Ensuring that the people who served aboard that old converted hauler wasn't a problem or a chore for him. He was always quietly watching, making sure that they were getting on well aboard the Triton. Somehow seeing the remains of the Samson herself was more difficult than keeping tabs on his old crew.
The list of things he'd been avoiding hadn't escaped noticed. Even speaking to Shamus Frost about his refusal to have the perfectly good foot waiting for him in medical attached was something Jake hadn't gotten around to. Stephanie had tried to get him to go, but that became a matter of pride. He knew that the moment he told Frost in no uncertain terms that he had to do it the old Gunnery Chief would be in medical. Jake had somehow let the simple task slide for two weeks. If it were the only thing, it wouldn't have been much of a problem, but atop everything else it forced him to ask why he was avoiding so many things. They were minor compared to Alice's passing that morning, but as someone who didn't like to walk away from anything, they nagged at him constantly. His already frayed nerves felt like they could burst into flames any second.
As he carefully jogged around the base of a long antenna he decided that he'd make rebuilding his old ship a priority, as soon as he explained himself to Ayan.
His reverie was interrupted as one of the squad members called; "Sir! We're taking fire!"
"Halt and take cover." Jake ordered as he slowed to a stop and turned. At least two people were firing on them from the open airlock of the Jade Whisper. "Everyone wave," he invited.
Several squad members raised a hand and did as ordered, waving, gesturing wildly for attention, or turning and offering their backsides. "It's right here! Come and get it!" One yelled.
Captain Valance couldn't help but smile as he watched the more experienced squadron Oz had chosen for the mission enjoy themselves. Most of them knew full well that the suits could take several hits from most energy weapons before sustaining serious damage. The outer armour was made to survive more serious damage of a cosmic origin, and each of them came with a personal shield. "Here's the expensive bit," Jake muttered as he activated the explosive charges distributed along the main supports inside the Jade Whisper. Explosive bursts of air escaped the broad, thirty meter vessel as it began to collapse towards the mooring point and the station beneath it.
The pair who had been firing at them from the open airlock realized the ship was crushing towards them and leapt. Neither landed gracefully. Their much older suits may have allowed them to survive, but it was unlikely that they fell without injury. It didn't matter for long, however. Large segments of the Jade Whisper’s hull came loose and crashed down on top of the station crew members, burying them under several tons of twisted metal.
"Let's get going. Who knows what they'll send after us and where it'll come from," Jake said as he turned away from the crumbling wreckage.
Before long they arrived at the large secondary hangar door. Captain Valance knelt down and took a point blank measurement of the metal with his command unit. It was a meter and a half thick slab of reinforced metal. He shook his head. "Explains why they haven't been able to cut through," he said. "All right, let's get the fusion cutters set up. I need the mini-reactors here and over there. We're going to extend the arms wide enough so the Cold Reaver will have enough space to fly out."
A green spotlight a meter wide started to dance around Jake. It was a long distance laserlink.
"Message for you sir," one squad member quipped.
Jake stood perfectly still so the laserlink could hit him. Finally the light touched his suit and Minh's voice came through his comm loud and clear. "This is Ronin. We have a big problem Hitman."
"A bigger problem?"
"Right, much bigger. A command carrier with markings we haven't seen before just arrived with five heavy destroyers and a whole fleet of rescue and construction ships. It looks like they're just about to head through the obscuring field."
"You're right, that's a bigger problem. Tell the Clever Dream that they're going to be picking us up. We don't have time to cut a whole big enough for the Cold Reaver."
"Aye, we'll cover you while you get everyone out."
"Start by taking out their turrets. Good hunting Ronin."
"My pleasure."
The communicator closed the channel and Captain Valance turned to the squad leader. "We're making a hole a meter wide. Use both fusion cutters."
"Aye, Captain."
"This trip keeps getting more and more expensive," Jake grumbled.
Minh-Chu relayed the message he received from Jake and waited for Oz to review it in the cockpit of his Ramiel fighter. He'd loaded his ship down with as much firepower as he could muster without unbalancing the thrusters. His rate of acceleration and manoeuvrability were effected just enough for him to have to make a few adjustments early on in the flight.
"All right, I reviewed it. I'm surprised they can jam their comms with them standing outside the station though." Oz told him from the bridge.
"I don't know how it works, my comms jam up when I come within fifty meters of the hull. It's like they're using the frame of the station to transmit a low powered jamming signal. Speaking of the station, my squad will move on and take out those big cannons. If we come around so we're skimming along the station's hull there's no way they'll fire at us. There's too much risk of them hitting their own assets."
"Hold off on that. I'm going to try to hold off these people diplomatically. Maybe there's something I can do to get us out of this."
"Gooood luuuuck," Minh sang back. "From the scans our spotter outside the barrier took it looks like they came here expecting trouble."
"And we took care of the raiders for them."
"There's that. I'll be out here, ready to go if you need me," Minh said as he took his fighter into a tight roll and looked down at the nearest cannon mount. It was over fifty three hundred kilometres away, slowly rotating back and forth.
Terry Ozark McPatrick stood in front of the command seating as the image of the Caran Enterprises control Ship Ellis Commander appeared. At first he thought it was the intentionally squared graphical representation of an artificial intelligence, then he realized that the Captain's image was rendered roughly to obscure his or her identity. Oz found that insulting, but set his irritation aside. "I'm Commander McPatrick of the Free Ship Triton. We've come to the assistance of Ossimi station and rescued a number of slave crews."
"I'm the Admiral of this emergency response fleet, you may call me by my rank. We have come to re-assert our claim on this Caran Enterprise interest and require that you leave this space immediately."
"We're retrieving a number of our people and will require at least half an hour to complete operations."
"Please state your vessel's business here again?"
"We responded to a distress call, freed a large slave crew and restored power to a large section of Ossimi station after defeating a number of raiders inside. We're just picking up some of our people and-" Oz was interrupted as the holographic figure disappeared. He looked behind him to Jason and shrugged.
"They dropped the transmission. I can tell that the relay line they're using to speak through the energy barrier is still active but they're not speaking to us."
Oz motioned for Jason to move up to the command seats as he sat down. "Do a check on the crew profiles, see if anyone has dealt with Caran Enterprises before."
"I already did, we don't have anyone aboard who's run into them."
"Fantastic."
"Oops, tall, blurry and mysterious is back."
"Put him through," Oz said, standing up again.
The vague image of the Admiral reappeared. "The Station Keeper, Foreperson Amanda Dimitri has informed me that you have failed to meet her reasonable demands and your people have cost her the lives of several workers. It's also come to my attention that there is a Galactic Warrant out for this vessel and her crew. Specifically one Captain Jacob Valance, also known as Jonas Valent. I'm instructing you to power down all but essential systems and prepare to be boarded. All compartments are to be opened for scanning, any weapons you have will be secured in arms lockers, your crew will stand at stations for inspections and all senior officers will meet the inspection team at the airlock when they arrive with the command codes for all vessels. Any show of resistance will be met with brute force."