THE LOPER:- The Chase

For talking about images, videos, and all that other bandwidth-killing stuff. Put ALL your media-related stuff that is not similarly Housepets-related here: Stories etc.

Moderator: ArcWolf

User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Fun doing the mundane...

NINETEEN

The three of them walked from Messical City starport and set off on foot for the bus stop out front. No vehicles had been available for them to hire on one hours notice and the rest were all in the city. Even the local security police had been unable to loan them a car in case they, you know, needed to use it to get to an emergency? Hawle had made Raven put the Celican down after she’d picked him up by the throat on that comment, due to how he’d seemed to be sneering it at them. Then they’d had to go through customs due to the suddenness of their arrival details. Nothing had been found other than a renewed dislike for the red line. “It would have been worse if we’d had luggage,” Hawle complained as the trio made it to the stop and sat on the bar seat.

“I’m surprised you didn’t just teleport us down into the city centre,” Sana complained, leaning against the plasterglass as Raven checked the timings for the next bus.

“We tend to have permission to do that,” Hawle remarked, “it’s often sorted out days in advance. An hour?” He shrugged. “Quite likely to have security forces on us in a few minutes flat, pointing weapons. We want them on our side so’s best not to antagonise them.” He gave her a fleeting grin. “Bet you never thought saving the day involved so much diplomacy, eh?”

“You say that like you didn’t want to ride the bus,” Raven stated, holding out a hand to get the Celican driven transport to pull in


The door opened and the Vixen behind the wheel finished chewing something as the three got aboard. “Where ya headin’, huns,” she asked, wondering if a convention was in town.

“Closest vehicle rental place,” Hawle replied, putting his comm to the reader so she could take the passage money from it. “Or the city centre if it’s closer.”

“It ain’t, hun,” she replied, indicating for him to board. The trio walked the aisle through Celicans of all shapes and sizes (except Fennekin) and a handful of Micans. “I’ll direct ya to one’ve the better ones, don’cha worry.”

They sat near the back, Hawle between Raven and a rather intimidated looking Mican, who kept trying to look at the Feline through Hawles ears. He glanced at the straw coloured figure. “Aldair Hawle,” he said, offering a hand. “U.S.C. This is my first, Sarina Raven. This,” he indicated, jerking a thumb towards Sana on the seat behind and almost putting it up her nose as she’d leaned forward to peer over his shoulder, “is Sana.”

“She… She’s the biggest Fe...feline I’ve seen,” the Mican stammered.

“Yeah,” Sarina grumped, “but I’m great unless people annoy me. You haven’t.” She peered around Hawle’s head. “You’re fine. Just don’t stare.”

“I’ll… I’ll try not to.” He shifted around to look forward, hands on lap. Hawle still caught his eyes flitting towards Raven and wondered if he’d lost family in the Prey Wars that had led to the foundation of the Council.

Twenty minutes and a drop off at a rental place later, the trio were on their way towards the city centre again, Hawle using his comm as a satnav whilst Sana sat in the back. “Why am I in the back,” she complained.

“I don’t do ‘front seat passenger’,” Hawle announced, turning left, “and this is a compact. Raven can’t fit in the back.”

“It’s undignified,” Sana complained.

“Be grateful. We could have insisted you use the booster seat!”


They pulled up outside the local Police headquarters and Sana poked her ID out of the window so the automated system allowed them in to secure parking. By the time they’d parked in the spot assigned to the deputy chief and gotten out there were two officers there to tell them they shouldn’t park there.

“Is the Deputy Chief coming in,” Hawle asked, looking just past them to the door. It was, of course, why he’d parked there. He always liked to park shuttles and other vehicles as close to the door as he could.

The Officers looked to each other with what Hawle thought was a touch of nerves. “He’ll, uh, be by later.”

“Good,” Hawle announced, striding past them. “We’re not planning on being here long so it’ll be gone by the time they get here.” He turned as they looked at him in shock. “If you WILL insist on escorting us,” he goaded gently, “you really should lead the way to your Commanding Officer. After you, gentletypes.”

Somewhat bewildered, the pair led them through the corridors, past the desk officer and up to the main office as Hawle muttered to Sana that ‘acting like you owned the place’ often got you further inside than just asking nicely.

“Usually deeper into trouble,” Raven added.


“We’re here to investigate a Castoran,” Sana told Chief Ulverstone after she’d met them in her office and forgiven her two Officers for not taking the obviously holstered weapons off the trio until they’d identified themselves. They were young and inexperienced and she’d heard of the mad Rabbit in charge of the Loper and they’d told her that ship had been on its way. The Fennekin had been a bit of a surprise, though. “Yilla Sobrii’s the name.”

“I know it,” the Mican Chief replied. “You should probably know that we’re investigating his disappearance two days ago.”

“Had any newcomers arrive in the city when you weren’t expecting them,” Sana asked.

“Not that I know of.” The Chief frowned. “Why? What are you looking into?”

Sana indicated Hawle as he sat sprawled on the chair. He straightened up as she began to talk. “IOC has been investigating the sale of ship transit records to pirates these last few months,” she explained. “Our Pandera Office recently made an arrest…”

“I’d heard about that…”

“… which led them to discover that one of the vulnerable freighters that had been sold had dumped its cargo and was, in fact, holding three hundred refugees from a disaster zone.” She stopped and, after figuring Hawle wasn’t going to carry on, prodded him in the back.

“Hmm? Oh, my turn, eh? Right. Having the best engines in the patch, the Loper went after the freighter to get to them first. We failed but, instead of finding a crippled freighter, we found the brigands had taken it and left their own ship as it was dying rather quickly after having been infected by the messages sent by their contact. Apparently, Yilla Sobrii, once a part of Clan Castoran, has sent infected files out to a load of brigand ships of varying Clans.” He peered at the Chief from hooded eyes. “There are hundreds dead across the sector.”

The Chief snorted. “That’s a death sentence.”

“Trouble is that we believe that the clans all believe that any clan that gets him will keep him for their own use against the others.” He spread his hands. “They’re paranoid. There’s only one eventuality if the U.S.C. doesn’t publicly get him and soon.”

“I’m going to need to raise the security level,” Chief Ulverstone muttered.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

This was a very nice chapter that you wrote here! Keep it up!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Twenty

The trio got out of their hire car outside the Castoran Financial Broker’s office and looked it over. Sana looked up and down the street, hearing the unpleasant sounds of early evening activity in a vastly communal area. The shops had closed an hour or so before and the clubs, bars and restaurants were well on their way to full opening. “And we’re sure this is the place,” she asked as she looked at the bar underneath the office. She could hear the music inside from here and repeated a little mental mantra to quieten things down so she could hear the others.

“According to Chief Ulverstone it is,” Raven told her, thinking back to the last few bars she’d been in. “Makes sense. He sells to nefarious types. The type that would fit in well with a popular bar.”

“Of course. There’s probably a route up from the bar that can’t be seen from the street. So people aren’t connected directly to him.”

“Makes sense, I suppose,” Hawle said, pulling his ‘clubbing’ jacket on. “Sana, you and I’ll go up to his office through the normal route. Raven, you find the way through the bar. If there is one.” He held up a hand as she began to head off. “Ah! Raven…”

“No alcohol. Got it.” She popped an anti-intoxicant. “Just in case.”


“I can see why you sent her into the bar,” Sana said as the pair picked the lock to the stairs and headed up towards the Castoran’s offices. “This stairway is quite narrow.”

“Oh, that’s not why…” He noted the glint of a smile in her eye and knew she’d guessed the real reason. She’d be able to handle herself in any fight down there better with the others not around.

“I’d heard you were quicker-witted than that,” Sana glibbed as she reached up to run her electronic key over the Castoran’s door lock.

“I usually am,” he replied, “but I’m only borderline on duty right now so it’s having a lie down.” He pushed the door open as the lock opened. “Just… like this place.”


Inside, the office was in a mess. Padds were strewn across the floor and under tables which were, similarly, strewn on the floor. Drawers were splintered and cracked and their contents loosed upon the floor. Hawle stepped on an ink pen as he stepped into the room.

“How did no-one hear this,” Sana asked, before slapping her head. “Bar below. Place is soundproofed.”

Hawle shrugged. “Probably.” He fished a device from his pocket and started scanning the room carefully as Sana picked up one of the padds. “Can you get that thing working?”

Sana glanced down at it. “Of course.” He heard another grin in her voice. “Even Harvey could get it working.”

He stopped as the device found nothing on the wall “You know Harvey?”

She held up a hand, first and fourth fingers upright and the middle two at ninety degrees with the thumb waggling. “Hackers forever,” she told him before relaxing her wrist and losing the gesture.

“I’ve never seen that gesture before,” Hawle fibbed. “Does it mean something special?”

“Oh, ah… forget I said anything?”

“I thought you were quicker-witted than that,” Hawle remarked.

She handed him the active padd. “I am. Any listening devices?”

He shook his head and examined the padd she’d just handed him through it’s cracked screen. It laid out the bare history of things in its memory, including some of the last few deals he’d made. “Well, not in that part of the room anyhow. I’ll send this up to Harvey.” He fished a teleport tag from his jacket and slapped it on the back of the padd before tapping his comm. “Hawle to Stikka,” he said, “I’m sending you up a gift for our little nutter.”

<”Of course, sir. How goes it down there?”>

“Slow going,” Hawle replied, looking out of the window as the streetlights started lighting up. “But we’ve only just started so something might well turn up.”


Downstairs, Raven was on her second beer of the evening, having challenged a Celican ne’er-do-well (in her estimation) to a question game. Fastest to put their drink away won the right to ask a question. What she assumed this lightweight didn’t know is she had a trophy in her quarters that indicated she’d won the inter-ship drinking tournament three years running. And the anti-intoxicant was helping too. “So,” she asked him. “You work here?”

The Russet coloured youth raised his hand, realised it still had hold of his tankards handle and slapped it back onto the table. “I bellop,” he said too loudly. He swallowed. “I bell’op. Atta local ‘otel.” He sniffed audibly as he ‘waved’ the tankard around the table and Raven wondered how many he’d had before she entered the scene. “S’m’night off,” he professed. “Night off.”

“Glad to hear you don’t carry luggage like this,” Raven told him honestly. “You’d break yourself. And the luggage.”

He looked irritated, tried to stand and failed. “I’ve nev’r dropp’d a… fing. Notafing.” He put his head down on the table and, after a moment, Raven realised he’d passed out. She rolled her eyes. “Now I gotta ask someone else,” she complained, before deciding to check out the little Female’s room.


Sana crouched next to the skirting against the back wall and ran her little claws along it. “Dust,” she confirmed. “Uncleaned… until I get to this bit.” She stopped and noticed a tiny hole in the front. “It’s where he put his hand, see? When he knelt down? Seen an octagonal bar up there anywhere, Commander,” she asked. “A very small one?”

“The problem with being hard to see,” Hawle quoted, handing her the object he’d found on a table a moment before, “is that, when you’re not there, people don’t notice you’re missing.”

“I have,” she said, inserting one end into the hole and turning it, “no idea who said that.”

“Nor do I,” Hawle replied as a small section of the wall fizzled out of existence to reveal a shelf with a few small items on it.. “But it’s true… Ah, a holosafe.”

Sana jumped up to try and get a better look as it was just above her head. “I wanna see what’s in it!”

“Ah,” Hawle replied, pausing as he began to reach for the items. His ear twisted towards the passage that, he figured, led to the office urinals. He could see Sana’s ear had twisted the same way. “Yeah, we might wanna ask this pair first…” he finished as two shadows appeared against the door.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

I love the way this story is beginning to build up! It is such a masterpiece!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Fight scene!

Twenty-One

Hawle picked up a table leg from the floor and indicated Sana should do likewise as the shadows shouldered the door. She picked one up but looked at it curiously before indicating her sidearm. Aldair tried to get across the fact that having two weapons to hand was better than having only one due to the fact that, if they took the first off you, you still HAD a second but he wasn’t sure his message was getting across and the door was about to break so he pre-empted the collapse by opening it as the Celican outside charged it again.


The door practically whipped his hand as he pulled it away from the handle and he caught a glimpse of the stunned face of the Fox-like attacker as he over balanced and tripped into the room, landing on a damaged lounger, only to be whacked over the back of the head by Sana and her piece of a filing cabinet. The other assailant, containing more muscle mass than a standard Equinna despite his Celican frame in Hawle’s opinion, swatted the table leg from Hawle’s hand by virtue of letting it hit his arm, rushed in to protect his friend and pushed the Commander aside with a shove. Hawle launched himself in a rugby tackle to stop him getting to Sana, who was nervously working out her nerves on the first Celican’s head and was qualified for a baseball league if Hawle was any judge. He crashed into the knees of the assailant and Sana eeped as they clipped her on their way to the floor.


The figure twisted under him and put in a punch to Hawle’s gut that, instinctively, made him kick out into somewhere more painful than the gut. He brought his head up into Hawle’s muzzle on his own reflex as he instinctively protected his abdomen and Hawle fell backwards. The slight dizziness subsided as they both got to their feet and Sana shot him with her gun set to stun. He didn’t drop and back handed her across the room, giving Hawle the chance to slam him overhead with the retrieved piece of wood. He figured this guy had to be abusing naughty substances and would require considerable encouragement to stay down without holes in him. His friend was trying to get back up again, despite profuse blood from his damaged head. Hawle’s current opponent wasn’t, of course, going to give him time to whallop him and was growling. And yelping slightly as he felt pain in his leg. A pain that was called Sana’s teeth in his Soleus muscles.


He reached down and gripped her by her head with a hand as a dark blue fist slammed its way into his face. He dropped the pair of them as Raven grappled with him, crashing him into the wall behind him before cracking him against the window. It cobwebbed under impact but held. The pair fought back into the room and Sana darted out of the way as Raven lifted him overhead and slammed him down onto the rubble. He got back up, wooden shards sticking into his back, and slapped Raven into the wall as Hawle skirted the combat and threw his table leg through the window.


It crashed through and almost hit a Mican on the pavement below, making him swing a fist and curse as Hawle yelled at him to clear the way. Sana, guessing what Hawle was planning, unlatched the window and opened it wide. He glanced at her but had a better idea as Raven, holding the opponent by collar and tail bone, threw him, head first, out of the window to land on the road one storey below, where he was hit by a bus. Raven huffed as she looked at the others. “Were we trying to take him alive,” she asked.

“No, no,” Hawle remarked, picking up a packet of tissues that were strewn on the floor. He dabbed the bloodied muzzle and offered one to Sana, who sought to stuff some in her mouth to stop her cheek bleeding. “I wonder who they are?” The one on the floor stirred to get up but Hawle put his booted foot on his back and slammed him back down. “Should say ‘was’ in the other guy’s case, of course, but that’d be needlessly complex.”

Sana closed the glassless window after making sure the Celican outside hadn’t moved as the first officers arrived on the scene. “Uh, local police are here,” she advised, changing her mind on the tissue and fishing sodden lumps of it out with a finger.

“They can have that one,” Hawle advised. “You and Raven take this guy back to Barleycorn and get CHIEF Lalda to keep a teleport lock on me and bring me up in three minutes.”

“Of course,” she replied, tagging the fallen and contacting the ship for passage.


Three minutes later, Hawle appeared on the pads and Security Chief Pangal used her key to open the cuffs he’d ended up in after explaining to the enthusiastic officers what had occurred. “They didn’t believe you,” she asked.

“They followed regulations,” Hawle told his fellow Lappinean. “We should expect a near immediate call from the Chief of police, followed by a letter from the Council leader. I’m for the bridge,” he continued as they left the bay.


“Well, you certainly went to town on this fella,” Doctor Barleycorn advised as she took a succession of splinters from her patients head.

Sana looked over from where Fuze was dealing with her wounds. “They were trying to kill us, you know,” she complained.

“And now he’s bleeding all over my bed until I patch him up, Agent.”

“I’m not going to apologise for it,” she protested.

“Nor should you,” Bazil counselled, making Sana open her mouth so he could apply an energy scalpel to seal the wounds on the inside of her mouth. “You’re really brave to be taking on such an opponent.”

“Usul’y g’t Golt’ do th’ f’st st’ff,” Sana slurred as she kept her mouth steady and unmoving.

“You’ll have to say that again without ten thousand credits of equipment and four of my fingers in it,” the Raitchian claimed.

“I did most of the fighting,” Raven claimed from the doorway, where she was leaning against the frame. “How’s the hostile?”

“I’m going to have to reset his skull,” Barleycorn claimed, “and he may or may not survive. Or have full mental capacity. There’s some damage here.”

Fuze leaned in so only Sana could possibly hear him. “Nice work,” he said appreciatively.

“F’nks,” she replied.

He pulled his fingers out from her mouth. “Fancy a coffee later,” he asked optimistically.

She spat rhetorically into a small bowl and watched the pink fluid spiral down the plughole as Fuze took his gloves off and put them in the recycling. “After I fill out the action forms. That chef of yours have real Coffee?”


Hawle sat on the bridge as Dawton relayed the call and a rather narked Chief Ulverstone appeared on the screen. “I’ll send the handcuffs back, Chief,” he told her breezily.

<”And you with them,”> she questioned.

“Hmm, probably not politic,” he argued. “I mean, your people did seem rather happy to arrest me. But I’m sure we can sort it all out.” He gestured. “What’s known of the bonecrusher we left on the road for you?”

<”Not much. But he’s believed to be of the Valric clan. One of their enforcers, used for interpersonal killing. A ‘message sender’, if you will.”>

Hawle sighed. “So it escalates. And both sides have sent their messages.”

<”Indeed. I’ll be up to take your statement shortly, Commander. Under a truth detector.”>

“Good to know I inspire trust. I’ll see you then. Hawle out.” And he turned the communication off.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Nice to see that Hawle can hold his own in a fight! I like characters that can do that.
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Twenty-Two

“Welcome aboard,” Stikka said, clicking his boots together theatrically as he kept his hands behind his back. He’d been in teleport control for the moment, waiting for Police Chief Ulverstone to signal she was ready before Technician Polva brought her up via the machine. He thought it best not to mention Polva had only done the teleport of anyone not wearing a comm he could lock on to three times in his career. It… put people off using it, he found. The Racon gestured towards the door. “Shall we go see the Captain?”

“I thought he was only a Commander,” Ulverstone asked as she stepped down from the pad with a little uncertainty.

“Commander in rank,” Stikka advised, “but Captain of this ship.” He led the local official out of the bay and across to the conference room, where Hawle was sitting with his feet on the table as Stikka entered without knocking.

“I’ve told you always to knock, Greyson,” Hawle reprimanded, having told him to enter without knocking not more than three minutes ago.

Stikka recognised it as a power play, intended to keep his guest off their guard, and chose not to mention it. “Of course sir,” he said, “my apologies,” he added, not meaning it as he left them to their own devices.

“Welcome aboard Chief Ulverstone,” Hawle said brightly. “This is Ambassador, junior grade, Colleen Una,” he added, indicating the graceful Collian at the other end of the table. “She’s here to help smooth over any problems…”

The Chief quirked an eyeridge and put on a tight grin that exposed a small section of her teeth. “Like you escaping the custody of my officers, Commander?”

Hawle did his best ‘innocent’ look and hoped it would fool her more than it tended to fool Elena. “I had no idea they were planning that,” he claimed.

“Hrm,” she admitted, “I’m sure you didn’t. Just so’s you know, Commander,” she said, finding herself a chair, “I have grandchildren. Where’s your little Desert Fox?”


Agent Sana was down in the computer lab, wishing it didn’t smell quite so much of boots and stale pizza. Harvey Winsome was currently in the virtual reality headset he’d designed for himself and accessing the files on the cracked padd directly, evading most of the damaged sections and pulling together bits of code that had been enthusiastically fragged as Sana watched on in frustration. He had to have a personalised helmet, didn’t he? Its security protocols wouldn’t let any other brainwaves access it and she would have needed a good twenty minutes to overpower the security protocols as she knew she could do. ‘Supernutter14’ had never been able to keep ‘Raposo do deserto’ out in any of the galnet ‘tournaments’ they’d had back in the day. She’d met every challenge of his and then told the companies involved how to secure their systems. (Well, some of them, anyway. The bad ones she gave to the media.) Being fair, he’d met most of hers too. Behind her the door opened and Gilly entered, bearing a tray with drinks on it. She stepped over, letting the door close behind her and let Sana choose her own beverage. “He been in there since I left,” she asked casually, seating herself next to him.

“Yes,” Sana said irritably. “non stop.”

Gilly smiled sweetly, as one in the knowledge of Harvey when he got like this. “It’s never fun being the one watching the gamers play, is it?”

“Now I know how Golta feels,” Sana grouched.

“Well,” the Raitchian said, pouring some granules into one of the two remaining cups and stirring them up, “he always tells me never to leave him in there longer than half an hour at a time so, when in emergency, pull the chain.” She waved the coffee cup underneath his nose and waited until it sniffed on reflex.

“That didn’t feel like half an hour,” the lightly scruffy Squirrel complained as he pulled off the headset and blinked his way back into the comparative gloom of his room. He looked up at Sana. “Oh, heya there,” he chirped, “I forgot we had company.”

“Like I believe that.” She looked over his shoulder. “Still holding the Puttnar incorporated thing against me?”

He let her pull up a chair before he replied. “That was years back,” he admitted, “and I SUPPOSE I should be honoured you chose me to breach their defences… Or, rather, test your defences. I was looking over my shoulders for security for months,”

“...And then you joined up,” Sana commented sweetly.

He harrumphed. “You can talk.”

She shrugged. “Government tried to kill me. IOC came to the rescue. Seems I needed the protection.” She pointed to the screen. “Whatcha got, Hotshot?”

“Hints and possibilities.” Harvey drained his coffee in one go and internalised a burp as he was in the presence of others. “

“Damaged files that tell he had a link to get him off the planet,” Gilly put in from where she’d been analysing the recovered data. “My turn to report to the Captain,” she asked hopefully.

Sana thought she should remind the Raitchian that, as the IOC officer present, it was HER duty to inform the Captain but, even though Gilly was making the ‘wide eyed and shimmering’ look at Harvey, she found she couldn’t block the girl’s hopes.


“You’re saying that Commander Raven was defending herself reasonably,” Ulverstone asked. “when she bodily threw a Celican out of a window on his head?”

“He was trying to kill them,” Colleen put in gallantly.

Hawle gestured to her in agreement. “And we had already tried to subdue him by lesser means. We even shot him once or twice! I imagine those things he was on dampened his pain receptors so we’d have needed to get back to our weapons and actually kill him which… would have resulted in him being just as dead really…”

“But would have resulted in one less traumatised driver and a few less blood spattered passers by.”

“The things you don’t stop to think about when you’re fighting an unstoppable maniac,” Hawle sighed as the door opened. “I have to remember to get Groal to repair that doorbell,” he admitted as Sana and Gilly entered.


“Sorry to disturb you, Commander, Chief…” Sana paused as she looked at Colleen.

“Ambassador,” Hawle said levelly, enjoying the surprise on the IOC agents face as she registered it.

“We thought you should know,” Gilly cut in before Sana composed herself. “We know where Sobrii went.”
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

This was a nice little chapter you put up! It came out well!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Twenty Three

Chief Ulverstone felt the wind shift her headfur as she looked out on the spaceport premises of Cartwright Wholesale. The company sent textiles across the world and to nearby colonies and the Raitchian on Hawle’s team had indicated their target had made a payment to the owner of the company some twelve hours before he’d gone on the lam. She’d not known of this company being that connected to the pirate clans before but supposed that was, presumably, the very reason they were being used. They weren’t a large company, barely appearing on the business registries, and their shuttle was listed as an old clunker. Which wasn’t quite what she was seeing here. The shuttle was grimed and a little battered, sure, but it was nothing like the Nastreem 1450 they had listed. It wasn’t fifteen years old for one thing. That had a velocity 2 engine and a theoretical range of about fifteen colonies in the time it had taken to get there and back. THIS, she reckoned, was more like a Devik IV. Less carrying capacity, faster engine. Velocity 3 and about fifty colonies in range. She’d checked with her second officer to confirm that as he’d grown up on freighter shuttles and he’d confirmed her amateur knowledge. She heard a movement behind her and turned.

“Sorry,” Jaqui Pangal commented, wearing her light armour for the occasion, as did her three troopers.

“No problems,” Ulverstone griped. “I take it your boss is staying on the ship?”

“We don’t send our Commanding Officer into potentially hostile situations,” Jaqui replied, trying to make her tone sound tough.

“Recent events notwithstanding,” Ulverstone remarked, her irritation at U.S.C. security on her turf clear in her tone.

“No-body thought to tell me that was a potentially hostile situation,” Jaqui rumbled. “THIS one I know about. What’s the plan?”

“This.” So saying, Ulverstone indicated her people should follow her at a distance. Then she stood up and walked towards the target warehouse. She felt the eyes of all around her watching as she strode across the surface. The people ahead of her froze, then animated as she directed one of hers to board the shuttle with a few hand gestures without stopping. The jumpsuit crew sprang for cover as Ulverstone loudly announced who she was and why they were here. That was another thing that had annoyed her. The little Fennekin had put in a e-warrant for the Warehouse and the Owner’s house and had gotten them back from a federal judge ON ANOTHER PLANET in less than ten minutes! She wouldn’t have gotten one from Judge Paisley for at least three hours. She showed it now, as the Loper crew followed her in. “City Police,” she repeated as they entered the warehouse, “with a warrant to search the premises for contraband and fugitives! Step away from your work and any computers!”


Several Celicans and Micans looked to comply but, on seeing one start trying to delete files on the computer in the corner, Ulverstone gestured to Pangal as the fastest there. The Lappinean bounded across and slammed the laptop closed on the Mican’s fingers. He cried out. “Cloth ears and stung fingers,” Jaqui remarked casually. “One of the police can take care of those,” she added, scooting her ‘victim’ over to the others. Harvey – or Sana… probably Sana – could look this thing over afterwards. She just needed to make sure it didn’t go into automatic shutdown so opened it up again to make sure it was still OK. She blotted something over the camera and called the other down as soon as the area was secure so she could leave them… ooh, it was Gilly… to work whilst Jaqui got on with making sure no-one else was trying to sneak away.


Hawle stood over the figure on the medbay bed and wondered how long the figure was going to play ‘I’m still unconscious’ on him. According to Barleycorn, she’d repaired all the damage and, aside having some possible memory problems and a headache for the ages, the |Celican should be coming around in half an hour. That had been an hour ago. Remaining on the ship, Hawle had decided he had little to do but wait but, now, he was getting irritated so he put a hand over the figures nose and mouth and held on as the figure tried to dislodge his grip by shaking from side to side until he removed the hand and the figure sat up, taking in breath. “You cant… do that,” he gasped.

“Figure I just did.” He gestured to the security Officer by the door. “He...and, of course, the chain connecting you to the bed, are here to make sure you don’t try and escape. As is, you’re on board the Unified Security Council Frigate ‘Loper’, I’m Commander Hawle, you’re some guy from Clan Valrik and I need to know why you were in Yilla Sobrii’s place with a slab of meat.”

“Where is..,” the Celican asked.

“Dead, I’m afraid,” Hawle pretended to file his fingerclaws. “He annoyed me so I had him thrown out of the window and hit by local transport.”

“You’ll… answer for that.”

“IF I had to answer for all the things I’ve done,” Hawle mused before running into a mental blank. “Well, I’d never stop apologising.” He drew a chair around and sat down. “Of course,” he added blithely, “the question is what I do with you.”

The prisoner pulled on the chain keeping his trapped to the bed. “Release is out of the question…” He winced at the pain in his head.

“Yeah, I’d try not to move. And releasing you? It’s actually one of the possibilities.” He noted the confused look in the Celican’s eye as he tried to work out if he’d really just heard that or not. “I really did just say that,” Hawle told him. “I’ve got a few options open. One. I take you to Talvery station, hand you over to the really official guys there, and you vanish into the system. Option two, I keep you on board for the entirety of the mission, for however long it lasts – and you better believe that’s getting me in trouble with my lady love – or I send you away with a message for your clan who, I presume, are already looking for you and getting hopped up.”

The Celican held his head in his hands. “I choose...ow… the latter.”

“Thought you might. Of course, I do need to do a few legal things first. But we have your blood on file now. And your pictures and even your scent stored on computer – don’t ask me how that works – so I’m really just looking for the name that goes with all that.”

“Darik,” he grumped after a moment.

“Darikan what,” Hawle guessed, jotting the name down and using the full version.

“Kribley.”

“No wonder you just prefer Darik,” Hawle commented drily. He pulled the lie detector from his pocket and consulted it. “Aff,” he cursed, “it’s picking up what I said as the truth!” He held it out. “Repeat your name?”

The Celican repeated it.


After another twenty minutes of questioning, Hawle was ready to give him the message he wanted put across. “The clans need to stay out of our way,” he emphasised for his recording comm. “We want the Castoran as badly as any of you and we’ll be entirely public when we have him. Nothing will be hidden. We’ll go through any clan that’s hiding him with additional ships if needed. The patch is ours to protect. We have made no concerted effort to protect the patch from your clans because, generally, you keep within a thousand miles of the rules. If Clan war begins, that will change. Keep the peace. Keep the colonies and innocents out of it. Don’t make us hunt you.” He finished the recording and handed the comm over to Darik. “I take it you were teleported down from one of the other ships in orbit?” He watched the Celican pause. If teleported down, he risked exposing his ship to the Council. “That’s a ‘yes’. I’ll send you down to security at the spaceport. You’ll get your call from there. Up to you what you do with it.”


As he headed out, he consulted with the guard. “Soon as Jaqui’s back, get him sent to the port’s secure section. Then tell them he’s there.”

“Sir,” the guard said. Hawle headed for the bridge.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

If I wanted Hawle to answer for all the things he did, I would rather he have it done in the form of substances thrown on him. LOL Great work!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Twenty-Four

Jaqui looked down at the Raitchian Office manager and watched his tail twitch nervously as she circled her. Ulverstone watched from the chair opposite as the security Chief asked the questions. “Do I need to step on your fingers,” she asked casually. “or are you going as fast as you can? I mean, do your shuttles carry passengers often?”

“Perhaps we should be looking into that,” Ulverstone chipped in, encouraging faster acquiescence with the request. “I mean, fudging the records does seem to indicate regular people smuggling doesn’t it?”

“That’s a thought,” Jaqui added, pretending it had never occurred to her. “And, if you find information leading to other colonies, that makes it a federal offence. Brings us in.” She leaned in over the Office Manager. “And, now the Osirans have rejoined the council, we have access to their prisons. They keep it HOT in there.” She clicked her teeth together. “Sautéed.”

The Manager pulled up the details of a shuttle run. “This, uh, this is the only shuttle we’ve, um, sent out recently that had a paying customer. I don’t know who, that’s sorted by a different division at a different location. I just get told there’s a passenger on the manifest.”

“Right,” Jaqui nodded, not believing half of what she’d just said. She looked at the manifest and her contact lenses translated the Celican text to Lappinean for her. She was fairly good at Celican but figured she needed to be accurate. It stated a River dweller (general term for Castoran) called Lippi Spinx had booked a last minute trip on the shuttle to Vallonia. “When did they board?”

“Well, uh, it was two days ago at… 1967hours.”

Jaqui’s ear flopped slightly. Ulverstone chuckled. “Seventy minutes in an hour here, Chief,” she explained. “They wanted the twenty four hour clock but the rotation just wouldn’t allow it without adaptation.”

“No analogue timepieces here,” Jaqui remarked sagely. “But there should be CCTV on the spaceport. I think we need to have someone check on that.”

“Use that IOC cub you’ve got,” Ulverstone advised. “Keep the two lunatics in charge away from there or we’ll be picking up the pieces for days.”

“They’re not SO bad,” Jaqui challenged.


Sana sniffed the air. She always enjoyed the slight, ionic charged, scent of a working spaceport, even if it was often underset by the harsher realities of rising heat and oil. She was often a bit surprised about that. Oil wasn’t usually used these days. Perhaps it was just associating the location with her current chaperone, the large engineer with the ring on his finger. He reminded her of Halda Golta, her usual chief. Well, in physique, at least. The flower shirt, cap and tool belt were nothing like her boss. “You sure you’re not going to get bored,” she asked cheerily.

“Oh, I doubt I’ll find nothing to entertain me,” Groal remarked as they crossed to the main concourse. “There’s always something to do.”

They stepped into the main foyer and made their way to the desk. “IOC Agent Sana,” the Fennekin said, holding her badge up so the receptionist could see it. “I need to speak with someone from security.” She sensed the receptionist sitting back down after having stood to peer at her badge. She heard the slight depression of the office chair as the weight returned to it and the tapping of computer keys behind the monitor as she surveyed the quietly operating main concourse.

Groal, for his part, watched idly for people watching them. He wasn’t exactly a bodyguard but he figured he could spot a predator at thirty paces. Here came one now.


“I’m Chief of security Parrell,” the Celican said straight to Groal. “What is it you want?”

Groal looked innocent. “I’m an escort,” he said, holding his hands up. “She’s the Agent.” He nodded towards Sana, who was tapping her foot in irritation.

“Now that we’ve got the greeting rooster-up out of the way,” she groused, “I need to see the security feed for Dock thirteen two days ago. For two hours around 1967 hours.”

“In relation to what,” the Celican queried, unwilling to give an inch to the little officer.

“In relation to an ongoing federal case,” Sana retorted.

“Do you have a warrant?”

“Would you like us to get one,” Groal put in, trying to add a bit of sweetness to his tone without making it totally apparent. “I mean, it would take half an hour to get that done AND,” he added quickly as Sana turned to glare at him, “it’s likely the press would find out about it…”

“But,” Sana interrupted, “if we were to just confirm things on the feed – which is what we want to do – no-one needs to know what we were after.”


“So,” Sana asked as the pair of them watched the cameras under the watchful eye of the chief, “you’re married?”

Groal snorted. He’d expected her to ask that five minutes ago and had watched her try to hold the question in with something akin to amusement. “Yup,” he admitted,.

“Oh, to that silver Vixen?”

Groal laughed properly this time. “What, to Katara? No, no! She’d kill me! To an older Lappinean. Just had our first kit.”

“Oh, congratulations. Do you know who it’s taking after yet?”

He harrumphed. “Bit early. I should really be there but my transfer to a ground station’s not through yet.”

“Shouldn’t take too… Ooh, wait. Is that a Castoran in a long coat and hat?”

Groal took a look at the grainy footage and had to agree that it did look much like someone trying too hard not to be noticed. “Any other cameras on the other side of the building,” he asked the Chief.

Crustily, the third Celican in the room pulled up a different feed. Dialled back two hours prior and let it play through until Sana told him to stop. The same figure, coming in a good forty minutes prior. Only without the hat. “Yup,” Sana said, “that’s definitely him. Now,” she mused, “we need the warrant for that loading dock. She tapped away on her wrist computer. “Should have it in twenty.” She stretched back in the chair and looked pleasantly at the Chief. “Any chance of some coffee,” she asked sweetly.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

This was a very pleasantly surprising chapter you put up! Keep on doing that because it is so awesome!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Twenty-Five

An hour passed and Sana and Groal returned to the ship after overseeing Uverstone’s people taking the loading dock apart. Traces of the Castoran were picked up across the building and various non federal crimes were detected in the locker area for the Chief to take into account as Sana quoted that she couldn’t be bothered with the minutiae and, on an official level, it wasn’t a federal crime anyhow. Groal took the chance to get food before returning to Engineering and Katara sniffed the air as he entered. “I’m smelling a Tarralo Qwig Flan and Parva Juice.”

“Nice try, Katara,” Groal replied, engaging his station, “but it was a Takkabin Pie.”

Katara snorted. “Unlike a certain Fennekin, I didn’t fail my hunting qualifications.” She moved to a console opposite her current Chief and made sure the engines were balanced correctly before Groal asked her to check.

“Check the engi…” Groal paused, one hand in the air. “She FAILED hunting? I thought that was impossible?”

Katara shrugged. “Apparently not. Which Harvey took great pleasure in pointing out to me when I asked.”

“You have to stop doing that every time a Celican comes onboard,” Groal sighed.

“I analyse threats,” Katara said coldly. “Until I know they’re NOT one.”

“Right. Have you balanced the starboard power flow through the conduits?”

“Yes, of course I have. Or, rather,” she corrected as she saw the look from one of the other engineers, “I had Jan do it. I can run the department, you know?”

Groal glanced at her. “And they’re dreading when you do,” he remarked.

“Bad Engineers beware,” the Silver Vixen threatened.


“So, it’s Vallonia then,” Hawle stated, sitting in his bridge chair as Sana reported in. She’d detailed everything, only occasionally glancing to her wrist computer, where the Captain figured she’d noted everything down. It wasn’t a bad report. Possibly not enough diversions for him but IOC probably appreciated it. He glanced to Stikka. “Vallonia?”

Stikka looked absent for a moment. “AH, yeah. Vallonia. The liquor capital of the patch. Mostly given over to growing grains and ryes for Whiskies and spirits, beers and hard ciders, which they distil and send out.”

“Chappers,” he called, leaning around so he could see the Human, “put us on a course for the duty free would you? Velocity three. We might even get there before their shuttle’s started on its route back. Dawton, get us cleared.”

“On it, sir,” the Human replied.


Hawle took a few moments to himself in his office as the ship sped towards its new destination and took the chance to put in a call to Elena. He waited as Mercy put him through to the Councillor and wondered how she’d take the delay. He hoped it wouldn’t be too much trouble for her… He smiled brightly as Elena’s pretty face appeared on the screen. “Heya, love,” he greeted.

<”I take it there’s a delay,”> she responded with sweetness that matched his. <”Don’t worry, Aldair,”> she continued, <”I know you’ve got important things to do and people to catch. How you doing?”>

Although he knew she was only asking rhetorically, Aldair enthused on how he was missing her and how he’d recently fought a Pirate killing machine one on one until…

<”Raven stepped in and saved your life,”> Elena interrupted.

“She doesn’t do it ALL the time,” Hawle protested happily. “I’ve saved her on occasions!!”

<”You’ve told me,”> Elena laughed. <”So, you’re going to miss the concert?”>

Hawle made a ‘helpless’ gesture. “Probably can’t avoid it. No reason for you to miss it, though.”

<”No intention for me to miss it, either,”> she replied. <”I’ll take Mercy. I’ll just have to call it ‘business’.”>

Clearly amused, Hawle rolled his ears up to full attention. “She won’t thank you, you know?”

<”Mercy never thanks me for anything. I never ask her to.>” They spent the next ten minutes chatting about holiday plans and crew members and friends before Elena had to go for a colonial Council meeting and hung up.


Sarah switched the visual front view to see the rear view, something she’d started to do, from time to time, when she was paranoid about being followed. The thing that always claimed ‘this is mine’ still fluttered into her mind on occasion, a wraith in the starlight. It had barely shown on their scanners that first time. So she occasionally flicked to rear view, maximum magnification, if she had fears. “Imagination getting the better of you, Chapston,” Stikka asked, trying to do small talk.

“Better safe than sorry, sir,” Chapston replied.

“There’s truth in that,” he advised, “but, if there are things that can’t be seen on the scanners, are we going to run into them behind us?” Sarah took the hint and changed the view back to the front. “Thank you,” Stikka continued. “Running into another ship by complete accident would be embarrassing.”

“I have to admit it wouldn’t look good on my driving licence,” she admitted, turning to give him the encouraging glance she felt his attempt at discourse had earned.

The Racon felt a hint of pride at the expression from the Human. He’d lost a few things when he’d taken the upgrade, amongst them apart of his ability to make ‘small talk’. He’d been developing subroutines based on interaction with the others here and he must have been making progress. People seemed… easier around him now. More at ease. He calculated the chances of the next thing he was going to ask to be very low but he decided to ask it anyhow. It was chat. “Dawton,” he asked, examining a mint imperial as he did so. It had no nutritional benefits, being composed mostly of sugars and flavouring, but he tried to work out why he liked them. Never mind. “Any response from Vallonia as to our enquiry yet?” He popped the mint into his mouth and tried to stop himself biting through the shell.

“Not yet, sir,” the Comms operator replied. “In fact, there doesn’t seem to be anything from there at all.”
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Looks like we might be getting closer to Hawle getting his just desserts then. I look forward to that. Nice chapter also!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Twenty-Six

Hawle headed back out from his office and hopped into his chair again, dislodging several strands of his discarded fur as he landed. He put his feet to the floor and turned to consult Raven, who’d just taken over from Stikka. “I’ve had a word with Control,” he stated, “about the fact that we can’t contact Vallonia. Henry’s said he’s going to try to contact them himself and he’ll be sending us back up. The Fallir, the Coruscant and the Rodomont are being ordered to proceed to Vallonia and only turn back if he gets through.”

“Exactly what do you think might have happened to black them out?”

“Not a clue, Sarina,” Hawle confessed, “but, under the current circumstances, I’d have to suspect a potential blockade by a clan who discovered the same thing we did.” He crossed his legs. “I thought that place looked TOO much like it had been searched by amateurs, you know? It’s a bit much to smash the place up, including computers and padds, when you’re looking for information.”

“But something they might do to stop others getting it quickly.”

“Hmm,” Hawle mused, wishing his armrests had a drinks dispenser. Or that he’d thought to get one before sitting down. It’d make him look indecisive if he got back up again to get one now. “How long, Sarah,” he asked.

“An hour, sir,” she replied, thinking about Polva’s proposal last night. He’d gotten Cedar to make up a menu specific to the two of them and they’d been halfway through the Canid Beef Wellington (with extra marrowbone in the meat) when he’d gotten down on one knee and did the restatement with a ring that outclassed the previous one. She still didn’t get that part of Canine lore, the fact that he had to repropose as they’d waited too long a season or something. But she’d prepared for him this time. After she’d said ‘yes’ again and had pudding, she’d taken him back to their quarters where she had a ring ready for his finger too. She’d slipped it onto his finger and it had stayed there for… about half an hour before they’d both taken them off and gone to bed. She loved her gorgeous Russellian and she wanted this done this time. Even if she had to ask the Captain to do the honours to hold things until they got to a church for confirmation. She needed to find the word, though. How to approach Hawle about I…

“Chappers,” Hawle said simply, “perhaps you could concentrate so we don’t fly into a comet? I don’t think our deflectors could take it at velocity three.”

Sarah shook her head. “Sorry, sir.”

“Understood, Sarah. Don’t do it again and you know the addresses for the invitations so don’t worry about those.”

“Sir,” she queried sharply.

“The new ring’s a bit of a giveaway. And Colleen told me on the way up. I think Cedar told her.”

Sarah nodded tritely. The FieldMican couldn’t keep a secret, especially from Ambassador Una. “Permission to thump Cedar,” she queried non-seriously.

“Permission denied,” Hawle replied. “Just leave a bad review on his Galnet page.” He shifted up from his seat. “Take the comm again, Sarina, I just had a thought.” He showed a glimpse of glinting wet teeth as he smirked. “It made me a little dizzy. Back shortly.”


Hawle pressed the door button and waited, a steaming mug of something random he’d taken from a replication machine in his hand. He’d made sure it was from the vegan/vegetarian options and nothing Celican but he’d not tried it yet. It smelled like vegetable soup but it was brown. The door opened and Hawle looked straight at Colleen as she glanced down to his mug. “Rolled the die again,” she asked.

“Seemed a good idea at the time,” he answered. “May I enter?”

She stepped back and allowed him to enter her quarters. Officially he didn’t need to ask as he was the Captain but it always seemed smart when it came to a Junior Ambassador who was both his friend and someone with Council connections that could squish him flat with a flick of their little fingers. “We’re headed for Vallonia,” he announced. “We can’t raise the colony for some reason.”

Colleen waited until the door shut before moving around to him and fussed over a strand of him that had landed on his epaulette’s, making them look untidy in her opinion. “What is it you think I can help with?”

“Aside from personal grooming… mum,” Hawle chided, “If we keep trying and there’s ‘someone’ blocking, our ident code will warn them we’re coming but…”

“My ambassadorial channel doesn’t carry ship identification codes,” she finished. “I might be able to try getting in contact with a government source there. You came all the way down here to tell me to make a call?”

“I can’t think of any other reason,” Hawle remarked.

“Should I point at your mug or is it implied that I don’t believe you?”

“Shall I go now?”

She stepped between him and the door. “I want to see you drink some, Aldair,” she challenged. He examined the drink carefully.


Ten minutes later, Hawle got back to the bridge and took his seat. “Colleen’s going to try to get through with her special links,” he told Sarina as she sniffed the air.

“Why do you smell of Chataban Spice mix,” she asked rhetorically, hiding a message from Colleen on her armrest terminal.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Hawle bluffed, not being able to look her in the eye.

She peered at him in his uniform. She sniffed rhetorically. “Is that a fresh jacket,” she asked, doing her best not to laugh at the wavering pride on his face as he gazed levelly at her.

“Fresh on this morning,” he claimed, dusting it down a bit.

“Fresh on in the last ten minutes, I reckon,” Sarina mused, her face slipping slightly and cluing Hawle in on things.

He groaned. “She told you, didn’t she? I’ve taken THAT out of the ‘roulette’ system anyhow, Sarina. It caught me by sur… Wait a minute, did Colleen KNOW what it was?” He fumed impotently. “The Canine nose. Of course she knew.” He sat back. “I hope it was a good show.”


“We’re coming in now, sir,” Chapston advised. “Very edge of sensor range around Vallonia.”

“Let’s see what we can see,” Hawle ordered as the ship slowed to normal velocity and Vallonia appeared on the screen. Even from here, Hawle could make out the destroyed communications platforms and the five large ships in high orbit between them and the planet. “There’s probably a few more on the far side,” he mentioned.

“Now we know,” Raven stated.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Great chapter once again here! Looking forward to what you have planned for the next one!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Twenty-Seven

Hawle watched the situation on screen and mused on his upcoming actions as the five large ships kept formation around Vallonia. He assumed that they weren’t showing on the pirate sensors yet as U.S.C. ships were higher spec. But it wouldn’t take long, he assumed, before they realised someone was out there. There might be another ship on an incoming vector or an astute officer onboard might notice them on screens or something. He had back up coming but there was no way it was going to get here anytime soon and, frankly, he knew that’d set the opposition off as they detected them coming. And they wouldn’t be here for the better part of a day anyhow. “Dawton,” he said thoughtfully, “can you pick up any communications from those ships?”

The Human attended to his console, listening out for anything new before he answered the Commander. “Very little, sir,” he commented, “They don’t seem to be talking to each other.”

Hawle rubbed his chin. “So, are they here together or as a sad conglomerate of clans?” He sighed. “Only one way to find out. Dawton, flash a message to Talvary Station. Confirm the blockade, then start sending out a request to speak to their leading officer. Match, fire a relay buoy out to extreme range aft and open a comm line to it. Chappers, take us in on impulse power, Sarina, tell Hardy to get launch ready.” He circled a hand. “Tell her generic Pirate fighters. There’s five different types of ship out there, lor’ alone knows what they’re loaded with. Match,” he continued, “can we scan them from here?”

“Uh,” the Raitchian scientist claimed, a little surprised by suddenly being brought into the conversation, “yes but they’d be able to tell, Captain.”

“Hold on that for now. Wait until we know they’ve detected us.” He looked at the viewer again. “Why are we still here? You have the instructions, get on with them! Yellow alert, people”

The ship began moving forward.


Maze Hardy woke up and threw the bedclothes off as the alert siren sounded. She scowled as she reasoned she didn’t have time to wash or, even, get dressed properly and hopped into shorts and a vest as she listened to Raven tell her what was going on. She waited until the Burman finished before leaving her quarters and running the short race to the locker room in slim slippers. Always the early morning alerts, she figured as she noted it was close to noon ship time. She didn’t stop to consider that as she’d been tinkering with the deck chief on Alpha three until the early hours, sorting out a fluid line imbalance that refused to be tied down to any one location before they’d managed to catch it and drain it. Early morning was, as far as she was concerned, anything within half an hour of her waking up. She pulled her suit out and worked to pull the bulky protection on. She was somewhat thankful she’d put underwear on as she considered the suit would probably chafe if she hadn’t. Other pilots were doing likewise, with or without considering the chafing, and she had to race to get her boots on ahead of them. “Nice shoes, Commander,” one of the pilots said, indicating her ‘Feline face’ style slippers. She threw one at his head.


Groal finished up the assignments for his crews as the sirens sounded and he sent Januvitski to the medical centre, Bosda to the shuttle bays and Katara to the bridge for emergency work there. The Silver Vixen stared at the order as he sent it to her. “You need me here, Karla,” she protested. “If you go down, I need to know about it.”

“If I go down, Katara,” he told her confidently, “you need to be in a different location so what got me doesn’t get you.” He bored into her with his eyes as he sensed she was going to interrupt. “Apart from myself, there is NO-ONE I trust more with my ship than you. I’m sending you up there because you’re good. Now, as I’m in command of the department, get your tail up there.”

“Of course, sir,” Katara retorted, adding a little smirk to her face when saying the last word. She grasped her toolkit and strapped it on before heading up.

“One last thing,” Groal called out to the remaining Engineering staff. “Bodger, if you don’t change your name soon, I’m going to start calling you Petunia!” The Brockian being referred to shrugged as though he’d heard that every time for the last five months. “Seriously,” Groal called, “it’s something that’s going to drag down every resume you put in as an engineer!” He shrugged. “Your funeral.” He started working on the coolant system.


The ship pushed forward towards the near inevitable and Hawle had the weapons Officer power up the weapons for instant readiness as the shields were raised. He watched as the ships stayed in position and seemed to ignore them. “If they’re communicating with each other,” the |Captain muse, “why can’t we..? Wait…” He zoomed in on one of the ships and played back the last few seconds. “Lights,” he said. Casually. “They’re using old school communications between each other. Dawton, kindly crack their communications if you would?”

“Meh, probably easy enough but I promise nothing, sir.”

“Just work out how to say ‘Hi, can you send someone to talk, please?’ Only without the please, please.”

“Gimme five minutes, sir.”

“Nah. I’ll give you three.” He switched his attention back to the armrest to make sure that they hadn’t been detected yet or, if they had, that they weren’t being reacted to yet. According to the computer, all departments had reported ready but he waited for Raven to announce it as that was part of her responsibilities. “Raven,” he prompted after a moment, when he realised she was too focused on the upcoming threat, “have the departments reported in?”

“Hm?” Sarina shook her head to clear the cobwebs. “Oh, um, yes, sir! They’ve all reported in. Everything’s ready.”

“Perhaps a bit too ready,” Hawle queried carefully. “Have you got your weapons ready?”

Sarina shucked her claws out. “Always, Captain,” she enthused. “Yourself?”

Hawle tapped his head. “I have my brain primed,” he stated, “and a blaster for back up. Just in case my brain doesn’t work.”

Match looked up from his console. “One of the ships is coming over towards us,” he warned. Hawle switched the viewer to where one of the ships had, indeed, left its assigned position in high orbit and was angling towards them like a Shark. The gap in planetary coverage was swiftly followed by one of the others changing position to cover.

“OK,” Hawle said, mouth behind steepled fingers so his breath moved the fur, “let’s be all polite and chummy. “Dawton, if you’ve figured out how to say ‘hi’, send that. Then, if you have or haven’t open frequencies...”
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Hoping that Dawton has figured out how to say hi. Diplomacy in these situations is usually the best route to go. LOL Great chapter!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

The art of bluff... Don't worry, there is a battle in this story. It may or may not be imminent.

Twenty-Eight

Commander Hawle watched the ship approach and it put him in mind of a gaunt fish from Lappara, the type that swum with minimal disturbance to the flow of the river as it hunted its prey, exerting minimal effort as it hunted. It had that cool, grey and aquiline look to it. Danger was courting them. Was he going to dance? Meh, he wasn’t sure but he was usually fast on his feet. “If they don’t call us in a moment,” he asked Raven as Dawton sent the ‘hello’ message, “you think we should call them?”

“Nah,” she replied crustily, “we don’t want to seem too needy, do we?” A shrug. “Plus we need to buy time for our friends to get here.”

They watched as the ship drew nearer. “Shields up. Keep weapons powered down. Sound the Red alert siren.”

“We’re already at alert, Captain,” Raven put in.

“That’s a ‘stuff’s about to happen’ alert, Raven. I want the ‘stuff’s happening NOW’ alert. It makes me feel more secure.” In front of him the yellow strobing light above Chapston changed to a red one. “See, much better,” Hawle remarked.

“Just to spoil the party, sirs,” Dawton called, “they’re hailing us.”

“On with the motley,” Hawle breezed, gesturing forward with a hand until he remembered that Dawton was looking in the opposite direction and couldn’t, therefore, see him. “Put ‘em on.”


The screen cleared to show a scarred and patched Feline that was every inch the stereotype of a pirate. So much so that Chapston had to hide a snigger behind her hand as he glared over her head at the Lappinean Captain. <”Council scum,”> the Feline rasped. <”What do you want here?”>

Hawle clapped his hands together, making a ‘pop’ noise that had half the bridge crew jumping in their seats. “What do I want,” he said rhetorically. “Universal understanding, a safe parking orbit, an unencircled colony world, a dictionary to find out if ‘unencircled’ is even a word and…” He dropped his light tone and leaned forward to try and appear more intimidating. “...your ships out of here NOW. Before my back up gets here. I’m Commander Hawle, by the way.”

The Captain of the other vessel sat back and kept his face tense. <“Commissar Rickton. So. The Rabbit,”> he said.

Hawle spread his arms wide. “In the fur.”

<”Savra said you were halfway insane. I didn’t believe him. I owe him a beer.”>

“If you want to live to collect it, we have to sort this now,” Hawle argued. “We know why you’re here. Has the situation really got that bad that you lay siege to a world and risk escalating the conflict?”

<”Yilla is worth EVERYTHING to me, Captain, Our clan has lost eight ships to his treachery, including the ship my mate was the first officer on!”> He leaned forward and poked a claw to his own chest. <”I will take the life of that evil river slime, Captain! I will not stand to hear him live one DAY longer than he needs and nor will my clan!”>

“If I could trust you were telling the truth, I might even consider letting you have him, Captain. Ethics be darned, justice is more important. But I can’t rely on the other clans believing you when you say that you killed him. You know what you’re risking and the U.S.C. will NOT stand back in an all out war between the clans. That’s what’s being threatened here, Captain Rickton. All out war. The only way to stop that is for my ship to take him in so he can stand trial.” The feline gritted his teeth with an audible grinding sound. “I get that you want to rip him apart yourself Captain. I saw what the virus did to Hkannas’ ship. I can’t imagine what that would have looked like if he hadn’t managed to hijack another ship. But there’s only one way that this doesn’t get any worse, Captain. There’s only one way I can think of that calms things down for the moment without thousands more being killed, possibly including others you care for. Justice has to be SEEN to be done. After we’ve done that and banged them in Chokey – or some nearer high security prison – I’m pretty sure some people might have another nickname for him? Like something rhyming with spitting cluck’?”

<”Stop with the nonsense talk, Hawle,”> the Feline stormed.

“OK,” Raven snapped, not able to restrain herself any further. She stepped fully into view. “Put it THIS way. Every ship the U.S.C. has in the new colonies is headed here, NOW. They’re coming from everywhere, including ships Control had drafted in from other areas when this started. Right now we’re here but, in short order, you’re going to be facing at least fifteen clippers, eight frigates and at least two fully capable battleships! Either you leave NOW or you bring the war down on your clan!” She glared at the viewscreen. “Which is it to be, Captain? Peace or war? Your choice.” She jabbed a finger on her arm console and ended the call before he could reply. “Too much,” she asked, turning back to Hawle.

Hawle waved a hand. “Possibly, Sarina. Your acting’s never been brilliant. You might have overplayed it. Stikka’s helping Jaqui. Match, get your midnight butt over here. Temporary promotion. Raven, go have fun in my office. No raiding the liquor cabinet.”

She handed her insignia of rank over to the Raitchian and slipped across to the office door before stopping. “You haven’t got a liquor cabinet in here,” she remarked before leaving.

“I’d have lost it a week after I installed it with her,” Hawle reasoned, tossing a Mint to Match as he sat and attached the insignia. “Dawton,” he ordered, “put the moggy back on.”


The face reappeared on the screen. “My apologies for that, Captain,” Hawle lied. “My First Officer gets rather… stroppy when it comes to your lot. She’s been confined for the moment. I rather wish I’d done it a little sooner but I suppose you needed to know what’s coming.”

<”She put you at a tactical disadvantage, Commander,”> Rickton gloated. <”Now I know you’re here alone.”>

“And you also know we won’t be alone for long.” Hawle shrugged. “It could be the Fallir that finds us. It could be the Rodomont. Not even I know exactly who’s where. But I DO know we’ve been sending all this conversation to Talvary Communal station so they’ll know exactly who they’re looking for. And which clan to hunt.”

The Feline chuckled, a cracked sound coming from his mouth as he enjoyed himself. <”Now I know you’re lying. You’re not as smart as you think you are, Rabbit! We’ve been jamming your long range communications since we started over here!”

“We have the new Raicarra Mark seventeen power booster on our gold level transmitters, Captain. Gold Channel. Priority one. They can break any known jamming signal. They got our messages. Ask your communications officer, we’ve been sending a signal out continuously. You need to leave. Now. Or they’ll come in shooting.” He closed the link so the feline could think and sighed. “Dawton, stop that transmission Match set up now. Let’s hope they bought it.”

Match leaned over to speak to the Captain. “Are you part Raitchian,” he asked.

“Nope, I just make it up as I go along, ‘first’. There’s madness in my method but there’s method in my madness too.” His ear flopped as he ran what he’d just said through his brain to see if it made sense.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

You know I wouldn't mind seeing Hawle do battle with a pirate now that I think about it. Could be rather fun!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Of COURSE Hawle's read 'that book'. Of course he has. (Sarah probably gave him the book.)

Twenty-Nine

The crew watched as the ships began to disperse and a number of the crew breathed out as the ships split up. Hawle, for one, was rather glad that it had worked, although he was under no illusions as to total success. The ships weren’t going far. Behind the moon, in fact, or to Titan II, the barely inhabitable lump of rock that stood on the fringe of the so called ‘goldilocks’ zone. Close enough, in fact, that a trim at the barbers would leave it on the shop floor. That, he thought, was a terrible simile. Must do better. “Right,” he announced. “Chapston, take us into orbit. Dawton, contact ground control, Match, get Sarina out of my Office and give her her rank back. Anyone who needs to change their trousers or pants or both do it after that. I have no intention of putting up with the smell and the aircon costs money. Let’s get to it.”


A half hour later, Hawle and Pangal teleported down into the female toilets in Titan III’s Police headquarters and looked around. “I have to start considering discipline in teleport control,” Hawle remarked as a female officer squeaked behind the closed cubicle door. “My apologies,” he announced grandly. “I promise I’m a good guy…”

“...despite the present situations,” Jaqui put in innocently.

“...And we’ll step outside now,” Hawle finished, heading towards the door. He opened it and they stepped out into the main Police station. “I’d wondered what those looked like,” he added. “So strange and clean.”

Jaqui shrugged. “Not the way I’d suggest meeting the locals. Could have been worse, though.” She smiled with the corner of her eye and let light reflect off her teeth. “Could have been the Colonial President’s office.”

“Don’t give her any ideas,” Hawle protested as a Castoran in official uniform hustled over to them and stood in their way. Hawle reckoned he’d probably been called by the female they’d just left in a rather flustered state in the bathroom. “Good morning,” He started, as he saw the Castoran about to start talking.

The figure had his mouth half open and shut it again. “It’s afternoon,” he announced. “and what do you mean by illegally teleporting down into our toilets?” he threw up his hands in exasperation. “Don’t you know we’re on high alert? We’re under siege!”

“Oh, I know all about that,” Hawle remarked. “I’ve managed to get a little break in their coverage.” He scritched the back of his neck. “I’m Commander Aldair Hawle of the U.S.C. Frigate ‘Loper’. This,” he continued, indicating Jaqui, who bowed and let her ears flop, “is Jaqui Pangal, my chief of security. Delighted to meet you. Do you have an office where we can talk things through quickly? I’ve bought time but it probably won’t last long.”


They sat in an office as the Chief of Police, Superintendent Vowal, told of how the pirates had come a number of hours ago and announced their presence by obliterating the communication satellites and establishing control within an hour. The defence platforms were obsolete and soon to be replaced under a testing deal with Fawren Spaceways that had been agreed at the ‘convention’ on Darena Core but it hadn’t been installed yet. They’d announced that the planet was blockaded until they handed over someone called Yilla Sobrii. Any ship trying to leave would be seized or destroyed and, as far as Vowal could see, they were serious. The colonial congress was definitely encouraging him to find the individual although they’d publicly declared they wouldn’t be bullied by cowards and terrorists. Vowal had needed to take officers off the search and assign them as protection for the ministers who’d said that whilst guns were pointing at the city.

For his part, Hawle laid out what they knew of the situation and how bad it was. He came to the actions of the last few hours and relaid the brinksmanship with Rickton. As he finished, Vowal had to laugh. “You bluffed him?”

Hawle shrugged. “Mother always said a bad hand isn’t a bad hand if you can make your opponent believe. Plus there’s a simple thing Rickton forgot.”

“What’s that?”

“As a Human author once said, ‘space is really, REALLY, big. The distance to your corner shop? That’s peanut’s compared to space!’ I know where all our ships are in the patch and the closest to us is the clipper Coton. The closest battleship is about a day away at best speed and we faked being able to break their communications jammer. They’ll work it out in a while. Probably. So we need to get on with it. We need to know about Yilla.” He pushed himself forward in the chair. “We know how he got here, but what do you know about him?”

“Very little,” Vowal remarked. “We’ve searched the locations he might have gone to but there’s been no sign of him. We’ve made a number of arrests but none of them are him. We’re at a loss.”

Jaqui Pangal shifted forward now, attracting the Castoran’s attention. “You’d expect a Castoran to hide in a colony of Castorans, wouldn’t you?” She perked her ears up from where they’d drooped behind her head. Hawle recognised it as a sign thoughts were flicking through her mind at a rate of knots. “What if he didn’t though? We know the cargo ship he arrived on… Did any ships leave at about the same time?”

“Ah, the old ‘switcheroo,” Hawle mused, rubbing his chin. “I suppose we’d need to ask ground control?”

“They’d… certainly know,” Vowal agreed. “I can ask them.”

“I can do better than ‘ask’,” Hawle responded. “I can tell you to tell them to expect an IOC agent and a computing expert at their location with security in about five minutes? Oh, where IS Ground control anyhow? I need to know for the teleport operator.”

“There’s a small park by the entrance,” Vowal remarked wryly. “Roomier than the toilets. What will you two be doing?”

“Well, if you’re going on raids to find Yilla, we’ll go with you. Just in case he’s here.”

Jaqui scoffed. “YOU won’t, Commander, you’ll wait here! Raven’d kill me!”

“Now, think on this, Jaqui,” Hawle told her straight. “If all the Police are on the raid and I’m alone here, wouldn’t it be embarrassing for you if I were attacked here?”

“Yes… no… Wait a minute…” She sighed. “You have a mobile Command, Chief?”

“We do.”

“He can go in that. And no further,” she finished stridently.

“I’d heard you were crazy,” Vowal told Hawle.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Crazy doesn't even BEGIN to cover Hawle. Nice work on the chapter!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

I appreciate the comments from Amazee but I believe I have other readers too?
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

I know you do but for some reason nobody ever comments on this. It was the same thing when I was writing my long-dead fanfiction.
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Thirty

Valrix looked around as the trio arrived on the green outside Ground Control and sniffed, his Alsan nose taking in the scents of the world around and the salt from the sea some two miles to the south tickled his senses. “Lot of water around here,” he griped to the others.

“Well, with River and Open water Castorans, a lot of water is to be expected,” Harvey commented, sneezing in the bright daytime sun. He kept his computer tight by his side as the security Officer and the IOC Vixen confirmed no-one was looking to kill them right this moment. The Squirrel regretted the lack of anything arboreal in the vicinity for him to climb but he doubted he’d be allowed to climb one anyway. It was probably sacred to them or something. He shifted his computer and started heading for the main door, Valrix and Sana in tow, jogging to keep up with the speedy computer tech.


“Good afternoon,” Sana said, a little out of breath as she caught up with Harvey at the door. She glanced at the receptionist and flashed her ident as the Castoran looked over the desk. “IOC agent Sana,” she announced, “here to take a look through your incoming and outgoing ships with my team here. Harvey the computer tech and Valrix the… bouncer.”

“Um, right. I’ll just get my senior to…”

“Yes, yes,” Sana breezed dismissively, “go right ahead.”

“I am FAR more than just a bouncer,” Valrix hissed as the receptionist made his call. “I like art and music and…”

“All of which I can find out later, yeah,” Sana told him. “And you’d better not be meaning that ‘Grange bone’ rock stuff young Canids like.”

He snorted and shook his head. “Too reminiscent of complete rubbish for me, that stuff. Give me Bahletti, Pastreene or Dayzee Carrinay any day.”


“I’m afraid we don’t have any of those in our musak selection today,” a grey fur Castoran with glinting eyes said, walking down from the steps to the left. Harvey took in the suit that probably cost six months of his wages and was thankful he had the fashion sense of a Molan in an eclipse. It meant he didn’t have to buy stuff like that. “I understand you want to examine our transit logs from the day this whoever came through?”

“Indeed we do,” Sana remarked. “I take it the Chief of Police has updated you?”

“Of course.” she replied, indicating the door to the back of the room. “Shall we proceed?”


Hawle watched as the Mobile Command Unit took a corner at nearly unsafe velocity and held onto the console in front of him to make sure he didn’t fall from his chair. “I’m still not used to…” he held on as it changed direction again, “roadsigns that also tell you the river directions,” he opined to Vowal as the Superintendent monitored the rest of his force for the operation.

Vowal knew Sobrii had a cousin involved in alcohol on the west side of the city and his units – and the Lappinean Security Officer that had come with Hawle – had been assigned to hit that place at the earliest possible moment with the mobile Command centre setting up just outside. He had three Officers in here for back up. And he had the Rabbit. “It’s a privilege thing,” he told Hawle. “Certain rivers are more important so the upper class keeps those to themselves. We can all use the tributaries and feeder rivers, of course.”

Hawle shook his head. He’d ask how the people stood for it but the law was the law and the law was made by those who swam in the bigger rivers. They weren’t going to change it just for the hoi-polloi. “You ever sneak down there in the darkness for a swim?”

“Certainly not,” the Chief snapped. “and that’s my OFFICIAL position!”

“Right.”


The vehicles drew up outside a warehouse that was already being vacated by a large number of Castorans. Those who tried to flee by river found themselves under the watchful eye of River division officers with a command boat directing the individual officers to their targets. The departing trucks were hemmed in by the fact that the armed response units vehicle – and the Mobile Command unit – were bigger than them, especially when side on against the oncoming traffic. Hawle had a feeling he knew what was coming next as the assault team unloaded in full armour and weapons. He couldn’t tell which was Jaqui from here, as she was wearing identical stuff to the Castorans - in fact it WAS the Castorans stuff – but he was linked via monitor to her helmet cam so he chose to watch that. Yup, he thought as the Commander used a megaphone app on her comm to hail the warehouse and get them to surrender for searching under the warrant issued by… whoever, here came the guns.


Hawle watched as Jaqui took cover behind a concrete bollard that didn’t seem big enough to hide her but took a surprising amount of incoming fire. She twisted slightly and he heard the dull ‘thrumm’ of her attack rifle firing a pulse of energy before she joined a couple of the other members of the squad in a charge for the door as Vowal’s techies behind him sought to jam any galnet signals from leaving the area.


“Is this all of it,” Harvey asked as he looked at the manifest for the shuttle from Titan III. “Hardware, computers, a sports car..? Nice. Must have money if you can import them. “And no crew?”

“You ran the biological scans of everything, I take it,” Sana asked as Valrix stood behind her and attempted to look imposing.

“Of course,” the Castoran on duty, Futter Ovan, remarked, a little offended by the question. “I ran them twice, in fact. Nothing came in this way, no matter what those Pirates might be thinking! And I’m not negligent at my job!” She looked huffily at the supervisor across the room, “no matter what SOME think!”

Sana looked over, following the gaze. “Why might she think that,” she asked.

Futter took in a breath and decided to tell the truth before the agent went looking for it. “My brother got into a little bit of trouble and had to be gotten off world.”

Sana started. “That’s more than a little trouble.”

Futter shrugged. “I never helped him. There are no records accusing me of helping him but, as soon as his name got released, people thought I had. Almost lost my job.” She side eyed her supervisor again. “That one’s the worst.”

Harvey waved a hand. “Yes, yes. You’re badly done by. Of course. Intriguing on a personal level but irrelevant to this. Tell me about the ‘Oster Caralla.’ Says here it left just before the shuttle from Titan III got in?”

Futter crouched to peer at the screen. “Standard transit from here to Pangina,” she said.

“But, according to this,” Harvey advised, pulling up another screenshot, “the Oster had a problem with its engines?”

“Corrected in a short period… of...time…” Futter announced, things falling into place in her head. “The shuttle would have passed close by.”

Sana cursed. “Within teleport range. And then they fled to Pangina, leaving here up to its eyeballs in alligators and Pirates!”
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Hope that they can find a way to deal with everything! Alligators and pirates are not a good combination...
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

It's not just Aldair Hawle that can make food mistakes... (But it usually is)

Thirty-One

Jaqui Pangal held her breath as she pushed into the warehouse. It wasn’t nerves that had her controlling her breath as she was quite used to stressful situations when partaking dangerous engagements but it was more the fact that the suit smelled of fish. She supposed she should have expected that but it was almost as though the last incumbent had eaten a snack whilst inside with the visor down. She ducked aside as shots came flowing in, just in case the armour wasn’t as up to spec as she’d been told. Three to four straight shots she reckoned, based on her knowledge of the armour, and she didn’t know how often it had been hit before. Every armour gets patched up from time to time, after being used and shot and the patches are never going to bring it back up to brand spanking new for long. Best to remain unshot and let the armour take only the shots you can’t dodge. So she fired her issued weapon at the assailant on the stairs. No stun on these things, she reasoned as she punched a hole in the target’s chest. He looked down at his life ending injury, wavered a bit on the stairs, and fell over the handrail to crack onto the cement floor. His allies focussed their fire on her position whittling away the cover she’d taken behind a container. The others were taking fire too, with the defenders having the high ground and the defensible positions. “This isn’t going to be easy,” she breathed.


Outside, in the command module, Hawle watched as the combat stalled into trench warfare and wondered if the river police were going to join the fight. He strictly doubted it. “You planning to keep them penned in,” he asked the Superintendent.

“We’ll get them out in time,” Vowal promised as Hawle heard Pangal cry out on the monitor.

“Jaqui,” he called into the microphone, “what’s happened?”

<“Took one in the leg,”> she complained. <”Weak point in the armour. I’m still operational, though.”>

“Right. Protect yourself, Jaqui, but be ready to pull out quick.”

<”But we...”>

“Be ready to pull out,” Hawle insisted. Seriously. “I’m bringing an ace into play.”

Vowal looked over, suddenly on alert. “I don’t think I authorised anything like…”

“Relax, Superintendent,” Hawle breezed, “you’ll like this.”


“So,” Futter said, in the darkness of the open plan office corner, “you actually think this Sobrii fella never actually stopped here? He…” She gestured with her fingers, walking them through the air before simulating a jump. “He did a hop, skip and jump to the ship headed for Pangina?”

“Something like that,” Harvey confided, taking a drink from the cup he’d just filled with something that smelled rather like tea without actually being it. It wasn’t completely unpleasant, he reckoned, just really unusual.

Futter watched his face doing its subtle gymnastics and suddenly realised she’d forgotten to warn him that Castorans used heated up water from the river in their drinks. Unpurified unless you specifically requested it. It was on all the literature for newcomers to the colony but the Council probably hadn’t warned him. Oh well, she shrugged mentally, too late now. Wasn’t like it would do him any real damage, just increase his mineral intake. “Couldn’t you have worked all this out from orbit or summat?” She glanced backwards to where Sana had taken over working on the computer. “And what’s she doing now anyhow?”

Harvey grimaced at the taste again and wondered what that sandy thing he’d just swallowed was. “She’s just backing things up to a removable disc, Futter. Don’t worry about it too much. She’s almost as good on computers as I am. And there’s so many using the galnet systems right now – because they were offline for the best part of a day – that the wireless connections are patchy at best.” He looked up. “Plus I don’t get out much.”

Futter shrugged. “Your loss, I suppose. You seem to bring a charm to things.”

“Even after whatever this is,” Harvey remarked, indicating the drink.”

“It’s tea.” She leaned in and tickled his ear with her whiskers. “Made with OUR water.”

Harvey groaned. “You could have warned me!”

She clapped a hand on his shoulder., making him jump and the few watching them laugh. “It’s moments like this and expressions as animated as yours that make life bearable. Cheer up, it’s nothing serious.”

Harvey made a point to check with Barleycorn when he got back up. He could already feel it worrying his gut.


Jaqui painfully pulled herself towards the entrance as the others stood their ground. The firing was still going on around them and she wasn’t helping either side as she trailed blood from her shattered leg. The suit had automatically dispensed a pain killer to keep her active but it was only taking the edge off, not smothering the pain. She fired at one of the defenders in the top office, making him keep his head down as she moved, expecting the call from Hawle to come through at any moment and… She yelped as a shot bit through her arm, close to the shoulder as she closed in on the door. Then… He was there. No armour beyond a vest. Nothing beyond his bonkers, brave, self, taking her by the arm and pulling her outside as Vowal shouted obscenities at him from the entrance to the Control centre.

“Had to get her out,” he replied as he looked up towards the sun and kept going. “Besides which, I have the Raicarra thing on,” he muttered.

Jaqui flipped her visor up. “That thing is untested,” she growled.

“I heard IOC tested it last year. They seemed to think it worked fine.”

“Until they SHOT it! Ow…”

“Speaking of which…” Hawle called over to Vowal. “Call your people back! Ace incoming!”


A crack as she entered the atmosphere at unsafe velocities and angled towards the warehouse, slamming on the air brakes to stabilize herself some ten feet off the ground as the Police scattered under the concussive effect of her stabilizing thrusters and pointed the quad cannons at the inside of the warehouse. Their return fire glistened ineffectively on her shields as Maze Hardy hovered in her Starlancer. <”Do you want to play a game,”> she asked over the speakers.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Most of the food mistakes he makes end up covering him in then though which is FAR less sinister than what people think. I did really enjoy this chapter though!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

And the chase towards the battle begins...

Thirty-Two

Doctor Night Barleycorn looked down on her friend as she lay on the surgery table in the Loper’s primary medical bay and sighed. “I let you go on one operation without your people, Jaqui, and you go and wear substandard armour. When you wake up I’m going to ask if that was wise.” She pulled the prone and mostly fixed Lappinean over onto her front and checked the exit wounds were healing under the medication’s influence. “Gonna have some more scarring, of course.” She laughed, imagining the wording from her best friend. “No, I do NOT do shoddy work! Just for that, fifteen more laps on the exercise bike! Go!”

Bazil Fuze looked on from the main ward door. “I think they have conclusive proof,” he said, “that patients under enough anaesthetic to KO an excited Equinna can’t engage in conversation, boss. I think they worked that out, oooh, a good hundred years or so back?”

She pointed at him. “Watch who you’re calling mad, Ratboy! I know a million ways to get even with you that would end up in proctology!”

He held his hands up. “I surrender. So, what’s the damage to Chief Pangal?” He stepped over as his senior Officer pulled the sheet up over her friend for privacy. “I was only interested in her injuries,” Fuze commented.

“Yeah, right.” Night sighed as she told him. “Two wounds. One in her arm, one her leg. Both energy weapons so they did a lot of their own cauterizing, which is the only good thing about it. The leg wound cut through the tibiofibula, taking a chunk of that out so I’ve had to replace it with substitute which’ll take a bit of time to be fully accepted as part of her bone structure, even though it was ‘sculpted’ with her genetic markers as kept on file and bonded in place. The other problem was the fact that particulates from the suit itself followed the bolts into the body so I had to pick it all out and seal up all the tears. She’ll be locked in her office for two weeks and getting used to it.”

“Would have been easier with two,” Fuze mentioned.

“There’s only the two of us on staff, Bazil. I needed you looking after the rest of the ship in case of need.” She looked at him with tired eyes. “I trust you to be as good as me when I’m not available.”

He stepped back, almost stunned. “A compliment, as I live and breathe!”

“Which you’d never have got if anyone else was awake to hear it! Hold the fort, I need food.”

“Change first,” Bazil advised, making Night remember she had blood on her gown.


Groal just about had it. He’d been working on repairing the communications satellite around the colony so they could at least get priority messages out. Gilly was preparing to do the link tests from the Loper but she needed the hardware up and running first. The pirates had mostly worked on frying the power core rather than total obliteration so he was working on getting a new core linked in for the short run. The Colonial Council could tell their comms operator it was down after they got it up. He’d heard Match, also back on the Loper, say that a competitively short range message had been sent out a few minutes before, from the surface to one of the remaining Pirate ships in the system. Half of them had immediately taken off and Karla wondered if ‘Plan B’ was in operation as he routed power from the portable generator into the systems he’d just patched up. He closed off the system and pushed himself back, using the stabiliser jets in a micro correction to stop himself when he got far enough back. Slowly he swung his arm up so he could tap the buttons on it and the power flowed from generator to system. He monitored it from the suit readouts. “OK,” he told those on the ship that was hovering like some sort of predatory bird, “the power’s not being refused and nothing’s blowing up. Gilly, you’re up!”

<”Roger, wilco, Over and under.”> the Tech replied lightly.

“Do I know them,” Groal asked.

<”I think they work in sciences,”> Gilly responded, playing along.

<”I wish Chapston would stop showing us all those Human space comedy movies…,”> Match cut in. <”Yeah, Sarah, I blame you. Try a Raitchian heist comedy some time, eh? How’s it going, Gilly?>”

“<Uh, I’m getting the message through to the ground station and relayed. Should find out...It’s coming back garbled. One of the antennae must be damaged, Groal, can you go check?”>

“With a sigh that could be heard a thousand miles away but not three feet away, Groal engaged the thrusters to loop back to the satellite. He’d climb it to the antennae.


“Is your Officer OK,” Vowal asked as he brought in two coffees and placed them on the table. “I did remember to get alien water for yours,” he continued as Hawle eyed the drink with suspicion. He’d forgotten about that earlier and he was sure Jaqui had taken a video of his reaction to send to Elena later.

“According to my Doctor, she’ll be fine and grouchy for the next few weeks,” Hawle advised. “Have you found out anything useful from the prisoners?” He took his feet off Vowal’s desk and spun around in the chair. After a full 360 degrees, he stopped himself as Vowal waited the chance to reply.

“Oh, yeah,” the Chief replied, deciding not to mention the odd actions of the individual before him. “And I really need to call you stupid again. But their boss confirmed the guy everyone’s hunting for was never here. Apparently he was transferred to a ship headed for Caldera sometime after he left the world he was living on.”

“That’s confirmed, is it,” Hawle asked, standing himself up with a leap effect that toppled the chair backwards. To the floor.

Vowal jumped slightly. “It is. I’m going to notify Caldera control as soon as the system is back up.”

Hawle put out a hand. “Don’t do that. You do that and they’ll figure out we’ve tricked them again.” He looked around quickly, as though taking Vowal into his confidence. “He was either here or he wasn’t. Best way to get them to leave? Make out he’s elsewhere. That’s why I sent to computer techs down to the control station. One to insert the fake log indicating he hopped to a freighter heading to Pangina and another to make it ironclad whilst the first diverts the technician and makes sure everyone else in the place knows where they went.”

Vowal looked at him with something akin to anger. “You think they had someone in ground control?”

“The clans ALWAYS have someone in Ground Control. Even if you uproot them, they’ll just bribe another. Even the U.S.C. has troubles keeping Talvary Communal station clean. ‘More leaks than a Welshman with a colander’ as Sarah’s said.” He mused. “Still don’t get what she’s on about. Anyhow, we’ll send a direct bolt to Caldera when underway. He’s planning to leave the patch, is he? Not on my watch!” He tapped his comm almost as it sounded. “Hawle to Loper,” he growled.

<”Will I do,”> Agent Sana said, having been interrupted before the system had repeated her actual hail. <”Groal’s got the internet systems up and running but he doesn’t know how long it’ll last.>”

“Good. Get back aboard. We’re on the ‘leg it’ phase of operations here.” he closed the link and called for teleport, waving flamboyantly to the Superintendent as he dissolved into light.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Looking forward to seeing how the battle will shape out! It is so exciting!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Thirty-Three

<”So you’ve managed to screw things up, Rabbit,”> Postain’s voice thundered from the holographic representation in front of Hawle right at this moment. He’d contacted Talvary Communal station with the update as soon as Sarah had gotten them underway and he’d requested the secure, captains only, channel for a meeting in the hologram room. If they couldn’t trust normal communications rules they could, hopefully, trust this one. <”You’ve spread confusion over half the sector and moved half the fleet out of position so...”>

<”Calm down, Marius,”> the hologram of the ancient Mican said, sitting behind a desk that he’d obviously had moved into the room on Talvery for this sort of situation. <”Commander Hawle’s operating in a desperate position here.”>

“Too true,” Hawle mused. “We’re playing catch up and we have dangerous opponents.” He poked towards the hologram of the Rottian Captain to see if it would flinch. It didn’t. “They were three bad decisions away from attacking Vallonia and my lie that back up was hot on our heels wasn’t going to hold long enough for you lot to, oh, actually show up?” Hawle threw up his arms. “So I made sure they found out he was legging it to Perigia, a planet I knew YOU…” he pointed to Postain again, “...could get to first. With a couple of the other ships.” He looked at Postain with hostility. “Whilst we floor it to Caldera.”

Henry muttered to himself with regret. <”Yeah, I suppose that’s the best way to do it. The other ships will have to continue to Vallonia as the others are still there. Can we engage the officials on Caldera to slow things down with regards incoming and outgoing?”>

“Tell them the truth,” Hawle advised. “Tell them we’ve suspicions a fugitive is trying to evade justice and we’ve learned he’s coming Caldera’s way.”

<”We’d need U.S.C. we can trust working with the Militia and Customs to sort that out,”> Postain mused.

<”We never called the Savval into the hunt,”> Henry mused. <”Your cousin’s got security, hasn’t she?”>

Hawle swallowed with nerves as he thought of his cousin confronting a desperate criminal but he confessed he had to smirk as another figure entered the fight in his mind, unbidden but welcome. “She does indeed,” he told the room. “And there’s a small U.S.C. base on Caldera too.” He shifted forward slightly. “And it just so happens that the Chief of security there is a former deputy Chief of Security on this very ship.”

<”We’re not involving the HarvestMican, are we,”> Postain demanded.

<”I don’t think things will need him,”> Henry replied.


Groal lay back on his bed as the evening drew on and pulled the handheld comm unit over his face as the line connected with Salla on Cora II. He smiled and blew a kiss at his beloved as her face softened on seeing it was him. He sniffed a laugh. “Heya, love,” he said. ”You look happy to see me?”

<”Have you been gone, husband mine,”> Salla asked in a mocking tone. <”I still smell your smell every morning so I sometimes think...”>

“I know,” he said gently. “I want to be there with you, Salla. I want to spend all my moments with you and Samnar and…”

A long eared Mican with a bright, smiling, face popped into view and waved. <”Hiya, Grand-dad Smellican,”> Rodin called.

Groal chuckled as Salla pushed her granddaughter out of the way of the screen. “...and Rodin and the others,” Groal added. He shifted around on his bed as he tried to keep this image of Salla in his mind for the upcoming weeks. Of course, taking a screenshot helped. “And how’s Samnar?” He laughed as Rodin handed something to her Gran and she showed him a long eared, short red furred, Celican with the beginning of buck teeth and eyes that were trying to open. A surge of emotion welled within his chest and he almost squeaked out a ‘hello’ in a pitch that even the Lappineans might fail to hear.

“<Don’t worry about it, Karla,”> Salla said softly. <”I play that recording we made for him every day so he’s getting to know your voice.”> The little figure, hearing his mother’s voice, flinched towards her slightly with a tiny noise that made Groal want to be there right now, holding them close. <”We’ll have him watching the pictures soon, if you’re not back. Oh, there was a physical letter for you. I think it was the one you were waiting for?”>

Groal looked confused. He’d not been expecting any physical mail to be delivered and Salla could clearly see that on his face as he frowned.

<”Well, that’s what Aldair said when he called just after you’d left. He asked to speak to Mercy and added that you were expecting a letter and I was to read it to you when you called.”> She waved the official looking envelope in front of the screen. <”It arrived two mornings back.”>

Groal rolled his eyes. “Figure I know what it is… Better open it, love. And remind me to slap Aldair later, eh?”

<”I’ll remind you,”> Rodin called from off-screen as Salla worked to open the envelope one handed and get the paper out. <”And I’ll hand you the pie!”>

“Of course,” Groal said happily, feeling worry only in the pit of his stomach. His future, decided now…


A half hour passed and Hawle sat in Cedar’s canteen as Nelly, the Mican’s eager assistant, cleaned the tables before closing. She looked over at the Commander, sat crosslegged in the corner chair and smirking quietly as he ignored a half full mug of Coffee and padd that sat in front of him. “Is there anything I can get you, sir,” she asked curiously.

“Hmm?” Hawle glances at the feline. “Oh, no, Nellie. I’m just waiting on someone. I don’t get what’s holding him up. Dawton told me he made a call to Salla over half an hour ago and… Ah,” he added as the door opened. “Actually, a Bakkaberry torte might be good.” He unrelaxed and picked up the padd to look like he was checking it over as Groal stomped in.

The Celican looked around for a moment, before alighting on Hawle. He pointed a finger at Hawle as the Lappinean pretended to ignore him and Nellie decided not to ask if there was anything he wanted. There clearly WAS but it wasn’t food. “YOU,” he roared, striding over to Hawle. “Did you know?”

Hawle looked up calmly. “Oh, hello. Had some good news?”

Groal made his hand into a fist and said tightly. “How could you tell?”

Hawle took a drink of his Coffee and put it back on the table. “Because I’m looking at your groin, Karla. You’re definitely out of uniform, you know?”

“A letter,” Karla grunted, sitting down. Nellie rolled her eyes. She’d need to wash that chair before closing up. She got the Commander’s slice from the heater.

Hawle put the padd down. “Well I knew it was coming, Karla. Just held up in the machine is all. So, when I knew we were going to be on patrol, I asked them to send it, physical form, to Salla so you wouldn’t be distracted…”

“You think I haven’t been worried about it?”

“...and so Salla could be the one to tell you. A moment to share and all that.”

Groal stood up and Hawle saw a wicked grin spread across the clothing free Engineer’s face. “Stand up, sir,” he commanded. “Or I’ll pull you up.”

“That’d be an offence, future station Command Engineer,” Hawle warned, getting up anyway.

The powerful Celican pulled him into a hug as Nellie tried not to laugh whilst bringing the warm dessert over. “Th’s emuff,” the Commander said from somewhere inside Karla’s chest as his arms windmilled. Groal released him and looked at the dessert with a glint in his eye. Then he looked up at Hawle. Then back to the pie.

Hawle groaned as though he hadn’t planned it. “One of these days I’m going to get to eat a slice of that,” he complained before his old friend smooshed it into his face.

“Sorry, Aldair,” Groal laughed, “but you deserved that! Want me to lick it off?”

“That question I only want to hear from one person,” Hawle replied as pastry and fruit fell off his face. “Nellie, mind if I use your sink?”
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Well that is one way to shove a pie in Hawle's face. Though Karla was right and he did deserve it. Elena would approve though, ;)
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Enter Gerry hav from the 'exploratory' story.

Thirty-Four

Groal levered himself out from underneath the main reactor engine and tapped the commline to the bridge to report in as Katara looked over, checking his work by eye. It might have irritated him had he not begun to trust that she only needed to check his work as he would probably insist hers was. In fact any engineer could keep a quiet eye on the work of any other engineer. If the same names kept cropping up he tended to take action to find out why two of his staff couldn’t get along. She’d never managed to find anything wrong with his work but he appreciated the examining eye. “Groal to the bridge,” he said, waiting the second or so for the commline to connect and replay his opening message. “Coils are realigned. I can authorise maximum speed for the next eight hours before needing to cool down. But we’re going to need to replace these things sooner, rather than later.”

<”Why’s that, Groal,”> Hawle asked from the wall.

“We drove them HARD the other day, sir. Beyond stress limits. Their six months of life has pretty much reduced to two. Full velocity for too long today would take that down to a month at best.”

<”We’ll try not to break the elastic bands, Karla.>”

The Celican heard him tell Sarah that she could go to velocity 4 and sighed slightly, forgetting he was on the comm.

<”You need a rest, Lieutenant,”> the amused Lappinean asked.

“No, sir.” He disconnected the line and jumped. Katara was right next to him. “”You’ll need to keep him grounded,” he advised, indicating the commpanel.

“That won’t be a problem,” Katara remarked stridently.

“WITHOUT being contentious or, worse, mutinous.”

Katara looked horrified and offended as she put a hand to her chest. “I can be kind and tolerant with these imbeciles!” She grinned wickedly.

“Especially if I’m around to apologise for you,” Jan said, scoring a hit as she headed by on her way to the lockers to recharge her tools.

Katara stared after her best friend as she went. “She’s probably right,” she muttered to Groal. “Not that I’d ever tell her.”

Groal rubbed his chin. “You probably shouldn’t say it louder,” he mused. “Even Human ears might be able to hear it.” He ran checks on the console. “But you ARE going to need a deputy chief that you can stand. She might be a good choice.”

Katara tapped him on the nose with a finger claw. “No getting all your things in order,” she instructed. “It’s a bad omen. I’ll need to consult you from time to time about how to deal with the Captain. You’ll be on my speed dial.”

Groals ears flattened and a grimace split his lips. “That almost sounds like a threat,” he confirmed, his mock concern showing in his eye.

She half grinned as she turned away. “I’ll never need you more than once, boss. What you want me doing now?”


Hawle stepped off the bridge and into his ready room, travelling via the nearest Coffee machine to boost his power levels as Sarah kept them going towards Caldera. He could still hear her humming the wedding march from some Human composer and wondered if his invite was in the E-Mail. He didn’t, honestly, want to be the one who presided over the ceremony, he wanted to be the one to give her away. He made a mental note to see if her father was still alive – he was sure she’d told him yes or no at some point but he’d had a busy week – and sat down behind his desk, swung his feet up onto it, leaned back, picked himself up off the floor and sat down, happy that no-one had seen that. Thankfully he’d put the coffee down first. He started up his console and used the command channel to contact Caldera.


A few miles south of the primary city on the second planet of the briar patch, it was nearing three in the morning and Gerry Hav’s brain was thinking about waking up in two hours. Three tops. But it wasn’t thinking of waking up right now, despite that ringing in his Micanish ears. It sounded, to the mush he called his intelligence, that something was saying it was an urgent call as it was the middle of the night and raining if his awakening senses could make out. The sound stopped. That was nice of it. He prepared to slip back into slumber when something started shaking him and calling him ‘dad’ with excitement. “Dad,” it said, “wake up! It’s Uncle Aldair for you!”

That word got through and the Wolf/Mican cross popped his eye open to stare at his adopted daughter Cassie. The white fur cross of Feline and Mican from the Bellaphron was practically dancing in her nightie just outside his bed and he came to the conclusion that the girl, who never lied, wasn’t lying now. He groaned, pushed gently at her head and forced himself up out of the lovely, warm, duvet. He’d remembered to wear underwear to bed so he was covered as he joined her in heading to the wallcom in the living room and appeared bedraggled on the screen with serious bedhead. Instinctively, he saluted.

<”Stop that, Hav,”> Hawle started, returning it as protocol anyhow as Cassie put herself on tiptoes, put her chest out and copied dad whilst smiling brightly. <”And you never need to salute me, Cassie. But you’d probably better get back to bed? It’s a school night, isn’t it?”>

“Holidays, Uncle Aldair!”

Hav could see him swell with that, even though they’d hardly spoken in months. But he was probably right and Hav scooted her out of the room. “What’s happening, sir?”

<”I really need to remember to send her that doll,”> Hawle mused.

Cassie poked her head around the door and Hav knew she’d fallen for it. And that Hawle would send a doll. “Bed,” he ordered, trying not to seem too intimidating. She asked what doll but withdrew. Properly this time. Probably.

<”You know of the current situation with the Pirate Clans and this ‘broker’ Sobrii?”>

Hav nodded and confirmed that, as a security chief, even of a minor outpost such as this, he’d been included in the latest sector briefing.

<”You need to alert the Militia forces there that the broker is coming your way. We need you to hold him, Gerry. Our ships are doing what they can to combat the belligerent ships and help the crippled ones but we’re stretched thin right now. If he gets past Caldera, he’s out of the zone and nothing will stop him vanishing. When that happens the colonies will get caught up in a Clan war. If we get him, it’ll all be made public and may calm things down.”>

“Or bring the violence right to your door,” Hav warned.

<”I was hoping you wouldn’t mention that, Hav,”> Hawle replied, before telling him the latest on Jaqui’s wounding.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Loved reading the part about Hawle flipping over his chair and falling on the floor. Makes me want to shove him in MORE slapstick scenarios. Like a well-placed mud puddle.
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

A certain FieldMican puts in a cameo

And 'Our IX Lives' is a cat soap opera that sometimes crops up in the webcomic 'Breaking Cat News'.

THIRTY-FIVE

“So how was the White Wolf,” Colleen asked Hawle as he sat in her quarters. She took a sip from a china cup of tea as she waited for his reply after he’d laid out everything that had happened in the last few hours. She didn’t mind acting as a cut price counsellor to the Captain from time to time. It seemed more cathartic to her than filling in a log or a diary and, unlike diaries and verbal logs, she could come up with ideas of her own and put those up for his approval. But she could also help him by digressing from the situation like now.

“He’s forgiven you for that nickname, I believe,” Hawle retorted. “Especially after you dropped the ‘little’ from it. He seems fine. He did ask after you, by the way.”

“Liar,” Colleen mocked gently. “He asked how everyone was, I’ll warrant.”

“That DOES include you. He’s ready to work with the Militia to stop the smugglers… well, smuggling. As soon as he knows which ones to watch.”

“Sounds good,” Colleen muttered, putting her cup and saucer down. “So what’s brought you to my door? I mean, other than boredom and happening to be passing,” she added before he could use one of those as the reason.

“I don’t know,” Hawle replied. “All this is happening so quickly that it’s hard to take account of things. There’s so much going on that I’m pretty sure I’ve lost track of a spinning plate somewhere.”

“I get the allusion,” Colleen said, relaxing into her chair. “Even if you’ve not missed anything, you can think you have.” She shuffled up to a dignified position. “Give you an example?” A wry grin. “The press have reported the theft of about three hundred thousand credits of artwork from a gallery on Maxima III last week. They didn’t discover it for a few days due to them being works in storage but they reckon it happened on the evening we were there…”

Hawle rolled his eyes. “Savra,” he guessed. “No CCTV, I take it? No, they’d have put that out across the system. The only reason they wouldn’t is if they didn’t have any. And he got a weeks lead. And we don’t even know if he had anything to do with it!” Hawle stood up to pace, hands behind his back. “He’s an annoying one. As cunning as me in some ways.” He paused. “Which Clan’s he in, anyway?”

Colleen shrugged under her robes. “I don’t know.”

“Hmm. I wonder if HE does? But it’s not him.” A hand wave. “At least I THINK it’s not him. I’m pretty sure he only has the… one ship.” One ear flopped at the halfway point and he put a hand to his chin, letting Colleen know he might be onto something. “The clans have a lot of ships,” he mused, “all across the patch. I wonder how many they’ll find when they get to Sobrii’s home world?” He pointed a finger. “We got a load of them away on a wild Castoran chase but some remained. It’s just possible…” He stopped for a think and dropped onto the sofa again. “I mean it’s how we found the Roll so… You did it again, Colleen. What would I do without you?”

“As far as I know,” Colleen replied regally, thinking of one of those spy films she’d seen and the ludicrous double talk innuendo that she’d normally never repeat, “you’ve never had me, Captain.”

He froze for a second, thinking over what she just said. “There’s no safe reply to that comment,” he said eventually, standing up again. “Never say it to Cedar or his head’ll explode!”

“Very unlikely,” Colleen remarked, standing up so she could escort the Captain out of her quarters. “We saw the film together.”


Hav had little choice in the matter. He needed information on the local smugglers and he needed it quickly. He’d put out a request to Sheriff Javey to assist but she needed to consult with her undercovers to see what they knew and the clock was ticking down rapidly so, despite words that were tantamount to instructions, he’d called ‘the other guy’ in. And now he was here, parking the absurd vehicle he owned across two parking spots. It wasn’t that it couldn’t have fitted in one, the owner, one Mr Harvest Moon, was just making a statement. He got out of the vehicle and put his hat back on. Hav wondered where the bullet-hole had come from this time. He decided he wouldn’t ask as the slouching HarvestMican made his way across in a coat that reached down to the floor. Was he wearing spats? He was certainly knocking. “Door’s open, Mr Moon,” he told the intercom, “get yourself in here.”

“I’m wondering why you called,” Harvest said, taking off his coat to reveal fashionably atrocious pinstripe trousers, a frilled, yellow, shirt and a rotating bowtie.

“That’s not what I’M wondering,” Hav replied, taking in the spectacle.

“Undercover at a kid’s party when I got your call. Apparently you couldn’t talk about it over the comm?”

Hav shrugged and offered tea. “The Loper’s on an incoming and heck might be getting here first. I need to know what your lot know about the local people smugglers and I need to know it now.”


Hawle swept back onto the bridge and was about to vault into his chair when he saw Stikka was still in it. He stopped and wheeled around to face Dawton instead. He clapped the Human on the shoulders. “Can you launch a surveillance beacon, David?”

“Well, I CAN but sciences might be better to do it, sir,” the Human replied.

“If you insist,” Hawle said blithely, “I just thought you might like to get involved as it’ll be watching for communications amongst other things. Tell you what, you and Goole here work together on it and drop one off. I want to see if anyone’s tracking us.”

Now that Stikka had chosen to move, Hawle took up his seat. “Anything interesting going on,” he asked.

“Snowball Taggart’s still making his daughter’s life a misery and the Captain still needs to rescue his kittens.”

Hawle looked at Stikka in perplexion until he worked it all through. “Nothing happening, then,” he asked. “Or you’d never be watching ‘Our IX lives’ on your inhead.” He heard a snickering from the helm and threw a Mint Imperial at the back of Sarah’s head for earwigging. “Sorry, Sarah,” he said. “Should have asked if you wanted a mint.” he turned back to Stikka. “No watching Vids when on the bridge! Unless I’m doing it.”


Behind him, Goole and Dawton worked on the beacon. Ahead of him Sarah knelt to pick up the candy and popped it in her mouth. Hawle sat back graciously. He was in control.
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Glad to see where everything is headed! Your work truly is impeccable!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

Just when he's feeling in control...

THIRTY-SIX

Cedar worked on cleaning the tables whilst there were only a few people bothering his culinary skills and wondered where everyone was at this hour. He normally had at least a few in for coffees and cakes and whatever else their digestive tracts liked to handle in the mid afternoon but, today, he only had the customer in black in the corner, on her computer and drinking lemonade through a curly straw. He wondered if it was to do with the dreaded three letter word he’d heard around her. Was it actually a word? IOC? He made up his mind. He was going to…

“Am I bothering you,” she asked, without looking up from her computer. “I was thinking I was quiet and uninteresting but…”

Cedar put his hands down onto the table and realised it looked like he was leaning on it so straightened up and put his cloth into his pocket.

“Is that a cloth in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me,” Sana asked cheekily.

“It’s, um, a cloth,” Cedar answered feebly. Hadn’t she just seen him put it in there? “I’ve got crumbs in my pocket now…”

The Female snorted a laugh. “You can talk to me, you know? I don’t bite.”

“I was trying to gather the courage to ask you..?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she replied, a twinkle in her eye, “but I’m having enough trouble with Celicans now. Lords know what they’d think if I dated a Mican.” She rested her chin on a hand. “Or were ya gonna ask a cute girl like me something else?”

He looked her in the eye and quivered a bit. This wasn’t quite going how he’d planned. HAD he planned it? No. “Uh, no,” he said quickly, “it’s not that. I was just, er, wondering what ‘IOC’ meant?”

Sana pushed a chair out for Cedar and he got up to one side of her. She’d promised not to bite him, hadn’t she? “What’s got you so scared,” she asked sweetly, offering him a sip of her drink, which he refused. She poked him gently in the chest with a teeny claw tip. “Have you done naughty things,” she asked.

He almost relaxed at the playful nature of the poke and breathed out. If he was scared, why had he gotten up here? Was he flustered? He’d have to ask Colleen. Was his brain working? What had she said? “Uh, no. No. But everyone else seems to be scared of you,” he told her, indicating the empty room.

“Everyone fears getting trapped in a room with a roving taxman,” Sana guessed. “Even one as pretty as me.”

“Yeah, I suppose that…”

“Hah! You admitted I’m pretty!”

“Did not,” Cedar protested playfully. “And you were going to tell me about the name?”

“Well, I suppose… It doesn’t actually stand for anything. It kept changing, y’see? Always around a theme. ‘Investigative Oversight Commission’ or ‘Inter-colonial Operations Command’ or ‘Council Watch Oversight Command’ or ‘Intelligence Officers Commission’. Things like that. A dozen different names over fifty years. Then someone worked out that, in at least one language, a good half dozen of the acronyms were the same letters so it just became IOC.”

“That’s daft.” He tried to peek at the screen.

“Nosey,” she said, gently slapping his nose. “If you want to know, just ask!”

“What you working on?”

“Can’t tell you,” she told him, “it’s classified.” She poked her tongue out at him.

He laughed.


Sana had actually been working on a clone of the computer they’d taken from Sobrii’s place on Perigaa III to try and find if there had been anything hidden in its code. Something so deep that even the mighty Harvey Winsome had missed it. It wasn’t that she thought she was better at this sort of thing than him – she KNEW she was – but it was just doing a double check to be certain. It made sense. But there was nothing. No sense. No logic. No… Just a moment, she thought to herself. Something she’d just said. Acronyms? IOC was an acronym so was there some sort of code in his galactic mails? She started a program to check for acronyms and codes in the mails and, out of a sense of charity, sent the question down to Harvey too. Her computer was better than his but he had access to a bigger computing core. It MIGHT work faster than hers. But she had the log to say it had been her idea. “Do you ever get credited for your good ideas, Mr. Kirkwall?”

Cedar did his best to look meek. “As a humble restaurateur,” he proclaimed, spreading his arms wide as the door opened and closed again behind him, “it is merely my task to fan the flames of greatness for… It IS you keeping the others out, isn’t it?”

“Think so. And stop being modest. It sucks when coming from a smart guy like you.”

“Hah!” He poked her gently. “You said I’m smart!”

“And you’re denying it?”


There they were. Buried deep in the codes and eddies of subspace transmissions as Dawton worked on them, cleaning them up and identifying the origination points. Faint messages between peoples aboard ships that had been caught by the masked sensor buoy they’d dropped several hours previously. He could see Goole was getting something too. They’d set it up to scan passively continuously but only transmit a direct, bullet style, message every half hour and the latest one indicated another ship in the area, headed along a flightpath identical to theirs. Dawton figured that Goole was checking to see if the engine output matched any of the ships from the last colony and he was listening to hear if he could pick out any fragments on conversation. He could make out ‘kill’ and ‘honourable’ and a few other, scattered, words, including ‘toreador’ (although he wasn’t sure he’d heard that one correctly. Perhaps it was traitor?) Still, he figured he should say something. “Sir,” he said, waiting for heads to swivel behind him before saying ‘yes, ensign?’ “Definitely picking up signals from a ship that just passed the buoy, sir.”

“Right,” Hawle nodded grimly as he heard Sana running up through the corridors. “So we’re taking at least one Pirate ship in our wake and, as they’ve probably worked out where we’re going, they’ll have friends waiting there.” He stopped as he heard the running feet that was shouting his name hit the corridor outside. “And our NEXT bit of bad news is…”

Sana dashed onto the bridge and rested against Goole’s panel as the Feline wondered if he was allowed to touch her to stop her collapsing. “You need…” she gasped. “You need to warn… Warn them,”she finished. “Caldera,” she clarified. “The… the handover!”

“Make sense, agent,” Hawle snapped.

“The… the handover at Caldera, S...sir,” she gasped. “It was hidden in his mails. You need to warn them the handover is NOT to a cargo ship, sir!”

Hawle felt like he heard a shoe hovering in the air, ready to drop onto a landmine attached to several gallon drums of reactor coolant. “What is it, then?”

Sana swallowed and stood upright. “A Lappinean warship, sir.”
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Gonna be interesting to see Hawle battle with his own species. I wonder how he will feel about that? Nice chapter!
User avatar
Welsh Halfwit
Posts: 14121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:09 am
Location: Wales, a luverrly land with noisy neighbours.

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Welsh Halfwit »

THIRTY-SEVEN

Hav stood on the deck of the Militia ship ‘Coltimma’ and watched space go by as the Militia ships awaited the arrival of the Freighter Khan with baited breath. It had been Admiral Patch’s idea that he come along as official representative of the U.S.C. and had made it transparently clear that he wasn’t planning to do this without someone else official accepting the responsibility. For which Hav assumed he meant blame. They’d gone communications dark for the period so as to surprise the Khan when it arrived to meet its friend and transfer the cargo.

Behind him, the Raitchian Admiral prowled before stopping. “Thirty minutes,” he spat. “Are you CERTAIN the Mouse was on the ball about this?” He seemed to recall who he was talking to. “No offence, by the way.”

“None taken,” Hav replied, lying for effect. “And he’s oddball but usually on it, sir. He has links we can only have nightmares about.”

“Not a ringing endorsement.” The Admiral said grudgingly. They’d worked out the route from the last relay point to here and which ship was travelling it and used Moon’s information to work out his favourite stopping places. Then they’d looked to see which ships were leaving for the core worlds and crossmatched that to work out the best location. The scanners were running as best they could but still there was nothing. Noth…

“Sir,” the science officer said, “the Khan’s on scanners.”

“Excellent,” the Admiral cheered. “Keep an eye on them, track their progress and ready a boarding party. We’re about to make an arrest.”


Hawle looked at the face of someone he really didn’t want to be looking at right at this moment. It was crossing a line he really didn’t want to cross but he knew the person he was looking at was his best hope of contacting a ship from Caldera when it had set up a communications blackout. She had ways of contacting people who didn’t want to be found and probably had someone on the ship. <”Are you saying HE is involved,”> she snarled, thinking of a certain other Lappinean.

“Him,” Hawle replied, gesturing with his hands, “that group he was investigating a year or so ago, Calavix, Pirates… Honestly, it could be anybody. It seems we boot them in the face but never stamp on their throat for the death blow.”

<”They always survive in some fashion,”> Thurso replied bitterly. <”I shall make attempts but your speed would be appreciated. Thurso out.”>

Hawle sighed as the line blanked. “Time for the next one,” he admitted, dialling up Talvary communal station.


“She’s checked,” Henry said, feeling the weight of his years a he looked at Hawle on the screen. He pushed a few strands of fur from his desktop and wondered if stress was making him lose his fur. It was certainly harder getting up in the morning. Perhaps he ought to retire and take up golf or Perinnan Squares. But who’d he play against? He’d be bored within a week. “Sana, I mean,” he added.

Hawle nodded on the monitor. <”Three times. And Winsome’s checked her findings. Encrypted acronym’s in the mails Sobrii received from Sattertech over the last few weeks. It details the freighters but calls the last handover a cruiser to Lapas.”>

“Indicating Balbury,” Henry mused, thinking of Hot Chocolate and ‘accidentally’ hitting Hawle with a mental golf ball.

Hawle yawned on screen and Henry wondered how many officers would dare do that, even when just on the phone with their bosses. <”Yeah,”> the Lappinean observed, <”bit too blatantly, isn’t it? Not like the old twister to get so close to things. Nah, I’m keeping an open mind and the throttle down, uh, sir.”>

“Good job you remembered the ‘sir’, Hawle,” Henry grumbled. “Wouldn’t want to think you were getting ‘uppity’. What’s your estimated time until arrival?”

<”Three hours. Groal’s squeezing every ounce out of the engines as he can and I’ve notified some old Mican on Caldera that might be able to contact the militia ship to warn them.”>

“Should have spoken to me first, Aldair.”

<”Beg pardon, sir,”> the Lappinean interrupted, <”but I get the feeling we’re the closest ship you have to Caldera. Pirates know where we’re going, the Militia are about to be ambushed by a ship that can wipe the few they’ve probably sent out of space without putting the brakes on. I took initiative and contacted someone who could get things moving faster than any of us, sir. I put one of my former people directly in harms way, sir.”>

“Understood.” Postlethwaite got up and ordered a tea from the replication system. A bitter version, he decided. He needed to wake up. “Just verging on the right side of insubordination, Captain. I’ve got ships flying all over at the moment. The Clipper ‘Macrimmon’ is headed to the zone from Micanna . She’s about three hours from Caldera. I’ll route her there. She should be able to help you out. Even if a clipper can’t take a cruiser by herself she might tip the balance. No idea what class of cruiser you might be facing?”

<”Not a one, sir. Hoping it’s not a Orycto class, sir. They’re as fast than us. And better armed.”>

“I’ll make calls. You get ready.” Henry cut the line and got up to set things in order.


The door to the bridge slid open and Hawle stepped out, trying to pretend everything was going quite as planned. Although no-one probably believed that. Chaos was coming and he was in a mood to play. “Second Officer,” he said sweetly as he took up his command chair yet again.

“Captain,” Stikka replied with equal sweetness, knowing he’d probably hate what was coming next.

“We’re about to go up against a powerful enemy who may have enough firepower to overwhelm us in about ten minutes if we’re not careful. Us and the Militia. And then the ‘Macrimmon’, which is on its way to help us but will get there just too late. We need to tip the balance somewhat. I have something of an idea.”

Stikka groaned inwardly. He KNEW he was going to hate this.

“You remember that comm we gave to Savra? The one with the locator tag we never activated?”

Stikka nodded. “Which he returned to us with his own tag that he’s never activated?”

Hawle nodded now. “Activate it.”
Commander Hawle. U.S.C. Loper. By the talented DDeer.
Kilo - 2-8-3-9-10-2-5
Kilo
Leslie – 4-6-4-5-6-9-7
Leslie
David Campbell - 7 – 8 – 9 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6
Corp Davidstow 6 - 6 - 7 - 3 - 6 - 6 - 5 (reactions 7 Combat 9)
User avatar
Amazee Dayzee
Posts: 25880
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm

Re: THE LOPER:- The Chase

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Really gonna be nice to see what happens next! Good job with the story!
Post Reply