The blue light that flooded the circular bridge of the Hyperion dissipated as the vessel left the hyperspace tunnel it had been travelling through for the past thirty seconds. Instead, the deck, the control terminals, and the people crewing the bridge took on a orange hue as the orange sun of the Dublin system blazed only a few clicks away.
Smoothly, the battleship evaded a cluster of rocks as it plowed through the asteroid field that enveloped the jumpholes to the New London and Leeds systems. A trio of light Bounty Hunter fighters screamed past the ship, bare meters seperating the nimble craft from the mighty warship's hull. The nine rapid-fire rotary cannons that dotted the vessel's surface immediately tracked the hostiles and turned them into vaporized gasses in a matter of seconds.
"The auto-tracking update seems to have been worth the resources," Captain Joseph Waters said to the two officers sitting by the array of weapon-control-systems on one side of the bridge.
"Aye, sir. Never seen fighters pop that fast," one of them replied with a grin. Waters patted him on the shoulder and walked off to the other side of the deck.
"Ell-Cee Higgins," he nodded to a woman who was kneeling beside an opened access panel to the wires laid into the walls.
"Sir," she saluted him briefly while getting up. She wiped her oil-stained hands on her uniform's trousers and walked up the the captain. He looked at the marks on the pants with dismay but decided not to reprimand his first mate. She wouldn't listen anyway.
"I want you to take Foxtrot Wing out for a reconnaissance run of the direct path between our current position and Arranmore Base," the captain said quietly, his deep voice becoming an even deeper rumble as he leaned towards her. "We wouldn't want the Armed Forces to knock on our hangar doors without us noticing their arrival."
[font=Book Antiqua][color=#000000]"Alright, Foxes, here we go!" Lieutenant Commander Higgins called into her helmet-mic as her Nephthys fighter 'fell' out of the Hyperion's hangar's airlock. Three other fighters of identical design followed. They formed up on either side of her, creating a V-shape with the point at the front of the formation.
"Foxtrot Wing, you're good to go. Safe flying," the Hyperion's flight chief said through a secure channel.
"Copy that," Higgins muttered as she punched the key for the cruise engine's activation. The four snubcrafts rocketed away from their mobile base.
"Keep us up to date," Waters said to the flight chief as he walked by the man's console.
"Yes, sir."
The Captain folded his hands at the small of his back and looked out of the large window that circled once around the bridge. Straight ahead, the red-purple engine trails of Foxtrot Wing faded into the distance. Unconsciously Waters started tapping his foot on the steel deck. It was a tick he had when he got nervous. And he had every reason to be. They may have been close to their destination, but they were also in the middle of Bretonian patrol paths. If only a single scouting fighter caught a glimpse of the Hyperion, the entire operation's cover would be blown and it would end in a disaster.
"Hyperion, Foxtrot One here. We caught a duo of Hunter fighters off guard here. Hammerhead class. Dispatched."
Higgin's voice had taken on a metallic tone as the Hyperion's sensor arrays struggled with reading the narrow-beam-transmission from that distance.
"Copy that, Foxtrot One," the flight chief replied. "Continue on your flight path."
"Understood."
At two hundred meters per second, Higgins' fighter blew through the cloud of debris that had only moments before been a pair of Hammerheads. Ahead, only fifty clicks away, the asteroid field that the Mollys had claimed for themselves came into sight.
"Almost there, Foxes!" The Lieutenant Commander called into her mic.
"Aye!"
"Copy that."
"'bout tahm."
Her wingmen took up positions on both of her fighter's flanks again and engaged their cruise engines.
"Let's make this quick, the Hyperion can't sit in the open for ever," she barked at them playfully.
For the nth time, Captain Waters wondered which jerk had the brilliant idea of creating an engine that expelled huge rings of energy twice a second and would linger in space for another four. The engine was big enough as it was, but that trail made the ship easily visible from a dozen clicks away. The Captain shook his head and returned to his position in the center of the bridge deck.
"Status?" He asked the navigational officer to his left.
"We are thirty clicks away from the Molly's asteroid field, moving at three-hundred-fifty meters per second," the young lieutenant replied immediately. Ahead, thousands of small, black spots became visible against the orange background of Dublin's space.
"Very good," the Captain said. "Keep us going."
The navigator nodded in response as he leaned over his console, concentrating on plotting a path through the treacherous field.
The four Nephthys' of Foxtrot Wing shot by the first of several thousand boulders that blindly tumbled through space.
Ahead, through a mist of rock, dust, and mines, Amanda Higgins spotted an exceptionally large asteroid, which her ship's on-board computer quickly identified as Arranmore Base, the Mollys' famous Dublin base.
"See it, guys?" Amanda spoke into her mic.
"That big one dead ahead? Uh huh."
"Which one?"
"That one."
"Oh. Yeah, I see it."
"Sa'e 'ere."
"Sir," the flight chief turned in his seat to face the Captain. "Foxtrot Wing reports visual contact with Arranmore Base."
A smile sneaked on Waters' face.
"Good. Tell them to initiate communications with them. We're almost there."
"Aye, sir."
The Hyperion raced into the asteroid field, setting off a number of mines that harmlessly sprayed explosions across the battleship's powerful shield.
[font=Agency FB][color=#FFFFFF]>> Five Uninteresting Days Later [color=#FFFFFF]<<
[color=#000000][font=Book Antiqua]The blue light that flooded the circular bridge dimmed as the Hyperion left the hyperspace tunnel it had been travelling through and entered the blue-ish Newcastle system. The Leeds jumpgate's automatic defense systems immediately tracked the battleship, lobbing salvo after salvo of pulse and laser fire at the vessel. To little effect. The Osiris-class craft's shields shrugged the bombardment off as if they were kamikaze Starfliers.
"Docking sequence initiated," the navigational officer announced. "Trade lane is ready."
"Proceed," Captain Waters replied.
Ahead of the Hyperion, the top four warp-generators heated up, then emitted a powerful beam of energy which created an entrance into the warped field that would carry the Hyperion through the system at immense speeds. The nose of the vessel edged through the circle of light, and a second later, the mighty ship shot off towards the Ark Royal supply station.
"Cut the lane at ten clicks to the Ark Royal," Waters said to the nav officer before moving on to the weapons consoles. "Status?"
One of the two officers operating the consoles turned around to face the Captain.
"Sir, the AS-33s are warm. The torpedo tubes are being loaded. And the Mortar is being charged. All weapons should be ready in another two minutes."
"Good," the Captain walked back to the front of the bridge and gazed out of the window. In the far distance, the Bretonian battleship Ark Royal came into visible range. A moment later, the Hyperion broke to the right, exiting the trade lane. The ship came to a stop.
"Scanners?"
"Nothing, sir."
"Alright, engage the cruise engines."
The deep rumbling of the ship's engines intensified for a moment before suddenly dropping down to a dull droning sound. The craft accelerated toward a blue ice cloud - a Barrier Nebula.
Amanda Higgins lay down onto one of the many bunk beds that filled the crew quarters. Drearily, she unzipped her uniform's top, opening it a bit to cool down.
From across the small room, a group of crewmen looked at her. One whistled teasingly.
"Shut it. I'm still wearing a t-shirt underneath," Amanda muttered. The crewmen shut up. Bloody halfwitted barbarians, the Lieutenant Commander thought to herself as she lay there, eyes shut. I just hope the Captain doesn't find what he's looking for. I want some damn rest.
She rolled onto her side and fell asleep, dreaming of crushing Nomad incubi with her steel-tipped boots.
![[Image: Osiris2.jpg]](http://images.wikia.com/freelancer/de/images/0/01/Osiris2.jpg)