club24
Everything Is Magical
- RP Date
- Early EE005
- RP Location
- Nesha Prime
Neshaten Controlled Space
Meetup Point
It was moments away from the allotted arrival time for the Nepleslian representatives to show up to the meeting point not too far from Nesha Prime, of course it was more or less out of range for standard starship weaponry and for such an event the Shade Field had also been activated several hours prior inducing a world-wide complete lack of light. Since the defensive technology had been implemented all the cities and towns across the planet had been outfitted with large bunkers below ground in case the field had to be activated for an extended period of time, for several hours this particular event hadn’t required such action.
Waiting at the meeting point were two of the very few active Kith’sobashen Class warships along with the much smaller patrol craft which would escort the Nepleslians to the planet and through the Shade.
“All ships maintain position, don’t aim your weapons forwards unless they arrive guns blazing. The Kingdom has gone to great lengths and risked a lot by setting up this meeting and an itchy trigger finger is the last thing we need.” The Ship master of the lead Kith’sobashen warship spoke to his bridge crew, trusting them to relay the message to the second warship and the two patrol craft between them. An aging Laibe in his 60’s; though by most standards he was well over 120 years old. The shipmaster had been asked to specially lead this mission on account of his success in previous engagements when faced with odds stacked against him.
“We just have to wait a little bit longer, make sure we are getting updates sent to the capital every time those laser comms line up.”
“Yes sir, we’ve been sending constant updates to the station, they have reported all our updates so far and have been received by the capital. The field is holding.”
“Good, inform me if the situation changes.”
================
Well over a week of long and tense transit from the matriarchs gift at what was considered a remarkable crawl by the standards of the ships of the venerable 2nd Assault Fleet had finally brought the fleet, Comprising of well over 37 vessels to the galactic east of the kikyo sector to the anchor point north of their expectant destination.
Avoiding the kuvexians was one matter for the fleet captains and their pride as time after time they were forced to divert course to avoid the imperiums newest enemy; But avoiding even the ships of the patrolling star army and even the young New Dust Conclave was almost too much for the proud captains of the imperiums proudest of fleets.
But secrecy and silence where comrades to diplomats and both the standing orders of the rear admiral and his leading IPG consultant had decided that the risk, if discovered, was too great to use normal transit lanes through the sector and risk SAINT infiltrating the fleet so close to yamatai’s borders and risking a diplomatic incident down the line and risking any progress made by the delegation or outright attempting to perform some of the very actions that yamatai had become ironically famous for in the mode of annexing its neighbors was unacceptable to Rear Admiral Launce Panther.
He could, naturally, understand the blow to their pride. The 2nd Assault Fleet did not skulk about in secrecy or hide from anyone. It was a fleet of the most proud and noble of nepleslia’s captains whose track record gave them every right to show themselves regardless of the situation as a daring beacon of strength as if to say “Just come and try us, Watch what will happen!”
But orders where orders…
Despite what had once been growing diplomatic relations with the imperiums neighbor, The Yamatai Star Empire. The kuvexian war had changed much between the two superpowers of the sector as one after another, events caused distrust to once again bloom between the two as the dissolving of DATASS left the imperiums close ally in the Lorath to dry against the mishu resulting in the Lorath leaving the sector enmass.
The imperium choosing a neutral stance against a kuvexia that had left them alone and gone for the jugular of their former rival had helped nothing as finally yamatai’ decision that when the imperium would finally offer aid and join the war at their side with the end of the new bernese conflict that the imperiums ships would not enter their space was a clear stance.
They would handle their own problems, Stay out of the way.
The message was clear but unacceptable. The imperium joined the war and mere days later the interstellar kingdom of kuvexia would flood the sector with a whole legion of ships with a second wave. Even then the star empire and the imperium remained silent and refused to cooperate.
But unlike the YSE, The imperium had willing allies to stand beside them. And if Launce Panther had any success in the coming days a new, willing ally of the imperium would blossom in the form of the kingdom of neshetan as a new and close friend within the sector like the freespacers and the Lorath before them.
“Revenge For Rok’veru reports two contacts port lock from the augor point, 700,000 kilomiters and closing.” An ensign reported from his station as one of the three delegation ships, Seperated and wandering most remarkably blind towards the designated meeting point.
“PID?” The captain beside Launce asked, requesting a personal identification of the vessels to discover their origin and if they registered with the onboard ACE as a known vessel in its databanks.
They did not.
“Keep the mass mesher up and open the curbstomper tubes. Revenge For Rok’veru and the Corsaire will proceed aflank of us at 10,000 kilometers, have FRANCHESKA monitor the vessels and give me a detailed map of them when they close, Lets see what these foxes bring to the part, Admiral?” The captain ordered and ended with a questioning glance at Launce who merely watched the contacts blurry outlines as they formed ever so slowly on a nearby holographic table as layers and layers of scans slowly pieced together their silhouettes and what data could be pieced together.
“They’re big” was his response. But not one said behind a feral grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“They’re trying to intimidate us.” Was the captains follow up.
“They’re taking us seriously, As they should. Ahead slow, drop the mesher but keep us on bear and keep the spike at maximum. Bring us about and on an intercept course and prepare to let them guide us in at their leisure. Finally send a codec to rear admiral maxwell with the rest of the fleet on our status and have all ships spread at half lightyear intervals with their meshers on and at general quarters. Nobodies sneaking in to this party and anyone who gets too close might as well think the entire 2nd assault fleet is here with the mass meshers keeping us silhouetted.”
With a final glance at the massive arrow shaped ships Launce bared his teeth in anticipation and said “Its time i got my cake.”
==================
“Contacts confirmed on approach, inform the laser station.” The shipmaster barked as readings came through of the ships headed towards them.
“Should we make contact sir?” The second in command asked, a small but smartly presented Daur woman asked as she checked on several of the bridge crew.
“Send a short range unencrypted message, we don’t want anyone else picking it up. Short and sweet get them to identify and follow us back to the capital.”
The three patrol craft and two heavy warships begin turning inwards, making to head further into the foxes territory and lead the Nepleslian ships. The Kith’sobashen warships kept their guns static for now and moved to either side of the small group, intending for the newcomers to form between the large ships in a sort of proof of trust. The patrol craft moved to the front of the formation.
On the bridge of the lead warship Ricard Black strolled in and cleared his throat. “If I may Master Jas’gin, allow me to make contact, the language barriers may extend beyond just speech.” The Horizon CEO offered, getting a curt nod as he moved to the communications officer. “Hail ships of the Imperium, this is Ricard Black of Galactic Horizon speaking on behalf of the Kingdom. Your ships have been granted passage into the Neshaten systems, please follow the escorts and keep your weapon systems in place to avoid identifying as hostile.” The basic transmission was sent out in a relatively short range in trade, unlike the few words of Tinacen which had come before it.
=====================
A terse and rather dry “Understood” doted a long period of silence over the transmission as the three nepleslian ships increased their burn before coming to within 10 kilomiters of them to match their pace. “Standard NSN procedure is 10km between all warships. Flagship will maintain position for 700,000km before departure of escourt, Mr.Black. The Savage will follow your lead.
======================
There was no reply from the neshaten for a moment, presumably while Ricard translated and explained before a signal was sent once more. “They understand your procedures and find no faults Admiral, we’ll see you on the ground.” Came the chipper reply of Ricard, always laid back no matter the circumstances it seemed.
The Neshaten ships increased their speed as they headed for Nesha Prime, now that they had made contact and established an understanding they had no doubt these ships would keep up with them on the return flight to the homeland.
After a somewhat tense and quiet flight back to Nesha Prime, in which neither craft contacted the other again the escort came to a halt, the large warships separated and moved off to return to their original posts on other planets. Another transmission was sent back to the Nepleslians, “Alright Admiral, the escort ship is going to move at a set pace relatively slowly, have your ship follow behind as close as you can and match their pace. For the safety of your own ship.”
======================
Nesha Prime
A few short hours of protocol and standard monotony later a single Zachtnik shuttle disembarked the nepleslian battlecruiser in orbit and began a slow and methodical pace to a designated meeting spot outside what was declared through translation as Netoshen the capital of the planet and seat of power for the kingdom of neshetan..
Launce, not for a lack of trying was already quite exhilarated by the opportunity but even more so by strangs of technology he had already glimpsed of the neshetan in casual passing from the size of their ships they could field to even how at a mere moment they disappeared into nothingness only to find after continuing on the same route as instructed the nepleslian ship found itself suddenly at odds with its instruments as the flagships escorts franticly declared that the savage had also disappeared.
They were naturally instructed to go back and wait at the designated rendezvous of course. But following the encounter and the entire planet was suddenly manafest before them! To think that such a technology existed and had, as of yet, been un thought of by nepleslian minds as possible by their limited train of thought on such matters where nepleslians were concerned the greatest defence was armor (and a lot of it.) he could see why nobody at NAM had ever thought to hide a planet the way other stealth systems hid ships and armors.
But perhaps that was wrong? Launce had thought to himself falling for the same thought process. Clearly the neshetan were not hiding their worlds through special metals or aether powered systems but…
A jolt knocked his thoughts as the shuttle set down on the designated rendezvous location and began to shut down in preparation for their arrival. Launces’ two guards; Both members of the intelligence and pacification group detailed for his protection bristled and both finally seemed to show some actual movement from where they had been sitting stoically and silent the whole time.
One a massive SOL almost nine foot tall and then some and another a stealth cyborg woman whose cybernetics were only known to him from his briefing packet on the two, both equally deadly in different ways.
The SOL wasn’t his first choice as his sheer size, Even three foot taller than launce would be absolutely intimidating towards the diminutive neshetan. He was glad he had struck any notions of power armor or non-powered armor that might otherwise over-size him even more.
No. Should the worst come to pass and some treachery where somehow played, The imperium would have the last laugh.
“Foxes outside.” The SOL stated in a quiet mumble more for his partners sake than for launce.
“Ground crews and sec.” The female confirmed a slight mechanical twinge to her tone denoting some kind of cybernetic vocal enhancement. “Couple nepleslian’s wit’em. One looks like black, Maybe a relative, face looks the same as the packet on em’ tho.”
=======
Waiting on the platform was indeed Ricard Black along with his chief of security Brin Bluestone, also with them were several Neshaten, a golden furred Laibe (definitely more animal looking than human) dressed in what was obviously a military dress attire. Flanking him on either side were two of the more human looking Daur both in matte black combat fatigues, helmets under their arms.
“Welcome esteemed guests, the Kingdom is honoured to host such an important event for our two nations and hopes you will enjoy their hospitality.” Riccard announced as the shuttle opened up revealing the Admiral and his guards, the Neshaten present nodded while eying off the SOL. Their ancestors had taken down bigger scarier creatures just to survive not so long ago, something this tall warranted caution not fear, and their expressions showed their resolve perfectly.
“If you’ll follow me ladies and gentlemen, Brin and Director Li’Veero will be accompanying us inside, the other operators will be waiting outside just as a precaution.” The CEO said with a smile, leading the way into a large building adjoining the landing platform. With the Shade Field still active the only light present on the planet was artificial and the air was quite chilly with no sunlight warming the planet for the last couple of days. Though it seemed like none of this phased the fluffy tailed inhabitants, it was easy to guess they could see in the dark and these lights were brighter than usual for the benefit of their guests.
Inside the large building the visitors were led down several corridors before entering a large office setup for the proceedings, various small plants dotted the space and the interior had a soft atmosphere to it.
=========
Wordlessly the IPG rated guards filed in behind their charge and followed launce silently who prefered, himself, to ramble rather ambily to Riccard or more accurately to everyone about the trip and the current climate. His impression on the Neshaten ships (remarkable), Their Shade tech (Facinating), and his read-up on galactic horizon’s known activities to that point (Rather impressive).
And then when entering the room he wordlessly flicked a hand to his guards, Taking up lax positions on either side of the doors interior with heads on a swivel and took a casual seat himself to round out his current topic.
“Yes it makes perfect sense, Them being nocturnal and all.” he stated nonchalantly before looking expectantly towards Riccard, Brin, And the neshaten director before his casual demeanor took on a more serious parlour.
“So, Shall we begin the informalities and get everything in the open and in order before we put anything to paper?”
Without prompt the smaller IPG spook stood forward and handed a dataslate to the admiral before stepping back. The pad was placed on the table and unlocked Via biometrics before information and statistics started rolling down the screen before stopping and the pad began to emit a barely audible static and hum as white noise seemed to kill any silence in the room as a nepleslian example of a high-tech white noise program to block out spying equipment began to block the proceedings of the rooms occupants from any prying eyes… or ears…
========
While the white noise wasn’t unpleasant, with his enhanced hearing Vaughn immediately bristled as the noise started up, a hand reflexively going to his side as his golden eyes narrowed on the three foreigners and their device. The Laibe’s gaze flicked between the three of them as he was clearly preparing in case their strange device had other sinister uses, if not for his training and sense of pride he may well have growled at them right then and there. Noticing the silent change of stances as he glanced over the fox Riccard quickly intervened, with somewhat broken Tinacen, explaining the device was for prevention of others listening in. The golden fox scoffed slightly and shook his head, relaxing a little but keeping his eyes on the foreigners.
“The director finds it amusing you feel the need to protect the room from spys, he thinks you didn’t pay closer attention to your ship’s instruments when you were guided here earlier but says you may keep it active if it makes you feel better.” Riccard turned and said to the admiral, while the translation was basic it was clear the fox knew about the extents of the planet hiding technology and how it blocked all particle and wave communication of any sort.
At that moment he once again went stiff, but this time to formally greet the ambassador who hadn’t even touched the door before he readied himself, truly their natural hearing was quite impressive.
“Welcome friends, Neshaten finds joy in your presence. Please forgive my language. I had little time to practise.” The voice belonged to a short Daur woman who had just entered and gave a warm smile to the guests before motioning at the seats around the table. “I am… Kiatra, Ja’kato, in common tongue, I speak to, uh for, the Royal Family and handle much diplomacy.” Her features were soft and she closely resembled a traditional geshrin or nepleslian with the addition of a huge, pink bushy tail and two pink furred ears atop her head, all of which twitched slightly whenever she knew she’d made a slight mistake in her words.
“As it was our national who requested this meeting we would be humbled if you uh, went first. I mean the uh, it is rude in our culture, to bring you here and make the first request.” The small girl looked briefly to Riccard who nodded at her, the slight tensing in her chest was relaxed as she got affirmation she hadn’t completely messed up what she’d said.
=========
Launce was less than offended at the naivete of the neshatens’ tradecraft and less towards the Galactic Horizon representatives for their lack of expertise in such subject. He could warn them of their rivals and future enemies.
He could warn them that some of them, As mighty and powerful as they are, Could find the Neshaten if they so desired. Their worlds locations loosely known and only requiring a moderate amount of effort with a good ship spread and some time.
How such empires spies where a threat beyond the protection of their shade field could provide. It would however be counterproductive to challenge their pride with such information and would no doubt be denied if certain applications or services from the IPG were offered.
With that thought passed, Launce appraised the delegate and smiled amicably towards her and stood to offer a greeting and all proper formalities before seating once again and reaching for the pad on the table again.
“Your trade is quite remarkable.” He complimented while scrolling through sets of data and applications until he found something, Putting the pad back down, A short bar loading on a corner of the screen a program loaded. “I think for starters a proper cultural expanse would benefit both of our peoples. The information our peoples could offer to each other go beyond technology and services and reach well within means both of our peoples could learn from.”
A soft beep emanating from the pad however changed the tone of the conversation with the admiral leaning forward and gently sliding the dataslate to the other side of the table and gesturing for any of the diplomats to appraise it.
While such was done, Launce rehearsed the information any of them could see on it with their own eyes.
On the tablet was a rather intricate display of the Kikyo Sector. With each empire marked and colored accordingly and even the Neshatens assumed borders from before the deployment of their Shade tech. Even long since collapsed and old factions long since faded on the display like the United outer colonies and Lorath empire now long since annexed by yamatai, Neighbors of the neshaten both.
Above all that however was a blinking set of territories contested by yamatai and the kingdom of kuvexia both. Almost exclusively in kuvexian hands with lines and estimated ship numbers well into the dozens of thousands blinking in conflict with each other.
“Yamatai throws its ships and neko at the kuvexians like a sea of bodies against a blade to dull it from cutting them.” He pointed out to the relatively occupied YSE territories compared to the nepleslian ones. Remarkably untouched despite the various hostile lines breaking against its borders.
“The democratic imperium however is holding strong at this time.” He mentioned with a casual wave of his hand. “Years of preparation and first strikes have ensured the imperium is a strong bulwark against such foes. This is of course no feat we could have accomplished on our own. The lorath matriarchy, The freespacers alliance, The delesurian mandate, And others have allied themselves to us in friendship and comradery and above all independence.
The imperium guarantees the independence of its allies nd its friends from those that seek to usurp or annex them from their beliefs and freedoms.”
He left out the crucial “Who” might be annexing them, knowing full well who the demon in their minds where.
“The imperium would like to include the kingdom of neshaten as one of those friends and eventually, allies. This would require little from you now of course but simple cultural exchange and hopefully the beginnings of a trade agreement if i could be so bold as to propose benefitting both of our peoples through free trade. Of course with the generous Galactic Horizon to act as a broker I suspect we could all benefit from their involvement of course.”
=========
The pink eared woman nodded slowly as he spoke, focusing intently on trying to keep up with his words and understand what he was saying.
“We know of this war and have made necessary preparations to remain out of it. This enemy newcomer, they are formidable and we must not involve our people.” Kiatra said slowly, it was true they knew of yamatai and its conflict, it was hard to not know about it however these poor fuzzy foxes had no idea of the terror of the Kuvexian force.
“We also think that friends would are important for us. Riccard has told us much of Neplsien culture and while curious we are also cautious, we have not allowed outsiders into our civilisation and our citizens will not know how to react if we change that so suddenly.” The little Daur had been looking over the star map as she spoke, moving her eyes up as she spoke to the admiral.
At that moment Riccard interjected slightly, “To help Miss Ja’kato explain, the Neshaten are very strict with their cultural codes and despite my company residing here we are also very rarely allowed on this planet. After explaining my knowledge of Nepleslia they advisors were worried that some citizens of the imperium may harass or try to take advantage of their people if not monitored properly.”
Kiatra nodded as the Horizon CEO explained for her, she truly was grateful for the presence of this company some times, it seemed they’d helped spur the royal family’s decision to explore the stars on even further with introducing them to a foreign power. “We do not wish to offend you at all, and we humbly apologise for making such cautionary statements without having seen it ourselves but please understand we do so only out of great trust for Galactic Horizon and its founder. We would be more than happy to discuss trading on a larger scale, we already have several merchant families who have been trading internationally on a much smaller scale for many years. We believe these families would benefit greatly from trading with your nation as they can defend themselves and maintain efficiency in unknown settings with foreigners.”
========
“A valid concern and not unwarranted.” Launce agreed without pause, not trying to hide the untamed nature of the average neplelsian hive dweller. “What i simply mean to imply is that the imperium is loyal to all of its friends and allies and considers the neshaten to be in good standing already. All that's left is the benefits that we may yet reap from one another.”
“Such benefits naturally include mercantile protection for those families should the Neshaten find themselves unable or unwilling to allocate protection, and cut above rates where they choose to in civilised space under the Kikyo Mercenary Charter that would have Nepleslian backed privateers ensure the safety and security of Neshaten ships, cargo, and crew between the borders of the Kingdom and the Democratic Imperium. As well as prime bailouts and guaranteed sponsorship I have no doubt that we could come to such an agreement and get a centralized bank within the imperium that can mark a digital policy and transfer from Davis Alliance currency to the Neshatens own.” He surmised before finishing for Riccards sake “Of course with Galactic horizon seeing these benefits between us as well on the Kingdoms behalf a general 1.3% share of sales and stature from such trade easily able to compensate their continued good will between us and to help with future growth. Now, Was there anything else?”
=======
Kiatra paused for a minute and scrunched up her face ever so slightly as she thought over the words, everything seemed to be in line and it didn’t sound like anything was wrong though the Neshaten had survived this long through their caution. “This all sounds quite acceptable, though what does your nation want in return? Trading is beneficial to both yes, but we don’t like to leave words remained unspoke.” The small Daur asked, her face returning to normal as her ears twitched slightly, tail moving back and forth slowly behind her chair.
Vaughn looked on at the foreigners during the whole preceding, his brilliant golden eyes looking over every detail, sizing them up and making plans if anything went wrong, though so far from what he could gather the event was going well. Their diplomat hadn’t given him any indication something was wrong yet either, they’d agreed on a specific pattern of tail and ear twitching if he needed to act.
=======
Finally the real question had been reached; The tension in the room shifted almost palpably as Launce leaned back in his chair and looked at the much smaller diplomat in the eyes, holding her gaze.
“A declaration of friendship is all I'm required to attempt today.” He answered before continuing, “But in the future the Democratic Imperiums objectives for the kingdom are to establish a joint guarantee of independence between them.”
Waving his hand casually to forestall any interruptions he outlined a simple roadmap that ended with the DIoN and Kingdom signing a mutually beneficial defensive alliance between not only them but as well as other conglomerates of the Kikyo sector such as the Freespacers, Lorath, BRR, and other governments into a joint sector-wide defensive alliance against threats both foreign and domestic. While emphasizing heavily around the DIoN as the backing force and main centerpiece to add legitimacy and backbone to the weight of such a future establishment.
“There will no doubt be a new war not long after the kuvexians are cleared from the sector. The Kikyo sector is too resource rich to be ignored by other powerful governments as of yet unreached or undiscovered in the Kagami galaxy to simply trade for them; And we, The Democratic Imperium Of Nepleslia refuse to accept victimhood in all of these conflicts from here on out. And we invite others to join us in this stance and stand beside us and reap the rewards…”
==================
The foxes all began looking between each other without saying a word before Kiatra faced the Nepleslians once more. The small Daur gazed at the admiral for a moment, locking eyes with him and then her face softened as a small smile appeared. “On behalf of the Kingdom of Neshaten and the current royal ruling family, we accept your proposal. A defensive alliance is be good for us and for now as you speak, a mutual friendship between nations.”
The little fox girl’s tail was softly wagging behind her as she beamed at the foreigners, she was glad everything had gone smoothly and it seemed like this was the right path for their kingdom to follow. “Oh, there is one other thing you will need before you return home Admiral. We understand Riccard contacted you through some kind of public network, the Kingdom does not use these so you will need our basic codes to contact us in the future.” Vaughn stiffened in his seat and shot the diplomat a strange look, clearly he didn’t like that idea but wasn’t at liberty to do anything about it.
“Allow me to walk you back to your ship, as friends.” Kiatra spoke, rising from the table and smiling at everyone, it seemed like these foxes were pretty good natured under all their caution.
@Charmaylarg Dufrain
Meetup Point
It was moments away from the allotted arrival time for the Nepleslian representatives to show up to the meeting point not too far from Nesha Prime, of course it was more or less out of range for standard starship weaponry and for such an event the Shade Field had also been activated several hours prior inducing a world-wide complete lack of light. Since the defensive technology had been implemented all the cities and towns across the planet had been outfitted with large bunkers below ground in case the field had to be activated for an extended period of time, for several hours this particular event hadn’t required such action.
Waiting at the meeting point were two of the very few active Kith’sobashen Class warships along with the much smaller patrol craft which would escort the Nepleslians to the planet and through the Shade.
“All ships maintain position, don’t aim your weapons forwards unless they arrive guns blazing. The Kingdom has gone to great lengths and risked a lot by setting up this meeting and an itchy trigger finger is the last thing we need.” The Ship master of the lead Kith’sobashen warship spoke to his bridge crew, trusting them to relay the message to the second warship and the two patrol craft between them. An aging Laibe in his 60’s; though by most standards he was well over 120 years old. The shipmaster had been asked to specially lead this mission on account of his success in previous engagements when faced with odds stacked against him.
“We just have to wait a little bit longer, make sure we are getting updates sent to the capital every time those laser comms line up.”
“Yes sir, we’ve been sending constant updates to the station, they have reported all our updates so far and have been received by the capital. The field is holding.”
“Good, inform me if the situation changes.”
================
Well over a week of long and tense transit from the matriarchs gift at what was considered a remarkable crawl by the standards of the ships of the venerable 2nd Assault Fleet had finally brought the fleet, Comprising of well over 37 vessels to the galactic east of the kikyo sector to the anchor point north of their expectant destination.
Avoiding the kuvexians was one matter for the fleet captains and their pride as time after time they were forced to divert course to avoid the imperiums newest enemy; But avoiding even the ships of the patrolling star army and even the young New Dust Conclave was almost too much for the proud captains of the imperiums proudest of fleets.
But secrecy and silence where comrades to diplomats and both the standing orders of the rear admiral and his leading IPG consultant had decided that the risk, if discovered, was too great to use normal transit lanes through the sector and risk SAINT infiltrating the fleet so close to yamatai’s borders and risking a diplomatic incident down the line and risking any progress made by the delegation or outright attempting to perform some of the very actions that yamatai had become ironically famous for in the mode of annexing its neighbors was unacceptable to Rear Admiral Launce Panther.
He could, naturally, understand the blow to their pride. The 2nd Assault Fleet did not skulk about in secrecy or hide from anyone. It was a fleet of the most proud and noble of nepleslia’s captains whose track record gave them every right to show themselves regardless of the situation as a daring beacon of strength as if to say “Just come and try us, Watch what will happen!”
But orders where orders…
Despite what had once been growing diplomatic relations with the imperiums neighbor, The Yamatai Star Empire. The kuvexian war had changed much between the two superpowers of the sector as one after another, events caused distrust to once again bloom between the two as the dissolving of DATASS left the imperiums close ally in the Lorath to dry against the mishu resulting in the Lorath leaving the sector enmass.
The imperium choosing a neutral stance against a kuvexia that had left them alone and gone for the jugular of their former rival had helped nothing as finally yamatai’ decision that when the imperium would finally offer aid and join the war at their side with the end of the new bernese conflict that the imperiums ships would not enter their space was a clear stance.
They would handle their own problems, Stay out of the way.
The message was clear but unacceptable. The imperium joined the war and mere days later the interstellar kingdom of kuvexia would flood the sector with a whole legion of ships with a second wave. Even then the star empire and the imperium remained silent and refused to cooperate.
But unlike the YSE, The imperium had willing allies to stand beside them. And if Launce Panther had any success in the coming days a new, willing ally of the imperium would blossom in the form of the kingdom of neshetan as a new and close friend within the sector like the freespacers and the Lorath before them.
“Revenge For Rok’veru reports two contacts port lock from the augor point, 700,000 kilomiters and closing.” An ensign reported from his station as one of the three delegation ships, Seperated and wandering most remarkably blind towards the designated meeting point.
“PID?” The captain beside Launce asked, requesting a personal identification of the vessels to discover their origin and if they registered with the onboard ACE as a known vessel in its databanks.
They did not.
“Keep the mass mesher up and open the curbstomper tubes. Revenge For Rok’veru and the Corsaire will proceed aflank of us at 10,000 kilometers, have FRANCHESKA monitor the vessels and give me a detailed map of them when they close, Lets see what these foxes bring to the part, Admiral?” The captain ordered and ended with a questioning glance at Launce who merely watched the contacts blurry outlines as they formed ever so slowly on a nearby holographic table as layers and layers of scans slowly pieced together their silhouettes and what data could be pieced together.
“They’re big” was his response. But not one said behind a feral grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“They’re trying to intimidate us.” Was the captains follow up.
“They’re taking us seriously, As they should. Ahead slow, drop the mesher but keep us on bear and keep the spike at maximum. Bring us about and on an intercept course and prepare to let them guide us in at their leisure. Finally send a codec to rear admiral maxwell with the rest of the fleet on our status and have all ships spread at half lightyear intervals with their meshers on and at general quarters. Nobodies sneaking in to this party and anyone who gets too close might as well think the entire 2nd assault fleet is here with the mass meshers keeping us silhouetted.”
With a final glance at the massive arrow shaped ships Launce bared his teeth in anticipation and said “Its time i got my cake.”
==================
“Contacts confirmed on approach, inform the laser station.” The shipmaster barked as readings came through of the ships headed towards them.
“Should we make contact sir?” The second in command asked, a small but smartly presented Daur woman asked as she checked on several of the bridge crew.
“Send a short range unencrypted message, we don’t want anyone else picking it up. Short and sweet get them to identify and follow us back to the capital.”
The three patrol craft and two heavy warships begin turning inwards, making to head further into the foxes territory and lead the Nepleslian ships. The Kith’sobashen warships kept their guns static for now and moved to either side of the small group, intending for the newcomers to form between the large ships in a sort of proof of trust. The patrol craft moved to the front of the formation.
On the bridge of the lead warship Ricard Black strolled in and cleared his throat. “If I may Master Jas’gin, allow me to make contact, the language barriers may extend beyond just speech.” The Horizon CEO offered, getting a curt nod as he moved to the communications officer. “Hail ships of the Imperium, this is Ricard Black of Galactic Horizon speaking on behalf of the Kingdom. Your ships have been granted passage into the Neshaten systems, please follow the escorts and keep your weapon systems in place to avoid identifying as hostile.” The basic transmission was sent out in a relatively short range in trade, unlike the few words of Tinacen which had come before it.
=====================
A terse and rather dry “Understood” doted a long period of silence over the transmission as the three nepleslian ships increased their burn before coming to within 10 kilomiters of them to match their pace. “Standard NSN procedure is 10km between all warships. Flagship will maintain position for 700,000km before departure of escourt, Mr.Black. The Savage will follow your lead.
======================
There was no reply from the neshaten for a moment, presumably while Ricard translated and explained before a signal was sent once more. “They understand your procedures and find no faults Admiral, we’ll see you on the ground.” Came the chipper reply of Ricard, always laid back no matter the circumstances it seemed.
The Neshaten ships increased their speed as they headed for Nesha Prime, now that they had made contact and established an understanding they had no doubt these ships would keep up with them on the return flight to the homeland.
After a somewhat tense and quiet flight back to Nesha Prime, in which neither craft contacted the other again the escort came to a halt, the large warships separated and moved off to return to their original posts on other planets. Another transmission was sent back to the Nepleslians, “Alright Admiral, the escort ship is going to move at a set pace relatively slowly, have your ship follow behind as close as you can and match their pace. For the safety of your own ship.”
======================
Nesha Prime
A few short hours of protocol and standard monotony later a single Zachtnik shuttle disembarked the nepleslian battlecruiser in orbit and began a slow and methodical pace to a designated meeting spot outside what was declared through translation as Netoshen the capital of the planet and seat of power for the kingdom of neshetan..
Launce, not for a lack of trying was already quite exhilarated by the opportunity but even more so by strangs of technology he had already glimpsed of the neshetan in casual passing from the size of their ships they could field to even how at a mere moment they disappeared into nothingness only to find after continuing on the same route as instructed the nepleslian ship found itself suddenly at odds with its instruments as the flagships escorts franticly declared that the savage had also disappeared.
They were naturally instructed to go back and wait at the designated rendezvous of course. But following the encounter and the entire planet was suddenly manafest before them! To think that such a technology existed and had, as of yet, been un thought of by nepleslian minds as possible by their limited train of thought on such matters where nepleslians were concerned the greatest defence was armor (and a lot of it.) he could see why nobody at NAM had ever thought to hide a planet the way other stealth systems hid ships and armors.
But perhaps that was wrong? Launce had thought to himself falling for the same thought process. Clearly the neshetan were not hiding their worlds through special metals or aether powered systems but…
A jolt knocked his thoughts as the shuttle set down on the designated rendezvous location and began to shut down in preparation for their arrival. Launces’ two guards; Both members of the intelligence and pacification group detailed for his protection bristled and both finally seemed to show some actual movement from where they had been sitting stoically and silent the whole time.
One a massive SOL almost nine foot tall and then some and another a stealth cyborg woman whose cybernetics were only known to him from his briefing packet on the two, both equally deadly in different ways.
The SOL wasn’t his first choice as his sheer size, Even three foot taller than launce would be absolutely intimidating towards the diminutive neshetan. He was glad he had struck any notions of power armor or non-powered armor that might otherwise over-size him even more.
No. Should the worst come to pass and some treachery where somehow played, The imperium would have the last laugh.
“Foxes outside.” The SOL stated in a quiet mumble more for his partners sake than for launce.
“Ground crews and sec.” The female confirmed a slight mechanical twinge to her tone denoting some kind of cybernetic vocal enhancement. “Couple nepleslian’s wit’em. One looks like black, Maybe a relative, face looks the same as the packet on em’ tho.”
=======
Waiting on the platform was indeed Ricard Black along with his chief of security Brin Bluestone, also with them were several Neshaten, a golden furred Laibe (definitely more animal looking than human) dressed in what was obviously a military dress attire. Flanking him on either side were two of the more human looking Daur both in matte black combat fatigues, helmets under their arms.
“Welcome esteemed guests, the Kingdom is honoured to host such an important event for our two nations and hopes you will enjoy their hospitality.” Riccard announced as the shuttle opened up revealing the Admiral and his guards, the Neshaten present nodded while eying off the SOL. Their ancestors had taken down bigger scarier creatures just to survive not so long ago, something this tall warranted caution not fear, and their expressions showed their resolve perfectly.
“If you’ll follow me ladies and gentlemen, Brin and Director Li’Veero will be accompanying us inside, the other operators will be waiting outside just as a precaution.” The CEO said with a smile, leading the way into a large building adjoining the landing platform. With the Shade Field still active the only light present on the planet was artificial and the air was quite chilly with no sunlight warming the planet for the last couple of days. Though it seemed like none of this phased the fluffy tailed inhabitants, it was easy to guess they could see in the dark and these lights were brighter than usual for the benefit of their guests.
Inside the large building the visitors were led down several corridors before entering a large office setup for the proceedings, various small plants dotted the space and the interior had a soft atmosphere to it.
=========
Wordlessly the IPG rated guards filed in behind their charge and followed launce silently who prefered, himself, to ramble rather ambily to Riccard or more accurately to everyone about the trip and the current climate. His impression on the Neshaten ships (remarkable), Their Shade tech (Facinating), and his read-up on galactic horizon’s known activities to that point (Rather impressive).
And then when entering the room he wordlessly flicked a hand to his guards, Taking up lax positions on either side of the doors interior with heads on a swivel and took a casual seat himself to round out his current topic.
“Yes it makes perfect sense, Them being nocturnal and all.” he stated nonchalantly before looking expectantly towards Riccard, Brin, And the neshaten director before his casual demeanor took on a more serious parlour.
“So, Shall we begin the informalities and get everything in the open and in order before we put anything to paper?”
Without prompt the smaller IPG spook stood forward and handed a dataslate to the admiral before stepping back. The pad was placed on the table and unlocked Via biometrics before information and statistics started rolling down the screen before stopping and the pad began to emit a barely audible static and hum as white noise seemed to kill any silence in the room as a nepleslian example of a high-tech white noise program to block out spying equipment began to block the proceedings of the rooms occupants from any prying eyes… or ears…
========
While the white noise wasn’t unpleasant, with his enhanced hearing Vaughn immediately bristled as the noise started up, a hand reflexively going to his side as his golden eyes narrowed on the three foreigners and their device. The Laibe’s gaze flicked between the three of them as he was clearly preparing in case their strange device had other sinister uses, if not for his training and sense of pride he may well have growled at them right then and there. Noticing the silent change of stances as he glanced over the fox Riccard quickly intervened, with somewhat broken Tinacen, explaining the device was for prevention of others listening in. The golden fox scoffed slightly and shook his head, relaxing a little but keeping his eyes on the foreigners.
“The director finds it amusing you feel the need to protect the room from spys, he thinks you didn’t pay closer attention to your ship’s instruments when you were guided here earlier but says you may keep it active if it makes you feel better.” Riccard turned and said to the admiral, while the translation was basic it was clear the fox knew about the extents of the planet hiding technology and how it blocked all particle and wave communication of any sort.
At that moment he once again went stiff, but this time to formally greet the ambassador who hadn’t even touched the door before he readied himself, truly their natural hearing was quite impressive.
“Welcome friends, Neshaten finds joy in your presence. Please forgive my language. I had little time to practise.” The voice belonged to a short Daur woman who had just entered and gave a warm smile to the guests before motioning at the seats around the table. “I am… Kiatra, Ja’kato, in common tongue, I speak to, uh for, the Royal Family and handle much diplomacy.” Her features were soft and she closely resembled a traditional geshrin or nepleslian with the addition of a huge, pink bushy tail and two pink furred ears atop her head, all of which twitched slightly whenever she knew she’d made a slight mistake in her words.
“As it was our national who requested this meeting we would be humbled if you uh, went first. I mean the uh, it is rude in our culture, to bring you here and make the first request.” The small girl looked briefly to Riccard who nodded at her, the slight tensing in her chest was relaxed as she got affirmation she hadn’t completely messed up what she’d said.
=========
Launce was less than offended at the naivete of the neshatens’ tradecraft and less towards the Galactic Horizon representatives for their lack of expertise in such subject. He could warn them of their rivals and future enemies.
He could warn them that some of them, As mighty and powerful as they are, Could find the Neshaten if they so desired. Their worlds locations loosely known and only requiring a moderate amount of effort with a good ship spread and some time.
How such empires spies where a threat beyond the protection of their shade field could provide. It would however be counterproductive to challenge their pride with such information and would no doubt be denied if certain applications or services from the IPG were offered.
With that thought passed, Launce appraised the delegate and smiled amicably towards her and stood to offer a greeting and all proper formalities before seating once again and reaching for the pad on the table again.
“Your trade is quite remarkable.” He complimented while scrolling through sets of data and applications until he found something, Putting the pad back down, A short bar loading on a corner of the screen a program loaded. “I think for starters a proper cultural expanse would benefit both of our peoples. The information our peoples could offer to each other go beyond technology and services and reach well within means both of our peoples could learn from.”
A soft beep emanating from the pad however changed the tone of the conversation with the admiral leaning forward and gently sliding the dataslate to the other side of the table and gesturing for any of the diplomats to appraise it.
While such was done, Launce rehearsed the information any of them could see on it with their own eyes.
On the tablet was a rather intricate display of the Kikyo Sector. With each empire marked and colored accordingly and even the Neshatens assumed borders from before the deployment of their Shade tech. Even long since collapsed and old factions long since faded on the display like the United outer colonies and Lorath empire now long since annexed by yamatai, Neighbors of the neshaten both.
Above all that however was a blinking set of territories contested by yamatai and the kingdom of kuvexia both. Almost exclusively in kuvexian hands with lines and estimated ship numbers well into the dozens of thousands blinking in conflict with each other.
“Yamatai throws its ships and neko at the kuvexians like a sea of bodies against a blade to dull it from cutting them.” He pointed out to the relatively occupied YSE territories compared to the nepleslian ones. Remarkably untouched despite the various hostile lines breaking against its borders.
“The democratic imperium however is holding strong at this time.” He mentioned with a casual wave of his hand. “Years of preparation and first strikes have ensured the imperium is a strong bulwark against such foes. This is of course no feat we could have accomplished on our own. The lorath matriarchy, The freespacers alliance, The delesurian mandate, And others have allied themselves to us in friendship and comradery and above all independence.
The imperium guarantees the independence of its allies nd its friends from those that seek to usurp or annex them from their beliefs and freedoms.”
He left out the crucial “Who” might be annexing them, knowing full well who the demon in their minds where.
“The imperium would like to include the kingdom of neshaten as one of those friends and eventually, allies. This would require little from you now of course but simple cultural exchange and hopefully the beginnings of a trade agreement if i could be so bold as to propose benefitting both of our peoples through free trade. Of course with the generous Galactic Horizon to act as a broker I suspect we could all benefit from their involvement of course.”
=========
The pink eared woman nodded slowly as he spoke, focusing intently on trying to keep up with his words and understand what he was saying.
“We know of this war and have made necessary preparations to remain out of it. This enemy newcomer, they are formidable and we must not involve our people.” Kiatra said slowly, it was true they knew of yamatai and its conflict, it was hard to not know about it however these poor fuzzy foxes had no idea of the terror of the Kuvexian force.
“We also think that friends would are important for us. Riccard has told us much of Neplsien culture and while curious we are also cautious, we have not allowed outsiders into our civilisation and our citizens will not know how to react if we change that so suddenly.” The little Daur had been looking over the star map as she spoke, moving her eyes up as she spoke to the admiral.
At that moment Riccard interjected slightly, “To help Miss Ja’kato explain, the Neshaten are very strict with their cultural codes and despite my company residing here we are also very rarely allowed on this planet. After explaining my knowledge of Nepleslia they advisors were worried that some citizens of the imperium may harass or try to take advantage of their people if not monitored properly.”
Kiatra nodded as the Horizon CEO explained for her, she truly was grateful for the presence of this company some times, it seemed they’d helped spur the royal family’s decision to explore the stars on even further with introducing them to a foreign power. “We do not wish to offend you at all, and we humbly apologise for making such cautionary statements without having seen it ourselves but please understand we do so only out of great trust for Galactic Horizon and its founder. We would be more than happy to discuss trading on a larger scale, we already have several merchant families who have been trading internationally on a much smaller scale for many years. We believe these families would benefit greatly from trading with your nation as they can defend themselves and maintain efficiency in unknown settings with foreigners.”
========
“A valid concern and not unwarranted.” Launce agreed without pause, not trying to hide the untamed nature of the average neplelsian hive dweller. “What i simply mean to imply is that the imperium is loyal to all of its friends and allies and considers the neshaten to be in good standing already. All that's left is the benefits that we may yet reap from one another.”
“Such benefits naturally include mercantile protection for those families should the Neshaten find themselves unable or unwilling to allocate protection, and cut above rates where they choose to in civilised space under the Kikyo Mercenary Charter that would have Nepleslian backed privateers ensure the safety and security of Neshaten ships, cargo, and crew between the borders of the Kingdom and the Democratic Imperium. As well as prime bailouts and guaranteed sponsorship I have no doubt that we could come to such an agreement and get a centralized bank within the imperium that can mark a digital policy and transfer from Davis Alliance currency to the Neshatens own.” He surmised before finishing for Riccards sake “Of course with Galactic horizon seeing these benefits between us as well on the Kingdoms behalf a general 1.3% share of sales and stature from such trade easily able to compensate their continued good will between us and to help with future growth. Now, Was there anything else?”
=======
Kiatra paused for a minute and scrunched up her face ever so slightly as she thought over the words, everything seemed to be in line and it didn’t sound like anything was wrong though the Neshaten had survived this long through their caution. “This all sounds quite acceptable, though what does your nation want in return? Trading is beneficial to both yes, but we don’t like to leave words remained unspoke.” The small Daur asked, her face returning to normal as her ears twitched slightly, tail moving back and forth slowly behind her chair.
Vaughn looked on at the foreigners during the whole preceding, his brilliant golden eyes looking over every detail, sizing them up and making plans if anything went wrong, though so far from what he could gather the event was going well. Their diplomat hadn’t given him any indication something was wrong yet either, they’d agreed on a specific pattern of tail and ear twitching if he needed to act.
=======
Finally the real question had been reached; The tension in the room shifted almost palpably as Launce leaned back in his chair and looked at the much smaller diplomat in the eyes, holding her gaze.
“A declaration of friendship is all I'm required to attempt today.” He answered before continuing, “But in the future the Democratic Imperiums objectives for the kingdom are to establish a joint guarantee of independence between them.”
Waving his hand casually to forestall any interruptions he outlined a simple roadmap that ended with the DIoN and Kingdom signing a mutually beneficial defensive alliance between not only them but as well as other conglomerates of the Kikyo sector such as the Freespacers, Lorath, BRR, and other governments into a joint sector-wide defensive alliance against threats both foreign and domestic. While emphasizing heavily around the DIoN as the backing force and main centerpiece to add legitimacy and backbone to the weight of such a future establishment.
“There will no doubt be a new war not long after the kuvexians are cleared from the sector. The Kikyo sector is too resource rich to be ignored by other powerful governments as of yet unreached or undiscovered in the Kagami galaxy to simply trade for them; And we, The Democratic Imperium Of Nepleslia refuse to accept victimhood in all of these conflicts from here on out. And we invite others to join us in this stance and stand beside us and reap the rewards…”
==================
The foxes all began looking between each other without saying a word before Kiatra faced the Nepleslians once more. The small Daur gazed at the admiral for a moment, locking eyes with him and then her face softened as a small smile appeared. “On behalf of the Kingdom of Neshaten and the current royal ruling family, we accept your proposal. A defensive alliance is be good for us and for now as you speak, a mutual friendship between nations.”
The little fox girl’s tail was softly wagging behind her as she beamed at the foreigners, she was glad everything had gone smoothly and it seemed like this was the right path for their kingdom to follow. “Oh, there is one other thing you will need before you return home Admiral. We understand Riccard contacted you through some kind of public network, the Kingdom does not use these so you will need our basic codes to contact us in the future.” Vaughn stiffened in his seat and shot the diplomat a strange look, clearly he didn’t like that idea but wasn’t at liberty to do anything about it.
“Allow me to walk you back to your ship, as friends.” Kiatra spoke, rising from the table and smiling at everyone, it seemed like these foxes were pretty good natured under all their caution.
@Charmaylarg Dufrain
