the  dor  Hissed open and a  stern looking Hennings   entered.....Hello , PO.. i need a cold  bear, and some of those Pizza bite things...

 he sat at the counter, Nodding to Garrat...SGT?   How is your ship...

  “Coming along sir.  The mixed crew isn’t the melting pot of talent I’d hoped for but it’s far from the bickering salad bowl I had feared.  I know it was unpopular but   That Largran engineer is a real help.  We’re working on repurposing the old energy shield to reduce our sensory cross section.  It hasn’t improved much but the results are promising.”

 Hennings  nodded, as the beer was put infront of him, and the gamma wave oven dinged..

 well..Promising is good...we  just lost a bit  bit a leverage, not being able to use that gas on the UEs?    Gonna be a damn knife   fight...

    Garrat winces, “I remember the first time we had to face them.  I used explosives to drop half a hillside on the bastards and they were still everywhere.  Captured the first one by shooting off all of its legs while It was swallowing a shuttle gunner.”

    Garrat touches the mechanism at the base of his skull.  “Bugs are hard to take down with gas.  They literally breath through little holes in their butt bulb or. “Abdomen” as the Dr. Christy’s call it.  Much tougher system than ours but it’s kinda like wearing your lungs on the outside of your body, so if you spray them down with soap, it coats their lungs and any fillers in the mix go straight into their bloodstream.”

    He shrugs “Asgard basic training, We got bugs out our way too.”

    “But They’re  probably already on that.  I was talking to Arnie here.  I think earth needs a better pipeline of information to help them stand up to the Angels and the oil lords.”  He shakes his head “as long as the angels can send ships ol’ Hunter has to stay in the shadows, but he can build support so when we distract the angels in space they can stomp the Barons planet side.”

  Hennings  pushed the  bowl of Pizza nuggets  to  motioned of Arnie and Garret to partake.

  I had  damn good grade in Bio-tech? But better  grades in Ship to Ship combat...even i don't know  much about the  gas, You'd have to  ask a real  Bio-Tech egg head?  But,,the simple version is,  the  Gas was alot like the  demon Gas,  it would  soak in through, whatever openings, and change thier Mindset..to where, ANY...food was  food.. the closest food to them, would be  each other, and the    Humanoid  Creshians.... in short, the Bugs would get to see what its like to  fight ...the bugs...

  shrugging as he talked around a Pizza  bite...people have been COMing  The Admiral ever  since  that  meeting... we'll have to hope  some one back doors a away to kill the  damn things.

 he took a  deep drink of his beer,  smacking his lips with a bit of a grin.  we have some good  people on Earth...with some good  teams.. but   the rest of the place is filled with enemies, traitors and  innocent folks who  don't know what the  9 hells is going on?.... In the  end? Earth has to do something, no other enemy planet has done...and that's show   us, that  they can turn the tide , against the enemy

Garrat snorts, “they have to know they are under enemy rule first.  Me?  I don’t have the resources to do anything but follow existing policy. Ge-Fi was supposed to be a good guy.

  Hennings   sipped  again, Arnie   leaned against a self listening. only one  couple was on the OB dec at this time and the were well to the starboard side.

 According to  Nil? GE-FI has deep ties in the Angel Council. One of the reason he was in charge of three mother ships , send to....how can we say this ?  Get Humans ready for the war, and make sure we were on the right side?

 he snorted,The Admiral, after hooking up with Nil, learned alot of Angel Policy. They were, at one time, the  people who led the fight against the Empire. When suddenly, they  withdrew, leaving the ..at that time...AP  races , to their own devices.  Oliver  things, GE-FI had what he wanted with  Him, and the   Russian Captain?... turns out, he didn't know one damn thing about Oliver...somewhere, in my offcie  in Sandiego is a stack of  COM discs, that detail GE-FI unhappiness with Hack,  Nil  and Shadow..just the  Lights out operations alone, drove  him up the wall, but there wasn't a damn think he could do, because    70 % of the world was on the 'let's help win this war" bandwagon. 

Arnie sang a Jingle,we got us Lizards  and  Demons, we got us  Bugs for sure..... we got us enemy agents , that we had to endure.... But Now its  time for Earth to fight and spread  across the Black, Its  time  to send out  Heroes  to push the empire back he grinned to the  song  , roughly  based on 'sink the bismark'

 Hennings  nodded  with a laugh and pointed at Arnie  as he  sang in a soft baritone....The story goes of  The  Hermes , she sailed  off for flight. she met  a  Demon Cap ship, but was ready for a Fight... People  fought and people died, as  She   sailed into the fray... in the  end the Demons  died, and no one ran away...

 Arnie  chuckled.

  Hennings looked at Garrat,I was still on the Board  in Sandiego... you'd  walk into a bar, or  even the OC club and you'd here this song.....GE-FI  told us not  to bring the   Demon ship back to earth, so we took it to Olympus... Oliver still feels, if we had taken it  to Earth, peole there would have  been sold, to say?..maybe 90%... you still have the  Rich folks trying to  earn creds from the other side, and cowards who sided  with the Empire...and..of  course the Anti angels..but all the people on the fence, seeing the hermes  bring in a Demon Cap ship?.. that would have changed alot of things.

   “My gun cams alone could get the point across.”  He shakes his head,  “But even if I got the trip sponsored I don’t have the knowledge or ability to sneak over to earth.  I’d need a guide and a mission to make it worthwhile.”

  Hennings  looked at Harrat as he popped another pizza  bite,A Aguide?... Earth isn't hard to find  once you get into the Sol System? there are tons of colonies.. Mars. Moonbase..at least 12  moons  between Saturn and  Jupiter, not to mention outposts  in the asteroid Blet  and the  Kyper  belt..A Mission?  Missions are what the are at the time, and they change  as people Adapt and overcome.... Killing  that fat bastard Frans  should be one of the first Missions   on Olympus , alone...he's turned his back on the whole system, just to set himself up... Taking out GE-FI  would  be a damn close  2nd?  Over all... getting people on the same  page on Earth? those people  killed each other for years  over one book or myths  or another...Greed.. power of  oil and  drugs ..power over  others  to use them as slaves..and now?  power over others  to be sent to larder ships..Lots of Missions to be Had in the  Sol System.

   Garrat snorts, "Finding earth is the least of my worries.  Getting my size eighteen feet on the damn surface is the hard part.  The IS can pass as an empire type, I even still have the Large communication system, but I only have one Large to operate it. I'm going to need someone who is experienced as a smuggler to get me where I need to go."

    "Killing Frans and Ge-Fi?  Hah, I always pegged you for having a sense of hummer but that's a good one.  No way I can find that type of talent or pack my little long boat with enough party favors to get the job down."

     As far as uniting the people? Mid....dammit I did it again, Earthers have a historic strength.  They'll beat the hell out of each other till you give them a common enemy, then a lot of old sores heal up awful fast.  The Bigger and more "glorious" the war the more of a unifying factor it becomes."
    Give them a chance to revolt against repressors and they will go crazy.  us some old war music and give them the promise joining an elite underground in defense of home and family and suddenly a lot of human trafficking rings are going to be having a bad day.  Me, if I were headed in that direction I'd just pack in every bit of fleet footage about how we are fighting and why we a fighting into every bit of crawl space I have.  Other than that I'll haul anything you think can help Delta fleet achieve it's goals.

    I have a bad history with striking out to do things on my own.  It doesn't work out well that way.  Best bet in this area Im still getting used to is to get orders and proper support.  Send along a secure means of communicating with you guys so if I run into any opportunities, I have access to a team that can give me an idea of how the dominoes will fall around here.
    I also have crew that might not be the best for this mission pending on requirements.  I'd need replacements if I am to swap any out.

    There is also an Asgard connection on earth but sorry my friend Hack is the only one I trust to discuss that with."

  Hennings  studied   Garrat...we aren't goign to to be  in the Sol System for a while.... and hwen we do come...some folks will see us a liberators..others as invaders...but..it doesn't matter  one damn?.. when we come in..it is going to be to clean house.

 ..you're going to have to be upfront and to the point on this.. we can  give you what you want if we don't know.

         Garrat thinks a moment, "Okay,  again I want Hack in on part of this.  First I need a smuggler type to help me navigate around patrols and bluff my way through Sol system security.  Also once planetside the IS can stay out of sight in the seas but navigational charts for European waterways could be helpful to get us where we need to go to regroup."

         "Second I need every non classified second of fleet footage that shows what we are up against, how we are kicking it's ass and Damming evidence of Ge-Fi, the oil barons, the E-vols, The EDT and Lady-V.  This needs to be in a format that people can prove wasn't cut or tampered with.  I'll leave it to existing resistance movements to figure out how to best use them.  Maybe Joe can come up with a plan for them."

         "Third, I need a narrow beam communications array with an unhackable scrambling system capable of communicating with the fleet from the planets surface as well as space.  I need to be able to remove it and leave it with Hunter so we can continue to send inspirational footage from space and maybe get some back in return.  It may be that when the fleet has a victory it might create a distraction in the leadership that allows the earth units to gain some ground.  One could hope the opposite will eventually be true too.  When the fleet returns, having planned.a coordinated assault should keep casualties down."

         "Fourth...well, that's up to you. I can carry an aquatic unit and four meduim sized Naragrans.   Missy has been buying every piece of Aqua mech frame she can get her hands on.  I'm not sure how many she has managed to restore.  We had one aqua transport and three Mechs to begin with, but I can swap out my boarding bays for vehicle bays to carry twice that many aquatic support vehicles.  Two of my bays are set up to support the needs of one large Naragran a piece or two small ones a piece.  Their psychic ability though limited could be the difference between life and death in covert planet operations that need high security."
         The boarding bays can also be changed out for fighter bays holding one fighter a piece.  A shuttle can be parked in the main bay as well.  we can temporarily billet a couple of platoons if they don't mind really cramped quarters.  I'll have to toss up a hammock in the crawl space and some of them might have to roll out sleeping pads on the machine deck clank plating but anything to get the job done.

        "Fifth is more what my position in the Asgard military can do for you.  I can tell you I know the location of an Asgard base in Norway.". Garrat taps his occipital interface, "I'm hardwired for it's location.  We tried not to get involved with your angels.  They seemed a little territorial, so our bases were natural cave systems accessible from bodies of water.  this one happens to be near Flam Norway.  And no, it is not a coincidence that this is where the legendary poet's mead is said to reside."

        Garrat shrugs "Other than that, all we can do is be prepared and deal with what comes whether it be good or bad."

  Henings listened there were frowns, and he began slowly.

  As you said?  Alot of this  , the Admiral  will have to deal with, and alot of it  will have to come through the Board... If we go outside the Fleet  for  something, the other APF Races, are going to  want  thier hand  in the mix? Some of those who would ...how shall i say this?..Wish to take The Admiral's place in leading  this 'Glorious  Fight',and  will want to test Human's resolve in this  war... in other words.. will we pound the 9 hells out of Earth like  we did everyone else...

  holding his   empty  Mug to Arnie, it was filled with another Cold beer.There isn't a race out there, that doesn't have its form of EDT...what's  worse? Some of those Races have people who..JOINED..the EDT..That makes Humans a leader in this  war on both  sides

  He  thinks  as he sips...  The Informations   should be no problem, even if the enemy  would find out we have it, that would cause alot  problems  with their internal works, trying to figure out how or why? Trying to  figure out  how to stop it...

 needless to say there isn't  anyone out in The Black that doesn't have a Narrow  beam of some type... The trick is, to have some one  who can break in  extract and   decode  the  information.... Hey... we are still picking  up COMs  from when Earth first set  a person into The Black  your ship already has a delta transponder ... don't know what else
 we  might  do/

 he sips  again,Not sure what you want from us for the  4th part

 standing a bit straighter as his eyes go to The Black,The Thing in Norway?,  we have suspected,  over the last..3 or  4  years  , that i was still on Earth.. there are  places in South America, South Afriac... In the Congo..in China.. both Poles  and..if
 it is to belives,  Under the whole of the  United states... None of these areas  have helped thus far,  and thereare rumors of , at least some of them, Ties to Largrans
 and  other such races..but None of that matters, Unless you reach Earth first.. we have clumps of people down there... each clump is  being huntered down..some are  known, and
 safe from outright attack...but that does   stop and 'EDT Night' happening..I stopped checking on Earth  for the last year,,, i read reports,  we'll amswer COMs  when we can. Its a damnable mess over there.

  Garrat sat down next to him.  Negotiations were reaching a point he understood.  "Let's start with number four, I'm willing to take anything you want me to take to earth or anything you feel would be needed on this mission.  I have the capacity and the equipment to do things other ships cannot, but that is exchanged for a mostly civilian and somewhat green crew.  Figuring out how to use the racial diversity has slowed me down, having the racial diversity has given me advantages.  But if you want me to take a couple of ships, an aquatic strike team, a group of Naragran, several units of soldiers, that is your choice.  My point is that I can.  I just want to know what you would prefer."

    "Speaking about bringing potentially alien assets to Earth.  I'm not personally apposed to having other races involved if we can trust the individuals.  I learned that the Skith as a race are probably excellent operators of the Fishy mechs if you want to send them.  Again the Naragran can help in unique ways and I'm set up to bring them, any other units who don't mind fighting by Human units could give the appearance of the APF supporting earths sovereignty though we need to be concerned about the xenophobic attitude of some Humans."

  " It sounds like the best thing for me to bring however is a unit that can connect and support the different earth factions.  This would require communication and espionage specialists for the technical side, A covert operation unit for making contact and bailing units out of tight spots, a security unit to keep the entire operation safe, guarded and hidden and an engineering unit to look after, work wit, and problem solve with the hardware.  That would cover the communications array.  With that I just wanted something that was hard to detect and nearly impossible to decipher.  There are Probably some other aspects I haven't thought of." Garrat nods, "Yeah, we're not going to figure out the best choice of actions on number four here with Arnie....."  Garrat looks up "Speaking of which, Arnie, I trust your opinion far more than a bunch of brass polishing their egos along with their medals."  he looks to Hennings "Present company accepted of course sir."  Back to Arnie,  "If you were to send earth a care package to make things easier on Delta fleet when they return, what would you choose?"

 Hennings    smile a bit  at Arnie.

 The   Tender  looked at garrat , he laughed a bit...The first pick is Scotland?..but  everyone knows that. Your best  bet would be Anartica , and  find those old bases there... most earth forces, can't  waste the time of effort to bother  anyone there.. and The Angels, they don't like the cold  so  much

      Garrat smiles gently "Arnie, my friend, I asked what to send to earth, not where to send it."

      He asks for another nutrient drink.  "Any old bases in Antarctica weren't from the Asgard.  There's a story there, but I wasn't able to learn it.  only a cryptic warning in the old files of beware what lies underneath.  It's a long ways from civilization so not the first choice for a global Broken Bulb headquarters."
      "Scotland is a given.  Even the Lochs have secrets and I've been Itching to see my old friend hunter.  He'll give me the lay of the land and should send me in the right direction."

 Hennings  Held Up a COM......if you want to try this?  I can COM The Admiral, and see if he has time to see you... But know this?... The Sol System is not ours.... You have idiots  following  GE-FI, and frans  and others Like them Blindly... they see the Poor   as  slaves, or  tokens for the  Empire  Larder ships, not realizing , that soon enough.. they have to  be  fighting  among themselves  to not  end up on a meat hook or birth chamber..... If ....your ship can get into Atmo on earth, you are going to be sorely under manned and Under supplied.

 he wiggled the COM to see if Garrat wanted him to  Call The Admiral

   Garrat nods "Something tells me I'm going to regret this....but yeah.  Make the call.  Anything else I'll have to negotiate directly."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:58, Tue 14 Dec 2021.

  Hennings   COMed  The  Admiral, explaining what was Going on, a few exchanges  and Hennings Clicked the  COM off...

  Head up to the Admiral's  quarters , They'll be expecting you...Now the thing  about your ship?... it will receive  what aid we can give...but....and I cannot stress this enough... once you are in the Sol System, there isn't much we can do....we have  transport lines between the sol system, Nivar  , Bura  and Fuji.. they send  supplies  in, bring volunteers out, that kind of thing... I'm sure creds  can  be  sent into your ships
 account....

 You want me to come up as well?

   Garrat considered it for a moment. "That might be wise.  Like I said there are  lot of things I don't know about in this part of space, the more experienced minds on the mission the better."

  Hennings looks at Garrat.....we can talk to The Admiral...but  you have to know, you're going in with limited resources, and almost no back up, except  for resistance folks..we have a few people who we might be able to spare...but its a narrow path your lookign to go down?

   “Unfortunately that was often my primary mission description back in my home military.  Asgard was pretty good at hiding under mountains so maybe I can get more resources on the table.  If I can get irrefutable backing of delta fleet as to my intentions and identity maybe that will help too.  Right now I have to be able to tell people that they can either help us grind the empire from both sides or they need to find a deep hole when we carpet bomb the planet.”  He scratches his beard, “It may be all I can do is direct them to deep holes but that’s better than they would have previously.  As far as spreading information we might want to bring Joseph into this.  He makes a living off of capturing the hearts of people and that might allow divide and conquer.”

 while Garrat  smoke, Hennings   worked on his  Com.....

  The Admirals , except  for me of course, are  working on the distribution of  captured enemy vessels ..we have about  a Fifteen Minute  window to discuss  this  with The Admiral...

 as he stood up to take Garrat to the  War room, he  chuckled,You know?  alot of this   could have been prevented  had you just  signed up  as an ESN regular...

...............

(( they arrive  at the WarvRoom))

  Captain Sir was  walking out   With a vidboard  talking to some other Captains as she made her way to the bridge.

  Roles  looked over  the Holo map of the  Fullen, and   on the  screens  about  a flat make of thier   charted path to Etna...

Bale was going through the paperwork of   giving the ​'pink slips' for the  captured vessel ​to whichever fleet was  beign  gifted with them.

 Hack was  fixing a cup of  coffee as he waved an orderly away  as the  man tried to 'fix it for him".. taking a  Sip, a tired looking Admiral Hack Looked at  Garrat.

 ..Bryce  tells me you have some sort of Mission involved concerning Earth? I am Uncertain how much you can do for them, with the Paradise  fleet, now flying under Empire colors...But..I have agreed to listen to your  prospect.....but know this?  Earth, is Just a little part of the whole damn Black?...Erth is goignto have to chose... The Hillite chsoe wrong. and they  under siege and  blacokaded.... Nivar  chose  wrong..at first, and alot of people loset thier lives  becuse of it...Roussa  chose very wrong, and they lost thier whole system to us...Earth?  has  one  tiny system..one Carrier station and that bal of mud is infested  with Empire folks...Red Angels  and EDT..I hoped   the Paradise  fellt would have proven me  wrong, and sorted things out for us...but..well... you saw the outcome of that.....so? what have you got, Mr Garrat?

When Hennings made the comment about enlisting Garrat rolled hi eyes “Tell me about it.  A lot of things would have been easier, but I couldn’t run the risk of conflicting oaths and let’s face it: ESN needs good little soldiers that will follow whatever orders they are told, not but balls like me who are always trying a different angle.  At least back in Asgard I knew the rules before I broke them.”

 (In response to Hack)
  “Frankly sir, not alot.  I’m uncertain about this too, but dealing with uncertain missions used to be the best place for us broken wings.”

   Garrat is quiet for a bit as he gathers his thoughts, “Earth IS a small piece of the bigger picture but if you don’t remove the arming pin on a torpedo, it can’t do its job.  It may be that all I can do is find a hole deep enough for our friends and family to hide in while you nuke the planet, but in the end earth DOES need to make a decision but a lot of people who can make that decision will never know they had it with the way things are going.  The first part of my plan is to sneak every bit of footage, evidence, and information I can that will support our cause and show people just how dangerous the empire is.  We’ve been dealing with brainwashed fanatics on the other end, it’s time we started our own information war.  I don’t have the training to man the gun on this but my friend Joseph has some experience with media and I’m certain we can find multiple sources planet side to smear the empire across multiple medias if I can just give them munitions.”

    “The rest is mix and match.  If you need mind readers planet side I can ship four Naragrans.  We have enough equipment to outfit and aquatic assault unit though that would be best done with Skith and I don’t know if they are up for it.  I would also like to set up a series of transmitters so the fleet can maintain secure communication with forces on the planet.  Hacking Codes to earth defense systems, weaknesses in enemy technology, anything that can make those who are already there more capable of crippling earths defense when the time comes, all cards that will deal me a better hand to play when I land.  The IS is small but if you know of any units that can be spared and can help, I’ll work to get them in position.  I might be able to tap some remaining Asgard resources.  In the end it comes down to scraping as much as we can together and seeing what we can do with it.  I have fought with Midgard genetic stock even before fighting here.  They are passionate, capable, and effective.  Time on the Hermes has taught me no different.  If we can tap into that then just keeping them informed and on the same page can make a world of difference.”

    Garrat shakes his head, “and however this turns out, we will learn from it and maybe save more lives down the road on another planet.”   Garrat points to the coffee “besides, not even Bura makes coffee as good as earth.  The IS is still registered as a private craft.  I’m volunteering for the mission, not even signed up to the ESN.  The other races of the AP cannot accuse you of showing favoritism to earth.  Any help you provide will simply be an investment in saving lives.  We already convinced  some of the Hyrians and now many fight with Delta fleet.  You stood back to back with the Felrite leadership and daughter factions of his own people.  The banana and angel moons were convinced to side with the AP against the oppressors on their home world. I even have information that sections of Largan society might be turned.  Let’s give Your earth a chance.

 Hack  Looked at his coffee  and  gave a chuckle, then  stood  with his arm behind his back as he looked at the flat screen map.

  Bryce?

 Well, Sir?  I mean.....Its not like we're going into the Sol System Tomorrow. You said yourself you wanted to take out Hel, before going  Home, because you were afraid some  folks  might not  like us pounding our own rock to bits...

 and Now the Paradise  Fleet is in the Sol System..  I don't think the  Fleet can  fight us head to head..but  we'll be hurting after  we wipe them out...

 Still?  we don't have much to lose, Any one  who dies   on earth  fighting from with in, would die anyway?

 Hack  sipped hi cup as he  locked in the map where the two Hive Vessels and  Largen Mother ship sat... There's a Corvette  by the  funnel.. has a crew of 8... as well as  two troopers  and an ex-pilot... take that ship with you...

 turning from the Map.....people you take with you? will have to be Volunteers.. he sipped  again, Looking at   Garrat over the rim of his mug.