The Capital District(Earth) - 2295

January 2nd

The bright sun hangs overhead as Davis’ personal chauffeur drives through the gates, and into the main courtyard.  He stops as they reach the first roundabout, with an array of cars driving through.  In the center of the roundabout lies a silver obelisk, dedicated to the first of the five ‘pillars’ of human growth and expansion, being ‘risk’.  Eventually, an opening appears, and the chauffeur drives into the roundabout, continuing along the path to the conference room.

Outside the car, Davis would see the various palatial structures that make up the majority of the Capital District.  Despite some of the government offices moving to Thebes and Neapolis as a part of the agreement between the two planets, there are still more buildings than he can count, the majority of which being dedicated to national security, although others are dedicated to things housing the head administrators, other leaders, and even government employees that work within the district.

A lot of those employees, presumably, are also the ones walking around and heading into their own workplaces, although quite a few are also going to coffee shops and restaurants.  When they notice Davis, though, they tend to stop and salute him.  Davis’ popularity has exploded in recent years, what with the fact that he was awarded numerous medals, and other people feel indebted to him for protecting Earth in the final battle of the civil war.

Eventually, though, the car stops as he reaches his location.  The Redclave building, one of the more modest buildings within the district, is home to the conference room where he, and other leaders that the State has declared to be important will arrive, and discuss new events that have occurred, as well as previously classified information that the intelligence agencies have been keeping secret, for the time being.  The chauffeur steps out of the car and opens the door to the left of Davis, and the man says, “We’ve arrived, sir.  Are there any refreshments that you would like to be sent to the conference room in the meantime?”

Davis looks around for a second before saying, "just some water will do, please." So much had happened since the start of that dam war, and now he was where he didn't want to be. Unfortunately, there was no commander above him component and watching his brothers being slaughtered during the war due to his superiors forced him to act. Funny, if it hasn't been a devastating conflict, he'd been court marshaled seven ways to Sunday for how many times he had to disobey orders at the start..

Davis walked up into the building and headed for the conference room

Vick Dosttian lands by shuttle, having come directly from orbit from his battleship Tresht. While not his usual flagship, as he often prefers his heavy cruiser Blaze, he doesn't intend to have anyone forget that he is a fleet commander of merit. His aide, that everyone wonders why he has as he's proven more than capable of not having one. Briefs him again on the upcoming conference, the big names, the interesting names, and the little names that will be there. However, he wishes he was simply back with his fleet. Less political.

After heading up several fleets of stairs and moving through several hallways, Davis reaches the conference room. Despite all the buildup, the room is pretty small with very few seats. He notices one man to the right of him, tapping his fingers against the glass table. Small sparks show up whenever he ‘taps’ one of his fingers against the glass. Davis has seen this before, and would more than likely realize that the man is typing something down. It coincides with the implants that everyone has, and is used in a similar fashion to older keyboards.

The man eventually looks up at you says, “Welcome, admiral Davis. We’re glad to have you here, and we hope that you enjoyed the car ride.” Although the man’s trying to hide it, Davis can quite clearly tell that he isn’t a big fan of this. He’s more than likely one of the men who probably would’ve wanted to court marshall Davis, but he’s still begrudgingly showing his respect. Davis might also notice a small robot coming in, and taking out a glass of water from one of its refrigerated compartments. It holds it up and says, “Here you go, sir.”

Meanwhile, at the space port, Vick would notice people rushing around, especially from other shuttles coming in. Most of them appear to be from the intelligence community, and they salute him before they walk on by. As he walks through the space port, and into the station where trams are lining up before being sent out at incredibly fast speeds in various directions, he’d notice the countless commercials popping up, all of which are talking about Davis. The Terran government has effectively turned Davis into another cultural symbol, showing him as a symbol of ‘Human ingenuity and unity’.

Action figures, songs, a fan club,… all of these means show how much the government wants to replace the old symbol, the Victoria-class battleship. Of course, it hasn’t been entirely successful outside of Terra, thankfully. Getting bombarded with all these commercials and advertisements would be very tiring for any other citizen of the state, except for the Terrans. After he enters a tram, it sends him into the station connected to the Redclave building, rather quickly.

"It was uneventful" Davis says to the man, thanking the robot and taking his seat at the table. He didn't care if the man hated his guts. He had much, much more to worry about than the Old Guard.

Vick nods curtly, but genuinely, at the men who salute, moving quickly across the platform. He tries to ignore the commercials and masks a sigh. While not apposed to Davis, the excessive "hero worship," as he tells his friends, is rather pointless and annoying in his eyes. His lack of emotion for politicking shines through in his inner thoughts. He waves off his aide who boards a tram headed for intelligence central and, after boarding his tram, steps off and strides purposefully into the Redclave building.

The man continues to look at the table in front of him, ‘tapping’ keys in rapid succession as he says, “Anyways, I won’t be here for much longer. My boss just sent me here ahead of time, to prepare everything.” He grumbles as even the robot salutes Davis and runs off, presumably to help some other bureaucrat with some menial tasks. After a minute, the man finally ends the tapping, proceeding to slam his fist against the table, and the table begins to morph and transform. It eventually ends with the center of the table looking a lot similar to a volcano in appearance. A trick of the mind, the implants given to Davis as a part of his military career suggests that the table has transformed, and his body has been convinced of that, although he knows otherwise.

The man finally looks up towards you once more, squinting, before he proceeds to head towards the door. Once he enters the doorway, he holds his palm up against the scanner near the wall, and the light blinks red while he leaves. The door hasn’t closed, but the scanner has sent a message to his boss, and although it takes a short moment, he can finally hear light footsteps.

Meanwhile, the sliding doors automatically move out of the way for Vick as he heads in. The area seems pretty quiet, and it can be assumed that everyone has already reached their cubicles or offices. However, one security camera can be seen, monitoring the hallways. The security camera seems to stop when he comes near, however, and it slowly turns, until he’s entered its field of view. The light near the lens flicks to red, and he can see the security camera focus on him, presumably taking a closer look, before he finally hears a feminine voice, saying, “Welcome to the Redclave Building, Commander Dosttian. You’re just on time, and let us highlight the path for you.”

Almost immediately after saying that, various yellow arrows appear in front of him, pointing him to the direction of the conference room. As he would walk down the path, the voice continues, saying, “Is there anything that you’d wish to drink while you’re in the meeting?”

Davis looked at what he was seeing with interest, wondering what it could have to do with this meeting. curiously now, he looked to the door to watch who else would be joining this meeting

"No thank you," Vick says as he strides across the floor. He rapidly reaches the conference room and enters, bringing with him a powerful, direct aura that's almost imperious. Scanning the room, he rapidly makes a note of everyone who is there, who isn't, and if they all match up with the list of those called to the meeting. His scan on Davis is no more nor less than what he gives the others, direct and weighty.

As Vick looks around, he’d notice only a few faces there, a fraction of the full listing that was offered. Most of the faces belong to pencil-pushing generals and admirals from various sections of the galaxy, although one rather infamous face belongs to the sociopathic general, General Hammen. The general looks back at him and grins, saying, “Why hello, Commander Dosttian. I’m surprised that you even bothered to show your face to the rest of us.” He leans back, resting her arms behind his head as he continues to stare.

Eventually, though, the footsteps grow louder and louder, and a woman finally comes around the corner. Rather thin, with her eyes hidden behind a pair of shades. Her two piece suit doesn’t give a lot of hints as to who she is, but one of the badges on the suit suggests that she works for one of the intelligence agencies. She looks everyone over, motioning for everyone to sit down before she heads to the ‘front’ of the room, with her back facing the wall. She leans closer, turning her gaze towards her fingers as they sweep across the table.

She breathes deeply, removing her glasses as she looks up at everyone. Her emerald eyes seem to glow as she looks everyone over, before she says, “Alright, so, let’s get down to business. First and foremost…,” as she flicks her fingers, and a virtual image consisting of the rebel flags show up, “diplomatic efforts. The head administrators think that we should extend an olive branch to the rebels.”

“...Of course,” she says, taking a second to let them take all the details in, “we can’t accomplish diplomacy without our best admirals and generals, so the head administrators wanted your opinions on the matter.”

Davis thinks for a moment and soon voices his opinion on the matter. "I'm all for peace, there's not much more we can accomplish with war and people are getting sick of it. I have talked to my men and I also have many volunteers that'll help in clean up and reconstruction duties."

Before the woman enters the room, Vick regards General Hammen with a hint of a grizzled smile, which is extensive when one considers Vick. "I surprised myself by coming and you being here has only extended it, but it sounded important enough to let my meager voice be heard."

After she, and Davis, have finished speaking Vick asks, "Exactly what are the heads thinking of including in this olive branch?"

(Hi)
Somewhere far past Luna, a wormhole opens and a ship of unknown origin comes out. It is relatively small for an average ship, but its peculiar size, shape and speed suggests that it is a warship of some sort, possibly a Destroyer. The architecture of the ship matches no known records, showing you that it is likely a ship of an undiscovered Star Nation. It doesn't move for awhile, evidently agast that it jumped into a very largely developed world, but soin begins a very large orbit around the planet, out of range of any other ships, apparently just looking.

Sirens blare throughout the station in orbit around the planet, just hours before the alien battleship arrives. People rush to their stations, footsteps can be heard echoing through the halls, and gasps are voiced as individuals quickly prepare themselves. Amongst all of this action, a man in a two-piece suit walks through the halls, calmly lighting a cigarette as he looks around, his gaze eventually focusing on one of the sirens. He grins, smoking his cigarette as he continues to calmly walk through the station, eventually reaching the command room, with all of the individuals working at full capacity, preparing for contact with the aliens.

As he enters the room, everyone stops and stares, with the admiral in charge turning his gaze towards the man, and getting up from his chair. He walks over and says, “Sir, our listening posts have spotted a ship barreling towards our planet.” The man in the two-piece merely shrugs, dropping his now-dwindled cigarette into a waste disposal container. He then turns his gaze back towards the admiral and says, “Well, then. Let’s start up the welcoming party for them.” The admiral merely nods, before he continues to give more orders to the individuals.

Eventually, the ship finally comes out near Luna, and appears on their scanners. The man in the two-piece motions for the admiral to step to the side, and the admiral does so as the man steps in front of the admirals chair, facing the many monitors and screens, displaying space from various angles through the cameras. The man raises his arm, and the lights dim throughout the command room. In the center of the room lies three rising, circular, and virtual ‘screens’. He grins as a comms request reaches the battleship. He says, “Let’s test out this new automatic translating software, shall we?”

On Earth, within the conference room, everything… still goes as planned, and remains silent as the Intelligence agencies all prevent the information from reaching the admirals and generals, including Vick and Davis. The woman in front seems to be getting the information, though, and she pauses for a second, before she turns her gaze towards Vick. She says, “Well, Commander Dosttian, the treaty that we will deliver to the rebels basically states that the State will recognize their sovereignty and legitimacy when it comes to control over their own territory, and in return, they will have to recognize the authority that the State has over planets that she controls. That… is the most important clause, and the heads believe that it will help us in the short term, since we can dedicate all those resources to other matters.”

The ship responds to the message by sending a single hologram of 3 bird like animals taking off from an island together, flying into a cloud, and split up. A circle appears around the leftmost one.

As you get closer you can see more of the ship. It has a smooth, slender, almost organic appearance to it. At a glance it looks almost unarmed, but a closer inspection and one can see numerous turret holes. They are not aimed at you, but energy signatures can tell you that they are primed to fire at any notice.

Davis says, "alright, sounds good so far. What else exactly is being promised or demanded in this treaty?"

The man in the two-piece takes a look at the image for a short while, before he decides to motion for one of the workers to come over. He whispers something into their ear, and they nod, before heading back to their workstation. They begin to quickly piece together a picture, and they show it to him, receiving a simple nod in response. They send the image out in response to the one that was sent, consisting of three Terran battleships, following a similar pattern, with one of them being circled. All the members of the crew look at the image getting sent, curious.

The woman in the conference clasps her hands together as she listens to what you’ve asked. She thinks for a short moment afterwards, before she says, “Well, the higher-ups are still deciding on the various parts, but one thing they’ve said for certain is that no land will be asked for. They’re confident that they won’t be lacking resources in the near future, what with all the systems we control. The higher ups are considering requiring military access from them, though. That way, we don’t have to deal with the politics of moving through their territory and the like.” Her eyes looks from person to person, before she eventually breathes deeply.

She then turns towards Davis, of course, and she says, “Moving onto the next topic, the Intelligence Community has kept it quiet and closed down, though you’ve probably heard some rumors about it: Humanity has discovered an alien species! About eight or so years ago, a lone listening post on one of the furthest edges of State territory managed to discover an alien species. It wasn’t the best first encounter, but the species has been friendly enough for a while now, and the higher ups believe that the relationship between us, and the ‘Children of Steel’, will only grow and prosper in the future.”

She points towards you as she says, “And this, Davis, is where you fit in. We want you to lead one of our newer expeditionary fleets. After all, who else should be the representative for the human species, besides the one who accomplished the most?” She looks back, facing the whiteboard as she says, “We’ll give you one of the newer ships that we’ve constructed as a flagship. We hope that you’ll accept this offer. As for you, Commander Dosttian, we have something similar in mind. If you would be kind enough to talk to us after the meeting, will explain what you’ll be doing in further detail.”

The ship sends another image. This time the original one with the birds is shown, before it slowly turns into the image of the Terran battleships, before the Terran battleships turn into like models of the alien battleship.

Suddenly another image appears. It appears to be an emblem. A red circle, possibly a star, is surrounded by 15 triangles, with another triangle in the center. A ornamental figure that could've been wings (the artwork looked very old fashioned) embraces the star-circle. And finally, 3 characters that you could not read appeared, possibly the name of their faction.

Davis mulls over it for a second before saying, "Alright, I'll do it. But I get to select my crew and the captains who'll be coming along in this expedition fleet. I need captains who won't crack under pressure, and I know a few already."

Vick's only visible response amounts to a small nod, while his mental one has several questions pop across his head and a raised eyebrow.

The man in the two-piece nods as he looks at both of the pictures. The crew ponders what each picture means as the man, seemingly well-aware of the pictures, turns his gaze towards the commander. He talks with the commander, and the commander flicks his fingers, shifting through the various images until the man in the two-piece points to the seal that the country uses for deals, laws, and treaties. It also appears quite often, like on passports and everything else. The commander nods afterwards, sending the picture over to the alien ship.

The seal, much like other symbols that the government uses in its day-to-day life, is simple, yet filled with symbolism. It’s simple so that people who aren’t familiar with the symbol can easily get an idea as to what it refers to and means, but isn’t so simple that the symbolism is basic. The symbol consists of a laurel wreath superimposed onto a sphere with purple on the inside, and gold lining the outer part, surrounding the wreath. Within this circle, surrounded by the gold edge and the wreath, lies the three main planets of the State, Neapolis, Thebes, and Earth. Underneath these planets lies two birds, one a dove, and one an eagle. These two birds are flying in opposite directions, with a scroll like object between them. The dove, which is colored white, carries one end in its mouth, and the eagle, which in turn is colored black, carries the other end in its claws. The words on the scroll, while being indecipherable to the aliens, would easily be read by most humans as, “Peace is the path we prefer to take, yet do not assume that we will not fight.”

Much of the symbolism, like the purple background referring to the glory of the nation, would only be recognizable by humans, and even then, only a few of them. The gold, symbolizing the wealth of the nation, could possibly be understood by the aliens. This, in addition to the wreath, would only be understood under a few circumstances, and possibly not even right off the bat in terms of what the aliens know. The rest, however, should be vastly easier. The first planet, the one that’s the largest, symbolizes the planet that they can see through their cameras and other images of the planet. The two smaller planets are equal in size, and yet it’s not entirely sure what they are. While eagles and doves might not exist, they’d probably recognize that the hawk is in an offensive position, poised and ready to strike at something. While the dove might be more confusing, the polar opposites in terms of colors used will probably tell them that the dove symbolizes the opposite, peace. The two symbols, combined, are there to suggest that this planet is both peaceful, yet also willing to pick up a weapon and fight.

Back in the boardroom, the woman nods as she looks at Davis. She says, “Well, we will allow you to do that. Success is important, and if you think that certain people will listen better than others, then go ahead and make your selections.” She thinks for a moment, her gaze shifting around to the various faces in the room before it eventually settles, reaching Dosttian. She looks at the raised eyebrow, asking, “What do you think of the what was said so far, Dosttian?”

"No comment as of yet," he says, easily.

Another hologram is sent. The hologram is of the 16 triangles presented in their emblem, which line up single file and images appear beneath them. 4 of them have swords and firearms underneath them, 3 of them have various tools and factories underneath them, 3 of them have images of crops and farms underneath them, 3 of them have images of galaxies, diagrams of molecules, and various characters, possibly math formulas, and 2 of them had simple images of houses and various living quarters. These 15 triangles then shifted around the last Triangle, which was the largest. The triangle was also the exact same shade of dark blue as the hull of the destroyer.