Figuratively Speaking: Iceberg

[Sombs]

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November 25th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

The hull was slightly deformed as the Handsome Rover returned to the Apahanta. Nothing a bunch of nanorepair robots couldn't fix in a jiffy, yet it was alarming. On the bridge, the Commander sat at one of the drone control consoles, only accompanied by a bunch of Kishiro Service Robots and the bridge officers, all of them pretending to do stuff like routine checks or openly playing games from their consoles. The screens infront of Sherry displayed the footage of what the Rover recorded. Green mist, a high density of flat rocks, lightings, three suns.

Mines.

This was something that caught her interest. She knew there was something nomadic there from earlier investigations, but she never took a close look at those mines, so she loaded the footage up to a PDA and moved to her room. There was a good amount of visual data to go through over and over again. It took quite some time, but she had nothing better to do, as the technicians, KSRs and nanobots repaired the Handsome Rover. So she sat in her armchair, looking at the holographic windows which where now showing the footage instead of Manhattan's skyline. To a certain degree, it was tiresome. The green everywhere, the gas explosions, the rocks. She was almost falling asleep in the comfortable armchair as the door bell rang. "Come in!"

She looked over at the door and it revealed the silhouette of the Captain, holding two wine glasses and a bottle of wine in his hands. He stepped in, the door closed behind him and his attention got caught by the recording. It showed the nomad mines and lightnings flashing in the distance. "Oh, interesting," he sounded as he placed the wine and the glasses at her nightstand. "Whose ship is that?" he added before moving over to her side, leaning against her armchair.

"The Handsome Rover," she gave him back, looking at the wine bottle, then up at him.

"No, I mean that carrier." In disbelief, she looked at the screen. What was he talking about? There was nothing. Yet he didn't sound like he was joking. Looking at him again in confusion, she saw him nodding towards something. Standing up from the armchair, she made a few steps closer to the screen.

"I don't see what you mean," she sounded, looking back at him, only to see he stole her place, making it himself comfortable in the armchair. First she thought he did it just because of that, but he pointed with his finger at the edge of the screen.

"That's the silhouette of a Bustard-class carrier. Apahanta, rewind for thirty seconds of the footage. Zoom in on the left edge of the screen, increase contrast by 100%. Highlight the silhouettes." Following to the point where Ezrael's finger was aiming at, she made another step closer towards the screen, almost standing at her bed now. Revelation struck her as she saw he was right. It was the silhouette of a Bustard. Turning around with surprise, she eyed Ezrael. "What?"

"How did you see that!? I'd never have found it." There was a pinch of excitement in her voice and she smirked at him in a certain astonishment, looking at the silhouette again. "There is a Bustard in that minefield. It's close to the nomad lair you found with the Canaan scientist. I'll send the Rover there again as soon as it is ready."

"You will do no such thing," he said with a firm voice, looking at her in a similar way before starting to give her his typical charming smirk. "The Apahanta might not be fully repaired yet, but all primary and secondary systems are online and at at least 90%. We'll go in there with the ship and take a closer look at it. Our hull is strong enough to allow us being in there for hours. Time enough for you and me to check that out."

"Are you sure about it?" She moved a step closer to him, smiling slightly about the plan.

"Yes." he gave her back, nodding at the bottle of wine. "There is a Bustard-class Carrier inside a nomad minefield in an extremely hostile system right at a nomad lair. Looking at the field, you can see it's not too dense. We can bring the Apahanta in there if we move it through carefully. If the ship is still stuck in there, it's likely a wreck. So we can loot it."

There was some visible confusion in her countenance. "What about the Nomads?"

For a moment, he looked at his lap, sighing slightly. "If they show up, we disappear. I know your concern, but you see those asteroids in there. The Apahanta is flat enough, so if we fly in a 90° angle, we fit in there. Marduks are bigger, they can't manouver in there. Irras can't effectively fight a battleship in there either. Gunboats neither. Bombers won't harm us. Mako wins." That and the fact he was protected from them made him believe the Nomads won't interfere. Maybe his efforts he put into Maren and their relationship would pay out now. He smirked up at Sherry, standing up slowly. "When we're done, we drink the wine over there. A good reason to stay alive during this."

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