Part 14: Family Reunion, Oxford System, Gemini Sector (Story)
Oops, this took a bit longer than I'd intended. Anyway, here's the storyline update; the gameplay will follow when it's done uploading, Youtube says about 40 minutes.Connoisseurs of comms chatter will be pleased to learn that there will be Retros in the mission.
21st December 2668, Oxford System, Gemini Sector
Episode 2, Mission 1 - Family Reunion
The TCS Firekka, with her new Wing Commander aboard, collects reinforcements of fighters and pilots in the Oxford system, including a few old friends.
Pre-mission cutscenes:
We meet Commodore Reismann, certified hardass, rising star in the fleet, and commanding officer of the TCS Firekka, following in the apparent TCN tradition of carriers not having actual captains (we never encounter anyone with that job aboard the Tiger's Claw or the Concordia). Reismann appears towards the end of Privateer, in circumstances which constitute enough spoilers that I'm not going to talk about them. Apparently he's been given command of Gemini's only fully operational carrier at this point in his career. Naturally, he has a few words for us as his CAG.
Cutscene Video (Youtube)
: Bradshaw. We're en route to the Oxford system. Have you gone through the materials I gave you?
: Yes sir, I've watched the vids. Those new carriers, they're really something. : Just between the two of us, the first thing Terrell told me when the truce was signed:: "Within a year, they'll be coming after Earth.": I guess most of us saw it coming, sir. Everyone thought the government was...: However, Captain, that topic is now off-limits. : I know everyone's whining about the government, but not on my ship. Am I clear?: Right now we must beat off the cats. We'll sort out the blame later. : Yes, sir. : I've got no assignments for you until Oxford, so I suggest you hit the flight sim, Captain. : The more you and your pilots practice, the longer you'll live. Dismissed.We catch up with our old friend Saxman, who wrote to us about Reismann's command style back in episode one, and one of the other Firekka pilots who delights in the wonderful callsign of "Popsicle", and discuss the wonders of escort carriers (which, being converted transports, weren't really intended for crews of 500+). Yes, the video quality is actually this bad in the original. Episode 2's cutscenes were the first ones the Standoff team ever made, with Ep1's coming much later, though what stopped them going back and fixing this one I have no idea, especially since I think the only real problem is it being overcompressed.
Cutscene Video (Youtube)
: Well, if it isn't our new Wing Commander. It's good to have you here. : Cheers. So, how've you been, Robert?: Can't complain I guess. Though you know, with this campaign coming up, I'm starting to think things weren't so bad with the truce. : But anyway, what do you think of the ship, man?: She's.....uh, heh, she's really something. : [chuckles] Yeah, I know. Guess even the old Defiance was better, may she rest in peace. 
: Hey, you fleet carrier folks are just spoiled. The Firekka may not look like much, but she's a good ship. : Don't mind Popsicle here. He's been on the Firekka for a year now, that'd be enough to drive anyone crazy. :Still, he's got a point, there's more to this hunk of junk that meets the eye. : Oh, such as?: Well, there's cockroaches in the kitchen, a rat infestation in the garbage disposal system, and of course, the old man himself. : You had a chance to talk to him yet?: Yeah, we had a long conversation right after I came on board. Got to say, he has a lot of faith in his crew. : Oh, he'd better. I wasn't kidding when I wrote to you about him putting us through hell. It's all the new arrivals you've got to worry about. : Some of them are good folks like you, but the others... : You know, with most of the real pilots discharged or on leave, they just grabbed whoever they could get. : I don't envy you, Bill, keeping this wing together ain't gonna be easy. 
Five e-mail messages. First up, Admiral Tolwyn, newly promoted CinC of Third Fleet, has a message for the troops:
IES Message - Received at 1820 hours GST on 2668.351 posted:
From: Adm. Geoffrey Tolwyn (TCN, TCS Concordia)
To: All Personnel, Confed Armed Forces
Subject: General briefing
By now, most of you have already received your new orders, and even if you have not heard anything on the official channels, you will have heard at least rumours of what's been happening. So, I will keep this brief.
We are indeed once again at war with the Kilrathi. There has been no official declaration of war, but the discovery of their hidden fleet and their agent's attack on the Joint Chiefs of Staff can hardly leave any room for doubt. We know their fleet has already been deployed, and we know it is headed for Earth. We have already begun concentrating our own forces to block the enemy's path of advance. Every ship capable of action is to join the Third Fleet.
I know some of you are bitter about this situation. I've heard some officers openly blaming the civilian government for agreeing to this so-called truce, allowing the bulk of our fleet to be disarmed. It is true, the government made a mistake in trusting the Kilrathi against our advice. However, this changes nothing. You all once swore to defend the Confederation. I want you to remember this. No matter what the government does, your duty to humanity remains unchanged.
I wish each and every one of you the best of luck in the days to come, and I pray that together, we will push the Kilrathi back all the way to Kilrah.
Adm. Geoffrey Tolwyn
Commander-in-chief, Third Fleet
Reismann helpfully explains what's going to be the source of three-quarters of the character-driven plot of the game. To be fair, I think I'd probably have done the same in Reismann's position, they were probably the veteran pilots who were easiest to find and time is somewhat of the essence if the Firekka is going to join up with Third Fleet in time for the shooting to start.
IES Message - Received at 2037 hours GST on 2668.355 posted:
From: Commodore Hans Reismann (TCN, TCS Firekka)
To: Capt. William Bradshaw (TCSF, TCS Firekka)
Subject: Mission orders
Captain,
Just a quick follow-up to our discussion, to make sure you're clear on everything. This here is a fine mess Confed's gotten itself into, and it'll take a lot from all of us to get back out of it again. Your topmost priority right now is to get your wing up to fighting status. I've done everything I could to keep the core personnel combat-ready during the truce, but most of the pilots have only been onboard the Firekka for a few days. Notwithstanding, I expect you to get these people ready for anything. And I don't care how you achieve this - because the cats won't care either. Now, you have a reputation as a good, kind, caring wing commander. Forget all that. This is no time to be gentle.
One more thing. We had some trouble getting a full wing assembled on such short notice, and as you know, Emergency Decree 394 allows us to get our personnel from anywhere we can. We took that a little more literally than you might like. Your wing includes regulars, but also fresh rookies and militia pilots. There's even one or two privateers unlucky enough to be on Perry when we were leaving. What will concern you the most, however, are the convicts. Yes, you read that right. As you know, the various... disturbances immediately after the truce put more than a few good pilots in prison. Now, I don't much care for defectors and mutineers, but given the circumstances that led these people to prison, Terrell's convinced they won't cause trouble for us, and I'm inclined to agree.
We'll be taking a few more ships and pilots onboard before we leave Gemini, and as I understand it, there's going to be one or two that you've dealt with personally during that Guadalcanal debacle. I don't expect to hear any complaints about this - we're not on a feel-good field trip, we're here to fight.
Reismann
Various old shipmates from the Lionheart are coming aboard or already here, presumably in Chief Henderson's case because it was easier than animating another figure for the mission end reports. Cougar's ability to state the obvious was also too valuable to allow him to remain planetside, and he demonstrates it again here:
IES Message - Received at 2320 hours GST on 2668.355 posted:
From: Capt. Theodore Murphy (TCSF, Oxford Base)
To: Capt. William Bradshaw (TCSF, TCS Firekka)
Subject: Coming aboard
Marksman,
So I just received word from command that I'll be shipping out to the Firekka, and who do I see on the roster? You sure do get around! Congrats about the Wing Commander job... though I don't think I'd trade jobs with you for any price, not for this campaign. Good to know we'll be flying together again anyway.
Oh, by the way, a little advice - the cat fleet may still be a long way off, but don't make the mistake of thinking you're safe. Remember that Gothri we saw during the Guadalcanal op, back in Nexus? I'm betting by now there's dozens of cat privateers hiding all over our space. You'll want to be on alert - these bastards aren't much of a challenge when they're alone, but as soon as they find themselves a target, they'll call their buddies together.
...Ah, hell, you know you're getting too old when you start telling your CO how to do his job. I'll see you soon, man.
Cougar
IES Message - Received at 0609 hours GST on 2668.356 posted:
From: Chief Petty Officer Jean Henderson (TCN, TCS Firekka)
To: Capt. William Bradshaw (TCSF, TCS Firekka)
Subject: Latest flight deck status
Hey there, Captain B.
Mighty glad to see you. They transferred me over to the Firekka almost immediately after the Lionheart was taken offline, so here I am, and looks like I get to be your chief tech again.
You'll be happy to know that we've got the best repair crews in Gemini on this boat. Spare parts aren't a problem either - when word got out about the Kilrathi fleet, first thing the Commodore did was requisition just about everything we could lift from Perry. We're ready for anything - so long as you don't eject, you can be sure that your ship will be fixed and prepped for the next mission, even if you completely trash it.
...But if you do trash a ship, you'd better make sure you deal as much damage to them as they do to you. We don't mind fixing well-earned damage, but nobody likes getting an extra five hours' worth of work just because one of your pilots got careless.
Also, here's a rundown of the fighters we've got onboard. As you can see, we're still a bit short of a full compliment, especially in the Gladii department, but from what I hear they're working on bringing in a few more of them to fill the space up.
Stilettos: 24
Gladii: 6
Rapiers: 12
By the way, I'll make it a point to send these reports to you after every sortie from now on. The Firekka's a bit bigger than the Lionheart, and it'd be a waste of time if you had to run down to the hangar to check what's ready every time you're planning another mission.
Jean
IES Message - Received at 1532 hours GST on 2668.356 posted:
From: Adm. R. Terrell (TCN Sector Command, Perry Naval Base)
To: Commodore Hans Reismann (TCN, TCS Firekka)
To: Capt. William Bradshaw (TCSF, TCS Firekka)
Subject: Upcoming Campaign
Gentlemen,
Good luck out there. I regret deeply that of the entire Gemini fleet, there was only one carrier ready for this mission, but I have every confidence in the Firekka and her crew.
There is, unfortunately, one more bit of bad news. It looks as though the Francis Drake will not make it to Oxford in time to meet up with you, so you will have to go at least as far as Weslyn without an escort. They will be following you, but they'll have a hard time catching up, so you probably won't see them unless you find some trouble to slow you down. Fortunately, there shouldn't be any enemy activity other than a few privateers up to that point, and you can expect local forces to escort you from Weslyn onwards.
Meanwhile, we're working on getting the rest of our fleet back online, and you can rest assured that we're not going to be sitting around twiddling our thumbs once we've got another carrier in service. We WILL make the enemy pay!
Adm. R. Terrell
Commander-in-chief, Confed Naval Forces, Gemini Sector
There's another message that the game doesn't display. I think we can see why:
IES Message - Received at xxxx hours GST on 2668.xxx posted:
From: Adm. R. Terrell (TCN Sector Command, Perry Naval Base)
To: Commodore Hans Reismann (TCN, TCS Firekka)
To: Capt. William Bradshaw (TCSF, TCS Firekka)
Subject: <subject>
message from Terrell (?)
terrell should just keep being terrell - kissing up to his favorite crew and whatnot :-P
Adm. R. Terrell
Commander-in-chief, Confed Naval Forces, Gemini Sector
Presumably this was a direction from one of the writers to another, which never quite got removed. Looking through the game files, there's actually a fair few of these.
What the hell is going on?
Last time I tried to explain the start-of-episode cutscene, what the Kilrathi were actually doing and how Confed found out. Now we'll move on to what happens when the burst signal from Bannockburn, relayed via Tarawa, reaches Earth.
The Kilrathi realise the secret is out and make their own moves, which take effect just as the military is beginning to react to the Tarawa's signal. The Kilrathi ambassador, a volunteer whose sons had all died in the line of duty against Confederation troops, had an antimatter explosive surgically implanted beneath his skin. Once ordered to trigger it by Thrakhath:
Fleet Action posted:
"Show that transmission from Tarawa on the main holo."
"Big Duke" Grecko, the Marine general of the Joint Chiefs and the only survivor of the explosion, settled back painfully in his chair. Geoff Tolwyn looked over at him anxiously. The bleeding from the lacerations to his back and neck had soaked through the bandages and his shirt, staining the khaki a deep red. Geoff wanted to say something but knew it was useless. Grecko was a Marine, and would bite the head off anyone who tried to show sympathy.
The wonder of it was that Grecko had survived at all. He had walked out of the meeting with the ambassador in disgust, threatening to resign his commission, and was down the far end of the corridoor when the bomb went off. The explosion had ripped Grecko's left arm off. Fortunately it was an artificial arm which had replaced the one he lost at Vukar and the plasti limb absorbed the blow from a shattered support pillar which would have killed anyone else.
[...]
He picked up a secured phone and punched in a number. "Mr. President, this is Grecko, are you still in the building, sir? Good, I think you need to come to my office at once," and hung up.
[...]
"How does this all fit together?" Grecko asked.
"The armistice, I think we had that figured from the beginning," Tolwn replied. "Now we know it was to buy time so they could reorganize and concentrate on finishing their super carriers. They know that we now know and I guess that's where this bomb plot figured in, to decapitate our high command, sow confusion and then strike straight at Earth."
The next step is convincing the civilian leadership, leading to a stormy confrontation with chief peacenik (and Kilrathi collaborator - something which the reader knows and the military suspects since her son was captured during an escort carrier raid, but the President has refused to act on), Foreign Secretary Rhonda Jamison. President Rodham is convinced by the Tarawa's data, though:
Fleet Action posted:
"Admiral Tolwyn, I am officially pardoning you for the incident at Munro. As of this moment I am reinstating you as a full admiral in command of Third Fleet, with the mission of organizing defences against the anticipated Kilrathi invasion. General Grecko, I am appointing you the new head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in charge of all Confederation forces."
"Just what the hell is this?" Jamison roared.
"Secretary Jamison, I expect your resignation as Foreign Secretary effective immeadiately and also advise you that you will face an investigation. I have refused to believe the allegations against you for too long. I think this matter has to be looked into."
[...]
"Are you calling me a traitor?"
"Not yet." Rodham said quietly.
"You want my resignation, well you can go to hell. Make it a public firing in front of the press, and believe me, my side of the story will be told as well." She looked around the room angrily.
"I'll see you all in hell!" and she stormed out of the conference room.
[...]
"After I take care of Jamison, I'm resigning as President" he said quietly. "Vice President Dave Quinson never did support this idea; he was as much as public about it. I think he could help rally our people better than me."
"I think that's a good idea, sir." Duke replied, his voice cold and even.
Rodham stood up and looked back at the holo display.
"You know, Jamison will make this an ugly fight. It might slow down our mobilization. I'm therefore issuing as my final executive order a full mobilization of the fleet, along with wartime government control of the economy. Jamison is likely running to the press right now so I'd better act first. When I resign my cabinet will have to resign as well. Maybe it'll clear the deck for Quinson."
So, there we are. The fleet, such as it is, is mobilising, but the civilian government has fallen amid a massive scandal, as the President accuses the Foreign Secretary of treason straight to the press, and Jamison responding in kind by accusing the President and the military of a conspiracy to restart the war, along with hardliners in the Kilrathi Empire who recently made an attempt on the life of the Emperor (which was actually the pro-peace Baron Jukaga, attempting to seize power and actually extend the truce). The war resolution did not pass the Senate, preventing any offensive action by the fleet; Tolwyn is therefore prevented from using his two operational light escort carriers in a spoiling raid as he had intended.