Author: Gerakken
Commentary: This story has been hidden in the thread Come sail the sea of stars with G.R.O.S.S., but has really been some of the best story telling I've read. A good read for anyone who enjoys a little espionage. I'm posting this even though it's not completed...I don't know if it'll be done before the deadline. Also, there's no title, so I'll just call it Fellowship Infiltration.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
GROSS did drive off the MWC fleet, but the Fellowship owners of the sector were not pleased with the disturbance. The great space battle between GROSS and the MWC was not without losses on both sides. Not all the pilots made it home. Fellowship agents were busily gathering intelligence and rescuing the lost pilots, some of whom would choose to stay with their new hosts.
The Doom and the raider fleet of the new South Seas franchise shared the plunder of the raided MWS Milwaukee. Such a slow supply ship was of no use to the fast-moving GROSS combined fleet, so the ship and the survivors were disarmed and set adrift. Maybe they would find their way back to the MWC Fleet, maybe they would be overtaken by the Fellowship. Either way, it was time to leave, so GROSS was on the move again, trying to get out of Fellowship space before more fighting erupted.
Gerakken suited up for repair work. A big hole on H Deck needed to be sealed. No one had been inside the damaged hold since the breach, so the first order of business was to inspect the cavernous storage rooms to see if any inner bulkheads needed to be mended as well. Then the repair droids would know what needed to be done and called in.
Passing through the airlock into the sealed section, Gerakken could see the stars through the hull on the other side of the hold. A complete breach, at least 50 feet around. But he was expecting that. The Doom's enviromental and damage control systems had already noted that there was no power or sensors in the affected holds. Going toward a hatch to one of the adjacent holds, Gerakken quickly darted to the left of the hatch and turned off his suit lights on instinct.
The hatch slowly opened, and a light shone through. The Spymaster was worried. No one should be down here. A robed figure encased in some sort of blue force field carefully entered the main hold, a light globe held aloft in one of his hands. A Fellowship wizard! He must have teleported in here through the breach sometime during the battle. Gerakken used all of his stealth skill to slowly creep away from the hatch to the corner of the hold. The intruder had not spotted him, and Gerakken would like to keep it that way.
Two more globe-encased intruders slowly followed their robed leader into the hold. One had some kind of leather armor on while wearing an open faced helmet with a sword dimly glowing with a yellow light in hand and another sheathed sword on his belt. A bandolier of throwing knives was around his chest. This one must be the bodyguard for the detail, what old spacers called a red shirt. The other was a bald man who wore simple clothes and had no weapons at all. The bald one seemed to be holding a quill and a writing board, taking notes on parchment. Must be a Fellowship scholar or scientist of sorts.
Gerakken slowly fingered his comm controls, knowing that the spacesuit was almost soundproof, and whispered into his helmet microphone to the bridge: "Intruder alert, H Deck, starboard main hold. At least three boarders. Silent alarm only. Subjects are not currently hostile and are under observation. Post teams outside the hold and out of sight."
Were these explorers gathering information or saboteurs wishing to cause mayhem and further cripple the Doom?
--------------------------------------------
The Fellowship visitors slowly made their way to the main airlock out of the hold. They were gesturing at each other and to the panel on the wall. Gerakken knew enough about the Fellowship to know that most of them understood technological concepts, but were leary of trusting technology and had limited practical knowledge of its use. After a few brief seconds of the bald man trying to figure out the controls, the robed wizard waved his hand and the outer door opened. Gerakken was in a bind. Staying hidden and still in the quiet corner was one thing, but trying to sneak up on the group now while wearing a spacesuit when they entered a well-lit room would surely expose him. Against his normal policy of never letting observation targets out of sight, Gerakken stayed where he was and let the visitors enter the lock.
Over the comm channel, Gerakken could hear security monitoring the progress of the three:
"They are in the lock. The robed man is putting the light globe into his robe. It looks like they are discussing something... I can't make it out. Team 1, team 2, are you in position?"
"Roger, control. We are in position in side corridors off the main passageway."
"What is this? Team 1, team 2, the robed man is chanting something and gesturing. We lost visual of the target! The camera is working, but they are gone! No readings on infrared cameras, either! Wait, the inner door is opening. Nothing on cameras still. Teams, move in. Block the main passage now! The door is closing. We still have no visual on the target."
Gerakken made his way to the outer door. After it opened, he walked into the airlock and waved his outstretched arms widely in front of him, checking to see if the unseen ones had truly left the airlock. Nothing was felt, but it was a vain attempt in this big airlock with large doors designed to drive vehicles through. The Fellowship trio could very well be staying right out of reach while invisible. The fire alarm could be tripped, flooding the airlock with a special gas, but the infiltrators obviously had some sort of respiration assistance if they could walk out in the breached hold exposed to the void of space. The gas might also outline the targets as it poured in, but visibility in the thick gas was very limited. Unless the unseen ones were within a few feet, they would still be invisible. And then the gas would have to be pumped out. So a fire drill was not a good idea.
It was time to take off the spacesuit. Trying to stalk people in a space suit in a dark, vacuum filled hold is one thing, but the suit was noisy and bulky under normal conditions. It was better resume the hunt for the mystery guests after taking off the suit. Security could be heard on Gerakken's earpiece still:
"Team 1, team 2, be advised Gerakken is in the airlock."
"Control, roger that. We rushed the passage and are now on both sides of the inner airlock door. No way the intruders could have got past us!"
Meanwhile, the stealthy visitors were amazed at how well they could currently elude security. They had indeed left the airlock. Hearing the thundering rush of the security teams coming towards them from down side corridors on both sides of the main passage was discouraging, but a simple dimension door spell transported the three in an instant far down the passage. They smiled at each other from within their small invisibility globe as the charging guards rounded the corner far behind them and found only each other.
The Fellowship needed information. If the boarding party's luck held out, they may well reach their goal: the Doom's central computer bank. From there, the goal would be to try and access other GROSS terminals that would include information on ports of call in friendly star systems, lists of corporate holdings, both legitimate and criminal, personnel records, operational briefings, and even the ability to control the Doom itself if the situation required it and the team was compromised. Unfortunately for the infiltrators, their luck would soon sour.
-------------------------------------------
The brave band of invisible intruders were at a critical point in light of their tactical situation. Way behind them, but in clear sight, were two GROSS security details outside the airlock they dimension doored from. The only side passage in sight was back down the main passage, close to the airlock. Ahead of them was a closed door. Doubling back could be very advantageous, but if the teams started spreading out to do a radial search, the hidden party could well have security right on their heels. Opening the door ahead of them, though, might be spotted. It would be very suspicious if a door slid open and no one was seen using it.
While Naifir, the wizard and leader of the group took a moment to pondered his options, Nebel the bald scribe thought about how they got into this jam in the first place:
An elite Fellowship recon craft was surveying the last epic battle between GROSS, the MWC, and the Fellowship when their ship happened upon the large hole in the side of the Doom. The captain, hoping that his ship's chameleon cloak kept the craft hidden, swung back around and hovered for a few brief seconds at long range in front of the gap. The volunteers for the landing party assembled. These were some of the best covert agents the Fellowship possessed. These agents know the assignments they undertake can easily cost them their lives, but violence is not their preferred method. Investigate, evaluate, and evacuate is the usual drill. The Fellowship is no longer a sleepy, isolated civilization in the Tolkien star system. Their influence has grown greatly, and contact and potential conflict with other empires is now unavoidable. This makes intelligence gathering of primary importance. Most of the empires that could rival the Fellowship may be nearly clueless on the uses of magic, but they had an immense advantage in technology and experience in using it.
The pirates known as GROSS posed an extreme risk if total open warfare broke out. They had a reputation for being ruthless and efficient plunderers. This reputation, as well as the large size of the GROSS empire, made the Fellowship leaders nervous. Now there was an opportunity to infiltrate the mothership itself with a team of agents and see what made GROSS tick from the inside, if the team can infiltrate the ship and not be captured or killed in the process, that is. Inside that ship is a wealth of knowledge. Not in huge libraries of scrolls or magical oracles holding the wisdom of the ages, but in computers, a technology the Fellowship was uncomfortable with, but very useful for piloting a starship over vast distances or targeting these new-fangled beam weapons at long range.
The three volunteers, Naifur the wizard, Hulfar the blademaster, and Nebel the scribe, had assembled on the bridge. After casting a protection barrier on the members of the band so they could stand the rigors of space, Naifir, using some telescopic assistance via a large magical spyglass mounted on the bridge to better fix his target, teleported onto the deck inside the hole. From there, they had cautiously explored a couple of the side holds before Naifir used a knock spell to open the large door that led further into the ship. Then they entered this large hanger and quickly noticed the Doom's version of wizard eyes all over the place: cameras, as the other empires called them. Naifir protested about the amount of magical energy this journey was already costing him, but cast an invisibility globe on the group and knocked open the second door. It did not help matters when the group's presence was obviously detected and Naifir had to dimension door the party out of the way of the approaching guards. Now they were in a pickle, stuck between a door and doubling back into the guards. But they were inside the main part of the ship. That was a start.
Naifir continued to think about his options. Would a darkness spell over the whole area do? No. Casting a spell into a closed or inaccessable area requires some kind of beacon at the site to focus on or some sort of scrying magic to see the area from afar. The darkness could cover this side of the passage easily, but would not pass through the blocked door. The cameras on the other side would still see the door open and the guards down the passage would notice the dark area. Even if every guard on this ship were drunk (a common rumor in Fellowship circles about GROSS is that they are all drunkards), they would know where the intruders were for at least an instant. Enough time to get the searchers right on the party's heels or put more guards ahead of them. Could he teleport blindly to somewhere deeper in the ship? No again. Plenty of bulkheads in the way and no way to get a fix on the target area.
During these brief few seconds of contemplation and confusion, the boss, the dread pirate Pontius, was updated on the situation. "What are you lazy loonies doing?!", he shouted at the security chief on duty. "Seal every door in that section of the ship right now! Senior command passcodes only. There are four ways out of there. I want teams around all four doors out."
"Uh, sir," the security chief interrupted, "there are five ways out. They can theoretically go back out the way they came in if they can elude the two teams already there and Gerakken."
Stardock Forums
Hire some animal experts from Duracell to round them up and take them back. (-36 bc)
