October 15, 2321
Mars,
Olympus Mons
Wazu looked at his datapad.
"Start Recording,"
A deep breath.
"The HFR arresting the Empress was unexpected."
There was another pause as Wazu collected his thoughts. First he needed to establish what they knew. Then what they needed to figure out. Then what they should do.
"The GDW and Soyuz appear to be taking a wait and see approach. The AU seems to be emboldened in its attempts to arrest myself here but we were expecting them to try something anyways. I have one of Caxia's simulacrum here for personal protection and we will be contacting the Soyuz about our Travel plans now since I think traveling back to Kitzeh with them will be safer than trying to return through Atlantica. The Daqin appear to also be waiting to see what happens. This leaves us with the HFR who have brought the Empress to their ship above Mars but have yet to break orbit."
Then there was the question of what to figure out.
"If the Daqin aren't going to try and save the Empress right now, then... we've got no idea what their plan is. The HFR must be considering where to move the Empress to, and I think everyone else is going to have to play around that. If they leave her in the Sol System they will likely take her to Earth? Would it be safer to house the prisoner inside of their territory on the homeworld, or would it be safer to keep her in a ship in deep space where they can see people approach? I think I'm going to say Earth is safer. One compromised crew member could kill the rest of their crew through a life support malfunction but you'd need to compromise dozens or even hundreds of people to escape a max-sec prison on Earth.
Of course they might not be taking them to Earth. Li Ming would be the safest place to take her. It is the system the most fully controlled by the HFR. No third parties to get in the way. No chance of someone fighting their way in. It is where I would take her if I was them... but there is no direct path from Sol to Li Ming. They would have to travel through Shen Zhou which is in range of the Daqin fleets. There are a lot of unknowns there, and we don't have a lot we can comfortably say about the Daqin's capabilities to both invade Shen Zhou AND rescue the impress during that invasion. Another plan might be to travel via New Texas or even enlist the help of Reservoir's kingdoms, but these would involve being at the mercy of another nation and would arguably be even more of a risk than moving through Shen Zhou. So what would they do? What even are their goals here? If it is just to put the Empress on display and posture then they might not even be going to Li Ming... I am unfortunately not following HFR politics close enough, but it does seem that their new leader has their power base in Shen Zhou. That might mean Shen Zhou is the destination and not just a pass through."
And then, what should they do about it?
"Ein seems to think the HFR have overplayed their hand. The American Union seems focused on us to the exclusion of what the HFR is doing. Everyone else seems to be waiting to see what happens which means if the Daqin attacks any support will be months away from reaching Shen Zhou... assuming that the Daqin launch their invasion there.
If We decide to get involved. That means we're exposed on just about every front. Kiwami, Hawking, Atlantica, all are within range of the Daqin's fleets. We're ready to stop small incursions but if they throw a serious force at us instead of Shen Zhou then we should expect serious losses in Atlantica or Kiwami. Of course, I trust the new provisional fleet could halt anything they send to Hawking.
We could try and send forces to Shen Zhou, the most likely position for the Daqin to attack, but this would have to be at the expense of our forces in Atlantica. The American Union already is eager to take advantage of our position there. I'm not sure it is worth expending our ships just to try and get on the HFR's good side."
Wazu frowned, that all felt a little bit thin. Just talking about possibilities wasn't enough, he needed to add some direction to go.
"We WANT to get involved in this pro-actively. We don't have the numbers or industry to fight like the American Union does. We have to be clever. We need to be taking advantage of this situation before the time comes to act. We're the best at knowing the right thing to do and its time to prove that."
Wazu would listen to the replay, and bundled the latest recordings from Caxia into the package as he waited for it to finish.
"Ok, lets record that one more time..."
----
~ 15 minutes later
Wazu was happy with the recording now. He'd finish bundling it all up and send the transmission out where it'd be relayed to Atlantica and Hawking. The rest of the Assembly would get their chance to weigh in.
Mars,
Olympus Mons
Wazu looked at his datapad.
"Start Recording,"
A deep breath.
"The HFR arresting the Empress was unexpected."
There was another pause as Wazu collected his thoughts. First he needed to establish what they knew. Then what they needed to figure out. Then what they should do.
"The GDW and Soyuz appear to be taking a wait and see approach. The AU seems to be emboldened in its attempts to arrest myself here but we were expecting them to try something anyways. I have one of Caxia's simulacrum here for personal protection and we will be contacting the Soyuz about our Travel plans now since I think traveling back to Kitzeh with them will be safer than trying to return through Atlantica. The Daqin appear to also be waiting to see what happens. This leaves us with the HFR who have brought the Empress to their ship above Mars but have yet to break orbit."
Then there was the question of what to figure out.
"If the Daqin aren't going to try and save the Empress right now, then... we've got no idea what their plan is. The HFR must be considering where to move the Empress to, and I think everyone else is going to have to play around that. If they leave her in the Sol System they will likely take her to Earth? Would it be safer to house the prisoner inside of their territory on the homeworld, or would it be safer to keep her in a ship in deep space where they can see people approach? I think I'm going to say Earth is safer. One compromised crew member could kill the rest of their crew through a life support malfunction but you'd need to compromise dozens or even hundreds of people to escape a max-sec prison on Earth.
Of course they might not be taking them to Earth. Li Ming would be the safest place to take her. It is the system the most fully controlled by the HFR. No third parties to get in the way. No chance of someone fighting their way in. It is where I would take her if I was them... but there is no direct path from Sol to Li Ming. They would have to travel through Shen Zhou which is in range of the Daqin fleets. There are a lot of unknowns there, and we don't have a lot we can comfortably say about the Daqin's capabilities to both invade Shen Zhou AND rescue the impress during that invasion. Another plan might be to travel via New Texas or even enlist the help of Reservoir's kingdoms, but these would involve being at the mercy of another nation and would arguably be even more of a risk than moving through Shen Zhou. So what would they do? What even are their goals here? If it is just to put the Empress on display and posture then they might not even be going to Li Ming... I am unfortunately not following HFR politics close enough, but it does seem that their new leader has their power base in Shen Zhou. That might mean Shen Zhou is the destination and not just a pass through."
And then, what should they do about it?
"Ein seems to think the HFR have overplayed their hand. The American Union seems focused on us to the exclusion of what the HFR is doing. Everyone else seems to be waiting to see what happens which means if the Daqin attacks any support will be months away from reaching Shen Zhou... assuming that the Daqin launch their invasion there.
If We decide to get involved. That means we're exposed on just about every front. Kiwami, Hawking, Atlantica, all are within range of the Daqin's fleets. We're ready to stop small incursions but if they throw a serious force at us instead of Shen Zhou then we should expect serious losses in Atlantica or Kiwami. Of course, I trust the new provisional fleet could halt anything they send to Hawking.
We could try and send forces to Shen Zhou, the most likely position for the Daqin to attack, but this would have to be at the expense of our forces in Atlantica. The American Union already is eager to take advantage of our position there. I'm not sure it is worth expending our ships just to try and get on the HFR's good side."
Wazu frowned, that all felt a little bit thin. Just talking about possibilities wasn't enough, he needed to add some direction to go.
"We WANT to get involved in this pro-actively. We don't have the numbers or industry to fight like the American Union does. We have to be clever. We need to be taking advantage of this situation before the time comes to act. We're the best at knowing the right thing to do and its time to prove that."
Wazu would listen to the replay, and bundled the latest recordings from Caxia into the package as he waited for it to finish.
"Ok, lets record that one more time..."
----
~ 15 minutes later
Wazu was happy with the recording now. He'd finish bundling it all up and send the transmission out where it'd be relayed to Atlantica and Hawking. The rest of the Assembly would get their chance to weigh in.