"Un trône pour le roi" (An Enclave story)

[Wolfs Ghost]

Aquitaine System, deep space
Aboard the RES Royale DeFrance II
0815 hrs.

Capitaine Luc Jacques Belot stood at the command terminal on board the Royale DeFrance. The flat radar panel ahead of his showed the marine transport leaving the destroyer and making its way towards the station. He drew in a calm breath as he watched the vessel on the radar before looking up through the viewing port to see the vessel as it approached the hangar doors. So far everything seemed to be going according to plan, which is exactly what he wanted. He understood the necessities behind this mission, but he didn't exactly feel comfortable doing it behind the backs of the people that pulled them out from that god forsaken planet they've been stuck on for what felt like decades, even though it was probably two to three years at the max.

The prince was right. They needed this station, and taking it would solidify themselves in a position of power within the rest of the Enclave. A show of force that he and his men weren't to be reckoned with, and being able to lock down a location as the Prince's own dominion would make him safer in the long run. Of course, that safety would only last until the Enclave decided to role a valor up with a Warwolf cannon to decimate the station. But they weren't going to be that bold - at least not yet. Luc sighed, shaking his head as he watched the hangar doors of the station open, and shortly after the shuttle disappeared within the maw.

Joseph had left on a personal endeavor with a few other guards, and Luc warned him that this endeavor was reckless, and point blank idiotic. But Joseph was stubborn and ignored him, and now Luc got stuck babysitting a bunch of his colleagues over a derelict station. An easy and straightforward job that was going to bore Luc out of his mind, scans had indicated there wasn't anything of note aboard, nor any life signs. He checked the reports again before drifting back off into his thoughts, his eyes watching as the marines began dismounting - a live video link soon connected to the command deck.

The Prince never cared for his cousins, it was made clearly the night he received the communication from Claire. While his demeanor was pleasant and straightforward, the moment the conversation ended and the feed was cut - Joseph was fuming. Luc would know, he was in the room when it happened. The last time Luc had seen the Prince that upset was when the Prince killed his closest adviser, a Marechal of the Gallic Royal Navy and his former Royal Guard Capitaine, Julie Bonheur. Of course on that day his temper was running high anyways due to finding out that a medical servant impregnated his comatose sister. He was there for that too. Luc realized that he was around more often than not when Joseph was in a terrible mood, and that made him also realize that he's been lucky enough to live through all of those times where others, who were the direct ire of the Prince, weren't so lucky.

No... this time the Prince was pissed off that more people carried his blood line, and had a less than equal chance - but still a chance - to claim the throne, and that was a problem that would need to be rectified. Joseph had made it clear in the communique he had sent to Claire. Bend to his will, or else. If Luc knew any better, he'd guess that Joseph was probably going to end up killing both of his Cousins. That, of course, didn't bother him in the slightest. The Politics of nobles, and particularly that of Royals, didn't bother him. He just kept his mouth shut when it was happening, and he did it to avoid ending up like Julie. Oh, how he missed her. She was quite pleasant to have around, and he definitely missed the times they spent playing chess together. She would win, but only because he had let her. This thought brought a smile to Luc's face, she knew he always let her win, but still in the end she would find time to challenge him to another game.

If Luc knew any better, he would guess that Joseph was probably going to end up killing both of his Cousins. The politics of Royals didn't bother him in the slightest, as long as he kept his own mouth shut when it was happening. To avoid ending up like Julie... he missed Julie, she was pleasant to have around, and he definitely missed the times they spent playing chess. She would win, but only because he let her. He smiled at this thought, she knew that he always let her win, but still she would play chess as often as time would allow them to.

Luc's eyes shifted back to the live feed as the boring and easy part was completed. Now he had to actually focus on the assignment at hand, he patched himself in to the comm-link and swiped a couple of panels over on his command interface. "Commandant. This is the Royale DeFrance. Squad's A through C have checked in, and the operation is a go. The station's blue prints are relatively old compared to what we were initially scanning. I'd keep your helmets on as there's probably some open hull spaces. The last thing we want is everyone to suffocate. We've completed another bio-signature scan, and there...." Luc paused, looking at the signature scan again before looking over at one of his bridge officers. "Is this right? One life sign?" The man nodded, looking over the signature scan again before turning back into his seat and going back to work, "Run the scan again. There shouldn't be anything aboard this. The damned life support isn't even on. Can't even trust the damn equipment of this piece of junk." Luc drew in a deep breath, "Sorry about that Commandant. We're showing a single life sign aboard, at the moment. We think it might be a sensor malfunction aboard the Royale DeFrance. Either way, proceed with caution."

"Oui. Jacques, you better keep a god damn eye on that signature. If it moves towards any of my men, your ass will be mine. The Prince said this was suppose to be a straightforward mission. No ones suppose to be on board, except us. Marines. Stay frosty, check all of your damn corners and keep guns at the ready. Anything that doesn't show up on IFF is dead."

"The Prince said that if anyone was on board, except us, to kill them. You have your orders Commandant. You do your job, and I'll do mine. Oui?" Luc shook his head, no matter how many times they got into it, he made damned sure that she and her men came back in one piece. He swiped his hand over the command-link with the Commandant and muted it so he could talk aloud without bothering her. "Someone... find out what the hell is going on. Right. Now!" His voice boomed as he barked the orders, standing straight and looking around the bridge, to see the various people beginning to double time their work on troubleshooting the sensory array.

Something wasn't right. His gut told him. He took in another deep breath and placed his hands against the command interface before him, he watched the feed playing behind him and kept an eye on the friendly bio-signatures as they began moving away from the hangar, while keeping another eye on the video feed of the helm-cams. "Who the hell are you."