Andromeda's Gates: The story of Yseult Brenneaux

Chapter 7: Jade Sun

Octan, Kawashita, MANTIS... In the year since they arrived in Andromeda, they'd swept across the Galaxy taking control of anything... everything, one way or another. They call themselves pioneers but to those that were already here, grafting the space-lanes, running the boxes, working the Galaxy, they're nothing but poachers, using their influence to buy what they cannot earn and steal what they cannot buy. Yseult had never run freight for one of the big three, That was all taken from me before they arrived... And now I'm working for one of them... Doing their dirty work.

Silently, Yseult had manoeuvred Darksight around to the far side of Donwarr, a world on the edge of the Galaxy in a contested region of space that some now called 'The Quarrel', a block of six worlds from Donwarr to Illustria that MANTIS and Octan had fought bitterly over. It was currently under MANTIS control but all of that Octan activity didn't just go away; planets are big and the space around them is bigger. For Octan, this region was now about what you could do without MANTIS seeing or stopping. I guess that's why I'm here she thought. At the appointed time, the recorded mission brief played. "Yseult." The voice began. "This is Riddaeon. You have been selected for this mission by senior executives who are concerned about the loyalty of other operatives. A new form of refined liquid mythril has been manufactured on Freegate. It is transported to Mynderis via Donwarr on a super-freighter called Jade Sun but it arrives at Mynderis without the mithryl. Our sources believe that Octan is using planted operatives inside MANTIS to intercept the shipment but we have not been able to ascertain how. We believe Donwarr may be the location of the intercept as it will be easier for Octan to get it across the border through The Quarrel. Darksight was designed for silent pursuit and surveillance. Your mission is to observe the arrival of the freighter and covertly record its orbit of Donwarr before it re-enters the anomaly for the jump to Hunston. You are not to interfere with any transfers to or from the ship. Your data-file contains all of the information we have on the Jade Sun and its schedule... Good luck." The recording ended and the data-file opened for Yseult to digest. Once she knew all she needed to, she began recording the activity of traffic between the anomaly and Donwarr. One hundred and thirty-eight minutes later, precisely on schedule, the MANTIS ore super-freighter Jade Sun emerged from the Donwarr anomaly.