TITLE: BOOK 15: DELEGATES AND DELEGATION
Xeno Team, their shiny new ship, and their lofty new clients are on a diplomatic mission of actual diplomacy...
Maxim 66: Necessity is the mother of deception.
NARRATOR: Sol System, port-of-entry escalation office, aboard the battleplate U.N.S.V. Chesapeake...
battleplate: *printed* CHESAPEAKE
BALA-AMIN: What have you got, Lieutenant?
NARRATOR: If you want in, this is where the buck (unadjusted for inflation) stops.
SORLIE: Request for diplomatic credentials.
The vessel and crew are under the contract flag of something called the Neoafan Freehold.
Arriving from and vouched for by Parnassus Dom.
BALA-AMIN: So, mercenaries accompanying diplomats who are requesting official recognition and audience.
SORLIE: Exactly, sir. Everything's in order, but the Neosynchronicity is not the simple corvette it claims to be.
BALA-AMIN: Suspicious shadows on the active scans?
SORLIE: The whole ship is a shadow. I have never seen a hull like this before.
BALA-AMIN: Well... that is interesting. Clear them, grant a full diplomatic banner, and put them inbound along 322-A.
SORLIE: Aye-aye, sir.
BALA-AMIN: We welcome our new friends with open arms.
And if they're not friends, well...
we're big, and our hugs can be a little suffocating.