The Dancer Prince
Chapter 17
Written by Ambassador Yrishna Wolf.
Legionnaire G-7, stationed at the proximity of Arnouville, were on the prowl this evening. Ordered to stay low, and ensure that no civilian casualties were to be affectuated on this critical mission, they were doing this mission with no weapons. For legionnaire G-7, the entire mission signalled the end of their lying down low, waiting for other legionnaires to get into position and gather enough information necessary for the mission which they were to embark upon. Cardassia Prime had confirmed that the mission was still on, and once the security codes were authenticated by the legionnaire corps commander, it was determined the time zone differences in which this mission would have to be accomplished. They had a time-difference window of only two minutes, fifteen seconds, and thirty two milliseconds. If they missed this window, the mission would have to be aborted and Cardassia Command contacted with news of why the mission went wrong. Legionnaire G-7 were going to accomplish this mission with no weapons, and blind. No special gear, aside from that which was standard issue on their uniform.
00:25 hours, Legionnaire G-7 knew that in about fifteen minutes, there would be a change in guards which would allow for a window of approximately five minutes in which the building was left virtually undefended in the areas which the legionnaires were planning to target. The silent shuttlecraft flew over the S.P.N.N. Arnouville building as the legionnaires jumped the fifteen meters down to the roof of the building. They broke up and ran towards the corners of the building, using the gutter accesses to add a hook that was enough to hold them, as they jumped down. The S.P.N.N. Arnouville building was luckily one of those buildings which didn't have windows all around it, which allowed for the legionnaires to use the building to their full advantage. 00:27 hours, the door to the roof opened, with the Segan marine inspecting the roof to make sure there were no intruders. The marine always did a half-hearted observation, and a minute later he closed the door.
The legionnaire corps leader, dangling from his cord on one of the corners of the building activated his silent communications system. He checked to make sure he had a connection to the hover shuttle pilot in the event they had to make a hasty retreat, as well as to each of his soldiers. No special equipement was allowed on this mission, so this would be the last time he had a chance to trully speak to his crew. Everything else would be done by hand signals. Lieutenant Xin-Chu Chang, was of human Chinese descent. His parents had migrated to the Segan Monarchy in the hopes of creating a market for Chinese antiquities. They had succeeded in the business, having made friends in the royal family. Chang was a trully remarkable martials arts fighter, a fact which Maitre Wolf was well aware of. When the legionnaires were formed, he offered the Lieutenant a recommendation so that he could train in this elite fighting force. Chang too, had succeeded in a Monarchy, which now needed him.
"All righty, listen up fellas," Chang looked at the person dangling further down the line from him, "In 15 seconds, we're going on. Set your watches, you follow my lead. All teams, remember your training, remember your mission, and remember we do not leave our people behind. That's All, Chang out."
The legionnaire corps leader counted down, when the fifteen seconds were up, he and his assistant climbed up the wall again. They jumped onto the roof, as the other teams slid down the corner of the building. As the legionnaire corps commander reached the door of the top of the S.P.N.N. skyscraper, Chang applied a well positioned kick which sent the old style door crashing. Chang and his assistant walked down the stairs, and looked around the hallway. Everything was organized the way it was supposed to be. The legionnaire walked down the corridor, freezing the moment they heard the slightest sound. Someone was coming, Chang pointed up as the two used their focus to skip extremely high, as they barely hanged on on the roof of the corridor. The loud guard passed them, as Chang and his assistant came down from the roof, their feet making no sound as they landed. They were a few meters from their target, the central transmission module. They began jogging towards their target. They were in the center of the room. As Chang's assistant applied the ionizing charge, designed to destroy every connection point within the transmission module, Chang kept a lookout. They were right on schedule. Chang looked at his watched, as his assistant joined him.
"Everybody, move out," Chang closed the communication and walked out of the room, raising his fist and slamming it on the guard that was walking towards them. The guard was instantly knocked out of action, without uttering a noise.
00:40 hours. Chang and his eight other operatives jumped onto the hover shuttle that was dangling over the S.P.N.N-Arnouville station. The shuttlecraft sped away, not detected by any detection grid on the planet. By 00:41 hours, legionnaire G-7 joining with 99 other teams had succeeded in their task. S.P.N.N. had been taken out of action, all S.P.N.N. stations had stopped transmitting in the middle of the night, and the transmission towers were so badly damaged it would take at least a few months to get all the parts replaced. Because S.P.N.N. had such a massive network, the increase in demand couldn't be compensated by the limited immediately available supply. S.P.N.N, the government's voice, was taken out of action by an unknown organization. In fact, it had been taken out by the Cardassian Monarchy's super-elite organization, the Legionnaires.
- - - - - - -
"I swear, a month of searching and all we've found are micro-particles of debris from a battle no one even remembers," The Chief Science Officer of the S.W.D. Bastion muttered, looking wearing through the sensor scopes, "And for what? All for a fleet which is designed to be hard to detect, and might not even be around here in the first place!"
"Well, you can then have the satisfaction of knowing that you are the single scientist whose explored this part of the galaxy with such fine details," The Chief Operations Manager, who was working by the Science Officer's side replied, as he adjusted his own sensor scopes to pick up biological matter.
"Oh why thank you," The scientist took his eyes off his scope for a little while to stare at the Operations Manager, "I am so pleased that the Chief Operations Manager of the Bastion has decided that I am worthy of having a satisfaction for knowing more about this unpopulated, unimportant section of this galaxy."
"Who said it was unpopulated?" The Operations Manager snickered, "Are you saying the entire crew of the Bastion doesn't exist? Are you suggesting that all our religious beliefs mean nothing? That we're are all just a bunch of nothings?"
"I don't know about the rest of the crew, bastard," He paused a moment, "But you certainly are worthless, in fact what have you done for me lately? I'm stuck here for weeks on hand talking to your lousy mouth, while I can't find this stupid Ghost Fleet!" The Scientist glanced over, as he heard the door woosh open.
"Captain on Deck," The Chief Operations shouted as he stood up, to attention, promptly followed by the Chief of Science.
"At ease, gentlemen," Captain Desmond replied as he saluted them both,"I just got off the Comms with the Triumph, I gave them a report nothing yet... How are we doing down here anyway?"
"Well, we're combing for a needle in a haystack, quite literally," The Chief Science Officer replied, " The Lieutenant Commander here is looking for traces of biological matter, maybe we can use the bio-metallical hull to our advantage here."
"Very good," Captain Desmond nodded, looking at the readouts, "Have you tried sending a phase variance pulse, perhaps we might get a ping out of the computer systems from a Ghost Fleet vessel if it's in the vicinity."
"No, I haven't," The Chief Science Officer looked at the Captain peculiarly," Why would a phase variance pulse create a ping out of the computer systems, Captain?"
"Well," Captain Desmond moved one of his fingers to his mouth, "All Ghost Fleet vessels are uniquely connected to one another. The computers can be booted with a remote phase variance pulse, which our ship can automatically track for frequency. That pulse will search a space the shape of sphere for approximately one parsec and will force that remote computer to activate at least its passive communications systems. The remote computer should theoretically ping back with a frequency only Ghost Fleet vessels are aware of."
"How the hell do you know that will work, Captain?" The Chief of Operations glanced over, looking at the Captain peculiarly as if he had become something more than just a clueless Captain.
"I read the ship's specifications, from page one to one thousand thirty six," The Captain smiled and wink, "Chief, activate the pulse."
"Stand by, I'm setting up the system," The Chief Operations Officer modulated the sensor dish to accomplish the task, within seconds the ship was sending a low level passive phase variance pulse."
"Hold on," The Chief Science Officer glanced over his computer, "I'm detecting... a ping, and it's not coming from us."
