trans_9 | Battle's End

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Battle's End

The Ohm had retreated. The various GIA forces on Lirath were withdrawn.

Refugees were being treated and dropped off at the refugee camps, and the crew that had been left there was gathered up. There hadn't been any other outbursts of Catastrophist attacks--it seemed that all of them had either been taken out or killed. Those that had been captured quickly self-detonated their neural explosives to avoid questioning, though the bodies still remained for investigation. Plenty of dead Ohm were there for study as well. Perhaps now the forces aligned against the bug menace could get some answers.

Currently, the Trans 9 was in orbit around the planet the camps were on while Stacy regenerated, allowing them access to and communication with the GIA. Several of the surviving GIA ships were orbiting, making similar repairs. It would be there only briefly before moving out.

Life went on.

Except, of course, when it didn't.

There was no time to recover the countless bodies lost in battle and it wasn't safe to stay on Lirath after the attack. The Ohm could possibly come back in greater force. Only one body was gathered up, with great respect and dignity, and carried up to the Transmigration 9--Superman's.

However, despite the people lost on Lirath--refugees, soldiers, and crew alike--the Ohm had been hurt badly this day. A full invasion force had been defeated, sent running.

They could be beaten, after all.

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Not long after Stacy had arrived in-orbit, a GIA shuttle left one of the ships, requesting permission to dock in Stacy's hangar.

It docked quickly, unloading its cargo: Admiral Kasna, of the GIA, along with a couple of bodyguards. After getting off the shuttle, Kasna quickly sent a message through the comms to the crew's command staff.

"Captain Kennedy, this is Admiral Kasna. I believe we have some things to discuss. Bring your command staff if you want and tell me where to meet you."

Where to meet was a good question, considering how damaged Stacy had gotten over the course of the fight.

«You can meet me on Level 4, in the building known as The Precinct. I'm sending you a map now.»

Edited 2011-08-29 03:46 (UTC)

"Understood. On my way."

It took a bit of time to find it, but eventually Kasna and his men made it there without too much trouble.

"Captain," the Admiral greeted somewhat grimly when he arrived. "I know it probably doesn't amount to much after what you and your crew have been through, but we appreciate everything you've done here."

He paused a moment, before continuing somberly.

"And you have our condolences for the crewmember you lost in that final attack. It was...an unbelievably heroic and brave act he performed, and it will never be forgotten by any of the men who fought at Lirath."

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Now then. Down to business, I suppose."

It was succinct, at least. Had Kasna waxed on with platitudes, Leon would've been insulted.

"We appreciate it, Admiral." But obviously he didn't come here just to say he's sorry for their loss. "But what is it that you came here to discuss?"

"This whole damn situation," he said bitterly. "It stinks to high hell, and I want answers."

He motioned to one of his bodyguards, who placed a small holo-projector on the desk in front of them. From it were projected numerous recordings from the battle, both with the Ohm and with the Catastrophists.

"The Ohm were...different this time. Normally, they'd just steamroll a planet's defenses and destroy it, no holding back. This time they were waiting for something. Not only that, but they sent out three of their damn generals."

The recordings now focused on the battles with the Demon, the Juggernaut, and finally, the Behemoth.

"And on top of all that, that damned Catastrophist attack. It was like they were lying in wait for this Ohm attack to happen. And I've gotten reports that their leader himself appeared, and he's apparently got abilities like nothing we've had on file before."

The Admiral looked extremely displeased as he went on. Men died--his men--and he wanted to know why.

"This situation stinks of secrets, Captain, and I'm sure you're just as eager to get to the bottom of this as I am. I'm proposing we work together to find out just what the hell is going on here."

Trudy had been relaxing in the medbay and making sure her soldiers got taken care of. But duty called, and the message over the comms wasn't one she would ignore. Their casualties were minimal in comparison to the GIA's, and if their admiral wanted to talk, Trudy was going to listen.

Her right arm was in a sling at the insistence of Medical, even though it was fine, and she still had a cold pack against the back of her head. Her uniform was spotted with blood and scorch marks - she looked like hell. But everyone else looked like hell, too.

"It wasn't just the ground forces that were different," Trudy said. "We've never run into those Titans before. It was like they were made specifically to fight Blade Squadron."

Frankly, the entire situation of this crew reeked of secrets. And for every one that they uncovered, they found out that there were about a hundred more waiting to be revealed.

Still, putting it together like that... there was one thing that stuck in the back of Leon's mind. Could this have been the Ohm's response to the incident at NiSaris?

But that's something he'd get into momentarily.

"We're willing to help, because we do want answers to this mess," and a number of other things. "But as I'm sure you've noticed by now, we took a hell of a lot of damage, we'll need additional resources and manpower to fix it. Not to mention that, while they give us a lot of slack, the Daligig still have us on a leash."

Not that he was he was unwilling, but his first responsibility was the crew. Answers were all well and good, but they had immediate concerns that needed to be addressed if they wanted to live long enough to find those answers.

Kasna nodded to Trudy when she spoke up. He had received reports about those new combat forms as well.

"It sounds like they'll be keeping you on a tighter leash for the near future," he continued, turning back to Leon. "I've received word the Daligig are sending over some of their own personnel to oversee repairs to your ship. I don't think they'll be staying long, but I doubt you'll be able to learn much while they're there."

He sighed audibly.

"I'll be honest with you. From what I know of the Daligig, they're decent people. Helped bring peace and stability to the multiverse when they helped establish the GIA. But that was centuries ago. In recent years, they've gotten more and more secretive. I don't know what they're up to recently, but all of their secrecy and isolationism haven't exactly made them seem exactly trustworthy in my book. Still, top brass has always maintained friendly ties with them, so we can't exactly push for answers."

He pulls out a small, sleek looking device, placing it on the desk in front of Leon.

"I have, however, gotten permission to give you this. Quantum-entanglement communicator, gives you direct contact with GIA High Command, completely untraceable and non-interceptable. As of this moment, in light of this new situation and your contributions at Lirath, High Command is recognizing your crew as an official GIA task force. You'll be authorized to receive priority data about both the Ohm and the Catastrophists, as well as requisition supplies and weapons at just about any GIA base. In addition, they'll be authorizing you to be able to request GIA assistance in any large scale battle against the Ohm."

"I've managed to convince the brass to maintain comms-blackout with you until the Daligig leave your ship so they won't find out about it. When they leave, just activate the communicator and we'll start sending you any intel we receive."

Kansa, you might have just become Leon's new favorite person. Though the fact that the GIA didn't trust the Daligig either raised a number of concerns for their situation, not to mention the fact that one of the Daligig would be coming aboard.

He'll have to speak to Nathan and Kang about that.

"Thank you, this'll be a tremendous help." Information will be key going forward. And speaking of, since Kansa is being so straight forward, Leon would return the favor.

"I have a few theories about what happened at Lirath, at least regarding the Ohm's behavior. During a previous battle with them at NiSaris, our fleet, led by General Chacon, was able to drive off the Ohm. But during that battle, a couple of our crew were able to make direct psychic contact with Ohm civilization. This may have been their response.

"The Catastrophists are a group we've never encountered before. Though recently we were warned that there was another party involved in the conflict with the Ohm, but we weren't given any details."

"Don't get me wrong," Kasna added. "Most of the GIA love the Daligig for all they did back at the GIA's inception. I just make it a habit of not completely trusting someone with as many secrets as them. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid, but I prefer to be safe than sorry when it comes to people's lives."

He carefully listens to what Leon has to say.

"I see..." he replied thoughtfully. "If you can send us a report on what your people learned about the Ohm, it would be a big help to our research department. No one's ever managed to make direct contact with the Ohm before, so this could be big."

He paused to consider the last thing Leon said.

"Who exactly gave you this info?"

"Believe me, I understand your concerns." Its not as if he trusted the Daligig any further than he can throw them, even if they haven't been directly threatening or hostile. "And I'll have that report sent along as soon as possible." Though it will probably have to wait until after the Daligig visit.

"We got that information from a group of aliens known as The Rom." Part of him was unsure about revealing that, since the Rom, in their own cryptic as all hell way, tried to be helpful. But he decided to throw it out there to see how Kasna reacted.

"The Rom?" Kasna replied thoughtfully. "I see. I'm not surprised they've gotten involved. They're secretive as hell, and I'm sure they've got their own agenda going, just like everyone else."

"But from what I know of them, they don't lie, they just...tend to selectively give you the truth. And they probably know what they're talking about. People say their elders can see the future, and I'm inclined to believe it."

"I wouldn't take anything they say without a grain of salt, but you can probably trust that what they tell you is true, even if it isn't the whole story. They turned out to be right here, after all."

Which was about what Leon figured. He thought about mentioning the Tapestry, but decided against it, for now. If they didn't know about it, he'd hold on to it as the closest thing they had to a trump card.

"They've been a bit... vague... but they've helped us out the few times we've crossed paths with them."

"Take help from where you can get it, Captain," the Admiral replied. "But be careful. You're in this even more blind than we are."

He sighs, leaning back in his chair.

"I know you've got the lives of your crew to worry about, but people have high hopes for what this ship is capable of achieving in this war. Just remember, you've always got me and everyone else who fought at Lirath to watch your backs."

Plus, the help from GIA High Command wasn't bad, either.

A few seconds after the Admiral had finished, Lash had entered the room and took a seat. Her torso was still bandaged, the plantsuit removed from it. She'd been in meetings like this before back in Black Hole, and was oddly quiet, not asking what she'd miss. She could always ask that later anyway. For now, she decided to just look at the Admiral, and listen to them talk.

Something else she quickly noticed, possibly due to the oddly zen atmosphere was that Zetta wasn't there. The councilmen had been asked to come too, right?

That was odd. But then again a lot of them weren't here right now, with all of the damage everyone had subsided. Once this was all over she'd get to the bottom of it. For now, she sat down close to the rest of the team, silent. Besides, even if she had wanted to ask question, Lash's head was still ringing from a headache.

Zouichi nodded at Lash as she sat down. He'd been keeping quiet, since it seemed like Kasna was more intent on having a heart-to-heart with Leon than anyone else, but he did wonder how much of this information was going to trickle its way down to the rest of the ship.

He was not at all surprised to hear that there were factions that didn't entirely trust each other within the GIA. Wasn't that always the case?

Tim, for his own part, wasn't surprised to hear about how deep the distrust and secrets went, either. It was natural, and it was clear enough, to him-- especially as an inherently distrusting person like he was. (Of course, that meant he also realised the irony of him being involved in a conversation about people keeping secrets.)

For his own part, he'd kept still and quiet, as he was prone to doing. The entire situation bothered him, but Leon and Kasna were covering it. The extremists, the nature of the force. The conditioning they'd encountered. He had things on his mind, but he stayed silent for the time being.

Edited 2011-08-30 23:47 (UTC)

"Its good to know t hat someone has our backs." At the least, Kansa didn't strike him as the type to have some kind of shadowy agenda, but one could never be too careful.

"What can you tell us about the Catastrophists? Like I said, we've never even heard of them before coming to Lirath."

"Pulled up a file on them just before I came over here," Kasna said, pulling out a datapad and tossing it to Leon.

"There isn't much on them. They've been around for years, but they've mostly kept a low profile. A number of bombings, but nothing on the scale of what they tried to pull here. According to manifestos found on suspects from previous cases, they seem to believe that the entire multiverse is corrupt on some level and must be destroyed to 'purify' it."

He scoffed, as the thought seemed completely preposterous to him.

"From what little we could get from these guys, it seems their leader is some guy named Nemo, but that's likely an alias of some sort. And they've obviously spent a lot of time militarizing themselves, given what we've seen today."

"I've got no idea what they're really up to, but I'm making sure High Command will be sending out Peacekeeper Investigative squads out all over GIA space to get to the bottom of it. We'll forward you anything they find out."

At this topic, and the revelation of what Kasna did know, Tim spoke up finally, voice gruff but firm. "From what we've seen, it seems like they've been conditioned to behave the way they do," he explained. It'd been his own theory, to begin with, but a channel post on the subject had confirmed it. "Typical cult fare. It's likely to be a delicate situation in some cases."

"And it obviously wasn't luck that led them to Lirath. So they have to have some kind of link to the Ohm, or some way to keep track of them. There's no way they could've guessed about Lirath, not unless they have some way to tell the future."

...

...

hn...

Was their Tapestry the only one in existence? Could the Catastrophists have another one, or something similar?

"Not surprised," Kasna replied to Tim. "We've dealt with cults that deal in that sort of thing from time to time. Even so, something about this case feels...different."

Kasna usually had good intuition, but he wanted to get all the facts before making any general conclusions.

"I was thinking about that myself," he added in response to Leon. "Precogs aren't all that uncommon, but even our best in the GIA Psi-Corps can't predict when and where the Ohm will attack. I'm wondering if they've somehow got info on the Ohm we don't...and if that's the case, it just means we need to get our hands on them even sooner."

A voice in the back of the room spoke up, ragged and tired. When he walked in was hard to tell, given how quickly he could move.

"Nemo knew things about us...mentioned something from Kara's childhood, I think. Personal stuff."

He really wasn't ready to be up and about yet. Still needed more time under the yellow sunlamps, after that beating and the radiation.

But he figured he could take a few minutes for this.

"He said he knows the unknowable. Whatever that means."

Ashley tried to look like she wasn't spying on the meeting that was going on inside the Precinct. She paced around the building, looking a little banged up, but none the worse for wear. She knew Leon was okay, but she needed to see him. And Nightwing, for that matter. She had to thank him for saving her. But mostly she needed to see Leon. When he was around it was okay.

She tried not to stare at the GIA guy as he left the building, and waited to the side for everyone to file out. She stepped in once she was sure Leon was the last one in there.

She peeked her head in but couldn't contain herself once she saw him. "Leon!" She jogged in to him and grabbed onto his arm. His nice, strong arms that made her safe. "We're really okay? It's really over?"

"Ashley!" He ended up putting his arm around her, and gave her a small hug. He was happy to see that she was alright, after all.

"Yeah, that battle is really over." He'd love to say the war with the Ohm was over, but this was far from it. "We're okay now."

She reached her arms up around his neck. Suddenly, all at once, all the tension from the ordeal released. "The guys in the big cloaks started screaming and blowing up, and Nightwing helped but they just kept coming--" she trailed off, burying his face into his chest.

"Hey, its all right now," he told her reassuringly. He could imagine how much something like that would've upset her, after what she had been through back on their earth. "All of them have been dealt with."

After a little while, she calmed down again. Leon's presence still had the needed effect on her. She still hung onto him, though. "Nightwing really did help. He was amazing.--Not as good as you. But if he wasn't there..." She shook her head.

She pulled away from him and pulled her arms behind her back and clasped them together. "And... Sherry.... and--Claire," she seemed to make an effort to keep any dislike out of her voice when she said her name. Now wasn't the time, and she knew it. "They're okay too? And that Spanish guy?"

"~~Lewis~~ Luis," Leon corrected, filling in the name for her. "They're all fine, they all made it through all right." He appreciated her asking, even though he knew she wasn't fond of Claire. But it seemed as though she was moving on.

"So Nightwing was amazing~, huh?" he teased a little. "I'll have to thank him for saving you."

She frowned in that way she always did when he teased her. "I wasn't completely useless," aiming her face up toward him pointedly when she emphasized the word. "I tried a gun. I wasn't very good at it."

She walked a few paces to the side, then turned to look at him. "Maybe you can teach me a little better. I thought I could do it from watching you. I guess it's harder than you made it look."

Leon put his hands up in a display of mock surrender. He wasn't going to argue that point.

"Uh..." He wasn't thrilled about the idea of giving Ashley gun lessons, but she was going to need to learn how to defend herself. The thought passed through his mind that Claire could teach her, but Claire + Ashley + Firearms = Disaster.

"I'll think about it, but I've been doing this for a long time. Its all second nature by now.

"Are you sure that's something you want to learn?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I can't just hide in a dumpster all the time, can I?"

"I just don't want to get in the way," she said, a little more seriously. "And if someone tries to hurt me or something because they don't like you, I want to be prepared. But I suppose you're always really busy, since you're Captain and everything..."

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Battle's End

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