While waiting for the SCC to convene, Freyr had thrown herself at the problem again. The team rapidly filled five physical drawing boards with workings out and ideas. It eventually became clear that Outremer’s high command was unwilling to hold an audience with her while the Rothians were listening in. So Captain Andersen sent a shuttle to collect her, and Freyr answered dozens of initial questions on the short ride back to the Barbarossa. After they were satisfied, Freyr requested the craft turn around so she could return to her team.

When it came time to assemble, Freyr led her delegation into the cavernous conference room and sat in the middle of one of the square table’s sides. Most of the attendees currently in Outremer elected not to use the holographic function. Instead they displayed on a huge screen opposite her as rows of heads and shoulders in boxes. A couple of people even declined to send a video feed, so their box featured a nondescript silhouette of a head in their place.

Around half of the people Freyr had recently debriefed in the shuttle were present. She found [url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/56ed719e-7c6f-4e38-8870-25cdcd688ee8.jpg]President DeWinter[/url], head of the armed forces [url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/b0878422-dffd-4307-a455-dac2152f8979.jpg]Group Admiral Lord Hale[/url] and Director of Defence Intelligence, [url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/e7cab177-4169-4eb1-8ba7-e60f47b713b1.jpg]Benoit Souza[/url] among the sea of faces. They were the people she primarily had answered to before. They were all now in formal dress and looked extremely serious. When the Speaker arrived, an aide appeared in the President’s window to whisper in her ear; one of her eyebrows raised slightly.

After a little while, absolute quiet descended on the hall and the various shufflings stopped. Outremer’s president began transmitting sound to formally greet the room, her face growing larger to fill half of the screen. Her voice was smooth, melodious and stateswomanlike. “Hello. Thank you for joining us this morning. I appreciate the effort many of you have made to be here at such short notice. These are not the circumstances I would have chosen to meet so many honourable members of Rothian society for the first time. However, we must play the cards we are dealt. This is a situation with the potential to affect us all, but i am confident we can come up with an agreeable plan of action. As we are in your chamber, perhaps you would care to fire first?”