“A Blade of Honor among the Hidden Frontier”
Posted on Saturday April 27th, 2019 @ 2:26am by Major Andrew Weaver
1,253 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission: Season 2; Mission 2: It's Only Fun Until Someone Gets Hurt
Andrew was on one of the observation decks looking up at the flotilla of starships that the Alliance had sent and was surprised at the sheer number of it.
But in the end instead of dwelling on it, the cyborg simply shrugged and said to himself “I guess Rokk takes this a little bit more seriously than people assumed.”
“You would guess correctly, Major Weaver.” came a voice from behind him.
Andrew stiffened for a moment before he turned around to face a youngish looking man in the uniform of an Alliance naval officer. “Matt McCabe...as I live and somewhat breathe.” Andrew said with a slight chuckle before turning away from the young man. “I thought I smelled ashes.”
“Nice to know that you’re still funny after all of this time, Andrew.” McCabe said as he moved to stand next to the other man and watched the ships float by in the vastness of space. “When was the last time that…”
“Potsdam.” was all that Andrew said.
“Hm, I thought it was either Enki or Hellespont.” McCabe said as he watched the various ships sail by.
It stayed like this for several long minutes until finally Andrew stated firmly “Help you with something, McCabe.”
The younger officer nodded, “Captain has an opening for a MACO detachment commander and is thinking about offering you the job.”
Andrew turned and looked at the junior officer with a look of slight confusion for a couple of seconds. It was one thing to be a MACO detachment commander on a regular Alliance starship as they were usually a Lieutenant or Captain and made apart of the extended command chain depending on the type of ship that the detachment was apart of.
But a ship like the Beowulf or Raven, due to the types of operations that they were involved in required a full bird colonel and was automatically apart of the senior staff...but the types of situations that they usually found themselves in…
But that wasn’t his biggest problem as he knew what ship that McCabe was apart of.
“So, is this offer coming from the president, Doctor Norg...or the Old Bear himself?” Andrew asked evenly.
“It’s coming from me actually, Andrew.” a slightly older man’s voice said from off to one side as a man stepped into the light of the room dressed in the standard uniform of the MSA’s Naval branch, his short black hair was now streaked with gray as he moved closer to the other two men.
Andrew’s cybernetic hand clenched slightly. “Jason, good to see you.” the cyborg said in a respectful tone.
Captain Jason Bondervesky nodded back solemnly and if he noticed the older man’s hand then he didn’t give any indication. “I recently lost Colonel Sheyenne during a firefight with some Istaran rebels at Helios Prime and her executive officer to the Dawnstar.” Jason explained before motioning to Andrew himself. “You’re the most qualified MACO commander in the entire service, I thought your detached duty assignment was about over on the Lavie and this place so I thought I’d offer you the spot.”
Andrew studied the other man and with everything that had happened in the universe over the past few months...what happened back on the Immanuel Kant seemed more like it was centuries ago rather than almost a decade and a half-plus it was taking real courage and respect from Bondervesky to be here and offer him the spot personally.
“I’ll..have to think on it, Jason.” Andrew said as he forced his mechanical hand to relax and shake out his artificial fingers there.
Before anything else more could be said, Zea Fadel, one of the Vanguard’s junior officers that had transferred to the Lavie prior to that ship’s departure for operations elsewhere came walking up and coughed politely. “Um, Major Weaver, Captain Rembrandt has been looking for you.” she said in a low, polite tone.
Andrew arched an eyebrow at her, “Then why didn’t she contact me via communications?” he mused.
Zea looked around the immediate area for a moment, namely at the two MSA officers before saying “She wasn’t sure if you were in a position of speaking privately or not and it concerns a specific matter.”
Andrew caught something in the younger woman’s tone as how it was being pitched and then nodded slowly. “Ah…*that* Thank you Miss Fadel, I’ll see to it at once.” Andrew said to her before turning to look at both MSA officers. “I hope that you understand if I ask that this conversation continues another time?”
Jason nodded in agreement and then walked off, McCabe in his wake as Andrew turned and headed the opposite direction with Zea and once they were far enough away, Andrew turned to Zea and said “Thank you, how’d you know that I needed to be pulled away from that conversation?”
“Just how you were generally standing, sir.” Zea said with a firm nod of her head. “I don’t know what the matter was about but it seemed stressful.”
Andrew allowed himself a moment to chuckle bitterly, “You have no idea, ensign. Now was there a kernel of truth about what you said about the captain?”
Again Zea nodded, “Yes sir, the Lavie is due to be heading out shortly and it would be a bad sport if she left without her intelligence chief aboard.”
Andrew nodded, wincing only so slightly as he thought about how apparently his position had been reduced to that of an intel gatherer instead of a front line combatant...was this due to something that he did or was it a request from Omi…
Andrew’s eyes narrowed as he pushed that thought out of his mind, trying to ignore certain pains that line of thought was bringing him as of late.
The look on the other hand wasn’t lost on Zea who instead chose to stay quiet during the rest of the walk to the Lavie’s docking slip. “Well, thank you again Ensign for your help in extracting me from that situation.”
“Which situation?” a strong female voice asked at which point Andrew turned to face a slightly familiar face in the form of the last person that he expected to see on the Lavie.
“Lieutenant Twenty Five, I didn’t expect the Vanguard’s cyber warfare specialist to be aboard.” Andrew said in a respectable tone.
The white haired woman pushed some of her bangs back over one ear, revealing some of the cybernetics that she really couldn’t have removed due to how they were hardwired into her brain and nervous system, chuckling lightly as she did so. “Captain Krinn had a feeling that my talents might be needed here with you rather than on the Vanguard.” she explained, a faint smile playing about her lips.
Andrew couldn’t help but smile just a little bit as well. “Alrighty then, shall we go forth and see what kind of hidden frontiers await us this time, ladies?”
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