Peace Talks - Day 2 (Morning)

Posted on Sat Jan 11th, 2014 @ 1:43am by Captain Paul MacLeod & Colonel Danny Lennox & First Ramata`tar & Lieutenant General Jewel 'M'lara' Dartt & Brigadier General David Hurd Sr & Sergeant Major Marcus Pepper & Gunnery Sergeant Marcus Ermey & Gunnery Sergeant Agtx & 1st Lieutenant Taz

2,606 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Mission 84 - Blockade
Location: Deep Space 14 / USS Sutherland
Timeline: 13 hours after 'Peace Talks - Day 1'

On:

After the delegates returned to the conference room on day one, the Krazzle quickly made an excuse and dismissed themselves from the conference room and returned to their ship.

The rest of the day was rather quiet, and allowed everyone to de-stress.

The next morning, the Excelsior class USS Tirpitz arrived at DS14. Aboard was Marine General and new Diplomatic Officer from Starbase 400, Jewel Dartt. Also aboard was the new First Marine Division First Sergeant, Sergeant Major Marcus Pepper.

The Marines from SB400 along with First Ramata’tar and Commanders MacLeod and Reynolds were gathered in the Conference room as Dartt and Pepper entered along with another Marine. The Caitan Corporal, Cather, held his position near to the door.

Marcus Pepper halted a few paces behind the officers he had followed into the room. He had a quick glance at the welcoming party and then glanced around the room working out any possible places an attack could come from and where he could shove the officers so they was out of the line of fire. He hated diplomatic missions, they always made him feel like he was on display. He felt like he should be out checking security or keeping an eye on the patrols or even better be far far far away from here on a battlefield.

MacLeod was the first to step forward, “General, I’m Commander MacLeod. This is Commander Reynolds, CO of DS14 and I believe you know Colonel Hurd and his Staff.”

Jewel walked in the room along with the Marine, she seen David and then looked at Commander McLeod and Commander Reynolds, "Nice to meet both of you, and yes I do know the Colonel and his staff." she stated as she straighted out her uniform. She looked at David for a moment to see the look on his face she just gave him a small smile.

"I have read the majority of what is going on here, but care to go more in detail of what I be dealing with?" she asked looking at Commander MacLeod.

"So far." Mac started, "Nothing has happened. The Delegates have introduced themselves, we broke for lunch but when we reconvened the Krazzle excused themselves. We're supposed to begin in about ten minutes for this morning's session."

Mac then paused, then added, "So none of you are surprised...First."

From the back corner, First Ramata'tar unshrouded himself, so Dartt, Pepper, and Cather were aware the big Jem'Hadar was present in the room."

"The First is our little surprise, in case the Krazzle become rowdy." Mac smirked as Ramata'tar reshrouded as he backed into the shadows again. He looked around the room, now there were six Humans, a Vulcan, a Gorn, a Caitian, a Krazzle, and an unseen Jem'Hadar in the room for security. The Krazzle delegation would be crazy to try something....wouldn't they?

Duval came over as he handed a PADD to Commander MacLeod. "Sir, the report you asked me for." he turned to the General whom he did not know yet she looked familiar to him. "General."

To Duval, this mission was intolerable as he detected meet and greet scenarios like these as he'd rather be out in the field or driving a shuttle, dropping off a tank to friendly forces under fire or evacuating a squad of troops, one look at the other noncom told him that the other guy felt as he did as he nodded to Pepper.

She looked at Duval, "Master Sergeant," she replied in kind with a smile as she heard of Duval and knew his attitude at times. She thought of herself and kinda laughed at herself in her head.

Mac glanced at the PADD, but the doors to the Conference Room opened as the C'Hakilians entered from one side and the Krazzle from the other.

The C'Hakilian delegation was again small, Crown Prince Yinisl and his Staff of three, but the Krazzle delegation had grown. Ra' Graline now had six Staff members with him. Mac took a breath, but didn't comment on the additional two Krazzle Warriors.

"If everyone will take their seats, we'll begin." Mac said as he flashed a smile. "This is General Jewel Dartt, new Diplomatic Officer for Starbase 400."

The C'Hakilians all nodded respectfully to Dartt as the Prince added, "Welcome, and thank you."

However, the only response from Graline was another low grunt. His original Staff took seats flanking the new Krazzle Emperor, while the additional two Warriors stood behind Ra' Graline, one to each side, clearly showing they were his body guards.

Mac, Reynolds, and Dartt all took seats while the Marines spread out around the room.

Dartt looked at the Krazzle leader and took a deep breathe, thinking to herself, 'oh lord, this isn't going to turn out good....' she though as she then nodded to the Prince.

"Thank you for all being here today," she began noting the tension in the room. She looked at Macleod and everyone else for a moment. This was her first job after being off duty for a while. "We are hoping we can come to a peaceful solution here." she added then looked at Macleod.

“The Federation is not here to take sides, we’re here at the request of the C’Hakilians to help broker a lasting peace that’s fair to both sides.” MacLeod started, but Graline quickly cut him off.

“You lie!” He said with a growl. “Yourrr ships arrre deployed along theirrr borrrderrrs in a defensive formation!”

“Our ships are only there to protect the ceasefire and peace during these negotiations.” MacLeod quickly replied. He tapped a few buttons on the conference table and activated the display screens around the room. One behind Pepper and another behind Duval and Hurd. “As you can see, all Federation, Klingon, and Cardassian ships are along the borders of C’Hakilian space. Only the agreed to relief convoys are in open space and none are in Krazzle territory.”

“We have standing orrrderrrs to firrre on any vessel in open spaccce ssseen asss a thrrreat!” Graline added.

Mac looked at the map, then added, “The ONLY Federation ships within open space are medical and aid convoys heading to C’Hakilian territory, as agreed to in the initial talks. I would suggest these ships be left alone.

“My orrrderrrs stand.” Graline replied as he crossed his arms.

Mac looked at Dartt for a moment, then replied, “Then our ships will defend themselves.” Mac replied coldly. “However, that would be counterproductive. We’re here to talk peace, not war that could turn into an all-out Galactic War that would make the Dominion War look like a border skirmish.”

Dartt knew things were starting off really bad, taking a deep breathe she looked at the Krazzle, "Sir, if we were as you say taking sides we wouldn't be here. We are here to delegate peace between the Krazzle and the C'Hakilian's" she said calmly with a smile.

Duval knew this was heading into a pissing contest with the Krazzle envoy making an ass of himself in front of everyone as he suddenly found himself wishing he had his rifle or his side-arm, hell even the dozen or so throwing knifes his mate had acquired for him.

Marcus Pepper was looking at the shadows where the warrior had vanished, he knew from experience that on the odd occasion you could see a slight haze if a cloaked person moved. The problem was the area that he was looking was shaded and he couldn't quite make out any haze. He found himself absently thumbing his belt where his combat knife usually was. He glanced around the room once more and noticed one of the opposition guards watching him, the two gave each other a curt nod. Marcus looked up at the display above his head then slowly circulated to a position where he could see the display. The other guard mirrored his movement and the two ended up stood almost side by side. They watched the display a little then watched the bickering delegation.

So far, the talks were going nowhere, and Mac could feel his anger growing. He took a deep breath, being a diplomat just wasn’t his strong point. After a moment, he took a different approach.

“Ra’, let’s focus on the ongoing war. The C’Hakilians are willing to concede some of the territory that the Krazzle have taken, however they have a list of seven star systems they want returned. They also want the return of all C’Hakilian civilians and military personnel taken prisoner during the way, in exchange the C’Hakilians are willing to return all captured Krazzle civilians taken when they took the Rrraw’la system just before the ceasefire as well as Military personnel captured during various engagements.” MacLeod described. He was fully aware the Krazzle saw capture and surrender as dishonorable, but he hoped the Krazzle wanted the resource rich Rrraw’la system with his nearly completed military base and research facility back bad enough to give in.

Graline grunted, then turned to either side to confer with his aides. After a moment’s thought, he replied. “We will exchange perrrsonnel, but we will only rrrreturn two ssystemss. Sepherrr and Charrrmon.”

C’Hakilian Crown Prince Yinsil was not happy with the counter-proposal. “Thank you for returning Sepher and Charmon, but we insist you also return Ral’far and Tregar.”

“Trrregarrr is a Krrrazzzle worrrld that YOU stole frrrom us nearly one hundrrred yearrrs ago, now it is Krrrazzzle again.” Graline replied back.

Yinsil started to open his mouth, but MacLeod held his hand up to stop him, “If the Krazzle keep Tregar, will you return the Espa Zeta system to the C’Hakilians?” Mac asked of Graline as he looked at a map of the area. He hoped the Krazzle would give in, as the Ral’far, Espa Zeta, Sepher, and Charmon would give much easier access to C’Hakilian space to the Federation and vice-versa, on a line from DS14. It would also return some key resource rich worlds to the C’Hakilians as well the Royal Family’s ancestral homeworld of Sepher.

“You’ll still control more than ten other systems your military took from the C’Hakilians during the course of the war.” MacLeod added.

Jewel listened to what was being said between MacLeod, the Krazzle and the C'hakilians. "I believe that is more then fair Ra'" Jewel added looking at MacLeod, "I believe that we should break for lunch and come back, and a final decision can be made?" she asked both to MacLeod and the delegates.

Duvall raised an eyebrow but he knew that once peace was declared, both sides would go back to building up their forces and the C'hakillian's in particular would learn the lessons learned from this conflict but he had a feeling that the Ra’ would only give in grudgingly and then would toss more conditions at the C'hakillian's for peace.

Col. Hurd stood, quietly taking in the debate that was going on in the room, his hand tightend almost imperceptibly on his Phaser. He took in a quick glance around the room, and noticed Duvall looking at him. He nodded slightly, and returned to his scan of the room, noticing First Ramata'tar standing, cloaked. He smiled inwardly, and gazed around still. scanning his threat sectors and keeping his eyes on the Conference, and his Marines.

Yinsil stood and politely nodded as Graline also stood and made several sounds that sounded like hisses and growls to everyone else in the room. Once they left, Mac turned to Sergeant Taz.

“He said, ‘If you take from me, you will rrregrrret it.’ It’s a Krazzle proverb, in this case, he’s mad we are making him return several systems his forced took during war. Any other compromises will be much harder to get his agreement to.” Taz replied.

Mac nodded and thought for a moment. “Sergeant Major, head to the Promenade, keep an eye open down there, make sure no fights break out during lunch.”

"Aye aye sir" Pepper replied as he snapped to attention, he then turned and headed out to keep an eye on things

A moment later, the comm beeped, Mac read over the report from DS14’s Ops then shared the info with everyone left in the room. “DS14’s Ops is reporting multiple Federation relief convoys heading toward C’Hakilian space are under attack, all are in open space and Starships are responding.”

“Krazzle? Didn’t they agree to allow those convoys safe transit?” Lennox spoke up.

“They aren’t sure who the attackers are yet, but with Graline’s warnings earlier it doesn’t look good. They did agree to allow relief convoys in and out provided they didn’t enter Krazzle space or currently occupied territory.” Mac replied.

Jewel shook her head for a moment, "This doesn't look good at all," she said looking at MacLeod. "Not really liking how these delegations are going, I have a bad feeling about the Ra' for sure." she stated looking at him.

“Neither am I, even though we’ve made some progress in getting some key systems returned to the C’Hakilians for their infrastructure as well as a shared border between the Federation and C’Hakilian Empire.” Mac replied. “I just have a bad feeling someone else is pulling the strings here. Talking peace, but pushing to see how close to war we’ll get.”

"So what will be our next course of action?" Jewel asked the Commander.

Duval raised an eyebrow as he turned his attention to the Ra''. "I think he's either rattling the sabre to prove a point or he's just being belligerent." Duval knew that someday he would face the Ra'' in battle someday and only one of them would walk away.

“Probably a little bit of both.” Mac replied to Duvall. He then looked back at the General, “Let’s put all of our cards on the table. He has a list of the systems we want returned, he’s already agreed to allow all C’Hakilian Citizens to return to C’Hakilian space if they return any Krazzle Citizens they have captured…but I think we need rattle our saber. We tell them we demand a DMZ set up between Krazzle and C’Hakilian space as well as along the Federation/Krazzle border…and remind them we have over seventeen-hundred Federation, Klingon, and Cardassian ships along their border and within striking distance to nearly all of the Krazzle’s core worlds, including their homeworld…and we can have another five hundred ships here within two days, not mention over twenty relief convoys that can be redeployed to support advancing fleets, while his fleet has already suffered some losses to the C’Hakilians and he’s cut off from his Typhon Pact allies. If he believes we’ll assault his territory if he refuses to compromise…maybe he’ll back down a little.”

"That's a risky plan but if you think it will work then I am in for it," Jewel stated as she looked around.

Mac paused, and looked around the room. "What is it Captain Kirk once said, 'Risk is part of the game'"

"Indeed Commander," Jewel stated as she straightened out her uniform. "It's a risk we have to take," she added adjusting her stance. She was still getting used to her leg with little pain.

“Let’s all get something to eat, meet back here in 90 minutes, that’ll be a few minutes before the delegates return.” Mad then said to everyone.



tbc...

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