Chapter 14

The mission was a go.

When Dusty announced that the Farestar was on the edge of the system and they had to stop the pirates, the ship became a flurry of activity.

Worried that one of the pirate ships might leave before they could stop them, Dusty split the team. Que, Bella and the other Enforcers would go with her, and the other four would man the ship.

Once they located the base and the ships, the Striker would land, let them out and then head back to space. It was to slip back into the asteroid belt and monitor the position that Dusty and Pat believed the spotter would go to.

If any of the pirates turned up and they attacked the Farestar, the Striker was to take them out. If they headed back to the planet, the Striker was to follow them and prevent them from leaving it again. They were not to fire on the pirates’ ships unless they or the Farestar were shot at first.

They had to do this legally, Dusty warned them.

Dusty and her team would check out the base.

Their primary objective was to disable the ships they found. They would then determine if any people were being held against their will. If they were, then they would confront the pirates and sue for the release of the captured people.

If the pirates shot at them first, they would defend themselves. No one believed for a minute that the pirates would hand over the prisoners without a fight. Nor did they believe that they would find a peaceful town of people just wanting to be left alone.

The team packed, fully expecting to go into combat.

They loved the fact they could load up their backpacks with a tonne of ammo, food and water.

They could put in tents, sleeping bags, bug nets, spare clothes, boots, toiletries and cooking gear. They all had their portable generators and lamps, and Dusty reminded them to add their magical boxes, so they had the spare crystals for energy.

With the amount of loving that had been going on, on the ship, the crystals were all charged. The lovers had all been directing the infusion of magic they received when they orgasmed into any magical crystal in their vicinity.

Beanie got the satellites out of their crates and loaded them into tubes numbered two and five. He thought six was overkill for the size of the planet, but that was what Dusty had asked for, so that was what he did.

He activated their systems so that Tale, who was at comms on the bridge, could link in their IDs to the ship’s computer. It would run the mapping program as soon as the satellites were in synchronised orbit.

Beenie then went and loaded extra ammunition and torpedos into the auto-loading racks for his armaments on the ship. He checked all eight of his guns and his four torpedo launchers.

He even loaded the mine launcher. His next job was checking to make sure the harpoons were loaded and the spools that held the grappling lines were functional.

Kola was going over the bikes to make sure they were fully charged, and their IDs were linked to the ship’s tracking system. He checked that they were mechanically sound, and the onboard computers worked. He ran the diagnostic tests just to be sure.

He even dropped a repair spell on them. He then went and got the ammo they used and loaded the guns. He left a box beside each machine for the team to put into their backpacks.

His next job was to run some quick diagnostics on the ship’s electrical systems to make sure it was all functional in case the ship did have to go into battle. He then went to help Bella run her engineering diagnostics and visual checks. Tale joined them, and the three of them made sure they checked every system on the ship.

The teams were a little surprised that Chris elected to organise lunch while they were running around doing their jobs. He joked that sometimes the best thing a Captain can do is get out of the way.

They all appreciated the lunch, as Chris wasn’t a bad cook. Even though he only served soup and sandwiches, they found it sufficient for their needs, and he had tried to cater to their likes.

During the first week, they had been travelling, Kola and Bella had set up a holographic projector in the dining room. One wall now looked as if it was a huge window looking out into space. It was two metres high and three long. It was normally set to the forward view so they could all see where they were going.

As the satellites started mapping the planet, the view zoomed in to show the bulk of the planet in the window. They could see it in more detail and in all of its glory. The planet was very blue, white and green.

Forty percent of the planet’s surface was taken up by four small, green continents and lots of island clusters. Ten percent was white icecaps, and the rest was deep blue oceans. The swirls of clouds clearly indicated it had active weather systems and an atmosphere.

A list of information started scrolling down each side of the window. It gave the crew the number of continents and islands and the total land and sea area.