Ohm Colony, HIP 82030 - 3307-04-04 18:43 GST
Specialist Kayleigh Rouse stood shifting uncomfortably in her new Maverick class pressure suit. She had acquired it that day in Laveykin Hub, in the Supay system as an alternative to her normal hazardous environment suit. It fit okay, but she wasn't used to it. It was bulkier than her H.E. suit in some ways and less bulky in others. She suspected that she'd get used to it after a few hours, but for now it felt weird. At this point in time, though, everything felt weird, and it had felt weird ever since she and her teammate in the weapons inspection team, Hiroko, had discovered that two enzyme missile warheads were missing from Laveykin Hub. They'd managed to figure out that a cargo pod that likely held the warheads was smuggled off that station on a ship called the Purple Ghost. The next known stop that that ship had made was here, Ohm Colony. They'd reported that information back to BPIA Operations in Tewanta and were advised to go to Ohm Colony to scout out the situation there. If the warheads were there and there was trouble retrieving it, then they could call for back up. Other BPIA agents were busy tracking down a dangerous fugitive, called Dimitri Faber. For now, though, they were on their own: Agent Watanabe and Specialist, now acting Agent, Rouse. Hiroko had suggested to Kayleigh that she use a Maverick suit for their initial investigations in Ohm Colony. It was quite commonly in use with miners and scavengers and wouldn't look out of place on the orbital outpost. A hazardous environment suit, on the other hand, might cause alarm. If it was needed she could return to the Battenburg and pick it up. It had taken nearly three hours for her to get fitted for the Maverick suit. During that time Hiroko had taken statements from the outfitting deck crew that were present when they did the inspection and had briefed local security and station management. These were important tasks, but time consuming.
They two women had arrived in the system about an hour ago. Hiroko had flown their Cobra Mk III around in supercruise for about thirty minutes to get a feel for what the local traffic was like. Mostly it was small vessels, outfitted for mining: Adders, Cobras, the odd Asp Explorer. There was on Python and a few Type 6s, configured as cargo hauling vessels, but there wasn't any sign of the Cobra Mk III that they were following, the Purple Ghost. They had just set down on the outpost and were now waiting at the main concourse of the outpost for a station official to come and meet them. They had been waiting for over fifteen minutes. They could just st orm into OPS and demand attention, but that seldom got the results required. Besides, seeing two strangers in restricted areas, was something that tended to make loc al security a little trigger happy, especially since Hiroko had a large laser pistol holstered on he hip. They both would rather not get shot today, so they waited.
There were a handful of people in the concourse area, mostly tired miners there for a meal and a quiet drink. Hiroko straightened up, and Kayleigh noticed a short dark haired tan skinned woman walk towards them.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting.", the woman said, "I am deputy administrator Melisa Singh. Administrator Whitton is indisposed directing urgent maintenance to one of the cargo bays."
"Another act of sabotage?", asked Hiroko.
"No, not this time.", said Deputy Administrator Singh, "Just improving security and surveillance camera coverage. Speaking of which, any chance you can leave that weapon on your ship?", she said glancing at the laser pistol on Hiroko's hip.
"Sorry. Not happening!", said Hiroko, "Besides, I count as System Security."
"And you? Any weapons?", Deputy Administrator Singh asked Kayleigh.
"Me? Eh, no! Not my thing.", replied Kayleigh
"Well, we better take you up to SEC to get you registered as friendlies with our station security."
The three of them walked to a turbo lift and stepped inside. The doors closed and the lift took them down two levels. It stopped with a slight shudder. It was a lot less smooth than the lifts in other stations, Kayleigh noted.
"Is sabotage of systems a big problem on the station?", Kayleigh asked.
"Not so much now. It never really was a big problem, though there was a time when we had a few small explosive overloads of fuel pumps , and that could have been very bad. Thankfully the fuel lines weren't in use at the time."
"Any idea who the culprits were?"
"I have my suspicions. There's a group on the station that calls themselves the Mega Ohms. 'We are the resistance', they say! A bunch of work shy z-anon losers, grifters, and drunks, upset at the changes that occurred when the Buurian Protectorate took over. I suspect that Tom has had a quiet word with some of them to knock it off. Okay, we're here. Karen will get you set up."
They stepped into the SEC office to find it empty. A message scrolled on the console screen saver: 'Gone for coffee. Back in 20 minutes'. Deputy Administrator Singh rolled her eyes and threw an embarrassed glance toward Hiroko and Kayleigh. "Or I guess I will sort you out", she said. Hiroko and Kayleigh transmitted their ID and authorization details to the local system and submitted to scan, while Deputy Administrator Singh linked their identities to local security service profiles. It took barely a minute, all three of them being very used to the process.
"Right! You should show up as a friendly on all the station security IFF systems now."
They walked to OPS, grabbed cups of coffee, and sat down at the small table in the operations room.
"Now we have all the formalities dealt with, what brings you to Ohm Colony? Are you here to investigate the sabotage?"
"We're not here about the sabotage, though, we can help with that once we deal with our primary mission", said Hiroko, "We are actually here tracking a ship."
"More specifically a cargo pod on a ship", Kayleigh interjected, "and the cargo pod contents are stolen and very dangerous.
"The ship is the Purple Ghost.", Hiroko continued, "Can you provide us with any information on it?
"That's Samara Faulkner's ship! Surely you don't thin she's involved with a theft."
"Do you know her?"
"Most people here do. She's a bespoke merchant. She finds things that are hard to find, like spare parts for old equipment, for example. People here rely on Samara."
Hiroko and Kayleigh looked at each other, puzzled.
"Listen", Deputy Administrator Singh continued, "Ohm Colony is a small back water colony. People here are scraping by. Lots of people are flying ships that have been in their family for generations. They can't afford to upgrade to the latest and greatest models. They patch, repair, and mend. Samara finds the parts for them. She knows what everyone needs and keeps an eye open for it while travelling. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find parts for a Cowell & McGrath era Cobra? She's no criminal."
"You may be right. She may not have known what she was carrying. But it is critical we find the cargo that she was carrying when she landed here on December 5th, last year."
"What's the cargo?", Deputy Administrator Singh asked.
"Experimental missile warheads.", Hiroko responded.
"Oh frak!", Deputy Administrator Singh replied. She entered a query into her hand terminal. It chimed and she read the results.
"Okay! It says here that she unloaded eight cargo pods. Four were vintage mechanical parts which were sold to various miners on the station. There were two containers of atmosphere processors sold at the commodities market, and a container of Lavian Brandy, sold to the station bar. The last was a container of advanced medicines which is being stored in cargo bay two."
"Can you bring up the pod identification number?", asked Hiroko, who had walked around to look over Deputy Administrator Singh's shoulder.
"Sure thing." The hand terminal chimed.
"Kayleigh, it's our pod! Do you want to get your suit?", asked Hiroko.
"It might be for the best.", said Kayleigh.
"What the frak!", said Deputy Administrator Singh, "The cargo pod has just disappeared."
"Has it been moved?", asked Hiroko.
"No. It is just gone, like if it had just been deleted from the system.", said Deputy Administrator Singh, with a note of dread in her voice. Editing the cargo database was required a high security clearance. Only two people on the station had that level of clearance: herself and Administrator Whitton. Tom, what have you gotten yourself into, she thought.
"No time for your suit. We need to get there now!", said Hiroko to Kayleigh. She started walking to the door. Kayleigh followed her, but stopped and turned to Deputy Administrator Singh before she reached the doorway.
"If there are explosions in cargo bay two,", said Kayleigh, "don't send anyone to investigate. Don't wait for more information. Start evacuating the station straight away!" She turned and ran to catch up with Hiroko.
Cargo Bay Two, Ohm Colony, HIP 82030 - 3307-04-04 18:57 GST
Hiroko slipped through the door to cargo bay two, pistol drawn and shields activated. She hunkered down behind a cargo crate, cube shaped about a meter and half long on each side, and surveyed the area. The bay was large. It was three meters high. There was a matching door in the wall opposite the one that Hiroko had come in and she estimated it was thirty meters away. It was mostly obscured by stacks of crates that were place haphazardly in the center of the bay. Around the walls were two meter deep racks for holding standard cargo pods. There were a few free standing cargo racks away from the walls and along with stacks of crates, formations of cargo pods standing on their ends, and loaded gurneys, the area was very cluttered. There were few sight lines longer that five meters. The bay was literally a maze. It didn't help that the bay was lit with emergency lighting: a dull red glow with strobing white lights near doors, rather than bright overhead lighting that the bay should have. It meant that there were a lot of shadows for an attacker to hide in, and since the emergency lighting was in use, Hiroko was pretty sure that at least one hostile was in the area. For now, though, nobody was visible. Hiroko beckoned to Kayleigh, who walked over crouched down to be below the level of the container. Kayleigh also had her shields activated and was adjusting the settings on a hand scanner.
"I've tuned this to detect our cargo pod, but there's a lot of interference in here. Half of the cargo pods have partly refined minerals. I'd need to be close to detect it.", said Kayleigh, whispering.
"Scanning each pod up close will take a while. Any better ideas?", said Hiroko.
"There should be a control station with a console on the wall to the left, about fifty meters away if this bay was empty. We'll just have to weave through these crates to get there."
The two of them walked, crouching, through the maze of crates and containers. The crates and containers were diverse. Some were as large as a small building, nearly touching the ceiling, over two meters wide and twelve meters long. These ones had family names stencilled on the side and even had security code panels. This bay seemed to be general locker storage for citizens of the station. Others were like truncated tetrahedrons just under two meters tall. There were stacks of plastic crates, metal crates, and even some small crates that appeared to be made of some sort of wood. It was a chaotic mess. Hiroko took the lead, pistol held out in front of her. Kayleigh followed closely, pointing her scanner at any cargo pods the passed, and occasionally looking back the way they came to check if anyone was creeping up on them. The soon reached the wall of the cargo bay and had a view of the control station. A figure was standing there, still, his feet anchored by his magboots, with the arms floating at shoulder level. There was a constellation of small wobbling liquid globes hanging around the figure, and larger globules were attached to the figure's back and chest. The console was splattered with dark liquid.
"Oh frak! That guy has been shot!", whispered Kayleigh.
"It looks like he caught a submachine gun burst.", said Hiroko.
The women slowly approached the corpse, scanning the area. The killer didn't seem to be around. Kayleigh deployed her suit helmet and Hiroko followed her lead.
"This looks to be Administrator Whitton. Poor sod. They person that did this was pretty skilled: It's a single submachine gun burst with a tight grouping.", said Hiroko, "More than the two of us can handle on our own. I'll call this in to OPS and call for our backup."
Hiroko tried to use her suit communicator to connect to OPS, but the connection failed.
"Frak! I can't get through. I can't tell if it's interference from all the ore stored in here, or low level active jamming.", she said."
"It's the same for me.", said Kayleigh, "Hang on a second. I'll try the console."
Kayleigh tapped the back of Administrator Whitton's magboots with her toe to disengage them, and gently maneuvered him back from the console, leaving him floating in space about a meter behind her. The console scanned for her credentials and logged her in. She brought up the communications interface.
"Frak! It's in maintenance mode. As are the surveilance cameras in here. It looks like the whole lot has been physically disabled as well. It fits with a security upgrade."
"We know the warheads were here up until a few minutes ago. A maintenance event that lines up with them being moved feels like very careful planning to me. I don't like it. I suggest a tactical retreat."
"Give me thirty seconds. I am downloading audit logs to my suit: that should be enough to allow us to pick up the trail again."
Hiroko scanned the cargo bay for movement. In the red gloom she noticed something small rise quickly from behind some crates in the center of the room. It bounced of the ceiling before she realised what it was and that it's trajectory was straight for the console they were at.
"Grenade!", she shouted as she scrambled backwards away from the control station. She watched in horror as Kayleigh turned and started to move away from the console much too slow. The grenade hit the console and exploded with Kayleigh having moved less than two meters. She was well within the blast radius. Hiroko saw Kayleigh's shields flare and the blast lifted her off her feet and slammed her into a nearby cargo pod rack. Kayleigh's limp body spun away slowly between the crates and bounced out of sight around a corner. Hiroko was about to run to help when a burst of submachine gun fire hit the crate she was sheltering behind and reminded her of their more pressing problem. She'd have to hope that Kayleigh's shields protected her from any life threatening injury and focus on the fight to save both their lives.