• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Chapter 2: Practice Makes Perfect

Ray of Meep

Ray of Meep

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Early April, 2320

Yasny System, Kitezh, Chekhovsk: planetary capital

It took nearly a month to go from Earth to the Orcus SLE, then to travel through the truncated space the superluminal engine created, before arriving in the Yasny system. As instructed, Daheim Zwei stayed close to the Fjord and rest of the diplomacy flotilla, attempting to stay inconspicuous while they passed by Soyuz vessels guarding Yasny's SLE. The entire flotilla had lasers painting them, missile and railgun locks, the Soyuz fleet daring them to make a wrong move. Fortunately for everyone involved, the GDW flotilla kept its cool. The Fjord kept its railguns pointed in the default orientation while everyone's point defense cannons stayed stowed away. Therefore, despite the tension, the diplomat team arrived safely in Low Kitezh Orbit, with the diplomats flying down to the ground on a Seraphim V smoothly while the Grau Lancers took a bumpier ride in their drop pod, landing on the outskirts of the capital on a landing pad set on a flat, permanently frozen lake.

Eberhard accompanied the Lancers as they stepped out into the wintery weather. A perpetual shower of snow fell around them, and apparently this was Kitezh in the summer. Several years later, the planet would find itself in true, deadly, winter conditions, temperatures so cold that the carbon dioxide in the air froze. The team was greeted by an equally cold, militaristic welcome. Soyuz soldiers of sorts wearing black armor, winter clothes beneath. They were helmeted, with digitally equipped, orange goggles, masks going above their noses. On their shoulder pads was a striking red hammer and sickle, surrounded by two rings and topped by a star: the Soyuz supernational emblem. They stood leery at the team, trigger fingers lifted off their rifles, but only barely. A large soldier, presumably their leader, stepped up and tapped his goggles, muttering something in Russian under the mask, a synthesized German translation coming out of his armor's in built speaker.

"Welcome to Kitezh, Commonwealthers. If you stay in your lane and respect our laws, we will cooperate. If you have any thought otherwise, you're better off leaving now." The synthesizer matched the soldier's presumably cold and hostile tone.

"He means hi." An annoyed, synthesized voice came up behind the soldier who instinctively put his arm out to protect the humanoid figure. The rather large cloak completely covered this new arrival, the semi-fiber-optic exterior matching the color and tone of the surrounding environment in striking angular patterns while inset retroreflective panels created bright reflections in the infrared spectrum that would be blinding to electronic sensors. Underneath the cloak was more normal winterwear, bundled up in several layers to that revealed a rather fluffy individual under what parts of the cloak were open enough to see inside. The individual also had on a winter mask, which further made identification difficult. "The folks here are not happy with your people making an attempt on their leaders. My name's Mari and this gentleman here... is Billhook. I do advise using your aliases if you have them. There are eyes and ears everywhere."

"Well then..." Eberhard narrowed his eyes. He was in a Lancaster class IVAS, now painted a flat, undescriptive grey, usually worn for space combat but had the right environmental controls to keep him alive in this weather as well. His faceplate was taken off, offering the Kitezh soldiers full view of his face. "You can call me Cobalt then, operational captain of the Lancers." His hand reached out, offering it to "Billhook". Billhook examined Eberhard carefully, before obliging and shook the hand stiffly.
 
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Žana would also take off her faceplate and looks at the two. "Well if you want to know my name is Žana I'm the new GL rookie" In the middle of her chest she had her countrys flag (slovenia) apart from that her suit was custom made but was the same GL colours just different shapes.
 
Renee had remained either by herself or in Caleb's company for the flight over to the Soyuz station, but had still remained civil at the very least with the rest of the team. She still felt like a bit of an outsider within the group, but knew that it was due to nothing other than her own attitude and personality. If she wasn't so cold, rude and hostile, maybe she would have some friends. That wouldn't be the first time she had heard or thought that.

As the shuttle had approached Kitezh, Renee had put on her Lancaster suit, fingers gently grazing over the snake on the worn faceplate before attaching it to her helmet. With that, she joined the rest of the team in the drop area, watching the Yasny landscape go past through a small window. A feeling of existential dread filled her chest as rows upon rows of missiles and weaponry assaulted her eyes, eventually prompting her to look away and at the metal floor until they had landed on the lake.

Renee was one of the first out of the drop pod, brushing down the fabric suit behind her Lancaster armour before looking up and stiffening at the appearance of the Soyuz soldiers. She felt her hand go towards the pistol holster hidden behind her hip pack, settling her fingers on the side of her hips as if she was just stood normally. Her greatcoat, which she had somehow fitted over her armour, flapped slightly in the breeze whilst collecting a small dusting of snow. The large soldier spoke, and Renee noticeably bristled, shifting her position and raising her head slightly. Behind her faceplate, which she did not remove, her eyes flicked towards Eberhard, wondering how he would play this. She was answered in his actions - as calm as possible. This was not their territory, and they had no back up. There was no point rising to any aggravation.

She remained in silence as Zana and Eberhard introduced themselves, before speaking up. "Copperhead," Renee answered bluntly, accent mostly hidden in the single word verbalisation.
 
The ride to the planet was uncomfortable, what with all the guns pointed at their ship as they got close. This was exacerbated by the fact that all they could do was essentially stare forward, and if they decied to fire on the ship they were in, well, they were sitting ducks. So Caleb looked straight ahead at their target, as he brought the ship into a low orbit, ao that the drop pod could be launched in.

"These suits are kinda tight" He stretched himself out in his new armor, his leather duster flapping behind him as he made his way to the loading bay. He wasn't talking to anyone in particular, but silence suited him just fine. He slapped down the visor of his helmet as they were launched from the ship towards the planet below.

He was cramped inside, and climbed out right behind Renee and Zana. His leather duster billowed out behind him, and he climbed out of the drop pod. As the soldiers approached, his hands instinctively went to his pistols, but decided that drawing weapons on soldiers already pointing guns at you when you had no cover at all was probably not a good plan. He pulled his duster and covered the weapons, and pulled the duster closer around him. It's damn cold out here.

Caleb let them finish their short conversation. "You're a friendly one, aren't you?" he said to Billhook, he smiled but that was hard to see behind the visor. "You mean, allegedly making an attempt. Call me Sidewinder"
 
Charming place, Kitezh, Beatrix thought, glad she was in her insulated IVAS. As she patted her machine pistol, shield, and medbag to make sure they survived the drop, she took a look around the landscape. Though part of me does want to see if they have a good skiing scene. Hmm, they should host a winter Olympics here or some other kind of exhibition. Throw some communist propaganda in and it’ll go great.

Though not sure exactly how we’re supposed to do our job if we ‘stay in our lane’ though, she thought, looking at the Soyuz contingent. Guess we’ll see. “Bee, at your service,” she said aloud, giving a single wave.
 
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Jamison never enjoyed drop pods, while they usually ended up fine he was alway kept in the mindset of dropping into a combat zone when riding one. Locking his helmet into place as the pod slowed down for a landing he was the last out for the team. While he liked the snow Jami didn’t have the chance to enjoy it, he was here on a mission.

The intimidation attempt didn’t work as Castle was still the tallest person around, that tended to happen when you were almost seven feet tall. He waited through the rest of the team’s introductions and once it came to his turn he grumbled a bit and gave a cold but clearly heard “Castle.” His juggernaut harness was still attached to the IVAS and while he really didn’t need the help Jami looked quite beefy and intimidating himself, the castle wall on his helmet over the dark blue background
 
"Hmmph." Billhook audibly grunted, which didn't register in the voice synthesizer. He pointed to his four other team members. "Toybob, Froststorm, Shepard, Groundhog." He then stepped to the side, gesturing to a sleek, white, aggressive looking rotorcraft that was barely visible behind them, camouflaged in the snowy and icy background, and carried geometry that made it difficult to discern its shape without squinting and standing close to it. The Soyuz man huffed, implying that the Lancers should ride on.

Once they were airborne, the Soyuz team stared at the Grau Lancers leerily while Mari started to explain. "Two Earth months ago Magnetic Assembly representatives Exemplar Caxia and Captain Geiben Folami of the Magnetic Assembly met with Anatoly Ulyanov, Minister of Foreign Affairs on Kitezh - and his colleague, the Minister of Trade, Oleg Peregonsky to discuss a technology and resource trade deal. However, during the meeting, the following occurred:" She put up a hologram in the middle of the cabin, showing smoke and fire pour out of rooms and hallways, presumably where the two factions were meeting. It was then followed up by masked and helmeted figures coming seemingly out of nowhere, gunning down security guards and approaching the meeting room, before they were gunned down themselves by security forces.

The Soyuz soldiers shifted their attention from the Lancers to the hologram, visibly furrowing their eyebrows as they watched. Mari continued to explain, this time switching to the 3D profiles of half-a-dozen men and woman of various nationalities, most European. "Chekhovsk security identified the attackers as employees hailing from all three Soyuz-sponsored GDW companies operating in Yasny space."

The one called Froststorm spoke up using his synthesizer. "My sister was a reporter in that building, killed by your people, asshole." Billhook gave him a cold glare, which caused the soldier to lean back into his seat and go silent.

"Anyways, a week prior to your arrival, all three companies retreated to their respective headquarters in the system, refusing to cooperate. Omnigrow has been easy enough to locate; they're still in Chekhovsk, but local law enforcement have found the offices of Stellar Winds and Jovian Sciences empty. Your first tasks today and tomorrow are to run drills with Task Force 52 here, then raid Omnigrow's headquarters for information."
 
As Mari's synthesized voice provided exposition through her speakers, Mari had already begun the digital attack on Omnigrow. Mari had already arranged for servers planeside to be ready for her attack, and her scripts were already running the ground work.

Sniffing around Omnigrow's physical footprint was basic stuff. Their physical address was listed online. From that she could get the addresses of nearby businesses and facilities. From that she could get the names of the companies that administered those facilities. Basic attacks could then be used to try and gain access to their online presence: a set of older hacks that would only work on systems that weren't updated and her own salted library of passwords to use in a brute force attack. The goal here was to get a foothold around Omnigrow's facility. It was likely this might turn up some names, receipts of sale, or other low level information that could be used to put together a picture of what was on the ground or if she was lucky she might get access to someone's unsecured wifi or security cameras.

Of course, she would also be trying to war-dial everything she could in any way she could... but it was unlikely that Omnigrow's security would leave their front door exposed like that.

The juiciest targets were the ones provided to her by the Soyuz themselves: A list of Omnigrow employees, their family members, and known associates. From there it was easy to assemble possible usernames for a variety of services, or simply scrape such information from publicly available sources. From there it would be up to her dictionary attack: That list of likely passwords and password combinations that were likely based on personal data. All she'd need were a few employees to be careless in their personal lives and she could get access to something, anything. It didn't particularly matter what she got access to: personal email, digital services, electronic assistants, one gap would help her get access to other services and eventually she'd be able to get down into someone's personal device.

And for now, that was the goal.

Own someone's device, and she'd have a foot that she could wedge into a door.

..... of course, she was here to investigate the GDW as well....

The Lancasters seemed to be very much wired up, and the Assembly knew little about the suits themselves. Some educated guesses could be made. High tech powered armor was likely assembled in Germany, with components sourced from all over Europe. The GDW likely used their own domestic cameras, and there were only so many companies that manufactured those systems. She would pull up her list of known exploits for European camera systems, load them into her robe's buffer, and flash QR codes with the exploits loaded in them towards the GDW members, staying in the infrared spectrum so as to not tip her hand to anyone watching with their MK1 eyeball.
 
Caleb looked at each of them in turn as they were introduced. They were good Aliases, as far as he could tell, or at least, he liked the way they sounded. He was surprised at how little he liked them considering he ddn't know them. Usually dislike came later. His initial dislike was made more concrete, and he felt justified at his initial judgement. "Froststorm? Better name would have been "Bigmouth". " He said it under his breath but still loud enough to be heard.

"What is the plan regarding the other two companies, we have any leads on them aside from They left and there is no trace left of them? any way for us to pick the trail back up?" Raiding the Omnigrow facility sounded like fun, but not like it would gain them anything really. Imagine bombing a political meeting, and then just sitting back waiting to get caught. More likely you'd turn tail and run.
 
Žana was looking at the briefing she kept quiet and listen to what others were saying. This was also a new planet for her so it did felt a bit weird but nothing much really. She does have a felling she will have to kill or capture someone. Atm she kept listening untill spoken.
 
I wonder if they’re translating their code names into English for us or not? Bee thought, as the Soyuz introduced themselves. Her musings were muted by watching the chaos that the renegades had sown in their assassination attempt.

“Sorry for your loss,” she said to Froststorm, before pushing Caleb off balance. “Knock it off, Sidewinder." Turning back to the Soyuz personnel, she asked, "I’m assuming we’re hoping to pick up the trail at their headquarters?”
 
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Jamison stood there and kept an eye on their surroundings and his ears open. He didn’t trust this, but he wasn’t the squad leader, so all he could do to keep that niggling thought in the back of his head at bay was keep on alert and wait for someone to stab them in the back.
 
Renee took note of how both her and Jamison had answered bluntly, trying to decide whether he was a man of few words because of his nature, or because was uneasy in this situation. Renee herself was a mix of both, with any situational discomfort accentuating her normally reserved and borderline hostile nature. She frowned underneath her mask, a display of concentration, but her helmet-clad head stayed in the exact same place, much like a hawk watching its prey. The only indication of her nature was the hand balled into a semi-tight fist, grounding her to the current situation.

Her eyes flicked to each of the team members as Billhook introduced them, before tilting her head slightly to look at the rotorcraft - her fist clenched a little tighter but was immediately released. Although she was no engineer or mechanic, this technology was... well, it would pack a punch. If the helicopter was so well disguised with the snow, Renee couldn't help but wonder how many other vehicles or weapons they were going to pass without even noticing. At that, she shifted her position, hand still placed firmly on her hip, even as she entered the rotorcraft.

Although she was listening to Mari, Renee kept her snake's head faceplate turned fully towards the staring Soyuz members, squaring her jaw and shoulders somewhat. She didn't like this. Maybe she should have just stayed in counter terrorism. Marco would be back by now. She'd been with him, actually, in the staff room when the news of an attack on Kitezh first began to filter through. Shortly after, said news had stopped completely, with a media blackout put on the incident. Marco had known better than to ask questions, as had Renee, as much as it irked her to remain silent. She had soon forgotten about it, but now a sinking feeling flooded her thorax and she shifted her position yet again, somehow timing it with a small turbulent jolt during the flight.

As the 3D images of the terrorists appeared, Renee keened forwards slightly, trying to wrack her brains to see if she recognised any of them as being part of terrorist cells she had investigated, but her mind drew a blank. The hand that wasn't on her hip curled into a tighter fist again, with the faint creaking of synthetic leather emanating from her palm as if she was holding a robotic mouse captive.

Her head turned slowly towards Froststorm as he spoke, shaking her head slightly. "Hein, je m'en fous," she murmured under her breath, head completely fixed onto Froststorm. Of course she cared that someone had died, but she cared slightly less when she was wrongfully being blamed for it. At Billhook's harsh look, she tilted her head back slightly to watch the reprimand, a small smirk on her non-visible face. As Bee shoved Caleb, Renee shifted once more. Great. She was stuck on a team of nice people. She rolled her eyes and gritted her jaw, allowing herself to look down to the floor in an attempt to fight an unhelpful remark that threatened to erupt from her mouth.

"If it is Omnigrow," Renee opened her mouth and spoke slowly," "then they will have information and connections to the others. They will trip up and make a mistake, even if we have to provide the trip wire directly." Now, her French-German accent was much more pronounced.
 
As expected for Mari, the Lancasters didn't respond to the QR code exploits. Their sensor systems were a bit too high end, too properly updated and imaged to fall to such a basic attack by 24th century standards. She'd have to try more advanced exploits, but even then they would most likely not work. After all, these sensors functioned as the eyes and ears of GDW marines with their opaque face plates on. Their designs, code, would be locked up and buried beneath a hundred feet of Lunar soil.

Billhook shook his head, tapping his goggles to activate his synthetic, translated voice module, responding to Renee coolly and professionally. "That's the idea, Copperhead. There is a reason why they didn't hide like the other two Commonwealth companies, and we want to know why." With this reply, Billhook answered Beatrix's question as well.

What he didn't do was respond to Caleb's comment: They left and there is no trace left of them? Implying they have no idea, implying that even the Soyuz has cracks. Implying that there might be bad actors within the Soyuz ranks as well.

On that troubling thought, Chekvosk proper, Kitezh's planetary capital, came into view, a tall and jagged city, of sharp, black, and angular shapes, surrounded by a short wall of blocky, industrial buildings. Everything was connected by a web of sky passages on the surface, no doubt underground tunnels hidden beneath the structures as well, allowing the small dots that were people to walk around in the city, freely, in thin longwear without perishing within minutes to the cold outside.

The rotorcraft landed next to a blocky building, isolated from the other industrial buildings on the perimeter. All its windows were covered by metal sheets, surveillance sensors lining the edges and corners of the solemn structure, watching over a walls of electrical fences and the space it enclosed. The interior of the building was spartan, with the basic necessities of life, lit by harsh, white light.

Billhook pointed to a hallway lined with doors. "Your quarters." He tersely explained. "Basement in thirty minutes for breaching practice against bots. The floor plan will be the same as what we expect of Omnigrow's headquarters."
 
Caleb took the shove and smiled. "I'm just not a fan of being blamed for the actions of others." He still thought Froststorm was an idiot, but would keep his words to himself.

Caleb never liked the austere architecture of any of the Soyuz cities or compounds he had ever visited. It often felt more like they were trying to scare their population than building for the purposes of practicality. He ignored his feelings though, as that was not important. What was important, was finding out what Omnigrow was up to. It was unfortunate that they were refusing to cooperate, but there was nothing for it.

"The compound itself, does it have any entrances aside from the more obvious ones? Upper windows, large ventilation areas, maintenance shafts, that sorta thing?" Trying to deduce the best place forthe team to breach a place like that, he needed more information. If one or two people could find their way in from a side the enemy was not expecting, adding support to the frontal assault, all the better.
 
I mean, I don’t like it either, Bee thought as she shrugged at Caleb’s response. But you don’t insult a man on his own rotorcraft. Focusing back on Billhook, she noted what he did and didn’t say. Well, here’s hoping Omnigrow doesn’t know what it’s doing by not disappearing like it’s fellows.

The city center’s aesthetic is interesting, she thought as tourist mode kicked in as Chekvosk came into view. Don’t know if I would want to live here though. Depends on the food scene, I suppose. Though there probably won’t be time or opportunity to sample anything besides what the military feeds us.

Deciding that questions about the operation could wait, Beatrix went down the hallway and after a round of ‘eenie, meenie, miney, moe’, she walked into the room and started taking her personnel items out of the medbag. Glad there weren’t any emergencies on the way down, she thought, putting the clothes on the bed for now. Might as well run a scan for bugs while I’m in here, she mused, setting her suit to get to work while she sorted out where to put her stuff.
 
"look caleb we have a task to do and it's to save lives just put away the cultural differences for now we will talk tommorow for how the mission will go" after that Žana would also go and look for a room to sleep in after the briefing.
 
"It would be better not to blast holes in the facility while playing commando." Mari responded, clearly explaining why she didn't like the idea as 'clearly' as she could considering her heavily synthetic voice. "Damage to the exterior structure can allow in the extreme cold which could cause damage to data or other evidence in the facility. The rather brutalist construction can also make breaching through the upper areas require more explosive force than the thin-walled ships you may be used to breaching."

Mari would then transmit a large properly formatted data file to the Lancers. She'd already taken the liberty of getting ahold of the schematics for the building from the local offices. Omnigrow's office was a warehouse like building with multiple floors and minimal windows. There were underground service tunnels that connected it to other structures in the city. In addition to the reception areas, there were also large shipping and receiving areas including a gated area topside and a subway tunnel access point for shipping below the structure.

"Aside from ground-level entrances, this city has a number of underground access and service tunnels for moving about in extreme weather. We can use them to approach the structure, and you will not be at risk of detection by electronic means until you reach the access staircases and lifts to the structure as the tunnel infrastructure is owned by the city."
 
Jamison would have opened his mouth to caleb if Zana hadn't beaten him to it. The Heavy Weapons specialist's opinion of the snake lady took a small tick upwards and another when she made the practical choice of heading off to find a bed, or whatever snake people slept on. Looking for his own room he hoped they had big enough beds.
 
"Sorry big guy, looks like you'll have to sleep on a normal person mattress again." Eberhard was walking by the rooms, checking on his employees as they plopped their luggage down. "Though, I bet you could move that desk aside and set two of them on the floor together." He pointed to the furniture in Jamison's room and commented sincerely, lightly patting the big fellow on the shoulder.

"I'd say being hostile to our hosts is not a good idea, but if they throw snark at us, don't be afraid to throw snark back at them as well." He then announced as he strolled through the hallway. "They're big boys and girls, they can take some shade."

Eberhard wandered into Beatrix's room, keeping the door open as he watched her examine her room. "Looking for bugs?" He asked him as her HUD lit up with multiple electronics dotted around in her room. "Of course they have them." He nodded, as if he received the notification as well. "Like it or not, they have right to be worried about us. Our guys did try to kill theirs and their impromptu partners. I wouldn't be worried about the bugs though." He took his helmet off, shaking his blonde hair out and looked a seemingly blank spot on the wall, and winked.

"I mean, we aren't going to do anything malicious. Unless you consider the usual naughty stuff you do when you're alone, malicious." Eberhard gave a shifty, suggestive chuckle.
 
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