Response Level 3: [b]Patterns of Enforcement[/b]
[i]The Order of Hermes sees the value of things - and unfortunately, you are now bargaining chips.[/i]

[b]The Order of Hermes:[/b] The Order of Hermes is present here in force.
[b]The Huntress Awakens:[/b] You are being observed, no matter where you are or what you do.
[b]Patterns of Enforcement:[/b] Investigative channels have opened from the Magos to the Order's forces; they will attempt to arrest any player character they encounter


[b]Redana![/b]

Even in times of total war, Nero tried for something better.

After this planet was broken, but before it was rebuilt, it was a staging ground for the final conflict in a galactic war. To oversee this battle Nero built a [i]castle[/i]. Though it is squat and lumpen to stand against the winds of a burning planet, though its surface was made of scorch-black steel and stone hurled from orbit in prefabricated arrays into the heart of a combat zone, though any other ruler would have been content with a battle-bunker, Director Nero still had an eye for the aesthetic. Incongruously domed roofs, sweeping walkways and slender towers disarm the brutality of what is still nevertheless a building shaped by and for war.

It is overgrown now. The jungle has moved in, and with it, the Alced. They took this place in the end, bless them, and the tribe's warriors and maidens flit amidst the battlements. There aren't seem to be enough to occupy a fragment of this place - this place could house an entire Ceron Legion - but their presence gives this place a little bit of the loveliness Nero aspired to and fell short of.

You're not two steps into the gates before you're mobbed by hatchlings - young Alced covered in adorable fluff or the hideous scrag of pubescents halfway through their first molt. Soon after them are a number of very visibly armed parents who have their eyes not only on their young children but their adult children, many of whom are pointing, giggling and whispering as they size you up.

You're being pelted with delighted questions, interested glances and threatening stares. You're a visitor from the stars and one of the mythical humans of legend. It's not that you're not used to being the centre of attention, but this is raw and direct and not bound by any courtly etiquette. How do you handle it?

[b]Vasilia and Bella![/b]

The gears inside the Magos' voice emitter start to whir. Internal fans start to rumble and a tremor passes through the entire ship. The distant clatter-clack of a difference engine overclocking rises on the air and the Auspex floods Bella's body with adrenal responses as the only way to process how [i]dangerous[/i] all of this is -

And then the situation resolves. Vasilia is not standing before you proud and free and defiant. She stands before you in chains, her words now the defiance of a prisoner. You can all remember what happened - Vasilia came before the Magos to surrender herself rather than to seek the protection of hospitality. You can remember it even as you are also aware that's not why she originally came here, that the act was some sort of non sequitur, that the Magos is almost certainly responsible for this - [i]somehow[/i]. Both versions of events stand equally clear in your minds, and if the changes were less blatant you might wipe the former version of reality away as a strange moment of deja vu. 

Only Vasilia is in chains - the rest of her crew remain free, though equally confused between versions of events.

"Praetor," rolled that deep machine-mind voice. "We long for compliance with the Imperium. As a sign of our submission we present to you this wanted criminal. As a sign of our submission we shall share with you all the details of the planned experiment. As a sign of our submission we shall beg for Imperial mercy, for we only sought to learn that which the Empress Nero, she who crossed the galaxy upon a thunderbolt, has left behind."

Vasilia, this is what they in the negotiations business call a [i]bad sign[/i]. Birmingham is legitimately afraid of the damage Bella could do to him and his station - the Order of Hermes is [i]deeply [/i]pro-Imperial to begin with, and the Magos believes Bella has both motive and ability to destroy him personally. He is focused entirely on Bella and doesn't give a single damn about you and yours, and the only way to get him to stop obeying would be to make him believe that obedience won't save him.

[hider]
[b]Magos Birmingham[/b]
[i]The Saffron Lord travels between life and death - surely time, too, is within her power.[/i]
[b]Threat to the World:[/b] You must pay a price to act against the Magos.
[b]Master Chronomancer:[/b] The Magos holds the secret of nonlinear time within his clattering contraptions, giving him limited precognitive abilities and some ability to alter the past.
[b]Fateful Bargainer:[/b] The Magos may use his magic to alter the conditions of any deal struck - a gift may become a trade, a promotion can become an exile. Subjects will remember agreeing to the updated terms, though they will not recall [i]why[/i] they did. 
[b]Locked In A Bunker:[/b] The Magos' bunker walls are impenetrable, though he can only leave them by proxy. Inside, he is helpless.
[/hider]


[b]Alexa![/b]

"We're - leaving?" said Princess Epistia. "We're not going to fight to rescue her? Our [i]Captain[/i] is in trouble, Alexa!"

She's very plainly eying up the nearest Coherent warrior (who has noticed the attention and misinterpreted the signal, and so is flexing her muscles and striking cool poses with her spear). But you're up against Ceronian loyalty here - punching their way though anyone who threatens their leader is right up there with 'drink water when thirsty' as far as instincts go, so you'll have to talk sense if you don't want to start a brawl right here.