Where the bejesus is Demoses !

[Snozzz]

*In the conference hall at USI HQ planet side Manhattan a crowd of curious reporters are being ushered to their seats.*

'Please avail yourselves of the refreshments and take a seat ladies and gentlemen, we will begin shortly.'
*Said a man in a USI security uniform, on the giant media screen.*

*Two impressively dressed USI executives entered the conference room and take their places at the center of the large table on the podium.*

'Ahem, Hello Lady's and Gentlemen, my name is Denny Crane and I am the Legal representative of Universal Shipping Incorporated. Firstly may I wish you a warm welcome to our headquarters and thank you for your attendance.'
'The reason we called you all here is that we have some sad news to give you.'
*slight pause*
'I'm saddened to have to report that Eric Demoses has been abducted.'

*A brief hubbub of chatter among the members of the press*

'Please, please, there is no reason for any panic. I want you all to know that we have taken full control of the situation and there isn't a risk to anyones investments.'
'The gentleman next to me is Jack Hammerson, our new Chief Security Officer, he's going to explain the situation to you.'

'Thank you Mr. Crane. A couple of days ago our President Erik Demoses left Trenton Outpost for a meeting on Planet Curacao in the Cortes system.'
'According to Jeffrey Adams information it seems that the Lane Hackers managed to infiltrate the planet, during the period of the recent Ion storms, and kidnapped Demoses from his room there.'
'I'm afraid that Mr. Demoses has been taken aboard a Slave Liner that was standing by, not far out of scanner range.'

*Another more animated burst of noise from the crowd*

'In response to his disappearance Mr. Adams investigated his room at the resort. A beacon tracker was found there and that lead him to the Newcastle system.'
'Mr Crane and Mr Adams have subsequently investigated the Newcastle system and several surrounding ones. Unfortunately their search was unproductive.'

'Then how do you know about the Hackers and Slavers!?' *Called out a small anonymous looking man.*

'Please sir let me finish.'
*pauses for silence before proceeding*
'The next day there was a serious incident involving the Miami.'
'The Miami was proceeding through California on a course to the Magellan jump gate, whilst transferring a 'mixed' cargo to Leeds.'
'As the convoy passed through the Tahoe ice cloud they were ambushed by means of a disrupted trade lane.'
'In accordance with company procedure a distress signal was immediately sent and to which Mr.Adams responded with due haste.'
'On arrival at the scene he immediately realizes that the small support crew, who were at least twelve minutes behind him, would be insufficient to turn the tide.'
'He therefore issued the instruction for the crew of the convoy to abandon ship so he could tractor their escape pods to safety'
'Mr E.Mike the captain of the Miami evacuated his crew to Mr Adams ship and realized that it was likely that Mr Adams would probably be overwhelmed and his efforts may come to nothing.'
'He then undertook to engage and ram the gunboat leading the attack, giving Adams the vital moments he needed to make good an escape, he did eject moments before the impact but unfortunately did not survive.'
*he pauses respectfully while the news sinks in*
'The explosion that resulted from the impact destroyed several of the vessels present as the hold of the Miami was partly filled with nuclear mines.'
'As Mr Adams tractor'd in the final pod some of the wreckage was pulled in with it. This included components of a navigation system, a neural net transceiver, hull sections and several Hellfurry weapon systems.'
'Subsequent analysis of these have allowed us to recover the following information.'
'These were lane hackers and they were conducting a covert operation on Curacao on the day of Mr.Demoses abduction.'
'We did recover a few traces of DNA from some structural components. It was heavily damaged due to exposure to space conditions, but collective analysis techniques indicate a 80% certainty that it is that of Mr. Demoses.'
'As his body was not recovered from the scene of the attack and his USI body tag was not detected by Adams scanner we conclude he was transfered at an earlier point.'
'Tracing the ship backwards indicates they made contact with a Slaver just after leaving Curacao. And we believe that was the only oportunity for a transfer to have occurred.'
'The very limited information we were able to find indicated that the slaver was not about to leave Liberty.'
'At this point we can only speculate as to the whereabouts of Mr.Demoses, and if he is alive or not.'
'But it is our belief he was taken to Pennsylvania.'

*Hammerson takes a sip from his glass of water*

'After arriving back at Trenton Outpost all pilots were medically examined.'

*Hammerson picks up a report file and reads from it*

'Jeffrey Adams has been certified unfit for duty due to coordination problems caused by injuries received during the Miami incident.'
'The remaining nine crew members were slightly wounded but are still fit for duty.'

*Hammerson lays down the report file, and nods at Crane*

'Thank you Mr. Hammerson. For security reasons Micheal Trenton has been taken to a secured location.'
'As the legal representative of USI I will be his public presence and carry out his public duties.'
'Jeffrey Adams has been retired due to his injuries and will receive a hansom pension.'
'The funeral of Eddie Mike will take place in three days time and the handing over of the Miami to his son Eulogy Mike will take place in ten days time.'
'Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues.'
'While the loss of both Mr. Demoses and Mr Mike of the Miami has been a blow to USI it has in no way impeded our normal operation .'
'Thank you for your time.'

*The two men stand up and walk out of the conference room to the rising tumult of all the excited spectators transmitting their reports*

[Snozzz]

''Hello and welcome, please take your places so we can start. In a few minutes mister Jack Hammerson will do his announcement. There will not be time for any questions afterwards.''
A man said through the public address system while all the journalists entered the conference room. After a couple of minutes Chief Security Officer Jack Hammerson entered the conference room and took his place behind the microphone.
''Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming at this short notice.'' He said while doing his final preparations.
Jack Hammerson takes one last deep breath. ''Yesterday we were alerted by an alarm going off in docking bay five of Trenton Outpost. Upon arrival we discovered that mister John Portalen, who was a recruit in our department of security, struggling with mister Jeffrey Adams, our retired ex-Chief Security Officer. '
Jack Hammerson pauses to take a sip of his glass of water and then continues.
"The fact that mister Adams was so aware of the layout of Trenton Outpost gave him to realise that mister Portalen should not have been working in the area where he was found. So he confronted mister Portalen to assertain what he was doing. Mister Portalen tried to bluff his way out at first but soon realised he was not going to succeed and resorted to violence. Mister Adams soon got the better of him and fearing that he may have been planting a bomb, forced him to reveal his purpose. Upon arrival myself and several other security officers, immediately separated the two men and took them both to a different rooms for interrogation. It became clear that mister Portalen was tampering with the internal communications equipment of Trenton Outpost. Once we gained this information from mister Jeffrey Adams and confronted mister Portalen with it, he immediately confessed.''
Jack Hammerson takes another deep breath.
''We subsequently were informed that mister John Portalen was a member of the Hellfire Legion before he wiped his status clean and became a employee of Universal Shipping Incorporated. We have come to understand that the Phantom Empire were capable of manipulating mister Portalen. They managed to extricate mister Portalen from the Hellfire Legion and to force him to fulfill assignments they give to him. The first assignment they had given mister Portalen was to clear his records, join Universal Shipping Incorporated and find out the whereabouts of the then President, Mister Erik T. Demoses.''
Jack Hammerson pauses in respect for Erik T. Demoses.
''Once mister Portalen managed to obtain this valuable information he was forced to pass this information to the Lane Hackers, who not long after, kidnapped mister Demoses from his meeting on Planet Curacao. However it seemed that the Phantom Empire was not done using John Portalen, they gave him another assignment.''
Jack Hammerson takes another sip from his glass to clear his throat.
''This assignment was to place a device within the internal communications equipment of bay five on Trenton Outpost. This would grant the Phantom Empire the ability to track all traffic in the Manhattan orbit. However before John Portalen was capable of placing the device he got interrupted by Jeffrey Adams, to whom we are indebted.''



The huge screen behind Jack Hammerson is filled with an image of a man in a USI uniform,he is not restrained but two burley security gaurds stand behind and to the side of him.
''The man you see on the screen here is mister John Portalen, it's not a live feed. This is his confession.'' Hammerson said and pressed a button on a remote control
''M-my..'' John Portalen takes a deep breath. ''M-my name is J-john Portalen. I was being manipulated by the Phantom Empire, they had given me the first part of a two part poison. They insisted I hack my own ID, leave the Hellfire Legion and apply for a job at Universal Shipping Incorporated. John Portalen takes a moment to think what he's going to say next. ''I complied and did as I was told. Once I was inside Universal Shipping as a security officer I received my first assignment. I was told to find out the exact location of President Erik T. Demoses and pass the information to a contact in the Lane Hackers. I-I-I did what they demanded but they weren't satisfied and had me place that device in Trenton Outpost comms system. 'Till that Adams flew in it went well.. Damn him they will kill me now. The Bas"
At this point the image freezes and mister Hammerson swallows and then continues.
"Needless to say mister Portalen is no longer in our employment and will be helping the Liberty Security Force with their enquiries. Thank you for attending."
Jack Hammerson gathers his papers from the lecturn and exits with a nod, the screen cuts to show Portalens ID information and DNA profile neural net links.