Galactic Ruins

Mex shoved Erik out of the way, eagerness of meeting something far above than the Lieutenant, the actual commander. Her stern face, her firm position, and the way she carries herself upon meeting them was something that instantly impresses her. Without a second thought, she grabbed onto the commander’s hand and shaking it.

“Name’s Mex! I hope we can get along! I’m quite excited for this!”
 
Jack shutting off the data tablet he was reading from and puts it away. Jack walks up to the group and says "Jack ma'am." Jack assumes that the commander already knows that he is a part of this group.
 
Aurelia looked almost caught off guard by Mex's enthusiasm, but returned her handshake with a strong grip anyway. "The pleasure is mine." She turns to look at Jack, addressing him with a courteous nod. "Glad you could join the cause, Jack. Especially on such short notice."

Taking a step back, she glanced over all of them. She had already known who would be part of the Squad, but now that they had met in person, there were faces behind those names and data files. Aurelia saw Mioi's stare and decided to answer.

"Jack is also one of our longtime personnel-- he will be serving as your on-field medic, although he doesn't quite look it. Now that we got the introductions out of the way, we can begin the briefing." She led the group into room 2B, her entourage from earlier having lined themselves up at the walls of the room. Each of them saluted her in unison before leaving, with only Lieutenant Avan staying behind. "There is much to discuss before we can address your first mission." Aurelia stood on a podium that was in front of a conference table with chairs for them to sit in.

"What we talk about here and in the Council Room stays between us," Lieutenant Avan chimed in. "Right now, information has to be kept under a tight lid. Especially when the enemy has probably more in his hands than we know with certainty..."

"Anything new we've found out, we have kept to ourselves for the time being," Aurelia said before turning to the projection screen, showing still shots of Genma from his transmission that was transmitted across the airwaves on that fateful day. "This is our enemy: Genma Platt, leader of... Scorpius."

"....Creepy." Azumi said, taking a seat, but she remembered word for word what Genma said in that video since she was still on Venus at that time.

"Indeed. We've been analyzing the footage including any supplementary eyewitness information from Empress Mystia's troops. We're almost certain that Genma is some kind of machine lifeform, but there hasn't been any clear shot of his entire body. As far as we know, he is a cyborg, but nobody is sure as to what race of alien he is or his planetary origin. Scorpius remains a mystery as well; the entire incident is one big mystery we are trying to solve before we can really make our move as the resistance."

"Considering he chose Mercury first, that gave us a couple hints-- it was the last planet that was terraformed during the Age of Exploration, and was probably the most difficult." Lieutenant Avan explained, pulling up a hologram of the planet through its many phases until modern day. "And even then, it's a planet that is nearly incapable of sustaining life by itself. Fresh food wasn't possible to grow in large quantities because of how extreme the weather is, and that placed a limit on population size. Most of it is freeze-dried anyway, but Mercury has an iron core-- the planet's main exports happen to be materials from the mines that buyers can use to make infrastructure and weapons above all."

"It's a planet whose weather is too extreme for most humans, but almost perfect for non-humanoid species of aliens, cyborgs and machines. A perfect source of raw materials for weapons with a low population using said source-- add in a war that reduced the military numbers greatly, and you have a perfect first conquest." Aurelia's fists tightened the more she spoke, tense from anger. "This alone means that Scorpius at the time was a small organization able to infiltrate Grand Ruler Ethin's territory and assassinate him after they forced him to give into their requests. Not large or strong enough to overthrow a planet like Mars or Earth, but could easily take over Mercury. We suspect Genma has a few particularly skilled people. Probably a hacker as well as criminals that could help him get his hands on destructive weapons. It's most likely none of them are human, or at least, more machine than man."

"But even then, this is our best logical deduction. We have no concrete intel yet, and Empress Mystia refuses to send her men down to Mercury either," Avan said.
 
"Sheesh, his face looks like a discount dollar store Halloween prop," Erik laughed. "But if he took over Mercury, it sounds like he hit the planet when it was most vulnerable. That's what I think. He may look like a freak, but it appears he's a lot smarter than he gives off."

Erik crossed his arms, examining the images and information given to him.

"Well, if he's managed this far, I think he might be planning his next move very carefully. Maybe he has a log he jots down his plans in or some sort of planner? He wants to keep the iron core planet to himself to possibly make more 'bots and weapons. Heh, if I were him, I'd hog all the good stuff and keep everyone else without weapons or materials. ...Hold up, what if he took over Mercury on purpose to hinder the supplies to other planets?"
 
Jack is unaffected by seeing Genma Platt and starts to think "I gong to hold up till the end before asking any thing."
 
"Wow, for a guy like that... he must've tread carefully on his conquest if he managed to make it this far." Mex said. "It's smart of the Empress to not send any men down there if we still don't now much about this... thing; otherwise, they would be blinded by the enemies and whatever potential power they obtained; whether from weapons or machinery."
 
"We considered that, but other than metallurgy, Mercury's economy largely deals with imports. Mars and Earth are far more advanced in terms of technology available compared to such a tiny planet," Avan trailed off. "If anything, they're the ones who rely on the others to survive."

"He's biding his time. It's possible that the next planet he will go after could be Venus, since the Empress's militia not only took a blow from the war, they tied up their own hands so that they could run away while they still have time. It could happen any time now, since that was only 6 months ago. What was immediately concerning is what Genma currently had access to," Commander Aurelia said sternly. 

"Makes plenty of sense to me. Venus has a lot of scrap metal-- it's basically the only way we can make money off what we have," Azumi said, offering her opinion on the matter. "There's also the bismuth, those sell for a pretty penny-- probably even more for those suits and space pirates who like spending their blood money on flashy things off the black market. We've got more weapons than the people on Mercury do, and we can grow our own food, so we don't spend as much money on imports because of the scrap trade. Eventually, there won't be anything left for Genma to mine-- we're the second best option. Not as advanced as Mars or Earth, but Venus is as big as Earth is with way less people on it. It's basically got a target painted right on it."

"A lot of recyclable materials lying in plain sight, and all the manpower he could utilize by forcing Venusians to do the dirty work of taking it all apart-- radiation sickness is probably the only thing that shortens the lifespan of Venus sapiens." Mioi said. "All without spending resources like you would for mining. Empress Mystia can't afford to lose anything more than what she already has."

"Precisely... once we were aware of Genma's presence on Mercury, we worked for hours to disconnect the terminals on Mercury that connect to the Union's servers, and minimize the risk of security breaches... which brings us to your trial mission." Aurelia pulled up a static image taken from surveillance records. The distorted image showed a strange object.
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"The image captured by Earth's telescopic systems has been quite distorted by some kind of interference. It's within Mercury's orbit, but appears to either move very slowly or is stationary altogether-- except neither Venus nor Mercury have any moons in their orbits, so it is an anomaly. It's emitting a frequency that helps conceal its presence to any passing ships with radars. The chairs of the Union council have agreed that the Orion Squad will be sent on a reconnaissance mission to investigate this object and extract any information you find. Clear a path if you must, but for now, it would be best to play it safe and treat this as a matter of stealth. We have no further intel on the object, so we ask you take precautionary methods to infiltrate it after we prepare you accordingly for space travel."​
 
Erik stared at the image with squinted eyes. He didn't seem impressed and already had a frown across his face.

"I guess this is where we gotta prove ourselves, eh?" Erik joked. "Very well, let's get to it. The sooner we get this done, the faster we can find and give that Genma-Freak his sweet justice. Right, so we just gotta go in and get info then bail, got it."
 
"An stealth-based mission, huh?" Mex was a bit disappointed at first because she won't be able to express her strengths and lust for battle. However, she was curious about Genma's tactics. "A glutton-like warlord, won't stop until it takes a bit of everything. Well, I'm ready for this mission then!"
 
"Considering we have little to no intel on the subject, the situation may change unpredictably. If it does, you are to contact me immediately through the headset communicators." Aurelia said to Mex. "As far as the galaxy is concerned, the Orion Squad doesn't exist. I intend to keep it that way until we can utilize the element of surprise to our full advantage. Perhaps you will be able to use more lethal force on the next mission."

"Better than more boring simulators that make me push a payload..." Azumi muttered under her breath. 

"Now that the briefing is out of the way, are there any questions?" Aurelia asked. "It's best I address them now before we attend a meeting with the Union Council and get you prepped for the mission."

Azumi and Mioi glanced at the others, since they were mostly used to the drill by now.
 
Jack thinks "I gest its up to us once we get in the ship how we to act."  Jack seems ok with everything so far.
 
"None from me." Erik scoffed. "Let get this mission rolling, who knows what we will find. We should also hurry, we have no idea when that Genma dude will strike. Better prepared than unaware, I always say."
 
"None of me as well. I'm more pump than worrying about questions! Let's get this mission up and going!" She slaps Erik's back once more. "Try not to break out, buddy! It's going to be a crazy adventure, you know, if we get caught!" Mex joked.
 
(sorry for the wait on this y'all! Had a big obstacle writing this out without it sounding so stilted. Weekly posting should resume on my end from now on.
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"Very well." Aurelia signaled for the group to stand up and follow her out of the meeting room into another corridor.

...
...
...

After several minutes of walking down the hallway, the sounds of people conversing could be heard just outside what looked to be the doors to a large conference hall. As Aurelia ushered in the new recruits, several people could be seen talking among each other before collectively dying down the chatter once their eyes caught sight of the squad. Aurelia stood at the forefront onto a podium with a microphone. Before the group sat the Terranovan Union heads, all representatives of their planets. In the middle of them was High Councilwoman Ziara Elmak, the chairman of the Union and one of the leaders of Mars. Compared to the other chairs, she was the least humanoid, resembling the lanky and gaunt appearance of a gray alien; her eyes were large with black sclera, but her skin was more along the shade of a pale purple. She watched them with a calculating gaze, but said nothing.

"..."

"So this is it after all?" Devan, Earth's Global Ambassador broke the silence, rubbed a temple with one of his hands, scoffing while peering down at them. He was plain-looking in comparison o the others, sporting short black hair and muddy-brown eyes. Devan had a grimace on his face out of scrutiny. "Now this is rich-- we have to depend on such a tiny group to stop a galactic threat?"

"Like you could do any better!" Empress Ragna Mystia said, her voice obscured by the breathing mask she wore that seemed to loop on either side into a tank. Being Venusian, she looked the 'wildest' of them all, crazy even. "Besides, Councilwoman Ziara said most of them work for the Union anyway, so it's not like we hired a bunch of strangers. Your Earthlings too afraid for the job?"

"At least mine aren't ex-cons on parole," Devan grumbled a retort, referring to Azumi.

To the other side of Ziara sat a woman who looked to be a religious figure more than a political leader-- a thin white veil obscured her face, but her piercing blue eyes stuck out against the black sclera. She looked more like a mystical fairy out of an old Earth tale than an alien. She kept quiet.

The seat next to her was meant for Grand Ruler Ethin, but it was clearly empty.

"Enough, Mr. Mercer. You too, Empress Mystia." Ziara interrupted their bickering with a stern voice before turning her head to look back down at the group. "Welcome to your first mission, Orion. Your commander briefed you already, but we felt it would be too cold-shouldered to send you on your way without meeting face-to-face. There is also the... reward we need to discuss in exchange for your services."

"Is that really a good idea right now, Chairman Elmak?" Devan interjected nervously.

"Why wouldn't it be? Mercenaries don't work for free." The High Priestess added in quietly.

"I wouldn't be so eager to do it myself, if I didn't know what I was in for," Ragna laughed boisterously. "I think we should tell them."

Ziara nodded once and gestured to the center of the room, Genma's image from before appearing in a hologram once more. "While we haven't gathered much information on Genma, we have made a placeholder estimate for the bounty on his head. This morning, the Intergalactic Federation has agreed to place the current bounty at 500,000 Nova credits."

Aurelia herself wasn't aware of this information, and sweated a bit. "Forgive me if I'm speaking out of turn, Chairman, but... Isn't that a bit on the low side if the bounty will be split among us?" Although Nova Credits were worth much more than the old Earth Dollar, the bounty definitely would likely be split among everyone in the Squad.

"Perhaps. However, the Federation has agreed to adjust the bounty according to what kind of intelligence we can gather. So long as it definitively sets an appropriate amount for taking down Scorpius," Ziara declared.

"Whoa, 500 grand in Nova Credits is still a lot... think I could buy me a nice new bike with a cut of it?" Azumi said to Mioi, who shushed her by raising a hand out in front of her mouth to silence her babbling. When she was sure Mioi wasn't looking, Azumi stuck her tongue out at her.

"We figured it wouldn't be very fair of us to make you do work without at least giving you an idea of how much we're willing to reward you for being our hometown-heroes." Ragna said haughtily.

"The Intergalactic Federation also is willing to bestow an Award of Recognition should you succeed in the long-term goal of the Orion Project. That in itself grants access to plenty of other rewards, doesn't it?" Ambassador Mercer asked Ziara.

"Yes," Ziara confirmed, but kept a stern gaze down at them. "But don't let temptations of greed impede your judgement. This bounty can theoretically go to anyone that succeeds in Genma's destruction, not just this group alone. If I were you, I would be more concerned about fulfilling your ultimate duty above all else-- it’s in everyone's best interests you don't fail us."

"I heard that the Federation's gonna go public with the bounty soon enough when they hear back from Ziara about how your intel missions will go. So don't mess it up!" Ragna teased. "That Genma guy probably knew everyone will be out for his head by now, but as long as he doesn't know who specifically sent you to do it, your secret is safe."

This isn't Star Wars... Devan thought. He was suspicious about how lightly Ragna was treating this even though it easily could be her head next. These guys also don't have lightsabers or inexplicable access to an omnipresent formless entity.
 
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Sounds like not everyone in this place is on great terms...unless this is their weird way of being friends or something. Erik scratched the back of his head trying not to make eye contact with the higher-ups. 

"I guess money will be a little tight between us. Eh... I'm more interested in all the other benefits that come with the paycheck." Erik crossed his arms over his chest. "Besides, when we find out more about this Gamma dude, things will hopefully run a little smoother and this whole galactic mess will come to an end real soon."

Erik's green eyes shined as he glared at the leaders around him.

"So let's quit yappin' and find a dent in that mechanical defect. Gathering Intel is my strong point, so I'll be sure to bring in something you guys couldn't, Haha! When all this is done, you guys can label me as 'The Solar System's most Handsome Man!', all the ladies will love it!"
 
Jack is amused by Erik's comment but dos not show it.

Jack thinks "I just going let them speak."
 
Mex patted Erik on the back hard again. "Yeah! You lots don't need to worry too much about us. The award sounds good, but pressing my hands through the skulls of my enemies, I'm satisfied." She lifted up one finger. "Once we finished this intel mission with great success, you can adjust your tone about our abilities in future missions."
 
"More like the Solar System's biggest dweeb," Azumi muttered under her breath, snickering to herself.

"If you were offended by my colleague's off-color remarks, please accept my apology on his behalf." Ziara replied to Mex and the others, giving Devan a side-eye that made him wince and shrink in his seat slightly. "Your being here is my testimony that I have faith in your abilities, considering Aurelia and I were the ones who sorted through your candidate profiles the most during the process. A lot of candidates were eliminated before we ultimately appointed you all to represent the Orion project." Aurelia nodded to confirm it.

"But we have high expectations from you all the same! Even if the Grand Councilwoman likes you that much, we're a bit pickier with playing favorites." Ragna said. "We got a pretty good ex-fighter leading you though, so I think you'll do just fiiiiiine."

"It would be troublesome if you didn't come back..." High Priestess Saevi said in a gentle voice. "So please, be careful. After all, I will be needing your services in the near future-- while some parts of Pluto have territorial races, the Temple of Nix abides by the creed of pacifism, so if it isn't Empress Mystia who will be next, it will surely be me for my unwillingness to participate in the bloodshed. I am the weakest link of all."

"Indeed. Well, we've covered everything we have needed to discuss with you all, so you are dismissed. Please head to the hangar and prep them for space travel. Commander Aurelia will stay here at the command center for us to see how you work together, but she will keep communications with you throughout the mission for any variables." Ziara said. 

Aurelia bowed before standing straight up an turning on her heel, gesturing for the group to leave the meeting hall and follow her to the space hangar.

Once the group went back into the corridor, the chairs of the TU looked at each other.

"..."
"..."
"..."

"... What? I'm just using my healthy dose of skepticism." Devan said.

"Please refrain from embarrassing us all with your unwarranted remarks, Mr. Mercer. I understand you are new to this position, but the practice of bluntness by you Earthlings makes things worse when we need a strong morale." Ziara chided. "Not all practices from Earth politics translate well on other planets."

"Whatever. I like 'em! They're... a charming bunch." Ragna said. "I'd find it concerning if they acted and thought the same. It would make it too easy to pick them off, if I were Genma. And we aren't here to play fair."

"I pray that they be protected by Nix's Eyes of Fate." Saevi clasped her hands together while gripping at her long necklace. "Merciful Nix, grant them eyes on the inside, to cleanse them of beastly idiocy..."
 
Jack got up and preformed the stander salute torts the heads of the TU then left with Aurelia.

Jack thinks "I wonder what on the job rewords we will get?"
 
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