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  • 📅 February and March 2024 are YE 46.2 in the RP.

RP [PACT-ONI] Of Meetings and Wardrooms

Arieg

DEFCON Everybody Dies
@Kim

The vessel had arrived on the heels of a long range narrow burst transmission, a simple unencrypted handshake written in a language both similar to Nepleslia's trade and in their own Yamtaian. The latter of which had been crafted by individuals ONI had thought lost to one disasterous situation or another. Now some of them stood on the surface of their adoptive homeworld, reunions, joy, and all of the things the newly ressurected tended to produce when united with friends and family.

Other things however needed to be addressed and the pair of 'appointed' more like voluntold Jiyuuians found themselves in a wardroom of sorts. Seated at what was clearly some form of projection table, both would remember the hulking half kilometer mass that now surrounded them cocoon of metal and weapon systems. The compartment lacked a lot of the creature comforts they would remember enjoying on Yamataian designs, function clearly winning over looks and comfort. After what felt like hours, but had only really been minutes three figures walked in through the far hatch. One wore the semi-casual business dress associated with government, he was tall, thin, and had a hawkish face and was clearly leading the three. The second, an older woman with brown hair and eyes of a similar shade worn something darker and more uniform like. She lacked any insignia aside from a corporate logo on the chest that read in trade 'KAAR GENERAL RESOURCES'. The final one, slightly shorter then the first and carrying the weight of military experience was last and wore a dark grey uniform. All of them sat across from the pair of Jiyuuians.
Belinda Blake felt uncomfortable in her black dress and heels. She had let her assistant talk her into looking like a professional librarian with the benefit of a white gunbelt across her hips. Her scarred arms were hidden beneath the short green coat she wore to hide the other holsters. Almond shaped green eyes appraised the board members.

Her assistant, Seathan Lansig, was a thin young man, just barely out of his teens. His scruffy brown hair was slicked down and he was wearing grey slacks with a white button down shirt. The professional clothing just gave the impression he was on his way to sunday school rather than a board meeting. He had a datapad on the table in front of him as he sat to Blake's left. They waited for the meeting to begin.

Belinda's fingers lightly tapped the table as she waited.

Perhaps on cue the first of the three to enter finally spoke from his seat to their right, his tone was calm and the words almost sounded rehersed.

"Thank you for finding the willingness to run the risk of meeting us face to face today, I'm sure your still reeling from the realization that a good number of your people are still alive."
He said, eyeing Belinda and her assistant for a moment before continuing.

"My name is Administrator John Kresh, I'm sorry to say I'm mostly just a mid level paper pusher but this event was rushed," He gestured to the woman sitting in the middle. "This is Emily Fegg of Kaar General Resources, she has quite a few questions for you and this." He said his hand now motioning toward the oldest of the three who stood and spoke in his stead, extending a hand toward Belinda as he spoke.

"Colonel Vyder Lybev, Colonial Pact Marine Corps." Icy blue eyes locked onto Belinda's, searching for something in her gaze as he held his hand before her expecting a shake.

Belinda met his gaze and strongly gripped his hand as she shook it. Her hands were rough from years of use and abuse. "Belinda Blake, Oshima National Industries, Chief of operations. This is my assistant, Seathan Lansing." She had a strong disdain for meetings, she had work to do some where else but she was here. "Dozo yoroshiku." She added as she sensed the suggestion from her assistant. Her voice was rough around the edges, like she was just getting over a bad cough but her record showed it as permanent damage from the incident on Mayer Station.

The grip of the Pact military man was of a similar strength but the skin was smooth... to smooth and a glance would find that it was artificial. The Colonel seemed to pause a moment at her words as some translation filtered over into his cybernetics, he nodded to the Jiyuuan a moment later and returned to his seat.

"As my civilian friend has said this event is somewhat rushed," The Colonel said, finally revealing who was running things at their end of the table. "I'm assuming your friend there has already briefed you on the events of his..... former dwelling?"

"He has but I would like to hear it from your side as well. His recollection is tainted and a good investigation requires multiple statements." Belinda sat back down, leaning forward on her hands as she watched the people across the table from her. Lansing sat quietly, waiting to begin the annotation of the meeting notes for Blake to review later on despite her memory for such details being rather good.

The Colonel nodded and reached forward, manipulating controls on the table as the lights in the compartment dimmed and a holographic projection filled the air above it. It started with a star system before focusing on the second world, a tan and brown desert rock. Then the Colonel more or less laid out what the Pact knew about the world known as Santa Torga Prime.

A world of ruins and buried technology that attracted scavengers and like any ecosystem these attracted predators, both human and alien. While its exact history was unknown for the moment what the briefing covered was the pooled knowledge of those from ONI who had called it 'home' for nearly six months of captivity. The briefing went over the long and old presence of the Mishhu, the Jiyuuians old enemy. The hubris of their human underlings in traveling far and wide to capture whatever they could get their hands on, using the 'gifts' of their alien masters too bring wealth and slaves back to the world that the alien intelligences where slowly building into something insidious.

Then the color of the planet changed and a more tactical display overlayed the world, Belinda's military experience immediately plucked what was a campaign after action report. Figures, battle locations, objectives, all scrolled as the Colonel continued to speak. Finally he finished with the refugee count, including Jiyuuians which had been taken to the planet soon after the fall of the UOC. This completed the report as the display powered down and the lighting returned to normal, all three sets of Pact eyes looked at the Jiyuuian searching her face for answers and reactions.

The numbers of the Jiyuuians bothered her, the tension started at her jaw and flexed down into her arm. They needed the people, they were her responsibility as a former Peacekeeper... but could their current system handled that many? There were jobs and the system could support them. It disturbed her that these people had waited so long to be liberated while everyone else had been scattered between Yamatai and Nepleslia.. but then again, she had waited 2 years with only 100 of several thousand personnel that survived Mayer. "It'll be a shock to our current system, but we can manage it." She said finally. "The company can keep them gainfully employed unti they decide they are ready to move on or we can help them get to some where else."

The Adminstrator nodded, "Figures and the overall movement plan for them should be in the report we forwarded to your underlings, now to other propsals."

The woman spoke up, "What are your thoughts on tech sharing and our respective compaines establishing a... working relationship?" The predatory tone was in this one's voice, then again corporate personnel where corporate personnel and a lot of things rode on Belinda signing off on a general state of cooperation between her company and this new group of humans who had shown up on her doorstep.

Blake rolled the prospects over. "What did you have in mind?" It sounded good on paper but she needed more validating information on what they intended. "Are you talking like doing bilateral sharing after research and production or are we in labs developing and testing together?" There was a distinct difference she needed to understand.

The woman's head bobbed slightly in response, "Mostly offering common systems and components, including various weapon systems for either your own domestic production or directly supplied by my company or others that may become involved." She said.

The Colonel broke in, "It has mixed goals, some of it is to test how our equipment may perform when compared to other groups found 'up' here." He said, referencing how on the galactic plane most of the civilizations of the Kikyo Sector where 'above' the Colonial Pact's near colony. "You bare most of the benefits from this being a... middle man of sorts."

"That's awful generous, what did y'all want from us in return for handling distribution?" Blake was certain that the other board members at ONI hated her. This was outside her lane. She was promised that she would be responsible for more physical matters but here she was... in a boardroom meeting... again. "What's the rest of it if field testing is some of it?"

The Colonel looked at her for a moment before speaking again, "We don't know the workings of this sector, we only have a small and brief overview of how things work and who is who. We're effectively offering you a rapid way to set yourselves up all the while serving as our..... local tour guide I suppose would be the best comparison." He said, his eyes and expression somewhat flat now.

"We could easily do that... this sector has seen a lot of conflict in the past few years so the politcal landscape is readily changing. Should we expect more military engagements with your Marines or just limited military presence in force?" Lansing quietly took notes as Blake worked the problem through. She did not appreciate the possibility of this going south on her.

The Colonel paused for a moment before starting again, "We're looking to both establish a presense in the star system on a small scale and to assist you in building up something of a security force in your own right."

That notion perked her attention again. "That would be agreeable."

A final hand was extended across the table, more of a symbolic gesture really considering all the fine print and various legal agreements that would need to be drafted. While the actual paper of paper work was a thing of the past in all but cermonial situations, many long nights where ahead for ONI and adminstrative Pact staff.

Blake stood up again to accept the hand shake again. She forced a smile, it was the beginning of a working relationship. She needed to find her other board members and slug them for doing this to her.
 
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