Renegade

Renegade Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Contrary to Kokona's belief, navigating through the exterior debris field was not difficult at all. After getting through the debris field, Kokona called up Dacia to help with confirming the coordinates for the FTL jump they would make to the asteroid belt. Setting the coordinates and making the jump was an easy task, but once the Guiding Star got to the belt, the plan hit a snag.

Kokona was expecting this belt to be easy to navigate like the one back in the Sol system, but she was sorely mistaken. Unlike the one back home, it was not made of large asteroids and chunks of ice that were spaced widely apart and relatively stationary, but of small to medium sized asteroids with just barely enough space to fly through. Add the fact that the asteroid belt was also rotating quickly to the equation, and veteran pilots of the Imperial Space Command would have considered it an impossible feat, but Kokona's lack of experience may have been what saved the Guiding Star. For where she lacked in experience, Kokona made up for in youthful optimism and sheer determination to get the job done.

Every so often an asteroid hit the Guiding Star and caused it to shake violently. The first time Aria stumbled out of her cabin yelling, "What in all the universe was that, Kokona?"

The second time Dacia had been making a call back to Aria's father. That time, the offending piece of rock had taken out part of the communication's array.

"Dacia, I can hear you, but I can't see you. What happened?" Sebastian said. His hologram had fuzzed out of existence.

Dacia quickly replied, trying to placate the already worried emperor and father. "Uh nothing serious, just flying through a mostly uncharted asteroid. No need to worry."

"What? Never mind. I don't want to know. Just get out of there alive and in once piece."

"Yes, sir."

Finally, after a white-knuckled ride, the Guiding Star made it through the asteroid belt, mostly in one piece. Aria called another meeting in the ship's conference room, but only Petro and James attended. The other guards were resting in their berths.

"Now that that task is over with, we should finalize our plans for infiltrating the facility on Hallion," she said once everyone had assembled.

"Do we even know what the surface of Hallion is like?" asked Petro.

Kokona spoke up. "No, but I can get the Guiding Star to do a scan for electromagnetic activity. The largest concentration should be where the camp is."

"Will we be able to keep the cloaking device up while that is happening?" Aria inquired of her friend.

"Unfortunately, no."

"How long will the scan take Kokona?" Aria asked Kokona.

"Long enough to be detected if we aren't careful."

"How much long?" Aria persisted.

"About 10 minutes, maybe less, maybe more."

"Do we know if Hallion has any moons?" Gabriel asked.

Aria was surprised. Gabriel had kept to himself most of the trip, preferring to stay in the medical bay and watch golf or take naps.

"I think so," Aria replied. "We don't know much about the planet. Our exploration ships either don't make it to Hallion or are attacked by the R'Nari and come back without a complete report."

"There is one. It's uninhabited," Dacia said. Everyone on the Guiding Star had stopped being surprised when Dacia knew something the rest didn't.

Gabriel continued speaking. "If it is possible, we could hide behind that moon while my sister completes the scans. It would lessen the chances of us being discovered."

"Yes. That will work," Kokona affirmed. Now she addressed Petro and James. "However, in the likelihood that we are discovered, you and the others will need to be in the gunner positions."

"Yes ma'am," they said before standing up to leave.

***

When Kokona disengaged the FTL drive of the Guiding Star for the second time, the ship jolted slightly. Aria and Dacia were on the command deck with Kokona.

Dacia remarked, "You know, if we had found this planet first, it probably would have gotten turned into a resort of some kind. Either that or another mining colony."

Hallion did look like a beautiful planet from the view of the girls on the ship. Large bands of wispy clouds drifted continents that were multiple shades of green and what looked like pastel colored oceans. Kokona flew the Guiding Star as close to the solitary moon as possible and set the autopilot to follow the moon in orbit.

A monitor on the back wall of the command deck showed the results of the electromagnetic scan.

"Well, that's interesting," Kokona declared.

"What?" Aria and Dacia asked at the same time.

"Right here," Kokona explained, pointing to the map. "A large concentration of electromagnetic activity, and no activity anywhere else."

"That has to be the place," Aria concluded. "Bring us down."

Kokona reengaged the cloaking device before moving from their position behind the moon. As the Guiding Star descended into the atmosphere of Hallion, Aria noted that the enormous white clumps were in reality crystals grouped closely together. Smaller crystals that weren't visible from space came into view as well.

Flying as carefully as possible, Kokona landed the Guiding Star in a ring of these crystals. Now everyone was gathered by the Guiding Star's exit hatch ready to send off Dacia, Petro and James. Gabriel had outfitted them with environment suits to protect them from any radiation they might encounter and to allow them to breath oxygen through a tank. While the Guiding Star was crossing the asteroid belt, the sensors that were supposed to give environmental feedback were damaged.

"Stay safe, you three," he had said.

The exit hatch opened, and the three scouts stepped out into the unknown.