Love thy Enemy? (manxman)

a.n. I made ‘spacheolis’ up any likeness to something real is purely coincidental. Also excepting from the vaguely referenced Robin Hood Legend, all the characters are mine. Also not sure if the title is quite right I'll listen if anyone has suggestions. :)

Prologue

Upon the destruction of the flagship ‘Lionheart’ and the death of Commander Richard Plantagent the surviving crew were disbanded and reassigned until such time as a new ship and crew could be commissioned. Among them were Lieutenant Commander Robin Locksley and Lieutenant Ahmed Kapal.

These two men both proven soldiers in their own right, were assigned a delicate mission. Their assignment was to infiltrate the rebel group down on the planet (P 212’s) surface, also known as ‘Sherwood’ after an old Earthen Legend, embarking from the orbiting Space Station Orion. As a secondary objective they were to uncover and expose the connection and possible leak between the Anglaise Federation and the rebel contingent. 

Chapter 1

“Ahhh,” Robin moaned to himself. He’d never get used to cryo sleep. 

Beside him, in his own pod, Lieutenant Kapal was also waking from his forced slumber.

Moving jerkily into an upright position he made sure the Lt. was coherent before heading to the comm unit beside the entrance door. 

“This is Lt. Commander Locksley reporting. What is our location?”

“Sir, this is Flight Officer O’Hara. We are about to dock into Space Station Orion. Captain Mortain requests you report to the bridge ASAP.”

“Understood, O’Hara. Notify the Captain we are on our way.”

With this the Lt Commander turned to Kapal and at the others nod opened the doors.

The ship they were on was a hybrid transport ship. This meant that the ship was mainly a civilian transport for colonization purposes but was also equipped with defensive weaponry. After the first 50 years of expansion from the secondary base Navarre the Federation had found it frugal to consolidate both transportation and military readiness in the one vessel.

Though this ship was configured slightly different to the ‘Lionheart’ both made it to the bridge speedily enough.

Once on the bridge they snapped to attention and waited for the Captain to acknowledge them.

“Lt Commander Locksley, Lt Kapal.” Both men nodded. “Good follow me, Kevins you have the bridge.”

The captain led them into a small room off the main bridge area, indicating that they should take a seat.

“I am aware you received an abridged version of your mission while in cryo sleep. Now I will tell you the details. P212, also called ‘Sherwood’ by the populace was as you know colonised roughly 20 years ago and for all intents and purposes appeared standard that is until now.”

“Recently, small uprisings and murmurs of discontent have become apparent amongst the colonists. The reason for these uprisings is in part due because discoveries made of the new chemical ‘R22’. Chemical ‘R22’ was identified on this planet 5 years ago and though only in the beginning stages of scientific exploration it is already acknowledged to be a remarkable substance that could be the basis for a vaccine against different strains of ‘Spacheolis’.”

The captain waited a moment to see if the two men understood the dire importance of this information. Which they did, everyone knew about ‘Spach’ pretty much if you got it you died, end of story. Thankfully it was almost as hard to get as it was to cure. Although, during the first and second wave expansions 10,000’s had died from it.