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Convergence








As the Gallic Royal Enclave carves its home in the Hebrides cluster in Sirius, tensions rise within. Nobles and officers strive to get ahead of each other, eager to secure more power in the future Kingdom. To this end, Colonel Maximilian Saint-Just sends battlecruiser Alsace and his top agent to seize a derelict trading hub. Unbeknownst to the Colonel, Crown-Prince Joseph DeFrance has also found the installation and dispatched destroyer Royale DeFrance II along with a detachment of the Royal Guard to claim the station for himself.

Now the Royal Guard are sweeping through the derelict in search of the lonely life sign. Meanwhile, the Alsace remains cloaked and can't receive information from the agent without revealing itself. Both parties don't know what exactly they're dealing with. But they have the orders to eliminate any resistance or witnesses who find out about the station...
Derelict Trading Hub
Command Center


Ever since the news about a shuttle full of potential hostiles, Leila was twitchy: always checking her motion scanner and expecting a heads up from the Alsace. So far, she hasn't encountered any intruders, but she knew she'd have to. Her orders were clear: make sure that no other people, even other Enclave officers, would find out about the facility.

As much as she was certain that she'd meet the uninvited guests, Leila also knew that at least some of them would end up near the command center eventually. That's why she had taken some time to set a trap. Now she was all out of explosives and EMP devices. Even her plasma rifle had been put to good use as part of the contraption that would ensure her survival. It was a gamble, but Leila figured she'd need an element of surprise when dealing with an overwhelming number of hostiles.

With the trap set, the agent rushed towards the central terminal to see what exactly she was dealing with, and what defenses the station had. "Come on, come on, give me something," she mumbled, as the system loaded. The interface was in Bretonian, but the HUD of her Manticore combat suit provided a good enough translation almost in real time.

As the lieutenant went through directories and commands, her hopes crashed. The station had nothing: no shields, no turrets, no drones. She looked at the Triumph destroyer floating outside the station, as if mocking her now. Now the only way to destroy the ship was the intervention of the cloaked Alsace. Just in case, Leila had also reactivated the station's comm systems. She was reluctant to hail the hostile ship and try negotiations just yet. But every second spent in vain on going through the station's systems and trying to find a solution to the cruiser problem made hailing it less and less unappealing.

Stubbornly, Leila went through the available commands and systems again. Cameras! That's a start. She ran the command, hoping to get at least some idea what she was up against. "I hope not all of you have died out of boredom," Leila mumbled, activating the systems. The holoscreens of the terminal flickered to life. Some of those were just static, but others actually provided feeds. Even though the lights were turned on, the cameras were useful; they had apparently been outfitted with night mode. Leila had to give the Bretonians some credit.

"Alright, let's see what we're dealing with," she rubbed her hands (not so satisfying in a spacesuit) and put them on the controls, as a pianist who is about to perform a chef-d'oeuvre.
Derelict Trading Hub
Lower Decks


Alpha squad moved quickly and efficiently through the corridors of the station, and that was when the lights suddenly turned on. "Damn! Night vision off, hit the walls." Catherine shouted out an order as she suddenly, and instinctively pressed herself up against a nearby wall, trying to keep herself out of any potential fire that may have come down the corridor. Clearly expecting it. She wanted to rub her eyes, but instead she squeezed them shut and quietly counted to herself — she was used to flash bangs going off, but the sudden switch from night vision to what essentially was looking at a bright white screen less than five inches from your face was unnerving. Whoever this was, she didn’t doubt for a second that they didn’t know what they were doing, and they probably had similar training that the marines themselves had. It was almost an even playing field.

She opened her eyes back up and looked to see that the other three marines in her squad had pressed themselves up against a wall as well, and were also expecting to take shots from further down the corridor — but nothing came of it. "Whoever this is might try doing that again. Keep night vision off if the lights suddenly go out. We’ll do this the old fashion way if needed, oui?" Catherine called out over the comms to her immediate squad members, all of whom replied back after a couple of seconds, clearly taking the same amount of time to refocus on the task at hand. She won’t be caught off guard again. She took a moment and hoisted the rifle up to her shoulder and pressed forwards, from what Jacques had commented over the comms a moment ago, they were nearing an elevator shaft, or as she knew them as — a killing ground.

"Jacques, find us another path that doesn’t involve the damn elevator shaft. Please and thank you, oui?" She called out as they pushed forwards.

Jacques replied in kind over the radio, "You’re moving in the appropriate direction, there looks to be a maintenance shaft nearby that might have a ladder leading up several decks. You’ll want to take that. Thankfully you’re not wearing a combat skeleton so you’ll fit with ease."

"Oui, we’re coming up onto the elevator shaft now, and we see the maintenance hatch. Also, we’ve confirmed there’s a person aboard the station. Your sensors are not screwed up. Have they moved from their last known position?"

"Non. They’re in the control room. We’ll keep you posted if they move. Royale DeFrance out."
Derelict Trading Hub
Command Center


Through the cameras, Leila watched as the marines progressed through the station. They were slowly but surely heading towards the control room. Better slowly than surely, Leila thought as she found another way to interfere with the intruders. She had reactivated the gravity generator earlier, and the station was now at comfortable 0.8g. But nobody said it always had to be that way.

As Leila cranked up the power and output, it slowly went to to 1g... Then 1.2g... 1.7g, 2g... Unfortunately, that was the limit. Even then, the interface indicated that the gravity generator wouldn't work for longer than 8 hours under such stress. However, the operative didn't need 8 hours to do the job.

Although the exoskeleton helped Leila move, her body inside still felt the change that came with the gravity. Lucky for her, she didn't have to step too far away from the console for now. The intruders, however, had a climb ahead of them. Hopefully, having to walk through such an environment would exhaust the intruders and leave them open for whatever other tricks Leila could quickly stow up her sleeve.
Derelict Trading Hub
Lower Decks


A flickering light began to appear on the side of Catherine’s HUD, the gravity of the station was beginning to slowly climb. Of course it was, she thought as she had just begun climbing up the ladder of the maintenance well. She tilted her down to see how far back her fellow Marines were, the last one just grabbing the rungs of the ladder when he, himself, called out that the gravity was beginning to rapidly climb, and then suddenly it stopped climbing at 2g.

Catherine tightened her grip against the ladder rungs and took in a deep and annoyed breath. She trained under similar gravity wells back on Nevers, and her home planet was a bit higher in gravity than old Earth (at least from what the scientific records stated.) "Just another day on the training course," She called out to the marines below her. The pressure was bearable, but without an exo-skeleton to assist it made the climb slow and cumbersome. "Remind me… next time… we do something… like this we bring some… Callac exoskeletons with us." She muttered into the comms to her men on the climb up. The other squads radioed in that they too were experiencing a gravity increase. It didn’t seem to affect them all too much, as they didn’t have any literal ladders to climb up, only a few stairwells here and there. Charlie squad remained at the hangar providing security for the extraction point, so they themselves were completely fine.

It took Catherine and her team of three about fifteen minutes to climb up the length of the ladder to the floor they were expecting to exit on, getting them a lot closer to the command center. Due to her planet of birth, she was relatively less tired upon climbing out of the maintenance shaft. She took her time helping her fellow marines up as well. Two of whom immediately went to a nearby wall and rested against it, their visors fogged up by the heavy breathing. "Alright… you two set up a defensive perimeter. The two of us will continue forward as planned. When you’re both ready to move, you’ll regroup with us."

"Non, Commandant. I’m good, just needed to catch my breath. Hahah, that was a helluva climb."
"Oui. I’m good to carry on as well, ma’am."

"Very well… weapons ready, according to the schematics, that Capitaine Belot has so graciously forwarded to us, we’re only a few more clicks away from the command center. Should be about five or so more minutes until we’re there. So anything can happen between now and then. Oui?"
Derelict Trading Hub
Command Center


Leila watched as the marines struggled with the increased gravity. She also felt that pull now, but without having to step away from the console for now, all she experienced was a slight discomfort, especially while moving her arms. One particular group were approaching the command center, making Leila all the more anxious. Would her welcome be enough?

Just as an extra precaution, she sealed whatever doors next to the power core. Without it, the cameras would go down, and she'd end up blind. Speaking of which... She went through the available cameras, searching for other squads and trying to figure out their directions. With any luck, she'd catch someone passing through a door and try to shut it as they pass, hopefully incapacitating at least one intruder.
Derelict Trading Hub
Approaching the Command Center


The squad that was making its way down to the reactor, decided to take things a lot slower as the gravity field picked up, though they pushed onwards without much resistance. That was until a door suddenly began closing, the weight of the door and the gravity itself caused the door to collapse rather quickly, separating the squad on either side of the door. There was some slight panic, but when no ambush came they got their wits together and began communicating with each other and the bridge of the Royale DeFrance that was lurking just outside of the station. They were well equipped for a mission that only involved sweeping the station from any intruders, and a bit under-equipped for dealing with a bulkhead door being slammed suddenly in their faces. It would take a decent amount of time for this squad to begin working its way through or around the door itself.

However the real meat of the action was located with Catherine and her squad in particular, Alpha. The action was merely limited in its current frame as nothing more than an inconvenience of the gravity, though that wouldn’t last long.

Catherine took a slight pause as two of her marines slowly pressed forwards towards what would essentially be the bulkhead door that lead into the central command station, and it was quite likely that they would find their problem child located inside. She looked up slightly to see the camera that was on, probably filming their approach. "Just a heads up…" Something caused her to stop mid-sentence as a very familiar and distinct ping echoed through the quiet corridor.

The world around her slowed, and a flood of memories of being deployed on Leeds rushed through her thoughts. The same imagery that played out then… began playing out again. The very sound sent a chill down her spine as the world around her slowed. The marine to her right also froze, realizing what was happening in the split second that it took.

"Elania! Chance! Get back now!" She screamed, but her words were drowned out as a fiery blaze erupted ahead of her, engulfing the two marines who had carelessly rushed ahead to secure the door. She and her remaining marine were thrusted off of their feet and thrown against the floor from the shockwave of the blast itself in the narrow corridor. The shellshock quickly set in as she laid on her back staring up at the ceiling, embers falling around her. Though her helmet was on, the memories that she had flooding through her thoughts brought the smell of burnt flesh to her nostrils, a smell she was all too familiar with.

Realizing now she was in more danger than she was seconds earlier, she slowly snapped herself out of it, coming to the voice of Jacques literally screaming into her ear. "Catherine! Catherine, what the hell is going on. We just read a massive energy spike in your area, and suddenly Sous-Lieutenant Chance and Elania’s vitals just disappeared! Catherine!"

"Shut the hell up, Belot. Our damn friend set up a trap that was triggered when they approached." She coughed into the headset, sitting herself up for a moment as she looked over to see the status of the other marine. She let out a groan of anger, seeing that her third fireteam member was pinned to the floor from a pipe that had apparently been torn off in the blast itself, and his vitals were quickly dropping too. She mustered whatever strength she had left and forced herself to her feet, and then she made her way over to her pinned comrade, kneeling down next to him as she looked him over. She didn’t have a trauma kit, as that was left with Charlie squad, and the man was gurgling blood as he tried to speak. He wasn’t going to make it, and she wasn’t going to sit here in the open waiting for back-up to get here. She slowly removed his helmet and the man reached up with a shaky hand, grasping her arm tightly. "You’ll be remembered, and the person who did this to you will pay. Long live the Prince." She said quietly to him before closing her eyes. It was pointless to try to stabilize him, as he was clearly drowning in his own blood. So… a single shot suddenly rang out, and the tightly gripped hand loosened around her arm before it dropped with a thud to the ground.

She withdrew the pistol from the side of her former comrade’s head, and slowly got back to her feet, "Jacques, have Charlie begin moving up to reinforce my position. If you don’t hear back from me have them and Bravo withdraw, and then destroy this damn station. I’m going to deal with this problem myself."

"You should wait for reinforcements, Catherine."

"Non. This needs to end now, without anymore damn deaths. Whoever this is, is killing our own and I’m not going to stand for it."

"You had orders to do the same damn thing."

"Yeah, and I’m going to fulfill my orders if it’s the last thing I do. So if you don’t hear from me, destroy this blasted station, as requested by the Prince. That’s an order, Capitaine."
Derelict Trading Hub
Command Center


Leila watched through the cameras as the events unfolded. The 4 people were steadily approaching her position, and the increased gravity was just a minor setback to them. Before long, they proceeded towards the door to the command center, and then... the camera shut down, capturing two soldiers and just a glimpse of the fiery inferno. Although the blast door and the distance protected Leila from most side effects of the explosion, she could nonetheless feel it in the command center.

Leila felt a weird mix of relief and disappointment, along with anxiety building up. On the one hand, her first trap was a success. Almost too easy. She had expected more of her guests. On the other hand, it had just deprived her of a way to control the situation. And she only had one ace in the hole left.

At least she wouldn't have to deal with the team of 4 now. There's that. She stood up and slowly changed position, moving from the center of the room to the side, so that she'd be able to take aim at the door and not get seen. Naturally, she also sought for some distance between her and the door: nobody would want to get caught up in the blast of a breach charge.

Once Leila found cover, she'd take aim with her trusty kinetic pistol (the plasma rifle was lying elsewhere, being Leila's ace in the hole), and polarize her helmet's vizor in case her guest would toss in a flashbang.