Chapter 5
Location: Unknown Planet
Date: February 7, 2025
Time: 0800 Hours
The night was a tense one for Recon One, especially the military detail who didn't want to shut their eyes at all once they'd heard that shriek in the dead of night. A three-man patrol had gone out with night vision cameras but found nothing, only heightening apprehension at what could have been out there. And whatever it was could easily be interpreted to be very unhappy with their presence. So once that night was over the civilians wouldn't go anywhere without a military escort on watch.
But today was set to be their first truly long range exploration on this planet. Colonel Black had been somewhat nervous about going through with this long range recon mission up the mountain. But the objective of placing a special landscape time-lapse camera and atmospheric sensor equipment had been one of the big tasks for the civilian section. And it would also give them a great surrounding view of the terrain for miles around. They might even locate signs of civilization, so that was reason enough for them to risk the trek up the mountain so they could task their only UAV to the missions it was needed for. So Agent Fraser opted to lead the mission himself, with ten members of the military team, under the command of Captain Stinson, and six of his own civilian team. He'd chosen Dr. Cruz the team tech expert who'd just wanted to get out and about, Dr. Bobbie Hall, their medical assistant who was better suited to the trek than Dr. Decker was, Dr. Martinez, their assistant biologist, Dr. Hart their geology assistant, and of course they had Dr. Beverly in case they ran into someone or something that needed a diplomat's touch and lingual expert that superseded any of the rest of them.
This left the rest of the team back at base camp doing their own short range patrols with continuing scientific research. And of course one of them was always accompanied by a member or two of the military team and someone was on watch over the Ring and radio in case the team called in or Chorus contacted them or something else entirely came through the Ring. But either way, the mission was going forward for the Colonials and it would take something drastic to make them stop, especially when there were egos butting heads among the Colonials. And no two egos were bigger or more conflicting than Colonel Black and Agent Fraser.
Fraser was currently leading the way right up the somewhat steep mountain which even at their height was still covered in tall pine trees and low shrubs. He now held his submachine gun instead of a mere pistol on his thigh. His team, wearing the orange and red digital camouflage pattern that the Colonial military had picked out for the desert highlands of Gemenon and other such places, were making their way steadily up the terrain, crossing back and forth.
"Agent Fraser," Captain Stinson called out as Fraser pulled himself up a slight vertical drop, "Hold up a second."
"Can we make it quick?" Fraser asked, looking at his watch, "We need to make up ground before nightfall."
"Where exactly do you plan on putting this equipment?" the officer asked as he pulled himself up the bank and stood next to Fraser.
"The highest point we can," Fraser replied, "We'll need to have as clear a line of sight as we can."
"Well I think that might be kind of tough. Look," Stinson responded and pointed up through the trees.
"Well, I'd say that's the tallest bit of land around here wouldn't you say?"
Fraser was now referring to a tall bluff with vertical faces around it with a large forty-five degree angled hill coming up down from the mesa on top. Its approach was barren for the most part, but it was instead covered in large boulders and tall weathered pillars that the boulder field undoubtedly originated from.
"Dr. Hart," Agent Fraser called out, signaling the young, and annoyingly bubbly and energetic geology assistant to come forward, and come forward she did, hefting two large black cases in each hand without very much trouble.
"Yeah boss?" she asked, panting slightly from charging past more than half the team for about twenty meters.
"What do you make of that?" Fraser asked as he pointed out the mesa in front of them.
"Wow," the young blonde gasped quickly, "Looks like a mesa you'd find in Gemenon's low deserts. That side of it is pretty well weathered, undoubtedly by a constant and predictable wind. I'd say its face is made, mostly, of sandstone with sand and dirt filling in the cracks as boulders fall down as they're weathered bit by bit."
"I was asking if that would work for a place to put your equipment Doc," Fraser replied after letting her finish her lesson.
"Oh…yeah that'll work perfectly."
"Excellent, that's where we're going then."
With their new target location in sight Fraser led the way forward through a surprisingly thick clump of pines and pine saplings interspersed with juniper-like low lying evergreens. It was green here, with soft leaved trees looking like willows but with bleach white trunks and lowing dark green leaves draping about like large curtains and tall grasses it was clear the Colonials had stumbled upon some kind of oasis.
"Looks like we've got water," Captain Stinson said happily as acknowledged the trickling noises they were all now starting to hear.
"About time," Agent Fraser grumbled, noting his camel-pack was feeling uncomfortably light.
"Let's take a quick breather and get some refills on our water bladders. Hopefully it's clean."
"Hey Doc, got any water testing equipment with you?" Fraser called out.
"Always," the young geologist said happily and started scrambling to get up the bank.
"Here," Captain Stinson sighed, taking one of Hart's cases, "Explaining to Colonel why you broke your leg falling down the hill isn't my way of starting the day."
"Alright, fine by me," Hart said with a smile as she got up as the others began to get up with them.
"Wait! Are you nuts?!" Dr. Martinez suddenly hissed quietly.
"What is it this time?" one of the troops groaned.
"That creature that was giving us a rough time last night is clearly territorial, and we now see why," he replied, pointing at the thick green brush, "Water is worth protecting, odds are that this creature will protect it from us."
"The geek's right," one of the other troops piped up, "We may want to be careful here."
"Alright," Captain Stinson grumbled, "Squad One, spread out, safeties off. Clear the area of anything hostile."
The Colonial unit immediately moved forward, each of them somewhat jumpy as they got into the close quarters of the much more lively area. The very recent memory of last night stormed back as they all continued to contemplate what it was that might be waiting for them and how dangerous it might be. They all made their way in, carefully picking through the tall and rather sharp blades of grass. Their feet began to make slight squishing noises as they got closer to the source of water. But now they weren't able to see more than a few meters in front of their weapons, which were tucked to their shoulders, itching to be fired.
They were about to relax, but then something began stirring. As the leading Colonials got to the edge of the reed field they heard something moving in front of them, and it was big. There were a series of heavy splashes in water ahead of them, and the leading Colonial, Corporal Peter Barker, poked himself out of the reeds with weapon trained on the source. What he saw made him jump of course, but it was definitely no monster.
A red furred deer froze as it saw the Colonial, snorting loudly at him as he examined the graceful creature, determining that not even the ten-point rack on the animal was a threat to him. But thankfully it was alone in this little pond-like body of water that was gathered in a large bowl-like depression, surrounded by soft leaved trees and high grasses and reeds along the bank. The water was clear, although it was muddied up a little bit from the deer's movements.
"Just a deer!" Corporal Barker called out, his voice scaring off the deer, making it bound off, sending a couple splashes straight up.
"Well that's that I suppose," Dr. Martinez said calmly as other Colonials broke through the reeds, "No deer would stick around if there was a predator nearby."
"Well these aren't the deer we're used to," Captain replied, "Keep moving, make sure it's safe."
"We're on another planet, never before seen by the Colonies, safe went out the window a while ago," one of the troops, Corporal Katie Corlew laughed as she walked underneath the low lying branch of a tree, moving to higher ground.
"That's the truth," one of the other Colonials said in agreement.
But that's when all hell broke loose. As Corlew walked beneath the thick tree, a large, hairy arm snapped downwards, grabbing the Colonial by her pack, and yanked her upwards. She immediately yelled in surprised, and on instinct squeezed the trigger on her rifle, sending a handful of bullets into the ground, the pops of the rifle and her screams letting the entire squad know something had gone very wrong.
"Corlew!" Stinson yelled, running through the knee deep water to where he could see the convulsing trees and then saw her come flying out of the tree, taking a great many branches and a shower of leaves with her.
Corporal Corlew landed in the water with a splash without her helmet, coughing and gasping for air. She'd lost her rifle along with her pack and her face was cut several times from the trip through the tree. Stinson saw she was alive and conscious and took aim at the opening in the tree in front of them as two more Colonials ran to join him. But what they saw come out of the tree made them freeze in terror.
A massive ape-like creature leapt from the tree, landing in the water in front of them. Its fur was a dark brown, and its nostrils were tall and thin, it had thin lips, and a pronounced brow with a pair of dark eyes glaring at them without the slightest hint of fear in them. But those things didn't intimidate the Colonials, the fact it was easily seven feet tall and even more easily weighed close to three or four hundred pounds.
"Kill that frakker!" Corlew roared as she scrambled to her feet, fear being replaced by absolute rage.
At the sudden roar from the Colonial soldier the creature roared at them, and then came towards them, fists balled tight, sharp teeth barred. And the Colonials opened fire with a vengeance. All three rifle armed Colonials depressed their triggers and sent their deadly rounds downrange. But what happened next defied possibility. The bullets seemed to splash across a golden shroud that lit up as the rounds struck home. This didn't seem possible, yet as the creature confidently strode towards the Colonials it sure seemed real.
"What the frak is this?!" one of the troops screamed in terror as he reloaded.
Upon seeing the man reach for his vest to reload the creature then almost seemed to grin and then lowered its shoulders and charged with an accompanying roar that sounded disturbingly familiar. But the familiarity was not a very pressing concern as it lunged forward and grabbed the Colonial by his entire chest, shoving him downwards and into the water, dunking him below the water and snapping his collar bone in two places. Stinson jumped off to the side and kept his weapon firing, but even then the gold shield remained in place. And he now saw a small shimmer of gold on the creature's left wrist and a glowing red crystal embedded in it. But that same arm immediately slapped him ripping his rifle out of his hands and out of sight, and him two feet into the air and into the third soldier.
"Captain!" Corporal Corlew screamed as she pulled his pistol out and fired point blank right into the shielded face of the creature, but her hand and the pistol were grabbed with enough force to send a shot of pain as the force of the creature nearly broke her fingers.
But she ignored the pain and ripped her combat knife from its scabbard and jabbed upwards, but the creature must have been a close quarters specialist, because it made a move to stop her, but a roar of pain sounded out in response to its move. Corlew was somewhat surprised to see her knife had gone right through the creature's right hand, clean through the middle of the palm with the point going through with the point visible through the dirty fur on the back of it. Blood gushed from the wound as the creature now growled face to face with the Colonial corporal and tossed her into air, making her plow right into a tree trunk, cracking several ribs and knocking her unconscious.
"Rocket!" a yell from Lieutenant Arroyo came from the side, and a loud bang sounded out as a Colonial Mark Forty-Six twenty-five millimeter rifle rocket slammed into the creature's shield, making it stumble and kneel from the force of the explosion.
"Light 'em up!" the lieutenant yelled as she reached down to reload the rocket into the underslung launcher on her rifle.
Three more Colonial soldiers now burst from the reeds, well separated from each other as they continued firing. One carried a SAW, and was letting rip, each round plowing right into the creature's shield as it recovered, the bullets not phasing it in the least. But by this time Captain Stinson and Sergeant Warren were up to their feet, and saw that the creature was about to unleash hell on their comrades. They couldn't let that happen and the two men pulled their weapons and fired from less than a few yards from the creature that was now fully surrounded by firing Colonials.
"That shield's taking everything we've got, we need AP!" Stinson yelled as he popped away with his pistol as another rocket from Arroyo slammed into the creature's head.
He was referring to the armor piercing rocket launcher that they'd brought along and that the unconscious man whose collar bone had been broken in the first phase still had slung over his shoulder as he floated in the water. But the creature made its move before Sergeant Warren could grab for the launcher. It jumped up into the air, landing right in front of the Colonial trio of reinforcements and grabbed both, throwing the one in its right hand at Lieutenant Arroyo and then slung the other man right into Captain Stinson who was keeping himself between the creature and Warren, who was getting the small rocket launcher off of their downed man. But this didn't help, as it only sent all three Colonials sprawling into the water.
"What does it take to kill this thing?!" Stinson roared in fury as he tried getting to his feet but found himself without his pistol.
But when he turned around it was there, standing over him, and it then reached up, and very deliberately slid the still embedded knife from its left palm out and then held it firmly in front of the Colonial officer. A low snarl emanated from its throat as Stinson defiantly stood up, and drew his own blade.
"Stinson get down!" a new voice yelled out, and Stinson saw the form of Agent Fraser standing off to the right aiming his submachine gun at the creature and Stinson complied immediately, diving away as the man fired.
Fraser had heard the battle from afar, and after ordering the civilians to stay put and draw their weapons he'd rushed to the sound of the guns. And he'd found quite a mess waiting for him. Every member of the military team was down on the ground or in the water, injured or hurting from quite a beating. And then he'd seen one interesting beast standing over them, and fired. But he hadn't seen the knife, but as the creature faced him he saw it in the beast's right hand.
"Fraser got the civilians out of here!" Stinson ordered as the beast continued to walk forward.
"Get your men out of here first! They need you guys!" Fraser snapped back as he stepped forward, moving closer to the beast in utter defiance.
Soon his clip ran dry and he pulled his pistol, and fired extremely quickly, and ran that dry as well. But to no effect the creature now snapped his arm out and grabbed Fraser by the neck and lifted him off the ground. It seemed to look Fraser right in the eyes and then pulled the knife up, reversing its grip and prepared to deliver a lethal blow that was set to be aimed right at his forehead.
However things seemed to be on the side of the Colonials, as something caught the creature's eye, and it looked up and behind Fraser, and tossed him to the side, landing in the reeds. It let out a low defensive growl, and backed up assuming a purely defensive posture. And then the Colonials saw it, and felt their hearts drop immediately. It was another creature, but this one was a full foot taller at least and its fur was jet black. What it was doing here was something that the other Colonials were somewhat apprehensive about, as they knew full well what this smaller one was doing to them.
I apologize for this criminal's behavior children of Kobol. Care for your injured and return home, a calm voice spoke through each Colonial's mind as if the speaker were right there saying it to their face.
The black creature raised its right arm, and the Colonials saw a silver arm band with four boxy bulges on the side closer to the hand and a bar on the inside of the arm on a hinge close to the thumb. Green lights lined its artistically covered face, and then glowed with increased strength as all four bulges clicked and then slid up with green crystals so they cleared the creature's large hand. The handle flipped into the creature's hand, finishing the transition to active weapon. The creature then aimed its arm at the brown one that the Colonials had already been contending with.
The first one didn't seem to like this very much and roared in defiance and charged. But the new arrival didn't even flinch away, it just pulled the trigger and four green bolts slammed into the charging creature, shattering the gold shield with ease and launching the beast five feet backwards to land with a large splash and going completely limp. The new arrival deactivated its wrist weapon and then tapped the inside of his device and a silver disk no bigger than a few inches fell into its hand and he tossed it right onto the unconscious body of its foe.
"Well we softened it up for you," Lieutenant Arroyo said harshly as the Colonials began to stand up in amazement.
Perhaps, that same voice said with complete nonchalance through the minds of the Colonials once more. But the thing that definitely weirded out every one of them was that the creature's mouth didn't move at all.
However a new oddity in this day of days surprised all of them. The body of their now downed foe was surrounded by a golden light and then disappeared, the water rushing to the spot where its presence needed to be filled in.
"What the frak?" one of the men mumbled under his breath.
You have many questions, I know, and you're now wondering if you should open fire, Captain, the creature turned around and faced Captain Stinson directly, I assure you of this, I will not harm you and there are no more of my kind on this planet for you to fear once I am gone to return my prisoner. Now it is best that you and your people return home. Now that you've seen us we will be contacting your people. And yes, I know to contact Choros, your people are like Earth used to be, easily frightened by the possibility of their people learning a hard truth.
"Earth?" Fraser whispered.
Hmm…perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned them. Another time perhaps, I'll see you around.
The creature now changed in tone and posture. It seemed awkward, as if it had just said something it wasn't supposed to. But how could he or whatever it was know that there was something going on between them without being told? That and many more questions swarmed in the Colonials' minds as they saw the creature whisk itself away in a ball of golden light.
For a first trip with humble expectations a lot was sure going on here.
Lucian Homeworld, Aboard The Colony
The Colony had been undergoing some drastic changes, especially since the Cylons had taken over just about every job that the Lucians, their new allies, needed. Everything from building up the infrastructure of the capital city to mirror what the Cylons' earliest models had built on the Colonial homeworlds, to redesigning a hybrid fleet with a secret and sinister purpose. But that purpose was to be revealed when it was far too late for anyone to do anything to stop it.
And it was this purpose that the Cylons were currently discussing at their normal meeting place aboard the Colony which was surrounded on all sides by a massive fleet of their newly retrofitted Basestars. These redesigned and upgraded warships were also accompanied by defense satellites which were also in orbit around the Lucian homeworld and a dozen or so other crucial planets that were far enough away from the Jaffa that they wouldn't be located and their secret would be safe. They were small, with a naquadah generator providing a shield and power for six small plasma cannons mounted on the ends of twenty meter long arms arranged around a central cube with each corner having one jutting spire with the guns on the ends. Also mounted were eight single point-defense guns firing conventional rounds. These satellites weren't very tough, but the prevailing Cylon theory was that they would be more than a match for the unshielded Colonial Fleet and too numerous for the much more feared Earth fleet to handle.
The Cylons had become a rather valued and somewhat revered ally for the Lucians, who had, over the last few years, showered them with gifts of technology, new creature comforts, and most of all, the locations of thousands of human worlds. Many of these were primitive at best, not even mastering gunpowder. Handfuls were under either direct Lucian control or, as was the case with most of them, were under Lucian influence. But in a galaxy of thousands of planets that meant several hundred human worlds and yet only a few billion humans. And this massive spread of population centers presented a challenge to the Cylons. A challenge compounded by their protectors which took the form of a near-human species that the Lucians had introduced as the Jaffa. And these Jaffa posed a problem and a half to the Cylons. And the meeting this day was on the subject of the Jaffa.
Inside the newly refurbished meeting room, complete with a large exquisitely carved table, a soft elaborate rug, and a plethora of drinks and foods shipped in from the Lucians' holdings across the galaxy.
"We've been waiting and entertaining these Lucians for too long," the lead Cylon Model Five declared as the meeting was brought to order, "When will we deal with them?"
"When we're certain of a rapid success," the lead Model One, Cavil, said confidently as he sipped some wine.
"A rapid success? We've been capable of that for a year now," a Model Three growled.
"If you're talking about wiping out the Lucians then yes we are, but wiping out the rest of the humans and the Jaffa is another matter altogether," a Number Four responded as he rubbed his chin in contemplation.
"I think we need to re-evaluate our goals before continuing. We all want to wipe out these Lucians, and then move on to wipe out the Colonials along with Earth. But in what order do we do this?" a Six responded.
"We wipe out the Lucians first thing," the Five snapped.
"Of course," Cavil nodded, "We mustn't leave a potential foe at our backs."
"Well that's the big problem we face isn't it?" a Model Eight mumbled to herself.
"What?" Cavil asked, hearing the mumbling but not quite understanding it.
"We have too many enemies," the Eight reiterated, louder this time, "We can't fight every civilization in this galaxy. We're behind in technology and not even we can mass enough numbers to wage a galactic war."
A quick silence enveloped the Cylon council as this thought sunk in. Admitting to a weakness in reality wasn't weakness in character as far as the Cylons were concerned. It was merely a problem which was meant to be solved. If one didn't bring it to light their foes would.
"She's right," the Four admitted, "We can wipe out the Lucians within days. We've easily placed ourselves into a position of trust. Millions of Centurions and thousands of Raiders are guarding their new cities with their exact blueprints wired in. They've also lowered their guard and practically left us in complete control of any military they ever had."
"There's no argument there. And for their foolishness in placing trust we've gotten plasma weapons, shields, and new long range FTL systems," the Five responded.
"We need to prioritize our targets."
"We can wipe out the Lucians at a time of our choosing. So it's a matter of prioritizing our other targets; Earth, the Jaffa, and the Colonials."
"We'll need to test them, we can't make a decision of such importance without information on how they will fight back," Cavil suggested.
"Can we insure that none of them will find us and launch a counterstroke?" a Two piped up.
"Yes, we have three new mobile command station with a resurrection chamber that can be a base for a strike against whoever we choose to strike," a Four mentioned.
"I motion for a strike against the Jaffa first, we have an idea of how the Colonials and Earth will fight already. The Jaffa are a mystery to us."
"I second," the Eight agreed.
Other hands went into the air, the logic of the plan being quite sound and thus the decision was made.
"Very well," Cavil said, "Now, for the type of strike to be launched."
"A large force will doubtless provoke the Jaffa to call for aid, luring Earth into the conflict," the Five said, noting the alliance between Earth and the Jaffa.
"So perhaps a minor strike force, five Basestars sounds fair."
"We'll need a target of opportunity," a Four said calmly, "I'll see what targets the Lucians have in mind, just to keep up the illusion of our alliance and use their intelligence."
"That sounds prudent, now…what about Earth?" Cavil asked, "We have plenty of forces to launch a mere probing raid on a minor target."
"No, best not to stir that hornets' nest until we're ready."
Several of the Cylons noted this odd push for conflict with Earth. It was not something that the others found to be a very good omen in the future when a balanced mind was key. And Cavil noted the looks in the faces of his other comrades and dropped it, for now. But he did decide to push for another option, the Colonials.
"Well what about the Colonials, it's been five years. Logic dictates that they've expanded their reach without the thought of the big bad Cylons around to prey on them."
"We could afford a scouting mission to take a look at what they've been up to. But for the sake of the overall plan I don't believe provoking the Colonials is prudent."
"I concur, an intelligence gathering mission is in order. But provoking the Colonial Fleet at this early stage would likely drag in other powers and the Colonials are clearly not at war with Earth as was planned."
"Yes the plan for Earth and the Colonies to bleed each other dry did fail. But we can afford to try again. Lucian Intelligence has indicated that the Colonies are completely cut off from Earth, and are doubtless looking for Earth. I vote for us to give the Colonials a shove in the right direction and hopefully those fools will start a war," Cavil suggested, opening the floor to votes.
"The Colonials know us too well, they would suspect us," one of the others mused.
"Yes…coupling that with a somewhat easy victory we gave them I don't think any early conflict will end the way you're predicting."
"I don't think that they'll be so quick to blame Earth either. And even if they do Earth will either defeat them without much loss or will force a surrender before either side come to serious blows."
"It's not what we want at all. The Colonials, despite their numbers, aren't able to compete with Earth in a straight war."
"Never thought I'd be wishing the frakking Colonials were more advanced."
Battlestar Pegasus, On Long Range Patrol
The entire ship was back on track to a normal peace-time schedule with a twist. The Pegasus was now one of the primary vessels assigned to exploration duties. Of course there were many dedicated civilian government and private exploration vessels, but the military had a big part in going from exploration vessel to exploration vessel, checking on their status, see if there were any emergencies or see if the ships were even where they were supposed to be.
At the moment the Pegasus and her battle group of a heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, four heavy destroyers, seven light destroyers, a Marinestar, and three replenishment ships were on their way to meet with a two ship exploration group. The actual exploration ship, the Lucas Wanderer, belonged to a university on Picon and was accompanied by a privately contracted supply ship, the On Time III. Both ships were supposed to be at a prearranged set of coordinates for a check-in, but as the timer counted down the Pegasus Battle Group found itself with a problem. The two civilian ships hadn't shown up.
"Where's our civvies?" Admiral Cain snapped loudly as she walked into the bridge, where Colonel Belzen and Captain Taylor were going over plans to launch Raptors in a search pattern around the last known coordinates of the civilian ships.
"We're coordinating a search pattern now ma'am," Captain Cole responded, "I have eight Raptors already prepped and sixteen more are ready from the rest of the group."
"How far are we ranging our search?" Cain demanded.
"We're going in a grid pattern in the immediate vicinities of their last known coordinates," Belzen replied.
"How many people were on those ships?"
A quick silence hushed some of the closer members of the bridge crew as Belzen looked at Captain Cole. Then he looked at Cain and replied.
"One-hundred and twenty souls," Belzen reported, "Twenty aboard the On Time III and sixty aboard the Lucas Wanderer. Thirty-five are professors and fifteen graduate students with a standard crew of forty. I have the crew manifest here."
Cain just nodded, thinking of the options. It was perfectly possible that the ships had just found something and the egg heads were keeping them off schedule. It had happened to the Hades Battle Group, a three ship convoy of two exploration vessels and a tanker were hunted down only to have been found analyzing a planet that had turned out to be habitable and had a large variety of wildlife and plantlife. Three Battlestar groups ended up involved in the search before they'd found the damned ships and the project leader was immediately removed by the commander of the Hades as a warning to other exploration ships not to repeat that incident.
But there was another possibility, single Cylon pockets were being found every so often, although there hadn't been any found in nine months. So that possibility was always on Cain's mind. And to be honest, she relished the opportunity to finish off more Centurions or even get the rush of firing the Pegasus's big rail guns. And her ship had recently taken on a new rotation of replacement crew, pilots, and officers so there were no shortages of hotshots looking to make a name for themselves where there wasn't any opportunity to do so.
"What was the closest star system to them?" Cain asked as she remembered these facts.
"Here, two jumps away," Belzen replied, pointing at the system in question, "It's completely unexplored, so it's perfectly possible that they're there, perhaps just lost track.
"Send the Lucrecia and three destroyers to check it out and order them to send a Raptor if they find anything," Cain ordered.
"Yes ma'am."
"Let's hope we won't have to bail out those eggheads," Captain Cole said with a chuckle.
"I'd rather humiliate them than have them be babied in sickbay and in the news, although the commendations we get are usually worth it," Belzen responded.
"If we succeed that is."
Well, it's been a little while, but I finally got around to it. The reasons for the delay are those many of us are quite used to. School and work, I just started a new job, but it's a part-time deal however the last week has seen me working five days in a row for training. But now, with school scheduled to restart on July 12th I should be able to get some more enjoyable tasks completed.
So, yeah, that's it. Just work and school, but I'll try getting some progress on the next chapter tomorrow considering if my family's new puppy doesn't try biting my face into pieces. (Yes puppies have VERY sharp teeth and claws. And ours is very handsy with those paws of hers.) Remember to leave a review telling me what you think about the update such as ides and potential improvement. I can't fix it if I don't know what's broke.
Next Chapter Preview: Rescue mission, in the Colonial style. And will our intrepid RSEC Team heed the advice of…Bigfoot?