State of Pleiades - Mentor III
07 Apr 2018Commander-Wingnut
Showing the system authorities the natural consequences of "peaceful" co-existence with the Thargoids had been the first step.The second was showing them the effects of their denial and negligence - and how adept the pilots of AEGIS Vanguard Division were becoming at bypassing them entirely.
"With or without your help."
--:-:--
Wingnut's message had not fallen on deaf ears.
Slowly, but surely, the population begrudgingly came to accept the Vanguard's presence in Mentor, even if the party line from their leaders continued to publicly disagree with AEGIS' mission.
The rhetoric was the same. "Surely," the pundits argued with anger over sincerity. "The Thargoids have been attracted to AEGIS holdings because of their connection to INRA, and the aliens are certainly not ignoring Megaships anymore.
The Vanguard will only attract trouble directly to Mentor, mark my words."
But in all this vitriolic fervor, something had been lost. Nobody was trying to deny AEGIS' effectiveness anymore.
--:-:--
Wingnut was not done maneuvering yet.
One day, when the Vanguard mission board was clear, the Commander stripped the Serial Peacemaker to its bare bones, packing only a fuel scoop, a cargo rack, and a rack of stellar scanners.
Configured as an explorer, capable of 30+ Ly jumps, he set off for the far end of the Pleiades Nebula to begin scanning.
Titan's Daughter, in the Taygeta system, was the first station to come under attack almost a year ago, and it was where Wingnut had first begun pulling people from the fires of hell.
And so began the story of his controversial three-day survey report; "The State of Pleiades."