Greetings all.

                Welp this is the very slow beginning of Chapter 3. Also 
after this is posted another Ops subjected post will be appearing, a 
few people have mentioned that it's gotten a little hairy who's who and 
what's what. So I typed up a character sheet, only the first four 
characters or so, more on the way when I have more time on me hands.
                Anyone who is coming into this little story for the 
first time, Phantom Riders: Forbidden Ops Prologue, Chapter 1 and soon 
Chapter 2 (I mailed it this afternoon) are on the remailer. Send mail 
to ftp@ranma.net, wait for a minute or so. A posting of what's on the 
remailer appears, Ops is all the way under Misc, I believe.
                Any C+C are much appreciated, don't care how small it 
is, just something....anything please!!!! ;) C+C mailed to 
Bentley4@ix.netcom.com or fanfic@andrew.cais.com

                So on with the show...

      Phantom Riders:
      Forbidden Ops:
      Written by R. Bentley
      Created by R. Bentley and the Mlers
      (C) R. Bentley 1996

      Chapter 3
	Pandora's Box
	Hail, Hail the gangs all here

	"The Secoian First Senate will now come to order!" A voice 
bellowed in the Grand Senate Hall on Seco. "Please be seated, any and 
all recording devices will pass strict inspection before being allowed 
to record. If any illegal transmissions either mechanical or Black Arts 
related will result in the users being removed from this hearing. Is 
this understood?" The Secoian Guard turned his eyes down to the 
reporters then to the heads of state and to the religious sects. "This 
hearing will now come to order."
	"Captain T'Fravea, Second Division Secoian Royal Guard."
	"Present," a rather young looking Secoian Guard Captain stood up 
and walked down from the top row of the Senate Hall and stepped onto 
the Senate Floor. His black and white uniform matched his white skin 
and red hair. His soulless black eyes looked upon the Senators and 
saluted.
	"I will get straight to the point Captain," one of the Senators 
from one of the many districts that sat behind the curtain of shadows 
narrowed her gleaming green eyes and tapped her long finger nails on 
the counter top of the high Senate table. "Where is your quarry?"
	"She escaped my men ma'am." T'Fravea replied briskly. He tried to 
calm himself while looking up from one Senator to the next. "She used a 
fold gate to fold to her ship and eluded one our Troop Ships."
	"You mean she fooled you Captain?" One of the many sets of eyes 
asked.
	"Fold Gates on planet sides are not allowed by Secoian occupied 
worlds. Although Calisia is in no man's land between the Secoian and 
free space I treated it like any other world." T'Fravea responded, he 
put his hands behind his back and prepared for the worst. 
	"Did you treat your quarry like just another convict or enemy of 
the state?" The Senator in the middle of the table asked, his high 
backed chair adorn with native Secoian birds of flight.
	"I deduced that my quarry would be cornered and would have to 
surrender. She did not, instead she folded from the second level of 
Alizerin's Den to her ship the Aloi Jade and blasted her way out of 
Calisia."
	"Why did you not try to stop her gating from the bar to her 
ship?" Asked the Satyrs representative to the left of him, three other 
Satyrs each representing their own clan watched from behind their ever 
concealing cloaks.
	"We did, the equipment we have did not stop the Fold Gate. Nor 
did it stop her ship's fold drives from working." T'Fravea glared 
daggers at the Senator who had cut his budget for new equipment. "In 
fact none of our weapons seemed to work against the 'gate's shielding." 
He kept his tone down, the hair on the back of his head standing on 
end. "The Troop ship I was given was in need of repair. Her engines 
needed to be retrofitted when we de-folded in orbit. We lost the quarry 
due to lack of funds."
	"You lost her because you underestimated her."
	"I didn't sir, you did!" T'Fravea nearly shouted it to the 
Senator. "We had this planned for weeks and what do you do? You cut my 
budget, we could have had her. I did my best and it wasn't good enough 
because she is a jack of all trades and we are not." He turned to the 
rest of his squad sitting in the bleacher seats high in the back of the 
room. "They did their best but guess what, they failed. We need better 
equipment and we need it now!"
	"Are you quite finis-"
	"No I'm not," T'Fravea hissed and turned back to face the 
Senators. "Do you have any idea what we're dealing with? Any clue?"
	The Senators were quiet and thus the room became like a tomb. One 
of the man in his squad shifted and was immediately silenced by two 
others. 
	"I'll take that as a no. Have you even seen her record. No. You 
haven't been tracking her for most of your life. Is there a reason why 
I needed to bring her in now. She was a sitting duck in that bar. Why?" 
He gestured to his squad and three of them stood. Two females and a 
male. The male struggled slightly down the stairs and onto the Senate 
floor. The two females pushed the male into the light, he was 
handcuffed. A band of energy around his head glowed and hissed quietly. 
"This is the reason why." He put his hand around the man's shoulder and 
pinched his cheek. "Tell the judges why Lt. S'canti." Lt. S'canti only 
looked up at the judges for a moment and then down at the floor. His 
green skin was covered with sweat, blue hair was plastered to his face. 
The band on energy quieted down as his pulse quickened. His mou
th opened for a moment but then closed.
	"I plan on putting into my report that someone who has been with 
my squad for only two weeks and thus decides to jump the gun and also 
use his little skills to influence others into it. I would like to know 
why he was not tested before he entered the Acedemy." T'Fravea asked. 
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly while he looked from 
Senator to Senator. "Ah yes the entire Senate closes ranks once again. 
We can do this one of two ways people, either I get my budget back or 
the Lt. here will be persuaded to write a book."

	"They're going to rake him over the coals," D'Ract cursed from 
outside the chamber's door. He leaned his ear to the door but didn't 
hear a thing. He went back to pacing while the four other squad members 
sat either against the wall or on the comfortable chairs that sat 
against the far wall of the corridor. The windows above the chairs 
looked out upon Seco's capital city. The suns had already started to 
set and the street lamps outside started to warm up. D'Ract and the 
rest of T'Fravea's Squad waited patiently while the Senate decided what 
to do with T'Fravea and S'canti, behind closed doors and no media. 
D'Ract was the mechanic for the Squad and inwardly cheered when 
T'Fravea brought up the budget cuts. He ran his hand over his bald head 
and sighed loudly. "What do you think going's to happen, sis?"
	"We did our jobs, she escaped," D'edo flipped through the fashion 
magazine she had begun to read while the Senate had gotten their acts 
together before the session started. "Rumor mill mentioned something 
about a squad heading to Baker." The purple tattoos on the Squad's 
resident computer hacker's face shifted around her body as well as 
color. "They didn't even have time to pack."
	"Sergeant D'edo has good ears," X'anda comment from one of the 
rather large comfy chairs. She scratched her little furry feline's neck 
while she munched on her supper. She broke off a piece of meat and gave 
it to her pet. Dia, her pet sniffed the meat for a moment, extended her 
claws and began to feast. The Squad's Tendor Satyrs sipped some of her 
drink and watched the clouds turn shades of red and yellow while the 
stars began to slowly emerge. "Two of my people have been sent to Baker 
as well," she sighed while Dia began to make little noises for more. 
She pulled a small container of milk from her cloak and opened it. 
Dia's tail swished happily while she lapped it up. "Although I don't 
know why." She finished.
	"Strange things go on in Baker, Satyrs," J'ene Rald replied. The 
Squad's Dropship pilot scratched her chin at the hand of poker she had. 
A small 3-D image of her room mate floated in front of her, a much 
larger image of cards floated in front of that. The Secoian/Human 
hybrid shook her head of blonde blue hair and sighed. "Something like 
how you keep winning my dear," she grumbled and showed her hand. She 
dipped her head and chuckled, the magic bond between her and her room 
mate then wavered for a moment. "I know I owe you dinner, thank you for 
reminding me."
	"Speaking of which," X'anda spoke up. "I'd like to apologize for 
knocking you out back on Calisia, J'ene."
	J'ene shrugged and smiled. "Don't worry about it, S'canti is to 
blame not you. Would love to know why he didn't send D' ole boy after 
me though," She winked at him which in turn made him blush. "Must be my 
lucky day, get busted for regs and get knocked out by a Satyrs."
	"I'm glad he was more worried about our quarry then how hard he 
had to hit a C-5 Pryor," D'Ract returned the compliment which got a 
slight blush out of J'ene. "So we're minus one second in command."
	"Make that minus one CO," T'Fravea closed the chamber door and 
walked out into the middle of the corridor. "It would seem I've been 
busted and will be spending some time on the fringes for a while."
	"How long is a while?" X'anda asked and got up. Dia padded over 
to T'Fravea and purred around his legs. "They could not have possibly 
have given you life."
	"A life sentence is a chance for improvement," J'ene countered, 
she settled her card game and stood. "Where are they dropping you 
boss?"
	"Signari Charlie Zimal Nine."
	The entire corridor was quiet.

	"Don't be afraid," the Athena told Sapphire. She raised her hands 
in front of her in a peaceful gesture.
	Sapphire tried to slow her hyperventilation. "Who are you!"
	"You don't remember me?"
	"No."
	The Athena fluxed for a moment, the pure whiteness turned gray 
for a moment and then back to white. "I see someone has taken away your 
sight," the Athena replied, a slight cord of sadness in her voice. 
	"Your eyes are closed but your not completely blinded." She took 
a step forward, slowly. "What do I remind you of?"
	"A Huntsman."
	"Correct, that I am and forever shall be. A Tendor First."
	"Then switch forms!" Sapphire cursed.
	"If I did the others would know and that is something I can not 
deal with. My race is supposed to be dead just like yours Sapphire. 
We're perhaps one of a kind." The Athena stared her down. "Lower your 
weapon."
	Sapphire seethed while some thing in her mind surged. She 
weighted the options slowly, this thing could take her down with out 
breaking a sweat. Her weapon was no good. She slowly lowered the weapon 
and holstered it. "I did something you wanted, now you do something I 
want."
	"Anything."
	"Why are you here."
	The Athena smiled somewhat, if you could call that a smile. "To 
give you a present."
	Sapphire frowned, her brain began to chug away and the card in 
her pocket came up as the answer. She pulled the card from her pocket 
and looked at it quickly then back up at the Athena. "This?" She asked, 
a puzzled look on her face. "I was told to get here-"
	"And instructions would be waiting for you. Kara Masters was a 
good friend of mine. She told me to give them to you. The card is not 
from her but from me."
	"So there's a PO Box somewhere in this universe where you can 
pick the tab for this?" Sapphire gestured the card around until it 
started to glow. She nearly dropped it on the floor. She held onto it 
while it bubbled and glowed until it stopped. The smoke cleared and a 
door key was in it's place. Sapphire blinked. "What the hell?"
	"It's a high security card key lock out. Something you should 
have gotten a long time ago, but certain people were afraid of what 
might happen." The Athena had gotten closer to her while she had watch 
the card do it's thing. "Some of the answers you are looking for are 
there."
	"Where?"
	"Where the card key works."
	"Where is that?"
	"Here."
	"Here where?"
	The Athena cocked a slight eye brow. "You've got something 
between those furry ears use it."
	"Your no fun you know that." Sapphire laughed for a moment then 
settled down and looked at the Athena. "Who are you?" She whispered, 
something in the back of her brain, where the darkest of her memories 
had begun to stir. She took a step back from the giant light bulb and 
nearly fell onto the deck. "Why me? Why not someone else?"
	The Athena tried to find the words, the shifting of colors was a 
dead give away. "It's your destiny." She murmured. "Ever since the 
first day we met."
	Sapphire swallowed hard as the Athena started to shift forms, the 
brightness fell away as Sapphire backed against the wall once more. She 
felt her heart beat faster and faster while the thing in her mind 
surface and the person in front of her became real and not something in 
her darkest dreams. Something with a name. "Cassi?" Sapphire was on the 
edge of a break down as the thing in her dreams engulfed her and she 
found herself back on the Callipso......

     To Be Continued....
     Yep that's as much as I've got for now....it's gets better from 
here on it...really it does. :)))
     Bentley4@ix.netcom.com