Chapter 184 - 184 Covert salvage operation (1)

[EXITING GATE IN 5.. 4.. 3.. 2... BRACE]

Deep inside Iron industry space, a single Empire frigate emerged at the very edge of a system. The ship which was formerly a flagship of the Empire navy's 4th battlegroup had unexpectedly been recalled for unscheduled maintenance half a year ago, then it completely dropped off the map along with the entirety of its crew. 

Doing one of the frigate's routine jumps inside Empire space, its FTL drive was remotely accessed and the destination coordinates were overwritten by a master level clearance. Emerging in an unknown system, the crew were understandably quite confused, but when they were personally handed a mission from the very top of the food chain the blanks started to fill in. Officially the craft was quietly classified as missing in action, but covertly the lead of the 4th battle group was taken to a black site and sworn to secrecy, as the very elite they were needed for a special task. Over the next 5 months, the frigate was completely retrofitted as the crew was drilled by masked instructors in operating the new frigate which was several generations ahead of anything else that was officially part of the Empire navy.

"Jump complete, and with pinpoint accuracy too."

Speaking out in awe, the frigate's captain was still amazed at his craft's new level of performance, even after about 200 jumps over the last month.

[Of cause it works, it's our personal work.]

The only thing he was not happy with however was the additional passengers he had to take with him on the mission he didn't yet know the contents of. Right next to the captain's chair stood 3 figures that were completely clad in mat black armour, they could only be identified by markings which were visible on their shoulders, one had an emblem less insignia while the two others had a purple icon that sent shivers down the spine of everyone present on the bridge.

(One Hellwalker and two Lazarus executives… What the hell is this mission about?)

"Check for immediate contacts, continue with a passive search and avoid all known deep space listening stations."

[DIRECTIVES CONFIRMED, TASKING ALL PERSONAL FOR RELEVANT TASKS.]

While continuing to do his job perfectly the continuous denial by his extra passengers in divulging any information started to get on his nerves, as it did for the rest of the crew that were quietly talking about them in their crew quarters.

-

"So what do you think we're really doing all the way out here, judging from the number of jumps we have been doing over the last month I would guess we're deep inside Iron space by now."

"Isn't this some deep cover operation?"

"As if that would ever be the case, stuff like that is normally handled by spec ops units like the Hellwalkers, I don't know about you people but I'm just a normal enlisted sailor."

"Yeah, but there is a Hellwalker present on the bridge, or so I've overheard from some of the officers."

As one of the sailors pointed out a prominent rumour that had slowly started to spread throughout the higher echelon of the ship throughout the last month, an air of awe spread out in the small crew quarter.

"No way…"

"A Hellwalker, here?"

"Then this must be something serious."

Hellwalkers were akin to legend in the Empire, being the foremost elite fighting force within its borders but still largely unknown and surprisingly secretive to the common citizen. Part of the unit's continued fame and reverence stems from the units oldest tradition, the semi annual selection matches.

The 125th orbital drop troopers' recruitment event, which was informally known as the SASM was a recruitment event that had been held every 5 years for the last 600 years in every major population centre in the Empire. The SASM was known to be extremely hard to pass, with an attendance failure rate around 99.995%, but still, billions of people flocked to the event every 5 years in hope of joining the force.

If one managed to beat the odds and pass the SASM, one would have their life turned upside down overnight. The benefit of becoming a Hellwalker was simply overwhelming, first and foremost was the offer to become immortal by having one's body modified while the pay was a blank check that would lead one's entire community to untold wealth as long as certain conditions were followed.

"Wait, Jess didn't you take part in the SASM at one point? Did you see any Hellwalkers?"

With talks shifting from their initial subject of discussion, the sailor who originally brought up the question of the true nature of their deployment stopped his comrades from straying too far off topic.

"In any case, if there is or isn't a Hellwalker on board that doesn't explain what we're doing, I've heard that the navigators' doesn't even know where we are going."

"That is-"

[CODE RED: UNKNOWN GRAVITATIONAL SIGNATURE, POSSIBLE HOSTILE CONTACT. ALL CREW ARE TO REPORT TO THEIR  STATIONS.]

Immediately all ide discussion ceased as all sailors on board the frigate sprang into action and larger parts of the ship were sealed off by heavily reinforced bulkheads that would protect from hull breaches and hostile boarding parties alike.

"Identify the contact immediately! And send traffic to the fleet high command that we have made contact and will possibly be engaging."

(Delay that order.)

(ORDER CONFIRMED, LOCKING DOWN QUANTUM COMMUNICATION ARRAY, SWAPPING ENQIPTION… LOCKDOWN CONFIRMED, SYSTEM NOW OPERATING AT MAX LEVEL CLEARANCE.)

Following operational doctrine, the captain was about to break the month long radio silence that the ship had been under when he was stopped by one of the Lazarus executives.

Speaking in a heavily distorted voice the faceless executive was a perfect analogy for the company they represented, being shrouded in secrecy even more so than the Hellwalkers one could not deny their deep reaching influence.

Being a relatively newly established think tank Lazarus and all their numerous branches had completely revolutionized the Empire's technology, beating Rex heavy industries and Guardian solutions in their own areas of expertise (being heavy weapons and armour solutions respectively) while displaying a before unseen expertise in everything from biological engineering to FTL drive technology.

"What's going on here!?"

"Coms are down sir, we're unable to reach the fleet command!"

"Try and bypa-"

[That won't happen. ICI please clarify for the crew.]

As the captain and his officers tried to bypass what they perceived as a malfunctioning ICI unit, one of the executives spoke up as the Hellwalker quietly disabled their safety on their weapon.

[DIRECTIVES CONFIRMED. NOW ADDRESSING ALL CREW: GAG ORDER 599 IS NOW IN EFFECT, NO OUTSIDE COMMUNICATION WILL BE MADE, REMAIN AT YOUR STATIONS. CURRENT OBJECTIVE IS TO IDENTIFY THE UNKNOWN CONTACT.]

With a single ship wide address, the Lazarus executives made clear who was commanding them and spread confusion throughout the ship.

"Is this a mutiny!?"

Outraged that his authority was overturned, the Captain decided to take measures into his own hands as he stood up from his chair and turned towards the executives that he so far only had seen as slightly annoying observers. That proved to be an extremely poor decision on the captain's part, as he immediately looked into the barrel of a pistol wielded by the Hellwalker.

"Sit down, you're not in command here."

Speaking for the first time ever in front of the crew the Hellwalker immediately put a damper on the situation. Unlike the Lazarus executives, the Hellwalker didn't use voice distortion but her voice was still truly terrifying as it was clad in an overbearing amount of bloodl.u.s.t.

[Phillipa you voice distortion is not on.]

"Yeah I know 01, please let me handle this."

With one of the executives naming the Hellwalker, the captain froze in place as he swallowed hard. While most of the Hellwalkers were extremely secretive, Phillipa was a well known part of the 125th's upper echelon. Rumoured to be close to the so called 'immortal' that lead the Hellwalkers, the number of decorations and attachments under her name in the Empire history books were too long to list.

"P-Phillipa! Then you are!-"

"I am~"

Taking off her helmet the Hellwalker revealed herself to be a qiton with numerous advanced cybernetic implants. With the captain and officers on the bridge utterly stunned at her appearance, Phillipa had to take temporary command of the vessel as they still had an unknown contact.

"We can talk later, for now, I want that contact identified as fast as possible. Send out a fighter wing and reconfigure the short range laser communications array to operations mode 2-2-1-6, then target this systems 3rd planetoid."

"R-right! Task the 2nd fighter wing and have them scramble immediately, also set up the laser com array as the Hellwalker said."

Taking the role of X.O. The captain relayed orders to his crew that snapped out of their daze and started doing their job.

"Second fighter wing is scrambling with loadout delta, they are seeking orders for heading and goal."

"What about the laser com? I am not familiar with any wavelength distortion that falls outside doctrine use."

With the officers resuming the frigate's operation they immediately ran into issues as they hadn't been trained for the tactics Phillipa was trying to employ.

"02 please instruct the communications officer in the specifics, I'll handle navigation while 01 get's the 2nd fighter wing in position for signal reception."

Enlisting subject matter experts in an attempt to speed up reactivity, Phillipa focused on handling the frigate's navigation.

"Set up a new nav node and go with preset 6, have the craft reorient for possible threats and warm up the main offensive batteries. Limit all thermal emissions and use the heatsink."

[WARNING: IMMINENT CRAFT REORIENTATION, LEVEL 1]

While a ship wide notification went out in to warn the crew about the ship's moments that could and would slam unsecured crew into the walls, the executives started their tasks as they both realized they had to at least earn a little bit of the crew's trust to continue the mission. First to act was the so called '02', the executive quickly and flawlessly moved around in the zero g environment and made their way to the chief communications officer.

[Go into hardware mode, access code: Bravo 2209 Delta.]

"R-right away."

[Good, now we're going to target the 3rd planet from the centre for a wide burst, use frequency modulation 2-2-1-6, that wavelength should have the optimal deflection angle.]

"Wait, deflection angle?"

Starting to piece together what was happening, the communications officer had a dumb grin on her face, after all, she was about to do something that she had until now only believed was possible in theory. Meanwhile '01' didn't really seem to be in the mood to explain what they were doing, deciding to only give the barest of instructions.

[Task fighter wing 2, have them adopted a matrix formation and move to relative point 1221.]

"But there's nothing out there…"

[Just do it.]

As the flight leader looked into the blank mask of the Lazarus executive while it slightly shifted like the mask itself was somehow alive, she was suddenly overcome with a feeling of dread and responded out of reflex as she flinched.

"O-okay."