The Ophidian was standing off, waiting for the Cobra to rejoin it so they could attack simultaneously when suddenly all hell broke loose around the Cobra. Unobserved by the would-be bounty hunters, two of the Iguanas had appeared, at high speed. Ahead of them was one of their missiles, which smashed straight into its target. Military laser fire played briefly from each attacking Naval ship before they rolled slightly to avoid collision. Behind them they left a wreck, just recognisable as a Cobra MkI but clearly crippled. Whatever was still functioning sufficiently to contain the engine safely finally failed, and the Cobra disappeared in a blinding flash.
The two Iguanas had been moving far too fast to remain in the fray but the destruction of its companion had clearly rattled the Ophidian pilot. It was heading back to the shuttle, but this time continually accelerating as it attempted to flee. It shot as it passed the shuttle, but missed completely. Before it had managed to escape fire blossomed around it, a missile hit from the third Iguana that had now joined in at combat speed. The Ophidian tumbled, loosing its acceleration, and before it could regain control the Iguana was there, more military laser fire tearing into the damaged ship. Another explosion and the Ophidian, too, was gone, leaving nothing behind larger than small metal flakes.
The three other members of the team viewed the arrival of Marchero without much surprise when they met up again in a room back at Dodec Four on Orarra proper. Marchero was left with two soldiers outside whilst Jalsa summarised the result of the prison meeting before bringing her in.
"So, start us off with some general details, please," Barbeth said.
"I was on a ship that made several runs to a deep space base about a quarter of a light year from Esdi," she began.
Kirrik interrupted her. "I hope you've got better precision than that."
"Not very. We jumped about two hundred AUs from Esdi on course for our destination, then re-orientated and jumped again. The best I can give you is estimates of the re-orientation angles."
Williams rolled his eyes.
"Upon exiting hyperspace we followed a nav beacon to the base. I've better details for that, since my post was in-system navigation. The beacon sent out a pulse every ten minutes on a time-determined frequency. Range of about twenty-five AUs."
"We should be able to find it, then," Kalangu announced. "A high gain network of interferometry probes will give us sufficient range to detect and locate the signal if we're in the right general area."
"You'll have to be quite persuasive to HQ for that type of resource," Barbeth laughed.
"I will be," Kalangu told her. "I'll tell them we're looking for Thargoids. Most of those pen-pushers panic every time you mention the word."
"What of the base itself?" Kirrik asked Marchero.
"It's on an interstellar ice-rock asteroid. I think they're on it to use the ice for water and hydrogen. I've never seen more than a few small fighters nearby, but it looks big enough to hold quite a few more ships. I can't tell you a thing about static defences. I also once saw a couple of half-built ships on the surface."
"What type?" Barbeth queried.
"Probably Geckos. It looks like they've the equipment to build larger stuff, though."
"And what of the people who own this base?"
"I've no idea. Someone Jersisallam worked for. I honestly can't tell you a thing about them beyond that. I haven't a clue what they want, who they are, or what they are doing." Marchero said.
"Take her out," Kirrik ordered one of the soldiers. He waited until Marchero was out of the room and the door closed before speaking further. "Our next step after finding this base?"
"The choices would seem to be to infiltrate it or destroy it," Jalsa said. "Attacking it without knowing more would be extremely foolish." There was a murmur of agreement. "On the other hand, how do you get anyone close enough to infiltrate the base?"
"We borrow something off GalCop," Kalangu said.
"What?" demanded Williams.
"They're working on a 'stealth device'. I believe they've got a prototype."
"Oh, come on," Williams retorted. "The cloaking device has been a fictional tool for a thousand years."
"And hyperspace was for the first few hundred years of them. GalCop seem quite confident that they are on to something. It's not a 'cloaking device', as you put it, anyway. I believe it works by masking out tell-tale EM signatures and analysing active scanners on other vessels and jamming them. It's still visible to the eye, though. You could always paint your ship black if that bothers you."
"And you can persuade GalCop to lend it to you?"
"You already want me to get hold of the probes. Why don't you try them?"
"I'll do it," volunteered Kirrik. "I've got connections in the police."