NationStates Jolt Archive

Western Reaches of Imitoran Held Hodgania

As teh sun crested the ocean, bathing the uninhabited area of land, technicians and mechanics worked furiously to make sure the final touches were in place. The F-82D Angel, the fourth model in the line of the Angel serries, seemed to dominate the massive hanger, although over 40 of the fighters could fit in the space. It was the only aircraft in the hanger, and rightfully so.

Just over 50 miles away, a small town with a population of 10 settled into a bunker 5 miles from the center of the town. That population included VP Bottom of Fultonia, First Speaker Robert Fortier, Grand Admiral and Secondary Chief Commander John Dodge, and the UMAC CEO Ryan Pinefold. The other six were representatives of Imitora's Armed Forces. They looked on with anticipation of the upcomming event, and many drank some form of hot liquid in order to wake themselves. Dodge and Pinefold chatted about technical matters of lesser importance, passing the time.

Fortier looked down at his watch. It was 7:05am, local time. He leaned over to Bottom, and said quietly, "I think you'll like this". An aide stepped into the bunker, and nodded at Fortier, who nodded back. "Gentelmen, I think the show is about to start."

As he spoke those words, the roar of teh twin plasma generating engines of the F-82D broke the silence, and the Angel shot over the bunker. The pilot banked slightly to the left, and was now on an interception course with the town. The left weapons bay door opened, and a missle slightly longer than your average AGM, and unnoticably wider, fell from the bay, then, at one hundered feet over teh barren ground, ignited, and shot forward. The F-82D banked away, and hit the afterburners, rocketing back over the bunker.

The missle screamed forward, and less than a half mile from the twon, shot straight up. It held this course until it was six hundred feet up, then rotated, flew forward for a half second, then rotated back down so that it was now on a 90 degree fall towards the town. Less than a second later, a bright white light filled the air. A dome expanded rapidly outwards, then seld for a moment, then collapsed in on itself. There was no sound of an explosion, but a massive shockwave ripped through the ground, and shook the bunker furiously. It took five seconds from impact to end. However, the destruction, or lack therof, left behind, was the most impressive part.

The town was gone. Not blasted apart, not ripped to shreads, not a pile of dust, but tottally gone. What was left in its place was a four mile wide, two mile deep crater. Fortier smiled a wry smile, Dodge and Pinefold simply looked on, almost dumbfounded. Pinefold opened his mouth, but Fortier held up his hand to silence him. At this point, a red helicopter, one of Imitora's many MH-60Is flew over the area. After a moment of hovering over the crater, a vocie crackled over the intercom. "Just as expected, no fall out, no EMP disruption, no lasting effects on the area. Test is, by standard, 100% succes."

Fortier nodded, and then smiled at the men, and spoke again. "And how much of the substance was conatained in the war head of the missle?" he asked the tech on the MH-60I, knowing full well the answer.

"Approxamately point five grams, Mr. First Speaker." Fortier nodded, the looked at Bottom.

"What do you think?"

Bottom smiled as he lit a fine cigar imported directly from the southern shores. "So, the question my friends is this, what do you require for the Republic to partake of your technological feast?"

Bottom never trusted the Imitorans as he knew what most in the upper echelons of the intelligence establishment knew, they were cold hearted selfish bastards who would kill anyone if profit was involved. Although Bottom could be a cold character he did have compassion. Most of the time.

Fortier smiled his signature smile, and looked at the crater. "Aproxamately 50 square miles of Aubanian territory." He let bottom digest this fact, then continued. "We currently have 8 super conductors, 3 on planet, five off. Of those 8, only three are being used to produce this technology. We need one more. We are planning on building one more here in Hodgania, and the area best selected protrudes about 50 miles into Aubania. The facility will be built underground, by about 5 miles, and will take about a year to finish. What do you say?"

Bottom grinned wide and blew a puff off his cigar. "YOu want Aubania you got Aubania. We'll have a full fledged military hand over with full regala and bands playing. It would look good for us if you could at any rate. Elections and all coming up. In exchange we would like a full space fleet outfitted with extensive training for our troops. We would also appreciate if you could try to not devestate Coastal City, as we plan to make it Fultonia's seventh province. We got a deal First Speaker?"

Bottom extended his hand.

Foriter was about to extend his hand, when he stopped. He had done deals like this before, many had gotten him into power right now. "Define a full space fleet," he said, removing his own cigar and lighting in.

"As I'm not sure what to expect exactly we would like the equivilent of;

2 Aircaraft Carriers
1 Destroyer
4 Battleships
4 Frigates
2 Search and Rescue
2 Cruisers
1 Minesweeper
16 Submarines
40 Patrol Boats"

"Of course we can always work out the details."

Foriter looked at Dodge, who came over, and spoke into his ear. Fortier spoke back, tne looked at Bottom. "Two frigates, both Northampton class, a Phikiea class patrol ship, an Ormsby class arsenal/assault ship, and four Halcyon class cruisers. Totall cost is in the mid billion range.

What Fortier didn't say is that they would be older ships, all close to their decomisioning. Further, none would haver the newer Antimater modifications

Bottom thought for a moment, "I am adding to your nation the combined income of 1.4 trillion yearly. So, how about three frigates, two phikiea class patrol vessels, two assault ships and sic halycon class cruisers. Oh, and what abotu fighter specs?" A short pause occurs, "and by the way, I understand selling shit tech so other antions don't begin to rival yours in power, but if you could no pieces of crap that'll fall apart on their maiden voyages."

"Imitora has no exoatmospheric fighters. They dont fill a roll in the Imitoran space fleet. Further, I know from intell reports that the best piece of technology you can throw up is nothing compared to us. So how about you take the offer I made and we get the land, or you turn it down, and we take it by force."

Bottom spat in front of Fortier and blew a puff of smoke into the air and through clenched teeth spoke clearly, "Ok, I'll take the deal but I owuld appreciate specs on the ships to be sent to my office as soon as possible."

Fortier nodded. "Sounds good to me. I'll have the specs sent right away, and of course, its always a pleasure doing buisness."

OOC: hurry up and get me those ships dude, I kinda wanna test them out.

"The Commonality, after much deliberation, has decided on the following statement regarding the recent weapons test carried out in Hodgania, observed by several ICEL observation assets.

"The Commonality, with the authority of the Commonality Executive Council and the agreement - in principle - of Citizens House, hereby demands that all material pertaining to this dangerous and disgusting technology be immediately destroyed.

"This is not a request. Imitora has twenty-four hours to make a response. At that point, if no response is forthcoming, a Commonality-wide Referendum following further examination of the situation by the Commonality Executive Council will be held to ascertain the further development of our response to this irresponsible and immature activitiy by the state of Imitora.

"Furthermore, ICEL active observation assets are now moving into position to begin full-scale observation of Imitora. Any movement towards militaristic mobilization will be noted and will be taken into consideration when any further decisions are made. Therefore, we suggest strongly that Imitora take steps to ensure that such miltiaristic mobilization does not take place."

~ High Lord Commodore Ax-randiri Rihad (designated CEC spokesperson for this matter)

Official Response to the Ma Tek gov't.

We dont care what you want. Come near us, and we will open fire on your forces, regardless of threat. We reserve the right to take whatever actiosn we decide nessacery to protect ourselves, including the devlopment of such weapons. That is all.

First Speaker Anna Frateli

Official Response to the Ma Tek gov't.

We dont care what you want. Come near us, and we will open fire on your forces, regardless of threat. We reserve the right to take whatever actiosn we decide nessacery to protect ourselves, including the devlopment of such weapons. That is all.

First Speaker Anna Frateli


"You will be informed of our response to this matter within twenty-four hours. However, I will state this:

"We beg to differ. You have an obligation to the international - or intrastellar, or interstellar, dependant on certain factors - community to ensure that you act in a responsible manner, for the good of all. If you do not act responsibly, then others must."

~ High Lord Commodore Ax-randiri Rihad

* * *

Commonality Executive Council Private Chamber, Imperial Palace, Nenya, Ma-Nenya, Iluvauromeni Commonality of Everlasting Light

"The People are pretty fired up," Aglar commented. As usual, the lag was absolutely infuriating; this meeting had already taken four hours, where it would have taken at least a sixteenth of that time, had Aglar been closer than he was. As it was, he was nearly twenty light-minutes out from Earth; having a member of the Council so far from Earth had its drawbacks, and tthis was one of them.

Especially when he made such maddeningly brief statements like that, Dejure decided.

"We cannot predict the outcome of the Referendum," Danielle beside him agreed. Aglar ux-Rihad and his wife, Danielle, were representing Tyelca Tuo and the Colonies.

"I'm not so sure that we can't," Dejure, representing Ax-turath, began, "if we put the Referendum to the population in such a way that they understand that force is not the solution. But we cannot exclude force from the options they will be given; we cannot be seen to exclude any potential reaction from the very first Decisive Referendum. This is a pilot scheme, remember. If we foul this up, Imperial House and Citizens House will not be impressed: this is supposed to give them a greater say in foreign policy matters via the public. The elected officials especially could make trouble if we do not ensure that all of our bases are covered." Dejure, as usual, wore a grim expression; a smile was, as always, absent from his smooth features.

Ax-randiri Rihad, representing Ma-tek, spoke up softly, "The Empress and the High King have already agreed that we ought to avoid force by whatever means necessary. However, it is clear that we need to act in some way. Suggestions?"

A silence met his words.

"You will be informed of our response to this matter within twenty-four hours. However, I will state this:

"We beg to differ. You have an obligation to the international - or intrastellar, or interstellar, dependant on certain factors - community to ensure that you act in a responsible manner, for the good of all. If you do not act responsibly, then others must."

~ High Lord Commodore Ax-randiri Rihad



The threat was not met well, and it wasn't long before the ICMC home defense unit swung into action. The response would come in 24 hours, they were ready in 10. By the time they had finished the mobilization, over 100,000 ICMC Home Defense Marines had been called up, armed, and told to be ready to go. Airports and seaports were quickly shut down, and the five Megolith defense systems went into action.

Over Imitora, five Ormsby class arsenal assault ships went into defensive manuvers, arming all weapons, including the NovaCloud defensive shield.

A large piece of metal was put into place and astronaut Devers smashed the wine bottle against the hull christening the new Fultonian Space Station Voyager. This project had been in the works for several months and was finally complete. This is where the new space fleet would be based. Under the command of Brigadier General Devers, the all star astronaut and superstar. More importantly this is where testing for the new A-1 Angel would begin, a prototype for a new class of exothermic fighter the Republic was hoping to use for its own defense.

"Well Anora, I can't wait for those ships."

Three satelites were in a position to observe Imitora; none were inside Imitoran controlled space, however. Each of the three reported immediately the movement of forces inside Imitora, raising the IDFI rating of the nation to 'Imminent Threat'. As a result, two of the satelites swing out of position and are automatically replaced with higher-spec units. One of those satelites focuses on the Imitoran ships in orbit with high-intenisty electromagnetic scans; radio transmissions in the region of those vessels suffers annoying levels of static interference as a result. The interference, however,, is not of a high enough intensity to possibly be considered 'jamming'.

On the ground in the Commonality, the response to the mobilization of forces in Imitora was met with immediate hostility. Even the usually placid sections of the society were calling for a stronger response - as Imitora had shown aggression to what was, to all intents and purposes, a perfectly valid (if strongly worded) complaint, the Referendum is met with great anticipation by the public.

The voting is exceptionally close, with nearly two-thirds of the population taking part; the majority, narrowly, opts for a measured but clear response: Imitora is to be blockaded immediately.

* * *

"The Commonality Executive Council announces the intent of the People of the Iluvauromeni Commonality of Everlasting Light.

"The 4 Surface Naval Battlegroup is en route to the Armed Forces Exclusion Zone in the Bay of Turath to prepare to provide covering fire should hostilities erupt when the 42 'Howlers' Air Defence Squadron is diverted to near-Imitoran international airspace to immediately prevent the passage of any naval vessel into Imitoran waters. Furthermore, the 3 Stellar Squadron has been diverted from its patrol in Commonality Near Earth Space and will arrive in neutral, unclaimed space above Imitora shortly. At that point, the blockade will begin. Any military interference by Imitora will be met with a non-lethal response wherever possible. Imitora is expected to make a less hostile, more sympathetic response immediately. As soon as such a response is made and Imitora expresses its willingness to at least talk on the subject that troubles us so, we will withdraw the blockade.

"Any vessel carrying food or medical supplies will be allowed to pass the blockade, following an inspection by ICEL forces. Any ship refusing the inspection will be turned back.

"Good day, ladies and gentlemen. I will not be answering questions at this time."

~ High Lord Commodore Ax-randiri Rihad, speakiing at a brief press conference in Nenya, aired first on INN Solar + partnered networks, then released to all interested press agencies

* * *

Flag Commodore Sujank-Rihad sighed as he ordered the Squadron to make haste to the prescribed co-ordinates. He had little doubt that Imitora would see this as an act of aggression, and he knew his superiors knew that as well; in a way, he wished for the old Empire. The days when those who knew best did what they knew was best - even though they had made mistakes, at least the upside to a partial democracy was that the people couldn't swing the position quite so strongly as this.

If only Imperial House hadn't passed the Referendum Bill - but even so, Sujank-Rihad knew, this situation may very well have developed. Under Si Ling I, the Commonality would have already been at war.

"ETA is seven minutes, sir," reported his helmsman.

The Commodore merely nodded.

"They want to talk?" Frateli asked MoFA Erin Rendelli. Erin just nodded. "Tell them if they want to talk, they have five minutes to talk, after that, we will close down communications, and open fire on any and all Ma-tekian craft, regardless.

Meanwhile, the 5th and 7th Tactical Air Interception Wings were being prepared. Each operated 10 F-82C Angels, and all were being prepared for flight.
----

To whom it concerns,

Your actions are seen as an act of unwarented agression against our nation. You say you want to talk? You have five minutes to call back all your forces. Once this is done, we will accept a delegate to speak on whatever matter you are afraid of. That is all

Minster of Foriegn Affairs Erin Rendelli

"The Commonality feels the need to point out several simple, key facts.

"Firstly: the Commonality has not issued any 'threats' against Imitora. We do not deal in threats; we deal in promises. We promised a response, and a response there has been. However, there has been no threat to the sovereignty of Imitora at this time. Our forces are entirely outside Imitoran controlled territory, and are in neutral territory. Nor have they made any overtly hostile action towards Imitoran controlled territory.

"Secondly: Imitora has acted in a consistently aggressive manner, from their deployment of research towards the development of a weapon of mass destruction to their testing of said weapon, unto their recent unwarranted mobilization of military assets (which was occurring prior to our blockade).

"Thirdly: Commonality forces, I repeat, are not actively seeking to enter Imitoran controlled territory. There has been no act of hostility. We are engaging in an economic blockade, which we do not consider to be a hostile act. Therefore, any hostile response to that blockade - should we be forced to re-establish the full blockade - will be considered an unnecessary act of hostility against the Commonality.

"Fourth: the Commonality does not take kindly to threats. Your aircraft will be required to remain at least 50 kilometres away from our deployed forces at all times; if they enter into the 50km exclusion zone, which, for the duration of the mission is to be considered Commonality-controlled territory for legal and political purposes, they will be fired upon. Your spacecraft will not engage in any scanning activities against the Stellar Squadron deployed to Earth orbit. Nor will any of your assets make any effort to approach any Commonality orbital asset, including any satelite assigned to or associated with the MISAT Joint Civilian/Defense Network. Any such action will be considered an act of hostility against ICEL civilian assets and will be met with legally backed deadly force by the IDF AF, IDF N, or the CSF.

"Also: the blockade will cease to be in effect for now, but our assets will not withdraw until this situation resolves. We feel that Imitora requires a visible reason to co-operate in any way, shape, or form. We will maintain non-hostile posturing for the duration of this situation, and we will not initiate hostilities. However, if Imitora initiates hostilities, we will not hesitate to respond in order to safeguard the lives of our personnel.

"Finally: the Imperial Defense Force Air Force Pocket Cruiser Tyelca Tuo is being diverted to Imitora, carrying High Lord Ambassador Dejure. We request permission for that vessel to enter Imitoran territory to begin negotiations."

~ High Lord Commodore Ax-randiri Rihad

* * *

True to their word, the ICEL warships do not enter Imitoran territory; the ICEL aircraft, when they arrive, halt and hover at about 124,000 feet in a small cluster. Then... they wait; as do the warships above, at a near 90 degree angle to Imitora below - a clear sign that they are not intending to initiate an orbital strike.

[OOC: Critical intel:

If your people have already carried out scans (which is no doubt the case - feel free to assume you carried out checks on the ships with your sensors before the 'request' not to do so was given; that request was to attempt to prevent targeting of our ships by your ships, mostly), then you'd know certain things about our aircraft and ships.

Firstly, they have no armour. Their hulls are almost tissue-thin. The aircraft - which ought to be recognizable as M# interceptors (which have never yet failed to secure air superiority in a conflict, some General would no doubt be whispering to his CinC) and several G# heavy strike bombers - do not interact with the atmosphere, and appear to be somehow generating a false vacuum. Further, they don't have combustion engines, and if it wasn't fairly well known that ICEL uses an EM propulsion system called magnetic impetus, it would be quite difficult to determine how they're moving at all, as they certainly are not built for flying. Not too much is instantly apparent, but background intel on the M#s would be strong: they're exceptionally agile aircraft with some strange limitations; they are known to only carry 'Hornet' air-to-air missiles or KKMs for ground strikes, or non-lethal EF/US missiles, plus high-intensity EF cannons which can interfere with enemy electronics (shielded or unshielded within a certain range; only superconductive circuitry is somewhere near immune, although they would still produce limited interference in such circuits, I've been informed recently). They are known to be severely limited against foes armed with lethal weapons - but they're exceptionally tough to actually hit, as they're capable of limited supersonic maneuvers. If you use combustion-engine-based aircraft, your air force would be strongly advising against a direct confrontation. That's not to say you wouldn't have a chance - I would actually take more losses than I ought to (ask Melkor Unchained about that!) - but your advisors wouldn't be too pleased at the prospect of going up against an air force that has never lost an engagement in modern times.

The warships are a different matter. They are known to have zero hull armour, as their propulsion system is built into the hull. They are known to be exceptionally well shielded against radiation, however, and are known to carry point defence systems of high accuracy and capability. ICEL warships are also known to be strictly long-range engagement ships, with little capability for engagement inside an envelope between 100,000 and 25,000 klicks. Inside 25,000 klicks is the 'beam kill zone'; nobody in their right mind would engage at that distance, as ICEL ships carry high-energy electron cannons capable of ripping through almost any known (to ICEL) armour in seconds (it's dumb to engage real close, so I figured I'd punish any one stupid enough to do so! I further note I've never got to use the E-cannon toys in space yet). At long range, they're known to engage with kinetic weapons, and are known to have a firing velocity that outguns a number of the major space powers. However, their kinetics are generally low-yield, with average yield equivalent to two metric tons of TNT (assuming impact velocity of 2km/s). Of course, that's if the other ship is matching relative velocity. If not, the yield is likely to be higher.

Lastly, ICEL ships are known to be so weak in the armour department that one direct - and even potentially an indirect - hit is deadly; but their capacity to launch missiles at a demonic rate means that the best assault policy (as would be indicated by any military officer with a brain) would be a surprise attack.

Of course, I'm not saying you're going to attack, but if you do decide to, you need the info, eh?

There is more that I'm not saying, but that's stuff you wouldn't know. Yet.

Oh yeah. The scans. The scans would indicate four distinct classes of ship involved in the Stellar Squadron deployed: there are quite small ships, about 70 metres in length, and these are most common. There are fifteen in the Squadron. They're probably designated as destroyers. The next ships up in the scale are no doubt cruisers, about double the mass of the destroyers; there are ten of these. Next up is one supermassive warship, clearly a fairly recognizable Retribution class DSA-I (seen in the past up close by a number of cultures, so more recognizable than the others). This ship outmasses the others by a vast amount; she is nearly two kilometres long and is clearly designed as a command vessel. There are no obvious carriers, but there are four midsized ships - about 400 metres in length and half as wide - which have no obvious purpose, as they don't appear to have any gunports.]

Firstly: You have commited an unwarented act of agression towards us by initiating the blockade. You have absolutely no right whatsoever to be anywhere near our nation, and we are issuing the first ultimatium. You have 24 hours to remove ALL forces, or we will attack anything we veiw as a threat.

Secondly: We will do what we see nessacery to insure the protection of our nation, especially from nations like yours.

Thirdly: Your ships present a threat to both us and anyone of foreign nationality in our nation. We will act in anyway we feel nessacery to protect our intrests. Even if that does mean destroying your forces.

Fourth: We do not take kindly to threats either. You will not tell us what to do, and our fighters will go where they God damned well please. If your forces are near our nation, our fighters will move to intercept them, and destroy them. You are the agressor here, not us. Our craft will scan when and what they damned well please, in order to insure our defence.

Fifth: Again, you have 24 hours to remove all forces from the waters outside Imitora as well as the space above it.

Finally, bring your ambasador if you wish, however, if, at any time we feel threatend, we will open fire on your forces. That is all

First Speaker Anna Frateli

_____

True to her words, the F-82Cs left the ground, lofting up to the skies like Angels. With the active cammofaluge, they were invisable to the naked eye, and with the Athena Block 5, invisable to 98% of all radars. They moved towards the coast, where they began flying a holding pattern along the beaches.

The Megolith systems were not ordered to stand down, and the 100,000 Marines of the home defence unit stayed alert and armed.

[OOC: Mmmkay. As there are varying levels of sophistry involved with differing RADAR systems, you can't just say '98%' invisible to RADAR. What you can say is that they have a really really small RCS, which makes them tough to detect via conventional RADAR, and requires great vigilance to detect with more sophisticated systems (such as backscatter RADAR).

But anyhow, ICEL doesn't use RADAR as such - we use a system that I tend to call radio frequency blanketing (RFB), so it really doesn't matter. If your aircraft have mass, then as soon as they come within a certain range of our aircraft, they will be detected, as they will disturb the 'blanket' - or white noise, if you like - of the radio waves. Any small disturbance is noted, logged, and investigated by orbital assets using laser detection. Of course, you can't avoid being detected by a laser, because you can't make it pass right through you. That's just... well, impossible.

This might sound like godmoding or something, but really, it's not. It's just that I've thought about the stealth problem and applied a modern solution; the RAF use the RFB system and have used it to succesfully detect stealth aircraft above Britain in testing. Pretty cool, huh?]

IC:

"The Commonality has committed no illegal acts nor have we committed any act of aggression. By detonating a weapon of mass destruction designed to kill, you have committed an act of aggression against the entire planet.

"If you open fire on our forces in unclaimed, neutral territory, we will be forced to reconsider our position entirely. Furthermore, if you open fire on the vessel conveying our Ambassador, we will have no choice but to consider that an act of open warfare, and would be forced to activate defensive alliances to ensure swift resolution of the conflict. We urge Imitora to act rationally.

"The Tyelca Tuo will arrive in Imitoran airspace in two hours."

~ High Lord Commodore Ax-randiri Rihad

OOC: Thats cool, for the most part, when it comes to active stealthing systems, I've just used satalites that track their wake. Also, propullsion of the fighters is a mixed pulsedet/plasma pulse system.

IC:

Very well. The ship will of course be escorted by Imitoran aircraft, and will be fired upon only if it commits any acts of outward agression.

The Five Kingdoms would like to take this opportunity to inform the ICEL that Imitora is a member of the Greater Prussian Empire, and therefore is under the protection of the Metus Alliance. Despite our less-than-sterling previous relations with the ICEL, I believe it is well within our mutual best interests to avoid another conflict, as that is very likely to happen should the ICEL open fire on Imitora. That being said, both sides have rather hastily taken to arms, and a diplomatic discourse is probably the best situation, especially for the citizens of Imitora. If talks have been intitated, we would like to be a part of them. If not, they need to be.

What's the count, here?

--Five Kingdoms Foreign Minister Jay Reaven

OOC: Thats cool, for the most part, when it comes to active stealthing systems, I've just used satalites that track their wake. Also, propullsion of the fighters is a mixed pulsedet/plasma pulse system.

IC:

Very well. The ship will of course be escorted by Imitoran aircraft, and will be fired upon only if it commits any acts of outward agression.

[OOC: Noted and logged. :)]

IC:

"Excellent."

~ High Lord Commodore Ax-randiri Rihad

* * *

"Slow to one hundredth cruising speed, .7 burn, and descend to ten thousand feet," she ordered quietly. She did not like to bark orders; it was self-defeating. The crew paid more attention when she spoke quietly - they had to.

She drummed her fingers on the armrest as the ship decellerated smoothly but rapidly - although not as fast as it could. She felt a faint vibration as stray particles bounced off of the hull, causing minor disturbances in the propulsive MI fields.

She considered the way in which Iluvauromeni aircraft had once moved through the air, with proper wings and the requirement of lift, mimicking the birds. It was ironic that, even though the new breed of aircraft did not require wings (and in many cases did not have them), they were still, in essence, mimicking the birds. For it was by the very method of navigation that the birds used that the ship now flew, in essence: the electromagnetic field lines that the birds detected and followed when migrating were detected and sensed along the very same lines by the ship, which then utilized its own MI field to 'grip' the field lines and traverse them. It was intriguing that one still had to copy birds in order to fly, even if the similarity was now an indirect one.

She tore herself away from such intriguing (but irrelevant) thoughts as her SensOps officer informed her that she was now seeing a number of aircraft on her screens; the triangulation between several different detection systems in orbit and on the ground was providing very low resolution silhouettes, possibly aircraft. The operative word was 'possibly'. She considered ordering a passive targeting lock, but decided against; there was no need to track the targets at this time, anyway. If they were the escorts, they would announce themselves soon enough.

She had, however, ordered the PDEF grid active. She did not expect the Imitorans to break their word, as such, but she was also well aware that it did not require dishonesty to start a conflict; an error in judgement could do the same.

However, the Tyelca Tuo's direct-fire gunports remain sealed shut - not just closed, but 'sealed', the technical term used to essentially say that the door mechanisms were not even active. It would take no longer to open the gunports whether they were sealed or just shut, however: the gesture is entirely symbolic.

"ETA to Imitoran airspace: four minutes," reported her helmsman.

"Acknowledged," she noted softly.

* * *

The Five Kingdoms would like to take this opportunity to inform the ICEL that Imitora is a member of the Greater Prussian Empire, and therefore is under the protection of the Metus Alliance. Despite our less-than-sterling previous relations with the ICEL, I believe it is well within our mutual best interests to avoid another conflict, as that is very likely to happen should the ICEL open fire on Imitora. That being said, both sides have rather hastily taken to arms, and a diplomatic discourse is probably the best situation, especially for the citizens of Imitora. If talks have been intitated, we would like to be a part of them. If not, they need to be.

What's the count, here?

--Five Kingdoms Foreign Minister Jay Reaven

"Naturally, the Commonality has no interest in starting a war nor any intent to do so. Any emphasis placed on the word 'starting' is purely intentional."

~ High Lord Ambassador Dejure

"Naturally, the Commonality has no interest in starting a war nor any intent to do so. Any emphasis placed on the word 'starting' is purely intentional."

~ High Lord Ambassador Dejure


"Well, if you're not interested in starting a war, instituting a blockade probably isn't the best way to display your intent. Your reply, while vaguely reassuring, does not exactly answer my question; but granted we're more expecting a response from Imitora on the matter of talks. Given our interest in maintaining favorable relations with the Greater Prussian Empire, and in the name of stability and progress for the Metus alliance, we request to send a delegate to any such talks, even if only to observe."

--Jay Reaven

-Official Ratheian Government Statement-

I have a question for the Hodganian leader. The weapons test seemed to be of nuclear capacity, and we would like to know the structure of the weapon and/or the reaction process. This is assuming that it requires plutonium for power.

Thank you.

President of Ratheia
Vladimir Zaitsev

The weapon is not of nuclear capacity. Nuclear, is in our opinion, quite passé. However, in time, the power and contents of the weapon will be released.

"Since Imitora is obviously more interested in answering pointless questions about their weaponry than opening dialogue with the Five Kingdoms on the matter, our patience with the situation is rapidly waning. I am aware of growing distates within the Greater Prussian Empire for Metus, and in case it wasn't already obvious, this is an attempt on our behalf to mend these faults and show our solidarity to would-be foes such as the ICEL. If Imitora does not wish to acknowledge our desire to fix the situation, I do not see how Metus can be accused of negligence in this regard.

Allow me to put it bluntly: Imitora, if you desire Metus aid you will do well to respond to my queries. What's more important to you? Explaining the nature of your weaponry to uninvolved third parties, or protecting your people?"

--Jay Reaven

OOC: I'm waiting for his f*cking ship to land

IC:

We will do well to protect ourselves in any way we see nessacery. If you want to be at the talks, feel free, we have no care on the matter. This is about the defense of Imitora, and nothing else. If you wish to send a representative, go ahead.

OOC: I'm waiting for his f*cking ship to land

IC:

We will do well to protect ourselves in any way we see nessacery. If you want to be at the talks, feel free, we have no care on the matter. This is about the defense of Imitora, and nothing else. If you wish to send a representative, go ahead.

[OOC: Hmm. I thought that RPing out the arrival in Imitoran airspace, then a tense escort to the site of the negotiations would be quite fun - with lots of oppurtunities for branching out into different or new directions possible. Like, a single pilot could make an error, resulting in an attack... Would the Tyelca Tuo respond? Would it not? And such.

But okay, hurrying things along...]

IC:

The 'pocket cruiser' - probably so named because the ship is quite obviously designed to be power-in-a-compact-package - descended to the ground with uncharacteristic calm sluggishness. Usually ICEL vessels roar to the ground at high speed, halting only in the last several hundred feet, but such an aggressive landing - although in fact simply the fastest and most efficient landing method for the ICEL VTOL ships - is deemed to be a very bad idea, considering the circumstances.

The hermetic seals clamped to the ground, and a single solitary figure emerges from the 'hatch' - which, curiously, used to be a bland segment of the hull. Now the 'hatch', having dissolved down into a near-liquid state, has flowed out onto the ground, providing a walkway from the dark opening into the ship.

The solitary figure actually has three guards with him, which becomes obvious when they shimmer into existance around him, like mirages come to life. They didn't just appear out of thin air, though; there is the sense that they were always there, and perhaps the Imitorans are aware of the nature* of their Nenyan guests.

Each guard, perhaps somewhat ominously, carries a bulky-looking weapon in their arms. It does not look particuarly non-lethal, contrary to what is likely expected. Small, cylindrical objects rest on their black belts, and their armour bears the image of three stars around a sword overlayed against a shield, with a crown above the shield - which points out that these are members of the elite Imperial Palace Guard, who are known to not actually be soldiers, but highly trained bodyguards for high ranking ICEL officials.

They are clearly highly disciplined officers, for they do not flinch or blink at the bright light of the Sun washing over their faces as they exit.

[OOC: Feel free to skip from here to wherever the meeting is being held in your next post, Imitora.


* Nenyans have a capability known as 'Drawing the Shadows'. This utilizes their natural empathic abilities to 'convince' the people around them that they are not present at all. Technology used by organics does not help to find them in this situation, however, as any machine with an operator is also under the effect of the person in question within a certain range. Empathic or telepathic individuals, depending on their ability level and training, may be able to detect the activity or even block it. 'Mundanes' cannot without the aid of technology. However, if one happens to accidentally look directly at a Nenyan who is Drawing the Shadows, they immediately become visible. Direct, focused attention almost always shatters the illusion. Indeed, some Nenyans have no control over this ability and remain unseen to Human eyes their entire lives; these are known as The Afflicted. In Nenyan civilian culture, this ability is generally considered a curse and not an advantage; most Nenyans never learn to master the ability, and often vanish from the view of Human eyes during times of heightened emotional state. Very few learn to actively direct the ability; perhaps as few as 0.5% of the Nenyan population. Although this seems to give Nenyans an edge in military matters, it does not, as it takes tremendous concentration for the average Nenyan who has gained mastery of the ability. About 1% of those who gain mastery can actually use the ability in a meaningful manner, and most of those work in the ICEL intelligence agencies or are recruited to the IPG (Imperial Palace Guard) from the IDSF (Imperial Defence Special Forces).

It ought to be noted that Nenyans are not only empathic; some 40% of the Nenyan population have telepathic abilities to some degree (usually weaker in sending than receiving, and never with any ability to alter the thought patterns of others), and some 3% are weak telekinetics. About 25% of that 3% are strong telekinetics, making telekinetic abilities by far the rarest of the Three Talents. Some Humans are also empathic or telepathic in the Commonality, owing to interbreeding between Nenyans and Humans several generations back; such interbreeding is illegal in the modern Commonality.]

OOC: Well, I guess I'm SOL, cuz I dont have, nor use, any of those things like empaths and what not.

IC:

They were met with a rather intresting group. For the most part, the ISS did its job of protecting the First Speaker, but, in war time situations, that fell on the ICMC's elite Presidential Guard. Their dull green armor reflected no light, and their weapons, obviously meant to kill, were held at the ready. They escorted the group across the open runway to a black 760iL modified stretch, and from there they were off.

OOC1: The situation of the ICMC, and the Military as a whole, is intresting. While the regular units are space dropped, Halo 2 tech, the SF units (save for the Presidential Guard) are slightly post modern, say 2010. Hmm.

IC:

The limmo pulled up, and the Marines, who had followed in HMMWVs, exited, and escorted the group into a large building, and up to the 15th floor. They led them down a hall, and into a sizable confrence room. Already sitting at the table was First Speaker Frateli. She looked Rihad over and nodded. "Your men aren't nessacery," she said, waving a hand. The Marines stepped back, and waited for his gaurds to depart. As soon as they did, the Marines would too.

OOC: Well, I guess I'm SOL, cuz I dont have, nor use, any of those things like empaths and what not.

IC:

They were met with a rather intresting group. For the most part, the ISS did its job of protecting the First Speaker, but, in war time situations, that fell on the ICMC's elite Presidential Guard. Their dull green armor reflected no light, and their weapons, obviously meant to kill, were held at the ready. They escorted the group across the open runway to a black 760iL modified stretch, and from there they were off.

OOC1: The situation of the ICMC, and the Military as a whole, is intresting. While the regular units are space dropped, Halo 2 tech, the SF units (save for the Presidential Guard) are slightly post modern, say 2010. Hmm.

IC:

The limmo pulled up, and the Marines, who had followed in HMMWVs, exited, and escorted the group into a large building, and up to the 15th floor. They led them down a hall, and into a sizable confrence room. Already sitting at the table was First Speaker Frateli. She looked Rihad over and nodded. "Your men aren't nessacery," she said, waving a hand. The Marines stepped back, and waited for his gaurds to depart. As soon as they did, the Marines would too.

[OOC: Although High Lord Commodore Ax-randiri Rihad was the spokesperson for the Council on this matter, High Lord Ambassador Dejure is better equipped than Ax-randiri (a military man) to handle face-to-face negotiations, and so he was dispatched (see earlier post).]

Dejure looked to his guards, one of whom shakes his head slightly. It's a very slight movement. "I'm afraid they insist on saying," he replied quietly, with no smile whatsoever in his words, in his eyes, or on his face. The man is bland, his voice dull, boring, flat, monotone. He's not a passionate man - or, at least, if he is, he sure isn't showing it at the moment.

He seems faintly bored with everything, in fact.

"Our regulations mean that I do not tell them to leave. They tell me they are staying, they stay." He shrugs slightly. "It is a matter of jurisdiction."

Dejure does not sit. Yet.

"Fine," Frateli said. She did not rise to shake his hand, nor did she bow her head in any sort of way. The Marines, fiercely loyal, relunctantly left. They would rather stayy, but, as the regulations of the ICMC, and the first line of the ICMC oath demanded, they departed.

Frateli leand over, and pulled out a legal sized pad, and a pen, she jotted down a few notes at the top of the page, and waved to one of the many seats in the confrence room. She poped her neck twice, and then, reclined confidently in her chair. "So what seems to be the problem, Ambasador?"

OOC: Sorry for the mix up, I'm slightly hung over, and looked for the first name I could see.

[OOC: Heh. No problem - we all make mistakes. I make about thirty per post, some days! (That's why if you look at a number of my posts, you'll see most of them are edited at some point or another... ;))]

IC:

The High Lord Ambassador still does not sit, perhaps because he has not been invited to do so. He places both hands behind his back and stands quite formally before replying, "I trust my guards do not offend you. They would not make a move unless I was directly threatened, I assure you; they are very highly trained, so as not to make mistakes. As you have your traditions, we have ours; one of those is that we do not trust officials to know when they need guarding and when they do not."

He shrugs slightly; another man might smile just a little, considering his words. He seems remarkably amiable and friendly, even if you take into account his bland personality, considering that ICEL military assets are staged just outside Imitoran territory and a war could potentially erupt if either side makes a wrong move. "I would much rather move freely without guards, but with great responsibility comes great sacrifice."

He pauses a moment before changing tack. "The Commonality is expressing its displeasure at your development of a new, dangerous weapon. We do not see any requirement for the development of weapons of mass destruction, although it could be claimed that some of our weapons are in fact Ws of MD. To make the distinction more clear: we consider a weapon of mass destruction to be any weapon that was designed to destroy a large number of lives in a single stroke. Your weapon is designed to do just that. It may be a more humane method than a nuclear bomb, but we make no distinction between the two weapons. In essence, you have potentially begun an arms race and could even destabilize your own region. We have an obligation, I'm sure you see, to attempt to rectify the situation."

He doesn't pause, although that rather long statement and the next are clearly seperated. His voice lowers a little.

"We are prepared to drop the matter, if you are willing to ensure that this weapon is not sold to other states. I'm sure you can see our point: if it is for your defence only, all well and good: that is none of our business. But if you are selling it on, you are a destabilizing influence. That means that your actions can have repurcussions which could affect a great many lives. It is highly unlikely that this weapon could be used to threaten our security, but were we to care any less due to that, we would be heartless and, I must say, highly immoral.

"As a member of the solar community, and, in some ways, the galactic community, we have a responsibility to aid our fellow Sentients wherever possible. This is such aid, although that may not be clear to you. - And although the blockade may have seemed extreme, it is not - as we have no trade relations with you, we have no other method of open, active protest. And you must admit..."

He shrugs slightly...

"It certainly got your attention."

[OOC:

Intelligence report, High Lord Ambassador Dejure

* birthplace unknown; Nenyan pureblood; known to be an ardent supporter of the current ICEL government, and a close personal friend of Empress the Supreme Commander Rialla ux-Rihad II;
* known in the Commonality and beyond for never smiling or showing very much emotion;
* former 1st Ambassador of the Commonality, promoted to Head of State for Ma-tek (title: High Lord Ambassador) following the Great Purge earlier this year and the 'resignation' of the former High Lord of Ma-tek, the treacherous High Lord Aquinall;
* known to write some of Rialla ux-Rihad's public statements, diplomatic communiques; is believed to be responsible for the careful negotiation with the Triumvirate of Yut following the so-called Major Schism caused by the overbearing nature of a communique from the Commonality (at that time the Empire of the Eternal Dawn) to the Triumvirate nations, as well as a number of conflict resolutions between foreign warring powers;
* likely expected to be anti-Imitoran due to the probable loss of family members during the War of Survival against Melkor Unchained, due to Imitoran links to Metus;
* known to be a capable diplomat, willing to yield and compromise but known to be a tough negotiator unwilling to move on core issues; known for 'getting the job done', High Lord Ambassador Dejure lead the now-named Commonality Diplomatic Corps through two seperate regimes - the Ma-tek Commonwealth (succesfully staving off open warfare with neighbouring Ax-turath on at least four seperate occasions), a brutal dictatorship; the Empire of the Eternal Dawn, a transitional psuedo-democracy]

"Well, if you're not interested in starting a war, instituting a blockade probably isn't the best way to display your intent. Your reply, while vaguely reassuring, does not exactly answer my question; but granted we're more expecting a response from Imitora on the matter of talks. Given our interest in maintaining favorable relations with the Greater Prussian Empire, and in the name of stability and progress for the Metus alliance, we request to send a delegate to any such talks, even if only to observe."

--Jay Reaven

"We note that the blockade was purely a method of garnering the attention of Imitora, and highlighting the true severity of the situation. Without any direct economic ties to Imitora, our options were severely limited as far as response goes.

"If Imitora wishes it, we will not object to a Metus representative at the talks, so long as they make no overt effort to interfere with the Imitoran response."

~ High Lord Commodore Ax-randiri Rihad

Frateli supressed a chuckle. Someone has seen Spiderman to much she thought. But, like Machiavelli had said, should neother of both options be present, tis better to be feared than loved. The antimatter weapons had certainly scared some people, and it got the job done.

"While I personally find it quite intresting that you would think we would sell something like this on an open market, where it could be used against us, I can see your basic concern. Yes, this weapon is a WMD," and an enviromentaly freindly one, she didnt add, "and yes, it is designed to kill many people in one move. However, if you check your history, Imitora has only acted in agression once in recent times, and develops these weapons to protect ourselves. If we let it known that the weapon detonated had only a few grams of material, was the size of a small cruise missle, and that five can be carried by one fighter, I'm sure people would step back before thinking they can tell us what to do." Including you, she again didn't add.

"So, as you can see, your actions are unwarented, and you have nothing to fear, lest you attack us, or threaten us in anyway. And I might add, you should be careful of actions you take in the future. Your ships may have become target practice for those missiles, as I have no qualms nor hinderances of using them on a large scale against anyone who threatens my people."

Frateli supressed a chuckle. Someone has seen Spiderman to much she thought. But, like Machiavelli had said, should neother of both options be present, tis better to be feared than loved. The antimatter weapons had certainly scared some people, and it got the job done.

"While I personally find it quite intresting that you would think we would sell something like this on an open market, where it could be used against us, I can see your basic concern. Yes, this weapon is a WMD," and an enviromentaly freindly one, she didnt add, "and yes, it is designed to kill many people in one move. However, if you check your history, Imitora has only acted in agression once in recent times, and develops these weapons to protect ourselves. If we let it known that the weapon detonated had only a few grams of material, was the size of a small cruise missle, and that five can be carried by one fighter, I'm sure people would step back before thinking they can tell us what to do." Including you, she again didn't add.

"So, as you can see, your actions are unwarented, and you have nothing to fear, lest you attack us, or threaten us in anyway. And I might add, you should be careful of actions you take in the future. Your ships may have become target practice for those missiles, as I have no qualms nor hinderances of using them on a large scale against anyone who threatens my people."

Dejure waves a hand dismissively. "Your threats are of no consequence to the Commonality. Irrelevant, in fact. Were we of a mind to conquer you, we would act to do so, whether you had such a weapon or not. We are not conquerers," anymore, he added silently.

"However, to borrow a quote from someone who's name I do not recall, the past does not prove the future. A new regime may claim power tomorrow, and use these weapons on a grand scale to conquer its neighbours. You do not, and cannot, know the future. I have personally seen states use nuclear arms on a large scale when they were virtually entirely pacifist before; yet provocation can do odd things to the mind. One day a ship, the next day a village, then a city - why not destroy a whole country, should it threaten you? What consequence a million lives, a billion, an entire species, compared to your own existance? Hm?

"However, we have no interest in policing your own internal affairs. If you wish to continue to develop this weapon, that is your business. We would much prefer it destroyed - but perhaps that is too much to ask. But do not ask us not to interfere, should you use it to aggressively attack your neighbours. That would be our business as much as anyone's.

"No, what we ask is that you agree to not place this weapon in the hands of others; and, to be frank, milady, if you were listening to my words, you would know this."

[OOC: Spiderman?

Oh. "With great power comes great responsibility," was the line in Spiderman, stolen from about a thousand 'original' works by philosophers down the years. Dejure said "With great responsibility comes great sacrifice," which is a little different. :p]

"And if you had been listening to me, you would have heard me say we wouldn't. We have no reason to sell them to anyone. If you cant understand that, then maybe you should step down from your position. Its a simple logical process."

[OOC: I'm not going to bother with an arrival post on account of writers block [coupled with a liberal application of alcohol], so just asume my man was already there. I cleared it with Imitora, so it should be kosher.]

Zamir Malik, the tall Haradrim man that had until now been uncharacteristically silent, unfolded his arms and grunted audibly to draw the delegates attention to him as he spoke. "I fail to see how exactly it is within the pervue of the ICEL to dictate policy to others. Foreign policy based on universal altrusim is the worst mistake any state can make, for errors that proceed out of a spirit of benevolence are always the worst. If you genuinely wish to make a dent in the sale and trade of WMD on this world or any other, why would you start with Imitora? The Five Kingdoms, as I'm sure you are aware, would be more than happy to take another shot at destroying your nation, and meddling in the affiars of Metus is a perfect means to this end. And this time you wouldn't enjoy the treachery of the Triumvirate Fleets to quell the threat."

He shook his head. "If you really want to do something about this 'problem,' I'd suggest making an example of someone else. Blockading a nation is an act of war, Lord Dejure: as anyone outside of the ICEL who's involved in the business of foreign policy and they will tell you this. Your actions have been hasty and unfounded; and I feel that this attempt at diplomacy is a weak attempt to foster the illusion that you're generally interested in maintaining peace. I'd suggest exerting your influence somewhere else."

"And yet again, they would fail," Dejure notes quite calmly, turning his gaze to Zamir Malik for only a moment. It seems that that was the only part of his comments that was worth replying to immediately, for he responds to the Imitoran: "You say you have no intent to sell them. Yet I see no proof of such; but I am sure that, given time, our intelligence could provide evidence to the contrary. You will justify it by saying that you need to cover your costs; that the development of the weapon was more expensive than expected, so who can blame you for selling it on? These things will you say, as those who have gone before you have said. We are not deceived by your lies or your feeble attempts to make right what you have done with pretty words and empty statements of the requirement to defend your shores.

"If, truly, this weapon is a deterrent - then clearly it is useless. Destroy it. It is not deterring us, hm?"

Dejure pauses to scratch the tip of his nose nonchalantly. He returns his gaze to Malik, noting quietly, "A blockade can only be an act of war if the sovereignty of the blockaded state is squarely mitigated. As we did not breach Imitoran territorial waters, or Imitoran airspace, there has been no breach of sovereignty. Furthermore, the blockade never turned back a single ship, as it was never in effect; the full force of the blockade did not arrive before these talks began. There was thusly no need to carry out the full blockade. Nor would the blockade have cut off vital supplies such as food and medicine, meaning that there would have been no Imitoran deaths by our hands whatsoever. Hence: no threat to the People of Imitora - except that of their aggressive government, which is not our responsibility at this time as we have no agreement with the Imitoran People - and so no act of war. Imitora, however, has mobilized a large military force and has postured aggressively in response to our advances. It is actually rather patient of us not to respond with aggression in kind. - And treachery? What treachery, pray tell? We were an ally of the Triumvirate at the time, an ally under attack without due cause and without due attempts at a peace protest. You fired the first shot; therefore, you began that war; and all consequences thereof rest in your hands and your hands alone. Excuses are excuses. Your incompetence, your withdrawal from combat - and the blood of fifty million lives on your hands."

He shrugs. "Of course, that's a moot point, and utterly irrelevant under the circumstances. However, I do not feel it is appropriate for Metus to offer its opinion regarding ICEL 'aggression', considering Metus' track record. We still remember Rukemia."

Dejure rubs his hands together slowly, thoughtfully.

"But we can offer a solution to this situation that would please us greatly... and perhaps allow Imitora to keep its armaments - so long as it does not use them aggressively against civilian populations, or sell them. As Imitora has already claimed it has intention of selling this new, dangerous weapon, and it has already claimed it would only use them as a response to an open threat to its population (ignoring the fact that Imitora actively threatened our vessels with that very weapon, despite the lack of threat to its population), we see no reason why the offer we stand to make could not resolve the situation to the liking of all."

He shrugs again, just a little. "Except the Five Kingdoms, probably. But I don't think they're ever happy, to be honest. Utterly dysphoric bunch."

Malik chuckles. "Ah, how refreshingly smug of you," he says lightly, his eyes gleaming with challenge. "I must say your optimisim is... heartening to say the least. Very much so. At any rate my point stands: regardless of your intent, the remaining niety-nine point nine percent of the world population considers a blockade--or in your case a pitiful attempt thereof--an act of war, regardless if such is your intent or not. The dispatch of military vessels to an aggressive position encroaching on their sovereign territory--whether you actually breach it or not--is tantamount to having an irritating sibling that sticks his finger an inch from your eye and says 'I'm not touching you!'"

He allows this analogy to sink in for a moment before crossing his arms again. "I'm not sure if you've ever been in that position, Lord Dejure, but nine times out of ten, the offending sibling gets smacked. It's not a question of intent, it's a question of disposition. Imitora cannot afford to make assumptions that this 'isn't an act of war,' like you claim it is. Granted, having reviewed the situation, they did admittedly mobilize rather hastily, and this military dispatch on your part did appear to be largely in response to this. I have no defense for this, and I'll admit that in all probability Imitora acted a bit hastily, unless they know something that we don't."

Malik chuckles. "Ah, how refreshingly smug of you," he says lightly, his eyes gleaming with challenge. "I must say your optimisim is... heartening to say the least. Very much so. At any rate my point stands: regardless of your intent, the remaining niety-nine point nine percent of the world population considers a blockade--or in your case a pitiful attempt thereof--an act of war, regardless if such is your intent or not. The dispatch of military vessels to an aggressive position encroaching on their sovereign territory--whether you actually breach it or not--is tantamount to having an irritating sibling that sticks his finger an inch from your eye and says 'I'm not touching you!'"

He allows this analogy to sink in for a moment before crossing his arms again. "I'm not sure if you've ever been in that position, Lord Dejure, but nine times out of ten, the offending sibling gets smacked. It's not a question of intent, it's a question of disposition. Imitora cannot afford to make assumptions that this 'isn't an act of war,' like you claim it is. Granted, having reviewed the situation, they did admittedly mobilize rather hastily, and this military dispatch on your part did appear to be largely in response to this. I have no defense for this, and I'll admit that in all probability Imitora acted a bit hastily, unless they know something that we don't."

Dejure notes quite calmly, gently, and matter-of-factly, "I do not see ninety-nine point nine percent of the world around this table, good sir. Their lack of interference, as far as we are concerned, is a de facto acceptance of the validity of ICEL policy regarding this matter. - And you are correct. Our response was largely due to the response of Imitora; we are a democracy, and the public demanded a strong response in the face of adversity."

He lifts his hands for a moment, in a 'what else could we do?' gesture.

"However, your point remains valid. It could be perceived as an aggressive reaction, yes. But as there was no aggressive intent, and no Imitoran assets were actually threatened by ICEL military assets, there has been no act of warfare."

He raises his eyebrows slightly, the closest he ever comes to a smile. "And I suppose it could be argued that Imitora committed an act of war by detonating a weapon of such magnitude in the first place - an act of war against all sentient life. Posturing is posturing. By your very words, their action is no different to that child placing its finger in front of the eye of another child. Is it any surprise that Imitora was almost 'smacked', to use your words?"

Malik flashes a shit eating grin. "But the past doesn't dictate the future."

Dejure raises an eyebrow. He states simply, "In what reality is that?"

"Yours, apparently," answered the Southron without missing a beat. "You said this yourself not but five minutes ago. I can't say I agree with it either, but so long as we're in the habit of turning our words against one another..." he shrugs vaguely. "Night as well point it out."

The Office of First Speaker,
It is our understanding that a large and aggressive force has made its way near your territories in response to the test that my nation was so thankfully involved in. Understanding that your government is moving away from many of it's more authoritarian tendencies adn into an era of capitalist liberty we urge caution and patience, a show of force at this time would not be prudent in our view. It is not our place to dictate foriegn policy and if war should occur we will help thy people in any way possible. We hope our friendship is long lasting and porvides security to both of our peoples.

In the interest of friendship and understanding,
President Jefferson

"Yours, apparently," answered the Southron without missing a beat. "You said this yourself not but five minutes ago. I can't say I agree with it either, but so long as we're in the habit of turning our words against one another..." he shrugs vaguely. "Night as well point it out."

The Nenyan responds with a trace of amusement in his voice, "I do believe I said that the past does not prove the future. Meaning that past experience does not necessarily relate to a similar situation occurring in the present." He shrugs. "I suppose I may have mispoken."

"Gentlemen!" Anna interupted the two. "If you want to have a school yard pissing match, then please, take it outside, I just had the carpet shampooed. And if you want to compare size, I'm positive that some of the whores in the Southern Province will more than willingly compare them for you."

Now that she had their attention, she spoke clear and concise words. "Dejure, I have told you that we have no intent to sell these weapons. You say that your intell group can find otherwise? I dare them to find it. These weapons are for deternce, and if you want us to detere you, then I'll authorize the use of them on your ships if you so desire. And 99.9% of the world isn't at this table, but right now, two out of three say that this blockade is an act of war. I can't think of anyone who would agree with you in this matter, save for your few allies. So, for the last time, we will not sell these weapons to any other nation, and they will only be used for deterence. Now then, please remove your ships, satalites, and space craft away from our territory."

Dejure, utterly dispassionate and unmoved previously by anything said, scowls openly. Anger flashes in those vivid amber eyes for just a moment, but both the scowl and the anger is replaced by the same calm, dispassionate and almost blank expression within a heartbeat. Softly - just from speaking more quietly than before, the entire mood of his voice shifts into a more dangerous, deadly tone - he replies, "Irrelevant. I tire of your threats. You will cease threatening us immediately, or we will cease being so... polite."

His guards shift footing subtly, shifting their balance to a more combat-ready position, clearly sensing the new tension in their Ambassador.

"You will consider this: we suggest a treaty limiting the number of warheads produced to a deterrent level. Put simply, we see no reason to trust the word of Imitora on this matter. We are being exceptionally understanding; if you view our past history, you will see that in previous situations, we have not been so understanding. Be thankful that the Empress Rialla ux-Rihad II sits on the throne, and not Si Ling I. He would never have stood for such disobediance.

"Imitora claims to be changing. I see no such evidence of change. You are pig-headed, stubborn, unwilling to consider the concerns of your fellow nations. Well, prove that Imitora has changed; prove that you have no intent to conquer your neighbours with your newfound strength - or your words are nothing but hot air. And considering that you tested this weapon in occupied territory, I hardly think you can dispute my words.

"To be perfectly clear: we are not giving you a choice. Our forces will not withdraw, as they are not engaged in any illegal activity. They are not engaged in a blockade; they are not breaching your borders; and any attack on them by you will be considered an illegal act in direct contravention to international law. You will consider this matter thoroughly - for we ask you to do nothing we would not do ourselves."

"And you will consider this. We will sign no treaty, we will not submit to the will of a pompous, overbearing ass of a nation, and we will not do what you say. You will leave any area near Imitoran territories, you will elave my office, and you will tell your emperor she can kiss my ass. Your right, you pos no threat to Imitora, you are only here because you fear us. Now, leave, or I will remove you by force."

All is calm until the insult to the Empress. And then only Dejure saves the woman from instant death; he raises his hand to the guards, aware of their movement before they make it: for they were raising their wrist-mounted pulse blasters, prepared to reduce the internal organs of the woman to slag for such a remark. Trained to be patriotic to a fault (and indeed, they personally know the Empress, for they have guarded her), the Imperial Palace Guard aren't too keen on anyone who rubbishes their traditions in that manner.

Dejure, striving to remain calm himself, shrugs. "The ships will stay until a decision is made by the Iluvauromeni People," and with that, he swivels on his heel and begins the journey back to his ship.

He pauses for a moment at the door to address the Five Kingdoms representative: "The Commonality is yet again glad of a chance to interact with our old friends."

And then he is gone.

* * *

But he is not so remiss as to not inform his captain of the situation. Immediately, the Negotiator fires up her engines, and the strange score marks on her hull glow a faint blue-white colour as extreme current bubbles through her hull: her point-defence grid is entirely active, which is known as 'running hot'. Furthermore, her gunports swivel open, ominously.

The ship waits for its Ambassador...

[OOC: I'm giving you time to take action against the ship or the Ambassador if that is your choice. I do ask that you don't try to kill Dejure, though, if you must do something like that. He's a long-standing character and rather amusing at times...]

The ship is allowed out, after all, the government is acting in defence, and despite the fact that the guns are open, no actions are taken to destroy it. If Frateli wanted it gone, it would have been.

The ship departs rapidly - far more rapidly than before - but keeps to subsonic speed until it reaches about 160,000 feet. At that point, it accelerates at full power, and is out of Imitoran airspace in just a few heartbeats, quickly attaining hypersonic speed.

Outside Imitoran airspace, the air Squadron disperses, each ship flying in a different direction in a flurry of movement that is as dazzling as it is bright; the ships glow gleaming white as they pile on the power, and soon, each craft is miles apart, forming a massive cordon around the part of Imitoran airspace exposed to international territory. This also makes it very prohibitive to attempt to engage all of the Squadron at once.

"Hey Mongoose, ya see that? Pretty funny huh?" Pete 'Axe Man' Ryans said over the radio of the F-82C. "They think that spreadin out will help them?"

"Bet they don't know how much power these babies have," Mike 'Mongoose' Heath said into his radio. He banked slightly, and began to apply power. He flipped the 'arm' switch, and the nose of the F-82C began to glow a dark blue. "Lets push it out." The other F-82Cs began to glow blue, and in under two seconds, they accelerated from just under 1,000 feet to sub atmospheric levels. There they continued their holding pattern.

Malik flashes a horrified look at the Imitoran delegate. "Terrible move," he says frankly. "The Nenyans are a race to be dealt with carefully, for even the slightest insult can send them flying into a rage. We've grown rather adept at bandying words with them, but you evidently still have much to learn. This was without a doubt the poorest attempt at diplomacy I've been privy to witness, on both sides of the matter, not just his. At times it is prudent to acknowledge those who possess the greater share of power, and it is unwise to earn their derision. I highly reccommend abstaining from further provoking them, as they're just stupid and arrogant enough to put their money where their mouth is."

He frowns. "Such as it is, I am not sure if I can in good conscience reccommend that the Five Kingdoms intervene in this situation."

Imitoran Border

But the ICEL aircraft have good reason to spread out: they now have a kill zone the full length of the Imitoran border. Further, by spreading out, they have what amounts to an EM-net detection grid: quickly, satelite assets begin triangulating the positions of the actively-camoflauged aircraft, boosted in scanning strength by the might of the Stellar Squadron sitting in orbit alongside them.

Eyes watch the aircraft warily; for now, their positions and the shape of their radar signals pinpointed, even though tiny can be watched carefully: they are not actively targeted, for there is no need to do so. Yet.

* * *

"The Commonality warns Imitora that any act of agression will be met by an equal, directly corresponding act of aggression. You shoot at us, we shoot at you. You don't shoot at us, we don't have to shoot at you. Your choice."

~ Empress Rialla ux-Rihad II

[OOC: Detection call based on prior OOC chat here in this very thread.]

Anna, with a hand gesture that almost showed a total lack of care of the sitation, waved Malik away. "I dont care about the Five Kingdoms, nor do I care about the so called strength of the Neyans. If you ask me, they just got their panties in a twist over the fact that someone has out done them. Happens all the time. Now, if youll excuse me," she said standing up, "I have other matters to attend to." She walked out of the room, and down the hall, her Marine escorts picking her up as she moved, and following her.
____

When the targeting system came online, it came on strong. The Megolith system, using its network of supercomputers, quickly figured the proper trajectory for its rounds. All five stations would be able to put a plasmatic round right ontop of the blockading ships. Each round would explode with the power of a fifty kiloton nuclear weapon, yet it wasn't the force of the explosion that was teh killer.

That would come from teh fact that the explosion basically mimicked the properties of a star. At the center of the blast, the pressure would be so extreme that everything would be crushed like a soda can. The heat was so intense that it would melt anything it came in touch with. Thos that managed to survive the heat and pressure would be lucky to walk away blind alone. With five guns at each sight capable of launching this weapon, the blockaiding ships would have one hell of a time trying to plimp away.
____

The F-82Cs, now operating with their plasma propulsion systems on full, moved at speed around Mach 5 or 6. Their liquid plasmatic wings moved like a bird's wings stabalizing it, making adjustments to keep the fighters stable. The wings, with their ability to move like a bird's, allowed the fighters true complex manuvers.

However, the deadly weapons were more of what the pilots liked. Each fighter carried five of the ever infamous VRVTUMHYAAM. The Variable Range, Variable Targeting, Ultra Manuverable, High Yeild Air to Air Missle was the main stay of Imitoran air to air weapons. Each missle, however, no longer contained its plasmatic explosive warhed. Now, each carried a anti matter war head, with a full gram of explosive substance. The blast range was an effective kill of two miles. That meant that the missles, using thrust vectoring and small wings similar to the liquid plasmatic wings of the F-82Cs, only needed to get within two miles of the enemy fighters to kill them. That wouldn't be to hard, considering each missle had a max substainable speed of Mach 8.5 for 400 miles before running out of propulsion.
_____

In space, the moves were similar. The Amanda Marie Ormsby was the largest ship in the Imitora Exoatmospheric Navy, at just under a kilometer. In reality, its exact length was 752.8 meters long. That 752.8 meters contained multiple (45) Mass Ortilery Weapon Systems, each one firing a 50 foot long, 20 foot wide rod of ablative coated titanium at speeds upwards of Mach 50. However, those wouldn't serve a purpose in space combat, as they were specifically designed for earth targeted bombing.

What did matter were the 55 anti ship batteries. Each one had four 90mm Mass Driver cannons that could fire a 90mm shell at velocities high enough to rip through the thick metal of a ship. Each gun was now targeting one of the Ma-Tekian ships now in the near teritoryial space of Imitora. Further, each ship had 115 anti shiping missle tubes that would fire a large plasmatic warhead. Each warhead made the earth base systems look like fire crackers.

Two of the Ormsbys began arming their NovaCloud systems, which would literaly create a small stary in space that would last for just a moment, long enough to destroy any ship caught in the are of the Cloud. Further, all ships had armed thier Close Combat Defense systems, sytems that would destroy fighters comming in for attack runs.

Finally, Imitoran combat satallites had began targeting of Ma-Tekian satallites.

IDSS Righteous Fist Of Mercy, nr. Imitoran Orbital Envelope

Flag Commodore Sujank-Rihad sighed as his SensOps officer reported the active targeting lock. As far as he was concerned, that was an act of war, but his orders said differently. Even if his men had to die here today, the Commonality would not fire the first shot.

They would fire the last, however, he was sure.

"Firebrand and Nemesis, take up flanking positions and begin active ECM counter-operations. All other ships, deploy shimmer-fields and shuffle."

It was a simple tactic. The ships would open their small-arms ports and deploy chunks of metal into the area; at this speed, they would pose no threat, and if they did, they could be vapourized by the point defence system before they did any damage to his ships. The advantage was simple: the active lock could not stay active so long as the targeting scanners on the enemy assets did not know what was a ship and what wasn't.

The MI fields of the two (Counter-)Countermeasure Frigates begin to wildly fluctuate between superdense non-motive and miniscule non-motive, creating massive, fluctuating electromagnetic signatures. These are designed to distract incoming self-guided missiles, causing them to aim towards the frigates, which are most capable of shooting them down due to their lack of offensive weapons.

The little pieces of metal serve to further confuse sensors, making it almost impossible to see anything amidst the soup of EM radiation that leaps into place around the ICEL fleet: it's clear that they're somewhere inside that 50 kilometre area, but where is impossible to tell without visual observation. And as the ships' bellies are painted jet-black, and in a higher orbit than their Imitoran counterparts, that means that they're not exactly high-visibility. Target locks are very likely lost.

* * *

Earth magnetosynchronous orbit, 90 degree plane to Imitora

The satelites are another matter entirely: they do nothing. They just sit there.

* * *

International Airspace, nr. Imitora

Funnily enough, so do the aircraft. They hover... waiting.

* * *

Bay of Turath Staging Ground

And in the Bay of Turath, the warships of the 4 Surface Naval Battlegroup open their gunports. Nothing else happens, though.

Not a sausage.

The commander of the lead Ormsby class watched the radar readouts, and nodded. "Switch for the bitch," he said, and in seconds, the sensors quickly repicked up the Ma-Tekian ships. You could fool a base radar system, but a mass system was a bit harder. The only way to loose it was to not exist. "Bring us to them, and start ping sweeping."

Seconds later, the Imitoran craft moved up to the same orbit level of teh Ma-Tekian craft, and used a pinpoint mass sensor to pick up the craft. They switched to useing the mass sensor to target, and the little pieces of metal lost all purpose. Of course, it would be slightly harder to get a pinpoint target, but then again, with the ships being this big, any shot that hit was a good shot.

[OOC: How close ? I need to know range.]

OOC: How far are your ships from Imitoran Space?

[OOC: They're holding position at a 90 degree angle to Imitora, geographically, at an altitude of +ionos 465,000km. I note that if your ships move within 15,000km, under ICEL Law they will be within ICEL Claimed Space. The satelites are in what is termed a magnetosynchronous orbit; that is, they're 'magnetically locked' into position, so they do not move unless moved - but they also don't need to rely on the momentum of the Earth and their own momentum to hold them in position (as with a geosynch orbit). They can sit anywhere, but these satelites are at basically the same +ionos altitude as the warships. 'Ionos' is short for 'ionosphere'; +ionos means, essentially, in this case, that they are 465,000 kilometres above the outer 'edge' of the ionosphere.]

OOC: Well, to bad for you that ICEL rules dont apply to this lovely situation. So, unless your ships were right ontop of mine, mine are now on the same level as yours.

[OOC: Mmkay. Firstly, yes they do apply, to my ships. They have to uphold their own Law, so if you move inside that envelope, they will open fire and be acting perfectly legally in doing so.

Secondly, you still didn't answer my question. What range?]

The commander of the lead Ormsby class watched the radar readouts, and nodded. "Switch for the bitch," he said, and in seconds, the sensors quickly repicked up the Ma-Tekian ships. You could fool a base radar system, but a mass system was a bit harder. The only way to loose it was to not exist. "Bring us to them, and start ping sweeping."

Seconds later, the Imitoran craft moved up to the same orbit level of teh Ma-Tekian craft, and used a pinpoint mass sensor to pick up the craft. They switched to useing the mass sensor to target, and the little pieces of metal lost all purpose. Of course, it would be slightly harder to get a pinpoint target, but then again, with the ships being this big, any shot that hit was a good shot.

[OOC: Since you can't be bothered to answer my question, I think I'll go ahead and assume a range.

Belated fleet composition information (standard Stellar Squadron composition):

1 Retribution class DSA-I battleship; 50 KKM ELS tubes, 7 E-cannons, 1 MMFL device (one-shot capable, nose-cone mounted), PDEF defensive envelope: 0-1200 inbound projectiles per second.
2 [i]Aystaku class I/CMF frigates: no offensive capacity, PDEF defensive envelope: 0-12,000 inbound projectiles per second.
17 Relentless-x class LRA cruisers: 14 DF/KKM ELS tubes, 2 E-cannons, PDEF defensive envelope: 0-150 inbound projectiles per second.
30 Fury-x class LSW destroyers: 7 DF/KKM ELS tubes, 1 E-cannon, PDEF defensive envelope: 0-75 inbound projectiles per second.


Key:

DSA - Deep-Standoff Assault
KKM - Kinetic Kill Missile
ELS - Electronic Launch System
E-cannon - Electron cannon
PDEF - Point Defence (Electron Flux)
DF/KKM - Direct Fire Kinetic Kill Missile


]

IC:

The commodore raised an eyebrow as his SensOps officer reported, "Imitoran vessels have completed a maneuver bringing them to 124,000km planar range, identical orbital altitude."

A heartbeat later: "Sir! We are being actively scanned... I/CMF assets unable to compensate."

"Active targeting is an open hostile act," the XO reminded the commander of the Squadron.

"Acknowledged. - Sarah, do our orders allow us to engage at first sign of hostility?"

The ASI - artificial sentient intelligence - took a moment to answer; that meant it was probably checking with High Command. "Negative. Orders did not include active target lock as an overt, hostile action. However, our orders have altered. The Squadron is hereby authorized to use any force necessary to remove the Imitoran threat."

The commodore smiled.

Perfect.

In soft tones, he gave his orders...

* * *

Active target locks - in the form of low-intensity microwave beams suddenly lancing out and touching each and every Imitoran vessel - suddenly spring into place. Sensor readouts on the Imitoran vessels detect a sudden energy spike from the ICEL Squadron: the PDEF grids on the CCM frigates just went 'hot', which no doubt indicates that...

Gunports swivel open. All of this occurs in less than a second and a half.

Twenty milliseconds later, the lead ICEL warship - a two kilometre-long battleship, which intelligence names as a Retribution class battleship, commonly referred to as a DSA-I (Deep-Standoff Assault) - opens fire with her all fifty of her forward-facing kinetic missile tubes.

Five hundred milliseconds after that, the cruisers fire. Another five hundred milliseconds: the destroyers open fire. Meanwhile, the frigates push forwards and 'down', dropping below the fleet and off to the east and west relatively, by about fifty kilometres in each direction.

They fire for ten seconds, each group of ships alternating their fire so that there is no cessation in the barrage, but maintaining enough energy in enough ships to shoot down incoming missiles if needed - except the DSA-I, which fires one volley every second, covered entirely by the frigates.

[OOC: The Numbers:

Velocities/yields: The missiles fired by the Retribution would reach a speed of 2,000m/s. This gives a yield of two tons TNT equivalent per missile.
The missiles fired by the ships with direct-fire kinetics - meaning that the kinetics are accelerated inside the guntubes rather than operating under their own power entirely - are spat out at 1,400m/s and attain 4,000m/s by the time they reach the enemy ships. This gives a yield, roughly, of four tons TNT equivalent per missile.

How many missiles were fired?

448 DF/KKMs every two seconds;
50 KKMs every second.

Total fired: 2,240 DF/KKMs over ten seconds (potentially); 500 KKMs over ten seconds (potentially)

Total yield delivered over one second: 1,792 tons (1.792kT) + 1,000 tons (1kT) = 2,792 tons (2.792kT)
Total yield delivered over ten seconds: 8,962 tons (8.9kT) + 10,000 tons (10kT) = 18,962 tons (18.962Kt)

You may assume that every single Imitoran ship (number unknown to me) is targeted by the missiles.]

OOC: Or you could wait about a few hours till I dont have class to answer your question. But, hey, you acted in agression, thats all I needed.

IC:

The missles, being physical weapons, were what the Imitoran's were hoping ot be fired. The point barrier defense shields were made specifically to counter physical presence weapons. Only a few missles came through, damaging one of the Ormsbys targeting systems. Of course, only a few missles even made it that far.

As soon as the gun ports were open, the NovaCloud was activated. The sensors on the Ma-Tekian ships would have noticed a minute, if any, presence of a foriegn substance in the space around them. THe next minute, a mix of nanoigniters and a sub plasmatic gas 'ignited' in space. The Ma-Tekian craft soon found themselves in the center of a small star.
___

With the note of a round being fired in agression, the Imitorans opened fire in the atmosphere first. Each ship that had approached Imitoran waters, even if they hadn't entered were soon under fire from a barrage of plasma explosive shells. Each shell would explode with the power ten times that of Hiroshima, and would be difficult to target due to the fact that they were falling nearly straight down on the ships.

The airial defense grid was activated, and an invisable mesh like dome of EM rays formed in the air over Imitora. Missles that flew through the grid would loose power, guidance, and fuse power, rendering them harmless.

THe F-82Cs quickly opened fire as well, sending their missles towards the Ma-Tekian fighters. Each fighter had now to deal with five missles, all of which only had to get within 2 miles to be effective with their antimatter warheads.

OOC: Or you could wait about a few hours till I dont have class to answer your question. But, hey, you acted in agression, thats all I needed.

IC:

The missles, being physical weapons, were what the Imitoran's were hoping ot be fired. The point barrier defense shields were made specifically to counter physical presence weapons. Only a few missles came through, damaging one of the Ormsbys targeting systems. Of course, only a few missles even made it that far.

As soon as the gun ports were open, the NovaCloud was activated. The sensors on the Ma-Tekian ships would have noticed a minute, if any, presence of a foriegn substance in the space around them. THe next minute, a mix of nanoigniters and a sub plasmatic gas 'ignited' in space. The Ma-Tekian craft soon found themselves in the center of a small star.
___

With the note of a round being fired in agression, the Imitorans opened fire in the atmosphere first. Each ship that had approached Imitoran waters, even if they hadn't entered were soon under fire from a barrage of plasma explosive shells. Each shell would explode with the power ten times that of Hiroshima, and would be difficult to target due to the fact that they were falling nearly straight down on the ships.

The airial defense grid was activated, and an invisable mesh like dome of EM rays formed in the air over Imitora. Missles that flew through the grid would loose power, guidance, and fuse power, rendering them harmless.

THe F-82Cs quickly opened fire as well, sending their missles towards the Ma-Tekian fighters. Each fighter had now to deal with five missles, all of which only had to get within 2 miles to be effective with their antimatter warheads.

Space

Unfortunately for the Imitorans, magnetic impetus has the effect of creating a false vacuum where there was none before. Hence, the gas never quite interacts with the ships; some of the thermal energy interacts with some of the ships, but not all of it all the time. Consequentially, although several ships - three destroyers, the oldest ships in the Squadron, incidentally - explode at the initial point of ignition, the remainder simply accelerate through and out of the blast radius before their hull temperatures exceed the maximum allowed level. The radiation given off by the explosion is largely absorbed by superconductive coils running through the hulls of the warships: these are what move them, as well as providing 'anti-radiation batteries'.

As a result, the warships have excess energy to purge.

Pushing hard, the remainder of the Squadron clears the gas cloud in under two seconds, hitting 30km/s within the next seven hundred fifty milliseconds: PG fields inside the ships prevent the crew from being smeared all over the nearest bulkheads, but they cannot operate the controls for at least half a second, so fierce is the acceleration. Ironically, the acceleration is powered by the very energy gained from the explosion: meaning that the Imitorans have given the ICEL ships the energy to close the gap...

...and make those shields virtually useless.

The ships dart over and around the Imitoran fleet, faster on the turn than they have any right to be: it appears that the rumours regarding ICEL warship maneuverability were not exaggerated in the slightest. They obviously build their ships with speed and speed alone in mind; but they also build them to kill, and as the average distance drops below ten thousand kilometres, every remaining ship - excluding the frigates, which are following in next to the Retribution - fires its E-cannons at full power for three seconds; easily long enough, according to the 'users bible' for the weapon, to punch a hole in most armour currently known to be in use.

The ships roll past on their own momentum, their MI fields shutting down for one or two seconds depending on the size of the ship (destroyers shutting down the longest, the battleship taking the least amount of time to recharge), and then swing around at seven thousand meters on the opposite side of the Imitoran fleet.

* * *

Air

"Shit," the Commander of the squadron snarled, tapping the 'scatter' order contact hastily.

He hurled his interceptor - an M# - through the most bone jarring maneuver he could ever remember pulling: his g-meter showed an astonishing 24gs stress on the skin of the aircraft as he accelerated towards 3,000m/s - his own cockpit readout, measuring the g-force on his bodysuit, read out at a mere 3gs, which was still more than he'd ever pulled before in an M#. Usually one didn't need to accelerate this hard.

* * *

Sonic booms radiated out across Imitora, even from this distance the sound of fifty aircraft going hypersonic capable of shattering weak glass and causing wooden doors to rattle in their frames.

The aircraft are well out of the range of the incoming missiles, spotted by satelite assets watching the Imitoran aircraft closely, long before the missiles even have a chance to move into range.

The ICEL aircraft keep running until the missiles stop following, for it is guaranteed that the missiles simply do not have the fuel or energy to run for as long as aircraft carrying powerplants can.

Back in the Commonality, some five Air Assault Squadrons - two of which are entirely composed of the nimble, stealthy X# fighter/bombers - vault into the sky and make haste to Imitora, due to arrive at the edge of Imitoran airspace in two hours.

* * *

Sea

Inside the Bay of Turath Staging Ground, safely outside of the range of Imitoran weapons, the 3 and 1 Surface Naval Battlegroups launch three hundred Intercontinental Kinetic Missiles - known as ICKMs, they are identical to KKMs, but designed for global-reach assaults. Targeting naval bases, the ships fire a single salvo, to test the strength of the defensive field before further investigating methods to breach it.

As no ICEL ships have left ICEL waters, none are damaged by the Imitorans firing at empty water near Imitora.

[OOC: Oh yeah. Just to note something: nothing new whatsoever in this thread. Everything herein used is previously established as the norm for ICEL.]

"The Iluvauromeni Commonality of Everlasting Light hereby formally issues a declaration of 'Defensive Warfare' against the state of Imitora, following their initiation of hostilities by attaining active weapons locks on ICEL military/civilian assets - following our assertion that any such action would be seen as an act of war.

"The Commonality thusly demands the immediate surrender of all Imitoran military assets. Bend to your knee, little one, and we will forgive."

~ Empress the Supreme Commander Rialla ux-Rihad II

OOC: I'm calling shenanigans until you can esplain how your ships can fly through a star. Its not the explosion, but the fact that at the center of the 'blast' the presuusre is enough to crush any of your ships. Further, the heat alone would melt the mettal of your ships, unless you have some magical heat shields designed to allow ships to fly through stars.
____

IC:

The missles eventually run out of fuel, but not till after they had chased the fighters far enough away from the coast to pose no threat at all. Flying through computer registered gaps in the field known only to the Imitoran pilots, the F-82Cs returned, and reloaded, going back up to patrol. This time, however, they had taken the lower explosive plasma warheads. However, the use of a plasma generating jet allowed the missles to move faster than the antimater, with a theoretical unlimited range. However, they did need to get closer to enemy aircraft to explode, this time being withing 600 feet.
______

Wake satalites quickly detect the incoming stealth attackers, and the gaps in the EM field are closed. It is now a solid dome of EM waves, with a zero percent penetration possibility. Defensive launch positions on the small islands around the main island send up interceptor missles. Each, with a top speed of near Mach 7, with a theoretical unlimited range from the power of a plasma generator, screamed towards teh incoming attackers.

Each followed a location system that used info from its own seeker head and a wake tracer to find the aircraft. Unless the aircraft didn't physically exist, it could still be attacked.

OOC2: If none of your ships have left your waters, then how have they blockaded me, as you stated earlier? The Megolith systems can put the round onto a target the size of a penny a good 100km out in the water, and even then, with the blast radius of hte high yeild plasma, everything for 50km around that is pretty much gone for good.

[OOC: I don't have time for an IC post yet unfortunately - sorry! Fiancee on the phone, currently answering another phone call...

But, you can't have pressure in a vacuum. They were protected by the false vacuum created as a natural side effect of the propulsion system; this side effect has been existance ever since I first used MI, by the way, so I'm not just pulling it out of my arse for giggles. ;)

Secondly, as stated, the heat never interacts with the ships in a meaningful way, as the currents of gas carry the heat away from the ships: the gas being pushed away from the ships constantly, and so the heat could not interact with the ships at all. That means that none of the ships would really have been heated up at all; I was merely being kind having three ships blow up for no real reason.

Thirdly: I'm not going to say that your defence field is godmoddy, so long as you accept that I can breach it. Not immediately, but with thought. My nation specializes in electromagnetic manipulation, so this isn't at all a stretch of the imagination (I already know how to breach your shield, actually - my EF missiles would disrupt it long enough for my aircraft to get through). Besides, having a defence field that cannot be breached is cheating in the extreme, you know - especially a national one. But! Accept it can be breached with thinking, and we're all okay.

Finally, I did not deploy any surface naval assets to your waters or near them, as it was an aerial blockade. Check back and you will see this.]

OOC: Acceptable, but there are more tricks up my sleeve...Good thing I only have five Ormsbys in the area...I like those.

IC:

The eye of the sensors officer was not on the incoming ships however, it was on something else. Somehting a bit scarier. The captain looked at what was happening. "Should we abandon ship sir?" the officer asked.

The captain shook his head.
____

Stars were not ever lasting things. In this case, the star created by the nova cloud was short lived, and instead of just fizziling out, as was planned, something else happened. A Super nova. Three of the Ormsbies quickly evaporated from the force of the 'explosion', and the other two fared worse fates. The sudden explosion resulted in the phenomena known simply as a black hole.

Vibrations ripped into the Imitoran ships, shaking violently. The blasts from teh EM guns never reached the Imitoran ships, but pealed back awaytowards the gravatic hole in space. Missles turned away, being sucked into the vacume. The Imitoran ships were pulled in as well, destroyed by the black hole.

[OOC: As a black hole in orbit around the Earth is distinctly, um, dangerous to the whole planet, and other people might well object quite strenuously to having their shipping sucked into it, I hope you don't mind me collapsing the bastard.]

Space - Bridge of the IDSS Righteous Fist of Mercy

"Holy of holies," the commodore muttered under his breath as he saw the ugly being that had erupted into being - in Earth orbit, of all places.

"MI fields fluctuating - the Squadron is holding position, but barely... correction: six ships have lost MI field cohesion, and are falling into the gravity well," reported the SensOps officer.

"Collapse that bastard however you can," the commodore ordered... although he didn't have the faintest idea of how that could be achieved.

"Sir..."

The voice was hesitant; the commodore swivelled in the Nest to look at his SciOps officer, giving a curt nod of approval for her to go on, a young-looking Quendi woman who he knew to be far older than she looked. "Sir, perhaps if we disrupt the EM fields of the singularity, we can nip it in the bud. After all, our ships are designed to..."

"Yes yes," he answered, "I don't care what you want to try - we don't have time to argue or discuss: just do it. And then we fry those bastards."

She flinched at the hostility, but bent over her console to liase with her division down in SciOps.

* * *

Space is cold, but colder was the singularity. Nothing could escpae its grasp-

Except, of course, anything that had enough pull to escape. The gravitational singularity was weaker than those of a true star; but it was powerful enough to disrupt the Earth's magnetic field, causing it to gnarl and twist, linking the two powerful fields into one, twisted unit.

But the effect is short-lived; tiny, insignificant specks rippled out from the ICEL warships - and current rippled along the hourglass figure of the singularity, EM field lines forced into chaos for a fraction of a second...

And the MI fields strengthened into a single, cohesive unit: usually only used in fleet maneuvers, the unification of the MI field had an unusual effect; it ripped the singularity to shreds just for a few milliseconds, collapsing it in on itself into a speck infinitely tinier than it had been before - and providing a window of oppurtunity. Given energy by further electron flux missile strikes, the singularity suddenly has an MI field of its own - and cannons off away from the Earth, its velocity close to the speed of light.

[OOC: A big thanks to Gregory Benford, and his book, Eater, wherein I got the idea for collapsing the singularity's EMF into chaos momentarily. The propulsive effect is entirely theoretical, but seeing as we use MI fields to move objects, it seemed only rational to convert the singularity into something else entirely. Also, as a singularity in Earth orbit would essentially mean the end of the world, I don't think a damage call regarding the singularity itself - hardly under the control of anyone, really - is exactly unfair.]

IC:

Air

The ICEL Squadron departing simply drops to mere supersonic speed and turns back once the missiles drop into the ocean, some of them moving to intercept the missiles that somehow managed to leave the defence field. As the ICEL aircraft can easily move faster than the missiles, they simply drop interception EF missiles in the path of the oncoming missiles, which are designed to explode within 50 meters of their targets and knock out any sensitive electronics on board. Having a range of several hundred miles, these missiles can be safely deployed in a manner that allows the M# interceptors to wheel away and escape without any real chance of being caught.

Aboard one of the little, plucky M#s the commander of the Squadron balked at the message that blinked up on his terminal: "No holds barred, stop. Imitorans guilty of attempting to destroy planet, stop. Destroy all Imitoran military assets, whatever cost, stop."

He smiled faintly, and relayed the communication throughout the Squadron - and ordered them to regroup 1,200 miles from the edge of the Imitoran defence shield.

* * *

The Squadron coming in was still quite far out; almost an hour away from Imitoran airspace. Even so, they open their gunports and arm their missiles in preperation for an attempt to pierce the EM shield.

* * *

Communique sent to all ICEL Associated Powers, Allies, ex-SATO Allies, Trade Partners, Friends

"Following the incident in Earth orbit, the Commonality no longer sees any need to hold back. We advise immediate invasion of Imitora by all Allied forces."

~ Sarah, AIR

Communication terminates

* * *

Space - Bridge of IDSS Syrne, cislunar space --> Imitoran orbital insertion --> Imitoran Space

"Did my eyes deceive me," Commodore Salif Rihad wondered, "or did I just see a bunch of our ships fall into empty space and implode?"

"Correction, sir. You just saw a bunch of our ships fall into a singularity, spawned by that weapon of Imitora's. - Sir! New orders from High Command: orbital assault on Imitora is to begin immediately. One third of the Battlegroup is to deploy EF missiles to disrupt the static field; the other two thirds are to target Imitoran military assets and destroy them. No CD limit: if military assets are near civilian populations, the assault level is entirely at the commanding officer's discretion. Apparently, this just heated up." The cool, almost amused response from his XO did not surprise Salif; he had always known the man to be insane: it was why he picked him as his XO. Salif knew that he was many things, but insanity was not inside his personality envelope; he needed someone to offset his sometimes somewhat boring style.

"Hmmm. CommOps, order the 1 Battlegroup to Hop to Imitoran Space ASAP. I also need you to request support from the 3 Battlegroup; inform Commodore Sijenko that I need him to send his Tyelca Tuo wing atmospheric. Oh, and have Sarah liase with the Navy; I need to know what they're up to."

"Acknowledged."

* * *

Air - International Airspace, Above the Rio Grande Rise, South Atlantic Ocean

Sandir Dth'gar scowled openly as the message came in that all available ICEL assets were to return to port immediately; this would cut short their important mission...

...and they had been so close. So very close. He watched the mighty Vanguard class warship below wheel about in the water effortlessly, millions of tons of water thrown up into the air as she hauled herself around to face back towards the Commonality, several hundred miles to the east.

He sighed, and dropped altitude to 21,000 feet, along with the rest of the fighter screen. It would be a long, long day...

He just knew it.

* * *

Sea - Pacific Ocean, Semir-randil Surface Naval Battlegroup (4 Battlegroup)

Elsewhere, the only other ICEL military asset on Earth outside of the Commonality, the 4 Surface Naval 'Semir-randil' Battlegroup was also turning back from its patrol in the Pacific Ocean, heading back towards the Commonality; alert, watching, ready...

The mood was tense, angry, almost violent. The crews of the ships had heard of the atrocity committed in Earth orbit; the loss of nine warships was almost too much to stomach - the largest ICEL loss in space since the destruction of the original 1 Orbital Battlegroup, lost to nuclear attack during the abortive war with Russian Forces.

Never again will they harm our People, Durat ux-Rihad, the chief chef on board the IDSS Semir-randil, decided. Even if we have to kill them all...

[OOC: Oh yes. Just a quick note: usually, I would ignore anything so silly as a black hole in Earth orbit. But I couldn't pass up the oppurtunity to save the world!

No, seriously. I've already put too much effort into this to just switch to ignoring Imitora. So if anyone is wondering... that's the only reason why I'm not ignoring that rather ridiculous action.]

OOC: For all my research, I cant find one single site or source that says a black hole has an EM field. While I dont mind you collapsing it, I think its a little much, considering your ships just flew through a star, then survived a neutron star (stage right before a black hole), then a black hole. But whatever. I'm not gonna argue as the fact that I'm about to pull somethign rather extreme. I'm waiting for someone to contact you regarding negotiations, and after I recieve some info on that, I'll be launching another attack, or calling it off all together.

http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=7085987#post7085987

OOC: For all my research, I cant find one single site or source that says a black hole has an EM field. While I dont mind you collapsing it, I think its a little much, considering your ships just flew through a star, then survived a neutron star (stage right before a black hole), then a black hole. But whatever. I'm not gonna argue as the fact that I'm about to pull somethign rather extreme. I'm waiting for someone to contact you regarding negotiations, and after I recieve some info on that, I'll be launching another attack, or calling it off all together.

[OOC: To put things simply: the explosion following the collapse of your false-star would not have damaged the ships as, again, the release of energy would take the form of superheated plasma. Unless the plasma is directed against the hull of the ship - such as via a missile containing the plasma that explodes on impact - then it simply cannot impact the hull. This is easily explained.

I decided long ago that I had to have a damned good reason why my ships were not vulnerable to solar flares. If they were, then any flare at the wrong time with my ship(s) in the wrong place would cream my fleet. Hence the superconductive coils installed throughout the hull, serving the double purpose of generating the motive magnetic impetus field, plus protecting against both soft and hard radiation ('hard' being defined as the clumps of radioactive plasma let off by a solar flare, 'soft' being defined as the zippier, smaller particles/waves of radiation let off by same). Now, a supernova is, in essence, a big bloody solar flare. Nothing more, nothing less. If you research the matter, you'll find that only the surface matter of a star is ejected in a nova or supernova; that is hard, tangible material. But it's also not very dense - less dense than the air in out atmosphere.

As an MI field creates a false vacuum around a craft in the Earth's atmosphere, and as the material let off by your 'supernova' is less dense than air, the material cannot interact with the hull of the ship. This level of matter interacting with the MI fields does put a huge strain on the power core - the amount of energy required to generate the field rises proportionate to the level of EM interference generated in the local area, which is why the oldest ships in the Squadron were destroyed: they use the old power generation technique, which utilizes the Earth's magnetic field to provide both propulsion and energy for the ship via the 'waste' energy generated from that propulsion. Admittedly, that energy generation system wasn't very well received - which is why I now just use nuclear power (on the newer models, this means micro-fusion piles) on my ships.

Finally: everything has an EM field. Every time you touch something with your hand, the molecules in your hand do not interact with the molecules of, say, the table. What does happen is a very tiny, almost immeasurable EM interaction. If that didn't happen, your finger would pass straight through the table - the molecules in your fingers would push the molecules in the table apart. So yes. A black hole most definitely, definitely does have an EM field. And an extremely powerful one, at that.]

OOC: Yes, but in order to disrupt the field, you would have had to fire at the Black hole, and once the beams or whatever of your weapons got near the black hole, there is no way they would have been able to resist the pull of the hole, and would have ended up crossing the even horison->rendering them in effective. Also, using your logic, I could just go ahead and park my entire space fleet in the sun, and wait for you to leave. I think thats what I'll do. Or stick with plan b. Which there is no way you could avoid...hehehe...

OOC: Yes, but in order to disrupt the field, you would have had to fire at the Black hole, and once the beams or whatever of your weapons got near the black hole, there is no way they would have been able to resist the pull of the hole, and would have ended up crossing the even horison->rendering them in effective. Also, using your logic, I could just go ahead and park my entire space fleet in the sun, and wait for you to leave. I think thats what I'll do. Or stick with plan b. Which there is no way you could avoid...hehehe...

[OOC: Um, no. You couldn't park your fleet in the sun, as you've never stated previously that they're capable of such. Previous roleplayed material by myself strongly indicates that my ships are capable of such - for a brief period of time - whereas you're just pulling that out of your arse, so to speak.

And yep, they'd have to resist the gravitational pull of the singularity - if they needed to get that close. But the EM field of the singularity would not be confined behind the event horizon; it would extend thousands of kilometers outwards. They only needed to introduce chaos into the EMF (such as is seen on Earth at the site of a nuclear blast, for example) - not destroy it.]

IC:

And as if being at war wasn't enough, and firing missiles at the shield weren't enough, now the satelites in orbit near Imitora begin transmitting some 4,000 non-state-owned ICEL television stations - mostly converted from trimensional viewing format, so the image is curiously sharp and crisp - most of which are family entertainment. Presuming that the transmissions get past the EM field - and it's entirely possible that they might, considering the high-gain output of the satelites - the Imitorans can now watch the Iluvauromeni entertainment networks...

Which turn out to be rather good, actually. They potray the Commonality in a good light, for the most part; oh, the seedy underside is portrayed, too, such as in soap operas and the like - but the general image of the Commonality is a good one. One of freedom, friendship, unity, stability, economic strength...

And none of the programs are especially put on. It's quite clearly just what the people of the Commonality watch, day in, day out - for the expense of creating all of this just for Imitora is entirely out of the question.

Marcus, who was now in full survival mode, clicked on the TV to see if any information of the Ma-Tekian heathens was available. What he saw on tv made him, and just about every other Imitoran, almost vomit. "What the hell is this f*ggotry sh*t?" he asked, loading the shot gun.

OOC: I'm holding off on all attacks until the negotian thread breaks down (if it does).

OOC: Now that Im generally sober, I think I'll go ahead and post.

IC:

If the satalite had been human, the military may have felt bad sending it on its mission. They new that it probably would be destroyed, but, then again, it only needed to surviv long enough to get one picture. And it did. As it shot through space ocer Ma-Tekians earth based territories, it snapped a single picture, and sent it back to Imitoran military command.

The picture was quickly studied, analyzed, and schematics were quickly drawn up. The plan borderd on genocide, but then again, it had been said that if you were to cause harm to your enemy cause harm so that they would not strike back. The plan, which had been given the name Burning Wind, harkend back to the old days, when prop planes were considered top of the line, and men still had honor in battle.

First, a notice had been sent to the Fultonian government that their ships would be long in comming. The craft that they were going to be donated had been selected for a special operation. However, in return for their patience, they would be getting 5 brand new Ormsbys.
___

15 older ships, all Northampton class modular stealth assault frigates, sat in orbit of a small planet in a yet unamed system. It would be a few days till the colony ships arrived, but until then, they were holding down the fort. But wouldnt be for long.

All at once, as if a gaint balnket had been thrown over the ships, they disapeared. Folded into another dimension. They moved quickly, once they folded out, they would be moving at full speed. Minutes after the fold, they came out, into earth view. Beneath them was the planet that a movie character described as a giant blue berry. And they were indeed moving at full speed. The engines pushed the ships, each with a skeleton crew of 12, faster as they approached earth.

Sudenly, the ships swung, pulled by the gravitational attraction of the moon, sling shotting them around and pointing them towards earth on a collision course. At full burn, they were now appraoching speeds of 2,150miles per second. At full burn, nose down, they breached the atmosphere moving at 2,180miles per second. People in nations as far away as Larkinia and Iansisle were able to hear the sonic booms.

Now at speed of 2,200miles per second, the ships were at a full speed collision course with Ma-Teks earth based territories. The craft were full loaded with fuel and weapons. Each ship weighed at just over 168,000 tons loaded as such, and were now mere miliseconds away from impact with Ma-Tek.

OOCEDIT: The Northamptons are actually much faster than this, but, this is A) Max air speed in an atmospheric setting, and B) At full speed of 32,000 miles per second (.20 speed of light), that would be on planetary destruction scale, and Im not looking for that, only mass destruction and genocide.

OOC: Now that Im generally sober, I think I'll go ahead and post.

IC:

If the satalite had been human, the military may have felt bad sending it on its mission. They new that it probably would be destroyed, but, then again, it only needed to surviv long enough to get one picture. And it did. As it shot through space ocer Ma-Tekians earth based territories, it snapped a single picture, and sent it back to Imitoran military command.

The picture was quickly studied, analyzed, and schematics were quickly drawn up. The plan borderd on genocide, but then again, it had been said that if you were to cause harm to your enemy cause harm so that they would not strike back. The plan, which had been given the name Burning Wind, harkend back to the old days, when prop planes were considered top of the line, and men still had honor in battle.

First, a notice had been sent to the Fultonian government that their ships would be long in comming. The craft that they were going to be donated had been selected for a special operation. However, in return for their patience, they would be getting 5 brand new Ormsbys.
___

15 older ships, all Northampton class modular stealth assault frigates, sat in orbit of a small planet in a yet unamed system. It would be a few days till the colony ships arrived, but until then, they were holding down the fort. But wouldnt be for long.

All at once, as if a gaint balnket had been thrown over the ships, they disapeared. Folded into another dimension. They moved quickly, once they folded out, they would be moving at full speed. Minutes after the fold, they came out, into earth view. Beneath them was the planet that a movie character described as a giant blue berry. And they were indeed moving at full speed. The engines pushed the ships, each with a skeleton crew of 12, faster as they approached earth.

Sudenly, the ships swung, pulled by the gravitational attraction of the moon, sling shotting them around and pointing them towards earth on a collision course. At full burn, they were now appraoching speeds of 2,150miles per second. At full burn, nose down, they breached the atmosphere moving at 2,180miles per second. People in nations as far away as Larkinia and Iansisle were able to hear the sonic booms.

Now at speed of 2,200miles per second, the ships were at a full speed collision course with Ma-Teks earth based territories. The craft were full loaded with fuel and weapons. Each ship weighed at just over 168,000 tons loaded as such, and were now mere miliseconds away from impact with Ma-Tek.

OOCEDIT: The Northamptons are actually much faster than this, but, this is A) Max air speed in an atmospheric setting, and B) At full speed of 32,000 miles per second (.20 speed of light), that would be on planetary destruction scale, and Im not looking for that, only mass destruction and genocide.

[OOC: Point 1.

Your satelite would have to pass through the detection of at least ten, maybe twenty ICEL listening posts en route to our space. That means it would be seen coming and launched at before it even entered our space - probably before the ninety-degree angle point (right-angle to ICEL territory on the ground, which is the first point you can gain a decent image). I'll assume it took a fuzzy, crappy picture at a bad angle and was then blown to shreds by the ICEL orbital defence grid - not to mention all the warships currently patrolling inside ICEL space, protecting incoming and outgoing shipping. At last count, three Battlegroups were deployed inside ICEL Space - they could move to intercept long before your satelite actually got into position, actually. But anyhow, moving on...

Point 2.

Cislunar listening posts would detect the incoming ships, which are moving pretty slowly, in fact, in comparison with the average velocity of an incoming ICEL warship (they generally barrel in through cislunar space at c-frac speeds). Upon detection, the ICEL Battlegroups in orbit would immediately launch everything they had at them. Nothing but nothing would withstand such an onslaught; you saw the firing rate of our ships already - and that was a single Squadron. This would be the combined firing capacity of three Battlegroups - each one being composed of sixty warships, all of which either have firing capacity or carry strike craft capable of launching attacks.

Point 3.

Even if your ships got past that point, there is the last-gasp MISATmk3 defence satelites to contend with, which carry MMFL weapons designed to destroy entire fleets - or, at least, do lots and lots of damage. They don't necessarily destroy a whole fleet, because random chance is involved (it's not a controlled weapon, but a big line of 'entwined' mono-molecular carbon streams that lashes about randomly, smashing on impact but slicing through a hull like butter - carbon is, after all, the hardest of all materials). Now, I rarely use these, because they're dangerous to my own shipping. So I guess we decided not to fire them.

Point 4.

Upon entry to the Earth atmosphere above ICEL, the ICEL ground defence grid - GUARDIAN - would remove electrical energy from the ICEL power grid, causing every single house, industrial factory, etc to lose power. They'd then incinerate your ships with E-cannon strikes capable of totalling to the tune of 30trillion kilowatts of energy per hour.

Point 5.

I strongly suggest you cease godmoding. This is an extreme example of such. You have moved your ships from one system to Sol, then around the moon and to Earth in what literally amounts to one single instant. Now, if you'd jumped straight to Earth, I could understand that. But the Moon is quite a ways away, even at 2,200 miles per second. That's a vast detection envelope, and to assume that my military assets would somehow 'miss' it is absolutely ludicrous.

Please repost that in stages to give an oppurtunity to actually respond, or else I'll just be forced to respond in kind by posting the utter destruction of your incoming ships long before they reach Earth orbit. Which is all that's going to happen anyway, really, if you don't pull some super-dooper-oh-my-gosh-look-at-my-massive-penis stunt out of your arse. Again.]

1. I never took a picture of Ma-Tek. No where did I say I did. I took a picture of the star formation above Ma-Tek in order to get a halfway decent position of Ma-Tek when the moon is directly over the nation at night.

2. So as the ships are swinging around the moon, using it as a shield of sorts, you'd go ahead and open fire on the moon, with everyone that as colonies there. Even if they didn't all your weapons would slam into the moon, and you'd destroy it, disrupting tide flow, and throwing the world into chaos. And you said me creating a black hole was a bad idea. You will also note that I toned down the speed, unless you want me flying ships into your nation at cfrac speeds.

3. Your carbon streams would find some way to get past a shield specifically desgined to stop speeding particles of crap in space from impacting the ships. With the close proximity of the ships to each other, the shields are also magnifying each other. So even if you did fire, I'm sure damage would have been minimal, maybe destroying one or two ships (which is reasonable if, out of a battle group of 50, you only lost 9 to a black hole), and teh debris of those two ships would have continued falling towards earth at mass speeds.

4. At the speeds they were moving, you would have had a little under a second to open fire on the ships. So unless your big e gun is always charged and always taking power, thats a no go.

5. I'll stop when you stop. First you fly through a star (Clense your fist together tightly, and try to push your finger through it. That is why you cannot fly through a star. I misphrased it, its not the pressure, its the density, but appearently your some sorta astrophysists, so I would have assumed you would have figured it out), then you manage to survive being relatively close to a black hole and collapsing it, taking godmodishly low casualties in the process. So I think I wont be reposting in stages (considering the jump from a system less than 6 light years away would take 15 seconds, my math shows it take about 100 seconds from earth to the moon, and at the speeds we were moving once we hit atmosphere, you would have miliseconds, if that to react).

1. I never took a picture of Ma-Tek. No where did I say I did. I took a picture of the star formation above Ma-Tek in order to get a halfway decent position of Ma-Tek when the moon is directly over the nation at night.

2. So as the ships are swinging around the moon, using it as a shield of sorts, you'd go ahead and open fire on the moon, with everyone that as colonies there. Even if they didn't all your weapons would slam into the moon, and you'd destroy it, disrupting tide flow, and throwing the world into chaos. And you said me creating a black hole was a bad idea. You will also note that I toned down the speed, unless you want me flying ships into your nation at cfrac speeds.

3. Your carbon streams would find some way to get past a shield specifically desgined to stop speeding particles of crap in space from impacting the ships. With the close proximity of the ships to each other, the shields are also magnifying each other. So even if you did fire, I'm sure damage would have been minimal, maybe destroying one or two ships (which is reasonable if, out of a battle group of 50, you only lost 9 to a black hole), and teh debris of those two ships would have continued falling towards earth at mass speeds.

4. At the speeds they were moving, you would have had a little under a second to open fire on the ships. So unless your big e gun is always charged and always taking power, thats a no go.

5. I'll stop when you stop. First you fly through a star (Clense your fist together tightly, and try to push your finger through it. That is why you cannot fly through a star. I misphrased it, its not the pressure, its the density, but appearently your some sorta astrophysists, so I would have assumed you would have figured it out), then you manage to survive being relatively close to a black hole and collapsing it, taking godmodishly low casualties in the process. So I think I wont be reposting in stages (considering the jump from a system less than 6 light years away would take 15 seconds, my math shows it take about 100 seconds from earth to the moon, and at the speeds we were moving once we hit atmosphere, you would have miliseconds, if that to react).

[OOC:

1. Fine, whatever! My only point was: you couldn't just fly a satelite into ICEL Space during wartime without having it shot down before it even got there. Secondly, you don't actually need to send a satelite, so it's a moot point. Just get a postcard showing the night sky of Nenya - they're common enough, considering the number of tourists who visit the city every year.

2. They wouldn't fire while they're behind the moon. Duh. They'd fire after they came around the moon. That's fairly obvious, I should think.

3. It's not a matter of destroying them immediately, and it's irrelevant as to whether or not they'd be capable of destroying them or not. The fact is, no oppurtunity was given for me to deploy any defensive measure whatsoever. I'm sure as hell not letting you destroy an entire country using a single post: that's just bullshit.

4. They charge in the microsecond range, probably faster. This is due to the simple fact that, funnily enough, electricity moves at the speed of light. The electricity is gathered, then expelled, contained in a high-gauss EM field. Simple as that. Nothing fancy going on whatsoever. That's why I said 'E-cannon strikes' and not 'E-cannon strike'. Shields would likely be pretty useless, too, as the interaction between shield and the electron beam would likely ignite the atmosphere around the ship, causing so much energy to be imparted into the shield that both shield and ship would probably be incinerated. There's a reason it draws so much energy: it's a very, very, very powerful weapon. Generally, they're used at low-energy levels to shoot down incoming missiles - but ramp up the energy output, and you get a shipkiller.

5. The ships didn't fly through the star, as the star formed around the ships. That means it never interacted with them at all. Not once. Ever. At all. You need interaction to impart energy. Without interaction, you just have a ship flying in a vacuum inside a really hot part of space. Nothing amazing going on there, either. As for collapsing the black hole and not taking losses - you betcha! That was the biggest load of rubbish I've seen since someone hurled 'magic meteors' that 'passed through anything' at a country, but denied that they'd rip straight through the Earth and kill everything. The destruction of the black hole was a polite way of just ignoring the damn thing and moving on. Lastly, 100 seconds is a LONG time in military terms. That's... Hmm. A few tens of thousands of kinetic launches from four Battlegroups armed to the teeth and preparing to kick arse, at least. Detection would take about half a second, considering that your ships are shielded, and thus their 'stealth' capability isn't worth a shaved bollock at a lesbian wedding.]

IC:

The Imitoran ships bravely flew on past the moon, but the sheer volume of shrapnel hurled at them by the combined force of the 1, 2, and 4 Stellar Battlegroups ripped through their shields, obliterating them. As the relative velocity differential is more than 2,000 miles per second, the explosion is visible on Earth as a new, bright star - even though it is daylight far below, the sight is quite bright and visible. It fades rapidly - just like the Imitoran threat.

* * *

Meanwhile, for reasons unknown, Imitora suddenly and mysteriously sank into the ocean. It was not the first time such a thing had happened; Imitora, apparently, has been destroyed by the might of Eru.

[OOC: Imitora henceforth was destroyed by the Hand of Eru, so far as I'm concerned - I'm not sure many people would argue with me on that, considering how bloody patient I've been. Have fun.

That's my variant of an 'ignore cannon', by the way. Appropriate that a god would kill a godmoder, dontcha think?]

ma-tek, you're a retard

ma-tek, you're a retard

[OOC: How exceedingly mature of you to say so.]