Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11), стр. 58

19

"You pulled this together pretty damn quick, Mok. You're sure these crews are clean?"

"As clean as any crew willing to kill for money," Mok said. "We cut off all outside communication before the first mission brief, so the risk is mitigated as much as it can be."

"That's good enough for me," Jason said. "I assume you're not coming along?"

"I'll be there, but not aboard the Sarafin. I have an executive courier ship that will allow me to observe and communicate. I'll be going into the system first to make sure things are still as you expected."

"I see," Jason said, genuinely surprised that Mok would be coming along on the mission personally. He'd just been busting his chops with that comment, not seriously asking. "Do you think it's wise for you to be there? All joking aside, you're a little too important to this outfit to risk your safety at the operational level."

"The risk is minimal, and I need to see this firsthand," Mok said. "I'll not be remaining for the entire show, however. Once the shooting starts all the civilian traffic will scatter, which is when I will make my exit. If a single courier ship hung back in the thick of a battle between opposing fleets of capital ships, it would be a bit suspicious."

"Understood," Jason said. "We'll be waiting for an update from you. Phoenix, out." The hologram of Mok wavered and disappeared.

"The ship is locked in and secure," Twingo said. "Main drive is powered down and the reactor is at minimum. Kage, you'll have the telemetry stream from the Sarafin available on your right-side console as well as the comlink to the crew."

“So, nothing left to do but wait," Crusher said.

"More or less." Jason watched as Kage pulled up the Sarafin's telemetry and displayed it up on the canopy.

The Phoenix was cradled inside the cavernous cargo hauler along with fifty smaller attack boats that would carry mercenary crews to retake the Eshquarian ships when they reached Miressa. The merc crews were aboard the Sarafin's living quarters and would load into the boats prior to the attack, but Jason had opted to remain on the Phoenix with his own crew, not wanting to intermingle with a bunch of hired guns that they may have crossed paths with at one time or another. Someone holding a grudge could make for a bad trip if the shooting started aboard the freighter.

"Have any of you ever been to the Miressa System?" Twingo asked.

"I have, once," Crusher said.

"What's it like?"

"Crowded," Crusher grunted. "I was there as part of a diplomatic envoy from Galvetor. I was young and had just ascended to Guardian Archon. To be honest, I was more interested in pursuing a good time back then than anything else. I do remember that the orbital paths above the planet were clogged to the point that they actually had to adjust the holding orbits so that the shade from all the ships was randomized over the daylight side. The really weird part is that as crowded as the orbital platforms are, the planet isn't. Huge tracts of pristine wilderness and cities that aren't overcrowded like you see on most planets. The Miressans employ pretty strict population control measures to keep their planet from becoming like Ver."

"Can't say I blame them…my home world is an overcrowded hell," Kage said. "Main engines are up and the Sarafin is heading for our mesh-out point. Mok's courier ship is already gone."

"Take the time to relax on the ride out, everybody," Jason said. "Even if we're successful and make a clean break from Miressa, I think we'll probably be looking over our shoulders for a long time to come after this."

Captain Marcus Webb stared at the blank screen on his desk, letting his body come down from the adrenaline shock it had just suffered. He'd just received an unplanned slip-com communication from Jason Burke. When the node address had popped up on the incoming channel request, he'd immediately broken out into a flop sweat, certain that Burke was just giving him a courtesy heads-up that he was on his way to kill him. Webb wasn't a fearful man, but he also wasn't stupid. Even back when he'd been in his prime, he'd been no match for Burke. Now he was older and slower and the former Air Force puke looked like he hadn't aged a day.

When Jason's face had resolved on the monitor, however, the conversation had nothing to do with the secret Webb had been keeping from him. Instead, the news his friend bore was so much worse. By the time Jason had finished his story, Webb almost wished that it had been as simple as the merc wanting to come and wring the life from him.

The long and short of it was that Jason had learned Seeladas Dalton, the Premier of the Cridal Cooperative, of which Earth was a member nation, had been making a backdoor deal with the ConFed after she's watched the Eshquarians get wiped out. What concerned both men was that, while Earth had remained unnamed specifically, it was clear who the ConFed was referring to when they talked about a member nation building 'unusually advanced weapons for such a young species.'

Once Jason had made it through the most immediate threat, he read Webb in on what was really happening within the ConFed. On the surface it sounded like Jason had either taken leave of his senses or had found a potent new recreational drug out near the Delphine Expanse, but once the files began