Carlos landed his titan, furious, and marched immediately to his quarters at the Myrtos Villa. He donned his ceremonial uniform, affixed with his awards and Commandante crest, and then left again. Once again, he boarded his Titan, and made a bee-line for the Mykonos spaceport. He landed, and proceeded directly to the Council Chamber.
The building was empty, the door shut. He grabbed a side-arm from the holster on his belt, and shot the latch. The doors swung open. He walked into the great meeting room, and accessed the central console of the amphitheatre. He accessed a macro on the system that was programmed to relay a message through all beacons on all Corsair and friendly bases that would, in turn, relay the message to all specified ships across Sirius. He seated himself infront of the console, and began the recording.
------------------------Transmission---------------------------------
To: Honourable delegates of the Council of Elders.
From: Elder Carlos Benitez, Don of the Benitez family and Commandante of the Benitez Piracy and Planetary Defence Force.
Source: The central chamber of the Council of Elders.
Meeting Called
Today, the Union of Gold sent a fleet of Fighters and around 2 Gunboats to Gamma. Their intention, we believe, was to raid Tripoli Shipyard and steal battleship designs.
We fought the fleet off, in the orbit of Planet Crete, but not without un-necessarily expending valuable resources un-necessarily.
To combat the fleet of fighters, 3 Battleships, and 4 or so Cruisers where deployed, aswell as an equal number of fighters. Not only where the Battleships and Cruisers terribly inefficient at destroying the fighters, their deployment cost our nation a sum-total of fifty thousand tonnes of MOX-HFuel concentrate gas that has now lead to a fuel shortage on the planet.
You may be wondering why I felt it necessary to call this meeting over such a trivial matter. 50 thousand tonnes of fuel could have arguably been enough to bleed us dry. Luckely, we still have some reserves, but over the next month it will be necessary for at-least 100 raids on the Gas Mining Guild, and over 25 raids on the heavily fortified Bretonian MOX-facility in Leeds for our nation to regain these fuel reserves, to allow us to deploy such a large fleet when it is NEEDED.
Today, our ability to deploy large defence fleets was temporarily diminished due to the un-necessary deployment of a battle force totally disproportional to the size of the threat.
The captains of these vessels refused to dis-engage throughout the battle, despite direct orders from both Benitez and Brotherhood pilots. Their spread of fire was totally ineffective in destroying the enemy fighters (largely killed by our brave fighter pilots) but succeeded in destroying all escape pods left by the UOG ships, robbing us of the opportunity to interrogate the pilots and find out more about their plans.
The whole affair was, in short, a disaster for our nation. Whilst our people where kept safe, the Mollys succeeded in bleeding our defence force dry, and we will be helpless if they eventually attack with large ships.
I am calling a meeting of the Council to address the issue of finding fuel, dealing with the Molly threat, disciplining the pilots of the Cruisers and Battleships involved, and if necessary, banishing these pilots from our space for the damage they have done.
-------------Transmission Ends--------------------
Carlos surned off the console, sat back, and waited for the Elders to arrive.
(( This is not so much an RP issue, as it is an issue of controling the damned indipendants, and preventing Capital Ship whoring on the scale that took place today. We have to come up with measures to stop this from happening again. [TT]-Battlecruiser (Osiris) still refuses to understand what he did wrong. Cargotrain (cruiser) refused to back off after being told and told.
Today made me feel ashamed to be a corsair, and ashamed to be assoceated with these people. I extended my personal OOC apologies to the UOG in Omega-41 after the battle, but i'm still very angry about what happened. UOG have agreed to call ahead and give us some fair-fight info before future battles, but ultimately we cant control these Capital-ship whoring independents that are ruining RP and our battles.
The last thing we all want is to be branded as capital ship whores, much as, given what I witnessed today, we deserve it.
Most indipendants now fly Cruisers or larger, and many dont even have smaller ships in reserve. Some action needs to be taken to discourage these capital-ship whoring indipendants. There has also been talk of expelling the [TT] from Corsair space. I believe this proposal needs to be discussed at length. ))
Miguel gently put down his Tiger Shark, hoping out, he called to his Crew Chief for a radio. "This is Miguel, please set up a security perimeter for the Council Chambers, only Authorized personnel is to be allowed access to the Chamber.' With that, Miguel walk over to the chamber. Seeing the door Miguel said to himself "Oh that poor door, why does everyone take out their frustration on that poor door." Miguel took position outside the Council Chambers. As A Centurion, his main responsibility is to protect the Elders, and so Miguel usually found himself on this side of the Chamber doors.
It did not take long until the message arrived on Raul's datapad. He was very surprised to see a message from the Council, considering the fact it was sealed and could only be opened by 3 Elders at the same time. He quickly rushed to the Council Chambers where he found the doors heavily damaged by a side arm. Raul saw Miguel standing next to the door, wondering where the other guards are and what happened with that door. He quickly entered after a short greet to Miguel and saw Carlos sitting at the table, with a richly decorated uniform and waiting for the Elders. "Don Carlos! You know it is a capital crime to break into the Council Chambers while they are sealed off. You could at least have called me and another Elder to open the doors for you without violence... Anyway, you called us here with the reason of having a fuel shortage." Raul sat down at the table next to Carlos.
"So I'll pay for a new door, Yanez. You of all people should comprehend the severity of the situation we find ourselves in. Swift action, followed by swift action are essential in this case. You know well how long it can take to get messages to elders on operations across Sirius, just so I can send the call-up message."
Juan was sleeping in his personal quarters on Crete when his datapad started beeping. Instinctively he quickly turned the beeping off and fell back asleep.
Some minutes later it started to beep again, this time the Elder rubbed the goo out of his eye and read the message.
"Wait a tic .... Carlos in the Council chambers? Ugghhh." Lucendez slumped back down on his bed and stared into the ceiling. He yawned heavily and and rolled off the end onto his feet. He attempted to flip the switch, but the light wouldn't turn on. Checking the news on his pad he realized there was an energy shortage caused by some sort of massive deployment.
"Well, now it makes sense." Lucendez said, leaving his pajamas on and wrapping his robe around himself. He was lucky in that the Council Chambers are just down the block, so he decided to leave his robe on and walk.
Juan entered the chamber, giving a nod to Sephardi, and threw an annoyed glance at the damaged door.
"I do one thing slightly insane and everyone copycats." Lucendez said, looking up at the two Elders seated next to one another. He walked into the Chambers and crouched next to the fireplace, rummaging around the area until he acquired his materials and lit a fire. Standing up, he moved his face into the light, the two seated Corsairs noticed rings around his eyes and a slightly gaunt look.
"O.K. gentlemen, what is it? A Benitez Coup? SCRA infiltrating again? Please do tell me how I'm going to die, because I neglected to bring a weapon. These Council Chambers are a neutral place, but your testing my patience, 'Don.'" The word "Don" melted into coughing as he collapsed on a chair and rested his head on his hand.
"Excuse the distractions, please. I'm feeling under the weather. I've had to cut most of my patrols and I won't be joining you in space for a week." Juan took some water from a pitcher nearby and poured himself a glass of water, sipping it regularly.
Juan looked around lazily. "Ah, Gentle probably doesn't know to come does he?" The others thought and shook their heads.
"Very well." The Corsair took out his datapad and began typing a message.
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
A picture flickered to life on one of the many screens in the Chamber of the Elders. The interference slowly cleared to reveal the face of Elder Montoya. However, the picture of Montoya's face wasn't the interesting part; the background was. A picture of a Cryer Pharmaceuticals logo with a few figures dressed in white coats bustled about.
"Excuse me, fellows. I cannot be present at the gathering that has been called, due to... extenuating circumstances requiring my presence at all times. However, I am here now, and I have heard what has happened."
Juan looked around using the camera mounted under the screen in the chambers, and observed Don Carlos, face red with rage, an ill looking Elder Lucendez and Elder Yanez, meditating thoughtfully. Then he saw the door.
"What the hell? How long has that door been there, three hundred years or so?!"
With an audible sigh, Montoya continued.
"Anyway, this meeting has been called, and I don't doubt that this is an important matter. I do hope the other Elders get here soon, as the longer I need to be here, the higher the likelyhood is that I will need to make a swift departure to help... and old friend. Now, Gentle hasn't been told about this meeting, but from what I see Juan writing, that has been taken care of. To business then."
"I believe we can start discussing the events, the other Elders can check the recorded logs to quickly get them up to speed. Oh, and Montoya? Go a little easier on the Synth Mary Jay. You look like you haven't slept in a couple of days."
Juan smiled at Montoya and took a greedy drink from his water glass to clear his throat.
"Right, about the independents. Whenever I am on patrol with my Titan, I always keep one eye on the bloated independents. They never seem to know exactly what is going on, political or economical. Don't get me wrong, I like the feeling of a battleship or two guarding our home, but when those commanding are irresponsible in their use of said armors, catastrophe can occur. Now, I have met a couple of these men, and have made some friendships. One in particular, Old Laowai, I have grow rather fond of."
Lucendez took a break and blew his nose, throwing the tissue into the fire.
"There is a grouping of independents you all may have heard of, called "[TT]". I trust you all have read the report by Theresa Chavez. If you haven't, I would suggest it. They would block the path of an Artifact smuggler. For what? A 2 million tax?! This is intolerable."
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
![[Image: H1mZW7e.md.png]](https://iili.io/H1mZW7e.md.png)
![[Image: 13121_s.gif]](http://signavatar.com/13121_s.gif)
![[Image: nowings.jpg]](http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj219/I_m_rdy/nowings.jpg)
![[Image: darksam18fab.png]](http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/bg/type/2/darksam18fab.png)
![[Image: avatardo2.png]](http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/3033/avatardo2.png){kind=avatar}
![[Image: 8898078.png]](http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r167/equinoxgfx/Tags/8898078.png)