A Game of Gundams IC

[Silence]

January 1st PC:0068
Endus System

Across Endus and the greater Pan-Helios space, New Years celebrations were being held across the entirety of the Federation volume. For many the quiet holiday season was sign that had peace had returned fully and that chaos of the 6th Reflex War that had engulfed Endus only a short four years ago would soon be ancient history and a new golden age would emerge. Afterall, wasn't the shadowy wizards cabal that head lead the Federation into diaster vanquished along with the demonic invasion? The victorious fleets of Enduscare Federation were expanding, battle hardened and blooded and a match for all the distant rivals put together. Sure some would conceed the troubling insurrection on Ban-Uchar was still ongoing, but those were a defeated people who had lost their strongest magus when she foolished opened the seal at the start of the 6th Reflex War.

To those who sat in the corridors of power, they knew the truth. The Federation was a powderkeg, the wizards of SIDEREAL had been manipulative, convinng and overreaching, but they had learned to wield the instruments of powers for centuries in the shadows long before they had stepped out into the open and they had interacted with the Federation's percularities and contradictions to maintain a more or less harmonoius Federation. Now instead of cloudly esoteric strong hand guiding the Federation's fate it was open to anybody that the strength and more importantly the will to master the Federation. Already there was cliques forming around the more charismatic and powerful of the politicans and generals, and in the shadows the remants of the masters slithered in darkness working for their patrons and as well their own self, and on cold isolated Sariel there still remined the issuse of the Seal, the mages who resealed the gate were on the other side, and the remainders of those who could figure out what was done are either dead or in hiding. For those who sat in the corridors of power, Sariel was another powder keg.

It was on January Second the fuse was lit, though none would of regoznied it a the time. Whispers around the asteroid miners of Solomon Ring began to tell of story of a prospector named Jermiah Godspeed going missing after bragging he had found ancient facilitity in the area of space he was prospecting. Roughly at the same time he went missing, a black basalt pyramid was found on orbital surverors sats in the polar region of Sariel. Where once had been a battlesite between SIDEREAL's army and the invading Rmasters, littered with the wrecks of combat mecha and landships, now stood imposing structure, emitting harmfell levels of radiation and magical energy to anybody that woudl approach.

January Third, an astral gate was detected on the outskirts of Endus system near Zircah, with Frontier Fleet missives back from Ban-Uchar, stated that a cabal of Ban-Uchar shamans had hijacked a Kannazuki Express Freighter, and commited to risky astral gate spell. These are terroists who had been the acoyoltes of the fallen Queen and dead oracle, who call themselves the Children of Buchander. The missive also includes a report that Gwynedd task force centered around 4 battleships was doing a Freedom of Navigation run across the Gate.

January 5th, Marshal Sloan through his allies in the Senate has proposed expanding the Global Military Police size and scope to include gendermadie dutites on allied Panhelian worlds as well as Ban-Uchar.

-----General Stats----
Federation Stablity: Stable
Pan-Helios States: Loyal
Economy: Booming
Senate Popularity: Neutral
Battlefleet Popularity: Popular
Frontier Fleet Popularity: Popular
ANTISPELL: Very Popular
GMP: Popular
Gwynedd Relations: Cold War
INSTEL Relations: Icy Cold War
Ban-Uchar Insurrection: Strong
Murklim: Restive

----Player Stats----
Those Who Lead
President Morgan Haughten-Rhys -NPC
10 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: Skeptical

Prime Minister Alaric Thorn @NotCaligula
10 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Minister of Defense Jonas Franklin @Lokar
10 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Financial Minister Andrew Mc Wetson @kosi
10 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Senator Alie Lorene Myst @VoidZero
10 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Those Who Fight on the Frontiers
Rear Admiral Mathias Caddel @Secondskink
10 Military Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Rear Admiral Liane Rokall @Aedan777
10 Military Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Those Whose Guard the Home

Vice-Admiral Moriah Beryl @Ranger
10 Military Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Warden Admiral Rhein Direstanze @SirLagginton
10 Military Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Marshal Randal Sloan of the GMP - NPC
10 Military Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Those Who Slither in Darkness

Albeleo Pergamon @Valleron
10 Arcane Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Callisto Azurespire @Nanolyte
10 Arcane Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Shannam @Hollewanderer
10 Arcane Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

MERU-13 - NPC
10 Arcane Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Thomas Doe @TerrisH
10 Arcane Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Lukas Anacletus Solbert @KnightDisciple
10 Arcane Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

 

[Silence]

January PC:0068 [Part 1/2 Ban-Uchar and Zircah and the Belt]
In occupied Ban-Uchar, the insurrection against the Federation might flares up in response to ANTISPELL's Commodore DuThaire assault on their sacred shaman's lairs. One group of magic users had stolen Kannazuki Express megafreighter Antares and used a risky world gate spell to transmit themselves towards an previously undiscovered astral anchor that had been left in the system by the first Ban-Uchar incursion into Endus space dropping out in real space by Zircah. In response to that news, both the Leliel under DuThaire and Frontier Fleet strike carrier under command of Rear Admiral Rokal engaged their own jump drives to follow the world gate signature.

Nearly instantaneous for the ships jumping, the chronological distortion of the jump was kept to a minimum so only a few days had passed in real time for Rokal with no sign of DuThaire, who may still be in the astral jump. They had arrived near polar orbit of Zircah itself, the icy white jewel gleaming surrounded by its rings of wrecks from the Rmaster invasion. IFF Tags of 5 other Strike Carriers in the local space were detected deploying their wings of mobile suits to scout for the hidden freighter. Also picked up was a large element of the 47th Fleet under Vice-Admiral Moriah who was scrupulously maintaining respect of Frontier Fleet's area of operations but had positioned their ships on the most likely vector to intercept any incursions further in system.

The shamans were obviously using a spell to keep the freighter hidden from sensors, however Rokal being an experienced fighter in deal withing Ban-Uchar rebels had experience and knew that such strength spells cost a great deal of energy and could only be hold up for so long. Surveying the local surroundings she determined the five most likely courses the freighter would take if they arrived in the same general area towards nearest wrecks which were closer to the Frontier Fleet base in orbit then away, launching her Ibris squadrons, they hit pay dirt on target number 2, the advance electronics of the Ibris Ibris-F picking up the tell tale micro-distortions of the EMF field of a cloaking spell and they began to open fire on the freighter.

Space began to rip apart near the freighter as the desperate mages summon mobile suit size djnn from the Hell Dimeson of Smoke and Brass, and, while also occasionally letting lose with a heavy beam of destruction magic from airlocks, using the freighter's cargo of ether as catalyst for the spells. For the next several minute the battle was swirling lights of mobile suits and demons spiraling around each other trying to get proper shots, while the strike's cruiser shields tanked the mage's destruction from afar, prompting the response of Rokal to return fire to disable the mages. Battleship category beam weapons gouging out large chunks of the freighter as the mages teleported further in ship to safety. Things began to change when the other scouting elements of strike carrier's wing plus the remainder reserve force launching while the ship was dueling with the freighter had arrived on the scene. The Djnn were overwhelmed and the Ibris-Fs began to make pinpoint beam riffle attacks on the freighter aimed at high concentrations of etheric energies. Soon it was over, with only 5 causlities, 1 Ibris lost due to Djnn, 1 lost to a suicide mage astral gating himself and nearby chunk of the ship and half the mobile suit to locations unknown, and three damaged Ibris's who had lost some limbs.

By the time freighter was secured by espatiers from the strike carrier, the Leliel had entered back into real space, it soon moved on crippled freighter and used their privilege to take command of the site and integration of any survivors. Rokal's unit was directed to head to fleet base over Zircah to resupply and repair, and take part in awards ceremony for stopping the incursion.

Back on Ban-Uchar, Strike Carrier Overlord under the command of Mathias Caddel launched Operation Sikorsky a campaign to smash rebel supply depots in search of magical artifacts. Using the wizards under his staff who had did some local scyring of leylines, they picked up a disturbance in one of the leylines near a large planetoid near the outgoing starway of the Gate a sign of astral gate spell, that had been scrubbed over by ANTISPELL early on the campaign. A floating bit of a desert with few tribals who had barely had any clue what was going on, it was perfect hiding spot for long term storage as it was riddled with numerous cave system. Making their way towards the distortion a flight of Ibris-Fs were detached ahead to scout they had found an entrance to massive cavern capable of holding medium size warships, protected by a net of optical camo not of Ban-Uchar make but from one of the more exotic and distant powers further past the Gates. Deploying more mobile suits the Overlord's contingent hits a perimeter guard outpost, and engages in one sided fight against the infantry, whose heaviest weapons was an acolyte barely capable of firing a fireball and some old Gwynedd rocket launchers. Outside of damage to camera lenses on head of the lead Ibris, the outpost is destroyed, and the way is clear for more tangible prize, a massive cavern holding three freighters in the process of being turned into auxiliary warships. However more shockingly is the presence of several MK 2 Hoplite mobile suits, outfitted with Gwynedd railguns and heavy armor. In the confine space of the caverns, the Hoplite's heavy armor serves it more then Ibris' superior flight capability, and 4 Ibris's are taken out before the weight of numbers takes out the last mobile suit. Espatiers from the Strike Carrier soon occupy the makeshift conversion center, and they find evidence that the Kingdom has at least 1 large umbral freighter moving in increasing amounts of war material to the Ban-Uchar, hidden throughout the floating continents of Ban-Uchar. Caddel also reports to higher ups that his men discovered several witch totems he promptly destroyed.

Over in Solomon's Ring another collision occurred. Sparked on by the appearance of the Black Pyramid, the first battle of the Endus's shadow erupted over isolated asteroid in long mined out claim. It took the various participants roughly a week to backtrack Gottwald's projected course towards an carbon black asteroid floating on the fringe of the belt. Arriving first was the Weal and Woe in umbral mode, as Shannam began to launch in her true form, sensors picked up one Sirisu cruiser-carrier launching a squadron of Ibris backstopped with four gundams, flying the flag of some newly minted mercenary company with extra-police rights assigned heading towards the asteroid. Determining discretion better part of valor, she merely donned a suit and teleported herself to inside of the cavern where radar picked up a hollow spot. As she teleported, a battle broke out,

The Project X5003 Nephilim (PRaYER MOD 2) Autowarlock teleported in the middle of the Ibris formation and scythed several of them before engaging the gundams. Seeing an opportunity, the other umbral carrier launched the Gundam Balor to join in to drive out the mercenary formation. However, the mercenary gundams were no slouch's and with the support of the Ibris squadron was barely keep from getting crushed by the two autowarlocks, but it was merely time before they start losing. Calling for a ceasefire, the mercenary asked to retreat which was given. The mercenary formation backed away off immediate sensor range, leaving the Nephilim and Balor, who agreed to from refrain attacking their former comrade till after they see what was inside.

The two made their way inside and was surprised to see Shannam already there looking at the ruins of another smaller pyramid and charred husk of the prospector a foot away from the base of the 10 foot small pyramid. Shannam finds she is unable to move closer, the wards of the pyramid reacting to her nature, Meru finds the pyramid too blinding to look at, and Lusuprex as he sets on eyes it finds his will departing from him as he robotically moves to base and chants out arcane words he never has heard before. The pyramid glows and then its outline starts retracting on itself as till it's just a point of light that forms into outline of a women that solidifies wearing ancient archeotech suit of scale armor that the mages recognized as sign of Atlantis one of the four Great Empires of Man before the Godswars. Before anybody can react still on autopilot Lupusrex grabs the prone form and teleports back to his cockpit and quickly takes off, attempts by the other two teleport find that same warding from before is still being generated from the prone women. Meru races to physically chase the fleeing Lupusrex, leaving Shannam to survey the rest of the hollow, which is filled detritus and decayed bits of arechotech, taking a scroll cylinder, a tome and anomalous sphere of quick silver, she soon departs as she is informed the mercenary squadron is back on approach. Lupusrex makes good on his escape, soon coming to his senses in the medbay of the cruiser as he stares at the still hibernating form of the Atlantean, while Meru and Shannam leave what's left of the site to mercs.

 

[Silence]

The Home Front

While the first shots of the shadow war broke out amoung concerns of the mysterious Black Pyramid and the ongoing hostilities in Ban-Uchar, the political fight at home was in many ways just as brutal. With a major conflict emerging between the President and the Prime Minister, with the Prime Minister creating several committee within the Senate handpicked with his minons to inflitrate the SIDEREAL corruption of that hallowed assembly which conidentally seemed to constantly target allies of the President. The President for his part was tied up protecting his interests against this attack. Marshal Sloan's proposal died in committee as numerous factions within the Senate does not want to give the GMP any more power. Cleverly repurposing some of Sloan's own argument, the Prime Minister office was able to gain mobile suit squadron to serve as personal guard unit.

The Finance Ministry was one of the poles against Marshal's Sloan's power expansion, putting out a great deal of documents showcasing how expensive it would be to maintain a permant standing army on Endus itself which was used in the debate halls to great effect. The Andrew McWesten was also seen meeting with several CEOs of the large Megastellars on whirlwind tour of Endus's economic engines to better support the current post-war peace boom as well as the massive amount of money coming from the Senate.

The Defense Ministry expected foe was Marshal Sloan's who unique postion fell outside of his purview during peacetime, went after the Marshal's proposed expansion with gusto pointing out various problems involved in turning the GMP into a standing army. However, Minister Franklin's desk soon became busy with reports about the problems in Ban-Uchar as the rising threat of Gwynedd. Analaysts in Black Hall (the home of the Ministry) are worried that the increasing military build up of Gwynedd forces on their side of the Gate is sign of potentinal conflict. Gwynedd had been a distant colonial overlord of Ban-Uchar before the Reflex War, leaving their erstwhile protectate to their fate when the first revenging Frontier Fleet strike-carriers began astral jumping into the system. However, that was under their old Queen, the current King is reported to be more hotheaded and control of the Gate is valuable economic and military asset. Appearing on numerous talking head news show Defense Minister Franklin highlights his proposal to defend against the any Gwynedd invasion as well showcasing his own personal valor as accomplish gundam pilot who fought against the worst SOLAR could offer.

In the Senate, Senator Alie Lorene Myst's seductive words and inncesent lobbying has spawned the most large pork ladden military government spending expansion to the woes of the economists studying bill. With insane energy and spending a great deal of political capital, the Senator and her agents visited every major faction within the Senate as well as putting pressure on many of the small time back benchers to bring this monsterous bill to order. Assuming it doesn't crash the economy, its expected that this will be pay off major dividends in the future as many will owe her a debt. A more practically effect of this matter is that nearly all the military major commands have received reinforcements.

In other news, Dyson Toy Divisions are making the action figures of the following general and admirals.
Rear Admiral Cadelll
Rear Admiral Liane Rokall
Vice-Admiral Moriah Beryl
Warden Admiral Rhein Direstanze
Albeleo Pergamon

[Effect: Every player can now buy 1 free starting unit of their choice for their class]


-----General Stats----
Federation Stability: Stable
Pan-Helios States: Loyal
Economy: Will overheat in 3 Quarters
Senate Popularity: Popular
Battlefleet Popularity: Popular
Frontier Fleet Popularity: Popular
ANTISPELL: Very Popular
GMP: Popular
Gwynedd Relations: Absolute Zero Cold War
INSTEL Relations: Icy Cold War
Ban-Uchar Insurrection: Medium
Murklim: Restive

----Player Stats----
Those Who Lead
President Morgan Haughten-Rhys -NPC
11 Political Sway
3 Arcane Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: Skeptical+

Prime Minister Alaric Thorn @NotCaligula
12 Political Sway
1 Military Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Minister of Defense Jonas Franklin @Lokar
12 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Financial Minister Andrew Mc Wetson @kosi
12 Political Sway
2 Arcane Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Senator Alie Lorene Myst @VoidZero
6 Political Sway
10 Military Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Those Who Fight on the Frontiers
Rear Admiral Mathias Caddel @Secondskink
12 Military Sway
2 Political Say
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Rear Admiral Liane Rokall @Aedan777
12 Military Sway
3 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Those Whose Guard the Home

Vice-Admiral Moriah Beryl @Ranger
14 Military Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Warden Admiral Rhein Direstanze @SirLagginton
12 Military Sway
2 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Marshal Randal Sloan of the GMP - NPC
12 Military Sway
3 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Those Who Slither in Darkness

Albeleo Pergamon @Valleron
10 Arcane Sway
4 Military Sway
*1 Atlantean Cosmarch*
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Callisto Azurespire @Nanolyte
12 Arcane Sway
1 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Shannam @Hollewanderer
15 Arcane Sway
Artifacts
ANTISPELL Interest: Pinged on radar,

MERU-13 - NPC
15 Arcane Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Thomas Doe @TerrisH
12 Arcane Sway
5 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None

Lukas Anacletus Solbert @KnightDisciple
15 Arcane Sway
3 Political Sway
ANTISPELL Interest: None