"Smoke if you'd like. But to your point regarding skepticism over how effective destroying the DSE vessel would be, I think the facts speak for themselves. The gate being used by the LSF to ship in supplies and reinforcements is hanging on by a thread that only the Robert Peary and its repair ships maintain. Kill the ship, you kill the supply line that banks entirely on the gate." This war had to be fought asymmetrically, there was no other way for a union of pirates and terrorists to deal with the sheer force of arms a Great House could bring to bear. Especially not in the event that this conflict was allowed to persist without interruption. The LFR needed more time, Damien knew this. Finding ways to buy that time was the challenge.
The display flashed again, this time displaying a brief video loop of a gunboat scale nomad warform being engaged by a pair of Xeno bombers and a Hacker gunship. Without saying anything further, Damien glanced in the direction of Golanski and Senator as this was their domain. If indeed the threat of the LSF being a proactive party in the system could be alleviated, the absolute next priority was the total elimination of the Nomads raiding Sudbury's orbit. Followed soon after by a potential counter-assault on Inverness.
Senator raised an eyebrow at Golanski's arrival. Section 8 had anticipated Overwatch sending a delegate of not inconsiderable rank, but had dismissed the idea of the Grand Admiral himself choosing to attend as an unnecessary security risk. His presence at the meeting indicated to everyone present - Senator in particular - that Overwatch intended to take the situation surrounding Planet Sudbury far more seriously than initially supposed.
The agent remained silent as the first points were made regarding Ontario's current circumstances. He could not help a bemused smile from crossing his face as he listened to Hemlocke's fanciful but misinformed claims about the dark matter storm that engulfed the Alberta and Kepler systems, and nodded appreciatively at Golanski's and Morreti's corrections.
The conversation turning towards a plan of action concerning the the hostile presences in Ontario, Senator cleared his throat.
"I concur with Commander Morreti. The anomaly on Planet Sudbury, for the time being, is safe from outside tampering - our own unsuccessful attempts proved as much -, meaning we must focus instead on securing the site and, preferably, the entire system from unwanted parties. Disabling the Robert Peary is, indeed, the clearest course of action in that regard. Of course, this is unlikely to stop the Technocracy's interference in Ontario, but they are too few in number to pose a serious threat on their own.
"Should Liberty be cut off from the system," he nodded towards the holographic rendering of the alien vessel, "the greatest threat remaining will be that posed by the Nomad warforms." Senator leaned back in his chair, stroking his chin as if in deep contemplation - a practiced gesture - before continuing. "I would advise that dealing with the alien threat is left to the Order. While our limited resources in the region are already occupied with other matters, Overwatch," he inclined his head towards the Grand Admiral, "has deployed a heavy asset in the form of the Deceres to Ontario. Together with what assets Section 8 can spare, I believe we can thwart the Nomad presence before it becomes a more significant threat."
He ignored Hemlocke’s rant, it would take more than some insults to get Golanski to react. Even though being called a ‘warlord’ reminded him of himself at first half of his tenure as an Admiral even if Hemlocke meant that clearly as a slight against him. While he spouted many conspiracy theories from the neural net, he understood where he was coming from. Liberty no doubt has taken everything they could from him and his blind, burning, passionate hate was something he could relate to. At least there were two warlords in the room now so he could at least claim they were equals now. Both to mask his amusement and to have an opportunity to taste, he tried the red wine stolen from stocks bound for Curacao. The Opulence of these House’s elites knew no boundaries but he knew that already. He and some other officers were making a habit of picking up crates of whatever wine they could get their hands on stacked away together with other vital supplies they could acquire in Gallia.
“I highly appreciate you viewing me as an equal since the last time we spoke. Nobody called me a warlord in many years. It brings back memories. We should drink to this.”
He spoke before turning his attention to Chloe, this young Lane Hacker who he expected to be the biggest pain in the ass to every Xeno aboard. Chloe reminded him of someone he knew, albeit that person was far less ‘hyper’ and received more vitamin D from exposure to the sun. He wouldn’t be the first to get annoyed by her, amiably tolerating her antics. If this meeting was to achieve any manner of success, he would have to endure some hot air in the room just to keep everyone from storming off. He smiled and nodded to her observation.
“For real.” Perhaps this phrase was no longer fashionable, he would have no idea. Nonetheless it should send a message that he was very much aware in a language she no doubt understood. “I also bank on the following principles. As Mister Clark had stated, Liberty is suffering from low throughput limiting the numbers they can bring to the table given the nature of this makeshift and rushed job DSE did on the gate at the behest of their overlords. Second, which is nothing but my own intuition which could very much be proven entirely wrong: Liberty will maintain this as a limited shadow war to avoid public and other undesirable third parties from taking note: Just like in Earhart or Alaska. I would not however rely your decision making processes entirely on my hunch. I cannot exclude that if it proves profitable enough, Liberty will forsake its carefully constructed facade on display to its citizens that kept them ‘safe’ until this point. Modus operandi of the Houses is to keep its populace oblivious to behind the scenes actions of its own spooks.”
His own matters aside, he procured a data shard and passed it to Moretti’s adjutant. No doubt some data The Order is in possession of.
“More immediately, I am anticipating a Nomad attack on Ontario. An equally knee jerk reaction from the aliens as the initial onslaught Moretti had notified The Order about before in prior communication. However this time we have been forewarned of the impending assault and can prepare accordingly.”
Data contained intelligence gathered on a LSF battlecruiser “Wyoming”. What limited data on its loadout, internal systems, service history could be preyed on by his own intelligence officers. Most notably, the ship was considered lost during the Rheinland-Liberty war over Atka. Second set of scans indicate more hastily taken guncam shots and scans dated this week. Vessel was scarred, suffering considerable damage. One of the overlays shows unusual biomass readings from the bottom of the ship where hull breach exposed some of the decks to vacuum of space. Readings that could not be mistaken as human. Designation as “Wild” capital ship rather than Liberty Navy Ship, term which was used by The Order and Rheinland to refer to remnants of Chancellor’s Niemann fleet that refused to fold back under stewardship of the provisional post-war government of 801 AS. Last time it was spotted jumping through a Colorado jumphole in Galileo, shielded by a random assortment of craft with no uniformity concerning their origin. As would be expected by less blessed pirates… or infected forces.
“That’s Wyoming. Our forces had caught a glimpse of it as it entered full burn towards Colorado from direction of Kusari. We managed to damage it but failed in bringing this warform down outright. While this battlecruiser is licking its wounds, there are only two credible destinations. Continue burn towards New York… or Ontario. Since we had been informed of the full nature of Sudbury, I believe this was no coincidence. Nomads are willing to compromise Wyoming in hope it will be enough to secure this site. Deceres mission was therefore two-fold: to investigate Sudbury, as well to prepare for eventuality of Wild battlecruiser’s entry into the Ontario system proper. Practically all of my combat assets in the region are in one way or another focused on tightening up the noose.”
For a split second, Senator's lips twitched, a barely perceptible crack in his otherwise perfect facade. Revealing the existence of the compromised warship Wyoming to a crowd such as this had not been on his agenda. Disguising his displeasure by shifting which leg crossed which, the agent recomposed himself, curious now as to what would come of this sudden revelation.
Caliban's posture shifted. His torso leaned forward as he left both arms resting on the table. He was both surprised and perplexed to hear about The Wyoming.
"Anything else you'd like to tell us, Admiral? I doubt the Wyoming will go for New York though. There is nowhere to hide. That only leaves Ontario as their destination, which makes things all the more pressing, if that wasn't already clear.
Either way. Lets say the attackers can be held off one way or another. Each of them have their own weaknesses and logistical issues that can be exploited. All of that amounts to nothing unless we can secure whatever lies on Sudbury to a more secure location. As for how..."
His head lowered for a brief moment as he contemplated. Usually structures like these require some form of stimuli to which they react. Behind such a mundane logic the idea of a familiar power source to be used as a key wasn't too crazy.
If nobody could look past the energy dome, then the next best option was to outright disable it regardless of what may happen next. A bold move, no less. One that could save everyone a lot of resources and time.
"Directed EM blast to the center of the dome could break it - provided its strong enough. Or disrupt it from where it is weaker given the possibility that we get 'some' readings on the thing and determine the right spot."
"Or lockpick the field with a Power Cell. Yeah, it sounds dumb. Not impossible though. Quite doable given enough time."
"In the end this is a battle on two fronts."
"Test the sharpness of your sword against another. And when that is not enough, unsheathe your cunning as the hidden dagger that ends the fight."
The rogue sat a moment, running over the events from years ago. Frustration appeared at every skip that occurred in memory, every blank that should've returned vivid and immaculate memory. Forced to concentrate for harder than he used to, they were right, looking over the sequence of events summoned forth by the mind, they were wrong. He thought back to the event that had caused this death fog to appear in his mind. Though his face remained in grim neutrality on the outside, he twisted with rage on the inside over the detrimental ramification of the event that took his perfect memory from him. There was a remedy of course, yet the remedy left a trail behind that his enemies could exploit.
He remained silent for a time while considering all the branching ramifications of Liberty's tampering, what he knew and what he thought he knew. Coming to the conclusion it wasn't entirely relevant to the situation. Golanski's understanding of the word "warlord" was primitive, and outdated by a handful of years, using the word "equal" even more misguided than his appreciation of the term warlord. The rogues had dashed the "warlords" of old against the rocks that made up their very homes, it was an ultimately inaccurate, and childish term to stroke one's ego. Even if his people would consider it appropriate, Hemlocke hadn't waged war against another faction in quite some time, his position at the time would've prevented such a title from entering his resume. A silver lining to the situation he never wanted to be a part of.
Stewing in the past produced nothing that would aid the current situation. The perfectly still rogue glanced to the passing data shard, and listened as the matter at hand turned toward the nomads, an entity, or rather two entities that were of rather minor significance to the Earhart chain of events. Either way it was predictable that the Order refused to dedicate any resources to the matter to break Liberty's back. No doubt the reason for this was the same reason the Navy had been seen flying Order vessels years ago, and why the Overwatch had sided with them during conflicts in New York.
Though in fairness, at least. Section 8 at least had a track record of getting their hands.. "dirty", a generous terminology, here in Liberty regarding this whole affair over the last years. Though completely unimpressed with their typical Order behavior, they were trying, which was a miracle in and of itself. The Wyoming however, he was uncertain how long Section 8 had known of it, or if they'd known of its existence at all, Hemlocke was surprised that the Overwatch had revealed it during this meeting. That battlecruiser was something the rogues were intimately familiar with, wild attacks on convoys bound for Ames were common a handful of years ago, ever since Kepler had been swallowed, they had become far more common in Galileo, nearly severing movement between the Raiden and Reppu. Though that wasn't Hemlocke's neck of the woods, so he never paid it any mind.
Addressing Morreti regarding the flanking maneuver
"The present issue with flanking action is they haven't left us much room. The Lehigh being the foreguard, makes striking the Robert Preary incredibly difficult, if not an outright suicide mission."
"The Innocent Slaughter, in tandem with the Firestarter, can wreak havoc on the logistical lines in California, the issue is the window to do so is incredibly small, we'll be contending with the response times of two battlegroups, and striking from the Sierra on their way into Ontario will see us contending with three. In addition to response groups, patrols have been increased along their weak points. None of that includes the roaming Hunters."
"Whichever strategic planner's behind this certainly isn't of the Delaware's stock."
The girl leaned back on her seat as she soaked in the conversation, taking the ocasional bite. Her expression would ocasionally shift just a bit, apropos of nothing happening in the room itself. A paralel conversation with the rest of the circle.
"Alberta, Kepler, Jericho, Sudbury. Whole region's been a breeding ground for weirdness. Yeesh."
She straightened back up, gesturing towards Hemlocke
"But yeah this ain't no LPI boondogle. With LSF running counter-intel it's also gonna be harder to soften 'em up that way. There's always an in, duh, probably through the navy covering their rears in Cali, but it's no straight shot either. I'm no big shot military gal but might be a one punch knock-out kinda dealio."
Complications. The annoying kind. "Then we're mostly agreed. The Order can collectively deal with the Nomads while we deal with the human dimension to this problem. Let's move on then and leave the finer points of our strategic approach for tomorrow's session." This time the holo-display was flashing through different perspective shots of Erie, its prison camps, and the system including the patrols which ensured Liberty's claim was enforced. This time Damien cleared the floor, at least verbally, for the Militant to give the other delegations a complete rundown given his intimate involvement in the resistance.
The leaning posture that held itself inquisitive and keen turned into a couch-potatoey mess. His fist - a pillow. His breeches - paprika-dust. His mouth - spiced like a Cardi-junkie. The ramblings of dark matter storms and alien theories were cacophony for Tomas' ears, but fortunately for him the post-lunch dip hit him and his eyes would blink in and out of consciousness, granting him a brief snooze amidst the meeting. A shame it was interrupted so abruptly by the Alliance Commander's prompt.
Fortunate as it initially seems, the background character finally gained the spotlight, but the caveat stings - his heart - sinks, the monkey's paw curled. A monumental task for which he hadn't prepared for in the slightest. The Zoner hoped that he would only partake in dialogue in this summit, but did not expect to retell four-year-old history to such a crowd.
A quick napkin wipe and straightening of the spine before planting his elbows and crossing his hands, keeping them slighty afloat: "Some of you may think Erie was a Zoner invention, and you may be right, but prior a century it was a scrapped project by Liberty. We Zoners made it work, we suffered, we endured, we built, and we propsered - And Yet! - two decades is all it took for them to stick their noggin where it don't belong." "They failed to protect their shipping, against the very kind they bore" He sweeps his hand towards the entire room, but skipping the Order and masked John-Doe. "And blamed Erie for it, a convenient excuse to impose themselves planetside."
"...and then, four years ago, they orchestrated a ploy in order to shove their House rule down our throats. The LSF satellite, an unmanned object, was all it took for them to tyranically steal our home by force. Operation Pesticide is a testament to Liberty's oppressive agenda." He takes a deep breath to ease off from recollecting the horrors of the past.
He gestures to the holo-display "These camps make you disappear, they do not kill you, but they ship you off to the most unknown parts of space. Some say Sigmas, others Omicrons. Folks disappear like they never existed." Again, taking a deep breath, he leans back into the chair - relaxed.
"Our planetary effort is an uphill battle, we cannot compete with the endless onslaught of Libertonian reinforcements. We have to cut them off from us. The lanes leading in and out of the Jump Gates are the most obvious choices - shielded by the Badlands unique terrain, we can inflict heavy, heavy damage to the infrastructure. But we simply do not have the manpower to enact a pronged attack. Our entire force would have to focus on the Alma battlegroup, even if just for a momentary hold-out - just enough for a distraction, so another player can deal a blow."
The burned Rogue observed the continued ongoings of the summit in total silence. Golanski's revelation about the Wyoming elicited a mere raise of his eyebrow, a sign of mild interest at best. Even when his own ship, the Firestarter, was brought into the conversation, his response was a mere nod, as if Hemlocke's words had already encapsulated his thoughts on the matter.
However, when the presentation shifted to the topic of Erie, the previously displayed steely-eyed focus began to wane, and he began to spend more time seemingly chalking up some of the other participants of the summit, tapping idly away at the surface of the table with his right hand. Boredom spawned from a total lack of interest in the history of the current situation for the citizens of the planet on the surface.
However, his attention was returned to the Militant representative when the talk of Libertonian reinforcements came up, and the briefest hint of surprise seeped through the otherwise stoic face. A short and slight shake of the head was all that the Militant got when their gaze turned to Clark. Disapproving, he'd remain silent, perhaps waiting to see if anyone else had anything to say before he would do or say anything.