***** Inter Galactic News *****


*** Message From The Editor ***

How can it be the end of the week already? Kang simply does not know where the hours go. So many victims, so little time.

Prepare for deadly news injection.


*** Felini Hammered ***

In a shocking turn of events there are reports beginning to surface that the Catnip Munching Surrender Kittens of the Felini Tyranny have suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of somebody who is not the Flagritz.

THE FLAGRITZ ARE OUTRAGED THAT SOMEBODY ELSE MIGHT HAVE ATTACKED THE FELINI!

Human Empire sources are reporting the destruction of ‘a large number’ of Felini ships that had supported or defended other aliens.

Further, all FEL shipping has been banned from Empire space.

Given Empire space is so expansive, covering much of known space, this is probably quite bad news for the Felini.

There are yet to be any hard numbers released on the conflict though, and Kang knows well that a ‘a large number’ to your typical human meatsack is anything above ‘five’.

Poor human meatsacks, Kang understands numbers are very hard for you, with your inferior number of digits.



*** Prisoners Back To Work ***

The Wimpire Of Puny-Humanity is reporting that many of their captured starcaptains are happily getting back to work. And also the Dominion, a group that Kang is yet to think of an amusingly insulting name for yet, appears to be putting captured officers back into the workplace, as they have recently offered up the employment contract of a pirate officer captured when they destroyed the pirate vessel.

Kang is uncertain of the morality of this. Which means Kang broadly approves of the concept.

Kang is however disappointed to learn that despite their intensive training and embedded brain-chippery, officers can apparently change their allegiances for relatively small sums of stellars.

Hopefully this will open up a whole poisoned chalice of back-stabbery for sneaky back-stabbing types.

The DOM are also offering the contract of 150 pirate merc veterans, which they almost certainly promise are absolutely free of all radioactive scabies mite infections.


*** FRE Proving To Be As Unpopular As Radioactive Scabies Mite ***

The business arm of the puny Empire of Humanity, the GTT, have announced an exclusion zone banning all FRE shipping from the Starling system.

Further, Alpha 7 and the orbit of the planet Resurrection are off limits to all shipping.

Prompting rumours that something potentially interesting is going on there.

Kang has dispatched a minion to poke around. Kang does not expect them to return alive, so Kang will probably just make something up next week about it.


*** Caliphate Officially More Popular Than Radioactive Scabies Mite ***

The Caliphate have announced the grand opening of the Grand Majlis on the planet Creche in the Darkfold system.

Nearly three thousand meatbags joined the public in its grand unveiling with shuttle tours leaving the starbase Shiraz every 15 minutes.

Kang understands this location has something to do with the so-called ‘wonders’ of human meatsackery, celebrating some sort of achievement this chronically under-achieving race of bipeds considers worthy of attention from the early days on their home planet of Dirt.

Kang held a grand opening once.

The meatsack being opened did not enjoy it.


*** EEM Report Systems Malfunction ***

Everybody’s least favourite bureaucratic meatsacks, the EEM, have reported significant failures across their comms grid in the past week.

This is what happens when you outsource to a Krell communications corporation. They should consider themselves fortunate nothing got napalmed.


*** A Triumph Of Hexamon Diplomacy ***

Peace negotiations between the Empire and the Hexamon are understood to have broken down this week.

No, let Kang check that, they are understood to have, airquotes, ‘broken down’.

For those unfamiliar with the Hive race, a breaking down of negotiations could mean the parties simply couldn’t find any common ground, but more likely a Hive queen decided to eat the brains of the diplomats and lay eggs in the skull cavities.

Kang hopes you enjoy your new Hive babies, puny human diplomatic corp!


*** More Bad News For Freebooters ***

Fresh allegations have surfaced regarding piracy, this time the GTT are accusing the FLZ of pirate operations, running MRC flagged vessels to attack FRE shipping in Corewards space.

Kang cares not who flagged as what to shoot whom, Kang cares simply that there were casualties.

These puny meatsacks get so hung up on details. Kang despairs.



***** Special Report – CIA Investigations – From the Blog of CIA Laton *****

(KANG LOVES THE CIA! AND SO SHOULD YOU!)


Colonel Harrison was never one to sit still, he liked to be doing something interesting all the time. This was probably why he volunteered for service with the CIA many years ago. They always had something to do that was interesting; Look for this criminal here, search for this item there. Life was never dull, as it had been in the regular naval service.

Today was like no other, he was being briefed by the PD’s personal assistant for an investigation of some sort in the PD’s office no less.

“So as you see we have lost all communication with our outpost on Sarah, in the Blowton system.” Normal says whilst looking at the video screen “the last regular communication was 8 days ago but as this a signals intel outpost it shouldn’t go quiet for more than a few days due the equipment it has as standard”

“So how do know this isn’t just a comms blackout due to local conditions?” Harrison asks

“We received a signal from the outpost’s automated emergency beacon, they only come online in the event of a life support failure. As the planet’s atmosphere is thin, we can only think we can only think something’s gone badly wrong” Normal states.

“Do we have any more information on this place? The file seems a bit light and ...” Harrison stops as the door to the office opens and Laton walks in with some files in hand.

“Normal sorry to interrupt, I was pulling some files from the archives and came across…” Laton notices Harrison sat on the couch, smiles and says “Dave Harrison, my it’s been far too long.”

Harrison stands and salutes Laton “Sir, it’s been 3 years”

Laton waves down Harrison’s salute and walks over and shakes Harrison’s hand, whilst holding folder in his other hand ”What job has Normal got you in here for?”

“The quiet outpost in Blowton” Normal says

“Ah yes, that one” Laton says, opening he folder he’s holding “very odd, this one. We don’t have much to go with this one, the beacon’s been activated and that about it. The only other information I managed to dig up about this outpost is that it’s a modified stealthy K23 bunker complex, one of those old mass produced confederate types altered for our own purposes. From what I can dig out of the archives, this outpost was left over from the civil war and is operating with about 5 personnel. We only figured that out by going over recent signal logs and matching the 5 ident signatures present to active personnel.”

“I’ll grab my team and go take a look at the place” Harrison says

Laton looks at Normal, then looks back at Harrison “Due to this outpost being a deep cover base, it means one of two things; either they were found by local forces or the location of the outpost was given up by someone. As there aren’t any proper local forces due to planetary conditions, we can only conclude the outpost has been compromised from within. This means we have to keep this top secret and it means a solo mission”

“I wondered why I was brought into your office, sir”

“Dave, you’ll have to go in under the highest stealth protocols; get in, find out what’s happened and get back out again. Find out what the bread crumbs say.” Laton says while pointing a finger at Harrison, who was nodding “plus maintain total silence during the mission. No messages through Control”. Harrison smiles.

After gathering up the paperwork into the folder, Laton rises up from his chair. Harrison does the same. “We have a ship in port already supplied for you to take, just be careful when you’re out there” Laton says, whist shaking Harrison’s hand again and handing over the folder to him.

Harrison leave the office as Laton picks up the remaining folders and starts talking.

--------------------

Several days later, Arrow blinks silently into the outer reaches of the Blowton system without notice. Apart from some stray merchant ships along the way, the journey was uneventful.

Harrison had time to draft a list of actions before arrival, these were written on a small whiteboard on the wall next to the desk.

He checks the uplink of the old outlying stealth subspace satellite the CIA placed beyond the system’s Oort belt. The uplink is successful as thought, the automatic beacon is still pinging the satellite at the allotted period with its signal. A tick is added to the whiteboard.

Next on the list, he orders the ship’s AI to plot a course for an orbital probe. Whoever may be there won’t know who used the probe, so it gives more information for the mission. After uploading the flight programme into the probe memory, the push of a button launches the probe into the void.

The probe took almost an hour to reach the planet, travelling the massive speed needed to cover the distance in such a small amount of time. Upon hitting atmosphere the probe’s sensors quickly gathered all available information, compressed the data into a packet and sends it back to the Arrow in a burst signal. Moments later, the fiery path of the dying probe is a seen as short lived shooting star in the sky.

Minutes later, the data was received by the Arrow and was scrolling down the screen. Harrison put down the datapad he was reading and looks down the scrolling data. The data had been corrupted by Sarah’s gas giant, which was pumping out its own radiation. Applying a cleaning filter, the data showed 3 outposts on the planet, all located away from the bunker. The nearest outpost, a GCE facility, was far enough away as to not notice the ship after landing. Another tick is added to the board.

Getting up from the desk, Harrison moves through the cramped compartment to the Arrow’s small bridge. Plotting the AI’s course, Harrison guides the ship towards Sarah. About 12 hours later, the AI system activates the ship’s cloaking device just as the Arrow hits the Sarah’s thin upper atmosphere. The form of the ship shimmered and vanished.

Through the thick clouds, the Arrow pulled up and came to a hover, before touching down on the thick ice. The ship settles down and the engines whine down, it’s form shimmering again as the cloaking device shuts down and begins its rapid recovery process.


Stepping out of the Arrow, Harrison feels the buffeting from the soft cold wind through his white pressure suit. Moving around the ship, Harrison opens a storage locker and pulls out a rack containing a folded lightweight electric buggy, which he pulls off the rack onto the ice. A plastic hatch is lifted and a button is pressed, the buggy unfolds and stands on its 4 wheels.

The journey to the bunker’s location is a little under 40 minutes away, it could have been sooner but the low gravity made the crossing of the ice dangerous enough even without the extra 200 pounds of lead strapped to the sides.

Looking through his magnoculars, Harrison sees the bunker’s hatch was open. The ice is flat so the hatch sticks out as a feature of the otherwise devoid landscape. Continuing on, Harrison brings the buggy to a halt close to the hatch and draws his laser pistol. Peering into the dark hatchway, the led torch on his pistol is activated as Harrison steps into the bunker, helping the helmet light see the way.

The inside is a frozen battleground with destroyed display panels and equipment, along with other evidence of sudden decompression. Power has failed so it is dark apart from the torch’s light which adds an eerie glow to the rooms.

Down on the second floor, he finds two of the five personnel dead from weapons fire. They froze were they fell, the planets’ harsh climate preserving their shocked faces. Further in, he finds two more who seemed to have put up a fight, dying with weapons in hand and emergency masks covering their heads. Next to them is a body of a kastorian, suited in a mercenary’s combat suit. Equally as frozen, the mercenary is turned over and a quick search of the various pockets in the combat webbing reveals a small handheld computer, giving the coordinates of the bunker. Placing the small computer on the mercenary’s chest, Harrison carries on looking until he finds the final crew member. Finding the main computer room, the last crewman is lying on the floor having been shot from behind. All the screens have been destroyed and further examination of the room reveals the main data storage bank is missing. The main storage unit had been removed without damage as the cables and connections are hanging frosted but without damage. He puts his pistol back in its holster.

Retracing his steps through the frozen bunker, Harrison checks the location of the backup storage device which is located near the emergency beacon, under a floor panel. It is still there undamaged next to the blinking red light of the emergency beacon. After quickly detaching the storage unit from its mountings, Harrison puts it to one side and leans back into the floor to disconnect the emergency beacon. The flick of a switch stops the blinking light and with it, the beacon shuts down.

Picking up the storage device, Harrison checks his suit’s power supply which is at 80% full. He adjusts the heating in his suit upwards slightly as the sight of dead usually makes him feel cold. Deciding that he will recover the bodies found, he heads to the bunker’s medical area. The medical room was untouched by the violence of what had happened and other than the frosting of cold. Finding the stored body bags, he took some and set about recovering the bodies.

The process was slow going and eventually the 6 bodies had been bagged and moved to the entry room of the bunker, along with the storage device. Checking his suit’s power supply again, it read 67%. More than enough to get back to the ship he thought to himself. Putting the mercenary’s computer in to a large pocket and then picking up the storage device, he leaves the bunker through the open hatch.

Outside, light sleet is falling which has covered the buggy in a cover of ice. Brushing most of the ice off, Harrison climbs onto the buggy and sets off back to ship. The journey is uneventful as before.

Once at the ship, the buggy is repacked onto its rack in the storage locker, which closes without ceremony, and he steps into the outer airlock. Minutes later and back inside the ship, he places both the storage unit and the handheld computer in a locker and makes his way to the bridge still in his pressure suit. Powering up the ships thrust engines, he lifts the ship up gently and moves the ship over to the bunker.

Upon arriving, Harrison is back outside the ship and is methodically loading the bodies into the Arrow’s main external cargo hold. There is an internal hold to the Arrow but he didn’t want to smell the dead on the trip back. Once loaded and secured down with netting, Harrison closes the external cargo bay and walks back to the bunker’s hatch. He pulls on the hatch and it closes with soft clang. Standing on the hatch and twisting the outer handle, Harrison secures the hatch as best as possible as the sleet continues to come gently down, covering the hatch from view.

After cycling through the Arrow’s airlock again, Harrison takes off his pressure suit and places it back in the storage locker, attaching the power cable to recharge the suit. The stealthed pressure suits were good at not emitting its power signature, the payoff was having to charge its batteries back up. Changing into fresh clothes, He tiredly make his way back to the bridge and checks the status of the cloaking device. It is available for use, which surprised him as they are not normally available for a few more days. The tech boys and girls must have been working their magic again. Harrison loads the pre-arranged exfiltration course into the nav computer and sets the ship’s AI to make ready for lift off.

The Arrow lifts off the ground and accelerates skywards, whilst vanishes under the shimmering cloak.

--------------------

Days later, Harrison is sat in Laton’s office again. Laton is reading through his report at his desk, as Harrison is sat eating a meal whilst sat on the couch.

“So all the only lead points to this mercenary group, the “Kastorian Rouge”?” Laton says

Harrison nods, swallows his food and says “yes, it does. Looks like they were paid by a client to hit the bunker and take the bunker’s main storage unit. We had run ins with them in the past, that’s why their patch is in the main database.”

“And not only in the past, me and Normal came across them some time ago during another investigation. They tried taking a research base whilst we were there and after damn hard battle, we manage to wipe them out. Won the battle but lost the outpost. After that, we had better things to do than chase them down. But now they come across our radar again, we’ll go after properly this time”

“So what now?” Harrison asks.

“Take a few days off, you’ve earned them on this one. Then call up your teams."

“All of them?”

“Yes, all of them”

Harrison smiles …