| Wings of the Dragon | ||
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| Summary: A small fleet suddenly arrives in orbit. But while it's not in anyone's records, one ship's captain knows these ships, and their admiral, very well. Who: Alexa_Donovan, Artanis, Jack_Karrde, Violet When: December 18th, 2016 Where: Orbit over NeoTokyo    |
Despite the otherwise quiet in the starship, one can be certain that there is always something going around here, even if it just in the background. Case in point; the bridge lights up as a very alarmed looking Artanis is beamed into the ship and briskly walks towards Violet. "En Taro Adun!" Greets the Protoss. "Executor, if I may have a moment of your time." And yes, part of Jack's fleet appeared mainly the Battlestar Athena itself. And the massive warship moves into a graceful orbit over Earth. Weapons and everything stood down, just a standby for now. This is NeoTokyo, and with the revelations of those other galaxies and what is in them, the man called Jack Karrde knows the shoe can drop. "Falcon..prep the Millennium." he says as he walks down a corridor. "I'll beam over to the Phoenix and meet Violet, see if I can get some more info about that ship she found." he says to the brunette walking next to him. With a nod Falcon hmms, "A YT-2400..and I think I know that ship from somewhere from the files and vids sent." she says with a thoughtful look on her face. Nodding Jack sighs, "Well, we'll find out soon enough." and he pulls out his comlink and thumbs it, "Athena Actual to Phoenix. Violet you there?" Violet looks up at Artanis. "What? I mean, of course, Artanis, what's the pro-" As the comm light lights up, she holds up a hand to him and picks up the comm. "Phoenix here... Oh! Hey, Pops! You came into system yourself?" She actually looks surprised by this, then looks over her shoulder at Artanis. "Of course, when it rains, it pours, I've now got two people vying for my attention." The Protoss seems about ready to continue, but when the message comes in that they are being hailed by another ship, he instead pauses and shakes his head. "It is of no matter, Executor. I can wait until you are finished with this business." And that familiar chuckle comes over the comm, "Falcon wanted to see the ship for herself and I am one of the best when it comes to Star Wars tech. So yeah, figured I'd give it a once over. Anyway..clear a bay for me, I'm coming over in my fighter. See you in a bit." and he closes down the comm link and he goes to head to the port hanger pod after sending a message to have his 27 prepped for flight. Violet nods with a smile at the comm, then looks up at Artanis. "Well, I guess we'll have visitors soon. Can you contact the port bay to have them make sure they have space cleared for him?" She's the one on primary bridge duty at the moment, so she turns her gaze towards the viewports once again. And just as she does so, relatively close to the Phoenix(from an orbital perspective, at least) a starburst pattern suddenly erupts in the middle of space. As it grows, a hole seems to appear in the center... from which a ship nearly two kilometers long emerges, a smaller ship of just over half a kilometer long at its side. The larger ship seems to be elegantly crafted, almost sculpted along the length, with three notable equally elegantly crafted and delicate looking(until you remember the scale of the ship) spurs on each side, which shift slightly as the ship begins to orientate itself along with the orbit of the planet, revealing their articulated manner. The other ship has less of a single solid hull, rather having a series of rings with hull segments attached, smaller in the front to larger in the back. The sides each house what appear to be small hangar bays, while along the top seems to be the command structure. Spaced along the rings as well are long, delicately curving thinner segments that seem to be of similar structure to those on the larger ship, though do not appear to be articulated. At the rear of both ships are large, crescent-moon structures that seem to house the main engines of their respective vessels. "Understood." Artanis nods and access his comm link telepathically to contact the port bay crew. "Attention port bay. This is Officer Artanis. Have a docking station cleared for an arriving ship." And like that the warning alarm goes off in the Athena as the voice of the Officer on Watch hits the alarm, "Dradis Contacts." and the XO, looks at the holo screens, "Look at the size of them." One alone is twice the size of the Athena. And he shakes it off and begins snapping off orders, "Hail them..find out who they are? I want Alert Fighters ready to deploy. Full Action Stations! And see if the Commodore has left the ship yet!!" Jack, who's almost to the hanger pod stops as he hears the Condition One alert go out. And he takes off heading to CnC as other crewmen run to their posts. Falcon also blinks as her link to the Athena shows her the ships and she begins to attempt to match them up to ships in her extensive database. And she herself 'rezzes' into the CnC. The ship outside forms six ribbons of visible energy around it, initially coinciding with where the articulate spines are. The ribbons quickly wrap themselves around both of the unidentified ships. After a moment, an open comm message comes up, sound only. "This is TDS Wings of the Dragon and TDS Eagle Flare. We have no hostile intentions," comes a slightly tense sounding male voice. The way the energy ribbons do highly suggest a defensive posture rather than anything offensive. The ribbons rearrange themselves again after a moment, giving a few more layers between the two ships and the more nearby Phoenix, as well as the larger Athena. Meanwhile, on the bridge of Phoenix, Violet just stares out the viewport at the ships for a moment, her jaw actually a little slack. It takes a moment, but she finally lets out a mild curse, thankfully not on comms. And coming into the CnC Jack goes to the plotting table and hmms as he hears the message. And he looks at the holo screens. Those ribbons..defensive shields of a sort. "Falcon." he says as he assumes command, "Search the database, find out about those names." he says as he grabs a handset and he nods to the comm officer, "Attention TDS Wings of the Dragon and TDS Eagle Flare. This is Admiral Jack Karrde of the Battlestar Athena. Would you please state your intentions so we may try to help you with them." And he looks at what the sensor readouts on the ships. Yep, those ribbons are shields..and the big one masses about as much as the Athena. Good. And yeah, if they scan the Athena they'd find the ship is highly advanced. The process of adaptation is a long and tedious one. The Spear of Adun, to say nothing of the Golden Protoss Armada, would have shrugged off ships like these as if they were gnats. But it takes a full fraction of a second for Artanis to realize he's not in his capital ship surrounded by Carriers and Void Rays. "By Adun! How did they get so close without our sensors detecting them!?" He listens the message as the unidentified ships introduce themselves and state they aren't hostile, though the Heirarch isn't taking any chances. "Port Bay, have my VF on stand by!" Then he's turning to Violet. "Your orders, Executor. I am ready to lead our fighters if necessary." Violet has by now face palmed. "No, Artanis... stand down, I'm pretty damn sure they're actually not hostile." The comm officer from the other ships speaks again. "Our intentions are a simple search mission for- I-I'm sorry, stand by a moment." The officer on the other end actually sounded confused and rather surprised at something, possibly something going on on his own bridge. Meanwhile, on Phoenix's bridge, Violet's hand is covering over the comms herself. After a sigh, she hits it. "This is Lt. Commander Violet Karrde of NTSDF Phoenix. All forces, stand down. The ships are recognized and not hostile. Repeat, stand down, they are not a threat." Taking her finger from the transmit button, she looks back at Artanis again. "...When it rains... it pours..." And Falcon and Jack look at each other at the weirdness going on on the other end. And also Violet's actions. "Falcon..I think Violet knows these people." he says calmly as he looks at the XO, "Colonel..stand down to Condition Two. But I want us to be ready for anything." he says as he looks at the holo screens and the two ships. "....And I do mean anything." he says as the Athena's main batteries swing down to 'rest position'. "Yes..makes me wonder what Violet knows about them." the ACI says as she looks at the ships also. "If they were in the database I could attempt a cyber scan of their files. But.." she hmms, "..And I think they're looking for Violet." Artanis crosses his arms, not looking overly pleased with the decision. Its clear that he's in quite a blood thirsty mood though that is a standard procedure for a Protoss such as himself. "As you wish, Executor." He eventually relents and keeps on watching the development. After a few moments, the comm opens up again. "Lt. Commander Violet Karrde..." It seems the comm officer is speaking a bit cautiously now. "The Admiral is requesting your presence aboard Wings of the Dragon." They actually seem to be ignoring the larger Athena for the moment, or at the very least aren't as concerned with it. Violet's left eye twitches slightly. "I'm sure she is." Well, her assumption that the admiral is female certainly another clue that Violet knows exactly who she's talking to. "I don't suppose she wants to talk to our admiral at all, does she?" she says with actually a bit of venom in her voice. With her finger off the comm again, she looks back at the clearly tense Artanis. "Artanis... we're not fighting that that fleet. As much as... their vaunted admiral pisses me off, they're not threat." She looks down at the comms board and switches over to a tighter frequency to contact Athena. She doesn't transmit just yet, though, looking a bit pensive herself. After a moment, she finally opens up the comm. "Hey, uh... Don't worry about this. I guess it's something I have to deal with." The Protoss Hierarch frowns very profusely as he starts to piece everything together. It appears Violet has a history with these ships and their crew, and judging by her expression is not an entirely pleasant one. "It doesn't take a telepath to sense your anger, Executor. If this acquaintance of yours bears you any ill then you should at least let me accompany you. It could be a trap." And Jack hmms and heads off to the side as he grabs a headset and flicks it on to a secure channel, "Violet, who the hell are they?" he says to her as he looks at the ships. But he's not expecting a answer. Yeah, they listened in, and one call tell the mood in the CnC is 'tense', they know Violet is their Commander's first born. And he has Falcon send a message to the rest of his fleet, if they're gonna play this game..well, they'll find out he doesn't play..he cheats. "Falcon..have them take the long way...less chance of being detected." Yeah, he's planning. He has a feeling this is gonna turn into a stand off. Violet looks over at Artanis for a moment, then nods, suddenly looking more tired. "Right. No problem, I guess it makes sense." She listens in on Jack's comm to her before sighing and responding. "They're the 2nd Avian Fleet's two Dragonships." She pauses a moment again before sighing again, deciding it's probably best to not hide the following. "Their admiral's Mom." Artanis cracks his knuckles and though he has no mouth Violet will be able to tell he is smiling. Yes, he is very much hoping this is a trap, he's been itching to sharpen his psi blades on things lately ever since Hisako's investigation started. All work and no killing make Artanis a dull Protoss. On the Last Battlestar, the man called Jack Karrde is silent from that bombshell for a moment. And he knows Falcon's looking at him worried. Sure she came along after Maniko died/left/ran..whatever. But she knows the story, she knows that was the moment where Jack became something different, something else and how long it took to heal and it worries her to see this happen. Jack takes a deep breath, "Take a comlink with you Violet. I want to hear everything said." and he looks at Falcon as he sends her a message via his implants 'Record it all'. Yes, he's plotting something..., his mind going a mile a minute as he works out plans and everything. Once he drops the line with Violet he looks at the CnC crew, "I want to find out what those shields are composed of. Layout of the ships. Hull materials everything." and he looks at the holo images hovering over the Plotting table, "I want them 15 seconds ago." and he looks at Falcon, ".. Violet takes a deep breath and nods before realizing she's still on voice only with Jack. "Right. Of course." She doesn't think for a minute that the conversation won't be recorded, it's a given to her. Closing that comm channel as Jack drops it, she opens up the line to Wings of the Dragon again. "Very well. I will be over with a small retinue of my staff. Lower your shields in five minutes and prepare for our arrival in the conference room. Former Captain Hurris out." She cuts the signal there, then turns to look at Artanis again. "Get Ensign Hikoma up here to cover the bridge, then find and get Ensign Donovan to the transporter room. I need to explain to the engineer just where he's going to transport us in the meantime." She smirks slightly as she stands up, knowing full well that in her mother's universe there's no such thing as the transporters that Phoenix uses to transfer crew, and walks on to the leave the bridge. "As you command, Executor." Nods the Protoss and proceeds to carry out the orders. Getting Ensign Hikoma to the bridge should prove easy enough, given their enthusiasm, and sure enough Artanis sends out telepathic commands to the Ensign's commlink issuing them to get to the bridge. Donovan on the other hand might prove more challenging as Artanis does not know her very well despite the closeness to the Captain. He decides to try the commlinks first before rushing off into a wild goose chase. "Ensign Donovan, this is Officer Artanis. We require your presence at the bridge." As soon as the doors to the bridge open, there stands Alexa, smiling, about to step onto the bridge herself. "I was already on my way, Artanis." She smiles at Violet. "My shift was just comin' up anyway, and.. " she tilts her head as she looks at Violet. She knows when something's going not right with her fiancee. " What's wrong, and what can I do to help... she looks at the other crew members on the bridge. "Ma'am?" As soon as the doors to the bridge open, there stands Alexa, smiling, about to step onto the bridge herself. "I was already on my way, Artanis." She smiles at Violet. "My shift was just comin' up anyway, and.. " she tilts her head as she looks at Violet. She knows when something's going not right with her fiancee. " What's wrong, and what can I do to help... "she looks at the other crew members on the bridge. "Ma'am?" Violet blinks and takes a step back as Alexa is right there before she can step off. "Well then." She looks over her shoulder at Artanis again. "Meet us in the transporter room as soon as Ensign Hikoma arrives." She steps through the doorways and, as said doorway closes behind her, takes Alexa's hand in her own. Another sign that things are odd, she tends not to do that when on duty. "Well. You probably saw those ships, right? Well, I'm off to go meet with their admiral. And I figured, 'hey, why not get two birds with one stone and bring you along so you can meet her too.' You know, finishing off the whole 'meeting the parents' thing and all." She offers Alexa a weak smile before making her way over to the transporter room. As she's walking, her free hand grabs her personal comlink as well, opening it up to call Jack again. "Hey, um... I forget, do you have transporters too? I can send over the coordinates for where the conference room is, if you want. I mean... if you want to talk to her. If not, I get it, really." And on in the Athena's CnC Jack is looking at the info he's gotten and hrming as Violet's call comes through. Putting on that headset he steps off to the side he thinks for a moment, "She made it clear she doesn't want to talk to me." he says in response. And if she's expecting any hurt in his tone, she'll be disappointed. "Honestly I'm glad you didn't turn out like her." he says with a slightly amused and fond tone, "Besides...I don't trust her so I'll stay here in..just in case." Artanis' glowing blue eyes widen at Alexis when she arrives. "A timely appearance, Ensign." He looks down at Violet when she looks over her shoulder to glance at him and nods to her orders. "Very well, I will there with post haste." The Protoss then turns back to oversee the bridge as the door closes behind Violet, awaiting the arrival of Ensign Hikoma. He does notice the worried looks the bridge give him and he rolls his head on his shoulders as if limbering up before a fight. "Worry not, I will ensure nothing happens to our Captain." Alexa squeezes Violet's hand, hoping it's reassuring. "Your mother, huh? I mean, your bio mom, right?" she nods a little. "Right. So I should be glad I brought my gun, right?" She does make sure nobody's watching before leaning over and kissing Violet on the cheek. Violet frowns slightly at the tone and words of Jack's response. "She won't attack, Pops. It's not her style.... we're not a threat to the Tyrian Empire. She's.... untrustworthy on a personal relationship scale... not on a military threat scale." She looks like she might be about to thumb the communicator off, but instead just puts it just under her uniform jacket, pinning it to the shirt she has underneath. Sure, it's going to be fairly loud with excessive noise on Jack's end, but it's about all that she can do with it to make sure it stays on when she's on the other ship. She leans a bit into Alexa after the kiss to her cheek, but shakes her head. "I don't think it'll be needed." They arrive at the transporter soon enough, and she lets go of Alexa's hand just after the door opens and makes her way over to the transporter room. She goes on to describe the location of the conference room aboard the engineer there, who thankfully has already brought up a crude hologram of the ship. "Okay, as soon as they take their shields down, transport us over." She makes her way over to the transporters, expecting Artanis there momentarily. Hikoma has been fairly reliable lately, afterall. Much unlike his predicessor. Yeah, keep telling yourself that Violet. Jack thinks, there's only one reason she's here in such force. A search? Of course, but he doubts that Maniko would let her 'daughter' go like this. So yes, he doesn't trust her in the slightest. "Falcon." and he pulls off the headset and sets it down, "...She has a comline open. Record everything also let me know if it seems like she's gonna try something." and he hits a comline as he picks up a handset, "..Micheals..we still have that old Heavy Raider in storage? We do..good. I want it prepped with a auto pilot function." and he looks at the readouts. Lovely thing about BSG jump drives..it's almost a teleportation effect. Sure enough, it takes no time for reliable Hikoma to take command of the bridge leaving Artanis free to go escort Violet. The tall Protoss warrior arrives at the transporters shortly after and, well, it looks like he made a short trip to the armory because he's wearing even more armor than usual. "I am prepared!" He says excitedly and punches his palm with his fist. Alexa nods a little. "Better safe 'n' sorry, darlin'. I ain't riskin' anything happenin' to you. Ever." she says sternly as they walk to the transporters. The engineer watches as Artanis steps up to the pad and then nods. "Just in time, Sir. They're lowering their shields now." He looks over the three before saying, "Transporting now." When the light fades, the three find themselves in a fairly large conference room. The people in the room look like they're in a bit of a panic, nearly all of them looking at the spot where the three arrived. "Oh, calm down, I told you we were coming!" says Violet with a bit of a grin. She looks about the room and, before long, spots the red haired young looking woman as she enters the room. She wants very much to grab for Alexa's hand again, but she's going to stay professional here, damnit! The red-haired woman pauses as she sees Violet, then approaches. "Admiral Hurris," says Violet before the woman can get a word in. "I apologize for the circumstances that lead to my effective desertion, but they were out of my control. Unfortunately for you, I am at my actual home now, and I have no intention of rejoining the fleet." The woman, clearly the admiral despite her visually young age, slumps her shoulders slightly as she frowns. "Well... I suppose I should have expected that from the name you gave when you were on the comms, shouldn't I have?" Alexa stands next to Violet quietly. She listens intently, and is rather guarded, just in case. Her hands are folded across her chest loosely, just in case she needs to reach for her weapon. When they are transported in, Artanis makes a point to stand by close to Violet and Alexa trying not too appear overly protective but still very imposing at the same time. He keeps his arms crossed over his chest, glowing blue eyes scanning those present along with this woman known as Maniko Hurris. So this woman must be the Captain's mother, hm? Now the plot is starting to make sense to him. Nevertheless, he continues scanning the area, both with his eyes and mentally, sensing if any of Maniko's group may be fighters. While the group around are definitely military, they don't appear to be much for combat in a physical sense, other than the obvious guards that came in with the admiral. From a human standpoint, they look well armed and physically in good contition, though Artanis could likely take them on fairly easily if it came down to it. "Yes. You should. Let me guess, the only reason you've come here is to try to track down a 'promising Dragonship captain,' am I right? I'm not going back. This is my home, mother. You remember the city down below, don't you?" She offers a tense smile to Maniko, which, combined with the tone of voice, gets a reaction from one of the guards. That reaction is quickly stemmed, however, by a motion of Maniko's hand. "I... yes. That would be a large part of it, yes. It's why I have the ships, at the very least." She steps up to Violet, looking up at her with a slightly troubled look. "But we didn't know where we were going. We had a mage from the Sidran Magic Guild tracking the... 'etheric tethers' as he called them from Eagle Flare to this location." She glances away slightly. "I understand the effort left him unconscious." She looks back again to Violet, then to Artanis, and finally to Alexa. She can't help but see how much everyone here is on edge. "...If you're worried I'm going to take your captain away... Well, I admit I'd rather bring her with me, but something tells me I'm not going to be able to convince her," she says just before looking back to Violet once again. "Eagle Flare is still bonded to you. You sensed that when we came into system, didn't you?" At that last bit, Violet steps backwards slightly. "I... That's what... yes. I guess I did." she herself looks off to the side, presumably towards where the other ship is. She pauses a moment before looking back to Maniko again. "So that's it? You came here to bring me back or break the bond?" Hesitantly, Maniko nods. "That is the official story of it, yes. I had assumed you had died, but when Eagle Flare insisted it still had a captain after it was refurbished... Well, something had to be done." She pauses again before saying, more quietly, "If you say I've been here, then I suppose you've figured what I wasn't even sure of myself. That you're actually my daughter, then." Suddenly, Violet blurts out, "But WHY?! Why did you just... leave like that! Nothing said to either of us, not a damn word, then you act like you don't know me on Avia, and then...." She's going a bit red in the face, pausing as she realized Maniko already said why she acted like she didn't know her on Avia. She turns away again, inadvertaintly looking right at Alexa. Well, proper protocol be damned, she's taking her hand again. For her part, Maniko sighs, then holds up a hand. "Everyone, out. This is between me and her now." "But Admiral-" starts one of the guards before being cut off. "That's an order. My daughter isn't going to try to kill me." Reluctantly, the rest of her crew files out of the room. Maniko gives Violet a slightly sad smile as the last leaves. "I suppose if they knew the circumstances of how you were actually 'born,' and what the Noblas did, they might not have left me." She glances between Artanis and Alexa, then notices the held hand with Alexa. She glances up at Artanis once again before saying, "Violet... I know how you're thinking now. Really, I do." She sighs and takes a seat, motioning for the others to sit as well if they want. "But I was the opposite. When I was here, I wasn't even thought to be myself... so I... played the part of the other Maniko. I figured, 'there's no chance of me getting back home, to the fleet', so I just... let myself be as I was here." Her expression darkens somewhat. "But Alpharus found a way back. And gave me no time." Alexa doesn't move, but gives Violet's hand another squeeze. It's taking every ounce of her being not to reach out and hold her, try to comfort her, but she knows it wouldn't do any good. So she stands there, doing all she really can... be there for the woman she loves. Artanis keeps his arms folded, listening. Like the others he still seems to be a little tense though that's mostly due to the delicate nature of the situation rather than any true sense of danger. Still, one can be certain he's ready to draw his psi blades at any moment. Violet turns to her mother and just looks at her, clearly expecting her to go on. The stare seems to make the admiral slightly uncomfortable, as she looks down. When she looks down, Violet does take a seat in one of the chairs in the conference room. She doesn't make any motion for Artanis or Alexa to do the same, nor does she motion for them to keep standing. She's leaving it up to the two of them. Eventually, Maniko does speak again. "I'm hoping you remember Alpharus. A veritable thorn in my side for quite some time, really. He takes pleasure in watching people squirm... And I think he took a great amount of it watching my thoughts race when he gave me that ultimatum. 'We go now. If you go back to your family, if you even call them, I'm going without you.'" She pauses again, still not meeting Violet's eyes. "My ultimate responsibility is to the Fleet, Violet. You know that now. I had to go back." Alexa chooses to stand, behind the chair Violet is sitting in, and off to the side a bit. Her arms go back to being crossed on her chest, and she keeps her eye on Maniko. Granted this woman probably could kill her in a heartbeat, but Alexa doesn't let that bother her... for now. Artanis too decides to stand, sitting would mean he wouldn't be able to react as quickly in the case of an emergency. Violet sighs and deflates slightly. Of everything she knows about her mother... and of Alpharus, for that matter, it all makes sense. It takes a while to break the awkward silence, but eventually it's her that breaks it. "All right," she says. "I'll break the bond. I didn't ask to come here, either, but it's where I want to be." She reaches over to put a hand on Alexa again. "You have impeccable timing, of course, coming so close to my wedding." Her mind travels back to that conversation she had with Fluttershy, recalling how she told her to keep an open mind about Maniko's motives. Sure, she still has questions about that whole other thing, but she doesn't have it in her now to bring that up. Maniko doesn't look particularly happy with that outcome, but she doesn't look surprised or like she's going to argue for Violet to come with her at this point, either. Violet once again stands up. "So... go get things ready to do that on Eagle Flare, then, whatever it is that needs to be done. For now, I'm going back to my ship, then. But just... know this." She walks around to stand directly in front of her mother. "More than anything else.... you owe Pops an apology." She taps her communicator again. "Captain Karrde to Engineering. Three to beam back." | |
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