Solarian Down

On the ride home, “What do we have on these raiders?” She asked Maviel.

Maviel pulled up her screen and sent Lenaga the files as she looked through them. “The former Mid Warden has a twelve man force tasked with locating them but so far it is not looking good. They did find evidence of them having used an old factory. But they estimate the suspects had not used it in days by the time we got there.”

“Which factory?” Daroon asked.

“Jin and Firn communications.”

Daroon looked at Lenaga nodding. “That was one of the four we found.” He turned back to Maviel. “Did they check the other three we suggested?”

She scrolled through the files. “I am not sure if they are the ones you suggested but it does show they did a sweep one day of four different locations.” She showed him the list and he nodded. “Jin and Firn appears to be the only one that had anything of interest.”

“What was it they found, specifically?” Lenaga asked.

“Several oil stains on the foundation of the building turned out to be military issued gun oil. Judging from the volume of oil. They estimate around thirteen weapons were being cleaned.”

Lenaga nodded in response. “Any updates from those Wardens he assigned?”

“Updates? Yes.” Maviel nodded. “New information? No.” She gave a shake of her head.

“What is next?” Cailhem asked.

“...Let us go to this “Jin and Firn” to see if we can see something they did not.” Lenaga stated.

They stopped at the office. As strongly as she felt about this case she did have another 66,000 Wardens working for her. Melloreth was a very big city. She and her team checked in to see if any other cases or issues were pressing. When they found all was fine, they boarded a Warden’s transport and went to the old factory.

Once they landed Lenaga motioned for Maviel to stay in the vehicle. “I am not sure how dangerous this may be but there is no reason for you to go with us. Stay in the vehicle with the pilot.” Maviel nodded and reconnected her safety straps. “Pilot?” When the Warden looked at her she commanded. “Button up. Take her up. And keep doing loops of the property until we call. Tell me if anyone is approaching. I do not want to be surprised.”

“Understood, Mid Warden.” He said before shutting his hatch and lifting off.

The three Wardens put on their helmets and spread out. They had made sure to approach the building from a corner to limit their visibility to anyone who may be inside. They pulled their pistols as they entered the dank old structure.

“What -are- we looking for?” Daroon asked.

“Not sure.” Lenaga answered as they slowly walked the first floor.

The first floor of the building had been the home to vary large manufacturing equipment. All of it was rusted and corroded now. The windows of the structure had long been stolen or broken. So there was plenty of light in the open space of this floor.

Cailhem commented. “You are fifteen very angry young men who killed four servicemen in order to steal supplies. What is your next move?”

“...Maviel? What was actually stolen in that raid?” Lenaga asked.

“Uhhh, fifteen suits of infantry armor. Fifteen hard-light repeaters. 100 tubes of moldable explosive with detonators and a crate of anti-gravity plates.”

“The pads to help carry the stuff, you think?” Lenaga asked her team.

“If it was then it was excessive.” Maviel commented. “One pad can lift from one pound to 1000. A crate contains fifty pads.”

“So, what are they moving?” Daroon asked.

Lenaga shrugged as she got them moving again. When they were almost halfway across the building Daroon brought them to a stop.

“What do you see?” Lenaga asked.

“Something odd.” He said as he started moving to a room on the right.

They hadn’t noticed it at first but this room was clean. And the machine inside, while not new looking, was serviceable. They cleared the room before Daroon took a closer look at the machine.

“It manufactures things from ceramic resin.”

“How can you be sure?” Lenaga asked.

He pointed at the machine. “It says so right here on the instruction label.”

“Any idea what they made?” She asked snarkily.

“Maybe. If we get power to it then we might see what it was working on last.”

“Pilot?”

Once they had run a power cable from the vehicle to the machine they found the memory had been wiped. The autolist of preferred jobs, however, did show its last creation was a… rocket?

“I can see what they need three of those anti-gravity plates for.” Cailhem commented. When the others looked at him, “Those three fins at its base are the perfect size for one of them each. That will provide the thrust.”

Daroon made a copy of the plans before they went to search the rest of the building. There was a basement and a second floor as well as the roof and the grounds. It was long, tedious and, ultimately, fruitless.

“Why a rocket?” Maviel asked on the way back to the office.

They were all staring at the plans in the hope that it might reveal what these raiders were up to.

“I do not know.” Lenaga shook her head.

“Perhaps John might know?” Daroon asked.

She looked at him in exasperation. “And do you have any way to contact him?”

He shrugged. “He is supposed to be working with the Morindi. We may have some people in common. I was thinking I could pass these plans to a few of them and see what it turns up?”

“Do it.” She nodded. “I do not like how this feels.” Her team looked at her. “With these Raiders, I mean.”

Daroon reported back that he had distributed the plans. Some of the responses were promising. But a few days later with no answer and Lenaga was beginning to think it wouldn’t get them anything.

“Where are we?” She asked.

“Same place as always, Mid Warden.” Maviel replied. “15 boys with armor, weapons and explosives and an anti-gravity rocket.”

“And we have no idea what they plan to do.” Cailhem stated.

Lenaga sighed and rubbed her face. “...I have to pee.”

She trudged out of the office, down the hall and into the bathroom. She used the facilities and washed her hands. When she turned around she almost yelled as her body jerked instinctively. There was a male Warden standing a few feet from her. Except his hair was wrong. It was almost shaved on the sides but very short on the top. And his ears were wrong. She slowly slid her hand to her gun. She watched as an equally slow smile grew on his face.

“John!?”

“No kiss, Lenny?”

She shoved him.

“Ow.” He laughed and pulled her to him.

She gave a pitiful resistance before he kissed her. Soon she was the one pulling him tighter to her. She knew she should end the kiss but everytime it felt like they were about to, she pulled him tighter. They ended up with their foreheads together staring at each other for a few minutes.

She suddenly shoved him away. “Are you crazy!?” She whispered. “They are watching me!”

“Not in the High Warden’s Tower!” He whispered back. “Cause, what kinda idiot would I be to approach you here!?” He smiled.

She looked like she wanted to strangle him, “You are psychotic!”

He nodded. “First rule of paratroopers, Lenny. Never do what the enemy expects.”

She wanted to hit him but she caught herself. “You know something about that rocket. Do you not?”

“Yeah. One of my guys thinks he shared a war story from the Martian revolt when all the comm’s went down across the planet. He jimmy’ed together a gravpad with a comm’s package. Set the package to “relay.” Slapped it all into a ceramic container. And suddenly his guys could communicate with the Navy.”

“OK, but our comm’s is not…”

He smiled and leaned in before kissing her again. “Get going. Your people are gonna miss you soon and you have work to do.” He said before he put on the Luthiel Wardon’s helmet.

She shook her head at him before she turned to leave the restroom. She looked over her shoulder in time to see him dart into the starwell, Lenaga headed back into her office.

“Maviel, get me everything you can about Luthiel planetary emergency communications plans.”