Tall Base, Tewanta - 3305-09-05 15:37
Samuel Singh took a deep breath after concluding his video call with the Board of Directors. He had explained the situation as best he could. At approximately 13:00 an explosion occurred in one of the cargo storage areas in the base. This lead to a large fire which caused serious damage to the life support systems. The fire was still going in some areas, but was mostly under control. If they could vent the air out of a few areas the fire could be put out, completely. Before that could happen, some bulkheads needed to be repaired, some people needed to be evacuated to safe areas, and some blast doors closed. He had people working on that. However, the damage to the life support systems was a concern. The system's backups were strained to capacity and the different distribution of people in the base due to the evacuation of the damaged and burning areas didn't help. Tall Base was one minor failure from disaster. He'd asked for some evacuation shelters to house people and reduce the load on life support. He was told that everything possible was being done to get them for him. Casualties were low so far: three people with serious burns, one ground crew worker confirmed dead, and seven others missing. But if they didn't get those shelters soon, the the death toll would rise. It was time to go find out how his people were doing.
Samuel strapped on his helmet. He left the conference room and stepped out into the corridor filled with bustle and noise. He stepped aside to allow two technicians pushing a cart of welding equipment to pass. He felt immensely proud of his people. They had responded to this emergency with professionalism, dedication, and skill. He walked briskly to the forward operations center. With so many systems failing he needed to be physically near the situation to get a full picture: he couldn't rely on flaky telemetry links. After a few more minutes weaving his way through crowded corridors he reached his destination.
"Hey Mary. Sit-rep?"
"Hi Sam. Fire is out in the cargo storage area, though we are having trouble containing it in some the ducting. The only way we can be sure of getting it out is venting the air out of the ducts. Any word on getting survival shelters?"
"The Board has assured me that they are doing everything they can."
Mary raised an eyebrow.
"No. This time I think they will come through. They understand the seriousness of the situation. Explosions and big fires in chemical plants tend to get peoples' attention."
"Okay", Mary said skeptically. "We do have some good news, though. We have managed to get all the hydrofluoric acid storage tanks emptied and the acid is safely contained on the far side of the base. The area is cleaned up and should be safe now."
Samuel breathed a sigh of relief. The downside of refinery bases compared to other types of surface installations was the necessity for very dangerous chemicals on site for use in the refining processes. The cargo storage bay where the fire started was between a life support station and the refinery's chemical storage area. Rotten luck that it started there, to be honest. Had the hydrofluoric acid tanks ruptured, then everyone on the base would likely have died. Having that threat neutralized was a big weight off his mind.
"Have people use HE suits there for the time being, though, just to be on the safe side. Without fully vacuum pumping the tanks free of air, the tanks themselves will probably emit vapour for a while. Hydrogen fluoride does nasty things to the human body even in small amounts. We have lost enough people today."
"Okay boss!"
The door opened and Jamie Ramsey, the base's head of security stormed in, holding a data pad. He looked furious.
"Sam, you need to see this", he said offering the pad. "The ninety tonnes of cargo in that bay wasn't lepidolite ore as claimed on the by the owners, Tewanta Organization, on the manifest. It was hydrogen fuel. We found fragments of the tanks in the cargo bay and zero indication of any ore. In addition, the ship that delivered the ore, registered to the Chu I Purple Cartel had transmitted an encrypted broadcast message just before the explosion."
"Are you saying that Tewanta Organization and Chu I Purple Cartel conspired to sabotage the base?"
"It looks that way, yes!"
"I'll inform the board!"
Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3305-09-05 16:41
Progenitor Eisley Woodward pinched her nose. She had just finished a video call with Tewanta Company representatives from Tall Base. They'd been the victim of an act of sabotage, the base had suffered an explosion and a large fire, and required survival shelters to house people while they contained the situation. The Buurian Protectorate had the shelters, just short of six thousand, ready for immediate dispatch, but currently had no free large cargo vessels. She also doubted that the saboteurs would sit by idly while shelters were being delivered. Only one idea came to mind.
"Celeste, create a new cargo delivery mission for all our available survival shelters in Wilson Port to be delivered to Tall Base. Make it available to independent pilots with Cordial rating and allow wing deliveries.", she said. "Also, create a network hacking mission on Bachman Lab, allied independent pilots only." If Tewanta Organization were involved in the sabotage, then the proof may be on their network.
"Missions created!", responded the office assistant AI.
Now she had to wait and hope some independent pilots accepted the missions. She didn't have to wait long. Five minutes later her terminal chimed. CMDR Buur had accepted both missions. She smiled.
Above Tewanta A 2 - 3305-09-05 17:31
Brad Hughes positioned his Anaconda near Wilson Port pointing in the direction of Tall Base. He was waiting for CMDR Buur to show up. The Hughes family had accepted an assassination mission to prevent the CMDR from delivering cargo to the surface. He'd pick up a bounty, of course, but his family had a sneaky mechanism for throwing bounty hunters off the scent. It was discovered by his sister Roberta, by accident. Their older brother, Rob had been a pilot for two years and never shut up about how cool his pirate exploits were. To irritate him, she decided to register for her pilot's license as Rob Hughes, too. She reckoned that having a Rob Hughes flying about in a Sidewinder would embarrass him and he'd buy her a better ship. She'd gathered up documentation to prove that she went under the name Rob and went to the Pilots' Federation office in Chu I to register. To her surprise, the doddery old fool that worked there didn't check her documentation at all. Thus Chu I had two Rob Hughes flying around. Rob bought her a Cobra. Shortly afterwards, a bounty hunter on Rob's trail interdicted her and attacked without checking the warrant scan. She survived long enough for system security to show up an dispatch the bounty hunter. Their father, Tiberius, recognised the potential in the situation. Thanks to the lazy Pilots' Federation official, all of the Hughes siblings - Rob, Roberta, Tom, Brad, and Eve - had Rob Hughes on their pilot's license. At least one of them always flew clean, normally with allied to a faction with a superpower affiliation, and preferably for a dictatorship or feudal faction: those were the most aggressive in dealing with people firing on their ships. The scheme was effective and they all flew Anacondas now. Unfortunately, word had gotten out, and at least five other groups from Chu I were doing the same thing. One of those groups, the Wi clan, was in system. He assumed they would be competing with him on this contract. Four of the Hughes family were working on this contract, but only one would be in system at a time, to avoid arousing System Defence Force suspicion.
Brad looked over the contacts on his scanner. There he was, CMDR Buur, flying a Lakon Type 9 Heavy. Brad slotted his Anaconda in behind the Type 9 and aactivated the frameshift interdictor. The tether established. CMDR Buur submitted to the interdiction immediately and the both dropped into normal space. Brad would have to be quick: because CMDR Buur had submitted his FSD cool down time would be short. Brad deployed hard points and opened fire with beam lasers and his plasma accelerators, scoring hits. The Type 9 boosted away, but was not able to get out of range. Its shields collapsed. Brad scored a direct hit with the PAs, taking 30% of the Type 9's hull integrity. The next shot missed. The Type 9 spooled up its FSD. Brad scored another hit with the PAs: down to 30% now. One more shot should do it. He was lining up the final shot when another ship jumped in and distracted him. It was a Federal Gunship piloted by CMDR Yaga Shura and had already deployed weapons. Brad hesitated and that gave the Type 9 enough time to jump to supercruise. He turned to face the new ship. In his Anaconda he felt confident that he could destroy the Gunship. The first salvo of green plasma fire from the Gunship took half his shields and dented his confidence. The second salvo, shortly afterwards, brought his shields down. He turned to flee, but it was already to late. Railgun round ripped through his thrusters and FSD. A seeker missile finished the thrusters off. Seconds later 5 PAs unleashed green plasma and his Anaconda exploded.
Above Tewanta A 2 - 3305-09-05 18:59
Wi Heng Li watched Rob Hughes pull CMDR Buur out of supercruise, though he was pretty sure that it wasn't actually Rob. Last he had heard, Rob was flying with League of Tewanta. It was probably Brad. Heng Li recognised his flying style. It was annoying that the Hughes clan had beaten him to the target, but if they failed he would be ready. As he watched another independent pilot, CMDR Yaga Shura, dropped on CMDR Buur's low wake. Heng Li slowed down. The CMDR was in a wing of three. He looked over contacts his sensors had detected. He accounted for six ships in two separate wings, one with three ships and one with four. CMDR Tomasson in a Type 9 Heavy and CMDR Spike..rog in a Federal Corvette had just entered orbital cruise and were part of CMDR Buur's wing. He wouldn't catch CMDR Tomasson on this run. Some other unknown pilot made up the wing of four. He guessed they were in position over Tall Base to provide combat support on the final approach to the station. That would make things difficult. Heng Li searched for the ships winged up with CMDR Yaga Shura. They were CMDR Bob48 and CMDR Soundo. To his alarm, they were angling around behind him. It appeared that the hunters had become the hunted. He took evasive action.
Above Tewanta A 2 - 3305-09-05 19:21
Roberta Hughes jumped into the Tewanta system. A few minutes ago, she had received a distress call from Brad. Then communication stopped. She was here to finish the contract and figure out what had happened to her idiot little brother. It would be just like him to screw up a mission to assassinate some traders. As she approached Wilson Port she noticed that there were a lot of ships buzzing around near the station. She selected one. It was the target CMDR Buur. Excitedly she maneuvered her Anaconda behind his Type 9. She couldn't be this lucky. Just a few more light seconds closer and she'd have him. Then a interdiction tether attached to her ship: she was being interdicted! The pilot interdicting her was skilled. She wasn't able to shake him off. She targeted him was she tried to beat the interdiction. He was CMDR Yaga Shura in a Fer De Lance. She submitted to the interdiction: she should be able to finish this fool off.
In normal space, Roberta Hughes wheeled her Anaconda around to face the FDL. She had just turned her Anaconda around to face her attacker, when four railgun rounds slammed into her shields, then four more. The FDL screamed overhead. She fired her turrets, but they had little effect on the FDL's powerful shields. The FDL made five more passes like this and less than two minutes after the fight had started the Anaconda exploded.
Above Tewanta A 2 - 3305-09-05 19:58
Wi Fu Guo had spent the last thirty minutes in a dance in supercruise trying to avoid CMDR Bob48 and CMDR Soundo. His brother's ship had disappeared and it was his job to pick up the contract. However, this was very difficult with two Federal Corvettes breathing down your neck. For now, though, the Corvettes looked to have given up. He scanned for the target. CMDR Buur was not far away. He lined his Anaconda up behind the Type 9. This was his last chance. He estimated that this was the last run in the delivery contract and once it was completed, the CMDR would go to ground. Besides his employers were adamant that the kill be made before the deliveries were completed. He kept an eye on CMDRs Bob48 and Soundo as he prepared to activate his frameshift interdictor. They were off to one side, in no position to interdict him. Good. Then a tether attached to his ship. In panic he cut his speed to zero and submitted. CMDR Spike..rog dropped into normal space right after in a Federal Corvette him and opened fire with beam lasers and multi-cannons. Fu Guo put four pips to engines and boosted away. A Covette dropped from supercruise just ahead of him. It was CMDR Soundo. A few seconds later CMDR Bob48 also dropped in. He was trapped. It took about two minutes for the three CMDRs to finish him off.
Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3305-09-05 22:49
"We wish to offer our sincerest thanks again, Progenitor Woodward. Without your help thousands could have died. We owe you one!"
"Nonsense! The citizens of Tall Base are citizens of Tewanta and as such have a right to expect our assistance and protection. It's in our name after all. We were happy to help. Rest assured we will look into the terrorism allegations thoroughly. If you have any further needs, do not hesitate to ask. For now though, you should get a little rest: you have had a very rough day."
"Good night, Progenitor."
"Good night."
The video comms channel closed. Things could have gone very badly without the help of The Buur Pit CMDRs. System Defence Forces were barely equiped to handle the type of threat that had just been overcome. Multiple heavily armed criminal Anacondas operating in Tewanta. Randomius! Something needed to be done!
"Celeste, schedule a three hour workshop with my senior staff tomorrow to brainstorm on the Wyvern Initiative. Delta clearance personnel only. Distribute project proposal documentation."
"Meeting scheduled for eight participants, starting 13:30 in conference room Sagitarius.", responded the office voice assistant AI. "Do you require catering?"
"Yes please. Coffee, tea, water, pastries, and lots of battenberg cake. We are going to need it."