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The spaceport was slower than usual, today. The crew working on the Lady Erestine was glad of that- fewer people to get in their way.
The Lady Erestine was a transport-class ship, not built for combat. Its hull was made of reinforced plastoid, which was strong enough to withstand anything short of armour-piercing rocket rounds or sustained laser fire. It had no weapons on its own, having had the cargo bay outfitted to provide a storage space for passengers to place their luggage.
Several passengers were already on board, including three military commanders. They hadn't been wearing military uniforms, but Captain Ryan had seen enough commanders in his life to be able to recognize their bearing.
Captain Ryan coughed into his hand, then flicked the intercom switch. "All passengers and crew, please strap yourselves in. We will be leaving in approximately thirty minutes."
His voice could clearly be heard outside through the open door. His crew would finish fixing everything up, repairing the slight scratches on the hull caused by small debris around Yaein.
He flicked the intercom back off, then took his communicator off his belt and switched it on. He had attuned the communicator to the other ship's frequency before he had boarded the vessel, so that he could speak to them quickly if there was an emergency.
He coughed again, then flicked the switch on the communicator.
"Executor-Class Light Sabotager, please come in. Commander Veyu, do you read me? We will begin atmospheric-exit protocols in approximately twenty minutes. Will you be ready to leave, or do you need me to defer this to a later time?"
"Affirmed, we are good to go."
Took a fair amount of wrangling to get Pariya up. Still, to fly again; worth any price.
"Roger." Ryan's mouth twitched up as he uttered the antiquated phrase.
He settled back in to wait.
---
The flight off the planet was relatively uneventful, apart from one woman on the transport becoming hysterical and having to be calmed by her husband next to her.
Captain Ryan breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to the navigator, turning on the computer-guided navigation system. It would do most of the work, allowing Ryan to focus on communicating with his escorters and dealing with any troubles that might arise within the ship itself.
---
Kevin sighed as his ship nosed around the asteroid. He had been hopeful, when he saw the transport flying through alone, but the ship was being escorted by a military flyer. Although the military flyer looked pretty beat up, it was still significantly tougher than any of his crew's scout ships.
He turned the ship around, hoping they wouldn't see him.
---
The trip was uneventful. No pirate attacks, no asteroids, no creatures. Ryan was pleasantly surprised; he might actually turn a profit on this trip, rather than sinking further and further into debt, as he had been lately.
Even the landing was smooth. There was a landing pad available right away, allowing both Ryan and Vayu to land without hassle.
Ryan opened the door to his ship, allowing the passengers to disembark.
"Okay, the Hardcore We're Much Better Than You Cruiser has landed. Ready to follow suit, Beck- Commander?"
"Take us down."
----
"Now, what?" Kurowe said in the hangar, staring at the bigger, faster and generally better Sabotager.
"You and Sidik head to check in, get us unloaded and into the colony. The army will be picking up ship and sending it back whence it came. I'll try to find Commander Vayu."
"Don't get murdered! I heard every last one of those Rapiers should be in a mental ward, but nobody could ever manage to contain em."
"Shut up Rowe. Sidik, I know it's practically impossible but try to not let Kurowe break anything. Or even allow him near things that aren't paper or weaponry."
"Sure thing Ma'am."
To the eye of people accustomed to the bustling cities of the Core Worlds, Welsim looked desolate. Even to people accustomed to the somewhat rustic nature of the Frontier Planets, Welsim looked empty, almost devoid of life.
That was not to say that the planet was devoid of life; merely that the amount of people living in close proximity to each other had changed over the millennia.
The town was a ramshackle one. It was bordered by a large fence on all sides, standing at over fifteen feet tall, coloured a very light grey. The town had not yet expanded enough to completely fill the walls.
The houses and buildings within the town were a schizoid mess of futuristic and olden-style houses. Near the spaceport, where the town's marketplace was, the houses were all domes of pure plastoid, with circular windows cut out by the builders. The streets here were completely smoothed out and hardened, and covered with a very thin layer of plastic, preventing the street from wearing away easily, and keeping everyone's boots clean.
Further away from the main marketplace, the streets were rougher. They were still smoothed out and hardened, but the town hadn't been able to afford to get them covered, and they were showing definite signs of wear, with loose dirt covering them, and potholes beginning to develop. The houses here were made of stone and wood, cut from nearby trees and shipped in from the quarry town of Giegest to the south. Dotted throughout were plastoid domes, similar to the ones closer to the marketplace; these houses were built by people who had money before coming to the planet.
The air was thick and humid, and there was a heavy silence in the atmosphere. The city was almost oppressively silent, as people hurried about their daily business, trying not to make eye contact with the others in the city, or talk to anyone they didn't have to.
At a rough estimate, the town had four thousand people living in it, and another sixteen thousand living there on a more temporary basis, wandering out as guides, explorers, or woodcutters.
Near the spaceport, several hundred meters north and to the east, a man named Irileth was waiting in his shop for several military contractors he had been informed would be coming in to see him soon.
Looking to the left, saw Commander Unathi trotting along. Got out of the ship to greet her.
"Commander Vayu, pretty uneventful trip eh?" Rebecca began nervously. This was only the second time she'd spoken to the saurian and she was still as intimidating as ever.
"I was just wondering if you had anything that we'd need to go over, plans that you wanted to put into action right away, how we'll divide the work up maybe? I remember you saying something about not wanting to be bogged down by most of the stealth work?"
----
"Okay, everything's unloaded. We're off to..." Kurowe tapped the small piece of paper he'd been given by the check-in clerk "Mrs. Irileth's shop!"
"What about Commander?"
"If she gets lost she could always call us." Kurowe had already started walking away, Sidik took a look at Rebecca, who was talking to another Saurian who he assumed to be Commander Vayu.
"You misunderstood me. Stealth, reconnaissance, skirmishes, rescue and extraction; we're good at all that. Interrogation, investigation, infiltration, extended combat, not so well."
"First thing we need is information; who are the scientists, who plays this game, and why. Our contact should help with that, but we need be able to fill gaps. Canvas town, make friends, grease palms, even break legs if needed.
"Speaking of, hope you saved a good bit of funds; spent most of mine on installing a cannon on the Switchblade."
"Don't worry, we have quite a bit left over."
"We'll cover you then, specialized in infiltration, investigation and interrogation for years. No worries on that front."
"As for plans, agreed on all counts, though my teammates might be a bit apprehensive when it comes to using aggression." Rebecca took a breath after realized she'd run out of issues to address.
"We better get going, then."
"Yes, let's."
Tristan walked out of his ship to see the Switchblade and Unathi's Cruiser landed in the rendezvous point.
"LELAND! Why didn't you fucking tell me these guys got here? Jesus, you're my eye in the sky, you bastard!"
"I was eating! And it was good food, even!"
"Oh fuck you and your food"
Tristan left the ship and approached his fellow officers for the planning meeting but he then saw them part their ways
"Hey! Hey guys! Don't leave me like that, come on!"
"Commander. Join us?"
"Most certainly. You peeps got something resembling a plan?"
"Planning now would be foolish. First we must rendezvous with our contact, learn what we can. I suggest we not keep said contact waiting."
Rebecca quickly made her way through the streets, using the directions Kurowe had sent her. When she saw Sidik frantically waving in her direction she put away her phone and made her way toward him.
"Where's Kurowe?"
"Inside talking to Mr. Irileth."
"Let's head in then."