NationStates Jolt Archive

Out in the depths of space, halfway across the galaxy from the Sol System, a ship manned by humans, elves, brutes and cyborgs cruised slowly around a star. They weren't interested in the star itself or the solar system. But what was behind it. If something can be 'behind' a solar system.

No picture could accurately describe what they see. No video able to capture the awe of it. Only imagination could picture it properly.

Take a black hole. Stick it in the center of a solar system, thereby rendering it visable. Now... take another black hole, slightly larger, and do the same. Move them close enough to where they effect eachothers gavity and then start to rotate them around each other. By nature the rotaion will be erratic, the two blackholes strtching out into space, then whiping back towards each other, then back out into space. Now have them colide with a few nebulea and give the whole mess a good firm kick across the galaxy.

Jump about 500 trillion years into the future. Present day. Three lightyears wide, full of the hardest radiation ever detected, uncountable numbers of stars and solar systems and in it... two black dots. Your original black holes, gorging themselves on anything and everything. Now... plot the course of the 'kick' you gave it. Where it will be in 90 trillion years, there is a dead star at the moment. But 90 trillion years from now, a certian 11 planet solar system, currently the most populated solar system in th galaxy, will be eaten by it. Soon after it's closest neighbor will be as well.

---------------------

Captian Oakland stared at the screen. "Polo's Bolos. The most destructive force in this galaxy. Ensign, what are the readings?"

"Radiation off the chart. Before we were a thousandth the way to one of those black holes, one tenth the radiation getting through shields would be a hundred times the leathal dosage. Advise we stay the hell away from it."

"Agreed. But we need to scan the interior. To find out just what is inside and see if we can use it for seomething. Task Force Renegade isn't getting as much acclaim as we used to.. Science officer... launch the probe."

----------------------

A single probe shot into the Galactic Malestrom, entering hyperspace for an instant, then dropping out inside. Unfortuatly it hit a planet seconds before it could transmit.

----------------------

"Nice. That just tells us that it's dangerous in there..."

OOC: Yes, I have done what no other dared! I have sealed the fate of Earth in a way no one will Ignore! It will be destroyed. In 90 trillion years. When no one is RPing. :P

Oh and.... anyone who wants to join in, can. Peaceful or not.

But.... no ISDs or uber warships. Mine is a light cruiser.

The Systems Commonwealth Long Range Surveillance Ship Enigma

Captain Kylie Young of the Enigma stood at her station, watching the cords of slipstream fly by the ship, on the long hauls it could be almost hypnotising, more than once she caught herself almost falling asleep while the ship was streaming. She made a mental note to drink an extra cup of coffee every morning...

"Captain, we have problem." The A.I. of the Enigma, known as Ellie to the crew, informed the CO.

"What is it Ellie?"

The A.I. paused while her algorithims analyzed all the millions of bits of information her sensor's were recieving. The ship was about to respond, when the entrie ship shuddered like it had run into a brick wall, crew members were thrown to the deck, and a number of console's on the bridge blew out, spewing sparks all over the deck.

"There... a gravitat... ..rce warping ...tream, shi... is being thro... into norm... space!" The A.I.'s connections with the ship were damaged, her speech was intermitant, but Captain Young, who was picking herself up off of the deck, caught enough of it to understand that her ship was being thrown into normal space.

She wondered what the hell had enough gravitational force to warp slipstream...

http://server5.uploadit.org/files/saturn656-unknown1.JPG
The Engima

"Captian... we just got an energy spike nearby."

Oakland turned and looked at the officer, waiting for her to elaborate.

"I can't be sure what it was, could have been a drifting missile cooking off due to radiation... or it could have been a fusion core going off."

"Another ship?" he asked, moving up to the sensor station.

"Maybe, we've seen freighters get caught by the Maelstrom before. Hyperspace isn't really bothered by the black holes, you just have to avoid the gravity wells. Other forms of FTL drives though... we could have another Poseidon on our hands." the officer answered, refering to an unfortunate freighter that flew straight into the smaller of the two black holes. It took three years just to hear enough to get a voiceprint on the captian with the gravity and time distortions disrupting the distress call that could never be answered.

"Move us towards it. Broadcast the IFF codes and ship registry. Hopefully it isn't a pirate battlecruiser..."

OOC: wait...11 planets? I'm missing something here. Who are planets 10 and 11?

oh....and tag

The Command Deck was dark, save for the odd burst of sparks from damaged consoles every fifteen or so seconds. The screens all showed static, with bursts of meaningless data inbetween power surges. Wires hung from the ceiling, and a support beam lay across the first officer's station, the XO crushed beneath, obviously dead.

"Ship, status..."

Captain Young stepped over the debris, making sure not to come into contact with any live wires, there were enough of them laying around.

Young didn't recieve any response from the Enigma, the AI must have been disrupted by the shock of re-entry into normal space. Hopefully the redundant circuts would activate, but for now she had to run the ship on her own.

Suddenly, the three front view screens came back to life, one showing a three dimensional sensor view of space, with the Enigma in the centre, another showed a view of space directly ahead of the ship, and the third showed an image of the AI, frozen. The redundant systems were beginning to kick in, but the AI was still offline.

The TAC officer of the Enigma came too from his resting place on the floor, quickly got to his feet and checked his station.

"Captain, we are parked right next to a massive singularity, thats what warped the sliptunnel..."

An image of the black hole came on the external viewer.

"The rad levels coming from that thing are massive, the hull appears to be soaking up most of it, but with the shielding offline its only a matter of time until we cook."

Yound nodded.

"XO, whats the status of our propulsion system?"

When she didnt recieve a reply she glanced across the deck, to see him rudely impailed by a support beam, she didn't say another word, and checked the engine status herself. There would be time to mourn later...

The Enigma had enough power to counteract the gravitational pull, but not enough to break away, they would hold their position here for now.

"Ma'am, something else is on the scanners, appears to be a ship, light crusier class."

Young's knees felt weak, the Enigma was a recon ship, just under 100 meters in length, and her weapons suite was what would be expected on a recon ship, light. Back in Commonwealth space, piracy was something you read about in books, but out here, she knew better...

"TAC, what do we have for weapons?"

"Not much Ma'am, the AP guns are offline, and our ECM grid is toast, the Four ELS tubes are still up, shall I load Defensive Missiles?"

Young nodded.

"Thats affirm, until we know the intentions of the cruiser, we do not let our guard down."

The crew was unaware of the IFF transmissions from the cruiser, even if their comm system was operational, there was a good chance the systems were not compatable.

Meanwhile, the distance between the High Guard Scout and the Cruiser closed...

OOC: wait...11 planets? I'm missing something here. Who are planets 10 and 11?OOC: Luna and Charon. They are not moons, they are part of double planets. You see, a moon must, at some point in it's orbit fall away from the sun, and towards it's planetary mate. The poor, missnamed moon falls towards the sun only, as does Charon.

IC: "Sir, it's a ship all right. Small configuration, a scout or patrol ship. Can't get a lifesign reading with the radiation. Sir... if they are alive, they need to either get their shields up or get the hell out of here."

Oakland sighed. At least it wasn't pirates. "Are we on a direct intercept?"

"Yes sir."

"Change course, ten degrees to starboard. Then wing us about and take us along side. First Mate... hoist the Yellow Jack."

The mate nodded and pulled up on the only physical control on the bridge, a lever hooked directly into the hull running lights.

Now in additon to the normal blinking lights, the universally known blinking red and yellow hull lights came on. The sign of a border patrol ship on full alert, warning anyone else in sight to stand down.

"Let's hope they have visual..."

HNSC Kirov

Captain Ustionov stood on the bridge of his ship, his Hammer class assault Frigate was on the way to a distant Hattian space station. The bright white of hyperspace glowed from the viewport. Quickly the white light dissapeared and was replaced with the black of space. Ustinov was thrown against a rail in front of the command station. "Bloody hell, what happened?" The sensor operator picked himself up and sat back in his seat. "I've detected huge amounts of radiation, and a large source of gravity to the port side." Ustinov grimaced, "A black hole!" He peered at the sensorman's console. "Damn, I've never seen radiation levels that high. That thing must be huge!" He walked back to the command station, "Are there any other ships in the area?" "Yes Captain. A light cruiser and some type of recon ship, the recon ship is dangerously close to the black hole." Ustinov quickly punched a few buttons on his console.

Message to both ships
[code:1:c002037968]
This is Captain Ustinov of the HNSC Kirov. Does anyone need any help?
[/code:1:c002037968]

Young lay prone under a console against the far wall of the command deck, trying to "hot-wire" the Enigma A.I.

"Try it now..."

The TAC officer tapped his console several times and the computer screens on the command deck dimmed for five seconds, then came back to full power, all the screens bore the image of the A.I, whose avatar was an attractive human female, as most High Guard avatars were...

"Got it ma'am."

Young stood up from the floor and brushed her uniform off, she jogged over to her station.

"How are we doing for the reactive shields TAC?"

"They should be online momentarily, thank god, I can feel my DNA being split apart as we speak..."

Young grinned.

"No need for exaggeration, Lieutenant, now lets get more power to those engines..."

The Lieutenant's console began beeping, Young recognized the sequence, it was the proximity warning, that ship must be getting close.

The image of the A.I. disapeared from all the screens except the right main viewer, and gave Captain Young an update on the cruiser.

"Captain, the unknown ship is moving closer, but they have altered their course to about 10 degrees starboard, and their running lights appear to be signaling some kind of message, but its not in the High Guard Comm codes, they appear to be coming up along side."

Young thought about her options, she was clearly outgunned, especially with her main AP guns down, if they were pirates, her ship was an easy target. She didn't recognize the design of the ship or any of the markings, they could be anybody, however the ship was rather clean for it to be a pirate cruiser, and why would they be trying to signal us...

"TAC, notify security teams, put them on Code Yellow Alert, Code Red on my say so. Let them come along side, lets play it cool for now..."

All over the ship, the six-man security details patroled every deck of the ship, ready to fight any hostile boarding teams. They all hoped that they wouldn't have to fight, for most of them couldn't think of a worse place to be involved in a tactical engagement, far from home and without support.

"What in the hell is that thing?" Asked Gerrard Nicolò to no one in particular as he examined through the viewscreen a massive black hole. He had never seen a black hole on this scale before. "Stop the ship. Lets not get to close to that thing."

His ship, Radient, slowed to a stop. It was a modified light Cruiser, oufitted with only minimal weaponry but it was magnificently fast, one of the fastest ships this side of the galaxy. Gerrard didnt like the title "Pirate" as much as "Space-faring Law-bender." He knew that 3 other ships were in the area, but he didnt want to raid them this close to a black hole.

Although Gerrard was a raider, he was also a good man. He never liked seeing people die. By the looks of one of the ships-A scout ship, by the looks of it-The crew was either all dead from radiation or was soon going to be cooked alive. He was about to manuver Radient in close and see if he could do anything to help, but the sight of Bright, blinking red and yellow lights from one of the the other ships, a cruiser, made him pause for a moment.

"Cloak the ship. Hang back until i say otherwise. Neither of these ships is worth raiding at the moment. Lets just bide our time for now......"

Trailing the Crimmond ship, the Yahoo jumped out of hyperspace. They were having a blast with the music pumped all the way up, but they grew silent at the sight.
"Holy shit," One man said.
The ship they were in was about 90 meters long. Alos about 30 meters wide it had several veiwports all around. From the veiwports, almost the entire crew wathced the sight. They quickly fumbled with the transmission, then yelled. "Crimmond ship, what the hell is that thing?"

Oakland blinks. "What is this? Picnic day at the Bolos?"

"The Mealstrom appears to have intersected with an outlying space corridor. We are receiving hails from the other ships."

"Sir, we have come along side the disabled scout."

Oakland smiled. "Good. Extend shields around them and lock the Pulse clamps onto anything that looks like a comm system."

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The shields extended out around the Enigma, followed by thruster clamps that attached themselves to the hull and acted as a makeshift radio.

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"Done sir. Bringing the system online..."

"This is Captian Oakland of the CSS Beserker, Task Force Renegade. Is anyone alive over there?"

Young grabbed the console as she felt the entire ship shudder.

"Ship, what was that?"

The A.I. of the Enigma appeared onscreen.

"The Cruiser has locked onto us and has extended its shields around us, providing protection from the radiation."

Young appreciated the gesture, but she was sure the Enigmas shields could handle the rad levels. However she was extremely grateful for the docking, the sooner her ship was towed away from the singularity the better.

"Captain, apparantly, they have also tapped directly into our comm array, we are recieving a transmission."

"Put it up."

A voice crackled over the bridge comm system.

"This is Captian Oakland of the CSS Beserker, Task Force Renegade. Is anyone alive over there?"

Young breathed a sigh of relief, at least they weren't pirates, but that still didn't make them saints, she opted to approach this Captain Oakland cautiously. She nodded to her TAC officer to open a channel.

"This is Captain Kyrie Young of the Systems Commonwealth vessel Enigma, and we are more or less intact at the moment, but we have suffered casualties..."

Colonial Heavy Cruiser Hyperius, Long Range Patrol from Nova Kretani Solar System

Chief Commandant Will'Kan sat in the Generals Chair. Off-Duty was mostly what everyone on the ships was placed as, including the Commanding officer of the ship, General Velopa. Will'Kan was the ships Second-In-Command, intern now acting Commanding General of the ship while General Velopa rested. A small Bridge Shift, and some of the Bridge Officers, remained on the ships Bridge to keep watch on anything.

"Sub-Space Drive showing levels within normal ranges," reported normally Chief Engineering Officer Commander Fal'Kre, "We will be exiting Theoretical Sub-Space in five minutes."

"Thank you, Engineer Commander Fal'kre, keep a close watch."

"Aye Commanding General," replies Fal'Kre, "Keeping watch as ordered."

Sighing Will'Kan allowed his tail to sway back and forth, slipping through the space between the Generals Chair for Komodren to be able to sit comfertably. General Velopa wasn't, Komodren, just Birthright Human, yet even he knew that the Generals Chair would need it for future Commanding Generals of the Ship. Sitting back against the Generals Chair, Will'Kre knew all-too-well the aspects of the ship designs of the Colonial Fleet. Few were incorperated into the Fleets, however. This, Will'Kre knew, wasn't a problem at all.
Tapping his five claws on his fingers in a sequence-type of motion, Will'Kre waited to exit Sub-Space and begin explorations and patrols in the system ahead.

OOC:

Specs. :D

http://www.wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/Drawings/Earth/Hyperion.gif
Side, Top

SCH-02 Hyperion Class Space Heavy Cruiser
Colonial Heavy Cruiser

Length:
-588 feet
Width:
-327 feet
Height:
-254 feet

Power-Plant:
x2 Hydrogen Plasmatic Reactors - 24,000 RkW each - 48,000 RkW overall
x4 Coolent Turbine Cells
x2 Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Processors
x3 Reactor Thrusters
x2 Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Reactors
x4 Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Thrusters
x6 Secondary Thrusters
Generators:
x2 Electro-Magnetic Generators - 100,000 kW each - 200,000 kW overall
x2 Electro-Magnetic Gravaton Generators
Life-Support Systems:
x8 Oxygen Generation/Reprocessing Systems
x4 Oxygen/H2O Purifications Systems
x4 Electro-Magnetic Waste Termination Systems
x5 Water Processing/Reprocessing Systems
Sub-Space Drive:
x1 Type-III Sub-Space Drive
x2 Sub-Space Coolent Systems

Armor:
Ionic Reinforced Titanium

Weapons:
x5 185-mm Rail-Gun Turrets
x1 132-mm Laser Turret
x2 84-mm Hyper Chain-Cannons
x2 224-mm Forward-Main Single-Barrel Hyper Rail-Cannons
Craft:
x2 Modified Buran Space Shuttle
http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/aircraft/jets/f-86/sabre_info/3view.gif
x8 XSF-02 Star Sabre - Four Chain-Guns - Two Missile Hard-Points

Crew:
-Officers: 18
-Crewmen: 132
-Colonial Marines: 80
-Overall: 230

In-Service:
--Seven(7) Currently in Active Service--
CFHC Hyperius
CFHC Relentless
CFHC Triton
CFHC Protector
CFHC Defender
CFHC Guardius
CFHC Hard Cruiser

Ustinov watched the procedings on the radar. "Move us closer to them, and continue to broadcast hails..."

The frigates engines fired up and propelled it quickly towards the other ships.

Oaklad smiles. "Good. We'll...." He trails off as he see the frigate aproach. "Stand by Enigma. Open a channel to all ships."

"Open sir."

"This is Captian Oakland of the CSS Beserker, Task Force Renegade." The adopted name of the only fleet of the Crimmond navy not to return to Sol to be stripped of FTL capabilities. Outcasts. Renegades. Most importantly they have the destrution of three pirate cartels to their name. "All ships are not to approach the Maelstrom or our location. We are within the 'safe' perimeter for travel. We don't need another ship to save."

"Sir! recieving message from the CSS Renegade." The flagship.

"Onscreen."

What played was a pre-recorded garbled message that the Maelstrom would be disrupting a travel corridor in the area and to be on the lookout for any ships in need of assitance.

"Oh... thank you Admiral." he says to himself. "I wonder if there are any ships to rescue..."

It took some seconds to notice the distortion, if anyone could see it. Above the CSS Beserker a Sub-Space distortion was starting to form. Five seconds later it looked as if it twirled somehow, then, suddenly, what seemed like thousands of bolts of lightning flew in every direction, then came through the CFHC Hyperius, almost raming into the CSS Beserker. Slowly it ignited its Hydrogen Thrusters to move it forward and away from the unknown vessel, turn using its manuvering thrusters, then almost faced the ship it could have it. Silent, almost as if watching.

sounds like a good story

That moment was the first time every sensor alert klaxon on the bridge had ever gone off at the smae time. The energy wash frow the ship appearing so close sent showers of sparks from stations across the ship.

Oakland was not happy. "What was that?!"

"Another ship appeared right on top of us! The power surge caused by the energy was rerouted to non-essential systems. Sheilds almost shorted out, but are holding steady."

"Open a channel! Hail them!"

"Channel open, sir. Audio only, we had a short in the visual that's being repaired."

"Fine fine... This is the CSS Beserker, Captian Oakland commanding... unknown vessel, thank you for helping us test every proximty alarm we have. Are you operational?"

Will'Kan looked to the General, nodding as he rubbed his reptilian skull and looking at the ship through the digital glas that held the front of the bridge together. The Chief Communications officer spoke up suddenly.

"General," she started, "I am recieving a transmission from the unknown ship, they have thanked us for appearing intop of them and assiting in their routine checkups, I believe. However he wishes for you to tell him what your problem is."

Almost laughing at the Komodrens misunderstading of the unknown captains message, General Velopa nodded, "Tell them we apologize and wish to assit in any damage we have caused."