NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.geocities.com/ttomaktt/journey.jpg

ASC Phobos, 1'st Klonor System Fleet, Location: Unknown

Captain Rilos stood on the bridge, staring out into the black of space. Into the black of real space; empty of stars, planets, comets, and any other sign of existence in the Universe. The Phobos hung in the depths of inter-galactic space, nearly 1,000,000 light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy. Nearly 1,000,000 light-years from home.

Captain Rilos stood on the bridge and waited for his death. Fuel was no problem, the MiniStar would last for centuries, but food was another story entirely. A few months, maybe so much as a year, and every man & woman on board the Phobos would be a starved husk.

He'd almost come to terms with it.

Of course, his crew was another story entirely. No captain, no matter how resigned to death he was, could just stand by and watch his people slowly whither away.

"Major?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Have we managed to determine which Galaxy is the Milky Way?"

"Yes, sir. 86% probability. It's not definite, but based on the time in Nexus Flight and the size of the Galaxy it's the best fit."

"Time at max G/T D speed?"

"120+ years, sir. To long."

"Anything closer?"

"No, sir. SR-2091 is on the opposite side of the Galaxy, we think, and there's no other charted stellar bodies in range."

"Well, what about un-charted stellar bodies?"

"Uh.....if they're uncharted then we don't know where they are, sir."

"This is a good point. Does the crew know yet?"

"No, sir. Only the men in Navigation, me, you, and John who's standing right behind you and would have to be deaf not to overhear us."

"Ah. John?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Go away."

"Yes, sir."

With Johns quick exit the Captain and Major continue their discussion, going over the options again and again. Unfortunately, no matter what they came up with they arrived at the same conclusion.

"We're going to die out here."

"It certainly looks that way, sir."

"Well, if we're going to die then we're going to die a hell of a lot closer to home than we are now. Get in touch with Engineering. Have them take the Sub-Space Engines off-line and funnel the power into the G/T D. That should give us a little more boost. Then have a course plotted for the Milky Way."

"Give me a moment........done, sir."

"Excellent. Whow knows? Maybe we'll get lucky."

"Maybe, sir."

A few moments later the front of the Phobos glowed brightly, space seemed to bend, and the Fenris class Cruiser zipped forward at a speed constantly increasing beyond the sluggish speed of light.

OOC: Okay, by "Semi-Open RP" I mean that this RP is open to anybody (no invitations sent out by me and no IC requirements), but only after you've TG'd me and I've given you permission. The only requirement is that you can spell. Let me say this right now: If you can't spell then you will not be in this RP.

The plot is, I believe, rather straightforward. The Phobos, a Fenris class Cruiser, is out in inter-galactic space and heading home. They are, of course, bound to encounter many unknown (or known) alien species and nations. That's you people. RP a hostile pirate race, a benevolent race of super-being, etc. Just have fun with it. It is not necessary that the Phobos make it home, I only ask that you don't kill it for a long time.

OOC: For info on the Fenris class, and other varieties of Klonor vessels, go here: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=343825

The Vapor a small diplomat vessel

A tiny ship; if you could call it that, named Vapor, had simply been floating in space for some time. The ship was only slightly larger than a two-pilot fighter, and less armed. The diplomat ship picked up the Phobos on their scanners, just long enough to pick up a frequency for sending a transmission. They quickly recorded the transmission and sent it out. By that time the Phobos was so far away, and moving at such a great speed that the transmission would be recieved, but it would be horribly fragmented. It read:

This is a distress call from th...help us get out of the sect...Our engines have lost po...jump to next stat...Could rewa...Please return to our aid...eternal gratitude.

END TRANSMISSION

There was nothing for the seven member crew of the Vapor to do but wait for a signal from the Phobos.

"Sir?" The squeaky voice came from a small, nervous crew member.

"What is it Cal?" The slighlty more solid, yet compassionate voice of the captain replied.

"I don't think they're coming back."

"Neither do I. it's not that I think they are a heartless crew, just that the odds of them recieving our transmission are low. And if they did it would be so chopped up that they would hardly know what it said, not to metnion we would be so difficult to locate that it would take days to find us."

"Oh." Cal hung his head and stared at the metal floors of the deck.

"It's alright Cal, I'm sure another ship will pass. We'll be alright."

And so they waited.

Only a few thousand kilometers from where the Phobos reemerged from Nexus Flight, yet another vessel from the Milky Way Galaxy popped into normal space. It was a dark ship, painted completely black with no viewports in order to reduce the amount of light exposed to the outside. It simply sat there, in the darkness of space, but anyone attempting to scan it would have had a tough time scanning past the hull.

On the bridge of the vessel, however, things were not so quiet. The dim, emergency lights were on, and flashing beacons cast a red glow on everything. People were hustling about, trying to figure out what had just happened. Everyone was in a frenzy on the bridge of the ship, save for the captain of the vessel sitting at the central command chair. The eye of the storm.

"Report," Colonel Tollonis Khavara of the Antarellius calmly said, though in a voice loud enough to be heard over the hustle and bustle.

"Main power offline. Warp drives and hyperdrives are nonfunctional."

"Quantum singularity is holding."

"Antimatter containment at nominal."

"Shields and weapons are all down."

"Cloaking device inoperational. Phase cloak inoperational. Subspace diving disabled."

"Life support functional. Communications and sensors at minimal."

"Several minor injuries reported."

"Slight damage to the outer hull; structural integrity is high. Active camouflage system is no longer functioning."

"Impulse down, thrusters are working."

The colonel took that all in before saying, "Concentrate efforts on bringing main power online. What do the sensors read?"

Shaking his head, the ops officer said, "Of what I'm getting, the sensors are saying that we're no longer at Gamma Draconis. In fact, there are no solar systems at all within a radius of three lightyears. There's another vessel, though." He furrowed his eyebrows. "Receiving a general distress from them. Audio only."

"On audio," Khavara commanded, giving a nod to her officer.

The distress call played over the comms system on the bridge.

"Threat analysis of the alien craft?" she asked.

"Level Eight, Colonel," answered the tactical officer. "It's a tiny little ship and I'm not seeing anything dangerous on it at all, but it's of unknown origin, so there may be surprises."

She looked over at the engineering officer, "Speed up the repairs. I want thrusters online in fifteen minutes; weapons and shields within another five. Helm, plot a course for this alien craft, full thrusters. Let's see what they have to offer."

(OOC: The Antarellius ended up here because of the Phobos, and vice versa from another thread that Klonor and I are doing. Oh, and check this out: http://www.geocities.com/ttomaktt/journey.html)

tag for later joining

Yet my telegram box is suspiciously empty.....

Da Vinci, Sector 4VI, Deep Space
Copernicus class Science Vessel
_______________________________

One could go insane in the void of space, and many already have. The complete darkness, the emptiness and the despair. All too many Skapunk scientists and explorers had succumbed to its all too tempting bait. Precautions were taken, and things were changed. But just how far could that go? Just how long could that last? How little an amount of time does it take a human mind to crack?

These were all questions that one one knew the answers to, least of all Dr. Allan Starkos: A surveyor by training, but little more than an eye in the vacuum by profession.

He loathed everything about these posts, but perhaps the most sadistic and diabolical were the sensor alerts. Always false alarms, always tricks of interstellar phenomenon, providing a brief glimpse of hope, of an end to this monotony, only to crush it, brutally and all too swiftly.

OOC: Unless you make some kind of attempt at contact, the Phobos is just gonna keep going. The Vapor did make a communication, but it looks like Rhinara is responding to that.

What's left of the scanners on the Vapor could hardly pick up the Phobos as it flew by at the speed it was at, but another ship also has appeared on scanners. Apparently it isn't moving as fast as the Phobos was in the other direction.

"I told you we'd be alright Cas. Look at the readings here. Another ship, now whether or not they are hostile or not we'll have to determine later, but as far as I'm concerened, as long as it isn't a pirate vessel trying to salvage what it can from a disabled ship, then they would probably help us." The captain tried to reassure Cal that everything was going fine.

"What would we do if it was a pirate vessel?" Cal always had to anlyze the more grim side of a situation.

"I don't know, but I don't think it would involve our survival. We'd just be a burden to them if they just wanted spare parts."

"I see." Those words were the last spoken by Cal before he went off to his cabin. There he would write for a bit in a book that he had started upon recieving this post.

Back in the bridge:
"Can we get anything on this alien ship Leol?" The captain asked one of the crew members.

"No sir, it's completely alien to me. But then again I don't know much about foreign craftsmanship." This was a higher pitched, but slightly raspy voice eminating from one of the non-human members of the crew. This strang alien was one of the two non-humans on board. Leol, as she was called by the crew, was the foreign vessel specialist on board. Their lack of scanning capabilities had use for one of her talents.

"I guess all we can do now is wait." The capatin looked out through the main deck window out into the dark of space; waiting for someone to come by.

Echo.........echo.........echo........

I'm sure this made it to the back of the forum. So now it's back to the front. Maybe someone will join.

I'm hoping more for posts from those who have already joined

OOC: Sorry, I have been a bit busy as of late, with RL issues.
IC:

Allan made his way to the forward console to examine just what kind of spacial phenomenon was causing this disturbance in the vessel's all too sensitive sensor array. What he saw surprised him, not only because it was there at all, but also because of what it was. Asking the AI to identify only yielded more questions, as the ship's signature was unlike any seen in Skapunk space.

It was obviously a vessel of fairly large size, and capable of FTL travel. It was undoubtedly too far-gone now for communication, if that were possible to begin with. While the AI would work on trying to gather and sift through all the information the sensors had picked up, he would have to personally send the message back to Far Reach Command. From there his message would be relayed back to the High Council, and the Military Hegemon.

OCC: Looks like a good story Klonor. If I didn't have a million other RPs going, I would definately check this one out.

OOC: spot reserved

I've been busy this weekend and I still need to write up a post/TG...So Klonor, I'm still in.

With impulse back online, the Rhinaran Dominion Intelligence starship Antarellius was much less of a sitting duck than it had been with only thrusters to rely on. The black ship sailed on toward the Vapor, weapons and shields down to keep from appearing too much as a threat, yet ready to be brought up within a second's notice. As it neared the alien vessel, it slowed down and began low-level scans of the foreign craft.

"Scans indicate the ship is armed, but its weapons systems should pose little threat to us," came the tactical officer's update.

"How are the long-range sensors coming along?" Colonel Khavara asked.

The ops officer shook his head. "Still not picking up much. Until the engineering team can get it repaired, our best bet is to get a starchart from these aliens to figure out where we are."

"Noted," the commandering officer said simply. She then stood up from her chair located at the center of the bridge and clasped her hands behind her back. "Open hailing frequencies with the alien craft."

"Opened," the comms personnel announced.

Khavara watched the viewscreen representation of the Vapor, lifting her chin up slightly as she began to speak, "Greetings. This is the exploration vessel Nova. We received your distress signal and may be able to provide aid. How may we be of service?"

Captain Winters had been in several bad situations before, but this one had been looking pretty grim. Now with the arrival of of this seemingly benevolent ship he had finally started to think that they might survive.

"Sir, we have recieved a trasnmission from the alien ship, they're offering help." Leol sounded just as relieved as I'm sure the captain felt.

"Open a transmission, I'll tell them of our situation."

"Yes sir." After a bit of entering correct frequencies an open line was open.

"Greetings from the Vapor. Our engines have run completely out of fuel. We were on a final stretch to the nearest station when we ran out of fuel. As we began to slow we were forced off course by the gravity of a small moon. On top of being horribly lost, we are slowly floating, without power, into a foreign sector. Obviously being here could pose as a problem. We'd like to ask you to either give us a tow, or spare a few units of a compatible fuel source we'd appreciate the gesture and mention the act of kindness to our superiors. I'm sure there would be a reward."

And with that said he sent the transmission and went back to thinking of the possibility of a hostile vessel, they may just be waiting to find out what was wrong.

The colonel listened to the return transmission and quickly answered it. "What fuel do you require and how much?"

And still the Phobos flew on and on.............and on...............and on.......and on..........and on...........

The captain looks down to the panel by his side to look up the engine types.

"Alright, this is all foreign to me, my first flight and all. But any class of fuel that can run an engine capable of FTL travel. Wait, no, not any fuel. Ours is just barely capable of FTL. So anything that can support us without overpushing the engine should do. I'm going to have to rework these information panels when we get to dock."

Colonel Khavara arched an eyebrow. "How very...descriptive...of him."

"I say we hand them some anti-matter and let them blow themselves up trying to figure out how it works," said a grinning Maek, the tactical officer.

"Oh, yes, and lose any chance of figuring out where in the universe we are while we're at it, why don't we?" the intell traffic analysis officer said with a sarcastic bite.

"What? Just a suggestion," Maek replied, now grinning at the other officer. "I mean, I could have offered to start a quantum singularity up for them... Say, that'd be interesting to watch. Come on, Major, wouldn't you want to see them get sucked into a blackhole?"

Cutting in on their conversation, Khavara said, "Enough. Send the following message to them: We cannot be certain about fuel compatability, as even our most basic ones are highly volatile if not contained properly. We can tow you, but this region of space is as yet uncharted by us, so we would require a starmap indicating the destination."

(OOC: If your ship agrees to this, you can speed up this part of the RP by saying that my ship tractor beams your ship and goes to the indicated coordinates, where we'll pick up on the RP again.)

OOC: Considering that we haven't gotten back to the Milky Way yet I don't think this RP should end

OOC: Okay, I guess I need new participants for this. Who wants in?

OOC: Still waiting for applicants........