding at best speed to Warne High Port. Message repeats every 5 minutes." The new message does repeat every 5 minutes. In order to make the designated inspection point, the Blue Donovan would have to flip over and start decelerating around 480,000 km from Kerin’s Tyr (or 60 planetary diameters). She doesn’t do so, but continues accelerating. At 400,000 km from Kerin’s Tyr — where she would normally flip in order to start decelerating to arrive at zero relative speed to Kerin’s Tyr — the Blue Donovan continues accelerating. -----"Where the Sam Hill is she going?" Aidan asks. "Can someone plot the course she’s tracking?" -----"Better not be aimed directly at the planet," Vasilii muses. -----As the Bray Keaven follows the Blue Donovan in, Swann observes the craft’s sensor signal and listens to the comm traffic with keen interest. When the Blue Donovan changes its message, he becomes puzzled, with a pilot’s light of anxiety igniting in the pit of his stomach. That small flicker bursts into a full-blown sense of dread when the Blue Donovan does not start the expected de-acceleration. Then the flame grows into horror as he suspects what is happening. "Oh frell!" he thinks. "What are those madmen doing?" For several seconds, Swann is stunned into inaction. The blood drains from his face and his eyes grow wide, although he is not aware of it. Coming back to his senses, he reaches for the comm switch. He tries to speak, but realizes his throat has gone dry and he can barely manage a hoarse croak. He quickly takes a sip of water from his vacc suit and tries again. "Martha, radio the Botswann and warn them! I think they mean to crash the Blue Donovan into the high port! Kevon, Vargas — can we get close enough to stop them?" </blockquote>

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