Hope Station

[Omega Chief]

Drifting in orbit of Neo-Terra's outer moon of Luna is the several kilomiter long newly complete diplomatic station 'hope'. Complete with multiple habitation area's, some already set for the specific requirments of those sending ambassadors, and with others able to be rapidly converted to suit others, it was designed as the diplomatic hub of known space.

The Republic, realising that actual face to face diplomacy amongts so many warring nations probably wasn't the smartest move, instead installed vast screens, cameras and the best network they could find into each of the stations diplomaic habitats, the upside of this is it allows real time cideo contact between all the ambassadors at once with the ability to bring up images, videos or other reports to aid with thier speaking and recive FTL communications form thier respective nations.

Currently all the ambassadors are being directed aboard, to make thier opening statments and speak in regards to the current agenda.

Current Agenda
Galaxy-wide cease fire.
Pooling information on the 'scream' from the galactic East.

[Bubble Wrap]

The Domain's representative boarded Hope Station, travelling from the warship in orbit over Omega Ceti in little more than a glorified escape pod. The machine that entered the station stood about seven feet tall, clad in armour plating but devoid of weaponry. Stencilled across its chest was the name 'Intruder', and a trail of loud, metallic clangs followed it as it made its way to its chamber.

Set aside for the Domain was an area devoid of atmosphere, and containing little more than the interfaces needed for the Intruder to hook into the communications system. The representative would survive on its internal power cells for several weeks before needing to return to the ship for recharging, and so its needs were minimal.

Data links were established with the orbiting starship, and from there to the Domain's main base in the Slumberhold. Information began to arrive, bringing the Intruder up to date with all the Domain's current activities, monitoring inbound and outbound communications that might be relevant to the discussions. Settling into low power mode, the Intruder awaited the arrival of its counterparts.

[Shard]

Although it was the sleek and deadly warships that the Neo-terrans remembered of the Imperium, the strange, bullet-like ship that slinks into the system is similar enough to give them the shivers, even if scans indicate that it is unarmed.

But this is only discovered moments before it docks, as it seems to casually avoid sensor readings, melding into the blackness of space. It was ships like this that allowed the Imperium to so easily scavenge battlefields of minerals, ships like this that meant parts could be shipped right into warzones to assemble stations speedily and efficiency.

And in this case, ships like this that allowed them to send an envoy through potentially hostile space.

Upon docking at the indicated part of the station, half a dozen figures disembark. Most of them are in solid, beetle-like power armour with clawed gauntlets and red glowing double-helix in place of any features on the helmet. Each would be around 7' tall if they stood up straight, some of them even more. The armour is silvery, with golden streaks and a stylised pair of wings emblazoned on their shoulders.

The others are assorted droids of the Remnant.

The Deathspire envoy, who has noticeably more ornate armour than the others, nods and exchanges a few words in their own harsh language. A few moments later, the area of the station devoted to the Imperium sets to their request - 50 degrees celsius and slightly higher background radiation levels.

Apart from the automated notification of their arrival, no transmissions are sent out by the Imperium.

[Kane]

The machines of the Remenant come in seemingly two models. The first, a sleeker and more agile form. More refined and sociable. While they carry weapons, they are safely tucked into their "backpack" storage. The first generation of combat machines, these. They are given to awoken AIs, to give them a slightly more approachable frame.

The second are obviously the newer generation of war machines, heavily influenced by the Imperium's powered armor. Large, bulky, intimidating. While there is only one of the first, there are four of the second. A small escort, so far as honor guards go.

Their own section was similar to the Domain in several respects. Gravity was kept more for convenience than anything else, and atmosphere for any guests that wished to meet in person. Once the envoy, the unit identifying itself as Bethke, was plugged into the network, it sent a general ping that they were ready to begin talks at the request of the Republic.

[Abdiel]

A video recording is sent via FTL to the Hope Station communication array. The First Circle council room of House Immara is pictured: a large, circular room decorated around the perimeter with statues and paintings of important Immara leaders of the past. In the middle of the room is a heavy stone table divided into twelve sections. Members of the First Circle are sitting around the table. However, four out of the twelve chairs are empty, including the Shah's place. A young woman sitting to the right of the Shah's empty throne, wearing an ornamental Immara royal dress, speaks.

Greetings, leaders of star nations. My name is Sulena Immara and I am second in the Immara bloodline. My brother, Aevan Immara, the First Shah of House Immara, is currently being treated for his severe injuries, but I am authorized to speak on his behalf as the Second Shahis.

We have recovered a communications drone and a recorded message announcing your peace talks. Unfortunately, our long-range FTL communication arrays have been damaged in the recent assault by the Interstellar Kingdom of Talos, and that is why we were not able to answer earlier. The Immara relay has now been partially fixed, but we are still not able to estabilish a two-way interactive video commlink. We are sending this recorded message in hope that it reaches the council in time.

The Valiaas have been struck greatly by the Kingdom of Talos invasion. Not only have our production lines been halted, our stations destroyed and our fields burned, but the souls of our people are still enraged by the betrayal of the ones we thought were our allies. The Valiaas, above all, value loyalty. Treason is the worst sin, and the Valii way demands righteous revenge. However, our factions have not seen a war of this scale for over two hundred years. Too much blood has been needlesly spilled already. We are willing to negotiate a cease-fire, but we still demand the Talos to answer for their crimes. Most of our interstellar infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged beyond any hope of repair in the assault. We will not accept anything less than the full value of the destroyed stations as a compensation.

As for the Deathspire Imperium, House Immara has no more reason to continue the fight with them. The Imperium's destruction was the goal of our alliance with the Neo-Terran Republic and the Interstellar Kingdom of Talos. That alliance is now shattered. Unless the Imperium interferes into Valii territory, we will not pursue this war any longer. We do, however, have one request. We still do not know the fate of our fleet which was engaged by the Imperium in Sirenhold. We have not been able to estabilish contact with them since our communication systems were destroyed. We demand the release of any survivors of this battle that are being held hostage, and all the information about the surviving ships, if there was any further contact with them.

Last, the faction known as the Domain of the Steel God is now considered an ally of House Immara. The Immara will support their defensive forces, and anyone engaging the Domain ships will be considered an enemy of the Immara as well. This is the least we can do to honor the help they have provided to us in these harsh times.

The Shahis stands up, and speaks to the Council.

The Immara Stellar Council will now acknowledge this message.

All the First Circle members stand up, cross their arms on their chests, and simultaneously say:

These are the words of House Immara. The Stellar Council acknowledges them and will honor them as our own.

The recording fades to black as they take their seats again.

[Omega Chief]

Return signal to Valii

It's good to hear from you House Immara of Valii, and we urge you to send an ambassador to this station, we can spare shuttle craft and send releif ships and support if you have none to spare yourself, the purpose of these talks is indeed to work out what we can do to end the conflicts and pay reparations, so your attendence would greatly benefit you!

As to your fleet, they passed through Omega Ceti not long ago, refusing our offers of aid and harbour, they proceeded through to the Polaris system, we can help boost your signal to try and establish contact if you wish?

[Gunblader]

The lone cube that has been in Omega Ceti finally docks with hope station. The Hive Queen and 20 Drones beam aboard, giving everyone excluding the remnant, their first look at The Hive.

We are the Hive. Our goal is to facilitate relations between the Hive Collective and the collective known as the "Neo Terrans". We present our queen, the drones state.


The queen steps forwards and begins to speak:

"Ahh. Humans. So our forerunners were not the only humans to survive. Interesting. My reason for attending this "meeting" is the massive scream from the galactic east. I've sent numerous Fleets in, but nothing returns. For the first time in countless Orbits, we fear. In light of this, we are willing to cooperate with you "organics". I have information regarding this problem in the east."

She inserts her assimilation tubes into the View screen and begins to play recording:
__________________________________

A vast nebula full of orange and Gold plasma clouds looms ahead and the fleet of 100 tactical cubes(CL4) and 10 tactical Fusion Cubes(CL5) head directly into it. After several minutes of silence, debris is detected. Scans are taken and a piece of what appears to be a ships emblem is taken.

Then alerts go off and contact with the lead fusion cube is lost. All that is seen next are shots of energy coming from the clouds and cubes falling like flies. The entire fleet is obliterated in mere seconds.
____________________________________

"As you can see, our fleet was eradicated in mere seconds. I believe the "Remnant" representative can attest to how strong our capital ships are.(OOC: Capital ship doctrine) So this is a serious problem to say the least. I have brought the scans of the emblem with me. Process it and see if you recognize it in your data banks."

Attachments:

[Shard]

A short transmission is sent back to House Immara from Hope Station.

What survivors there were of the Battle of Sirenhold were sent to Omega Ceti and are under the care of the Neo-terrans. After the fleet left for the Sirius system, we have had no further contact.

[ww2jacob]

HMS Indio finally moved from the position in orbit of Planet Neo-Terra which she had occupied for over a month. The ship moved steadily to a holding pattern near Hope Station, then discharged a small stealth craft, which accelerated quickly and was given immediate priority docking clearance to the station.

---

The small Republic honor guard came to attention as the passengers disembarked from the small ship bearing, upon close inspection, the emblem of the Interstellar Kingdom of Talos. First out of the docking tube came four Talosian marines, armed with light rifles slung to their backs and pistols at their hips. Accordingly with military custom, they saluted the honor guard and then took positions flanking the tube.

The next man to pass through the tube was wearing a suit of a very deep green, black tie, and carried a simple black briefcase. He offered the honor party a curt nod before advancing to speak with the Republic's representative.

"Well, if it isn't the representative from our old friends in Talos," the man said with a small smile. "We've been awaiting your arrival."

"Yes, I imagine you have," the representative replied, without even a hint of a smile. "I assume it's not a problem?"

"Um, no. No, not at all. May I ask your name and position? For the rolls, of course."

"My name is..." the representative hesitated a moment, as if in thought, "... Jason."

"And you are a diplomat from the Foreign Office, correct?"

"I am a diplomat, yes... but I represent His Majesty directly."

"I see. Well, I suppose that will do. May I escort you to your chambers? The workstation in your room should be able to catch you up on what you've missed."

"Of course," Jason replied. He followed the man deeper into the station, flanked by the four Royal Marines.

[Bubble Wrap]

Responding to the Hive's message, the Intruder began to display data from the Domain's exploration into system 17. Three tactical readouts showed the Domain's unsuccessful attempts to explore the system.

"Our attempts to explore this system have been hampered by the adverse conditions of the nebula itself. Only the largest capital ships can penetrate the storms, and even they are vulnerable. Our last fleet suffered 80% casualties before they had even located the enemy fleet. We have not returned to the system since the recent occurrence, however our next attempt will be a much larger fleet, along with some of the largest capital ships we are capable of manufacturing."

The first tactical readout shows a fleet of five small ships, the hounds who had been sighted throughout the galaxy. An energy beam from within the nebula destroys four of the vessels, and there is remote imaging of a Valiaas ship suffering the same fate before the final ship is destroyed.

The second readout is a much larger fleet, a mixture of medium to small capital ships with interceptor escorts. The fleet takes heavy damage entering the nebula, and detects a number of portals opening before it finally succumbs.

The third and final readout is from a fleet of ten heavy capital ships, eight of which are crippled as they head deep into the nebula. Portals open all around them and hundreds of green and black ships, ranging from strike craft to heavy capitals, swarm out, quickly destroying the crippled ships. The last two Domain ships engage the enemies head on, but are quickly overwhelmed.

[Kane]

The screen displaying the Remnant envoy lights up, unveiling its blank face from where it had listened.

"Obviously these strangers are powerful. Or, at the very least, smart. It would be impossible to determine their production base without analysis of these ships. Our question is not how strong these strangers are, but what caused the resonance. None of these events listed seem to spur the 'scream' many of our, and others, sensors picked up."

[Gunblader]

"Our analysis shows suggests the scream may be from unstable jump nodes forming and destabilizing rapidly in a concentrated area within the heart of the nebula."

[Kane]

"Very well, we can accept this explanation. Our next question is what will the two bordering empires do with this knowledge? So far, all these attacks have occurred within the nebulae. We, alas, have insufficient data to make a good estimate in the chances of their moving beyond it. Also, in addendum, what would you request of the rest of this summit to do?"

[Gunblader]

The queen thinks upon the Remnant's representative's question. She ponders a bit and than answers.

"The collective and the Steel Gods domain cannot contain this. So to prevent any regrettable loss of efficiency, I propose a total and complete cease fire between all organics, a military build up, and a joint Alliance/Coalition attack.

[Kane]

The facial expressions on a sheet of metal are impossible to determine. The silence from the Remnant diplomat, however, stretches right into the uncomfortable. As machines are want to do, quite deliberately.

"On the first, we agree. There is no point in weakening each other while an unknown threat lurks. We also agree on the second, as threats we know more about still exist. Your third point we cannot agree to. We do not trust you, nor the Domain, nor the Valii. Furthermore, we point out that these Strangers have not moved beyond the nebulae according to your data. What evidence do we have besides suspicion that they will move outside it?

"You have not given us enough information. Whether because you are withholding it, or because you do not have it, doesn't really matter. There is simply not enough to make any sort of credible assumption."