Disaster Relief (Invasion) Tharkad (1619). Now with RP.(Combat Complete)

[Deathrider6]

 Two MP officers walked into the room escorting an LCN Kaptain.

[Cannonshop]

"Pft. You're cut from the goddamn same cloth as the clanner. All talk about saving the Commonwealth, have a thousand lectures on every subject, and your thumbs are up your asses doing nothing whatsoever while our countrymen die. Your hope is that soon you'll fight the clans - why aren't your allegedly patriotic Skye troops doing that right now? Cowards, all. Chain of command this, legal succession that. Send it all to hell! If we actually care about the people, these questions need to be set aside and we need to be fighting the invaders!"

"You, the Wolf and every goddamn successor state save the Dracs has refused to help out Arc-Royal because they have a beef with the government. So what? I used to think that we fought for more than governments. All this condescension about how Arc-Royal has done nothing but alienate her allies, blah, blah. I know it for a fact that the government reached out to every single power in the Inner Sphere save the Leaguers asking for help and requesting dialogue. You know how many responded? Just the Wolves, and they did it only to lecture us on why they couldn't be bothered to help us, but that they were going to take our military facilities away for our own benefit. Blame Mulcahy if you want - she's never, by the way, been called Head of State - but the Estates broke its back stretching to reach out to our allies. They couldn't be bothered to even try, and you're blaming us. What you think is a high horse is a mountain of red tape, Russell. Spare me the righteousness."

Two MP officers walked into the room escorting an LCN Kaptain.

Kapitan Madelaine Schrakenberg von Winter was under guard, because she was 'waiting her turn' to face Summary Judgement for (among other things) violations of section 24 of the LCAF Military Code of Justice (Barratry).

She listened to General Russell's comments, and then, to Colonel Taks' retort. 

She'd heard the entire exchange, and she'd finally had enough.  Hands bound behind her, her feet were still free...

She stepped forward with a lunge, snarling.  "Scheisskopf, Du Idiot, du verdammter Trottel du Narr, welche Art von Offizier meinst du du bist?*" she snarled, "YOU are a bloody half-assed Oberst addressing a Senior General-Kommandant, in the presence of the General of the armies, I may be facing charges for rebellion, but even I am not such a fool to think I can, at my leisure address a senior, and in this case, superior officer with the mouth of a syphillitic Schuljunge.  If the other officers in the Arc Royal theatre are as blindingly incompetent as your behaviour illustrates, it is no mystery that the Commonwealth is coming apart, and being absorbed piecemeal."

[ooc: Initiative [blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 4, 6, total 10[/blockquote] for the kick.]

[Deathrider6]

(OOC Note: The above post was done with my approval. Needed CS' help since he created the character previously.)

  General Russell saw Kaptain von Schrakenberg charge as the MP's tried to restrain her. His reaction was quick. "Kaptain! Stand down." He drew and fired his service pistol into the ceiling. "By God that is enough! Kaptain stand down." The MPs were stunned at the outburst from their normally reserved General."


Initiative for the MP's[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 4, 6, total 10[/blockquote].

[Deathrider6]

 The MPs managed to restrain Kaptain Schrakenberg just as she began to lunge and the pistol shot alerted everyone nearby. An additional squad of MP's rushed in lead by a Leutnant. General Russell had holsterd his pistol just as the came into the door. He looked over at the shocked MP officer. "It would behoove you Leutnant to ensure that the good Kaptain does not attempt to strike the Colonel again."

[Cannonshop]

"Herr General, if this piece of trash is an example of what has become of the LCAF, I want to resign-in disgrace, and make sure I do not have to wear the same uniform as this...idiot Taks." Madelaine snarled while struggling, "I withdraw my plea of not-guilty."  one of the guards looked...stunned, "I conspired with officers within the fleet to Mutiny and Desertion, General, I was, in fact, in charge of that conspiracy, and as that constitutes high treason, I confess to high treason against the State in a time of Emergency, knowing full well that by so doing, I bring down upon myself the penalty, which is death by firing squad, to be carried out summarily as soon as it is convenient to do so.  I only ask that I not be buried or executed while wearing the same uniform as this imbecile."  she nodded toward the Colonel, "Whose actions reflect the rot that provoked that conspiracy in the first place."

[Deathrider6]

 Colonel Lowell stepped into the room. "Did I just hear a gunshot?" He saw the small cluter of MP's surrounding Kaptain Schrakenberg. "He handed General Russell a folded piece of paper and steped back out of the room.

[august]

Taks took a minute to collect himself, and scratched his head in light of the awkward silence that reigned after the Kaptain's attack.

"General, forgive me... I've never been to a briefing on Tharkad before. Is it custom here to allow criminal suspects access to staff meetings? A close shave it might have been for me, but honestly I'm more worried about how it was allowed to happen than for my safety."

[NVA]

"I must find myself in agreement General.  Given that at least one person here is guilty of what I believe would be treason and that it appears they do not recognize you as the supreme commander of Lyran forces, this would be a dangerous place for such an individual."

[august]

"Look at the tart in a dog pelt trying to be subtle. Real clever. Rest assured, scum, that if I had any intention of killing anyone in this room, it would be you. Fortunately for you, even I have my limits."

[Cannonshop]

"...did I hear a gunshot?" his voice gurgled.  Madelaine stared at Lowell, and her expression went from anger, to horror.

The stiff, dessicated cadaver handed a document to...Russell, whose neck turned black with pooling blood while she watched.  she looked around frantically.  They were all dead.  Everyone in the room was dead.  Still moving, jerkily, but cold and dead and she could smell it in the air.

It'snotrealitsnotrealitsnotreal  she closed her eyes hard, trying to control her breathing as her heart started racing.  she opened them, and everyone was still...

dead.

Bugs crawled out of Colonel Taks' mouth as he said "General, forgive me... I've never been to a briefing on Tharkad before. Is it custom here to allow criminal suspects access to staff meetings? A close shave it might have been for me, but honestly I'm more worried about how it was allowed to happen than for my safety."  one of his milky, decaying eyes fell out onto the floor.

it's not real. it's not REAL...

The Wolf's mouth moved up and down, flesh cracking and flapping, the Loremaster said, "I must find myself in agreement General.  Given that at least one person here is guilty of what I believe would be treason and that it appears they do not recognize you as the supreme commander of Lyran forces, this would be a dangerous place for such an individual."

this isn't happening! she closed her eyes hard, and opened them again, as the stench of death wafted through the room.  Her heart beat triphammers in her chest.

Admiral Oliviery stepped out of the shadow behind General Steiner, only part of Madelaine knew that Admiral Oliviery was dead-brought to ten thousand degrees celsius inside Mount Asgard when the nuke went off.

"it's real." the dead Admiral told her, "We're going to drag you down to hell, where you belong...with us."

Madelaine saw red, as fear was replaced with unthinking rage.

[Deathrider6]

  General Russell looked back at Colonel Taks then over at the cluster of MPs "Subdue her and get her the hell out of here. Now."

The MP's clubbed her down with knightsticks and hit her with shock-rods until she was unconcious and druger her out of the room. Gebral Russell took a grazing blow to the side of the head, but was unfazed. "I'll deal withthe Kaptain later. we have a briefing to continue".                                                

[Deathrider6]

 Just as the unconcious Kaptain Schrakenberg was drug out of the room Colonel Lowell peeked through the door looking embarassed. "General I owe everyone present an apology. The good Kaptain was not locked up for barratry. Well she was until the ship's doctor did a work-up. She's crazier than a bedbug sir.Apparently she snapped when Asgard went up. The personnel she was supposedly talking to were all killed. Hell she apparently was talking to me a week before I arrived. There's no sense in asking the others to leave sir. The LIC shut down the operation she was participating in as soon as it was apparent that Maddy blew her cover and the op. Once again I'm sorry for the incident and my mistake. I just read over my copy of the report I handed you." He ducked back out the door before general Russell could respond.

[Dave Baughman]

General Steiner, with a look that was a cross between outrage and intense nausea, watched the meltdown in the conference room in stunned silence.

"Galaxy Commander Tutuola, could you leave us for a moment. I wish to discuss an issue with my staff privately."



The doors shut and Nondi Steiner did not waste any time turning a basilisk gaze on the men before her.

"General Russel, Colonel Taks," she said in a voice now salted with an unpleasant rasp, "perhaps it was just as well that we decided to forgo the inspection. Things are clearly worse than I feared, to see you at one anothers' throats - and in the face of a foreign general officer at that."

"I believe there is still a Lyran Commonwealth. I believe that was are still one people - Rowe and her hooligans notwithstanding. Your conduct today is shaking that belief."

Steiner held a hankerchief to her mouth and coughed loudly.

"The Wolf Medic says that I am suffering from acute radiation poisoning. That's true, but he is bound to be in for a surprise when his blood work comes back. Someone wants the Lyran Commonwealth to die, and their first step in accomplishing that is to kill me. When they found out that I wasn't in Asgard when the bomb went off, they had me poisoned. Twice. Thalium and Dioxin, I'm told. Dosage far above the LD-50 cutoff. If you saw half the list of drugs they have me on to keep me alive, you'd think twice abo..."

The old General shook her head and refocused. The hankerchief, now crumpled in her palm, was stained with blood.

"I have a few weeks left, maybe a month and a half if I'm lucky. If the current situation is really a succession dispute, I will use what time I have left to mediate it. If, however, the Free Worlds League is right and the LC is already dead, tell me now so I can curl up in a corner and die in peace."

[Deathrider6]

  Daniel looked at Nondi and sighed. "I don't know what to tell you General. THe last thing I wanted to see is a possible sucession crisis. From the data I have Arc-Royal is a shambles. I have done what Robert and the Duchess of Donegal wanted me to do in regards to safeguarding the Skye/Donegal Region. The Hesperus Operation was all planned by Robert and his staff prior to the news of you surviving the disaster. I maty not agree with Colonel Taks on the political side of thing but I do agree that something has to be done regarding the Arc-Royal region. The SLDF has been grated basing rights on Summit should Arc-ROyal fall. The newly reformed 8th Donegal Guards should be at 50% stregnth the end of the month which will free up units for duty in Arc-Royal IF the Duchess will allow them. If arc Royal can be held we may be able to salvage the situation. The other probelm is that there are numerous world who do not acknowlege any of the splinter factions along the FWL and Combine borders. There are insufficent forces to bring them back into the fold and diplomatic initiatives have failed. I may not agree with Robert's use of FWL forces to backstop him and assist in reclaiming lost worlds but I do understand his reasoning."

[Deathrider6]

  He took a breath and continued. "I have read reports from Hesperus, Arcturus and have been briefed by personnel here and the situation is grave. The RasDom has occupied several worlds and Hesperus had to be assaulted. Duke Brewer was asked numerous times to stand down and submit to his leige lord's authoriy before any action was taken. Arcturus was a total loss and the people asked the RasDom to come and for LCAF forces to leave. As for the Free Wolrd stating that the Commonwealth is dead...I don't think so. As long as we have people willing to at least try to put our house in order the Commonwealth will survive. As for who should or could be Archon Robert has a legitimate claim to the throne and even Arc-Royal's Duchess could be considered. In my opinion one of the biggest stumbling blocks to settling the dispute is that someone in Arc-Royal didn't read the rules. There is no law on the books that detemines that a Steiner MUST rule the Commonwealth. The Law does state that the Estates General MUST be freely elected by the PEOPLE. Legally Arc-Royal's Delegates are leagal as long as they are from a world in Arc-Royal. Skye and DOnegal have held elections on each member world to elect delegates. Said Delegates are gathering on DOnegal and awaiting the go ahead to assemble and select a new Archon in co-operation with the Delegates from Arc-Royal. "