NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: *Imagine the radar screen as a grid with two circles rotating into each other, one is on the Y axis and one is on the X axis and they keep rotating into each other every now and then on a blue screen with a white grid.

If you have seen that radar screen in the new series of Battle Star Gallactica.

IC: Captain Murlock Joachim stood, hands behind his back, at the view port of the bridge, immersed in the hums and murmurs of the various consoles, apart from the murmur of electronics while his eyes wandered across the stars, the bridge was deathly silent, the only thing piercing the monotonous silence was the rhythmic chime of the of the scanners, the chime threatened to send Murlock Joachim into a slumber so he decided to go over and have a look at the screen, he scanned the screen and was rewarded by the same sight he’d seen every time he’d looked at the screen* for the last two days, nothing greeted him but the spartan, empty scanner screen.

Joachim heaved a great sigh and turned away from the plasma screen, he had made it halfway his spot by the viewport when an ensign called out to him.

”Sir, we found something…holy shit! We hit the motherload!”

”What is it ensign!”

”It’s that plasma based rock that the guys on the board love so much, you know, the kind that can make like three-thousand tons of plasma for each kilogram, it’s in a bunch of asteroids, should be quick and easy to mine.”

”That stuff…compound 3…god, if we haul that back to Zakia Prime, we’ll be heroes, hell, we’ll all be rich and we’ll all be promoted!”

”But there is a catch sir…”

”Catch…damn, it sounded too good to be true, anyway, what is this *catch* ensign?”

“It is in UFP space.”

”Shit…that is a problem, well, at least it will give you lazy lot an incentive to work quickly, with a little luck, the UFP gits won’t even notice us but only we move quickly…well, GET MOVING!”

The bridge became a flurry of motion as people ran to and fro, orders were flung about and the communications uplink was abuzz with orders to the other four ships, while all of this was happening, Captain Joachim was hunched over the command console near the view port…

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

Login –
Name: Murlock Joachim
Password: phearsome-squirrel

<<<ACCESS GRANTED>>>

Welcome to the Zakian Battlenet.

Searching for 43nd Fleet…found…statistics located:

42nd Fleet -

Fleet Flagship:

MK I Vigilance Battle Cruiser – Reaper’s Scythe – Status: Green

Fleet Ships:

MK IV Harbinger Frigate – Tainted Thorn – Status: Green

MK IV Harbinger Frigate – Dark Rose – Status: Green

Logging out of Zakian Battlenet…logout complete.

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

The fleet began to form up around the flagship, it took a few seconds before the Warp engines kicked in, space began to distort into a whirlpool of pure black before erupting a brilliant display as pink exploded from the centre of the whirlpool, seconds later, the three ships were sucked in and a few seconds after that, they were in UFP space – and next to the plasma based rock known as “compound 3.”

Captain Murlock Joachim sent out a communiqué to the fleet.

”Okay people, we are on a tight schedule so like get this done quick!”

A chorus of replies crackled over the commlink as the ships began to manoeuvre around the clump of asteroids.

Captain Keogh on the UFS Odyssey, one of the Galaxy class ships, he was proud to have it under his command. Captain Keogh sat back in his chair, letting a sigh release his lips before he took a slurp of some coffee from a metallic, shiny thermos with the symbol of the UFP embossed into the warm metal. Keogh tiredly looked at a square grayish pad with, the dullness of the fleet’s idleness setting in, a multitude of holographic buttons beamed back up at Keogh as he ran his fingers along their flat planes, Keogh began to read the report he’d been sent and it quickly became clear that the cheerful multicolor of the pad couldn’t have misrepresent Keogh’s mood more.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report:

To Captain Keogh of the UFS Odyssey. The subject of this report is the detection of unknown ships in sector 1.04 gamma. Good evening Captain Keogh, as you can tell by the first two sentences proves that this isn’t another of those “you need maintenance” reports and getting to the point, star fleet observation posts and sensors have detected unknown ships in our space, you are to take a small fleet and intercept them with no more than four ships, good luck Captain.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain Keogh raised am eyebrow as his crew worked quietly around him, he looked over to his ops officer who was working calmly tapping away on the flashing console, beeps emitting from the console. Captain Keogh said calmly “Ops I need you to send word to three ships, the UFS Saratoga, the UFS Lakota and the UFS Sovereign and send them the report I received moments ago, “The officer looked over to Keogh, nodded and curtly said “yes sir,” he resumed his furious tapping of the flashing console buttons. The report was sent to all four ships, along with a letter that the Ops officer compiled and sent with it, describing how they were needed for active service against foreign ships.

The reply from all of the three ships was the same: “we have nothing better to do so we’ll go along,” trademark humor for a battle that many would lose their lives in.

Captain Keogh smiled at the responses.

There designated rendezvous was right outside scanning range of the Zakian ships, he looked over to the helms officer who was just sitting there typing away at the flashing console, the standard series of blips and beeps came from the console just like any other.

Keogh said, “helm set a course to sector 1.01 gamma and keep us just out of their scanner range.“ The helms officer snapped to attention and barked, “yes sir right away sir,“ he started pounding at buttons with an insane zeal, meanwhile the Ops officer was getting the ship’s large nacelles activated, the power from the nacelles in turn powered up the impulse engines, started emitting a low humming noise.

With the engines running, the ship started to move slowly but surely picking up speed some particles brushing off of the sleek hull, the reflective metal shining in a stars light. The Navigational Deflector dish emitted a faint blue energy, wispy in the darkness of space, the blue energy pushing away any submicron particles that could damage the shields.

The ships nacelles all of a sudden had reached full power and they activated fantastically, the galaxy class ship roared into warp, warp particles being barged aside and tossed behind it entered warp speed.

A few hours later the odyssey dropped out of warp the 3 other ships were already there lying in wait.

Captain Keogh stood up and nodded to his Ops officer who was tapping away at buttons like mad, the background starting to fill up with crew around the bridge started working on assigned tasks

The captain said to his Ops officer “open a channel to the ships and set a course to intercept the enemies,” the ops officer nodded and said “right away sir “ he pounded button after button until the signal was sent. The ships revved up and started to move in to scanner range with the haste of predators closing on prey.

Captain Murlock Joachim stood on deck, watching as the small mining craft made their to the asteroids, small blue fires being left in a wispy trail, the result of plasma power that erupted brilliantly from the exhaust of the craft, the void of dark space consuming the bright blue light. Captain Joachim gave a yawn while the craft made their way with no more speed than that of a plodding snail.

Suddenly a loud blip erupted from the scanners, Joachim rushed over and put his hand on shoulder of the officer manning the station, he leant in close to the screen, three pale blue blips, each with the attached text "UFP Ship," hovering overhead.

"Call back those damn mining ships! Turn to face our new aggressors and charge up the EnPro cannon, I want the Barracudas in the air as soon as they enter our range!"

A chorus of acknowledgments came but Joachim had already turned his back, he heard a comms officer tell the mining craft retreat, Joachim arrived at the view just in time, he looked out to the mining craft, they were returning alot faster than they were when they were going to the asteroids to mine, typical, lazy bastards don't go fast even when I tell 'em to, Joachim thought to himself.

"Sir! The mining craft have returned and the ships have turned to face the UFP fleet."

"Excellent, is the EnPro cannon charged? And remember, get those fighters in the air as SOON as they enter range!"

"Yes sir!"

Joachim closed his eyes and took in a long deep breath, holding it in his, he heard another voice call out.

"Sir, the Tainted Thorn and the Dark Rose have all their fighters in the launch tubes...just got a report from the hangar, all our fighters are in the tubes, all of our fighters are ready to launch within three seconds of the go-code"

Joachim opened his eyes and let the breath escape between his lips, he then opened his mouth and let his voice find it's way through the bridge.

"Excellent, I want the Tainted Thorn to have it's EnPro gun functional, Dark Rose is to use it's standard weaponry because it will have to cover us while the EnPro reactors come online."

"Yes sir!"

Captain Joachim gave a sigh as the ship bridge rocked, lights began to flicker, as did consoles as the EnPro cannon began to charge, draining all that the EnPro reactor had, bar the life support systems, the bridge began to vibrate immensely as the foreign ships closed the distance between themselves and the Zakian war ships.

Soon, the perils of greed would be made obvious.