NationStates

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There were no longer set times for the UVNN newsfeeds, even for reconciliation with the local standard of New Köln. Audio streams, data faxes, direct uplinks, emersion ‘casts, News-in-Brief feeds, vidfeeds, and more were produced continually by UVNN and disseminated across any volumes covered by the ansible or even beyond it with the return of galactic standard communications protocols. The reality of the Raumreich, the Solarian Reaches, and pan-galactic affairs was there was never not news. Sorting through it was the true challenge; a challenge that could strain even the most competent of muses and lower-end RIs.

The perpetual nature of news and information was reinforced by the appearance of the news presenters. E-casts and vidfeeds were hosted by partially translucent news presenters whose outlines gave only the most basic expression of sex, shape, dress, and movement. Individuality was restricted for the correspondents and field reporters; the personalities behind the branded ‘feeds and major segments; and the subjects of interviews. UVNN and its parent corporation no longer even bothered to clarify if the presenters were individuals or merely some AI or RI aggregators. Their white back-filled mouths and eyes moved and gave expressions. That was enough.

‘—Foreign Ministry announced the final class of embassies and missions participating directly in this year’s Empire Day beyond the Raumreich and Solarian Reaches. They include the embassies to the Imperial and Federal Union, the Mondragonese Union, the Sabahir Republic, and Usidia. This is the first class to include states represented through the Office of Verge Affairs; it is also the first time a joint diplomatic mission will participate in the Ministry’s international celebration. BIDM-FSR, or the Bilateral Diplomatic Mission to the Free State Republic, will host concurrent Empire Day celebrations in both the Axul and Citic systems. The celebrations follow the observance of the Verniian Remembrance Day, commemorating the Hegemonic surprise attack on Gregor and Erewohn, three months earlier. A complete list of international Empire Day celebrations is available via the Ministry’s Nu-space environ.’

‘The peacekeeping mission helping the FSR to eliminate conflict in Citic is also featured in this segment. The elements of the Fourth Royal Yaltan Rifles detached to are joining the operations in Citic after completing detached peacekeeping duties in the Gyras system.

‘I am joined by Oberst Marcas Hambledon, commander of C-CSSOF’s terrestrial contingent.’

The presenter shrank along with the silhouetted outline of the Helms Media Centre. The bulk of the feed spiraled into a view of a slim-framed man with red, coiled hair cut closely to his skull except on the crown of his head. Green eyes watched from deep sockets along a thin nose. He was wearing the charcoal grey service dress and simplified rank insignia common to Reichswehr bases across the empire.

‘Oberst, UVNN thanks you for coming on today.’

‘It is my privilege.’

‘Terrestrial operations in citic are entering their ninth month. Are you pleased with the progress made so far?

‘Our efforts are seeing the breadth and geographic spread of violence curtailed, especially when compared to the height of the Great Displacement. Berj City is entering its third month without significant militant attack or terrorist strike, and that’s a direct benefit of the federal and Citic regional forces being able to focus their attention while we assume responsibility for some of the less densely populated areas.’

‘Meaning your forces will be deployed farther away from Citic’s urban centres and your base of operations, Ft. Distant Canton.’

‘Yes, we are assuming responsible for major operations throughout Venralt and Hytira counties. Our local intelligence partnerships point to both being a possible sanctuary for Wildfire and the J18 extremists if they have been driven from the cities.’

‘If, you are concerned the lack of attacks doesn’t mean the militants have been captured or killed?’

‘I do not overestimate transitory nature of silence in these conditions. The redeployment of our detached units from Gyras will allow us to both support more active patrols beyond our current operational area and assistance to federal forces.’

‘Our correspondents report the reunification of your unit was delayed after the General Staff to reinforce your command with drone units. How do you see these additional forces impacting your command?’

‘We transferred drone units already assigned to us in Gyras during our initial deployment. They’re essential to allowing us to maintain anti-smuggling patrols in Berj to assist federal patrols. The additional resources will allow us to show locals and refugees in the two counties what we will do differently. You cannot do this with only drones. Going forward, I will continue to prioritise the deployment of the Rifles’ primary units to Venralt. The drones will be left with support from our officers and the naval contingent to eradicate arms running and other smuggling. They’re ideal for such operations. Beyond that, I will not comment on Major Crawford’s deployment and mobilisation for the sake of my command’s security.’

‘C-CSSOF casualties have been minimal to date with less than 10 wounded. Are you expecting—’

The vast, crumbling plateau stretching across the south of Venralt shimmered in the building heat of the late morning. Dry grasses and the black boney trees swayed in the gusting wind. It was virulent hot air only cooled by gasps coming from the deep shadows of the canyons cut into the massive outcropping by mostly long-dead rivers who had shifted along with the continental ice and snow packs to higher mountains.

Oberfeldwebel Wallis Curran stared into the growing brightness from inside one of the deeper canyons. The distant booms of Needle-class aerospace drones echoed as the flight climbed back to higher altitudes. The departing drones were rigged for ground combat and observation support and the combat from this operation was minimal.

The sun was blocked as a pair of gunship transports flew overhead. Wallis could see the distant shadows of dropping combat drones and another eight-man squad even without using magnification, setting the final perimeter before the site was turned over to the jurisdiction of the FSR Rangers.

She turned her attention back to the cluster of nine prisoners clustered in the middle of the mobile hover hugging near the rocky shelf roughly a third of the way down into the canyon. The hover was a simple affair, an expandable surface riding on top of a dual assembly of low-powered gravimetrics tied to a small reactor running on stored water and frozen volatiles. They were becoming of increasing value to Reichswehr operations on Citic as they moved from urban and suburban patrols to the rural outlands of Venralt.

Wallis sighed in the quiet of her danger-suit’s helmet. The adaptable armour was lighter than the battle armour and conforming to a profile making them look more human than was common throughout much the Raumreich or other EXROA-COM operations, but the mandate from command was clear that humanisation of assets was needed. It was true of both the troopers and the combat drones, though the latter was more skeletal. Wallis and her three squad element were kitted in a way that suggested segmented joints and more obvious, handheld weapons. They also included a more full-formed head, something she was still getting used to even after the long deployment to Gyras.

The complicated pattern communication of the drones expanded along the inside of her telltales as her own drones integrated with the new units dropping in. A familiar sound cluster echoed around her. The drones acknowledging ‘boots on the ground’ or the successful deployment of the trooper squad.

‘Canary PL-Six, this is Canary CS-Four. We’re assuming control of the perimeter. Report from Fort D-C is that Rangers detachment is inbound.’

‘Acknowledged, CS-Four.’

Wallis swept her eyes over the visual feeds from her two squads combing through the small network of fusion torched tunnels used by the captured insurgents. Micro-dot drones and several other sensor forms were pushing the feed farther outward, more or less essential given how little lighting was present or even functional in the tunnels.

Most of her attention was turned to where Obergefreiter Heda, her squad’s demolition specialist was putting a small charge on the generic dump of small arms ammunition in one of the lower caverns. The small arms were endemic to the Venralt operations. Even with the tightening blockade on smuggling, Citic was porous for too long for the small arms proliferation to be anything but endemic. The Batons squads attempted to catalog, classify, and impound them in consultation with FSR until two local months ago. New consensus between the federal system authorities and C-CSSOF’s called for immediate destruction of all seized small arms that were not of note to the overall field command.

‘This is Canary 6-3. Ten minute warning for localised demolition of impounded small arms lockers in caverns marked.’

The grey wireframe outline above flashed red and yellow in three locations. A chorus of triple chirp responses echoed across the squads combing the localised labyrinth.

‘Ah, Canary PL-Six, this is Canary 2-6. I...request a hold on the demolition. Reporting nonstandard arms on the lowest level near the canyon floor.’

‘Canary 2-6, PL-Six, confirm and describe nonstandard arms.’

‘Requesting direct sensor link, Feldwebel.’

‘Granted,’ the lower half of Wallis’ vision was filled by the gloom of the lower caverns. Despite the flurry of activity from the ‘dots and eight sensor drones backing the four-man fireteam element at the base of the labyrinth, the full extent cavern was only based on the various sensor returns.

But the vid-feeds and area of focus showed something much larger. It was based on a stripped down lorry common in the vehicle-strapped system, but the cab was cut in half with a large, blocky structure eating up much of the liberated chassis space. The truncated bed was expanded by several quickly welded scrap metal plates, but the device at the centre of the bed was a far cleaner, standardised affair. A long barrel was connected to the structure in the chassis along and to a cruder gunnery or control station at the side. Other hardware suggested a considerable range of movement for both elevation and rotation.

‘We’re investigating, PL-Six, but the power signature from the chassis is bigger than anything we’ve seen outside the last crackdown in Berj.’

‘Give me full upload,’ Wallis opened the secure comm back to the Batons fort. ‘This is Canary PL-Six assigned to current operation in the Delvaji Southern Canyons requesting immediate consultation with the TIO, tab it.’



The politically conservative Jegasi abandoned the problematic Unitary Faith following the Verniian-backed coup that drove them from the Raumreich. However, deeper political tenants of their beliefs survived their exile to the Yeni gün system and the founding of the Sabahir Republic. The Sabahiri may be more openly democratic than their traditional Valinor allies, but the two nations shared a belief in effective political rule sharing foundation in both formal and informal movements of discourse and power. The Honorable Society of Batur, named after the Jegasi founder, was one of the understood expressions of the informal. The society’s membership included many Sabahiri military officers, state officials, and some foreigners. It was headquartered several kilometres from the Forum of the National Grand Assembly and the Public House in a tall, vaulted structure consuming much of two city blocks.

The political and social life of the Batur society was dominated by the activity of the cavernous central hall lined with sandstone imported at great expense and in secrecy from Hamunaptra in Morning Star while the Setties regime still dominated the system. The strangely veined, brown-and-black stone was shot through with scattered press quartz. It made for thinly gathered clouds of false stars in the ebbing light streaming from the high banks of partially veiled windows above the massive stone slabs. The natural light was directed toward the centre of the hall where numerous tables were aligned in regimented formations under green cloth. Aligned underneath the stones where booths and enclosed rooms of various sizes, and at the end from the staircase sweeping down from the front quarter of the building was a vast, circular bar and lounge.

It was well into the late dinner hour, but the focus remained focused toward the bar. Eyes of both staff and society members were transfixed on the vast projected displays underneath the twinned vertical banners of the republic and massive profile of the long-deceased Batur. Lines of troops marched pass the high officials of the Reformation Council, including the uniformed figures of the Chair of the National Defence Council and the Minister-Resident of Valinon in full court dress. The NDC Chair and the other military officials returned the salute of the troops marching past the Public House with a long shadow cast by the Sabahir Republic’s more common burgee flag. Its green field was bisected by a single, thick red line encompassing white disc surrounded across the red line by five four-pointed stars.

But the Sabahiri military did not wear grey uniforms; nor did they march without bending the knee. The perfectly spaced rows of soldiers trailed past until a slight break showed another company representing the units assigned to the new garrisoning battle group withs its colour guard—three flag bearers carrying the red-and-purple imperial flag, the Reichswehr’s smug lion’s head on its blue field, and the crimson regimental flag of a Centauri-based unit flanked on either side by a Feldwebel and trailed by a watchful Stabsfeldwebel in full dress.

There were scattered Valinor uniforms in the hall. The majority belonged to Reichswehr officers but there were a few in the Kriegsmarine’s deep navy almost disappearing in the shadows stretching out across the booths with their low tables. Two men stood near one of the green-draped tables one with a half-filled rocks glass; the other running a thumb along the smooth rim an empty cocktail glass held carefully between two fingers.

‘How did you avoid parade duty?’ Major Toby Crawford swirled the amber contents of his glass and looked at Jost Rüdiger.

‘Fortunate enough to be selected for liaison duty for the initial inspection of the Sabahiri forces,’ the Oberstleutnant nodded to the green jacketed waiter who offered a tray for his empty drink with another deep-hued red drink. ‘It’s the integration and training cohort who’ll have all the luck, though. The Jegasi didn’t allow their training standards to slip after Setties kicked them out, just their equipment. Not sure I would enjoy being a glorified Quartiermeister.’

‘In Shahmaran for almost a local month and not even a call until the last week.’

‘The local month is short, and how was I to know our hosts provided us with such a generous bar allowance? Also, given that I came from Yalta, I didn’t want to rub it in that your leave was to Sabah. The Batons have been out too long. Someone else should’ve been deployed to the backwater beyond the Lee.’

‘It comes with being one of the experienced peacekeeping units.’

‘God save me, the Eighteenth, and the Reichswehr from ever becoming something besides a perpetual garrison force. I will take the occasional rotation and hope the Fourth receives leave and posting to an actual command theatre in that order,’ Rüdiger tilted his glass toward Toby before taking another drink. ‘Your XO in orbit let me look over the reinforcements from AC, still in their racks, of course. How do these stripped drones work in the field? You had two, three companies in Gyras?’

‘Three. The ones in orbit will bring us up to six in Citic, and stripped down is a generous assessment. They’re not the mainline combat drones from the Great March War, but they’re arguably better in support operations. Gyras saw several survive a Wildfire effort to land a ship loaded with explosives.’

Rüdiger grunted, ‘We’re expecting several companies to be permanently assigned in the system soon.’

‘Meaning the battlegroup will not be permanently assigned to assist in the integration of the Sabahiri forces.’

‘No, we’re continuing the tradition the Batons set by becoming a long-term part of EXROA-COM’s terrestrial forces. I expect we will end up along the Eucer, but,’ Rüdiger shrugged, ‘I say a great deal will also depend on what happens along the Citic-Liu Xiu axis.’

‘Can’t say I could recommend Liu Xiu anymore after the—’

Rüdiger gave a long whistle; his eyes darted off behind Toby, ‘We’re in the presence of some Lanthine royalty it would seem.’

The man coming down the stairs walked with a quick, feline pace skipping every other step. His suit was a deep black but interwoven with a thin blue strip. A cream shirt highlighted a even deeper black tie whose silk was a product of something beyond even the extent of the Valinor tailors, so far as Toby knew. His hair was carefully parted and delicately swept back with closely cut sides. The top strands near his face moved gently as he walked. Eyes raked across the gathered figures across the hall’s vast floor.

Toby was no great player in the markets, but Adrian Rhett’s presence was impossible to not hear of along the Lanthe. He heard of the man even more when off-duty in Gyras. Some refugees, the ones that retained money, had flocked to Rhett and his various business interests. Others damned the man when the same interests visited further plights on their scattered home systems.

‘And who is she…?’ Rüdiger looked to Toby.

The woman who exited one of the booths was draped in a white dress whose simple folds emphasised her movements as she walked and her form when she stood still for the barest moment to kiss the financier on either cheek. A slight gleam gathered around her neck as the pale sun reflected off some metallic thread along the neck and shoulders.

‘I have no idea,’ Toby watched them for several moments. But then Rhett’s intense eyes locked on the pair of officers, ‘but I have a feeling we should drink more before I have to answer a complaint about my own behaviour when Herr Rhett contacts the garrison.’

Rüdiger laughed and hid the final moments in another drink, ‘He should keep less interesting friends if he doesn’t want the occasional moment of public gawking.’

---

Adrian allowed the annoyance at the Reichswehr officers’ long gaze to pass as Christine pulled him toward the booth with the barest contact between their fingertips. He doubted his cousin was the cause of their attention, and doubtlessly their thoughts would be distracted by other affairs soon enough. The Yaltan officer would vanish farther along the Lanthe soon, and the oberst was from one of the endless series of Centauri-raised infantry units that served as the empire’s interchangeable martial parts for centuries before his own birth much less his distant conscription term with the Reichswehr.

‘Ich habe dir einen Drink bestellt,’ she gestured to waiting neat whisky across from her own half emptied red wine.

‘Danke, Süße,’ Adrian sat down with mock heaviness and scooped up the glass. ’Ouf, the chances of escape velocity are slim at this point, I suppose.’

She clicked her tongue, now familiar for longer than a generation’s worth of time, ’Yes, and you’re not going to escape again. It’s all been so boring without you, Ri, and I don’t care what you say, Leviny simply isn’t enough.’

‘You’re in an ebullient and demanding mood, aren’t you?’

‘My design is finished and with the Sweet Dreams Consortium. The Maher will race in the next Archangel Circuit.’

Adrian smiled over his drink, ‘Prost! Shall we celebrate tonight?’

‘Later, I think,’ her distant eyes swept across the room. ’I expected music tonight but there’s this maudlin affair instead. So I will find some while I’m sure Syd and you become serious.’

‘Where is he?’

‘Here soon or—right there actually.’

Sir Syd Selby Garber’s staccato pattern of steps announced his arrival thoroughly. Shorter than either Adrian or his wife, Syd moved with a speed that at least made he seem larger. He never lost the pattern and straight-faced headlock from his own military service, though there were increasing elements of the former officer ebbing away.

The pants were looser cut, as was the shirt; the jacket was carried over one arm. Syd’s hair was longer than the last time Adrian had seen him with a thin braid trailing back from one temple that must be his wife’s doing.

The expression caught somewhere bemused indifference and a cautious blank was still as definite as ever. The jacket flew over Christine’s head as Syd sat down and made slowly for Christine’s wine glass. But it quickly moved away and her other hand stopped his slouch into the booth.

’Not a chance. The pair of you will finish whatever drab business needs to be done here.’

The dark wine vanished quickly, ’I will expect you both in an hour, two at most.’ Her hand grabbed Syd’s chin, ’Make sure you don’t do anything stupid that makes him vanish back out to Unicae.

’Noch nie!’ Syd responded and she was gone.

The two eyed each other as Syd’s hand darted out to signal one of the staff.

’I will have someone throw you out an airlock of you go back to Leviny now.

Adrian laughed, ’I’m sure. But I think there’s enough on Proxima to keep us entertained for a while.’

‘We’ll leave her in a few days, three I think.’

‘So soon? I won’t even have time to take in the festivities of political reformation.’

‘This place is a morgue, and it’s well spoken for. I understand you’re already meeting with the communications minister tomorrow.’

‘Small opportunities.’

Syd’s laugh was sharp, short, singular bark.

’Small indeed, but you will be safe from competition.’

‘Oh?’

‘I’m sure you will puzzle it out soon.’



The slightly flattened holograph of the oberleutnant lingered at the edge of Wallis vision as she and the two other feldwebel’s present in the canyon looked over the the crude battery now bathed in light from several artificial sources. The more detailed scraping of the cavern yielded some other, heavier hardware, but the battery at its centre was the cause of concern.

The intelligence officer’s mouth moved but no words came across the comm. His face was tilted at an odd angle in relation to the feed.

‘Canary PL-Six, confirm end-feed exclusion.’

Wallis cut out the other NCOs, ‘Confirmed, D-C.’

‘Power signature from the cell or reactor is consistent with mid-range AA or ALO weaponry. We have notified Central and sending Dog 3 with an inspection crew. Seal the perimeter and see that your prisoners are routed back to us immediately for direct interrogation. A Needler escort is being detached.’

‘Sir, we already reported this to the local Ranger group before this was discovered. They were en route when my reinforcements arrived.’

‘We know, Canary PL-Six. The inbound cohort included local system forces. We have requested their recall and that a full Ranger detail be sent. You are to stay on station and offer support as needed but do not allow Citic locals any access to the state without express orders from Central or Command.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Wallis restored the link, ‘CS-Four, you are to blinder the prisoners and float the platform. Take them back to D-C by gunship immediately. Command’s orders. You will be met by Needlers on the return.’

‘Understood, PL-Six.’