[b]COVWAR THIRD RECONNAISSANCE UNIT
AGDEMNAR SYSTEM
1104 HOURS 08.16.3152[/b]
While its existence was officially acknowledged, no information about the mission and purpose of the Covert Warfare Development Group was ever released. The branch existed under the general umbrella of Special Operations Division, but answered directly to the Secretary of the Navy. Its tasks remain heavily classified and compartmentalized. The Third Reconnaissance Unit, a division of four [i]Raider[/i] class destroyers and a [i]Hunter[/i] series cruiser as lead, officially did not exist and even if it did, would not officially be anywhere near the Agdemnar system. The records of Third Recon’s deployment were kept under the highest classification available. Only SecNav, the rest of the joint chiefs, and the Empress’ advisement team had the requisite access. Only they were aware that a [i]Hunter[/i] series cruiser was camping out in the rings of one of the gas giants, or that several destroyers were flying dark, whizzing around the inner system in freefall orbits and gathering data on the situation.

The primary report from Third Recon was overdue by three days. Transmission had been sent prior that both the command cruiser and two of the destroyers had been located and were being pursued. A second ciphered message was dispatched ten hours later reporting all ships safe and undetected. Ciphered messages sent from Agdemnar were very minimal, running over unsecure Ashtar PsiNet beacons until they reached the perimeter of Alduuri space where the Subspace Relay Network could handle the domestic routing. The transmission lag of a tight-beam subspace broadcast was over 9 hours to cross a third of the galaxy, and the act of transmitting would light up the ship to anyone with passive subspace sensors and half a brain all the way from the next star system.

“Captain!”
A buzz of activity wrested the bridge of the [i]AMS Orion[/i] from its stupor. As the highest ranking officer in the entire star system, Captain Antonio Kennedy presided over Third Recon from the [i]Orion[/i]. Being a veteran of COVWAR, the man was a patient yet ruthless commanding officer, and a master of efficiency. Third Recon needed every bit of that. He leaned imposingly over towards the ensign calling for him to see what the fuss was. “Yes sailor?”
“Multiple subspace disturbances in orbit near objective, bigger than I’ve seen before. Another engagement underway most likely.”
“Hmmm ... eyes on that would be useful.”

He stalked his way over to the main holotable, scrolling over to a system map. He had been taken aback by the vigilance of some of the hostiles’ sensor systems before, and it nearly got one of his destroyers pinned down and killed. He would not make that mistake again. Making a sublight reloc with any of his vessels was near guaranteed to have the ship sighted in by enemy scopes. Jumping in closer to a hostile battlespace, while making oneself a known target, was a recipe to lose a ship. That left options rather minimal.

There was a possibility, however. One of the destroyers was already on a passby trajectory. Firing its engines at more than one half G would light up an unmaskable drive plume, but there was an out for it. A sublight reloc after the flyby and a hard burn could bring the ship into the shadow of a gas giant, stabilize the orbit, and keep the course alteration hidden from any combatants in the inner system that might be tracking it.

“Comms, raise the [i]Namani[/i] on tight-beam subspace.”
The comms officer set up the connection while Kennedy went over the orders in his head one last time. “[i]Namani[/i], adjust heading to match the flight plan as attached and go to one G burn. We need a flyby of the battlespace with all sensors active. Egress via sublight reloc to far side Agdenmar Four and course correct. Long range contact is possible. Defend or disengage at your discretion. How copy? Over.”
The talkback from the [i]Namani[/i] came in promptly. “Solid copy [i]Orion[/i], coming about, going to one G burn. Wish us luck Captain.”
“Good luck Commander Vitani, and godspeed. [i]Orion[/i] out.”

Captain Kennedy paced along the deck, nervously watching the flightpath of the [i]Namani[/i]. “Contact the [i]Himmenez[/i] and start beaming our data to them. I’m attaching a memo about the [i]Namani[/i] and we’re sending the report out now.”
“Sir?”
“We can no longer operate with secrecy here. The deployment of the [i]Namani[/i] is probably a mistake. We need backup or an escape plan,” Kennedy declared, turning his attention to the final draft of his report he dragged up on the table while the comms station did its work.

“[i]AMS Himmenez[/i], prepare to receive subspace tight-beam data transfer. How copy? Over.”
“Solid copy [i]Orion[/i]. Please relay instructions.”
The captain accessed the channel now, packaging his report and notes and passing them into the transfer. “[i]Himmenez[/i], prep for sublight reloc to low solar and make the jump back towards Centaurus Cluster. Get within immediate range of SSRN, transmit all data to Navy Command, and await their orders.”
“Acknowledged [i]Orion[/i]. We’ll see you soon.”

[hr]
[b]IMPERIAL CAPITOL COMPLEX
TIIR
0857 HOURS 08.17.3152[/b]
The risk of tardiness by the Empress could be readily gleaned from her walking pace. The present difficulty of her staff to keep up suggested that risk was rather high. One of the aids was carrying a stack of plex tablets in one arm, and an Imperial Navy jacket folded over the other. Others were trading various plex slates back and forth with the most powerful woman in the galactic sector. Several reports on varying intelligence topics changed hands while the ensemble headed into the military wing. The day’s schedule included meeting with the joint chiefs in preparation for armed forces deployment. The logistical back-and-forth of coordinating military strategy had been a nightmare ever since the message. For the first time since, almost every ranking member of Navy Command was here on Tiir, able to meet face to face.

It wasn’t that the empire did not have FTL communications channels -- there were specific channels of SSRN reserved for realtime military & government communications -- but that coordinating availability of individuals in different star systems was difficult on a good day. Comms lag only made it worse, as even tight-beam subspace relays were not instantaneous. With all the relevant faces in one room, weeks’ worth of planning could finally be accomplished within a few hours.

“Eighth Expeditionary is sitting comfortably at Centaurus Beta and was raised to elevated readiness this morning. Most of Third Recon is still lurking in-system but the [i]AMS Himmenez[/i] is still waiting to return to them with orders to relay.”
Rose McDowell was one of Madame Lisett’s best advisors. She was a relative newcomer to interstellar politics but she was a go-getter. The four years spent so far with the Empress made up almost all of her political career.
The Empress asked the obvious question. “Is Admiral Cotyar here with us?”
“No Ma’am, he is on call through SSRN from Centaurus cluster. Transmission lag is 107 seconds one way.”
“Understood,” she miffed.
107 seconds was unfortunate, but was still pretty impressive considering that the Centaurus cluster was over three hundred lightyears from the core. “Anyone else of note missing?”
“No Ma’am, all other critical persons accounted for.”
“Thank you Rose, Harvy you got stuff for me on weapons development?”

Harvy Renault was a military cadet trying to also make his way in politics. The man had a knack for the careful blend of military rank and file and political maneuverings. He was also enthralled with military hardware. Were he not quite so green, he could have made an excellent candidate for Commander in Chief. However, Madame Lisett was not ready to hand over that authority just yet. She would bestow the rank when she found a worthy appointee. “Yes Ma’am, updates on all three majors when you’re ready.”
He handed off her navy dress jacket and a red-cased plex angrily stamped “CLASSIFIED from the stack. “The Gojira is undergoing flight trials and, all things being nominal, is scheduled for live fire testing this afternoon. She’ll be back in berth by tomorrow for final inspection & testing. The ship should be fit for combat deployment by the end of the week. Would you like me to organize a ceremony of any sort Ma’am?”
“Not this time thank you. How’s budget doing on the others?” All of the Gojira class dreadnoughts had been running over budget for the duration of construction, which was less than ideal for already-expensive warships.

“All of the ships are still about ten to twelve percent over budget, but are at least proceeding on schedule. The final report isn’t in yet but I have preliminary findings from SecNav about that for the Gojira. There doesn’t appear to be any mismanagement of resources so its looking like that’s just an incorrect initial estimate on ship cost. It's less than ideal but it could be worse.”
His attention to detail was impeccable. His own judgement was sometimes a bit questionable, but his diligence in reporting was never in any doubt. “I suppose that’s good to hear then. Now what about your favorite project you have such keen interest in?”
Madame Lisett was of course referring to the superfortress AMS Pulsar. Harvy obsessed over every detail of the design several times, and kept one eye on its construction near constantly. “AMS Pulsar is still behind schedule, but the extra resources tasked to it have boosted the speed above original plans. The construction is making up ground finally,” he gloated.
It had been his request to task more resources to the project when it was experiencing delays. “Unfortunately we’ve already missed the original launch date, but the ship should be ready for its first set of flight trials in ... six to eight weeks I’ll guess.”

“Noted,” she acknowledged curtly, “finish this after the strategy briefing, game faces on.”
Harvy had pretty well convinced the Empress about the importance of the superfortress project and so the delays were beginning to become an annoyance for her. That of course gave him leverage to pump even more resources into it. For now, that was back-burnered as the Empress and her entourage of support staff, the hallmark of any good Imperial politician, entered into the briefing room.

Per tradition, the capitol deputy on station would announce the entrance of certain ranking government and military individuals and the room was to rise and, if relevant, return a salute. Amara Lisett did not care too heavily for the formality of it all when attending to business. There was no need to reaffirm her position to those well aware of it. Nonetheless, the first thing she heard on entrance was the proclamation: “Ladies and gentlemen, the Empress of Alduur.”
Please, stay seated,” she preempted, “let us dispense with the pleasantries for today. We all know why we’re here so let’s get down to business. We have the intelligence report from Third Recon, therefore we need to plan our mobilization. Mr. Secretary, you have an operations report prepared for us?”
The Secretary of the Navy rose to return the address, “Yes Madame, I do.”
“Very good then, the room is yours.”

[hr]
[b]FIVE CROWNS PLAZA
TIIR
1728 HOURS 08.17.3152[/b]
“Go back to that part about ‘we have faced the unknown’. What if we redid that part to be about-”
“Madame it’s fine now will you ...” Rose was getting impatient with the pacing, “okay stop it!”
Madame Lisett gave a perplexed look to her advisor. Few people had the stones to physically get in her way about things. “Madame, the speech is great. Leave it be.”
“Rose this isn’t just another speech,” the nerves showing for once.
“I know, but you’re going to kill it. You never had a problem with that in the past four years. You won’t have one now.”
“This is the joint chiefs, the MPs, the core world magistrates ... literally everyone. And I’m about to ask an entire nation to follow me down the war path.”
The reality of it had evidently sunk in. Harvy, Rose, and the rest of her advising team had written an excellent speech for her, regardless. “Do you think this is the right move?”
Rose’s question was perhaps ill-advised. “I do,” Madame Lisett responded confidently in private, at least.
“Then we’re with you on it. Simple as that.”
“I appreciate your faith, Ms. McDowell. I just worry this will look like I’m trying to prove myself because I’m young and relatively new.”
“And are you?”
“Prove myself to my people? No. Prove ourselves as a nation to the rest of the galaxy? Yes.”
“Then we’ll run damage control on the optics if we need to,” Rose reassured, “now breathe ... and go write history.”

Madame Lisett took a long breath, Rose would not have let her go out without one, and made her way down the steps to the podium. The actual attendance, including all the dignitaries, was almost two thousand. More were watching on live broadcast. The turnout was impressive for something organized just the morning before. She stared out over the crowd. “We are ready,” she reminded herself, and began to speak.

[quote]I come before you at a singular moment in history. We have been confronted with unprecedented opportunity, and with that opportunity, the unknown. The unmistakable risk of rolling the dice, and reaping the consequences, for better or worse. But we have faced the unknown before. We have discovered wonders, faced terrors, spat in the very face of danger and dared refuse the advance of false gods. Though our courage, our vision, our faith in our purpose and one another, we have seen our way through even the darkest nights and I am here to tell you from my heart that we shall do so again.

The first step, that most necessary and fundamental beginning, is to recognize the revelations of our enemy not as a final act of defiance, but as a chance to learn. That, I must say with great shame, is the truth that others have turned away from. Given the same opportunity as we, the nations of the galaxy squabble behind denials and falsehoods, instead seeing power as a tool only for destruction, not peace. They look upon this great and terrible moment and they see it as an opportunity to revisit old wounds, to settle scores, to get one over on one another with no end in sight. They have lost sight of our shared history and so they must be reminded.

It is our duty, not as yet another belligerent nation but as the survivors of centuries of warfare ... to remind the galaxy who we are, to stand up and cry out in one voice, we will not bow! To be what we have always been: unbreakable. To come together with the strength we once held, and move forward into this brave new chapter of history![/quote]

[hr][sup]If that speech sounds familiar to you, then you have good taste in sci-fi.[/sup]