Chapter 12 - The Administrator[]
KCGMS Kelli Whyte
Winter system-the Outies
3142
KCGS Kelli Whyte moved between Burrows. In between tours on the Quarantine line, the Coast Guard managed emergency services for thousands of non-planetary settlements throughout the Q-zone. These non-planetary settlements have had a period of explosive growth thanks to the need for materials, resources, jobs, and places for uninfected populations to congregate in safety.
These were also the economic backbone of the worlds they surrounded, providing the bulk of the Q-zone's export capital. Upkeep for this, fell to the various system Coast Guards but, Kowloon's service was the backbone of the Coast Guard system, providing training resources, organizational support, and a model for administration.
"Incoming flash traffic, MCGS Hulo is reporting a rogue sensor contact at sixteen thousand kilometers from their position. Could be the Claim jumpers we were looking for." RTO Sistra Falcone-Hue 211 said. Sistra had her paternal family's Clan Aeropilot physique and the analytical mind that only comes from surviving the transition training from the Surface Fleet to the Black Fleet as an RTO or 'Radio Telephone Operator' rating-which in the Coast Guard is a role that includes everything from dataslicing to analyzing the results of scientific instrumentation.
Commander Li Dan Thanh nodded. "Nav, set coordinates to an intercept course with Hulo, weapons officers prep guns, where's the nearest transition point?"
"Five minutes away along course vector two-seven-zero by negative Z axis three zero degrees at one gravity, Mum."
"Set course and one-gee burn, warm up the drive."
"Aye, Sirrah."
Even with a multi-system hunt on, day to day business had to be carried on. The bogie that destroyed Nguyen Station in the Arluna belts hadn't been encountered since. The only solid leads, were evidence of six-hundred-milimeter cannon fire in the wreckage, and sensor logs indicating that the early warning arrays had not been able to penetrate and predict the approach of that bogey.
but everyone was on the watch now.