Ghost Ship (Galactic Alliance Dominion of Widek Hex)

[Cathul Thuku]

Location: Widek
Objective: Patrolling
Allies: [member="Zark"] [member="Gir Quee"]
Enemies: Pirates

"Admiral, we have started analyzing the contents of those black boxes"

"Found anything?"

"They appeared to be on a course for Ikotch, where their next target seems to be"

All she could sense from [member="Gir Quee"] or [member="Zark"] amid all this nebula-induced static was that they still were in the fight somehow. But, if they were to engage the Valencia, wouldn't it make sense to order the parties onboard to evacuate so as to avoid friendly fire? The static also affected the inside teams. The only way the parties onboard would even realize anything would even be that ship being fired at. Speaking of which, all they could do was to turn the ship around. It might be a drastic step, but the pirates that plagued the system in the nebula were interested in cyborg fighters or the like, as I have come to realize that Zark or Gir were coming to grips with those, she thought, while they seemed to be prepared to engage the ghost ship itself, and also standing by to receive any survivors from the boarding parties. Firing at the Valencia from long range may not be the most practical course of action, given the targeting static, so she may as well attempt to fire at it from a much shorter range.

"Turn the fleet around: we might be able to catch the ghost ship aft"

Spoiler

Capital ships:

ANS Bulldozer (Felucia-class missile cruiser) moderate shield damage
ANS Skor (Skor-class artillery frigate)
ANS Frivolous Lawsuit (Hardcell-X-class anti-starfighter frigate)
ANS Due Process (Hardcell-X-class anti-starfighter frigate)

Attack craft:

10 T-70 X-Wings
9 Chiloon-II fast bombers

 

[Light Rises]

What the actual frak. The commanders wanted them to do what? No, the fact that he was on this Force forsaken vessel full of… was that sentient smoke? No, it couldn’t be. That wasn’t stuff that happened, was it? No, of course not. Smoke didn’t move like that.

Except, for… when it did, and when it killed half your damned company. And these rifles? They weren’t doing anything. Kyle Rayner looked over at his company. There were… what, 6 originally that came on this trip, frakking Lou took his leave before they shipped out, damn dog. Lucky move on that, and now it was him and two others. The newbie was looking at Kyle.

“Looks like you’re our sergeant now, Rayner.”

Right, thanks Rook. Don’t even know your dmaned name, might not even get out of here to figure it out.

“Tell him something he doesn’t know!” That was Ryan, looking over from by the corner. “Ain’t got nothin’ comin’ round the bend here. Probably can get…”

He trailed off. Kyle nodded. Yeah, he knew, had to make the call.

“Hangar. Right.” He sighed and picked up his rifle again. “Alright Deltas, lets go finish this. Fleet’s gone dark, need to see if there is anyone out there, or if we’re…”

He wasn’t going to finish that statement. No need. They all knew what he was saying.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Location: Arriving at Widek
Objective: Deal with the Disruption
Allies: [member="Zark"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="NPCs by Corey"] [member="Aryn Teth"] [member="Cathul Thuku"] [member="Gir Quee"]

When the news reached her of some anomaly at Galantos that was moving towards Widek, she had not exactly been pleased. She had read the reports for what happened at the Galantos system's outer space station, and to her, it sounded like smoke demons. No signs of battle, no bodies, nothing left but silence on the station. That was a disruption that she did not need in her plans right now, uncontrolled smoke demons running amok. Best to just eliminate them.

Two Alliance frigates, a patrol carrier, and a cruiser dropped out of hyperspace, the Jedi Master on board the cruiser. She immediately took in the situation, frowning as she did. Some old Star Destroyer and a bunch of TIEs were harassing the Alliance forces... she felt nothing from the TIEs, and the ship was a floating epicenter of death in the Force.

"We have teams on board the ship, Master Raaf," the flotilla's commander informed her. "Vice Admiral Zark is on the scene, but the TIEs are giving them issues. Some sort of jamming technology is stopping transmission from going in or out of the derelict."

"Dispatch fighters, but give me a moment," she said.

Focusing... letting her mind and Force presence drift out... ah now she recognized it... an old Lords of the Fringe ship, its commander having been an esoteric Sith that enjoyed conjuring rituals. He had joined the One Sith briefly upon the collapse of the Fringe, but had disappeared on an expedition in the Unknown Regions during Kaine's campaign to protect his homeworld. Well, mystery solved there then.

"Master Raaf?"

Blinking, she looked over at the commander.

"Move into attack positions, fighters hold a defensive formation... if we don't receive word from the boarding teams in ten minutes... destroy the ship."

 

[Light Rises]

As always, Ryan was taking point. He was the one with the scattergun, but against those… things. No, that wasn’t going to do well at all. Kyle had his own carbine trained up at his shoulder, light shining down the dark hall. Not that it was going to do any good.

“Stay close, Rook.” Kyle ordered, looking over his shoulder. The team was lightly armored, hell, they were Fleet Soldiers, not the rough and tumble army grunts. This was a boarding mission, and it then went south, or as he had said back on his homeworld ‘to hell in a handbasket.’ When was the last time anyone even used a handbasket, really? Droids carried everything.

Getting away from yourself, Kyle. Men are depending on it.

“Name isn’t ‘Rook’, its Daniel. Just…” The younger soldier looked up. He was scared.

“So someone knows. Just keep our tail clear, Daniel, you’re the one that’s going to get us out of here.” Ryan laughed, at least he was faking good spirits.

“We need to get a call out, keep an eye open for communications, if you can see any terminals.” Kyle stated.

“Sure thing, Sarge.” Ryan smirked, trying to keep spirits up. Kyle checked his weapon and that was when he heard it. Glass bottle? A sound came out from Daniel but before he could even form a sentence, Kyle turned around, rifle at the ready and his spotlight shown on.

Yes, bottle, dark, rolling across the floor. Kyle put a hand on his newbies shoulder and pushed him behind. A fist up, he nodded. Ryan kept walking, leading down the hall. That was when Kyle saw a hand. Without thinking he opened fire, and that was when the trio started walking quicker. Still, the officers came into the hallway.

Another bottle, this one airborne, smashed against the helmet Kyle had.

“Frak this mission.” He grunted as he blasted into the officers, starking crazed and groaning. What was that?

“Get this door open, Roo---Daniel!” Ryan ordered as he moved to stand side by side with Kyle, both taking shots at the detachment “These aren't soldiers, Kyle!” He called, but it didn’t matter, they were coming, and they were insane.

 

[Aryn Teth]

Aryn Teth

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On board the Valencia, Widek System, Farlax Sector, The Core Worlds​

Interacting With: Team Two​

​

The rest of the trip to the reactor was a slog, slow and grueling as Aryn and his team pushed through the insane crew. By the time they had arrived, most of Aryn's team had been taken down, the Jedi sighing as he sheathed his vibrosword over his shoulder, looking around over the empty room, he sucked in a deep breath, looking down to his droid companion. "Well, BB, let's work on finding out how to blow this place up the best, huh?" Hearing the droid beep in response, he shuddered as the sound echoed through the eerily empty reactor core. It was a short trip to a console where the droid could slice in, beginning to work on accessing the reactor core so it could begin an overload. "Come on bud, let's get out of here as soon as we ca- Oof!"

Suddenly, Aryn was sent flying across the room, slamming hard into the bulkhead as he looked up to whatever had assaulted him. It was a mass of formless, horrifying smoke, barely covered in humanoid features with deep white eyes and a malevolent look. Pushing himself to stand, Aryn groaned as he drew his sword, looking up to the demonic figure. "Great, evil smoke demons, and I've got a sword, go team." As the figure charged for him, Aryn ducked to the side and cut along it, he watched as his blade cut through the form, seeming to barely affect it as he was thrown away again, slamming into another console as he groaned. "Yeah, i'm already gettin' tired of that..." He sighed, glancing over to his droid companion then, still busily slicing into the console.

At the very least, Aryn needed to give the droid enough time to overload the reactor, hopefully he could at least survive that long...

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Location: Bridge of an Alliance cruiser
Objective: Deal with the Disruption
Allies: [member="Zark"] [member="NPCs by Corey"] [member="Aryn Teth"] @other GA members

"Anything?" she asked. She could feel the Force roiling, twisting with darkness. An exquisite example of power, but it was wild and possibly uncontrollable. Whatever was on board, whether her guess it was smoke demons was accurate or not, it needed to be destroyed. It had enjoyed freedom from a commanding presence for too long, or it could have even possibly broken free from that fool's power and caused the whole thing. She didn't care at this point.

"Nothing, Master Raaf," the commander stated. "The jammer is still in effect, and we have seen no signs of life on board."

"Be methodical then, Commander," she stated. "If anyone is still alive, lets give the longest chance possible to reach an escape pod or where they inserted. Start with weapon emplacements, engines, then hangers and the bridge."

"Right away, Master Raaf."

From her flotilla, streaks of energy began arcing out towards the Star Destroyer, the shields, what paltry things that were left of the original shields, overloading quickly at the barrage. Their fighters would keep the phantoms at bay, while a slow and methodical fire went for each weapons emplacement in range. For those inside, time was of the essence.

 

[Zark San Tekka]

This ship was a living hellscape.

As far as Agent Deacon knew he was the only member of his team not dead or worse, and he didn't have the kind of time to track down survivors. Whatever had been controlling these disturbed Imperial crewman had cut through a highly trained mix of Alliance special forces and guardsmen like a vibroknife. To pick apart a squad of alert Pathfinders was one thing, but the Guard's cultwatch division was specially trained to handle situations like these, where the known and unknown violently collided.

At least his time among them under his assumed cover had prepared him to deal with the thing that was still occupying what was left of Guardsman Lok. He stepped out of the utility room, locking the black eyed Eriaduan away where at least he would cause no further harm. Whatever had possessed his former comrade, there could be no doubt that it was a creature of the Darkside. Soon enough it would likely break free of his standard issue force-cuffs, but by then he was hoping that the SIS agent masquerading as Guardsman Cal Bright would be long gone.

As he stalked the now eerily silent corridors of the derelict destroyer, ever vigilant for more signs of its psychotic surviving crew, Deacon struggled to make sense of the information he had gleaned from his interrogation. Getting the truth out of Darkspawn was never a simple matter, so he had learned in his time among the Guard, and successfully manipulating one into giving away critical intel was more often than not a matter of applied reverse psychology and reading between the lines. In the end, the dots were often only connected with good old fashioned detective work, so it was a good thing the operative had made a career in the intelligence field solving mysteries, for right now his life may very well depend upon solving this one.

He reached this section's turbolift at last, prying its doors open as he prepared to climb through an inoperative shaft, and was faced with an inevitable choice between up or down. One direction would lead him to the destroyer's bridge several levels above, while the other would bring him down and closer to the primary reactor room. Lok had seemed terrified whenever he mentioned the reactor, although he tried not to show it, so Deacon applied calculated Guardsmen psychology and determined that the bridge would be his destination.

If the thing wearing Lok as a suit had let anything slip, it had been for his benefit. The reactor was almost certainly a trap. Of course, that meant he was looking at a long climb ahead of him.

"Should've gone pro at Huttball instead," the agent grunted to himself as he pulled himself up onto the service ladder above.

 

[Light Rises]

A quick look over his shoulder was something Daniel shouldn’t have done. He didn’t need to see that. No, scars on the face? What had happened here? He shook his head. Ryan had grunted out, two soldiers with plasma torches were on him. The breacher had slammed the butt of his scattergun into the skull of one of the crewman but not before the other had gotten the plasma torch into his hand. That was when it breached the armor. A second later, after Daniel turned around, Ryan’s arm was dangling, attached by skin and the loose fabric around the elbow joint.

“Frak!” Ryan shouted, in agony as he backed into a wall. Kyle moved, taking the time to cover his comrade. He planted a kick firmly into the side of the crewman and opened fire at close range with his carbine.

“Door, Rook. Now!” There was the definite sense of urgency in Kyle’s order as he turned down the hall. Opening fire, he was doing his best to keep from killing, just disabling. But that was when he heard the blood curdling scream. And around the corner came the lumbering hulk. “I swear to…”

“I got it!” Daniel shouted as the door swooshed open. Kyle grabbed Ryan and shoved him into the room.

 

[Zark San Tekka]

"Vice Admiral, picking up new contacts off our stern!"

"More pirates?" the way Zark phrased it his words were a demand as much as they were a question, "Just what we need."

"Negative, sir. Alliance transponders," his sensor officer reported excitedly, "We're receiving priority hails from a Master [member="Taeli Raaf"] of the New Jedi Order."

"Excellent! Master Raaf has an uncanny habit of showing up where she is most needed. Let her know that-"

"Sir," the wide eyed crewman cut him off, "She is demanding to know why you have not yet fired on the Valencia."

"We've still got our own people on board!" the admiral cried reflexively, glancing about for anything positive to show for their efforts that might convince Taeli to hold off, "We've...ah hell."

The star destroyer had cleared the nebula, and it would not be long after that before it passed too close to the farthest inhabited reaches of the system. They had run out of time. It was now a choice between the lives of those under his command, and the lives of the innocent peoples of Widek.

"Forward batteries, open fire."

 

[Light Rises]

As the group rolled into the room, Daniel dove for the switch and shut the door. “What the frak are those things? Why didn’t they attach a Jedi to our unit?” He was pacing now as Kyle was tending to Ryan. The leader had a few bacta patches, and the wound was from a plasma torch so it was already cauterized. It wasn’t that they were going to be able to do much. But Kyle was looking up at Daniel. Right, he was pacing.

“Get yourself together, trooper.” Kyle stated, he looked down at Ryan, who was wincing but had demanded he apply his own bandages. He also knew Kyle was the best hope for finding and activating the communications array. The field-promoted-sergeant looked around, a low whistle as he activated another light source. “This is going to be a bit of an issue, I can tell.” He laughed, a bit space crazy at this point.

Daniel made his way around the room, checking terminals, there was power. That was a start. What he needed now was the right one. He shook his head, no… not that one. “First thing I’m doing when we get out of here is shore leave. Somewhere tropical, y’know? Beaches and boobs. That’s what I need.” Daniel looked around, and even Ryan was laughing.

“I’ll buy you your first drink, kid. It’ll be great.” Ryan laughed and shook his head. Daniel was looking up from a terminal. He pressed a few switches, and switched the power around. The communications terminal lit up across the room. Kyle turned.

“Well, there is that. Hang tight boys, we may actually get out of this.” Kyle smiled as he pulled a chair out. Looking at the door, Daniel nodded and picked up his own rifle. A few codes were coming up and Kyle started to input the Alliance codes. He typed in a message to be sent to any ships that were still out there.

Delta Company reporting. Mission went south. Can’t get to escape pods.

He turned to the two with him. “There, should be over shortly. Sweeper teams, told to hang tight.” Hopefully he was a decent liar.

[member="Zark"]
[member="Taeli Raaf"]

 

[Aryn Teth]

Aryn Teth

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On board the Valencia, Widek System, Farlax Sector, The Core Worlds​

Interacting With: Team Two​

Yet again, Aryn flew across the floor of the reactor control room, a fresh cut across his forehead trailing red down his face as he tasted iron. Fighting the shadow demon had not exactly been the easiest thing to do without any real weapons, but he still needed to buy enough time. Standing up once more, he was forced down to his knee again as the ship shook suddenly under the sudden fire from the Alliance ships. At the same moment, he heard an alarm begin to sound and his droid companion beeping excitedly, informing him that the reactors had begun to overload. Sucking in a deep breath, Aryn looked back up towards the demon as the droid rolled over to him. "Yeah... Nope."

Turning, Aryn began to sprint, the Jedi had no desire to face down the creature at that point, it was the least important part of his day then, and his weapon had not been capable of doing essentially any real damage, regardless. Soon enough he couldn't hear the creature behind him, and as he glanced back he could see it shifting through the upper decks, evidently drawn elsewhere by something. He figured it had been drawn to more important duties now that the ship was being bombarded, but regardless of the reasoning, Aryn was satisfied as he found his way to the nearest escape pods.

Climbing into one of the pods, Aryn sucked in a deep breath as he pulled BB-3 in with him, reaching up with his comlink as he hoped desperately that one of the Alliance ships would be able to hear him. "This is Aryn Teth, i've set the ship's reactors to overload and i'm escaping on one of the pods - please don't blow me up." And with that, he launched his pod, and got the hell off the Valencia

 

[Zark San Tekka]

Deacon was still sweating from the climb by the time he reached a set of imposing blast doors beyond which he hoped to find the bridge. The way things had been going this op, nothing seemed certain anymore, even fundamental geography. Even though the SIS agent had been almost certain he was only a few levels below the command deck, it had taken what felt like an eternity of climbing to reach his destination. It was getting more and more difficult to remember how long exactly it had been since they had boarded, and he could not be sure if it was just his anxiety playing tricks on him or if this place was beginning to affect him on a physiological level.

The one piece of good news he had received so far had almost caused him to lose his footing and plummet to an untimely demise, as once silent battlecomms now crackled to intermittent life. So he wasn't the only first contact survivor at all, someone somewhere had figured out a way to reestablish a signal to the outside. His elation hadn't lasted long, however, for while from within the confines of the turbolift shaft he had been unable to get a transmission out, it had not taken Deacon long to get a sense of how desperate the situation was. The sounds of desperate Alliance pilots filled his ears, and he had just barely made it out of the shaft when the first bombardment shook his entire world and again nearly sent him tumbling back down.

He didn't know whether to be relieved or scared at how little resistance he had found on his way to the bridge, but with the way the corridor was quaking at ever volley, the operative knew he did not have time to speculate. A data spike forced the locking mechanism on the blast door in front of him, and the heavy bulkheads ground their way slowly and loudly open until they failed halfway, leaving a gap in the middle just large enough for Deacon to crawl through. Beyond, darkness.

"Here goes nothing."

The Hapan took a running leap and corkscrewed his body acrobatically through the opening, landing in a crouch with his Security S-5 out and set to kill. Activating the blaster's torch attachment, a beam of light pierced the veil of the unlit destroyer's bridge. He scanned the weapon across, taking in his surroundings. Sensor pits, each filled with the dessicated corpses of Imperial officers, dead at their posts. A command throne, and on it sat a black robed figure. Deacon stepped forward, shining the light closer, and underneath its cowl he could see some sort of humanoid. It too was dead, and had been a long time.

His instincts screamed that a threat was near, and it was only after he had hastily finished his sweep that he noticed the patch of blackness blocking the bridge's viewport. When his torch tracked back, the darkness lunged in his direction. His blaster barked in his hand, muscle memory kicking in as the agent snapped off several quick shots. Lethal blaster bolts disappeared into the void, absorbed into the form of whatever the hell it was. Though they did little more than slow it down, Deacon kept firing, his hand reaching down to his belt and palming the prototype Guardsman device on his utility belt.

If Lok, the real Lok that was, had been right then this thing should be able to neutralize any Darkside energy in range for up to thirty seconds. More than enough time to...

Deacon pressed down on the ignition switch, and the device disintegrated in his hand. From seemingly everywhere at once, a malicious laughter filled the room, and the black shadow was heading towards him once more. He tried to raise his blaster to fire, tried to move, to run, to fight. It was no use, he could no longer resist. Whatever this awful being was, it had enthralled him, and he had run out of sabacc cards up his sleeve. Closing his eyes, the agent awaited oblivion.

Another blast rocked the ship, this one close, and caused Deacon's whole world to spin. When he regained his senses, he found that he was no longer bound in place but laying sprawled on the deck. A meter or so away, his blaster lay discarded, the light of its torch shining upon something the Hapan had not seen before. It was some kind of...well, he didn't know what it was. Artifact? Device? Some sort of cross between the two? Whatever it was, something about it seemed to radiate evil. Not of the Darkside, but something far more terrible and unknowable.

He crawled along the deck, danger sense warning him that the darkness was not gone, that it would be upon him any second. Fingers grasped the hilt, an icy tendril coiled around his leg and all he could feel now was an agony unlike anything he had ever experienced. Shaking hands raised the weapon, an unnatural cry of alarmed rage and terror nearly split his skull with its keening. He held his breath, and pulled the trigger.

Deacon stared into the infinite, and the infinite stared back.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Location: Bridge of an Alliance cruiser
Objective: Deal with the Disruption
Allies: [member="Zark"] [member="Deacon"] [member="NPCs by Corey"] [member="Aryn Teth"] [member="Cathul Thuku"] @other GA members

"Master Raaf! We have an escape jettisoned from the Valencia and is transmitting an Alliance code. There may be other survivors."

Taeli regarded the commander, nodding. Their batteries had already dealt with plenty of the Star Destroyer's weapon emplacements, fire and smoke spurting out into the vacuum of space from the escaping atmosphere. Vice Admiral Zark's forces had begun to fire on the ship as well, while the phantom TIEs continued to harass their ships. She doubted they would be an issue for long.

"Collect the escape pod, continue firing on the Valencia," she ordered. "Change target to engines and..."

"Master Raaf! We're picking up radiation spikes from the ship! The reactor has been primed to explode!"

"Keep a safe distance from that Star Destroyer, but get that escape pod onto one of our ships. If you see anymore or any shuttles, make sure they get to safety."

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Location: Widek
Objective: Patrolling
Allies: [member="Zark"] [member="Gir Quee"] [member="Taeli Raaf"]
Enemies: Pirates

"Hold position, maintain safe distance: the enemy reactor is spiking! Stay out of standard turbolaser range"

In the time it took the flotilla to face the ghost ship's aft, the enemy star destroyer has cleared the nebula, and then Cathul realized that the enemy controlling the star destroyer would rather see it go down than it being captured. Maybe firing discord missiles won't do at all here, she thought, while the white Twi'lek was about to ponder what her options were. If staying away was going to save Widek's people, and hers along with it, so be it. Fighting pirates that preyed upon shipping from and to Widek was a starting point, all right, just that her allies had a job to do. Dealing with phantom TIEs that have been killing innocent residents all over the place on Widek was what said allies came there for. And then the whole flotilla decelerated almost as if an emergency stop. Fearing that the explosion would buffet their respective ships, the crew braced for impact, but they couldn't collect the escape pods: Taeli beat her to it. Oh well, I guess, I might have been too slow this time around, she thought, while the pods were being collected elsewhere.

Spoiler

Capital ships:

ANS Bulldozer (Felucia-class missile cruiser) moderate shield damage
ANS Skor (Skor-class artillery frigate)
ANS Frivolous Lawsuit (Hardcell-X-class anti-starfighter frigate)
ANS Due Process (Hardcell-X-class anti-starfighter frigate)

Attack craft:

10 T-70 X-Wings
9 Chiloon-II fast bombers

 

[Zark San Tekka]

The Valencia's reactor spiked, and an explosion larger than any the Alliance task force could have inflicted even with their assembled might erupted from the star destroyer's innards, cooking off a miniature nova on the nebula's edge. Zark shielded his eyes at the sight of it, signaling wordlessly for someone to adjust the opacity settings on the bridge's viewport. The capital ship had been cracked apart, now all that remained of it was a kilometer long field of debris. Escape pods had launched at the eleventh hour, signals registering as emergency Alliance transponders on board, and news of these survivors would have come as a relief if it hadn't been for one thing.

The TIEs had stopped.

Even before Valencia's reactor had blown, just before in fact, its hangar which had until that moment continuously disgorged a truly impossible number of unknown attack craft, stopped. The phantom starfighters already harassing his task force did not vanish instantly, instead one by one as they phased out of observable reality, they never phased back. Red signal blips began winking out all across the Hereafter's holodisplay, until there would truly be nothing left of the enemy force that had just recently seemed poised to overwhelm them completely.

Rescue operations were a grim, nearly hopeless affair. Smaller, more agile ships under the command of both Admiral [member="Cathul Thuku"] and Master [member="Taeli Raaf"] plotting cautious courses through the debris field hunted for escape pods or transports that had survived the blast. Too massive and cumbersome to maneuver, the Hereafter remained behind and coordinated the grid search under the Jedi Master's direction. While the others focused strictly on first contact survivors, Zark's crew was also concerned with search and rescue operations to recover any X-Wing pilots that had managed to eject before their fighter was destroyed.

"Alright, we're calling it. Navigation, set a course for Widek orbit," stars shifted as the star carrier began a laborious process of turning completely around, "We've got some explaining to do to the planet's government, I think."

With the crisis finally contained, the bridge of the Hereafter return to its orderly fashion. On his way back to his ready room, a junior officer presented the admiral with another datapad, this one apparently an overview of confirmed survivors. Skimming through the list, he paused when he noticed that one of the pods recovered had been launched from near the bridge. Its occupant was near dead, with a missing leg and lacerations across his entire body, but this man who had been identified as Guardsman Cal Bright was now in stable condition and was recovering in this ship's med bay.

Making a note to himself to have a conversation with this guardsman about what he had seen and experienced, the vice admiral hit the key to close his ready room door behind him, and poured himself a stiff drink.