The large transport rocketed through the atmosphere; it was shaking from the resistance of the atmosphere. The transport burst through the final cloud layer and the sky cleared; the blackness of space welcomed them. The ride smoothed out and Katrina leveled out the transport. She input the coordinates of their destination into the computer and leaned back in her chair and released a breath.
Dachium looked over at her with a puzzled look on his face. "Have you been holding your breath this entire time?"
"Yes. I always do during a take off." Katrina said kind of embarrassed. Her cheeks had gained a red tint from the question.
Dachium chuckled. "Never heard of that practice before."
"It's one of my practices; I have done it since I was a cadet." Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of red.
"Really now. Well why do you do it?" Dachium asked as he ran his fingers through his hair.
She shrugged. "I don't know; security I guess. I fell that if I don't breath, I can't mess up."
Dachium smiled. "Interesting." He looked up as he heard someone on the threshold between the cockpit and the cargo hold.
"We need to discuss a way to land on the planet relatively unnoticed." Aang said to the two of them.
"Be there in a second." Katrina said as she unbuckled herself, Dachium was doing the same. Both of them got up and went into the cargo hold.
"I saw we just blast our way through the front door." Brac said to the others, as Dachium and Katrina sat down on the metal benches.
"We could do that if we want to die." Nacdle explained bluntly.
"You Protoss are hopeless; always with the least destructive way." The Marine said to himself.
"We won't want to draw too much attention too ourselves. Something more subtle is needed." Dachium said as he looked at Brac.
"Great. Now everyone is against me." Brac took up his rifle and started cleaning it, while smoking a cigarette. Fans whirred above him to pull the smoke out of the hold.
"Lets get the details on the system first." Aang pulled out his small computer. He started looking through the maps of the systems they were on route to. The others followed suit and took out there computers, except for Specialist Brac.
"It looks like the system is mostly uninhabited; been abandoned by the mining community save for a few residents." Dachium said while looking down at his computer.
"How would one make a living in a system such as this one? The closest civilization is this trade route. Other than that there isn't much here." Nacdle said as he placed the hand held computer on the seat next to him.
"It's a perfect place for pirates; being so close to a trade route. What if we create a diversion using the trade route? Some sort of bate or something?" Katrina was reviewing the maps as she talked. Aang had a look of serious thought on his face.
"We will need a diversion. Using the trade route would be a good place to start. Any ideas?" Dachium asked.
"I still think some sort of explosion would work." Brac muttered. Nacdle had noticed and scowled, but no one else seemed to notice.
They all sat thinking of a way to slip onto the planets surface undetected. Aang was almost in a trance from the amount of thought he was pouring into this, then he stirred.
"I have it." Aang said quietly. Everyone looked at him expectantly. "You said the people left are presumably miners correct?"
"Yes, I did." Dachium said with a puzzled expression on his face.
"Well if they are miners they have to ship their product out of the system somehow, unless of course they ship it themselves. What if we find out who picks up the shipments and when they do it?" Aang said excitedly.
"What good would that do?" Brac asked with an angry tone in his voice. Everyone else leaned a little closer to Aang to hear his plan.
"We could have a team of Marines infiltrate the transport and take on the role of the crew. Then after they pickup the products we have them implement a fake systems failure; engines or life support, something important. These ships presumably have an auto distress beacon so that would activate. The base would have all of there sensors pointed in the direction of the transport so that they could know if they were in danger of being discovered. The Marines could keep the ship disabled until we are safely on the surface, then "miraculously" get fixed and leave." The Zealot looked at each of the group. Katrina and Dachium had astonished looks on their faces.
"Brilliant." Dachium whispered.
"What about infiltration? We can't just walk in the front door. Forget about that Protoss?" Brac said scornfully.
"We would have to find another way in." Nacdle said coldly.
"And what about the scanners? Suppose they don't point them all at the transport?" Brac said.
"We could have a small ship on standby in the trade route, and when they pick up the distress beacon they will go to it. I'm sure that would get their attention." Katrina said while looking at her computer.
"He's right. I'm sure with all of the mines on the planet one still has to be open." Dachium said, he went back to looking through the maps of the planet. Aang sat with his arms crossed; Brac had an angry look on his face and when back to cleaning his gun.
"I found something." Katrina said as she did a few clicks with her hand held computer. The image on her screen appeared in the cargo hold on a holographic projector. It was a picture of a part of the planets surface, what looked like to be the foot of a mountain with a large chasm in it. "I think this is an old mine shaft. The scans reveal it goes deep into the mountain and open into a large area. That area has some solid objects in it and could be supplies." A path was being highlighted on the holographic projector. "If we can go in through here I believe that we can infiltrate the base through one of the storage areas." The two Protoss and Dachuium shook their heads, Brac looked coldly at the pictures.
"I think we have our way in. Lets get to work on setting this up." Dachium stood up. "Sergeant, you go radio Commander Lawrence and ask for that squad of Marines. I'll go and find out shipping schedules." He smiled at this. "You three can rest."
"Are you positive that you don't require our assistance?" Nacdle asked.
"Nope. I believe we have it covered." Dachium said as he went into the cockpit, followed by Sergeant Katrina.
Dachium sat down in the co-pilots chair. He turned towards the computer terminal to the right of him, and cracked his knuckles. Katrina sat in the pilot's chair and started checking all of the computers for any irregularities. Nacdle and Aang stayed where they were, and went back into their meditative states. Brac was still cleaning and checking his gun with a cigarette in his mouth.