Answer the call..

She slowly reached forward and tapped the receive button, bringing the viewscreen to life. A caucasian male in his late forties dressed in a military uniform appeared. He had strong features and sandy blonde hair that was starting to gray. "Hello, Colonel." she greeted.

Colonel Linston from GF command was her usual contact for legitimate new contracts. He was a pragmatic if sometimes stoic man who always handled his duties with dignity and honor, especially when it involved handing out a sentence. Samus had grown to deeply respect him.

"Commander Aran, it's a pleasure to see you. I only regret we usually meet under these circumstances." It was regretful, indeed. He was a very sweet man out of uniform. "You have a mission, then?" The colonel seemed unusually troubled as he barely gave a nod and hesitated for several moments before responding.

"It's a bad one, I'm afraid. Priority Delta" That meant she needed to get her ass in high gear as soon as she was briefed. "I see you're not far from the Outer Rim. That's beneficial. This is an urgent matter that requires discretion."

Samus listened intently as he gave her the details. Two colonial space stations along the outer rim of the Federation Galaxy had been attacked. Most of the crew had managed to evacuate but the security teams had been completely wiped out. There were no witness reports regarding who attacked the stations. Security feeds had been either deleted or destroyed. So there wasn't a shred of information to identify the attackers. Forensics wasn't very helpful either. There was significant blood and gore scattered around the station but no bodies have been recovered.

Samus puzzled over that detail. "Pirates?" No, pirates would have no reason to remove all the bodies. "I don't think so. We've gone over all the manifests and both stations have been thoroughly audited. Nothing's missing. And why would they take the bodies?"

Samus tried to think it out. Terrorists? No, terrorists would have left a calling card or publicly claimed responsibility. Who blitzes a couple space stations but doesn't rob anything? What's the motive "The two stations hit were in consecutive order along the Fargo Belt. The next station along that path is Kappa-42, an industrial reprocessing station."

"I guess the attackers aren't afraid of leaving a trail to follow?" Samus asked. The colonel winced, "Apparently not if they were bold enough to attack two Federation space stations. I need you to hurry to Kappa-42. I've informed the station that you're coming for an inspection to audit their security measures. If the station is attacked, I want you to identify the attackers and the reason behind the attacks. Then neutralize the threat. News of these attacks could start a panic so we'd like this matter resolved swiftly."

Samus acknowledged her orders then bid Colonel Linston farewell. After plotting her destination she set the ship on autopilot and then began downloading data on Kappa-42. Schematics and floor plans, crew compliment, and of course security measures. She needed a plan of action.

First, assess their security and look for weaknesses. Then fortify those measures and set some traps for any unwelcome visitors. Kappa-42 was seven hours away at cruising speed giving her plenty of time to study the data and draw some ideas. She also needed to appraise her gear. She ran a diagnostic on her Artifactor pod and then stripped down for a refreshing shower.