Nico was enjoying his new posting with the SFMC Rapid Response Unit. Although he and his crew were Fleet, the Marines had gone out of their way to make everything run seamlessly. As far as Nico was concerned, the Fleet SAR unit was attached and was Corps. Of course, that meant that Nico had to stand watch in the "Command Center," as the troops called it. The "Command Center" was tied into the Serenity sensor network, which meant that the SAR/RR unit had access to real-time information about Serenity and local space around the planet itself. As Nico watched, he sipped on a cup of tea, keeping an eye on the status boards.
The weather sensors had flagged a potentially vicious storm, which was developing over the mountains of Serenity. Of course, the only concern there was for backpackers and campers. No commercial or passenger traffic went over those mountains, so that wasn't a concern. It was late enough in the season that the campers and backpackers should be avoiding the area also.
So why do I have this feeling of dread? he thought to himself.
Nico walked over to the control station and sat down next to the Marine NCO manning the unit. "Is there away way that we can track traffic in and out of that area for the last several days? I want to make sure that we don't have any surprises waiting for us."
The NCO paused for a moment, concentrating on the question. "Yes, Chief. It's going to take several minutes, since we have to pull traffic control logs." Nico nodded his head and the Marine started working. Almost immediately, the Marine turned back to Nico.
"Chief, it looks like we can also incorporate transport logs as well. Do you want that information?"
Nico tapped his finger against his cup, thinking for a moment before answering. "Do it. The more information we have, the better we will be."
Nico leaned back in the chair, staring at the storm on the screen. Almost absently, he started pulling up meterological info. While the weather and winds were not extraordinarily abnormal, what made this storm bad was it's freakish electrical nature. The storm had generated charged particles, which according to the meteorlogy group, could interfere with communications and long range transporters. Which could mean no rescue beacons, he thought. The storm also showed no signs of letting up any time soon, in fact gaining in power.
As he studied the weather data, the NCO turned towards him and franatically signaled for his attention. "Chief, air traffic shows clear. However, we have several transport logs of people beaming into the area, but no return signals. We've got up to six people unaccounted for by the transport logs. No telling how many, if any, took ground transport into the area." Nico's heart skipped for a second as he started to put information together. As he started to call for the alert teams to stand to, the Marine continued. "That's not the worst of it, Chief. Three of the signals came from this station. One of them is the Major."
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