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Description
The shuttle was one of several that Dagon Command maintained, able to work well in the atmosphere, under the Seas of Dagon, and in low planetary orbit. Once aboard, I took the lift up to the surprisingly empty coach. DC normally used these as personnel transports capable of carrying a couple dozen people, and it was rare to see one used to pick up a single individual. I began to have a bad feeling about this.

On one of the seats was a uniform top, magbelt, handgun, and beltcomp which, when activated, sent a secured note to my implant.

Lt. Commander Sileria,

My apologies for cutting your leave short. We have a Delta Zulu, and I need you back on Solaris station stat.
I took the initiative to requisition a uniform and basic armaments. Link to briefing notes enclosed.

Brigadier Admiral Halsay

I sighed as I put the top back on. Ordinarily the suit was full bodied for the twilegs (two legged humans), but my scales had nanite actuators that could make them act like a form of kevlar that were if anything better than what the suit offered. I also put on the communicator necklace and the magbelt, the latter giving me the ability to maneuver about on Solaris without having to do the rather awkward mermaid crawl or find myself in a lev chair. Finally, reluctantly, I holstered on the phaser and activated it. That Halsay felt I needed to be armed told me more about the situation than I liked.

Solaris Station was a chimera, kind of like me. It was the Terran presence in the system but it also housed Dagon Command. I was a native Dagonite, born and bred on the moon, and for me and many like me, the Terrans were colonial occupiers. I'd been to Earth once a few years ago and had hated it: the gravity was almost three times that of Dagon, the "clean" air stank of past hydrocarbons, the oceans so polluted it was like swimming in cesspools. A second O'Neill habitat had been under construction now for a few years. The Terrans weren't happy about it, seeing it as a bad for independence. Problem was, they were right.

I followed the link to the briefing notes. A Terran captain, James Wolfram, or what was left of him anyway, had been found dead in his cabin aboard the USS Bergamot, currently docked on Solaris station, from what looked like exnanitization - nanites within his body had all left very quickly, essentially perforating him from the inside out. It was a particularly effective form of assassination, and should have been impossible. What made the case even more concerning was that Wolfram was the commander of a fast courier ship just arrived from Earth, and should have had a message chip in a secured safe. The chip was gone, the captain was dead, and nobody had any clue how either had happened.

It was my job to figure out who killed Wolfram and recover the chip.

[Update: Reworked the picture to better show her tail and try a different approach on the top.]

Joy.

Description
The shuttle was one of several that Dagon Command maintained, able to work well in the atmosphere, under the Seas of Dagon, and in low planetary orbit. Once aboard, I took the lift up to the surprisingly empty coach. DC normally used these as personnel transports capable of carrying a couple dozen people, and it was rare to see one used to pick up a single individual. I began to have a bad feeling about this.

On one of the seats was a uniform top, magbelt, handgun, and beltcomp which, when activated, sent a secured note to my implant.

Lt. Commander Sileria,

My apologies for cutting your leave short. We have a Delta Zulu, and I need you back on Solaris station stat.
I took the initiative to requisition a uniform and basic armaments. Link to briefing notes enclosed.

Brigadier Admiral Halsay

I sighed as I put the top back on. Ordinarily the suit was full bodied for the twilegs (two legged humans), but my scales had nanite actuators that could make them act like a form of kevlar that were if anything better than what the suit offered. I also put on the communicator necklace and the magbelt, the latter giving me the ability to maneuver about on Solaris without having to do the rather awkward mermaid crawl or find myself in a lev chair. Finally, reluctantly, I holstered on the phaser and activated it. That Halsay felt I needed to be armed told me more about the situation than I liked.

Solaris Station was a chimera, kind of like me. It was the Terran presence in the system but it also housed Dagon Command. I was a native Dagonite, born and bred on the moon, and for me and many like me, the Terrans were colonial occupiers. I'd been to Earth once a few years ago and had hated it: the gravity was almost three times that of Dagon, the "clean" air stank of past hydrocarbons, the oceans so polluted it was like swimming in cesspools. A second O'Neill habitat had been under construction now for a few years. The Terrans weren't happy about it, seeing it as a bad for independence. Problem was, they were right.

I followed the link to the briefing notes. A Terran captain, James Wolfram, or what was left of him anyway, had been found dead in his cabin aboard the USS Bergamot, currently docked on Solaris station, from what looked like exnanitization - nanites within his body had all left very quickly, essentially perforating him from the inside out. It was a particularly effective form of assassination, and should have been impossible. What made the case even more concerning was that Wolfram was the commander of a fast courier ship just arrived from Earth, and should have had a message chip in a secured safe. The chip was gone, the captain was dead, and nobody had any clue how either had happened.

It was my job to figure out who killed Wolfram and recover the chip.

[Update: Reworked the picture to better show her tail and try a different approach on the top.]

Joy.