Sigma Weekly fiction

During CPT Len Eode's 18th installment of the Sigma Squadron Weekly report, he began to add his own fiction. This became an episodic adventure which is updated biweekly outside the weekly report and emailed out to the Corps.

Episode 1

• ISDII Warrior's Flight Deck - Today 0549h

Len and Exar walked towards under the gantry that guides the TIEs to the launching rack and the repair shops. This mission had been tough, a simple patrol that had ended with a small New Republic force popping in for a hit and run attack. "It makes me nervous that the NR is getting this bold," Len said "makes me think they're up to something." "Anything unusual in the intelligence reports?" Exar asked. "Nothing that screams we're coming after the Emperors Hammer, especially after their defeat this past summer." Len pondered this, there had been no reports of any activity of any kind on the NR forces. The only activity noted in the EH region had been some smugglers. Len stopped in his tracks, “Exar, go back to your ship and pull all the flight recorder information you can!” Exar nodded and ran back to his TIE Advanced. Keying a few buttons on his commpad he repeated the same message to Crix and Spiffy.

• Sigma Commander's Office - Today 0601h

"I'm sorry to get you out bed so early sir, but this is quite interesting," Len said standing at attention as VA Plif walked into the room. "You have any coffee, Captain?" the Admiral replied. Len handed him a fresh cup and poured him some from the machine in the office. "Thanks," he took a sip, "what is this all about?" Len turned the monitor on his desk so that both of them could see it "Well sir, after speaking with intelligence and with the other Squadron Commanders in the Wing, we have noticed a pattern of attacks on our patrols. Just before we get to the defense perimeter, two flights come in and attack like so and try and draw us to the waiting squadron like this." Plif nodded, "Sounds like a solid tactic to me, question is why is intelligence mentioning only pirate movements and not something like this?" . . .

• Sigma Commander's Office - present

So it looks like the New Republic may be on the move, and there may be more going on in Intelligence than meets the eye. Keep your eyes on the lookout as you fly. I hope that you all enjoyed the fiction this week, next week the story will continue! As I mentioned above the MSEs will be submitted 30 minutes after the report is sent out. Let me know what you think of the new report structure. Don't forget the new week of Warrior Trivia starts today. We are Sigma, we are the Sum of All Fears!

Episode 2

• ISDII Warrior’s Bridge Tower: Commodore’s Briefing Room - 13 days ago

The COM walked down the corridor just off the main bridge turning to the first door on his right. Colonel Frown was seated near the door, at his post, snapped to attention and called the assembled squadron commanders to attention. VA Plif walked over to the podium opposite Frown’s seat and placed his code cylinders into the panel on the podium. The door sealed shut and the light above it turned red.

“Gentlemen, this meeting is classified: Level 1,” the COM said with a coldness that sucked the murmurs out of the air, “Nothing, and I mean nothing, said in here is to be discussed outside of this room. What I am about to tell you could shake the Strike Fleet to the core.”

The assembled commanders nodded, silently.

Plif smiled, “Now that that is out of the way, take your seats.”

Looking down, Plif brought up the slides on the briefing screen. The lights dimmed and the pilots were bathed in the multi colored light.

“This is a heavily modified R-22 A-Wing fighter from Sigma 1-3’s camera last patrol.”

The slide changed.

“This is Sigma 2-1 and Sigma 3-1’s shot composited together to give greater depth. As you will note this is allegedly a ‘Pirate modified’ version.

Changing the slide to a similar shot. In the corner the time stamp read Kappa 2-1 on the day when Kappa patrolled around the Warrior.

“Note the seemingly horrendous job of integrating the extra power cells on the outside. Intelligence assures me that that horrible job provides power you wouldn’t believe to those blasters.

Sections of Intelligence are also saying that they knew about this months ago, but did not pass it on to us due to some ‘bureaucratic mix up’. Our ISB officer spoke with me and stated that more than likely it is due to a double agent/mole in Intelligence.”

A murmur floated across the room as the commanders shared ideas.

Lieutenant Colonel Wraith spoke up, “With all due respect COM, why did they tell us this. We’re pilots, not spies.”

“A good point,” the COM said stepping from behind the podium and raising a clicker, ”this is why.”

The grainy image of a man dressed in crewman coveralls handing a data stick over to another man wearing a large cape like cloak whos back was to the camera.

“The image you see here was taken 3 months ago during the NR’s most recent incursion at a small way station in EH Territory. As you can see the establishment doesn’t have good recorders. This is our target,” Plif said using a low intensity laser to point to the man with his back to the camera. “While ISB hunts their traitor in the ranks, we are to begin looking for this man. Every space port, every cantina, every single planet in the EH territories will be searched until we find this man. Colonel Frown suggest that this man, more than likely, has his own ship.”

“Do we have any idea of what kind of ship he’ll be flying?” General La’an asked, “I mean there’s plenty of Galaxy and plenty of ships.”

“If I know spacers who dress like him, probably an old beat up CEC transport, with plenty of guns,” Lieutenant Colonel Repulsor added.

“All good thoughts gentlemen,” Plif started, “Intelligence is working on the docking bay videos as we speak. ISB said they would forward me whatever they get as well.”

Captain Len Eode looked up, “How can we trust either group, sir? ISB may turn on us and Intelligence may be feeding us false intelligence.”

The Vice Admiral smiled, “Also a good point, at this moment all we have to go on is what both groups say. We need to be ready if something happens and Colonel Frown is walking through the reports with a fine toothed comb to find anything to be suspicious of.”

The COM stepped back behind the podium, “You will all be receiving missions in the next few days, mostly patrols. Some squadrons may receive direct strike missions to keep our operations under wraps.”

Pulling the cylinders out of the podium, the doors unlocked.

“Good luck gentlemen. For the Empire!”

Episode 3

Warrior Commodore, Vice Admiral Plif, called a classified meeting with the Squadron Commanders of

Wing II about a possible mole onboard. While the Imperial Security Bureau looks for the mole, the pilots

of Wing II will be secretly searching for the mysterious contact, who has been dubbed “Subject Q”:

• ISDII Warrior – Zone 2, Level 10: TIE Corp Officer’s Cantina: 2 days ago

Len walked into the cantina. He looked over at the bartender and nodded. The barkeep nodded back, gathering 7 glasses and starting to fill them. Len pulled his cap off as he came up to the table, lined with the rest of his Squadron. Spiffy the Chicken was wrapping up one of his Ryloth tales, which Len who had known Spiffy quite a while was never sure if it was true.

“So I said to her, that’s not a power cable that’s a commnet cable.” The table laughed.

“Hey Len! We saved a seat for you,” Spiffy said.

“Thanks,” he replied taking his seat between the two flight leaders.

“Anything come back from our latest patrol footage?” Exar asked, “I know we didn’t see much but those new Scimitars definitely have better resolution than our Advanced’s.”

Len shook his head as the bartender walked over to deliver the drinks, “Not yet, they are still…Thanks just on my tab please,” he broke as his drink was placed down, “They’re still trying to enhance the frame Kaisin got of Spiffy and Michael firing at the bogie.”

Spiffy pounded his fist on the table, “I know we got him boss, Michael and I fired at least two missiles at him and both registered as hits.”

Michael Emrys nodded, “I watched my target indicator, and it was a clean hit. I don’t know how there wasn’t any wreckage at all.”

“Kaisin and I checked at least 3 times, nothing was left. Not even a trace of anti-matter or explosive residue,” Crix added, “It’s like they were ghosts or something.” Len pondered the conversation and suddenly cleared an open space on the table.

“Let’s walk through this,” Grabbing the salt, pepper, COL Frown’s Brand eleven herbs seasoning, ketchup, vinegar, a mug of ferment, and a spoon. Len laid them out in formation.

“Crix is salt, Kaisin is pepper, Spiffy is the Seasoning, Michael is the spoon, I’m vinegar, Exar is ferment, and Valic is the ketchup,” he grabbed a sugar packet and placed it at 11 o’clock from the front of the formation.

“This is the ghost fighter, which Flight I detected at T+45 from launch. At that point I ordered Flight II…”

Crix picked up, “…To begin recording the attack, I ordered my mission specialist to activate the recorder and zoom in as close as possible on the target…”

“I did the same and moved here,” Kaisin continued moving the pepper shaker to the right flank of the ghost fighter, “Crix moved…”

“Here to cover you,” Crix smiled as he moved the salt shaker to the 10 o’clock of the ghost fighter, “and to get a better shot of it...”

“As you guys were maneuvering, I ordered Flight III to…” Len started Spiffy excitedly took over, ”You told us to lock onto the fighter while you…” Michael took over, “Took Flight I to the left flank to try for an even closer look, but…”

“The fighter turned and tried to make a run for us,” Valic started, “but Spiffy fired his missile which made the fighter turn back at the open gap.”

“At this point we have him surrounded on all sides except one, Michael fires a missile as well,” Exar added.

“My targeting computer registers a hit and I saw an explosion,” Michael finished.

“Mine did too, and first I might add,” Spiffy shot back jokingly, “Then you told Flight II to cut across and look for debris...”

“But we didn’t find any, not a single thing,” Crix said mildly frustrated, “we’re back at square one.”

Everyone’s eyes fixed on the scene before them, they let their minds float back to the skirmish, only hours before.

Spiffy leaps to his feet, causing most of the Squadron to jump and shout, “I’VE GOT…oh wait no that wouldn’t work.”

“What did you think of,” Len asked, “Anything is possible.”

“What if it was a space mirage? You know, like on Tatooine…but in space.”

There was some silence as Spiffy sat down.

“It could be a projected image, but the problem is where was the reflected surface?” Exar asked. “Better question, why would the NR try that? I mean unless they were watching it to see how we’d…” Crix trailed off, “Oh boy.”

Len stood up and walked to the nearest comm panel near the door and keyed the main line.

“Central Communications,” the voice emanating from the panel said.

“I need the Vice Admiral immediately,” Len replied with authority.

• ISDII Warrior – Section 1 Deck 13 ISB Investigation Division’s Office – Several minutes later

Lieutenant Colonel Repulsor and Captain Eode stood behind Vice Admiral Plif in the office. The ISB Chief Investigator Bracket handed the data pad over to the COM.

“Sounds like these two squadrons in particular are chasing ghosts Plif,” the Chief said, “We checked for minute traces of clear polymers and found some in the flight records of each craft. You two are the only ones to come in contact with these ghost spy fighters.”

“Any reason sir?” Repulsor asked.

“We’re working on it, but for now I think your COM has a new mission to give you both…”

Episode 4

• • Previously in Sigma Weekly Fiction:

The pilots of Sigma Squadron figured out that the New Republic may be bating their squadron into fights they may not be prepared for. Captain Len Eode and fellow Squadron Commander Lieutenant Colonel Repulsor of Kappa Squadron have learned that their Squadrons are being targeted by holographic ships for some nefarious purpose. We join the two commanders after their briefing 9 days ago.

• ISDII Warrior – Turbolift #3 headed for Pilot’s Barracks

Both LC Repulsor and CPT Eode stood in silence, reflecting on what they had been told in the briefings. If they truly were being observed in their responses to threats by the New Republic, who knows what damage could be done. The turbolift stopped and changed directions. “I don’t know whether to be honored or not that they chose us,” Len said breaking the silence. “Yeah,” Repulsor chuckled, “I just hope this plan works, so many moving parts.” “Too many if you ask me.” “We have to be three steps ahead of them, though if you think about it, this is more like a thousand…”

• ISDII Warrior – Zone 2 Level 30 Wing Briefing Room

Colonel Frown brought down the house lights and keyed up the presentation for the briefing as the two commanders entered.

Rep stood up to the podium first, “Gentlemen. As you no doubt know, over the past several weeks we have been tracked and observed by unknown forces using some sort of holographic ships. Intelligence has noted that Kappa and Sigma are the only two squadrons that this is happening to. The purpose of this mission is to: Find the enemy holoship, target its source, and trace the signal back to the observation point.”

Rep stood back and Len took over, “We will do this by simply falling for the normal trap they set for us. As soon as an unidentified craft appears on our scopes, Sigma will begin a standard attack run on the target, except for Sigma 2-1. Crix and his bombardier Chestang will stay back to tap into the holonet signal the New Republic is using to control the holoship. He will then relay the data to Rep who will then lead Kappa to the source of the signal. Sigma will follow right after.”

Len stepped back, this doesn’t sound so bad, he thought, this should be simple.

“Sigma will destroy the holoprojector/observer device before Kappa jumps to hyperspace. This should prevent the NR forces from knowing we’re coming, emphasis on should,” Repulsor said, “Are there any questions?”

The pilots turned to each other and whispered briefly, but no one said anything.

“Excellent,” Len replied to the silence, “If there are any questions, you can ask either LC Repulsor or myself in the next 24 hours.”

LC Tempest raised his hand.

“Tempest you have a question?” Rep said

“I do sir,” he started, “Won’t the New Republic realize something is amiss when they see both squadrons they have been watching appear together?”

“Good question Tempest,” Len thought a moment, “We had been planning a joint exercise between our two squadrons for some time now. This mission accelerated the plans, along with the deployment of the Hammer to the other side of EH space.”

Tempest nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer.

“Anyone else?” Rep asked, “Alright, dismissed.”

Both sets of pilots snapped to attention and respectively shouted at the top of their lungs, “KAPPA HYPE!” and “THE SUM OF ALL FEARS!” at the same time.

As the pilots shuffled out of the briefing room, Rep, Frown, and Len stayed towards the front.

“He asked a good question Captain Eode, they’ll notice something is off,” Frown whispered with a frown.

“Yeah, but the Kawolski has to remain a surprise. We can’t tip our hand that it’s coming until the last second,” Rep replied.

“I hate lying to the guys, but I agree with Rep. If there is a leak somewhere on the ship we have to make sure they don’t know,” Len shrugged, “Maybe we’ll get lucky and not need it”

The three started to make their way up the aisle when a Petty Officer approached them.

“Sirs,” the young man said to the group as he saluted, “pardon the interruption, but this came for Captain Eode. Priority One.”

He handed Len the datapad, who keyed his code and read the message.

“Are you sure this is correct Petty Officer?” Len asked slightly stunned.

“Verified it myself. Do you need anything sent out, sir?” the NCO asked.

Distantly he replied, “No that’ll be all, carry on.”

As the PO ran off into the corridor, Len said his goodbyes to Rep and Frown and agreed to meet them in the cantina later. He went to his office, locked the door and brought up the Warrior’s CommNet. He typed in the signal frequency manually from memory.

Silence.

Len let some fear creep into his mind. He hit the “retransmit” command several more times with no change.

I guess it true then, he leaned back in his chair, she was gone...