The Orion Files | Catican Heavy Transport Shuttle: Redeemer | Drone Control Suite
One Warning... Delivered
Irina Rostikova
[hr]
The Catican that had negotiated with Chronus' Director was rather surprised to find the shuttle on final approach with the Sweet Child o Mine. In her experience, there was such a thing as negotiations going too easily and such an event was usually an indicator of an inevitable future double cross. It would have been easy for the TGR warships to open fire on the lumbering shuttle, breaching the hull of the tiny craft and exposing the passengers to the coldness of vacuum, after all in the case of a frame job, the TGR and Chronus only needed the bodies of the Orion Group. But no such action came to pass and the audible thump of the shuttle touching down on the hanger deck was a welcomed by the Catican Merchant Mechanic.
"
That went well," Edward commented from the seat next to Irina, his whiskers twitching in anticipation of the mission. It had been a long time since he had been near a planetary incursion, let alone participated in one, "
I will be preparing the drop pod. Send me your reconnaissance data when they have been uploaded by your drones and I will find a suitable drop site.
With that, the burly Catican Shock Trooper hopped off of the shuttle, performing minor stretches, as he headed towards the Redeemer and his beloved drop pod. Watching him leave, Irina could only shake her head at his excitement. Despite his service to her as a bodyguard for a number of years, she still could not fathom what could drive a being to enjoy the thought of being dropped from orbit, free falling through a planet's atmosphere, enduring anti-aircraft fire and upon crashing, fighting to create a landing zone for transport ships. She guessed it was a difference in biology, some sort of aggression enhancement grafted into Edward's biology.
Hopping off of the transport, Irina felt a wave of relief travel over her as she felt her feet hit the surface of some place familiar. Strange places had always made her anxious and so the Feline-esque Female considered her relief a good omen when it came to the converted cargo hauler.
Without saying anything to the others exiting the transport, the Drone Mistress climbed up the ladder to the lock that would lead to her own ship and entered the Drone control suite. It had been nearly an hour since she'd sent the drones to scout out the storage facility and with any luck they would have arrived.
Settling in, Irina Rostikova swept her right hand in front of her, activating the Drone Control Suite. The system was programmed to detect if any of the drones under its controls were active and connected to them.
Code:
Drone Control Active: 2 Drones Active. Connecting..............
Irina sighed audibly as she waited for the connection to be completed. With the TGR's jamming in place, connection times were going to take longer. Thinking on it, Irina should have outfitted the drones with a laser communications system as well. Of course, while it wouldn't have been affected by the jamming, it required that the drone maintain line of sight with the Redeemer. That wouldn't have been a problem had there not been heavy cloud cover on its way in which would have blocked the signal.
The drone connected and started beaming a video stream back up to the control suite and caused Irina to groan loudly. The TGR's jamming was not only causing connection issues, it was causing quality issues in the video stream as well. While the stream was a bit fuzzy, there was enough uncorrupted data to make out the facility and more importantly, the guards walking the perimeter.
"
Right!" Irina said, clapping her hands together as she ordered on of the drones to circle around the airspace above the storage facility, using multiple passes to get a better resolution on the structure. The other drone moved in closer to the wall that surrounded the compound, hovering right in front of the guard that was walking the wall before dropping its cloak.
"
WHAT THE FUCK!?" The man's tinny voice came in through the audio speakers as Irina watched the man try to unshoulder his weapon before pausing and repeating his words, "What the fuck?"
From the darkness of the control suite, Irina could barely make out the man's lips moving, as if he was reading something, which in fact he was.
Irina's Note Painted on the Drone said:
To Whom it may concern,
If you're reading this message then the TGR and Chronus have not started glassing this backwater planet of your's. My crew and I were recently hired to assist with an planned assault on your capital. As you can imagine, anyone with any common decency would be opposed to the idea of destroying a civilian center. It's with this in mind that I've sent this drone to warn you that the TGR and Chronus intend to assault your capital. As you've probably already noticed, they've started jamming your radio communications. You currently have two options. You can either believe me now and send your men before it's too late to save lives, or you can believe me when you see smoke on the horizon.
Sincerely,
A concerned party
Having finished reading the note, the man in the black uniform turned and ran towards the compound, his arms waving in the air. The very sight of the panicked colonist brought a smile to Irian's lips as she recloaked the drone and had it start tagging the orbital cannons.
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The Orion Files | Catican Heavy Transport Shuttle: Redeemer | Catican Drop Pod
Prepare the Preparations!
Edward Aubergine
[hr]
Edward Aubergine was afloat in a sea of Terran Females. More accurately, he was surrounded on all sides by images of Terran Females not just in various states of undress but various states of unrest. To the Catican Shock trooper's right was a holographic video of a highly mobile, winged, front line combat medic, known colloquially by TGR soldiers as a Valkyrie, used her augmented agility to strike at a force of five Pleiades soldiers from behind. To Edward's left was a holographic video of a red haired Terran soldier, using her high velocity automatic carbine to suppress a force of armored rebel troopers while another pair of Terran females attacked from the flank, a blue haired female running in and running them through with a high frequency blade mounted to her arms while another darker hair female sniped from the rear. If there was one thing that Edward Aubergine, Catican Shock Trooper appreciated, it was the paradoxical nature of fragile looking Terran females and their ability to endure the rigors of front line combat.
While the holovids played around him, the Catican Shock Trooper looked over the weapons that he'd laid out in front of him, each one cleaned and charged and ready to be used. The Vesper M-209 Auto-Cannon was a multi-barreled cannon that fired 60,000 rounds per minute, or rather 6,000 rounds that broke up into 10 sub-munitions after leaving the barrel. Tachyon Lab's AR-380 Rifle, otherwise known as the Cobra Rifle, was a delivery system designed to send a tungsten wrapped explosive slug down range at 3,000 meters per second. It had two modes of operation: Assault and Sniper. In the assault mode, the Cobra allowed for single, burst and fully automatic fire. In Sniper mode, the rifle deployed a pair of additional magnetic guide rails that stabilized the flight properties of the tungsten slug and made the shot more accurate. Finally Edward had the two wrist mounted flamers that Irina had ordered as well as a Terran Republic Arms G-780 Grenade Launcher. All this was designed to not only inflict as much damage as possible upon his deployment on the field but to send a shiver up any soldier's spine that had the poor luck of running into Edward.
Grunting in satisfaction, Edward ensured that his armor was clean, polished and ready for deployment. In keeping with the Catican Military Doctrine, the Shock Trooper armor was designed to instill fear into anyone who set eyes upon it. Designed from the same biological organisms as Catican ships, the armor's appearance could be redesigned depending on the target species. In the case of a Terran, the armor took on a more biological look that incorporated many pieces of Terran anatomy and utilized sharp edges.
With his equipment check completed, Edward turned to psychological preparation. In a random conversation regarding combat psychology and training, Irina had once informed Edward that it was possible to naturally raise his aggression levels without the use of chemicals. To do this Edward simply had to simply ... bring himself to near climax without release. As he locked the hatch to the drop pod, Edward Aubergine looked at the holovids playing around him and realized that it to do so was definitely easier to say than do.
