Asteroid Blues - 20th Acontecimento Reserve Regiment

August 26th 69 NC, commanding bridge of corvette POS Marina Silva,
Somewhere in the Human Edge system.

“…new orders? Whattahell you mean with new orders, captain, ma’am?! We were supposed to deploy in Nostralia and join the rest of Shock Army forces down there in Runenberg…,” shouted Col. Thandar Singh once he entered the bridge.

“I know what your orders were, Colonel, but it has changed few minutes ago, as well as those of mine. Just for your information, I was ordered to immediately leave the convoy, join the Armada fleet in this system and deliver you and your detachment to the Liberty Cargo installation in Homeric Belt, with no hesitation and under any circumstances. I’m afraid someone in the fleet has foreseen your objections, commander... in fact, this ship, you and your 20th Reserve Regiment are the only troops in this convoy that are supposed to do so. It seems that someone in higher echelons had requested specially your unit. And while that might surprise me, why the Admiralty wants to have a bunch of Accontecan psychos stationed near Novyy Bangkok, one of most violent and politically volatile areas of the whole Sphere, I have to assure you that I’ll fulfill my orders!”

“But, captain Gonçalves, with all respect; most of my men were not trained in zero-G environment. We lack proper equipment and landing craft…”

Captain Isis Gonçalves gave the Aconteccan commander her most malicious smile: “Aren’t you jungle rats from Shock Army supposed to fight and win under any circumstances?”

“You could bet your ass we are!” hissed angrily commander Singh. “Eh… my apologies, ma’am. I was just…”

“You can use any of ship’s facilities to undertake some intensive training before we reach the Homerics,” Captain Gonçalves aborted his excuses. “It would still take some time; we had to cross half of this God-forsaken system to reach the belt.”

“We definitely will, but the time is so sparse… but, may I ask you for a favor, captain?”

“Go on.”

“Please, could you spare some information from the fleet databases? What the hell is going on?”

“Most of this is highly classified”, replied captain Gonçalves. “But I’ll show you something…”

She gave few short orders to ship’s LAI and suddenly a large holographic map emerged in the central area of the bridge. The map encompassed most of Human Edge system, combining data from POS Marina Silva long-range sensors and PanOceanian Armada datasphere. Position of every uncloaked ship - and probably a few cloaked ones as well – was displayed on the map, with allegiance, supposed combat status and projected vectors. Besides expected cargo ships, there was a detachment of Yu Jingese fleet guarding Ji Yuán mining site, heavily armed Nomad freighter approaching The Gorge station, plenty of smaller ships belonging to various private military companies performing some dubious missions... and one of the oldest PanOceanian battleships, POS Phoenix, with necessary escort vessels heading towards Novyy Bangkok area.

Colonel Singh knew that ship. Last place he saw this ship was the orbit of Dawn planet during the evacuation from Phoenix-23 station. He shivered in anticipation. It signed troubles ahead… and 20th Reserve Regiment was infamous through the whole PanOceanian Military Complex for their eagerness to get in trouble.

“What the hell happened out there?”

“I don’t have a clue, really,” answered the slender captain. “There is a rumor circulating in the fleet that there have been alien sightings in Novyy Bangkok, hell knows what they intend to do in such nasty place. Maybe it is not the first such rumor I heard, but this time the Admiralty took it damn seriously. Half of the Order of Santiago ships from Ulloa Station are heading there, as well as squadrons of Yu Jingese fleet or Qapu Khalgi. And that might mean only one thing…”

“Escalation…”