9: Breech Of Dawn
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 4: Evacuations

Admiral Of The Fleet Thompson cursed as he packed the last of his papers into cardboard boxes, ready for shipment to Thundersdawn, he glanced around the office that had been his home for some five years now and sighed angrily.

He hated this, hated that the entire RSS administration had to move out of St Athan, and by ring at that. The entire area had been compromised, too many reporters swarming the area, asking about the memorial, about the NID attack and if they stayed in the area, well someone would blab eventually and that would be that.

Either that, or the next reporter who breeched the fence might see too much, either way it was obvious, it was too dangerous for the RSS to operate from here for quite a while, possibly forever.

The command staff were heading to Thundersdawn, the admin staff to Manston and Conningsby, the trapped RSS craft were being covered up and heavy guard set.

Thompson frowned, severely annoyed, that included the prototype Striker. They had finally got the attack fighter in an airworthy state, ready for testing and what happens?

The entire Striker project was on hold because of this breech, someone was going to pay.

It didn't help he supposed, that a bunch of very interesting photos had reached the press, all of Airheads and Lancers. This was the problem with trying to do anything in secret in Britain, especially if it involved aircraft. Britain was too heavily populated, there were no areas you could set a classified facility up that didn't have a local population and all the unpopulated areas were generally unsuitable, either they weren't flat enough, they were protected for some reason…

Thompson grabbed the now-full box and strode angrily from the room in the direction of the rings, well, he didn't have to like it, but as always, he would have to do his best with the hand he was dealt with.

Commodore Peters wasn't happy about the situation either, but for a whole different reason.

Her Boss would be at her station, constantly. It was any commander's worst nightmare, the brass being in a position to constantly look over their shoulders and criticise everything, and she would have to put up with that, indefinitely.

Real fun, Peters thought wryly as she reached across her desk for the next report.

"Come in" she shouted, as a sharp knock sounded at the door.

"Cap, a ship just left hyper, IFF says RSS04," a breathless excited voice told her as her 'Batman', Ensign Scot entered.

Peters eyes turned to icy glares as she stared at the young woman, "Don't even joke about that"

"Sensor data is a little sketchy, if it's a Dauntless II, then it's had heavy battle damage"

Peters felt her eyes widen, "You're not joking are you?"

"Like hell I would Cap, not about this"

Peters dived out of the room, sprinting to the bridge, Devonshire home at last? She had been declared MIA almost five months ago, and declared Missing, presumed destroyed last month, if she was back…