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	Hearing Scott’s words, Laika relaxed, leaning back into her padded cockpit seat and allowing her grip to loosen on the controls. Though the stranger could have been lying, Laika knew that wasn’t the case. There was a rawness, an intensity and passion to the man’s words that made it clear he wasn’t simply repeating what he thought others wanted to hear. Laika wasn’t sure how she knew that, as the tone of the man’s words wasn’t enough to convey that. She just...felt it.

	And Laika had learned that was enough most of the time.

	Seeing no more enemies and recognizing the man’s point about scavenging, Laika followed suit. A pair of 120mm Lewin machineguns and four extra drums of ammunition were pulled from the broken, sparking husks of the Tommies and Redcoats they had finished off. Slapping the stolen weapons onto the spare hardpoints of her Scutson, Laika stomped her way back into the hanger. There she could see that they had slaughtered the enemy just as thoroughly inside the hanger as they had out. 

	[color=FFA500]“They’re all dead Captain, and Crusher brought someone with him!”[/color] Laika announced over the radio, just as Cathrida’s Turncoat began to make its way down into the recessed ‘pit’ of the hanger where various ships sat.

	The black and red mobile suit turned, glancing over its shoulder at the thoroughly customized COOL-Te that had entered. Hearing the man’s question over the communication channel left Cathrida abuzz with curiosity. Already she could feel her bad mood beginning to leave her, seeing the omens of fortune she was once so used to seeing...

	[color=DC143C]“Oh? You brought a friend, Crusher? Normally I’m not fond of the ‘plus one rule’ when it comes to outings like this, but right now I’m willing to accept just about anyone.”[/color]

	Cathrida’s mobile suit turned its head back to the ships, its ballistic cap shifting as it walked. The pirate mobile suit stopped beside one of the mining ships, running a manipulator along the battered, orange painted hull. 

	[color=DC143C]“Dannie is correct, stranger. As much as I enjoy causing problems for Zern, taking over this hangar was just a means to an end. However I assure you the ship we’re taking from this place is merely a temporary one. If I’m really going to throw in with this little revolution of yours, I’m going to do so with everything I have left.”[/color]

	The mining ship was long and though faint, lines were visible in intervals along the hull, signifying the existence of several doors built into its sides. 

	[color=DC143C]“Normally I don’t like saying anything I don’t need too, but since you’ve all made it this far I don’t see any harm in being up front this time.”[/color]

	Cathrida walked her mobile suit along the length of the hull as she continued to speak. 

	[color=DC143C]“A couple of years ago, back when everyone didn’t think I was dead, I had something hidden on the surface of Venus. Normally you don’t want to put something down there unless you want it to melt away or be eaten by the acidic atmosphere. However back when Zern feared my name, I paid some ‘associates’ to build a base for me on the surface. But like most pirates my financial situation took a turn for the worse and the base was never finished.”[/color]

	The Turncoat stopped suddenly, hand placed against a seemingly innocuous part of the ship's hull. In a single swift motion, the Turncoat pulled its arm back and plunged it into the hull. The shriek of collapsing metal briefly filled the hanger as the Turncoat pulled out a slew of cables the same way a butcher would pull the guts from a slaughtered animal.

	[color=DC143C]“In other words…”[/color]

	With a squeeze of one of its fingers, Cathrida’s mobile suit cut one of the wires. One by one the doors of the mining ship fell open, revealing scaffolding where mobile suits and workers were meant to dock. 

	In that same moment the massive doors to the hanger shuddered and began to slide open. The air in the hanger began to spin and roil as the atmosphere of the habitat began to slowly vent into space. With its cape flapping wildly in the ‘wind’, Cathrida’s Turncoat turned to face the others. 

	[center][color=DC143C][b]“We’re going to get my ship. The Isandlwana.”[/b][/color][/center][hr]
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	Loading everyone onto the mining transport, Cathrida descended from Habitat 34 down into the Venusian atmosphere. Since the creation of the habitats nearly 500 years ago, the massive floating hexagons had lowered the surface temperature of the planet by blocking out sunlight. The syphoning of gasses for industrial refinement and work had also lowered the previous crushing pressure of the planet. As such the surface of the planet was more ‘hospitable’ then it had been centuries prior...but was still one of the most dangerous places in the solar system.

	Which made the idea of something, anything, being hidden safely on the surface of the planet either complete madness...or a stroke of genius. On the surface of Venus everything was tinged with some shade of yellow or orange. Visibility was bad, landmarks were few, and there were few if any safe places. Active volcanoes, lava flows, and ‘ravines’ where the gases were particularly thick and potent were just a few of the common dangers to be found on Venus.

	Yet as Cathrida rode the ship down through the atmosphere and set in a flight path, she seemed to know exactly where she needed to go. What should have taken days, weeks to find was instead arrived at in a little over an hour. The former pirate captain deployed the landing gear and set the ship down at the entrance to a canyon of sorts, where towers of brittle black and yellow stone towered into the orange hued sky as acidic winds blew around it in a near constant storm.

	Taking to her mobile suit Cathrida led Laika, Dannie, Johanna, Scott, and Denzel out of the ship in their own suits. After a few minutes of navigating the narrows she eventually led them to a wide open area surrounded by cliffs, and natural archways of acid eaten rock. There in the middle of the open area was a square building made of plasteel sank deep, deep into the rock. 

	Built into the top of the bunker-like building was a hanger door, seemingly installed for the vertical launching of ships. A front entrance protruded from the building like a tumor, with a recessed overhang to shield it from the element. Bringing everyone to the door, Cathrida managed to get it opened quickly, and led them onto a massive elevator big enough to support mobile suits. As soon as the doors shut there was a noticeable temperature drop as they descended down into the guts of the building.

	As they rode down, the building seemed to wake up around them, lights and machines below them beginning to power on. By the time they reached the bottom the lights built into the ceiling began to come on. Row by row they illuminated the massive hanger, eventually revealing an elegant red ship still resting in repair scaffolding.

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	[color=DC143C]“This is the ship I used to terrorize Zern all those years ago.[i]The Isandlwana[/i]!”[/color] Cathrida announced to the group, throwing the arms of her mobile suit up as the ship was revealed in all its glory.

	After the building was properly pressurized and filled with breathable air, Cathrida took the time to look over the ship with Laika seeing what supplies were left in the building. 

	It wasn't long before Cathrida returned, her expression grave.

	[color=DC143C]“Normally I revel in being right, but this is one of those times where I wish I was wrong.”[/color]

	Laika was in the midst of a small break, stuffing a protein bar into her mouth as she sat in the hand of her mobile suit. She blinked in confusion at Cathrida, but knew something was wrong. 	

	[color=FFA500]"Is something wrong with the ship, Captain?"[/color]

	[color=DC143C]“Remember when I asked about your ‘uncle’ Laika? Well on top of watching after you, I left him in charge of refitting my ship for my eventual return. He was taking trips down here every now and then to work on it in secret. And in his defense he got just about everything done before he got himself killed...Everything besides finishing the engines. In this state I can’t launch the ship.”[/color]

	[color=FFA500]“Well that’s not a problem, we can take all the time in the world finish them, right Captain?”[/color]

	Cathrida shook her head, her eye narrowing.

	[color=DC143C]“That’s exactly the problem, we don't have all the time in the world. Zern's likely to find this place the same way I did. Chances are...they're already on their way here. [/color][hr]

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	Hours had passed since the incident at the Annona Colony, but the shock hadn’t worn off. Though the damage was minimal compared to what it could have been, many of the soldiers present at the attack were still left shaken. The Princesses were unharmed as were all of the nobles and the important military brass attending their arrival. However countless civilians, men, women, and children, were killed in the explosion or sucked out into the cold vacuum of space to die an agonizing death. Many of whom were the friends or loved ones of the Martian soldiers stationed aboard around Venus.

	When the initial rescue and repair work was finished, the Zern Military lurched into action. Reinforcements and reserves were deployed from Space Fortress Gaspra around Venus, being sent to the more ‘troublesome’ habitats where the attack was believed to have originated from. News of the incident had already begun to spread, riling the population and making the higher ups desperate for somewhere to place the blame.

	Then the report of the destroyed ships finally arrived.

	An unknown mobile suit in black and red sank a Zern vessel effortlessly along with its accompanying mobile suits. Despite happening before the attack on the colony, the incident was buried in the resulting confusion. However soon after news came in of a raid on a hanger in Habitat 34 and not longer after that the captain of a cargo vessel was interrogated and found to be responsible for ferrying the culprit of both incidents.

	But what finally brought the situation to the higher ups of Zern was the captain’s description of the woman he brought to Venus. Her description matched very closely with the person who, years before, had nearly killed the Emperor. 

	Then a signal was discovered by Princess Assallia’s bodyguard, The Wyvern. 

A ‘quantum beacon’, capable of being detected from tremendous distances even under the interference of Wilberforce particles. It was an advanced piece of technology whose signal was very difficult to detect without knowing the frequency. But The Wyvern knew the signal. It was the same one used by pirates during the Rise of Piracy years prior.

	It was the same signal used by ‘her’.

	Cathrida Hilda Stoker.

	[color=DC143C][i]The Butcher of Banzing.[/i][/color]

	The military leaders of the forces of Zern around Venus acted quickly. A mix of fear, anger, and a desire for retaliation drove them to assemble a strike force to hunt down and kill who they believed with absolute certainty had planned the attack on Annona. 

	The H.M.S Nyx and other ships stationed at Annona were selected for the mission along with many troops stationed aboard Annona or recently arrived from Mars.

	The Strikeforce’s orders were simple: Follow the Quantum Beacon’s signal, locate the ones responsible, and kill them all in the name of the Emperor.

	Having left the Annona colony as soon as possible, the H.M.S Nyx and the other ships accompanying it began to enter the Venusian atmosphere, on a descent course for where the Quantum Beacon had been transmitting from...