NationStates Jolt Archive

On the bridge of the Fold-equipped Flapjack Class Escort Jouster, Captain John Rolfe paced nervously. This was to be the first time that an Independant Pluto ship had used a Space Fold drive, and the fact that others had used it safely did little to alleivate[sp?] the tension. Perhaps it was the fact that the ship was not going to be travelling under its own power. It was going to be relying on energy transmitted through hyperspace fron a massive plant in the Kuiper Belt. This meant that while they could enter hyperspace and travel in "real" space, they couldn't Fold back home.

"Of course they couldn't do this with a full-size unmanned ship first," he muttered. "They have to risk me and my crew."

"Activate hyperdrive, cruising speed 1.5x," he called to his crew. They had plotted the course for this beforehand. The stars turned to streaks, and the back to points again. This was just a small run.

"Incoming power burst from base," called an officer. "Receiver ready,"

"When that hits, Fold along predetermined course. It should take us to an uninhabited star system."

"Folding now . . . ," said the navigator. "Comp--What the HELL?!"

His exclamation was excusable under the circumstances. They had unfolded about 25 yards from another ship in what was supposed to be an uninhabited system.

"Full reverse," snapped the captain. "Try to hail them."

"No response. There is no activity aboard the ship."

OOC: Lords of War, if you're on, respond. This is your system.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid83/pe4274d8dc1e1de95d7dea17c79a74b13/fad67b62.jpg

Name:Flapjack Class Escort (Escort Mk I)
Classification:Medium Warship
Crew:220
Armament:2 front-mounted laser cannons, 2 larger front-mounted laser cannons, 1 front-mounted missile array, 2 smaller rear-mounted missile arrays.
Landing Capable:Yes
Other Craft:10 passenger Liners/Freighter Mk III, 15 fighters[in development]
Engines:SFSF non-FTL engines[4 G acceleration], 2.5x SW-type hyperdrive
Amount:50
Notes: 6 of them have Space Fold.

OOC: it took me forever to find this...sorry for the delay.

IC: The ship looked like it had taken a beating more times than anyone could remember. Scorch marks and blast holes appeared across it's length. But they had been patched. Of course the missle floating in space some 1200 meters father off and the odd bits of debries was likely a little troubleing. Further off several astroids seemed to be out of place, and badly slagged.....

Things became more complicated when that someone appeared to make an angry multi-frequency hail.

[Transmission, Frequency: 1860 MHz, 1920 MHz, 770 Hz]
**It was breif, of course the fact that is sounded like someone tourchering three whales in helium didn't make things all that much clearer, although it likely caused headaches...**

*********
Defensive Station Cepe, Herran System.
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/donatgw/Lords/DefensiveBase.jpg
The watch officer hadn't panicked when the gravewave had passed by and nothing was on the scope but the same boreing system junk. Of course the gravity array going haywire seemed a bit disconcerting...then he realized that the target ship in House Orma's practice range, litterally ontop of T-894 as the semi-derlict craft was called.

His first thought was that some idiotic hot shot Captain had decided to practice droping out of sidereel space on an enemy craft. Well, the watch officer reacted like any other beuracrat and gave a nasty general hail (just so everyone could here) in Varian, (which slowed down the response having to type it into the generator), that read:

Alright there A*** who the hell do you think you are playing drop and board with an uncrewed derlict? Identify yourself at once you idiotic prick before I send a walrus up your a***

After looking smug for a few seconds, the man at tactical noted, "Ah sir, that isn't one of ours...and it didn't come out of sidereel."

The watch officer visibly seemed to deflate...look at his tactical board and cringed..."Call Herran Command, tell them we have a bogie in sector Cepe-Labo. And sound general quarters....and wake the Commander..." He seemed to be somehow sinking into the chair...


*I.P. I doubt that you can translate that...mainly because three words are spoken at once in that lanquage.

OOC: Took me forever to realize that you had found this.

"Sir, incoming transmission," the communications officer said.

"Put it through."

An odd sound filled the bridge, hurting the captain's ears.

"Cut it off!" insisted Rolfe. The sound stopped. "Thank you. I think that that was a language. If it was we can't understand it. Maybe they understand English. Transmit on the frequencies that they used."

"Channels open, sir."

"Greetings, foreign vessel. We were testing our engines and we came out right next to this hulk. If we are disturbing you, we can leave. Otherwise, we would like to open friendly relations with you. Please respond."

OOC: That's fine...this post gets buried fast and I've a couple of story lines I'm helping with...

IC: The commander's auburn hair looked like she had been to a rock concert. But the eyes were bright and open. The hair vanished under a beret as she sat down at the command console.

"Alright, we have an unidentified ship that came out of some sort of FTL in the middle of a firing range....And you proceded to tell them that you were going to stick a walrus up their butt..." She looked at the watch officer, "Apernaty, you've never been to Terra...your a fifth generation from Obsu Dome, where did you get that phrase...do you even know what a walrus is?"

"Uh, I heard the crew of the Petma using it awhile back...isn't it a sea pig?"

"Yes, well the Petma crew couldn't stick a pencil up their own butt so I'd stop using that phrase...and refering to walruses as 'sea pigs' unless you want a Terren Lord using your skull as a hob tray..."

The comm officer interupted, "Sir, they responded...standard english on our fequencies...Ah, they want to make contact..."

"Give me replay......well they do seem to be polite....give me an audio channel"

[Audio Transmission]
Unidentifed vessle, you have entered Confederacy of Lords space. This is defense station Herran Cepe. Please identify yourself and approach this station. You are sitting in a House practice range...advise watching for unexploded ordinance and moving slowly. However, House Orma might take exception to your presence, so please be expeditious in removing yourself. Herran Cepe out

Transmitting...This is Independant Pluto vessel Jouster. We are conducting a peaceful test of a new system. We wish you no harm. Thank you for the advisement. We will try to avoid running into any explosives. As soon as we can, we will leave. However, we must stay in the general area to receive the necessary power to remove ourselves from the area. In the meantime, we would like to learn more about you and vice versa.End transmission

"Damn, they want to stay there...." the com officer blurted out...

"Yeah, well I think House Orma is going to take exception to that..."
Alright lets try something...

Independent Pluto Vessel Jouster we do not completely comprehend? Are you waiting for a refuling vessel? We advise that you remove yourself from the practice area or House Orma may decide to use you as target practice.....hold on, we have been advised that the Darlo[/i] will be handling matters from now on. She will be in your location in about 35 minutes.[/i]


OOC:
I should note that this is a single star system with four planets. Two appear to be in a paired orbit and are mars sized. The other two are gas giants. One of the planets appears to have a good deal of space traffic around it. But the inner system appears fairly busy. You are in the outer system...

"Damn, they want to stay there...." the com officer blurted out...

"Yeah, well I think House Orma is going to take exception to that..."
Alright lets try something...

Independent Pluto Vessel Jouster we do not completely comprehend? Are you waiting for a refuling vessel? We advise that you remove yourself from the practice area or House Orma may decide to use you as target practice.....hold on, we have been advised that the Darlo[/i] will be handling matters from now on. She will be in your location in about 35 minutes.[/i]


OOC:
I should note that this is a single star system with four planets. Two appear to be in a paired orbit and are mars sized. The other two are gas giants. One of the planets appears to have a good deal of space traffic around it. But the inner system appears fairly busy. You are in the outer system...

"We are waiting for a fueling vessel, of sorts. In a few days, an energy pulse will be travelling to where we are now. We can only receive it with a kilometer of our current location. If the group you ite is a threat to us, we will attempt to negotiate first, but this ship can fight. We acknowledge that a new craft will be coming in in a few minutes."

The captain sighed. "What're we gonna do if they decide to turn this into a war? We can't fight a star system!"

OOC: Fell free to blow these guys up if it fits with your previous RP'ing, but they will fight.

OOC: Nah, House Orma might decide to do that...or just toy with you....but the Lords under the command of Condederacy are a bit less ready to shoot someone for parking in no-parking zone...and actually waiting for the tow-truck. And House Orma is not going to pick a fight with the Overlord, or House Crawfnord...they are 'out' here from the last civil war...

IC: The massive ship, approached at a lesurially 0.6c. It finally hailed the alien vessel.

[Transmission]
Independent Pluto Vessel Jouster This is the heavy cruiser CLN Darlo We have Lord Varus onboard to make a formal introduction. He has indicated that he would like to discuss matters in presence. Therefore we would invite your senior officer and three others to our ship while we offer our own captain, the senior engineer, an ensign and our senior communications officer as hostages. Ah what atmospheric make-up do you need?
[End Trasmission]

That sounds excellent. I don't think that hostages are necessary. We would like to be trusting. It's always a good tone to start off negotiations with. I will be attending, as well as a security guard, our communications officer, and an engineer. Should we provide transportation for our people?

[Transmission]
Honor demands the exchange of Hostages. Trust can never be given to the unknown. However, if you prefer to give trust, we shall attempt to be hospitable. We will send only three of the individuals listed with some sector maps of this area, that do indicate dangrous locations you might not want to be found in. Translation for your computer systems might take awhile so they will be occupied in a useful task beyound their cermonal function...
As for parasite craft, our pressurized landing bay can accomidate a craft of 8 meters high by 50 meter wide and 50 meters in length. We doubt if our transport tubes are compatable.
[End Transmission]

[Transmission]
Honor demands the exchange of Hostages. Trust can never be given to the unknown. However, if you prefer to give trust, we shall attempt to be hospitable. We will send only three of the individuals listed with some sector maps of this area, that do indicate dangrous locations you might not want to be found in. Translation for your computer systems might take awhile so they will be occupied in a useful task beyound their cermonal function...
As for parasite craft, our pressurized landing bay can accomidate a craft of 8 meters high by 50 meter wide and 50 meters in length. We doubt if our transport tubes are compatable.
[End Transmission]

If you insist, it is accepetable. We will accept the hostages. We will send a small craft that would easily fit in the bay provided. It will arrive in an hour.

The captain stood up and pulled himself to the door. "You have control, Jackson," he said to the first officer. He gestured to several of the bridge crew, who followed him to the liner bay.

The Lords of War cruiser came to rest some 12 kilometers off to the starboard of the other ship. It was a massive vessle that looked like a giant mushroom more than anything.
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/donatgw/Lords/bandwidth.gif

[Transmission]
We will guide you to the hanger. Our personel will board your shuttle and return to your vessel.
[end]

Upon hearing the message, the IP delegation climbed into the little shuttle. They had been trained. as officers, what to do in a first contact situation, and that should have helped. It didn't.

"So, what are the odds of us getting them to be nice or leave us alone for a few days?" the engineer asked to nobody in particular.

The others had no reply.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The little craft sailed out of the bay on the underside of the Jouster. A message went out confirming their departure.

As the small vessel(?) was directed to a hanger by a young voice that didn't sound much more than 16...

The ship was massive, as they approached the wall of the ship became more and more looming. The hanger was 90 degrees to the axis of the ship. six massive shuttles almost 7 meters high and 18 wide stood on both sides of the bay. The center was clear except for a hovering drone. The black lenses seemed to be evident in the white material of the creation. Three large lights were mounted to the upper body of the drone.

It continued to flash the central light until the shuttle was well within the hanger, and then all three lights came on. The shuttle landed on the metal surface as the bay doors rolled down behind them. After several minutes, the green light within the hanger turned red. A hatch, 8 feet high, opened letting in a group of armed personel. They stood at both sides of the hanger between the L.O.W. shuttles and the new arrival and waited.

Next entered two groups of men in uniforms, three men carrying cases in the first group and six, who appeared to have side arms, in the second. The uniforms were black with red piping, and a high collar. Their heads were covered by black berrets.

The final group into the door appeared to be wearing dark black cloaks, over their eight foot frames. The center one had a red hood and shoulder markings compared to the other two plain ones. The creatures actually looked like they were hunchedbacked, the sleeves rose not from the shoulders but lower on the upper torso. The hoods appeared stiff and elongated. The two in all black carried large bladed weapons that looked like swords mounted on each end of a long pole.

Over the com came a hail in a deep voice that felt like water at the freezing point pouring out onto the ears...
Welcome, Dignitaries of Independent Pluto, to the Darlo