NationStates Jolt Archive

The bridge was dark as the mesage came over the system from the Lagpunkt. It commanded them to move out immediately, to follow the Urso of the Engineer's Guild beacon set. The Thilite Marines hesitantly approached the control throne, on which was seated Algiers of the Varangian Guard. She was dozing, just a hint of yellowish glow from beneath her eye lids, her breathing steady and deep, every now and again exhaling choking chlorine gas.

The Thiltes crept forward and halted a few feet away, timidly cowering. From the ceiling a head and a hand attached to a thin, snake like body extended, the ships Construct peered at the Thilites.

"Cowardly beasts. I will alert Varangian Algiers, you lot man your stations." the Construct moved to dangle just above Algiers and in a booming voice announced
"Orders have arrived from Warlord Abatos , we are to depart."

Algiers slowly opened her eyes, her eyes cast a pale yellow light ahead of them like headlamps, she swept her gaze around the bridge, sending the Thilites cowering and shivering, she then turned upwards and looked at the Construct.

"Depart, Voltaug? Where to pray tell?"

The Construct replied " I am uncertain , we are to simply lock onto and follow Engineer Urso's beacon set."

Algiers nodded "Alert the Control Group to take jump positions, return the MOBAT's to dock and divert all power to the trans-hyper jump drive. Do a sweep of the beacon set locale and select a destination point.

The Construct and Thilites went busily about their tasks. The Voltaug Command Warship stayed put as the ten Dyan-XD Cruisers clustered in formation around it, the MOBAT drones locked themselves into the belly of the Voltaug Warship.

One of the Thilites turned "All is in place, we are prepared to depart , your excellency."

Algiers nodded "Deploy the field and make it so."

With that, a large energy field eveloped the entire group of ships and in a flash, they were gone.

*****

Across the galactic rim from Commonwealth space, just outside of the Kuiper Belt in the system of Sol the ships reappeard in a flash. The Voltaug sat defenceless and motionless as it recouped the power used for the jump, but the Dyan Cruisers immediately spread out in a defensive arc, the MOBAT drones dropped from the belly of the Voltaug , adding more firepower to the arc.

Algiers stood in the nearly completely black bridge, her eyes providing the only light. "How long until we are powered back up?"

"Ten minutes, your excellency." A Thilite grunted.

About ten minutes later the Voltaug began powering back to life, the ships Construct powered back up "Algiers, Engineer Urso appears to be in orbit around the third planet from the sun. The system appears to have moderately heavy traffic."

Algiers nodded "As soon as we are powered back up, half ahead, maintian battle readiness."

She sat down and relaxed as the ship waited to regain full power.

OOC: Links about The Navigators and this thread: The Navigators (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=342114)

The Sol connection (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=402141)

Algiers of the Varangian Guard:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v737/commonwealthnav/Algiers.jpg

3000 Light years away aboard "Eagle One" the Tekanian Stellar Forces Station orbiting the main planet of the Tekanian Home System, Fleet Admiral Warner looks over his console...

********** TRANSMISSION : LISTENING POST GEDRA-A-1 **********
Unknown ships are reported in hostile formation in the Terran System.

ALERT:Violation of the Protected Planets Treaty....

Require Immediate dispatch to resolve situation.....

********** END ***********

The Fleet Admiral looks in wonder.... This is the first time the GEDRA alliance had been challenged..... He reaches to his console....

"Commander, open up channels to the Loki, give them orders for immediate dispatch to GEDRA system Alpha-one..." says FADM Warner.

"Alpha-One? Sir, that is Sol...." The commander replies...

"Yes, tell Admiral Hood that he has orders to difuse a violation of a PPT...." the FADM responds...

_________________________________________________

Aboard the TRSS Loki, Vice Admiral Franklin Hood commanding....

"Sir," responds Lt. Mellus, the communications officer, "we are receiving fleet orders from Eagle-One. We are to dispatch immediatly to GEDRA-ALPHA-ONE... The Sol system. Possible PPT violation..."

"What?", shouts the VADM, startled.... "Helm!, prepare for K-Tube insertion, TSF-BETA-TWO-FOUR, Sol system... Place us near Sol-III."

__________________________________________________

Massive energies build... within moments a massive wormhole opens before the TRSS Loki... At the same time, thousands of lightyears away, a similar opening forms near Terra.... The TRSS Loki slips effortlessly into the opening, and seconds later exits the apature near Terra... followed by the wormhole slamming shut behind it.....

It begins transmitting a message....

This is the Tekanian Republic Stellar Ship Loki, BETA-GAMMA-SIGMA-THREE-THREE, Vice Admiral Franklin Hood commanding, Sector Control Vessel of the Tekanian Stellar Fleet... Representing the GEDRA Alliance... GEDRA system ALPHA-ONE, Code TSF-BETA-TWO-FOUR, the Sol system and Terra are protected under the Galactic Exploratory and Defense Alliance Protected Planets Treaty... Terra is not a space-faring planet... And interference with the planet or its inhabitants will do irrepairable harm to the natural development of the planet... Unknown vessels, we request your intentions in this system, and warn that any hostile act will be construed as a violation of the Protected Planets Treaty, and can lead to retalliation by one of more members of the GEDRA, persuant to Treaty stipulations... (message repeats)...

_____________________________________

OOC:
TRSS Loki, BSG-33

Kali Class Sector Control Vessel:
Mass: 2,886,800,000 Metric Tons.
Length:3,060 meters.
Height: 650 meters.
Beam: 1,200 meters.

Total Compliment:8,500(standard); 9,500(max).

The Voltaug Construct dipped back down beside Algiers.

"We are receiving a hail from alien ships." It pauses and translates the message and plays it:


This is the Tekanian Republic Stellar Ship Loki, BETA-GAMMA-SIGMA-THREE-THREE, Vice Admiral Franklin Hood commanding, Sector Control Vessel of the Tekanian Stellar Fleet... Representing the GEDRA Alliance... GEDRA system ALPHA-ONE, Code TSF-BETA-TWO-FOUR, the Sol system and Terra are protected under the Galactic Exploratory and Defense Alliance Protected Planets Treaty... Terra is not a space-faring planet... And interference with the planet or its inhabitants will do irrepairable harm to the natural development of the planet... Unknown vessels, we request your intentions in this system, and warn that any hostile act will be construed as a violation of the Protected Planets Treaty, and can lead to retalliation by one of more members of the GEDRA, persuant to Treaty stipulations...

Algiers listens and then shrugs "Send a reply along the same channel." Algiers then dictates her reply.

"This is Algiers of The Autarch's own Varangian Guard commanding Fleet Control Group-E. We are not aware of or have never heard of GEDRA. We are on approach to the third planet from the sun of this system, responding to a beacon set by Engineers in service of the Autarch. This Terra as you call it, Has already been in contact with, and is working with The Autarch's Engineer and appointed Ambassador.

We do not intend any harm and have only switched to alert status simply because we are entering an unknown and uncharted system. Hindering a peaceful mission to aid and or retrieve servants of The Autarch, will be frowned upon.

I thank you."

The Voltaug's construct translates and sends the message back to the Tekanian ship.

Algiers returns to her seat " Slow to one fifth, let's not stir anyone else up unnecessarily."

The ships then began moving past Pluto and into the Kuiper Belt.

VADM Hood looks at the message on his display....

"Lieutenant," commands VADM Hood, "send to Eagle-One that the alien vessels have reported they intend no harm.... Request further orders... And, Tactical, I want you to monitor the aliens through all their activities... Raise shields, leave armor and weapons off-line for now...... Reply to their message....

Shields come to life over the Loki... as she holds station in orbit of Sol-III...


Alien vessel... This is the TRSS Loki, we acknowledge receipt of your message. We will be holding station and monitoring your activities as per the PPT. We encourage you not to take any actions which may be construed as hostile....

Algiers smiled at the response "Send a response along the same channel again if you would Voltaug."

"We thank you for your understanding and consideration. The Autarch will be most pleased."

It was translated and sent along by the ships Construct again, along the same channel.

The Construct bobbed it's head down by Algiers again. " My sensors show that the message came from a lone ship, much smaller than even the Dyan-XD Cruisers, we could simply eliminate the aliens."

Algiers shrugged "As fast as they showed up, someone is watching and would know if we acted with aggression. It is better to placate them and get closer to see exactly waht we are dealing with. Can we contact Ambassador-XD yet, or Engineer Urso?"

The Construct bobbed "As of yet, no. We have entired an asteroid field and with the disruption shields at full power we wil have to wait until we pass through."

Algiers nodded again "Wake me when we are through." she relaxes and dozes.

*****

The ships continue on towards Terra,slowly and caustiously, moving through the Kuiper Belt , their disruption shields sending the asteroid and other objects bouncing away from the ships.

Tiburon Kuiper Belt/Oort Cloud Territories, Fort Tarakawasa

An unidentified force was moving towards Tarakawasa's general area. Fast. It didn't have any recognizable registration... so, naturally, Commander Swaminathan had no choice but to open the template for adding a new nation to the Tiburonese databases. And, of course, send out a few messages.

To: Unidentified Military Force
From: Tiburon KBOC Defense Force
Subject: Current Path

You are currently en route to a Tiburonese space defense fort. Please inform us of your intentions, your destination, as well as which nation you belong to, and alter your route 1.8 degrees to the left in the Y direction, assuming you are traveling 90 degrees from 0 in the Y direction. Thank you.

To: Tiburonese Pluto and KBOC Defense Forces
From: Fort Taragawa, T-KBOC
Subject: Unidentified Military Force

There is an unidentified military force heading towards us. I have complied with Directive 10-A, and the force is of sufficiently large size to warrant an action alert in case force is hostile.

The Voltaug's Construct bobbed down beside Algiers, yet again. " We are being contacted again."

Algiers opened her eyes slowly and sat up. "What do they want now?"

The Construct 'smiled' "Different aliens this time, we are apparently nearing one of their defensive installations.They have requested that we alter course and identify ourselves."

Algiers grumbled "Identify ourselves......I know who I am do they who they are? Alter course as they request and transmit the following."

Algiers once again dictated a message:

"Tiburon KBOC Defense Force, This is Algiers of The Autarch's own Varangian Guard in command of Fleet Control Group-E. We have altered course as requested. We are in this system responding by a beacon set by a member of the Guild of Engineers who is currently operating in this area by command of The Autarch. We have no hostile intent and have armed our defences simply because we are entering a new and uncharted system. Hindering a peaceful mission to retrieve or aid servants of The Autrach will be frowned upon."

It was dutifully translated and sent by the ship's Construct, who then turned to Algiers "We will be through the debris field shortly. I will communicate with Ambassador-XD as soon as is possible."

Algiers frowned "Why can we communicate with these aliens and not XD?"

The Construct wagged it's finger "Ambassador-XD's communications array is much smaller and much less powerful, we can send messages, but there is no way the Ambassador could respond."

Algiers slumped in her chair "You have an answer for everything."

To: Varangian Guard
From: Tiburon KBOC Defense Force
Subject: Current Path

Non-hostility and path adjustment acknowleged. If the Varangian Guard wishes, we may be able to exchange information- we have updated system charts of this planetary system, but we wish some information on your nation as well as any cartographical data you have to add to the national and international databases. Would this be acceptable?

--------------------------------------------
To: Tiburon Pluto and KBOC Defense Forces
From: Fort Taragawa, T-KBOC
Subject: Unidentified Force

Force is non-hostile and has complied with requests, recommend termination of action alert status. Standard data exchange possible.

Algiers had the Construct send along a rely:

"Tiburon KBOC Defense Force, I am not at liberty to accept any requests for such an exchange. I will pass along the offer to the Guild of Messengers so that an appropriate envoy may contact you. Thank you for your patience."

The Construct tsked "You have more authority than the Messengers."

Algiers grinned and relaxed "Quite right, but you know my motto 'Can't somebody else do it?' " She chuckled

The Construct replied "Such lazy and deceitful creatures you Varangians are."

Algiers shrugged "Yeah, but what can you do about it?"

The Construct merely returned to it's housing without an answer.

Kuiperbelt

The Invisible Hand was one of the remaining commercial vessels, its core surviving the cataclysm. Now it had been hired by the survivors on Triton, to find, mine, and refine asteorids in the belt. Which was pretty much the very thing the Invisible Hand had been doing for years, anyway.

She was returning home, slowly, taking her time, and she enjoyed microgravity, anyway, so there was no need for further acceleration. Instead she just floated inside the narrow corridors of, well, herself, occasionally having a chat with one of the semi-sentient drones (One in particular striked her as curious, and it wasn't impossible for it to reach full sentience, in which case she would have someone to play with) on board.

Asteorids, debris from previous battles, happening dozens, even hundreds of years ago, her senses finding a way through all of this, reaching out to see, well, even more asteorids and space.

Her body, a vast mixture of various kinds of materials, biological, organic, ceramic, metallic, continued, idly refining the minerals in question, searching out what would be useful and profitable, and dumping the rest, leaving the occasional cloud of microasteorids.

Well, that was what she was usually doing, this time, however...

She was still floating in the core, sleepily, her dreamy eyes looking reasonably cute, as she heard a drone entering, crawling along the walls (Floaty ones were far to expensive for her).

"Yes?"

She prepared to listen to the high, whistling voice of the drone, knowing that it annoyed the drone more than most otherthings. it preferred non-verbal communications. Which was, incidentally, the reason for Invisible Hand to use said verbal communications.

"Group of ships ahead. The usual kind of oversized steel penii out here. Talking... about something."

"Something?" She sighed.

"Something. Ok, something about new arrival, and, well, ah, here is the Tekanian message."

Invisible Hand DLed the message into the artificial parts of her brain, looked at it, and laughed out, throwing her head back, which, given microgravity, resulted in more or less comical, chaotic movements of her body. She took some moments to stabilise herself. "That's... Wow. BWHAHAHAHAHA. How old is their data? Several thousand years? 'Protected system'. It has the densest population in the known universe, the most developed economy, the largest military assets... Admittedly divided between several ten thousand nations, but still."

"Like a fly trying to protect an elephant, yes. I found it mildly amusing, too."

"Yes, yes. Well, an amoeba trying to protect an entire herd of elephants. So... Ah. The others... Tiburon? I recall something..."

"Applied for MIDAS II, I believe. If the news we get from Mars are correct, the Mars faction isn't overly pleased with this."

Invisible Hand snorted. "We're not working for the Mars faction, and we're not a part of it, either. I couldn't care less."

"Well..." The drone, MD 12/01, nicknamed 'Barry', hesitated. "We could monitor and sell 'intelligence' information."

"Ummm... You do recall that we're a mining vessel, not a cruiser, yes?"

"Yes. Hence why they wont give a damn when we're crossing territory."

"Point. Still, if someone complains, we run for it."

With that it was settled, and accelerating with roughly 9m/s^2, the Invisible Hand changed its course, a little. Not to bring it right in, but as Invisible Hand was a reasonably curious woman, she had to ask herself 'Why not?'

Having thought that, she resumed contemplating just why they had noticed that one ship, while the quite literally countless others hadn't even be noticed. Must be some severe problem with their sensors. I wonder if they need help repairing them.

ooc: Seeing as one can hardly encode a message when you intend to contact someone you had no previous contact with, and seeing as there was no tightbeam-something mentioned, yes, I presume I received the message, too. As well as countless other sol-based spacefaring nations and tens of thousands of ships.

"Receiving transmission from Eagle-One, sir..." says the communications officer.... "They are dispatching 10 more vessels... We are to assume fleet command status upon their arrival. Fleet Admiral Warner has acknowledged and approved your present mission plans to stand-by and monitor activities..."

"Thank you... ships?" responds VADM Hood.

"The SCV's Kali, Ganesha, Orion, Pegasus, Chronos, Tiamat and Freyre, and the dreadnaughts Lexington, Chancelorsville and Ashland...." responds the comm officer.

_____________

Moments later, 10 wormholes begin forming over Terran space.... 7 ships of identical configuration to the Loki begin emerging:

TRSS Kali, BSGX-16; TRSS Ganesha, BSG-18; TRSS Orion, BSG-19; TRSS Pegasus, BSG-20; TRSS Chronos, BSG-21; TRSS Tiamat, BSG-24; TRSS Freyre, BSG-32.....

In addition to three more smaller vessels, about 508,800,000 metric tons, and 1.8km in length... of similar proportions:

TRSS Lexington, DN-102; TRSS Chancelorsville, DN-107; TRSS Ashland, DN-114...

Voltaug snapped back to life as it's sensors showed more wormholes and additional ships belonging to the mysterious Tekanian Stellar Republic. The Construct once again dangled it's head down ner the dozing Varangian.

"Algiers, more warships of the previous Tekanian type have entered the system. I have also picked ups alarge, apparently late model mining vessel nearby."

Algiers blinked lazily "Do they pose any immediate threat?"

The Construct bobbed "At this point no."

Algiers frowned "Are we clear of the Debris field?"

The Construct bobbed "Yes, and I have contacted Ambassador-XD. She will be going down to the surface of Terra for a meeting with some planetary government, we are merely required to retrieve Engineer Urso and maintain a presence in this system until instructed otherwise."

Algiers snorts, sending a puff of chlorine gas into the air "They could have told us all of that before we left? Now, don't disturb me unless something important comes up."

The Construct 'frowned' "Very well."

The shisp now free of the Kuiper Belt continued on towards Terra at a slow speed.

*****

Meanwhile the Neo-Tiburon Vessel received a tight beam trabsmission from deep space:

*****Begin Transmission*****

Tiburon KBOC Defense Force, I am Othello, Messenger of the Autarch. I have been informed of your contact with FCG-E in the system of SOL. I have also been forwarded you offer to exchange information. The Autarch is most pleased to accept this offer.

If it is acceptable, The Autarch will dispatch to a location of your choosing his Amnbassador to discuss such intelligence transactions, and any other transcations that may be of interest to both parties.

I await your reply.

Othello, Messenger of the Autarch.


*****
The Invisible Hand found herself watched by the largest of the Commonwealth ships as she crept closer, but once free of the Kuiper Belt the interest waned and the Invisible Hand was once again free to putter about, undisturbed.

OOC:
When I entered Sol, I did state that we had seen 'moderately heavy traffic'. I only posted seeing the one Tekanian Warship, as it was the one contacting us. Ships that don't contact or hinder the Commonwealth fleet, probably won't be mentioned. Silly AI ;)

The wormholes begin to destabilize and close behind the new Tekanian vessels...

___________________________-

"Comm," says VADM Hood, "Tell the fleet to set condition three, full defensive readiness... The Loki will remain the olive branch, tell Vice Admiral DuPuy on the Kali that he is to take command of the fleet if neccessary..."

"Aye sir..." responds the communications officer....

"And give me tactical of the approaching ships...." commands VADM Hood.

The science officer spins around, "Sir, overall the fleet is somewhat outnumbered, we do not have adequate information of the targets shields or weapon systems for a full analysis... Propulsion appears to be some form of dimentional jump technology... Thought exact form does not match anything in known databanks... Though appears somewhat close to a race we encoutered a few years ago in Galaxy M52, and I am postulating that it may indeed match such technology... Life reading a varied, I assume most of the compliment is composed of being roughly humanoid, possibly a terran offshoot... Though there is a definite presence of other species of unknown classification... Origin is unknown... And dimentional jumps would be as hard to postulate origination as K-tube transit.... I am also picking up a mining vessel in the system near the moon Triton, likely it is from one of the more advanced Terran nations, or possibly one of the Terra's early colony worlds..."

"Hail the merchant..." says VADM Hood...
_____________________________________

A narrow beam multi-channel transmission is sent towards Triton....[/b]

Unknown commercial vessel in the vicinity of Triton, this is Vice Admiral Hood, commanding officer of the Tekanian Republic Stellar Ship Loki... We have detected your presence, and enquire of any knowledge you may have of the approaching vessels in this system... We will be awaiting your response.... (Message ends)

___________________________

[i]The newer vessels landing bay pods, begin retracking into the ships hull... except the Loki's.... and a skin of "armor" 6mm thick mostly neutronium grows around their hulls like a fungus, and shields raise... though weapons remain unpowered...

Voltaug watched as the new ships entered the system and armed themselves. It bobbed about uncetainly for several minutes, unsure of whether this constituted information important enough to bother the Varangian with. It eventually did lower itself back down near Algiers head.

"The wormholes have disgorged additional Tekanian warships. They have armed their weapons and taken defensive positions."

Algiers exhaled another cloud of chlorine gas, this time it suffocated a nearby Thilite who gasped, choked and then expired with not a little twitching. " Have they made any aggressive move to attack yet?" She asked.

"Not as of yet. I am doing a comprehensive scan of their weaponry and defensive systems now to determine their capabilities. Due to the MOBAT drones we still have a slight numerical advantage." The Construct patiently explained.

Algiers nodded "Stay on alert, keep our current heading, just keep a close eye on them. Once your scan has completed , pinpoint their weaknesses and report them to me. Alert me if they take further action."

The Construct bobbed. As the Voltaug moved closer it was able to initiate a deep scan of the Tekanian ships, something they were very likely to notice. The Construct limited the scan to the Kali, as all the ships appeared to be of the same design, the Kali with it's weapons powered would give the best indication of the ships capabilities.

The Commonwealth fleet continued towards it's destination.

OOC: Navigator technology and background (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=342114)

Are Teknania's ships posted anywhere?

OOC: TRSS Kali, BSGX-16...

First of the Line Kali class, Sector Control Vessel (Experimental)

Relative Mass: 2,886,800,000 metric tons.

Length: 3060 meters
Height: 640 meters
Beam:1,200 meters...

Lifesigns.... 8,500 onboard

2 Landing Launchbay pods... approximately 1,000 kilometers in length, 200 meters across...

Presence of 26 fighters already staged in rapid launch tubes outboard of the landing bay pods... Other fighters present on the flight deck... Approximately 150 small fighters preped for launch...

small craft.... 1,000 starfighters, weapon systems Phased Particle and MAM warheads... 800 Assault shuttles, heavy armor, point defense weapons... 200 heavy shuttles, possibly cargo carriers....

Power generation detected.... 5 zero-point mass, quantum sigularity reactors

Propulsion systems... 4 Spatial impulse drives, sublight speeds, about .6c max theoretical...
Unknown FTL, unknown element detected in engineering, atomic number 234... Unknown purpose.... possible FTL drive component... 300 tons, ring shaped located in core of ship fore of main engineering systems, plasma conduits feeding directly into the system...

Weapons...
700 Phased paricle cannons, covering all arcs....
200 Point Defense cannons....
96 missile tubes, approximately 1300 warheads aboard, 800 Matter-Antimatter(MAM), 500 Zero-point....

Defensive systems:
2 independant stacked deflector shields... full coverage...
15mm of Duranium armor
6mm of neutronium/duranium armor... presence of nanites in the armor... Possibility armor is regenerative to some degree.... holds indicate presence of more duranium and neutronium in storage....

OOC:(con't) Provided stats of Kali, equal to all other vessels, smaller are "Orion-II" classification... check site in link in sig.

The perplexed Construct reported the results of the scan to Algiers.

"The main power from the ship appears to be generated by an artificial quantum singularity contained by a zero point field. The ship has a much larger number of weapons than the Dyan-XD Cruisers , or myself, but they do not appear to have as much destructive capability or range. The most dangerous weapons appear to be missle arrays armed with anti-matter torpedos, in great numbers.

The most baffling feature is that the bulk of the ship seems to be taken up by storage for hundreds, or thousands of smaller vessels with a variety of capabilities. It also appears that like me, the ships has the ability to repair itself. It's hull appears to be weaker and thinner than the Dyan-XD, but the shield generators are much more robust and may prove troublesome to punch through."

Algiers grumbled "Catalog the scans and relay it immediately to the Lagpunkt. Keep an eye on these Tekanians and if they make any aggressive move, hit them with the Razers."

The Construct bobbed "Very well.". The Voltaug then began powering up it's three Razer particle cannons, the Commonwealth Engineers believe in fewer, but much more powerful weaponry. 'Carriers' and 'fighters' had never even been considered or encountered by the Commonwealth.

OOC: I get 404 errors from your sig. links ....................Not that we're actually going to fight ;)

OOC:
When I entered Sol, I did state that we had seen 'moderately heavy traffic'. I only posted seeing the one Tekanian Warship, as it was the one contacting us. Ships that don't contact or hinder the Commonwealth fleet, probably won't be mentioned. Silly AIooc: Oh, I saw (Well, read). The post was mostly referring to Tekania and his sol protection thing.

Oh, and Tekania... The Invisible Hand has been hired by the Triton faction. It is, however, not at Triton. Hence, the 'Kuiper Belt' at the beginning of my post :P

ic:

"Well, there they go." Invisible Hand muttered, now standing on the 'ground', as the 9m/s^2 provided almost one gee. For her, it was annoying, as she preferred her usual microgravity environment, possibly as a result of her job. Over time, one got used to it. "Thought it would be more interesting than that."

She felt a little inadequate, being nowhere near the level of the ships she had just seen, but then, floating around had to be good enough, for her.

"Oh, by the way..." MD 12/01 looked up (Or rather, down, as it was still hanging on the wall) "Incoming..."

"I got it, yes. I reconnected, you know."

"Just trying to be helpful."

This things can be annoying, at times... "Ok, ok. Anyway..." She scanned through it, quickly. "Ok, lets go, compose a reply... Less boring than playing chess with you."

"I'm not responsible for my processing speed being superior to yours. Complain to t-"

"Shut-"

"he manufacturer."

"UP!"

She sighed, eventually replying. Slowly, as she was still a little tired, but keeping the biological biological parts of her brain at rest and using the rest of it, it worked out.

From: DASS Invisible Hand
To: Vice Admiral Hood, commanding officer of the Tekanian Republic Stellar Ship Loki
Subject: Re: Your Message

Well, not hard to detect me, seeing the stream of Ions from the engines, the 1 gauss magnetic field, the overall EM distortions, the thermal radiation and the fact that it is kinda hard to hide a 500m/ diameter sphere. But still, congratulations.

As for your question... No idea, apart from the messages they sent, but I'm certain that you received them, too. I mean, they were directed at you, so... But anyway. Seeing the sheer amount of monthly first contacts, I'm sure than I will know more, soon, just like you will.

Mind you, I have to wonder just what exactly the reason for this buildup is. Ten ships? And they're looking kinda big and gunned up. The size of a medium-sized shipyard, really... You don't intend to start a war, do you? If yes, would you mind waiting with the opening of hostilities for about a quarter of an hour? Just so that I can reach some place safe. I can defend myself from rogues and the likes, but not from proper warships, and it would really ruin my day, being the first civilian casuality in yet another conflict.

Sincerely,

Invisible Hand

She sighed, once she had sent the message. Now all that remained was... Well, to continue floating.

"So, how about another game?"

****Narowband Transmission to DASS InvisibleHand****
FRM:TRSS Loki, Vice Admiral Hood, Flag CRoT/GEDRA

We had just been wondering of previous contact with this particular race.

The CRoT is operating presently under PPT precepts of the GEDRA. Terra being the first placement on the PPT as per Alliance stipulations, for the protection of the core of human civilization, for the benefit of their independent advancement...

Fleet Operations are here for defensive purposes only, and do not plan on instigating conflict with the aliens, unless they demonstrate aggression towards Sol-III. Fleet Operations will continue in this sector untill the aliens have either demonstrated true peaceful intentions towards Terra, or untill their departure.....
****Message Ends****

Emiters on the TRSS Loki Narrowband re-direct towards the Voltaug

**** Narrowband Transmission to the Voltaug****
FRM: TRSS Loki, Vice Admiral Hood, Flag CRoT/GEDRA

Fleet Operations will allow orbital entrance to Sol-III/Earth (coordinate transmission)... Do not veer from stated flight plan. Fleet positions compensating for safe passage....
****Message Ends****

The Tekanian vessels begin altering their orbits to leave a full 1/4 of the planet bare of traffic... The TRSS Loki ascends her orbit into a Lunar Trajectory for observation....

Kuiperbelt Before the foreign ships depart with what seems to be a significant fraction of the speed of light, given the sheer quickness with which they cross the roughly 5bn kilometers to earth

Invisible Hand chuckled some more as she received the answer (Now constantly connected to the ship, her 'Extended Body', so to speak). Shaking her head and whistling softly, she composed her answer.

"Well, lesse..."

From: DASS Invisible Hand
To: TRSS Loki, Vice Admiral Hood, Flag CRoT/GEDRA
Subject: Your message

"Well... It's the idea that counts, I guess. But perhaps you want to inform your... Political leaders that the situation changed a little since, uh, roughly 3000B.C.. Or, to be more detailed: The current force concentrations in sol, the numbers meaning warships, involve something in the low tripledigits, and occasionally high tripledigits, at Pluto. High doubledigits or low tripledigits at Neptune. Low tripledigits at Uranus. Low quadrupledigits at Saturn. High triple- or low quadrupledigits at Jupiter. High triple- or low quadrupledigits at Mars. Earth is covered by by a cloud of ships, stations and satellites that is almost resembling a miniature dysonsphere. Venus has high double- or low tripledigits. Mercury has medium tripledigits. Even the Sun has fleet presences nearby.

Furthermore, I fear that your treaty (Of which I, a sol inhabitant, have heard for the first time) isn't exactly... Respected. My own people, as well as a wide variety of other interplanetary and/ or interstellar travel capable nations, are quite regularily interacting with technologically less developed nations, and I might add, without suffering problems.

I'm... I'm very sorry for you, Admiral, but I fear that your superiors and your leaders ideas regarding this system are somewhat... Irreal, perhaps a little romantic, but most certainly wrong. And I'm fairly certain that claiming to try and protect sol from out of sol influence (Of which there is a fair amount, for example from Valinon or Sakkra) with your ten (Admittedly impressive) ships wont earn you much more than, well, laughter.

Sincerely,

Invisible Hand

She sent the message, giggling. I hope I wasn't too harsh. Well, I will see. With that, she continued on her way, slowly, ending the acceleration as soon as she was heeding for Triton, again, and floated in the core, sleepily.

The Commonwealth Fleet Control Group-E plodded towards it's final destination. Algiers the Varangian longed in the command chair lazily watching the stars on the view screen.

The ship's Construct once again dangled down near her head, interrupting her revelry yet again.

"Algiers, we have an incoming transmission from Warlord Abatos."

Algiers nodded, and the Construct opened the secured connection with the Lagpunkt, the stern face of the Thilite Warlord Abatos filling the screen.

"Warlord Abatos, how good to see you again, to what do I owe this pleasure?" Algiers inquired while stifling a yawn.

"These scans of the 'Tekanian' ships that your Construct transmitted, we want you to take a closer look at this ships. We may decide to have you attack them." Abatos replied gruffly.

Algiers shrugged "Whatever for?"

"To see their capabilities, we have some theories about their armaments that may need to be tested to verify. I will consulting it with Master Vodalus after he has discussed it with The Autarch."

Algiers snorted "What if they destroy my fleet?"

Abatos squinted "That is of no consequence. No doubt you and the Huscarls will survive, the ships and Thilites aboard can be replaced."

Algiers smiled " As the Warlord wishes. We'll hold postion for now."

Abatos nodded "All Hail The Autarch."

Algiers waves her hand and the secured channel was closed.

"Voltaug, stop the FCG here and begin an intensive scan of those Tekanian ships and that mining 'thing' we passed, and everything else around here."

The Construct nodded and began scanning everything within range with intensified interest as the FCG came to a halt.

VADM Hood looked over the message from the Invisible Hand....

***** Transmission from Invisible Hand****
From: DASS Invisible Hand
To: TRSS Loki, Vice Admiral Hood, Flag CRoT/GEDRA
Subject: Your message

"Well... It's the idea that counts, I guess. But perhaps you want to inform your... Political leaders that the situation changed a little since, uh, roughly 3000B.C.. Or, to be more detailed: The current force concentrations in sol, the numbers meaning warships, involve something in the low tripledigits, and occasionally high tripledigits, at Pluto. High doubledigits or low tripledigits at Neptune. Low tripledigits at Uranus. Low quadrupledigits at Saturn. High triple- or low quadrupledigits at Jupiter. High triple- or low quadrupledigits at Mars. Earth is covered by by a cloud of ships, stations and satellites that is almost resembling a miniature dysonsphere. Venus has high double- or low tripledigits. Mercury has medium tripledigits. Even the Sun has fleet presences nearby.

Furthermore, I fear that your treaty (Of which I, a sol inhabitant, have heard for the first time) isn't exactly... Respected. My own people, as well as a wide variety of other interplanetary and/ or interstellar travel capable nations, are quite regularily interacting with technologically less developed nations, and I might add, without suffering problems.

I'm... I'm very sorry for you, Admiral, but I fear that your superiors and your leaders ideas regarding this system are somewhat... Irreal, perhaps a little romantic, but most certainly wrong. And I'm fairly certain that claiming to try and protect sol from out of sol influence (Of which there is a fair amount, for example from Valinon or Sakkra) with your ten (Admittedly impressive) ships wont earn you much more than, well, laughter.

Sincerely,

Invisible Hand
***** Message Ends *****

And prepares a message back.... with video feed....

Vice Admiral Hood pops up on the screen... His black and gold uniform standing harsh against his dark blue skin, and fliery red eyes...

***** Contents of Voice Message to DASS Invisible HAnd *****

"Sol itself is not a part of the GEDRA... The agreement was made only with other peaceful spacefaring cultures amongst this galaxy, and a few other galaxies.... The Sol system was placed on the Treaty at the behest of several Alliance members, for protecting the relatively primitive races of earth against hostile and militaristic cultures which abound in this galactic cluster, along with several other non-spacefaring and/or limited spacefaring planets in this galaxy..." Vice Admiral Hood begins speaking.... "As for its respect. The only applicable parties are treaty members only... I would however watch out, that a Alliance member does not detect interference... Other Alliance members include The Incorporated States of Shadow Tech, The Dominion of Godular and the Orbital Colonies of New Exodus, for its primary signatories..."

"While we recognize the plethora of shutt----err, 'ships' in the sector... The chances of them thwarting an attack from aliens of normative development, is pretty slim...." VADM Hood contines...."And while you may find our efforts laughable... It is our duty, as per alliance agreement, to do such... TRSS Loki out...."

The Admiral's image vanishes from the screen....

The Tekanian fleet hangs in position, as the Commonwealth fleet approaches.....

The Commonwealth Fleet maintians it's position, stopped decidely, well short of it's intended destination. The Commonwealth shisp remain at a distance from the Tekanian ships, just close enough to thouroughly and intensively scan each and everyone of them.

Algiers relaxed , she knew it would be hours, maybe days before Warlord Abatos, Vodalus the Dragon and The Autarch reached a decision about exactly what should be done.

Of little interest to the Tekanians... the scan beams probes the ships....

Interesting biometric readings were gathered about the Tekanians...

Carbon based, humanoid.... Cobalt based blood-chemistry...

All of the larger Kali class vessels had several hundred tons of Unknown Element 249 onboard... The concentration was mostly centered in a ring located forward of the engineering compartment... Though offline, they were fed by massive plasma conduits from 5 Quantum reactors located in the engineering core, light neutrino levels could be detected eminating from the rings, just over the normal background levels... The relative amount of energy hitting this substance seems to increase and direct the output and flow of neutrinos from it... No warp, hyperspace or any other normative form of FTL drive can be detected on the vessels...

The three smaller vessels has similar concentrations, though not quite as much... Being fed by 4 Quantum reactors...

The Kali, and other vessels with armor deployed, has nano-sized robots circulating through the armor... and through the neutronium and duranium holds inside the vessel... Keeping the armor "replenished" on a regular basis...
The TRSS Loki did not have this armor skin... though the holds contained more Neutronium and Duranium, and nanites were present as well in the holds... Likely it is undeployed armor....

There was alot of activity on all of the ships... mostly around the flight decks... Hundreds of small fighters in the vessels hangars were being equiped, pilots were moving around their craft and inspecting them.... each of the 7 larger Kali class vessels carried 1000 of these craft, along with some sort of heavily armored assault shuttled, numbering around 800 on each vessel....

The vessels massive cannons contained Nadion Emitters and large phase-variance generators.... some kind of large Phaser cannon....

Each of the larger vessels had 96 magnetic rail launchers for missile tubes... The magazines carried hundreds of Matter-Antimatter and Zero-Point loaded torpedoes... A massive load....

Two seperate, and redundant defensive shield generators could be seen in operation... Creating two shield envelopes around the large ships (The three smaller ones lacked the second shield... but had similar armor, though not quite as thick....)

The ships were all in varying states of battle readiness, the TRSS Kali having all of its systems online, while the TRSS Loki only having shields up....

These ships are definitely designed to hold their own in battle....

Invisible Hand sighed. "Twits. Given that Sol is constantly beating attacks from, oh... Tyranids, from Kajal, from the Raumreich... All of which featuring resources most likely or definitely vastly superior to anything this wannabe-upstarts have ever seen in their short, miseable existence." Leaning back, still floating inside the core, she pondered. "I wonder whom they had to fight off. Must have been some comical caricature of a serious threat. Goa-Uld or something. Their laughable hubris has to come from somewhere..."

She sighed again, eventually floating to a storage room featuring a refrigerator. Food was a good thing, especially when dealing with this kind of more or less hilarious 'Alien Presence'.

"Shuttles. Hrm. I suppose their sensors are really broken. I don't think the ships used by the more influential nations are quite of the same category..."

She made a note of this, too. A piece of information that could possibly sell quite well. Incapable of doing sufficient reconnaissance. If this was true of their ECM, too, it was actually quite possible that they had actually overseen the rather largish fleet presences in sol. After all, if their sensors malfunctioned by the sad echoes of ECM measures in battles happening months ago, spreading with the speed of light...

Yes, it was definitely a possibility.

Algiers lazed as the Voltaug performed it's in depth scan of the Tekanian vessels and sent the information back to the Lagpunkt. It was literally hours before Warlord Abatos once again contacted the Voltaug.

The ship's Construct lowered itself near Algiers again "Incoming from Warlord Abatos."

Algiers nodded "Put that fruitbat on."

The Construct bobbed "As you wish."

She attempted to sound interested "Ah, Warlord Abatos, have you decided upon our course of action yet? "

The Warlord's Voice echoed through the bridge "You are to continue on toward Terra. The Engineers Guild are going over the data that you sent and have decided that they can determine the Tekanians capabilities through simulations. There is no need for you to engage them at this point. They have also examined the crude alien mining device that you passec in the debris field and determined it to be of no value."

Algiers sighed "Oh well, maybe someone will attack us on the way home. Thank you Wralord Abatos , you are wise and charming as usual."

The Warlord growled "Don't patronize me. Abatos out."

As the line snapped off Algiers snorted "Fine, then you're an unpleasant, smelly, pasty faced git!."

The Construct chuckled "He's gone your excellency."

"Bollocks. Continue on course then, one quarter speed."

Bridge of the TRSS Loki...

"Admiral" responds the communications officer... We are getting a transmission from Eagle-One... orders for re-dispatch...."

VADM Hood looks over the transmission....
**** Incomming Message ****
FRM: Fleet Admiral Warner, CSO... Eagle-One
TO:Vice Admiral Hood, CO TRSS Loki...

Hostilities rising in the EPSILON, and incursion found in Neutral Space, SECTOR DELTA sector... dispatch orders as follows...

TRSS Loki is to remain on station at Sol for further observation...

TRSS Pegasus, Chronos and Freyre are to be dispatched immediately to the EPSILON sector... under flag of Vice Admiral Dewey, TRSS Anubis...

TRSS Kali and Ganesha are to dispatch immediately to Neutral Space... and operate in observational roles as ordered... flag of Vice Admiral Lietzke, TRSS Ra...

TRSS Orion and Tiamat are to return to Eagle-One to serve as diplomatic envoy for arriving Consulars...

TRSS Lexington, Chancellorsville and Ashland are to remain on station under flag of Vice Admiral Hood, TRSS Loki, in escort...
**** End of Message ****


"Send orders to the fleet..." commands VADM Hood.... "Hold station, and order the dreadnoughts in close formation with the Loki...."


The TRSS Kali, Ganesha, Orion, Pegasus, Chronos, Tiamat and Freyre pull from orbit... Their shields and armor dropping.... Massive energies swell from their reactors... followed shortly by wormholes opening and stabalizing... the TRSS Chancellorsville, Lexington and Ashland pull in close to the TRSS Loki as the other large vessels enter the wormholes.... which remain open for a few more seconds before destabalizing and vanishing as if they were never there...

Flag Bridge, S.P.S. Acamar, Flagship, Second Battle Fleet, Somewhere in the Outer Sol System

Admiral Ian Christensen laughed as the message in the clear from the Tekanians finished. "Well, I do believe that bats can see better than these people. After all, while bats are blind, at least their sensors work."

The entirity of the second battle fleet was sitting out here, coasting along with the drives dead, less than three light seconds from the silly creatures who had invaded the home system of a hundred trillion sentient beings.

The Admiral turned to his flag captain. "Bring the fleet to full readiness. Let's show the idiots just what they're dealing with."

It took some moments for the orders to be passed, the drives to be brought off standby and to the ready state, and then, with a veritable explosion of EM radiation so intense that no one could miss it, thirty two dreadnaughts alogn with thirty two battlecruisers brought up their drives, surrounded by more than two hundred and fifty other ships, the smallest of which was over two hundred and fifty meters in length.

Shuttles indeed.

The Fleet Control Group headed towards Terra at one quarter speed as the bulk of Tekanian ships leftvthe system. The Voltaug Construct then noticed additional ships powering up at the edge of it's sensors.

"Algiers...." It intoned as it dangled near her head once again "These ships have begun powering all systems, they had been sitting quietly. They do not appear to have layed in any course yet, so I am uncertain if they are reacting to our presence." The view screen displayed the positions of the Sentient Peoples ships as the Construct spoke.

Algiers shrugged "Scan, them. Keep everything at alert levels and continue to rendezvous at Terra. Let me know if anything changes."

The Construct bobbed "As you wish." It then went about making an indepth scan of the Sentient People's ships as the Fleet Control Groups maintained it's course at speed.