[Briefing Room - EAS Hermes - Grand Banks]
"Through these doors, Captain Rojac." The officer waved Cropa toward to large decorative doors affixed with the emblem of the Erassian Second Fleet. Cropa nodded toward the officer, and then looked back toward his entourage. He nodded to Jardan, who stepped forward to the doors and opened it for his Captain to pass.
The room was quite elegant in its design, obviously meant to inspire and awe all those Erassian - and intimidate the rest. One wall was bedecked in various katanas with shining plaques beneath them stating their name and legend, another of various ship designs included in the fleet, the third wall looked out into the far reaches of the stormy nebula and all of its wonder. Rojac took it all in stride, and instead kept his gaze locked on the two individuals already seated along the table. Cropa stopped five feet away from the opposite side of the large conference table and held his hands tightly behind his back. "General, Colonel, you have a beautiful ship here. I am honored to be aboard."
"I suppose you should be honored as you are the first Starfleet Officers to be allowed aboard the Fifth Generation Hermes but in any case it's good to have you here Captain. That of course applies to the rest of you as well Athena, Anya, Harbright's pet project Lieutenant Jardan and the other security Lieutenant. Ambassador Ayanami welcome as always." Viktor replied Colonel Anios just nodded.
Athena let her gaze flick towards Viktor and the Colonel as if taking in their general health and then looked blankly out at the storm thinking {Fair start.} She remained standing tall in her spot following Rojac's lead as her arms hung relaxed at her side which was in contrast to other involuntary responses.
Alecto said loudly "We may as well get started then. Feel free to take a seat everyone." and walked to the seat next to where Viktor was sitting.
Colonel Anios walked up to Anya and gave her a hug and then a grin "It's good to see you again Stormchild, it really has been to long."
Anya replied "Likewise Storm-mage." Upon seeing Captain Rojac's enquiring look Anya said to him "Serena here was my Wing CO during the Solrin War. We saved each others asses many times and the acid comments that passed between us during the transmission actually passes for humour between us as General Ivanov is already painfully aware."
Viktor rolled his eyes "Well it made briefings back then a hell of a lot harder to go through I tell you."
"I agree." Rojac said, pulling at his collar as he sat in the offered chair. The environmental controls seemed a little more toasty than aboard his own ship.
Alecto said loudly "We may as well get started then. Feel free to take a seat everyone." and walked to the seat next to where Viktor was sitting.
Colonel Anios walked up to Anya and gave her a hug and then a grin "It's good to see you again Stormchild, it really has been to long."
Anya replied "Likewise Storm-mage." Upon seeing Captain Rojac's enquiring look Anya said to him "Serena here was my Wing CO during the Solrin War. We saved each others asses many times and the acid comments that passed between us during the transmission actually passes for humour between us as General Ivanov is already painfully aware."
Viktor rolled his eyes "Well it made briefings back then a hell of a lot harder to go through I tell you."
"I agree." Rojac said, pulling at his collar as he sat in the offered chair. The environmental controls seemed a little more toasty than aboard his own ship.
Turning from the storm outside the window, Athena took a seat while thinking {He looks tired}. She settled into the seat and folded her arms into her lap and took a closer look at Viktor assessing him with a little more scrutiny this time. {Is that gray hair... surely not... } Her gaze briefly flicked to the window again as lightning streaked by and then back to Viktor. {No.. it is gray.}
"Let me tell you why we're here." Rojac said as the rest of his team took their seats. "As you all know, following the attack on the Aeran system and Starbase UNITY, Starfleet deployed a cloaked sensor outpost network along the border with the Romulans. As you also know, one of the Outposts were compromised by Romulan agents a month ago. It is bad enough that our cloaked sensor network was discovered, but the opportunity exists that the communications codes between our two empires may have been cracked, and our navigation beacons may no longer be secured."
"Of course, we all know about these occurrences, and both of our governments have taken necessary precautions to override these security threats." Rojac continued. "But the puzzling thing is, before the outpost was destroyed and encrypted message was sent out in three separate bursts to three separate locations; and this is the second time this has occurred."
"The first one was sent to a deserted planet in the Qualor system. The second to an asteroid belt in the Barradas system. The third we traced into Erassian space, but Starfleet was not permitted access to continue our search."
Viktor steepled his hands on the table. "You said that was the second incidence. What was the first?"
"Yes." Rojac said. "And here is where the situation get more troubling. The first situation this occured was during an incident in the Antigonis system the Chimera was sent to investigate."
"Where you lost the USS Quasar and found it dismantled in a Breen base and as I recall the crew were in much the same state as the ship. I don't recollect if that was before or after SSF Command ordered the removal of the fighter decks and ODA decks to make way for an office block for the Task Force Brass...after I think. Strategic thinking there." Colonel Anios said seriously although she chuckled at the last sentence.
Rojac was rather surprised that Colonel Anios knew about the incident - but then again, Erassian Intelligence was famed throughout the quadrant. "Yes. The Quasar was captured by Breen forces and disassembled at a research base. Before the Chimera destroyed the base however, similar transmissions were broadcast in similar locations. Two ended up as dead ends, and the third went again into Erassian space. Now this was before the Mutual Defense Pact and the current war; and the relations between our governments was even more tenuous. Needless to say, Starfleet investigators were denied access, and we weren't willing to share what we were looking for either."
"A situation which isn't much different from now. Considering that the Federation had knowledge of Klingon and Romulan cooperation and said nothing to the Alliance despite the very high risk to our Charos and Toren systems where there are populations of around fifteen Billion civillians. The same couldn't be said of the Alliance who sent warnings to the Federation of the Romulans building up their forces for the past five years and gave intelligence regarding the construction of six Scimitar II Class Carriers. Both warnings were ignored and what do you have as a result you now have a highly unfavourable war against the Romulans and how many millions dead on V'Tar II?" Alecto commented loudly.
"It is troubling," Rojac said, "to think that the Romulans at Outpost 0071 and the Breen at Antigonis might be cooperating. If the Breen get involved, starfleet will have to concentrate more ships along our northern border, and draw away our efforts protecting UNITY territory and Erassian space. That is why it is integral we gain access to continue this investigation to see where these leads go. What does the Federation need to do for Erassian cooperation?" The Starfleet Captain asked.
Viktor gave a cold smile "I can give you a long list on that one. How about first of all and I really do stress this one before sending a ship to the Alliance for the love of the gods read the fucking treaty that you signed up to. In there it tells you all about how the Erass System is sensitive and as such is a no go area and as such is why nosey Starfleet Intelligence vessels posing as Survey Craft will be told in no uncertain terms where to go. The other reason we don't usually mention is that the system is heavily mined with stealth mines and automated defense systems. Secondly the Federation has to recognise that the Alliance isn't a naughty child to be talked down to and chastised. The Erassian Alliance has been a Soveriegn entity for over one hundred and forty years and before that was not, since then has not been, currently is not and will never be a member of the United Federation of Planets nor subserviant to it. Therefore the next time a Starfleet Officer demands something off either one of the Alliance's Ships, Worlds or Ambassadors expect the answer to be delivered at the point of a charged plasma cannon. Don't get me wrong though we have no objections to you asking or requesting something it's just that getting treated like second rate citizens wears thin after a while. After the Federation has mastered that then we can move on to phase two."
Athena sat quietly listening carefully to what both men said. A couple of time she bit her lip to keep from giving a sarcastic laugh or two. And now although she continued to listen carefully; she couldn't help but realize how much the tension that she felt seemed to resemble the storm that she watched out the window from her seat. She found her hands in her lap tightly clasped to help keep herself from interrupting. Sometimes it just bit flying monkey butt to be a silent observer.
"Let me tell you why we're here." Rojac said as the rest of his team took their seats. "As you all know, following the attack on the Aeran system and Starbase UNITY, Starfleet deployed a cloaked sensor outpost network along the border with the Romulans. As you also know, one of the Outposts were compromised by Romulan agents a month ago. It is bad enough that our cloaked sensor network was discovered, but the opportunity exists that the communications codes between our two empires may have been cracked, and our navigation beacons may no longer be secured."
"Of course, we all know about these occurrences, and both of our governments have taken necessary precautions to override these security threats." Rojac continued. "But the puzzling thing is, before the outpost was destroyed and encrypted message was sent out in three separate bursts to three separate locations; and this is the second time this has occurred."
"The first one was sent to a deserted planet in the Qualor system. The second to an asteroid belt in the Barradas system. The third we traced into Erassian space, but Starfleet was not permitted access to continue our search."
Viktor steepled his hands on the table. "You said that was the second incidence. What was the first?"
"Yes." Rojac said. "And here is where the situation get more troubling. The first situation this occured was during an incident in the Antigonis system the Chimera was sent to investigate."
"Where you lost the USS Quasar and found it dismantled in a Breen base and as I recall the crew were in much the same state as the ship. I don't recollect if that was before or after SSF Command ordered the removal of the fighter decks and ODA decks to make way for an office block for the Task Force Brass...after I think. Strategic thinking there." Colonel Anios said seriously although she chuckled at the last sentence.
Rojac was rather surprised that Colonel Anios knew about the incident - but then again, Erassian Intelligence was famed throughout the quadrant. "Yes. The Quasar was captured by Breen forces and disassembled at a research base. Before the Chimera destroyed the base however, similar transmissions were broadcast in similar locations. Two ended up as dead ends, and the third went again into Erassian space. Now this was before the Mutual Defense Pact and the current war; and the relations between our governments was even more tenuous. Needless to say, Starfleet investigators were denied access, and we weren't willing to share what we were looking for either."
"A situation which isn't much different from now. Considering that the Federation had knowledge of Klingon and Romulan cooperation and said nothing to the Alliance despite the very high risk to our Charos and Toren systems where there are populations of around fifteen Billion civillians. The same couldn't be said of the Alliance who sent warnings to the Federation of the Romulans building up their forces for the past five years and gave intelligence regarding the construction of six Scimitar II Class Carriers. Both warnings were ignored and what do you have as a result you now have a highly unfavourable war against the Romulans and how many millions dead on V'Tar II?" Alecto commented loudly.
"It is troubling," Rojac said, "to think that the Romulans at Outpost 0071 and the Breen at Antigonis might be cooperating. If the Breen get involved, starfleet will have to concentrate more ships along our northern border, and draw away our efforts protecting UNITY territory and Erassian space. That is why it is integral we gain access to continue this investigation to see where these leads go. What does the Federation need to do for Erassian cooperation?" The Starfleet Captain asked.
Viktor gave a cold smile "I can give you a long list on that one. How about first of all and I really do stress this one before sending a ship to the Alliance for the love of the gods read the fucking treaty that you signed up to. In there it tells you all about how the Erass System is sensitive and as such is a no go area and as such is why nosey Starfleet Intelligence vessels posing as Survey Craft will be told in no uncertain terms where to go. The other reason we don't usually mention is that the system is heavily mined with stealth mines and automated defense systems. Secondly the Federation has to recognise that the Alliance isn't a naughty child to be talked down to and chastised. The Erassian Alliance has been a Soveriegn entity for over one hundred and forty years and before that was not, since then has not been, currently is not and will never be a member of the United Federation of Planets nor subserviant to it. Therefore the next time a Starfleet Officer demands something off either one of the Alliance's Ships, Worlds or Ambassadors expect the answer to be delivered at the point of a charged plasma cannon. Don't get me wrong though we have no objections to you asking or requesting something it's just that getting treated like second rate citizens wears thin after a while. After the Federation has mastered that then we can move on to phase two."
Athena sat quietly listening carefully to what both men said. A couple of time she bit her lip to keep from giving a sarcastic laugh or two. And now although she continued to listen carefully; she couldn't help but realize how much the tension that she felt seemed to resemble the storm that she watched out the window from her seat. She found her hands in her lap tightly clasped to help keep herself from interrupting. Sometimes it just bit flying monkey butt to be a silent observer.
"All due respect, General, I did read the 'fucking' treaty. Which is one of the reasons why our course was diverted here to the Grand Banks and your fleet's position." Rojac responded. "Second, to the accusation of my fellow Captain's treating your people as second rate citizens, I apologize. However, your side of the fence is not quite pristine either. You ruffle feathers, push boundaries, and mock the principles the Federation is founded upon quite openly. Which is why the Alliance withdrew from the Federation to begin with. But let me get to my point General, we have our differences. We have our strengths, no matter what technical jargon is tossed about in that treaty, it's sole purpose is to unite our peoples in this struggle against our common enemies. I think its time we go about it." Rojac said. "Now, you mentioned a phase two."
Viktor continued "Phase two is quite simple communication and collaboration. Firstly communication, whilst our intelligence is very good they still aren't omnipotent, so sharing of information that is beneficial to our security and well being would be much appreciated as our continued existence does continue to benefit you even if certain corrupt members of the Federation Council may disagree. In turn we would give intelligence that would benefit your continued security and well being...which in turn benefits us by having a strong ally ergo everybody wins. Secondly, collaboration as mutual partners in this war by now you already know that we both have different strengths. You have numbers and resources and many multi-talented personnel and we have highly trained elite fighter squadrons and special forces units as well as unique tactics. Make use of these strengths and bring us in on operations you are planning where our participation can increase the operational efficiency resulting in a quicker result with less casualties. Surely neither of these are such an extravagant thing to ask?"
"Not at all." Rojac said. "In fact it falls in line with the request I was going to make. Since our access is barred to the Erass system, perhaps you can trace the communication for us?"
Athena smirked and quickly hid it. She watched the colors swirl out the window as a wave of emotion hit her. She straighten in her seat and took a calming breath.
"Intelligence already did that. A Starfleet Intelligence vessel poking around tends to raise eyebrows. Unsurprisingly the signal did not go to somewhere in the Erass System but was routed through a system of cloaked communications relays to somewhere within the Canna System. We sent in in a number of drone scouts which detected a number of Breen ships in the area enough to suggest a cloaked Breen Base in the area but the drones haven't found it meaning it's likely on one of the two habitable planets in the system rather than an orbital facility." Viktor said.
Anya groaned "The Canna System? I hate the frozen north, I remember trying to dig out rouge Solrin ships at the tail end of the war, it was damn near impossible to find them on those two frozen balls of crud in the Canna System."
"Which is partly why I'm sending the EAS Prometheus with you amongst other reasons too both political and security related." Viktor replied shortly.
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End Log
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Anya groaned "The Canna System? I hate the frozen north, I remember trying to dig out rouge Solrin ships at the tail end of the war, it was damn near impossible to find them on those two frozen balls of crud in the Canna System."
"Which is partly why I'm sending the EAS Prometheus with you amongst other reasons too both political and security related." Viktor replied shortly.
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End Log
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Captain Cropa Rojac
CO
USS Chimera - C
Commander Athena Wellington
Chief Counselor
USS Chimera - C
Marine Captain Anya Xerxes
Flight Ops CO
USS Chimera - C
Ambasador Alecto Ayanami
Erassian Alliance Ambassador to SSF
SB 234: Unity
General Viktor Ivanov (NPC Ixus)
FCO
EAS Hermes
Colonel Serena Anios (NPC Ixus)
CO
EAS Hermes
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