DMC, Episode I: The Hunt for Marauder One

[Romulan_Furry]

The Dragonarian woman just laughed lightly. "Kid, this isn't a monarchy, so you don't need to bow," she said. "The Indari family may hold a lot of power here on Dragon'taan, but we are far from it's governors. We leave that duty to the Coalition.

"Anna," General Indari said from within the doorway of the briefing room, "We need to get this briefing out of the way. Sooner this shenanigan is done, sooner we can all relax." He entered the briefing room without another word, followed by two dragon-shifter marines leading a Kangaroo and his pair of guards.

Anna chuckled. Looking back at the deer, she told him, "You may rise, kind sir - and don't mind my husband; again, he's just jumpy. But for time's sake, you may want to get in there."

*     *     *

As General Indari appeared int he room, followed by others, Tigress's face held a look of shock. "Is that...?" she asked.

"Yep," Travis muttered to her. "The legendary Hero of the Marauder War - General Kyle Draco Indari."

Tigress took notice of Anna walking into the room behind General Indari. "And that must be General Indari's wife - Anna."

"Where is their son, I wonder...?" Travis mused.

"Rumor has it, Kyle and Anna had a second child - so their son is likely taking care of his baby sister," Tigress responded with a grin.

[Ryan Naismith]

Van Zandt stood, stoic as ever. He clasped his hands behind his back, the ribbons on his chest denoting various achievements he had accomplished while in service of the reaching progress defense force. He eyed the general, his face giving no indication of what he was thinking.
Hell, he didn't much like Indari. In his experience, e didn't much like anyone that he couldn't trust. Though he may be paying him, he could definitely not trust him. Though he may be somewhat of a legend, he definitely could not trust him. in his experience, the only people you could trust are your own men, and even then, you could only trust those deemed trustworthy.

[Romulan_Furry]

The marines closed the door to the room once everyone was inside. General Indari stood at the podium and began, "Now that we're all here, we can get started. Break this information down succinctly; We have three months to avert another major military conflict. As was stated in the priority transmission that brought you here, roughly two weeks ago, an Imperial Embassy on Anaxes, Universe 02-Gamma, was attacked, no survivors. Since then, we have received numerous reports of similar attacks on multiple Imperial interests in that 'verse. Yesterday, Lord-Admiral Dimitrius Zaarin, the leader of the Galactic Empire on 'verse 02-Gamma, approached DMC borders and accused us of attacking his empire. He says one of our operatives was the culprit behind these attacks. While he has no evidence, he is threatening a major military offensive over this in three months if we do not bring the culprit to justice."

"The only lead we have is this: At every one of these attacks, one of our Marauder Operatives, code-named Marauder One, has been sighted going into the area of these attacks," Indari continued. "This is all the more important because not only is Marauder One one of ours, but we have him listed as Killed In Action in the last conflict with the Empire twenty-two years ago."

"Did it occur to you that this may be someone is merely taking on Marauder One's name?" Travis asked.

General Indari looked directly at Travis, then responded, "Yes, as a matter of fact, it did, which is why we want this Marauder One alive - not only are we wanting to figure out whether or not this is the real Marauder One, we are also trying to discern what the motives are behind these attacks. Anna," Indari nodded to his wife.

Anna stepped up, and brought up an image of an asteroid installation. "This is the Cairn Installation, the site of the last attack. As with the others, Marauder One was sighted heading into that area. He was not, however, seen leaving it. We suspect he may be still inside."

"And Zaarin's Imperials are just going to let us waltz in there, unchallenged?" Travis asked.

"We have been allowed to investigate the matter ourselves, but we were forbidden to send out own people. That's why we asked for you all. None of you have ties to the DMC, and therefore, Zaarin will trust your word more than ours," Anna explained. "Your orders are simple: Find Marauder One, capture him, and bring him to Dragon'taan. If, however, you find evidence that Marauder One was not behind these attacks, you are ordered to find the real culprit or culprits behind these attacks and deliver any such information to Dragon'taan. Any further questions?"

[Ryan Naismith]

"My ship is not a detective's ship, Indari." Van zandt said, in a professional tone " so I assume the other mercenaries you have provided will be doing the investigating, while the Approaching Storm provides groundside security, and acts as a forward operating base."
He paused a moment to wait for questions. hearing none, he continued "The Dendarii have their own intelligence operations, but they are likely much worse funded than yours. though our operatives may have some contacts yours don't so they will be kept readily available."

[Romulan_Furry]

"Very well," General Indari said, hearing no further questions. "Get whatever you need and get going - we have three months to resolve this crisis. Dismissed."

Travis and Tigress rose and approached Van Zandt, and Travis tapped on his shoulder. "I'll meet you in orbit. I know where the Cairn Installation is, and how to get there." Looking to Tybalt, he told him, "Unless you have a ship of your own, you may want to come with us." Moving his head to indicate Van Zandt, he added, "Or him. Either way."

[Romulan_Furry]

"We don't think you'll bring us down, Tybalt," Tigress said. "Trust me, we've met people who've tried to bring us down - both intentionally and unintentionally."

"Yeah, we've seen those types - you don't look like one of them," Travis agreed. "Takes guts to waltz into a mercenary contract with the DMC dressed in civilian clothes, bow to the wife of General Indari like she's royalty, and take on an assignment of this magnitude, knowing full well what it could cost you. Anyway, I'm Captain Travis Drake." Moving his head to indicate Tigress, he added, "This is my girlfriend, Tigress." Travis accessed a radio in his left gauntlet, then spoke, "Drake to the Incognito... three to beam back."

Before the transporter energized, Tigress looked to Tybalt. "Word of advice - close your eyes. Makes being beamed from one location to another a lot less nauseating," she suggested.

The transporter energized, bathing anyone in the immediate vicinity in a green light, as the transporters of the Incognito teleported Travis, Tigress, and Tybalt from the surface of Dragon'taan to the halls of the ship itself.

(If I can find one, Tybalt, I'll post a pic of what the ship looks like inside - Reman vessels share a common interior layout, and the bridge of one Reman ship is virtually the same as another.)

[Ryan Naismith]

The dendarii had transporters as well, but due to their massive energy consumption, they were generally only used in emergencies. The current situation most definietly was not  an emergency.

and plus, teleporters always make Van Zandt nauseous. He was supposed to be a rock to his men, he couldn't be seen vomiting in front of them.

once he was back inside the command room of his ship, he ordered them to order the men in his navigation room to warm up the FTL drives, on a course for uploaded coordinates.

The approaching storm was a ship of primarily Roomen design. it was a sleek, low profile thing so that it didn't present much of a target to enemy warships.
it also had all of it's command functions spread out ,in that there is no one bridge.(which, if fired upon, would chaos within the ship, effectively clipping her wings) The weapons are managed from a separate location than the propulsion, and the propulsion managed from a separate location than the shields, and thus, are managed from a different place than the the actual command post was deep within the ship, surrounded by several meters of extremely thick tungsten carbide armor, and also it's own miniature shield generator. though to add another redundancy, each station can take over the responsibilities of the other.

The result is an extremely durable (albeit expensive and quite a power drain) ship, and with all of the armament that the Approaching Storm has, that can dish out twice as much punishment as it can receive.

he sighed as he stepped out of the small mudskipper class transport ship, into the docking bay. His docking bay

[Romulan_Furry]

Travis and Tigress walked through the dimly-lit halls of the Reman Light Warbird Incognito, with Travis saying to Tybalt, "I hope you'll forgive the darkness - Remans are not comfortable in the light."

(Still trying to find my screenshot of the Reman bridge - when found, I'll post it in the presentation topic.)

[Romulan_Furry]

Tigress and Travis stepped onto the bridge, which was better-lit than the rest of the ship, but still fairly dim.

"Tactical, contact the Approaching Storm and send them our IFF tags," Travis ordered, the Romulan at the tactical station nodding in response. Travis then looked to the Helmsman. "Helm, clear all moorings, prepare to engage impulse engines." He nodded to the Comm officer, who worked on her console, then reported,

"Dock master reading, sir."

"Dragon'taan Traffic Control, this is the Warbird Incognito, requesting exit vector," Travis said.

"Warbird Incognito, this is Dragon'taan Traffic Control - exit vector uploading. Follow your nav. Good luck, and come back in one piece. DTC out."

"I have the exit vector, sir," reported the helmsman, a pink-furred Feline.

"Engage impulse engines, make ready to generate the TDIG rift once we're clear. Captain Travis to the Approaching Storm, do you copy? Over," Travis stated.

[Ryan Naismith]

"Exit vector cleared, FTL drive spooling up."
"Copy, all crew prep for jump. FTL jump in three....two...one... and we have liftoff." Jelani sighed at his navigator's use of that term. The human insists on using such terms as that. says it's an old thing from his culture. He's a damn good navigator, so Van Zandt let it slide.
The Approaching storm pulsed her engines for just a second, gliding forward in the vacuum of space.
Then, with (what would have been, had there been oxygen for the sound to travel through) a loud, resounding thump,  and a brilliant flash of light, a wormhole opened in front of the Dendarii battlecruiser, and the Approaching Storm just continued gliding into it.

[Romulan_Furry]

"Incognito to the Approaching Storm," Travis said, seeing his ally head out, "You are aware that I have to generate the TDIG rift that'll take us to our destination? You can't just FTL jump there - it's in a Parallel Universe, Universe 02-Gamma. You'd need a TDIG Rift Generator to get there."

"We're clear of Dragoin'taan traffic, Captain," The helmsman reported.

[Ryan Naismith]

Van zandt raised a brow "Parallel universe? Honestly, why are helping them, then?" Jelani sighed, shook his head, and said, tersely "It is my contract, and I am a mercenary. so I will do it."

[Romulan_Furry]

(I apologize for my absence; doing anything online is difficult when my internet is reliant on satellite signal and there are storms blowing through here every other day. I'm sorry.)

As the helmsman started generating the Trans-Dimensional Intergalactic Rift, Travis explained, "In case you didn't know, the DMC aren't the only ones who have the ability to jump between the 'verses - Necromyans, ISC, Zaarin's Empire, the Covenant Remnant... to name a few. Zaarin's Empire is a threat to the DMC because they are one of the few who managed to get their hands on DMC tech and reverse-engineer it."

"Rift ready, sir," helm reported.

"Very good - open it, put us just outside the Lennico Belt, and provide ample space for the Approaching Storm," Tigress commanded.

"Captain Travis to commander of the Approaching Storm, we're going to drop out just outside the Lennico Asteroid Belt, where the Cairn Installation is located; unless your ship can sail through the asteroids unhindered, I would respectfully suggest you shuttle over here to the Incognito once we're clear; we'll then investigate the Cairn Installation together."

"And bring at least a fire team of your marines with you; god knows what kind of traps may be left in there," Tigress added.

The TDIG rift opened up shortly thereafter, a massive, swirling maelstrom of light and fire, before it cleared and the Lennico belt could be seen. The Reman Light Warbird Incognito sailed for it, hoping the Approaching Storm was close behind.