In the waning hours of the cycle traffic had picked up around the station as ships came to and from the Varden titan. Troop and matériel freighters like the
Promethean convoyed the initial ground and security forces like precious food to the queen of a giant stellar hive, piloting drones and manned craft dipping and weaving through the lumbering vessels that would be the metal homes of the Blue Legion for their stay in Ayenee and Eden. Most of the personnel transported to the Ardenian ship would be the vital administrators and diplomatic personnel that would oversee the expulsion of the Taiyou from the Varden home. These individuals were skilled administrators, capable of speaking several languages and having a propebsity to absorb cultures and civilizations unlike any they had witnessed before. The others would be embedded directly with CONCORD and Varden forces, as both a means of deniability to the Empire as well as maximizing the sparse forces the Apparatus could contribute: while many others would simply be given a ship, currency to raise a mercenary force and the simple order to harry the Taiyou until they retreated or were annihilated.
In the depths of one of the orbital's control station, the Chairman stood across the holographic image of the transnational government's Minister of the Administration: Petros Zhirayr poured over the station's personnel list and contingent, thousands of marines and hundreds of tons of armored vehicles, artillery pieces and would be the first members of the Apparatus to leave the Home galaxy.
"Very good, very good Chairman." Petros steel eyes were bright with a sense of anticipation that not even thousands of lightyears of distance could hide. "From a debriefing with the Military Council, the Apparatus is moving all over the galaxy: your little expedition should be overshadowed by the rest of their movements at the Aschen border and the Local Region."
"While we're organizing the expedition here, we are waiting to recieve a Varden delegation to bring the Apparatus up to date on the situation in Ayenee and Eden." The Chairman spoke from behind a holo-digital overlay, great planes of light shifting around him as they scoured maps od Andromeda, Home, and Onyx. "Initial planning for operations actually on-the-ground in Ayenee and Eden have yet to take shape but we are confident the General Staff will have the information they need soon.”
“Good, Chairman. As you know, the secrecy of this mission is paramount -- duly so, I am the only member of ONE with executive oversight of this expedition. Everything is to be reported directly through the Military Council.” As Petros let his gaze wander from the maps and overlays the Chairman nodded his head slightly, even before the Legion had been assembled the numbers, names and localities of anything involved had been classified into obscurity. Amongst the great bureaucratic ocean of the Coalition, nothing but the most precise eye could even ascertain what these Blue Legion personnel were.
”Chairman Kage, we have a Varden shuttle inbound.”
“Bring them on in, we’ll handle the exchanges while the rest of the transfer is underway.”
Onboard the central bay of the station, a detail of marine Security Police were waiting behind a grav-dock as the shuttle was ushered in to the orbital’s primary superstructure. As they entered, the two security drones escorting the craft from the titan peeled off to return to duty for another transport, having guided them through the clogged traffic of ferrying vessels.
As the shuttle came to a rest it was restrained in the large bay with magno-gravitic couplings, the device producing suspending fields that shimmered with bright crackling pulses of energy. With the two folds finally stabilizing, the translucent fields were able to hold the bulk of the shuttle over the gaping expanse of the bay under them.