OOC: its ok to kill Horreson.
At Lethe Prime:
General Horreson uses the shuttle comm to call his contact on New Cydonia. "Operation blown up by rebels, Lethe lost, need assistance." His contact does not answer, but a burst message comes in on his secret wrist watch pager: "Raven has flown". Crumbs. His last real chance of escape is gone. The wrist watch disintegrates-- the signal that his operation has been terminated.
Horreson calls his connection in the Lethe Defense Fleet. The Defense Fleet Admiral answers instead: "Sorry, Alyson is dead, We cannot spare any ships to pick you up. We are fully engaged with 'Blue Streak' fleet now, taking heavy losses. We are falling back to Lethe." Damn.
Horreson blasts off, trying to run for it.
At Stardock Alpha:
REBEL SHIPS IN SYSTEM! Alarms scream, well-trained men panic, battlescarred veterans piss in their pants. Admiral McPherson, Supreme Commander of the Confederation Space Navy, calmly stands above it all, snapping crisp orders: "Impound all civilian ships in system. Hold the frigates, launch fighters first. Raise station shields. Get the Premier online. Send message to Mars command: hold back your ships, but stand by. Tell Luna command and Earth command to launch all ships soonest." Order returns-- just a routine invasion, nothing to worry about. Already a group of Confed Cruisers was closing with the rebel bandits.
The cruiser fleet vanishes in a blinding light. The entire command staff freezes for a full minute. With the Premier on the line. McPherson answers the Premier's call: "The rebels have foully attacked us and used a large caliber bomb to destroy the initial response fleet." The Premier shouts questions, but McPherson hangs up. "So the rebels want to play with fire.. " he says to no one in particular.
At Privateers Haven:
Miles has some difficulty tracking down the thugs, but eventually recovers the binary nerve gas and collects cash. He is glad to be rid of the stuff. Miles knows Privateer's Haven wont be shut down by so simple a scheme. Nonetheless, Derrick's idea of taking ships on the station intact is a good one. Miles uses the cash + his latest paycheck to buy a Rapier, Flare launcher + flares, extra rockets and a pair of stolen confed marine tanks. He bullies the thugs into going along with his own plan.
Miles bribes Haven traffic control to seal off Docking bay 9 (DB9) so he can move 'valuable merchandise' through it into the shipyard area, but not to announce anything about it, especially not the crew of ships already in the bay. Miles tells the station chief "A routine transfer of bulky super-illegal goods, Confed army heavy artillary in this case. Argosies carrying the goods will be here in an hour". The other LW pilots get their fighters and move them to Docking bay 9. Miles sets up camp in DB9, a tank covering each of the two entrances, and the rapier + LW lightnings covering the launch portal and the ships inside the bay. Miles goes to get his Lightning fighter. Derrick should arrive within the hour. DB9 is pretty empty, containing a trio of clippers, a couple of argosies, a beat up Lightning, and a corvette. It is also the only way out of the shipyard.
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(This message has been edited by magicianeer (edited 07-06-2001).)