01 - Formation

Ages - Age of Expansion - Ghost Squadron

Exploration >>

Another arm of the Federation is formed, one that will act surreptitiously, so that Federation will not be responsible. Julianna Fregin and Lance Reynolds spearhead the discovery and development of a new character, Edward "Eddie" Teach, who will captain the reconstructed original QBSArchAngel, originally destroyed in the battle with the Leath. Reynolds had kept all ruined parts, data copies of original ship, reconstructed it for Federation/Bad Companies purposes. New home, ship of Ghost Squadron, along with the Q-Ships designed by "Hatch". Good adventures, rounded characters.

First Meeting; On Onyx station

Chapter 02

Edward Teach , “Eddie”, meets Lance Reynolds and Julianna Fregin in a bar at the edge of the Galaxy. They have come looking for him, as a man they want to help save the Federation. Humanity was under attack and it needed to be protected. Teach and Fregin about to become partners.

All meet on Onyx Station, Julianna and Eddie go to bars to become better acquainted. Started with Desert Lounge (Deck 25), end with Wash-It-Down (Deck 13). Eddie nags her about “letting loose”, just fighting to relax. She doesn’t do it. Get into fight with Trids (the shorter grey ones), knocks one out, and it feels good. After this fight, they go down to bar on Deck 8. No further data. On that. Tripinol for hangover next day. Better in five minutes!

Lance Reynolds ans Nathan Lowell meet

Chapter 03

Discuss activities of Julianna and Eddie- “need-to-know” basis only. They’re going at this alone, They’ll work better thinking there’s no backup, no cavalry to save them—and frankly, there might not be. , when the pressure is on, they’ll deliver. These are the best of the best.

Preparing for the Operation; Training for the Opeeration; Background

Chapter 04

Eddie and Julianna are introduced to their new ship, the Q-Ship.(See Vehicles Q-Ship, Experimental). Eddie practices maneuvers (barrel rolls, aeleron rolls, around asteroids. Practiced shooting (old-school guns).

Fighting (sparring in the afternoon) and flying (in the morning) for two straight weeks.

One of our colonies is being attacked by a rogue group of Kezzin pirates (Taller, slender ones). We believe there’s a network overseeing these attacks. A hierarchy of pirates, as it were led by a Kezzin by the name of the Ox King.

Humanity assured its allies that we would only use our remaining forces to defend our borders, not invade or attack other species. Ox is invading colonies along the border. He’s killing our people. I could authorize a strike against his stronghold and take him out openly with a small fleet, but all that would do is bring unwanted attention and make us look like the aggressors. You want it taken care of quietly, is that it?” asked Eddie. “If we go in on our own, no one will know the Federation is responsible. They’ll think we’re working independently.

Exactly so,” confirmed Lance. “What’s more, I need to know who is pulling that bastard’s strings. There’s more to this story than just the Ox King. Of that, I have no doubt. We’ll need to get in, learn what’s going on, and get out, all so we can go after the guy at the top. If anyone discovers the Federation is behind your operation, we could lose our chance at finding the true culprit. The people responsible could slip away and start their shit somewhere else.

I’ve got intel that says Ox is aiming to take out a human colony on Praxus III in two weeks’ time.(Two weeks later) Intelligence indicated that the pirate’s crew had recently been spotted in the Alabaster system, not far from Praxus III. It was a good place to start.

Attack on Kezzin station

Chapter 09

They take off in the REAL Q-ship, disguised as an old junker, falling apart.

Go to pirate’s planet/moon, find that attack ship will be taking off in a few hours. Not enough time to check with Lance. Handle it themselves? Yes! Guns blast fighter apart, into loaded transport ship. Barrage of rockets destroyed transport ship. Q-Ship still cloaked. Ship lands in front of Pirates building, Julianna and Eddie attack main enemies.

Enter, shooting. Kezzins think it’s the Krin (another faction they’re having fights with). Fight their way through halls, up stairs, to Ox King. Attempt to take him alive, can’t do it. Pip downloads computers, they make way to ship, lobbing a grenade into one group of soldiers on the way, came to and inside Q-Ship. Pip had sabotaged the enemy’s canon, so that if it attempted to fire, it would blow up. It did. Julianna and Eddie took off for home.

Met by Lance, all info transferred, rest of the day off, start again tomorrow. Lance determines, from pirate data, that not only was there someone higher up the chain than Ox, but it seemed the network was more extensive than the General initially believed. Messages between Ox and a mysterious entity known only as T detailed plans to expand and attack dozens of Federation colonies, with one goal being to seize and occupy Onyx Station.

Lance would have to send a “party” to “T” to say hello, and to show T how to deal with scum.

Recruiting

Chapter 11

Next task was to fill out team. Julianna & Eddie were the leaders and needed more on team to support activities. First one, A’Din “Hatch”Hatcherik. Go to Ronin, to talk with him. Checked into the Pristine Hotel. Meet with "Hatch" at Chambers Auto, his "office", where he kept his hobby, an Earth Car. Hatch owns an Earth Shelby Cobra. Eddie likes Earth cars, too, so they have a liking in common. Talk to him about coming back to work as their partner. Our mission is to hunt down rising threats outside of Federation space.” Hatch agrees on certain conditions – full access to all of his prior projects, and that he can leave if at any time it seems “fishy”. Agreed, so Hatch said “Yes." All go back to Onyx Station, with the car. (See Characters, A'Din "Hatch" Hatcherik0.

Lance takes them to meet a potential new member of their team – a fantastic hacker, parked near the Asteroid Belt. An AI, on a cloaked ship, the original QBS ArchAngel, the original flagship of the Queen’s Fleet.” Lance grinned again. “And, I might add, your new home.” About forty ion the crew. Less than skeleton. Has been on a need-to-know basis only. Makes Eddie the new Captain of the ArchAngel, Julianna to second him. Not to be taken into battle. Q-Ships will do fighting.

ArchAngel is already combing through the data retrieved from Ox. Early analysis suggests a threat, a damn big one, coming out of nowhere. “I’ll call when Archangel completes her analysis, and we can launch you like an arrow at the bullseye.Hatch will go over the Q-Ship and correct what several dozen engineers, who have looked at it since he was gone, might have done to it. Tells ArchAngel he expects 100% performance from everything. Will not be satisfied with less.

Review Pirate data with ArchAngel. No info on T. Think they are planning an attack within a week on Federation space, from a planet, Exa, 20 light years away,(in Seolus system) with a weapons cache. ArchAngel recommended, “I believe the safest course of action would be to detonate tactical bombs at key locations around the facility. The data I have suggests a force of approximately six hundred personnel, but the number could be higher or lower.” No nukes. Pip to assist with hacking the system from orbit. The last data cache included several authorization pass-codes that should be enough to let us into their network.”

Hatch might be able to develop individual cloaking devices, to better set bombs.

Eddie reviews status of ship, systems, etc. 97% good, active. Julianna tells him she was on original ship, hundreds of years ago. He can’t comprehend that she’s as old as the ship.

Attack on Exa

Chapter 16

Hatch uses Aethercrystal to create individual cloaking devices for Eddie, Julianna. Three meter diameter. Will load the ship, Gate to Exa, set bombs, be off. While sneaking onto Base, noticed by Lars Malseen,a Kezzin, indentured guard, about to stand guard duty. Manage to plant six bombs.

Lars sees Eddie’s footprints on ground, tracking him by them. Alerts guards, Eddie, Julianna captured. Visited by Orsa, Captain of Base. Lars questioning the validity of Brotherhood claims. Hears the truth, releases Eddie, but Pip had hacked the system so that Julianna was released already. Lars advises them to flood the underground weapons storage area, and to take them there to do so. Got them Kezzin rifles for protection Over 24 guards stunned unconscious before they got to control room for weapons area. IN area, alarm sounded – intruders. Lars shows them sewage tunnel they can go down (path alongside waste), to escape.

Detected just outside wall, destroyed wall with armor-piercing shots from Kezzin rifles. Q-Ship re-activates, begins to move toward alien Base, according to program written by Pip, an emergency command package, just in case. Eddie, Julianna and Lars enter ship. Escape. Upon retrieving data from Base, find that there was communication with someone in the Pal system, to be followed up.

PAL System operation

Epilog

The Pal system listed in that coded transmission is also home to a prominent merchant known as Val’Doon Sarnack Well-guarded. There are three dozen drones patrolling it at any given time. Combined, their firepower is very capable. Base is also outfitted with a shield, allowing their ships to pass through, but any unauthorized vessels that come into contact with it are disabled. We can’t pass through.” One way to get through the shield. Use a Q-Ship, but it would be destroyed. “The engines use a very specific type of gravitic energy, configured them to ignite a feedback surge through the field to disable it, although doing so would disable most of the ship’s system.” And the original ship is the only one to have an engine that would work.

Hatch to operate Q-Ship from second vessel, with Pip’s assistance. Julianna, Eddie, et al on first, remotely guided ship. ArchAngel cloaked. Approached by dozens of drones. They appeared to be small, about five meters long, too cramped for a pilot, but that was the beauty of unmanned weaponry.

Drones sense Q-Ships, turn to attack them. Julianna on the guns to stop them, Hatch to go for field, try to penetrate it. Hatch did so, and Q-Ship with attackers penetrated shield, heading for closest moon. Drones appeared, Julianna again destroyed them. Ship gets close to planet, no more drones.

Land, approach twenty-story building, soldiers come out to attack – Kezzins, Trids, and Humans. Kill them, manage to get into building. Hatch worried about his disabled Q-Ship.Group run into Margo, a Federation colonial, who tells them about prisoners, on lower levels. Julianna will go with her to set them free. Julianna, Margo and Jeffrey try to find cells of other prisoners, set them free.

Eddie finds command center,talks with Vas and Orsa, but didn’t realize they were holograms until they disappeared, and were escaping off-moon, on other side of planet. Eddie calls Hatch to move Q-Ship in to pick them up, and ArchAngel to intercept alien ship. Julianna and one Qstop Vas, other Q tries to stop Orsa by ramming his ship. Orsa’s ship explodes, with secondary gravitic wave taking power out of QBS ArchAngel reels in Vas ship, to open it and find Orsa there. Vas had already escaped. Orsa tries to knife Lars, Julianna and Eddie stop the knife, knock him to floor.

Hatch realizes his first ship was destroyed, gets into talk with Pip, decides to try to make EI better programmed, opens panel, goes to work.

Vas, escaped, meets with Human who had set this all up, and would again mastermind it to a bigger completion, allowing Vas to perhaps triumph again

Squadron Name, Call-sign

Chapter 18

Lance Reynolds thinks it’s time for the team to have an official name, so he offers one to them, the nickname of an unofficial team out of the Vietnam War, back on Earth, nicknamed the Ghost Squadron, (Observational Squadron 67 in the United States Navy. Job was to listen to chatter, report back to base what was going on.)

Also, reminded Eddie that he used to be nicknamed (call-sign) Blackbeard. That would be his call-sign from now on.