NationStates Jolt Archive

[Much to my disatisfaction, I do not have pictures of the ships. I apologize in advance.]

Among the many fleets of the Doranor Empire, Lilith's Vengeance was known as the best. Named after the legendary firestorm the goddess Lilith unleashed on mortals in response to them attempting to steal her divinity, the fleet was comprised of four battleplates, four worldships, twelve superdestroyers, twenty-four destroyers, and hundreds of smaller ships. As the fleet itself had a population of twelve million people, it was also the largest of the battlefleets the Doranori built. The fleet was respected by allies and feared by enemies, and for a very good reason.

And, right now, it was losing. Two of the battleplates were already crippled to the point they could do nothing and none of the ships of the fleet had seen any of teh superdestroyers for hours. They would hve fallen back, if they could, at least a day ago. But, they had no place to fall back to. They couldn't exactly abandon their homeworld to be ravaged by the invaders, a strange species that seemed to have organic ships. And, from how heavy their own losses were, they knew the other fleets could not handle it if they retreated.

On board one of the destroyers, the Unimaginable Arrogance, everything was not running smoothly. Due to the heavy fighting the battleplates were engaged in and the missing superdestroyers, the Unimaginable Arrogance was assigned to take over as the main center for communications. And, so far, they were not liking what little communications they recieved. Commander Feranor, the captain of the Unimaginable Arrogance, was not happy.

"Sir, we've got a communication from the Azrael's Left Wing. They've been hit by some kind of breacher pod. The captain of the ship ordered us to take over the fleet. And... well, there goes the Forgotten Luck. Looks like it's just us," Corporal Nigrath said.

The Forgotten Luck was and the Azrael's Left Wing were both battleplates. the Forgotten Luck exploded in a bright fireball, having been struck by missiles right at its main power plant. With Azrael's Left Wing compromised, there was only the smaller and less powerful ships. Several other explosions revealed exactly how well that was going to work.

"Sir, we've got a communication from the planet. They're reporting missiles exploding and cloud-like substances roaming the streets and eating people alive. The planet has been compromised and all fleets are ordered to abandon it and find a new world. Sir, your orders?" Corporal Nigrath asked.

"Order everyone into stasis pods and prepare to jump. We'll meet up with the rest of the fleets at emergency planet Theta Three," Commander Feranor ordered.

Skipping forward through the time they slept

Justiah Feranor grumbled as the bright light pierced his eyes. Where was he? Then he remembered. He had ordered a faster than light jump, a risky method of travel that sometimes resulted in deaths. He did not pretend to even begin to understand how it worked, just that it did and, unlike the more reliable systems of travel, was mostly untraceable. Or, at least, that's what he was told.

"Are we at the first stop of the journey?" Justiah asked.

"No, Commander. I have no idea where we are. None of the star formations are recognizable, even if we reverse them. Sir, I do not think we are in any region of space we know of," Major Gentranis said, her voice full of concern and slightly sleepy.

Justiah groaned, putting his head in his hands. Stasis almost never felt like this. He almost felt like he had a hangover, something he had heard of from those trapped in it for the long term. Wait, long term...

"How long?" he asked.

"At least twelve thousand years, maybe more. It appears we were in a faster than light jump the entire time. The deckers can't say for sure, as the optical coding chips connected to the clock system degraded from overuse. I'm amazed they lasted that long. I have already assigned a few of the deckers to burning replacement chips. Everyone is working overtime to get the ship fully operational, and communications reveal the same on all other ships of the fleet. And, we're looking for supplies. It appears we may be here awhile," Major Gentranis said.

Justiah groaned. A fleet of their size, stranded? Even with their reduced numbers, most people would not be quite welcoming to a massive military presense. He wondered how a ship would react to discovering a military of their size out here. Wait, how big were they?

"Our size?" Justiah asked.

"Six million. We lost about half the fleet. All worldships are accounted for," Gentrenis said.

Ever since the PSN Shadow Angel vanished in the realm that the space folds create the tracking of vessels and fleets that could amass to the size of the lost ship.
This fleet easily was over the scale of the ship but just large enough to set off alarms for the PSN Angel Fire, a Hellfire class destroyer.
"Ma'am! We have a massive spacial distubance from a relativly massive fleet. I'm getting readings that suggest that there are ships larger than the Hell's Fury," the ship's AI exclaimed to the captian of the Angel Fire.
"Great... you know the drill. Activate the stealth systems and aproach the disturbance and bring all crew members up to a level VIII alert and have all plasma banks heat up," he responded as he lay back and waited for them to approach the disturbance. Though the Angel Fire wouldn't hold up against anything larger than the Hell's Fury


OCC: Love the intro. And the Angel Fire is about two and a half km long and the Hell's Fury is 17.5km long

[17.5 kilometers? Now that's big.]

Onboard the Unimaginable Arrogance, work continues to move the ship from a floating derelict to a fully-active warship. Even though it was top of the line and had just had all of its systems updated to match the advancement of technology, the ship was now thousands of years old, with entire systems having suffered corruption from the extreme length of time. The crew, experienced in dealing with repairing damaged systems, is fast at work, hoping they are not forced to abandon the ship so soon.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Command Justiah Feranor and Major Sherla Gentrenis manage coordination of the various efforts to get the fleet prepared to move. Essential systems had been mostly restored, with the worldships being the first to achieve full operational standard. Still, they were worried about issues of supplies, as the water cleaning process still did not make up for sweat or other issues. And then there were metals, ammunition, etc. The early estimates were only one month before most supplies were used, and right now they had no ships to cannibalize for spare parts.

Justiah paced the bridge, worried. Their current status was still below full operational standard. By last count, the ship-board AIs were trapped in subsystems due to issues with the fiber optics, most of the optical coding chips had to be replaced, and at least three essential programs had their sourcecode scrambled and entirely new programs were being written to replace them. The main cannons and missile launchers had been fixed, along with repair work to the missiles themselves. But, they did not dare attempt to test the shields beyond how they already functioned. And, now, time to test the sensors.

"Sir, we're getting sensor readings! It looks like there's another fleet out there! And they're transmitting ID codes! Wait, those are our ships... Sir, it looks like the sensors are drek for right now," Sherla said, sighing as she turned away from the screen.

"Frag it! Get one of the riggers to send out a couple sensor drones. Have them modified for space travel if we have to," Justiah said.

"Um... Sir, the drone rely on low-light, thermographic, and ultrasound. We can modify them to scan for electromagnetic fields, but mostly they'll just find us," Sherla replied.

"Well, at least they can see something. It's better to have limited eyesight than be completely blind. And, I want repair crews on the sensors. They are a top priority. How are the other repairs?" Justiah asked.

"With sensors factored in... The repair crews estimate another three days until we are ready to move from this spot. It's taking them that long to burn the optical coding chips for the engine programs. The entire set has to be replaced. Worse, the Intrusion Countermeasures for our computers were geeked by the fiber optics problems and right now the ECM systems are refusing to accept commands. Right now, we could have an entire fleet beside us and the only way we'd know is to look out the windows," Sherla said.

"It's not other fleets I'm worried about. It's those things that can kill us and have no reason to announce their presense," Justiah replied.

One of the many scout ships that made up the TEC flickered into space. As the sensors reached out...

"I've got you now Tas, queen to E-4-2, check."
"Very nice, but king's side bishop to H-7-..." As the AS was about to announce checkmate, the sensors picked out the massive fleet. Sending a data-surge to the pilot, and sole occupant, the AS began doing an in-depth scan of the ships.

"Hundreds of E-class ships, multiple C-class ships. There appears to be four micro planetoids. Over-all numbers indetermainable."
"Indetermainable, explain."
"They appear to have suffered sever combat and chronological damage, it is interfering with the readings."
"Alright, send a full up-link, and open a channel, let's hope they have some comm arrays working."

TO: Unknown Fleet
FROM: 11-00239 T.S. Tasmainian, Theao Exploratery Corp
We would be interested in meeting with a member of the command staff, please respond.

The Angel Fire had only just come within vissula range after a short few bursts from her engines.
On the main view screen the whole bridge crew and two armed marines all stood in awe. Only the most vetran captains had actualy seen anything like this sight and even then the feeling of awe never wore off.
"So who's going to bet that fleet isn't here for milk and cookies," the ship board AI said breaking the silence.
"You know you've got the worst timing right?" the captain asked equaly as sarcastic
"I thought I was lightening the mood."
"Just start scanning them and prepare for anything. I want the whole fleet logged before they notice us."
"They'll most likely notice the scanns if I got that fast."
"Just shut up and scan."
The bow of the destroyer lit up for a split second like a flash as the active scanners came online and began to quickly scan each ship using every single meathod possible to mount in the seansors


((Ya it's a beast but she's a money guzzler. Just short of a trillion to move her to a neighboring system and at least four trillion for her to use her planet killer [she's mostly a plot device and as a phalic symbol of the fleet officers like to joke]
And sorry for the shoddy post need sleepp))

Meanwhile, in the bridge of the Broken Contract, the crew was sitting around, waiting. The ship was one of the battlecruisers, and it was one of the heavier damaged ones. It didn't take them long to discover that, right before they jumped, their ship was hit by a breacher and then boarded. With the crew entirely in stasis, only the AI and it's automated defenses could handle the situation. Unfortunately, the computer core was open to vacuum, by all appearances a result of explosives. No one could get in without a space suit, and those were dedicated to sealing the breach near the crew quarters. Even worse, the fiber optics cables connecting the external weapons to the main computer core had been cut and then shorted out, leaving it to where riggers were required to run the external defenses. Still, that was not the main issue, as damage to the computer core itself may have affected the AI, potentially rendering it insane or dead. And either way, it would take years for a replacement to be written using the fully dedicated labs back on their homeworld. Out here, it could take centuries or simply be impossible.

"Sir, we've got a report from Private Dreyask. Apparently he's managed to access the computer core and find the AI. He says it's acting... funky? Oh, we've also got a communication from some outside ship. They want to speak to one of our leaders. Should I patch them through to the Unimaginable Arrogance?" Major Gentrenis, the brother of the one serving on the Unimaginable Arrogance, said.

Captain Willis sighed, wishing she didn't have to stay in command like this, and responded, "Tell Dreyask to begin talking to the AI, but be careful. We've seen what happens when they go insane. Open up a comm channel to these aliens. I want to be able to speak to them, and I know if I plug in I'll spend all day decking."

"Comm channel open. Wait, that's odd..." Major Gentrenis said, the cable from his datajack to the consol in front of him stretching as he turned his head.

Then, Willis heard the whirring, a distinctive sound of miniguns. She immediately dropped, rolling behind a consol, just in time to hear the barrels open fire. She drew out her MGL-6, a portal grenade launcher shaped like a six-shot pistol, and looked over the consol. Gentrenis has not even had enough time to reach for the plug in his head before the bullets had ripped him to shreds, smashing the nondecker controls in the process. The minigun was just now beginning to turn towards her. Cursing, she aimed and, using the data fed to her by her smartlink setup, fired. She was quite glad when she saw the explosion, the minigun attached to the ceiling near the door being destroyed, even if it caused all of the ammunition to ignite. As the smoke cleared, she could cleary see most of the consols had been destroyed, as well as a dent in the wall that could have easily pierced the hull.

"Sir, we've got a problem. The AI is insane. I managed to cut the cables connecting it to anything outside the computer core. But, I would suggest we make sure it didn't have enough time to get out any orders beforehand," Dreyask said over the intercom, his normal jaunty brogue replaced by a seriousness and an attempt to speak plainly.

"Dreyask, you drekhead! Of course it did! Major Gentrenis is geeked and the bridge is fragged. Now, get your skinny hoop up here and see if we can salvage any of these consols. And I swear, whatever idiot thought fragging miniguns are a good defense for bridges needs to be seriously shot." Willis was clearly annoyed, having forgotten the commline was still open and broadcasting every word said on the bridge. Right now, she was just glad there were only two of them up there.

On the Unimaginable Arrogance

Justiah just sat there, rubbing his head. The sensor report suggested another day of work was needed, bringing the total days needed to be spent here to four. Four days... He just could not see this going that well. They could be easily found and destroyed before they were prepared to deal with any of it. Still, that was better than months.

"Sir, I think you should here this. It's from the Broken Contract," Sherla said, flipping on the comm switch.

Justiah could only sit there, horror on his face as he heard the sound of gunfire. Listening, he could make it out to be a minigun. The internal defenses are online? Then, came the explosion. Justiah seriously could not enjoy the sound of that, as it almost confirmed his worst fear: They had brought enemies with them. But, his fears were soon allayed and replaced by others.

"Sir, we've got a problem. The AI is insane. I managed to cut the cables connecting it to anything outside the computer core. But, I would suggest we make sure it didn't have enough time to get out any orders beforehand," Dreyask said.

"Dreyask, you drekhead! Of course it did! Major Gentrenis is geeked and the bridge is fragged. Now, get your skinny hoop up here and see if we can salvage any of these consols. And I swear, whatever idiot thought fragging miniguns are a good defense for bridges needs to be seriously shot." Willis was clearly annoyed.

"Can I help you with something, Captain Willis? And why are you broadcasting on an open channel?" Justiah was annoyed and worried at this point.

Sherla, hearing her brother's death, unplugged herself and broke into tears. Justiah motioned for her to relieve herself for now, understanding. The two were very close, and she didn't need to hear it this way. He made a mental note to plan a funeral for the dead later, once they were under way. At the same time, due to a lack of sensors, he had no way to know they were being scanned or that there was a scout ship out there.

[Note: The previous post is being editted to account for Phalanx's post.]

"Oh..um looks like they got a problem on one ship. The transmissions comming out of it are suggesting their AI has gone rouge. I'm suggesting a boarding party...type four equipment and a few balistics sheilds," the AI said to the capitain before palying the important parts of the transmission.
"Fine. You're normaly right anyways. Bring the ship close enough to launch a penitrator and prepare several Elites for this."

Inside the armory the AI had already gone ahead and had ordered roughly a six man squad had already assembled and were just grabbing their equipment when the order to head to the "drop room".
Each member had grabbed some form of rifle (mostly XR-45 multi-rifles) while two grabed XR-35 mini-rifles to use with their balistic sheilds.

"At this rate we're visable. I'm also launching the penitrator."

Outside the ship a person sized spike appeared along the port side and fired out into the Broken Contract's hull. The tube attached permited the boarders to enter the ship and procede towards the bridge.

((Sleepy now...))

The Broken Contract shook as the cable connected, it's autoadjust systems having a slower reaction time without the AI guide. While the crew was puzzled, they merely wrote it off as how old the equipment is. One decker even made a note to check the autoadjustment systems later, to make sure they would function properly, while a rigger decided to connect to the system and run the system manually once the major repairs were completed. All in all, no one expected intruders. So it was quite a surprise to Dreyask when, while on his way to the bridge, he found himself facing armed soldiers who clearly were not part of the fleet.

"Um, can I help you?" He seriously hoped they wouldn't kill him upon seeing he was unarmed.

[Meh. Get some sleep. It's easier when you're awake.]

Jevion watched the sensors, "So they received the message, that much you can tell, correct?"
"Yes, there is also what appears to be a boarding boat docking with one of the larger ships. The one that appeared to send a distress call to the other members of it's fleet."
"And the message was?"
"Sir, we've got a problem. The AI is insane. I managed to cut the cables connecting it to anything outside the computer core. But, I would suggest we make sure it didn't have enough time to get out any orders beforehand," Dreyask said.
"Dreyask, you drekhead! Of course it did! Major Gentrenis is geeked and the bridge is fragged. Now, get your skinny hoop up here and see if we can salvage any of these consols. And I swear, whatever idiot thought fragging miniguns are a good defense for bridges needs to be seriously shot." Willis was clearly annoyed.
"Alright, take us in, and uncase the suit."
"Agreed, sending secondary up-link now."

As the Tasmainian got along side the 'boarded ship', it landed on the hull. The scoutship engaged it's punch system. Jevion, having suited up, decided to see what was up.

The Broken Contract rocked again from the second docking, at this point alerting the crew that something may be up. A few of the riggers begin jacking in, checking the systems for reasons behind the jolts. They logged the detection of impacts as possible cases of ships comming too closed together and jacked out, going back to their duties. In no case did they seem to suspect anything, leaving it perfectly open for those entering to proceed as they felt the need.

[Please excuse the short post.]

Jevion, as he explored the distressed ship, began looking for a crew member, computer access panel, or preferably the bridge. As the corridors he checked the auto-mapping function to make sure he wasn't going in circles.

The Elite squad had quickly looked around and carefuly examined the area being sure that no more "problems" would arise and they would have to deal with it.
Finaly after roughly a minute of imposing fear and scanning the room one of the Elites steped forth holding its XR-45 in one hand and spoke, "Under authorization of the Phalanixian Space Navy code 4356 we responded to a transmission that suggested that this vessel was in distress and we responded with the suggested level of force needed to handel any threat that we would most likely encounter. Now start explaining what is going on."


OCC: Ya no kiddin. I was like a zombie that was groaning "Slllleeeeeppp" insted of "Braaains" totaly priceless. And sorry for short post stioll grogy.

As Jevion walked through his third intersection, he found a couple of people at one of the walls, a panel open. One, having a metallic hole in his forehead, was busy pulling out one centimeter by one centimeter chips and replacing them, a small PDA-like device with a cord going to a clip on the fiber optics cables in his hand. The other, a large man with cybernetic arms, stood watching, his arms holding a keyboard-sized piece of equipment and a few other miscellaneous tools. They seemed to not notice the new arrival.

"The fiber optics are holding a signal. Good. That means I don't have to rewrite the programs. Too bad we'll have to use the riggers instead of the AI for this," the man with a metal hole said.

"Would you prefer the AI to take us into a star?" The man with metal arms asked.

"Good point. Still too bad it'll be four days before we are operational. Hey, intruder, get over here. I'd sound the alarms, but I would assume anyone willing to charge into a fleet and board a battlecruiser isn't stupid enough to intend harm. And if they were, they wouldn't pick a ship they have to reload all of the weapons by hand. So, I assume you want to talk to the captain?" The man with a metal hole asked.

After his response, they pack up tools and motion for him to follow, leading him through the winding corridors and to the bridge. Along the way they pass three work crews, each replacing chips. The crews don't glance up, but at several points it appears their eyes follow. Before long they come onto the other group of invaders, this time with Dreyask and the Captain already there.

[Now, switching to just after Phalanx's asking a question of Dreyask.]

Dreyask stood still, unsure of what to say. Finally, he shrugged. What could the truth hurt? It's not like they wouldn't find out soon enough anyway. And, he wasn't revealing a bit secret.

"We are Lilith's Vengeance, the largest fleet of the Doranor Empire. And we appear to be the last of the Doranori. Our empire was attacked, our homeworld became compromised, and we were forced to retreat. We're just trying to repair at the moment," Dreyask said.

"Now that you know, why are you on my ship?" Willis asked, her grenade launcher (overlarge pistol version) aimed straight at the invaders.

OOC: Name correction...

snip
"Yep." Jevion, as they walked toward the bridge, he spoke, "My name's Jevion. May I ask who you are, why your ships are in such a mess and where you're from?"

[I had better note this.

My technology level: Most of the technology involved is PMT. Basically, Shadowrun 3rd Edition. So, cybernetics, biotechnology, genetic engineering, limited ability to produce AIs, and very limited nanotech. Ship weapons involve lasers, missiles, railguns, and slug-throwers. A few systems, such as engines and power systems, are clearly FT. There are two FTL systems, one of which is far slower and easily tracked.

Essentially, no plasma cannons, no massive death rays, etc. The size of the ships results from the technology involved in the FTL.]

The man with the metal hole spoke first, saying, "I'm Leutenant Sernet. We're sure how we got here, but we were retreating from a lost battle. The jump engines refused to shut down for some reason and we spent thousands of years in stasis. Now, we're trying to repair for damage and time before we move on."

"You shouldn't have told him that," the one with metal arms replied.

"Why not? It's nothing he can't learn by accessing a computer," Sernet said.

"Well, it's too late now. The captain won't be happy."

"I'll accept responsibility. Wait, that's not good..."

They were now arriving, just in time to see Willis step out of the bridge and point her MGL at another group of intruders. Sernet merely blinked at her statements, then waved for her attention. Might as well get it over with.

"Captain, we found someone who doesn't belong here. And it looks like you found a few as well..."

"Alright." Jevion replied

When they arrived at the bridge, he noted a lady, with a weapon pointed at another group. Walking over he partially bowed and offered his hand, "Why hello, my name is Jevion, and you are the captain of this vessel?" He asked

Another Elite raised it's rifle and aimed directly down the barrel of the grenade pistol. It also retracted the rifle's barrel and two prongs extended and they hummed slightly.
"You do know that if you feel like firing you'll be dead and most likely a slug or bolt will be launched at your pistol barrel and most likely detonate the rounds or remove the threat. I doubt getting shot is on the agenda," the leader said as he motioned for one of the members wih a balistics sheild to move to the front. And I doubt you know how getting shot feels. So put it down unless you want to find out," the Elite said as he tok a step closer attempting to reach to lower the pistol.
When the doors opened behind them the rear guard turned and leveled their weapons on the newest arival. "Great... whats next an AE ship defolds near by..," one of the rear guard muttered/

Willis mentally cursed this situation. In military academy, she had been trained for every situation except this one. It was always the one you never expected. She expected this one to be one they would drill on after this. Just in case. But, still, she had to live through this first.

"Go ahead. These are while phosphorous mixed with C12. Miniature Hellfire mines. You're well within the blast radius, and I don't think your fancy armor is rated for the kind of blast six of these things can unleash," Willis said, smiling.

She was, of course, lying. She had no idea what a Hellfire mine was, having made the term up on the spot. What little truth she was telling was that the gun was loaded with grenades, and the other soldiers were within the blast radius. It would pretty much disconnect the bridge from the rest of the ship, but at this point she was willing to take the chance.

Dreyask, however, wasn't ready to die yet. In fact, he had only taken this assignment because it was either this or jail time, due to his criminal activities back home. He was quite enjoying life, and saw no reason to end it early.

"Can we work something out? Say, she lowers her weapon if you lower yours? Then you can tell us why you are here?" Dreyask asked, hoping they would comply.

Willis, seeing the wisdom in this, nodded. If the others would lower her weapon, she would lower her's at the same time. If not, they would have another problem, as it would be up to those others to decide how much of what she said was a bluff and how much was true. Still, it was better than the alternative.

Now, Willis looked at Jevion and answered, "That I am. I am Captain Treyina Willis. Now, I still want to know why all of you are on my ship."

"I'm here because I came across your fleet, when I tried to contact you, I managed to pick up a somewhat distressed message and came to see what the situation was." Jevion replied

"Sounds fair enough," the squad leader said as he gave a hand sign to have the guns lowered.
Over the squad comm chatter was going on some questoning the potency of the grenades and the resistance of their combat armor. Though they did lower their weapons slowly ready to raise them once again.
"As I said before our moherhsip picked up disturband and deployed my squad to investigate and under authorization of the Phalanixian Space Navy code 4356 we have to respond to any situation that the captian or commanding offcer feels we should respond to," he said as he slung his rifle over his shoulder and crossed his arms, "Now what the hell went wrong?"

Treyina sighed, keeping ready to raise her gun and fire. Why was it the first thing she was asked was what went wrong? It did not matter what military, what species, or what era. She guessed that would always be the first thing they thought of.

"In summary? We got into a war with an alien species, lost, were forced to abandon our homeworld, and ended up stuck in stasis for thousands of years. It appears our ship was boarded during that time, the borders killed, and the computer core damaged enough to drive the AI insane. Dreyask found it, the AI responded by trying to kill the command staff, and he isolated it while I blew up automated defenses. Anything else you want to know?" She asked, her voice neutral.

Dreyask merely slapped his forehead. The last thing he wanted was to have a reminder of what happened so soon. Plus, it made them look bad in front of the intruders.

"If I understand correctly, you and your fleet are the last remaining group of your former nation." Jevion commented, "Would you be interested in some aid to help get your feet back under you?"

If the squad leader's helmet had been up he'd have rolled his eyes. "You know you don't have to be so sarcastic. All I wanted to know was what happened on the ship when the transmission was picked up. Though the history lession means we don't need to ask about it for the logs," he said as he leaned on a near by consol, "So how bad is the AI? Maybe one of our S-type AI an handel it. And how bad is the fleets condition because possible assistance is avalible if you need it?"

Back on the ship the audio and vissual loggs wee coming in clearly on the main viewer letting the bridge crew listen quietly and assesing the situation so as to ether suggest withdrawl or send in more troopers.

Treyina shook her head, saying, "It's not repairs we are needing help with. The AI will be dealt with. Most likely, a total wipe of the AI will happen. We don't have access to the necessary computing power at this time to adjust the AI to our systems, and in any case we have never had a high success rate when their coding becomes this badly corrupted. What we need comes after. Our supplies are estimated to last only a month at the most. Food and water are not a problem, but optical memory chips, fiber optics, ammunition, fuel... And that's assuming we crush most enemies. It gets even worse when losses are added. What we have is a lack of essential basic materials."

She then paused, remembering the empire that backed the building of this fleet. It had trillions of people scattered across a dozen worlds. They had six million, trapped in only these ships. Worse, they had no economy or way to support the continued use of the ships. But, they had to. They could not simply abandon what was now their only form of defense.

"We have a logistics problem. If we are going to survive, we need a way to build more ships. That means shipyards, which means a planet or a system to use for such. Even more, we need a way to build them fast enough to keep up with a growing population. And, most importantly, we need our population to grow. The worldships can support twelve million people, but that's it. It won't take us long at all to reach that number, so we need to build more of them. Or increase their efficiency."

She paused, thinking. Then, she got an idea. She could simply take them onto the bridge. She paused, then motioned for them to follow, walking into the room and its ruined consols. It was not like they could do anything from here anyway.

"So, think you can help us?" she asked, hoping.

"Well what do you need?" the squad leader said, "We can arange for several techs to do something. And I'm sure if we can come to an agreement our peoples can share technology and possible protected systems. Though I'm sure with enough pestering the brass we can arange for your ships to gain access to the Reach Ship Yards."

Back on the ship the capitian was just shaking his head preapring the report to attempt to pester the council for permission to bring more ships to the area to assist as well as to escort and protect the ships.
The AI had other plans. Already a report had been filed and sent off to the central command hub to alert the council of the AIs oppinion of the use of another ally and other such help dealing with the problems of getting off the black list of several organizations.

"We could provide a number of nearby planets that can support life, but no native sentiant life, as well as having a number of asteroid belts or moons that have have light to moderate mineral wealth." Jevion replied, "They were schedualed to be stripped, but..."

She considered for a moment. She never expected to be asking other nations for help. And, yet, she never expected anything of what happened lately. She was about to speak up when another voice decided to answer.

"We cannot accept a planet offer. It is necessary we keep mobile. This way, we do not face the defeat that happened to our homeworld. But, the other offers are appreciated. We may have a few pieces of technology you find interesting," Justiah said over the comms.

"That would be the Fleet Commander," Treyina said.

[Please excuse the short post.]

"Alright, if you'd like a chance to study a full sized world ship, I could likely get you a chance to study one." Jevion replied, having heard thier need to remain mobile, which partially mirrored Theao's history.

"Well though this isn't widely known but Reach is a fortress system so it'd be hard to break into it and live to see the fourth planet," the SL said as he leaned on a damaged consol.
Back on the ship one of the officers had been dispatched to help work on some sort of alliance. As the officer reached the bridge she lacked the clasic combat armor of boarding parties but had a side arm at least.
"The major is right. Reach is a fortress system and is protected by atleast one hundred ships and the Hell's Fury waiting to shoot down the smallest thing that gets to close," she said as she reached the bridge, "Major, the capitian feels I'm more skilled for this. You can send back your team though I want you here for escort." She then turned back and spoke again, "Also the orbital docks would be quiet useful as they can probably fix this ship in no time."

"I believe I find this acceptable. However, you might want to keep your ships back a safe distance. We're working on repairing automated weapons protocols and it is always dangerous work. If you get one piece of it wrong, the weapons are prone to discharge or worse. Normally, this entire system would be completed in a lab and then brought to the ships," Justiah said.

He hoped his warning was without need. He still remembered that one news story of a tech who didn't check his program before testing the weapon, a particularly dangerous type of missile launcher. All that was found left of the entire orbital platform were a few floor tiles and a door. The tech in question was at least smart enough to warn everyone not to come into work that day, which prevented him from being refused a military burial. The orbital platform was never replaced due to cost.

The next issue would be far safer systems. He gritted his teeth as test reports started filing in, as some ships decided to innitiate testing early. And, so far, the coding was working. He was glad he ordered decoy bullets, ones without a flash or projectile, to be used for the test, though he knew a system with bad code could easily burn through those and into the real munitions. Still, the seconds of delay may be enough.

"I would have this section skipped, but my engineers refuse and don't care about diplomacy," Justiah said over the comm channel.

[Just bringing this up.]

Jevion, seeing that the two had appeared to have reached a deal, commented 'Since you seem to be good, I'll be off."

"Yes I know how engineers can be sometimes...," the officer said as she started to turn back to the exit, "One question though. How far is the effective range of these guns? If they arn't to far we can continue these negotiations via comunications systems. We'll hail you."

Back on the ship the Elites' cammera feed was being routed through the data banks to the incident report that would be filed and sent off to the central database on Reach.

Treyina looked to Jevion, considering. "I wouldn't leave just yet. The commander may be busy, but he'll want to talk to you. We'll need to be able to mine in space and he knows it. Since you know about it, we'll need the expertise of your people as well."

Meanwhile, on the Unimaginable Arrogance, Justiah was busy looking at figures. Figures that really didn't make any sense. Then, the problem occured to him and he scowled. Space doesn't have any real atmosphere, so bullets really would have extreme distances to them. And that made him nervous. Still, he had to give the information.

"Essentially? Until they hit something. Without our sensors, we have no way of targetting anything, so about two hundred kilometers is enough for the danger to be mild. And, if a bullet comes your way, you should have plenty of time to stop it. It's a damned good thing the railguns require the sensors to work at all. After this test, I'll also try to get an accurate count of our ships. It will give me an idea of the kind of situation I am facing and how many supplies I need," Justiah said.

He waited until the alien ships moved to a safe distance, and then ordered the test. Then he waited for the thirty minutes required. He listened, waiting to hear the the innevitable, the cursing or a report of a cannon firing wild. And then, the reports started rolling in. One after another, the reports were all the same: Success. He made a mental note that, if this was how good it was going to be, to make sure the deckers all get vacation time.

"Commander, this is the Going Nowhere. We were forced to abort the test on one of the cannons," came a male voice through the comm.

Justiah paused, thinking. The Going Nowhere was a frigate and one of the oldest in its class. It was named because during the launch flight the engines had a critical failure and the primary engine core had to be ejected. The test pilot sarcastically called it the Going Nowhere and the name stuck. The greatest irony was that the ship tended to be unusually fast, even for its class, and often was seen pulling maneuvers that not even the most daring of fighter pilots would attempt. It seemed Fate enjoyed the ironic.

"Is there a reason for this abort?" Justiah asked.

"Yeah. The fragging feeder chain broke. It was due to be replaced the next time we hit port anyway," the voice replied.

Justiah smiled. Leave it to be something simple. It was that sense of the ironic playing with him again. Still, he planned to have that cannon tested again in the future, after repairs were completed.

"I believe it's safe to come back. Only one cannon malfunctioned, and it only did such because of a mechanical failure. You don't have to worry about being shot at," he said to the alien ships.

Then, as if to make what he said a lie, a bright flash from nearby nearly blinded him. As he blinked and his vision cleared, he could see clearly what it was. The Fermented Anger, one of the surviving battlecruisers, had a massive hole where one of the larger cannons used to be. And by all appearances, the ammunition had ignited.

"Fermented Anger, what the frag happened?" Justiah asked, his voice revealing his surprise and worry.

"Commander, we don't know. Everything was fine, the area was empty, and then... I've got the report now. Power surge from the third generator. It shut down, but not before some of the energy escaped. We're slotted. That generator controls life support," Fermented Anger replied.

Justiah sighed, rubbing his head, and then turned to the aliens. "We need your help with another ship."

snip
"What kind of help do you need with your ships?" Jevion asked

Onboard the Going Nowhere, repair crews were already suiting up. They were already prepared to enter the hard vacuum that was the remains of the cannon room. Then, fully suited for a space walk, they nodded to each other and stepped through the temporary airlock that had been set up. Once in the area, it was total annihilation. The walls had partially melted, most of the ceiling tiles were gone, and they could find no sign of the weapon assembly anywhere. Despite the large hole in the wall, the heat of the room could be felt through their space suits. The temperature was not enough to cause their suits to melt, but it was enough to be uncomfortable.

Majors Carina Henamor and Xander Norva were the first in, being the damage assessment team. They looked around, having only seen carnage like this as a result of missile strikes, and simply could not believe a power surge was the only thing involved. There was simply no way a power surge could do that much damage.

Xander tapped Carina's shoulder and pointed at the ceiling, where all that could be seen was fused lumps that may have been plastic, and said, "The fiber optics and power relays melted. The ceiling tiles are designed to prevent that in case of explosion. This means at least one tile was missing, perhaps more. We need to find a tile. I suspect it will be buckled as though forced down."

Carina nodded, pointing to the hole, and said, "That's not all. Look at the floor. See how the metal is stretched and ripped? That means the explosion started behind the cannon and forced it away from the ship. But, where's the cannon? Something that large should have crashed into other ships."

"A better question is about the ammo. It should have cooked off, riddling these walls with holes. We should have multiple areas sealed, and yet we have only this one," Xander answered.

"That's no mystery. Didn't you read the weapon tutorial? These cannons use incendiary rounds, designed to superheat while they fly and melt through the armor of their targets. The rounds simply would have exploded when ignited."

"I remember reading about those. Don't the cannons require a special system to stabilize the rounds? I think the article I read complained about how fragile the cannons are. I think we've figured it out."

Back on the Unimaginable Arrogance, Justiah was surprised to recieve a report so quickly. He frowned, seeing it was a simple case of a blown power relay and live eletrical wires comming in contact with ammunition feeders. Something so simple can cause so much damage. He sighed, then answered the question of what kind of help.

"One of the generators that controls life support nearly overloaded. It managed to shut itself down, but not before causing other damage. The generator cannot be reinitialized without hours of effort due to the safety protocols. I need help providing life support and repairs to the damaged ship. I don't know how much life support is left, but I know thirty hours is average," Justiah said, hating he had to ask for help again so soon.

"Do you need a place to stash the non-tech crews?" Jevion asked as he sat on the bridge, having heard of the life-support problems they faced.

The Angel Fire didn't respond the the request at first but as the response was being prepared the reason behind the request was sent out over the lines and a new response was writen up quickly.
"As it stands we can help you with holding crew members by relocating our fighters and dropships to a single section of the hanger and holding about a hundred to one hundred and seventy, if the pilots are coperating, people there and we have a few other areas like the mess where we can house about fourty to fifty people. Is there anything else that you would need in terms supplies and repairs for the ship in question?


(( Sorry for the rather shoddy post. School and my little "project" took over. You know how it is when you're building your first shoulder mounted rocket launcher, it jsut sucks you in.))

"That would be appreciated. With the number of ships we have at hand, I am confident we can tow the damaged ship into a place to begin repairs. I just hope we don't have that far to go, as our fleet cannot travel that fast while towing a ship," Justiah said.

He paused, looking over the numbers. Twelve destroyers, seventy eight battlecruisers, two hundred troop transports, two hundred frigates, two hundred corvettes, six carriers, seventy-four supply ships, and an as-yet uncounted number of fighters. All of that, in addition to the four worldships. How were they going to find supplies for a fleet of this size?

Thinking on it, he pulled the tech specs of the worldships out of computer memory. With the right effort, they could get each ship to supply supplies for four million people. That solved issues of food and water for the short term. The main issue was where they were going to get metals and other such items. Thinking on it, he remembered an article about potentially using gas clouds in space for fuel. It would require some work to do, but they could manage it. The only problem was how to build more ships, to keep the fleet increasing in size to match population increases. Worse, they needed hospital ships and other such items. It would require a trade deal.

Then, he stopped and considered something else. There was no way he could afford to send the entire fleet into battle. The potential loss of everyone was not something they could bear. He made a note to have only five percent of the fleet dedicated to battle, with the rest running as needed. That would also solve some issues of ammunition, as only a few of the ships would actually be firing. Finally, he was pretty sure he could handle a measely five percent better than he could anything larger. Normally their battles would be big and messy, but normally they would have superdestroyers and battleplates to back them. A new situation requires a change in tactics.

He then began to wonder. Perhaps a construction platform? It would be with the worldships, and would require full FTL capacity. Still, it would prevent them from being cut off from building new ships and would allow them to wander more. But, that would require a deal first. Someone who would be willing... An alliance was a definite need. With the two aliens currently here, and definitely with others.

Jevion had been both talking with his ship's AS, as well as studying the bridge when he asked, "Would you mind if I accessed your data-banks to find information about your worldships. I'm interested, and Tas has been pestering me about it as well."

Justiah tried not to roll his eyes. It was always the worldships people were interested in. They were big, expensive, defenseless, and generally a pain to build. And yet, people were always interested in them. What was it about a ship the size of a large moon that attracted attention and curiousity?

Them, he got an idea. They wanted access to the worldships, did they? He needed supplies, and he suspected that ship was out here for other purposes than making contact. It looked like a small scout ship. For all he knew it could be a miniature battlecruiser, capable of handling planetary assaults and wiping out entire civilizations. But, he doubted it.

Then there were the others. He had not seen their ships yet, but they sounded like people who would send a fleet. But, he had an idea they were people who could see a good deal when it was offered. Plus, it gave him time to get an idea of what had changed in the universe and how he could catch his people up. As well as giving him a chance to potentially find out what happened to the other surviving fleets.

"I would like to thank both of your peoples for comming out here. But, I have a deal I would like you to consider. I have no way to pay for repairs and no infrastructure set up to keep my fleet going. So, how about a working deal? In exchange for supplies, ship building, and repairs, my people act as scouts. We go out and face all of the dangers of the universe, and we send back regular reports to your peoples. We'll face all of the dangers and let you know of all of the benefits. It gives us a way to work for you while we get back on our feet and a way to see if we are alone in the universe. It gives you a lessened chance of a loss of your people, prevents you from suffering diplomatic failures, and gives you people that are unknown in the universe, which means we won't be dealing with any preconcieved notions that come from prior interactions. Once we get on our feet, we can evolve this into a full-scale alliance where one of the members you had a hand in shaping and who has a long history of friendly relations with you. How does that sound?"

He mentally moaned. He sounded like his father, who was a car salesman. But, he wasn't selling some poor vehicle that had been wrecked six times. His fleet had only been wrecked once, but had the advantage of people experienced fighting a superior force. He figured that might come in handy. But, then he remembered the worldship again.

"And, of course, we'll have to let you look at all of our technology. Including the worldships," he added.

Why oh why was it always the worldships?

Jevion chuckled, "While supplies we have in great measure and repairs might or might not be a problem depending, when we want to build ships, we fielded the work out to an ally. Also your proposalwould put the entire scout force out a buisness." He commented with a grin. "As to the worldship tech, we were more interested in comparing it to home."

He paused for a few seconds, "We could form a limited allience anyways thought."

Justiah tapped his chin, thinking. He had not considered that. The idea he might be cutting into the business of another nation was not something he could afford, since it could earn enmity. But, he had an idea as to that.

"Well, we could aid your group. You find an area too dangerous for a single ship, you send us in to explore for you. That way, your corporation saves money on ships and replacing personel," he said, thinking it was something they would like.

"That might work, but we arn't a corporation, we work for the goverment." Jevion replied, "If you want to talk with some people who are proper diplomats, I could arrange the meeting."

After listneing to the preposal it was clear that this would be a useful alliance.

"As it stands our scout force has been pushed to the limit and to the point where we are actualy sending out destroyers and carriers to scout. Though we have little intrest in your world ships, the designs would keep the engineering department interested for several months. Though we highly doubt that you could handel the more dangerous sectors without enhanced weapons systems and most likely a new FTL drive, yes we will help provide those as well. So your offer will be accepted. Though at the moment I think it wold be best to move to a friendly system as open space is not the safest area for talks between a battle damaged thousand year old fleet and two ships form alien races."

Justiah was about to reply when the ship lurched, the lights shutting off for a few moments before comming back on. He sighed, waiting for the repair crews to report in. He normally wouldn't feel the lurches, except that every time one happened the ship's artificial gravity would also temporarily shut off.

"Sir, you weren't expecting those sensors this month, were you?" came a female voice over the intercomm.

"What happened now?" Justiah asked.

"Power surge when we tried to access the power relays for the sensors. The sensor systems are fragged," the voice replied.

Justiah switched back to the aliens, saying, "Let's. It appears my fleet is literally falling apart around me."

[OOC Note: I tried to get DoGA, but it does not function on this computer for some reason. I'm looking into options for other computers that can use it. I should have my ships, with pictures, soon. My site will be done shortly.]

"Which of your ships are in the worst, and best condition?" Jevion asked, "Because you could move most of the crews to the ships in better conditions, and either strip, or if unsalvageable, scuttle the other ships."

He throught for a moment, "I could always call in a portion of the fleet to help dealing with getting crew to safety."

"Falling apart you say. Send the sizes of the vessels that are in most dire need of repair. If they are small enough we can 'drag' them with us to an outpost. As for the one that would be too big we can have several fold ships help move them. Also how fast are the world ships FTL?"



[If you know waht the Space Fold Generator is from Macross/Robotech is that is what I use for an FTL drive with some modds. So my ships FTL drives can generate a rather large fold bubble and take wounded or captured ships with them. Though the speed decreases when the size of the bubble increases]

[Please excuse the poor post.]

"Hmm. The worldships are the best, the ship with the AI problems and the other one with the hole are the worst. The rest are middling, but should survive travel. As for fast, we don't entirely know. In top condition they can travel at twice the speed of light without using the jump system. Like this, I wouldn't risk the jump system or full speed. The ships needing repaired are up to five hundred meters in length and below."

[That would make sense for that kind of system.]

"I'm pretty sure we can't help with the repairs, but if you need a place to stash a mid to largish number of crew-members, that I can help with." Jevion replied

"I'm sure that would be acceptable," Justiah said.

[Meh. Had no ideas.]