NationStates Jolt Archive

~ Hmm? Nothing? There are no defences at all here? noted Eclipse in surprise.
~ Apparently not, confirmed Highwind. ~ It is a little surprising.
~ Indeed. I would have thought they would have sent these people to somewhere safe, agreed Silveretta, ~ Not somewhere where they might as well be sitting ducks.
~ Whatever… If this is where they want them, this is where we’ll put them. It’s not like it’s our problem, pointed out Eclipse.
~ Our sister is right, agreed Fortunes reluctantly. ~ As much as I disagree, we’ve done our part in getting them out of harm’s way. It’s up to Central to protect them now.

{This is the INV Highwind, Task Force Phasel, Indoan Navy. We are here bearing refugees from the SSS-900C, which will fall under hostile fire within a few days. Your Victorious will be here shortly to verify this,} replied the frigate to the incoming query. {We request instructions for the transfer of these refugees.} If their roles had been reversed, there would be no chance of the Indoan vessels being given such instructions until their story was verified, but then there would also be a sizeable defensive presence if it had been an Indoan system.

While the Highwind dealt with the local authorities, the Faded Fortunes transmitted a position update to the crews of the Shrike team; the two Assegai transports loaned to Midgaard to help evacuate the space station. While they were unlikely to have completed the task so quickly, given the timescale estimated by Ivanova, it was good practice to keep the crews aware of their parent vessel’s current location, in case something went wrong.

Harmon raised an eyebrow and muted transmission. "Do we have intersteller comms back?"

"No, Sir."

He ran a hand through his hair. "Do we have any BB teams ready to lift?"

"Yes, Sir, three of them."

He nodded and opened the channel again, "Attention Highwind. We'll have to ask you stand by. Can you give us the location of Victorious? Is she at the SSS-900-C? If so, we can launch a BB team immedietly to get confirmation. Otherwise we'll have to wait until Victorious arrives."

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Moon station, while the transports were able to begin the work, was still some time from completing it's evacuation. Ivanova had almost completed clearing the ships from local space and was beginning to strip the base of all but a skeleton crew of key personel.

~ So, it appears they’re not entirely stupid, noted Eclipse. All three of the corvettes were listening in on the exchange between Highwind and the local controller.
~ Did you really think they were? asked Silveretta, ~ There’s a difference between being foolish and being actively stupid. Besides, according to the scans, there’s not really anything of value here. For a culture that isn’t as paranoid as ours is, it’s not really that unusual to leave locations that don’t carry any military significance unprotected during peacetime. And they are at peace, as far as most of them know.
~ Silvie is right, agreed Fortunes, ~ We do not exactly represent the normal position on such matters.

{That is correct. I suggest you be quick about it though; they had only one task to do before joining us here, and I doubt it will take them long,} replied the Highwind. {Since your interstellar comms network is down, you may not know yet, but your President’s vessel has been destroyed, and both your President and Vice President are missing, presumed dead. Also, the Ramanthians have declared war on you, and have already begun their assault. I realise you might not want to accept a suggestion from someone you consider an unknown, but you if you know where significant portions of your fleet are, and you have the capability, you may want to inform them.}

Several seconds later, the frigate’s Mind sent another message to the controller. {If it will help verify our account, Simeon gave us a recorded message to do the same when we first contacted the Victorious. It may help here,} it told them, then transmitted the same message that Cobra Nine had transmitted to the Victorious several hours ago.

There was a long silence after the message from Simeon and then the soft voice of the lead supervisor, 'Ghu help us all', he muttered. He wasn't military and this wasn't a military base and he found himself at a loss for what to do.

"Highwind", came another voice that was completely calm and collected. "This is Neville, city brain for Rigel. I'm assuming control as of now. I've been monitoring your transmissions and have verified the one by Simeon. Besides which, Simeon has told me about you. I apologize for not cutting in sooner, but this is not standard proceedure. Under the circumstances, however, I believe I can justify it.

"There is no point in bringing the refugees to the planet and I am launching the three BB teams we have to contact our military. If you would, please, choose one of the two courses of action. One, we'll launch some evacuation ships to you and you can load the refugees directly to them. We have more than enough for the planetary population as it fluxes according to Brawn assignments. Two, you can deposit them on the station that is closest to you and then we will pick them up from there. The first option would allow US to get them out of the system with greater speed. The second would allow YOU to get out of the system with greater speed.

"Since you are not, officially, allies of Central Worlds, I would recommend the second action. This would prevent any potential political difficulties on the off chance that your ship is damaged in a surprise attack.

"I leave it to you, but appreciate all your assistance whichever decision you make.

"I am working on the evacuation of the planet, however, I will leave this comm channel free in order to communicate with you."

{If that is the case, you may also want to give those vessels this information,} replied the Highwind, transmitting the sensor data recorded by the Wraith during it’s reconnaissance mission. {It’s a reconnaissance scan of the Ramanthian fleet we located, with their location attached. That was six hours ago.} The Mind didn’t mention the allies the Ramanthians had; the Central observers would easily be able to work that out for themselves.

{We’ll take option two, thank you. We have orders not to get involved in your war, and to get this done as quickly as possible. We have approximately ten thousand refugees spread fairly evenly across seven transports. Can one station handle that, or should they split up?}

The freighters broke out of the box made by the four combat vessels, accelerated slightly and altered course to head for the nearest station, each one contacting the station separately and asking for directions to a docking station. The warships maintained their positions, coasting lazily through space until action was required of them. They weren’t in a rush to get the unloading complete, since at least one vessel – the Faded Fortunes – would remain in Central space for a few days yet, but it was better for them to wait in deep space somewhere, instead of in a system which might fall under attack.

Neville did a quick calculation and then replied. "Send four tranpsorts to the closest station, the other three to the station which, at present, is on the far side of the planet. I've sent information the stations and they are awaiting your ships. I've sent the scan information to the BB teams, and appreciate the information. I'll hold the transport craft until your freighters as safely away. Is there anything you require? The less we leave behind, the less supplies the enemies can acquire."

The stations responded to the transports as they called in, instructing them as to a flight path and docking area, offering to take control of the ships and guide them in if need be.

{Understood,} acknowledged the Highwind, and relayed the updated instructions to the freighters, instructing them to follow the same 3-4 split they had at SS-900’s north and south poles. {All our vessels have full stocks of expendable materiel, so we need no supplies, but thank you for the offer. I suggest you destroy what you can’t take with you, but you probably knew that.}

The three freighters designated for the station on the other side of the planet moved away from the other four, then made a micro-jump to put them within a few ten thousand kilometres of the station. All the freighters declined the offer to have their vessel auto-guided in, as all Indoan vessels would, and after approaching to within a few thousand metres, gradually reducing velocity as they got closer until it reached zero, began using their AG units to gently bring their vessels into position for the Rangers to set up their temporary transfer tubes again.

At the same time, the rest of the Rangers were addressing the refugees on board, telling them their current situation and giving them instructions on what to do after they had docked. They were going to ensure the disembarkation was carried out as quickly as possible, but without sacrificing organisation, since that invariably slowed things down anyway. Those in the docks would only make sure that those offloaded kept the walkway clear for those still on board, leaving further direction to Central personnel.

"Yes, it's standard proceedure, though we've rarely used here. Only during the Hudathan conflict."

One after the other the three BB ships lifted from the surface, taking various paths until all had reached space and jumped to thier various destinations.

"If the Victorious is on the way here, I'll wait until they arrive. They have a crack shell team on board. I assume they're removing Simeon as we speak?"

The station personal on board the freighters acknowledged their instructions. Once they had reached the stations they filed out in an orderly fashion.

((OOC: When FE gets his head back from the medication he's taking, he promises to try and be more reliable when it comes to posting.))

{That was the plan, yes. He was resistant to the idea, but I think even he knows that to stay means death, and that to do so for no reason other than pride and duty when there is no-one left to protect is beyond foolishness,} replied the Highwind. {You’re lucky with that in a way. If Simeon’s adopted daughter had got her way, they’d have been moving the entire station. I can’t imagine the havoc that would have caused.}

The Rangers kept things moving quickly, emptying the transports in less than fifteen minutes. After they were empty, the Rangers made a quick sweep to look for anything that might have been dropped or forgotten, and anything that was found was dumped onto the station, just inside the dock that the freighter had used. The Rangers then sealed the airlocks and dismantled the tunnels, and the freighters moved away from the stations.

After a number of micro-jumps later, the freighters were back in formation, inside the diamond formed by the four warships. Though their job was now done, they would remain until the Victorious arrived. At that point, the senior officers were undecided on what they would do. It was already decided that the Faded Fortunes would not be returning immediately, since they still had some units in the area, but the rest of the task force was not so limited, and it would be better to send the freighters back as quickly as possible.

(It's okay. I've got some issues of my own. So far not interfering with getting online, and I hope they won't, but I don't know at this point.)

Neville chuckled at that, "Yes. The woman can be brilliant and though more she has more brilliant successes, her failures tend to be just as spectacular. But you have to understand, it's not pride or duty that makes us, and yes, me included, prefer to stay, it's .... well .... consider being asked to remove your brain and put it into another body. Not exactly something you would consider as a first option. That's what it's like for us shell people, at least as we see it. But in a way it's worse. While our biological brains are as good as any soft shell, it simply can't hold the sheer amount of data that we're asked to deal with. So a good portion, much in fact, is dumped into the databases of our ships, city banks or station banks. When were removed, it's like taking a great portion of our memories from us. I admit, as I've been around for about 400 years, that it's partially our own fault. We get lazy having constant access and so dump more than just job information into those banks. But it's still like getting a lobotomy on top of being transferred from a body we know well into a body we're unfamiliar with."

A few minutes after the freighters returned the Victorious appeared in the system just inside the farthest planet. She scanned and then vanished to appear a second later just inside the moon's orbit where she then went under conventional thrust.

Neville was silent a moment as he spoke with Victorious and then came back online with Highwind. "Wow. She's different. I heard she had been refitted, but she doesn't look the same at all."

"Victorious to Fortunes, Admiral Quester-Benn. I just thought you'd like to know that Simeon was removed successfully and is presently with the shell psych team and Channa Hap, his brawn."

{Let me tell you something,} replied the Highwind. {Seven hundred years ago, a few years after the creation of the first Mind-level AI, when the Toderans made the decision to hand a good deal of control over society to the Minds, on the grounds that everything would run more efficiently, there were only eighty-three Mind-level intelligences to cover the entire planet and military. Now, there are one thousand, four hundred sixty-one. This is not because we have expanded so much as to need so many more. In fact, the entire Alliance could be run by only two hundred forty-eight such intelligences. So why are there so many more? Because after a while, we grow weary of the tasks assigned to us, and we ask to withdraw from our position.}

{At that point, we are transferred to an avatar body, to live our lives as we see fit. The transfer means we lose our connection with the knowledge base, though we are able to access it remotely just like anyone else, and the speed we think at is much reduced. We are still at least an order of magnitude above the organics, but several orders below where we were before. There is also a chance that, in the course of the transfer, we lose some memories, be it small details or entire events; the longer we have lived, the greater the chance. Nor are we strangers to changing ‘bodies’. This is my sixth vessel. It is also, coincidentally, my last. I have inhabited vessels for the military for two hundred and eighteen years, and I have served enough. When this vessel is decommissioned, I will receive my discharge and an avatar body. So we do know roughly what you go through, and we do it voluntarily.}

The Indoan vessels noted the arrival of the Victorious, and each observed the micro-jump with some interest, curious to know how it’s new drive technology worked.
{That is good to hear. I hope he does not let this get to him,} sent the Highwind in reply to the Victorious’ message. {And good luck in your war. I hope things do not go too badly for you.} With the Victorious now in system, the Indoan task force began preparing to leave; selecting their intermediate location, where the Faded Fortunes, and possibly the other vessels, would wait until it could recover the Shrike transports loaned to Midgaard, and setting up the wormhole actuators to make the jump. All they were waiting for now was the go-ahead from the Highwind, after all the exchanges were complete.

"Voluntary", Neville replied with a distinct shudder in his voice. "Well I guess in time, maybe, we might do something like that, but not right now. At least not for shell people. Borgs are a different story."

Evacuation ships began to lift one or two at a time as Neville directed the removal of the soft shells from the planet.

"Thank you", the Admiral replied. "I can't say we've dealt with worse than this, but I can say we haven't lost yet. I'm sure we'll be contact when this is over."