View source for Session 4 - A Most Holy Congregation

== Session 4 - 4 Feb 2025 - A Most Holy Congregation ==

Iron Horse "raced" for Pesacce's jump limit at 3g, arriving half a day behind Alabama - and with the rush, apparently LCdr Miklas missed something in the astrogation calc. 

During the week in jump, tempers flared between the crew, pilots and newly arrived marines, but also there was a certain amount of bitterness among the crew, especially among those who had been denied shore leave so suddenly after months of hard jumpwork. Chief Rugger took a proactive approach and let it be known that anything that happened between willing participants in Hangar Bay Two would be overlooked, but he would take a VERY DIM VIEW of anything happening elsewhere, or that impaired anyone's ability to stand duty.

Captain Halloway hosted Toshi Yamamoto for dinner with her senior officers. The young noble was a little withdrawn at first but opened up as he seemed to find the Captain's easy Navy formality comforting. It turned out his father had been an officer aboard an IN carrier in Toshi's younger days, resigning his commission to take up the Barony when his mother passed away. Toshi shared his concerns about the situation on Ben's Oath, particularly that he knew the nation of Arrapaho to have recently purchased a pair of TL-12 patrol cruisers from Pesacce, an expensive purchase that might indicate a plan to use them.

Cdr Svensson spent the jump with his engineering staff working to replace the busted power converters in the M-drive, completing all the work they could do without requiring EVA.

LCdr Lee's staff (specifically her Chief Political Nerd PO Amy Jansen) briefed the Captain on the situation in Ben's Oath, according to the data pack that the Pesacce base had send them over. The system was fractured into three main powers of 30-40 million people each, at between TL-6 and TL-8. The mainworld was tidally locked to the star with a narrow strip of viable land around the terminator and three nations. Chaska was the largest and richest with TL-8 and a very oppressive bureaucratic government. It hosts the Imperial Starport and the estate of the local Imperial Noble, Sir Truxton Wolfgramm. Nampeyo is a TL-6 nation of 30 million people with a rather more permissive, if no less bureaucratic government. The third power, Arrapaho is based on a nearby and relatively pleasant moonlet, and has a democratic government with a love of personal freedoms - and a colony, Nantan, of some 20 million people on the mainworld. Each of these powers is staring at the other two over gunsights, with the higher tech and richer Chaska providing a naturally uniting external threat to the other two. Space capbility of all three was weak; with Chaska and Nampeyo each operating a handgul of TL-8 missile boats, while Arrapaho and Nantan were limited to orbital weapons platforms.

The system is a distant binary, with the secondary sun hosting a populous but very low tech world entirely under Chaska's control, and a mining consideration operated by a Chaskan corporation.

The ship transpired to have misjumped - mercifully only suffering a temporal disjuntion and arriving two objective days late and 600 diameters from Ben's Oath. By the time of her arrival, DeShannon and Gerenuk had been in position for two days, with Firebrand detached to Chogan in the secondary system. Alabama had indeed arrived in-system, but unexpectedly landing at Chogan, where Firebrand had been keeping her under observation for the interim.

Conscious that she was in a very unstable-seeming system with empty tanks and a busted manoeuvre drive, Halloway elected to take the eight hours required to let Svensson's crews complete their repairs, then take a three-day detour via the nearest gas giant, before arriving at Ben's Oath with jump tanks full of partially-refined hydrogen. Toshi used the time to communicate with Sir Truxton Wolfgramm on the mainworld, as well as his personal friend the Honourable Mitsoriah Avana.

On approach to the mainworld, the first ship to hail them was the armed Empress Marava-class far trader Bezant Aureus, whose captain Amelia Dvorak was very quick to inform the Navy that she held a Letter of Marque from the Most Holy Congregation of the Order of Tranquility, was here under a legal mercenary contract, and of course respected the authority of the Imperial Navy. Which seemed a bit sus.

Hot on Dvorak's heels was a communique from Terris Brighurst, Chief of Chaska's Foreigh Directorate, welcoming the ship and inviting the Captain and her staff to a reception in Chaska's capital, and her crew to enjoy the delights of startown.

Shortly thereafter, Governer General Demmick Adamson of Nantan extended a similar offer, which Halloway demured.

Sir Truxton Wolfgramm hailed Toshi, greeting him warmly and inviting him, the captain and her staff to visit him at his manor.

Nampeyo were slow off the mark, with the Ambassador to the Imperium Naomi Pulsipher only reaching them an hour after arrival. Halloway determined to visit Sir Truxton then take the Chaskans up on their offer, then to send more junior delegations to visit Nantan and Nampeyo simultaneously.

As boats of crewmen headed for the Starport and liberty in startown, a pair more headed for Sir Truxton's estate, escorted by an entire squadron of Scorpion strikefighters. They deposited Toshi Yamamoto, the captain and her escort of a dozen marines in battledress for a friendly but very statement-making arrival, before everyone retired to a comfortable drawing room for brandies and an explanation of what exactly the hell was going on.