Overview

Things have been a bit quite for the past year, but said silence is nearing its end as machinations beyond the reach of sol begin to turn in the colonies faster than the flow of information can keep up with.

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January 23rd, 2375
In orbit of Earth

Aboard one of the dozens of orbital defense platforms around Earth, an agent for the United Front named Liam Patrick looks out from one of the small view ports in a room deemed hazardous to go into encase of attack that would be jettisoned the moment an attack happens and sees the clouds floating lazily by thousands of kilometers below. The colorful lights of Earth have been shining for over four hundred years now. Liam however, moves away from the viewport and gets back into the space station proper through one of the several layers of hatches which lead to the proper station. The spinning hallways keep some semblance of gravity similar to what Earth has back at home. A several technicians who pretend like they’re working stand around watching television due to not being really needed most of the time anyways. One of which being the Chief Technical advisor himself who notices Liam and just offhandedly says “Enjoying the viewing station again? I like the viewing station. I go there quite a bit.”

“It’s a hazard. If someone attacks, those viewport modules get jettisoned due to the liability having windows on a space station causes.” Liam tells the technician, looking back where he came from with a concern in his eyes.

The technician is amused by Liam’s concern says “I know that, I am the Chief Technician. I wouldn’t even have this job if I didn’t. But it’s not like anyone actually plans to invade the solar system and those who do will enjoy the finest of Terran Engineering. You know this station we are standing on? It’s one big gun full of super charged death particles that will fry anything that even thinks of coming closer than the moon. And we have over 72 of them! As no giant empire of aliens from another galaxy have come crashing down upon mankind yet, I think we are quite safe. It’s Earth itself I’m worried about if anything.”

“Earth is the happiest place in the galaxy.” Liam blankly tells the Chief technician, confused at how a technician of all people is expressing worry about Earth’s future.

“I suppose.” The chief technician says rather offhandedly. “But surely there’s more to life than being happy.”
“Happiness is happiness, Mr. Adel. It’s not like we make the people of Earth live the way they do, they have the freedom to gain whatever talents or skills they so dream of.” Liam tells the technician with a upright and sort of assuring tone.

“If they get the license, that is.”, the Adel the technician says with little awareness of who it is he is even talking to. Adel than picks up a toy spaceship from his desk and shows it to Liam, saying “I know, for instance that I’ll never ever pilot one of these.”

The agent is distraught by what Adel is telling him and begins to go on a seemingly irrational and out of nowhere rant “The only actually hard licenses are when dealing with aerospace or civilian spacecraft. If we had no licenses there would be disaster. It is bad enough when a rogue organization sends a ‘diplomatic’ envoy here ever other decade. Imagine if you had numerous people with personal, easily attained ships all over space. Think of how many people would die every day from some drunk lunatic piloting his ship into a densely populated area. These policies exist for a reason! They exist so you and your children can live in safety and without dread of whatever strange creature or terrorist organization coming to Earth and murdering everyone you know. The way you live now is the fruit of the United Front’s labor to keep stability even as the off worlders seek chaos.”

“I suppose…” The technician says.

The Technician loses interest in the conversation and excuses himself from talking to Liam by saying “Well, Five Men on Mars is about to continue so this conversation is over.”

Liam catches his breathe and just continues walking. The vice president should be here any minute.

The True Order

With the start of a new year occurring on Earth, the people of the True Order were busy at their standard lives for the past twenty or so years. Things were not as eventful as when they had declared their independence, but the people were happy and that is what the government liked to see. The Absolute and the Council were not doing anything particularly eventful but they were discussing ways to get the hostility from the United Front away from the Order.

"We must be able to show them that we do not want violence and we are not a terrorist group," a councilor said. "But we must demonstrate that we are willing to defend ourselves!," another stated.

There was always a difference in views on what should be done but the Absolute listened to the arguement between the Council, hoping that this would come to an end soon. Bethren did not particularly like the Council meetings but he knew the necessity of having them, especially in this situation. Though, his ear perked up when he heard an old councilor state "Why do we not send an ambassador hm? If they are to be treated unfairly then we shall defend ourselves. However, if all goes well then we shall have piece." The Absolute smiled at this idea and stood up, supporting himself with a metal cane.

"That is the action we shall take then, we shall send an ambassador on our behalf and see if the United Front will be tempted to not be hostile towards the Order. This meeting has come to its end." The Absolute stated before hitting his cane on the ground, signaling the end of the meeting.

Thus, an ambassador would sent to the Sol system in a small unarmed ship bearing the marks of the Order, not posing a threat of any kind to the United Front and its people. The ambassador would be guarded by four soldiers. The small ship entered FTL and began headed on its way.

High Arbiter Raspp watched the proceedings with feigned interest. This debate was going no different then the countless before it. The ambassador from the United Front stood before the Senate of Arcandia. "We can offer you protection..." his voice trailed off as a fiery red haired Arcandian diplomat took to the stage.

"You mean death? We Arcandians will no follow you like sheep led to the slaughter!"

As this happened, Raspp reached for his wrist set commlink. "Assign the ambassador a double unit tonight again. An assassination won't help peace talks." Raspp was surprised negotiations hadn't erupted into an all out brawl. But there is always a first time...

January 23rd, 2375
In orbit of Earth

The vice president is a tall person, in uniform as always with slicked black hair as per tradition. As Liam approaches the vice president in the somewhat compact hanger of the orbital platform, he can’t help but notice the private shuttle has come docked not only with a couple escort microfrigates (never can be too safe), but also a quite grey, bleak looking ship with none of the flair the VIP’s green stripped shuttle has. The ship, as per UF standard is a blocky and modular craft that gets the job done, but it lacks any of the angular markings or orange stripes the engineers on Mars are apt to use. It is just this dull grey thing, absolutely depressing and dreadful to even observe. It’s a prisoner transit ship.

Liam walks over to the Vice President, shakes his hand and takes a diligent posture while the Vice President just nods approvingly before telling Liam “Good to see you are here on time. The reports from Concordia of secessionist activity going out of control are looking like they have been right this whole time. I have with the escort of two other agents been able to bring on this weapons platform a convicted felon.”
Liam, puzzled to hell says “You brought a criminal on a weapons platform?”

“Look, I just brought him here since I figured you can get something out of him. I was able to clear this whole hanger just so we can handle this here since no one else has their ships docked in this hanger anyways. I came here mainly out of convenience, along with well, your connections. You are an agent after all, an agent who knows how to talk to these people.” The Vice President tells Liam, attempting to address the question with a surprising amount of transparency.

Liam, knowing what happens if you keep asking questions just decides to obey and with the Vice president walks over to that grim vessel which has been docked. Two heavily armed security guards in full armor from head to toe, the whirring of their hydraulics and bulky armoring complemented by similarly rigid rifles with slit-like nozzles. Their glowing cyan helmets obscure whatever soul may be within, if there even if a soul. It could just be machinery all the way down for all Liam knows. With absolute obedience, the two heavily armored guards open the storage bay of the prison vessel and drag out a man with numerous vials stuck in him, the tubes winding all around his feet as the large guards drag the prisoner’s meaty body across the metallic furnished floors of the hanger.

One of the guards in a strangely feminine voice starts to describe “Straight from Bernard’s Star, Prison 15. Had to keep him there for two years but dedicated teams of interrogators and security ops were unable to get him to clue in on where the secessionists are hiding their weapons cache. He keeps claiming he does not know. This offworlder keeps referring to BD plus 50 degrees 1725 c as ‘CONCORDANCE’ and keeps demanding ‘COCORDANCE’ to be the official name.”

Liam inspects the large, yet still fragile man and asks “You’d think we’d have better ways of getting information out of people’s heads by now.”

The guard replies “That is why we brought him to Earth. Bernard’s Star is not stocked with any technology good for getting information from people.”

“Shipment problems again. Always the shipment problems. So why didn’t you just bring him here first then?” the agent asks.

The Vice President, with embarrassment starts to say “Well… It was a bit of a mishap. He wasn’t ever supposed to go to Bernard’s star. He was supposed to go straight here where proper interrogation techniques can be used and that’s why I brought him here to you since you have a good clue how that interrogation stuff works.”

“I do.” Liam states with an air of semantics that rubs the vice president off the wrong way, so the Vice president just shrugs and mouths ‘well you do your thing’ before heading into his personal shuttle.

And so the interrogation begins.