The Exiles:A New Power

Disruptive Activities

Day 05

The Sekhmet exited Slipspace in order to recharge her coils and vent any excess heat just within the confines of a 'No Man's Land' system. A system between UNSC Space and the Veil that was unoccupied, even by mining ships, as per the expansion probes sent out a few months ago. It was a system that was supposed to be distant from even the 'Batarian Hegemony', a faction the Quarians had heavily hinted they'd like to avoid if possible. Slavers, the captain thought, no-good animals who'd steal anyone they wanted to use them in their mines, or sell them off for god-knew-what. Made his blood boil just thinking about'em, but he was an ONI Captain. He had to keep that under wraps aboard his Prowler.

As the Captain stood up in order to walk out and look through the window, he noted the gas giant that the scientists back on Ingalls had called Hegemon-III. Indeed, the third planet from the sun of the system was a gas giant rich in hydrogen. It was another possible target for UNSC expansion into the area, provided they got the Quarians and Geth to agree on things and finally shake hands.

The gas giant itself was a golden hue, probably from some other minor elements spread around within it. It was also hotter than normal, perfectly masking the ship's own heat signature while it cooled its heat sinks. A slight disadvantage was the magnetic field slightly messing with the instruments, meaning that their sensors might show a slight error or two every once in a while.

Which was what the crew was waiting for behind it. In order to recharge their plasma coils for the next jump, to vent heat from the sinks and to gather some extra fuel for their reactor, they had had to exit Slipspace right next to the planet. While all three tasks were proceeding accordingly, the crew was still tense. A sensor 'ghost' of a sort had appeared on the shipboard radar just after they'd settled into orbit.

The Captain could see a faint dot, silhouetting against the system's sun. Hegemon's sun was deep blue supergiant, one terrifyingly bright and big enough for the man to be able to see the black speck. He was about to ask for something until Representative Kal walked onto the bridge. The Captain turned to the man, gave a greeting nod and said, "Representative Zoris. I hope the Dextro breakfast we got you was good. Staff made sure we had the proper food as per indications from Quarian medical staff."

"Wonderful, in fact," Kal nodded, smiling, then paused as he saw the grim look on the faces of various crew. He asked, "Something the matter?" before the ONI captain beckoned him forward. Kal walked in a bound to the window and peered through it, exactly where the man's index pointed out the silhouette. He furrowed his brows, then breathed, the distortion audible through his Suit's rebreather speakers.

He spoke, "Do we have a specific sensor suite, or some cameras we can use to zoom in on it?"

"We have the probes nearby, sir," The sensor console officer reported before the captain could answer. He told the man, "They're masked by the sun itself, and they have high-fidelity cameras with high zoom. If the enemy hasn't spotted them, it means something's masking them, or they're small enough that their sensors aren't detecting them. EM scans from the ship reveal it's in a waiting pattern."

"Get me a view on it, front screen," The man ordered. The Quarian and Human then stepped back and looked up, gazing upon the images as per the probes' own encrypted signals. The selected probe was closest to the sun, showing slight heat warnings, but it had the zoom to see the target's lit side. It had the best view of it. The Captain ordered, "Zoom..." before watching the image resolve.

At first, it was blurry. Then, it slowly began to resolve and, with that, Kal seemed to freeze. Three prongs, a hull as black as night and visible guns and engine nacelles. The ship's engine exhaust glowed azure as it floated there, transmissions apparently still being picked up by the EWAR suite of the UNSC's specialist scout and electronic warfare and counter measures ship.