[M - E02] Still A'Spying/Happy New Year

[rodiziorobs]

Location: Jarin II (E02)

Tags: spying

It seemed like weeks--no, months--since Scorpio had last had a chance to do some real science. He was a scientist, after all, but M.A.N.T.I.S. and the Man Upstairs kept sending him on these spying missions. Even over Laszlowe's protests, here he was on Jarin II, conducting yet another spy job. He was sure all this spying would be the death of him.

He was cruising low over Jarin's surface, skimming near some swampy islands. The Waterbug he was driving was not as fast as it looked, meaning he didn't stir up the water much as he went across it.

This was good, because he was trying to listen hard for signs of a secret Octan base in the vicinity. Satellite imagery had caught traces of ships coming and going, but could not detect any signs on the ground.

Suddenly he heard something over the scanner:

"You want a cookie?" a man asked.

"No way, man, I am so sick of cookies." another replied.

"Suit youseff." came the response, through a mouthful of what was evidently cookie.

Scorpio brought the engine down low and kept listening.

"You know what else I am sick of? You sitting on your butt while I'm doing all the work here. Give me a hand with these lights, will ya? We were supposed to have them down 2 days ago"

"Mmmf mm hmm hmm."

The scanners had locked on to the direction of the conversation, and Scorpio began to move in slowly, coming over the edge of a grassy island until he could see the men in question. He secured the channel to the local M.A.N.T.I.S. HQ and called the incident in.

"H.Q. this is Starstriker,I've found the location of our mystery base."

"You can see the base? You have visual confirmation?"

"Negative on the base; however I have visual on two Octan personnel with no transport in site. Looks like they must have walked here, and my scanners are picking up some indistinct signatures in the area. The base may be underground."

"Excellent work, Starstriker. Have the Octans spotted you? What are they doing?"

"Looks like they are taking down their Christmas decorations."

"What? Ha! We put ours away two days ago! Ok, Starstriker, stay hidden and maintain surveillance. See if you can follow their moves back to their hidden base. We'll mark the location and put together a special ops team to infiltrate. Any thing else to add to the report for now?"

"Just one thing, H.Q."

"What's that?"

"Happy New Year."

AG New Year by rodiziorobs, on Flickr

[Vedauwoo]

Very nice trees!

[SpacerSteve]

I like your speeder. Has an appropriate bug like appearance. The trees look great too.

[Andromedas Gates]

The judges awarded you 4 points.

[Umbra-Manis]

Awesome speeder!