[RP] Turn 5, 1312 Kowloon

[Fatebringer]

Airfield near Da Nang

Shuttle SR-1 was escorted by a trinary of fighter and a trio of dropships, two well maintained Sassanids and a Miraborg. A flood of Elementals in various battle armor flowed from the dropships. Once they secured their landing zone, two stars flanked the delegation as they headed to meet their security detail while their conveyance was being unloaded from the shuttle.

Three men and two women of various stature showed the diffence in their genetic phenotypes. One man and woman were obviously unarmored Elementals, the other woman. A tall and slender freckeled red head was different then most pilots, but her larger then normal head was a give away

[chaosxtreme]

Commodore Jon O'Reilly had been stationed within the Union for the better part of 10 year's. Setting down root's at Inarc's he had gotten used to being "The Face" of the Free Worlds League Navy in the Union.

With his specialty focusing more on the Logistics of a first class Deep Space Navy he was somewhat dismayed to be given command of the Inarc's Corporate Defense Flotilla.

A sizable squadron of dropship's and fighters to be certain but it virtually assured him he would never command one of the regional Venture Class Battlecruiser(Mjolnir Class) Squadron's the Free Worlds League Parliament had authorised.

Now with the emergency in effect and the resources of the navy being stretched it was unclear if founding would be found to complete the flotilla's but it was also clear that desire to switch resource's from Fleet Group's such as his to complete a portion of the hull's that were under construction was clear.

The day's of massed aerospace and assault dropship concentrations were beginning to fade away and soon the Inarc's Defense Group would be nothing but a shadow of it's former self.

But that day was not today. Today was his chance to show outside of combat what Fleet Group's such as his could do that the jump capable half a kilomter long Venture's can not.

As his ship's

"Kowloon command. On behalf of Parliament and the Captain-General we are prepared to assist with rescue and recovery operations with this 44 Ship strong Dropship group. Further we have brought civillian relief supplies and posess significant aerospace assett's to contribute to search and rescue, fire fighting and scouting. Per my order's my force is available to coordinate with your Coast Guard and Marine force's. Just let me know where we can be of help."

[Cannonshop]

"Commodore O'Reilly, we can use some of that patrol you have-if they've got Beagles, out along what's left of the North Coast, from Xiao Loc to Nauvoo, and southwest to where Nha Tranh used to be.  Lots of little shelters inland that we can't pick up squawk from with all the ionization, Over."

[Cannonshop]

Airfield near Da Nang

Victor Ian Steiner-Davion stepped out onto the tarmac, leaning on his finely crafter fox-headed cane. A gift from my son, he mused, though possibly also a warning. Looking at the devastation around the port he shook his head sadly.

Behind him, IndustrialMechs from the Davion Honour Guards' combat engineering units started to disembark from FSDS Galahad, forming up for final disembarkment check before moving out to the worst-hit disaster areas.

While he waited for the local authorities, Steiner-Davion wondered what would come of the other ships arriving on Kowloon...

Victor didn't have to wait long, and the person to greet him was a face he'd seen last during the first years of the initial Clan invasion. She looked a lot better than the VERY last time he'd seen her, with FS medics trying to patch together a face where hers had been burnt away covering the retreat...  "Highness."  Evelyn Mosovich hopped out of the side door of a snowcat, "Welcome to Kowloon."  She added, "We've got eighteen hours before the cold front hits, They're already reporting whiteout conditions in Haiphong-so first order fo business, is getting your gear bunkered in for the storm.  I've got half my people doing emergency line-repair between the dock-" she pointed at an iced-over area in which a ship shaped much like an oil tanker was frozen in place, "and the ten or so villages that managed NOT to be hammered flat when they OrBombed the city centre.  Once we have your guys laagered in and the storm's past, we can actually do some serious work here."

Victor smiled warmly at Evelyn. He had so few friends left, it was good to see a face(albeit much improved from his last sight of it) he remebered.

"It is good to see you General. And Marshal will do just fine, theres no need for such formalities here. I havn't spoken with my engineers just yet, perhaps you'd care to accompany me?" Despite the fact that the unit's engineers had deployed in force(from what she knew of FS military doctrine, the size of the engineer unit here would usually be deployed alongside atleast an RCT-sized formation), Evelyn still spotted a handful of battlemechs that seemed to always be facing Victor wherever he happened to be. Much less conspicious were the Hauberk battle armor troopers: while some were assisting the engineers with heavy lifting, most seemed to shadow the Prince as he moved.

Ever the gentleman, Victor held out his arm for Evelyn to take, and he led her over to a burly man in a heavy PAL suit, currently looking at a datapad being held up by an engineer in normal fatigues. She could spot his rank insignia on the shoulder of his suit, a Command Sergeant Major. He snapped a quick salute when he noticed the Prince and the General walking over to him. Victor nodded, and the NCO relaxed before giving a few quiet orders to his fellow engineer, who scurried off. Victor inquired quietly about their progress.

"Well my Prince, it's about as bad as it looks, as bad as you'd expect. Their lasers fried off a good ammount of cloud cover, and glassed a portion of the landscape. Take months to clear that all up. The craters are easier to deal with, but the volume of dirt thats been thrown up...well, you'd expect it from a small-yield nuke at the least. Gonna make the planet a bit colder I'd say, but a meteorologist could give you some hard numbers on that. Screwy weather patterns for sure. So far, we've got 3 pads of stabalized earth and ferrocrete, enough to handle any dropships we've got. We have a few warehouses going up to store our own supplies: fuel, food, water, spares for the IndustrialMechs, that sorta thing. Figure after we get the barracks done, we can move into the outskirts of the city, setup some temp housing, mostly just be rammed-earth with plasticizer to keep it solid. Get some soup kitchens and field hospitals going. The NAIS Cadre lent us their full set of newlie medics, so we've got plenty of medical personnel, considering I doubt we'll have many survivors.

And ah, my Prince? Might want to ask the Archduchess what shes wanting but...in my opinion, stave off disease and all that...I say we burn the bodies we find. Stack 'em or not, burial isn't gonna be real feasible for a city. Best bet is to send out squads with flamers, give 'em a pyre. Not proper, sure, but its the best way I can see, from the scope..."

Evelyn sighed and looked uncomfortably at the melted scar to the south.  "We're still digging for survivors." she said, "Found nine people in a blocked off storm drain last wednesday."

There was a disturbance near the periphery of the activity, and a horse with a rider could be seen.  after a small argument with the Coast Guard security people, the rider dismounted and started walking toward them. 

Evelyn looked over, and her face seemed to lose the expression for a moment.

The boy couldn't have been more than thirteen-he didn't have the 'ageless' look of asian descent, just the ruddy look of a kid who might've come from Tharkad.  "Dispatch for the Marshall!" the boy announced, holding up a sealed envelope, "Let Me Pass."  a moment of argument with a pair of Fedsuns troops and the boy handed over a rifle almost as big as he was, and a pistol that he probably needed both hands to hold, much less fire.

He held up the envelope again, seal out.  "From the Duchess." the boy said it as if it explained everything.

Evelyn looked to victor, and said, "Marshall, if you'll excuse me, I'll find out what this is about."

She walked over to where the boy was being delayed.  "Gen'ral, I have a message from Her Grace for the Marshall." the boy said.

"Hand it over, I'll make sure he gets it." Evelyn said.

"No Ma'am, Her grace was real specific.  His hands, nobody else."  The boy insisted, pointing straight at Victor.

"How long have you been out?" Evelyn asked.

"Ten hours, I rode up from Vanh Station." the boy said.

"One of Eddie's people?" she asked.

"No'm, Bishop Gentry's got us helping out, Eddie loaned us his barns an' the old homestead." the boy told her.

"So...you're a saint then? fine..." she looked at the FedSuns troopers, "is he armed?"

"Not right now." the soldier told her.

"You've been out ten hours in this?" she demanded.

"I changed horses at the Guthries." the boy said, "Horse is fine."

"I didn't ASK about the horse.  YOU-you've been out for ten hours? In THIS?" she reached out, and shook his lapel, then looked up, "You got somewhere you can hold him that's warm? and he's probably going to need a medic."  She added a string of quiet swearing, and "...lot to answer for..."

[Cannonshop]

Airfield near Ia Drang

Shuttle SR-1 was escorted by a trinary of fighter and a trio of dropships, two well maintained Sassanids and a Miraborg. A flood of Elementals in various battle armor flowed from the dropships. Once they secured their landing zone, two stars flanked the delegation as they headed to meet their security detail while their conveyance was being unloaded from the shuttle.

Three men and two women of various stature showed the diffence in their genetic phenotypes. One man and woman were obviously unarmored Elementals, the other woman. A tall and slender freckeled red head was different then most pilots, but her larger then normal head was a give away

Dr. Mai Huyn met the Clan warriors at the edge of the Port, with a snow-cat, a tiny two-seat bushplane, and fifteen Coast Guard Officers, and one other-a messenger who'd arrived in a bushplane only about fifteen minutes before the Clan units touched ground.

"I sure hope one of you is the Star Admiral." she said, "If not, I think the senior Warrior..? Her Grace sent a message...by courier."

The Courier stepped forward.  She couldn't have been more than fourteen, and frail in a snowsuit and flight jacket.  The girl held a canvas map-case in one hand, and a cup of something warm in the other.

[chaosxtreme]

"Commodore O'Reilly, we can use some of that patrol you have-if they've got Beagles, out along what's left of the North Coast, from Xiao Loc to Nauvoo, and southwest to where Nha Tranh used to be.  Lots of little shelters inland that we can't pick up squawk from with all the ionization, Over."

" 92 Aerospace Regiment is equipped as such and is enroute. 32nd Dropship Squadron is rated for an irradiated environment and can do pickup's in hotzone. "

[Dave Baughman]

Victor examined the letter for a moment before looking back to Evelyn.

"General, I apologize for not being able to supervise our assistance personally. Her grace the Archduchess has requested my presence and from the brevity of her request the matter seems somewhat urgent. I don't suppose there is a VTOL or light aircraft I could borrow? Galahad is probably too large for the LZ at the meeting site."

Turning to a nearby officer he said, "Colonel Northwood, lets get your equipment into shelter before the storm hits. Once the weather clears, or before if its technically feasible, put your forces at General Mosovich's disposal. Lets do what we can to help these people before things get even worse."

[Cannonshop]

Da Nang

Evelyn Mosovich nodded, and pulled a com-unit.  "14 bảo vệ bờ biển, người ngoài ca, Over?"

There was a mumbled response. 

"Tôi có một hành khách rất quan trọng mà cần phải được thực hiện để sinh sống của người đàn ông già..." she listened for a moment, then, "Không, nó không thể chờ đợi. phải nhận thức rằng ông chỉ nói tiếng Anh."

"Hiểu, chúng tôi mười lăm phút." the comms unit's reply.

"Marshall, in fifteen minutes, there will be a Karnov landing over by the tanker there-" Evelyn pointed at the iced-in ship a third of a kilometer away, "She can handle you, plus some of your armored troops, the pilot's an immigrant named Kuranov-you might've met her if you hung around the Medevac unit on Tamar, back in the day."  Evelyn told him, "She knows how to get to her Grace's current residence."

[Dave Baughman]

"Its heartening to know I'll be in good hands. Thank you general, I know air transport is at a premium right now. If you'll excuse me, I need to make preparations for the hop."

[Fatebringer]

Dr. Mai Huyn met the Clan warriors at the edge of the Port, with a snow-cat, a tiny two-seat bushplane, and fifteen Coast Guard Officers, and one other-a messenger who'd arrived in a bushplane only about fifteen minutes before the Clan units touched ground.

"I sure hope one of you is the Star Admiral." she said, "If not, I think the senior Warrior..? Her Grace sent a message...by courier."

The Courier stepped forward.  She couldn't have been more than fourteen, and frail in a snowsuit and flight jacket.  The girl held a canvas map-case in one hand, and a cup of something warm in the other.

The courier scanned the group, while four of the entourage had a single or pair of diamond shapes atop fields of Blue, Green and Gray, the only one with a bright red field had a gray star on it, the rank most inner sphere denizens would equate with a General. The tall well build blond warrior reached out and took the message, his long red and black cloak floating in the stiff breeze as he read it.

Afterwards, Khan Magnus thanked the courier and ordered the honor guard remounted the dropships. Soon, they were off to the coordinates listed. While in flight, one of the five laborer dropships, an old Octopus that was in surprisingly good repair, rendezvoused with them before making landfall.

[Cannonshop]

Coordinates S442318 by W502423, some time later...

The location was in the middle of a navigational hazard area locally named Minsky của sự điên rồ, or "Minsky's Folly" in english.  A badland covering a vast area on the Southern continent made of interwoven canyon systems laced with a host of refractive and magnetic ores.  Radios, magnetic instruments, compasses, and Radar are all alike in being handicapped here.

VTOL patrol 14, transporting Marshall Victor Steiner-Davion and entourage...

"...fly it on VFR.  The Folly was named after a Rimjob commander who chased Guerillas into it during the uprising of 2729-the Rimjobs got lost and ended up starving to death before SLDF rescue teams could find where them."  Cat Kuranov told the FedSuns marshall, "Those teams had to use optical recon with sats, and drop visual-spectrum marker beacons, or they'd have got lost too."

She was explaining why the bulk of the Karnov VTOL's instruments were throwing up random, conflicting information-only the engine, propellor rate and fuel guages were reading with any sort of accuracy.

The compass and the altimeter were spinning merrily.

"If you know how to land-nav or fly dead-reckoning, or if you've got an old style inertial compass, it's not too bad.  Most of the Ranchers just fly it by eyeball and chart." she added, "Same for anyone who flies Coast-Guard out of what used to be VDL or Ben Hoa."

She rolled the engines and rotors vertical, and popped speed brakes, bringing the thirty-tonne machine to a smooth hover, before she set it down atop a narrow mesa.  "We're here."

"What about bad weather flying?" Victor asked.

"We try not to fly in bad weather through the Folly, just as a general rule."  Cat told him, "too damn dangerous, once you get below about two hundered meters, instrument flying just goes right to shit.  Her Grace's Great-Grandfather picked this area for his personal retreat, because it discourages visitors."

Steam rose from the distant valley floor, and there was a splash of green far, far below.

"Come on, the cliff-house is this-a-way." Cat told her passengers, and opened the rear doors as well as the cockpit.

The stairs down to the house were cut into the stone, with a heavy masonry guardrail. 

[Dave Baughman]

Victor braced himself for an uncomfortable climb - he wasn't the young man he was forty years ago, and the damage from the Dark's assassination attempt hadn't helped his health one bit. Sergeant Moennsad started to make like he was going to offer to carry the Prince, but Victor stopped him with a short shake of his head, "It's all right, Ganak, I can make it on my own," he gave a bit of a wry grin, "I'm not that old yet."

Doing his best to not show his discomfort, Victor ascended the stairs towards the cliffside dwelling.

[Fatebringer]

The proction detail for the Dominion Delegation was spread out. As they waited, laborers loaded specific gear to the Eldinger. There was still no indication as to why the Kowloonese wanted this gear, but from the terrain. It didn't take a scientist to add up two and two to see the threat. Still, if the Kowloonese were stupid enough to try to kill the Raven Khan, they'd have Nakita Kerensky to deal with.

A small smile crept over Keigan's face at that though. Choosing her as his saKhan was one of the best political manuevers he could have made against his opposition in the Council. The Raven with Claws instead of Talons proved very adept in asserting herself against others in the polical environment of the Clan.

Meanwhile, seeing the approach of the Federated Suns VTOL was a new distraction.

[Cannonshop]

"This way please. Her Grace can't come up the stairs without help, and the cargo-lift was not finished before she had to move in." Melinda Cham was just almost what might be termed 'Elemental' sized, if one were to, say, take an Elemental phenotype, and put her into a press to make her just-over-five-feet-tall, with a proportional 'squeezing and widening' from fingers on outward.  Short, broad, and with a Zeus hanging muzzle down across her back, "Please sign in and proceed." she added.

[assuming everyone who matters goes down the stairs...]

'Cliff House' was a good description-built into a natural cavity in the side of the butte, with an open area sloping fifty meters out to the rest of the cliff, 'accessable' was clearly NOT in the intentions.  A ground assault would have to either originate at the top of the mesa, and descend 500 meters of cliff, or nearly a kilometer down the narrow stairs to reach it, or scale 400 meters of sheer rock wall from the narrow river-passage below-in a natural pattern of EM interference created by the geology of the region.  The house itself was tucked back, protected on three sides and directly above by the mass of the Mesa itself.

The "House" itself was made of mortared stone and heavy timbers, where it was not dug into the natural stone around it.

The view from here, was actually quite spectacular, for those that appreciate such things, as the erosion-patterns of stone pillars, and the glinting multicoloured glory  of the canyons themselves were on full display most of the day-sunlight reflecting and refracting from the strange varieties of metals, rare earths, and crystalline faults in the surrounding terrain.

The landscape in this part of the folly was unearthly, and in it's unearthly way, breathtaking.


Amanda met both parties in the leveled out space in front of the door, and the reason she had NOT met them at the landing area was readily apparent.

Stairways do not accomodate wheelchairs well.
Amanda took a double-take.  Khan Magnus?

"Marshall, Khan  Magnus, welcome to my home.  We have a lot to talk about." Amanda Ngo said, "There's food inside..."
She reached down, and spun the chair in place, before wheeling to the door, "Not that you will want to eat once you have seen what I asked you hear to see."  she added, "Snow's coming, you all might want to come inside."

[Edited to account the delegation.]

[Fatebringer]

"Please sign in and proceed."

The following individuals make up the ND Delegation.

Khan Keigan Magnus (M)
Star Admiral Marius Sukhanov (N)
Star Admiral Molly McCorkell (A)
Star Colonel Nelson Chand (E)
Star Colonel Gabrielle Lutze (E)