Characters: Captain Miranda Collins, Commander Hugh Daniels, Rekonin, Captain Takeo Yori (Terran), Commander Ishida Hitomi (Terran, no lines)
- Two Terran Super Dreadnaughts enter orbit around a Terran Colony who tells them to get lost.
- Rekonin comes out of nowhere (was sitting in wait), and takes out the first one with a single hit, before pulling away.
- The second Super Dreadnaught is able to catch up and pound the shit out of Rekonin; more than was expected
- The intel on the class was incomplete; they had more firepower
- Rekonin is not accelerating even remotely as fast as she can the intention was to control the moment of interception precisely.
- Because of the extra damage, the intercept point is forced to change.
- Rekonin was coordinating with the navigation of every other ship in their fleet, as well as managing constant simulations and normal Ops duties.
- She is the one who suggests the intercept be moved up to avoid any serious damage.
- The intercept happens, and the Rekonin decelerates well beyond her redline, but it's only briefly.
- The super dread overshoots, right into a League fleet that hammers the shit out of it.
- Unfortunately, the calculations were a little off, and they did not knock out the primary reactor of the super dread.
- A Terran fleet arrives
- They come between both sides, demanding the Terrans stand down, and the League retreat, this is an internal affair.
- Miranda orders her fleet to fall back, Hails the captain.
- Captain seems decent, and willing to talk.
- Miranda explains that the situation is different from what he believes it to be (colony joined the League two days ago)
- Miranda suggests they talk
- Captain reluctantly agrees
¶ Liz done fucked up (and found some Sooni)
Characters: Lizbeth Locke, (former) General Stephen Harper, Jonathan Simon (mental communication only), Reesha (Sooni female), unnamed Sooni male, various additional Sooni pursuers
- Liz finds an asteroid base, and breaks in.
- As she's exploring, she gets jumped by a Sooni
- If she were a normal human, the first blow likely would have killed her.
- She realizes it's Harper, anticipates the next blow, and they start to fight.
- He's being a giant asshole, but is legitimately impressed by the fact that she seems capable of surviving his hits.
- She finally counters, showing her own speed and strength, and knocking him for a loop.
- Harper starts taking the fight for real, wondering just what the hell she is.
- He gets close, even naming what she technically is, but he misses one of the big differences between her and other "constructs"
- This is really the first hint that she's weird; and it's not going to get explained much more in this book.
- She forces him to pull out his blades, and she pulls out her guns, and the two fight like real goddamned Sooni Warriors.
- He beats her, but mainly because she's not as good in close quarters.
- Liz dies.
- Liz expected this one, and is stuck talking to Simon
- Simon informs her that something about Harper's weapon prevents him from bringing her back immediately.
- Liz wonders if this is really the end and Simon basically tells her to suck it up and bring herself back.
- She tries this, and it works.
- Liz comes back and blows limbs off Harper.
- Before she can finish him off, Reesha body slams her into a wall, and the two fight.
- In her current state, Liz is actually more than a match for a single Sooni, and takes out Reesha's shoulder, and weapons.
- Another Sooni collects Harper (who is still alive, despite bleeding everywhere)
- Liz takes this as a good time to GTFO, and is pursued.
_Characters: President Alistair McKenzie, General Nicholas Sarkozy (Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs), Fleet Admiral Christia Freeland (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs), Lyndri Ambassador Jirael, Chief of Staff Julia Crichlow, Secretary of State Noel Durant, Secretary of Defense Aaron Roberts, _
- McKenzie is mentally working through everything he's done so far, since taking office.
- He stopped the riots on Calysto.
- He got the planetary governor to support him, then reached out to all the other governors to have them make special appointments to fill all of the General Assembly vacancies.
- Behinds the scenes, he made sure enough of the people he wanted went into the General Assembly
- (Not in novel) He didn't stack it with people who owed him a favor, instead, he stacked it with people who view points he respected, and who he flet would actually be the most likely to get things done and be a good fit. He prioritized a few things, but primarily he preferred patriots, and people with useful ideologies. He did not people people who would rubber stamp his ideas, however, and made sure to pick a few rivals.
- (Not in novel) The amount he left to chance was areas where there weren't a good choice, or places that might look to suspicious if he interfered.
- He then held special elections to fill Parlement.
- Behind the scenes, these elections were rigged, and again, the results were hand-picked by him.
- (Not in novel) This is actually a League Tradition, though not at this scale before. It's been known that sometimes people are idiots and they all get worked up about something completely moronic; this safety valve has been built into the system for a very long time. Previously, there were limits on it's use, and it was tightly monitored, but now those people are dead, so...
- As he remarked to himself, he's really only good at one thing, and this is it. He doesn't know how to be a politician, but he damn well knows how to steal an election.
- He's passed over three hundred pieces of legislation, all of it to further his ability to hold the fragile League together, and fight the damned was with the Sooni.
- Several colonies have been completely destroyed by the Sooni (the Grey, actually).
- The single engagement that wasn't a total loss cost an entire taskforce, but there were a limited number of colony survivors.
- McKenzie played this for PR points, and it seems to be working, but he knows he needs to pull a real win out soon.
- Sarkozy brings him back to reality, and the room full of people trying to figure out what the hell they should be doing about this war.
- Christia makes a joke at McKenzie's expense, and Jirael uses it as a way to say, basically, "Funny, I find him attractive."
- They've been snipping at each other a lot; Jirael doesn't like her, and she doesn't like Jirael.
- Both of them are a bit jealous, and Jirael is clearly overstepping what's ok with her friendship with McKenzie here, but he hasn't called her on it.
- Thing start to escalate between Christia and Jirael, but the Secretary of Defense defuses it with a well timed joke.
- Secretary of State bluntly asks how we're going to win the war, and points out that McKenzie had to know he was throwing the task force away for a political win.
- Other people jump on him, for that, but McKenzie cuts them off and says:
- "He’s right to criticise me; everyone in this room should be. His points are completely valid and, honestly, rather obvious. If any of you weren’t wondering the same thing he was, I’m disappointed."
- “I capitalized on the way the pieces were on the board. I knew that I could trade those officers for some civilian survivors, but at a pretty high attrition rate. In the end, I figured it was better to save some than none. The mission was voluntary; I didn’t hide much from the captains in that taskforce. They knew why they were there. And, yeah, the PR boost was part of why I paid the cost.”
- “Look, Noel was more right than I think most of you know. We don’t have the ships. We don’t have the people. Hell, the combined forces of the League, Terrans, NorAellians and Lyndri would barely be able to win this damned war. They’ve been planning this longer than anyone in this room’s been alive. Yes, Jirael, even you. Yeah, even Kashk. My point is, we have three choices: we can win this war, we can keep our nobility, or we can minimize the number of people who die. But we only get to pick two.”
- McKenzie says that he picked the people in this room to be in this room for this meeting because they'll all pick to win the war, with the losest cost of lives as possible.
- It will not be possible to win the war without uniting the galaxy against this threat.
- McKenzie has some ideas on how to do that.
- First, turns out, the Lyndri Ambassadors did not take as many casualties as other groups.
- In Terran space, they have more influence, so they were on the chopping block.
- Also, this setups up for the Lyndri vs Sooni thing for later; the Lyndri are really good at fighting them, even without Focus.
- Also, Lyndri send their best warriors out to be ambassadors. So, all their Ambassadors are really accomplished warriors, extremly capable of playing the role of assasin, if need be. (That's just how they do.)
- McKenzie wants to use this to get the military to defect. At the same time, he's pushing through legislation to provide sanctuary to any colony that asks for it.
- They don't have to join the League, though there will also be a fast track for that, if they want it.
- The idea is that once they're dependant of the League, it'll be real hard to leave and reform the Terran government. And right now... what choice do they have?
- Downside: it could spread them too thin. It's a risk.
- After that, the diea is to get the Lyndri and NorAellians to sign up with official alliances.
- It's pointed out that just leaves out the Freelance worlds.
- McKenzie says that's dicey, but they have the pirates, and those are the kind of people they need helping to slow down the Sooni advance.
- “That, my friend, is where this gets really dicey. They have one thing we desperately need; people used to fighting a far superior foe and making life hell for them. They’re damned good pirates, thieves, and backwater engineers. Not to mention they were untouched, and their manufacturing facilities rival some of our own. No, we’re going to need them, I just don’t know how yet.”
- Durant says that he has some good ideas on how to do it.
- "The correct bribes, to the right individuals, followed by one or two high profile assassinations should be all that’s required.”
- "Performed by Lizbeth Locke, if we can afford her. If not, attributed to her is good enough. We have to make some very powerful, very well protected people question just how protected they are. If we appear to own her, then the ones who can be intimidated will fall in line. For the rest, it will come down to money, and slaves.” He glanced at Jirael. “Lyndri slaves.”
- Christia doesn't approve of any of this, and wonders why she's here.
- McKenzie says that he needs her because none of this works without the League Military leading this war.
- In order to get people willing to join, they've got to get a win, on their own.
- In order to do that, he's going to need some new crew for some new ships, and needs to put them in service.
¶ Miranda invites the Terrans over to chat
Characters: Captain Miranda Collins, Commander Hugh Daniels, Captain Takeo Yori (Terran), Commander Ishida Hitomi (Terran), Rekonin, Aurik (mention)
- Daniels is in a bad mood, because Mir has been treating him a bit like a child, give his reactions to talking to the Terrans
- "What had gotten under his skin was the way that the captain had started off assuming he was going to be a problem, and then explained to him things he’d known since he was a child."
- (Not in novel) She was being over cautious, but it really came off wrong.
- (Not in novel) He was already predisposed to take things the wrong way, anyway, because she's write about him being a problem. He just doesn't want to admit she was right.
- When the Terrans arrive, he recognizes the XO, Ishida Hitomi.
- She recognizes him too, both are shocked, but keep it to themselves.
- There is some discussion of Rekonin, and just how impressive she is.
- The awkwardness of the attack on her comes up, and while Takeo isn't appologetic, he does express regrets about how it happened.
- Hitomi is more interest in Rekonin herself, and Rekonin is more than happy to oblige.
- Collins cuts her off just short of giving away top secret information.
- (Not in novel) This is an awkward thing, since Rek would never do that, under any other circumstances. But it's hard to really internalize basic facts about yourself and your biology being classified. So it's understandable why she does something that would be out of character, though it's still right on the edge.
- Rekonin offers to answer any questions, if they're submitted in written form, and approved by Mir.
- Mir says she appreciates Rekonin's enthusiasm, but there's more important things to discuss.
- Miranda tells Taeko about the Sooni and their attacks, and what happened to the League.
- She makes it a point to say that they already have a new President, and Congress, and everything's back to being legit, but it was touch and go.
- Takeo confirms what happened to the Terrans (all the killing), and says that he's heard rumors about what the Sooni attacking.
- First off, he knows of the Sooni.
- "I wish that what you were saying sounded as outrageous as I’m sure you feared it would. But the Sooni are known to us. They were believed to be a shady organization with ties on both sides of the borders, but they always seemed too powerful, without using that influence. My house has always been wary of them for a long time."
- "All I know is what they wanted us to know about them. Oh, I’m sure there’s some truths buried under the lies, but I wouldn’t trust anything my people know; not even hard won lessons."
- Second, he's already heard rumors of colonies being wiped out.
- "Not just your colonies. We have heard rumors of black ships that blot out the stars burning whole worlds."
- Daniels uses this moment of distraction to get a message to Mir that he knows Hitomi.
- She responds with, "Great. Details later. Just figure out how best to use it."
- Hitomi calls Mir out for basically wanting to get the Terrans to join the League, since she wasn't being subtle about it.
- “I believe, Captain, you were about to explain why we should surrender to you.” Hitomi folded her arms and gave Collins a level stare. “Something I can assure you the People’s Republic has no intention of doing.”
- Takeo agrees, saying that they will not give up their sovereignty. They will rebuild and will become stronger for it.
- Mir counters with saying that the League isn't doing this out of some selfish desire to grab power. After all, they're offering protection to anyone.
- Takeo loses some respect at this, saying that he's surprized she doesn't see this for the thing it really is: weaponizing fear.
- Daniels jumpt into the mix, cutting everyone off and says that if they reject this, everyone will die.
- Collins gives him a look, and he returns a "trust me" one back.
- Daniels addresses Hitomi, telling her that the League is getting ROFL-stomped. They can't do it without help, everyone in this room will be dead in two months if they don't join up.
- He ends this with saying he sears on Aurik's grave. (Only Hitomi knows who this is.)
- He then follows it up with a personal plee:
- "That still means something to me, despite this fucking uniform I wear. Fuck the League, I don’t care. But, Hitomi, everyone you’ve ever loved is going to die unless we get every fucking warship in this fucking galaxy into one giant ass fleet and stand up to these fucks."
- Hitomi pulls a hidden obsidian knife, grabs his hand and hold it palm up on the table.
- The knife, being non-metalic, would no show up on scanners
- It's also really, really bad to be armed with a concealed weapon, like this.
- There is no way for her reaction to be taken as anything other than an attack on Daniels.
- Rekonin restrains her, and Takeo demands an explaination.
- Daniels tells everyone to calm down, this is a thing she needs to do. Just let it happen, and everything will be fine.
- Mir asks if this is a "reactor cold start situation", and Daniels figures out what she means and says basically.
- Mir orders Rekonin to release him, and she does once Daniels reinforces it.
- Hitomi says, "One finger for every lie. Insult my intelligence and I take the hand. We do this again until you tell the truth, or I kill you."
- This is a well practiced line, and Daniels has heard it many times before, but never on him.
- As she moves the knife from above his palm to the first finger, it grzes him and is sharp enough to cut him.
- Rekonin makes it clear she will take Hitomi down before any harm happens.
- Hitomi interrogates Daniels
- "First question. Who the hell are you to say his name?"
- "The one who got him killed."
- (Next finger) "Why did you leave?"
- "Shame, fear, guilt. I couldn’t look his family in the eyes. And I was sick of that goddamned life."
- (Next finger) "You ever look back?"
- (Next finger) "If I said I wanted to go back, just you and me, fuck the rest of the world, fuck the Terrans, or the League, would you come?"
- "I’d want to. But it wouldn’t matter. Even if we made it out of this room, off this ship, and back to open space… we’d end up just dying a little later."
- At this, she cuts him a little, but lets him go.
- Hitomi says, "I can’t believe you made me do that. I’m not that person anymore."
- Daniels says he isn't the same person either, but wasn't sure how to get her to trust him.
- Takeo wants an explaination.
- He also wants to know if Mir knew the two knew each other, and she says she figured it out in the meeting
- This is technically true.
- Daniels explains that Hitomi is his wife.
- She points out ex-wife
- He counters with, "Did you get it annulled, because I didn't..."
- She laughs; she didn't either.
- Rekonin points out that since their colony doesn't have a treaty with the League or Terrans, it wouldn't have been recognized, and was automatically annulled when they took citizenship.
- She cares about this, dammit.
- Hitomi says it was another life, and she has no interest in returning to it.
- Takeo asks how he can trust her, now?
- She points out that it was the only way she had of verifying what he was saying, and that he wasn't being coerced.
- Since he staked his personal honor on it, she believes him.
- Takeo asks if she would stake the honor of his house, her house, and the lived of everyone in those houses on what he said.
- Hitomi says she would.
- Takeo accepts this revelation, but says he needs time to digest it.
- Asks Mir, one commanding officer to another, how bad is it?
- She tells Rekonin to repapre all the files on the recent defeat, including telemetry.
- This is a HUGE violation of secrecy, easily considered treason.
- Part of the reasonf or this is that the telemetry is a gold mind for intelligence.
- Takeo understanding how big a deal this is, and takes it as such.
- He does what makes her think he won't betray her trust.
- She says that if he does, it doesn't matter, they're all dead anyway.
- Mir asks why the Dreadnaughts were brualizing their own people.
- Takeo says they're a house divided. He's collecting ships, but a lot of the crews of larger ships see themselves as warlords, now.
- It was his plan to collect strength, and stablize the Terran government, but it looks like that won't work now.
- "But, you can still bring stability to your people. If you can arrange meetings between the heads of noble houses and our diplomats, that might go a long way to stabilizing this whole area of space. And until then, maybe we suggest a joint task force to police and protect this region? The more people see Terran and League ships flying together, the quicker the idea that we’re working together will sink in.”
- Hitomi asks Rekonin how long she and Daniels have been an item.
- Rekonin says they're not officially anything, and she's not sure he's interested
- Hitomi informs her he is.
- Hitomi threatens her a bit with a don't hurt him.
- Rekonin says she appreciates it, but c'mon bro. She's a fucking immortal warship.
- Hitomi laughs and says, “Hugh has no idea what he got himself into. You’re exactly what he needs. Thank you for watching out for him.”
- Daniels says he feels like he just lost a game he wasn't playing.
- Mir sends him to work with Rekonin and Hitmoi to get the data together, while Takeo and she work out more details.