Chantal stormed through the halls of Martinique, everything suddenly in disarray. Tools, panels, and crates littered the hallways with Brigands running about in a panicked rush. She burst through the doors to her office, two of her guards and a Corse man waiting in front of her desk. Chantal sat down and faced the three. "Now tell me, what exactly did you see." She stared at the man, her gaze strong enough to kill an army. "Madame" The Corse man started, obviously not his first run in with the pirate. "There were more patrols around Nimes than normal." "And?" she cut in. "And" he continued "They were talking about getting the battleships ready. That something is in the nebula that needs to be eradicated." Chantal dropped her head. "Merde." One of the guards spoke up. "Madame, should we rally the bombers? It's a hard fight but we may be able to hold them off." Five second passed. Ten seconds passed. A minute passed before she spoke up. "No, the base is too weak at the moment. Even with the last of the extra hull getting put into place. We're moving." "Isn't it too early for that?" The Corse questioned. "Yes, but it's either that or lose it entirely. Ceser, thank you for your information. I'll call you once we're ready to go." "Of course Chantal, anything to help." The three left, Chantal booting up her comm terminal to send a message.
The last decoupler detached itself as the engines of three Rogue ships faded into the cloud. The robotic hardware they had dropped off was already put to use, finishing up the separation of the tree sections of the station. Command in the middle, living quarters on the left, and cargo bays on the right. The last few crew shortly undocked aboard their Courier, taking up formation with the idle Sunbeams. Chantal sat on the Trône, watching her men's ingenuity. "Everyone, get ready to leave. We need to secure the new location before the lifters get here. Once they and the Maquis arrive, we're moving." "Of course madame" the Courier responded. The patrol turned to leave, a few Jaguar pilots sitting behind to act as guards over the station. Despite Chantal's cool demeanor, inside she was panicking. Despite the rumors of increase navy presence, despite her assuring her men that this task can be done on short notice, despite her calling in reinforcements, there was something missing. They only had one lifter.
"I don't CARE. Just FIND SOME. Now get the FUCK TO WORK." Chantal's voice boomed through the GAT's cockpit before disconnecting. Chantal's personal guards, Cyrus and Liam, sat in silence. "How are we meant to find two lifters on such short notice." one spoke up. "Merde, how am I supposed to know Liam?" A few minutes passed before Cyrus started controlling the ship. "Lorraine. We check Lorraine."
The transport floated in the Toul nebula, shrouded in safety from any outside threats. "Are you sure about this?" Liam broke the silence. "The risk is pretty big, especially if the navy shows up." "Do you have a better idea? Either we risk the navy killing us or have Chantal do it for them. Now stop being a pussy and get your suit on. If there's more than one I'll keep the other pinned down." "Fine. Let's get this over with." Liam left the cockpit, closing the airlock behind him as he put on his space suit in the troop bay. Cyrus guided the ship out of the nebula, the Salins wreckage ahead of them. In the distance they could see 3 heavy lifters working on the destroyed station, no escort. As the GAT approached, the three pilots took notice. "Brigand incoming, we have to move. Go, back to Metz." It was too late, the GAT launched three cruise disruptors, two connecting the closest two ships and the third hitting a piece of scrap, letting the third escape. "Nobody FUCKING MOVE, try to run and I'm putting these guns straight through your front fucking windows." Cyrus commanded over comms. "Alright, alright, what do you want, money? No problem, insurance will cover whatever you want. Just let us leave." "No, we want your ships." Cyrus steered the GAT into position, the rear door facing one of the lifters. "Our ships? How do you expect us to give you these? We'll give you what they're worth, let's be reasonable here." Shut the fuck up! We'll take them by force then."
Cyrus lowered the rear door of the GAT, Liam standing in the opening, fully clad in a space suit and tethered to the ship. He pushed himself off, landing on the front windows of the nearest lifter. He placed an explosive on the window before launching himself back to the GAT. He set off the explosive, blowing a hole through the front windows of the ship. He flew back down, climbing through the hole and throwing the pilot's now lifeless body into the void of space. "Cyrus, I've got it. Things got a little banged up in here but it should still do the job. Grab the other one and let's go." Cyrus turned his attention back to the other ship. "You see that? Either listen or you're next. Easy way or hard way? Come with us or die." "Jesus christ, alright, we'll come with you. Just don't do...that." "Cyrus, let's go!" Liam yelled over comms. Scanners were showing a wing of navy fighters on their way in. "Fuck sake, let's go, you in the middle, Liam, you out front." Cyrus commanded. The three ships left for the Toul cloud, finding their way to Pelussin Base as the fighter wing lagged behind.
"Yea this is Remi, we got your message and are enroute now, bringing in the support you asked, be there shortly"
Balian keyed his comms and banked his Stellion and relayed new course to his squadron-mates: "Our friends need a hand, make for the coordinates I'm uploading now and keep an eye out for Royal dogs"
The fighter group made a quick crossing of Languedoc only interrupted once by finding an IDF Shipping heavy transport with a pair of escorts. He ordered them to sit tight and not do anything stupid but they didn't listen. His group dirupted the transport and vaporizied the two snubs before demanding the two terrified and confused freight pilots to make a audio recording declaring they believed as IDF employees that the Gallic Government was up to no good. Once going through their little charade, Balian ordered the pilots to board their escape pods and jettison them from the transport after filling all the Maquis snubs with some spare uniforms and cigars. After poking a few holes in the vessel ensuring its depressurization, the fighter group moved on to their destination, leaving the helpless saps to drift in their pods.
Docking upon Martinique, Balian ordered his pilots to refuel and refresh themselves and strode on to main office.
Seeing the young woman behind the desk nimbly sifting through a data tab, he reported, "The Front has arrived Modemoiselle, lets do this"
"Balian I presume? Let's get this going then." Chantal stood, leading the newcomer from the base's head office. The hallways were empty, only emergency systems running. As they came to the docking bay there sat a Cuirassier and Stellion waiting. They boarded their ships, with the station's systems shutting down as the bay doors closed behind them.
"Alright everyone, this is it. We're moving these pieces to their new home." Chantal looked around at the escorts of Brigand and Maquis fighters that gathered. Below Narbonne sat three heavy lifters, each carrying a section of the station. "Groups B and C, follow your paths and stay out of trouble. Go." Two of the lifters started to leave, taking different directions and each with an escort of 4. "Balain, you're with me, this one is going through the hot zone. We'll grab any attention from patrols, so be ready to fight. The other two should be in the clear. Cyrus, let's go." "Right, powering up." The last lifter attached itself to the section of base the two fighters left. After a few moments he took off in the direction of Cerbere, 5 fighters in tow. The flight was silent, every ship watching their scanners for patrols. It wasn't until they left the nebula and neared the Gap Debris Field did something appear. "We have them on sight, messieurs!" the comms rang out as a wing of Navy fighters came into sight. "Senor, I'm detecting hostiles." one of the Maquis rang out, shortly followed by another Maquis shouting "Royalist scum in sight! Prepare for battle!" "Escorts, break off and intercept. Protect the cargo at all costs." Chantal commanded as the fighters broke off of the lifter, it continuing its path.
Cyrus drifted through the asteroid field, looking for the dropoff point. The asteroids here were big, big enough to hide their new home, yet still made it hard for their own people to find it. After an hour of searching he rounded a group of rocks and found it, a cloud of ships at work. Cyrus powered towards it, the two lifters, 10 fighters, and 3 Corse Rock Badgers coming into clear sight. "Oi, I have the final piece here, are we ready to set up?"
"Messieurs, dames, here we are!", a loud voice announces on the radio.
"This is Principal Orsini, I am here to oversee my Rock Badgers' operations here." As he finished his sentence, Alfredo turns to his fellow pilots and started to organize the operations. The three Rock Badgers are to drill through the rocks and prepare for a joint installation.
"Thank god these Rock Badgers still works, after such a long time being stashed away in the Monte Carlo Freeport."
After wandering around and the Miners waiting in line, Alfredo, in his Mistral Noir, supported by one of his contact, Marc, an experienced miner, a veteran of this sort of operations.
"This rock should be fine." Marc said, "This rock is ideal, it matches all requirements given by your... amis."
"Ah! Indeed, I can already imagine the base here." Alfredo replied, smiling. "Alright, pilots! Rock number 823, about 2.3K from you, this is the one!" ordered Alfredo, and as soon as he did, the Rock Badgers quickly moved towards the asteroid.
A large cloud of dust and micrometeorites quickly filled their surroundings and blanketed the miners...
"Orsini, merci, your help will be remembered here." Cyrus watched as the Rock Badgers worked. A few hours passed as they dug into the rock before eventually backing out. "Cyrus, this is Ceser" One of the Corse ships rang out. "It looks like we're ready. The channels are made and the station should fit right in." Cyrus nodded. "Bien. Ceser, Les Facilitateurs have always done well by us. Chantal will be in contact with you about that." The lifter's engines powered up. "Alright men, this is it. It's time to plug in our new home."
The lifters approached the asteroid, now with three tunnels dug into it. Each ship lined up and placed their section of Martinique within the asteroid, the modules fitting snugly in their new home. As the lifters backed off, Couriers docked with each section filled with personnel and supplies.
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