((Sorry if this seems a bit wishy-washy. I am currently suffering from a bit of writers block.))
is it that Annastasia, Katia had 2 daughters
young Annastasia and Katarinka
I think we should defect, but only on the condition that none of our comrades will be harmed.
This is utterly beautiful
As you think of your answer, you get a niggling feeling. You feel as if you are missing something you should have noticed. You try to think of what it is you missed.
And then it damns on you.
Annastasia. One of your daughters was called Annastasia, and the woman sat across from you does feel familiar, even if she is a full grown woman and not a little girl.
Your head snaps up. You stare at the woman who identified herself as Annastasia. You study every inch of her face. She looks back passively into your eyes.
Eventually, a coquettish, small smile starts forming on her lips. The same coquettish, small smile your daughter always used to do. You feel tears welling up.
"...Annie? I..Is that you sweetpea?"
Her smile broadens, tears visibly forming in her own eyes as she nods, seemingly not trusting herself to speak.
You reach out with your unoccupied hand. You stroke her face. She leans in and holds your hand with hers.
"I never thought i'd see you again....." You pause, blinking tears away from your eyes. "Is Katarinka here also?"
"Y..Yes mother. She's on the Obelisk, armoury deck. She builds, maintains and services our armour. She's the chief quartermaster for the Obelisk too"Suddenly, your daughter lifts up and topples the table, clearing the way between you and her. She grabs you and hugs you tight.
"I've missed you, Mother" She whimpers. You think what a strange sight this must be. A tall woman being hugged by another woman a couple inches taller, both looking like they could be sisters and not mother and daughter, crying and hugging int he middle of the mostly empty room.
Even Levinia is wiping tears away from her eyes and smiling. She must have known too.
Giving your daughter a squeeze, you let go and move away from her, back to your seat. You still, after all, have business to attend to.
*
*withdraw hand*
"Dr. Ala-Shar was strong, but she was fair. How can i gurantee her safety as well as my..compatriot Morey? Your right in your assesment that me and my sisters want freedom. I want to put hands on the Presidentees and i'd love to be able to go back being human. Not a Morey test tube super soldier, not a Vangaurd psychosit combat specialist, who BY THE WAY..play with their food too much, No?"
"I accept as soon as we're able to cross High waters to take the current presidentees out of the picture and unite the Morey, after which i beleive they on their own will find peace and not need me or my Brood sisters. I'll help any way possible and if i work hard i can even get my Brood to accept your offer, but i refuse to leave the good Doctor and i Refuse to leave the Morey who after seeing their flaws are good people when the Presidentees dosen't intimidate them. As for the Slinkarr i have one contact who im in good relations with but her comrades are not in such equal footing. These last 5 years they've only accepted our presence but don't actively work with us."
"One more thing, you probed my mind and say their is absolutely nothing of use? Not even the wereabouts of our camps?*
*chuckle*
"Were the Psycho power rangers sneaking in my meeting not too long ago?"
*hear answers*
"Before you go, i am responcible for killing how many orbital drop troops 5 years ago? Brigandier Xanders Berginstaff isn't even fazed by the idea of giving amnestry for the murder and quite honest Nuisance that was me?"
"I don't think there was a SINGE thing i could do to win that fight but i must have taken a quarter of Orbital troops and suprised your boys all the way to the end with shenanigans, and your fine with that? Would you blame me for being a wee bit skeptical?"
You steel yourself, trying to clear your emotions so that you can think clearly. You begin to speak once you have chosen your words.
"You offer me a chance to join you, a chance of freedom. But what of my brood sisters? The good Morey who oppose the insane Presidentess and just want a chance of peace? What of them?
The doctor who made me this way, a certain Dr Ala-Shar, is stern, strong and sometimes unnerving, but she is fair and loyal. I have grown to like her. The Morey field commanders also are strong yet fair. They are soldiers just like you, taking and executing orders. What of them?
How can i guarantee their safety?
You are right in your assessment that I want freedom, as does my brood. But we arent the only ones. The entire Morey matriarchy is screaming for liberation.
I would love to get my hands on the Presidentess and squeeze her neck until she stops kicking and I would love to return to being fully human. Not a Morey test tube soldier, not a Vanguard super soldier who, by the way, play with their prey far too much..." You give your daughter a stern look. She has the courtesy to look chastised.
"I will accept your offer as soon as we take out the Presidentess and her minions, freeing the Morey and putting them under the wise leadership of Ala-Shar, the Matriarch and the Old Guard generals. If that can happen, they will be more than willing to sign any peace treaty the Vanguard can produce.
I will help in any way possible. I will also work to bring my Brood around to the idea of joining you which brings me to another point. I swore that I would never leave my sisters in chains, either we all come or none of us do."
"Done. We'd be more than happy to accept your troops into the fold."You stall for a minute. You didn't think the Vanguard would accept so easily. You soon pick yourself up and get back into the swing of things.
"As i was saying, I refuse to defect and leave Ala-Shar. I refuse to defect and leave the Morey, who are good people, to the manic whims of a crazy woman.
The Slinkar are the same. Whilst i do not know all the details, it seems that the Slinkar rulers are just as bad. They will need liberating too."
Both Annastasia and Levinia look at you skeptically.
"To effect a change in government of the Morey is one thing, as they have rather foolishly brought the Presidentess and a significant portion of her followers here to this system, in the same place, but to effect a change in government of the Slinkar would mean diverting resources towards a foray deep into Slinkar territory to attack their home-world, their centre, which is also their most heavily defended sector. It would not be practical.""But it needs to be done. I am good friends with a Slinkar female named Kaleetra. Even the Slinkar are not bad people. Yes, part of their federation is made up of some frankly disgusting sounding species, but the Slinkar and the rest of their federation seem to be good people."
You take a break, to let your long speech-like dialogue sink in. They know your terms now. Nothing less than the liberation of the Morey and the Slinkar from their tyrannical rulers.
After almost five minutes, you speak again.
"One more thing, you probed my mind and say their is absolutely nothing of use? Not even the wereabouts of our camps?"
"We already know the whereabouts of all pretty much all your camps, and most of what your force comprises of. There was nothing really of value regarding the resistance in your mind.""I'm not sure how i feel about been told my brain is full of worthless stuff.....
*chuckle*
Were the Psycho power rangers sneaking in my meeting not too long ago?"
Your daughter laughs.
"Of course. We have, after all, been watching you, waiting for the moment to capture you. You do not know how hard it was for me not to pounce on you and hug you, mother."You chuckle. Your daughter and her friend join in.
"Before you go, I am responsible for killing oh-so-many orbital drop troops 5 years ago. Brigadier Berginstaff isn't even fazed by the idea of giving amnesty to the person who caused the deaths of so many of his soldiers and the, to be quite honest, perfect nuisance that my brood and I made of ourselves?
I don't think there was a SINGlE thing i could do to win that fight but i must have taken at least a quarter of Berginstaff's Orbital troops and surprised your boys all the way to the end with shenanigans, and your fine with that? Would you blame me for being a wee bit skeptical?"
The other two women laugh.
Through repeated laughs, Levinia speaks.
"There are far bigger fish out there than the Brigadier. High Marshall Veldin is in command of the fleets in this system. It does not matter what Berginstaff wants. Once you join, only the orders and opinions of Veldin and our commander, Major General Hopfield, will matter.""Oh...." You didn't think Brigadier Berginstaff was so low on the pecking order around here.
-
ask whether we will have an ability to request the capture instead of killing of certain Morey (read Ala-Shar) and to ask our comrades if they wish to defect if you find out the vanguard know where the camps are playing on their abandonment
I really hope the vanguard are telling the truth, and aren't Lawful Evil Jerkasses like the Morey high command, and the slinkar queens
"If we come across people not loyal to the Presidentess whilst assaulting the Morey fleet, which is what i assume we will be doing fairly soon, would it be possible to request we capture them instead of killing them? It is not their fault the Presidentess is in power."
"We'll see what we can do. But we cannot promise anything.""So long as you try, that's all that matters."
"Also, would i be able to contact my brood to try and get them to defect? No offense to the Vanguard intended, but the only person i can even remotely trust here is my daughter. I would like others i can trust along with us."
"Not possible. There is already a shuttle on the way to pick us up. The operation will be commencing soon."Damn. You really wanted to let your sisters know what is happening, and you cannot risk using your powers so close to these women as they could detect your efforts.
You will have to go along with the Vanguard plan.
***
> Ask about the nature of this enemy.
After the rather tense discussion, all three of you fall into what can only be described as mindless chit-chat. talking about anything and everything.
You then decide to bring up the mysterious enemy you keep hearing the Vanguard mention.
The expressions on Levinia's and Annastasia's faces freeze. they glance at one another. You see fear in their eyes.
"Girls?"
They just shake their heads.
Now.....Now you are really curious. What could have even the Vanguard spooked?
You'll have to ask later.
((Bad dice roll))
*
> Ask why they need us when they have people who can turn invisible and a vast arsenal of super soldiers.
> Ask about why no one on earth knows about the Vanguard?
We'll turn into whatever assassin, saboteur, or commando they want as long as we unify the Morey under a leadership that wants peace. *cough* Get Ala-Ashar to join *cough*
Your curiosity piqued, you decide to ask even more questions.
"Why does the Vanguard need the council races when they are so much more powerful and advanced? and with so many different types of super soldiers and so many of them it can only boggle the mind, too."
"I think the best way to describe the current situation is by using an example.
Do you know why World War One ended in 1918?
Why it suddenly ended?
Both sides were static. It was a stalemate, for the most part. The Germans had just launched a last ditch offensive that, whilst gaining ground, would not have come to much, really. The war could have gone on for a decade or longer in that situation.
What ended that was was the sudden influx in early 1918 of hundreds of thousands of unproven, but fresh faced American dough boys. The influx of fresh troops numbering in their millions pushed the balance of power in favour of the Allies.
The Vanguard are roughly in the same situation, except we are ever so slowly losing ground.
We need an influx of troops, even if they are less advanced and lacking any experience at all against our enemy, to push the balance of power in our direction. We'd be willing to share our technology to reduce the gap between the council races and the enemy.
But, to put it brutally simply, we need meat for the grinder."Meat for the grinder? The Vanguard must have it hard if they are getting ground up by the mysterious forces.....
"Why does no one on Earth know of the Vanguard?"
"It is simpler that way. They will be in no danger so long as they are bound to a single planet. No one will pay attention to them. It is safer that way.
Also, the Vanguard really does not need over two hundred governments constantly yapping at them, trying to infiltrate or compromise the Vanguard. They would be distractions we really do not need right now. Maybe if we win this war and exist afterwards we will reveal ourselves....."Interesting.
It seems the Vanguard could be more fragile and stretched than they let on.
*
Ask what they wanted with this star system.
Ask for a list of Morey vessels destroyed or captured when the star system was captured.
I do not really trust the Vanguard. Let's not forget what they did to Elianna's brood. It seems that there are a lot of decent people amongst the Morey who are going along with bad things due largely to a war that the Vanguard seem to largely be in control of. The loyalty probes seem to be largely based upon Vanguard technology, which doesn't say much for their ethical standards...
Ask them to let us leave, with a vanguard diplomat, to present their offer to our allies.
You start to struggle for questions to ask. you do, however, manage to come up with a few more.
"What does the Vanguard want with this system? This world?"
"What if we told you that, tens of thousands of years ago, before any of the current space faring races were even out of their cradle, there was a group of races that held sway over the stars?
We have found evidence of them on various worlds we have visited. Strangely, many of the planets we have found traces of these civilisations on show signs of apocalyptic war during what we believe to be the ending period of their time.
We thought them all gone. We were wrong, but that is something others will have to explain.
We are here looking for technology which could help us defeat our foe, as well as evidence of their origin, as the precursors are linked in with our current situation.
From ancient records we found on several other planets, we have deduced that this planet is an Ancient tech-world, essentially a planet sized research and development laboratory and weapons testing facility.
We have found some of their technology before, and it still works as good as new. Its durability, power retention, design and capabilities boggle even our greatest minds.
Their technology is our priority on this world and in this system. We know the planet is here, we just need to find it. This one is the most likely candidate though."You sit there, trying to take this new information in. Precursors? Ancient technology?
Just what the hell is going on? Its like some video game from Earth!
Shaking your head to clear it, you ask another question: "Do you have a list of the Morey ships captured or destroyed when you took this system?"
"Unfortunately no, although i can say we did capture quite a few ships. Their crews have been shipped to POW camps in other systems."That's unfortunate, although it is nice of the Vanguard to keep the Morey alive.
Lastly you decide to try your luck.
"Could you let me leave, preferably with a Vanguard diplomat, to present your offer to my allies?"
"As we said before, there is a shuttle on its way to pick us up, in fact, i think it may have just arrived, if my communicator is correct. You will be coming with us to attack the Morey ships, hopefully annihilating the Morey Presidentess at the same time."'
Darn' You curse mentally. You hoped you could get back to the Brood and tell them what had transpired.
******
What do you do? Follow willingly, and hope you get your chance to get revenge on the Presidentess? Or do you try and escape?
Status:1. Demeanor/Status: Calm.
2. Mental Condition: Mentally fit and stable.
3. Physical Condition: Extensive Scarring. Plasma lower stomach wound (healed) , Hyper Laser knee wound (healed).
4. Clear thoughts and currently inactive mental factions.
Inventory:
1. Mark 3 Vat-Born Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Suit (Wearing) ( Extremely Damaged)
2. Mark 3 Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Helmet (Lost)
3. Advanced White Cooled Skin Tight Full Body Under-suit (Wearing) (Damaged)
Available Equipment (Everything not equipped is unavailable at the moment):1. Mark 3 Vat-Born Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Suit (Extremely Damaged)
2. Mark 3 Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Helmet (Lost)
3. Basic White Skin Tight full Body Under-suit x 4
4. Advanced White Cooled Skin Tight Full Body Under-suit x 2 (One of which is Damaged)
5. Mk5 Mass-Driver pistol (sidearm)
6. Arishok Plasma pulse rifle
7. Dikari Plasma shotgun
8. Warrisk Mass-Driver Battle Rifle
9. Combat Engineering Equipment and explosives.
10. Stun/Concussion rifle
11. Casual clothes x10 (White skin tight suit, Gloves, Boots)
12. Ceremonial robes
13. Royal Guard Armoured Powered Exoskeleton suit
Implants and Augmentations:1. 2x Loyalty probe in the Striatum part of the brain.
2. Multi-range optics (Thermal, magnetic, IR, UV, multi-stage magnification etc) implant on eyes.
3. Command and Control (C&C) nano-module implanted in head.
4. Communications array nano-module implanted in head.
5. Fortified 7th Generation reverse engineered biological nano-machines in blood stream, bones, muscles, tendons and organs.
6. Nano-memory modules in the Cerebrum, holding all relevant non-personal data.
Brood Composition:1. Forward Command and communications: 10 Vat-born.
2. Field Combat Medic: 37 Vat Born
3. Long Range Specialists (Snipers): 48 Vat-Born
4. Heavy assault: 148 Vat-Born
5. Light Assault: 127 Vat-Born
6. Infiltrators: 27
7. Heavy Support: 77
8. Combat Engineers: 69
9. Scouts: 80
Current Prison Garrison:1. Combat Engineer: 1
2. Long Range Specialists: 2
3. Field Combat Medic: 2
4. Infiltrators: 7
5. Scouts: 8
Allied Characters:1. Ala-Shar
2. Ankara
3. Ari
4. Elianna
5. Kaleetra
6. Talli
7. Dornishi, Morey regular Commander
8. Tirl-kha, Morey Commando Commander
9. Quish-ka, Morey Regular Commander
Enemy Characters:1. Presidentess Karista
2. Kirish, the Presidentess's assitant.
3. The Senatorium
4. New Guard Generals
5. Multiple Unknowns
Currently Neutral Relations:1. Brigadier Xander Berginstaff
2. Annastasia
3. Levinia
4. High Marshall Veldin
5. Major General Hopfield
Author
Topic: (SG) Starfire: War and Politics - Enemies Old and New - UPDATE 03/07/2014 (Read 87449 times)