Post by EmperorMyric on Dec 16, 2017 18:59:07 GMT
Space itself is empty as we all know immeasurable distances in between which lay those few oases that we call habitable planets. Today’s events occur at just such an oasis, a small artificial habitation called Port Asur it is the first formal meeting between two nations, and by extension several species and races. Here we have the unnatural form of the Star Base known as Port Asur itself, its hull still pockmarked from intense but brief fighting just weeks prior. The starbase is one of the largest of it’s sort, a simple assemblage of a central cylindrical mass with several outer habitation, industrial, and defensive rings all attached by gracefully designed struts and connections that appear with the regularity of spokes in a wheel. The overall design is unique to just one nation, the Sciastenos centum or as they prefer the SSC. As with any major habitation surrounded by a harsh and unforgiving environment the bulk of commercial traffic flits about the area of the station embarking on their normal lives unknowing of the events about to unfold. Completing the picture is the massive anomaly, a tear in the fabric of reality and space itself illuminating all with its visible emissions of pallid blue-green light. It is here that history has already been made and so, the tradition continues with the meeting.
------
Meanwhile a vessel, the representative of the Union of worlds made its way to the predetermined safe distance for diplomatic meetings. On the bridge Captain Volkus could see both the SSC star base, and a dark-hulled cruiser in stationary position sat just a bit front of it. "Sir a vessel has just come on an intercept course, it seems to be heading out to meet us" A lieutenant said from the bridge. "Excellent plot a course to meet them and ready the conference room to receive our guests" Volkus said smiling. "…And send a signal that it is safe and all ok to board, I shall be meeting them in the docking bay. Have an assembled Honour guard ready." The lieutenant nodded understanding the order and replied with a curt "Yes sir, will do." Volkus made his way down to the docking bay and waited for the Shuttle to arrive, around him were ten Union troopers in enclosed power armour in formation, together they provided an honour guard in salute to the SSC emissaries and Volkus too was in full captain attire. All the Captain had to do now was wait. Fortunately the wait was not much longer as a small craft launched from the cruiser plied the distance between. As it crossed, the cruiser moved to a less ominous looking position while the craft approached following any landing instructions provided. The small ship itself couldn’t have been more then perhaps a few hundred tons and appeared to be designed for trans-atmospheric use. Upon its landing it might be noticed that at times portions of the craft seemed to flicker in and out of existence. Inside, as the craft’s crew completed post-flight checks, and the SSC’s own honor guard, composed of six individuals took up guard positions below the egress ramp three individuals inside finished a conversation.
“But sir, is it wise to handle this in person?”
“Ah Chausiku, we certainly could not send the empress now could we?”
“The Prime is right, the empress might loose her temper…again…”
“you are no help Aberash!”
The First prime chuckled at the comment about the empress’s legendary temper and headed for the ramp leading out of the vessel. To meet those who travelled so far for this meeting. Volkus stood as the shuttles doors opened and the ramp came down, he stood upright and extended a hand smiling "Greetings friends, I am Captain Volkus of the Union of Worlds, welcome aboard my ship the Concordia" The first prime himself stepped ahead of his two imperators to shake the Captains hand. "It is a great pleasure to meet you and yours for the first time in person, we must extend our gratitude for your peoples aid in communications during our arrival to the galaxy. I am, The First Prime of the SSC, and these gentlemen are Imperators Chausiku, and Aberash." With the mentions of the other two the first prime politely gestured to indicate Chausiku was on the left while Aberash stood on the right, both of whom politely performed a half-bow out of respect for the captain.
"It is an true honour First Prime, please follow me this way and we shall discuss our standings further" Volkus smiled and gestured. The group made their way down the seemingly polished interior corridors of the Union ship, it was spacious and totally clean almost too clean. The SSC delegation followed through the corridors of the ship the other two seemed to be watching just in general while the prime himself seemed to be taking in every inch of the ship as it was passed. Volkus came to a door and swiped his hand on the pad at the side, a bulkhead retracted and opened into a long rectangular room filled with a table and chairs, along with numerous holographic projectors and computer terminals. "Please have a seat he gestured" Upon entry to the room the group politely took their appropriate seats "I must say this is an impressive vessel, the design and layout is quite evolved." Volkus took a seat himself and laughed "Well thank you my friend, I have the ship in top condition constantly, I am sure the crew don’t appreciate it as much as I do but it makes a certain impression. As for the layout, it’s quite standard for us... I remember when i first was assigned to a Union vessel; I had no idea where anything is! Now I know the entire layout like the back of my hand. Helps that I am the captain of course! Sorry about the chatter I do like to go on when I meet someone new!" He smiled laughing.
The First Prime smiled himself finding the Captains demeanor a welcome change form the usual all-business normality of diplomatic meetings. "No it's quite alright, I must admit, these diplomatic meetings are always a tad starchy for me anyway. Though one must profess, my flagship is in no less a condition for high standards of spit and polish. It sets the bar for the rest of the fleet as to what is expected." Volkus nodded "I couldn’t agree more! Anyway, I would like to ask if you would engage in close relations with the Union of worlds, in these coming times it is always best we stick together. Unity is key!"
The First Prime nodded in agreement with the statement. “I agree, and indeed you and yours were one of the few that responded to the event and the communications after. The Sciastenos Centum is willing to negotiate. So let us discuss what you have in mind."
"I suggest we enter a close alliance, including resource sharing, intelligence sharing and Military aid. In these pressing times, more so after the conflict in Ambrosius we cannot afford to slack on these aspects. With such close ties others will think twice to attack us or make moves against us. Plus there are also other forces at play... far more complex than either of our nations." Captain Volkus’s tone darkened a bit at the mention of the last part. Perhaps the change in tone was inadvertent or merely a realization of what was out there but it was enough to capture the First Prime’s attentions to the point.
“That is interesting, but it bears a question. This Ambrosius-conflict you speak of, what sparked it? Who are the responsible parties? Under normal circumstances, we don’t engage in war without cause, because such an endeavor reaps one reward...misery. But I can tell you are an honest man, so tell me the truth, what are the causes and the current situation?” The first prime's aides were currently seeming to take notes, well at least Chausiku was, Aberash was listening intently though admittedly it was hard to tell if either of the three was looking at the captain or not as they all bore solid white eyes though admittedly the first primes seemed to glow a bit. The postures of the three indicated that they had politely stopped being starchy-formal about the meeting perhaps to match the captains own stance and rapport. Within moments the captain obliged the request for information with more detail. "Well our current information and information from our allies has shown that the Immortal Empire struck the Dark city Imperium’s home system without warning or provocation. They leveled the place even going so far as to use biological weapons. We do not know the exact reason why but it is suspected that there was an outside driving influence. Perhaps even another nation behind it, we do not know who though a few empires are within suspicion. Word is those people also attacked the DCI at Ambrosius just before they escaped as the system was destroyed. I personally haven’t been told yet but I am sure the higher echelons of the Union know the truth. It is only a matter of time now before we ourselves join the conflict alongside the others"
At the mention of both the Imperium and the Immortal Empire Imperator Aberash tapped the arm of the first prime as if to remind him of something unspoken. "I must admit that these are strange times and strange events have been happening here as well. We have reason to believe that this unseen empire, has meddled in our affairs as well.”
Volkus instantly raised an eyebrow "You do? What kind of meddling? I too have reason to believe the Union was meddled with by them too due to us not having on supported our allies yet like we always do... I’m merely a captain, admittedly second in command of the Ancerious division but still. May it be possible to have a copy of that evidence? I am sure it would be like gold to our nation and also to others." Volkus said intrigued.
"I do believe we can do better then that, we can provide several unlocked digital copies of it for you and your superiors. Chausiku, if you kindly prepare several duplicates of file number 9035-03-f?" The Imperator on the left looked up from the screen of the device he was using and nodded pulling several data rods from his belongings to begin transcribing the file. Meanwhile the first Prime began to explain the incidents as they occurred. “A few months back perhaps further, one of my officers began to quietly build an insurrection, right here in that star base right out side of the window. This would be an open and shut sort of case, you know the sort, man gets out on the new frontier and somehow the underlying psych issues bubble up. Really nothing major but somehow, the Field marshal, subverted three fleets and part of a fourth, turned the starbase to his whim and apparently received stolen property from this…Imperium nation I've heard about. The scars on the starbase out there should be evidence of how successful the insurrection was.” The First Prime paused as Imperator Chauskiu placed the data rods in a case and offered it to the captain.
“That would normally be a simple case, but there was more to it then that. Surveillance systems set up by the Intelligence service found the Field marshal talking to a blank screen in his office holding full conversations. This information was forwarded to Sector command as they thought it might be a case of FTL sickness. The plot he was hatching involved insurrection, and the receipt of two stolen Imperium cruisers with the intention to let his loyalist techs work over the operations systems of the craft, in order to create a means to remotely seize DCI vessels for parties unknown." For the first time as the Prime glanced out the window for just a second at the still battle-scarred starbase, and the distant glimmers of residuals from the battle that had raged in sector not so long ago he continued. “Oh he almost got away with it had it not been for sector command and the matching starbase on the other side of the anomaly. Sector caught most of the 9th fleet preparing to move to Ancerious, under falsified orders doctored by the field Marshal himself. Meanwhile the techs that where in the insurrection had indeed created a living algorithm that could do what the field marshal was ‘directed’ to achieve. Back in my day, we'd call that an infernal device and it would have been against the convention...but anyway, we've still got those two stolen cruisers in absolute lockup in the hopes of returning them with an official apology and an offer for restitution for damages. The ending to all of this is contained in those data rods; needless to say it’s chilling evidence that someone out there is playing a rather sick game of galactic domination.”
Volkus listened intently and very serious the scope of his suspicions was so much bigger than he had imagined. It took a few moments to let the words sink in, the gravity of it all was enormous. "Given what you have just told me I see the working of our two nations together to be of paramount importance, we will also be able to help in relations between you and the DCI. It seems from multiple sources that we have a potentially bigger enemy than the Immortal Empire at work here, it seems only logical we band together against it and use our resources together, our combined intelligence alone would shed serious light to the situation, and military wise we should be able to hold back whatever they throw against us, But of course First Prime this is all up to you, the Union always welcomes new allies with open arms but in this circumstance it seems all the more pressing"
“I agree, As I understand the nature of the mess we are in, which you have verified, this unseen empire is not only an aggressor, but is likely using others as puppets as they have attempted here. So tell me, what are the terms of your agreement?”
Volkus nodded and brought up some holographic screens "The terms of the agreement would be: Resource sharing, this way to help each other in trade and to replace any damage caused by the enemy and in developing new weapons and equipment, intelligence sharing between us, from what we have just discussed I don’t think I need to explain myself further on this point. There is also Military aid, for the fact that any action taken against either of us will be supported by the other in defense, and joint military ventures. As well as any other help and assistance between us that may be needed. As well as full use of each others space lanes and travel between our peoples. Do those terms seem acceptable to you First Prime?" Volkus said reading the list on the screen taking a few moments to modify a few things.
"I do think we can work along those lines; you Captain have yourself a deal."
"It is Agreed then, I am sure I can contact the DCI for them to have a meeting with you as soon as possible, we are very close allies with the DCI which is what surprised me even more when we didn’t act in their defense when Excion was glassed" Volkus said.
The First Prime shook his head upon hearing someone would dare do such a thing to a planet. "Troubling times eh? But for the days when a war meant a straight scrap without the tricks and double-dealing where at the end both sides still had some respect for one another."
"I agree the Union still somewhat fights like that, With the Draken war we went back to those methods but alas we had no choice, now again it seems times are changing and against these enemies the Union has no choice but to use tactics and weapons deemed dishonorable in the coming conflict."
“Make no mistake, war itself is inherently evil, it takes the greatest of men and women to battle and control such an evil. By its nature, it will do all it can to win, and that means it is the solemn duty of those of us who recall the past to also act to counter and thus prevail. It's still a thin line we dare to tread however.”
"Agreed just one misstep and we are as bad as the evil we try to fight against, the Union knows that more than most." Volkus trailed off thinking about the horrifying sights he had seen in the Draken wars. "Excellent, I have an official document here” Volkus said as the desk seemed to print a very ornate piece of card, on it was a place for two signatures, Volkus signed one and then he gracefully passed it to the First Prime and smiled. "Our terms and alliance document, I also have a digital copy which shall be sent to you ASAP"
The first Prime nodded as he reached into his jacket for something and retrieved an ornate wooden box inside of which lay an antique pen no doubt dating back some time by its style. After reviewing the card for a moment he added his signature, in fine cursive type style allowed the ink to dry and offered the card back. "Well Captain, we now have an agreement, I hope the enemy has good insurance, because of not they will sorely need it now." Volkus laughed "Aye to that my freind! Aye to that!" Volkus smiled and stood up walking over to the First Prime and held out his hand "I Volkus of the Union of Worlds are a herald of the Union and hereby declare the SSC an Ally of the Union"
The First Prime smiled and shook the Captain’s hand.
"As of this day forward we are brothers in arms, never hesitate to ask, nor shy away from a visit, and know that we will have your backs any time, anywhere, anytime!"
"The same to you too my freinds! As members of the Union of worlds we will always be here to help, always ask for us when you need us for we will be there" Volkus smiled.
----
Thus with the stroke of a pen, the weight of the cosmos had tilted just a bit farther. The war was still on it's unchecked course for a stalemate with a gore soaked crop of lost generations and yet hope not unlike the rising morning sun glowed brightly. Would our entry into the war mean anything? Well it'd certainly mean more letters home to grieving families, more empty coffins at ceremonies and more talk of valor, honor and some such. Despite this, When the sun rose the next morning, and the following week after, I found that despite the preparations to wage war, I could handle it. In the coming weeks I'd be forced to make those decisions that make or break a war effort... And then, it happened. A few security personnel found someone, possibly a foreign dignitary had left something after a high level meeting aboard Port Asur. The owner seemed to be untraceable, gone in the flood of visitors from numerous meetings and such. the information contained was far too critical to pass up. I would have the navy verify the star charts and the locations of things in their usual means...and then wait the time would come soon enough to act. Cloak and dagger was always a part of war, and even before our first shots were fired, it was here now providing it's favor.
------
Meanwhile a vessel, the representative of the Union of worlds made its way to the predetermined safe distance for diplomatic meetings. On the bridge Captain Volkus could see both the SSC star base, and a dark-hulled cruiser in stationary position sat just a bit front of it. "Sir a vessel has just come on an intercept course, it seems to be heading out to meet us" A lieutenant said from the bridge. "Excellent plot a course to meet them and ready the conference room to receive our guests" Volkus said smiling. "…And send a signal that it is safe and all ok to board, I shall be meeting them in the docking bay. Have an assembled Honour guard ready." The lieutenant nodded understanding the order and replied with a curt "Yes sir, will do." Volkus made his way down to the docking bay and waited for the Shuttle to arrive, around him were ten Union troopers in enclosed power armour in formation, together they provided an honour guard in salute to the SSC emissaries and Volkus too was in full captain attire. All the Captain had to do now was wait. Fortunately the wait was not much longer as a small craft launched from the cruiser plied the distance between. As it crossed, the cruiser moved to a less ominous looking position while the craft approached following any landing instructions provided. The small ship itself couldn’t have been more then perhaps a few hundred tons and appeared to be designed for trans-atmospheric use. Upon its landing it might be noticed that at times portions of the craft seemed to flicker in and out of existence. Inside, as the craft’s crew completed post-flight checks, and the SSC’s own honor guard, composed of six individuals took up guard positions below the egress ramp three individuals inside finished a conversation.
“But sir, is it wise to handle this in person?”
“Ah Chausiku, we certainly could not send the empress now could we?”
“The Prime is right, the empress might loose her temper…again…”
“you are no help Aberash!”
The First prime chuckled at the comment about the empress’s legendary temper and headed for the ramp leading out of the vessel. To meet those who travelled so far for this meeting. Volkus stood as the shuttles doors opened and the ramp came down, he stood upright and extended a hand smiling "Greetings friends, I am Captain Volkus of the Union of Worlds, welcome aboard my ship the Concordia" The first prime himself stepped ahead of his two imperators to shake the Captains hand. "It is a great pleasure to meet you and yours for the first time in person, we must extend our gratitude for your peoples aid in communications during our arrival to the galaxy. I am, The First Prime of the SSC, and these gentlemen are Imperators Chausiku, and Aberash." With the mentions of the other two the first prime politely gestured to indicate Chausiku was on the left while Aberash stood on the right, both of whom politely performed a half-bow out of respect for the captain.
"It is an true honour First Prime, please follow me this way and we shall discuss our standings further" Volkus smiled and gestured. The group made their way down the seemingly polished interior corridors of the Union ship, it was spacious and totally clean almost too clean. The SSC delegation followed through the corridors of the ship the other two seemed to be watching just in general while the prime himself seemed to be taking in every inch of the ship as it was passed. Volkus came to a door and swiped his hand on the pad at the side, a bulkhead retracted and opened into a long rectangular room filled with a table and chairs, along with numerous holographic projectors and computer terminals. "Please have a seat he gestured" Upon entry to the room the group politely took their appropriate seats "I must say this is an impressive vessel, the design and layout is quite evolved." Volkus took a seat himself and laughed "Well thank you my friend, I have the ship in top condition constantly, I am sure the crew don’t appreciate it as much as I do but it makes a certain impression. As for the layout, it’s quite standard for us... I remember when i first was assigned to a Union vessel; I had no idea where anything is! Now I know the entire layout like the back of my hand. Helps that I am the captain of course! Sorry about the chatter I do like to go on when I meet someone new!" He smiled laughing.
The First Prime smiled himself finding the Captains demeanor a welcome change form the usual all-business normality of diplomatic meetings. "No it's quite alright, I must admit, these diplomatic meetings are always a tad starchy for me anyway. Though one must profess, my flagship is in no less a condition for high standards of spit and polish. It sets the bar for the rest of the fleet as to what is expected." Volkus nodded "I couldn’t agree more! Anyway, I would like to ask if you would engage in close relations with the Union of worlds, in these coming times it is always best we stick together. Unity is key!"
The First Prime nodded in agreement with the statement. “I agree, and indeed you and yours were one of the few that responded to the event and the communications after. The Sciastenos Centum is willing to negotiate. So let us discuss what you have in mind."
"I suggest we enter a close alliance, including resource sharing, intelligence sharing and Military aid. In these pressing times, more so after the conflict in Ambrosius we cannot afford to slack on these aspects. With such close ties others will think twice to attack us or make moves against us. Plus there are also other forces at play... far more complex than either of our nations." Captain Volkus’s tone darkened a bit at the mention of the last part. Perhaps the change in tone was inadvertent or merely a realization of what was out there but it was enough to capture the First Prime’s attentions to the point.
“That is interesting, but it bears a question. This Ambrosius-conflict you speak of, what sparked it? Who are the responsible parties? Under normal circumstances, we don’t engage in war without cause, because such an endeavor reaps one reward...misery. But I can tell you are an honest man, so tell me the truth, what are the causes and the current situation?” The first prime's aides were currently seeming to take notes, well at least Chausiku was, Aberash was listening intently though admittedly it was hard to tell if either of the three was looking at the captain or not as they all bore solid white eyes though admittedly the first primes seemed to glow a bit. The postures of the three indicated that they had politely stopped being starchy-formal about the meeting perhaps to match the captains own stance and rapport. Within moments the captain obliged the request for information with more detail. "Well our current information and information from our allies has shown that the Immortal Empire struck the Dark city Imperium’s home system without warning or provocation. They leveled the place even going so far as to use biological weapons. We do not know the exact reason why but it is suspected that there was an outside driving influence. Perhaps even another nation behind it, we do not know who though a few empires are within suspicion. Word is those people also attacked the DCI at Ambrosius just before they escaped as the system was destroyed. I personally haven’t been told yet but I am sure the higher echelons of the Union know the truth. It is only a matter of time now before we ourselves join the conflict alongside the others"
At the mention of both the Imperium and the Immortal Empire Imperator Aberash tapped the arm of the first prime as if to remind him of something unspoken. "I must admit that these are strange times and strange events have been happening here as well. We have reason to believe that this unseen empire, has meddled in our affairs as well.”
Volkus instantly raised an eyebrow "You do? What kind of meddling? I too have reason to believe the Union was meddled with by them too due to us not having on supported our allies yet like we always do... I’m merely a captain, admittedly second in command of the Ancerious division but still. May it be possible to have a copy of that evidence? I am sure it would be like gold to our nation and also to others." Volkus said intrigued.
"I do believe we can do better then that, we can provide several unlocked digital copies of it for you and your superiors. Chausiku, if you kindly prepare several duplicates of file number 9035-03-f?" The Imperator on the left looked up from the screen of the device he was using and nodded pulling several data rods from his belongings to begin transcribing the file. Meanwhile the first Prime began to explain the incidents as they occurred. “A few months back perhaps further, one of my officers began to quietly build an insurrection, right here in that star base right out side of the window. This would be an open and shut sort of case, you know the sort, man gets out on the new frontier and somehow the underlying psych issues bubble up. Really nothing major but somehow, the Field marshal, subverted three fleets and part of a fourth, turned the starbase to his whim and apparently received stolen property from this…Imperium nation I've heard about. The scars on the starbase out there should be evidence of how successful the insurrection was.” The First Prime paused as Imperator Chauskiu placed the data rods in a case and offered it to the captain.
“That would normally be a simple case, but there was more to it then that. Surveillance systems set up by the Intelligence service found the Field marshal talking to a blank screen in his office holding full conversations. This information was forwarded to Sector command as they thought it might be a case of FTL sickness. The plot he was hatching involved insurrection, and the receipt of two stolen Imperium cruisers with the intention to let his loyalist techs work over the operations systems of the craft, in order to create a means to remotely seize DCI vessels for parties unknown." For the first time as the Prime glanced out the window for just a second at the still battle-scarred starbase, and the distant glimmers of residuals from the battle that had raged in sector not so long ago he continued. “Oh he almost got away with it had it not been for sector command and the matching starbase on the other side of the anomaly. Sector caught most of the 9th fleet preparing to move to Ancerious, under falsified orders doctored by the field Marshal himself. Meanwhile the techs that where in the insurrection had indeed created a living algorithm that could do what the field marshal was ‘directed’ to achieve. Back in my day, we'd call that an infernal device and it would have been against the convention...but anyway, we've still got those two stolen cruisers in absolute lockup in the hopes of returning them with an official apology and an offer for restitution for damages. The ending to all of this is contained in those data rods; needless to say it’s chilling evidence that someone out there is playing a rather sick game of galactic domination.”
Volkus listened intently and very serious the scope of his suspicions was so much bigger than he had imagined. It took a few moments to let the words sink in, the gravity of it all was enormous. "Given what you have just told me I see the working of our two nations together to be of paramount importance, we will also be able to help in relations between you and the DCI. It seems from multiple sources that we have a potentially bigger enemy than the Immortal Empire at work here, it seems only logical we band together against it and use our resources together, our combined intelligence alone would shed serious light to the situation, and military wise we should be able to hold back whatever they throw against us, But of course First Prime this is all up to you, the Union always welcomes new allies with open arms but in this circumstance it seems all the more pressing"
“I agree, As I understand the nature of the mess we are in, which you have verified, this unseen empire is not only an aggressor, but is likely using others as puppets as they have attempted here. So tell me, what are the terms of your agreement?”
Volkus nodded and brought up some holographic screens "The terms of the agreement would be: Resource sharing, this way to help each other in trade and to replace any damage caused by the enemy and in developing new weapons and equipment, intelligence sharing between us, from what we have just discussed I don’t think I need to explain myself further on this point. There is also Military aid, for the fact that any action taken against either of us will be supported by the other in defense, and joint military ventures. As well as any other help and assistance between us that may be needed. As well as full use of each others space lanes and travel between our peoples. Do those terms seem acceptable to you First Prime?" Volkus said reading the list on the screen taking a few moments to modify a few things.
"I do think we can work along those lines; you Captain have yourself a deal."
"It is Agreed then, I am sure I can contact the DCI for them to have a meeting with you as soon as possible, we are very close allies with the DCI which is what surprised me even more when we didn’t act in their defense when Excion was glassed" Volkus said.
The First Prime shook his head upon hearing someone would dare do such a thing to a planet. "Troubling times eh? But for the days when a war meant a straight scrap without the tricks and double-dealing where at the end both sides still had some respect for one another."
"I agree the Union still somewhat fights like that, With the Draken war we went back to those methods but alas we had no choice, now again it seems times are changing and against these enemies the Union has no choice but to use tactics and weapons deemed dishonorable in the coming conflict."
“Make no mistake, war itself is inherently evil, it takes the greatest of men and women to battle and control such an evil. By its nature, it will do all it can to win, and that means it is the solemn duty of those of us who recall the past to also act to counter and thus prevail. It's still a thin line we dare to tread however.”
"Agreed just one misstep and we are as bad as the evil we try to fight against, the Union knows that more than most." Volkus trailed off thinking about the horrifying sights he had seen in the Draken wars. "Excellent, I have an official document here” Volkus said as the desk seemed to print a very ornate piece of card, on it was a place for two signatures, Volkus signed one and then he gracefully passed it to the First Prime and smiled. "Our terms and alliance document, I also have a digital copy which shall be sent to you ASAP"
The first Prime nodded as he reached into his jacket for something and retrieved an ornate wooden box inside of which lay an antique pen no doubt dating back some time by its style. After reviewing the card for a moment he added his signature, in fine cursive type style allowed the ink to dry and offered the card back. "Well Captain, we now have an agreement, I hope the enemy has good insurance, because of not they will sorely need it now." Volkus laughed "Aye to that my freind! Aye to that!" Volkus smiled and stood up walking over to the First Prime and held out his hand "I Volkus of the Union of Worlds are a herald of the Union and hereby declare the SSC an Ally of the Union"
The First Prime smiled and shook the Captain’s hand.
"As of this day forward we are brothers in arms, never hesitate to ask, nor shy away from a visit, and know that we will have your backs any time, anywhere, anytime!"
"The same to you too my freinds! As members of the Union of worlds we will always be here to help, always ask for us when you need us for we will be there" Volkus smiled.
----
Thus with the stroke of a pen, the weight of the cosmos had tilted just a bit farther. The war was still on it's unchecked course for a stalemate with a gore soaked crop of lost generations and yet hope not unlike the rising morning sun glowed brightly. Would our entry into the war mean anything? Well it'd certainly mean more letters home to grieving families, more empty coffins at ceremonies and more talk of valor, honor and some such. Despite this, When the sun rose the next morning, and the following week after, I found that despite the preparations to wage war, I could handle it. In the coming weeks I'd be forced to make those decisions that make or break a war effort... And then, it happened. A few security personnel found someone, possibly a foreign dignitary had left something after a high level meeting aboard Port Asur. The owner seemed to be untraceable, gone in the flood of visitors from numerous meetings and such. the information contained was far too critical to pass up. I would have the navy verify the star charts and the locations of things in their usual means...and then wait the time would come soon enough to act. Cloak and dagger was always a part of war, and even before our first shots were fired, it was here now providing it's favor.