Exile:

[Sabrina Bergin]

Sorry for the slight hiatus I had to take care of the plots till I reached a point where I could put them on the back burner so to speak.

The Dominators hanger was strangly quiet when we stepped out of the Tenjin.

I glanced at the fighter bays pleased to see they were all in pre launch tie down positions.

Only one light was on in the hanger deck and we both walked over to the chiefs office.
He was sat in there with some of his crew smoking one of those damn cigars of his and playing cards with some of the other off duty crew.

He glanced up and saw me but I waved him off and led Gil past his office and up to the bridge.

I was pleased to see the alterday crew were all at their stations monitoring the in-system traffic and dealing with messages to and from the station and the Praetorian which I gathered was running a patrol around the complex.

I spent a moment there before I realised my presence was creating a slight tension that normally occurred just before I led them into action, so I left them to it and went back to my quarters.

I powered up the terminals and started to get the latest reports from my other stations.

The numbers were good they were intended to be my munitions suppliers for future ops but I had told the station managers to let them idle and concentrate on producing intermediate products which given the over supply capacity of those stations were showing a surprisingly large profit.

I looked at the numbers with disbelief, even with the running costs of our fledgling fleet we had a lot of ready cash on hand.

I then checked our records for the ships I had bought on the fly and just stashed at various stations some of them could be useful but others were just there waiting to be salvaged and sold.

I needed to deal with them I decided before we went back to work proper so I commed the chief and asked him to join us when he was ready.

"Chief I have a proposition for you and your crew but I need to know if your men are up to it".

I showed him the list of idle ships we owned and let him have a good look at the specs on them.
"Okay skip he said after a moment so you have a lot of beat up ships scattered across the commonwealth, where do me and my crew come in ?".

"Bonus pay chief, the main day crew will stay here for another fortnight and I want to get those ships patched up and sold, at the moment they are just costing us in docking fees".

"Well "he admitted after a moment" the crew are just mostly doing make work right now and if they get a bonus I can see them being real pleased with that but we cannot do all of these in a fortnight here" he indicated a selection he had made of the list of ships "those we can do pretty dam quick and will make the most profit these ones I would just sell as they are you'll make money on them but they would cost to much to make it worth while the time and effort it would take to do even a half assed job on them.

Now how much of a bonus are we talking about ?".

I worked out the numbers for him and he just whistled and headed back to his office telling me to get his crew to those ships.

I looked at the ships he had listed as being junker's and arranged to get rid of them.

The money from those sales I put into a contingency fund I had set up for this purpose and I comm'd Onamu and let her know what I would be doing.

Surprisingly it only took ten day's before we were back in Avarice where Onamu was busy dealing with a couple of pirates who thought they could jack one of our supply freighters.

I just manouvered through the area near the complex and began deploying the laser towers I had picked up in our travels.

"I take it the use of those towers means I can now stop babysitting this place" Onamu asked over the com link.

"That's the Plan Onamu I have a pocketful of contracts waiting to be fulfilled, I think people have missed us because the pay for these jobs is top money I'll send you the details over and once I've got the Pilot's back on board we can get started".

"The sooner the better" Onamu growled "I'm starting to get sick of the sight of this place".

I grinned at that as I cut the link and sent the Pilots recall order to the station.
I then commed the chief and told him he had a twenty four hour window to spend on station if he wanted to but he just dismissed the idea.

"Kid I appreciate the offer but me and the crew are just waiting to get back to work, oh thanks for the bonus's the crew appreciated that".

"So" Gil asked "where do we go next ?".

"Black hole sun we have two contracts for sec defence, seems the fleet took a beating recently and they want us to fill in the gaps.

We jumped in the next day at the west gate and ran into a fur ball a Px and associated light fighters were attacking the shipping in system and we managed to jump right in on top of them.
There was no time to launch the fighters as we opened up with the mains the turrets firing as targets came in range the px took a lot to deal with but once his support fighters were gone we were able to run it down and concentrate all our fire on it.
The respite at Avarice had obviously done the whole crew a power of good as we obliterated the xenon patrol in a short ordre and got a prompt confirmation from the sector defence commander as well as a nice fat pay check.

The Chokaro came in system behind us and began picking up the ordinance that had been left scattered in our wake.
The remainder of the patrol was fairly uneventful after that and when the regular sec defence forces returned to duty it became boring even so it had increased our rep in these parts considerably.

With the mission complete we stopped at the military outpost where we had a brief layover until we had to jump to Zyarths stand.
Here it got a bit more interesting as we were tasked to protect a trade convoy that would be carrying supplies to Zyarth the former main sector of this Split family that had been decimated when the Gate to the west had shut down and the Xenon had taken the opportunity to go on the rampage.

The family was rebuilding and desperately needed the ore mines to supply basic minerals to let them rebuild which is where we came in the convoy would be taking supplies to the mines and shipping the ore back to the shipyard where the family was rebuilding their fleet.

The Chokaro had a hold full of crystals that it would sell to the SPP in Zyarth's stand so we escorted her to the Spp before we headed to the rendezvous point where the freighters awaited our arrival.

I was startled to see the Venture was one of those that would be part of the convoy and scanned it as we went past Carl was running a skeleton crew so I assumed the families were on a trading dock the other side of the Xenon sector. He had also filled the weapons slots which made me a little bit happier.

I took position ahead of the convoy and matched speed with the lead ship we then headed for the first mine.

Its a good job we went throught the gate first somehow the Xenon had anticipated the arrival of the convoy and we were swarmed as we entered the sector I took the Dominator high and right deploying missile countermeasures as we cleared the gate.

The guard launched as soon as we had a window where we were not taking fire and began targeting the fighters.
That left us to deal with the PX and Two P's that were heading our way.
I switched out the missiles from wasps and loaded up the Tempests they were expensive to use but not as expensive as not using them would have been once they had dropped the shields on the xenon M6's we opened up with the mains the mains ripping their hulls to shreds.

I moved to a position where we could maintain a defensive point whilst the convoy made its deliveries.

The Guard quickly docked and rearmed before launching to give us a protective screen.
That was just as well as no sooner than the convoy had begun the slow haul back to the shipyard in Zyarth's stand we got jumped by a whole squadron of heavy xenon fighters with light fighter escorts.

I Had seen this LX variant before and grimaced they were notoriously difficult to take down and the ordinance they carried let them operate at a level way above what a normal L class M3 could.

They did their best to avoid us but as we were acting as a rear guard for the convoy they were forced to try and get past us.
I signalled the guard and told them to act as a single unit and take out the heavies one at a time it left us a little exposed and the shields stared to get a beating as the first wave came in after that we were locked in a continuous barrage taking and receiving fire fortunately as the attackers numbers were reduced by our flak turrets and missiles they started to recover. There was no let up however as once the initial attack subsided a second and then a third wave came in.

It seemed the xenon knew how important this convoy was to the family Zyarth so as we neared the gate I ordered the Guard to switch to defending the convoy and headed towards the last wave of attackers.

[Sabrina Bergin]

I sat back in the chair for a moment and looked at the munitions status, we were okay on EBC rounds but low on wasps and tempests but still had some Hammers on board that we had picked up some where.

I reduced our speed and put up a long range satellite to give us a clearer overview of what we would be facing.
It also gave our shields a chance to fully recharge before the next attack.

"Mal wait till they get in close before you let rip I called to him I want them to think we still have fighters on board".

"Roger that skip" Mal agreed tracking the targets in order of priority before they got into range.

I hit the com button and Dannar the guns chief came on line. "Dannar I want you to restrict yourself to missile defence only Load tubes three and four with Wasps and tubes five and six with the Hammers".

"Understood Captain" the man replied calmly despite the fact he knew our fighter screen was gone and that we would be facing the next attack on our own.

" Captain I have a transmission from one of the freighters he has our transponder frequency" our comms officer replied putting it through to my screen on audio only.

I recognised Carls voice at once.

"Captain Hallard, Sladon of the Venture do you need our assistance ?".

"I appreciate the offer Captain but what I need most is for you and the rest of that Convoy to clear that gate as soon as you can we are likely to be coming in hot right after you so don't hang around the other side".

I cut the link and watched the tell tale of ready lights go green across the board as every battle station reported in.
The convoy at the east gate was still on the approach run to it the Guard forming a defensive screen as they waited for their charges to go through.

"Python" I comm'd you are to follow the convoy through the gate and disperse once clear we will be jumping in hot behind you get ready to take out any tango's that try coming in behind us".

Sandi did not like that order I could tell as it took her a moment to work out a reason why she should keep the wing here but couldn't first and foremost the contract was to protect the convoy and at the moment she was it as far as that task went and if she stayed in system she would prevent us from jumping clear if it became to hot for us.

"Roger that Loki we will assume position Alpha one once we clear the gate whilst the convoy is in range confirm".

"Confirmed Python Loki out".

The bridge crew gave me one short look as they registered my order then to their credit calmly turned back to their duties.
I switched control of the mains to mal as the first contacts came close enough to be targeted.
Mal ignored the M5's and M4's leaving them to the turrets as I powered up to flank speed and tried to give all our guns as good a chance of engaging as many target's as possible.
MDM's were launched as multiple missile launches were detected within range some made it through to impact the shields but they held easily.
the light fighters impacted as debris on our shields as the turrets opened up on them with Mal using the mains to deter direct frontal assaults on us from the heavier fighters that were closing fast.
Beyond them was a second wave of PX and P's hovering at the edge of our tactical window and I wondered why they were holding back.

The heavy fighters came in next and Danner switched in the wasps whilst I rolled the ship to avoid incoming fire and to give our own guns a chance to take them out, after the initial pass when Our shields had been hit multiple times I learnt the reason why the P's had held back coming into senor range now was a damn Q.

I Checked the traffic at the gate the convoy was almost through with half of the Guard disengaging I swung the Dominator around and hit the afterburners to get us away from that Q or more precisely the heavy missiles they liked to carry.

"Danner launch a barrage of hammers at that Q then switch all tubes to missile defence".

"Affirmative" came the response over the speaker and I watched as he launched not one but two barrages the first at the q the second at the P's before switching them out for mosquitos.

The missiles were of line for no more than a few minutes which spoke volumes for the team that had swapped out the auto loader racks for the new setup.
Unfortunately during that brief period a barrage of missiles caught up with us We managed to take most of them out but two got close enough to strip our shields and do a lot of damage.

I started getting damage reports from all sections as our speed dropped sharply.

"Engineering I called what's the damage".

"Still getting reports Captain came the reply the shields and engines are off line for the moment but they are coming back on line now I will give you everything I can as soon as they cut back in the main reactors are good as is the jump drive but we are loosing power to deck five. Looks like that's where we got hit the worst, luckily the bulkheads were closed or it would have been a lot worse I suggest you evacuate that deck to level four and let me lock it down".

"Give the order and cut those damn alarms off" I ordered coms and switched the tactical screen to the main viewer, the P's were scattered from the barrage we had sent and three of them were to badly damaged to pursue us even at our reduced speed. We had also managed to tag the Q but not enough, it would get us in range of its mains before we could make it to the gate.

The convoy of freighters were almost through just one lingering at the edge of the gate. A Boron was insisting on following correct speed protocol with Sandi who was explaining the HEPT protocol he would get up his Bastu if he did not get a move on.

Either her arguments convinced him or he got a look at the Q that was heading his way he suddenly cut coms and powered up to run straight at the gate. "Helm calculate his best speed once he is through and give us a jump point reference time then send the numbers to engineering".

"Roger that Captain we have ten minutes before we can jump to Zyarth's stand safely" came the response.

No good I realized that Q would catch us in six minutes or less the P fortunately was staying close to it which gave me an Idea.

I called gun's "are the hammers still in the racks Dannar ?".

"They are Captain we have not had time to stow them yet".

"Good switch them back in and fire all of them at the P and then switch in the tempests as well and launch every thing we have at the Q".

I saw the understanding dawn on him as he took in the sequence I wanted and he turned form the monitor to start making the changes.

I the got a remote link to the engineering deck where the chief was working to give us more speed.
I explained my plan carefully and he considered it for a moment before responding.

"If we have to take damage Captain roll the ship and let deck five take the punch, that deck is Locked down solid and I've braced the bulkheads as much as I can, we can only take so much though Captain so I'll have the jump drive ready to go the moment we start taking critical damage".

"Okay chief if for any reason I don't make the call I'll leave it to you".

I then hit the ship wide speakers and ordered every one to get their hard suits on and told the Marines to totally seal all decks and get their combat rig on.

The coms officer got up to go towards the row of lockers at the back of the bridge when Mal told her to sit back down. " Hannah if anything heavy enough to get through to us hits then its all over anyway" Mal explained simply and he was right we were deep in the heart of the ship in a totally isolated environment.

Anything powerful enough to get through the meters wide walls of reinforced teledanium to reach this room would mean the bulk of the ship would be gone and we would be dead suits would make no difference.

She looked to me for confirmation and I nodded so she sat back down trembling a little but keeping it together.

"Okay so we all know where we are I said aloud so lets do what we are all trained to do and yes just this once we are all on hazardous duty pay".

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For those who you who have read this far the Story will continue in a new post entitled "Exile Continued" and should be for storyline purposes be considered as page one of chapter two.