Two solar cycles had past since their last meeting. Not that there was much natural light on the station. Hardly any, the only places that had direct windows to the outside vacuum where the bar, the traffic control station and the gunnery positions. As Ronaldo walked towards the meeting room with large passes he remembered the last meeting he had with coalition pilots.
There was a large group of fighters escorting a capitol vessel that must have housed a high ranking dignitary and they where in a hurry. Whist they outnumbered his wing 10 to 2 they did not stop to wipe them out. It was weird seeing them that far into Bretonia heading in the general direction of the Barrier.
He walked passed storage bay 5, directly next to the airlock. He went around the corner in the direction of the central elevators and bumped into Devante. "What the hell are you doing here! This base is in lockdown! No matter, stay with me before the guards arrest you for breaking the lockdown rules."
The two entered the elevator and prepared for the long decent down to deck five. In the meantime Ronaldo contacted the security office with the intercom that was located in the Elevator. "Yes Juan, Ronaldo here, your lockdown is worthless, I just bumped into Devante! He claims he was able to sneak in with the cargo they just delivered. I don't know how this could have happend but I am counting on you to fix it! Call a security meeting in 2 hours! "
They arrived at deck five and continued walking towards the meeting room. "Devante, seeing as your here anway I bet you want answers about 'the package'. You can sit in on the meeting I am having with him however everything discussed here is Classified. Seeing as your a Benitez Soldato you know what that means."
The two marines that where guarding the door of the meeting room opened the door on the mere sight of Ronaldo so he could walk in without even having to slow down. Devante followed quickly in his footsteps.
There used to be pictures here
once known as Richard Farbridge, OBE and Ronaldo Benitez
Ben had settled in decently enough since his arrival, his quarters were spartan but that was how he preferred it. It was a shame he had to leave his weapons collection behind on the Lithuania, collecting firearms had been his passion...Especially from people he had defeated in combat, he even had a Kusari Katana taken from the Commander of a Destroyer after he disabled the ship.
Currently he was in what looked like a standard Briefing room, a round table he was seated at with a screen behind him, on the table was a Data-Reader, designed to view data taken from Information Disks. Much like the one he had in his sealed box which was currently on the table infront of him, waiting to be opened.
There was only one door into the room, made from titanium so it'd be hard to punch through and to the side a large 1-way glass mirror allowed others to view into the room, but Ben wasn't concerned with that. The former Coalition Lt.Colonel pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose as they had started to slip all so slightly, he really had to get new glasses at some point...
As the door opened and allowed Renaldo and some other man in he gave a slight nod.
"Good day Mr Benitez." He greeted calmly, his hands folding on the table patiently as he stared the man in the eyes. "Whose your...Friend?" he asked politely, shifting his gaze briefly to the other man who came in with him.
"Devante, good to see you." Valeria greeted him as she joined the group headed to the briefing room. "I bet you are eager to learn what has been happening here lately." She paused. "If so, you came to the right place." And gave a smirk.
Along with Ronaldo and Devante, came Valeria who had been on Thira eversince they arrived. She remained quiet but gave a nice to the foreign man sitting at the table before finding a seat along with Ronaldo and Devante.
"Buenos Tardes senor Warner! These are Valeria and Devante. Valeria is a Capitan in the fleet and Devante is a promising young Soldato. Valeria demanded answers and Devante just bumped into me and shouldn't even be on this base. "
Ronaldo had a soft smile when he looked at the two young Corsairs that had joined him. He knew they where destined to follow in his footsteps sooner or later.
"You should not be worried about their presence, whatever you tell us will not leave this room unless I agree to share it. Ofcourse the Benitez Elders will get a transcript of records. But they will get it in hardcopy form. Behind the mirror there is no one but some recording equipment and a Camera. "
Ronaldo invited Valeria and Devante to sit down and sat down himself.
"Whenever your ready amigo"
There used to be pictures here
once known as Richard Farbridge, OBE and Ronaldo Benitez
With a nod Ben pulled the box towards him and started to de-activate the many locking mechanisms on it, after multiple locks being undone and a muttering from Ben to the receiver on the box that deactivated the voice-lock it opened to reveal a standard Data Disk. He reached into the box and gently lifted it out before he inserted it into the Reader.
On the screen behind him the symbol of the Coalition appeared and long streams of code before the image shifted to images of strange new fighters, they appeared to be a blend of Hessian, Borderworlds and Coalition technology.
Standing up and walking beside the screen he pointed to them.
"Lady and gentlemen, this is one of many new projects my former Comrades were working on, as you may or may not know the Insurgent along with the other Coalition Snub-Fighters have flaws that cripple their ability to do combat." he stated before the image changed again to a completely different view of the same fighters.
"These my new...Friends, are the work of Coalition and Hessian Shipyard Engineers to be rid of the flaws, the Mark II Coalition Snub-Vessels, the Coalition has been working on them for quite some time and field tests have proven promising in combat situations, these are what you will be facing within a year." he stated before folding his hands behind him.
"Any questions?" he asked politely, looking around the room.
Ronaldo looked intrigued at the screen. He had hated the Hessian ship models ever since he was able to think. Their ships had brought so much horror and destruction to him and his family.
"I have two questions amigo. What are their weak points and How can we disrupt the development process?"
There used to be pictures here
once known as Richard Farbridge, OBE and Ronaldo Benitez
Ben listened patiently to Renaldo's questions before he sighed.
"They are unfortunately more like the Borderworlds Scimitar than I would like, meaning they are very manuverable and designed for fast strikes, however that means they will be more fragile to missile-fire." He answered for the first question, trying to think about how to answer the second question best.
"As for the development process, the best way to do that is to completely destroy the prototypes, you may have encountered them already, the Coalition has modified several Red Hessian Odins as hybrid Coalition/Hessian ships, they are the test-bed for most of the technologies going into the Mark II Vessels, if you destroy them and their black-boxes, no new Battle-Data, thus slowed progress." He answered before the image shifted to a familiar site to any who has looked at a history video on the Coalition, it looked like an old-fashioned Coalition Cruiser and yet more modernized.
"This was in development before I was forced to flee, designed after old records and upgraded heavily, instead of the standard Typhoon this is what you might face in the future, when I left there was only a prototype of this ship, meaning they havn't decided if it will be in full production, I do not know much about the ship as it has never really had a test-flight, but I know it's about as heavily armed as the standard Typhoon Destroyer."
Valeria grumbled quietly. Missiles are about the only thing that are currently NOT good to use with all the ion storms and whatever else there is frying their electronic before they even reach their target. But perhaps that will change someday, space never remains the same for long.
She listened to the rest of the man's detailed answer and thought about a variety of things. Once he was done she spoke again. Do you know of any critical materials in specific, supplies, special convoy routes maybe, we could try to disrupt in order to do as Ronaldo suggested and disrupt their development and work?
Again, she spoke a little more slowly, mindful of her strong accent.
" The downside of Borderworld produced vessels such as the outcast operate is that they require highly engineered parts. However they combined it with Hessian Technology. Hessians are known to produce these highly refined parts with nothing more then your average old toolbox. Basically, their ships are engineered to an extent of perfection whilst easy to maintain. All in all, a pain to take out if they don't take you out earlier...."
Ronaldo's mouth curled up into a slight smile. He knew his sister was a pirate by heart and supply interdiction was her speciality. He thought to himself how if they could interdict their supply runs they could encourage their own production more.
There used to be pictures here
once known as Richard Farbridge, OBE and Ronaldo Benitez
As Ben listened to their questions he thought briefly, supply-lines were handled mostly through another party, the IND and the Zoners.
"Well milady, the prototypes currently use components from the Red Hessians, however they are mostly manufactured onsite by Coalition and Hessian engineers to lessen the need for outsiders, however you can slow down the rate at which they receive these supplies for the manufacturing of them." he commented, the screen switching to the symbol of the IND.
"The Independent Neural Division, I'm sure you have contracted with them before, alot of supplies from the Coalition is drawn from them and the Zoners, in particular the OSI and the TAZ, this makes it harder for groups who draw upon their resources more hesitant to strike at their shipping for fear of being cut off, Premier Katz capitalizes on this fact and most of the inbound supplies are sent in through these parties whom mostly use the Omega-50 System, which the Coalition Annexed not long ago, for the safe shipping of the supplies." he told his 'hosts'.
Looking at Renaldo he nodded.
"These ships were designed to weed out the known flaws of the Mark I vessels, however they havn't been truely tested in the field of battle, but in the comming year all old Snub-Craft are ordered to be swapped out and the old designs melted down into re-usable materials to fuel the war effort, these ships were designed by Premier Katz and his top scientist, Doctor Xiaobei."