The Fontana Summit

[Omicron]

He ignored Hemlocke’s rant, it would take more than some insults to get Golanski to react. Even though being called a ‘warlord’ reminded him of himself at first half of his tenure as an Admiral even if Hemlocke meant that clearly as a slight against him. While he spouted many conspiracy theories from the neural net, he understood where he was coming from. Liberty no doubt has taken everything they could from him and his blind, burning, passionate hate was something he could relate to. At least there were two warlords in the room now so he could at least claim they were equals now. Both to mask his amusement and to have an opportunity to taste, he tried the red wine stolen from stocks bound for Curacao. The Opulence of these House’s elites knew no boundaries but he knew that already. He and some other officers were making a habit of picking up crates of whatever wine they could get their hands on stacked away together with other vital supplies they could acquire in Gallia.

“I highly appreciate you viewing me as an equal since the last time we spoke. Nobody called me a warlord in many years. It brings back memories. We should drink to this.”

He spoke before turning his attention to Chloe, this young Lane Hacker who he expected to be the biggest pain in the ass to every Xeno aboard. Chloe reminded him of someone he knew, albeit that person was far less ‘hyper’ and received more vitamin D from exposure to the sun. He wouldn’t be the first to get annoyed by her, amiably tolerating her antics. If this meeting was to achieve any manner of success, he would have to endure some hot air in the room just to keep everyone from storming off. He smiled and nodded to her observation.

“For real.” Perhaps this phrase was no longer fashionable, he would have no idea. Nonetheless it should send a message that he was very much aware in a language she no doubt understood. “I also bank on the following principles. As Mister Clark had stated, Liberty is suffering from low throughput limiting the numbers they can bring to the table given the nature of this makeshift and rushed job DSE did on the gate at the behest of their overlords. Second, which is nothing but my own intuition which could very much be proven entirely wrong: Liberty will maintain this as a limited shadow war to avoid public and other undesirable third parties from taking note: Just like in Earhart or Alaska. I would not however rely your decision making processes entirely on my hunch. I cannot exclude that if it proves profitable enough, Liberty will forsake its carefully constructed facade on display to its citizens that kept them ‘safe’ until this point. Modus operandi of the Houses is to keep its populace oblivious to behind the scenes actions of its own spooks.”


His own matters aside, he procured a data shard and passed it to Moretti’s adjutant. No doubt some data The Order is in possession of.

“More immediately, I am anticipating a Nomad attack on Ontario. An equally knee jerk reaction from the aliens as the initial onslaught Moretti had notified The Order about before in prior communication. However this time we have been forewarned of the impending assault and can prepare accordingly.”

Data contained intelligence gathered on a LSF battlecruiser “Wyoming”. What limited data on its loadout, internal systems, service history could be preyed on by his own intelligence officers. Most notably, the ship was considered lost during the Rheinland-Liberty war over Atka. Second set of scans indicate more hastily taken guncam shots and scans dated this week. Vessel was scarred, suffering considerable damage. One of the overlays shows unusual biomass readings from the bottom of the ship where hull breach exposed some of the decks to vacuum of space. Readings that could not be mistaken as human. Designation as “Wild” capital ship rather than Liberty Navy Ship, term which was used by The Order and Rheinland to refer to remnants of Chancellor’s Niemann fleet that refused to fold back under stewardship of the provisional post-war government of 801 AS. Last time it was spotted jumping through a Colorado jumphole in Galileo, shielded by a random assortment of craft with no uniformity concerning their origin. As would be expected by less blessed pirates… or infected forces.

“That’s Wyoming. Our forces had caught a glimpse of it as it entered full burn towards Colorado from direction of Kusari. We managed to damage it but failed in bringing this warform down outright. While this battlecruiser is licking its wounds, there are only two credible destinations. Continue burn towards New York… or Ontario. Since we had been informed of the full nature of Sudbury, I believe this was no coincidence. Nomads are willing to compromise Wyoming in hope it will be enough to secure this site. Deceres mission was therefore two-fold: to investigate Sudbury, as well to prepare for eventuality of Wild battlecruiser’s entry into the Ontario system proper. Practically all of my combat assets in the region are in one way or another focused on tightening up the noose.”

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