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Blue sat back in her chair, her legs raised up, crossed and resting upon the table infront of her. In her left hand she held a sheet of paper, information she had hand written earlier on in preperation for what was to happen shortly and in her right hand she held a cup of hot coffee. Stood behind her was Major Wedge, the third survivor of Dollet a man which had really started to shine after the event being promoted in such a short time and she had selected him to stand guard over the meeting she had called a General meeting for half 10, it was now 10:25.
Blue takes a sip of the coffee and tilts her head to look back at Wedge before she returns her gaze back to the paper in her hand, smiling faintly at the title, 'Lunatic Pandora' this is what she had called the meeting to discuss along with the issues that Miss Caraway had brought to light.
A few more minutes pass before there is a knock on the door, glancing at the time Blue smirks and then shouts out to the knocker.
"Right on time, get in here all of you."
She says with a smile on her face, she knew that out of all of her Generals only one would be missing and that would be the demon himself who was on a personal errand of some sort, or at least thats what he had told her when Blue told him to come to the meeting. The door opens and the generals would walk in and take their seats.
"Good Morning gentlemen."
She opened up with as she raised her coffee cup up as a gesture of greetings.
"I think its time we discussed Gaia's Mana issue that General Caraway and our new head of diplomacy Rinoa Caraway have been investigation. And further to that I would like to talk about what we can do about it."
With that Blue smiles again and takes another sip of her coffee while she tosses the sheet of paper onto the table.
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[atrb=style, font: 11px Times; word-spacing: 1px; text-align: center; color: #ff000d; padding: 10px]CODING AND GRAPHICS BY DAXXYBABE @ FFJE
Last Edit: Mar 28, 2012 21:09:47 GMT by Demon Lord
Caraway was first to speak, handing Blue a manila folder. Inside it was packed with photographs and reports detailing an armament build up inside the boarders of Gesthal. The other four generals had copies of the same, which they opened and begun riffling through in quiet curiosity.
“Before we get to the Mana deteriorating situation, believe you should all see this. At 0900 today, it was brought to my attention that our reconnaissance missions on the Gesthal Empire have picked something up. Those photographs you have show, according to our analysts, a massive build up of Magitek weapons. I don’t normally like making assumptions, but I’ve seen build up like this before. They are going to move; where, when and against who we do not know yet but the evidence is troubling. This brings us to the next subject. If you’ll turn to section 21b-”
He riffled through several pages, turning to the one with section 21b. “As you all may be aware, Magitek uses the energy extracted from a powerful magic source. This chart shows the estimated increase of Magitek by Gestahlian Empire over the past year in correlation to the estimated decline of Mana reservoirs on Gaia – I believe everyone can see the correlation.” Caraway looked to Blue, “I regret we failed notice this sooner. I’ve ordered further investigations into the matter, we’ll find out what their up to before they move. I can assure you. Any questions?”
One of the other generals, a stuffy and mustached gentleman cleared his throat. “And what of ShinRa? Weren’t we originally lead to believe they were to blame for this-“ dismissively waved his hand, “Mana depletion? Now you’re telling us that it’s actually the Empire?”
“Likely both, perhaps even other factors are involved we haven’t even begun to pick up on our radar. This isn’t a local, isolated issue. It’s a global situation and must have global contributors.”
“And what is it you wish for us to do?” Said the stuffy general; “Ask nicely for them to stop? We know ShinRa won’t but perhaps the Empire is more reasonable?” He sarcastically remarked.
“By all means, I’m sure a strongly worded letter from your desk is just the ticket we need.” Caraway retorted, “This is why we’re here, is it not? Ideas, suggestions?”
We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight.
Blue sits back picking up the file that Caraway had handed out to them all before she starts to flick through the contents slowly as Caraway speaks to them all, nodding to herself the information he had just shared was in line with the information that she had acquired from Siren regarding the empire in Zanarkand.
"Caraway is correct, think of Gaia's magic as a bottle of water and that Shin-Ra has poked a hole in the base to siphon off what it wants, then add into the fact that this Gesthalian Empire has also poked a hole into the base as well. Now wouldn't both sources drain off the water on their own"
She turns to the dissenter, she liked smart people who at least questioned everything, they often brought up good points and the general was of the same opinion as her regarding Shin-Ra.
"I doubt that this Gesthalian Empire would listen, after all"
She pulls out one of the pictures of the Magitek weapons before she throws it across the table to the dissenter.
"If you had something like that would you build up a stockpile if you were not planning on using them against someone? I know that if someone wrote to me and told me to stop building weapons I'd at best, depending on the wording, ignore the request and at worst turn them onto whoever asked me to stop making them."
Blue then takes another sip of the coffee as she ponders for a moment wondering if Rinoa would consider visiting the Gesthalian Empire or whether she would skip the Yevonite continent altogether.
"Anyway, I have two plans for dealing with Shin-Ra, the first and most favorable is the diplomatic approach as Miss Caraway, our new chief diplomat will be approaching Shin-Ra in the near future and try to at least talk the company into lowering its power usage"
She raises her hands up to make sure that they didn't interupt her as she wasn't finished talking yet.
"Now you might consider this plan stupid, but considering the fact that we have in the past ,what, year? Dealt multiple losses to Shin-Ra, costing them many of their elite warriors in the war and then striking down President Shinra who ordered the destruction of Dollet several months ago which lead to Rufus Shin-Ra taking control."
Blue pauses for a moment and takes another sip of the coffee before leaning back and crosses her legs before she resumes speaking up.
"Rufus isn't as stupid nor is he as pigheaded as his father was, he knows that Galbadia right now is stronger than Shin-Ra so he might at least listen, however if he doesn't want to listen this is where my plan B comes into play."
She clicks her fingers and Wedge nods, picking up several files before he starts handing them out to the generals. Each file said 'Lunatic Pandora' on them. Blue smiles faintly as she begins to talk, however her words seemed to feel different as she spoke, even to herself she could only hazard a guess as to why though.
"Some of you should know about this little Relic of the Sorceress War, the Lunatic Pandora was the super weapon that Sorceress Adel had constructed in Esthar and was planning to use to end the war with Galbadia however due to what we now know to be a rebellion led by Esthar's now leader Laguna Loire it was never used actively in the war and was disposed of."
Word count: 600
[atrb=style, font: 11px Times; word-spacing: 1px; text-align: center; color: #ff000d; padding: 10px]CODING AND GRAPHICS BY DAXXYBABE @ FFJE
There’s a low murmur among the generals as Blue passes out the files containing the information on Lunatic Pandora. It was clear there was concern in the air over its viability, use, and the overall nature of the relic. Rumors were rampant about the thing, many of them painting a horrible picture about its supposed purpose from the war.
“You’re – not actually considering using that as our bargaining chip, are you?” Spoke one younger general. His voice was apprehensive and heavy with concern.
“I’m inclined to agree,” Spoke the mustached general, flipping through the file. “We barely know what the thing does and if President Loire was apprehensive to use it, I believe we should be too. Now, don’t get me wrong, I fully endorse a bit of saber rattling with ShinRa but what about the PR repercussions or this being used against us by ShinRa to bolster its allies position against us. The blasted thing was built by Adel, might as well been the devil himself. Do we really want to paint ourselves as users of an Adel device to push our agenda?”
Caraway closed his file and cleared his throat. “I’m apprehensive to go this route so soon; it’s playing our cards too early. We have our X-ATM092 project and not to mention our ICBM systems, while ShinRa is weakening. Perhaps we can impose sanctions against them, threaten embargos before we start threaten them with what is likely a super weapon. Unless I am missing something here, Miss Blue.”
We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight.
Blue luaghs, it was a happy luagh but there was a sinister air to it as well. Part of it was her, although she would only realise that in hindsight. She raises a hand up non-chalantly as she begins to explain herself better, they had jumped the gun all too quickly but she couldn't blame them.
"The Lunatic Pandora is my Plan B, the alphabet dictates that I have a plan A gentlemen. Its not what I want to use to get Shin-Ra to actually fall in line, I would much rather we deal with this diplomatically and as for Lunatic Pandora, I know extactly what it does."
She then smiles and leans forward, resting her elbows onto the table, placing the cup of coffee down. She looks from each one in turn before she puts her left hand onto one of the files and pulls it towards herself with a fainter smile.
"The Lunatic Pandora houses a large crystal pillar that draws down a Lunar cry through the Lunatic Pandora and down onto whatever is under the Lunatic Pandora."
She pauses for a moment as she recalls the infomation about the Lunar Cry phenomanon as it was something she had only learnt when she had learnt about the Pandora itself, she wasn't sure if everyone here would know what a Lunar Cry was.
"To make sure everyone here knows what a Lunar Cry is, it is a natural disater that happens when the Lunar monster population reaches critical mass and a large portion of it is drawn down onto Gaia. The monsters crash down onto Gaia causing large scale damage to Gaia, I believe it wiped out many civilizations over the life of the planet and its probably the 2nd largest contribution to Gaia's monster population."
She sighs and then puases for a breathe before turning to look out of the window before she resumes speaking, the smile fading from her face now as she resumed speaking.
"The X-ATM project is an option would work but would cost many Galbadian lives and the ICBM systems haven't been rebuilt since Shin-Ra destroyed them, plus anything we have developed Shin-Ra can easily sabotage if the Turks get anywhere near them, as for the Sanctions against Shin-Ra its a moot point, shin-Ra is a self sustaining super power, it controls the major resources it requires and its main customers are its own citizens. So yeah, this is my plan B, I had Bikanel Island turned into a Wasteland to cripple the Al Bhed after they attacked both Shin-Ra and Galbadia in order to make sure that they could no longer threaten Galbadia.... So tell me, if Galbadia is kept safe, do you think I'm not fucking willing to paint myself as a monster yet again?"
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[atrb=style, font: 11px Times; word-spacing: 1px; text-align: center; color: #ff000d; padding: 10px]CODING AND GRAPHICS BY DAXXYBABE @ FFJE
Once more a disconcerting murmur builds in the throats of those assembled. Across each of their faces there was the sign of apprehension. As Blue described exactly what the monolith did, it struck the generals broad side. Could she really advocate the use of such a weapon when the risk of it blowing back on Galbadia?
Caraway was the first to speak, reiterating an earlier point. "Ma'am, ShinRa doesn't know our ICBM systems are still off-line - and they won't be for much longer. I've already approved exercises to portray an illusion that we've begun a new round of missile tests. If Shinra is watching, they're sure to brown their trousers. As for the TURKS, those bumbling fools, they are no concern on our soil anymore. I've seen that our security personnel at high-security facilities has been doubled and retrained."
The council's eyes glance to one another, unsure what to say. The mustached dissenter speaks, "We made it appear that the Al Bhed were hit by ShinRa, the populace bought it. It won't happen again, not with that artifact."
Caraway shifted in his chair, "Esthar is well aware we have Pandora, we use it, we won't be able to play innocent. Also, aren't you concerned that unleashing a torrent of fiends upon the planet is contrary to our own interests? Sounds like something that can bite us in the ass in the end - if Galbadian lives are of concern. If diplomacy fails - I don't believe any of us assembled are willing to weigh the risk of a massive plague of fiends rooming theirs or our countryside."
"I think-" An older general spoke up, a lanky sharp man who had an old world appearance. "We need to ramp up our propaganda and recruitment. If we're to consider using a super weapon against a populace we'll need the support of our people and our allies." He sighed, removing his glasses and begun wiping them with a cloth. "Let ShinRa see we've begun a massive build-up, parade that relic around, and see if they're willing to risk calling our bluff in their weakened state. Perhaps we can even buy some surplus arms from the Gardens. They're in trouble financially, aren't they? There's also several companies looking for arms development contracts, perhaps we can investigate one of those."
"Speaking of," The dissenter interjected. "The Garden, what is the status on its revamp?"
"Slow,"Spoke the youngest of the command, "We need more funds to hire proper experts to analyze the systems, it has been rather slap-dash without them."
We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight.
Blue clenches her free fist tightly as they talk, all of them opposed the idea point blank, she would let the issue drop as Caraway moved the point onwards slightly. She sat and listened to his words, she even listened to the other two generals as they both brought up more points. She would then remain silent for a moment before she speaks up again.
"We will not work with foreign weapons companies, the last time Galbadia dealt with one of them we had an overloaded reactor that nearly wiped out a town, which is only recently been cleaned up. I don't care if the company is different to Shin-Ra, it is still too much of a risk to allow a foreign power to have so much power within our own military. As for the TURKs never count them out, they might seem like bumbling fools, but they snuck in and out of Galbadia without being detected even after they blew up the Military base, and I would rather scatter SeeD to the wind than purchase anything from them... However as for hiring technical experts to analyse the Garden itself, thats fine, extra funding can be put towards that since we need the Garden to be fully functional to prevent ourselves being out gunned if we ever have to deal with an Airforce."
The youngest general gave a nod and wrote down orders in a ledger at his side. “I’ll put in the request immediately.” He stated, breathing a sigh of relief that finally they’d have the chance to get that whole debacle done with.
“With that out of the way, I’d like to request additional funds for the reconstruction of the Dollet Station.” Caraway mentioned. “We’re already far over budget, but I cannot stress the importance we get that operating again. As I’m sure you agree.” Caraway shuffles the papers before him, scanning for anything else. “Let’s see… anyone have anything that we’ve missed?”
((Ok I got nothing more. - _-))
We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight.
Blue leaned back into her chair and relaxed her fist completely as the discussion moves onto the topic of the Dollet outpost's funding. Raising her right arm up she rubs her chin gently as she recalls the projects status, as far as she was aware most of the building work was done it was simply just installing the systems inside the outpost.
"Okay fine more funding can be granted to the Dollet outpost in order to finish off the construction and installation, however we should start moving operating staff we have on standby from the Midgar base as well as from here in the capital to make sure that once the build is finished we can have it operating as soon as possible."
With that said she drops her hand back down onto the table before she starts to drum her fingers on the wooden surface as she considers something for a moment. She knew how to use it, however some of the technology behind it, the technology that the old Esthar had put into it might at least be understood by Galbadia.
"We should also at least portion off some of our best and brightest to examine the Lunatic Pandora, so we'll move it to where the Military Base used to be before setting up a parimeter around it while it can be better understood since no one is for using it unless absolutely needed. If there is a civilian uproar regarding the Lunatic pandora make it known that we will accept Civilian scienctists into the Lunatic pandora as long as they have documentation showing that they are citizens. Aside from that station Major Wedge, his unit and some of the prototype X-ATMs inside it as well."
She then falls silent for a moment before she looks around the table once more, making sure she looked each general in the eye.
"I assume gentlemen that this usage of the Lunatic Pandora is acceptable as an alternative to parading it around."
Word Count: 334 Total Count: 1986
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A contemplative lull befell the assembled command, thinking on Blue’s question. After a moment, Gen. Caraway spoke up, “I see that as acceptable. We’ll allocate our best onto the project immediately, perhaps we could eventually figure out how to control the result of its use, even.”
The other generals scrawl notes into their dockets, to finalize their orders and pass on to underlings. The mustachioed general spoke up next. “We’ll move personnel to the Redux project immediately, but I am recommending that we go ahead with civilian scientists to supplement those already under our command. Nab a few of the brightest from the universities, get a fresh perspective.”
“Gods willing,” Spoke the young General, “We’ll be back on track before our neighbors get jumpy again. We done here, anything left to address?”
We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight.
Blue smiles as the generals all agree with her suggested compromise regarding the Lunatic Pandora and listens to the generals suggestion. She ponders it a moment before she nods, it was a sensible request. Her hand moves to her coffee cup as she replies to all of the generals.
"That is easily acceptable, however if we are inviting civilians into the Lunatic Pandora project we should probably announce its recovery and discovery publically and get the political as well as domestic issues out into the open. Might as well play with our cards on the table in this case then. However please still make sure any sciencetists are galbadian citizens before they are allowed access to the Lunatic Pandora. If that is acceptable I believe that we can end the meeting here gentlemen"
Blue then lifts the coffee cup to her lips and finishes off the now lukewarm coffee before she watches the generals.
[atrb=style, font: 11px Times; word-spacing: 1px; text-align: center; color: #ff000d; padding: 10px]CODING AND GRAPHICS BY DAXXYBABE @ FFJE
The generals were in agreement, Caraway appearing quite pleased with the overall results of the meeting. They had a direction and issues were addressed. Now to just implement them before it all had to change – and it will always have to change.
The mustachioed general spoke up, “Certainly, we’ll screen every last one down to who they shared a maternity ward with as wee babies. We’ll get started on a roster of potential candidates immediately.” Caraway chimed in next, “Yes, suppose it is time we let our friends and enemies know what we’re willing to bring to the plate should they think about getting twitchy. I’ll coordinate with the PR and Press to release a statement in the next few days – once we have a begun vetting for new researchers. Shinra will be pissing themselves before the week is over.”
With the meeting adjourned, the generals collected their papers and began to depart. They milled and mingled for a bit, some contacting aids and other assistants to being working on what they discussed. Most excused themselves politely and returned from whence they came.
Bonus!: 150 Exp and 150 gil + 1 potion (for the wait).
We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight.
