Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 14:47:33 GMT
Corsair Admiral Walter Gein wasn't too keen on going from one situation to another without much preparation, but Decoroso said that because Admiral Ryn wasn't able to complete the mission, he was the next choice due to his location, so off he went to the Davian's Trade Hub. It was a slightly uncomfortable ride, being equipped for battle then being sent out for a mission to play nice with people who he barely had time to read up on. It wasn't too thrilling for him. He had left most of his 300 strong fleet behind to report back to Alqursan, bringing only 20 ships, most being Cruisers and Destroyers with him.
He read on the Oracle's scans, he read on the issues with the Davians with their false coordinates and skin samples in drones, and he read on the translator issues. His eyes rolled, but as Decoroso said to him when he was put into the Corsairs "Business is business, so act right." so here he was, having to find the correct suit to wear, on his Corsair ship. He almost thought that Gavin would be better at this, but the thought of a defector being better than him made his skin crawl, so he shrugged and slipped into his nicest suit.
It wasn't long until the Dectrose fleet burst into the Davian Trade Hub, and to call it busy was an understatement. There where fleets and ships from many factions, and the whole system was bustling with activity, but his only thought was.. that he's going to have to deal with traffic issues now.
Via the early warning ring around the holding, the Davians received full knowledge of the unknown incoming ships well before they even entered real space. Thus the entire system would be aware of the arriving of these unidentified ships.
"Unidentified warships entering the system. Send words to the sector command. All Imperial forces within the system report for duty. We better be careful."
As the 20 unknown ships entered the system they would quickly found 50 Davian ships and around 20000 star strikecrafts waiting between them and the system itself in loose formation. Probably there would be much more Davian ships around the system.
"Unidentified warships arrived. Begin active scanning. Warships identified coming from Dectrose empire."
The Davian fleets sent out a greeting message: "Greeting Dectrose Empire. Welcome to Davia's Voi Con trading system. What's your business here? We highly hope that you came here peacefully."
Gein was welcomed into the Davian Trade Hub with the.. seemingly overwhelming amount of strikecrafts displayed in front of him, but after tapping his fingers slightly in annoyance at the active scanning, he moved to push his Comms "Divine Davian Empire, we appreciate the welcome but is your active scanning necessary? I am here to embark on a diplomacy mission but I have come from a battlefield on orders from Decoroso Command. Therefore I must state that I have military assets on my ships, but do not intend on having them leave the confines of my ships. In regards to the scanning, am I to go though your Customs and Immigration before doing business?"
To be honest, from the reports on several factions in the Ancerious Galaxy, Gein somewhat expected an exaggerated response. The Dectrose always remained outnumbered even in diplomatic missions, but it wasn't the size of the fleets or the numbers of vessels that mattered. He wished for a moment that Powell or Saber would be sent in his place, but as far as he knew, Powell was Decoroso's lapdog and Saber was heading to Kaikoma for some reason. He personally hated politics, and he was much more comfortable in battle, but alas, when Decoroso tells you to go, you go. Otherwise he'd be back to Alqursan's prisons instead of the slightly cushy Corsair Stations above it.
At the time of the arrival of the Dectrose, the area around the trade station was active with business as usual. As with any other day easily a dozen or more dominion freighter convoys of varied sizes would pass through departing to varied other junctures of trade along one of the three known major trade lanes connecting the entirety of the western reach and its exotic goods to the rest of the known galaxy. At this moment however, when the Dectrose arrived there were only four Dominion convoys present; three inbound and one outbound with a minor delay due to a slight accident on one of the space lanes. If the new arrivals tried to scan the convoys they would find their sensors finding little traction. It was a rather normal fact in the western reach that Dominion vessels played heck with sensors normally which is why the IFF systems were top notch. If the new arrivals had any idea what to look for, they might notice that thanks to IFF systems the freighters identified as freighters of varied sizes, and the escorting warships identified clearly also but beyond that there was little else to discern except by basic optical observation. Even with that, the convoys did nothing other than continue with business as usual, the new arrival wasn’t necessarily out of place and the Davian sector command had not raised an alarm.
Somewhat close to the main planet, a twenty mile long warship held position. It bore no insignia, however the distinct shape of the hull, very smooth and curvy, along with the fact that the outer layer of the vessel was a translucent dark blue, identified it as belonging to the Nuclean Ecumene. As it sat, with shields on minimum settings to protect from space debris, its IFF transponders identified it as the battleship Pale Fire.
Currently, the ship was waiting as its commander, Junior Fleetmaster Benink, was away on a diplomatic tour of the Davian trade hub. And while he was away, the crew that wasn't on duty was relaxing in the various recreation facilities that were provided onboard, since as per usual, away leave had not been granted.
The arrival of the twenty unidentified warships, which was displayed for the on duty bridge crew, was interesting. However as they did not seem to be taking any aggressive measures such as charging weapons or activating shielding, the alarm was not raised.
"I'm afraid yes Dectrose friends." The Davian fleet responded politely: "As you can see this part of the galaxy is rather wild, there is an ongoing galactic war and we happen to have many foreign officials here so we think it's necessary to do so. However if our active scanning bothered you then I'm very sorry. In the other hand you don't have to worry about us. We were ordered to act as honor guards for your fleet so you won't get lost or collide with other ships here."
While both side still exchanging messages. 10 more Davian warships and around 500 strikecrafts moved toward the other vector of the Dectrose fleet. Moment later, around Davian 20 transports ships escorted by 5 warships emerged from their gates. Just like what happened to the Dectrose fleet, the waiting Davian ships began actively scanned the newly arrived fleet. Clearly the Dectrose was not treated specifically.
"Scanning completed, Dectrose friends." The Davian announced again sincerely: "If it's possible for you, please follow us to the nearest habitable planet. Our respective officials are awaiting your diplomats there. We are preparing docking place for you. Again we sincerely sorry for the inconvenience."
Meanwhile across the system, giant 3D notice boards which depicting the departure and arrival of ships and convoys would announce the arrival of these 20 new contacts as ships belonging to Dectrose Empire.
The Three Domains Alliance Embassy station in a far flung orbit of Voi Con sat tranquilly in the void. The ordinary day of the stations navy personnel had been shaken up by the arrival of twenty war ships that couldn’t be identified, when the sensor operators saw the Davians moving to engage the CIC Chief at the time called for a scramble of all fighters. The deafening automated voice repeating “SCRAMBLE SCRAMBLE” woke the stations CO from his regular nap break. He ran up to the CIC to investigate the situation when he was told he looked at several of the screens and ran all the checks to see if they could be identified. As it turned out the ships could be identified they were Dectrose ships. The scramble was then cancelled and the CIC Chief was chewed out for forgetting to run all the checks properly.
As he looked about, he couldn't help but to say "It don't seem like there's any war here, unless you bring it where you go. As well, if I have any questions involving your Active Scans on my ships, is there a department or supervisor I may go to in order to ask these questions?" As he spoke, he looked to the helmsman, and Corsair Fleet Silver slowly followed the Davian escorts. Though he noticed that the fewer amount of ships moving to the other inbound fleet, and thought to himself why his fleet needed over 20 thousand strikecrafts to welcome them. But alas, what the Davians did in their spare time was not much of his concern, but the magnitude of the ships in the system confirmed what the Oracle gathered.
As he moved along, warships and civilian ships where instantly cataloged, passive sensors gathering information and adding them to the Dectrose's Database. IFFs began to clearly identify the different factions, though there where some that had been unknown to the system, and he logged them for future investigation by Decoroso if they wanted to expend the manpower. It would also seem that, even given the Oracle's scan of the system, the Davians where unnaturally polite, given the situations. That alone made him cautious, unless they acted differently with people watching, he was going to have to keep a close eye on them.
The Union embassy, a small void platform located in the inner regions of the solar system rotated slowly, its defense fleet of three Razor class escorts and two Dart class Cruisers sat in a defensive formation overseeing the entire system and the Union trade in and out with their sensor systems. The Union detected the incoming Dectrose signatures just before they FTLed in system, but they took no action. For all they knew this was a known diplomatic event and everything was as planned. The Union trade continued as usual but everything was relayed to HICOM as it happened.
"Yes this system is peaceful until now but we prefer to be careful. For your question regarding of our active scanning, It's the direct degree of our sector commander and unfortunately he is not here."
"Please follow us and do not changing cause for it may cause collision. We will form into honored guard formation to open the way." As Dectrose ships began to follow Davian's ships, the 50 warships broke into 5 groups of 10. One group would lead the Dectrose from the front while the other 4 groups would position themselves around the Dectrose's vessels. Soon Dectrose vessels would found themselves at the center of the star like formation: "So you know, Dectrose friends, we are heading to the ice planet. Naturally it's inhabitable but we managed to terraformed a small part of it. You would be allowed to dock above the planet and we will escort your delegation down there."
As the whole group paraded toward the ice planet they would meet several convoys here and there. Thanks for the effort of the escorting ships the whole group managed to reach the planet faster than usual as they didn't have to wait for other convoys.
"We have arrived. You can send your diplomats down to the surface. We will escort you."
==Meanwhile at the center planet of the system==
Green, a small SAI with the appearance of a robotic teenager and the second-in-charge of the entire sector 19th sat on his desk while looking for the arrival of the Dectrose.
"The guesses are coming comrade commander." The commanding officer of the ice planet's ground base reported.
"I know. The Dectrose, first they scanned our system, now they bring in a war fleet. They may not that honest or trustful. Generally I should meet them personally. But not this time. Anyway we will treat them well. Did my representatives arrive?"
"Yes sir. Should we connect now?"
"Yes." Green smirked before connected himself to the massive cybernetic network of the system.
==Moment later at the ice planet==
A SAI bodyguard which bored the same appearance to Green himself sat motionless on a desk within a meeting room intended for the talk, it would be flanked by 2 other similar robotic guards with pure black color.
"Connecting successes. Bodyguard 002 transferred full control to Commander Green." The sitting robotic being muttered before its voice turned into the voice of Green himself: "Good job. I'm in control now. Now we wait for them."
The two robotic bodyguards saluted their commander.
Gein wasn't too thrilled about the 'parading escort' Corsairs didn't exactly fit the bill for a type to be paraded around. They just did as they where told, did the dirty work and then, if they where lucky to have Dectrose Command approve it, keep the spoils of their combat. Though as he looked at the Ubians in the command bridge, he knew that the Corsairs had to be presentable sometimes, in order to attract new recruits. He tapped into the QEC, informing his fleet privately "Keep those heads on a swivel, I don't like how they've got us positioned and boxed in. As well, the deflection of his question on the Customs and Immigration gave him some concern, in all cases there are departments designed to have someone of authority present at all times. It started to seem a little fishy.
"Corsair Admiral Gein to Davian Escort, please forward my request for a supervisor for your Customs' Active Scans. I would like to speak to someone concerning it, as well as a statement on what is allowed/disallowed in this system for cargo and goods." And although Gein didn't stray from the course, he felt a little out of place, an itching feeling in the back of his mind, before the thought slowly drifted in Kill Humans. He shook his head, catching one of the Bridge Crew staring at him before he met the gaze and they turned away.
He set his augmentations to administer more medication sooner, and then primed the Vengeance Destroyer "Ravage" to dock with the Dreadnought, then take him down to the dock above the planet, then a Hawkbat III shuttle disembarked and slowly drifted down to the surface.
Alerts started going off on the bridge of the Wraith class destroyer SVS Mist Spectre. Ship Leader M'Rel quickly turned to his ComScan officer. "Status?" "20 ships entering system. Configuration unknown. Passive sensor classification: 1 capital ship, 10 cruisers-5 each of 2 different classes, and 9 escort-level vessels. No weapons power-up detected."
M'Rel though to himself Convoy Del-2 is inbound. If we leave it will disrupt scheduling... "ComScan, Notify VEILCOM of the situation, request backup be held on standby."
At Shimmering Veil, the convoy's signal was received and swiftly acted on. The Battlecarrier/Harvester Entropy's Caress mustered her 8 escorts and phased out of the Shimmering Veil system. They would hold a light year outside of the Davian trade hub, in the Void Between Universes, and await any request for assistance by Ship Leader M'Rel.
Back at the trade system, the arrival of the new ships was being shown on System Traffic Control's information channel as belonging to a "Dectrose Empire". Mist Spectre and Nagara Bissami took up defense formations around their 4 M-class freighters-which M'Rel knew were all but useless in combat. The sensor arrays on the two destroyers noticed the encircling movement of the Davian fleets, but so far no signs of combat were present. Mist Spectre sent off another quick signal to Shimmering Veil-to the Ministry of State, informing them of the new polity that had shown up.
M'Rel was relieved by the acknowledgment signal from VEILCOM that backup was available. Now it was just a matter of waiting. For the moment the freighters and destroyers stayed quiet.
"Our officials will answer all of your questions more clearly in the meeting." The escort fleet replied with their usual polite voice: "We simply do not have authority to answer your questions. Our fighters will escort you down the surface as we speak. We hope that the talks will go well."
As the Dectrose shuttle departed their largest ship. 4 Davian's Lac Bird Star Fighters would escort them down to the surface. Meanwhile the swarm of 20000 Davian strikecrafts began to fly away and returned to the either warships, orbital stations or moved down toward the surface and disappeared in the atmosphere. The Davian finally decided to lessen the number of 'honor guards'
Soon the Dectrose shuttle reached the Davian planetary base which itself being surrounded by a massive energy shield to protect it from the harsh weather of the icy planet. Strangely as the shuttle and its escorts came near, the shield would create 5 large enough holes to allow them to enter. Finally the shuttle would be allowed to land on a landing pad.
Outside of Dectrose's shuttle stood the honored guards of the Davian, the guards including 40 personnel in which 20 would be power armored soldiers, 10 Shiguran soldiers and 10 robotic guards. Then there would be 3 higher ranking personnel standing in front of the guards.
==Meanwhile at the system's command center==
"Green, what the hell are you doing?" A voice came from a large screen which popped up next to Green, the voice clearly unhappy: "You should not let those Dectrothians enter our single most important system here! You should escort them out of there before talking with them! Green, are you listening?"
"I'm listening 'commander'. Stop worrying." Green smirked: "It's my shift here. I have this under control."
"Under your control? You better keep your words. Remember it was you who sent out that piece of elephant's skin. Regardless I'm putting the entire sector on alert including that THING." The other voice responded forcefully: "Final words. Do not let me to unleash any ships into that system, do your talk as quick as possible, and do not ignite a war or ruin my trade system or our relation. Understood? Sector command out. Oh BTW, your using decoys is annoying."
"Tch. Relax and sip your tea commander."
The RSC had sent a small trading convoy and it's escort to the Davian trade system some time ago, and now that small group sat in high orbit awaiting the return goods they had purchased now that their cargo had been brought to market, assessed, priced, portioned, sold and carted off all very nicely.
Still, the commander of the Noya Moskova M3 cruiser RNV Patrov, one Kar'leek Serras, was rather on edge. To be frank, he hadn't wanted to come here. He was an accomplished commander of fleet strike squadrons and raiding groups, and for some reason HighCom had ordered him and his frigates here to watch over the freight convoy that the RSC had sent here as an open hand of friendliness.
He didn't like it, and he'd told Rhen Kalamn that, but orders were orders and here he was. He'd already had three mugs of coffee that day to try to keep his nerves down and his frustration in check, and by the Gods the sudden appearance of those Dectrose ships had not helped. He'd almost called battle stations, in fact, before his XO had noted that the Davians seemed to have the situations well in hand. So here he sat, keeping one eye on the Dectrose and the other on the Davians.
"How long until the cargo's loaded?" the Karokalian commander asked frustratedly, clutching his fourth cup of coffee of the morning.
"It's going slow, comrade. Apparently they're doing some last minute negotiating or something."
"Karera wa isoide isoide kureru?" he snapped. "We've got a timetable, damn it all!"
"One can only hope, sir."
His annoyance with the 'wait and see' approach made Gein more suspicious, even then, he brought along two fireteams of Corsair Marines with him, and when he was greeted by the sight of a Platoon-sized guard before him, he tapped his fingers on his belt, now starting to become seriously distrustful of the Davians. "They do this for every diplomatic mission? These people are worse than the Glowsticks." Looking to his shuttle pilot, he leaned closer "Keep the engines warm, I don't like this." Which received a nod and he descended the ramp, gazing at the three representatives that where awaiting him.
Onboard the Emerald Jewel IV Cruisers, news began filtering in on a 'Code Blue' Terror Attack on Kaikoma, seemingly a bar was destroyed and several High-Ranking Dectrose Personnel where pursuing the culprit.
"Welcome to the ice base Admiral Gein. I'm commander Dang. Please follow me." One of the officials spoke with a smile: "We have prepared the meeting room and the system's commander is waiting. I know you have questions and as your request, I had forwarded them to him."
As the Dectrose obviously followed Dang and passed through the honor guards, they saluted. Yet out of 40 guards, only 10 robotic guards would follow them while the other simply walked away.
The Dectrose would be led into a large bunker like building. On the way they strangely just saw only robots of various kinds working or walking around.
Finally the whole group reached the meeting room. It was a fairly large room with enough chairs for everyone to sit down. At the middle of the room stood a large table and two larger chairs.
"You must be Admiral Gein from Dectrose Empire." A rather small robotic being stood up as it saw Gein and walked toward him with a slightly raised hand clearly waiting for a handshake: "I'm Green second in charge of the Davian in this galaxy and temporary commander of this system."
"Corsair Admiral Gein, Dectrose Officials like to make it clear the distinction between us and the normal military forces." He tenatively reached out to shake the other's hand, but once done, he took his seat. The robot in front of him was small, almost like a child it would seem, he had shared some of the same feelings with Saber regarding robotic xenos vs organic xenos, but everything he's seen so far from the Davians weren't at all like the System. Who had a cold, calculating feel that Saber enjoyed. "Of course, though, I'm happy to meet you" He pushed out of his mouth before he brought out his RAVD node.
"Mind if I use this? It's our version of a 'personal computer device'." tapping it on as it began to glow a dull orange, projecting a startup screen to Gein before awaiting input. The Corsair Marines that where guarding Gein had a sigh of relief as the majority of the guards left, but the still looked tense in posture. On the Cruisers, the news from the Dectrose Network began to filter up a bit, and in fact an unknown woman has sighted entering an Officer's Bar, then an explosion occurred and Dectrose Military Officials ran out with an unidentified woman, and the bar was lifted up and crashed onto some heavily armored infantry not belonging to the Dectrose.
"We didn't know that Corsair Admiral Gein. My apology." The robotic smiled warmly. Green as a SAI was created to be as similar to human as possible. As he took the sit on the opposite side of the table the robotic replied: "Of course feel free to use your device."
"Is it possible for us to begin the talk? So what great wings had brought such a dragon like you to our poorly make shrimp like base today?" The robot asked sincerely and humbly.
Setting the RAVD node on the table in front of him, it displayed several questions the Dectrose had for the Davians, he grunted as he checked off the first topic with his cerebral link, then looked up to Green "First off, I'd like to inform you that the Oracle scan was not in any way an act of aggression, or an invasive scan. It was used in most part because Admiral Ryn had been intercepted and defeated by RSC's forces protecting the Ural sector. Not that she didn't deserve it for sticking her nose where it didn't belong, but due in part of the false coordinates on your drone, as well as the coordinates you imprinted on some biomaterial, we had to be sure you where actually here."
"Moreso, the scan itself wasn't any more effective than a Recon Ship to begin with, it's simply easier to scan someone than waste resources hunting for correct coordinates. And now that that is taken care of, I'm sure the Dectrose would be interested in those trade agreements you had made, as well as any maps of just your borders so we don't accidentally trespass on your Empire." Every word that escaped his lips felt gilded, like a tiger talking to his prey, that was simply the nature and the aura Gein provided. After all, he was a Corsair for a reason, and no Dectrothian just signs up to be a Corsair.
"Hmm…so its name is truly Oracle." Green began to reply: "You say your scanning was not aggressive or invasive, quite interesting. May I ask you this Corsair Admiral Gein, what do you feel when someone use a giant telescope from the other end of the block to stare at your back yard and what you do there?” The robotic continued sincerely voice which seemed to be strange: "You were staying at the other side of the galaxy, then you pointed a giant scanning station toward our single most important system in this galaxy and scanned it. I must say we are not particularly fond of that as it is an invasion of our sovereignty. Now as you had mentioned about Ural, let see a larger picture. We all know Ural was one of the two systems which had been vaporized by Capital's Crucible. Again, with your allowance sir, how can we not be suspicious when you scanned our system and may have given the information to the Capitol or someone else? Now sir before you say you're not siding with APP, no I'm not saying you are siding with them but your faction seems…hmm… a bit leaning to the APP according to Colonel Turney because the APP currently has the biggest weapon in this galaxy. However, we decided to not speak about your scanning too much because our relation is rather ok, we gave you the location and most importantly this system alone is a rather open system. Seriously sir we would not be that passive if you tried to scan our other systems."
"Speaking about the Ural incident. We have heard about it through both public information and our own channels. Admiral Ryn had clearly and intentionally violated RSC's zone and attempted to scan what remained of Ural, the RSC had demanded her to stop and withdraw several times. Of course, it was a regretful incident and we are glad that everyone managed to stabilize it. In the other hand Corsair Admiral, we had nothing to do with that incident so claiming we partially have responsibility is going to sour our relations rapidly if you keep asserting such a falsehood.”
"Furthermore, in terms of your claim that we gave you incorrect locations. I must clarify this, just like the message from that drone, we Davian had had a really difficult time to find suitable place to establish ourselves here. In the times I sent you that drone we were considering to choose one of those systems as our main operational base. Yet in the ended we didn't use them. For the biomaterial map which contained the location of this trading system, I felt that it would be better to let you know at least its location. Yet as you know trade system is valuable and is prime target for hostile raid so I must make sure it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. That's why I imprinted it into the core of the drone."
After a rather long speak the robot smiled again: "Now that I have made our opinions clear. I think we can move on to your request of our border and trading. Firstly, you may need to know that we do not treat our border lightly and according to some of our contacts faction's maps are valuable. In fact, some of our current allies just gave their locations to us after a lot of good contacts so it may require some more talk about it especially when the distant of our factions are really large and thing may change rapidly. Regarding to the trading agreement, if I'm not mistaken at the time we didn't make any permanent agreements, but we did arrange a few one-shot trades in our first contact."
As the talk continued and the Davian learned about the nature of Dectrose's fleet, across the system, 3D notice boards began to change the name "Dectrose Empire's Diplomatic Fleet" to "Dectrose Empire's Corsair Diplomatic Fleet". The name changing, according to the Davian would be necessary to make it easier for controlling the system.
Tapping his finger on his belt, Gein listened, and waited, and listened some more, grinding his teeth as he had dozens of remarks and insults, but as he was going to interject, his medications cooled him down, but hardly enough to extinguish the flame beginning to fan. "If you didn't want us to perform standard recon on your most important system, you should have given us alternatives to look into. The Oracle was used because in it's basic form it is nothing but a remote recon station. If that is an invasion of your privacy, the Davians are appearing to have thin skin, or are greatly untrusting." He paused, tapping a few more times.
"As well, as we have had our meeting with Capitol, as well as other APP aligned nations, we have also met members of AGA. As you have seen though, we have not joined either side of the conflict. Nor do we wish to. We have other ideas and just because the APP holds a weapon to destroy any enemy of their bloc, the Dectrose have not provoked them. As far as I'm concerned, Voi Con is the same as Kaikoma or Trudchen, it is open to the public, and general data will obviously be collected if we like it or not." He grunted as he moved onto Ryn.
"If you had seen the news report on that incident, you would have noted that Ryn was not made aware of the No-Fly Zone, as the Dectrose did not know of the Ancnet until after it had been mentioned, and we moved to search and connect our Network to it. So I would take a closer look on where your information is coming from. The only one here making any sort of assumptions or accusations is you at the moment. Opinions or facts, if you don't want to sour relations, I would think over what you wish to bring up."
He moved his hands back to the table "Also, you tell me that you would not be so passive if we where to appear in other systems, yet you feel that your faction's borders are valuable enough to withhold them from another diplomatic contact? If you want a repeat of an incident similar to Ural, then by all means, don't give us basic maps of your borders so we don't trespass in future travels. The Trade Agreements also where placed on hold until you had established yourself, as I said before. If you don't want to trade, say so, so I can avoid wasting my time if you don't want to perform any diplomatic agreements."
Green listened and listened quietly as Gein nearly yelled at him in respond to what he said. Just as Gien stopped, the robot surprisingly smiled: "If my previous words did indeed make you feel uneasy then I'm so sorry Corsair Admiral Gein." Green slightly bowed as a gesture of apology: "For the APP thing, of course we know that Dectrose Empire is currently a neutral faction in the AGA - APP war. If you were a member of the APP then I doubt all the AGA ships out there would let us escort you here peacefully."
"However, sir your words regarding scanning our territories could be taken as ' if you didn't want us to look in your back yard you should have let us look at another part of your property'….and sir I should be clear with you. We Davians do not appreciate that scanning because it is seen as a harmful act, just because you think it is acceptable to do it does not mean we are ok with it."
"Regarding to your regretful incident with the RSC. We have information about it from credible sources and yet we have little interest in it because it does not directly concern our affairs. Though, I do find it interesting that we Davians knew of the no-fly zone before your people encroached on it because we cultivated diplomatic contacts in the galaxy rather than relying on the galactic net. So saying you did not know because of the net only demonstrates some lacking.” Green looked to a digital display to handles a number of queries normal to his post for a moment before looking back to Gien to continue.
"As for your map request, I already said that it is valuable, however I can be a little flexible here so what can you offer for a one-shot trade? Just as you know this flexibility would only available because I am here instead of the sector commander." Green asked while putting his hands on the table: "And by that, I mean; sir should you be found to be trespassing or scanning our territories then there will be suitable repercussions. As for trading, I will listen to what you can offer to the Empire. However, I must point out a singular problem before I continue. We are at the opposite ends of the galaxy. The huge distance between our factions means trading would have complicated and might not be so profitable due to the cost of maintaining such a trade route, times, security, price fluctuations... when compared to the much more rapid and profitable local markets why should we take on greater risks to trade with you? Do not mistake me more trade is better than less, I just want to point out all the difficulty we will have when trading with each other. So that you might consider this before you offer us the ‘deal’ that you are undoubtedly thinking of."
Giving a shrug, Gein continued as Green finished "If you want to see a general recon giving basic information as a harmful act, then by all means, do so. Nothing is going to change because of it, and if you are to tread carefully under the gaze of this dragon, I would put it behind you. We have no reason to continue scanning your territory unless you force our hand." He slowly took the hand on the table, and lifted up to slowly bring in his fingers to form a fist, before placing it back on the table open."
"If you continue to make your assumptions on what Ryn had done, even after it had been settled you invite hostility with your words. No one can explain why Ryn did what she did, only Ryn would know that and she's not available for comment due to her lack of living." He tapped his RAVD node a few times, to update Decoroso Command "And you then have the gall to ask for a trade for your maps, when we had given you our own in our initial encounter, as a gesture of good will. So you are telling me that the Davian's map of the outline of their border is worth material value? How much material value do you even think that basic information is worth?"
"You speak of repercussions, and still you refuse to give us a basic idea on what your territory even encompasses. You truly seem confused on what basic diplomacy is about. The Dectrose have wasted both time and materials on your drone and your 'skin' to find you, you have made it exceedingly difficult to get in contact with you, and if I hear correctly, you are not acting this way to your neighbors. The galaxy is a small place once FTL technology is introduced, and we would have gladly assisted you with such trade routes and possibly offered Destroyer Escort."
He leaned over the table now, looking at Green with a burning desire to reach across the table towards him in his eyes "My answer to the trade agreement is now 'No', as you have went out of your way to make this process difficult. So give me an answer to your maps, and this time, think it though carefully ."
"Hmm… I have little knowledge about your culture Corsair Admiral Gein." Green responded after Gein stopped: "But pointing your fist at another diplomat is not considered as friendly in my culture. That you consider yourself a dragon is…hmm…quite interesting but not relevant to our conversation." Green smiled slightly when he mentioned about the word 'dragon'.
"Regarding our map, if I'm not mistaken you're offering us material for our map correct?" The robot strangely smiled again: "That is a nice offer however, we do not need material payment. What we need is… good will. As I said before some of our friends just supplied us their map after a normalization of contact. This is how things are done in the west; you are not in your territory you are now in ours. However, I've already said I would be flexible so here is what we require to make that trade. Firstly, we would like to replace our current original non-aggression pact with the new standard once, secondly, we want a promise from your nation that you will not scan any of our systems anymore, and finally we would like to have a list of the factions you have dealt with so that we can verify the character of your nation. As you can see, all of these, to us are gesture of your good will and it would be enough for us to give you the map of our outline border unedited." Green paused to consider something worth mentioning in afterthought. “There is one more detail to cover here, that drone that was sent to your nation was sent for a very clear reason so going over that again will not be productive. That you were able to decode the biomaterial means you are worthy of some measure of respect.”
The robot leaned on its chair yet its eyes didn't go away from the burning eyes of Gein: "I do agree on one of your statements Corsair Admiral. The galaxy can be small but it can be large, depending on your perspective. No technology will ever actually change the number of light years that the galaxy spans and that creates a minor disagreement, to us it is a large galaxy, to you it is small, this is nothing more than a cultural difference and not worth getting angry over.”
Giving a long sigh, Gein stood up from the table. "You are as inept at diplomacy as you are with your facts. I never offered anything in material value for your map, and for you to assume we are, there must be a serious translator error or you just assume we will automatically give it to you. I tire of having to argue with your kind, and re-stating what you have already said to me. If my information is correct, I have to return to the Dectrose Empire immediately, and if you wish to send another more qualified diplomat to speak to the Dectrose, we are going to have an Embassy with the Three Domains Alliance shortly. For the moment, I will authorize my authority as a Dectrose Corsair Admiral and deny any future diplomatic talks with you specifically. Anything you have now asked me, a representative can discuss with a Diplomat at the Dectrose Embassy. I'm suspending all diplomatic missions between the Dectrose and Davians until you can come up with a better diplomatic deal." He nodded to his guards, and gave a very curt salute to Green.
"Enjoy the rest of your day, Green." before walking out to the shuttle, lifting off to the awaiting destroyer, and turning his dreadnought and fleet around, following traffic instructions, before departing the system. Gein had other, pressing concerns on his mind, the Destruction of Kaikoma was indeed a horrific event, and if he had to choose between returning to Alqursan and read the report on Kaikoma, or stay with the Davians and continue to argue, he would always choose the former.
Green stood up and saluted with a mysterious smile: "While our talk did not end well as expect, Corsair Admiral Gein, I'm still please to meet you. Beside I also hope that should opportunity arrive, we can solve our difference in future meetings. Guards. Escort them back." The 10 robotic guards walked in the room and escorted the Dectrose away.
The Dectrose fleet began to leave under the watchful eyes of 50 Davian warships. Then from the ice planet, nearby stations and from the warships themselves, 20000 star strikecrafts emerged and formed into the previous 'honor guard' formation. Meanwhile the boards across the system classified the Dectrose Empire's Corsair Diplomatic Fleet as 'departing'.
"Good speed Dectrose friends, we cannot escort you further." The 50 Davian ships, in unison broadcasted the final message just before the Dectrose engaged their FTL drive at the edge of the system.
"Bodyguards 002, regain control. Commander Green disconnected." The Green's decoy disconnected itself from Green. Then a large 3D screen emerged from the table and displayed Green himself.
"Alright everyone, We are done here. Black Guards assemble."
"Yes commander." Cold voices filled the large room as the entire platoon of Green's personal bodyguards emerged. It turned out that almost every corner of the walls, part of the ceiling and the floor were filled with secret doorways to allow the bodyguards to pour in quickly if need. Each and every of these so-called Black Guards hold the exact appearance of Green himself: "Black Guards ready to serve."
"Commander Dang ready to serve." The three robotic officials, commanders of the base and the terraforming operation of the ice planet, stood in front of the Black Guards and saluted Green.
"Commander Green. Mission accomplished. We escorted the Dectrose away from here. Your personal fleet waiting for your order." 50 3D screens showed up as 50 SAI captains of the fleet saluted their commander.
"Good job everyone. It's fortunate that we don't have to fire a shot." The second in charge of the Davian's holding inspected his personal army: "Recall strikecrafts back to your ships captains. Black Guards. You will report to me in orbit after maintaining your entire frames. Commander Dang. I want you to double check the entire colony. And the overall order for this base remains. Nothing in, nothing out until the terraforming finished except automated transports. Oh and you can have your 'honor guards' abandon their disguise now."
"Yes comrade commander." The three robotic commanders saluted again before Green turning off the communication link.
Alone in his office, the robotic figure sat motionless behind his working desk for a moment before connecting to his superior: "Green reporting. You can power down our fleets and return the alert level to normal. They leaved. No shooting. No diplomatic deal either. Their diplomat is laughable at best. I've kept my words sir. Your system is safe. For now."
"At least, you didn't initiate another war. You will report to me personally about it later."
"Yes commander."
He read on the Oracle's scans, he read on the issues with the Davians with their false coordinates and skin samples in drones, and he read on the translator issues. His eyes rolled, but as Decoroso said to him when he was put into the Corsairs "Business is business, so act right." so here he was, having to find the correct suit to wear, on his Corsair ship. He almost thought that Gavin would be better at this, but the thought of a defector being better than him made his skin crawl, so he shrugged and slipped into his nicest suit.
It wasn't long until the Dectrose fleet burst into the Davian Trade Hub, and to call it busy was an understatement. There where fleets and ships from many factions, and the whole system was bustling with activity, but his only thought was.. that he's going to have to deal with traffic issues now.
Via the early warning ring around the holding, the Davians received full knowledge of the unknown incoming ships well before they even entered real space. Thus the entire system would be aware of the arriving of these unidentified ships.
"Unidentified warships entering the system. Send words to the sector command. All Imperial forces within the system report for duty. We better be careful."
As the 20 unknown ships entered the system they would quickly found 50 Davian ships and around 20000 star strikecrafts waiting between them and the system itself in loose formation. Probably there would be much more Davian ships around the system.
"Unidentified warships arrived. Begin active scanning. Warships identified coming from Dectrose empire."
The Davian fleets sent out a greeting message: "Greeting Dectrose Empire. Welcome to Davia's Voi Con trading system. What's your business here? We highly hope that you came here peacefully."
Gein was welcomed into the Davian Trade Hub with the.. seemingly overwhelming amount of strikecrafts displayed in front of him, but after tapping his fingers slightly in annoyance at the active scanning, he moved to push his Comms "Divine Davian Empire, we appreciate the welcome but is your active scanning necessary? I am here to embark on a diplomacy mission but I have come from a battlefield on orders from Decoroso Command. Therefore I must state that I have military assets on my ships, but do not intend on having them leave the confines of my ships. In regards to the scanning, am I to go though your Customs and Immigration before doing business?"
To be honest, from the reports on several factions in the Ancerious Galaxy, Gein somewhat expected an exaggerated response. The Dectrose always remained outnumbered even in diplomatic missions, but it wasn't the size of the fleets or the numbers of vessels that mattered. He wished for a moment that Powell or Saber would be sent in his place, but as far as he knew, Powell was Decoroso's lapdog and Saber was heading to Kaikoma for some reason. He personally hated politics, and he was much more comfortable in battle, but alas, when Decoroso tells you to go, you go. Otherwise he'd be back to Alqursan's prisons instead of the slightly cushy Corsair Stations above it.
At the time of the arrival of the Dectrose, the area around the trade station was active with business as usual. As with any other day easily a dozen or more dominion freighter convoys of varied sizes would pass through departing to varied other junctures of trade along one of the three known major trade lanes connecting the entirety of the western reach and its exotic goods to the rest of the known galaxy. At this moment however, when the Dectrose arrived there were only four Dominion convoys present; three inbound and one outbound with a minor delay due to a slight accident on one of the space lanes. If the new arrivals tried to scan the convoys they would find their sensors finding little traction. It was a rather normal fact in the western reach that Dominion vessels played heck with sensors normally which is why the IFF systems were top notch. If the new arrivals had any idea what to look for, they might notice that thanks to IFF systems the freighters identified as freighters of varied sizes, and the escorting warships identified clearly also but beyond that there was little else to discern except by basic optical observation. Even with that, the convoys did nothing other than continue with business as usual, the new arrival wasn’t necessarily out of place and the Davian sector command had not raised an alarm.
Somewhat close to the main planet, a twenty mile long warship held position. It bore no insignia, however the distinct shape of the hull, very smooth and curvy, along with the fact that the outer layer of the vessel was a translucent dark blue, identified it as belonging to the Nuclean Ecumene. As it sat, with shields on minimum settings to protect from space debris, its IFF transponders identified it as the battleship Pale Fire.
Currently, the ship was waiting as its commander, Junior Fleetmaster Benink, was away on a diplomatic tour of the Davian trade hub. And while he was away, the crew that wasn't on duty was relaxing in the various recreation facilities that were provided onboard, since as per usual, away leave had not been granted.
The arrival of the twenty unidentified warships, which was displayed for the on duty bridge crew, was interesting. However as they did not seem to be taking any aggressive measures such as charging weapons or activating shielding, the alarm was not raised.
"I'm afraid yes Dectrose friends." The Davian fleet responded politely: "As you can see this part of the galaxy is rather wild, there is an ongoing galactic war and we happen to have many foreign officials here so we think it's necessary to do so. However if our active scanning bothered you then I'm very sorry. In the other hand you don't have to worry about us. We were ordered to act as honor guards for your fleet so you won't get lost or collide with other ships here."
While both side still exchanging messages. 10 more Davian warships and around 500 strikecrafts moved toward the other vector of the Dectrose fleet. Moment later, around Davian 20 transports ships escorted by 5 warships emerged from their gates. Just like what happened to the Dectrose fleet, the waiting Davian ships began actively scanned the newly arrived fleet. Clearly the Dectrose was not treated specifically.
"Scanning completed, Dectrose friends." The Davian announced again sincerely: "If it's possible for you, please follow us to the nearest habitable planet. Our respective officials are awaiting your diplomats there. We are preparing docking place for you. Again we sincerely sorry for the inconvenience."
Meanwhile across the system, giant 3D notice boards which depicting the departure and arrival of ships and convoys would announce the arrival of these 20 new contacts as ships belonging to Dectrose Empire.
The Three Domains Alliance Embassy station in a far flung orbit of Voi Con sat tranquilly in the void. The ordinary day of the stations navy personnel had been shaken up by the arrival of twenty war ships that couldn’t be identified, when the sensor operators saw the Davians moving to engage the CIC Chief at the time called for a scramble of all fighters. The deafening automated voice repeating “SCRAMBLE SCRAMBLE” woke the stations CO from his regular nap break. He ran up to the CIC to investigate the situation when he was told he looked at several of the screens and ran all the checks to see if they could be identified. As it turned out the ships could be identified they were Dectrose ships. The scramble was then cancelled and the CIC Chief was chewed out for forgetting to run all the checks properly.
As he looked about, he couldn't help but to say "It don't seem like there's any war here, unless you bring it where you go. As well, if I have any questions involving your Active Scans on my ships, is there a department or supervisor I may go to in order to ask these questions?" As he spoke, he looked to the helmsman, and Corsair Fleet Silver slowly followed the Davian escorts. Though he noticed that the fewer amount of ships moving to the other inbound fleet, and thought to himself why his fleet needed over 20 thousand strikecrafts to welcome them. But alas, what the Davians did in their spare time was not much of his concern, but the magnitude of the ships in the system confirmed what the Oracle gathered.
As he moved along, warships and civilian ships where instantly cataloged, passive sensors gathering information and adding them to the Dectrose's Database. IFFs began to clearly identify the different factions, though there where some that had been unknown to the system, and he logged them for future investigation by Decoroso if they wanted to expend the manpower. It would also seem that, even given the Oracle's scan of the system, the Davians where unnaturally polite, given the situations. That alone made him cautious, unless they acted differently with people watching, he was going to have to keep a close eye on them.
The Union embassy, a small void platform located in the inner regions of the solar system rotated slowly, its defense fleet of three Razor class escorts and two Dart class Cruisers sat in a defensive formation overseeing the entire system and the Union trade in and out with their sensor systems. The Union detected the incoming Dectrose signatures just before they FTLed in system, but they took no action. For all they knew this was a known diplomatic event and everything was as planned. The Union trade continued as usual but everything was relayed to HICOM as it happened.
"Yes this system is peaceful until now but we prefer to be careful. For your question regarding of our active scanning, It's the direct degree of our sector commander and unfortunately he is not here."
"Please follow us and do not changing cause for it may cause collision. We will form into honored guard formation to open the way." As Dectrose ships began to follow Davian's ships, the 50 warships broke into 5 groups of 10. One group would lead the Dectrose from the front while the other 4 groups would position themselves around the Dectrose's vessels. Soon Dectrose vessels would found themselves at the center of the star like formation: "So you know, Dectrose friends, we are heading to the ice planet. Naturally it's inhabitable but we managed to terraformed a small part of it. You would be allowed to dock above the planet and we will escort your delegation down there."
As the whole group paraded toward the ice planet they would meet several convoys here and there. Thanks for the effort of the escorting ships the whole group managed to reach the planet faster than usual as they didn't have to wait for other convoys.
"We have arrived. You can send your diplomats down to the surface. We will escort you."
==Meanwhile at the center planet of the system==
Green, a small SAI with the appearance of a robotic teenager and the second-in-charge of the entire sector 19th sat on his desk while looking for the arrival of the Dectrose.
"The guesses are coming comrade commander." The commanding officer of the ice planet's ground base reported.
"I know. The Dectrose, first they scanned our system, now they bring in a war fleet. They may not that honest or trustful. Generally I should meet them personally. But not this time. Anyway we will treat them well. Did my representatives arrive?"
"Yes sir. Should we connect now?"
"Yes." Green smirked before connected himself to the massive cybernetic network of the system.
==Moment later at the ice planet==
A SAI bodyguard which bored the same appearance to Green himself sat motionless on a desk within a meeting room intended for the talk, it would be flanked by 2 other similar robotic guards with pure black color.
"Connecting successes. Bodyguard 002 transferred full control to Commander Green." The sitting robotic being muttered before its voice turned into the voice of Green himself: "Good job. I'm in control now. Now we wait for them."
The two robotic bodyguards saluted their commander.
Gein wasn't too thrilled about the 'parading escort' Corsairs didn't exactly fit the bill for a type to be paraded around. They just did as they where told, did the dirty work and then, if they where lucky to have Dectrose Command approve it, keep the spoils of their combat. Though as he looked at the Ubians in the command bridge, he knew that the Corsairs had to be presentable sometimes, in order to attract new recruits. He tapped into the QEC, informing his fleet privately "Keep those heads on a swivel, I don't like how they've got us positioned and boxed in. As well, the deflection of his question on the Customs and Immigration gave him some concern, in all cases there are departments designed to have someone of authority present at all times. It started to seem a little fishy.
"Corsair Admiral Gein to Davian Escort, please forward my request for a supervisor for your Customs' Active Scans. I would like to speak to someone concerning it, as well as a statement on what is allowed/disallowed in this system for cargo and goods." And although Gein didn't stray from the course, he felt a little out of place, an itching feeling in the back of his mind, before the thought slowly drifted in Kill Humans. He shook his head, catching one of the Bridge Crew staring at him before he met the gaze and they turned away.
He set his augmentations to administer more medication sooner, and then primed the Vengeance Destroyer "Ravage" to dock with the Dreadnought, then take him down to the dock above the planet, then a Hawkbat III shuttle disembarked and slowly drifted down to the surface.
Alerts started going off on the bridge of the Wraith class destroyer SVS Mist Spectre. Ship Leader M'Rel quickly turned to his ComScan officer. "Status?" "20 ships entering system. Configuration unknown. Passive sensor classification: 1 capital ship, 10 cruisers-5 each of 2 different classes, and 9 escort-level vessels. No weapons power-up detected."
M'Rel though to himself Convoy Del-2 is inbound. If we leave it will disrupt scheduling... "ComScan, Notify VEILCOM of the situation, request backup be held on standby."
At Shimmering Veil, the convoy's signal was received and swiftly acted on. The Battlecarrier/Harvester Entropy's Caress mustered her 8 escorts and phased out of the Shimmering Veil system. They would hold a light year outside of the Davian trade hub, in the Void Between Universes, and await any request for assistance by Ship Leader M'Rel.
Back at the trade system, the arrival of the new ships was being shown on System Traffic Control's information channel as belonging to a "Dectrose Empire". Mist Spectre and Nagara Bissami took up defense formations around their 4 M-class freighters-which M'Rel knew were all but useless in combat. The sensor arrays on the two destroyers noticed the encircling movement of the Davian fleets, but so far no signs of combat were present. Mist Spectre sent off another quick signal to Shimmering Veil-to the Ministry of State, informing them of the new polity that had shown up.
M'Rel was relieved by the acknowledgment signal from VEILCOM that backup was available. Now it was just a matter of waiting. For the moment the freighters and destroyers stayed quiet.
"Our officials will answer all of your questions more clearly in the meeting." The escort fleet replied with their usual polite voice: "We simply do not have authority to answer your questions. Our fighters will escort you down the surface as we speak. We hope that the talks will go well."
As the Dectrose shuttle departed their largest ship. 4 Davian's Lac Bird Star Fighters would escort them down to the surface. Meanwhile the swarm of 20000 Davian strikecrafts began to fly away and returned to the either warships, orbital stations or moved down toward the surface and disappeared in the atmosphere. The Davian finally decided to lessen the number of 'honor guards'
Soon the Dectrose shuttle reached the Davian planetary base which itself being surrounded by a massive energy shield to protect it from the harsh weather of the icy planet. Strangely as the shuttle and its escorts came near, the shield would create 5 large enough holes to allow them to enter. Finally the shuttle would be allowed to land on a landing pad.
Outside of Dectrose's shuttle stood the honored guards of the Davian, the guards including 40 personnel in which 20 would be power armored soldiers, 10 Shiguran soldiers and 10 robotic guards. Then there would be 3 higher ranking personnel standing in front of the guards.
==Meanwhile at the system's command center==
"Green, what the hell are you doing?" A voice came from a large screen which popped up next to Green, the voice clearly unhappy: "You should not let those Dectrothians enter our single most important system here! You should escort them out of there before talking with them! Green, are you listening?"
"I'm listening 'commander'. Stop worrying." Green smirked: "It's my shift here. I have this under control."
"Under your control? You better keep your words. Remember it was you who sent out that piece of elephant's skin. Regardless I'm putting the entire sector on alert including that THING." The other voice responded forcefully: "Final words. Do not let me to unleash any ships into that system, do your talk as quick as possible, and do not ignite a war or ruin my trade system or our relation. Understood? Sector command out. Oh BTW, your using decoys is annoying."
"Tch. Relax and sip your tea commander."
The RSC had sent a small trading convoy and it's escort to the Davian trade system some time ago, and now that small group sat in high orbit awaiting the return goods they had purchased now that their cargo had been brought to market, assessed, priced, portioned, sold and carted off all very nicely.
Still, the commander of the Noya Moskova M3 cruiser RNV Patrov, one Kar'leek Serras, was rather on edge. To be frank, he hadn't wanted to come here. He was an accomplished commander of fleet strike squadrons and raiding groups, and for some reason HighCom had ordered him and his frigates here to watch over the freight convoy that the RSC had sent here as an open hand of friendliness.
He didn't like it, and he'd told Rhen Kalamn that, but orders were orders and here he was. He'd already had three mugs of coffee that day to try to keep his nerves down and his frustration in check, and by the Gods the sudden appearance of those Dectrose ships had not helped. He'd almost called battle stations, in fact, before his XO had noted that the Davians seemed to have the situations well in hand. So here he sat, keeping one eye on the Dectrose and the other on the Davians.
"How long until the cargo's loaded?" the Karokalian commander asked frustratedly, clutching his fourth cup of coffee of the morning.
"It's going slow, comrade. Apparently they're doing some last minute negotiating or something."
"Karera wa isoide isoide kureru?" he snapped. "We've got a timetable, damn it all!"
"One can only hope, sir."
His annoyance with the 'wait and see' approach made Gein more suspicious, even then, he brought along two fireteams of Corsair Marines with him, and when he was greeted by the sight of a Platoon-sized guard before him, he tapped his fingers on his belt, now starting to become seriously distrustful of the Davians. "They do this for every diplomatic mission? These people are worse than the Glowsticks." Looking to his shuttle pilot, he leaned closer "Keep the engines warm, I don't like this." Which received a nod and he descended the ramp, gazing at the three representatives that where awaiting him.
Onboard the Emerald Jewel IV Cruisers, news began filtering in on a 'Code Blue' Terror Attack on Kaikoma, seemingly a bar was destroyed and several High-Ranking Dectrose Personnel where pursuing the culprit.
"Welcome to the ice base Admiral Gein. I'm commander Dang. Please follow me." One of the officials spoke with a smile: "We have prepared the meeting room and the system's commander is waiting. I know you have questions and as your request, I had forwarded them to him."
As the Dectrose obviously followed Dang and passed through the honor guards, they saluted. Yet out of 40 guards, only 10 robotic guards would follow them while the other simply walked away.
The Dectrose would be led into a large bunker like building. On the way they strangely just saw only robots of various kinds working or walking around.
Finally the whole group reached the meeting room. It was a fairly large room with enough chairs for everyone to sit down. At the middle of the room stood a large table and two larger chairs.
"You must be Admiral Gein from Dectrose Empire." A rather small robotic being stood up as it saw Gein and walked toward him with a slightly raised hand clearly waiting for a handshake: "I'm Green second in charge of the Davian in this galaxy and temporary commander of this system."
"Corsair Admiral Gein, Dectrose Officials like to make it clear the distinction between us and the normal military forces." He tenatively reached out to shake the other's hand, but once done, he took his seat. The robot in front of him was small, almost like a child it would seem, he had shared some of the same feelings with Saber regarding robotic xenos vs organic xenos, but everything he's seen so far from the Davians weren't at all like the System. Who had a cold, calculating feel that Saber enjoyed. "Of course, though, I'm happy to meet you" He pushed out of his mouth before he brought out his RAVD node.
"Mind if I use this? It's our version of a 'personal computer device'." tapping it on as it began to glow a dull orange, projecting a startup screen to Gein before awaiting input. The Corsair Marines that where guarding Gein had a sigh of relief as the majority of the guards left, but the still looked tense in posture. On the Cruisers, the news from the Dectrose Network began to filter up a bit, and in fact an unknown woman has sighted entering an Officer's Bar, then an explosion occurred and Dectrose Military Officials ran out with an unidentified woman, and the bar was lifted up and crashed onto some heavily armored infantry not belonging to the Dectrose.
"We didn't know that Corsair Admiral Gein. My apology." The robotic smiled warmly. Green as a SAI was created to be as similar to human as possible. As he took the sit on the opposite side of the table the robotic replied: "Of course feel free to use your device."
"Is it possible for us to begin the talk? So what great wings had brought such a dragon like you to our poorly make shrimp like base today?" The robot asked sincerely and humbly.
Setting the RAVD node on the table in front of him, it displayed several questions the Dectrose had for the Davians, he grunted as he checked off the first topic with his cerebral link, then looked up to Green "First off, I'd like to inform you that the Oracle scan was not in any way an act of aggression, or an invasive scan. It was used in most part because Admiral Ryn had been intercepted and defeated by RSC's forces protecting the Ural sector. Not that she didn't deserve it for sticking her nose where it didn't belong, but due in part of the false coordinates on your drone, as well as the coordinates you imprinted on some biomaterial, we had to be sure you where actually here."
"Moreso, the scan itself wasn't any more effective than a Recon Ship to begin with, it's simply easier to scan someone than waste resources hunting for correct coordinates. And now that that is taken care of, I'm sure the Dectrose would be interested in those trade agreements you had made, as well as any maps of just your borders so we don't accidentally trespass on your Empire." Every word that escaped his lips felt gilded, like a tiger talking to his prey, that was simply the nature and the aura Gein provided. After all, he was a Corsair for a reason, and no Dectrothian just signs up to be a Corsair.
"Hmm…so its name is truly Oracle." Green began to reply: "You say your scanning was not aggressive or invasive, quite interesting. May I ask you this Corsair Admiral Gein, what do you feel when someone use a giant telescope from the other end of the block to stare at your back yard and what you do there?” The robotic continued sincerely voice which seemed to be strange: "You were staying at the other side of the galaxy, then you pointed a giant scanning station toward our single most important system in this galaxy and scanned it. I must say we are not particularly fond of that as it is an invasion of our sovereignty. Now as you had mentioned about Ural, let see a larger picture. We all know Ural was one of the two systems which had been vaporized by Capital's Crucible. Again, with your allowance sir, how can we not be suspicious when you scanned our system and may have given the information to the Capitol or someone else? Now sir before you say you're not siding with APP, no I'm not saying you are siding with them but your faction seems…hmm… a bit leaning to the APP according to Colonel Turney because the APP currently has the biggest weapon in this galaxy. However, we decided to not speak about your scanning too much because our relation is rather ok, we gave you the location and most importantly this system alone is a rather open system. Seriously sir we would not be that passive if you tried to scan our other systems."
"Speaking about the Ural incident. We have heard about it through both public information and our own channels. Admiral Ryn had clearly and intentionally violated RSC's zone and attempted to scan what remained of Ural, the RSC had demanded her to stop and withdraw several times. Of course, it was a regretful incident and we are glad that everyone managed to stabilize it. In the other hand Corsair Admiral, we had nothing to do with that incident so claiming we partially have responsibility is going to sour our relations rapidly if you keep asserting such a falsehood.”
"Furthermore, in terms of your claim that we gave you incorrect locations. I must clarify this, just like the message from that drone, we Davian had had a really difficult time to find suitable place to establish ourselves here. In the times I sent you that drone we were considering to choose one of those systems as our main operational base. Yet in the ended we didn't use them. For the biomaterial map which contained the location of this trading system, I felt that it would be better to let you know at least its location. Yet as you know trade system is valuable and is prime target for hostile raid so I must make sure it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. That's why I imprinted it into the core of the drone."
After a rather long speak the robot smiled again: "Now that I have made our opinions clear. I think we can move on to your request of our border and trading. Firstly, you may need to know that we do not treat our border lightly and according to some of our contacts faction's maps are valuable. In fact, some of our current allies just gave their locations to us after a lot of good contacts so it may require some more talk about it especially when the distant of our factions are really large and thing may change rapidly. Regarding to the trading agreement, if I'm not mistaken at the time we didn't make any permanent agreements, but we did arrange a few one-shot trades in our first contact."
As the talk continued and the Davian learned about the nature of Dectrose's fleet, across the system, 3D notice boards began to change the name "Dectrose Empire's Diplomatic Fleet" to "Dectrose Empire's Corsair Diplomatic Fleet". The name changing, according to the Davian would be necessary to make it easier for controlling the system.
Tapping his finger on his belt, Gein listened, and waited, and listened some more, grinding his teeth as he had dozens of remarks and insults, but as he was going to interject, his medications cooled him down, but hardly enough to extinguish the flame beginning to fan. "If you didn't want us to perform standard recon on your most important system, you should have given us alternatives to look into. The Oracle was used because in it's basic form it is nothing but a remote recon station. If that is an invasion of your privacy, the Davians are appearing to have thin skin, or are greatly untrusting." He paused, tapping a few more times.
"As well, as we have had our meeting with Capitol, as well as other APP aligned nations, we have also met members of AGA. As you have seen though, we have not joined either side of the conflict. Nor do we wish to. We have other ideas and just because the APP holds a weapon to destroy any enemy of their bloc, the Dectrose have not provoked them. As far as I'm concerned, Voi Con is the same as Kaikoma or Trudchen, it is open to the public, and general data will obviously be collected if we like it or not." He grunted as he moved onto Ryn.
"If you had seen the news report on that incident, you would have noted that Ryn was not made aware of the No-Fly Zone, as the Dectrose did not know of the Ancnet until after it had been mentioned, and we moved to search and connect our Network to it. So I would take a closer look on where your information is coming from. The only one here making any sort of assumptions or accusations is you at the moment. Opinions or facts, if you don't want to sour relations, I would think over what you wish to bring up."
He moved his hands back to the table "Also, you tell me that you would not be so passive if we where to appear in other systems, yet you feel that your faction's borders are valuable enough to withhold them from another diplomatic contact? If you want a repeat of an incident similar to Ural, then by all means, don't give us basic maps of your borders so we don't trespass in future travels. The Trade Agreements also where placed on hold until you had established yourself, as I said before. If you don't want to trade, say so, so I can avoid wasting my time if you don't want to perform any diplomatic agreements."
Green listened and listened quietly as Gein nearly yelled at him in respond to what he said. Just as Gien stopped, the robot surprisingly smiled: "If my previous words did indeed make you feel uneasy then I'm so sorry Corsair Admiral Gein." Green slightly bowed as a gesture of apology: "For the APP thing, of course we know that Dectrose Empire is currently a neutral faction in the AGA - APP war. If you were a member of the APP then I doubt all the AGA ships out there would let us escort you here peacefully."
"However, sir your words regarding scanning our territories could be taken as ' if you didn't want us to look in your back yard you should have let us look at another part of your property'….and sir I should be clear with you. We Davians do not appreciate that scanning because it is seen as a harmful act, just because you think it is acceptable to do it does not mean we are ok with it."
"Regarding to your regretful incident with the RSC. We have information about it from credible sources and yet we have little interest in it because it does not directly concern our affairs. Though, I do find it interesting that we Davians knew of the no-fly zone before your people encroached on it because we cultivated diplomatic contacts in the galaxy rather than relying on the galactic net. So saying you did not know because of the net only demonstrates some lacking.” Green looked to a digital display to handles a number of queries normal to his post for a moment before looking back to Gien to continue.
"As for your map request, I already said that it is valuable, however I can be a little flexible here so what can you offer for a one-shot trade? Just as you know this flexibility would only available because I am here instead of the sector commander." Green asked while putting his hands on the table: "And by that, I mean; sir should you be found to be trespassing or scanning our territories then there will be suitable repercussions. As for trading, I will listen to what you can offer to the Empire. However, I must point out a singular problem before I continue. We are at the opposite ends of the galaxy. The huge distance between our factions means trading would have complicated and might not be so profitable due to the cost of maintaining such a trade route, times, security, price fluctuations... when compared to the much more rapid and profitable local markets why should we take on greater risks to trade with you? Do not mistake me more trade is better than less, I just want to point out all the difficulty we will have when trading with each other. So that you might consider this before you offer us the ‘deal’ that you are undoubtedly thinking of."
Giving a shrug, Gein continued as Green finished "If you want to see a general recon giving basic information as a harmful act, then by all means, do so. Nothing is going to change because of it, and if you are to tread carefully under the gaze of this dragon, I would put it behind you. We have no reason to continue scanning your territory unless you force our hand." He slowly took the hand on the table, and lifted up to slowly bring in his fingers to form a fist, before placing it back on the table open."
"If you continue to make your assumptions on what Ryn had done, even after it had been settled you invite hostility with your words. No one can explain why Ryn did what she did, only Ryn would know that and she's not available for comment due to her lack of living." He tapped his RAVD node a few times, to update Decoroso Command "And you then have the gall to ask for a trade for your maps, when we had given you our own in our initial encounter, as a gesture of good will. So you are telling me that the Davian's map of the outline of their border is worth material value? How much material value do you even think that basic information is worth?"
"You speak of repercussions, and still you refuse to give us a basic idea on what your territory even encompasses. You truly seem confused on what basic diplomacy is about. The Dectrose have wasted both time and materials on your drone and your 'skin' to find you, you have made it exceedingly difficult to get in contact with you, and if I hear correctly, you are not acting this way to your neighbors. The galaxy is a small place once FTL technology is introduced, and we would have gladly assisted you with such trade routes and possibly offered Destroyer Escort."
He leaned over the table now, looking at Green with a burning desire to reach across the table towards him in his eyes "My answer to the trade agreement is now 'No', as you have went out of your way to make this process difficult. So give me an answer to your maps, and this time, think it though carefully ."
"Hmm… I have little knowledge about your culture Corsair Admiral Gein." Green responded after Gein stopped: "But pointing your fist at another diplomat is not considered as friendly in my culture. That you consider yourself a dragon is…hmm…quite interesting but not relevant to our conversation." Green smiled slightly when he mentioned about the word 'dragon'.
"Regarding our map, if I'm not mistaken you're offering us material for our map correct?" The robot strangely smiled again: "That is a nice offer however, we do not need material payment. What we need is… good will. As I said before some of our friends just supplied us their map after a normalization of contact. This is how things are done in the west; you are not in your territory you are now in ours. However, I've already said I would be flexible so here is what we require to make that trade. Firstly, we would like to replace our current original non-aggression pact with the new standard once, secondly, we want a promise from your nation that you will not scan any of our systems anymore, and finally we would like to have a list of the factions you have dealt with so that we can verify the character of your nation. As you can see, all of these, to us are gesture of your good will and it would be enough for us to give you the map of our outline border unedited." Green paused to consider something worth mentioning in afterthought. “There is one more detail to cover here, that drone that was sent to your nation was sent for a very clear reason so going over that again will not be productive. That you were able to decode the biomaterial means you are worthy of some measure of respect.”
The robot leaned on its chair yet its eyes didn't go away from the burning eyes of Gein: "I do agree on one of your statements Corsair Admiral. The galaxy can be small but it can be large, depending on your perspective. No technology will ever actually change the number of light years that the galaxy spans and that creates a minor disagreement, to us it is a large galaxy, to you it is small, this is nothing more than a cultural difference and not worth getting angry over.”
Giving a long sigh, Gein stood up from the table. "You are as inept at diplomacy as you are with your facts. I never offered anything in material value for your map, and for you to assume we are, there must be a serious translator error or you just assume we will automatically give it to you. I tire of having to argue with your kind, and re-stating what you have already said to me. If my information is correct, I have to return to the Dectrose Empire immediately, and if you wish to send another more qualified diplomat to speak to the Dectrose, we are going to have an Embassy with the Three Domains Alliance shortly. For the moment, I will authorize my authority as a Dectrose Corsair Admiral and deny any future diplomatic talks with you specifically. Anything you have now asked me, a representative can discuss with a Diplomat at the Dectrose Embassy. I'm suspending all diplomatic missions between the Dectrose and Davians until you can come up with a better diplomatic deal." He nodded to his guards, and gave a very curt salute to Green.
"Enjoy the rest of your day, Green." before walking out to the shuttle, lifting off to the awaiting destroyer, and turning his dreadnought and fleet around, following traffic instructions, before departing the system. Gein had other, pressing concerns on his mind, the Destruction of Kaikoma was indeed a horrific event, and if he had to choose between returning to Alqursan and read the report on Kaikoma, or stay with the Davians and continue to argue, he would always choose the former.
Green stood up and saluted with a mysterious smile: "While our talk did not end well as expect, Corsair Admiral Gein, I'm still please to meet you. Beside I also hope that should opportunity arrive, we can solve our difference in future meetings. Guards. Escort them back." The 10 robotic guards walked in the room and escorted the Dectrose away.
The Dectrose fleet began to leave under the watchful eyes of 50 Davian warships. Then from the ice planet, nearby stations and from the warships themselves, 20000 star strikecrafts emerged and formed into the previous 'honor guard' formation. Meanwhile the boards across the system classified the Dectrose Empire's Corsair Diplomatic Fleet as 'departing'.
"Good speed Dectrose friends, we cannot escort you further." The 50 Davian ships, in unison broadcasted the final message just before the Dectrose engaged their FTL drive at the edge of the system.
"Bodyguards 002, regain control. Commander Green disconnected." The Green's decoy disconnected itself from Green. Then a large 3D screen emerged from the table and displayed Green himself.
"Alright everyone, We are done here. Black Guards assemble."
"Yes commander." Cold voices filled the large room as the entire platoon of Green's personal bodyguards emerged. It turned out that almost every corner of the walls, part of the ceiling and the floor were filled with secret doorways to allow the bodyguards to pour in quickly if need. Each and every of these so-called Black Guards hold the exact appearance of Green himself: "Black Guards ready to serve."
"Commander Dang ready to serve." The three robotic officials, commanders of the base and the terraforming operation of the ice planet, stood in front of the Black Guards and saluted Green.
"Commander Green. Mission accomplished. We escorted the Dectrose away from here. Your personal fleet waiting for your order." 50 3D screens showed up as 50 SAI captains of the fleet saluted their commander.
"Good job everyone. It's fortunate that we don't have to fire a shot." The second in charge of the Davian's holding inspected his personal army: "Recall strikecrafts back to your ships captains. Black Guards. You will report to me in orbit after maintaining your entire frames. Commander Dang. I want you to double check the entire colony. And the overall order for this base remains. Nothing in, nothing out until the terraforming finished except automated transports. Oh and you can have your 'honor guards' abandon their disguise now."
"Yes comrade commander." The three robotic commanders saluted again before Green turning off the communication link.
Alone in his office, the robotic figure sat motionless behind his working desk for a moment before connecting to his superior: "Green reporting. You can power down our fleets and return the alert level to normal. They leaved. No shooting. No diplomatic deal either. Their diplomat is laughable at best. I've kept my words sir. Your system is safe. For now."
"At least, you didn't initiate another war. You will report to me personally about it later."
"Yes commander."