"Admiral Geary, we hear you loud and clear," Blake said. "let's meet up at the rendezvous spot at these coordinates. We don't know when the Enigmas will come." Blake said as he let out a command. The ships moved to the Gas Giant closest to the Asteroid belt and made a protective circle at the spot. "Admiral you seem pretty beaten up, so in case of mistrust, I will go onto your ship for a sitrep. After saying that Blake went to the landing bay and went to his shuttle before lifting off and out into cold, dark lonely space.
Geary sighed quietly in relief to that. A rendezvous was absolutely fine by him… Slowly, he got his ships back on course for this attack plan. Loosing a quiet, another relieved sigh to this but trying to keep up the best possible speed, regarding how many fuel cells they had left for the engines… This, really, had not gone well for him at all either way. "Understood Fleet Admiral Freedom. Welcome to the Dauntless." He replied. Allowing the shuttle bays on his Alliance ships to be left open. One of the many shuttle bays, however, was also completely destroyed but not as much to the extent of the bowels of the ship.
He might have to call Co-President Rione for outside views on this… As much as he hated it, it was the only thing he could do to say he did not want a fight well and truly.
The second fleet moved in slow, bulkier but just as busted. The two fleets began to close distance, and it hit Elizia then that she might be caught in the middle of something larger than she. The fires on the ships, the battered hulls, that's not how military ships traveled, was it?
Before she registered what she was doing, Elizia had her hands on the comms controls, relaying a message to what appeared to be one of the flagships. She hesitated, but the Arazael gene had already done it's work. She was in fixer mode, now.
"Dauntless, this is captain Eliziethara Arazael of the Mechanist workship Loveless Embrace (tis the full name). Requesting permission to dock, following your standard direction and protocol."
(I've read over this and still have no idea what's going on. I'm sorry. Bye!)
That was absolutely unexpected to Geary, an alien species, a new one he presumed, wanted to perhaps help out? He didn't know, after the Enigmas, if he wanted to test out these ones' patience too.
He supposed there was only one way to find out now, and he didn't like that he had to let them come aboard personally…
"Captain Arazael, this is Admiral Geary. Under a few seconds of careful consideration you will be allowed to dock but be wary that we will take up arms if you seem like a threat to us at any point. To the honour of our Ancestors, Admiral Geary, out."
Elizia, what on Love have you gotten yourself into?
No, she hadn't thought this through at all. No, she hadn't given a false name, as Brella would've told her to, and no, she had no idea how one more pair of hands was going to help anything. At this point, Elizia could only justify her decision with one thing.
They had allowed her to come on board without much question as to why. If they're doing that, things must be desparate, right?
That didn't stop Elizia from shaking as she manuvered her ship into position to dock with Dauntless.
Brella always told Elizia that there were three main things about the way a Mechanist should carry themselves. They should always be prepared, they should always be curious, and they should always be ready to help people. Elizia prepared herself the best she could, bringing her tool-jacket as well as a spare set of tools, and a pistol attached to her hip. She couldn't exactly call what she was doing curiosity, but she had the intention of helping. I'm trying, Brella, she thought, I'm trying to do everything you said.
(What are the handheld weapons in this universe typically driven by? Are they kinetic, like bullets, or energy driven, so lasers or shock rifles?)
A Marine, waiting for where she had docked, was quite patient even with the rifle plastered across their chest. She had the helmet down but the obvious thickness of the armour meant that hardly anything would get through it. The female smirked a little bit as the hatches between the two ships opened up. "Consider me an escort outsider. Where do you want to head first for whatever you're going to do? The name's Carabali. Major General Carabali. Pleasure to finally meet the alien who was brave enough to approach an Alliance ship that's acting more like a cornered tiger than anything else."
(Ye, kinetic! It's a lot of 'Old' Earth stuff so bullets and such are still a thing with clips.)
(Oof, is that for all races or just humans? I only ask because Lovuthans have the energy capacity ability, and that ties in to how they use energy weapons.)
"A pleasure to be aboard an Alliance ship," Elizia said, a little taken aback by how calm and ordered everything seemed inside, "I'd like to help wherever I can. I've only one pair of hands, but I've got a fair amount of tools and supplies in the Loveless. That, and I can charge your batteries, but that's about it."
"Admiral, docking now," Blake said as he lowered down the shuttle onto the landing bay. Blake got out with two of his most trusted subordinates and immediately went to the debriefing room.
(Just humans! I know they're sort of lame but it's just what it is lmao.)
"The batteries for grapeshot and such just need repairing, more ammunition for them too… Or so I've overheard our engineers go off about it. So… How and what are you going to do to try and repair Dauntless here? After all we already have the great Captain Smythe working his ass off trying to seal as much as he can from Tanuki, but an extra pair of hands helping is fine for us." Carabali replied all too easily. "Lets take you down to the engineering bay first so you know what you're working with and how it's different."
~~~
Geary gave a brief nod to that. "Understood, Fleet Admiral, we'll be waiting." He replied right back. He was easily waiting with his own Captain and the Co-President Rione. Who were trying not to glare death at each other through Geary, who was sitting in the middle of the two. All sitting on one side of the meeting table, only Geary was somewhat visibly anxious and worried about this.
Blake walked into the room and sat upon a seat."Gentlemen," Blake acknowledged."Let's get down to business. About two weeks ago on an order by the Alliance, the second fleet was sent out to space on the official order of exploration and of diplomacy. But as you can see the Enigmas were bloodthirsty and destroyed the second fleet except for the remains you see today, that's nearly 1000 in the first week and in our most recent battle, 240 were destroyed." Blake continued." We hope we can join up with you to reach Alliance space before the aliens come to us."
Geary thought that over, the losses and the fact that there was a second fleet up and about instead of just one like the Alliance promised it was going to do… No, he couldn't jump to conclusions yet. "That was the same order we received. Diplomacy to check if the people we were going to were willing to negotiate something but instead we met Enigmas head-on. We suffered a lot of casualties on our side. We came in here at least three hundred strong and we lost two hundred and ninety one to them. But with our fleets, your roughly four and our six, should be more than enough to defend for a little against a scouting party."
He just didn't want to believe, personally, that yet again Geary had slipped out of time. That wasn't likely but he wasn't ready to rule it out completely. Their uniforms were different… But what had happened back home? Were the Syndicate absolutely annihilated? Were they currently recolonizing every planet and world the Syndicate Worlds had held once before?
He didn't like that thought either. "Lets hope the Alliance has enough ship yards and materials for a year to repair these poor things."
"I had once heard of you 30 years ago Admiral Geary. They said you disappeared. And after the Syndicate era, we thought that no danger would come to us for at least 100 years, A peaceful utopia." Blake said with a scowl. "Your ships seemed to be vastly old, are they decommissioned yet or what?" Blake asked. Blake brought out a Stryker Drone file. "I am sure you have Stryker Drones their the newest tech of the Alliance perfect for small battle repairs or for plainly ground or space battle." Blake slid the file to the other side. "It only uses the 3D printer and is material and cost-efficient."
(Is this alright? I'm just making things up while going"
Brella nodded, but waved a hand to the engineering bay, "We can skip that part. I've been working with Human tech since I was 10. And I'm 18. So we're all good there. Just point me to the most broke thing here, and I'll have it up to it's original shine in no time!" In a common moment of Mechanist pride, she added, "Maybe better. Probably at least a little better. Just a little."
(It's absolutely fine!! 100% how I was thinking about it lmao.)
Another time slip… Geary loosed a very low sigh as he rubbed his eyes a little bit. The Captain and the Co-President almost couldn't believe it. "No, no we do not have those 'Stryker' Drones. We didn't know it had been thirty years, for us it had just been a week or two out here not years. What's changed besides from the ships and equipment?" He asked. "Because the only Fleet Admirals I knew, were hiding back out in Ambaru station, Fleet Headquarters and Unity… I didn't think I'd slipped time again, at least it wasn't for another hundred years…"
~~~
Carabali raised a brow at that. "Oh really? Alright then, if you're so sure you can do it. The main thing we need done up is the shuttle bay on Dauntless Took a nasty hit but we need it if we want our supplies back up and running as much as possible. Not a challenge for you would it?"
"Peace and a new industrial revolútion, better tech, weapons resulting in more greed and civil wars/uprisings?" Blake answered."Slave trade is growing more… and Politics and presidents changing." Blake sighed,
(Flashback) Young Blake walking with his dad when they discover a hidden experimental lab, BOOM! the last thing the boy sees is smoke.
"Station's have been built and lost…"
Civil wars? Greed? Slave trade? This… "I didn't realise the Alliance would fall so low as to have slave trading around as well as greed and the like…" Geary replied quietly. "You're serious, this isn't a mock-up or an elaborate trick is it?" He asked. Sure he had heard of what the Alliance had done before… Allowing of bombardment of planets despite civilians but this bad? Elaborate trick was extremely doubtful though… After all the Enigmas had basically barred their way from ever coming back, but they had also seen two other races. Each expanding so quickly, Fleet didn't know what was happening…
"We found another two species, besides from the Enigmas. One's our ally, the other is our enemy. Both of those are vastly different to these Enigmas and have certain types of ships. I will gladly provide information about either whenever you need it exactly, Fleet Admiral." Geary replied now, very carefully in thought himself. He would have to figure out how he was so prone to time slips like this… A second time…
"I would gladly take the information." Blake said." And no this is not a mock-up, sometimes I wish that I could just go to the council and take it to the right path, but alas what can we do but stare in misery especially after the state we are currently in."
Elizia smiled, but felt a little strained. Of course thy were gonna ask for large scale repair. The one thing she was a little unsure of.
"Yeah, no problem. I'll need to reposition the Loveless, but it shouldn't be hard. I might need people as well. How bad a hit?"
Geary gave a nod to the man's words, showing the information with the displays in front of the other, however it was obvious that the 'thirty years' time slip made sure that Geary's ships were severely out of date. "I could take it to the council, I am Black Jack after all… But I won't do that, I take orders and I do them, despite whatever my legends say… What does the Alliance put me and my crew under? Missing in action? Or killed in action?" He asked, certainly wouldn't be the first time he had been placed as 'killed in action', but he didn't think it would be the first.
However, despite this, the two species and who they were and what they were aligned with was almost too obvious. The Spider-Wolves, while the ugliest out of the three races he originally found, were their allies. The bear-cows however, while… Somewhat cute, had quite murderous intentions.
~~~
Carabali raised a brow at that but she made no comment. "If you want we could do up some of the smaller hits. We have as many engineers as we can spare going on the bay but from what I believe, it's been completely obliterated, but not to the extent as to our underside. However, we have so many working on it only because we need it to be repaired as soon as possible, our Auxiliary wouldn't be able to hand over the necessary panels and such otherwise and we'd have to carry it from one side of the ship to another… Roughly. Does that make sense to you?"
"Killed in action," Blake confirmed.
Geary loosed another sigh at that. "Second time on record that I've been believed to be killed in action. The Alliance won't like it when I emerge again but this time with ancient ships." He rubbed the corner of his eyes lightly. "I can understand why they went with killed in action though, thirty years without any communications over light-years apart… Lets hope nothing else happens. Now, because we were both fighting Enigmas, I believe two scouting parties of small force would try and attack our fleet. They will expect us to be broken and defeated. They expect now, with how we are holding formation, to come at them head-on like some new commander. I will be giving my orders to my side of the fleet only though for what I have in mind, if you want to hand orders at me too, then I'll try to follow them unless they contradict the survival of the men and women under my command."
"Show me. It'll make more sense when I see it for myself," Elizia replied, already sorting through her jacket for a remote, "I'm not gonna lie to ya, I'm not sure how well this'll work, but if you can bring your Auxillary next to it, we can get workers to safely free-float over to it, if we depressurise the section."
Carabali gave a light nod to her words, loosening her grip on her rifle and relaxing a little visibly before leading off to the ruined shuttle bay, from where they were, a minute or two. One of the shortest trips Carabali has, admittedly, ever done on board Dauntless But the idea of bringing their last auxiliary closer almost seemed to frighten the woman. "You can't be serious there? Admiral Geary would not ever dare allow such a thing to occur, he wants and likes order, if we bring Tanuki closer it would be pure violation of orders. Besides, all of the formations he showed us do not allow the slow thing to move more than the Battleships. But what do I know, it might work since I'm only a Marine."
"Vi-vio-vio-violation?" Elizia struggled, failing on the word for a minute, "What's that supposed to mean? And who's orders?"
(Sorry for the short thing, writing on the run…)
