RPM
Nightwing95
FetzenCapital of the United Artanin Governments, Council Hall - Falerii City, Salus, Pictor System
There was a loud bang on the wood of the Council table followed closely behind by a gruff and obviously irritated voice, "There's enough to worry about without going on Minister Gallus's witch hunts for possible infiltrators from the damn NAC! There's no way that one of those... things," the Minister sneered, "could possibly have infiltrated the UAG, have you even seen the things? They're see through for God's sake!" Minister Petasius, the First Representative of the planet Tellus, exclaimed from across the table as he pointedly shook a finger at the younger Minister Gallus from Lucina. There was a low rumble of agreement from some of the more right leaning Ministers as the others shook their heads in silent disagreement or whispered to their planets partner Ministers.
"Minster Petasius please, this is a place of calm deliberation not bickering, we are the Council of Ministers of the UAG. Do our people not count on us to calmly choose the proper path for their futures?" Minister Papus of Vesta and the oldest Minister on the Council, calmly spoke to his fellows. There were more mutterings of agreement and support which were quickly cut short by Minister Petasius.
He snarled in the direction of the far older Artanin, distaste for the Minister clear in the way his eyes shifted color to a deep red, "Minister Papus, frankly your words are no longer required in this Council, you bring nothing but your self proclaimed wise words and offer no such solutions to any of our matters." he paused and took a drink from the small glass of water in front of him, "How exactly you manged to get reelected to the Council is beyond me, but I'm glad it can't possibly happen again, perhaps the next First Minister of Vesta will be more helpful then the current one." Petasius stated to the First Minister of Vesta.
"Minister Petasius that is quite enough!" the voice of the Prime Minister rung out from behind the Council table, "I may not be anything more than a figure head in this Government, but we are all aware that I am granted some measure of power, one of which is the removal of a Minister from the Council. If this continues..." at this point Prime Minister Aulus, a seasoned political veteran who had governed the planet of Fides for four years and served twice on the Council of Ministers, was at Minister Petasius' side. He leaned down to the level of the three vestibular intakes at the Ministers side, "Do not make me even consider using that power, Minister Petasius." with his show over he ambled back to the chair to the side of the Council table and took his seat.
Minister Petasius, although hiding the fact rather well in his expression, was betrayed by his eyes as they turned to a lighter hue of red signalling his embarrassment to the rest of the Ministers, "Understood Mister Prime Minister." he stated before leaning back in his chair and seeming to end his part in the debate.
Minister Gallus cleared his throat from across the table and signaled to an aide that had been standing close to the door of the chamber. The aide quickly went about the table, handing out a packet of some thirty pages of information to each of the Ministers at the table and the Prime Minister at his own seat. "Thank you Prime Minister." he said as he stood and gave a nod to Aulus, "Now if you will direct your attention to the packet in front of you, in it is everything we know about the NAC. We've received word from Captain Horatius of the UNF Penance an Ardent class Frigate on patrol in the Libitina system," he turned to the third page of the packet while in the middle of the table a holo-image of the system sprung to life, "if you will take notice of the golden triangle orbiting L2-1B, that is the Penance, the purple circle," the holomap zoomed in on a purple circle surrounded by smaller purple diamonds, "orbiting L7-2A is what is believed to be another of the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit's stations. The second of it's kind now in our sovereign space."
There were a few concerned voices around the council table but the majority of the Ministers remained silent, their eyes reading through the contents of the packet. "This packet contains the telemetry and scan reports from the Penance, composition of the fleet around the station as well as other data sets for the system are included. But the most important part you will find in the last six pages." Minister Gallus turned to the premarked page in the packet, "Appendix C if you all would be so kind." the young Minister gave his fellow Councilmen time to navigate to the page before continuing.
"What exactly are we looking at here Minister Gallus?" Minister Valeria of the planet Fons asked.
Minister Gallus turned to his fellow Minister with a smile on his face, obviously elated that someone had asked the obvious question. "This, First Minister Valeria, is the ANF Patrol assignments for the system of Libitina. As you can see, there were regular patrols twice every month until six and a half months ago, at which point the schedule was changed to once every six months. Why, you may be wondering?" Gallus asked, the question rhetorical as he was obviously going to provide the answer, "No one knows, that is the answer. There isn't one, the schedule was changed but there is nothing to indicate who did it or why." Gallus said as he motioned to the information on the paper.
"That's all well and good Minister, but I don't see the correlation. So the schedule changed and someone forgot to sign their name. That doesn't mean anything." Minister Petasius chimed in from his seat as he lazily read over the contents of the packet.
Minister Gallus let out a small laugh, "Minister, please, that is all we need to open an investigation. I simply need the budget allocation and a vote of confidence from the Council and we will be able to track down exactly who changed it and get the answers we need. It is completely possible that the ANF High Command has a NAC sympathizer or has been infiltrated in order for this to have happened beneath our chins."
"Preposterous, no Artanin would ever give themselves over to such a repulsive and distrustful race as those Printed People." came Petasius once more as he stood from his chair, "When this hearing is over send an aide to get me. I won't have anymore of this foolish talk, there are more important things to tend to then a ghost infiltrator. We need to take decisive military action against this clear violation of our sovereignty, not skulk in the shadows of ANF Head Quarters for what could be months!" with that Petasius stormed out of the Council Chamber, the double doors closing quietly behind them thanks to their design.
"All in favor of providing the Intelligence Committee, and in extension the Comprehensive Investigative Service the required funds and jurisdiction to conduct a thorough investigation of ANF Head Quarters, please raise your hands." said Minister Gallus in a friendly tone. Around him all but two hands were raised at the table. "So it is voted. The Intelligence Committee will receive its funding and be granted all jurisdiction to enact its investigation to the fullest.
Metis Base - Minerva, Sullis System
In the distance of Heavy Weapons Range 3 an old, hole filled tank, shot sparks and fire as a new hole of molten metal and ceramics was left in it side. The resounding crack followed close behind the fireworks display as the sound of the projectile caught up. At the far end of the range, nearly three kilometers away, an AZAZEL Mobile Armor rose from it's kneeling position, the barrel of the gauss cannon in it's hands still smoking as it did.
"Lieutenant, great shot, but you were slightly off the mark. Is there a problem on your end, because we're reading all data-sets as green." came the voice of Tech Sergeant Iulia over the comms, her displeasure in the current test evident in the way she spoke.
Lieutenant Decimus, a seasoned test pilot for AGF Mobile Armors pressed on his forehead as the voice of Iulia chewed into his thoughts. "Nothing that I can tell from my end Tech Sergeant, it's possible that alignment maintenance on the cannon was off by a fraction of a degree. That'd explain the wander on the round." he said as he ran a quick diagnostic test on the AZAZEL unit just to be sure.
There was a short sigh over the comms to which Decimus rolled his eyes, all comms in the UAG Armed Forces required that you knowingly key the mic to prevent any accidental chatter, which meant that Tech Sergeant Iulia had purposely sighed over comms to express her displeasure with his performance. "Tech Sergeant my AZAZEL diagnostics are showing green as well, it's got to be something related to the gun."
"Understood Sir, bring the gun back to the depot and we'll get right on it." came the Tech Sergeants reply.
Decimus keyed up the mic, "Roger that Sergeant." he said as his AZAZEL rose from its position and made a hundred and eighty degree turn now facing away from the range. The short walk to the test depot was the most peaceful moment of the day, as Iulias didn't seem to bother him whenever he was doing something as mundane as moving the unit, but god forbid he's off on a three kilometer shot by even a twentieth of a degree and she's breathing down his neck like a hungry Ingrit in the deserts of Vesta.
The mobile armor came to a halt in a specially designed scaffolding designed to be able to allow access to every inch of a mobile armor for repairs as well as any sort of refit that would be needed. Decimus flipped a switch, the a bright green light illuminating the cockpit a second later as the clamps that held the AZAZEL in place clanged into place. With another flip of a switch and a quick key punch, the back end of the cockpit opened up and Decimus's chair spun in place allowing him to climb out onto the platform provided by the scaffold.
He was met by his chief mechanic, Corporal Nona who saluted the Lieutenant with a smile, "If the boys and I didn't know any better we'd say you two have slept together." Nona said witha shit eating grin plastered across her face.
Decimus returned the salute and waved the Corporal away, "Yeah yeah, just get her prepped for another test Corporal."
Corporal Nona dropped her salute and turned on her heel as she began to bark orders to the rest of the mechanic crew. Sure it was just a test, and not even a field test at that, but the maintenance of a Mobile Armor was no joke. You miss one simple thing and you may soon have a cascade of problems on your hands, it was why Decimus was grateful for Nona and her team. They were dedicated, knew what they were doing and could fix anything even if they didn't have the part with their combined grit and determination.
Decimus made his way down the stairs that led off the platform and made his way back to the front of his AZAZEL. He was greeted by Tech Sergeant Iulias as she poured over some fast scrolling text on her datapad, she didn't salute. Ahead of them a large cargo mech was carrying away the Gauss Cannon to its own separate set of scaffolding where the tech types would be able to pour over all its parts and internal systems with a fine toothed comb. "Any ETA on when it'll be ready for another shot?" Decimus asked as he watched the mech carry it away.
"Tomorrow at the earliest, if it's really just a simple adjustment error. We still need to check that it's not something else. I'd give it two days." the Tech Sergeant grumbled, her eyes a light red with irritation at the current issue.
"I take it you don't need me then. I'll be in my rack." with that Decimus made his way through the depot and out the back to a one story converted supply building that had been turned into a temporary barracks for the test crew. Decimus pulled open the door and entered the building, determined to catch some sleep before the Tech Sergeant was breathing down his neck once more.
