Cold Fusion

[DeadlyMiddie]

Julius shook his head, "Well Admiral, you've saved us ammunition and a diplomatic incident. Thanks." Turning to his comms officer, "instruct the convoy to close formation. He sat back in his chair. We're about 8 hours out. Let's keep our ships together and intact, shall we?"

[Error]

Alternis fired braking thusters, holding near the Mimas station.

"UAD Mimas, this is Distant Memory. I have been requested - correction, ordered - to report here and await further instructions. Relaying the information packet from Alternate Corruption now."

He shook his head again. Damned swabbies thought they owned the bloody solar system.

[Ivan2006]

"Okay, Midshipman Jerkovic, send footage of that ship to HQ. Lieutenant Maier, stand by to get us back to our initial orbit. I don't think there's much to see here."
OOC: I am assuming the ER uses British naval ranks.

[Professor Fenway]

___________________________________________________[Error]
"Acknowledged Distant Memory," responded the primary Mimas station. "Please stand by, Armada Commander Corinth wants to speak with you." ((Armada Commander is basically the leader of UAD military, second only to the UAD leaders.)). The channel went quiet and changed a bit, indicating a change in channels. After a second, the channel was reestablished.

"Greetings, Alternis, to Mimas Station," Corinth said in a friendly tone. "I'm not going to give you any speeches about the glory of the UAD or anything. I'm not trying to waste your time."

"I think you've already accomplished that," Alternis responded.

"We can't exactly talk over long range, unfortunately. Too many security risks, and of course, we have transmission delays." There was a clink on the other side. "Now, to the point. I- we- need your help."

"My help?"

"Yes. You've encountered what we've nicknamed Phantasma, a destroyer class vessel. It is named such for it's ability to pop up anywhere and vanish before we can even appear on the scene. As you guessed, yes, we believe it is equipped with a Faster than Light drive." A series of beeps was played. "You are the only person to have ever witnessed- and scanned- the Phantasma, and that's why we need your help."
____________________________________________________________[Ivan]
OOC: UAD uses modified American, ER is British, ESU is Chinese, BF is Brazilian, AD is Iraqi ranks.

[Error]

Alternis exhaled slowly.

"My help, you can get. However, in exchange I'd like some answers. Firstly, however... requesting docking orders. Oh, and I'll need a new LR3 visual sensor. Your speedy bastard buddy managed to burn out my current one."

Alternis paused.

"I have my own scan data onboard, I'll relay it via hardlink once docked. Like you said, sensitive."

[Shadowcatbot]

I'm gona be probably offline for the rest of this week, Fenway AI mode if your doing anything crazy with my ship please.

[Professor Fenway]

"Oh no, the scan data won't be necessary," Corinth said. Alternis raised an eyebrow.

"No?"

"We- well, we already have it." A pause. "I suppose I owe you an explanation, then. When you took the contract, we secretly installed a tracking device on your vessel. This allowed us to remotely view your sensor data."

"Why would you need to view it if the Alternate..."

"The Alternate Corruption doesn't exist." A pause. "Everything you heard from it was actually our technicians working in a base the Kuiper belt. Your ship was the only one in the area, apart from Phantasma, for 50 minutes."

"So this was what, a sting operation?"

"In a way, yes. We knew the Phantasma wouldn't dare to pick up the tracked target while UAD vessels were nearby. Since we already knew it's location, we sent you instead. We were drawing it out to get the scan data." He paused. "Docking bay 5 is open. Once you dock, i'll meet with you, and we'll get you some LR4 visual sensors. And some weaponry, too."
_______________________________________[Shadow]
Shadow; did you take the mission or no? If you did, tell me.

[Shadowcatbot]

Yes, take it. For mother Russia.

[Error]

"On approach."

Cutting comms, Alt smacked his head on the control panel. Getting ahold of himself, he guided the ship in, settling it to the deck on the station.

Swinging the pilot's chair around, he headed back into the cargo bay, opening the hatch under the port wing and stepping out. He turned, paused, and glanced over at the left wingnhardpoint before frowning and heading towards the door; several figures clad in UAD Navy uniforms stepped through. Alt nodded a greeting to the nearest.

"Armada Commander."

(I assume Corinth would be there. Otherwise retcon that.)

[Shadowcatbot]

Cancel that hiatus Fenway, Was cut short.
Continue derping to the Kuiper belt.

[Professor Fenway]

____________________________________________[Shadow]
"Excellent. You'll find the prototypes in a shipyard on Luna's surface, owned by Chaos Industries. Be quick."
(Lets's say you're almost there)
____________________________________________[Error]
Corinth motioned for Alternis to follow him as he exited the ship, and began walking down the hallway. Gravity was light, but it was still walkable. The guards followed. He turned into a large room with a video screen covering one wall and several computer terminals in the main table that filled the majority of it. "Now that we have the sensor data, we can entrap it," Corinth said.

"Entrap it?"

"Yes. It's going to be difficult to lure Phantasma out again. It knows it's been spotted and it's going to be a lot more paranoid and cautious. We're not going after it, we're going to let it come to us."

"What's the catch?"

"Phantasma will not jump in to an area with military vessels, so we know someone on the inside is leaking information. We haven't tracked him down yet. In the meantime, we're going to be setting a small trap. Some of the data stolen by the operative you tracked indicated the movement of a some highly valuable prototypes from a facility on Luna. You will be guarding the movement of these prototypes, alone."

"What?"

"You aren't a registered UAD vessel, so you won't be noticed. But we expect Phantasma to jump in, in an attempt to steal the prototypes, sometime between the lightly guarded Asteroid Belt to Saturn gates."

"How is this supposed to trap him if i'm alone?"

"We believe his FTL drive takes approximately 5 minutes to recharge after jumping. And thus, we will have ships about 15 minutes away, just out of his range. If he jumps in, your goal is to cripple him."

"Cripple?"

"With 2 megaton tactical nuclear warheads. We believe the EMP pulse will knock out his systems if detonated close enough."

[Error]

"You want me to fit nukes on Memory? Are you mad? Weapons, I can work with, nukes, not so much. Not unless there's no other choice. Besides, aren't shields explicitly antiradiation and anti-EM systems?"

Alternis paused.

"What's Phantasma's EWAR capability? I have a probably less-than-legal ECM and cyberwarfare suit aboard. Would that work?"

[DeadlyMiddie]

Julius finally relaxed. The convoy had arrived safely.
"Mimas Command, this is UADS Vindication, available for retasking."

[Archduke Daynel, PhD]

Right, haven't been able to do much RPing lately, sorry for that.

BIC:
Edmund joined up with the rest of the crew in the canteen.
"What was that about? We got a new job?" Nadya asked, one eyebrow raised.
"We do. Gonna find a top secret and probably very illegal package picked up by someone, on its way to some HQ on Pluto."
"All right, this sounds like it might pay good!"
"I'm sure it does, Francis. Now, Nadya you go service the engine, Thomas plot the coordinates, Francis stock up on medical supplies, Laila make sure our guns are in order, and I'll prepare whatever other equipment we need."

An hour or two later, they set course for Pluto.

[Shadowcatbot]

Try living an average trader life, ends up inside government conspiracy completely unknowingly.