Draconis Combine RP Thread

[Arvanna]

<This is Station Flight Control, approach clearance is granted, transmitting approach vector and prepare for auto control when you reach final approach Shuttles One and Two.>  This of course was old school for the ARAR folks from their previous visit to the station and their approach and landing was uneventful with a small escort awaiting them at the air lock.

A quick walk thru the facility brought to them to the communications center where they were found General Yuu. Walking over he held out his hand to Fernandez then his companion in turn "Thank you for coming over Chairman, Tai-sa on such short notice, if you would both take a seat we can begin?" waves to the chairs around the main table where he and his officer start to seat themselves.

[Hrodulf]

Pretending to look calm and collected was easier for the Tai-sa than for the Chairman.  They had no real idea why this meeting was called so quickly and at this time of day.  Still all their sensors and monitors told them that nothing had changed in the state of readiness and locations of the FS troops.  Everything outside of the station remained calm.  On the walk over to communications center however, there was a noticeable air of tension.  There seemed to be an extra sharp focus in everyone's eyes.

The Tai-sa bowed to General Yee and took his seat.  Chairman Fernandez gave the General a firm handshake and then took his seat.  "So what gets the FS to call us in for a meeting at this ungodly time of the day?"  Chairman Fernandez gave a nervous smile to show that he meant no insult by his remark, and adjusted the buttons on his jacket while awaiting the response.

[Arvanna]

  "Bad news seldom waits for the most convenient time to present itself I've learned over the years." Yuu said as he looked at his guests "To put things in  a nut shell I've received word that our benevolent phone company friends have begun to implement a plan to put the whole of humanity under their control. Presently a Comstar is simultaneously blockading and invading Outreach, and in violation of the recognized rules of war their warships have destroyed every jump ship outside of their own in the Outreach system. "

"Representatives from the Combine as well as both halves of the Federated Commonwealth were there to discuss evidence and intell that had been gathered both by the Dragoons and units operating at the direct orders of the Archon. Comstar hasn't only been hiding away stockpiles of SL left overs on Terra, they have a number of lost systems housing additional equipment left behind by the SLDF, including warships. The recent incident in Skye were fall out of the Lyrans discovery of one such site in the Odessa system labeled "Ruins of Gabriel."


"The Robes immediately starting trying to bribe the Archon with offers of sharing their horde of Lost Tech they've been hiding in exchange for cooperation, though it would seem that was simply a ploy. Comstar called their own conference on Terra to discuss some grave matter, The Prince's Champion Ardan Sortek, General Nondi Steiner, along with the delegates from the FWL and your own Theodore Kurita were attending. Comstar has claimed to have discovered  the where about of the departed Kerensky and his followers." he paused and shuck his head "Yes they've located where they've settled and insisted upon a reformation of the SL in order to launch a pre preemptive attack against them in the off chance they ever might come back and be a threat. Our delegates are presently however stuck on Terra, you see their hosts have told them that there have been *Terrorist* attacks on not only the Terran HPG facility but on Outreach , thus the Sol system is locked down while their security looks for the terrorists."

At that point one of his officers speaks up "Intercepted communications secured during the Odessa incident referenced a Operation Scorpion being under way, it is our opinion based on the recent incidents , namely the various assassination attempts on House Leaders who had not accepted the invitation to attend the meeting on Terra and these alleged attacks on the HPGs that they are in fact part of this Scorpion which seems targeted at decapitating the major powers while Comsrtar makes it's power grab."


Raising his hand he waves to another of his junior officers who comes over bearing a what looks like a brief case, cuffed to his wrist "How do we know of this?" he waits for the officer to set the case on the table "Comstar doesn't have the monopoly on interstellar communications, this device was originally discovered some years ago in a long abandoned SL research facility , it is basically a HPG in a box, though it cannot handle the amounts of data a HPG can handle in single transmission it can still as you imagine relay useful information, we nick named it the Fax MAchine. This is how my chain of command has been keeping us here up to date. The information from Terra was relayed from our delegation , just as we know what is going on in Outreach. Tai-sa I have a message here for you from your government's rep on Outreach along with a copy of what was discussed there..and trust me if you thought what I have told you so far is hard to believe , it's just icing on the cake."

[Hrodulf]

Chairman Fernandez thought "if this is what it is like being part of the IS, then i wish we could go back to the old days... pay attention, absorb all of this, i'm still in command of this task force."

The Tai-sa did not seemed fazed by the barrage of shocking and game changing news.  He smirked "C* giveth and C* taketh away...."  He had been with various Ghost Regiments when they had received their equipment shipments from C*.  He had helped train these unclean men into at least some semblance of a fighting unit.  During these times he had interacted with various C* personnel.  As friendly and helpful as they were at the time, there always seemed to be something hanging above them, something greater, something guiding them.  They were there yet they were distant.  They were helpful, yet withholding something.  It was a strange feeling that he could never find a single reason for or fact to support.

"Thank you General Yuu" said the Tai-sa as he slid the Fax Machine a bit to his left.  He knew of these FS "Black Boxes" and he had seen a lot of twists, turns, and surprises in the IS, but the Chairman was, for now, still his commanding officer.  Whether the Chairman would be able to cope with this situation, remained to be seen.  But he was honor bound to serve this "country boy."  The two men started reading the message.  The Chairman had to read more than a few parts twice or thrice.  The Tai-sa would patiently wait for the Chairman to wave him on and then scroll further.  At various times, even the Tai-sa's eyes got bigger....

"General, Chairman, i think we can be sure that all C* HPG communications are compromised from here on forward.  I request permission to return to my dropship to relay this message to DCMS HQ." said the Tai-sa.  "May i have your machine's Comm-address?  Once back on my dropship, my comm-center will establish a link to this machine and the information can be transferred."  The Chairman looked at his subordinate and wondered "the HPG network is compromised, yet somehow he can relay messages to Luthien?  Does everyone besides the OWA have these 'fax machines'?"

[Arvanna]

 "That shouldn't be a problem Tai-sa." noting the Chairman's expression the AFFC officer chortled "Welcome to the major leagues as I believe the old saying goes. The Lyrans lets say lost a few of these some years back so we've suspected the Combine had acquired a few, which in this case is to our mutual benefit for as the Tai-sa as said we can't trust the HPG network and not just for fear of our messages being read." he then nodded to his comm officer who handed the Combine officer a data card with the info on it

[Hrodulf]

Composing himself as much as he could, the Chairman stood "Thank you for this most informative midnight chat, with your permission we shall return to our ships.  I shall leave the staff that came with me here.  Best to get as many minds together and work through this big bite of intel."

As they were walking back to their shuttles, the Chairman leaned close to the Tai-sa and whispered "i'll travel back with you, we have a lot to talk about.  However, until we receive new orders or something develops in this system, our orders stand.  Also, how can we get these 'fax machines' on Alpheratz and with our ARAR units?"

[Arvanna]

The next day as Yuu had confirmed the last supply convoy emerged at the jump point in a wave of radiation, immediately the jump ships began deploying their jump sails as their passengers released from the drop collars. An assortment of Mules and several Behemoths maneuvered away from their rides to fall into formation before thrusting towards their destination.

Aboard the station Yuu watched from the command center and made sure everyone was ready, just in case things went upside down on them. On one monitor he could see that their own drop ships along with the Robinson were ready if needed to ensure their, neighbors got ugly. He sincerely hoped they didn't, he'd found the ARAR people to have be very professional, and reasonable and certainly had no wish to have to fight them.

Not that he wanted to be shooting at the Dracs, no there were much bigger fish to fry as it were and it would likely take the cooperation of more then just the FC and Combine to deal with. Once the convoy was inbound he had his aide inform the team Fernandez that they were on the way and their ETA so that they could oversee what was being offloaded?

[Hrodulf]

OOC: convoy inbound - as in back to the FC?  Or inbound as to the space station?

[Arvanna]

(OOC this is the last supply convoy that we said was coming in for us to finish up what we're doing. The ARAR folks  were invited aboard there to make sure we're not bring in more troops or stripping out the place before we leave.)

[Hrodulf]

Council Member Chester Moreno the  XXIII looked around with wide eyes.  "Wow, what is all this stuff?  Is this what one finds when opening up a lost SLDF cache?"

[Arvanna]

Down in the massive cargo bay of the station a steady stream of stuff was offloaded from the drop ships. The AFFC staff as guides walked their guests thru the materials, electronics, tons of consumables from food to lubricants , fuel, and parts. Most of it the usual stuff you see used for repairs of drop and jump ships, that changes once the first Behemoth docks and starts unloading.

Massive is the only way describe the components being off loaded. The Captain in charge of guiding them stops by and shows them a naval autocannon barrel that had been offloaded and was being lifted by a huge robotic crane for movement to another area of the base where most of the work that had been going on appeared centered around. It was also an area that had been off limits, till General Yuu gave the word, which was likely be soon. Captain Carlson "Now the big stuff, this is all salvage we've rounded up over the years from the 1st and 2nd Succession Wars, couldn't really do anything with it cause all the facilities that could do assembly work on this scale got nuked around the same. That's why this place while great can only do so much do to what was left here, until we reverse engineer the know how to build new warships from scratch rebuild the infrastructure a place like this is going to be limited to needing a supply if salvageable hulls in system, so pretty much what it seems the Robes have been doing for years."

[Hrodulf]

Chester pondered out loud "what if the ARAR would offer the FC a SL equipment/cache/facility agreement?  Say, if the FC found out about more of such caches etc. in the future, the FC would be free to hunt for them.  I know that the FC has many more resources available to them to find out about such things.  The ARAR would just require to be informed, would have to approve the units to be used on the search, and the loot would be divided 60 FC/40 ARAR..."

[Arvanna]

"That is something I'll pass along to the General." Carlson replied then added thoughtfully "Course we have to hope the powers that be can get all the shooting between the Houses tapped so we can all concentrate on the Robes. It would be ironic for the IS to reunite to get rid of them instead of whatever plan they have for us."

[Altrak]

In a nameless chamber, hidden from any surveilance and faces a head was silently lying against a window... crying. Mechanical noises filled the room and from behind the glass damp jade green light was filling both rooms. Endlees continued beeping noises penetrated the silence.

"Why... "the mourning was not heard, not by the gods, not by the machine, not by any other human beeing.

How many time has passed? Hours? Days? Weeks? Months? What pain lies before, what pain lies past? What will the future bring?

"Why..." High pitched noises of a drill were no satisfying answer.

A man was shaking his had, having an argument with another, holding papers in his hand. 'Outrageous' was the best adjective to describe the shadows. And a alarm was ringing.

Hate... endless hate... Hell will be a paradise to what will come...

[Hrodulf]

The Chairman and the Tia-sas were silent as they watched the Robinson Class transport gingerly maneuver around.  She was not all that much bigger than a big jumpship, but not having seen a warship in person before, she was still very impressive.  A lot less spindly, more girth, more business like looking than anything they had seen before.