[IC] The Depths of Deception

[Leon5431]

Telmeck eyed Rareth curiously, he didn't feel the need to continue questioning her, after all he was fairly certain he already knew why she had done it in the first place, so instead he just smiled rolled his eyes jokingly and turned back to the others. One by one everyone arrived and soon enough they had all assembled and were off. Telmeck took his seat and watched as the shuttle door closed locking them into the confines of the windowless shuttle. It felt as if they were in a box of some kind, luckily Telmeck wasn't the claustrophobic type or else this flight would have been much more uncomfortable than it needed to be.

He shifted in his seat as he tried to get more comfortable as his gaze moved about the shuttle. The others were sharing some idle conversation which he participated in from time to time but for the most part he spent the flight spacing out as he inspected the interior of the shuttle. It felt distinctively military, at least that's what it's distinct lack of windows told him. Shuttles for diplomats, from his experience, tended to have at least one or two windows.

Thankfully they had the proper clearance and were able to breeze through custumes and get on their way to their destination. He listened as the pilot was directed to the building hugely had been in before and was given clearance to land.

As they landed and the door opened they were greeted by a small welcoming committee, which seemed to be headed by one of their representatives, Ghirn, Telmeck believed his name was.

"Well, I wasn't expecting to be greeted at the door." Telmeck said quietly toward no one in particular in their small company.

Quickly they were led away to a collection of rooms set aside for them in the residential section of this building. Ghirn led them into one of the rooms, and began his briefing.

Telmeck listened intently as he spoke, seems they had been right to expect some resurctering for their little band. Rareth, Shiva, Shuo, Ashley and himself were placed into the same team while the others were being sent off on other assignments, whatever that meant. There was no denying Telmeck was pleased to hear that the people he had taken the time to get to know were remaining together.

As Ghirn finished speaking Telmeck spoke up. "That's very good to hear sir, I look forward to meeting the "new blood". But, if I may, what became of the rebel force on the station? Is there any chance we may be encountering them again?" He asked, standing at military attention as he was so used to doing.

[EliteCommander]

"As far as we know, every single one of them are dead." Ghirn answered to Telmeck. "After you evacuated the station, our strike team did manage to capture some of the rebels. However, when they attempted to interrogate them, they all essentially self destructed, and all in the same way. Massive hemorrhaging of the brain, which killed each of them basically instantly."

Rareth nodded. "I though that is what that was. When we captured one of them, he died pretty suddenly after we started questioning them. Oddly, he sounded like he was about to actually tell us something before he died. Seems strange to me that someone who was actually willing to talk would have willingly undergone a procedure like that."

"Yes, I recall that from your report. It is possible that it was not a voluntary procedure for the rebels. Regardless, it is safe to say you will never see those rebels again, but that kind of bioengineering is not what we would expect to see from a group of rebels with seemingly limited resources. That implies there is something more going on, but exactly what we cannot yet say. There may have been a larger organization funding, or even directly controlling them. However, we cannot link them to any known group with sufficient resources who would actually benefit from this kind of attack. None of the files we have examined so far even mention the goal of these rebels. They took the hostages, then just seemed to wait for us to arrive. Luckily, it looks like enough data was recovered that we will be able to send you on a mission to follow up on this. The details of it are being finalized as we speak." Ghirn explained.

[Muttonhawk]

Shiva at first found it rather jarring that all the pomp and circumstance had them with not a word of dialogue with the representatives. It was a relief to hear that those in the team that she had befriended would remain together. Hopefully the new blood, whoever they were, would be similarly friendly.

Ghirn's unofficial debriefing was especially interesting to Shiva when the point of the rebel's spontaneous deaths came up. It was a detail that had bugged her ever since she got off the station. From the way Rareth and Ghirn talked about it, it appeared to be some kind of implant. Shiva wondered the cruelty of whoever had inflicted such fates upon the rebels if it had not been voluntary as they suspected.

Beyond the other questions, Shiva found the confidence to step forward once she had a clear opportunity. "How long will we be staying?"

[cqbexpt]

Shuo felt at home when the dropship finally sealed up and took them out of the relatively low firepower frigate. He almost didn't want to leave when they all began disembarking to learn their fates.

What Ghirn said hardly surprised him considering most if not all of the fighting had been recorded in some fashion or another. He was even willing to guess that just Shuo's footage was enough to inform them of what happened. He just hoped that at some point they would go on a mission that could have no video record......those were always the fun ones after all. Still he had found that the process of a debriefing however unnecessary brought about an air of finality to a given task. Certainly this sudden end to the operation would nag at the back of his mind for the next few days. However he felt that this group they had fought was not finished either.

Shuo was content with the explanation given however and decided to stay silent. Just before he headed off to his room however he became interested in the question of how long they were going to be here. When Shiva beat him to the question he let a small smile break his usual front, seemed he wasn't the only one who would prefer to be doing something.

[EliteCommander]

“Not long, actually.” Ghirn answered as he activated the holographic screen of the computer built into his wristband. “All of the information we gathered gave us a pretty solid lead. These rebels went through quite a lot to cover their tracks and hide their allegiances, but it seems chance is on our side for this one. The weapons they are using are of all types. Some of the more advanced ones seem to have been stolen, as they carry their registration information, but others, particularly the ballistic weapons, are entirely unmarked. We’re having others follow up on leads from the registered weapons, but for you, we have something on the unmarked guns. It seems one of their weapon shipments had been found, then tagged and allowed to go through. According to the information from the tracker, the shipment passed through the city of…” Ghirn began, checking his screen briefly. “Paris, on the Human homeworld.”

“Hmm, Paris. I know a chef from there.” Rareth commented, though she really didn’t know where she was going with the statement, as it didn’t help in the slightest.

“Indeed, they are known for their cuisine.” Ghirn commented with a slight chuckle as he closed the screen on his device. “You all will be both the investigation and strike teams. Obviously, some of your skills will apply more directly to aspects of the mission, but all of you will be needed at some point. You need to find the source of these weapons and recover any information you can on who these rebels might have been working with. Some of the information from the station is still being analyzed, but we should have some more specific information for you in a day or two.”

[cqbexpt]

"Paris?" Shuo said confused. He had heard the word before but he didn't know what it actually meant, though judging by Rareth's response it was a significant place. This was further confirmed by Ghirn's acedote. "Not sure how I'm to be of much use on the human homeworld....they don't exactly like us there, as you know." Shuo made sure to emphasize the us and glancing at Shiva for a second. He folded his arms and brought his spike around and rested it in his arms. Shuo then mumbled a bit about that being why most of those weapons were ballistic knowing the Sovereignty couldn't launch an investigation in human space without quite a bit of red tape. While most of the sentiment towards humans at least in terms of the Sovereign people was met not with hostility but always with suspicion, though that was true of all those not in their conglomerate. Even if most of the Masulu and Tempu still alive had lived through the war their peoples didn't hold grudges much. The humans most certainly did though.

[Muttonhawk]

Shiva wasn't really sure how to react. "I've never been to Earth before," she mentioned, if only for the sake of mentioning something. Really, she had expected some rimworld or backwater colony. Some kind of pirate den, or perhaps some place more similar to her own home planet. The most fortified location in human controlled space was the exact opposite. And I might be firing a weapon there, Shiva thought to herself, I'm not sure whether to be more or less comfortable.

Thinking about it more carefully, the only things that Shiva knew about the human home world were scant details. She had read some texts from earth-born medical academics, that was about it. Shuo brought up a good point, though. "What's it like in...Pear-ess, anyway? Are the people there dangerous?"

[Balmung1100]

"No complaints here." Bit said simply. "If you're saying that all of our skills will be needed, there's a large chance that I'll get to blow something up."

While Bit had never been to Earth, or any human colony really, he didn't really expect much. The one thing that did get his attention was the mention of food. Human food had always seemed like a huge step up from what he had always been fed in the military, and if he was going to somewhere that was supposedly famous for their food...well he'd at least have to try a few things.

[EliteCommander]

"Both of you are part of a joint Assembly team, and that team will be coordinating with local authorities." Ghirn answered to Shuo and Shiva. Given galactic history, their trepidation about visiting the Human homeworld was understandable. "I will admit, it did take some...doing politically to have everything cleared, but the fact that there will be at least one Human representative on your team does help. And as I said, your team may be assigned more members. As long as you keep the local authorities properly informed of your actions, you should not have problems from them. As for the average citizens, I cannot say with certainty you will not face any problems. Any city has crime, after all, but it does not seem likely. Paris is one of Earth's larger cities, and people do not often walk around armed, as you will be." He explained.

[Leon5431]

"Paris, huh? I've heard a bit about it, not much though, isn't there supposed to be a tower there or something? Or was it a museum? I don't know, it's something historic, that much I do know." Telmeck said, mostly just thinking out loud.

As the topic of how welcome their Sovereignty allies will be came up Telmeck spoke up, "No more dangerous than the average citizen on any other planet's larger city." Telmeck said to Shiva before pausing and smiling cheekily, "But oh I wouldn't worry about it, just hit them with the good old sovereignty charm, they'll love you in no time." He joked, smiling harmlessly toward Shuo and Shiva.

He chuckled at his own joke for a moment before speaking up again, "But Ghirn does have a point, it would be best if you two prepared to face some apprehension when we get into the city. I wouldn't expect too much from the authorities, but as for the civilians, well, they can be unpredictable no matter where we are. Everyone has their own opinions and feelings on what happened and humans have shown a tendency to be significantly opinionated about such things." He said, picking his words a little carefully. "But so long as we show we are there to help preserve the peace, things should go over smoothly." He said adding emphasis to "should".

[Balmung1100]

"From what I've heard, there are some seriously xenophobic humans on earth ." Bit said. "I'm not saying the Dirophyds can't be xenophobes, but the Dyrophiddi media is far from kind when it comes to the less appealing aspects humanity."

He shuffled a bit uncomfortably after briefly glancing at the humans of the group. He, of course, wasn't kidding when he said that the media wasn't a fan of humanity. Perhaps it was due to the human government's own mining operations within Dyrophid space.

"I don't believe most of what I read of course, but it's always a good idea to prepare for the worst."

[EliteCommander]

Rareth shrugged her shoulders. "I haven't heard that much is wrong with them. At least, no worse than anywhere else. They are a lot more divided than Rothia, but then again, so are most other places.' Rareth commented.

Ghirn stepped closer to the door as he addressed the team. "I can say with reasonable certainty that the local authorities will not give you issues. As for the local population, it is up to your own judgment on how to mitigate any potential dangers. Just remember who it is you are representing. Your actions will reflect upon the image of the Assembly." He warned. "Now, if all of you who are not remaining with this team could follow me, I need to give you your next assignments. For now, everyone else can relax, but be ready to leave soon."

After Ghirn stepped out of the room, all of those leaving the team followed suit. Rareth wandered over to the couch in the center of the room and sat down, leaning back as she let out a sigh. "Well, it seems like at least most of us are sticking together. I never really talked to the others anyway."

[cqbexpt]

Shuo felt uneasy about going to the human homeworld not as a conqueror but as a guest. They had only learned of earth in the last week of the war due to the humans destroying their nav data if they thought their were being captured or destroyed. It became rather bothersome for the techies and the AI to piece together much of anything once that policy got put into place. Though since those were for lack of a better term the glory days, he supposed that it would be best to atleast see what the humans were fighting so desperately for.

Shuo sat down on a couch and let the cushions swallow him whole as he relaxed into the chair. "Well, suppose if there is any really xenophobic people there not much to be done considering the war is over for years now. Though I'm interested in this food you two were talking about. Been awhile since I've tried human food besides coffee."

[Muttonhawk]

Seeing as how Shiva and the other members of the initiative were acquaintances at best, she settled to see them off with a simple nod. They were all the quieter types anyway.

While the others made motions to be seated, Shiva opted to lean against the back of one of the couches. She still had too much energy to relax right then. Without a drawn-out debrief, she was at a loss for what to do with it all. For now she just thought anxiously about what was in store for them. One thing that gave her a skerrick of hope was the shorter human life-span. There would undoubtedly be a more significant proportion of humans amongst the general population that were born after the war than in a masulu community. That might at least make those with grudges fewer in number. Hopefully.

Shiva looked up at Shuo when food was mentioned. She reasoned that a lighter topic of conversation might help make the idea of heading to Earth more buoyant. Glancing between the faces of the Rothians, Shiva asked, "What is human food like? Is it anything like masulu food, or is it smaller and fleshier, like they are?" Shiva let out a small chuckle, but trailed off as she noticed the bad taste while Ashley was around.

[Leon5431]

As Ghirn gave his parting warning Telmeck listened closely. He hadn't really thought about it before but what Ghirn said was true, they weren't just representing their own nations, they were representing the Assembly as a whole. Their actions could have positive or negative after affects across the entire galaxy. It was a rather stressful thought, he was used to covert ops where his discovery could have a negative impact on Rothian society, but never an impact on a scale such as this after all he was no Datius. While stressful the idea of being entrusted like this was rather exciting he was certainly proud to be apart of such an operation.

As Ghirn left and the others all took their seat Telmeck remained standing, "If I am not mistaken human food is very "diverse" so to speak. They have a rather wide dietary range being omnivores, so you should expect to see everything ranging from meats to plants and anything in between. As for how similar it is to masulu food I am not so certain, if I am not mistaken fish is a rather large part of the Masulu diet is it now? If so I do know that fish is also a rather popular food on Earth as well so you guys should see some similarities. Now I am no expert on Human or Masulu cuisine, I am just telling you what I have heard from Human friends of mine." He said trying to be as helpful as he could on the topic.

As he finished talking he couldn't help but realize just how hungry he was, he hadn't eaten breakfast and this talk of cuisine was only helping to make him even more hungry.

"Now I don't know about the rest of you, but talking about human and masulu cuisine is making me hungry. How about we go get a bite to eat? Seems we've got some time to kill before we're space bound again and I'd like to be able to get a nice on world meal before it's back to eating "space food"." Telmeck inquired as he dropped his hand down to his stomach.

[EliteCommander]

Rareth could agree with the idea of getting something from a restaurant. She did not think that the food they had on the ship was bad per se, but it certainly was not restaurant quality. After Telmeck's suggestion, Rareth stood up and walked towards the center of the living room. "I think I can agree with that. We just need to decide on where to go, or whether to actually go anywhere at all." Rareth commented.

Rareth activated her wrist computer and, with a specific hand motion, blew up the holographic projection to be roughly her size for everyone else to see. With her free hand, she started browsing through local points of interest until she found restaurant listings. "We could always get delivery, if we don't feel like going out. In keeping with the theme, perhaps we should try something with Human cuisine?" She suggested, pausing a moment as she selected a well-rated restaurant that looked like it served Human food. She browsed through their menu for a few moments, though her attention naturally became drawn to their most expensive item. "Hmm, baked yams with matsutake mushrooms and a large wooly mammoth steak, cooked to your specifications. I don't know what any of that is, but it looks good." Rareth commented.

[Muttonhawk]

"Huh, I didn't know humans liked fish," Shiva said in response to Telmeck. She held no illusions about the humans' fish being the same as masulu favourites, but it was a curious similarity. For a moment, Shiva was tempted to point out that fish weren't the only thing that masulus ate, but the necessity didn't come upon her before Rareth looked up places to go.

Shiva hadn't been to a proper restaurant in many years. With her tattoo, she would rather have kept it that way, but the cuisine that Rareth listed off made her curious. "Wait, humans eat things that are woolly? Wouldn't that get caught in your throat?" Shiva stood up from where she was leaning. "This, I have to see. Who's coming?" Shiva leaned her hands on the back of the couch she was next to and gave a smile to the rest of the team. Despite her choice of words implying that she would check it out anyway, she knew that it was probably not look good for her convict-marked self to go alone even on assembly territory.

[cqbexpt]

"Well." Shuo said slightly apprehensively."I suppose if we're going to be spending much time on the Human homeworld we may aswell get acclimated to the uh...food." Now that Shuo thought of it he began wondering how dry the Human homeworld was. He knew they liked it dryer than Masulu and even Tempu but he wasn't sure by what degree. When Rareth started listing off names of foods he had never even heard of it reminded Shuo of another Human food that had been recommended to him before by people returning from shore leave.

"Whatever that there was something I heard the Humans make with their fish. It is called something with a long s sound. Suuuuush I think? I'm not sure what it is called exactly but I'm sure they'll know what I'm asking for. But it would be best if we went to the place, considering we'll not have anything to do here for the next couple of days anyways." Shuo said gesturing around the room then placing his hands on his knees.

[Balmung1100]

"Well, I guess I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about their food." Bit said with a shrug as he pulled up the menu up on a datapad. "I've never heard of 'barbeque' before."

He quickly looked at the picture and saw what looked like a rack of some kind of ribs with sauce all over them. The look of it made him drool slightly, as a member of the special operations corps he very rarely got any meat, and on the rare occasion that he did, it was in the form of jerky...The sauce didn't sound too bad either, though he wondered how the color 'orange' could be used in the recipe.

"Huh, I guess I know what I'm trying."

[EliteCommander]

"It's a plan, then. We'll go out and get a nice meal, maybe some drinks. And from there, well, whatever we feel like. My treat." Rareth offered, mostly because the restaurant she had selected was more on the expensive end of the spectrum. Since she was already in her formal clothing, there was not anything in particular she needed to do to get ready, so she went ahead and ordered one of the city's many shuttles from a local taxi company. The automated shuttles were programmed to wait in specific locations around the city and wait for fares to call on them. As a result, it only took minutes for the shuttle to reach its designated location on one of the rooftop landing pads.

Since the landing pads were not meant to be occupied continuously, Rareth made haste up to the roof and quickly identified the shuttle. After using her wrist device to identify herself as the one who had paid for it, the shuttle opened its doors and allowed her to take her seat. Since the shuttle was designed to be fully autonomous, it did not have a cockpit, only a seat situated near a set of emergency manual controls. The rest of the space in the interior was devoted to passenger seating and baggage storage. It was more spacious, and far more comfortable than most military vessels. As she was waiting for the others to pile in, she went ahead and designated their destination, which was a restaurant named "Taste of the Neolithic." She was not exactly sure what that meant, but its website did specify it was an Earth-themed restaurant.