For the first time since the Banshee Squadron was formed during the uncertain days prior to the outbreak of the Dominion War, six fighter craft flew in formation instead of just five. As it had since almost the beginning, Lee Carter's Griffin flew point, flanked on the left by Max Vasser's Basilisk and Alex Dalton's Manticore, and on the right by Sam Beckett's Wyvern and Jo Schmidt's Chimera. The sixth craft, with a fanciful crouching Sphinx emblazoned on its wings, brought up the rear, completing the diamond formation.
Their mission was to scout the borders of Mulluran space looking for evidence of illegal supply and troop movements.
"You sure you can handle this?" asked Carter across the comm-link. "These Banshee-class planes are a little more complex than our old Peregrines, you know."
"No problem," came back the confident reply from Jazz Phoenix. "Piece o' cake."
Carter shrugged to herself. Jazz sounded confident, but was she perhaps being over-confident? Carter wouldn't have thought it possible for anyone to learn the intricacies of flying an F-61 as quickly as she had, but then again, Jazz was no ordinary pilot. If she said she was ready, then so be it. Carter gave the order. "Prepare to go to Warp Burst on my mark."
She switched frequencies and was answered by the voice of Starbase 901's space-traffic controller. "Banshee Squadron. Your departure vector has been cleared of all traffic. You have a Go. Good hunting!"
"Roger, Nine-Oh-One," replied Carter, then switched back to the first frequency. Five indicators in her HUD changed from amber to green as her teammates achieved ready status to match her own, and when the last one switched, she barked, "Mark!"
As one, six sleek, silver vessels flashed bright in a sudden upsurge and overspillage of unleashed tachyons, then seemed to stretch into the infinite distance as their engines grabbed hold of the very fabric of spacetime itself and yanked them forward towards their destination. In a final rainbow display they were gone, leaving only the mighty starbase in orbit around Serenity.
Jazz was pressed back in her seat with a force stronger than any she had ever felt before. It squeezed the breath out of her lungs until she thought she was going to asphyxiate. Not even the robust inertial dampers built into the Banshees could fully counteract the incredible g-forces generated by a 50,000 millicochrane warp jump. The effect only lasted a few seconds though before she was yanked forward in her seat's harness by the sudden deceleration, and then they were through and out the other end -- a dozen lightyears in fifteen seconds!
Unbelievable! If her old Peregrine were ever introduced to these new Banshees, it would hang its head in shame and skulk back to its hangar in utter disgrace.
Even before the disorientation of their precipitous deceleration was fully assuaged, Carter was already on the comm giving orders. Jazz was grudgingly forced to admit that her one-time XO had grown into the mantle of leadership very nicely; her voice was confident and sure. No doubt due to her tutelage and example during her rookie years. She listened to Carter's commands.
"Secure warp engines and set quantum capacitors to maximum recharge rate. We might have to get out of here in a hurry. Go to gray mode. Sam, fire up that special sensor pod of yours."
Jazz hurriedly worked to comply with Carter's orders -- redirecting all power to recharge the warp burst system, switching off all nonessential systems, and making sure her shields were set to maximum refraction to ward off any unfriendly sensor probes.
Sam was doing passive scans of the area, and was calling back reports on tight tachyon beams to the rest of the team. Jazz kept one ear on what she was saying, but diverted the majority of her attention to her own scope. They had come out of warp burst inside the Polon system, just outside the border of the Mulluran DMZ. It was a natural waypoint for any ships coming through the Briar Patch and heading for Mulluran territory, and they hoped to catch someone red-handed delivering something to someone they shouldn't be delivering that something to. Or something like that.
Everything seemed quiet. A disappointment.
She flipped on the comm. "There's nothing here, Carter," she announced. "Let's move on. We've got three more systems to check out."
"I concur, boss," intoned Max.
Commander Carter received Jazz's communication with some annoyance. It wasn't Jazz's prerogative to make those kinds of decisions -- she was not in command of Banshee Squadron anymore -- but she was making them nevertheless, and what was worse, she had the others, most notably Max, starting to follow her lead as well.
Carter found herself feeling a little territorial. "Belay that, Commander," she retorted, a little more angrily than she had intended. "We're not done here yet." She could hear the displeasure in Jazz's voice as she acknowledged. Carter next addressed to Sam, the team's recon expert. "So what's the official verdict? Anything?"
"Intermittent particle readings from somewhere in the system, probably from a ship that passed by here in the last few days, but the ion wake has degraded severely and I can't get a fix. There's nothing here now."
"Jo?" prompted Carter.
The squad's science officer tapped into the feed from Sam's sensor pod and responded. "Hard to tell, boss. It's probably nothing, just like Jazz said, but on the other hand it could be a ship in the asteroid belt trying to mask its trail."
"All right," said Carter. "Refractive shields double front. Let's head into the belt and see what we can see. Maximum impulse."
"I'm telling you, there's no need," broke in Jazz. "Whoever was here is long gone."
"Nevertheless," snapped Carter, "follow my orders."
Alex, Jo and Sam formed up on Carter's wing, followed after a pause by Jazz and Max. Together, the six starfighters burned towards the system's dense asteroid belt.
Two hours later, the tiny shapes of the Banshees were rolling and diving through the tumbling rocks and mountains of the asteroid belt in a casually deadly game of hit-and-miss. It kept them on their toes, but it wasn't anything they couldn't handle.
"Report!" called Carter.
There was a few seconds delay as Sam checked the sensors, then she responded. "Nothing in the vicinity, Commander. I'm detecting residual warp particles indicating a ship went to warp within the last twelve hours."
Although Jazz remained conspicuously silent, Carter could almost hear her say I told you so. Jo saved her from her own self-torture just then though. "Lee, I have a possible vector on the departing ship. Toward the Thermopylae system."
Just where a pirate would go next from here if they were headed for Mulluran territory, thought Carter with some satisfaction. "Set course, normal warp," she ordered.
Three hours later, the six Banshees flashed into the outskirts of the Thermopylae system, well away from any likely hiding place of space pirates. A quick passive sensor scan later, and the precise coordinates of the mystery ship were discovered; once again it was lurking inside the system's main asteroid belt.
"These guys really want to stay incognito," commented Jo on secure channel. "Ducking through asteroid belts like this must at least triple their flight time!"
"Can you get a definite ID?" asked Carter.
"Not at this distance," replied Sam. "Using just the passive sensors on the pod, we'll have to get to within 250,000 kilometers. From way out here I can't even tell how many there are."
Carter didn't like that news. It would be so much simpler just to use a standard sensor scan, but their mission was to remain undetected at all costs. "All right," she said. "Same routine as last time -- refractive shields double front and follow me."
The unidentified vessel appeared at the very edge of Sam's short-range sensors three hours later, and surrendered its secrets to the special sensor pod attached to the Chimera's centerline hardpoint -- at least that was what was supposed to happen. The mystery ship was being stubborn however, and wouldn't yield any information voluntarily.
"What I can tell you is this," Sam was saying. "That there's only one ship on the scope, it's big, it's parked beside a large iron asteroid, there are no life signs aboard, the cargo holds are enormous, but the scans are unable to penetrate them. I'd say they were definitely up to no good."
"It's probably painted jet black with a big red Jolly Roger on the side," suggested Jo dryly.
"No life signs?" asked Alex. "Is it a robot ship?"
"Could be," ventured Max, "or the crew area might be masked just like the cargo holds."
"No, then I'd pick up another blind spot on the scans," responded Sam. "If there is a crew aboard they'd have to be in the cargo holds."
Carter frowned; something was definitely fishy here and she didn't like it. A robot ship could conceivably navigate itself between star systems, but it would take a human crew to negotiate the treacherous asteroid fields this ship seemed to favor. But where were they?
Carter's misgivings were interrupted by Jazz. "I say we go in for a closer look," Jazz said with conviction. "We're not going to learn anything sitting way out here."
Carter still had her doubts though; it just smelled too much like a trap for her comfort. She couldn't see any alternative though. If they went home now they'd have learned almost nothing, and their mission would be a failure. Looking out the side of her canopy, she could see Jazz's Sphinx edging ahead of the rest of them, anxious to see some action. If she didn't give the order to go in the next few seconds, she was pretty sure Jazz would go anyway.
"All right," she decided, derailing Jazz's pending mutiny for the time being, "let's move in closer, but stay in gray mode and keep a sharp eye out for anything suspicious."
With Jazz and Max zipping into the lead, the six Banshees swooped in closer to their quarry and whatever fate awaited them.
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