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RP: 188604 [Star Wasp] 8:The Briefing Before

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zack
  • Start date Start date
"Oh! Well, that is good, Miss!" the female wasp replied, apparently completely convinced now that nothing bad would happen, changing her mask to display a smile again. "Will you be fighting them too, Miss? It is very selfless of you to this for us." Tottering closer, the I'ee gave Aashi's thigh a hug, blissfully unaware of any inappropriate contact.

A few of the Ee'ith were milling about Lyco, chattering to one another and poking at her bound hands, presumably curious as to why they were restrained so.
 
Confusion
Spacecase raised his hand. "Um Ms.Uso? You never answered my question what would you have me do? If you don't tell me anything I'll just act as transport, rearment ship, and infirmary for our people and any prisoners we come across."
 
Palace

"Great. I'm stuck with babysitting instead of focusing on squashing every squid in my way."

While he'd not been able to fly with one of the two who were put with him, Alex as a benchmark for mecha pilots wasn't setting a very high mark for Ronin. Admittedly, he'd not met such an inefficient pilot in a long time, especially based on what he'd caught glimpses of what had once been an M3 on the airfield. But, on the plus side at least, the man could leave his cigarettes if the other one ended up being dependable. Breaching a ship with the aid of the junkers would at least make getting in simple, but it'd rely on the overall ability of his forced-team as much as his own skill.

"Operating within a minute, though, is at least like Yamatai deadlines. The NMX doesn't do well when you hit them fast... part of the reason they lost the war was that inflexibility. But what happens if we're not able to make the initial breach? I don't guess we have a Plan B, do we?"
 
Palace

Corgan had opted to show up in person for this meeting. He was sitting beside Jason wearing a leather jacket with a large snake pattern on the back today instead of the usual duster. A week's growth of facial hair remained on his face. It seemed he was either trying a new look or was too lazy to shave. He had his feet propped up on the seat in front of him and he was drinking something out of an ornate silver flask. The briefing did not fill him with confidence, especially the part where Uso mentioned ST backups.

He cleared his throat and spoke up."I have zero experience operating in space, as you know. I did just get a cargo shuttle but it's not equipped for combat. I'll be on the Necromancer defense team. There's plenty of flight sims on the Polysentience, maybe I could try to pilot a drone or something. I will definitely need my Impulse upgraded as much as possible for this fight, it's around 63,000 DA for military spec. As far as weapons, any chance you can get me an HPAR-01a? If you can do all that I guarantee I can keep the squids from getting a foothold on the Necromancer."

Once he was finished with his requests he sent Jason a private audio message. "You want some? It's local algaeia beer mixed with THRUST and SPEED to make it palatable." While he waited for a response from either Uso or Jason, he searched for a training simulation to try later. He decided to start with the one used to teach Spacer children how to fly.
 
Vanilla Arccos:

"The Lament is a weird case for what we can do to help." Arccos piped up, wordlessly reaching out to scoop up Sammy and pull the little ('little' here meaning 'huge') bug into an embrace. "It's an industrial ship that's not exactly armed purr-say, but the dimensional shear array is used to collapse big asteroids into powder and peel the crust off planets like skinning a rat. It's capable of crumpling any ship you can get it in range of, but like most 'spacer ships it doesn't have strong shielding. Or any military grade shield really."

"We can get in close and move around by running silent and ECM, but it's a one-and-done attack... Leaves me a sitting duck." Arccos gave a little sigh, "What we can do however, is use the ship's Entropy's Shroud to cover a bunch of the drones, or use the on board Leyline link to open up a gate link directly inside the system so we can outflank and surround the second Misshu fleet if they come out to back up the first target. We can only bring through small ships like the drones that way, but it may well be better than just swarming them and hitting them head on."

Arccos raised one hand, placing it between Sammy's eyes and giving the big wasp a petting. "While I have re-established contact with the Polysentience, we can maybe get a couple more Freespacer vessels in on this, but some representative of the I'ee is going to need to talk them in to it. They're not here to pick fights unless they have a reason to do so."

Strawberry Daniels:

"In addition to prior standing investment in your military capabilities..." Daniels said as Uso addressed the Hexagon representatives, moving over to one of the seats and laying down his briefcase; Ash moving along to keep within two paces of the man, probably dragging along Akemi in the process. Popping the briefcase open, Daniels pulled out a rather archaic stack of paper of all things. "Ms. Van Banning is willing to offer the services of our security escort fleet and the use of the Western Frontier Enclave's armored battalion for the use in this battle."

Handing the contract over physically to Uso, along with a fountain pen to sign, the middle aged man gave a rather pleasant smile. The contract was a thicket of legal jargon so dense it would require a team of lawyers with machetes to hack through and comprehend fully. At a glance it seemed to be assurances that the USO would allow a series of non-competition deals to be signed by Nepleslian corporations, and Van Banning would stand to make a profit by earning a substantial finder's fee for each investor brought to the planet. At the same time it stipulated that the USO itself would earn a substantial amount through the deal as well, as it set a taxation rate that these groups would be paying.

"Eight combat ready vessels, three hundred in power armor and mech units." Daniels explained, returning to his briefcase and pulling out a thermos and a mug shaped like the cartoonish head of Moomie the Moonmouse. He poured out what looked like a milky coffee in to it. "This is in exchange for your signing a rather lucrative stimulus deal, which Ms. Van Banning will negotiate with her associates abroad. Ms. Pricefield, our lead accountant has assured me that the deal is one which will stand to earn both of our groups a profit and ensure that there's... Well, that there's something left to defend this place at the end of the day."
 
"As much as I like Ash I hope you don't go accidentally selling the whole planet to her boss," Akemi said as he continued to clasp the bodyguard's arm and lean against her very sturdy side. "It'd be better if you sold it to Ash instead. Then she could be more than the queen of my heart." While the Neko waited for the cringe to set in he decided to comment on Daniel's serving and storage implements. "Would you give Uso that mug and thermos combo as a complimentary thing for signing so she can pass it to me?"

Akemi had mixed feelings about signing a contract that thick. On one hand it could greatly speed up the development of their planet but on the other they were all already filthy rich or capable of becoming so with what they already had and he didn't want the initial impressiveness of his space goods to diminish even faster. Plus he would much rather develop the planet on his own terms and keep everyone dependent on him and Uso's little group. He didn't even really want the planet to be improved all that much in a sense as then it'd just be like any other well developed place. He sure didn't want his medieval fantasy setting to vanish overnight. Then there was the issue of the place simply being stripped of tons of cool and valuable stuff before they even knew it existed.

"Has this planet even been surveyed by a mining ship yet or something?" Akemi sent his empress telepathically.

Despite his concerns the little Starman didn't want to say much openly as he didn't want to risk possibly bothering Ash by potentially making things difficult for Daniels.
 
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Outside the palace doors

A large man whom none of them, save Uso, would recognize, leaned against the wall outside the doorway to the room in which they were all gathered. Aside from his size, he wore unusual clothing, had a strange shaped briefcase beside him and seemed to pay little attention to anything, merely crossing his arms and looking forward with a blank expression on his face. In truth, he was there to listen. This planet, and these people, were about to become immensely significant to him.

He listened, and easily heard everything coming from within. He shook his head at the estimate in ship losses. Up to a 90% anticipated loss, and they were still willing to go through with it? It didn't even seem to occur to them to question the estimate. They were, of course, not much more than a ragtag group trying to forge their own empire, but the fact that they would be willing to take such a powerful hit when, by Uso's own admission, they'd just spent the majority of their resources on building the fleet of ships which they expected to have turned into scrap, spoke volumes to the man leaning against the wall. Obviously, these I'ee were much more important to them then he'd first thought.

With a flick of his wrist, he took out his portable comm. ="Craig, finish up the remaining work on the Watchkeeper then go help the other crews double check their work. We don't need any rush jobs causing easily avoidable mistakes."=

He put the communicator away, grabbed the briefcase, then turn and shoved open the doors, making sure to do it with a fair amount of force, so the resulting ~Bang~ would be loud enough to draw the attention of those gathered.

"Better rework those ship loss estimates, Uso!" Marcus' voice boomed powerfully. "I'm not okay with those numbers!"
 
"Ew. Gross. He's loud," Akemi said immediately upon Marcus making his entrance. He then looked up at Ash expectantly and spoke with a needy voice. "Just exterminate him for me."
 
Zahen just watched the group talk, slowly blinking at everything going on. For a breifing, this was rather... Unorthidox. Still, she was curious. Sit and liason? Who was she to liason with? She was in space. Given the nature of this mission, she figured Uso just wanted someone to watch and see if she succeeded or failed. She could do that, but it made her nervous. Depending on how badly she failed, Zahen could die. Not something she was fond of thinking about. "Watch you, tell the VDTF what happens here. Good or bad. Makes enough sense" She muttered, Sending Uram a message telling him if she didn't come back within the next few days, that Uso failed catastrophically and Zahen was likely dead. In that regards, Uso probably was too. They were on the same ship...

Zahen was broken from her thoughts when someone slammed open the door and started to shout. She was admittedly startled, hissing at the door, but gathered herself fast enough and went back to her Datapad, mumblinging under her breath about being obnoxious.
 
The rarely seen around the Palace and the city, Errowyn had slipped in from another direction into the Auditorium to listen to the speeches and conversations going on around her. As usual she was dressed in a more pleasing fashion of a aristocrat or a lady of wealth and leadership. If it weren't for her neko ears, she could easily pass for a native. Next to her chair was her flight bag that contained her flight suit and helmet.

She wrinkled her nose at the thought of taking another punch at the NMX. But she was in for the durations and the old itch was beginning to be felt to move on and continue her journey back to Yamatia. With odds heavily against them, she was going to make sure she was one of the 10% to survive.

She jumped startled at the banging open of the doors. With Catlike grace, she had rose and faced the newcomer with a hand hidden behind her where she kept her service pistol hidden, yet accessible for use. Waiting for the man to make the first move whether it was hostile or not.
 
Spacecase's Worry
Upon hearing Marcus's statement Spacecase addressed him. "Are you saying that this is not the best possible plan that is available to us sir? If its about improving chances I do have over a hundred junkers on my ship which are outfitted for different purposes which can be broadly categorized into offense, defense, or support. I could make some more adjustments to them to re-purpose them for this endeavor, and given enough time I could use the scraps that are on my ship to create some robotic soldiers if there is an AI or SI that is powerful enough to control them. Though the droids won't be much more than canon fodder."
 
The comments were very important to her, and were addressed in the order received.

Uso's attention was first on Gut-Stripe.

"Very well Gut-Stripe. Lets have your long-range corvette pair up with the Necromancer. Stay inside of its FTL bubble and help pick off enemy craft that get too close. If your Thi-Thi can reach us that would be great, but I think our efforts are better spent on having Sammy look adorable. If he can talk spacer ships into joining us we'll have a better chance."

Uso then turned to Spacecase

"The same goes for you, keep your ship near the Necromancer and add your firepower to its. The I'ee don't have time for us to keep building the perfect fleet. We need to go with what we can win with."

And then Ronin,

"If our initial attack is successful we'll have all the time in the world to raid the NMX carrier. If things go wrong, plan B is evade and escape. We'll meet back up in deep space and figure out our next move."

Then Corgan,

"Corgan, take the money you need. We'll have Vier produce an HPAR for you. I know you're not exciting about losing your new ground vehicles this early, but we may want to take a few along just in case. Doubly so if we can bolt them to the exterior of the ships."

Uso would then turn her attention to Arccos,

"We're not going to throw away the White Lament. While we can replace our drone ships easily, we can't replace the Lament. Keep it behind the Necromancer as much as possible while doing what you can."

Uso would then make her way to Daniels, taking the stack of paper and starting to look through it, stopping for a moment to check a message on her datapad before returning her attention to Marcus.

"90% losses is happening. If we had a much larger fleet, or the enemy was much dumber... sure we might be able to keep every ship intact. Right now we don't have the numbers or the capabilities. The NMX fleet has more ships and likely more missiles than we do so we'll only be able to win through shenanigans. We have a path to victory, but it involves trading our ships for their ships. If all goes well the only ships we'll lose are the unmanned ones.

When Vier says that she needs 50 seconds to destroy the enemy fleet I believe her. But she also says this is going to cost us every missile and combat drone we've built on this planet to date. After those 90% losses we'll have the Necromancer, some support ships, an empty Pumpkin-Eater, and whatever else we've managed to bring with us Vs whatever the NMX have managed to keep intact.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm not going to ask you to stay and fight if it looks like we're going to lose. If we're clearly outmatched we just leave."

Uso smiled a bit when she saw Errowyn in the back of the room, then turned her attention back to Daniels,

"I am not giving up that level of control for a few ships. Perhaps we would both be better serviced by picking one or two industries to start with and seeing how your monopoly there works out for us?"
 
Request
Spacecase piped in again. "I don't need much time to make around a dozen droids, a week at most. I do have connections in many places as well since I've been a lot of places in my past I might be able to pull a few more people our way."
 
Marcus smiled a wide, knowing smile at Uso.

"Shenanigans, you say?" He tossed a datapad with the specs for the plan he had laid out. "I can do shenanigans. Craig has finished with the Watchkeeper and he's helping the other crews double check the other ships. Give me a ten second head start and I can take down that carrier...maybe even another ship, with it."

He shrugged. "Of course, I don't believe there won't be any losses, but 90% would leave you too open to retaliation. The NMX may be weakened, but they are far from impotent. Even without knowing where this planet is, it's too risky. My ship is manned entirely by trained military personnel. They've been a team for years. They work exceptionally well together. Plus, I'll be manning a fighter craft with it."

Marcus looked back at Errowyn and nodded, then turned back. "Of course, I'm not as experienced of a fighter pilot as some here, but I know what I'm doing."

The big man dressed in attire like nothing any of them would have ever seen before dropped the brief case and looked over at Zahen. "I also have something for the liason here to take back to her people, but that can wait until after the I'ee have been helped. So, Uso, what do you say?"

He looked over to Spacecase

"She's right. A week is too long. A matter of days more is too long. The I'ee need help. Uso has committed to helping. Besides, your junkers will be needed for other things."
 
The Palace

Aashi was mildly enthused by the places the conversation was going without her, but chose to stay out of it and talk to the I'ee, instead.

The contact was more than appropriate and Aashi patted the bugger gently. "I'll be fighting them, yes. Are you excited to get your home back?"
 
"Yes, Miss!" the I'ee hugging Aashi said, smiling up at her. "It will be good for Eethie particularly." She enjoyed the pats on her head, tickling Aashi's arm with her antennae and squeaking.

Gut-Stripe seemed immensely annoyed that Sammy's methods were considered more effective for this engagement, casting a baleful glance over at the ambassador who, blissfully unaware, was still cuddled up against Arccos. "We will keep the corvette with your ship," she said finally, turning back to face Uso. "I will command the corvette myself."
 
Errowyn returned the nod and settled back in her seat. She seamed distanced as she thought through many things, alert to hersurrounding. To bad this wasn't Yamatia where she could run out and get a back up done and have a clone to step in when her demise happened. She wondered if her 'Sisters' would haunt or transfer over to the newly activated body.

She gave a slight soft smile as she knew deep down she would miss them, Even though they could be a pain in the arse at times. Popping up at awkward times.
 
Arccos doin' what she was hired for:

"Right, see if you can get Vier to synch up the drones with the Lament's Polysentience nodes and give me a sensor feed. Same with the Necromancer. I'll be able to do ECM-ECCM for them on the approach as long as they stay between the Lament and the enemy fleet." Arccos idly explained as she gave Sammy a loving rub over his fuzzy back. "I should be able to cover the approach of a section of the fleet until we get up close that way, and confuse guided weaponry fired our way."

"If at all possible, and assuming we're all alive after this I'll have the Lament stay in I'ee space afterwards and do some upgrades to the I'ee fleet. Prevent this sort of thing from happening again."

Daniels doing what he's hired for:

"Well." Daniels paused after a single word, taking a little single-serving creamer from his briefcase and peeling the plastic lid off the top. Pouring it into Moomie. "I'm sure the contract is only a preliminary write-up. If Van Banning wanted to negotiate she'd have sent Ms. Pricefield. Rest assured that we are committed to the safety of this planet, and amenable to negotiations. Should worse come to worst: The Enclave's privateer fleet and armored battalions are available to pick up the slack in the event of your losing a projected ninety percent of military capability."

Taking up his archaic fountain pen, he stuck a hand into the suitcase. Soon after extracting a little yellow sticky note and slapping it on to the title page of the contract. His handwriting was the flawless Yamataigo of someone who had consciously sat down to spend real time and effort studying calligraphy. The contract now had a time and place for a meeting in Van Banning's office. Penthouse in the Hexagon, that night.

"Due to the potential for Yamatai's latest war in the western reaches to come to our shared sky, and increased interstellar interest in this place; on behalf of the Enclave I pledge that this planet shall remain safe in the face of devastating losses." Daniels finished his sentence with a little firm nod. His words indicated his commitment to protecting this planet. But absolutely everything else about him seemed to scream something different entirely.
 
A loud thud. It was Truffleclub, the real one, hitting their head on the top of the doorframe. They had to hunch in order to walk further inside. Rather than dissipating the small holographic mushroom, they came to a cross-legged seating pose with the small potted plant in their cupped hands. The missing right arm had returned, but was still silvery and unpainted. A concerned look was directed towards Arccos for a moment, then back into their lap. Not an uncommon habit as of late.

"New parts from old Free-hold are very compatie-bull. Not just computer, is. Organeek tanks, are found." As the lumbering tone echoed, a small speech bubble formed alongside the virtual mushroom. Those with VR ability could see a wireframe diagram of salvaged components being placed inside the White Lament. "This wasp planet a long way from this dust planet. If you are wanting big span hospee-tal for this ninety percent, can be made on Lament... Cloudee can doctor this?..."

With a slow movement, they crawled on their hands and knees towards the I'ee meandering around the restrained Lyco, who was doing her best to ignore them.

"Can you be giving your Doctur-thoughts? Writing them down?" Drunk-voice sounded even slower when it was trying to sound compassionate. "I am helping, but do not know how to heal this race, is... Poly-sin-tee-unce does not say these things..."

"...Parts are good..." Side eyes looked at Uso. "Very quickly... these mods be made... is...."
 
"It sounds like there are a few small details to wrap up. I'll have Vier send our rally point location to your ships. We will be gathering in deep space prior to the start of the operation.

Whatever final details need to be address: You have 36 hours."

Her attention would then turn to Marcus,

"We can assign you a ship or two to destroy during the initial attack. Have your specifics sent to Vier so she can integrate you into her process."

Then her attention would switch to Errowyn,

"I know you have a fighter, but I would prefer you pilot the Queen's Slave for this operation."

And finally,Daniels,

"... I suppose a talk with your boss is in order?"
 
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