Frontier 12 - Dynamic Shift
From the completely off-the-record and unofficial notes of Sergeant Arius Numitor
Bastion Eos, 8th of May 240
It is Friday night - new colonists will be arriving on Eos soon. Normally I would be near the gate with our welcoming folders, or prepping to give the orientation talk. However, that task now falls our diplomatic corps, who took it off my hands and are a lot better at it. So I have some time on my hands, and have volunteered for duty at Forward Operating Base 'Wyvern'. It is a quiet post, and I catch up on my paperwork. Quintus, Estel and Cassius join me. Faustus is already there, doing maintenance. We quickly establish a random patrol schedule and attend our various duties.
Then a sonic boom roars through the night, somewhere to the west. Grabbing primaries, we all move to defensive positions near the main door. But it is no attack. A trail of flames moves overhead. Quickly bringing our sensors to bear, my heart skips a beat. A Vespa-class shuttle. Is it our trusty Louisa? But the cockpit is wrong - it is bigger, bulbous, bigger viewing panes - the premium all-weather model. It looks like Louisa, but it is the Dabur A01, the Sona luxury variant. Unmarked and without IFF signal. Quintus in the meanwhile walks up to me with his thermal scanner - that shuttle is haemorrhaging heat from places where it should not have a heat signature at all. It is coming down, hard.
It crashes to the east of us, at grid coordinates L28-6. The CiC gets back to me after my urgent communication. I tell them I can launch a rescue op but will need some reinforcements. The FoB can also not remain behind undefended. Additionally, being a civilian unmarked shuttle we suspect Elysium Optimum smugglers - we grabbed a few of them just two weeks ago. I hear that Victus is among the reinforcements, and ask him to bring the 'boombag', our demolitions kit. If it is Elysium Optimum, we are destroying that toxic shit in-situ instead of taking it back. With reinforcements en route and Delta taking over garrison-duties Estel and I quickly sketch out a basic mission plan - rescue any survivors, recover any bodies, salvage what is possible. In case of contraband, log and destroy.
A sizable mission party arrives, mostly Legionairs. It also includes one of the new arrivals, Combat Engineer Flax of the Legio Rapax - she must have stepped on to the shuttle right out of the gate. I can appreciate that. We split in three teams - secure, medical and engineering. Marcas offers to assist in scouting, and I gladly take him up on that.
Dubbing the mission 'Dark Autumn', we move out. Octavia calls the mission 'Dark Otter'. Thus another mission name is born, and we laugh. Then we hit the Operational Area and put all levity aside. We form up in a basic three-part fighting formation, take the shuttle out as the range lasts and hoof it the rest to the crash site. As a crashed shuttle also signals 'free biomass' to the Creeptoids, we go Condition One, brass-check weapons and approach quietly.
The wreck is in poor condition, but the principal hull is intact. Probably salvageable materials inside, though the shuttle will never fly again. Then the bad news. Marcas is physically sick as he confirms it carries not the expected contraband, but the crystal fungus that plagues Dzar. Someone, in a deliberate act of bio-terrorism, brought the pernicious stuff to Eos. Marcas stays outside, and the rest of us moves in. No bodies, but we locate a lot of blood and their ID's - they are probably very dead. Shuttle parts are everywhere. Most of the storage containers are empty. Being able to teleport, the enemy has been here. They extracted the cargo, and left a fighting party.
As our perimeter team skirmishes, we quickly salvage what we can. Flax locates and grabs the flight data recorder. Quintus liberates salvageable components including two gyro-stabilized cup holders. I set a charge on the last bit of fungus and the empty crates. Having been briefed by Mano I use our Mk. XIII Redox-Thermite - ultra-high temperatures are the only way to end the stuff, and our military grade goes low-level plasmic at 6600 to 7000 degrees. Have not used it since last year, when we used it to kill a god. Good stuff that will do the job.
Once set, we withdraw, still skirmishing. I detonate the charge remotely before the timer runs down. With some luck a Creeptoid or two also bought it. We hoof it back home with our salvaged bits, flight recorder and recovered ID's. Except for a fair amount of shield and armor hits, we're all good. Marcas recovers, which is a good sign that we have not inadvertently taken the crystal stuff with us.
Back home Victus cracks the datarecorder and decrypts the cockpit video log. It shows two cultists, talking and bantering. The intel is very interesting and relevant, but I my first thought is how nice the cockpit layout is, and that I would love to have one of those. At moments such as these I feel my Venator training. Regardless it is a lot of bad news. I loop Pontifex Fabor and the other Prisci in, and watch the vidlog with them. I see their faces blanch, tighten and settle in grim determination. Best to debrief the Governor on this mission sooner rather then later. She'll have questions.
For now, however, my task is done.
"Sergeant, we detected odd activity at these grid coordinates, could you set up a scouting mission?” Medea steps in next to me, a clipboard in hand. She would not ask me if it was not important. I nod my acknowledgement, take the clipboard and set out to form a scout team. And thus ends my quiet night at the FoB...
Bastion Eos, 8th of May 240
It is Friday night - new colonists will be arriving on Eos soon. Normally I would be near the gate with our welcoming folders, or prepping to give the orientation talk. However, that task now falls our diplomatic corps, who took it off my hands and are a lot better at it. So I have some time on my hands, and have volunteered for duty at Forward Operating Base 'Wyvern'. It is a quiet post, and I catch up on my paperwork. Quintus, Estel and Cassius join me. Faustus is already there, doing maintenance. We quickly establish a random patrol schedule and attend our various duties.
Then a sonic boom roars through the night, somewhere to the west. Grabbing primaries, we all move to defensive positions near the main door. But it is no attack. A trail of flames moves overhead. Quickly bringing our sensors to bear, my heart skips a beat. A Vespa-class shuttle. Is it our trusty Louisa? But the cockpit is wrong - it is bigger, bulbous, bigger viewing panes - the premium all-weather model. It looks like Louisa, but it is the Dabur A01, the Sona luxury variant. Unmarked and without IFF signal. Quintus in the meanwhile walks up to me with his thermal scanner - that shuttle is haemorrhaging heat from places where it should not have a heat signature at all. It is coming down, hard.
It crashes to the east of us, at grid coordinates L28-6. The CiC gets back to me after my urgent communication. I tell them I can launch a rescue op but will need some reinforcements. The FoB can also not remain behind undefended. Additionally, being a civilian unmarked shuttle we suspect Elysium Optimum smugglers - we grabbed a few of them just two weeks ago. I hear that Victus is among the reinforcements, and ask him to bring the 'boombag', our demolitions kit. If it is Elysium Optimum, we are destroying that toxic shit in-situ instead of taking it back. With reinforcements en route and Delta taking over garrison-duties Estel and I quickly sketch out a basic mission plan - rescue any survivors, recover any bodies, salvage what is possible. In case of contraband, log and destroy.
A sizable mission party arrives, mostly Legionairs. It also includes one of the new arrivals, Combat Engineer Flax of the Legio Rapax - she must have stepped on to the shuttle right out of the gate. I can appreciate that. We split in three teams - secure, medical and engineering. Marcas offers to assist in scouting, and I gladly take him up on that.
Dubbing the mission 'Dark Autumn', we move out. Octavia calls the mission 'Dark Otter'. Thus another mission name is born, and we laugh. Then we hit the Operational Area and put all levity aside. We form up in a basic three-part fighting formation, take the shuttle out as the range lasts and hoof it the rest to the crash site. As a crashed shuttle also signals 'free biomass' to the Creeptoids, we go Condition One, brass-check weapons and approach quietly.
The wreck is in poor condition, but the principal hull is intact. Probably salvageable materials inside, though the shuttle will never fly again. Then the bad news. Marcas is physically sick as he confirms it carries not the expected contraband, but the crystal fungus that plagues Dzar. Someone, in a deliberate act of bio-terrorism, brought the pernicious stuff to Eos. Marcas stays outside, and the rest of us moves in. No bodies, but we locate a lot of blood and their ID's - they are probably very dead. Shuttle parts are everywhere. Most of the storage containers are empty. Being able to teleport, the enemy has been here. They extracted the cargo, and left a fighting party.
As our perimeter team skirmishes, we quickly salvage what we can. Flax locates and grabs the flight data recorder. Quintus liberates salvageable components including two gyro-stabilized cup holders. I set a charge on the last bit of fungus and the empty crates. Having been briefed by Mano I use our Mk. XIII Redox-Thermite - ultra-high temperatures are the only way to end the stuff, and our military grade goes low-level plasmic at 6600 to 7000 degrees. Have not used it since last year, when we used it to kill a god. Good stuff that will do the job.
Once set, we withdraw, still skirmishing. I detonate the charge remotely before the timer runs down. With some luck a Creeptoid or two also bought it. We hoof it back home with our salvaged bits, flight recorder and recovered ID's. Except for a fair amount of shield and armor hits, we're all good. Marcas recovers, which is a good sign that we have not inadvertently taken the crystal stuff with us.
Back home Victus cracks the datarecorder and decrypts the cockpit video log. It shows two cultists, talking and bantering. The intel is very interesting and relevant, but I my first thought is how nice the cockpit layout is, and that I would love to have one of those. At moments such as these I feel my Venator training. Regardless it is a lot of bad news. I loop Pontifex Fabor and the other Prisci in, and watch the vidlog with them. I see their faces blanch, tighten and settle in grim determination. Best to debrief the Governor on this mission sooner rather then later. She'll have questions.
For now, however, my task is done.
"Sergeant, we detected odd activity at these grid coordinates, could you set up a scouting mission?” Medea steps in next to me, a clipboard in hand. She would not ask me if it was not important. I nod my acknowledgement, take the clipboard and set out to form a scout team. And thus ends my quiet night at the FoB...