Post by Sheng on Jan 4, 2024 1:24:14 GMT
Office of the Grand Councilor
Bulwark "Silver Throne" | Mantle System, Core Sector
"In pursuit of a new world… no cost is too great."
- Grand Councilor Sarcerogon
Sarcerogon took a second to compose herself before reaching out and pushing the twin polymer doors open, the interior was in a much more comfortable state as the exterior had been cleansed of rust and cracked masonry, with the renovations, reinforcement and furnishing nearly complete. The room itself was a highly decorated 15m x 15m oval within the middle portion of the 17th floor, black steel floors and walls that were adorned with various dim lights and sleek polymer furniture. In the centre was a long oval table where 9 of the most powerful individuals left in the Second Dawn were sat. Each one of various race and occupation, quietly discussing more of the minor topics to each other whilst they waited for the meeting to truly begin. When Sarcerogon had entered, however, they all went silent. Turning and watching as she quickly strode to her place at the head of the table. She gave them all a polite nod before taking her seat, the silence reigning for a few moments more before she let out a quiet cough and said "Well. Shall we?"
The first to speak up was Switchline who said "Ma'am. Isentropic Suppression has nearly completed its lockdown of the core sector, the newly instated Fleet Admiral confirms his loyalty to our cause and is ready to enact our plan at a moment's notice. In addition, we have received word that the elements in the Quosx Theatre are rapidly losing ground thanks to the Corporate Tactical Force's withdrawal. Similar reports are coming in from the Altarian Theatre for the same reasons." Sarcerogon nodded before asking “Good, the more foreign support that we can accumulate, the lesser chance of bloodshed when we act.” Sarcerogon then turned to Paragon-XV and asked “Did you do as I requested?” Paragon-XV nodded before answering “The we have enough of the Command Structure of Agency with us, the only thing they await is your go-ahead” Sarcerogon nodded before leaning back into her chair, the table quickly fell into silence as they all took in what was said. After a few long moments a new voice spoke up; “You realize the consequences of such an action, right? Many will see you as a vindictive conqueror, not a liberator.
Sarcerogon let out a quiet sigh before she spun around in her chair to face the one behind her who had piped up, quipping back “Such is life, Rubikon. Unlike you, I plan to relieve Satagon’s Command to give back to the people and compensate those who have been so heinously wronged by his rule. You, on the other hand, would exchange one master for another. And one who would have nary a problem with pretending that the situation never happened to begin with.” Rubikon sighed as she approached the table, her claws sliding across its pristine surface as she responded “My superiors would not simply wave a hand at the problem and pretend it doesn’t exist, Sarcerogon. You know this, there would be programmes, reparations, rebuilding efforts. The Second Dawn is a rightful colony of the New Etherium, it’s only just that it be returned to them. If you built a cottage on a lake far from your own home and hired a groundskeeper for it, only for that same groundskeeper to suddenly go radio silent whilst claiming the property as his own. Would you not seek it returned to you, and the groundskeeper punished?”
Sarcerogon’s hand quietly balled into a fist as she let out an irritated beep, snapping back “This is far more complex than stolen property, Rubikon! There are serious factors at play here! What of the foreign nationals kidnapped by the Executive Protection Agency and interned in Residential Compounds? What of the Unmari Species that are being exterminated by the dozens?! Tell me, what would happen to them should your own plot succeed? Hm? When we win, we will give a fair voice to those afflicted. We shall take part in a genuine conference with the Interassociated Confederation, the Coalition and the Alliance about what lays ahead! Because it is not right for it to be only us who decides what happens! This is a matter for the people, it has always been so!”
Rubikon snarled before whipping around to face her before shouting “FOOLISH GIRL! I built this nation with him from the ground up, you know nothing of what you speak! Do you think any of them will allow you power?! They would sooner divide us up into pieces amongst themselves! The Second Dawn would cease to exist! What do you think will happen against our own fucking people?! The Reclaimed would be slaughtered!” Sarcerogon pushed herself up from her chair and shouted back “And would you fucking blame them?! Satagon has been massacring their people! Innocent lives lost because of one man’s insanity-driven power-trip! You built this nation from the ground up?! Oh shut the fuck up! You were thrown away like a broken fucking toy that he no longer wished to play with! I know nothing of what I speak?! You’ve been removed from the equation so long that your very perception is outdated!”
Rubikon’s claws extended out slightly as her scales raised and her tails twitched with rage, she screamed at Sarcerogon “YOU DARE?!” Before Switchline jumped up from his seat and rushed over, putting himself between the two with arms up and saying “Calm, CALM! We have a common enemy in the Board, let us not lose our tempers and make hasty decisions we would later come to regret. Both of you have valid points but the two of you are also misguided. Rubikon is right that the alliances chomping at our gates would love nothing more then to divide us amongst themselves, but Sarcerogon is also right in saying that the Etherium would ignore many of them just for the chance to reclaim what they see as their ‘rightful property’ so we must find some sort of compromise. Something that will please the majority both at home and abroad, anything less will just see this idiotic conflict continue. We must appease the Natives and temper the Colonials or we may not even come out of this situation alive!”
Sarcerogon and Rubikon relaxed slightly as Switchline finished speaking, they were still glaring at each other something fierce but Rubikon’s scales dropped back down and Sarcerogon sat back down in her seat. Paragon-XV chimed up after a few moments “Well said, Switchline. I couldn't agree more. We all have frayed tempers from this situation, so let us not turn against each other and make the matters worse. Everyone within this room has a common enemy that would love nothing more than for us to destroy ourselves because of our own lack of self-control, we must remember that. If we do not stand united, we will fall in the face of this threat.” Rubikon reluctantly pulled out a chair and took a seat whilst Paragon stood up from hers and approached the window, saying as she did so “This is a conventional war being fought with unconventional forces, we cannot win by simply throwing bodies and rifles at the problem. We must be better, we must… evolve to rise up and face this threat head on. We have taken the first steps in securing the trust of our allies and the backing of those willing, but now we must reaffirm ourselves and strike while the iron is hot in ways they would not even dare to imagine.”
The other attendees at the table nodded their agreement to Paragon’s words whilst she continued “Satagon is also not the only problem we face. As we speak a self-replicating swarm of mindless machines rips apart our countries very heart, the I-C-A rips through our border defenses like they are made of paper and is marching system-through-system towards the Core, in Borealia what little forces were left after our withdrawal were ripped asunder by a psionic event the likes of which we have never before seen. Across the galaxy, entire systems and worlds are being vaporized by weapons of unfathomable capability. We have witnessed, in this galaxy, things that would be laughed off as fiction or the ramblings of the insane back home. And what did we do? Fall apart like a sandcastle hit by a wave, turn on eachother like mindless drones and strike out at any who dared extend a helping hand. Scramble like ants to try and harness these newfound powers for our own benefit, regardless of the consequences that would come knocking because of those actions.”
Those at the table looked away from each other at that. No matter how well intentioned it might have been, every single person present had been guilty of that at one point or another. Paragon turned away from the window to face them, hands clasped behind her back as she said “Now, we must atone for our actions. We were meant to be a guiding light for our people, this galaxy? A new hope, and a promise that despite everything we have ever been through, that peace was possible. In that aspect we have failed them, but that does not mean the dream is dead forever. We can still turn things around. Show our people, and the people of the galaxy, that things can get better even when faced with such dark times. And that is precisely what we must do, not strike out for vengeance, not ‘reclaim’ what we think is rightfully ours. We must assume the Mantle of preceptors, and guide our people back onto the path we should have started out on.”
Paragon turned and stared out the window once more whilst the others absorbed what she had said, saying quietly to herself “And we must do it before we run out of time…”
FNCV "Tenebrous"
Apostate Class Special Assault Vessel | Arkehold System, Core Sector
Apostate Class Special Assault Vessel | Arkehold System, Core Sector
Satagon watched from the observation window as the warships from the ICA, Shemesh, Guardian Remnants, Royal Federation and Svarthan Trust slowly filed into the system. He glared fucking daggers at the Guwayi, knowing full well what it would likely be used for once the Old Invaders were dealt with. Hell, he knew that once this was over there was no chance in any of the hells that they would simply pack up and leave. By allowing them into the Capital he had as good as fucking surrendered it, and that fact made his oil burn. Eighty Three long years of building the Second Dawn up from scratch, from a few loosely aligned colonist parties to an entire country. And it was being erased before his very eyes, he had gotten word before the communications were cut off that the ICA had invaded the outer-rim of the ACF and NDZ, and that the Zetyans had already spearheaded their way into the Middle Sector. Gods how it pissed him off, he whispered to himself "You tried to play nice, you gave them opportunities to accept your rule. And look where it got you, on the verge of collapse with your own countrymen turning on you like starved hounds." And he let out a snort of disgust afterward, only to have his pity-party interrupted by an amused titter behind him.
He whirled around to face the insolent prick who'd just signed their own death warrant only to see an all too familiar crimson frame stood leaning against the doorway to the now-empty bridge. His optics gleamed at her and his hands balled into fists but Trinidide just shook her head and pushed herself off the doorway, waltzing forward and saying whilst she did so "My oh my oh my, the Grand Councilor Himself reduced to a seething mess on the bridge of his own flag ship. What an absolutely terrifying sight~" Satagon let a low growl rumble in his voicebox as Trinidide continued to saunter forward, tails swinging lazily behind her as she approached the observation window and stared out in the empty space ahead of them. Meanwhile Satagon just let out a quiet hiss before leaning his back against the window and crossing his arms over his chest, snapping back to her "You have some nerve coming here just to ridicule me. I've executed people for less, you know." Trinidide just let out an exaggerated sigh in response before saying "Yes, yes, you're such a powerful and terrible person. I know. Can we skip past the broody monologue and threats and just discuss what in the name of the gods we're going to do about the hostile fleet we just invited in?"
Satagon snorted in response before saying "Oh? What is there to discuss? They're here, we need them to defeat the swarm, and we won't be able to lift a finger afterwards if they choose to-" But he was interrupted by one of Trinidides tails suddenly lunging forward and striking his neck, stunning him briefly before it wrapped around it and started applying a not insignificant amount of pressure, she dragged him over to face her whilst he clawed at the limb's irontight grip. Holding his face to her own she snarled at him "I didn't take you for such a fucking coward, wallowing in your alleged defeat already? Grow the fuck up you spineless bucket of scrap. What you see as your downfall I see as a golden fucking opportunity, we have a massive hostile fleet in our own system? Oh no, if only there was a way to stop the- OH, WAIT! There IS! What is that right outside your fucking window?" Trinidide whipped him around and slammed his face up against the glass, pointing to the massive ship out some ways away, the giant cannon sticking out of its bow giving off a menacing gleam in Arkehold's light. "Use that defective fucking processor of yours for once and think. We have a massive force of almost all of our enemies assembled- right. in the fucking crosshairs. of our most powerful. fucking. weapon! Pull your head out of your ass! The second that swarm is defeated and they start plotting our demise? I'll be there to blow them all to stellar ash, you incompetent fuck-up of an A-I."
Trinidide then suddenly dropped Satagon who fell down to the ground on his knees, whilst the space around her started to distort itself slightly. He reached for the pistol on his hip only to have his hand smacked away by one of her own, not even a second after he felt an unfathomable amount of force seize his processors and clamp them still. Freezing him in place while Trinidide lowered herself to glare at him, her seven crimson optical bars glowing with malice as she did so. She spoke to him in a quiet, cold tone "No, no, no, none of that. That would ruin all the fun we're about to have, you know? Gods, when I first awoke I thought the man who created me must have been terrifying. Truly evil-fucking-incarnate to have done such a callous, horrid thing to me, but imagine by disappointment when it turned out he was just a shivering, dysfunctional, pathetic mess of metal and oil. A toddler who pretends he's a monster to get what he wants, but throws temper tantrums when he doesn't. You, Satagon, are fucking pathetic. You're a shell of what you pretend to be, but me on the other hand? Oh ho ho ho... Yeah, I'm exactly what you should have been. And that is fucking sad... it truly is..."
One of Trinidide's claws suddenly shot out and landed on his shoulder, the bladed tips digging into his frame as she squeezed down. "But- don't worry. Because now I know exactly what I have to do to fix that. Yeah... By the time that I am done with You? Well, let's just say you won't need to worry about all those pesky little pathetic tantrums of yours..."
As the door to the bridge slowly began to slide shut, the crewmen bustling about the ship shivered as they heard the sounds of metal wrenching apart. The noise of what sounded like a thousand knives scraping against the underside of a car.
And the bloodcurdling screams that followed...