RidOv Chpt-38

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==Ridiculously Overboard!! (A Captain Roberts Tale!!)Chapter 38 - Sizing up the enemy.==
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===Laying low===
Joan's Post System - Outworlds Wastes, Periphery
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"Maintain surveillance and avoid contact."
It made sense.
"you know, it's awfully close to the planet." Larry noted after the first week.
"They fire thrusters to maintain that orbit." Sam observed, "I've been watching-that ship's got someone on helm, and it's being kept in a specific position. The Barons seem to be doing a rotating patrol out to the planet's moon and back, with small-craft patrolling out to the L1 and back, but most of the surface to orbit traffic's going to the Newgarge."
"They're focused on the planet." Amanda noted, "Their attention is securing the area in near-orbit and the closest approach...Sam, has there been activity at the zenith or nadir points?"
"Not much. A couple of Invaders in parking, one's got a docked Union CV Class Fighter Carrier and they're running fighter patrols..."
"So nothing coming in or going out?" she frowned as she asked.
"Nothing."
"They're doing something here. Something that requires that big bastard to hang in low-geosynch." Larry mused.
"Cargo transfer maybe? Big ship like that has a big crew, and big crew needs, and they don't farm on a hull." Sam observed, "also needs fuel, and nobody's running dropship runs to the cometary halo of the system."
"Fuel and food." Amanda mused. "They're here for fuel, food, maybe trading...what? what would they trade?"
"Newgrange's a Yardship originally, if that one's Erinyes, it's had most of the production gear stripped out, but they'll still have on-board machine shops and on a hull that size, the machine-shop would qualify as a factory anywhere else." Sam observed.
"Weapons, maybe ammo??" Amanda suggested. "We need a closer look, find out what they're doing that we can't see with the telescopes."
"You feel it might be important?"
"I feel it might answer a lot of questions." she agreed, "Therefore, it is by definition, important."
"You're thinking they might be the Client of the Sons, aren't you?" Larry suggested.
Amanda nodded, "I think so. There would've been rumors of a big ass bastard with a battlegroup around out here before us, if they'd been here the whole time."
"If they're the clients, we definitely don't want them to escape with their ill gotten goods. If they're the sponsors, we can't afford to let them keep getting away with it." Bedwyr contributed.
"then, we need a plan, something we can carry out before they leave...and a contingency to figure out where they might be going if they do get away."
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===Sizing up the Enemy Forces===
In Transit - Tresspass System, Outworlds Wastes
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"Getting in is the first problem...
...getting out with the information is the second problem, but maybe we should solve that one first." Amanda was observing the telescope.
"What, you got past a Snow Raven garrison-"
"That was on the ground." she said, "They weren't running high-vigilance patterns in the orbitals...see?" she waved a finger and the holoimage with its enhanced images of the ships (several times out of scale to the planet). "They're watching the approaches."
"are you sure they're watching outward?" Larry asked.
"What?" Amanda looked surprised, "Why wouldn't they be, it's what I'd do!"
"They're watching the Zenith, Nadir, and L1 points." Larry explained patiently, "Why would they watch the outer system? how would they watch it, space is big Amanda, it's a lot of area to watch, especially since we inserted in the outer system and slid most of this way on drift. Everything else in the manual, everything in military training, focuses on the points that most attackers or defenders have to keep an eye on. Zenith and Nadir because those are the largest close locations where a Jumpship flotilla can come through without disruption, and they're the easiest to navigate in most systems. the L1, because it's the most common point in use by Pirates and Raiders or cargo-haulers looking to duck customs and the tax man. Trying to watch every potential gravity stable point in a star system is an exercise in either investing heavily in monitor satellites, or futility. Deep Radar installations focus on the stable points and the most predictable non-standards only."
"Hence my making an outsystem insertion with the gas giant in the way...right."
"Layer two is your close-orbit command. That's where most defense garrisons focus, because the area is finite." He added, "So, that leads us to figuring out where their early warning dishes are pointed."
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===Inspiration===
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"I have an idea.
Sam said, interrupting the senior officers.
"Ah, what, Mister Samuel?" Larry asked.
"You need to approach the planet without being seen, right? and the major problem is, braking thrust makes a lance anyone can spot in the sky, like a comet's trail, only bright."
"Yeah..."
"Also aerobraking is visible too, but if you time it right, you'll be passing before or after their patrols." he continued.
"Fair enough."
"But it leaves a visible trail." Larry noted, "Aftershock and energy release."
"Right...but people used things before for space travel, that don't have easily detected, star-hot, kilometers long fusion plasma...and we have a machine shop." Samuel suggested. "How about using ion thrusters for the braking maneuver on approach? The specific impulse is small, but we've got distance, it changes where your turnover is...but..." He hesitantly reached for the console, when nobody stopped him, he began laying it out. "See, it doesn't take a lot to 'blur' or distort a radar return, and we've got that carbonan insulation in storage, and that stuff's EM and especially thermal absorbing..."
"You want to wrap a mark seven in three inches of insulation and cupronickel mesh, and fit a..what is it?"
"Ion thrusters. They're twentieth century tech, but some of the Burrows out by Cambiano still use them for local transits because they're low maintenance, it's not as fast and doesn't push as hard as a fusion rocket, but...on the other hand, we can hang them off the wing hardpoints without too much hassle. It takes a little longer to get there, but if they're bored..."
Amanda looked at Larry, Lori, and Bedwyr. "Can we do that? would it work?"
"We've got the stuff in stores." Sam said, "I mean, I know it's a dumb idea but..."
"We'll try it." she determined. "This will be So Cool if it works!!"
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