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WAR! A play-by-play

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Prophet710 Prophet710's picture
WAR! A play-by-play
Here's a look at how two Firewall teams; Alpha Seven-One and Bravo Niner-Zero (two groups which included some of the same people) inadvertently cause a war between the Consortium and the Jovian Republic. AF 10+ May 2372- Hulahoop Dreams- Team Alpha Seven-One was dispatched to Luna to investigate the disappearance of Sentinel Team Delta Zero-Four currently in progress under their mission designated Prophet. Mission Prophet was designed around intel and recon of active and dormant TITAN assets in orbit around Earth and Luna. What was found was a TITAN fabrication facility in a rogue path, leaving the orbit of Luna. Said facility contained a TITAN vapor which was downloaded and assimilated by one of Delta 04's members, Alvo Halal, a deep-cover Exhuman mind-hacker. When Halal merged with the vapor, designated as DARPA's Violet Seer program, she was subsequently exposed to a raging strain of the Exsurgent virus which possessed her ego in a matter of hours. After being compromised Alvo led team D-04 into an ambush by other Exsurgents and then disappeared. Team A-71 recovered the cortical stack of one of D-04 and found these details. After more investigation and exploration, it was found that Alvo had been somehow communicating with Exsurgent remnants in New Mumbai, team A-71 was dispatched immediately for neutralization and decontamination. After a few encounters with Exsurgent combat assets, one of team A-71 was infected with the Exsurgent virus, being an Async already the virus progressed swiftly. Before disappearing completely, true to her loyalties, the infected Sentinel, call-sign Seebo, was able to glean details of Alvo's plan to detonate a WMD within the lower levels of Shackle, which was then under lockdown due to certain erasure precautions instituted by team A-71. The precautions replaced their avatars on all video feeds with that of known Jovian spies and nationals. When LLA and PC authorities began to detain these nationals, they lashed out causing rioting and block-war disturbances within Shackle itself. Team A-71 Oversight asset, call-sign Vlad, used his extensive network of contact to gain access to the locked down habitat of Shackle and the team followed insertion measures to counteract the present WMD. Insertion methods and diversion tactics allowed team A-71 to both secure the WMD and retreat unnoticed into hiding for summary extraction. Tensions between the Planetary Consortium and the Jovian Republic became nearly hostile, with the Republic Parliament announcing the outright exodus of all Jovian nationals from Inner and Outer system space at the earliest possible moment. Eight months pass. January 2373- Tasted Death Enough- After the disappearance of Sentinel asset, call-sign Seebo an investigation was launched after it was discovered that her personal assets and networks had been ghosted. Team B-90 was assembled on Mars planetside and dispatched for recon and intel gathering. What was discovered was that Seebo had gone back to New Mumbai to do her own investigating, while putting feelers out into other networks using still uncracked encoded channels and transmissions. Details from team B-90’s investigations have shown that rogue asset Seebo had been investigating Pandora Gate rotations and investing in personal gate time, though as it was found, no breaching or gatecrashing had actually occurred up to that point. All evidence found suggested that Seebo had been planning a trip to the Vulcanoid gate for possible gatecrash or breach operations. Team B-90 was dispatched immediately to Caldwell to investigate and further secure the gate against Exsurgent attack. After ego-casting to Venus it was discovered that several embargoes enacted by the Jovian Republic had since hindered Consortium operations outside of the main belt and the PC had responded with threats of open attack if said sanctions were not lifted. Also, the Caldwell facility had gone dark, leaving the Venusian Authority on edge. Team B-90 caught a courier shuttle to Caldwell, upon arrival, from what can be surmised from gun-cam and nav-cam footage recovered from debris fields around the Vulcanoid belt, the gate facility itself was under attack from unknown xenoforms and seemingly infected security personnel. Anti-aircraft/spacecraft batteries were active on all incoming craft including maintenance drones. The group was able to locate and secure a small maintenance bay within the facility itself by remote piloting quartz case-morphs. Xenoforms and security personal began to use un-identified pieces of technology to retrofit the facility, which manifested tentacle like appendages throughout the entire infrastructure of the facility. At this point it was noticed that the gate itself was still active and actually growing in size. Through a series of covert insertion methods and active firefights the team B-90 was able to neutralize the anti-aircraft batteries just in time to jump back to their courier shuttle. Upon arrival back at the shuttle it was realized that the gate facility itself was opening up through the seeming assistance of the tentacle apparatus that had been adhered to the facilities superstructure. Gun-cam and nav-cam footage show sights of the facility coming apart and “blooming” with the Vulcanoid Gate’s event-horizon swelling within the facilities gate room center. At this point, anti-air countermeasures began to restart and come back online, with light incoming fire grazing the courier shuttle and rendering it nearly inoperable. Team B-90’s final transmission was a single line ping broadcasted via radio transmittion. “Hammer Down initiated”. Twenty seconds after final transmission all contact with the Vulcanoid facility and surrounding habitats was lost for over an hour due to transmission overload. In response, the Consortium, fearing the worst and not willing to wait to gather details launched a series of attacks using private military and covert assets against many Jovian military and social landmarks including barracks housing, armories and back-up and communications facilities. The Jovian Defense fleet responds by annexing and blockading Extropia, with Jovian Marines making hab-fall and moving to secure the habitat forcibly. Jovian 2nd Fleet moves to blockade Titan, but keeps its distance with only light fire and hazing exchanged between the two fleets. Six months pass. June 2373- A hotter sense of cold war settles over the Sol system, Consortium fleet assets have engaged the Jovian 1st Fleet at Extropia and were driven back. Faint contact with the outer system gives details about the Ultimates pulling back to Xiphos and the Commonwealth being harassed at every occasion. War is on the horizon.
"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."