A Guiding Light Part II

Posted on Wed Apr 11, 2018 @ 9:28am by Lieutenant Colonel S'er'in'e & Lieutenant Marisa Cheshire & Lieutenant JG Mirok & Lieutenant JG Jacob Hartley & Lieutenant JG Zander Devereaux & Ensign Gaalen Tholav & Ensign Athyle sh'Paveress & 2nd Lieutenant Gage Aravan & Warrant Officer William Fontaine

Mission: Falling Star
Location: Gavarian Corridor
Timeline: MD 33 || 1200 Hours

Old

Once her moment of catharsis was over she opened up her flight channel. "Akula, take position near their exit point and be ready to receive tight beam from Scratch Post. Hammerhead and Mako run escort. Ratel and I will maintain current vector."

After a roger the three ships accelerated out of formation and flashed out of sight when they had a clear vector.

New

S'er'in'e waited, patiently, uneasily as the Victorious entered the nebula to hide from the Romulan ships unaware of what was around him. Nobody likes nebulas in a tactical situation unless they were using it for one, the Victorious was using it to hide in and depending on the fighters to report what they saw in light of sensors being terrible. It would fall down to the pilots to Mk 1 eye ball a threat and tight beam it to the Vic.

"Keep an eye on sensors, even in the nebula we may get something. Tactical, prepare 8 torpedoes for jettison launch, we will use them as mines if we are attacked. Communications do what you can to keep tight beam with our escort, they can see us but we can't see them to receptors to maximum."

Athyle nodded, her Andorian eyes affixed to her console. The readouts began to break apart and show static as the pallets became obscured by the nebula's dust.

==Fighters==
=^=Fox Hound, Akula. We've completed an analysis of the network and are able to narrow down the location of the fleet to an area of .25 AU in diameter.=^=

A smokey cloud now engulfed the tiny ship. The plooms of gas were well dispersed, giving the space an ethereal purple/blue tint which flashed violently in the distance, the stars behind them becoming slowly obscured. There was a blue shimmer that spread across the surface of Marisa's fighter which quickly faded until gone completely. Shields Offline the computer warned as they continued on their way.

"Pixie, what's the range of passives?" Marisa asked her TSO.

"Actives are useless. Passives give us about ten Thousand km reliably." The Andorian replied in her cold cadence. Anything beyond that would require requires signatures of increasing size".

Marisa sighed "Even if we did narrow it down we're still talking about a needle in a haystack."

"Not exactly ma'am. If we made a couple of impulse passes through the area with passives collecting data we could generate a map of emissions and narrow it down a considerable degree. Get an analysis done on that and we would be able to narrow down the area considerably more.

"How many passes?" Marisa replied

"Two, Ratel could make the other pass."

"Sounds good." Marisa said with a nod "Relay instructions to Ratel then give me a vector and set up systems for minimal operation to be activated once we go sub-light."

The ship arced its vector slightly as her partner quickly pealed off.

"Initial point in 3...2...1..."

The ship dropped out of warp with a low rumble as all illumination from the consoles went offline. The rumble of the drives and the hum of the computers had stopped and all Marisa could hear was her breath inside her environment suit. Her stomach lurched a bit as the inertial dampeners powered down. The only light came from her helmets HUD which had a timer, counting down to the terminal point. A couple of keys on the side of her helmet and she'd activated the zoom function and began scanning the nebula.

The seconds and minutes continued to tick away in relative serenity. Effectively flying in a projectile moving at relativistic speeds that was deaf, dumb and blind was enough to give an air of tension to the scenario. Starfleet had the best sensor suites in the galaxy save for maybe the Borg, and the pilots were more than accustomed to having all that information ready to go. Sure they were trained to work with as little as they could get away with, but it was still unnerving. Marisa tried not to think of the amount of time she'd have to evade if an obstacle was on their vector, and when she did she had to remind her self the odds of her little fighter hitting something was practically zero as collections of gas were continuously getting dashed across its canopy.

It was at about the 4 minute mark that she scanned over a particular cloud with a peculiar feature. Something white and metallic, and from her distance little thicker than a drawing pin jutted from its front. Marisa increased magnification, and soon the image cast upon her helmet visor began to derez, but the ovaloid tip of the pin and the fins became unmistakable.

There was a soft hiss of the RCS thruster and a small glow on the hull as Marisa tapped the yaw pedal, giving the fighter a slight spin, and then another when the fighter was perpendicular with the object. It quickly vanished behind the distant cloud, though the pilot continued to track it while she could feel the normally cool Andorian's heart beat reverberate through the hull.

A thin white wing became apparent next as they rounded the other side of the cloud, which connected to a blue box structure that blended well with the nebula in the pixelated. The dark area on the back allowed Marisa to identify it as a drive cluster. The central body stretched passed the cluster and elongated towards the back of the ship, and then another drive cluster and a wing. Extending from the front was a long neck. It's layout reminded her much of the Klingon Bird of Prey pattern hulls, though even from the poor quality image it's more angular design was apparent.

Marisa recognized it. Hakucho-class, a Federation construction designed for colonies during their initial and final phases due to the airfoils that allowed the ships to utilise a planets atmosphere to fly between settlements and make the occasional trip to space. Though with a few modifications they could be made into an ideal smuggling vessels, able to fly in the lower gaseous layer of gas giants at lowered emission levels to evade scans. She'd only seen a couple during her time in sector patrol. The civilian sale aspect gave it a much more aesthetic design compared to the Bird of Prey's she was based off of. Graceful even, it's forward swept wings at a much shallower angle and far longer. If she was ever to go into the civil sector, that was the ship she'd want to fly.

Next the tell tail silhouettes of other ships came into view. Two shaped like concentric crescents immediately identifiable to anyone living on Earth during the Dominion war. Breen destroyers. Though there was also a pair of discs holding in formation, the design hallmarks of 2360s Federation. Smaller shapes became noticeable upon closer inspection, though not distinct enough for her to say light craft with the current image quality.

"You seeing this Pixie?" Marisa asked.

"Barely." The Andorian replied with a breathless voice"Though I can scant believe it. The probability of getting close enough to make visual identification is astronomical.

"Note the co-ordinates and get ready to relay them to the task group once they're back in coms range."

==Victorious==

It didn't take long for information to start coming in, what it read like was not what he was expecting. By seeking shelter in the nebula he'd wondered into a fleet of ships laying in wait, for them or for someone else he didn't know but it did present a unique opportunity. Information, information was power in a battle, weaknesses, deployments, bases. Anything that could be exploited was potentially a weapon to be wielded.

=^= Lt. Gage to the Bridge. =^=

The young but seasoned Marine appeared on the bridge in under a minute. "You wanted to see me, Sir?" he asked as he came to attention.

"Yes, I have a tasking for you." S'er'in'e replied turning in the chair to face the marine before standing next to him. "A unique oppertunity has presented itself and I want to take advantage of it." S'er'in'e didn't have to say it would be risky, it came with the uniform and he'd enough respect for Gage to not bother stating the obvious. "A boarding action, all of the marines we have brought with us."

Gage listened and nodded. "You can count on me, Sir. Objectives?"

"Board the vessel, secure the Bridge and Engineering. I will be sending Lt. Hartley with you for information gathering and program implantation. We have the element of surprise here so it should give us an advantage for the short term." S'er'in'e replied. Having listed the players involved he could also have the fighters support in a different way but anyway was better than none at all.

"Hartley?" Gage reviewed the crew that had been assigned and gave an inward groan at having to protect a Spook. "I'll get it done. What about prisoners, Colonel? We have limited space on this escort."

"Stun and secure, you are right we don't have the space and the information we gather from the computers will be more reliable." S'er'in'e knew that look from Gage, Intel officers, spooks, just sooner ready to leave information out that give it if it made a difference in their opinion.

"Understood, Colonel," Gage responded. If nothing else, he was a professional and he would stay that way. "Should we disable the engines permanently once we achieve our objectives?"

"I'll have the fighters do that, I have an idea for them." He was confident they were up to it, assuming all things went to plan but S'er'in'e was experienced enough to know. Even the best laid plans survived contact with the enemy.

"I'll get the men together while you get Hartley and the fighters on the same page," the young Marine responded.

"Dismissed." Now S'er'in'e had to brief Hartley, the fighters and Helm of the plan.

Gage nodded, then turned to prepare the team of Marines that were now under his command.

"Lt. Hartley." S'er'in'e spoke. "I have an assignment for you." S'er'in'e came to stop next to the office so that he didn't broadcast it across the Bridge. "I'd like you to accompany the marine boarding party, I'd like if possible any information you can gather from that ship, reports, logs, anything that could give us a helping hand for what could lay ahead."

"Understood Colonel. I have a program I can use to get into, and download, their database. I'll also be able to access the database as we download it. Soon as I find anything, I'll let you know." Jacob replied, standing up. "With your permission, I'll go to the transporter room now."

"Meet the marines at the starboard side airlock." S'er'in'e replied leaving the Lieutenant to his own preparations.

S'er'in'e returned to the centre chair. "Tight beam relay to our escort fighters, have them position us beside the enemy ship for boarding action. Helm, standby, as soon as the information comes in bring us along side to docking position. Be ready to react to movements because I doubt once we begin they will stay still and let us stay there."

=^=Fox Hound to Scratch Post.=^= Marisa called out =^=Standing by for mission update.=^=

"Lt Mirok, I'd like two torpedoes fitted with mag locks, I'd like them ready in 5 minutes to jettison from the rear tubes." S'er'in'e gave pause from speaking watching those around him.

"Aye sir. They'll be ready." Mirok said, entering commands into his station.

"Alright everyone, the sequence of events is this. Our fighters will escort us to a docking position along side the ship of interest. While in transit two torpedoes will be readied with mag locks and jettisoned slowly once we are in position. The fighters that escorted us will accept these and mag lock them to the ships engines for later use. Once the boarding party is ready we will engage in hostile boarding action with the enemy vessel and attempt as best we can to maintain docked position while they carry out orders. I want everyone on board this ship armed in case we ourselves are boarded, stand by on force fields and anti boarding counter measures." S'er'in'e took a few moments to let the sequence settle in.

"Any questions?"

=^=Scratchpost, in bound. We'll place the explosives, no problem, but we also have our own payloads. Do you have any specific ROE or should we act on my discretion?=^= Marisa asked

=^= Target suppression, keep the other vessels distracted and off us while we are locked with the target vessel otherwise, by discretion.=^= S'er'in'e replied.

Gaalen sat at his station quietly in a state of contemplation as he waited for his next instructions. He thought about how much he was enjoying his time on the Victorious - even though it wasn't a stroll in the park he was honoured he had been selected for the mission.

===Fighters===

2 small flashes of light preceded the 2 small fighters dropping out close to the Vic's location. The pair engaged the retros at the bow of their fighters and came to a complete stop, awaiting the payloads from the invisible ship.

=^=Scratchpost, Fox Hound.=^= a voice said, this one a little cooler compared to Marisa's. =^=We're standing by for the packages.=^=

=^= Packages released. =^= S'er'in'e gave a nod to tactical to deploy the weapons, these makeshift mines would do well in disabling the vessel after they had departed. "Helm, dock the ship and be ready in case they try and shake us off." He spoke as the plan was put into action.

=^= Scrat....S'er'in'e to boarding party, 15 seconds, good luck. =^= S'er'in'e would remember to speak to Miss Cheshire about the nickname later. Any moment the two ships would be joined together and then all the cards, all the chips were on the table. S'er'in'e could only hope he had the stronger hand. The telltale jolt of the docking clamps securing giving signal it had begun.

Gage and the four squads of Marines met at the airlock and spent a few minutes checking their weapons and each others equipment. The Second Lieutenant looked around, then tapped his combadge. =^=Aravan to Hartley. Meet me at the airlock.=^=

"Already here, Major." Jacob said, coming into view. He held his intel kit, with a phaser attached to his belt. "Ready to go when you are." He added, standing next to the marines.

"Major? I'm a Second Lieutenant, Lieutenant," Gage said. "Although I thank you for the promotion." He shook his head and turned to another of the Marines.

"Prepare the breach charge," he ordered and watched as it was placed and the breach shield was activated. A muffled crump was heard and then the shield came down and the door they had set it on.

"Go, go, go!" Gage called out as he led the charge onto the merc ship, his TR-116 up and laying down cover fire as the Marines came in behind him.

They blasted into the cargo hold, red lights flashing as the computer alerted everyone to a hull breach. A few small containers were strewn around the room and stacked up high, a few of them covered in tattered blankets bunched up as though to make them more comfortable, along with a couple of personal effects like a guitar and an entertainment system. A few vehicles were strapped down to the deck grating, some of them wheeled with large weapons haphazardly welded to their structures, while there were a couple that use combinations of anti gravity and thrusters. In the center of the room a few men had taken cover behind a few of the crates that had a deck of cards and a few bottles of some alcoholic beverage resting on it. 3 of them in camouflaged BDUs pulled out type one phasers and laid down cover while another jumped out and made a mad dash towards one of the vehicles.

"WE'VE NOT GOT COMS" one of them cried "GO AND CALL IT IN."

A fifth individual, this one a woman wearing orange overalls could be seen running to the bow end of the bay.

One of the Marines fired a low shot at the man running for the vehicles when he saw the weapons mounted on them while the others fanned out behind crates and whatever was available.

Gage ducked behind cover and yanked a stun grenade from his web belt, armed it and tossed it towards the grouping he had briefly saw before he had to dodge.

The three behind cover whimpered in pain before their bodies made a clatter on the ground. The fourth running for the vehicle was out of range of the blast however and quickly clambered on to one of the vehicles. The turret was covered by a glowing aura as the gun hummed to life.

Meanwhile the mechanic had managed reach a panel on the far door. "Intruders in the vehicle bay!" her voice reverberated through out the deck, and probably through the entire ship.

Another Marine opened fire with his P-778A1 rifle and began punching holes in the vehicles where the man had ran, causing minor explosions with it while more Marines moved to flank and draw fire with their own weapons.

Gage popped up and fired at the panel the woman had ran to, but it was too late to stop the message. He motioned his men forward in a charge and headed for the nearest door.

The woman took a quick take over her shoulder as her hand was shocked by a discharged. Seeing the deluge of Marines pushing into the bay she fluidly slid around the hatch. Meanwhile the mercenary on the turret had brought it around and began showering the breach with suppressive fire. Blue bolts of energy forced the marines to take cover.

As he had entered the cargo bay, Hartley and seen the situation, and leapt out of the way as a phaser blast from the mercs shot towards him. He immediately found cover, drew his phaser and returned fire. His shot, however, struck the cover that his attacker was hiding behind.

As he saw one of the mercs firing from a turret, Jacob fired at it, but saw the phaser blast bounce off of it. "Damn." He muttered. He opened his kit, and looked at the equipment he had.

He smiled as he saw what he was looking for. He quickly removed a small device from the pack, and looked around. He needed one more thing...removing his type III Phaser rifle, he quickly opened it up the firing chamber using a tool from the kit, and inserted the component. Closing it, he took a breath, and fired at the shielded turret. Instead of a yellow beam, a blue EMP beam fired, striking the shield, with sparks lighting up his rifle, shorting it out.

With a curse the mercenary pushed the gun away from himself before disappearing into the vehicle. those observant might have seen flashes of clothing appear between the roll cage supports and Armour panels, but he quickly vanished into the motor pool. Klaxons blared as emergency bulkheads slammed shut over the hatches. The marines were then engulfed in darkness as power was cut to the bay.

As the lights went out, Jacob wanted to call out in frustration, and quickly felt in the case. He felt the items, hoping that they had what he needed. He found a pair of glasses, and activated them. They were scanning glasses, but they had several layers, including night vision. As he quickly cycled through the options, he smiled as the right one came into play.

"Thermoptics!" Gage called as he activated his on his helmet and scanned for any heat signatures as the group he was leading to the door that had closed. He motioned the sapper forward as wrist lights were activated and the Marine quickly placed a charge on it.

"Clear" Gage called before the Marines fell back to cover. A second later, the door was breached and once again, he led the men through it with controlled bursts of fire set on stun.

The marines walked into a dark corridor, the metal grating that made up the deck clanking as they pushed forward into the quiet. They could see darkened silhouettes of weapons poked out from the side of large crates set up for cover. Suddenly, two industrial spotlights haphazardly set up blazed behind them, illuminating the corridor in harsh light. Then the tink of grenades landing at the marines feet.

The tink of the grenade was like thunder to Gage's ears in the corridor and he threw himself backwards. "Get down!" he roared as the stun grenades went off. A Marine who was tripping over his prone form fell on one of the grenades and his body jerked upwards before it lay still. Three more Marines fell before the portable force field generator came up and coughing and shouting was heard.

Gage lay stunned with his ears ringing and tried to get to his senses. A combat medic went from person to person while Marines in the back fanned out to prevent fewer targets and lay down cover fire over the force field. A hypospray of stimulant was pressed to each neck as well as a neural suppressant to battle the effects of the stun. Still, it would take a few minutes to take effect before the stunned Marines could move again on their own.

Having remained behind, knowing it would make more sense for the marines to go first, Jacob heard the explosion, and waited a few moments. He saw the combat medic's helping the Marines, so he grabbed his phaser from his belt, and kept an eye on the corridor. A part of him wanted to go forward, to complete the mission, but even Jacob wasn't that stupid. Kneeling down by Gage, he looked at the man as a medic pressed a hypospray to Gage's neck. "Lieutenant, are you okay?" Jacob asked.

"No, he's not okay. Let's move out," the medic said while a couple Marines stayed guard with him.

A pair of mercs lifted large weapons up and rested on the crates, reaching forward to deploy a bipod. Once set up There was a high pitched hum before cerulean bolts began filling the hallway. There was a couple of clatters as another pair dropped onto the deck, lying prone with compression rifles, taking precision shots through the suppressive fire.

One of the Marines loaded up his grenade launcher and fired a couple stun grenades over the force field and began to lay down even more cover fire as the field began to flicker. Two Marines dragged the others and Gage around the corner while a third squad of twelve Marines came up.

The mercenaries began to pull back, dragging their stunned comrades further up the ship. A couple stayed behind, manning the larger guns to keep suppressive fire on the Marines.

Gage managed to sit up and groaned. "Exographic...targeting sensors," he managed. "Get the M-970A1's barking!"

Following his orders, the Marines began laying down deadly accurate fire with the heavy scrappers and began to lay waste to any and all obstructions between them and the enemy.

Jacob watched as the Marines fired at their enemy, and knew that this wasn't his area of expertise. But thinking of expertise, he knew that he could bring the fight to his arena.

Removing his Intel Tricorder, he immediately began to transmit, to find a computer to hack into. But getting locked in was the easy part, taking all of a few seconds. No, the tricky part was going to be hacking past the security codes.

He began to run the brute force program. It would run every possible access code quickly, until it found a match. By running multiple codes, he would make it search quicker, but he had to be quick and enter in new codes every few seconds.

He felt a phaser blast shoot past him, barely missing him. "Damn." Jacob muttered, feeling the heat. However, as he entered in the next combination, he smiled as he saw the green light come on.

"Lieutenant, let's see if I can help a little." Jacob called out. He accessed the computer system, specifically the gravity plating, turning the gravity off for the section where the mercs were, allowing them to float upwards.

He then accessed the escape pods system, ordering them to eject, whilst simultaneously draining the bridge of all oxygen, and sealing them in by overriding the safety systems. "Lieutenant, right now they'll be wondering where the air and escape pods went." He called out.

The chaos caused by Hartley quickly threw the merc ship into disarray as force fields came up where they weren't supposed to, gravity failed and the bridge crew found themselves fighting to breathe. The mercs in the hall retreated and fell under a hail of phaser fire laid by the Marines and Gage and his men moved forward.

Jacob followed the Marines, but kept his distance, since he wasn't a Marine. Yes, he could hold his own, but not in a battle like this. He preferred hand to hand. That was his strength. Besides, he was already enjoying the fact that he was making things difficult for the Mercs. He could only imagine the looks on their faces as they realised they were losing oxygen, and running to get clear.

==Fighters==

The pair of gryphons rolled around backwards as they flung at the mercenary fleet at warp speed. There was a flash of light and a boom as they dropped back in to normal space, main drives quickly canceling any inertia they had. Almost in perfect synchronicity the pair pulled back, pointing their noses just off the Hakucho's drives. There was a metallic clunk once they passed the engine shroud.
=^=Foxhound, Mines in place. Ratel, take out the defensive turrets on your side. Phasers Marisa said, she didn't think the marines would appreciate being blown into space from any secondary explosions caused by their torpedoes.

Marisa's canopy lit up with reticles indicating the hard points on the ship, her andorian TSO able to cut through the static being so close to the target. As she slowly drifted along the length of the ship taking them out was as simple as pointing and shooting.

=^=Akula to Foxhound=^= their electronic support ship called in =^=Getting a communications message over the probe network, patching it through.=^=

"Outlaw fleet" A male voice said, seemingly human and if anything distinctly French. "Two for Flinching has come under attack. Countering will result in a high instance of friendly fire. The IRASF fleet has moved on so all ships able too are to proceed to blockade the corridor."

"Alice, I'm getting warp signatures from the fleet below." Pixie said from her back seat.

=^=Ratel, fire on the fleet at will.=^= Marisa said as pulled away from the Hakucho and pushed forward on the throttle.

The nebula infront of her seemed to be sparkling as the smaller ships went to warp. The larger ones, set at the back, would have to wait while their vector was cleared. Marisa identified the federation pattern ships. Centaur class frigates, and though not much in a stand up fight against larger ships, the smaller point defense weapons were renowned for making short work or patrol ships and shuttles. The Triumphant could take a few licks from the heavy weapons on the Breen ships, or just stay out of range while the bombers took care of it, but if she left those Centaur Class ships her wing would be cut to ribbons.

Targeting in the nebula was trashed so she had to get close. Punching full throttle she cut through the gas and made a line straight for the ships engineering section. She fired the pair of torpedoes on her wings and watched them sail ahead, only changing her vector ever so slightly. The first torpedo hit the hull, cracking it open, and the second pierced through it's heart. The nacelle strut passed over Marisa's canopy in a blink of an eye and looking up she could see the ship's guts spilling out all over the nebula before it's core ruptured and cracked the ship into atoms. Marisa's speed took her far enough away to avoid the fatal range of the shockwave, though a few of the smaller ships blocking it's path were not as fortunate.

A second detonation came from one of the Breen ships as Ratel had completed a similar attack. Marisa pulled back on the stick and refocused on the next centaur. Her larger torpedoes gone she cycled to the anti-fighter ones located in an internal magazine. Again she approached the ship at full throttle and fired her payload.

The Captain of this ship had other ideas however. While the path ahead was still occupied with a few friendly ships its nacelles glowed and it went forward, straight though it's allies. The smaller torpedoes flew through the now empty space where the ships heart used to reside, detonating harmlessly a few seconds later.

=^=Foxhound to Scratchpost. Space around the boarded vessel is clear. We'll remain in the area and continue defense while the operation is underway.=^= Marisa said with a sigh.

=^= Understood. =^= S'er'in'e replied as he took in information as it filtered in. As the battle raged so to he hoped it did so inside the target vessel he was docked with. =^= Gage, Actual, report? =^= S'er'in'e needed to know the state of play within the vessel.

=^=In a firefight=^= Gage's voice came over the sound of weapons discharge. =^=One of the crew alerted the ship.=^=

S'er'in'e heard the weapons fire over the link and he was helpless to do anything about it. The Marine part of him urged him to help but that meant he'd stop being mission commander and return to being a marine. How many lives would be lost if he did that? In the wrong place at the wrong time to effect a mission critical decision.

=^= Foxhound, Scratchpost.=^= Another reminder to speak with the young female. =^= We will need a prompt exit once boarding operation is complete, obtain me one out of this nebula and ensure we don't exit the nebula into a waiting trap. =^=

===Merc Bridge===

Gage emerged on the bridge of the merc ship after the force field came down in a burst of fire and saw that the crew had been rendered unconscious. He ordered his men to round them up and make sure they were all out, then looked at Hartley. "Good work, Lieutenant. Now get their database."

"Yes sir. Shouldn't take too long." Jacob said. He already had access to the computer systems, thanks to his work earlier, so he went to a console, and began to work.

He removed his database retriever from the intel kit. He paused for a moment; the last time he had used it, he had gotten into trouble, but he had gone beyond the mission purview. This time, he was under orders to take the database.

The rest of the Marines moved throughout the ship taking out any opposition until the ship was theirs.

Gage tapped his combadge =^=Aravan to Colonel. The ship is secured.=^=

=^= Good work, await information retrieval and then return to the Victorious. =^= S'er'in'e sat glad that the mission tasking though dangerous had worked, with the ship secure all they had to wait on was to get the information and leave. Then return to the Triumphant. "Helm, standby to head out the moment they are on board, I believe we have outstayed our welcome."

Jacob looked at the device, and smiled as he turned green. Checking and confirming the information, he then removed the device. "Lieutenant, I've got the database. Ready to go when you are." He said.

"Then let's get out of here," Gage said before he notified the Colonel and headed out of the merc ship with his men.

Once they were back on the Victorious, Gage waited until the last man was back aboard, then gave a nod to the huge Caitain. "Let's go," he said. "Mission was a success."

Hearing the report then there was little time to waste. "Helm, get us out of here, quickly." It would make for a productive report to the Commodore once he got round to writing it and the added bonus of next to no damage to the ship to boot.