[b]EUV Saratoga, Command Center[/b]

In the few minutes that had passed since the change of command, the crew of the bridge had remained mostly silent. Most were still in shock at the arrest of their commanding officer, a woman who had been in that position for twenty three years, but they had no other option than to carry on with their work. Legally speaking, the entire situation was a gray area. The Saratoga was a military vessel, subordinate only to the commanding officer of the flagship, and there was no name attached to that role in the orders. The Admiral may have been ousted by a coup, an illegal act, but the chain of command itself dictated that Baran had to take over in the event of his death.

Major Anne Lapierre, the ship's former intelligence officer and current executive officer, had been hard at work monitoring intership communications using the encryption keys so kindly provided to the Saratoga by the flagship. Her staff, mostly Naval Intelligence personnel, also included several advisers from some of the most prominent intelligence agencies in Europe: British SIS, German BND and MAD, French DGSE, Swedish MUST and Italian AISE had all sent representatives on the mission, primarily to assess the new colony's security against rogue raider elements and other external threats. They made up the majority of the civilian staff on-board, along with some retired soldiers that had been granted the chance to start a new life on the colony in exchange for their experience.

It was one of these retired men that had moved swiftly to fill the vacuum left by the Chief of the Boat's demise: former Capo Di 1 Classe, or Chief 1st Class, Lazare Ansaldi was a special case aboard the ship. He had been the Chief of the Boat for the first decade of its operation before retiring from active duty, and was a ruthless man known for how strict he was with the crew: unlike his later replacement, he had kept the crew on its toes all the time, maintained a strict physical exercise routine, even in his retirement, and his leave had been blamed by some of the hardliners aboard for the decline in discipline aboard the warship. He was also a close friend of Commander Daniau, which was in part why he had shown no hesitation in returning one of the Commander's many favors.

Dressed in a very official-looking ceremonial uniform, the new COB had already turned the bridge into a citadel of discipline, in coordination with the Deputy Master-at-Arms. Armed Marines loyal to the latter had been posted at the only entrance, doubling the security detail, and a checkpoint had been established at the next bulkhead to prevent unauthorized entry to the command section. So far, the Commander himself had been busy making phonecalls to the various departments: the chief medical officer had feigned ignorance of a change in the chain of command, despite the fact that the Master-at-Arms and the injured Marine had both been moved to the medical bay for treatment. Regardless, Daniau did not expect the CMO to be a problem: she was an idealist, and despite being a close friend of the former CO, she would do her job. The engineering department had begrudgingly given up after armed Marines waltzed in and arrested the chief engineer, although the requests were taking longer to fulfill than usual. 

'Weps', the officer in charge of the ship's weapon arrays, and the only one with the necessary code to release the nuclear warhead safeties, was a hard case. He had agreed to not cause any trouble, insisting that he took orders from the bridge and the bridge only, but had refused to hand over the password for the small arms lockers. The Master-at-Arms was too injured to speak, and the Marine CO... Well, that was the most concerning fact: the Marines couldn't locate their own Commanding Officer, or the Air Group Commander. Neither one was answering any calls over the radio.

Daniau, after finishing his call to the brig to confirm that the Colonel was in custody along with her closest allies, finally found time to ask for a status report. "XO, how are we doing?"

"We need more men, sir. We have secured the hangar bays, but there's just not enough marines to guard the dozens of small arms lockers, the vehicle bay, the nuclear weapons storage and... Well, every department on this ship. Not now that we can't use most of them because they are untrustworthy or of unknown allegiance. Oh, and... The CMO just called, the Master-at-Arms is in critical condition. That shredder bullet made a mess of her stomach, kidneys, liver and a dozen of other stuff I can't even pronounce, and she's also going to need a dedicated neurosurgeon if she's ever gonna walk again. She needs a hospital."

Instantly, the Commander's eyes were on the RADAR tracking screen: the Savior had maneuvered itself away from the fleet, possibly in fear of being shot down or becoming a collateral casualty of in-ship fighting, and the encryption keys the flagship had sent had allowed the Saratoga to listen in on the conversation: the medical ship was refusing to open its hangars. And yet, it was the only one that could save the Master-at-Arms, who besides being a valuable asset and a very competent officer was also a very close friend of the Commander and most of his co-conspirators. "Right, have a Siren prepped for medical transport and get the Master-at-Arms stabilized for transit, I don't care how, just get the CMO to do anything she can. And get the damn Savior on the line, they better have a good explanation for this."

Within seconds, the Savior was hailed by the Saratoga as one of the petty officers spoke into her headset: [i]"Savior Savior Savior, urgent, this is the European Union warship Saratoga. Requesting permission for emergency medevac, patient condition critical, please respond."[/i]

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[b]EUV Saratoga, Deck 8, Small Arms Locker[/b]

The Marine CO, Lieutenant Colonel Hansson, originally an officer of the Swedish Army and later of the 17th European Colonial Marine Battalion, was perhaps one of the youngest officers on board precisely because she had been very, very young when she joined the crew. Having enlisted at just sixteen years old, the legal limit in the European Union, her reason for joining the Swedish Army had been stated as 'got lost on the way to college', citing a classic 21st century movie. It was for that same reason, apparently, that at eighteen years old and fresh out of the Officer Academy she volunteered for the mission, going as far as to call in a favor and have her application considered despite the fact that she legally became an adult a few months after the ship's departure. 

In the twenty-three years on-board, she had ascended through the hierarchy: the nature of the Marines' job meant that the commanders had to be exchanged as the aged, and it was that very protocol that gave her a shot at command. The declining number of Marine officers had been a problem after the first decade of the journey: the Saratoga did periodically accept recruits from the other colony ships, mostly those from industrial vessels looking to get a chance at a better life through the military, but it was no secret that that model was simply unsustainable. It was why many of the Marines had sided with Daniau in the conflict: they knew that given a few more years in space, the Saratoga's command structure would just fall apart.

Over the course of several minutes, the Lt. Colonel had assembled a small force of men and women loyal to her. Most of them were Marines, both active and retired, while the rest were pilots lead by the Air Group Commander (and ironically, Hansson's husband). The two had become married several years before, after the birth of their daughter, and could best be described as workaholics: the ship's counselor devoted most of his time to getting the two to achieve a proper work-life balance. Their daughter, and the several other children aboard whose parents had refused to retire to a vessel with proper childcare facilities, had to be ferried to the Ljus every day to attend school there at a considerable expense of fuel. That very fact was the reason the two parents could even consider the possibility of a counter-coup: their daughter was safe from a power-hungry Daniau, but if the Ljus became an inconvenience or a threat, the new CO would certainly shoot it down. And they couldn't accept that possibility.

"Jesus christ, this is a nightmare. Is Daniau insane?"

"I told the Colonel that he had to be replaced, but noooo, she was so blinded by his 'outstanding performance' to judge his character. And now we've got a damn dictator-wannabe in our hands."

The 'revolutionaries', less than twenty in total, had entered the small arms locker undetected thanks to a lack of Marines to guard the entire ship. Each small arms locker included enough weapons to organize a fighting force against hostile boarding parties, but most importantly, there were explosives there. Explosives that could be used to cripple the Saratoga, if it became necessary. Most of the counter-mutineers had put on combat armor and ballistic vests, and grabbed assault rifles and SMGs, but the Air Group Commander had worn only a light plate carrier. His task was a very different one.

"Alright, so here's the plan. We can't storm the bridge, because Daniau's entrenched in there, so we gotta do this the hard way. Team A will secure the engineering deck and attempt to shut off power to everything but life support. As long as Daniau can fire the weapons, thousands of lives are at risk. Team B, which will be lead by me, will assault the brig and get the Colonel, the chief engineer and anyone else that's been imprisoned. Team C will assume control over the auxiliary bridge. The chief of the computer systems department's with us, so once we are in place, he should be able to transfer control of the ship to us. Team D, the pilots lead by the CAG, will secure the hangar bays and if possible launch in fighters to cripple major ship systems should our attempt at getting control of the Saratoga fails, along with intercepting any missiles Daniau fires at civilian ships. Now, remember, these people are our shipmates. Shoot them if you need to, but try to limit casualties. That is all."