Sequoia hadn't noticed when "Nauticus" Claymore-class gunboat casted off Glendale station in desolate Lewis system. She was peacefully snuffling on couch in a small wardroom under the plaid, covered by someone solicitous enough. She was more or less happy with the role of talking head of Nature's Last Hope itself, smiling to the camera, broadcasting heself via the neural networks and appearing on the screens around Bretonia with ideological propaganda. She knew that people don't watch it openly, but even while being radical, Nature's Last Hope remained fairly popular around Leeds, New London and Cambridge; they recieved encouragement and small money orders on daily basis and, along with the recurrent successes, it emboldened them to continue the work.
Apparently, it fatigued her as much as the ground work fatigued the others; with the incoming date of meeting with the Guild, she and Nauticus Faolan spent nighs preparing to show that Gaians were in no way a bunch of hippies living in their desolate rocks and standing up for the cute animals, but more an intellectual and political commitment force even with the quirks of their own and methods that may be called excessive.
When she stretched herself and opened her sleepy eyes, the ship was already in Orkney, sliding between the rocks in the direction of station, periodically glimmering on scanners from the noise, caused by the copper traces. Druce, Jonah and the others seemed to be upstairs, for the last time agreeing on their position and suggestions to make in the incoming talks, so she should had got a coffee and join them before they arrive; otherwise she would just decorate the meeting, being half-awake, smiling and nodding in consent to what the others say.
Jack Henderson is moving in the Nyx, enjoying the flight with the feeling of satisfaction that he got from the knowledge that he would be on a mission that would change things another small bit into the right direction. Just minimal adjustments, yet they might prove to be significant.
"Lose an enemy, win an ally. You win two times." he says to himself while leafing through the pages of the manuscript that he had received from different sources about the Gaians and their history of violence in Bretonia.
The Nyx moves gently through the asteroid field on autopilot, Jack adjusts the comms to the Apollyon and gives the signal that the route is clear and that there is no sensory contact that is noteworthy: "Bravo 2, this is Echo 4, we are Alpha Zulu, repeat: Alpha Zulu"
The Apollyon held in proximity to the Tau 23 sun. Danny Sutherland kept an eye on the few contacts he had on the edge of his sensor range. Activity near the BMM controlled gate construction site - he wasn't worried. The intense radiation from the sun would shield them from detection, and as long as they didn't make their stay at the corona's edge a long one, it shouldn't do much harm.
VIP transport was always a hassle for him. Security this and protocol that, he half felt to be in the Armed Forces again. It reminded him why he had left in the first place. At least with the Guild, you didn't have to file a triple report for every damned pirate you blow sky-high.
Johnathan Sanders was in the back, resting. There wasn't much for him to do yet. Jack Henderson had insisted on scouting the route, but aside from passing Gallic ships and the occasional freelancer wanting to explore this new land called Gallia, there wasn't much traffic towards their destination. Still, caution's always good.
The comm sounded. *chh* "Bravo 2, this is Echo 4, we are Alpha Zulu, repeat: Alpha Zulu" *chh*
"Here we go then." Danny mumbled, as he nodded to the helmsman. The gunboat lurched forward, impulse engines firing full throttle as the cruise capacitors charged up, course straight for the Orkney jumphole. Sure, the BMM site would register it. But it was not unusual. Just one craft. And they knew better then to come and poke their noses in IMG affairs.
Following the course that Jack had taken, it was only a few minutes later that the gunboat was on final approach with Dounby.
Wide awake in a world that sleeps, enduring thoughts, enduring scenes. The knowledge of what is yet to come.
From a time when all seems lost, from a dead man to a world, without restraint, unafraid and free.
Mostly retired Discovery member. May still visit from time to time.
A modified Atlas leaves Sulawesi station and it's escorted by two Pythos. The name of the ship is visible on both sides of the ship: "Sagitarus". The usual red and grey colors were replaced with yellow and black, the cargo bays received windows and the whole interior was modified to look like a small but luxurious hotel.Elizabeth Branwen sits in the conference room, watching the last news edition on CNN (Colonial News Network). A man enters the room and announces her: "Our escorts received word that there's a battle not far from Tau-37 jump hole. Shall we delay our jump?" Elizabeth sights and shakes her head: "No. We're already late. Send the escorts to keep them busy. We will be far when they realize we've been there."
The man exits the room and the transport proceeds to the jump hole to Tau-23. The escorts jump first and head straight to the battle. Meanwhile, Sagitarus moves to the first waypoint. Elizabeth goes to the command deck and looks at the scanners. A smile appears on her face when she realizes that the elite pilots from her escort are winning the fight. She thinks: "I could be a good commanding figure for the fleet."
When the transport arrives at the Orkney jump hole, the escorts catch up. Same like last jump, the escorts secure the perimeter and give the green light for Sagitarus. Elizabeth goes to her quarters to get ready. The final waypoint is reached in less than 30 minutes and the transport moors with the station. First time on this station, Elizabeth is a bit lost but an IMG official is waiting for her and offers to show her the base. In the hangar she notices a few ships part of the diplomatic wing: "They're already here. I wonder who they sent?"
"This should be interesting. The gaians are known for their terrorist acts. They even assassinated one of our presidents. I can't believe we accepted to meet them. On a second thought maybe it's better to let the past alone and see for the future. We'll see..." she thought while walking in the maze of corridors of Dounby.
The ship turned aside, tacking around the space rocks and slowly reached the hatch, designated by lights turned on. For nother half a minute the computers checked the stability of connection and airtightness of the locks before opening the doors. Druce, Sequoia and Jonah stood in front of sealed door, waiting.
"Nervous, aye?", Druce patted Sequoia on the back. She nodded in return.
The airlock opened, letting them in.
*Jump procedure finished. No hull damage or impedimentary anomalies detected. Shields intact. No contacts on short-range sensors. Commencing auto-pilot procedure to waypoint three. Cruise engines charging…*
Druce finishes inputting the last commands to make his ship reach the station with as little need of interaction as possible. Hopefully if they avoid Bounty Hunter patrols and Outcasts, it shouldn’t take long to be at the station, possibly on time. He has a lot on his mind, and thinks it would be good for him to talk to someone, so he reckons he might as well go stretch his feet a bit and go check on his companions. He finds Jacob not far down the corridor, sitting at a table with his arms crossed on his chest and his eyes closed. Druce swears he could see a small ray of green light sparkling through a very small opening in his eyelids, so he decides to let him be for a while and moves on to the lower decks to check on Sequoia.
After a few minutes of walking around the lower decks, as he was about to start calling her if she’s there, he finds her sleeping on a couch in one dimly-lit wardroom. He didn’t have the heart to wake her up after what she had been through the last few days, so he just takes a thick plaid blanket from a small bed and he covers her with it to let her rest while there is still time. He then returns to the main control deck into his chair and he closes his eyes for a bit to clear up his mind and focus… He hopes that the whole loophole nonsense can be thrown behind and leave space for negotiations of future cooperation. After all, they’ve got a common enemy the both sides want to eradicate, and that’s a perfect jump-off point… As his mind digs into deeper detail, he hears Jonah’s footsteps, so he stands up to join him.
---
*Mooring coordinates received. Synchronizing…* “Let’s go. Dinnae want ta keep th’ chaps waitin…” he waves his head with a smile to Jonah and Sequoia as he moves towards the hatch.
*Synchronized…Stabilizing air-pressure* "Nervous, aye?" he patted Sequoia on the back. who nodded in return. Then he looked at Jonah, who caught his eye-contact and also nodded his head slightly.
*Handshake procedure finished. Opening airlock.*
Druce takes one final deep breath before the three of them step out into the first premises of the station, towards the silhouettes that can be seen through the thick steam left over by the airlock pressurization process, hoping they have not been waiting for them for too long
The approach had been uneventful. Only a bump or two from smaller, faster asteroids the navcomp had trouble tracking. Nothing the shields could not handle. One advantage of graviton repulsion shields - they worked exceptionally well on larger massed objects. A pity that anything that -did- end up piercing them ends up accellerating towards the hull, past the shield layer. Damned Outcasts knew this all too well.
The radio crackled a moment and sounded. "Cleared for tube four, Apollyon. Welcome to Dounby. Please unmoor and enter a holding pattern after the package is transferred, we're almost full here and have a supply train inbound."
Danny looked out the cockpit. Full? Dounby? That must have been a first, in a long time. He could see an Atlas. Supply vessel? No, it had the Colonial emblem on it. Must be their envoy. And next to it on port one, another vessel which he didn't directly recognize. Streamlined. Was this who they were going to be meeting? Before he could take a closer look however, the Hydra swung around to the backside of the station, the automatic docking systems kicking in to bring it to the mooring clamps.
****
Johnathan stepped through the air of the docking tube. Some signs of frost here and there - faulty thermal seal maybe? Or perhaps the fact that they used the auxiliary mooring? He made a mental note to notify the dockmaster, but there were more important matters to attend to. Jack should already be aboard, and the few folks on-station who had been briefed on what was actually to go on should have already brought their unusual guests to the conference room. He hastily moved through though the airlock's inner seal, while with a dry "clang" the outer seal already closed.
A short walk later, he arrived in the conference room.
"Sorry to keep all of you waiting." He started as he entered the room. "I see we've all arrived safely, and the station does not register anything unusual in the vicinity. So I suppose, we can speak freely, here. Miss Hart, you did request for this meeting, with both ourselves, of the Guild, and the Colonial Republic, which suggests to me you are looking towards the Taus. You also hinted at us having similar enemies. I must assume that by that, you mean the Bretonia Mining and Manufacturing corporation, who'se incursions into Tau space have caused, to put it bluntly, quite a mess for both ourselves and the Colonial Republic, and have ended up throwing Bretonia itself into a war with Kusari. But, perhaps it is best you clarify this, yourself, miss Hart?"
Wide awake in a world that sleeps, enduring thoughts, enduring scenes. The knowledge of what is yet to come.
From a time when all seems lost, from a dead man to a world, without restraint, unafraid and free.
Mostly retired Discovery member. May still visit from time to time.
Jack is already in the room, since he docked before the IMG gunboat arrived at Dounby. He is chatting with Sequoia, just small talk of some kind or the other and he seems utterly relaxed.
For people who have some experience in infantry tactics and equipment this display seems to contradict some other aspects of Jack's appearance because he's wearing a light protection vest hidden (but still recognisable by experts) under his IMG flight suit of the business and a handgun strapped openly to the upper leg.
He nods to Mr. Sanders as he enters, gets up, pulls his chair back and sits after his boss is seated. Durin the beginning stages of the meeting he will keep an eye on the persons unknown to him... not suspicious, but just cautious.
The manual for public appearance recommended to stand up, take a deep breath and concentrate on one's toes to get rid of stress before speaking. Sequoia did so, but it hardly helped. She was obviously nervous - and she was nervous because of Jack sitting there, and the other way she was nervous because of Sanders and the others around, expecting her to be a spokesman while she had a clear desire to hide under the table.
"Mister Sanders, mister Henderson...", she nodded, trying to remember the name of Republic's representative on this meeting, Jack whispered to her a minute ago, "and miss Branwen, good day. Right, meeting in such a secured place was my request and I'm glad that we managed to do it. And I'll answer all the questions you will have since you may have a lot of them, but there is something to say from the very beginning - what is Nature's Last Hope - we're not the bloody terrorists someone may be so used to. We're the organisation with large public support, having our fight for the better future for all the people in Bretonia, yes, with out radical means, but still.
You are also right, mister Sanders, we have our common enemy - Bretonia Mining and Minerals, former Bretonian Mining and Manufacturing corporation." Sequoia took another deep breath. She recapitulated it in Green Hell one on one with Druce many times, but when it came to explaining what things here, face to face with those people, she stammered out. "So, mister Sanders, I remember that you wanted to hear about Dublin, right?"
"Dublin, and our own mining efforts there, are but one of the many things I was hoping to clear up in this meeting, miss Hart." Johnathan answered. He appeared quite calm. "As I understand you had a mishap with a misformulated bounty, that led to the attack on several of our miners, and possibly Molly miners as well. The details on this are still unclear to me, but I do believe that you are sincere in stating that it was a misstake. A big one, but then again, they happen."
John paused a moment, glancing to miss Branwen and Jack to gauge their reactions, before returning his attention to Sequoia.
"The Guild will keep mining, miss Hart. It's at the core of what we are. Laborers, 'though we're not as profit and production driven as the BMM is. They tend to use stripmining methods which end up being destructive to the fields. I'm sure you've seen the state of Leeds, both the system and the planet, many times. It is that kind of destruction we'll strive to avoid, even if it means keeping our operations smaller scaled then most the house corporations would prefer.
I am interested in your organization as a whole, as well. Your objectives, as I am told, include the preservation of planet Gaia in it's present state, which puts you at odds with the Planetform corporation. I've also received reports that your organization is harassing planetforming efforts around Harris, or at the very least, was until the outbreak of the Tau conflict. Is this due to your conflict with Planetform, or is it the terraforming process on Harris itself you oppose? What are the objectives of the Gaian movement?"
Wide awake in a world that sleeps, enduring thoughts, enduring scenes. The knowledge of what is yet to come.
From a time when all seems lost, from a dead man to a world, without restraint, unafraid and free.
Mostly retired Discovery member. May still visit from time to time.
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