European-Asiatic Union
Nova Calendus
Purpose - Military Academy Station
Population - 1254 Military Personnel
Location - Asteroid Belt, 121 Hygiea
Date - 13th of April, Friday, 29 SE
Time - 10:30 AM
“Incoming vessel, you have entered Trilateral Alliance space. Please state your purpose and identification code, or we will be forced to open fire.”
The grizzled man in the captain’s uniform grunted his reply at the communication screen.
“Alliance transport freighter “Orinoco”. Identification code AF6778576, password “Backwards River”. Our convoy was heading out of the Lionel’s Gap when we got attacked by pirates. My escorts engaged the attackers, but I was forced to flee due to their numbers. Requesting your permission for docking and repairs.”
A brief moment of silence filled the freighter, before being dispelled by the voice of the female operator once more.
“Credentials authenticated and validation complete. You are cleared for landing into the Hangar Bay 4, Orinoco. A ranking officer will be there to meet you and go over the details of your mission. Meanwhile, we will dispatch GUARDIANS to your last location to collaborate your story.”
With a brief click, the communication channel between the ship and the communications tower was disconnected. Letting out a sigh of relief, the large man who was acting as your “captain” keyed in the automatic docking path provided by the Nova Calendus tower. The ship lurched forward on a stable, calculated path, making it quite clear that the ship was no-longer being controlled by human hands. Turning towards the three of you and away from the large command console of the ship, the bear-like man let out a wide grin.
“Well, we were lucky that supervising officer of yours had those authentication codes lying about. Otherwise this would have been a relatively short trip, gyahaha.” The big man let out a grunt of laughter, before continuing with his talk. “The uniforms and credentials that you have should also check out with the Alliance database, though they will most likely disarm you. I doubt they would allow those rifles on board the station anyway, Alliance standard issue or not. Considering that we even have the ship loaded up with Tritium, our cover should last at least as long as it would take the GUARDIANS to report in, but move quick nevertheless.”
“I don’t know how long of a lapse you have before your… friends arrive, you know?” The stocky man gave a thumbs up to the three of you. “I’ll probably be taken to a debriefing first, so you will be alone with your “supervisors”.”
The ship slowly crawled past the hangar doors and started to position itself into docking position.
“Gear up and look professional. We are about to arrive.”
Finally coming to a complete stop, the ship attached itself to the docking apparatus. Looking out from the bridge windows, you could see quite the reception committee already gearing up to meet you. A quite stunning red haired female officer, with a slight smile on her face and an amused glint in her eye as she gazed at the large Alliance Freighter in front of her, stood at the front of six fully armed soldiers, clearly waiting for your disembarkation. With a grunt, Thompson (or at least that was his alias for this mission), beckoned the three of you to follow him into the base. With quick finger movements, he keyed in the needed code and the sealed docking door slid open and moved towards the Alliance officer with calm steps and a stern look on his face, before greeting her with a crisp salute.
“Lieutenant Thompson, at your service. This is Private Biggs, this is Private Murata and that is my second in command, Ensign Zabi. Thank you for being kind enough to accept us to your base.”
The red haired officer replied his salute with a rather casual salute of her own.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. We are obligated to look after our comrades as any Alliance base would be, Academy or not. I am Lt. Chen Mei Ling, the chief operative officer on Nova Calendus Academy.” Giving a grin to Thompson, she spread her hands in faux exasperation. “Sorry about all this fuss, but we don’t get that many visitors, especially unannounced ones like yourself, so everyone gets real excited about putting up a show like this.”
Snapping her fingers quite dramatically, the troops at her back approached the disembarking crew of the Orinoco rather threateningly… and then Chen burst into giggles.
“Aahahahahhh… I love doing that. They are so well trained that they don’t even need me to tell them their orders! Such cute little tick-tock soldiers, aren't they?”
For their part, the troops approaching the four of you looked quite embarrassed over the entire situation. One of them even let out a brief uncomfortable plea of “Lieutenant…”, before reaching the crew and extending out their hands towards the crew itself.
“Right, right, sorry about that, I’ll be on my best behaviour from now on. Pinky promise.” With eyes that were far too mischievous (and wholly unapologetic over what had just occurred), Chen’s voice became more serious (although there was still a clear undercurrent of amusement there). “Would you be so kind and hand over your weaponry to these kind gentlemen? We can’t have you running around armed, you must understand.”
After being deprived of your weaponry, you were able to full disembark and after a brief conversation between your “superior officers”, Chen started to lead Thompson away (for a debriefing, most likely), while the three of you were still guarded by the armed soldiers that had originally accompanied her.
“Right. Would you escort the Ensign and the privates to one of the recreation areas? Seal it off for the time being from the students. We don’t need them gawking around them, god knows it is bad enough every time a standard freighter arrives. Well then, Lieutenant Thompson, shall we?”
With those words, the pair headed off towards one of the hallways leading out of the Hangar. Before fully leaving the hangar however, the crimson haired turned back for a final time, this time directly towards the escorting troops themselves.
“Oh and could someone tell Cinque that we have unexpected visitors?”
One of the soldiers gave a quick salute to the leaving Lieutenant, before heading off himself as well, though in a completely different direction to the redhead. And then, surrounded by five soldiers, the EAU infiltrators disguised as Alliance troops, were led through the winding corridors of Nova Calendus towards their designated “relaxation area”.
EAUN “Ark Royal”
Purpose - EAUN Diomedes-class Cruiser
Population - 125 Military Personnel
Location - Asteroid Field, 121 Hygiea
Date - 13th of April, Friday, 29 SE
Time - 10:48
Positioned outside the detection field of Asteroid Sensor Network of Nova Calendus, the Ark Royal waited for the opportune moment. Considering the nature of the ship itself, the chance of discovery by the Alliance GUARDIAN patrols was close to nil. Nevertheless, one couldn’t be too cautious, and as such, the Ark Royal itself was running on minimum emissions, in an attempt to further reduce the chance it was detected. Besides, there was something… strange about the patrol paths of the GUARDIAN units. Not something you could really put your finger on, but something was amiss at the very least.
Nevertheless, the die had already been cast and neither the Ark Royal, nor her crew, could back down from this now. As the agreed time finally arrived, the Diomedes-class cruiser moved into action to fulfil its role for this battle. The massive engines that powered the movement of the EAU battleship flared up in azure as the ship started moving. Without even seemingly bothering to slow down, the azure ship crossed the detection line they had been so cautious to avoid before, causing the alarms to be lit off all over the Alliance base. After all, their course had been calculated already.
Straight towards Nova Calendus. The academy that was their target.
Following a brief nod from her Captain, the communications officer on the bridge, one Lt. Nicolette Blanchet, opened the ship-wide communications channel and addressed the crew. The calm and almost tranquil voice of the French girl echoed over the intercom, displaying none of the tension that must have existed underneath
“As planned, the Ark Royal will now engage the enemy at Nova Calendus. Alert level is set to Red, all crew man your stations. Alloro, Quercia, Achilleos, you are cleared for launch. The Valkyries will launch after the Rubicons and provide general combat support.”
A brief pause.
“Good luck, everyone. Come back safely.”
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