The evacuation had sounded only hours ago. Technicians and Security alike moving data, files, equipment, and projects to the various ships at The Initiative's disposal. The Dawnbreaker, a massive gun that they had been working on, was being disassembled and loaded on to a Bustard named "The Sovereign". Lesser files and supplies were shipped onto a Scylla, a Montante, and an AWACS Corvo. The U.F, Revenge and Artemis. The bulk of personnel took up space on board the Sovereign and the Cincinnati, with their supply of HLX-7 Nerve Toxin, despite Maverick O'Howell's protests.
The fleet, with CT-73 Storks in tow, and a Thresher covering their retreat, made their escape from Navarro, as it burned in the Walker Nebula behind them. The Aegis Initiative, a technologically advanced group, with their patchwork fleet, had become a moving city, with militarized vessels as their homes. The collection of ships had made a bee-line through Omega-9, no sign of the Corsairs that had destroyed their hideout. They arrived in Omicron Theta, taking up a holding position between planet Peygar and the Orinoco cloud, surrounding the Cincinnati and Sovereign for safe measures.
The Bustard and Monument, largest ships of the fleet, moved within several meters of each other, extending mooring points. Over 800 people, not including the Cincinnati's own crew of 200, were between all of the vessels. Some were crowded, and tensions began to brew. Scanners were active, always watching for the slightest bit of movement.
Mooring points attached, Joshua Hunt extended an invitation to Maverick and his XO, Sylus, to board the Sovereign and come to a meeting to discuss the future of the Initiative...
Maverick and Sylus give the order to shut down engines and small things not necessary to conserve resources. The 2 men of the Cincinnati make their way down through the decks of the Cincinnati and across the metal mooring point connected to the Sovereign. The Metal clunk of boots across the platings are the least of what's heard, as other ships of the Fleet moore on the other side of the Cincinnati, to extend surface area of the ship, All of them eventually interconnecting like one large mobile station being put together out of an old lego box. The City is several ships wide. Including the transports and multiple levels of the several capital ships that the Fleet consisted of.
The Captain and the Executive officer board the Sovereign's main deck, bringing with them the canister of the HLX-7 Nerve Toxin. They went up a couple flights of stairs and entered up into a large room where Alan Stacker, Joshua Hunt, Monty of the Revenge, and other gentlemen were standing around a central hologram of some A. I. Hunt had. The walk up to the Hologram and Maverick begins.
"Well. We're here. And we have this with us." Maverick hands over the Canister to the direction of Hunt and Stacker, who were standing next to each other. "Hello, Stacker. Monty. Who's this here?" Maverick puzzles, pointing at the A. I. Unit in the center of the room.
The.Cincinnati - Maverick O'Howell, Sylus, and 199 Family members.
Hunt examined the Canister of HLX-7, nodding at Stacker, who carefully grabbed it and placed it in the corner. Hunt turned to face Maverick, Monty, and the commanding officers of the Initiative's fleet.
"Thats Sting Ray, an AI I picked up off bounty hunter." He said, nodding at the small, holographic man. Ray nodded back, turning the display into that of the connected vessels. Transports, gunboats, a liner, destroyers, the Sovereign and the Cincinnati appeared as transparent, blue miniatures.
"We lost fourteen. A lot of our intel and projects is crammed on to everything, at least the gas is secure. Stacker, send some techs to examine the rest for leaks." Hunt said.
"On top of the crews.... We're overpopulated. Burning fuel. The Cincinnati has an extra two-hundred, we've got an extra three-hundred, the other three-hundred spread accross the vessels here." Hunt said, pointing at the transports and liners on the holodisplay.
"We've been stabbed in the back, but we're not beaten." He whispered to everyone.
"We need a solution." He said, to everyone.
"Artemis can't hold anymore people, boss. Scanners take up a lotta' room." Mentioned one of the officers.
"I know... We're short on room and on time. A portion of the people on the CT-73's are civilians from the Refinery section." Hunt responded, leaning on the holodisplay.
"The Friendly doesnt have a lot of life left in her, sir. Engines are basically done for." Mentioned the officer from the Scylla.
"All concerns we can get to in time, but right now we need to figure out where to go." Hunt said, as the other officers began to shout over each other all at once. Hunt sighed, placing his hand over his visibly tired face. They were short on food, water, oxygen, and beds, in hostile territory.
Maverick standing amidst all the captains and crew, staying silent amongst the gathering. Looking over to Sylus who was arguing with another member of the little clique amongst the room. He leans into the little AI unit, "Ray? You there?" Maverick asks the holo display. "I am, Maverick." Ray replies, appearing off the side of the display in the center that shows the ship's little blue icons. "What is it that you need?" Questions the artificial intelligence. "Can you access the images stored on the front deck of the Overlord?" "Yes. I can, Maverick. This one here looks helpful. Do you require it?" Stingray pulls up a small display, showing the picture it picked. "Yes." Maverick says. "Let me get everyone settled down first." Maverick stands up after talking to Ray in the console and yells out amongst everyone for attention.
"Hey-Hey-HEY! Everyone SHUT the HELL UP! Calm it!" As Maverick rings out his bellow off the walls of the room, some of the men hear it and come to a silence, while others continue, but just seem to quiet down slowly until each member is looking at Maverick. He looks around the room, Making sure that all the attention is focused and everyone's mouths had no noise coming from them. "Mister Hunt." he begins, "I believe I have something of notice. During the times of panic, we may have just missed this. But As a Naval captain for some time, I watch and I document. And now that we've all had a chance to calm down for a bit and relieve some tensions by yelling and spitting on each other, Let us see what we have. On the way in, I noticed something in the distance. Before pulling up to the Sovereign, we broke off the formation and scoped it out. It was this station here." Maverick points to Ray in the console before them, Ray knows what to do on that signal, and pulls up an image. The one from before and makes it large enough to see, even in the corners of the room.
"This was identified by the systems as Freeport-9. As we all know, Freeports are Zoner colonies and welcome everyone there. I propose, we use this freeport to alleviate some of the much needed tension. Moore to the points available. Get shuttles for some of the crew to go home or to other sections. I'm sure there are places on planets you can send them until needed, Mister Hunt. We have CT-73's. They're not the most comfortable to ride in. But they can hold passengers long enough to get them somewhere other than here. Zoners will welcome us. We have the credits. They have supplies and extra space. We have a repair ship within the Hangar of the Cincinnati, And a Corvo that's seen some use moored to the side of the Friendly. If not a CT-73, then a Corvo can accomodate them a little more comfortably. We can scrap out some metal somewhere and fix it up. What do you say?"
Maverick stood before everyone with a proposition. He stood there with his arms open for many minutes in silence as everyone waited for Hunt to give a response. Hunt stood in the quiet of the room amongst all the peers he had, Said nothing. Turned and walked away. Maverick Lowered his arms and turned to Sylus with a puzzled look, whome gestures with a shrug in return, and Maverick returned his head to Hunt who had walked through a set of doors opposite to the stairs Maverick had entered up. Everyone in the room remained quiet, wondering why Hunt didn't say nigh a word about the issue before them. "Alright men. Guess we'll have to take matters into our own hands. If He can't give an Answer, I will." Maverick said placing his hand upon the holo structure.
"The CT-73's need to head out and secure some contracts and run some commodities for Creditary income. Ray, Give the channel's to the Cincinnati over to the CTR group so they can get ahold of us as needed. Cincinnati will take a batch of the crew on board and see if the Freeport can accommodate more people amongst the station until we can get them offloaded planetside. Keep a perimeter around the Sovereign with the ships with every turret you got hot and heavy. Send every person not belonging to a ship to the Cincinnati. You have your orders. Move out!"
As Maverick spoke, Everyone listened clear to the 20 year naval captain for their commands. Once he had finished everyone went their ways down the staircasing behind him except for Stacker who had grabbed the HLX-Toxin and went through the doors that Hunt had walked through. Maverick then looked at Sylus in the now empty room and beckoned to him to follow as they exited the room, Maverick having a large grin.
The.Cincinnati - Maverick O'Howell, Sylus, and 199 Family members.
Hunt stopped, as he walked to the left of the door. Stacker passed him with the canister in his hands. The captains piled out of the room, chattering amongst themselves as they returned to their rightful positions on their vessels. As Maverick and Sylus appeared, Hunt beckoned for them to stop.
"Nice work in there. Your experience is the reason I had gotten in touch with you back in the day. So, I'd like to offer you the title of Director of Field Operations. You'll handle most fleet issues and on the field coordination." He said, addressing Maverick.
"Scrap the Revenge and use its parts for patchwork repairs on both the Artemis when it gets back and the Friendly." Hunt said, nodding as he slowly walked down the hall away from the two seasoned officers.
Hunt paced silently through the halls of the Sovereign, his datapad in hand as he responded to various important communications. He sighed. Sting Ray chimed the intercom, asking Hunt to report to the CIC. Hunt hurried along, up a flight of stairs and through a pair of doors, to be met with a holodisplay with the fleet displayed in blue once more. The translucent vessels disappeared, as the small featureless holographic man materialized and walked through them.
"What now?" It asked.
"Bring up a list of planets. I think its time we set ourselves up on solid ground again." Hunt responded, leaning against the circular display.
"Thats going to be expensive... Should I dig into the old company accounts again?" Asked Ray.
"We might have to. Bring up a list of companies that can make a bulk delivery once we've decided." He responded. Ray nodded and disappeared, the holographic miniatures appearing once more. Hunt brought his datapad up, contacting Stacker and Maverick.
"I've got an idea. Offload non-essential personnel, like the refinery workers, here at the Freeport. The rest will be headed with us. We're going to go groundside and build a new home. I'm not sure where yet, but its better if we avoid all contact with any hostiles." The messeage read. Hunt lowered his datapad, looking out the bridge window into the emptiness of space.
The Cincinnati had returned with the Artemis to the fleet of random ships. Amongst the Armada including the Overlord, they had accrued: A Core Thresher, An AWACS Corvo, A rogue Destroyer, a Bustard Carrier, A Stork class ship called the Chocobo, a repair ship, and a sutinga fighter: Phantom-1. That wasn't all of their ships. Working out in the field were 2 more Sutinga's: Phantoms 2 and 3, and the other 2 of the 3 CT-73 class Stork vessels: The Shiva and the Ifrit. They were getting on their feet. Becoming quite the little clique. Maverick and crew carefully positioned the Cincinnati amongst the fair ships and moored her to the side of the Sovereign. Closely they drifted. The mooring points extend, anchoring each other and Maverick with Sylus in tow, once more board the Bustard looking for Hunt. They ask around. Stopping in the usual spots before coming across Stacker who was pushing a finger across a datapad.
"Hey Stacker." Maverick held out a hand in front of him, waving it side to side to draw his attention. "Oh, hey. What'chya' need?" he asks, quickly pulling the datapad down and placing it to his chest. "We're looking for Hunt. We got some stuff we need to tell him. Artemis is done.. So's the Revenge. Literally. I got a shipmate working on the Scylla as we speak. He's one of the top mechanics. Should be done within the hour." "Ah, That's good. Real good. Seems like everything is falling into place. Hunt has some good news for you as well." Stacker says, making sure the datapad is tucked snug away. "You can find him on the front bridge scoping out planets." "Hm. Alright. We'll work our way up there. Thank you Stacker." "No problem... O'Howell." Stacker goes back to what he was doing as Maverick walks passed him and out of sight around the corner.
After a short interlude of conversation between Sylus and Maverick, They manage to come up to the main bridge where they find Hunt sitting in a chair. His Suit is wrinkled slightly, the tie is taken off, and the top part of the undershirt had been unbuttoned to about mid way. He looked like hell with little pieces of paper crumbled up and tossed to the waste bin, some littering the area nearby. Maverick walks over to the bin, picking up a ball and pulls it open. Inspecting the writing and seeing a planet with a system. Some things wrote down like benefits and little stuff. Disadvantages also appeared at the bottom of the list. Maverick picks up another one. Same thing. And one more. Again. One thing listed is there is only one disadvantage wrote down. Seeing the pattern, Maverick walks up to Hunt. He's in the chair still, not taken notice of Maverick's presence, hunched over with his head on the console before him. In front of him, Maverick see's Stingray who notices him approach. He puts a finger to his lips, motioning him to not say a word. Stingray nods with his featureless face as Maverick begins to creep up on Hunt. Slowly taking steps in his boots trying not to squeak them. He gets just behind Hunt and quickly crumples up the paper. Hunt bolts up from the chair drawing his sidearm from the holster. Maverick dips to the side and Sylus draws his with a quickness pointing it at Hunt. Hunt stands there with a finger on the trigger, breathing heavily in surprise. Maverick, now having Hunts sidearm pointed at him, he chuckles, tossing the crumpled paper at the startled man's chest, bouncing off and resting beside the many papers below.
"Good god Maverick. Don't f---ing do that..." Maverick cocks a grin and moves toward Hunt, pushing the pistol to the side and down, passing his shoulders and stands just behind him, placing his hands on his hips looking up at the System displayed before him. Sylus holsters his gun, and takes a seat in one of the bridge's chairs in front of a radar display. "You're quick on the draw, Joshua." Maverick begins. Hunt finally comes to terms within his mind putting his gun back into the holster. "So what's all this stuff about?" He asks. "It's a system. We're looking to go planetary. If they want us, they'll have to find us." Hunt replies, resituating himself and taking off his waistcoat and laying it over the backing of the chair. "And I'm assuming by all these papers, you've not found one just yet." Maverick cocks his head, sliding his eyes to the side watching Hunt from the corner of his head, looking over Hunt who starts to re-cuff the shirt at the wrists. "No. I can't find a single one." while holding the button with his left hand, motions to Ray with the right, flicking up a finger. "I've gone over a large portion of the systems. We have to avoid house space. Means no Rheinland." Flicks a finger, Ray displays Sirius systems, and zooms into the Rheinlandic house. "No Bretonia." Flicks a finger to the side, Zooming out of Rheinland and over to Bretonia. The same happening with each command given to Stingray by Joshua. Who finishes buttoning his cuffs and sliding his left hand into the pocket of his slacks. "Obviously, no Liberty. We want to Avoid Kusari. Definitely no Gallia. I want to get back at the Corsairs for being unfaithful to their word. And the Outcasts see the Nomads as their supremes and worship them. So we have Enemies all across the eastern side of Sirius. Between Nomads, Outcasts, And Corsairs, Our hands would be full over there. If we make an appearance, We side with Corsairs providing they don't see us a threat first. Currently, Our allies lie with the Independent Miners. They have given me the green light to use their shipyard in Tau-44. So I think that's where we should start. But we have Gallia within that system. So I don't think we should start there unless the I-M-G have a planet we could use to start operations." He explained to Maverick. "You know speaking of. They offered their hand of generosity. Should the time come. Want to lend our fleet to their defense?" The captain asked. Pausing for a reply. "You know that's just what I was thinking. I'm sure they wouldn't object." Hunt turns around and grabs a tablet off the console against the end wall and under the panes of reinforced glass, showing the space beyond, Spinning back around and punching some things into the pad. "I've sent you the way to the system. You'll need to use the cloak somewhere nearby. You'll be skirting the edge of House space to get there. But I'm sure you'll know when." Maverick nods. Smiling at him and as he walks past, the captain pats Hunt on the shoulder and walks toward Sylus beckoning him to come along. Sylus gets up and looks at Hunt while tailing behind, also cracking a smile before walking into the back of Maverick, who had abruptly stopped. "Did you send out for the 73's?" Maverick asks, placing his right forearm across Sylus's chest and his left hand on the railing. "Way ahead of you, Captain." He responds. Maverick takes off the forearm from his XO's chest, and with one movement, snaps his fingers and points at Hunt with a wink and a cocked smile and returns back down the stairs toward the Cincinnati's mooring point on the Sovereign.