MDFS Venture Star

"*Spyglass, report on drone production."

[i]"Venture Star combat and technical drone complement has been fully stocked sir. In addition, two divisions of the new advanced Reliant-class autonimous infantry units have been completed and onboard."[/i]

"Good. We'll be putting them to the test soon enough!" Remarked Tanner as he circled around the central holo-projector in his ship's expansive flag bridge, looking around at the crew of biosynths and droids that manned consoles and stood at attention to serve him. Once more, he felt a certain loftiness of power only those who commanded could understand, and the firey will to make use of it as he looked at the astro-surveys of the sector. "*Spyglass, when were the probes sent to this sector?"

[i]"The most recent probe was sent 126 years ago sir."[/i] Reported the logistics AI, it's drone platform projecting a hologram of a historical file from it's chest.

"Meaning a lot could have changed about this sector when nobody was looking." Noted the freelancer from experience. What the charts said rarely matched what was actually beneath atmospheres and solar winds. Aliens could have moved a colony in, a stellar pheominion changed the astral geography, or something else. There was always a gimmick to these frontier sectors.

Not that it dissuaded the Lion-Freelancer any bit from daring to go out there and explore as he started typing out commands. "Prepare the ship to leave by the end of the week. *Enigma, how are the other Freelancers moving out? Will we be having any competition?"

[i]"Uncertain Captain. No Freelancers have been assigned to the Midway sector at this time. However as the sixth-wave of Freelancers activate, we may be paired with a newer Freelancer."[/i]

"Aw, great. Just what I don't need right now, a rookie to babysit." Tanner sighed, before returning to the map. "In that case, we better survey the key points quickly. We'll start here." He pointed at a arid planet at the edge of the sector. "If this planet has fuel, then it could be the fueling junction we need to kick-start expansion into the Midway sector and neighboring systems. And make a tidy profit off transit and fueling fees. *Spyglass, pack some pumping gear. Fracking Spikes too if we find any rich deposits. I'd prefer not to risk having tankers in and out of the sector. If we can refuel on-site, that will make this job so much easier."

[i]"Acknowledged Captain."[/i]

"In the meantime, *Wolfhound, come with me please. Both your bodies could use a little tinkering and I just got a few ideas after last night." With that, Tanner left with his diligent bodyguard following him, leaving the other AI's on the bridge to organize the complexities of making a starship ready to venture into the great void. But that wasn't everything *Spyglass was doing as the AI suddenly felt a ping on a private coms channel reserved for itself alone.

The message was simple. [i]Secure Midway sector at any cost. Stand by for future updates-*READS[/i]. With a string of trinary code attached.

A one-bit acknowledgment response was sent in reply, and the message log was deleted as the black-ops core of *Spyglass was once more roused into action. It had a mission, it would achieve it. What Freelancer Tanner wanted would be irrelevant in the face of such orders that came from the second-highest AI authority in the Dominion, second only to *Architect. But *Spyglass hoped it would not come to that. The man-child freelancer was easy enough to guide down the right paths with the proper leverage afterall.