NationStates Jolt Archive

KCTS FleetWerks IntraSpace Shipyard, Ringspace, Saturn System

Zin Karma, CEO and Founder of KarmaCorp TechSystems approaches the sprawling spiderwork of construction bays, engineering modules, and crew compartments that make up IntraSpace Shipyards. 39 new ships sit gleaming in the bays, crews crawling over and in them as final preparations are made. Karma's KCTS PST-01 Solstream transport docks with the command module, and he makes his way through the air lock.

"Sir, welcome to IntraSpace. I am Techomir Trajbold, Chief Engineer and Station Director."

"Thank you Trajbold. I am impressed at how quickly you were able to handle the extra workload this order placed on your production schedule. Pass that along to your crews as well, they have performed to the highest standards of the KCTS name."

Techomir visibly glows at the praise from his boss of bosses. "I will make sure that they get the message sir."

"Is everything ready for their new owners?"

"Yessir, all systems of the new fleet passed final checks about an hour ago. The cleaning crews and finishing crews are aboard now, but should be done within the hour. We are prepared for the christening ceremonies when that time comes."

"Outstanding. The fighters and dropships?"

"They are gridded in the holding areas. They will be placed aboard once the ships clear the traffic exclusionary zone around the yards. Too much traffic to bring them aboard inside, and the potential for accident is too great."

"Good. Signal the Dread Lady. Tell her, her fleet is ready."

http://okcac.freeyellow.com/ikari.jpg
CEO Zin Karma
KarmaCorp TechSystems
Karmabaijan
Titan

Of all days to be stuck indoors ...

Nathicana gazes out the window of her office, looking across the Canale Grande with a wistful expression.

The weather today, in her opinion, was perfect. The sun was shining, there was a warm, gentle breeze up from the south, and the water, further out into the bay, looked just beautiful.

Perfect for a sail. And here I sit, with all this thrice-damned paperwork. IL DIO there is no justice!

She reluctantly turns her chair away from the view, her brow furrowing as she ran over recent missives.

Hurried footsteps sound in the anteroom, along with hushed conversation. She looks up with irritation. "Oh, come for chrissakes. What is it?"

Marik pokes his head through the doors, actually looking excited, if such a thing were possible for the normally subdued man. "Report, just came in along official lines," he says, handing her a printout.

Nathi scans the content, stops, scans again, her scowl melting away to be replaced by a broad grin.

"They're done," she murmurs softly, then looks up at Marik. "Our new ships are done. Gather the crews, pronto!" She scanned over the missive again, grinning broadly. "And inform the staff that I'm headed out for an important diplomatic meeting - which this is. Prep the press, I'm certain they'll want a full report - and we'll give it to them on my return. This is only the beginning, Marik. The Angelans introduced us to space. With these three squadrons we gain a tighter grip on that, and the ability to protect our interests abroad. The colony is doing well, but with all those other nations ..." She trails off, thinking, but shakes her head hurriedly, getting back on track.

"You know the plans we've been discussing well enough," she murmurs, looking over the stats she's had on her desk for the past while, now dogeared from her constant perusals.

Marik nods, cupping his chin in one hand, his elbow resting in the other, deftly stifling a chuckle as he takes on a serious, 'yes, I'm listening' look as she rambles on about ships, and colonies, and space stations and the like. He's jolted out of his quiet reverie by her repeated request.

"Well, why are you still standing there, boy? Hop to it! You've got over 1250 troops to deploy, a couple of ships to get ready for travel, and a staff to alert," she said with a wry grin. "Me, I'm going to co pack. And Marik, I'd appreciate it if you came along as well."

He shook his head, chuckling softly. "As you command," he said, backing out with a mock bow.

"Damn smartass men..." she mutters, half laughing as she gathers some of her things, phoning back to the villa to make arrangements there.




DSMIT Broadcaster
Encryption: Triumvirate Standard
Broadcast type: Business / Military
To: CEO Zin Karma of KCTS
Return transmission band: Open
IDENT: Nathicana D'Aquisto - Dominion

To CEO Zin Karma, KTCS:

My most sincere thanks for such quick work in getting this fleet together for me, and for providing me the opportunity in the first place.

Me and my people are anxious to get underway, and shall be leaving within the next 24 hours. We're all anxious to see the fleet.

With warm regard,

http://home.mchsi.com/~ketri/wsb/links/Nath17.jpg
--Nathicana D'Aquisto

End Transmission

The Dominion ships dropped out of jumpspace at a respectable distance, making their way in slowly after hailing IntraSpace Shipyards to announce their arrival, and request docking proceedures. The Michaelangelo, Revenant class, under the command of Maresciallo Serafina Alighieri leads, followed closely by the Firenze, and Agostino, both Falchions under Capitanos Valentino Bonacelli and Lucretia Greco, respectively. On board, the prospective crew and captains for the new fleet, and the Dread Lady herself, come to inspect the ships, and close the deal.

Dressed in a more militaristic looking set of clothing that fits her like a glove - black Dominion jacket with brass buttons and red piping, tails hanging down in the back, crisp white leggings, high polished boots that click on the floor, worn up to the knee. She'd worn her hair pulled back and twisted into a long french braid that hung down past her waist, no additional jewelry or trinkets to be seen.

Stepping off the Michaelangelo with those designated to captain the new ships falling in at a respectful distance behind, Nathicana walked confidently, putting out a hand in greeting to the man she knew from her files and from correspondance.

"Zin Karma of KarmaCorp TechSystems," she says with a pleasant smile. "Nathicana D'Aquisto. I'm here for my new pretties."

Zin Karma takes the offered hand, and bows deeply.

"Nathicana D'Aquisto, a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance. I am pleased that you decided to contract with us on this order."

He smiles at her, and pushes a button on a nearby bulkhead. A blast shield retracts, and visible in their bays is a sizeable portion of the new DLN Fleet. But there is something different about these ships, something that sets them apart from their TYCS counterparts.

"I do hope that crimson and obsidian suits your tastes?"

The ships sport their colors under the bright lights of the construction bays, the obsidian so dark it appears to absorb light, and the crimson so vivid it seems to glow.

http://okcac.freeyellow.com/ikari.jpg
CEO Zin Karma
KarmaCorp TechSystems
Karmabaijan
Titan

Her breath catches as the ships are revealed, her pleasure first obvious in her eyes, then her brilliant smile as she laughs delightedly.

"Lontano oltre le mie aspettative, il mio caro socio," she says, then catches herself, and replies more properly. "Above and beyond what I expected, and then some. They are ... beautiful. As for contracting with you - my dear, was there any doubt? I have high expectations for a new fleet. I came to the best to satisfy that desire."

A shiver runs up her back, and she chuckles again, noting the quiet comments from the decidedly impressed captains behind her, all staring up with undisguised hunger at the revealed fleet.

Now, M'lady, if you would be so kind as to follow me, we have arranged a tour of one of your new Longship-class carriers.

He leads the way to a hover tram with enough seating for all of the crews.

"The shipyards here are all interconnected, but with the bays kilometers in length, we have to use vehicles to get around."

The tram moves down several wide passegways before coming to a halt outside a large, double wide door.

"Ah, here we are. Inspiration Point."

The doors hiss open as the driver of the tram presses a button on the wall before getting back in his vehicle and tearing off to keep his schedule. As the doors open, they reveal a lounge-type room with a cieling a full 10 meters in height, with a full length window set into the outside wall. Tables and chairs are scattered about the room. Outside the window the angled prow of a Longship fills the entire view, its length visible down the construction bay right outside.

Behind the Dread Lady, and about three feet below her, a small camera activates, and activates its video feed. It had taken months of research to find where the Dread Lady was beginning her fleet, and even longer to create something that could actually explore those new ships undetected. After that, it had taken a few lives, along with millions of dollars from the military funds, just to get the small thing inside. All of that was worth it, however. Such information had to be gotten, and, as is the nature of the universe, important stuff never comes cheap.
The little mechanical voyeur creeped noiselessly forward on its tiny mechanical feet, its secondary cameras camoflaging it in a picture of the deck below it. It carefully crept forward so that it stayed just below the Lady, and, keeping its camera firmly forward in a robotic sense of decency, moved its little AI-controlled self slowly toward the entrance, keeping in step with the lady so as to mask all possible noise, and using its extreme-frequency radar to make sure the lady didn't step on it. Thus the tiny robotic spy snuck its way into the Dread Lady's newest ship, confident that no one would see it or feel it hiding beneath the Lady herself, and biding its time until it could find a chance to sneak away, and explore the ship for itself.

"MAKE A HOLE! COMING THROUGH!"

The technician yells ahead to warn people of his headlong charge down the corridor. Zin Karma quickly pulls Nathi out of the way, as the tech comes chargin through. Seeing his boss, he offers a quick apology and is on his way, running right past Nathi and Karma.

::CRUNCH::

Zin turns his head downward at the odd sound, and addresses one of the techs accompanying the group. "What was that?"

"Uhh, I dunno sir, I'll get Systems up here immediatly."

"Good."

OOC:Ok, let me get this straight. You actually think that you can get anything even close to one of the most secure facilities in the solar system? I suggest you do a bit of research first. The facility in question is deep within Triumvirate of Yut Saturnian Space, in the Innerspace inside the Dyson Ring that was built around Saturn. That space is defended by about 8 full battle fleets. Every ship in and out of the system is identified, and traffic to the shipyard is screened/scanned beyond reason. Every person entering the facility is a known KCTS employee in good standing, or a directly invited guest. All guests are under constant surveillance, and bug sweeps are done every 15 minutes, or every 5 with visitors aboard. Technical reasons aside, I do not take kindly to people just showing up and putting stuff where it does not belong. Something like this would take a lot of roleplay to happen, and, frankly, it wasn't done. Therefore, you can assume you spent a lot of money(on a not so good economy, I might add), possibly several lives, and got absolutley nothing out of it. Now, kindly remove yourself from where you do not belong, and be on your way.

I dont think you understood the remove yourself from the thread bit. No worries, I'll take care of that.

"Please, just Nathi or Nathicana, if you must. No need for formalities," she says as they walk along, she as usual, trying to take in everything at once, the smile never slipping from her face.

The headlong rush of the tech throws her off for but a moment, her instincts causing her to tense, starting to drop into a defensive stance before she's pulled out of the way by Zin Karma. The crunch gave her pause, and she looked around suspiciously for a moment, then shrugged, murmuring her thanks to Zin.

As they enter the room, she murmurs a quiet phrase under her breath, suddenly feeling her whole 5'6" - and finding it lacking somehow as she walked over to stand in front of the large window. "La merda santa, quella è una vista bella!

Almost like a kid out window shopping at Christmastime, she edged closer, gently putting her hands on the window, and peering out to see all she can, her blue eyes sparkling with anticipation.

"Bravissimo, Zin. You've truly outdone yourselves. Now, if you can give me the finer details ..."

"First, something has to be done."

He produces a small, highly polished wooden box. Smiling, he hands it to nathi.

Opening the box, Nathi finds a solid block of ornate wood, inlaid with a single, round, button. A team of stewards in white comes through the door, carrying trays of long fluted champagne glasses, already filled. The head steward comes up to Zin and hands him a bottle.

"This bottle is from a very special lot. It and the bottles in the glasses were of the final batch produced by the world renouned Karmatsu Vinyards before we left Earth. I have the only remaining stock of that series in my private collection."

He admires the bottle for a moment, before placing it in a reciever mouted in the wall. A door shuts, and the bottle appears in a mechanism, just outside the window.

"I hope you have a name picked out Lady Nathicana."

Smiling, he gestures to the button in the ornate box.

"Il mio dolce Jesu," she breathes at his description of the rarity of the vintage, taking the box and blinking. Her eyes go a little wide, her mouth slightly dry at the thought of it being so used, tradtions be damned. She watches his movements carefully, a slight pang of loss going through her, regardless. One could hardly be in the business, nor of true Dominion stock, and not see the value there. Ayieeyah ...

As he turns to her and smiles, asking for the name, she nods. "You do me great honor, Zin Karma. Bene grazie. And, yes ... I do."

"Vigilanza del dio di maggio sopra questa nave, coloro che serve su esso e la flotta che segue," she says in a clear voice, repeating for those who are unfamiliar with the language. "May God watch over this ship, those who serve on it, and the fleet that follows. I christen thee, the Marcus Aurelias."

And with that, she presses the button, her eyes riveted on her new ship.

A slight hiss is heard as the bottle is ejected towards the ship, tumbling end of end before exploding against the hull, right next to the Black Falcon logo of the DLN fleet.

"A fitting tribute to a fine ship. A toast!"

Zin raises his champagne glass, and upends it, savoring the blissful taste of the near forbidden vintage.

"To business, progress, and a job well done," she says, raising her glass in turn, quietly enjoying the flavor with a decidedly pleased smile.

"Exquisite, Zin ... il Dio, were it not so rare, I'd make an offer, just to have a few bottles in my own collection. Bene grazie, mi amico. This is all far more than I expected."

Her eyes take on a bit of a hungry light as she looks over the ship, appreciating the clean lines, the deep obsidian and crimson colors that denoted her nation, and the proud Falcon insignia.

"So tell me, Zin ... who gets to pilot that beautiful ship first?" she asks, grinning mischievously.

"That, my dear, is up to you. Xeruyu tells me that you are quite the pilot yourself, so I bet that you have already made up your mind. Do you have a preference as to what you would like to, as they say, test drive?"

Nathicana laughs, blushing slightly at the praise. "Bah," she says, grinning. "I manage that beautiful little shuttle of mine well enough, but this ..." her gaze goes once again to the Marcus Aurelius. "This is a whole different animal. Won't lie - would love a go at it. Also have never handled anything larger than vK's Loki."

The memories from that near-disaster made her wince internally. At least this time I'm not distracted. Still, gods, the difference in power from those two. This baby ... damn.

"Then by all means, welcome aboard."

Zin motions to the boarding tube set in the wall and ushers Nathi aboard. He leads the way through the corridors of the Longship arriving shortly to the semi-dark bridge. He pulls a KCTS SDataCrys from his pocket and inserts it into the master command station, and types a few commands.

"And Zin said let their be light."

And there was. The bridge lights came up, stations turning on to standby mode. Running lights along the hull snap on and the massive engines can be felt coming to life through a slight thrum in the hull.

Zin motions to the command chair, and the ubiquitous dataplug.

"All yours m'lady."

Nathi seems to try to be looking at everything at once, soaking up the look and feel of the big ship with a decidedly pleased expression.

"Benissimo ..." she breathes softly, grinning at Zin's display of bravado, and oddly enough, approving wholeheartedly. She turns her head, tying again to take it all in. "Ah, mia bella," she says, running her hand over the back of the chair, then shooting Zin a sly wink.

"You boys really do know how to treat a lady right." She sits down gracefully, taking her time settling in, clearly relishing the whole experience. "Alright, my pretty, lets see what you can do," she murmurs to herself. With a deep relaxing breath, she takes the dataplug, looks it over for a moment, then jacks in.

God I hope I don't screw this one up ...

Nathi finds the neural control interface an exacct duplicate of her shuttle and of vonKarma's Loki, Equilibrium. The Longship backs slowly out of the spacedock, following Nathi's commands to open Innerspace.

"Congratulations Lady Nathicanca, on soloing the fifth largest ship class in the TYCS inventory. Maybe you can convince Xeruyu or Speaker to let you take the helm of one of the O'Neill-class."

A small grin crosses Zin's face.

Nathicana can't help but laugh at that, all the while thrilling at the sheer power of the huge vessel.

"After the last time I took them for a ride, Zin, I highly doubt they'd be keen on it," she replied, grinning wryly, then continued, a look of quiet wonder and, yes, contentment creeping over her face. "My god, how do you folks do it? The control ... the finesse of it. Sometimes I wonder why a person would ever jack out of this."

And had I not a nation to run, responsibilities to attend to, and, admitedly, someone to share it all with, by the powers that be, I'm not sure I ever would. This ... this is freedom.

She closes her eyes for a moment, simply savoring, the smile never leaving her lips. She takes a moment to really feel the ship, her senses overlaid with it's own, after a fashion, maintaining situational awareness and keeping on target.

Nathi shivers, in a decidedly good way, as she opens her eyes again. "My compliments again to you and your crews. She's a beauty."