NationStates Jolt Archive

The Zoir had been quiet.

Very quiet.

That ment it was time to strike. The other races of the Milky Way had probably forgotten their very existance.

but they where still there, waiting, watching.

Well....there where a handful that could possibly remember. The Atlantians...the LRRs....but they wouldn't stand agenst the hord this time.

From their position in the Omega Centauri globular star cluster orbiting the Milky way, they sent out a battleship. One made of pure photons frozen and molded together to form a mass-less ship that was immune to light-based weaponry.

They sent it to the most densly populated system in the galaxy....Sol. Its mission was to scout the system, undetected. See if any of the nations of Sol could stand agenst them. Then it was to head for other systems.

The Demons where back.

OOC: Demon battleship:
http://vv8.jetc.org/tech/images/Dcomb.jpg

tag, once ol' Zoir posts

tag, once ol' Zoir posts

OOC: I don't think Zoir's gonna post. He's been inactive for 22 days. We're going on without him.

(OOC: What the hell. I haven't been in a space RP for yonks. TAG)

OOC: Last time I fought the demons I lost most of my fleet...
Of course I'm in!

[[Tag, count me in when there's a decent opportunity for some unfortunate, doomed Goblin ship to get involved]]

*POOF and appears*

~Taggy
OCC:I missed the last fight but like hell I'm gona miss this one!

OOC: What the hell are you guys doing? This is an RP, not an OOC chatroom! :p

Oh, and if anyone is looking at this and wondering why I'm not replying to other threads, I will later. I'm short on time right now. I will have posted before the night is over though.

IC:

Atlantian Shipyards, Kupier Belt

This former LRR shipyard was Atlantis's biggest presence in the Sol system. And the best part? No one knew it was here except for the LRR government. It sent ships into the Sol system at will, cloaked.

An admiral stationed there, Admiral Dergot, monitered the status of the system by the many Atlantian scouts in the system. It was just supposed to be a normal day too. But it wasn't. One of the Baraccuda class destroyers, the Odyssious, was in orbit near Jupiter. It had picked up a faint photon-based signature that was too intense to be from the sun. It sent the message back to the shipyards. Upon getting the message, Dergot forwarded the message to the Senate on Cirrus. But was it what they thought it was?

"Man, this place is boring..." Said the Lieutenant of the Freighter Templar, leaning back in his seat and resting his boots on the desk in front of him.

"I dunno what you're complaining about, you damn sissy," Said the Captain jovially, "We spend a few weeks on the Dreg-Tech Jupiter station, then load up with some supplies for the Dreg-tech depot on Earth. It's not exactly a marathon, y'know."

"Still, it's time spent watching bugger all happen. Then we get paid. Why don't they just cut out the boring stuff and just pay us now?" Grumbled Lieutenant Yarmon.

"Because then, the good people at the main Dreg-tech station won't get their valuable..." He flipped through the shipping manifest, "...root vegetables. Jeez." He groaned and reclined in his chair.

"Hey, Cap'n?" Asked a communications officer, "There's a helluva lot of chatter on the waves out there. Y'think something's going on?"

"Nah," Mumbled Captain Mike Johannes, "Nothing happens in Sol, remember?"

The small VBR-3 fighter on the usual route around Jupiter watching local trafic seemed to be no threat to most ships in the area but thanks to it's twin 65mm tri-barrel autocannons it was easily a threat to any unsheilded ship. But this time it wasn't alone. A single Shadow class stealth cruiser fallowed it only 100,000km behind. It's jet black hull stood out agianst the oranges of Jupiter.
"This is Shadow-1 nothing to report so far. Just the normal trafic...wait the computer is picking something up... The hell?! The thing is reading as a class 9 threat. Since when did we have a class 9 threat?"
"Nevermind Shadow. Just return to the ship. It looks like this is going to be a long day."
"Copy that returning to the ship."

OCC: Damn time crunch....

The IHGVs Humour Deficiency and Gravitas Shortfall drifted in a lazy patrol orbit around Jupiter, protecting Ledan territory. The crews were bored, nothing out of the ordinary was happening. The AIs were amusing themselves by eavesdropping on every communication broadcast not uber-encrypted in the system.
Turning their sensor systems to a location indicated, they began to get very excited...

As far as the Demons knew, nothing had destected them. Nothing had tried to stop them.

So the desision was made. The project would be activated and sent to Sol, with a small fleet protecting it.

The age of Terrans, and any other race, would end, and the Demons would once agian control the galaxy.

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

Three cloaked Atlantian Destroyers, one Jaguar class, and the other two Barracudda class, approached the location of the target in question. As they approched, they recognized the shape of the ship as a level Omega threat.

They had indeed returned.

OOC: Never had dealings with Demons other than my newest genetic manipulation, so I'm just gonna stumble in the dark at first. Adds to the effect of the clueless crew, I say. ;)

IC: Captain Victor Erikson had a smile on his face as the ship rounded the bulk that was Jupiter and began full acceleration towards the outer edges of Sol.

He pressed a control on the command console by his chair. "Yellow alert. All crew prepare for battle conditions. We're no longer on a criuse through the system. We're on a good old fashioned pirate hunt."

Pirates. The Imperial Fleet's kicktoy. Anomolious radio traffic? Strange concentrations of ships or lack thereof? To the Fleet it meant a chance to go and ruin some pirates day. Even though it usually didn't pan out as pirates were much more carefull in Sol than that.

-----------

The CSS Juggernaut. A massive ship that was an emissions nightmare. Might as well have road down mainstreet blasting rap music with the horn blaring. Stick a cruiser by it and you won't be able to tell it's there.

The Juggernaut cruised on it's way along a looping course around Jupiter and past Saturn, full sensors on, scans abounding, both passive and active. No one could ever accuse the Crimmond Navy of being subtle...

On the edge of the Sol system, the RGSV EXP offloads its massive cargo bays at a station near jupiter. Surrounded by an entourage of about ten other ships, varying in size from under 200 meters to almost .5 km. Many RGF cruisers had taken to traveling with entourages when on trade missions, so that they could increase their profit and have the firepower to take on just about any pirate or smuggler.

The EXP's powerful sensors arrays, however, detect a faint ion signature at quite a distance, just energetic enough to determine its origin...and send the crew into a state of frenzy.

"Its the daemons!"
"Attention traveling group, we have a bandit contact. Once you have offloaded your cargo, we will send you updated tactical information."
"We should alert the Atlantian starfleet."
"Yes, I'll do it right away."

The AI fires away an urgent message to the AO government, detailing the ship's unwelcomed observations.

Atlantian Fleet Command, Cirrus

Calls where coming in with the bundle, all of them origionating from Sol. LRR tansmissions, Atlantian shipyard transmissions, you name it. And all of the messages had something in common.

They where back.

Almost immidetly, all of Atlantis went on high alert. All forces where put on standbye.

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

Other ships began entering the system. A small fleet of about 300 ships, of various sizes, entered Sol and began to congragate near Jupiter. But one ship was larger then the rest. It was the size of a large Asteroid.

"Massometer readings are showing a fleet massing in our backyard."
"Nothing on other sensors though."
"I think they're cloaked."
"Cunning. Either that or they're really just dark matter."
"Heh. Should we alert the fleet?"
"Well, they're hopefully not hostile. Let's sit on it for now."
"It could be..."
"...the resurgence of an old enemy?"
"Yes. Not this fleet, of course."
"No, but they could be..."
"...allies, yes."
"You think it's related?"
"Yes, I do."
"I can't wait. Don't you find it feels so good to blow things up?"
"I'm a warship, of course I do. We're programmed to enjoy it."
"Good point."

It was at this point that the first Golins turned up, remarkably they managed to turn up reasonably close together, with only a few ships crews forgetting to deactivate their FTL drives.

Their reason for turning up? Fairly typically, although the Goblins had managed to emerge roughly in formation, they had been intending to go to another system altogether. The "fleet" consisted of one Big Shyp (an asteroid converted into a giant warship), a multitude of Shyps (basically anything from cruiser down to frigate size) and a veritable swarm of Minishyips (everything below frigates). The design of the ships is haphazard, weaponry, armour and engines strapped on wherever they will fit.

Regardless, the sheer number of ships is intimidating, enough to take on the full forces of most nations - and it is but a fraction of the total military might that the Goblin King can command. There is only one problem...they are Goblin ships. As a result, what at first appears to be intimidating is, in reality, pretty appalling. The weaponry is high powered, but prone to misfire (or simply miss, when Goblins are at the controls), the engines are stunningly powerful...but again, tend to detonate/fall apart unexpectedly, or else the Goblins commanding the ship forgets to stop before hitting an enemy ship.

The overall result? A large number of short, green maniacs with high-powered weapons in zippy ships that tend to blow up when sneezed at but tend to get lucky enough/be numerous enough to come out on top more often than one would expect. Sadly, the succcess rate that would be expected is about one battle in every four, and while they tend to do a bit better than that, they should still not be trusted to hold any remotely important location.

Obviously quite bored and unhappy with the Demons, the EXP and its flock of smaller ships finish unloading their cargoes before beginning to pursue the Demon ship. The EXP, a giant spherical cruiser, leads all the other vessels, equipped with its simply massive powerplant, and hurtles itself at the Demon ship, still quite distant.

"Holy... All stop! Bring us about on that armada..." Erikson wasn't grinning anymore. Pirates didn't have ships like that...

"Uh... which armada, sir?"

The Juggernaut turned towards Jupiter and simply drifted a bit as the crew realised the Juggernaut was... not.

"Send a tightbeam to Earth. Get the Specter out here. Open a channel to the other ship as well." Erikson stepped to the pickups for the screen, scowling at them a bit.

"This is Captain Erikson, CSS Juggernaut of the Crimmond Third Fleet. I think the question I have for all of you is pretty obvious... what the hell are all of you doing here, at the same time?"

Shortly after the Shadow's VBR-3 had detected the ship and the computer had sent the data to a near by PTN ship a small taskforce was gathering around the PTN Mars station. Though the group was small the shear class of ships made it quite deadly. Of the entire group a single 9.5km long Hell super crusier was the main center of attention pulling into open space. Only a single second later it was replaced with a blinding sickly green flash of a spacefold. Fallowing it were three cannon class super cruisers. Though small they packed a rather powerful punch. They to quickly were replaced with green flashes only to "pop up" near the shadow cruiser. The AI onboard the 4 ships quickly began linking up ready for almost anything. As the signal from the Crimmond ship was recived the AI of the Hell cruiser responded with a simple "Code 45."

OCC:Code 45 stands for nothing that involves you.

No message was returned to the Crimmond ship. However, one of the larger battlecruisers charged a weapon and fired an intense beam of pure phased energy at the ship. It wasn't a warning shot, instead, it was a shot ment to destroy. Several small scout ships, surrounding the larger battleship, broke off the main fleet and set a course for the Crimmond ship. As they came in range, they opened fire.

*********

All Atlantian ships in the Sol system where ordered to return to the shipyears in the Kuiper belt. Already there was none other then the Olympia itself, ready to lead its fellow ships in the possible coming first line defense of its hole systems.

OOC: pics of the entire Demon Fleet
Corsair
http://vv8.jetc.org/tech/images/Csid.jpg
BattleCruiser
http://vv8.jetc.org/tech/images/Btop.jpg
Dreadnought
http://vv8.jetc.org/tech/images/Dpass.jpg
Scout
http://vv8.jetc.org/tech/images/Stop.jpg
Carrier
http://vv8.jetc.org/tech/images/NOtop.jpg
Mothership
http://vv8.jetc.org/tech/images/Hfrnt.jpg

As it becomes clear that the detected energy value is not of one ship but several, the cruiser eases off on its drives, and keeps well in back of the group of Demon vessels.

Obviously, backup is needed if the fleet is to be engaged. Not one of the larger cruisers, the EXP doesn't have the facilities necessary for producing its own fighters and frigates, although it does have good gas and asteroid mining equipment. Therefore, it is unable to construct the extra few ships that would be handy in a tight spot like this.

"What the hel is a Code Fou-" Erickson was cut off by the ship rocking violently beneath him. "Full Shields! General Quarters!" He flopped into the command chair and looked at the engineer.

"The 'huggers' failed in the hit area. We've got a hull breach, but pressure doors sealed it. Lost twenty crewmen."

"Send out a signal to the outer system. Act of war, Jupiter. Render assistance. And get me fighter cover God dammit!" he shouted, looking at the incoming ships.

As they got closer, he grinned again. "Open fire. All applicable weapon mounts."

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

As teh fighter bay was abuzz with activity, with the launching of all ready-birds and the readying of all the others, the Juggernaut became the first of it's class to open fire in battle. A hundred thousand or so Swarm missiles were launched at the incoming ships, alternating with pullses of energy from the Ion Banks, designed to trick AIs into thinking systems were overloading, and the Turbolasers, sending fourty foot long spikes of energy at the scouts.

The voice of Erikson came over the channels. "Allright you sons of bitches, you just pissed off the wrong Navy."

Captain Johannes sat bolt upright in his chair and stared stupidly at the itsy-bitsy ship bits that once formed a ship far more powerful than their own.

"Jesus!" Shouted Yarmon, looking at the silent explosions with horror. "Cap'n, we really need to get out of here!"

"Officer!" Shouted the Captain, pointing a shaking finger at the communications officer on his right. "Send out two messages right now. A distress call to Dreg-tech, telling them what the hell we just saw. For the second, put this recording out to every ship in the area.

"This is Captain Mike Johannes of the cargo ship Templar. We are unarmed and are carrying..." He paused. How could he make root vegetables sound expensive? "...valuable luxuries for earth. However, we will not be able to reach out destination if we get caught in the middle of some crossfire. We therefore request that any ship with some spare cargo space could allow us to dock until our nation's fleet makes it here. Anyone, please respond."

He signalled, and the recording stopped.

"'Valuable luxuries'?"

"Up yours, Frank."

The Goblin Admiral stares at the strange demon-ships in confusion, then shrugs and decides that they basically have a really nice paint job.

Admiral Sosaje is one of the Cunnin'un Goblins, so he has a reasonable amount of intelligence (for a goblin), but as he has never before even considered the possibilities of pure proton hulls he is somewhat ill-equipped for the situation.

The Admiral stands at four feet three inches high, with a long pointed nose, flappy ears and bright purple hair. His uniform appears to be dirty enough that if you dropped him into an ocean he would be able walk across it making "reclaimed land" as he walked. Despite this he does not smell any worse that most goblins due to the large number of strange deoderisers that he uses at the behest of his crew.

It is while the Admiral is poring through his charts to try and work out exactly where he and his fleet are that he notices one of the strangely-painted ships firing at another craft, and that ship open fire in return.

Sosaje blinked in surprise, before deciding to join the fight against the agressor (on the basis that the paint job of the demon ships irritates him, and a goblin will hardly ever turn down a fight when they outnumber an enemy). So it was that he grabbed his Big Captain Radio and yelled into it.

"Reddy da Lazers, an da Big Gunz, an da Uvver Big Gunz, an da Even Uvver Big Gunz, da Minigunz, da Turpeydooz, da Supa-Dupa-Ultra-Big Zzap-Gun an...an...an evry uvver shooty stuff we az! Evrywun elz, do da saym!"

The entire fleet loaded and (in some cases) reloaded their weapons even though they had not fired yet. The Goblin armada turned ponderously toward the demon ships as Sosaje seated himself in his Supa-Big Captain Chair.]

"Killz dem all!"

So, the entire fleet unloaded their weapons toward the demons, although a decent portion of their shots would be out of range (such as the powerful but unreliable Zzap Gunz). We now go into one of the smaller ships to see exactly what happened to about a sixth of the fleet's ships.


Captain Osyt was a Soso'un gobbo Captain commanding a ship that would roughly equate to a frigate in most navies. Typical of goblin ships it had many more weapons that anyone else would be able to fit on, and most of them were more powerful than most other navies main weapons. The problem with this will be revealed shortly.

Osyt obeyed his admiral's order and loaded his weapons, supercharged his Zzap Gun, turboed his power systems and ordered his Kroo to fire when the admiral gave the order.

The order came through and Osyt gave the order, bouncing in his Big Captain Chair with excitement.

"Fire da gunz!"

There was a loud humming, and then the sound of Boom dakkadakkkadakka zzzzzzzzzzza-BOOM as his weapons fired and the Zzap Gun blew itself and much of the Goblin ship up like an expensive special effect in a scrapheap.

Osyt, of course, did not notice this, instead he sat in his captain chair screaming insults at the targets for about a minute or two before noticing that his ship seemed awfully quiet. He turned around and noticed the gaping hole in the bridge were the rest of the ship had been attached and was promtly sucked out by the vacuum of space.

"Looks like the fight has begun."
"Care to join in?"
"I thought you'd never suggest it..."

"Captain Francks, sir. Demon ships detected near Jupiter, we're heading to intercept and destroy. Reccomend that we alert the Sol assault fleet."
"Good idea, HD. Crewman, send the transmission. And remind them to bring the Dante weapons, they could be useful. HD, load all missile tubes, activate defences, and bring us into weapons range."

Crimmond Vessel, this is Captain Francks of the Ineffable High Guard Vessel Humour Deficiency. We'll be in range of the enemy momentarily. A word of advice; we've fought these buggers before, and laser weaponary doesn't work. And there's no point in talking, these are more intent on death and destruction than Shivans."

Templar, this is Captain Willow of the IHGV Gravitas Shortfall. We are about to engage, but we will permit you to remain within Ledan* territory while the battle ensues or you have a clear route to Earth. Transmitting co-ordinates of a starport you can dock at now.
* OOC: In case you don't know, Leda is one of Jupiter's outermost moons, so it's in the immediate vicinity.

As these messages were transmitted the pair of DSA2s swung round Jupiter and into combat range with the Demon vessels, and opened fire. A few thousand missiles were launched at the Demon ships, along with a few hundred heavy gauss shells. The anti-matter weapons were held back, not much they could do against photons, but the polaron wave turrets were fired, to see what effect they'd have. ( ;) )

A few minutes later, a large number of ships broke orbit from Earth.

OOC: The stats for my capital ships, if anyone cares (http://aa.1asphost.com/AllyG/Capital%20Ships.htm)

"Humor Deficiancy, this is CSS Juggernaut. Glad to see there's friendlies out there." Erikson paused as he watched fighters zip past the viewscreen. "Lasers don't work, huh? That's allright. We've got more than enough missiles."

One of his officers at the science station looked up and shook his head. "No way to ID." he said quietly.

"Captain, you mind telling us just what we're shooting at? We've not encountered these ships before." The captain asked as he watched ordinance fly.

-----------

Orbiting Luna, a small group of ships exited the Lunar Yards. One was the CSS Specter, the namesake ship of the Dreadnought Class. The rest were older designs, all accelerating quickly. Other ships broke from patrol near Mars, Venus, the outer system and all began heading towards Jupiter. All in all, the ships totaled thirtyfive.

Space was gonna be crowded...

"We know them only as Demons. Their craft are, as far as we've been able to tell, entirely photonic. Once, thousands or millions of years ago, they ruled or enslaved the galaxy, until the Zoir drove them back and sealed them in another dimension. A few hundred years ago they escaped and attempted to once more enslave all sentients. The Ineffable Empire was one of the nations that fought them, along with the Zoir, the Atlantians, and many others. We drove them back, but at an incredible loss. Now it would seem they have returned, and believe me they aren't looking to apologise."

Several of the smaller Demon ships approching the Juggernought where heavely hit, but more of them began to swarm around the Crimmond vessel, firing at will. The large battlecruiser attacked last, falling behind the swarm. As the demons had no AI's, just their core sentience, they felt none of the ion blast's main effects.

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

Meanwhile, the main demon fleet was under attack. Turtle ships had opened fire on the vessels, cetching some of them off guard. But they quickly regained their position and returned fire. The poleron weapons defenetly had an effect. Through a crazy act of sheer luck, they managed to pierce through the demon sheilds.

More enemy ships opened fire. Ones that the demons did not recognize. But the demons still returned fire, confident that Sol would fall, if not with this fleet, then with the main one.

Then they came.

Fifty Atlantian warships of various designes and sizes delcoaked at high speeds and opened fire right above the Demon fleet. But in addition of using the normal Orcialic weaponry, they where firing a new weapon. It was a saphirre colored beam of intense energy. It was fired less often then the Orcalic weapons, but seemed to have a greater impact.

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

They watched as the demons engaged the inferior races of the galaxy. The younger, nieve races. But they had shown immense potential. They had defeated the demons once, and where even now putting on a decent fight. The lesser races had defenetly been underestimated.

Prehaps the Demons had been correct all along. And if that was the case, then the Demons had be be stopped, to prevent them from gaining the upper hand in the war of the ages.

A small, two manned, round silver ship moved about and left the galaxy for another Globular cluster at Transwarp vilocities.

The deck bucked, even through the triple layers of shields encasing the ship. The fighters dove and twisted at the scouts, but being armed primarily with lasers were quicly run off or destroyed. The remainder returned to the hanger.

As the crew, mostly inexperienced cadets and trainees with officer oversight, were trying to keep the ship's weapons online, it lurched forward as all it's engines started a burn. Ot also rose up and around to face the largest incoming Demon ship. The shields absorbed most of the brunt of the attacks, but the scouts were not draining the shields quickly.

As the Juggernait moved, more panels opened on the hull and the missile bombardment of teh scouts and the larger ship stopped. In a fine spray around the craft, it seemed to be forming a dark cloud around it, which was expanding.

Even though it would do no good, Erikson had to follow rules of engagement. "Demon ships, withdraw now or your fleet numbers will increase while your combat efficiency is drasticly decreased." An old saying in the Crimmond Fleets, but still popular.

"Goblins."
"'Twould seem so."
"Well, at least they got something right for once."
"...nope, about a sixth of their fleet just exploded due to design flaws."
"Ah well...Incoming fire from the Demons."
"I'm well aware of that...Ouch, that stung. If we don't survive, just to let you know, it's been a pleasure blowing stuff up with you."
"Same to you."

"Ooh, look, Atlantians."
"Oh good. We might just survive this then. When's the nearest HCBG going to get here?"
"Last info I had said five minutes, from the 'roid belt. The terran ones'll be between another five and ten afterwards."
"It could be over by then."
"Meh."

The Deep Stand-Off Attack craft continued doing what they were best at; sitting still and shooting at the enemy. The Demons were facing the killers of the Ineffable fleet, combining the best offensive and defensive weapons available. The Demon energy weapons impacted heavily on the Atlantian shields, wearing them down, while missiles went straight through and were met by point defence lasers or Dannelandian shields. But if anyone happened to be monitoring, it would be clear this couldn't be kept up for long, and sooner or later not much would be left but the point defence and armour.

Seeing the effect the polaron turrets were having, the Captains ordered the assault reduced to merely the missiles and the polarons, if "merely" could be applied to 360 missiles a second and ten turrets, per ship.

Demon swarm fighters bypassed the Atlantian sheilds, at they launched their own fighters in defense.

One simple line was sent back to the Crimmond ship "Your race will be enslaved"

The Mothership aimed the orb on its bottom at Io. It began to glow dark blue as it charged up, preparing to fire a planet-destroying beam at the moon. But it was cut short as several white light energy beams cut though and obliterated the Demon's orb. Heading out from the other side of Jupiter was a fleet of silver ships with rounded out corners. The Demon's attention turned from the inferior races to the invading fleet.

*******************
Olympia Bridge

"What the Hades?" asked Vega, watching the new fleet duke it out with the new aliens. The Atlantians pulled out a little bit, not wanting the be cought in the cross fire, then resumed attacking the Demons.

"That's what the Borg said. Now, welcome to Hell."

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

The 'cloud' around the Juggernaut was still spreading and detonated. In an amazingly bright sun blossomed around the ship, plasma, fusion enrgy and thousands upon thousands of shockwaves spread outward.

Out of the dying fire came the Juggernaut, shields fully visable around it as they ate up the energy expended on it. Apparently they had lost shields for a moment or two, considering most of the hull was now blackened.

As this happened, more ships began arriving and surrounding the dreadnought, no matter the Demon attacks that may still be happening on the ship. They were of smaller classes, some no more than scouts, others the so called 'ships of the line'.

The eight ships skirted away from the battle for the moment and moved opposite the main battle from the Ineffable Fleet, to regroup and assess damage.

The RGF ships, led by the spherical independent cruiser, start to move towards the battle, staying well outside though, being far too few in number to make much of a difference against the monstrous Demon armada.

OOC: FCN, I hate to tell you, but those arn't Zoir ships....besides, I wouldn't use them without his permission.

IC:

Compleatly and totally overwhelmed, the Demon ships began to retreat. The Silver ships continued their pursuit until the Demon ships went to warp. Most of the silver fleet followed them, but a small branch of rather large vessels stayed behind. They sent a signal to each and every ship in the area.

To each one who accepted the message, a holigram of a white, glowing being with wings appeared. Quite the opposite when compaired with a shadowy race like the demons, they where clad in robes.

Greetings, races of Galaxy Alpha, or rather, as you call it, the Milky Way. Your presence here is astonishing. You have grown much since we last met your kinds eons ago. You have mastered space flight, and have managed to create more then mear city states. You are truly a civilized race.

That is why the demons fear you. They know your a threat, dispite what they say. You are opposition, and that is why they attack.

We are interested in....peace talks with your respective nations....if you agree of course

The holigram awaited the response of each of the flagships, whomever they where.

"Damage reports, all decks. I want to know exactly how bad we're hurt." Captain Erikson stood in the middle of a sparking bridge. "Oh and... make a note to remind me to thank the special weapons unit. That was one hell of a blast."

"Captain... we're getting a message from one of the fleets. Putting it on screen."

As they all paused to listen to... it... speak, the true extent of the damage became apparent. Numbers rolled in, stating that there was over a hundred dead and that several decks were sealed off on the port side.

Before they could respond, another Dreadnought emerged from it's man-made rift in space, literally towing three other cruisers with it. They released and the ship, identifying itself automaticly as the CSS Specter, came around to the Juggernaut, merging their forces.

Several minutes later, after tight beam transmissions between the ships, a message was sent back to the silver fleet. "This is Fleet Admiral Telsia Munro, Crimmond First Fleet. Considering the facts that have been presented to me, these Demons pose a direct threat to Crimmond's future plans, both in Sol and abroad. We would be happy to discuss these events with you."

Vega's crew listened to the message. As the being awaited a response, the crew looked at Vega. He glanced at each of them, then at the being.

Could the old Terran myths of heavenly beings be true after all?

He responded to the message "I am Admiral Vega of the Atlantian fleet. We are interested in peace talks as well"

OOC: Will move on with the story once a few others reply...

The Goblins, after "Dose crayzay paynted shypz uv evil-tings" had left paused to gather themselves. Perhaps a fifth of the fleet had been destroyed (the vast majority through the poor designs of their own weapons), but that was all to the good as it meant that they were left with weapons that had a decent chance of working.

The Goblin admiral pored over his maps with his crewgoblins until the message from the strange silver ship came through. He shrugged and ambled over to the extracom, twirled the dial apparently at random before hitting the Big Button and speaking.

"'ello an' fankz. Peeze talks sound guud, led me no weyr an wenn youz wanna Combined Goblin Collective lad ta chat"

The Goblin switched off his sending communication device, and went back to trying to work out where Sol was in relation to where they had been trying to go.

They spent a while working on this before finally giving up, and then started playing cards.

"Thank you, whoever you are. I am Captain J. Francks of the Ineffable High Guard Vessel Humour Deficiency. We are very grateful for your assistance. There's an old saying on our planet, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend", and in this instance I'm inclined to agree. Let me say that The Ineffable Empire would indeed be interested in opening peace talks with you."

Excelent said the being may the talks begin....

The being glowed even brighter, and vanished. The next thing each leader of each fleet that had responded realized was that they where no longer on their respective ships. They where in a long "chamber" that was white and silver. And smooth. On the "left" side was a large series of windows to the outside. It was bright, very bright. As if a billion stars where all crammed together in a small area. The right side had doors and a long table with hover chairs.

On the far side of the room, several beings with wings stood. The one from the message walked toward the fleet commanders, and smiled.

Welcome to the 47 Tucanae Globular Cluster, 15000 light years from your Sol system

OOC: This also goes for anyone who has yet to post, and says yes to the aliens.

Admiral Munro looked about the area, blinking at the others in the chamber. "Damn..." The red haired woman stepped forward a bit and straightened her uniform. "I do hope you informed our fleets of what just happened, or are letting them observe. I doubt they're pleased." She seemed unphased by the distance from Sol they mentioned and didn't seem to think much of it.

Captain Francks stood immobile for a few seconds. Had the aliens been monitoring him they would have noticed a rapid increase in the temperature of his head, specifically the brain. Despite it was a mere three seconds of real time he stood still for, subjectively it was more like a minute, as his neural web raised his conciousness rate and gave him time to take everything in. As he returned to the normal rate he spoke after the Crimmond admiral.
"I must concur with my ally here. We're a rather paranoid bunch, and people disappearing just after first contact doesn't generally sit well...Still, no harm done. Fifteen thousand lightyears you say? Interesting. Tesseracts is it?"
He began thinking that what he could really do with would be a nice drink, whiskey on the rocks perhaps...

The RGF cruiser tags along in the proceedings having said yes to the Demons.

(A more detailed post forthcoming)

The being continued to smile "Do not worry. Our messengers have informed all of your crewmembers" It looked at Captain Francks "You know of Tesseracts? I-we are impressed"

Vega looked around the room from where he was standing "Who are you?" he asked the being

"Of course, how rude of us. We are what you would call "Angels". We have been at war with the Demons since near the creation of the galaxy. We regret you younger races have been caught in the crossfire.

I, apart from the collective, am known as Michial. Welcome, to the Holy Collective"

OOC: Hey, you knew it would happen sooner or later. I mean, come on. With a race called "Demons".....

The Admiral looked at the others, then at the creature. "Angels? Let me guess. You've been visting Terra on and off for thousands of years?" She seemed dubious, but who wouldn't?

"Ah, who cares about all that? All I'm concerned with is the safety of my nation and my fleet... what are these Demons and why do they seem pissed off at the universe?"

"Why yes, we have been visiting your planet, as well as many others. We where observing your progress"

The being began pacing a bit around the room, gliding.

"Even before galaxies had formed, the globular clusters where already shining bright, which is why our stars are in their final stages of life. We and the Demons are the oldest races in this group of Galaxies. The Demons and we have been at war since we both discovered space flight. The galaxy itself has been our battlefield, as we have tried to reach each other's cluster"

The being glided back over to the group of fleet commanders.

"Thousends of years ago, the Demons realized that the Zoir had become a threat. Rather then ally with them, they tried to destroy them to keep them from joining us. Until recently, we have figured that you where all too "primitive" to become a major player in this war. But when you repelled that demon fleet years ago, we knew that you had become advanced enough"

Captain Francks smiled. He made a mental note to file this globular cluster under "Heaven" on the star charts.
"If you've been at war with the Demons for so long, how come you've not won already? Seems you pretty much outclass them, going on what just happened."

"We are equal to them in strength. We have not yet been able to beat them. The reason we delt them a major blow this day was because it was a small fleet, and your combined forces had already weakened them"

"So there are three main races that predates all life in the Local Group... you, Zoir and Demon. You can't beat them, but they can't beat you..." Taking a few steps around to the 'angel', Munro hmms.

"So, now that you've seen that other races can stand up to these Demons, you want us to help end the war. If it's going on so long, it'll take generations to do that..." She looked at the Ineffable officer. Unlike him, the young Admiral didn't seem pleased at all.

She turned back to the alien and crossed her arms. "Excuse me for being so... human, but if that is why you brought us here, what's in this for us? War is a large expense... and this war sounds like it could bankrupt continents."

"Its been going on so long because the balance of power was equal. But now that the galaxy is civilized, the balance is tipped. The war can end soon" The being lifted up his hands, and an orb dropped from above. It was about the size of a large bouncy ball. Images of countless battles and slaughters appeared on it, as well as a map of the galaxy as the being kept speaking.

"Contrary to popular belief, the Zoir are not all that old. While their empire was the greatist in the actual galaxy in its day, it only discovered space travel a few hundred thousend years ago. Other, smaller races where already around when they began their wars of conquest. Orions, Ithni, Elarians, Atlantians, Feeli, and countless others. Most where swollowed by the Zoir after they defeated the demon invasion of the galaxy. Some, like the Elarians and you Terrans, managed to keep out of reach of the Zoir before they fell"

The being sighed "And so you ask the question, whats in it for you. Well, for one, the demons will be gone. No more threat from there. And two...we can show you how to work in harmony. War will become a thing of the past. Your galaxy will enter a new golden age, and will become a beacon of light to the rest of the local group. And from there, the light will spread, until all have heared the word. From the Andromada galaxy to the Magellinic clouds, all will be united. All will be at peace"

OOC: Where the hell is everyone? The only two still posting here from time to time is TST and Crimmond. Where are the rest of you? I'm planning on an actual story arc with the demons and angels...and I need people to be able to do it!

OOC: AO, you don't perchance know if the original Demon Wars thread survived do you? I searched for it but couldn't find it :(
IC:
Captain Francks frowned. Sure, peace was great and all, but without war he'd be out of a job...
Still, he wasn't sure he had the authority to refuse such an offer.
"Well, that doesn't sound too bad. However, I don't assume it will be an easy fight..?"

The Goblin admiral, in his stained greatcoat, slowly and carefully listened to the "angelic" being that was speaking, nodding occassionally, before sighing in confusion. Where was a BladeGoblin when you needed one?

"Zo...yezz'z wantz uzz'z elpz, roight?"

He shrugged after speaking and decided, with typical Goblin logic, that now was a good time to take a drink to calm his nerves - nerves that were already far beyond frayed and were now going into breaking point. While this is hardly an unusual state for a Goblin, it is not always to the advantage of those nearby. He sighed and reached into one of the overlarge pockets of his greatcoat, producing a bottle from within its depths, and peering at the label.

Da Not-DaT-WeeK StUFf. (60%)
HoPZcoTcH bRewrY

The Goblin smiled and took a long swallow, then seemed to remember some manners (or possibly made them up on the spot, or else learned them from somehwere) and offered the bottle to the others.

OOC: nah, its gone.

IC:

"With all of us allied together, they will stand no chance"

Vega spoke up "Why wait until now? The Demon invasion was years ago!"

"Because, he had to investigate. Make sure that you where ready"

Munroe sighed at the Angel. "Well, the Domons chose the most well defended system in the galaxy to attack. There must be thirty military alliances in Sol. If they're smart they'll leave Sol alone until last. I don't know any invader that ever sucessfully got ahold of Earth since the space races bloomed."

She ignored the goblin, as she looked at the Atlantian. "In fact, I haven't heard of Earth being ruled by any space race out there now besides the Atlantians and possibly Elarans."

"What I'm trying to say is that the Demons would have lost without your intervention today. A force three times that size would have lost, but probably destroyed a few fleets along the way."

Unlike the Captain, she was endowed with the power to shape foriegn policy for Crimmond, being second only to the Emperor or Empress. They weren't here, so it fell to her. "No war sounds nice, but it's not really viable. Even you have been at war for milenia...."

"The Demon fleet that attacked today was a minor battlegroup. I am sad to see that your people seem not to recall the last invasion almost a century ago"

Vega spoke up "The Demons where pushed back then too. As much as us Atlantians hate to say it, but Sol is invincible"

The Angel looked slightly defeated. He realized that his arguments where not getting anywhere.

"Very well. We had hoped to have a better agreement with you all" with that, the leaders where transported back to their ships.

Another being came up to the speaker. "Shall we procced with plan beta?"

"No" said the speaker "Not yet. We have to have the maximum advantage first. No weaknesses"

To be continued....sometime in the future....

The Admiral looked around at her crew, who were still staring. "Back to your stations. All hands, stand down General Quarters." She then sat down and reflected on the events. "Open a channel to that fleet."

"This is Admiral Munro. By refusing to accept one solar system is invulnerable to attack, you have just cut yourself off from a valuable ally. And in our case, perhaps made an enemy. Maybe we could tip the balence to the Demons, for a time.... then you'd be more willing to talk with us, wouldn't you?"

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

In space the ships all moved off, cables attaching to the escort ships to allow them passage into the conduit. The Juggernaut and teh Specter, towing their escorts, vanish into the vortex, heading towards Earth. No transmissions were accepted or acknowledged before they vansihed.