The Gazelle took up station much like the other escort had held many days before. The Patrol Corvette joined it, but the repair ship landed. Time passed. The two imperial ships were in geosynchronous orbits about the space station so there was little chance of the traveller's Harrier being detected as they were right on the horizon.
After a few hours the Patrol Corvette also landed. And a few hours after that it was up in orbit again, although this time it was in a higher orbit than the Gazelle, and unlike the other imperial ship it was moving.
Some careful sensor scans later it became clear that the patrol corvette was making a scanning sweep of the planet, and that it was likely that the Harriers would be noticed.
Making a plan on the spur of the moment the travellers moved the ships around the far side of the planet such that they would not be detected by either imperial ship as the patrol corvette made its first few orbits of the planet. The idea was to pounce on the patrol corvette once it was on the other side of the planet from the gazelle, and take it out without the other ship knowing.
When the time came to engage the enemy the Harriers had the element of surprise and this time, with the corvette not picking them up on sensors they killed the crew with radiation damage, leaving it still in orbit. Boarding the ship confirmed that there were no survivors strong enough to put up a fight and a crew was transferred to pilot the ship down to the planet surface and hide it.
In no time all the travellers' crew was burying the bodies, covering the ship, and transferring to the Harriers anything that might prove useful. This included the ships logs and records, battle dress and weapons from the marines, and a full cargo manifest. Other items such as the ships boat and gcarrier were ignored for now, and a more thorough search of the ship for salvage (or to repair it sufficiently to keep it) were postponed.
The Harriers took off again, and observed that the gazelle was still in place. What to do next. Hmmm.
To be continued.
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