NationStates Jolt Archive

Onboard SIS Eveii Moon

The massive Command Dreadnought roled to level itself on the Sebecean Standard X plane. Her main engines cut out, and she began gliding in the asteroid field, with an occasional burst of thrust to avoid collison. This is where she would be, just outside of the Star Zero system. They had passive sensor probes in the system and many paid bandits and mercs in the nearby system. The Eveii Moon waited, with a smaller ship attached to it, the Imperial Flagship.

A small object exited the Eveii Moon, and flew away from it before jumping off. It was headed for the Headquarters of a organization that the Sebecean Imperium was allied with, the -----.

xCC23I--S-ENCRYPTED-CODE
Members of the ----, to stage our assault on the people of Star Zero, we must refine our plan. Meet us at the location which will be transmitted after the end of this message.
TRANSMITTING-ENCRYPTED-NAVDATA

Contracts are difficult to come by when establishing a name as an interstaller force in anything and thus, the service provider, the shadowly coalition of espionage (and rumoured to be other, invietnably darker things). Thus it was, a ship was entrusted to the co-ordinates, and it arrived with barely a sign to mark it's sudden prescence. It was just, there, fully armed and quickly readjusting itself to the new surroundings so as to carry out the preassigned objective, that being to negotiate a deal and lay down the foundations for the terms of that deal to be fufilled.

The vessell was something completely new to the races of this region, and given the immense amount of counter-ops, scanning and whatever measures the buyer, Setian Sebbecians, the forces behind The Trust, be they legally recegnised nations, terrorist unions, mercenary groups or otherwise, were reasonably confident in maintaining the secrecy behind the purchase of the service. It would not go well for anyone involved for others to be listening, as galatic backlashes tend to follow wars.

When it arrived, the message was returned in a similar code, a cypher that constructed itself from a pile of gibberish nonsense once acessed by the setians, to form the following message.


You have requested our services. This will not come cheap. Outcomes of the actions you have performed have increased the price of the services, due to risk to our persons. This will result in a doubling of the price requested, for both placing teams under risk (armed warfare occuring BEFORE our action is taken, rather than after as you implied) and double over this, for our own reasons. Nonetheless, this is still a price cheaper than you would get from far more incompetent fools. Are you still prepared to pay?.

We will pay, and pay well. But aquire the girl, and bring her to the emperor- and he will shower you in credits. If you fail, worse may occur. Just get the girl so nothing else has to happen...

Across the confines of the ship, the thinly veiled threats were treated with a mixture of amusement and quiet smiles, almost as if one were consulting with a child that was simply incapable of stepping up to the level of the "big boys club". Alexander at his father's knee was one catchphrase thrown around by the crew.

We have the target. You have the money. Make the swap quickly, we have other clients to serve even as we speak and time wasted is money wasted, which is ... terribly inefficient.
Assuming this went to plan, the figures inside the trust machine could keep their campaigns and reasons secret, guiding every path to be played in this plot with a guiding master-stroke. Their means and ends? well, nobody actually knew that beyond the trust itself without being attached to them, or leaking vital fluids from a mortal injury.

The Emperor was pleased, it was now time to bring her in...

We are sending coordinates for the exchange. You will land on the Battlecruiser Heirarch make the exchange. Sebecean officials will make a quick ID of the subject. Thank you.

You could call the resultant episode of communication throughout the vessel "tittering", or perhaps "quiet amusement". Either way, it was not up to the Setian-Sebbecians to state the terms of this agreement in such a manner. Futhermore, landing your ship on a possible enemy, and first time business partner's territory is hardly an intelligent way to do dealings. No, this would be done on netural ground.

We will not enage it what could be a fruitful partnership on uneven ground, it is unfair to both nations. This is a first contact episode, and as such, until we "fully get to know each other", we will take this changeover in neutral ground. We are launching a vessel with the target, and it will either deliver the girl as a cargo container for your assessment, or we will meet one of your shuttles, so as to preserve our equality on this operation.

If that little request really gives you excessive amounts of unavoidable trouble in the highest degree, we'll remove a portion of the cost. Nobody can say the trust never gave you options, eh?

We will send a frigate to this [data] neutral, remote, system. No price changes will be made.

There was no message of acceptance, simply the ships's slow and stately approach to the co-ordinates. given. In the meantime, the crew continued to run through preparations .... such as readying the target for the handover. A seperate bank account (carefully screened to ensure the money ever reaching the invisible backers beyond the trust) had been prepared, screened and line up for the transmission.

One might even say things were going to plan.