[b]Abandoned Deep Sea Drilling Rig Sea of Ghosts, Zhuana Project Ronin[/b] The Sea of Ghosts was once home to hundreds from deep sea rigs at one point, meant to do everything from drill the resources out of the sea floor to research to farming. Of course this was all before sending everything to orbit was the rage. Following the corporate space race, many of these deep sea rigs became abandoned, destined to be lost at sea forever, isolated from everything else. Of course that isolation made it perfect for being used as a base for more [i]illicit[/i] activities. Insurgents of course decided that it would be best to hide out on such rigs. No one would notice a rig hundreds of miles from land and middle of nowhere. Theoretically. "I'm tracking you now Hanoi. You might want to hurry up, the smoke is affecting the thermals. Exfiltration in 5." Seoul saw the entire facility from his vantage point on the smoke stack, the smoke coming out was nice and warm given the cold climates this far north and good for hiding his presence. Unfortunately his thermals disagreed. "Give me a bit more." Hanoi crackled over the radio, "Keep me posted, this network is guarded by a VI firewall." "Aren't you suppose to be good at this stuff?" "I am... but that doesn't mean everything is easy for me." "How about you two shut up and the job done?" a harsh female voice shouted over the comms. "Don't get your tail tied into a knot Tokyo," Seoul cooly traced a pair of Insurgents as they patrolled the outer edge, close to were Tokyo would be blending into the wall. "Can it Seoul, Hanoi, get it done in 3. The transport will leave even if you are sitting here with your gun up your ass." "Tokyo, chill, Hanoi can get it done. Trust him." Seoul glared Tokyo through his scope. As everything was starting to go as planned, the blaring airhorn went off; the alarm had been set off. Seoul could see the entire base mobilizing to find them. Yet another advantage of the isolated rig base showed itself, there was no where to run. Diving into the ocean was a death trap and their transport was nowhere close. "I swear it wasn't me!" Hanoi sounded panicked as he rushed his hacking. "HANOI! I WILL HAVE YOUR ASS AFTER THIS!" Tokyo screamed into her mic, Seoul could feel something inside of him shirk away. "Both of you keep your shit together." Seoul stood up and jumped down from his vantage point, landing in a small procession of Insurgents. With one hand, he lifted his sniper and snap-shotted the first one with a burst from his pistol taking out another. Holstering the Type-0, he landed a side-kick into the chest of a charging insurgent, knocking the air out of him as he crumbled to the ground. Smashing the but of his sniper into his face, Seoul used the gun to flip himself over the body before aiming it once again. A pull of the trigger and he took out two more. The remaining three finally got their act together and aimed their own weapons, modified fully automatic Type-32A's. As one of them tried to line Seoul up in his sights, he found Seoul's fist meeting his face as he went down grasping the trigger as hard as he could, letting loose a spray of bullets. As his two comrades opened up, Seoul activated the jump-jets in his boot's sole, shooting him up five feet before axe kicking one of them on the way down. As he reeled in the pain of a metal boot armor to the face, Seoul held the other man in a head-lock and broke his neck before throwing him over the railing. As the last man regained his senses, Seoul pulled a grenade on his armor before roundhousing him over the edge while he itched all over in search of the grenade. Listening to the man's yells as he went over and exploded into a fire ball, Seoul checked the time, 15 seconds he used to get rid of them all. He smiled and opened up his comms, "Ladies and Gents, we're going loud." [hr] [b]UNR HQ in Rathlar Great Hall[/b] Captain Otome wondered how the hell she and most of her crew where now watching huge aliens clap about something. According to Seirs, they just finished a civil war after that mysterious fleet arrived and force a unification. Like much of her Crew, Otome wondered what did their ruler did wrong for so many factions and division to form in their race; baffling her as she was a military strategist, not a political scientist. One of the captains had invited her and her crew to see this "historic day" soon afterwards. From what Otome could tell, he was like some of the others in the hall, almost at the brink of tears. She and her crew had put on their best dress uniforms, they were technically acting diplomats until real ambassadors and politicians from the homeworld made their visits. They should be at the system in a day or two according to Seris, just in time for the celebration of victory or something like that. Showing off Ryukyuan military discipline, she and all of her officers, crew mates, and soldiers stood back straight and heads held high, even as they felt the very floor tremble under the feet of the massive alien race that Otome, once again thanks to Seris, called themselves the Harthal. Otome watched as more speeches where given in the alien language with Seris occasionally giving remarks and translations. She just wished to be back on the [i]Zhongzhu[/i] so she can get out of her stiff dress uniform and trot around with as little clothes as she wanted. [hr] [b]Orbit around Planet Enned IRN Enfield-Class Destroyer "Sugoi-na"[/b] The Sugoi-na had been largely faffing around with the frigate taking control of the construction of the space station. It had been floating about with much of its crews betting on card games or watching holo-screens in the crew compartments. Captain Pyon had taken it to himself to drink with his XO, Nagi; who coincidentally was also his wife. "Enjoying the view dear?" Nagi swirled her drink around in the square cup, he slender fingers running along the edge of the bottle of liquid moral. "That I am," Pyon leaned forward and kissed his wife on the forehead, "But not as much as you love." The young captain put down his glass as his wife blushed and excused himself from his private quaters he shared with his wife to grab a bit to eat. The corridors of the ship was faintly nogstalgic, he himself grew up on one of the satellite bases in orbit around Ibiran before joining the IRN. The halls never seemed that tight to him and the ship never too dark. He enjoyed space and he enjoyed living in spacecraft, just one of those strange things everyone grows up with. Reaching the mess area, he grabbed his favorite snack, fried Eleci tentacles with dipping sauce and root wedge fries (think Fish and Chips but the fish is chewier and the fries are more like yam wedges with a bit of pepper on it). He sat at a table and bit into the fried goodness, watching some of the crew walk about in the open area in casual wear. "Captain!" one of the comms officers from the bridge appeared in front of him, "There's been an unregistered ship that has just appeared in the orbit!" "What?" Pyon's raised, "You sure it isn't some fighter or drone coming out of a Federation ship?" "Yes sir, its too large to be a single fighter and we can't find it on any of the manifests the Sraylights gave us." "Give me a second," Captain Pyon hastened his eating speed, "I'll be up shortly to send a message." [hider=Sugoi-na's Message to the Azu] Greetings from the Glorious Celestial Empire of Ryukyu, you are currently in an unregistered vessel. You are in violation of galactic law, if you do not leave or go else where, we will [i]not[/i] hessitate to say you are criminally violating said law and treat you accordingly. Shall you fire upon our partners, we will fire back and leave your fate to them. [/hider] _____________ [b]IRN Norico-Class Frigate "Faithful"[/b] "Hello? This thing on? Anyone home?~" Dr. Hido messed around with some of the communication equipment hoping to find someone to talk to about his work, hopefully someone alien, "Any intelligent life out there? I would like to order some food, anyone deliver?" Dr. Hido kicked the machine, grunting about it being unreliable at making other people pick up. After a few kicks, he paused, then changed to some punches. Before anyone knew it, he appeared to be trying to tackle the thing as the Captain came over, "Doctor, can I ask why you're manhandling important components of my ship?" "Captain, I was just trying to search for someone to talk to." The array suddenly picked up something and Dr. Hido got very excited, "Hello? Anyone there? Are you intelligent enough to make sentence like "Guie shagged a goat'?" The Captain banged his head against the wall, he hoped that Dr. Hido wouldn't be the one responsible for decreasing public option of this project and xeno-relations. [hr] INNC News Headlines: The Waking of the Thousand Year Sleep of New Aliens. This is Honzhi Chu reporting for INNC News: This morning, at ten o'clock Imperial Standard Time, the Emperor announced that the pride and flagship of our fleet, the IRN Three Mountains escorted a mysterious colony ship to Gaishai along side the 3rd Fleet. It is unclear on why such an ancient colony ship was headed to our beloved Empire, but the Ashigara who explored it report that "there was likely no hostile action as the much of the ship's systems where offline and its inhabitants in cryogenic sleep". Other reports speculate that it was an AI that caused the ship to head toward our system. A spokesperson for the Imperial Senate states that they already have men working on reviving the alien race in hopes of learning from them and cultural exchanges with plans to try and see where they hail from. At any rate, this will certainly be an interesting development in the history of our Empire. This is Honzhi Chu signing off for the Imperial News Network Center. [i]Long Live the Emperor![/i]