- Prelude -

The Zenobia, the flagship of the 7th fleet of the Terran Society Navy and home to 210 million people, is one day and four hours away from finishing it’s 414 hour-long traverse through the VL-S1-3 jump node.

Like in the first hours before entering the other side of the jump node, people all over the ship are starting to become nervous. The prospect of reaching the alien Culmen solar system and knowing not what to expect was terrifying for them, and this mood would again propagate through the ship in the next hours to come.

But there was one room that was experiencing another kind of terror inside the Zenobia this very moment. A theater inside the 6th Zenobian Naval Base, located on sector F of the ship. Some of the people here had participated in the Free Brothers Conflict 4 years ago, a war between the Free Brothers and the Makinism factions were the Terran Society intervened in favor of the Makinism, effectively wiping the Free Brothers faction but not without suffering considerable backlash from the public, yet even that experience did not prepare any of them for what was happening before their eyes.

Vice Admiral Montes stood on the stage, pointing his index finger at one of the aerial projected solid light, or APSL, to his right. This image showed 4 extremely elongated white humanoid forms, one in focus reaching for the camera’s POV with its three-fingered hand, with the planet Culmen I a considerable distance away at the background. His next words explained the situation the Zenobian fleet would soon find itself into.

“Gentlemen, this image came from one of our scouting drones around 17 hours ago in the Culmen system. The drone’s last transmission was time-tagged 4 seconds after this image was sent, and it was a incomplete out-of-service signal. We have been received OOS signals since then, and our last operational drone went down 3 hours ago.”

Montes took a moment to pause, giving time for the audience to soak what he had just said, and started to drink some of the water given to him in big gulps. The vice admiral needed this brief respite in order to maintain his composure.

“The Unknown’s codename is Album, and the elongated units in this image are being called Strawmen. Based on other non-visual transmissions, we believe there are at least 2 other unit types out there. The Strawmen are the smallest of them, and those seems to be around 22 meters high based on cross references. Before all drones were destroyed, we have confirmed 1843 Album in the system, concentrated around the XX-C1-2 jump node. Anyone that knows anything about jump nodes already understands what this means to this fleet. Zenobia’s gigantic mass is going to destabilized the VL-S1-3b jump node once we reach real space, and cannot be used for the next 72 hours in the least. We cannot retreat. The chances are high that we’ll have to engage these unknowns.”

“Now...”, the vice admiral looked around the audience while he made a pause, “... the reason of your presence here is simple, although I can see many of you are confused on why you are here and why I’m talking about the dangers his fleet have just encountered. We have been searching for able people in this fleet since we first idealized its creation, those that go beyond the mundane, with great potential for personal growth. Were I given enough time, I’d like to have done this at the Culmen system with more calm. I would have liked to have give you the choice of whenever or not you’d join this new group of the navy, the Zephyr.”

Montes, a short but stout caucasian himself, of greyed short hair, spoke his next words with a firm tone, betrayed by a hint of sadness in his eyes.

“That’s not possible now, and further questions will have to wait until this over. As of this moment, I, Charles Ernest Montes, Vice Admiral of the 11th Terran Fleet, under the Act 183 of the Terran Law, am pressing all of you present into the service of the Terran Navy, and are to become part of the Zephyr. The Zephyr’s first mission is to assist the terran forces by any means while ensuring the Zenobia won’t be shot down. Each of you are going to be assigned to one of the four ships that are part of the Zephyr force. Good luck.”

OOC:

I, of course, defer to my superior officer for assignment based on his preference, with an eye towards the Reliant.

The Reliant works for me. Imagine all the trouble we can get up to in a stealth ship, lol.

Um, if it's the stealth field you're after, I think you'd want the Pathfinder, Kolson.

Davion will be very excited about the prospect of implementing cutting-edge science to create and test new technology, and will submit a request to be chosen for the SSV-X2 Celestial--if he qualifies. If he doesn't, he will opt to work on the SCu-F1 Reliant; the most powerful barrier and a ship designed to be as fast and as damage-proof as possible is the next best thing. The SCr-R1b Pathfinder would be his third choice.

The Zephyr has something of a 'round table' mentality about themselves and their missions and all of you qualify to be on any ship, as long as there's space for you. In fact, besides their respective captains and the 52 guys you met in that room, the Zephyr ships are mostly crewed by non-Zephyr members. That means you guys could change (and are expected to) ships as necessary. Because of this, I'd like to ask for all of you to stay together for now in the Reliant.

Talking about ships, Kolson, do you want to specifically a Valkyrie (link) to pilot, or you'd feel cool with something like this link?

Arch does not seems to mind what he's going to pilot, so I was thinking along the lines of this link, what do you think?

Whoops, I really should read stuff with my glasses on, lol. Either way, I'm fine with the Reliant. Can't go wrong with super shields and speed.

And yes, the Messiah will do quite nicely.