Pilots: Dagger Squadron [M]

[Yggdrasil_Hugger]

Skesh picked up the comm.

“Dagger Three checking in. I can investigate.” After a moment of crackling silence, he hung up the comm. It didn’t matter if it was Freebooters, debris, or even an engine meltdown, he refused to let them just drift. Most cargo rigs had enough atmo to last a while, even longer if they disabled the artificial gravity and rerouted power to air scrubbers, but starving to death in the great empty nothing was a horrible death.

He slowed his pace and aimed his sensors toward the last transport. All was dark, but he didn’t know how much of that was interference. He groaned. Something felt off about the whole thing.

[Enigma]

Toril frowned. Why was Dagger Actual silent?

She was out here to get away from her sister Valkyrii, but this much silence from their leader was too much!

Maybe it was a test?

"All Daggers, Dagger Actual has gone silent. I'm not seeing much of anything except a lot of debris on my scope. Perhaps Dagger Four could check out the transport while Dagger One checks out our leader? The rest of us could stand by for possible attack?"

[Kach]

Dagger Two - Toril's static filled radar showed her still at the lead of the convoy just ahead of the first ships with Skesh - Dagger Three - at it's center on the port side, slowing in relation to the convoy moving to the rear and coming about to face the Last transport.

Blythe -Dagger One- was still on course keeping pace with the transports, opposite Skesh on the starboard side of the column.

Dagger Four - Soran, in the middle of convoy just above the column, disappeared from radar contact. A momentary glitch or static was frequent, especially out here, but as the seconds ticked by, the contact did not reappear.

Skesh's scanners showed no damage, but the transport was dark. An overheated reactor that had gone into emergency shutdown was the most likely guess from the age of the ships. Something catastrophic would have left unquestionable evidence. The ship should have had backup power to communicate, possibly it failed too, or maybe just the interference from the debris field scrambling their weakened comms?

A few moments ticked by in silence before Toril noticed the transports behind her accelerating and gaining ground on her lead. Captain Sidonus come over the local channel. "All Transports accelerate to evasion speed." The man seemed to be gulping air. "Are they attacking!? One of your ships disappeared from radar! All Transports, check in."

The local open channel was flooded with Transport pilots in varying states of calm and panic giving their status. From the din, one could glean no one had taken any damage or seen any hostile ships.

The last disabled transport was rapidly falling behind with the speed increase, if the convoy wasn't halted soon, the ships would be too far apart to be effectively protected by their escort. No communications pierced the static from Dagger actual outside the debris field.

[Enigma]

By the Mother, were all men so ready to panic? How do I... oh yes!

Bringing her hand up to the transparent bubble of her bioplastic suit, the glove combined with the helmet allowing her hand to pass through with a little effort. Forming a ring with her index finger and thumb, she slipped them into her mouth and blew, hard into the mic.

Her shrill whistle was transmitted on the open channel.

[Yggdrasil_Hugger]

Skesh had a momentary fantasy of turning off his comms as the convoy began to panic. Oh, to simply turn away from this gaggle of idiots and find an easier job. But no. He needed the credits. Suddenly, a loud, piercing whistle split the crackling din of the comms. He allowed the transports a moment to soak in the awkward silence before picking up his comm.

“Captain Sidonus, this is Dagger Three. My scanners are showing no external damage. We aren’t under attack,” yet…, he thought, “It’s probably a reactor overheating. What was the state of the backup generators before liftoff?”

[Kach]

The unintelligible buzz of transports on the open channel sharply cut off and was momentarily replaced by curses and pained cries before fading to the crackle of static.

There was a momentary pause before Captain Sidonus replied cautiously. "Captain Kelso was complaining his backups were still undergoing retrofit before we departed... as far as I know they are offline."

The rise in pirate activity in this sector had taken it's toll on transportation companies. Many were operating at the edge of their limits just to keep colonies and stations from going without the little they usually get ahold of out here.

Abruptly transport Five and Six began a retro burn, slowing rapidly despite the lead four transports burning hard to accelerate.

It would have shown on the Transport's radar as well, but none of them come over comms yet. It seemed they had decided to wait and see what their Escort would say first.