Union of Independent Worlds Faction RP thread

[Daemonknight]

"No, but thank you." The saKhan walked to the indicated door and stepped through.

He walked into Debbie's office, and noticed the thick folder on her desk, and the images on a dead woman with a pistol in her lifeless hands. Debbie slid the images into an evelope as saKhan Pryde closed the door behind him.

"Greetings Archduchess MacAullife, I am saKhan Brian Pryde of Clan Jade Falcon. I have come here to attend the conference you requested, and also to meet with Star Colonel Icaza upon his arrival from Tharkad. I thought it best for us to meet beforehand however, seeing as how my Clan and your nation have thus far worked exceedingly well together. I wish for that relationship to continue during the conference." Brian appraised the Archduchess as he spoke, seeing both the fire and the tiredness that Hazen had spoken of. And interesting woman, no doubt.

[Cannonshop]

Debbi stood up, and set the file aside.  "Welcome t' Ahluna, SaKh'n." she said, "Yo' visit'z un'xpect'd..." she stopped, and it was like seeing someone clench with their mind. "Sorry, it has been a hell of a morning-I got some...worrying results on an investigation, and we are in the middle of performance audits on the civil services..."  she gave him a look-over, "which is really not very interesting for you, I suspect."

she scooped up papers and files, and set them aside before lighting a map-display hidden in the surface of the desk-a three-dimensional map of the UIW and neighbouring territories hung in the air, "I expect you are here about the Arc Royal situation and my calling a conference to discuss the potential of a war with the..." she paused, as if the word was distasteful, "Lyrans.  I have to tell you, the source of concern for ME, is not so much the lyrans, as the Tharkad Martyrs, whose actions are play-by-play the sort of actions carried out by Stephan Amaris three centuries ago...and worse yet, they are so confident, it would appear, that they do not even attempt to HIDE their crimes, or their intent..."  reports scrolled off  in the same display-many of them from 'open' sources and Media.

"Terrorists, SaKhan, are like a rabid dog in a residential area-they may bite someone you do not like, but if they are not put down, they will eventually bite someone you DO like.  When they have state-sanction as the Tharkan Martyrs do, well...that is like a whole pack of rabid ferals-and I can tell you from experience that such are a threat that MUST be dealt with early-say, when you can use a rifle, instead of needing a machine-gun and airstrikes."

[Cannonshop]

Animal Control Operations Jennison Sector 4, Australia...

After two years, people were finally coming back to Jennison. 

Or, at least, they were Trying to.  Jennison had been, before the outbreaks, a middle-prosperity feeder city and bedroom community serving the planet's capital and acting as a transportation hub for the region.

Australia's heavy urbanization had made the planet incredibly vulnerable to the Arluna Flu-though luck had it that only half that world's population had died, leaving a more viable population core.

But, it still left towns like Jennison vacant...

"I've got thermals, looks like a Grade Niner pack, over."    Sarah Elliott banked the H-7 west and listened to her back-seater chatter on the readings.

"Roger that, Dogcatcher two, we're seeing sign on the ground here, definitely ferals, looks like they accessed the buildings through riot-damage.  No sign of current human habitation, but there are dead animals-looks like dog kills, over."

"Is it Cujo, Dogcatcher Ground?"  she asked.

"Could be Cujo, maybe, Stinson's testing the leavings for Rabies, Over."  was the reply from the ground team.

Sarah saw something highlight on her HUD.  "Ground team, get to cover, the mass is moving your direction, about fifteen KPH, should reach your position in five, Over." Sarah said.

"Keep weapons tight, Dogcatcher One, we are moving to the vehicles now, Armour squad is deploying to cover movement. Over."

she angled the nose down while trimming the rotors to hold position, and spun the chopper, looking for a visual identification.

"I see Rotties, it's...fuck me, Dogcatcher, there are a HELL of a lot of dogs coming your way up Meridian Avenue-all large breeds, they're moving in groups of...looks like tens and fifteens, some of them have diverted down side-streets, they're trying to flank and surround, I can't find a group tight enough for fireballs, over."

"Can you confirm pack behaviour, Over?"  was the response.

"I confirm pack behaviour, it's a master-pack, not Cujo, I repeat, the dogs are not Cujo, Over."  she answered, "It's not rabies, just a very LARGE pack of ferals."

[Cannonshop]

Grantville General Hospital, Ward 3 Observation 2...

There was no clock on the wall, and the chair was a comfortable angle-designed, much like a control couch, to allow the body to relax while the mind was alert.

"Tell me about July of thirty-sixty-seven."  the Psychiatrist, Doctor Ellen Monroe, asked.

Miranda sighed, "July...the plague was in full swing and showing up world-wide by then, the quarantine was failing in other cities, around July Fourteenth, the majority of the doctors were patients-the late stages of the flu were taking hold, and the few of us still working had to restrain them."

"Why did you have to restrain them?" the shrink asked.

"Because as the viral infection reached apogee, people would get violent, lose all inhibitions, go crazy." she said, "There were two million people in Oxford, the riots were every day, all day and all night by the fifteenth-most of the Militia were either on the streets or down with the virus-we were losing, badly, and areas of town were burning."

"Was that when the order to withdraw the Militia came down?"  Ellen asked.

"It was.  We had about two hundered effectives by then, and the trigger event was when the riots overran the police headquarters-scratch that, we're confidential here?"

"Completely."

Miranda sighed, "The riot at the Police Headquarters-didn't start on the street, it started in the barracks-some of the men tried to hide their symptoms-taking antifever meds, antihistamines, even Brocol to cover it...well, some of them, actually I'd say most of them, were so sick that it had to happen-they were tearing each other apart in there, it spread out FROM the Police barracks into the streets.  I got the call to extract the local sherriff's chief deputy-she was holed up in the motor garage with a fire-truck and pump crew...at that point, the gangers who were in holding had been released by a power failure in the main building, and they were part of the mob..."

[Cannonshop]

Để: Task Force 1416

Từ: Tiger Six thực tế

RE: Phong trào để hỗ trợ các phần tử chống phát xít trên thế giới trước đây Lyran.

Bạn đã nhìn thấy tất cả các báo cáo, tôi không cần phải đi vào những gì đã xảy ra, chúng tôi đã được bố trí ở đây trong trường hợp cần thiết và có nhu cầu. Các Thánh Tử Đạo Tharkan phát xít tổ chức và lap-dog chính phủ của họ về Arc Hoàng gia đã treacherously và có ác ý đầy thu hút đồng hương trước đây của chúng tôi đến một cái chết vô ích cho một lý do xấu, đồng thời họ đã tấn công thế giới của Tharkad, và lật đổ chính phủ, được công nhận hợp pháp của Khối thịnh vượng chung Lyran trong một cuộc đảo chính đẫm máu và tàn độc d'tat.

Báo cáo được lọc trong các tội ác chống lại thường dân của Các Thánh Tử Đạo Tharkan. Trong khi các nạn nhân của điều này không phải là đồng hương của chúng ta nữa, họ vẫn còn, nhiều người trong số họ, thân nhân của chúng tôi.

Tôi đã nhận được ý hoạt động khi chúng tôi được hướng dẫn để giữ vị trí ở đây, để chuẩn bị trước các hành động thù địch chống lại empt đất nước chúng ta.

khủng bố của chính phủ hoàng gia Arc sẽ cảm thấy tự tin hơn cả một chiến thắng dễ dàng, họ đã thể hiện màu sắc thật của họ, và lừa dối cả hai đồng minh cũ và mới, để thực hiện vụ giết người, tình trạng lộn xộn, và kinh hoàng đối với đồng hương cũ của họ.

Chúng ta đã thấy điều này trước khi. Lịch sử là replete với các ví dụ của những gì sẽ xảy ra nếu điều này đi unopposed.

Tôi đã liên lạc với hải quân chỉ huy và các CNO đã ủy quyền cho chúng tôi để bắt đầu các hoạt động phong tỏa đối với thế giới của đối phương, tổ chức gần biên giới của quốc gia của chúng ta, và hành động để hỗ trợ các hoạt động giải phóng "Long Bin" và "Tây Sơn."

Chấp hành mệnh lệnh của bạn, và đứng vững, chúng tôi có thể phải chết, và nó chỉ có thể mua một ít thời gian, nhưng NGƯỜI phải thể hiện được cách danh dự.

Chỉ huy:

Commodore Trần Cao Kyi,

Viện thống kê công tác 1416

[Cannonshop]

Đường dây Hướng dẫn: CNO Office

Đến: Brian Kincaid, Chuẩn, đội Arcturan 20 (3 Lữ đoàn, Sư đoàn 1 Thủy Strike)

Từ: Alicia Li, Đô đốc, Trưởng đoàn hoạt động hải quân của thế giới độc lập

RE: Mission Sơn Tây được ủy quyền, chuẩn bị mọi lực lượng dưới sự chỉ huy của bạn cho việc triển khai chiến đấu chống lại các mục tiêu quy định trong Kế hoạch chiến Red. Vũ khí điều kiện về đến là vũ khí tự do, Nội quy của Engagement là theo ý của Tư lệnh. Thời gian biểu ít hơn ba mươi ngày.

Nhiệm vụ là để bảo đảm kiểm soát thế giới tại khách Sơn Tây và thiết lập các căn cứ phía trước để sẵn empt xâm nhập bởi Arc lực lượng chính phủ Hoàng gia, và để giám sát việc di tản của thường dân bị mắc kẹt phía sau thân thiện dòng.

Săn bắn tốt, và xin Chúa chúc lành.

Alicia Li

[Cannonshop]

Để: Đại tá Lâm Tấn Tài, 2 viên chỉ huy Trung đoàn độc lập Marine

Từ: Trưởng Li Alicia hoạt động hải quân

RE: Bin hoạt động Long là Go.

Theo kế hoạch hoạt động mô phỏng trong Chiến tranh Kế hoạch đỏ, bạn có để di chuyển lực lượng của bạn chống lại mục tiêu Long Bin. Nếu bạn enconter lực lượng kém hơn, bạn có để đè bẹp họ, nếu bạn gặp phải lực lượng cấp trên, bạn có để gây càng nhiều thiệt hại nhất có thể, sau đó rút lui với mục tiêu Sơn Tây.

Gunfire hải quân hỗ trợ sẽ có sẵn cho bạn để hạ cánh hoạt động trên Red kế hoạch chiến tranh.

Alicia Li, CNO

[Cannonshop]

CP, 1st Brigade 2nd Division (Sons of Albion), Australia...

"Incoming encrypted, sir...it's got the flags for the Archduchess, and...shit, it's in Viet."  Colonel Devla Clavell announced, handing Von Frisch the offprint.

"Viet? You're sure?" he asked.

"Yes sir."  she said, "whatever it is, they don't want someone intercepting the Black Box pulse and reading it-at least, not easily-we had to hack it from the Purple substitution encryption book...does it mean what it looks like, sir?"

Để: Tổng Von Frisch William Harrison

Từ: MacAulliffe Debra Archduchess

RE: Tình hình Lyran

Tôi đang gửi này, mật mã Bill. Không nghi ngờ gì bạn đã nghe nói đến nay về những gì mà Arkies đã kéo, bao gồm sắp xếp các cuộc thảm sát của quân đội Lyran tại Arc Hoàng gia và cuộc xâm lược bạo lực của Tharkad.

Tôi đoán tôi sẽ bị treo cổ như kẻ phản bội của ba chính phủ khi điều này là trên-một trong hai chúng tôi sẽ giành chiến thắng, và Quốc hội sẽ nhấn mạnh vào đầu tôi, hoặc chúng ta sẽ mất, và các Arkies sẽ xâm chiếm chúng ta, hoặc chúng ta giành chiến thắng , và các Lyrans cuối cùng sẽ nhận được để thử tôi như một kẻ phản bội và ly khai.

Đó là nếu Clans không quyết định tôi là sốt, bị hư hỏng và cần phải được đặt xuống bản thân mình, nhưng chúng ta sẽ chiến tranh với các Arkies, tôi sẽ không đứng được và để cho người bán thịt Redshirts của họ tốt, trong khi phần còn lại của vũ trụ nhìn vào, đặc biệt là tôi sẽ không đứng được và để cho họ làm điều đó cho quê hương cũ của bạn trong Skye.

Tôi đang cố gắng đưa ra một liên minh, nhưng tôi sợ rủi ro thiên văn học đã tăng lên và chúng tôi có thể kết thúc chiến tranh với một hoặc Clans hơn trong quá trình giải phóng con người của bạn. Tôi cần bạn để sẵn sàng cho việc truy cập-punch chúng ta đều biết sẽ rơi khi tôi đặt kế hoạch chiến tranh đỏ thành hành động-we're chưa sẵn sàng, chúng tôi sẽ không sẵn sàng cho một năm có thể hoặc hai, nhưng nếu chúng ta không di chuyển ngay bây giờ, trong một năm hoặc hai các damned Redshirts sẽ được diễu hành trên đường phố và chúng tôi sẽ được lên chống lại tường anyway-cách duy nhất để giành chiến thắng này, là làm theo bánh mì nướng Chúa Montrose.

"Ông Dù lo ngại số phận của mình quá nhiều,

hoặc sa mạc của ông là nhỏ.

Ai sẽ không đặt nó chạm vào,

Để giành chiến thắng hay mất tất cả. "

Tôi muốn người đàn ông của bạn thực hành các hoạt động phòng thủ và lực đẩy, cũng như thực hành chiến tranh thông tin khác nhau ops càng sớm càng tốt, và có được như nhiều người dân địa phương được đào tạo lên như là bạn có thể căng ra. Tôi đang gửi đơn đặt hàng tương tự để chỉ huy khác trong các đơn đặt hàng làn sóng thứ hai và thứ ba. Làn sóng đầu tiên sẽ đến Hai-Oh và Trung đoàn độc lập của Rangers bạn đã thiết lập cho ops raiding. Tôi ghét kéo họ, nhưng họ đang đơn vị của chúng tôi triển khai dễ dàng nhất cho hoạt động tấn công.

Đến lượt bạn sẽ có làn sóng hai có lẽ bởi sau đó, chúng tôi sẽ có một số người bạn đến ở về phía chúng tôi cho việc này.

Deb

Von Frisch read it, then, he slid it into a translator scanner keyed to Kowloon's dialect of Vietnamese.

He read it again.  "Fucking Translator's not broken...yeah.  Recall all leaves, I want all senior staff officers in the blue-room in thirty minutes..."

[Dave Baughman]

HPG Compound, Arluna...

Debbie Mac walked up to the gate, and nodded to the Word of Blake guards, "I want to see your boss." she said, "Tell him it's a damn good idea he talks to me today, it's business."

Five minutes later
Precentor Arluna's office

Precentor John Ackermann was a fairly recent arrival on Arluna, having been dispatched from his previous post in the Draconis Combine after the last Precentor was lost to the Arluna Flu. Fair-haired and endowed with piercing green eyes, Ackermann had found himself in the rather unenviable position of administering an HPG station that was theoretically open, but for all intents and purposes was interdicted by virtue of being surrounded by silent star systems in virtually all directions. Of course, it also made him just one step short of being Blake's Personal Representative to the Union. Bowing deferentially as Debbie Mac entered his pleasantly-decorated office, Ackermann intoned, "Peace of Blake be Upon You, madame. How may the Word of Blake be of service to you?"

Before she could respond, he shook his head, "You are here about the FTL communications situation of course. Specifically the implications of the destruction of the HPG stations on Brooloo and Gatineau, as well as the blanket interdiction levelled against the Lyran regions which have accepted Star Adder rule."

Gesturing to the tea service on his office's coffee table, he continued, "To speak entirely honestly, I hope I am wrong, but I doubt that very much. Shall we discuss the matter over tea? Its some of the last of the stock I had imported from Terra before the war situation cut off shipping links to the Hegemony."

[Marlin]

The interview was not confidential, though, as Ezra and the doctor besides him, watched and listened intently.

Ezra thought about those incidents and what a BioWeapon would do to any Homeworld, 'may Kerensky prevent this'. His conclusion was, that the lower tie Warriors would not behave much different. It was unthinkable, so he blocked out further musings about such horrible incidents.

And proceeded to listen how she had survived this catastrophe for two years. Not just because of her physis, that was obvious. She was a survival specialist and to Ezra she had some Warriorlike personality. No doubt, that had helped her.

[Cannonshop]

"There's a reason we're questioning her." the doctor said quietly, "Something you should maybe ought to know, but the bloody government doesn't want to confront-the plague is not entirely over-we estimate there are somewhere near two hundered million potential time-bombs out there, near enough, not just in the Union, but all the way down to Coventry and beyond."

He muted the session, and brought up a display.  "there have been...incidents.  A middle-aged bank teller went berserk during a robbery, an old man with arthritis killed four people with his bare hands-thousands of incidents, most of them wind up in statistical limbo as padding suicide and crime stats, but Star Colonel, I've got case files on over five thousand plague survivors cutting loose with the kind of violence you get in a b-feature holo, and every one has the same symptomology-after the eruption, they don't remember a god-damn thing...then there are the suicides-now surgical scans and post mortems show cysts in their brains..."  he brought up a display, "The cysts? are full of viral material-from the Flu, Star Colonel...it's like a second, unpredicted stage of the disease-thankfully we don't have new cases cropping up, at least, not yet-so it might not be communicable, but even at a tenth-percent survival rate, that's hundereds of thousands to millions to hundereds of millions of potentially dangerous people, on the edge of erupting into the kind of Chaos Miranda there witnessed at Oxford-and we don't even have a good means to track the probabilities."

[Marlin]

He nodded.
"So you know what it is about. Is there research underway for a second medication.. perhaps?
I will need the data to tell my Clan and get some research on these effects done. If the Viral material is still around, the plague might come back on other planets. We will need an improved vaccine to counter these effects.

When you say survivors, were they immune to the Virus? What is about those that got inoculated? Are they factored in?
Does she have those cysts?"

He asked motioning towards Miranda.

[Cannonshop]

He nodded.
"So you know what it is about. Is there research underway for a second medication.. perhaps?
I will need the data to tell my Clan and get some research on these effects done. If the Viral material is still around, the plague might come back on other planets. We will need an improved vaccine to counter these effects.

When you say survivors, were they immune to the Virus? What is about those that got inoculated? Are they factored in?
Does she have those cysts?"

He asked motioning towards Miranda.

"she's clean, that's one of the reasons she's still here, Star Colonel." the Doctor said quietly, "if we can figure out why she's clean, we might be able to...do something.  At this point, we're still gathering data."

Here the old man paused, "As for Survivors-that would be people who managed to live through being infected, Star Colonel...thankfully so far, incidents have been low-relatively, I would say less than one in a hundered has had...incidents-and that is extrapolating, after all, not all violent outbursts or suicides, even today, are the result of the plague-but there have been enough to impact violent crime and suicide statistics measurably, this year the Union of Independent Worlds alone has suffered higher rates of both, than the entire Coventry Province did two years ago when we were still Lyran-at least, on a per-capita basis, the true numbers have a lot of my colleagues worried...and the threat of mutation is very real..."

[Marlin]

Although his head began to ache under the thinking and the possibilities, Ezra did not want to seem unconcerned.

"So infected survivors tend to go frenzy when confronted with potentially life-threatening situations or stress. Or to suicide. You might check if the inoculation has to do with this phenomenon as side-effect. Did you? We need a new one regardless. Gather the data and hand me one copy then. The Clan will coordinate with your efforts to achieve better and perhaps faster results.

When will she be ready for release?"

His mood was not all too happy anymore, he wanted to get out of here.

[Cannonshop]

HPG Compound, Word of Blake Cantonment, Arluna...1 week prior to the arrival of the Jade Falcon SaKhan...

Debbie sat down in the chair Precentor Ackermann indicated, "Ah'm sorry it took me so long t'visit y'all in puh-son." she said, "an' Ah'm sorry thet when ah fan'ly git heah, it's...not with good news."  She accepted a cup of tea, but added nothing to the brew.  "Precentah, You know we have been cut off from the rest of the Inner Sphere, largely due to the decisions made by your boss on Terra.  It's goin' on six months now, and Ah have come t'you, in paht, because you did not come to me with a plan to deal with this earlier-The Word of Blake had a contract with the Lyran Commonwealth, the Union is not the Commonwealth any longer-moreso now, Ah really don't think we can go back, and with no link to the rest of the Inner Sphere, any negotiations we opened to write a new contract with either the Word, or the other Comstar, would be largely worthless to us, and of largely no worth to your order-Ah don't have a clue how y'all hope to get yo' side told when your policies have effectively cut off the very people your order needs to persuade-that's not my issue.  MY issue is choosing a provider for our national long-distance communications needs...and making sure that provision does not result in a blood-bath."

She opened her valise, and laid out a small stack of folders.  "These are exit-visas, they're dated for two weeks from now, transit-papers, and if necessary, proof of citizenship to get you past any pickets between here, and Coventry-not just for you, I have these set up for all four hundered some-odd personnel we Know about inside UIW borders-I want your people safely on their way to Terra before the Falcon tech-crews arrive to take over the HPG system locally, I expect you'll have your own security people scrubbing any equipment you can't pack or disable between now, and then."

She put the cup down, "anyone out of your bunch that isn't going, better have a good cover identity, Precentor, and someone somewhere to hide them-the Clans are on the war-path, and while it would be gratifying to change their direction, I have to care for MY people first and foremost-we're isolated here and we don't have that many allies, our best ally in the Inner Sphere is too distant to help us if the Clans decide to eat our worlds...and based on the performance of the Hegemony in honouring their treaties with the Commonwealth, there's no help coming from your folks any time soon-so I have to do the practical thing, and try to avoid a shooting war on our soil-which means I have to give you your eviction notice."

She pulled something else from the valise.  It was a single datadisc.  "This is for your bosses, and I'm going to pay you to deliver it to them..."  she sighed, "The virus-we think it may be mutating, right now I've got control of sixty percent of the worlds hit by the Arluna Flu, the rest are in Arc Royal, Robert, or Charlemagne's hands-we can control the flow and maintain some spread-control inside the border here, but they can't.  This is everything we know about the virus, including the post-infection symptoms the egghead doctors have compiled-your people are goin' to need this information if there is a renewed outbreak outside the Union's borders.  I'm also preparing to launch quarantine actions if necessary against the nearest threatened systems to prevent the spread if what we fear is coming, comes to be..."

she stood up, "Ah am sorry about this." and left.