UEE J. M. Straczynski, Pegasus Class Escort Carrier, Centauri System, 14:22:45 Sol Std Time, 24th January 2945
The PA in the Officer’s Wardroom blared to life “Lieutenant Commander Simonova to Ready Room 2, Lieutenant Commander Simonova to Ready Room 2.”
“Shit, more with the OINI weenies.” said Lt. Commander Talia Simonova as she got up from the table. “I swear these guys ask the same damn questions every time as if I am going to give a different answer, pridurok’s”. This was the third time that Imperial Naval Intelligence had flown out to the UEE J.M. Straczynski and requested her to speak about the pirate event at Nul V.
“Don’t sweat it ‘Svet’” offered her Radar Intercept Officer Lt. JG Picaso Gaerardo, “You know they just want to know if we iced those F’ers at Ashana or not. We are clean on that kill, wasn’t us. The sensor logs are clear and we’ve told them the same story twice now. SOP says this should be the last time they rattle our cage.”
Talia glanced over at her RIO as she waited for the bulkhead hatch to open “Bullshit ‘Pablo’, SOP is twice, not sure what kind of bug is up their ass but this whole thing just keeps getting weirder and weirder. We need to be out there protecting the citizens from the damned pirates and every trigger happy CorpSec hotshot and vigilante playing ‘Nav’s and Duul’s’, not sitting in the officer’s mess and wasting time telling bedtime stories to Naval Intelligence.”
Gaerardo shot back with a grin as the hatch wooshed open “Just don’t go pushing their buttons again, I like this detail, I like this ship, I like the colonists’ daughters I am hanging out with and I don’t want to get bounced back out to the rim. Tell them what they want to know and let it go, for me?”
“No promises ‘Pablo’, no promises.” The bulkhead door shut with a bang as Talia disappeared around the corner.
As she made her way down the passageway Talia thought back to the odd encounter that started this whole thing two days prior. She and ‘Pablo’ were leading a two-ship patrol element with 'Gomez' and 'Postal' when they monitored a distress call. The flight had QD’ed into the target system but had needed to come out of QD further away than normal due to some strange interference. They hit max burn to drive in to the target zone but found nothing but wrecked pirate ships just as a ship that looked like a Constellation QD’ed out before they could make a radio call or positive ID.
“Come in Lieutenant Commander” said the blonde-haired man standing at the front of the ready room. “I am Special Liaison Mallone, I believe you know Commander Smythe.”
“Sirs” Talia responded.
Mallone continued “You are no doubt wondering why we are here, why you, are here. So I will cut to the chase. We are concerned over some inconsistencies in the…”
Simonova interrupted “Inconsistencies in what, our report, the sensor logs? Your men stole the logs no sooner than we got back and landed on the ‘Straz’ and I have filed the same report three times”.
“Lieutenant Commander, please let Special Liaison Mallone complete his question.” intoned Commander Smythe from the front row of the Ready Room seats.
“It’s not a problem Commander, I have reviewed her Ops Jacket. Lieutenant Commander Talia Simonova, callsign ‘Svetlana’. Nine years seven months in the UEE Navy, graduate degree in Spacecraft Engineering with a minor in Colonial Political Science from the Naval Academy. Currently command pilot qualified in the Hornet both Legacy and Super, Vanguard Harbinger as well as various and assorted patrol and transport craft, formation lead qualified. Born October 2nd, 2915, St. Petersburg, Russia, Earth. First full citizen in her family for 3 generations.”
Mallone continued “From your review Commander and I quote ‘strong willed, driven and outspoken’.”
“Solid service record, fourteen successful Pirate intercepts in the last 9 months alone, including one particularly nasty engagement with the Purple Talon Clan near a jump point here in the Centauri system.”
“This is not about your report Lieutenant Commander, nor the sensor logs from your Harbinger. We have gained quite a bit of knowledge from both, your report summary was, they have all been in fact, extremely well written. Tell me, Talia, may I call you Talia. Tell me what you know about the current state of the Empire, out here.” asked Mallone as he raised a hand to silence the obvious concern Commander Smythe was about to share for having asked such an open-ended question.
Talia glanced quickly at Commander Smythe only to notice the obvious consternation on his face and then spoke “Pirate activity seems to be up in the Straczynski’s patrol systems over the past few months, no doubt opportunists trying to maximize the change in power projection since Admiral Bishop’s speech at the Imperial Senate. With this increase in pirate activity there has also been an increase in private security as well as widespread attempts at vigilantism, not all successful.”
Mallone looked on approvingly “Can you expound on that vigilantism, maybe as it pertains to the recent event at Nul V?”
Talia replied “We’ve seen a substantial increase in CorpSec, sorry, corporate security operators, basically private security providers flying equipment that is in some cases as good as if not even occasionally better than ours. A lot of ex-Navy pilots and officers, usually pretty professional. They sweep ahead of convoys, fly top cover and intercept inbound pirates. They focus on disabling smaller vessels but will destroy a pocket carrier or gunboat based on the threat or if there’s a bounty from their employer.“
“The vigilantes are less professional and seem to fly older equipment." she continued. "Not usually as experienced but they make it up in numbers or at least in heart. Seeing a lot of revenge though, people trying to make up for personal losses, get even for an attack in the past, that kind of thing. They don’t do as well and probably get hurt a lot more. They have also been known to attack the wrong ships – we had an Aurora open up on our flight a couple weeks ago, put my wingman's RIO into medbay, I almost had to destroy that little gnat to get him to stop.”
Talia looked directly at Mallone “The event at Nul V seemed different though – corporate security operators and vigilantes focus on disabling pirate vessels more often than not, as soon as a ship is out of the fight that’s it. They might board it and take the pirates prisoner but that debris field at Ashana, the level of destruction, it was like the stories of the Vanduul at Orion. Nothing bigger than a couple square meters, and the damage patterns showed both energy as well as large bore ballistic, it just doesn’t make sense.”
Mallone leaned forward “What doesn’t make sense, a group of corporate operators or vigilantes could have simply overwhelmed the pirate formation, given the sensor interference the pirates might not have even initially known they were under attack.”
“No sir” Talia countered. “Everything we were able to discern from the start to the finish of that engagement, which only lasted about 95 seconds as near as we could tell, says it was one target the size of a Connie against six ships, 2 Avengers, 2 Hornets and 2 Cutlass.”
“Come now Lieutenant Commander, a Connie, against 6 combat vessels?” asked Mallone.
“Like I said sir” she continued “it doesn’t make sense, we only saw one target leave the area but no Constellation has that kind of firepower, not even 2 or 3 could do that kind of damage in such a short time. The other thing is the name.”
“Name?” Mallone asked.
“Well sir, the freighter distress signal called itself the Independent Star Ship Bedrog out of New Johannesburg.” Talia explained.
Mallone replied “Yes, we know, there is no such ship and the transponder code was a spoof – seems that whoever it was they didn’t want to get caught.”
She continued “It’s not that sir, I checked the Ark databanks for old Earth languages, ‘Bedrog’ is old-Afrikaans for ‘deception’.”
“And?” asked Mallone.
Talia replied “And I caught a glimpse of the Connie as it QD’ed out of the target zone, it had something on the nacelle “Zal Zemsta”. I am Russian and it seemed familiar, turns out that it’s old-Polish for ‘Bittersweet Revenge’.”
Mallone sat down, looked at the floor and said “Well, that IS interesting, isn’t it.”
The PA in the Officer’s Wardroom blared to life “Lieutenant Commander Simonova to Ready Room 2, Lieutenant Commander Simonova to Ready Room 2.”
“Shit, more with the OINI weenies.” said Lt. Commander Talia Simonova as she got up from the table. “I swear these guys ask the same damn questions every time as if I am going to give a different answer, pridurok’s”. This was the third time that Imperial Naval Intelligence had flown out to the UEE J.M. Straczynski and requested her to speak about the pirate event at Nul V.
“Don’t sweat it ‘Svet’” offered her Radar Intercept Officer Lt. JG Picaso Gaerardo, “You know they just want to know if we iced those F’ers at Ashana or not. We are clean on that kill, wasn’t us. The sensor logs are clear and we’ve told them the same story twice now. SOP says this should be the last time they rattle our cage.”
Talia glanced over at her RIO as she waited for the bulkhead hatch to open “Bullshit ‘Pablo’, SOP is twice, not sure what kind of bug is up their ass but this whole thing just keeps getting weirder and weirder. We need to be out there protecting the citizens from the damned pirates and every trigger happy CorpSec hotshot and vigilante playing ‘Nav’s and Duul’s’, not sitting in the officer’s mess and wasting time telling bedtime stories to Naval Intelligence.”
Gaerardo shot back with a grin as the hatch wooshed open “Just don’t go pushing their buttons again, I like this detail, I like this ship, I like the colonists’ daughters I am hanging out with and I don’t want to get bounced back out to the rim. Tell them what they want to know and let it go, for me?”
“No promises ‘Pablo’, no promises.” The bulkhead door shut with a bang as Talia disappeared around the corner.
As she made her way down the passageway Talia thought back to the odd encounter that started this whole thing two days prior. She and ‘Pablo’ were leading a two-ship patrol element with 'Gomez' and 'Postal' when they monitored a distress call. The flight had QD’ed into the target system but had needed to come out of QD further away than normal due to some strange interference. They hit max burn to drive in to the target zone but found nothing but wrecked pirate ships just as a ship that looked like a Constellation QD’ed out before they could make a radio call or positive ID.
“Come in Lieutenant Commander” said the blonde-haired man standing at the front of the ready room. “I am Special Liaison Mallone, I believe you know Commander Smythe.”
“Sirs” Talia responded.
Mallone continued “You are no doubt wondering why we are here, why you, are here. So I will cut to the chase. We are concerned over some inconsistencies in the…”
Simonova interrupted “Inconsistencies in what, our report, the sensor logs? Your men stole the logs no sooner than we got back and landed on the ‘Straz’ and I have filed the same report three times”.
“Lieutenant Commander, please let Special Liaison Mallone complete his question.” intoned Commander Smythe from the front row of the Ready Room seats.
“It’s not a problem Commander, I have reviewed her Ops Jacket. Lieutenant Commander Talia Simonova, callsign ‘Svetlana’. Nine years seven months in the UEE Navy, graduate degree in Spacecraft Engineering with a minor in Colonial Political Science from the Naval Academy. Currently command pilot qualified in the Hornet both Legacy and Super, Vanguard Harbinger as well as various and assorted patrol and transport craft, formation lead qualified. Born October 2nd, 2915, St. Petersburg, Russia, Earth. First full citizen in her family for 3 generations.”
Mallone continued “From your review Commander and I quote ‘strong willed, driven and outspoken’.”
“Solid service record, fourteen successful Pirate intercepts in the last 9 months alone, including one particularly nasty engagement with the Purple Talon Clan near a jump point here in the Centauri system.”
“This is not about your report Lieutenant Commander, nor the sensor logs from your Harbinger. We have gained quite a bit of knowledge from both, your report summary was, they have all been in fact, extremely well written. Tell me, Talia, may I call you Talia. Tell me what you know about the current state of the Empire, out here.” asked Mallone as he raised a hand to silence the obvious concern Commander Smythe was about to share for having asked such an open-ended question.
Talia glanced quickly at Commander Smythe only to notice the obvious consternation on his face and then spoke “Pirate activity seems to be up in the Straczynski’s patrol systems over the past few months, no doubt opportunists trying to maximize the change in power projection since Admiral Bishop’s speech at the Imperial Senate. With this increase in pirate activity there has also been an increase in private security as well as widespread attempts at vigilantism, not all successful.”
Mallone looked on approvingly “Can you expound on that vigilantism, maybe as it pertains to the recent event at Nul V?”
Talia replied “We’ve seen a substantial increase in CorpSec, sorry, corporate security operators, basically private security providers flying equipment that is in some cases as good as if not even occasionally better than ours. A lot of ex-Navy pilots and officers, usually pretty professional. They sweep ahead of convoys, fly top cover and intercept inbound pirates. They focus on disabling smaller vessels but will destroy a pocket carrier or gunboat based on the threat or if there’s a bounty from their employer.“
“The vigilantes are less professional and seem to fly older equipment." she continued. "Not usually as experienced but they make it up in numbers or at least in heart. Seeing a lot of revenge though, people trying to make up for personal losses, get even for an attack in the past, that kind of thing. They don’t do as well and probably get hurt a lot more. They have also been known to attack the wrong ships – we had an Aurora open up on our flight a couple weeks ago, put my wingman's RIO into medbay, I almost had to destroy that little gnat to get him to stop.”
Talia looked directly at Mallone “The event at Nul V seemed different though – corporate security operators and vigilantes focus on disabling pirate vessels more often than not, as soon as a ship is out of the fight that’s it. They might board it and take the pirates prisoner but that debris field at Ashana, the level of destruction, it was like the stories of the Vanduul at Orion. Nothing bigger than a couple square meters, and the damage patterns showed both energy as well as large bore ballistic, it just doesn’t make sense.”
Mallone leaned forward “What doesn’t make sense, a group of corporate operators or vigilantes could have simply overwhelmed the pirate formation, given the sensor interference the pirates might not have even initially known they were under attack.”
“No sir” Talia countered. “Everything we were able to discern from the start to the finish of that engagement, which only lasted about 95 seconds as near as we could tell, says it was one target the size of a Connie against six ships, 2 Avengers, 2 Hornets and 2 Cutlass.”
“Come now Lieutenant Commander, a Connie, against 6 combat vessels?” asked Mallone.
“Like I said sir” she continued “it doesn’t make sense, we only saw one target leave the area but no Constellation has that kind of firepower, not even 2 or 3 could do that kind of damage in such a short time. The other thing is the name.”
“Name?” Mallone asked.
“Well sir, the freighter distress signal called itself the Independent Star Ship Bedrog out of New Johannesburg.” Talia explained.
Mallone replied “Yes, we know, there is no such ship and the transponder code was a spoof – seems that whoever it was they didn’t want to get caught.”
She continued “It’s not that sir, I checked the Ark databanks for old Earth languages, ‘Bedrog’ is old-Afrikaans for ‘deception’.”
“And?” asked Mallone.
Talia replied “And I caught a glimpse of the Connie as it QD’ed out of the target zone, it had something on the nacelle “Zal Zemsta”. I am Russian and it seemed familiar, turns out that it’s old-Polish for ‘Bittersweet Revenge’.”
Mallone sat down, looked at the floor and said “Well, that IS interesting, isn’t it.”
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