Great Northern Ocean 23rd March 2021Fleet Captain Mark Sullivan sighed as he stood looking down at the touchscreen table that the Achkaerinese military and intelligence communities called the 'chessboard' he commanded the
INS Firebreather, a Riviere class destroyer in the Achkaerinese navy his current orders were to hunt down and deal with the rogue Clysperi submarine that was somewhere in the Northern Ocean, they hadn't had a lot of success yet but that was perhaps to be expected, the ocean was rather vast and the Clysperi submarine by comparison very very small. Mark was the senior officer in the group of ships that were assigned to this task and was in the process of reworking the search pattern again when the bridge chatter increased for a moment.
"Sir." the coms officer said "You need to hear this."
"On speaker." Mark said
"IMS Poseidon, repeat this is the IMS Poseidon declaring an emergency ship has been hijacked by the Sorority of Materna...." The distress call was cut off and Mark's eyes widened, what the heck were the Sorority doing this far north? "All right set a course for the Poseidon tell the
Normandy they'll have to search alone for now. Contact Command let them know what's occurring."
INS Valiant, Strait of Shaw, 13th July 1998The
INS Valiant cruised slowly through the Strait of Shaw heading down to the mid region of the strait, specifically the Marseilles area. Standing in command on the bridge was
Captain Peter Azurewind, Crown Prince of Achkaerin and somewhat lucky to have his rank, in truth he felt like he'd been accelerated up the ranks because of who he was rather than his ability, something he was keen on seeing stopped when the time came for him to occupy the throne. He was reading over the orders that had been sent to him for this mission, they were very weird when compared to what he was used to most of his orders were patrol routes this was a special forces operation and he was the chauffeur. A few weeks earlier at the beginning of May the ruling family of Aquitaine had been killed, assassinated by the Marseilles military, it read very much like the feud over Aquitaine sovereignty had come to a head but then out of nothing a message had landed at the Achkaerinese embassy in Montaulon, the capital of Marseilles, and it was the contents of that message that had brought the
Valiant to the Strait. It was a dark cloudy night, no moon, no stars were visible, the rain was falling lightly
"Approaching position sir." the helm officer
Ensign Hermione Bennett said
"Thank you Hermione go to all stop." Peter said
"All stop aye sir." Hermione said
"Aoife?" Peter asked
"No sign of any Marseilles reaction to our presence, no shadows, no aircraft."
Lieutenant Aoife Thorn the senior weapons officer aboard the ship said
"And now we find out if this is for real or some sort of elaborate trap."
Commander Celine Tyler, the ships XO said
"Yep" Peter said he looked at his watch, their contact from inside Marseilles, their source on this had stated in communication that one of the Aquitaine noble family, the newborn daughter had survived the massacre of the family. This was an extraction of that child from the country. "Celine."
"Captain?" Celine asked
"Launch it." Peter said
"Aye sir." Celine said she picked up the radio "This is the XO commence
Spectrum"
No sooner had Celine given the order than a
Finch was taking off from the
Valiant and flying into Marseilles, the hope was that the stealth features on the helicopter would get the onboard Achkaerin Special Forces Team in and out without being detected. The ASF team was Silver Troop under the command of
First Lieutenant William Yates the helicopter journeyed not more than a couple of miles inland, settling on the Marseilles coast in the countryside close to the cliffs, the ASF team disembarked and fanned out securing a small perimeter, William looked at his watch they were right on time now where was their contact? His orders were clear, he was to wait up to two hours and then get back to the ship if the contact was a no show. Fortunately it didn't take long before a lone off road vehicle pulled up, out got a man carrying a baby seat in one hand a sports over his shoulder, he moved quickly forwards to where the Achkaerinese soldiers were waiting.
"Captain Cartier Aquitaine Yeomanry." the man said
"Lieutenant Yates." William said "That her?" he indicated the child in the seat.
"Yes this is Daničle Aveline." Cartier said "Technically she's the Duchess of Aquitaine."
"What's in the bag?" William asked, unzipping it to inspect
"Baby clothes, nappies, wipes, bottles, her favourite stuffed toy and some documents that are for her when she's older." Cartier said
"Ok." William said he took the bag and the seat containing Daničle and headed back to the finch "Silver Troop move it out."
Shortly thereafter back aboard the
Valiant Peter was crouched in his quarters changing Daničle's nappy, it was something he was well practiced at having done plenty of his son's, his newborn daughters, his nieces and nephew as well. He smiled as he finished changing the nappy and got a smile from Daničle who was cuddling her stuffed toy rabbit. "Ok then." Peter said lifting Daničle up "Let's put you to bed." he put her in the cot that had been set up in his quarters and watched as she went to sleep, he let out a deep breath, two years earlier he'd promised Cecelia Anselmo that he'd look after Beatrice and now here he was with another exiled royal under his protection. Would that be his legacy he wondered? The father coming through all the time?
Marble Palace, Valtheim, 23rd March 2021Peter stood looking out of the window of his study, he was enjoying a little bit of personal time reading one of his favourite stories - Watership Down, he glanced at where the book sat open on his desk just in front of Daničle's
stuffed rabbit, she'd given it to him on the father's day just before she returned to Aquitaine. He could still remember seeing Daničle grow up watching her run around with Simon, Serenity and Beatrice plus occasionally Celine's daughter Yuki, Peter actually chuckled a little as he remembered that Lucinda Hadley had come along later.
"Peter." Celine said stepping into the study "We've got a problem."
"Please tell me Adriana's not been on social media again." Peter said
"She hasn't." Celine said "The
IMS Poseidon's been hijacked by the Sorority of Materna."
"First I wish you had said that Adriana had been on social media again." Peter said "Second what are the Sorority doing hijacking a Rokkenjiman ship?"
"No idea yet." Celine said "The distress call received by our ships got cut off. They're on their way to the location now."
"Ok." Peter said he sighed "I want at least a ten kilometre perimeter around the
Poseidon no ship or aircraft within it, isolate it and make sure Rokkenjima know what's going on please."
OOC - Anyone who wants to play hostages or ships picking up the distress call, offers of support etc is welcome to jump in. Anyone needing info on the Sorority give me a yell.