Part 2

"Ma'am, scan of Velka Five Primna Nine complete." Officer Har reported crisply over his shoulder. "No positive contact."

"Understood, Officer." Captain Vena Ochanko replied, turning her attention to the communications console and opened the channel. "Marauder Talus One five one, report."

"Talus One Five One reports all clear. Nothing on scanners. Over." Came the terse reply.

Ochanko nodded her head once, not surprised the report was exactly as she had expected. Toggling to the next frequency she made the request to the last Marauder in her patrol group. "Report Talus One Seven Seven."

"Talus One Seven Seven reports all clear, Captain. Shall we proceed to the next sector?" Came the expected reply.

"Affirmative. Patrol group proceed to Velka Six." Ochanko ordered before shutting down the comm line and allowing herself to relax into her seat and look over her Marauder's crew.

As she expected, despite their diligence in their work they were showing signs of weariness. All their equipment was in perfect order, as regulations and her exacting standards required. Dressed in full battle kit, heavy weapons locked down in the nearby accessible weapons lockers and fully prepared to battle on a microts notice they went about their duties with minimal discussion. Even the daily weapons drills and calisthenics had become silent affairs, where little more than the occasional sound of breathing could be heard or the slap of skin on skin during the occasional unarmed combat maneuvers.

Despite all this there was a barely discernable restlessness to their movements. An edginess of soldiers tired of waiting for the enemy and desiring nothing more than to release the aggressions on the nearest available target. Unfortunately, they had not so much as seen any other ships except the occasional Marauder from the patrols flanking their search area.

They had been on patrol for three weekens without a break ever since reports of the Leviathan wanted by First Command had been reported in the area. Captain Ochanko had been resentful of her squadron's assignment to search for the fugitives by the half-Scarran Peacekeeper but quietly obeyed as one of her station was expected. Like her troops she had first looked upon the assignments with some mild interest. If they were lucky enough to locate or even capture the Leviathan then it would provide them the opportunity to erase the shame that had followed the Pleisars since the defection of Aeryn Sun. But luck had not been theirs and so they continued to search.

Privately she was plotting her revenge on the mongrel that dared call himself a Peacekeeper and give orders to pure bloods like her and her troops. In some ways she was wondered what the Peacekeepers had come to allow an abomination like Scorpius such a position of power. Crais had been bad enough, declaring Sun contaminated and leading them off on some deranged quest to kill the human, John Crichton, but Scorpius was far worse as far as she was concerned.

"Is there something wrong, Captain?"

Startled out of her reverie by the question asked of her, Ochanko glanced up to see a slight smirk on the face of her tow headed second, Lieutenant Inaurus. Seeing her look, Inaurus' made his face an emotionless mask and assumed a more proper pose of attention. Ochanko couldn't help but allow a small smile to briefly cross her face. She and Jek Inaurus had been close comrades for over ten cycles and even recreated with one another on occasion.

"Lieutenant?" Ochanko inquired, shifting slightly forward in her seat.

"You seemed concerned about something, Captain." Inaurus noted.

Ochanko frowned slightly at that but made no comment. She was well aware of Inaurus' unusually inquisitive nature. His surprising skill in abilities more appropriate to Disruptors was also well known to her, though somehow those higher in the chain of command had never discovered his talents, had proven quite useful over their time together. It was moments like this, though, that she disliked his skills immensely. She prided herself on being able to keep her secrets even from the most invasive of inquiries and yet Inaurus could simply look at her and know she was troubled. It made her wonder if he wasn't some sort of telepath.

Seeing that he was still waiting for a reply she did not have, she finally sighed and gestured for him to sit. He quickly complied and leaned forward so that they could keep the conversation from prying ears, not that they didn't trust their crew implicitly.

"The Leviathan." Ochanko said quietly.

Inaurus nodded his head sagely. "Is a waste of our time. I know." He voiced the opinion she had been unwilling to say. He gestured towards the other Peacekeepers around them. "We all know. We should be investigating these Nebari we've been hearing about lately."

Ochanko narrowed her eyes dangerously at his words, not for the questioning of their orders but of the fact that he knew of the Nebari. First Command had tried to keep information on this apparently powerful species from spreading before the Intelligence Directorate could fully assess their threat potential. Seeing her look, he raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Do not ask how I know. Simply accept that I do." He said with a self-deprecating smile. He leaned in a little closer, glancing out the nearest view port to watch the stars. "You know as well as I that a bunch of escaped prisoners and a 'defector' are not worth the expenditure of a Commando Patrol let alone a full command carrier. Frell, we don't even have the carrier anymore since Scorpius came back."

Ochanko restrained herself from reprimanding Inaurus' disrespectful tone, knowing where it came from. He was one of the few who believed Aeryn Sun was innocent and wrongly charged by Crais. Certainly everything Ochanko had been able to learn about Sun indicated she had been a rising star in the Peacekeeper ranks, fanatically loyal to the Peacekeeper way. She had even turned in another Peacekeeper, her recreating partner, for treason. Everything had pointed to this Aeryn Sun's career leading her to become a high-ranking Commando, perhaps even a fleet officer. So what had gone wrong?

"It doesn't matter what I think. Command had given Scorpius the authority. We must obey." Ochanko replied mechanically, hating the words even as she spoke them. Hating them even more because she knew they were truth.

"We must obey." Inaurus' echoed her, a tinge of some unnamed emotion entering his words that caused Ochanko to sit up straighter as her suspicions about him grew.

"Captain, Talus One Seven Seven has positive contact on a Leviathan in the nearby Sakemi Star system." Officer Har's interrupted, his voice sounding eager at the prospect of possibly having found their quarry.

Ochanko was instantly on her feet, her concerns over her second forgotten in the rush of excitement the Officer's words had brought forth. "Patrol, converge on the Sakemi system. I want confirmation that Leviathan is in fact Moya. Once confirmed dispatch a communiqué to the Carrier."

"Ma'am, we left direct communications range of the carrier an arn ago. We're too far from the Carrier to receive any additional support or instructions." Har informed her.

"Very well. Inform Talus One Seven Seven that upon confirmation they are to return to communications range of the Carrier and inform them of our situation." Ochanko ordered.

"Yes, ma'am."

"What do we know about the approaching system?" Inaurus asked, turning his attention to an old battle scarred and grizzled Sergeant manning the weapons station.

Orus Phel's usual scowl deepened at the question, but silently stabbed at his console bringing his screen to life. "Not much, sir." The veteran replied, his voice low and gravelly, devoid of emotion. "Just a race calling itself the Obari. They have hetch capable ships and some light combat craft. They are a minimal threat."

Inaurus shared an amused grin with Ochanko at the old Sergeant's words. Highly decorated and respected, Phel was old enough to have easily been any of the patrol team's grandsire, or in some cases great grandsire. Certainly old enough that he would have been reassigned to cadre duty or even retired tens of cycles ago if not for his undiminished fighting skills. It was almost unheard of to have a hundred and twenty cycle old still serving in a high risk unit such as a Marauder detail, but Ochanko and her subordinates appreciated the battlefield wisdom the ageing warrior taught them every day. If putting up with his surliness and lack of decorum was all they had to put up with, then bargain was a fair one.

"Anything else?" Ochanko asked.

Phel actually grinned at Ochanko's overly patient tone, enjoying the old game he played with his current commanding officer. He enjoyed almost as much as a good fight. "According to records, they used to hunt Leviathans until about two hundred cycles ago. For some reason they settled in this system and never left."

Inaurus frowned at that. "Unusual."

"And unimportant." Ochanko waved her hand as if dismissing the information and turned to look out the main view port. "We proceed as ordered."

"As you say, Captain. I'll double check our equipment now." Inaurus snapped his hand to his chest in a quick salute and departed to the weapons lockers.