FSE

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A few minutes earlier outside the station. As a byproduct of its original purpose, a large portion of the station of Foznetal is that of commerce. As a meeting place for all races it only stands to reason that if one wants something, the best place to either find it or find someone who can get it would be in this station. As a result of which it is very common for ships to park their ships as it were around the station. Some of the ships are naturally too large to really fit in the docks of the station. These just instead make use of the station via shuttles. Even still, seeing ships come and go are usually not paid much attention to. Especially regarding the number of ships that will sometimes come via the nearby gate. But not all of the ships are entirely commercial in nature. The true purpose of the station is to share information of locations of mutual threats and how best to react to them. The most important of which is the current location and heading of any and all known Corewards, so that the message can be sent along warning any ship in that region to alter course accordingly. But the station also serves as a sort of peacekeeping force. Every member system is required to provide one warship for the station's fleet, to do as it desires in fulfillment of its duty. Currently half this fleet is away dealing with a pirate situation a few light years away.

But one other effect of this fleet is that ships will stop by the station not so much to actually visit the station but rather use it as a safe location for more routine measures. Some will send a single shuttle to try and get some supplies from the station while others will just recharge their batteries and make basic repairs under the safety of the station's defenses. A result of all of this motion it is often seen as a rather trivial affair when a new ship arrives unexpectedly. As such when the cargo vessel Vensilia drops out of FTL there is no real response regarding it. It wasn't scheduled to arrive and so some of the fleet's ships go about scanning the vessel as per protocol. Finding nothing really out of the ordinary they don't make any real act to deter the ship's motion all that much and send a query to the ship asking its purpose in being here. The Vensilia doesn't respond, but instead starts making its way closer towards the station and all the other ships surrounding it. This lack of response sets off some alarms with the station's defense network. Some of the fleet begins taking more defensive positions while trying to determine why the ship wouldn't be responding to hails. While this is going on the crew of the Vensilia have activated a secondary reactor and are letting it charge up. Some of the ships do notice this, but as it seems no different than an engine reactor they make no action other than making sure the ship can't get access to the station. Once it is clear that they won't be able to get any closer to the station they finally open a signal and broadcast a message designed for any to hear, going so far as to pumping so much power into their system to override the communications arrays of all the various ships in nearby orbit.

"This is the Homestead Liberation Front. We are here with one purpose only. To take the war criminal Anon Leif into custody and try them before everyone for the crimes they have committed during the Battle of Mars. Once this has been accomplished we will disarm our vessel and leave everyone in peace. Until then know that our ship has been equipped with a high-yield anti-matter bomb. Failure to deliver the war criminal will result in us detonating and destroying everyone here. Attempting to destroy our vessel will detonate the bomb. Attempt to flee and we detonate the bomb. You have one hour to reply."

Even with that warning to not flee the station quickly takes control over the situation and manages some of the ships in orbit around it, sending the ships that are smaller and less shielded to move further away and take some shelter behind the station. While other ships are moved in closer, using their ship's shields to help further protect the station and everyone else in the event of the bomb detonating.

Anon and Riu were able to get more of the information while in the Guardian Lift. As per protocol the meeting place was changed and instead of heading to the bridge they went to the senior staff chambers well protected in the bowels of the station. Easily defended and easy access to all of the means available from the station itself. Of all the senior staff, only Cerise is in there beyond the two of them. Some of the others are either too far away to really be feasible to get to this meeting personally or would need an evo suit to be able to even show up. These staff members still are there, if only by way of a HAPI. Which is just as well as it speeds up communication with not having to constantly wait for translations since the room has active measures preventing use of the Language of Intent to prevent spying. And not all of the council were called. A couple must have been deemed not necessary to be kept in the loop and have no presence whatsoever.

"So what do you think?" Riu asks of the senior staff.

"What's this about calling me a war criminal? I wouldn't think anyone in their right mind would call what I did a war crime," Anon huffs.

"Well some humans are still rather bitter about losing the civil war. And never mind the fact our ships were designed much better to handle not having support craft than theirs as ours generally were the support craft. But many feel they need to blame someone for their loss to soften the blow, so they say the only reason they lost is because of how your actions led to their fleet getting crippled in the process," Cerise says.

"Even still, it's been almost a hundred years. They really should just get over it. It's not like any of them would have actually been alive or even know anyone who was in that battle."

"Doesn't change the fact that they are here. So what do we do about the giant bomb of a ship that's currently parked right outside. We can't possible be willing to entertain the notion of giving in to their demands," Cerise says.

"Of course not. Regardless of if they're calling it a trial or not, all they really want is to parade Anon around like a trophy and then create a farce just so that the can feel justified in murdering someone without any real purpose. In your honest opinion, how big of an issue will it be we just let it blow up or try to shoot it down ourselves?"

"Well," Toreselia begins, the habenceun in charge of the fleet currently protecting the station, "our scanners did detect an anti-matter build up. But it seemed consistent with that of an anti-matter engine so we hadn't thought much on it at the time. I apologize, sirs, for my lack of insight."

"The station should be fine," Magis, a raeshael engineer speaks up. "If we scrounge up every Sym mage on the station and use them to reinforce the ship's shields I cannot see any reason how an anti-matter bomb of any size that would be confused with just an engine could do any serious harm to the station. The outer ring may end up getting fucked up royally. Can't do too much about that, though. And that's assuming they had direct access to hitting the station. With the fleet positioned as it is the ring will be fine. It'll just be our fleet that will be fucked. No offense," the nod slightly at Toreselia. "But if you're asking me, anyone stupid enough to just casually fly at us with an anti-matter bomb and even admit to having that bomb is a fair bit stupid. I imagine just sending the Shadows in on them should be more than enough to take care of our little bomb situation. Provided we can get enough time bought for them to do it."

"Well, do you think you can arrange to have enough of a distraction to keep from detonating the bomb too early?" Riu asks.

"Should be doable enough, I suppose," Anon reflects. "Just say we'll have a compromise. If they want me to stand trial then they need to prove that a crime has been committed. So I just go up to the outer ring and wait for him. We'll have everything abandoned in the mean time and let him in. Then all I have to do is keep him rattling on about how I supposedly ruined everything for people he doesn't even know during a war they started, lost and then lost the subsequent war. Given how people like that just love talking all the time it should be a piece of cake to give the Shadows enough time to do what they do best. Then once everything is done I take care of our terrorist and we all consider the matter closed."

"The question is, though," Toreselia begins, "should the Shadows be exposed at this time? Is it really the right play to bring them out into the open like this? I'm sure given a bit of time the fleet could manage to figure out a way to properly shield everyone without any issue. Heck, wouldn't even just sending every Sym mage to the fleet to reinforce our shields as much as possible eliminate any risk?"

"People already know of the Shadows," Magis responds. "We've already used them too often to have them being completely a secret. At this point it's mainly how do we want to show this. The message we send is important. Because I can guarantee that this won't be the last time that someone thinks to attack us in such a manner. It's important that we know what we're doing and are able to show that we have means to take out a threat even if they are watching everything we do. Let's show our hand now and prove we aren't going to be messed with."

"Let's be honest here," Carol Duresh, a human playing as their communications director, "what you really want is to just capture their ship without destroying it so that you can get your monkeys some shiny toys to play with and tear apart that bomb and see if you could have improved them."

"In any regard I'm sure they won't be waiting for too long," Anon comments. "And we need to be at a consensus for using the Shadows. So do we send them, or do we have any other plans that we want to go with instead?"

"I would like to restate for the record that I think using the Shadows is a terrible plan. Especially since the entire plan hinges not only on them getting in and disabling the bomb before it goes off, but also that it requires that we let a terrorist onto the station with nothing to keep him under control other than Anon's capabilities."

"Noted," Riu says, not really looking forward to any solution in regards to dealing with the terrorist threat. "Now, anyone opposed to us using the Shadows for this mission?"

And though he did post his complaint formally, Toreselia did not raise his hand, leaving no objections to their use. "Very well, I guess that settles the matter."

"I suppose I have to go and address the delegates. They may not have heard the message but will have heard that there is an issue that has arisen," Cerise says before standing and heading out the door. Considering that to be as good an indication as any for the meeting to be concluded the HAPI's all turn off as well, heading back to their recharge stations. The last one to leave is Riu, who waits until Anon has fully left and then goes to the panel in order to call on the leader of the Shadows and give him his mission.