Pirate Hunting

With preparations for departure complete, John and Pytor visited Tom at ISS Intelligence.  They explained concerns that the hostage rescue could end up in capture of STARLIT.  Although Tom felt the pirates needed the hostage swap to work so that future hostages could be sold, he listened to John’s plans for increased safety.

Ultimately it was agreed that two battle dress suits might be very helpful if the enhanced servos were accompanied by installed anti-grav belts and FGMP or PGMP weapons systems.   Time was short to find such things on a world without a Navy base, but Tom had some ideas.  He would also look into an improved Low PSG “coffin.”  Although STARLIT had a Medic-2, if might save the boy’s life (or a crewmember’s) in the event of a very serious injury.  He would also look for five accelerator rifles although he was skeptical of their effective use without skilled training.  Finally, Pytor asked for a 50-ton inflatable fuel tank in case of the need for a double-jump.  That would be easy to find and Tom had one in mind.

By the end of the day he had located two battle dress suits outfitted with PGMP-12s and anti-grav belts.  Comms systems worked in each as did cooling and heating systems, but IR and low vis sensors did not.  Both had slightly tainted smells and neither was Marine battlefield green – the larger one was bright red and the smaller was black.  They had clearly been last used by mercenaries, although logos on the chest has been painted over with a black square.

On the morning of departure STARLIT was fueled, loaded, and ready to begin the first leg of the route which would eventually become Hefry to Roup to Feri and then Enope to Keng.  In addition to normal duties, John would have a great deal of training to do during jump-space.