Fort Liberty, Gilgamesh
August 7, 2558
With Vasili gone from the Blades on his own undercover mission and the sangheili recalled back to the Ballista, Trip was stuck inside Fort Liberty until Dan Tyler had come up with a lead. So he spent two days touring a city that was much unenjoyably large for him. After never being to Fort Liberty before, he vowed never to go again. What he expected was a large city with sprawling highways and short buildings. Instead, he got crowds that would defy imagination, a nexus of subways and skyscrapers that seemed to fade as they got higher. The cranes alongside them were just as big, numbering in the triple digits of stories. The city had two space elevators to ferry traffic between the atmosphere and its orbital shipyard.
His feeling of powerlessness was even further amplified about Suvorov's absence. He had left already, rendezvousing with his contacts to get him inside Victoria again. He called the Ballista from a disposable comm device once he had arrived in Kirup, but then tossed it afterwards. While they were common in the cities, he would instead be going into the backcountry, likely a small town in the densely forested colony.
Aegis felt his own comlink vibrate, although couldn't hear the tune that rang. He slid it free from his pocket holder and opened the line, finding a bench in a park to talk. The park was one of few quiet zones around the giant city. "Aegis."
"Trip, it's Vaal. You eager to end your little shore leave?"
"So Tyler found something." Aegis made no attempt to hide the excitement in his voice.
"I believe that he would explain this to you much better than I could possibly. Putting him through now."
Aegis took out a small pad of paper and a black pen that he brought with him to take notes if he was away from the hotel.
"Hey boss, how's Liberty treating you?"
"All cold stares and warm weather. Vaal told me that you found something."
"You bet!"
"So what is our mystery ship? A carrier, salvage barge?"
"Neither." Dan Tyler drew in a breath as he scrolled through his newly acquired information on his computer. "She's headed towards New Legaspi on Mars. Her name is the Anije. I did a cross reference with her name, which means ship in Albanian. She was built with the means to become an entire portable drydock for wounded UNSC warships and large freighters. It stands to reason whoever owns and operates the Anije is definitely in league with the pirates. With the drydock in their possession, nearly any ship, human, Covenant or otherwise could be snatched at their discretion. The ship simply swallows her victim like one of those python snakes and then continues on her way."
He could easily picture how they pulled it off; the drydock was large enough to fit a UNSC cruiser inside. Once the vessel was under pirate control, they would regroup with the larger ship in a hidden place, when nearby eavesdroppers were out of the way and when on the darker side of a planet, the ship speeds would match as the captured vessel would be reeled in by magnetic conduits inside the massive chamber. Other clamps would steady her as she entered the hold and once she did, the doors would shut. Unless a drone was sent inside, nobody would ever know that inside the hold was the largest bounty in one of the most aspiring pirate rings in history.
"So why don't they just dismantle it once it's inside, they'd have all the time they want to refit them and sell them under a different name for even more profit?"
"No clue what they'd possibly do with that. I didn't think of it, but it makes sense, especially when money is the name of the game."
Aegis nodded, "Nice work. Send the pictures of what she looks like to my datapad. By the way, who owns the Anije?"
"Oh they're all a bunch of hollow corporations. Astute Orient Shipping, Ajax Trading, Pitch Limited,"
He stopped short, hand aching from writing at a rapid pace. "Pitch sounds like a mining term. Since the pirates had mercury in them found by Sofia, maybe the two are connected."
"Commander, I haven't started digging into the shell companies yet, so I thought you wanted to know about our mystery drydock right away. These pirates are no amateurs, even for kig-yar, instead of the typical hyena scavenging; they're hunting more like lions with force and fear."
"Well thanks anyway. You've still got a lot more work to do." Aegis cut the connection. He stood up, but remained where he was, now with an objective in mind.
Time to go find the Anije and see what's going on! Sorry this is a short chapter, I promise the next one will be action packed and longer!