Atka Research Station: Research Deck Sigma

[kikatsu]

Up above the winding corridors of the research wing stood the hanger modules and the adjacent shipping deck. Crates of sensitive material found themselves being constantly loaded onto and off of the transports that moored themselves to the station on a daily basis. The normal loading and unloading had been paused however to allow for the approach of two groups of three ships. Each small convoy consisted of a pair of Defiant gunboats, sleek silver ships manufactured by one of the Navy’s larger contractors in Liberty space, and one much smaller Grizzly shuttle. The whole way up the ships kept changing position, the Grizzlies swapping out and changing escorts ever two dozen K to prevent any nearby vessels from easily identifying which Grizzly was actually carrying a passenger. Not even the traffic control officers were allowed to know which vessel was the decoy and which was the actual passenger shuttle. The vessels cautiously slid into the open docking bays as the gunboats took up patrol patterns around the perimeter of the station.

Only after the landing process had been completed for both craft did one give a sign of being the real shuttle. The boarding ramp of Black-12 slowly lowered and made contact with the deck plates. A pair of black and white plated security bots made their way down the ramp as if to pave the way for older, silver-haired man who immediately followed them off the ship. Clad in a crisp black suit, the only sign of color on the man was brown in his eyes and his light blue tie hanging from his neck.

The robotic guards and the man made their way across the flight deck and into the station’s security stations where they were subject to brief, but intensive scans. The guards inside and the computer systems proudly announced the arrival of Director Clarke. Largely ignoring their welcomes, he checked his wrist-top computer briefly before turning to the chief of security.

“Am I to assume that Anouet is still on Sigma deck?”