[b][center]Arkton, Laurasia, Kaus Borealis System[/center][/b] Lloyd idly watched the crowd of protestors as his limousine drove by. Many held signs that read [b]NO MORE GODS[/b], the latest slogan amongst the radical left. Perhaps calling them radical wasn’t fair; Radical Socialists and Syndicalists made up the bulk of the protestors, but a fair number of Progressives were certainly present. And there certainly wasn’t anything radical about being disturbed by the thought of aliens massacrading as gods. That thought made Lloyd wonder how word about the Kingdom’s [i]guests[/i] had gotten out, and so quickly. By the end of the day details about the Free Republic and Yulzan had been on the news broadcasts. Details that could only have been obtained by talking to the [i]guests[/i] directly. Was this simply a case of a sailor having loose lips? Had the Crown decided to spread word without telling him? Perhaps this was some sort of nefarious plot from one or both of their [i]guests[/i]. Lloyd had no idea and that disturbed him greatly. “Mr Prime Minister”, One of Lloyd’s bodyguards drew his attention. “We really should take a government plane up.” Lloyd was shaking his head even before the guard had finished his statement. “Let’s not needlessly waste the tax payer’s money.” Lloyd said. “There’s nothing wrong with taking a public SSTO up.” “It’s not secure-” A snort from Lloyd ended the guard’s rebuttal. “You’re being paranoid. Standard security is good enough and no one knows we’ll be taking one.” Lloyd couldn’t help but smile at the guard’s scowl. It was childish, but sometimes he liked giving his guards a bad time. In truth he didn’t care about saving government funds, at least at this level. No, he just preferred taking public transit when possible as it gave him a chance to meet with the citizens and get candid opinions from them. And it certainly didn’t hurt that his approval rating always went up by a point or two after he made an appearance on public transit. “It's my job to be paranoid” The bodyguard countered. “And this whole trip is an unnecessary risk.” “Save your breath. This is the first time in our nation’s history that we’ve made contact with a foreign power. We don’t even have a foreign minister! This is a historic moment and nothing, save death, will stop me from seeing it unfold firsthand.” Lloyd’s bodyguard scowled again. “Alright, alright. I’m sorry.” He couldn’t help but chuckle before offering the other man an apologetic smile. “I promise to stop jinxing us.” [b][center]***** ***** *****[/center][/b] “The Prime Minister just boarded!” Alex’s first officer was almost shaking in excitement as he closed the cockpit door behind him. “Alright,” Alex let out a chuckle. “Settle down so we can make sure he has a smooth flight.” The Prime Minister was known for taking public transit whenever he could. In fact a sort of ‘social club’ had been formed for SSTO pilots who had had the honor of flying the Prime Minister into orbit. Guess Alex and his first officer were now joining that club. “Can I take us up?” Alex raised an eyebrow and made a show of looking at his first officer. The younger man was quite experienced and had done an admirable job settling down. He nodded his head. “Sure.” “My sister is going to be so jealous once she hears about this.” The first officer said with a shiteating grin. He then focused on his preflight checklist like the professional he was. Five minutes later they had completed the checklist and rolled down the runway. “V1” Alex said when the SSTO had reached a speed that committed it to taking off. “Rotating” The first officer said a few seconds later as he slowly pulled back on the control stick, nosing the SSTO up. A moment later they were airborne and rising in altitude. They had been in the air for less than a minute when the whole aircraft shook, almost as if they were flying through a strong storm. “Engine one is rolling back.” Alex said as one of the engines lost power. “They’re both rolling back.” He added a moment later. He reached for the master ignition button and pushed it. “Engine restart failed.” “That’s not good.” “No. No it is not.” The SSTO was now gliding in the air over Arkton. “My aircraft.” Alex grabbed his control stick as his first officer confirmed that he had control. The first officer then focused on starting the SSTO’s auxiliary engine and going through their emergency checklist. “This is Arkton Airlines Flight 173. Mayday, mayday, mayday.” Alex broadcast. “This is Arkton Control, what is the nature of your emergency?” “We’ve lost power in both engines.” “Copy that. Which engine did you lose power in?” “Both. Both engines.” There was a moment’s pause before the air traffic control responded. “Ok we can bring you in on runway 1-1.” Alex wondered if they could even make it back to the airport as he looked at his surroundings. The SSTO was only a hundred feet over the top of the buildings below it. He veered the SSTO to the left, towards the Centennial River. “No can do.” “Ok… what about runway 1-5?” Alex thought for a moment. No, there was no way they were getting back to the airport. “Impossible.” After a moment he added “We may end up in the Centennial.” Out of the corner of his eye he could see his first officer giving him a shocked look. There hadn’t been a SSTO accident in over fifty years. “What do you need?” What Alex needed was a safe place to land. But with every passing second that seemed to be less and less likely to happen. The SSTO flew over a bridge; the craft was so low that the bridge triggered a proximity alarm in the cockpit. “Jefferson Base is clearing all of its runways so you can land there.” The air traffic controller stated. By now the SSTO had lost too much height. At best Alex could keep it in the air for another two minutes. The buildings on either side of the river seemed to tower over the SSTO. “Flight 173, I’ve lost radar contact. Are you still there?” Alex had already tuned the man out. He couldn’t help them now. He picked up a small phone that connected to the SSTO’s passenger compartment and spoke into it. “This is your captain speaking. Brace for impact.” “Oh shit.” Alex’s first officer said. Alex could hear his flight attendants yelling instructions from the passenger compartment. He tuned it all out. All that mattered to him was the SSTO, the river below it, and the control stick in his hand. “Brace yourself.” He calmly said. [b][center]***** ***** *****[/center][/b] “Rescue crews have yet to find any survivors of the Arkton Airlines Flight 173 crash that occurred earlier today.” The news anchor stated. “While no explosive materials have been located, there are still widespread allegations of Radical Socialist terrorist involvement in the-” A wave of His Majesty George II Harrington’s hand turned the TV off, cutting the news anchor off mid sentence. He scowled at the blackened screen for a moment before turning towards the room’s other occupant. “So…” He said as he looked at Lord Speaker John Hill, “were the Radical Socialists involved?” The Lord Speaker was a man who looked like he had one foot in the grave on the best of days. This was not a good day. “In short? No. Of course it’ll take months of investigation to be positive, but at this time we are fairly certain that this was simply a tragic accident. The experts believe that a faulty component in the SSTO’s fuel tank might have cut off the supply of fuel to the engines shortly after take off.” The Prime Minister might have been a member of the Progressive party, but over the past few years George had come to consider the man a friend. He was a good man. When George had last spoken to him, moments before he had left for the airport, Lloyd had sounded excited at the prospect of talking to people from another star system. And now he was gone. “Your Majesty?” The Lord Speaker spoke up after a moment. He almost sounded embarrassed. “There is… well… The people are requesting that a vote be held.” “THEY WHAT?!” Goerge demanded, slamming his first down on his chair’s armrest. “Lloyd’s body isn’t even cold and the mob is demanding we hold elections?!” He would have spat in disgust were he in a room of a building he didn’t own. “Demand might be a bit strong…” The Lord Speaker wisely trailed off as George scowled at him. “Fine. Let them have their election.” George said after a moment. “And I hope it comes to bite them in the ass.” [center][b][i]HMNB Sentinel of the Void[/i], Kaus Borealis System[/b][/center] So much had happened over the past few days that Captain Hudson was having difficulty keeping up. First a gate to locations beyond Kaus Borealis had opened, then two battling warships had traveled through it. Once that had been resolved the Prime Minister had perished in an ill-timed accident and the Crown had announced that parliamentary elections would be held in a month. It was… a lot to take in. “Commodore Hudson,” Senny spoke to him through his quarter’s speakers, “Captain Winters reports that his ship has exhausted his supply of mines and is returning to Laurasia.” Oh, and there was that too. Apparently given that Hudson was the commander of the station he had seniority and thus was in command of not only the [i]Sentinel of the Void[/i], but also the two task forces that had come to reinforce him. Thus he had received a temporary promotion to commodore. He had quickly tasked the ships to deploying mine’s around the Gate. The mines were little more than large anti-ship missiles that were left drifting about, able to activate and home in on any ship that might come blasting through the Gate. It wasn’t a long term solution to the possible threat, but it would hep buffer his defense for now. He had also moved his two guests away from each other, physically blocking the FRA and Janissary cruisers from each other with one of his task forces. More specifically he had tasked a battleship and two destroyers to each of the cruisers and instructed them to blast first and ask questions later should either one decide it wanted to start trouble. He had received word earlier in the day that another two task forces would be arriving soon to bolster his forces. And shortly thereafter several fleet auxiliaries would arrive to begin the expansion of [i]Sentinel of the Void[/i]. He had been assured that someone from the government of sufficient post to negotiate with outside powers would arrive at the station soon, but given the state of things in Arkton after the Prime Minister’s passing he had taken those assurances with a grain of salt. “Tell Winters to grab some coffee on the way back.” Hudson said after a moment. “And none of that cheap crap either.” “You’ve been promoted for less than two days and are already abusing your power.” Senny chided him. “I’ll pay him back!” “You sound stressed.” Senny commented. He [i]was[/i] stressed. “I’ll have Winters grab a bottle of wine for you while he’s at it.” Hudson was more than a little surprised that she had noticed. It wasn’t that she was oblivious to human emotion, quite the opposite in fact. It was just the fact that she simply tended not to care about him specifically. “Thanks Senny.” “Hmm… I think I’ll ask him to grab two bottles for you.” Senny added after a moment. Hudson could only roll his eyes. [hider=Current Projected Party Popularity] Progressive Party: 46% Royalist Party: 44% Syndicalist Party: 8% Radical Socialist Party: 1% The Silver Guard: 1% [/hider]