>>36685118
You and the squad you lead, Able aka Unable, work for the RDBFO, an organization controlled by the Terran Hegemony which in turn controls Earth following the Cryptid Wars.
Shizi, Hazuko, Teza, Jezori, Suko, Vivel, and Veronika. Not one of them is normal and at least one of them has called you a "fucking abomination", but they're your squad. They mean something to you, that's something memory won't get rid of.
In any case, the mission to the cathedral was "successful" in staining holy grounds with the blood of innocents and unleashing some behemoth from the sewers upon a city. Then after your extraction Command informed that Able wasn't alone, twelve other squads were tricked into going onto unsanctioned missions intended solely to cause collateral damage. Somehow Able left the lowest bodycount (couple thousand) and was then granted a vacation until 10 AM today while they conducted investigations.
Investigations into how Major Gregori Thomo, a man whose execution was broadcast to the galaxy three years ago, authorized the missions with access that was revoked even before his death.

It's now 9:09 and the tram just arrived. A few off from the AI's claim of "two minutes", but whatever. You follow the signs to the hangar.

>>36685140
You wait a while, idly chatting with the AI about nothing in particular.
Vivel's the first show up, followed by Jezori and Suko. Vivel politely if you needed anything, Jezori seems to be reluctant to even look at you, and Suko immediately went into the transport to stand in the shadows. Veronika skitters up a few minutes later, chatting with Jezori about their shared hatred of a certain reporter and news anchor.
Teza shortly after rushes in, apologizing
to you for not arriving sooner. Hazuko arrives twenty seconds later, smiling and playfully taking her sweet time in skipping over to the shuttle.
Shizi doesn't show up until 9:52, though with URI (Useless Ritual Implant) in tow, complete with organs still stuffed into the poor drone. Somehow it doesn't smell, probably magic or something.
At 10 AM everyone gets seated and the shuttle departs from Orbital Cityscape Little Downtown.

The region of space around Earth is heavily fortified and patrolled. Over half the vessels in plain sight are Hegemony warships, painted in mostly black with red and orange mixed in. There are numerous stations orbiting the planet, a third of which look like they have giant cannons of some sort.
You try asking Teza what some things are, namely the cannons.
"Uh sorry Boss, Earth's actual defensive capabilities are kept need-to-know!"
You shrug, looking out the window back towards Little Cityscape, a large RDBFO logo on it.

It'll be a short while until the transport reaches its destination, might as well talk to the squad...
>"Have all of you been to Earth?"
>"How's the environment these days?"
>"What's with all the militarization? We look ready for war."
>"Are aliens allowed to visit Earth?"
>"Can you guys tell me about Thomo?"
>"What's RDBFO stand for?"
>(insert option)

>>36685164
>"Have all of you been to Earth?"
>"How's the environment these days?"
>"Can you guys tell me about Thomo?"

bump

>"Have all of you been to Earth?"
>"How's the environment these days?"
>"Can you guys tell me about Thomo?"

"Have all of you been to Earth?"
"I'm from the colonies. Don't really see the point in visiting." Veronika states, everyone else seems to be earth-born however.
"I haven't been there since finishing Valkyrie training." Suko's voice states from the shadows.
"I'd rather not go back...my family didn't like my psionic powers."
"I lived in a nice-big city, though all the soldiers made me a little uneasy and they never liked my music..."
"Went back to Terra last year to collect some rare plants, didn't go to many places."
"Went on vacation there for a few months two years ago, mostly just to learn some spells from my family."
"Unless you will otherwise my Lord, there's nothing for me back home."
Hmm...
"How's the environment these days?" You ask.
"Doing a lot better since we found out how to rid of radiation and pollutants, as far as I know." Shizi answers.
"Still a lot of ruins still leftover from the Cryptid Wars. Surprisingly clean since people've have been using synthetics to clean up trash." Jezori states.
"I remember there being a LOT of stuff on the ground while me and my parents were running away from the Wars, so many just running into the woods."
"Good thing we have the bots then, they'll do a damned good job of cleaning up." Shizi smirks.
That one HegePedia article also mentioned something about ecological advancements if you remember right.

>>36687067
You wait a minute before asking the next question.
"Can you guys tell me about Thomo?" Veronika, Suko, Shizi, and Jezori's faces indicate that they don't have a high opinion of him.
"Traitor." Suko answers in one word.
"Bastard sold our own intel to insurgents, criminals, and alien agencies, making sure it was always something that would get people hurt or killed.
He had some good spies assigned to him, he had them steal foreign intel which then either also sold or just plain leaked. Ruined a lot of peace treaties alien races made with each other, reignited old feelings of hate, tried to smuggle nukes to colonial rebels and NT terrorists. Last one we actually helped stop."
"If by help you meant me shooting the absolute hell out of a glorified listening post while the other team recovered the thing, then yeah we helped." Suko dryly remarks.
"It was a little annoying to have my shots blocked twice by maimed torsos sent flying by your fireworks display." Suko chuckles at Veronika's remark in turn.

Almost there...

>"What's with all the militarization? We look ready for war."
>"Are aliens allowed to visit Earth?"
>"What's RDBFO stand for?"
>"How'd Thomo get executed?"
>"Colonial rebels? NT?"

>>36687087
>"How'd Thomo get executed?"
>"Colonial rebels? NT?"
>"What's the current interstellar situation? It almost looks like the Hegemony is going to a war footing."

>"How'd Thomo get executed?"
>"Colonial rebels? NT?"
>"What's the current interstellar situation? It almost looks like the Hegemony is going to a war footing."

“How’d Thomo get executed?”
“Firing squad.” “Bullets.” “Automatic weaponry. “BLAM BLAM BLAM!”
Veronika, Suko, Teza, and Hazuko respectively answer simultaneously. One louder than the other.
“Automatic weapons for a firing squad?”
“Eight rifles magdumped into the bastard at once.” Veronika provides an answer again.
“Brain was destroyed beyond recovery and his corpse was cremated. They broadcasted that too, though it only had a quarter of the views. That’s still tens of billions who watche him get plastered with bullets and burned to a crisp. Only way I can think of him ‘surviving’ is him uploading a personality copy, his division didn’t have access to mind uploads."

>>36690242
“So, colonial rebels? NTs?”
Veronika speaks up yet again, she’s talkative this morning.
“Rebels are a bunch of shitheads who think they can live without the Hegemony and be independent of any of the couple hundred alien empires. And they tend to act like they’re better than the NTs while getting help from them.”
“What are NTs?”
“Non-Terran humans my Lord.” Vivel unexpectedly speaks up, kneeling towards you.
“They are descendants of humans who ended up elsewhere in the galaxy. Most were abducted by visiting races and either bred with fellow humans, aliens, or both. A few ended up elsewhere via teleportation, others have offered explanations nor worth repeating. A few groups of NTs have established themselves as minor but notable powers in galactic politics. The NTs that Thomo worked with were part of a sect that believed some force rescued them what humanity was going to become and that it was their mission to help those who also…you get the idea.” Vivel promptly drops to the floor.
“Why is she always falling asleep?” You ask.
Shrugs are your only answer. You can always ask her you suppose.

You look back out the window.
"What's the current interstellar situation? It almost looks like the Hegemony is going to a war footing."
Shizi smirks.
“First Contact was the Hegemony stumbling upon a full-scale fleet engagement. It was already pretty big on firepower since it came into being because of a global war for humanity’s survival. Made even bigger guns when we found that a third of the galaxy was busy shooting each other. Add that to several short conflicts plus war and unrest continuing to escalate, the Hegemony’s been expecting an invasion of Sol for years. Coupled with what happened yesterday…”
"I see. Also, looks like we're here."

And that's all for tonight. i jumped the gun saying I'd run the next day without checking my schedule well enough.