The first one to arrive back at Carkul Station was Susannah.

Expectations were that her lumbering White Star would take a long time to do her missions, yet nearly all of them concluding within a single shot of her mass driver. She ended up spending more time simply sitting around while her automated drones filled her expansive cargo bays with low quality loot dropped by her enemies.

Being the first, Susannah reserved and paid for four slots in one of the docking bays so the others could dock immediately without issue.

Similar to her, Hawkins was the next to arrive, having ended up with a similar situation as a few volleys of his particle accelerator was enough to wipe out each wave of Sigma Drones. Though he had slightly more missions assigned due to the speed of his ship.

The next to arrive was Sherry. While she similarly had little issue with her missions, her fighting style meant that she took significantly more time between entering her mission area and actually engaging her enemies. Though in the end, the actual engagements were almost as fast as the other two, they didn't have to wait long for her arrival.

But Kelly on the other hand, despite their expectations, was the last one to dock.

"I know your portion of jobs was higher than the rest of us, but I didn't expect you to take so long to finish them."

Hawkins honestly gave his opinion as the group of four made their way through the station's corridors.

"Ah. To think the fastest was the last to finish."

Kelly shrugged while he casually grumbled.

"It's not like the story of the hare and the tortoise. How come you took so long?"

Curious about it, Susannah asked her friend.

"No, it's probably exactly that."

Peeking out from behind the taller woman, Sherry spoke out.

"Well, I don't wanna say that's exactly it but..."

Kelly scratched his cheek while trying to avoid saying it directly.

"You didn't want to pull back on your throttle, right?"

With her eyelids lowered, Sherry mercilessly thrust her prediction.

"What? It's so fun to zoom past such slowpokes!"

Without even trying to make a reasonable defence, Kelly admitted to his actions.

"Well, it's not like there's anything new there."

Hawkins sighed.

"Anyways! My cargo hold's full of trash. Can I leave it to you to deal with it?"

In an attempt to change the topic, Kelly pointed a finger at Hawkins.

"Ah, sure. I presume you guys have filled your holds as well?"

"Of course. The loot's not worth much, but we can't be picky until our savings piled up a bit."

Sherry nodded to Susannah's words.

And with that, the four figures tapped at their terminals and transferred ownership of the contents of their cargo holds from personal to Wing ownership.

Soon enough, he four stepped through the automatic doors as they entered the local FIP office.

"Hey boss! We're back!"

As if he was retreating from the criticism of his comrades, Kelly yelled out at the figure slumped over the dank counter across from the entrance.

"Wha...? You guys back already? Something wrong?"

"Nah. We just finished all the jobs you gave us."

"What? Already?!"

Gregory jumped up at Kelly's unexpected words.

"What're you surprised about? It's only termite extermination."

Sherry poked her head out from behind Susannah.

"They're called Sigma Drones. Though yea, it's just some basic extermination jobs."

Hawkins reproached his squadronmate, though in the end he only corrected her use of terminology.

"Well, yea, sure. I didn't think they'd be hard since you guys were good enough to have your own ships. But there were over thirty of them! It hasn't been a day since you took those jobs!"

"The mission locations were all within twenty minutes in supercruise and they were generally clustered in only five regions. Sigma Drones only take a few minutes to take out even if there was a dozen of them, so if anything, we were a little behind schedule."

The PIF office's supervisor's mouth gaped open as he heard Hawkins' calm explanation.

"You...you guys are serious, huh?"

"Of course."

Indignant that the other man even suggested that they were lying, Hawkins furrowed his brows as he transferred over the squadron's mission data.

"Hey hey, are these kill counts accurate?"

"Of course they are. Are you suggesting that we falsified our logs?"

Hawkins crossed his arms, indignant that the supervisor even suggested that they had tampered with their records.

"Ah, no, sorry. It's just...these numbers are far higher than normal for this region."

"Alright then."

While he wasn't entirely satisfied, the pilot accepted the man's apology.

"Alright, with this, I'll have your pay transferred over. Since you've registered as a wing, how do you want the pay to be split?"

"Split 10% into our personal accounts, and the rest to our wing's account. Are you guys fine with that?"

"Shouldn't we put everything in the wing account? The Blue Steel's expenses are going to be huge."

Susannah asked.

"It is, but we should have enough to at least pay for the antimatter for one jump now. Skimming off a little for personal use won't be a problem. I'm sure that there's at least one person here that has something she wants to buy, right?"

Hawkins winked at Sherry who was already gazing up at the ceiling, dreaming about what she was going to spend her unexpected income on. However, he turned back to the other two who were paying attention after realizing that she didn't notice his little act.

"What's this? You guys have a carrier or something?"

"Ah yes. But we left it in deep space after we were forced to do an emergency jump so it's out of fuel."

Realizing his slip up, Hawkins quickly came up with a plausible excuse.

"Ah, no wonder you guys needed so much money then?"

"That's right. And with that in mind, is there any jobs left that we can take here?"

"Sorry. You guys tapped me all out in one go. Like I said before, these jobs were just stuff that's been piling up cuz they were too small for the local corps to care about."

"I see. How unfortunate."

"But the data you brought in is a bit strange. I can't help but feel maybe we're dealing with an infestation. Can you four stick around for a day or two while I look into it?"

"How do you feel?"

"It's not like we're in a hurry."

"I'm fine with it too."

"As long as you let me sleep in your ship."

Hawkins' squadronmates had no issue with the suggestion, with only Kelly having a request that was entirely reasonable considering the interior of his small interceptor.

"There you have it."

"Right. I'll go do some digging. If my hunch's right, you guys'll have quite the payday!"

And with those parting words, the four pilots left the FIP office and returned to the docking bay.

After an entire day of travelling and doing missions, they spent some time in Susannah's luxurious crew compartment to have a dinner of portable rations before Sherry and Hawkins returned to their own ships with Kelly joining Hawkins to get some sleep somewhere that had enough space to lie down.

 

The next day, the four pilots took their time enjoying themselves around Carkul Station, doing some exploration, as well as some shopping.

By mid afternoon, they got a message from Gregory and headed back to the FIP office.

"We're here."

Hawkins called out to the man sitting behind the receptions counter.

"Ah, that was fast. Good."

"So what did you find out?"

Not wanting to waste time on formalities, Kelly cut to the chase.

"Yea, so...I passed your data through our systems. You know how I said that the kill numbers were higher than expected?"

The four nodded. He made a bigger deal out of it than any of them expected, leaving quite the impression on them.

"Well, up until now, we've been figuring that the Sigma drones have been coming from a nearby system. We've been dealing with them for years, but it's not like anyone's heard or seen anything unusual."

"Until now?"

Gregory nodded.

"I've contacted a few of the corporations that operate in this system, but none of them mentioned any significant changes regarding the Sigma Drones they deal with. But the numbers you gave me suggested the chances of a real infestation's pretty likely."

"Likely, but you're not sure?"

Hawkins narrowed his eyes.

"Nope. Unfortunately, it's not enough to confirm if there's a nest here, or if the drones' are just collecting material and jumping to another system where their real nest is."

"But it's not like you'd bother calling us just to tell us you don't now anything. Unless..."

"That's right."

The supervisor smiled at Susannah's conclusion.

"We've still got some emergency funds allocated to this branch. I want you four to go and do some scouting. Check these locations and see if you can get any clues as to whether there's a hive in this system or not."

"And if there is?"

"I'll call in reinforcements and you can join in on an extermination mission."

"As long as the pay is good."

"Don't worry. The Federation has special emergency funds to deal with problems like Sigma Drone hives."

Gregory gave the team a bright smile as he answered Hawkins.

"Everyone else fine with this?"

The other three nodded.

"Alright. Give us the information then."

"Here you go. You were quick last time, but try not to be overconfident. I don't want such promising pilots to get killed just because we're dealing with a small Sigma Drone infestation."

"Don't worry. We're well aware of the dangers."

Just as Kelly turned around though, Hawkins asked one last question.

"By the way. Since we're just going to give you the results this time, can we do it over the comms?"

"Oh yea. That's fine. You only need to come to the offices for bigger things anyways. If it's just picking a job or reporting something, you can do that anytime through your comms. We just need a direct connection for security purposes, but any ship that docks connects to the dockyard's direct-line anyways. Even if you need to drop something off, you can leave that to the cargo system and control it through your terminals."

"Alright. We'll do that next time. Thanks."

Gregory waved the four off as they left his office.

 

Receiving the data, the four pilots returned to their ships and took off.

"Alright. We've got quite a few places to go, but depending on things, it might get a bit dangerous."

"It's just a Termite infestation. I can zip through all these places in a few minutes!"

Kelly flapped his tongue as if in mocking the autonomous drones.

"Even so, I don't think we should get careless. Any stupid mistake can get us killed, now that things are real. Let's not take any risks we don't have to."

"Don't want it to become a bad habit either."

Agreeing with Hawkins, Sherry put in her addendum.

"I agree as well. While having fun is important, we shouldn't get into the habit of taking too many risks. There's four of us anyways, so there's nothing wrong with one of us always there to watch your back just in case."

For once, Susannah put out her opinion like a leader would and gave a pretty convincing argument.

"Even though we did those Termite hunts solo yesterday?"

For a few distinct seconds, Kelly's words hit the group right where it hurt.

"W...well, there's a difference between a clear cut job and one full of unknowns, right?"

And as the leader, she did her best to recover, even if it wasn't exactly convincing.

"Well, fine. It's not like we're in a hurry."

"In that case, I'll go with you. I'm better equipped to cover you if you get into trouble anyways. Are you two fine going together Susannah? Sherry?"

"I'm fine with it."

"Same here."

"Alright! Let's go Hawkins!"

Excited at having his leash finally taken off, Kelly punched the throttle even though he knew fully well that zooming around ahead in sublight speeds didn't make a difference once they entered supercruise, it was the feeling that counted.

The remaining three pilots quickly split up the coordinates given to them before splitting the squadron into two and went their separate ways.

 

"Hmm...so that guy wants us to check out this big asteroid?"

Kelly and Hawkins arrived at a point in the local asteroid belt where a particularly large asteroid was floating through space. Especially surrounded by the smaller rocks, this asteroid was quite impressive. Large enough that a decent sized colony could be built inside of if someone wanted to. If it was close to a planet, nobody would doubt its status as a moon for sure.

"It does look like a good place to hide a larger ship or facility. Though I'm not getting any readings from here. Maybe we'll get something if we check the other side?"

"Alright! Time to do what I do best!"

"Just keep an eye out. If anything strange appears, I want you to bug out immediately."

"Aye aye captain!"

Responding in a mocking tone, Kelly threw wide his throttle and zoomed out of formation right towards the large asteroid. Hawkins kept a close eye on his sensors as he watched the blip that was his squadronmate quickly slide towards the outer edges of his sensor readout.

Hawkins continued to adjust his sensor readout to more appropriately encompass his companion and his target while making regular glances at the rock for any changes. His fingers ready to target and blast anything that tried to take out his friend.

"Damn. I don't see anything even over here."

It didn't take long before Hawkins received a report.

"Not even by optical?"

"Mark one eyeballs says nothing but rock."

"Looks like a dud then. There's not even any drones in the area."

"Sucks."

"It's not like we'd find drones everywhere, even if there was a hive in this system."

"I guess. Still sucks though."

"Then let's get going to the next location. Maybe we'll find something interesting there."

"'Kay."

And with those lazy words, the two turned their ships and engaged supercruise to their next target.

 

"Are you sure you're fine going by yourself?"

"Rather than that, I wouldn't be much good if we went together."

Sherry calmly replied back to her partner as her ship drifted through the icy field, most of her systems shut down and almost entirely relying on inertia to keep moving. She was entirely running cold aside from her comms, but even that was reduced to the narrow band transmission to reduce the chances of being detected.

As a pilot of a specialized stealth ship, going in together with another ship that wasn't nearly as well equipped for stealth was only going to increase the risk to the both of them.

For these two, it was far better for them to play to their individual strengths. Sherry going in cold to examine things up close while Susannah stayed back and used her much more powerful sensor suite to scan for anything suspicious.

"Yea but...be careful."

"I know. Just keep an eye for anything that moves."

While to Sherry skulking about in the face of eminent danger was quite normal, the thought that her friend might be in mortal danger at any moment without any shields or thick armour to protect her grated at Susannah's nerves.

On the other hand, she was well aware that this was actually the safest way for them to finish their job. The two of them together couldn't scout the areas out in any way that wouldn't either end up with a sloppy job or put them in even more danger.

In the back of her head, Susannah wondered, taking their personalities into account, which of the two pairs was actually in greater danger if they accidentally poked a bee hive.

But no matter how much she thought, she couldn't help but feel that it entirely depended on the situation. Some Kelly could survive better, others Sherry would.

"Looks like this place is clear. Did you see anything?"

"Ah, no. Nothing showed up on my sensors...Umm...are you still inside the ice field?"

"I'm right above you."

"Ah!"

Having her eyes so glued onto her sensors, she hadn't noticed the large black object that was floating a short distance away over her cockpit canopy.

Once again, she was impressed with her friend's stealth capabilities. Despite the time they took to search the place, her friend not once broke stealth, and even there only a few dozen meters away, her ship's hull was cold enough that her sensors couldn't pick her out.

"Well, that's one down. Let's get going."

"Sure."

The two reoriented their ships and entered supercruise, heading to the second of many destinations.

 

In the end, the four pilots regrouped and met up in Susannah's luxurious crew compartment.

"So in the end, we had four minor hits out of eight locations?"

"Plus one possible bingo."

Hawkins and Susannah started off by summarizing what they had found.

Susannah and Sherry found an unusual heat signature hiding inside of a small moon orbiting at Carkul five, a gas giant 7 AU away from the sun. Despite being the third furthest planet from the sun, it was still only took a handful of minutes to return to Carkul Station from. To reach on the other hand, due to having to cross to the other side of the sun, ate up a decent amount of the evening, causing the group to finally return near midnight.

"It's weird though. There's definitely a heat signature there, but there were hardly any Sigma Drones nearby."

The drones that were found were simply extracting material from a stray asteroid that was caught in the moon's gravitational field. It was moving quite slowly, but otherwise going to fall and strike the moon eventually.

Sherry looked over the data once again, scratching her head. She had even gotten as close as she dared, yet she wasn't able to get much data from the heat source. It was definitely mechanical, with most of it hiding underground. Her passive sensors could only get a faint reading, suggesting that whatever was there was probably small, unless if it was some sort of camouflaged facility.

But Termite Drones from Stella Nova didn't ever do anything so complicated as applying camouflage. If something really was putting in that much effort to hide, it was probably a corporation, meaning that they were just wasting their time.

Even if the corporation was doing something shady, no member of Section Nine had a stake in any part of this solar system or its inhabitants. Unless if they could get paid enough to be compensated for the risk they'd be taking, it wasn't worth even bothering with, so Sherry and Susannah simply took what data they could get without poking the bee hive and came back, leaving the trouble to the Federation and Gregory.

"Well, I sent the data. Gregory'll contact us sometime tomorrow if something'll come out of this."

"Whether it does or not, we're already getting paid for this part. And I've already sold off all our loot from before, so if in the end he decides to let things be, we'll be ready to move on."

Adding to Susannah, Hawkins made his report as well as indirectly giving his opinion on the matter.

"Whichever way it goes, we'll have to wait until we hear back from the Federation. By the way, how are we doing from the antimatter standpoint?"

"I couldn't get much from the loot as expected, but the pay for the scouting mission was quite decent. If it's as far as this system, at the current market price we could get enough antimatter to get the Blue Steel to jump here and back, and maybe even get to another nearby system."

"It's not a lot, but enough to get to somewhere I guess..."

Susannah wasn't happy hearing Hawkins' analysis, but none of them felt like it was something that could be helped. Antimatter was expensive, and they sorts of jobs these four veteran players were used to doing wasn't available, nor was there any decent targets to hunt.

Unless if the strange heat signature really ended up being a Sigma Hive, there was no way they'd be able to earn much in a place like this.

"Maybe we'll have to think about leaving the Blue Steel in deep space for a while longer."

While none of them liked it, it was possible that this was better than pushing their limits to drag their expensive carrier even though they didn't know if they would get profitable work in this region of space.