CHAPTER FOUR
STEALTH RAPTOR 'TWO JASONS'
While the Fleet Avenger was in the midst of its encounter with the Dortmunder, the stealth raptor – kindly donated by Admiral Tillman – piloted by Jason 'Newguy' Gorde with RSO Jason 'Snoopy' Dundee exited its FTL-jump in its assigned area: a planetary system with a red central star.
After confirming his exit co-ordinates, Gorde spoke to Dundee:
"Start your scans, Snoopy", Gorde directed, "Passives first, then actives. I'll do the local space scan".
"I'm on it", Dundee replied.
Dundee powered up his receptors while Gorde quickly used his sensors to see if there was any spacecraft in the vicinity. What he saw surprised him.
"I'm getting multiple contacts, Snoopy", Gorde announced, "Going to and fro the nearest planet to us. Warbook shows no match on any of them, but ships don't appear to be military".
"Newguy", Dundee said as by way of reply, "I'm also getting a whole bunch of transmissions – both video and audio – coming from the planet closest to us".
"Can you make out any of it, Snoopy?", Gorde asked.
"It all seems to be civilian traffic", Snoopy replied, "All in the clear too. Sounds like a dialect of Caprican predominantly, and also some Gemonese. Human, that's for sure".
Human? This certainly wasn't the colonies, so how was this possible, Gorde wondered. Well, finding out answers to questions was what he was here for, so he turned back to Dundee.
"Well, the Old Man wants us to reconnoiter, so I'm going to go closer in to that planet", Gorde announced, "As this is a stealth raptor, we should be okay, but stand by to activate the FTL if we have to leave in a hurry. Okay?"
"No problem, Newguy", Dundee confirmed.
"Oh, and keep listening in on those signals. Let me know if anything amiss comes up", Gorde ordered as well.
"I'm recording as many of the transmissions as possible", Dundee replied, "This should give the Core Command folk back on the Pegasus something to keep them busy".
While Dundee was busy listening to – and recording - the various transmissions through his console, Gorde smoothly brought the stealth-raptor's sub-light drive on line. He punched in instructions to the navi-comp, and proceeded to bring the stealth-raptor on a course to close in to the nearest planet. At the same time, the LIDAR sensor array came on line…
ALLIANCE SENTINEL POST ORBITING JIANGYIN, RED STAR SYSTEM
On the control deck of the sentinel post – the premier symbol of Alliance control for the planet Jiangyin – the control deck was fully manned with various officers manning consoles that covered the various sectors of local space. As well as local space traffic control, these sentinel posts were also handy in cutting down on illicit trade activities, and as the Alliance officers on these sentinel posts were professionals, they were doing their job in a methodical manner. Normal traffic going to and from Jiangyin were carefully monitored by the Sentinel post, and most of the time, it was purely routine, but this day, the routine was about to get interrupted in an interesting way…
"Commandant", one of the planetary traffic controllers announced from his console, "I'm getting some weird energy emissions coming from sector eight-seven".
Commandant Rhoodie – the Sentinel Post Commander – walked over to the officer.
"What do you have?" Rhoodie asked.
"I've been getting some weird energy readings from that sector – nothing identifiable, but the visual sensors are not showing anything", the officer replied.
"Problems with your sensor array perhaps?" Rhoodie inquired.
"I've run a diagnostic, but the routine shows the array is working okay", the officer replied, "It's reporting unidentified – but strong - energy emanations coming from a localized point in that sector, and they seem to be getting closer".
Rhoodie frowned. That sector was off the authorized flight paths of spacecraft going to and from Jiangyn, so there should not be any traffic there, and the visual sensors seemed to back that up. It all pointed to a problem with the array. Still…
"Monitor the anomaly", Rhoodie ordered, "If it gets within a thousand clicks of Jiangyn, let me know".
"Yes, Commandant", the officer replied.
STEALTH RAPTOR 'TWO JASONS'
As the stealth-raptor approached the planet, Gorde and Dundee activated their LIDAR sensor recorders. Cain would want to get as much intel as possible on this planet, and with the transmissions, plus the data they were picking up from the various spacecraft, they were getting quite a bit.
"Hey Newguy", Dundee announced, "I'm picking up some neat music on one of the stations. Really catchy tune".
Gorde shook his head, though he was smiling a little. Trust Snoopy to find something like that! Still…
"You'll be catching an ear-full from Cain if you get distracted from your mission, Snoopy", Gorde admonished with a chuckle, "You'd better get me a scan on the planet itself".
Deftly, Dundee activated his planetary sensors. In seconds, information came up on his screen.
"The planet has a habitable atmosphere, Newguy", he announced first, "I'm also picking up a lot of energy emissions – nuclear fusion mainly - and some degree of atmospheric pollution indicative of an advanced technology. Also, I'm getting a lot of lifeform readings - human".
"That figures", Gorde replied, "and my sensor scans on a couple of the spaceships also indicates human lifeforms, though still nothing indicating anything familiar to Colonial – or Cylon – technology. Certainly no tyllium".
Dundee shook his head at that in disbelief. A human-populated world – advanced technology – but no tyllium? That didn't make much sense.
"No tyllium", Dundee mused aloud, "so I guess we haven't found the Galactica or the ships that were with her".
"So what do you make of this, Snoopy?" Gorde asked.
"Maybe we found Earth, or at least a part of the thirteenth colony", Dundee said with a slight chuckle, before his expression turned serious. His tounge-in-cheek reply might very well be correct! Gorde nodded agreement, but he also thought of another possibility...
"Or it could be an elaborate Cylon trap", Gorde warned, "We can't rule that possibility out".
"Even though our sensors are detecting nothing remotely indicating Cylons?" Dundee asked next.
"I'm getting the same data as you, Snoopy: nothing even remotely hinting at Cylon technology or transmission type", Gorde replied, "so if this is a tin-head trap, then it's a pretty elaborate one".
"Well, the FTL is ready to fire up just in case", Dundee said in reassurance.
As Dundee continued to monitor his console, Gorde continued his approach to the planet. Once in orbit, he would be able to do a more detailed scan. Gorde also wondered about Dundee's earlier comment. Could this be what Commander Adama and the Galactica were looking for…?
ALLIANCE SENTINEL POST ORBITING JIANGYIN, RED STAR SYSTEM
The console officer who made the initial contact report waved Rhoodie over.
"Anomaly is now within one thousand clicks, Commandant", the officer announced.
"Very well. Send out a scout drone", Rhoodie ordered, "There's something out there and I want to see what it is!"
The officer punched in a command on his console. Within thirty seconds, a remote probe was dispatched on an intercept course with the anomalous reading, which was not only closing with the planet, but starting to slow…
STEALTH-RAPTOR "TWO JASONS"
"Heads-up, Newguy", Dundee announced, "We've got something incoming".
"Missile?" Gorde asked,
"Doesn't look like it", Snoopy replied, "Looks like a recon probe of some type. It came from a space station orbiting the planet ahead".
"What are the chances that it can see us?" Gorde inquired.
"Couldn't say", Dundee answered, "but its moving rather slow for a probe and given what the LIDAR array in indicating, the probe is quite a primitive one. Gorde considered. His stealth-raptor was designed to be as undetectable as possible, though the use of the active sensors would have compromised that to some extent. ..
"Turn off the LIDAR, the other active sensors and go quiet", Gorde ordered, "We'll see if this probe picks us up or not".
ALLIANCE SENTINEL POST ORBITING JIANGYIN, RED STAR SYSTEM
"I've lost the emissions, Commandant", the controller announced.
"At the moment our probe headed out", Rhoodie said, not believing in co-incidences. "Very well, put the station on alert. We've got something closing in and until we find otherwise, we assume its hostile".
The officer punched in the command to bring the station on alert. Rhoodie then turned to his communications officer.
"Major", he ordered, "send a signal to Ariel Admiralty informing them that we have an unidentified contact approaching Jiangyin and are on alert. Follow-up message will follow when we get more information".
STEALTH-RAPTOR "TWO-JASONS"
"I'm picking up a scrambled transmission from the station, Newguy", Dundee announced, "military, by the sound of it".
"Any chance of decoding it?" Gorde asked.
"Negative", Dundee replied, "It's format doesn't match anything remotely resembling Colonial or Cylon in our database".
"You think it's detected us?" Dundee asked.
"With a probe coming our way and this transmission, it's a safe bet, Snoopy", Gorde replied. He had hoped to be able to get more information, but given that the stealth-raptor was the only one in the Pegasus inventory, he didn't want to put it to undue risk.
"Okay", Gorde said, "I'm going to do a high-speed fly-by. Have your sensors go fully active and get as much as you can: both the planet and that space station. I'm going to go FTL as soon as we pass the planet.
ALLIANCE SENTINEL POST ORBITING JIANGYIN, RED STAR SYSTEM
"I'm getting the readings again, Commandant", the controller announced suddenly, "and it's accelerating! Looks like its going to do a close-in flyby".
"IFF challenge now!", Rhoodie ordered, just to see if this anomaly was something from the Alliance.
"Negative IFF", the officer came back, "and the anomaly's energy emissions have increased. Seems to be directed planet-ward… Now the emissions are aiming at us!".
"Get a weapons lock on it", Rhoodie ordered.
"It's accelerating too fast for missile intercept", the weapons officer announced, "I've not seen anything accelerate this fast before!".
Rhoodie looked up in surprise. Something that fast was definitely nothing he had heard about in regards to Alliance military testing, and the people here in this system didn't have Core World technology, so it couldn't be them. Also, they were far away from Reaver space. This was something completely unknown!
"Is the anomaly going to be passing anywhere near us?" Rhoodie asked next.
"It s already passed us", the controller replied, and then he said, "I've picked up some kind of energy spike and a flash… Now there's nothing!"
"Nothing? Not even debris?" Rhoodie asked.
"Absolutely nothing", the controller confirmed, "First, it was there, and then it just vanished!"
"Inform Ariel accordingly, use the Omicron protocol", Rhoodie ordered with a grim look on his face…
IAV DEVISOR – RED SUN SYSTEM
"Commandant", the communications officer said, "I've intercepted a top priority signal from the Jiangyin Sentinel Post to the Admiralty".
Commandant De Wet walked over to the communications console where he could read it. His eyes widened.
"Encoded with the Omicron protocol", De Wet noticed, "They're not supposed to do that except in time of war".
De Wet then turned to his navigation officer.
"Change course. We're heading to Jiangyin. Notify the sentinel post", he ordered.
The Alliance Navy was now becoming alerted to the unknown visitors, but not only the navy …
BLUE SUN CORPORATION HEADQUARTERS
"Director", an executive said, "Our liason at the Admiralty on Ariel is reporting interesting intelligence being received from various elements of the Alliance Navy".
The Director of Blue Sun swiveled around in his desk chair to face the executive. Even though the executive was an up-and-coming member of the inner circle of Blue Sun, he still knew fear, and the piercing eyes of the Director made his skin crawl.
"What kind of intelligence?" the Director asked.
"IAV Dortmunder reported an encounter with an unknown warship just within the White Sun System, The Sentinel Post orbiting Jiangyin reported unknown energy emissions from a vessel with some kind of stealth feature, and several remote sensor drones used to track any Reaver incursions have detected similar energy patterns", the executive explained.
"Punch it up on my desk console", the director ordered.
The executive maintained a respectful silence as he scanned the data. Then he looked up.
"I see that the Sumter is heading out to support the Dortmunder", the director said, "We have a presence on that ship, do we not?", the Director asked.
"Yes, Director", the Executive replied.
"Send an encoded message to our man on the Sumter to keep me informed of any developments", the Director ordered.
The executive nodded and left the palatial office.
The director swiveled his chair back around again. Perhaps something was coming that Blue Sun could exploit, he thought…