NationStates Jolt Archive

Sol System, asteroid belt

The freighter slowly came to a halt, its engines suddenly failing.

"What the hell?" asked one of the bridge officers, as the lights went out all over the ship, soon to be replaced by emergency lights.

"All systems are down...except emergency lights, life support, and artificial gravity" said another.

A 3rd officer turned to the second "Oh, you just noticed that?" he asked, pointing to the dead computer screens.

A faint banging could be heard, and all of the officers froze.

"You hear that?" said the 1st one.

"Ya....you think they did this?" asked the 3rd one.

"No doubt..." said the 2nd one "And that means they're free...."

"activate your weapons" said the Commander. He drew his pistol and walked out the door of the bridge. He looked to his right.

Nothing.

With a sigh of relife, he turned to the left.

He never had a chance to react. He hit the ground before his pistol did. The others drew their weapons, but only managed to get a few shots out. They too, where dead within seconds.

Atlantian Shipyards, Kuiper Belt, Sol System

Contact with the freighter had just been lost. It had suddenly vanished from scanners, as if it had been destroyed.

But it had been "destroyed" too quickly. The ship vanished instantly.

"Sir, cargo freighter 354 has been removed from our scanners" said one of the officers.

The Admiral walked over to the screen "Wasn't that the one that was supposed to fire its cargo into the sun?"

"Ya...I never figured that out. Why not just use one of our stars?"

The Admiral folded his arms "Because, we didn't want to drop the scum in our own nation. Its the principle of the thing" he studied the records "Send out a ship. I want to know what happened to the ship"

OOC: Why not indeed?

IC: The crew of MCL-SL3, a Lesui class starship, notes the disappearance of the freighter on long-range sensors and diverts to investigate.

The fentor class F starcruiser was leaving the clajer system as freighter flew right past the bridge, cutting off the sky dish.

'Captain what the hell was that?' asked Fuzz(primemiunister)

'sir we have no idea, its didn't appear on our scanners wait,' they were cut off.

'they're coming back for another pass!'

'liutenent(look i'm not great at spelling) put all power to the front shields, we can't risk a collision,'

It had been centuries since this system had contained one of Their ships, They had observed for millennia, as they did every race They came into contact with, but the time had come to observe this teeming system more closely.

So it was the small vessel (http://arcaneorder.tripod.com/taoships/synapse) slid out of the Gateway into the asteroid belt. In moments it had travelled further than most ships would be able to in ten years, travelling at the most advanced Terran FTL drives. No laws are absolute, not even the laws of physics, however costly it was to break them.

The Synapse class ship was small, perhaps three hundred metres in length, with long bladed protrusions emerging from the base and top of the craft. Its design was peculiar, particularly when considering the numerous small holes along its length, within which Living Metal stirred gently.

A scanning of the ship would suffer from severe static effects and scan-prevention, but two things could be easily identified - the energy levels were equivilent to a warship that from most races would be several kilometres long, and that there were no life-signs aboard. The ship moves alone, without escort or parent ship of any kind, as it slides gently through the asteroid field.

OOC:Fentor, how would it "come around for another pass"? Its engines are offline.

IC:

"We hit other ship!" said one "Fix ship!"

"I try, but can't!" said another in the corner, holding a bunch of wires tied together in a bow "Wires reconnected, but ship not moving!"

"Kep trying!" replied the first one.

The freighter continued to drift, as a dish slowly flew off in another direction.


The Atlantian Pyramid class light cruiser Bastion approched the cargoship's last known position, cloaked. It was an older class of ship, in more the shape of a bulky pyramid instead of new ships, which where streamlined vessels. But it did its job well, even if it was less manuverable. it had a silver hull, with lines of metaphasic blue horizontally crossing the ship at multiple points, indicating the location of the jump drives.

The Beta Aurigae MC-80B star cruiser was performing its regular patrol duties near the edge of Beta Aurigean territory. There wasn't much in this remote area of space but every so often, something interesting happened.

"Sir, we have picked up a relay from one of our scanning stations in the Sol System," said Commander Alec Stoll. "Unknown vessels are converging on what appears to be an Atlantian Outcasts freighter."

"Atlantian Outcasts," replied Captain Shawn Knight, "I'm not familiar with them. What do you know about that region of space?"

"Unfortunatly not much sir. It's a region of space inhabited by a decent number of civilizations one of them being Atlantian Outcasts."

"Do we have any confirmed contact with them in the past," inquired Knight.

"No sir," replied Stoll, "What are your orders?"

"Send a message to the Council and inform them of the situation and that we are moving to investigate," ordered Knight.

"Aye sir."

With that finished Knight turned to his navigator, "Plot a course for that ship and initiate as soon as Commander Stoll had terminated contact with the council."

"Yes sir. Our ETA to that ship is 3 hours."

"Very good, have Commander Stoll inform me when we have arrived," ordered Knight as he wallked to the lift.

ooc: it's floating it could do anything.

ic: 'sir there's another ship approaching, loks like its after this the frieghter,'

'are you sure we have no information on this ship,'

'sorry sir but we can't find anything. with the scanners not picking it up we can't even tell if there is lifeforms,'

'damn,' he hit the control table.'contact that other ship, we'll see if they know anything about it,'

OOC: Call me "Atlantis", or "Atlantian", Beta. Forget the "Outcasts" thing

Fentor: Remember Newton's law: "Things that are in motion in one direction tend to stay in motion in one direction, things at rest tend to stay at rest". But whatever.

IC:

Cirrus-Atlantian Home System

"I told you we should have dumped it in one of our own stars" said Senator Intar.

"I told you we shouldn't have done this at all" Admiral Vega added.

Once the news of the missing frighter had hit the senate floor, an emergency meeting had been arranged between Senators Andromada, Intar, Atlantia, Admiral Vega, and Head Sciantist Rathma.

"What would you have us do?" asked Andromada "Let them continue their rebellion?"

"Thats what I don't get" said Rathma, looking out the window "They aren't sentient. At least not by any of the hundereds of tests that we've done"

"Maybe they are sentent" Atlantia replied.

Rathma shook his head "I don't know what it is, but they've never shown signs of intelligence before. Maybe its a recessive trait, or-"

"That wouldn't explain this sudden behavior" said Vega "And if they are sentent, then we've done two gross errors. One, we underestimated our enemy. Two, we are commiting genocide"

"Admiral Vega" said Intar "They are not sentent. Sciance is infallable"

"And besides, peace is too far lost now" Andromada added "We must finish what we've started....weather we like it or not. And all future frighters will be dumped into our own star system's stars. No more errors"

"What about the freighter?" asked Atlantia.

"I've already dispached the Bastion to intercept the frighter before anyone else can. They shall inspect the frighter, and then nutralize it. The Terrans, in fact, any species, will NOT know the truth about our race. It is a terrible burdan for any species to have, but we have it. And if word gets out..." Vega trailed off.

"Then we lose all respect" Rathma finished.

"What are the ship's orders if others get their first?" asked Intar.

Vega sighed "Nutralize, and leave no evidence. No one will know the contents of the frighter, and no one will know what we where there"

Jeff Gorjoske sat in the commanders chair, rubbing his forehead. They had been monitoring this freightor that had suddenly disapeared off scanners. Apparantly it had atracted other's attention as well. He turned and looked at a tech who was shouting something to another, he then looked back at the ground.

"Sir," A leuitenant said approaching. "Here are the latest updates on activity."

The Admiral took the papers and looked them over. "So there is a ship in there with the one that went off scanners?"

"Apparantly so," The leuitenant said.

"Where did the freightor come from?"

"Atlantis, sir," The Leuitenant replied.

"Make contact with them, see if they know more about this than we do," Admiral Gorjoske said.

Atlantis, our scanners have picked up that one of your freightors have mysteriously disapeared. We figure you are as confused by this as we are, we also wish to send in some of our men to investigate this with you. Might be the edge of a new scientific breakthrough. We will await a reply.

Response to Techon

We know of the situation. Thank you for your consideration, but no help is needed. The freighter is carrying nothing more then a few waste products from our production centers. It was enroute to dump it in your system's star. Please do not approch the freighter, it will be delt with shortly. Thank you for your cooperation

OOC: Holy hell. This got crowded fast.

IC: As the Mirfakan vessel emerges from planespace, they detect several other vessels in the vicinity. The commander quickly decides that they are not needed and the ship sets course back to its original patrol site.

Captain Knight awoke with a start as the comlink next to his bed went off. After he had reoriented himself, Knight reached for the comlink and spoke into it, "What is it?"

"Sir, we are coming up on the Atlantian ship."

"I'm on my way, begin your preliminary scans."

"Aye sir."

Five minutes later, Knight was on the bridge looking at the somewhat hectic scene before him. A good majority of his bridge crew was moving about as they tried to collect data on the Atlantian ship. Meanwhile, Captain Knight and Commander Stoll were talking in low voices about the other ships that had moved into the area.

"I don't see why we even need to be here sir," argued Stoll, "The other ships seem to have the situation well in hand."

"Something doesn't feel right about this whole thing and if something happens we need to be here to help solve it. We're too far into the situation already to just up and leave," countered Knight.

Stoll opened his mouth to argue some more but stopped before he got started. He had served with Knight long enough to know that once he was set on something you couldn't presude him differently. And besides, no matter how much Stoll didn't like the way this whole thing was shaping up he had to admit it had been a long time since something exciting happened.

Stoll's thoughts were interupted when one of the bridge officers came up and handed a data pad to the Captain. Stoll read it over Knight's shoulder. The preliminary sensor scans showed that there were no life signs aboard the ship but there was a significant ammount of bio matter near the bridge area. This probably ment the whole crew was dead. All other readings on the ship were scetchy at best, what they really needed was to get a scanning crew on board that ship to find out what happened.

Turning to the captain Stoll said, "I recommend we send a scanning crew aboard to search the ship and find out what caused this whole thing."

"I agree with you completely commander, however for now I must turn down your request until I speak with the other ship captain's. I can safely assume that if any boarding attempt is made they will want it to be a joint effort. We can also assume that the Atlantians are aware of this incident and have dispatched a ship to investigate. In the mean time, get a squad of List'ten commandos ready to board the other ship."

"Do you really believe the situation is serious enough to warrant using the List'ten," asked Stoll.

"Better safe than sorry Commander. Besides if anything does happen I want the List'ten ready for action. They are some of the best fighters in the galaxy."

"Right sir," replied Stoll as he hurried off.

Knight turned to his communications officer, "Send a message to the other ships asking to set up a joint meeting to discuss this situation and a possible boarding party."

"Aye sir," replied the officer.

Coded Message to Fentor:
This is the Beta Aurigean starcruiser Red Dawn, Captain Shawn Knight commanding. The captain requests an audience with your commanding officer to discuss joint procedure in this operation. He awaits your speedy reply.

The Arcanite craft turned gently in space, the thousands of sigils and words inscribed along its hull in the ancient the tongue of the Arcane Order flashed as the sun caught them, making the ship appear like it was covered in a glowing blue net.

The ship moves toward the freighter's location...the Masters were nothing if not curious, and They would wish it investigated. Throughout the ship the Living Metal stirred gently, rippling and swirling within stasis fields and the Inner Hull. Every movement of every asteroid and ship was registered, excepting only the cloaked vessel...and the movement of that was already being estimated by the ancient ship's sensory devices, every minute making the estimation more accurate.

Whatever intelligence was guiding the craft, it was not volunteering any information, and nor did it seem to care about the presence of the other, potentially hostile, ships in the area.

'sir the other ship appears to be from Beta Aurigae and they also wish to make contact,'

'excellent, put them on the front screen,' Some buzzing came from the front computers and then the captain of the Beta Aurigae appeared.

Greetings captain,

The commander of the Bastion watched the other ships swarm around the frighter as they approached.

"Send a message to the Kuiper belt shipyards" he said to his crew "We might need backup"

"Aye sir" replied the communications officer.

The Commander issued another order to the tactical officer "Decloak us"

The tactical officer nodded, and did what he was told.

"Open a channel" said the Commander.

Attention, all non-Atlantian vessels, this is Commander Roth of the Atlantian cruiser Bastion. You are approaching Atlantian property. Please stand down and retreat from the area, we have this under control. Repeat, please remove your vessels from the area, we will deal with this

The Commander looked at the tactical officer "Charge weapons and fire at the frighter"

"Yes sir" he said. The Bastion fired a beam of red orcialic energy at the freighter, causing a small explosion on the hull.

"Fire agian" the Commander ordered.

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

The frighter shook violently, as the beings onboard struggled to get the wires they had cut back together agian.

"Bow tie does not work!" said one, undoing the mess another one had done.

"Need something...sticky...tape! Get tape!" it shouted. Another being took the tape that had been on the counter and gave it to the working being.

"Tape work!" it shouted, as it connected the two wires together with duct tape. Suddenly the main lights came back online, as another hit from the other Atlantian ship shook the vessel.

"Do other wires!" said another one, taking the tape and helping to fix the wires.

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

The frighter came to life, and opened a salvo of Ion blasts at the Bastion as it flew by. The Bastion replied with another two red beams of energy.

The ship shook as Commander Roth watched the vessel go to full impulse speed.

"Shit" he said "Cloak us, and have us follow that ship!"

The Bastion vanished as fast as it had appeared, but the frighter did not....as long as one had good scanners that where useful for finding things in asteroid belts...

OOC: bump

IC:

"Sir, we've lost the frighter on our scanners. We arn't designed to traverse dense asteroid belts" said the tactical officer.

"Keep searching, they're around here somewhere" Commander Roth said.

OOC: Anyone else, find them if you wish. Keep the story going.

OOC: Oh hell no. This RP is NOT going to crash and burn. I'm gonna have at least one decent RP that dousn't involve full scale war with the Demons. And this is gonna be possibly the best one I've ever done if we get far enough into it. BUMP.

OOC: Sorry about not posting, my computer has been acting up recently and this is the first time I've been able to get on and post. Fentor, I just send a regular message. There is no visual, think of it as a telegram. In other words, you need to respond either with something of the like or an active transmission.

IC: When the skirmish began, Captain Knight was on his way to the bridge in anticipation of the reply from the Fentor ship. Warning lights flashed throughout the ship as the deflector shields were raised and weapons placed online. Knight sprinted to the nearest lift and headed to the bridge.

"Report," he called as he stroad from the lift onto the bridge.

"We got a breif transmission from the Atlantian ship and then the frieghter opened fire on her. The frieghter then moved into hyperspace and the Atlantian ship cloaked and probably followed them," reported Commander Stoll.

"Is there any sign of the freighter on our scanners."

"No sir, she's disappeared into the asteroid belt."

"Damn," said Stanley, "See if you can get a contact through to the Atlantian government and find out what is going on here. What about the Fentor ship."

Stoll rattled off an order to one of the bridge crew before replying, "We're still waiting for a reply from them."

OOC: Hope I can still join in.

IC:
The Explorer Ship Eternal Watcher of the Stargazer Clan, 2nd Fleet, was slowly manoeuvring through the asteroid field, scanning each asteroid for anything of interest, signs of life, mineral deposits, anything the Stargazers might want to know about. So far, up to this point, this asteroid belt had been the most boring one the Eternal Watcher had ever studied. Just deposits of iron, which, while valuable and were recorded for possible mining, were not of great interest to the Stargazers.

However, a new item had just focused the Eternal Watcher's interest. A cargo vessel of some sort, travelling at dangerously high speeds for one so primitive, was careening through the asteroid belt, narrowly missing several large asteroids.

The freighter was not broadcasting any known ID signals, so the Eternal Watcher made a decision. Time to make contact. The ship made a simple, open-ended transmission.

***
WideBeam M1 ClearText Transmission
x: Explorer Ship Eternal Watcher
o: Unidentified Vessel

Greetings, fellow spacetravellers. I am the Eternal Watcher, of the 2nd Fleet, Stargazer Clan. Who are you?
[Standard Stargazer greeting/handshake-burst appended]

It had been three days and still no reply from the Atlantian government. They had waited long enough.

"Take us into the perimeter of the asteroid belt," ordered Knight.

"Aye sir."

The ship stopped at the edge of the belt.

"Launch the fighters. Tell them to scan for anything that could have belonged to that freighter. Energy signatures, hull fragments, anything."

"Right away captain," aknowledged Stoll.

They were going to find that ship if it was the last thing they did. Meanwhile the launch bay doors had opened and both A and B-Wing starfighters streamed out and began to comb the asteroid belt in search of the freighter.