Gliese
A tide-locked planet 20 light-years from anything of interest, orbiting a red dwarf star. Nothing could possibly be out here, there's nothing of value, or anything scientifically interesting. Still…
I checked the ships data logs, examining it over and over. Something had to be abducting those ships, three had gone missing over the past two months without a trace.
"Commander Gliese, we are entering the uncharted system in three minutes, may I suggest we prepare counter measures in event of any hostile activity?" The AI was on guard as usual. "Very well, prepare main cannons, and raise the shields, I want to make sure we come out of this intact."
The crew began preparations, many rushing about to their stations. I stood to attention on the bridge, hands behind my back and bracing myself for what could possibly be coming next.
We came out of light-speed, a mass of ship wreaks greeted us on arrival. "Take evasive action!" "Already on it commander!" Rex shouted back, manovreing the ship in-between the wreaks. "Commander, the ship's shields are not designed to withstand impact with objects that size," "I know AI just try and weave between them!"
That order was a little demanding, as a Cruiser such as this did not handle as well as others. "C'mon… just a little more!" we had almost made it through. An extra large piece of a ship drifted into us and only just clipped our shields, but making the ship jolt violently. A lot of the crew reached for something anchored to the ship to keep their balance. Some weren't successful and fell
"Commander, it appears that we have successfully cleared the debris field." The AI said in it's metallic voice. I sighed a breath of relief, as we approached the small Tide-locked planet.
"Rex, got any information on this planet? I want to know as much as possible before we land a squad there," a few brief moments passed as he brought up a screen on his terminal. "Yes sir, sending info to your privet terminal as we speak." I nodded in approval, retreating back to my place upon the bridge.
As the silent cruiser made its way towards its mysterious destination, I was burying my head in data pads and recordings last received from the three missing ships. "Everything seems fine at the moment, the scouting squad is due to return soon. The planet (some static interfered with the signal at this point, making it inaudible.)
"hmm… I'm not sure if I can fix the last part…" I played with the settings a little, trying to make sense of the signal.
"found hideout- (more static) Blue suns will move (yet more static) Archangel." The transmission from the missing ship ended. So it was a Merc vessel that went missing, but that didn't really explain what they wanted with this object/person Archangel…
"Lieutenant Kiasso, send this information to Rex, it should give him a brief idea of what kind of resistance to expect. "Yes commander, forwarding info to the cockpit as we speak." A relatively young Asari woman pulled up a screen on her terminal (which was on the left hand side of my own) and began sending the info via Ethernet.
This was certainly going to be one hell of a ride if the Blue suns were involved…
Planet surface; 13:27P.M, Hideout.
"Sir, a unidentified vessel has appeared in orbit, it matches no known ship signatures, and by the looks of it is fairly intact from the debris field." A heavily armoured soldier saluted the figure in-front of him, waiting for it to reply. "Hmm… looks like we have attracted unnecessary attention to ourselves. But saying that they could be friends with the mercs… observe them for awhile, and see what they want. If they are hostile we will deal with them soon enough."
The soldier saluted again and turned to leave the dark figure alone. Having the soldier gone it returned to scooping out the landscape with its Mark .VI twin fanged sniper rifle. "I wonder who they could be…?" he adjusted the scopes and looked into the lower part of the lithosphere, watching a drop off ship slowly make its decent into the planets atmosphere. "Or rather, what they could want…"
Planet's Atmosphere; 13:43P.M, Drop ship.
"Commander, what exactly are we here for?" Cody was unsure as usual. "We are looking for a person/object called archangel, if the mercs were after it, there has to be some story why." Cody nodded and returned back to his assault rifle he was preparing for any 'hostile resistance.'
A message from Rex played throughout the entire vessel. "Commander, we are approaching drop zone in a minute's time, have all your equipment ready because it looks like the landing is going to be pretty rough!" The transmission ended and I sighed wearily. "The fun never stops does it?"
We could feel the vessel shaking like a leaf in a hurricane now, as we entered the final stage of our landing. Cody had a gaze of stone, showing no physical emotion while Samara stared at me, a worried expression on her face and was gripping on to anything that gave her support.
The air around us rapidly heated up, and a thunderous roar waved through what little air we already had. Another transmission echoed around the ship. "Stabilising the drop ship… cooling fluid is in effect, and everything or should I say everyone," he obviously meant that for samara, "is in-tact." I grinned to myself as the Thunderous roar died away. Everyone gave a sigh of relief, we had made it safely into the planets atmosphere, landing it wouldn't be a problem.
Planet surface; 14:12P.M hidden bunker
"Target has landed…" the heavily armed soldier adjusted his binoculars to far zoom, and watched them get out of the drop ship. "Got anything yet?" another soldier took cover next to him.
"They are just getting out of the drop ship as we speak." He held his breath to keep him steady as he looked. "There is one male, human, and two female, one Asari and one human. The human female seems to lead the group and they are heavily armed." The other soldier nodded.
"I don't remember women being in-charge of any merc groups…"
"All the more reason to report back."
"Yeah but, we don't even know what they want yet."
"Better safe than sorry."
"Fine."
He glanced once more in the direction of the supposed 'mercs' and returned back to the base with the other soldier.
14:17 P.M, Back at the base.
"So, we aren't dealing with mercs. They can't be the alliance since they would never come all the way out here… There is a small possibility they are Ciberus but the odds of that is highly unlikely." The dark figure paced around for a few brief moments. "This only leaves the possibility that they are freelancers. But the reason why they are here doesn't make much sense."
The troopers who brought the report nodded to each other and played the voice recording they had recorded when spying on the group of 'freelancers.'
"We are here for one simple reason. To find out what the mercs were doing here and why. We already have a clue from a last received voice log. They were here because of a base, and something called Archangel." A person on the recording sighed and added "Any hostile resistance and you have clearance to shoot to kill, I repeat, shoot to kill." The person speak put empathises into the last few words "I want no more of my squad injured like the last assignment. Samara, you go with Cody, scout out to the south of here, I'll go scout to the north and we will meet up back here at 17:25 P.M." the two others said in unison "Yes commander!" and the voice recording ended.
"They were after mercs… this could mean we have possible allied force here." The figure came out of the dark to talk to the troopers directly. "You two will rendezvous with the squad members to the south, Take only a heavy pistol, we want them to trust us.
"And what about their commander?" The first trooper asked. The figure paused for a second and paced around deep in thinking, before answering the question a few moments later. "I will deal with her myself."
14:56 P.M, planet's surface, 'south.'
Samara and Cody were still scanning out the area for anything of interest. "Do you think the commander is doing ok?" Samara was always worrying about others. "The commander will be fine. I'd be more worried about us," he glanced upwards at the sky, "anyway, I don't think this mission will bear any fruitful results."
They sat down, checked the time, and set down their weapons. "Still… I can't help but wonder what the commander is up to…" Cody smiled at Samara's constant worry for others.
Cody, being a perfectionist as he is, inspected his scopes on his assault rifle. He scanned the barren desert landscape for any approaching figures, coincidentally spotting two heavily armoured figures heading straight for them.
"Samara, we have company…" Cody's voice became harsh. This reminded him all to much of the time on Mountaguine - he lost two good squad members that day. He handed her the rifle, "see for yourself."
Clearly enough two figures were approaching from the way they came. "If they came from that direction, then their base must be nearer to the commander maybe we should-" "way ahead of you." Cody was already setting up the com link to the commander.
"Commander, are you reading us?" the signal was full of static for a few brief moments, before the commanders voice came on "Cody you better have a good reason for contacting me right now" she breathed, "I do commander, there-" "hold on a second"
Gunshots could be heard in the background, and a grenade going off was also heard. "Okay that takes care of that, what were you saying?" "Commander, two heavily armoured figures are approaching from the north, your direction, our guess the base is further up into your territory; and what's going on down your end?" Samara was once again, worried. "Nothing I can't deal with Samara, now, both of you get to cover and stay hidden. Do not be seen. Commander Gliese out."
The com link went static once again. Cody nodded to Samara, and they ran for the closest decent cover they could find.
