Whispers of Danger

::the Ptolemaios would come to a halt at the edge of the asteroid field and the ships comms would call everyone to the a conference room off the bridge with a large monitor and an astrometrics projection in the center of a large table, Captain Erde would have everyone sit and he'd call up a holographic 4d image of the field from scans and would play the message:: We've just about reached the termination point, its inside of that field. It is obvious that someone was or is under attack by something. Does anyone know anything with the tag "Echo Legionaires"?

One of the Deyshians pulled up his DataPad and started typing in information as he listened to the transmission. Another one was studying the astrometrics projection, taking notes on the stats and distances, and began working out some calculations.

"I'm running a search on 'Echo Legionnaires' across Crest's military references database," said the first Deyshian. "The only solid result is Echo Company, Novalysian military special assignment reserve unit."

:: Captain Erde nodded:: I'll have the Comms officer send a message to Thorne at Novalyse command with the cleaned up message see what he can tell us or what files he can send :: comms officer does so:: But now we have some decisions. We have weapons and shielding, the Ptolemaios may be a exploration ship but it is designed to survive combat if needed. but the asteroid field is a great place for pirates to ambush unwitting ships. Suggestions?

Denaeya nodded, understanding the situation and offering her own suggestion. "Our protocol is to hold position and request military patrol reinforcements as soon as possible. But, we're also equipped to deploy two unmanned, unmarked scout drones - they can go ahead and check for any ship signals. If there are hostiles, they'll likely detect them, or get shot down trying. We'll at least know whether it's safe to wait here or if we should withdraw. If we're very lucky, they might be able to bounce a better signal of that transmission to us in the meantime."

Thorne was sifting through reports from ground troops in Kytreon when the message came through the neuro-com.

"Sir," a female voice said. "The response team sent to investigate that strange signal has requested files pertaining to Echo Company assignments and troop coordinates. What would you have done sir?"

What could they possibly need that kind of information for, he questioned as he left his hand hovering over the papers strung across his desk in several incoherent piles.

"Have they sent word as to why this information is pertinent to their current investigation," he asked over the com transmission, without speaking a word.

"Yes sir, they sent a cleaned up script of the distress call stating that whatever is in trouble was under fire by "Echo Legionnaires." "

"What? I have no men stationed anywhere outside the borders of the Khrysis system... Send word that Novalyse has sent no one outside the borders of Crest. The last thing we need is to somehow get blamed for whatever is happening on the outskirts of the Sector."

Ashe Lawson followed her instruction immediately in informing the Cascadian response team that Echo Company has no units on assignment outside of the Khrysis system and is willing to cooperate with the Captain in order to get to the bottom of this misunderstanding.

:: the Ptolemaios would respond:: " thank you for the response, we will keep you informed with any new information we have"

Captain Erde " The ship is plenty capable of handling a fight depending on the size of the pirates. why don"t you get those drones deployed, and we'll see what they can find. Everyone else i want you to prep all craft to be ready to launch a rescue operation. hopefuly the scout drones can either find something or atleast bounce back a better signal.

"Done," Denaeya answered and then nodded to one of her teammates, who typed off a swift message on his DataPad to someone else on the Deyshian ship.

Within about half an hour, the drones would be launched and starting to extend the range of the ships' sensors. Now it was a waiting game to see how far out they would get before bouncing back any useful data about any nearby ships, asteroids, or anomalies.

The securion operatives all moved to their ship, though it was a transport vessel and small, it had two gunner positions, so if there was fighting they could help.

The Zeonites prepped their fighters, this was what they were best at and hopefully they could show their stuff to their new neighbors.

Captain Erde to over ship comms " Make the Ptolemaios ready for Defensive operation and rescue operations. Yellow alert status, and all hands at ready stations, comms and Sensor stations at full readiness."

(Deysha-II)

The Deyshian ships, being strictly civilian, were not equipped with any weapons. The personnel cruisers had light shields and the med-ship had a heavier shield, in addition to a reinforced, lightly-armored hull. They would be effectively worthless as anything but utility for communication or logistics if it came to an aerial firefight, but they did have several civilian security guards on-board who might be useful in a closer altercation.

"We're getting an update from our nav officer," Denaeya reported...

Erde- Go ahead and patch it through

Denaeya brought in the officer's feed onto the video screen. A studious Deyshian man was examining a radar imaging program from the inside of one of their shuttles. There was some radio chatter from the other crew as they worked in the background.

"Copy, this is Nav Alpha reporting. First map scans of the upcoming obstructions are in. Their pings aren't consistent with any asteroid densities." The officer paused for a moment and tapped at some keys. "They're too far for an accurate full-trace, but so far they're reading more like clusters of non-naturally occurring metal alloy. No map records found. Further scans are processing. Still on calculated course and proceeding. Over."

Captain Erde-" Proceed with extreme caution and do not get too far out of range of the Ptolemaios, I'm going to go ahead and have the secuiron and Zeon people scramble so they can respond if there is an attack"

" securion Vessel and Zeon fighters, you are cleared to launch and maintain a defensive stance for the Ptolemaios and the Deyshian shuttle craft."

" Comms officer please send a high density signal back to CSCC with the information we've gotten and any scans of the metal"
:: on a private channel to the zeonite commander:: " Does your main ship have access to the zeon fleet flight paths? Have you ever encountered pirate traps similar to this?"

"Roger," the nav officer replied, "but this isn't an attack - the scans read that the objects are non-pressurized and immobile except for gravitational effects. They're not ships, or projectiles, or even mines. Forwarding the high-density signal and processing further scans ASAP, Captain. Over."

The officer sent over the info that verified everything he said, and showed the imagery of the metal clusters. For all intents and purposes, it looked like an abnormally large bunch of floating space junk, and didn't seem to pose any threat...but was very curious and suspicious nonetheless.

As the ship's scans drew closer to the field the readings would fire back scrambled messages until they passed threw the first layer of rubble. The scanners suddenly clear, all the pings in this area were not asteroids, they were shreds of a destroyed ships. As they continued they could see slender space suits motionlessly hanging among the rubble, some floating freely, others impaled by large pieces of the decayed ships. They had accidentally stumbled into a graveyard of ships, most with unfamiliar markings but one shattered piece of a hall passed in front of the curious ships. Half a jagged piece of an old model Novalysian Stingray with an unusual X shaped logo on the side. Unless they were well versed in Novalysian Military history that logo would mean little to them.

The distress signal emerged from somewhere deep within the graveyard, their radar would ping remnants of a pressurized ship among the dead space. Somewhere inside this hell there might be survivors...

"Fucking hell," the nav officer blurted as soon as he saw the scans and had double-checked that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. "Code 17, we have incapacitated ships. And...Code 23, deceased humans. Unconfirmed cause." He paused, frowning. Despite having years of volunteer S&R experience, the sight that was slowly unfolding before them was disturbing. The scans were finally reading clearly, but it was too late - they were already routed into the deathly field of rubble.

"Advise extreme caution. We're experiencing some comm difficulty that could be artificial. Also picking up...readings of...pressurization? Possibly a ship that hasn't been entirely destroyed. Can anyone tell how long these have been here? Over."

Erde to Comm officer" I want you to launch 4 signal booster buoys 2 towards the debris field spaced 250 kilometers between us and the first and 350 between the the 2 buoys. The other 2 along our course back to crest those 350 between us and first buoy , and then 500 to the next buoy. And get back into contact Novalyse command, we undoubtably have older Novalyse ships here. make sure they get an image of that emblem"
Erde to Deysian scout ship- " I want you to get your ship back to the Ptolemaios, you can leave your drone on an autopilot survey course and have it route its signal through our buoys and back to us but I don't want anyone near the field before we get a response from Thorne and get the buoys fully set up.

Erde to Zeonite and securion- I've got the Deysian ships returning to the Ptolemaios, once they are back within our weapons range I want your 2 forces to coordinate defensive perimeter patrol. If you've got any type or pereimeter sensors or stand along turrets deploy them.

Erde over ship comms- " All command officers please report to the conference room ASAP

OMNE- We have perimeter defenses we can set up around the ship, how far out do you want it?

Zeon confirmed they got the orders and waited on an answer to OMNE's question so they could move out and patrol the area Erde gave them.

Erde to omne and zeon- "About 11 kilometers radius, thats the ships weapons range it should give us a little bit of a head start if we get attacked by.... what ever is here"

The satellite fields would be in progress by the time Denaeya tried to contact Thorne's office via the main terminal in the ship's comm room.

The incoming message would forward the name of the commanding officer and the ship's specs and relative location directly to whoever would be answering for Thorne, and the message would be classified as international correspondence - priority level: urgent.

Thorne would receive the message directly through his Neuro Censor, as he had already directed that any messages from the S&R team be forwarded to him immediately. The young acting general was walking through the halls of the Capital Building when the message came through. He said nothing as he stopped, playing the message internally so no others could hear.

"I am trying to reach General Axon Thorne," Denaeya said succinctly and professionally. "This is Communications Officer Denaeya London, civilian S&R response, Deysha-II. We have a situation involving damaged and incapacitated Novalysian ships within several kilometers of our current position."

"This is General Thorne Axon, what is the situation?" he spoke through the censor without uttering a word out loud.

"We have no scans of any hostiles or any active ships, sir," she confirmed. "We came upon what we thought was an asteroid field due to the density and layout, but...they're all just ships. We found Novalysian emblems on the sides of some. I'm forwarding you the images now, sir. There is a distress signal coming from nearby but we haven't triangulated it yet."

The images uploaded were translated through the Neuro Censor and projected into his field of vision as if he were looking at a holograph, transparently transposed over the halls of the capital. Thorne scanned the image thoroughly, noticing the same sigil on the fighter wing.

"The image on those Novalysian ships is Nox Company Sigil. The company name was retired after the end of the war that lost Novalyse her first capital. Those ships are at least ten years old, if not older." he transmitted as he searched records he had neural access to. "But I do not see any records of a Novalysian assault outside the borders of the Crest Sector in our records."