13. Incompetence

Alex cursed internally, a very impressive string of blood curdling oaths that would have shocked his subordinates if they had ever heard it. However, the only word that managed to escape across his tightly sealed lips was an almost silent


"Bugger."


"Excuse me Sir?"


"Never mind. The operation was running smoothly, what went wrong?"


The security officer turned a dial, adjusted a camera and pressed a couple of insignificant buttons before answering; he didn't want to appear as if he was worthless after all.


"Well Sir, it appears that our stakeout was assaulted by at least two members of an elite strike team. We are looking into who it could be but bets are on members of the Corvus Vultures Warriors or even a strike team from the Itani Swift Wind team Six."


Alex sighed, again inward instead of letting his subordinates see the contempt with which he regarded them.


"Do we at the very least have a fix on the target?"


The security officer sat a bit straighter.


"Yes Sir, we have a standard tracer node in the strangle mesh. It appears that they are moving towards the B deck launch bays."


Lex looked at the smiling face of the security officer for another ten seconds until it was absolutely certain that nothing further was forthcoming. Alex quietly contemplated either shooting a bolt through his own or the security officer's head, whichever would be quicker, but managed to restrain himself.


"...and?"


The smile turned to insecurity and a frown.


"I am not sure I understand Sir?"


Lex sighed, this time audible and deeply with an immediate reaction among his staff. A severe shuffling of papers and removing of coffee cups ensued.


"And what have you done to catch them? Do we have anyone following them? What is the contingency plan?"


"Ah, well Sir the contingency plan never allowed for outside help. So right now the only thing we have is the tracer and team fourteen that is trying to intercept the assault team before they hit bay B."


"Team fourteen is the rookie team, right?"


"Yes Sir. They should be in place in less than a minute."


"And it never occurred to you that the rookie team is lightly armed, untrained for combat and most importantly dressed in drag for their surveillance mission?"


"Ah, no Sir. We assumed that they would have a standard complement of weapons and equipment Sir."


"Assume, makes an Ass of U and Me."


Lex snorted in disgust and tossed his half-eaten sandwich to the floor. Food would have to wait until he had salvaged this disaster.


"You really are about as useful as tits on a hive queen. Patch me through to launch bay B, alert our escort fighters to launch and be ready for interception on immediate notice, alert teams one through six that they are to haul ass down to bay B."


The officer punched buttons furiously as he tried to accomplish all the orders at one time. Lex looked on for another ten seconds before he grabbed his own Ineubis personal defence armour and weapon before moving towards bay B at a trot. If he hurried he might just be there to get some of the action.


###


The assistant dockmaster of launch bay B was watching a porn holo flick when his call button started blinking. Thinking that it was the other assistant who had left earlier to grab them a set of pizza's, he just received the incoming call without turning the holo flick off. The slightly sweating face of Alex Hartron appeared and the assistant dockmaster hurried to end the porn holo, managing to turn the volume way up before pausing it. 


"Sir, what can we do for you?"


"I need to know who is docked at launch bay B immediately."


"Stand by Sir, I'll have to check the roster."


He started by turning the visual off on the holo player and then punched up schematics for the bay.


"Sir, I have the list here: One Tunguska Centaur, one Axia Wraith, One plain Revenant, two Behemoth bulk carriers and one Warthog Mk II."


"I said who, not what."


"Ah, sorry Sir. I cannot do that due to the non-disclosure agreement between Xang Xi and the customers."


"Initiate override directive nineteen. Codeword Fall Gelb. Who owns those ships?"


The assistant dockmaster punched the code in and checked the authorisation. The council level authorisation was more than enough.


"Right Sir, the list will be streamed now. Stand by for data."


The response was almost immediate.


"Empty bays three, nine, eleven and seventeen. Launch the Strike Force and make them stand by for my command. Alert the second watch Strike Force and contact my headquarters for more updates. Confirm."


The assistant dockmaster sent the full alert and patched through to APIG HQ. The dockmaster would be here in ten minutes or so, the standard response time for a major alert during down-time.


###


Azumi entered the empty launch bay on sector B with Retractile in tow. She checked the launch bays and smiled at the six ships that filled a third of the available bays. Now she only had to locate one of the two ships that.... The station tremored slightly as four of the six bays revolved and emptied their content to space. Azumi frowned and stopped while she considered what just happened.


"What the hell did we scrape up Az?"


Azumi turned around and grinned at Retractile, the grin widening even further as she saw the two badly dressed drag queens that were stumbling along on too high plateau shoes down the side corridor towards them.


"I don't know Ret but I have a feeling that this is about to be fun."


She tackled Ret just in time as a single bullet singed overhead and buried itself deep in a plastic sign that was over bay six. He landed face first with Azumi on top of him and grinned back.


"Never a boring moment with you around."


More bullets tore over their heads and they hugged the deck plates. This was untenable, but would have to do for now.