Sands on the Solar Wind (Open)

[Shireling]

Pleris Station
​

Ves'mar hadn't been drinking with his new acquaintance long, but he knew the man's name now (Os'lar An) and had beaten him and lost to him in a round of rumrull, Deun'tleh dominoes. After the first hour, the topic of conversation turned from gaming and drinking to women.

"I've got a woman, beautiful woman, waiting for me in Mor'i'tas," the spacer said, racking the dominoes and stowing them away in their wooden carrying case. "She's got flowers of the most beautiful variety, all grown like a crown around her head."

"What color?" Ves'mar asked, doing the Deun'tleh equivalent of grinning which was a kind of projecting a feeling of goodwill.

"The prettiest reds and blues you ever saw, yes, that's my An'lessa."

All this talk was cut short by a Mohain captain, his blue wetsuit marked up all with signifiers of rank and commendation, entered the portion of the bar that was reserved for aliens. He fixed his voice modulator to his helmet and stood with his foot planted on an empty bench. "Visitors to the Mohain Federation," he began, directing his talk primarily to the Deun'tleh and Human spacers to the exclusion of the two Qirnians smoking in the corner and the lone Drenian sitting melancholic by the window. "As you might have gathered, Pleris II is under attack. It seems that there is some sort of virus or perhaps a powerful telepath that has turned the planet's flora in open rebellion against us."

Everyone looked on with rapt attention.

"Whoever lends his gun arm to the service of the Federation will receive commendation on behalf of Admiral Yurin and President Lorin. You will also---"

"What about credits?" A human spacer piped up.

"Sign on bonus is 10,000 credits, an additional 10,000 if you survive."

"Now that's what I'm talking about! Sign me up, fishman." The spacer said, walking out and going to the bar to replenish his drink. The captain looked on annoyed but said nothing else. He turned to scan the room again, "Any other volunteers?"

Ves'mar glanced at Os'lar, then they both stood up. "We'll help you, captain." A couple of the other Deun'tleh, more out of a desire to not be shown up by two of their kind rather than out of any kind of altruism, stood and offered their services as well.

Urgent Communique
​

From: President Os Lorin
To: Delegates of the Tempus Order

In response to your inquiry for further information, I will provide you with what information we have and the situation as it stands now. On Stardate 1.1.2555, an attack was registered on Pleris II after a medical research team failed to return to base camp. In the next several days, forty different settlements and facilities were reported destroyed or abandoned. A full-scale evacuation was put into effect 1.28.2555 and as far as we know the planet is no longer inhabited by Mohain or otherwise. Current military operations are to retake the planet from a strain of sentient flora who have, as of right now, frustrated our attempts to regain control of the planet. In aid, we humbly request ground forces that can be spared specialized for combat against non-humanoid wildlife, specifically units armed with flame-weapons. Our current objectives are to prevent the strain from reactivating the planetary shields and thus rendering a counterattack impossible and to locate the source of the plants' odd behaviors which we believe to be responsible via the study of a human scientist, Mbowli Morgan, who was reported missing 1.2.2555. Secondary objectives also include location of the rare manivas plant, which was the goal of the majority of the research teams on the planet. Respond urgent.

-Cordially, President Os Lorin

Petroshka

 

[Wandering Grim Hollow]

Atlantis: Earth​

"And what of Sub-Matrix 01? You sure his influence on it won't be a cause for alarm?" Alexander closed his eyes as he communicated with his superiors back on Rium. The round shuttle shuddered as its pilot carefully broke through Earth's atmosphere before entering a simple glide. The other two occupants of the shuttle sat quietly in their seats. Well, ignoring the oohs and aahs of a rather excitable Juniper as she more or less hijacked an external camera to catch a view of the descent.

"You have nothing to worry about. This meeting is vital for our research. Not to mention a good way to forge better relations with the Federation. Our people have always been mistaken as hostile due to our status as a Hivemind an-"

"And this meeting should allow for better communication with the Disconnected, I understand. Pardon for interrupting but it seems that we have arrived. I shall update the Singularity in hourly intervals unless a meeting is called. Have a fine day, Gentlemen." Alexander sighed before disconnecting from the Intergalactic Network. The pressure on forging a tentative alliance or a non-aggression treaty with the Terrans was on his shoulders now. Undoing his safety harness, he stood up and carefully made his way towards the cockpit of the shuttle.

"You should remain seated, Diplomat Clarke. I am physically unable to support you in my current condition." The Pilot, that is to say, the Shuttle warned him as Alexander stared at the empty pilot seats. The monitor displaying the avatar of the pilot, a human male in his 30s with salt and pepper hair, and he was visibly frowning. Alexander chuckled as he carefully unfolded the Flight Engineer's jumpseat and carefully settled himself in.

"Better? I simply wanted to thank you personally, Pilot. And to ask if you're comfortable with your new arrangements. The accident on Forage Site Delta was inexcusable and I am sorry for your loss." Alexander solemnly said. To his surprise, the Pilot simply let out a soft telephatic chuckle.

"Oh you shouldn't Diplomat Clarke. It takes more than host death to stop me from performing my duties. Besides, its nice being able to feel the wind properly this way. So worry not, I shall ensure your safe passage during your Diplomatic Mission. We'll be landing in about a minute so I wish you luck."

"You have my gratitude, Pilot. I best prepare myself." Alexander thanked the Pilot, unbuckling himself and leaving the cockpit. He was pleased to see Juniper and Barian standing at attention, their combat suits impeccable with the symbol of the Singularity shining brightly upon their left breast.

"Shall we?"
"Oooh physical talking? This should be a bit enjoyable." Juniper cheered, nudging Barian who simply cleared his throat and took a few deep breaths.

"It will be... a little slow... But I shall... adapt soon..." Barian slowly and carefully stated, showing clear discomfort at physically speaking. Alexander gave him an apologetic pat on his shoulder and motioned for the two to follow him. The pair nodded, their visors lowering with a soft hiss. The shuttle's ramp descended and made contact with the ground before Alexander made his first steps onto Earth ground. Taking a slow breath, he smiled.

"So this is Earth... How quaint."

Royalblue127

 

[General Deth Glitch]

The Arthurian Union​

Commodore Atkinson entered the Pleris System from Theinsin and immediately hailed "Greetings, we are unable to assist with ground operations due to a lack of ground forces but we can support in any further evacuation and assist in ensuring that the system is kept policed and allow you to focus efforts on the situation planetside. We can also assist with transporting supplies. For now, that is all I am authorised to provide, should you need anything else I will see what I can muster! The Albion" (The Albion is a Medical Frigate) "and the Robeck" (A Corvette) "Will support with supply and evacuation missions while the Chatfield" (Another Corvette) will assist in patrolling and securing the systems space. Provided you are happy with that I will place the Chatfield under the command of whoever is commanding security operations and myself and the Robeck will take command from whoever is commanding the evacuation operation" He then pulled up a screen and briefly looked over it before adding "Once you brief me on the situation planetside I can relay that back and see if we can't pull forces from elsewhere to assist." Shireling Petroshka


Back on the City of Camelot Prime Minister Churchill was at a sink, splashing water into his face. It was 3 am and he was woken up at 2. He had hurriedly put on a suit and was muttering different facts and figures to himself to make sure he could remember them. After another moment he turned to his wife who was in the next room with a weary smile, watching each other through the door he said "How do I look?"
"Wonderful darling, your car should be arriving in a moment to take you to the Terran Building and your documents are on the dresser."
Stepping out of the room he gave his wife a warm hug and a peck on the cheek before saying "Get your rest, you look as bad as I do and we are headed to the docks with the King in the morning to discuss the construction of the new wave of Frigates and we both need our rest." with that he took his tablet with the documents on, downed the rest of his morning cup of caffeine and headed downstairs to get into the car.

The Terran building was a large palatial building, built in co-operation between the Crown and Parliament. Designed by Parliament and funded by the King it was reminiscent of Westminster Palace in London and dedicated to the continued unity of the Terran people no matter where in the Galaxy they lived. As he entered various government officials and employees swarmed him, updating him on recent events and ensuring he had the most up to date picture before finally opening the doors to the conference room. Entering he hit a switch and the room lit up as a small lock locked the door. It was to ensure privacy, the room's power was even disconnected directly from the grid and powered by induction to ensure the room was as sealed and soundproofed as possible, the lock was there to serve that purpose and wouldn't keep a determined attacker out, this was no panic room, but it was a private and secure room. Royalblue127 Specialist

 

[Petroshka]

Agrippina system
Assembly​

After receiving the information from the Mohain Federation the Order immediately made started to plans about sending a contingent over to assist. The first was assembling a temporary fleet to send over which was a rather easy and painless task. Using the transport ships from both Battlegroup Irelia and Valia they had their method of transportation, the ships escorting them would be two corvettes from each Battlegroup a single frigate from each and a cruiser from the Valia battlegroup. Thus the formation of Battlegroup Atemos was complete, the flagship designated the Galinda commandeered by Vice Admiral Saphrax, the ground forces led by general Kahlin. Not much specialization was needed for the ground forces however as the knight's equipment were already technically "flame-weapons." With their plasma casters and swords.

Agrippina, Tempus Alternium.
Thoughts​

General Judias Kahlin watched over the preparation of his army as they marched in orderly formation into the transport ships provided by the navy. Large columns of knights separated in their squads further separated in companies and then into divisions slowly made their way into the large ships that would take them to their battlefield. It was quite a sight to behold, Judias himself hadnt seen mobilization like this happen in years and now he was going to be the strategist for them all, a sense of pride came through him when he remembered the queen picked him to lead this army, and yet he couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Everything was on him, the achievements, the glory, the failures, and the embarrassments, if anything wrong happened in a large scale it will be pinned on him, which could lead to many places both terrible and great.

"its quite a sight" A voice came from his right knocking him out of his thoughts and inner monologue, looking over to the source of the voice was a man in blue and white looking over what he was watching just a moment ago. "Vice admiral, what are you doing here?" The vice admiral looked at Judias and smiled. "There is only so much i can manage with the small fleet i was given, the transport ships are all that is left, along with a corvette arriving from Irelia that is." Judias looked back at his army almost whincing as the setting suns rays met his eyes. "I see," fidgeting with the House Mortan crest in his pocket Judias gave a long breath. "i doubt hostile flora will pose much of a threat to this army, but there isnt much known about this enemy." Just as he said that a small contingent of large mechanized Calvary: [large bipedal mechs armed with medium sized artillery weapons and smaller point defense weapons.] Walked out of their hangers towards the transport ships. "Misinformation is a terrible curse that affects any force. Hopefully the water-breathers know more about the enemy as we arrive." Judias responded with a grunt of agreement. "The enemy could be simple feral flora that the water-breathers lack the force to subdue, or it could be something more, sinister."

Pleris system
Arrival​

Vice admiral Galae Saphrax watched as hyperspace gave way to real space then immediately scans of the system were made, the planet designated Pleris II was full of activity around its orbit. Galae ordered the fleet to start moving toward the planet while transmitting to any Mohain fleets that the Orders ships have arrived. When Battlegroup Atemos got closer a communications officer picked up the presence of Arthurian ships out and about in this system presumably assisting in evacuation. The fact that Arthurian ships were this close to Order space might make the houses suspicious, it gave the Vice admiral himself a little antsy but he shook the feelings aside. "send reports back to Tempus Alternium, but continue on our course to Pleris II"

"Contact the Federation's military. Send them a more detailed request of the opposition planetside, ask for weapons clearance levels and offer them aid"

Shireling General Deth Glitch

 

[Shireling]

Pleris System
​

By the time the Tempus fleets had arrived, the Arthurian support fleet had been on-task for several hours to help manage traffic in the system. They were under orders to let freighters start moving through the system's ports, but only after they had submitted to a thorough inspection and any living plant-like cargo had been confiscated. While the Deun'tleh that were passing through the system seemed to have not been affected by whatever "plant uprising" was occuring planetside, the Mohain government had received retroactive authorization a few hours ago to continue holding Deun'tleh spacers in the system until they were sure of what they were dealing with. The current project of the Mohain fleet in orbit, which consisted of one battlecruiser and a few escort corvettes, was scoring a section of jungle in the planet's northern hemisphere. As the Tempus taskforce moved into stable orbit, the guns of the Kalowas opened up again on that one part of the planet that seemed to be marked for desolation, burning out a patch of ground that was roughly forty kilometers squared.

The Tempus flagship received a hail. The Mohain that appeared on-screen was a dark-blue skinned fishman in a black military suit. He had his helmet off, given that Mohain ships (while not entirely filled with water) were kept so constantly wet and humid with dispensers and sprinklers that the aquatic species could easily breathe without the aid of their helmets. He introduced himself, his demeanor was one of inquisitiveness that one would expect of a scientist and not a military leader, his bright-white eyes contrasted heavily with his glistening, navy skin, "I am Admiral Yurin of the Mohain Federation. Greetings, dry-breathers, it is an honor to have distinguished warriors to assist us. I will, of course, be brief. Pleris II is a research outpost with minor civilian habitation and environmentally protected by the Senate. A month ago, the trees, vines, and plantlife began to grow at an exorbitant rate and overwhelm our settlers, researchers, and soldiers. From what we can ascertain, either the plant life has gained sentience through some sort of collective consciousness, or some powerful entity is controlling them. We Mohain have no experience in these regards, but the Deun'tleh in the system that we have taken on as volunteers seem to concur with the natives in ascribing a supernatural explanation to the phenomenon. Frankly, I don't know what to think, but I do know what our first move is."

The Admiral sent over a detailed map of the planet's surface to accompany him on-screen as he talked. He had given the same spiel earlier to the Arthurian commander as well. "We know that the plantlife seems to be overgrowing the planetary shields. Our forces sabotaged the shield generators in the northern hemisphere when it was clear we were losing control of the ground. Unfortunately, the jungle has other ideas. As strange as this sounds, they are growing living pipeworks to convey coolant from the meltwater in the mountains down to the facility to act as coolant when the reactor is jump-started. Normally, we would attack the site from orbit, but the facility is invaluable if we want to retake the planet and inhabit it again, and it represents an enormous investment of public funds. It would be seriously unadvised to destroy it, even if we could find a way to circumvent the facility's secondary shields and point defense cannons, which we are fairly certain have come online again." He paused. "Part one of our plan is to land a sizable force on the planet and establish the LZ. Weapons of high explosive grade save nuclear are authorized as long as their area of effect is fairly limited. From there, we can move against the facility to secure it. After that, our efforts will have to rely on trying to find Dr. Mbowli, or at least what is left of his research, to understand what has driven the plantlife to such extremes which we are certain have never been observed before in the Known Galaxy. We have some ideas as to the location of his lab and where we might find his body, but it is all speculation at this point given the rapid growth of the trees and the unreliability of our last satellite maps."

General Deth Glitch Petroshka

 

[Petroshka]

Pleris system
Orbital preparations​

"thank you for your valuable information admiral Yurin, I am Vice admiral Galae Saphrax." Galae bowed before the admiral before coming back up. "my knights are ready to make planetfall but we will wait for your word." The Galinda and its escort of two frigates took positions to assist in the planetary bombardment making sure not to fire where they werent meant to and to make sure anything that survived the inital bombardment from the guns of the Kalowas, didnt, meanwhile corvettes assisted in evacuation.

Back in the transport ships legions of knights are getting ready putting on their gear, power armor, and plasma weapons. The more dedicated drop ships were powering up and ready to make planetfall while the smaller dropships with gunship configurations are making their runs around the main transportships checking systems and warming up the engines for better controllablity in atmosphere. In the hanger of one of the transport ships General Kahlin watched over the proceedings walking down the large hangers as crowds of soldiers ran and walked by getting to their assigned squads or stations. He could see they were all heavy armed with their normal weapons but with plasma configurations including plasma throwers and incendiary explosives. Haran, his personal ai gave him the map of the surrounding area of where they will make planet fall, it was completely scorched with almost no signs of life or vegetation, the ground was reasonably flat. But what made the general wonder was, what was below that ground? Plants can dig deep, perhaps he can request the vice admiral to send a probe down to recon the Landing zone.

Shireling General Deth Glitch

 

[Shireling]

Uplink 2.0
Stardate 2.4.2555

Spoiler: Public Order Checks (Galactic Reports)

Tempus Order: Minor nobles in the Beli Corona system have refused to pass on the proper tithes to their superior lords following an increase in rents in that system. So far, the middling nobles have merely refused payment. The planetary governor is standing by for orders from his/her higher ups on how to defuse the situation, but many fear that a heavy-handed response will breed more rebellion. Petroshka

Arthurian Union: Demonstrations in Camelot erupt over what some aggrieved segments of the populace perceive as severe mistreatment of the small Qirnian minority that lives there by government services. This comes after Menfas Mol, a notorious Qirnian gangster, was arrested by police during his morning prayers in an ethnic temple. Some members of opposition party have sided with the protesters against the Prime Minister's party in denouncing the arrest as an egregious display of speciesism. General Deth Glitch

Vermin Conglomerate: A caravan led by the rat technomancer Snicker Thintail departs from the Tunnels after a destructive firefight in the lower ratling warrens, escaping with a well-maintained jumpship and valuable supplies of both tradeable technologies and edible goods. They have departed for the Gaoms system and seek asylum within the borders of the Benthic Singularity ( Wandering Grim Hollow ). KindlyPlagueDoctor

Aleran Imperium: Following a recent incident on Hadrian that prompted a group of soldiers to fire into a crowd at market and kill thirteen civilians, anarchists disloyal to the Exarch and the Empire had erupted in riots in Hadrian's capital. Rioters throw improvised explosives at police and military personnel and wreak havoc on storefronts, homes, and government offices. The leader of the Imperium's Army councils a swift use of force to crush the demonstrators. Grammatic

Report from Avon, Avalon System
​

What began as an unseasonably early case of the sniffles among one of the colonists on Avon two weeks ago had, by now, turned into a full-scale pandemic. In just a few days, the population of the colony had been decimated by a largely symptom-less, invisible virus that was only now coming to be understood by local authorities. By 4th of February, the colony had lost 23% percent of its population and the colonists were panicked. Looting and rioting were widespread, and equally common were colonists fleeing into the forests to avoid the silent plague. The few emergency personnel that remained took heavy losses, and before a few days were out had resorted to setting whole communities ablaze in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease.

Freighters filled with panicked colonists fled the Avalon system in droves for Lazarus, where the Terran Navy had preemptively prevented the ships from disembarking their refugees at the system's ports. The total human casualties were estimated at 150 million and climbing, the worst pandemic in human history.

While the government didn't openly declare it, television anchors and political pundits had already drawn the connection between the pandemic on Avon and the attack on the capital a month prior. Many of the nations in the Terran voting council were dead-set against taking in Avonite refugees, with rational fear that the virus could spread to other inhabited systems. The entire nation looked upon President Ambimbola and his staff for guidance on the matter, even as the deathtoll increased. While other nations did not have complete intelligence yet, whispers began to reach all corners of the known galaxy that an unfathomable disaster had occurred on Avon.

Royalblue127

Pleris II, Planetfall
​

After a few days of delay for weather, planetfall commenced as planned. Mohain and Tempus dropships were able to easily land on the cleared LZ and the former began the hard work of preparing a large enough FOB to accommodate the likely protracted campaign that their forces were going to be undertaking. Compared with the Mohain, the Tempus Knights clanging in their armor were metal giants and they inspired a kind of curiosity and a kind of dread in the Mohain marines, even as they told themselves that they were there to help them.

After the first night passed uneventfully, the two armies got to work sending out scouting missions looking for survivors and looking for a clear path through the brush towards the research facility. At first, none of the plantlife seemed hostile, to the point where many of the Knights felt that they were being led on a fools errand and that the whole project was a colossal waste of time. Then it happened. One night, a Tempus patrol failed to return to camp. When their disappearance was investigated, they found the unfortunate soldiers with their helmets shattered, tree-roots growing through their skulls. Many were on-edge after such a grizzly discovery.

Besides the two official armies, the Mohain had brought along about three hundred auxiliaries recruited from the system's various ports and stations, mostly Deun'tleh and humans. One of the former in particular, Ves'mar Ul, had distinguished himself in some regard given the preferential treatment the Mohain showed to him. This was due, as it was later discovered, to his having helped diffuse a major political situation some years ago between the Federation and his home country. This Ves'mar Ul alongside a squad of knights handpicked by the Tempus ground commander and a squad of particularly decorated Mohain marines were scheduled to be the first to explore the ruins of the planetary defense station and, if necessary, use incendiary explosives to sabotage the efforts of the planetary consciousness to get the shields back up and running. The team congregated in a command tent set on uneven ground. Outside, heavy rains were turning the ash and tree-stump landscape into a grey mush. Commander Orin Eklin of the Mohain Federation Marine Contingent was playing with a particularly annoying bit of frayed nylon on his wetsuit as he waited for the men to file in for briefing.

Petroshka

 

[Specialist]

Faction Representative Nathan Winters & Txell Aristide, Terra, Atlantis Capitol Alliance Boardroom​

Winters was already at his seat, unpacking his briefcase whereupon he heard the door open, followed by the security measures activating. Glancing up and seeing Henry Churchill in the doorway, he nodded curtly and spoke up to address him. "Prime Minister." From the rather limited Intel he scraped up by looking into the reports and finally pinning a culprit behind the attack, Nathan chided himself for not having very much to go on. To his understanding, there was a security meeting held a few days ago from President Nedaye- who would probably have more of a report to present than the both of them combined. He pulled out his HyperLink and, with a pointed tap to the screen mounted on the rightmost side of the room, the display brightened to life with the visage of Haven's leader. The unusually young looking woman was dressed in some sort of combat armor, and had what appeared to be tribal warpaint streaking across her face. She spoke with a moderate Upper Midwest dialect; borderline sounding Canadian to anyone remotely familiar with the region in Terra. "Prime Minister, it is an honor." She slammed a closed right fist against her chestplate as a Havenian salute. General Deth Glitch Royalblue127

 

[Royalblue127]

The Lights dimmed, and the doors to the room opened, showing President Nedaye, escorted by James Carlton, enter the room. He took his place at the head of the table, and nodded to the ambassadors and video segments. "Sir Churchill, it has been too long. Please extend my greetings to his Royal Majesty as well." He turned to the second screen, showing a armored female. "Commissary-General, I'm glad to see you well." His face moved from a neutral expression to a darker one, and turned to his desk, tapping a few points on the table. A projection lit up from a holo-projector in the middle, showing the systems of Avalon and Lazarus, with hundreds of small red dots filling them both. One planet in particular was literally glowing red, and it was there that the image moved to. "Member of the Alliance, the Terran world Avon has been attacked by a terrorist known as Edward Sullivan. Reports are coming in that the virus attack that was attempted on the capital, matches the current epidemic. So far, no evidence has been found of the whereabouts of the biochemist behind the attacks, but all Terran craft have been given orders to require access to crew logs and security footage of any ship they cross paths with." He paused, and James put a hand on his shoulder as Nedaye held back the anger building inside of him. "The death toll os 23% and rising."

A silence fell over the table, as President Nedaye stood and paced to one of the windows, looking over the city. "So far, the epidemic has been stemmed, and we have scientists working day and night to try and find a cure for this pandemic. Currently they are working on the test bacteria found in the capital, but with samples taken from the affected we may develop a vaccine within a couple of weeks." He turned, and the fury was evident in his eyes. "I need your help, my friends, to bring this monster to justice. From you, I would need the access to the southern half of the galaxy blocked off, with as much naval support as you can muster. We need to contain this, and I don't want your people to suffer as well. We will need to warn the other nations as well, this virus was engineered for humans, but it can be deployed against them if augmented for their species. As a final precaution, I move that a joint bounty of 3 billion be put on this mans head, alive." He pauses, and sits back down."I'd like to hear your thoughts."
Shireling Specialist General Deth Glitch

 

[Specialist]

Faction Representative Nathan Winters & Txell Aristide, Terra, Atlantis Capitol Alliance Boardroom
​

Nathan's expression hardened, and Txell's Mark visibly shifted to reconfigure vertically down her face, as if she were crying with mascara on. Nathan was the first to speak up. "Haven has only one home fleet, and one task force. I would offer the suggestion that Task Force Exodus is sent on the manhunt, and the Arthurian Navy along with Terra's fleets can take up the majority of hyperlane security. If there's any other suggestions to offer, we're open to hearing them." Txell nodded along, internally mulling the suggestion over in her head. This would effectively be Exodus's first major operation, and a manhunt of this magnitude could very quickly turn disastrous for all parties involved if it was allowed to progress much further. Nathan was busy writing something down on the notebook he'd brought with him, careful with the pen's strokes to minimalize the overall noise as the silence still hung over the room. He sighed, and looked back up. "It will take a while before we can train another Task Force. If you would like us to move our Home Security Fleet up or split it into an acting Task Force, that can also be arranged." Royalblue127 General Deth Glitch

 

[Petroshka]

Pleris II
In the Brush​

Ophrine Narin Squad leader of her fireteam had been out in the brush mostly exterminating the oddly dormant flora that the Mohain were so afraid of, it bored many of her brothers and sisters. Day after day of nothing but burning brush clearing a path to what seemed like their objectives, it was rather, peaceful and mind numbing, with many of the knights chattering through radio and their ai running calculations to simply pass the time. It wasnt until last night did something happen to shake things up, particularly for her fireteam, one of her squads were patrolling the surrounding area, perhaps they had found something and went inside the brush. Only for them to be found with their helmets caved in, the vile roots seemed to have made inside as well. It made her angry inside, and with a feeling of sorrow, whatever was behind this, she would see them burn.

With a new squad to bolster her fireteam's numbers did the two other squads calm down, with new knights the other two squads chatted up and got to know each other. Only after they were done mourning their dead did general Kahlin call her fireteam in particular for briefing on an operation. When the heavy downpour came it made walking around more of a chore in their power armor prompting the use of the extended boots, they were simple but effective extensions on the boots of the power armor, simply increasing surface area Similar to snow shoes. Reaching the command tent the team went inside, hoping they were at least getting closer to be doing something.
Shireling

 

[Royalblue127]

Abimbola nodded, shifting forward in his chair. "I agree that we should maintain a strong home fleet, but we can ask other nations for assistance in catching and containing the terrorist. They can patrol their space, we only have to patrol areas no one is watching, and send spies to spread the bounty. Hopefully a bounty supported by 3 governments should be a big enough draw that someone will betray him. This is only the first step, as we also need to set up manufacturing plants that can make the vaccine we're developing at a fast enough rate that we can help people on the front lines, and hopefully save the planets populations. I would like your opinions on how to break the news to the rest of the Galaxy, and what we should keep to ourselves and trusted governments."
Specialist General Deth Glitch Shireling

 

[Shireling]

Proxi Ventris, Proxima Centauri System
Stardate 2.5.2555
​

While officially outside of Terran territorial control, the settlers of Proxi Ventris, a dusty and arid-cold mining world on the outskirts of the Proxima Centauri System, were a healthy mix of the various Terran nations. The upper-crust of Proxi society were the Chinese aristocrats who were mostly second sons and had come from Earth to establish a dominance over the illegal spice trade, the water trade, and the mineral refining trade. Closely connected, a prominent group of Norwegians epitomized by the Sorgensen family had established the large "Sorgensen Kraftworks" in nearly every settlement that pumped C02 into the air by the tons to help regulate the climate and vented 02 back into the local ecosystem by the use of giant oxygen scrubbers. Most settlements were built around these giant agglomerations of pipes and metal that spewed gas and steam into the air of a once pristine world. Then, the bulk of the middle and lower class workers who did the mining, warehousing, food packing, and other menial tasks were Americans of some stripe or another - primarily immigrants from the Sunbelt with rough accents and rough attitudes.

All of these elements combined made the settlement of Ventris City, the planet's de facto capital and seat of trade and home to nearly 300,000 souls, a bustling and lively desert city. Keira Blakely noted all of this as she passed from the dusty street with its sheet-metal sidewalks to keep pedestrians from being run over by rovers and pack animal caravans into the local bar: The Cosmonaut. As she passed the doorway, she stopped to read a curious-looking pamphlet that was being tacked up by a few sheriff's deputies.

ATTENTION, CITIZENS OF VENTRIS CITY
WANTED:
PERPETRATOR OF MASS MURDER ON THE COLONY OF AVON
MASS FATALITIES UPWARDS OF 100 MILLION
GREATEST CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN HISTORY
REWARD OF 3 BILLION CREDITS FOR INFORMATION LEADING
TO THE ARREST OF THIS HEINOUS CRIMINAL
TO REPORT CONTACT:
​

The poster trailed off into a long string of telecom numbers where one could contact that Terran Navy, the League embassy, the Arthurian Navy, the Havenian Navy, as well as special forces divisions in all of the aforementioned nations. Keira only smirked. She couldn't believe she was worth three billion credits, alive. Then again, as her eyes scrolled up to the top of the page and she read the words again "Perpetrator of Mass Murder" she paused. For a brief moment, something approximating grief or regret flashed across her face. But it vanished in a worn determination to the cause. She had to go through with it. She had to.

She walked past the sheriffs and into the bar. A bit of music was playing on the jukebox, something very old. Some romantic spacer ballad from the 2300's, she thought. She walked up to the bar and asked if they had a restroom, which they did. Just as she slipped into the back, a crowd of miners and factory workers were coming in from their shifts. Their soot-and-dust-covered faces concealed warm smiles of satisfaction after a hard day of having dug quite a bit of ore out of the ground or working particularly hard at the lathe. They were all there, mostly to get a pint of beer before going home to the missus. A few women entered after them, they looked to be either hospital nurses or doctors. While Keira was gone, she heard the din of the men crowding the bar and knew that this was the perfect place to start ground-zero of the next infection. Entering the women's restroom, she hid herself in a stall and opened her satchel. Inside, a vial roughly the size of a shot glass contained enough of Edward Sullivan's virus, what he called the Malthus Strain, to kill everyone in this city and, given the traffic across the planet, probably a good proportion of everyone else on Proxi Ventris in two weeks. The damp and the quick response from authorities rendered the Avon pandemic less of a success. This, Keira reckoned, would turn out better.

She heard the door open, and in a moment of panic and fear the vial slipped from her hands and clattered to the floor. It was shatter-proof glass, but the shoes that she saw on the other end of the stall were white, hospital-issue shoes. A feminine hand stooped to collect the vial. On the other side of the stall door, one of the nurses was examining what had just rolled out from the occupied stall. It looked like a vial of medicine to be administered by a syringe...except...

The door flung open and caught the unassuming nurse in the face. Reeling back, she was immediately locked in combat with a woman clad in a long brown spacer coat and a dust hood. They fought for a moment over the vial, before the woman realized that the nurse's grip was too strong and the scene of this attack a bit too public. In a flash, the mysterious woman had vanished out the restroom door and was making her way into the street.

"Stop her! Stop her!" A woman's voice cried out from behind Keira as she dashed out into the street, but the sheriff's deputies were gone and it was getting dark. Before long, the figure had vanished into the twisted maze of prefab apartment buildings, condos, and pipeworks that was Ventris City. The nurse looked down at the vial she had in her hand, then walked back inside. On her way back in, she saw the poster hanging by the door frame. Her stomach lurched and jumped up into her throat. She asked to borrow the bar communicator, and before too long there was a tip posted in by one Emily S. Tellmas that someone had likely tried to make a chemical attack on Ventris City. In thirty minutes, the information was back to Earth and on Ambimbola's desk.

Royalblue127 Specialist General Deth Glitch

​

 

[General Deth Glitch]

Prime Minister Churchill proceeded with all the correct polite greetings before they got to the matter at hand. "Indeed" he paused... "As it stands, with the growing issues, we have re-initiated the checks on anyone leaving the Proxima System and we will attempt to maintain a quarantine on all ships travelling out of the system toward Arcturus, that being said smugglers always seem to have ways and other lanes to hop around our patrols and so there is still the chance some desperate individual could evade our net and put not only the people of Arcturis at risk but all peoples beyond. As it stands I suggest we also establish a medical team to try and work on a vaccine and possibly even a cure." He looked about the room "I don't want to leave your people to die but my priority must be containing it to keep it from spreading to all nations." He paused once more, looking at the statistics "23%... This could end up being worse than the Spanish flu and... in such a short space of time, that historic illness killed nearly a third of all life on earth... after most of them had already suffered at the hands of the first great war... I think we can agree if this is not forefront in our priorities right now we are making a mistake. I will ensure the fleets of Arthuria continue to patrol the neutral systems that surround me and keep an eye out for anything like this breaking out on our side of Proxima. I will ensure my best scientists are working on it, send all the data you can about the pathogen to my Secretary of State for Health and Social Care who will ensure her best team are working on it, I would assume you would want the same over at Haven?" One last thing had puzzled him "We can hear them out, but... has anyone claimed responsibility or set any demands?"
Royalblue127 Specialist

In regards to the recent media outrage regarding the arrest of Menfas Mol is a place of worship the Government released the following statement. "The Arthurian Government sets itself by high standards and any accusations of speciesism will be taken very seriously. As such we are setting up a commission and will be doing a thorough investigation of the procedure undertaken by police. If we do end up deeming the arrest itself lawful we will look into the actions taken by the officers involved and see if it could have been undertaken in a more acceptable manner. We, as a government, do not want our officers walking into temples to arrest people unless absolutely necessary! As such we will be investigating other options the officers involved could have, or perhaps should have taken. As yet we are still waiting for specific information as to what exactly happened in regards to the police investigation against Menfas Mol and why they deemed it necessary to arrest him in a public way in a place sanctified by his beliefs."

 

[Royalblue127]

James Carlton was quietly alerted by a note on his pad, and excused himself from the alliance meeting, heading to the space dock. A unknown dignitary was asking to be received by the terran government, but was apparently human. As he descended in the elevator, he saw a man standing next to a couple capital guards, and flanked by two humanoids. He walked up, and as he reached the unknown individual gave a short bow, and straightened to meet the eyes of a rather young man. "You are welcome on earth, but we should continue this discussion in my office, please follow me." James abruptly turns and starts heading inside, the capital guards following him.

"Of course good Sir. I was under the impression that our arrival was expected. I'm sure my superiors have sent a communique prior to my arrival in Terran orbit. I apologize if I have made a mistake and caused some inconvenience to our host." Alexander started some small talk after returning the bow. As he followed the man, he kept looking around at his surroundings. Atlantis was beautiful to say the least. A city built upon an artificial island. He noted that the city had a nice symmetrical shape during his flight over and made him think back on the Benthic Unimatrix Center back home. Although its obvious that Atlantis had a more lively aura compared to that place. "I must say, I am in love with this place. Its so... How do you say it.... Lively? Is that the word for it, Miss Fields?"

"You can say that, Sir." Juniper, the shorter of his two bodyguards piped up.

James stopped suddenly, in front of a local coffee shop he frequented. "Would you like to stop for some coffee before we start the meeting, we could order from the room, but I like having it pipping hot personally."

"Coffee! It would be lovely indeed." Alexander smiled at the prospect of having something warm to drink. Glancing over at his two bodyguards, the trio had a short silent conversation before he turned back to his host. "If it doesn't trouble you of course. There is much to discuss."

"Of course not, here I'll pull up the menu." James noted the odd exchange, but shrugged it off and used his holo-cam to project the shops menu before the group. He selected a caramel capuchino, and his guards shook their head when offered one."Go ahead, the order'll be sent to the shop and the coffee will be ready in a couple moments."

"Hmm... Well this is interesting." Alexander simply chose what James selected and in a show of simple pragmatism, so did Juniper. Barian, the other bodyguard simply chose water.

James made a flicking motion with his hand, and the menu disappeared. The board in front of them flashed, and "Carlton=12" flashed on the screen. In a couple minutes, the drinks were sent on a floating tray to the group, and when they were distributed James led them to a office close by, with a view of the northern garden district. James directed his guards to stand by the door, and after the visitors had entered, pressed a couple of buttons on his desk. The door closed, and a 'shunk!' was heard as a unseen bolt slipped into place. James sat at his desk, and motioned for the ambassador to join him. He flipped through the daily schedule to find the message the dignitary spoke of, and found that a intern had misfiled the document. He paled for a moment, and pressed one more button on his desk, before turning to the ambassador. "I deeply apologize for my rough introduction, due to a recent attack security has been tightened for members of the government, and foreign ambassadors are required to meet in rooms until verified as non-threatening. My name is James Carlton, and I am the chief ambassador here on Atlantis. I apologize that President Nedaye couldn't be here, but he is currently in another meeting. I see that you are requesting a pact of non-agression, I am authorized to make decisions of this type. Please, let me hear from you the reason for this treaty."

"Goodness. There was an attack here? Of what nature, if I may ask? I'm surprised that you're government would even allow this meeting to happen." Alexander frowned slightly. This could be a problem indeed. While it was nice to know that their Non-Aggression Pact can be decided with this meeting, it might put the Singularity at risk. Still, things should be handled as they come.

"But I would suppose that the Pact between our governments should come first." Alexander took a moment to have a sip of his coffee. Decent, something on par with what he could get back home but it was nice to have coffee on another planet. "To the point then. My government is aware of the fact that we're not easy to trust and we emphasize with that. The idea of a group that operates as a whole based on some intergalactic connection is one for concern. That and the ludicrous idea that we'd Integrate people into the Singularity on a whim. Its with our hopes that this Non-Aggression Pact that we can slowly learn to trust each other to the point that maybe one day we may officially become allies." Alexander took a moment to have another small sip. "Another reason for this pact is a purely humanitarian one. The human population back home pine to learn more about the birthplace of their species. Myself included if I were to be honest. And its everything I hoped it would be. I'm glad to know that our outdated information on Earth was wrong regarding the environmental damage."

James thought for a moment, then opened his holo-terminal and typed something in. A machine in the corner began to glow, and sheets of paper started to appear out from under a large lamp-looking part of the machine, which James walked over and collected. "You seem to be relatively out of the loop, but the president will be releasing a statement to the galaxy soon about this recent attack. The current standard treaty of non-agression allows signifiers to enter and leave friendly space if they have papers to prove citizenship, and volunteer to a ship search. This was implemented recently to track a rather disturbing group, and smaller tolls are levied because of this inconvenience. You would have access to open planets, and have a limited ability to invest in terran assets. The treaty outlines the minor details, but one major one is that if a military ship enters our space without authorization, it will be considered a act of war. Ships in distress will be reviewed, but all others will be shot down on sight. Finally, a clause added by the Leauge for your nation, is the prohibition of conversion of any terran citizen, until you are allies and a full agreement on this subject is formed. You simply have to sign here, and the copies will be sent to our respective governments. Do you have any audits you'd like to negotiate?"

"Thank you Mr Carlton. No I do not see any need to negotiate about any of the audits. Well except maybe one small issue. Due to our homeworld being in a rather... turbulent part of the galaxy, almost all our ships are militarized to an extent. But worry not, we will send a request for authorized entry before jumping into any Terran system." Alexander quietly read through the printed version of the Pact, mildly amused at the fact that its a hardcopy. Understandable, hardcopies prevent any malicious editing. He would ask for a soft-copy but he knew his Superiors would already be reading it through his own eyes and discussing on the matter. It was then that one of his Superiors suggested something.

"Actually Mr Carlton. If I may be so bold, could you perhaps tell me about this attack? Or at least the nature of it. I understand if you won't be able to but it seems my Superiors are asking me to offer my assistance in the matter while I'm still Earthside."

James paused, pondering this offer. "As of now, that information is considered a state secret," James said slowly, "However, as soon as it is released in a few days time, if you were to make your way over to the labs on the northeastern citadel, there wouldn't be any problems." He typed a couple other things, and that same machine started up again, this time a red tag with a metal pin popped into existence, with an image of Alexander and a number 4 next to it. "In fact, head over early and sign in, make yourself comfortable. Your quarters are in the Western block, ask the security there if you need any help." He pressed a button, and a pen rose from the desk."Do we have an accord?"

"Hm. Efficient. I guess you don't always have to be connected to a Network to work well." Alexander mused, happy that his Superiors are glad with what just happened. In any case, him lending aid to the investigations would help solidify trust between the Singularity and the Terrans. Alexander reached out and grasped the pen in his hand. "That we do. Where do I sign?"

"Here" James motioned, and singed one of two lines on the last page. He pushed it towards Alexander, and offered the pen.

"And with this. A Pact is formed." Alexander smiled, signing the other line before rising from his seat and offering a hand towards James. "May this Union bring forth more discoveries."

James took the hand, and smiled as a new nation joined the ranks of the Terran Allies.

Shireling Wandering Grim Hollow

 

[Specialist]

Faction Representative Nathan Winters & Txell Aristide, Terra, Atlantis Capitol Alliance Boardroom

​

The two Havenians were dead silent on how to proceed further. It was a good strategem for a starting point on containment, however there were too many variables still left out in the open. Finally, Txell broke the silence following the Prime Minister's statement along with one of Nedaye's assistants excuse himself from the meeting. "The neutral system should be staged for a summit location. We don't have any claims or demands at the moment, however my science directors have advised a discussion with all of you on the possibility of commissioning the construction of two-way quantum jumpgates between our homeworlds. Obviously, with the threat of the disease, we must place containment as a priority before we proceed any further with talks of this nature. I will begin deployment of the Task Force to Thainsin. The reason for this choice in location is mainly to prevent Sullivan from gaining access to the further reaches of the galactic map, as it serves as a de-facto center pass through the majority of the other quadrants." Txell concluded herself with a clearing of her throat momentarily, then turning her gaze over to Abimbola and addressing him. "President Nedaye, we will need your assistance in obtaining a viable sample of the virus so that our labs can start synthesizing a cure. Lastly... the public in Haven have been rather diversified on matters of trust within the United Terran League since the split. By acknowledging the current situation, Haven faces potential civil unrest within a few sectors if we do not tread carefully with our Public Relations department. If there is any objection or additional suggestions, I would like to hear them before we fully commit to this plan."

Nathan remained silent, looking to them all and quite frankly impressed at his leader's tenacity to address every point of concern she could. It was clear that the Deaunt'leh were not to blame for this matter, yet he wondered what they thought of the issue as well. Royalblue127 General Deth Glitch

 

[Royalblue127]

"I find no argument with your additions, though I say that the mission to extract the portal plans of the pirates is still underway, I have men looking into the matter. With those plans, and a bit of time, it may be more viable to discuss that further. I understand that your place as a vassal state would cause unrest, however that part of the treaty being amended has been solidly blocked every time I attempt to bring it to the attention of the League." he shrugged apologetically, then stood from his chair. "Deploy your men as you see fit, and maintain vig-" He was cut off by a aid running in, panting slightly and leaning over slightly, out of breath. He quickly looked around the room, and stammered "I'm so sorry, President, we have received word that a viable and undisturbed sample of the disease was found in the Proxima system, it's being shipped here as we speak." President Nedaye froze, then smiled widely. "Thank you Martin, this is good news. Alert the science sector, and give Haven and Arthurian scientists live time access to their findings. My friends" he said, turning to the larger group, "it looks like our job just became much easier."
Specialist General Deth Glitch Shireling

 

[Specialist]

Faction Representative Nathan Winters & Txell Aristide, Terra, Atlantis Capitol Alliance Boardroom
​

Txell smiled brightly as Nathan wore a content smile. Despite the situation and the dire consequences it presented, it was as firm a belief as every that this could be tackled. Perhaps in the end, the League would finally see to reason with Nedaye if Haven played its part in helping resolve this issue. Regardless, the Commisary-General was thankful to be under oath to the Terran League. Upon the mention of the sample and the continued discussion of the portal plans, Txell's smile widened. "I'll get to work on that right away. Thank you, Sir. Natha turned back and smiled as Txell's image flickered and died on the screen as the communications display went offline, signaling she wasn't one to waste time in beginning to rectify this issue. She'd already had her instructions made clear, and as for Nathan, he cleared his throat and still sat at the table, gaze now turned to President Nedaye as his expression turned back to a warm-neutral tone. "I believe that is sufficient enough to warrant a conclusion of our solution to this problem. Rest assured, the forces of Outcast's Haven will not let you down, Sirs." Nathan smiled to both of them, beginning to pack his papers and notes into his breifcase. Now, it was Txell's turn to get everything on Haven's end underway.

Txell 'Boss' Aristide, Vincent Burke, Cole Harrison, Jack Harper, Sarah White, Mark Bradley, Aaron Smith; Primaris - Haven's Spire Conference Center​

Immediately after disconnecting from the conference, Txell paged the necessary staff and directed them to the Conference Center. Recieveng a series of acknowledgement alerts from the pager as she briskly strode out of her office and out into the hall, Txell mulled the details over in her mind. She'd be juggling the coordination and deployment of Task Force Exodus, Public Relations and prepping the science department. With this as her first major operation since Micheal passed the torch to her, being overwhelmed was an understatement. Luckily for her, her staff understood this and prepared in advance for a day like this. Swallowing her nerves as she took the elevator up a floor and reached the Department of Diplomatic Relations, Txell steeled her jaw as she strode past reception to a black wooden-polished door with a gold plaque above it that read, 'CONFERENCE BOARDROOM #1' When Micheal initially constructed the Spire, his taste in modern uniformity superseded his taste in having overly luxurious facilities. Taking a deep breath, Txell smiled faintly at the history surrounding the room as she gripped the doorknob and entered the room.

Almost instantly, she was greeted with the light scent of vanilla upon stepping into the boardroom, as evidenced by the flower standing as a centerpiece on the black glass table. Walking past the small corridor, she found her team seated rather comfortably at the table as they talked amongst themselves, before turning over to her and rising in unison; slamming their left fist across their chest in a Havenian salute. Txell returned the greeting, before walking over and seating herself with a faint smile, before clearing her throat and beginning her introduction. "Thank you all for coming. I'm sure you've heard the news as of late; I've just returned from the current conference with the United Terran League and the Authurian Union. For those who aren't caught up to speed, there was an attempted deployment of a bioweapon on the Terran Capitol building. No-one was injured in the attack, and the suspect presumably fled the planet. After the discussion, President Nedaye and Representative Winters have determined it to be the best course of action in deploying Task Force Exodus to secure a foothold in the Thainsin system to act as a net for catching the suspect, as well as preventing any other ships from crossing borders on the fear that they could be a carrier for the pathogen. In addition to preparing an address to the population of Haven on the issue we're currently facing, the Terran League are shipping an undisturbed, preserved sample of the bioweapon in the hopes that our science department can begin working on a potential cure for those affected. With this being said, are there any concerns or addresses anyone would like to make?" Txell concluded, looking around the room at her staff as they mulled over the General's oral report. Mark Bradley was the first to raise his hand.

The man was well within his fifties at best, with a head of gray, smooth hair and rectangular tinted glasses that defined an otherwise stoical and businesslike appearance. "Concerning the possibility of further civilian discord within Haven's sectors based on this news... We know that the majority of our populace doesn't trust the United Terran League. If you release an official address of the situation at hand and remind them why we're under vassalization- that is- for our benefit as it offers both protection and our freedoms as Havenians, perhaps they'll begin to see a change of mind. We're not at war right now and we have no reason to be, but I'd advise we don't exacerbate the situation. It's frightening for everyone, but we have to remind our populace that the UTL is not our enemy based on a free radical's actions. If there's anything else anyone wants to add or adjust to this suggestion, raise your hand." Bradley concluded his punctuation with silence as not a single member of Txell's staff raised their hand, and he nodded in agreement. "I will begin drafting a speech when this meeting is concluded, then." With the first part of the discussion satiated, Txell looked around and nodded as Vincent Burke raised his hand. Clearing his throat, he took a moment to compose his documents on the table. "Right, then. Seeing as this will be Exodus's first operation outside of training exercises, and there's no imminent need for a full ground contingent, Exodus's 1st Marine Company and crew should be enough to satisfy the need for a light mechanized infantry operation. I am not too concerned with our Navy's inability to handle themselves in a fight as our ships are built for combat. The only worry I have is the possible encounter of rogue or foreign entities during Exodus's travel to the Thainsin system. Of course, we have to prepare for the unexpected. From my understanding, your mission should be to maintain security of the Thainsin system, and if any unidentified or unmarked Terran ships enter into Thainsin, isolate, detain and scuttle if you suspect the perpetrator is onboard. With that knowledge of the pathogen, I would advise Harrison and Harper procure Class-VI CBRN uniforms for our boarding teams and crew." Harrison and Harper both perked up at the mention and nodded, opening their tablets and filing their logistics requests to the chief officer. "Since the other generals are not present for this conference as it is strictly a Naval operation, I will inform both of you that your mission is to - if the target is identified- target the subsystems of the ship they're in. We need to immobilize it for capture, and only destroy it once the crew have been detained in quarentine. Lastly, it is imperative that all crew and combat teams do not let the suits become compromised in any way. This is a bioweapon, meaning it is designed to kill in a short amount of time. Everyone here is valuable to the mission; the UTL is counting on us, and we're counting on gaining our public support. It's no good if anyone dies." Vincent said, clearing his throat and cracking his knuckles.

The Intelligence Officer, Sarah White, was busy scribbling notes and bits of information down in her already seemingly filled notebook and tablet. Aaron, Txell's psudeo-mentor and political advisor, raised his hand to which Txell nodded in response to. He sighed with a grim expression, and nodded his head as his eyes radiated with electrical blue pulses of Havenian energy. "The reports from the UTL came in pretty fast with their initial findings of the bioweapon, and they've concluded that already 23% of the Terran populace have been listed as casualties. I'm not going to bother reiterating what my colleagues before me have said, but I will agree that time is of the essence. With Exodus patrolling the Thainsin system, we should have enough range to maintain comms with either Arthurian or League ships in the neighboring systems. Your priority, Boss, is that speech. I'll handle the request to prepare the science team for the sample. White handles her job at briefing the crew of the Exodus. If anyone has any further additions or objections, speak up."

No-one raised a hand further. As Txell looked around the room, she felt a sense of weary confidence wash over her as she adjourned the meeting by standing up. "Conference adjourned. If anyone has any suggestions later, come to me and I'll try to address them as best as I can. The UTL is counting on us, and there are many lives at stake. My father never was one to believe in failure as an absolute condition- you only lose if you doubt your ability to succeed. This is our first major operation under the UTL, and we're going to succeed. For our future, and For Haven." "For Haven!" Each member of Txell's staff exclaimed in unison, saluting her as they departed the room. She saluted them in return as Aaron was the last to depart, catching her on the shoulder. "You've got your speeches down already. Micheal would be proud of you, Boss. Let's walk." Txell relaxed with a somber smile, and the two exited the conference room and began heading to the Research and Development Department. Shireling Royalblue127 General Deth Glitch

 

[Nivi]

Aboard the Arbiter

"Close communications!" Dieter growled maliciously, his fist clenched.
"My Lord, the rats are attempting to flee into hyperspace."

"Fire now!! If we allow them to regroup, our fleets will never make it in time to defend Otto!"
In an instant, two bright blue pulses fired off from the Arbiter's Tempest batteries, scorching any particles or debris in the way as the two orbs zoomed towards the rat ship.

"Archfiend. The rats have fled succesfully."

Dieter's glass space helmet fogged up as he howled with frustration, crunching up a lever on the console before him with his bare hand.
"Open a line with hangar 3!"
"On it."

"Jaisol, report!"
"This is Jaisol, my Lord. All starfighters are primed and ready for launch."
"Dispatch two headhunters to Rasla IMMEDIATELY! Stall Kretch for as long as you can. Bring me his head if possible."
Without a chance to even reply, Jaisol could do nothing but accept his orders. From the starboard port of the Arbiter, two Othari star fighters launched out and immediately jumped into the Rasla hyperlane. Although smaller than the rat freighter which had just fled, the two fighters were more nimble, and sought to out-maneuver the rats once they found them in order to best them.

"Hail Grasho 2, now! We must get word back to Otto before it is too late."
"Communications are online, my Lord."
"Grasho 2, report!"

"Archfiend, this is moon base Grasho 2. Our monitors report heavy activity in the Rasla hyperlane. We suspect at least two rat vessels have infiltrated Otto. We haven't been able to put a tag on what kind of ships, but we've picked up at least one Benthic signature and one unidentified signature."
Of course! The unidentified vessel. It was very odd that Kretch had entered Otto with one vessel, and this truthfully did not seem like a trap, despite what Dieter had surmised. Although the threat of a rat incursion was now real due to having angered Kretch, it seems his original intentions here were not to fight with the Othari. There must be an ulterior motive, and the unidentified vessel would have the answer to this.

"Grasho 2, The Arbiter has successfully repelled a rat vessel back to Rasla. I have two headhunters in pursuit. I also have cause to believe that the rats will return with a stronger force. If not for us, then for whatever they came for in the first place. I need you to get word back to Otto and Foi. Let the admirals know that I have called for a provisional mobilization of our Leviathans. Bring three to the edge of Rasla and summon the rest to defend Foi. Standby for further instructions."

"My Lord, our batteries are locked onto the second vessel and ready to fire. Waiting on your mark."
"On screen."
Maelstrom projects the image of the Von'hari on the main screen, allowing everyone on the bridge to get a look at it.
"Magnify."
Once zoomed in, it was clear to see that the ship had sustained some damage. What's more, it seemed to be unarmed.
"We are missing something... Scan them again."
As the ship conducted another scan on the smaller science vessel, Dieter pondered what the meaning of this could be.
"Evidently, this is not a rat junker... Scan for Benthic signatures as well."
"No match, my Lord. Benthics are out of the question."
"Impossible... Prec--?"
Dieter cut his own sentence short, swiveling on his chair to access an adjacent console.
"Grasho 2, run another systems check on the unidentified vessel. Cross-reference it with all the data we have on precursors."
Murmurs ran across the entire bridge. "Precursors? Impossible. No such thing."
"My Lord, scans are complete. There are multiple unidentified life forms aboard the vessel. There is no detectable rat or Benthic signature of any aspect. Whatever this vessel is, it has sustained damage and is in need of repairs. They're lightly armed."
From the speakers of the Arbiter, Maelstrom's voice chimed in. It was dark, deep, and demonic, with a robotic undertone to it: "They are outgunned on every variable."

Dieter sat up from his chair, gruffing. He patiently awaited a report from Grasho 2, though deep down, he knew it couldn't be precursors. Even though it would explain just about everything, it was just too unlikely.
"Flagship Arbiter, this is Grasho 2. The unidentified vessel does not match our records on precursor technology."
This was quite the predicament. Never in the millions, if not billions of years of Othari history had they encountered space-faring people that weren't rat or Benthic. Had Dieter just encountered a new advanced species? This was unprecedented.
As Dieter paced the bridge, a little flicker caught his attention. He turned to face an empty station-- the one that was previously manned by the Othari he had slain just a few minutes ago. His console was blinking with a communication alert. The Arbiter was being hailed.
"Why didn't you tell me they were hailing us?" Dieter spoke softly, as if he were speaking to himself. No doubt, he was speaking to Maelstrom, but it did not reply. It rarely ever spoke on its own volition.
"The vessel is hailing us. On screen."
Everyone on the bridge turned their gaze to the main screen. Suddenly, both vessels were linked with auditory and visual communication. The sight of the Von'hari's bridge and its crew visibly stunned the crew of the Arbiter. They were speechless, curious, observant. It even took Dieter a minute to reply. The Othari had never seen anything like this before.
Dieter snapped his gaze to a sitting bridgehand. "They speak our language?" He growled.
"Negative. Their logs have generated rough translations."
The Archfiend faced the screen again. "Captain... O'har..." Even though his true expression was hidden under a rebreather and glass mask, it was obvious to see that Dieter and the bridge were perplexed. "You.. You speak Ottonian, the sacred tongue of the Othari. The Deun'tleh Counciliar State. Surely you must be precursors! Is that why the rats attacked you?"
Dieter muted the communications for a second. He gulped. "De-activate the tempest batteries. Raise shields to maximum."
Shireling KindlyPlagueDoctor​

 

[Shireling]

Uplink 3.0
Stardate 3.2.2555

Spoiler: Construction Queue for Terran Navy

Corvettes: 8/20
Frigates: 3/4
2 Cruisers: 1/4
1 Battleship: Delayed
1 Carrier: Delayed

Ventris City, Proxi Ventris
​

Ever since the arrival of Terran troops onboard the Gatsby and with her escort corvettes, Ventris City had been on absolute lockdown. The civil authorities were certain that the fugitive they were seeking was within the city. Helping the authorities, Ventris City had up-to-date video surveillance on the gates and the whole city was surrounded by an electrified wire wall that kept hostile wildlife and enterprising slavers and raiders away from the interior of the settlement. If anyone had left for the dusty outlands either through the south or west gates, the authorities would have been immediately notified. Thus, they concluded that the attempted attacker was still within the city.

It was about two days after Terran marines landed and began cooperating with the Ventris City Police that they found the very probable location of the attacker - a run-down apartment next to the pipeworks. Marines in plainclothes with their vests hidden under the thick drifter leathers that characterized many of the inhabitants of the city covertly surrounded the building, then swarmed into the hallway. Without a word, they all moved to stand in front of a presswood door, where Keira Blakely watched them with growing horror from behind the door. She was probably pretty, if she had showered or eaten in the past week, and her dark hair covered eyes wide with fear when she saw the men gathering on either side of her door. Finally, she heard the knock. "Ventris Police, open up!"

They did not knock twice. A marine sent his thick leather boot through the presswood door and practically burst the thing off the hinges. When they swarmed the room with their handguns, Keira had bolted from the spot she was standing and making ready to jump through the open window. Before they could put a stun round in her, she had dove out the third story window and would likely have fallen to her death had this eventuality not been anticipated and accounted for. She landed firmly in the arms of a burly marine gunnery sergeant.

"Let go of me, I didn't do anything!" She cried and wailed, beating against the man's back and chest. Clawing at him with no effect, as his uniform insulated him from anything she could possibly do to harm him in her weakened state. The other marines filed downstairs with chuckles on their lips and smiles on their faces, although they all straightened out when they remembered that their mission was very grave.

"Gunny Sergeant," one of the marines murmured as the burly soldier slung Keira over his back to carry her to the shuttle. Another marine was reading her her rights while a third was fixing a tracking bracelet and shackles to her feet and hands. "You really think this is the woman?"

"Damn certain of it," the sergeant replied in a matter-of-fact tone. He turned to Keira. "You know, you're not the kind of person I would suspect of being a mass murderer. I pictured you old, and a man, and ugly." He sneered at her. She merely sunk into a sullen silence and let her arms flap uselessly against the marine's back.

Royalblue127

Pleris II, the Facility
​

Ophrine Narin's fireteam hulked in their armor alongside the Mohain veterans and the Deun'tleh hirelings as they made their way through the jungle with sword and flame. The Mohain took the lead, visibly uncomfortable with all the fire that was being used to systematically carve a path of ash and destruction to their objective. The Deun'tleh, although their faces were expressionless, seemed to relish the flames crackling and turning green and brown foliage to grey ash. The Deun'tleh were strange little creatures, this much the knights had picked up on since their trek had begun several hours earlier. Despite their lack of eyes, they could navigate the underbrush better than they could in the armor. Additionally, they had a strange way of letting you know how they felt about things. They seemed to exude their emotions and expressions, or put them off like an aura. They were obviously older than the humans, and had strange thoughts about strange and faraway places. The humans and Mohain only picked up vague imprints of these impressions as they moved along whenever their eyes rested on Ves'mar Ul or his plant-man companion.

Eventually, they came to a clearing where they could see the ruined facility perched up on the cliff. The foliage had been strangely peaceful, to the point where the Mohain had stopped their burning and merely cut through with a machete. The clearing was mostly bereft of plant life as it was a rocky outcropping, but the Deun'tleh nonetheless helped them clear the area of the twiggier weeds before they sat down to take rations. The Deun'tleh, who apparently only need water or sunlight, told them how on long trips it helped to supplement themselves with "nutrients." The "nutrient" rations they described were a brownish-green paste which they covered their fingers in until the paste hardened and turned an ashy grey, then flicked off and repeated the process.

"You know," Ves'mar said as the Mohain struggled with their food nutrient tanks, "I've always thought humans took their sustenance rather strangely. You have these...oh, what are they called?"

"Mouths." The Mohain sergeant interjected.

"Yes, mouths, and you---"

"What's strange about mouths?" The Mohain asked again impatiently. Ves'mar gave up his attempted small talk, shrugged, and flicked off more of his food paste. He turned his head towards the great, massive tree trunk that seemed to form a horizontal pipe snaking from the mountains in the distance down through the forest and into the side of the ruined facility.

"I feel that there's bad spirits here at work," Ves'mar said after a long silence, "that's what's making the trees act funny. Otherwise, they would just sway in the wind like they have for thousands of years. It's strange... I don't like it."

He turned to the knights for comment. "What do you think, metal-men? Bad spirits, yes?"

Petroshka

Coming Soon: Othari Shenaniganry Nivi ​

 

[Royalblue127]

Darkness. That was the first thing Keira saw when she woke up. Some time on the journey back to terra she had started to feel sleepy, and even while forcing her eyes open, eventually fell into a deep sleep. She vaguely remembers murmurs of speech, and was startled awake to a when a rough material was forced over her eyes. She was lead down a ramp and into a bitting cold, and the sound of a spacecraft lifting off blasted from behind her. She was nearly knocked off her unprepared feet as the wind gust from the engines pushed against the ground, but with a flare of the engine, the sound was gone.

Her captors marched her into a warmer area, and her hood was removed. The doors were gray steel, and only a dim white luminescent glows above her intermittently. They stop suddenly at a random door, seemingly unremarkable in this endless hallway. She was shoved inside, and was forced onto a table. She struggled heavily as they bound her, but was ineffective as they cuffed her wrists and ankles, and wrapped straps over her body. Eventually they seemed satisfied, and filed out. The door shut, and the light in the room flickered out.

Keira doesn't know how long she was in the dark, it could have been hours, or days. Eventually marching was heard again, and she turned from the light as the door opened, and she blearily saw a agent in a suit enter. They marked something on their pad, and approached the table.

"Keira Blakley, born in Albany, New York. Former student of NYU, who left a promising career as a researcher and conservationist to be a 'internet warrior.' Member in good standing of the Non-Sapients Liberation Army, Murderer and potential Genocidal Maniac. Did I miss anything?"

Keira raised her bleary-eyed head, wet with sweat, and squinted at the interrogator. "Oh, yeah, I'm also an amateur tattoo artist." She added with a weak grin.

A smile graced his lips for a millisecond, then faded back into it's neutral state. He shuffled some papers, and pulled from behind him a gray box, with a coupe wires leading to suction cups. He attached them firmly to Keiras head, arms, and heart, tugging each strand to ensure a proper suction was in place. "This device ascertains wether or not you are lying, and has been proven to be a hundred percent full-proof so far. I have here a list of questions that if you answer fully and truthfully, you may be given leniency in sentencing. There will only be three warnings before more serious methods of information gathering are used. Do I make myself clear?"

"You think I'm in on the Avon job - there is no leniency there. If I go down for that, that's...what? 100 million counts of murder in the first degree? 100 million life sentences? Why should I waste my time talking to you? You're gonna pin the whole thing on me and put me to death. It's alright. We've all got to die sometime." She said all this with an air of bafoonish confidence that is customary of people her age. She really thought she was quite a bit smarter than her interlocutor, and treated him as such.

The agent simply sighed and read the first question: "Were you willingly part of this operation?"

"I was," She said. She smiled weakly, almost deliriously. "I betcha wanna know why."

A small check on the form "Did you have a way of exiting the situation alive?"

"Ultimately?" She asked. "No, not really. The virus was going to spread all over the Proxima system, I could tell from the way the traffic through Ventris City went out. I suspect that the virus from Avon has already broken containment, it's so infectious and can stay dormant for so long. But we'll see if your quarantine was enough. We have a new virus coming down the pipe - this one is designed for the Deun'tleh. Those disgusting little weeds go to bathe in the wine-water of their canals and we've slipped in something special for them. Next thing you know, Sen'Heim is a ghost planet. Next was the Qirnians, dastardly little buggers. After that, I dunno. Someone would have kept making the virus, but I would probably have already taken the release." She said all of this with a straight face, and it was clear she was being frank with the interrogator.

Another check, and a button pushed. "So this was a suicide mission?"

"in a roundabout way, yes. Maybe it wouldn't have happened on Proxi, but eventually I would've gotten infected. Then I would have been a carrier, and then I would have died."

Another check "How do you communicate with your 'Army' leader?

"Wouldn't you like to know?" She retorted.

A small sigh, and another button. A small click sounded through the room, and from the wall a table with various appliances slid out slowly. The agent picks up a needle, and tests the flow of the liquid inside. "I ask again, how do you communicate with your leader."

Keira looked at the needle, then back at the interrogator. "Dead drops." She proclaimed. The detector considered this to be a half-truth, although she couldn't read the display from her sitting position. She didn't want to show it, but she was getting scared.

"Progress, but not the full truth. Explain and elaborate, this is considered your second warning."

She sighed. "I get all my information from a small wooden box that's stashed on a dirt road in Alleghany County, Pennsylvania. You'd never find it if you weren't looking, and my leader knows that I'm captured by now because I haven't reported back. You won't be stupid enough to catch her sending me any more orders." Keira seemed so concerned with trying to avoid the needle, she had let it slip that her leader was a woman. Not particularly helpful, but something.

A small smile, a check. "What is the name of your leader."

She felt cornered now. "I don't know her name." A lie.

The agent seemed to deflate a bit."And things were going so well" he murmured, looking at the needle. "This needle contains a highly concentrated toxin. You will be paralyzed, and slowly asphyxiate to death while stimulating extreme pain across the totality of your nervous system. This has been known to knock out elephants in seconds, and is lethal in high doses." He leans in, his face right above hers. "I'm not a certified doctor, who knows if the dose is right. So I'm going to ask for the last time. What. Is. Her. Name"

"You know," Keira began, ignoring the man's threat, "that's how the virus kills. It...it, starts out with no symptoms. Gets into the bronchial tubes then, gives you a cough, irritates your throat. First you think it's sinus drainage, then you think its strepdocacuous. Eventually, your bronchial tubes just puff up and swell and get inflamed. Then you choke, and you die. Simple, quick, relatively painless. We're nothing if not courteous." She stared off into space.

He looks regretful for a second, then shrugs, and places the needle in her arm. The toxin slowly begins to take over, and Keira begins to feel indescribable pain, like the sun was charring her skin. "You have approximately five minute to answer the question, and for me to give you the antidote. Please don't make us kill you."

At first, Keira seemed content to sit back and accept her death. Pain coursed through her body which caused her to bite back her screams on the side of her mouth. All this did was draw blood, which oozed out of the corners of her mouth as her body started to go rigid. The pain rode her like lightning, indescribably intense. Every neuron felt as if it were on fire. And then, the pain was coupled with the creeping numbness that was starting to set in. First she couldn't feel her fingers or her toes. Then her hands and feet - she began to panic like a child that can't swim when they're caught out in deep water. She let out a muffled scream, then choked out the name, "Edna Carol! Edna Carol!"

"Thank you" he smiled, and after clicking a box on his pad, he turned to face the door. The toxin should subside in approximately 30 seconds, we have medics on site to tend to your mouth. Your next of kin have been verified of the situation, and a lawyer has been sent for. You will experience a blackout, but rest assured you will be fine." He walks out as Keira slumps into unconsciousness behind him, and opens his holo-watch to his boss.

"I take it the situation is being taken care of, Morgana?"

A darkened face of a women stared back at him "Yes agent Danvers, you are free to prepare the strike team for the eventual extraction."

'Thank you mam." His face disappeared from her holo-console, and she turned to her computer. The satellite imagery of the drop point was being rolled back from the files, and the name had already pinged a xenobiological conservation organization that had fallen on hard times. She was forced from her pondering as a ringing came from her console. Another call was buzzing in.

A harried looking young man buzzed in this time, wearing the silver uniform of the tech division. "The scans show a likely lackey dropping off the orders in a rental car. She has been documented with numerous flights to regions of Tibet, Nepal and Northern India. We have followed that lead to a small village near Kathmandu, it is probable that the woman living there is Edna Carol. We already have Danvers team on the way, and we have heavy security in any areas of transportation out of the region, as well as heavy monitors of air travel."

"Good work, send a message the president and try and keep this out of the media until she is captured." He nodded and quickly cancelled the call, leaving her in her office. She looked out at the secluded beach that her office bordered, on the top floor of the Northern Complex. A glow came from under the water, and bubbles formed as a ship slowly exited the ocean. It flew above the office, and she could Swear she saw Danvers smirking at her from the cockpit of the ship. With a quick 180 turn, the ship shot towards the horizon, towards the Himalayas and the monster that is held.

 

[Shireling]

Two Months Ago - The Otto System
​

Everyone on the bridge turned their gaze to the main screen. Suddenly, both vessels were linked with auditory and visual communication. The sight of the Von'hari's bridge and its crew visibly stunned the crew of the Arbiter. They were speechless, curious, observant. It even took Dieter a minute to reply. The Othari had never seen anything like this before.
Dieter snapped his gaze to a sitting bridgehand. "They speak our language?" He growled.
"Negative. Their logs have generated rough translations."
The Archfiend faced the screen again. "Captain... O'har..." Even though his true expression was hidden under a rebreather and glass mask, it was obvious to see that Dieter and the bridge were perplexed. "You.. You speak Ottonian, the sacred tongue of the Othari. The Deun'tleh Counciliar State. Surely you must be precursors! Is that why the rats attacked you?"
Dieter muted the communications for a second. He gulped. "De-activate the tempest batteries. Raise shields to maximum."

O'har nearly jumped when the Othari vessel connected to the Von'hari's communications network. Judging by the reaction of the Othari to him, he could tell that the translator had worked and they could communicate freely with the aid of the telecommunications array as a mediator. O'har was an older Deun'tleh, although to outsiders most Deun'tleh looked identical. He had a thin, featureless face save for his air ventricals. His face was white, slightly perturbed-looking, and gaunt. His red uniform coat clung tightly to his wiry frame, with the breast of the coat covering most of his chest and buttoning under his left arm. The small silver insignia on his right breast was a pin in the shape of a lotus-like flower.

"I assure you, sir, that we are no precursors. Children of the stars, much like yourselves. I am a science officer, sent abroad by the Grand Council to chart new worlds to teach about to our children on our Sen'Heim," he explained, "My ship is equipped with a translator, that is why I can understand you and you can understand me. The ratmen attacked us as we passed through the neighboring system, and we slipped into the closest hyperlane we could to get away. Now, I am afraid, our sails are damaged and it will take us a long while to make it back to Sen'Heim without your help..." The Deun'tleh captain bowed his head. "To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?"

Across the entire bridge of the arbiter, deckhands and officers of the bridge all simultaenously dropped their actions. Like amused children gazing at zoo animals through the protective window, all of the Othari observed Captain O'har and his crew with great curiosity. The translations were rough,but still quite understandable. When O'har bowed his head forward, the entire bridge crew of the arbiter jolted backwards in astonishment,clearly frightened by the sudden movement of the Deun'tleh. Even Dieter. Regaining his courage, Dieter pondered on what to do, he truly did not know how to react. The fact that they weren't precursors was re-assuring, but this was all still completely unprecedented. Clad in his luxurious golden armor and veiled by a glass helmet with a rebreather, Dieter stepped forward towards the screen. "Captain O'har, you were a fool to venture into the den of the rats un-escorted. And you were a greater fool to desecrate this realm with your foreign presence. If you are not precursor, then you have no business in Otto."

Standing up straight, Dieter idly clicked on some buttons on the terminal. "But alas, your vessel appears to be immobile. You could not leave even if we forced you to. The Othari will offer a helping hand, for I surmise that we might have much to learn from each other, scientist. An unarmed science ship, surviving the onslaught of the rats-- surely you know about sorcery which may help us fight the rats as well." Dieter briefly turned, ordering some of the deckhands around. The hangar would be prepared to either send out vessels to help O'har's science ship, or receive it with a tractor beam, depending on what O'har decided. "Although I know not what sort of pleasure you might gain from this occurence, you speak with Dieter, Archfiend of the Othari Assembly. Captain O'har, my wings are prepared to pay you a visit. Though if you would prefer a more hospitable scenario, I also welcome you aboard this flagship, should you wish."

O'har tossed several different scenarios around wordlessly in his head. It was obvious to him that the Othari were an aggressive, warlike people. When Dieter gave his title as "Archfiend," he had at first thought this was an error of the translation software. But now, rechecking the lingustics algorithm the ship had made, that was the correct translation. At the same time, Dieter had offered him and his crew aid. Perhaps they would even give them an escort back to relatively civilized space. He admitted to himself that he knew rats were in the system, but he assumed them to be no worse than, say, pirates. He thought again of all the knowledge he might gain about the Othari, their customs, and their people if he was brought onboard to ask questions of this "Archfiend."

Finally, O'har said, "It was not my intention, your lordship, to trespass on holy aether. I humbly accept the aid which your lordship has condescended to show to me and my crew. The Von'hari is a sturdy ship, and your vessel looks large enough that you could take her into your berth. That would certainly aid in repairs. In the meantime, I give you license to study my ship and its weaponry." He knew that nothing on the Von'hari was particularly new or state-of-the-art. Deun'tleh plasma weaponry was fairly advanced, but not anything particularly astonishing. "I accept your welcome. You may take us aboard." (done)

"Perhaps you are not as unwise as I first understood you to be, Captain." With just the click of a few buttons, a weak tractor beam locked on to the science vessel and began to tow it in. Aided by some escort wings that flew out from the hangar, O'har's ship finally made it aboard into one of the Arbiter's hangars. The crew of the Arbiter had already been informed of everything, so they were ready to receive the ship. There were a couple of deckhands performing maintenance on other Othari ships. A light defensive perimeter was set up around the new science ship, but nothing too drastic or otherwise overly-intimidating. The Deun'tleh were guests after all. When O'har's crew would finally decide to come out of their damaged ship, they'd be met by a less angry looking Othari clad in a thin exosuit, observing some holographic data panels. "Greetings, scientists. I am Vorun, a lead engineer of the Othari." His tone sounded quite welcoming. "Welcome aboard the Arbiter. If we are to begin repairs on your vessel, my team and I require some time to assess damages and study your foreign schematics. We would like to work together with you so that you'll be able to sail once more as soon as possible." Behind Vorun, two armored Othari carrying what appeared to be rifles sought out Captain O'har. (done)

While O'har tasked Ensign Ol'fas to oversee the Deun'tleh cooperation with the Othari in rendering repairs, telling him to give over all the relevant schematics and information over to their engineers, O'har was drawn by the two soldiers looking for him. He presented himself and, by use of a small device that looked something like a small metal circlet that rested against his forehead, he told the soldiers that he was O'har and would go with them. All of the Deun'tleh were wearing these devices, which apparently were their translation machines. (done
Surprisingly enough, the Othari showed no intetion of subduing the Deun'tleh scientists, or even strip them of their weapons. Even the escorts which brought O'har and some of his crew along, although armed, appeared to be passive and were not intent on causing any harm. The journey throughout the Arbiter was long. Many corridors, sectors, and elevators had to be traversed, with the Deunt'leh allowed to observe many of the features of the Othari's most powerful flagship. Eventually, after much sight-seeing and idle conversation, O'har and whoever else of his crew followed were brought into a large room which was empty except for a big round table and several thrones erected in circular fashion. On these thrones, the most powerful of the Othari aboard the Arbiter sat in a diplomatic assembly to meet with these new alien visitors. The Othari were quite terrible at diplomacy, but to kill or ignore the Deunt'leh would do nothing except make the Othari miss out on valuable information. The Othari sat on thrones greeted the Deunt'leh briefly, but soon all attention was on the adjacent corridor from where Dieter made his entrance. "Ah, Captain O'har." From the floor, several stools began to prop up, filling the spaces between each throne and giving the foreigners a place to sit among the round table. Dieter promptly took his seat on the biggest throne. Some silent murmuring occured between a few of the Othari, before one of them spoke up. "Captain O'har, you and your scientists have traveled far and wide to reach Otto. We have charted the stars of this realm for centuries, but never once have we come across anything like you." Although they appeared technologically advanced, it appeared the Othari were not capable of mapping out the galaxy beyond a certain threshold. They were confined to this quadrant.

"Yes," O'har said. He had come with two other science officers dressed in grey coats with red trim: Res'nas and Tal'ur. "The nebular cloud around Otto and the surrounding systems is very dense. We had no idea that there was a civilization within this part of the expanse, at least, we surmised that if there had been one the ratmen would have devoured them long ago." They all took their seats. "I hope the Council will accept my humblest apologies for intruding upon a sacred space. We Deun'tleh also find the divine in Deep Heaven."

The comment from the captain brought a bit of humor to the council of Othari, evident as they all chuckled behind their glass masks and rebreathers. Speaking of such, it seemed every single Othari aboard was clad in an exosuit or armor, and could only breathe with the use of these masks and rebreathers, which could perhaps give the Deunt'leh a clue about their home planet. "The rats beyond the Rasla system are but mere parasites, captain. Even so, it is impressive that you managed to escape their fury with a mere science vessel. They are relentless vermin." The Othari who was speaking was suddenly interrupted as a female Othari struck her fist on her throne. "Enough! Archfiend, this is blasphemy! These aliens are not welcome here! We should dispose of them immediately!" Dieter silenced the council with an intimidating growl. "Silence, Bareen!" He gave everyone a chance to settle down. "Captain O'har... while we acknowledge your apologies, I presume you are smart enough to realize that you are not wanted here." Dieter explained in a monotonous tone. "Nevertheless, we know nothing of you, or your people. How strong your warriors are, how close you are to Otto. And so, I have decided not to upset you or your kind... for now." Attacking the Deunt'leh blindly without knowing their true capabilities or military might could very well be a mistake, the likes of which the Othari could not afford right now. They had enough trouble fending off the rats as is. Other Othari whispered with each other before adressing the captain and his crew. "Captain O'har, your people rally under the banner of a Councillar State, correct? To add to this, you've mentioned that you are but mere scouts, having arrived here by way of a science vessel. Objectively, your kind does not look or sound very strong, and you carry the characteristics of diplomats. Despite all of this, you flew through the nest of the vermin and arrived here unharmed, save for the damage to your ship. The Assembly wishes to
know how you've managed to do this."

"My relative success against the ratmen I attribute to my previous military service. I am not a scientist by trade, I am a navigator and a sailor by trade. The Council selected me to captain the Von'hari because they thought my experience would keep their scientists and researchers alive, and it seems that they have not been proven wrong yet. There was also, your lordships, the fact that the ratman barge certainly would have attempted to finish us off had the arrival of the Arbiter not caused them to flee the system. For that I can offer a great gratitude. In my younger years, I fought many a battle with pirates, smugglers, and slavers. They run rampant in the systems to the Galactic Northeast. Thus, I can attribute my crew's safety to the hard lessons that I learned in combat and in your speedy rescue, not to mention the sturdy construction of my ship."

More whispers. Just as Dieter feared, it seemed the Deunt'leh are not as meek as they looked. "What is this Galactic Northeast that you speak of? Where do you hail from, alien?" Because of the rat's dominance to the east, the Othari have never been able to traverse the Rasla hyperlane and reach other sectors of space-- but since the only other sentient beings to have made themselves known are the Benthics, the Othari believed that the rest of the galaxy was empty. Even if they somehow managed to get past the rats, the Othari cannot stray too far from their home systems because their vessels must refuel, and they rely on the native toxins of their planets to be able to breathe. Rebreathers only provide enough sustenance for a few days.

"We live far north of the Benthic, our home system is called Sos'met, that means "Our Star" in the Deun'tleh language. I hail from Sen'Heim, or the "Sand Home." It is a great desert world where my people flourish. We live mostly to ourselves, but we do a great deal of trading with the Terrans - that is - the humans. The Earthmen are a proud but young race, perhaps too quarallous and too covetous for their own good. They have split into many factions and often they seem to wish to war against one another. They did, hundreds of years ago, have terrible wars among their kind just as the Deun'tleh once sharpened the marshal spirit on one another. There are also the Qirnians, enterprising with a great fondness for coin. The Traiverux and the Drenian are distant from us, warriors of great prowess and peaceful holy men respectively. There are also the fish-men of Mohain who breathe water. They have difficulties like you do, with your rebreathers. These are our neighbors, and there has been peace for a long time, but there are many dangers on the northern hyperlanes. Hyperlane madness, while rare, is still an occurance among our kind. There are pirates who plunder trading vessels for goods, money, and women to sell. Slavers, likewise, harass defenseless settlers looking to press them into slavery for cheap labor or worse abuses. The humans are by far the most prolific in this regard. There are also those who wish to smuggle contraband into our lands - drugs and illegal weaponry among other things - and these men are also dangerous enemies to our sailors and soldiers. These are the dangers of the northeast, although they all seem to pale in comparison to the rapacious appetite for destruction and violence which the ratmen possess." (done)


The words of O'har certainly took the provisional council aback. This was all news to them-- long had they believed the galaxy to be empty. The talk of multiple races, and their connections to violence and chaos, it seemed the Othari had so much more to discover. A storm of whispers overtook the room, to the point where they weren't really whispers anymore. Brief verbal discussions and arguments took place as the Othari present were visibly perplexed on what to do. Once tensions settled, diplomatic discussion resumed. "Captain O'har. We do not take you for a liar, so we will assume your words carry truth for now." A few murmurs surfaced here and there, but there was relative silence for the conversation to continue. "You have encountered us by chance; a most serendipitous occurence." Dieter gruffed, taking over. "I am hereby granting you and your scientists a pardon for trespassing on Othari territory. Moreover, we will repair your ship so that you may once again sail the stars." Dieter glanced around, receiving a vague nod from some of the other Othari. "Nevertheless, there are conditions that you must meet. Firstly, we will be granting you data storages containing all that we know about the Rat Plague to the east. When you return to the Councillar State, you will inform your hierarchs that, in exchange for the favors we have bestowed upon you and your crew, the Sovereign Othari Assembly demands a fleet of Deunt'leh warships to aid us in a new crusade against the ratment, as well as 10 of their finest admirals." A firm wave of agreement from the Othari swept across the room, and O'har was not yet given a chance to intervene. "Additionally, one of your crew must stay here in Otto, so that we may learn everything there is to learn about what we have not yet discovered. Congruently, I would believe it beneficial to both of us if we also sent an emissary of the Othari back with you to wherever it is you came from."

"Your words are kind, your lordship, but I would be lying to you if I told you that I had any control over where the fleets of the Deun'tleh spread their sails. Ultimate power over the State Fleet rests with the Grand Council and Moff'vas Ripa, our leader. But, I assure you that if you repair my ship and send your emissary back to Sen'Heim with us, I will do everything in my power to attempt to convince the Council that action against the rats is urgently needed. So far, the Ratmen of Rasla have not attacked our trade routes and thus we have considered them a minor frontier nuisance at best. The situation of your empire, cut off from the rest of civilization by the neverending siege of Ratmen, may move the Council with empathy for your people..." He paused. "But this is all I can promise. I will take your emissary back to Sen'Heim with me, and in exchange I will leave you one of my unwedded officers who have, perhaps, fifty years of wanderlust in their souls before they attempt to settle themselves. When we arrive, I will help you plead your cause before the Council. Moff'vas Ripa is a fair and honorable ruler, he will not refuse your request without good cause and wise council. This is the most I can offer the mighty Othari." (done)

"Do not mistake the favors I have done for you as charity, dear captain. In exchange for the aid and information we've given you, you will let this Grand Council know about the demands of the Assembly. Until we receive what has been asked, this Assembly will not release the crew member that must stay. If this Moff'vas Ripa is as honorable as you say he is, then I am sure we will come to an accord quickly." Dieter stood from his throne, his metallic-clad claw tips raking the metallic floor of the ship as he approached O'har. A click of a button summoned a holographic display of Vorun, Ensign Ol'fas, and other crew members. "Vorun, how are the repairs? How quickly can you get our visitors back into space?" (done, leaving the repair time up to you).

O'har nodded his demands. They were twisting his arm, but he saw no other way of procurring a safe passage and repairs for his crew. He was dismissed and left to oversee his ship and who would be left behind.

Repairs lasted for three days, in which time the Othari had a good look at the ship's weapons systems. They weren't particularly more advanced than Othari weapons, but they did use a more compact fuel source. To their dismay, however, the weapons threw off an unnerving amount of radiation. Not unsafe levels, but it was clear that Deun'tleh pysiology was more resistance to ionizing radiation than they thought. They quickly found that this was because their energy cells used a somewhat outdated microfission design to generate large amounts of power at the cost of throwing a lot of rads. The ship itself was beautiful, consisting of steel whitened with some unknown enamelling agent that coated the ship and served as a small layer to protect against energy weaponry. It was vaguely shaped like a narrow, sideways vase with a tapered bow and a wide stern that housed a series of small impulse thrusters . The ship had an unusually small reactor because, as they discovered, Deun'tleh travelled the hyperlanes by use of sails made of a special alloy to use tachyons, faster than light particles, as propulsion. The sail currently affixed to the front end of the craft was tattered, but they had a replacement in their cargo store .All told the crew of the ship was thirty men, mostly scientists, and a young scientist named El'vas Vori had volunteered to stay with the Othari to study their people and their ways. When repairs were finished, O'har appeared again before Dieter.

Throughout these three days, Captain O'har and his crew were given hospitable shelter. They were fed and kept in decent rooms aboard the arbiter, and were allowed to study up on the Othari and the nearby star systems along side some of the engineers and scientists aboard the Arbiter. While awaiting for the Othari fleet to arrive in order to set up a defensive perimeter pending the potential rat incursion, the Arbiter remained in stasis as a bastion while other ships arrived.

Once repairs were finished, O'har and his crew were brought down to the hangar where the Von'hari laid dormant, looking bright and shiny new. Dieter found himself standing next to it along side the engineers who worked on it, patiently awaiting the arrival of the Deunt'leh. "Alas, visitors, your vessel is once more worthy of travel. In order to return, you will have to traverse back through Rasla and into Isaztur. These systems are heavily contested by the Vermin-- it is unlikely that you will return home alive, or at least unharmed. Dieter turned towards the blue forcefield separating the hangar from the void of space. Portside, several ruptures appeared as fleets of Othari warships began to arrive from hyperspace. "The Metal Tusker will escort you beyond Isaztur, alongside three capital escort wings. After that, you will be on your own." As the corvette Metal Tusker arrived from a rupture, Dieter gave it a wave, though nobody on that ship could see it obviously.

O'har nodded in gratitude. "I will always remember the friendship of the Othari, and hopefully the Council will as well." Coming from the ship was El'vas Vori, a Deun'tleh that was slightly shorter than O'har but had the same spindly, twiggy build. El'vas was dressed in a white coat and trousers and dark boots. He had with him several thick Deun'tleh books - leather-bound volumes with silver-colored pages - and a host of writing equipment. O'har introduced him, and El'vas bowed at the waist.

"El'vas is a historian, xenohistorian, and xenolinguist. He will likely be speaking your language without the translator before too long." O'har said. He added, "El'vas can also tell you anything you want to know about our people - our laws, our customs, our religion, and our history. He will serve as a dutiful "Wis'was," an advisor." O'har crossed his arms behind his back. "Is there anything else?" (done)

Dieter clicked his claws together suspiciously. "Splendid..." He growled under his rebreather, turning back to face O'har and El'vas. "Yes, one more thing. Your translation devices. I will have one of them."

"We would be happy to gift you one." O'har motioned to one of his officers who hadn't been talking anways. The crown, much smaller on the Deun'tleh's thin head than Dieter would need, was handed over by O'har. "Now, I'm not certain if your kind can use our headsets." He said with something approximating a frown. But wait...Deun'tleh had no faces. Why did he get the impression O'har was frowning?

"Why don't you try it on and see. It should be callibrated to speak and understand Deun'tleh."

The Archfiend took the little crown, looping it around his claw like a hoola hoop. "A fine gift. The Asembly expresses gratitude." Dieter proceeded to ignore the captain's instructions-- he didn't want to use it anyway. He instead handed it to a science officer for research and future replication of these complex translation devices. "Now then. The time has come for your departue, Deunt'leh visitors. The Metal Tusker will lead the way." Dieter waves his hand, and another deckhand gives the signal for three star fighters to take off, forming up with a space in the middle reserved for the Von'hari. The engines of all the ships roar as they take off and form up in space. "Farewell. We shall meet again, Captain O'har. Divinity has foretold it."

Dieter placed his hand behind another Othari who was standing nearby, guiding him towards he Von'hari. "Castren will be sailing with you. I trust he will return unharmed when the time is right." Castren, clad in his exo-suit and rebreather, sauntered forward. There was a very heavy tank attached to his back, and he carried two carts of essentials to travel with him on this journey into unexplored space. (done)

When the Von'hari had finally been provisioned and crewed, the ship was able to bring itself out of the hangar using its smaller side thrusters. When she was clear of the sidewall of the Arbiter, the main sail was unfurled and the ship rapidly increased in speed to match pace with the Othari escort ships as they made way to the hyperlane that would take them back through to Rasla. While the odds of being ambushed by ratmen were high, O'har was confident that with an escort he could get his ship free of the Vermin Conglomerate's space and back towards Councilliar State space. As they approached the hyperlane entrance, the Von'hari reefed her sublight sails and raised her tachyon sails in a great, billowing golden sheet in front of the narrow bow. The Deun'tleh ship lurched forward, then disappeared from sight as it caught the tachyon wind and disappeared followed quickly by her escorts.

El'vas watched the ship go with a combination of anxiety and awe. All Deun'tleh were generally emotional about starships, especially ones like theVon'hari with great, beautiful sails. El'vas looked away when the last bits of light from his ship had disappeared into the dusty red sky of the Othari's nebular home. He then turned to Dieter, "I am to be your advisor on Deun'tleh affairs, I suppose, my lord," El'vas said with a withering glance towards the yellowish star in the distance that he knew to be home for him. Or at least, what seemed a glance given that El'vas didn't technically have eyes. He knew that if O'har did not successfully convince the Council to join in a war against the Ratmen, he would never see the desert dunes and the clear blue sky of Sen'Heim again. It did not trouble him so much, he thought, for he could always see them in his dreams.

"Do you have any questions to ask of me at this time?" El'vas asked.

 

[Specialist]

Force Command Master Chief Jack Harper, OHN 'Hellbringer' Battlecruiser, Task Force Exodus; en-route to Thainsin from Hadrian.

'Rap rap rap!' "Commander Harper? Sir?" The figure nestled comfortably in his bed was otherwise slowly jostled awake by the sharp sound of bone hitting metal. Not only a moment later, the Captain swung himself out of bed and groggily sat upright just as another barrage of knocking assailed upon the quarter's metallic door frame. Glancing at the clock which read 0900 hours, he growled lightly and shook his head. Getting up, he quickly placed his uniform pants and undershirt on as he moved toward the door. With a whisper of hydraulics, the door slid open to reveal a pale-faced Crewman mid-knock, who immediately jumped into a salute upon recovering from his paralysis. Jack Harper sighed, looking at the obviously frightened man as he briefly flicked his eyes over the man's nametape. "At ease, Edwards. What do you need?" The shorter of the two men ran his left hand through his light brown hair as he lowered his arm from this chest and placed it back to his side, speaking up hesitantly as if he were about to be scolded. "S-Sir, Officer O'Connor told me to inform you that we're one jump away from the Th-Thainsin system." Jack could already tell that the man wasn't much afraid of speaking to him as he was about entering mission territory, and this prompted Harper to chuckle softly. "Thank you for relaying that information to me, Edwards. I'l be sure to meet him right away. As you were, son." "Sir!" Edwards snapped a crisp salute to the man and began to walk off, but not before Jack called out to him. "Edwards! One more thing: we're going to be fine. Go see Valentine if you're anxious; I want everyone at their peak performance today and that includes you. Understood?"

"Understood, Sir! Right away Sir!" The man sputtered out, turning on a clumsy pivot and speedwalking away. Jack stepped back into his room as the door closed and locked in front of him as he sighed. Aside from conducting training exercises, this would be Exodus's first major operation, and it was already spanning to be one of grave importance. Still, though, perhaps he'd find the time to lecture everyone on not making Sir sandwiches. Stepping away from the door, he strode to his bathroom and, minutes later, stepped into the freezing waterfall of a cold shower. After grooming himself to at least a presentable quality, he suited up and stepped outside his quarters; making his way to the bridge.

Clearing the Security Checkpoint that lead to the bridge, Harper went up the slanted walkway that lead to the center of the bridge. The atmosphere changed immediately as a crew member glanced over to see who entered, before snapping to face Harper and announced loudly, "Commander on Deck!" All seven Bridge crew stopped what they were doing, and in unison, turned to give Harper a Havenian salute. Returning it, he spoke up "At ease." Scanning the crowd briefly, he saw a short-cut strawberry haired green eyed man sitting at his terminal, with his chair facing Jack. As Jack strode over, the Navigation Officer known as Shane O'Connor spoke up with a notable heavy Scottish accent after a momentary silence. "Commander, Sir. Apologies fer gettin' ya up this early, but I figured you'd want ta be awake fer coordinatin' our objective. We have at least one more jump 'fore we reach Thainsin." The Scotsman concluded his report, to which Jackson nodded in approval. "Excellent. Officer Foxwell, give me a readout of everyone's ready status." A male officer with short blonde hair and blue eyes turned to face Harper, and pulled down his earpiece. "All ships are five-by-five and operating at 100%. Subsystems, weapons and power are reported from Engineering in the green. We're ready to take the plunge when you are, Sir." Jack gave a satisfied grin, before his face hardened and he spoke up, slamming a button on the side of his terminal next to Shane's as a large top-down holographic projection of the system map materialized into view. He removed a black pointer from his pocket, flicked it once and strode over to the map. "Alright, everyone, listen up. Intelligence may have briefed us on the objective, but I'm gonna run through it a second time. We are to make the jump into the Thainsin system and travel to the other side of the system and get as close to the two hyperlane points as we can to provide an adequate screen cover. The reason for this is because Thainsin acts as a center most 'bridge' between every other system. If a ship passes through here and manages to get away, our Arthurian friends are, quite literally, a jump away from Thainsin. If the ship tries to jump back into its origin wake, they have the possibility of getting attacked by patrolling Terran fleets. However, we can not, under any circumstances, let any ship through Thainsin into Hadrian. Doing so will result in an immediate compromise of our objective- and we cannot fail our people, the Terrans or the Arthurians."

Jack cleared his throat before he continued. "The OHN Snake Eater will remain in constant contact with us in case it picks up a signal of the other side of the system. If the ship does not respond to our attempts to hail it, it will be intercepted, interdicted, and boarded. Strike craft and our own weapons are to maximize engine damage and leave everything else unscathed- the Terrans want this individual alive and brought to justice, and that involves immobilizing the ship by any means possible. Since we're in close contact with the Arthurian Union and Terran Leaque on this, we'll be operating on a multi-band to keep them informed of the situation. If the target is successful on taking his own life before we can get to him, we relay this finding to the Terrans and Arthurians, and await further orders. Am I understood?" A loud thump of in-unison salutes and acknowledgements of orders made Jackson return the guesture, before he deactivated the holomap and glanced over to Shane. "O'Connor, punch it." The firey-haired man grinned wildly, pulling down his earpiece and tapping away at his console as everyone else scrambled to their respective stations. Jackson strode over to his Command terminal, placed his headset on his head and keyed the PA system. "Commander Harper to all hands; prepare for hyperjump." Chatter of various crewmembers filled the ship as a low, steady drone of charging reactors began increasing in volume from the belly of the battlecruiser. "Eighty.... Ninety.... One hundred. Waiting for other ships." The cold, stoic voice of the Hellbringer's Systems Operator, Micheal Jensen, sounded off across the room of the bridge. Each ship's Captain sounded off on a channel that they were ready, and once finished, Shane gave the green light. The FTL drive activated with a low, intense bass-booming through the ship as the edges of the windows began to appear slightly blurred. Light from the distant stars began to stretch and elongate into horizontal white streaks as the blurred edges of the window were slowly overlapped by darkness. Finally, the ship suddenly stretched and lurched forward almost as if it was being pulled like taffy in between two cosmic hands- leaping into a dark void barely illuminated by those same white lines of light traveling quickly against them.

Jack physically jumped from the sudden lurch; the momentary acceleration propelling him backward into his seat as newer crew visibly grimaced, groaned and gritted their teeth. He'd been doing jump training in between Centurai and Halsey's Pass ever since he graduated from Naval OCS as an Ensign, and one thing was for sure: It didn't get any easier for him. Shireling Royalblue127 General Deth Glitch

 

[Royalblue127]

The heights above Kathmandu were commanding, even to Westerners or Chinese who had spent their lives around the steel skyscrapers and concrete mountains of Earth's largest cities. Great towers of Earth stretched out over the highlands, and as the day slowly faded into night time and the chilly early-spring wind crept over one's skin, you could see the lights of thousands of candles burning in the halls of the monasteries high up upon the cliffs. The people of Nepal were happy - jovial and well fed and confident in their several hundred years of independence from China. Like nearby Bhutan, they were unwelcoming to outsiders on principle, but in practice were open to the thousands of Westerners per annum that still streamed in to climb Sagarmatha, Mt. Everest.

Edna Carol lived in a small shack - although it had both running water and electricity - on a small cliff overlooking the village of Kabhresthali in the Shivpuri Nagarjun National Park, an expanse of pristine mountain alpine woods. As a portion of the government strike team began their infiltration, riding into town on a small electric truck with a canvas cover, they were waved through by Nepalese soldiers who - unbeknownst to Edna - had closed off the village roads to outgoing traffic effectively trapping her inside. As the truck entered the village, it had to find purchase on a slippery gravel road owing to the recent rains which had washed out some of the routes. The truck came to a stop in front of a carpentry shop, where the League troops were invited inside to take tea with their host before the raid.

Their host, a nearly toothless old Nepalese carpenter, shook his head and raised his tea cup to his lips as he pointed out the house in question up towards the top of the slope.

"I knew there was something suspicious about that woman. We don't get many American women around here, you can probably tell," he managed to communicate in an English-Nepalese pidgin. "At first, some of the village men were excited. Blonde woman, like you see on telescreens," he gestured to his battered two-way television sitting unused in the corner of the parlor, "But, she is like the...what do you call them? Cat lady? Always alone. Only a few other American women and one Nepalese come to visit her ever, even then that's rare. She comes to the village to buy food, but she doesn't speak Nepalese. At first the shopkeepers were ripping her off, but then I guess the guilt set in."

He glanced then at all the special agents. "I guess she's done something really bad." He quipped. He was living in a secluded part of the world, but he wasn't ignorant or dumb. He couldn't fathom that the mastermind of the bioweapons attack on Avon was living right next door.

They all looked out the window then. The sun was beginning to set behind a tall mountain and the hour to act had come.

Agent Danvers smiled at the kind man across from him, enjoying his wonderful tea. "Let's just say that you should buy the shack, as the comercial value of this persons residence as a museum will go through the roof in a couple days." He then stood, and placed 100 credits on the mans table. "If you wouldn't mind, please buy me some of this tea while I deal with this, I am simply enchanted with it. In my humble opinion, you could start a small shop in the capital with this blend."

"It is my neighbor's special blend," the man replied, raising his cup in a kind of salute, "but I will tell him you like it." The Nepalese didn't decline the credits, however, and took the string of money into his pocket before scurrying off to be free of the commotion. The other troops had arrived and were concealed outside Edna Carol's residence. The time to strike had come.

Danvers smile faded, and it twisted into a grimace. He looked up the mountain, to the small shack that seemed so normal. He walked up the path to it, passing the hidden soldiers and stopping just before the door. He stood there silently for a minute, then reached up to knock on the door. "Mrs. Carol, please open up. If you don't respond in 10 seconds, we will be forced to break down the door." He motioned for the battering ram to be brought forward.

It took about five seconds, but finally bolts began to be undone and the door swung open. A middle-aged woman in a night-gown opened the door and peered at Danvers from behind thick glasses. "I was wondering how long it would take you people," she said with a sigh. She looked down at her bare feet, dejected, disheartened, and thoroughly defeated.

Danvers moved forward, and placed a hand on her arm. She felt a small prick as something in his palm stabbed her, and she jerked back reflexively. "That should take care of any toxins in your system, I apologize but you will need to stand trial. We can't have you taking the easy way out."

She merely murmured something inaudible and held her wrists out again. After the cuffs were placed on her, she was marched down to the waiting vehicles to be taken out of Nepal. Moving up the hill, a small squad of soldiers emerged with a small group of women in tow with ages ranging from about 20 to 45. Only one of them was a local.

"We found these hiding around the bottom of the hill in a woodshed," the platoon captain explained, "I'm assuming you want them too?"

"Yes, well done captain, send them to the transports as well. Are there any communications data from the group that we were able to recover?"

"Yeah, a couple of flashdrives." He said, holding out the hardrives to the agent, "We'll have to send those back ASAP. We've got a VTOL on standby for extraction if you think we need extra security for the buggers." The women that the agent had in tow were sullen, and said nothing.

"Send them to Atlantis Encryption Unit immediately, the on site team should have a secure connection to the capital." He then turned to he scientist who was part of the team sent with him.

"Ensure none are carriers before allowing them into any non-enclosed area. A direct transfer to the underwater facility is currently the safest course of action." Danvers signaled the rest of the men to move out, and moved with them towards the ship. He let Edna move in front of him, watching as she and her cohorts entered the plane from behind. He quietly entered, and moved quickly to the cockpit, away from the sight of the rest of the team and the captives.

"I'll fly us home" he stated, not giving them any time to protest before shutting himself into the cockpit. It was only when the door locks engaged that he punched the wall, the slam hidden by the thick seal. He sat heavily in the chair, and slowly began the prep for takeoff. He waited until he saw that his entire team was on the ship, including the pilot who had given up on sending him com messages, and was sitting right next to the cockpit door looking pissed out of his mind. He smiled briefly, but when his eyes panned to Edna it dropped. He aggressively stabbed the rest of the buttons for flight prep, and jerked the flight control stick roughly The whole ship jerked and everyone who was still standing was almost thrown off their feet, as it accelerated towards the southwest, the stars the only light forced to cast itself on their path.
Shireling Specialist General Deth Glitch

 

[Petroshka]

Pleris II
In the Brush​

Several of the knights were spread out mostly keeping to themselves and eating their rations, while Ophrine was observing the facility in their little makeshift camp sight. She was wondering if what will happen inside will happen to her squad when they were patrolling or if it would be the same old thing that had been happening since they had gotten to this godforsaken planet. Heaps if inaction and idle deforestation, would the ecosystem even recover from the amount of ash in the atmosphere and the orbital bombardments she wondered. It was, intriguing to think that a planet such as this would be a mere system away from Agrippina, the capital system. She found a mix of both reassurance in that reinforcements werent too far away but at the same time discomfort on the idea that if they failed here and if whatever is happening in this planet could happen to others, Alternium is right next door. Her ai, Laminant assured her that the navy and system defenses would not allow anything getting through the hyperlane, and if it did planet fall would be near impossible. She supposed he was right.

Her thoughts and worries were interrupted as some of the locals, or better yet, auxiliary as the water breathers called them asked her a question about bad spirits, turning around to them she gave them a look over. Several of the strange plant people, Deun'tleh, if she recalled correctly, and the Mohain soldiers that they were originally meant to assist in this operation, taking off her helmet so she could see them with her own eyes and for them to see her. Revealed your average human, black hair, brown eyes, fair skin, with the only unusual part being the blue cybernetic lines running up her face and into her right eye. "Bad spirits or not, i wouldn't wish what happened here to the foulest of enemies." Her expression was straight before her eyes gave way to emotion, looking at the group before looking to the floor and sporadically to the brush, she tried to hide it by look up into the sky and towards the facility. "i like to think there is a explanation for everything but so far none of our AI can make any sense of what is happening."

She pulled out a chip from her armor's breast plate and held it out in her palm and a hologram of a man in a business suit came up bowing to the group. "Laminant at your service." coming back up from the bow he explained to them what they have so far. "We know that there is an origin point from what we were given, but locating that origin point will prove harder than expected, and we dont even know if what is causing this can move or not. But we do believe it is alien in origin, perhaps some kind of reaction to an outside influence, if you will. The planet may even be sentient or this flora as a whole may be a single organism acting as one body and views us as a sort of infection."

Agrippina system
The Beli Corona bother​

Isolda Eyleene pinched the bridge of her nose as the reports of minor nobles refusing to pay their tithes came in one after another, perhaps it was a form of protest or it could be a sign of disloyalty. Either way it cant go on forever and she was beginning to think this was a simple ploy for their houses to store some extra credits, groaning she stared off beyond the reports that were infront of her. When her eyes refocused back to the hologram detailing what was happening in Beli Corona she had a sort of epiphany, writing a reply to the reports she instructed the high nobles to put the tithes back to what they once where but slowly increase them as payments went on. Reasoning to them that the lesser nobles couldnt keep up with demand and a slower gradual increase in tithes would be less impactful and less noticable. They would also have her permission if they were to try this stunt again that hostile force will be permitted to deal with this and any actions similar to this will be dealt with as if it were an insurrection.

Shireling