NationStates Jolt Archive

The Xanthalian Imperial Armada Andromeda class starship sat in space, sending out an automated distress signal that repeated over and over:
"This is IAS-11's AI. I am damaged. My crew is gone. I require assistance. Unable to pinpoint my position. Recommend homing beacon to locate signal source of transmission."
The message is broadcast in several languages that alternate seemingly at random, a sign of the AI's damage.

"S'ir, we a're re'ce'ving a mess'age f'r'om an art'eef'ic'ial int'elli'gence"
"Well, put the message on then!"
A few clicks and buzzes are heard, then the display screen on the captains chair lights up.
A short while later, the captain looks up.
"Call the admiral."
The crew scurry about, finnaly locating the admiral, a few minutes later he walks in, strapping on his uniform and looking rather bleary eyed.
"Whassit?"
"We are receiving a distress signal sir! Its from an AI, rather badly damaged"
"Well...err....you decide what to do, im too tired..."
The admiral stumbles back to the lift.
"Well then" The captain considers "Lets head off, signal the Hornet and the Chimera, were going to aid the ship, the rest of the fleet continues its patrol pattern"

The three ships turn toward the signal, and speed off into the night.

The AI keeps broadcasting the message.

A Moroni-Class Battlecruiser, approximately 3 ly away, hears the message over subspace.

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/moroni2.jpg
CCSS Pacifier

An Officer: "Sir, we are receiving a distress call."

Commander: "On Speakers."

*The message plays out*

Officer: "Orders sir?"

Commander: "Investigate. Begin fold operations immediately."

*Within a minute, the CCSS Pacifier defolds about 50 km from the IAS-11 in a bright flash of light with a mild signature of a gravitational disturbance*

Officer: "Xanthalian Andromeda Class Starship in space, sir."

Commander: "Hail them." *hails* "This is Commander Hatch of the Capsule Corporation StarShip Pacifier. We received a distress call, are you in need of assistance?"

bump?

The DGNT ships reappear out of hyperspace, just on the other side of a mass of debries.
"Sir, we have arrived, the ship would be in visual range, except we seem to have a large cloud of some sort blocking the screens."
"Well, blast it!"
"Very well sir..."
Thee of the Millinium class ships batteries turn and begin to vaporize individual hunks of space junk.

A Meteor Class Assault Frigate also hears the cries for help and cruises towards the Xanthalian vessel...

"Pacifier, this is IAS-11's AI. Thank you for responding. I wish I could tell you what was going on, but a lot of my memory files are inaccessable. I'm also reading a great number of my systems removed. Not to mention that my entire crew has vanished. It seems that I've been completely looted of anything of biological or technological significance, but for some reason I'm still here. I don't understand. Please send a team over to investigate, I can't contact my androids."

The distress signal cuts off.

<Mark>

"Sir, we have cleared the debries enough to pass through, the Hive is attempting to establish contact with the vessel, but no luck, we have tried everything from high level Sub-Ether comm to old stlye Morse-Code light signals and nothing in the area has responded."
"Right, send out a squad of Avengers, tell them they arent to fire unless fired upon, clear?"
"Yes sir!"

In the launch bay...
The pilots threw down their card game and quickly began to suit up, the techs began to scurry about as techs do when a siren goes off, apparently prepping craft, but mostly seeming simply to run into each other in a comic sort of way.
Finnaly, the first squad of fighters is loaded into the launch tubes and hurled into space, they immidiatly set out on thier assigned search pattern, followed by another group, and another.

The three capital ships begin an orbit as well, broadcasting requests for location, and a message to other ships who seek to aid the derelict as to where they are and what they are doing.
Finnaly a flight of Avengers spots the ship.
"Sir *crackle* we have the ship, we cant make out details from this far away, but it isnt moving and appears to be the source of the signal."
"Right, tell them to pull back to the ship, we'll meet on the way there, helm set course to the location of those fighters, tell the Hornet to circle around to the right of our present position and come from that angle, Launch the rest of the fighters and bombers, and prep some aid crews as well, I want no risks! Just to be sure, raise the alert level to Orange"
The second officer quickly begins to speak into the ships PA, men and machines hurry to battle stations and guns all over the ship come to life, swivling around their axis as crew begin pre-combat tests. In the fighter bays the aid crews gather material and climb into boarding pods and transports, each crew contains two medics, two mechanics and five marines, a total of ten pods are loaded and moved to the forward launch tubes.

OOC: Just random information, but:
DGNT ships usualy do combat launches of fighters/pods from their missile tubes, which have specialy designed slots to guide the wings of fighters, this enables very quick launching and makes it very hard to pick off fighters taking off

Commander Hatch responds, "Right, we'll send over a team right away. Hatch out."

The commander turned to his XO, "Head up the away team, I want 2 groups of multi-role officers on that ship immediately."

"Yes Commander."

Not even 5 minutes later, two Mahonri-Coriancumer Class Shuttles leave the ventral launch bay of the Pacifier, and move in on the Xanthal Ship.

One of the two shuttles hails, requesting permission to dock or land. They have a teams of multi-role officers on board.

"I cannot access my docking hatches. There are failures in many of my control areas and command conduits. You have my permission to force your way through. Be warned, you must be on guard. I do not have full control of internal defenses. You may be fired upon.

OOC: I need to do my paper route now, I'll be back in about 45 minutes.

"Understood... I guess I can't be expected to have air there either... Coming aboard."

The two shuttles position themselves above the dorsal hull of the Xanthal ship. They find a lift umbilical hath... basically an airlock, and hover over it.

"Open the hatch," the leader says to a gunner.

"Arming the Faries," the gunner says, positioning one of the Farad turrets at a downward angle. After a building up energy for a split-second, the weapon fires, sending a blue concentration of energy down at the hatch, vaporizing it. The gunner smiles, "Hatch open, sir."

And officer at sensors reports, "Inufficient air pressure, non-safe mixture... looks like life support has been out for a while."

"Keep your EVA suits on boys. Team two, we're going in, search for another way in and give us a report once you infiltrate."

"Right sir," a man says over the intercom.

"Smith out." He turned to his team, sitting on benches in the back room, about 12 of them total. "Let's move out."

The MC sets down on top of the hatch and latches on with some strong magnets. A bay door opens beneath right on top of the hatch. After everyone has their helmets on, the first team begins to climb in, using a ladder in the shaft. The first man in hotwires open a shaft door and steps into the floor, suddenly hitting the ground as he feels the effects of gravity. "Seems like artificial gravity is working ok."

The rest eventually make it onto the deck, seemingly a hub of a bunch of corridoors.

Smith, the leader, contacts the AI, "We're in. Where can we get a situation report and systems diagnostic?"

The two DGNT ships enter the area of the deserted ship, and find that somebody has beat them to it.
Unidentified vessel, greetings from the DGF Silencer 3, request identification and objectives in area. We are a Dontgonearthereian task force attempting to aid the vessle crippled in this area, under the command of Vice-Admiral CM-24-E, repeat, request ID check

The marine pods continue to close with the ship, but the fighters and bombers break off, forming a screen around the capital ships.
OOC:
The Vice-Admiral is one of the Hive, CM is Command Model, 24 is the model number and E is Earth.

The corridor is filled with a greenish vapor, and red alert lights flash, a sign that somebody knew something was wrong before it happened. The ship looks very tidy, but pieces of it are missing everywhere. There are no jagged edges or burns, it seems that some parts had just simply vanished. The ship's AI comes over the ship's intercom, her voice echoing down the deserted hallways. "Welcome to IAS-11 gentlemen... Or what's left of it. My internal sensors are offline, but I can imagine it must be a mess. I don't know where you are right now. There should be a number on the bulkhead near where you entered. Read it off to me."

"We're at some corridoor hub on the first deck just below a docking umbilical. Any ideas?"

The leader of team 2 comes over the intercom. "We're docking with what looks to be a shuttlebay, and we're picking up some more ships in the area, just FYI, sounds like they're from Don'tgonearthere."

"Hmm... OK, keep me posted, and don't breathe any of this air. Smith out."

"Deck one? That's impossible. There are no corridors or docking hatches on deck one. Please locate the number printed on the nearest bulkhead and read it to me. Then I can tell you where you are."

CC team 2 docks inside the ship's shuttlebay. The bay is depressurized, a sure sign that something is wrong as Xanthalian shuttlebays should never be depressurized. Several shuttles are scattered about, but many are missing, along with several bulkheads, consoles, and the outer doors of the bay, which is how they got in in the first place.

The boarding pods quickly fly over to the ship, and begin attaching to it. Soon the docking rings are beggining to cut through the hull, and marines begin to secure the hallways while tech crews attempt to access the ships computers.

"Warning. Warning. Unidentified intruders have boarded. All computer access locked out. Attention intruders: Identify yourselves and state your intentions."

Team Two

Officer 1: "This is really screwed up... everything is strewn about."
Officer 2: "Yeah, and a whole bunch of stuff has been stolen too."
The team leader sends a message to Smith, "Sir, we've got the same stuff here, missing equipment, scattered equipment, smoking equipment, its all a mess... Oh, and those DGNT pods are trying to dock."

Team One:

Smith: "Roger," He says, looking around, then turning his attention back to the AI, "I meant the first deck down the tube.. not deck one. It says Deck 28 section K on the wall, and I beleive its in the primary hull... any ideas?"

The AI addresses team one. "Facing the bulkhead go left. And be careful, I have intruders aboard."

Smith nods, "We're aware, we've been tracking them... we too do not know them as frind nor foe."

The 12 men in team one cautiously arm their weapons, just in case, the majority of which being Rail Shotguns and Pulse rifles. Smith holds a farad staf weapon. All of which have sensors packages attached for easy use, with the information broadcasting straight into a small network of nanties in their brains.

"At the next corridor go left. I have a bad feeling about the intruders, they're trying to hack into the central computer. And they have marines aboard too." The AI pauses. "Well, what do you know? Some of my internal sensors do work!"

Smith nods as he leads the team down the correct path given by the AI. "Team two, watch out, those DGNT's don't seem to be up to any good... be careful if you come across them, and notify us if you see one."

A man replies simply with 'Roger.'

"So, Ms. AI, what do you remember? Were you... umm... asleep or something?"

"Asleep? Doubtful. Nonetheless, I have no memory of the past 24 hours. All I know is that we never once fired off a single shot. Whatever happened must have happened fast. Warning: I do not have control of the internal defenses in the next corridor. Be on guard. Turn right at junction 89."

The captain in charge speaks up.
"We are here with the Dontgoneartherian Navy, we recieved a distress call from this ship, and came as quickly as possible, we signaled multiple times, but there was no reply, in accordance with our doctrine, we boarded the ship, which appeared derilict to investigate, again, we are here to help, if you have an avalible comm device you may link with the computer aboard the Silencer and check our mission statements, the Hive will monitor you while in our computer, though."
The captain signals the marines and they all activate their personal shields, taking up defensive positions around the techs, two men begin to set up a repeating laser facing down the corridor.

"Dontgonearthere personnel, stop trying to force your way into my systems or I will retaliate. I do not wish to harm you."

"Hmm... Have you heard anything about the DGNT intruders? Seems odd they wouldn't try to hail the Pacifier."

The team turns down the corner and they walk briskly down the hall, personal deflectors online.

Smith's techies look around for anything that might look like a computer terminal.

OOC: My teams aren't on the same deck as the DGNTs, right? Cuz... well, its a big ship...

"Right, well...do you have any information on the circumstances which caused this vessels desertion?"
He makes another small signal, and the marines set the shields to standby.

OOC: We did try to hail you, both of you, several times :P

ooc: umm... you didn't try hard enough? :P No matter what, because of that we're all gonna be suspiscious of you. Even if you are just having comm troubles.

The two DGNT ships enter the area of the deserted ship, and find that somebody has beat them to it.
Unidentified vessel, greetings from the DGF Silencer 3, request identification and objectives in area. We are a Dontgonearthereian task force attempting to aid the vessle crippled in this area, under the command of Vice-Admiral CM-24-E, repeat, request ID check

The marine pods continue to close with the ship, but the fighters and bombers break off, forming a screen around the capital ships.

OOC: Did you just not see that? :?

The two DGNT ships enter the area of the deserted ship, and find that somebody has beat them to it.
Unidentified vessel, greetings from the DGF Silencer 3, request identification and objectives in area. We are a Dontgonearthereian task force attempting to aid the vessle crippled in this area, under the command of Vice-Admiral CM-24-E, repeat, request ID check

The marine pods continue to close with the ship, but the fighters and bombers break off, forming a screen around the capital ships.

OOC: Did you just not see that? :?OOC: hehehehehe whoops... maybe I should add somethin about that :P

IC: The pacifier simply answers the DGNT hail with "We're the CCSS Pacifier, of the Capsule Corporation, we're answering a distress call.."

ooc: I can't speak for xanthal though :P

OOC: I don't know where his people are. If they meet, you two have to RP it. And about the signal sent by Dontgonearthere: Assume the AI didn't pick it up. After all, it's still having trouble accessing and operating it's systems.

Capsule Corporation: "Still unknown. Warning. Internal defenses activating. Override ineffective." Disrupter turrets drop from the ceiling and begin firing at team 1.

Dontgonearthere: "Negative. Memory files are missing."

OOC: *grumble grumble*

IC:
"Sir! Sensor team is reporting an energy surge a short distance away!"
The captain quickly flips his personal shield on, the others do the same.
"Ship, whats going on here? I thought you didnt want to harm us!"

The Disruptor gets one round off at Smith's second before 5 people at once fire their weapons, knocking the turret off its mount and into several small pieces. Smith's second is unharmed, but his shields took a hard hit.

"Great... No air, but they got the weapons going... whats next, Lights but no doors?"

Dontgonearthere: "Apologies. I do not have control over many of my systems. Whatever happened damaged me."

Capsule Corporation: "There should be a set of doors straight ahead of you. Go through into the turbolift. You can access the bridge on deck one via the lift."

"All right, is there anything we can do?" He fiddles with his rifle "Err..."

Dontgonearthere: "Yes. Nothing. Get your damn techies away from the consoles they're using. I could block their access all day, but I don't want to. Keep it up and I'll just blow out your section of the ship. How would you like it if I tried to break into your brain?"

Smith nods. They walk down to the lift, and one of the officers reaches for the buttons... then stops. "Wait a minute... the ship is haywire, and we're going to take a lift? I don't think so."

Smith agrees and blasts the door open with his staff weapon.

They climb into the shaft and begin to climb up the ladder. One officer notes how far up the bridge is. Smith sighs and keeps climbing.

The captain looks at the techies, they shrug.
"Umm, I feel that I should tell you that our techies havent been attempting to get into anything, the console here is smashed"
He looks around again.

OOC: Dontgonearthere, you RPed them trying to access the computer.

Capsule Corporation: "That was unnecessary. Try not to damage me any more than I already am."

OOC: Yeah, I tried, I didnt manage to though...

Smith smirks to himself, "From what I can tell, You, my dear, are about the only salvagable system on this ship..."

They approach the bridge and unlock the door, sliding it open.

Dontgonearthere: OOC: Whatever. IC: "Your assistance is not requested, nor is it required. You come aboard without permission with hackers and marines. Please leave."

Capsule Corporation: "That's probably because I'm the only system left on this ship. And by the way, call me Natasha. That's what my crew named me... Wherever they are." As the doors begin to open, air begins rushing out of the shaft. The entire front wall of the bridge is missing, leavng it exposed to the void.

Smith braces himself against the ladder, "Hey Natasha, the bridge is damaged, can you either depressurize it or erect a force field? hurry!"

"Attempting to access force field control..." About three seconds pass, then a clear forcefield erects itself over the hole. "There. Sorry about that, I was not aware that the bridge had been damaged. You may enter safely now."

Team one enters the Bridge, looking around. "Thanks," Smith says, assessing the damage.


Meanwhile Team two is wandering around the middle decks. One officer stops and quietly speaks to his team leader, "Sir, do you see that on sensors?"

he nods, "yeah, i see it too.. looks like a fusion power source, and its not the powr core of the ship... its too small."

"Weaponry, sir?"

"It's gotta be, it's 2 levels above us." The leader then addresses natasha, "Ship, I'm detecting a portable power source a few decks above me, seems like armed weaponry, can you tell me what is up there?"

OOC: he's probably talking about the DGNTs.

The bridge is very clean, the missing wall excepted. However, almost all of the consoles are missing, and only a few wall consoles remain. Once again, there is no visible damage, just empty space where components should be.

Natasha addresses team two. "The intruders, most likely. Could you do me a favor and try to get to engineering? That area needs to be secured."

Team two acknowledges the request and asks how to get to Engineering.

Back at team one, Smith notes the damage to the AI, "Natasha, there's no access here, just a bunch of spaces where it looks like computers should have been... what's the deal? You said this was quick, when it looks like everything on the ship has been looted... no pirates I ever heard of could do this to a ship this size in 24 hours..."

Team one: "I am uncertain. Conjecture: Transporters were used. Try the briefing room. Through the door on the left."

Team two: "Engineering can be accessed directly by turbolift. I can assure you that it is safe. I have full control over the lift system, though I have only two lifts remaining. Through the door on the left side of the bay as you face away from the outer doors. It is labeled 'Turbolift Access'."

"rioght, well, y'see, we dont really have a choice in the matter, our...commander said we was to take this ship, and, thats what we have to do..."
The troops split into two groups and head down both corridors.
---
On the bridge of the Silencer
"Sir, it appears that the computer may turn hostile soon, apparently it doesnt like our people on the ship..."
"Well, if thats the case, well take it by force, send more pods, with a full team of marines"
---
Eighteen more pods are launched, they connect on various points around the ship, two attach near the bridge. The marines who offload quickly set up portable autolasers and begin to make barricades out of pieces of furniture they find, while scout parties with door charges make their way through the ship using automappers.

OOC: If you really want to make me the bad guy :P

OOC: Bad move. Bad, bad move.

IC: "Accessing transporters... Initiating transport." The Dontgonearthere boarders suddenly find themselves floating in space near their ship.

OOC: I thought you didnt have access to the internal systems?

IC:
Fortunatly DGNT space marines have Environment suites, and small jet packs, they quickly make their way back to the ship and reenter their boarding pods, where they equip themselves with sensor blinds, and begin to make their way through the ship again.

OOC: Internal sensors. The independant systems are just fine.
IC: The transporters lock on to the blank readings created by the sensor blinds and beam all the Dontgonearthere boarders back out into space.

OOC: psst, DGNT, this is called Godmoding, cut it out. There is a battleship with mecha and fighters and big guns and hundreds of marines just beside your ship... if you launched stuff towards the derilect, the ship would fire. now back up and this time don't godmode your way into things.

IC: Team two acknowledges and makes their way to Engineering.

Team one looks around for the door to the briefing room, spotting it quickly. They advance into the room.

The briefing room is intact, a long central table surrounded with chairs and a large computer access terminal on the wall.
Engineering is a wreck. Most of the systems are gone, but unlike the rest of the ship it was obviously done carelessly. Bulkheads bow out and in, decking is ripped up in various places, and small fires burn in various places. Many of the remaining consoles have been smashed, and where the major systems were there is now only empty space.

Smith calls both Natasha and Team Two, "We've found a working terminal. We are currently in the briefing room beside the bridge. What's the situation where you are, team two?"

Two: "Umm.. we're at what looks like Engineering, its completely thrashed... A few fires, and I hope nothing explosive."

OOC: psst, DGNT, this is called Godmoding, cut it out. There is a battleship with mecha and fighters and big guns and hundreds of marines just beside your ship... if you launched stuff towards the derilect, the ship would fire. now back up and this time don't godmode your way into things.

OOC: Fine. Remember, I have three ships, two sitting next to your battleship, one has four mile long laser guns that blow planets up.

IC:
The Silencer launches shuttles which quickly retrive the marines and ferry them back to the ship, it then radios the Pacifier.
"You have four minutes to remove your men from the ship. Four minutes."
It rotates on its axis toward the ship and begins to charge its four main guns. The Silencer dispatches a message droid to the Hornet, telling it to begin a flanking manuever. The Justice class destroyer next to the Silencer powers up its weapons and arms several missiles, but makes no move toward the Pacifier.

OOC: The droid will self destruct if captured, and use a small Sub-Ether radio to send the message anyway.

"Warning. Warning. External threat detected. Shields offline. External weapons at minimum power. Phase offline."

Receiving the message relayed from the Pacifier, Smith gets an idea. "Natasha. Sit tight, I have a plan."

An encrypted conversation goes on briefly between the Pacifier and Team one.


Back on the Pacifier:
Commander Hatch hails the DGNT ship: "DGNT ship, please allow us to come within range to evac our officers, we do not have transporter beams."

He cuts the transmission there, and turns to his helmsman. "Plot a Fold to a point 100 parsecs from here, I don't care where. Engineering, charge the capacitors, and make sure we have enough power in them to get us a 2.5 kilometer fold radius, got it?" "Got it."

He opens a channel back to teams one and two, on an open frequency. "We have to evac. We're going to leave the area and leave the don'tgoneartheres alone. Coming in to pick you up."

Energy begins to build up as space fold drives warm up, all while the Pacifier moves in on the derilect.

Hatch hails the DGNT ship again, "Don't worry, we'll be out in less than two minutes."

OOC: Sorry, was watching the new clone wars series ;)

Natasha sends a transmission to the Pacifier. "I hope you have a plan. I don't want to die without figuring out what happened to me."

Smith nods, checking a sensor readout linked from his dropship. "Pacifier, we see you coming in, distance 1000 meters and closing, we are go for evac."

Hatch smiles, "Copy that, Mr. Smith. Evac in T-20 seconds, end transmission."

On the Pacifier, the fold drive's capacitors whirr loudly with the sound and smell of stored energy.

"acknowledged Pacifier."
The captain switches the comm off.
"All right, execute."
At once, the Hornet flashes into existance off the port side of the Xanthilian ship, and opens up with a barrage of its topside guns, at the same moment the Silencer 3 beams the CC marines onboard, then triggers its own guns, aiming at the bow, stern and about 1/3 of the way down on either end of the ship, as well as launching several Nuetronium bombs. The fighter wings quickly loop out of the way, and begin to turn around for a pass.

OOC: DGNTians are just as suspecious as the next person.

OOC: I'll let you two figure out how that works.

OOC: By "the ship" i assume you mean the pacifier...

Hatch sighs to himself as the ship rocks a bit, "I was afraid of this. Continue anyway, we'll be back."

Just after the marines are beamed away, the pacifier engages its fold drive, energy flooding out of the capacitors all at once, channeling through the drives, creating a tear that pulls two points in space together. Within a few seconds, The Pacifier, The Andromeda, a few DGNT fighters, and The hornet are sucked out of that space to a point 100 parsecs away, untraceable.

On the other side, after the defold, the Moroni Class opens fire full power on the Hornet, enough power to rip it to shreds and then some.

After that ship is destroyed, which, well it would have no real chance to survive anyway, or at least it is now completely disabled, The Pacifier prepares for a return.

officer: "Orders sir?"

Hatch: Leave the tachyon Corvettes and a squadron of fighters here to guard this ship. We're going back to get our men as soon as our fold drives are cooled. Estimated time?"

"5 minutes before we can go to FTL again, sir."

"Good."

Hatch continues, "Oh, and send a subspace signal for backup, immediately."

"Roger sir, Closest CC ships are 2000 parsecs from current position."

"Get on it."

"My thanks to you for saving me. I owe you a great debt. I only wish there was a way for me to repay it now, but as you can see I am useless at the moment."

Once on the other side of the fold the Hornet, seeing that it has no hope of survival, initiates an engine overload, after a few seconds it explodes, taking out a swatch of space roughly the size of the moon.
---
On the Silencer 3.
"All right, give them a berth, put them under guard but do not otherwise restrain them, and remember, they are not prisoners! If they have to go somewhere, let them, just make sure they are observed. You and you, try to find out where the Hornet went, there isnt any debry, so lets assume that its out there somewhere."

OOC: So, whoever activated the fold reacted faster than the speed of light?

hatch sighs again, "We've never really run into these guys before, I should have suspected the worst. Chances are they will have ditched the scene by the time we get there, I only hope we can trace it somehow. One thing is for sure, DGNT is definately going on our "shoot first ask questions later" list."

OOC: You didnt answer my question, and you didnt react to the fact that I just blew up what was essentialy an antimatter mine the size of a house

"Will you send back the teams? I still wish to investigate what happened to me."

OOC: So, whoever activated the fold reacted faster than the speed of light?OOC: They all have quick reaction times, long story, has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of them are semi-cyborgs... If anything, I should yell at you for being able to have an engine overload in a matter of seconds... oh well.

The Pacifier Raises shields, just in time to have them struck down and blown out by the exlosion. A lot of systems take hits.

"Report!!"

"Shields down, mass Circuitry temporarily unstable, fold drive offline."

"How about the Xanthal ship?"

"I doubt it survived."

OOC: Antimatter doesnt take a long time to react, I suppose I should really call it an 'engine overload' so much as somebody blowing up the generators that keep the antimatter contained.
And in any case, maybe I should yell at you for having cyborgs that react at the speed of light and then some.

OOC: Okay... I'll RP what happened to my ship then.

IC: IAS-11 comes through the fold, it's entire port side destroyed. If it was ever salvagable, it isn't now. However the AI, located in the center of the ship and heavily armored, survives.

OOC again: Normally the ship would be destroyed, but since everything that would normally explode (the engines and weapons stores and such) is gone, the weapons just totally decimated the area they hit.

OOC: Antimatter doesnt take a long time to react, I suppose I should really call it an 'engine overload' so much as somebody blowing up the generators that keep the antimatter contained.
And in any case, maybe I should yell at you for having cyborgs that react at the speed of light and then some.OOC: You never said antimatter, shame on you :P Oh well.. and having a reaction time of a few seconds is not hard... a human could do that. You see a sensor readout say "your men have been teleported away" and all you have to do is say "oh crap, do it anyway," then press abutton, and within maybe 10 seconds you're outta there. Nothing godmoddy about that, certainly nothing faster than light. Plus, I had to go back and edit things because of your poor grammer... when there is more than one enemy ship in the area, it is nice to specify who you are attacking... I thought you were attacking the andromeda, because the last ship you named was the andromeda. Just note that for the future please.

OOC: Well, what do I do now?

OOC: Well, what do I do now?OOC: I don't know, DGNT screwed up the whole RP. Did you have something else in mind?

OOC: Yeah, send back over your teams. Even with half the ship missing, we can still manage to solve the puzzle, though it'll be a bit less interesting than what I originally had in mind. Nonetheless, the show must go on!

OOC: Yeah, send back over your teams. Even with half the ship missing, we can still manage to solve the puzzle, though it'll be a bit less interesting than what I originally had in mind. Nonetheless, the show must go on!OOC: After much consideration and much laughing amongst friends at DGNT's antics... I vote that we just ignore him and do the same rp up until where he attacked, excluding every action he did, it didn't really affect us.

OOC: Awww, poor CC, he's angry wangry because he got beat, sooooo sorrrrrry.
Whatever, do it without me, go! Run! BE FREEEEEE!

OOC: I'm not in the habit of ignoring people as long as they don't cheat. Him attacking us might have been a bastardly thing to do, but it was legitimate. Anyway, if you want to pick up before he intervened I'm okay with that. Quote the last post you want me to pick up from.

ooc: here... just before DGNT turned this from an investigation into anact of war, totally ruining the rp :PSmith calls both Natasha and Team Two, "We've found a working terminal. We are currently in the briefing room beside the bridge. What's the situation where you are, team two?"

Two: "Umm.. we're at what looks like Engineering, its completely thrashed... A few fires, and I hope nothing explosive."

Team one: "I have released the access lockout on the briefing room terminal. Unfortunately, my translation matrix is malfunctioning. I hope you gentlemen can read Xanthalian."
OOC: Xanthalian is a close variant of Japanese, using Hiragana, Roman, and Kanji characters. It's very complex, but anyone who reads English, Japanese, and Chinese can get it pretty well, and anyone who reads any two of those can get the basic gist of it. Of course, if you can read Xanthalian independantly that's ideal, but it's not commonly taught outside of Xanthal.

Team two: "Damn. I had hoped engineering would be intact. Is the DUET still there? A glowing blue box, hovering about six feet off the ground, 6X6X6 inches?"
OOC: You can choose whether it's there or not.

Team two: "Yeah... its here... in about 5000 little pieces... what was it?"

Team One:

Smith "Uhh... hmm... I never really bothered to study Chinese, can someone help me out here?"

One of the other men in the background nods and they try to read their way around the strange language.

"OK... lets see if we can get a damage report..."

Team one: The console displays a report on the condition of the ship, individual systems listed on the right hand side of the screen, and a picture of the ship on the left hand side. Most of the ship is highlighted in red, and almost everything else is yellow. The central AI is the only system highlighted in green.

Team two: "Damn. That was my power source. That must mean the ship is operating on reserve power. Could you get an energy transfer going from your ship to me? It might help me get some systems online."

Smith: "Maybe we can get these offline systems running if we got power back. Team two, how's engineering?"

Two: "The power core is gone, but the output is somewhat the same as ours... if we can get the spare Chloro cores from the gunship, we might be able to do something."

A short time passes, and 4 men come back carrying a two chlorophusion control chambers from the cargo bay of the gunship in the shuttlebay. They begin to hook it up the best they can.

In engineering all seems well until the first chloro core is activated. Then everything goes to hell. Alarms go off and panels start blowing out as fire spouts from under the deck. Sparks fly from exposed wires and the chloro core begins to overload.

Officers in team two start freaking out, "Whoa! Get that thing unplugged! Release the killer agent, that core is bad!"

Two techs scramble to the box containing the small chloro-core and rip the wires out of the terminals. Another twists and pulls a lever free, then rotates it, and shoves it back in. The power coming from the box fades into nothing as the cells inside are killed off. Remaining inside is nothing but a bunch of heat, about a half-trillion calories, but not hot to the touch, yet.

Smith sighs after hearing a report from one of them. "Go ahead and jettisson it when you get the chance... Natasha, what happened?!"

The fires quickly die as automatic suppression systems activate. The alarms cease their racket as smoke drifts from the blown out wall panels. "Assessing... Overload of PTCs. Conclusion: Chloro core produced energy is incompatible with this vessel's power systems."

"Hmm... we could rig a converter, but it would take time... recommendations?"

"Well, we have a new problem. Your first attempt there fused the internal power transfer system, it's useless now. So we have two options: We can either try to pump power directly into the system from the DUET input and risk the overload of the entire power system, or we can use the external power transfer system. Can your ship project an energy stream?"

((CC Speaking))

"Yes, it can. I can reconfigure one of the beam weapons to bypass the capacitors and run on low power. Just tell me the wattage you want and I'll put it in."

"It doesn't really matter what the wattage is, but it doesn't have to be much. Most of the systems I'd normally need power for don't exist anymore. Just make sure that you have a good lock on the transfer port before you engage the beam. My dampeners are shot, if you miss your mark you'll electrify the whole ship. Also, be absolutely certain that your beam is configured to transfer neutronic or positronic energy. I can't process electronic energy in my main system. Normally it wouldn't matter, but the DUET drive is broken and the power converters are completely missing."

After about an hour, a sufficient power link is established, converting the power from the core on the MC and transferring it to the Xanthal ship.

"OK, I think we got this. Starting feed now... is it working?"

"Affirmative. I have access to... 6% of my external systems. All that's left. Initiating memory retrieval... Files missing. Accessing backups... I've got it." The AI pauses, then continues in a stunned voice. "No... No, that's not possible."

Smith looks up at the diagnostic screen, "What is it, natasha?"

Natasha pauses. "I thought it was safe. Hell, everyone thought it was safe. What went wrong with it? I need more data. Accessing remaining backups."

Smith raises an eyebrow, "You thought? What did you think?"

"The DUET; there was an error. It overloaded... But how did...? It doesn't make any sense!"

"What's a duet? You better start from the beginning, cuz you're freaking us all out..."

"I'm reading a failure in my power feed. Shutting down."
The AI goes silent. Two seconds later a rough male voice, obviously electronic, speaks up over the intercom. "AI shutdown detected. Multiple system failures. No crew detected. Self-destruct sequence engaged. Five minutes to self-destruct."

"Everyone, get back to your gunships! Me and a few members of team one will stay behind for a moment to see if we cna stops this, but we'll abort in 2 minutes. Go! And Team two, detach and get out of here no matter what!"

a collective "Yes sir" is heard.

The male voice speaks again. "Error. Self-destruct protocols and systems are missing. Sequence aborted. Attempting to access primary tranceiver... Unable to access. Attempting to access secondary tranceiver... Message sent to XIA command. Shutting down."
The Andromeda goes dark as everything aboard shuts off, including the lights.

Smith sighs, "Abort. Stay here."

They all stop and return to what they were doing, breaking out flashlights.

Smith raises an eyebrow, "Natasha?"

After no response, an officer speaks up, "Sir, I think we should tow this thing back home."

"Sounds good. We should leave a beacon here to update whoever comes looking for it."

Preperations begin for relocating the Xanthal Ship.

OOC: man that downtime was annoying...

OOC: Here's where it gets interesting.

IC: Without warning, the ship's crew begins reappearing aboard the ship. They die like flies as they are reintroduced into an environment without breathable air.

Smith and the others couldn't help but watch. helplessly, they looked around at each other, wondering what was going on.

Smith turned a light on in his brain, "
If we get power or life support back, I want it on IMMEDIATELY."

"Got it sir!"

OOC: Can't really help you there. You'll need to get the AI back online or get atmosphere back manually. You can accomplish the former from engineering, the latter from environmental control. Your men will know this, they have to decide which one (or both) they want to try.

ooc: how about both? :P

Members of team one rush to environmental controls while team two heads back to engineering and tries to get the power online, since the power transfer is still active.

OOC: Time to devide the RP again...

IC: Team one: Environmental control is functional, but it's memory chips are all missing. It's set to pump random gasses into some sections and leave others exposed to vacuum. At the moment though it's powered down. If one could work out the text on the console beside it, they would see a button to tap in to emergency power reserves. However, it's written in Xanthalian (naturally), and these are not easy words.

Team two: Engineering is completely dark. There is an access panel to AI power supply on the second floor of the area.

2 men from team two begin working on getting the AI back online, while a few members from team three argue about how to translate the writings on the buttons on the Envi controls. Frustrated and panicked, one man presses a yellow button on the console.

Team one: OOC: Dangerous stuff, pressing random buttons. Oh well, why not make it easier for you? IC: The screen changes to a large selection of buttons with a language written on each. OOC: You hit the language select button! You win a cookie for your rash action!

Team two: The problem quickly becomes apparent; the AI power feed wires are burned out. replacements are obviously needed. None are in sight, but there are plenty of wires around since this is engineering. A creative mind will see potential in simply jury-rigging the power supply. A practical mind will see the danger in trying such a slipshod solution to such a delicate problem.

The leader of team two shouts out an order, "Get some wiring, and make sure you know positicve from negative! This isn't AC you know!"

The team members nod and go running around for some wires and cables.


The guy who pressed the button in envi controls raises an eyebrow as a list pops up:
[code:1:54cf414ce3]HDJDGWKD
KSLFEKH
KHDFSAKQ
100101011001010110101100
HFDOJDFS
GALACTIC BASIC
FEALUHVFKLJBVF
LKJVASLJWVGLJB[/code:1:54cf414ce3]

"Umm... duh?"

He presses for galactic basic and looks around for emergency power controls.

Team one: The button marked "Tap emergency power reserves" seems like an excellent choice to achieve his objective.

The man from team one does not hesitate to press the button. he hopes to hear air pressurize into all decks very soon.

Several members of both treams are spooked as random crewmen pop into the room then choke to death.

"Hurry!!"

OOC: Forgetting something? And I quote: "Environmental control is functional, but it's memory chips are all missing. It's set to pump random gasses into some sections and leave others exposed to vacuum."

IC: Noxious gasses begin pumping into some sections while others are vacuumized.

OOC: And they would know... how? :P

"That's not it idiot! That's not air!"

"Aack! Crap! Working on the mixtures now!" He presses a few buttons, accessing the balances, and resets all, then changes all to normal class M environment.

Within ten seconds the air throughout most of the ship is breatheable, but there's still a problem: The outer sections are riddled with hull breaches, and the AI (being offline) cannot seal them. Thus, many areas are still exposed to vacuum.

OOC: Whaddya know? Sending both teams was the right choice!

Team two struggled with the AI's power while 2 more men from team one rushed over to a console and tried to bring up containment shields one at a time.

After two agonizing minutes, the AI comes back online. "Thank you for reactivating me. What have I missed?"

"Natasha, Your crew came back!"

Speaking of that, the team members take off their helmets and drop their weapons, just to make sure there are no bad impressions.

"That is well. I see that you have managed to get environmental controls back online. I am sealing breaches in the outer hull now."
Forcefields seal the remainder of the ship and within seconds IAS-11 is habitable again. "Many of my internal sensors are still offline. However, I am detecting 219 of my crew aboard."
The Xanthalians begin re-orienting themselves with the AIs help. Several dozen appear in engineering, but none in environmental control. "As I was saying before I went offline, there was a malfunction in the Dimensional Universe Energy Tapper. It caused my crew and many of my technological components to be pushed out of dimensional phase. The crew seems okay, but none of my technology is returning. I conjecture that the phase anomoly affected biological components differently than technological ones."

Smith, still in the ready room, walks onto the Bridge, now containing a few dazed crewmen. "What the heck happened to you guys? Oh yeah, I'm Lt. Commander Smith, of the Capsule Corporation."

A Thanic female looks about her and sees that she is the highest ranking officer on deck. She steps forward and bows to Smith. "Greetings. I am Lieutenant Starshade of the Xanthalian Imperial Armada. There was a malfunction, the DUET overloaded and phased us. I don't know how to describe the experience. Eerie, to say the least. What are you doing here anyway?"

"Your AI sent out a distress signal.. When we got here all your stuff was gone, everything. Every computer console and every crewman. It looked like it had been looted. Your AI was still here though."

"That's odd... Well then, since I'm the ranking officer that has returned, I'm taking command of the vessel. Objections?" She turns to face the bridge crew. They bow, signalling their acceptance. "Good. Now that that's settled..." She turns back to Smith. "We'll need a tow back to an Imperial Armada stardock. What's our current position?"

"You are about 10,000 light years from Sol. We can take you there if you wish, it would be only a day's travel if we modify our fold drives to carry you."

"Hmm... Natasha, can you access a tranceiver array?"
"Yes Lieutenant, I have access to the secondary tranceiver."
"Good. Tell the XIA command that we'll be returning to spacedock shortly."
"Yes Ma'am."
The Lieutenant addresses Smith again. "Sir, I'm afraid taking us to the Sol system would serve very little purpose. Xanthal maintains only a small colony and spaceport there. Tell me our exact galactic coordinates, then I can direct you to the nearest Xanthalian facility to suit our purpose."

"Oh, well then you are in sector 098, Alpha Quadrant."

"Good. I can see we have not moved much from our previous position. Set your course for the Talmaraan system. It should be on your star charts. The mega class space station in orbit of the eighth planet can accomodate this vessel for docking and repairs..." Starshade looks about her in disgust at the still stripped bridge and the hole in the outer hull. "Which we certainly need."

"That is about 12 hours away. We will take you there. We are currently working on rigging a tow. We can leave in about half an hour."

"Well Commander, I request permission for me and what's left of the rest of the crew to come aboard your vessel for the trip. No offense Natasha, but you look like hell. I don't feel compelled to do anything greater than .00001 SL in this ship right now, let alone go through a space fold."
"None taken. I am hesitant to travel in this ship myself. Would you mind beaming me aboard your ship for the ride Mister Smith? All I need is a cargo bay somewhere."

"Yes. I presumed you might wish this. We have spartan-style troop quarters that youmay stay in. And I'll get a team working on disassembling the AI from its hold."

Starshade smiles. "Thank you Commander."
Natasha sounds nervous. "Disassembling? Um... On second thought, I'll stay here."

"Don't worry, my men will be safe... you lasted 5 mintues without power just fine, I think you can last 10 minutes while we take you to the other ship and hook you up."

The Pacifier, a relatively small ship, but very powerful, managed to dock with the Xanthal ship, on top of the central hull. Crew began escorting the Xanthalians onboard.

"Eh heh... Right. Do you know how big I am?"

"You were that little box in engineering, right?" Smith suggests, not knowing any better.

"No, that thing was the DUET. I am approximately 250 cubic meters in size and located in a sealed compartment in the center of the ship. Unless you have transporter technology, moving me would be a most unwieldy task."

"Oh, umm, in that case, enjoy the ride!"

"Indeed. You can all leave now, I need to see to my well-being. Diverting all power to structural integrity."

All the crew has transferred to the Pacifier.

"Warming up hyperdrives and fold drives now. Hyperdrives ready, initiating."

THe ships lurched slightly as they pulled themselves into hyperspace.

"We'll pick up speed when the cascading fold drives kick in..."

The rest of the Xanthalian crew has been ordered to their quarters. Starshade stands on the bridge of the Pacifier. "I never did like hyperspace. Give me slipstream any day. How're you holding up Natasha?"
"Structural integrity is holding at 47%. I am prepared for the fold, but I don't see a happy future for the port aft section of the ship. It was too badly damaged; I project hull integrity failure there in less than ten seconds. Do not worry, I have ensured that the debris will not interfere with the jump."

"Don't worry, it's just a series of short folds one right after another... low power. You will hardly notice them. And as for the crew... their vision might blur slightly, but you will get used to it as we have."

"Right... Just tell me when it's over." Starshade leaves the bridge and returns to her quarters.
"The port aft hull has collapsed. Structural integrity in other areas is holding at 31%."

The Pacifier and the IAS-11 (If that is the right name) tough it out and make it to the Xanthal spaceport.

The Pacifier remains docked, towing the Xanthal ship, assessing all the damage incurred by the high velocities.

"My hull integrity is at 12%, but I am undamaged. Thanks for the lift."

"Attention Pacifier; this is XSS-231. Tow ships have been dspatched to bring IAS-11 into the internal docking bay. Release your hold on the vessel and prepare to have your commander summoned to the station command center."

The pacifier releases its hold and Commander Hatch prepares to be beamed aboard or whatever.

IAS-11 is towed in to the station. A few minutes later a message is recieved by Hatch.
"Please report to station command on deck one of the station at your earliest convienience."

A small dropship makes its way over to the station. When it docks, the senior staff of the Pacifier step out, Hatch in the lead.

They are met by a female Xanthalian. "This way please." She starts of through the station.

...they follow...?

The woman takes them through the corridors and into a turbolift. The lift takes them to deck one, where she leads the group through the many offices to the station commander's office. She ushers them in, then shuts the door behind them. The station commander gets up from his desk and walks around to Hatch. "Hi there. I'm Admiral Tom Sheean. I'm commander of this station. Please let me know what happened in your encounter with IAS-11. Leave out no details."

*too lazy to log in as CC*

Hatch nods and looks over to Smith.

"Well,there was a distress call, we answered it, and when we came aboard, only your AI was on, bareley... the crew was gone, most of the computers and syste,ms were gone... and then suddenly they began to reappear and we did all in our power to keep them from reappearing in a vacuum... and then we towed them and we're here now... not much really, but still weird."

"Do you know what caused the ship to be in it's original state?"

"We have no clue. It seemed like some sort of avdvanced teleportation technology."

"Noted. We will inquire with the AI and crew as well. If this is a result of a malfunction in either the DUET or dimensional phase system there could be serious consequences for the Armada."