Tales From Tewanta

Cargo Bay Two, Ohm Colony, HIP 82030 - 3307-04-04 19:07 GST Hiroko Watanabe quickly assessed her situation. An unknown assailant had just attacked her and her team member, Kayleigh Rouse. Kayleigh had been blown off her feet by a grenade blast and was drifting amongst the cargo racks in the cargo bay, out of Hiroko's sight. Hiroko herself was unharmed. Their attacker had a submachine gun and a clear line of sight covering the area between Hiroko and where Kayleigh was. He probably had more grenades. She had just a laser pistol. Another burst of submachine gun fire struck the containers she was sheltering behind. Let them waste their ammo, she thought, right until the EMP grenade stuck the wall behind her. It went off and the energy pulse it emitted dropped her shields. So it wasn't a waste of ammunition after all, but a tactic to mask the noise of a grenade hitting the ceiling. Her attacker was smart; too smart to let her r...

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 in...

Laveykin Hub, Supay - 3307-04-04 11:00 GST Brian Taggart, the deck chief of the Laveykin Hub outfitting deck, strode over towards his console area on the deck. Waiting for him there were Carlos, one of his technicians, and two women from Tewanta, the inspection team he was warned about. One of the women was wearing a full hazardous environment suit, a fancy model, by the looks of it, while the other wore a lighter suit more suitable for maintenance work in a vacuum. The level of protection those suits provided was excessive in his mind. His deck was perfectly safe. There hadn't been an incident in over six months. There definitely hadn't been any since the Buurian Protectorate took over the station and installed a new batch of time consuming safety procedures. At least they had the visors retracted: if they had the visors up, he'd have not been able to take them seriously. Even now, their level of paranoia made him ...

Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3306-08-16 7:46 GST Frank Bonetti stepped into the Outfitting Deck Crew's new break room. It was situated next door to their environment suit locker room. It had been completed a week earlier, and had already become most of the team's preferred breakfast location. Part of that was down to the excellent facilities: a beverage dispenser that produced passable versions of both tea and coffee, a food fabricator that made pretty tasty food, albeit, mostly from vat grown algae, yeasts, and mushrooms. The key ingredient though, was the camaraderie of the crew. They were up to twenty people now, but it still was that tight knit group from the days when the Official Tewanta Order ran the station. They'd worked long, tough hours together, helped out with the cleanup after the big station fire, and cheered each other on as they achieved personal successes. Because of that, it was a great place to catch t...

Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3306-04-06 09:51 GST Sir Cedric Nolan lined up his Fer de Lance directly in front of the mailslot of Wilson Port and brought it to a full stop 7.49 km from the station. His cockpit was dimmed and he had his remlok deployed. Just under seven minutes of emergency oxygen remained. He had turned off all non-essential systems on his ship, which at this point included regular life support. He requested docking clearance which was granted promptly. He engaged forward thrusters to bring his speed up to 200m per second, launched a heat sink, and turned on silent running, as his ship drifted towards the station. An alarmed flight control officer broadcast that they had lost his signal and requested that he make contact. He ignored them, focusing on keeping his ship on a straight trajectory for the station dock entrance. He was flying without any automated flight assistance at all, as was appropriate for a knight of the...

Stable Cryptographic Analysis, Tewanta - 3306-03-18 08:27 "Hey, Denzel", said Brian Jones, as he walked into his supervisor's office carrying a data pad and a bulb of coffee. "I think I might have found something interesting." "Lay it on me!" "Well, I was working with FIDO to fine tune analysis of the low temperature diamond markets. Grete was complaining that some of the search routines were slow and difficult to use. So, to test the exploration interface I decided to put in that cult we were told to keep an eye on." "Chapter of Isinor?" "Yes! Them! Well, I may have found something weird." "How weird?" "Well, I was expecting some delivery contracts and maybe, they'd be the supplier for some LTD futures. You know, low level stuff. Well the search took a few minutes and I was worried that had mucked up the search indices somehow....

Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3306-01-21 08:31 Galactic Standard Time Francis Bonetti jabbed at the keys on the keypad beside the entrance to Wilson Port's with his index finger to enter his access code. For the fourth time the keypad made a low angry beep and flashed an icon on its display that Frank didn't recognize, while the door stubbornly refused to open. He felt tension build up in his shoulders, tension that had melted away during his two week holiday, out of the system, with Marianne. He couldn't have forgotten his access code. He was certain he'd gotten it right, and surely someone would have told him if his code had been changed or revoked. He took a deep breath, scanned his iris, and entered his access code again. He got an angry beep, and that weird little icon again, as a response. He heard the clunking of magboots in the corridor behind him and turned around to see Kayleigh in a full hard hazardous environme...

Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3305-09-21 08:11, Galactic Standard Time Francis Bonetti arrived at his cubicle office on the maintenance deck of Wilson Port to find his chief engineer, Kayleigh, waiting for him. She was sitting on his desk, with a coffee bulb in one hand, a slice of cake in the other with her legs swinging. "Morning Frank. Nice haircut! Have some cake. It was sent up by one of Progenitor Eisley's staff, 'in appreciation for all your hard work'. There's a little hand written note pinned to the box." "That's nice. Is it good?" "Oh yeah! It's Tewantan Boon Cake. Sweet, spicy, with a faint citrus tang." "You sound like one of those chefs on the new entertainment holo-vid channels." "I am a confections connoisseur, Frank. You know this. Hey, did you hear about the guy winning a luxury cruise holiday to the California Nebula? Luck...

Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3305-07-13 08:17 AM, Galactic Standard Time Francis Bonetti, the deck chief of the Wilson Port outfitting deck shouted across the workshop to his chief engineer. "Hey! Kayleigh! Could ya come over here for a minute? We need to figure out today's work schedule and assignments." "Sure thing, Frank.", she shouted back, and started walking over to the screened off niche that served as Frank's office & work area. Frank watched her walk over. He had worked with her for nearly ten years and knew her well enough to know that she was tired. They all were. Ever since the new faction, The Buurian Protectorate, arrived in the system, the outfitting deck had been very busy. They'd recently had to increase the staff by 50%, to fifteen technicians, and they were still struggling to keep up with the work. All his team were working extra hours, but nobody worked as hard as K...