LOCATION:  CARRIER ENTERPRISE BRIEFING ROOM
TIME:  1030
DATE:  2025 - 22 - MAR

COMMANDER PRESIDING:  ADMIRAL FIVE DAYS DARKNESS
TACTICAL OFFICER:  JOURNEYS

COMBAT PERSONNEL IN ATTENDANCE: DANIEL MATTHEWS, CALLSIGN 'LUCIFER' ; JESS MARAUD, CALLSIGN 'FORTE' ; IAPETUS HYPERION, CALLSIGN 'ENDINGS' ; LYLA RAINES, CALLSIGN 'BLUE FOX' ; THE RED QUEEN, CALLSIGN 'CRIMSON' ; GABRIEL HOCKENBERRY, CALLSIGN 'GRUNT' ; PACIFICA SPACEWOLF, CALLSIGN 'TOMATO' ; MANUEL GONZALEZ, CALLSIGN 'CHUPACABRA' ; TRUDY PENLAN, CALLSIGN 'CHARMER' ; ALAN BILLINGS, CALLSIGN 'AXEHEAD'

SECRETARY:  JUNO

THIS TRANSCRIPT SEALED, LEVEL 23E:  COMBAT PERSONNEL AND UPPER COMMAND ONLY

-----

"Hello everyone, thanks for coming at such short notice.  Journeys has a report."

Admiral Five Days Darkness stood at the front behind the lectern, all four hands gripping the lectern stiffly.  He gave a nod to Journeys, a spare blond-haired man who looked like he'd just run a few miles in the deepest desert- covered in sweat, bedraggled, exhausted.

"Thanks, Admiral," Journeys took a sip of water, "As you know, The Fleet's jump drives and the Last Refuge's meteor shield have taken a pounding the last few years, so we've been trying to take an easier route through this section of space.  That means the usual crap, avoiding thick stars, black holes, comet trails, the like.  We've of course been limited by the lack of available jump locations.  The space around here just isn't thin enough for the Last Refuge to easily trans-light without putting undue stress on the reactor and Michael.  We've found a single space that'd be ideal for our next trans-light jump, but it seems the enemy's already beaten us to it.  We can try to find another location but I'm willing to bet you any defunct currency that the enemy's already scouted the other nearby spots.  We can take some extra time and energy, but every moment we sit still, Fleet Howling Dark is catching up."

Journeys gestured to the projection screen, and a starmap floated into view.

"But here's the weird part.  We've got enough time- it's within Michael's parameters- to do a microjump to another system nearby and bypass this spot.  It'll take a bit more time and reactor energy, but we can pull it off."

"Why's that weird?"  Pacifica spoke up, "It sounds like the enemy's just trying to grind us down."

"Because they haven't fortified the jump spot properly.  I mean, they have, but it's not their usual MO.  There's only one ship there, the Buchenwald.  We've tangled with ships like it before, like at Stone Place; we ran them out of the system.  But a Flagship means an Abyssal, and that means a picket line of frigates and at least two Cruiser groups escorting it.  There's... nothing there.  It's just hanging in place, squatting on the jump point."

"Trap."

"Well, yes." Journeys blinked, "Of course it is, no matter which action we take.  We can take the bait and charge in, then get slaughtered by a lurking fleet; we can rabbit away and try the microjump, only to find the enemy waiting for us en masse; we can sit still and just let them get closer.  No matter what finding the Buchenwald here is suboptimal for us and a good trade for them."

"After consulting with Journeys and Michael Florentine we've made a decision.  The Enterprise is going to jump ahead of the Last Refuge and we're going to try to take it out solo." Five Days Darkness remarked, "If they want us to come on in and hammer away with the main fleet before they spring the trap, we'll take advantage of their patience.  It's a golden opportunity:  destroy an Abyssal flagship, possibly kill an Abyssal, learn more about their ship capabilities.  The downside, of course, is that the Enterprise can't stand up to the Buchenwald in a ship-to-ship fight.  So we're going to need to take it down swiftly."
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:32, Sat 10 Sept 2016.

Daniel, clothes dirty and hair unkempt due to being called from another sojourn to the Underdecks, is nonetheless focused and alert as he regards the starmap and possible actions being laid out.

As the plan is revealed, he pans a look across the room and the various Exalts gathered before nodding. "So we'll take the Buchenwald out, jump the Last Refuge in and be off before they can spring the trap proper. We're gonna need heavy hitters to do it fast enough. I assume that's what we're here for?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 18:27, Sat 10 Sept 2016.

Jess' eyes seem far away as she listens carefully to the briefing, trying to get a feel for how the battle would play out. Her fingers idly smooth out a wrinkle she'd missed on the way over here.

She waits for Daniel to speak first. He had a way of making everyone feel confident. So long as we manage to get close, we can do it. We could potentially lose any number of our stronger pilots with a sortie like this, especially the less mobile ones, but it's well worth the risk. Shouldn't be a bluff, either. They wouldn't sacrifice a Buchenwald-class on the off chance of drawing the Exalts off the capitol ship.

"Swiftly sounds just about right," Lyla remarks from her seat as she leans back while trying to fish out a cigarette from her jean pockets. She finally manages to do so, and lights the cigarette.

"It is a huge risk, but as said the benefits would be immense...besides almost everything we do is a huge risk these days, so why not finally get something in return? I'm myself curious to see how talented they are in comparison to us." Lyla gives a look, mostly between Daniel and Jess.

"I never put much value in the idea of springing a trap deliberately," Gabriel said, "But there's no counterpart to blowing the wall instead of using the door. What is the timetable?"

He was one of the newest Chosen, and still had the tattoos and hairstyle of the Ilmorijo Marine he'd been until very recently.

Iapetus leaned a bit forward. "I assume we are already behind schedule, judging from the look of my brother and the urgency of this meeting." His heavy, modulated voice easily carrying over table. "Do we have a backup plan, if things turn voidways?"

"Yes, that is."  Five Days Darkness responds to Daniel, "You're not all of our heavy hitters, of course; we've got plenty of capable Exalts and Gods covering the Last Refuge right now.  But it's a big enough proportion to encourage success while still maintaining fleet security.  If they're hoping to hit the Last Refuge while we're gone, we're at 60% of our usual fighting capacity... that's not counting our reserve forces."

"I'm going to answer two things at once,"  Journeys observes.  "Gabriel and Endings, our time table is actually looking quite good.  I'm only as sweaty and haggard as I am because I've spent eight straight days in my fighter.  But our window of opportunity for planning and execution needs as much time as we can provide, hence the urgency of the meeting.  Our timetable is thus:  in two hours we jump in to the system where the Buchenwald is sitting.  That'd be a binary star system, with the Buchenwald in between two suns.  As is usual, the suns are fading, no doubt as a result of the Neverborn's activity."

"Question,"  Alan Billings raises his hand- as serious as Axehead is, he wouldn't interrupt unless he had a very important reason.  "Is the Buchenwald siphoning off the stars?"

"No." Journeys answers, "They were already in the stages of stellar decay before Ragnarok; the Neverborn's ascendancy is just speeding things up.  I saw no evidence of the Buchenwald absorbing any energy."

"Understood, commander." Axehead sits back in his seat.

"Anyway, that's the best jump point.  Buchenwald sits there.  We jump in two hours, hit the Buchenwald.  We have some specific triggers that will cause us to call off the assault."

"The ones that will concern you the most:  Death of two Exalts; major damage to Enterprise's hull; distress signal from the Last Refuge; five hours have passed."  Five Days Darkness informs them.  "If we have to call off assault, all priority will be given to protecting the Enterprise and getting out of range of the Buchenwald's weapons.  Then we'll load up the fighters and jump."

"Five hours is a long time,"  Trudy Penlan muses, "Didn't it only take three hours to rout it at Stone Place?"

"We chased it away, that doesn't mean we damaged it.  We destroyed its escorts and frigates, but didn't scratch it.  And we killed an Abyssal.  Totally different ballgame, Charmer." Five Days Darkness responds to her.

"Right. What do we know of the Buchenwald? Could we get it on the screen?"

Daniel steps closer to the screen as he glances from one Exalt to the next, gears turning in his head as if going through a mental checklist on each.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but we've got Grunt, Blue Fox and myself as boarding specialists; Forte, Tomato, Crimson, Axehead, Chupacabra and Charmer as pilots. Five Days Darkness commands the Enterprise. Endings, Journeys, what'll you do?"

He glances to the screen to see if any intel is visible yet.

"I assume our attack strategy will be everyone doing what they do best. I'll go for the mothership and breach the hull, infiltrate, seek and destroy the Abyssal commander. Grunt will accompany me or go for a different target inside. Blue Fox will infiltrate the Buchenwald as well, taking advantage of the distraction we provide to sabotage something important from the inside. The Pilots will cover me on the way to the Buchenwald and engage the fighters as well as the Buchenwald. Correct?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:35, Sun 11 Sept 2016.

"Sabotaging their internal comms would give us an upper hand, should they have technology, instead of telepathy, for that in the first place. Same as managing to get them to lower their possible shields."

Lyla notes with a small grin as her name is mentioned. She looks around for a moment, before pulling an ashtray closer.

"Also once inside we could try to find the blueprints or layout of the ship to spare time, and to reach the heart faster. Five hours is not long at all..." her voice fades as she draws a whiff.