LH / CR / IMG - Ceasefire Negotiations, Barrier Gate, Coronado

[Jack_Henderson]

Barrier Gate Station, Coronado - Office Annex IV B:

Barrier Gate was busy as ever, and the vessels that vanised in the nebulas and from scanners quickly were just proof that this base served many different functions for many different groups of interest. Not everybody agreed with what was going on here, but that was part of Barrier Gate - to be a place for all kinds of business.

Today, the station would host a secret meeting between the Lane Hackers and representatives of the Crayter Republic. The Indendent Miners Guild who keeps good relations with both groups invited both parties, hoping to facilitate a cease-fire or even a peace agreement after a recent flareup of tensions in the area.

---

The delegations were unconspicuously directed towards the meeting room that was secured by a small team of IMG security who kept themselves discreetly in the background and outside of the meeting room.

Inside the meeting room, there was already an IMG forward delegation plus Barrier Gate personnel who were still busy preparing the office technology for the meeting. Both groups would likely recognise Ms. Sarah O'Reily, and there were some representatives that were wearing the official IMG colors - so it was likely not only a Frumentarii operation, but also an official IMG effort.

[TheShooter36]

Aboard CFV-Epimetheus, Captain's Quarters.

Michael Richard, after a long journey from Tau-44 to Coronado, woke up from his bed, with thoughts about how the negotiations was ever possible with Lane Hackers considering all the bad blood. Thanks to IMG, a miracle happened. After washing his hands and face and changing clothes, he went to the armory of the ship. Grabbed his personal heavy combat armor, his rifle and pistol, as well as a combat knife and a compact, hideable, quick-prepared brass knuckle. Just a moment later finishing gearing, he could see Planet Salina and orbiting moons as the Epimetheus was passing.

After some minutes, Barrier Gate could be seen. Rather anxious, he thought "those Hackers better be open to talks or i'm going to bash some heads today..." He opened a comm device that is used to talk to crew. "Alright, Beta and Charlie Squad, time to head out. Rest of the crew, try not to cause trouble around while i am away, otherwise feel free to use the Bar and other stuff. Richard out."

Beta Squad moved out of airlock and found themselves at the Station's Docking Bay, waited for Charlie Squad and Richard. Seeing a long way to Office, Beta Leader swore rather heavily. After rest of the company went thorugh the rather long airlock, all of them moved to Office Annex IV, B. While Beta and Charlie squad secured the vicincy, Richard moved into the Office, started to look at office's organization prepared by IMG. Then he took a seat just opposite side of O'Reily. "Greetings, Ms. O,Reily, i am here as one of the Crayter delegates. I hope you do not find my arrival unusual. By the way, our Hacker 'Friends' didn't arrive yet from what i see?"

---

[Johnathan Nox Carter]

Office Annex IV-B, Barrier Gate Station, Coronado

---

As the door to the meeting room opens only minutes after Michael Richard's entry, a man and woman in dark-leather suits enter the room - a patch with the Crayterian phoenix and the wording "N-205" is visible on their shoulders. As they prompt themselves next to the door for a few moments, a man in a grey suit follows. He moves forward to the table centered in the room, and the other two exit the room as stoically as they entered.

The Crayterian official smiles at all the already present people. As he passes by the Fleet Admiral he comments "Punctual as usual, Richard." and ends with a polite nod. He then walks over to the Frumentarii representative - "A pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, Miss O'Reily." - he extends his hand - "Henry Gregory Corvin, Minister of State from the Crayter Republic."

[Nicole Hunter]

Long before the official Lane Hacker delegation has arrived, a pair of Lane Hacker Assassins had entered the conference room, looked around inconspicuously, scanned it with hand-held detectors and after finding no threats reported a "green light" over personal comms. Soon after two technicians arrived with a portable holographic projector and put it instead of a chair next to a label showing "Professor Nicole Hunter". It was rumored that nobody had really seen the infamous Lane Hacker for nearly two years and that she attended all meetings only remotely in a form of a holographic projection.

Finally, Lane Hacker representatives arrived, led by Mr Wolfgang Weisen, a middle-aged Deceiver-ranked Hacker who conducted preliminary negotiations with Ms Sarah O'Riley. He was accompanied by two Interruptors, an older man by the name Von Hammerstein and young woman called Niall Dunne. They all took their seats in silence waiting for the official opening of the meeting.

---

The Lane Hackers
"Making the corporate weenies cry, so our kids can live in a free and just galaxy."
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[Byron]

With a slight delay, another figure would hastily traverse the hallway leading to the conference room in which the other participants of the meeting were already residing in. A young man, brown hair, three day's growth of beard, leather jacket over a somewhat crumpled shirt. He didn't exactly make the impression of an expert in his line of business from an outsider's perspective, as Liam Byrne's colleagues were more often than not wearing the most fashionable suits imaginable. In fact, the IMG ambassador wouldn't have been thought one if it wasn't for the IMG emblem sewn in his jacket. The overall stature of the man, with his breast out and swelled with pride, the logo almost seemed to flaunt its colors. It was definitely the contradiction of a stereotype view that offered itself to the participants when he entered the room with the large white table in its center as the ambassador had a certain juvenile appearance. Only the obligatory attaché case with notes in it indicated in which sort of business he was working. With him were a few of his co-workers from the IMG embassy, however who he also had in wake was the Chief Of Security Jean-Michel Bechard from the Barrier Gate Security who had expressed his wish to voice his thoughts to the matter as well.

With a captivating smile, he stood in front of the table, his hands laid down onto it, however as soon as his voice piped up he would remove them from there and subconsciously start gesticulating to emphasize on his words. Looking through the round, briefly nodding at the Frumentarii delegacy consisting of O'Riley, his facial play looking a bit surprised for the hint of a second upon seeing the projection of Nicole Hunter, it would make his smile widen a little more upon the challenge that had been enjoined him to deal with, to negotiate a ceasefire or peace treaty between two of IMG's good allies. "Ladies and gentlemen", he began speaking, disregarding the notes he had made prior. "First of all, I wish to apologize for the slightest delay that occured, however now that our small round is finally complete, let me introduce myself very quickly. My name is Liam Byrne, official Ambassador of the Independent Miner's Guild and I will be the one chairing this meeting today. It is by all means a great honor for both me and my colleagues beside me to be with you all and to be able to discuss such an impendingly important matter in such a secluded, and hopefully productive way. I believe Barrier Gate Station is a brilliant place to do such, which is why I would like to thank its personnel beforehand for actually enabling this meeting to take place." He paused for a second, looking through the round again. "The IMG has a long tradition in offering meetings in which its various business partners could discuss their standpoints and find good ways to work together on their own. I'm sure this meeting will show just as much fruition as the ones the Guild had already held in the past."

He had been quite serious during his opening speech, however now his stature turned more slack, as he had been told the Chief Of Security wanted to address some words as well. "Enough from my side now though, before we get down to the actual discussion I would like to pass the floor to Mister Bechard, Security Chief of the Barrier Gate Security, which as I already said is hosting this meeting." That being said, he would - although a little reluctantly - step aside to give his co-speaker room for his own speech.

[Barrier Gate Station]

Once he had been given the floor, he took a second to look over the various representative, before he would begin to speak. He had prepared a few quick words, primarily in the interest of avoiding any kind of confrontation between the parties present, after having been made aware of their IFFs and Identifications.

"Gentleman, Ladies" He began, his hands clasped behind his back in a professional leftover of military service. "My name is Jean-Michel Bechard, I'm the Chief of Security for Barrier Gate Station. I'm sure most of you are aware of that though, it's hardly confidential. Now then, I'm here to lay out the Station's ground rules, and extend to you all the Security Team's best wishes for a productive conference."

"Our terms are quite simple. We expect Good Manners of those using our facilities, that means we expect you to avoid disturbing other patrons of the Station, and to avoid any form of armed conflict while aboard the station. Barrier Gate Station has well respected tradition serving as the neutral grounds between otherwise belligerent parties, and we hope to today continue that tradition. If there's anything you require, please feel free to turn to the station staff for assistance. Additionally, The Administrative Team wishes me to extend our Welcome to all you, and to thank you for your continued Patronage of this facility" He finished up concisely enough. "With that said, I'm afraid I have some business yet to attend to. If there's any way I can be of assistance, my Office is open. I wish you all a pleasant day" He concluded, before exchanging a few words with the Personnel that were finishing up the last technical details, before taking his leave of the situation.

[Jack_Henderson]

Sarah O'Reily was listening to the Barrier Gate representative and nodded politely before she joined him the last few steps towards the door to thank him: "Thank you, Mr. Bechard, especially for making such a short time meeting possible. It's a pleasure having met you in person and I am sure that we will be using your station and excellent services in the near future much more often." she shook his hand and he left.

---

"Alright, Ladies and Gentlemen." she addressed the representatives of the Lane Hackers and the Crayterians. "... It is a pleasure seeing that this short-time meeting could be called. Let's hope that we can find some common ground that allows us to put the time of controversy behind us."

She would quickly introduce the parties to each other, not wasting much time with pleasantries as there was real work to do here. "Does any side want to start?" she looks at the representatives of the Lane Hackers and the Crayter Republic. "... because in my vision of this meeting, I saw the IMG as organisers and perhaps maediators, not much more."

[TheShooter36]

The Meeting Room.

Richard stood up and took his PDA from his utility belt. Uploaded files to the projector set on the table. Just in case of later use. Files contained maps mostly. "So, i will do the honors of starting. I will be rather direct and short im afraid. First of all i want to thank to IMG and albeit it was rather wrongly timed, to Michael Beckard." He then touched his PDA and a list of topics opened. Categorized Military and Civilian Richard opened dropdown menues to show categories contents.

MILITARY
-Terms of Ceasefire

CIVILIAN
ECONOMIC
-Legal Trading
-Cardamine
-Slavery
-Other kinds of Smuggling

He put his PDA back to his belt afterwards. Asked "Is there any complaints about that list or anything you want to discuss that list doesnt include?"
and sat down.

---

[Jack_Henderson]

Sarah O'Reily was listening to the Crayter representative and she could not help but smirk for a short moment when the short and crisp language of the Crayter Republic was a lot far less diplomatic than she would have put things. But she could not help but agree that the main points were all in there. "Thank you, Mr. Richard".

That's also where she suggests some changes that are merely in wording - something that she learnt from talking to the Hackers.

"In substance, there is nothing that I would want to take off the table. However in wording and focus, I think we should stay as diplomatic and constructive as possible because the difference in point of view is rather substantial in this meeting." she points out the reason why she would suggest a change to the agenda that would make success more likely in her opinion.

"That's why I would suggest a change of the agenda to this..." and the following suggestion appears in front of the participants:

Security and Stability:
- Terms of Ceasefire: LH - CR
- Practical Deescalation Measures

Coronado Development:
- Securing the Flow of Goods
- Yuma Workforce & Population Project
- Remaining difficulties and how to overcome them

"In my opinion, this would allow us to focus more on the points where we want to achieve cooperation or compromise, and focus less on what divides the participating parties." and she can't help but joke: "... because I assume there is enough anyway."

[Nicole Hunter]

A holographic projection of Nicole Hunter was extremely realistic, portraying a woman in her thrities in an evening black dress and a diamond collie.

- Ms O'Reily, you're simply too modest. It were your ideas and energy that led to this meeting. It was also you who proposed preliminary terms of a truce which seemed a starting point for all sides. The Independent Miners Guild is not only a mediator here, but an active participant.

Nicole Hunter smiled and gave a gentle nod.

- Mr Corvin, Mr Richard. Let me start by observing that the history of our relations with the Republic is in fact relatively short. Excluding very rare encounters, during your reign in Taus we simply ignored each other. Most likely due to our business partnership with the IMG the Republic was mostly keeping a blind eye to our convoys going through Taus. A rather long distance between our zones of active operations was also helpful in maintaining this largely neutral status quo.

The Professor paused to ingest a small Cardamine pill.

- This changed drastically over five years ago when the Gallic onslaught forced you to evacuate to Coronado. Initially, the Professorship decided to maintain neutrality, though very quickly it became apparent it was an unrealistic goal. The Republic decided to treat both Cortez and Magellan as their own playground and sent regular combat patrols into the area. I was actually present during the first hostile encounter between The Lane Hackers and The Republic in Cortez over four years ago.

Professor Hunter stopped her narration to launch holographic playback of a recording. A large holographic screen appeared over the table and played an archive log.

Flight log: Mactan Interceptor, Cortez, 2nd July 820 A.S.

CR|-Jester[15th]: There you are.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: And what a Colonial vessel is doing here in, Cortez?
CR|-Jester[15th]: Patrolling this place, sniffing you out.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: If you want a Cardamine fix, we can of course help you.
CR|-Jester[15th]: Though I know those that do, I would rather soil myself than try that stuff.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: So may I ask you since when do the Republic send patrols here?
CR|-Jester[15th]: Since Coronado became our home after the Gauls took Tau-44 from us.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: You moved there more than a year ago and this is probably the second time I see you here.
CR|-Jester[15th]: Well, now you know not to make your presence too prominent here. As easy access to Coronado, this is territory that we patrol.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: Well, it's hard to make our presence not too prominent in "our home".
CR|-Jester[15th]: Unlucky. I could ask you to drop your Cardamine but...it's just the one. I'm assuming that'll be gone in minutes.
CR|-Euryphaessa[FF174]: Personal use is even allowed for those who require it. So no, we need not have this one strung out. Well this thing can toddle off to their base, or one or two of you can force it. Unless the ions are too much for any action.
CR|-Jester[15th]: Alright, I don't like your presence here either. I suggest you leave for your base of operations, if you have one.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: It's quite entertaining. So let me sum it up. You do have hostile intentions towards me and my organization, am I correct?
CR|-Jester[15th]: That would be correct.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: And when this policy was introduced, may I ask?
CR|-Jester[15th]: Since you're allied with the Maltese trash.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: You're not the brightest officer, are you?
CR|-Jester[15th]: Tell me why that is.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: Well, I am afraid it is not my role to educate you. I will, as all Hackers do, simply adapt.
CR|-Jester[15th]: I care not, you're allied and therefore in support of Cardamine trafficking.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: Like you ever cared about it...
CR|-Jester[15th]: Quit the assumptions, trashcan.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: "Trashcan", that's a very elaborate insult.
CR|-Jester[15th]: Should I insult your fighting skills as well then?
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: This conversation is a bit monotone.
CR|-Jester[15th]: Until next time, Hacker.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: *laughs*
CR|-Jester[15th]: Laugh away, next time you'll be laughing in your grave.
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: That was a threat.
CR|-Stinger[15th]: Sure it was.
CR|-Jester[15th]: Well done, Sherlock.
LH~Nikolai.Diavolo: I am too late, right ?
LH~Mactan.Interceptor: They decided to trade some insults and then break off without firing. So yes, you're too late. Anyway, it looks like CR is hostile to us.
LH~Nikolai.Diavolo: I guess they have problems with our attitude towards certain groups.

First skirmishes with your forces followed soon after this very encounter. For instance, 27th squadron went as far as attacking our forces in Magellan. The Professorship decided to take a stronger action against forces of the Republic and began elimination of all Crayter combat targets of opportunity within our operational zone. Furthermore, we decided to put more pressure on your logistic corps. Once the negotiations were opened by the Frumentari we temporarily ceased hostile operations against the Republic, but it appears we were not given the same treatment.

A long series of guncam shots were displayed on the holographic screen as the Lane Hacker Professor was speaking.

- I made this presentation to make several points important for these negotiations. First, it was the Crayter Republic who consciously and voluntarily broke the informal neutrality and initiated this hostility four years ago. Secondly, despite the total number of combat encounters is relatively high, if we consider that they span for over four years, we will arrive at a conclusion that their intensity is low and our hostilities could hardly be described as a war. Thirdly, even though the statistics of lost and destroyed assets are clearly in our favor, gains from interdiction of Crayter assets are too low to cover for our losses. Finally, we recognize that current Crayter administration cannot be personally blamed for actions of past Republic's leaders and military commanders, and as such we are open for a reset of our relations.

A holographic woman paused and measured carefully reactions of both Crayter delegates.

- With all that being said I will eagerly listen to the precise propositions covering points proposed by Ms O'Reily.

---

The Lane Hackers
"Making the corporate weenies cry, so our kids can live in a free and just galaxy."
Nicole Hunter's Profile ∙ Faction Information ∙ Recruitment ∙ Diplomatic Channel
Disclaimer: This character is gone and related forum account has been disabled.