Find them

[SeaFalcon]

Find them

Texas, Liberty Space

It had taken Inge a while before she had finally found her first lead, which was also the easiest one. A wraith had gone missing in one of the debris fields of Texas. It was reported to not have been destroyed but there were not any reports of a successful ejection either. By using the vessel ID it was possible to trace it down, even though the signal was faint and it needed quite some trips through the debris field before Inge managed to pick up the signal she had been looking for. In the Debris there was the wraith with scorch marks clearly visible as well as it missing one of the wings. The cockpit however seemed to be intact.

After maneuvering her ship closer and steadying it she would attempt a space walk, to see what she could find inside of the wraith. She geared up a moments later she flew through space, something that always made her nervous, as the only protection she had was her suit and a safety line that made sure she wouldn’t float away from her ship. She had to weld her way through the hull of the ship and got inside through the small hole which only lead to darkness as the ship systems were offline and no lights were working anymore. With a flashlight attached to her helmet she was able to illuminate the inside of the beaten Wraith and now that see could see the damage became clear and not just that.

She found evidence of a fire having filled the ship only briefly before it took out all the remaining oxygen as well as having caused one of the tanks to explode. But as she moved to the cockpit she noticed the ejection pod was never launched and when she came closer she eventually noticed a small black object floating just behind the pod’s door. She curiously moved closer to grab it but then noticed it was part of something much bigger. Her heart skipped a beat as she got startled after having lightly pulled the black object, it apparently having been the boot of the pilot, who was still floating in his ship. His body however was already far gone and spooked Inge only more, making her push herself back out of a reflex before she ended up with her helmet hitting the ceiling. She muttered some swear words before she could get a hold of herself. Feeling like she was about to throw up but she held it back, wanting to finish her job as she had to indentify the pilot as well as willing to take it with her to give this guy a proper resting place.

Doing some needed research on the ship as well as making the way clear to drag his body out she eventually managed to get him back into her ship. Laying on the bunk, her being glad the suit would keep the smells and anything else inside. She quickly closed her ship up and got out of the spacewalking suit, back into her normal flight gear. After having settled in the cockpit she guided her ship away before she’d fire at the wraith to turn it into proper dust, it to make sure the Liberty Forces wouldn’t make any use of it later.

With the body she eventually returned to base to have it dealt with further. The case for this pilot could now be closed and he would get his well deserved resting place. It however being up to the commander of this pilot to inform the family that their beloved was no longer missing but killing in action.

It all hadn’t moved Inge much, the only thing that had really bothered her was how the body looked when she found it. Besides that she considered it her job and she was even lucky that the first target was actually a dead body rather than a live one. As he was not a traitor to her Rheinland but instead had died a honorable death. Now it was up to her to go to the next on her list, having quite a few names she had to go through, although she decided to take the ones with actual usable leads first.