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Finally, the last story I wrote in 2025 (lol). There is more to come for this series tho, just been doing it in bits.
In this story, some faulty appliances are replced, I play repairman and Telaroth makes a run for it.
Part I: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/63731889/
Part II: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/63743345/
Part III: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/64371309
As usual, story is pasted below.
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
With Agent Telaroth gone and doing whatever it is that he does, I figured that meant our job was done and that we’d be sent back on patrol duty. However, that very much turned out not to be the case. The I.I.S. needed things to be a lot more convincing than this and I was instead ordered to remain and continue gathering evidence. They wanted actual footage of the saboteurs and whatnot to scare the Alliance mob into exfiltrating them.
As such, with the extra patrols in place, I borrowed a few more security troops from their complements to complete patrols around the colony. While, of course, it was meant to facilitate the perpetrators getting caught, but the high visibility operation also seemed to clam the people a little, with actual guards and the like patrolling around and occasionally helping out.
Of course, DKBI sent some excuse about lead times to send us new appliances for the colonists and given that they’ve sent replacements here multiple times, I don’t really blame them. Instead, they sent us repair kits, instructions and replacement parts. Some of the repairs are a bit fiddly, but our fare is built to be repaired rather than replaced, so it’s not too big of a hassle. I had Edge send a few technicians down to fix things up while the rest of the engineering crew remained on board to complete a minor service on the ship’s systems.
I ended up becoming the de-facto liaison as I was the first commander on-site and stayed on the planet. It was mostly coordination work, making sure the local law enforcement was talking with our troops so that everyone was on the same page. Then there was the long list of repairs to be completed…
On a ship, getting repairs prioritised is easy – you fix the primary systems first so that the basics – life support, power, engines and so on are workable before you go down the list of other things. However, here, with people queueing outside my office to badger me about fixing inane things like toasters or table lamps, it was becoming increasingly clear that blind logic wouldn’t work here. Instead, I had to send a handful of technicians to run around peoples’ homes fixing whitegoods while the remainder got put to work fixing things that were actually important like the damaged wind turbines or all of the colony’s vehicles, some of which had had their fuel cells fouled with dirty pond water, doubtlessly as a way to fake a bad seal or two. Regardless of what they were trying to fake, even more evidence came to light as things were dismantled and I had everything documented as we continued with the work.
Admiral Hector was understandably less than impressed at the bumbling efforts of these Alliance Intelligence Agents and he was even less happy about having three cruisers stuck here, but Telricktus, despite being a Lieutenant, had the backing of his shadowy superiors, whose names and identities were all literally blurred or scrubbed out, so here we would stay till we ‘found’ and ‘scared off’ the Agents, who more than likely already work for us thanks to Agent Telaroth.
That being said, I had been sworn to secrecy about what the nanite agents actually do, so I couldn’t tell my own superiors anything, so even Hector doesn’t know. Or well, I’m sure he suspects, but he doesn’t know for sure. Hes tried to press me to spill it before, but these gag orders override everything, so all I could do was say no. I’m fairly sure my entire crew has had the same treatment, but they won’t give me a straight answer about it either.
Either way, I had the repairs progress and gave the locals their updates as things progressed while we continued the patrols. While usually I’d say that I’m not sure how the operatives will slip by, but I’m sure my counterpart will find a way…
[DC-05/N] Agent Telaroth
Imperial Intelligence Service
Ah, of course there are now patrols everywhere and everything is under a microscope. But then again, that’s the point and I’m supposed to get caught anyway. Probably not straight away, though.
While I had to be careful with my questions since our little hidey hole that was more hole than hidey had a camera and mic recording everything for the Alliance’s records, I managed to get a bit more information from my willing colleague, Laron. Speaking of recording, that camera had caught Laron and Jas rooting each other so often that there was at least a decade worth of porn in that computer by now.
Regardless, with Jas spilling more than just beans at the back of my mind, I quickly found that the two had literally been diversity hires…in an intelligence agency. Why you would do that is beyond me, but sure.
Their training was not just subpar, it was mostly nonexistent and they had been sent here on what was considered an easy assignment, or well, that’s how it was sold to them. Laron with his pudding for brains just wanted to be railed more, but Jas, with his free time to sit at the back of my mind would rant to me every so often about how they were never trained properly and how that ended up with this happening. Can’t help but feel bad for him, I suppose. It was terrorise the colonists or face a firing squad.
Over the next few days, I spoke with the two, finding even Laron with his muddled thoughts still bitter about how this was just all a set up for them to fail and get thrown out. It seemed like their entire world had been treated similar, which tracks. We rarely see these guys rise past the rank and file and even the other members of the Alliance were…less than kind to them. They as a species were not happy and the two of them were more than verbal about it when away from observation… This meant that Jas was complaining to me nonstop since he had nothing to do and nobody to hear him while Laron would occasionally say something when we went out foraging or for recon…
I sent a short note to Telricktus for a variation to this mission and after a while, he approved it. I can work with this, I think.
Still, variation or not, we have to get exfiltrated first and for that, we have to get caught…which isn’t hard, but to get caught convincingly is another matter. I’m sure Captain Tano’rath is aware of this as well, but I can’t exactly slip him a note with a bunch of plans, so all I can do is trust his intuition…
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
While juggling repair expectations, it did occur to me that I would have to let the saboteurs get away with things once or twice. While, of course, I can’t give explicit orders to that tune in case the wrong people hear them, I just ended up telling the troops that there was a parallel I.I.S. op on to gather information, so they couldn’t too exuberant in their pursuits. It’s not technically a lie, but well, it still left a bad taste in my mouth – we’re not supposed to toe the line like this, it’s not a good look.
Either way, the first few days after the backup arrived were quiet enough. There were no new incidents of sabotage and no sightings of any infiltrators. I took the time to get myself a few good nights of sleep, figuring that they were laying low and planning their next move. Besides, I’m more than overdue for some time off anyway and this is better than nothing.
Of course, I also ended up dropping by the village markets and blowing way too many of my credits on fresh food for the crew – it’s not often that we get to have fresh food and while the ration cards entitle us to meals here too, not all the staff can come down the planet while things are open. Instead, I blew a few months’ worth of wages on fresh food that got sent up to the ship for the chefs to prepare for all three shifts.
I got thanks from both sides, my crew for spoiling them and the colonists for spending my hard earned credits at their stores.
A few more days passed and I started to wonder if the Alliance agents had simply left, but those thoughts were shattered one night by the sounds of shouting and weapons fire outside.
Naturally, I sleep with my sidearm under the pillow, so I just grabbed it when my comma unit lit up with the duty commander trying to call me. I snatched it next as I struggled into my armour and took the call, “How many?”
“Two last we saw, the Lizard-people, Trasky I think? They were snooping around some of the vehicles and bolted when someone saw them, we’re searching the colony now,” The commander replied with a snort, “they ran into the colony, not very bright.”
“Very on-brand, yeah,” I replied as I headed to the door, “I’m in my quarters, should I be worried?”
“Nah, they’re on the other side of the colony, just keep an eye out, sir,” He added with a snort, “Gunfire should get em to leave, they were last sighted making a beeline for the fence, you know the spot with the hole that we haven’t fixed?”
“Yeah,” I replied with a shrug as I stayed by the door just in case, “let me know when things calm down.”
“Will do, you’ll get the all clear if things go to plan. Have a good evening.” Came the reply before the call ended.
I shrugged, leaned against the wall and waited. There was a bit more shouting in the distance, but otherwise, not much more happened before the all clear was sounded. A notification also popped up on my phone saying that the duty commander had ordered a few extra patrols that night, which is fine. Yes, Agent Telaroth is one of ours, but we can’t be too obvious…
[DC-05/N] Agent Telaroth
Imperial Intelligence Service
For the record, Laron panicked and ran the wrong way, but that still didn’t help the impression that this species is not very smart. Then again, though, you should be running away, not towards the people who are shooting at you. Regardless, we managed to get away.
Either way, we made a few other attempts in the next few days and got caught again and again. Still posing as Jas, I sent a few reports of the failures of the recent attempts. We heard nothing back for the first few reports, but after a while, a message came through saying that extraction will be sent. Apparently Captain Tano’rath had gathered enough photos and videos of the two of us bumbling around that the Alliance intelligence command had to pull us out to avoid a diplomatic incident that would blow up the current peace treaty.
With that, we packed our things and went to our little camouflaged shuttle. Thankfully, this one can cloak, though I do know that Drakonian ships have already broken through this cloaking method. Better than nothing though, I suppose. The two of us checked the little hideout to make sure everything had been removed before we headed to the shuttle to wait for nightfall.
It was boring, of course, and after being grazed a few times by energy bolts, Laron was, for once, not horny, so we both sat in the shuttle and wrote up our reports, discussing things to make sure we were submitting the same things and whatnot. Perfect picture of a functioning team which most definitely not have one person replaced by a deep cover agent and the other basically a drone.
By nightfall, we had a quick dinner consisting of some very depressing canned food before we took off in the dead of night, turning the cloak on once we had left the ground. The comms unit was scanning various frequencies, but all we’d get is static anyway since the channels that mattered would be encrypted. Static, though, would at least tell me if somethings about to happen.
Just as I mused about it, the radio came alive with a few bursts, just as we were leaving the atmosphere. Of course, we’d probably been detected and two of the cruisers were already closing in on us, their active scans almost instantly picking us up. I did all that I could do and slammed the throttles to maximum while the FTL drive spooled up, doing a bit of fancy flying while Laron manned the weapons. The usual demand to power down and surrender came over comms, but well, that’s not my mission right now.
Energy bolts off both port and starboard, few missiles were fired too seemingly for good measure, throwing our tin can of a shuttle around like it was nothing…because it was basically next to nothing. I’m pretty sure they know they’re not supposed to blow me up, but they’re getting pretty damned close!
Thankfully, these small drives don’t take very long to spool and I managed to hit the jump button before one of the more trigger happy tactical officers decided to finish the job. With that, I gave a sigh of relief before punching in a few different coordinates into the nav system to muddy the waters a little for any pursuit before we headed to the actual extraction point where another ship would be waiting for us…
Now, the actual mission begins…
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
With the two Alliance operatives gone, my job was done. While I hung around to hand over to the Colony’s government proper, I had our staff pack up after finalising the major repairs. The minor work can be handled by their own local team now that the heavy work is done.
While heavier patrols would continue in the area in case they sent more people to try again, the ships that had been stationed here, including mine, were reassigned back to original duties, with us being sent to have a look at two other colonies with similar issues. With the pattern of sabotage now known, we managed to fairly quickly flush out the other two sets of operatives there. This time, though, we caught one set of them and Telricktus whisked them away pretty quickly for questioning.
I’m not sure what Agent Telaroth is up to now, Telricktus won’t tell me, but whatever it is, he’s probably getting ready to cause even more chaos…
In this story, some faulty appliances are replced, I play repairman and Telaroth makes a run for it.
Part I: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/63731889/
Part II: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/63743345/
Part III: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/64371309
As usual, story is pasted below.
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
With Agent Telaroth gone and doing whatever it is that he does, I figured that meant our job was done and that we’d be sent back on patrol duty. However, that very much turned out not to be the case. The I.I.S. needed things to be a lot more convincing than this and I was instead ordered to remain and continue gathering evidence. They wanted actual footage of the saboteurs and whatnot to scare the Alliance mob into exfiltrating them.
As such, with the extra patrols in place, I borrowed a few more security troops from their complements to complete patrols around the colony. While, of course, it was meant to facilitate the perpetrators getting caught, but the high visibility operation also seemed to clam the people a little, with actual guards and the like patrolling around and occasionally helping out.
Of course, DKBI sent some excuse about lead times to send us new appliances for the colonists and given that they’ve sent replacements here multiple times, I don’t really blame them. Instead, they sent us repair kits, instructions and replacement parts. Some of the repairs are a bit fiddly, but our fare is built to be repaired rather than replaced, so it’s not too big of a hassle. I had Edge send a few technicians down to fix things up while the rest of the engineering crew remained on board to complete a minor service on the ship’s systems.
I ended up becoming the de-facto liaison as I was the first commander on-site and stayed on the planet. It was mostly coordination work, making sure the local law enforcement was talking with our troops so that everyone was on the same page. Then there was the long list of repairs to be completed…
On a ship, getting repairs prioritised is easy – you fix the primary systems first so that the basics – life support, power, engines and so on are workable before you go down the list of other things. However, here, with people queueing outside my office to badger me about fixing inane things like toasters or table lamps, it was becoming increasingly clear that blind logic wouldn’t work here. Instead, I had to send a handful of technicians to run around peoples’ homes fixing whitegoods while the remainder got put to work fixing things that were actually important like the damaged wind turbines or all of the colony’s vehicles, some of which had had their fuel cells fouled with dirty pond water, doubtlessly as a way to fake a bad seal or two. Regardless of what they were trying to fake, even more evidence came to light as things were dismantled and I had everything documented as we continued with the work.
Admiral Hector was understandably less than impressed at the bumbling efforts of these Alliance Intelligence Agents and he was even less happy about having three cruisers stuck here, but Telricktus, despite being a Lieutenant, had the backing of his shadowy superiors, whose names and identities were all literally blurred or scrubbed out, so here we would stay till we ‘found’ and ‘scared off’ the Agents, who more than likely already work for us thanks to Agent Telaroth.
That being said, I had been sworn to secrecy about what the nanite agents actually do, so I couldn’t tell my own superiors anything, so even Hector doesn’t know. Or well, I’m sure he suspects, but he doesn’t know for sure. Hes tried to press me to spill it before, but these gag orders override everything, so all I could do was say no. I’m fairly sure my entire crew has had the same treatment, but they won’t give me a straight answer about it either.
Either way, I had the repairs progress and gave the locals their updates as things progressed while we continued the patrols. While usually I’d say that I’m not sure how the operatives will slip by, but I’m sure my counterpart will find a way…
[DC-05/N] Agent Telaroth
Imperial Intelligence Service
Ah, of course there are now patrols everywhere and everything is under a microscope. But then again, that’s the point and I’m supposed to get caught anyway. Probably not straight away, though.
While I had to be careful with my questions since our little hidey hole that was more hole than hidey had a camera and mic recording everything for the Alliance’s records, I managed to get a bit more information from my willing colleague, Laron. Speaking of recording, that camera had caught Laron and Jas rooting each other so often that there was at least a decade worth of porn in that computer by now.
Regardless, with Jas spilling more than just beans at the back of my mind, I quickly found that the two had literally been diversity hires…in an intelligence agency. Why you would do that is beyond me, but sure.
Their training was not just subpar, it was mostly nonexistent and they had been sent here on what was considered an easy assignment, or well, that’s how it was sold to them. Laron with his pudding for brains just wanted to be railed more, but Jas, with his free time to sit at the back of my mind would rant to me every so often about how they were never trained properly and how that ended up with this happening. Can’t help but feel bad for him, I suppose. It was terrorise the colonists or face a firing squad.
Over the next few days, I spoke with the two, finding even Laron with his muddled thoughts still bitter about how this was just all a set up for them to fail and get thrown out. It seemed like their entire world had been treated similar, which tracks. We rarely see these guys rise past the rank and file and even the other members of the Alliance were…less than kind to them. They as a species were not happy and the two of them were more than verbal about it when away from observation… This meant that Jas was complaining to me nonstop since he had nothing to do and nobody to hear him while Laron would occasionally say something when we went out foraging or for recon…
I sent a short note to Telricktus for a variation to this mission and after a while, he approved it. I can work with this, I think.
Still, variation or not, we have to get exfiltrated first and for that, we have to get caught…which isn’t hard, but to get caught convincingly is another matter. I’m sure Captain Tano’rath is aware of this as well, but I can’t exactly slip him a note with a bunch of plans, so all I can do is trust his intuition…
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
While juggling repair expectations, it did occur to me that I would have to let the saboteurs get away with things once or twice. While, of course, I can’t give explicit orders to that tune in case the wrong people hear them, I just ended up telling the troops that there was a parallel I.I.S. op on to gather information, so they couldn’t too exuberant in their pursuits. It’s not technically a lie, but well, it still left a bad taste in my mouth – we’re not supposed to toe the line like this, it’s not a good look.
Either way, the first few days after the backup arrived were quiet enough. There were no new incidents of sabotage and no sightings of any infiltrators. I took the time to get myself a few good nights of sleep, figuring that they were laying low and planning their next move. Besides, I’m more than overdue for some time off anyway and this is better than nothing.
Of course, I also ended up dropping by the village markets and blowing way too many of my credits on fresh food for the crew – it’s not often that we get to have fresh food and while the ration cards entitle us to meals here too, not all the staff can come down the planet while things are open. Instead, I blew a few months’ worth of wages on fresh food that got sent up to the ship for the chefs to prepare for all three shifts.
I got thanks from both sides, my crew for spoiling them and the colonists for spending my hard earned credits at their stores.
A few more days passed and I started to wonder if the Alliance agents had simply left, but those thoughts were shattered one night by the sounds of shouting and weapons fire outside.
Naturally, I sleep with my sidearm under the pillow, so I just grabbed it when my comma unit lit up with the duty commander trying to call me. I snatched it next as I struggled into my armour and took the call, “How many?”
“Two last we saw, the Lizard-people, Trasky I think? They were snooping around some of the vehicles and bolted when someone saw them, we’re searching the colony now,” The commander replied with a snort, “they ran into the colony, not very bright.”
“Very on-brand, yeah,” I replied as I headed to the door, “I’m in my quarters, should I be worried?”
“Nah, they’re on the other side of the colony, just keep an eye out, sir,” He added with a snort, “Gunfire should get em to leave, they were last sighted making a beeline for the fence, you know the spot with the hole that we haven’t fixed?”
“Yeah,” I replied with a shrug as I stayed by the door just in case, “let me know when things calm down.”
“Will do, you’ll get the all clear if things go to plan. Have a good evening.” Came the reply before the call ended.
I shrugged, leaned against the wall and waited. There was a bit more shouting in the distance, but otherwise, not much more happened before the all clear was sounded. A notification also popped up on my phone saying that the duty commander had ordered a few extra patrols that night, which is fine. Yes, Agent Telaroth is one of ours, but we can’t be too obvious…
[DC-05/N] Agent Telaroth
Imperial Intelligence Service
For the record, Laron panicked and ran the wrong way, but that still didn’t help the impression that this species is not very smart. Then again, though, you should be running away, not towards the people who are shooting at you. Regardless, we managed to get away.
Either way, we made a few other attempts in the next few days and got caught again and again. Still posing as Jas, I sent a few reports of the failures of the recent attempts. We heard nothing back for the first few reports, but after a while, a message came through saying that extraction will be sent. Apparently Captain Tano’rath had gathered enough photos and videos of the two of us bumbling around that the Alliance intelligence command had to pull us out to avoid a diplomatic incident that would blow up the current peace treaty.
With that, we packed our things and went to our little camouflaged shuttle. Thankfully, this one can cloak, though I do know that Drakonian ships have already broken through this cloaking method. Better than nothing though, I suppose. The two of us checked the little hideout to make sure everything had been removed before we headed to the shuttle to wait for nightfall.
It was boring, of course, and after being grazed a few times by energy bolts, Laron was, for once, not horny, so we both sat in the shuttle and wrote up our reports, discussing things to make sure we were submitting the same things and whatnot. Perfect picture of a functioning team which most definitely not have one person replaced by a deep cover agent and the other basically a drone.
By nightfall, we had a quick dinner consisting of some very depressing canned food before we took off in the dead of night, turning the cloak on once we had left the ground. The comms unit was scanning various frequencies, but all we’d get is static anyway since the channels that mattered would be encrypted. Static, though, would at least tell me if somethings about to happen.
Just as I mused about it, the radio came alive with a few bursts, just as we were leaving the atmosphere. Of course, we’d probably been detected and two of the cruisers were already closing in on us, their active scans almost instantly picking us up. I did all that I could do and slammed the throttles to maximum while the FTL drive spooled up, doing a bit of fancy flying while Laron manned the weapons. The usual demand to power down and surrender came over comms, but well, that’s not my mission right now.
Energy bolts off both port and starboard, few missiles were fired too seemingly for good measure, throwing our tin can of a shuttle around like it was nothing…because it was basically next to nothing. I’m pretty sure they know they’re not supposed to blow me up, but they’re getting pretty damned close!
Thankfully, these small drives don’t take very long to spool and I managed to hit the jump button before one of the more trigger happy tactical officers decided to finish the job. With that, I gave a sigh of relief before punching in a few different coordinates into the nav system to muddy the waters a little for any pursuit before we headed to the actual extraction point where another ship would be waiting for us…
Now, the actual mission begins…
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
With the two Alliance operatives gone, my job was done. While I hung around to hand over to the Colony’s government proper, I had our staff pack up after finalising the major repairs. The minor work can be handled by their own local team now that the heavy work is done.
While heavier patrols would continue in the area in case they sent more people to try again, the ships that had been stationed here, including mine, were reassigned back to original duties, with us being sent to have a look at two other colonies with similar issues. With the pattern of sabotage now known, we managed to fairly quickly flush out the other two sets of operatives there. This time, though, we caught one set of them and Telricktus whisked them away pretty quickly for questioning.
I’m not sure what Agent Telaroth is up to now, Telricktus won’t tell me, but whatever it is, he’s probably getting ready to cause even more chaos…
Category Story / All
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