The Privateer/Note from Marston
XO's Log, [insert date here] SLCN Halcyon Sun, Lt.Col. Avery Marston in command.
Returned from a brief disembarkment to the SLCG Midway. Command had informed me that the Midway had been issued a bomb threat and totally evacuated. However, due to my insufficient rank and security clearances, they were quite stingy with any details about the nature of the bombs. This put me in for a rude awakening when, as the Halcyon Sun made its approach, our sensors and computer systems were overloaded in the face of a massive E400 reaction, originating not from the Midway, but from an asteroid field several kilometers away from it. Science Officer Burt Morgan reported that scans prior to the explosion indicated that it originated from a projectile of unknown model, but with the scanning equipment still disabled, we'll have to take the Halcyon to a drydock to get the scanners repaired enough to look through the logs.
However, the drydock will need to wait for a while. Aboard the Midway, my crew encountered two freelancers who claimed they'd saved the Midway from destruction at the hands of the aforementioned E400 reaction; one man, one woman. The woman identified herself as Freelancer Epsilon 4-Lucia (not a pilot designation that would normally appear in the Coalition database, I'm certain), and it was her ship that fired the unidentified missile. As soon as I exerted Coalition authority to detain her, the man that was with her decided to pull rank. I admit I didn't much care who he was until he produced a Colonel's Eagle - a genuine one - and ordered me to stand down.
The Eagle's data told me that this man was a Navy Colonel by the name of Virgil Heidegger, and while the serial numbers matched, Heidegger was present in the guise of a civilian freelancer, which he refused to explain, and judging from the woman's reaction, this was a fact that he hadn't told her, either. Questioning Mr. Heidegger produced no useful information. He'd claimed that he flew for the 77th, back in the day, but all attempts to raise Command to verify his identity revealed nothing but red tape and dead ends. Whoever Heidegger is, he is either extremely important, or extremely dangerous. Therefore, upon returning to the Halcyon, I immediately gave the order to tail the freelancers' cargo freighter, designation Delta 575 "Cotillion." As of this writing, the Halcyon has been tailing the Cotillion from a safe distance for at least a day. We have no indication that we've been spotted...which is particularly worrisome, given how large the Halcyon is compared to their cargo freighter.
