Across the Stars (FT/MT)

Two days after the visitors from Veridia-Prime left, another small craft appears out of hyperspace, this time for a collision course for Earth. It streaks across the sky and crashes into the wasteland surrounding Toronto. A bare-chested man emerges from the craft. He smiles and leaps for the lights indicating a town.

Mere moments later, five shuttles emerge from hyperspace in Earth orbit and begin making descent towards the crash-site. A message is sent out.

"To all relevant authorities, this is the Rhean Imperial Navy shuttle Tydirium. We believe a fugitive from our planet has fled to yours. Fugitive is 2.1 meters tall and 108 kilograms with light skin, black hair, and a lightning tattoo on his back. Do not attempt contact with the fugitive. He is highly dangerous. If you would care to render assistance, approach us at the following coordinates." They send out coordinates for a location 3.2 kilometers northwest of Toronto.

The local residents of the Municipality of Ronto saw a strange site that night with an odd figure leaping towards their direction with an unidentified flying object following it, and the local Municipal Defense Force station saw the same and relayed the information to Central Command in Charleston. They then received a strange transmission from a group that called themselves the "Rheans", which some had vaguely known was an extrasolar power, and they realized that it was an issue that was far beyond their jurisdiction. They quickly sent out a warning to all the residents of Ronto and nearby communities that there was a dangerous fugitive in the area and his description and told the local militias to report anyone they see who has such an appearance.

They then relayed the message to High Command, where it worked up all the way to Generalissimo Roald who decided to personally take charge of the issue. A small platoon of fifty heavy armor troopers and five lightly armored local guides moved out from Ronto towards the provided co-ordinates by his personal order, and he then sent out a lightly encrypted reply to the Rhean craft, "Greetings, Rhean Shutter Tydirium. This is Generalissimo Roland Walker of the United Municipalities of North America. Troops have been dispatched immediately to the provided co-ordinates to assist you."

Bismouth probably saw the streak and the shuttles, and heard the broadcast. It does not make any response.

It is far less likely that Burnination knows or cares.

"Acknowledged, Generalissimo. Shuttle Tydirium out."

The five shuttles arrive at the rendezvous point, disgorging a hundred Snowtroopers, all armed, at minimum, with heavy blaster rifles.

The company commander walks out and says to the leader of the Municipal troops, "I am Captain Trevelyan. Shall we proceed with the search?"

The platoon leader nodded at Captain Trevelyan, and said, "My name is Lieutenant John Asher, sir. Let us proceed. My platoon has five local guides who are willing to help lead us through the terrain, so wherever we need to go they will lead us."

The captain says to the guides, "Please, lead us to where he was last spotted."

As they move along, he says to Lieutenant Asher, "Lethal force is authorized for the fugitive. This meta has caused us a lot of problems and we're tired of dealing with him."

Lieutenant Asher is alarmed once the hears the word meta, and said, "A meta? That... that comes as a surprise. God, we really should have been told about that earlier! But I suppose it doesn't matter now. In any case even though I don't know what this meta has done I approve of the idea of putting him down through lethal force. Really no other good way to put them down. I just hope that our firepower will hold..."

"Murder, assault, battery, property damage, and tax evasion."

When they arrive in the town the fugitive, referred to as the Olympian, had fled to, they follow the trail of destruction he left behind to find him in a small house. The troops open fire on him, barely leaving scorch marks on his skin. He charges forward and punches one of the troopers in the chest, cracking his armor and sending him flying for twenty meters.

The heavy trooper teeters at the edge of life once he's sent back flying before dying soon after. Although the armor managed to protect him a bit even when it cracked, he still receives mortal wounds from the attack. The other troopers are both horrified and enraged and open fire on him again, some of them using heavier gatling lasers set to extremely high power.

He mops the floor with two dozen Snowtroopers and a good number of Municipal troopers. With two of the power armored troops, he actually punches right through their chests and out their backs. When he finally drops, accounting for ammunition expended would reveal that more than a thousand shots, as well as a few shaped charges slapped onto him and detonated by some brave soldiers, were required to bring him down. Mind you, that's including fire from heavy blaster rifles that blow apart battle droids in a single hit.

(OOC: Also, because I'm nitpicky like that, a group of soldiers that size would be a platoon, not a squad.)

(OOC: I have little to no knowledge on military terminology. Does that comes as a surprise? )

Once the fugitive is brought down, the Municipal troopers briefly take a rest to pray over and honor their fallen comrades. Then Lieutenant Asher says to the Captain, "I suppose you'd like to take away the fugitive's corpse, correct? In any case, I believe that the Generalissimo has indicated a desire to speak to one of your representatives. We have heard of your people before from the Swiss, however we have never made a proper contact. You'll probably have to send him a message directly."

"I can make contact with my higher-ups to arrange a meeting with one of our ambassadors." He pauses. "By the way, I am sorry about how our problems have spilled onto your backyard. I had hoped some of this planet's resident meta-humans would render assistance. It would certainly have kept fatalities down."

The Lieutenant shrugs, and says, "It is nothing. Problems often spill into our borders from the less stable nations around us. Granted, they are more mundane, but we have to deal with them nonetheless. As for this planet's metahumans, you won't find many around here in North America. Or at least many good ones."

"Yes, but they have a damn moon base." He sighs. "Knowing them, they were probably fighting some energy monster or something." He goes off to contact his superiors and gets a confirmation that they will be sending someone in a few hours. They gather the dead in the meantime.

The Municipal troops do the same for their own comrades, while the Lieutenant goggles at the thought of metahumans having a moon base.

A few hours later, the troops have left and the ambassador has arrived in a shuttle. They radio down that he has arrived.

Some troops are set out to receive the ambassador and lead him to the Generalissimo's office.

He gladly follows. When he enters the Generalissimo's office, he gives a respectful bow. "I am Oswald Cobblepot. It is a pleasure to meet you, Generalissimo."

The Generalissimo bows back, and replies, "Mr. Cobblepot, it is my pleasure to receive you. We have heard many things of the people of Rhea, especially from the Swiss. Your weapons and works are most impressive, as we have seen them used by the Swiss and I imagine that those are of lower quality then those actually used by your people. Would it be a possibility to perhaps begin a trade agreement like the Swiss have made? Obviously we don't seek your best weapons but those of a similar quality that the Swiss receive. We would be willing to pay dearly for them, and we certainly have the funds."

"I believe such a deal can be made. We have plenty of surplus blasters. The civilian market took up most of them but I believe there are still enough that we can sell some to your military. Excuse me for a moment." He pulls out a datapad out of his case. After a few moments of fiddling, he shows the Generalissimo a catalog of surplus blaster models available for purchase.

He looks at their specifications before finally deciding on one reasonably priced one that has a fair amount of firepower. He asks Cobblepot how much gold it would cost to buy 350 of them in milligrams.

"The E-11 blaster rifle. An excellent choice. It has been the workhorse of the Army for a few decades now and one of our most popular carbines. Decent power, a good-sized power pack, selective fire, good accuracy, and even an integrated optical scope. You can get some very well-maintained ones for a quarter of the price of a new one." He lays down the price as 4200 kilograms of gold, including sixty power packs for each rifle. The rifles themselves cost 3150 kilograms of gold, 9 kilograms per rifle. The ammo costs 1050 kilograms, 20 power packs for a kilogram of gold. Each power pack contains enough to fire 100 shots. 2000 rounds per kilogram, effectively.

(OOC: For reference, the gold in this picture would get you one rifle and 2000 rounds of ammo.)

The Generalissimo briefly considers the price, and eventually decides, "I think that 350 is perhaps a bit too much for my purposes. I'll change that to 250 and leave the number of power packs the same. So 3300 kilograms. I will set aside some gold for the purchase at the Knox. You will be able to receive your payment there."

"Will there be anything else you need?"

"Not in particular, no."