LOCATION: GANOS

  SYSTEM: ROSS 128

  DATE: 2398

  Travers made his way down to the briefing room. He khey had a new tract already but not what it entailed. It wasn’t rare for the Hawks to have tracts close together, but it retty rare for them to get back-to-baes. That meant someone wahe best and had a ton of moo 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 o him. Travers was gd the Hawks treated everyone equally in the pany. He knew some other pahat tried to run them like dictatorships. It worked until your leadership was taken out, then they usually crumbled under a ck of dire.

  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 feren filled up quite fast, leaving all twelve chairs occupied. It was rare to have the entire pany assembled for one mission, now Travers khis uping op was a big one.

  “Thank you all for attending,” Baru spoke. “We have a bit of an iing ohis 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 p 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 entered a system or p so remote that nobody had bothered ging the stific designation to something more patable. He supposed he would find out where this pce was soon enough.

  Baru waited for the ughter to subside before tinuing. “Now for the bad news. This facility is fifteen square miles of tunnels, living areas, expariums, and this doesn’t even include the maintenand support areas.”

  A few people groa that. Travers wasn’t one of them. He knew based on the brief proje that the pce was huge. He didn’t think it was quite that rge, but he already k was going to be a pain in the ass to secure.

  “Please hold yrumbling until I get to the actual bad news,” Baru stated in his normally unfppable 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 .

  “Our theater of operations is outside of STO-trolled space.”

  Travers watched Captain Matthews’ expression but the man didn’t even flinch at this news. sidering 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 reize the man but his ag read ‘Jallen’. “Does that mean we should expect pirates?”

  “Unknown,” Baru replied. “The station has been dark since 2310. That brings us to the 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 t… has asked us to clear out any criminal elements, but not to eviyone 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 tinuing.

  This was going to be the most difficult op Travers had ever been a part of. Clearing out and seg 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 t has the money.”

  He really hoped this t realized the logistiightmare of keeping squatters around and ged his mira money was nice, but not if it meant they were stuck pying nice for the 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 everyoake it and rex. We are on a bit of a time ch at that point, so if as 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 pce outside of STO space, some of the leaders were asking about the use of restricted ons. Travers wao shake his head at that. Who needed a railgun or ser rifle for urban clearing and trol? At least they would have their bat rifles si wasn’t a space station and the air wasn’t immediately deadly.

  The rest of the meeti into logistid supply.

  ***

  The Taloed FTL at the edge of the system. Matthews watched his dispys as his crew went about their work quickly and effitly. If there was something he o know, they would tell him.

  “All clear, Sir,” the sensor operator responded a few mier.

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

  There was a rocky satellite that orbited one of the further-out gas giants. On this dead satellite rawling plex. 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 expeg. He respoo 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 thh. A few mier he got a response back.

  Good luck!

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

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

  “Sir, we have received the firmation code from a ship he Zephyr, flown by Captain Daniel.”

  Matthews nodded. “Send it to my terminal.”

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

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

  Greetings Talon,

  Thank you freeing 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 t wishes to speak with you over video once we are within proper unicatie. As the Captain of the Zephyr, I will be attending as well so we go over any operational information you might need us to follow. Once we are under your umbrel, we will ply with whatever orders you issue that do not pce my ship or crew in harm's way.

  Captain Daniel

  Well, at least Matthews khis Captain was petent. He lost t of how many arrogant captains he had been forced to work with over the years. W 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 pce.

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

  Captain Matthews

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

  ***

  A day ter the Zephyr had finally moved into videe. Matthews was gd 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 desigo tank shots as drop ships disged their troops in the middle of a battlefield. The Talon had cost the Hawks a siderable 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 unch dozens of shuttles filled with ground troops, there wasn’t much that liked to tah you. They may be outgunned by most STO navy ships past frigates but he would bet oalon against any pirate ship out there.

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

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

  What he saw shocked him, but Mattherincipled enough not to let it show. A rge robot sat crouched o 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 uo be anyone else. “I thought we were going to meet with Mr. Kane as well.”

  The robot moved, toug its arm to its chest. “Apologies, Captain. I am Mr. Kane. Or more aptly, this is the body I o use to unicate. I suffer from an incurable illhat requires my real body to remain in a medical capsule.”

  Matthews rolled with the ued situation. “I see. I apologize if I caused any offense.”

  “That is not necessary, Captain. This is one of the reasons I wao speak via video before we tinued. 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 ges you wish to make to our a pn?”

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

  Matthews he meeti over what to exped how to act if they got attacked en route. Daniel seemed petent and asked questions for crification if he didn’t uand something. All in all, the meeti well. Kane didn’t e across as some riob who wanted everything done his way, no matter how impossible it was. Maybe this op wouldn’t be so bad after all.