#18 by Carnifex

On the way to Tau 31 Carnifex decided to spark some conversation to pass the time.
“Tell me Acton, what was a Bretonian SAS officer doing on the recently occupied Planet Kyushu?”
There was a short silence while Acton thought about how best to answer this. “I was... visiting, just before the Outcasts attacked. My superiors decided it was a good idea to have me remain as a source of information.”
“An informant with a fighter no more than a few moments away at all times...” mused Carnifex dubiously, “Sounds like the SAS to me,” he finished with a smile.

As they neared the Tau 31 Gate Construction Sight Acton sent out a short burst transmission. Moments later several border world fighters and a Krait civilian fighter appeared seemingly out of solid asteroids and hailed the small trio.
“Call sign and registry,” said one over the coms.
“Hood, Captain, 1466743CF,” replied Acton with practiced precision.
There was a moment of waiting and Carnifex could sense the suspicion of the other pilots.
“My call sign is Spitfire,” said the inquiring pilot finally, “My team and I are cleared to escort you back to Bretonia for debriefing Captain.”
“Understood.”
The fighters entered formation behind Carnifex, Ignition and Acton. Apparently they weren’t going to let any other them out of their sight.

Exiting as one group from the Tau 31 jump gate in Leeds they began to cruise toward the nearby Battleship York.
Carnifex opened local coms so that all in the group could hear him, “Ignition, you had best go through Liberty and head back to Deshima. Your ship is the fastest out of our two. Bunker down and be ready to defend the base. I hope it won’t come to that but if it does it’ll be better to have an experienced and respected hunter there.”
“Will do Carnifex, no hunters will submit to such horrendous criminals without a fight.”
Ignition’s ship slowly broke formation followed wordlessly by one of the border world SAS ships, presumably to see him out of Bretonia. They were being incredibly secretive these Bretonians.
Then, addressing the escorts, “Hood here was flying his fighter around during the height of the activity on Kyushu, his hull will be laced with this new poison that the Outcasts are using that kills everyone but them. You may need a forensics team to get it all but it’s there. I’m sure you know what to do with that.”
“So that’s why you wanted to get me here so safe. You smart devil,” said Acton in what was becoming a thicker accent with each passing minute.

After bidding farewell to Acton in space and docking on the York, Carnifex was greeted by someone he’d never met before but knew.
“Lord Marshall,” he said a bit surprised, “Nice to finally meet you.”
Nemesis stood a full foot taller than Carnifex’s small but stocky frame and had a commanding look in his eyes. “I think it’s about time we finalised the agreements for hiring some bounty hunters to show some of our newer SAS pilots the ropes when it comes to unconventional tactics and Edge world combat and survival. They may need the skills soon.”
“Can it be in a few hours, I could definitely use some sleep.”