Introducing Ben Zwycky

[Ben Zwycky]

Hi there! It seemed to me to be a bit presumptious to join a main roleplay thread straight away, but I could always repost this if requested. I'm a newbie, but I've been hanging around this website and forum for the past three months, ever since I found the download and read the press release by SC. My brother bought me the Gametek version when it was first released, and to my eternal shame I took it back to the shop because I couldn't get it to work .

I've read the manual and every post in every forum made in the last 60-70 days on this site, and every roleplay post (that hasn't been deleted) since Operation Snowball's Chance, and the Pluto Insurgency, and the Calm before the storm. I love the way this site is run. I know that every time I visit commlink forum and read the new posts, they're going to be either useful, exciting, stunning, or funny. This is the advantage of a well-policed site. I have to say well done SC. Your diligence and integrity in the face of fierce and prolonged opposition that has shown anything but, has really paid off and brought out the best in a lot of people. As I've been reading the posts on this site, I've thought 'these are my kind of people' and I hope that in time, you might feel the same way about me.

[rp]Commander Ben Zwycky woke bleary-eyed to the soft but persistent monotone of his personal communication screen. "View", he croaked, his throat bone dry from a long deep sleep. As the cloud of light that appeared before him coalesced into a sharp image he recognised the friendly features of his combat officer, Doug McIlroy. "Morning, Ben", he said cheerfully, "Sorry to get you up, but we'll be ready to go in 25 minutes.". He liked Doug. They had been friends at University in England, and had both done the entrance trial for the 1st shock Marine Battalion, and had both been accepted, but Ben had turned it down, because he had only done it because he felt like a challenge, and it would have stopped him following his dream of commanding a battlecruiser. "Cheers, Doug," he replied, taking a sip of water from the glass by his bed, "I don't want to miss welcoming our guest aboard. I've got a lot of respect for this guy. Two months ago he negotiated the release of 40 hostages and the surrender of the Sla'ti terrorists that held them without even anyone getting injured."

"Now that's impressive. I'd better shake his hand when he arrives."

After the latest Gammulan offensive, the empirians at least could see that their feud with the Vesperons could lead to the ultimate break-up of Galcom and their own destruction at the hand of Galcom's most dangerous and powerful foe. And so they have decided to send their most valued negotiator, Cheko Ko-Kul, for a fresh series of talks, giving him powers to make considerable concessions should the need arise. The two sides have been blaming each other for Sla'ti activity for so long now, that the Sla'ti feel that if they ever sort out their differences it could be very bad news for the until now relatively secure Sla'ti worlds. And so, they have been seeking to give Mr Ko-Kul some 'friendly career advice'. Hence the battlecruiser. Since diplomat ships have been shown to be vulnerable to very determined attacks, it was thought that by transporting him directly on a battlecruiser that could be cloaked all the way from Centauri to Eridani, it would be very difficult to reach him. By using a terran battlecruiser, it would be vey unlikely to have been infiltrated by the Sla'ti. As it turned out, they underestimated their foe...

It had been a tough journey to get to where he was, involving a lot of sacrifices that still hurt, and a lot of painful experiences still fresh in his memory, but he knew that it had been the right thing to do. This was where he was needed, where he made a difference each day. If he had joined earthcom, he wouldn't have been so far away from home so often, but he found its philosophy too elitist. Yes, we have a responsibility and a duty to defend earth and its citizens, but being able to travel vast distances through space, meet alien races and cultures gives us not only incredible opportunities, but also great responsibilities to our partner races. He could never join the insurgents. He admired the strength of their convictions, and they even had a point about some things sometimes, but he couldn't agree with their methods.

He remembered what his father had told him; "Never be afraid to talk to people who are sincerely opposed to you, son, because they will keep you honest. They will notice your integrity or lack of it more readily than anyone else. Be careful of the ones who are just after power for themselves. They will often pretend to be your friend, but really only see you as a way to get what they want, or as an obstacle to what they want, and they'll turn on you when it suits them."

Galcom wasn't perfect, (because it was made of people) and had made some terrible mistakes in the past, which it was paying for now, but it still tried to do what it could to make this galaxy safe. There are still many who need Galcom, who can't defend themselves against the bullies of these times. Galcom was the only organisation his conscience would allow him to join. He knew there were those within galcom whose motives were not so pure, even some in high places, and he would do what he could to stay true to these principles and combat whatever corruption that he came across.[/rp]

Well, that's the first post. There'll be a bit more introduction in the next post (with a couple of flashbacks) and then on to what happens with Mr Ko-Kul on board. I hope I haven't done anything wrong, or gone too close to the ACM script for TOD1. I haven't done TOD2 yet, my game keeps crashing (but that's another forum). Please don't be too harsh- I've haven't written a story since I was about 13-14.

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Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[Gallion]

Not bad and welcome to the...jungle . Looking forward to the rest of the story. Which reminds me about some loose ends that need to tied...

TTFN

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Cmdr Gallion

GCV-Graf Spee, Corsair Wing

Wraith Fleet

[Ben Zwycky]

Sorry it took so long to post this (for those of you who were looking forward to it), but I had some problems with my ISP and then with my new modem. I've put my old modem back in for now. Every time it didn't work I changed it a bit. It's been revised so many times that it should get straight A's . Anyway, Here we go.

[rp]Sacrifices. Like sacrificing his dream of settling down with the girl he grew up with, the girl who could instantly make his day with a little laugh. The girl who glowed in the sun. It was always a faint dream, though. It was a great comfort to him that she was really happy with the man she had chosen, and that he was a really good man. Still, it had been a very dark and lonely year at University after he found out about him, made worse by the fact that he didn't find out from her, and he still sometimes longed to hear that laugh and see that mountain-melting smile directed at him. It wasn't that he hadn't accepted her decision, but for him his decision to go to Galcom Academy signified that he had given up hope of her changing her mind. Why hadn't he told her how he felt earlier? 'because it wouldn't have worked and would have just damaged your friendship with her,' he replied to himself, 'and that will always be very precious to you.' She thought he knew about him. It was an honest mistake, but for a long time he didn't believe that, and even after he did, it didn't stop it hurting. She was still his friend, though, she still told him things she told very few others, and she still brightened his day occasionally by calling him up. It was a very welcome surprise when that happened, but afterwards the loneliness and depression returned when he thought of what might have been... 'Stop it!' He told himself, 'she's not available. It was never meant to be.' Slowly the pain subsided and he focused on the day ahead.

As he showered, dressed and ate, he thought of the things he had seen aboard this proud vessel, and how unwanted visitors had changed his life twice. First his career, then his character. The first time was four months into his service on the Svoboda as Tactical Officer. The ship was attacked by raiders in Lyrius, and was boarded by five of them. Two of them got to operations quickly where they cut Combat Officer Greg Nemec in two with a barrage of fire before being cut down themselves. Two others didn't last very long, but one very focused and determined intruder managed to get to the bridge, where he blasted Commander Jiri Bitbek in the face, killing him instantly, but in turning his rifle to the next officer in his field of view, failed to spot the young tactical officer draw his sidearm and fire, his last mistake. Ben then took on the post of commander and combat officer as he saw off the raiders ships, disabling the aestrom that launched them and towing it back to Galcom HQ. Galcom was so impressed that they were going to give him a new ship, but when the families of Commander Bitbek and Seargent Nemec requested that they not be cloned, Galcom simply made his temporary position a permanent one and gave him his choice of Combat and Tactical Officers. He chose Doug McIlroy and Steve Culper, who he'd known at Galcom Academy. At this point, he felt deep pain at the loss of two friends he deeply respected, and disgust at the waste of life for the sake of a few credits, but also overwhelming pride at his achievement, a feeling shared by his parents. He felt like he could do anything.

This was part of the cause of the second time.

The second time had a much more lasting impact. He was cruising through the Polaris system. It was one day later. He had completed enough trade runs with his shuttles between Galcom HQ and Aleri that he never needed to worry about lack of credits again. His ship was fully upgraded and fully stocked. He was planning a new training regime for his crew to turn them into the best crew in the fleet. He had just had a good session in the gym with some of the marines. He liked training with the marines because they took their fitness seriously. He was still fitter than almost all of them. (This would become part of the initiation of new marines assigned to the ship. He would arrange to meet them in the training room after a 'fitness test' and turn up incognito in his training gear. If the newbie asked where the commander was, he replied "He'll introduce himself later. Let's see how fit you are, boy." Then came the press-ups contest. After usually soundly beating them, he would introduce himself, "Hi, I'm your Commander. I was Galcom Academy decathlon champion," at which point everyone else in the room would have a good laugh. They managed to keep that little tradition a secret for a couple of years.) He was on a high. He looked at his radar screen. Nothing but blue targets. Life was good.

"Security alert! We have intruders on board. Marines assigned to search duty."

"What?! Where did they come from? How many?"

"Ten."

"Ten? I want 20 marines on search duty now! Get all the engineers back to their quarters!"

Cycling through all the targets in the region he came across the two mercenary caste Stormcarriers. Too much to take on right now.

"Cloak the ship and head back to Sol. Let's get out of here and deal with those intruders."

He switched to perscan and saw that most of the intruders were trapped in a firefight on the flight deck, but three of them had managed to avoid most of the marines and had made it to deck 1. "Do I have to do everything myself?!" he shouted as he stormed off the bridge, weapon in hand.

As he ran down the main corridor, he came across a dying systems engineer lying at the side of the corridor floor, half-leaning against the wall, who had been trying to get out of the way of the intruders. As he looked at him, all he could see was the corpse of his friend Jiri Bitbek slumped in his command chair, and a supreme anger came over him, stronger than he'd ever known before. Sure, in his immature days he'd thrown someone across a room, but even then his fits of rage had been few and far between. Nowadays he didn't get angry with anyone except himself. Until today. He met two of them a little further down the corridor and dispatched them each with two shots to the chest. Now where was the third one? As he walked past a T-junction in the corridor, he saw the third one down the other corridor, raising his weapon to fire. He dived forward into a roll, hoping to get past the corridor wall as fast as he could, but too late. Just before his leading arm touched the floor, he felt his left leg getting almost wrenched out of its socket, and after he completed the roll, he found it wouldn't support him and he couldn't feel it at all. 'That's not a good sign' he thought, then chastised himself, 'never mind that. You've got to finish him off or it won't matter'. He jumped back the way he came off his good leg, and as soon as he could see round the corner he started firing and kept on firing until the credian was down, hitting him twice in the stomach and twice in the chest. He activated his emergency beacon and personal communicator "Medical emergency! I've...been..." He looked down at his leg and saw the gaping hole where his knee should have been, the bottom half being attached to the top only by a piece of burnt and twisted skin. As he slipped from consciousness, he saw the jump anomaly start to form in front of him, then it all went black.

Four hours later he awoke in the medibay of his ship, the lower half of his body immersed in a cloning tank. His leg was almost completely grown back, although it would be at least another hour before the muscles were back to their original size and tone. Noticing he was now awake, his medical officer Linda Waddilove walked over, and his gaze momentarily switched from his withered limb to her lovely brown eyes. She smiled at him warmly, but he just looked down at himself again. (He had asked her out during his lowest time at university, and she had turned him down, saying that she didn't want a relationship with anyone at that time. (And probably because she knew that he hadn't let go of his first love.) She had met her future husband a couple of years later, just after graduating. He was a schoolteacher in her hometown. It had been a big shock to Ben to find her aboard the Svoboda, and for the first few weeks he felt really awkward around her. But he became more relaxed as he got to know her again as a colleague and a friend.)

"Dearie me, Ben, what have you been doing with yourself? Your tousers are all ripped and just look at those stains! I'm not going to let you play outside if you're not going to play nicely, young man!"

But Ben didn't feel like laughing. He thought 'I lost control. I killed three people, but maybe that was self defence. I was arrogant and overconfident. It nearly cost me my life.' His thoughts then turned to what he hadn't done.

"Wallis." He said quietly. "How's Wallis?" Her tone changed.

"Don't you worry about that. You just worry about getting some rest and getting better." She put her arms around him and held him for a while, saying "It's going to be all right, OK?", but he didn't respond. He just carried on looking down at himself despondently. She then left to attend to her other patients. She told the nurse on duty "Make sure he's fully recovered and rested before you let him out of here." She needn't have worried- he didn't feel like going anywhere. He later found out that Jim Wallis hadn't made it. They found him just too late. His inner demons had a field day with that.

'Because you just had to prove how good you are, a promising young systems engineer is dead. Five seconds. If you'd just stopped for five seconds to tell medibay where he was, he would have made it. But no, you had to somehow avenge your old commander's death at all costs, so now a five-year-old girl has to be told that she doesn't have a daddy anymore.'

When the word got around that he was taking things hard, he had similar 'it'll be OK' visits from all of his officers, which were a big help, even if he didn't appreciate it much at the time. Especially helpful was the mothering he got from his female officers,. He had always been good at bringing out the maternal instinct in the women who got to know him. Maybe it was because he looked ten years younger than his birth certificate said he was, or maybe because he was a complete romantic failure. Whatever the reason, he knew that all of them cared about him, and would be there for him, maybe even a couple admired him, but all of them were unavailable. That was good in a way, because the boundaries were then very clear, and he was then able to just treat them as friends (or mothers from time to time).

The morning after he'd recovered his strength, he plucked up the courage to go and see Wallis' family. (They had already been told the news.) He confessed to them what he had done- he couldn't bring himself to defend himself (not that he could think of anything to say in his defence). He was amazed that they forgave him.

"I'm sorry?"

"I forgive you," repeated Mary Wallis.

"But I could have saved him."

"I know. God has forgiven me for everything I've ever done. How could I refuse to forgive you for this one thing you've done?" He had no answer to that.

"Besides, how many more people would have died if you hadn't fought off those intruders?"

This was getting too much for him. As the tears welled up in his eyes, Sophie said

"Don't cry, mister. It'll be alright," and gave him a little boiled sweet wrapped in golden paper.

This was the last straw. The tears came in a flood, tears of relief as well as sorrow. He had been terrified of what she might have said or done. They talked for hours, about life, pain and forgiveness. He left refreshed, re-energised and with his faith in God renewed. Just before he left he promised that he would do everything he could to ensure that this never happened again. She answered,

"Don't make promises you can't keep. You just do all you can and leave the rest to the man upstairs. If it's enough, great. If it's not, don't condemn yourself. That's not your job."

With his time of self-pity over, he started to consider the lessons to be learned. He wasn't invincible, he couldn't do everyone else's job better than they could, and he still had a lot to learn about Commanding a Battlecruiser. He had a fine crew, but there were weaknesses, and the training program he'd planned, with a few modifications, would improve things considerably. They probably wouldn't like it, certainly not to start with, but they would appreciate it in the end. He was also more certain than he had ever been that revenge wasn't worth it. He would do everything he could to minimise the loss of life and break the pointless cycle of recriminations. He had a few ideas in that respect. Maybe they would work, maybe they wouldn't. Maybe the Svoboda would forge a glorious history for itself. Only time would tell.

That was all two months ago.

Systems Engineer Gavin Hawkes was sitting in his favourite bar on Centauri station when he recieved the message. "All Svoboda crew return to their stations within twenty minutes."

'Whoa', he thought, 'I'd better go and pick up my stuff.' It had been a much more restful and enjoyable time than his stay in Gazer1 24 hours earlier, and he'd needed it. He had been tired of all the training. Training system engineers to be able to take on other responsibilities, like replacing flight engineers or temporarily the chief engineer, or even as assistants in the medibay. Giving us extra physical training, survival training, training in avoiding intruders and finding cover in a firefight. He supposed he could see the point of it all, but the repeated drilling just made him want to scream. As he walked back to his rented room he thought about the strange little hooded figure who had mugged him on Gazer1.

"Give us yer security key." he'd said.

"No. It won't be any good to you anyway. It'll just be registered as stolen and be useless within a couple of seconds."

"Give us it, or I'll cut yer." he threatened, brandishing a curved dagger with a barbed point.

"Okay, okay, here you go, but you won't be able to use it"

the little man (or whatever he was) took his prize, but sliced him just above the hip anyway, then disappeared down a dark alley. It wasn't a very deep wound, nothing life threatening.

"Svoboda this is Gavin Hawkes. Someone's just cut me and taken my security key."

"OK Gavin. your security key has been marked as stolen. Report to Medibay then pick up your new key from engineering"

Going past a service drone he supposed it wasn't so bad on the Svoboda. It was the same sort of deal for everyone on board, and looking at it another way, his CV would be so good when he moved on from this ship that he would have his pick of assignments. As he thought of how cushy an assignment he could wrangle, he opened the door to his room and came face to face with... himself.

His shock turned to a split second of pure terror as his clone grabbed his collar with one hand and fired the weapon in his other. There was no sound but the effect was deadly. He pulled Gavin's corpse into the room before it fell and closed the door, then quickly scanned his neural implant transmitter to get its frequency before uploading it to his own neural implant and activating it. He then took gavin's security key and personal communicator. The message came in "Gavin, you all right? we lost your LF indicator for a couple of seconds there."

"No problems here," he replied, "must have been some interference."

He took a small secure frequency beacon from a pocket in his overalls, activated it and placed it on Gavin's body, which was then transported off the station to be disposed of. He then picked up his bag and headed for the docking ring.[/rp]

Well, there we go. Part three coming sometime soon probably. Sorry to get a bit long and a bit gory at times there, but they were important events. Anyway I'd like to thank Desylva for accepting me into the ISS and for his fleet application form, which made me think through my character and also his relationships with his crew a lot more thoroughly, and as a result this story has a lot more depth than it otherwise would. Please anyone tell me if I'm getting borderline with anything.

Bye

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Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

General Operative ISS Fleet

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (In the end the truth wins)

I just edited this to correct the transporter reference. No storyline changes.

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 07-05-99).]

[Ben Zwycky]

For those of you still following this story, here's part three:

[rp] in order to avoid excess attention, newly promoted to diplomat status Cheko Ko-Kul was transported directly to the guest quarters he would be occupying for the duration of his stay, where he was welcomed by Commander Zwycky along with his officers.

"Welcome aboard Mr Ko-Kul! It is truly an honour to have you aboard. I hope that I can give you a pleasant and trouble-free journey."

"That would make a nice change."

"May I introduce my officers,..."

The short formalities passed quickly and smoothly, with Doug staying true to his word with a very enthusiastic handshake. Each officer then quickly and efficiently returned to their post. The Svoboda made quite a sight as she smoothly launched from Centauri, the silhouette of her majestic profile contrasted sharply against the icy white surface of Cronus far below, seemingly invincible and effortless as she slid by, her colours slowly fading into transparency. Deep inside her, however, one particular crew member was quietly working well beyond the call of duty.

"You know the drill. I want half the marines on patrol duty, the other half resting. I don't want to take any chances here."

"Patrol Duty? While we're cloaked?" whined Jon Tulloch, "we're covert infiltration specialists, not security guards". It was true that kappa team's official designation was for infiltrating ground facilities, and they were Commander Zwycky's pride and joy, but this did make them pretty arrogant sometimes.

"You want to talk to the commander about it?" asked Doug.

"Yeah! Something's not right here."

"What is it, Jon?" asked Ben

"What's this? I thought you said we were the best and here you are giving us the dogsbody jobs"

"If you remember, Jon, I never said that. What I said when I took over this ship was that I don't care how good you think you are, by the time I'm finished with you you're going to be the best marines you ever heard of, and I'm not finished with you yet. Part of being the best is doing the jobs that you think are beneath you, and doing them well." Jon Tulloch and the rest of kappa team then grumblingly set out on their patrol duty. Three minutes later, all of them except Jon 'just happened' to be walking past the training room and decided to do something more beneficial- a few circuits and a practise run on the infiltration simulator. The ten other marines just did their job like always.

About the same time, Jon came across Gavin Hawkes working at an open panel opposite the detention hold on Deck 2. "Hey, Hawkes. How's it going?"

"Not too bad. Always these little jobs to do."

"I thought everything got repaired at the station?"

"Don't talk to me about station repairmen. They always 'accidentally' knock something out."

"Oh, right. Isn't that the cloaking device?"

"How'd you know that?" Gavin replied with a slight quiver in his voice. He cursed himself silently, and subtly moved his free hand to the pocket in his overalls that concealed his weapon.

"Part of our new training. We're being taught how to disable an enemy ship. Hey, that looks like a bomb."

"Oh?" Gavin's pulse raced. His hand reached his pistol and he grasped it firmly. Jon's rifle was still slung over his shoulder and he wasn't looking at Gavin. He would certainly be able to get the first shot in, and at this range it would certainly be all he would need, but a weapons discharge would alert the whole ship, and that was definitely not what he wanted.

"Is this for one of those training exercises?"

Gavin stopped himself from visibly relaxing. He let go of the pistol and took his hand out of his pocket with a natural gesture of surrender.

"Yeah, you've got me. You're not supposed to know about this. I'll get into trouble now."

"Don't worry. I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks."

Jon then wandered off round the corner and continued his patrol.

That had been close. He would have to work with a bit more urgency. Gavin took a second to wipe the bead of sweat from his brow, then quickly finished installing his device, activated it, closed the access panel and headed down to the turboshaft. [/rp]

I'd really appreciate some sort of feedback from someone. Part four coming soon to a screen near you.

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Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 06-23-99).]

[Charles Lindsey]

I like it so far. Sounds like you have it all planned out.

Feedback from a reader's perspective: How did the thugs steal Gavin's security key then the clone steal it again? (Actually the second post, had to re-read all of them to remember ) Plausible out: Thugs stole it and passed it to the clone or thugs got scared at being argued with and simply cut him then ran away; at which point the clone then stole it.

That was from a truly reader's perspective. That one caught my eye.

BC3K perspective: How'd the clone appear so quickly? Takes a while to clone someone.

But I like it. Lessee, you (Your Character) are transporting an important diplomat and you (YC) have an evil clone on board which no one knows about. Hmmm. *G*

Charles (Chavik)

[Ben Zwycky]

Well, maybe I was a bit too subtle with that part of the plot. The mugging was on Gazer1, 24 hours earlier. Gavin was just remembering the incident as he walked back to his room. Maybe I didn't make that clear enough. The whole point of the mugging wasn't to get the security key. As Gavin said, it was completely useless after he reported it stolen. This was only to make it look like a genuine mugging that wasn't worth investigating. The little hooded figure was actually a Sla'ti operative and the whole point of the exercise was to cut him with the knife (with the barbed point, actually a tiny scoop with a hollow centre) so as to scoop out a tiny bit of him and have a sample of his DNA to clone him with. This then gives them 24 hours in which to get this sample to their cloning facility, make and reprogram the clone (which is a lot faster and easier with a clone than with a captured genuine officer) and get him into Gavin's quarters.

They knew that the Svoboda was going to transport Mr Ko-kul a couple of days before, because of their sympathisers at many levels in Empirian society, so they contacted their operatives (who are very widespread, see the manual p25) to be on the lookout for the Svoboda and pull the mugging ruse on one of their crewmembers, preferably a systems engineer, because they can go round the entire ship fiddling with important systems without arousing much suspicion. My, that was a long sentence! Anyway, TTFN

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Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 06-24-99).]

[Charles Lindsey]

I see it now. Heck you could have sent me to the brig for missing that. *G*. No, you weren't too subtle. I flat out missed it. Hope to see more soon.

[Ben Zwycky]

I don't think there'll be any need for that. For now . I'm sure there are some people who didn't get some of the subtler points, and so have had their enjoyment enhanced, maybe. The second post was probably too long , which made it easy to miss things, so I'll try to keep them shorter from now on. I'm about halfway through writing the next post, so I might even get it up tonight if you're very lucky .

TTFN

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Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[Ben Zwycky]

As requested, here we go with part 4:

[rp] Paul Rand spoke into his communicator

"Hawkes! This isn't your shift. Get back to your quarters and get some rest."

"Just a few more little things to check on, sir."

"According to the logistics computer, there's nothing wrong with any of the shuttles."

"Wouldn't hurt to double-check, though, sir- computers can sometimes be misinformed."

'What a stubborn little...' "Tyrone. Get yourself down to the shuttle launch bay, take over whatever he thinks he's doing and tell him to get some rest."

"Aye, sir."

"Emerging from hyperspace." The jumpgate to Treas appeared on the main bridgeviewer, and they started to approach it slowly. Treas with its lack of starstation or starbase seemed to be the logical choice for an attack, if there was going to be one. Hopefully they would be able to slip by any would-be assailants without incident. It was best to be cautious.

"Weapons Status, Mr Culper."

"We have 10 Vagrant, 5 Questor and 5 Perseus Missiles ready to launch; 6 Vagrants, 10 Questors and 10 Perseuses in Weapons Pod 2; 5 Crabs and 5 Leeches ready to Launch, 25 of each in Weapons Pod 1. All interceptors have 2 Vagrants, 4 Questors and 4 Perseuses and are at launch ready status. IOD is set at 40%, PTA at 100%. Weapons System off. Shields at Maximum. We have 95 minutes of cloak remaining. Battle ready, sir."

"Well done, lieutenant. Let's see what awaits us."

"Approaching jumpgate"

"Hey, Hawkes! I'm here to relieve you."

"No need. I'm managing OK." Gavin quietly felt the pockets of his overalls to make sure he had everything he needed for plan B, in case he couldn't get rid of Pete Tyrone. 'Yes.., yes.., 3.., 6.., 10.' He did. It was still too early, though. They had left Centauri before they were supposed to. He had to delay them somehow.

"Hawkes, what on earth are you doing! you've ripped out the comms sytstem and tractor beams in shuttles 1 and 2, and you're doing the same in here!"

"I'm upgrading them. Paul's made some prototypes he wants to me to put in and test."

"Rubbish! He sent me here himself to replace you and send you back to your quarters!"

'That wasn't a good lie. It has to be plan B now.'

"He'll confirm it. He's coming through the door now. Look."

As Pete turned to look, confused, Gavin drew his pistol and started to run, shooting Pete at almost point blank range by the time he had turned towards the footsteps. Without breaking his stride, he ran past Pete's falling corpse and on reaching the door to the main corridor he turned and threw a couple of the grenades that he'd had in one of his pockets towards the shuttles. He then jumped through the doorway and headed for the tubolift, retrieving his remote detonator from another pocket and activating it.

"Receiving data. Proceeding to next waypoint; Wormhole 21 to Arima in the Tau Ceti System.

Hyperdrive recharging."

"Very good."

"We have a weapons discharge? in the Shuttle bay"

"Perscan reports Engineer Pete Tyrone is dead."

Just as that sentence finished, a tremor was felt throughout the ship. They heard the blast on the bridge.

"What the-"

"We have an explosions on Decks 1 & 2. Commlink Computer is destroyed. Cloaking System is destroyed. Auxiliary life support is damaged. Detention bay is damaged. Research Lab is damaged. Medibay is damaged." Then came the second set of tremors, two almost together.

"Two more explosions in the Shuttle Bay. Shuttle 1 has been destroyed. Shuttle 2 is heavily damaged. Shuttle 4 is damaged. Shuttle 3 is damaged. Shuttle Launch Bay is damaged."

"What's going on?!" half-screamed Commander Zwycky. "There are no ships here!"quickly realising the inevitable, "It must be someone on board! Quick! Assign all marines to search duty! Is perscan working? Quickly, did it pick up anyone leaving an area just before an explosion?"

"Umm, Nicola left the research lab just before the explosion in the cloaking device, but she still got injured in the blast; Bill Jeffries was patrolling past the commlink Computer just before it went up, and he wasn't injured by that, and Gavin Hawkes left the Shuttle Launch Bay just before the explosions there."

"The Shuttle Launch Bay. That's where the weapons fire was. It must be Hawkes. Tell all the marines to be on the lookout for Hawkes."

Hawkes went up one level in the turbo shaft, opened the doors, threw a grenade towards the reactor cooling system, and selected deck 1. The grenade bounced off a panel and didn't end up exactly where Gavin wanted. The explosion came a couple of seconds after the doors had closed and he was already up another level.

"Engine is damaged." Then came the words that no Commander wants to hear, "Reactor Cooling System is damaged." The explosion confirmed his suspicions. "Sir, Gavin Hawkes was the only one leaving the area. He's in the Turboshaft"

"Tell the marines he has to be stopped. By any means necessary."

He never thought he would order his marines to kill one of his own crew, but he never imagined that one of his own crew would do such a thing.

Gavin Hawkes Sprinted out of the turboshaft as soon as the doors opened, throwing grenades either side of him, and firing at anyone in his path. This didn't stop him getting hit in the shoulder and in one leg, though neither was serious and it did enable him to get past the intial barrage of fire and get round a corner. It bought him a few final seconds, and he knew that seconds were all he had now. He turned to the door of Personnel Quarters 2 and found it locked from the inside. He banged on the door. "Help! it's Gavin Hawkes here. He's coming! I've been hit! Let me in!" Not having been told that Gavin Hawkes was the one all the marines were trying to stop, one of Gavin's friends opened the door to let him in. 'This should buy some time for my brothers,' he thought as he threw in two grenades, and shot the engineer in the doorway, shouting "Sla'ti!" in triumph before being cut down by the marines pouring out of Troop Quarters 1 & 2.

"Hull breach on Deck 1. Personnel quarters 2 has been destroyed."

That wouldn't be the end of their troubles.[/rp]

Hope you enjoyed that. And ahead of schedule too! I'll obviously never get a job in construction . Part 5 will come along sometime soon. Not sure exactly when.

------------------

Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 06-25-99).]

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 08-22-99).]

[Ben Zwycky]

Sorry for the delay. I've been doing a web page for myself (which isn't done yet), and I've been having some problems with my computer (had to reinstall win95 and had some other problems reinstalling everything, recovering mail folders etc.)Anyway, here's part 5

[rp]"Guadran field stabilised. Atmosphere contained."

"Critical Systems Report. Don't just give me percentages. Tell me how our capabilities have changed."

"We've got no exte--al comms, patchy voice-only internal comms using the emergency commu--cators," (the emergency communicators were 120 handheld transmitter-recievers with 10 set frequencies or 'channels', selected with a switch on the front . Channels 1-8 were for officers, systems engineers, flight engineers, medics, pilots, medics and marines respectively, with the marines having two channels because there were so many of them. Channels 9 & 10 were unused, but were there in case there was a problem with any of the others. They all had enough charge for an hour's continuous use.) "No cloak, no hy--rdrive, only manouvering thrusters and 10% thrust on the main engine, medibay has - --duced capacity but is st--- working, shuttle 1 is gone, 2 can't be launched, 3 & 4 are damaged but will l---ch. -----liary life support isn't working properly, Deck 3 is flooded with radiation and we've only got 50% reactor output. Cargo bays, weapons, shields and interceptor systems are all undamaged."

"Thank God for small mercies. Shuttles 3&4. Do their tractor beams still work?"

"----ly. Enough for -ery small loads, but even then on-y for - -ouple of seconds before breaking down."

"No ships in current system, sir."

"Looks like we're not going anywhere, but it appears we've got some time to prepare for the attack. We must have thrown them off a bit by leaving early. OK, we've still got the vagrants in ATV's 1&2, haven't we? Replace two Perseuses and two Questors with vagrants in each interceptor, launch all interceptors with defend orders come to a full stop, then start setting up a dual sphere minefield around us. (This meant a sphere of 10 crab mines about 2 clicks out from the ship, and a sphere of 10 leech mines about a click outside of that. That way the enemy ships are under attack from the crabs while negotiating the leeches, are in danger from both sets of mines at once and any leech detonations will be far from the Svoboda.) Configure all mines to attack all neutral as well as enemy craft. Tell the shuttles to give us a hand moving the mines into position, then launch them. Their tractor beams should be able to cope with that, if they're careful. Casualties?"

"10 systems eng--eers dead, 3 wounded, 2 seriously and 1 with ra---tion poisoning; 1 flight engineer de--, 4 wounded, 3 seriously and of --ose 2 with radiation poi---ing; 4 marines wounded, 2 of those seriously. 5 medics wounded, but none seriously.Nicola is badly h---, but she'll be OK. We can't take more than a couple more in until we get some repairs here"

"Craft launched, sir."

"The radiation on deck three is being cleared, I've assigned two systems engineers on the cooling system, two on auxiliary life support, one on the engine, one on the medibay and one on the cloaking device. I've got two flight engineers assisting every systems engineer, plus one extra on the engine and the cloaking system, including the guy who was lightly wounded. I've cut off power to the transporters, cloaking system, comms, tractor beam and the central charger, but we're still heavily dependant on the solar reactor."

"Good work, Paul. Linda, get those marines patched up as soon as you can. As soon as the intruder alert sounds, if their LF is over 70% and FF under 30%, they're on search duty."

"Gotcha."

"Right, Power. Shut off launch control, and cut the engines down to 1 unit, then shut off the solar reactor. We've got to be able to cope without it, because we're going to have to turn in different directions in this fight, and we'll lose the input from the reactor, and I don't want important systems shutting down in the middle of a battle. If we put weapons up to full power, how much does that make?"

"51 units, sir."

"Right. Give the mid turret 4 units. As soon as you've got 51 unit from the reactor, put it up to full, and as soon as you get to 53, give the power back to comms. After that, leave it as it is. We'll need some power in reserve for when we start taking some hits. Oh, Paul, how long would it take you to reconfigure a probe to relay a distress call?"

"Oh, I'd have to refit it's tran---tter. At least 10 minutes. Maybe --st ov-- 5 if I had a couple of guys to h--- me."

"That's too long. I'll probably have a more important job for you in a minute, but get started on that for now."

"Right."

"Doug, I want 5 guys guarding the guest quarters. If they get to Mr Ko-Kul, then our mission will be a failure. Oh, which channel are Briggs and Elworthy on?"

"Done it alr--dy. Channel 7. Planning some surprises, are you?"

Switching to channel 7, Ben then called up the two members of kappa team who had been recruited from the hacker caste. "Briggs! Elworthy! Is your system infiltration console still working?"

"It's not d-maged, sir, but it's li-- with the external transmitter-reciever was via the commlink c--puter, and that's where it wa- ----ing it's power from."

"Hasn't it got a UPS?"

"Yeah, but that'll only last half an ho--."

"That's long enough for what we'll need. Could you use it to disrupt some enemy ships' computers instead of a ground facility's?"

"Oh yeah, th-- takes me back!" replied Elworthy, "It'll ---bably be a bit trickier than a gr--nd-based computer, and it'll be hard to be subtle w---out the c---link computer, but I'm su-- I've got some nice programs ar---- here somewhere..."

"It'll take us about 3 or 4 minut-- to get the ---mlink bypass set up, if we get a commlink unit and a systems interf-ce," added Briggs.

"Right, I'll get them to to you. I don't care about being subtle as much as being effective."

Switching back to channel 1; "Paul, that more important job. Get yourself and a couple of flight engineers to troop quarters 2 with a commlink unit, a systems interface and a software module (it's better to be safe than sorry) and help Briggs and Elworthy set up their console. Also, try and set up a comms link to the interceptors through it. We need to let our pilots know what's going to happen if we're going to make the most of whatever disruption they can cause. Also, see if you can get some power supplied to it via the commlink power line. If it looks like taking a while, or the others can manage without you, then get back to refitting that probe."

"Will do."

"OK, how's the minefield coming on?"

"We've got 7 crabs deployed in the inner sphere and 6 leeches in the outer sphere so far."

"Good. Keep adding mines even after there are 10 in each sphere, up to 20 if you can, but as you're adding them always try to make sure that any weakspots in the spheres aren't in the same place in both."

"Yes, sir."

"Is anyone suffering from the effects of the damage to auxilliary life support?"

"All crew and troop quarters are empty, since everyone is working, the flight deck and interceptor bays are empty, since all the flight engineers are assisting the repairs, and the same goes for the transporter room and operations. The marines are sticking to the corridors and turboshafts for now. The only person in an affected area is Mr Ko-Kul and the marines guarding him in the guest quarters in personnel quarters 1."

"Move him and his guards into my quarters. The officers quarters is served by main life support."

They were a fine crew, and well trained, and they were doing their jobs well under extreme pressure. He felt a glow of pride as he watched them all working, but there wasn't time for that now- there was still lots to do.[/rp]

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm getting so excited that I'm halfway through part 6 already . Probably post it tomorrow.

TTFN

------------------

Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 07-05-99).]

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 07-05-99).]

[Ben Zwycky]

Here's part 6

[rp]"Well, Mr Elworthy, what have you got?"

"I've f--nd one of my favourite programs. I call it 'The piggy back scra---er'. Basically, as soon as one of th- ---my ships assigns a target to another one, I can copy that transmi---on and use it to gain direct ---ess to the second ship's targetting computer. I then s--- that signal again with a nice little lo--- bomb attached, which sh---- scramble its targetting computer. That means -- -TA and no TTD, which means no TLD or missile lock, and all wea----s fire will have to be aimed vis---ly."

"I like it."

"That's not the b--- part. If they decide to assign tar---- to any of their subsidiary ships, they'll be ---ected too. I could put in delayed action, so that they w--- be more confused about what's going --, and more likely to infe-- --eir support ships. It's quite an old program, though, and th-- ---uld be able to counteract its effects after anything fr-- 20 seconds to a minute, depending on how fa-- they work out what's happened, or even stop it befo-- -- activates if they're really sharp. I doubt that the smaller ships will be able to cope half as well."

"OK, run with it, but no delayed action. I want to minimise the chances of it not working at all. You'll have to tell the pilots exactly when it's going to kick in."

One minute later, 'Gavin's brothers' made their entrance.

"Enemy on the scope"

"Is the commlink to the pilots on- line?"

"Established ten seconds ago."

"Right. All interceptors, remain by the Svoboda. I want no pre-emptive excursions. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"What's our task?"

"Two Empirian Assassin Stormcarriers just came through the wormhole. Wait, three, no four Stormcarriers, sir." This would be tough.

"Right. Interceptors, we're going to try to disrupt the capital ships' targetting computers. You're then going to have 20-30 seconds to hit the capital ships as hard as you can. Each of you target a different Stormcarrier and use your lasers and vagrants on it. Be careful in case it doesn't work on your particular target."

"Free shots! I like it," laughed Smiler,

"I've got the one furthest away."

"I've got the nearest one," reported

Steelfingers.

"I've got the next nearest," added Carrion.

"So I've got the second furthest, then," deduced Hailfire, "acknowledged."

"Sir, two of them are hyperjumping to the jumpgates. The other two are mining the entrance to the wormhole. Dual sphere, sir, Leeches inside crabs."

"They're cutting off our exits, and the entrance for anyone who could help us. That's standard tactics. How is our minefield?"

"We have 12 crabs and 12 leeches deployed, sir."

"Well, keep going! We have a little time for now. I'll tell you when to stop. Paul, What are you up to?"

"I've just got back to refitting the --obe. The others can re----ect the power without me now."

"Good work. How long will the probe take?"

"At least Another 4 minutes, I'd say."

"Right. Let me know when you're done."

"Will do."

"OK, what's our probe status?"

"We have 10 long-range probes loaded and ready to launch, Paul is working on one and we have 9 others in cargo bay 2."

"Excellent. "

"I wonder why they didn't just try to blow up our reactor."

"Maybe they would prefer to capture Mr Ko-Kul alive and turn him over to their side somehow, though judging by their previous attempts, they're more important goal is to prevent him getting to that meeting alive. Maybe they'd like to capture this ship as well, but I doubt very much that they'd want to capture any of us alive, so don't get cocky. How are their minelaying operations going?"

"They've finished mining the wormhole, and those two have hyperspaced to the jumpgates to assist the others."

"Right, it'll not be long now. Karen, take over flight control from Simon. Simon, take over tactical from Steve. Steve, lower your command chair to ground level and watch the doors. Chris, do the same, but keep an eye on Perscan and let me know when any intruders are getting near the bridge."

Ben sat back in his command chair, slightly reassured by the layer of titanium armour plate he'd had added to back of each command chair, which prevented anyone getting a clear shot at any of the bridge crew from either of the doorways, an obvious move after the way his predecessor's career had ended. The tension mounted.

They followed their orders quietly and efficiently as ever.

"Anything yet Mr Elworthy?"

"No, just n--igation commands, no, wait, yes!! Here we go. Storm---rier number 2 has just assigned targets to the other 3, so this might not work on number 2. ---paring the virus.. done. ready to go anytime you want, sir."

"Good. Simon, target Stormcarrier 2. Ready Vagrants. Prepare to launch all the probes on my mark, sending half of them to Cronus and half to Tramis."

"But Paul hasn't finished modifying the probe."

"They don't know that, and let's hope they don't figure it out anytime soon. Hopefully it'll also confuse them as to what is making their targetting computers go crazy."

"The stormcarriers have launched their Corsairs and Vandals and are all heading for us now."

"OK, Mr Elworthy, as soon as they emerge from hyperspace, you are free to start, but give us and the pilots a 5 second warning."

"They're entering hyperspace."

"We've got 16 crabs and 16 leeches in position, sir."

"Good, let another couple of leeches drift out for the shuttles to collect, then that's done for now."

"They're emerging from hyperspace."

Jump anomalies formed all around the minefield and distant specs grew suddenly into the shapes of the various vessels, rushing towards the stranded Svoboda and seemingly being snatched in mid flight by an invisible hand as they arrived. A few short flashes of orange designated the end of the support ships who had been careless enough to hyperjump right next to a leech. The initial streams of laser fire emanating from the crab mines were soon joined by the PTA systems of the Stormcarriers and the Svoboda and the guns of the smaller ships, and grew to fill the space around them with a dazzling display of fire and light. The Tacscope of every ship became awash with red, blue and green. It would have made a spectacular show to anyone watching if it weren't for the deadly consequences of every flash.

"Mr Elworthy?"

"OK, 5 seconds from- mark!" The interceptors engaged full afterburners and swept round for a run at their targets. The Svoboda turned to Stormcarrier number two and began to pound it's shields with its Ion Disruptor Array, and number two returned the compliment.

"Ready those probes!"

"3,..."

"Security alert!..."

"1,"

"Launch probes!"

"Activating!"

Three of the Stormcarriers seemed to pause as if confused by the probe launchings. When their weapons fire didn't resume it was obvious that they were well and truly scrambled. Almost immediately came the seemingly harmless splash of laser on shields followed by several larger splashes then thuds and explosions as the vagrants struck home.

"Target aquisition."

"Fire six Vagrants and reload!"

"The Stormcarriers are launching the rest of their fighters, sir!"

"Yeeehaa!" shouted Smiler as Stormcarrier number four tumbled with the impact of the last two vagrants, span into a leech and was catapulted into another, it's armour and hull all the while being worn down by a combination of interceptor and crab fire. The last explosion ripped off half the shovel-blade that was the fore section of the ship, and the series of bigger explosions that ran the length of the doomed vessel from its engines to its nose enveloped the two S-Fighters that were launching from it, and the resulting shockwave from the huge finale tore apart a couple of Corsairs that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A jump anomaly formed directly in front of the Svoboda, and ten Sla'ti Marines appeared out of it, just as the IOD was discharging. There wasn't time to see how surprised they were before 6 of them disintegrated in the centre of the Svoboda's bridgeviewer. The remaining four were finished off by the fore laser turret, their skeletons momentarily silhouetted against the laser flash before they shattered into hundreds of pieces, then were vapourised by the next shot. Ben, Karen and Simon all flinched and instinctively looked away, but it was too late. That imag would be burned into their memories for a long time to come. When the PTA switched the turret to the next incoming threat, it was as if they had never appeared.

Stormcarrier number two's PTA fought valiantly to the last, taking out three of the incoming vagrants, but 8 vagrants against it's already depleted shields, when combined with the Svoboda's IOD, the Interceptor's lasers and as the last straw a solitary crab joining in the barrage, it's hull finally admitted defeat, shredded from the inside by a reactor core breach, spraying shrapnel in all directions, having only launched two of its S-Fighters.

"Hostile launch detected."

"What type?"

"Analogs and Starflashes"

"Move us around, and activate the EMD, but keep within the crab sphere."

The two missiles homed in on the Svoboda, guided by the continuous lock that the S-Fighter held on the Svoboda. This didn't last, as four quick hits by the PTA at 100% sent the small craft spinning out of control, and another four hits finished the job off. The missiles then carried on in their last directed heading and missed the Svoboda by a couple of hundred metres. The four perseuses and questors launched by a couple off Vandals were not so easy to throw off, and slammed into the Svoboda's shields, taking it down well into the red, a couple more laser hits, and-

"Shield integrity breach. Damage."

"Cargo Bay 1 is damaged."

"Keep us moving! What's our Tactical Situation?"

"Stormcarriers 1 and 3 are destroyed, 2 and 4 are heavily damaged but seem to have overcome the virus. There are about 30 smaller fighters left, but 8 are chasing the probes. We have 8 leeches and 12 crabs left, but some of those have only a couple of minutes before they self-destruct."

"How many intruders are there?"

"Thirty."

"Thirty?!"

Panic gripped his mind at the scale of the situation. Karen Hilliard quickly noticed him starting to hyperventilate, and simply asked inistingly, "Commander?". He quickly began to fight his thoughts and slow his breathing, then focused on what needed to be done.

"Chris, tell me the moment any of them get near the bridge! Briggs! Elworthy! You've done your part and good work, but your on search duty now! We've got intruders!"[/rp]

------------------

Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

I edited this post because the marines getting hit by a Vagrant was too far-fetched.

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 07-13-99).]

[Ben Zwycky]

Well, it looks like I won't be finishing this off before I go, (unless something unusual happens tomorrow morning), so there'll be a bit of a delay before you all know how this turns out. (I suppose you could probably all have a good guess, though, if you want .) In case you're reading this, DeSylva, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the command chairs and the virus, I just thought of them for the last post, but I don't suppose they're TOO far-fetched considering what we'd already discussed .

[Ben Zwycky]

Well, here it is, what you've all been waiting for, maybe. Part seven:

[rp]On the Sub-deck by the turboshaft crouched Marines Stuart Drelson, Mirek Novotny, Matti Eriksen and Jacob Kiptano, Stuart and Mirek lying prone with their sniper rifles aimed down the corridor at the doorway to the shuttle launch bay, where most of the intruders still were. A few of them had tried to break out, and their bodies were lying in the corridor. Matti was discussing the situation with Doug;

"Well, 5 of them won't be --thering us anymore, and we've got ab--- 15-20 of them pinned down in the shuttle lau--- -ay, but I'm not sure how much longer we can hold them. We need s--- -ore guys down here, quickly!"

"All right, I'm s---ing some guys down. Try to keep them on th- --- deck."

"What do you think we're doing?"

"Target the remaining stormcarriers and launch three Vagrants at each!"

"Away, sir. Stormcarrier 3 is launching shuttles, and number 1 is entering hyperspace. Stormcarrier 3 has been destroyed, sir."

"Keep moving and firing at those fighters! How are we doing?"

"There are 25, no 23 fighters left- I think two of them just collided- but only a couple of them are still after the probes; there's only two of those left, but there's still about 7 or 8 leeches at each exit. We've only got 5 leeches and 8, no 7 crabs left; they're starting to self-destruct. Interceptors 1 and 2 have depleted their missiles, but are only lightly damaged, IC3 has damaged weapons pods, lasers, life support and shields and IC4 has lost comms but seems to be otherwise OK. Shuttles 3 and 4 have lost tractor beams and have damaged shields, engines and life support."

"We can't recall them now- we've got intruders there. Paul, is that probe ready?"

"Yes, sir- and ready to lau---."

"Does it include a warning about the mines?"

"It does."

"Right. Launch eight probes, same as before. Try and launch some more crabs and leeches, but focus more on those fighters directly. We've got lots of Perseuses and Questors- use them!"

"Yes, sir!" Replied Simon enthusiastically, "Some..."

"My God, no!!" screamed Karen, as the message came in automatically from one of the probes- 'Terran Tourist LRT-15 entering Treas System'. Ben switched to the TACOPS computer and zoomed in just in time to see it silently finish it's tumble from leech to leech, being pummelled by crabs, the final impact shattering it's top arm, before erupting in a savage sphere of flame. It managed to launch a shuttle, but straight into another leech, and it didn't stand a chance. There was no SOS call, no screams for help and no survivors.

The bridge crew froze for a moment, then carried on with their tasks, but the Battlecruiser kept on drifting forward. A few splashes on the shields were followed by an explosion and a weak tremor was felt through the ship.

"Shield Integrity breach. Hull Integrity Breach. Damage."

"Hull is Damaged. Shuttle Launch Bay is damaged."

Down on the Sub Deck, Matti watched down the corridor as his reinforcements arrived by turboshaft, and a couple of the Sla'ti marines had managed to dive to the floor behind their fallen comrades' bodies and set up sniping positions of their own. Just as they stated to get a few shots off, a deckplate below them was blown up off the floor, throwing the ones standing in the doorway back into the shuttle launch bay, and opening a large section of the floor to empty space. The corpses in the corridor, together with the snipers were sucked into the void before the Guadran field restabilised. Even 300 metres down the corridor, Matti heard the faint rush of air. 'They won't thank their friends for that one, ' he thought as his fellow marines took up their positions. 'We should be able to hold them for a while now.'

The Battlecruiser still wasn't changing course. Ben switched off TACOPS and looked at Karen. Tears were streaming down her face as she sat with her head bowed, sobbing quietly.

"Simon, take back flight control. Steve, go back to tactical. Take the PTA down to 10%, and try and discourage some of those fighters.

"Intruders on Deck 1!" Announced Chris, "aft corridor!"

"How many?"

"Seven."

"Where are the rest of them?"

"There are 14 in the Shuttle Launch Bay and that's it."

"Good. They obviously haven't figured out where Mr Ko-Kul is. Doug, did you get all that?"

"Yup, seven in the aft c--ridor of deck 1. I'm on it."

"How's auxiliary life support?"

"--most up to green condition."

"Right. Shut it off, and transfer those guys to the engine and cloaking device. We don't want to give those intruders any help, now do we? How's the reactor?"

"Up to 63 units, sir."

"Excellent! Keep it up!"

Kappa team's Henry and Jason Shaw were doing what they did best- sneaking around behind a group of five of the intruders on Deck 1. They had become known as the Silent Strike Twins, and they (or the rumours about them) would have you believe that they could sneak up on a Valkerie Assassin with hearing enhancements, but that was probably an exaggeration. They were very good, though, and also the two best shots on the ship. Their communicators were connected to their headsets, so that no-one else could hear them, they walked in soft shoes and body armour rather than a combat suit, which gave them no strength enhancement, didn't give them quite as much protection and slightly restricted their movement; but also didn't make any noise.

Henry signalled to Jason by holding up two fingers, then taking them behind his back, indicating that they would take out the two guys at the back, then he tapped the back of his neck twice, indicating they would fire two shots each at that part of their body. Jason acknowledged with a nod. Henry then held up three fingers with his left hand (they were both holding sidearms in their right hands), then two, then one, then a clenched fistand they silently looked round the corner, aimed, fired two shots and withdrew immediately. Two down. The attack was silent, deadly and fast. It was unsettling, confusing, and most importantly distracting.

Then it was Doug's turn, who wasn't really one for subtlety. At 6'10" and nearly 400 pounds of pure muscle, he was stronger than most people in a combat suit. He was also still surprisingly fast from his days as a second row for the 1st Orbitals rugby team. It had been said that Doug shouldn't wear a combat suit, because it would only slow him down, but that wasn't true. It made him a truly terrifying enemy. One thing he was not, however, was quiet.

Seizing his moment, he sprang out of operations, snapped the neck of the nearest marine with his left hand, shot the one next to him at point blank range in the face with the other, then batted the third into oblivion with his right hand still holding the sidearm. The blow just about took the intruder's head off, snapping his neck like a twig and throwing him a good 6 or seven metres down the corridor. Doug then shot him as well, just to make sure. Three more down.

"Commander, five do--, two got past us. Th-- -ust be going down th- -eft hand corridor."

"Good work, Doug, we should be able to handle them, but I'd prefer some better odds than that. Get some guys here as soon as you can, and deal with the others on the Sub-deck."

"Will do. Jon, you in position?"

"We've reached Engin---ing, sir, ready."

"Right. Matti, we need lots -- -oise outside the shuttle launch bay."

"Ok, sir, we'll have to ch--- the range. Jacob, Will and Dave: set your grenades to three second, four second and five second delay and fire them down the corridor. Mirek, tell us where they burst relative to the doorway."

The grenades were launched, and bounced down the corridor, detonating in turn.

"The first burst about 30 metres short of the doorway, the next about 20 metres past, and the last about 10 metres further."

"Okay, everybody, set your delay to 3 and a half seconds. Ready, sir."

"Start distracting! You're free to start as soo- -- the explosions start, Jon."

"Roger."

Interceptor 3 was struggling. It couldn't launch missiles, it's lasers were weakened and its shields were performing about half as well as they should.

"At least our engines still work great," offered Showcase.

"That's great, but I still can't shake this guy! Find me the nearest leech!" snarled Carrion.

"OK, I got one at 1 and a half clicks."

"Lovely! Let's hope he's watching us too carefully!"

Engaging the afterburners, Carrion rolled and dived the interceptor until he was flying directly at the leech. He weaved around a little to try and make it not too obvious what he was doing, then he flew straight for a second, feigned a dive and then climbed sharply. The Vandal was a little bit later on the turn, thrown ever so slightly by the dummy. This was enough to send him right into the proximity radius of the leech, and his end was spectacular, if brief.

"Yeah! give me another!" shouted Carrion.

Showcase selected the nearest target, an interdictor, just in time to see it being finished off by the Svoboda's IOD.

"Woohoo! things are starting to look up! Next!"

"Karen, it's OK, just face forward and lift your chair up high out of the way. Steve, Simon, stick to your posts and face forward, you'll be all right. Chris, we need a crossfire on the right hand door. I'll go high right, you go low left."

When the first intruder rushed into the bridge, he wasn't expecting any resistance, and he was stopped dead in his tracks by two shots to the chest and another to the side of his head. This made the second intruder think again and opt for cover. Ten seconds and four laser blasts later the Silent Strike Twins had struck again. Deck 1 was clear.

When he heard the explosions below him, Jon Tulloch, with Paul Rand's help, lifted up a section of deckplate on the floor of engineering and started to cut through the ceiling of the Shuttle Launch Bay directly above Shuttle 2. The cutting equipment was pretty quiet, but it was best to not take any risks. When the small circular hole had been removed, Jon, Steve Trulby, Michael Sedgley and Jaromír Hašek all pointed their rifles down through the gap, roughly at right angles to each other. They each fired three grenades in quick succession, moving round slightly with each launch, so as to spread them round evenly. They then immediately dived away from the hole and flattened themselves to the floor, covering their ears.

The intruders who realised what was happening ran out the door but were either blown apart by the grenades bursting in the corridor or were cut down my Stuart and Mirek. When they came seconds later, the explosions were very loud and shook the ship. A column of flame shot up through the hole in the ceiling and scorched the roof of Engineering. Several alarms were set off throughout the ship.

"Hull integrity breach. Damage."

"Oh dear. That didn't look too good," mused Smiler as he flashed by, "We'd better give them a hand, eh, Poltergeist?"

Another burst of fire pummelled into their target and another S-fighter contributed to the debris field.

"We've got a matter splatter! Where now?"

"Shuttle 2 has been destroyed. ATV's 1-4 are damaged. Mining Drones 3 & 4 have been destroyed. Mining Dones 1 & 2 are damaged. Shuttle Launch Bay is damaged. Engineering is damaged. Hull is damaged."

"Well, at least th--- are no m--- intruders!" chirped Doug.

"Some of the fighters have returned to Stormcarrier 1, which is leaving the system."

"That's excellent news! How many fighters are still around?"

"Six, no five now, wait- looks like they're getting out too!"

There were cheers which gradually came from all sections of the ship as the news spread.

"OK, switch Auxiliary Life Support back on, and let's get repairing! How are we for spare parts?"

"Well, w- --st half the stuff in ---go bay 1, but we should be able to get everything important up and running."

"Excellent. Can we recall the shuttles?"

"Well, from w--- I can see, we should be able to --- both shuttles in after we've shifted s--- of this debris."

"OK, every non-medic with an LF more than 80 and an FF less than 20 is assisting the repairs apart from 10 marines on patrol duty, Steve and Simon who stay where they are, and Karen and Chris. Karen, it's OK, you can come down now, it's over." He gave her a big hug and told her, "it's alright, you did well." He then looked up at Chris and said, "go back to the officer's quarters with her and give her a big mug of hot chocolate. I think she needs to talk some things through." Chris put her arm round Karen and led her away, still extremely upset. As he left the bridge, Ben turned Back to Steve and Simon; "If anything happens, you know how to reach me. I'll see what I can do on Deck 3."

The repairs progressed, the support ships returned. Those who needed help or rest got it, those who didn't got on with what they could. When the cloaking system and engine were repaired, the mines blocking their exits had long-since self destructed and they carried on to Eridani without further incident. The fact that the Sla'ti had tried so hard to prevent Mr Ko-Kul from making the meeting really helped to forge a trust between the two parties, but as to whether any meaningful agreement was reached, only history would tell. Ben had a lot to think about as he sat in his quarters. He had failed to protect his crew. How would he tell someone that their son had betrayed and murdered so many of his colleagues? How could he have been such a bad judge of character for so long? He delayed making his report until Linda had done a full autopsy of his body, hoping to find some cause that might explain why Gavin suddenly seemed to have gone mad.

"Anything?"

"No trace of drugs, no implants, no visible brain damage or unusual injuries of any kind, but it's hard to say that for certain because of the laser blasts he took. Nothing I could present before an inquiry. But something didn't seem right, and I realised why when I checked his medical records."

"What did you find?"

"When Gavin was a child, he broke his leg quite badly, and since there weren't any advanced technology hospitals in his area back then, it wasn't treated perfectly and didn't heal perfectly. As a result, his right humerus had a very slight kink in it. Nothing was done about it later, because it didn't affect his mobility in any noticeable way."

"I remember now. He tried to use it as an excuse to get out of extra drills. What about it?"

"It's not there."

"You mean he made it all up?"

"No, it was there when Gavin had his bimonthly check-up three weeks ago."

"So how could that happen?"

"It can't. That wasn't Gavin Hawkes. It was a clone."

"Whoa. Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. The mark where he was cut by a mugger on Gazer1 wasn't there either. Even though we repaired the wound, it should have still been discoloured for a couple of days, but it wasn't. This means-"

"That he must have been replaced on Centris itself," interrupted Ben. He thought to himself for a second, then thought aloud "How can we protect ourselves from this happening again?"

"I've had the same thoughts myself. We could put an extra identity implant directly into a minor bone, say in the little finger, and scan that every time someone returns to the ship."

"Sound's good. I'll get Briggs to make some that are difficult to copy or tamper with. Work with him."

"Will do."

"Oh, and you have my permission to slap me if I ever complain about having a check-up, or it taking too long."

"Could you make that an official notice? And extend it to all my staff?"

"OK, but only you can slap me. We have to keep some sense of order round here, you know."

She smiled that broad smile that had overwhelmed him all those years ago. He smiled back, and without realising it, let out a small sigh.

"Well, I've still got lots to do, so see you later; good work today."

"Thanks. Bye, Ben."

His thoughts returned to his dead crewmembers, then Mary's departing words rang in his ears again. He had done his best, and he was going to make sure that it wouldn't happen again, as far as he could. He was determined to fight feling sorry for himself. It never did him any good. Later that evening, there was a knock on the door of Ben's quarters. It was Chris.

"I just thought you'd like to know, both Karen's brothers were killed by raiders on a tourist ship in Nevuela. What happened today brought back a lot of painful memories for her that she hadn't properly dealt with."

"I thought it had to be something like that. Well, we've got a reasonably long rest now- there are still lots of repairs to be done, and this is a good opportunity to get the Velvet Strike projects finished. If she needs more time, she can take as long as she likes to get back into things; we can cover for her. You're a really good friend to her, you know."

"She's a really good friend to me."

After that, Ben called up Doug;

"That was a good job today, Doug."

"Thanks. We really showed them intruders, didn't we?"

"Yeah, we did. I heard some pretty scary things about you from Henry and Jason. I don't want to think about how scary you must have been on the rugby field."

Doug smiled. "Everyone on the other side kept trying to avoid me. Odd that. I liked that virus."

"So did I, but Steve tells me once word gets out about it, which it will now, we won't be able to use it again."

"Shame."

"Yeah, so I'm going to send Steve back to his old friends for a while to train up on what's new in the hacker business."

"I'll miss him, he's a nice bloke, but it'll be worth it, I suppose."

"It will. Well done Doug. Good night."

"Night, Ben."[/rp]

Well, that's it for this story. I've got a few little surprises ready in case certain situations arise in future stories that involve me, which I hope I'll be able to use sometime, but maybe I won't. I hope people have enjoyed it, if there's anything you think I missed out, or should have put in, or any way I you feel I could have done things better, please let me know. Like I said, I'm pretty new to all this, and I'd like to learn. If people want to find out more about the Svoboda, you can visit it's website at

http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda

. It's not complete yet, but it should give you some background and stuff.

Anyway, I'm going away again for 2 weeks tomorrow, so I won't be able to respond to any of your comments until after then. Thanks for reading it, it's been a lot of fun.

Bye,

------------------

Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 08-15-99).]

[Guest Sebastian Vauban]

Good story Commander. I enjoy reading your work almost as much as I enjoy writing my own.

It's good to have authors like yourself in this galaxy.

------------------

Commander Sebastian Le Prestre Vauban

GCV Stabat Mater, Orion Fleet

GALCOM SpecOps Division

"Let your plans be dark and

impenetrable as night, and when

you move, fall like a

thunderbolt."

Sun Tzu, The Art of War 6:19

[Ben Zwycky]

Hi everybody, I'm back!

Cheers Sebastian. That means a lot coming from you. I've edited part seven, because I'd forgotten about a plot point I'd meant to put in. It's probably a bit long now. Anyway, I'll try to keep it up, but maybe I've set myself a pretty high standard to live up to now. I especially doubt that I'll be able to live up to my character in genuine multiplayer.

So, what have I missed? Some of those screenshots look mighty fine . I'd love to take part in a multiple author story, and it looks like I might be just in time.

See you out there,

------------------

Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)