Eglantine Secure Comm Bunker, Gallic Space . Seven Days before Fallen Grace "Then, Connors. We may begin. The transport carrying the children will arrive in the next few days. Send someone good with kids to Shasta Orbital Skyhook. It won't be Gallic-make - I, ah, 'borrowed' an IMG transport." He smirks.
Turning he keyed on a holographic image of Planet New Paris. "The key to winning, is to ensure no help can arrive in time. So. I will need your best marines." He keys the console again, and the schematics of a Valor come up. "These are the schematics for the Flagship of the Royal Navy. The Chant Du Cygne. This is the greatest card the King can play in retaliation." He shakes his head. "If the Eglantine is to have any chance to pin down the Montreuil and keep it from assisting at New Paris, Chant Du Cygne must be disabled." He turns back to face the screen. "Upon the Day of Fallen Grace, I can have a small amount of agents sabotage the shield and weapons. I will need your marines, though, to attempt to take the bridge long enough for my men and women to sabotage the engines and other critical systems. The perfect moment is also upon us; the Chant will be in Dauphine soon, accompanied by a fighter wing and two Obstinates. If you can bring a force to draw the obstinates away, my soldiers can disabled the ship long enough for your marines to board. As long as the bridge is held, you have control of the vessel. As much as I would like to capture it, the Chant Du Cygne is too great a prize to be ignored by the Royal Navy. And it is much harder to hide two Valors..."
Lelouch frowns. "Also, I have already set up the perfect place to hide out. It is a backwater system no one goes to, we all ignore, and is perfect for our uses." Lelouch now grins. "Currently, the system you know as Tau 44 is under the complete control of parties that I control. I also have set up someone to become to Marquise of that system. That is my last gift." Lelouch smirks. "Save the Kingdom, and your home will be returned. Fail, and it will be in the control of parties sympathetic to you."
Leaning back on the console, Lelouch closes his eyes.
"Is that acceptable to the Republic in Exile?"
Richard nodded, looking down at some papers, clearing his desk. "Don't worry about the children. My wife will be seeing to them." He had to consider how she would feel about this. He knew there might be an issue by just including her with any forewarning. But it was too late now.
As Lelouch outlined the plan, Richard, who had now donned his glasses, typed the information into a datapad. He betrayed nothing when told about Tau 44. Others in the room were not so stoic. There was a very real electric feeling in the air now. He recognized it all too well. They were imagining the end of the war, and daring to hope that it would be soon.
He looked up. He was weary, and tired. Nothing showed on his face. If this plan had any way of working, it would take every ounce of strength, endurance, and skill, of those involved. Especially his.
Eglantine Secure Comm Bunker, Gallic Space . Seven Days before Fallen Grace
"Excellent." He responds. "Now, I shall break contact. Both of us have much planning to do if we are to kill a King." Lelouch turns his back to the screen, blocking our Connors. "Go. Prepare. Gather whatever you can. Once the flagship has been disabled...I will inform you of the next phase."
He snapped his fingers, and the screen turned off. Lelouch sighed.
"Fallen Grace...Your mark on history..." He left the sentence hanging, then turned and strode from the bunker.
Time to do some...chess.
Eglantine Secure Comm Bunker, Gallic Space . Six Days before Fallen Grace Lelouch stood in the comm bunker, leaning forward, hands resting on either side of the keyboard.
"Acadia, do we know who's been rotated to replace you, now that you officially are...ah...on a classified mission?"
"Oui. Colonel Jeremie Chasseur."
" Why has Ade brought him back...he's known for his unorthodox style... and his attitude of not caring for his own safety. There is a reason Chasseur was sent back to Ile De France."
"I can't confirm if he is indoctrinated or not, either."
"No matter. I've moved you to the Chant Du Cygne with a few men. Luckily, Chasseur is still on Nevers. We have six days to set everything up."
"I've confirmed the shipments have reached Minato."
"Excellent. How are the groundside facilities?"
"They'll take weeks, if not a month or two, at the present speed."
Lelouch sighs. "No matter. Tell of the status of the Oblique."
"It will be ours by the Day."
"Excellent."
Lelouch pushes off from the console, taking a step back. He was working hard, and the plan hinged on the Republic managing to maneuver their assets where they were needed. The backup plan hinged on Reverie and her maneuvering of Miss Estelle into the Roux home the night before.
He drops into the rolling chair, gliding over to the fridge. Ade always kept sodas in the bunker; they always needed something to drink, and water wouldn't keep them awake. So, he popped open the top of one of the cans and drank deeply, rolling over to the console. He keyed it on, putting a picture of Adelaide on the main screen.
"Ade...What have they done to you." He says, toying with the ring. This would be a difficult missions, not just because of the staggering odds...but because of the emotional weight that now lay on him.
"Tell me, Mother. Did you have to deal with this when you first created Fallen Grace?"
Casimir stood in front of the computer terminal. Right now, he needed to make two quick calls. But he felt uncomfortable, as he was unsure of this operation's outcome.
The computer beeped at him, signaling that first call's connection was completed.
_____________________
Beginning Transmission Target : Lelouch D'Aramis
"Monsieur D’Aramis,
I have been informed of Operation Fallen Grace. The Unione Corse understands how serious this matter is and will gladly assist. However, our help has to be indirect.
We're able to provide refuge for your forces, bribe Gallic officers, and maybe even create a diversion."
Casimir grinned at that last part, but it quickly disappeared.
"Also, there is a group that I must contact who can be of great assistance to you. I will fill their leader in, and give him your communications contact."
_______________________________________________________ "A bad peace is even worse than war" -Tacitus
Sincerely, GeneralCasimir Logarus
_________________
End of Transmission
_________________
The general paused and looked about the room. He entered Enrico Davids' comms ID into his console. Moments later, the connection was established.
_____________________
Beginning Transmission Target : Enrico Davids___
"Commander Davids,
One of your 'little birds' is here.
Raven, from the Colonial's 17th, recently spoke to me about Fallen Grace. It is an operation designed to remove King Charles if he is under Nomad control. Which he is.
If you're looking for some proof, I've sent you the dialogues and I'll show you what was shown to me."
The Colonial operative had given him a dead, mangled Nomad symbiote in a sealed HAZMAT canister. It sat next to him, on the ground. He leaned over to pick it up, and held it in front of the camera. The symbiote could be seen through the transparent sides.
"Raven claimed that she ripped this from some poor Gallic Navy lieutenant's spinal column. Not the prettiest sight, is it?" Logarus set the container down, then continued speaking, "Lelouch D'Aramis plans to assassinate the King, but is in need of help. You must organize your forces to assist him in this operation. I'll send you his communications ID now."
_______________________________________________________ "A bad peace is even worse than war" -Tacitus
Sincerely, GeneralCasimir Logarus
_________________
End of Transmission
_________________
Logarus stepped away from the computer, and walked into the next room. Treiz was there, sitting on a bench.
"Your thoughts?" asked Casimir.
Treiz looked up, responding, "We'll have to be extremely careful." Casimir said, "I understand, but D'Aramis' success is very important."
"Of course. What's our next move?" Treiz inquired.
Logarus replied, "For now, we wait."
Taba Border Station
Omicron Mu
Five Days before Fallen Grace
"Verdamned, zhis paperwork seems to grow more and more..." Enrico rubbed his face, so he was not able to see the paper in his office. Or at least that little bunk he called his office. Space on Taba was in short supply since so many members of the Order were living there to protect Omicron Mu from any threat, be it the K'Hara or the Guild Core.
He looked at his watch. 15:00 Sirius standart time. Not much time left until he wanted to head to the meeting between Admiral Golanski and the representatives of both the Phoenx and Obsidian Zoetic zoners.
"At least I will be relieved from zhis" he mumbled.
A little flashing light turned on at the computer console on the right side of his desk. A message had been sent to him. After inserting his acceptance code, the transmission was broadcasted on a monitor.
The quality was not that good, a result of the distance and the secured relay stations the transmission had covered.
"Hmm, interesting. Zhe Union Corse. Something I had not expected to hear from so soon again." Since Taskforce One Four One had been able to establish a few contacts within Gallia, Davids had been of the opinion that the most reliable source there would have been the Maquis.
But now it was the Corse again, that were about to provide information for him.
He watched the transmission and his eyes widened when Casimir Logarus showed him the nomad.
Unbelievable, but it seemed like that the vision, d'Autoine had received from the K'Hara was about to become true: Gallia being the next target of the nomads for control.
He leaned back in his chair to think of his current possibilities for the next ten minutes.
Then he put his idea into action. Though it would mean to abandon the meeting with Golansky and the zoners.
General Logarus, Commander Davids hier.
We have to meet. And this quite fast. Can you set up a secure location?
And it would not hurt if I can have talk with a representative of the Colonial forces as well.
Let's say... - he looked at the astronomical map of the Sirius sector -
How about Baffin? Do you know how to get there?
Davids out.
Part one was done, now for the next one, Enrico thought. He pushed another button at his console to open up an internal frequency.
Five seconds later the monitor showed a young woman looking straight at him with her green yes. She was wearing here black hair open as always. The young woman knew how to use her beauty to baffle her opponents if needed. And that was the reason why she was so usefull to Davids and the order taskforce.
"Commander", she nodded once.
"Sefegiru, I have ein job for you," was Davids' reply. "Interceptor wing has to get ready. And mark #5 for me."
Sefegiru looked at her commander in disbelief.
"Sir, are you sure you should get involved in this? I can handle it was well if necessary."
"Thank you for your offer, but there are certain things that have to be take care of by meinself. Davids out."
With this he closed the channel again.
Leaning back again, the commander of Taskforce One Four One reviewed this new situation.
The nomads somehow had been able to get control over the Gallic king. Either due infestation or indirectly by manipulation. And both variations would lead to a horrific scenario. Especially if one also considered all the stories about the Gallic Naval forces and their strength.
Something the order had neglected as the Gallic invasion into Sirius had been seen as just another war beween the houses of Sirius.
But now with the proof of nomad involvement, the Order could not deny that Gallia was about to become a new player in the war between mankind and K'Hara.
Logarus had just arrived at Montelimar, and was stepping out of his Cuirassier Noir when Membre Demoy came up to him. Jean reported, "Sir, we have received a message from Task Force 141." He glanced down at his watch. The time was 15:43 SST. He replied, "I see that Monsieur Davids was quick to respond." Casimir walked down to the communications room, and listened to Davids' message. When it finished, he quickly entered the Commander's comms ID into the console.
_____________________
Beginning Transmission Target : Enrico Davids___
"Commander Davids,
It's good to hear back from you. And yes, Baffin is a great location. We should meet there about five hours from now, which is 21:00 SST."
He thought for a second, then added, "You should inform the Zoners about our meeting. They should be fine with us, so long as we don't start shooting.
I'll contact the Colonials about this meeting right after this message. Logarus out."
_______________________________________________________ "A bad peace is even worse than war" -Tacitus
Sincerely, GeneralCasimir Logarus
_________________
End of Transmission
_________________
Typing in the Colonial President's comms ID, he decided to make the transmission short. Logarus wanted head over to Baffin right away.
_____________________
Beginning Transmission Target : Richard Connors_
"President Connors,
I have news for you regarding Fallen Grace.
An important meeting must be held at Baffin today around 21:00 SST. There, the groups involved will convene to coordinate our efforts. Please send someone, preferably yourself, as soon as possible.
_______________________________________________________ "A bad peace is even worse than war" -Tacitus
Sincerely, GeneralCasimir Logarus
_________________
End of Transmission
_________________
One Four One flagship Icarus
Omicron Mu
Five Days before Fallen Grace
Enrico Davids was on the flight deck of the Osiris class battleship Icarus to inspect its crew and the analysis
of their last battle training. He was not really satisfied with the results, much had to be improved and this
also meant that his own ability as commander had to be improved.
Going through his datapad, he did not notice that Achenar Kado walked to him.
"Commander, may I disturb you?"
Davids looked up to him, though a bit confused by himself, that he had not noticed Kado.
"What`s wrong, Kado? Out with it!"
"Well, sir, we just received a message from the Temporary Automous Zoners, Looks like everything is ready for your little meeting. Or whatever you want to call it, sir."
A slight smile got onto Davids' face.
"Excellent. Tell the Interceptors to get ready. They will have to escort me to Baffin pretty soon."
"Ah, Commander Davids, I am sure I am not the only one who might have said this to you, but isn`t it...
"...a risk, that zhe commander-in-chief of zhis taskforce attends zhis meeting personally? Yes!", answered Davids Kado`s question. "And do not worry, zhe templars in Baffin will make sure that no one tries to get mein hide. And in case of ein case...the Onuris should be fast enough to get me out of any trouble."
Kado just shrugged. "If you say so, sir."
Davids just nodded as response and concentrated on the datapad again. Though seconds later he had to think of the meeting with the Corse and the Colonials. This will become really interesting, he thought
With President Connors occupied elsewhere, it fell to Roger Anders to attend the meeting with the Unione Corse and 141 Task Force. Not having personally been to Sedona Station before, Baffin itself was reasonably well known to Anders. Taking the family Celestra, the Intuition, and accompanied by Retribution and Artic Fox, he made his way from Sabah to the isolated station within the Barrier cloud...
Monaco Base, Provence - Five Days before Fallen Grace
<span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%]
The hangar was quiet, as it always was when the higher-ups were present. All but a few re-fueling bay was closed, the Mistrals and Cuirassier's out on patrol while the Head-Marked ships prepared for their long journey over the border. All for a single meeting... Arek Maxim thought, approaching a team of mechanics.
"Messieurs, Are the ships ready for launch yet?"
"Almost, commandant," replied one. "We're just uploading the access codes for today to get past Cordes. After that, you're ready to go."
"Excellent."
He walked past the Epee, his command center; It certainly stood out more in comparison to Logarus' own ship for the meeting, a prime decoy if there ever was one, despite the unlikelihood of trouble threatening the General. Up ahead he halted next to the Epee's crew; 12 men and women, whose lives were the Epee's lives.
"Alright people, we've got an important task ahead of us so I expect no slack, That means you, Littner mec." The man called Littner lowered his head with a sigh. "Treiz and Phillipe, you two will be handling flight controls. Litner, you're on scanners, you can save the wine for when we get back. Defence systems will be handled by Jeros and Dekkar. The rest of you are with me in the command center today. And do not forget; General Logarus is heading this personally, so I want no stuff ups. Oui?" The Epee's crew nodded once in unison. Satisfied, Maxim returned the nod and began to board the Epee, tapping the communicator which, strangely, was attached to the device attached to his arm.
Maxim: "General Logarus, the Epee is ready for departure. We may depart when you are ready." Logarus:[color=#000000] [color=#999999]"Excellent. We're moving out."
Taba Border station
Omicron Mu
Four Days before Fallen Grace
The office was almost set in whole darkness. Only the flashing of Commander Davids's monitor and console somehow enlightened the room, but it was not much.
The meeting with the Corse and representatives of the Colonial Republic in Baffin were over. And the news he had brought back witth him were more then disturbing. If all zhat, what was said, is true, we are at zhe edge of ein new nomad war. History is about to repeat itself, Davids thought.
If the Order wanted to stop this dangerous development from the start, he had to act quickly. And that meant he had to go through all the data the Corse and the Colonials had given him in order to prepare the needed forces.
Fallen Grace wold be something new for Taskforce One Four One. Had they engaged nomads and Guild Core ships until now on their own, using the space they knew to their advance, the assassination attempt against the Gallic king would be something that no one within his unit had experience with. Besides they would need to work with forces they had not fight with so far, not to speak about some sort of combined training.
Therefor Davids had searched for any available data in order to get a glimpse of what they would expect.
And the Schultzky assassination near Manhattan in 800 A.S. was a good example.
Back then the Order under command of Orillion had suspected, that Rheinland Admiral Schultzky had been infected by nomads and sent out to Liberty in Order to infect then President Jacobi.
To avoid another infestation, the Order had set up an ambush in orbit of Planet Manhattan while the defense systems of Newark station had been temporarily disabled.
In the end the plan had succeeded, Schultzky perished with his flagshp the RNC-Donau, but on the other hand all Order agents that were involved in the assassination had been killed by Edison Trent and Liberty Security Forces. The same Edison Trent, that later would fight alongside the Order against the nomads.
One would call it an irony of fate.
"I will not let mein agents be sent out to ein suicide mission!" Davids said to himself. He knew it would be impossible for him to save them all. The faith in getting out of any trouble alive had been lost along with the fall of Toledo.
But he could set up enough measures to ensure that the mission was a success.
"So, what did the Colonials want to get for Fallen Grace? Fighters and at least ein gunboat?", he reflected. Not bad for the start. They would face fighter swarms in Gallia for sure, so a gunboat would be necessary.
As they were about to disable a battleship, they had two options to do so. Bring a capital ships with them or use bomber squads.
The first was not possible. The Order was already low on those assets and the capital ships, that were combat ready were ordered to protect Omicron Mu against nomads and Guild Core forces. None of them could be spared for Fallen Grace.
Another reason was, that a battleship was too large to slip into the heard of Gallia without being noticed by someone. No, the only possible solution for this were a squadron of bombers.
Davids had to grins. Yes, the Sekhmet pilots of his taskforce were more then able to crush capital ships, they had proven this more then once. Especially with the little refits that had been made to some of the bombers.
Now the only thing he had to think about was the protection of the Sekhmets. Not that he did not trust the Colonials, but better safe then sorry. Interceptor wing would be a nice addendum to the forces, especially when it comes to creating some chaos.
He had to grins. Yes, the Interceptors would be more then able to fullfill that role.
His part of combat units was set up. Now there was only one thing to do now. Davids pushed a button at his terminal.
"Sefegiru. I have a job for you", he said.
![[Image: lelouch.png]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43479595/lelouch.png)
![[Image: jeremy10.png]](http://i40.servimg.com/u/f40/16/80/35/65/jeremy10.png)
![[Image: connorsalt4.png]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43479595/connorsalt4.png)
![[Image: Hasshodo.gif]](http://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/Hasshodo.gif)
![[Image: 2n9askn.png]](http://i48.tinypic.com/2n9askn.png)
![[Image: 3497zhf.png]](http://i45.tinypic.com/3497zhf.png)
![[Image: Phelan.jpg]](http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/8/83/Phelan.jpg)
![[Image: ne5ZfShJT8.png]](http://www.imgbox.de/users/public/images/ne5ZfShJT8.png)
![[Image: nyAKEg7wgK.png]](http://www.imgbox.de/users/public/images/nyAKEg7wgK.png)
![[Image: 24v1cua.png]](http://i46.tinypic.com/24v1cua.png)
![[Image: s4xac1.png]](http://i45.tinypic.com/s4xac1.png)
![[Image: ComRogerAnders.jpg]](http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx219/SummerMcLovin/Discovery%20Freelancer/Character%20Images/ComRogerAnders.jpg)
![[Image: Arek.png]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49094860/DISCO%20CHARACTERS/Arek.png)