NationStates Jolt Archive

"Mr. Sanderson, all is prepared for the race. We now await only the entry of the final racers."

"Excellent, Johnson, make sure the invitations are sent out,with full information."

To Whom It May Concern,

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that you have been selected as a candidate for entry in the Bendii Circuit Race, which will be held in six months. This interstellar race has been held on the the first day of the solar year of Proxima Centauri for the last 5 centuries.
The race spans 1000 light years of space. It begins at Ragnar Station in the Medea system, and ends in Proxima Centauri orbit.
The entry fee is 10 million credits. The entry parameters are as follows:

1. All ships shall use realspace FTL Drives. THe use of Fold Drives, or extra-dimensional drives is expressely prohibited.
2. No ship massing more than 500,000 tons shall be entered.
3. Each vessel shall require a crew of no more than 5 memebers.

(It should be noted that the race officials place no limitaitons or guidelines on the use of a ships mass, only upon the total mass. Contestants should feel free to use whatever combination of engines, weaponry, or other design features they choose.)

If you choose to enter, you will recieve further information, upon the reciept of your letter in intent. Until then,

Mr. Yanacek Attatar
Chairman of the Bendii Race Committee

(This thread will remain open for involvement, for a week, if you wish to enter, simply post something about your team recieving the information and replying, I will send further information by telegram. This will be a semi-moderated RP. I will have a team in, but only for RP purposes, my team WILL NOT WIN. I will throw several pitfalls, of various kinds, in the way of the racers. I will also tell you how they turn out, based on what you do with the situations. It will be similar to a simulator run in which the contol team can throw in any kind of variable they wish. THe success of each racer will be based upon your RPing ability, your inventiveness, and ability to think in new and creative ways, and generally how well you ahndle the situation. Let the race begin!)

I'd enter, but lack the nessecary technology. All of my ships make use of the Alcubierre-Broeck warp engine for FTL travel, but to use it as an FTL drive, they need to use Warp Queues, which would have to be set up along the track...

<Mark, make up racing team later>

To clear that point up, I dont mean that the FTL requirment is to keep any one out. I put it in there to keep someone from saying "oh look i used my fold drives to get there in 20 minutes". The kind of FTL tech. I'm talking aobut would be readily avaiable on the market, and finding a ship with the correct method of getting across the universe would be easy and simple, all you need to do is say that your ship uses that kind of drive. The requirement is really there so that i can use the same kinds of interstellar hazard to even the playing the field for all racers, (pirates, grav. distortions, etc.)

If you want to enter, dont let the tech. difference stop you.

Hmm...
The entry fee is 10mil credits, I can accept that, but whats the prize? Can't have a good race without a prize.

I'll enter, but you should be aware of some things;

1. I don't have the tech to make a FTL drive, or even get to orbit cheaply. Could I say that I've dug through the Junk Belt to find usable components? My ship would, of course, be very unreliable, and liable to fall apart, but I would have a rationale for loading it with who-knows-what kind of gadgets from various sources.

2. My citizens are nonhuman. Quadrupedal and reptilian, they have spent over 500 years on a planet with three Gs of gravity, giving them a very high G tolerance. They use robotic tool packs directly connected to their nervous systems to compensate for their lack of dexterity. Since you're a space nation, this probably won't be a problem. By the way, they're called Wyrms.

3. Yes, I do use magic. However, space has extremely low magic levels, which means it won't work. So I won't use magic.

OOC: Just for the hell of it, this does not take place under my New Russia account, but rather an alternate universe via my webcomic "I Want My Island." Want to read? Google for it.

IC:
"Did we really have to go all the way out here to install an engine" inquired a relatively confused Sarah. "Stop asking questions and hand me the welding torch" came the reply, from a somewhat annoyed Robert, still doing... something to the warp engine on The Alchemist. It had been 2 years since Robert had been released, but Sarah still worried about him. He seemed to get mad at anything nowadays.

The sounds of the welding torch rang through the engine room until finally stopping. Robert, with a somewhat satisfied look on his face, stepped back and said "It's done." Sarah just stared at what used to be the warp engine and asked "So what is it?" Robert seemed to be angered by the statement, but calmly said "Its a dual ABW drive. Isn't it obvious?"

Sarah knew what a dual ABW drive was, and it scared her. Duel ABWs were known for being dangerously unstable, and were subsequently outlawed. While they did offer the benefit of being able to travel faster than light without the use of warp queues, the fact that almost everyone who used them had died was a little bit of a turn off.

"But... why?" she asked, more scared than puzzled this time. Robert smiled coyly and said "We're going to be in a race." and handed her a copy of the invitation. "I've already responded, and I think, with the new engine, we might just stand a chance."

The Alchemist:
http://img17.photobucket.com/albums/v50/black_mage_s/Alch_race.jpg

bump for no death

[OOC: Alright. I've cranked my nation's time scale forward about thirty years to fit in...

The G-Force:

Aux. Engines: The sublight engines off an X-wing, capable of pushing the ship at 2 Gs of thrust.
Primary Engine: A distributed fusion thruster (think Millenium Falcon), capable of pushing the ship at 8 Gs.
Hyperdrive: The hyperdrive off a E-4 Federation Destroyer; won't start unless the G-Force is moving at a fair clip.
Weapons: A pair of 12" naval guns. Forty conventional shells, and eight thermonuclear shells.
Total Weight: 950 tons.]


"G-Force, you're clear to go."
The long, slender ship pulled away from the Junk Belt, bits of junk clattering off its hull.
"Good luck. You're going to need it to get to Medea on time."

The Hattian Lancer: 1453 hours

"Vladimir, I've picked up an all bands transmission..." said Sergei Kirov Vladimir Ustinov, captain of the ship walked over to where Kirov sat. "What does it say?" Kirov squinted at the screen, "It's about the Bendii Circuit Race. It says we can enter." Ustinov tapped his foot on the deck. "I've heard of it before, it's supposed to be tough... I think we can do it. What's the entry fee?" "10 million credits" Ustinov's eyes widened, "I guess we could afford it after that shipment we just delivered. Set a course for the Medea system!" Ustinov walked over to his long range transmitter.

[code:1:60e663451c]
Greetings Mr. Yanacek Attatar, this is Captain Ustinov of The Hattian Lancer. We have recieved information about the Bendii Circuit Race and would like to enter. We await your response.

Thank you
[/code:1:60e663451c]

These guys are gunrunners and their ship is well suited for this kind of thing.


http://picserver.student.utwente.nl/view_image.php/JB337A9GU10/picserver.gif

http://picserver.student.utwente.nl/view_image.php/E13488X7AEU/picserver.gif

The Horus sat in space. The ship was named after the stolen Backrunner, upon which was sabotaged, and eventually destroyed by the Techon govenrment. This one was bought. It is a Eagle class ship. It has two long wings coming out of each side, and the cockpit is ont he front of the ship, it is 400,000 tons. The crew is a total of three, all of them males.

1. Sage Cornellis
2. Jack Blake
3. Talvin Crath

The ship has two medium turrets, ont he top and bottom. Also state of the art G-Force style engines, which is a real space FTL engine.
They got the message, and soon they were answering the call, asking what they are to do next.

[OOC: Err... I'll let Falasmayon decide, but you don't seem the sort to be participating. At least give a better description of the ship.]

Sir Xavier Whitmore, current CEO and President of the Twin Star Lines Corporation, looks at the ship laying in the enclosed construction birth before him and smiles. The sleek ship is a testament to the customization and specialization of the Twin Star Lines. Whitmore turns to face the trio of men behind him.
"Aaron," he says, and the nervous looking engineer looks up.
"Yes, Sir Whitmore?"
"Have all systems been cleared?"
"Yes, My Lord. The Nova Technologies Hermes-VI A Verner drives have been installed and tested. And the Sigmus Spaceworks Starwind-II engines and Phoenix Flare Booster system have been installed and tested as well. The AI installation is complete, and Cray was brough online official yesterday."
"Excellent," Whitmore turns to the other man in the Edwardian three piece suit typical of Valinor styles.
"What of our crew, Mr. Brudin?"
"I have managed to procure the services of all four of the individuals you requested, Sir Whitmore. They have been rooming with each other in New Koln for the past weeks and are already en route to see the Sarengo."
"What is the total of all the contracts, Mr. Brudin?"
"800 million imperial pounds, Sir Whitmore."
Whitmore almost winces.
"It is to be expected, these are among the best in the Valinor racing circuit and in their own respective fields. But I want one final test. Aaron, I have onboard the Straight Silver a modifed stripped down Longshard. I want to test the Sarengo in a run against it. When can you be ready?"
"As soon as the crew arrives, My Lord."
"Excellent," Whitmore says with a nod and turns to his manservant.
"Edward, contact Captain Murdock. Tell him I want the Straight Silver ready to depart for the test course."
"Yes, My Lord."
"Gentlemen," Whitmore says with a nod to the two others and then makes his way to leave the berth.

**********

Makoto Yukimura swings himself over the railing at the entrance to the Sarengo's four station cockpit. That was the one dramatic change he made to the sleek craft. The engineers had a fit when he said he wanted the cockpit's artifical gravity set at .5 standard, but he likes to feel his ship to know where it is going physically. And that is something that you cannot do with a full standard gravity environment. Let the rest of the ship remain at standard, but he will have the cockpit at .5 or he won't fly this latest racing ship.
Other than that the ship has impressed even him with his eight year long record on the Valinor ship racing circuits. If there is a part of the ship that was not custom built, he has yet to find it. It seems that Twin Star Lines has spared their ship no expense.
He nods to the Cray's holographic avatar and allows his eyes to sweep over the rest of the crew.
Benton Hawkes is Sarengo's astrogator and tactical expert. He boasts twelve years with the Star Armada, fifteen in the Imperial University's astromapping expeditions, and eighteen in various merchant marine employee. Yukimura has been on the same ship with him before, and the two have a strong working relationship.
Hachirota Hashino is the ship's engineer and computer expert. He has a healthy resume that speaks of his expertise and experience, and like Yukimura is a citizen from the Empire's outer worlds that were formerly part of the Dominion of Outer Centauri. But Hashino also has a lengthy discourse on his reputation as a smuggler and as a possible member of one of the more radical resistance movements against the Dominion. An eerie electric blue dragon's head erupts on to his left cheek, and spirals around his neck and disappears into his skinsuit. So far the engineer has been very quite and withdrawn, speaking only when necessary.
Natalie Dormin was hired as the Sarengo's secondary pilot and 'operations' officer. Yukimura knows she has considerable success on some of the Valinor racing circuits, but he considers Xavier Whitmore's choice there somewhat interesting. There were several others he would consider before this relatively young player in the circuits. He shrugs mentally, but then Whitmore does have his eccentric reputation.
"Cray, do we have go on systems check?" Yukimura says as he finishes securing himself at his station.
"Yes," says the ship's AI in a cooly detached voice as it looks out the ships simulated cockpit view.
Whitmore turns to Hawkes, "Benton, do we have our course?"
"Yes, Captain. I've already uploaded it to your station."
Whitmore turns to Hashino, "Mr. Hashino have you completed your engine system checks?"
The engineer nods an terse affirmative. Whitmore sighs mentally and turns to Natalie.
"Do we have confirmation from the Straight Silver?"
"Yes, Captain," she says. "We are to start the test in three minutes."
Whitmore nods, and looks at the ship on the high definition view screens to see the stripped down Longshard fighter with its massively rebuilt engine block. He smiles. If this ship works like Whitmore says it will, even the Star Armada's vaunted interceptor won't be able to match the Sarengo.

**********

"Fifteen seconds, M'Lord," says Aaron at Whitmore's side as he stands on the bridge of the Straight Silver, his personal vessel and the 'flagship' of the Twin Star Lines.
Whitmore nods, "Thank you, Aaron."
Seconds later, Whitmore's eyes wince as the two ships drives light off. The Longshard and the Sarengo are neck in neck, then their boosters erupt. The Sarengo pulls ahead of the Longshard by a little, but then later the interceptors Nova Flare Boosters drain their immediate engine reserves. The fighter is left behind as the Sarengo quickly overtakes it.
"Perfect," Whitmore says as the Sarengo comes to a graceful controlled stop two kilometers away. "Aaron, you have done everything I have asked of you."
"Thank you, M'Lord."
"Mr. Brudin?"
"Yes, Sir Whitmore?"
"Inform the ISSSF I want an appropriate escort force for the Sarengo, the Straight Silver, and the Midsummer's Night Dream. Then have the home office prepare a ticket and advertisement campaign for an excursion trip on the Midsummer's Night Dream."
"Yes, Sir Whitmore."
Whitmore watches as the Sarengo flicks its running lights to the Straight Silver in a time-honed salute. He allows himself a quite laught.

http://www.mkronline.com/3d/Random%20Starships%20-%20X10.jpg
The Sarengo

[OOC: Err... I'll let Falasmayon decide, but you don't seem the sort to be participating. At least give a better description of the ship.]

Ok, its fast.

[OOC: I am participating, I said they got the message and asked what to do next.]

45 days later at Ragnar Station,

The scene that greeted the arriving racers was breath taking. Ragnar Station itself was a long-stemmed mushromm, with 4 smaller identical mushrooms parallel to it, and connected by spars. the station sat 10.4 light minutes from the yellow star of the system.

An incredible number of ships surrounded the station. Ships of every type, and purpose. There were Starliners from several companies full of spectators. There were private and corporate yauchts in abundance. There were even two full Cruiser squadrons of the High Dominion of Falasmayon fleet to insure the safety of the spectators.

And oh, the racers! There were 12 teams already arrived of the 26 total competitors. There was the Rotor Spaceworks team, and the Alloran Corporation team. There were numerous independant entries, and there could also be seen the Falasmayon national racing team, with the five petalled clover of the High Dominion flag proudly emblazoned across the hull of the ship.

As the racers arrived they were guided to bays for their ships. They were alll given the full hospitality of the station, and asked to be at a party to be held later that evening.

(The party will be the official welcome to the race, and will have alot of the information I haven't given you all yet. Fell free to rp your ships and teams arrival, as I will post the party tomorrow.)

The Falasmayon Team ship Nike
http://www.wappen3d.com/newgal/lighthunter.jpg

[OOC: Assume all words spoken by the Wyrms when they're alone are in their own language. When they're with other people, I shall designate Wyrmish words with underlining.]

The G-Force looked positively shoddy next to all the shiny yachts and sleek racers.
The four auxiliary engines blazed away, towing the G-Force into position near the station, while the large hexagonal grid on the back remained silent.

After a short discussion with the station authority ("No, we don't want artificial gravity in the bay; this thing isn't designed for it.") the G-Force slid quietly into the docking bay.


Inside, Kaharka Copperclaw worked the controls deftly. The G-Force's oversized attitude jets hissed gently as she lined the ship up with the station's airlock.

"I'm glad they fitted that old-model collar, like we asked.[/i]" she muttered, quietly. "I'd have had a devil of a time hooking this up with a modern lock."

"But you could have done it." commented Rakka, one of the ship's mechanics.
"Yes." agreed the other mechanic, as the G-Force's lock clanked into position.


"Finally. We're here."
Kaharka unbuckled herself from the pilot's couch and pushed off towards the wall across from the airlock. She sunk her claws into the wall's thick padding to prevent herself drifting off into space.

Rakka launched himself over to the lock controls and slid a claw into the "OPEN" well. The lock clanked and started to slide open.


Kaharka launched herself through the lock, was unexpectedly stricken by gravity, and dropped to the floor, sliding for several yards across the metal deck before coming to a stop.

She's just over seven feet long. Her scales are a shiny burnished-copper colour, and so are her claws.

On her back is what looks like a cross between a mechanical spider and a backpack. A long, slim metal housing with four robotic arms protruding from it, strapped onto her back with wide, black straps.

At the base of her neck is a speaker grille, apparently implanted into her neck.

A massive jump space exit point rips through space, emitting blinding blue and white light. From the swirling depths comes a small flotilla of ships. The massive Twin Star Lines Corporation luxury liner, the HMS Midsummer's Night Dream dominates the centre of the formation. Ahead of it is a smaller sleeker ship with a massive wingspan and a crome finish across its hull, the Straight Silver. Just of the starboard side of the Straight Silver rides the long, thin Sarengo with its massive engine blocks. Surrounding the trio of vessels is a small group of Inter-Solar System Security Force (ISSSF) warships of two Shrike-class B2 frigates, three Shrike-class B1 frigates, and eight Celestial-class destroyers.
Sir Xavier Whitmore looks out from the bridge of the Straigh Silver and nods with approval. He looks out over the vast assembly of ships, and notices the High Fleet's cruiser squadrons.
"Well it seems security was taken care of better than we thought," he says half to himself and half to Captain Murdock at his side.
"Captain Murdock, do we have any other Valinor ships in the area?"
"A few, Sir," says the Silver's captain. "Private luxury liners and starships along with a few other liners from several of the other United Guilds' members. And a Prometheus Ship-Forgers Collective observer ship as well."
"No other teams?"
Murdock shakes his head.
"Interesting, there was supposed to by a USIC vessel here as well. And it is not like Mironenko to not participate in something like this."
"Partly because it feeds the 'Good Baron's' ego," says Brudin from behind Whitmore with a certain amount of distaste.
"If only for that," Whitmore turns back to Murdock.
"Get me a channel with Commodore Itsrugi on the Wanderer," Murdock nods and several moments later the commander of the ISSSF detachment appears, the blue and white of the ISSSF uniforms shimmering from a holograph.
"You wished to speak with me, My Lord?" says Itsrugi.
"Yes, Commodore. Have the destroyers deploy a few RDs in the jump space pattern. I want to know if anything else comes from Alpha Centauri, especially if its the USIC team."
"Yes, My Lord," the Commodore half bows and his holograph vanishes. Whitmore looks at the system display and sees a pair of destroyers peel off from the formation. A few dots appear marking the places where the destroyers are seeding the jump space exit vectors with RDs to observe any further comings and goings from the Valinor home stars.
Whitmore nods, "Lay in a course for the Falas station, Captain. And give me an open channel."
"Yes, Sir."
Whitmore activates the comm a few minutes later, "Falas control, this is Sir Xavier Whitmore of the Twin Star Lines Corporation. I would like to request a hanger be set aside for the Sarengo. The VISV Midsummer's Night Dream and the VISV Straight Silver will take up holding patterns when we are given an appropriate course heading."

Midsummer's Night Dream (http://www.outpostterra.com/outpost/b2/scompc.shtml)
Top Picture on Scale Graph

The Straight Silver (http://www.sgtfretsurfer.com/Grilled-Sarlacc/c/speeders/6.jpg)

Shrike B2 & B1 frigates (http://www.wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/Drawings/Earth/Delphi_Apollo.gif)
Shrike B2 is top picture, B1 bottom

Celestial-class destroyers (http://www.wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/Drawings/Earth/Cronos.gif)

We will enter:

http://www19.big.or.jp/~mao999/mao/pencil/tie-pilot-2.jpg
TIE Pilot Kasan Moor

One of the Empires greatest pilots, she defeated an entire group of Pirate fighters during the Blood Dragon Crisis. Now a General, she chooses to enter the circuit for personal reasons.

Ship:

http://www.echostation.com/graphics/gaming/tie-a.jpg

TIE Advanced

Long scince retired from active service after the introduction of the Taiidan Interceptor, the Imperial TIE Advanced has been kept for races such as these due to the prizes that are nowadays offered. Also, it gives one lucky pilot a fun adventure...

TAG

The Five Civilized Nations and its subsidiary colonies submit its new state-of-the-art Ghost Mark II Modified Long-Range Interceptor.

http://www.mahq.net/mecha/macross/macross2/vf-1ms-gerwalk.jpg

Class: Ghost Mark II
Name: Excalibur
Unit type: Modified Interceptor
Manufacturer: Cala Electronics
Operator: Combined Five Civilized Nations Navy
First deployment: N/A
Dimensions: overall length 35 meters
Propulsion: 2 Nova-Fusion Thrusters; 1
Fixed armaments: 2x Beam Gatling Cannons; 2x Saber Beam Cannons; 2x Multi-Missile System (20 Phalanx missiles each); assault shield with plasma sword

The pilot has yet been named...

A smaller jump space exit point tears through space a few hours after the Twin Star Lines convoy arrived in the system. This time only two ships emerge, one is a sleek ship with the profile of a slender needle or a dagger. The other is larger and along the lines of some private luxury ship or transport. A channel opens and a man with dark hair and even darker brown-black eyes appears on the all-channel broadcast to the Falas station.
"This is Baron Andrei Mironenko representing the United Syberian Industrial Conglomerate. I am here to place the entry fee and my own racing ship, the Dragonmiroff into the Bendii. I request hanger or docking space for both the VISV Dragonmiroff and the VISV Augustgrad."

http://www.tin-soldier.com/neddle.jpg
The Dragonmiroff

The Augustgrad (http://www.mst3kinfo.com/darkstar/images/ww%20views.jpg)

***********

Sir Whitmore watches as the RDs register the arrival of the two ships.
"Well, that should make things interesting. Mr. Brigod, I will be informing Captain Yukimura of Mironenko's arrival. I suspect the Baron will try his usual methods to insure his own personal victory."
"Yes, Sir Whitmore."

The Lancer sped into proximity of their destination. Captain Ustinov gasped when he saw the station. "Wow, that's amazing." The Lancer was greeted by a radio message from the station that told him which bay to land in. The Lancer glided gracefully into the docking bay. After it landed the hatched hissed as it opened. Captain Ustinov, Sergei Kirov and Dimitri Alexandrov stepped off of the ship, their heavy boots clomping on the ground and black trenchcoats flowing out behind them. Some attendants walked over and led them to their rooms and invited them to be at a party later that evening. "This is nice, when we win the race. I'm gonna live like this." Dimitri remarked.

(Alright, thats enough people, I won't be able to keep up with everyone if I get anymore!)

Further docking facilities, both with and without atmosphere, were provided for the remainder of the arrivals.

Later that night,

The meal had been excellent, for all concerned, both human and otherwise. The cooks had been able to mix up something that the Wyrms had found appetizing.

A man mounted the stage in front of the assmebled pilots, crews, sponsors, and dignitiaries.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Jonathan Sanderson, chairman of the Bediii Circuit Racing Committee, and on behalf of the committee, and all aficiandos of interstellar racing, I welcome you to the 134th annual race"

The applause was tumultous for a moment, and then Sanderson continued,

"Tomorrow, you will begin the great race. The Bendii is not the longest stellar race in the galaxy, but it is one of the most dangerous. It passes, through 2000 light years, of largely unclaimed space. From Ragnar it travels 213 light years to Persephone Prime, then 300 light years to Verner Mons. After that it travels almost 1000 light years to the remote Kamaal outpost, before making the final 480 light-year leg back to Proxima Centauri.

You will face many dangers and trials in the race, there are pirates, and marauders,m and the final leg of the race, passes near to the Space Ork in fested Hlormar System. There are spatial anomolies, and irregularities, not to mention the possibilites of mechanical failure.

In all, nearly 70 ships have been lost in the race's history, and may more have been forced to drop out along the path. For those who finish the race however, is the unmistakable truth of having achieved something that few others have, and for the winner there is..."

Sanderson moves to his left, to a small table with a holographic generator on its top. "For the winner there is 500 million credits, and this!"

He presses a button and the holo-image jumps to life, A massive starship flashes into existance in the imager. It is a full 3 kilometers, long and clearly bears the lines of a starliner.

"This is the Courvosier", says Sanderson, a top of the line starliner, donated by the Dimitri Varovich Foundation, Set up by the first winner of the Bendii 134 years ago."

A murmer of excitement runs through the crowd, as the realization of the incredible value of the ship settles on the crowd. Sanderson lets the people grapple with the possibility of wining a ship valued in the billions of credits... He continued.

Now it is time to introduce the teams who will pilot take their craft through this race.

He begins going through the teams names, and each team name is called, a memeber stands up and introduces, the team, tells the name (or designation) of their ship, and says a few quick words to the assembled people...

"Team number 14, The High Dominion National Team." Applause erupts as the favorite to win the race, stands up.

"Than you Mr. Sanderson," begins a tall, blonde man with an artificial eye.
"My fellow racers, my name is Dorian Masada, I am the pilot of Nike. Here is my copilot Lauren Sotha, Our engineer Ibrahim Al- Falad, and our astrogator, Meena Harrington. This is my fifth time racing the Bendii, and I know that we will all prove ourselves worthy of this great race, good luck, and swift travel to you all."

He sat down again amidst more applause.

Some one near you whispers "Yeah, he didn't mention he'd won the race 3 out of the last 5 times."

Before this can be pondered further, the Valinor team is being called...

(Just post what your team says, as he calls your name. The bit about how Dorian had won the last three races is meant for everyone.)

"Team number... well, this is new... team number 0101!" The anouncer announced.
Sage stood up, waved, and smiled. "Hi." He said, and started to sit back down, Jack thrusted him back up though.
'Fine, fine," Sage said, shruggin his shoulders. "My name is Sagaem Cornellis, I am the pilot, this is Jack Blake, copilot, and this is Talvin Crath, the mechanic! I am a new guy here, and I have no clue how I will do, but I do wish best of luck on all of you, unless you wish bad luck on others!"
With that hye sat down, but was pushed back up again. "The ship I pilot is the Horus!" Then he sat down.

"Team number 7, out of Hattia" the announcer said through the microphone. Ustinov stood up and walked over to the microphone. "Hello everyone, I am Captain Vladimir Ustinov, and this is the navigator and communications operator of our ship, Sergei Kirov. And lastly Dimitri Alexandrov, our weapons operator, head mechanic and umm... cargo overseer." Ustinov projected an air of calm confidence. His 6' 5", outfit, and the glint of firearms under his coat marked him as someone who often lived on the other side of the law. "I wish everyone well, but not well enough that they beat us." He flashed a wide smile and walked off of the stage.

Makoto Yukimura stands, dressed in the deep black and silver trimmed uniform favored by the Twin Star Lines Corporation.
"I am Captain Makoto Yukimura of the VISV Sarengo, representing the Twin Star Lines Corporation of Valinon. Allow me to introduce the rest of my crew. Benton Hawkes," the grizzled Valinor stands, "our engineer and tactical expert. Hachirota Hashino, the Sarengo's engineer and computer expert," the sullen engineer shuffles to his feet, "and finally Natalie Dormin, my second and operations officer," the last member of the Sarengo's crew stands with a charming smile.
"Also allow me to introduce Sir Xavier Whitmore, our patron and primary sponsor," the man dressed in the Edwardian style three piece suit off to one side of the Sarengo's crew nods polite and raises his glass in salute to the others, obviously somewhat uncomfortable about having attention drawn to him.
A few minutes later the second Valinor team stands. There are only three members of this team, one is Old Japanese, the other are Valinor "Great Russians."
The leading man glowers almost at the gather, "I am Captain Pavlik Morozov, master of the VISV Dragonmiroff, representing the United Syberian Industrial Conglomerate and Baron Andrei Mironenko. Tadka Ishkagwi is our astrogator and communications officer," he gestures to the willowy man on his left, "and Aleksander Nekrich is the Dragonmiroff's engineer and 'system's expert'."
The reactions of the Twin Star Lines Corporation team and the Falasmayon National Team make the reputation of the USIC team obvious. The teams fielded by Andrei Mironenko are legendary for their absolute ruthlessness and their, unproven of course, use of less than legal methods to achieve a win in the Alpha Centauri racing circuits.

"Team 2416, Robert Eastman and Sarah Johannsen" the announcer called. Robert approached the microphone eyed the crowed a little suspiciously, and simply said "I'm in the race, my ship is the Alchemist, and the chicken was a little dry." He quickly returned to his seat, not mentioning another word. "The chicken wa great and you know it." muttered Sarah, when he had returned to his seat.

"Team 7244, Kasan Moor Piloting! I'm piloting the same ship that saved me in the wars. Those pirates didn't know what hit 'em, and tommorrow i'm gonna run rings around the opposition!"

She sat down again, taking a swig of Imperial Ale from her flask while doing so.

(Hmm, I'm liking these replies! Kudos, to Imp. Navy, Techon, Valinon, and Hattia. I like the mix of bravado, humor, and potential for underhanded tricks. I'll wait till tonight, for 5 civilized nations and Krrck, then we can get on with it.)

Seeing as I live in Britain, don't be suprised if i'm a little... slow on posting with you.

no problem at all. I actualy like trying to figure out who lives where in Ns, and I've run into a bunch of people who use real English spelling, instead American english spelling. I even started spellinf defence with a C and armour with a U, since i started playing Warhammer 40k, so problems there at all.

OOC: I live in Ohio, and I always enter armour with a U, it is fun. I think I got on thw hook with it after reading th LOTR trillogy.

"Team 7248, from Khrrck."

Kaharka stands up on her hind legs, bracing herself with her tail.
"I'm Kaharka Copperclaw, the pilot of the G-Force. I'd like to introduce you to my mechanics, but they took one look at the competition and decided their time would be better spent cutting bits off our ship."

She drops back down to the floor.

Ripples of laughter flowed through the crowd at the remarks of the racers.

As the last team finished introducing itself, Sanderson stepped back to the front if the stage.

"Thank you racers. I know that you are anxious to prepare for the race, so I won't keep you much longer. The astrogation charts, iteneraries, and notes, have already been uploaded to yourships data banks, so i will leave you to your ships and to eachother, for tomorrow you will face one of the greatest challenges of your lives.

*****

As the party wound down and the teams began to drift back to their rooms, ships, or both, Dorian Masada moved to his room, and to the vidscreen on his desk. He keyed in a code, and the face of Baron Andre Mironeko appeared on the screen.

"It's ok Baron, we have a secure line." Dorian said. "I'm just hecking up on the finer points of our ahh...arrangement, shall we say. Are you still willing to go through with it?"

Kaharka glared at Rakka. "Okay. You'd better have a good explanation. I come back and almost half the ship's gone! I knew you were cutting the weight down, but this is ridiculous!"

Rakka wasn't intimidated. "We wouldn't stand a muncher's chance in a mineshaft if we had to haul all that weight around. We've left all the essential bits on, and we've managed to halve the mass."

Kaharka calmed down slightly. "Okay, I understand. Did you leave the tractor projector on?"

Rakka nodded. "Of course we did."

(I am going to be out of town until late on Saturday. So anything involving the actual race will have to wait, but I would encourage you all to rp a bit amongst eachother. We can get alot more character dynamic going, if we get some relationships built up between the racers. Until, Saturday, Au Revoir.)

Ustinov stood up and walked over to where Captain Morozov was sitting, he was followed by the other crewmembers. Switching over to his native Russian he said "I've heard of your sponsor's, rather umm... unscrupulous methods in the Alpha Centauri races, and I warn you. Don't try them on us. We know every trick in the book."

Inside the Anubis
A 'mechanic' was in the engine room. He was sitting on the floor, his legs spread. In between them was a box, it appeared to be a normal plastic box, and it was, but what was inside was the trouble.
He placed the detonater in, the little blue light illuminating the dark room. He placed the cylindrical object in the middle of the box, and threw a few rags over it. He then placed the detonater in his pocket, put the box on a shelf, and walked off.

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

Sage, Jack, and Talvin walked along the hallway. They had talked with a few other racers, and planned on talking with all of them. Up ahead they saw Makoto Yukimura. Sage aproached him.
"Hello," He greeted. "My name is Sage Cornellis, I saw you announce youself up there, and I want to wish you good luck."

Morozov looks up at Ustinov with an expression caught between contempt and a sadistic looking amusement.
"Boy," Morozov says in Russian, "you may think you do, but take it as fair warning that I have been captaining longer than you have been alive. I will do as I please, with the full knowledge that nothing you can muster could possible stand against my patron. Have a good evening."
Morozov stands, and walks past Ustinov with the rest of his crew.

***********

"Makoto Yukimura," he says with a half-smile. "A pleasure, and thank you. Good luck to yourself as well. With some of the entrees I have no doubt we will need it."

***********

The harsh face of the one time Prime Minister of Valinon stares back at Masa.
"Regardless of how secure you may think this channel to be, Dorian, there is only one way to make sure a conversation is private and secure. I have already set the initial plans into motion, and I will expect to be recompensated in full for my 'services.' However, if you wish to discuss this matter further, you are more than welcome to come to the Augustgrad and we can align our plans over a friendly drink. Good evening, Davion."
Mironenko's image disappears.

Ustinov hears Sergei going for his pistol, he quickly stops him from pulling it out of the holster, "We'll get him later."

Robert retired to the engine room, once more. He had been tinkering with other systems, aside from the warp engines. As far as Sarah could tell, he was trying to get the engines to run at a higher temperature, something that, to this point, still confused her.

OOC: Short, I know, but it will come into play.

Kaharka was walking around the station's perimeter, taking a look at the spacecraft in their bays as she went by.

Finally, she came to the one that held the Nike. She peered around the doorframe to make sure nobody was looking, and then slipped through into the bay.

Kaharka made straight for the engine assembly. She removed a small, disc-shaped device from her toolpack and slipped it deep into the innards of the engine, sticking it to a conduit, then tapping it gently.

The device woke up, analyzed the surface it was sitting on, then suddenly changed colour to match the surface, looking like a mere imperfection on the surface.

Kaharka grinned and slipped back out of the bay, continuing her journey around the station towards the G-Force.

[OOC: The device will activate itself after it detects the heat from the engine coming on. After the end of 80 hours, it will set off a small-scale EMP designed to disable whatever electronics are inside the engine.]

"I'm gonna go watch the ship, I don't like leaving her alone like that." Ustinov said to his crewmates, they nodded and walked off to the room while he headed to the ship.

ooc not fair!!! i cant break the laws of physics! only bend them by hyperspace fold and ID travel lol, i only use real science based FTL and everything so well that means no warp drive lol so no race for me *sulks*

[OOC: Wow, everyone seems to be taking my idea and sabotaging ships...]

Kasan patted her TIE Advanced. Together they had done many things, including winning the Tydus run in under 12 parsecs.

a man walked up to Kasan. He was clearly one of the station staff.

"Excuse me miss, but i've been asked to inform you that there is suspected sabotage at play."

"Wouldn't surprise me." She said, turning away. "This race is full of scum anyway."

with that, she left the hangar bay, intending to check her ship for sabotage later.

[OOC: WHen I said everyone, now it is everyone. GEEZ!!!!]

[OOC: The parsec is a unit of distance, not speed. :P Star Wars is famous for making that mistake.]

Man I leave this a lone for 2 days and we all try to sabotage each other!!! EESSHHHH!!! By the way, normally my ship would be majorly guarded, but since I wasn' there to say anything like that, I'm more than willing to take my medecine,... let's hope i figure out a way for it to be found before launch. And oh yeah, for Tannelorn, Normally i don't use warp type FTL either, but if everyone is using a different kind of FTL drive it gets hard to have a fair race, so i just arbitrarily chose the Star Trek style warp-drive because it would be the kind of thing most everyone is relatively familiar with.

Dorian watched the blank vidscreen for a few moments after the baron cut off the link. Damn it, he's always been one of those stuck up holier-than-thou types! At least all russians aren't like that. I suppose its what I get for working with a rich aristocrat. He sat back in his chair anf thought for a few more moments, then got up and began walking to one of the station shuttles, and headed for the Augustgrad. Mironeko isn't all that bad he thought, it could be worse.

******
The security camera in bay 7, continues its electronic vigil, the camer was merely that. No motion sensors, or alarms, but it was recording, and had been doign so, ever since the Falasmayon racing ships docked in the bay...

[OOC: Hey don't blame me for starting the sabotage thing, I just sabotaged my own ship, of course it wasn't my guy who did it, a person who worked with my people in the past.]

(I don't blame you Techon, but I do wonder if the fact that we all were se quick to jump on the bandwagon says anything aobut us as a group od people.)

Dorian arrived on the Augustgrad and was shown to the Barons quarters. He entered the room after being announced by the guard at the door.

******

Ibrahim Al-Falad walked slowly aboard Nike. He was the sort of engineer that lives for his ship. He always slept aboard when preparing for a race, especially the night before, in fact the entire team always did. The others had not arrived yet, so Ibrahim got some coffee, and sat down to review the security camera logs for the hangar, for that day.

He watched the play in fast-motion. Technicians swarmed around the hangar, but didn't touch the ship (per instructions). He saw himself going over the vessels exterior in a systems check earlier that day. He saw Dorian, showing a group of their corporate sponsors, the results of their 2.8 billion dollar project. Then there was a ong stint of minimal activity.

His eyes glazed a bit, as he watched the image remain unchanged for hours at a time. Then he bolted upright. He backed up recording, and played it back at a normal pace. A person (he couldn't tell whom) cam into the hangar, and messes with an engine compartment. Then they put their hand into the housing, and removed it. The person looked around and then left.

Well, thats not supposed to happen! thought the engineer. All of the others of his team were at the banquet at the time of the recording, so that meant whoever this person was, wasn't supposed to be here. In fact it was horrible security on the part of the station to even allow this to happen, he would have to see that they changed this gross lack of security for, billions of dollars worth of top of the line equipment! In the meantime though, he would get a few techs. together and examine whatever this person had done!

(I think it's perfectly fair to say, that there would be a decent level of security, in fact I should have made that clear from the begining, since I didn't. I have to let it proceed, but this is a major corporate sponsored race, with some of the most advanced hardware produced for starship engine design. THere would be security, if only to try and prevent corporate espionage.!)

[OOC: I know I'm probably killing my chance to be in the race, but I just can't let this go by with a clear conscience. Kaharka is too unique to be unidentifiable; after all, how can you mistake a copper-coloured, eight-foot lizard for someone else?

Edit: Just thought of a workaround, to let me keep going. Your engineer could decide to not report my team, but instead plant a device of his own on board the G-Force. I'll be kind, even, and not notice it.]

OOC: Strange that the server Gremlins struck so early...

But anyway, I never sabotaged my vessel or any other, I merely critisised those who do.

Also, did it ever occour to you that to my nation a parsec means somthing else? In some countries, words have other meanings.

Now shall we get this race on the road?

Colonel Arthur Lafayette wearing a full Astro-Suit grunted as he read his orders on his way to the hangar.

"God damn't top brass... Why do I get all of these stupid milk runs!?!"

Angry, Colonel Lafayette proceeded to the docking bay of the massive revolving space station. Entering the massive hangar, the Colonel stared at his custom Ghost Mark II, the Excalibur.

"Oh well, this is gonna be good... I can get away from some of these stupid desk duty..."

Climbing aboard the Excalibur, the Colonel began to power up the interceptor. Moments later, the Excalibur began to hover. Lafayette raised the landing gear and proceeded to coax his craft out of the crowded docking bay. Exiting, Lafayette proceeded towards the nearest jump point, bound for the race that would change his life forever...

A man dressed in the black and white tuxedo popular in Valinor Edwardian reminiscent culture receives Dorian. He approaches Masada solemnly and bows at the waist.
"Mr. Masada, I am Josef Illanovich, His Grace's personal manservant. If you would please follow me."
Illanovich takes Masada to a lift, then quickly hits a set of buttons in rapid sequence sending the lift spiraling upward. A few minutes later the lift opens and Masada is confronted with a vast room that borders on outright decadence. Hardwood floors, neatly divided conversation and sitting areas, for all appearances the room could be on a planet, but the row of viewports rapidly destroys that illusion.
Footsteps come from a hall that is hidden except for the entrance way in one corner of the room. Hearbeats later Andrei Mironenko erupts into the room. He is a lean man, with a harsh face and cold, dark eyes. He is dressed in black silk robe and pants he nods to Dorian.
"Ah, Mr. Masada so good of you to join me. Please be seated," he gestures to a row of couches near a table looking out the viewports.
"Josef," Mironenko says, turning to his manservant, no courtesy in his voice.
"Yes, Your Grace?"
"A vodka for myself, to jumpstart my heart, and what would you like, Mr. Masada?"

The Place of Meeting (Ah, an almost Yoda-ish line I must be tired) (http://www.mst3kinfo.com/darkstar/ww6.html)

"I shall have a Grand Martinere." requests Dorian. "Now down to business Baron. You know that I have won this race 3 times previously, the only other man to do this, died while attempting a fourth win. I do not intend to die, but I do intend to win. As we agreed , I will give you the liner and the design plans to Nike, if you ensure that Nike is the ship that crosses the finish line first. As for the details of the operations, I believe..."

The conversation continued for several hours, and by the time Dorian returned to the station, a plan had formed.

As he entered hangar 12 with his ship, Dorian took a moment to consider. She was truly a beautiful ship. 200 meters from prow to stern, and the engine block consumed almost a third of that length. She could pull nearly 700 gravities of acceleration in normal space, and could reach speeds of over 80% light speed. In FTL Nike could almost reach 5,000 times light speed. she was a closely guarded secret of the Rotor Spaceworks Corporation, and was posed to be the next generation in fast courier ship design. This race was the proving ground.

Ibrahim came striding around the ship, and waved over Dorian. "Captain we've got a bit of a problem. It seems that someone decided to mess our ship."

Warning bells went off in Dorian's head. "what kind of messing, and who?"

"Who is easy, it was one of those Wurms, from the Khrrk team. I'm not sure exactly who, but it was definitely one of them. As to what, its not as bad as it may seem. They tried to put sopmething inside the engine compartment. I noticed him on the recording form the security cameras.

I grabbed a few of our techs. and went to see what he'd done. It was a bitch to find, cause it had an active camoflage system, but i found this." He takes the disc out of his pocket, now deactivated, and gray. " It looks like an EMP bomb, probably designed to take out our engines after we had them sufficiently powered up. It's heat sensitive so it would probably have blown just after we fired of the FLT drives. What do you want us to do?"

Dorian considered for a moment. "Nothing."

"Come again?"

"I said nothing. We'll let them think that we haven't found their bomb. They'll be in for a suprise, when they realize they messed up, and the fact that they wont know exactly what happened will work in our favor."

"Got it sir."

And in the mean time, I think I will direct the Baron, to deal with the Khrrk team first.

(The race begins tomorrow)

Kasan was running final engine checks with the computer before tomorrow's race.

"Engnes at full burn?"

"Check" chirped the computer.

"Weapons and hyperdrive de-activated?"

"Check"

"Scan for sabotage."

"Scanning... none found"

"Good. It's good to work with you computer."

"It is good to work with you too sir. But there is a high risk that tomorrow we could crash or be destroyed. There are reports of cheating in the competition-one of them may still have their weapons activated."

"I know. but we've been through worse. Now I have to get some sleep. goodnight computer."

"Goodnight Mrs. Moor."

The Excalibur appeared out of warpspace in the Medea system about two hundred kilometers away from the Ragnar Station.

Piloting the Excalibur around, Colonel Arthur Lafayette keyed his comlink.

This is Colonel Arthur Lafayette, commander 7th Squadron of the Combined Five Civilized Nations Navy, here to Ragnar Station. I have orders from my superiors to report in with regards to an upcoming race.

The three crewmember woke up, one by one. They got off their cots, and began to make moring check ups.

[OOC: Ginaz, I think it's too late for you to join.]

(I think Ginaz ia actually Five Civ. Nations in disguise, so I'm gonna let him in, but no one else.)

It was approximately 10 pm local time. The racers had all eaten and prepared to begin. Each ship powered out of its bay, and moved to the starting line. The starting line was marked by two massive pillars 2 kilometers in length and 5 kilometers apart. Each pillar was a cylindr of steel gleaming in sunlight, and along the length of the pillars were lines of lights running the length. Each light was red.

As the ships formed up, a voice came over the comm. channels.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Sponsors and Racers, it is now time to commence the 134th Bendii Interstellar Circuit. Begin 10 minute countdown.

****
Aboard Nike the crew finished the final portions of the preflight, and began bringing the impellers up to full power. Nike joined its fellows as it quivered with barely restrained power as the countdown hit its final stages. Dorian began keeping a verbal coutdown.

"Alright people here we go. 5...4...3...2...1...GO! Kill the grav. tractors!"

******
The lights in the pillars turned green as one andNike blasted forward along the solar plane towards Ragnar's hyperlimit at an acceleration of 6.5 km/s/s.
the computer calculated a 19 hr. and 42 min. trip to the hyper limit.

arrgh double

aarrgggh triple

3..2..1.. GO!

"Dimitri, man the turrets, I don't want anyone taking potshots at us." Ustinov pushed the throttle all the way up. The Lancer's large engines flared and the ship streaked off. Ustinov saw a ship ahead of them in the viewport, "Who is that?" "It's the Nike." said Sergei. Ustinov smiled, "Dimitri, get ready, once we get far enough away from the station, give them a few shots to the engine." He heard Dimitri's voice from the back of the ship. "Yes sir!"

(OOC: Yes, I am Five Civilized Nations puppet... I have begun posting much recently on my main nation)

The Excalibur small, but powerful thrusters fired, when the countdown ended at one, sending the Excalibur quickly accelerated into the depths of space at a constant acceleration of 6.3 km/s/s. Cursing colorfully under his breath, Colonel Arthur Lafayette, prepared to push his to the limit by activating its secondary thrusters...

...30...
Kaharka took her hands off the manual controls.

...20...
The controller jack slid into the interface socket on the back of her neck with a dull click.

...15...
Kaharka sent commands racing through the G-Force's computers, making one final check before the start.

...5...4...
She braced herself as the countdown neared its conclusion.

...3...2...1...
As the countdown hit zero, Kaharka slammed the four secondary engines and the main engine to 100% power. The large, hexagonal grid on the G-Force's rear lit up with corsucating blue fire.

The G-Force lived up to its name. Kaharka felt the full twenty-G thrust shove her into her couch with a force that would have killed any human, and flinging the G-Force forward at almost 6.4 km/s/s.

We haven't fired yet. We are going to wait for a more opportune moment...

Noted. Edited. Sorry.

Good so far. one note for Hattia, you may want to wait until we get out of the system, before you start shooting at things, because there are two full cruiser squadrons keeping an eye on the racers until they hit the hyper limit and go to FTL.

IC: One of the ships, suddenly spouts sparks from its engine block, and begins pouring a cloud of smoke and debris out its rear. An explosions skews the ship upward relative to the other ships and it's acceleration drops quickly, and the other racers leave it behind. The repair and salvage ships move to aid the sticken vessel. The Benddi has claimed its first victim.

17 hrs. to the hyper limit.

The TIE Advanced roared into action.

As she flew forward at max thrust, One of the ships engines failed.

"Well, there goes one. now computer, let's get to first place! Full burn!"

(So you guys don't mistake this. That engine failure wasn't meant to happen to any of you. That was one of the random other teams in the race. I should hope I would be respectful enough to avoid just randomly taking people out of the race. I won't throw things at you all specifically until we involved in some of the fun I've got planned.)

*****

Nike's small lead in the race quickly began to fall away as other ships hit the throttle and caught up with it. Dorian wasn't interested in pushing his impellers too far just yet, so he let the ship drop back until it was a few hundred meters behind the G-Force. Of course, that kind of distance didn't really matter much in terms of space. The racers are still clustered roughly together, in an area about 10 km wide.

Excaliber, Lancer, G-Force and the TIE ADVANCED are vying for the front running position. Nike Dragonmiroff, Sarengo, and Horus are following close behind along with a few other teams. The Alchemist is running somewhat behind the rest of the leaders, about 600 meters from the front runners.
The rest of the racers are spread out behind. The farthest one back, has developed a roll to port, as if its controls and stabilizers are malfunctioning. The crew is obviously making a valiant effort to stay in the race, but seems to be fighting a losing battle, as their ship slips behind the others.

Aboard Nike

The ship rumbled with power of its impellers aS dorian Lauren, and Ibrahim watched the position duel being carried out 326 meters in front of them.

"Dorian," said Lauren, "I'm curious, why are we staying behind the front, this ship has enough power to be right up there with the rest of those ships?"

"Because, we don't know what could happen." replied Dorian, "At these speeds and at such close quarters. Anything could happen. If one of those guys decides to pull something dirty, They'd still probably be caught, but it might be written off as an accident. Besides, place where speed really matters is when we go to hyper. This stuff is good for the crowds, but in terms of the total distance it almost couts as nothing. So We'll hang back, and see if we can't throw a few people off, and make them wonder?"

15hr 2 min. to hyper limit

Kasan tapped buttons pn her control pad like crazy. she was maintaining her position in the race with ease. Still jammed on ful burn, she looked at the competitors around her.

"I hope we don't come across any Asteroids. Computer, scan for debris."

Imperial Navy: Your scan confirms the system charts, no major debris or disturbances. Aside from the outermost planet, little more than a 2000 km wide asteroid, there are no obstructions and it's smooth sailing.

"Report negative. no debris detected."

"Good. hit the nitros. max burn."

The ship accelerated to twice it's previous speed.

ooh, now it gets interesting!!

The crew onboard Nike almost audibly yelped when the ship with the angled solar-panel wings suddenly leaped forward, trailing blue contrails of energy.

"Shit! I wasn't expecting that! That ships fast! Lauren, can we catch them?"

"Yeah, but that ship matched our maximum speed, it'll be close."

"Alright, full power! Bring us to 600 meters behind and match acceleration."

A tremor runs through Nike as her engines light off to full power. She leaps racing to get into position behind Moor's ship at over 12.5km/s/s.

Kasan used the Highly manuverable TIE Advanced to keep the approaching ship behind. If they tried to overtake, they would risk collision.

"Damn, we have a competetor. Computer, angle course to maintain lead!"

Kaharka glared at her radar displays, watching the Nike and the TIE zoom past the G-Force. "Akkar, can we go to A-level yet?"

Akkar interrogated the hyperdrive shunt and the ship's sensors. "It'll be a close thing, but it's possible."

"Okay. Do it."

From outside, the G-Force seemed to waver and twist oddly. The hyperdrive groaned as it dropped into A-level hyperspace, accelerating to 12.1km/s/s in a nimbus of corsucating green fire.

Colonel Arthur Lafayette grinned as he watched the Imperial pilot expertly kept her starcraft in the front of the race. As he tried to get get out in front, the Imperial pilot expertly kept her craft in the lead. With grudging respect, Lafayette kept his craft in the middle of the pack, biding his time...

The Horus aproached the Nike, the sleek skinny oval shaped ship used an old race tatic, fly directly behind the other guy, beacue they become a wind shield.

(OOC: We're in space, not in an atmosphere...)

Aboard the Sarengo, Captain Yokimura watches the racers streaking ahead of the pack.
"Amatuers," he mutters. "It's useless to show your full capabilities this early, and pointless to race ahead at this point. The race is long. Hashino?"
"Yes, Captain?" says the engineer almost surly.
"Bring our engines up to two-thirds capacity, ready the booster system for use but do not disengage safety locks."
"Bringing to two-thirds," the Sarengo's massive engine block flares, and the Twin Star Lines' ship streaks off at 10.8 km/s.
"Benton, ready a course to the next system. We'll use the new Verners to gain some initiative in hyper space. Judging by what we managed to get from Sir Whitmore’s data dumps, we should have a faster jump system than even the USIC ship."
"Laying in course now."
"Natalie?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Ready our point defenses with Cray. With the USIC and those Hattians I don’t think this race will be clean.”
“Bringing up point defenses,” Natalie says with a grim nod.
The Sarengo streaks forward, rapidly approaching the leaders of the race, but then it hangs back. For appearances it seems the ship has reached its maximum acceleration.
“Coming up on jump point in fourteen hours and fifty-two minutes."

***********

Silence pervades the Dragonmiroff. Morozov carefully adjusts his controls and monitors his systems.
“Begin laying in final jump patterns to my station, Tadka,” Morozov says coldly. The calm astrogator turns back to his own station and begins to establish the final jump course.
“Aleksander, ready the XK-37s in their tubes. Regardless of what the Baron and the Falas want, I’m going to make sure that arrogant little ass from Hattia gets his just desserts as soon as we get out of the system. And hyper space incidents can get so…delightfully fatal.”
The “system’s expert” nods, and begins to bring up just one of the many devices carefully concealed in the Dragonmiroff’s hull.
Morozov turns back to his own station and begins to increase his ship’s acceleration he surpasses the recently accelerating Sarengo and slides back the throttle to stabilize at 12.6 km/s, staying just slightly ahead of the Falas, Imperial, and Hattian ships.
“Give me a count down until we reach the jump point.”
A counter appears in Morozov's HUD, scrolling downward from fourteen hours and forty-nine minutes.

Time to show these arses how to fly...

Arthur fired two of his four secondary thruster, accelerating the vessel to 6.8 km/s/s. With his hands flying over the controls, Arthur blasted forward, twirling the Excalibur through space.

Good thing, nobody knows about the Excalibur's hidden tertiary thrusters... I'll give them hell when we drop into hyperspace...

"Coming up on jump point in fourteen hours and forty-three minutes," the Excalibur's micro computer chimed.

(OOC: Is this a weapons free race?)

OOC: No it's not a weapons free race. If you want them incorporated in your ship then thats fine. Remember though, in theory, weaponry is not supposed to be used on the other racers, of course, who can really tell what happens at 10,000 times the speed of light? (muahahaha!)

"Dorian, we've got a problem." said Ibrahim, as the TIE Advanced weaved and sideslipped in a bid to keep the other racers behind it. " In order to stay with this girl, were having to go into out solid fuel slugs. We've only got 20 of them because they were meant for extra speed on the final burst to the finish line when we hit Proxima. We've almost burned through one of them already. I don't thin kit's wise to be using them up at this stage of the race."

"Hmm, your right Ibro we'll need the slugs later. Drop us down to standard max. power from reactors only. That should put us about even with the Sarengo."

*****
The 30m long trail of blazing ions from the engines of Nike bled off to the standard blue contrail, and the ship slid back to match with the Sarengo. Nike watched the position jockeying ahead, as the TIE and the G-Force duelled with eachother. The slip backwards took Nike behind the Dragonmiroff, Horus, Lancer, and Excalibur. The Alchemist remained slightly behind the rest of the ships.

The hyper limit, loomed 10 hours away on the screens. On long range scanners, can now be sene countless peasure ships, liners, and the warships, waiting to see the racers off across ther hyperlimit, to FTL, and the real test of the race.

(OOC: :twisted: )

The Excalibur moved up in its position just behind the two jockeying the TIE and the G-Force. Watching their antics, Arthur chose to keep the Excalibur behind the two, allowing them to waste precious fuel, jockeying for position. Shutting down two of his secondary thrusters, Arthur moved to hold his position but not overtake the leaders.

Calmly biding his time, Arthur's hands drew perilously close to the controls for the Excalibur's weaponry, limited due to the goal of decreasing the mass...

Kaharka watched the Lancer warily. She didn't like the look of those weapons.

"B-level is stable." commented Akkar from his acceleration couch. "Ready when you are."

Kaharka gently slid the G-Force into B-level hyperspace. The old E-41 hyperdrive had a much lower top speed than conventional hyperdrives, but it had the advantage of being able to go into hyperspace sooner.

The G-Force's nimbus Dopplered into a dim reddish glow as it accelerated to 23.7km/s/s.

(OOC: The weapons are hidden, but Arthur's hands are very near the controls that activate and control them... Also you're going into FTL ten hours before we do, isn't that a little too early?)

[OOC: I'm not going FTL yet.

The E-41 hyperdrive has a much lower top speed (About 14 lightyears/hour, in G-level hyperspace), but can drop into hyperspace faster.

Instead of dropping to a extremely low level of hyperspace all at once, the E-41 shifts down through successively lower levels as it leaves the local gravity well, maxing out at around G- or H-level. The average conventional hyperdrive can reach levels even beyond M- or O-level.

As for the weapons, I'll edit the post.]

Kasan laughed as she watched her oponents hold back, hoping she'd run out of fuel...

"Fools. this ship is powered by solar energy. even when not in light, this ship has batteries that can keep her going for days..."

Kasan slammed on the Nitros again, outrunning the gaining craft.

The Horus used is fusion reactor to speed ahead in the race, they approached Nikes

(Sorry about being out for a while, stuff to do, and as for the TIE Advanced, solar panels or not, it does seem a little much to be able to constantly Nitro. of course, I think there was a several hour recharging period, so oh well.)

After nearly 20 hours of racing the ships were reaching the hyperlimit of Ragnar. Brightly colored starliners, and yauchts can be seen on sensors, vut the sheer size of space means there is still plenty of room for the racers to get past them.

******
On Lauren's console the flashing while line denoting the hyperlimit drew ever closer, and then a soft tone sounded to indicate they were clear of the grav. well.

"That's it Dorian, we're clear." she announced.

"Excellent. Bring the drives online and set for a 1 minute countdown to translation. Here we go people, now the race truly begins!"

Nike sped onward into the void for several minutes, her sleek hull began to pulse with writhing blue flame, and she rocketed forward crossing the light-speed barrier and beyond, trailing red-shift acceleration streaks.

the other racers began making the transitions in the same manner, but one ship however, as it pulsed, suddenly ripped apart in a brilliantt and short-lived fireball as a bad alignment in her drive nodes caused the mag. bottles for her fuson reactor to fail and tear the ship apart.

(I'm just gonna give a quick rundown on the FTL, to clear anything up. I'm using Star Trek/Star Wars FTL. Mainly because these two are very simple, and both involve the ships staying in real-space, rather dimension hopping. The drives work by using some unknown technology to break the light-speed barrier, there is also some kind of time-controlling device to avoid the problems of time dialation. I've actually check on this stuff, and if anyone wants it I can make a link to the site which will explain it for you. In a long and technical sort of way. Mainly there's nothing to worry about except to remember, that since this is still in realspace ships are vulnerable to all kinds of space phenomena, and that they can be intercepted by other ships while traveling FTL. (As Star Trek: Nemesis demonstrated, if you've seen that scene where the Enterprise is being fired on while still at warpspeed) Thats about it, good

(OOC: If I had spotted this earlier, I might have joined.

But I didn't, and it'd take my fastest ship 8 days to make this whole race, so... Methinks I'll watch. Never mind that my ship would have just completely disappeared from real space for the entirety of transit. ^_^)

[OOC: Well, you can call my E-41 hyperdrive a Star Trek warp drive, as long as you don't mind me using hyperspace levels instead of warp factors.]

As she passed the hyperlimit, Kaharka shifted the G-Force from C-level into D-level, and from there to E-level.

The G-Force leaped ahead, but the E-41 drive, with its low top speed, couldn't maintain its lead. The ships behind it were catching up.

Kaharka cursed, shifting into F-level. The G-Force bucked and screamed away into space, trailing a screaming contrail of Dopplered radio waves.

(I didn't mean the Nitros. I meant the solar panel could endlessly keep the regular engines going. Besides, if this was real, only one thrust would be needed to keep going forever... With retros to correct course.)

Kasan turned off the Nitros. she'd need what was left for later.

It was now up to her brilliant manuvering skills that had saved her in the war...

"Nuts," Lafayette muttered as the Excalibur used its FTL drives. Glaring at the two spacecraft in front of him, Lafayette, hands flew over the controls, sending the Excalibur rocketing towards them. When he saw the TIE begin to perform some crazy moves, he grunted unimpressed. Sending the Excalibur into an extended barrel roll, Lafayette moved the Excalibur to take the lead...

Kasan saw the ship attempting to overtake her. she forced her craft directly in front of the aproaching ship, forcing him to slow down...

Instead of slowing, the Excalibur continued to move forward, continuously accelerating. Lafayette laughed at the idiocy of the Imperial pilot in believing that a 5CN Combined Navy pilot would blink in the face of an obstacle in front. His hands quickly activating the Excalibur's forward shields, Lafayette waited patiently for the collision...

(OOC: Want to have a collision?)

(Would've posted this last night-but those damn server gremlins... I knew you'd not stop... that's why I led you into a trap...)

Kasan had led them right into the perfectly planned trap. She waited until 2 seconds from impact, then hit the Nitros full on.

She tore away from the 5CN vessel, launching it into a cloud of volatle Nitro gasses and her engine wake.

"Like flying through fog..." Thought Kasan, as she shot away from the now distant vessel.

The nitros were once more cut.

"Computer, display remaining Nitro fuel."

"20% LEFT."

It would have to do. Kasan would probably now lose the lead to another vessel, but she could always wait until the final straight to the finish line...

"Blasted blackguard! Computer, do you have a lock on the TIE?"

"Yes, sir"

"Good, accelerate, full speed after that TIE, full autopilot..."

"Acknowledged... Autopilot activated..."

The Excalibur quickly appeared out of the Nitro gas, still flying swiftly towards the TIE.

Moor looked behind her.

"Gotta admire that pilots determination. It's a shame to smash their hopes..."

Kasan was ready for collision.

"Deflector fields at maximum."

"Sure this'll work computer?"

"98% positive. the other vessel should be harmlessly bounced off, causing them to slow down."

"Let's rock."

(Collision imminent!)

(OOC: What type of deflectors do you have? Particle or Energy?)

(OOC: What type of deflectors do you have? Particle or Energy?)

You know I never though of that... In a random guess I'll say particle. In the collision my ship will probably suffer catastrophic damage anyway... but not enough to put me out of the race...

OOC I'm goin g to have to drop out of the race, my computer ins't exactly in a stable stage right now.

OOC: Ok, New Russia, I'll write a drop out for you. And for Imp. Navy, and Ginaz- HAve you all gone into FTL yet, I would guess no, but your call. And a TIE-Advanced, has electromagnetic shielding, which id a combination of energy and particle shielding.

OOC: Ok, New Russia, I'll write a drop out for you. And for Imp. Navy, and Ginaz- HAve you all gone into FTL yet, I would guess no, but your call. And a TIE-Advanced, has electromagnetic shielding, which id a combination of energy and particle shielding.

Thanks for the shield info mate...

IC: "Oh i don't have time for this. Bring the hyperdrive online!"

"Hyperdrive active... ready for command."

"PUNCH IT!"

Just seconds from collision, the TIE Advanced shot into Hyperspace, leaving it's pursuer behind...

(Okay I've jumped to an FTL speed.)

(OOC: :? I thought we were in FTL...)

Lafayette swore when the TIE disappeared. Swiftly he activated his own hyperdrive and disappeared into hyper/warpspace

Kaharka dropped into G-level hyperspace, maxing out the drive at about twelve lightyears per hour. Not bad for this tub.

Kaharka settled back in her acceleration couch. There wasn't much to do at the moment; the Nike and the rest of the contestants were rapidly gaining, but she wasn't about to use her weapons. Not yet.

Hmm, most of the other people seem to have dropped out of the race, except Valinon, who will post shortly. That leaves Me, Khrrk, Imperial Navy, and Ginaz. That is a total of 7 teams run by real people and 11 that i'm running just as filler. Works for me.

IC: Nike was built for high-speed FTL, and she made use of it all. She steadily accelerated up to about 15 light years per hour, which set her gaining on the G-Force, although by this time Dorian had allowed his ship to drift so far from the other ships that they were barely visible on long range sensors.

If he could keep this up for the entire time, the travel to Verner Mons woudl take a mere 2 days. Of course, he would have to slow down when Nike hit the Discontinuity Region, in another few hours. Traveling through the Discontinuity at high speeds was dangerous, because sensors wouldn't give you enough warning of a grav. disturbance for you to deccelerate to a safe speed. And that could end very badly indeed.

Dorian travelee back to the small crew compartment to nap for a few hours before they reached the Discontinuity. Laren took over command of the ship.

******
At the inner edge of the Discontinuity Region sat a ship. She was a light cruiser cobbled together from the parts of several recently destroyed and salvaged ships. She was a pirate. Despite it's danger, the Discontinuity sat directly in the middle of a least-time course to several major systems, and as such she recieved a lot of traffic.

Aboard the cruiser's command deck, her captain, a seasoned veteran pirate with one eye, waited and watched the readouts. They would have to move on in another few hours if a ship didn't arrive. And of course, he thought If no one shows up then I don't get to use my new toy.

I didn't drop out, just kept forgetting to post. Sorry.

"Are we ready for the jump?" said Ustinov, "Yes sir, engines charged and ready." Ustinov smiled, "Okay, hold on..." he pressed a button on his console. The ship jerked violently for a second and smoothed out. From the outside, the ship appeared to stretch out for a second and dissapeared into hyperspace a few seconds after the others. Ustinov stood up and stretched, "How far behind the others are we?" Sergei peered at his console. "Once out of hyperspace, we are only behind them a very small amount, and in this position, we can thin the competition a bit." Sergei smiled and nodded.

Yukimura smiles as his counter slips below a minute timing until he can activate the Verner drives and enter jump space. The Sarengo is equipped with the best Verner drives outside of the Star Armada, and he intends to abuse that fully. By his own estimates and those of Benton and Hashino they should be the fastest FTL ship in the race.
"Benton is our course in order?"
"Yes, Captain."
"Good," Yukimura looks at the counter. "Prepare for jump!"
"Jump in 5....4...3....2....1!" he activates the Sarengo's Verner drives, sending the ship off at 19.7 light years per hour.

**********

Closer to the lead ship, Morozov watches with great care, noting the positions of the other racers. It seems like the Imperial ship and the Civilized Nation ship might save him the trouble of intervening there, but the Hattians and the Khrrks are still another matter.
The Dragonmiroff cannot match the Sarengo for Verner speed, but it still boasts a considerably powerful 15.06 light year per hour rate.
"Ready final jump coordinates."
"Done!"
"Ready the XKs, let us see how our opponents fair in hyperspace when they experience a 'systems failure'."

Los Bumpos

hmmm, where'd everybody go? huh!? oh well i guess your all waiting for me. Sorry about disappearing off the face of the earth for the last few days.

IC: Nike was 3 hours into the Discontinuity, creeping along at barely half her max hyperspeed. At this pace it would take another 5 hours to get to a safe place to ramp back up to full speed.

Suddenly, warning klaxons flared, and entire vessel shuddered as she fell violently from FTL speeds, back below light speed.

"Cut off those alarms!" yelled Lauren. "Ibro, what the hell just happened?"

"Give me a minute." he responded. Seconds ticked by, "Alright, looks like we had a secondary particle shield failure. The computer took us out of FTL as a standard precaution."

"Can we effect repairs here?" asked Dorian as he entered the cockpit from the rear crew compartments.

"Maybe, It could take a while though, I can reroute power through some sub systems, but the real problem is that, these ships are so custon designed for speed, that we simply don't have any major replacement parts onboard."

"Alright." responded Dorian after amoments thought. "do what you can in the next hours, but then we have to get back in. We'll get it replaced at Verner Mons. The mains are still online so we should be alright."

The three crew memebers set about reparing their ship and setting up new trajectories for departure.

"Sensor report."
Rakka consulted his displays. "The Nike seems to have dropped out. The Discontinuity is messing with the tachyon scan and the gravitics, but long-range tachyon echo keeps giving me a cruiser-size blip in the middle of the Discontinuity. We may have some pirates on our hands."

[OOC: Falsamayon, can we get an update on exactly what the current state of the race is?]

The TIE Roared on, with Kasan waiting patiently to reach the next section of the race...

OOC: Hmm, i suppose were still in the beginning stage, about 10 hours of full speed travel until the next waypoint, which is a star system called Verner Mons. There is where fueling and maintenance staff await.

IC:

Khrrck- a Swatter mine explodes directly ahead of your ship. The mine generates a gravity pulse, which acts like a planetary gravity well, and forces the ship back to sub-light speeds. The mine doesn't damage any systems, however, the sudden shift of an emergency translation, would cause uncontrollable nausea, and disorientation in any human crew memebers. The effect on the Wurms probably isn't so bad, but it would still do something.

Captain Son whetted his lips hungrily, the mine had worked perfectly, if a little early. But that was ok. With amount of nausea that crew should be experiencing, I've got at least 10 minutes to get them into weapons range. he thought.

"Mr. Sullivan, full speed ahead." he grinned menacingly "Load the torpedoes."

Imperial Navy- You catch the tail end of the blast. Not enough to force the computer into a crash translation, but enough to throw off you nav, data. Its up to you how to handle it.

[As a general note, there won't be much point in continuing this if the other people don't return, if we keep Khrrck, Hattia, Imp. Navy, Ginaz, and Valinon, I'll keep running it.]

[OOC: I meant the current position of the racers...]

"Gravity pulse! Prepare to-" The G-Force rocked sickeningly as it dumped itself into normal space. Kaharka retched, then continued. "-leave hyp-p-perspace. Ah, shkak. I'll have t-to use manuals. That fried my neural output controller. Rakka, what-t-t was that?"

As Kaharka grasped the manual controls, Rakka scanned his screens muzzily. "G-gravity mine. Not-t military-grade, thank the Firsst, but still pretty nasty. The pirat-t-te's coming in fast. I can't tell what he's armed with; the t-t-t-tachyon scan still won't work."

"Any damage, Akkar?"

Akkar examined his status displays. "Nothingg damaged... unlesss you count the headac-che I've got, and your socket-t."

Kaharka nodded, swinging the G-Force to point at the pirate and accelerating at a steady 15 Gs. "Ok-k-kay. Akkar, load both guns from magazine B. Let-t's see how they deal with a nuke. Time untill they're in range, Rakka?" She tweaked the ship's alignment, lining up the two 12" naval guns with the pirate.

Rakka consulted his displays. "Fourr minutes."

"The Nike has dropped out of FTL, and the G-Force has been hit by a gravity well mine." Ustinov tapped the side of the chair, "Once we drop out of FTL, give the Dragonmiroff a few shots to the engines..."

OOC: hmm, positions aren't really all that important over this kind of distance, but I Imp. Navy, is about even with Khrrck. I'm about even also, but significantly farther off to a side Not sure On Hattia and Valinon, I have to see if Valinon is even going to stay in this.

OOC: Nike finally gets back underway after two hours of delay.

*****

The pirate ship aimed to pass the G-Force on its starboard side. Going for an engagement envelope of 6 minutes in energy range, and 10 in missile.

As the pirate vessel closed missile salvos began firing. 3 missiles per flight, at (a pitifully slow rate for a military ship) about a flight every 20 seconds. The pirates are obviously inexperienced, and they're targeting shows it.

"Amateurrs." snorted Kaharka, as she corkscrewed the G-Force past the first salvo. "Akkar, fire both guns... now."

Akkar hit the triggers, firing the two thermonuclear shells on a collision course with the pirate, then gasped as Kaharka flung the ship into another crazy twirl to dodge the next salvo. "Kaharka, this isn't a fighter. You put too much stress on it and it'll break."
"Don't distract me... ah, shkak."

The G-Force lurched violently as the pirate's third salvo ripped off one of the auxilirary engines.

"What the hell!?!" Henri swore when he saw some vessel on his sensors, "Computer, does that thing have a transponder signal?"

No...

"Hot diggity damn... Computer, get me a visual..."

Acknowledged...

Within a second, a vidscreen turned on showing the Jolly Roger painted onto the ship's side.

"Pirates!?! Computer takes us around, 180 degrees... Time to give these pirates a test of 5CN justice..."

Within seconds, the Excalibur did a 180 degree and headed for the Jolly Roger, its hidden weapons out and in plain view. Henri prepared to fire his powerful pulse cannons...

The crew had no time to react, one of the salvoes hit the ship hard enough to damage most of the weapons systems. "Shit, I suppose we will have to delay our attack here. But now is our chance to get into the lead. Divert power from everything but our shields into the engines, and put on your suits." The 2 other crewmen nodded followed suit by grabbing their airtanks and regulators and strapping themselves down. Once the crew was ready, the captain pressed a few buttons on his chair, funneling power from everything but the shields to the engines. The Lancer shot ahead at close to twice the speed at which it had been going previously...

WARNING. MINES DETECTED.

"Evasive manuvers! launch countermeasures!"

The TIE flew at lightspeed through the mines, dodging well, when suddenly...

the TIE spun out of hyperspace, caught in an explosion...

"What happened?"

Checking... we appear to have been caught in the wake of a mine, perhaps on of the others collided with it.

"How soon can we resume our course?"

Momentarily. I just need to confirm our co-ordinates. The collision threw me off course a little... I need to re-align the Scanners.

"Well hurry up! Hopefully everyone else is caught too, so we may still get back into this race.."

(Ooh, double teaming, just the way, I like it.)

IC: One of the pirate's portside missile tubes jammed, and the grizzled Captain swore violently. His boys couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from 6 inches away, with a nuclear weapon, but that didn't realy matter, since he still outgunned his opponent. Or at least thats what he thought.

The ship closed to an absurdly close (in space terms) 400,000 km, and he prepared to fire an energy broadside, the pirates prey spurted a double blast of fire out of a gun turret. The pirates waited for the searing beam of an energy weapon, or the the blast of an impeller missile, but nothing happened, at all.

Whatever they just did, it doesn't look like it worked thought the captain. He turned to his tac officer to issue the order to fire, when suddenly the world exploded.

The ballistic shells of the G-Force were thrown out of the mass driver turret at almost half of the speed of light. Without any kind of active or passive sensors to home in on, or even an active energy signature, the shells were totally undetectable. Both shells impacted the front portion of the pirates sidewall, and exploded in a flaming solar maelstrom. The port sidewall went down, and explosive energy licked across the unprotected front of the ship searing armour and mangling the patched battlesteel.

Alarm Klaxons souded on the bridge, as damage reports came in to the command eck in a haphazard fashion. The port sidewall was shoot, but in dying the wall had taken the fury of the nuclear fire, and protected the actual ship, the front portio nof the vessel was another story. forward LIDAR, RADAR, and Gravitics were down, as were missile 1 as 3, as well as Laser 2 and 4.

"Damnit, roll ship, give them our starboard side, and blast the hell out of them!" ordered the gnarled and now angered captain. He would make these upstarts pay, for daring to mangle his ship!

The pirate vessel, began to roll on its centerline, turning the damaged port side away from the G-Force.

Kaharka grinned silently as the pirate's port side crumpled and tore.
"Don't waste any more nukes on this fool."

Akkar slapped switches, loading a pair of conventional-explosive shells into the guns as Kaharka corkscrewed the G-Force in a wild, random trajectory that shot it past the pirate and towards the edge of the mine's gravity well.

The Excalibur approached the pirate vessel as fast as it could, its pulse cannons firing repeatedly.

Henri Lafayette gritted his teeth when he saw a turret swivel to try to track him. But it was evident that the Excalibur was just too fast. Relieved, Henri performed a quick barrel roll and brought the fighter around. Then he armed two of his vessel's six Raider missiles (powerful ballistic, shield-piercing 20-megaton nuclear missiles).

But then, the pirate vessel exploded...

The roll of the pirate ship would have been an excellent maneuver and would have allowed the ship to destroy the G-Force. The explosive shells impacted harlessly against the sidewall, with barely a quiver to register they're explosion. However...

The roll of the pirate ship, while bringing it's undamaged side towards the G-Force also turned its unprotrotected side right into the face of the Excalibur. They're was not time to do anything about it. The light-speed blasts of the pulse cannon shot into the battle armour of the pirate vessel rending and warping the ship. As damage alarms sounded on the bridge, and the ship bucked and heaved, the missiles impacted, they tore even further into the ship. Entire sections of the ship broke away, then suddenly, the entire ship was consumed in an inferno of nuclear energy as both of the ships fusion reactors blew they're mag-bottles at the same time. The reactors exdploded in a firestorm which threw energy and plasma outward. The EMP blast pulsed outward from the dying ship engulfing both racing ships. The explosion was visible from a full light day away.

"Divert all energy back to normal levels." Ustinov removed his airtank as did the others.

1 minute later...

"Wow!" Ustinov had to look away as one of the rear viewing cameras caught the massive explosion. "They are gonna have a hard time catching up with us."

"Divert all energy back to normal levels." Ustinov removed his airtank as did the others.

1 minute later...

"Wow!" Ustinov had to look away as one of the rear viewing cameras caught the massive explosion. "They are gonna have a hard time catching up with us."

"Ah, shkak."

The G-Force lurched sickeningly as the EMP hit. The unshielded ship's engines flickered and went dark.

"Time for repairs, I think." muttered Rakka, somewhere in the darkened cockpit. "Which one of these is the emergency lighting? Ah..."

The cockpit filled with dim red light. "At least that EMP didn't set off any of our ammunition."

Rakka released his restraints and drifted over to the access tunnel in the back of the small, cramped cockpit, Akkar following behind. "Come on, Kaharka. We need all the help we can get."

(OOC: Since the pirate vessel exploded, when the pulse cannons hit it, then the Excalibur never fired its Raider Nuclear Torpedoes…)

At the point when the pirate vessel exploded, unleashing a shockwave of electromagnetic energy, Henri was piloting the Excalibur was turning around preparing to make another attack run upon it. Surprised by the explosion, Henri instinctively pulled the controls towards him, sending the Excalibur into a reverse barrel roll. Luckily, the computer had automatically increased both the Excalibur’s energy and particle shielding, while reducing the energy output, allowing the vessel to weather the EMP wave.

When the shockwave dissipated, Henri immediately checked his controls and found that the Excalibur had suffered only mild damage in the form of a couple of burnt relays, relays that with the computer’s help, Henri easily rerouted within two minutes. Satisfied that everything was fine, Henri opened a channel with the G-Force.

[code:1:962f040bd3]This is Colonel Henri Lafayette, pilot of the Excalibur to the G-Force, please respond. Do you require assistance, repeat, do you require assistance?[/code:1:962f040bd3]

The G-Force's emergency comm unit lit up with a quiet beep.

Akkar drifted over towards it. "Thank goodness for hardened curcuitry."

[code:1:d684522ae6]*crackle* controllers blown. Stay out of *crackle* weapons on board. EMP may have *crackle* -re you stopping to help, anyway? We can repair it *crackle* paste. If you *cracklecrackleFIZZ*[/code:1:d684522ae6]

Akkar swore as the comm unit flickered and went dead. "Shkak. Rakka, hand me that can of repair paste."

The EMP pulse registered on the sensors of Nike.

"Damn, somebody just blew a fusion core!" exclaimed Ibrahim, stationg the obvious.

"I hope that wasn't anyone we know. At least if they were caught in the EMp blast, they'll mainly need a computer core reboot, If they're worth their stuff they'll have backed up their core files, and if they didn't then oh well, better for us." quipped Dorian.

The ship sped onward waiting for its own trial by fire to come.

******

As Nike neared the hyper limit of Verner Mons the ship suddenly lurched violently. Alarm klaxons blared anda ll three members of the croew began retching horribly as they fell through a crash translation all the way from the theta band of FTL to normal space.

"What just happened!" exclaimed Dorian, still struggling with nausea after almost 10 minutes.

"We.. we had a massive emergency crash translatio..n." spluttered Ibrahim. "That jerry-rigged compensator must have catastrophically failed on us."

"Where are we?" asked Lauren, now largely in control of her stomach.

"Give me a minute." Dorian began querying the computer. "Shit, were two days from the hyperwall of Verner Mons. That's almost 2 whole days out from the fleet station there. We're gonna have some catchup to do. If anyone comes over that hyperwall normally then they'lle be a mere 10 hours from Verner Mons. Were... almost 40 hours from there!"

"Damnit, give me max speed Ibro, were gonna need it."

Bump...

Rakka pried the cover off and peered at the ruined curcuitry inside.
"This thing's fried. I've got some spares, but this whole damn unit is slag."

Kaharka peered at the half-melted components inside what had been the main drive controller. "Can you fix it?"
"If I had a full electronics shop and about three weeks, maybe. As it is, no chance."

Henri quickly piloted the Excalibur close to the damaged G-Force. It was Henri's honor to save the distressed vessel, rather than abandon it and continue on the mission. From youth 5CN citizens were given a tremendous sense of honor and loyalty, so that the entire populace was both fanatically loyal to the Emperor of the Star Realms and also honorable...

Quickly Henri gazed at the G-Force attempting to make out the location of any airlock or docking location...

(OOC: Khrrck, what's the specs on your vessel... And can you TG me with specific information about the wyrms in the other thread?)

valiant bump for the apparently lost cause of keeping this thread going.

(OOC: Hey, I'm trying to resuscitate this thread...)

[OOC: The G-Force is about 150 feet long and 25 wide. It looks like it was welded together out of bits and pieces of other ships; not suprising, since it was. It has four small, cylindrical engines on the end of a X-shaped array of pylons near the front, and on the back is a huge array of hexagonal exhaust tubes, making up almost a third of its length. There's a airlock just behind the bulbous, faceted cockpit.

What sort of information about the Wyrms do you need?]

Akkar peered out the cockpit window, ignoring Kaharka and Rakka's efforts back inside the engine compartment. Then he saw something.
"Guys, there's a ship coming up alongside us. I think he's going to try and dock."

Rakka pushed off along the corridor and caught himself alongside the lock controls. "We've got to get power to this thing. Toss me a EC, Kaharka."

Rakka reached out with a packarm and snatched the glowing, electric-blue crystal that Kaharka threw at him out of the air. He snapped the cover off the lock controls and jammed the crystal into a receptacle inside.

Rakka grinned as the lock controls lit up. "Thank goodness this still works." He slapped a switch on the panel.

On the outside of the G-Force, the airlock extended its docking prongs and waited for the Excalibur to dock.

Henri expertly killed his thrusters, allowing the Excalibur to drift slowly towards the extended docking arm. Within seconds, the Excalibur and the G-Force were joined. Swiftly, Henri unstrapped himself from his seat in the cockpit and proceeded to the small airlock located in the back of his seat. Swiftly, checking to make sure the connection was secure, Henri hurriedly pulled together a diagnostic tool kit from within his vessel. When the connection was secure, Henri activated the air lock and stepped through.

(OOC: How big are the Wyrms?)

[OOC: Take a look here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=127421&highlight=).]

The corridor was small, barely five feet on a side. About ten feet off to the right, the cockpit hatch could be seen, and to the left, about twenty feet away the engine compartment's hatch was visible. Besides that, the only thing in view was the airlock and the coppery form of Kaharka.

Kaharka gripped the thick padding on one of the narrow corridor's walls, her claws sinking into it and providing purchase. "I thought we told you to stay away. There's nuclear weapons on board, and I'm not sure what the EMP did to them."

Im still watching this guys, but I'm gonna hold off on the action from my side, until you two finish what your doing together.

For Khrrck- damaga doesn't have to be very severe unless you want it too. Your shielding probably got the brunt of the real serious damage.

Thanks for not bailing with out a trace.

[OOC: The G-Force has no shielding...]

"I don't care, my honor and duty demands that I assist you," Henri replied quickly. Glancing briefly at his new surroundings, Henri said, "What was damaged by that EMP shockwave?"

OOC: sorry about the delay. (Useless connection...)

IC: The TIE Advanced had been at lightspeed for some time.

"Computer, are we ready to increase lightspeed?"

Checking... all systems back at 100% efficiency...confirmed.

Kasan smiled.

"The giver her all she's got!"

"Pretty much everything. Targeting's was shielded, so it's moderately OK, sensor processing is dead, the main engine controller is a lump of slag, and the auxiliary engine controllers aren't much better. The-." Kaharka stopped in mid-sentence, and switched to her own language. "Yes, what is it?"

Rakka poked his black-scaled head through the hatch leading to the engine compartment. "Can you toss me a size four EC and some Number Three cable? I think I can get the attitude jets running again as soon as I can provide power."

"Just a moment." Kaharka pushed off from the wall, drifting over to another section of padded metal.
She slipped her claws through holes in the padding, apparently triggering a hidden catch, as it slid easily out of the way.

Kaharka reached into the compartment and pulled a reel of plastic-coated cable out with her teeth. She left it to drift for a moment while she pulled a thick, hexagonal bar of polished electric-blue crystal from the compartment.

Kaharka slapped the items toward Rakka with her tail. "There you go."

A pair of mechanical arms unfolded from Rakka's toolpack and caught the crystal and reel in mid-air. He nodded, and vanished into the darkness behind the hatch.

Kaharka turned back to Henri. "As I was saying, the only thing that didn't seem to take any damage is our toolpacks. Unfortunately, the backwash from that mine burned out my neural socket, and neither Rakka or Akkar have gotten around to fixing it."

"Hm..." Henri replied as he mulled over the information, "You people should definitely get some EMP shielding..."

Dropping to the floor, Henri opened his massive toolkit, revealing a powerful computer diagnostic system. Quickly, Henri began to run a full diagnostic on the damage.

"Seems to me your core systems are fine... Wait... What the hell!?!" Henri said when he saw something, "Your ship definitely needs a lot of repairs... We better get to it..."

Henri rummaged through the toolkit and pulled out a smaller scanner and with a small tool, prepared to move more into the vessel to assist.

[OOC: Here's your diagnostic...]

RSC331 Diagnostic Computer

Damage type? > EMP

Attempting to access ship core... [OK]
Running self-diagnostics... [OK]
Printing output... [OK]

Warning: system is running on stored power.

Probing CORE...

CORE_CONTROLS_MANUAL [OK]
CORE_CONTROLS_SOCKET [OK]
CORE_CONTROLS_AUTOPILOT [OK]
CORE_CONTROLS_INTERFACE [OK]
CORE_TARGETING [DAMAGED]
CORE_SENSOR_PROCESS [FAILED] (error 445e, check for fused curcuitry)
CORE_MAIN_ENGINE_CONTROL [FAILED] (error 445e, check for fused curcuitry)
CORE_AUX_ENGINE_CONTROL [DAMAGED (controllers #1-3 offline, #4 crashes randomly)
CORE_REACTOR [OFFLINE] (Insufficient coolant; safety shutdown)
CORE_RCS_GYROS [OFFLINE] (Insufficient power)

Probing RCS...

RCS_ATTITUDE_JETS [OFFLINE] (Insufficient power)
RCS_CONTROLLER_MODULE [ONLINE]

Probing WEAPON...

WEAPON_FIRE_CONTROL_UNIT [OFFLINE] (error 445e, check for fused curcuitry)
WEAPON_TRACKING [OFFLINE] (Insufficient power)
WEAPON_AUTOLOAD_CONVENTIONAL [OFFLINE] (FIRE_CONTROL_UNIT offline)
WEAPON_AUTOLOAD_NUKE [OFFLINE] (FIRE_CONTROL_UNIT offline)
WEAPON_MASSDRIVER_L [OFFLINE] (Insufficient power)
WEAPON_MASSDRIVER_R [OFFLINE] (Insufficient power)

[More?]

**********************************************

As Henri squeezed through the hatch into the engine room, he was confronted with a tangle of piping, equipment, and structural members, leaving only five feet or so of space to move around freely in.

Kaharka squeezed through the hole behind him, taking up even more of the scant space. "It's a maze, I know. What do you expect from something cobbled together out of disabled ships?"

Kaharka drifted forwards and squeezed through a narrow hole. Her voice drifted back through the tangled mess. "Come on. It widens out a bit further on."

Henri shrugged and said philosophically, "Ah well... It always gets worse before it gets better."

Henri moved forward, cramped by the the masses of pipes, equipment, and the ship walls.

"My god, you guys definitely need a newer ship..."

Kaharka spoke, slightly muffled by the intervening equipment. "I'm inclined to agree. But at least this flying junk heap works. Or used to, anyway- Ah, here we are."

Kaharka kicked free of the equipment and drifted out into a large opening in the tangle. In the center, a cubical device sat, braced against the walls by six radial beams.

Kaharka nodded to Rakka, on the other side of the cube. "How's it going with the reactor?"

Rakka peered at the innards of the cube. A mechanical arm darted into an access hatch and tweaked something. "Not-t good. The bloody EMP sshielding worked fine on the reactor. But one of the coolant-t ventss wass unsshielded, and when the EMP hit it-t dumped the whole Firsst-damned load of coolant into sspace."

Kaharka growled under her breath. "I assume we don't have any spare coolant?"

Rakka shook his head. "Not a milliliter of t-the sstuff. We've got-t engine coolant, but the reactor doessn't like it. I'm trying to get-t it to start up anyway..."

Henri frowned as he listened to the two reptilians talk in their slithering tongue. Quickly, Henri glanced down at his datapad and went over the information about his own vessel. Seeing something that would possibly be helpful, Henri's head rose and he asked, "What type of coolant is it? Cause I might just have the substitute..."

Rakka looked up. "You probably do, at that-t. The reactor coolant-t wass jusst plain water. The enginess usse liquid ssodium coolant-t, which thiss reactor doessn't like. But I'll have to drain the ssodium out of this before we can refill it-t."

"Plain water!?! That's your 'coolant!?!'" Henri said incredulous. "My god... I do have a lot of water, but probably not enough to use for your reactor..."

Rakka nodded. "Water. Fisssion reactors don't-t need anything sspecial. This one needss about t-three hundred literss... How much do you have?"

"Three hundred liters!?!" Henri said in disbelief. "That must be some very efficient cooling process there to only require three hundred liters of water... If my ship's reactor had just three hundred liters of water, it'll experience a meltdown..."

Henri then turned back to his datapad, checking how much water he had. Glancing over the information, Henri saw that he only had about 250 liters of water, not enough...

"Damn't, I only got 250 liters of water..."

"Hrsst. Two-fifty. Let-t me ssee if I could run the reactor on that."
Rakka stared off into space for a moment. "Let'ss ssee... 300 literss iss abssolute minimum. We were running it-t on twice that. Sso... where can I get-t another fifty literss? I'll check..."

Rakka pulled a coil of cable from his pack. He jacked one end into his pack and the other end into a socket on the wall. He closed his eyes for a moment. "Aha. We can drain drinking-water tank. That-t givess us an extra sseventy-five literss, and we can refill at next sstop."

Rakka unplugged the cable from the wall and began coiling it up. "Now, how do we get-t the water from your sship onto ourss? Do you have some spare tubing?"

"The water is held in interior tanks near the reactor as an emergency cooling device," Henri replied. "But I don't have any tubing to bring it over... Although, I'm we could improvise..."