Log:Array Consortium: Debt Inspection
Debt Inspection
Location: Sarkhai
Participants: David Ironside, Tovana
The discovery of a mysterious mass out in deep space between Jaynat and Sarkhai has drawn the attention of the allied powers; David and a wingman are dispatched to the target location to inspect the mighty vessel, and determine just what might be waiting out there - and whether it be friend or foe.
At over three hundred meters in length and nearly eighty wide, the mass out there in the dark is suggests a starship, and a big one - and while no activity has been detected out there in the area, that means nothing - after all, the mass made is way there in the first place somehow, didn't it? After a brief discussion with the other commands, Adhar dispatched a pair of Hurricanes to reconnoiter the hulk, and discover what was to be dealt with.
David leads Pathfinder flight tonight, leaping into realspace in Hurricane One; as Pathfinder Leader, he is joined by the very busy Crewman Rikreet. Entering the region a hundred thousand kilometers away, the ships arrive safe and uninterrupted - they need only arrive and quietly make their way toward the site as stealthily as possible and get as much data as the situation allows. And get out alive, obviously.
David only needs a few moments to re-familiarize himself with the interceptor's controls. <<Report in.>> he comms curtly. <<And keep chatter to a minimum.>> He leads the flight, even if there's only two fighters on this mission. <<There's a ship out there, and that's all we know. In, out, gone.>> he instructs.
Another mission, another new vehicle. This was starting to turn into a 'thing'. <Pathfinder Two reporting in.> Rikreet calls back over comms. And with that response given, Pathfinder Two goes silent, switching to low power mode to minimize their sensor presence. With luck, the fighter wouldn't seem anymore interesting to whatever might be out there than a piece of space debris.
David slows his fighter down, the move likely to be mimicked by Pathfinder 2. <<Here's what we'll do. You stay back here, activate your long-range scanners and nothing else.>> he instructs. <<Meanwhile, I'll go in at high speed, then in mid-flight kill the power and do a sort of fly-by scan, I'll appear as a chunk of space debris on their scanners. The kind they're hiding in.>>
Rikreet quirks a brow at that. <Daring. Hopefully if they suspect anything by the time they do you'll be flying well out of range.> Going in at max acceleration in the Hurricane certainly seemed to give David favorable odds, at least in Rikreet's mind. He hits reverse thrust, bringing his ship to a relative halt. <Will remain here and see what I can get on scans then. Copy, Lead.>
David starts deactivating systems. The earlier, the better, right? <<Going radio silent.>> he informs, putting the breathing mask on his face as he shuts comms off and preps the engines. He pushes the throttle forward, hitting the interceptor's maximum speed in mere moments, sending the ship forward as far away from the mystery ship as possible. After some time, he yanks the throttle back and powers the rest of the systems down, barring scanners and stabilizers. "So far, so good.." he muses to himself.
Rikreet doesn't bother responding to David, seeing as how he was now going silent. Instead, Rikreet sees to his sensors while turning off most of his other systems as well. Just incase. Little save for his long range scanners would be running as he tried to get a read on whatever may be ahead, though he'd keep comms open incase something came up during David's scouting attempt.
A curious strategy, fraught with potentil peril - and yet there they are. David's ship tumbles forward through the darkness, slowly passing forward through the endless night, as the pressurized air grows cold and time ticks along. The flight suit keeps him safe, of course, and its omnidirectional sensor suite gives him the vision he needs to do his job. Where Rikreet slowly reels in data from the careful, stealthy probes his fighter undertakes, David's point of view is far more dramatic: as he skates along, the image of the ship comes into view, meter after meter of slate gray hull revealed to his eyes. A Carrack cruiser, seemingly powered down, many of its gunports mounted not with turbolasers but with communications arrays, jammers and the like. It's clearly an intelligence ship of some kind - but unlike the other enemy vessels encountered in the campaign, /this/ ship has livery...and a name.
The device of a triple-taloned claw against a broad red slash is emblazoned on the hull, as well as a name spelled out in Basic: Debtor's Wail.
David starts taking notes on a datapad as the relevant objects come into view, noting the ship type along with the logo and name on the hull. He then jots down apparent lack of weaponry, with a sidenote that it might be hiding the offense somewhere on the other side, obscured by the cruiser itself. When the note taking is done, David leans back, conserving energy for as long as it takes to get out of the Carrack's sensor range.
Time stretches on all the more, and David's ship tumbles by - tumbles, passes, proceeds beyond the eventual view of the pilot and his suit's visual sensors. Like a ghost ship it rises, then disappears again into the darkness. David's notes are going to be...significant, the stretch of time that has passed on his flyby. Debtor's Wail will be well known.
But there at the end, just as David manages to clear the vessel's sensor radius, Rikreet spots just the slightest burst of scanning traffic from all those dishes in the direction that he was floating in, just short of detecting him. With the reactor cold, that could mean only one thing: it's live, it's active, and it's listening. And running on what's probably a massive set of batteries somewhere in the hull.
A perfect mission, that's what that is. Rare in these times, but a clean, sterling victory across the board. There might even be ice cream waiting back home.
