Board Thread:Random RP/@comment-26535281-20170618185648/@comment-26444332-20170628221605

Arthur shuts the sliding door, the electromagnetic tracks that had once made it glide smoothly on its own long since fried. He throws off his hood and bandana and unwinds the thick bandages covering his arms and neck, letting the caked white sands of Mercury fall free onto the metal floor.

'Well, sir? How was it?' one of the other people in the room asks.

'Not good.' Arthur replies. 'Generator's shot. Clean burn: must have been a laser from during the war. We won't get her off the ground.'

'Should we scrap her?'

'That's a given. Take anything off her that still works and get it to the ships in orbit. Break apart anything that doesn't work and all the metal: we can probably use it to repair the city's vaporators.'

'Yes, sir!'

Arthur leans back against the cool metal wall as dozens of Mercurians leave through the door, cycler rifles shouldered, sand swirling behind them. They almost seem like the people from that ancient film they sometimes could show on the video screens for the children- the Sand People, yes. Arthur thought that was most appropriate to describe the people of Mercury. Sand People.

-

'I'm begging you, please!' Arthur said, slamming a palm onto the table. 'We must keep the Reprisal in port!'

Several of the board members shook their heads.

'We can't leave our only cruiser on the distant edges of the system.' one said. 'It needs to be here, defending us.'

Arthur threw a hand wide, gesturing to the video screen on the wall which showed the general position of the planets in their orbits.

'Do you realize what you're doing here! You'd send the Reprisal, five hundred good men and women's lives, not to mention our only laser cannon, on a course that would put them right through Federation territory!'

The board was silent, but Arthur knew they wouldn't budge. They were fearful, fearful of war, and fear does strange things to people. One of the directors presses a button on the table, a console from an old Monarch dreadnought.

'Contact Reprisal on encrypted frequency. Message reads as follows: "Return to Post Orbit Mercury using designated flight path 574-C, effective immediate upon transmission acknowledgement."'

Arthur sighs, turns, and walks out of the room, two of his only "real" soldiers falling into step behind him.

'They elect me advocate-general and then expect me to sit back and do absolutely nothing...' he murmurs, storming down the hallway.

'Sir? Your orders?' one of the commanders asked.

'Squadron up in ten, and tell the Surprise to expect my arrival. Hopefully we can catch Reprisal before she runs into any Federation vessels and get her through unharmed. They tend to shoot first if they think you're dangerous.'