[hr] [center][h1][color=red][b]TSDC[/b][/color][/h1][/center] [hr] [b]TSDC Headquarters; office of CEO Argus[/b] Argus browsed the official TSDC site and noticed the message from the CEO of New Horizon on the Business Link. [i]Good… I knew I could count on him[/i]. The broadcast was a quick decision. He knew it would not be popular with everyone and that his call to action could be read in many ways, some good… and perhaps some badly. Regardless, he couldn’t sit for much longer. Whatever the planetary government, let alone Skyguard, planned to do, he couldn’t simply sit back and wait. Weapons of war, particularly the brand produced by TSDC, were coming into popularity. The culmination of his corporate empire. He would not give it away to anyone. As he was thinking, a message came in to Argus’s secure channel. [i]Odd… Logan uses the hologram link[/i]… As he checked it, however, he realized the message came from Skyguard. [i]What is it this time?[/i]... [i]5 minutes later…[/i] Argus had read the initial message. Although it had a good ring to it… Skyguard wasn’t the time to produce comments without wanting something in return. His fears were confirmed as he read the contract details, including ones that were worded in ways that could easily grant skyguard full control over production. He slammed his artificial arm on the desk. “You’ll have to do better than that…” he called Howard through the TSDC Network. The fuzzy face of Howard Oleman appeared. “Yes, what is it?” “Read this contract, send a message of consideration to Skyguard’s channels and put it on hold.” Howard became increasingly agitated as he read the contract. “You aren’t seriously considering taking this up? You should know by now the way they do business. This company won’t be a company anymore, it’ll be Skyguard’s-” Argus interrupted him. “I told you to put it on hold. I have no intention of accepting this, but I don’t need Skyguard on my ass right now. Not until we finish the anti-bombardment tech I told Logan to work on, at least.” “Remember, Logan, that this isn’t a corporation. This is Skyguard, and we need time. We can’t simply give up the company but pissing them off is a good way to show the planet just how puny our military is when they send our own OBC’s crashing down. We have until the next staff meeting in a month, at least. Hopefully by then we have made some progress, and hopefully we have a security force large enough to handle some of the bigger bites that Skyguard would be sending first to test the waters if this goes foul.” [hr] [b]15 minutes from New Horizon United's Airspace; aboard the TSDC Dropship[/b] “This is Dropship 0064 of the TSDC requesting permission to enter your airspace, along with dropship 0067 and two security fighters,” the same captain that had delivered the original goods repeated in the same tone of voice as he had before. It wasn’t but two days later and he was out again, bringing in even more suits and a security system with an installation crew in tow. “Gentlemen, are you prepared for installation?” he asked to the crew of both ships. It wasn’t a question, as they had all been drilled on how to install a “5”, but he said it for formality. [hr] [b]Road between Esylum and the “Safezone”; TSDC Evac Convoy[/b] A faint blip came on the outer rings of the first convoy truck’s sensor. It was an older model, and so lacked the detection technologies of later versions; all the more reason why more hostiles did not show up. Additionally, there was no scanning system; an ambush was almost ripe to happen. The driver of the first truck, noticing the blip, called his chief. “Uh… boss, there’s something up in the buildings over there, could be civillian, no id-” He was cut off as a high powered bullet pierced through the truck and hit him, going through and striking the energy core. At the same time, explosions blew the truck several feet in the air. It crashed down and exploded atop the first Harasser, killing everyone inside both vehicles and losing all the equipment as well. The chief was only able to hear a few words from the front before his truck, too, was launched forward, crashing into the side of the road and crushing the front side. He was knocked unconscious; he was also the only one to survive in the truck. The first Harasser was driving along the side when the first truck launched into his light tank, right into the ammunition stores. They exploded, causing both vehicles to erupt in flame. The pilot of that vehicle would not make it. Staring in horror at this chaos was the driver in the second Harasser. He quickly opened a channel to TSDC Headquarters; however, his fingers were too shaky and he opened a public channel as well unknowingly. “This is Harasser Green Two! We just got ambushed, repeat, we have been ambushed! We need - support ASAP, it looks like all the vehicles are - down! I’m evacuating!” As he was speaking, or rather, yelling, he pulled the trigger to shoot covering streams of light missiles in the general direction of the buildings as he drove off into the desert with no particular direction, at full speed.