Rhodes Shipyards lay at the very edge of charted space in the Omicron 91 system. So far, there had been mixed reports of Nomadic alien activity in the bordering systems, but 91 seemed fairly benign. Even though Planet Lesbos and the surrounding nebulous fields held artifacts from an ancient and terrible power, the system had been dead for some time, until a Brotherhood expedition was sent in to explore and report. And that was many, -many- years ago.
The Cazadora, like many of the Brotherhood's capital-class ships, was in dry dock receiving a hull and software upgrade. The crew drank themselves to sleep in the bar and the ship was running on minimal power.
...
Perfect time for some eavesdropping.
A man, indistinguishable from any ordinary Corsair stroll through the station briskly, gaining speed as he reached his goal. Quickly, he ducked into a hall to avoid a staggering drunk, waiting until his cries died down to continue.
Finally he made it to the docking hatch of the Cazadora. Quickly and silently he entered a code that deactivated the security and allowed him access to the the ship. Again moving quickly and quietly around corners and up ladders, he reached the doors to the bridge of the monstrous ship. With the same indifference, he entered his code and the doors slid open allowing him access to the bridge.
The bridge of the Cazadora was stunning, even dark and dead as it was. The front and half the sides of the bridge had a large plasti-metal alloy window, allowing almost 180 degrees of observation of the battlefield. (With computer monitors that displayed the rear, those were blank now) The nebula itself outside was lit by Rhodes as small particulate matter bounced off the windows and shimmered as bits of copper and trace metals floated away.
The man was slightly taken aback, he had remembered commanding this vessel only once before. He remembered his peers scolding him on improper combat protocol that had almost cost them a battle above Crete. Since that time, he had a sour taste in his mouth for capital ships, preferring the isolation of a Titan or Praetorian.
In any case, he was on a mission. He drew his pistol and set it down on the console next to him, bringing up a boot-up screen and typing furiously. He stopped, frozen in the cold light of the monitor. Grabbing for his pistol and swiveling in his chair, he aimed it at the door where another stood in the portal.
"Damn it." The man said, putting the gun down.
"You really shouldn't sneak up on me like that, it's been a rough couple of months you know."
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
Stepping out of the dark, a cloaked man appeared and drew back his hood.
"If you don't like being snuck up on, you shouldn't stay away so long Juan. Or at least you should let us know when you get back Hermano."
The words seemed cold, until a slow smile began to cross the man's face. Stepping forward, Miguel Sephardi crossed the bridge, embracing his long lost friend.
"So, you seem to be healthy enough." Miguel said looking Lucend up and down. "Guess it couldn't have been that bad? So tell me it all, and you might want to put that pistol away, I can't imagine I was the only one to notice your old codes coming across the security terminal. Shouldn't be long until the others get here."
Before they could say another word, Miguel's radio wrist began to beep. He saw the symbol of The Brotherhood in the small, finger-size screen, and knew who it was before the man had a chance of introducing himself.
"I read you, Sky. Everything's under control; don't worry.", he said.
-"You sure? What caused the alarm? Rats again?", he replied.
-"Yeah, quite a big rat this time, and we haven't seen him for some time now, have we Juan?", Sephardi added.
Lucendez laughed out loud and lifted up his voice to talk to his old brother.
"Wepa, que pasa hermano? Still alive, eh?"
-"Surprised, huh? It's been a while since we've heard your voice. Where have you been?"
-"There was a handful of things I had to do before anything. Every day it just seems harder and harder to keep up with the present, but that's what were here for, right? Besides, it's not like you guys really need a weapons expert to shot down a few fighters, right?"
-"Ha. Are you kidding? I don't even remember what you did to Montoya's old Titan, but it's nearly twice as effective as mine, and the powerplant almost matches the old Lunchbox's. We'll need to have a talk about those power settings later, what do you say if we invited you for a drink back at Alonso's?
-"Sounds perfect, brother. We've got a lot of catching up to do. I haven't seen the others yet, but I look forward to it unless you turn the Lounge into a bachelor's party like you did when I was back from vacation last year."
-"Nah, don't worry. It'll be over before you know it."
With this said, Skyelius turned to his wingmen. "It's allright, amigos. Just an old friend making an appearance. Let's escort the ship back, shall we?" The Titan wing then flew by close to the bridge, while Miguel and Juan Lucendez started to power up the engines. The loud rumbles then turned into a slight, calm humming sound, and Lucendez looking at Miguel as the ship began to power up.
"It is a cold universe until you know God as your Father, and then it becomes a home. Even the next life simply becomes the Father's house, home."
—David Pawson
"How many people know Miguel? Listen we have to keep this under wraps. "
Sephardi looked hurt and was about to say something when Juan cut him off.
"I know how it sounds, but the Elders and higher-ups are gonna have to keep my return a secret. I didn't come here for a vacation."
Juan sat back down in his chair, and pulled up data on the screen, pointing at three different fields.
"There, there and there. I've been to Omicron Delta three times in the last week." Juan said, looking confident.
Miguel looked suspicious and confused. The fact that Juan was in Delta three times in the last week wasn't too surprising.
"Don't you see why theses are suspicious? I haven't been to Delta in over two months. In fact, I haven't been in the Sirius that I've known for several months. This is bad ... very very bad. "
Lucendez thought for a moment.
"We need to gather the Brotherhood again. I need to explain myself, and this danger. Miguel, can you help me get everyone together?"
Before Sephardi could answer, the ship under them lurched forward as the fusion engines sparked to life. Vital systems started coming to life, as the bridge then brightened up.
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
Miguel thought about what his Hermano was saying, and the tone in Juan's voice, he couldn't tell if it was fear or desperation, but he had never known his old friend to have either of those tones in his voice. Sephardi knew something must be very wrong.
"We can keep this secret enough." he said as he walked over to a terminal and began punching the keys. After about 3 minutes later, he looked up, "Done and done, simple enough to replace your codes in the file for mine, only those of us who keep a close watch will know anything odd has happened. I would assume a few know. I would expect Valentine, Montoya, and Yanez would have picked up on it quick enough, and Sky seems to know already, of course the rest of the Elders, and we know on that list there is not a single person we cannot trust to keep their mouths shut."
Miguel thought back to the Council meeting he had left just before coming to see what was going on here. The Brotherhood has walked out of the Council. The act weighted heavy on Miguel's mind, even with the return of one of his closest friends among the Brotherhood. The Council had become wracked with indecision, no one would vote, no one wanted to do more than talk about the problems facing their people. Miguel was tired of the talking, he was tired of taking a back seat to bickering and arguing. He was ready for action, he was ready to feel the hot rush of adrenaline, that came with a good fight. He was ready to feel like a Corsair again.
"Juan, Hermano, you really want to keep this a secret, I have just the way. We are going to head to a place no one would think to look for us. I will message those who should be with us. Enough men to man this beast of a ship, I figure eight of us should be enough. You and I, Montoya, Yanez, Valentine, Sky, Brother Banderas, and a new man we have, might be quite useful to us, and he knows how to keep his mouth shut, Marcus Vacarrio. With that crew we can get to a destination of secrecy, the others we will need can meet us there."
Miguel didn't wait for Juan's reply, as he walked over to the comms terminal, he typed in the list of names and a simple message "Cazadora, Now. Quick and quiet..not a word to anyone."
Miguel then went to the Nav control station and started punching in coordinates Juan was not familiar of, on the screen on word appeared, "Mindelo." Miguel looked back at his old friend. "Forget how this goes Juan? Get over to the engine control station, start the pre-flight checklist. The others will be here soon enough, might as well get started while we wait.
Juan Montoya was sleeping soundly in his quarters on Cadiz. The room he had to himself was well kept but small, since many soldiers were deployed all year round to hold off the Hessian threat. Even more so, now that the Wilde had stepped up their operations in the system. Intelligence had suggested that the Hessians were on the defensive due to the Wilde... of course, he knew that the Corsairs were doing no better.
*beep beep*
"... damn... wilde..."
*beep beep*
"... beeping ... wilde..."
*BEEP BEEP*
"..Uh... er.. eh...?"
Juan awoke, rubbing his eyes as he squinted in search of his beeping communications device. Feeling around the small table next to his bed, he knocked various things on to the floor. Pens, an empty glass (which thankfully didn't break) and his wallet. Eventually he found his communications device, and read the note sent by Miguel.
Not quite grasping the message, he read it again.
"What are you up to, Miguel...?"
Juan slowly, painstakingly, lazily crawled out of bed and put on his flight gear. Whilst doing so, he checked the current location of the Cazadora.
"Omicron 91, eh? Then something must be happening" Juan mused to himself.
Silently making his way to his Titan, Juan talked to no one with more than a cursory greeting. The message said that no one should know, and he was going to stick with it to the best of his ability. Jumping into his Titan, he fired up the engines and made his way to undock...
Vincent was sitting in his usual dark corner of the Bar, engaged in a fierce dogfight with a bottle of rum. Two ladies were with him, trying hard to get his attention, and keeping it on them rather than the rum. Suffice to say, the rum did come out victories. As the night progressed into a dulling of the senses, Valentine started making his way home. With the two ladies, one on each side, he swaggered through the streets. With dogs barking in the background, and the giggling of the two lasses, a shrill sound shot through the night.
*Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep*
Vincent Stopped and leaned against the wall. He opened his wrist comms with difficulty and saw the message was straight from the top. Elder Sephardi.
*Cazadora, Now. Quick and quiet, not a word to anyone*
"Well you two lovelies, seems I have to dissapoint you" he said while standing upright again. "Surely we can pick this up another time" He said as he kissed both girls on their hands. He gestured them to go and with complaints and moans they finnally went off into the other direction.
"Right then, this must be urgent" he said to himself as he made his way to the docking bays. "Better not I contact Michael now..not in the state Im in" he said to himself laughing.
As he entered the Brotherhood Hanger two of the Engineers, just as drunk stood up rather shockingly to see the centurion at this hour. "Centurion Valentine, Can we help ya Senor?" the one managed to say.
"Aye amigo,get me into my Titan, and open them doors..or leave em shut..my sallies can do the trick..what ye think" He said laughing while climbing up to his titan..His words werent cold as the one Engineer scolded to the obviously new young engineer that just stood and laughed at Valentines remark. "Go puta, open those doors, do you think he is joking. 3 times we have had to replace these hanger doors. GO!!" The young engineerd almost stumbling over his feet made for the Bay controls, and released the bay doors.
"Aye then, lets get to the Cazadora then" Valentine said to himself as he blasted into cruise from inside the Docking Bay. Boxes and equipment were blown awild as his cruise engines propelled the Titan into cruise speed. The whole building rumbled as the Titan cleared the docking bay and disappeared into the night sky.
Picking himself up from the ground, dazed and with dephning ears the older Engineer proceeded to help the young one up. "And that amigo, is Centurion Valentine." He said shaking his head and looking at the mess the Titan left in the docking bay.
Elder Gonzales was at Skiros in the dry dock, with a small engineer team working on some damage that affected the Apocalypso after a recent engagement with a Bounty Hunter patrol. When his COM device started to beep.
It read a message from Miguel, "Cazadora, Now. Quick and quiet..not a word to anyone."
"What this be about?" Thinking to himself, "Must be important"
"Get Apocalypso ready amigos, I expect it able to fly by the end of this weekend" Gonzales orders toward the engineer team pointing at the Gunboat.
Gonzales looking for the closest ship he found a Correo freighter in the adjacent hanger left alone. Gonzales walking toward the freighter shuts the blast doors and walks up the ramp toward the front of the craft. 3 Seats all empty he smiles and sits down. As the Correo comes to life he checks the message again seeing the origin of it.
"Rhodes Shipyards?" he asks himself all alone in the cabin. "Guess thats where I'm going then"
Gonzales hits the console as the doors open, the Correo lifts from the hanger floor, and as the three engines sparkle red, the ship is on its way, to Omicron 91.
"I wonder what this is all about" Gonzales thinks to himself as he passes by the Red Drawf sun of Omicron Gamma.