It all started five years ago, when years of political intrigue and skirmishing would result in the French Empire declaring war against its arch nemesis, the Grand Union of China. The catalyst for the new Great War ignited, the two blocs that had been formed in response to the crumbling of the old balance of power, the United Nations and the Germania Pact, would throw in their weight into the conflict, rapidly expanding it into one of pan-galactic proportions. Despite the initial advantages, the initial offensives in the Milky Way eventually slowed down and the conflict soon morphed into one of sieges and stalemate, as neither side could gain enough of an edge to defeat the other. As both blocs prepare once again for a new, bold offensive, one that could hopefully turn the tide of the war in their favor, a vast empire in Andromeda and her client states monitors the events that have been unfolding. Marshalling its forces in the outer rim of Andromeda and preparing for their revenge, it waits for the moment to strike, threatening to expand the scope of the conflict across the entire Local Group in a war like no other...
National Security Bureau Black Site
Sihnon
Grand Union of China
In a way, Captain Gabrielle Chevalier couldn't help but view the Chinese National Security Bureau as geniuses for putting such a sensitive intelligence facility in the heart of a continent-spanning megalopolis that, in turn, was on the encumopolis that is Sihnon. After all, putting such a black site in the heart of the business district not only prevented an opposing force from simply waltzing in, taking what they wanted, and reducing the city block to ash (at least not doing said actions and making it out alive, anyways), but the nature of the facility hiding in plain sight made it relatively unassuming. And if an opposing force was to make a full scale invasion of Sihnon, the NSB would have been able to evacuate/destroy anything of even remote value well before the invasion fleet even arrived.
Of course, in another way, the NSB were also crazy for putting such a base in such a public location. Lacking the more aggressive defenses the NSB's Security Directorate would typically add to their sensitive facilities, the Sihnon black site made a tempting target to anyone who was able to figure out the little game of deception the overlords of the NSB were playing. Of course, in the mind of the Chinese spymasters, that last assumption was a very generous one. “Surly no one would b5e mad enough to undertake such a raid!” they would say to themselves. Unfortunately for them, there happened to be an organization crazy enough to undertake such a raid: The Special Circumstances Division of the French Imperial Guard.
Of course, the eagerness of Special Circumstances to carry out such a bold raid begs the question of why? As it turned out, a high level officer of the NSB by the name of Jin Jinaguo, who happened to possess a not insignificant quantity of valuable knowledge, wanted to defect. His prestigious career ruined by the manipulative nature of Jin's superior, who successfully pinned a disastrous foray into the Imperial Commonwealth squarely on his shoulders, Jin lost much of his influence and benefits. Wanting nothing more than revenge for the destruction of his life, Jin decided that the French Empire, and by extension the United Nations, would be much more appreciative of his in-depth knowledge of the workings of the NSB. Unfortunately, there was only one problem: the NSB's paranoid nature coupled with Jin's thorough knowledge meant that his every move was being meticulously watched. Unable to get to French space on his own, Special Circumstances would instead come to him.
The plan had been a fairly simple one developed by Chevalier and reviewed by the chief strategic AI's at GHQ. Entering the system secretly via a raider corvette, one part of Chevalier's squad, Unit 8, would make their way down to the maintenance levels of the megalopolis and commandeer the only known supply train that traveled to the location of the facility, which was masked as a branch of the Central Bank of China. Once they had breached the facility and the defenses were deactivated, curiosity of their defector, they would rescue him and destroy anything of value. The raiding party would then link up with the rest of the squad, which would be standing by with a commandeered NSB transport. By the time the outpost's security systems came back on-line and alerted the rapid-response forces, Gabrielle and her squad would have already been on their way to one of Special Circumstances safehouses and, from there, to French space.
Generally speaking, the actual operation had so far gone well. True, there had been the unexpected encounter with the mutated life forms that could be occasionally found in the undercity, as well as a skirmish with a gang of roving thugs (which was quite possibly the greatest mismatch of the century), but, so far, things were going as planned. All that was needed now was to actually get into the outpost.
Running her gloved hand through her hair, Chevalier glanced over to the rest of her squad, Lieutenant Samuel Bergeron, Major Cyrano de Bergerac, and Chief Sergeant Sel Tiantant, as they rode the automated and, after they seized it, non-guarded, supply train to the sub-levels of the compound.
“Remember, this is supposed to be a simple smash and grab, so don't focus so much on the smash part as more on the grab part.”
“Yeah, yeah,” muttered Bergeron as he took a drag from a cigarette. “I'm telling you right now, though, that the details this guy is aware of better be worth it, 'cause I'm not particularly inclined to being vaporized for useless sacks of flesh.”
“Based on what the DGSE has been able to obtain from Jin, his extraction is most definitely worth it,” responded Cyrano in his deep and vaguely non-human voice. “Besides, if what he said is true, then he's managed to uncover something of such significance that we'd be fools not to pull off such a raid..”
“Which is why it is imperative that we extract him before the NSB gets wise to him and ties up any loose ends,” said Chevalier as she placed the helmet of her battlesuit back on her head. “We're coming up on the service bay in a few seconds. Everyone get into position and wait for my signal.”
Within moments, the supply grav-train slowly came to a halt at its destination, the service bays of the NSB base. Standing outside the grav-train was a clearly irritated NSB officer and a pair of technical staff.
“What the hell kept you so long?!” shouted the officer at the crew within the train. “We've got a schedule to keep, and we can't wait up for this delivery all day!”
No answer.
“Did you even hear me? I'm going to have your eyes and fingers if you don't answer right now!”
The doors to the grav train finally opened, but instead of finding utility driods unloading weapon crates and, quite possibly, a pair of drunken guards who were about to catch absolute hell, he found a quartet of armed commandos pointing all manner of deadly weaponry right at him and his aides.
Grabbing for his pistol, the NSB officer's unprotected body was pulverized by the proton bolts from Bergeron's energy submachine gun, while the technical staff were similarly dispatched by the fury of Tiantant's FN Herstal-3030 multipurpose automatic combat shotgun.
“People need to learn how keep their big mouths shut these days,” muttered Bergeron as he stepped over what remained of the unit's welcome wagon.
Chevalier glanced at the main door ahead. “Can you override the security system on the doors?
Tiantant shook his head. “The security system has countermeasures in place to prevent Cyrano or me from simply hacking the system to open the door, but I've got the breaching charges needed to brute force our way in.”
“Do it,” ordered Gabrielle as Tiantant placed the explosive charges on the door while the rest of the unit took cover.
The charges set, the insectoid-like Sel detonated them at Chevalier's command, punching through the thick armored door and leaving it in ruins. Alarms blaring, Chevalier gave the signal and her unit quickly moved in as they rushed in, gunning down a trio of NSB security troopers in the process.
“Countermeasures have been deactivated as planned,” said Cyrano through the unit's datalink as he quickly scanned the building.
Chevalier confirmed the scan with a nod as she and the rest of her unit leaped through multiple floors to Jin's location via their 'boo' phase fields and counter-grav generators. Reaching the floor where the command center was located, Chevalier killed her counter-grav generator and phase field before squeezing off several rounds at a nearby guard while still airborne. Traveling at ten and a half kilometers per second, the dense kinetic penetrators (the light defenses of the guards not warranting warhead-tipped rounds) slammed into the guard with the force of a comet, shattering the light armor, bones, and innards of the guard from the shockwave of the impact and boring straight through until exiting alongside a jet of liquefied innards from the man's back, leaving a set of impressive sized craters.
Just as Chevalier landed, another nearby guard raised his weapon before Cyrano opened fire from his graser. The great thunderclap of the weapon briefly drowned out all other noise as the pulse of concentrated gamma radiation obliterated the soldier in a blinding flash of sickeningly searing energy. Without missing a beat, Unit 06 moved down the main corridor in unison, covering all angles of attack and mowing down any and all resistance.
From the command center, the sound of the firefight being waged became all too clear, as the French raiders closed the distance at a brisk pace. The commander of the black site, whose control over the facilities defenses were now out of his control, began to panic, as the video and audio feeds of the carnage unfolding flooded the room.
“Jin!” shouted the commander to his subordinate, “Fry every computer in this room and evacuate the command center before they arrive!”
“All exits and lifts have been deactivated; the whole floor has been sealed off!” responded Jin.
“This isn't a case of a glitch in the system. Someone on the inside has sabotaged...” the commander glared at Jin. “You're the only other one that has full access to the security system!” shouted the commander as he unholstered his pistol.
“If you're planning to kill me, then it’s too late,” said Jin as he noticed the raider's location and stepped to the side. “Oh, and if I were you, I would move about now.”
Before the commander could pull the trigger, a fin-stabilized, armor piercing round punched through the reinforced duracrete wall and through the commander's head, scooping out his shattered skull's gray matter before continuing down its trajectory. Jin immediately ducked as the main doors opened and Unit 06 rushed in, opening fire and leaving all witnesses in various states of dismemberment.
“Nice timing,” said Jin.
“We would have gotten here three seconds earlier if it hadn't been for those mutant freaks in the undercity,” responded Bergeron as he helped Jin off his feet.
“Primary target secured,” said Chevalier through her internal hyperwave radio. “Proceeding to clear the LZ for extraction,”
“Copy that,” said Lieutenant Jean-Marc Benzekri, the voice on the other side of the connection. “We're standing by until further notice.”
Chevalier walked over to the viewscreens and acquired the visual feed of the main hangar. With the exception of the bewildered flight control personnel, the hangar was relatively quiet, which translated to a quick seizure and rapid extraction with a minimum loss of life. The latter, of course, depended on how determined the remaining NSB agents were to stop them from leaving alive.
“It's time to get out here,” declared Chevalier to her unit. “Jin, stay in the middle of our formation and do exactly what I say; I'm not taking any chances in getting you out of here alive.”
Sihnon Spaceport
Around that same time
“Prep the ship for launch,” said Sergeant Constantijn Ostrander as he glanced over to Benzekri. “It shouldn't take them long to secure the hangar, and we need to make the extraction as quick as possible before anyone gets the wiser.”
“Relax, big guy,” said Benzekri as he patted the shoulder of the impressively (even for his species) built gorilla after rising from his seat. “The ship's ready for immediate launch and aerospace traffic control has cleared us without so much of a hiccup.”
“I have to admit that things have gone remarkable smoothly,” remarked Ostrander from the pilot station of the freighter. “From the looks of it, we should be able to...” He paused mid sentence as he glanced over at the scanners. A party of seven individuals, commandos of the Chinese Union Army to be exact, were converging on the hanger. “We've been discovered,” said Ostrander with a nervous tone to his voice. “We need to take off now and extract the others before they trap us on this planet.”
“Naturally, but before we do that I have to apologize,” said Benzekri.
Ostrander looked over his shoulder. “For what?”
“This.” Benzekri pulled out his pistol and sent an antimatter-propelled slug right between the gorilla's eyes, shattering his skull and disgorging its contents. Benzekri pushed aside the limp body of his former comrade as he pressed a button on the console, lowering the entrance ramp to the ship.
Coming down the ramp, Benzekri was greeted by the squad of Chinese commandos. “The ship's secure and ready for launch.”
“And your comrade?” asked the commanding officer of the commando force through his featureless helmet.
“He won't be a problem anymore.”
“I trust you won't have any qualms about repeating the same action with your other comrades,” said the commando in a tone that was more of a statement than a question as he and his subordinates bordered the transport.
Benzekri glanced over at the commando with a gleam of hatred in his eyes. “They deserve much worse fates than a simple bullet in the head, and I'll personally make sure they receive it after their usefulness comes to an end.”
NSB Black Site
Primary Hangar
The firefight was a brief and pointless one. Entering the hangar, Unit 06 neutralized the hangar staff and what guards were stationed in the area before sealing the blast doors to the entrance, making the ability to retake the hangar for the NSB much more difficult. The doors to the hangar were opened by Cyrano, and now all that was needed to be done was wait.
“They should have been here by now,” muttered Chevalier as she glanced at the chronometer display in her helmet's HUD. “Benzekri, we're ready for extraction now,” barked out Chevalier through her hyperwave radio in an annoyed tone.
“We've already arrived, Captain. Stand by for landing,” responded Benzekri as the delta wing-shaped spacecraft swooped in toward the hangar. Touching down, the ship's boarding ramp shortly lowered itself as Benzekri, carrying his fusion cannon, walked toward his unit.
“What took you so long?” asked Chevalier in a slightly irritated tone as she and the rest of the unit walked toward the ship.
Benzekri raised his weapon and aimed it at the group. “I going to have to ask to stop right there and drop your weapons.”
“What in the hell are you...” Chevalier was interrupted by the sound of various weapons being primed. Various figures decloaked in front of them, brandishing all sorts of weapons at their general location.
Chevalier clenched her jaw hard enough to shatter a sheet of endurasteel as she let her weapon, a Coopération Industrielle de Québéc M4520 light repeater (a somewhat heavy carbine, essentially, in terms of scale), fall to the metal floor, as did the rest of the squad. “What did you do to Constantijn?”
“ Sorry, Captain, but he wasn't really inclined to seeing things my way, so I had to kill him. C'est la vie, huh?”
Chevalier's heart sank at hearing the news before a sense of rage overcame all other emotions. The man that Gabrielle had trusted so much had betrayed all of them, and, worst of all, he had the gall to enjoy it. “Why did you do it, Jean Marc? Why did you have to betray France and all of us?”
“Betray France? Me?” asked Benzekri as pointed to himself in mock surprise. “On the contrary, I'm saving France. Think about it, Gabrielle. A long time ago, the Empire used to be a beautiful thing. When our nation's prosperity and morale had plummeted to near oblivion and the fundamentalists threatened to destroy our nation, the people of France looked for a strong leader to save them. They found it in Napoleon IV, who restored the great glories of France and set the stage for his successors to conquer the universe. But now, now that time is over, as His Imperial Majesty Albert VI has become far too soft and weak.”
“You can't possibly believe that,” said Chevalier as she scanned the room for anything that could be used to distract their captors and grant them a more favorable position.
“And I can't believe you're blind enough to ignore the painfully obvious,” shot back Benzekri in a venomous tone. “A new leader is needed, one that will take back the Eagle Throne and lead the Empire into a new Golden Age that will never end.”
“With China's help?” asked Chevalier sardonically.
“Well, they were the ones who proved to be generous enough to help our dreams become a reality. Of course, for that to be possible, I can't allow your little friend there leave on account of the valuable information he has.” Benzkeri looked over to Bergeron's side and waved at Jin. “Did you think that your dealings with the DGSE were unnoticed? The only reason you weren't killed the instant you contacted the Empire was that they figured that they could find some use for you. Of course, that was before you decided to ruin everyone's fun and cut and run.”
Unbeknown to Bezenkri or his men, Cyrano, through their datalink network, had discreetly highlighted to the rest of the squad a large catwalk dangling nearby Jean-Marc and his men. To drop it on Jean-Marc and his men (or at least as close to them as possible) wouldn’t kill them, but it would give Chevalier and the squad the distraction necessary to move out of Benzekri's line of fire and systematically kill his men.
“I have to commend you, Jean-Marc,” responded Chevalier in an upbeat tone as she received the data packet. “It's not that often that someone is able to successfully ambush and trap a Special Circumstances Unit.”
“What can I say, Gabrielle? I happen to take my work very seriously.”
“Too bad you forgot one thing,” said Chevalier. “Something that I've always told you to keep in mind since the beginning.”
Benzekri chuckled. “And what's that?”
“You forgot to mind your surroundings again.”
On cue, Cyrano used his miniature gravitic manipulator to rip the catwalk from its braces and send the object crashing down with considerable force. Benzekri and the commandos lurched back from the shock and sheer force of the impact, allowing the Unit to grab its weapons and put down a wall of suppressive fire as they moved to outflank the Chinese commandos among the various parked spacecraft and columns.
Grabbing Jin, Bergeron rushed him off to the secure hulk of a nearby shuttle, where he could pick off any commando that came too close and provide Jin with some sort of protection. Noticing them falling back, the commander of the commando squad used his phase field and counter-gravity engine to fly right through the parked spacecraft being used as cover before landing with a roll and pointing his rifle at Bergeron.
Bergeron immediately knocked the weapon out of the commander's hands and aimed his energy submachine gun right at his chest. Still on the ground, the Chinese black operator kicked the weapon out of Bergeron's hands before leaping up and swiping at him with a monomolecular knife. Bergeron dodged the first swipe before a left hook from the commando sent Bergeron toward the hull of the shuttle, pinning him. Bergeron grabbed the commander's forearm as he attempted to drive his knife into Bergeron's heart. Thinking fast, Bergeron head butted the commander to break his hold and lunged toward his submachine gun on the ground. Taking aim while still sprawled out on the floor, Bergeron fired off a long burst, the proton beams in their little pockets of frozen space-time riddling the commander with scores of charred craters.
Lifting himself off from the ground, the monstrous roar of an explosion caused Bergeron to immediately snap to attention.
“What the hell was that?” shouted Jin as he kept close to Bergeron.
“I know that sound,” he muttered as another explosion overpowered the roar of gunfire from the rest of Unit 06. Looking over the side of the parked shuttle, Bergeron confirmed what he thought he heard. A Chinese commando had brought along with him a 30mm grenade machine gun, and was now proceeding to use said weapon to push Chevalier and the rest of the unit toward the spacecraft opposite of the one Bergeron and Jin were located.
“A fucking grenade machine gun?!” shouted Bergeron though his comlink to Chevalier. “You don't bring squad support weapons into a packed hanger, let alone use the goddamn thing!”
“Tell that to the Chinese!” shouted back Chevalier as she thought up of something to break the stalemate. A direct attack was obviously suicide, but there was enough clutter and general confusion to outflank them if they could keep the Chinese grenadier (and the rest of commandos by extension) preoccupied. Chevalier looked over to her combat engineer at the other end of shuttle, who was the closest to any sort of nearby cover. “Sel, take out that grenadier! We'll cover you from here!”
Nodding in confirmation, Tiantant scrambled to a nearby column while the rest of the unit peppered the general area being used as a refuge with gunfire. Making his way through the wreckage utilizing his cloaking field, Sel spotted the grenadier and another commando taking cover behind the wreckage of another spacecraft. Taking aim, Tiantant's squeezed the trigger and saturated the grenadier's general position with a full burst of the shotgun shells. The nearby commando was near-instantly overwhelmed by the terrific lethality of the cloud of relativistic shrapnel, reducing him to a cloud of red mist. The grenadier immediately reacted and swung her massive weapon at Tiantant's location, but was put down in a similarly gory manner by another automatic burst of fire.
Spinning toward Tiantant after hearing the roar of the engineer's shotgun, Benzekri raised his fusion cannon and took aim. The hideously bright beam of nuclear fury tortured Tiantant's defenses while hurling him against a column from the sheer impact. The second shot finally tore through the weakened battlescreen, as a large portion of Tiantant's upper body, alongside the column he was using as support and the nearby wall, was disintegrated in a spectacular light show.
It was a Pyrrhic victory for Benzekri, though, as everything was coming apart and disintegrating (sometimes literally) before his eyes. Chevalier and the rest of the unit sprung from their positions the instant the fire support evaporated, and they made sure to show no mercy to the Chinese. Within a few seconds, only Benzekri, who was now proceeding to fill as much of the area around him with the fire of his fusion cannon, was left. A beam of exotic energy from Cyrano's powergun struck Benzekri in his left leg, causing it violently explode in a shower of gore and metal. Falling to the floor (the combat stims mercifully blocking out any sensation of pain), Benzekri tried to fire his fusion rifle, but was met with a burst from Bergeron's energy SMG, which tore his right arm from his torso.
Benzekri's groan morphed into a depraved chuckle as he mustered the strength to remove his featureless helmet and glare at Chevalier. “Do you really think killing me will solve anything? The entire planetary garrison has alerted to your presence and a rapid response unit is already on its way. This planet will be your grave.”
“How about we make it your grave first, you traitorous little insect.” Chevalier squeezed her light repeater's trigger and sent a burst of kinetic penetrators right through Benzekri and the floor, vaporizing his innards in the process.
“And Sel?” asked Chevalier.
Bergeron looked over at Tiantant's corpse, or what remained of it. “He's gone, Cap. There isn't even enough here to salvage or perform a mind transfer.”
Chevalier swore internally. What was supposed to be a simple extraction was rapidly spiraling out of control, what with half her unit dead and the Chinese now preparing to swam all over the building. “Carry what's left of him with us. It's time we pack up and leave before they trap up on this planet.”
Boarding their transport, a former NSB transport captured by Special Circumstances sometime ago, Unit 06 and Jin took their seats, as well as placing the bodies of Tiantant and Ostrander in a more dignified location. Bergeron was already in the pilot's seat and fiddling with the controls when Chevalier sat down at the comm-scan station next to him.
“You do know how to fly this thing, right?” asked Chevalier as she helped with the startup procedures.
“Uh, well, I don't really know that specifics of this particular model, but I'm pretty sure I can fly this... I think, anyways.”
“Well, not to put any pressure on you, but it would probably be prudent for you to figure out in the next half minute before their rapid-response unit blows a couple of holes in this thing.”
As if on cue, first-response elements from the local garrison forced their way into the building and toward the landing bay in order to prevent Unit 06's escape. “Sam, this would be a pretty good time to leave,” said Chevalier, as a force of infantry entered the landing bay and began to setup a heavy repeating plasma cannon.
“Well, there about to get a big surprise.” Bergeron pressed a button on his console, which lowered a repeating anti-infantry energy repeater that proceeded to shred the infantry squad to pieces. A few moments later, the ship's engines roared to life and sent the spacecraft out of the landing bay and away from harm as it made its way out to orbit.
Checking the scanners, Chevalier could make out a squad of space-superiority fighters quickly closing the distance, while system patrol warships began to move in. “What's the hold up, Lieutenant?” barked Gabrielle as flak shots from the patrol ship's mass drivers rocked the ship. It was never a good sign with Chevalier referred to Bergeron only by his rank.
“Something’s wrong with the hyperspace motivator. Cyrano, get to the engine room and see what's going on with this thing!”
At that instant, Cyrano left for the engine room while Bergeron began to take evasive maneuvers to avoid the torrent of firepower coming at their general location. The Chinese J-2014 space superiority fighters are top-of-the-line starfighters, capable of impressive acceleration and movement, along with maintaining a deadly assortment of weapons that could shred smaller ships to pieces. Closing into range, three of the starfighters fired off a salvo of light anti-fighter fusion missiles at the French transport. ECM threw many of the missiles wildly off course before they blossomed into brilliant explosion, while the transport's point-defense suite swatted the rest form the stars. In retaliation, the tail gun fired back, hurling blood red spears of energy and obliterating one starfighter that came too close.
From the comm-scan station, Chevalier could pick up an interdiction cruiser coming into their general area and powering up its hyperspace inhibitors. “An interdictor parked itself right between us and our escape route. You've got sixty seconds before its inhibitors are brought on line.”
“Well, wait until you see this!” Bergeron pulled the lever to activate the hyperspace motivator and was greeted with the distinctive sound of the motivator charging up before dying down.
“See what?!” snapped Chevalier.
“This is not good...” muttered Bergeron as he feverishly looked over the cockpit's monitors. “Tin Man, whatever you did to fix this thing didn't work!”
Cyrano rechecked the hyperspace motivator as he attempted to diagnose the problem. “Hold them off for a few seconds and I'll have this thing up and running.”
Bergeron let out his usual sarcastic laugh as he noted the absurdity of the situation. “This is just fucking typical. First that little miserable little cocksucker Jean-Marc turns Sel into a smoldering mass and blows Constantijn's fucking head off, and now I'm about to be reduced to my constituent atoms because this goddamn piece of fucking Chinese shit can't even manage a simple jump into hypers...” Before he could finish his rant, the hyperspace motivator sprung to life and propelled the shuttle into hyperspace and from the clutches of the Chinese patrol, yanking an unsuspecting Bergeron back into his seat.
“I was talking with the ship's computer...” Cyrano took his seat next to Jin “... and it turns out that all that was needed was a simple rewiring of the motivator. We should be able to make it to the safehouse without anymore interruptions.”
Bergeron scowled at him. “You think you could have warned me before I get splattered into the wall?!”
Cyrano merely shrugged his massive robotic shoulders. Bergeron muttered something about needing a drink, while Chevalier unbuckled her restraint and walked over to Jin.”
“Special Circumstances said you managed to stumble into something big a few weeks ago. What precisely do you know that caused the NSB to go to such lengths to kill you?”
Jin held up a datastick. “The plans for a major Germania Pact offensive. They hope that it will let them break the stalemate and end the war in their favor.”
“How did you get a hold of it?”
Jin smiled. “I have friends in all the right places. To tell you the truth, the DGSE was already aware of the fact that the NSB knew of our little plan, and they made sure that any info the NSB acquired would lead them on a wild goose chase. Through a little bit of creative work and luck, I managed to make them think that I took the plans for minor raid in the Large Magellanic Cloud. If they had found out of what I really stole, I would have already been dead.”
“The war hasn't been going too well for us, at least in the Home Galaxy,” said Chevalier. “With this, though, we might just be able to turn the tide in our favor, especially given the mass buildup that's surpassing that of even the largest members of GERPAC.”
“What about what your former compatriot said about his insurrectionists?” asked Jin.
“A plan that can end this war or a bunch of self-aggrandizing rebels? Jean-Marc and his cohorts can wait.”