With this information, Nevada and Wombat reported back to the Admiralty. An expedition to Kitono was clearly indicated, and they felt a ground encounter of unknown scale was likely. They thus put in a request for a platoon of Collacan Marines as support.
Twenty were assigned, with their two APCs for transport, and directed to meet the party at Shadira Downport.
Feng, adopting a different disguise with cut and dyed hair, used a hired truck to collect the contents of her flat and transfer them to the starport. As she travelled, she contacted the office of the Commissioner and requested a watch on anyone running checks on their fake IDs. A bit of creative programming from Wombat set up a few automated routines that would simulate activity from these, to make them appear to still be in use.
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With everyone gathered at the starport, the Long Walk was loaded up for the mission. Apart from their own APC, the cargo hold was cleared, and the local marines loaded their two vehicles in.
Their leader was one Lieutenant Tindall, supported by a gravel-voiced sergeant named Swaggart. With the yearning of Collace to become an Imperial world, and the example set by the Cats during the Battle of Collace, the Marines were entirely comfortable working with them - in fact, regarded them with considerable respect. Although (to Feng's disappointment) Tindall firmly ruled out gambling on the three-day flight, the Marines were very pleased to be catered for by Feng and Feaysen, and several were tempted into some of the food and drink upgrades in which the pair specialized.
As they travelled, Nevada conversed with Vespasian. "How do we protect ourselves against something like you?" he asked. "You are very unlikely ever to encounter anything else like me," was the answer. "How do we repair you, should something happen?" "You don't." Vespasian had been analysing the malware from the sensor arrays, and he mentioned that it was inconsistent in its functioning. "Made by different people?" asked Nevada. "No, more an inconsistent delivery from its' creator."
They came in from the 'cruiser side' of the iceworld, the opposite side of the planet to the reported landing site of the Dendra's Curse. Drones were sent to covertly observe the far side, to no effect; no huge base, no terrifying defences, nothing; only half a dozen sites where ships had at some time harvested the ice to refuel. Finally the Long Walk was orbited around to be able to survey the hemisphere. Wombat set up a search pattern and sensor deployment to look as much like "how the Scouts do it" as possible, and set to scanning.
It took fifteen hours.
Finally, just at the edge of detection, a tiny temperature fluctuation was picked up. Drones were sent in to discover an ice cave, carved with lasers, around 30m long; just big enough to get a Type A merchant with a brave pilot in. It was empty, but two cargo-sized airlocks had been fitted at the far end, leading off left and right. No power signatures could be picked up from the other side, but the airlock controls had small status lights; there was power coming from somewhere.
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There was going to be no option but to go down and investigate.
The Marines and Feng loaded into the Collacan APCs and the Long Walk descended from orbit, to hover just above the ice rather than make a mark by landing. Landing a suitable distance away, four Marines were left to guard the vehicles and the rest of the platoon followed Feng towards the caves. She watched the locals move and cover, and was impressed with their professional skills.
Very cautiously, they hacked into one of the airlocks and moved into the cave beyond. It was unoccupied but not empty. Four rows of racks for modular low berths stood in the circular cavern, each linked to a large battery pack that also powered the doors. To one side was a portable fusion generator, connected but powered down. On the other side was a large heap of dismantled spaceship lifepods; on closer examination both Trexalonian and Collacan in design.
The racks could have held several hundred berths, but were more than three-quarters empty with around 200 occupied. External indicators showed the occupants as in fairly good condition for people stored in emergency Low for nearly a year. The second airlock led to a similar installation. This, then was where the missing personnel had been routed, and these were some of them. Not all, however. Under Wombat's instructions, the popsicles were transferred to the Long Walk and connected to power there. As they did, they realized that the design was the same as the ones they'd found on their first visit to Slavers' Bay.
The question was raised as to why slavers would kidnap servicemen, who they regarded as being unlikely to co-operate. Wales rather pityingly opened a window onto pirate life, explaining that 'recruits' would be taken on raids and forced at gunpoint to commit more and more black acts until they were so tainted that they would believe there was no redemption for them.
The data on the Dendra's Curse (or Brady) suggested that she was likely to return sometime in the next three days. Sensor scans located a nice big chunk of wrecked capital ship in a rough captured orbit of Karthas nearby, where the Long Walk could power down and hide.
For the Long Walk, the trip between the wreckage and Kitono would take a mere ten minutes, with another ten for power plant start; whereas a standard A Class would need forty minutes to reach Jump point. The plan, then, was to take the survivors and two Marines to the mothballed Scout research station on Kex, hide the Long Walk in the wreckage, and set an ambush with Feng and the Marines in the caves.
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With Shadowcats posted outside, snuggled down into the snow and with line of sight into the caves, Feng, two cats and the Marines split themselves between the two caves, closed the airlocks and settled down to wait.
The next day, the Dendra's Curse jumped in, skimmed at Karthas, and went into orbit around Kitono. The Cats were hoping she would land, but instead she disgorged a standard launch which descended to the planet and slid neatly into the outer cave. The cats transmitted video, showing three figures in vacc suits - presumably crew - and three in combat armour, most likely muscle. They moved up to the right-hand airlock and one of each entered, closing and pressurizing the lock.
Deep in space, the Long Walk powered up and tumbled elegantly free from the wreckage, burning at a full 5g towards Kitono.
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As the inner airlock door opened, Feng and her six Marines were waiting, rifles lowered, and the two pirates were taken by surprise. "Hello, boys!" said Feng brightly (and only partially correctly). Sensibly, they dropped their weapons, and the Marines secured them, then returned to watching the hatch. This could be really easy if they come through two at a time, thought Feng. Then she noticed the feed from Twinkles.
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The party were not the only ones with unit telemetry. The pirates left outside the freezer cave had instantly started moving back towards the launch, clearly well aware of what had happened to their confederates. Feng barked orders, and she and the Marines threw the overrides and charged through the airlocks.
Overhead, the Dendra's Curse suddenly hit her drives and broke orbit at her best possible acceleration.
A blaze of gunfire erupted, and both the ship crew went down instantly, dead or dying, as did one of the Marines. The thugs however proved more resilient, their combat armour reducing their fate from death to wounds as they backed up. "Surrender!" yelled Feng through her armour's speakers, and one of the men dropped his gun and stepped forward, inadvertently shielding the other. The braver one promptly dropped his ex-comrade from behind and stepped backwards into the launch, slapping the control to close the hatch. Feng dashed forwards and hammered on the external controls - well, you never knew - while the 'cats and Marines hammered gunfire at the outside of the vessel, despite the futility of it.
There was a spirited discussion of the mechanics of gauss and laser fire vs a launch's hull. The ship description rates its' armour as 0, but that is in space combat terms. It is ridiculous to suppose a spacecraft has less thick a hull than a civvie vehicle (+15 points). Mongoose suggests +TL armour against small arms, whereas MegaTraveller rated a 0 armour space craft as 40 AP vs ground scale weapons. I came down in favour of that. There was some frustration about the bad guy getting away - however ...
The launch lifted from the ice - and slammed up into the ceiling of the cave. Slabs and showers of ice crashed down as Feng and the Marines scattered. It then slammed forward into the cave end, reversed and scraped out of the entrance, still peppered with gauss and laser fire.
The man at the controls, however, was not a trained pilot; and he was also wounded badly enough to be on the edge of death. The launch tumbled spectacularly as it hurtled across the landscape, before its drive fired up - facing down.
After the explosion had faded and the ice had stopped falling, Feng looked up towards the two ships. "Over to you," she transmitted.