[X] Yes, immediate payment (+50% bonus Military Influence replaced with variable Economy and/or Science Influence generation)
[X] 18 Culture Influence
[X] Alexander
Given the current difficulties in drumming up large amounts of money in a hurry, Ella had to admit that her only real option was to take South Woods up on its idea. It would affect her ability generate military goodwill, but for the moment that was less important than having the raw resources to get the production facilities she needed in place. She was also quite happy that Samantha had brought her this information as, while after a bit of thought she considered it perhaps too convenient, it could still be a major way of blindsiding her and getting her to act rashly in the moment. She could concoct all sorts of scenarios where getting Ella in an uncomfortable state with the possibility of her paternity might be used as leverage in some political play. Now forearmed with the possibility, she could prepare herself for what might come next.
Nightmare Cube (26)
The trip out to Owl's Landing for the meeting was... unpleasant. The Nightmare Cube continued to drain her mental and physical reserves, leaving her an increasingly nervous wreck. People had to be figuring out that there was something distinctly wrong with her as her dreams became increasingly blurry as she was simply unable to sleep long enough for them to evolve into the grand narratives they had before. Instead she had unnerving flashes of following someone through a maze filled with shifting dunes of sand as the wind howled overhead.
She brought Alexander with her on the trip simply so that she would have an excuse for her haggard appearance, although there would obviously be some questions raised since she did have enough money to easily afford people to take care of him. She had considered it, but motherhood was such a useful cover for her stress while she figured out what to do next. Plus, if she brought people into her more intimate life they might notice things about her that could lead to questions being asked and people becoming aware of how things had evolved, and she couldn't have that.
She did of course have to get a sitter for Alex for her meeting, and a part of her was panged with distress that she didn't even try to seek help from her mother. She would see her more once she had the cube issue sorted out, she didn't want her to figure out how badly things had turned out. Plus... plus maybe she had a lead as to her father, but even if she did it would take time to figure that out, so if this turned anything up she could have something solid to talk about once the cube was dealt with. That would make definite good fodder for a reunion, rather than the relatively short one they had had in the immediate days after Alex was born.
In any case, the meeting with the Blackthorn ambassador was set to take place on neutral but private ground, the two of them meeting in a club with private rooms. While somewhat unfortunately clandestine, neither obviously wanted to openly advertise a visit to the domain of the other, even if they weren't being secretive about who they were meeting. Well, not directly secretive, Ella just wasn't really bringing up what her business was, but noble politics were already enough that people wouldn't pry unless they figured they had something to gain.
So Ella sat in a somewhat dimly lit booth, looking out over the much more brightly lit club through a one-way mirror. It was relatively slow since it was still relatively early, and the whole looming threat of alien attack had people otherwise occupied, although the strange limbo where the fighting was still very distant had created a definite oddness to the atmosphere. While the people hired by the club to try to keep things lively were almost painfully obvious, there was a definite charm to the whole thing. Eventually though the door behind her slid open and the ambassador stepped inside.
A woman in her late middle-age, she was allowing streaks of silver to seep into her hair instead of using dye like Ella was, she was probably a late first-generation baby, born after the worst of the post Starfall chaos but before things had truly stabilized, which also meant that she had to pretty much by definition have been one of the movers and shakers during the Blackthorn Regulars fight for independence. While she had all the attractive presence a career politician had to have, there was a certain gormless air to her that Ella pegged as definitely being an act, a way of concealing a sharper mind. Part of it was based off her clothing, which Ella knew was conservative in Blackthorn but seemed a little flippant and ridiculously clashing in Green Owl. Their mercenary origins had lead to a certain degree of flamboyance in order to stand out becoming the norm in the polity. Their party dress was of course considered absolutely outrageous - especially by those who didn't get invited to parties.
A small smile crept over Ella's face as she considered that Green Owl was seen of as being excessively sombre and creepy in their dress. Different strokes for different folks she supposed.
"Ambassador Thorncliffe," Ella stated as she concealed her thoughts and turned towards the older woman in her chair.
Nodding as she took her own seat, the ambassador said, "Baroness-Knight Stone, pleased to meet you. Please, call me Amber."
Ella nodded and said in turn, "Very well Amber. I prefer Ella as well, and I know your state's feelings on nobility."
The ambassador smirked and waved a hand dismissively, "Now now, we can continue our disagreements after the horrible aliens intent on killing us all are dealt with."
Ella quirked an eyebrow and said, "You know, considering the source of information, one would think your people would be more skeptical of the full intentions of the Mantis."
Amber frowned for a moment before schooling her face and saying, "Ah, of course, we didn't publicly announce the information to the international community, even if we didn't classify it. We attempted independent contact with the Mantis to express past disagreement with their enemies. They used the radio source - fortunately set up in the forest and operated remotely - as targeting data for an orbital strike. Blackthorn, being the largest city on the planet in terms of area, has also received the most attention from their bombardment attempts."
Frowning in turn, Ella said, "My condolences to any caught in the attacks."
"Thank you for your concern. Casualties have been thus far minimal, but there have been a few caught out in the open during an attack. However, that's not really why I wanted to have this meeting with you," Amber stated.
Judgement (Int+Intr) 61 + 22 = 83
Ella carefully judged things and decided to keep her cards close to her chest and instead asked, "And what reason might that be?"
The ambassador looked about her for a moment before she pulled out a data pad and said, "Our intelligence service has a number of unconventional members, and this has allowed us to stay ahead of certain threats. While blindsided by the Mantis - mostly due to lacking context for the data being received - we have picked up on an anomaly concerning you."
"An anomaly?" Ella asked, suddenly on high alert. What did they know? What could they know?
"Yes. While obviously our methods are classified, we are coming forward to you since we feel this is a matter of planetary importance, and we are coming to you specifically because we feel that your leader, your grandmother, is somehow involved without your knowledge, or at least full knowledge," Amber explained, opening up several files on the data pad. Chief among them was a picture of a man holding a small white cube. From his uniform, he was almost certainly a mech pilot.
Ella was of course, dead silent.
"You are aware of a major reaver attack on a settlement a few years ago?" Amber said, letting the implication hang in the air.
Willpower 79 + 28 = 107
Ella kept her tongue in check and said as evenly as she could, "Of course I am aware of the event."
Amber then highlighted another picture, this one of a man who had hung himself. There was a comparison between his face and another, blurrier picture that suggested that he had also had a cube at some point. Amber stated, "We have identified a device that we are unsure of the stated purpose of, but from our observed information it appears to function as a sort of antenna that picks up signals that are disturbing to the human mind."
That hit Ella sideways and she practically demanded to know, "How could you observe that?"
Amber considered for a moment before she said, "Because we have our own methods and we are 'hearing' the signals, even if we can't intercept meaning from them. Given observed behaviours and other intelligence we are not disclosing, we have concluded that your grandmother is not informing the people she gives these cubes to despite their deleterious effects and the danger they can represent. With the current crisis, we feel that discontinuing the project would be prudent, but our projections show that directly confronting the Duchess Stone will not result in a favourable outcome. We thus decided to contact the user we felt most likely to be able to bring the manner up with her in a positive manner."
Assessing Evidence (Int+Intr) 48 + 22 = 70
Ella went through the data pad and the evidence they were choosing to present her, and after a few minutes of going through it in silence she tossed it aside in frustration. They obviously knew a lot more than what they were telling her, which was tailored to get the response they wanted, but she had no idea what angle to press them on to get anything more out of the ambassador. This was clearly a game and she was being played in it, but she had no conception of what her value was to either side. A massive exhaustion headache closed in on her temples like a spiked clamp and it took an act of willpower to not scream or otherwise lose her composure. As it was she had to take a deep breath with her eyes closed, and when she opened them Amber was looking at her with an all-too-cultivated look of concern. Biting her lower lip, Ella said, "So you want me to confront her over the project?"
"Yes," Amber stated. After a moment she said, "Alternatively, or perhaps supplementally depending on how things go, we might be able to send someone with the resources to suppress some of the negative effects - such as attracting reaver attention."
Gritting her teeth, Ella said, "You want me to accept a foreign agent into my territory, knowing that you know about a classified project?"
Rolling her eyes, the ambassador said, "Our people would be going through official channels as part of Project Networking, everyone would know they were there. They would make piss poor spies considering everyone being moved around will be assumed to be spies already."
"That just requires them to be more subtle, especially if they are such specialists," Ella replied. "Also, Project Networking?"
"The destruction of the Belters has the other Great Powers worried about catastrophic loss of culture in an attack. We are planning on sending out enclaves to each other to ensure continuity of certain aspects, at least for the duration of the war. Razorleaf Meadows is already on our shortlist due to the community of Indigo Hammer ex-pats. The specialists we would be sending would be because their skills would be worth preserving in the face of the loss of Blackthorn, they would simply be able to assist you while there and keep an ally from suffering unnecessary losses," Amber explained.
Rubbing her temples again, Ella found herself in something of a bind since going to Anna with this meeting would inevitably involve discussion of the cube and that had the risk of it being taken away from her, something she could barely tolerate considering the possibility of right now. Not coming forward with this of course had its own massive dangers, so her first impulse was to just bury it and hope it went away. Unfortunately, on further consideration, she could also end up getting such an agent assigned to her without her knowledge if this Project Networking thing was going through anyway. Better to know where the predator was than to lose it in the brush.
Sideswipe (Cha+Intr) (100+92) + 24 = 216
Welp...
Still rubbing her temples, Ella commented sarcastically, "And here I thought this was because you were going to talk to me about my father."
"Your father?" Amber asked, clearly having no idea what the hell Ella was talking about.
Until something dawned in her eyes as she rolled something over in her head and made some sort of connection. Then her eyes started to get very, very large.
Then the screaming started.
"FUCK! FUCK! SHE WOULDN'T! SHE WOULDN'T! NOT WITH HIM! NOT WITH HIM!" Amber started to scream, which of course got Ella going off about trying to get a straight answer from the panicking woman.
As the whole situation descended into chaos with Amber terrified out of her wits as she tried to get away from Ella, who was trying to simultaneously get her to calm down and stop from running, which involved trying to corner her which obviously made the situation worse but Ella didn't care, the view screen concealed in one of the walls of the private room activated. After a moment of neither party acknowledging it, there was a very loud, "AHEM," which caused both parties to look over at the steel haired face of the Duchess Anna Stone glaring at them.
"So the head of state for Blackthorn just called me in a panic, saying that I had to contact my eldest granddaughter and their ambassador because something just went very wrong and that we needed to talk. Care to enlighten me as to what happened?" Anna asked dryly.
"How could you?! Your own daughter?! How? With him!" Amber screamed in accusation at the screen.
Anna just blinked in unamused confusion and said, "I can only presume that you are referring to the father of my granddaughter? In which case you seem to be privy to more information than I am."
What little blood was left in her face drained from her and Amber said, "You... you honestly don't know?"
Anna flicked her eyes over to the much more emotionally conflicted and confused Ella and said, "I know the boy's name but what trouble he has been up to since he impregnated my daughter I am unaware of. Evidently it is quite a deal, presumably with your government somehow complicit in it."
Ella licked her lips and asked, "Who's my father? What has he done?" She flicked her own eyes over with a mildly pained expression to Anna, who just gave her an unconcerned look.
"He's a citizen of Blackthorn-" Amber began before being interrupted by Anna.
"Could you send over his official renunciation of citizenship papers, because he was born in Green Owl," she said sarcastically.
Clearly shocked, the ambassador said, "If he ever made that fact clear to my government, it was never disclosed to me... but he's a 'special' citizen of Blackthorn, granted extraordinary privileges due to certain 'skills'."
The terrified and horrified look that Amber was giving both Stone women at the same time caused Anna to suddenly deflate and say, "Awwwwww fuck! Seriously? Seriously?! Well, suddenly things about thirty years ago just became a lot more clear."
"What's going on?" Ella asked, still missing key information.
Running steel fingers over her forehead and through her hair, Anna said, "Your conception was a 'miracle' since your mother was definitely on birth control at the time. Your father pulled a runner and we decided to bury his identity out of embarrassment. Only if he's a 'special' citizen of Blackthorn, that means that he is directly responsible for the failure of the contraceptives due to some quirk of his biology."
"Wait, that means..." Ella begins.
"He would be a mutant, yes," Anna stated, glancing at Amber for confirmation before she said, "And not just one with the freak ability of super-fertility either."
"You had to have suspected, and with the cube..." Amber began.
"Your freaking out suggests that had I full information I would have taken a different course of action," Anna stated. "Look, Ella-"
Interrupt! (2)
The sound of sirens going up interrupted whatever was going to happen next. Whipping her head around to another screen, Anna glared and then began to swear vociferously.
"A massive fleet of what can only be Mantis transports just came into radar range, and the ships they have on station are moving into an orbit that is basically broadcasting their landing zone... yup, we have confirmation of bombardments beginning and the launch of aerospace assets. This is an invasion," Anna said in seething fury over it all. She then glanced at Ella and said, "Most probable target: Diamond Dome."
Ella felt like she had been punched in the gut. After a second she said, "I'll... I'll go..."
Ella's place was...
[] Overseeing the evacuation
[] On the frontlines
