... And the cogs start turning.

[Jihadjoe]

San Jacinto Station - Virginia [color=#000000]- 0800Hrs 25/2/819AS

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David Hale was waiting. He wasn't very good at waiting.

[color=#CCFFFF]"I'm not very good at waiting." He muttered under his breath quietly to Jasmine Greenson. The young Commander nodded.

"I noticed."

The base had been a hive of activity since the arrival of Premier Katz and Brigadier-General Alvarez had been negotiated. The incident in Ontario had set the cogs in motion, and the Republic's machinery was operatingly quickly, yet not as smoothly as Hale would have liked. The quick thinking of the Gold Wing operative who negotiated the surrender had caused chaos and disagreement among the security establishment, and this opportunity had nearly been lost to conservative thinking and hesitance.

"I'm really not very good at waiting" he repeated.

"Admiral Hale, sir, they're initiating a docking sequence now."

"Thank you Adamson" He turned to Greenson and started to stand up. "After you commander."

Hale followed Jasmine Greenson out of the briefing room, and down the network of corridors to the hangar bays. A team of medics stood waiting by the blast door, and a group of deckhands saluted as they walked past. A claxon sounded, and the red light over the door flicked to green as the hangar repressurised.

"Time to meet 'the enemy' then I suppose."

The doors opened and he stepped into the hangar bay as the team of medics bustled past him towards the back of the Mammoth transport that now stood safely waiting. Alvarez and Katz had arrived.

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