Visitor's Coming for Dinner! [Kaleb and Lysire] (Closed)

[rythmicjea]

Visitors coming for Dinner
Village of Vị Thanh, Hậu Giang Province
Europa, Baklid VI
10.25.0968

So, have you told him yet?

The word read across Lysire’s screen as she leaned back in her chair. It was a simple enough question that she couldn’t just answer.

She sighed and typed, no I haven’t.

The humming of the Shadow Dancer’s powerplant resonated through the decking and vibrated her chair. Even with the engines powered down, the ship’s reactor could generate enough power to energize a warship twice the size of the Shadow. She leaned back in her chair and let out a long sigh. Her eyes danced over the flashing computer screens before as she monitored all local communication traffic. It wasn’t as glory filled as what Kaleb and the others were doing. But considering how they got jumped by Graff’s forces, Sinya wanted to make sure that they weren’t caught by surprise again.

Over her headset, the news was replaying the reports of the Richie Resort attack and fallout. It was what all the news stations were reporting on. Adults and children were all giving their accounts of what they saw unfolding. How the ‘big and evil’ locals attacked a group of innocent people. How the bravery of the Jedi and Republic forces fought back Graff and the locals to rescue the innocent Core Worlders who had come to this resort solely to raise money for Outer Rim Charities.

The monitor on her left was flashing through images as it was attempting to create a facial match. Next to an endless stream of images, a solid image of Ava, Tesara and some strange adolescent female. Though, Lysire hardly paid any attention to the actions of that monitor. Her attention was on the multicolored Lothcat at the center of her main monitor. The cat would speak, and the words would form as little dialog boxes over its head.

Let me tell you something. I once loved a man. A brave handsome Republic officer. Most of all, he was a dear friend. I was worried that if he knew how I felt, it would make our friendship awkward. So, I kept my feelings to myself. Then came the day that his bravery led to his death. I never even knew he had volunteered for what was clearly a suicide mission, until it was too late. I was never able to tell him how much I loved him. It was the single worst mistake of my life and I regret it every day. Don’t make my mistake. Tell him before his bravery leads him to face his fate.

Lysire frowned as she reached out to her keyboard, I know you are right. But I just don’t know how else to tell him. I have tried repeatedly to show him. Yet, he just doesn’t seem interested in me.

She moved to type more but her fingers froze as something perked her ears. The system has picked up something that was demanding her attention. She quickly reached over and flipped on the audio to her headset from the news to what the system was picking up.

“Rotterdam Ground, this is Whiskey Serai Five Three Niner Two Five. We are a flight of eight requesting a South Departure to Juliette, then straight to November. After which we will be VFR on to our destination.”

The pilot’s words flowed into her ears as her fingers started typing. I must go. Speak to you later. The lothcat nodded and vanished in a digital puff of smoke.

She flipped off the screen and typed into her keyboard. Database: Baklid Aviation Ministry then she added the line, Query: Aviation Navigation Check Points, Europa, Juliette, November

As she hit enter, the voice of the Air Traffic Controller was in her ears. “Whiskey Serai Five Three Niner Two Five, this is Rotterdam Ground. We are filing your flight plan with Base. Taxi to Runway Nine Zero. Hold at Runway Six Zero for crossing. Six Zero is the active runway. Request total souls for your flight.”

Lysire turned to the screen on her left and flipped the current search off.

She grabbed the keyboard there and started to type. Weather Monitoring Service: Rotterdam Civilian Spaceport.

The command prompted a request for password. She flipped a pair of switches and a screen above the password box came to life. She turned back to the main screen and read the results of her first search. The only line that interested her was the location of the navigation beacon called November. Its location was at the north eastern corner of the Hậu Giang Province.

“Ground, we have two hundred and eighty-eight total souls within the flight.” Something caught her attention as the pilot reported that they would be underway in a moment. She heard something under the voice of the pilot.

She typed in audio filters: Time Stamp 2:15, 20%, replay speed .75%

The voices became more distorted as she listened to what was in the background. There was something clearly there. Something happening behind, no, something under the voice. A background noise or something. She wasn’t sure.

She reached over and flipped a set of switches and almost immediately the soft hums of the powerplant increased to a noticeable decibel. The read out on her monitor told her that the slave unit behind the main Radar Communication Warfare station was coming online. A new set of readouts became critical, and those were the temperatures of both units. Even before the slave unit came fully online, power from the ramped-up reactor was being diverted from the rest of the ship to the two RCW stations.

Over her headset, she heard the ATC speaking to the pilot. “Be advised, your flight plan has been approved as submitted. Warrior Three Niner will be rendezvousing with you at Juliette. They will be providing CAP during your mission.

As he continued to speak, she turned to a third keyboard and typed up Database: Military Callsigns she then added the line, Query: $Warrior, $39

She entered a new command on the center monitor, Destination Location Probability

The system spit out a single line, Destination Location Results: Unknown Destination, Lacking Detailed Information

Just in that moment, the monitor to her left chimed. She turned to see that the system had hacked the weather surveillance system at Rotterdam Civilian Spaceport. She took command of the holorecorders and turned them toward the military side of the spaceport. She searched for a flight of eight craft heading across the spaceport. She located them on the busy spaceport crossing the active runway. Eight LAAT’s were moving in a line following the lead craft. But she was surprised to notice that only two of the LAAT’s had Republic markings and colors. The rest bore markings of Baklid’s Planetary Defense Force. What was most strange was the large number of personnel in the LAAT’s that were not in combat gear. They were clearly soldiers, but not fighting soldier. “Medics,” Lysire questioned, then added “why so many.”

She typed, Print screen image, timestamp 7:34-8:45.

As she turned to her main monitor, the small printer under her station started to spit out images. Her face curled in frustration as one of her monitors came up with no matching results for Warrior 39. There were many Warriors and craft that had 39 in their call signs. But no warrior 39 specifically. She grabbed the keyboard for the monitor on her right and started to type.

Database: Military Personal Communication She leaned back as if to think through the problem. She then added, Query $Warrior, $39

Immediately, a prompt for password was kicked up. Once more she triggered the system to break the password protecting the Database.

Finally, the system indicating that the audio analysis has been completed. She played the audio, and her headset came alive. And her frustration continued to grow as the audio was simply too garbled for her to understand anything. But she could hear something. She typed in more commands that would help the system clear up the background noises. Her fingers flew over the main keyboard as she worked through sounds. A beep brought her attention to the left monitor and her left hand soon followed. She entered in a series of commands that had the cameras following the flight as they prepared to lift off.

She brought her hands back together over the main keyboard. The sounds slowly started to become clearer as she worked through the filters.

“sorry we are late” the first voice became audible.

A second and third voice could be heard, “this is Mr. Stefan Grósz” and more pieces of the puzzle became clear. “Whisper 43 reported a group of Phu Cuong were heading…..”

She moved her left hand back to the left system and started to type, Database: Republic Military Directory, SubDatabase: Baklid Operation Command Group, Query: $Stefan $Grósz

She moved to her center system and typed in Database: Republic Military Operation Reports, SubDatabase Baklid VI Query: $Whisper 43

The right system brought up a match for her search for Warrior 39. A holoimage that was attached to a letter. The letter was unimportant to her as she focused on the image. A group of pilots posing before two rows of fighter craft. Before the pilots was a large unit symbol with the nickname Warrior 39. She noted that in the image there were a total of 39 pilots, gunners and ground crew. The group was using an unofficial call sign for their identification.

Behind them were a series of starcrafts. On the left, a group of five V-19 Torrent starfighters and on the right a group of ten BTL-B Y-wing fighter-bombers. She copied the image and sent it to the printer. She then zoomed in on the background and smiled. “Endurance” she uttered, as she spotted the name of the ship that this fighter bomber squadron belonged to proudly painted on the wall of the hanger.

A beeping sound warned her of the temperature in the two RCW stations. She reached up and flipped a switch that pumped coolant in to the two stations. A whooshing sound filled the midsection of the Shadow Dancer as the temperature dropped by nearly five degrees across the ship. Even before the temperatures stabilized, her fingers were at work again on the right station.

Database: Republic Military Operations, SubDatabase: Aviation Navigation Support by ship, Query Endurance

Her left system reported the results of her search. The screen flashes, Query: $Stefan $Grósz with the following words No Matches

Frowning, she expanded her search to all Republic Military Databases. She barely had enough time to move to her next task as the corner of her eye caught the flight of LAAT’s slowly lifting off from the Spaceport in Rotterdam. She brought up a screen and started a timer. Then keyed up their frequency to listen to the flight commander. She could hear him reporting their departure and when they would report over Juliette. She had to be sure of their speed. She entered in a series of commands that had the main station tracking the flight as they traveled from Rotterdam.

She turned slightly in her chair towards the right station and read the results of the latest Query. She saw bubble for the Endurance and knew that its own fighters wouldn’t normally travel outside that bubble and if they did, it would be under an important mission. She took the information and transferred it to the main station.

Destination Location Probability she typed

This time something came back.

Central Highlands Hậu Giang Province: 52%
North Hậu Giang Province: 36%
South Hậu Giang Province: 29%
Bình Thuận Province: 28%

She thought about the recording she had heard and brought up the query search for Whisper 43.

We have spotted and Identified twenty horse mounted persons, In casual motioned heading north, along the eastern bank of the Song Ea Ayun River. Grid Coordinates are as follows 13.633497, 108.505315. Their banners indicate that they belong to the Clan Phu Cuong, within their ranks is possibly the Clan Elder. This sighting was on 10.21.0968 at 1534. Their equipment is light weapons though heavy on gear.

Lysire brought up the map and located the coordinates of the sighting and started to plot out this group of travelers. “Why worry about this one sighting,” she wondered. She plotted out the route and plugged it in to the system. Then ran her DLP once more.

Central Highlands Hậu Giang Province: 76%
South Hậu Giang Province: 49%
North Hậu Giang Province: 26%
Bình Thuận Province: 18%

‘There had to be more,’ she thought. She returned to the audio and attempted to clean it up more. She had to nail down where they were going. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she worked desperately to solve this mystery. Once more the heat on her station started to slowly rise. Her knees could feel the wave of heat building in the compartment at the twin systems were pushed to their very limits. The twin computers on the Shadow Dancer were designed by some of the best computer designers in the Republic to do just what she was doing. Just not against the Republic. With computer operating powers that far out pace even the largest of warships, the Shadow Dancer was more than just a ship. It was a new style weapon that the Republic was about to unleash on the Outer Rim.

Her left station reported the findings of her Query. Once more the screen was flashing, Query: $Stefan $Grósz with the following words No Matches

Her frustration only grew as she expanded the search for all Republic databases, though she included the qualifiers, Baklid, Jedi and Republic Military. She didn’t need to search through an entire haystack for a needle. She simply didn’t have time for that. Her headset came alive once more with chatter between the traveling LAAT’s. The chatter had been normal until she heard them mentioning a river’s name. After November, they were going to follow the Ho Don Duong river. She brought up her map once more and located the place where the Navigation beacon November was located and where the Ho Don Duong river crossed at that point.

She plotted out the path of the river and where the river met up with the Song Ea Ayun River. The two rivers joined only a few kilometers south of where her party was currently located. She plugged in the new information in to the DLP and waited for what she already suspected to be the results. As the system worked on the location probabilities, she got another heat warning. Once more she flipped the coolant switch and pumped fresh coolant into the system.

Central Highlands Hậu Giang Province: 86%
South Hậu Giang Province: 37%
North Hậu Giang Province: 22%
Bình Thuận Province: 8%

With a nod, she wrote down some speed estimates and an estimated time of arrival. She was sure that her numbers were right. Wanting to protect the system, she powered down the slave and terminated all her current queries. The system slowly started to cycle down as she grabbed her printouts. She spun from the chair and placed her headset on the desk. She darted up to the flight deck where Sinya was napping.

Hitting the flight deck, Lysire spoke firmly and with confidence, “We have guests coming.”

Sinya spun in her Co-pilot’s chair, “wha,” she said in a state of confusion.

Lysire handed the papers over, “we have Republic and Baklid forces in route and will be here in little over an hour.”

Sinya looked at the paperwork that Lysire had printed out. Images of the ships, some images of the troops in them, even names of pilots. The escort crafts in types and numbers were there also in an elegantly presented report. Sinya couldn’t speak for a moment. There was simply so much detail for her to take in. After taking a moment to process the massive about of information Sinya finally nodded, “I take it you have returned the reactors to me.”

Lysire nodded then Sinya continued, “Okay, I will start the check list to get this bird moving. Last thing we want is to be caught on the ground trying to get airborne. Go take this information to Kaleb. Tell him, I will move the Shadow somewhere out of the way. They can either remain here to see what is going on or come with me and hide till it is over.”

Lysire nodded and turned and leaped from the flight deck. On the main deck of the Shadow, she darted past the Nav Station and then her two RCW stations before reaching the aft cargo area and the exit of the ship. She ran to find Kaleb to give him her report.