¶ Miranda's First Briefing
Characters: Commander Miranda Collins, Lieutenant Commander Hugh Daniels, Fleet Admiral Alastair McKenzie (mention), Lieutenant Commander Samantha Liakos, Ensign Louis Capelle, Lieutenant Lise Kaden, Sergeant Major Camila Sonya (no lines)
- Daniels explains to the officers how the captain was killed.
- A rigged padd, it dumped it's entire charge out through the case, electocuting him.
- The Terran operative had clearly been rushed; this was something that had very little planning.
- Because of this, it looks like he was acting on his own.
- Miranda announces that she has been given a temporary promotion to Commander, and then given command of the ship.
- The Field promotion isn't required; but rather is to help make Mir's position as the one in command unasailable. Without it, there could be rank questions.
- The Doctor questions if Mir should be the one in command; she's never seen combat.
- It's pointed out that the few people who have on the crew (remember, all of them are young) either haven't commanded a starship, or worse, don't even know how. Mir has been trained for this more than the others, despite her youth.
- Mir hands it well, despite a few tense moments
- Mir does, at one point, inform her that if she can't live with this, she can evacuate with the civilians.
- The meeting shifts to how to deal with the Terrans.
- The Terran operative tried to get a message out, but wasn't successful.
- We establish that subspace communication is difficult, and clandestine messages are nearly impossible to get out, by design.
- Mir sums up the shitty situation.
- Some civilian ships have offered to stand and fight, but they won't make much of a difference.
- They're out gunned 2 to 1, and out massed 10 to 1.
- Everyone looks pretty grim.
- Mir suggests that they could send the Terran Operative's report, and use it to set an ambush.
- The key will be looking like an incompitent captain, and launching their fighters from a location that wasn't expected.
- When the Terrans see an incompitent captain being an incompitent captain, they're not going to question half the ship's fighters being missing/sabotaged.
- Then the Terrans will most likely force a surrender, and Mir will give it to them. Right at the moment her fighters jump the Terrans. While they're distracted, the Archigos will nail them with her main gun.
- Louis gets overly excited, but Mir joins him in his excitement with a dramatic statement.
Characters: Captain Sean Krimm, Unnamed Officer
- Sean recieves a message from Terran Intelligence.
- It includes a summary of the Terran Operative's report.
- There was a lot of intercepted communication traffic.
- Being encrypted, all that can be known is who rececieved the communication, and how long it was.
- Still that's enough to all but confirm what was said.
- The League also put out a bounty for all able ships in the area who could help, meaning thet didn't think their ship could handle the situation on it's own.
- Sean consideres the situation, asking what he would do. He settles on a plan that's scary-close to what Mir is going to do.
- While musing, he comments that the best solution would be to collapse the subspace corridor. It would kill everyone, including the planet, but it would stop the war before it started.
- Sean laments that the Terrans will win, because it's going to be over too quickly.
¶ David and Glyse have a sibling chat while hanging upside down
Characters: Captain David McKenzie, First Lieutenant Glyse McKenzie, Command Chief Master Sergant Duncan Reid, unnamed pilots
- David and his squadron are crammed into two freighters. And the waiting is terrible.
- He goes into a little detail in his naration about how crazy all of this is.
- But he really does think the waiting is the worst of it.
- Glyse askes him what he thinks of the plan.
- David says he is cool with it.
- Duncan points out that he's been getting more noble, David blames it on Duncan.
- Glyse presses, clearly unhappy about all of this.
- David presses back, getting her low opinion of Mir's abilities.
- Glyse things David would have done better.
- We get some of David's backstory; he was considered a tactical genius, but he was a little too good at seperating his objectives from the human cost.
- Even he recognized that if he went into command, he'd get people killed, despite his excellent numbers
- He switched to the spaceforce from the Navy, and excelled. The smaller stakes worked much better for him.
- David points out this is basically the same plan he'd use, except he'd involve more civilians.
- Glyse softens at this, showing the empathy David lacks.
- David realizes she's getting it, and after one final comment from her, the conversation ends.
Characters: General Stephen Harper (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs), Fleet Admiral Alastair McKenzie (Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Head of Naval Intelligence), Fleet Admiral Christia Freeland (Head of Naval Operations), General of the Space Force Nicholas Sarkozy (Chief of Staff of the Space Force), General Fernando Gabeira (Commandant of the Marine Corps), General Catherine Morneau (Chief of Staff of the Army)
- The Lyndri have annexed a League colony, and are bing holy terrors with their fleet.
- McKenzie informs them that a battlegroup is en route to Tel'Erani, but ETA is ~10 hours.
- Freeland give McKenzie shit about the Rekonin situation.
- She naturally doesn't trust mercenaries, and even more has a history with McKenzie.
- They were never an item, but she's always had a thing for him, after working closely together over their carreers. She turned this into a rivalry and a coolness towards him, while he's always tried to be civil to her.
- Coincidentally, he respects her and thinks she's attractive, but has never even considered anything more than that.
- Several of the Joint Chiefs egg on this fight, before it's shut down.
- Harper is keeping a thight leash on these people; they're all profesionals, but emotions are running high
- A refferendum was introduced that wants to outlaw a buildup along the front, and cut the military budget in half.
- This is a ploy being encouraged by the Sooni, but almost no one involved suspects it will actually pass.
- McKenzie points out that the best away to avoid the political backlash, as well as ensure they don't get caught with their pants down when the Terrans do attack is to actually start a war.
- Sarkozy agrees that this is the best course of action.
- Freeland objects, legitimately shocked that everyone's considering it.
- Sarkozy counters, saying basically that this is coming anyway, so why not be the one in control of it, instead of reacting too slow, too late.
- Freeland backs down, and Sarkozy asks the room for ideas on how to start the war.
Characters: Lizbeth Locke, Rekonin, Fleet Admiral Alistair McKenzie (mention)
- Rekonin gains control of communications, but not navigation or internal defenses.
- Liz ponders the nature of this thing, being a bit disturbed.
- Really, this is just trying to make the point that AI almost always are faceless things, silently running daily life, not walking, talking, blood filled orangisms.
- Rekonin says that there's a message for Liz from McKenzie.
- Literally the only way to send a message to Liz would have been to send it directly to the ship. It might not work, or might have been read by the Terrans, but it was really the only option.
- Liz reads the message and basically rolls her eyes, but is resigned to doing it.
- Rekonin, on the other hand, gets serious business about it.
- She has a thing about being needed, and relied on. She will move heaven and earth for officers that are counting on her.
Characters: Captain Sean Krim, Selene, Unnamed Terran Officers
- Sean arrvies in system, violating tradition by having his concubine on the bridge.
- Did we mention he's a bit of a dick?
- He decides to park his ships right off the edge of the colony.
- Normally, the interdictor would have to be very near the sun, however, Tel'Erani's sun is so large and cool there the difference between the colony and the optimal interdiction position was negligable.
- Also he wants earthquakes on the colony. Because he's a dick.
- Archigos arrived, heading in on a very stupid vector.
- The ship is heading in a straight line for the Terrans, about the least efficient way to reach them possible.
- Sean becomes leery, since it feels like the commander is trying too hard.
- The Archigos launches one squadron of fighters way too early.
- They will have to do a micro-jump just to catch up.
- The fighters, as he predicts, shut down power and clearly are waiting to jump.
- Before reaching weapons range, The Archigos hails Sean's ship.
- Sean creeps on Mir, wanting to break her.
- Mir demands he leave, Sean says he's going to take the colony, and fires missiles at her.
- Mir was involved in drama growing up, and is putting those rusty skills to use.
- It helps that she instantly despized him.
- The missiles are intended to get her to show her port side.
- Archigos dodges the missiles, but Sean gets a look at damage along her port side.
- Daniels actually did sabotage the launchers on that side. The way he saw it, it was the only way to be sure it looked right. And it's not like they needed to launch ships from it anymore. If it didn't work, it wouldn't matter.
- Mir doesn't hail him again until they're within weapons range.
- Sean makes her wait until they're closer.
- Sean demands she surrender
- Mir mimes getting cut off by her officers, but really is just doing it for dramatic effect.
- She asks his terms, and he demands her crew be taken into custody, and she become his personal guest.
- It's clear that he's implying she would be his fuck toy.
- Oddly, she objects to this; not expecting him to be nearly so disgusting.
- Her reactions aren't acting, but they did also prevent her from considering what his reaction might be to being told to go to hell.
- Sean orders a full barrage of her ship, something no one was expecting.
- This is very, very excessive.
- This was the risk of their ruse, however. They were hanging their ass out in the air, trying to look like idiots, and they got hit hard like the idiots they were pretending to be.
- The Archigos loses one reactor and takes heavy damage.
- Sean lets them drift in space while he heads to the colony.
Characters: Lieutenant Commander Hugh Daniels, Unnamed Reactor Tech, Lieutenant Steve Pappas, Lieutenant Gabriella Lopez
- Daniels orders the safeties removed from the reactor that just shut down.
- The reason it scrammed was a drop in pressure caused by a crack in the reactor casing
- The logic goes, if the casing is cracked, then something's gone very bad. Better shut it all down.
- Daniells works on getting the reactor back online, despite it normally taking hours to do.
- His idea boils down to siphoning plasma from one reactor to the other, tricking the first into thinking it's still online.
- While crazy, there's no reason for it to not work, assuming the plasma stays confined while being transfered. But, the devil is in the details.
- Steve points out this is crazy, Daniels agrees, but what the hell else are they going to do?
- Daniels tells them it looks grim no matter what, and that if they were secretly in love with him, now was the time to fess up.
- Unless it's Steve. Ew.
- Lopez laughs, then kisses Steve.
Characters: Captain Sean Krim, Unnamed Executive Officer, unnamed Terran Officers.
- Sean gives the planet his ultimatum, and tells them anyone not wanting to be part of the People's Republic has thirty minutes to leave.
- His XO objects, saying it will cause a panic.
- Sean agrees. That was the point.
- A group of freighters cross right in front of the Terrans
- A little voice is telling Sean this is odd, this is a trap, but he ignores it.
- Sean checks on the Archigos, and it's still very disabled.
- It's bugging him that he still has this nagging feeling.
- Then the freighters explode.
- Sean immediately assumes that the explosion is hiding a surprize, like a cloud of missiles.
- He is only a little wrong.
- David and his fighters make it past the battlecruisers, and take a pass at the interdictor.
- Sean scrambles his fighters.
Characters: Lieutenant Commander Hugh Daniels, Commander Miranda Collins, Unnamed Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Gabriella Lopez
- Daniels is telling the captain that they're ready to try jumpstarting the reactor.
- The freighters launch, and Mir gives Daniels two minutes.
- Mir orders her tactical officer to configure the grazer. Also, to fire everything they have at the battle cruisers as they approach.
- Grazers are huge, capital ship weapons. The Archigos is basically a flying grazer. It gives them Dreadnaught punch, at destroyer size... if it works.
- Most ships of her class swapped it out for a much more economical plasma cannon
- Less than half the range, a quarter the damage, it's still Battlecruiser level damage from a destroyer.
- The tactical officer complies, a bit dubious.
- They're still transferring missiles from their damaged tubes.
- Timer runs out, and everything happens at once.
- The ship dumps everything it has into it's engines, leaping forward with crazy speed.
- Reactor Two signals a scram, and attempts to dump it's plasma into space, killing the reaction.
- This does not happen, as the outside doors close, and the plasma is shunted into Reactor One.
- Reactor one comes online, but Reactor Two is pushed far beyond what it's control systems can handle, and some plasma burned a hole in the hull.
- Reactor One comes up to full, Reactor Two overloads, sending a surge through systems unable to handle it. Things explode.
- After a few seconds, everything settles down.
- Some crew is killed on the bridge, and Mir was hurt.
- Archigos has lost most of her point defense, and will have to rely on screens.
- This is tricky, because screens aren't perfect and cost a lot of energy.
- Mir orders them to take evasive maneuvers, got to maximum screens, and stay very, very close to the Terrans.
- Mir calls to Engineering, and Lopez answers.
- Daniels is keeping the engines from melting down
- Steve is pinned under a bulkhead
- Lopez in in charge, and sassy.
- Mir demands 120% on the reactors.
- Lopez gives her shit, but tries to make it happen.
- Doing to takes ten seconds off the grazer, which is enough to be useful.
- Archigos roars into the fight, throwing her entire magazine of missiles at the Terrans, who did no expect it.
- The distance is so small, even their better point defense is overwhelmed.
- They start taking hits.
- The return fire is punishing, creating a cloud of plasma that shorts out half her sensors, and fries several secondary systems.
- One of the battlecruisers shifts vectors, putting itself in the path of the Archigos, not realizing she has a gooddamned grazer.
- The tactical officer sees the mistake, and takes full advantage taking out her primary reactor, and CIC in two shots.
- Everyone starts cheering, but Mir knows that the hard part's only just started.
- Archigos breaks off from the attack, and suddenly gets pegged, hard.
- Sean switched to running missiles with nothing but penetration packages; no warheads. That means they can make it through the screens, and let kintetics deal the damage.
- Damage reports comes across the ship. This is it.
- Ion engines have five more minutes before they overheat, life support's about gone, and her engineering staff is down to pressure suits.
- Mir decided to rig for ramming, something that ship, while designed to do, really shouldn't be doing.
- Her crew evacuates, and her bridge crew stays, showing support.
- The ships heads towards oblivion.
Characters: Captain Sean Krimm, Selene, Unnames Terran Executive Officer
- Sean tried disbelieving the loss of the battlecruiser.
- He's super mad about the grazer, and how Mir's "treating him" by, you know, not being dead.
- Selene points out that Mir is about to ram her ship into his. And through them.
- This is the first indication we have of Selen's ability to see Will; that was how she was able to predict what was about to happen.
- Sean runs the numbers and decides he needs to be elsewhere.
- Selene informs him that she's cleared the flight deck, and his shuttle is ready.
- And here we see it again; she was watching the threads of willpower at play, and knew Sean would lose. So she prepared an escape.
- Sean orders them to keep attacking, and says his Exec has the bridge.
- Sean notices how the corridors are clear, and assumes Selene had been sleeping around to garner favors.
- What he doesn't realize is, she'd killed all the crew and sealed the corridors with a security override.
- Sean pilots his shuttle away from the fight.
- Most Terran captains can't (or don't) pilot their own craft. He considers that dumb.
- The Archigos slams into the battlecruiser, and then there's a huge explosion. Sean jumps to subspace, right as a large something drops out of subspace.