Mission Briefing

[Cptn Elias Moore 0]

NX-05 Challenger

Mission Briefing -- February 5, 2156

 

The secret of the ancient tomb beneath Nequencia III was no longer a secret. A chamber concealed within the deepest recesses of the underground complex housed the tomb's "VIP's," warriors that had been altered on a genetic level. This is what had necessitated the construction of a defensive mega-weapon and this is what a crew claiming loyalty to the L'Traisan House Bo-Fang were willing to die for.

 

There were still questions to be answered, however... such as the question of the incoming fleet of L'Traisan ships. The Bo-Fang captives in the brig claimed that the remnants of their house were spread throughout the galaxy; it wouldn't be a stretch to anticipate more Bo-Fang ships arriving to fight for Nequencia. But this fleet was en route from the L'Traisan system, and the Bo-Fang were remnants of a bygone era of L'Traisan politics, outlawed on their former homeworld by all accounts. On the other hand, if it was a fleet of the L'Traisan government, why were they spurning hails?

 

As the away team returned from the planet and proceeded into medical decon, Elias read over a report that was passed on to him by Lieutenant T'Parek. It chronicled the history of House Bo-Fang. Their economic shrewdness and military cunning had allowed them to gain great prominence within ancient L'Traisa's feudal system; their lofty ambitions and unrivaled capacity for cruelty had allowed them to rise to the top. In the process, they had made a great many enemies, most prominent among them being the three Houses of the Alliance, whose warriors were buried beneath Nequencia III. Though the Alliance's war failed to crush House Bo-Fang, their efforts managed to weaken the Bo-Fang grip on L'Traisa, sending the ruling House on a path of self-destruction that gradually fostered the rise of a democratic government.

 

This, the chronicle of House Bo-Fang's decline, was quite an interesting read, as it suggested a great deal of strife between the House's leaders, mostly over territories annexed from the Alliance. It suggested that House Bo-Fang loyalty, something that had never been strong to begin with amidst such apparent decadence, all but dissolved during the final years of the House's reign. Was this a crude portrait of the Bo-Fang painted by L'Traisa's modern leaders in an effort to discredit the society's feudal roots? Histories could easily be skewed, particularly in the aftermath of great political upheaval. But if there was any accuracy to these accounts, why was there a band of soldiers sitting in the brig claiming staunch loyalty to House Bo-Fang?

 

There was another strange pattern being revealed to Elias by this report--Bo-Fang honor or, more appropriately, the complete lack of it. Accounts of battles between the Bo-Fang and the Alliance made several indications of honorable suicide being commited by defeated soldiers. What was strange to Elias was that these accounts indicated such acts being commited only by soldiers of House Moro-Gotu, one of the three Alliance Houses, never by Bo-Fang soldiers. Defeated Bo-Fang soldiers either surrendered to imprisonment (sometimes making frantic attempts to escape later) or bargained for defection (often ultimately betraying their new Alliance lords). This pattern continued straight on to the House's overthrow and the rise of democracy. Some Bo-Fang lords and vassals accepted their House's fall and moved on, others clung to power and either waged war against the new order or resorted to terrorism, but none of them commited shameful suicide, an act not uncommon to officers of deposed regimes. Suicide just wasn't a Bo-Fang thing. So why did 37 Bo-Fang warriors either transport themselves into space or turn their weapons on themselves in the wake of their ship's capture by Challenger's crew?

 

"The more questions we answer, the more new ones crop up," Elias observed as he put down the report.

 

"The L'Traisan fleet will be entering the system in 5 minutes," Aaron reported.

 

With it, Elias imagined, more answers... and yet more questions...