Project: Spectre

Chapter Fifteen: Exile's Return

May 31, 2098

The USC had regulations against a captain fraternizing with members of his crew. But Miranda was a mercenary. Initially, the idea was to act like a couple to avoid suspicion while on the Broken Arrow, but things didn't change when the ship docked on Tinia. I enjoyed her company, and if everything went to shit, we would give each other a reason to come home alive. Also, my general rule of thumb is if your biggest argument with a woman is who is the better shot, she's a keeper.

Once we were back on the Eclipse, I told Williams where Miranda told me I could find the Exile's ship. "The Exile's Return is orbiting a planet in Alliance space called Solitude."

"So your mercenary girlfriend was hired by the Exile." She said. "Looks like handling things personally is going to be their downfall." I started to leave the bridge. Before I got to the elevator, I remembered what Miranda said about needing reenforcements.

"Jefferson, get the USC on the line. We're going to need some help." I yelled at the comm officer on the upper portion of the bridge.

Once I reached my quarters, I noticed that there were now three armor stands in there instead of the two that were present when I left. One had my Spectre armor, another had the armor I found on the ice planet- which I had dubbed Raider armor, after the English translation for the name of what are essentially demons in Tinian mythology- and the last one had a set of blue armor with orange accents. Miranda was laying on the bed. "What's this?" I asked.

"There are sixteen bunk beds in the crew quarters. A sixteen man crew keeping the ship afloat, three squads of four marines, two Spectres, and a teenager with the ability to move things with her mind. I figured it would be easier to put my stuff in here, just in case you plan on recruiting one more person into your crusade. Unless of course, you'd perfer spooning with Psycho." I got to admit, that made me chuckle. "Do you have a plan for boarding the Exile's ship?"

"Not yet." I answered. The flight from Tinia to Solitude would take about a week. I had time to think of one. Of course, if I knew what kind of reenforcements I would get, I could come up with a way to utilize my assets. Miranda told me the Exile's Return was a modified Vulture-class carrier. Basically, all the weaponry carriers posess (aside from fighters) are point defense weapons. But if we were to attempt to board via dropship, a point defense cannon would be more than enough to blow us out of the sky. Point defense weapons were automated, so the Eclipse could escape their notice, but the fighters coming out of the hangars would be an issue.

When we reached Solitude, I learned that Miranda was not overestimating the size of the fleet. I didn't even know the Alliance had that many ships. It wasn't hard to pick out the Exile's Return, however. She was at least twice the size of any of the ships escorting her. "No sign of reenforcements yet, sir. The cloaking systems are online." Williams reported.

"Sir, I ran a scan of the flagship and all the hangars are sealed. Getting in position to open one will be close to impossible with all these frigates will be impossible." Echo reported. "Hold on. We have ships decelerating from FTL." I walked up the ramp to the upper section of the bridge as an entire USC battle fleet becomes visible. Both sides started firing before the entire fleet was in-system. The USC Leviathan appeared close enough to the Eclipse for me to see her from the viewport on the bridge.

"Williams, full speed ahead. Gunnery, get ready to fire the second enemy ships are in range." I yelled. "Echo, get down to the cargo hold with the rest of the team and prepare for boarding action."

"Aye, sir." She said before heading down the elevator. I was already in full battle gear. I had traded every part of my Spectre armor for the Raider armor except for the back part of my torso and the gauntlets. The torso was where the active camouflage generator was located, and the left gauntlet had the controls for it.