One flew over the Droyne's nest (John)

[BackworldTraveller]

The sounds of the ship waking are interrupted by the tuneless singing of Sarah as she returns from her "Cultural Explorations".

That Emmylou is a very naughty woman. Positively corrupting. And with that enigmatic statement she humms her way into her bunk.

[BackworldTraveller]

You receive a query from the Admiralty.

How long until you could make a sub-orbital emergency run to deliver a cargo for us?

[NorthernTraveller]

Upon receipt of the signal from the Admiralty Drake saunters to the bridge and sounds the alarm for Action Stations.
Once everybody gets over their initial shock:
Morning, folks. Hangovers will have to wait. We have an urgent mission. A quick sub-orbital flight. How soon before we can get underway?

[BackworldTraveller]

The crew suddenly regret the indulgencies of the night before.

Kori, Keeli and Ihatei Anything to shoot?

Andee is at home with his family. Sarah asks: Shall I call him in?

Asokoezka replies: Never hurts to have a full crew. What's the flight-plan?

Twana wants to know Whats the cargo? When do we get it?

[NorthernTraveller]

I will get details on cargo and location. I am not expecting gun play, but let's be prepared in any event. I expect our deadline will be as soon as possible. Lets bring everybody in. Hands to breakfast now and then start the standard preflight in one hour. Crew briefing to follow the preflight, time to be confirmed once I have consulted with the Admiralty and the Navigator. Asokoezka will supervise the preflight, I will do my walk around inspection before the crew brief. Any more questions?

[NorthernTraveller]

While the crew goes about their duties I will call the Admiralty and get the details on what and where. I will not commit to a time but assure them I will depart as soon as we have completed our preflight checks and briefing and we have the cargo on board.

[BackworldTraveller]

The admiralty are reassured. Apparently, there is some degree of panic...The unit will be appearing shortly: powerpack, aerial and control-booth - all to be placed as directed. Technical crew already on site.

And the trucks carrying the containers all appear within 30 minutes. It looks like a portable passive EM sensor system.

The entire process from call to ready to load is astonishingly fast.

[NorthernTraveller]

In addition to the rapid delivery did we get a destination or any routing information for this trip? If yes, I wil consult with Asokoezka and work out a departure time and ETA for delivery.

[BackworldTraveller]

Yes - the delivery is to a remote mountaintop near where the current observation array appears to have been sabotaged. Much like the one that you saw when you were returning from your previous trip although that had been bombed from space.

The crew are guiding the various parts of the system onto the cargo-bay lift and getting ready to strap them down.

The officer with the load then utters the fateful words "This should be a piece of cake. In, unload, load the old one, and back."

[NorthernTraveller]

Armed with this information I inform the crew of our destination and tell Kori and my Aslan friend that there may be shooting after all. Someone is intent on isolating Gabreal and we are in the thick of it.

Once the cargo is loaded and preflights are complete I will tell the Admiralty we are on our way.

Forwards!

[BackworldTraveller]

Close Orbit Command gives you permission to lift and confirms you course is clean of known issues. ETA at the destination 45 minutes.

Do you have a watch and station bill for your crew? If not, could you please let me know what it would be - although I'll assume that this take-off is an all-hands manoeuvre.

[NorthernTraveller]

Yes, this is an al hands evolution, but I wil put some thought to a watch and station bill.

[BackworldTraveller]

The ship lifts into orbit and moves quickly towards the destination...and the crew manage an uneventful trip! The far end is quick and professional and the cargo taken off quickly.

And then the commander of the outpost invites John (and others?) for lunch. Thank you - it's good that your were available as transport is so short at the moment.

[NorthernTraveller]

I will accept the offer and try to get some information over lunch.All in a day's work. These sites seem vulnerable...

[BackworldTraveller]

The Lunch is a good spread - the soldiers have planted up some salad crops near the base.

The odd thing is that this site hadn't been hit before - it was too far from anywhere the Vargr could reach easily and the coverage was never a key concern...the position didn't really allow the Federate to get near the settled areas quietly. Very out of pattern. But there is a whole platoon now deployed here where it used to be just a section.

[NorthernTraveller]

There is no lack of violence going on right now. We were attacked returning to the system a while ago and I have seen other proof of it.
I still can't see a pattern yet.

Apres lunch I thank our hosts and suggest we should be on our way...

[BackworldTraveller]

One pattern is that the main targets are ships were radars. So we've added extra guards on the kit. They were directly targeting crews at one point and they've hit the orbital station and the port a number of times. We had sabotage of the planetary defence guns and a raid on the mines that provided various vital components for the surface to space missile systems. We thought they were going to land troops - but suddenly it all went quiet on Wyn.

One good thing is that their political posturing seems to have mostly failed to split the Vargr from the Humans - We are all in this together: Gabrael Vs the Universe!

This attack was weird. Not the usual Vargr raiders - whoever took the system out was much more sophisticated. Probably they had high-tech stealth suits as they breezed right past the guards in broad daylight. And it would have been easily repairable if Bilal hadn't fallen asleep on the job and set fire to the bloody unit!

[NorthernTraveller]

Good to know. Hope we meet up under better circumstances some day/dialog]

And with that we will head back and begin preparations to depart Gabreal.

[NorthernTraveller]

I am looking for a way to kill two birds with one stone. I want to collect information about the attacks on me and my Droyne friends while working for the Admiralty during our expedition to Kouth. I figure I can ask about the local and regional threat situation without drawing too much attention to myself. But I am also interested in more covert threats. I want to avoid the information broker for now (need to collect some cash first) so I will ask the Droyne via our discreet communication network while I get briefings from the Admiralty and local merchant ships on the situation on the space lanes.

SPreaking of space lanes, I ask Asokoezka to work up a direct flight plan to Kouth via Aerfor and an indirect one, possibly going on a longer trip to rimward and coming at Kouth from Ofo-Nebus or Koergfoes. We should plan on spending a week in system between jumps to collect information but be prepared to bug out at a moments notice. Return to Gabreal could be a sprint with minimum time between jumps.

We will need provisions, as much fresh as we can cram in (think of the scene from Das Boot when they deploy at the start of the film, suasages hanging everywhere.) Also, we need as many individual trauma kits as we can get. I don't want anyone to be without one in a fight.

I need to check for messages from the Droyne and then talk to Hagen about departure times, rendezvous procedures and what to do if things go bad...

[BackworldTraveller]

I am looking for a way to kill two birds with one stone. I want to collect information about the attacks on me and my Droyne friends while working for the Admiralty during our expedition to Kouth. I figure I can ask about the local and regional threat situation without drawing too much attention to myself. But I am also interested in more covert threats. I want to avoid the information broker for now (need to collect some cash first) so I will ask the Droyne via our discreet communication network while I get briefings from the Admiralty and local merchant ships on the situation on the space lanes.

Speaking of space lanes, I ask Asokoezka to work up a direct flight plan to Kouth via Aerfor and an indirect one, possibly going on a longer trip to rimward and coming at Khouth from Ofo-Nebus or Koergfoes. We should plan on spending a week in system between jumps to collect information but be prepared to bug out at a moments notice. Return to Gabrael could be a sprint with minimum time between jumps.

We will need provisions, as much fresh as we can cram in (think of the scene from Das Boot when they deploy at the start of the film, sausages hanging everywhere.) Also, we need as many individual trauma kits as we can get. I don't want anyone to be without one in a fight.

I need to check for messages from the Droyne and then talk to Hagen about departure times, rendezvous procedures and what to do if things go bad...

The space-lanes are going to pot! Everyone is concerned that the appearance of a Virus at Tersta is the herald of things to come. The SigInt guys have taken your monitoring from the previous expedition to Wyn and are suggesting that the Dzarrgh federate are also worried. The family of the Governor at Synez appears to have arrived along with some families of a small band of combat ships that weren't there previously. Where the ships are is anyone's guess.

The Droyne are concerned that your focus is slipping. The Coyns are the thing. The rest is nirssirs (the dictionary doesn't have a good translation but the general idea is "goo"). They can help you if they have the Coyns.

Asokoezka works up several lines of flight - but basically, without definite information the lines are tentative.

Tantar's contacts report that there is no news of the Coyns at all - none of the fences have seen them and there is no-one admitting to a private job. The whole thing seems odd as no one admits to knowing anyone who could have done it. This looks like a specialist job that the locals couldn't do without kicking the door in. He thinks you are "Barking up the wrong tree".

The crew suggest purchasing additional freezer units for climate controlled food. They also suggest some time on the ranges to practice shooting straight - and getting some extra guns and stuff from the Army.