Airing Out Suspicions
Posted on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 @ 12:40pm by Lieutenant Colonel Shaun Bradley & Captain Luka Mahone
1,118 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
What Lies Ahead, Between, and Behind
Location: Captain's Office, Command Center
Timeline: Pre-Roll With It
As Captain of a growing colony, Luka found himself more suspicious of whatever he was presented with more often than not. Breakfast this morning got a stink eye when he found out they had a new technician tinkering with the replicators. Lugh sneezed at some point, which meant there was going to be a canine epidemic sweeping the Colony.
But now, he felt the reason for his suspicion and eye narrowing was justified.
"Did you just say... Fenris Ranger?"
"Unfortunately," Shaun replied, his face a grimace. Marine's had an especially poor relationship with the Rangers over the years. Since the implementation of Marine Forward Operating Bases near the former Romulan border, there had been a back and forth between the need to uphold peace in the regions, and to desire to shoot the vigilantes and leave them floating in space. They regularly got in the way of anti-piracy operations - or worse, were actively supporting piracy groups in some Robin Hoodian attempt of feeling righteous. "I had Erikson confirm, and there is a Security shuttle on its way with more detailed scanning equipment. There is no doubt though, that is a Fenris Ranger's ship, and if there is one, there is usually another two or three lurkings somewhere close by." The Lieutenant Colonel pushed the holoimage of the wrecked shuttle to the projectors in the room to highlight it. "Looks like some kind of speed shuttle, not one of their Corsair's so that's a good sign. Means he isn't a full-blown marauder yet."
"Which also means if there aren't two or three other Rangers close by, then the reason we've got an uninvited guest might be," Luka concluded with a deep frown. He hadn't heard of any increased vigilante activity anywhere near the area of Xaeprea or the neighbouring solar systems, but the choice of where to put the colony was made specifically with this sort of thing in mind.
But, Luka knew Shaun was more an expert on this than he was. "Do what you feel is right about sussing out any other potential visitors." Not that he had to say that. He would not have been more surprised if the Marine had waited for Luka to say anything at all. "Have you guys dealt with this sort of thing before?"
"I have," Shaun said with a dismissive hand wave. "Mostly when we were involved in anti-piracy operations and we'd board the ship only to find out the damned fools had been using it to smuggle goods to a planet that they were the cause of losing contact with. We also have had to deal with them spreading false rumours, and throwing hands at the littlest of incidents." He frowned, then shrugged. "I know a few of the boys and girls have had to work alongside them back in the day during humanitarian efforts, where they tried to help and more often got in the way. But that is usually behind enemy lines kind of operations, deploying where the Federation isn't technically welcome, so they thought they were the good guys."
He nodded towards the windows of the office. "We could set up orbital beacons, we've used them a lot in the past with anti-piracy operations. They look like regular navigation beacons, but once you ping them, the system quickly does a full NavCom scan to see where you've been. Good pirates found ways around them by spoofing computer comms and more, but it still catches the average idiot, and I'd be hard-pressed to see if not work on these fools. Though depending on the locals, they might not take too kindly to Starfleet scrubbing all their navigational data."
This didn't sit well with Luka; rarely did anything these days. "We need some way of monitoring traffic, but I don't want to be too overt. I'll shuffle the paperwork around, see if I can verify reasoning with Admiral Minawara." It was likely the Admiral was going to want to hear about this one way or another. "If we get too much attention to Haumea, then we get what we don't want." More Fenris Rangers came to mind, but that seemed an obvious unspoken. "Would we have heard of any company by now? I don't want to find out he pissed off a group of pirates... Or worse."
"Turf wars are pretty loud, so usually if there is a concerted effort to make a stink somewhere, then we can swing the big ol' head of Intelligence towards it. Fenris Rangers are rarely quiet especially, so if there were more coming, they'd have made some large public statement on the 'net. Called Haumea and the Federation ineffective on the planet and that they could provide for the people. If they're looking to find those excuses, a planet getting a brand new transport station is the worst option to chose." The Marine shrugged. "Nav beacons would still be best, it's fairly discrete, and again no one notices. If you eat to sneak them out, could shlep them onto the shoulders of a couple of fighters and sneak them out in the middle of the night. We clone the beacon to the new hardware, nav point is down for about five seconds, such a small point most ships would think of it as a subspace error. But," Shaun paused for slight effect, "I'd talk to Minawara first for sure. It goes tits up, you want an Admiral to take the heat, not you."
"Then that's the plan." An alert appeared on his console, one that made Luka hesitate. "It looks like our friend's condition is stabilized. I was going to see if he was up for a heart-to-heart." He has to know for himself what they were dealing with, and whom. If this was just one wayward ranger? That, they may have been able to deal with. If not? This could have very well turned into something worse.
"I won't keep you," Shaun replied, nodding to leave the Captain's Office, though he paused before making it to the door. "Though if you need to give him a bit of a fear-shake, perhaps give me a call. A silent Marine can be terrifying."
"I'll..." In a typical moment, this saw Luka denying any form of 'intimidation' tactic. But this? "... Keep that in mind. If this conversation goes the way I don't want it to," It usually did, "Then you can make sure he gets that message loud and clear."
The Captain stood from his spot, gesturing for the Marine to take leave before he did. "Don't worry, you'll be one of the first people I tell if he decides to speak from a place of... tenacity."
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