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Quarintine Protocol 3527-2 Active….
Secure line to 4th Hunter Group ships established….
OVERRIDE CODE ACCEPTED – Recorders offline…
Virtual Software coming online….Fleet Captain Xavier watches as the virtual images of the division officers flicker into life, each taking as seat at the table. As each image connects, the table extends to allow the newcomer to sit. The Officers settle into their seats, and the Fleet Captain begins…
Secure systems are now active and recorders are off. Everything we say here is completely isolated from any kind of monitoring from ISN.
You all know our situation. I couldn’t allow the 3rd Hunter group to continue with their action and destroy those civilian bases. No matter what, we are TSN officers first and those civilians needed our help.
What we need to do is decide what to do now. At this moment, ISN Command believe that the operative aboard the escaping fighter was able to breach our systems and upload a virus. As a result, they believe we have had to enforce quarantine protocols to isolate us from the main command network and therefore stop the potential spread of the virus. These quarantine protocols in place will buy us some time to come up with our story and make any necessary arrangements.
So, we need a plan. How are we going to convince ISN Command that what happened was not our fault. We need something airtight. We need something that also means that we won’t just be thrown back to “finish the job” as it were.
Any ideas?
// FORUM RP NOTES
// IC speech –BOLD
// Description of environment/ actions –italics
// All OOC chat – prefix with // (and avoid as much as possible please!)Nhaima tapped on her console and brought up a small list to be broadcast to the rest of the virtual conference hall.
The facts we cannot really change:
A station blew up.
The 3rd HG blew up.
We did not blow up.
That sector of space would also show significant radiation from nuclear detonations.Intendent Beaumont had also mentioned the comms traffic before we began jamming the sector.
I favor the following so far: Sorcha station boarded the ISN ships and took some of them over, then detonated a bunch of other mines – killing some others – while releasing the virus. Once we had the virus beaten back enough to retake control of our vessels, we hunted down and executed the captured ships. In the time it took us to eliminate the rogue elements of the 3rd HG, the remaining civilian targets boarded any vessel or escape pod they had and fled the sector. Since we are not petulant children though, we boarded and eliminated the stations’ survivors who did not or were stupid enough not to evacuate but preserved the hardware because it would cost time, effort,
and credits to repair and replace them all.As Xiph’s hologram flickers into life, he looks round and acknowledges the other officers with a nod.
Sir, is there a way that we can contact Subkommandant Hall back on Cerberus Command’s CIC deck, to ascertain the Navy’s thoughts at this time? Perhaps he may be able to suggest something to help us, especially as he may be able to discover what the 3HG’s CIC officer is aware of.
An image shimmers into being and resolves into an unshaven Matsiyan with damp, tousled hair, one wing of his collar trapped under the rest of his jacket.
I overheard that. Just managed to establish a link. They should be able to join us as soon as they can escape physical scrutiny. I’m still trying to catch up on logs and work out what you’ve been up to, but I figured it was important to join as quick as possible.
Mundy’s hologram is affected by irregular pulses of static, that make it falter and fade from time to time
I’m here, Sir, and have been following. I had to set up a couple of extra steps to secure comms from CIC. Mr. Hall, Mr. Morlock and I can now join in safely from Cerberus.
My official reports from Cerberus Station comms show that contact with 4th Hunter Group was lost as you reported the virus. Quarantine protocols are being maintained from this end, and I’m monitoring transmissions.
Was there already a clear order to depopulate the stations at that point and have the populations already left? Do any of theremaining station logs require alteration to support our narrative?
Pinpointing the one station as the source of infiltration and the loss of 3HG, seems to make sense.
“Relentless’ EW package should have scrambled all the sensor logs, at least as reported for intent Commander. As to the civilian pogrom, as best I know it was ordered by Group Leader Petrov himself, not from higher command. We can monitor the system remotely and hope that the civilians have begun an evacuation, but those types of requests would not be allowed within quarantine protocols particularly since data for the relevant system would come from a civilian dataflow – not a military one. Unless we are prepared to escalate this conflict far earlier than we are ready and to a much wider scale than we currently have the materiel support to wage, then I recommend we content ourselves with having given the civilians in that sector the ability to get their families and possessions and get out. They’re on space stations, relatively fixed points. It would be foolhardy to think we can defend them ad infinitum without more resources and accepting exposure.”
Nhaima shifted in her seat, unbuttoning her uniform jacket to better relax herself, and she rather innocently pulled the flap open and over the ISN insignia.
I was more trying to work out whether they actually needed to evacuate and flee or if they had the option of staying in place now that the “seditious” station had been dealt with.
“I don’t know Commander,” she responded, a touch of frustration leaking through her normal demeanor, “But I’m not sure it matters either way. Either we propose a cover story, similar to the one I outlined, where we avoid providing justification for the ‘cleansing’ of the remaining stations in the subsector and the distinction between those who fled and any who stayed is moot, or they deem in one way or another that the entire subsector still requires ‘cleansing’. And in the latter case, there is little I see of substance that we can do to help benefit the survival of any who stayed at this point any almost any action we take would indicate that we were also a threat even if it did not betray our true nature. Without anything to be gained, or planning in place to mitigate the consequences, it seems that it would be doing little more than wasting lives.”
She sighed and leaned back against her chair, rubbing at her temple with two fingers.
“We need to figure out how to figure out how to get home, and we need to figure out how to provide for and defend ourselves until we’ve discovered how to and made the preparations for our return. We’ve heard snippets about rebels and insurgents, but we need to know if they’re any better than what we’re running away from. That is, unless you’re of the mind to try trusting the Hegemony. But if we all act like the 3rd Hunter Groups’s CO, and if what I’ve accessed about my counterpart’s service record it’s more likely than not, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were taken for war crimes or propaganda pieces or something…”
Mundy nods.
From what I’ve been able to find out in the past two shifts, I can confirm that our counterparts have taken part in similar operations before, with no objections appearing on their records. That means there are no reasons to suspect them of rebellious motives – well, no more reasons than the amount of suspicion and paranoia that seem to be standard in the Empire. So as long as our story is well-constructed and plausible, we should be able to get away with a reprimand.
Fleet Captain,
Mundy adds, turning to Xavier and deliberately using the TSN rank
I need to warn you that the Group Leader has a reputation for being unusually tolerant of non-humans, to the point that 4th Hunter Group has become known as the unit you send “xenophiles” to when you want to be rid of them. “Xenophile” is an insult, by the way, Sir. The mildest of many.I hope we are talking at cross purposes somehow, Nhaima. I am in total agreement that we need to get home with our ethics intact. But please bear with me, I have only just been woken and have arrived on shift much earlier than I expected. I have read the initial INI brief drafted by Lt. Cdr. Hall and Excision’s log. I have reviewed the partial audio log of the engagement. (We need to tighten up copying ALL intership communications to the comms relay, whether broadcast or direct.) Nowhere is it recorded that there was an order to purge the civilian station populations or destroy the stations themselves. If that order is not on record then we do not have to try so hard to evacuate large populations. Simply having thousands of migrants flee the sector is not a solution. Where will they go? How will they survive and avoid further Imperial scrutiny? If an order is on record that we might be required to go back and enforce, then I propose we revise those records.
Otherwise I support the idea of Scolcha having been infiltrated by a crack team of operatives who lured in and took over 3HG vessels and damaged the rest. 4HG have completed a security sweep and validated remaining population identity and clearance. Some residents fled in the heat of the engagement.
Am I on the same page now?
“Group Leader Petrov’s orders were relayed over the local comms network, not through the Imperial military network…. not protocol but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it for effect. Between the 3HG’s destruction and the EW virus, there’s no way to be certain if the message got to higher command or if the local space was as far as it got.
“As for where the go, I don’t know, but we again aren’t in a position to overtly help them. I also expect that if the Empire would accept one of its Hunter Groups so callously carrying out the destruction of a civilian population, then it doesn’t keep strict, centralized, and detailed records of that population. No need, if they are so expendable. No evacuation attempt was ordered, so none of the sites likely had any strategic military or manufacturing assets. Maybe some people of minor note, but that could just as easily be explained by being off station at the time of the incident – and all of this is assuming ISN command heard the execution order and would still intend to carry it out.
“I sympathize with your intentions Commander, but I don’t see that we have the ability to improve their lot one way or another beyond attempting to manufacture a cover story which does not provide the justification to immediately return and reduce the sector to ash. We cannot provide them food, we cannot provide them shelter. We do not know our surroundings well enough to advise them where to find both, and even if we did we would need to attempt another breach of ISN protocol when we’re already drawing scrutiny for the time and space we bought them. How do you think that the Navy Security Bureau would react to stumbling across a communiqué from an officer of the Fourth Hunter Group to anyone in that sector advising them on their resettlement? We have done all I can see we are reasonably able to do let alone without gravely imperiling ourselves, and if we maintain our cover a while longer then we will be safer for it and we will have the resources and opportunity to perhaps defend others.
“If you are of the same mind Commander,” she concluded, “then yes sir, we are on the same page.”
I was monitoring the comms traffic from my station, and Group Leader Petrov’s orders were clear to destroy all the bases, not just one.
My concern is that the 3HG CIC officer would be aware of that, just as ours would be of our orders. I’m sure that he will have been debriefed – in some form or other – by now.
Xiph turns to look at the Group Leader
Have we heard from Subkommandant Hall yet?
Group Leader Petrov relieved you of command, Sir. If that got back to his CIC officer, that’s an additional complication we don’t need.
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