Geitona Sector
Darkspace
Orion
Day 121
Apis Ready Room

Captain Harriet Greer still didn't trust Fleet Commander Valdez or the Apis or the Bureau at all but the Colonel and Major Gobi had assured her they would not support removing the pardon. The fleet buzz was that the Zephyr and Sandpiper were "hero ships" for helping out and especially leading the Lamia and it's fleet out of "Jumbo." Commander Valdez had requested this meeting (even being auxiliary Greer knew this wasn't a request) to discuss upcoming fleet security issues.

"Captain Greer thank you for agreeing to see me" said Commander Valdez. In short with the uncertain mission length of the Orion and Lamia covering the 47 civilian ships with 4 military ships and her two "auxiliary" ships was challenging. The Shaitan had found itself overstretched covering the ships it had even before the Orion's and Lamia's fleets had joined. Now things were worse. "I will get some input from some of my officers but I have had some requests from ships of your fleet to be moved to be under the Shaitan."

Again this is not a huge surprise to Greer even with her limited military training. The Shaitan being a Gunstar while not designed for commerce protection (it was designed for the opposite actually) it was by far the best protection in the fleet even if the Orion had still been here. The Aphid despite being designated as an Escortstar was more a general purpose ship. An Escortstar was designed to be "good at everything not great at anything." Greer found many of the naming conventions of the Navy to between odd to outright moronic with confusing inconsistencies. The most obvious being how is the Apis a Battlestar when a Mercury is like 30 times bigger? At some point the differences should be enough that grouping them together is more a detriment than advantage. 'Frak stop letting your mind wander' thought Greer. Thinking back she realized what Valdez said.

"Commander I understand if the La Bellot and it's sister ships want to be under a different ship" replied Greer. Actually getting rid of the 6 ships that they picked up a few months ago would be a huge relief. Spokesperson Martel is a huge pain in the ass and her barely hid contempt for "Deltans" and especially the former CIF members did not make for a good working relationship.

"Yes" said Valdez with a hint of shared annoyance at Spokesperson Martel. "Several of the ships we have in our fleet were from Helios Gamma and the Sagittarons have been restive under our command" said Valdez.

The Sagittarons were the only planet that on average liked the Colonial government less than Canceron with many Saggies being a frustrating combination of pacifist and superstitious. Greer was or had been supportive (if nothing else the Saggies or at least the SFM often supported the CIF one way or another) of Sagittaron and it's desire to get more rights (or at least the headache this caused the Stompers) but found them superstitious and their religion with around 30 sects that ranged from odd to baffling.

"I can't say I am surprised" replied Greer. "What exactly do you need from us." Unofficially Greer and Valdez had reached an agreement. Greer would follow orders and Valdez would overlook things like the lack of "Sir" and that Greer asked a lot of questions. This arrangement worked but really seemed to annoy Commander Atwood. To be fair (or at least somewhat) Commander Atwood didn't have the racist contempt that Spokesperson Martel showed but on the other hand Commander Atwood is an Atwood and that clan have been Commanders and Admirals since the Galleon arrived in the Cyrannus System 2000 years ago. Atwood having a very "by the book" mentality is understandable and apparently (if the rumors are true) other officers find Atwood to be rigid and lacking imagination.

"If we move the La Bellot and the other 5 ships to be under that Shaitan would mean that we would need to move some ships to be under your protection" said Commander Valdez.

The Zephyr has had it's damage fixed and even had a decent dradis upgrade and some more missiles added (more because they no longer had to hide their abilities) but the Zephyr was not a warship in any way. Still they should be able to keep track of some ships. In short there was a Sunliner that had been converted to be more comfortable for long term (which considering how much a Sunliner sucked on a regular trip Greer couldn't imagine living on such a ship for months) and a few cargo ships that were populated by Sagittarons. If Greer was "willing" they would be put under her command. Greer now realized what Commander Valdez was actually asking. There were very few Marines in the fleet and Greer's people actually might be a better "police force" (never mind the massive irony) than what was otherwise available or if nothing else the problem ships would no longer be Valdez's direct problem. 'Well shit' thought Greer.

"Yes sir" said Greer. Greer could comply and keep her people under her control or disagree and likely see her people split up.

"Thank you Captain" replied Commander Valdez. There was some haggling and a couple of relatively empty cargo ships from the Lamia's fleet was also put under her command.

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Makrino Sector
System 65384
Orion Bridge
121 Days After Attack

Commander Gabrielle looked down at his rank badge with a slight annoyance. After talking with the other senior officers (and with his being jumped two ranks just after the Cylon attack) becoming a Commander (well LT Commander) not only gave some more "weight" to his rank it also did not put him in an imaginary lower position than Commander Atwood. However he was glad to see "Canceron Grey" rather than "Colonial Blue" on his uniform. He was not going to "kill" off the Canceron SDF (which the Orion was likely the last ship of) in his own and more importantly the majority of the crews mind. For the same reason the remaining Libran crew from the Tapir still wore "Libran Brown" and LT Fletcher wore "Tauron Green". The CSB kept their blacks. The Scorpians kept their light reds. The Colonial Guard kept their light blues. These things mattered even if Commander Atwood was quoting regs about how they should show uniformity (heh) and everyone should wear the uniform of the Colonial Navy. After finding out that LT Colonel Lewis had not cared in the least Atwood had temporarily shelved her complaints. Atwood (or at least the Shaitan) had shown skill in the battle over Jumbo (and reportedly in the Second Battle of Helios Beta) but seemed to lack "something" to be a good Commander. 'Well that's the Fleet Commander's problem' thought Commander Gabrielle.

Focusing on the star charts of the Makrino Sector several of which had marks showing previous Cylon presence in it made finding the Perseus and hopefully peacefully dealing with them a priority. Major Dammers, Captain Berkins, and LT Taylor were also part of this planning session.

Gabrielle was content with how Dammers had allowed the junior officers (who were roughly the same age as her) to take lead. When a more senior officer makes an opinion known it can effect the junior officers. This is one of the things that the "advanced" training classes like CAG, Tactical, and Command would train Captains on. When to let your officers brainstorm and when to reign them in if they lose focus. Major Dammers had been a LT 4 months ago and had never had such training but was showing signs as an officer that not only could run a ship but also train junior officers (something that unfortunately not all senior officers excel at).

"Sir the problem is that we do not know much" said Captain Berkins.

That was putting it mildly. However a clue of who Admiral Howard was had been found. An Admiral Trevor Howard from Virgon was a First War veteran who had served in Fleet Logistics until he retired about 5 years ago. This was crossed with whatever information they had on the Makrino Sector and since the Perseus stole 2 mining and a refining ship that means they are looking for tyleum? Or at least that seems to make the most sense. So they now had some (hopefully) educated guesses. The Priam was still a mystery as the Priam had been stationed as of the time of attack on Gemenon and how the Priam might be related to what was probably some Helios Delta secret project was unknown with the best current theory was they found each other by chance.

"Cartwheel I want you and Kite out there in one hour" said Commander Gabrielle.

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Makrino Sector
System 65384
LT Samantha "Cartwheel" Taylor LT Jake "Blaze" Kalar
LT JG Ray "Kite" Travis ECO Ensign Evan "Rascal" Burrow
Day 127

"Blaze this is probably the twentieth boring ass empty system we have checked this week" asked LT "Cartwheel" Taylor.

"Seventeenth and we did have the almost run in with the toasters 2 days ago" replied LT "Blaze" Kalar the Raptors ECO. This system was a red dwarf with a medium sized gas giant and a dense asteroid belt. The rocky planet that had been destroyed by it's larger sibling billions of years ago must have been almost Kobol sized. Checking out this system could take days for even the most perfunctory scan.

There had around been around 30 Cylon Raiders in one of the other systems several light minutes out and were clearly looking for something but per standing orders the two Raptors had left before they were noticed. Certainly concerning but fairly minor considering everything else. "Kite keep your head straight" said LT Taylor. The other Raptor crew were no longer "nuggets" but she still felt responsible for them.

It only took a few hours and something was found. There was a Colonial Patrolstar protecting 3 mining ships that were currently grabbing tyleum ore. Two of them matched the missing mining ships and the Patrolstar was the same class of ship that the Vigilant was. Unless there was something unlikely this was what they were looking for.

Makrino Sector
System 65384 Outer System
Lamia
Day 127 (3 Hours Later)

Oscar Lewis had known he would never be promoted due to a lack of desire (being happy where he was at) and a related lack of political skills that was needed to ever become a Colonel or higher rank. The Manticores were old with the Lamia (much like himself) entering service just after the end of the First Cylon War. The Manticores had over the decades been slowly whittled down in numbers as while they were useful during wartime their peace time use was always a bit difficult to figure out. The term "glass canon" while sloppy was a fair assessment of the Manticores even the "newer" MK III variant. The Lamia actually had less anti Raider or missile defenses than the Aphid with only slightly more armor. The Manticores had been designed to swarm Cylon ships that were smaller than the standard Baseship.

The problem that the Lamia had found was that the Cylons had gone all out on one design. Every Colonial ship had reported only seeing Raiders, Heavy Raiders, and their new (very) missile heavy Baseships. This left the Lamia in a weird spot. If they got lucky they might be able to destroy a Baseship but would not be able to duke it out. During the weeks spent in "Jumbo" there had been a lot of talk about how to destroy a Baseship along with it's 200 Raiders and no one had been able to come up with anything resembling a plan that was not pure luck. Any gambler would know you might pull a full colors in a triad game but you don't depend on it.

This mission was complicated in that the Lamia had to make contact but well within it's skills. After checking that the Raptor was ready he said "LT Werner jump us to the coordinates." There was about a 3 second delay and then the Patrolstar said "Colonial ship it's good to see you."

The Patrolstar stated it was the Patrolstar Rhea. The Rhea said they were part of a larger force led by the Perseus (no mention was made of the Priam or the Spry) but that the Perseus was overdue. The Rhea reported how these ships had been part of a group of ships that had left the Cyrannus System. The Captain in charge of the Rhea was saying that if they did not hear from the Perseus they were to go to a rendezvous point. At this point Colonel Lewis was tired of hearing this line of bullshit so sent the Raptor back to the Orion with a mention of "we have a group of civilian ships that we will bring with us."

When the Orion jumped in the Rhea immediately started to turn to increase distance (not only futile but they should have had their jump engines ready) but being boxed in by 2 much larger ships the Rhea agreed to shut down. The "Ravens" were then sent to all 4 ships.

Makrino Sector
System 65384 Outer System
Orion
Day 128

"Major Dammers what do we know" asked Commander Gabrielle.

"Sir we are still processing the people on the 3 mining ships. While we found the missing Elena and Jellyfish we don't know the location of the Ginger at this time. The other mining ship we found is the Scarab and it was apparently under the protection of the Rhea" said Major Dammers. "What I do have is the list of personnel that were on the Rhea. The officers and senior NCOs have all been replaced by various Canceron (this with a frown) or Aquarian SDF personnel. No one higher ranked than a Technician is from the Rhea with a few other people with similar low ranks from the Spry" said Major Dammers. "Of the 28 people assigned to the Rhea 15 were of the original Rhea crew and 4 from the Spry. The remainder are 6 from Aquarian and 3 from Canceron."

"Major Dammers I would like to talk to the Canceron SDF personnel" said Commander Gabrielle. The Vigilant and Rhea are the same basic design so Gabrielle was aware of what the staffing numbers should have been. The Vigilant had an official crew of 60 people. The Rhea currently has 28 people. This probably means trained or trustworthy crew are low. Picking up the phone "Captain Flacca I need you to go with Major Dammers to help process the civilians and LT Rogers is to come to my office." Commander Gabrielle had looked over the list of names of people on the Rhea and saw something interesting. "We need to get information as quick as possible. You and Captain Flacca try to figure out what happened and if we can find the Ginger or any other civilian ships."

LT JG Britney Rogers at first thought this would be a "Bupers" duty but after listening to the Commander she realized she was here for a different reason. "Sir I do know LT Nathan Barnes." LT Barnes had been at the Canceron Academy 3 years ahead of her but it was more the Rogers were one of the few families that were "equal" to the Barnes family. The Twenty Families (always spelled in caps) that also just happened to be majority shareholders of the largest corporations and controlled the highest level of Canceron government would have various events that were as much "letting the kids meet" in some hope they would click (there were no forced marriages or anything like that just families making their preferences STRONGLY known) and Nathan was in the same age range. They had never been close or had much in common but they had a large amount of social interaction. What the secondary families (of which Commander Gabrielle's family was just part of) thought their "betters" did was a mix of outdated information (if it ever had been accurate) or taking a couple of rare examples and blowing them completely out of proportion. Rogers wasn't annoyed since she had been dealing with these stereotypes since joining the Academy but every group has drunken idiots doing stupid shit occasionally and the press implying all of the "Twenty Families Children" were that way all the time got tiresome. Still she had to admit that LT Nathan Barnes being assigned to a Celestra Class repair ship was slumming it for someone who is the nephew of the Commander of the flagship of the Canceron SDF. "Nathan was if anything a bit lazy but fairly polite by our social standards" said LT Rogers which was about all she could remember about him.

Commander Gabrielle hit the button and one of the Tauron Sergeants bought in LT Barnes. "Thank you Sgt Riftin. LT Barnes take a seat" said Commander Gabrielle. It took a second but LT Barnes recognize LT Rogers. "Yes sir" said LT Barnes. "LT Barnes I would like to say that I served under your uncle on the Hades for 2 years. He was a fine officer (which he was truthfully)." Commander Gabrielle was hoping to reach this young officer on a personal level. "LT could you explain what the mission of the Thalia and the other ships was."

LT Barnes was more than willing to share what he knew. The Perseus along with the Thalia and Minos had been tasked to explore systems in the Makrino Sector. Two years ago a Picon Survey Corp ship found System 61128 with what was reported to be a large tyleum deposit. The Captain of the PSC ship decided that she could sell this information as she was married to a minor member of the Nexton family (owners of the largest mining consortium in Canceron) so the correct survey information was "lost". The original plan was to find a possibly livable planet (or at least one that could pass for one) to take advantage of the trade that would follow when System 61128 was "discovered" to be valuable and with Nexton in the "neighborhood" they would be the likely winners of any such contracts. Also get enough people out here and there would need to be infrastructure with valuable contracts for many of the Megacorps. The Aquarians were picked because well no one actually pays that much attention to Aquaria (something that is pretty accurate) and they had been making noise about setting up their second Territory for years and no one would trust the Cancerons if they started exploring what would be considered a "worthless" sector (also accurate).

The Perseus had been vaguely discussed as becoming an exploration ship after being retired from the Aquarian SDF but due to it's age it would need a couple of support ships making the whole thing too expensive. When the Cancerons not only provided those ships but also paid for the refit of the Perseus things became a much better deal and some legal if questionable paperwork the Perseus was sold for "scrap". The problem was when they did a better more in depth survey the amount of tyleum in System 61128 had been under estimated. As in there was enough tyleum to supply the Twelve Colonies for a over century. This caused the timeframe to be jumped up as there needed to be a working tyleum mine there before the next election in case the next President of the Colonies was not a moron like Adar or as bribable as Shevat. So the Resolute had been moved there to protect the mining and construction ships in case the CIF or any pirates noticed and caused problems. If nothing else once Nexton Inc. had the plant operational then even with fines they would still turn a huge profit and the lawyers could probably keep the case from hitting the courts for decades.

Commander Gabrielle was only shocked by the vast scale of bribery not it's existence. Gabrielle did have one question though. "LT Barnes how did you get involved in this scheme" asked Commander Gabrielle. LT Barnes did not seem the type to be picked to be involved in some shadowy business deal. Well other than his last name maybe.

"Sir I had let my family know I was going to leave the Navy when my six years were up" said LT Barnes " and I have about 10 siblings and cousins ahead of me in the family hierarchy and was never going to amount to much there. I was also engaged to the head of the Nexton families oldest granddaughter. So I was to get a job in Nexton after leaving the Canceron SDF."

Commander Gabrielle heard quite loudly the not said part of "for services rendered." This type of nepotism and back door bullshit is what made being in the Canceron SDF frustrating. Or had been when such things mattered. Time to get to more important things though. "LT I understand the original mission. What happened when the Cylons attacked?"

"We were checking out various nearby systems and our scheduled weekly resupply and report back to the Resolute was 3 days after the Cylon attack" said LT Barnes. (Which means they missed each other by 2 days). "There were Cylon Raiders there that almost got us but we jumped away. We then checked the Colonial fleet base in this sector and got a recorded message that the Cyrannus System had fallen to the Cylons and that they were exterminating humanity."

Gabrielle gave the LT a moment to get collected. The Colonial Fleet Base in the Makrino Sector was not really a base at all. More some construction had done setting up empty tyleum tanks and empty warehouses to hold various supplies in case a large fleet was ever needed here. The post was so minor that it had a dozen personnel with only a couple of Raptors in case they needed to communicate. According to LT Barnes the Cylons had thoroughly destroyed that base so nothing of value was found.

"We looked for help but were unable to find anything until 40 days later when the Priam found us. The Priam was somehow aware of our mission. Sorry sir I don't know the particulars but Admiral Howard said there was another fleet that did not have much in the way of support ships but did have a safe location that they thought the Cylons would never find" said LT Barnes. "Admiral Barnes would not share the location or compilation of this fleet in case we were captured by the Cylons as this was the largest group of humans remaining and the leader of that fleet is the official leader of what he was calling the New Colonial Government."

This warranted some questions as no one had any knowledge of any "official" government leader other than President Roslin who had left with the Galactica and no clue what the "New Colonial Government" was. LT Barnes had no idea who President Roslin was (he seemed shocked that the Secretary of Education was now the President of the Colonies) and had not heard about her final order for the military to support civilian ships. LT Barnes also had no information on who was the leader of the New Colonial Government was.

"Sir the Marines from the Priam mentioned that their families are back with "the fleet" and that supplies especially tyleum were low. This matches the orders given by the Admiral that once enough tyleum was mined we could depart to the safe location" said LT Barnes. "The Minos being a tyleum refueler could with a pair of specialized shuttles mine enough tyleum for 3 or 4 ships to keep going (this was it's designed mission after all) but not anything anyone would call a fleet. When we found the Rhea and it's 2 support ships we decided to add them and their crew but the Admiral refused to allow the "useless" civilians ships to join as they would be just more mouths to feed. Things got out of control when while procuring fuel and food as the civilians understood we were abandoning them and some Marines were killed fighting the civilians. Then the Admiral decided to make an example of those civilians and had all the crewmembers of the liner Bream and two cargo ships hung for mutiny."

This shocked both Commander Gabrielle and LT Rogers and warranted some questions of which LT Barnes being the communication officer (at that time) on the Thalia was able to answer. Around a dozen Marines were killed along with around 100 civilians. After this over 150 crew members of the three remaining civilian ships were also hanged for their "mutiny." The actions abandoning the La Bellot and other ships Gabrielle had known that the Perseus and Priam had gone up to or past the line of the oaths an officer swears to but this was outright piracy.

LT Barnes continued. "We almost had our own mutiny where Admiral Howard had to agree to never again impress civilians or take supplies but that critical ships either military or civilian would be added to support the New Colonial Government. Things were very tense between Commander Burian and Admiral Howard. Possibly it would have blown over but then the Spry and it's ships were found just a few days later and soon after that your ships were found. When your ships left and apparently rescued the ships we left behind from the Spry's fleet some of the officers on the Perseus were arrested and the ships crews were mixed. I was reassigned to the Rhea under Captain Karl" and here LT Barnes paused again. "Sir the scuttlebutt I have heard is that Captain Karl was promoted from a Lieutenant of a Raptor to Captain of the Rhea because she had proven her loyalty by reporting the actions of her ECO. This ECO was executed for letting your ships escape."

'Damn it' thought Gabrielle. LT Yates had done the right thing saving 2100 civilians and he was shot for it. If this was true (he would try to get confirmation for the other personnel) Gabrielle well he didn't know what he would do. 'Focus on the mission' he reminded himself.

"Understood LT. Since that time what do you have to report" said Commander Gabrielle.

"We spent a month searching for any Colonial ships or remaining mining bases. When we ran low on supplies we moved here and switched off with the Spry and the Thalia did some basic repairs" said LT Barnes. "For the last 3 weeks we have been waiting to switch back out and making sure the mining ships kept up their quota."

A Patrolstar or Escortstar had pretty much the same scouting abilities before they ran low on supplies. A month is on the shorter side but fixing any damage before they got bigger might be because supplies are low or possibly Admiral Howard being from logistics is going with the most optimal schedule for repairs and not paying much attention to operational efficiency. According to LT Barnes the Rhea was sometimes on it's own or had a single Raptor. Sometimes it had been part of a flotilla with the Perseus and Priam . The Priam was never away from the Perseus though as far as Barnes was aware.

At this point LT Barnes seemed to be done reporting and Commander Gabrielle dismissed the LT and then spoke with the other two Canceron SDF members. First was a Chief Shaw who had much the same general story (with her using a lot more salty language) that had been similarly unhappy with the events done by the Priam and it's Marines. Chief Shaw had been close to retirement and the bonus offered by this off the books business venture appealed to Chief Shaw. While she didn't know the full story as her rank (social not military) made her not needing to know the particulars and apparently she had done similar questionable duties before. The last was Specialist Gilbert Roe the Medical Specialist of the Minos who had objected loudly about the actions taken and had been moved to a less mission critical ship. Specialist Roe did not have as much information as his job as a medic and general dislike of the military (after the events following the taking the Rhea and her ships) made him someone few gossiped with.

The report from the three mining ships things are not in good shape. Oh the ships themselves were passable but the crew were being treated as slaves with a very high quota forced on them by the Marines on those ships. The crew of the Scarab and the crew of a water processing ship named the Oasis were split up to crew the Scarab along with the Elena and the Jellyfish. The current location of the Oasis or the Ginger was not on any records they had been able to find or known to any of the crew of the mining ships.

"Sir according to the civilians we have talked to the quotas were very high and there were not enough workers on the three ships to do all the jobs required. Along with a very high workload there are more than what would be expected of injuries from accidents which supports the claims that the Marines were enforcing those quotas with physical force. Also there are many claims that the Marines forced sexual relationships on the miners for increased rations" said Captain Flacca.

Captain Perkins had reported that these "Marines" had been half drunk and very sloppy by military standards. The Marines did speak of the "needs of the fleet" for the New Colonial Government and other crap like that but had slipped badly to being little more than prison guards.

"We will send the Rhea and the three mining ships with all the Marine and Aquarian prisoners. Major Gobi can figure out what to do with that ship and the Guard personnel" said Commander Gabrielle. The Leonis personnel from the Spry (all 4 of them) had agreed to join the crew of the Orion.

Gabrielle had really wanted to court martial "Captain" Karl and most of the Marines (all of which were wholly unwilling to communicate much other than name/rank/id number/we are following orders that you are inhibiting) but realized that they might need to work with the Perseus and this "New Colonial Government" and they needed to avoid a rash decision. For that reason they after putting the Rhea under the very temporary command of LT Fletcher and sending the three mining ships then the Lamia and Orion would jump to the emergency rendezvous location they had recovered from the Rhea's records.

"Orion Actual this is Rhea Actual we are ready to depart" said LT (or maybe Captain Fletcher for the next 10 minutes unless things go very wrong).

"Rhea Actual this is Orion Actual. You are free to depart" said Commander Gabrielle.

"Yes sir. Good hunting Orion Actual" said LT Fletcher.

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Makrino Sector
System 65511 Outer System
Orion
Day 131

Commander Gabrielle after having Captain Flacca and LT Rogers do the boring complicated parts had decided what to do with the 3 Canceron SDF personnel after they had all three had more or less thrown themselves on the mercy of highest ranking member of the Canceron SDF that was known to be alive. Which just so happened to be Commander (or maybe Colonel) Olaf Gabrielle. This was tricky in case the more than 90 Canceron SDF members on the Thalia and Minos were ever added back to the Canceron SDF. Gabrielle had simply demoted each one rank as they had followed orders and found themselves in a difficult position but had violated many codes of ethics. Only the now Petty Officer Shaw seemed to care. With good behavior (and how much they were needed) they would likely regain their rank fairly quickly.

"Sir we just had a pair of Raptors jump in" said LT Rakesh. "They have demanded we explain why are here."

"Raptors this is Orion Actual" said Commander Gabrielle. It was deliberately provocative but Gabrielle could not bring himself to use the term "Colonial" to describe the Raptors from the Perseus.

"Orion we are surprised to see you here" replied the Raptors in similarly insulting tone.

"Yes if could inform the Perseus or Priam that we would like to have a discussion about the Rhea and your missing mining ships" said Commander Gabrielle.

Gabrielle waited for the Raptors to leave. Unless the Perseus had some hidden ships they were unlikely to fight. The Orion now that it had been more or less fixed up was a match for the 3 ships they knew about and the Lamia would tip things firmly against the Perseus. It took about an hour but the Perseus and Priam (but not the Spry) showed up.

"Colonel Gabrielle this is Admiral Howard" said an older voice with slight Virgon accent. "I heard you have my ships. I would like them returned."

"At this time no. They have been moved back my fleet where they can get the medical attention they need" said Commander Gabrielle. Gabrielle realized he was pissed and this could possibly spiral out of control. "Admiral I would like to offer a meeting between yourself and my superior officer."

"Colonel Gabrielle" (Gabrielle decided that correcting him wasn't worth it) I am willing to make an offer. I want my Marines and my people back" said Admiral Howard. "I have the personnel from the Rhea and Spry that I am willing to exchange for them. If we both show good faith we can discuss trading for my mining ships."

Commander Gabrielle thought this over. This seemed legitimate also this decision is not one he had the authority to decline and any fighting between humans was wasteful. They agreed to a meeting in a neutral location in 3 days.

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Thank you all for reading. Any questions or comments are appreciated!