Setting
Admiral Fatih Sayilgan at Fort Veritas was on the line immediately. “I am dispatching a full unit to your location now. Do you have live feed, and can you transmit that via uplink to Fort Veritas’s command center?” Sayilgan leaned over an array of glowing monitors in the communications room in the command center. “Lieutenant, access satellite feed over Drulović’s house.” He opened a channel of communication to the rapid response team stationed at the base, “Captain, get your men to Director Drulović’s house; there’s a confirmed Aschen presence, possibly hostile.”
Rage swallowed Ari whole, and it was all she could do to prevent herself from creating a perfect mess of George's matter.
The visual that Alameda had streaming directly due to Ari's artificial ocular flickered momentarily.
"...your presence here makes you a representative of your people, George," Ari said softly; all too softly. "Every moment you spend here is an offense committed in their name. Your assumption that your attempts to communicate would be intercepted or ignored notwithstanding, you never even attempted to go about this in any civil matter. How entirely like a childlike civilization--so powerful, yet lacking any sense of foresight or diplomacy."
She tilted her chin up, reaching up to brush the hair behind her ear. She was tensed up, but it wasn't immediately clear how.
"Why do you and all the rest of your folk have to always take the ridiculously over-powered balls-to-the-goddamn-wall approach? What the fuck are all your males lacking that makes you feel like you immediately need to prove something?" Her weight shifted slightly, her feet setting slightly apart, bracing herself.
"...makes me think that you might be jealous that I wouldn't let you anywhere near my 'cockhole,' krea re'err kreat'ir."
"This is the Clarity of Faith, I just picked up a Radiological signature coming from the ship above Drulovic's house, I want a sitrep ASAP." He said before he turned to the AI. "Bring the ship about and prepare to board." He ordered, before he got back on the comms.
"If there are nuclear weapons present, I strongly recommend the commencement of immediate evacuations of the city."
"It just wouldn't be the same if I went through the diplomatic approach, your government would try to detain me the second I set foot on this world, after-all, business is business." He said, eyes falling onto the woman.
"Are we going to have some semblance of cooperation, so I can get my job done?"
"This is the Commissar, we have the area contained ... Move your asses into cover!"
Captain Alameda ran to the Claymore, several technicians working at the electronic modules under a tarp beside the vehicle. He saw a Cavalry specialist standing out in a small platform where the turret would normally be, using an advanced optical sight to identify the main target.
"What have you got, Specialist?" He commanded, waiting beside the hull of the vehicle.
"Lighting points for the drones -- this thing is right over the house but it's bending the local area."
“Oh, put that thing down, Mr. Montgomery,” said Drulović, rolling her eyes. She leaned back in her seat, almost slumped there, her eyes flicking from Ari to the Aschen man, resting on the bridge of his nose. She swallowed another bite of rice, taking her time as she ate. “I think you take too much pleasure in interrupting other people’s evenings. It’s an unbecoming trait.” Drulović gave Ari a sidelong glance. “Then again, Mr. Montgomery, I don’t imagine that you care much at all for manners. I’ve never known you to put any on, you know.”
Drulović nodded to Ari. “Please, Ari, sit down. It’s no good to have everyone standing in the kitchen -- or anyone, really. You’ve hardly touched your dinner,” she added mildly. Though Drulović spoke of dinner and manners and maintained a decidedly impassive expression, there was some darker tone underpinning her voice, suggesting her true feelings on the entire affair. “Your food will get cold, you know.”
There it was, inside the device George held. All it would take was a second's exploration--invisible fingers probing it momentarily--before there was the most minute tweak. She disconnected the simple yet all too integral mechanism that made pushing the button on the damn thing any more fruitful than a placebo.
After that, she went into a deeper trance. A maddening buzz filled her mind as frequencies weaved in and out of the metals in her mind and her eye. The energy of the Reverence throbbed vibrantly in a way that Ari found impossible to describe, as her psionic abilities lent to her a whole new sense of perceiving the world. Being as she was merely exploring and in no way influencing the ship, there was no way for her to be detected...
It was only a matter of time before she would find the blazing core of the ship--the source of all its energy. Meanwhile, she was distantly aware that Drulovic was speaking. With a faint frown, Ari did indeed reach behind her to rest her hand on her chair, pulling it out to perch herself upon it quietly. For all the world, it would appear that she was bitter but subdued.
"I don't know what's going on down there, but the nuke on the ship just went hot, my AI is trying to access the other AI and figure out what's going on, but I'm being locked out." He said, grabbing the railing as the massive Reverence I jerked and began to pull away, utilizing full thrust to break away from the stealth ship.
"I want main batteries primed and ready to fire on that ship on my command." The Commander ordered, as the Reverence began to put some distance between itself and the hot nuke.
Of course Ari would learn there was no core in the ship, but power was divided between four independent deuterium fusion reactors, networked into a powerful AI intelligence grid and dozens of specialized systems, of course if one reactor was taken offline, the other four could compensate for the loss in power.
George kept his eyes on Ari and Drulovic.
"Tell me how to plug my leak, and I will leave the way I came, and you can resume your dinner, as if nothing has happened."
"This is the Captain; we're prioritizing targets now -- returning them to Mission Control." He said, looking at a screen in front of him while sifting through a support menu on his computer.
"Darkhammer Actual this is the Captain, what have we got for support?"
The Artillery Major crossed his arms within the safety of FOB Darkhammer, watching a holographic display with several images float in front of him. He turned his shoulders to a technician seated in front of a control module.
"Send an authoriation request to TNG Mission Control for an indirect-fire mission -- sling up the Eight-Eight Kinetic Strick Missile, call to the General for mission statement." He said, turning back to the screen as the technician quickly set about directing the artillery personnel of FOB to their positions.
“I’m afraid you’ll have quite a bit of trouble with that, Mr. Montgomery,” responded Drulović with a small shrug. “It was Mr. McGregor -- Mollem, is his given name -- who first contacted Hataf, not too long after a meeting in which he came to Terra with vague threats -- much like many people I know... After him, Mr. Montgomery, it was Mr. Fazekas who opened lines of trade with Hataf’s purses, and I imagine you have very little control over what Mr. Fazekas does. I doubt you’ll be able to, as you say, ‘plug your leaks.’” Her eyebrows knotted very closely together.
She was strong--but perhaps not as strong as a Reverence. Not only did the psionic dampeners succeed in repelling her, but the moment they struck her, her head began to throb. Her jaw set and her fingers tightened on the back of her chair as she fought back any other indication of the agony she was suddenly subject to. It was through sheer force of will that she refrained from screaming, clutching her head, then vomiting.
She had a choice to make. Perhaps several. This...was not her strong suite. She was better when circumstances were narrow and there was only one choice to make. In this case, there were several, and they were not all based entirely on good, sound, objective logic. Some were based on raw desire. For instance, she craved nothing more than to tear George apart, atom by atom...
In the end, she found that the wisest course of action was monitor the nuke-bearing Reverence above, and ensure her own--and Arianne's--survival. This was what she had been charged with, and why she had come along, after all. She needn't let her intense need to destroy George get in the way.
She drew in a slow breath and began to establish her field.
"I am receiving IFF, LDA Codes are legit, I am getting a priority one order to dock the Stealth ship in the hangar bays and extract the LDA Director." She said, and then the Clarity of Faith began to close in on the second ship, pushing forward and closing the distance before it was soon directly above the smaller ship, massive hangar bays opening up and gravity lift engaging.
"AI.. what are you doing?" The Commander asked.
"Carrying out my orders." She said, as the Reverence descended slightly, and a gravity well pulled the smaller corvette up into the Hangar bay.
"Director, we'll be in touch, seeing as UCON is so ready to fire upon an Aschen ship, I'll send a note next time, It's going to be a shame if the Combined Fleet of Righteous Purpose gets updated orders because a General has a twitchy trigger finger, regardless, hopefully it will be sent to you, and not some TNG lackey, but I can't trust the mail system these days, especially with animals running the show, I bid you farewell." He said, before he slowly stepped out of the kitchen and out the door, and eventually, into the gravity well of the Clarity of Faith to be sucked up into the belly of the ship, and once George was aboard, he shook his head. "It's amazing the chaos, an opened fusion reactor would cause, As if I would honestly bring a hot nuke into Terran space."
"Mission Control, I have two heavy missiles for an immediate fire mission -- Cerberus Kinetic Strike Package online." He said, watching a video feed from the head-set of a Cavalry officer at the artillery platforms by the launcher.
"Forty-five second flight time from launch to impact, two more can be fired in another minute. These slugs are extreme-velocity high-precision, all we will need is a solid position fixture on that warhead. If they know what's good for them, they'll shut their asses up and get the hell out of here."
The Captain turned away from his interface, shouting up to the Cavalry officer standing in the cupola with the optical device attached to his eyes.
"We've got a Cerberus ringed to fire, but we'll need a strong enough bead on that warhead -- what have you got on that thing?" Alameda ordered, turning back to his interface.
"We have an Electronic Interdiction Vehicle on-station, suggesting area dampening to enhance strike effectiveness."
"Looks like they're bugging out -- you sure this wasn't a drill?" The Cavalrymen responded before using a small designating laser to gauge the distance to the target.
"Three klicks, Hoks ... look about nine-hundred meters. Who lets these guys take the wheel? They sure like to get low to the ground." He remarked before disembarking the Arbiter and jumping down to the asphalt.
"This is Captain Kosser at Battery Twelve, we have confirmation of Aschen ship providing security for our target. Advise?" He repeated one final time into the headset, cramped in the confines of the Tactical Command car parked in a fortified structure within the FOB. Parsing through telemetry and firing data, the Captain watched the six anti-ship cannons of the FOB's artillery platform adjust themselves with minute computerized actions. The constant hiss and whirr of machinery could be heard out the open hatch of the vehicle.
"If we're gonna' fire ... Battery Twelve to Mission Control, interrogative, that Aschen Reverence is still guarding the priority target?"
"The Aschen," she said slowly, "are a menace that really...need to be dealt with." Her voice was distant. She reached up to rub at her eyes with one hand, ending the transmission to Alameda as far as a visual went--but of course she could be heard.
"What's the word? All the MACs are running hot, just put in the infor and they'll fire." He said, pulling off his patrol cap and scratching at his scalp with two fingers.
"Probably just a drill, all I saw up there was an Aschen ship. Hell, big enough target, but I thought the General would want to give us something ... well, harder to hit."
"What the hell is going on up there?!" The Commissar shouted out as he pulled himself up from the ground as the Reverence loomed overhead; shaking his head once, he leveled the shotgun against his shoulder and pointed down the street to Drulovic's house.
"I don't care if that ship is here for a funeral, let the FOB handle it, secure the area. Now!" He ordered the men forward, a trio of ITDM soldiers following him at a brief sprint as they rushed down the street and charged to the door of Drulovic's house.
"This is the ITDM! Sound off if you're not dead!" He shouted out as he approached, keeping his weapon aimed down while the others behind him swept the street with their weapons.
It took a few seconds for her to realize that they were meant to move. With a deep and irritated sigh, she pushed herself to a stand. For a moment, she steadied herself with a hand on the chair she had been sitting in. Her eyes opened and she frowned.
The plates on the table slowly started to slide.
"We should ensure that he is not invited to any more dinners," she murmured in a distracted attempt at humor for Drulovic's sake. She shifted her gaze over to Mahi and squinted against the agony that any sort of light caused her at the moment.
"Where are we headed, sr'vehn?"
"Alright, we have the street secured for extraction. Bring the Director out and get her mobile as fast as possible -- I don't want to stick around for any surprises that ship might have." He said, looking up and down the street as another soldier beside him scanned the road with his eyes.
"They said it was the Aschen? Huh, thought they had some more ... tact." He remarked, cradling his weapon into his shoulder as a pair of Coalition vehicles rolled down the street; the main contingent of the armored convoy guarding the NPA security.
"This is Captain Alameda, we've got a clean scope under that Aschen ship. I don't think they're hostile ... too much," Alameda remarked as he heard the engine of the Leopard APC roar to life. Coming in at a low prowl, the four drones that had been flying in a loose circle over Drulovic's house appeared overhead the Captain's vehicle.
"Saddle up and lock it down, we're oscar-mike with the Director. Stand-by for objective intel."
Ari watched passively as Mahi interacted with Drulovic. Frankly, her head hurt too much to really make any kind of interjection. She merely found it distantly interesting that the Director had such a casual disregard for threats against her life--and Ari relished that about Drulovic.
"This is the Commissar -- Captain, we're headed to Fort Veritas before any of this gets worse." He said, jumping onto the side of the troop carrier by gripping at a handle.
"Affirmative, CommEx. We'll be right behind you, I want you forward the convoy -- make sure we don't get stuck in traffic or something." The Captain ordered, and the Commissar remained hanging on the APC as it rolled down the street, pulling ahead of the convoy before burning onward through the path toward the Fort.
"Looks like we've got a clear route to the Fort, don't think we'll be having any more surprises."