trans_9 | Negotiations [Closed to Celestial Being]

Negotiations? Tieria was still trying to find his footing in this astronomical mess of a situation, and someone wanted to have negotiations?

It's safe to say he was entering a likely volatile situation already on the wrong foot. Such evidence of this can be found in the way his arms are tightly barred against his chest, eyes like copper lightning behind his glasses. He'll let Setsuna conduct the introductions, quietly (for now) keeping his distance when they'd made it to the coordinates Michael had specified.

Edited 2011-04-20 05:07 (UTC)

Lockon approached with his hands in his pockets, the air of nonchalance belied by the way he stared straight ahead without wavering and his deliberate steps. Haro floated beside his head, oddly quiet for the time.

"Michael Blanc," Setsuna spoke as they all approached. Michael was someone Setsuna had seen around, but never exchanged words with before now.

"You wanted to talk. We're listening." So, no introductions or anything of that matter. Just straight to business.

Feldt was a quiet, pink, presence behind the Meisters. She was a member of Celestial Being, but she wasn't a Meister. She would follow them and help them out. She kept quiet, just listening to what Setsuna would say.

Since Setsuna had already taken the reigns and veered full-force into the conversation, Allelujah lingered back to size up the situation. He was still not quite filled in on the entirety of it, but like Tieria, and despite his misgivings, he could see no other option than to go along as a Gundam Meister.

He was uneasy, but that was to be expected. It wasn't everyday that someone he didn't recognize was aware of their affiliation.

Well, Setsuna wasn't one to mince words. Michael knew that, but talking to him was another thing entirely. The sniper looked at him, then past him at the others, "Well, first things first. You I know, but I don't think I've met everyone else," he said in a congenial, breezy tone of voice. "I'm Michael Blanc, Skull Leader and Commander in Starfighter Command. This is my firing range - I thought you all might appreciate having a discussion in a secluded place." Of course, for being a firing range, one could barely see the targets hundreds of meters away.

"I'm here because we've received some information from Stacy." He held his hand out, and a device in his palm projected a small sphere into the air above his hand. "This is NiSaris, a pre-Bleed world near our location. Well, as near as you can get when you're talking transdimensional travel."

The image zoomed in to the asteroids in a slow, languid orbit around the planet. "GIA probes detected building Ohm activity here in these asteroids, and we believe it won't be long before they're ready to launch a full-scale assault in order to destroy the planet. Billions of innocent lives are at stake, and since Stacy is the closest GIA-affiliated ship, we've been asked to intervene."

He looked at the group, eyes slowly scanning across them to gauge the mood. "So we're taking the Quarter and jumping in. We're going to need every available pilot or," he looked at Feldt, "bridge personnel. We'd like your group to join us - the stronger our force, the more likely we'll save this planet and the fewer of us have to return in boxes."

"I find it hard to believe that that is all there is to this proposition." Tieria interjects dubiously.

Lockon's eyes drifted over the others. He wanted to ask questions of his own, but sensed that he'd be thwarted by the less tactful of his companions.

"Why are you asking us personally?"

"Believe it or not, that's all there is to it," Michael told the very feminine-looking man with the purple hair. Seriously, this guy looked more like a girl than Alto did. "Sortie with us as a temporary Starfighter Command unit, help save the planet and the billions of people on it. Anything more, we can decide after we've beaten the Ohm - there's not a lot of time to get caught up in details."

He glanced over at the taller one, with the long brown hair. "I'm asking you because the four of you are, as far as we know, the only group on the ship capable of and experienced in zero-G, full-vacuum combat that isn't affiliated with Starfighter Command." A look at Setsuna. "Not for lack of trying."

"You want us to use our Gundams to help you initiate an armed confrontation with the Ohm," Setsuna rephrased the situation.

The words 'temporary Starfighter Command unit' and 'anything more, we can decide' stuck in his craw, causing him to unconsciously clench his fists.

"You want us to be your soldiers."

All of them probably knew what Setsuna's opinion of that would be. But he kept quiet on that much, glancing briefly at his comrades to see how they were taking this information.

Feldt was listening to what was said, but she had moved to get a better view of the device in Michael's hand. Her mind was already racing to see how the Gundams would best be used to fight in the asteroid field. She wasn't as good of a tactician as Sumeragi Li Noriaga, but she had learned a little bit from the older woman.

She would listen to what the Meisters had to say, but for now her mind was busy with other things. Once Setsuna spoke, her turquoise eyes went to the other Meister. She didn't know about his past, and she knew that she probably wouldn't ever learn of it. She didn't like the idea of being someone's soldier either. It went against all of Celestial Being's beliefs.

"I don't know the entire situation," Allelujah cut in, expression tense but generally more open to listening than that of his comrades. He knew better than anyone that a temporary alliance was better than senseless sacrifice. But he also gathered Setsuna wasn't quite seeing things that way for some reason that was perhaps personal. Allelujah raised his eyes from the projection, looking plainly at Michael.

"But if we refuse ... what are the chances of success?"

Not that he sounded like he wanted to refuse. There was concern there, if not guarded concern; Allelujah was only gauging the severity of their odds.

Michael sighed internally. Setsuna was being as stubborn as he'd heard. "We want you to use your Gundams to fight alongside us and save billions of lives," he answered the other man. "We're not asking for you to join up with Starfighter Command, but we are asking that you work together with us - following our battle plan and covering what needs to be covered, and staying out of friendly lines of fire." His gaze turned to the pink-haired girl. "Or, in your case, to help the operations crew on the bridge of the Macross Quarter."

His gaze went to Allelujah. "I'm not sure, to be honest. There are a lot fewer of them than I hear there were at Zokez, and we have more fighters than we did then, plus a capital ship." He paused. "On the other hand, we didn't win at Zokez; we escaped on sheer luck. Plus, no telling how much they could bring in during the fight."

"I'd say the odds are slightly in our favor unless they have a few Leviathans waiting in the wings, but every extra pair of guns means that we all have better odds of coming back home."

Tieria briefly regards Setsuna, watching as the pilot's frame tenses defensively. The ice beneath their feet was rapidly thinning.

"... I presume you'll be wanting an answer from us sooner rather than later." If Michael had expected their compliance straight out of the starting gate, he was a fool.

Lockon sensed that there were many converging and diverging interests and concerns at this point - and that even as the four of them they would not be able to come to a clear decision, let alone make decisions taking into account Feldt's position.

"An answer we won't be able to give until we have seen your battle plans and conversed amongst ourselves. We have no objection to saving lives, but as a team we must be clear that it is done according to our principles."

"Agreed."

In other words, they'll think about it, which is better than the response Setsuna wanted to say. That response had a handful of four letter words with a threat of 'armed intervention' tucked somewhere in there. After all, even the A-Laws thought what they were doing was for the greater good and would create a permanent peace; Celestial Being wasn't going to slaughter one group under the pretense of saving another.

"Is there any way that I can get a copy of the mission data you have?" she asked, looking at Michael. If they were going to do anything in regards to this mission, then she would need a copy of any data that relates to the mission. She was the only one, besides the Meisters, that knew what the Celestial Being Gundams could do in any battle field. Now, she wasn't a tactician like Miss Sumeragi, but she would do the best that she could.

"Sooner rather than later, yes," Michael said to Tieria. "We don't have a lot of time to argue about this. There's no way of knowing when the Ohm are going to attack, and from what we learned at Zokez, they could wipe out the world in less than a day if they're not stopped."

His gaze went to the others who'd spoken. "You're asking a bit of a Catch-22 here. We're putting together the battle plan right now, but any plans might change depending on if we get more pilots and machines in the field - like yourselves." Michel paused for a moment.

"What I can do is tell Grayson to make his battle plans assuming you all will be on the field. That way it won't change much when the time comes, if you do sign on."

And then to the girl. "The mission plans aren't finalized yet. I can give you the intelligence we have about the planet and the Ohm - population, details on the asteroid cluster, and the capabilities and fighting strength of the Ohm as we know it," he tapped the device in his hand, shutting it off, and tossed the palm-sized bud to Feldt. "But that's all I have for you right now."

"Feldt. Familiarize yourself with the data and brief us as soon as you are able." Tieria comments as he watches the device change hands.

"Michael Blanc. See to it that you provide an unabridged report of the battle plan as soon as it is available." It's a statement, not a question. They were not a charity group. They had their own agenda to fulfill. The preservation of their members was of the utmost importance. They could not rid the world (their world, if it even still existed) of its bloodlust if they were dead.

And though Tieria might not admit it aloud, it was also in his own, personal interest to see that his colleagues (each and every one of them) survived.

"Otherwise I— we— cannot guarantee our cooperation." Notably, 'full' has been purposefully omitted.

"If you would prefer to provide us with plans that do not make such assumptions -" Here Lockon glanced quickly over at Setsuna and Tieria "- then it will allow us to make our own plans on how we best fit in. We work as a team, and all exercises must be executed accordingly."

They could not end up bound by an overly complex plan that involved too many units. They needed to be free to support each other as necessary to protect their own goals first and foremost. And, of course, Setsuna could be a bit of a loose cannon, and Lockon wanted a way out if necessary.

Speaking of said loose cannon...

"We've committed to nothing," Setsuna stated coldly, his irritation only having grown thanks to Michael's presumptuousness. He couldn't bring himself to be as diplomatic as Lockon about the matter. "Make sure your superiors know that." He wasn't going to even allow them the impression of otherwise.

"We've nothing further to discuss," he stated tersely, calling a rather abrupt end to the meeting. As far as he was concerned, everything of importance had been asked and answered, the rest was waiting on information to be delivered and dissected.

"Yes, Tieria," she said to the Meister before her eyes went back to Michael. "Thank you for the data. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to take the Red Haro and go over the data."

The last part was directed towards the Meisters and Michael. She didn't wait for them to excuse her, she headed out to get the other Haro and start going over the data.

With Feldt's leave, that would be that until the data was consolidated into a tactical brief that may or may not have won Celestial Being's tenuous allegiance with Starfighter Command. Allelujah had remained silent for the tense duration of the discussion, his desire to act on his more kind-hearted tendencies checked only by the truth in what the rest of his comrades had to say. A choice had lead them to the Gundams, and everything would be meaningless if they were to abandon that choice now.

They were short on time, but he had a feeling it wouldn't take them long to reach their true answer.

In an attempt to diffuse the charged silence that followed, Allelujah stepped forward, breaking off the closed air around the meisters. Fighting now before anything concrete had been decided one way or the other wouldn't do either faction any good.

"Though you said it was included in the data, for the time being, can you tell us more about the planet?"

It sounded innocent enough, but it was fairly obvious what he meant. Could they defend themselves if necessary?

Well this was quickly going nowhere fast. Michael made a concerted effort to keep calm; to keep from letting the quickly-boiling anger show on the surface. Who did these idiots think they were, anyway? "As soon as that information is cleared outside of Command, I'll see what I can do. Even if the point of a battle plan is for everyone involved to be included." There was a bit of a dry tone to his voice there.

The sniper looked coolly at Setsuna for a moment before turning his gaze to Allelujah. "Habitable world, like the planet you all probably come from. Pre-Bleed, pre-Warp technology, just beginning early space flight and exploration. A few billion inhabitants who have no idea that the sky is about to burn above them."

"They'd notice Stacy if she came in, but the Quarter is small enough so that they won't pick us up. But they don't stand a chance against the Ohm without help."

And that was the part that really made him angry. Who did these clowns think they were? Were they really so arrogant to think that their own hides mattered more than billions and billions of lives?

"Then we will continue this discussion when that occurs." But for right now, matters among themselves needed to be discussed.

Would their opinions align? Tieria could only speculate.

Negotiations [Closed to Celestial Being]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject