NationStates Jolt Archive

ChronosNews:

http://www.silentthunder.de/SITH/pics/vgr_mothership.gif

ANGBAND- Warlord Garrand announced yesterday that the much-anticipated Horizon Mothership is finally fitted and ready for operation. Originally conceptualized as a stationary base for remote fleet operations in the far reaches of the Solar System, an attack by Triumvirate forces forced designers to rethink their game plan. "We figured making it a station was ultimately a bad idea, as it would make Horizon vulnerable and rather precarious in wartime. Fleet Command decided that it would be better to build a more mobile facility, for tactical and strategic reasons. The Triumvirate attack only reeinforced this feeling," commented one official.

Horizon is expected to create thousands more jobs, and boasts a fully integrated, state-of-the-art FTL system and hangar space for one full fleet, not counting capital ships. The mothership is the DDSI's largest project to date, dwarfing even the Nargothrond. Nearly 15km long, Horizon is primarily a noncombat vessel, and will mainly rely on the 6th Fleet for its defense. More or less a self-contained city, Horizon can hold nearly 200,000 people comfortably. It has 15 restaurants, a mall, housing, and of course an extensive network of administrative and reconaissance suites.

Horizon will function primarily as an exploration/repair facility, and as a remote outpost for Fleet Command. "We've just got to establish a presence of our own beyond Sol," commented Warlord Althalon shortly after the announcement was made official. "A remote outpost like Horizon will come in handy since it's nearly impossible to jump a fleet from one point to another within the Solar System. "If we've got Horizon out in some system a few light years away, it'll actually be faster to just jump the fleets right where they need to go, as opposed to having to cover the whole distance on virtue of their drives," he explained.

Horizon will be the catalyst for a number of far-reaching initiatives to restructure the Imperial Fleets from a strategic standpoint. Instead of overworking the drives to literally fly the ships to their destinations, captains will be able to jump from Horizon to a designated rally point in Sol in the blink of an eye. Officials are being understandably tight-lipped about Horizon's travel itinerary, especially since the Triumvirate attack. "Horizon's coordinates at any given time will be concealed to the best of our ability. It's not easy to hide a ship that size, but we've got some tricks up our sleeve that might make this puppy a tricky one to put a finger on," stated one project coordinator during a DDSI press conference last night. "She won't be staying in any one place for very long, at least not at first."

Also announced at the press conference was the completion of the 6th Fleet, timed by construction crews to coincide with Horizon's completion. "The 6th Fleet will travel with the Horizon, and is slightly larger than the previous five. Designed as primarily a defensive force, the 6th Fleet will rendezvous with Horizon at some point before the mothership's maiden jump.

Analysts all across the Five Kingdoms are watching international response closely. The Imperium has long been seen as lacking sufficient space presence, and the DDSI is eagerly looking for a way to redeem itself for past failures.

Aerospace Reservists are to report to their bases for possible reassignmennt. The Ministry of Civilian Affairs will be taking applications for interested citizens who wish to poopulate Horizon starting next Wednesday.

“Emperor,” said one of the numerous flunkies about the room, “we are glad you could join us at such short notice.”

The Emperor nodded, stepping over to the chair at the head of the table and sitting down. From here, a large orbital shipyard, one had an excellent view of Duat and its moons, far below one could just about make out the night-time lights of Tephet-Sheta, the massive capital city near the equator, dominating its large peninsula and several nearby islands. “Quite, so, what is this?”

“My lord, intelligence reports indicate that Morgoth has completed his Horizon station. It isn’t however, a station, more of a mother-ship,” said the man who had been speaking, not actually a man but a machine, the avatar of the Vigilance of Death, a battleship, currently in orbit of Mars.

“And you think we should be worried by this development?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“They have also stated an intention to begin expanding their operations out beyond the Solar system,” it said, pointedly.

“I see,” said the Emperor, “I believe I get your point. Recall the Martian Taskforce.”

The Vigilance nodded, “As you command my lord.”

“Oh, and leave a Shroud in orbit.”

“As you command my lord.”

On the cruel cliffs that faced the seas surrounding Arda a most unusual occurrance was taking place. A cargo container - no doubt lost on a ship that had wandered into the reefs surrounding the dread land - smashed against the rocks as the waves slowly pounded it to death. Finally a tremendous wave picked it up and tossed it into a small rocky cradle. The crash ripped the bars securing the door off their hinges and they began twisting back and forth in the waves until they tore free.

A small avalanche of goods spilled out of the formerly water tight container. Many were rapidly washed away to be distributed along the few rocky sandbars that dotted the coast, but some remained. Among them were two dozen cardboard packages with shiny plastic fronts. Flowers and butterfly's decorated the display packaging labeled 'My Real Kitty' in Japanese. This was rapidly becoming soaked as water entered the container.

One by one the kittens stirred and began to rip their way out of the packaging. Their orders were to wait for a charge to blow open the doors, but clearly the doors were open. One by one they made their way over the heaps of consumer goods and began to leap from point to point along the cliffside. Technically the cliffs of Arda were unclimbable - pity the poor human or orc who didn't have leathery pads and sharp claws to leap from jagged point to jagged point.

Even cats make mistakes. A kitten jumped and landed on a loose rock that skittered away under it's paw. It scrambled to correct, claws skittering on the smooth wet rock. With a pitiful mew it landed on it's side and slipped over the edge toward the water. In a fate shared by many who had attempted to scale these cliffs before... The cat bounced off several rocks and hit the water with a splash.

The rocks were not the only menace along these shores. Struggling to swim back towards the rocks it mewed pathetically until it felt something wrap around it. Coils of tentacle rose out of the water and it began to scratch and hiss at the thing. With a plop it disappeared. The others kept moving - cats being cats they didn't really care about their fellows - though they did perk up their ears a minute later when the dull thud of an underwater explosion reached them.

Reaching the top of the cliff they paused and looked over the hostile wilderness that was Arda. Their destination was the cities and tunnels - though even a dozen miles over this hell-blasted terrain might take a day or two of precious battery power to cross. Splitting up into several groups they set out, sticking to the shadows and staying away from noises. They might be small but they would make a good 'meal' for a hungry orc if spotted.

OOC: Nice... a Vagyr MS :D.

(OOC Note: Semiserious, sorry, I couldn't resist...the ship's damn cool.)

Western Asian Military Intelligence officials were concerned by the new developments...apparently the forces of Meklor had developed a sense of fashion amidst their ship design. The old "flying brick" designs of the fearsome Skyfurnaces and Gravships apparently being abandoned for the sleeker, and even, some might say, beautiful modern-styled space ships of the Horizon-class. Far-sighted RAND Corporation personnel begin to write reports on what the effect might be of Melkor-supporting Orc armies dressed not in the usual rags-and-scraps-of-armoring dress but rather in sleek, 'futuristic' outfits to represent the real power of Melkor.

Modernist and Avant-Guarde fashion designers across Western Asia begin to draw up uniform possibilities in the hope that Melkor would open the bidding on designing such uniforms to foreign clothing design agencies.

Three forms covered in soot and ash hit under a rock as a long line of orc feet tromped past. The feline forms did not know why the orcs were there but they did know they needed to know where they were going. Intelligence on the locations of cities - and more importantly entrances to those cities - was sketchy at best. The orcs would presumably return to the city at some point though there was no way of knowing how long that would take.

It was also risky. They had already lost one of their number to a lightning strike two days before. They had been in a giant rocky maze of pits and boulders and it had jumped up on a rock to survey the route ahead. A tremendous bolt of red lightning had chosen that moment to lance out of the sky and cleave the boulder in half. Bits of vaporized kitten still clung to the fur of the remaining three, but they did not want to stop to clean themselves yet. The soot was camoflage and they would need to follow the long line of orcs for quite some time.

The dust raised by the marching orcs finally began to settle and the kittens poked their heads out - they would follow the dust cloud from a distance. They needed to reach a city soon - too much longer and they wouldn't have enough energy to accomplish their primary mission.

The team of Uruks, it turned out, were bound for a loading station in the middle of Near Harad, leading the robotic felines to a loading dock for a spaceport, built halfway into the Emphel Duath. Some distance off, a line of colonist familes waited to check in. On the tarmac, a large transport was being readied, men and orcs partolling the area regularly.

The cats themselves are enought to raise some eyebrows condiering the incredibly remote locale, but it's nothing anyone seems worried about. A small Easterling child, busying himself by exploring the nuances of his surroundings, noticed one of them and moved to capture it, a grin spreading across his face as he hurried back to the line where his parents waited in the hot sun.

"The Commonality of Everlasting Light offers utterly hollow and empty congratulations to the Imperium regarding its continued construction of machines of death, destruction, and maiming. At least we're being honest, eh? It's a step.

"On a brighter note, we congratulate the Imperium on preventing its citizens from killing each other.

"There's always a silver lining."

~ 3rd Ambassador Neurat

The kitten had tried to evade the child - half-heartedly of course. Racing from cover to cover it had gotten even dirtier than before, and was now rubbing that dirt into the childs shirt as it cleaned itself carefully. Soon enough the dirty gray was revealed to be a mixed brown siamese and it was purring loudly as the child rubbed its chin and petted the fur to remove the last of the dirt.

One of the other kittens found a new home as well - this time with a young woman who scooped the cat up as it was cleaning itself at the edge of the tarmac. It squirmed for a moment as she positioned it under her arm, but finally it calmed down and lay limp. As she walked through the base it's head swivelled back and forth, counting the passengers, soldiers, weapons, and even the clips of ammunition on their belts. While not exactly important information it would none the less be passed back in a burst transmission later.

The last was still wandering the tarmac and trying to find it's next objective - the security station.

The line shuffled forward agonizingly slowly in the manner of lines everywhere. Children ran and played near their parents - this being Arda fighting was not discouraged and several children returned to their parents proudly displaying black eyes and bloodied knuckles. At the head of the line the everpresent whiny administrator type stood with a clipboard talking to the next colonist family in line. Behind him stood a tall, rugged looking Easterling lieutenant and a pair of orcs who glared at the colonists in a vain attempt to keep the line from bunching up.

"Next!"

The sign read 'Have Your Papers Ready' in the tongue of Arda with a picture of a identity card under it as well as a picture of a barcode. Under that was printed something in Orc that probably meant the same thing - in much simpler terms. There were also a pair of Easterling guards walking up and down the line, rifles at their waists, saying the same thing over and over in Ardan - "Have your identity cards and papers ready." Despite this many people didn't have their cards ready, and while the lieutenant was tempted to have an entire familiy shot as an example he was holding back - for now.

"Your identity cards..."

The boy's father handed over their three identity cards and began inspecting them and comparing them to the list he had.

"And where are you from? And your mother?"

A couple more questions followed and the kitten perched in the boys arms watched the previous familiy go through a metal detector. It stood, bumped the boy's face, and leapt to the ground where it rubbed against his legs and flopped down on the warm tarmac. After a moment the family moved on, and the cat followed them. Keys were taken out and placed on a tray with other metallic objects while the cat walked around the station several times. The boy, passing through first, stepped over and picked up his new pet for some more attention while waiting for his father and mother to finish.

----

With a shudder the transport left the tarmac, rising into the storm filled skies above the Emphel Duath. In the distance mighty volcano's could be seen throwing globs of lava skyward to splash down on the charred slopes of mighty Angband. Lightning sparkled and crashed, and at the base of the volcano's yet more grey shapes wandered looking for an entrance to Angband and a way onto Horizon Station.