Introduction
Voice of Whistler has just learned that the 1st Carrier Group, which departed Whistler without warning two weeks ago is heading for Foxglove. The WDF Press Office released a statement saying Fleet Admiral Halsey wished to personally pay her respects at San Orestes - which as we've previously reported - was salvaged by Gentleman Jack Cartwright's Indomitable Bastards just last month. We're joined now by political analyst Arnie Fawkes, chair of the Gebhardt School of Political Science at the University of Whistler. Arnie, this can't possibly just be photo op, can it?
[DIANE BANKS] Breaking Now:
[ARNIE FAWKES] Thanks Diane - no of course it’s not not a photo op, Admiral Halsey could’ve just taken a transport for that. This is nothing less than a blatant display of force for the people of Foxglove. The Council has been pushing Halsey to take a more aggressive stance with the FLP after the uprising on Grove last year. Regardless of that warship they’re refitting at Sunrise Bay, this is a clear reminder that the separatists no longer have the ability to wage war and The Council can make their lot a lot worse than they have so far.
[DIANE BANKS] Arnie, what about Halsey’s connection to Jack Cartwright, could this be personal?
[ARNIE FAWKES] Well by all accounts, Cartwright’s been planning to salvage San Orestes for decades, so the Admiral must have been at least somewhat aware of his plans. But taking it to Foxglove for refit? That’s downright provocative. However threatening Halsey’s statement is for the people of Foxglove, I imagine her statement to her ex husband is going to be considerably harsher.
-The Memoirs of “Gentleman” Jack Cartwright
17-23 September, WY602 – Sunrise Bay, Foxglove
Local reporting begins to reach the crew about the 1st Fleet’s visit for Admiral Halsey’s “inspection” and press conference. After several hours of several light-delayed messages, including one to Dirk from Polly stating that “it seems to be exactly what it is, don’t worry”, the crew settles down to wait out the remaining six days back to Sunrise Bay, which pass quietly. During the trip, Tomoe works on a commercial announcement for IBI legitimate Salvage to drum up some business.
Once back at Sunrise Bay, the crew boards with the crate of Arnite and the Arnite Mining Device without raising so much as an eyebrow with customs inspectors. Kevin reports that everything with the ship has been going as planned and most of the heavy work is complete and awaiting a reactor test. Recent work to the ship’s life support system has made it dangerous to board for a few days. Aiden names Kevin the ship’s Head Bosun and thanks him for taking such good care of her during the refit.
The press conference with Jack and Admiral Halsey is scheduled for that afternoon, so the crew all return to their suites to freshen up and have a proper meal after a month crammed into the prospector.
The crew file down to the Ops Center at the appointed time and are ushered into a conference room where Jack and Harvey are already waiting. Jack asks if the crew discovered anything interesting on their prospecting trip and they agree to discuss it after dinner. Shortly thereafter, Admiral Halsey’s aide de camp Major Martin arrives closely followed by the Admiral. She greets Aiden quite warmly, asking how Jack convinced him to put his life’s savings into this adventure, especially when the Scout Service was “willing to give him his own ship”. She greets Cara but gets a cool response from her and the other Marines who had been trapped on Grove. She greets Dirk as “Junior”.
She finally approaches Jack and takes his hands and tells him gently that “Mick would be proud, I really mean that,” then stalks away yelling “I however, am fucking dismayed, Jackson!” Halsey asks Jack why he would do something so foolish as to bring San Orestes to Sunrise Bay instead of to the Phoenix Drive Yards - who actually built the ship to begin with. “I had a coupon,” quips Jack in response. She goes on to say, “You know what the people I sit in meetings with say about Foxglove? They say, ‘Nukes won’t hurt the ore.”” She continues to explain that she was very nearly forced to bring the whole 1st Carrier Group to Foxglove to prove a point, to make a gesture so the people of Foxglove don’t “get accustomed to having warships in their shipyard”. She then swings to Dirk with an enraged, “And you…” but is interrupted by a proctor saying it’s time for the press conference.
The briefing goes without much incident, with Halsey and Jack doing most of the talking and answering questions innocuously. Halsey does say unambiguously that she’s glad IBI salvaged San Orestes within the limits of the existing salvage laws, but expects those laws to be amended rapidly. At the end of the briefing, Halsey is whisked away by her staff. The crew releases the “open for business” commercial produced by Tomoe to coincide with the press conference, then heads back to the hotel for the evening.
Cutscene
Dirk-
It’s second watch at the Oberoi Suites. Polly took a shower and left an hour ago, had to go to the Station Director’s weekly staff meeting down at the ops center, so you’re sitting at the hotel bar getting a start on dinner. Most of the rest of the crew has filtered in, but you were cramped on that prospector together for a damn month so everyone’s mostly keeping to themselves. Cara is a few seats down the bar on one side, tearing into something vaguely steak-like. Angelica a few seats down on the other swiping through the local news.
One whole wall of the place next to the bar is a screen, and it’s typically got a view of the gas giant and its rings that, if you’re being honest with yourself, is pretty breathtaking. Today is the same, except right now WDF Arnold Whistler and her entire battle group are hovering there a few thousand kilometers away along with Lancaster and her destroyer picket. You snort.
The bartender looks up from his slate. “You need another drink, boss?” he asks in that peculiar Foxglove patois.
You swirl the scotch around the bottom of the glass. “Nah.”
The bartender nods absently and goes back to his slate. Chap seems preoccupied. Maybe he’s sleeping with someone he probably shouldn’t be, too. You stand up and stretch and meander over to the wallscreen and sneer at the carrier. “Fucking Navy,” you mutter, and down the last of your drink.
You look back just in time to see a massive reactor bloom and explosion on the far side of Arnold Whistler, then a second non-critical reactor detonation, and then a number of secondary explosions. The massive Phoenix-class carrier lurches sideways and you see that a third of it has simply been blown apart and most of the rest is on fire.
You stand there a little stunned as the station lights go to a “you should probably be in a suit yellow”. You watch in horror as the rest of the carrier group redeploys around the flagship, and you almost don’t notice the surprised “Hey!” from Angelica, then “Cara!”.
You spin around. Angelica has one of the bartender’s arms twisted at an odd angle and she’s got some judo-grip on his hand, which appears to be holding something with a big scary button on it. Cara is kneeling on the bar with her steak knife through the man’s neck. Exclamations of surprise and horror ensue from everyone. Including you, you’re pretty sure.
Then you feel more than hear the explosions elsewhere on the station. The lights go “you should probably go to your quarters red”. And then you hear gunfire and the screams.
Angelica retrieves the explosives that the bartender had concealed on his person. As soon as he recovers, Dirk bolts out of the hotel without a word. The rest of the crew, after checking in in Kevin (who says everything at the ship is quiet and the mercs are all there) and Jack (who says he and Harvey are safe and sound), head towards the spaceport to their storage locker.
Local communications have been disrupted, and there’s no official word from the station or the WDF in system. The crew passes multiple bombed-out storefronts and security posts, generally all the places where station security or WDF Marines would congregate. There are a number of bodies and other signs of brief firefights. Station civilians have generally gone to their quarters but several transients are choosing to wait out the disruption in their ships, so there’s light foot traffic to the spaceport.
The crew makes it to the locker without encountering any resistance and unpacks their utility vac suits and combat armor and take the time to get fully kitted out. Then they head to the customs lock-up and Cara threatens the clerk into checking their weapons back out to them. While gearing up, a voice comes over the station loudspeakers stating that the Children of Liberty are responsible for the attack on WDF Arnold Whistler and have taken control of the station. They announce the Governor, Station Director, Chief Engineer, and others are being held in the Ops Center and will be executed if a number of (fairly absurd) demands aren’t immediately met. There’s some speculation about whether Divyash Shaw and the Foxglove Liberation Party are involved, but all accounts place Shaw on Klondike, and the Children of Liberty are known as a Grove resistance organization.
Once armed, the crew discovers Jack is no longer responding to calls, so they head back to the hotel. Harvey is still there and opens up Jack’s room. He is gone and it is evident he smuggled his officer’s saber onto the station and is now armed with it. With no other leads, they trace Dirk’s location (near a promenade between the hotel and the Ops Center) and head that direction.
As they approach the promenade, Jack calls out to them from a storage closet, where he’s sequestered an antsy Dirk, who appears to have been grazed by several bullets. Jack says there are a number of armed men int he promenade and they should proceed cautiously. As the crew approaches, Dirk strides out in the center of the room declaring, with a bad Foxglove accent, that he is “Dirk from IBI!”.
Many guns point in his direction, and a fraction of a second before the gunmen notice the rest of the crew in the hall, Cara taps Daniel’s elbow and says “Kill em, Corporal.”
Daniel fires a grenade into the promenade from Betsy.
Dirk screams.
