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Chapter 20: Finding the holes
As it turned out, Steuben had some truly evil ways to not only get rid of the capital ships, but to assist in getting rid of the army of drones that usually persisted afterward. As they planned for the next attack over the next few days, Shannon started to worry a bit. Hicks had not taken her practical joke very well, and she suspected that he was planning some way of getting even. Robert began to worry as well, if only because he was uncertain what was going to happen.
They didn t have to wait very long. The Hillary had docked at the Space Station Punctual to take on additional supplies and some additional recruits and fighters, and almost everyone was on shore leave for the duration. Robert and Shannon stayed on board to continue trainging and developing new techniques for fighting the drones. They were both in one of the drydock bays with one of the dozens of captures drones that were going to be scraped. They were trying to figure out how it communicated with the droneships, as they never detected any transmissions from them. This drone they had in a number of pieces on the floor. Shannon was poking at one of the modules they had separated out. "Robert, come over here." He looked up from examining the micro fusion plant that powered the drone, and looked at Shannon. "What did you find?" Shannon looked triumphant. "This is a hyperwave transceiver. It receives transmissions. That must be why we can't detect their Command and Control transmissions. Very slick. You find anything of use?" Robert nodded. "Yep. These beasties are using a micro fusion plant and the drive looks like some form of inertia-less thing that the Alliance experimented on a few years ago. They appear to have come up with a workable design." They had left the door open, and didn't hear Hicks enter the room. Shannon did hear him as he hit Robert on the head with a short length of conduit, knocking him out. She didn't have time to weave a shield as he hit her next, knocking her out cold.
Robert awoke in a darkened room with a massive headache. He discovered that he had shifted to bear form at some point, and that his paws were all tied to the deck. Shit, not again, he thought. He twisted around a bit, and saw Shannon in a similar condition. Her clothes had been mostly stripped off, which made him angry and concerned. He concentrated for a bit, but heard nothing else in the room. Testing his bonds, he found that they were just ordinary rope. He shifted down to human and freed himself, as his bonds were sized for his larger bear paws. He shifted back into bear and used his claws to free Shannon, and then woke her up. They looked at the clock and found that it had not been too long, only half an hour. They tried the door and found it locked from the outside. Shannon tried to concentrate to try and unlock the door, but her headache prevented it. "Robert, I can't open the door. I've got no energy to use. Can you do anything with it?" Robert nodded, and shifted to Dire Bear. He was already angry at being attacked, even more angry that they were imprisoned. As he nodded, he caught something off of Shannon. Putting his nose on her belly he sniffed again. In a way Hicks was going to be a very lucky man for merely assaulting her instead of raping her. That would have gotten him killed regardless of any regulations. Still, the mere thought sent Robert into a rage, and he directed it on the door, which creaked, groaned, and then then gave way from Robert slamming against it.
They came out into the dry dock, where hicks was doing something to the drone. Robert mentally felt for, and tapped the Aux plant he had been given access to, and started feeding that energy to Shannon. She used this energy to clear her mind. Robert used the energy as well, using it to feed his rage. Hick had heard the door being battered, but he was in no way prepared for the site of a giant bear bursting from the room, eyes glowing an angry red and with various runes glowing. Hicks had been bashing the electronics of the drone with the pipe, but he took one look at the giant bear and the even more pissed off naked mage behind the bear, whose rune was glowing a deep, bright blue, and he did what almost everyone else in that situation would do: he pissed his pants. Within a few seconds, Hicks was being held down with one massive paw, while Shannon was weaving some illusionary clothing around her, All this while Hicks as screaming profanities. Finally, Shannon walked up to him. "Shut up, or Robert shows you just how pissed off he is." This shut him up instantly. Unfortunately, the screaming had gotten someone's attention, and Colonel Steuben ran in with a stunner in one hand, and a portable comm set in the other. "What the FUCK is going on here!?!" He screamed.
It took a few minutes, but Shannon got him calmed down enough so that he would not zap the lot of them. Ted came in a minute later, and they spent the next 40 minutes getting it all hashed out. At the end, Ted had the MPs show Hicks to the brig, and Shannon and Robert were left to clean up the remains of the drone. "Great, not only did he assault both of us, but he trashed out work too." Shannon said sadly. "He shattered all the circuit boards, and he pretty much bashed whatever else he could." Robert had been rummaging through the debris and found the micro fusion plant. "At least this thing appears to have been built to take a beating. I hate to think what would have happened if he had breached the containment on it." Shannon started at him. "You mean that thing is still active?!?!" Robert nodded. "Yep. I was able to jump start it just as he hit me. Fortunately, there was nothing connected to it, so it's just been sitting idle. He really is lucky. If he blew this thing, he would have vaporized the dry dock and vented a good chunk of the deck to open space." They attached the power input leads of one of the testers to the plant, and found that it was capable of supplying about thirty percent of a fighter's power requirements. "It could act as an APU, or as a backup plant for the computer and life support" Shannon noted. "Indeed." Stromson's tired voice echoed into the dry dock. "We've got two more drones cycling up for you to mess with when you get a moment. However, that's not the reason why I came down here to talk to you two."
Stromson pulled up a chair and sat down. "I've already read over the incident report, and Hicks will be on a shuttle off the Hillary in a day or two at the latest. Even if he didn't know that he was tampering with an alien artifact that had the potential for destroying this ship, he's out based on the repeated attacks on the two of you. He was still jealous of your promotion, and what he thought was 'special treatment' of the two of you. As you two know, we don't have special treatment here, but the Force does feel the need to utilize it's assets as best as possible. This 'treatment' has yielded in no less then a savings of effort, fighters, and lives to the Alliance, and the elimination of the Shivan front in this sector of space. This is why the Council finally agreed to allow magi to assist in the war effort. This is why the Queen Mother II and the Ty'Ntth have fighters that are carrying two people in a training pod in addition to us. They are one two other fronts, and they are having a similar effect as you. Yes, they have wellsprings, and they are finding the same issues with power generation. Normally the Flagship, the Pacifica would be in the rear overseeing operations, but they are in fact heading this way and collecting the fleets from the other two fronts. We are going to meet the Shivans on their turf, and we are going to pound the crap out of their main fleet before they make it to out space. This is also why we are playing with these captured drones. Although there is research going on with the command protocols used on their transceivers, We have been given permission to dissect several of them to determine if there is a weakness in the,. and if so how best to exploit it. While I know that there are probably better people then you two to determine this, Steuben asked the two of you to see if there was a way to do it magically." Shannon nodded, and Stromson continued. "The rationale behind this is that if we can figure out how to either jam them, or render them useless to the enemy, We won't have to dedicate so much time and resources to attempt to defeat several million drones." He sighed. "Shit, I'm too tired for this crap. Keep it up, and let the Colonel know what you've found as soon as you can. I'm going back to bed." Robert saluted. "Good night sir. Sleep well." Stromson returned the salute half-heartedly, and left the dry dock. As he left the door, he turned around. "Oh, and Shannon? You might want to find a jumper. Most therianthropes can see right through illusions." He closed the door to dry dock even as Shannon turned bright red from embarrassment.
About half an hour later, Robert and Shannon had cleaned up the mess from the drone they had dissected, and were enjoying a non-too-nutrious meal of rations when the door opened to admit a couple tech with two more drones. There was a third with them, Alex. Togather, they worked until late that night finding a weakness in the drones. It was difficult work. the Hyperwave set was damn near impossible to detect, let alone jam without jamming their own systems. The on-board systems were just smart enough to take orders from the hyperwave channel and execute them. Since Stromson already told them that there were people figuring out how to decode the command channels, they ignored this part. This left the weapons subsystem and the gravitic drive that the drones used. The weapons were bulletproof along with the rest of the systems, but they found a small, but exploitable weakness with the drive. Upon this discovery, they agreed to sleep on it, and continue in the morning.
As it turned out, Steuben had some truly evil ways to not only get rid of the capital ships, but to assist in getting rid of the army of drones that usually persisted afterward. As they planned for the next attack over the next few days, Shannon started to worry a bit. Hicks had not taken her practical joke very well, and she suspected that he was planning some way of getting even. Robert began to worry as well, if only because he was uncertain what was going to happen.
They didn t have to wait very long. The Hillary had docked at the Space Station Punctual to take on additional supplies and some additional recruits and fighters, and almost everyone was on shore leave for the duration. Robert and Shannon stayed on board to continue trainging and developing new techniques for fighting the drones. They were both in one of the drydock bays with one of the dozens of captures drones that were going to be scraped. They were trying to figure out how it communicated with the droneships, as they never detected any transmissions from them. This drone they had in a number of pieces on the floor. Shannon was poking at one of the modules they had separated out. "Robert, come over here." He looked up from examining the micro fusion plant that powered the drone, and looked at Shannon. "What did you find?" Shannon looked triumphant. "This is a hyperwave transceiver. It receives transmissions. That must be why we can't detect their Command and Control transmissions. Very slick. You find anything of use?" Robert nodded. "Yep. These beasties are using a micro fusion plant and the drive looks like some form of inertia-less thing that the Alliance experimented on a few years ago. They appear to have come up with a workable design." They had left the door open, and didn't hear Hicks enter the room. Shannon did hear him as he hit Robert on the head with a short length of conduit, knocking him out. She didn't have time to weave a shield as he hit her next, knocking her out cold.
Robert awoke in a darkened room with a massive headache. He discovered that he had shifted to bear form at some point, and that his paws were all tied to the deck. Shit, not again, he thought. He twisted around a bit, and saw Shannon in a similar condition. Her clothes had been mostly stripped off, which made him angry and concerned. He concentrated for a bit, but heard nothing else in the room. Testing his bonds, he found that they were just ordinary rope. He shifted down to human and freed himself, as his bonds were sized for his larger bear paws. He shifted back into bear and used his claws to free Shannon, and then woke her up. They looked at the clock and found that it had not been too long, only half an hour. They tried the door and found it locked from the outside. Shannon tried to concentrate to try and unlock the door, but her headache prevented it. "Robert, I can't open the door. I've got no energy to use. Can you do anything with it?" Robert nodded, and shifted to Dire Bear. He was already angry at being attacked, even more angry that they were imprisoned. As he nodded, he caught something off of Shannon. Putting his nose on her belly he sniffed again. In a way Hicks was going to be a very lucky man for merely assaulting her instead of raping her. That would have gotten him killed regardless of any regulations. Still, the mere thought sent Robert into a rage, and he directed it on the door, which creaked, groaned, and then then gave way from Robert slamming against it.
They came out into the dry dock, where hicks was doing something to the drone. Robert mentally felt for, and tapped the Aux plant he had been given access to, and started feeding that energy to Shannon. She used this energy to clear her mind. Robert used the energy as well, using it to feed his rage. Hick had heard the door being battered, but he was in no way prepared for the site of a giant bear bursting from the room, eyes glowing an angry red and with various runes glowing. Hicks had been bashing the electronics of the drone with the pipe, but he took one look at the giant bear and the even more pissed off naked mage behind the bear, whose rune was glowing a deep, bright blue, and he did what almost everyone else in that situation would do: he pissed his pants. Within a few seconds, Hicks was being held down with one massive paw, while Shannon was weaving some illusionary clothing around her, All this while Hicks as screaming profanities. Finally, Shannon walked up to him. "Shut up, or Robert shows you just how pissed off he is." This shut him up instantly. Unfortunately, the screaming had gotten someone's attention, and Colonel Steuben ran in with a stunner in one hand, and a portable comm set in the other. "What the FUCK is going on here!?!" He screamed.
It took a few minutes, but Shannon got him calmed down enough so that he would not zap the lot of them. Ted came in a minute later, and they spent the next 40 minutes getting it all hashed out. At the end, Ted had the MPs show Hicks to the brig, and Shannon and Robert were left to clean up the remains of the drone. "Great, not only did he assault both of us, but he trashed out work too." Shannon said sadly. "He shattered all the circuit boards, and he pretty much bashed whatever else he could." Robert had been rummaging through the debris and found the micro fusion plant. "At least this thing appears to have been built to take a beating. I hate to think what would have happened if he had breached the containment on it." Shannon started at him. "You mean that thing is still active?!?!" Robert nodded. "Yep. I was able to jump start it just as he hit me. Fortunately, there was nothing connected to it, so it's just been sitting idle. He really is lucky. If he blew this thing, he would have vaporized the dry dock and vented a good chunk of the deck to open space." They attached the power input leads of one of the testers to the plant, and found that it was capable of supplying about thirty percent of a fighter's power requirements. "It could act as an APU, or as a backup plant for the computer and life support" Shannon noted. "Indeed." Stromson's tired voice echoed into the dry dock. "We've got two more drones cycling up for you to mess with when you get a moment. However, that's not the reason why I came down here to talk to you two."
Stromson pulled up a chair and sat down. "I've already read over the incident report, and Hicks will be on a shuttle off the Hillary in a day or two at the latest. Even if he didn't know that he was tampering with an alien artifact that had the potential for destroying this ship, he's out based on the repeated attacks on the two of you. He was still jealous of your promotion, and what he thought was 'special treatment' of the two of you. As you two know, we don't have special treatment here, but the Force does feel the need to utilize it's assets as best as possible. This 'treatment' has yielded in no less then a savings of effort, fighters, and lives to the Alliance, and the elimination of the Shivan front in this sector of space. This is why the Council finally agreed to allow magi to assist in the war effort. This is why the Queen Mother II and the Ty'Ntth have fighters that are carrying two people in a training pod in addition to us. They are one two other fronts, and they are having a similar effect as you. Yes, they have wellsprings, and they are finding the same issues with power generation. Normally the Flagship, the Pacifica would be in the rear overseeing operations, but they are in fact heading this way and collecting the fleets from the other two fronts. We are going to meet the Shivans on their turf, and we are going to pound the crap out of their main fleet before they make it to out space. This is also why we are playing with these captured drones. Although there is research going on with the command protocols used on their transceivers, We have been given permission to dissect several of them to determine if there is a weakness in the,. and if so how best to exploit it. While I know that there are probably better people then you two to determine this, Steuben asked the two of you to see if there was a way to do it magically." Shannon nodded, and Stromson continued. "The rationale behind this is that if we can figure out how to either jam them, or render them useless to the enemy, We won't have to dedicate so much time and resources to attempt to defeat several million drones." He sighed. "Shit, I'm too tired for this crap. Keep it up, and let the Colonel know what you've found as soon as you can. I'm going back to bed." Robert saluted. "Good night sir. Sleep well." Stromson returned the salute half-heartedly, and left the dry dock. As he left the door, he turned around. "Oh, and Shannon? You might want to find a jumper. Most therianthropes can see right through illusions." He closed the door to dry dock even as Shannon turned bright red from embarrassment.
About half an hour later, Robert and Shannon had cleaned up the mess from the drone they had dissected, and were enjoying a non-too-nutrious meal of rations when the door opened to admit a couple tech with two more drones. There was a third with them, Alex. Togather, they worked until late that night finding a weakness in the drones. It was difficult work. the Hyperwave set was damn near impossible to detect, let alone jam without jamming their own systems. The on-board systems were just smart enough to take orders from the hyperwave channel and execute them. Since Stromson already told them that there were people figuring out how to decode the command channels, they ignored this part. This left the weapons subsystem and the gravitic drive that the drones used. The weapons were bulletproof along with the rest of the systems, but they found a small, but exploitable weakness with the drive. Upon this discovery, they agreed to sleep on it, and continue in the morning.