Total War: Resistance

[The_JJ]

The wind swept in out of the East, heavy with rain, and hammered the city, driving the fine mist of droplets sideways beneath the rooftops and umbrellas of the denizens.

It was always raining these days. Pursuant Governance Decree 1476, it had been decided that the planet needed more water, and so the terraformers had waved their hands and walked away. That was twenty years ago. They said that in another hundred or so the high plateaus would be thick, green forests, the likes of which not seen since they’d cleansed Europe’s forests of the Dagwoods.

Such was, Shona Han had famously chastised her followers, the price for lax vigilance. But in the wending streets and subways, in the forests of diamond and steel, in the grooves of hot jack cybercafe’s and quickstim clubs, in the foliage of neon signs an new strain of spores was spreading and taking root.

Executor Aquila snapped the collar of his coat up as he walked, brushed the fabric so and so and its field sprang up. Enough to impede the driving rain, but not stop it entirely when the gusts came howling down the street. His chief bodyguard spared a glance at him- perhaps startled by the sudden movement- then returned to watching the crowds, as his cousins in demeanor and carriage spaced out in a triangle around their charge. They were a conspicuous lot, but not a particularly unusual sight even all the way Up and In here. They’d pass easily enough as just another nervous gaijin salaraiman or Down and Out honcho. The nights when he might be mistaken for a rich idiot dragging his parent’s professional posse along for a night on the town were long gone, and not much missed.

They made their way to a building, not much different from the other vertical monsters around it, and stood waiting to the elevator to arrive, and then be cleared of any hidden hazards that might have been placed by the Hand’s of Han. It was a bit early for them to have earned quite that much attention, but Hanse Aquila felt it was best to form good habits early, and to lead by example.

“They called my sister Altair,” he told the elevator microphone. “Aquila plus four escorts.”

“Welcome Executor. Sixty fourth floor? You are the first to arrive,” said the cool female voice “have you had a pleasant morning?”

Welcome to the Shadow Conclave! Currently meeting on the 64th Floor of an office building. The elevator up is secured by a VI program with built in voice recognition, so everybody gets a code phrase!


There is a small foyer after that, then a waiting/dining/rest area ringed by diamond windows, carefully one way opaqued to any but the most determined onlookers, though offering a perfectly nice view of the street below. Then the meeting room, nested inside and away from the windows, with two tiers, one for the voters, another for their accompanying associates. There are two back exits, and a small collection of heavy weaponry and some near-military grade armor stashed beneath the Executor's podium.

[Odin the Ignoble]

Theodosius Vanderbilt blusters up to the elevator, already winded from the short walk. He is followed closely by his aid, a military advisor, a pair of brutish looking body guards, and matching set of psions for protection.

He scowls rather uncharacteristically at his aide, taking out his discomfort on the smaller man. "Do you have the latest versions of the presentations prepared?"

The smaller man nods, patting his suitcase as the group submits to the security screening. "Up to date as per your specifications."

"Good" Vanderbilt turns and takes a deep breath before addressing the elevator. "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!" He pauses briefly, knowing now that there is no turning back. "The Fat Man plus six escorts"

[Bahumat]

Ian walked quietly through the city, flanked by his pair of guards. Even in this weather, he still wore his formal suit, thanks to the field from the projectors attached to his guards' armour. He could still feel the wind, but the rain barely ever touched the suit.

He looked up at the designated building. This would be where it all began.

He walked inside, his guards and a single advisor with a data-slate that contained important information regarding the total spare income that could be channeled into the Conclave, Hagane's military contracts, and more. It had a inbuilt security wiper and self-destruct in case of tampering.

He and his trio waited at the bottom of the elevator for the obligatory security screening. He didn't think Han cared about Hagane yet, but better to let their tech fix that for him.

He cleared his throat.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."

He waited several seconds, then continued.

"Golden Boy, entourage of three."

[Greystone]

Admiral Rimiz, under the guise of Captain Odysseus, strolled casually through the streets. Flanking him was Sgt. Arianna Sadler, his personal bodyguard, and Ensign Mak Turanis who was in charge of organizing fleet intelligence.

His entourage went by the names of Sable and Rapier.

The fleet had been left near their mooring, well outside of the range of most ships. Rimiz had come on a small personal yacht, and they were dressed like long range traders- heck they had even sold a shipment of Unrefined Ore to throw and of the Hand off.

They entered the building and Rimiz leaned into the speaker "sic semper tyrannis"

[Murska]

The people were quite used to the rain by now, many of them out doing their shopping, talking or laughing. A woman with clear Japanese ancestry mixed in well, dressed as she was in loose green and blue clothing that marked her as a wealthy person - they were clearly imported from some other system. With her were two guys, roughly of the same age, holding umbrellas above her head. This group stopped at a few shops, chatting with each other like old friends.

"Hey, Nath, what do you think of those?" The woman pointed at a collection of beautiful jewelry showcased in a nearby window. "A necklace won't fit, but perhaps a ring?"
"Oh, uh, well I'm sure it'd look great on you, Lin." The man stammered. Lin just laughed.
"Hey, relax. We're just looking today, we'll have to come back later if we want to buy something."
"It's about time." The other man remarked quietly. "We're almost there."
Lin blinked and looked around. "Oh, look at the time! Let's go."

The little group crossed the road and slipped into a side street. After a few minutes of quick walking through the rain, the crowd lessened and the buildings around changed to tall office blocks. Lin stopped in front of one, breathed once and stepped in. "Here we go."

As the elevator arrived, Nath walked in first and motioned for the other two to follow. Lin stepped to the microphone: "Whose eyes are those eyes?"

After a moment of confirmation, she continued. "It's the Sensei with two friends."

[Greystone]

Sable eyed the men who had already arrived with protective wariness. Her training had her constantly scanning the room for any... abnormalities. Rimiz was more at peace in his surroundings, and he noted the delegates who appeared more... important in each group.

Before they could disperse, the elevator opened behind him, revealing Lin and her men. Rimiz gave her a nod and with a hand gesture, the trio stood to one side.

[Murska]

Lin stepps out of the elevator, glancing at the room quickly before turning her attention to Rimiz and smiling warmly. "Oh, hello. Can't say much good about the weather, but at least it's only water."

The other two follow Lin, looking curiously at the room and the people around. She turns quickly to them. "Feel free to mingle, we'll be a while."

Nath smils and nodds while Kev, the other man, salutes. Then both of them walk farther into the room together, aiming to get a drink and then try and get a conversation going.

Lin, meanwhile, offers her hand to Rimiz. "I'm Liathin. You?"

[Greystone]

Rimiz smiled warmly, and removed his traders cap "You probably know me as Captain Odysseus"

Compared to Liathin, Rimiz looked like an old man. At least in his late forties with greying dark hair and slate colored eyes. His handshake is firm, and his hand is calluosed with years of work.

[Murska]

"Ah. I've heard of you, sure. I'm the Sensei, though I think that just sounds funny."

Lin looks more like a young student on a tourist trip than a rebel leader, but she is consistently aware of what's going on around her. She lets go of his hand and nods to the two people with Rimiz. "Mind introducing your friends? Mine appear to be... sampling the local varieties of alcohol, as usual." She grins.

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga walked down the street the crowd parting around him, afraid to get close to the ominous figure. The chains on his staff clanged with every step and his cloak is heavy with the rain. He hurried, not wanting to attract too much attention this early, and mostly failing. He did distract people from the faint figure of his equally cloaked aide following him. Entering the elevator Dadga paused for a second, You still with me Char?

Yes sir. His aide replied.

Dadga nodded and identified himself to the computer My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair. Dragon plus one escort.

[Greystone]

Rimiz turns to his underlings as he introduces them.

"This young man calls himself Rapier, and he is my aid de camp for today" Ensign Turanis adjusted his glasses and nodded.

"And this is my lovely bodyguard Sable"

Sadler eyes the 'Sensei', but she had adopted the blank 'parade face' that showed nothing.

[Murska]

Lin pushes her palms together and bows slightly. "It's good to meet you. Maybe we should move somewhere more comfortable, to avoid blocking the door?"

That last comment proves timely as the huge figure of Dagda arrives on the elevator.

[Exthalion]

There is a lot to be said about the art of walking. Humans pick up on subtle clues they could not recount if questioned. The angle of the posture, the meter of the steps, a thousand little things learned over a lifetime.

The three figures walked in a very intimidating way. Straight backed, sure footsteps, and a look halfway between board and annoyed. They were tall, bronze skinned, blue eyed, their hair ranging from lightest brown to dark blond.

Such a look made them fade in more then it did draw attention to them. In the early era of genetic modifications these features had been among the most popular, even down to the walk. They all looked like they could be brothers, a trait shared with perhaps one person in fifty in the crowded street.

Once in the elevator the one who had been leading spoke into the microphone.

"For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." He paused for a second. "Thales with two others."

Once on the appropriate floor all three glanced around warily. Unlike the masses outside, these people would know what they were. The recorded memories of the purge were as vivid for them as they day they happened.

[RationalGoblin]

Arriving shortly after the other members, three solid-looking men in battered and chipped body armor barely concealed by heavy trenchcoats stride up to the elevator. They are lead by a man disdaining the trenchcoat and instead covering his armor with a grey cloak lined with red. The cloaked man, Tiberian Aquila (no relation to the Executor), ambles over to the microphone in a casual walk.

In a clipped tone, Tiberian speaks.

"He who dares, wins.

Brutus plus three escorts.""

The grim, humorless face of Tiberian greets the other plotters.

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga moves over to one of the walls, just watching the others for now. Meanwhile Char breaks away from his shadow to go check out the back exits.

[The_JJ]

A woman, local, in a slim business suit is talking to a man, Terran native by his accent, in slightly rumpled clothes, jacket off and sleeves rolled up. As Vanderbilt arrives they stop their conversation and nod politely. When asked about beverages the man grunts and points to the corner where a small cooler has been dragged in.

The rest of the waiting room is pretty sparsely populated by mass produced furniture you might find in any office haphazardly arranged. The woman waits as the room begins fill up, eying the parties in turn.

[Odin the Ignoble]

Vanderbilt nods back to the woman, jowls shaking. He quickly appropriates an oversized chair and lowers his bulk. He lets out a contented sigh as the chair groans under his weight. He motions for his companions to sit and waits for the rest of the group to arrive.

[Exthalion]

The Incanters were all tense. They kept glancing at each other with what appeared to be meaningful looks. Their body language was all over the place but generally indicative of wariness, a readiness to spring.

Their numerous powerful but subtle augmentations provided a wealth of data far later analysis, but sometimes you needed more then just empirical data. Sometimes you needed the human element.

"Chopin's third movement can wait."

The tallest one, who had earlier identified himself as Thales walked over to the man and women talking.

"I am sorry, and don't mean to interrupt, but this seems to be the only conversation going and I am terribly shy about being the first to speak. I am Thales, a pleasure to meet you both..." His look is slightly quizzical, obviously hoping for their names.

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian gives the slightest of salutes to the woman, then gives a typical military hand gesture to his three companions. After they sit in their chairs and no foul play is discovered, the so-called Praetor sits down crisply a few seats down from Vanderbilt. Tiberian places himself literally on the edge of his seat, ready to jump up at a moments notice, but in a curiously relaxed position.

He gives a questioning eye to Vanderbilt.

"Vanderbilt? You're here? Surprising."

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga takes the chair across from Vanderbilt and nods to the others. Greetings, I suppose I should get to know some of my comrades in our mutual endevor.

[Murska]

One of the men Lin arrived with joins the table as well, smiling politely and holding a small drink. "Yes, it's best we get to know each other early. Some of us are, no doubt, well known, but I think it's best we started with introductions. My name is Kevry Trodane, and I'm the Captain of the Virtue, a support Cruiser in the Solid Flame."

---

Lin smiles brighly at Thales and offers her hand. "Liathin, nice to meet you. And talking with me is the famed Captain Odysseus."

[Odin the Ignoble]

At Tiberian's comment, Vanderbilt puffs himself up a little. "There comes a time in a mans life when he realizes that there are more important things then profits and losses. Things like Liberty and, and..." Vanderbilt deflates a little and stumbles over his words as he watches Dadga take his seat. "Justice." He eyes his entourage nervously, suddenly quiet sure that two bodyguards aren't nearly enough.

Vanderbilt, blinks a couple of times at Dadga, apparently surprised that he can talk. He briefly makes a motion, as if to offer his hand in greeting, then seems to think better of it.

"But of course! Where are my manners? I am Theodosius Vanderbilt, and I'm here on the behalf of the Trade and Banking Union. I also have the honor of introducing my illustrious friend, Praetor Tiberian Aquilla of the Free Legion."

"You must be Dadga Mor, I must say my report doesn't do you credit. You are significantly more... impressive in person. Of course all my reports are from prior to the, uh, um..." the normally loquacious banker finds himself briefly at a lose for words. After a second he seems to recompose himself. "indecent. I must say sir, you have me at a disadvantage. I'm normally used to being the largest man in the room." His hands go to his oversized stomach as he lets out a good natured chuckle.

[Bahumat]

Ian's guards move off as more guards and VIP's begin to show up. Ian waits as he takes in the sights, and grabs a glass of wine from the fridge.

He clearly recognised 'The Fat Man', Vanderbilt. They'd had dealings in the past, as he was a part of the T&BU, which had tried to warn Ian off several endeavors of his. Needless to say, he'd listened, redone his own analysis, then politely ignored them. And done well by doing so. Still, they were a necessary evil in his eyes.

And the massive heavily cloaked man stuck a chord with the young businessman, but he didn't know why. He'd felt he should know who this was by his face, but the name escaped him. It was important somehow, though.

His eyes were drawn to a young Japanese woman who had started a conversation with an older man with a military bearing. As he drifted closer, another man approached, and inrtoduced himself as Thales to the duo. Whereupon his eavesdropping revealed her name as Liathin, and the other as Odysseus. He certainly knew of Odysseus by reputation, but she was a mystery. Until his trusty advisor, Kobawaki Hando, slipped up to him.

"She's with Solid flame, sir."

He raised an eyebrow, then stepped towards the conversation, handing his glass to Hando.

He waited a moment to allow them to divert their attention, them gave a formal japanese bow of equals to Liathin.

"Konbawa, Liathin-taicho."

[Murska]

Lin turned to the new arrival and bowed back politely.

"Konbawa, sir...?"

[Bahumat]

"Ian Jackson. I'm the head of Hagane Heavy Industries."

[Murska]

"Ah, I've heard of you." She smiles, green eyes sparkling. "You appear to already know of me, but I'm Liathin and they call me the Sensei. And here with me..." She gestures to each of the others standing nearby in turn.
"Are Captain Odysseus, his bodyguard Sable, his aide de camp Rapier and mister Thales."

[Bahumat]

"The pleasure is mine. I look forward to our endeavors. My aide here is Kobawaki Hando."

His return smile seems to light up his face.

"The good Captain's reputation proceeds him but Mr Thales, your name is not familiar to me."

[Greystone]

Rimiz, who had turned quickly to mutter something to Sable, turned back as he was introduced twice. He smiled and shook both of the newcomers hand "You are too kind Ms. Liathin, and you Mr. Jackson"

He turns his attention to Thales "Now sir, there is no need to be shy- we all share the same interests"

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian gives a half-smile at Vanderbilt's antics, then turns to Ian.

"Ian? The Hagane man? Good man. The Legion's bought your weapons second-hand. Very dependable."

He gives the CEO an approving nod, the most approval most people can ever get from the dour guerrilla leader.

"More suits than I expected. Good. We need money."

[Exthalion]

"Oh, real names? Fascinating, I did wonder at the code identifiers..."

As if suddenly realizing he was going off on a tangent he returned to the subject. He shook Jackson and Rimez's hands firmly while being careful not to apply too much pressure to Lin's.

"Michael, Michael Redmond is my name. I... represent my people whom I've learned are called the Incanters."

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga grins though he hides his face to prevent anyone from being disturbed by it. Impressive? That's a new one. I'm surprised your records managed to find me before the incident, I had no idea information about the old me still existed. Still its not as surprising as a man of your influence would deciding to join our efforts. I belive you were saying something about justice?

[Greystone]

At the naming, Rimiz shifts uncomfortably "Well, my name is a slight subterfuge" he shrugs giving a sheepish smile " Though I was planning to reveal my identity when we the meeting had officially started. "

[The_JJ]

"Oh, real names? Fascinating, I did wonder at the code identifiers..."

You and me both. :smalltongue:

Yeah, if you really wanted to keep a secret from everyone, shoulda PM'd me that part of your submission.


The man with the rumpled suit tips his head to the side, then gives a nod to the woman in the business suit.

"The Executor is ready. He'll give a short brief in five minutes, and then we'll go through formal introductions, then we can begin the actual process." She nods at a set of double doors that lead into the main 'chamber.'

[nolispe]

A black-clothed woman walks rapidly up to the conclave door, and, as it opens, walks into the room. "Greetings, all. I am Anya D'risi. What has happened in my absence?"

[Odin the Ignoble]

"Justice? Yes, I was just telling Tiberius about how justice should be one of the focuses of the conclave. Justice is one of the core tenants of not just moral philosophy but free market capitalism. Without justice, border to entry and unfair practices cause free markets to stagnate and collapse." Vanderbilt pauses for a second, his eyes narrow trying to read Dadga's face despite the shadows. "But listen to me blathering on about justice. What do I know of injustice?"

Vanderbilt heaves himself to his feet with a sigh. "It appears the time for talking is coming to a close, now's the time to prove we are not just men of words, but men of action." He gestures to the doors leading to the main chamber, and bows slightly. "After you."

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian's half-smile flashes to a humorless frown once more when Vanderbilt gets his name wrong, but he says nothing, until Vanderbilt mentions "man of action, man of words".

"If only words made the galaxy spin 'round, you'd be all-powerful, Vanderbilt."

Tiberian gets up from his seat crisply, and, looking all the others in the eye, then peering at the doors, then back to his comrades again, he repeats his code phrase.

"He who dares, wins."

Tiberian is the first to open the doors and enter the main chamber.

[Greystone]

Rimiz looks away from the conversation, and nods at the call for seats. With a small goodbye, he left, and sat with his men standing at attention behind him.

[Exthalion]

Excusing himself Michael walked over to the newly opened door. His companions joined him without a word.

[Forum Explorer]

Oh I'm sure we've all suffered various injustices. Leaving a scar isn't the only mark that can be left by injustice.

Standing up Dadga makes his way to the main room. He nods his thanks to Vanderbilt before taking his new seat. Soon after he is joined by Char who had finished the scan of the building.

[Murska]

Lin's companions gather to her as she makes her way to the door.

Nath mutters something, as they enter. "She, who analyzes the situation and chooses the best possible option given the circumstances, wins."

Lin lightly baps him in the head, hiding a smile.

[Bahumat]

Ian raises his hand with two fingers extended, and flaps it towards the door, as he follows Lin's entourage. His two guards followed behind him, along with Hando faithfully dogging his steps.

She did, he decided, have a very nice rear.

"Or at least doesn't explode violently in flames."

[The_JJ]

In the room is a semi circle of eight seats, with desks and tabletop hologram projectors and interfaces, facing a desk and a podium, with another desk set off left and a larger hologram projector to the right. Behind each of the eight seats there is an area for entourages and bodyguards to sit. Already four figures, still wearing their rain wet black coats, sit high above the staging area. From what can be seen they display heavy tech mods built around their brow-lines, cheeks, jawbones, and knuckles, basically anywhere bone is close to the surface. It's ostentatious and a little inefficient with today's tech the way it is. Either their gear was bought cheap, highly customized, or for cosmetic purposes.

The man in the rumpled suit walks up to the large projector tests it, then nods, satisfied, and goes to sit by the desk in the middle. Sitting at that desk inside the semicircle is your Executor, a distinguished looking man. His military cut hair is going white, especially in the temples, and he sits with his eyes fixed on the air a few feet in front of his eyes. As you enter the room he taps the desk's top, and makes his way to the podium.

To all with Psi 2+ ONLY
There's some weirdness going on with the Executor's black suited bodyguards and woman in the black business suit is a blank- a special kind of mod reserved for those with no psionic talent, or criminally dangerous psions. A blank can't use any psionic powers, but their minds can not be read or detected nor their emotions manipulated by mindcrackers.

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga takes one of the seats at random. He sits down and waits for the Executor to begin.


Char on the other hand heads directly for the other mods. Char takes a seat near them and stares at them with clear curiosity.

[Exthalion]

Michael and four others take a seat midway between the Executor and the door they entered. The other two are a dark haired and eyed woman and another with curly red tresses. Both are similarly dressed, but you are fairly certain they didn't walk in with him. They could always have been in the room already...

[Murska]

Lin sits at the extreme right-side seat, Kev and Nath taking their places behind her. She looks relaxed, taking a comfortable position and looking around the room curiously while waiting for everyone to get ready.

Nath is paying careful attention to the actions of the Executor and his people, while Kev is looking around the room carefully, trying to memorize the layout. They're both quite nervous, though it doesn't really show much.

[Odin the Ignoble]

As Teddy moves to take his seat, one of his pet psions grabs a hold of his shirt sleeve and whispers something in his ear, gesturing to one of the executor's people. The fat man nods jiggling his chins in the process.

I assumed that if I had a psion bodyguard in the group that I'd be able to open the spoiler. If I was wrong, let me know.


Teddy and his entourage file into a row of seats, and wait for the presentation to begin. The rotund business man checks his watch and shifts in his seat, trying to get comfortable for what he assumes will be a lengthy presentation.

[Odin the Ignoble]

As Teddy moves to take his seat, one of his pet psions grabs a hold of his shirt sleeve and whispers something in his ear, gesturing to one of the executor's people. The fat man nods jiggling his chins in the process.

I assumed that if I had a psion bodyguard in the group that I'd be able to open the spoiler. If I was wrong, let me know.


Teddy and his entourage file into a row of seats, and wait for the presentation to begin. The rotund business man checks his watch and shifts in his seat, trying to get comfortable for what he assumes will be a lengthy presentation.

[Greystone]

Rimiz is sitting slightly to the right, with his men at attention behind him.

[Bahumat]

Ian and Hando move towards the second-rightmost chair, while the two guards (Jake Fuller and Akiza Kanzaki) stand further back, closer to the wall.

[RationalGoblin]

Utilitarian as always, Tiberian sits simply wherever there is free space, with his guards standing closely behind. He looks at the modded fellows while he waits for the presentation. The intelligent Roman thinks deeply on why the four figures would be modded so.

They don't have cosmetic mods; the Executor himself has none, and indeed, he has shown no display of wealth otherwise. But on the other hand, with his other precautions, he clearly isn't cheap.

Playing the defensive angle... Most guards wouldn't be so heavily modded, except for those guarding against a heavy threat. This building is presumably sufficiently secret, and off the grid of any spy network, so the mods cannot be of secrecy. The secrecy of this place precludes defenses against city-destroying threats, like nukes or the biggest missiles. Presumably, any secret building has defenses against minor attacks. So it can't be conventional warfare defense.

So there's only one possibility left.

Continued thoughts in spoiler GM ONLY
It can only be Defense from the minds of others. Psionics. These men are Blanks.

OOC: Just showing off Tiberian's tactical mind; I made the same connection. And it's correct, no?

[The_JJ]

@ Gobbo:
1d20+ Intuition + Tactics/2= 1d20+8

Now, I'm not going to tell you exactly what you rolled, just what kind of bonus you're looking at, so you can gauge what kind of information you're getting.

You're thinking it's a good idea, but a lot of blank surgery these days are more subtle. They could be linked anti-psi field generators, but they remind you a little more like some of the real hard core Spec-Ops guys you know, and their obsession with multitools, and little hidden gadgets, so they could always be prepared for any eventuality. They guys with SMG's in their glove boxes, knifes strapped to every limb, spare batteries and duct tape every where, flare guns and radios and 10 weeks rations on them at all times.

[Exthalion]

"Shall we begin then?"

[The_JJ]

"Quite. You all may or may not know me, but I am Hanse Aquila, currently your Executor." The Executor nods at the man in the rumpled clothes. "This here is Tobias Nielsson, our IT man and Secretary to the Conclave." Tobias waves. "And back there", the Executor points at the woman in the bussiness suit, "Is Taguchi Allison. Family name first. Allison is our liaison from the Aratasan planetary government-"

"A very unofficial position, you understand."

The Executor nods. "Quite. On to the matter of protocol. You came here under these conditions. Majority rules, given the lack of membership, abstaining or absent votes will not be counted, but a minimum of three voting parties will be required for any descision. Failure to comply with Conclave directives on your part or the part of the groups you claim to represent will result in punishment ranging from censure to the seizure of assets, betrayal of this Conclave to the agents of Han or outside sources not cleared by vote by this chamber shall be punishable by execution following trial before the living members of this Conclave, or summary execution in times of crisis. I myself may be removed from the position of Executor at anytime by vote of no confidence by simple majority of the full Chamber, and will step down as soon as a suitable replacement has been selected by a full majority of the full Chamber.

"On the desks before you the upper right most panel has been reserved for our motion and voting system. To start a motion, simply enter it into the panel there. To vote aye or nay, scroll through the list and check either box. There will be no amendment process, nor a process for withdrawing a motion, if you wish to change a motion, submit the updated version as it's own motion. You may, at anytime before I or the Secretary call a close to the session, change your vote.

"Speaking may only be done at the podium. There is no hard time limit to your speeches here, but as there are eight or you here and voting can continue on regardless, I will ask you to not even attempt any Parliamentary trickery you may have picked up from the historical ractives.

"I will bring up any conflicting legislature for a flash vote. During a flash vote, no other business may be discussed.

"Now, I realize the representative model of governance in long dead in many areas of this tyranny, so I shall demonstrate how one might propose a motion."

Your desks flash and text, in your delegates preferred language, begins to scroll as the Executor reads aloud.

Proposed: The First Motion of the Conclave.

Given that the rule of Shona Han has long since become one of odious oppression, nepotist tyranny, widespread corruption, extralegal abuses of power, and constant violations of basic human rights, it is hereby proposed that the members of the Shadow Conclave devote themselves to the overthrow of House Han by any means, to replace the structure of it's system with a more wholesome alternative, and to try before judge or jury any criminals of the highest degree within that system.

"Executor Aquila cedes the floor."

[Murska]

Liathin looks around for a moment, smiling slightly. So... formal.

With a slight shrug, she fiddles with the panel for a moment. After seeing nobody else step up in that time, she stands, heading to the podium.

"Greetings. I am Liathinel de Elsath, or the Sensei, Commander of the Solid Flame.

The first proposal is a good confirmation for what we're here for. But I believe we should talk about what we can do about the situation. As you all well know, there are three ways for a revolution to succeed - through the government, through the army or through the people. Most likely, we will eventually need help from all three. The high Government is out of our reach at the moment, though its smaller units may be prone to discontent - something we will need to investigate. The Army is both quite loyal-"

At this point Nath glances at her and grins.

"-and supervised quite thoroughly for signs of major insubordination. In a system of governance such as Han's, the Army is the real power she will have to keep on her side and she knows that. Planetary militias and such are another matter entirely, however.

I believe at first we should turn our attention to the people. There are plenty of those unhappy with the current system even if they aren't organized or trustworthy enough to join our ranks. We should begin by attempting to network these people together, in a true cell-structure to avoid compromising the system. When we are numerous and well-organized, we will have much more opportunities to act in a meaningful way. I'm sure right now there are thousands of plots of varying competency against Han out there, most with very little chance of success. If we can channel the discontent of the people into one purpose, we will see real results.

Multiple chains of command will lead to disorder amongst ourselves. While none of us may be willing to let go of our own organizations, we would do well to make sure that we work together towards the same goal, not separately against each other. To this end, we should each state the capabilities and resources we can give for the cause. I lead a fleet of mainly smaller ships, experienced in working together, skilled with guerrilla operations and with a good reputation on the Fringes. This reputation also brings with it a moderate intelligence network in that area. We can begin attempts to find and organize discontents in the Fringe areas. However, our financial situation isn't too great.

For now, we must avoid attracting too much attention. However, we will not get much done if people don't know of us and see us fighting. This is a dilemma we will need to solve eventually. I personally believe that for now we should keep a low profile until we are more secure.

(Proposed: The Second Motion)

Therefore, I propose that, as far as our capabilities reach, we begin searching for and organizing those who are also discontent with the rule of Han. The groups do not need to know who exactly they are working for, and they shouldn't know enough to be able to compromize us, but they will be a large help in gathering information and providing us with resources and personnel for further tasks.

Thank you."

Liathin joins her hands in front of her and bows slightly before stepping down and returning to her seat.

Votes:
Aye for the First Proposal.
Aye for the second one, too.

[Exthalion]

Michael is the next to take the podium.

"Before we begin making any concrete plans we must consider the possibility that we are victorious. I know that this may seem an improper junction, but please here me out.

We are fighting a powerful and oppressive regime. Right now we, and most rebel groups or sentiments define ourselves as the opposition to the Han.

However, history shows that such a system is not stable. If we win, there will no longer be any unifying element. As such, we must be a true movement, not simply an opposition. We must be certain that when House Han is overthrown something or someone as bad or worse does not replace them.

I propose we do this now, before we begin making plans because it must be done. If we wait until the hour of triumph it may be too late to shape the future we hope for. I propose that we each, in addition to our capabilities, state what it is we wish to see in a world in which we are victorious.

I am a representative of the Incanters. I am not certain what you may have heard of us, but we have much experience avoiding and outwitting the Han forces. We are not populous, but we are, speaking with all humility, one of the most knowledgeable and intelligent groups in the Terragen sphere.

It is our hope that in the new world we of this council build that we will no longer be oppressed simply for our beliefs and practices.

As a final note, I must suggest that the cells we form still be controllable should the time come that we require concerted effort. It will not do to have insurrectionist paramilitary elements lingering after the revolution.

Representative Redmond cedes the floor."

First Proposal: Aye
Second Proposal: Aye

[Greystone]

Rimiz stands and takes the stand. He takes a deep breath "Hello fellow representatives. You may know me as the Pirate Captain Odysseus. This isn't exactly true. My real name is Admiral John Rimiz, and the Crimson Corsairs are defectors from Han's regime.

I share this with you, because if we are not open and honest about at least our identities, then we will get nowhere. I agree with Representative Redmond that we must form a plan for a new government when this war is over.

My men and women are willing to die for your cause. "

He nods, and sits.

x2 ayes

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian is the fifth to make a speech, raising some eyebrows from his own guards, who knew him to be a silent man.

"I will not waste words. I am Praetor Tiberian Aquila, no relation to the Executor. I used to command a network of rebels reaching from Phobos to nearly the Fringe itself. I tried to fight the False Empress alone. That was a mistake. My freedom fighters were devastated; the troops who survived are more suited to espionage than open warfare.

My experience counted for nothing. My resources counted for nothing. My preperations counted for NOTHING.

I intend to build back up the Free Legion, but now I understand. We cannot stand apart; we will die. We cannot squabble; we will die. We cannot go in guns blazing, without any support; we will die.

We unite; or die and be as nothing to the Empire of Han. My soldiers are yours; we will live for you and die for you. Use us well."

He sweeps over those gathered there with his eyes, giving each person a cold, but solid look, and sits.


First Proposal: Aye
Second Proposal: Aye

[Forum Explorer]

After listening to what most of the people had to say Dadga stood up to throw in his two cents.

I doubt that any of us is lacking in commitment to this shared cause. Afterall Han doesn't seem to be a forgiving individual and even associating with this council is likely to be a death sentence if she finds out. Yet we all showed up here anyways. Personally the Wracks are commited to this cause because its the only way we will eventrually be seen as something other than a weapon of war.

I agree that we should begin planning the new goverment now. Not only could it save us from chaos and infighting later but it will allow us to present a clear plan to possible allies and new recruits making it clear what exactly we are trying to accomplish.

Finally I also concur on the idea that our first step should be to seek out additional allies and resources. Right now we are vulnerable. We need to be more entrenched so that we won't be risking everything every time we confront Han's forces.



Aye to the first
Aye to the secound

[The_JJ]

Mr. Nielsson clears his throat and approaches the podium. "I think that should be about it for today folks. Anyone who hasn't spoken yet can have one final word, then we'll take our last votes."

[The_JJ]

Very well.

Tobias taps the central podium.

Final Vote:
The First Motion of the Conclave: Passed, 5/5
The Second Motion: Passed 5/5

Good night everyone. Leave in staggered rolls, watch your back, follow the security protocols. We'll meet here again in a week.


You guys can RP until Saturday.

Grey, I nominate you speaker of the house, PM the no shows.

[Murska]

Lin stretches and stands. "Whew. Anyone up for a drink?"

Her entourage gathers around her and they shuffle out of the room along with everyone else. "I suppose that went okay."

"Hm. I made few observations. Let's talk about them later."

[The_JJ]

There are quite a few bars scattered around the office tower you are working from.

The closest exclusively alcohol focused bar (as opposed to cyber or simstim bars) has no name, but is pretty well advertised by the big ground floor glass window looking in on a clean, uncluttered bar with a row of stools in front of it. To the left and right there are more discrete booths, that you can rent by the half-hour.

[Murska]

Bah! Discretion is for people with something to hide, like rebels or something. Lin and her friends are just a couple folks out for a fun night out.

So, they get some stools and order some drinks and chat about stuff. Nath brings out an actual piece of paper and a pencil and starts writing what looks like bad poetry but what he calls good lyrics.

After a while, Lin starts trying to sing some of the lines. She seems pretty good, though since there's no structure yet it does not sound like she's singing a real song. Nath taps a rythm on the table, while Kev just smiles, amused.

[Exthalion]

The Incanters left as a group but quickly dispersed. Hyun left to find a local dojo that allowed walkins and Morgan walked into the same bar as Lin and her friends and not so much as deign to notice them. It didn't take long before she had a man on either side of her buying drinks. Pleasant as it might be, this was about getting a pulse on local happenings, and perhaps some insider business secrets if you were lucky.

Fran looked up the nearest military museum. She wondered what light HAI 3842-PX695 v.11 Military Tactics Construct's defection had been cast in. But then Boudica has always had a knack for being misinterpreted.

Eric and Michael stayed together and went looking for one of the public lectures some of the local universities were famous for. Particularly the ones that had a real discussion period at the end as opposed to the usual Q&A.

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga Mor stayed at his desk using the computer to look up key locations on the planet such as universities, hosptials, scince faciluties, goverment centers and such. He also began looking for famous doctors and professors who are currently on this planet, and updating his own knowledge with theirs. He also takes a quick look at current events throughout the empire.

Char on the other hand decided to wander out into the streets. Avoiding attention as much as possible Char heads towards the poorer parts of town.

[The_JJ]

Dagda stays at his desk, as Tobias sticks nearby to fiddle with the projector and the Executor sits at his desk, occasionally calling Tobias over to talk about communications, information storage, order of command, and dossiers. Mrs. Taguchi shuffles a few papers together and leaves quickly.

Dadga:
You overhear the code words "Glass Castle," "Messenger," and "Tea Shop."

A few at the bar express an interest in socializing with the smiling singing group. The men either side Morgan seem to know each other and a few probing questions send them off into their own little debate that wends it's way from municipal politics to office talk, to the dynamics of their own personal circle.
Few notice the woman in the business suit who sat down at the end of the bar to sip at a martini. She nods politely at the representatives as she passes.

Hyun finds an open dojo after a little probing, and the sensei welcomes him in. After a few testing bouts Hyun is tasked with supervising a few mid-level belts working on their sweeps, take downs, and grappling, while the sensei runs some young students through their first katas.

Fran finds no real museums, but Eric and Micheal take her along to the University satellite they're visiting. Its public access library node connects to the University's main databanks. Their's little new about Boudica's betrayal. It remains a minor footnote in the Purge. The defection of a single experimental unit doesn't compare to a narrative dominated by the action's on Luna and the Martian moons. There's a rather interesting thesis buried in the Uni archives explaining that clearly the AI was suborned by still fighting Japanese guerrilla's sympathetic to the AI cause or possibly gaining revenge for the dismantling of the Japanese C-space gestalt. There's another paper calmly dismantling this thesis, pointing out the well documented end of the guerrilla's and regardless the noticeable lack of the required technical skills among the 'flyboys' that had spearheaded the resistance.

The nearest satellite, unfortunately for Eric and Micheal, is a more vocationally focused branch. Evidently the real best and brightest go to the Slowtown campus. Nevertheless there is one dogged humanities professor gamely attempting to explain to a crowd of soon to be programmers the ramifications of their chosen career path on society at large.

As Char wanders towards the poorer areas he finds the streets even more crowded. At first this helps him blend, but as he leaves the larger thoroughfares and the population becomes much less homogenous. In the more self-contained area's with less people stepping off the overheard rails or landing in aircar he begins to stand out as outsider. Each area seems to have it's own bands of young adults clustered on the streets who turn to eye the newcomer with curiosity.

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga just keeps working for now.
He does a quick search on the words "Glass Castle", "Messenger", and "Tea Shop" by themselves and in combination, as well as looking for alternate meanings.



Char keeps moving and eventrully heads into the alleys that contain those too weak, too poor, or those who are hiding. Basically those at the absolute rock bottom and nothing left or are in hiding.

[Exthalion]

Morgan of course noticed the woman walking in. She had memorized the faces of everyone in here and could done a Holmesian analysis of them based on simple observable facts.

After carefully getting both her admirers drunks enough to pay her tab and not notice that she had left she made her way to another bar to repeat the pattern. Besides, a bigger sample size was more likely to produce low possibility results.

Fran, Eric, and Michael got into an animate debate with the Humanities professor, Michael taking first chair of course.

"So what your saying is that inherent software is replacing the human element in interactive culture? Yet with the obvious benefits its provides wouldn't it be more appropriate to say that it compliments the human element?"

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian simply stays in his desk, much like Dadga, and idly searches for any user reviews of the latest weaponry, historical reenancements of the battles of pre-Shona Earth, and philosophical essays by famous rebels of the past.

[The_JJ]

Morgan hits the bars, and soon has several salaraiman locked in deep conversation.

Morgan:
Rolling for cha 1d20+6+3 for the multiple attempts.

The town is hoppin'. Ecologist/terraformers are in high demand, money from the locally managed mines rolls in, the University is a huge draw from people across the Sector and the local entertainment/programming industries do good work. And of course around them forms a secondary core of consumers and suppliers. Han isn't mentioned much. There's little superstitious fear here, but for now her rule is distant and seen only through a series of intermediaries.


Well, sir... the professor peers over his glasses at you, then pushes them back up. He's a youngish man, identified as a professor more by the distinctive badge on his necklace than his age. I'm saying that the modern 'ractive has hopelessly obscured the human element in modern cultural works. You'll find no Luddite preaching here- this is hardly Zanzibar after all- but 'ractive scripts have evolved in a dangerous way. He waves a hand over the assembly. Many of my students here will soon be localizing for Babylon Tower's and making a lot of money, or working for local companies for that nice feeling of self-respect. Or because they weren't good enough to make the 200K cut. There's some laughter in the crowd. 'Ractives offer the illusion of personally tailored stories, genuine interaction. But, in reality, if you look at the Babylon scripts, they're very tightly worked. Yes, you can pay triple for the Mo-Cap actors, but you're still operating in a very artificial piece.

And this works. The modern consumer is extremely predictable, far to content to play along with the same old plot structures.

* * *

As Char is making his way through a neighborhood one young woman, under the attention of a lanky youngin' very much underdressed for the weather, interrupts her suitor with a rap on the chest, then jerks her head at the interloper. The man lets out a short, sharp, whistle and says "Oi! Gaijin. Whatcha pokin' round 'ere den? Cho wan sell-ka? Cho wan buy-ka? Cho wan testo? Whacho wan? Cho wan bando-bitva mit da britva?" his compatriots titter and start to push themselves away from the wall. O' do ya no speak tha nu-nasdat? C'mon, we got dren'-to-fun-to-clop you wan' it. Khorosho desu, ne?

Char:
Rolling intuition. 1d20+6

No, you don't get to see your roll, but at least you know what your bonuses are.

Yeah, he's looking for a fight, but he's putting you through some kind of challenging process first.

Also rolling intelligence. 1d20+4

Cool. Look up Nadsat if you're confused.

Tiberian:
You overhear the code words "Glass Castle," "Messenger," and "Tea Shop."

Dagda:


Intelligence check. 1d20+9

Messenger turns up predictably broad and useless hits. There's a few ship classes called Messenger or something that would translate into Messenger. Most are courier ships or brands of private yachts. The House O'Terra Messenger class missile-boats being an ironic exception.

Glass castle doesn't turn up much except for some... interesting, if very niche sites. Very interesting.

Tea shop gets you a bunch of Tea Shops in the area.

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga shrugs not really having expected that to work. He then searches records and newsreels for information about local crime orginizations.

Char barely reacts merly turns slightly to his direction without remaining hidden in the hooded clothing. I am but a collector of the dead and the damned. Are you asking to join my harvest? Somehow Char manages to hit the perfect volume to be heard over the rain and still sound like a whisper. Char's tone is different then normal though. Unlike the normal shy and calm tone, it comes across as unnatrual and cold.

OOC
Lets see how brave these idiots are. Can Intuition be used for intemidate?

[The_JJ]

OOC, Forum Explorer:
More of a CHA or combat thing honestly.

The young man stops approaching, and tilts his head. His compatriots share confused glances. Cha droogs, checkit. Hey, moodge, you must be real gaijin desu-ne? We don' get that much these parts. Either they know what they be lookin' for, or else they got no reason to be pokin' by here. Cha, moodge, but I still don' get you neither though. Whacho wan'? You govoreet- uh, you talk like cho don' wan' drat -uh, fight- but cho also come here, an come here tough like. So wha? Sell-ka? Buy-ka? Sell-te buy-ka?

[Exthalion]

"You openly admit they pass the Turing test yet you still draw a sharp distinction between them and people. But that is a point for the metaphysicist.

There is a leap, which might be difficult, which I think would cause most of these problems to dissolve.

As any of the programmers here could tell you; truly advanced code, of the sort we are talking about, reveal a sort of signature which could be used to identify the programmer. Given a sufficiently long piece of code these defining elements will increase in number.

Similarly, the output is subtly altered by the nature of its coding. Thus, the reactive algorithms are not soulless code, they are extensions of their programmers.

These illusory stories are, in this light, a conversation between the programmer and the user. Though the creator is not privy to these interactions, it can be considered a sort of intellectual propagation, a sort of memetic procreation."

[Forum Explorer]

What I'm looking for? Those who have nothing but their souls to their name. I have an offer for such people.

[The_JJ]

I'm saying that the Turing test has become to easy to pass. The Han dictates dropped Turing as far to subjective years ago, I'm inclined to agree. A 'ractive program is barely more than a shell of if then's, most 'ractive actors hardly have to make any real decisions at all. Just stand up, say their lines when prompted and sit down. Although I agree with you that their is great potential for artistry within the coding of a proper 'ractive, I would argue that the best uses the medium properly mediates connection between the 'ractive actors and the consumers. I would cite Ilse and the Train. Which I do hope you all 'racted. I reserved the Sixth Troupe for you guys, they're quite good 'ractors...

* * *

Charlie then? The lead man starts guffawing and his cohorts follow. Charlie Bogman! Cho got a weird Bog 'der Mr. 'Harvester.' Interessovat, ne? Go sell you raskazz elsewhere mooge. You got no buyer here.

[Forum Explorer]

OOC
Alright you lost me this time. What on earth is a Charlie Bogman? or a raskazz? or a Bog? wow the internet has a glossery for Clockwork orange words. That's kinda scary.

Faith in God? I offer the opposite. But it matters not to such as you. What I offer is costly, and too bitter for most.

[The_JJ]

Cha... he tilts his head again, Cha... so cho be sellin' koohii?

[Forum Explorer]

In the end selling and buying. But really they are one and the same in this deal.

[The_JJ]

... cha man. Cool?

"C'mon Anton. No khorosho today." Anton's girl grabs his arm and starts dragging him down the street. "I wanna get some soba before practice. See you later Charlie-san!" She waves cheerily, and the crew shrugs, adds a chorus of sayonaras, and saunters after their leader his boss, eagerly chattering.

Unless you want some soba, Charlie-san.

[Forum Explorer]

Char declines and continues the search for those at rock bottom.

[Murska]

Lin accepts anyone who wants to have fun, of course. Chatting with people, drinking moderately and laughing a lot.

The song starts to get some form, too. Pity there aren't any instruments here...

[The_JJ]

Char wanders further off the beaten path. Actual destitution and despair is rare but as he leaves the main lines of transport the communities become more insular. Some are filled to the brim with the seedy neon glow of brothels and bars offering various ways to shut out the real world. Others, more residential, are populated primarily by the street gangs. Few are so friendly as the last, staring down the gaijin or making direct challenges demands to leave or face violence. Some call out offers to sell... incomprehensible slang. Other's call out to see what 'sweeties' the stranger has to sell.

@Those looking into Aratasan.
In someways, Aratasan and many of the colonies have passed abject poverty. Genemod agriculture in tight spaces was long since perfected on the Ring stations and Colony Space stations. Food, bland but nutritious, is a fairly trivial problem on actual terra firma, and often provided for free by the planetary government, a holdover from the days when Aratasan was a Ring colony orbiting around a still lifeless planet. Even non-bland 'real' food is not a huge luxury. Likewise, land and, just as important, construction is as simple acquiring a permit on the edge of the city, some raw materials, some industrial nanobots, and a template program. Even if all the potential slumlords clubbed together to raise rent's to exploitative highs, it would be possible for the poor to band together and set up a rough co-op to live in. Nanobot fabrication has likewise made things like clothing fairly easy to acquire virtually free.

In short, though actual hand made (or even factory made) products are more desirable, it is quite possible for the poorest of the poor to eat free, live in their own room cheaply, and cloth himself. This is not to say that nanobots have eliminated the problem of unemployment-quite the opposite- nor that all planets are like Aratasan.

Rock bottom here are the street gangs of kids with long stares and razors, the wrecks in the c-bars trapped in chemical hazes and cyber dreams. Rock bottom here is the places with less access to the dynamic center of the city.


It's a bar in a city primarily influenced by Japanese culture. That offers rooms to rent. Someone rents out the largest of the rooms, someone else rents a holoprojector and a karaoke program, everyone else assures the two they need not buy drinks for the rest of the night. Allison smiles and stands up to leave as the doors to the room are flung open and a small crowd streams in to have some fun with the nice gaijin tourists.

[Murska]

Kev tags along with the crowd, chatting with people and keeping an eye on the situation to avoid any nasty surprises. Meanwhile Lin decides that she's inebriated enough to sing publically. That's a good thing - she's a great singer with a beautiful and well-trained voice. Nath can also sing a bit, but he's really a guitarist with a good sense of rythm. Anyone else who wants to try gets their turn, of course - if the karaoke program is modifiable they'll add the new song to it to try and hone the lyrics at some point.

Having fun is the idea. While Lin's the center of attention, Nath tries to get to know the people around a bit.

[Exthalion]

JJ
Would you mind explaining that last part?

Or more specifically 'reactive actors' and all of 'I would cite Ilse and the Train. Which I do hope you all 'racted. I reserved the Sixth Troupe for you guys, they're quite good 'ractors...'

[The_JJ]

Some one does start fiddling with the machine but it's really meant to play prerecorded songs.

Nath finds most people here are white collar, 'upper middle class.' Programmers, managers, marketing types. This district is apparently primarily a software industry base. Some of them seem semi-regulars at the bar, and know each other that way.

Exthalion/those wondering about 'ractives.
'Ractive's are sort of video games, sort of holodecks, sort of movies. 'Ractor actors are human actors at the other end of the line, playing the 'NPC's.' The 'low brow' 'ractives the professor is railing against barely provide any freedom. The scripts are designed to keep all but the most determinedly disruptive on track, and all the real actors on the other end of the equation just read their lines, go through the form of actual reaction. His argument is that this is a waste of the medium, and that the best 'ractives are designed to be collaborative efforts between 'ractor and the 'reactive actors, or even multiple 'ractors. There are dissenting opinions. Many script writers take pride in their ability to plan for contingencies, and not leave the 'ractor's experience to the whims of fickle actors who might not properly interpret their artistic vision by going off script. Many programmers take pride in their ability to plan for contingencies when programming the visual/tactile elements of the worlds to best react to sudden changes.

Ilse in the Train is a classic 'scenario' ractive that is supposed to feature 6 'ractors and 3 reactor actors. Though no Shakespearian masterpiece, it is considered a wonder of the 'collaborative effort' and 'unscripted art.' It's a murder mystery set on a train with randomly assigned characters and roles. Some one is the secret policeman, the murderer, the mod, and so on. Ilse is the female 'reactor actor role. It's said a well trained troupe running Ilse in the Train can take the same people playing the same role assignments over and over again and always make it interesting. It's also said that a 'ractor actor is only considered a master of his craft if she can properly play Ilse as the murderer.

Also, the professor is more or less trying to move the conversation along and deliberately bringing up a reactive adventure he's betting you haven't experienced. Unless you went through with that scenario with that particular troupe recently, he's likely right.

Also, ripped the whole 'ractive thing whole cloth from Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age.

[Murska]

While chatting, Nath tries to find out something about the local indie music scene. After all, the best way to get to know a new city is to go into local small-time concerts.

Lin takes a break from singing and heads into the crowd, hoping for a drink.

[Exthalion]

"I admit this will be a novel experience for me as well. Since a demonstration might well be a strong argument in your favor lets us proceed then."

[Exthalion]

"I admit this will be a novel experience for me as well. Since a demonstration might well be a strong argument in your favor lets us proceed then."

[Forum Explorer]

Char begins to head back, most of these people weren't suitable and would only cause problems to root out the good ones.

[The_JJ]

Probing about music reveals that rooftop dance clubs are currently all the rage, but a guy on the edge of the crowd picks up Nath's double meaning and drops a few band and venue names in between enthusiastic all bar choruses.

The professor nods. You really should experience it. An alarm goes off. So should the rest of you! I expect log reports on Monday. Not bug reports mind you, actual logs! As the class leaves he crooks a finger. I'll be in the 7 o' clock 'ractive tomorrow. There's an open slot, and if it doesn't get filled by a student they'll put out an offer to the public. Fun, but it's a bit hit and miss to run with strangers. He tosses you a chip. That has the log-on if you need it. hope to see you there.

Exthalion:
You:
Ilse: [roll1]
Prof: [roll2]

Re rolls if needed: [roll3] [roll4] [roll5]

When you log in you are told to close your eyes. When you wake up you find yourself on the Equatorial Rail leaving Aratasan and climbing over a vast forest. You can see the cliffs of the approaching plateau in the distance. The set has obviously been localized, an expensive, and quite impressive feat. Your attache case holds a sheaf of smart paper detailing mining operations in the 60-70 50-60 degree sector of Aratasan's surface. You pat your pockets and pull out a small communicator that has just buzzed in a new text from an interstellar relay.

Dear Sir,

It has come to our attention that the untimely deaths of Mrs. Smith Mr. Johnson were in fact no accidents. We fear that there is some power among the local monopolies that resent our entrance into the industry. We have contracted with a local protection agency to send a man to protect you on your journeys. I would recommend you leave the train immediately and seek to rendezvous with him.

Be safe.

Sincerely,

Mr. Jones, Company Security Officer.

As you fold the paper and put it away a quiet voice on the intercom announces that the brakes on the train have failed. It will not be able to stop until Midnight station, 5 hours away. You step outside your private coach to the common dining area for this section. 8 other guests mingle around. You catch the eye of the professor, dressed to travel, and note a tall blonde woman in gorgeous cocktail dress laughing with a short, stout man already halfway through a pint and jolly drunk.

You have draw the role of the Target. Your objective is to Stay Alive. One of the other eight players is the Killer, and another is the Bodyguard. Good luck.


Roll any checks you think would be appropriate to a murder mystery situation. Toss on any bonuses/synergy you think would be appropriate but roll blanks (e.g. just plain [roll]1d20)

Char disentangles himself from the district with no trouble.

[Murska]

"Whew." Lin catches Nath's arm, smiling and a bit out of breath, "Hey, the people here are awesome."

"Yeah." He nods. "I caught a few tips on the local UG bands, you think we should make the trip?"

Her eyes brighten. "Oooh! Great idea!"

After extracting themselves from the crowd and fetching Kev from near the door, they bid the crowd farewell and head out to try and find a concert.

[The_JJ]

You all find a fun little basement venue, with a pretty diverse bunch of bands playing short sets. Some improv electronica DJ is on when you slip in, has the whole place jumping and bumping, then works the crowd down. He gets a good send off with much cheering. ("Mad dubstep, man. Suupaa dirty.") Next on is a string quartet that comes out playing surprisingly fast, and, in a flash of blinding stage pyrotechnics, busts out electric versions of their instruments. ("Whhaaa! Mindblower man.") Then comes a three man proto-rock band: bass, drums, guitar, with all three thrashing out vocals. ("ROCK IT! Woo!") The penultimate group had a longer set with a group that swings its way from blues to bluegrass to jazz to a neat rock tune. ("Yes, that was really quite impressive. These guys could make a name for themselves.")

Then, at the end of the night the DJ from the very beginning shows up, sets his table spinning, then grabs a mike. For the first time that night, the holoprojector fires up.

This is what happens. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLUX0y4EptA)


Start Turn 2:

Incanters:


Most interestingly, you've heard some whispers about an impeding revolt on the part of House Basudan. It's mostly just rumors though, and most of your analysts ant confirmation.

Crimson Corsairs.
Your intel network has set up a few paid informers on Aratasan and has a few people watching the comings and goings in the ports

More interestingly, one of your agents got really lucky and thinks he's got solid evidence that House Basudan is planning to revolt in less than three months (~3 sessions).

Hagane Heavy Industries:

Your espionage has turned up some data on the equipment levels of the Aratasan Planetary Militia.

More interestingly, one of your agents has very solid evidence that House Basudan is planning to revolt in less than three months (~3 sessions).

Your warchest grows by one point.

The Eternity Cabal

One of your agents on Terra has forwarded some insider knowledge he found on the Terran Stock Exchange. Another agent found a similar cache of knowledge in Aratasan. Best of all, you've found a high up in the Aratasan government who's a revolutionary sympathizer- and has posted a few positive things about the Council via anonymous cybernet handles.


Solid Flame

One of you agents has returned from a 'sightseeing' expedition' with the Basudan military. He brought some ship schematics and had to detour through Terran space, and managed to grab some civilian shipping manifestos.

Also, you've found a Han sympathizer in the Aratasan Planetary Government who might (might) be well placed enough to know that the Conclave is meeting on the planet with the Governor's tacit approval.


The Wracks

Your random data mining has allowed you to puzzle out some facts about both the Sector's economy and some of the corporate machinations in House Basudan space.

Best of all an agent has returned from Terran space with some low down on base locations and garrison strengths.

The Free Legion
It seems your intel corp has been positively inspired recently.

First, you've got an agent in Terran space keeping tabs on imports and exports. Not much but something.

You've also gotten a contact in House Tessier. Better yet, you've also found a reliable (if loyal only to money) contact in Han's House staff. He's pricey, but reliable, and has been selling secrets to House Basudan for far to long now to go tattling without ending with his own head on a pike. Good thing you got to him through intermediaries then. :smallamused: This contact is also hinting that he's got a hot tip that'll only be good if bought very quickly... but you don't have the cash on hand to pay for it.



Trade and Banking Union:
One of your affiliate (but not openly revolutionary) branches is, quite by chance, looking into opening up a mining operation on Aratasan. Your internal intel agents have nudged them in that direction, and they've run a feasibility survey so you've got a pretty good snapshot of the local economy.

Also, a rather good corporate espionage hacker (handle: Serial Velocity) has gone in the market and is offering to work for you for a modest retainer. Pay him? Y/N (1 point of econ now, may ask for more if you want an especially hard job done. You could also take him on full time as a consultant.)

Oh, and your warchest grows by one point.

A week later the Conclave reconvenes. The area's been cleaned up a bit, the projector's wiring has been tucked away, and the 'lobby's' refrigerator restocked, and a few tables added in.

Hanse Aquila is waiting at his desk and smiles as each representative enters. As the clock on his desk hits the 0900 local mark he goes to the podium. "Quorum reached. Not much to report today. We've made efforts to start cells across the areas. The Conclave proper is short on agents and funds, but we've put boots on the ground on many planets, hunting for local dissenters."

Revolution Stats, Turn 2:

Outer Colonies Discontent: 30
Terra Discontent: 5

Conclave Legitimacy: 17
Conclave Military: 1
Conclave Warchest: 4
Conclave Upkeep: -2

-1 (Leasing HQ, sundry expenses, salaries for vital personnel)
-1 (Second Motion. BTW, pithy descriptive names will be helpful.)

Security: 17

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian walks up to the podium and clears his throat uncomfortably, unaccustomed to being the first to speak.

"I have found a contact in Han's House staff. Reliable but pricey; loyal to money alone. Sold secrets to House Basudan; has a tip even more pricey then he is. I can't afford it. The Council can.

I also have an agent in Terran space keeping track of imports and exports. That could be useful.

I do not have any proposals at this time, but simply give the Council what options I have discovered."

Tiberian sits down again.

[Forum Explorer]

That's good to know. Still I'm not sure we could act on any secrets we bought at this time. Similarly I managed to discover some locations and strengths of military bases. Unfortanatly attacking those would attract too much attention at this time.

Dadga says before returning to his seat.

[Murska]

"My people found out about a possible threat to the Conclave. In the Aratasan government, there's this one named Sharuma Yuki, die-hard Han sympathizer. We want to make sure she doesn't find out anything about these meetings.

I believe the next problem to tackle will be gathering proper funding for our operations. From what I know of some of our friends present here, that shouldn't be too difficult to handle, at least for now."

[Exthalion]

"Perhaps more pressing is the impending rebellion of House Basudan. What do we intend to do about this? I am fairly certain many of you have heard whispers at least.

Are we ready for so public an event? Or should we attempt to use our influence to delay until we can more fully take advantage of the situation?"

JJ
OOC: I know I don't know for certain, so I phrased things in such a way that if it is known to be false, then I could have meant should we push for it.

[The_JJ]

Ex:
Cool.

BTW, check the bottom of the last page.

[Bahumat]

"My intelligence hasn't turned up much beyond what's been discussed, unfortunately."

He steepled his hands as he looked over the table to the others.

[Murska]

"Basudan rebellion against Han..."

Liathin crosses her hands and crackles her neck before continuing.

"They'll be crushed. Maybe not right away, but eventually. There's not enough groundwork done. Unless there's something I'm not seeing, there is no way Han will not win.

We will need to be certain that we benefit. We should act as a safe haven to those of the rebels who will eventually be forced to flee. We should take as much from both sides as possible to strengthen ourselves. We should not act too openly against Han, but instead support the rebels in other ways, if possible still making ourselves known and heard throughout. And the most important thing is that this rebellion must not be allowed to serve as an example in benefit of Han. We don't want people to think that the rebels couldn't have won. That would undermine our own efforts greatly.

However, this will provide us with much more freedom to act as the attention of Han will be drawn to the open battles. As long as we don't yet cross the line where she has to act against us, we can quite possibly perform more daring operations."

She takes a sip of water, relaxing her posture slightly and turning back to the representatives present.

"In more practical matters, we need the financial support of the Hagane Industries and the Trade and Banking Union to get things done. Some of us are here to find out information, some of us are here to fight and you, my good sirs, are here to provide the rest of us with the means to do so."

I would like to propose two motions.

Third Motion - The Cash Act
Firstly, that we form a pool out of the financial liquid assets of everyone in the group to fund our joint operations. The capabilities of our various factions to support our goals economically need to be detailed here, and then we will decide the exact amounts and forms of transactions. Without money, we don't have ships, people or the capabilities to do any serious damage.

Fourth Motion - Operation Fortitude
We need to secure our position on Aratasan. To this end we need to make sure Sharuma Yuki doesn't report to Han of our presence, nor does any other agent. Find out exactly who knows, make sure that nobody else finds out and make sure the ones who do won't talk. Eventually we will be found out, but now it's way too early.

[RationalGoblin]

"Liathan's words are speaking what we're all thinking. Basudan will fall, but that doesn't mean we can't benefit from it's rebellion. We need to be ready for it, however."

Tiberian clasps his hands together before continuing.

"We need an ally who can benefit from House Basudan's rebellion and destruction. The most useful ally for now would be one that present on this planet, and so could turn a blind eye to our efforts here as a favor for enriching them with the fall of Basudan. House Tessier fits the bill; and my Free Legion has a contact within their ranks.

He strides up to the podium.

Thus, I propose we expand our influence with Tessier, and remove resources from Basudan to benefit them, and thus the Council."

I am proposing one motion.

Fifth Motion: Operation Transfer
Firstly, that we put some of our gathering capabilities on standby, to be ready to scavenge as much resources from the rebellion of House Basudan when it fails. Secondly, that through my contacts in House Tessier, we award the majority of the scavenged resources to elements within the house that would become friendly to us.


Voting

Aye on Motion Three and Four, and of course Five.

[Exthalion]

"I think we are getting a little too caught up in our scheming. We must consider the socio-cultural situation. When this rebellion fails, it may well damage the revolutionary spirit of the general populace.

I propose we begin exerting our propaganda and media resources such that when they fall it is cast as a heroic fall, not a crushing of insects, though that comparison is more apt. With any luck we may be able to turn this into greater unrest and so align the people behind our agenda.

However, there is an issue which is more troublesome, our lack of funding. I agree with motion three, but I do not believe it will be sufficient. Have we considered infiltrating local government and, what is the phrase?, skimming off the top?"

[RationalGoblin]

"Good point. I've been used to grandiose plots and schemes from my Legionnaires, and didn't think of simply lionizing House Basudan. Strike my proposal from voting; I think we should focus on propaganda and subverting the planet's government instead.

Let's be subtle about it though."

[Exthalion]

"Agreed, if we are lucky we get a martyr and a rallying cry all at once. Lets make certain that once they fall our agents will be waiting to pick up the peaces.

I am not familiar with local politics, but might this require collaboration with Han? That may be dangerous."

Motion Six: Sharpening of Long Knives
Begin infiltrating and subverting the planetary government in a subtle manner with the eventual aim of total control of planetary affairs and financial stability for the Shadow Council.

All care will be taken to prevent detection.

[Forum Explorer]

Basudan has not rebelled yet. If we can keep them from outright rebellion we may gain a useful ally while keeping Han's attention focused on one spot. If we could turn them to our cause Basudan would make for a good 'public' face allowing us to spread our influence from the shadows.

Inflitrating the local goverment would be overall detremental to our cause. However the idea is a good one. We should aim for other systems goverments instead and leave our impact here to a minimum.

Votes

Abstain to the Third
Yes to the Fourth
abstain to the Fifth
No to the Sixth

[RationalGoblin]

Further vote

Yes/Aye to Six

[Bahumat]

"While I am willing to bring resources to bear in order to advance our aims, I do not believe that pooling those resources and divvying them out will be useful at this point.

I do understand that the non-commercial contributors here will need our resources. But I will not allow any act that forces us to give up control of deployment of our own assets. For now, your act forces us to divulge exact amounts of how much we have available. I would prefer to only give out such information during the planning for an operation."

Votes
No to the Third
Yes to the Fourth
Yes to the Fifth
No to the Sixth

[Murska]

Votes:

Yes to Third
Yes to Fourth
No to Fifth
No to Sixth

[The_JJ]

Alright, I'm closing to new motions. One last speech from everyone and then we'll tally the votes.

[Murska]

Lin leans back in her seat, looking through the faces of those present. She had no intention to make an ending speech currently, as everything had gone roughly as expected. Well, not quite as expected before she arrived, but those were details. She smiled anyway.

It appeared as though nobody else was getting ready to speak, either. Perhaps this meeting would not drag.

[Odin the Ignoble]

Emanuel leans over to Teddy and whispers, "Don't you think we should, I don't know vote? Or make a speech? Or something?"

Teddy whispers back. "I agree, I just wanted to get a feel for things before doing anything."

Teddy heaves himself from his seat and addresses the rest of the council.
"The Trade and Banking Union votes no. On Prop 3." He pauses a second before continuing.

"At this point it's irresponsible to ask member to contribute to the war chest when we have yet to propose anything even resembling a budget.

Before we spend we need to do a thorough analysis of the income we we can expect, and what expenditure have been presented so far. If the revolution is going to continue for some time we'll need to make sure that we don't drive ourselves to bankruptcy.

I want everyone to re-evaluate their positions on the so called "Cash Act." I also want to stress that the reason T&BU is opposing this movement is because of concern for fiscal policy, not some tight waded penny pinching. The T&BU is willing to cover all current expenses until a more reasonable fiscal policy can be established. "

He takes a breath before continuing again. "I think the that the T&BU and Hagane Industries should work together an propose some more responsible propositions. I'm sure that we can come with something by the next session."

The fat man bows. "Thank you."

"Oh! I nearly forgot." Theodosius types something into the pad in front of him. "The T&BU has gotten in depth information about the economy of Aratasan. We are uploading the information now for anyone who cares to read it."

@JJ

"Serial Veloctiy" is put on retainer. But not given any jobs until we do as through a job of vetting him as we can.

The T&BU uses the information on the economy to look for any other lucrative prospects. If there are any Teddy uses his personal wealth to scrounge up investors and set up shop on the planet as well. Hopefully the profits will help pay for the growing expenses of the Revolution.


To Hagane Heavy industries

Can you believe prop 3? It's like they think of us as nothing more then cash cows, as if we have nothing to actually offer the revolution.

We'd like to do a joint endeavor to see what the actual cash flow of the various revolutionary factions is. That way we can present a budget that is balanced. I'd rather not have to start borrowing money before we even have enough forces to have an open rebellion.

[Forum Explorer]

I would just like to urge you once again to reconsider proposal six. It is needlessly reckless when we can do the same on other worlds that do not contain our headquarters. Best to keep our impact on this world to a minimal until we are ready to reveal ourselves.

[Bahumat]

"Seconded. Keeping ourselves concealed for now is our best bet."

@ T&BU
Agreed. While I personally am not fond of you organisation as a whole, and I recall you have a similiar personal opinion of me, we should work out a reasonable budget for contribution. After all, we will need to have a reasonable backup supply for emergencies.

[Exthalion]

"And when House Basudan revolts? If we do not prevent this, we will lose a valuable ally and bring the attention of Han to this system."

[Forum Explorer]

I agree that we should attempt to prevent an open revolt by House Basudan. Right now they would just serve as cannon fodder and may attract to much attention. Better if we could convince them to keep a lower profile.

[The_JJ]

The Cash Act has failed, in a 2 to 2 vote, and only because I was generous to Odin, though he did not Bold his vote in a spoiler.

Operation Fortitude will go forward, though who exactly Sharuma Yuki is remains an undiscussed mystery. To that end the Executor has been authorized to find out 'who knows,' to prevent further 'knowing' and to prevent 'talking.'

The Executor is also charged with preparing to accept refugees and material from any failed Basudan revolt, and that he might forward such as is recovered (and no more) to elements within House Tessier.

The Council has decided not to attempt to overthrow their planetary benefactors just yet.

Y'all have ~ until Monday to roleplay.


Hanse Aquila moves to the podium. "Votes tallied, Council adjourned." He crooks his finger at Lin. "A word with you if you'll please. Also, Mr. Vanderbilt, a word with you and Mr. Jackson as well, if you'd like to wait here a few minutes."


Spoiler:
You all receive, on your private Conclave channel, the following note:

Memo
FR: Handle
TO: Conclave Reps, assoc. INTOPS
RE: Basudan

We've been picking up lots of rumors and chatter, but we're working HUMINT and asset grooming right now.
If we're going to be ready to implement Transfer, we'd like to see what kind of analysis and intel you all have on the situation.

puppy:
Boss,
We've had a couple reports of guys being sounded out for something. At first I thought our recruiters were running into each other, but it seems like someone wells is fishing in the same waters we are. Might be Dexter. Might be friendlies. Permission to arrange a meeting?

[Murska]

Lin smiles. "Of course."

She turns to Nath and Kev. "You should get ready. I'll be along."

The two nod and leave.

[The_JJ]

Lin

He taps his ear and the desk in front of him, evidently listening to a recording of the meeting. You mentioned a... Sh-Shar... thats not a Japanese origin surname. Let me look it up. Sharma Yuki as a security threat. If I could if I could get you files on her, that's all.

[Murska]

"Sharuma. Sure. I'll hand over what we got."

And she does, of course.

[puppyavenger]

JJ/whoever that was Permission granted, try and play coy for a bit, learn more then you give.

[The_JJ]

puppy:
Rolling.

1d10+Experience+.5*Espionage.

They are, apparently, another group looking to recruit for the revolution. They're operating from broader demographics than you are, but in the same regional area. So far, they just seem to be making contacts.

[puppyavenger]

JJ Try to subtly make contact with them, work out if some cooperation is in order.

By the way, should I post organizational action in spoiler here, or PM you them?

[The_JJ]

puppy:
Spoilers are, theoretically, more secure here than in previous total wars. That said, PM away.

They seem legit, and after the contact your contact made contact with his boss, he extended an offer of more concrete cooperation. A test meeting at Aratasan was proposed.

[puppyavenger]

JJ start working out the logistics of such ameeting.

Good to know, the entourage I PMed you okay?

[The_JJ]

Puppy:
A bump into meeting at the (Space) Elevator and then a face to face in a randomly selected cafe or restaurant. (As in you both go to the meeting place, both randomly select a number. The two numbers are combined to select a nearby location, often by using it to seed a standard civilian Space!urbanspoon. It is considered good etiquette to roll a die or draw a card at the meeting place, to totally remove any doubt about attempting to influence meeting location, but something like a lucky number or just saying 'one' is not out of the question and much more discrete than rolling a dice in the middle of a crowded area.

Yes, there is an etiquette around clandestine meetings like this- on Aratasan it's mostly cutthroat corporations, less or Great House espionage.

[Murska]

"If that is all, I will wish you luck. And skill enough to not need it." She bows politely. "I wish we can have a real conversation at some point. However, right now there is something I must be doing, so unless there is something else you need, I shall depart."

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian silently gets up at the end of the meeting, salutes his fellow conspirators, and walks out with his bodyguards.

JJ

Permission granted. What do you have in mind?

[puppyavenger]

JJ St-Just and Makhno arrive at the designated spot, dressed nondescriptly. Makhno is mostly there to provide some warning if there's an ambush.

[The_JJ]

Rational:
This a response to the memo?

Puppy:
A man of European descent walks by, wearing the agreed upon red tie and rings on his pinkies. He sees your white shoes and asks "Excuse me, but how is the weather out back home?"

(This is, of course, a code phrase. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpySpeak))

[puppyavenger]

JJ Thinking for a moment, St-Just responds The World is quiet there.

Gabriel is spending the time making sure that there's not squads of assassins about to jump or a bunch of people thinking something like "wait for it"

[The_JJ]

Puppy:

The man nods and begins to walk towards the randomly chosen meeting place, which turns out to be a small cafe frequented by traveler's going between the Elevator and the local Equatorial Rail spur.

"Tobias Neilsson." The man extends his hand after you sit down. "I understand we're in the same line of business."

Meanwhile Gabriel receives a polite ping from another psion, who is doing the same thing. It shadows you to the cafe, when Gabriel finally manages to match the psionic resonance to a face. She's a woman, possibly local, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants. She sits a few tables over in view of you contact, and seems to be moving her hands a lot.

Her psionic signature is powerful but a bit odd.

[RationalGoblin]

JJ

Yes, it's a response.

[puppyavenger]

JJ St-Just takes Neilsson's hand Christopher St-Just. And yes, I believe so, although apparently you're drawing from a larger pool then we are.

Satisfied that it's not a trick, Gabriel pings the other psion back, then zones out and just "listens" for any interesting surface thoughts.

[The_JJ]

Gobbo:


FR: Handle
TO: Tiberian-Rep, assoc. INTOPS
RE: Basudan

Any information you've recovered on the Basudan revolt, Basudan assets, or assets within Tessier that might be prepped to receive.

Puppy:

Yes. Well, the thing about broad categories... sometimes it lacks depth. But if you get a big wide puddle that can maybe overflow over two deeper water ways, they sort of become one, broad and deep. I'm sorry, I was born on an Orbital Class, my water analogies are kind of rough.

Nielson is evidently good at controlling his surface thoughts, which is information in itself. He seems cautious, but feels in control.

[Murska]

Assuming there's no response or that the response received would not change her set of actions, Lin heads out to join her friends.

They'll go meet a couple people they got to know last time, and find some place with good live music.

[puppyavenger]

JJ No worries, perfectly understandable.

So, if I understand you correctly, in addition to ours, you've found a couple other...deep waterways and you'd like to..connects them through your, puddle? He stops for a moment and shakes his head Okay, to put it another way, you're setting up a league and, in addition to a few other teams you've found, you want ours to join?

Gabriel tries to see if he can get the psions surface thoughts, or if she's as good at guarding them.

If so, he just kind of sits there and see's if any of the other diners are thinking about something interesting or potentially useful.

[The_JJ]

Murska:

You find a nice, low key blues jam band.

Puppy:
"Just so." Neilsson rubs his nose, as if considering for a moment. "Depending on exactly how... much you have to offer, I can maybe offer you a position within the decision making processes commiserate to your... depth. So, maybe you're just a farm team, so we can test out talent, or maybe you're ready for the big leagues. I'd, maybe, need to see a roster."


Red orange green purple elephants. Having fun?

The customer at the front of the line in love with the customer who just ordered, but hasn't admitted it. About all that's going through that particular mind right now though.

Two of the customers two booths over are colleagues who hate each other and are sniping at each other, the subtext of which is totally going over the head of their boss, who's sitting between them.

[puppyavenger]

JJ Well, I'm afraid providing would be difficult and time-consuming, we're a bit of a franchise you see. A few dozen university teams scattered around the sector and, rather more importantly, a very diverse and rather large team among the ships Chosen by one rather important Lady of the Dvoryanstvo.

As to our composition, well, if you cut us, we'd bleed blue. None of us can boast any stars, but all of us have been through the academy. We've got enough people to abreast of any important developments and shuttle things between us, and no-one would think of accepting a higher bid.

I'm sorry, is that all getting a bit too incomprehensible?

Ha, well at least the conventions around here work well enough. I couldn't have found a more average place if I tried.

[The_JJ]

Puppy.


Indeed. The honcho's here have made an art of it. They can be touchy, sometimes it makes it hard to work in our line.

"That's... pretty deep as rosters go, in these parts. And you're a local team, so we could use the home-field advantage. And, uh, I think I can parse the rest. Hold on. Ahem." He squints his eyes and focuses on Gabriel.

You nobility/high class. University-learner and war-leader, but not big war-leader. Spies and can move-and-hide things, and you think you friends not betray.

You should nod if he's right, Mr. Psion Man.

[puppyavenger]

JJ Gabriel jerked up in surprise when Neillson pinged him, glanced over toward him and nods.

[The_JJ]

Puppy:

"Then welcome aboard. Send a representative to this address..." he slides a napkin towards you, lets you memorize the text written on it, and then tears it up, tossing the shreds in the dregs of his coffee.
"In a week, neh? I'll meet them there."

See you Mr. Psion-Man.

It's good for you the you seemed honest.

Note: It's possible that the other psion was amplifying Nielssons surface thoughts into (semi) coherent telepath word patterns.

[Forum Explorer]

To JJ
Dadga is going to do some more research into House Basadan and see if contacting them is an option. See if we can take advantage of the upcoming economic situation as well.

[Murska]

To JJ:

Lin's group socializes, makes some contacts and meanwhile slowly attempts to get a bit more known among the music circle. Lin and Nath can both play/sing well, and Kev's an okay keyboardist, so if there's a chance for them to show off they will.

However, they'll be subtly trying to find out about stuff like pirate radio stations and other not-so-official methods of communication. An excellent thing would be something being broadcast over multiple systems.

[puppyavenger]

JJ In a week then.

As they get up to leave ,Gabriel pings the psion
Why did we have to bother with all the over dramatic code-phrases when we have two telapaths again?

[Bahumat]

Ian waved Lin as she left.

"And to you as well. I'll try and arrange something once I'm finished here, if a conversation is what you are after."

He remained in his seat as other members left.

[The_JJ]

Odin/Bahumat:
"Thank you for staying behind. I'd like to discuss that vote we just had." Aquila leans back in his chair, makes eye contact with each of you. "I am duty bound to follow any motion passed here to the letter. I also feel a certain devotion to the spirit. Now, had the vote gone another way, I would have done my best to work with you, but I would have done my job as well. We all need to pull together here and we can't afford to set a precedence of noncompliance so soon.

"The issue is far from dead, and the fund I have available are starting to spread thin. I suggest that the two of you hash out your own agreement, and be ready to bring a solid counter offer to the table."

Forum Explorer:

I'll make finding ways to contact Basudan a goal for your next turn's espionage.

Taking advantage of the economic situation would maybe involve making plays in the stock market or the like.



Murska:
The scene here is pretty hardcore, a lot of groups that practice or perform with each other almost every day. You perform well and they seem to welcome the new blood but nobodies fighting over who gets to sign you to a contract either.

Asking about pirate radio gets immediate attention. The groups here can spread around the planet pretty well but getting music to or from other planets is a major pain for anything that isn't 'Tessier ractive multivid pop crap.' There are a few out system pirate relays.

Puppy:
Because I didn't know you were coming, honey. And bragging about having people like us to people we haven't met is a bad idea.

Besides... we can lie. I do solemnly swear I will never turn you into the authorities. I have already turned you over to the authorities. Later. Don't let anyone cut your cable.

Psion slang, 'cut your cable;' when a third party interrupts a psionic probe or conversation. Done incorrectly (or correctly, depending on one's goals) it can cause considerable backlash to an unprepared individual.

[Bahumat]

JJ
That's understood. All I want is to know where and when we need funds, in advance preferrably, so I can move the money without suspicion. If need be, I can put the full amount of my available funds at the Conclave's disposal.

The problem is that we both are under the impression that the rest of the conclave sees us solely as resources at their disposal. I have no qualms about supplying the conclave, else I would not be here, but I simply wish to ensure that we are not sidelined afterwards. Giving over full control of all our available resources would do that, and that is what that motion would have done.

If we had lost the motion however, I assure you that I would have accepted it. Not liked it, but I would have accepted it. I'm too far in now to back out because something happened that I merely dislike.

How much do you need for basic funding? I'm sure we can supply at least that before we do anything else.

[Murska]

JJ

Heh. Well, sadly they're too busy for a career in music anyway.

We'll try to get to know some people with connections to any out-of-systems relays. Of course, being able to reach people on the planet is good too, but for the bigger picture.

[puppyavenger]

JJ Don't worry, the people who sign my paycheck are more then paranoid enough about that already.
Well, nice to meet you, I suppose

OOC: so whens the new turn start?

[The_JJ]

OOC Note: Okay, so research papers are a bitch on time management and so are dropped players.

Right now we have two choices.

First, we all go away.

Second, we ditch the senate and the turn based system. I slap the metaplot on a railgun and accelerate to relativistic speeds. You keep playing the same characters, your factions are out there, if initially out of touch. If you keep posting cool, if you don't your character stays behind to sort out the paperwork or hold the line or whatever. If you start reposting, you jump in where I deem appropriate, even if this is now five systems away. I'll want to keep you all on the same approximate timeline, but that's not a hard rule. Maybe if you race ahead, you can only deal with sketchy outlines of what is going on, maybe if you stay behind, any results of your actions will have to conform with previously established events. Distance will let me build up a buffer before events start interacting. But yeah, Day X Hour Y is about the only major bookkeeping.

Anyway... I'll be taking option #2, rolling with it as far as you guys want to.

Day 1, Hour 1 of the General Revolution

"The war started in many places at many times for many reasons. It ended once, a finality, a sudden crescendo- and then silence."

-The Annals of House Han, 2nd Edition, written in the year 243 After Revolution



The '642 Model Interdiction Space to Ground system is a temperamental weapon. It was developed to deliver precise but utter devastation to whatever foe Han's servants deemed deserving.

Hanse Aquila stepped into the elevator. "They called my sister Altair. Myself, escort, Nielsson."

"Welcome Executor. Some of them have already arrived."

"Thank you, Pauline. Look, Tobias, I didn't authorizes this. They didn't authorize this."

Nielsson jammed his hand in the elevator door, despite Pauline's polite protests about compromised security. "I know sir, but they're our best opportunity to fulfill exactly what they wanted."

When the Hand cruiser Deft Touch cleared the Network Node it broadcast a quick gag order to all official channels. It's presence was not to be reported or acted on in anyway. Not by planetary military, not by traffic control.

Hanse sighed, fiddled with a strap on his case, then nodded. "You cleared them? Alright, go. Tell them to wait. I'll take it up with our friends upstairs, let them put it to a vote. If they accept you can bring him up if not... we'll do something."

Nielsson nods and withdraws his arms. The elevator moves up, without Pauline's polite commentary. Aqulia could swear the VI was giving him the cold shoulder. He'd have to ask the techies if they'd done anything to it.

Mere minutes earlier news had hit the local militia, passed down from the planetary government, passed down from the The Empress' Chosen, passed down from Terra Command. House Basudan had been preparing a revolt. House Basudan had been preparing attack across a broad front of Han controlled space. The Third Fleet had launched a preemptive strike into three Basudan systems.

As the floors passed by without commentary, Hanse took a moment to admire the view. It was a bit disconcerting, to be honest. The human psyche was not yet used to the idea of nanite built diamond glass. The crystal spindles that held up him and the people around him could withstand, well, any thing short of an orbital strike.

Perhaps that was why, when the Deft Hand took up orbit over Aratasan and starting making targeting correction, some militia man minding a 50 year old coil gun station ignored the gag order, warmed his gun up, and called in a bogey. Perhaps he thought it was a Basudan trick, perhaps he simply objected to a ship firing into a metropolis. We'll never know.

Hanse Aqulia stepped into the foyer, nodded at the few early arrivals, and made it halfway to the Council chambers when his escort froze. They did not explain that a flash had just rolled in from their contact at militia command, that a ship just happened to be making targeting adjustments above their position. They did not even press a button, once they made up their mind. The Fast side door simply blew from it's moorings, a 10X20 pane warped and twisted as it fell.

The '642 Model Interdiction Space to Ground system is a temperamental weapon, but it was precise. Milliseconds after Hanse Aqulia, a limb each held by his escorts cleared the building, a half ton slug tore into one corner of the roof of the 136 story tall, geometrically square building. By the time gravity had caught up with the Executor, turned the zenith of his leap into a parabolic trajectory and begun to turn his velocity downward, it had slammed into the basement level foundations at the opposite corner of that square, neatly driving a diagonal core through the building.

Someone, a sensor tech on board the only space-worthy vessel the Empress' Chosen had in the area, caught the incident on hirez 2D. The flash of the initial charges, the four cloaked figures leaping out of the building, a second, blinding flash as the slug tore through the atmosphere, leaving fire in it's wake.

A long, slow pause, milliseconds long, but measuring an eternity in the slowed down frames of the footage. Then, a new part of that same rattling wake, not fire but force, hit the windows, blasting out the panes of diamond glass, story by story. The building opened up like a chrysanthemum, the petals wobbled, and warped and then... shattered, and scattered to the winds. Thirty seconds later, in the treacle slow motion of the hirez, the building began to collapse in on itself.

The coilgun operator hit his studs, tracing a reverse wake of fire as his weapon cleared atmo. The Chosen light cruiser, footage captured, got garbled reports of a Basudan strike. It fired on the IFF tagged bogey with it's main gun. Neither weapon, either out dated or out weighted by the Deft Touch, should have done much. But the The '642 Model Interdiction Space to Ground system is a temperamental weapon. The Deft Touch was in low orbit, pointed nose in. She took a coil gun slug that she could not dodge to the port side, was bodily lifted and spun, then took two more hits from 'above,' one of which cored her main reactor, the other, the engine couplings. She fell into the Plateau below.

Her wreck now a memorial to the war she started.

OOC-Great, so, if you post here you weren't in that building. Hooray! Describe where you are an who you're with. Those of your retinue that aren't with you should be accounted for. You all have apartments/safehouses of some sort in the city, I assume. The current status of the surrounding block is 'Charlie Foxtrot' and 'WHOMG diamond glass shrapnel' and 'that building is coming down, like, now.'

Puppy, you, at least, were outside talking to Nielsson when his pet psion, grabbed the two of you, and threw you beneath a parked car. If you brought your pet psion

~T minus 3 Days:

Bahumat:
Then we agree. We're not in dire need at the moment, but several smaller transfers over the coming weeks would set us up to cover costs and raise less suspicions than large donations as we start accruing debt.

Murska:
Congratulations! You can now listen to indie pirate radio, and a new friend has promised to introduce you to his friend, Doctor John, the head DJ at the local Zion Dub station.

Puppy:
The psion just shrugs, tugs her hood down a little bit more, and hustles out of the building.

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga stared at the ruined headquarters ruefully. I suppose we have no reason to stay here anymore. Char arrange for some transport to the nearest star port while I contact the rest of the Wracks. Its time we stopped hiding and started to actually fight.

Dadga began to head to the nearest long range communications faciulty while Char looked for some cars to 'aquire' saftly.

[Murska]

"Right. I think the vacation's over."

Headed by Kev, the three start wading through the streets. They're aiming to get to the port and to space, or at least in contact with the fleet.

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian looks grimly at the obliterated headquarters when he arrives at the destruction. His nameless bodyguards look emotionlessly at the destruction, as does he.

The Neo-Roman/Martian revolutionary bends down and picks up a piece of the diamond glass, gripping it so hard that the glass cuts through his reinforced glove, causing blood to flow in rivers from Tiberian's hand.

Perhaps a tad over-dramatically, he drops the bloodstained glass back onto the ruins, watching it fall. His next words are muttered in a dark whisper.

"This is how you want to play then, Han? So be it. I swear that just as I look on the ruins of our headquarters, I will see your palaces and fortresses in ruins."

Tiberian and his retinue stalk off, aiming to get to a communications array as quick as possible. Time to ratchet this rebellion up a notch.

[The_JJ]

FE:

Day 1, hour 1, 4 minutes in.

There general area is in chaos. Finding a car to jack was no problem. Long range communications might be more of a problem, since the local comms are utterly overwhelmed. Dadga's intellect finds two possible solutions. Either find an independent relay pointed into orbit, or driving to some other part of the city that hasn't been overwhelmed and piggybacking onto the normal skyward bound data distribution.

Murska:

Day 1, hour 1, 30 minutes in.

Once you clear the initial wave of chaos expanding away from ground zero the crush lightens up. The Elevator is packed but a lot of people, uncertain of what is going on, have opted to stay put. There are plenty of spaces on the shuttles going up to the orbital Ring.

Rational:

Day 1, hour 1, 20 minutes in.

Thanks to the experience of your faction, a designated array was part of SOP. Your few subordinates on planet are already packing to leave and preparing to burn (metaphorically, mostly) evidence and code books, but the array is still ready.

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian gets to the communications array, and broadcasts a short message/video to as much of the planet as he can. He is in full Neo-Roman attire; a red cape, an archaic-looking breastplate and greaves capable of stopping most small-arms fire, and black gloves.

"Friends, Aratasans, Countrymen! Hear me! I come to tell you of the mercies and the happiness of those under the benevolent rule of Shona."

He gestures with his hand (which is curiously bandaged), and the video pans out to the destroyed headquarters.

""Our Empress Shona is merciful ruler, is she not? See her tender mercies.

Tiberian unbandages his gloved hand. The cut is still bleeding.

"Shona is wonderful, isn't she? Wonder at her actions."

He re-bandages with it, and the video pans out to the very skies, the ever raining skies. The skies that never shone, that never snowed. Only rained.

"Shona is marvelous, isn't she? Marvel at her judgment."

Tiberian shakes his head sadly, a faint smile appearing on his face.

"But it is not my place to tell you how to think of our Empress. Instead, I encourage you to tell Shona yourself what you think of her rule. To raise up your hammers of industry with us, your swords of war alongside ours, your pens of satire, and your banners of emotion to let us shout with one voice the fitting summary of her rule, as glorious as it will be succinct.

This is Marc Anthony, signing out."

The video message ends, and Tiberian and his retinue leave the communications array, wiping it of all information that could be devasting to the cause.

After doing that, Tiberian and the retinue leave quickly, aiming to hitch a ride on one of his subordinate's escape vessels.

[puppyavenger]

Seeing a pillar of light from the sky, Gabriel can't help but stop for a moment
Well ****

Quickly waving goodbye to Nielson, St-Just pretty much drags Gabriel out of the Cafe when he sees the blast. Rushing to their transport, he pulls out a portable comm and gets a quick message off to Reyes on the Ship Right, I have no idea what you're doing up there, or why you managed to screw up the one time it's job mattered in history, but I'd really love to find out. Once you tell me, get in touch with the fleet, explain things and start preening for the brevet captaincy once they sack the guys who you're going to make sure are obviously responsible for whatever binge of incompetence was needed for this to happen.

Taking Makhno with him, St-Just high-tails back to his official residence, tosses on the official uniform, then grabs the hand-full of marines assigned to him and as many spare loyal security guys as he can find as a bodyguard before setting off to the governors office.

Hearing the Romans message on the way there he grins to himself before quickly sending a message announcing himself to the office saying he's there to "discuss necessary actions in the current climate."

On the trip Gabriel tries to get a message through to the higher-ups in Naval Intelligence, as well as the other MP's on the ship. Asking for a sitrep and order basically.

[Murska]

Liathin and her group plan on getting to orbit, into one of their ships and back to join the fleet as quickly as possible.

[Forum Explorer]

An independent relay might be well guarded. Lets try and keep a low profile and head to a calmer part of town. Dadga said to Char, who natrually is actually driving the stolen car.

[The_JJ]

Rational:

Day 1, hour 1, 40 minutes in. Aratasan Space Elevator

You reach the Aratasan Elevator in good time, the lobby is filled with milling people, mostly gaijin sarariman. Some fear invasion (from what they're not sure) and want to leave, others fear a battle in space, and want to stay. Most seem content to stay put and try to figure out exactly what all the fuss is about. You broadcast, certainly, did nothing to clear up the confusion.

Puppy:

Day 1, hour 1, 45 minutes in. Governor's Office.

You leave Nielsson stunned on the floor, gaping at the ruined building he'd just left. The psion, having pushed you out of the way, rests next to him with a very similar shell shocked expression.

"We've fired on an unknown, but I think we just hit a Hand ship. That's all the sitrep I've got now. Hold on. Captain's orders for you are to get to the Governor pronto, start liaising, and then everybody sits tight until the Admiral gets here to sort things out. I'll forward your emergency measures suggestion to him, and sitreps we get on down to you."

Governor Yama****a's office has moved out to the foyer where an impromptu emergency control center is under construction with desks scattered around the area in rough clusters and everybody screaming over the noise. The Governor looks up as you approach, alerted by an exhausted secretary that had corralled you at the door.

"Welcome to the ****show. Glad you could join us. Pick a corner and set up, then get over here and tell me what the hell is going on."

Your sitreps so far.

One basically outlines the situation describe in the OOC and first post. It's not known why a Hand ship was firing into the planet, but the rest of the blame for the debacle is, from your superior's viewpoint anyway, being dumped on the militiaman. Oh and there's an order 'from up on high' (either Terra or personally from Finate-Han) to have the governor turn over all his records about the building demolished and the coilgun installation.

Murska

Day 1, hour 2 Elevation 9000 m and Rising

'Riding the lighting' was either something you loved, hated, or had never experienced. The Aratasan Elevator's passenger cabs were a series of small 5 person cylinders stacked atop each other, with impressive views out one port. Going up you rise above the roiling cloud cover that fills the great basin in which Aratasan is built. You can see the twinkling strands of light, geometrically gridded, that carries the planet's raw goods around. Some trees can be seen clinging to the walls of the plateau, and there are splotches of green to be seen spreading over the sunlit half of the planet. gravity begins to give way and the tube disengages itself with a soft ting 'falling' past the tube behind it, which is destined for a higher orbit. Your tube drifts, flashes a few correctional jets (invisible, but palpable) and elegantly crosses a vast vacuum, and falls into a magnetic capture zone that reels it into a waiting pod bay in the local Ring station. A familiar face awaits you on the lobby news feeds. It seems your Roman friend hijacked a few channels to send a message to Han. Also featured heavily is footage from ground zero and reports of war with House Basudan. The lobby of this is, again, a mad house, but the Ring was once built to house a city, and even the confused mob of travelers can't choke it's robust thoroughfares.

You reach your waiting ship quickly, and are ready to leave.

Forum Explorer

Day 1, hour 1, 20 minutes in.

You reach a calm neighborhood and pull up to access it's local datanet. Some local kids are far to busy ooing and ahing at the cloud of smoke and converging sirens to pay much attention to you, but apart from that the street is empty.

[puppyavenger]

Governors Office

Slightly startled by the governors response, St-Just quickly comes around and replies. Well, the situation is rather blurry, but as far as we can tell a cruiser from the Hands was in low orbit on some official mission that involved demolishing a specific building in the Capital. At the moment however, the exact circumstances that lead to our situation can take a slightly lower priority then dealing with it. He continues as the guards and marines take up various positions to allow a clear line of fire and tactical control over the room To put it simply, the Capital is in a state of anarchy, public order has evaporated in a wild panic following the bombardment, and as the news spreads chaos will spread with it.

Even worse, it appears that a known revolutionary and fugitive is active in the city, and as his message gets out, it's extremely likely that some of the discontent and chaos will boil over into open insurrection. Especially as it appears that there is in fact a subversive organization operating on this planet.

With that in mind, I'd like to request you temporarily sign off on a suspension of civilian government so we can obtain a quick restoration of order and root out the subversives hiding among the populace.

At the same time Gabriel is getting a reading of everyones surface thoughts and psi defenses.

[Bahumat]

Ian had only just left the building when the attack occured. In fact, he was across the street with his entourage looking to get a coffee before he returned to his company headquarters to get the funding transfers started.

It's a good thing portable shields are one of the many security devices he carries, or things might have been messier.

"Well, ****. Alright, we need to get in contact with our militaristic friends, see if they need a hand. Let's get back to base, pronto, and see what we can do to help out."

He pulls out his datapad.

"And get me a sitrep on what the hell just happened!"

[Murska]

Lin chuckles at the broadcast, though mainly paying attention to the magnificent view.

The same view Nath is trying to not look at.

"All right, keep at it. This planet either already has or will soon turn rather inhospitable, I'd bet."

"There's the ship."

They board, aiming to get off-planet and take a course for a rendezvous with Solid Flame.

[Forum Explorer]

Might as well keep this calm. Char and Dadga go enter the datanet and send a simple encoded message to their ship.

message
**** has hit the fan but the skies are clear enough. Come pick us up.

[The_JJ]

Puppy:

Day 1, hour 1, 47 minutes in. Governor's Office.


The Governor watches your men take their positions. "Request, huh." HE fixes you with a stare, the lowers his voice. "I've got my own security detail, boy. This could get bloody if you push to hard."

Gabriel thinks he might be bluffing. Most of the rest of the room is focused on the matter at hand, some panicky, some not.

Bahumat:

Day 1, hour 1, 5 minutes in. The Streets.


Sitrep: Chaos, but it seems something got shot out of the sky after it hit your HQ.

ooc-You could try hailing other players on their personal communications.

Murska:

Day 1, hour 4. Deep Space.


You drop through the airlock into your flagship and are quickly rushed to the bridge. Your stand in salutes and then leans over the sensor's board. "We had elements of the Chosen drop out of the Node to New Osaka. At first I was worried that we'd been rumbled, since they were setting up in combat formation instead of burning for the planet, but it look's like they're establishing a beachhead bubble around the node. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. They just detached an action group to the planet, two frigates, a heavy cruiser, and a dropship carrier. Maybe we'll get to see how those mechs handle an urban uprising, neh? So far we've been playing quiet, like confused merchant ships, that like, but I've had to shuffle a lot of our support ships way back and out of the way to avoid looking like a military fleet. I'd recommend bugging out toward the next Node over before they get suspicious. We'd have a tough run slugging it out with what they already have in system, much less if they use that beach head to pull in Taiko clusters in battle formation."


FE:

Day 1, hour 1, 23 minutes in. The Streets.


Aye sir. We'll meet you at the Ring station. We're flying disguised as the Potemkin Maru cargo ship.

[puppyavenger]

Governors Office

St-Just chuckles for a moment before replying Why yes, yes it could. Now lets say you decide to take a rash course of action and the result is a fire-fight. You know what happens? When the relief force the Admiral sent arrives and it turns out that you had the Military liaison and an intelligence officer killed along with their staffs at the same time as the Hands of Han had flushed out a revolutionary group which is apparently established on the planet. Now, does that look like a healthy situation for you to be in considering the rather intemperate nature of many of the officers in the Fleet? In fact some might think that you were supporting the subversives, and this was an attempt to seize power! I can't really see that ending very well for you or any people you happen to have patronized over the years.

Walking closer to the Governor and lowering his voice a bit he continues Of course for any of that to happen first you would have to take an extremely rash and ill-advised course of action, and then you'd have to win. And, if you'll please note, my men are closer.

Quickly stepping far enough back to avoid being used as a human shield So, may I ask that you please reconsider my request?

[Forum Explorer]

To ship
Acknowladged.

Dadga turns to Char, Take me to the Ring station. He commands as they get back into their car.

[Murska]

JJ:
"Okay, we're getting out of here. The situation is not clear but I think it's most likely Han and Basudan butting heads. We'll need to group up at a safe location and get more data about what exactly is going on."

Kev and Nath have already left for their own stations. The Solid Flame ships in the system prepare to get moving. Meanwhile, all intelligence assets we can access are tapped to get a more full overview of the situation.

[The_JJ]

Puppy:

Day 1, hour 1, 48 minutes in. Governor's Office.

The Governor meets your gaze, then inclines his head. "Fine. But this goes on your head. LISTEN UP PEOPLE!"

The room stops for a moment. "Our friend here is in charge. Make sure the word gets out. I want no mix ups. Tak- Tak's coordinating with the emergency services at tower- Tak, you keep doing what you're doing, get a sit rep to the liaison here. Triplicate copies, please, one for us one for him and one for his bosses upstairs. Brush up on your russkiy yazyk." He turns on his heel, and walks past you, pausing when he's next to your ear. "Watch yourself. This is bigger than one room with a lot of guns. I'll be in my office, it'd be a kindness if you came to see me in person, neh? No intermediaries."

Forum Explorer:

Day 1, hour 1, 35 minutes in. The Elevator.

You reach the elevator in good time, but there's a crowd beginning to form. The strange broadcast by Tiberian has people talking. You're on your way up to the Elevator.

Murska:

Day 1, hour 4, 4 minutes in. The Elevator.

Your little fleet begins drifting away from the planet, doing it's best to look unorganized and not at all like a fleet. No sirree.

Reports from the ground are confused. Seems a Hand ship shot at some rebels in the city, a mad Martian (Tiberian, you can tell from the vid) released a speech, and then the city dropped into martial law.

That's all you know so far.

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian

Stuck within the Space Elevator with his bodyguards, Tiberian sighs. I realize that the broadcast was strange. That was the point. No-one can get a speech remembered unless it has a gimmick these days...

He flips on a hidden microphone on his Neo-Roman uniform, and clears his throat.

"Are there any here that wish to know more about the broadcast I have given? If you wish to hear my words, come, gather 'round and listen to me!"

Tiberian gestures with his gloved hands as if welcoming an audience. His guards stand respectfully, but warily off to the side.

[Bahumat]

"Alright, we're getting the hell off-planet. Get my shuttle prepped."

He clicked his communicator over to the contact for Lin.

"Well, this is going to hell in a handbasket. Let me know if your people need a hand with anything."

He starts heading for his shuttle (or the space elevator if all our ships are only in space, and not atmospheric).

He then tries to get in contact with the Executor.

[Murska]

Lin is ordering a few smaller ships to stay in-system and keep a watch on the situation. The fastest ships out are to try and get some data from the informant network on the general strategic situation - this planet won't be the only one where stuff is going down.

The Past - heading on the Elevator:

She responds quickly to Ian's message. "Right now I'll get off-planet, rendezvous with the fleet and figure out what's going on out there. Talk more once we're stable."

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga hesitates for a brief second wanting to hear what people were saying before deciding that it wasn't worth it. He keeps moving towards the Elevator, occasionally pushing past a group of people in his way.

[The_JJ]

As an apology for the late update, we get a little theme music. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ir0PB5w-7I&feature=related)

Rational

Day 1, hour 1, 42 minutes in. Aratasan Space Elevator

After a few moments of confusion the crowds clear immediately in front of you. Some people smell trouble and are heading for the exits, some are curious. You see a couple of security guards legging it for an exit, talking into their radios. You see a few camera's coming out.

Puppy

Day 1, hour 1, 44 minutes in. Governor's Office

"Flash Flash! I got reports of the Roman at the Elevator!"

Bahumat

Day 1, hour 1, 30 minutes in.

Just as you reach your personal shuttle at a private space port, someone finally answers your hail. It's an unfamiliar voice, that starts by coughing into the comm. What was your code phrase at the elevator?

Murska

Day 1, hour 8, Novye Volgi System.

It's much calmer out here. Novye Volgi is a bit of a pissant system anyway, mostly a asteroid mining station with some refueling and entertainment stations orbiting a gas giant's moon. Normally, in a system like this, a group your size would stand out, but traffic leaving Aratasan and the nearby Yangtze system both pass through here on their way to Terra, making the place something of a crossroads.


News here is buzzing, but a little less confused. New information wise there isn't much to say; elements of Han's forces attacked House Basudan. Rumor has it there's been a complaint lodged by a collection of Houses.

Forum Explorer

Day 1, hour 1, 45 minutes in. The "Potemkin Maru"

As you push out of the Ring station news of Tiberian's speech speeds up the Elevator. It looks like you got out of there not long before the Ring got shut down.

[Murska]

To JJ:
It's time to act, then. We'll be sending ships around to contact our supporters and informants to get some sort of a picture of this war.

But the main thing is, we will be sneaking a number of raiding parties into Han space, to key supply lines, in an effort to capture and loot their military supplies. Of course we'll only attack if we are strong enough to overpower the escorts.

I'm using both Liathin's and Kevry's tactical expertise on this.

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian laughs through his microphone, and begins speaking again.

"Civillians! You will not be hurt!"

He turns off the uniform microphone, then with his bodyguards, dashes after the retreating security guards. His bodyguards heft any weapons they might have been able to keep before the holdup in the Space Elevator.

[Bahumat]

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."
Ian waited for confirmation from the other end.

[The_JJ]

Rational

Day 1, hour 1, 45 minutes in. Aratasan Space Elevator

One security guard, seeing the guns come out, pulls up short and tosses his truncheon to the floor, he backs away with his hands out, up, and very emphatically empty.

The other is breaking for the door to a little security office. You can shoot him, try to reach the door before he slams the lock home, or let him reach it (there's really no way out of it.)

Oh, and people start screaming and running around.

Murska

Day 4, hour 2, Shin Taiwan System.



Kev and Lin draw up this plan: Dispatch the fleet in three groups, one each to cover the three 'lanes' that lead to the Avalon system which is, by all accounts, the main Han staging ground for their attack on House Basudan.

Kev thinks that you yourself should take the Avalon - Halloran - Skye Cluster (3 systems) - Dav - Sintex - San Amo - Bell Cluster (2 Systems) - New Columbia - Terra corridor. You've networks are better leading into the other corridors, so there'd be less guess work involved in the raiding, so it'd be better to let those lower in the command chain take those. The Avalon corridor is, however, considered the more dangerous assignment.

Halloran is a pirate's dream of uninhabited moons and asteroid fields, but it's heavily patrolled and often swept. The Skye Cluster is a notoriously Pro-Han region, but not with out its malcontents, particularly among its very upper and very lower classes. Dav, Sintex, and San Almo are lightly populated, mostly by asteroid miners. The Bell Cluster was settled by African colonists before Han formally annexed all of Terra, and maintains an independent streak.

You'd have your flag ship, a light cruiser, two point defense frigates, an escort carrier with just two fighter wings, seven cargo ships, and two boarding ships.

One problem your tacticians foresee is the possibilty of Han opening up one of the Sol System's Ring stations and connecting it to one of Avalon's stations. It would make raiding harder... but active Gates are very tempting targets.

Meanwhile... a target of opportunity crosses your path. A cruise liner filled to the brim with assorted House nobility and the children of highly placed Han bureaucrats. The fleet has split up to draw less attention, so you've only got your flagship, two cargo vessels, and the flagship's integral fighter wings (8 interceptors, 2 scouts, 2 bombers) and boarding parties (two squads of 20 marines), but there's no military of any sort in system at the moment.


Bahumat

Day 1, hour 1, 30 minutes in.

There is a pause, then another cough. "Alright you're clear. Unless you're a leak. Chairman's hurt. I'm hurt. My override code, such that it matters to you, was 'Guard in the Dark.' Suzu's dead, Tsuba's dead. Make's watching the door. We're in a safe house."

[Forum Explorer]

Detatch from the Ring in one hours time. Prepare for battle in case we are attacked


OCC: Is there a Han ship in orbit right now?

[Bahumat]

"What's the address? I can get a med and security team and smuggle you out to a more secure location under the guise of picking me up within ten minutes of me getting there. We can't lose the Chairman this early."

[Murska]

To JJ:

Yeah, we'll take Avalon. Seems to me we'll be best off by operating in the Dav-Sintex-San Amo area plus some raids in the Bell Cluster if possible to show them Han can be fought. We'll worry about the gate if Han opens it.

Anyway, let's move to the Cruise Liner. Assuming it's un- or weakly-armed, we'll just show our weapons and ask it to surrender and be boarded. If it tries to fight or flee, cripple it's weapons or engines, respectively, with our bombers.

Then prepare to board and capture.

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian glares at the fleeing guard, then speaks in a clipped tone to his retinue.

"Shoot him in the foot."

Then, he turns to the surrendering guard.

"You're coming with us. Do not worry, we will not harm you, unless you try something stupid."

[The_JJ]

FE:

Day 1, hour 1, 50 minutes in. The "Potemkin Maru"

Your crew is running through final start up when news comes in from Port Authorities that there's a hostage crisis going on at the base of the Elevator.

At lot of ships, either not bothering to wait for now (literally) held up passengers or simply bugging out, start to detach from the Ring and are scattering to the four Nodes.

No there are no Han ships in system, though there is one garrison cruiser in orbit loyal to the Tsarina (e.g. Isabella Finate-Han, not Han Han.)

Bahumat

Day 1, hour 1, 31 minutes in.

There is a long pause, as if someone on the other side muted their mike, and then, [SIZE="2"]"Corner of O'ahu and Fiji. The warehouse. Have whatever medical teams you've got prepared for... things. Lots of things."

Murska

Day 4. Shin Taiwan System

As your gunners knock out the main drive on the fleeing liner you finally get a hail from the comms.

On the video is a distinguished looking woman in an elaborate but nonmilitary dress uniform. Attention pirate ship. You are attacking a vessel operating under the auspices House Tessier. Continuation of your current course of action will have consequences.

Rational

Day 1, hour 1, 45 minutes in. Aratasan Space Elevator

[roll0] *facepalm*

With a fast series of almost simultaneous bangs the door to the 'safe' room is stitched full of holes. The guard, one leg suddenly numb, thuds face first into it, scattering a spray of blood across the floor, leaking out of a hole in his left thigh. Meanwhile, the entire lobby of the elevator, already chaotic, becomes a screaming mad house as the crowd stampedes for the exits.

[Murska]

To JJ:

I assume the second To Bahumat is mine...? Unless he's in my fleet.

Kev replies to the message: "Is House Tessier on the side of Han or House Basudan in the current war?"

We continue preparing to board.

[Bahumat]

"I own them. Believe me, our testing sometimes ends....messily. We'll see you soon."

Ian gestured to his entourage, and they stride off towards the address.

Ian swaps to his company's emergency line.

"Alright, I need a medical and extraction team to the corner of O'ahu and Fiji. I want them armed for Bear."

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga looks at intrest to the hostage report. He quicky requests more informaton about the situation from the Port Authorities.

[The_JJ]

Murska

Day 4. Shin Taiwan System

The Captain narrows her eyes. This is a civilian vessel operating under the auspices of House Tessier. Military engagements do not apply.

She's waffling, aware that if you are politically aligned at all you're (likely) rebellious in some fashion or another, but there is a chance that you might be Han internal security of some sort, so she's not ready to hand Han excuses to weaken her House. This 'neither confirm nor deny' stance = is more or less in line with House Tessier policy in general.

That said, publicly available passenger manifests do list a lot of pro-Han noble scions and bureaucrats on board.

FE

Day 1, hour 1, 50 minutes in. The "Potemkin Maru"

"So Roman's holding the security guards at the base hostage. The whole Elevator has shut down." Meanwhile, your sensors officer tugs on your sleeve and points to the screens. A cluster of military ships have just dropped into the system from the Homura Jump Node.

Bahumat

Day 1, hour 1, 45 minutes in. O'ahu and Fiji.

A few blocks over the government responders have set up an emergency field base, so the mostly gaijin armed guards and the medical team seems unusual, but hardly worth commenting on. Some out system salaraiman got caught in the chaos, perhaps, and the armed guards hardly seem like a bad idea. There's been some strange broadcasts and garbled news recently...

Two of the cloaked bodyguards double time the Executor out into the unofficial ambulance your medical team has, then fairly rip equipment and supplies out of the hands of your medical team so that they can tend to a third member of the security team. They glare daggers at anyone who attempt to disturb this work, and gesture towards the rather dazed Tobias Niellson.

Your teams assessment of the Executor is quick. Multiple nasty looking but, blood loss aside, superficial lacerations, two diamond shards in his side that'll need to be removed by a surgical team, and several compound fractures, and his knees are a total bust. The guards managed to dope him up on a lot of pain killers, but when he resumes consciousness your head doc wants to check him for brain trauma.

Prognosis; survivable, but he won't be running around anytime soon. He'll need the kind of attention only your spaceship or a major planet-side hospital can provide.

Tobias steadies himself and starts to talk. "Tiberian made it out, I think he's trying to stir up the city. It's close to working too. And I think I saw Lin on her way out. I was talking with a contact when... anyway, he took off scared, but he might be able to help now. And if we can reach Allison without attracting notice... unless she's a mole. Christ. We could all be moles, eh? How'd they do it?"

[Murska]

To JJ:

"Okay, then we're boarding and checking. Stand down and prepare to surrender control of the ship."

And so we do.

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian gestures quickly to the guard that surrendered.

"Take him away from here; tend to his wounds."

Tiberian and his retinue then proceed to enter the "safe" room.

[The_JJ]

Murska

Day 4. Shin Taiwan System

"You've had our warning. We've requested that all passengers who wish to resist by force of arms repair to the fourth and fifth decks. The crew and noncombatants will wait on the second deck. We'll do our best to keep weapons holstered there, but you do understand there are limits." (Trans. Even the 'noncombatants' are reserving the right to repel boarders under agreed upon predetermined circumstances, in a case like this, likely to prevent rape, or outright and unprovoked murders.)

Gobbo

Day 1, hour 1, 45 minutes in. Aratasan Space Elevator

Your men lift the bleeding man up and toss him on a desk. It's hologram automatically flips on, an attractive blonde silently gestures the the text floating in the air next to her, announcing to a now nearly empty lobby that House Tessier Cruise Liners are the preeminent way to vacation. Why not spend a week in Babylon after your successful business trip?

A medic leans over the man and jabs a needle of nanites into his system. He'll live.

The 'safe' room was evidentially speaking in relative terms. Doubtless rated to stop irate passengers and possibly contain collared trouble makers until planetary security could pick them up, your military hardware punched a number of holes in the door below waist level.

Inside there's barely enough space to hold three workstations, two monitor banks plugged into the security camera's around the Elevator's base, and an interface with the Elevator's main computer.

[Murska]

To JJ:

The ship is boarded by a number of soldiers led by Kevry, intending to search the place, take out any resistance and make sure there's nothing untoward on board.

Nath will be the one to handle negotiations with the ship crew.

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian grins. Now I am in control.

He walks over to the interface, and begins trying to figure out exactly what he can do to alter the Elevator.

He has his men watch the security cameras.

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga curses when he hears the report of new ships entering the system. See if you can ID those ships. Also keep an eye on this hostage situation.

[The_JJ]

Murska

Day 4. Shin Taiwan System:

There are a few hold outs on the fourth and fifth decks, but not many. Do you want to try and take them non-lethally? It probably won't be much of an issue.

Gobbo

Day 1, hour 1, 47 minutes in. Aratasan Space Elevator

A few minutes poking around quick reveals a few things.

a. You need a keycard and password to make any changes.
b. Once you have that, any action you try to make that can be disabled (e.g. launch empty elevator at unsafe velocity toward the Ring) can be countermanded from the mainframe.
c. The mainframe is not far from here.
d. The air traffic control panel is currently telling you that several military ships have broadcast that they are about to jump into the system.

FE

Day 1, hour 1, 50 minutes in. The "Potemkin Maru"

"Sir, looks like 3 Taiko battleships and a Marine Jumpship, and 7 support ships. Frigates and destroyers. About half the Chosen, sir."

(trans. three ship-to-ship capitals built around one really big gun and a really big ship that has a lot of it's cargo space dedicated to carrying and supplying a ground force. Sort of a carrier for mechs and marines.

Also, a lot of friggin' firepower)

[Forum Explorer]

Keep an eye on them, and wait for a window that we can get past to jump out of this system. I doubt they are here for us but get ready to fight just in case. Likely they will begin dealing with that hostage situation so we might be able to slip past them then.

Also lets not blow our cover. If they will let us leave peacefully then we won't instigate a fight.

[Murska]

JJ:

The less deaths the better. We won't risk our own people unnecessarily though.

[Bahumat]

"With enough paranoia, no one would risk trying to rebel against Han. Anyone you meet 'could' be an agent. I'm of the opinion that you have to take risks in order to get to the payoff.

You said you have a contact. Could they help us get off-planet? Something's happening over at the Orbital Elevator, so I'd prefer not to head anywhere near there unless we must. Too many unknown factors. If we manage to get to my transport in orbit, we can get an idea of what's happening, and get the Executor full medical treatment."

[The_JJ]

FE

Day 1, hour 1, 50 minutes in. The "Potemkin Maru"

The military ships are helpfully broadcasting to the Ring that no one in to even approach the Homura Node, but there are three other nodes to take out of the system.

Murska:

Shin Taiwan Day 4

[roll0] vs. [roll1]

The boarding goes off with out a hitch. You manage to round up the resistors. Their mostly civilian armament couldn't do much to your armor. The few who had more military weaponry were put down with stunners and tied up. Most got a whiff of tear gas and an eyeful of the professional military hardware and decided that it wasn't worth sticking to their guns.

The crew stands flanking the airlock into deck 2, with the Captain waiting at a balcony looking out over the Grand Ballroom, now packed with passengers. Nath can see neatly uniformed waiters and waitresses gliding through the scrum with silver platters of hors-devours and crystalware.

The Captain has her back turned to Nath, as she looks out over the crowd. "Your move," she says, without turning.

Bahumat

Day 1, hour 1, 45 minutes in. Corner of O'ahu and Fiji.

No, my contact was... well, no better for getting us off planet than your business credentials would be. God, who to trust... Alison, she was vouched for, but- he glances at one of the bodyguards, who is withdrawing a bloody hand from her companion's wound, a barely visible shard held by a pair of tweezers. The air begins to smell a bit like burning flesh- someone using a laser to cauterize a wound. But we couldn't quite submit her to our regular vetting process. Still, I think it's safe to say only those who were in the tower when it got hit are totally above suspicion. Meantime, we get by. You get these guys space born. Take this, he hands you a small flash drive, That's got enough data to get you to a few of our handlers out system and verify your identity. I'll stay here, try to link up any other survivors. Get the Executor patched up. We'll arrange a rendezvous later. Luck, and God save the Nordic Union.

[Forum Explorer]

The Potemkin Maru will head to the node that is furthest from the military ships then.

[Murska]

To JJ:

Nath nods, even though she can't see it, and walks up to survey what he has conquered, flanked by a pair of guards who stay a few steps back.

"Greetings. My name is Nathaniel, and events have placed this ship temporarily under my control. As long as you cooperate, nobody will be seriously harmed.

So, what we want you to do is to stay calm, record some messages to your loved ones that we'll pass over to them and wait for a while until we get some responses. Then, hopefully, we'll be on our way and you can continue your cruise. Depending on the responses, of course, so I would ask you to consider well what you say."

---

Meanwhile, Kevry gets the ship's logs, detailed data of the trip, the passengers and crew, where they're going and why and such.

If reasonable, we'll move the ship somewhere safe and hidden with the passengers on board. The people who boarded the ship get a share of stuff found, though we won't be stripping it completely clean, just clear the excess. We'll treat the hostages well and all, though we'll search the ship thoroughly for anything interesting or dangerous.

Then we'll try to use the Han-affiliated hostages to get as much support for the Basudan side as possible. And money for ourselves, obviously - those of the passengers who are simply rich and don't have much to do with politics will be asked for money.

Add all the basic threats of no attempts of recovering the hostages by force or we'll blow up everyone and such. Put some political pressure on those most likely to disagree - maybe they're willing to risk their child but what about the reaction from *list of important people* who will be very angry of what their actions resulted in? Everyone knows how these things go. We'll act as civil as possible.

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian curses, and turns to his three bodyguards.

"We can do nothing more here. Take any information you can from the datebase and we shall leave."

He and his rentinue swiftly take information from the computers dealing with blueprints for the Space Elevator, statistics, structual weaknesses, notable figures passing through the Elevator, and essentially anything that might be of use.

Having done that, Tiberian's group flee the Space Elevator's offices as quickly and quietly as possible.

[The_JJ]

GobboGobbo

Day 1, hour 1, 48 minutes in. Aratasan Space Elevator

[roll0] vs. [roll1]

As your technician finishes the download you notice a screen on one of the monitors, a camera pointed towards the University side door, fuzz out. Moments later your point man, on his way out the building, backpedals rapidly after a shot slams the wall next to him.

"Contact! Sniper on a roof across the way!"

Your keen tactical acumen is telling you that you can either hole up and turn this into a hostage situation-siege, try to take over the Elevator mainframe and launch yourself into space on an Elevator car, or force your way out of the building now before the SWAT teams have time to set up properly.

Murska

Shin Taiwan Day 12

Make up of the passengers:

Most in the ballroom are the nobility, a considerable portion of which are Russian descended folks headed back home to Region Six (just a few jumps from Aratasan). Generally, the as these Russian nobles are from a region directly governed by Han's heir instead of one governed by a satrap house, they're considered slightly below others, who are from the Great or Minor Houses (who might rule or be from families that rule whole continents, planets, or systems, whereas the Russian nobles are a sort of hereditary officer/bureaucratic class.) Those Minor House nobles on board are mostly from Han loyal systems on the farside of Terra from the Basudan conflict.

Then there are the Han bureaucrats, a bloated and hated class, particularly by the nobility. The ones on board are nothing major, co-assistants to the Ministers of Martian Trade and Finance, Inspector Generals of the South African Industrial Region Quality Control Board, things like that.

There's also the passengers travelling second and third class. Mostly wealthy private citizens, many Roman or African settled colonies, though a fair portion are ethnically Japanese and/or Russian on their way to Aratasan and surrounding systems. Since their families won't have much to offer individually, House Tessier is negotiating for them collectively.

Notable hostages:

Marian Lee né Schone, of House Schone, honeymooning with her new husband, pop singer Jefferson Lee. House Schone is one of House Tessier's minor vassals, and Marian has been appointed co-representative from House Tessier, along with the Captain. She's mostly following the Captain's lead.

Thomas O'Gradis, of the House O'Gradis, a minor house linked to House Basudan. Thomas is not just a member but the family head, in semi retirement but still technically Lord of the Gradis island chain in one of Basudan's outlying systems.

Colonel Jean Acard, of the Terran Home Guard. A logistics officer, she's on vacation after serving 3 tours behind a desk in Paris.

Ivan Jernau Morat, a the quintessential Russian test tube blonde, blue eyed, blue blood, a mildly famous prosecutor on Isabella Han's capital planet.

FE

Day 2, Vaughn System


The Vaughn system is a backwater with only two Nodes, and three moons, each supporting a sprawling subterranean city carefully sealed behind airlocks. The system specializes in building huge trans system cargo ships, but it's also a very friendly place always welcome to all sorts of travelers.

[Murska]

To JJ:

All right, unless something important comes up can I autopilot the negotiations and just view the terms people come up with? Otherwise it'll be a ton of back-and-forth diplomatic chatter with no real content.

We subtly try to put out the air that we're anti-Han. Not too subtly, however - anyone who picks it up might sense there's a facade. Of course, it'd take a more skilled person to sense that there's a facade of a facade, and if there's people that skilled on board, they will probably be left with a hint of doubt, as people like that always are: What if there was another facade left unnoticed?

As for those people who aren't into mindgames so much, if there's anyone who's interested in acting against Han behind the scenes, they might contact us. There are plenty of opportunities to do that unnoticed, after all - we'll talk to everyone in private a couple times to see if there's any information we can get peacefully, for example. The logistics officer is of particular interest here. However, without high-grade psionics or the go-ahead to use torture, I doubt we're getting much.

Oh, and the Basudan vassal will be, during one of these talks, politely apologized to for the trouble and given a passage somewhere safe-ish, with a wish of good luck against the Han. The other prisoners aren't revealed his fate and will receive blank stares if they ask the guards. If they ask Nath, he'll respond with "Oh, he has been released." If they don't believe him... oh well.

Liathin isn't seen by the prisoners at any point - she's coordinating the rest of the fleet against the Han supply convoys anyway.

[Bahumat]

"You as well. I'll get my shuttle prepped, and be out of the system as soon as I can. Once we're clear, I'll head for home, otherwise it might look suspicious. Fare you well."

As he opens the rear door to let Tobias out, he activates his comlink.

"Alright boys, get my shuttle prepped. It's a little too hot down here, and I expect the Authorities to arrive insystem sometime soon. I want ot be gone before they get here, we haven't the time to waste on an inquiry as to what I was doing here."

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian mulls over the options he has in his head in a split second.

I could try a hostage situation... But that would likely end in blood. Han and her followers aren't known for avoiding collateral damage.

I could force my way out of the building, before the SWAT teams have time to set up. But if that goes wrong, I will die. I had a security guard shot, so the law enforcement will not mind if I take a bullet.

Finally, I could take over the Elevator mainframe and launch the retinue into space on an Elevator car, as utterly mad as that sounds. That may lead to my death. However, it's the most unexpected tactic, so I may be able to survive if I do that. Right then...

In the next second, Tiberian looks straight in the eyes of any SWAT member he can see.

"I have a bomb! I will blow up this entire Elevator if you shoot me!", Tiberian yells, waving around his hand while backing away quickly, towards the mainframe. His bodyguards follow, aiming their guns and firing at anything recognizable as the SWAT team.

[Forum Explorer]

The ship is to dock at one of the moons. Char and a team of likewise inconsipicous Wracks will be landing in the city. Meanwhile Dadga will try and learn more about the political situation in Vaughn

[The_JJ]

Gobbo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQF3xW9pzzM)

Day 1, hour 1, 50 minutes in. Aratasan Space Elevator:

It seems someone got a quick hold fire order out, and a few rounds quickly suppresses the sniper on the roof long enough to get everyone back inside. You shut the doors, black them out, and bounce a few rounds of the crystal, making the message pretty clear; that men with guns await behind that grim portal, ready to shoot anyone thinking about going cowboy.

It's a minute's work to force your way to the main frame. The man left behind watching the camera's notes SWAT systematically surrounding various entrances, and preparing to breach a few empty layers of lobby and hallway.

The personnel at the mainframe have their hands up and are filing out before you even reach the door. There would've been at least 5 guards in there if this were any similar Terra installation, and that would be before the alarms went off.

A word about the elevator cars: they're pretty much tossed into space and left to float up to the Ring/whatever cargo ships happen to be nearby and handy. They've got some small jets for emergencies, but those are pretty highly automated, and most options are 'point towards Ring docking bay X, await retrieval.'

Some options: Booby trap the Elevator on your way out.
Launch all the elevator cars in sequence (about 40 are 'loaded') and ready to launch in waves of four.
Booby trap elevator cars. Use/release 6 hostages as you please, one of whom is stable but unconscious.
Contact Council members who might have a cargo ship.
Contact two cargo ships you have chartered under false names. One's a smuggler, no questions asked kind of guy, the other thinks you're Mr. Vito, fine china dealer. (yay high ESP and EXP faction!)
Program any of the cars you're taking up to go to about any Ring docking gate.
Program any of the cars to reenter atmo just about anywhere BUT automatic safety protocols will redirect them away from the city and any buildings in their memory. Which is linked to the government mainframes.
Have the cars ram the Ring. Some problems with this:
Will require a human being to be in the car.
Will require security pass, of which you have 6.
Will either scratch the paint or hit FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE not much inbetween. <- kinda the terrorist option.

Some suggestions from your men:

Ram the ****ers (Note, speaker recently lost wife and child to Han)
Booby trap cars, have them land around rail-lines, in city parks, dare authorities to examine them.
Put weapons in cars, have them land near Resistance fighters- potential Resistance fighters. (Note, would leave your crew low on arms/ammo until you managed to resupply)
Get picked up by one of your chartered ships.
Stick hostages in booby trapped car, have it dock with the Ring. Laugh.
Dock with the Ring and take it over. (Note, full company of Isabella Han's best marines may or may not be enroute.)
Get in a car, land it in the sticks, fight guerrilla war.
Split up.
Under no circumstances split up.
Stay in lobby, fight the SWAT teams as they come.

Murska:
Negotiations go well. House Tessier takes their guarantee's seriously, and for those too unimportant to receive special attention you are offered a pretty generous deal, with the addendum 'if we ever see you again we'll put double this on your head and offer temporary amnesty to even the worst of criminals if they can bring us your body.' House Tessier takes their guarantee's almost as seriously as making money.

O'Gradis takes your offer kindly, with lots of winks and nods once he's out of view of the other passengers.

The logistic's officer doesn't budge. You've basically tainted her career with even the possibility of her having gone turncoat, and she's feeling pretty spiteful. The phrase 'I've memorized your faces' comes up often in the first few days of bravado, but as time wears on she just start getting stressed out.

You get a few positive responses to your anti-Han feelers. A few among the second and third class passengers, mostly Romans and intelligista from the European and African settled worlds. You get a surprising amount of positive responses from the Russian nobility, but for most of them it's about some obscure inheritance technicality that means that their ruler (Isabella Finate-Han) ought to be in her mother's place.

Negotiations over the Captain and the Tessier noble have not gone as well. With news that a vassal's daughter was kidnapped on her honeymoon already as good as leaked, what with the other passengers on board, House Tessier's looking to save face. They can do that by getting the other hostages off the ship ASAP, but by playing hardball over the Marian and her husband. When you start trying to play the angles, both Marian and Captain Lefevre seem more annoyed at having to deal with this complication than interested in mind games.

More later, those were the big ones. Finals, research papers, moving, etc. etc. It's late.

[Murska]

To JJ:

Hmm.

Well, we'll trade the hostages we can for money. As for the tough cases...

I don't think we're equipped to break the logistics officer. Ergo, we'll be keeping her prisoner until we can drop her off to one of the rebel groups who are.

The possible anti-Han people are marked up, so we can test those angles in the case we get into a situation where we might require their help.

And finally. Tessier's playing here - what does the Vassal family itself think about the situation? Any chance we could cut a deal directly with them?

Other than that, we'll keep guarding the people with all courtesy until some sort of a conclusion is reached. Nath and Kev are both heading to help Lin's campaign, though. Oh, and if our strategists can figure out what exactly Tessier would be doing with their troops to try and recover the liner and the hostages, we'll of course attempt to prevent discovery in any way. The hostages are only to be harmed in the very worst case of enemy boarding action already being underway and such.

[The_JJ]

Bahumat

Day 1, 50 minutes in above Aratasan

You get your shuttle up to the ship you have in orbit, and quickly transfer the two patients into the ICU. The bodyguards reluctantly turning their wounded over to the automated surgeons. The bodyguards stand around numbly, watching monitors, occasionally glancing at each other and making small hand gestures at each other.

Your navigator comes up to you "New Osaka's a no go sir, we just had some military ships jump in from Homura. We'll take Shin Taiwan to Outreach and on home from there, unless you've got any other ideas."

FE

Day 2, Vaughn System

Politics can be complex. The system's pretty independent, founded by idealists who traced their roots to Antarctica, Africa, and India. They pay tariffs on all goods entering and leaving the system, but they govern themselves. They treat smuggling as a sort of respectable profession, but have nothing but purest disdain for pirates. Char gets a fairly friendly reception from the local dock authorities who, once the paperwork is done, helpfully names a few of his favorite places to stay and eat in the area.

[RationalGoblin]

Tiberian

Tiberian nods to his men.

"Plan Apollo Hermes, soldiers."

Withdrawing towards a part of the mainframe room where it's least likely he'll be heard by SWAT, He pulls off his obvious cape and throws it on the ground, as well as hiding most of the distinctively neo-Roman accessories he has, and only keeping what normal clothes he has and the body armor. Tiberian then switches on his personal communicator. He gives the best smile he can, and contacts the fellow who thinks he is the fine china dealer named Mister Vito.

"Hello sir. I'd like to set up a personal meeting with you, on your ship. I have a shipment of china on a different planet, but unless you can pick my associates and I up, we are stranded on Aratasan. Would you pick us up shortly?"

Tiberian's retinue stand ready to fire back on any SWAT teams that dare to attack the mainframe room.

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga

Dadga looks into more detail about the smuggling work. Mostly trying to figure out how to contact them.

Char
Char heads to one of the restruants to enjoy a meal and to see if people have heard about what happened in the Aratasan System

[The_JJ]

Sorry about the delay everyone, and I'll be out next week, but never fear, I shall return.

'ska:

Shin Taiwan Day 15

The money for most of the passengers makes its way to the double blind accounts you had set up, and released as the hostages made their way into House Tessier hands. The electronic bits were quickly converted to more tangible goods, and whisked away by your men. A pretty typical deal, as far as hostage exchanges go.

The Tessier handle on the situation becomes pretty clear, however, the moment the other hostages are cleared you've got your money but the Glory to Me and Enforced Enjoyment dropped into opposite ends of the Shin Taiwan system mere hours later, skipping entirely past your pickets and scouts by disguising themselves as regular old cargo ships.

They've basically cut off further contact, and the two ships are scanning and searching anything leaving the system, and have threated to fire on anyone who fails to comply. Evidently, they're doing this with House Han's authority. The young Lady Lee is disappointed, but not notably surprised. The Captain shrugs. "You can't," she says, "let an example be made out of yourself. You have to make examples of other people."


-Sorry, you rolled a 1 on your 'not get surprised' check.

Good news, [ur=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale]Space is big.[/url] Bad news, Stealth is hard. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StealthInSpace) Now, you've got magic future tech that makes it easy, and you've parked the powered down liner in a small asteroid field, but they will be may well be sending more ships soon and they will be able to find you eventually.

Gobbo:

"Certainly sir, but where? Surely you aren't in the Elevator, I heard it's been taken over. Unless, you're in one of those cars they launched right when all this business started."

FE:

Day 2

Dadga:
It's surprisingly not very difficult. Dadga gets the feeling that the locals must own the local Han official in charge of such things else they'd be a little less cavalier about hiring strangers. A respectable bussiness man makes it clear that he's willing to pay fair prices for a number of imported good. It's not exactly smuggling exotic animals or exotic drugs kind of money, more a high volume, low risk low profit kind of deal.
Char:
New reports are muddled, but it seems that some building was attacked from orbit, possibly by terrorists, possibly because there were terrorists in the building, then the Tsarina herself arrived in the system with her whole fleet to sort out the issue, meanwhile a Roman nutjob took over the elevator for a brief hostage situation. The friendly local you were talking to was interrupted by her boyfriend just as she was about to tell you how that one was finally resolved.

However, there's also been some trouble on the streets back there.

[Murska]

To JJ:

Are ships inbound for the system blocked? At least none of my VIPs are onboard.

How strong are the two forces? Any chances a support action by the rest of the fleet can breach one?

[Bahumat]

"That'll have to do. I want us in secure facilities back at home as soon as possible. Thankfully, the military should ignore us. Get us moving, and update me on any developments."

[Forum Explorer]

Dadga
Dadga saves the message and information of the individual so that further contact could be established. We could use the money, though it isn't much. Still its something to do and will help us establish a new ground base.

Dadga begins plotting out where to make the pick up.


Char
Char nods and thinks about what the women had said before looking for more information. Now looking for the current state of affairs with the war against House Basudan.

[The_JJ]

Alright, I'm going to about call this one dead. We went stale for a while there and my muse fled to go play other games. Any final wrap ups, what if, WTF's, stuff you want answered I'll answer, maybe drop a few of the secrets I was hiding, and give you all some semblance of an epilogue.

[Bahumat]

:smallfrown:

Awwwwwww. I LIKED this one. If you ever do this era again, I want to reuse Hagane.

[Forum Explorer]

Same here I liked the Wracks. Aw well.