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A barely noticable vibration in the metal deck plates beneath his feet gave him his first clue that something was amiss as he stretched the kinks out of his back. He looked around, going to the narrow slit of a viewport that took up the entirety of one wall of his suite, tapping the smart glass to zoom in, to see if the Panzaarians had brought another heavy machine out on to the repair slip some distance below, but he saw none. The vibrations continued, a steady pulse that did not seem to have anything to do with the ongoing repairs of the three Stalker ships below. He looked up at the small, dull emergency light in the far corner of the room. It was slowly pulsing amber, a lethargic warning for everyone to ready themselves for an incoming threat. He frowned and turned to the and switched it on. He flicked through the menus, using the access code the station command had issued him - as they did with every allied high ranking officer, allowing them to view any tactical information if the station came under attack. The Panzaarians were under no illusion about space stations being sitting ducks, no matter how heavily armed they were, and that any form of help, should it be offered, was a great boon that could work both ways. The reward for helping to protect a Panzaarian station, no matter how well fortified, was generally in the vein of a week's free docking going to those with the most kills.

A small reward in the grand scheme of things, but JD had never met a spacer who had turned down an opportunity to dock with a well stocked space station, free of charge. Sometimes, even five hours could make all the difference to a ship and its crew.

'Why the hell can't I get anything...' He growled softly as he flicked through the various channels that were either nothing but static or starting to become incoherent.

He picked up his commset, attached the small device to his ear and connected his wetware to it when the computer refused to show him much beyond electronic interference.

'Spirit, I'm locked out of the station's tacnet.' He said. He cast a furtive look across the room, to the dark blue Dragon curled up in a nest of blankets. The last thing he wanted to do was to wake Shadow up without a damned good reason. A morning person, she was not - even with an amber beacon.

'Yeah, a lot of the channels are down, including the medianet. The station's barely receiving a signal.' She replied. She sounded tired, as if she had just woken up.

JD flicked through more menus as she spoke, trying to find out why Impart's signal had all but died.

'It's all turning to static...' He murmered with some fascination as he watched an entertainment broadcast from Jes'wa flicker out of sync and be reduced to a monochromatic fuzz. A high-pitched keening sound emenated from the speakers and JD hastily turned the volume down. 'That sounds like a jamming signal, if I'm not mistaken.'

The vibrating pulses in the deck started up again. JD stared at the chrono mounted on the wall and counted the minutes. The steady vibrations lasted for two minutes.

'Mmph. I felt that. Feels like the station's firing one of its big guns.' Spirit commented over the comm. 'Yeah, someone's firing the railguns. I can just about see the rounds being fired from my suite. Big bastards... '

'Are you sure?'

'As sure as can be. I'm on the upper portion of the wheel. It's quite easy to see a giant railgun firing if the sun's shining. They take on a silvery gleam, almost like a ribbon of quicksilver connecting the gun to the victim. And what a show we are getting.'

'What direction are they firing in?' JD asked, shutting down the deskcomp. He prodded Shadow awake and started pulling on his smartweave.

'Coreward, about six-positive of the ecliptic. I'll need access to some scanners to get any more info.' She replied as someone hammered on the door to JD and Shadow's suite, hollering for them to get up.

He heard the faint rustle of fabric over the comm and guessed she too, was getting dressed. He shouted over his shoulder to the disembodies voice of the Panzaarian rigger at his door as Shadow sat up on her elbows and heaved a yawn.

'For your sake, we better be in a life or death situation for you to be interrupting my dream.' She grumbled sourly.

'Not sure, to be honest. The station's lost its incoming signals. I don't know about out-going signals, but every channel is being blocked. From inside or outside, I don't know, I haven't heard anything. All I know is that someone's firing the station's coreward railguns and Impart's gone to amber alert.'

Shadow slid out of bed without further protest, the sheets falling from her curves in a cascade of rustling cream. She stalked into the small wash room to freshen up whilst JD fought the urge to drag her back into bed and ignore the potential crisis that was building. He shook off the sudden build up of heat and continued pulling his ship suit on.

There were more important things afoot than sex.

'I'll meet you at the dockside.' He called as he hurried from the room.

He jogged onto the dock amidst the ongoing cacophony of repairs to find that his department heads had already rallied the most experienced and highly skilled members of their teams. Ghost Cat squadron was milling about further down the dock, peering through the portholes that lined the outer walls of the docking arm, staring intently into the void beyond. Bonnie and Tristan were seeing that the last of the crates were being loaded and un-packed, the [i]Jinx[/i]'s replacement munitions being taken away to the various autoloaders of the railguns that were still functioning. A group of Kieron's engineers and techs headed by the young Blacktip were working feverishly to get the forward beam weapon back in place and re-connected just as a group of Panzaarian engineers and techs were swarming in and around the hoods of the sublight drive exhausts.

JD fell into a quick walking pace when he spotted Commander Locane amongst the throng, talking to a group of people all dressed in curious uniforms. The closer he got, the more he realised who the Wasp was talking to. Anusi was in full battle armour, his helm tucked under his arm, a new gauss rifle slung at his back. The Unicorn was standing between Geist and Tyrant Squad's War Witches, Mage Sergeant Leahmureas 'Lemur' Mivitz and Mage Sergeant Kiriana 'Siren' Vocen. Both sorceresses were clad in their own battle armour; the standard layer of figure-hugging smartweave and over the top of that they wore the same lightweight battle armour that the pilots and scouts wore. Lemur wore a long loin cloth of deep green velvet over that, hung with small, fanged animal skulls that had been intricately engraved by hand with tiny runes of reds, black and silver. Alongside her gauss rifle at her back, was a twisting black, rune carved quarter staff, a speartip of iron fingers gripping a sliver of diamond within. A ruff of fur the same shade of deep green as her loin cloth lined the rim of her gorget and the pauldron of her right shoulder was silver and steel, set with amythyst, whilst her left pauldron was a light absorbing black metal set with perfectly cut rubies and sharp two-inch tall spikes. Pouches hung from her belt, and small needle-like blades were sheathed in the vambraces she wore. A long combat blade was sheathed at her left hip and her blaster was holstered at her right.

She looked to Kiriana, nudging the honey brown and gold alien rabbit lightly as she spotted JD heading over. Kiriana was clad in a very similiar way to Lemur; customised scout grade armour over the top of the standard Shadow Stalkers issued smartweave, a loin cloth of deep violet with chains of silver draped in loose inverted arcs hanging from her leather belt and soft pouches strung here and there, hiding the fact that she too, carried a combat knife and the standard issue blaster. Both women dipped their chins in greeting. Lieutenant Wylees, also dressed in his battle armour like Anusi and Locane was busy tapping away at his datapad, his brow creased as Locane spoke to him. The iguana nodded then looked up, noticing JD standing there.

'So, what are you scheming this time?' The Demon asked curiously.

It wasn't every day that both of his War Witches, his lead navigator and a magically charged Legionary were gathered together in the shadow of a warship by the captain's Third. Locane looked around, his large, deep red compound eyes focusing on JD.

'I've been speaking to the station master about what's going on outside. He's assured us that the problem is purely external, as the only warships docked with Impart as of the moment are of Shadow Stalkers, Jes'wan and Tanoovi registry. One of the newly arrived ships was scanned as being of Lishni registry before all the signals were blocked. They can't say exactly what type of ship it is; it's either a corvette or a frigate. And like us, the station is now only capable of near-scans and passives, as their long-scans keep getting scrambled beyond the point of deciphering.' He said.

'What about the civillians on board?' JD asked.

'All tucked away on their ships, ready for an emergency docking release should it come to it. Captain Umber's put the Reaper on stand-by with a skeleton crew as a just-in-case. The Eclipse is already set to shove off. The station master knows there's more than just the one Lishni ship in the area, he just doesn't know where they are or how many there are, so he's asked all combat capable ships currently docked to lend aid in whatever way they can.' Locane added, passing his datapad to JD to look at.

On it was the message sent from Impart Station Control, declaring martial law in the protection of the station. It was signed by the station master and his exec, and had been issued ten minutes ago. JD handed the datapad back and looked about himself, at the busy dock. Shadow had just turned up and had headed straight over to the stack of crates. From a throng of techs crowded in and around the stripped-down airlock came Ensign Jal Consal. The grey skinned, thorny Engarren hurried down the boarding ramp towards Locane's little group.

'Captain!' He called as he hurried over. 'The captain of the Jes'wan corvette, Ra'thinas, would like to speak to you. He's currently aboard his ship and is awaiting your call.' Consal handed JD a slip of paper, saluted, then hurried away again back into the ship.

He looked at what was printed on the slip. It was a ship's contact code, the sharp, Jes'wan symbols immediately recognisable. He turned back to the gathered group.

'Okay, I take it things are moving quicker than any of us anticipated. What's your idea?' JD was far from a mind reader, but he knew these people well enough to know when they were up to something.

Locane spoke up after a thoughtful pause. 'Mage Sergeant Vocen had an idea I believe we can work with in lieu of having no far-scan capabilities.' He replied, gesturing for the alien Rabbit to eloborate.

'I believe that with the help of Lemur and Anusi, I can help locate any ships within the immediate area.' She said in a voice that flowed like smooth honey. JD blinked, fighting down the urge to scoop the sorceress up and carry her away to somewhere more secluded.

She had always had that effect on everyone. Her power was in her voice and with a few words woven into an eldritch song, she could break the resolve of even the most stoic of monks. It didn't help that she and Lemur both were wonderfully curvacious women, frighteningly powerful and they both knew how to use all of that to their advantages.

Beyond their duties to the Shadow Stalkers, in their own societies, Lemur was the Queen Sorceress of her clan and Kiriana was High Priestess of her coven. JD didn't need much elaboration as to why Anusi was present with that in mind. In refusing to tap the depths of his own power, Anusi made the perfect conduit for them as his source of mana was not overwhelmed by whatever magic he wove.

'I can cast a spell of Finding and Siren can weave that into her song.' Lemur said.

'I will guide my song through Anusi so he can help to guide is in the right direction, much like a radar.' Kiriana added.

'Not just that, but I reckon I could give you a good idea of the size of the ship before our near-scans can.' Anusi put in, a small, troubled smile quirking his lips.

'This is a long shot, but would you be able to act as a countermeasure, too?' JD asked. He had no idea why he had never thought to ask about this before.

Lemur shook her head. 'No, not on the scale of space combat. Planetside, maybe. I've been able to confuse some of the older models of tracking units. It's the distance and sheer amount of power being pumped into the weapons systems of shipboard guns and missile launchers that throws me off my stride.'

Kiriana shook her head, too. 'I can work with the nature of the void, but the presence of a ship bigger than a corvette bends everything too far out of shape for me to work with. The most I can do is use that weakness to my advantage, which, incidentally, is what gave me this idea in the first place. Putting a ship to space is, in a way, no different than putting a ship to sea. Molecular and gravitic displacement in the environment will always occur. I believe that's the principal our sensors and navigational systems work with.'

Wylees nodded. 'It's the foundation. If you set out to look for an object, the system will search for any and all matter displacements you care to mention. Anything from a sewing needle to a quazar can be picked up if you have systems that are tuned enough to do it. We can't detect a sewing needle, naturally, we're not a dedicated recon or sciences ship, but we're able to pick up life pods and anything bigger.'

'I'll be keeping in constant contact with Lieutenant Wylees and Ensign Rojam, nudging them and Ari in the right direction until this scrambler can be destroyed.' Anusi said. He tapped the spiral of silvered crystal twisting from his forehead. A crackle of light glimmered like minute starbursts deep within the spire. 'This is our temporary long-distance sensors array until our jury-rigged replacement is refined for combat duty or until the jamming is stopped.'

'And we have no idea how much more tinkering needs to be done. I've set the whole of Rojam's back room on getting it set up properly, but there're still bugs in the system that she says they might not be able to iron out until we get a whole new system installed.' Locane said gravely.

'Is it really that bad?'

The Wasp nodded. JD looked back to the two War Witches and the Unicorn stood between them. 'If it comes to it, could you last out an entire operation doing this?'

'I've had a good night's sleep and a good meal, so I reckon I could.' Lemur said with a coy smile.

JD resisted the urge to glance at the far end of the ship to where he knew Kieron, her lover, would be busily tampering with the sublights. He instead looked pointedly to Kiriana.

'I have sung for an entire siege.' She said, 'An invading task force looking to cause mischief will be no trouble for me.'

'All I have to do is kneel between these two and basically meditate and mumble into my comms unit.' Anusi said blithely when JD asked him. The Unicorn still sounded tense, but at least he was game.

Satisfied with what they had planned and that they were confident in carrying it out, he dismissed them so they could go prepare. He sent Locane off to round up the crew and get them prepared to leave. He also left the communication with Impart Station Control with the Wasp, too. If the captain of the Jes'wan corvette [i]Ra'thinas[/i] wanted to speak with JD, then JD would speak. It would be nice to find out the kind of armarment the smaller ship carried. It would also be nice to know if the [i]Eclipse[/i] and the Tanoovi ships would be joining him. He headed up the ramp, past the dispersing crowd of engineers and techs, and headed deep into the ship, to get things underway.