The Doctor at his old age was oftenly unaware of the latest news in Sirius, and hadn't heard yet about Fallen Grace. Despite that, he was after all an Apostle of Eris, so he watched the first words exchanged by his guests with amusement. Something appeared to be spicing things up a bit.
Commander Anders, Kallisti! Welcome to our humble fortress. Don't worry a bit, your fine vessel is no burden for our technicians. We do not see much action around, repairing your ship will keep them on shape. He winks.
Hela on the other hand was the mind behind the summon of the neighbour factions representatives. Her Templar duties had brought concern to her mind about the royalist Gallic threat, and she had convinced the Doctor to carry on the project that needed the attention of these two important men. She read the tension between their glares, so she decided to take the lead on the conversation.
Colonel LaFlamme, Commander Anders, I am aware of the things you two have to discuss, and since we need your full cooperation on the matter that brought us all together today, I have no problem in letting you deal with these differences before adressing the main subject of this meeting. Her tone is serious and strict, and her words were carefully chosen.
The Doctor, surprised by Hela's initiative, and sensing the tension in the air, hasted a charming smile. Indeed my dear, indeed. But this hangar is no place for our honorable guests. Please follow me to our conferences room. He points a hallway and they all start walking that way. The walls are silver and in the end there is an apple shaped golden door.
Hela touches a pad next to it and the door's panels slide into the walls. There are five chairs around a pentagonal table, and a man is already sitting on one of them. He was no other than Richard Cole, the builder and owner of Freeport XXI, and fellow TAZ pope. The man was staring out the window. The view of Planet Eris was magnificient from there.
The Doctor laughs loudly when he sees the fifth atendee. Richard! You are already here my friend! When did you arrive?. Hela, despite of being happy of having all the needed people already in the room, was not amused by her own ignorance of Richard's arrival. She was one of the people in charge of the station's security, and having people slip behind her eyes wasn't something she was fond of. But, after all, the man had also been involved in the construction of Ravenhurst Watch himself. It was not a surprise seeing that he knew his way around.
Richard looks still at Planet Eris while responding to Dr. Hodge Van Mojo "To be honest i saw the last ship incomming, not far from Ravenhurst Watch." Dr. Hodge Van Mojo looks strange at Richard. while the other invited ones are comming into the room.
Richard stands up and shakes hands with Colonel LaFlamme "Kallisti, my name is Richard Cole i am the owner of Freeport XXI.""Bonjour, Monsieur Cole, je suis Colonel Pierre LaFlamme Du Conseil.""It's a pleasure to meet you sir. Please take a seat. Don't get lost in the view, it has took many eyes allready. " Colonel LaFlamme takes a seat while Commander Anders and Richard shakes hands. Before Commander Anders could say a word.. "Kallisti Commander Anders, it is good seeing you again. If you please could take a seat. As i guess everyone here might be curious of the reason of this meeting." Commander Anders takes one of the last 2 free chairs. in the meantime he answers. "Indeed Mr. Cole, think we are all curious about the intentions behind this meeting."
Meantime Dr. Hodge Van Mojo is looking outside of the windows.
Richard is sitting down in his chair, looks towards the Doctor and peeks to some of the monitors. "The honours is all yours. Dr. Hodge Van Mojo..."
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Dr. Mojo watches how the others take their chosen seats, and grabs one for himself. Hela, on the other hand, stands still next to the last one. The Dr. starts explaining with extravagant gestures the reason for the summoning.
Well my friends, there is something that has been disturbing me ever since I heard who Aurelia Silvan really was. And it continued to bugger me the first time I heard a Zoner ship fell under the fire of a fleur the lys flagged ship. At this point we didn't yet know your people even existed. He points in the direction of Colonel LaFlamme and then makes a pause.
The threat of an onslaught of Sirius by the Kingdom of Gallia, my dear friends, continues to belong among my darkest nightmares.
Now, Colonel, I don't know if you recieved any report on my diplomatic visit to Planet Tolouse some time ago. He looks at LaFlamme again, smiling. Back then I met Colonel Rafaello Sanzio, and after a fruitiful discussion we both exchanged our concerns on a full scale invasion scenario and ideas about mutual defense. He then looks at Commander Anders. We would like to expand our ambitions and invite the Colonial Republic to join efforts too.
Dr. Mojo and Hela watch as both representatives exchange bitter but surprised looks, and Mr. Cole smiled. Then Hela broke the silence and continued herself.
After exploring the Rousillion system by myself, I prepared a report on it's weaknesses for the TAZ high command. Seeing how Gallic Royalists would probably like to chase your people down if they found the system Colonel, we started gathering this intel to plan a system evacuation emergency protocol through Baffin. She looks much more beautiful when she speaks of war.
To our surprise, the wormhole to Baffin was Rousillion's only unprotected entrance. It was then when we started to fear that a full scale invasion could actually happen through Baffin. She takes a pause and continues. Needless to say, if GRN went this way to reach Rousillion, nothing would stop them from invading Coronado too. She stares at Commander Anders. So, given the situation, the proper way to go in my opinion would be to join our strength together and concentrate it at the most exposed bottleneck in the region, Baffin's jumphole to Tau 29, a system which we all know to be roamed daily by GRN patrols.
Eyes opening wide. Pierre looked on the doctor first, then on Anders, surprised well enough about the plan to involve the Republic in the defenses of Baffin and Roussillon. Yet he continued to listen to the words of Hela in silence. During her speech however, the colonel has grown uncomfortable about the subject, so he stood up and began to speak after a swift sigh.
Okay, well, excuse-moi Mademoiselle for interrupting you, but we are getting to sensitive topics here. The strengths, and more importantly, the weaknesses of Roussillon is something I would rather discuss only amongst friends I trust cent pour cent.- Here he slowly turned towards Anders, catching his gaze. -Et currently not all of us belong to this category.
Sitting down in his chair, Anders continues talking to Richard. "Pope Cole, it is good to speak to you once more, hopefully not about trade agreements and supply contracts. However, it does appear the rest of the TAZ have become jealous of your own efforts in Freeport XXI, with new stations and plans for more already forming!"
Turning towards the other two Discordians, in answer to the mention of these plans: "Roussillon's greatest defence has not been its minefields, but secrecy. If they were to discover it, and the currently open route through Baffin... I have no doubt in the valiant spirit of the Council, nor its friends in us and perhaps Bretonia, but I fear they would hold back little given the opportunity to destroy your forces in Sirius." Anders grimaced at the thought. "In turn, Coronado has thus survived due to its distance and general obscurity. Many keep themselves to the cloud, and if they are not overly troublesome they may do so. Again, if they breach Baffin we would be in danger. Very few of our assets are fully repaired while Sabah is being completed. While I would be quite glad to lend our support to this shared endeavour, it is clear that we need to patch up some relations."
Meeting and holding LaFlamme's gaze, Anders asked to the room in general, "Unless anyone has further comment on what I have said, we may move onto the topic most of interest to the Council and we Colonials."
Dr. Mojo and Hela watch the whole situation closely. He seems amused by the tides of discord, but smiles as if knowing that in the end everything will spin forward. Hela on the other hand looks rather uneasy. They both nod at Commander Anders and Hela briefly speaks.
Good question.- thought Pierre. What he had planned to do - questioning the recent actions, and the trustworthiness of the leadership of the Colonial Republic - might possibly be of concern of the Erisian representatives as well, eventually having an impact on the outcome of this meeting. Discussing the situation in front of them can keep them involved. On the other hand, if it turns out to be remaining merely a diplomatic issue between the Republic and the Council with no actual effect on the plans of the TAZ, keeping the whole between the two of them may look more civil. And if needed, the TAZ can be informed about the results afterwards.
Pierre broke the eye contact with Commander Anders to look at the woman, and answered:Merci, Mademoiselle. I would be glad if I could change a few words with the commander in private.
Hela nods and looks at Dr. Mojo and Richard. With a quick head gesture she asks for them to leave with her. The doctor smiles and Cole hastly jumps up from his seat, following the Apostle and the Erisian Replicant.
Before crossing the archway, Hela turns to the two representatives.
Please poke us when you are done gentlemen. And she shuts the door close as the three of them leave the room.
Dead silence fallen upon the two once the door has been shut. However this silence did only last until Pierre finished gathering his thoughts. With a sudden breath he started to speak.
Donc, where to start, where to start... Could you tell me about this Fallen Grace thing et the role of the Colonial Republic in it, s'il vous plaît?- he asked, looking at Anders seemingly calmly.
Not having looked away since LaFlamme's comment on trust, Anders now stood up and walked over to the viewport. "Little over a week ago, we were contacted by a Lelouch D'Aramis, of the Office of Naval Intelligence. In short, the Royalists have been influenced by these Nomads - the aliens that almost tore the Houses down before either of us arrived in Sirius - and some of their troops infested.
One of our first questions was why he contacted us instead of your own forces. A fear of spies and infection, and the abundance of plans in place for the most obvious assailants against the King were his reasons, normally not enough for us. This was his price however, in exchange for his involvement and the tactical information he provided."
Anders turned back towards the Colonel, "Although I am not proud to admit it, we were swayed most by his 'trump card'. Tau-44 is now in the control of these Fallen Grace Rebels, sympathetic to us. If we had succeeded, it would truly be ours again, a chance we took.
"As for our role, we met with the Order, sent in Agents and marines for the operation itself, and several capital ships - mostly from the Vanguard fleet - also involved in the assault. This distant from the operation, we only found out from our Agents' report, shortly before the piece from Ms. Favre you'll have heard. As I told Giroux, there were reports of a Council fleet headed south through Burgundy, with Betterment calling that you'd noticed the carnage going on."
Sitting down, he concluded, "Although we failed in our main objective, much of the infestation was purged, several key Gallic assets crippled and perhaps most importantly, the people reminded that their King is not invincible and his enemies not so weak. We have gained a new ally for the fight, in these Fallen Grace Rebels, who I believe would be willing to work with you as well.; we can also share the intel gained from them and the operation itself.
That is, if you feel we are worth trusting, and this war too important for stout neighbours' relations to fracture. Monsieur?"
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