Jacqueline worked to assist with sensors and communications and ran some numbers on possible locations for the fleeing enemy vessels. It was easy and comforting to lose herself in mathematics, and it helped keep her calm as the occasional thud reminded her that this was not the exploration mission it sometimes felt like for her and that death was not far away.

"Enemy defenses should be cleared out soon" she said. "Then we can try to chase them down or investigate the base and try to get to the bottom of this."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:14, Wed 17 Aug 2022.

The Baron watched the fleeing ships without much passion or emotion. Sure it stung his pride a little bit to not get a complete victory but here it seemed to be perfectly good enough for the report. The largest of the enemy ships crippled, the enemy hideout smashed. The cockroaches would scatter for that is what they did but it would be hard to imagine Rosex making another strike after what had happened.

More likely the scraps of this organization would be eaten up by the vultures, eager to cannibalize their fellow thieves and murderers rather than tangle with the Imperial Navy.

"Sensors, run a revised sweep of the asteroid. Once we've confirmed that it is no longer a threat we can prepare boarding operations. If they don't surrender this could get ugly. I do not relish the idea of finding out what kind of booby traps they have set behind them. Better to make them come to us.

Also, sweep the wreck of the corvette for survivors or data. Note anything interesting for further investigation. It is unlikely they had time to clean their systems, maybe we'll get a trail for our next target."

He paused and turned to communication.

"Comms, prepare a notification for high command. Inform them of the loss of the  Sunburst Scatter, the destruction of the Rosax Guardian and their asteroid pirate base."

The Sharshana closed on the asteroid, its main gun pounding the remaining launchers into explosive oblivion one by one, and took up a position that watched over the base itself. There was still power there, though whoever had been left behind had chosen to go radio silent. The Sharshana's marine complement boarded the shuttles and headed down on a mission that promised to be dangerous despite the now-lack of ship grade weapon fire. Battle dress could stop a great deal, but a high powered hand weapon (or just a really lucky shot) was still potentially lethal.

And sure enough, there was a rear guard waiting for them; marine command suddenly had its hands full as gunfire swept the landing party's approach.

In reply to Gvoellaekh (msg # 33):

Can the engineering team quickly devise a weapon, or modify an existing weapon, to help our boys over there, such as a microwave wave, or "aimed weapon that makes just the enemy
vomit" ? :)
This message was last edited by the player at 08:05, Fri 26 Aug 2022.

Or is there a position for some precision bombardments to break up enemy defenses?

The thought of getting her hands on all the data down there tempted Jacqueline, and she almost asked to go with the landing party. As soon as the shooting started, though, she was glad she hadn't. Instead, she busied herself sending the communications the captain had requested, and trying to analyze the structure of the enemy base, although it was rather out of her area of expertise.

As soon as one Marine passes by a network plug, he plugs a transmitter in. Then, the transmitter will emit (through radio) information about the pirate network, and impatient techs will try to hack the network (or bring in down).  Standard Operating Procedure in this age of technology... :)

The advance into the base was professional but predictably messy. Small-arms fire wasn't much of a threat to someone in battle dress, but lucky shots could and did happen, and the defenders had some heavier gear as well. Nevertheless, the Sharshana's forces pressed forward and inward; the landing area was soon under their control, the outbuildings swept, and the main structures under contention.

That's when comms received and played a message - apparently a one-and-done transmission rather than an attempt at dialogue - stating tersely, "I.N.S. Sharshana. Please be advised that the crew of the Sunburst Scatter is being held within the compound."

Baron Thenroy was surprised by the good news. He had already been mentally composing a message to high command about the complete loss of the Sunburst Scatter. If the crew was still alive...


"Lieutenant Tsetsegma. What is your analysis of the Sunburst Scatter? Would it be possible to get it repaired in time for the race?"

In all the excitement of doing battle with the pirates he wasn't sure if the chief engineer had time to look at the sensor readouts from that particular part of space.

The Engineer-in-chief was busy checking that the weapons worked, that the shield held, the heat was building within the limits, that the alarms were properly taken into account and reset, and that the damage control team was... well... controlling damage. As much as she did not want to yield to superstition, the Sharshana was solidly built, and seemed to just plain refuse to give up. All checks connected with emergency damage control (but not proper repairs) gain a +1 DM. The crew had confidence in their ship’s ability to survive anything. Thus, the DC teams approached damage control with greater confidence and did marvels.

And now the captain's head was somewhere else, focused on prestige, but not in the ongoing struggle to minimize the damage!?
Still she had to answer the question.

"Er, a moment captain, I need a few minutes to recalibrate the sensors", she stated, though a cursory glance had been sufficient.

She let the captain wait five full minutes, then submitted her analysis, with images and graphs, as the baron-captain liked it - it gave him a feeling of control.

"Significant and severe damage was inflicted on the Sunburst Scatter. The holes you can see here... and there... indicate a probable near destruction of the M-Drive. Then there are multiple weapons damages to the energy production plant... and I don't want to think about the damage to the systems. The living quarters look rather intact, but what the Sunburst need, is a long reconstruction in a shipyard.

Even if we managed to push the ship back into the race, it would be a patched wreck crawling towards the finish line, arriving last by much. So, technically, there's no chance it can participate and carry high our colors."

The Baron wasn't particularly surprised by the news. It would have been a welcome change of fortune if the ship was salvageable but he, and by extension high command, would have to settle with the eradication of the pirates plaguing this system.

Red>"Marine command, what is the status of the capture operation for the pirate base?"</red>

He turned to flight control and shot out another command.

"If we're bringing back hostages make sure we have transports clear. Alert medical that there might be injured or tortured civilians being brought in."

He turned and cast a sidelong look at Tstesegma over at engineering.

"If we cannot save the Imperium's pride we can at least save it's crew, right?"

He applauded himself internally for taking the time to acknowledge that civilian lives might be on the line. In truth it didn't matter much if the ship didn't race. The damage was done and rescuing a few civilians wasn't going to be remembered as much as the failure of protecting the ship in the first place. Still, the bleeding hearts on his ship would probably enjoy the morale boost of doing a 'good deed' as it were. Logically he acknowledged that such people had a right to exist and served some purpose to humanity but in truth, the good deed here wasn't the rescue of civilian lives but the ending of criminal ones, one way or another.

Jacqueline closed her eyes and said a quick prayer. She admired the captain's decisive decision making, but the idea of him handling a hostage situation made her nervous. But so far the enemy hadn't made any kind of demand or indicated they were threatening the captured crew, and she prayed that would continue and the crew would be rescued without incident. Just in case that wasn't the case, however... Jacqueline carefully monitored the comms traffic and kept her headset on. Anyone who knew her well would know Jacqueline was worried since she wasn't even distracted by her mathematics. She passed on the captain's alert to the medical staff.
She smiled at Captain Thenroy when he said it was important to save the crew. She had all be worried over nothing, the captain did care, and she admired him more than ever, entirely oblivious to his actual feelings about the crew.

Iita exchanged a glance with Jacqueline, and guessed the latter's relief. But then she thought it over : if the pirates held the crew, why did they not use it as a bargain chip?

She called the captain : "Captain, maybe their message is a trick, so that we hold our punches. Shall we demand a proof of life?"

Baron Thenroy looked at Ita with a raised eyebrow.

"Demand proof of life from whom? It was a one-and-done transmission, right? We don't even know if this is the pirates or some deep cover Imperial agent or what. They didn't even make a demand, just informing us that this is the case. We'll have the marines adjust tactics and scan for friendlies but otherwise we'll proceed as normal.

If comms can pinpoint the origin of the transmission we factor that in but ultimately this changes nothing for our course of action."

Iita noticed that during battle, the Captain-Baron was less grandiloquent than usual. Which was good. She thought to herself "Deep cover Imperial agent, my ass. Which agent does not identify themselves in order to authenticate their communication?"

She nevertheless forwarded the tranmission's recordings to the Security Officer, for him to try to find an authentication code inside the message.

Iita poked Jacqueline to pinpoint the origin of the transmission.

Jacqueline nodded and started work on trying to pinpoint the transmission. "I wish I had done more work with comms at the Academy" she said quietly to Iita. "It didn't seem like it would suit me, but I've found myself doing that more and more." Jacquline's shyness had made her wary of a field that involved so much talking, but it seemed to work surprisingly well for her.

"That is... fascinating, Sublieutenant.", uttered the Chief-Engineer with an even tone, focusing on the pattern of the base's missile launch sites, and trying to figure out the CCC location from it.

Jacqueline blushed a little as she realized she's been getting rather chatty for a battle situation, and renewed her efforts on the electronics.

The Sharshana's ground forces pressed into and through the Rosax base as the defenders made a fighting retreat through the facility rather than allowing a conclusive engagement. As their options for further retreat grew slim, there was a sudden lull in the fighting as the defenders seemed to draw back entirely, leading to some uncertainty as to their intentions. Were the Sharshana's marines being baited to rush into a trap? Had the defenders slipped away through a hidden exit? It was the sort of thing that called for gritted teeth and a careful advance into the last wing of the facility.

The minutes ticked by...

And then the Marine Commander half-turned from their workstation to address the Captain, sounding a bit taken aback by their own announcement... and what was probably a formality of a request. "Sir. We have secured the facility. It appears that the OpFor has surrendered to and is in the custody of the crew of the Sunburst Scatter. Permission to transfer to ours?"

A smile curled on the edge of the Baron's lips. In his heart he knew that victory was inevitable in the face of the might of the Imperium but it was still good to be reminded of that.

"Proceed. Have security process them and send word to Intelligence to begin interrogations."

He paused, looking at Sublieutenant Yune and then added an additional  request.

"Commander, was there any report on the crew of the Sunburst?"

Jacqueline let out a whoop of victory that was a little unlike her, but she felt relieved; it was nerve wracking when you were up here and didn't know what was going on down below. She tried to look busy as the captain's gaze settled on her.

"Captain, requesting permission to go down with a team, and try to recover the incriminating intel they may have been trying to delete", said the Chief-Engineer immediately after Yune's outburst, to switch the attention.

The Baron took a deep breath, inhaling as a way to stall the conversation and giving him a split second in which to consider the engineer's request. On the one hand having a chief engineer go into hostile territory was most likely ill advised. That was what subordinates were for. Then again, they had just completed a grand show of force which always put Thenroy in a good mood and he could probably frame this as a learning opportunity one way or another. If it turned out to be a smart decision then he is the one that granted it, if it blows up in her face then it is a way to give her some real experience on 'what not to do'.

He exhaled and synthesized those thoughts in the split second it took the air to rush out of his lungs.

"If you think that is the best use of your time and you don't have a team that can handle it for you...so be it."

Iita left her position to her second, then ran to pick up her space suit. She ran because that was a way to release the pressure, and it was also an opportunity for the asteroid-belt native to walk on low-gravity rocks again. Plus, it was too nerve-racking to watch things happening to the Marines and the subordinates without her intervention - she had to prove she was not a desk-officer to her team and herself.

In no time, a team of engineers eager to explore a pirate base was headed for the landing secured by the Marines!

Iita will use a lot of her skill while in the base. Primarily Investigation, but also her own knowledge of an 'roid life (Belter). Mechanics and Robotics shall help to evaluate how things worked in the shipyards. Vacc suit to hang around properly, and Leadership to coordinate the team work - and particularly the computers guys who could find in the date where the elusive pirate ships just escaped

Maybe I should ease the GM's job by rolling :)

Looking for the pirates' secrets: Investigation (INT +2)- rolled 5
check the status of the life system on the 'roid: Belter (INT +1) - rolled 9
examine the pirates' machines : Mechanics (INT/EDU - same bonus +1) - rolled 3
examine the pirates' droids : robotics (INT/EDU +2) - rolled 10
Vacc suit - "A Traveller will rarely need to make Vacc Suit checks under ordinary
circumstances – merely possessing the skill is enough."
Lead the explorer's team : Leadership (SOC +1) - rolled 4