-1

+++

"This is even slower going than our trip to the Rebel stronghold." Grumbled Alek crossing his arms over his chest.

Captain Gades slid a data pad she'd been looking over into the side of her command chair. "We need the time for damage repair but this is ridiculous." She stood and walked over to the Nav-station where Zebv was plotting out the micro jumps needed to weave their way past several natural hazards.

"Looking over my shoulder wont make the ship fly any faster sir." commented Zebv once he was finished a set of course adjustments for stellar drift.

Exasperated the captain turned back to Alek. "Def, what the hell are we doing out here? Really."

He held up his hands in mock surrender. "You know everything I do from that Pad. A location for a secret Imperial base that gave even Ghent a hard time decrypting."

"Any slicer could get through even the hardest Imperial encryption with enough time."

Alek shook his head. "Not Ghent normally. I met him once when I was younger. He's some kind of genius but even he couldn't figure out why the Imps put some kind of base out here."

The ship Captain sat back down shaking her head. "There are dozens of safer places they could have built some small base in the Core. Why put anything out here?"

"That's what we're going to find out."

+++

The Corvette Bright Hope and the Gunship Dereliction reverted to realspace in a remote star system on the edge of the Mid-Rim. It had only a long string of numbers for a designation and wouldn't have even been listed if not for the System's distant Binary affecting hyperspace travel through the region. The system's inner star was a dim and rather small Red Dwarf.

Alek pushed off from the wall he'd been leaning against at the back of the bridge. "We should use passive sensors only and probably switch to line of sight communications with Dereliction."

"Right, get it done people."

After a few minutes into their orbit the Rodian bridge officer looked up. "[I think I found something."
"What have you got Eleck?" Ora was soon out of her chair and looking over the other officer's shoulder.

"[A Cargo Facility II in an Elliptical orbit to the star. It's fairly close in but these starts don't put out a lot of heat."

Alek shook his head. "Cargo Facility two's are big stations. I'm surprised no one has noticed this thing sooner."

"[The station is missing close to half it's mass. Look, it's only got the one cargo transfer arm."

"Put it on the main screen and magnify."

The forward holoprojector lit up showing an image of what looked to be a badly damaged and abandoned station. Most of the lower sections of the station were missing and just as the sensor operator had claimed one whole cargo docking pylon was gone.
Alek strode up and pointed to a fairly regular looking piece of debris situated near the top of the station. "That looks like a turbolaser turret."
"[You're right... there's two more of them, possibly four total."

"Civilian built Cargo Facilities don't normally have weapons do they?" asked the Captain.
Alek shook his head. "No, they're normally protected by free floating defence platforms."

"[The turrets look to be situated to protect against light capital ships."

"There's gotta be something of value on that station. Just hit the turrets using our remaining EZ-95 and we use Bright Hope to put a boarding party in their main cargo bay. Dereliction can give us any other cover fire we need."

Ora sighed and rubbed at her forehead. "Def you're never hesitant at all to risk my ship are you?"

He flashed a grin at the ship Captain. "Yeah, not really no. I'll make it up to you somehow." He turned and headed for the bridge doors. "I'll round up some people for a boarding party. I promise not to take more than forty." He shouted over his shoulder. The doors closed behind him with a hiss.

Ora glared after him for a few moments them went back to her command chair. "I swear, he's going to get himself and everyone around him killed one of these days. If he hadn't gotten me off that damn slave ship I'd never work for him."

"I'll second that motion." spoke up Zebv from his station.

"Shut up Zebv."

002