- This topic has 14 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 11 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Xavier takes a seat at the head of the conference table. Next to him, officers from his own ship are present in person. He places his data pad on the table and activates the conferencing software. Virtual images of officers from the division begin to appear, saluting and taking a seat. Xavier acknowledges each as they arrive, returning their salute with a crisp salute and a nod.
His face determined but with a hint of pride, he meets the eye of each officer in turn before beginning.
Before I begin, I want to thank each and every single Junior Officer for their dedication to the division and to their duty as TSN officers. I have read the reports. The decisions you’ve had to take were tough. You’ve used the intel well and acted when needed.
Turning to Quinn.
Lieutenant-Senior Quinn, you’re leadership of this division was outstanding. You have demonstrated real leadership qualities and upheld the best principles of the TSN. Thank you for keeping everyone in one piece. And well done.
Xavier pauses for a few moments, letting his words settle. Then, he taps a few controls on his data pad, bringing up sensor feeds of local maps of the area. With the determination and professional tone expected of him, Xavier begins his brief.
Now to business. We’re located here, in Sector 17 – Atlantis system. Currently, our ship systems are running on minimal power to try and avoid detection from ISN forces. With the commendable actions undertaken recently to recover the senior officers, it leaves us with few options. We are in a better position though because of the preparations that were organised before recovering the SOs; our supplies are currently at good levels and we are well placed to make an exit through a nearby jump point.
Zooming in, Xavier indicates the research station, located in grid D4
The research station here was damaged in the recent action. It may be possible to bring it back online and give us a temporary base of operations from where we can make our next move. We can’t hang around long however, and we need to consider whether doing so is worth it. There are reasons why we don’t necessarily want to leave Atlantis just yet, and this station would give us a refuel and supply base as we transit out of the system fully. I’ll allows Commander Matsiyan to explain more in a moment as to the intelligence information we have.
Zooming the map out, Xavier changes the display to show the gate network map.
With Waypoint 60 being only one transition away from this location, it does gives us a way out of Atlantis system and two potential jump points from there, making it harder for ISN forces to track us and trap us in one system. They’ll have to split their forces if they want to pursue us or focus on one location, leaving the other completely unprotected.
The jump to Waypoint 60 provides us with the greatest number of options too. One option is to hold there and think our next steps, sending out a scout through the jump points to see if the ISN are mobilising forces against us. There will be automated command systems that we can utilise for resupply and another temporary base. Instead of holding there, we could make a second quick jump to keep them guessing and not allow them opportunity to react.
There again, we have to think about which jump to make. The quickest way out of ISN controlled space is through the Danae system into the Euphini Expanse. However, when in Euphini we have nowhere else to go as there are no gated jump points out, aside from the Danae gate. We could get lucky and find a natural jump point, but we’d have little idea of where that might take us. The other option is to head towards Hjorden space. With our links with the TSN, this could provide us the best safe haven. It does mean we are in ISN space for longer, and even if the systems are still not under complete ISN control, it exposes us to more risk of meeting with ISN resistance.
The ISN response can’t be underestimated. You all saw the size of their fleet deployed at Atlantis Command. Trying to punch a hole through that fleet to get to a jump point beyond would result in unacceptable losses. If we meet with such a force, we’d have only two options – fall back or surrender.
These are the facts and these are the risks. I know you’ve all been working to gather important intel to contribute, and this will likely determine our the course of action we take. What we need to do now is bring together this intel and come to a decision on where we go and what we do next.
Xavier sits back, opening the discussion to the officers.
Cdt. Song, looking rather surprised at being the first to speak up, begins:
Sir, if I may: there was a transmission at the beginning of last shift, mentioning the Nixoran Planetary Alliance opening its borders to Imperial defectors. Does that provide another option?
The nixora alliance is on the other side of the empire, I dont know if we could reach their boarders… And after that last transmission I’d assume that there is an imperial blockade in place.
“We have three primary objectives remaining: Retrieving Lt. Cdr. Mundy, retrieving the AWOL cadet, and getting home. I believe that order to be the most efficient, all other things being equal. Having Oblivion’s XO, let alone a highly skilled officer in her own right, back with the fleet is of more use than someone who is just going to spend time in a brig but we need both if we’re to get everyone home.
“I believe I am already on record as to my belief with regards to our ethical and moral imperatives sir, so I will avoid rehashing them unless you think it necessary. Suffice it to say that I think we have no justification to undertake regime change or wage war against the ISN, nor lend our support to this universe’s TSN. We may act in defense of civilians in particular and specific instances but we may not be an aggressor. To that end, we had a few intel leads to run down but having Lt. Cdr. Mundy would likely assist in that effort. If memory serves, she was reactive to our universe’s artifacts. She may well be reactive to artifacts in this universe as well and those artifacts may have a similar effect to pull us back home.”
I pulled every scrap of intel out of INI and routine ISN channels before Hall and I left. Its currency will decay rapidly.
Mundy was transferred separately because her Aunt, Admiral Lady Mundy pulled some serious strings. They were treating her with kid gloves in case they got their knuckles rapped. They could afford to while they had the rest of the SOs, but now she’s all they have. I would be surprised if they don’t interpret the Hjocoa samples the Lt. Cdr. held for analysis from the smuggling op. as possession and charge her purely as a formality.
We don’t talk about this much in public, but it isn’t exactly a secret that the Lt. Cdr. and I share some kind of extra-sensory exchange of perceptions. Under certain circumstances we are able to exchange information, usually brief flashes of visual input. I’m not receiving much at the moment but it is consistent with shipboard stateroom and now very dull interiors.
Intel also corroborates that an admiralty fast passenger transport, essentially a diplomatic courier, made the trip from ATLCMD to Fenring.
The other thing I picked up is an ongoing cat-and-mouse game over the last few months of heightened vigilance against Dissident infiltration of the Fenring facility. No real way to know who is ahead at the moment.
There is also a big buildup of ISN forces in Atlantis. These seem to be regular First BATCOM but they seem to have been preceded by some unspecified force codenamed “ATLATL”. As you might expect there have also been a number of INI personnel deployments in the Titan system in recent months.
Morlock checks his notes
From what i can tell, the Ixoran system has a main sequence star and 8 planets in its orbit. Ixora 5-7 are in the Goldilocks area and support most of their life. they do have colonies on the other planets, but those require support form the prime world, which is said to be Ixora 7. Nantek is a rogue planetoid – really its a very large asteroid that was in the area – that has been positioned on the outskirts of that system, in a somewhat stable orbit.
According to the last broadcast, they have a shield powered by the Cascade, and that somehow surrounds the entire star system, and they open it briefly to take in refugees.
Positioned in the empire at large… That i do not know. From what i can tell from analyzing the transmissions it is most likely on the outskirts of the empire, and the best route to its general area would be through heavily protected space. I don’t think this would be the best option, considering we don’t have any exact coordinates or cloak tech to sneak us through.
We could go to the imperial border and then skirt along there until we reach it, but that would take longer than is plausible in this situation.
I don’t have a great deal about Fenring. It seems to be a heavily fortified base at the trailing edge of Atlantis second sector in from Rimward. Dense concentration of DS bases surrounded by mines and weapons platforms with overlapping fields of fire. Any vessel trying to dock with the central facility is going to run a gauntlet and have difficulty finding a space not under fire. We either need to punch a hole in the tight minefield or reduce some of the weapons platforms, well… unless we could infiltrate a marine team aboard something ID’d as ISN authorised. But I’m not sure we have access to try something like that.
Xavier listens carefully, mulling over each point in his mind.
Based on what we know, we can’t risk an attack on Fenring. A light division like ours is simply going to be no match for massed ISN forces and a fortress base. With Mundy’s connections to high level officials in the ISN in this universe, it might afford her some protection for the time being.
Sighing, Xavier leans forward in his seat.
We cannot rescue Mundy at this time. We just don’t have the capability to do so. But I will not leave an officer behind. We will rescue Mundy as soon as we are able.
Hamilton took off to find the TSN and find help that way. We need to follow her. If we can find allies in the TSN and gather support, we’ll stand a better chance orchestrating and successfully carrying out a raid on Fenring.
Matsiyan, do what you can to monitor Mundy’s situation. Try and make sure she knows we will be coming for her, but for the time being she needs to sit tight and wait. If her situation deteriorates, we need to know as soon as possible to be able to act though. In the meantime, we’ll make way for Waypoint 60. From there, we’ll try and navigate through to Hjorden space. That seems to be the closest neutral point outside of ISN space.
Lets get as much information as we can on where Hamilton went. If we can contact her and link up with any TSN she has met, then we will.
Cdt. Song suggests,
It’s a bit of a long shot, Sir, but if we took a look at the ships that left Promethean about the time Hamilton went missing, and then looked at the ships that left from those destinations, and so on… it’s an exponential nightmare, but it’s all I can think of.
And maybe Ens. Tam has some information about that transmission Hamilton sent.
Aye, sir.
Matsiyan turns away and rises, his face already thoughtful. A moment later he staggers and leans on the nearest wall, hands rising to his head. He stares sightless for a moment and mutters. It usually takes more than that. I think she’s… dreaming. A man, thin, tired, middle-aged. Weeping over a woman rocking a dead child. Wait… she’s not… human. He sucks in a deep breath, pulls himself erect. Pilot’s wings, grey hair, a package, a handshake. another breath Sweating, headache, a metal shape in a spiral of smoke.
He shakes his head. It’s gone. He looks up and says more loudly. Excuse me. I’ll get something for this headache and see what I can turn up. I’ll report as soon as I have anything. He sketches a shaky salute and walks out carefully.
Lt. Cdr, Vaj? Welcome back, sir. I’ve been keeping an eye on routine channels while you were all away. I notice you had a public message delivery at Promethean before we departed.
“Baggage safely delivered. Harry ate his portion of the fifty Latin tons of pork with never a cross word. Hope to run into you in one of our dens of yore. -Johanssen, CO Nordottir”
Does that mean anything to you, sir?
Cdt. Song stares at Tam, a look of complete puzzlement on her face.
Nordottir? She scans through her notepad I don’t understand, I can’t find any ship registered by that nameHe regards her blandly. Strange isn’t it? Who says “never a cross word” these days?
Anyway, the ship tracking may already be started if we look in the data filtered out from Lts. Nhaima and Ironclad’s hunt for potential INI vessels.
I did attempt to reverse transmit a message to Hamilton, but I did not receive a reply. It would require a good bit of jiggery-pokery to route a message through to Promethean and direct an antenna appropriately, but I could certainly give it a go. Actually given how they were setup, I could look for similar potential receivers in a number of public message systems. If the marines have cleared the asteroid base there might be suitable transmission equipment set up there.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.